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quiet year. They’ve kind of done this transition, one foot in one foot out type of year where they’ve gotten younger, but they haven’t bottomed out. They’ll probably miss the playoffs, but they haven’t been terrible. Their plan of attack is they want to go after teams who are in cap trouble because they have tons of cap room in San Jose. And that’s their plan.
“They’re not alone. The Calgary Flames plan on doing this this summer. They kept their eye on the future at this deadline and they didn’t do anything foolish, but part of their thing is they have all of these draft picks they accumulated over the last year for this draft. And they have cap room. Which sets them apart compared to a lot of Canadian teams.”An undated and non-datelined video frame grab broadcast March 21, 2012 by French national television station France 2 who they claim to show Mohamed Merah, the suspect in the killing of 3 paratroopers, 3 children and a rabbi in recent days in France. REUTERS/France 2 Television/Handout
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - French school shooting suspect Mohamed Merah was not jailed in Afghanistan in 2007, his lawyer and an Afghan provincial official said on Wednesday.
Earlier, Kandahar prison chief Ghulam Faruq had told Reuters that Afghan security forces detained Merah on December 19, 2007, and that he was sentenced to three years in jail for planting bombs in the southern province of Kandahar, the Taliban’s birthplace.
But the Kandahar governor’s office said that account was “baseless”, citing judicial records. “Security forces in Kandahar have never detained a French citizen named Mohamed Merah,” the governor’s spokesman, Ahmad Jawed Faisal, said.
Merah’s lawyer in France, Christian Etelin, said his client was in prison in France from December 2007 until September 2009, serving a sentence for robbery with violence, and therefore could not have been in Afghanistan at the time.
Merah, a French citizen of Algerian origin, is suspected of killing seven people in the name of the al Qaeda militant network, including three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse in southwestern France.
French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said Merah had been to Pakistan and Afghanistan, and had carried out his killings in revenge for French military involvement abroad.
In Pakistan, an intelligence official who declined to be identified said Merah had never been arrested there. “We have no information about him,” the Pakistani official said.A joint team of excavators have discovered a 7,300-year-old human finger print in Al-Sabiyya area, northern Kuwait, Kuna reported on Saturday.
Arts and Letters (NCCAL) announced on Friday that the fingerprint was found on a piece of broken clay pot which dates back to the Stone Age (from 8,700 BC. To 2,000 BC.) in Bahrah I Excavation Zone in Al-Sabiyya.
The finger print is the oldest one found.
“The find adds to a list of important discoveries recently excavated in the area; these include an ancient town, a temple, a cemetery, wells and pottery wich provide important clues as to the life of primitive man,” said the director of NCCAL’s archeological and museums department Dr. Sultan Al-Duweesh.
“The team of excavators is made up of 17 archeologists, including 11 Polish, five Kuwaitis from NCCAL and a US scholar,” Dr. Al-Duweesh noted.
He went on to say that NCCAL is in consultation with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to add Bahrah I Excavation Zone to the World Heritage List given its universal value, and unique and exceptional significance to human civilization.
Dr. Al-Duweesh added, “A UNESCO team, led by Dr. Mohammad Bu-Zyan, visited the site as part of efforts to list it as a world heritage site.”
NCCAL pursues a careful plan as to archeological excavations and survey of the area which bears the promise of providing a clearer insight into human live in the Stone Age, he added.There are now some 60 million displaced people around the world, more than at any time since World War II. The Syrian crisis alone, which has created the largest refugee shock of the era, has displaced some ten million people, around four million of them across international borders. In recent months, Western attention has focused almost exclusively on the flood of these refugees to Europe. Yet most of the Syrian refugees have been taken in not by Western countries but by Syria’s neighboring states: Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, whose capacity has been overwhelmed. Lebanon, with a population of around four million and a territory smaller than Maryland, is hosting over a million Syrian refugees. Young people are overrepresented in the refugee population, so that more than half of the school-aged children in Lebanon are now Syrian.
International policy toward the Syrian refugee crisis is both antiquated and fueled by panic. It is premised on the same logic that has characterized refugee policy since the 1950s: donors write checks to support humanitarian relief, and countries that receive refugees are expected to house and care for them, often in camps. The panic comes from Europe, where debate has focused on how to fairly distribute hundreds of thousands of new arrivals, from both Syria and elsewhere, across the European Union and how to prevent asylum seekers from attempting the perilous journey across the Mediterranean or through the western Balkans.
An effective refugee policy should improve the lives of the refugees in the short term and the prospects of the region in the long term.
This boats-and-camps approach misses the core of the problem. As European countries struggle with what to do about the influx of people displaced by violence in the Middle East who have arrived in Europe in recent months, they should work harder to address the refugee crisis closer to its main source: Syria. Indeed, only around four percent of displaced Syrians have attempted to reach Europe; around 60 percent of the displaced,STRASBOURG (Reuters) - All financial business denominated in euros should be moved from London to the European Union after Britain leaves the bloc, an EU lawmaker said on Tuesday.
Manfred Weber, Chairman of the European People Party (EPP), take part in a summit of the party in St Julian's, Malta, March 30, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
London is the world’s leading financial centre for the clearing of derivatives denominated in euros, a lucrative business that the European Central Bank had tried in vain two years ago to relocate to the euro zone.
But with Brexit, the case for London maintaining its leading role in euro-denominated business has become weaker.
“People expect that we do the euro business and all the business which is linked to the euro on European soil,” Manfred Weber, who heads the conservative grouping, the largest in the European Parliament, told a news conference in Strasbourg.
Weber, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said that it was not conceivable that after Brexit business conducted in euros should remain in London.
He added that the bloc should protect the interests of EU financial hubs, like Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin and Amsterdam.
Weber declined to answer specific questions on whether this would involve the moving of clearing of euro-denominated derivatives.
The European Commission could propose a forced relocation from London to the European Union of the clearing business in legislative proposals on derivatives that are upcoming.
But the EU executive has so far refrained from taking a clear position on the issue, which could sour Brexit talks.
The ECB considers it crucial to have the clearing business in the euro zone to facilitate the supervision of activities that could endanger financial stability if not properly monitored.
Weber said his remarks on relocating business from London were general but added they were about “European supervision, the European Banking Authority (EBA) and defending European jobs”.
No reference was made to the relocation of financial business in the draft Brexit resolution that the European Parliament will adopt on Wednesday.
Lawmakers only said in their draft text that the London-based EBA, the European agency monitoring banking rules, should be relocated as quickly as possible.Getty Images
The Seahawks added one veteran free agent to their defensive line mix when they signed Sealver Siliga earlier this offseason and they took a look at another defensive lineman on Monday.
Sheil Kapadia of ESPN.com reports that the team visited with defensive tackle Nick Hayden. The Seahawks have also re-signed Ahtyba Rubin this offseason while Brandon Mebane left for the Chargers.
Hayden has spent the last three seasons with the Cowboys and started 47-of-48 regular season games for Dallas over that period. He recorded 140 tackles and a forced fumble during those appearances, although his impact was fairly limited and the Cowboys have shown no great interest in bringing him back despite his role as a starter.
Hayden has also played for the Bengals and Panthers, who drafted him in the sixth round of the 2008 draft.Last week, the Virginia House of Delegates Rules Committee passed, by an 11 – 1 bipartisan majority, a bill to establish “a joint subcommittee to study the feasibility of a United States monetary unit based on a metallic standard, in keeping with the constitutional precepts and our nation’s founding principles….” Such a study could prove to be a very big deal indeed.
It would bring a sleeper issue, one crucial to economic growth, to the fore of the national debate. (Full disclosure, this columnist provided, by invitation, a letter in support of this legislation before the subcommittee vote. This respectfully was reported in a wonderful, whimsy-inflected, article by The Washington Post’s Tom Jackman.)
The legislation authorizing this study widely is expected to sail through the House of Delegates. It may well also be embraced by the Virginia Senate and signed by the governor. There’s reason for optimism since it is good policy and good (even bipartisan) politics.
First, this is an excellent piece of legislation. As reported Friday, unemployment remains stuck at 7.9%. This is a national tragedy. Job creation has been punk for over a decade, over three administrations under presidents of both parties. Official Washington leadership — with some important, exceptional, bright lights such as Joint Economic Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, former Republican Study Committee chairman Jim Jordan, House Financial Services Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling, and, in the Senate, Sens. Lee, Cornyn and Rubio — has seemed clueless that the Prime Suspect in punk job creation is lousy monetary policy. Washington will benefit from a nudge from America. And Virginia is quintessential America.
Second, it is a good sign for the Republic that elected officials are listening to the people, a very good thing. This bill has constituencies both Republican and Democratic.
It follows the directive of what may well prove to have been the most vital and innovative plank in the 2012 national Republican Platform: the monetary commission plank. This plank was championed, primarily, by the esteemed Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), co-chair of the platform committee. Winning this plank was an impressive, savvy, achievement by Blackburn. The call for a monetary commission became the subject of respectful worldwide attention and, obviously, continues to resonate. It can become an important part of Blackburn’s effort to redirect and rebrand the GOP. Blackburn : “What you will see when the platform is opened this afternoon — you’ll see in the preamble how we lay out how we are the ‘Great Opportunity Party….’”
Virginia’s governor, Bob McDonnell (widely considered presidential timber), co-chaired the platform committee. He celebrated the platform as “a conservative vision of governance.” Enactment of this legislation would be seen, nationally, as important evidence that the governor walks the walk as well as he talks the talk. Should the Senate polarize along party lines one expects that McDonnell’s lieutenant governor, Bill Bolling — who also serves in the governor’s cabinet as Chief Jobs Creation Officer — would cast the historic tie-breaking vote in favor.
But the quality of money is not inherently a partisan, nor Republican, issue. A hearty three of the 11 Rules Committee members who voted in favor, Delegates Johnny Joannou, Joe Johnson, and Algie T. Howell, Jr., are Democrats. This is government like it’s supposed to be, “deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed.” This is just as Jefferson declared.
Pollster Scott Rasmussen determined, in polling 1,000+ voters in late 2011, that the two cohorts most enthusiastic for the gold standard are part of the Democratic base: Blacks and members of labor unions. So there is real hope that Virginia’s elected officials from the Democratic Party, whether Blue Dog or Progressive, will honor the founder of their party — that great Virginian Thomas Jefferson —whose legacy included an implacable opposition to bad money.
Jefferson:
"Paper money is liable to be abused, has been, is, and forever will be abused, in every country in which it is permitted." … (To J.W. Eppes, 1813) "Shall we build an altar to the old money of the Revolution, which ruined individuals but saved the Republic, and burn on that all the bank charters, present and future, and their notes with them? For these are to ruin both Republic and individuals. " (To John Adams, 1814) "… instead of funding issues of paper on the hypothecation of specific redeeming taxes … we are trusting to the tricks of jugglers on the cards, to the illusions of banking schemes for the resources of the war, and for the cure of colic to inflations of more wind." (To M. Correa, 1814)
One sourpuss Democratic Virginia Delegate publicly criticized this legislation. The Washington Post’s canny Ben Pershing was able to get, on record, this statement by “Del. Mark Sickles (Fairfax), the Democratic Caucus chairman. ‘It can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Are we seriously going to spend taxpayer resources studying a replacement to the world’s backbone currency? Are we descending into la la land?” Sickles asked.’”
It, of course, is ludicrous to begrudge the spending of “tens(!) of thousands(!) of dollars” to help bring our multitrillion dollar economy back to vibrant economic growth. And it is hoped that Del. Sickles will recognize that Americans are really, really, sick of seeing every intelligent effort to restore vibrant job creation get turned into a partisan football. And that Mr. Sickles will rethink the wisdom of spitting in the face of his own party’s founder, Jefferson.
Good money isn’t a Republican or a Democratic issue. It is an issue of integrity, and of the day. Del. Sickles is right about the dollar being the “world’s backbone currency.” He, perforce, is on untenable ground in characterizing a study of the U.S. monetary unit as “descending into la la land.” Rather the opposite, such a joint subcommittee may just prove a ladder out of la la land.
Constitutional monetary policy is no fringe issue. Much of the elite financial and political media recently has called the gold standard “mainstream.” The London FT, August 23, 2102: “The gold standard has returned to mainstream U.S. politics for the first time in 30 years….”; New York Sun editor Seth Lipsky in The Wall Street Journal : The Gold Standard Goes Mainstream; The New York Times: A Gold Standard is Unthinkable No More; The National Interest: The Gold Standard Goes Mainstream ; Forbes.com: The Republican Platform and the Mainstreaming of the Gold Standard. (The last two authored by this columnist.)
It’s not just media. The immensely sober-sided Bank of England issued, just over a year ago, a severe critique of contemporary monetary policy, Financial Stability Report No. 13, scoring it as far worse performing, empirically, than the gold standard. And it’s not just for conservatives. As Ernest Hemingway noted, in Esquire, September 1935, “The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.”
Virginia need not reach to London, to New York, to dignified yet bygone American figures like Ernest Hemingway, or even deep into its past for the wisdom of such great Virginians as Jefferson (and, for that matter, George Washington, James Madison, and John Marshall, also on record in this matter). The gold standard is a fully contemporary prescription, celebrated by scores of public intellectuals. Prominent among these, of course, is a good Virginia citizen, Dr. Judy Shelton, of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. A commission will create access to many learned scholars, such as Dr. Shelton, to create a dignified venue in which to address what seems to be emerging as the issue of the day.
The Virginia legislature, members of both houses, and parties, have an historic opportunity to enact and conduct a joint subcommittee to study the feasibility of a United States monetary unit based on a metallic standard. That would put the Commonwealth, whose flag depicts the Goddess of Virtue, in extremely virtuous national company. Gov. McDonnell’s signature would distinguish his office … and add to his national stature.
Yes Virginia, there is a Constitutional monetary unit. Your House of Delegates, with special credit to prime original sponsor Del. Bob Marshall, is greatly to be commended for offering to create a venue for America to rediscover that unit. And a venue to help America recall the vibrant, equitable, prosperity that unit brought and promises, upon its rediscovery, to bring again.Everybody's got an opinion on what the New York Giants' biggest offseason need is, and the Giants have so many needs it's hard to tell anyone they're wrong.
My opinion is that the most important thing the Giants need to do in this year's draft is find a building-block defensive lineman who can rush the passer. The good news is this year's draft is absolutely loaded with defensive linemen.
Even if Ohio State's Joey Bosa and Oregon's DeForest Buckner aren't there at No. 10, that doesn't mean the Giants should trade down and amass more picks as fans often suggest this time of year. Clemson's Shaq Lawson dazzled in combine workouts over the weekend. His teammate, Kevin Dodd, offers the kind of size the Giants like in their edge rushers. Noah Spence is a physical freak who could be a difference-maker if his college drug issues are behind him. And interior defensive linemen like A'Shawn Robinson and Sheldon Rankins are strong options if the Giants don't fall in love with any of the pass-rushers.
Clemson's Shaq Lawson had 12.5 sacks this past season. Tyler Smith/Getty Images
Much of the Giants' energy right now is focused on trying to re-sign defensive ends Jason Pierre-Paul and Robert Ayers before the new league year starts on March 9 and they become free agents. They have not yet succeeded, and it's possible they could lose both players once the market opens. That would only make their defensive line needs more acute, and free agency offers only imperfect solutions.
But even if they get their wish and bring back both Ayers and Pierre-Paul, what the Giants need is someone around whom they can build their defensive line of the future. They need to be thinking about a big, fast, disruptive cornerstone player on the defensive line, and having the No. 10 pick in a draft like this year's should enable them to find one.Most Americans want the United States to do less overseas, with the question of the country’s global role divisive across the political spectrum, a survey said Thursday.
Six in ten said the United States should focus more on home and less overseas, according to a wide-ranging study of US political views by the Pew Research Center.
That figure was the same as in the last survey in 2011 but was up from 49 percent in 2005, in the midst of the Afghan and Iraq wars.
The survey, which included interviews with 10,013 adults, found that US attitudes did not fall neatly into left/right categories.
Some 71 percent of Americans classified by the survey as “steadfast conservatives,” who tend to be religious and traditional, said that the United States should focus less abroad.
But 67 percent of more business-minded conservatives, who also lean toward the Republican Party, said the United States should pursue an active global role — stronger support than from any other group.
Most liberals also supported an active US role overseas, but the strongest opposition came from Americans identified as “hard-pressed skeptics,” who lean toward President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party but are generally low-income and distrustful of government. An overwhelming 87 percent in the group said the United States should focus less overseas.
The survey comes as the United States prepares for a 2016 election that could scramble traditional divides on foreign policy.
Senator Rand Paul, who is considered a potential 2016 candidate, is deeply skeptical of foreign intervention, while potential Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton sometimes took positions more hawkish than Obama while she was secretary of state.
The Pew survey also showed differences across the spectrum on immigration. Both liberals and business conservatives overwhelmingly embraced immigrants, while wide majorities of steadfast conservatives and hard-pressed skeptics were critical.
Overall, 59 percent of Americans said immigrants strengthened the country, while 35 percent said that a growing number of immigrants posed a threat to “traditional American customs/values.”Sometime in 1989, I had the idea of writing what, for me, would be a new kind of play. The plan was to go off to uncover a subject in the manner of a reporter or a documentary film-maker. But then when I sat down at the typewriter I would put all my research in the far back of my mind to invent an entirely fictional story that, with luck, would be enriched by immersive weeks of nosing around in the real world. Richard Eyre had just taken over as director of the National Theatre and was keen on this approach. He intended an energising shift of emphasis in the National’s repertory, away from the classical towards the modern, and this was one way to do it. In fact, even while he was rehearsing the outcome, Racing Demon, about the conscience of the Church of England in the inner cities, Richard was proposing the idea of a trilogy. All three plays would be about British institutions and all, eventually, would be presented in the course of a single day.
A massive cultural change, brought about by economics, but not just economic in its impact, was taking place David Hare
Because the acting company of Racing Demon was close-knit and highly intelligent, they took pleasure in lobbying for their future subject matter. I was never safe from someone saying “Why don’t you write about –?” But somehow the rickety British legal system had always been a given for the second play. The law’s highly stratified class structure – barristers at the top, prison officers at the bottom, police stuck in between and the accused universally ignored – was dramatically far too delicious to forego. So all the contention came to be centred on the third piece, which would have to bear the burden of being some sort of climax to the venture. Richard was keen to have a play about the military, which, with the ending of the cold war, was having to rethink its purposes. At the same time doctors and nurses, hearing what the theatre was up to, were sending letters begging me to write about the National Health Service. What was being done to it was a scandal, they said. A play could expose it. But by then there had already been far too many dramas that relied emotionally on the idea that everything had been wonderful in 1945, and that in the late 1980s everything was terrible. It might be true, but, like the myth of the second world war itself, it was becoming too romantic and lazy a narrative. The familiarity of the lament seemed to inhibit thought, not to stimulate it. I had no wish to march an audience defiantly back into the past. My preference was for something much knottier and more intractable, something that might reflect on the confused lives of the audience as well as on the protagonists. So it was good luck that in 1992 John Major was forced finally to call an election.
In those days the Labour party was interesting precisely because it was in the same mess as the rest of us. It was pedalling hard to work out how best it could respond to capitalism’s new-found ability to free up trade, disempower workers and regenerate its inequities from within. Margaret Thatcher’s ideological spite towards a working class that she loathed for their solidarity had robbed huge swaths of the country of their sense of identity. A massive cultural change, brought about by economics, but not just economic in its impact, was taking place. The very people who had created the Labour movement and who had given it a voice and unarguable moral force throughout the 20th century were watching the dismantling of the communities that had shaped them. After all the years of oppositional splits and bitter disunity through the 1980s, the Labour party leadership in 1992 was faced with an almost impossible dilemma. Either they had to accept that the world had indeed changed for good and that politicians had become little more than functionaries whose job was to get out of the way and facilitate the ruthless workings of the market, or they had to find new language, appropriate to a new age, in which to argue that there might be something called the common good. They had to reassert that there was more to a society than the money it made. But after a decade in which a triumphant ruling party had spoken of nothing but money, how were its opponents to reframe the argument to the electorate in a way that didn’t seem either disdainful or unrealistic?
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Neil Kinnock at the Sheffield rally, April 1992, a week before the general election, which Labour lost. Photograph: Alamy
It was another stroke of good luck, from my point of view, that the leader of the party, Neil Kinnock, was a theatregoer. In this he was unusual for a politician. When I asked him whether I might be allowed to attend Labour’s strategy meetings to get the feeling of what a campaign was like from within, he agreed enthusiastically – perhaps too enthusiastically in the view of some of his colleagues, who seemed all too ready to jump on him for being naive. It quickly became clear that, in politics, most leaders are surrounded by a close support team who regard their boss with a mixture of love, protectiveness, exasperation and contempt. (It’s not so different in the theatre.) Indeed, the complicated eddies of warmth, fury and hate between a leader and his fearful colleagues, intensified under the pressure of an election, provided the fun of my eventual play. The shifts of loyalty among the pilot fish were just as revealing as the behaviour of the big tuna. But when I started turning up at strategy meetings at 6.45am each day in Millbank Tower, key planners such as Robin Cook and Patricia Hewitt took to going into corridors and lowering their voices, making it obvious that they disapproved of my presence, which they regarded as proof of Kinnock’s fatal susceptibility to flattery. Only the other day, Sue Nye, the leader’s tour coordinator, could still remember how annoyed she was to be asked to find a seat on the bus for a playwright. What possible benefit could there be for the Labour party? How could he be trusted? It was an irony that Cook relished that 10 years later he was one of the few politicians encouraging me to write Stuff Happens, an insider’s account of the diplomatic process leading up to the invasion of Iraq.
In fact, I had not needed to flatter Kinnock. By the time the election was over, he was even more admirable than he was at the beginning, not least for a resilience and humour in the face of disappointment that neither Thatcher nor Edward Heath ever displayed. It requires special resources of character to admit that you have lost an election you were expected to win for no other reason than that more than 32 million voters finally do not see you as their prime minister. In 1987, Labour, under Kinnock, had fought an unexpectedly creditable campaign that had gone some way to shaking the opposition. But it had been masterminded by Peter Mandelson, who was now absent, himself standing for parliament in Hartlepool. This time, the ramshackle morning meetings, whose tone was set by the amiable psephologist Philip Gould, were remarkable chiefly for the way their firmest decisions were comprehensively ignored. If this was the new discipline, goodness knows what the old one was like. Everyone watching in 1992 can still remember the image of a delirious Kinnock several times shouting out “Well, a’ right” at a Sheffield rally a week before the poll and thereby alienating his television audience, some said definitively. But that very morning, everybody had sat together at a table in London and agreed that with Labour in the lead in the opinion polls any tone of triumphalism must, at all costs, be assiduously avoided at the rally. “No triumphalism,” they had all repeated, only to watch Roy Hattersley, the deputy leader, walk out before Kinnock to greet cheering crowds with the excited claim that the election was in the bag.
Labour strategists were, in private, hilariously paranoid and jumpy, like dogs cowering at a firework display David Hare
It was this kind of human weakness and fallibility that, up close, made the Labour party 20-odd years ago so sympathetic. Politicians, it turned out, were no different from the rest of us. They boasted a great deal and pretended to have some control over events, but they had little. Labour strategists were, in private, hilariously paranoid and jumpy, like dogs cowering at a firework display. But with the majority of the British press in the hands of extreme rightwing proprietors determined to throw mud at anyone who dared to stray an inch to the left of Enoch Powell, they did indeed have plenty to be jumpy about. The party carried real scars, and by the end of the election, would carry more. Further, at the time I was happy to accept the argument, later articulated on stage by George Jones, the Labour leader in my play The Absence of War, that the Labour party was “the only practical instrument that exists in this country for changing people’s lives for the good”. For Kinnock, the election would turn out a disaster, with the Conservatives gaining what remains their last outright electoral victory in the UK. Kinnock would go in as pig but come out as sausage.
Just over 18 months after Labour’s defeat, The Absence of War was premiered in the Olivier theatre. However, because the events that had inspired the play were so close, and every journalist knew its author had been invited into the heart of the 1992 Labour campaign, it was needlessly difficult for the public to make sense of what they saw. This was entirely my fault. Racing Demon and Murmuring Judges, the play about the law, were driven by narratives that were unfamiliar. But this time the drama was just a sufficient distance from a well-known reality to thoroughly confuse everybody. By telling the story of a Labour leader robbed of vitality by having to work under the impossibly dull new disciplines of remaining on message 24 hours a day, it was reasonable for the audience to assume they were simply watching a veiled documentary about Kinnock. Just as early audiences of Citizen Kane tended to ask “Is this meant to be Hearst?” – the now otherwise forgotten newspaper magnate by whom the film was inspired – so I despaired at so often being asked why John Thaw, playing George Jones, didn’t have red hair and speak in a Welsh accent. In reply I would bad-temperedly point out that my story was a fiction. The plot revolved crucially around the idea that in a desperate last throw, Jones is invited by his comrades to abandon discipline altogether and to rediscover his genius by speaking, as he did in his youth, from his heart. No such request had ever been made to Kinnock. But the more I protested that mine was a parallel story, and that my character – a South London bachelor, blessed with a quiet, cultured melancholy that has made him one of nature’s solitaries – resembled other political leaders rather more than it did Kinnock, the more determined certain people were to believe that they were watching only a thinly disguised version of real life.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest John Thaw as Labour leader George Jones in the 1995 BBC adaptation of The Absence of War. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/Guardian
It was because of my own misjudgment that the themes of the play were more apparent to some than others. A few thuggish Labour loyalists, mistakenly thinking they were doing their master’s bidding, came to give it a dutiful kicking. Kinnock himself was far more magnanimous, describing the play as “the three most uncomfortable hours of my life”, and then adding: “There’s only one thing more painful than losing a general election, and that’s seeing the play about you losing an election.” But another early visitor was Tony Blair, at that point not yet leader. He later confided that sitting through the play confirmed his resolution that he would never allow what he watched happening to George Jones to happen to him. It had long been evident that in any democratic society, whatever the current flux of ideology, there will always be two major parties, one protecting Money and the other representing Justice. One side will say that nothing can be achieved without promiscuous licence being given to the creators of wealth; the other will say that wealth’s distribution is equally important. If a society isn’t just, it can’t be happy. It was Blair and Gordon Brown’s intention to see whether the claims of Money and Justice could be reconciled, and whether you could create a party, New Labour, that was committed to both. But the messianic flaws of character that led to Blair’s epochal mishandling of the Iraq invasion left the jury out on whether his domestic experiment could ever succeed. It has not been attempted since.
Surely, they asked, I couldn’t possibly have written such speeches and scenes 10 and 20 years ago? David Hare
By the time the play was part of a revival of the trilogy in Birmingham in 2003, it had become happily unhitched from historical memory – few were able to check the fiction against the template in any detail – and it was moving to find how many people thought that, with the passage of time, The Absence of War had become the strongest of the three works. Ten years on, it was at last being seen for what it was, the posing of an urgent question: what on earth, in modern radicals, could replace the sense of conviction bred by the working-class culture that, from below, had once given Labourism its organic heft and authority? Time had needed to pass before the true subject could be understood. Indeed, last year when two old plays of mine were revived in succession in London, it was interesting to find so many people at each remarking on how topical both plays now seemed. Skylight gives voice to private enterprise’s self-righteous hostility towards those who work in the public services. The Vertical Hour portrays the agonies of those liberals who had supported what they expected to be western missions of mercy in lethal foreign wars. Surely, they asked, I couldn’t possibly have written such speeches and scenes 10 and 20 years ago? Had I redrafted them specially for these new productions?
Such eerie parallels may well be found during the nationwide tour of The Absence of War, staged by Headlong and directed by Jeremy Herrin. After all, the play is about an election that is too close to call. It features a Labour leader, this time played by Reece Dinsdale, who, everyone agrees, is an entirely decent and well-liked human being, but who is hopeless at conveying those qualities to the world at large. And it portrays a Labour party that will pay any price necessary in order to appear responsible and respectable, and that is rhetorically paralysed by knowing how little it is trusted on the economy. (Its strategy, therefore, is always to talk about health.) It even charts the rise of those professional types who have taken over the party, but who lack steel because their cultural roots are shallow. With such glaring similarities, it may be tempting to look at the play and remark that little has changed. But the problems facing Labour in 2015 not only run deeper than in 1992. They are also subtly different.
Skylight review – Nighy and Mulligan in moving mixture of politics and love | Michael Billington Read more
Commentators write glibly about the public’s increasing contempt for politicians, and yet what goes unremarked, and is equally damaging, is politicians’ growing contempt for us. To the degree that we hate them, so they hate us back. Why wouldn’t they? Speak to any Labour politician and you will find them furious and disbelieving that the Scottish people have had the nerve to relocate the site of radicalism to the SNP and away from the traditional vessel. Since the expenses scandal, politicians of all stripes are sick of being told that they are only in it for themselves; that there is no such thing as public service; and that anyone who chooses to work at Westminster must necessarily be doing it for the opportunities of lifestyle and cash, or as a stepping stone to a more lucrative career in private business. And yet this deep anger at the way they are perceived is largely the fallout of a crisis politicians have brought on themselves. It is their own fault that they are seen as just one more self-interested cartel, a professional trade union no more or less significant than any other.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ed Miliband. Photograph: Russell Cheyne/Reuters
At a time when foreign policy has been effectively outsourced to Washington, when wars have been dishonestly pursued without democratic support, when banks have been permitted to carry on exactly as they did before they destroyed the British economy, and when international corporations that flout tax regulations have become far too powerful to be challenged or brought into any national legal framework, politicians have conspired in their own diminishment by no longer bothering to make it clear what on earth it is they exist to do. They have gaily delegated and privatised so many of their own functions that nobody any longer knows what they are there for. The plot of The Absence of War centres on a failure of eloquence. At the last moment, George Jones cannot make a killer speech. And the question you most often hear asked of Miliband, in tones of increasing frustration, is: “Why, at a time when the public most needs it, can Ed not speak in a way that reaches the public?” Why can he not shoot at Cameron’s open goal? Why can he not, in the words of one veteran Labour MP in the play, “get up and take the whole rotten thing on?” But to ask that question is to |
1970 and2011 and the observed low cloud cover between years 1983 and 2008. One percent increase in relative humidity or in low cloud cover decreases the temperature by 0.15 °C and 0.11 °C, respectively. In the time periods mentioned before the contribution of the CO 2 increase was less than 10% to the total temperature change.”
“The analysis showed that the main atmospheric parameters that affect the amount of global radiation received on earth’s surface are cloud cover and relative humidity. Global radiation correlates negatively with both variables. Linear models are excellent approximations for the relationship between atmospheric parameters and global radiation. A linear model with the predictors total cloud cover, relative humidity, and extraterrestrial radiation is able to explain around 98% of the variability in global radiation.”
Summarizing Question: Why is there so much preoccupation with atmospheric CO2 concentrations and reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions when it is well documented in the peer-reviewed scientific literature that the CO2 contribution to the overall greenhouse effect is so weak that it can be easily supplanted by small changes in clouds and water vapor, or natural climate-changing constituents?The movie shootout might be one of the most popular and recurring scenes in movie history. Any genre of film can contain a shoot out and most of the time movie shootouts are pretty poor. It might just be one dude shooting at another dude without any energy or life to it, or worse, it’ll have the problem the recent Taken films have had and be shot by the shakiest cameraman in the world and be basically unwatchable. Great movie shootouts are the ones which transcend the film around them, however good the films themselves actually are, and become something special. Whether they are refreshingly original, gut wrenchingly violent, or just damn cool, movie shootouts can be the most memorable parts of a film. If they are done right of course. Read on to see 10 of the best shootouts in movie history!
10. The Boondock Saints – There was a fire fight!
The Boondock Saints is that sort of film where nearly every critic hated it but for some reason fans were of a completely different opinion. While The Boondock Saints only has 20% on RottenTomatoes (calling it ‘juvenile’ and ‘ugly’), it has 7.9 on the user voted IMDB and I believe the reason lies mostly in it’s fun and creative action sequences. The film is also incredibly quotable and boasts a brilliantly hilarious performance from Willem Dafoe, but the best part of he entire film is the shootout outside the house, against Il Duce, played by Billy Connelly. The action is great any way, filmed in the over-the-top style that permeates the entire film, but the reason this is one of the best shootouts in movie history is down to Dafoe. He comments on the action after it has happened but is mixed in with the characters in the gunfight, as he slowly unravels. Add in slow motion, classical music and lots of fake blood, for an awesome, over the top and creative gun fight.
9. The Way of The Gun – The finale.
It’s a shame that The Way of The Gun is, unlike most of the films on this list, pretty rarely seen. It boasts good performances, great direction, an original story and a really great cast, including the likes of Benicio Del Toro, Ryan Phillippe, James Caan, Scott Wilson and Taye Diggs. When people do talk about the film they don’t mention any of this, as it is all overshadowed by the awesome gunplay and the brilliant finale. While the movie does boast realistic gun techniques, that doesn’t mean it’s boring. The action is fast and brutal and our main characters are outgunned from the very beginning. In fact, the finale takes place in the same location as the final stand in the brilliant 1969 western Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, so you know from the start that the heroes could be in trouble. Brilliantly brutal and wonderfully choreographed, The Way of The Gun is an underrated crime classic with a killer finale.
8. Django Unchained – Candyland showdown.
What else is there to say at this point about Quentin Tarantino? His movies are respected by film critics and casual movie goers alike, and often end up on a lot of peoples yearly ‘best of’ lists. His most recent film Django Unchained was no different, winning Oscars nods for both it’s writing and performances. But that was to be expected of Tarantino at this point, the real surprise was just how awesome the big shootout at Candyland was. Of course Tarantino has done action before but it’s usually limited to fights (Kill Bill) or car chases (Deathproof), his shootouts in things like Inglourious Basterds were good but he shows in Django that he’s capable of so much more. The scene is expertly choreographed and awesomely violent, plus it has all of those Tarantino signifiers such as the fun music. Like a lot of his work, the Candyland shootout in Django Unchained just exudes cool and is a whole lotta fun.
7. Equilibrium – Saving the puppy.
Equilibrium is a great film. Forget what the critics said; any film that contains Christian Bale running around performing ‘gun-kata’ has gotta be at least decent. You could fill half of this list with shootouts just from Equilibrium but I believe the scene where Cleric John Preston first goes against the totalitarian regime to save an adorable dog is top of the list. In a world where feelings aren’t allowed, Preston has just been ‘awakened’, and is trying to hide a dog from the authorities he works for. The tension is built beautifully and you think Preston will get away with hiding the dog. Until he doesn’t, and everything becomes awesome. The scene is brilliantly shot and is complemented by some interesting lighting and clear direction. You see every move John makes, despite the fact he’s moving nearly lightning fast, and you can’t help but get caught up in the moment. An awesome moment from an awesome, but sadly underrated sci-fi action flick.
6. Léon: The Professional – Hostage negotiation.
The next entry on the list goes to Luc Besson’s brilliant Léon: The Professional. To be honest, multiple films that Besson has been involved in over the years could have featured in this spot, from the superb The Fifth Element, which he directed, to the more recent Taken (the first and only good one), which he wrote. But no Besson shootout comes close to matching the sheer awesome-ness of the the ending to his best film; Léon: The Professional. The performances are all great, especially Gary Oldman’s scene chewing turn as unhinged DEA Agent Norman Stansfield and the action is as violent as we ever could have hoped for. The scene is also special for being incredibly clever, both in the way it is set up and through the direction. Léon himself might not have the best odds but he sure as hell tries, setting us up for both a spectacular, and ultimately bitter sweet ending.
5. Desperado – Bar room brawl.
Desperado, directed by the brilliant Robert Rodriguez, is perhaps the pinnacle of both his career and star Antonio Banderas career (and this is coming from a big fan of Assassins). The film perfectly captures the brilliance of the tex-mex themes of Rodriguez’s career, as well as containing some extremely awesome shootouts. The best shootout in the film though, is the standout action scene set in Cheech Marin’s Tarasco bar. Guys get shot in a symphony of violence by Banderas who is prancing around the place like he’s training for his upcoming role in The Mask of Zorro. The whole scene is very cool, and isn’t even ruined by an extended cameo from Quentin Tarantino. Rodriguez has made some awesome movies in his time, including From Dusk Till Dawn and Sin City, but none of them top this scene in Desperado for sheer brilliance.
4. Face/Off – Face off.
This isn’t the only John Woo entry on this list but the film itself is perhaps my favourite of his, not in small part to the presence of Nicolas Cage and John Travolta, who compete to see who can chew the scenery the fastest. It’s wonderful. The highlight of the film comes when Cage, who is playing Travolta’s character (good guy Sean Archer in the body of bad guy Castor Troy), is attacked by Travolta playing Cage’s character (bad guy Castor Troy in the body of good guy Sean Archer). Hell on earth is unleashed; bullets fly, bad guys get plugged and, in a superb moment of contrapuntal sound, Over the Rainbow by Olivia Newton John gets played. It’s text book John Woo topped off with a bunch of people diving through the air, firing guns, all in glorious slow motion. It’s awesome.
3. Hard Boiled – Intensive care.
Hard Boiled is the second John Woo entry on this this and I really had to fight myself to not put more on. His whole filmography is littered with brilliant shootouts, but perhaps the best of his career features in his magnum opus; Hard Boiled. Not only does the entire scene last a gloriously long time but it features many different scenarios so it never becomes boring. Again, the whole thing is greatly directed by Woo with the particular highlight being the long take which lasts nearly three minutes and is brilliantly explosive and brilliantly choreographed. There’s no CGI here, all the explosions are real and, for the most part, it’s actually the actors doing the crazy stuff which really helps, making the film just that much more believable. Hard Boiled is an action master piece.
2. Scarface – Say hello to my little friend!
Scarface is, undoubtedly, one of the best films of the 1980’s. Filled to the brim with the sort of excesses that typified the decade like neon, violence, and cocaine, it’s a fun ride from start to finish. And what a finish it is. The film is already beautifully over-the-top at this point but somehow the final shootout takes it one step further. Tony Montana’s enemies are storming his mansion, his guards are dead, his sister is dead, and he is high as a kite on nose candy. He takes his M16 with a grenade launcher attached and makes his final stand. It’s incredibly violent and loud and is extremely awesome to boot. Director Brian De Palma shoots the whole thing with his trademark energy and we cheer for Tony as he kills people, despite him also being a despicable human being. As we know, Tony doesn’t make it, but he does manage to supply us with one of cinemas greatest shootouts before he goes.
1. Heat – The Heist.
There really couldn’t have been anything else in the number 1 spot could there? Michael Mann’s Heat is a bona fide classic and contains one of the coolest and most astounding shootouts in cinema history, and the films it has influenced can be seen all over the place (I’m looking at you The Dark Knight). Robert DeNiro’s bank robbing character Neil McCauley, along with his gang of criminals has just hit the biggest score of their careers. It’s a heist we’ve seen them meticulously planning for weeks before, so we as viewers are also invested in the outcome. But we have also been following Al Pacino’s Lt. Vincent Hanna and his police force as they try to catch out Neil and his gang. This leads to the moment the two sides meet, outside of the bank, resulting in the best shootout in cinema history. Mann shoots the scene with little to no music, making the scene incredibly visceral but also allowing us to listen to the extremely realistic sound design. Every gun shot sounds real and our characters react to each one. Mann’s staging and shooting of the scene is especially great as it is clear, and allows us to follow the action in a way not many other films have achieved. The guns are loud, characters get killed off, Al Pacino shouts, and the audience gets to enjoy the best shootout ever put onto film.
By TomLate Tuesday afternoon, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted three to two to formally oppose the creation of the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. In what turned out to be an all-day discussion - and at the end, a contentious board debate - dozens of speakers addressed the board, many waiting up to seven hours to have their say.
Commercial fishermen expressed their concern with more regulations should the sanctuary be established, while many other residents said they were disturbed at the prospect of offshore oil drilling and wanted the designation to protect the coast.
In the end the board voted the same as it did at the Jan. 24 meeting, with Supervisors Arnold, Compton and Peschong voting in favor of a resolution that states the county's opposition to the proposed sanctuary. Supervisors Hill and Gibson voted against the resolution.
In 2015, a proposal to establish the new marine sanctuary was submitted to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, the federal agency in charge of creating and managing the nation's marine sanctuaries. But the proposed Chumash Heritage NMS is not yet on the agency's "designation in progress" list.Georgia, Tbilisi, April 12 / Trend, N. Kirtskhalia /
Georgian President categorically rejects the rhetoric of Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili for 2008 war. As Saakashvili said Georgian journalists in Warsaw, Ivanishvili rhetoric echoes the Russian position and surprising.
"Premier makes statements that are no other than the retreat. Their statements that Georgia had behaved inappropriately during the August war, it gives trumps Russia, which can not be allowed because the Georgian government should not tell lies that Georgia started that war", he said.
Saakashvili said that is guilty for the fact that did not give up until the end of the European integration and resist joining NATO. "But I do not give up. I fought to the end and now we do not have to give up and give our country to others," he said.
Georgian President said his government has rebuffed the separatists and the occupier, and went to the end to achieve the ideal.
Saakashvili said that Georgia had already given up once, when in 1921, the flag of independent Georgia were replaced by Soviet.
"As the president I completely move away from the statement of the prime minister that Georgia started the war in 2008 and I'm not going to cooperate with the investigation on the matter. This matter of the future of our country and we all have to take a responsible approach to our choice, and honor," Saakashvili said.
On Thursday, the Chief Prosecutor of Georgia Archil Kbilashvili announced the start of the investigation of the legal aspects of the 2008 war.
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Follow Trend on Telegram. Only most interesting and important newsPARIS—Satellite machine-to-machine messaging service provider Orbcomm said it could lose several of its 17 second-generation satellites without a big impact on its operations beyond a slight delay in message-delivery times.
Orbcomm said it was nonetheless confident that the recent loss of one of the six second-generation satellites launched in July 2014 is unlikely to repeat.
In an Aug. 6 conference call with investors and a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Rochelle Park, New Jersey-based Orbcomm said Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nevada, the prime contractor for the second-generation constellation, has about completed work on the 11 remaining satellites, which will be placed into storage awaiting launch.
Orbcomm Chief Executive Marc J. Eisenberg said during the call that launch could occur “as early as November” aboard an improved-thrust Falcon 9 rocket operated by SpaceX of Hawthorne, California.
SpaceX is recovering from a June 28 launch failure and has not announced a return-to-flight schedule. Eisenberg said the 11 Orbcomm satellites will be launched aboard the second or third flight of the improved-thrust Falcon 9.
Before the SpaceX failure, the new-version Falcon 9 had been scheduled to make its inaugural flight before October, carrying a commercial geostationary telecommunications satellite owned by SES of Luxembourg.
Eisenberg said the satellite that stopped communicating in June had exhibited erratic behavior beforehand, requiring two software resets by ground teams and suffering two temporary communication outages before going silent.
None of the other five satellites has shown the same behavior, and while the satellite builders continue to examine what happened, Orbcomm has no reason to put the 11 remaining satellites back into the production facility, or to delay the launch, Eisenberg said.
The failure “is very likely a workmanship or piece part issue specific to this one satellite,” Eisenberg said. “We do not believe there is anything systemic on our new spacecraft.”
Eisenberg said failures should be expected on low-orbiting small satellites that, unlikely large geostationary spacecraft, dispense with multiple redundancies to permit a recovery in the event of a component failure. Orbcomm paid about $120 million for its 18 second-generation satellites.
The first of those satellites was lost in late 2012 after being placed into the wrong orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9. Orbcomm filed a $10 million claim for the loss.
Orbcomm took a $12.7 non-chase charge against its earnings for the three months ending June 30 as a result of the more recent loss. The cause has not been determined by Sierra Nevada and satellite payload provider Boeing Co., but the loss presumed to be definitive, Orbcomm said.
Orbcomm had secured a satellite insurance policy covering both SpaceX launches of the full 17-satellite second-generation constellation. The policy includes a three-satellite deductible, meaning Orbcomm will not be able to file a claim for the loss.
Orbcomm Chief Financial Officer Robert G. Costantini said during the call that the company had recently purchased a one-year renewal of its in-orbit insurance for the five operational satellites, and that this policy – which overlaps the full-constellation policy – had a one-satellite deductible.
Eisenberg said the second-generation constellation was designed so that, with 17 operational satellites, Orbcomm subscribers — which totaled 1.297 million as of June 30, up 35,000 from three months earlier — would receive their messages within five minutes 90 percent of the time. If a satellite is lost, the five-minute reception time would be slightly longer, but there would be no overall loss of system capacity or revenue potential.
“If we were to go from 17 satellites to 16, to 15, to 14 it’s not going to have a huge impact on the business,” Eisenberg said. “Maybe latencies would creep up to seven or eight minutes, but we’ve been 98 percent within 15 minutes [with the first-generation constellation] for years.”Denver Now Issuing Same-Sex Marriage Licenses
After a state court refused to stop Boulder County from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Denver has followed suit.
At least two same-sex couples have received marriage licenses in Denver today, after a federal judge refused to stop neighboring Boulder county from issuing licenses to same-sex couples, which it began doing on June 25.
Denver County Clerk and Recorder Debra Johnson, the first out lesbian to hold the elected position, whose duties include issuing marriage licenses, announced on Twitter Thursday that her office would begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples immediately, according to The Denver Post.
"FINALLY!" Johnson tweeted. "We can issue marriage licenses to ALL loving couples here in CO. Our Office will be issuing licenses till 4:30pm today."
At press time, same-sex couples were continuing to stream into the clerk's office of the state's largest and most populous county to receive marriage licenses, while observers described Johnson's response to issuing the licenses as "giddy."
Thursday's action in Denver follows a Boulder district judge's refusal of the state attorney general's request to stop Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, which she began doing June 25 after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver found Utah's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Because the 10th Circuit holds jurisdiction over Colorado, Hall has consistently argued that its ruling declaring marriage a fundamental right and striking down restrictive bans, extends to Colorado. The attorney general, on the other hand, has said the licenses are invalid.
State judge Andrew Hartman Thursday rejected the attorney general's request to order Hall to stop issuing marriage licenses, writing that the Republican official did not meet the required burden of proof to demonstrate that Hall's actions caused substantial harm to the state or the couples receiving licenses, reports the Post. While acknowledging that Hall's decision to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of the state's constitutional ban on such unions is a form of civil disobedience, Hartman rejects the claim that her behavior is harmful to the state.
"There is no tangible harm to the people of Colorado caused by Clerk Hall's disobedience of state law and orders by the State," Hartman said, according to the Post. "The State makes assertions that Clerk Hall's disobedience irreparably harms the people by causing loss of faith in the rule of law. … However, the State has made nothing but assertions. An alternate public response is that the people of Colorado laud Clerk Hall for her pluck and/or condemn the Attorney General for his tenaciousness."
Yesterday, a state court found Colorado's 2006 voter-approved constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in violation of the U.S. Constitution, but the judge placed a hold on that ruling while the state presumably appeals the decision.
Meet the first same-sex couple to recieve a marriage license in Denver in the video below, via the Associated Press.
Second couple in line pic.twitter.com/aEtpbtSFMV — Steve Staeger (@SteveStaeger) July 10, 2014
HAPPENING NOW: #Denver County & Recorder issuing gay marriage licenses. pic.twitter.com/h2HREyy3kx — Stan Bush (@StanBushTV) July 10, 2014
NOW: @MayorHancock "I fully support Clerk and Recorder Debra Johnson in her issuing of [same-sex] marriage licenses" #SuthersvHall #9NEWS — Brandon Rittiman (@BrandonRittiman) July 10, 2014Philippine presidential favorite Rodrigo Duterte has flippantly brushed aside campaign trail allegations of accepting million-dollar gifts, while his rivals have refused to disclose their backers, deepening concerns over business titans’ shadowy grip on politics.
The Philippines has one of Asia’s biggest rich-poor divides, with poverty rates remaining stuck in recent years despite strong economic growth, and analysts say one of the reasons for the disparity is the debt that politicians owe their secret backers.
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Under the nation’s campaign financing laws, there are no caps on how much people or companies can give to candidates, nor are there limits on individual donations.
READ: Laws sleeping in pre-campaign? Loopholes cited on bets’ billion-peso spending
They also do not have to reveal their backers until a month after polling day.
Duterte has entrenched himself as the clear frontrunner for Monday’s elections by portraying himself as a frugal, anti-establishment politician who is tough enough to take on the elites.
“When I become president, by the grace of God, I serve the people, not you,” Duterte told reporters this week, referring to the elite.
But in the final stages of the campaign trail Duterte, who is meant to earn less than $2,000 a month as the mayor of the southern city of Davao, was hit with allegations that millions of dollars had poured into secret bank accounts.
READ: Miriam on Digong: Why many bank accounts?
He initially denied there were any hidden accounts. After a journalist deposited money into them, he admitted they did exist and that 193.7 million pesos ($4.2 million) were deposited into them on his birthday two years ago, nearly 10 times his declared assets.
“That only means I have many rich friends,” he said, refusing to disclose who they were.
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READ: Duterte: I have P128K in BPI account, $5K in dollar account
Asked at an earlier national television debate to name his campaign donors, Duterte gave a mocking answer, answering “Emilio Aguinaldo”, a leader of the Philippines’ 19th-century war for independence from colonial power Spain.
Buying politicians
His rivals similarly have felt no obligation to tell voters who their backers are, let alone how much they have been paid by them.
Senator Grace Poe, who has been in politics for just three years and fashions herself as a lily-white poster image of change and probity, has been widely rumored to be backed by taipans Eduardo Cojuangco and Ramon Ang.
READ: Poe ditching coco farmers for Danding Cojuangco?
They are in charge of San Miguel Corporation, one of the nation’s biggest conglomerates.
Cojuangco was one of dictator Ferdinand Marcos’s cronies until the 1986 “People Power” revolution sent the strongman into US exile.
Cojuangco fled on the same plane but returned three years later and kept building his business empire, while also running a political party that today is backing Poe.
When asked by AFP to confirm that Cojuangco and Ang were funding her campaign, Poe spoke only in general terms that there was nothing wrong with taking money from people linked with Marcos.
“All candidates have support from both sides of the fence. If they say they don’t have any they’re lying,” Poe replied.
She said her backers and their donations would be revealed after the election, as per the law.
Marcos’s son and namesake, who is seeking to cement a remarkable political comeback for the family by being elected vice president on Monday, also referred only to his legal obligations, when asked by AFP in an interview to disclose his backers.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whose late father was accused of looting $10 billion from state coffers during his two-decade rule, rejected the notion that he would be beholden to his secret donors.
“That would imply that you bought a politician. I don’t think I would allow that to happen to myself,” Marcos Jr. said.
Weak laws
In the Philippines, campaign spending is meant to be capped at 10 pesos per voter, which this year will mean a maximum budget for each presidential candidate equivalent to about $11 million.
READ: Top bets for president, VP, Senate spend P54M daily
In some advanced Western democracies the donations are typically limited to relatively small sums to encourage a larger section of the population to put their representative into office.
However in the Philippines the uncapped donations mean the funding can be provided by big-money donors in hopes of currying favors with an entire government, according to Ronald Mendoza, newly appointed dean of the Ateneo School of Government in Manila.
He said said the porous election finance safeguards made the economy vulnerable to being held captive by big-time punters’ personal interests.
“Only a few can give such large amounts…. so you’re no longer accountable to people who voted you in. You become more accountable to the person who actually financed you,” Mendoza told AFP.
Historically, Mendoza said this led to monopolies and economic stagnation, since reforms were blocked and competition discouraged to enable campaign benefactors to recoup their investment on the new leader.
A mere 308 Filipinos funded the 2010 presidential election, turning them into virtual venture capitalists financing high-risk startups, according to a study by the Manila-based Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ).
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MOST READDear Prospective Employer,
I am writing in regards to your posting for a new Administrative Assistant at Hudson, Singer and Levine. I am not qualified for or interested in this position, but I’m getting sort of desperate.
I graduated somewhere in the middle of my class at Ohio State University, where I majored in English because it seemed like the easiest thing to do and it kind of pissed off my dad. This was obviously a huge mistake as now I have no marketable skills. I have zero experience as an administrative assistant, but since I’m a functioning adult, I bet I could do it. My past employment has included a work-study job at the library, which mostly consisted of sitting in front of gchat all day, and this one week where I worked as a sandwich maker at the Pita Pit, where I learned about how to deal with annoying customers. But since I got fired for kicking people out if they were ugly, I won’t do that at your company.
I’m not passionate about whatever it is you do. I don’t even remember what job this is anymore because this is like the 79th cover letter I’ve written in the past month.
But I’ll show up to work and for the most part not piss anyone off, and in a few months you seriously won’t even notice me. I look forward to hearing from you soon, unless you want to drag out this hiring process even longer even though you have an actual job to fake doing.
Sincerely,
Millie Meinwald
Analysis:
The cover letter is one of the longest serving and most widely used letters in all of human history. Archeologists digging near the Lascaux Caves found shards of cover letters and resumes. One particularly well-preserved example was later translated by Dr. Angelo Ping-Ping of the Sorbonne:
Dear Hunter, Me Gatherer. Would like become hunter. Am strong. Can provide spear. You contact Hairy Foot at time when sun is highest. He chief gatherer. He provide excellent recommendation. Sincerely, Gatherer
The Romans famously used cover letters during the Republican period, but the practice was wiped out as the Imperial family gained strength and streamlined the application process for government jobs. In medieval France, cover letters were widely sent from peasants to their lords, offering to work for food, or if the economy was sluggish, not being smashed with a mace. The Aztecs famously accepted resumes and cover letters from prospective human sacrifices. Commonly, these prospects would exaggerate just how big their hearts and other organs were, which often led to disappointed high priests.
In modern society, the cover letter serves two main purposes. The first is to test a prospective employee’s ability to write a cover letter. The second is to test the prospect’s ability to include the cover letter in an email attachment or fax. Both of these are considered extremely important in the modern economy. As such, the employer will very carefully skim the cover letter. If he finds it is indeed present, he will then check to see if a resume is attached as well. Once these two documents are deemed sufficient, the application is carefully shredded and the job is then filled by the employer’s nephew. In such a fast-paced economy, there can be no inefficiencies.
Luckily for recent college graduates, there are only few boss’s nephews left unemployed these days, so some, maybe even dozens, actually stand a chance of getting hired. Of course, studying something stupid like “English” will never get you hired, which is why most people recommend you have your entire life figured out at 18, and that you should figure on being an engineer. That way, you can impress the person hiring you to answer the phones with your ability to do math.
AdvertisementsLast month, the T.S.A. announced a change in its policy of involuntarily reassigning senior staff members to other airports, a practice that many workers say had been used to punish workers who spoke out by sending them to undesirable locations.
John S. Pistole, a former administrator of the T.S.A. who created the Office of Professional Responsibility to establish uniform discipline and punishment across the agency, said claims by agency whistle-blowers were disconcerting, if true.
“There should never be any retaliation against workers for reporting a security violation,” he said. “This was not the standard I had for supervisors.”
Even those workers who were reinstated after their complaints were found to have merit have had to spend thousands of dollars fighting the T.S.A. in court or in complaints before whistle-blower agencies, resulting in a chilling effect.
“These workers look around and see what’s happening with those who report security violations, and remain silent because they have kids to feed and a mortgage to pay,” said Robert J. MacLean, a federal air marshal who last year won a case against the agency for wrongful firing that went all the way to the Supreme Court.
Files from whistle-blower protection agencies and the E.E.O.C. show numerous examples of retaliation by the T.S.A. against workers reporting misconduct and security violations.
In 2013, Wayne Sparks, an administrative officer at the Syracuse airport, reported that his supervisor had spent thousands of dollars on questionable security measures, including paying more than $600,000 a year to local law enforcement officers for patrols at smaller airports nearby that, in many cases, never took place.Mobile, console and PC game developers who work with the Unity engine will see some changes in how it is labeled in the next year. The company revealed that the last major update for its Unity 5 engine cycle will be released in March 2017, and after that the next version will use a year-based date label, or Unity 2017.
In a blog post, Unity said that the switch to a date-based system for its next major engine release better reflects the company’s recent switch to a subscription model. This was done so it can launch new, but smaller, updates on a faster basis, rather than dump a lot of new features in one big update every several months.
Before that happens, however, the Unity team is working to complete the final big update for the current version. Unity 5.6 is now available in a beta build, and and its biggest feature is that it adds support for the more powerful Vulkan graphics API. The final 5.6 version in March will also add support for apps that use Google Cardboard and the company’s new Daydream VR platform.
The first beta of Unity 2017 will be released in April. The company stated it will have a number of new features, including more tools for developers to create better cinematics in their games, along with a “fully multi-threaded job system” that will be able to better use the features in multi-core processors.Story highlights More than 99% of voters said they want the Falkland Islands to remain a territory
Turnout was 92%; "Speaks for itself," says an island official
Argentina, which knows the islands as Las Malvinas, disputes British sovereignty
Britain and Argentina went to war over the South Atlantic territory in 1982
Residents of the Falkland Islands voted overwhelmingly to remain a British Overseas Territory, an official said late Monday.
The question put to voters was: "Do you wish the Falkland Islands to retain their current political status as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom?"
More than 99% of voters said yes, according to Darren Christie, public relations manager for the Falklands Islands government. Just three people voted no. Turnout was 92%.
"Speaks for itself, I think," Christie said about the vote.
Monday marked the final day of a two-day referendum on the disputed Falkland Islands, which Argentinians call Las Malvinas.
"My vote is yes.... I believe we are like other people in the world, and we are entitled to determine our own future.... I think it's dreadful that someone like Argentina should be trying to deny us that," Sharon Halford, a member of the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly, said before results were announced.
"They obviously don't care what their own people think, but worldwide, everybody has the right to determine their own future and why should we not be the same?"
Pictures at the polls showed some residents of the islands draped in Union flags as they cast their votes. Cars displayed banners that said "We're British and proud." A parade honoring British heritage marked the start of voting Sunday.
The referendum was supported by the British government.
But the Argentinian Embassy in London said Friday that the referendum had no legitimacy, characterizing it as "a further attempt by the British to manipulate the question of the Malvinas Islands."
Because the area around the Falklands is the subject of a sovereignty dispute, it argues, "the United Kingdom has no right to alter the legal status of these territories, not even under the guise of a hypothetical'referendum.' "
Renewed tensions
The two countries went to war over the territory in 1982 after the then-military government in Argentina landed troops on the islands. Argentina put its death toll from the conflict at around 645. Britain says its civil and military losses amounted to 255.
For more than a year, renewed rhetoric between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the islands has escalated to a fever pitch, with both sides accusing each other of colonialism.
Prince William's military deployment to the islands last year further fueled tensions, drawing sharp criticism from Argentinian officials.
In January, Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner wrote an open letter, published in the British press, calling on Britain to hand back the islands and accusing it of blatant colonialism.
"The Argentines on the Islands were expelled by the Royal Navy and the United Kingdom subsequently began a population implantation process similar to that applied to other territories under colonial rule," she wrote.
"Since then, Britain, the colonial power, has refused to return the territories to the Argentine Republic, thus preventing it from restoring its territorial integrity."
She cited a 1965 U.N. resolution inviting the two countries to negotiate a solution to the sovereignty dispute and has called on the British to abide by the resolution.
The British government accuses Buenos Aires of trying to coerce residents into becoming part of Argentina through intimidation of those involved in fishing and oil exploration, and efforts to isolate the remote islands even further by limiting access by sea.
British officials have rejected Fernandez's call for negotiations, saying the people of the Falkland Islands have chosen to be British and "have a right to self-determination as enshrined in the U.N. Charter."
"There are three parties to this debate, not just two as Argentina likes to pretend. The islanders can't just be written out of history," read a statement from the British Foreign Office.
"As such, there can be no negotiations on the sovereignty of the Falklands Islands unless and until such time as the islanders so wish."
Residents react
Located in the South Atlantic Ocean, about 480 kilometers (298 miles) east of the tip of South America, the Falklands have long been coveted as a strategic shipping stopover and potential wellspring of natural resources, including lucrative fisheries and a growing oil drilling industry.
The islands, which raise their own taxes but rely on the United Kingdom for defense and foreign policy, are one of 14 British Overseas Territories and have been under British rule since 1833.
More than 2,500 people from more than 60 nations live and work there, according to the government website, as well as forces stationed at the British |
to those of us that depend on it. AMD and NVIDIA have different goals here: GeForce products already have 90-95% market share in discrete gaming notebooks. In order for NVIDIA to see growth in sales, the total market needs to grow. For AMD, simply taking back a portion of those users and design wins would help its bottom line.
But despite AMD’s early talk about getting Polaris 10 and 11 in mobile platforms, it’s NVIDIA again striking first. Gaming notebooks with Pascal GPUs in them will be available today, from nearly every system vendor you would consider buying from: ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, Alienware, Razer, etc. NVIDIA claims to have quicker adoption of this product family in notebooks than in any previous generation. That’s great news for NVIDIA, but might leave AMD looking in from the outside yet again.
Technologically speaking though, this makes sense. Despite the improvement that Polaris made on the GCN architecture, Pascal is still more powerful and more power efficient than anything AMD has been able to product. Looking solely at performance per watt, which is really the defining trait of mobile designs, Pascal is as dominant over Polaris as Maxwell was to Fiji. And this time around NVIDIA isn’t messing with cut back parts that have brand changes – GeForce is diving directly into gaming notebooks in a way we have only seen with one release.
The ASUS G752VS OC Edition with GTX 1070
Do you remember our initial look at the mobile variant of the GeForce GTX 980? Not the GTX 980M mind you, the full GM204 operating in notebooks. That was basically a dry run for what we see today: NVIDIA will be releasing the GeForce GTX 1080, GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 to notebooks.
Continue reading our preview of the new GeForce GTX 1080, 1070 and 1060 mobile Pascal GPUs!!
Mobile Pascal Specifications
These are not cut back parts in anyway – NVIDIA claims that performance between the desktop and mobile versions of these chips will essentially be identical. They are able to achieve that with a combination of voltage tuning, silicon binning and even a CUDA core configuration change in the middle of the stack.
GTX 1080 GTX 1080 (mobile) GTX 1070 GTX 1070 (mobile) GTX 1060 GTX 1060 (mobile) GTX 980 (mobile) GTX 980M GTX 970M GPU GP104 GP104 GP104 GP104 GP106 GP106 GM204 GM204 GM206 GPU Cores 2560 2560 1920 2048 1280 1280 2048 1536 1280 Rated Base Clock 1607 MHz 1556 MHz 1506 MHz 1442 MHz 1506 MHz 1404 MHz 1126 MHz 1038 MHz 924 MHz Texture Units 160 160 120 128 80 80 128 96 80 ROP Units 64 64 64 64 48 48 64 64 48 Memory 8GB 8GB 8GB 8GB 6GB 6GB 4GB 4GB/8GB 3GB Memory Clock 10,000 MHz 10,000 MHz 8000 MHz 8000 MHz 8000 MHz 8000 MHz 7000 MHz 5000 MHz 5000 MHz Memory Interface 256-bit G5X 256-bit G5X 256-bit 256-bit 192-bit 192-bit 256-bit 256-bit 192-bit Memory Bandwidth 320 GB/s 320 GB/s 256 GB/s 256 GB/s 192 GB/s 192 GB/s 224 GB/s 160 GB/s 120 GB/s TDP (watts) 180 ~150 165 ~115 120 ~75 ~150 ~100 ~75 Peak Compute 8.2 TFLOPS 7.9 TFLOPS 5.7 TFLOPS 5.9 TFLOPS 3.85 TFLOPS 3.5 TFLOPS 4.61 TFLOPS 3.18 TFLOPS 2.3 TFLOPS Transistor Count 7.2B 7.2B 7.2B 7.2B 4.4B 4.4B 5.2B 5.2B 2.94B Process Tech 16nm 16nm 16nm 16nm 16nm 16nm 28nm 28nm 28nm MSRP (current) $599/699 N/A $379/449 N/A $249/299 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Both the mobile version of the GeForce GTX 1080 and the GTX 1060 are near identical to their desktop counterparts in terms of specifications with modest changes in clock speeds. The GTX 1080 that you’ll find in a gaming notebook will have 2560 CUDA cores and will run at clock speeds over 1.5 GHz. How is it possible to squeeze a GPU with a TDP of 180 watts into a mobile chassis? They aren’t - the mobile variant will likely have a TDP somewhere around 150 watts. I saw “around” because NVIDIA continues to be cagey about the specific TDP of the GPU, memory and power delivery systems for notebooks. I honestly don’t know why, these are reference specs meant to set a baseline minimum for performance and cooling on mobile platforms. Just as they did with the GTX 980 in gaming notebooks, NVIDIA is cherry picking GPUs from the line that have the least leakage, that perform the best at the lowest voltages possible. You could view it as the mobile market getting the “best” GPUs from TSMC.
The GTX 1070 is different though. The mobile version of the GTX 1070 actually has more CUDA cores than the desktop card, 2048 rather than 1920, leaving on more SM enabled on the die. Meanwhile, the base clock of 1.4 GHz is about 100 MHz lower than that of the desktop product. The goal was to create a different part that has (nearly) identical performance to the desktop GTX 1070 Founders Edition product, but would be able to run at a TDP in the 115 watt range rather than 165 watts. It’s an interesting move, and one that will likely create controversy around the brand of the GTX 1070. Could we see desktop variants with 2048 CUDA cores and lower clocks to enable low power, SFF add-in cards? It seems like it would make sense.
I still have more testing to do to see if the (nearly) identical performance claim sits well with me - if so then I see no harm in NVIDIA’s move here. If there are noticeable differences in more than a couple of gaming titles, we’ll debate the decision more directly.
All things considered, I do wish that NVIDIA had added the “M” suffix these parts: the GTX 1080M, GTX 1070M, GTX 1060M. Obviously NVIDIA wants to avoid the assumption that the 1080M is slower than a 1080, more in line with a 1070, but I see the added binning, and the change in the GTX 1070 mobile, as a reason to stick with the older naming scheme and instead educate users that the perf delta is gone.
There is still space here for a GPU under the ~75 watt TDP that I expect the GTX 1060 to have, leaving room for AMD and its Polaris GPUs to make some noise. You are very likely looking at a minimum price for a notebook based on these GeForce parts of $1300-1500. If AMD could work with a partner to build an $800-1000 machine with competent performance it has a chance to be successful.
New Features Coming to GeForce Gaming Notebooks
While the performance upgrade going from the GTX 980 to the GTX 1080 should be impressive enough to warrant the purchase of a new gaming notebook on its own, NVIDIA is also taking the opportunity to add some new features and capabilities to the platform along the way.
The most exciting of these to me center on displays. NVIDIA’s partners will be selling gaming notebooks based on Pascal that include 120Hz 1080p panels and 2560x1440 120Hz screens, all with G-Sync support. Until today, the best mobile panel I could find is a 1080p 75Hz G-Sync option, with some 4K 60Hz G-Sync screens creeping in as well. For gamers that are serious about frame rates, the 120Hz G-Sync option is going to be awesome. For those more concerned about resolution (which I think I would favor), the 2560x1440 60Hz G-Sync options will stand out. Update : it turns out the 2560x1440 screens are also available in 120Hz versions!
NVIDIA also improved its Battery Boost technology, the feature that enables better and longer gaming sessions in those times when you are away from a power outlet. As you should know by now, when running a gaming notebook that might normally draw 200+ watts while gaming without a power adapter, total power consumption is limited. Modern battery technology limits power draw to ~100 watts for the entire system, meaning the GPU must be pulled back to allow the CPU, screen, etc. to have room to function as well.
Battery Boost helps manage this by lowering in-game settings and enabling a frame rate limiter through GeForce Experience when running on the battery. All of this is configurable by the user if they wish to change default settings, but the defaults are managed by NVIDIA’s performance and experience labs to present the best gaming to the consumer. A game in which you might run at Ultra settings at 65 FPS while plugged in, might be turned down to medium settings at limited to 30 FPS. With that option enabled you should be able to play the game longer, though obviously these machines are still better off when tethered.
I actually tested Battery Boost back in 2014 with the GTX 980M release and found it work well. When paired with GeForce Experience it prevented bad user experience gaming sessions and the did increase gaming lifetime of the notebook.
The Swarm is Coming
NVIDIA couldn’t stop bragging about how many notebooks using Pascal were coming out this summer and fall. Lines like “every major OEM and system builder” and “quicker adoption than Maxwell” were muttered over and over. Clearly the team inside NVIDIA is proud of this accomplishment. On-hand at the event I attended I saw ASUS, MSI, Clevo, Razer and several others. I saw models using the GeForce GTX 1080, the GTX 1070 and the GTX 1060. Models as slim as 18mm and as light at 4 pounds were there to be fondled and gamed on.
That is quite an impressive list and I'm interested to see the range of designs and styles that are created with Pascal at the heart of these gaming notebooks.
VR Considerations
While half of the demo room at the mobile tech day catered to benchmarking notebooks on display, the other side had three dedicated VR stations, all with HTC Vive’s configured and running on mobile machines using Pascal. Every single gaming notebook built on the GTX 1080, GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 is “VR ready” and meets the recommended specifications for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. While VR growth still has a long way to go to reach the levels we hope they will, this NVIDIA launch will make the idea of portable VR gaming even more attractive and accessible than ever before. If you can purchase a 4 lbs. machine that is 18mm thin that you can carry with you to your office, your friend’s house or a LAN event, then you have the ability to showcase your VR purchases or just bring it along for you enjoy on the go.
It’s a niche of a niche market, to be sure (gamers that want notebooks that want to use VR) but NVIDIA’s new Pascal products have it covered in a wide range of system designs.
SteamVR Performance Test - GTX 1070 in the ASUS G752VS OC Edition
Overclocking Mobile GPUs
Overclocking mobile graphics chip is always more complicated than it is with desktop components. Most importantly, the coolers used to keep the GPUs running smoothly differ dramatically from chassis to chassis. And the thermal constraints are more restrictive - if a cooler is limited to 150 watts, you don't have any room to arbitrarily adjust voltages, etc.
That said, both NVIDIA and its partners are pushing the overclockability of the Pascal GPUs in mobile chassis. It is going to be more of a case-by-case setup though; my ASUS G752VS OC Edition was able to accept an offset of just 100 MHz, well below the insinuated 300+ MHz from NVIDIA's slide.
Using the ROG Gaming Center I enabled manual settings and pushed the GPU clock offset to +100 MHz and +300 MHz on the memory. There is no control for voltage and NVIDIA told me that would be the case for all systems.
First, note that ASUS has overclocked the GTX 1070 by 50 MHz automatically when you install ROG Gaming Center, so the +100 MHz offset only results in a 50 MHz increase over out-of-box settings. Using Unigine Heaven and looping it for more than 10 minutes gets us to a stable clock speed and temperature for both configurations. The ASUS G752VS provides an average clock rate of 1570 MHz on the GTX 1070. That is above the 1442 MHz base clock but is well under the targeted Boost clock of 1645 MHz. This will vary from game to game, as we have always seen with NVIDIA's GPU Boost technology, but it seems likely that the GPUs will struggle to reach those clocks in constrained thermal environments.
When overclocked by another 50 MHz, the average clocks level out perfectly, hitting 1620 MHz over our extended test run. That is still under the 1645 MHz targeted Boost clock but still provides a performance increase across the board.
Quick Performance Preview
Having only just returned from the mobile tech day with NVIDIA, I haven’t spent much time benchmarking the system we have on hand, the ASUS G752VS OC Edition. NVIDIA did have notebooks at the event to use for benchmarking, but the pre-installed titles didn’t match up with my normal test suite and not being able to install our own games, drivers, manage setup or even use our Frame Rating performance analysis tools kept that from being a feasible option for us.
I will be following up on this story with a full review of the ASUS notebook, including a full range of gaming tests, but for now, I only wanted to verify that NVIDIA claims of performance parity between the GTX 1070 desktop and mobile SKUs was indeed true.
ASUS G752VS OC Edition with GTX 1070
Keep in mind there are significant differences between the platform on the GTX 1070 desktop results and the mobile results from the ASUS G752VS OC Edition.
Desktop Intel Core i7-5960X (8-core) ASUS X99 Rampage 16GB DDR4 Windows 10 Pro GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Founders Edition
Mobile Intel Core i7-6820HK (quad-core) 32GB DDR4 Windows 10 Pro GeForce GTX 1070 8GB (mobile)
In our three different 3DMark tests, looking only at the Graphics score to try to avoid bringing the CPU and platform differences into play, the mobile implementation of the GTX 1070 is within 5-6% of our desktop Founders Edition.
Our games testing shows a bit more variance. NVIDIA did warn us that the platform differences would result in some frame rate changes as a handful of titles still place emphasis on CPU performance. Take a look at Hitman and GTA V for example: our desktop GTX 1070 setup is 26% and 17% faster than the ASUS G752VS OC Edition running at 1080p. Other games track much more closely between the mobile and desktop variants: Rise of the Tomb Raider is within 1% and Dirt Rally is within 3% - very impressive! Fallout 4 and The Witcher 3 measure <10% slower than the 8-core desktop system with a GTX 1070 Founders Edition card.
To get a real apples-to-apples comparison I'll need to build a system around a Core i7-6700K soon, but even the few results we see matching performance between the two systems proves that NVIDIA has built some beefy GPUs in modest thermal envelopes. NVIDIA is once again pushing the envelope forward on what we should expect from gaming notebooks. I am looking forward to getting my hands on a GTX 1080 and a GTX 1060 based machine in the near future to really see if the full range is just as impressive.
Availability and Closing Thoughts
Based on what NVIDIA has told me and what I know from talking with the notebook vendors, the claims of immediate availability for notebooks based on these GPUs should stand. Both ASUS and MSI have had notebooks in their hands for a couple of weeks, just waiting for NVIDIA to pull the trigger and let them loose. If you looked closely over the past few days, you might have even seen them find their way into the wild a bit early!
Look, I know that gaming notebooks aren’t for everyone that reads PC Perspective. In terms of performance for your dollar, they are almost never a “good deal” when compared to a desktop PC. If you want the best possible gaming experience and you don’t need to be on the road with it, building a PC is still the best option. If you want portability with your gaming, if you frequent LAN parties or you want game during those boring family events at Grandma’s (shame on you), the a gaming notebook with as Pascal-based GeForce GPU is going to provide you the best experience anywhere.
Look for more reviews based on this hardware soon!The Fictions of Finance The Fictions of Finance As the divide between finance and everyday life yawns ever wider, fiction has stepped into the gap. Street money exchange, Kabul, 2011 (Asian Development Bank via Flickr)
This stuff is so esoteric that the only people who understand it are in the business.... Can you imagine the people on a march against finance? The guy on a megaphone shouting: What do we want? And everyone answering: Specific curbs on short selling in certain circumstances!
—In the Light of What We Know
What happens to culture in the age of finance capital? What happens to the fictions we create in an era when money—harnessed by a range of new, sophisticated, and increasingly abstruse financial instruments—begets money on a scale that Marx could scarcely have imagined? As the production of wealth is further and further removed from the production of things, billions of people’s lives are tied up in financial markets shrouded in a haze of mystery. It is no surprise, then, that culture in the age of finance capital is wrestling precisely with what we know but cannot always see.
Fiction has become accustomed to the question of money—to the everyday dealings of credits and debts, trinkets bought and sold, the price of milk. In Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, the drama circles around $9,000 (the beautiful Lily Bart’s gambling debts); in John Updike’s “A&P,” it is 49 cents (the cost of fancy herring in a can); in Saadat Hasan Manto’s aptly named story, it is “Ten Rupees” (the price of a young girl). Beyond dollars and cents, the novel, historically, has been in turn dazzled by, and critical of, the crush of capitalism, the rapid accumulation of wealth, and the exploitation of labor, all documented and turned over by writers ranging from Balzac and Zola to Dos Passos and Dreiser. But the scale now seems vaster—not dollars and cents but hidden millions, the millions that underwrote the sugar plantations (as Edward Said writes of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park) and that now circulate farther and faster than ever but are even more difficult to see.
Zia Haider Rahman’s recent novel In the Light of What We Know absorbs the most contemporary iteration of this dilemma, the problem of the invisible economy, by constructing a range of characters whose livelihoods depend on high finance: Meena, the investment banker; Zafar, the trader; and Zafar’s former roommate at Oxford, our listener, to whom Zafar’s tangled story is told. The unnamed friend here traded in mortgage-backed securities at a firm in London—the infamous credit default swaps—and has been summarily dismissed. It is clear that some kind of charge is forthcoming. There is collusion and casual venality; those higher up are quick to sacrifice those below.
In a story that moves us, circuitously, from childhood in rural Bangladesh to the Kensington homes of the London elite to the war zone that is post-9/11 Afghanistan, we continually come back to the moral tangle of financialization. At one point, our narrator thinks out loud about the mess he is in:
I feel no guilt for what I did in finance. There’s little doubt that the financial crisis will translate into an economic one and that recession will likely follow. People will lose their homes, their jobs. But tell me how I can feel guilt for doing something that was not only legal but actively encouraged by governments everywhere. I never sold mortgages to house buyers; I bought large bundles of them from commercial banks and apportioned the packages into parcels that were sold on to investment firms, all of it done aboveboard and without so much as a quizzical look from regulators.... [H]ow can I be responsible for all the consequences?
Not unlike the statement of “apology” by Rajat Gupta, the director of the consulting firm McKinsey & Company who was convicted for securities fraud in 2012, the narrator’s statement is just one of many examples of the kind of bad faith that pervades the banking sector.
The financier and his questionable morals have been an object of interest in the novel since at least the late nineteenth century: Mr. Merdle and the circumlocutions office in Dickens’s Little Dorrit, Aristide Saccard in Emile Zola’s Money, Frank Cowperwood in Theodore Dreiser’s The Financier. John Dos Passos’s The Big Money reimagines John Pierpont Morgan himself. In all of these, the investor is treacherous, lascivious, scheming. He prevaricates, he lies, he bribes and blackmails. Saccard strips his wife bare and corrupts his mistress; Cowperwood abandons his marriage and seduces his benefactor’s daughter. Sexual depravity flourishes alongside the scintillation of the profit motive. Sherman McCoy, the bond trader in Bonfire of the Vanities, Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, and of course the American Psycho Patrick Bateman push this trope further, where the white male “master of the universe” demonstrates a pathological hunger and greed—one underwritten, financially and morally, by the profession. Dreiser leaves us with the crass but still inspiring American mantra, “I satisfy myself”; Patrick Bateman, the murderer, laughs maniacally and touches his chest, “expecting a heart, but there is nothing there, not even a beat.”
Today’s fiction shifts from the register of the megalomaniacal to that of the mundane. No one is deluded by the rhetoric of meritocracy, and the stockbroker need not be insane. The crash is the subject of dinner parties and discussions over drinks (“What of bankers’ pay?”), the object of bewilderment, cynicism, even boredom. In Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland, the protagonist, Hans, spends most of his time chauffeuring around a New York City West Indian immigrant in charge of an illegal betting operation and pondering the tragedy that is his life after 9/11. By trade, Hans, who began his career at Shell Oil, is an analyst at Deutsche Bank, the global financial services company. At Deutsche Bank he focuses on “large cap oil and gas stocks” and is considered a seer, a prophet of his industry, one on whose predictions large numbers of shares will move. And yet, as he admits, “I could take a guess at the oil production capacity of an American-occupied Iraq... but I found myself unable to contribute to conversations about the value of international law or the feasibility of producing a dirty bomb.... Did Iraq have weapons of mass destruction that posed a real threat? I had no idea; and to be truthful, and this touched on my real difficulty, I had little interest. I didn’t really care.” The world of finance now appears less morally bankrupt than morally indifferent.
Rahman’s response to this state of affairs is to immerse the reader into the bankers’ universe—not into the mind of one trader and his abject psychology, à la Bonfire of the Vanities or American Psycho, but into a realm much more banal. Over the course of its 500 pages, In the Light of What We Know submerges the reader in the highly specialized language of financialization. There is the UK’s Financial Services Authority, its “principles-based” regulation, the poaching of its employees by private equity firms, and the fiction that is compliance. There is an elaborate, 478-word long footnote explaining synthetic securities—that class of derivatives that is by nature least tied to the actual asset, and is therefore most risky—a paratext that is pedagogical, even pedantic, an explanation clear enough to allow me to hand over my money and reasonably assess the risk in doing so. There are debates on compliance and regulation, detailed differentiation between fixed-income derivatives (“options on bonds, swaps, caps, floors”) and equity derivatives (“to do with stocks and shares”), epigraphs not just from Rainer Maria Rilke and Tayeb Salih but from the private emails of S&P analysts (emojis included), conversations regarding the problem of rating new products like collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). There is also casual mention of SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises), the small business sector, credit derivatives, tranches, i-banking, and of course the infamous mortgage-backed securities (MBS).
Some of these long digressions and related footnotes could well have come from John Lanchester’s guide How to Speak Money, released just a few months after Rahman’s novel in 2014. Somewhere between self-help book and cultural glossary—a “lexicon,” as the author describes it—Lanchester’s book walks us through terms like high-frequency trading and amortization, as well as commodity and Bitcoin, in a series of clear yet charming definitions. Even more interesting are terms like “confidence interval,” which Lanchester brilliantly glosses as “the attachment of probability to a fact.” Embedded in the introduction of How to Speak Money is a philosophy of language, where language can be obfuscating and trippy, but also, in the case of financial jargon, startlingly amoral. Behind “vanilla mezzanine synthetic RMBSs” there seems to be no ethical palette, says the author, only denotation. As economist Christian Marazzi and others have argued, specialized language is a currency, with new forms of communication undergirding new modes of production and consumption.
Rahman’s novel traffics avidly in this currency. In one sense, this is nothing new: highly specialized information—whether about whaling in Moby Dick, mining in Zola’s Germinal, or genetic botany in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth—has long circulated in the genre of the novel. The contemporary novel, in particular, is data-driven; it incorporates the specific languages of sailing or linguistics or immunology. What distinguishes a novel like In the Light of What We Know from a textbook is the way it translates the language of finance—sound markets, allocation of resources, security—into a larger world. “Compliance,” for example, comes to describe not just corporate conformity to rules set by the SEC, but Zafar’s slow and regular bending toward his love, Emily. Moreover, Rahman’s novel sets its financier protagonists, their relationships, and their jargon-laden, ethically compromised industry into a specific political context—our post-9/11, post-recession, post-Occupy universe.
That is to say that the elaborate paratext—on bank regulation, or the subjective nature of Moody’s credit ratings—is, in the end, a bit of a red herring. Despite all evidence to the contrary, high finance isn’t the finance novel’s primary interest. In the Light of What We Know is also the story of how 1971 transformed West Pakistan and East Pakistan into Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is the story of two roommates at Oxford—one, an elite Pakistani raised in the home of Princeton scientists, the other from rural Bangladesh, raised in the home of East London shopkeepers—shaken from that upheaval. And most importantly, it is the story of the heavy American footprint in Afghanistan, the crass opportunism of “development and reconstruction” conducted both through governmental and non-governmental operations, the blatant amorality of the free zone that is expatriate life in a time of war.
Why, then, spend a novelistic lifetime educating the reader on Alan Greenspan and interest rates, or home equity, or securitization—all of which John Lanchester’s witty nonfiction self-help guide (itself another sign of the desperation of the times) does in equal measure—only to direct our fickle attention elsewhere? In the Light of What We Know, for example, takes pages, literally, to debate what post–2008 reparations might look like, only to embroil us in a conspiracy born from the three players on the Afghan border: Pakistan, the Taliban, and the U.S. government.
Rahman’s novel might be understood as a book about how finance—indeed, even the high abstraction of “synthetic securities”—cannot be altogether divorced from the mud and concrete and goods and, yes, corpses upon which economies have always rested. Zafar sees the homes in Kabul “belonging to Talibs but that had been acquired by Westerners for their rocketing market value, including diplomatic missions and their staff, whose real estate purchases had boosted Taliban funding. Property in 2002, even in Kabul, was booming, as it was the world over.” He watches the new development economy distort the old, and inflation soar. As they drive in their Land Cruiser through Wazir Akbar Khan, the neighborhood bought up by NGOs and expats, Zafar tells his guide, “There is a saying on Wall Street.... When there’s blood on the streets, buy property.”
Indeed, the most damning critique in this unequivocally damning novel is reserved for the property and patronage regimes spawned by intervention, whether in the form of home buying, newly minted servant classes (from office aides and local advisors to jeep drivers and custodians), or the poaching of the entire professional, educated classes—faculty members, school teachers, engineers, and doctors—in the service of this new NGO-designed and -demarcated build-and-break city. Afghanistan becomes the latest casualty of both the war and the war economy, a new market to conquer and to privatize. This is accompanied by a relentless neoliberal discourse of remaking, rebuilding, and exchange. Local talent, local rugs, local girls—finally, all reveal their true value in the custody of the marketplace.
Over the course of the novel, an irony emerges between the abstraction of the securities market and the richly material economy of the war zone. When they’re not speculating on real estate, the expatriates are indulging their fetish for local craft (at one point Zafar mentions how the prices of Afghan rugs shot up when expats began buying them to floor their New York and London homes). Rahman even points the reader to this irony explicitly: as one character says admiringly of our narrator’s Pakistani grandfather, “That man was born for business. And I mean real business, manufacturing, oil refining, shipping, not finance, like mine—you know what I mean. No, he actually made things.”
Synthetic securities—concocted by brilliant minds in mathematics, the heirs of thinkers like Princeton’s Kurt Gödel, a fixation of Rahman’s—appear to be light-years from the brick-and-mortar homes upon which they rest. Yet the entire nexus of social relations on which the novel depends suggests that they are not so distant after all. Forrester, for example, is a senator but also a former member of the Armed Services Committee, who then built a fortune starting a ratings agency, one that gradually “diversifies into other sectors of finance,” one whose task it is to evaluate CDOs. Forrester’s son has joined the Marines, which takes him to Afghanistan, where, working as a private military contractor, he becomes embroiled in a plot involving a Pakistani general, the American government, and an Afghan insurgent. What are the reverberations that beat around the world in response to the American economic model? There is a hint of this question in Netherland as well, as Hans muses, “It is an English summer’s evening of the best sort, in which the day cloudlessly slips past nine o’clock and the price of a barrel of oil, scandalously ticking over in the seventies, seems to have not the slightest bearing on the world.” But of course, there is no such day, not in England, nor anywhere else, and not of course in the place thrown in singular occasional relief in O’Neill’s novel: Iraq.
Both Netherland and In the Light of What We Know, in this sense, hint at “the specific relation of the new phase of monopoly-finance capital to imperialism” posited by John Bellamy Foster in his 2006 essay on the era of financialization. Neither Rahman nor O’Neill articulate this connection bluntly; neither leaves the reader inspired to march down Wall Street with placards inscribed “Wall St. is War St.,” as New York anarchists did long before the birth of Occupy. But Rahman’s novel, at least, bears traces of Foster’s conclusion—“that monopoly-finance capital requires enhanced intrusion into the economic and social life of the poor countries for the purpose of extracting ever greater surplus from the periphery.” This is a question that the novel now wants to ask, strains to ask, even at the risk of didacticism, even at the expense of its art.
As much as they are “finance novels,” then, Netherland and In the Light of What We Know are post-9/11 novels, both of which attempt to take stock of a new geopolitical terrain—one for which even keen knowledge of colonial empires leaves them unprepared. But more specifically they address a Western complacency born precisely from that ill preparation. As Rahman’s novel progresses, we are reminded again and again of what we do not know. “Nobody outside the business—and not everyone inside—could get their heads around the new products.” And credit default swaps are the least of it. “I did not know,” says Hans, “because I had no information about the future purposes and capacities of terrorists or, for that matter, American administrations.”
These novels are symptoms, like John Lanchester’s London novel Capital or Mohsin Hamid’s How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, of a kind of collective difficulty with which culture is wrestling. We might name this the intractability of the global financial network, whose increasing specialization makes it resistant to forms of translation—translation that would render its mechanisms more intelligible to the rest of us. As the epistemological divide between finance and everyday life yawns ever wider, fiction has stepped into the gap. New genres have emerged to do the work of translation between that thing called financialization and the daily grind of the global economy, or, if not, to at least ironize our ability to do so.
This is in part the basis of Tom McCarthy’s new Satin Island, which tries to capture the dazzling present, full of screens and networks and “things that creep under the radar by being boring. And complex.” The last few years have shown us the glossary and the primer, the self-help book and its ironic double (Hamid’s Filthy Rich, for example, is reminiscent of Shiv Khera’s You Can Win and other financial spirituals sold on Indian streets everywhere), and, of course, the lyrical novel and its ironic doubles. There are novels in the realist tradition filled to the brim with paratext and epigraphs, and those like McCarthy’s, novels consisting almost entirely of theoretically savvy footnotes and nothing more.
In this sense, the finance novel carries a second pervading irony: for all the information it provides, its ultimate achievement is to draw a circle around our ignorance. Yes, it makes much of the raw data of experience, but only in order to direct our attention to the full range of our illiteracy. Hans is dazzled by his Caribbean friend’s argot, a card game called wapi, the all-fours club, roti and doubles, the language of the street. The narrator of Rahman’s novel reminds us that bankers have their own names for these new money-making equations, but only to preserve the “mystique of the priesthood.” Lanchester calls this reversification, the process by which language evolves over time to indicate its very opposite, in the way that a hedge is a border or boundary, but hedge funds are often unregulated investment opportunities that are literally “unhedged.” The first obstacle, says Lanchester, is “the words themselves.” Language is the mystical foil that preserves the aura of the expert, the native, he who is in the know. It is a form of denial, too, that shields the trader from his own guilt: as Lanchester reminds us, quoting Martin Amis, “Denial was the best thing. Denial was even better than smoking.”
To whom do we distribute the tedious work of tearing away the veil? In the face of the “boring” and the “complex,” where is the intellectual vanguard? Novelists like Dreiser and Zola were committed socialists, and naturalism was a political project as much as an aesthetic one. Who are their counterparts today?
In the interim, there are projects like Occupy Finance, an e-book put out by the Alternative Banking Group and available for free download, on the principle that “you do not need a PhD in economics to understand what is happening.” The labor of reconfiguring the imagination, that imagination so strained by the abstractions of financial crisis, and of drawing other worlds, has been left to projects like them. The finance novel, participating as it does in what has been called capitalist realism—an ideological inability to imagine any kind of rupture to the political and economic systems of the present—is just catching up. But little by little, it punctures the aura of the specialist, for the long age ahead.
Toral Gajarawala teaches literature in New York.Bandai Namco has revealed the full list of car list included with Project CARS, confirming that 65 cars will be available at launch in the Standard Edition.
A further 8 will be available via two additional car packs, with a free |
into a new home soon as her current property doesn’t allow for dogs.
Very soon, Ted will be getting his happy ever after and a brand new start with his new owner, Abbey.
MORE: Picasso the rescue dog was abandoned because of the way he looks – but he’s finally getting a happy ending
MORE: This adorable pup struggled to get adopted because of his grumpy face
Advertisement AdvertisementOne of the most awesome clocks I know, is probable the QlockTwo. A 110 digit square piece that tells the time in human readable text, by highlighting the right words. Today, I recreated this beautiful piece of design by writing a small iOS Swift application.
Now, I must admit, this post would be a lot more fun if built a real working version myself. But don’t worry, It won’t take long before I do, but until then, my iPad is a nice alternative.
So you built an app? Big deal.
No, it’s not a big deal: the setup of the application is pretty straight forward:
I created a TextClockView by subclassing UIView
The TextClockView is filled with 110 CharacterViews which is just a simple UILabel subclass
I extended the NSDate object to produce a text string from the current time.
I lookup the views for every word in the sentence, and change the opacity.
Now of course, the actual code is much longer than the four lines above, but copy pasting all my code in this code would make this post a bit messy.
To make sure my clock looks nice on all devices, I rely heavily on the AutoLayoutConstraints Apple uses. If you’ve never used these, this might look a bit like magic. But I can ensure you: give it a try, it will save you a LOT of time.
Show me the code!
Great! You wan’t to give it a try? Head over to GitHub and download the project. If you run it on your iPad, it should look something like this:
Now, keep staring for 5 minutes, and you’ll see the text change. Whoaah!
Can I make changes?
Of course! Make sure to send me some sweet pull requests! I like pull requests!
Ok cool! Can I sell your app in the App Store.
Technically, you could. But I’ll come to your house and set every clock you own 15 minutes late. That will teach you!
If this app gave you the urge to built a real working version before I do, make sure to check out this awesome gallery I found on Reddit.
UPDATE 2014/11/15: This app is available for free in the App Store now!Once again I reached out to ‘The Mentalist’s’ Jack Plotnick (the now late Brett Partridge), this time about his character’s demise. Really dead, or faking it? And was he the voice of Red John back in “Red Sky in the Morning?”
First of all, let me explain that photo above. I’m including that here because I have no freakin’ clue what it is, thought it’s apparently whatever Red John used to kill Brett Partridge. Or to hurt Lisbon. Anyone have an idea? Anyway, onto the point of this post. …
I — alone with many other believers in Brett Partridge as Red John — was pretty damned disappointed in the latest episode of The Mentalist, as we saw the creepy forensics man taken down by the real Red John. (Not disappointed in the episode itself, but that outcome of it.) I didn’t want to believe it. I replayed the scene over a few times, tying to see if there was a chance Partridge was faking it. That maybe he was the one who pulled Lisbon aside in the dark. Then the promo for next week’s episode hit: “the list is now down to six Red John suspects.” What?! No! Partridge could still be alive, dammit!
“I know! I’ll ask the actor, Jack Plotnick himself! He’ll know!”
Me: “Hey Jack! Wow that was a wild episode. So does this mean it’s the end of your time on Mentalist?”
Plotnick: “Yep. That’s it for me! Ah well, all good things must come to a (bloody) end. ;-P”
Me: “Aw … so there’s no chance of your character faking it? All is confirmed the next episode?”
JP: “…as a door nail.”
Gasp! It’s true … he’s officially done! Kaput. Over and out. Brett Partridge is through as being a Red John suspect.
Brett Partridge is through as being a Red John suspect.
But … I’m still skeptical. Not that he could be Red John or that even Plotnick will come back to reprise his role, but that Partridge is merely another cog in the giant Red John wheel-o-death. Why else would he have called out “Tiger, Tiger” (as Red John recited back in the “Red Sky in the Morning” episode)? What, was Red John dressed as a tiger?
I went on to ask Plotnick about one other thing he previously refused to discuss, but now with his character gone …
Me: “OK one last question: was that your voice on the phone either in previous seasons or last night’s?”
JP: “No, it was not.”
Well now, that’s put to bed. But could it be that Plotnick is just being kept seriously in the dark and will be back some day? I say it’s rather unlikely.
So what do you think? With Partridge now gone, who’s your top choice for Red John? Entertainment Weekly has a great interview with creator Bruno Heller on this most recent episode and what to expect later this season. It sure sounds like we might see a conclusion to this mystery this season, or at least get very close to an endgame.
Photo Credit: CBS(Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice ended a three-year probe of Chesapeake Energy Corp’s (CHK.N) royalty payment and land purchase practices without taking action, the natural gas producer said in a securities filing on Thursday.
The department subpoenaed documents from the company in 2014 after dozens of landowners and others accused it of short-changing them on royalties for natural gas and other fuels.
Chesapeake said in the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the Justice Department advised it on Sept. 19 that it had concluded the probes. The company remains in discussions with the U.S. Postal Service and various states, which separately sought information about the practices, the filing said.
A spokesman for the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, company declined to comment further.
Chesapeake shares were off 6.6 percent at $3.70 in afternoon trading after the company said third-quarter revenue declined 14.6 percent and projected flat-to-modest production growth in 2018.
Last month, a U.S. District Court in Akron, Ohio, lent support to the company’s royalty deductions on contracts in the state, dismissing a lawsuit by landowners and others saying Chesapeake should not have charged post-production costs against payments to them. The ruling halted a number of cases against Chesapeake but left others intact.Record Drop In Global Temperatures As El Nino Warming Ends
Global average temperatures over land have plummeted by more than 1C since the middle of this year – their biggest and steepest fall on record. According to satellite data, the late 2016 temperatures are returning to the levels they were at after the 1998 El Nino.
The news comes amid mounting evidence that the recent run of world record high temperatures is about to end.
The fall, revealed by Nasa satellite measurements of the lower atmosphere, has been caused by the end of El Nino – the warming of surface waters in a vast area of the Pacific west of Central America.
Some scientists, including Dr Gavin Schmidt, head of Nasa’s climate division, have claimed that the recent highs were mainly the result of long-term global warming.
Others have argued that the records were caused by El Nino, a complex natural phenomenon that takes place every few years, and has nothing to do with greenhouse gas emissions by humans.
The new fall in temperatures suggests they were right.
Big El Ninos always have an immense impact on world weather, triggering higher than normal temperatures over huge swathes of the world. The 2015-16 El Nino was probably the strongest since accurate measurements began, with the water up to 3C warmer than usual.
It has now been replaced by a La Nina event – when the water in the same Pacific region turns colder than normal.
This also has worldwide impacts, driving temperatures down rather than up.
The satellite measurements over land respond quickly to El Nino and La Nina. Temperatures over the sea are also falling, but not as fast, because the sea retains heat for longer.
This means it is possible that by some yardsticks, 2016 will be declared as hot as 2015 or even slightly hotter – because El Nino did not vanish until the middle of the year.
But it is almost certain that next year, large falls will also be measured over the oceans, and by weather station thermometers on the surface of the planet – exactly as happened after the end of the last very strong El Nino in 1998. If so, some experts will be forced to eat their words.
Last year, Dr Schmidt said 2015 would have been a record hot year even without El Nino.
‘The reason why this is such a warm record year is because of the long-term underlying trend, the cumulative effect of the long-term warming trend of our Earth,’ he said. This was ‘mainly caused’ by the emission of greenhouse gases by humans.
BBC News interview with Dr. Peter Stott (UK Met Office) on 2015 warm record: “The main reason that we have such warm temperatures is actually human-induced climate change. That’s the main factor. And then El Niño contributes a small amount on top.”
Dr Schmidt also denied that there was any ‘pause’ or ‘hiatus’ in global warming between the 1998 and 2015 El Ninos.
But on its website home page yesterday, Nasa featured a new study which said there was a hiatus in global warming before the recent El Nino, and discussed why this was so. Last night Dr Schmidt had not returned a request for comment.
However, both his own position, and his Nasa division, may be in jeopardy. US President-elect Donald Trump is an avowed climate change sceptic, who once claimed it was a hoax invented by China.
Last week, Mr Trump’s science adviser Bob Walker said he was likely to axe Nasa’s $1.9 billion (about £1.4 billion) climate research budget.
Other experts have also disputed Dr Schmidt’s claims. Professor Judith Curry, of the Georgia Institute of Technology, and president of the Climate Forecast Applications Network, said yesterday: ‘I disagree with Gavin. The record warm years of 2015 and 2016 were primarily caused by the super El Nino.’
The slowdown in warming was, she added, real, and all the evidence suggested that since 1998, the rate of global warming has been much slower than predicted by computer models – about 1C per century.
David Whitehouse, a scientist who works with Lord Lawson’s sceptic Global Warming Policy Foundation, said the massive fall in temperatures following the end of El Nino meant the warming hiatus or slowdown may be coming back.
‘According to the satellites, the late 2016 temperatures are returning to the levels they were at after the 1998 El Nino.
The data clearly shows El Nino for what it was – a short-term weather event,’ he said.Ruby PostgreSQL Using Recursive SQL with ActiveRecord trees
tl;dr When you have an ActiveRecord tree structure, using the WITH syntax for recursive SQL can provide large performance boons, especially when a tree get several levels deep.
In a previous post, I outlined a Cat Picture store application. As our store grows, more and more categories have to be created, and we end up with a tree of categories. How can we create a homepage that includes all cat pictures for a given category and all of its subcategories?
Pictorally, the category tree might look like this:
Cat Pictures |-- Funny | |-- LOLCats | `-- Animated `-- Classic `-- Renaissance
On the landing page for the Cat Pictures category, we want to display all cat pictures for any category below Cat Pictures. Navigating to the Funny category would display all of its pictures, as well as the pictures for LOLCats and Animated. This is the kind of interaction seen on Amazon, for example. The store's categories become like an ad-hoc filtering system.
Here's what the Category class looks like:
class Category < ActiveRecord :: Base attr_accessible :name, :parent has_many :cat_pictures belongs_to :parent, :class_name => "Category" has_many :children, :class_name => "Category", :foreign_key => 'parent_id' scope :top_level, where ( :parent_id => nil ) def descendents # implement me! end end
Each category has a parent_id column that points at its parent category. In database speak, modeling a tree like this is known as an Adjacency List; each node of the tree can only see a children immediately adjacent to it. For this reason, crawling an Adjacency List requires recursion. This is actually the database setup common for use with the acts_as_tree plugin. Let's see how we can implement the descendents method to get all descendent categories.
A Simple Ruby Approach
As you've probably already guessed, we need to recursively collect children for each of our category's children.
class Category < ActiveRecord :: Base #... def descendents children. map do | child | [ child ] + child. descendents end. flatten end end
This does the job quite nicely. However, our requirements above state that we want all cat pictures for each descendent category, and our categories. Right now, we've omitted the root category, self. Let's add a new method to include it into the equation:
class Category < ActiveRecord :: Base #... def descendents children. map do | child | [ child ] + child. descendents end. flatten end def self_and_descendents [ self ] + descendents end end
Good deal. Now gathering all cat pictures is just a matter of collecting them for each category:
class Category < ActiveRecord :: Base #... def descendent_pictures self_and_descendents. map ( & :cat_pictures ). flatten end end
For a tree like we have above, this is probably good enough. Our tree is only 3 levels deep. We've introduced plenty of N+1 queries, but given our small dataset, that shouldn't be a huge concern.
That said, as our store grows, and the tree gets deeper and more detailed, this kind of implementation could become a bottleneck. Also, because we're doing Array operations on the children collection, we lose the ability to take advantage of ActiveRelation outside of the descendents method itself. Among other things, this means that we can't eager-load cat pictures unless we always eager-load them within the descendents method.
Surely we can do better.
SQL WITH queries
Since we're using PostgreSQL, we can take advantage of its special features. In this case, we can use a WITH query. From the PostgreSQL documentation:
WITH provides a way to write auxiliary statements for use in a larger query. These statements, which are often referred to as Common Table Expressions or CTEs, can be thought of as defining temporary tables that exist just for one query.
On its own, this might not seem like a big deal, but when combined with the optional RECURSIVE modifier, WITH queries can become quite powerful:
The optional RECURSIVE modifier changes WITH from a mere syntactic convenience into a feature that accomplishes things not otherwise possible in standard SQL. Using RECURSIVE, a WITH query can refer to its own output. A very simple example is this query to sum the integers from 1 through 100: WITH RECURSIVE t(n) AS ( VALUES (1) UNION ALL SELECT n+1 FROM t WHERE n < 100 ) SELECT sum(n) FROM t; The general form of a recursive WITH query is always a non-recursive term, then UNION (or UNION ALL), then a recursive term, where only the recursive term can contain a reference to the query's own output.
In other words, the expression contained in the AS statement has two parts. The first part is executed just once. The second part, after the UNION ALL, is executed until it returns an empty result set.
Taking advantage of WITH RECURSIVE, we can reduce our tree crawling technique from n queries to just 1! Let's how we can use this to crawl our category tree.
As a reminder, here's what our categories table looks like:
# SELECT id, name, parent_id FROM categories; id | name | parent_id ----+--------------+----------- 1 | Cat Pictures | 2 | Funny | 1 3 | LOLCats | 2 4 | Animated | 2 5 | Classic | 1 6 | Renaissance | 5
And this is the query:
WITH RECURSIVE category_tree ( id, name, path ) AS ( SELECT id, name, ARRAY [ id ] FROM categories WHERE parent_id IS NULL UNION ALL SELECT categories. id, categories. name, path || categories. id FROM category_tree JOIN categories ON categories. parent_id = category_tree. id WHERE NOT categories. id = ANY ( path ) ) SELECT * FROM category_tree ORDER BY path ;
Running the query above returns the following:
id | name | path ----+--------------+--------- 1 | Cat Pictures | {1} 2 | Funny | {1,2} 3 | LOLCats | {1,2,3} 4 | Animated | {1,2,4} 5 | Classic | {1,5} 6 | Renaissance | {1,5,6}
Whoa! That's a lot of SQL. Let's break it down a bit.
Declare the Table Expression
First, we declare our "temporary table" using the WITH syntax. We're going to call it category_tree. This "table" has 3 "columns": id, name, and path. The id and name columns are fairly obvious; they refer to corresponding columns on the categories table. The path is an array of ids that each row will have. More on this in a bit.
Define the Non-recursive Term
The non-recursive term is next:
SELECT id, name, ARRAY [ id ] FROM categories WHERE parent_id IS NULL
It grabs the id and name for each top-level category, that is, each category that has no parent. It also initializes an array containing just its id. On its own, this isn't very interesting, but this array will become helpful during the recursive step of the query.
Define the Recursive Term
The recursive term is the juiciest bit of the query:
SELECT categories. id, categories. name, path || categories. id FROM category_tree JOIN categories ON categories. parent_id = category_tree. id WHERE NOT categories. id = ANY ( path )
Notice that we're selecting from category_tree. By doing this, we're able to use each result set in the subsequent iteration. The first time we recurse, the result set will be what we selected in the non-recursive term above.
Given that we have a root result set, we join with categories to find its children. From our new result set, we select id and name, as before. But this time, we concatenate the child id onto the path array using SQL's || operator. Having this materialized path allows us to guard against infinite loops; the WHERE clause makes sure that the row we're selecting has not appeared in the path before.
This infinite loop check is important. If two categories pointed at each other as parents, the query would never return. Including this check prevents such a mistake from killing our server.
Query the Common Table Expression
Finally, a WITH query is only useful if you select from it outside of its declaration, so we'll do just that:
SELECT * FROM category_tree ORDER BY path ;
In addition to the infinite loop guard, the path column answers the question "How did I get here?" Like a directory structure on a file system, the path demonstrates the ids necessary to get from grandparent to parent to child, etc.
You may have noticed that we're also ordering by the path column. We do this because the default sort from a recursive query is nondeterministic. Normal array sorting works well for us here, and groups the categories just like we'd expect, with parents listed before their children.
Using WITH queries in ActiveRecord
class Category < ActiveRecord :: Base #... def descendents self_and_descendents - [ self ] end def self_and_descendents self. class. tree_for ( self ) end def descendent_pictures subtree = self. class. tree_sql_for ( self ) CatPicture. where ( "category_id IN ( #{ subtree } )" ) end def self. tree_for ( instance ) where ( " #{ table_name }.id IN ( #{ tree_sql_for ( instance ) } )" ). order ( " #{ table_name }.id" ) end def self. tree_sql_for ( instance ) tree_sql = <<- SQL WITH RECURSIVE search_tree(id, path) AS ( SELECT id, ARRAY[id] FROM #{ table_name } WHERE id = #{ instance. id } UNION ALL SELECT #{ table_name }.id, path || #{ table_name }.id FROM search_tree JOIN #{ table_name } ON #{ table_name }.parent_id = search_tree.id WHERE NOT #{ table_name }.id = ANY(path) ) SELECT id FROM search_tree ORDER BY path SQL end end
You should notice right away where our recursive query is. The tree_sql_for class method returns a SQL string that can be used with other queries. Compared to the WITH query we looked at before, there a few differences worth mentioning.
First, and probably most importantly for our original problem, we've changed our starting place. The non-recursive term is our "start here" result set. Rather than starting with all top-level categories, we're using the id of whichever instance is passed in to scope our tree.
Another change we've made is to remove the name column from the query. It isn't necessary for what we're doing, but made the example easier to demonstrate. We're also interpolating the table name. This makes the method much more reusable. In fact, we could extract the method to a RecursiveTree module to tidy up our class.
One big advantage of the SQL approach here is that we can create scopes to further filter our results within just one database round-trip. For example, the tree_for class method is really just a named scope that takes a category instance as a parameter.
Likewise, the the descendent_pictures method returns a CatPicture relation that includes all pictures from this category and all subcategories. In other words, what used to take 2 database round trips for each category in the tree (one to grab children, one to get its pictures) will now only take 1 for the entire set.
Conclusion
Taking advantage of PostgreSQL's advanced features can provide large performance boons, especially when a tree get several levels deep.
Although using database recursion is an efficient way of improving performance with our existing schema, other methods of handling tree structures in SQL exist. The SQL Antipatterns book has a great breakdown of other tree solutions that would require schema changes.
Example app
As before, while writing this post, I created a sample Rails app to iterate quickly. I used TDD to write the pure-ruby approach, and reused the specs while I "refactored" the implementation to the subsequent approaches. Of particular note is the history of the Category model, which mirrors the code above.The April 6 parliamentary election in Hungary won’t just halve the number of deputies to 200, it will also likely see the percentage of women drop in national politics, according to a survey.
The number of women in parliament will likely drop slightly further from the current 9% level, according to think-tank Nézőpont Intézet.
With only 32 female MPs out of the 386 in total in the outgoing legislature, Hungary has the lowest female participation in lawmaking in the European Union, and is at the same level as in Congo and Pakistan.
The ratio has been gradually decreasing from a peak in 1980 when almost a third of representatives were female in Hungary. This compares to 20% in the Czech Republic, 24% in Poland and around 30% in the European Parliament at present.
Public administration lower down the ladder has a higher proportion of women than the national parliament. Budgetary institutions, including local governments employed altogether 440,000 females, which is 70% of the total workforce there, latest official data from end-2012 show. Some activists have called for quotas to boost the number of women legislators.
“In any society, it’s a basic democratic issue whether there are enough women in parliament,” Rózsa Sajgál, sociologist and one minister of the so-called NGO Women’s Government, or CNK, a newly-founded team of gender experts and NGOs said in a televised report of the grouping.
Low representation could cause the female point of view be ignored in law- and decision-making: this could in turn lead to unfavorable social and economic developments, said Réka Sáfrány, another CNK representative. As a result, female economic potential will go disregarded and a gender-wise unaware budget could negatively affect women’s standard of living and eventually put pressure on demographic trends, she said.Luis Buenaventura is CTO of BloomSolutions, a Philippines-based remittance firm, and the author of the e-book “Reinventing Remittances with Bitcoin“.
In this CoinDesk opinion piece, Buenaventura gives his take on new regulations aimed at bitcoin businesses in the Philippines. Cost burden aside, he argues, there’s reason for entrepreneurs to be optimistic about the changes.
With everyone from Abra to ZipZap using it as either a launch market or a base of regional operations, the Philippines has long been the hub of innovation for bitcoin remittance companies.
Local founders have said it was only a matter of time before the central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), would come around to regulating the industry, and that process finally began in early February of this year.
That’s when when BSP deputy governor Nestor Espenilla announced the central bank would issue a circular that intended to clear up the government’s position on bitcoin and other cryptocurrency exchanges.
At the time, Espenilla noted that monthly domestic bitcoin volumes in the Philippines had jumped from $1m in 2015, to $5m–$6m the following year, and it was time for guidelines. That circular is now available (BSP Circular No 944), and will take effect by the end of the month.
On the surface, the circular appears to take some of its cues from the Japanese Financial Services Agency, which published its own set of regulations for bitcoin exchanges last year, and that take effect this April.
But, there are differences as well.
Overall, the preamble emphasizes the BSP’s position around encouraging innovation and financial inclusion – a welcome, if somewhat perfunctory, statement in light of what else the circular contains.
The release reads:
“The Bangko Sentral recognizes that virtual currency systems have the potential to revolutionize delivery of financial services, particularly for payments and remittance, in view of their ability to provide faster and more economical transfer of funds, both domestic and international, and may further support financial inclusion.”
Casting a broad net
That’s not to say the circular is without its weak spots.
Because of the way Philippine startups have been using bitcoin over the past three years, it appears that the BSP has latched on to this single use case more than any other.
The BSP does not appear to have a regulatory position on virtual currencies as an investment, a payment rail, a gambling platform or as a mechanism for offshoring personal assets – all of which are more common use cases for the technology than remittances.
And what exactly is a virtual currency, in the eyes of the central bank?
Here, the BSP is casting an extremely broad net.
“VCs shall be broadly construed to include digital units of exchange that (1) have a centralized repository or administrator; (2) are decentralized and have no centralized repository or administrator; or (3) may be created or obtained by computing or manufacturing effort.”
Perhaps it’s in the interest of efficiency – these guidelines cover both centralized and decentralized currencies, blockchain-based or not.
It potentially also covers technology that doesn’t even exist yet, as it’s not entirely clear what it even means to ‘manufacture’ a virtual currency.
Exchange rules
But, the BSP does take care to distinguish ‘virtual currencies’ from ‘mobile money’ – Warcraft gold, Starbucks points and frequent-flier miles. (In the Philippines, mobile money is covered by a different, arguably more stringent, set of regulations.)
Elsewhere, the definition of ‘virtual currency exchange’ proves tricky.
For one, it does not just cover ‘VC exchanges’ in the way one would expect. It’s been written to include bitcoin wallets and bitcoin payment processors – indeed, any service that facilitates currency conversion. (A wallet provider would be exempt if they did not exchange bitcoin for fiat, but those types of services would have little use in the Philippines.)
Virtual currency exchanges will further have to obtain a certificate of registration (CoR) with the Anti-Money Laundering Council Secretariat, and also pay annual service fees.
The document it refers to is a previous circular (No 942), which breaks down the various fees that need to be paid. In most cases, the registration fees come out to a little over $2,000, with annual service fees amounting to the same.
Essentially, all VC exchanges are now to be treated as remittance companies.
Effects on the industry
On the face of it, a first-year fee of $2,000 is no higher than any traditional money services business in the Philippines would be expected to pay, so it’s not altogether unfair.
The bigger challenge will be figuring out how to incorporate the mandatory compliance and reporting workflow without affecting costs. In most cases, this would involve hiring additional personnel and retaining legal advice.
So what does this mean for the bitcoin industry in the Philippines?
Overall, it’s good news that the government is finally recognizing startups that have been laboring in a legal gray area since 2013. It’s also encouraging that they’ve spent enough time to learn about bitcoin to understand what it’s good at.
It certainly appears like the intention is to treat any business dealing with bitcoin as a remittance agent, even if remittances aren’t the primary purpose of that company. But perhaps most importantly, they do not offer a temporary sandbox status to startups with more experimental models.
It will take a while to fully understand the impact of all these new regulations.
For now, the hope is that it won’t decelerate the innovative momentum that has built up over the past few years in one of the most important regions in the world’s most populous continent.
Philippines police car image via ShutterstockDidn't see Les eat any grass. Something that rhymed with grass? Now, that I saw.
Well his name ain't Leonard Score-nette.
Refs could have flagged Bama for too many men in the backfield on defense.
I call Bama's offense the Pablo Escobar Plan because it's all about hiding a Coker.
I call Cal's defense the Costco Butcher because they'll give you alarming amounts of ground.
Based on how many TDs FSU scored in the second half, maybe we should call him Jimb0.
Good to see the law's got a handle on the Noles now. Watson didn't even need Sherlock's help on Saturday.
Duke held UNC to 66 and Karl Hess wasn't even on the field.
I get why the refs didn't throw a flag on the Huskers. You don't want to discourage kids from trying to leave Nebraska.
Oh, so NOW Mark Dantonio's big on the law.
Call UNC lung cancer, cause they're killing a Duke.People are gonna call LSU's o-line a bunch of turnstiles, but that ain't fair. Turnstiles slow people down.
Course, on the other hand, people jump turnstiles, too.
What do you mean Mizzou's gonna START forfeiting games?
That Baylor/K-State score looks more impressive when you remember that Bill Snyder works off 1957 exchange rates.
Funny thing is that 39-38 is gonna be the score of Michigan State/Nebraska's basketball game, too.
It's okay, Trevone Boykin. It ain't called T. Boone Completi-ens Stadium, is it?
9-7? Muschamp left Jim McElwain with a horrible bullpen.
9-7's the right score for a game that was uglier than baggy JNCOs.
The Gators dropped the ball so often you'd think it was a science course.
I call that game medieval child mortality because no one was making it to ten.
Good to see someone besides Huntley Johnson bail the Gators out for once.
Louisville's won three in a row? Well, it's good to see Bobby Petrino take a sudden turn that doesn't end up in a ditch.
Corn passes right through most people, Michigan State.
Don't know how Alabama fans can be so big on abstinence education. Look what just giving the tip to Ole Miss did to their whole season.
Figure Ole Miss is the one school that'd be comfortable with something completely backwards.
Not the first night Bielema's had where throwing something up turned the whole night around.
Kevin Sumlin works for an ag school, so I guess an offense that keeps getting picked is just part of the curriculum.
So that's how James Franklin stays so thin - he doesn't care about seconds.
Oregon State has that Nissan Leaf kind of offense. Zero emissions.
If Todd Graham's dream job is Mike Leach beating him by two TDs, he should have just stayed at Rice a little longer.
Memphis got flattened by Navy. That's a football game AND a turn in a game of Civilization. That's what you get for being Egypt, though.
Iowa might be a Terry Gilliam film, because nobody can decide if they're any good and either way we'd rather watch Predator.
Gravity, death, and Jason Whitlock. And you say "undefeated" like that's a good thing, Iowa.
Ohio State didn't put Minnesota in the wood chipper until the end, but it was a drama involving Minnesota so that's typical.UPDATE!
First I would like to give credit to Gummo for doing the wiring job, if it wasn’t for him; I’m sure none of this would have been possible. The wiring job seemed really difficult and I got lost as he was explaining things to me in person at CEO about the process it took.
All pictures are contained within spoilers.
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Non-Analog Arcade Stick
This was the one I competed with at CEO. The gamecube padhack is housed in a qanba q1 I had already owned and I upgraded the parts to sanwa at CEO. The analog version currently lacks a case because the LS-64 is too big to mount in any existing case I have, I have to get a case custom made for it.
Top view - shows button layout. Ignore the button names on the default qanba artwork.
4 orange buttons = A, L, Y, B (from bottom to right)
4 yellow buttons = c-stick buttons (up, down, left, and right)
green button = “shift” button. (See video below)
https://youtu.be/WnK5RJbAg10
Demonstration was done via Dolphin emulator because I don’t own any nintendo consoles, however the shift button on the arcade stick works the same way on console as it does in Dolphin emulator. Whenever the shift button (green button) is NOT pressed, the joystick is 100% engaged (acting as the left analog stick). Whenever the shift button IS pressed, the joystick is x% engaged. I can I open the stick and adjust the percentage (in every direction) if I’d like but I currently have it set to 40%. I plan to raise it but need to do more testing to find what will be appropriate. The shift button is what allows me to walk/run, and do tilt attacks so it was an integral part of this build since this stick lacks an analog joystick.
If you look to the left of the stick (in the video), you can see a gamecube-PC adapter, this is needed so I can use the stick on the computer since the stick now lacks a usb cable and now natively uses a gamecube cable (since there’s a gamecube PCB inside it).
Due to the gamecube PCB inside, Gummo had to dremel off a piece of the interior structure of the case so the case could close. The piece that was removed served no vital part of the structure of the case, it was just a piece that allowed the qanba q1 to be mounted with table clamps. We covered the hole with black electric tape.
Now for the part that every one wants to see… the guts!
http://i.imgur.com/tKTY6un.jpg
I highlighted 3 unique areas of the insides (see spoiler below).
Red = screw terminals which is where the buttons and everything are connected to. This allows solderless removal/addition of buttons since currently not every button is mapped to the stick because I currently lack enough buttons on the stick.
Green = Trigger potentiometer. This is a slider that is normally attached to the gamecube controller’s trigger, sliding this allows me to set whatever % I’d like for the light shield button. Currently the stick lacks a light shield button and only has a hard shield button. This will change once I get a new case/plexi with enough button holes.
Blue = 4 potentiometers that allow me to adjust how much % the “shift” button will change the joystick to. Each pot controls one direction of the joystick. You just take a small flathead screw driver and turn them, it’s pretty simple. However, they will turn forever so I hooked up the arcade stick to a computer to know how much % I’m getting when I’m turning them.
I also included close-up’s of the pcb.
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Analog Arcade Stick
This is the stick that will use the LS-64. Because this one lacks a case, I can only show you the wired PCB, buttons, and joystick (LS-64).
I’m very excited to get this one ready to play. I’m going to have a hard time mounting the joystick and I’m going to PM Per from Akishop to see if he has any documents about the LS-64 that would have more the dimensions on the stick, or possibly mounting instructions. If anything, I could just tupperware it or use a wooden box.
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I plan to make a video showcasing how I use the stick to play the game as well as perform various tech skill. I designed the button layout to accomodate all the game’s advanced techniques in a ergonomic hand position. I’m planning to change position of the green button and the |
, they were told they needed to be like boxing. Before, UFC judging was simple. When the fight was over, all three judges wrote down on a piece of paper who won the fight. This was the first show where judging was done using the 10-point must system for rounds.
The second round was more of the same. Shamrock landed a high kick, but Ortiz took him down 30 seconds into the round and held him there almost the entire round.
Shamrock came out strong in the third round with body kicks, but Ortiz took him down 28 seconds into the round. Shamrock was bleeding by this point, and Ortiz stuck his finger in the cut, trying to open it wider. Technically, that wasn't illegal, because nobody had ever done it before so nobody thought to ban it. The rule banning it was implemented right after this fight.
Two judges had it 30-27 for Ortiz at this point, and one gave Shamrock the third round.
Having been at the show live, round three was very interesting. I thought there was no way a judge could have given Shamrock round three. Ortiz took him down twice and was on top for all but about 40 seconds of the round. Yet, it was also clear Ortiz was fading and Shamrock's defense off his back was the reason. I recalled that if you're really understanding the fight as a journey, Shamrock really won the round, but if you were judging, there was no way you could possibly give it to him.
Watching it today, while that ringside opinion was correct, it was even more clear. Round three was the turning point for Shamrock. Yet there is no way a judge could give Shamrock the round, even though, somehow, one did. It's a flaw in judging, in that you really couldn't understand who really won the round until the fight was over. But you have to give a score when the round is over, based on who had the most offense.
Shamrock would need a finish to win.
"I knew his skill set," said Shamrock. "I trained with all kinds of great wrestlers, Eric Deuce, I'd fought Kevin Jackson, I couldn't wrestle for crap but I understood it, so I felt there was nothing he could do. I could tell he was scared of being hit by me. I was covering his mouth. Nobody had done that. I was riding a big, crazy, giant horse. By the third round, I could see he didn't have a game plan. I could tell he was changing. He was fatiguing. He really reacted when I was covering his mouth.
"I always knew I could finish," he said. "My whole game plan was to finish, even with his size and weight. I knew he'd fatigue and I would finish. There's no way I could have wrestled and matched him. I don't have that kind of wrestling strength and I know it."
Shamrock came out for round four with the nasty cut that Ortiz had pried open. He started landing low kicks and punches. But Ortiz got another takedown, his eighth of the fight. The crowd started booing. The crowd started out leaning toward Shamrock, but by the third round were sensing an Ortiz win and backing him, really just as the tide was about to turn. The open of round four showed it was Shamrock who was fresher, but he still couldn't stop the takedowns. Shamrock reversed and started unloading, but was taken down again. This time Shamrock grabbed a guillotine from the bottom, and nearly finished Ortiz. He turned Ortiz over with the guillotine. He then let it go, and started dropping elbows and fists. With ten seconds left in the round, Ortiz tapped out.
Shamrock was sensing more of a dramatic knockout standing as he realized Ortiz was fading. But it didn't happen, and was satisfied with the win as it was. As people spoke of it as the greatest fight in UFC history, then-UFC owner Bob Meyrowitz came into the cage and said that Shamrock was the greatest fighter in the history of the company. Shamrock then announced he was retiring the championship.
"I knew it was my last fight (in UFC)," he said. "I had the retirement clause in there already. I knew I had to make a spectacular statement and I was done. I knew the sport (in the U.S.) was going to die or was on life support and I was getting out."
Shamrock made $60,000 for that fight, but it cost him $22,000 for his training camp and he ended up with a broken foot that put him on crutches.
"It was just timing," he said. "I missed the big limelight. The irony is I did the most amazing stuff with the least amount of people watching."
The UFC was floundering financially and the big money was in Japan. Shamrock's next step was to either work with K-1, Japan's kickboxing powerhouse of the time, and have them start an MMA division, or head to Pride. At the time, Pride had not yet become strong, but was only a few months from exploding with the popularity of Kazushi Sakuraba.
Shamrock constantly tried to get a fight with Sakuraba, which would have been the dream fight of the era. But Pride was telling different stories, with Sakuraba's big money opponent being Wanderlei Silva.
Ortiz beat Silva on April 14, 2000, in Tokyo, to win the vacant UFC championship. Since Ortiz had an easier time making 205 than 199.9, the weight class was changed and renamed the light heavyweight division. Ortiz held the title until losing via decision to Randy Couture on September 26, 2003. He remained a top star, beating Ken Shamrock in three one-sided fights that helped grow the UFC business, and did the first 1 million buy pay-per-view show in 2006 when he lost to Chuck Liddell.
Shamrock tried to get several promotions going, and did headline the first MMA show ever on premium cable, losing via disqualification to Renzo Gracie. He was the key star with Strikeforce, headlining the company's first-ever show in 2006. That show, in San Jose, Calif., drew 18,265 fans, of which 17,465 paid. The latter is still the largest paid attendance for an MMA show in the United States. He remained one of the best at promoting his fights, and made exponentially more money in the 2006 to 2009 era, but his body was ravaged by injuries at the end. He also no longer had the amazing quickness on the ground for his size, which even today, stands out in watching the Ortiz fight. He retired after a loss to Nick Diaz on April 11, 2009.An asylum-seeker who assumed a false identity to allow him to work in Ireland, before claiming €50,000 in social welfare payments when he lost his job, has avoided going to prison.
An asylum-seeker who assumed a false identity to allow him to work in Ireland, before claiming €50,000 in social welfare payments when he lost his job, has avoided going to prison.
Asylum-seeker assumed false identity to allow him work before claiming €50k in welfare
Samba Sow claimed entitlements including job seekers' benefit, job seekers' allowance and rent allowance under the name Moussa Sow over a four-year period between 2011 and 2014.
His deception was flagged by the Department of Social Protection's facial recognition system when he was made legal in 2015, tried to drop his false identity and regularise his situation, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard on Tuesday.
Sow (55) with an address in Kilakee Way, Firhouse, Dublin pleaded guilty to 18 counts of stealing social welfare payments from Phibsborough Post Office, North Circular Road, Dublin 7 and AIB in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 between April 2011 and December 2014.
Handing down a suspended two-year sentence, Judge Catherine Murphy noted that although Sow claimed his entitlements under a false name, he never tried to claim double payments. “As soon as he was given an alternative social welfare payment, he ceased claiming the first payment,” she said.
Garda Nigel Daly told Dean Kelly BL, prosecuting, that Sow arrived in Ireland from Senegal in 2007 and claimed asylum. He was placed in direct provision in Tralee, Co Kerry and received a payment of €19 a week.
Sow then paid €900 for a French passport with the name Moussa Sow which allowed him to work in the country. He acquired a PPS number under this name and worked in a pub in Dublin for the next four years. While working, he paid income tax and PRSI.
Mr Kelly said Sow was made redundant during the recession and started claiming social welfare payments under the name Moussa Sow. He claimed a total of €50,006 over the next four years, the court heard.
However, when Sow was granted permission to remain in the state, he “brought the claim under Moussa Sow to an end and made a legitimate claim” in his real name, Mr Kelly said. He was recognised by the department's facial recognition software and later arrested.
He has no previous convictions.
Defence barrister, Paul McCarthy SC, said Sow contacted the Department of Social Protection in October 2015 and arranged to pay back €20 weekly. To date, he has returned €1000 of the money he took.
He is currently living in emergency accommodation and shares a double room with another occupant. He has been there some time and is regarded as a “model occupant”, the court heard. He continues to support his wife and two children in Senegal and hopes to gain employment soon, Mr McCarthy said.
Gda Daly agreed that had Sow not sought to regularise his situation, he might never have been detected. He also agreed that Sow never tried to “double dip” or access payments under two names.
Judge Murphy noted a probation services report was extremely positive and found Sow was in no need of further supervision. “He is making and will continue to make an honest effort to pay back the money to social welfare,” she said.
Online Editors"We are a community of technologists, designers, writers and advocates who work to ensure freedom for all people through our software."
Since it began more than 15 years ago, the international KDE community has grown bigger and more diverse than could have been imagined at the beginning. These forces created a need for clarity about what pulls us together as a community. Over the last six months or so, we have examined this critical issue, moving beyond assumptions and what has been taken for granted. In a rigorous project led by Kévin Ottens, many thoughts were distilled down to essentials. Today, we present the result of that effort: the KDE Manifesto.
What is KDE?
A community effort like ours, with such a size and history, is unusual, important and exemplary in today's competitive world. Clarity about who we are and what binds us together establishes an identity that can be preserved and built upon. But we have never been much for formality, writing things down and creating processes. So having a written Manifesto is a big deal.
Organization and Being KDE
KDE has a flat organizational structure with largely self-directed teams. Teams are created by the people who want to do the work, and are rarely endorsed in a formal way. Being KDE is mostly self-selecting¸ based on a shared understanding built through direct interaction with other people and working together with them. KDE sysadmins decide on allowing access to infrastructure, and the KDE e.V. board makes specific funding decisions. But, aside from those, there are few rules or formal processes outside of some technical requirements.
The KDE Manifesto is not intended to change the organization or the way it works. Its aim is only to describe how the KDE Community sees itself. What binds us together are certain values and their practical implications, without regard for who a person is or what background and skills they bring. It is a living document, so it will change over time as KDE continues to grow and mature. We are sharing the Manifesto to help people understand what KDE is all about, what we want to accomplish and why we do what we do.
The Manifesto
The Manifesto begins with an overarching declaration:
“We are a community of technologists, designers, writers and advocates who work to ensure freedom for all people through our software.”
It continues by laying out KDE shared values as they have developed over the last 15 years, along with a brief description of each:
Open Governance
Free Software
Inclusivity
Innovation
Common Ownership
End-User Focus
Two supporting pages present the benefits and principles of being associated with KDE. More so than the Manifesto itself, they are living documents, although we expect little changes to be needed in the coming years.
You are invited
We invite you to read the KDE Manifesto and find out what it is to be in KDE!As Democrats head to Atlanta this weekend to vote on their party’s next chair, the race to lead the Democratic National Committee chair is coming down to its two leading candidates.
Rep. Keith Ellison (Minn.) has the edge over former Labor secretary Tom Perez in The Hill’s new survey of DNC members. But while both men claim they are close to securing commitments from the majority of the 447 voting members, neither candidate is assured victory.
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The Hill has identified the stances of 240 DNC members, either through their private responses to a survey circulated over the past week or from public endorsements.
Out of those who responded, Ellison leads with 105 supporters to Perez’s 57. The remaining major candidates have less than a dozen supporters each, while more than 50 DNC members remain undecided.
It’s possible that a mass movement by undecided voters or a broad change-of-heart could push either candidate to the 224-vote threshold for a first-ballot victory, but it appears likely the race will head to multiple rounds.
The vote will take as many ballots as needed for a candidate to cobble together a majority. After the second round of balloting, the candidate with the lowest vote total will be removed from subsequent ballots until one candidate emerges with a majority.
“Whoever is going to win is likely going to win on multiple ballots,” said Mo Elleithee, a former DNC spokesman who now heads Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service.
“All of the public posturing, the big endorsements—none of that matters. It all comes down to the 447 voting members, and they want to know who is going to be able to rebuild the infrastructure of the DNC. Whoever can best walk into this weekend answering that question...walks in with an advantage.”
Ellison, the progressive Minnesota congressman, emerged as the early leader with the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersSenate Dems seek to turn tables on GOP in climate change fight Bernie Sanders Town Hall finishes third in cable news race, draws 1.4 million viewers Woman to undecided Biden: 'Just say yes' to 2020 bid MORE’s coalition as well as an impressive slate of elected official endorsements from across the party. Ellison’s backers include Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann WarrenWoman to undecided Biden: 'Just say yes' to 2020 bid Raising taxes on the wealthy is 'extremely popular,' says Dem pollster 64 percent say Democratic Party supports socialism, says poll MORE and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerBrady gun control group gets rebranding Brennan fires back at'selfish' Trump over Harry Reid criticism Trump rips Harry Reid for 'failed career' after ex-Dem leader slams him in interview MORE.
But Perez, the former Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaChicago's next mayor will be a black woman Obama portraits brought more than 1 million visitors to National Portrait Gallery in first year With low birth rate, America needs future migrants MORE administration Labor secretary who jumped in a month after Ellison, has cobbled together an impressive list of his own. His endorsers include former Vice President Joe Biden Joseph (Joe) Robinette BidenWoman to undecided Biden: 'Just say yes' to 2020 bid Poll shows Biden leads Democrats vying for 2020 nomination The Hill's Morning Report - Dems appear to have votes to counter Trump on emergency MORE and former Attorney General Eric Holder Eric Himpton HolderHolder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' Obama political arm to merge with Holder-run group Barack, Michelle Obama expected to refrain from endorsing in 2020 Dem primary: report MORE.
Between them, Ellison and Perez have far and away the most support. Ellison leads Perez as far as public support from DNC members, while each campaign claims that their private whip lists promise even more votes.
Perez emailed DNC members last week to claim that 180 DNC members had backed him, while Ellison’s camp responded that they “are on track to win."
None of the candidates have released their full whip list, a move that keeps pressure off their supporters.
"We are confident in the support Tom has received and are working hard every day to have one on one conversations with state parties and DNC members," Perez spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa said.
"Many of our supporters have requested that we not release their names publicly due to fear of unwanted calls and other harassment. We believe these members deserve our respect."
Many Democrats sing the praises of both men. Perez is a son of immigrants who went on to play a role in many of the Obama administration’s top domestic priorities. Ellison, meanwhile, is a progressive leader in the House and first Muslim elected to Congress who became one of Sanders’s top surrogates on the campaign trail.
Both candidates also lead The Hill’s poll of second-choice preferences, suggesting that a lack of enmity between the two DNC factions.
Still, the frontrunners’ political differences have hardened some Democrats and liberal groups outside of the official DNC structure, frustrating the party’s attempt to move on from the fissure of the 2016 primary even as both frontrunners try to tamp down the idea of a rift.
Some Ellison allies have railed against Perez as a symbol of the establishment’s hold over the party. After Biden endorsed Perez, Sanders put out an unsolicited statement panning Perez and Biden as part of the “failed status quo.”
Other Perez supporters have expressed concern about handing the party over to the Sanders wing of the party, arguing that Ellison would move the party too far to the left.
“They’ve done a good job, to their credit, pretending the proxy war doesn’t exist and they’ve been respectful of one another,” one former Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE presidential staffer told The Hill. “But let’s call it what it is.”
“It’s not hard to see if Perez wins the race, having a whole portion of the party that feels like, ‘Here the Washington insiders go again, appointing an Obama and Hillary guy.’”
So while Perez or Ellison are the frontrunners, a small but increasing number of Democrats suspect that a consensus alternative candidate could emerge to sidestep the factionalism.
“Watch the middle,” said Democratic strategist Steve McMahon, who worked on Howard Dean’s political campaigns before Dean took over the DNC in 2005.
“What you have are two strong, well-established candidates, each of whom represent factions of the Democratic Party, and in this case they are factions that aren’t at war but don’t see eye to eye. In those cases, you often see candidates who can unite the middle.”
Another Democrat added that the more entrenched Perez and Ellison supporters become, the more likely that they would rather jump behind a compromise candidate instead of crossing into their rival candidate’s camp.
Among the lagging candidates who have billed themselves as the consensus pick— South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison, South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Idaho Democratic Party Executive Director Sally Boynton Brown— Buttigieg has earned recent buzz from Democrats who spoke with The Hill.
The openly gay Buttigieg has a sterling resume. He’s a Harvard graduate, a Rhodes scholar, a Navy Reserve lieutenant and a Democratic mayor in a red state at just 35-years old. And he’s won support from a handful of former DNC chairs over the past few weeks, as well as praise from former DNC chair Howard Dean.
“He checks a lot of boxes, but it’s not just that. He understands what has gone awry over the past 10 years and...he understands what it takes to get stuff done in the states. He’s lived all the things he supports,” the former Clinton staffer said.
“But it would take a total standoff between Ellison and Perez.”
Harrison, a former top aide to then House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (S.C.), is also expressing confidence that he’ll be able to rely on his congressional whip experience and work leading the South Carolina Democratic Party to score an upset. And Boynton Brown is relying on a similar red-state success pitch from her time in Idaho to boost her outside shot.
Former Fox News commentator Jehmu Greene is also running, as are a few other lesser-known candidates. But none of them have garnered any significant support among voting members.
After the balloting Saturday, the party and its new leader will have to focus on the task at hand: the rebuilding of the party and the fight against President Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE.
Regardless of how the election turns out, Democrats appear confident that the party’s dire situation will serve as a unifying force.
“I suspect what will help unite people is less which side of the discussion they fell on, and more a desire to resist Donald Trump and take back the House and the Senate,” said one DNC member who’s backed Perez but who would vote for Ellison as his second choice.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend and I think Donald Trump will have a more dramatic effect at unifying Democrats than anyone in the DNC.”
--Lisa Hagen, Aida Chavez, Sara Sirota and Chase Masters contributed.GUJRAT: The deportation of a number of illegal Pakistani immigrants and ‘stringent’ measures to prevent further flow of human flood through the sea coast bordering Turkey and Greece have brought many tales to the fore.
As most ‘emigrants’ belong to Gujrat and surrounding areas, this correspondent got an opportunity to talk to a few of those who have recently been sent back home.
Deported from Turkey in recent weeks, a lad revealed that a good number of human traffickers were mainly operating from Istanbul city of Turkey, with their “sub-agents” who would only book the clients and collect the settled amount (around Rs300,000 from each person) in Gujrat, Phalia, Mandi Bahauddin and Gujranwala.
The practice of illegally crossing the borders of Iran, Turkey and then Greece to enter Europe has been going on for decades in Gujranwala region and the authorities in Pakistan have failed to curb it. It witnessed a sharp increase during the last four to six months after Germany and other European countries had announced asylum for the Syrian, Iraqi and Afghani refugees and, according to an estimate, at least 35,000 Pakistani nationals have so far crossed into Europe in the disguise of Syrian refugees.
Istanbul is ‘hub’ of many Pakistani traffickers
He said even the refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan were being operated by the human traffickers belonging to Gujranwala region and “the so-called crackdown on human traffickers has not curtailed the business.”
“I had been offered a free ride up to Europe by the agent who had earlier booked my case for Greece, if I could arrange at least three more clients,” he said and added that his father had handed over the settled amount to a police official in Mandi Bahauddin district who used to book the clients on behalf of his brother, a human trafficker settled in Turkey and Spain.
After the western countries’ focus towards the immigrants had been shifted to civil war-torn countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan nationals due to a sharp influx of refugees from these countries, he said, the restrictions at Turkey-Greece border had compelled the Pakistani nationals travelling towards Europe to change their national identity.
Sharing his story, Shan Ahmed, who belongs to Gujrat city and had been deported from Turkey around two weeks ago, said he and around 100 other illegal Pakistanis mainly belonging to Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot and Gujranwala had introduced themselves as the nationals of Myanmar and Kashmir when they were caught by the authorities in the waters of Greece after crossing the limits of Turkish side of the ocean.
“One of the detained men who belonged to Sialkot district had revealed to the Turkish authorities that all of them belonged to Pakistan since he knew the Turkish language very well for being settled as a factory worker near Istanbul for more than two years. Had he not revealed the nationality of the group of detained people, the authorities would have set us free after brief interrogation, thus, giving another chance to those who wanted to try their luck once more through crossing the border,” said Ahmed.
He said they were all deported by the authorities after being kept in confinement for around a month at a camp, where the authorities told them that Pakistan was not among the war-zone countries and did have a better economic condition compared to Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, that’s why Pakistanis were being deported.
Asked why the immigrants from the countries like India and Iran, which also have better economic conditions and are not among the troubled zones, are not being deported, he said the Turkish authorities responded that “Pakistanis come in large numbers and groups, whereas the people from the other Southeast Asian countries come in small groups.”
Since the Greece economy has deteriorated in recent years, there has been a decline in the rates for clients as previously the traffickers used to charge around Rs600,000, which is now half of it. This means opportunities for the locals to try their luck with a ‘minimum investment’ and chances of crossing into Europe and then settle with the help of their close kin who are already settled in various European countries.
Most Pakistanis, who had recently crossed into Greece and Germany, got settled in Italy and Spain with the assistance of their kin settled there.
Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2015
144STORIES: Visit the Army Public School MemorialJuventus put their miserable domestic form behind them to defeat Sevilla 2-0 in their Champions League Group D match after goals from Álvaro Morata and Simone Zaza, and an excellent display by Sami Khedira on his debut.
Sergio Agüero seals late Manchester City win at Borussia Mönchengladbach Read more
Morata headed an Andrea Barzagli cross past Sergio Rico in the 41st minute, before the substitute Zaza doubled the Juventus lead with a late breakaway goal in the 87th minute.
Khedira was named in the Juventus starting team for the first time since his summer move from Real Madrid, and provided the kind of stability they have lacked in Serie A this season. Juve’s excellent form in Europe – they beat Manchester City a fortnight ago – comes in stark contrast to their domestic woes, with last season’s Champions League finalists having managed only one victory from their opening six league fixtures.
The Juventus coach, Massimiliano Allegri, said: “The difference? In the Champions League we have six points and in the league we have five, having played more games. We had a good game tonight, and that didn’t happen at Napoli [in the 2-1 defeat on Saturday]. Our attitude has always been the same … we played better technically tonight.”
Sevilla, who kicked off their Champions League campaign with a 3-0 win over Mönchengladbach, only recorded their first win in Serie A last weekend. Unai Emery said: “We did OK in attack and we noticed improvement in the rest, but not enough against a great side like Juventus. We had hardly any goal scoring chances. The result is fair and now we have to go forward like this and things will improve as we grow as a team.”
Real Madrid cruise past Malmo and Cristiano Ronaldo moves level with Raúl Read more
Juventus were much improved with Khedira in the heart of the midfield, while two other new recruits, Paulo Dybala and Juan Cuadrado, both contributed to a menacing attacking display. However, it was Morata who opened the scoring, leaping above Marco Andreolli and Timothee Kolodziejczak to head past Rico.
Cuadrado, on loan from Chelsea, combined superbly with Khedira on 17 minutes to set up Dybala, only for the forward’s curling left-footed shot to fly just wide of the Sevilla goal. The young Argentinian had an opportunity to double Juve’s lead on shortly after half-time but his close-range effort was smothered by Rico.
Zaza replaced Morata on 80 minutes, and doubled Juve’s lead seven minutes later when he picked up the ball just inside the Sevilla half before tearing towards Rico and finishing beneath the onrushing keeper.
Juventus lead Group D with a maximum six points after two matches. Sevilla and Manchester City, who beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-1, both have three points.The Tote, the government-owned bookmaker, is braced for a backlash over plans to move a portion of its business offshore and reduce its tax liabilities in the process. Despite being fully state-owned and operated since its foundation in 1928, the Tote yesterday admitted it plans to filter bets placed with third-party, offshore bookmakers through its Guernsey outpost in a move that would sidestep income tax.
The Tote operates through a pool betting system, where punters contribute to a central prize fund, and it allows customers of other bookmakers to bet into Tote markets. Negotiations are well advanced with a number of bookmakers to begin directing those wagers into central Tote pools via an offshore hub.
The potential for avoidance of income tax and payments to the Levy, the tax on bookmakers which partially funds the racing industry, is seen as an important carrot in the task of persuading bookmakers, who are themselves already avoiding gross profits tax, corporation tax and the Levy by basing themselves outside Britain, to remain loyal to the Tote rather than using other pool betting operators.
The British Horseracing Authority last night condemned the Tote's plans. Will Lambe, its head of external affairs, said: "This is further evidence of Britain's gambling regulations being in need of urgent attention. There is no level playing field for remote operators in this country, and it is deeply damaging, not least to government.
"While racing may not suffer from this development due to its special relationship with the Tote, other such moves are costing the sport some £10m a year."
Rupert Arnold, the chief executive of the National Trainers' Federation, said: "Whatever the strategic reasons may be for this decision, the Tote's contribution to racing is crucial to the future wellbeing of the sport, so at the very least we need cast-iron assurances on that score."
Tote Direct's commercial manager, Eddie Bennett, said he was "unable to talk about individual contracts for commercial reasons". Bennett also said he could not comment as to whether the government knew the Tote used tax avoidance as a negotiating tool with other bookmakers.
However, a statement was issued by the Tote's managing director of E-gaming and Totepool, David Craven, which said: "The creation of a Guernsey pool business is a defensive measure designed to prevent non-UK pool operators collecting the Tote's existing international pool business and thereby protect revenue to British racing. The Tote can absolutely guarantee that its contribution to racing will not be diminished by a penny as a result of this. Not only is racing's contribution protected, racing will be the beneficiary of any growth."
A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport declined to comment last night.
A dramatic fall in Levy yield from £115m in 2007-08 to £76m in last year's scheme has forced racing to endure swingeing cuts across the board, most notably in prize money. The Levy Board last night declined to comment on the Tote's new arrangements.
The Tote contributes about £11m a year to the sport over and above its Levy responsibilities and is by some way racing's biggest race sponsor. The on-off saga of the Tote's proposed sale from state control over the past 10 years, now set to be completed by June this year, has led to underinvestment in new technology, which could threaten its position as the dominant player in the pool betting market, particularly abroad.
But the signing of new commercial agreements with other bookmakers that would encourage them to continue to promote Tote betting through Tote Direct rather than using another supplier or even doing it themselves, would presumably be seen as a positive move, whoever is confirmed later this year as the successful bidder.
The British Horseracing Authority said it hoped that its "special relationship" with the Tote would mean that the sport's overall balance sheet would not be affected.Nearly 40 members of the House of Representatives earmarked $150 million to organizations affiliated with themselves and their family members from 2008 to 2010, according to a government watchdog organization.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) reported that although 24 of the earmarkers were Democrats and only 14 Republicans, the top five representatives who earmarked to organizations affiliated with them or their family members were all Republicans:
· Kay Granger (R-Texas) earmarked $28.3 million to her son’s project. J.D. Granger is the executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority.
· Jerry Lewis (R-California) who earmarked a combined $25.5 million to three relatives’ organizations.
· Bill Young (R-Florida) earmarked a combined $16.6 million to two sons’ employers. In 2008 he herded $4.4 million to defense contractor SAIC’s facility in St. Petersburg, Florida, where son Patrick is a security administrator. Another $8.5 million went to the National Forensic Science Technology Center, where son Billy is a senior consultant.
· John Mica (R-Florida) earmarked $13 million to his daughter’s client. Mica has five relatives who work as lobbyists, two brothers, a son and a nephew. His daughter, D’Anne, ran a public relations firm whose client, the Central Commuter Rail, received the $13 million.
· Michael Simpson (R-Idaho) earmarked $12.5 million to his wife’s employer, the Idaho National Laboratory.
In the case of Lewis, $500,000 was earmarked in 2008 for Barracks Row in Washington, DC. CREW stated that Lewis’ wife, Arlene Willis (who was paid $512,293 to work in her husband’s office between 2007 and 2010) “is a likely beneficiary of his earmark, since the improvements to Barracks Row will probably cause her $943,000 property four blocks away to rise in value.”
Also, Lewis earmarked $22.6 million for the Loma Linda University Medical Center, where the congressman’s brother, John Lewis, serves as the director of government relations.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
To Learn More:
Family Affair (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) (pdf)Bar Bodega is closing down after 25 years in Wellington.
It has hosted indie legends from The White Stripes to New Order's Peter Hook, and now Wellington's renowned Bar Bodega is closing down.
The Ghuznee St venue started life in Willis St, and has been operating for 25 years under the same name.
Bodega owner Murray Hepple said he and co-owner Catherine Popert tried to buy the building but lost out to a company owned by skincare queen Elizabeth Babalich.
MAARTEN HOLL/ FAIRFAX NZ Graeme Downes from The Verlaines sound checking at Bar Bodega in 2010.
"They have different plans for the building and that's fair enough," Hepple said.
While a final date is yet to be decided, Hepple said it would be within six months – with some "great gigs" lined up for the farewell months.
"At the moment we've got no plans to open anything similar but this incarnation of Bodega is over – but I imagine the next six months will be interesting."
FAIRFAX NZ Bar Bodega's main bar is lovingly chaperoned from its old spot on Willis St to its new Ghuznee St site in September 2002.
Big acts to have performed at Bodega include Kiss's Ace Frehley, Ultravox's Midge Ure, High Fidelity author Nick Hornby, The Buzzcocks, Tim Finn, The Misfits, Roni Size, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Ghostface Killah and Fat Freddy's Drop.
Phoenix Foundation guitarist Samuel Scott said the looming closure was "a great shame", especially in the wake of Mighty Mighty's closure.
Scott remembered playing both Bodegas and seeing gigs by the likes of Dunedin's The Clean and High Dependency Unit.
CAMERON BURNELL/FAIRFAX NZ Restaurateurs Lorenzo, left, and Leonardo Bresolin bought the former Bodega building in 2014.
"It was mesmerising. I saw some really important gigs that changed my life."
It was difficult for venues, and the solution might lie in making gigs alcohol-free and all open to all ages, he said.
Music critic Grant Smithies also lamented the loss of a venue that had a venerable history and hosted "many fantastic bands".
"It was big enough for the international acts but seedy enough to have fun. It had a nicely shambolic vibe. It's a place with a noble history of raucous rock 'n' roll."
Former owner Fraser McInnes said the news was sad, but Hepple and Popert had done a good job in an increasingly difficult climate.
"The hospitality industry is always changing, so who knows what the future will bring."
McInnes said it could be tough to cover production and publicity costs for live gigs in an era where many fans pre-loaded rather than spent up at the bar.
The original Bar Bodega opened in Willis St in August 1991 amid a nightlife renaissance in the capital.
By 2002, when it was forced out by the inner-city bypass, Bodega moved to the present site and had become a pioneer in the nascent craft beer scene and helped set the format for other alternative music venues around the city.
Indie godfather Chris Knox was enamoured of the place and relished the intimacy of the venue, which needed just 50 people to make a crowd.
"It's a certain sort of greasy patina that this place has," Knox said fondly. "It's great to play on a stage that has a bit of history."
In 2014 Lorenzo and Leonardo B |
Warner Losh <imp@FreeBSD.org>
FreeBSD mmc(4)/mmcsd(4) stack was improved to support all MMC/SD card types existing now. Support was added for SD High Capacity (SDHC) cards and MultiMediaCards (MMC) memory cards of normal (up to 2GB) and high capacity. Support was also added for 4/8bits wide buses, High Speed timings and multi-block transfers allows to reach speeds up to 25MB/s (SD) and 52MB/s (MMC) depending on which card and controller was used.
Added SD Host Controller driver, sdhci(4), that implements support for SD specification compatible PCI SD/MMC card readers to be used with mmc(4)/mmcsd(4) stack. Driver supports PIO and DMA transfers, 1/4bits buses, high speed timings, card insert/remove detection and write protection.
Open tasks:
Many of the existing SD Host Controllers have undocumented registers beyond SD specification. Some of them are unable to detect the card without some additional initialization implemented.
Contact: Rafal Jaworowski <raj@semihalf.com>
This work is bringing support for another Book-E style PowerPC implementation (PPC440/460 core) embedded in a wide range of system-on-chip devices. Current state highlights:
Locore kernel initialisation
TLB handling
Console (UART)
Interrupts controller (UIC)
USB controller (OHCI, EHCI)
Multi user operation
The CPU layer (kernel start-up, TLB handling) is derived from existing E500 support. Eventually the code will be re-factored so that the common logic is shared between processor variations and only the lowest-level routines are provided separately. A number of drivers for peripherals integrated on the chip needs to be written (Ethernet, PCI/PCI-Express, crypto engines, SATA, I2C, SPI, GPIO and others).
Contact: Marius Strobl <marius@FreeBSD.org>
FreeBSD 8.0-CURRENT now has basic support for sun4u-machines based on UltraSPARC III and beyond. This is still a work in progress though due to the diversity of these machines, hardware errata and bugs in machine independent parts of FreeBSD showing up. A install image with the latest code which in comparison to the official snapshot 200812 contains more dcons(4) fixes, an isp(4) working with 10160 and 12160 on sparc64, an endian-clean mpt(4) as needed for the on-board controller found in Fire V440, workarounds needed for Fire V880 and a fix for machines with more than 8GB of RAM (tested with 16GB) are available at the above URL. Known working machines so far are:
Blade 1000
Blade 1500
Blade 2000
Fire 280R
Fire V210
Fire V440 (except for the on-board NICs)
Fire V880
Netra 20/Netra T4
The stability of FreeBSD on these machines is en par with that on pre-USIII-based sun4u-machines. Machines similar to the ones above like for example Fire V240 should also just work with all essential on-board devices, i.e. serial console, ATA/SCSI controller and NIC, being supported. So far the intention is to MFC this code in time for FreeBSD 7.2.
Open tasks:
Apart from serial devices, only cards supported by creator(4) are currently usable as console, i.e. not even machfb(4) works in sun4u-machines based on UltraSPARC III or beyond at this point (it will trigger a RED state exception, which should not be that hard to fix though), let alone XVR graphics cards. A driver for the Sun Cassini/Cassini+ as well as National Semiconductor DP83065 Saturn Gigabit NICs found on-board for example in Fire V440 and as add-on cards is under development but still needs some work. There is no driver for controlling the fans in machines based on the Excalibur board, yet. This means that Blade 1000/2000 are not very usable as workstations so far due to the noise caused by the fans permanently running at full speed. There is no support for host-to-PCI-Express or host-to-PCI-X bridges so far, at least for the latter due to lack of access to such machines. Adding support for the XMITS PCI-X bridges to the existing schizo(4) should be rather straightforward, PCI-Express will require a new driver and probably some additional tweaking though.
Contact: Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@FreeBSD.org>
Contact: Manolis Kiagias <manolis@FreeBSD.org>
The FreeBSD Greek Documentation Project managed to complete a significant amount of work during 2008. The first ten chapters of the Handbook are now completely translated and kept in sync with the English text. Work is also progressing nicely in the second part of The Handbook, with many new translated chapters. At this pace, we hope to have a complete Greek Handbook by 8.0-RELEASE.
More volunteers are always welcome of course, as there is still plenty of work to be done.
Open tasks:
Complete the Greek translation of the Handbook (about ten chapters remaining) Complete the Greek translation of the FAQ (currently at around 40%) Translate more documentation (articles) to Greek Begin a Greek website on FreeBSD.org (volunteers needed)
Contact: Gábor Kövesdán <gabor@FreeBSD.org>
Contact: Gábor Páli <pgj@FreeBSD.org>
Hungarian translation of the FreeBSD Documentation Project Primer for New Contributors has been finished and now it is available both online and for download.
We hope that having the FDP Primer translated will encourage people to help our work. There is always place in our team, every submitted translation or feedback is appreciated and very welcome.
Beside the continuous maintenance of the Hungarian documentation and web pages, a new article translation has been added to the Hungarian Documentation Set, CUPS.
Open tasks:
Read the translations, send feedback Translate web pages Translate articles Translate release notes for -CURRENT and 7.X
Contact: Gábor Kövesdán <gabor@FreeBSD.org>
Some bugs have been fixed in the buffering and binary file detection parts of grep. Due to the differences between the GNU regexp library and our libc regexp implementation, I switched to the GNU library so that we can maintain an acceptable level of compatibility. The desired option would be to drop both GNU grep and the GNU regexp library, but unfortunately we cannot just do that because of these incompatibilities. Accordingly, the first step should be replacing grep and then we should review and optimize our regexp library. With this decision, BSD grep has acquired a higher level of compatibility and now seems to be much more useful.
Open tasks:
Make a portbuild run with BSD grep and fix possible bugs.
Contact: FreeBSD Forums Admins <forum-admins@>
Contact: FreeBSD Forums Moderators <forum-moderators@>
The FreeBSD forums were publicly launched on November 16th, 2008 as a complementary support channel to our great mailing lists.
There were almost 2000 new users registered in the first three days and each day we receive about 20 new user registrations. After less than three months after going public, we are now serving around 10,000 posts in 1,500 threads. We have received very positive feedback from our users, which we take as a good compensation for our efforts put into this project.
Contact: Murray Stokely <murray@FreeBSD.org>
A new channel has been setup on YouTube explicitly for BSD conference recordings. This channel does not have the normal 10 minute limit so full high quality presentations from 30 minutes to nearly 2 hours have been uploaded. So far over 23 videos are available from MeetBSD and NYCBSDCon, with more from BSDCan and AsiaBSDCon coming soon.
We are currently looking for more videos from BSDCan, EuroBSDCon, AsiaBSDCon, etc to upload to the channel. We also need help in creating subtitles for each video in various languages. If you would like to help out in generating subtitles for your language or if you have old video content from one of the above BSD conferences please let us know.
Open tasks:There is no truth to the term “summer break” for teachers. The only break that truly takes place is a “break” from the routine of going to school and teaching a set number of students Monday-Friday from early in the morning into the early evening. One who has no connection to an educator has no idea what goes into the work before, during, and at the end of a school year. A teacher’s work is truly never done. If you are reading this post, you are an educator, so I don’t need to get into each detail of our never-ending teacher life cycle.
One truth about our profession that many don’t realize is that as teachers, we are ALWAYS: creating more thoughtful and effective resources, buying classroom items, or attending professional development to tweak and make our instruction even more effective. Teachers are always: thinking about our instruction, contemplating a better and more effective ways to teach a concept, working to make our classroom design the perfect set-up for our students, and considering those people, young and old, that we work with daily.
So while I know you haven’t really strayed far from teaching mode during your “summer break,” here are a 8-things to consider, reflect on, and work on to make the back to school transition easier…
#1: Reflect on what worked and didn’t work so well. While no year is ever the same with changes to curriculum, testing, and a different group of students, if you are remaining in the same position, what will you tweak to make even better? Typically, I find two things that I want to completely overhaul and get to work on those during the summer months.
#2: Organize the structure of your time with students. Map it out and strategize to get the biggest instructional bang for all of your work. If you have a curriculum calendar, you are on the right track. Map your instruction, and determine the structure of your day.
#3: Revamp classroom procedures. Some classrooms function like well-oiled machines. If you want your classroom to run well, consider the procedures for different tasks and determine how you will help students learn them quickly. Procedures to consider:
bell ringer work for student arrival
collecting completed work
passing back graded work
absent students and missing work
#4: Planning and grading are two essential parts of teaching that are time consuming. What do you want to continue to do because it seemed to work well or change because it was time-intensive and not effective? Now is the time to jot down thoughts and make those adjustments so you can go into the year with a game plan for success.
#5: Classroom accountability is one that needs adjusting all of the time. Different years bring different students that operate in different ways and with different levels of motivation. Here is a recent about the strategies we used on my 6th grade team to hold students accountable for their work and behavior 2-Alternatives to the Great Recess Takeaway
#6: How will communicate with parents and keep them informed about the happenings in the classroom? Will you do a weekly newsletter, class blog, Facebook page? I like to use a combination of these three tools, but you have to consider your school community and whether those are the best tools for keeping parents in the communication loop.
#7: Create, review, or outline your curriculum calendar. Many districts tackle this at the end of the school year so teachers can work throughout the summer months gearing up for the next school year. If your district is not one of these, start your work on this now. It is time consuming, but it will give you an outline of the learning that needs to take place and you can tailor your instruction to meet students’ needs.
#8: Your well-being. How will you take care of you? Your health and wellness is essential. Get into a routine in these coming weeks and stick with it. Researchers say that it takes 21 days to establish a habit. Start your healthy habits now, so they are automatic upon your return to the classroom. If you lack motivation, find friends that will hold you accountable and get started. Some new routines to examine: walking, running, biking, swimming, or eating better. Get active or remain active, and you will be an even better mom, dad, friend, wife, husband, and teacher, I promise. This is me with my oldest after a 5K. I run and now he loves it too.
While the return to school may seem distant, I can assure you that Target is already gearing up for your valiant return. I am a planner and organizer, so these simple considerations make my life easier when school is looming. If you are looking for some print and go resources to jump start your year, grab these…
Be sure to make the most of the rest of your summer, but take some time to start gearing up for your inevitable return.
All the best!Ubuntu's Linux Retail Strategy Gears Up for 2010
CEO Silber Pushes Retail Ubuntu
March 4, 2010
By Sean Michael Kerner
Linux at retail has been a hit-and-miss proposition for more than a decade. Consumers have been able to purchase some boxed versions of Linux distros from off store shelves over the years, though for the most part, that's not how most have historically acquired Linux.
Ubuntu has been one such Linux vendor that has had its distribution available at retail. In 2008, Ubuntu was sold for a time at Best Buy locations. Much has changed since then -- owing to a persistently difficult economic climate and a revitalized competitor in the form of Microsoft Windows 7. So what is Ubuntu's strategy for retail in 2010?
In an interview with InternetNews.com, Jane Silber, the new CEO of Ubuntu's lead sponsor, Canonical, shed some light on her company's strategy to get Ubuntu into the mass consumer market.
"On the consumer desktop side, it's a combination of taking some market share from Microsoft as opposed to changes within Linux distributions. And in part, it's about growing the overall size of the pie," Silber told InternetNews.com.
Part of that plan includes driving consumer appeal by including new consumer technology in Ubuntu. One of the new technologies set to be included in the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" release is the Ubuntu One Music Store, which will enable users to purchase music. Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx is currently scheduled for release at the end of April.
"I think we'll continue to see more acceptance of Ubuntu in the mass-market consumer space," Silber said.
From boxed sales to PC pre-installs
As far as how Ubuntu actually ends up in consumers' hands, Silber sees OEM partnerships as being the key to getting Ubuntu on retail shelves.
"Retail is a tricky environment, but we are seeing growth there," Silber said. "I don't expect it in the form of a box set of Ubuntu, but I expect it in the form of Ubuntu pre-installed on machines that consumers are buying in retail environments."
Silber added that she expects that Ubuntu's OEM relationships will be an significant area of growth in the coming year.
"We are finding a growing and thriving ecosystem around Ubuntu with OEMs," Silber said. "It's an interesting and challenging environment; basically, what we're doing is getting in before machines hit the shelves, which traditionally has been the hard part for open source software."The world’s first solar road has opened in France. The Normandy village of Tourouvre-au-Perche now has a 1 kilometer (0.62 mile) stretch of solar pavement, producing enough power to light the village’s street lamps.
Judging by the potholed state of may existing plain asphalt roads, it’s hard to imagine that its practical to build a road surface that is both hard-wearing and can produce electricity, but the French seem to have managed it. The Tourouvre-au-Perche road, which will be driven over by around 2,000 cars per day, can produce 280 megawatt hours (MWh) of power per year, even in cloudy Normandy. The tiles that make up the road are stuck on top of the existing roadway, which reduces construction costs, the only problem is that the short stretch cost around $5.2 million to build. That is, according to one estimate, is 13 times more expensive than rooftop solar panels.
The Wattway road is made by France’s Colas, in collaboration with INES, the French National Institute for Solar Energy. The tiles are made of solar cells embedded in resin, and they’re thin enough that they won’t peel off the road below during the expansion and contraction caused by heat and cold. Colas, along with France’s Environment Minister Ségolène Royal, has some confidence in the practicality of the technology. If the country paved one quarter of its million kilometers (620,000 miles) of roads, it could become energy independent. That independence is important for France, which started its nuclear power program to achieve it, and currently produces three quarters of its energy from nuclear.
Royal has already committed to further trials, but prices will have to come way down to make it practical on a large scale. The solarisation of roads is tempting though. Visually, it makes roads look better, and there’s no need to cover up farmland with miles and miles of panels. On the other hand, roads lay on the ground, and can’t be angled towards the sun, making them less efficient.
The idea still seems to be a popular one, though, despite the drawbacks. Germany is experimenting with a different method, and in the Netherlands, there are already solar bike paths. But perhaps the most practical solar roadway is in South Korea, where a 20-mile bike highway has been covered with a solar roof, protecting cyclists from sun and rain while powering lights and cars.
We’re in a new solar experimental phase right now, as governments assess way to incorporate practical solar energy with existing infrastructure, and without causing a big environmental impact. And that’s great, because it means that our governments are finally taking this seriously.
[Photos: © COLAS/Joachim Bertrand]Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? It has been more than 20 years since O.J. Simpson went on trial and was found not guilty of the slayings of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. Click through for an update on some of the key players in the trial. Hide Caption 1 of 17
Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? O.J. Simpson: On June 17, 1994, Simpson was charged with the murders of Simpson and Goldman. After a lengthy, high profile trial, he was found not guilty. He later lost a civil trial and was ordered to pay millions in damages. Today, Simpson is behind bars after being convicted in a 2007 kidnapping and robbery. He is scheduled to have a parole hearing on July 20. Hide Caption 2 of 17
Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? Judge Lance Ito: Ito, who made the decision to allow cameras in the courtroom for Simpson's trial and changed the course of televised trials. He retired from the Los Angeles Superior Court bench in January 2015. Hide Caption 3 of 17
Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? Marcia Clark: Clark spent years as a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles. She became a household name as the lead prosecutor in the Simpson trial, one of the only cases she ever lost. Clark has published multiple mystery novels and short stories, with her latest book, "The Competition," came out in July 2014. Hide Caption 4 of 17
Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? Gil Garcetti: The Los Angeles district attorney during the Simpson trial served one more term after the trial despite criticism of how he handled it, but eventually made a career change. Garcetti has created multiple books of photographic essays, including "Reverence for Beauty." Hide Caption 5 of 17
Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? Johnnie Cochran: During Simpson's 1995 trial, Cochran famously quipped, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit," in reminding jurors during his summation that the former star football running back couldn't fit his hand inside a bloody glove found at the scene of the killings. Cochran died on March 29, 2005, at age 67, in his home in Los Angeles from an inoperable brain tumor. Hide Caption 6 of 17
Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? Robert Shapiro: Part of Simpson's "dream team" legal defense, he went on to write best-selling legal books and offer legal analysis for news programs. Shapirio also co-founded do-it-yourself legal website LegalZoom and in memory of his son, who died of an overdose, founded the Brent Shapiro Foundation. Hide Caption 7 of 17
Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? F. Lee Bailey: Bailey was the "dream team" attorney who pointed out racist statements by prosecution witness Det. Mark Fuhrman. Bailey later was disbarred in Massachusetts and Florida for misconduct, and as of 2014 had given up seeking readmission to the bar. He spends his days flying airplanes and helicopters. Hide Caption 8 of 17
Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? Robert Kardashian: A close friend of Simpson and an attorney who would go on to participate in the trial as part of Simpson's defense team. Kardashian died at age 59 in 2003 from esophageal cancer. His ex-wife, Kris, and his children, Kourtney, Kim, Khloe and Rob, became television stars with their reality show, "Keeping Up With the Kardashians." Hide Caption 9 of 17
Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? Alan Dershowitz: Dershowitz played a major role in Simpson's defense team. He retired in 2014 after 50 years of teaching at Harvard University. Dershowitz has written 30 books. His legal autobiography, "Taking The Stand: My Life in the Law," came out in October 2013.
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Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? Mark Fuhrman: The former Los Angeles Police Department detective gave testimony about finding the infamous bloody glove, but the defense tried to paint Fuhrman as a racist who planted the glove to frame Simpson. He lied about using racial slurs and pleaded no contest to perjury charges. He is a forensic and crime scene expert for FOX News.
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Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? Kato Kaelin: Kaelin lived in Simpson's guest house at the time of the murders, and he was called to the stand as a witness during the trial. Since the trial, Kaelin has done some acting, hosts his own show in Beverly Hills and is part of a clothing line called "Kato's Kouch Potatoes." Hide Caption 12 of 17
Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? Fred Goldman: Ron Goldman's mourning father was outspoken in demanding justice for his son. He filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Simpson in 1997 after Simpson was cleared of criminal charges in the murders. That civil suit found Simpson liable for the deaths, and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages. Hide Caption 13 of 17
Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? Kim Goldman: Ronald Goldman's sister, Kim, testified during the trial. In May 2014, Goldman wrote a book about her brother's death and her experiences with the trial, telling CNN it had taken the last decade-plus years for her to find her voice. Hide Caption 14 of 17
Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? Denise Brown: Nicole Brown Simpson's sister, Denise, testified in the murder trial that her sister was an abused wife. In 2010, Brown started a group for public speakers on domestic violence, sexual assault, mental health and more, called The Elite Speaker's Bureau, Inc. Hide Caption 15 of 17
Photos: O.J. Simpson trial: Where are they now? Allan Park: Park was the limousine driver who drove Simpson to the Los Angeles airport the night of the murders. He testified in the trial. To avoid pressure he felt from the media and fears he developed about retaliation for his testimony, he discreetly moved in with family on Catalina Island for seven years. Hide Caption 16 of 17About the author
(NewsTarget) Maybe you have a childhood memory of forgetting to clean your fish tank's filter. After all, it's easy to forget a fish tank even has a filter until it's so clogged up it starts to malfunction. Eventually, the tank is covered in slime and the health of your fish begins to fail. This scenario is much like the way we view our liver today. We often overlook the importance of the liver until it begins to adversely affect our health. However, this organ plays a vital role in cleansing, detoxifying and purification on a daily basis. The liver is also where many important nutrients are metabolized. Without a healthy liver, we cannot be healthy.If you want to keep the environment clear and healthy in your fish tank, regular filter maintenance is a must. Similarly, if you want to enjoy vibrant health, maintaining your liver is crucial. When liver health is declining, you may experience a variety of symptoms including fatigue, sluggishness, hormone imbalances, acne, headaches and more.In our literally toxic modern society, maintaining liver health is more important than ever. These natural herbs provide potent results in detoxifying and restoring the liver:Milk Thistle. By far the most famous herb for liver health, milk thistle contains antioxidant flavonoids, which protect liver cells from damage by preventing toxin absorption and enhancing regeneration. Milk thistle is a part of most popular liver tonics, and it can also be ground fresh and sprinkled over food.Artichoke. Thought to have a protective effect on liver cells, artichoke can aid liver regeneration and improve its function. It also supports bile production, which is important for digestion and assimilating valuable nutrients. Some clinical studies show artichoke can lower triglyceride levels, as well.Dandelion. This herb makes an ideal liver treatment because it is highly effective and generally very safe (it is also quite inexpensive). All parts of the flower can be useful, but dandelion root is the most popular liver remedy, while the leaves are known for promoting kidney health Licorice. This remedy was often used in Eastern medicine to treat liver problems. One study reported licorice increased the production of interferon, which may explain this herb's unique ability to defend liver health from harmful toxins.Keep in mind that any of these herbs should be used in conjunction with lifestyle factors which promote liver health, such as avoiding alcohol, caffeine and tobacco; staying active with regular exercise (even walking and yoga are highly beneficial); avoiding processed foods filled with junk sugars and chemical additives; and finally, learning to manage stress and developing healthy sleeping habits.Elizabeth Walling is a freelance writer specializing in health and family nutrition. She is a strong believer in natural living as a way to improve health and prevent modern disease. She enjoys thinking outside of the box and challenging common myths about health and wellness. You can visit her blog to learn more:My first job, while I was in high school, was at the university bookstore in my town. The university had a high-profile sports program and student athletes got scholarships that included the cost of their textbooks. At the end of the semester students often returned books for resale. Many times the athletes’ books were returned unopened, in the original wrapping.
I live for college sports. I get emotional about it; I sometimes weep at old highlight reels played during March Madness, the national college basketball tournament. This stems from growing up in a poor community. The most exciting period of my childhood was the Cinderella-like evolution of the university’s obscure basketball team into a nationally competitive sports dynasty. Only in college sports does this happen, and this is what makes March Madness such a dramatic, uniting spectacle.
But it’s hard to not feel a little ambivalent about the fact that such successes are achieved thanks to the work of unpaid teenagers.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the college sports cartel, makes $1 billion a year in revenue, most of it from March Madness and televising football games. Most of the revenue is distributed to coaches and university athletic departments, but not one cent goes to the athletes themselves.
Each year the tournament sparks calls to pay student athletes, and outrage at the the injustice of the situation. Now former New York Times columnist Joe Nocera has just released a provocative new book detailing the hypocrisy of college sports in America by not paying athletes.
I disagree with him. No doubt student athletes aren’t getting what they deserve. But I don’t believe paying them is the best solution. In fact, it may actually do more harm, because it gives universities permission to continue to short-change athletes on the most valuable compensation they get: their education.
The concept of a student athlete is a good one…
College athletes get scholarships, which means they are, at least in theory, paid in education. That’s far more valuable than whatever salary they might earn as a minor-league professional. Starting minor-league baseball players earn a maximum $1,100 a month for a five-month season, while a college degree increases your earnings by more than $1 million, on average, over your lifetime.
The student-athlete model also avoids a potentially bad market outcome. Many American college football and basketball players aspire to a multi-million-dollar professional career. But fewer than 2% will go pro. Paying student athletes in education means hopeful 17-year-olds have a built-in back-up plan; if they don’t attain fame and fortune, they still have a sensible degree and a path to another career.
Finally, student athletics gives scholarships to people who might not otherwise have the money or the grades to go to college.
…and there’s not much money to pay them anyway…
Despite the nearly $1 billion the NCAA pumps back into college sports, university athletic programs aren’t flush with cash. In 2013 (pdf) the typical university in the Football Bowl Subdivision (the big money-making division) spent more than it brought in; the median loss was $11.6 million. Only a few schools, with very successful football teams, turn a profit most years. And just barely. The most profitable sports program netted just $200,000 in 2013.
Nearly all the revenue comes from two sports, men’s football and men’s basketball. These do typically make a profit, but again, not a large one. Median men’s football profits are about $3 million a year, and basketball just $300,000.
So what’s that $1 billion revenue paying for? Here’s the breakdown on expenses for the median Football Bowl Subdivision school:
The largest share of the budget goes to paying employees—mostly the coaches for the high-revenue sports. The median coaching salary budget is $4.5 million for football (there are normally several coaches) and $1.8 million for basketball.
The rest of the money subsidizes other men’s sports (lacrosse, soccer, fencing) and all women’s sports. Paying student athletes in high-revenue sports would therefore mean eliminating some other sports scholarships or programs. And even if those were cut (probably impossible because of title IX, which ensures no gender discrimination) and coaches were paid more like professors, the money still needs to be split among a university’s average of 118 football players and 16 basketball players. It doesn’t add up to the lavish salaries professional athletes are paid.
Also, it’s not clear who would be paid what. A small fraction of players, the ones destined for fame and fortune, win games, are worth more, and bring in more revenue. Right now, by being paid in education—and the exposure necessary to secure a pro contract—they effectively subsidize the weaker players.
…but they are not getting the education they need
Of course the student athlete model only works if the education is valuable and athletes benefit from it. And there’s evidence, as I saw in those of piles of unopened textbooks, that many do not.
Student athletes face grueling hours between team practices, games, and carrying a full course load. It would be a struggle for even the best student, and many elite athletes come to university ill-prepared for a college curriculum.
My experience with the textbooks isn’t just anecdotal: There are numerous reports of athletes not writing their papers, taking fake classes, or studying subjects with dubious academic merit. Among students who enrolled in 2008—the most recent data available—student athletes overall graduated at a slightly higher rate than average, but in some sports (pdf), particularly men’s basketball, they did far worse:
(An aside: The NCAA argues the numbers above are misleading because they show only the share of students who graduated from the university they first enrolled in. It publishes (pdf, p. 6) a statistic called the “graduation success rate,” which includes students who graduated after transferring to another university, and is quite a bit higher. But the NCAA doesn’t calculate that rate for non-student athletes, making a fair comparison impossible.)
And, disparity or no disparity, those student athletes who don’t graduate are getting an education that is near-worthless. That means that their compensation for having given several years of their lives to student athletics is effectively zero.
On top of that, sports take a toll on their bodies, and if they are injured they might lose their scholarships and health care.
These failures won’t be solved by paying student athletes a small salary. Here is a better way to spend the NCAA revenue:
Guaranteed scholarships for five years, even if the student gets injured
Allow those in high-revenue sports to take fewer classes during the season
Hold student athletes accountable for taking real classes and earn decent grades
Offer them the academic support they need to learn, not just to barely scrape through with a pass
Placing a higher value on education and guaranteeing student athletes an extra year over the four-year norm for a US college course means they can focus on getting a good degree if a pro career doesn’t materialize.
Paying student athletes would make them into employees. That undermines the very concept of student athletics and also gives universities permission to short-change the players. It’s better to fully embrace the concept of student athlete, and hold universities accountable for the education they promised to provide.Well this isn't good.
The Daily Wire, the news and commentary portal that is more accurately described as anti-liberal rather than actively conservative, has released itself an adorable, profoundly bigoted Columbus Day cartoon. Quick, watch it before it disappears from the web forever (which it honestly probably should).
Advertisement:
In honor of Indigenous People's Day, formerly known as #ColumbusDay: pic.twitter.com/Z9ver8f4nN — The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) October 9, 2017
This peachy, little morsel of all that is bad in the hearts of Americans spins off of the increasingly popular idea that Christopher Columbus — who was recognized as a genocidal slave master in his lifetime — should be defended from the "political correctness" of those who actually acknowledge his written history.
It also plays with the intertwined notion that he saved the indigenous people he subjected to bondage and slaughter from something much, much worse. Cannibalism gets a particularly dramatic starring role here. The 400-plus years of genocide that followed Columbus' establishment of settlements in the Caribbean gets no mention. Honestly, if not for the outsized, Technicolor racism on display, it would be tiresome.
Of course, Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro — who, remember, left Breitbart with chin held high due to moral objections — is already out there trying to spin all this as satire, again proving that the right side of the media spectrum doesn't understand what that word means.
—@benshapiro tells me he's on vacation/didn't green light @realDailyWire's Columbus Day vid, but says it's satire & should be judged as such pic.twitter.com/LloK7nyenH — Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) October 9, 2017
The website of editor Ben Shapiro is far from alone in offering steaming-hot plates of Columbus Day takeage today. It's somewhat of a sport at this point. Just take a look at the Federalist's nifty swing, an essay framing the ascendant use of Indigenous People's Day as a celebration of, yep, cannibalism.
Celebrate slavery, cannibalism, and mass human sacrifice? No thanks. https://t.co/jdZT31KuyL — The Federalist (@FDRLST) October 9, 2017
Whereas Columbus Day was, in years past, perhaps an annual — if highly questionable — moment for Italian Americans to hold their heads high, in the Trump era it now seems a holiday for conservative editors and pundits best celebrated by edging up to the abyss and diving right in.Skip to: #20 / #10 To call dubstep close to FACT’s heart is an understatement. Along with grime, it was the key UK genre on the rise when we were an up-and-coming London magazine, and our early issues featured some of the first interviews with key dubstep artists like Digital Mystikz (and had reviews penned by Kode9). As we shifted our focus to the FACT website in 2008-2009, artists like Untold, Joker, Zomby and Ikonika were pulling the genre in new directions before the whole thing ended up somewhere else entirely. There’s a reason it’s taken us so long to do this list. So before we drown in a chorus of “where’s [insert record here]?!” tweets, here are some of the restrictions we put on it. First, because dubstep was such a vinyl-focused genre in both its principles and practicalities, we wanted to focus on records. Both A-sides and B-sides are taken into account when ranking these releases, and if something was only released as part of an album, it doesn’t count (so no ‘E-Trips’, no ‘Intensive Snare’ and, sorry folks, no ‘Archangel’). Second, although there are records on this list that musically have as much in common with grime and garage as they do dubstep, we tried to make sure that everything included fits into the dubstep world/movement/scene before it did any other – whether that’s due to the label it was on, the DJs that were playing it, or simply where it made most impact. When it came to records like ‘Hyph Mngo’, ‘CMYK’ and ‘Maybes’, we decided that they were too far removed from dubstep to qualify. Third, timeframe. We’ve deliberately focused on dub |
round out the types of protocols.
The physical layers and protocols can be combined in various creative ways by the device makers. For example, Synaptics has devices that use RMI4 over HID over I2C. Some versions of the Thinkpad trackstick use PS/2 over RMI4 over SMBus. Logitech also gets "quite creative" with devices that use HID++ in a multi-step combination that converts to and from HID twice. His final example was one that he would not explain: "WTF over GTFO over SNAFU".
In order to figure out which physical layer and protocol are being used by a device, kernel messages should be consulted:
$ dmesg | grep input
This will show the devices, how they are connected, and the protocol(s) they are using.
If the device uses the HID protocol, the hid-replay tool can be used to show the raw events from the device before processing by the kernel. It works with any transport and can replay the events for debugging purposes. The hid-recorder tool is used to record the events. It has an interface much like the other tools, with a list of devices to choose from. If the kernel is doing the wrong thing with the raw events, it is time to blame him, Tissoires said.
For non-HID devices, the usbmon kernel facility can be used to capture the raw events from the USB transport. There is no provision for replaying events, however. For PS/2 devices, ps2emu (the subject of another XDC talk) can be used to record and play back raw events. Even though PS/2 is a rather old transport, 99% of laptops still use it internally, he said. Other transport layers will require specialized tools or hacks to the kernel to get raw event data.
One question that is often asked is whether there are regression tests for the input stack. The answer is "yes and no". Libinput does have regression tests. Testing X without libinput, though, relies on the X.Org integration test suite (XIT), which starts a new X server for each test, so it is not very efficient. That limits the amount of testing that is done. The kernel HID drivers have a basic wrapper for running regression tests, hid-test, but it is not run much any more, Tissoires said.
When reporting an input bug, there are a few guidelines that should be followed. First off, provide the full dmesg output. Second, provide a recording using evemu that shows the bug triggering (and, if possible, not much more). Lastly, "do not be afraid" if the input developers ask for additional information and recordings, as it is all part of the process for tracking down these kinds of bugs.
[I would like to thank the X.Org Foundation for travel assistance to Toronto for XDC.]
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Drivers for graphics hardware are an important part of the graphics stack, so it was not unexpected that the 2015 X.Org Developers Conference had several status updates for free graphics drivers. Three projects had talks: the Nouveau driver for NVIDIA devices, the amdgpu driver for AMD hardware, and the Etnaviv driver for Vivante GPUs. Each presented an update on its progress and plans. Something of a summary for each presentation follows; those interested in more detail can consult the program page for links to the slides and videos from each of the talks.
Nouveau
Alexandre Courbot of NVIDIA and Martin Peres of Intel started their talk by clarifying the role their companies play in the project. For Peres, the Nouveau work is strictly done in his spare time and has no connection to Intel at all. Courbot is paid by NVIDIA to work on Nouveau, but that work is mostly focused on supporting Tegra devices, so NVIDIA has "not taken over Nouveau development", he said.
They noted that the last status update was at FOSDEM in 2014 (more than a year and a half earlier) and that there have been many improvements since then. A big refactoring of the kernel driver core architecture that had been started back in the Linux 3.7 days was completed. The effort was led by Ben Skeggs and will be finished as of the upcoming Linux 4.3 kernel.
In addition, support for the NVIDIA virtualization interface has been added. The goal is to allow GPU virtualization with low performance impact. Samuel Pitoiset has added support for performance counters to the driver (which was the subject of another talk). Reclocking support, which allows for different performance levels of the hardware, has been added for more GPUs. That has mostly been for Kepler GPUs, but Maxwell reclocking had been added that morning, Peres said.
There are some proposals from NVIDIA that have been merged or are in progress. Explicit handling of coherent objects between the CPU and GPU has been added to the driver. Objects can be marked so that the driver will keep them cache-coherent between the two processors even on buses that are not guaranteed to be coherent. There is a new submit ioctl() that allows user space to handle synchronization, which is not yet merged but would bring performance improvements, Courbot said.
Peres noted that NVIDIA releases a lot of graphics cards, which makes it hard to keep up on the user-space (Mesa) side. Maxwell support was added to Mesa back in mid-2014. Beyond that, support for OpenGL 3.3 for NVIDIA hardware came in Mesa 10.1, and OpenGL 4.1 support came in Mesa 11. Upcoming work includes more graphics-related performance counter support, including an API to expose the counters to other programs.
On the device-dependent X (DDX) side of things, xf86-video-nouveau has dropped support for the Glamor 2D driver. Those who want that support should use the xf86-video-modesetting driver instead.
Courbot said that support for the Tegra K1 (GK20A) was released in January 2014. That code came from NVIDIA and surprised many people at the time. By October 2014, there was "out of the box" Mesa support for the hardware and the patches for the kernel driver are now upstream. Basic kernel support for the Tegra X1 (GM20B) was merged for 4.3 and more features are planned.
Applications that use kernel mode setting (KMS), such as Weston and X, assume that the display components (which send graphical data to the screen) and render components (which produce off-screen data from the graphics commands) are the same device. That is generally true for discrete GPUs (dGPUs), but is not true for mobile devices like Tegra. That means that there is still work to do before applications will display properly on those devices. Courbot suggested that render nodes, which were added a few years back, should be used, though that doesn't completely solve the problems.
First-generation Maxwell GPUs (GM107) were supported initially back in March 2014 using NVIDIA's firmware. By April 2015, open-source firmware had been released and was supported by the driver. But support for the second generation (GM204+) has been stalled for all of 2015, waiting for the release of signed firmware by NVIDIA. Those GPUs will not load firmware unless it is signed with an NVIDIA key.
The problem is wider than just Maxwell, as newer Tegra GPUs also have this requirement. Courbot said that NVIDIA will be releasing signed firmware but that it hasn't happened yet. The code to load signed firmware is mostly working at this point, but there is an internal workflow issue at NVIDIA that needs to be resolved in order to release the firmware. It is normally linked into the binary driver, but there needs to be a separate release of the firmware for Nouveau.
There has been a lot more cooperation between NVIDIA and Nouveau over the last few years. Beyond official support for Tegra GPUs, there is ongoing work to provide generated header files with proper register names and descriptions from the NVIDIA documentation. In addition, there is some open documentation [FTP] available, though it is "still pretty scarce", Courbot said. There is a (non-public) mailing list where Nouveau developers can ask questions and get answers, which sometimes results in additional documentation being written and released. There is still room for improvement, but the relationship between NVIDIA and Nouveau has gotten better and better over the years.
amdgpu
Alex Deucher and Jammy Zhou from AMD gave an overview of the status of the amdgpu project, which is meant to unify AMD's Linux driver offerings. The driver is taking advantage of the existing open-source infrastructure, such as the TTM memory manager, direct rendering manager (DRM) subsystem, Glamor, and so on.
The amdgpu driver is based on the current upstream Radeon driver. There will effectively be two versions of the driver, one that is all open source and a "pro" version that contains some closed-source components. The closed components are an OpenGL user-mode driver (UMD) and two pieces that will eventually become open source: OpenCL and Vulkan support. There is already Gallium3D-based OpenCL support for the open-source driver.
The amdgpu driver has ioctl() interfaces based on those in the Radeon driver for command submission and memory management. It uses the common mode-setting ioctl() interface. There is a libdrm_amdgpu library that provides a common interface for both the open and closed versions of the driver. The FirePro add-on, which adds "workstation class" features, will be open source (though it may not be accepted upstream) and will only be used by the driver if "absolutely necessary". There is a Mesa user-space driver for OpenGL support.
The initial driver was merged into Linux 4.2, supporting Volcanic Islands GPUs and with experimental support for Sea Islands hardware. Support for Fiji GPUs was added in Linux 4.3. Initial OpenGL support for Volcanic Islands hardware was merged for Mesa 11.0. In addition, initial support for libdrm_amdgpu was merged into libdrm 2.4.63.
Plans for the future include enabling the software GPU scheduler by default, adding a new display component, and adding a new power component called PowerPlay. Support for more graphics hardware is also planned. Both the currently closed OpenCL and Vulkan components will be turned into open-source projects that will be run by AMD. They will share their code bases with the closed-source versions for other operating systems, so they will likely remain as standalone projects.
Etnaviv
Lucas Stach, a kernel and graphics developer at Pengutronix, presented on the Etnaviv project, which supports the Vivante IP core used by multiple different systems-on-chip (SoCs). There are several hardware vendors that are using the Vivante core, but probably the most interesting are Marvell and Freescale, both of which have multiple SoC lines using those GPUs.
The project started as a reverse-engineering effort by Wladimir J. van der Laan with contributions from Christian Gmeiner and others. A lot of the commands and the instruction set are known at this point, so Stach did not have to do any reverse engineering of his own.
Vivante hardware has separate cores for 2D, 3D, and vector graphics, which can be combined in various ways on a particular SoC. The 3D core is straightforward; it is modeled after the DirectX 9 pipeline with the addition of unified shaders. Newer and bigger models of the hardware add the ability to run programs using the OpenCL embedded profile.
The different ways that the cores can be arranged makes a difference in how the kernel driver is implemented. One configuration would have a single fetch engine (FE), which is just a "fancy DMA engine", that feeds all three cores. That single FE is exposed to user space as a single channel for rendering.
Another configuration has three FEs, one per core, so 3D acceleration could be handled in parallel with 2D or vector graphics rendering. Each FE is exposed as a separate channel, but that makes synchronization trickier. There may also be multiple "pixel pipes"—the component that runs shader programs and writes out the data. That allows for parallelism and better performance in rendering; it is somewhat akin to the scalable link interface multi-GPU support from NVIDIA. Stach has never seen hardware that has that capability, but the obfuscated GPL driver that Vivante has released supports it.
There are a number of reasons to want a FOSS driver for Vivante GPUs beyond the obvious "FOSS drivers are awesome" reason, Stach said. Integrating vendor drivers is a serious pain point for his customers (and others). The obfuscated kernel driver is huge and only works with Linux 3.14; it also requires closed-source user-space libraries. No security audit is possible for the code and fixes do not necessarily come in a timely fashion.
For these reasons, his customers demand open drivers where they can fix bugs on their own. The Freescale i.MX6, for example, is used in a lot of automotive and industrial applications. It has a fifteen-year guaranteed availability, so the last newly-built devices using the chip may ship in 2027, as it was introduced in 2012. Running the vendor driver may well be impossible by then.
The kernel driver work was started by Gmeiner in 2014 as a clone of the freedreno driver adapted to the Vivante hardware. Stach cleaned it up and sent it out as an RFC in April 2015. That received some comments that have been addressed and it is now out for additional comments.
Since the first version, the user-space API has been significantly reworked to avoid a problem where the command stream could be changed after the driver had validated it. The cache handling for non-cache-coherent architectures has been fixed. GPU suspend and resume are now working and there have been lots of stability improvements. Etnaviv can now replace the "fat and obfuscated" Vivante kernel driver with one that has readable code and is much smaller—instead of 60,000 lines of code, Etnaviv is around 6,500.
There is still work to be done on the kernel side, including using the dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) available in the cores. The command-stream validation needs to be improved and support for per-client MMU contexts needs to be added; both have security implications. If support for the MMUv2 interface on some hardware can be added, it would remove the need for the command-stream validation on those platforms. Exposing the performance counters to user space is needed as well.
Russell King has gotten the xf86-video-armada driver working using libetnaviv on top of the Vivante kernel driver. That uses the 2D GPU and provides acceleration for some common operations. Gmeiner started a libdrm for Etnaviv (etna-drm) as another freedreno clone. It has been updated for the new user-space API and some cleanups have been done, so it is ready for review. There is also a Mesa driver that is able to run simple applications—including Quake 3.
As can be seen, there has been quite a bit of progress in the world of free drivers. It is not all that long ago that open-source graphics drivers were essentially non-existent, but that has changed substantially—and that process appears to be accelerating. Some surprising vendors are participating and even the world of mobile graphics is seeing major progress these days. It is all rather heartening to see.
[I would like to thank the X.Org Foundation for travel assistance to Toronto for XDC.]
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Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly EditionTotal investment for the plant is estimated at USD 188 million—with Google providing tax equity, Prudential Capital Group providing debt financing, and Scatec Solar providing sponsor equity. The power plant will be wholly-owned by a partnership jointly owned by Google and Scatec Solar, which structured and executed the financing for the project. Scatec Solar will manage and operate the plant when it goes into operation.
"We are very pleased to finalize financing for the Red Hills project and start construction on our largest project in North America," says Scatec Solar CEO Raymond Carlsen.
Google has signed agreements to fund over $1.5 billion in renewable energy investments across three continents with a total planned capacity of more than 2.5 GW (gigawatts). This agreement represents the 18th renewable energy investment project for Google and supports its continued push towards a clean, low carbon energy future.
Prudential Capital Group, a Prudential Financial asset management business, provided term financing for the project. "We have supported Scatec Solar for the last four years through the development process and are excited to team up with Google to execute this transaction," said Ric Abel, Managing Director, power, Prudential Capital Group's Energy Finance Group.
The Utah Red Hills Renewable Energy Park, set to be built on a site with excellent solar irradiation, will generate around 210 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year, which will be fed into the grid under a twenty-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with PacifiCorp's Rocky Mountain Power, according to the utility's obligation under the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act. When operational by the end of 2015, the plant will be Utah's largest solar energy generation facility, generating enough energy to power approximately 18,500 homes annually. Based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates, it will produce enough renewable power to prevent nearly 145 thousand tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually—the equivalent to not burning 156 million pounds of coal each year.
"This investment from industry leaders Google and Prudential Capital Group represents a major step forward in providing Rocky Mountain Power access to the superb solar power potential available in Southern Utah," said Luigi Resta, Managing Director of Scatec Solar North America.
The ground-mounted photovoltaic solar facility is being developed on approximately 650 acres of privately-owned land in Parowan, Utah, will deploy approximately 325,000 PV modules on a single-axis tracking system and will interconnect to an existing transmission line.
About Scatec Solar
Scatec Solar is an integrated independent power producer, aiming to make solar a sustainable and affordable source of energy worldwide. Scatec Solar develops, builds, owns and operates solar power plants, and will in 2014 deliver power from 220 MW in the Czech Republic, South Africa and Rwanda. The company is in strong growth and has a solid pipeline of projects under development in Africa, US, Asia, Middle East and Europe. Scatec Solar is headquartered in Oslo, Norway and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol 'SSO'. For more on Scatec Solar, please visit our home page www.scatecsolar.com
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150107/167575
SOURCE Scatec Solar
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http://www.scatecsolar.comWHILE the world worries about Greece, there’s an even bigger problem closer to home: China.
A stock market crash there has seen $3.2 trillion wiped from the value of Chinese shares in just three weeks, triggering an emergency response from the government and warnings of “monstrous” public disorder.
• LATEST: CHINESE INVESTORS FLEE FOR SAFETY
And the effects for Australia could be serious, affecting our key commodity exports and sparking the beginning of a period of recession-like conditions.
“State-owned newspapers have used their strongest language yet, telling people ‘not to lose their minds’ and ‘not to bury themselves in horror and anxiety’. [Our] positive measures will take time to produce results,” writes IG Markets.
“If China does not find support today, the disorder could be monstrous.”
In an extraordinary move, the People’s Bank of China has begun lending money to investors to buy shares in the flailing market. The Wall Street Journal reports this “liquidity assistance” will be provided to the regulator-owned China Securities Finance Corp, which will lend the money to brokerages, which will in turn lend to investors.
The dramatic intervention marks the first time funds from the central bank have been directed anywhere other than the banks, signalling serious concern from authorities about the crisis.
At the same time, Chinese authorities are putting a halt to any new stock listings. The market regulator announced on Friday it would limit initial public offerings — which disrupt the rest of the market — in an attempt to curb plunging share prices.
While the exact amount of assistance hasn’t been revealed, the WSJ reports no upper limit has been set.
All short-selling — the practice of betting that stocks will fall — has been banned, and Chinese media has rushed to reassure citizens.
Yesterday, shares in big state companies soared in response to the but many others sank as jittery small investors tried to cut their losses, Associated Press reports. The market benchmark Shanghai Composite closed up 2.4 percent but still was down 27 percent from its June 12 peak.
Experts fear it could turn into a full-blown crash introducing even more uncertainty into global markets as Europe teeters on the edge of a potential eurozone exit by Greece, after Sunday’s controversial referendum.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR AUSTRALIA?
For Australia, the market crash in China is likely to impact earnings on key exports iron ore and coal, further slashing government revenue, while also putting downward pressure on the Australian dollar.
Jordan Eliseo, chief economist with ABC Bullion, said it was important to remember that the amount of wealth Chinese citizens have tied up in the stock market is relatively minor compared with western investors.
Stocks only make up about 8 per cent of household wealth in China, compared with around 20 per cent in developed nations.
“The market crash there is generating headlines, but it’s not going to have the same impact as a comparable crash would in a developed market,” he said.
“What it means for Australia, though, is it’s very clear there are some serious imbalances in the Chinese economy, and the rate of growth they’ve enjoyed in the past is over. There’s no question our export earnings are going to take another hit.”
Mr Eliseo predicts Australia is likely to experience “recession-like” conditions such as negative wage growth for many years to come. “I believe that’s going to be the new norm,” he said.
WHAT ARE THEY DOING ABOUT IT?
On Saturday, China’s 21 largest brokerage firms announced that they would invest more than $25.35 billion in the country’s stock markets to curb the declines.
The brokers will spend at least 120 billion yuan ($25.75 billion) on so-called “blue chip” exchange traded funds, the Securities Association of China said in a statement after an emergency meeting in Beijing.
On Friday the Shanghai Composite Index closed down 5.77 per cent to end at 3,686.92 points. Since peaking on June 12 Shanghai has dropped nearly 29 per cent, which Bloomberg News said was its biggest three-week fall since November 1992.
The Shanghai market had swelled by 150 per cent in the last 12 months and experts had expected a sharp correction, though the rate at which it has occurred is unnerving many.
Middle-class Chinese investors, encouraged by the government, have been pumping money into the stock market. The WSJ quoted 51-year-old Li Ping, who sold her 7 million yuan ($1.5 million) Beijing apartment to plough 4 million yuan into stocks.
Ms Li said she thought the market would stabilise and rise again. “The fund that I have invested in is very mature and professional,” she said.
CRACKDOWN AS PANIC TRIGGERS ‘SUICIDE’ RUMOURS
Underscoring growing jitters amid the three-week sell-off, police in Beijing detained a man on Sunday for allegedly spreading a rumour online that a person jumped to their death in the city’s financial district due to China’s precarious stock markets.
The 29-year-old man detained was identified by the surname Tian, and is a manager at a technology and science company in Beijing, police said in a post on their official microblog.
Police said Tian’s alleged posting of the rumour took place Friday and called on internet users to obey laws and regulations, not to believe and spread rumours, and to cooperate with police.
The state-run Xinhua news agency reported that Tian allegedly posted the rumours with video clips and screenshots Friday afternoon.
The post, which is said to have gone viral, “provoked emotional responses among stock investors who suffered losses over the past weeks”, Xinhua said.
Xinhua added that a police investigation showed that the video in question had been shot on Friday morning in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu where a man had jumped to his death. Local police there were investigating that case, Xinhua said.
The original post was unavailable Sunday on China’s tightly controlled social media, where authorities are quick to delete controversial material."Mercury in vaccines is a conspiracy theory!
Feel that headache after a vaccine? That's the feeling of chemicals eating your brain
Why doesn't the vaccine industry offer "clean" vaccines free from all toxic additives?
Vaccines are designed with chemical additives to poison the population, not to protect the population
(NaturalNews) Have you ever wondered what's really in vaccines? According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's vaccine additives page, all the following ingredients are routinely used as vaccine additives:- A light metal that causes dementia and Alzheimer's disease. You should never inject yourself with aluminum.- Chemicals that promote superbugs, which are deadly antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria that are killing tens of thousands of Americans every year.- A "pickling" chemical used to preserve cadavers. It's highly toxic to the nervous system, causing blindness, brain damage and seizures. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services openly admits that formaldehyde causes cancer. You can see this yourself on thewebsite, featuring its 12th Report on Carcinogens There, the formaldehyde Fact Sheet completely neglects to mention formaldehyde in vaccines. This is the "dirty little secret" of government and the vaccine industry. It does state, however, that "...formaldehyde causes myeloid leukemia, and rare cancers including sinonasal and nasopharyngeal cancer."- A neurotoxic chemical called an "excitotoxin." It causes brain neurons to be overexcited to the point of death. MSG is toxic even when consumed in foods, where it causes migraine headaches and endocrine system damage. You should NEVER inject MSG into your body. But that's what health workers do when they inject you with vaccines - A methyl mercury compound that causes severe, permanent nervous system damage. Mercury is highly toxic to the brain. You should never touch, swallow or inject mercury at any dose. There is no safe dose of mercury! Doctors and vaccine pushers LIE to you and say there is no mercury in vaccines. Even the CDC readily admits vaccine still contain mercury (thimerosal).In addition,admits in its own documents that:• Vaccinations "...may produce small but measurable increases in blood levels of mercury."• "Thimerosal was found to cross the blood-brain and placenta barriers."• The "...hazards of thimerosal include neurotoxicity and nephrotoxicity." (This means brain and kidney toxicity.)• "...similar toxicological profiles between ethylmercury and methylmercury raise the possibility that neurotoxicity may also occur at low doses of thimerosal."• "... there are no existing guidelines for safe exposure to ethylmercury, the metabolite of thimerosal."• "...the assessment determined that the use of thimerosal as a preservative in vaccines might result in the intake of mercury during the first six months of life that exceeded recommended guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)..."•..."In the U.S., thimerosal is still present as preservative in some vaccines given to young children, as well as certain biological products recommended during pregnancy. Thimerosal remains a preservative in some vaccines administered to adolescents and adults. In addition, thimerosal continues to be used internationally as a vaccine preservative."The report then goes on to say that the FDA studies thimerosal and somehow found it to be perfectly safe. It also states that vaccine manufactures are "working" to remove thimerosal from vaccines, but in reality it's still being manufactured right into the vaccines.By the way, this report also reveals that the FDA requires preservatives like thimerosal only in so-called "multi-dose" vaccines -- vials that contain more than one dose of the vaccine. Drug companies could, if they wanted to, produce "clean" single-dose vaccines without any mercury / thimerosal. But they choose not to because it's more profitable to product mercury-containing multi-dose vaccines. As the report admits, "Preservatives are not required for products formulated in singledose vials. Multidose vials are preferred by some physicians and health clinics because they are often less expensive per vaccine dose and require less storage space."So the reason why your child is being injected with vaccine boils down to health care officesI've been told by numerous "skeptics" and doctors that there's no such thing as mercury in vaccines, and that any such suggestion is nothing more than a "wild conspiracy theory." That just goes to show you how ignorant all the skeptics, doctors and health professionals really are: They have NO CLUE what's in the vaccines they're dishing out to people!All they have to do is visit this CDC vaccine additives web page, which openly admits to these chemicals being used in vaccines right now. It's not a conspiracy theory, it turns out. It's the status quo of modern-day vaccine manufacturing!And just in case the CDC removes that page, here's a screen shot, taken October 22, 2012, showing exactly what was on the CDC vaccine additives page:Now, consider this: The most common side effect of a vaccine injection is a headache. The CDC admits that over 30 percent of those receiving vaccines experience headaches or migraines. Gee, think about it: What could possibly be in vaccines that would cause headaches, migraines and brain damage?Ummm, how about the mercury, the formaldehyde, the aluminum and the MSG!Even if you believe in the theory of vaccines as a helpful way to train the immune system to recognize pathogens, why would anyone -- especially a doctor -- think it's okay to inject human beings with mercury, MSG, formaldehyde and aluminum?The argument of the vaccine pushers is that each vaccine only contains a tiny dose of these highly toxic substances, and therefore it's okay to be injected with them. But this argument makes a fatal error: U.S. children are now receiving over twenty vaccines by the time they're six years old! What's the cumulative effect of all these vaccines, plus the mercury from dental fillings and dietary sources? What's the effect of injected mercury on an immune-suppressed child living in a state of chronic nutritional deficiency?Scientists don't know that answer because such studies have never been conducted. So they pretend that nothing bad will happen and keep pushing more and more vaccines on infants, children and even expectant mothers. They're playing Russian roulette with our children, in other words, where every injection could cause a seizure, coma, autism or death.If vaccines are supposed to be good for you, why do they contain so many additives that are BAD for you? You wouldn't want to eat mercury in your tuna fish. You wouldn't want MSG in your sandwich, and you certainly wouldn't want formaldehyde in your soda. So why would you allow yourself to be injected with these deadly substances?And just as importantly, why wouldn't the vaccine industry offer CLEAN vaccines? Without any brain-damaging additives?Think about it: When you buy health food, you want that health food to have NO mercury, NO MSG, NO aluminum and certainly no formaldehyde. No sane person would knowingly eat those neurotoxic poisons. And yet, astonishingly, those same people literally line up to be INJECTED with those exact same brain-damaging poisons, with the justification that, somehow, "This injection is good for me!"Absurdly, the vaccine industry says these toxic ingredients are intentionally added to vaccines to make them work better! Yes, that's the reason: Mercury makes vaccines work better, they insist. Click here to see a video news report actually claiming mercury makes vaccines work better, granting children "improved behavior and mental performance."No, I'm not making this up. The mainstream media literally claims that. Vitamins might kill you, they say, but mercury is good for you!But hold on a second: I thought the theory behind vaccines was that weakened viruses would give the immune system a rehearsal so that it would build up antibodies to the real thing. Where does mercury, MSG or formaldehyde fit anywhere in that theory? Does your body benefit in any way from exposure to formaldehyde? Of course not. The very idea is ludicrous.So are there such things are clean vaccines? I challenge you to try to find one. They simply don't exist for the population at large.that have absolutely nothing to do with the science of vaccinations, but everything to do with autism, Alzheimer's disease, early-onset dementia, immune suppression, and the mass dumbing down of brain function.That's the real purpose of vaccines: Not to "protect children" with any sort of immunity, but to inject the masses with a toxic cocktail of chemicals that cause brain damage and infertility: Mercury, MSG, formaldehyde and aluminum. The whole point of this is to dumb the population down so that nobody has the presence of mind to wake up and start thinking for themselves.This is precisely why the smartest, most "awake" people still remaining in society today are the very same ones who say NO to vaccines. Only their brains are still intact and operating with some level of awareness.The system wants you to stay dumbed down, of course. It makes you easier to control. Watch George Carlin brilliantly explain the concept of "Obedient Workers" (explicit):Gabriel joined Villarreal from Brazilian club Vitoria in 2013
Arsenal have been granted a work permit for Villarreal defender Gabriel Paulista and are hoping to confirm his signing in the next 24 hours.
The La Liga club have said an agreement has been reached in principle for the £15m-rated 24-year-old.
Gunners striker Joel Campbell, 22, is moving the opposite way on loan, according to the Spanish club.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has said the uncapped Brazilian has "good potential" and could adapt to English football.
Wenger confirmed on Thursday that the Premier League club were in talks over the signing of the centre-back, who joined Villarreal from Brazilian club Vitoria in 2013.
After the Gunners' 3-2 FA Cup win at Brighton on Sunday, Wenger added: "Paulista is a central defender but he can also play on the flanks.
"He is tall and pacy. He has a good chance to adapt to English football."
Speaking on his video blog, Arsenal striker Campbell said he is "very excited with this new opportunity".
Campbell, who Villarreal claim will join on loan until the end of the season, signed for Arsenal in 2011 from Costa Rican club Deportivo Saprissa SAD.
He has since been loaned out to French club FC Lorient, Spanish side Real Betis and Greek outfit Olympiacos.
Campbell helped Costa Rica reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and has made 10 appearances - without scoring a goal - for Arsenal this season.Before the construction of President Donald Trump's wall on the US-Mexico border can begin, the government must acquire land along the border that is currently privately owned.
The move might lead to legal battles with Americans such as the Flores family in Los Ebanos, Texas.
They settled along the Rio Grande River, just across from Mexico, more than 100 years ago.
The border in this area has been a hot spot for unauthorised crossings in the past, with migrants using rafts to cross the river.
Aurora Flores Trigo is among 58 heirs to her grandmother's land.
In January, she received a letter entitled a "Declaration of Taking" from the US government stating it was going to seize nearly 5,000 square metres in order to build the border wall.
The letter offered $2,900 in compensation, about the price of a used car.
"If we divide that number to 58, we're going to get 50 dollars each," Flores told Al Jazeera.
READ MORE: Who is really paying for Donald Trump's border wall?
The land also has sentimental value to the family. A tree marks the place where Flores' grandfather died.
In the US, the government has power to take over private property for compelling public reasons.
Trump's budget includes hiring 20 attorneys dedicated to border land acquisition, a sign that the administration is ratcheting up for a legal fight against resistant landowners.
"Whatever he’s doing, he's doing it for the best of the American people. Well, he's destroying some of us," Flores said.Food price rises are mass murder: UN envoy
Posted
Global food price rises are leading to "silent mass murder" and commodities markets have brought "horror" to the world, the United Nations' food envoy has told an Austrian newspaper.
Jean Ziegler, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told Kurier am Sonntag that growth in biofuels, speculation on commodities markets and European Union export subsidies mean the West is responsible for mass starvation in poorer countries.
Mr Ziegler said he was bound to highlight the "madness" of people who think that hunger is down to fate.
"Hunger has not been down to fate for a long time - just as (Karl) Marx thought. It is rather that a murder is behind every victim. This is silent mass murder," he said in an interview.
Mr Ziegler blamed globalisation for "monopolising the riches of the earth" and said multinationals were responsible for a type of "structural violence".
"And we have a herd of market traders, speculators and financial bandits who have turned wild and constructed a world of inequality and horror. We have to put a stop to this," he said.
Mr Ziegler said he believed that one day starving people could rise up against their persecutors.
"It's just as possible as the French Revolution was," he said.
- Reuters
Topics: poverty, community-and-society, austriaThe Department of Justice filed a motion in Washington State federal court on Friday to dismiss its indictment against a child porn site. It wasn't for lack of evidence; it was because the FBI didn't want to disclose details of a hacking tool to the defense as part of discovery. Evidence in United States v. Jay Michaud hinged at least in part on information federal investigators had gathered by exploiting a vulnerability in the Tor anonymity network.
"Because the government remains unwilling to disclose certain discovery related to the FBI’s deployment of a 'Network Investigative Technique' ('NIT') as part of its investigation into the Playpen child pornography site, the government has no choice but to seek dismissal of the indictment," federal prosecutor Annette Hayes wrote in the court filing on Friday. She noted that the DoJ's work to resist disclosing the NIT was part of "an |
of each other's gravity, so the gravitational tug of a passing star can disrupt the system and break it apart.
Inward spiral
But where did the short-period binaries go? In a paper in Astronomy and Astrophysics1, three astronomers in Germany report how they simulated a star cluster resembling that in the Orion Nebula, the best-known stellar nursery. Their model assumes that as two stars close together in a binary system whirl around each other, they interact with the gas in the cluster. The interactions can modify the stars' orbits, causing them to spiral towards each other until they merge and become a single star.
"It was quite astonishing," says Thomas Kaczmarek, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, and a co-author of the paper. "We just took the parameters that we needed from this cluster, and what came out is that we almost perfectly get this period distribution observed in the field."
Steven Stahler, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies star formation, approves of the work. "It's plausible," he says, but adds that proving the idea correct will be difficult. The same gas and dust that cause the close-in binaries to merge also prevent their visible light from reaching Earth. Astronomers must conduct observations using infrared radiation, which penetrates the dust, but often requires space-based observatories to detect.
In one unique case, astronomers have actually watched two stars in the constellation Scorpius spiral together2. The merger sparked a bright flare of light called a red nova, and a similar eruption inside a young star cluster could show that young binaries do indeed merge. However, the Scorpius binary didn't belong to a star cluster, and Stahler thinks that a merger inside a gas-filled cluster might be too gentle to unleash a nova.
Could the Sun have been born as two separate stars that later merged? "It could have happened, but I think it would be a bit far-fetched," says Susanne Pfalzner, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and a co-author of the latest paper. She suspects that a merger would have disturbed the newborn Sun's planet-forming disc, preventing the birth of rocky worlds including Earth.JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Accusations started pouring onto a Facebook page after it was started to share allegations of abuse from patients of a local dental practice.
Tuesday afternoon as the accusations poured in so did protesters, picketing outside the office of Dr. Howard S. Schneider.
Renee Frisch, whose daughter was a patient of Schneider, said her daughter has been traumatized and said that it is the result of his work.
"Every single tooth that he worked on, I had to get redone. She's terrified of the dentist. She's extremely afraid," Frisch said. "He said she had cavities so he filled them up. A couple days later she was complaining that they hurt. I took her back in. The cavities got infected."
Another mother, April Smith, has pictures of her 7-year-old son who she said left the dentist swollen and bruised with busted blood vessels. She said her son was only supposed to receive a filling and a spacer.
"The dentist came out and handed me a bag of several teeth and told me he did multiple fillings. He put in spacers and I was just completely shocked that, why would you do that much work without saying something first?" Smith said.
Schneider said he has been operating his dental practice for 50 years. He said that he always gets the consent of parents before any procedure takes place. He said the accusations against him are unfounded.
Tuesday afternoon, the backlash from protesters got so bad that one woman even attacked him outside of his office.
Protesters created a change.org petition and they plan to be back outside his practice every morning for the rest of the week. They plan to begin at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. When asked if the dentist has plans on closing down his practice he said not at all.
Dr. Holly Nadji of the Aesthetic and Family Dentistry of Baymeadows said there are some things that parents can do to help protect their child when finding a dentist.
"Get a tour of the office. Take your child with you and see how it feels to you. Ask the front desk questions about what kind of patients they see tour," Nadji said.
She also said that children can be traumatized easily and recommends parents become a patient at their provider first.
"You want to be very careful not to scar your child because a lot of times we see children who had a bad experience in other places and don't want to go back. Those are the areas we want to avoid," Nadji said.
Copyright 2015 by News4Jax.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Microsoft today announced another addition to its Xbox One camouflaged-themed controller lineup. The special edition "Midnight Forces" controller was designed to have a "unique military look," Microsoft says on its official website. The controller, which will sell for $65--$5 more than a standard pad--will be available exclusively at Best Buy and only for a limited time
The Midnight Forces Xbox One controller has a blue hue, compared to the more traditional camouflage color for the other camouflage controller revealed in July. According to the Best Buy product page, the Midnight Forces Xbox One controller will go on sale at the end of September. You can preorder it today.
If you're in the market for a new Xbox One controller, but don't want either of the camouflage controllers or the standard black pad, you can always wait for the special edition Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Sunset Overdrive controllers coming later this fall.
Eddie Makuch is a news editor at GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @EddieMakuchU.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team athlete Josh Sweeney stretches prior to the start of the the team's final U.S.-based practice at the Sertich Ice Arena in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Feb. 27, 2014.
AMHERST, N.Y. – When his team needed him, and you can even say, when his country needed him, Josh Sweeney has always been there for them.
He proved as much back in 2009, when as a Marine Corps sergeant, he lost both of his legs to a land mine while serving in Afghanistan.
And Sweeney, a Purple Heart recipient, answered the call again last March, when he seized the moment during the gold-medal game against Russia at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games and scored a goal — the game’s only goal — that lifted the United States to its second consecutive sled hockey championship. It was the first time any country has defended a Paralympic sled hockey title.
In the process, Sweeney, 27, has become a recognizable face of a sport that is edging its way out of the shadows and taking a more appropriate place in the public mind.
“Now when I tell people I play sled hockey,” he said, “there’s a 50 percent chance that they’ll know what I’m talking about. Before, it was zero to 20 percent. It’s great to be able to have it as a recognized sport. We’ll get a lot more individuals coming out because of it.”
Sweeney, who is retired from the Marines, will bring even more honor to the sport on Wednesday when he will receive the inaugural Pat Tillman Award for Service at the 2014 ESPYS.
“He’s a great guy,” said Josh Pauls, Sweeney’s Paralympic teammate. “To have him serve our country, and now come and represent it in a different way. In sled hockey, he’s a great motivator, he’s a great teammate. And he’s a great person. To see that pay off, it’s great to see.”
Since being named to the national team in 2011, Sweeney, who will likely soon be named the team’s next captain (to succeed the retired Andy Yohe), has brought a heaping portion of Marine swagger to the club, particularly on the ice.
“He’s not a vocal guy in the locker room,” said U.S. coach Jeff Sauer. “He’s not an Andy Yohe. But he has leadership on the ice. He can do things on the ice and show other people.”
What Sweeney showed his mates, and the world, for that matter, on March 15 in Sochi, was utterly electrifying.
With tension building in what was still a scoreless gold-medal tilt late in the second period, Sweeney forced a neutral zone turnover, then roared in alone on Russian goaltender Vladimir Kamantcev.
He got to the edge of the crease before sniping his shot in under the crossbar for what turned out to be a goal most golden.
“It was cool that it was Sweeney who got that goal,” Pauls said. “It was a team effort. Sweeney didn’t do everything. But it was really great to see him be the guy who scored that goal.”
That act was something of a sacrifice, as Sweeney and his “All Military” linemates Rico Roman, retired U.S. Army, and fellow retired Marine Paul Schaus - nicknamed the "Bravo Delta Line" were supposed to come off after having skated an exhausting shift.
But when Sweeney made the strip, it was time to put Plan B into effect.
“If I had gone off,” he said, “they could have easily carried the puck up the left hand side.
“But I went into autopilot and let my muscle memory do its thing. It was like, ‘Alright, here we go. This is our chance.’”
You could say that he went above and beyond the call of duty.
But then again, you’ll get nothing less from Josh Sweeney.Mark as spam | Restore | Remove | Ban User | Ban IP | Email User GawainsGhost The only logical conclusion to this charade is that this woman were get herself, and possibly others, killed in a fire, because she can't carry a hose. 1 day ago Like ( 7 ) Like ( 7 ) Sign In or Register Edit Reply Report Abuse 1 day ago Edit Reply Like ( 7 ) Like ( 7 ) Sign In or Register Link To Comment • Report Abuse This comment has been reported. Click here to view it anyway. Post Comment Comment Guidelines Also, Post this comment to Facebook Comment Guidelines 1. Comments are not moderated and will appear immediately. However, if you find a comment offensive, you can "flag" that comment as inappropriate and a member of the editorial staff will review it. You will still be able to view the comment even if the editorial staff refuses to post it by using the "Click here to view it anyway" feature. 2. PJ Media appreciates comments that stay on topic and avoid profanities or foul language, unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment. Your comment is likely to be deleted if it is libelous, defamatory, abusive, harassing, threatening, profane, or pornographic. Threats are taken seriously and will be reported to law enforcement. Spam and advertising are not permitted. 3. PJ Media reserves the right to delete your comments or revoke your registration for any reason. 3. Please don't assume that PJ Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. Close Mark as spam | Restore | Remove | Ban User | Ban IP | Email User Subotai Bahadur
Subotai Bahadur If your government job requires swearing an Oath, and fulfilling that Oath can mean your death, you are not "just a civilian". I reference the Oath sworn by the military, the Oath sworn by Peace Officers [which I was for 28 years], and believe it or not, firefighters in New York City are sworn to the Firefighters Oath. In passing, I understand that in New York City, firefighters have been given arrest powers for matters related to fire and arson. That would make them what in our state is a Class III Peace Officer. Class I = elected officials with full arrest powers in reference to any statute. Class IIa = Sheriffs and local Police Officers with full arrest powers in reference to any statute. Class IIb = State law enforcement officers with full arrest powers in reference to any statute. Class III = those with limited arrest powers relating to their job/agency. Not civilians.Subotai Bahadur 1 day ago Like ( 6 ) Like ( 6 ) Sign In or Register Edit Reply Report Abuse 1 day ago Edit Reply Like ( 6 ) Like ( 6 ) Sign In or Register Link To Comment • Report Abuse This comment has been reported. Click here to view it anyway. Post Comment Comment Guidelines Also, Post this comment to Facebook Comment Guidelines 1. Comments are not moderated and will appear immediately. However, if you find a comment offensive, you can "flag" that comment as inappropriate and a member of the editorial staff will review it. You will still be able to view the comment even if the editorial staff refuses to post it by using the "Click here to view it anyway" feature. 2. PJ Media appreciates comments that stay on topic and avoid profanities or foul language, unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment. Your comment is likely to be deleted if it is libelous, defamatory, abusive, harassing, threatening, profane, or pornographic. Threats are taken seriously and will be reported to law enforcement. Spam and advertising are not permitted. 3. PJ Media reserves the right to delete your comments or revoke your registration for any reason. 3. Please don't assume that PJ Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. Close Mark as spam | Restore | Remove | Ban User | Ban IP | Email User DysG
This will result in tragedy as well.
Women seem incapable of understanding that some jobs just require physical force, and lots of it. So after 50 years of feminists shrieking and wailing, we men should just let women have at it. Let's create female-only fire brigades, female-only wildland fire crews, female-only combat units of, say, regiment strength.
Then tell the women "here's your job, your equipment, etc. Do it and get back to us."
The solution to dealing with the braying of women on these topics is to give them what they claim they're asking for: true equality. That means that no man picks up their load when they fail, which means that these women need to be in female-only units. The Army and Marines are currently trying to change their PT standards to get women into combat MOS positions.This will result in tragedy as well.Women seem incapable of understanding that some jobs just require physical force, and lots of it. So after 50 years of feminists shrieking and wailing, we men should just let women have at it. Let's create female-only fire brigades, female-only wildland fire crews, female-only combat units of, say, regiment strength.Then tell the women "here's your job, your equipment, etc. Do it and get back to us."The solution to dealing with the braying of women on these topics is to give them what they claim they're asking for: true equality. That means that no man picks up their load when they fail, which means that these women need to be in female-only units. 1 day ago Like ( 15 ) Like ( 15 ) Sign In or Register Edit Reply Report Abuse 1 day ago Edit Reply Like ( 15 ) Like ( 15 ) Sign In or Register Link To Comment • Report Abuse This comment has been reported. Click here to view it anyway. Post Comment Comment Guidelines Also, Post this comment to Facebook Comment Guidelines 1. Comments are not moderated and will appear immediately. However, if you find a comment offensive, you can "flag" that comment as inappropriate and a member of the editorial staff will review it. You will still be able to view the comment even if the editorial staff refuses to post it by using the "Click here to view it anyway" feature. 2. PJ Media appreciates comments that stay on topic and avoid profanities or foul language, unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment. Your comment is likely to be deleted if it is libelous, defamatory, abusive, harassing, threatening, profane, or pornographic. Threats are taken seriously and will be reported to law enforcement. Spam and advertising are not permitted. 3. PJ Media reserves the right to delete your comments or revoke your registration for any reason. 3. Please don't assume that PJ Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. ClosePrince performs onstage at the 36th Annual NAACP Image Awards at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on March 19, 2005 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
CHANHASSEN, Minn. (AP) – Pop superstar Prince, widely acclaimed as one of the most inventive and influential musicians of his era with hits including “Little Red Corvette,” ”Let’s Go Crazy” and “When Doves Cry,” was found dead at his home on Thursday in suburban Minneapolis, according to his publicist. He was 57.
His publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure, told The Associated Press that the music icon died at his home in Chanhassen. No details were immediately released. The singer postponed a concert in Atlanta on April 7, after coming down with the flu, and he apologized to fans for the cancellation during a makeup concert last week.
The singer, songwriter, arranger and instrumentalist broke through in the late 1970s with the hits “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?” and “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” and soared over the following decade with such albums as “1999” and “Purple Rain.” The title song from “1999” includes one of the most widely quoted refrains of popular culture: “Tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1999.”
IN PHOTOS: Prince Through The Years
The Minneapolis native, born Prince Rogers Nelson, stood just 5 feet, 2 inches tall, and seemed to summon the most original and compelling sounds at will, whether playing guitar in a flamboyant style that openly drew upon Jimi Hendrix, switching his vocals from a nasally scream to an erotic falsetto or turning out album after album of stunningly original material. Among his other notable releases: “Sign O’ the Times,” ”Graffiti Bridge” and “The Black Album.”
He was also fiercely protective of his independence, battling his record company over control of his material and even his name. Prince once wrote “slave” on his face in protest of not owning his work and famously battled and then departed his label, Warner Bros., before returning a few years ago.
“What’s happening now is the position that I’ve always wanted to be in,” Prince told the AP in 2014. “I was just trying to get here.”
In 2004, Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which hailed him as a musical and social trailblazer.
“He rewrote the rulebook, forging a synthesis of black funk and white rock that served as a blueprint for cutting-edge music in the Eighties,” reads the Hall’s dedication. “Prince made dance music that rocked and rock music that had a bristling, funky backbone. From the beginning, Prince and his music were androgynous, sly, sexy and provocative.”
Rarely lacking in confidence, Prince effortlessly absorbed the music of others and made it sound like Prince, whether the James Brown guitar riff on “Kiss” or the Beatle-esque, psychedelic pop of “Raspberry Beret.”
He also proved a source of hits for others, from Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” to Cyndi Lauper’s “When You Were Mine.” He also wrote “Manic Monday” for the Bangles
Prince had been touring and recording right up until his death, releasing four albums in the last 18 months, including two on the Tidal streaming service last year. He performed in Atlanta last week as part of his “Piano and a Microphone” tour, a stripped down show that has featured a mix of his hits like “Purple Rain” or “Little Red Corvette” and some B-sides from his extensive library.
Prince debuted the intimate format at his Paisley Park studios in January, treating fans to a performance that was personal and was both playful and emotional at times.
The musician had seemed to be shedding his reclusive reputation. He hosted several late-night jam sessions where he serenaded Madonna, celebrated the Minnesota Lynx’s WNBA championship and showcased his latest protege, singer Judith Hill.
Ever surprising, he announced on stage in New York City last month that he was writing his memoir. “The Beautiful Ones” was expected to be released in the fall of 2017 by publishing house Spiegel & Grau. The publishing house has not yet commented on status of book, but a press release about the memoir says: “Prince will take readers on an unconventional and poetic journey through his life and creative work.” It says the book will include stories about Prince’s music and “the family that shaped him and the people, places, and ideas that fired his creative imagination.”
A small group of fans quickly gathered in the rain Thursday outside his music studio, Paisley Park, where Prince’s gold records are on the walls and the purple motorcycle he rode in his 1984 breakout movie, “Purple Rain,” is on display. The white building surrounded by a fence is in Chanhassen, about 20 miles southwest of Minneapolis.
Steven Scott, 32, of Eden Prairie, said he was at Paisley Park last Saturday for Prince’s dance party. He called Prince “a beautiful person” whose message was that people should love one another.
“He brought people together for the right reasons,” Scott said.
Celebrities and others immediately reacted on Twitter with surprise, disbelief and sadness.
One of the most talented individuals we'll ever see. Rest in peace Prince. — Kevin Johnson (@KJ_MayorJohnson) April 21, 2016
PRINCE passed away???! WTF??!!! — ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) April 21, 2016
We've lost the greatest artist of my generation. I danced on stage with him when milo was in my belly. Prince, I will forever love you. #RIP — Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) April 21, 2016
Heartbroken to hear about the sudden passing of Prince. RIP. 💔 #Prince — Lori Loughlin (@LoriLoughlin) April 21, 2016
Oh my god….Prince is literally one of my heroes. I don't even know what to say right now 💔 I'm sending as much love as I can to his family — Laura Marano (@lauramarano) April 21, 2016
R.I.P PRINCE, another icon gone to soon — SHAQ (@SHAQ) April 21, 2016
Oh my god I can’t believe that Prince has died…he was a great great talent…RIP — Billy Idol (@BillyIdol) April 21, 2016
So Prince and Chyna die in the same day NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! My heart is hurting 😦 R.I.P — Jay Pharoah (@JayPharoah) April 21, 2016
A culture pushing icon and creative genius. Rest in peace Prince. pic.twitter.com/vPWCGipU95 — Charlie Puth (@charlieputh) April 21, 2016
Having Prince on our show was one of the best moments of my life. He was extraordinary. — Liz Meriwether (@lizmeriwether) April 21, 2016
Omg….. RIP Prince…. 😨😔😢 — Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) April 21, 2016
RIP Prince..So bummed!!! supposed to hook up with him on Lookin for a fight Minn but he was in Europe. Amazin artist pic.twitter.com/Hh8e2juR7b — Dana White (@danawhite) April 21, 2016
Oh this cannot be real. I love Prince. — roxane gay (@rgay) April 21, 2016
Damn RIP #Prince 😦 — DJ Pauly D (@DJPaulyD) April 21, 2016
The rain this week is definitely going to be purple.#Prince you were a true master. — Heath Buckmaster (@buckmasterflash) April 21, 2016
Tonight we're going to party like it's 2016, THE WORST YEAR EVER. #Prince — Holly Brockwell (@holly) April 21, 2016
https://twitter.com/Lana/status/723193495553343489A MAN is enduring a series of painful sessions to cover up a lewd image tattooed on his back by a backyard operator.
Matthew Francis Brady, 22, has admitted tattooing a 40cm-long image of a penis and a crude slogan on his former mate's back.
The victim had wanted a Yin and Yang design with some dragons but was horrified with the end result.
Upon hearing about the case, Ipswich business Ultimate Image Tattoo offered to do the cover-up work for free.
The 26-year-old victim this week had his third appointment in a long series of visits to hide the offensive tattoo.
The man was still bitter about the prank this week but was relieved the cover-up art would help him move on with his life.
He said the new design was "really cool".
The Queensland Times has agreed to not reveal the identity of the victim.
Owner Janelle Roberts said she was sick of amateurs buying tattoo kits from the internet and she was happy to help the man hide the roughly-drawn design.
"I just felt the wrong thing was done," Mrs Roberts said.
"They approached us to get pricing on how much a cover or lasering it off would cost - we just put out the offer that we're more than happy to help out."
Mrs Roberts said there needed to be more regulations in Australia to stop backyard operators from buying tattoo equipment online.
She said amateurs would not know about proper hygiene and sterilisation methods and could spread diseases such as Hepatitis - as well as potentially leaving their "customers" with a second-rate permanent image.
"If your mate's doing it he's not your mate," she said.
Brady pleading guilty in Ipswich Magistrates Court last month to assault occasioning bodily harm while armed and assault occasioning bodily harm.
He will be sentenced later this year.
After several more sessions the man will be able to proudly display a much more professional tattoo of a sword with a dragon wrapped around it.
The sessions last for up to an hour - or however long the man can stand the pain.
Tattoo artist Matty Tredgold said the final work would include a range of colours from blue, green, yellow and red and was inspired by one of the client's favourite T-shirts.In gaming, and on the Internet in general, there are people who suck. Trolls and flamers and griefers abound. It’s difficult to pin down the ratio of jerks to nice people, but in our daily online lives we seem to bump into a significant population of the former. Or maybe we just notice them more, because that’s their thing—getting noticed. Online gaming seems to breed (or at least intensify) narcissism.
Narcissism and the Cult of Me
Narcissism is a personality trait defined by a grandiose self-image. Self-confidence is one thing—it’s great to believe in yourself, especially when you base that belief on your own proven capabilities and experiences—but the narcissist’s sense of self is inflated. And, as with any personality trait, there’s a spectrum that runs from the guy who can’t pass a reflective surface without checking his look to the teenage girl who posts thousands of selfies to Tumblr to the businessman whose eyes glaze over unless he’s talking about his number one priority—himself. At the furthest end of the spectrum lies a true clinical diagnosis—Narcissistic Personality Disorder, or NPD.
A significant portion of the population (an estimated 6.2%) suffers NPD, and studies suggest that this number is on the rise in teens and young adults. I could list the criteria for diagnosis, but this article does that if you’re interested. Instead, I’ll personalize things a bit.
Someone I love is a narcissist. Well, let me clarify that—someone I love suffers from a mental illness in which narcissism can, and often does, play a supporting role. My life with him has been a constant onslaught of, “Me, me, me!” I’m frequently regaled with stories trumpeting his achievements, and telling me how highly people regard him, which displays a key characteristic of the narcissist—inflated self-importance. But he couples that with feigned humility. “I’m just a man,” he’ll say. “I’m nothing special. I did what anyone would do.” That demonstrates another narcissist’s trait—manipulation. When he’s talking about himself or his own experiences he’s fully animated and engaged, but when he’s listening to anyone else, his eyes glaze over and he tunes out, then dismisses the other person’s contribution by switching the topic back to himself. I’ve pointed out to him that on both business and personal phone calls I’ve overheard (he has no qualms about chatting away on his Bluetooth headset while in my company, or anyone’s for that matter; he would never miss the golden opportunity to appear in-demand), he rattles on about his own issues excessively, but when the other party talks for any length of time, he dismisses them with the same verbal tick: “Yeah. So...” After “Yeah. So...” the conversation inevitably points back to him.
Most of us have narcissistic traits to some degree. It’s the rare person indeed who has never been self-absorbed at one time or another. But whatever the reason we humans become problematically narcissistic, it’s clear that we’re noticing narcissistic traits now more than ever.
Narcissism and Our Gaming Lives
A 2008 study on narcissistic behavior’s relationship to social networking sites showed that those with narcissistic traits express them in spades online. The more narcissistic you are, the more likely you are to have a vast number of “friends” on Facebook—some of them superficial acquaintances at best, and many of them people you don’t even know except online.
A 2012 article in The Guardian suggests toxic levels of narcissism on Facebook. The more narcissistic you are, the more likely you are to have lots of friends, change your profile picture frequently (share those selfies!) and respond aggressively to negative comments about yourself posted online.
So, social media activity seems to reflect, or even amplify, narcissism. Breaking: Water is wet! And bears actually do shit in the woods.
Yes, he does. And he'd like some privacy, damnit.
A 2008 study pointed out a correlation between aggression and narcissistic personality traits and incidences of online gaming addiction—in other words, if you have issues with those things you’re more at risk of becoming addicted to your favorite online games. But is the inverse true? It’s a chicken-or-the-egg sort of question: are some of us online gamers in part because we’re narcissistic, or does gaming increase our narcissistic tendencies, making them more apparent? The latter makes sense when you think about it, even if no study (at least none that I can find) has managed to prove causation. Online games tell us that we’re the hero. We have things like leaderboards, server firsts, and competitions—a variety of ways to show off, if we’re able to achieve greatness. Our forum signatures trumpet our achievements. We work hard, playing many long hours, to get the best gear so that when we strut around in game people are impressed by us. A great deal of the gameplay in MMOs and other online games is centered on that “me, me, me” mentality. We love to earn bragging rights.
In my column last week, I wrote about Gaming and Shaming and talked about how this culture, the anonymity afforded by online communication, brings out the inner asshat in some of us. Narcissism almost certainly plays a role, because the narcissist can’t see past his own face—another of the key traits of the narcissist is an inability to empathize. When we’re out there in a virtual world trying to prove what a badass we are, we might be less aware that other players are human beings with emotions.
Fortunately, while gaming seems to make assholes even more... assholey, it can also highlight the generosity and cooperative spirit of players. Communities are formed where players band together and help one another. Very often, we enjoy the company of friends in a virtual world. Like the character Narcissus from Greek mythology (for whom the term narcissism is named), those me-centered players can lead their lonely existences staring at their own reflections. Maybe they’re worthy of our sympathy. After all, Narcissus died while staring into the pool at his own beautiful self. And we know that being a part of a community—cooperating with and enjoying the company of others—is where the fun truly is.Lisa (Veerle Baetens), a lonely doctor, inherits a large, mysterious home after the death of a neighbor in which she has never met. Upon moving into her enigmatic new mansion she is drawn to the location of where the previous owner’s body lie unnoticed for 30 years. Determined to understand the meaning behind the house she inherited from an apparent stranger, she begins turning up more questions than answers as she finds herself in another realm beyond the walls. Lost in an endless labyrinth of rooms and being hunted by a mysterious tribe, Lisa soon finds she’s not the only victim this house has claimed.
Absolutely unexpected and beautifully haunting, this French miniseries is guaranteed to suck you in to the very horror of Beyond the Walls. Available exclusively on Shudder, this short series consists of three parts with a total run time of around two hours and 40 minutes. If you don’t have the Shudder streaming service – or know what it is – it’s a streaming service exclusive to the horror genre. Apart from this series they have an incredible selection of films, TV shows, and documentaries for horror fiends to binge out on. Even if you aren’t a huge horror buff but are dying to see what all the praise over Beyond the Walls is about, that’s not a problem as Shudder is extremely affordable, always running specials and keeping costs low, I was able to get my first month of Shudder for only $1 after regular promos.
Bittersweet, sexy and absolutely satisfying. If you are looking for something dark and deeply mystifying then look no further than Hervé Hadmar and Marc Herpoux’s three part insta-classic, Beyond the Walls.
Available exclusively on Shudder.
Time commitment: 3 episodes
Why Its Worth the Binge: Recommended for fans of Pans Labyrinth, Doctor Who, Rose Red, Baskin, and Supernatural.
– Rachael Rumancek
Follow me on Twitter @RachaelRumancekABC is working on an iview app for Android TV – now available on Xiaomi Mi Box
The adoption of Android TV as a platform by Australian terrestrial broadcasters has been terrible. Yahoo7 are the only company currently offering a full experience, but it looks like ABC could be the second with Xiaomi Mi Box owners now able to install the ABC iview Android TV app from the Play Store.
Availability
The app first started showing up on Thursday, when Neerav found the app on the Play Store while updating his other apps. A subsequent check on other platforms including the Sony Bravia and Nexus Player found it wasn’t showing, while other Australian Mi Box owners confirmed a search for ‘iview’ was indeed bringing the entry up. Mi Box owners are able to install it from Google Play on the web as well.
While it’s not officially available, the app of course has been extracted and uploaded to APKMirror (thanks to /u/tbgoose) if you want to give it a go…BUT, it’s not working on most other Android TV devices.
After sideloading on my Nexus Player and Sony Bravia TV (2015) (it’s not working on the 2016 model either), we’ve found that the app loads, but won’t stream any video. The app does however work on the Nvidia Shield TV, but doesn’t show up in the Play Store.
App layout
The app itself is pretty decent with a leanback launcher experience that lets you control the app with your remote. There’s five options at the top of the app:
Home
Categories
Live
Search
Help
You can live stream any of the ABC channels – ABC1, ABC2, ABC3/Me etc. – or you can play episodes from the catch-up side of iview. Each episode uploaded has an expiry date, as well as an estimated file size, both of which are clearly listed below each entry.
The Android TV iview app as it stands is definitely missing a few features, first and foremost is personalisation options. Unlike the iview app for Android which has options to add a show to your Watchlist, there’s no option in the Android TV app.
The iview app does support binge watching though, auto-playing the next episode in the series after a 15 second countdown.
Speculation
The iview Android TV app exists but it’s not yet official. We’ve reached out to ABC for comment but they’ve not yet responded. So, what’s happening?
The Android TV scene in Australia is, as we’ve pointed out previously is fairly dismal. It’s improved slightly since launched, Channel 7 offers an Android TV app, but despite other terrestrial TV services offering Android apps now, only ABC and Channel 9 offer even basics like Chromecast support, let alone a full blown Android TV app.
Streaming Video on Demand services Netflix and Stan do have Android TV apps but it’s another service: Foxtel Now, that may shed some light on this latest development in Android TV.
Foxtel announced their new Foxtel Now streaming service back in June, alongside an Android TV powered ‘Puck’ which will launch later this year. While Foxtel Now isn’t available for Android TV devices, the launch of the puck, an Android TV running device manufactured by Technicolor and re-badged by Foxtel will change this and it’s this puck which we feel may be spurring on development of Android TV in Australia.
Foxtel’s Android TV device is expected to sell for around $100 when it launches, making it the first cost effective, widely available Android TV device to be sold in Australia since Google stopped making the Asus built Nexus Player. Our working theory is that ABC has prepped their iview Android TV app in order to be ready for the launch of the Foxtel puck |
. If Spain’s recent moves against Bush officials are problematic for Obama, Spain’s current proceedings against Israeli officials are even more so. In January of this year, another Spanish judge, Fernando Abreu, accepted a complaint alleging crimes against humanity for the targeted assassination by Israel of a Hamas terrorist leader in his home in Gaza in 2002–an attack in which 14 other Gazans were killed. The implicated Israeli officials have been warned not to travel to Europe. The problem for Obama is that the United States under his administration has been conducting identical attacks against terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan with no more concern for collateral casualties. Now he has to worry that his own advisers and officials might be unpleasantly surprised by sudden arrest warrants when they travel to Europe. Democrats have in recent years grown fond of using the legal arguments of foreigners, even foreign enemies, to increase their leverage against domestic political opponents.... In the end what the Garzón case highlights is the need for bipartisan vindication of U.S. sovereignty. The Spanish courts are not trying to punish Bush officials for personal or even partisan misconduct. They are seeking to punish official U.S. government conduct in the course of public duties carried out within the world’s most legalistic and transparent system. Worst of all, those officials are being targeted not for decisions they made themselves, but only for what they are alleged to have believed at the time. If Spanish courts start treating heresy as an international crime, Republican officials won’t be the only ones facing indictment.
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The Spanish case against the Bush officials was eventually dropped and Garzón was subsequently disbarred from practicing as a judge in Spain for unrelated reasons. It should be noted that many European countries have since passed laws limiting the reach of their judges operating on the basis of universal jurisdiction.
But just to be sure, Congress should pass a resolution characterizing any such prosecution of a current or former U.S. official as an act of war against the United States, and authorizing the use of force to rescue any officials detained in Europe. John Kerry has some really nice houses in Europe – it would be a shame if he can’t spend some time there after he’s done being humiliated by the White House.
This entire interrogation-report fiasco seems to have totally backfired on Senator Diane Feinstein, outgoing chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which released the report on a party-line vote — a fact that in and of itself calls the report’s credibility into question. A vendetta against Republicans turned into a vendetta against Obama’s own CIA. Absolutely nothing will come of it beyond the spectacle of Democratic infighting, and the opportunity for Bush officials to once again make the case that they did the best they could under novel and difficult circumstances — this time with Obama officials in support. In fact, the White House has already contradicted Senator Feinstein on one key point: Obama’s press secretary said yesterday that it’s “unknowable” whether the intel gleaned from enhanced interrogations could have been obtained otherwise.Fong Lee's family angered by verdict
Fong Lee's family MPR Photo/Brandt Williams
Family members of Fong Lee expressed their anger Thursday at a verdict exonerating the Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed the 19-year-old in 2006.
A jury ruled Thursday that Officer Jason Andersen did not use excessive force when he shot Lee. The verdict was announced before Lee's family could get to the courtroom to hear it in person.
Youa Vang Lee, Fong Lee's mother and the named plaintiff for the lawsuit, burst into tears as she walked toward a row of cameras and microphones. Her daughter, Shoua, choked back tears as she read a statement on behalf of the rest of the family.
Fong Lee's sister MPR Photo/Tim Post
Shoua Lee says her parents came to the U.S. from Laos in 1988 to find freedom and safety. "And on July 22, 2006, over 20 years later, that feeling of safety was shattered."
That was the night Fong Lee was shot and killed by Officer Jason Andersen. Andersen says he saw Lee with a gun and chased him. The officer said he shot Lee because he was afraid for his life. An all-white jury of eight men and four women ruled Andersen did not use excessive force.
Since the shooting, the Lee family has questioned the police version of events. They believe that Lee was unarmed, and that an officer planted a gun next to Lee's body. Shoua Lee says her family's legal fight is not over.
"Our quest for truth does not end today," she said. "We will continue to seek answers. We ask that you respect our wish to not take any questions at this time."
A Lee family lawyer did not immediately return a call for comment. The Minneapolis city attorney's office released a written statement saying, "We did not seek to try the case in the press, but in the courtroom, where evidence takes precedence over allegations. Here, the evidence, as found by the jury, vindicates Officer Andersen."
Community activist MPR Photo/Tim Post
Police Chief Tim Dolan said in a statement that he was pleased that Andersen had been cleared. And he expressed hope that "we can all move forward and heal as a community."
But that may take some time. Community activist Tou Ger Xiong says the verdict shows that Minneapolis police officers discriminate against people of color.
"This does nothing more than to reaffirm the fact that we should fear police and members of law enforcement. Because it is saying to us, 'Watch out, if a cop thinks you pose a threat, you will be killed, you will shot, you will be killed.'"
Xiong, who sat in the courtroom each day of the trial, also complained about pre-trial decisions made by Judge Paul Magnuson. For example, Xiong says the family had evidence that on two occasions Andersen made derogatory remarks about Asians. But Magnuson ruled that type of character evidence about the officer was not admissible.
Xiong also expressed anger that the verdict was read while the family was out of the courtroom having lunch.
"This is a small example of how this judge has ruled, in our opinion, has ruled in this case, with his prejudicial rulings. So we're not surprised. Therefore today's verdict was not only a slap in the face of the Lee family. But a disgrace to the community and the judicial process."
A representative of Judge Magnuson's staff called the incident "unfortunate," and the result of a communication mixup.
THE PLAINTIFF'S CASE
Fong Lee running from police Still from security video
On July 22, 2006, a little before 7 p.m., Fong Lee was riding his bike with friends near Cityview Elementary School in north Minneapolis when a squad car driven by Officer Jason Andersen drove up behind them.
One of the men riding with Lee, Nhia Lor, said officers drove up beside them and one of them said, "Hello" or "what's up?"
Lor said then he heard one of the officers say "He's got a gun." The officers sped up and went after Lee and another man named Too Xiong. Lor denied that Lee or anybody had a gun that day.
According to Lee family lawyers, Lee was so scared by the car coming up behind him, that he dropped his bike and ran. Officer Andersen and his partner, State Trooper Craig Benz, got out of the car with their guns drawn and ran after him.
Lee family attorney Mike Padden characterized Andersen as a rookie cop who was "overaggressive" and acted like The Terminator, because Andersen had made up his mind that he was going to track down and shoot Lee.
Andersen's first shot at Lee missed. Padden said Andersen fired before Lee turned to look back at him. Andersen testified that he fired only after Lee pivoted his upper body back toward the officer.
Fong Lee Photo courtesy of the Minneapolis Police Department
Padden said a woman living two or three houses from the school heard a scream before the next shots were fired.
In all, eight bullets entered Lee's body.
Padden claimed that following the shooting, one of the cops on the scene planted a gun three feet from Lee's left hand. He didn't say who it was, but he thought it too coincidental that the first officer on the scene of the shooting was officer Bruce Johnson. Johnson wrote up the burglary report on this same gun two years earlier.
Police forensic experts testified that the gun found next to Lee had no traceable fingerprints, smudges or blood on the outside, nor were traces found on the bullets or clip. And while the forensic experts said that wasn't unusual, Padden found that improbable.
On the day Lee was killed, the temperature had reached 77 degrees. Lee had been riding his bike for several hours. Padden said if Lee was handling a gun, he should have left some sweat or smudges somewhere on the gun.
Throughout the trial, Padden also repeatedly referenced still images from nearby security cameras showing Lee running past a brick wall just seconds before he is shot and killed. Padden said the images clearly show that Lee had nothing in either hand.
THE DEFENSE CASE
Police arriving on the scene Still from security video
Officer Andersen testified that on the day of the shooting, he and trooper Craig Benz began following the five young men on their bikes. As they got closer, they saw Fong Lee and Too Xiong look back at the car and then break away from the rest of the guys.
Andersen said he observed Xiong hand a gun to Lee. He said that's when he turned on the squad lights and siren and sped up.
Benz also testified that he saw the gun.
Andersen said Xiong split off to his right, and Lee dropped his bike and began running toward the school. He said he yelled numerous times for Lee to drop the gun. Andersen estimated the chase took about 30 seconds.
Anderson said he never lost sight of Lee, or the gun. Andersen said Lee pivoted his upper body back toward him. Andersen fired one shot and missed. Then he said Lee turned again with the gun in his right hand, moving up toward a firing position. However, he couldn't remember how Lee was carrying the gun.
Andersen said he fired three shots, which knocked him to the ground. He said Lee still had the gun and so he fired five more shots, which killed Lee.
Defending Andersen was Minneapolis city attorney Jim Moore. Moore said Andersen believed his life was in danger and was justified in shooting Lee.
In his closing statement, Moore attacked the plaintiff's case. He told the jury that to find Andersen guilty of excessive force, they would have to believe that Andersen just decided to chase down and shoot and unarmed man.
Moore said it would have required a conspiracy between Andersen, trooper Benz and other cops. Moore said the night of the shooting was the first time Andersen and Benz had met.
Moore also offered another way of looking at the security camera footage. He presented frame-by-frame footage of officer Andersen and trooper Benz running past the camera as they chased Lee.
In one still image, the gun in Benz's hand seems to disappear. Moore blamed the poor resolution of the camera. He also pointed to another still frame taken from the beginning of the chase, which he said showed a gun in Lee's right hand.
Next, Moore presented the footage of Lee running past the brick wall. Moore said even he had trouble seeing a gun in Lee's right hand. But he asked the jury to consider that Lee was palming the gun, which would make it hard to see from the camera's vantage point.
Moore also said the autopsy report completely supports officer Andersen's account. He said the bullets entered Lee's body in a manner which shows he was turning around as he was being shot.
The defense's final witness was a woman who lived about four houses north of the school. She said she heard a voice yell, "put down the gun," and then a series of gunshots.
However, two other women with her at the time said they didn't hear the voice, they just heard the shots.US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice today expressed outrage as her Russian counterpart, Vitaly Churkin, called for a UN Security Council probe of NATO’s killing of civilians in the Libyan War.
“This is something of a cheap stunt to divert attention from other issues and to obscure the success of NATO,” insisted Rice. NATO officials have maintained that there were no civilian casualties in their multi-month bombing campaign.
Russia urged the probe on the grounds of that claim and a New York Times article from last weekend in which the newspaper investigated allegations and confirmed a minimum of 40 civilians killed by NATO’s bombings, and likely many more.
NATO launched the bombing campaign after a UN Resolution authorized a no-fly zone to “protect civilians” and the revelation that large numbers of civilians were killed when NATO bombed them in the middle of the night is particularly inconvenient for Western officials looking to tout it as an epic military triumph.
French officials accused Russia of seeking the probe to distract attention from the death toll in Syria. Indeed while Russia has opposed UN action against Syria the probe seems particularly on-topic for the Syria issue with a number of Western nations, notably France, pushing for Libyan-style war in Syria as well.
Last 5 posts by Jason DitzMaj. John Spencer is an Army infantryman with almost 25 years of service, including two combat deployments to Iraq.
I often wonder what people will say about the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan decades from now. What I will tell my children when they are able to understand the answers to questions about what happened "over there." I am afraid I will forget. As every day passes, I struggle more and more to remember all the names of the soldiers in my platoon, the hard-to-pronounce places we fought, the day-to-day things we did during my two year-long combat tours in Iraq.
But what worries me most is that we, as a nation, will forget.
On Veterans Day we pay tribute to all American veterans, living and dead. We show our thanks in many ways. We attend Veterans Day parades, visit veterans hospitals or ask veterans about their service. But most important, we remember.
Even for those wars with no living veterans — whether the American Revolution or World War I — we can remember. We can access digital archives of battlefield maps. We can examine lists online of personnel who fought in each battle. We can read written orders from commanders, or personal diaries, journals and letters sent by soldiers to their loved ones.
Unfortunately, our recent conflicts will be difficult to remember this way. That is because for the first 10-plus years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military lost or deleted a majority of its field records. And, although the military has since made a greater commitment to preserve records, an outdated archival system limits their usefulness.
It may seem counterintuitive that records and battle reports were saved more reliably before the digital age. But as a 2009 Army report found, "The increasing use of electronic records — easy to create and move but also difficult to organize and easy to erase — made the situation more complicated."
In Iraq, in part because of concerns over transporting classified material, soldiers heading home were forced to turn in computer hard drives to be wiped clean and "reimaged." My own computer held hundreds of reports written after daily patrols. I would note every soldier who went on the patrol, summarize our every action, list every person we talked to and often include photos. I recorded details and filed photos of the night in 2003 when an improvised explosive device wounded three of my soldiers so badly that they needed to be evacuated back to the United States. I documented the night in 2008 when a grenade was thrown at my soldiers, missed and killed a nearby Iraqi child.
My unit analyzed patterns in our digital data and used it to inform our operations. At the end of my rotations, I handed off files for a few specific projects to the relief units. But everything on my computer was deleted. Hand-written logs were similarly shredded and burned when we rotated out.
Army units' failure to keep field records attracted the attention of Congress after an investigation by ProPublica and the Seattle Times in late 2012. Some of the most pressing concerns were about whether veterans could receive proper care with no records of their wartime experiences. Medical records in the military are well kept and rarely lost. But if a soldier who served in Iraq or Afghanistan needs to be assessed for service-related injuries or requires therapy for combat-related stress, there are often no records of the incidents that may have caused their injuries. There are often no documents to help a soldier remember and unpack what happened.
The lack of records also has operational consequences. An abundance of invaluable knowledge, often earned at great cost, wasn't available for new units that rotated into conflict zones on a yearly basis. Newly arrived troops typically would receive intelligence from Army organizations about the area, enemy forces and local populations, but they were for the most part deprived of firsthand accounts from the soldiers who preceeded them. So American units that were sent to Mosul in 2014 weren't able to learn from the contextual lessons or ground tactical information collected by soldiers deployed to Mosul in 2004.
Military records have major public uses, too. Once declassified, primary source documents down to the soldier level help movie and documentary makers, historians, authors, teachers, students and other interested citizens create the stories that shape our collective memories and narrative of a particular war. They are how we research the military service of relatives we've never met. My wartime memories are our wartime memories.
One of the many official solutions to the problem of lost records was a call in 2013 to all Army units to turn in any records that had not been deleted. But because servers and hard drives from 2003 to 2013 had been erased, much of that data was simply gone. The files sent in after the call, combined with what had been previously collected by Army historians, resulted in 150 terabytes of data now held by a small organization within the military responsible for cataloguing its history. That might sound like a lot, but individual Army units can produce 4 to 5 terabytes during a 12-month rotation. There have been hundreds of Army unit deployments in the past 15 years.
For those years when there are large gaps in the account of our military history, the Pentagon could enhance the official record with documentation from individual soldiers and embedded journalists. Many soldiers have personal journals, photos, emails and letters home they may be willing to share. And already in the public domain are reports and film footage from hundreds of war journalists — Sebastian Junger, Mike Boettcher and The Washington Post's David Ignatius prominent among them — who lived with military units for weeks and months at a time. Of course, reporters weren't allowed to publish classified information. And letters from soldiers to their families and friends may offer a somewhat different view of the wars than did the official reports that were lost. Still, those documents could prove useful.
For the years since 2013, the military faces a different problem: a massive amount of data that is largely unusable.
Military units have stopped ordering field records to be deleted. But in many cases, when soldiers end their deployments, their files are just left on the computers handed over to their replacements, who can choose to delete them or leave them untouched, along with years of past profiles.
And even when data is collected and stored more centrally, it often lacks metatags, keywords or descriptions from file creators, making it practically impossible to search, sort or analyze.
The military should update its record-keeping. It should be unlawful to ever delete another combat record. Daily combat records should be tagged, stored in a searchable cloud database and attached to individual soldiers' files — as their medical records are. That way soldiers could leave the service with complete histories of their combat experiences.
This is not a military issue. It is an American issue. Records and stories of the military and individual soldiers are an important part of how we remember. We should act before the "forever wars" become the forgotten wars.
Read more from Outlook: Five myths about female veterans My father doesn't talk about Vietnam. But he's grown prouder of his service. Follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter.CANBERRA (Reuters) - A team from Japan won a world solar car race through Australia’s outback on Thursday, after battling more than 3,000 km (1,800 miles) of remote highways, dodging kangaroos and other wildlife and avoiding a bushfire.
Race officials said the team from Tokai University, near Tokyo, finished the race from the northern city of Darwin to the southern city of Adelaide at about noon on Thursday.
The teams set off on Sunday.
The Nuon Solar Car Team from the Netherlands came second, while a U.S. team from the University of Michigan finished third.
Nuon’s driver Javier Sint Jago said he had to avoid a bushfire, wallabies, cattle, sheep and lizards on his marathon drive, although the biggest challenge was to fight the strong winds which buffeted his 140 kg (300 lb) vehicle.
“It was pretty rough. The side winds were 50 to 60 km an hour (30-40 mph), and can easily push you off the side,” he said.
“It was just so much concentration.”
Thirty-seven cars from 21 countries started off in Darwin, heading south and using only the power generated by the sun in the 11th running of the annual race.
High-tech solar cars use public highways on the trek, with teams camping out by the road overnight as their cars run out of power after dark.
Along the way, they dodge other traffic, as well as kangaroos, camels and other wildlife wandering the outback deserts.
This year’s race was made more dangerous by bushfires in the remote Northern Territory, which forced some cars to stop racing on Tuesday and camp out at a police roadblock as the fires crossed the highway, 300 km north of the central town of Alice Springs.
One car from the Philippines burst into flames early in the race when its battery exploded. No team members were injured, the fire was extinguished and the car resumed the race with a replacement battery pack.
The race is a favorite for university teams and researchers looking for new green sources of energy to fuel cars.Game of Thrones Season 7 Spoilers : Episode 7 Season Finale
The Dragon and The Wolf
Games of Thrones Season 7 Episode 7 will air on August 27th 2017 in the United States, however Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 7 spoilers are already out. If you are like one of my friends who doesn’t like spoilers please do not read further as we have Game of Thrones Season 7 Spoilers ahead. #winteriscoming #prepareforwinter
Also Read : Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 1 Leak (Script)
Disclaimer
We are not the original source of the spoilers. These are available freely on the internet. We have just compiled them into one place from various sources. These could be real leaks or just fan theories.
Also Read :
Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 4 Leak
Game of Thrones Season 7 Spoilers : Episode 5
Game of Thrones Season 7 Spoilers : Episode 6
Game of Thrones Season 7 Spoilers : Random – June 2017
Game of Thrones Season 7 Spoilers : Episode 7 Season Finale
The Dragon and The Wolf
Also Read : Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 7 Leak (Scripts)
King’s Landing
Pod and Brienne arrive at King’s Landing on horses.
Dany sends her army of the unsullied and Dothraki to King’s Landing in case Cersei has a trap for her and places them outside King’s Landing. Jamie and Bronn oversee King’s Landing defenses, and are impressed with Dany’s army. Tyrion, Jon and others arrive with Dany via ships.
Tyrion, Jon, Jorah, Dany, Davos, Theon, The Hound (who is the one with the wight in a cage) as well as Dany’s Dothraki blood riders are received by Bronn.
Brienne is already there and see’s the Hound, she is surprised to see how he is still alive. They talk about Arya and The Hound tells Brienne to take care
‘The only person needing protecting is the one who gets in her (Arya’s) way’
The Hound smiles and says he doesn’t want to be in her way.
Tyrion and Pod meet each other as well, Podrick still admires Tyrion and tells him that Tyrion is still his lord.
They all arrive at the dragon pit, and it’s a large amphitheater with three large tents. Other lords also start to arrive, and Tyrion feels like it could be a trap and looks around. Cersei arrives with Euron, The Mountain and Qyburn and they sit.
The Hound and The Mountain make eye contact, and The Hound gives that kill you look #cleganebowl.
The Hound then brings the cage that houses the wight to the middle of the amphitheater. Cersei asks Tyrion where Dany is as Dany isn’t present, this is when Dany arrives on top of Drogon and with Rhaegal giving them company. Everyone is amazed, and Cersei wonders where the third dragon is.
Tyrion then explains what the meeting is about.
Theon and Euron see each other, and Euron challenges Theon to rescue his sister Yara.
Jon then tries to explain about wight and Night King and how they need to unite to fight the Army of the Dead. Cersei doesn’t believe him which is when The Hound opens the wight cage and the wight comes out like a wild beast towards Cersei. The Hound has him chained up so it isn’t able to reach her.
Cersei is amazed and afraid, and this is when The Hound starts to demonstrate how a wight cannot be killed by normal weapons. The wight continues to moves even after The Hound hound cuts it up. Jon then yells out that there are only 2 ways to kill a wight, the first fire, so they set fire to one of the wight arms and the arm stops moving. The second is dragon glass, and then Jon uses to stab the wight with a dragon glass weapon and it dies. This is the proof that everyone needed to come together in order to survive the long night.
There is only one war that matters. The Great War, and it is here
Euron pretends to be afraid and asks how many of these creatures are there. Jon Snow says hundreds and thousands of then. Euron asks
well can they swim?
and Jon responds “no” so Euron says
well I’m going back to Pyke
and leaves with his fleet.
Cersei and Dany see the danger together but Cersei says once the long night is over she must still be queen and offers Jon Snow to be the warden of the North. Jon then swears an oath to Dany in front of everyone.
I can only serve one queen and that queen is Daenerys Targaryen
Cersei is shocked, pissed and leaves. She is unwilling to collaborate because she is unwilling to bend the knee to Dany.
Brienne tells Jaime he needs to come with the Lannister Army to fight the White Walkers, to which Jaime replies by complementing her for her loyalty to the Starks. Brienne replies
“fuck loyalty… it’s about survival”.
Jamie has seen all this and believes in the long night and will do all he can to help them.
Now that Tyrion, Dany and Jon have seen Cersei’s negative response it means they won’t have some of the southern armies as support in the North.
Tyrion heads to the Red Keep with The Mountain behind him. Tyrion and Cersei have a conversation on how she blames him for all the Lannister’s have gone through, how he killed their mother and father. Tyrion says there was nothing he could do and that Tywin just wanted him dead so he had to kill him instead. He also tells her that Daenerys wanted to destroy Kings Landing with fire but he stopped her trying to prove he doesn’t want to destroy his own family.
Then Tyrion says if I’m so evil why don’t you order The Mountain to kill me. Cersei doesn’t give a command. Tyrion decides drinks wine and Cersei doesn’t, Tyrion says she is not drinking wine as she is pregnant. Cersei doesn’t respond, but her facial expression gives it away.
Tyrion then heads out with Cersei to meet the rest of the people that were in the dragon pit and Cersei tells them that after speaking to Tyrion she will send troops north to help against the White Walkers.
Tyrion and Dany talk about how Dany tells Jon that she can’t have children, that the dragons are her children, Jon doesn’t care if she can’t have kids.
Game of Thrones Season 7 Spoilers : Episode 7 Season Finale
The Dragon and The Wolf
Winterfell
Little Finger tell Sansa that Arya is dangerous, and she has some evil plans which is why she came back. He also tells her that Arya will use the letter against her somehow.
Dragonstone
Dany and gang are in Dragonstone after their meeting at King’s Landing. Dany is in the war room where they are organizing the defense of the North, where will the Unsullied, Dothraki, North Men, Southerners etc. will go.
Ser Jorah knows a lot about strategies of the Targaryen Kings, and says they need a defensive strategy as they need to defend.
Theon and Jon speak about the Starks and The Greyjoys and how it used to be when they grew up together. Jon asks if he will come with them to the North, Theon says no because he must rescue Yara first, Jon tells him he should and wishes him luck.
Theon tries to rally the remaining Iron Born left in Dragonstone to come with him to rescue Yara. This is when the fight between the leader of those Iron Borne and Theon takes place. They kick him in the balls a few times, but nothing happens to Theon. Theon seems to be losing which is when he gets back into the fight and beats him, they form a rescue party and head out to save Yara.
Winterfell
Sansa gathers all the Northern lords and leaders, and calls on Arya to come forward. Arya is worried as to what is happening, Sansa says it’s time to judge the great treacheries and betrayals that have been done to the North and we will judge the person responsible for them.
She looks straight at Arya, and then says
you need to tell me how many times you have betrayed The North
Arya is shocked and can’t believe her sister is saying this to her, Sansa repeated and says
you need to tell me how many times you have betrayed The North, Lord Baelish
This is when Sansa starts to name all his treacheries:
you killed Alyssa Arryn
Sansa then pulls out the cat’s paw dagger and asks him if he recognizes it, Little Finger says it belonged to Tyrion, but Sansa knew it was his. Next to Sansa is Bran who has told her all these things, who then says
you once told my father ‘I told you not to trust me’
Little Finger is shocked when he hears this. Sansa then tells all the Lords present how he sold her to the Bolton’s. Little Finger realizes he’s pretty much done but still tries to get his way out by telling them lies and asking for help from Yohn Royce and others.
When you brought me back to Winterfell, you told me there’s no justice in the world. Not unless we make it.
In the end Sansa tells Little Finger:
Lord Baelish, thank you for all your lessons
Sansa then nods to Arya, who slits Littlefinger’s throat using the dagger that was intended to kill Bran way back in S01E02. Little Finger starts to choke in his own blood and falls to the ground holding his throat and dies.
After Arya and Sansa finally patch up and reconcile, Arya tells Sansa she’s the strongest woman she has ever met and Sansa tells her that she could have never achieved the things Arya has and they make up.
Game of Thrones Season 7 Spoilers : Episode 7 Season Finale
The Dragon and The Wolf
King’s Landing
Jamie and Cersei have a conversation about the upcoming war. Jamie is looking at a map of the north and starting to gather the Lannister armies to get ready to go north when Cersei asks him what he’s doing to which Jamie says he’s getting ready to go north with the army which Cersei says
nah they have dragons and troops, they can handle it
She says she would be more than happy to see the White Walkers to kill as many of her enemies as possible. She tells him that she has obtained an agreement with Euron. He pretended to be a coward, but instead he is going to Essos to hire the Golden Company on her behalf. The Gold Company is an army of mercenaries Cersei bought as she got a new credit line from the Iron Bank.
Jamie is disgusted by Cersei and they continue to argue. The argument gets heated up and we see The Mountain draw his sword in case things between Jamie and Cersei get ugly. Jamie is pissed and leaves Cersei (fucking finally) we see Jamie leaving the city (not in his Lannister uniform) and on his way out. He stops to fix his golden hand and looks back at the Red Keep which is when the first snowflakes begin to fall on Kings Landing.
Winterfell – Boatsex and R+L = J
Bran is visited by Sam who Bran recognizes, asks what he is doing there and Sam tells him he needs to see Jon Snow. Bran says he also needs to tell Jon Snow a lot, Sam asks Bran what he needs to tell Jon Snow. Bran says that Jon isn’t Ned’s bastard but Lyanna’s and Rhaegar’s son and that he was born in dorne and that his name isn’t Jon Snow but Jon Sand. But Sam tells Bran that he is not a Sand, and that he has seen it in record that Raeghar had his marriage with Elia annulled and married Lyanna which shocks Bran. Sam then tells Bran that if he can see into the future and past that he should go see for himself. Bran then goes into the past and sees the wedding between Raeghar and Lyanna in a forest, as he sees this he realizes that Roberts rebellion was all based on a lie because Robert was pissed and said that Lyanna was kidnapped.
While this flashback is happening, scenes switch back and forth between Raeghar with Lyanna and Jon and Dany on the boat. As the romantic scene between Raeghar and Lyanna happens we see Jon and Dany’s romantic scene as well. Jon and Dany enter a cabin together, in which they begins to take each others clothes off. #boatsex
Tyrion is the only one who notices that they are having sex, as boatsex intensifies we see the scene where Lyanna is in Tower of Joy where she tells Ned that the baby’s name is Aegon Targaryen. Bran then says Aegon Targaryen is the legitimate heir to the iron throne. R + L = J
The Wall
We see these events through the eyes of Bran who wargs into a bunch of crows and we are brought to East Watch By the Sea, where Tormund and Beric are. The army of the dead with the blizzard following them like in episode one outside The Wall. Tormund and Beric are shocked as they see this, and then the Night King flies in on Viserion. Viserion and the Night King attack the wall, they focus on one part of the wall and melt it. The wall starts to break in a “V” shape. The gap in The Wall is wide enough for the dead to go through, and the Night King fly’s through the wall riding Viserion. Tormund and Beric run for safety.
That’s it for Game of Thrones Season 7 Spoilers peeps, see you next year.
Source – The peeps over at /r/freefolk who don’t bend \m/The Japanese put on a show of force at the Tokyo Motor Show. Honda tore the wraps off its new Monkey and ‘Neo’ cafe racer concepts. Yamaha revealed an oddball three-wheeler. Suzuki showed a tasty potential SV650 variant, and Kawasaki set the interwebs alight with the Z900RS. Which one would you pick?
Honda Monkey 125 concept Built around the same 125cc thumper found in the insanely fun Grom, the refreshed Monkey is a modern throwback to Honda’s mini-bikes of yore. And let’s be honest: it absolutely defines radness. The concept stays true to the original Z-series styling and promises to make riders look as ridiculous as ever, although it has been modernized a touch—with a hat tip towards the scrambler movement.
LED lighting, a digital gauge and disc brakes front and rear bring performance and amenities into the 21st century, but the chunky seat and chromed front fender scream mid-sixties sexiness. Considering that many of the parts used here can be plucked from the Grom bins, I can’t see any reason not to rekindle the Monkey movement. Come on Big Red, you know you wanna! [Honda Japan]
2018 Kawasaki Z900RS After teasing us with video snippets over the past few months, Kawasaki finally revealed the Z900RS in Tokyo. And mouths around here are watering. Harkening back to the mighty Z1, Team Green’s new retro ride is a Universal Japanese Motorcycle version of their Z900 streetfighter with squeaky clean lines and a honey of a power plant.
In RS guise the 948cc inline-4 has been remapped to deliver a beefier bottom end, which has trimmed peak horsepower to 111 (from 123) but keeps it competitive against the Yamaha XSR900. Other mechanical changes include a shorter first gear for extra squirt at the lights, and a longer final drive to quell buzziness on the interstate.
The trellis frame is new and the radial-mount binders up front are a welcome upgrade. Suspension is a carryover from the streetfighter platform, with full adjustability at front and rear.
The overall design looks incredible right out of the box, and we’re looking forward to telling you how it performs. Wes and I are in round 265 of our rock, paper, scissor fight to see who’ll ride it first, so watch this space. [More]
Yamaha Niken When I think of a three-wheeler my mind immediately conjures up images of a sidecar rig. Sure, I’ll grant you that ‘trikes’ can and do exist, but a Ural or some other tasty combination just feels more ‘right.’
Yamaha obviously doesn’t feel the same way. Looking like a Piaggio MP3 with a steroid and amphetamine addiction, the Yamaha Niken is a ‘Leaning Multi-W |
my time and thoughts to cryptocurrency. As I've watched the price of Bitcoin and other coins rise and fall dramatically, I often have tried to "buy the dip" and accumulate my investment. Over the course of time, I've become more conditioned to check on the value regularly, to look into good potential alt-coins, and to think more about my next crypto purchase.
Even just a few months ago, I would not have thought twice about going out for a dinner with friends or family and spending anywhere from $50 - $100. I'd have no problem dropping $70 on the latest PS4 game, or spending a few bucks on clothing, entertainment, or whatever.
Now, this has changed. Every time I am faced with a purchasing decision that seemed trivial months ago, I automatically think to myself, "I could spend this on Bitcoin" or some alt-coin I'm interested in at the moment. I could add to my portfolio instead of "wasting" the money on stuff.
The other day a friend asked if I wanted to go to an NHL hockey game with him and I asked him how much it was for the ticket. It was about $100. I immediately thought to myself, "Screw that! I'd rather buy Bitcoin!" We watched the game on TV instead. Now, we can debate the value of going to a hockey game, but the point is, my immediate thought was that it was a waste of money that could instead go toward my crypto portfolio.
And then I wonder, what if Bitcoin does indeed grow to a massive value? Will I ever be able to bring myself to actually sell it or spend it, or will I just hoard it obsessively like Scrooge? I mean, if it's worth $100 000 some day in the future, what will it be worth the day after that?
Is this a problem? Is it such a bad thing to want to save money instead of spend it? I can feel myself becoming cheaper by the day, and frankly, it's a little concerning!
image source:
4.bp.blogspot.com/_kwZO0O9p29g/TQRDHpqoK3I/AAAAAAAACWs/fyRNjHpRlbs/s1600/scrooge-1951.jpgFacebook must kill its trending news feed. Democracy depends on it.
Timothy Dick Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 3, 2017
(Update: Facebook announced on June 1 2018 that will eliminate trending news, instead producing its own news videos.)
Facebook built its news feed with the hopes of increasing user engagement by providing food for thought. It worked. But...
Within minutes of the Las Vegas shooting, Facebook and Google’s latest, smartest news feed algorithms got fooled again and massively promoted fake news ahead of real news.
Unwittingly Facebook’s news feed created a set of adverse outcomes that almost certainly could have not been identified before launch. Powerful and essentially unstoppable external forces have hijacked Facebook’s news feed to the point where Facebook should eliminate it for several important reasons.
Most troublingly, “trending news” accelerates news in what is what is known a “feed forward” loop: i.e. the more we (and bots and trolls) click on a news item, the more that people will see that item. This reduces visibility of other news, resulting in “groupthink” that shrinks our perspective. Trending news algorithms can be adjusted but will always create “observational bias” in that we react most to what we see most. News feeds will always be vulnerable to hacking via bots and trolls controlled by governments, lobbyists, or corporations seeking to further their interests. Powerful combinations of fake news such as on the Las Vegas massacre, and “click hyping” to artificially pump the article up the news feed drowns out real news that individuals choose to post and isn’t hyped by bots.
Changing news selection algorithms can never outrun these powerful (sometimes state sponsored) robotic attacks, resulting in an un-winnable game of Whack-A-Mole for Facebook.
Election results including the US presidency and Brexit have been already been influenced by fake news targeted to individual FB accounts by foreign governments and others using sophisticated tools such as Cambridge Analytica (which claims to hold over 5,000 data points of 220 million Americans).
3. News feeds makes us dumb because we get spoon-fed articles that an algorithm put in front of us. The answer to this is not menus of news preferences which narrow our view by definition, it is people finding news themselves from diverse sources, as we used to do. This makes for a more diverse and better informed Facebook.
4. Presere the diversity of news sources. News outlets are already reeling from loss of subscription revenues. Now articles are being cherry-picked by trending algorithms that create winners and losers, not by the merit of the news source itself.
For these reasons (and likely more) Facebook should eliminate its news feed. I do not believe that this will meaningfully change usage. I DO believe this will benefit Facebook by bringing it back to more of a community sharing platform.
Mr. Zuckerberg has built the world’s de-facto sharing platform and, as a “natural monopoly” (one where everyone benefits as more people participate), it is unlikely to be challenged for the foreseeable future.
As Winston Churchill and FDR both observed: with great power, comes great responsibility. Mr. Zuckerberg, you are now in that league no matter how unwittingly it occurred. You are a powerful learner and I have no doubt you’ll rise to the challenge — however sometimes the answer is doing less, not more.Geofizz find World War II crash site with unerring accuracy for TV programme
East Anglian scientist, Malcolm Weale of Eye in Suffolk, played a crucial part in the Channel 5 live documentary "Fighter Plane Dig" screened nationwide over the bank holiday weekend. Using state-of-the-art ground penetrating radar – equipment so new that he has the only unit presently available in the UK – Malcolm pinpointed the wreckage with such accuracy that the dig site was just inches away from its target.
"We were spot on!" said a relieved Malcolm after the historic live broadcast of the hunt for the crashed wartime Hurricane fighter on Sunday night. "We found the remains of the fighter within inches of the expected location." The presenters of the Channel Five programme were delighted that Malcolm's ground penetrating radar, confirmed by photographic evidence from forensic photographer Peter Sutherst of Luton, was so accurate that the hole dug for the crashed plane was not even one foot out.
Announcement of the fighter plane dig in a tv magazine Malcolm Weale from Geofizz is scanning the ground with Future I-160
The story began 64 years ago at midday on Sunday 15th September 1940. The Battle for Britain had almost ended and the London Blitz was about to begin – in a big way. At 12,000 feet a German Dornier bomber droned across the London skyline on its way to destroy Buckingham Palace the symbol of Britain's imperial majesty.
One man stood in its way, 22 year old Sgt Ray Holmes just fresh out of training school. But his Hurricane fighter ran out of ammunition and the bomber still flew on to its royal target. Thinking fast, Sgt Holmes took a deep breath and, in a manoeuvre that was definitely not in the rule book, aimed his plane directly at the intruder. Seconds before his plane rammed the bomber he baled out with such force that his boots flew off. But his audacious act had saved the palace from destruction. Both planes came down. The Dornier, now minus its tail, exploded in a fireball just outside Victoria station while the Hurricane screamed through the air at 400mph to punch a hole several feet deep in the ground at the end of Buckingham Palace road.
"Old photographs taken at the scene of the crash gave us a chance to identify the location of the crash site," Malcolm said. "But the ground penetrating radar not only confirmed the location but also revealed that we were looking at an airplane engine made from aluminium and steel."
The fighter plane engine has been dug out of the ground The fighter plane parts are displayed in the Imperial War Museum in London
"By 3pm on Sunday afternoon we knew that we had done it. The hole in the ground was no more that 8 feet x 8 feet and about 10 feet deep. At the bottom we found numerous engine parts including one of its pistons 8 inches across and weighing as much as 10 lbs. We also found the cockpit instrument panel with its machine gun firing button still in the 'live' position. But the really exciting find was almost all of the engine casing still relatively intact. The final lift was delayed until 9.45pm when the live broadcast was due to reach its climax."
"The crowds around the site stood five feet deep on the pavements and a big cheer went up when the engine emerged from its sixty year old tomb. But their biggest cheer was for pilot Ray Holmes who, despite failing health at the age of 86, had made the journey from his home in the Midlands to be present at this historic occasion. It was a nostalgic and tender moment when he ran his fingers over the cockpit controls once more that he had last seen 64 years earlier."
After the programme Malcolm added, "I know there are more parts buried in the ground at the site. I have even seen the shape of one of the wing-mounted machine guns nearby and the propeller boss is just below where the engine was dug out".Nikki Haley tried to strike a conciliatory tone to the countries that hadn't voted against the US. REUTERS/Mike Segar
After a United Nations vote condemning President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley invited all the countries that didn't vote for the resolution to a party to thank them for their "friendship to the United States" on Wednesday.
The invite, which was sent via email, stated that a formal invitation would follow, and set the gala's date for January 3, 2018.
Only nine countries voted directly against the resolution, while 56 others either abstained or did not cast a ballot. The vote came after Haley threatened the US would be "taking names" of countries that voted against the resolution, which may have led to a higher number of abstentions than usually occur on Israel-related resolutions, according to Reuters.
In off-the-cuff comments made during a cabinet meeting, Trump himself seemed to threaten to cut off aid to countries that voted against the resolution.
"Let them vote against us," he said. "We'll save a lot. We don't care. But this isn't like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars. We're not going to be taken advantage of any longer."
The UN resolution passed overwhelmingly in the body's General Assembly on Thursday, with 128 countries voting in favor of it.
The vote was held in response to Trump's decision earlier this month to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize the city as Israel's capital. While Israel has held most of its state institutions in Jerusalem for decades, the city remains disputed, and its eastern section is still considered to be occupied territory under international law, with several UN resolutions backing up this position. Palestinians also consider East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state.Image caption Mr Sayedee is among seven people facing trial
A senior leader of Bangladesh's largest Islamic party is the first suspect charged by a tribunal probing the 1971 independence struggle against Pakistan.
The war crimes tribunal accused Delawar Hossain Sayedee of mass murder and torture among other crimes. He denies all the allegations.
Mr Sayedee, a leader in Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami party, was arrested last year.
The tribunal was set up in 2010 to try those accused of crimes during the war.
Bangladesh was called East Pakistan until 1971 when a nine-month war of secession broke out leaving up to three million people dead.
"The court has framed charges on 20 counts including crimes against humanity and genocide against Mr Sayedee," Mohammad Shahinur Islam, registrar of the International Crimes Tribunal, told the BBC.
"He pleaded not guilty. He claimed all those allegations were false.
"With the framing of charges the trial has started. As a citizen, I should say this is a historic day for Bangladesh," Mr Islam said.
The case will be next heard on 30 October when the prosecution will make an opening statement.
Official figures estimate that thousands of women were raped when West Pakistan sent in its army to try and stop East Pakistan becoming an independent Bangladesh.
Last year, the Bangladeshi government set up the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka to try those Bangladeshis accused of collaborating with Pakistani forces and committing atrocities during months of violence.
Mr Sayedee is among seven people, including two from the main opposition Bangladeshi Nationalist Party, facing trial. All of them deny the accusations and accuse the government of carrying out a vendetta.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch says the tribunal needs to change some of its procedures to ensure a fair trial which meets international standards.
The trial is likely to go on for months.Last fall, we shared how we’re supporting organizations on the frontline of providing essential humanitarian relief support. But we also wanted to do something to help with refugees’ long-term challenges, such as the need for access to information and education. So today, we’re making a $5.3 million Google.org grant to support the launch of Project Reconnect, a program by NetHope to equip nonprofits working with refugees in Germany with Chromebooks, in order to facilitate easier access to education for refugees like Ahmed.
Chromebooks have proven to be a good fit for education purposes. They can be easily set up to run education or language learning apps. They’re automatically kept up to date with the latest features, apps and virus protection. And they can be configured and managed by a central administrator (in this case the nonprofits) to offer relevant programs, content and materials depending on the situation. For example, they can run an educational game for children, a language course for younger adults or even feature information about the asylum application process on a pre-installed homepage.
Nonprofits can apply today on this website. Many organizations and their staff are doing incredible work in very difficult circumstances to help with this crisis. We hope that by supporting these nonprofits, we can help people like Ahmed on the next step of their journey.Set aside some special fireworks in the CW’s honor: The network unexpectedly unleashed some of its best stuff on Netflix just in time to take over your holiday weekend. Jane the Virgin’s second season and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s first are now ready and waiting for your eyeballs to stream. While Netflix didn’t give enough warning for Vulture to do a proper hard sell, the news isn’t totally unexpected since the service carries Jane the Virgin season one and recently made a deal with the CW to significantly narrow the window between when a show airs on TV and when it pops up for you to binge online. So, obviously you’re going to bail on that Independence Day BBQ and watch both seasons immediately — the question is, in what order? Our suggestion: Start with the satisfying, if scorching, burn of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and use Jane the Virgin as a chaser to salve the pain.Noticing a strong emergence on Facebook of experts in foreign policy and politics in the wake of recent events, President Barack Obama has decided to take a step back and let Facebook decide how to run the country.
“Scrolling through my Facebook feed, I’ve noticed an overwhelming number of political experts emerge this past week,” said the president in an interview with Buzzfeed. “I’m thoroughly impressed in the knowledge of the people on Facebook, whether it’s through posting articles written by someone else or taking the ever-growing moral high ground to make their peers look like monsters. This is the type of leadership that we need in this country, so I hereby announce that I will be handing my presidential powers of to the Facebook Userbase indefinitely.
Dave Engelberg, a Facebook user of 4 years, is super excited to use his political expertise to help govern the country. “I knew that ‘Atlantic’ article I posted the other day would make a difference when I saw that I had 31 likes in less than 24 hours, regardless of the cynical comments from my old classmate, Evan. But Evan’s wrong. He’s ignorant and doesn’t understand how things really work, which is why I posted the article- so that I could educate people like Evan on what should be done in this country.”
“Feeling so #blessed to be able to run America,” posted Madison Teller, a 14 year old who says she actually prefers instagram, “I knew my meme explaining the refugee crisis would have an impact. Can’t wait to make the world a better place #Peace #Love #Madison.”
AdvertisementsThe Phantom Corsair is considered one of the classics. When it was launched, its design was truly unconventional and very futuristic. In fact, its target market even had a hard time trying to comprehend its liberal features.
Phantom Corsair was the brainchild of Rust Heinz, who dreamed of creating America’s first supercar. In 1936, Heinz moved to California as a high-spirited entrepreneur who was part of a growing food empire. He was then able to persuade his aunt to finance the development of the car despite opposition from the Heinz family.
After all, the Phantom Corsair was intended to be produced in limited numbers and to be sold at nearly $15,000 each – a very high price tag at the time. A scale model of the car was then made in clay, featuring an aerodynamic shape that was so different from any vehicle at the time.
Heinz then brought the scale model to Chistian Bohman and Marice Schwartz of Pasadena California in order to bring to life a running full size car. As soon as they had the scale model, Bohman & Schwartz commenced work on the car by making use of these elements: a custom chassis from the AJ. Bayer Company; and a donor Cord 812 drive train with a V8 engine (power upgraded from 125 bhp to 190 bhp) and a complex front-wheel drive sub-frame.
Once the base was formed, Bohman & Schwartz worked on the car's body, creating it from aluminum and supporting it with a steel tube lattice framework. Bohman & Schwartz made sure that the body was wide at the wheel wells in order to accommodate the Phantom Corsair's fully enveloped wheels.
Its front end featured characteristic vents and sculpted lights blending into the main shape. It also featured chrome front and rear triple-blade bumpers. Moreover, the Phantom Corsair had side windows extending higher into the roof and low split windscreen.
However, there were some drawbacks on the design like the small front louvers that offered only limited front cooling, causing the Lycoming 4.7-liter engine to overheat repeatedly. With 190 bhp at its disposal, the aerodynamically shape Phantom Corsair was reportedly able to reach a top speed of 115 mph (185 km/h).
The cabin of the Phantom Corsair could accommodate four people in the front and two in the rear. Its futuristic sense was further evoked by a host of aeronautical instrumentation on the dashboard and a switch panel mounted on the roof.
Likewise, the Phantom Corsair didn't feature the typical door handles. Instead, ingress and egress was made possible by push-button automatic doors. Other elements of the Phantom Corsair included ‘thermostatic’ temperature control, a thick layer of cork/rubber insulation for the cockpit, green-tinted safety glass and hydraulic bumpers.
It cost over $24,000 to build the Phantom Corsair. After it was built, it was then time to let the public know about this new vehicle. To do that, a full page ad in Esquire magazine was commissioned. The Corsair was also displayed at the World’s Fair and was dubbed as ‘The Car of Tomorrow.’
It also played as ‘The Flying Wombat’ in 1938 film "The Young in Heart" by David O. Selznick. Also, the Corsair was featured in a Popular Science film series in 1938. Unfortunately, no one dared to place an order for the Phantom Corsair. Heinz made the car as his personal service vehicle until he died at the young age of 25.
The Heinz family then stored the car until 1942. The Phantom Corsair was then driven by a relative until it was sold and painted gold. In the 1950s, Herb Shriner commissioned Albrecht Goertz to rework the front end of the Phantom Corsair to increase its engine cooling capability.
This rework also led to the raising of the front window to increase visibility and the revision of the roof to include two targa top-style panels to allow more light to seep into the cabin. Then, the Phantom Corsair was purchased by Bill Harrah at an auction and made it part of his collection.
Harrah, however, undid the modifications and restored the Phantom Corsair to its original form. Now, the Phantom Corsair can be seen at the National Automobile Museum -- known formerly as The Harrah Collection -- in Reno, Nevada.
Aside from sitting in the museum, the Phantom Corsair was also showed to the public at events like the 2006 Goodwood Festival, 2007 Pebble Beach Concours and 2009 Amelia Island Concours.The left is split over Alberta’s oilsands. So far, the division is expressing itself online and at the local level. But if it deepens, it could — could — affect the fortunes of Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats. At base the split is over whether bitumen production in the tarsands should be reformed or eliminated entirely.
Economist Mel Watkins says Canada has a moral obligation to stop heavy oil production as soon as possible, even though doing so will involve “wrenching change” and heavy economic costs, writes Thomas Walkom. ( MARK RALSTON / AFP/GETTY IMAGES file photo )
Those arguing for reform, including the NDP, say production from the oilsands should be regulated in a manner that better protects the environment while providing more industrial spin-offs. Those calling for elimination of the tarsands industry say heavy-oil production, because of its contribution to climate change, is simply too dangerous. Among the eliminators is economist Mel Watkins, a former candidate for the federal NDP who at 81 remains an influential figure within the Canadian left.
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In a lengthy, online blog posted last month for the Progressive Economics Forum, Watkins called bitumen “the worst of staples,” comparing Canada’s addiction to heavy oil with the New World’s 19th century focus on sugar and cotton. Sugar and cotton production encouraged the evil of slavery, he noted. Bitumen production is helping to foster the evil of extreme climate change. Canada, he said, has a moral obligation to stop heavy oil production as soon as possible, even though doing so will involve “wrenching change” and heavy economic costs. For Watkins, the tone is unusually apocalyptic. He has long been a critic of Canada’s overreliance on resources. But it’s rare for him to argue that a particular resource should be abandoned entirely. Oddly enough, this blog was part of a series designed to honour a seminal article he wrote 50 years ago that explained how Canada could use raw material, or staple, production to encourage other kinds of economic activity.
The progressive economics website is a leftish one. No contributor to this 50th anniversary series lauded the federal Conservative government’s handling of tarsands bitumen. But typically, critics such as Unifor economist Jim Stanford or York University political scientist Daniel Drache called not for elimination of heavy oil production but for government action to encourage industrial spin-offs.
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The other contributor to take Watkins’ hard line against heavy oil was political economist Gordon Laxer, founding director (now retired) of the University of Alberta’s Parkland Institute. Laxer explained that he used to argue for more spinoffs from heavy oil. But now, he said, he realizes that this would only create a bigger political constituency for the tarsands, thus allowing heavy-oil production to continue unabated. That, he said “would bury us in carbon and climate-change chaos.” So far, this is a debate among left academics. If it remains that way, it won’t much matter. But such debates have a habit of percolating into wider public consciousness. As a tour through Toronto neighbourhoods would show, the anti-pipeline movement is already here. Those “Stop Line 9”posters that pop up from time to time refer to a proposal that would reverse and expand the flow in an existing Montreal to Sarnia oil pipeline so as to bring more tarsands bitumen eastward. Why do people care which direction oil flows in an already existing pipeline? The answer, as Line 9 opponent Herman Rosenfeld told me, has to do in part with aboriginal opposition to the scheme and in part with fear of heavy-oil spills. But for him, the very production of tarsands oil is the main issue. “My take is that it should be phased out,” he said. I asked Watkins whether, given that all three major federal parties support heavy oil production, he thinks it’s politically possible to terminate it. His answer: difficult but possible. The key, he said, is to stop or delay any pipeline aimed at transporting heavy crude from Alberta. The New Democrats? I’m not sure how much their careful, middle-of-the-road position on the tarsands will hurt them among Ontario and British Columbia voters worried by climate change. Watkins says he still thinks the NDP is the best of the three main parties. But even NDP supporters, he said, should fight pipelines. “There is still some time for us to come to our senses.” Thomas Walkom's column appears Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Read more about:A 'Watershed' For The Internet, An Invitation To Use A N. Korean ISP And Other Fallout From The UK's Porn Filtering Plan
from the who-knew-people-having-sex-could-be-this-much-trouble? dept
It's been a rather eventful weekend as David Cameron's porn vendetta (porndetta?) is now completely underway. Just in the past week, we found Cameron blaming search engines for child porn, claiming topless women in British newspapers were NOT porn and that the UK government had outsourced its filtering system to a company headquartered in China.
In other, non-Cameron news, a self-appointed Guardian of Purity, Claire Perry, had her website hacked, goatse'd and referred to in a blog post. Perry's response? To blame the hacking on the blogger reporting the news and threatening to call his editor and discuss... well, something, I guess. Long story short: Perry is now facing a possible defamation suit for calling the blogger a hacker.
Over the weekend, the inadvertent gift kept on giving.
First off via Slashdot, the Polish Minister of Justice got swept up in the anti-porn spirit and declared Cameron's filtering system to be just the sort of thing Poland needs. This set off a debate which, unlike many, was resolved by the end of the day, when the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (along with the Minister of Administration and Digitization, Michal Boni) took the idea 'round back and had it shot.
We shall not block access to legal content regardless of whether or not it appeases us aesthetically or ethically.
I would like to find solutions that are effective and at the same time do not cause concerns regarding surveillance of Internet users or over potential of erroneous limiting our Internet activity. (...) Filtering does not remove the content.
“If there’s a watershed on the TV then why isn’t there one for the internet?”
Google
[I]t's irksome to me that I've had to write this piece, which is essentially an appeal for calm in a climate that says, with a baffling disregard for the view of the vast majority, that the right to porn must be universal and that access to it must be protected from all possible inhibitions
The most shrill complaint against Cameron's wheeze is that it's "censorship". This seems to me like saying that not placing a copy of Anna Karenina in every home, pre-web, was censorship against Russian novels. No one is telling people that they aren't allowed to access porn on the web. They're saying that in order to do so, you have to tick the box pretending that you've read the terms and conditions. And why not? Even in the highly sexualised public spaces of contemporary Britain, there's still broad agreement that footage of people humping shouldn't be up on a screen at Piccadilly Circus. There's absolutely no reason why the internet should be any different.
Active choice is NOT a choice
The government wants us to offer filtering as an option, so we offer an active choice when you sign up, you choose one of two options:-
Unfiltered Internet access - no filtering of any content within the A&A network - you are responsible for any filtering in your own network, or
Censored Internet access - restricted access to unpublished government mandated filter list (plus Daily Mail web site) - but still cannot guarantee kids don't access porn.
If you choose censored you are advised: Sorry, for a censored internet you will have to pick a different ISP or move to North Korea. Our services are all unfiltered.
Is that a good enough active choice for you Mr Cameron?
"A porn filter is all well and good, but who's going to empty it?"
That's PM Tusk leaving zero room for argument with a firm statement. Boni, showing he's one of the rare politicians who understands how the Web works, added:It's a sad statement on the world's political leaders when a little technical know-how is enough to set you apart from your peers. Claire Perry's grasp on "hacking" seemed to rely on the "fact" that screenshots and hyperlinks are interchangeable, as well her assumption that reporting on a site hacking is the same as hacking the site.On the plus side, Perry's lack of knowledge still puts her ahead on another anti-porn crusader, Rhoda Grant of the Scottish Parliament who, back in June, posed this question:O....K.....Absolutely, Rhoda. We'll get right on it. We'll send a letter down to The Internet (a.k.a. "Google") informing it of the 10 PM cutoff. Once the kids are in bed,The Internet is free to resume its regularly scheduled programming of porn and sweary bits. But not before 10 PM. (P.S. That includes Image Search.)Speaking of obtuseness, Deborah Orr at the Guardian has a lengthy editorial wondering what's so bad about filtering porn and why are so many people outraged There's a lot more to it than that, although if you're paying attention, you already know she's arrived at the wrong conclusion. Orr spends time attacking every argument against Cameron's filtering, including the censorship argument.But itcensorship, Deborah, even if it's a low-flying, somewhat malign, "opt-in" version of censorship, one that proves Cameron's not above using the bodies of murdered children as a platform. With Cameron's plan in place, a person's internet is now filtered by the government (routed through a Chinese third party). No one's expecting porn to come bursting out of their computer unbidden, but people would still like to believe they can use the web un-fucked with by the government.Illegal images, such as child porn, areblocked. So is other illegal material. At this point, the government is treating adults like children in order to protect children from adult images. This makes no sense.The worst part about Orr's editorial is that she seems completely unaware this really. That's the just a way to get a governmental foot in the door. "Kids shouldn't be exposed to porn, right?" it asks and then hands out a list of pre-checked boxes that cover a whole lot of non-porn territory If you can't read the photo, here are some of the other types of content that are filtered:- Dating sites- Drugs, alcohol and tobacco- File sharing sites- Gambling- Suicide and self-harm- Weapons and violenceThisthe slippery slope. Block a crowd-pleaser like pornography and you can set up shop in the public's internet service, ready to toss filters on anything else deemed "offensive." People aren't fightingporn. They're fightinggovernment intrusion. If they're not doing anything illegal, the government should be willing to let individual responsibility be the watchword, rather than lurking in the background reading over the public's shoulder.If that's howwant your internet, Deborah, by all means, support this plan. Most people don't. Mostdon't. UK ISP Andrews & Arnold has no interest in offering a filtered internet and it's released a statement making its feelings clear on Cameron's plan.The ISP also offers a very thorough Q&A/fact sheet at the same site detailing the flaws with this plan and offers advice for those who want to offer a safer Internet for their kids, leaving the decision in the hands of the consumers.Finally, via Boing Boing, Jeremy Hardy of BBC's The News Quiz, asks the question everyone's afraid to ask
Filed Under: censorship, claire perry, david cameron, deborah orr, donald tusk, free speech, internet, regulation, rhoda grant, ukThe Associated Press
LONDONBERRY, N.H. -- Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton struggled to defend herself against Bernie Sanders' insinuations that she's beholden to Wall Street, while Sanders faced fresh doubts about his experience on foreign policy, a day after jousting in a feisty debate.
Meanwhile, Marco Rubio shouldered intensifying attacks Friday from a herd of moderate-leaning Republicans who fear a strong Rubio showing in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary could spell the end for their frazzled presidential campaigns.
As candidates crisscrossed the state, the all-out push for votes despite a snow storm that forced Sanders and Republican candidate Donald Trump, to cancel afternoon events, illustrated the growing stakes.
For Clinton, who revived her campaign here in 2008 after a bruising Iowa loss, the final sprint in New Hampshire offered an unpleasant reckoning with reality: Once again, the former first lady is locked in a bona fide contest for a nomination most Democrats had thought was hers for the taking.
A Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll released Friday showed Sanders with an expanded lead over Clinton in New Hampshire, though the two are running neck-and-neck nationally.
Sanders and Clinton tussled aggressively in their first one-on-one debate Thursday, their last before the primary, with Clinton accusing the Vermont independent of an "artful smear" for suggesting her speaking fees and donations from Wall Street firms bound her to corporate interests. Sanders countered that Clinton "does represent the establishment."
Clinton's campaign tried to flip the script on Sanders by arguing she's the opposite of an establishment contender.
But Sanders was sticking to core messages in the final days before the primary: government-run health care, free tuition at public universities and an end to gigantic, all-powerful financial institutions.
"I want to see banking become boring again," Sanders said. "Remember boring banking?"
On the Republican side, polls showed Rubio on the ascent both in New Hampshire and nationally, raising his hopes that Republican Party leaders would soon unite behind him in a bid to sideline their two polarizing front-runners: Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Jeb Bush accused Rubio of a lacklustre set of accomplishments. Bush, campaigning with his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, summed up the Florida senator's achievements in one word: "Nothing."
Cruz, the victor of last week's lead-off Iowa caucuses, was struggling to put complaints about his campaign's tactics in the rear view mirror, as new evidence emerged of what challenger Ben Carson has dubbed "dirty tricks."
Fueling the dust-up were rumours spread by Cruz'Clinton struggles to defend Wall St. linkss campaign hours before the Iowa caucuses about Carson dropping out of the race. Trump has also cried foul, arguing Cruz "stole" the election by peeling off Carson supporters to surge past Trump.
Before New Hampshire votes, the Republicans planned one last debate showdown on Saturday.
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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Londonberry, New Hampshire, Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report.According to a report by Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, the Miami Hurricanes are close to finalizing a deal for a home and home football series with Texas A&M.
New tonight: UM books marquee non-conference football opponent and more scheduling news; Vitale bullish on Canes: https://t.co/W2ifjXKEsh — Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) November 16, 2016
The series with Texas A&M would be played in 2022 and 2023, with each team hosting one of the games.
If completed, this would give Miami a marquee non-conference game for the next 7 years in a row. With the back end of the home and home with Notre Dame on deck for 2017, Miami is slated to play LSU in the 2018 season opener at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. They would then follow that up by playing Florida in the 2019 opener in Jacksonville, FL Orlando, FL (my mistake). After that? A home and home with Michigan State in 2020 and 2021, with the first game being played in East Lansing, MI and the 2nd at Hard Rock Stadium (or whatever it’s called by then).
As Jackson said in his report, Miami is looking to have at least the 1 marquee non-conference game a year, and a series against Texas A&M would accomplish that for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. These big games are always scheduled years in advance, so we don’t know what the teams will look like by then. But, hopefully, Miami will have continued to build back toward National prominence, so these games have even more meaning.
More on this as it becomes available.
Go CanesOf the 14 other major U.S. cities featured on a new infographic released Wednesday as part of Campaign Zero’s Police Union Contract Project, seven have collective bargaining agreements with similar provisions delaying the interrogation of officers being investigated for use of force and erasing the resulting documentation of abuse. Thirteen have agreements that accomplish one or the other. In Austin, Houston, Louisville, and San Antonio, police union contracts go so far as to require 48-hour notice before an interview with an officer can be conducted, a precaution predicated on the utterly baseless claim that the buffer period helps preserve accurate memory. (Based on the available evidence, it’s more likely that the opposite is the case.) Before Cleveland’s recent settlement with the Justice Department, the personnel files of its police were wiped clean every two years.
“Police unions have been very strategic in embedding these measures” in contracting language as well as in state and local ordinances, Samuel Sinyangwe, a co-founder of the Campaign Zero criminal justice reform platform, told the New Republic. Often, that strategy has involved latching onto the tough-on-crime policies that exacerbate the problems of urban crime and force officers into precarious situations in the first place.
“Fair police union contracts” is the last and least sexy of the |
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"We are the last, the least, and the lost," a local woman sighs to me.
Geographically, it is designated as Southeast Washington, but it might as well be rural Mississippi for the alienation and the unemployment and the all-consuming poverty.
It's getting near twilight on a Wednesday in Washington's Ward 8, where the sun set long ago. This is a swath of the city cut off from the shimmering marble monuments by a river, a railroad, a freeway, and decades of neglect and pathological despair.
WASHINGTON -- The Gran Caudillo of the capital -- the Ali Pasha of the Potomac -- the Moammar Gadhafi of the metropolis -- the Mayor-for-Life who is still alive but no longer mayor -- the felon who uttered four of the most famous words in American political history -- "Bitch set me up" -- is late for the debate.
Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 16/3/2012 (2537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/3/2012 (2537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
WASHINGTON — The Gran Caudillo of the capital — the Ali Pasha of the Potomac — the Moammar Gadhafi of the metropolis — the Mayor-for-Life who is still alive but no longer mayor — the felon who uttered four of the most famous words in American political history — "Bitch set me up" — is late for the debate.
It's getting near twilight on a Wednesday in Washington's Ward 8, where the sun set long ago. This is a swath of the city cut off from the shimmering marble monuments by a river, a railroad, a freeway, and decades of neglect and pathological despair.
Geographically, it is designated as Southeast Washington, but it might as well be rural Mississippi for the alienation and the unemployment and the all-consuming poverty.
"We are the last, the least, and the lost," a local woman sighs to me.
This is Sandra Seegars, one of the handful of candidates for the District of Columbia city council who has turned out for a public forum and verbal joust with the Haile Selassie of Southeast — the Kim Il-Sung of councilmen — the big-talking, big-strutting, big-hat-wearing celebrity who was this town's Hugo Chávez when Hugo Chávez wasn't cool.
But Marion Barry has yet to arrive.
The venue for the debate is a bar and soul-food eatery called Georgena's — catfish, chitlins, cornbread — a haphazardly decorated and joyously friendly joint with a long wooden bar, a reinforced steel door and no windows looking onto the homeless and jobless men who are pitching quarters against the brick wall of a liquor store out on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, just north of its intersection with a boulevard named for Malcolm X.
Georgena's is a regular haunt of the incorrigible Mr. Barry, who was here last week, belting out Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad) on karaoke night in honour of his 76th birthday. His photographs are prominent on the walls, along with those of firefighters, Motown stars, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and deceased parishioners who were sent home to Jesus with a wake at the popular taverna.
"Dive bar + dive food + STRONG drinks + Marion Barry recipe for fun with a side of regret in the morning!!" moans a review of the café, which is the only sit-down restaurant in all of benighted Ward 8 on yelp.com
But now it is time for the debate to start, and Marion Barry — the passionate and incorrigible civil rights leader and municipal Mobutu who served four terms as Washington's mayor before and after serving a prison term for perjury and possession of crack cocaine — is nowhere to be found. His sleek silver Jaguar, which he customarily parks wherever he feels like parking it (across intersections, on the sidewalk) is not visible out front.
So the debate begins anyway, without the strutting cock-of-the-walk, featuring three comparative Cornish game hens who have grown weary of walking under Mr. Barry's huge legs to peep about and find themselves dishonourable graves, electorally speaking.
To say all three are long shots in next month's Democratic primary, which is tantamount to election in a neighbourhood where Republicans are as rare as giraffes, would be an understatement. Indeed, in 2004, when Marion Barry, having relaxed his grasp on the entire city after a bout with prostate cancer, decided to serve the citizens of Ward 8 exclusively, he squeaked through with only 95 per cent of the vote.
So it is natural for the moderator, a local television newsman, to ask the trio of contenders why in heaven's name they think they have a chance to defeat a man whose life story has been a remarkable demonstration of the arrogance of power, and the power of forgiveness.
"We love him, we respect him, and we always will," responds a well-spoken candidate named Jacque Patterson who has served on local school boards and committees. "But he's not the same as he was when he was mayor."
"I thank him for all the people he helped to get government jobs and construction jobs, back when African-Americans weren't getting hired," says a younger community activist named Darrel Gaston, who announces he has knocked on 7,000 doors and personally spoken to 10,000 of Ward 8's 76,000 residents.
Gaston then asks rhetorically why the City of Washington was able to afford a new stadium for the baseball Nationals, but not the funds to put a dent in Ward 8's unemployment rate of 20 or 30 per cent.
"Forty per cent!" someone calls out from the back of the saloon.
"We need someone who is incorruptible, which is me," offers Sandra Seegars. "Someone who won't steal. The top people need to be clean for the little people to be clean."
"I don't want people to be afraid of Ward 8, I want them to LOVE Ward 8," says Gaston.
"I'll get anything done that's legal," vows Patterson.
This, of course, is a rather unsubtle jab at the incumbent.
"He's a legend, but 'legend' means that it was in the past," Seegars says. "Legends die, even while they're still alive."
Marion Barry never shows up.
Allen Abel is a Brooklyn-born Canadian journalist based in Washington, D.C.Dearborn, MI – Ford announced today that 5,000 previously unreleased 1965 Mustangs will go on sale for a mere $16,058. These are BRAND NEW spotless, shining 1965 Mustangs, actually made in 1965. Though they are familiar 1965 Mustangs, they still look different than anything you’ve seen before.
The ridiculously low price of just over 16 large ones is what it would cost with inflation, as it debuted for just $2,320 back in 1965. How these cars remained unknown, unseen, and untouched for 45 years is utterly unbelievable.
In equally unbelievable news is Jimi Hendrix. Yes, the guitar legend who has been dead for over 40 years, has just released a new album with previously unreleased STUDIO recordings. Called “Valley’s Of Neptune”, this new album was released on March 8, 2010.
Jimi lives with Tupac in Little Wing, Arizona, where they have been hiding the 5,000 Mustangs for 45 years. They put out new albums every so often and have been spotted together, rapping and strumming on picnic tables in Riordan Mansion State Park, in Flagstaff, AZ.
You can find more about Jimi and his upcoming tour dates at: http://www.jimihendrix.com/us/home
To get information about purchasing one of the 5,000 Mustangs, call up Santa at 772-257-4661.
RelatedHave you ever thought about becoming an indie game developer? Has your game company just gone under, sick of working for publishers or do you just want to break into the games industry? Whatever the reason, one thing that rings true for all Indie developers is the goal of making a good game. A lot of friends in the games industry have recently made the decision to “go Indie”. I thought I’d write up my guide to becoming an indie game developer taken from my experience and the experience of friends both starting out and with completed independent games.
Is it for you?
Indie game development isn’t for everyone. The pay is low, you typically need a “day job” and you need to work extremely hard for little reward at the beginning. It’s not all bad though as you are your own boss (and project manager), the monetary rewards can be higher and the reward of creating something of your own is overwhelming.
If you’re passionate about making games then the negatives might seem inconsequential, however I’d recommend taking some time to think them through. You need to be well informed about how long indie games take to develop and you need to be realistic with the goals you set. My biggest advice is to talk to people who have done it before. These guys can tell you where the stumbling blocks are, and give you a realistic view into what life will be like once you take the plunge.
Set Concrete, Realistic Milestones
Many indie games are killed by a lack of interest after a few months or years of development. By keeping your goals realistic and achievable you are reducing the chances of failing in the worst way, by not completing the game. Always have one primary goal you are heading towards (e.g. alpha, beta, release). The primary goal should be made up of smaller, measurable goals (e.g. implementing level 5). Finally these smaller goals should be broken up into a constant “to do” list. If you have any spare time, you should know exactly what you should be working on next. This cuts down on procrastination and helps you have a clear direction for the coming days and weeks.
Find a Great Team!
Realistically, there are few games that can be created by a single person. Your team needs to cover all the bases – programming, design, art, audio, project management. Even if you have all these skills, having at least one other person will half the amount of work you have to do and double the number of people contributing to game ideas and “finding the fun”.
Find people who are passionate about game development. Passion trumps ability when it comes to independent games. As long as the team member is good at their job, it’s more important to find someone who’s passionate then the very best in their field. The lack of short and medium term rewards from indie game development means the team will be rely on their passion to make it to the end-game.
Don’t expect to “fill the gaps” at the end of a project by slotting someone in once everything else is done. You need a well rounded team from the outset so all areas of the game get enough love and attention.
Different people have differing levels of time they can invest. Work this out up-front and all agree on your level of commitment. Roughly schedule the entire game so everyone is area of expectations and can commit to the duration of the project.
Get a day job
Most people will need a “day job” to pay the bills while they live the dream of being an indie developer. Be careful if you plan on living off your savings as they disappear quickly, and there’s nothing worse than having to go back to working full-time because you ran out of money.
Find the highest paid job you can, no matter how boring. Think of it as a short-term solution to the problem of funding your own indie game. You can probably find a higher paid job outside the games industry by looking at similar industry that also use your talents. Programmers can take on business contracts, artists can go freelance, designers can become technical writers and project managers can work on “normal” software projects. Use your imagination and focus on having as much time as possible to work on your game while still paying the bills.
Learn project management
Love it or hate it, project management needs to be done. Indie teams rarely have one person dedicated to project management, and so the task is shared throughout the team. This includes scheduling, planning and making sure they are met. A great way for people to lose focus and motivation is not have a clear plan for the project. Look at one of the many agile development methodologies (e.g. scrum) as a great way to keep from bogging down in project management.
There are plenty of great tools available to help with project management, here are a few I’d recommend looking at:
Acunote
Jira
FogBUGZ
Get pragmatic
Be pragmatic in everything you do. Aiming for perfection will give you a great tech demo that no one will buy. People will pay for a great game, not great technology. Since working for myself I’ve stepped into what I call “Fanatical Pragmatism”. Do the absolute minimum required to achieve your current goals without digging yourself into a corner.
Overestimate time and money
Everything always takes longer and costs more than you expect when you turn indie. All the indie developers I know have spent far more money and have taken over double the time they first expected. Constantly update schedules to keep a realistic target for your milestones. When the schedule starts to slip, be realistic and evaluate if everyone is happy continuing.
My recommendation is to estimate how long the game will take to create and how much it will cost and multiply these values by three. Either you’ll be happy working on the game for this long (and can afford to) or you need to cut back the scope of the game.
Make constant playable builds
Aim for a playable prototype as early as possible. It’s difficult to be objective with your own game, so you need to reply on other people’s opinions. Listen to their feedback and stop if your game is no good. There’s no point spending months developing a game that’s no good. Constantly create playable demos and show everyone you know.
Keep it small and watch feature creep
Keep the design tight and focussed. Find the fun parts first and build only what’s necessary. You’re an indie developer so people won’t expect a AAA title. Aim for a lower price point and people’s expectations will be lower. All the indie developers I’ve spoken to have had major feature creep causing their schedules to blow out. The smaller you can start your design out, and keep it that way, the more success your project will have. Your platform choice will help you keep things small…
Pick the right platform
The best choices for an indie developer are PC, iPhone and web. The specific choice comes down to risk versus reward. PC games are generally larger and therefore higher risk, however they also have a greater chance of making good money. Web games are particularly good for a first game, just don’t expect to make much money.
There is a lot of debate at the moment about monetizing flash games and unfortunately the platform still seems a little too immature. People just aren’t prepared to pay for a flash game. There are numerous ways around this (like micro-payments), LostGarden has a great series on this.
Conclusion
So this is a general list of things to prepare you for becoming an independent game developer. It’s a long, slow slog, but it’s worth the effort. By staying focussed and making intelligent decisions as you go you’ll put yourself in a great position. Are you working on an indie game now, or would you like to? Leave your thoughts and experiences in the comments.Persona Waifu Wars Semi-Finals (Round 5)
Holy Persona, Batman. We’re finally at the semi-finals, and it’s been brutal. Even Chie is afraid. Because she’s out. We’re now guaranteed someone from Persona 5 will reach the final, it’s just a question of who they’ll be facing — Mitsuru, or Yukiko!
Is Waifu Wars still just about the waifus? Or is it something more now? Does it represent which game in the series is your favourite? Either way, let’s drink these last couple of rounds in. Voting on the semi-finals ends next Monday at 10am GMT!
This poll is closed! Poll activity:
Start date 20-11-2017 10:00:00
End date 11-12-2017 10:00:00
Poll Results: Makoto Niijima or Futaba Sakura? Makoto Niijima (P5) 58.89% - ( 1716 votes )
Futaba Sakura (P5) 41.11% - ( 1198 votes )
This poll is closed! Poll activity:
Start date 20-11-2017 10:00:00
End date 11-12-2017 10:00:00
Poll Results: Mitsuru Kirijo or Yukiko Amagi? Mitsuru Kirijo (P3) 53.74% - ( 1357 votes )
Yukiko Amagi (P4) 46.26% - ( 1168 votes )
Best of luck to all the entrants!
Take a look at the full brackets and who we’ve lost so far in the embed below, or on Challonge.
Reminder, the Semi-Finals end next Monday at 10am GMT!Throughout her two years in Theresienstadt, through the hunger and cold and death all around her, through the loss of her mother and husband, Alice Herz-Sommer was sustained by a Polish man who had died long before. His name was Frédéric Chopin.
It was Chopin, Mrs. Herz-Sommer averred to the end of her long life, who let her and her young son survive in the camp, also known as Terezin, which the Nazis operated in what was then Czechoslovakia from 1941 until the end of the war in Europe.
Mrs. Herz-Sommer, who died in London on Sunday at 110, and who was widely described as the oldest known Holocaust survivor, had been a distinguished pianist in Europe before the war. But it was only after the Nazi occupation of her homeland, Czechoslovakia, in 1939 that she began a deep study of Chopin’s Études, the set of 27 solo pieces that are some of the most technically demanding and emotionally impassioned works in the piano repertory.
For Mrs. Herz-Sommer, the Études offered a consuming distraction at a time of constant peril. But they ultimately gave her far more than that — far more, even, than spiritual sustenance.Carli Lloyd and her team generated huge amounts of goodwill but there are doubts the domestic game is doing enough to produce future stars
In the months following their Women’s World Cup victory, the USA players have been everywhere.
Carli Lloyd’s on television holding a Visa card, or she’s driving an Audi, or she’s hawking Xfinity’s bundling service. Alex Morgan only added to her corporate mastery of American life. And no fewer than seven women from the World Cup champions stood on a platform in the Chelsea Ballroom last week, celebrating their inclusion for the first time in the Fifa video game series.
MLS standouts such as Luis Robles were present at the game’s release party. But Abby Wambach, Sydney Leroux and their team-mates were the stars.
“Well I think that what we’ve found over the summer is that if the media is putting us in USA Today, and the New York Times, and Fox, and ESPN, the media drives the publicity, and the awareness of what we do,” Wambach said, scanning the room she could fairly say she was presiding over. “Obviously, the NWSL is a way for us to also reach out to our fans. But really, our national team has always been what gets us that light, that podium.”
Ah, yes, about that. The National Women’s Soccer League is where 22 of the 23 players from the US National team play – only Wambach, who took the year off from NWSL to prepare for her final World Cup, didn’t figure in the league’s 2015 season. A total of 46 players from the World Cup participated in the NWSL this season.
Yet somehow, in the afterglow of all that success – 26.7 million people tuning into the World Cup final, millions watching each USA game, and even audiences for the non-US games on weekday afternoons that beating other, more established sports – it would appear the NWSL hasn’t added a single new sponsor. Not one.
Ahead of Thursday’s league final, NWSL commissioner Jeff Plush was asked ahead about why the gap exists between the success of individual US players and the league. “I get where you’re going,” he said. “There has been progress, and obviously, that you’re not familiar with. And I would just tell you that we’re gonna keep doing what we’re doing. And when we have an announcement, we’ll make it. And we’re looking forward to making it.”
And when asked to confirm that the number of new sponsors was, in fact, zero, Plush replied, “What I’m actually saying is we’re here, I’m here personally to celebrate and support [Seattle Reign coach] Laura [Harvey] and [FC Kansas City defender] Stephanie [Cox, both of whom were also on the conference call], and this great match that we’re having next Thursday. So that’s what I’m happy to take more questions about that.”
So not a great look from the league, which some would say failed to exploit a series of gifts rarely given to a women’s sport, such as the wall-to-wall coverage of the World Cup on Fox Sports (although domestic soccer has always been a harder sell than the international version for both the men’s and women’s games). Meanwhile, the league took until 30 June, virtually the end of the tournament, to announce a television deal with Fox Sports, failing to co-brand with the tournament. Even the announcement itself was made in a low-key press release on the afternoon of the USA-Germany semifinal, guaranteeing that even outlets predisposed to cover women’s soccer probably wouldn’t have any room for it.
And so it’s continued: whether it’s the announcement that the NWSL final would be played in Portland regardless of teams involved, something put out in August but decided in April, or the odd lack of recognition, let alone a speech, from Plush at the ceremony honoring the World Cup champions at New York’s City Hall (it was left to Major League Soccer’s Don Garber to make the NWSL case), the league’s conspicuous absence and inability to capitalize on the massive success of its own players has been astounding.
Lest this seem like a business issue, and not a quality of play issue, listen to what the players themselves have to say about how the league can best grow on the field.
“I also think putting more money into it, where we can get better international players, we could get, in America, the best league possible,” Leroux said when asked what will best improve the NWSL moving forward.
And improving the NWSL is the way to keep players thriving, engaged year-round, and avoiding early retirements like Lauren Holiday’s recent decision to step away from the game, not to mention many other similar choices made by non-national team players.
Here’s how Holiday herself explained the financial compensation, in which non-national team players make between $6,842 and $37,800 per season, earlier this month, following an FC Kansas City game against Sky Blue FC: “It has to change,” Holiday said. “We have to make more money. I know we inspired a nation, but it has to be more than that. Business plans have to be better. US Soccer has done a great job of making this league viable. But it’s not good enough yet.”
Which all comes back to the NWSL finding a way to monetize the popularity of the game in a far more comprehensive way than it has.
MLS's Orlando City set to expand into NWSL for 2016 Read more
For Leroux’s part, it seems to all come down to partnering with Major League Soccer clubs, something the Houston Dash and Portland Thorns have done, (Orlando City also appear to be following suit) but has otherwise been missing from the league in its first three seasons.
“You look at the Portland Thorns,” Leroux said. “They’re selling out some of their games. Whereas other teams have maybe 1,500 show up. I think the best thing we can do is connect with MLS teams, and kind of ride their success. For example, Sporting Kansas City has sold out however many games – if FCKC could connect with them, they’d absolutely have more fans. I think that’s a huge part.
“I think when we’re playing off the Portland Thorns. They’re the team we’re playing off of, and that’s what we want for the entire league. If Orlando comes in, think about what they can get. If Seattle connected to the Sounders, think about what they could get. Especially the Pacific north-west is Soccer City. If we can continue to play off that, I don’t think it can get any better.”
At the very least, EA Sports seems to recognize the extent to which the US national team captivated a nation is not only heartwarming, but monumentally profitable.
“What we do is, we transcend sport,” Wambach said. “We’re the all-American team. Back in ‘99, it was long hair. Straight. Married. And now we have this influx of short hair, different sexualities. And for me, we really are a compilation of America. We’re transcending sport. And when kids all across the nation look at our team, whether a girl or a boy, you see confidence, you see success. And it’s something that I really want to build on.”
And so, nearly a third of the team stood atop a platform, besieged by photographers, posing for selfies on their own cameras. They were undeniable superstars, properly recognized, fully celebrated. In a way that it seems their own league has missed, they are not only role models, but also money spinners.
“It shows that corporate America has opened its eyes to move that needle,” Wambach said of her team’s presence. “And I’m really proud to be on this team and do that. And now corporate America is going, ‘Wait, we’ve got something here.’ It’s not just the moral thing to do. The right thing. It’s actually the smart thing, business-wise.”
Now it’s up to the NWSL, whether through more engagement sponsorship or through partnering with the tide-lifting MLS – whose median salaries just reached $100,000 for the first time – to anchor a league that will produce the next great American superstars.
“Exactly,” Leroux said, when this was proposed to her. “And that’s obviously what we want to do. I know Sunil Gulati wants to do that, I know US Soccer wants that. I know we want to be the best league in the world. And obviously, coming off the World Cup, we can say we’re the best team. And now we want the best league.”Forward Janine Beckie has been scoring with regularity in recent months for the Canadian women’s team, perhaps offering a glimpse of her potential to become Canada’s next great goal-scorer.
Only 21, she has bagged five goals in 11 appearances (six as a starter) since making her debut for the senior team in 2014, scoring twice—and adding an assist—at this month’s CONCACAF Olympic qualifying competition in Houston. This came after she scored a pair of goals in four games during an exhibition tournament in Brazil just before Christmas.
Beckie was also recently selected in the first round of the National Women’s Soccer League college draft by the Houston Dash with whom she’ll soon begin her professional career after being a standout with Texas Tech. She scored 57 goals in 90 NCAA games, earning back-to-back Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year nods along the way, and she was a semifinalist for the MAC Hermann Award as the top player in women’s college soccer in her senior year.
Sunday programming alert:
Watchin Sunday’s final of the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship live on Sportsnet ONE. Coverage starts at 4:45 pm ET/1:45 pm PT. || Broadcast schedule
So Beckie is riding high now. But it wasn’t that long ago she suffered a major disappointment when she was one of the final players cut from coach John Herdman’s roster for last summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup. Being denied a chance to play on the biggest stage in the women’s game on home soil was a professional blow.
The young forward, though, to her credit has moved on from that setback, and is rightly being touted as one of Canada’s brightest attacking prospects. Looking back, she’s philosophical about not being picked for World Cup duty, and believes she’s actually benefited from the experience.
“I was in a very different place when I was cut for the World Cup than I am in now. That team that went to the World Cup was the team John was the most confident with, and I was fine with that,” Beckie told Sportsnet in a one-on-one interview.
“There were no hard feelings, and I think that was one of the best things that ever happened to me in my career, because it made me step back and evaluate what I need to change about my game and how I approach it to become a player who is relied upon.
“I’m still learning how to approach different games, different opponents and different situations. I’m less than two years into my national team career, so it’s been a process and being cut was part of that process. But I’m happy where I’m at now.”
Although she didn’t make the World Cup squad, Beckie did represent her country as part of the Canadian team that participated in last summer’s Pan Am Games. The side was mostly made up of youngsters who had not yet earned senior caps, so Beckie was one of the “veterans.”
“I was extremely thankful for that opportunity. After being such a late cut with the World Cup team earlier in the summer, it was like I was a new face in that group where I was considered a veteran player. It was an interesting dynamic. For me, the Pan Ams were another opportunity to get experience,” Beckie explained.
The Pan Am experience has clearly paid off, as Beckie has scored four goals in seven games for the senior team since then, and she’s shown well for Canada at the CONCACAF qualifying tournament in Houston.
“Since I’ve been with this team a little bit over a year now I’ve come a long away. Not in my physical game, but in my mental game. That’s taken me to a new level in terms of performance in the pitch. I’m trying to be a consistent player and that’s important at the international level—if you want to be a player who gets big minutes then you have to let the coaching staff know you’re capable of performing at a consistent level,” Beckie offered.
MORE ON CANADA:
Beckie also has also made use of an ace up her sleeve. Older brother Drew is a defender who spent the past two years with the Ottawa Fury before signing with the Carolina RailHawks this off-season. Having a sibling who is a defender in the NASL has its advantages, as it’s allowed Beckie to pick her brother’s brain.
“He lets me know what’s tough for him as a defender—what kind of movement he looks for, and different things that are hard for him to deal with. I love getting his feedback and he’s so knowledgeable about the game that he’s able to give me pointers,” Beckie explained.
Despite her rapid development, the young Canadian forward isn’t getting ahead of herself or reading too much into her recent performances for Canada, especially in light of the quality of opposition. Beckie knows that in order to really impress Herdman she needs to be in top form against the best sides in the world.
“I haven’t played against the U.S. So I question how I’m going to translate this against a top team. It’s been a big boost to my confidence getting goals in these games, but I hope that can look towards having the same influence against the top sides in the world,” Beckie offered.MELITOPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - Russia has left troops behind after staging war games in Belarus despite promising not to, Ukraine’s Commander in Chief Viktor Muzhenko told Reuters.
Ukrainian servicemen drive armoured vehicles during military exercises in the Donetsk region, Ukraine September 28, 2017. Picture taken September 28, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karazy
In an interview on a military plane on Thursday evening, Muzhenko said Russia has withdrawn only a few units from Belarus and had lied about how many of its soldiers were there in the first place.
His comments could increase tension between the two neighbors and contradict the Belarussian defense ministry spokesman, who said the last train of Russian troops and equipment had left Belarus on Thursday. Russia’s defense ministry did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
Relations between Kiev and Moscow nosedived after Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and the outbreak of a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,000 people.
Ukraine sees itself as being at war with Russia and has accused Moscow of sending troops and hardware to fight in the Donbass region, which Moscow denies. There are frequent casualties despite a notional ceasefire agreed in 2015.
The Zapad wargames, held by Russian and Belarussian troops on territory in both countries in September, are a new source of concern for neighboring Ukraine and NATO member states on Europe’s eastern flank.
Russia has said the exercise was to rehearse a purely defensive scenario, that the scale of the wargames was in line with international rules, and that allegations it was a springboard to invade Poland, Lithuania or Ukraine were false.
But Muzhenko said the wargames were of an offensive nature. Ukraine staged its own drills in northern Ukraine in response to Zapad and built up troops there.
“I wouldn’t say that the tension has lessened. We can say tension is building up or rising,” he said.
“We had information that they had withdrawn only a few units of the declared 12,500 troops, of which 3,000 were Russians, but there were significantly more of them there.”
Muzhenko said the Russians had withdrawn air units from Belarus to make a show of leaving.
“Russia demonstrated, and it was primarily a demonstration, the return of aviation units — they took off from the airfields and flew to airfields in Russia. But we understand that 300-400 km for aviation is a distance that can be overcome in a very short time,” he said.
The 55-year-old, who became Chief of the General Staff in 2014, said Ukraine was still outgunned in terms of its air defense capabilities in the Donbass war and needed air reconnaissance and anti-missile systems.
Kiev is hoping to receive lethal defensive weapons from U.S. President Donald Trump. Muzhenko said talks had been concluded.
“We expect the corresponding decision because all negotiations are over and the relevant issues have been agreed — on the list and types of weapons — and we expect only the political decisions of our partner countries,” he said.Get the Mach newsletter.
April 26, 2017, 2:50 PM GMT / Updated April 26, 2017, 2:50 PM GMT / Source: Space.com By Leonard David, Space.com
A research team has devised a plan to make a portion of Mars more Earth-like by slamming an asteroid into it.
This Mars Terraformer Transfer (MATT) concept would create a persistent lake on the Red Planet's surface in 2036, potentially accelerating Mars exploration, settlement and commercial development, the team said.
Related: Huge Asteroid to Give Earth a Very Close Shave on April 19
"Terraformation need not engineer an entire planetary surface. A city-region is adequate for inhabitation. MATT hits this mark," the Lake Matthew Team, the group behind the idea, wrote in a press release last month.
Key to the plan is a "Shepherd" satellite, which would steer an asteroid or other small celestial body into the Red Planet. That impactor would inject heat into the Martian bedrock, producing meltwater for a lake that would persist for thousands of years within the warmed impact zone, Lake Matthew Team members wrote.
"Terraformation need not engineer an entire planetary surface. A city-region is adequate for inhabitation. MATT hits this mark."
"Whereas prior designs of habitation structures (habs) were limited to thousands of cubic meters, MATT habs can scale to millions of cubic meters — stadium scale, or greater," team members wrote in the press release. Furthermore, the impact site's treated lake water would be sufficient to cover and protect subaqueous domes, the team added.
"With scaling, the first Mars habs transition quickly into settlements, with capacity for self-sufficiency, even provisioning of expeditions worldwide," the press release said. "This cuts the Earth-shipped cargo mass, and the expense, of crewed missions."
Related: Cassini Space Probe Gets Set for Its Dramatic Grand Finale
"The MATT Shepherd's long mission ends with a small adjustment of the satellite's orbit, placing it into a Mars-resonant orbit that is a bit like an Aldrin cycler orbit," team members told Inside Outer Space. (An Aldrin cycler is a spacecraft, proposed by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, that cruises repeatedly between Earth and Mars.) "This positions the Shepherd for retrieval by the colonists at a later date, notionally for museum display on Mars."
For more information on the group and its Mars Terraformer Transfer (MATT) idea, go to: http://www.lakematthew.com/.
Leonard David is the author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet," published by National Geographic. The book is a companion to the National Geographic Channel series "Mars." A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. This version of this story was posted on Space.com.
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Follow NBC MACH on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.Survivor Millennials vs. Gen X Episode 6 Feedback Show with Antonio Mazzaro
Rob Cesternino welcomes Antonio Mazzaro back to the podcast to answer your voicemails from Episode 6 of Survivor Millennials vs. Gen X. This week, Rob and Antonio recap all of the latest news surrounding the breakup of Reality TV’s hottest couple as we dive in |
at the last possible second, meaning that they were in the race the whole year, and the guy in question hit.352/.432/.602 in September with 6 HR and 9 2B, it's like, "No fucking way that guy is teh MVP!!1!!!!!111!!!"
VORP, like other stats, doesn't come close to telling you everything. It doesn't take into account how a hitter hits in the clutch (oddly enough, some stat people think that's just luck, anyway), See above. Then see WPA page. Then remember that no one in the world with a brain thinks that the MVP award should be blindly handed out to the guy with the best VORP. As for "clutch" "just being luck," what we actually think is that it's very hard to be "clutch" year in and year out. (For example, ARod's WPA last year was 6.85. This year it's 0.28. Two excellent offensive years, two wildly different "clutch" results.)
or how many meaningful games he played in (at last count Grady Sizemore was high up on the VORP list, as well). VORP has some value. But like all other stats, it doesn't replace watching the games or following the season. I have never watched a baseball game, so I can't speak to this. I'm not even sure what it is. What I can tell you is: watch live baseball all you want. I'll be in my grandmother's attic (following a legal dispute over squatter's rights with my mom w/r/t her basement), staring at my computer, looking at a little thing I like to call "data." That's all I care about. Data. Raw data. Baseball is good for one thing only: the production of data. That's what I believe. If I and my friends had it my way, the games wouldn't even be "played," but rather "simulated" by 1000 PCs, and the results would be downloaded directly into my brain through Optical Quanta Resonance (OQR), and instead of "discussing" the games the next day, my friends and I would just await the Retinal Scans and then text each other brief congratulations, depending on whose favorite "team" won, and then we would all go on with our lives, grateful that the annoyance of actual "baseball" had been removed from our lives, allowing us to spend more time writing code for our start-up social network site, which we are I think going to call "Together-ing!"
A-Rod may have the best VORP. But he shouldn't be on anyone's MVP ballot, much less at the top of the ballot. I now want ARod to win.
Labels: arod, jon heyman, statistics, Together-ing, vorp, VORPies
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
It's Cool
It's cool everybody. Everything's cool.
Jason Bartlett was
I know, I know, he's supposed to be a very good defender. But let me say some things about Jason Bartlett: He's missed like 30 games this year; he's hit three fewer home runs this year than Carlos Zambrano; he's 8th on his own team in VORP; and he plays on the same team as Carlos Pena, Evan Longoria, and B.J. Upton.
I just want to announce here on this blog, that if any baseball analyst of any kind tells me that "you really have to watch Jason Bartlett play every day to understand how much he means to this team," and that same analyst is found drowned at the bottom of my hot tub the next morning, and I am found standing upon that corpse, in the hot tub, wearing my trunks and a hoodie and just relaxing and smoking a joint, and maybe ordering a pizza or something, and instructing the delivery guy to come in through the gate because I'm in the back standing on a body in my hot tub -- if all of that happens, I would really appreciate if someone could meet me outside, by my hot tub, and float me a few dollars for the pizza, because I will be in no mood to get off of that corpse, or get out of the hot tub for that matter, and plus I will probably have forgotten to bring some money out to the hot tub with me.
Thanks guys. You're the best. It's cool everybody. Everything's cool.Jason Bartlett was voted MVP of the Tampa Bay Rays by the Tampa Bay chapter of the BBWAA.I know, I know, he's supposed to be a very good defender. But let me say some things about Jason Bartlett: He's missed like 30 games this year; he's hit three fewer home runs this year than Carlos Zambrano; he's 8th on his own team in VORP; and he plays on the same team as Carlos Pena, Evan Longoria, and B.J. Upton.I just want to announce here on this blog, that if any baseball analyst of any kind tells me that "you really have to watch Jason Bartlett play every day to understand how much he means to this team," and that same analyst is found drowned at the bottom of my hot tub the next morning, and I am found standing upon that corpse, in the hot tub, wearing my trunks and a hoodie and just relaxing and smoking a joint, and maybe ordering a pizza or something, and instructing the delivery guy to come in through the gate because I'm in the back standing on a body in my hot tub -- if all of that happens, I would really appreciate if someone could meet me outside, by my hot tub, and float me a few dollars for the pizza, because I will be in no mood to get off of that corpse, or get out of the hot tub for that matter, and plus I will probably have forgotten to bring some money out to the hot tub with me.Thanks guys. You're the best. Labels: awards, jason bartlett, pizza, rays
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Darin Erstad Swings Wildly, Makes Last Out in Big Z's No-Hitter
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Yes. You are.
He should have tried to punt. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?Yes. You are.He should have tried to punt. Labels: big z, darin erstad, punter
Ned Colletti Should Be Time Magazine's Person Of The Millennium
I know it's early, but I don't think it's too early to make that call. After all, the Dodgers have a winning percentage of.517. Think about it. 51.7% of the time, the boys in blue have vanquished their opponents and bathed in their blood. If you ask
General manager Ned Colletti, belittled all season for the signings of Jones, Pierre, Jason Schmidt, Rafael Furcal (who may yet return to play shortstop), Hideki [sic] Kuroda and Nomar Garciaparra, is now a candidate for Executive of the Year after picking up Ramirez, Casey Blake and Greg Maddux for a pittance.
1. Hiroki Kuroda is a pitcher for the Dodgers. Eko eko azaraku: B-page and Eko eko azaraku: R-page as well as the one of the directors of Inu no eiga (All About My Dog), the delightful 2005 comedy feature. (According to IMDb user chrischew2: "It loosely follows Kentaro Yamada (Shidou Nakamura), a timid media planner whose latest campaign for dog food is so stifling—not to mention utterly side-splitting—that it brings back memories of his childhood Shiba dog, Pochi. And weaved between this heart-warming tale are bursts of zaniness, from a spontaneous musical or a mockumetary to a dog's-eye-view of infatuation.")
Totally understand the mix-up, though. They get it a lot.
2. Here is a list of teams with winning percentages greater than that of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball organization:
Tampa Bay Rays
Boston Red Sox
Toronto Blue Jays
New York Yankees
Chicago White Sox
Minnesota Twins
Los Angeles Angels
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Chicago Cubs
Milwaukee Brewers
Houston Astros
St. Louis Cardinals
Yes, the Los Angeles Collettis are tied for the 14th-best record in baseball. The Florida Marlins also sit at 77-72, but keep in mind that Marlins GM Michael Hill had the luxury of a $22,650,000 payroll, whereas Ned had to make to with just $118,188,536. Juggling the egos of guys who make more than the entire Marlins pitching staff isn't easy!
The great thing about the Dodgers is that their biggest problem - the oppressive weight of clubhouse discord - seemed to disappear overnight.
In Bruce Jenkins' world, there exists one Universal Baseball Law:
The significance of the oppressive weight of clubhouse discord >> The significance of hitting
Jenkins' sentence is actually spot-on, if you'll allow me to adjust the wording slightly.
The great thing about the Dodgers is that their biggest problem - their complete inability to hit for power - seemed to disappear overnight when they got a guy who could hit for power.
There. It's the best sentence Jenkins and I have ever co-written!
Of course Colletti gambled on Manny -- you're getting fired if you do nothing, so you might as well pay the price in talent (no one the greater Los Angeles area seemed to place any value on the next six or whatever years of Andy LaRoche) to acquire a rent-a-player in a desperate Hail Mary attempt to save your job. And hey. Look. It worked. That was easy.
Jeff Kent, forever disapproving of the club's petulant youth, was lost to a knee injury (it has to be more than coincidental that the Dodgers won 10 of their first 11 games in his absence).
It has to be more than coincidence -- we thus have conclusive evidence that Jeff Kent was poisoning his teammates just like that mom in the Sixth Sense did to the little kid version of Mischa Barton.
Jeff Kent -- tragic sufferer of Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
Torre put financial issues aside, benched Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones, and stabilized the outfield - for now and years to come - with Ethier and Matt Kemp.
Somehow, the fact of the existence of Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones on the payroll and the fact that it required one hundred-some-odd games and the addition of a Hall of Fame outfielder to compel Torre to bench Messrs. Pierre and Jones are now points in Colletti's and Torre's favor? This is the equivalent of two gardeners driving to your house, digging a twenty-foot hole in your front yard with a backhoe, buying two bags of sand, pouring the bags into the hole, and then getting lavished with praise for the sand part of the whole operation.
Arizona's problem isn't so much the standings. That deficit could disappear in a week.
Well, actually, the standings are a huge problem for Arizona. They're 4.5 back with 14 to play. That's an enormous deficit. Of course it could "disappear in a week," but that's incredibly unlikely. BP has them at 2.05397% to win the division. That sounds like a problem to me.
It's the club's desultory reaction to a crisis. Virtually all of the fire and inspiration from last year's team - Eric Byrnes, Jose Valverde, Orlando Hudson, Carlos Quentin when healthy - has vanished.
You heard it here first: the reason Brandon Webb and Dan Haren pitched four shockingly, horrifyingly grotesque abominations of games against the Dodgers was the absence of Eric Byrnes and Eric Byrnes' Motivational Hair™.
Eric Byrnes' Motivational Hair™, winning division races since 2007.
(Eric Byrnes' Motivational Hair™ comes with seventeen free instances of Eric Byrnes Inspirationally Falling Down While Throwing The Ball©® ( patent pending ).) I know it's early, but I don't think it's too early to make that call. After all, the Dodgers have a winning percentage of. Think about it. 51.7% of the time, the boys in blue have vanquished their opponents and bathed in their blood. If you ask Bruce Jenkins, for this Colletti deserves nothing less than the Executive of the Year Award. If you ask me, we should stop kidding ourselves and just give Colletti the MVP, the Cy Young, the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Award and the Latin Grammy for Record of the Year.1. Hiroki Kuroda is a pitcher for the Dodgers. Hideki Kuroda is the associate producer ofandas well as the one of the directors of, the delightful 2005 comedy feature. (According to IMDb user chrischew2: "It loosely follows Kentaro Yamada (Shidou Nakamura), a timid media planner whose latest campaign for dog food is so stifling—not to mention utterly side-splitting—that it brings back memories of his childhood Shiba dog, Pochi. And weaved between this heart-warming tale are bursts of zaniness, from a spontaneous musical or a mockumetary to a dog's-eye-view of infatuation.")Totally understand the mix-up, though. They get it a lot.2. Here is a list of teams with winning percentages greater than that of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball organization:Tampa Bay RaysBoston Red SoxToronto Blue JaysNew York YankeesChicago White SoxMinnesota TwinsLos Angeles AngelsNew York MetsPhiladelphia PhilliesChicago CubsMilwaukee BrewersHouston AstrosSt. Louis CardinalsYes, the Los Angeles Collettis are tied for the 14th-best record in baseball. The Florida Marlins also sit at 77-72, but keep in mind that Marlins GM Michael Hill had the luxury of a $22,650,000 payroll, whereas Ned had to make to with just $118,188,536. Juggling the egos of guys who make more than the entire Marlins pitching staff isn't easy!In Bruce Jenkins' world, there exists one Universal Baseball Law:Jenkins' sentence is actually spot-on, if you'll allow me to adjust the wording slightly.There. It's the best sentence Jenkins and I have ever co-written!Of course Colletti gambled on Manny -- you're getting fired if you do nothing, so you might as well pay the price in talent (no one the greater Los Angeles area seemed to place any value on the next six or whatever years of Andy LaRoche) to acquire a rent-a-player in a desperate Hail Mary attempt to save your job. And hey. Look. It worked. That was easy.It has to be more than coincidence -- we thus have conclusive evidence that Jeff Kent was poisoning his teammates just like that mom in the Sixth Sense did to the little kid version of Mischa Barton.Jeff Kent -- tragic sufferer of Munchausen syndrome by proxy.Somehow, the fact of the existence of Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones on the payroll and the fact that it required one hundred-some-odd games and the addition of a Hall of Fame outfielder to compel Torre to bench Messrs. Pierre and Jones are now points in Colletti's and Torre's? This is the equivalent of two gardeners driving to your house, digging a twenty-foot hole in your front yard with a backhoe, buying two bags of sand, pouring the bags into the hole, and then getting lavished with praise forSeyar
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NewbieActivity: 60Merit: 0 Re: [ANN] [RPX] Red Pulse Token Next Generation Intelligence and Content Ecosystem October 08, 2017, 04:10:04 PM #435 TO INVESTORS THAT INVESTED NEO INTO RPX IN BLOCK 1445025 AND ON OR AFTER 14:00:00 GMT (8-10-2017)
I'm gathering the people above to start legal actions against Red Pulse for denying RPX tokens to those that properly invested according to all stated rules for the Red Pulse ICO.
If you are willing to take legal action against Red Pulse as a group if they do not sent out the correct amount of RPX to those in the above block and timeframe which grants you legal ownership of the RPX tokens you invested for then please send me an PM on this forum.
DO NOT send me a PM if you are not within this block and timeframe, and only if you have evidence showing that you are within. Let me know in the PM you are interested in taking these steps and please provide ONLY your TxID, nothing else! I need to have the TxIDs so I can confirm your investement is in the above block and timeframe. People in block 1445026 DID receive RPX tokens while they were LATER then those who did it on the correct time in block 1445025!
If Red Pulse will not correct this matter theirself then we can take legal actions on behalf of all the investors in the above timeframe. Spread the word please. I am serious about this matter cause its a huge screw up and even so illegal to handle investments this way as they want to do now by giving all the earliest investors a simple NEO refund.
Please be sure to ONLY PM if you can provide proof later on and are in the above block and timeframe!
Sincerely.
mrdunns
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NewbieActivity: 33Merit: 0 Re: [ANN] [RPX] Red Pulse Token Next Generation Intelligence and Content Ecosystem October 08, 2017, 04:25:56 PM #437 Quote from: Seyar on October 08, 2017, 04:10:04 PM TO INVESTORS THAT INVESTED NEO INTO RPX IN BLOCK 1445025 AND ON OR AFTER 14:00:00 GMT (8-10-2017)
I'm gathering the people above to start legal actions against Red Pulse for denying RPX tokens to those that properly invested according to all stated rules for the Red Pulse ICO.
If you are willing to take legal action against Red Pulse as a group if they do not sent out the correct amount of RPX to those in the above block and timeframe which grants you legal ownership of the RPX tokens you invested for then please send me an PM on this forum.
DO NOT send me a PM if you are not within this block and timeframe, and only if you have evidence showing that you are within. Let me know in the PM you are interested in taking these steps and please provide ONLY your TxID, nothing else! I need to have the TxIDs so I can confirm your investement is in the above block and timeframe. People in block 1445026 DID receive RPX tokens while they were LATER then those who did it on the correct time in block 1445025!
If Red Pulse will not correct this matter theirself then we can take legal actions on behalf of all the investors in the above timeframe. Spread the word please. I am serious about this matter cause its a huge screw up and even so illegal to handle investments this way as they want to do now by giving all the earliest investors a simple NEO refund.
Please be sure to ONLY PM if you can provide proof later on and are in the above block and timeframe!
Sincerely.
So they said if your transaction did not go through then you will be refunded why do you need to need to take legal action to get your neo back?
So they said if your transaction did not go through then you will be refunded why do you need to need to take legal action to get your neo back?
dArX
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NewbieActivity: 10Merit: 0 Re: [ANN] [RPX] Red Pulse Token Next Generation Intelligence and Content Ecosystem October 08, 2017, 04:32:47 PM #438 Quote from: mrdunns on October 08, 2017, 04:25:56 PM Quote from: Seyar on October 08, 2017, 04:10:04 PM TO INVESTORS THAT INVESTED NEO INTO RPX IN BLOCK 1445025 AND ON OR AFTER 14:00:00 GMT (8-10-2017)
I'm gathering the people above to start legal actions against Red Pulse for denying RPX tokens to those that properly invested according to all stated rules for the Red Pulse ICO.
If you are willing to take legal action against Red Pulse as a group if they do not sent out the correct amount of RPX to those in the above block and timeframe which grants you legal ownership of the RPX tokens you invested for then please send me an PM on this forum.
DO NOT send me a PM if you are not within this block and timeframe, and only if you have evidence showing that you are within. Let me know in the PM you are interested in taking these steps and please provide ONLY your TxID, nothing else! I need to have the TxIDs so I can confirm your investement is in the above block and timeframe. People in block 1445026 DID receive RPX tokens while they were LATER then those who did it on the correct time in block 1445025!
If Red Pulse will not correct this matter theirself then we can take legal actions on behalf of all the investors in the above timeframe. Spread the word please. I am serious about this matter cause its a huge screw up and even so illegal to handle investments this way as they want to do now by giving all the earliest investors a simple NEO refund.
Please be sure to ONLY PM if you can provide proof later on and are in the above block and timeframe!
Sincerely.
So they said if your transaction did not go through then you will be refunded why do you need to need to take legal action to get your neo back?
So they said if your transaction did not go through then you will be refunded why do you need to need to take legal action to get your neo back?
I will support you. They have to frooze al RPX tokens from the 2nd hour. Its not correct what happened.
Their Auditors won't be happy. I will support you. They have to frooze al RPX tokens from the 2nd hour. Its not correct what happened.Their Auditors won't be happy.
oscurito23
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Hero MemberActivity: 585Merit: 500 Re: [ANN] [RPX] Red Pulse Token Next Generation Intelligence and Content Ecosystem October 08, 2017, 04:36:27 PM #439 Quote from: Seyar on October 08, 2017, 04:10:04 PM TO INVESTORS THAT INVESTED NEO INTO RPX IN BLOCK 1445025 AND ON OR AFTER 14:00:00 GMT (8-10-2017)
I'm gathering the people above to start legal actions against Red Pulse for denying RPX tokens to those that properly invested according to all stated rules for the Red Pulse ICO.
If you are willing to take legal action against Red Pulse as a group if they do not sent out the correct amount of RPX to those in the above block and timeframe which grants you legal ownership of the RPX tokens you invested for then please send me an PM on this forum.
DO NOT send me a PM if you are not within this block and timeframe, and only if you have evidence showing that you are within. Let me know in the PM you are interested in taking these steps and please provide ONLY your TxID, nothing else! I need to have the TxIDs so I can confirm your investement is in the above block and timeframe. People in block 1445026 DID receive RPX tokens while they were LATER then those who did it on the correct time in block 1445025!
If Red Pulse will not correct this matter theirself then we can take legal actions on behalf of all the investors in the above timeframe. Spread the word please. I am serious about this matter cause its a huge screw up and even so illegal to handle investments this way as they want to do now by giving all the earliest investors a simple NEO refund.
Please be sure to ONLY PM if you can provide proof later on and are in the above block and timeframe!
Sincerely.
TROLL TROLLMONTREAL -- This morning, Groupe Yvon Michel Inc. (GYM) filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of Quebec for damages against David Lemieux, Eye of The Tiger Management, Camille Estephan, Golden Boy Promotions and Home Box Office (HBO). GYM claims that it has suffered damages of $1,350,000.00 as a result of tortuous conduct and bad faith actions by the Defendants.
Lemieux had been under contract with GYM since 2007. Since the beginning of its promotion of Lemieux’s career, GYM has always acted in Lemieux’s best interest, and oversaw his development at every level, turning him into a top contender in the Middleweight Division, and a financially viable professional boxer and gate attraction..
The lawsuit alleges that Estephan (Eye of the Tiger Management) made a deal with GYM to modify a long term agreement and then fraudulently misrepresented the terms and abused GYM’s trust and good faith by promising to continue their long-term association with GYM while attempting to orchestrate Lemieux's release. GYM relied on the representations of Estephan and continued to promote and enhance the value of Lemieux’s reputation and posturing him and Estephan into a position to reap the benefits of a world championship fight for Lemieux without the involvement of GYM.
Golden Boy Promotion and Home Box Office (HBO) are alleged to have been complicit with Estephan, and have wrongfully conspired to remove GYM as Lemieux’s promoter and to wrongfully profit from these wrongs at the expense of GYM.
GYM, represented by the law firm, Savonitto & Ass. Inc., has determined that, under the aforementioned circumstances, that they would sue to enforce its rights under the contract between GYM and David Lemieux and to take all legal measures necessary to do so.SALT LAKE CITY — The phones at the governor's office were ringing off the hook Monday as strong feelings surrounding a bill dealing with gun ownership rights came to the surface.
HB76 — also known as the constitutional carry bill — would allow people to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert hasn't decided whether the bill will become a law or not, and thousands are putting on the pressure to accept or reject the amendments.
The governor has 20 days to make a decision.
We're moving backwards because we're taking away some of the responsibility. –Steven Beckstead, firearms instructor
Currently, a gun can legally be carried in the open without a permit as long as it's not loaded. But the bill would allow gun owners to bypass the permit process for concealed carry.
Over the last few weeks, feedback has varied on the bill. A month ago, the governor's office received calls and emails showing overwhelming support for HB76. A week later, that tune changed.
Once the bill passed the Legislature, the voices against it increased in volume. As of last week, those calling for a veto tripled the number of people in support of the bill becoming the law.
Utah Shooting Sports Council's Bill Pedersen said he's among those strongly in favor of the bill.
It doesn't allow a person to bypass background checks on buying a gun. It doesn't allow for them to illegally possess a gun. –Bill Pedersen, Utah Shooting Sports Council
"It doesn't allow a person to bypass background checks on buying a gun. It doesn't allow for them to illegally possess a gun," he said. "This bill is just a small step toward a constitutional carry bill."
Firearms instructor Steven Beckstead is another strong supporter of the second amendment, but said he opposes the bill. He said current Utah law is working just fine.
"I think that's where I have some difficulty with HB76," he said. "We're moving backwards because we're taking away some of the responsibility."
Gov. Herbert has stated in the past that he was well aware of the strong feelings on both sides of the issue, but wouldn't hint at what he plans to do.
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Related StoriesIt’s almost impossible to work in architectural practice without using CAD software.
Drawings are in DWG format mostly, and DWG format is guarantee that your drawing would be possible to open on another computer. The most known CAD software is AutoCAD, but it is also quite expensive. Many people seek cheaper or free alternative. If you are student or teacher, you can use Educational Versions of ArchiCAD, progeCAD and Autodesk family software (including AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture and Revit). There is a short review of good free alternatives to retail CAD software.
DoubleCAD XT
2D CAD program. You first install 30 days trial of Pro version, then continue to use standard version with free features. DoubleCAD XT is high compatible with Google SketchUp and AutoCAD LT. DoubleCAD XT is multi-format drawings viewer, that you can use for viewing, editing and markup. Also you can use it as file convertor. Size: 191 MB.
Solid Edge Free 2D
2D CAD program, supports DWG/DXF drawing formats. This software has all basic features, but it takes more time to get the hang of it if you are AutoCAD user. There is comprehensive Help for AutoCAD users inside software. Size: 362 MB.
A9CAD
2D CAD program, supports DWG/DXF drawing formats. You can draw line, rectangle, circle, poly-line, text and dimension. Also supports drawing modifications (move, scale, rotate, explode, trim, fillet and mirror). Hatch option isn’t included. Size: 15.5 MB.
DraftSight
2D CAD program, supports DWG/DXF drawing formats. On solidworks website you can download comprehensive Getting Started Guide. Interface is very rich in options. DraftSight is very similar to AutoCAD. E-mail activation is required. Size: 100 MB.
nanoCAD
2D/3D CAD program, supports DWG/DXF drawing formats. You need to activate licence during the installation. Like DraftSight, nanoCAD is very similar to AutoCAD, visually and functionally. Size: 274 MB.
Draft IT
2D CAD program. During the trial period on startup, you choose which version of software you want to use: free version or any of low cost enhanced versions (Plus, Pro or Architectural). Free version doesn’t have too many options. Interface is simple, intuitive and easy to use. Size: 155 MB.
CadStd Lite
2D CAD program. Interface is old-fashioned, and unintuitive for AutoCAD users. Software don’t support DWG files, but only DXF files. CadStd is somewhat different from previous reviewed software and can be tricky for AutoCAD users. Size: 0.76 MB.
There are other free CAD software that has limited functionality and less options (also some of them aren’t updated a long time). Some of them are:
Free Easy CAD, Alibre Design Xpress, CYCAS, BabaCAD, eMachineShop.
CYCAS Screenshot
eMachineShop Screenshot
Conclusion
If software is free, it doesn’t mean that it is worthless. There are some very good replacements for big name retail CAD programs. If you are AutoCAD user, you will use nanoCAD and DraftSight as alternative. This two programs have all options you need and you can’t expect more from free software. Also, they supported our complex DWG file created in AutoCAD. Solid Edge Free 2D and DoubleCAD XT also belongs to category of good alternatives, but they are slightly weaker than first two. They don’t support our test complex DWG file, and they are less architectural software. A9CAD and Draft It belongs to medium category of free alternatives. They have less options. Free version of Draft It don’t support DWG and A9CAD don’t supported our test DWG file. CadStd Lite is in low-rank category of free alternatives to AutoCAD and other retail CAD programs.New project management articles published on the web during the week of June 20 – 26. And this week’s video: a short cartoon on the nature of resistance to change as a failure to communicate. Just six minutes, safe for work.
Must read!
Craig Brown makes the counter-argument to the #NoProjects meme. Apparently, this is a thing in certain programmer circles.
Glen Alleman uses bicycle riding as a metaphor for the balance between control and stability, risk management and execution.
Katie Rogers reports on the rapid adoption of covering laptop cameras with a piece of tape – notably, by Mark Zuckerberg and the head of the FBI. Maybe we should, too.
Established Methods
Michel Dion explains why it is so important for the customer to understand the process used to manage the project.
Harry Hall tutors us on how to create a project summary we can deliver in under 60 seconds.
Ruth Zive describes the best practices to achieve an auditable project when working in a regulated business environment.
John Goodpasture considers the inherent limitations of the qualitative risk matrix, in detail.
Elise Stevens interviews Trish Sutter on facilitating innovation in project processes. Just 18 minutes, safe for work.
Brent Dykes notes that it is more common to question data that doesn’t support our beliefs than it is to question the assumptions behind our beliefs.
Agile Methods
Pawel Brodzinski contemplates the idea of “value for money.”
Johanna Rothman writes about the nature of the product owner role: the PO is the center of organizational “learning” about the product. Part 2 and 3.
The Clever PM reminds us that the Product Manager is not the User – you are a conduit for ideas to be considered for implementation.
Dave Prior interviews Roman Pichler on his new book: “Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age.” Just 32 minutes, safe for work.
Kristin Hillery interviews Sean Landry, creative director at TripAdvisor, who asserts that autonomy breeds ownership.
Mike Cohn lists both incentives and deterrents that can help your daily Scrums to start on time.
Paul Carvalho looks at the application of mind mapping techniques to facilitate software testing.
Sourav Singla describes his approach to a common XP technique: he calls it “confined pair programming.”
Applied Leadership
Elizabeth Harrin interviews Penny Pullan about her new book, “Virtual Leadership.” Just 5 minutes, safe for work.
Liane Davey makes the case for an inclusive approach to implementing strategy through projects.
Danielle Koehler continues her interview series with Gail Rolls with a conversation on the value of team-building activities.
Suzanne Lucas lists some of the interview questions that candidates really want you to ask. Like, “What’s the difference between a ’rounding error’ and a cost overrun?”
Lisette Sutherland interviews Peter Wilson on what the hiring and onboarding process looks like for an offshore team. Just 35 minutes, safe for work.
Pot Pouri
Lindsay Patterson tells the story of NUMMI, a joint venture that helped General Motors absorb Toyota’s culture of quality.
Greg Schultz reminds us that the opportunity to upgrade to Windows 10 for free will expire on July 29, 2016.
Hanh Nguyen has collected images of 32 T-shirts you’d be proud to wear to any IT geek conference. But probably not your high school reunion.
Enjoy!
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what we've learned since the election, some of these ads were indeed both noteworthy and problematic, which is why our CEO today announced a number of important steps we are taking to help prevent this kind of deceptive interference in the future.
4) Do you expect to find more ads from Russian or other foreign actors using fake accounts?
It's possible.
When we're looking for this type of abuse, we cast a wide net in trying to identify any activity that looks suspicious. But it's a game of cat and mouse. Bad actors are always working to use more sophisticated methods to obfuscate their origins and cover their tracks. That in turn leads us to devise new methods and smarter tactics to catch them — things like machine learning, data science and highly trained human investigators. And, of course, our internal inquiry continues.
It's possible that government investigators have information that could help us, and we welcome any information the authorities are willing to share to help with our own investigations.
Using ads and other messaging to affect political discourse has become a common part of the cybersecurity arsenal for organized, advanced actors. This means all online platforms will need to address this issue, and get smarter about how to address it, now and in the future.
5) I've heard that Facebook disabled tens of thousands of accounts in France and only hundreds in the United States. Is this accurate?
No, these numbers represent different things and can't be directly compared.
To explain it, it's important to understand how large platforms try to stop abusive behavior at scale. Staying ahead of those who try to misuse our service is an ongoing effort led by our security and integrity teams, and we recognize this work will never be done. We build and update technical systems every day to make it easier to respond to reports of abuse, detect and remove spam, identify and eliminate fake accounts, and prevent accounts from being compromised. This work also reduces the distribution of content that violates our policies, since fake accounts often distribute deceptive material, such as false news, hoaxes, and misinformation.
This past April, we announced improvements to these systems aimed at helping us detect fake accounts on our service more effectively. As we began to roll out these changes globally, we took action against tens of thousands of fake accounts in France. This number represents fake accounts of all varieties, the most common being those that are used for financially-motivated spam. While we believe that the removal of these accounts also reduced the spread of disinformation, it's incorrect to state that these tens of thousands of accounts represent organized campaigns from any particular country or set of countries.
In contrast, the approximately 470 accounts and Pages we shut down recently were identified by our dedicated security team that manually investigates specific, organized threats. They found that this set of accounts and Pages were affiliated with one another — and were likely operated out of Russia.Fluffy goes EOTW on HCFaction map 12
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[0:18] <dividuum> Our archer tower[0:20] <dividuum> archer tower express[0:23] <dividuum> public area (main hall)[0:31] <dividuum> hidden poison dispenser (never used)[0:33] <AljeCherry> sad[0:39] <dividuum> double spawner[0:47] <dividuum> garbage disposal[0:49] <dividuum> our neighbours[0:51] <dividuum> escape tunnel for our street safe room[0:52] <dividuum> slot machine redstone[0:53] <dividuum> screenshot time[1:02] <dividuum> our mining base[2:32] <Keyl7_> LOL?[2:36] <AnyColorTruck> lol[3:26] <shikmeister> [13:05] <jobre67> kdlsf;j[13:12] <jobre67> fuck you konartist[13:20] <Errafu> jobre sucks[17:10] <Niblic> this is some trippy shit[30:35] <Jeremy9887> /gm 0Written by: Andy Cohen
Welcome back to the Week 3 edition of “The Revolving Door: Free Agent Addiction.” For those who didn’t read last week, if you’re like me then you love to constantly scour the waiver wire for diamonds in the rough, persistently dropping and adding like nobody’s business. If your bench is a revolving door like mine, you’ve come to the right place.
The article’s format will be as follows:
“Safe and Sound” - In this section I have players who are going to be this week’s hot FA adds and who I also believe will have season long value going forward and are not just a flash in the pan. These guys are worth picking up and starting going forward.
“Out in The Cold” - These are players that should be exiting the building and off your roster as soon as you are able to do so.
“Waiting in Line” - These are players that due to recent play or injury of a teammate should be on your radar and waiting in line to be on your roster.
Safe and Sound
Out In the Cold
Waiting in Line
A quick look back at last week’s Revolving Door:
Charles Clay
Tarik Cohen
Cooper Kupp
Eddie Lacy (100%)
Duke Johnson (98.8%)
Brandon Marshall (100%)
Kendall Wright (13.3%)
Nelson Agholor (5.3%)
Kerwynn Williams (1.3%)
Kenny Golladay (7.8%)
It was odd to see over 30,000 owners dropping Henry after Week 1. Yes, the Titan’s rushing attack was lackluster in their opening game but I really didn’t understand the logic behind those numbers and I grabbed him in every league in which he became available. I’m thankful I did because Henry had a breakout performance Sunday, rushing for a career high 92 yards on 14 carries (6.6 YPC!!!) and also added a 17-yard score. Henry looked sexy out there, breaking tackles and hitting holes with a purpose. I personally think that Henry is worth a high waiver claim and has a very good chance to have weekly standalone value going forward. Demarco Murray has looked lethargic so far this year with a 3.3 YPC average on 69 scoreless yards and is finally showing signs of aging after defying the odds the past couple years with hamstring issues that could easily linger. His fate isn’t sealed yet but the writing is on the wall and everyone should be targeting Henry on the waiver wire this week if he is available. Mike Mularkey said that Demarco Murray is still the starter, and that may be true, but not for long! Next week Henry & Murray have a tough test against the Seahawks’ defense, who have been surprisingly vulnerable on the ground through two games this year with 241 total yards allowed to running backs and let the combo of Hyde and Breida to average 8.4 YPC on Sunday. This guy should have already been inside the building but now we know he is here to stay.I love it when a practice squad guy makes it into the mix. Corey Coleman apparently broke his hand early on Sunday and is in line for an extended absence. Higgins shone as the WR1 after Coleman left, racking up 7 catches for 95 yards on 11 targets. Those who fear “flash-in-the-pan” trickery should know that Higgins out-snapped Kenny Britt 54 to 42 even though Higgins wasn’t on the official roster until Saturday morning. I think that tells you exactly how the Browns feel about Britt’s contribution so far and also their new found confidence in Higgins’ ability. The 6’ 1” Colorado State product has size and speed to match (4.64 40 yard dash) that make him more than capable of making an impact both in the real world and on fantasy football rosters. Those looking for receiver help would be wise to grab this guy, who will likely be the target leader on a team that will be down often and airing the ball out. In week 3, the Browns face the Colts defense that allowed the Rams receivers to rack up 37.5 fantasy points in PPR in Week 1. After being a fifth round pick in 2016 that was on the outside looking in, Higgins deserves to be inside the building and on your roster as well.Buck Allen has a distinct chance to end up being the most valuable player on this week’s list (until Danny Woodhead returns) and that goes double in PPR leagues. Allen impressed big time this Sunday against an underrated Cleveland defense logging 14 carries for 66 yards (4.7 YPC) and also adding 5 catches for 35 yards, with one of those heading into the end zone. Allen outplayed “starter” Terrance West and the Ravens apparently share my enthusiasm as he played 61% of the offensive snaps compared to Terrance West’s 22% snap rate. This may have been due to a soft tissue injury that West is dealing with but Allen still outplayed him regardless. Buck appears to be taking over the Woodhead role while also managing to take grinder work away from West, and these facts have pushed himself into the low end RB2 tier. He plays on a team that sports excellent defense and one that has always been committed to the run. Allen and the Ravens face the Jaguars next week who are no cake walk when it comes to run-stopping. I think the 3rd year player is worth a waiver claim this week and could play well enough to carve out standalone value, even if Woodhead comes back. Come on in, Buck! It’s warm in here.In the wise words of Pete Carroll, “I think we have something there.” After taking down Lacy in a Week 1 competition, Carson disposed of his other enemy for touches, Thomas Rawls, with an excellent performance Sunday which included a whopping 20 carries for 92 yards (4.7 YPC) and one catch for 7 yards. When you compare this with “starter” Thomas Rawls’ 5 carries for 4 yards, it’s easy to see why most feel that Carson has won himself he starting job for the time being. There is still the threat that Rawls was just knocking off rust but Carson proved his worth as he grinded out the win for the Seahawks. He is also worth a higher waiver claim due to his ceiling should this situation in Seattle shake out the way it looks like it’s going to. I like Carson’s chances to hit pay dirt next week against the Titans who allowed Leonard Fournette to score this past Sunday. Welcome inside, Chris Carson.Even in the preseason, there were rumblings that Blount did not look the part of a NFL starting running back and through two games it appears to be true. Blount’s season started out in earnest with 46 yards and a receiving TD in Week 1 but it was clear that the Eagles weren’t happy with his play as rumors came out midweek that his role may be reduced and reduced it was. Blount didn’t receive a single carry against the Chiefs and Philadelphia made Darren Sproles the guy to own in this backfield with his 44 snaps to Blount’s 6 and Smallwood’s 14. I don’t want anything to do with a RB who is 3rd in the pecking order on a team that doesn’t even possess a threatening running attack and neither should you. Blount tweeted that he “could care less about y’all fantasy teams” after his goose egg Sunday. Someone should let him know that it’s “couldn’t care less” as in “We couldn’t care less about Blount’s fantasy value at this point.” Get this man a coat because he is being kicked out of the building.After a 1 catch for 8 yard performance in the season opener I felt I should reserve judgment on Wallace since the Ravens only attempted 17 total passes in the entire game. Then came Week 2 where Flacco attempted 34 passes and Wallace put up a whopping total of…1 catch for 7 yards on 3 targets. Wallace is the 3rd or 4th option on a low volume passing offense where a better version of himself, Jeremy Maclin, is the guy to own. Aside from really deep leagues where you need a spot start, Wallace can be dropped from almost all rosters until further notice. Next week the Ravens take on the Jaguars and I would have to be paid lots of money to start Wallace against the CB duo of Ramsey and Bouye.I know Corey Coleman may be out for an extended period of time but that still doesn’t change the fact that you do not want Kenny Britt burning a hole in your bench. The former Ram now has 2 catches for 15 yards through two games and seemed to be disinterested in the game Sunday, clearly mailing it in. You could do a lot better with a stash on someone like Rashad Higgins, who was discussed above, than wasting a roster spot on a guy who just clearly doesn’t have what it takes to make the next step in his career. I wouldn’t give him a second look, even against the Colts porous pass defense in Week 3. I get whiffs of Dwayne Bowe and his tenure in Cleveland watching Britt mull around out there and that only means one thing: Call security and have this guy escorted off the premises and off your roster as well.Some may take this as extreme but when you take away AP’s name recognition and look at the stats, it doesn’t feel like a hard decision at all. Peterson has 14 carries for 44 yards through 2 games and is making the Saints’ front office look silly for signing him. It’s not that Peterson doesn’t have anything left in the tank but rather that he has been horribly miscast on team that doesn’t really need him at all. The only way AP makes a fantasy impact this year is if he is traded to another team. Otherwise, you could better use his bench spot for someone with more upside, namely his teammate Alvin Kamara whose play and usage are more than enough to get me excited about him moving forward in this fantasy season. Next week, the Saints’ backfield matches up against the Panthers run defense which has returned to form for the first two weeks so far and bottled up Shady McCoy for only 9 yards on the ground last week. Sorry Adrian but we are at capacity.This is an obvious one. After David Johnson went down, Kerwynn Williams was given a crack at the starting job and did not impress to say the least. Re-enter Chris Johnson. CJ2K played well in his limited role Sunday posting 11 carries for 44 yards and was clearly the best back on the field. Johnson is still worth an add in all formats but expectations need to be low. Going forward he is the back to own on this team but owners must remember that he is Chris Johnson, not David Johnson and should expect no better than low-end RB2 numbers with the possibility of more upside should he find the end zone. Andre Ellington is still in the mix but the Cardinals’ coaching staff has made it clear time and again that they do not see Ellington as a true RB. Next week the Cardinals get the Cowboys who are coming off a rough loss to the Broncos in which they allowed Denver’s running backs to rush for a combined 164 yards on 34 carries (4.8 YPC). Johnson is definitely at the front of the line to get inside.Don’t worry, you’re not alone in having decision anxiety about which one of these guys to grab. It seems like a total toss up at this point but the important takeaway is that they both have a weekly shot at being the Jacksonville garbage time receiver that has brought riches to fantasy owners in the past. Hurns and Lee both succeeded in that respect this weekend with Hurns totaling 6 catches for 82 yards and a score and Lee adding 7 catches for 76 yards on a team high 12 targets. Almost all of this production came in the second half when the Jags were down big to the Titans. In fact, Hurns’ first reception came with just under two minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Their production will be largely game script/matchup dependent going forward but on a team that will likely find itself behind more often than not, there’s hope for consistent production. Nobody and I mean NOBODY has a real answer for which guy is the one to pick between these two, which is why I’ve placed them in the “Waiting in Line” section. Until one distinguishes himself, that’s where they will stay. It is interesting to note that Lee appears to be playing the Allen Robinson role with the lion’s share of the targets and for that reason, I lean slightly towards him. Neither is an ideal start for a start next week against a Ravens’ D that has only allowed 10 total points in their first two games, but one will likely return value on a spot start. I’m only letting one of these guys inside and they’ll wait in line until that is decided.Antonio Gates has his touchdown record and now Hunter Henry’s season can begin for real. Phillip Rivers has been looking to get Gates this record for a while now and now that he has it, he can stop staring the future Hall of Famer down every time the Chargers get in the red zone. Gates clearly has little left in the tank as he approaches 38 years of age and Henry is quite obviously the superior player at this point in his career. He ripped through the Dolphins pass defense on Sunday on his way to securing all 7 of his targets for 80 yards. The upside for Henry is endless if Rivers peppers him with this many targets on a weekly basis. There are still some concerns with Keenan Allen and Tyrell Williams to feed but with more red zone looks coming his way, Henry is someone to watch. We may have to wait one more week to see the full extent of Henry’s ability, as they play the Chiefs who are typically tough against TEs, but also lost Eric Berry to an Achilles injury. Ertz didn’t seem to have much trouble with them. With the injuries to Gronk, Olsen, Reed, and Eifert, owners are undoubtedly looking for a replacement at TE and will be happy to see him waiting in line.- Not a great showing this week (3 catches for 23 yards) in a plus match up but with the shortages at the TE position due to many injuries, Clay is still a guy that I want inside and on my team in PPR leagues.- 12.8 points in PPR is nothing to scoff at but Cohen’s week 1 performance is closer to what he will achieve in most weeks, especially with Jordan Howard potentially missing time.– Kupp came back down to earth in week 2 with only 3 catches for 33 yards. He made some impressive grabs and he gets San Francisco next week for a great bounce back situation. He may be better fitted to Wait in Line until he proves to be consistent. The talent and volume is there though.– Spot on. Lacy didn’t even dress this week. He’s gonna freeze to death out there.- Got more work at the RB position this week but that still only amounted to 11 points in PPR. That’s his ceiling in my opinion. If you’re desperate, his best dart throw would be next week against the lowly Colt’s but I think that’s Crowell’s game.- He has not played as of the writing of this article.– Looks like Kendall Wright will be the guy in Chicago as he reeled in 7 catches for 69 yards. Think of Wright in the same way you would think of Kamar Aiken in 2015. He’s a viable flex play by way of countless injuries.– Caught his only pass in the end zone at the end of this Sunday’s game. Two touchdowns in 2 games but only 7 total catches. He’s still waiting in line.– What a bust. This guy is getting tossed to the back of the line. He dropped the ball on his starting chances with 9 carries for 22 yards. Chris Johnson is the guy to own here.- He has not played as of the writing of this article.That’s all for this week’s edition of the “Revolving Door: Free Agent Addiction”. Check back next week to see who made it through the line and who will be asked to vacate the premises. I love feedback, positive and negative, and am always looking to improve so please let me know if you have any questions or critiques.Just over a year ago, Holyrood magazine held a summer drinks reception for Scottish MPs. It was a month after the Brexit vote, a second referendum was in the offing and politics was so topsy-turvy that even having an English MP as shadow Secretary of State for Scotland seemed the new norm.
Then the local government elections had Labour and the Tories doing better than predicted and the snap general election resulted in a minority government and an unexpected deal with the DUP.
The winner, by a country mile, in all these elections in Scotland was the SNP. But like after the 2014 referendum, losers acted like winners and winners like losers.
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We had a PM who wanted to strengthen her hand but lost her head, a first minister that wanted a referendum but lost her nerve and a Labour Party leader who lost the confidence of his PLP, won over a nation, lost an election, yet acted like he had won.
Even more unexpectedly, the Scottish Conservatives had a resurgence. And with Ruth Davidson increasing her MP tally from just one to 13, she has been credited with shaking up Scottish politics and has personally put the SNP Government on notice to quit.
But she has a long way to go.
I spoke at a business event just before recess when one of Davidson’s front-bench spokesmen candidly revealed that the party had no policies. Perhaps sensing the utter consternation in the room, he added, they’d get some soon.
Indeed, Davidson has charged a trusted lieutenant, the bright and amiable Donald Cameron MSP, to draw up her policy plan. And he has a blueprint to hand, having asked me for a copy of an interview I did some years ago, with the then MP for Moray, Angus Robertson, wherein he outlined how the SNP transformed itself into a winning party.
That vision involved taking fundamental steps to talk, listen and persuade, overlaid by an unflagging positivism and a heavily repeated mantra about the 2007 election being: a two-horse race, that only the SNP could beat Labour, and it being a straight choice between Alex Salmond and Jack McConnell for FM.
Unfortunately for Davidson, that formula is not easily transportable. Even on current form, which most commentators would score as poor, the SNP is polling to win and Davidson, although popular, faces a ratings plummet when scored against being the next FM. Research also reveals that upwards of a third of those that voted Tory in the last election are not Tories at all and so that support remains fragile.
Davidson’s challenge, then, is to find her real relevance in a Scottish poll. Everyone knows what she stands against but not what she stands for. She speaks well, writes eloquently but poses many more questions than provides answers.
She says the UK economy is broken and needs to be fixed, that immigration targets need to be debated, that education, the health service and justice is not working under the SNP and that Theresa May must pursue an ‘open Brexit’ – whatever that means.
Davidson is a pro at calling the shots but an amateur at working things through. Word is that her UK Cabinet colleagues are already recognising that and there is disquiet at some of her ill-timed volleys.
And now, with an astonishing lack of self-awareness, on the day that news broke that two of her councillors who posted deeply offensive racist and sectarian comments on social media, were readmitted to the party, she has criticised Nicola Sturgeon for acknowledging that in the context of the current debate about right-wing nationalism, she would probably not name her party the Scottish National Party, if starting out today.
This is not a new proposition – SNP leaders Billy Wolfe and Alex Salmond said the same – and Sturgeon repeated it to me in March of this year, adding:
“My view, not just of Scottish nationalism, but … of the kind of country I want Scotland to be, whether independent or not, is open, welcoming, diverse, tolerant, a country where we don’t mind where people come from or where they were born but take the view that if people want to make Scotland their home permanently or temporarily and want to live here and make a contribution here, then they have a stake in building a better country and that is the notion of society which drives all of my politics and always has done.”
And therein lies a problem for Davidson. When measured against the SNP, what is her vision for Scotland? And despite her efforts to fudge it, where did the word ‘Conservative’ appear in her election campaign? She is still a Tory and British nationalism, for which the Tories can be credited with fuelling during the Brexit campaign, is the nationalism that dare not speak its name.
Nationalism is not all the same. Just ask those that champion Gandhi or Mandela.
Davidson has enjoyed something of a media honeymoon but with an election approaching in 2021, she will be increasingly scrutinised as she is pitched as a direct contender to Sturgeon.
And all in all, it’s been a good summer for the FM. After a torrid end to the parliamentary term where being defensive became the norm, recent statistics on exam results, health and the economy could all be judged good and improving. There is the totemic opening of the new Forth crossing and the much-awaited Growth Commission is reportedly an impressive piece of work and will, I am told, be unveiled soon. And given the UK Government has adopted some of the key Brexit proposals penned by the SNP, Sturgeon and her team look as though they are focused on the day job.
Davidson will need to counter that record with more than just calling out a name.Some 1.74 million foreigners live in Korea at present, accounting for 3.4 percent of the total population, according to the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs. But data compiled by regional governments reveal a more diverse demographic landscape where foreigners account for more than five percent in 12 metropolitan cities. Societies are usually considered multicultural when foreigners account for more than five percent of the population. Ten out of the 12 cities are located in Gyeonggi Province, which is home to factory complexes employing many foreign workers.
Foreign residents enjoy themselves in a pub in Geoje Island, South Gyeongsang Province.
And Geoje Island in South Gyeongsang Province is home to many engineers from Europe and Australia who work for the shipbuilding and heavy industries companies in the region. ◆ Shades of Europe The 16,352 foreigners in Geoje account for 6.6 percent of the population there, and they have given it something of a European atmosphere. Foreigners go sailing at weekends in the waters surrounding the island and play rugby and cricket. Artisanal sausages are commonly available. There are around 100 foreign restaurants and pubs on a strip popular among its overseas residents. The number of foreigners in Geoje has almost doubled from 9,235 in 2010. In 19 cities the proportions of foreign residents are higher than the 3.4 percent national average although they do not reach the yardstick five percent.
Muslim residents shop at an outdoor market in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province.
One is Gimhae, also in South Gyeongsang Province and around 30 km northeast of Geogje, where foreigners take up 4.4 percent. Each weekend, thousands of Southeast Asians flock to bars and restaurants in downtown Gimhae. ◆ Foreign Enclaves As Korea nears the threshold of becoming a multicultural society, foreign enclaves are popping up around the nation. Home to 468,000 foreigners, Seoul has several districts that have evolved a distinctively foreign character. Chinese make up the largest group of foreigners in Korea with 54.7 percent and form little Chinatowns here and there in the capital. Yeonam-dong in Mapo District is home to Chinese who were born and have lived in Korea, while many ethnic Koreans from China and Chinese workers live in Daerim-dong in Yeongdeungpo District and Jayang-dong in Gwangjin near Konkuk University is favored by Chinese students.
A street in Jayang-dong, Seoul has many Chinese signboards.
One in four French citizens in Seoul lives in Seorae Village in Seocho District, which has grown over the years into a major commercial district dotted with gourmet restaurants. Itaewon in Yongsan District, once a seedy strip lined with shoe and clothing stores and bars, has undergone a renaissance and is now home to a thriving restaurant and bar scene attracting trendsetters.
A pub bustles with foreign customers in Itaewon, Seoul.
Ichon-dong in Yongsan is home to around 1,500 Japanese, and the main street is filled with Japanese restaurants and bars. Such enclaves are also popping up in other parts of the country. A Muslim community is starting to grow in Songdo, Incheon as used car buyers from the Mi ddle East gather there. Two mosques have been built there already, and Indian, Turkish and other Muslim restaurants have begun to open next to the mosques. Southeast Asian neighborhoods have formed in Ansan, Bucheon, Hwaseong, Pyeongtaek, Seongnam, Siheung and Suwon in Gyeonggi Province as these cities have attracted many Southeast Asian workers.Mario Chalmers may be one of the most polarizing figures in Miami Heat history.
Chalmers has been with the team for seven seasons and has been a starter on two of the Heat’s championship squads. Despite being a member of the franchise for so long and playing a key role during the team’s four straight trips to the NBA Finals, some of Heat Nation still doesn’t seem to respect him.
The veteran point guard appeared on the Sirius XM Radio Show “Above the Rim” and was asked whether he believes he gets the respect he deserves for all of his accomplishments:
“No, not as much. I always get comments like, ‘The only reason why you won championships is because you have Dwyane Wade or LeBron James on your team,’ and I’m like, ‘That’s not my fault.’ Even in those aspects, in those games, I still had to do my thing and I still had big games in the Finals every time we went….I think sometimes my game gets overlooked, but people can count on me.”
Last season, Chalmers had a different role with the Heat, switching between point guard and shooting guard off the bench. The increased playing time at two-guard helped Chalmers establish a career-high in points per game (10.2). However, he shot just 40.3 percent from the field and 29.4 percent from three-point range.
While the University of Kansas product has had his ups-and-downs over the years with the franchise, he does hold a valid point in terms of receiving a lack of respect. Chalmers may not be a top point guard, but there is little doubt that he played a vital role for the team during the “Big Three” era.
The fact that he has played seven seasons with the franchise speaks volumes about how Pat Riley and the organization view ‘Rio as a quality contributor.
Though he has been with the Heat since 2008, Chalmers enters the 2015-16 season on the trade block—Miami is trying to trade the veteran for luxury-tax purposes as he’s due to earn $4.3 million next season.
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commentsRicky Burns will put his WBO world lightweight title on the line in a unification showdown with IBF champion Miguel Vazquez in London on 16 March.
"Miguel Vazquez is definitely one of the top boxers in the weight division and I have always said I want to fight the best," Burns told BBC Scotland.
"I think it will be one of those fights that bring out the best in me."
Also expected to appear on the Wembley Arena card are Nathan Cleverly, George Groves and Dereck Chisora.
Coatbridge boxer Burns, 29, with 35 wins from 37 fights, has a similar record to the 26-year-old Mexican.
Slightly shorter than Burns and three years, nine months his junior, the orthodox fighter has lost only three times in 36 fights and has defended the IBF title he won against Ji-Hoon Kim in August 2010 on five occasions.
Vazquez poses after successfully defending his IBF title against Mercito Gesta in Las Vegas in December
Vazquez holds a win over Breidis Prescott, the Colombian who knocked out Amir Khan in 2008, and has only lost on points to Mexican sensation Saul Alvarez (twice) and current WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley.
"To turn pro and go on and win a world title, I couldn't believe that," added Burns, who had a proposed title defence called off in London last month.
"Now to get a unification fight and have a second world title dangled in front of my face, these are the fights I have always wanted.
"I am going to treat this fight the same as any other. I've seen him box before but now the fight is confirmed I won't watch any footage of him at all.
"I will put everything into my training camp. Billy [Nelson, his trainer] has a few of his fights on DVD and he will pick out stuff we should be working on.
Vazquez has a good record but so does Ricky and we're confident he will have too much for him Alex Morrison Ricky Burns's manager
"It's going to be a cracking fight and one the fans are going to enjoy."
Burns' manager, Alex Morrison, is confident his fighter can unify the titles.
"This is the one we've wanted. It doesn't come any bigger than a unification title fight and Ricky is ready," he said.
"Vazquez has a good record but so does Ricky and we're confident he will have too much for him.
"He was very disappointed with what happened last month and is really hungry to get into the ring."
The fight will be arguably the biggest bout involving a Scot since Ken Buchanan united the lightweight division in 1971.
Asked about the possibility of achieving the same status as the Edinburgh boxer, Burns replied: "As I've said before, boxing is my job. I try not to look at things that way. I just go out there and do my thing."
Welshman Cleverly joint headlines the bill and will put his WBO light-heavyweight crown on the line against Serbia's Robert Krasniqi.
Groves will be aiming to add the vacant European super-middleweight belt to the British and Commonwealth belts he already owns when he fights Italy's Mohammad Ali Ndiaye.
And heavyweight Chisora will be hoping to get his career back on track after a defeat by David Haye in July.
However, his fight is subject to him successfully reapplying for his British boxing license. Chisora was stripped following a news conference brawl with Haye in Munich last February.ReShade is an advanced, fully generic post-processing injector for games and video software developed by crosire. Imagine your favorite game with ambient occlusion, real depth of field effects, color correction and more... ReShade exposes an automated and generic way to access both frame color and depth information (latter is automatically disabled during multiplayer to prevent exploitation) and all the tools to make it happen.
The possibilities are endless! Add advanced depth-edge-detection-driven SMAA antialiasing, screen space ambient occlusion, depth of field effects, chromatic aberration, dynamic film grain, automatic saturation and color correction, cross processing, multi-pass blurring... you name it.
ReShade supports all of Direct3D 9, Direct3D 10, Direct3D 11 and OpenGL.
A computer with Windows 7 SP1 or higher (Windows 8, 8.1, 10) and the DirectX end-user runtime installed is required.
ReShade features its very own shading language and transcompiler, called ReShade FX. The syntax is based on HLSL, adding useful features designed for developing post-processing-effects: Define and use textures right from the shader code, render to them, change renderstates, retrieve color and depth data, request custom values like timers or key states,...
And that's not it. Write your shaders just once, they'll work everywhere, regardless of your target being Direct3D or OpenGL: ReShade takes care of compiling them to the right shader model and language.
Open Source
As of January 1st 2017, ReShade is open sourced under the terms and conditions of the BSD 3-clause license! You can help development with your own contributions via the official GitHub repository.Image courtesy of Mark Patterson
Mapping the late-night rides of Pittsburgh
click to enlarge Image courtesy healthyridepgh.com
Pittsburgh's most popular Healthy Ride routes in dark blue.
Sure, the idea of riding bikes in December's sub-40 degree temperatures is not appealing for most. But maybe these maps and graphs will motivate you.Mark Patterson, a Carnegie Mellon graduate student studying social and decision sciences, took one massive data file and turned it into maps and graphs that detail different aspects of Pittsburgh's bike-share system, Healthy Ride. In the bike-share’s opening three months, from June through August, Pittsburghers and tourists took about 40,000 rides combined, but Patterson wanted to see the intricacies.“Ultimately it works great on both sides,” says Patterson. “We get a fun opportunity to explore, and they get a chance for more insight.”Patterson was intrigued by how far people rode (more than enough miles to circumnavigate the world), who rode late at night (see above), and how riders dealt with hills. For example, for every 26 riders who coasted downhill from Shadyside to Lawrenceville, only one rider braved the 200-foot-tall hill on the way back, according to Patterson.“I live in Shadyside,” says Patterson, “and the bike ride down to Lawrenceville is great coasting, but the way back is not for the faint of heart.”Patterson says that most of the data verifies what many already guessed — like how the majority of pick-ups are Downtown. But he notes there are some surprises.When he first started to collect data on riders who pick up bikes from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m., he thought the South Side, with its bar scene, would have the highest percentage. However after compiling the data, the station at Maryland and Ellsworth avenues had 16 percent of its rides occur late at night. Patterson says Shadyside may have the best nightlife, at least among bikers.And Patterson is not |
would listen to the recording to practice before the scenes, there were times where I spoke in Sooyoung unnie's tone, which left me very surprised."
Source: OSENPeople from all over the political spectrum are up in arms this week, following a 60 Minutes report on the state of the US nuclear arsenal. Particularly, the segment exposes the old and seemingly outdated technology that controls and underlies these most powerful of weapons. The phones are old, chunky physical types. The switch-boards have those big mechanical switches and flashy lights. And the paramount sin: Many of the records are kept on 8 inch floppy disks.
It’s an odd thing, to see the plans and security information for the most destructive technology in history in a form most people associate with Reader Rabbit and The Oregon Trail. Still, is this really so bad? Certainly, the first two are hardly downsides; the sturdy, physical connections of the past are much more reliable in the sorts of doomsday scenarios that might see a nuclear weapon launch. Much like the interior of a submarine, these facilities should strive to be as low-tech as possible, without sacrificing safety or performance.
As to the floppies, they seem to be performing fairly well. Though Ben Richmond at Motherboard notes the degradation of information as a reason to upgrade, those complaints mostly extend to micro-fiches and films. The magnetic storage of a floppy disk is really quite long-lasting comparatively — though it is fragile and in need of proper handling.
The distinct upside of this sort of technology is that it makes compatibility harder for the enemy. It’s harder to forge a format that’s been out of date for 20 years, and hard to hack something that was installed before the internet left the military’s research labs. The job has not changed dramatically since these systems were first put in place: wait for a call, validate the call, target the missile, launch. Technologies on the front end of the nuclear process, in target acquisition and tracking, and on the back end, in propulsion and destructive power, have progressed immensely in the past 30 years. In some cases, though, keys, padlocks, and rotary phones are more than enough.
The entire 60 Minutes segment is available for streaming, below.
Now, of course upgrades will become necessary at some point, and frankly they really should upgrade that storage standard. However, simply maintaining the existing nuclear arsenal costs hundreds of billions per year. An across-the-board upgrade would be hard to justify at a time when nuclear fees are drawing eyes from the austerity crowd, and even usually pro-spending citizens rejoice at being able to put the costs of the Iraq War behind them. There are again forces calling for partial unilateral nuclear disarmament, if only because we no longer live in an era defined by the reach of nuclear bombs.
In the event of a nuclear catastrophe, it’s the satellites and smart-phones that will fail us. The rotary phones will be working just fine.Yemen's former prime minister has rejected his sacking by the president, calling the move a "coup" and an affront to the constitution.
In a statement late Tuesday, Khaled Bahah, who was also vice president until President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's decision last weekend, said the move undermined state authority.
Hadi fired Bahah over what he called shortcomings in the government's performance and appointed a successor while naming Bahah a presidential adviser.
Yemen, the Arab world's poorest nation, has been torn by conflict since 2014, when Shiite rebels known as Houthis and allied with a former president captured large swaths of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.
In March 2015, a Saudi-led military coalition launched airstrikes against the Houthis and later, a ground operation to retake back ground from the rebels.With the most recent mass shooting my facebook feed exploded with opinions on gun control. I quickly grew tired of it, and then thought to myself that facebook should be renamed opinionbook, but that’s a different article. To try to return facebook to the light-hearted drivel it was supposed to be I began posting pictures of cute ponies. That got me to thinking, if posting pictures of cute ponies made me happy just think what owning one would do. I quickly decided to get a pony. Not because I necessarily needed one, but because I wanted one. And let’s be honest, it’s my constitutional right to own one.
I quickly contacted the pony store so that I could get the process started. I was pretty sure there would be a waiting period to confirm that I was a decent citizen who could own a pony. Things quickly soured when I was told that I couldn’t own a pony because I lived in town limits. WHAT?!?!? My pony ownership rights were being denied by the Government!!! How could they trample my 9th Amendment rights which clearly state, and I quote, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people”. Doesn’t get any clearer than that.
How could I feel safe in my home without a guard pony? Don’t I have the right to protect my family from crime? I want criminals to know that if they try to break into the Robert’s homestead they’re going to leave with a tattoo of two undersized hoof prints on their foreheads. And it’s not like I was trying to get a high powered equine, like a Clydesdale or something. And it wasn’t like I was asking for 50 ponies. I get that high capacity pony ownership is unnecessary and dangerous in town limits. But one pony, couldn’t I have just one pony?
How are we supposed to defend ourselves if a stampede happens? I mean, criminals are going to still get ponies regardless of laws and we know that they’ll get more ponies than they need. When a stampede happens are you going to wait for the police? Hell no!! The best way to stop a stampeding is by a private citizen packing their own pony!
And let’s be honest. Ponies don’t nip people, people nip people. Responsible pony owners know that you must lock your ponies safely away in your yard so that accidental nippings don’t happen.
I will take my fight to the Supreme Court if I have too. My Constitutional rights will not be trampled!! Rise up people! It’s time to make America great again!! Who’s with me people?! Ponies for everyone!!
Advertisements20-12-2015 | Remy van Elst | Text only version of this article
Table of Contents
This is a guide on setting up an IPSEC VPN server on Ubuntu 15.04 using StrongSwan as the IPsec server and for authentication. It has a detailed explanation with every step. We choose the IPSEC protocol stack because of vulnerabilities found in pptpd VPNs and because it is supported on all recent operating systems by default.
Why a VPN?
More than ever, your freedom and privacy when online is under threat. Governments and ISPs want to control what you can and can't see while keeping a record of everything you do, and even the shady-looking guy lurking around your coffee shop or the airport gate can grab your bank details easier than you may think. A self hosted VPN lets you surf the web the way it was intended: anonymously and without oversight.
A VPN (virtual private network) creates a secure, encrypted tunnel through which all of your online data passes back and forth. Any application that requires an internet connection works with this self hosted VPN, including your web browser, email client, and instant messaging program, keeping everything you do online hidden from prying eyes while masking your physical location and giving you unfettered access to any website or web service no matter where you happen to live or travel to.
This tutorial is available for the following platforms:
This tutorial was written and tested on a Digital Ocean VPS. If you like this tutorial and want to support my website, use this link to order a Digital Ocean VPS: https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=7435ae6b8212. You will get $10 free credit, which is equal to two months of a free $5 VPS.
IPSEC encrypts your IP packets to provide encryption and authentication, so no one can decrypt or forge data between your clients and your server. It also provides a tunnel to send data to the server.
This VPN setup is called a road-warrior setup, because clients can connect from anywhere. Another much used VPN setup is called site-to-site, where two VPN servers connect two networks with one another. In a road warrior setup your local network isn't shared, but you do get access to the server's network.
To work trough this tutorial you should have:
1 Ubuntu 15.04 server with at least 1 public IP address and root access
1 (or more) clients running an OS that support IPsec IKEv2 vpns (Ubuntu, Mac OS, Windows 7+, Android 4+).
Ports 4500/UDP, 500/UDP, 51/UDP and 50/UDP opened in the firewall.
I do all the steps as the root user. You should do to, but only via sudo -i or su -.
No L2TP?
The previous tutorials all used L2TP to set up the VPN tunnel and use IPSEC only for the encryption. With the IKEv2 protocol and newer operating systems (like OS X 10.8+, Android 4+, iOS 6+ and Windows 7+) supporting IKEv2 we can also use IPSEC to set up the tunnel, before we used IPSEC to do that.
This VPN will therefore not work out of the box on older operating systems. See my other tutorials with L2TP on how to do that.
Overview
The tutorial consists out of the following steps:
Install packages
Generate certificates
Configure IPSEC
Configure Firewall
Android and Windows client configuration is covered at the end of the tutorial.
Install Strongswan
StrongSwan is a descendant of FreeS/WAN, just like Openswan or LibreSwan. Strongswan however is actively developed, whereas the other ones, except LibreSwan are less. StrongSwan is in default in the Ubuntu repositories. You can read more about Strongswan on wikipedia or their website.
apt-get install strongswan strongswan-plugin-af-alg strongswan-plugin-agent strongswan-plugin-certexpire strongswan-plugin-coupling strongswan-plugin-curl strongswan-plugin-dhcp strongswan-plugin-duplicheck strongswan-plugin-eap-aka strongswan-plugin-eap-aka-3gpp2 strongswan-plugin-eap-dynamic strongswan-plugin-eap-gtc strongswan-plugin-eap-mschapv2 strongswan-plugin-eap-peap strongswan-plugin-eap-radius strongswan-plugin-eap-tls strongswan-plugin-eap-ttls strongswan-plugin-error-notify strongswan-plugin-farp strongswan-plugin-fips-prf strongswan-plugin-gcrypt strongswan-plugin-gmp strongswan-plugin-ipseckey strongswan-plugin-kernel-libipsec strongswan-plugin-ldap strongswan-plugin-led strongswan-plugin-load-tester strongswan-plugin-lookip strongswan-plugin-ntru strongswan-plugin-pgp strongswan-plugin-pkcs11 strongswan-plugin-pubkey strongswan-plugin-radattr strongswan-plugin-sshkey strongswan-plugin-systime-fix strongswan-plugin-whitelist strongswan-plugin-xauth-eap strongswan-plugin-xauth-generic strongswan-plugin-xauth-noauth strongswan-plugin-xauth-pam strongswan-pt-tls-client
Certificates
The VPN server will identify itself with a certificate to the clients. The clients can use a certificate to authenticate themself, this tutorial however keeps it simple and sets up username and password authentication as well.
On Android with the StrongSwan Application you can just import the.p12 we are going to create later on. On Windows 7, we'll use EAP to configure a username and password for our client.
You might want to install haveged to speed up the key generation process:
apt-get install haveged systemctl enable haveged systemctl start haveged
Haveged provides a constant source of entropy and randomness.
Start by creating a self singed root CA private key:
cd /etc/ipsec.d/ mkdir private mkdir cacerts mkdir certs mkdir p12 ipsec pki --gen --type rsa --size 4096 --outform der > private/strongswanKey.der chmod 600 private/strongswanKey.der
Generate a self signed root CA certificate of that private key:
ipsec pki --self --ca --lifetime 3650 --in private/strongswanKey.der --type rsa --dn "C=NL, O=Example Company, CN=strongSwan Root CA" --outform der > cacerts/strongswanCert.der
You can view the certificate properties with the following command:
ipsec pki --print --in cacerts/strongswanCert.der
Example output:
cert: X509 subject: "C=NL, O=Example Company, CN=strongSwan Root CA" issuer: "C=NL, O=Example Company, CN=strongSwan Root CA" validity: not before Dec 20 08:12:27 2015, ok not after Dec 17 08:12:27 2025, ok (expires in 3649 days) serial: 1f:8e:0c:08:c4:a2:5b:1f flags: CA CRLSign self-signed authkeyId: d1:ad:f7:76:ad:10:02:7f:1d:04:e1:80:46:9d:b2:c7:fb:4d:d3:bb subjkeyId: d1:ad:f7:76:ad:10:02:7f:1d:04:e1:80:46:9d:b2:c7:fb:4d:d3:bb pubkey: RSA 4096 bits keyid: 88:ef:88:13:7f:da:5a:28:13:77:4b:4c:81:df:ee:db:fb:5c:69:54 subjkey: d1:ad:f7:76:ad:10:02:7f:1d:04:e1:80:46:9d:b2:c7:fb:4d:d3:bb
Generate the VPN Host key. This is the keypair the VPN server host will use to authenticate itself to clients. First the private key:
ipsec pki --gen --type rsa --size 4096 --outform der > private/vpnHostKey.der chmod 600 private/vpnHostKey.der
Generate the public key and use our earlier created root ca to sign the public key:
ipsec pki --pub --in private/vpnHostKey.der --type rsa | ipsec pki --issue --lifetime 730 --cacert cacerts/strongswanCert.der --cakey private/strongswanKey.der --dn "C=NL, O=Example Company, CN=vpn.example.org" --san vpn.example.com --san vpn.example.net --san 185.3.211.43 --san @185.3.211.43 --flag serverAuth --flag ikeIntermediate --outform der > certs/vpnHostCert.der
The domain name or IP address of your VPN server, which is later entered in the clients connection properties, MUST be contained either in the subject Distinguished Name (CN) and/or in a subject Alternative Name ( --san ). If this does not match the clients will fail to connect.
The built in Windows 7 VPN client needs the serverAuth extended key usage flag in your host certificate as shown above, or the client will refuse to connect. In addition, OS X 10.7.3 or older requires the ikeIntermediate flag, which we also add here.
We add the IP address twice, one with an @ in front so that it gets added as an subjectAltName of the DNSName type and one of the IPAddess type.
Let's view the certificate:
ipsec pki --print --in certs/vpnHostCert.der
Output:
cert: X509 subject: "C=NL, O=Example Company, CN=vpn.example.org" issuer: "C=NL, O=Example Company, CN=strongSwan Root CA" validity: not before Dec 20 08:15:22 2015, ok not after Dec 19 08:15:22 2017, ok (expires in 729 days) serial: aa:31:ac:fd:4b:fa:41:5d altNames: vpn.example.com, vpn.example.net, 185.3.211.43, 185.3.211.43 flags: serverAuth iKEIntermediate authkeyId: d1:ad:f7:76:ad:10:02:7f:1d:04:e1:80:46:9d:b2:c7:fb:4d:d3:bb subjkeyId: 27:c7:87:de:83:38:6c:f7:56:57:c2:b3:1f:05:11:ca:b9:2f:89:d4 pubkey: RSA 4096 bits keyid: f8:03:95:ad:eb:a1:76:93:5f:8d:b8:77:5e:60:dc:ce:78:42:3b:dd subjkey: 27:c7:87:de:83:38:6c:f7:56:57:c2:b3:1f:05:11:ca:b9:2f:89:d4
You can also use OpenSSL to see the contents, here is an excerpt:
openssl x509 -inform DER -in certs/vpnHostCert.der -noout -text
Output:
Certificate: Data: Version: 3 (0x2) Serial Number: 12263773464207966557 (0xaa31acfd4bfa415d) Signature Algorithm: sha1WithRSAEncryption Issuer: C=NL, O=Example Company, CN=strongSwan Root CA Validity Not Before: Dec 20 07:15:22 2015 GMT Not After : Dec 19 07:15:22 2017 GMT Subject: C=NL, O=Example Company, CN=vpn.example.org Subject Public Key Info: Public Key Algorithm: rsaEncryption Public-Key: (4096 bit) [...] Exponent: 65537 (0x10001) X509v3 extensions: X509v3 Authority Key Identifier: keyid:D1:AD:F7:76:AD:10:02:7F:1D:04:E1:80:46:9D:B2:C7:FB:4D:D3:BB X509v3 Subject Alternative Name: DNS:vpn.example.com, DNS:vpn.example.net, IP Address:185.3.211.43, DNS:185.3.211.43 X509v3 Extended Key Usage: TLS Web Server Authentication, 1.3.6.1.5.5.8.2.2 Signature Algorithm: sha1WithRSAEncryption
The private key ( /etc/ipsec.d/private/strongswanKey.der ) of the CA should be moved somewhere safe, possibly to a special signing host without access to the Internet. Theft of this master signing key would completely compromise your public key infrastructure. Use it only to generate client certificates when needed.
Client certificate
Any client will require a personal certificate in order to use the VPN. The process is analogous to generating a host certificate, except that we identify a client certificate by the clients e-mail address rather than a hostname.
We create a keypair for the example user "John".
Private key:
ipsec pki --gen --type rsa --size 2048 --outform der > private/JohnKey.der chmod 600 private/JohnKey.der
Public key, signed by our root ca we generated:
ipsec pki --pub --in private/JohnKey.der --type rsa | ipsec pki --issue --lifetime 730 --cacert cacerts/strongswanCert.der --cakey private/strongswanKey.der --dn "C=NL, O=Example Company, CN=john@example.org" --san "john@example.org" --san "john@example.net" --san "john@185.3.211.43" --outform der > certs/JohnCert.der
A VPN client needs a client certificate, its corresponding private key, and the signing CA certificate. The most convenient way is to put everything in a single signed PKCS#12 file and export it with a paraphrase.
Convert the required keys to PEM formt before converting to a.p12:
openssl rsa -inform DER -in private/JohnKey.der -out private/JohnKey.pem -outform PEM openssl x509 -inform DER -in certs/JohnCert.der -out certs/JohnCert.pem -outform PEM openssl x509 -inform DER -in cacerts/strongswanCert.der -out cacerts/strongswanCert.pem -outform PEM
Construct the.p12:
openssl pkcs12 -export -inkey private/JohnKey.pem -in certs/JohnCert.pem -name "John's VPN Certificate" -certfile cacerts/strongswanCert.pem -caname "strongSwan Root CA" -out p12/John.p12
Enter a passphrase twice, then you have a.p12. You can send John.p12 and its export paraphrase to the person who is going to install it onto the client. In some cases (iOS for example) you have to separately include the CA certificate cacerts/strongswanCert.pem.
Transport this John.p12 file and the password over seperate channels to a client.
If you need any more user certificates, repeat the above steps with other user data. You can also do this later on.
Revoking a certificate
If a certificate is lost or stolen, it must be revoked so nobody can use it to connect to your VPN server. Assuming the certificate from the previous step got stolen, we revoke it with:
cd /etc/ipsec.d/ ipsec pki --signcrl --reason key-compromise \ --cacert cacerts/strongswanCert.der \ --cakey private/strongswanKey.der \ --cert certs/JohnCert.der \ --outform der > crls/crl.der
Restart ipsec afterwards:
ipsec restart
This generates the new certificate revocation list (CRL) crls/crl.der. When someone tries to authenticate with the stolen certificate, he'll receive an authentication credentials error message, and your log file will contain something like:
04[CFG] using trusted certificate "C=NL, O=Example Company, CN=strongSwan Root CA" 04[CFG] crl correctly signed by "C=NL, O=Example Company, CN=strongSwan Root CA" 04[CFG] certificate was revoked on Dec 20 14:51:24 UTC 2015, reason: key compromise
To add another revoked certificate to the same list, we need to copy the existing list into a temporary file:
cd /etc/ipsec.d/ cp crls/crl.der crl.der.tmp ipsec pki --signcrl --reason key-compromise \ --cacert cacerts/strongswanCert.der \ --cakey private/strongswanKey.der \ --cert certs/OtherStolenCert.der \ --lastcrl crl.der.tmp \ --outform der > crls/crl.der rm crl.der.tmp
Restart ipsec afterwards:
ipsec restart
IPSEC Configuration
The main ipsec configuration file is located in /etc/strongswan.d/. We are going to edit it:
vim /etc/strongswan.d/VPN.conf
Place the following contents:
# ipsec.conf - strongSwan IPsec configuration file config setup charondebug="ike 4, knl 4, cfg 4, net 4, esp 4, dmn 4, mgr 4" conn %default keyexchange=ikev2 ike=aes128-sha1-modp1024,aes128-sha1-modp1536,aes128-sha1-modp2048,aes128-sha256-ecp256,aes128-sha256-modp1024,aes128-sha256-modp1536,aes128-sha256-modp2048,aes256-aes128-sha256-sha1-modp2048-modp4096-modp1024,aes256-sha1-modp1024,aes256-sha256-modp1024,aes256-sha256-modp1536,aes256-sha256-modp2048,aes256-sha256-modp4096,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-modp1024,aes256-sha384-modp1536,aes256-sha384-modp2048,aes256-sha384-modp4096,aes256gcm16-aes256gcm12-aes128gcm16-aes128gcm12-sha256-sha1-modp2048-modp4096-modp1024,3des-sha1-modp1024! esp=aes128-aes256-sha1-sha256-modp2048-modp4096-modp1024,aes128-sha1,aes128-sha1-modp1024,aes128-sha1-modp1536,aes128-sha1-modp2048,aes128-sha256,aes128-sha256-ecp256,aes128-sha256-modp1024,aes128-sha256-modp1536,aes128-sha256-modp2048,aes128gcm12-aes128gcm16-aes256gcm12-aes256gcm16-modp2048-modp4096-modp1024,aes128gcm16,aes128gcm16-ecp256,aes256-sha1,aes256-sha256,aes256-sha256-modp1024,aes256-sha256-modp1536,aes256-sha256-modp2048,aes256-sha256-modp4096,aes256-sha384,aes256-sha384-ecp384,aes256-sha384-modp1024,aes256-sha384-modp1536,aes256-sha384-modp2048,aes256-sha384-modp4096,aes256gcm16,aes256gcm16-ecp384,3des-sha1! dpdaction=clear dpddelay=300s rekey=no left=%any leftid=vpn.example.org leftsubnet=0.0.0.0/0 leftcert=vpnHostCert.der right=%any rightsourceip=10.42.42.0/24,2002:25f7:7489:3::/112 rightdns=8.8.8.8,2001:4860:4860::8888 conn IPSec-IKEv2 keyexchange=ikev2 leftauth=pubkey rightauth=pubkey leftsendcert=always auto=add conn IPSec-IKEv2-EAP keyexchange=ikev2 leftauth=pubkey leftsendcert=always rightauth=eap-mschapv2 rightsendcert=never eap_identity=%any auto=add conn CiscoIPSec keyexchange=ikev1 rightauth=pubkey rightauth2=xauth auto=add
Remove the /etc/ipsec.conf file and create a symlink:
rm /etc/ipsec.conf ln -s /etc/strongswan.d/VPN.conf /etc/ipsec.conf
This configuration has settings for three types of VPN services: IKEv2 + RSA certificate, IKEv2 + EAP and IKEv1 + Xauth, thus providing compatibility for a wide range of recent IPsec clients.
Apple added support for IKEv2 in iOS 8, but it needs to be configured using a custom configuration profile.
OS X does not support IKEv2 (not on 10.10 or lower).
For iOS 9+ and OS X 10.10+ you need to make sure the leftid= is the same as the CN in your certificate. You also need to enter that on the devices, otherwise you'll get a no matching peer config found log error.
Android 4+ and Windows 7+ support IKEv2.
Clients will get the Google DNS servers and an IP address in the 10.42.42.0/24 range. We use a strong ciphersuite.
The leftcert=vpnHostCert.der expands to the path /etc/ipsec.d/certs/vpnHostCert.der.
VPN user accounts and secrets
The users are configured in the /etc/ipsec.secrets file.
vim /etc/ipsec.secrets
Example content:
: RSA vpnHostKey.der : PSK 0sv+NkxY9LLZvwj4qCC2o/gGrWDF2d21jL alice : EAP "YzCgnveYuL429fH" bob : EAP "E23pOjvW8z248iAp" hipster: XAUTH "xauth_ikev1_example_password"
In the example above the RSA private key file vpnHostKey.der stored in the /etc/openswan.d/private/ directory is not protected by symmetric encryption (a password).
The PSK for IKEv1 connections is also defined.
The format of the EAP MSCHAPv2 user credentials is:
[<domain>\]<username> : EAP "<plaintext password>"
Add as many users as you like there. The first line allows all users with a valid certificate to use the VPN, the other lines allow users without a certificate to login with a username and password. The space between the username, the colon (:) and EAP needs to be there.
I strongly suggest adding NO users here, and setting NO PSK. Use certificates, they are much more secure.
Whenever you edit /etc/ipsec.secrets while strongSwan is running, you must reload the file:
ipsec rereadsecrets
If you need to generate password, OpenSSL can help you there:
openssl rand -base64 24 jzHMIj6sqBbSI6LFmXINrwZWkXG9O8GW
Firewall & Packet Routing
Configure the iptables firewall to allow vpn traffic and to forward packets:
# for ISAKMP (handling of security associations) iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 500 --j ACCEPT # for NAT-T (handling of IPsec between natted devices) iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 4500 --j ACCEPT # for ESP payload (the encrypted data packets) iptables -A INPUT -p esp -j ACCEPT # for the routing of packets on the server iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -j SNAT --to-source %SERVERIP% -o eth+
Replace %SERVERIP% with the external IP of your VPS. If your external interface is not named ethX ( + is a wildcard) then rename appropriately.
Execute the below commands to enable kernel IP packet forwarding and disable ICP redirects.
echo "net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1" | tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf echo "net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0" | tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf echo "net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects = 0" | tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf echo "net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 0" | tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf echo "net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0" | tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf echo "net.ipv4.conf.default.send_redirects = 0" | tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf echo "net.ipv4.icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses = 1" | tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
Set these settings for other network interfaces:
for vpn in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/*; do echo 0 > $vpn/accept_redirects; echo 0 > $vpn/send_redirects; done
Apply them:
sysctl -p
Persistent settings via /etc/rc.local
To make sure this keeps working at boot you might want to add the following to /etc/rc.local:
for vpn in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/*; do echo 0 > $vpn/accept_redirects; echo 0 > $vpn/send_redirects; done iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -j SNAT --to-source %SERVERIP% -o eth+ iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 500 --j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 4500 --j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p esp -j ACCEPT
Add it before the exit 0 line and replace %SERVERIP% with the external IP of your VPS.
Start the VPN
All the configuration on the server is now done. Enable the VPN at startup:
systemctl enable strongswan
And start it:
systemctl start strongswan
If you get a permission denied error, stroke the files with apparmor:
apparmor_parser -R /etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.ipsec.charon apparmor_parser -R /etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.ipsec.stroke
Check the status of the service:
ipsec status
Output:
Security Associations (0 up, 0 connecting): none
And a more elaborate status:
ipsec statusall
Output:
Status of IKE charon daemon (strongSwan 5.1.2, Linux 3.19.0-41-generic, x86_64): uptime: 94 seconds, since Dec 20 08:27:24 2015 malloc: sbrk 1859584, mmap 266240, used 693200, free 1166384 worker threads: 11 of 16 idle, 5/0/0/0 working, job queue: 0/0/0/0, scheduled: 0 loaded plugins: charon test-vectors curl unbound ldap pkcs11 aes rc2 sha1 sha2 md4 md5 random nonce x509 revocation constraints pubkey pkcs1 pkcs7 pkcs8 pkcs12 pgp sshkey ipseckey pem openssl gcrypt af-alg fips-prf gmp xcbc cmac hmac ctr ccm gcm ntru attr kernel-netlink resolve socket-default farp stroke updown eap-identity eap-aka eap-aka-3gpp2 eap-gtc eap-mschapv2 eap-dynamic eap-radius eap-tls eap-ttls eap-peap xauth-generic xauth-eap xauth-noauth tnc-imc tnc-tnccs tnccs-20 tnccs-11 tnccs-dynamic dhcp whitelist lookip error-notify certexpire led duplicheck radattr addrblock Listening IP addresses: 10.41.170.21 Connections: Security Associations (0 up, 0 connecting): none
Client Configuration
See the Strongswan Wiki for guides on configuring Windows and OS X/iOS clients)
Sources
Thanks to:Expression of emotion in books declined during 20th century, study finds
The use of words with emotional content in books has steadily decreased throughout the last century, according to new research from the Universities of Sheffield, Bristol and Durham.
The study, published today in PLOS ONE, also found a divergence between American and British English, with the former being more 'emotional' than the latter.
The researchers looked at how frequently'mood' words were used through time in a database of more than five million digitised books provided by Google.
The list of words was divided into six categories (anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise) previously used by a co-author Dr Vasileios Lampos, from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Computer Science and the Natural Language Processing Group, to detect contemporary mood changes in public opinion as expressed in tweets collected in the UK over more than two years.
Dr Lampos said: “The initial idea was simple: what if we apply a similar analysis on digitised books? And even the very first experimental results were depicting clear patterns of correlation between historical events and mood tendencies, such as the obvious peak in sadness during the Second World War.”
Dr Alberto Acerbi, a Newton Fellow in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Bristol and lead author of the paper, said: "We thought that it would be interesting to apply the same methodology to different media and, especially, on a larger time scale. We were initially surprised to see how well periods of positive and negative moods correlated with historical events. The Second World War, for example, is marked by a distinct increase of words related to sadness, and a correspondent decrease of words related to joy."
In applying this technique, the researchers made some remarkable discoveries about the evolution of words usage in English books over the past century. Firstly, the emotional content of published English has been steadily decreasing over the past century, with the fascinating exception of words associated with fear, an emotion which has resurged over the past decades.
They also found that American English and British English have undergone a distinct stylistic divergence since the 1960s. American English has become decidedly more 'emotional' than British English in the last half-century.
The same divergence was also found in the use of content-free words, that is words which carry little or no meaning on their own, such as conjunctions ('and', 'but') and articles ('the').
Dr Acerbi said: “This is particularly fascinating because it has recently been shown that differences in usage of content-free words are a signature of different stylistic periods in the history of western literature."
This suggests that the divergence in emotional content between the two forms of English is paired by a more general stylistic divergence.
Co-author Professor Alex Bentley said: “We don't know exactly what happened in the sixties but our results show that this is the precise moment in which literary American and British English started to diverge. We can only speculate whether this was connected, for example, to the baby-boom or to the rising of counterculture.
“In the USA, baby boomers grew up in the greatest period of economic prosperity of the century, whereas the British baby boomers grew up in a post-war recovery period so perhaps 'emotionalism' was a luxury of economic growth."
While the trends found in this study are very clear, their interpretation is still open. "A remaining question," the authors say, "is whether word usage represents real behaviour in a population, or possibly an absence of that behaviour |
head coach Darryl Sutter, and are 4-1-1 in their last six games.
The Kings have killed 63 of their last 66 penalties, dating back to November 19 vs. Detroit). They have killed 16 straight penalties, dating back to December 17 at Detroit).
The Kings are now 9-0-0 when scoring three or more goals in a game, and are 12-2-3 when scoring first.
The Kings are 8-3-3 vs. Pacific Division teams this season.
Brown recorded his fifth game-winning goal this season. He has scored nine goals this season. He also has five points in the last six games (four goals, one assist).
Drew Doughty extended his assist streak to four games, tying a career high. His career high point streak is five games.
extended his assist streak to four games, tying a career high. His career high point streak is five games. Kopitar has assists in four straight games, and has nine assists in the last ten games.
Scuderi scored his first goal since February 5, 2011, at Calgary (65 games).
The Kings are now 16-9-5 with Mitchell in the lineup, and 15-8-5 with Mike Richards in the lineup.
in the lineup. The Kings have averaged 36.1 shots in their last ten games.
Post-Game Raw Audio Interviews
(Extraneous material and dead air have been removed)
Dustin Brown (1:05)
Anze Kopitar (2:42)
Willie Mitchell (2:20)
Darryl Sutter (2:32)
Game Highlights From NHL Video On YouTube
Tickets for the Kings’ upcoming homestand against the Vancouver Canucks (December 31, 7:00 PM), the Colorado Avalache (January 2, 2012, 7:30 PM), the Coyotes (January 5, 7:30 PM), the Columbus Blue Jackets (January 7, 1:00 PM), the Washington Capitals (January 9, 7:30 PM), and the Dallas Stars (January 12, 7:30 PM), as well as for other games on their schedule, are available from Barry’s Tickets, an official partner of the Los Angeles Kings. Use the code, “Royalty010” to get a 10 percent discount on their “Best Value” tickets.
Frozen Royalty by Gann Matsuda is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this site are required. Photographs, graphic images, and other content not specified are subject to additional restrictions. Additional information is available at: Frozen Royalty – Licensing and Copyright Information.
Frozen Royalty’s Comment PoliciesThe Yankees and Rangers are not alone.
Article continues below...
The Phillies are still bidding for free-agent left-hander Cliff Lee, according to a source with direct knowledge of the negotiations.
The extent of the Phillies’ involvement is not known, but as of 6:30 p.m. ET Monday, the source described them as “not out.”
“If I were in or out, I wouldn’t be commenting at all, on or off the record,” Phillies GM Ruben Amaro said, citing his personal policy on free agents.
The signing of Lee by the Phillies would be the biggest shock in an offseason that already has produced several major surprises.
Phillies assistant GM Scott Proefrock, when asked about Lee in early December, told Sirius XM’s and FOX Sports’ Jim Bowden, “That ship has sailed.”
Another source with knowledge of the Phillies’ budget said then that it would take, “Nothing short of a miracle,” for the team to make the finances work.
But it makes sense that the Phillies would at least try, considering their enduring obsession with Lee.
It also makes sense that Lee might consider the Phillies an ideal alternative if he does not want to pitch in New York or at the Rangers’ hitter-friendly park.
The Phils obtained Lee from the Indians in July 2009 and advanced to the World Series. They then traded Lee to the Mariners that offseason while acquiring ace right-hander Roy Halladay in a separate deal — and received heavy criticism for sending Lee away.
Lee, however, seemingly is out of the team’s current price range.
The Phillies have committed more than $146 million in payroll for next season, according to the website, Cot’s Baseball Contracts.
They also might need to pay Lee a higher annual salary than Halladay and first baseman Ryan Howard, both of whom will earn $20 million in 2011.
Still, hardly anyone thought the Nationals would sign free-agent outfielder Jayson Werth. Few thought the Red Sox would sign free-agent outfielder Carl Crawford.
To obtain elite players, teams sometimes take unexpected paths.
To sign Lee, the Phillies likely would need to find a taker for right-hander Joe Blanton, who is owed $8.5 million in each of the next two seasons. They also might need to dump another contract on top of losing Werth.
Three big contracts expire after next season — those belonging to left fielder Raul Ibanez, shortstop Jimmy Rollins and closer Brad Lidge. Right-hander Roy Oswalt also could depart if either side declines its end of a mutual option.RICHMOND, Va. — VCU Rams senior guard Briante Weber has been suspended after he violated team rules, the university announced in a statement Friday.
Weber, a Chesapeake native, was charged with misdemeanor petit larceny for taking someone’s iPhone 5, valued at $200. The incident happened at the Cary Street Gym located at 101 South Linden St., according to online court records and an incident report filed by VCU Police. The incident took place July 24.
“Briante has failed to live up to the standards we’ve set for our program and we are holding him accountable,” VCU men’s basketball coach Shaka Smart said in a statement. “Part of his discipline includes missed competition. We expect that Briante will act according to the standards of our program moving forward.”
VCU opens the 2014-15 basketball season on November 14 versus the University of Tennessee. Weber will be suspended for that game as well as the team’s exhibition game and closed scrimmage, the university announced.
“Weber also will be subject to the university’s Code of Student Conduct process,” the university added.
Weber’s Friday arraignment was continued, according to online court records. He is due back in court September 25.
On the basketball court, Weber is known as one of the best defensive players in the country. He enters the 2014-15 season as the two-time A-10 Defensive Player of the Year.
Weber lead the nation in steals last season, at 3.6 steals per game. He holds the A-10 single season and VCU career steals records.Whether discussing the metaphysics of cyberspace or the “perverse core” of Christian theology, Mr. Zizek frequently references movies and pop culture. “When you write about films, it’s so frustrating,” he said. “Even if you spend two pages describing a scene, it doesn’t quite work. So this is a unique opportunity: You talk about something, and the spectator can see it. It’s a little bit risky. I think many cinema theorists, not only me, subconsciously distort their descriptions so that it fits their theory. But here I am objectively tested.”
Still, he said, most of the hard work fell on the director: “Out of the mess of me talking, talking, talking — you know, my friends call me Fidel — Sophie somehow had to introduce order in the total chaos.”
To add visual interest Ms. Fiennes splices Mr. Zizek into the scenes that he’s dissecting with the help of re-created sets and inventive editing. “I wondered what would happen if Slavoj met Morpheus,” she said, referring to Laurence Fishburne’s mind-expanding guru from “The Matrix.” “That was the starting point.”
Photo
In the course of this two-and-a-half-hour film Mr. Zizek appears in famous locations like Isabella Rossellini’s shadowy apartment in “Blue Velvet,” the neon-lighted hotel room of “Vertigo” and the dank basement in “Psycho.” Ms. Fiennes also used a few actual sites, sending her garrulous collaborator on a motorboat ride on Bodega Bay (site of an avian attack in “The Birds”) and for a drive through the hilly streets of San Francisco (to induce “Vertigo”).
In keeping with the psychosexual theme, many of Mr. Zizek’s sacred texts are by Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch. The documentary effectively casts its subject as a lurking “pervert” hovering at the edge of the action, and he fills the role with good-natured aplomb.
In one sequence that redefines bathroom humor, Mr. Zizek connects the shower drain in “Psycho” with the backed-up toilet in “The Conversation” and compares the experience of looking up at a blank screen before a movie to that of staring into a toilet bowl. (Toilets are something of a Zizek fixation. One of his most notorious arguments traces geopolitical differences to variations in toilet design.) Through April 28 MoMA is also showing a selection of films featured in the documentary. Mr. Zizek will introduce “Pervert’s Guide” on Wednesday and the Marx Brothers satire “Duck Soup” on Thursday. (In Mr. Zizek’s Freudian formulation Groucho is superego, Chico ego and Harpo id.)
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Attracting hipsterish crowds at speaking engagements around the world — one of the trendiest new night spots in Buenos Aires is named for him — Mr. Zizek is a bona fide intellectual celebrity. But the reaction he elicits within academia tends to be more mixed. In the world of cinema studies it can get downright chilly.
A skirmish broke out a few years ago when, in a book on the filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski (whose 1993 film “Blue,” part of his “Three Colors” trilogy, is showing in the MoMA series), Mr. Zizek attacked several academics who have been critical of the psychoanalytic approach to film theory. One who responded was the respected author David Bordwell, a professor of film at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.In an essay titled “Slavoj Zizek: Say Anything,” posted on his Web site, Mr. Bordwell wrote that “when Zizek tries to be serious and dismantle an argument critically, the results are vague, digressive, equivocal, contradictory, and either obviously inaccurate or merely banal.” But, he added, “Vagueness, digressions, equivocations, etc. are less apparent if you’re playful.”
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As even his critics tend to concede, Mr. Zizek knows how to entertain. He’s also an engaging, if exhausting, conversationalist. During a 45-minute phone call, topics ranged from Darwin to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to his defiant admiration for “300” to the “incredible Stalinist classical musicals” he had just discovered on a Moscow trip.
Mr. Zizek once ran for the top political office in Slovenia — he finished fifth in the 1990 contest for a four-member presidency — and continues to maintain a high public profile. He has contributed several Op-Ed articles to The New York Times since last year, and he weighs in on new movies occasionally. He’s a featured commentator on the new DVD for “Children of Men,” calling it a reflection of the “ideological despair of late capitalism.”
He and Ms. Fiennes are also planning sequels. “The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology” is in the works, to be followed perhaps by “The Pervert’s Guide to Opera.” (He’s a fan.)
Sounds like a brand name in the making. “Oh, yes,” he said. “We will copyright the concept and the name.” Laughing, he added: “Capitalism! And I say this with pleasure as a Marxist.”KALAMAZOO, MI -- Police have arrested a "dangerous" fugitive with a violent criminal history after a more than week-long manhunt.
Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety has been searching for Ronald David Marlatt since Wednesday July 15 when he fled the scene of a methamphetamine bust at a home on Washburn Avenue in Kalamazoo Township.
On Sunday, investigators with Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team, Kalamazoo Public Safety's drug unit, received a tip that Marlatt was visiting a house in the 1400 block of North Park Street.
Investigators conducted surveillance of the house and spotted Marlatt sitting in a vehicle. The Kalamazoo Metro SWAT Team was called to the scene and took him into custody without incident, according to a news release.
Marlatt was booked into Kalamazoo County Jail and is awaiting arraignment.
His criminal history goes back to 1978 when he was sentenced to prison for assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, according to his Michigan Department of Corrections profile.
Marlatt spent time in prison for assault with a dangerous weapon and negligent homicide for incidents in 1982 and 1986 in Kalamazoo County. His criminal history also includes larceny, carrying a concealed weapon and drug offenses.
In December 2007, he tried to run down two Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officers who were trying to arrest him on a misdemeanor warrant in the 900 block of Mills Street, according to Kalamazoo Gazette archives.
As officers approached Marlatt's home on foot, Marlatt drove his Chevy Tahoe from the rear of the house and accelerated toward the officers. Both officers fired single rounds at Marlatt as they jumped out of the way, according to Gazette archives.
Marlatt was not struck by the bullets and fled from the scene, later crashing the vehicle. He was convicted of assault with intent to do great bodily harm and sentenced to prison.
His most recent arrest was in July 2014 on a possession of controlled substances offense.
Aaron Mueller is a public safety reporter for the Kalamazoo Gazette. Contact him at amuelle1@mlive.com or 269-568-3867. Follow him on Twitter.The Perth-based writer explores a series of unfortunate incidents in her shortlisted novel.
Perth-based writer and academic Josephine Wilson has won the 2017 Miles Franklin Literary Award for her novel Extinctions — becoming just the fifth West Australian to claim the gong.
Australia's most prestigious literary prize was bestowed upon Ms Wilson at a function at the New South Wales State Library in Sydney on Thursday night.
The awards, in their 60th year, were established through the will of My Brilliant Career author Miles Franklin for the advancement and improvement of Australian literature.
The prize is given to the novel with the "highest literary merit" which presents "Australian life in any of its phases".
Ms Wilson said she was honoured to win the prize.
"I think we all struggle to have a national profile and without public support and recognition through things like the Miles Franklin we just can't have that," she said.
"It is absolutely wonderful for West Australian writers and for my friends who write to see that such a trajectory is possible."
Extinctions explores the life of retired engineer Professor Frederick Lothian who has quarantined himself from life by moving to a retirement village.
His wife is dead and he is estranged from his two adult children and determined to be miserable until he is thrown together with his neighbour Jan and begins to realise the damage done by a lifetime of secrets and lies.
Wilson explores the themes of ageing, adoption, grief, empathy and self-centredness.
Richard Neville, the chairman of the judging panel and Mitchell librarian at the State Library of New South Wales, said the novel was a meditation on survival.
"On what people carry, on how they cope, and on why they might, after so much time putting their head in the sand, come to a decision to engage and even change," Mr Neville said.
Ms Wilson works as a sessional staff member at Curtin University where she lectures in Creative Writing and Art and Design History.
Ms Wilson's novel was one of five shortlisted, with the other authors being Emily Maguire, Mark O'Flynn, Ryan O'Neill and Philip Salom.A while back I was frolicking through my local organic market when what should catch my foodie eye? Sheets of Nori! I have always been a huge fan of sushi. Forget sushi, I’m a seaweed fiend! I never realized that it was one of those things that a lot of people hate. I mean… it’s seaweed! It’s so tasty! … To me I guess. D isn’t a huge fan but he liked the stuff inside the rolls so he eats them 😛 Me? I could probably use it as a cracker for some guacamole. Ohhh that is a good idear…
Anyways I didn’t really do anything crazy for the filling – just a basic tuna salad that I make all the time with some mayo and dill. OH BUT WAIT – SUN-DRIED TOMATOES? I know, I really should do something different for a change and get off the tomato train but honestly I just can’t get enough of them. Look how cute!
Anyway, leave the avocado out of the recipe because you’ll need it to smear on the Nori to act as a glue. I have to admit, I had a really rough time cutting these up into nice, even, individual pieces. The rolling wasn’t really the hard part, but I got so fed up with my sushi falling apart on me that I ended up taking what was left of the roll to school and eating it like a wrap! Lol! Nothing wrong with that!
I found that eventually with some practice it got a teeny bit easier but there has GOT to be a better way. Anyone have any tips? A special knife that you use perhaps?
An ancient sushi chant maybe? Do let me know!
Ingredients: (Makes 2 sushi rolls)
1 can drained skip jack tuna (feel free to use salmon or any other fish you like)
2T garlic and dill paleo mayo
1/2 an avocado
8 sun-dried tomatoes, diced and soaked in olive oil
8 raw matchstick sized slices jicama (sub carrots, apples, radishes… get creative!)
2 sheets Nori
Coconut aminos for dipping
cilantro for topping
First make the tuna salad. It’s as easy as dumping a can of tuna in a bowl with the mayo. Annnnnd mix! Don’t forget to add your sun-dried tomatoes. Now that you have the salad, you want to prepare your sushi roll. I do not own a sushi mat. I never will own a sushi mat because a) I am poor and b) I’ve now made 4 rolls without it just fine. First, mash up your avocado in a separate bowl. Spoon half of it onto your Nori and spread it around, leaving 1/2” on the side closest to you. Make sure you spread it allll the way to the other end! It’s going to act kind of like a glue. Spoon the tuna right at the border of your avocado-less 1/2 inch. Line the other side of the tuna (facing away from you) with a couple sticks jicama. In case I make absolutely no sense whatsoever, I took a picture 😀 Now keep in mind this was my very first try so I hadn’t quite figured out the trick with mashing the avocado. Also my jicama sticks were WAY too big. Finally, My pile of tuna was monstrous! Don’t make the same mistakes as the protein queen 🙂
4. From the side closest to you… roll! I really don’t know how to break that down any further – trust me it’s not that hard. And you know what? If you completely screw up, who cares! Throw it all in a bowl and have yourself a nice salad! It’ll still be tasty I promise. I actually considered trying this recipe out as a salad… Perhaps in the future.
And now for something completely different…
A couple of days ago I was contacted by a website called Slimkicker. I don’t know how many of you use external apps/devices like fitbits or calorie trackers but I guess they’re going to be releasing a fitbit type device next year and want me to check it out! I’m really excited because I’ve never bothered to use anything of the sort and it might be interesting to see some numbers. I guess their deal on the site is that you track your exercise and “level up” as rewards for certain amounts of exercise. The gamer side of me likes this. I think there might be real life prizes as well? What do you think, would you implement something like this in your health regimen? ALSO tips on sushi cutting would be greatly appreciated 😀
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STRONG woman Sue Hollands is used to doing the lifting.
But it was devoted husband Tony who gave his wife a big pick-me-up when he made a surprise 1,500-mile round-trip to see her claim her latest powerlifting title.
Sue, 58, was in Pilsen in the Czech Republic to compete in the World Masters Powerlifting Championship.
The Bradley CE Infant and Nursery School teacher, of Ravensthorpe, had won the 90kg class of the over-50s section eight years in a row.
But Tony, 66, had never had the chance to see her do it.
He said: said: “I can’t normally get to the tournaments because they are so far away – last year it was in Palm Springs in California, next year it’s in Canada.
“So when I found out you could get a bus from Dewsbury to Pilsen for £54 return I thought, why not?”
Tony, a lollipop man and former bank worker, spent 28 hours on the road to get to Pilsen without Sue knowing, before secretly taking his seat in the stand.
He said: “I didn’t want her to be put off – I thought if she sees me she will think something is the matter.
“It’s her thing, her glory, I just wanted to be there – in my Union Jack shorts, cap and shirt – to see her do it.
“So I just got myself a seat behind a pillar, where I could peer out.”
Once again, Sue claimed gold by lifting the best combined weight in the three disciplines – the squat, bench press and deadlift.
But it wasn’t until she had got changed afterwards that she spotted Tony.
She said: “I walked out of the changing room and there he was, it was a total shock.
“Everybody else knew but me. I think he thought that if I saw him it might’ve put me off. It was wonderful to see him.”
Tony added: “She’s very seldom lost for words, so to see her speechless was great.
“Every week I’ll go to the gym with her and be the tea boy or the driver, so I was so proud seeing her in competition.”
Despite her recent victory, Sue already has her sights set on next year’s tournament.
The mother-of-three said: “It’s been drummed into me that whenever you win a competition, the next time you go into the gym you wear your medals around your neck and you’re the best thing since sliced bread.
“But the time after that it’s back to work.
“I’m still really healthy. There’s one woman who’s 68 who’s still competing. I’d like to think I could do the same – I’m still 20 in my head.”I don’t know you.
I don’t know where you’re from or what you look like or how old you are. You might be a judge or a cook or a priest or a clown. I don’t know.
But what I’m pretty sure about is that at one point or another, you’ve been involved with most of the toys below. It’s just one of those things that we all have in common.
Let’s go through them—
Toy: The Sticky Hand
Age when I became obsessed with it: 7
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 1 week
Downside: Gets dirty and loses stickiness; unclear exactly what you’re supposed to do with it; the torture of not being able to eat it
Overall rating: 7/10
Comments: Odd that someone ever just decided to invent these, but I’m pleased that it happened. I may also like these more than most people do.
Toy: The Slinky
Age when I became obsessed with it: 4
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 1 month; recurring obsession
Downside: Inevitable tangling
Overall rating: 6/10
Comments: A new slinky ends up in my life once every two or three years. They’re great in theory, but always a little disappointing in practice.
Toy: The Thing With All the Pins
Age when I became obsessed with it: 9
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 4 minutes
Downside: Putting it against your face is a somewhat violating life experience
Overall rating: 5/10
Comments: Creative invention, but has limits. After I’ve done all the normal things I end up in a fairly dark place doing weird unfun things like pushing all the pins up together with my palm or pushing just a few edge pins up with my finger.
Toy: The Snap Bracelet
Age when I became obsessed with it: 11
Amount of time before I became bored with it: A week and a half
Downside: They hurt a lot
Overall rating: 4/10
Comments: You remember this whole thing, right? They’re a fidget toy more than anything, but in a spastic, stressful way. Not much room for nuance with a snap bracelet.
Toy: The Bead Thing in the Dentist’s Office
Age when I became obsessed with it: 4
Amount of time before I became bored with it: When it was time to see the dentist
Downside: It kind of sucks
Overall rating: 4/10
Comments: These things leave you with a sense of longing and the dread of pointlessness. It’s designed to mesmerize kids in a way where the kid is aware that it’s not worthy of mesmerization but is helpless to stop and do other things. Like sudoku for children.
Toy: Devil Sticks
Age when I became obsessed with it: 15
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 2 months
Downside: It’s not a cool thing to be good at
Overall rating: 6/10
Comments: My friend got these when I was 15 and I became obsessed with them for a period of time. Devil Sticks as an activity is one of the few things that really understands a pubescent 15-year-old boy, and vice versa.
Toy: The Ball and Cup
Age when I became obsessed with it: 12
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 20 minutes
Downside: It leaves you feeling inadequate and irate
Overall rating: 3/10
Comments: The kind of toy your dad used to play with in 1957.
Toy: The Hanging Ball Thing
Age when I became obsessed with it: 6
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 3 months; recurring obsession
Downside: Not much
Overall rating: 8.5/10
Comments: A delightful contraption. The only bad thing is that cheap ones suck and most people have cheap ones.
Toy: This thing
Age when I became obsessed with it: 1
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 1 second
Downside: It’s not fun
Overall rating: 2/10
Comments: For some reason, playing with this thing is a requirement of being 1, even though it’s groundbreakingly underwhelming.
Toy: Magnets in General
Age when I became obsessed with it: 3
Amount of time before I became bored with it: Never
Downside: It can be frustrating when you can’t get repelling magnets to touch; after awhile the smooth coating wears off and the underlying rough metal seeps into your skin
Overall rating: 9/10
Comments: The fidgeter’s best friend.
Toy: The Floating Globe
Age when I became obsessed with it: 45 seconds ago
Amount of time before I became bored with it: N/A
Downside: None I could imagine
Overall rating: 10/10?
Comments: I’ve never owned one of these, but came across this picture while searching for a picture of magnets. I’ve never laid eyes on something I’ve wanted as badly as I want this.
Toy: The Doll
Age when I became obsessed with it: 5
Amount of time before I became bored with it: When my dad took it away
Downside: There’s not really any way to play with them, you just kind of spend time with them
Overall rating: 3/10
Comments: The only way I’ve found to engage a doll is to swivel it up and down and watch the eye ball stay where it is. Also, searching for this photo led me to a Google Images search for “old doll” and I had to turn all the lights on and watch a sitcom for 20 minutes before my sense of self returned. What the hell.
Toy: The Super Soaker
Age when I became obsessed with it: 11
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 1 year
Downside: Someone always has a radder and more expensive one than you
Overall rating: 7.5/10
Comments: Teenagers need to enjoy these while they can, because there’s no endearing way to use one of them as an adult.
Toy: The Yo Yo
Age when I became obsessed with it: 7
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 1 week; recurring obsession
Downside: The string gets twisted and then you have to stand there and let it spin itself untwisted while your limited time on this earth diminishes
Overall rating: 5.5/10
Comments: Yo yos have their place, but bouncing them down and up quickly becomes meaningless, and yo yo tricks just don’t look very fun to do, so the hobby becomes unsustainable.
Toy: The balancing man
Age when I became obsessed with it: 8
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 3 months
Downside: The possibilities are limited
Overall rating: 7/10
Comments: My grandfather gave me one of these when I was 8, and my fascination bubbled over. Still not really sure how he just stands there and balances.
Toy: The Paper Clip
Age when I became obsessed with it: 4
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 10 minutes; recurring obsession
Downside: The effort required to make one completely and perfectly straight isn’t worth the payoff
Overall rating: 4/10
Comments: I’ll resort to the paper clip as a fidget toy when options are scarce, but it’s not a great situation.
Toy: Legos
Age when I became obsessed with it: Never
Amount of time before I became bored with it: Immediately
Downside: They’re not fun at all
Overall rating: 1/10
Comments: I’ve never understood the lego fetish. What the hell is fun about putting dumb legos together?
Toy: The Etch A Sketch
Age when I became obsessed with it: 10
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 1 minute; recurring obsession
Downside: Everything you draw on it is horrible
Overall rating: 2/10
Comments: An overrated toy. Who has ever had fun on an Etch A Sketch? Somehow though, it always ropes me back in.
Toy: The Far Flying Football
Age when I became obsessed with it: 10
Amount of time before I became bored with it: Until I lost it
Downside: They give you false perceptions about your athletic ability
Overall rating: 8/10
Comments: Never in any other situation will I be able to throw a football 70 yards. Similar appeal to the delicious Aerobie.
Toy: The Little Absurd Dog
Age when I became obsessed with it: 13
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 3 months; recurring obsession
Downside: I’m allergic to them; they expire
Overall rating: 7.5/10
Comments: Given my track record of quickly getting over toys, I’d be well-advised to avoid buying one of these. Tempting though.
Toy: Metal Puzzles
Age when I became obsessed with it: 7
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 1 terrible hour
Downside: They’re upsetting and they lower your self-esteem
Overall rating: 3/10
Comments: We needn’t discuss this further.
Toy: The Rubik’s Cube
Age when I became obsessed with it: 21
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 2 weeks
Downside: The guilt you feel when people call you a genius because you solved it even though you used instructions and just did what they told you to do
Overall rating: 8/10
Comments: Um
Toy: The Woodpecker on a Pole
Age when I became obsessed with it: 13
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 2 days
Downside: The woodpecker has very few facets to his personality
Overall rating: 5/10
Comments: Though delightful initially, playing with this is a passive and ultimately empty experience.
Toy: Stretch Armstrong
Age when I became obsessed with it: 12
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 3 years
Downside: It breaks eventually, and the stuff comes out
Overall rating: 8/10
Comments: That’s right. 3 years. I had a phase.
Toy: Silly Putty
Age when I became obsessed with it: 6
Amount of time before I became bored with it: 2 weeks; recurring obsession
Downside: It eventually becomes disgusting
Overall rating: 9/10
Comments: The rating is so high because I’m currently in the heat of one of my sporadic silly putty flings. A fidgeting masterpiece only paralleled by magnets.
Toy: The Mexican Jumping Bean
Age when I became obsessed with it: N/A
Amount of time before I became bored with it: N/A
Downside: N/A
Overall rating: N/A
Comments: I’ve never owned a Mexican Jumping Bean, but I wanted to put this picture on the site.In the face of promised legal action from gun rights groups, the Missoula City Council this week voted for a public hearing on a plan to require background checks on private gun sales.
The ordinance proposed earlier this month is under review by the Council’s Public Safety and Health Committee and would make the gun laws in Montana’s second-largest city stronger than those of the state as a whole. With an outpouring of emails and phone calls from the public, the council voted 10-2 Monday to hold a public hearing on the measure.
“I’ve read all the emails that have come through, and I don’t appreciate veiled threats,” said Ward 4 council member Jon Wilkins. “Hopefully, people can at least be civil. I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I will support the public meeting.”
The measure, which has the support of Missoula Mayor John Engen (D), would mandate federal Brady-style background checks on most gun transfers done inside the city limits to include private sales and at gun shows. There would be some exceptions for police, transfers between family members, and for antique firearms not already subject to federal gun laws.
Engen, one of only two Montana members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, has a long history of advocating for more background checks.
“A majority of Missoulians believe background checks for gun sales are just good, common sense, and so do I,” said Engen at a 2013 rally for statewide legislation mandating the practice.
Outside support for the expansion is coming in part from Moms Demand Action.
Heidi Kendall, with the Montana Chapter of the group contends their support for the change is to keep guns out of dangerous hands.
“Right now, we have a deadly loophole in Montana law that makes it easy for criminals, domestic abusers and other dangerous people to buy guns from unlicensed sellers online and at gun shows with no background check and no questions asked,” Kendall said in a statement. “I urge our City Council to stand on the side of safety for our children and our community by supporting this common-sense measure to help save lives.”
And Mom’s members are reaching out.
“We received several emails requesting this public hearing,” said Ward 3 council member Alex Taft. “Interestingly, nearly all of those were from women. It made me think about another group of women, mothers in fact, that took action when they saw a public safety issue, and that’s Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.”
State gun rights groups, who have promised legal action should the proposed Missoula ordinance make it into law, oppose the measure.
Some council members also feel the proposed law is flawed.
“It’s an unenforceable ordinance in large part, and there’s a significant loophole which is that anyone who wishes to transfer a gun can simply drive outside to the edge of city limits and do the transfer in the county,” said Ward 2 Councilor Adam Hertz, who was one of the minority votes against holding a public hearing.
Since news of the ordinance broke, area papers have been swamped with opinion letters both for and against, with those in favor advocating for safety in keeping guns out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them, while those opposed rail against ineffective gun control aimed at law-abiding firearms owners.
The hearing is scheduled for Oct. 19.Dive Brief:
Tesla, in a shareholder letter, said it delivered 25 MWh of energy storage to customers of four continents in the first quarter.
Tesla also said it delivered over 2 |
couple's daughter. DeSimone was pregnant when Navy Commander Patrick Dunn was killed.
From left, President Barack Obama, Saudi Arabian King Salman, and Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in April. Credit:AP
Fifteen of the 19 men who hijacked airliners used in the attack were Saudi nationals. One jet struck the Pentagon, seat of the US military, two destroyed the World Trade Centre's twin towers in New York while another crashed in a Pennsylvania field as its passengers fought back against the hijackers.
A US commission that investigated the 2001 attacks said in a 2004 report that it "found no evidence that the Saudi government, as an institution, or senior officials within the Saudi government funded al-Qaeda". Long-classified portions of a congressional inquiry that were released in July found the hijackers may have had help from some Saudi officials.Trump speaks to supporters on election night, November 9, 2016. (Reuters photo: Mike Segar)
He had the wind at his back.
How did Donald Trump win the presidential election? In Part 1 of this four-part series, I showed how Trump had performed historically poorly by the standards of challengers in post-incumbent elections (i.e., elections with no incumbent on the ballot following the reelection of an incumbent). In Part 2, I applied the same analysis to show that Trump also didn’t do especially well in the battleground states but won because the handful of states he flipped narrowly from the Democrats were almost all large states. In Part 3, I looked at turnout — specifically, what percentage of the voting-eligible population voted for each candidate — and concluded that, while Trump did better than past GOP nominees in some states, he still underperformed and depended heavily on declining Democratic turnout.
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Today: why it’s reasonable to believe that another Republican nominee in 2016 would have collected more of the votes Trump left on the table, and some conclusions about the relative importance of trends, candidates, campaigns, and demographics.
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Where Trump Left Republican Votes on the Table: The Senate
We can’t directly compare Trump to another Republican presidential nominee. He’s the only one who won the nomination, and the whole environment of the campaign would have been different with a different nominee. The only head-to-head comparisons we have are from the polls conducted during the primary, in which Trump ran terribly against Hillary Clinton, while Ted Cruz ran even with her and Marco Rubio and John Kasich ran consistently ahead, not just nationally but in the critical battleground states. Those polls are one useful apples-to-apples data point, but they also ended up badly underestimating how many Republican voters who opposed Trump in the primary ended up coming home to support him in November. So while we can conclude that Trump came out of the primaries with higher unfavorable ratings, and he appealed to a smaller potential universe of voters than his main rivals did, we can only make an educated guess about how a different nominee would have performed.
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But what we can conclude is that Trump failed to win the votes of quite a lot of people who were at least open to voting for Republicans for important positions. The next best thing we have to a comparison at the presidential level is a comparison of Trump to down-ticket Republican candidates in Senate, House, and governorship races (one of whom, Rubio, had run in the primary). None of these are perfect comparisons, either: Each candidate was running in a single state or district against a different opponent, and many ran with the advantage of incumbency, or against an incumbent. The governors are the weakest parallel, as the ability to separate the race from national dynamics is probably why the Republican candidate won the Vermont governor’s race, while the Democrat won the West Virginia governor’s race.
House Republican candidates as a whole ran ahead of Trump, winning the popular vote by 1.38 million votes, 49.1 percent to 48.0 percent. Republican candidates also ran ahead of Trump in most of the contested Senate races, although California had no Republican in its Senate race, and in the second-largest state with a Senate race, New York, Trump ran 800,000 votes ahead of Wendy Long, Chuck Schumer’s hapless opponent. Let’s look at the Senate comparison, excluding California but including Louisiana’s Election Day “jungle primary” featuring nine Republican and seven Democratic candidates. The first set of columns compares Trump’s popular vote to that of Senate Republican candidates; the second compares them by the two-party vote:
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Most of the winning candidates ran ahead of Trump, especially in swing-state races, although Republicans in two contested races (Nevada and Colorado, the latter a race against a Democratic incumbent) ran a bit behind Trump, and in two others (Indiana and Missouri), they ran significantly behind. The fact that Indiana and Missouri GOP Senate candidates won but did so running well behind Trump is best explained as a result of Trump’s popularity in those states and of having Democratic candidates who were better suited to their state’s electorate than Hillary was. Trump ran behind the Republican candidate in popular-vote percentage in 23 states, and he ran behind the Republican candidate in the two-party vote in 21 states. Overall, he ran 1.1 percent behind Republican Senate candidates, 0.2 percent behind in the two-party vote. Outside New York, that widens to a two-point split in the popular vote and a one-point split in the two-party vote.
That looks like a small difference at the margins. But the statewide vote actually conceals the fact that Trump and conventional Republicans running for Senate and House seats had different coalitions that didn’t entirely overlap. When you drill down to the county level, Trump left a lot of potential Republican votes on the table — while winning a significant number of voters who didn’t usually support statewide Republicans.
Using the county-level data for the presidential and Senate races from David Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas, I compared Trump’s vote totals in each county to the vote totals for the Republican Senate candidate in that same county, in order to isolate the counties where Trump got fewer (or more) total votes than the Republican candidate for Senate. We can consider the extra votes for the Senate candidate to be potential Republican voters that a different presidential nominee might have won, or at least contended to win. On the flip side, we can consider the extra votes for Trump to be a sign of his own appeal to voters who weren’t attracted to more traditional Republicans.
I left off Louisiana, since the county-level data that was available was for the runoff, and California, with no Republican Senate candidate. It’s important here to mention that there are almost always more votes cast in the presidential election than in the Senate or House races conducted the same year. While some disgruntled voters might leave the presidential line blank (in Michigan, there were significantly more of these than the margin separating the two candidates), it’s more common for people who followed the presidential race to ignore the rest of the ballot. The “P Overvote” column on this chart illustrates that 1.8 million more votes were cast in the presidential race than in these Senate races. Thus, if Trump simply ran even with down-ticket Republicans on a percentage basis, we’d expect him to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 900,000 votes ahead of them. For example, Trump got 19,031 more votes than Pat Toomey, but there were 111,156 more votes cast on the presidential line in Pennsylvania than in the Senate race. That’s why Toomey’s margin of victory was still bigger than Trump’s.
Instead, if you look at the “net” column, you will see that Trump wasn’t ahead: He was 23,662 votes behind, and more than 800,000 behind outside of New York. Six Republican Senate candidates drew at least 100,000 more votes than Trump, and three (Rob Portman, Marco Rubio, and Mike Lee) drew over 200,000 more.
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But that’s just the statewide totals. At the county level, Trump drew more votes than the Republican candidate for Senate in 1,211 counties, and fewer in 765 counties. Trump drew more votes than the Republican candidate for Senate in every county in four states. One was Missouri, the other three were states with Senate candidates with little money or name recognition who got massacred: Oregon, Connecticut, and Hawaii. Trump also got more votes than Wendy Long in 61 of New York’s 62 counties, the sole exception being Trump’s home of Manhattan. On the other end of the scale, Trump got fewer votes than Mike Lee in every county in Utah, and fewer votes than John Hoeven in every county in North Dakota. Trump also got more votes than John Thune in just one of South Dakota’s 66 counties and more votes than Chuck Grassley in just three of Iowa’s 99 counties.
But in states where there was more variation between counties, we see the same pattern over and over: Trump won a larger number of votes in more counties, but that’s outweighed by the Republican candidate for Senate getting a larger number of votes in the larger, more populous urban and suburban counties. All told, across the 765 counties in 28 states where Trump got fewer votes than the Republican candidate for Senate, he received 2.176 million fewer votes.
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Trump ended up winning more than his share of the states where the presidential election was relatively close. He won ten of the 17 states decided by less than 10 points, six of the ten states decided by less than 4 points, four of the six states decided by less than 2 points, and three of the four states decided by less than a point. The only really close states he lost were New Hampshire (by 0.37 percent, or 2,736 votes); Minnesota (by 1.52 percent, or 44,765 votes); Nevada (by 2.42 percent, or 27,202 votes); and Maine (by 2.96 percent, or 22,242 votes). But had things gone a little differently, those 2 million votes could have made a decisive difference in a number of states. The column marked “% of State) divides the “SEN R+” column (how many fewer votes Trump received than the Republican Senate candidate in the counties where he got fewer votes) into the state’s presidential electorate. Thus, for example, the 296,541 more votes for Portman than Trump in the 63 counties where Portman got more votes equals 5.36 percent in the Ohio presidential contest. I highlighted in yellow every state where the missing Republican Senate votes cost Trump at least 2 percent of the vote. It’s not hard to picture a future election in which Trump could use an extra 4.7 points in Arizona, or 3 points in Wisconsin, or 2.8 points in Florida, or 1.6 points in Pennsylvania. Already, the margin by which Trump trailed Kelly Ayotte’s vote in six counties in New Hampshire was three times the size of Hillary Clinton’s margin of victory in the state.
The numbers above, however, are before we factor in the overvotes, below:
924,712 more votes were cast on the presidential line in those 765 counties. If we arbitrarily assigned half of the overvotes to Trump (a highly variable assumption by state and county, but this is a back-of-the-envelope measure, so using something more tailored would give us a false impression of precision), the actual net number of Republican Senate votes in these counties by people who didn’t vote for Trump would be closer to 2.6 million.
The flip side of that, of course, is the counties where Trump drew more votes than the Republican Senate candidate. There were 884,545 overvotes in those counties, so using the same “haircut” reduction of half of the overvotes, Trump still drew somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.7 million more votes in these mostly rural counties. For all his weaknesses as a candidate, it’s not hard to locate evidence of a meaningful number of Trump voters who are not otherwise Republican voters.
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The irony is that Trump is probably the most urban candidate ever to run for president; he’s lived his whole life in New York City and made his living building apartment buildings, hotels, and casinos, almost exclusively in urban areas. Yet, the places where he ran better than other Republicans were almost entirely in rural and small-town America. Florida is a perfect example: Marco Rubio won 200,000 or more votes in eight counties and drew at least 13,000 more votes than Trump did in seven of the eight, including 86,064 more votes in Miami-Dade County alone. Trump got more votes than Rubio in 44 counties, to Rubio’s 23, but Trump netted 52,966 more votes from those counties compared to Rubio’s extra 270,271 votes from half as many counties. Arizona is even more dramatic: John McCain’s margin over Trump was almost ten times as many extra votes from half as many counties. One rare exception was Clark County, Nev. (Las Vegas), where Trump ran 16,323 votes ahead of Joe Heck. Heck won every other county in Nevada, including Washoe County (Reno, which Trump lost), but his 82,445-vote margin of defeat in Clark County was his undoing in a race he lost by 26,915 votes.
There were 24 counties where Trump received at least 20,000 fewer votes than the Republican Senate candidate:
This list is dominated by cities: Miami, Phoenix, Orlando, Chicago, Seattle, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Des Moines, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Charleston, Tuscon, Provo, Raleigh, Overland Park. There are also some big suburbs, such as Montgomery County in the suburbs of Philadelphia. More than 13 million votes were cast in these counties, and Trump won 979,082 fewer votes than the Republican Senate candidates below him on the ballot.
Most of these counties, outside of Illinois and Washington, were in states Trump won. Trump carried six of the 24 counties, compared to ten for the Senate candidates. Portman won Hamilton County (Cincinnati) 54–42; Trump lost it 53–24. Grassley won Polk County (Des Moines) 52–44; Trump lost it 52–40. Tim Scott carried Charleston County 56–41; Trump lost it 51–43. But even where the county-level outcomes were the same, the margins were very different. Rubio lost Miami-Dade 54–43; Trump lost it 63–34. McCain won Maricopa County (Phoenix) 55–40; Trump won it 48–45. Johnny Isakson lost Fulton County (Atlanta) 59–37; Trump lost it 68–27.
If we expand our view to counties Trump lost by 10,000 or more votes, we get a much longer list of 52 counties, in which more than 21 million votes were cast and Trump got 1,377,179 fewer votes than Republican Senate candidates:
There are a few more counties here that Trump lost while the Republican Senate candidate was winning, including Cobb County. Georgia in the Atlanta suburbs (Isakson won it 53–42; Trump lost 48–46), Chester and Bucks Counties, Pennsylvania in the Philadelphia suburbs (Toomey won Chester 49–47 and Bucks 52–47; Trump lost Chester 52–43 and Bucks 49–48), and others in Iowa, Florida, and Ohio.
By contrast, few of the counties where Trump got more votes than the Republican Senate candidate were large enough for him to outdistance them by 10,000 votes, let alone 20,000. Trump ran 20,000 or more votes ahead of the Republican Senate candidate in just 13 counties, ten of them in New York State (the others were New Haven and Hartford Counties in Connecticut and Honolulu County in Hawaii; Trump ran 39,274 votes ahead in New Haven). However, his single largest advantage over a Senate candidate was even larger than his deficit in Maricopa: He ran 103,127 votes ahead of Wendy Long in Suffolk County on Long Island, and another 80,376 votes ahead in neighboring Nassau County, as well as 70,000 votes in Erie County (Buffalo), 57,000 in Kings County (Brooklyn), 50,000 in Queens, and 38,000 in Richmond (Staten Island). That is partly explained by Trump’s standing as a hometown candidate, but more powerfully explained by how uncompetitive Long was with Chuck Schumer.
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Trump ran 10,000 to 20,000 votes ahead in another 22 counties, nine of them in New York and six others in Oregon and Connecticut. The rest were four in Missouri plus Luzerne County in Pennsylvania (12,137 votes, Trump won 58–39 compared with 51–43 for Toomey); Madison County, Ill. (13,825 votes, Trump won 55–39, Kirk lost 50–44); and Clark County, Nev.
Where Trump Left Republican Votes on the Table: The House
Sixteen states didn’t have Senate races, including some hotly contested presidential battleground states (Michigan, Minnesota, Maine, Virginia) and the two states where Trump won his largest total popular-vote margins (Texas and Tennessee). Then there’s California, where there was no Republican Senate candidate. To supplement the lessons from the Senate races, let’s consider how Trump’s vote haul compared to the House races in those states. I looked at all the presidential battlegrounds and every state large enough to cast at least 2.5 million votes in the presidential contest, a total of 30 states. The results:
House races are even harder to compare to the presidential race because we don’t yet have comprehensive data at the district level, and there were 47 uncontested races in these states (31 unopposed Democrats and 16 unopposed Republicans). But overall, there were almost 6.4 million more votes cast in the presidential race than in House races across these states, yet Trump received 204,495 fewer votes than the Republican House candidates. That number quadruples outside of Massachusetts, where Democrats won all nine House seats, five of the nine unopposed. In 18 of these 30 states, Trump received fewer votes than the Republican House candidates; in 22 of 30, he got a lower percentage of the vote. Trump got 1,394,441 fewer votes than Republican House candidates across just eight states: California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, and Washington.
In some states, the absence of Republican candidates from the ballot makes the disparity even more dramatic. Trump got 73,567 fewer votes than House Republican candidates in Virginia even though there were 201,183 more votes cast in the presidential race in Virginia than in the House races, and even though there was no Republican candidate in Virginia’s eleventh district. There were 282,003 votes cast in the VA-11 House race.
In California, Trump got 198,223 fewer votes than House Republicans even though there were nine districts with no House Republican candidate (in which 1.7 million votes were cast) and 767,577 more votes cast in the POTUS race than in House races.
The picture from the battleground states (the ones decided by fewer than 10 points) is mixed. Trump ran significantly behind House Republicans in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Colorado, Virginia, New Mexico, North Carolina, Arizona, Maine, and Iowa, behind in Minnesota, and behind in popular-vote percentage but barely ahead in vote totals in Nevada and Michigan. He did, however, run ahead of House Republicans in Wisconsin (where there was no Republican candidate in two of the state’s eight districts) and New Hampshire.
Where Trump Left Republican Votes on the Table: The Hispanic Vote
The demographics of voters who pulled the Republican lever in 2016 but did not vote for Trump is a broader question; the most obvious example is the Mormons, a reliable Republican-base voter group that abandoned Trump in droves. But it’s impossible to pass this topic without noticing that one of the specific ways in which Trump seems to have run behind other Republicans was with Hispanic voters.
There’s a huge methodological debate over how to count Hispanic voters and whether exit polls in particular captured them accurately. For example, the widely cited Latino Decisions polls, which had Trump doing a lot worse with Hispanic voters than the exit polls showed, are conducted in both Spanish and English, and they select Hispanic voters by looking for Hispanic surnames rather than self-identification. But even if the exit polls aren’t necessarily the last word, they offer an apples-to-apples comparison of Trump to down-ticket Republicans among the same sample of self-identified Hispanic voters. What they show is that Trump ran well behind several Republican candidates for the Senate or the governorships:
All things considered, 2016 was not the extinction-level event for Republicans among Hispanic voters that many people had expected. But while there were variations from state to state, it seems apparent that Hispanic voters were willing to draw distinctions between Trump and other Republican candidates. None of the candidates for whom we have exit-poll data actually won the Hispanic vote, but Rubio, Richard Burr, and Utah governor Gary Herbert were highly competitive. Others, such as McCain, Isakson, and Mike Lee also did respectably by running double digits ahead of Trump. In Burr’s case, he also ran double digits ahead of Pat McCrory. If you’re looking for voters who were open to a Republican message and a Republican vote in 2016 but didn’t vote for Trump, this is one group to examine more closely.
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Conclusion: What We Learned
Many election analysts and pundits predicted that Hillary Clinton would swamp her Republican opponent, especially once it proved to be Donald Trump, because of the demographic trends that had provided Barack Obama with his margin of victory over Mitt Romney in 2012. Some of us saw things differently and predicted that the historical post-incumbent trend would make Republicans competitive or even the favorites in 2016. Of all the predictions I made in the course of this election cycle, the very first — my original September 2014 study of post-incumbent elections — stands up the best.
But like many people who were hopeful about Republican prospects entering the primaries, I was also emphatic from the beginning of the race until almost the end that Donald Trump could not possibly win it. I put my faith in the importance of candidates, and Trump’s historic and well-earned unfavorables made him look for all the world like the kind of candidates who routinely get destroyed in winnable statewide races. Even at the very end, when the polls showed enough tightening that I was warning that a Trump victory was possible, I still didn’t think it would actually happen, largely because I believed that campaigns mattered — that Trump’s lack of a get-out-the-vote operation and the Democrats’ presumed and widely reported superiority in the ground game would make the difference in a close race. This, too, proved wrong, perhaps because outsiders couldn’t see the scope of the RNC’s stand-in for the campaign ground game; outsiders also failed to see the hubristic ineptitude of the Hillary camp, especially its neglect of the Midwest in pursuit of a national wave and elusive pickup opportunities in Georgia, Arizona, and Texas.
In the end, the historic trend away from the incumbent party was the most powerful factor of all. That doesn’t mean that demographics, candidates, and campaigns didn’t matter: When placed in proper context, we can see that Trump ran well behind the historic averages and down-ticket Republicans, losing more votes from the Republican tent than he brought in.
Would another Republican, or another Democrat, have done better? Trump won every single state carried by Ted Cruz or John Kasich except for Maine, where Trump carried one of the two House districts and greatly improved on past Republican performance. The only state he lost in both the primary and the general election was Minnesota. Hillary Clinton, by contrast, lost twelve of the Bernie Sanders states (Bernie also won Maine), including crucial swing states Wisconsin and Michigan, and she probably lost the popular vote to Bernie in Iowa before losing Iowa in November.
Hillary was clearly a bad fit for hard-to-poll white working-class voters in Michigan, where she was surprised by Bernie after leading him in the polls, and was surprised again by Trump after leading him in the polls. That may or may not have mattered as much against a Republican who didn’t sound like an economically populist Democrat. The declining turnout for both parties in November in Wisconsin may have been a sign that both nominees were bad fits for the state, where each lost the primary by 13 points.
The primaries were also an early warning of Trump’s weakness in urban and educated suburban areas: He lost Manhattan to Kasich; Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Raleigh-Durham to Cruz; and Atlanta, Charleston, Minneapolis, Little Rock, Miami, and the D.C. area to Rubio. They were also a warning that Trump would probably not run as strongly in the western half of the country compared with the eastern half, although the contested portion of the primaries ended before Trump got to the three West Coast primaries.
I suspect that Trump’s unconventional campaign was the only one that could have swung Michigan for the Republican ticket, but I can’t prove this conclusively. He ran only slightly behind House Republicans there.
But there are signs that another Republican could have won the other states that decided the election, quite possibly by a wider margin, and maybe could have won other states such as Minnesota, Colorado, Virginia, or New Hampshire. Iowa, Ohio, and Wisconsin all swung hard to the Republican side in 2010, 2014, and 2016 across the board. In Ohio, that reflected a resurgence of the state’s Republican tradition and recovery from scandals of the 2005–2008 years, as well as the collapse of the Ohio Democrats. Kasich has built a powerful Republican machine there. In the Upper Midwest, demographic trends have lent a hand: In 2004, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota were among the few states in which the oldest white voters were the most liberal, and the generation born of the Great Depression has been dying off. Trump won none of those states in the primaries (Wisconsin and Minnesota were both double-digit losses, to Cruz and Rubio), and Rubio polled particularly well head-to-head in both Wisconsin and Minnesota. And, unsurprisingly, Rubio ran well ahead of Trump in November in Florida.
If Trump wants a second term, he’ll need to figure out how to win over urban, suburban, and Hispanic voters who voted for other Republicans in 2016.
Pennsylvania is another story: Trump really did catch fire in the rural parts of the state, both in the primaries and in November, running far ahead of Toomey, and he outdistanced Bush, Romney, and McCain in the state. But a Republican less repellent to upscale suburbanites might have matched Toomey’s much stronger showing in the Philadelphia suburbs. Unlike Arlen Specter, who ruled that region, Toomey showed that a conservative, pro-life Republican could win there in the right year. Rubio, Kasich, and possibly Cruz could have done the same.
On the other hand, it seems highly likely that any of the other Republican candidates would have run stronger in Texas, Georgia, and Arizona. But Trump’s bleeding in those states didn’t end up affecting the outcome.
We will never know for sure. What we do know is that Donald Trump had the wind at his back and did some things Republicans had not done for a long time. In the final analysis, though, he did less than the historical trends suggested were possible. If he wants a second term, he’ll need to figure out how to win over urban, suburban, and Hispanic voters who voted for other Republicans in 2016. If he wants to hand the White House to a successor, he’ll need to expand his coalition enormously.Global capitalism has eradicated poverty and generated prosperity in the developing world at an unprecedented rate. You might imagine that a global anti-poverty charity, such as Oxfam, would celebrate this fact. But no – today, Oxfam is making the headlines instead because they are worried about global wealth inequality. In particular, that ‘the wealthiest 1 per cent will soon own more than the rest of the world population combined’.Oxfam has been pushing this sort of meme for a while. Last year, they made the startling claim that ‘the world’s 85 richest people own the same wealth as the bottom 3.5 billion combined’. It was shown at the time, not least by Reuter’s Felix Salmon, that this statistic was bogus. And there’s nothing new to see today, just a slight re-hashing of this factoid.Oxfam’s claim that the richest 1 per cent own 48 per cent of the world’s wealth (and will soon own more than half) rests on Credit Suisse data. This data is on net wealth, which throws up all sorts of weird findings when you try to add it up across large populations. That is because net wealth is calculated by adding up the value of assets and taking off debts.To see this, look at the figure below from the Credit Suisse report. If we were to split up the data into deciles, this methodology would suggest China has no people in the bottom 10 per cent – the world’s poorest – with most Chinese in the top 50 per cent. North America on the other hand supposedly has around 8 per cent of the world’s poorest population – because significant numbers of people in the States are loaded up with debts of various kind, making their net wealth negative!According to this methodology, the poorest 2 billion people in the world have a negative net wealth. Someone who has 50p but no assets or debts would be above the bottom 30 per cent of the world’s population. It doesn’t take an advanced mathematician to work out that adding up lots of negatives at the bottom to an overall wealth share figure for the bottom 99 per cent will of course make that figure much smaller than a gross wealth figure. Oxfam has then taken this bogus figure, looked at recent trends (which show the share of the top 1 per cent rising) and simply extrapolated into the future to get their headline (which seems a huge assumption given the potential QE unwinding).Aggregating net wealth figures is largely meaningless and not the way most people think about poverty, or indeed the ‘rich’. That Oxfam has been able to claim front pages with a nonsensical ‘report’ throws up all sorts of worrying questions about journalistic standards. But the more perturbing fact is that Oxfam’s latest meme will now be repeated ad nauseam by those who won’t examine the basis of the claim.This article first appeared on The Spectator’s Coffee House blogUnlock your smartphone, open the app, click request and there you go. We all know how it works. The recent customer-and-driver-friendly technology introduced by Uber ushered-in the new age of the taxi (which are technically not taxis, but we use them as taxis, don’t we?), filling in the gaps of conventional cab service. Drivers are free contractors with flexible hours, while riders are able to get a ride at any hour or place, and their phone pays for the ride automatically. Comfortable and cheap, Uber is an integral part of the mysterious and innovative sharing economy, a business model for other ambitious start-ups.
This climate made Uber’s innovative technology less unique and as a result fresh and creative ideas on the improvement of the service along with aggressive politics has become the company’s trump card. The combination appears to have been quite successful as Uber’s income and influence continues to progressively increase, making it one of the most important companies in today’s market. Be it a food delivery, a luxury car ride or even a helicopter in any of the 674 cities across the world – Uber is desperately spreading its roots in various technologies and countries to ensure its superiority.
As an active Uber-user myself it took a while to figure out that the comfort and convenience of the app come at a big price behind the curtains. This is especially true when it comes to their operations outside the U.S., which caused a serious backlash from employed drivers, governments and international companies. Here is a list of Uber’s lessons on how to turn the world against you.
Lesson #1: Never stop outraging your enemies
Just like our ancestors with the ultimate goal of conquering the world, Uber has been determined to break the rules. However, if this was somehow possible in US, where you could allegedly easily sabotage your rival to get more users on your side, hard-tempered Europe wasn’t ready to accept the surge. Ever since the company introduced UberPop back in 2012, which allowed unlicensed drivers to do a ‘ride share’ with their own car and get money for it, Uber has been at the centre of European labour battles.
Many countries in Europe instantly banned Uber altogether such as Denmark, Bulgaria and Hungary. Others decided to modify the company’s rules under national law.
The conventional cab drivers around Europe were furious with the unfair competition.
It all started back in 2014, when French authorities became concerned with Uber’s unfair practices on the basis that they sold ride-sharing services as taxi ones, while not paying appropriate taxes. Then on 11 June 2014 the protests spread around Europe’s major cities – London, Berlin, Madrid and, of course, Paris. The conventional cab drivers around Europe were furious with the unfair competition caused by UberPop, leading to brutal attacks on Uber cars throughout the demonstrations.
Embed from Getty Images
UberPop was subsequently banned in Finland, France, Spain and the Netherlands. On the other hand, it managed to find an agreement with Germany by modifying UberPop to UberX, therefore working legally under the German law. Italy briefly banned Uber and all alternatives, but lost the company’s appeal to the court’s decision and so allowed Uber to operate in the country in its original form with licensed drivers. The battles continue in Portugal and Poland, where Uber services are considered to be run illegally according to Algarve Daily News and The Krakow Post respectively, but somehow still manage to work.
Today, Uber continues its legally dubious operations in Europe, having numerous fines for breaking the law. This proves just how difficult it is to stop a gigantic start-up.
Lesson #2: Not having allies can harm you real bad
Nevertheless, unlike Europe, China managed to stop Uber’s expansion by forcing it to play by the rules. The Chinese ride-hailing company, Didi Chuxing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03vtjIcNvBg – Didi’s ad). Uber’s biggest rival, played their cards well during Uber’s attempt to take over the Chinese market. Less than a week after the Chinese regulator legalized ride-sharing, Uber sold its business to Didi in a $35 billion deal and fled China. Despite such a terrible loss, Didi’s President Jean Liu famously called the attempt ‘cute’.
So, why did Uber lose? Apart from not being a Chinese company, Uber was fighting not just Didi, but also Lyft, Grab and Ola, rival companies that bonded together to fight Uber’s global surge. Considering all the funds these companies received it was quite easy to beat the San-Francisco rival in a fair play.
Lesson #3: Stay evil under all circumstances
What happened in Sydney during the 2014 terrorist attack was probably the top level of evil a company could reach. According to New Republic,the single ride from the hostage siege was at $100 cost. As Uber later explained in the same source, they had to somehow encourage the drivers to work at the time of the terrorist act. Representatives brought into the notion of dynamic pricing, where rates vary depending on the number of ride requests and time, which caused the price to increase so drastically. The price surge was considered immoral on the part of the company and led to yet another strong backlash against Uber, forcing it to refund the money to users.
Lesson #4: Don’t pay taxes when you can avoid them.
Uber’s cutting-edge tax system outside US is truly impressive. Not only has the company managed to get rid of the need to pay taxes in the US for the network of subsidiaries, it also minimizes the taxable income outside its borders, thanks to a ‘Dutch Sandwich’ or ‘Double Dutch’ model of tax avoidance. According to Fortune, this is a proven method not just for Uber but for other giant corporations, such as Google. Just use a pair of Irish or subsidiaries and move the income to a haven like Bermuda. This tax loophole shown in the graph below has been effectively used to avoid around £40 million in tax every year.
Headquarters listed in Bermuda, which under Dutch law allows Uber to avoid taxes in the Netherlands.
Back in 2013 the first subsidiary Uber International C.V. (commanditaire vennootschap) was created, with zero employees and a headquarters listed in Bermuda, which under Dutch law allows Uber to avoid taxes in the Netherlands. Later throughout the year, the agreement with other new subsidiaries was achieved together with the cost-sharing deal between Uber International C.V and Uber Technologies (the parent subsidiary of Uber), where the latter is paid a one-time fee of $1,010,735 plus a royalty of 1.45% of future net revenue for the right to use Uber’s intellectual property outside the U.S. This is how Uber avoids tax authorities on most of it foreign profit.
The second part of a ‘Dutch sandwich’ is yet another important subsidiary, a type of private limited liability company in the Netherlands – Uber B.V. that keeps 1% of Uber’s cut of the fare (20%) and funds Local Uber Subsidiaries in other countries for marketing and support services only. Unlike Uber International C.V. it requires employees as there are a lot of transactions to process. Uber’s share minus costs and the Uber B.V. cut is paid as a royalty to Uber International C.V.
After Uber B.V. receives the fare, 80% of it goes to Rasier Operations B.V., which sends it over to the Uber Driver. Then it is a driver’s responsibility to take care of the taxes on his or her earning as well as the vehicle costs. If we compare Uber’s one ride income to that of the driver’s, we can clearly see that the model brings more profit to Uber rather than a driver.
This complicated equation turned many former Uber drivers against the company, leading to numerous protests around the world. Following the ‘black cab’ event, more than 100 Uber drivers participated in a go-slow protest in London and demanded mayor Sadiq Khan to push the American company to increase the minimum wage. Prior to this event, Uber lost the right to classify its workers as self-employed in a court case brought by two former Uber drivers. Even then, the company refused to apply the ruling to all its workers, but rather only to the ones who brought the case. Nonetheless, the tribunal’s decision may lead to drastic changes in Uber’s tax system.
Lesson #5: Try to be good, but don’t
To deal with the situation, Uber introduced the ‘180 days of change’ program in June 2017 to solve the issue of drivers’ rights. The program already includes new benefits for drivers such as tipping, driver injury insurance, etc. and declares to continue to contribute to better relations with its drivers.
Even though the program’s changes are clear and on point, Uber doesn’t stop there. These modifications come at the cost of riders since fares are increasing as well. Meanwhile |
any of our Members are tied to Romney at all," said a top House GOP aide who requested anonymity to speak freely. "They just don't connect the person to Romney, and that's good for us."
The stakes are especially high in the Senate, where Republicans must win a net of four seats to take control of the chamber if Obama wins re-election. But a trio of recent polls in three battleground states show Senate candidates often tied with Romney - and trailing Democratic opponents.
In Ohio, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) led state Treasurer Josh Mandel (R) by 7 points in an NBC News/Marist poll out last week. That survey showed Obama holding the same margin over Romney in the Buckeye State.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) cited Mandel's own polling when asked how Romney's standing would affect the race.
"Josh's numbers are better," Portman said, citing improvement since the start of the race. "He's gone from 20 points down, to 10 points down, to 5 points down, to some polls showing him in a dead heat."
But in competitive Virginia, former Gov. Tim Kaine (D) led former Sen. George Allen (R) by 8 points in a Washington Post poll released Wednesday. Obama led Romney by that same margin in the survey.
In Wisconsin, Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D) and former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) were tied in a CBS News/Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. Obama led Romney by 6 points in that survey.
"If it's a close election, that means we can do what we need to do," one top Senate Republican aide said. "If it's not a close election, that obviously won't be helpful."
Even in Massachusetts, where Sen. Scott Brown (R) faces a tough re-election bid against Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren (D), the presidential race is a factor. Brown was one of the first Republicans to distance himself from Romney's recently revealed comments from a fundraiser.
"We're two different people, obviously, and people recognize that," Brown said Wednesday. "I know she'd like to run against Mitt Romney, but she's running against me."
To be clear, Republicans hold advantages in Senate races where the presidential campaign is not as much of a major factor: Indiana, Nebraska and North Dakota. But victories in battleground states would offset any GOP losses in Maine and Massachusetts and could mean the difference between the majority and minority in the Senate.
It's a different story in the House. Republicans controlled the redistricting process in most key states last year, solidifying large gains they made in 2010. As a result, House candidates are not as vulnerable to Romney's potentially disappearing coattails.
"I think that it is possible there is a big cement truck that's just unloaded on downballot races," said Brad Todd, a veteran Republican consultant. "I think we may be seeing the Congressional races hardening much earlier than we ever have before. I'm seeing far less undecided in Congressional races than I ever have in September."
House Democrats pounded away at Republicans for Romney's comments this week. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraised off of Romney's political woes, warning potential donors that super PACs would transfer presidential race resources to the House.
House Republicans kept silent for the most part, waiting out the media firestorm.
"Everybody has to run their own campaign," said businessman Jason Plummer, a Republican nominee locked in a tough race for retiring Rep. Jerry Costello's (D-Ill.) seat, on a Wednesday conference call with reporters. "We're running a very aggressive race based on jobs."
On the flip side, House Democrats have dealt with a downballot back draft for months in some districts. Republican redraws forced Democrats such as Reps. Mark Critz (Pa.), Mike McIntyre (N.C.) and John Barrow (Ga.) to seek re-election in conservative districts. As a result, the trio has been running against the Obama administration since before the ink dried on the maps of their new districts.
Most projections show House Republicans on track to keep their majority in the next Congress. Redistricting shrunk the playing field to a few dozen seats. It's a change from the past three volatile cycles in Congress, when as many as 100 seats were in play.
But history shows it's more common for Congress to experience minimal change in a cycle when the president is up for re-election. In 2004, Republicans picked up a net of four Senate seats and three House seats. In 1996, Republicans picked up two Senate seats but lost nine House seats. In 1992, Republicans picked up 10 House seats and broke even in the Senate.
"Coattails generally happen [in a] regime-change election, when you're switching from one party to the other, not when presidents are re-elected," said former Rep. Tom Davis (Va.), an ex-National Republican Congressional Committee chairman.
Steven T. Dennis contributed to this report.It appears that we’ve got a birther in the person of Congressman Trent Franks, representing the 2nd District of Arizona:
The other main issue dealt with numerous speakers questioning Obama’s birth certificate and why there wasn’t an investigation into whether he is a naturalized citizen. One woman said a newspaper announcement of his birth in Hawaii was not sufficient. Another asked how he could have a passport without a birth certificate.
Franks said there was not enough evidence that Obama is not an American citizen. He did say there was a lot of conflicting evidence of Obama’s citizenship and that he was considering filing a lawsuit, the only congressman to do so. Franks asked why the president did not simply produce a birth certificate.
One speaker, a pre-school teacher, tearfully said Obama denounced the country as a Christian nation and warned he should learn a civics lesson. Franks agreed with her saying he was offended that Obama denigrated the country on an overseas trip and the president should speak in favor of the country when abroad.Embassy staff spirited fugitive politician across the border, infuriating the government of Evo Morales
Brazil's president has replaced the country's foreign minister following an embarrassing diplomatic manoeuvre involving spiriting a fugitive senator out of neighbouring Bolivia.
The departure of foreign minister Antonio Patriota was announced in a two-paragraph statement from President Dilma Rousseff that named Luiz Alberto Figueiredo as the successor.
A Rousseff spokeswoman said Patriota, a former ambassador to the US, would become the country's UN ambassador.
The shake-up came one day after Bolivian senator Roger Pinto was snuck into Brazil after spending 452 days in the Brazilian embassy in Bolivia's capital, La Paz.
Pinto, a member of Bolivia's small rightwing opposition bloc in congress, accuses the government of President Evo Morales of corruption, though he has provided no evidence. He said he sought asylum in Brazil's embassy after he and his family received death threats.
Bolivia's government said Pinto's exile was an opposition smear campaign against Morales. It has accused Pinto of corruption and wants him on criminal charges including economic damage to the state from when he was governor of the northern state of Pando, which borders Brazil.
Pinto won asylum from Brazil in 2012 but Bolivia did not recognised the status and refused to let him leave. Pinto faced the choice of staying in the Brazilian embassy in La Paz or giving up his asylum request.
In recent weeks Brazilian diplomats stationed in La Paz had become concerned about Pinto's health. Diplomat Eduardo Saboia, who was stationed at the embassy in La Paz, said he made the decision to smuggle Pinto into Brazil on Sunday because he thought the lawmaker was in mortal danger.
Speaking to Globo News on Monday, Saboia called Pinto a "politically persecuted person" and said he acted to save the senator's life because his health was deteriorating.
The issue strained relations between Brazil and Bolivia and ultimately led to Patriota's removal.
His successor, Figueiredo, 58, served as Brazil's undersecretary for environment, energy, science and technology at the foreign ministry before taking over Brazil's UN mission. He led Brazil's negotiators at the environmental summit in Rio de Janeiro in 2012.Selena Gomez, who began her career in the spotlight on the Disney Channel show ‘Wizards of Waverly Place,’ has transformed from an actress to a singer. She has released hit songs such as ‘Come and Get It,’ which helped her break away from the clean image Disney requires of their stars, and ‘Bad Liar,’ where she depicts events from her childhood playing four separate characters in the video. The story of ‘Bad Liar’ revolves around her father falling in love with the school gym teacher, while she and her mom had to deal with the aftermath of his cheating. Selena Gomez has also proven to be an excellent director. Recently, she helped create the wildly popular ’13 Reasons Why.’ (Spoiler Alert) The entire first season depicts a 17-year-old girl named Hannah Baker. Hannah works at a movie theater, goes to school, and parties, and from the outside everything seems completely normal. Because the viewer gets an intimate look into Hannah’s everyday life we realize that in fact, nothing is okay. Hannah witnesses the rape of her friend, has a stalker who photographs her in her bedroom, is bullied horrendously, and is raped herself. This results in Hannah committing suicide in her bathtub. She leaves behind thirteen tapes where she in detail describes why the other characters are responsible for her death.
Both rapes and Hannah’s suicide is graphically depicted. Almost anyone watching would cry, and have to look away from the screen. Additionally, many critics argue that the show glorifies suicide as a means of proving to people that they treated you horribly, and that you were right about everything pertaining to the events that led to your death. Selena has responded to critics by stating, “This is happening every day, so whether or not you wanted to see it, that’s what’s happening. I think that stuff is uncomfortable for people to talk about but it is happening and hopefully it opened the door for people to actually accept what’s happening and actually go and change it, talk about it.”
Season two is in pre-production, and Selena Gomez gave us a little sneak peak stating, “I went to the writers’ room the other day and I felt like I was watching a movie because I was freaking out on where they’re going with the season. It’s actually really encouraging and empowering and so we’re going to take a little inspiration from the first and bring it into the second.”
Selena Gomez is preparing to release her latest music video ‘Fetish.’ On July 10, 2017 the pop singer began to tease her fans with snippets, and photos from the upcoming video.
In one photo released on Instagram, the singer can be seen sitting on the road with grocery bags next to her. A car is broken down in the foggy back ground, and she is playing with her hair. It another photo the singer can be seen sitting on a brown carpet, in a doorway near a bathroom. In a separate picture, Selena Gomez can be seen sitting on a kitchen floor, with a glass cup once full of red liquid shattered around her.
Additionally, the singer released a 16 second video that shows of her neutral glassed lips. She sings “Take it or leave it / Baby, take it or leave it / But I know you won’t leave it / ‘Cause I know that you need it, uh / Look in the mirror / When I look in the mirror / Baby, I see it clearer / Why you want to be nearer.” We are all looking forward to the release of ‘Fetish’ by Selena Gomez featuring Gucci Mane.
Image Via Twitter/@selenagomezThe Los Angeles Times on Monday joined a growing number of newspapers who are asking consumers to pay for what they have been getting for free: content on the website.
Southern California newshounds who want more than their 15 free online articles per month can get a one-month trial for the discounted price of 99 cents. After that, they can choose from a menu of options, including a digital-only plan for $3.99 per week and, interestingly, one for only $1.99 a week that includes all digital access plus the Sunday print paper.
Two years ago, The Wall Street Journal was the only major newspaper with a digital pay model. A year ago, The New York Times began charging online customers for access if they read more than 20 articles a month.
Momentum is building behind this source of revenue for ailing newspapers. Other individual newspapers such as The Boston Globe have jumped on the bandwagon, and the Gannett newspaper chain has just announced that it will put some 80 of its community newspapers around the country behind a pay wall by the end of 2012.
There are enormous financial pressures driving this experiment with pay walls, points out Mark Jurkowitz, from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. A study released Monday of some 13 companies that own 330 print dailies shows that for every seven dollars lost in print advertising, the newspapers are only picking up a dollar in digital revenues.
But, he points out, it is far too early to assess the potential of the pay wall model to change this dire downward trend line.
“This is a nascent industry,” he says, “and while more and more papers are experimenting with different kinds of pay walls, we think it’s far too early to develop any meaningful data on their effectiveness.”
Some analysts question whether print journalism has a future with the upcoming generation of social-media-savvy users, accustomed to getting their digital news for free.
“The horse has left the barn on this one,” says Fordham University Professor Paul Levinson, author of “New New Media.” The attempt to create premium pricing on the Internet will only hurt newspapers further, he says, because it flies in the face of the underlying mechanism of the Digital Age.
“It inhibits connectivity,” he says, meaning that it slows down a user’s ability both to find an article in a search and then to share it with other people. Users who locate a premium-priced article through an online search would be asked to pay before accessing it. It is also more difficult to quickly share such content via Twitter or Facebook or any other social media.
“Fast and easy connectivity is the life blood of the Internet,” he says, "and anything that does not keep pace with that will shrink.”
Pay walls may prove effective for outlets with particular strengths such as size or exclusivity, says Anthony DePalma, a journalism professor at Seton Hall University who worked at The New York Times for 22 years before leaving in 2008.
“The pay wall may work for a few very large publications, and those that are very local and therefore unique,” he writes via e-mail But, he adds, “the landscape for all those in between is gloomy indeed.”
He is not willing to throw in the towel, however.
“This matters greatly to us as a society because without some way to provide support for the difficult but critically-important work of journalism, much of it will go undone,” Mr. DePalma says.
One way to look at it, he suggests, is to compare news with bus service.
“Without some kind of financial support, only the most lucrative bus lines into Manhattan can survive. The difficult work of picking up working-class people and getting them to and from work, home, the hospital, etc. gets ignored if not for some kind of public commitment. Without the legacy media there will be news, much of it available free of charge, but not enough of it will be the kind that really matters,” he adds.
Others say this sort of hand-wringing is precisely what is preventing the newspaper industry from adapting to a digital world, with all new rules of the road.
“Competition is what will make these outlets better, not worse,” says Chris Tolles, chief executive officer of Topix, the largest online local forum site in the US. “They have to make the case that what they are offering has real value.”
He notes that he is a paid digital subscriber to The New York Times for that reason.
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“I value what they do and don’t want it to go away,” he says. But newspapers, he adds, need to be more adaptable as they try to make this transition – and stop trying to recover the glory days back when they were cash cows with upward of 20 percent profit margins.
“Those monopoly days are gone forever,” he says. “Journalists need to be more humble.”
[Editor's note: A previous version of this story mischaracterized the subscription options for digital access.]The video will start in 8 Cancel
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Channel 5 has released the first look at this year's Big Brother.
The new eye is a split version that gives a hint that the show will be merged with its more famous sister show, Celebrity Big Brother, with the bold colours striking through the eye.
It was previously reported that Celebrity Big Brother and the civilian version of the show could be coming together this summer to create a MEGASHOW – with celebrities and normal folk all living under one roof.
An insider from the show told Now magazine: “We’re planning on really mixing up the regular series this time by chucking in a load of celebs too and splitting the house up.
(Image: Channel 5)
“The producers have been approaching people from Gogglebox, TOWIE and Ex On The Beach and have some great names lined up.”
The show’s producers are always fans of a shake up and a twist to keep viewers watching, but this reported idea is certainly different.
Now claims that civilians and celebs would live in different areas of the house – and come together in a communal area.
Because those celebrities could NEVER slum it with the normals.
(Image: Channel 5)
(Image: Channel 5)
Though how we’d tell the difference between the normal fame-hungry contestants and some of the celebrity Z listers is anyone’s guess.
The reported plans might cause issues with pay, though – as celebrities get huge fees to appear, whereas your average Joe doesn’t get paid to be on the show.
We can’t wait to find out if this will happen.
A Big Brother rep told us: “We don’t comment on rumour or speculation.”Seizure is a record amount; bananas allegedly came from Colombia
Prague, April 3 (ČTK) — The banana consignment for a Prague supermarket, in which cocaine was randomly found on Wednesday, contained a record of over 100 kilograms of the drug which, if diluted, would fetch up to 1 billion Kč ($40 million) in the street, anti-drug centre spokeswoman Barbora Kudláčková told the Czech News Agency today.
She said the Czech police or customs officers have never seized a bigger amount of cocaine.
According to ČTK’s information, the drug was found in an outlet of the Lidl chain.
Kudláčková would neither say whether it was found by an employee of the supermarket, nor which country the consignment came from.
Server tn.cz reported on Thursday that the cocaine was in a box with bananas from Colombia. No drugs were found in the other boxes containing bananas.
More than 100 kilograms of cocaine were also found as a result of a six-month police operation in March 1999. The 117 kilograms of drug were uncovered in a consignment of dried fruit.
Kudláčková said yesterday’s find is even bigger.
Several heroin shipments found in the past also amounted to hundreds of kilograms each.Trump donated $25,000 to Terry to ‘let criminals vote’ McAuliffe
Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe speaks at the "Invest in America!" summit at the Chamber of Commerce April 12 2016 in Washington, DC, USA. Douliery Olivier | AP Photo
No Republican can win the White House without carrying the state of Virginia. Yet, Donald Trump donated $25,000 to the very man who will turn Virginia from a competitive purple state into an unwinnable blue state.
According to CNN, among the many liberal Democrats Trump supported throughout his career was Terry McAuliffe in his first bid for the Virginia’s governor’s mansion in 2009. We are not talking ancient history here. The frontrunner for the GOP nomination gave $25,000 to one of the sleaziest Democrats of our generation just seven years ago, a man who served as the Chairman of the DNC. As late as September 2014, Trump was still rubbing shoulders with the man:
With Terry McAuliffe, Gov of Virginia, at the Trump Winery in Charlottesville, VA–largest on East Coast. @GovernorVA pic.twitter.com/onCh3WxPWL — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2014
What is so tragic and ironic is that McAuliffe just signed an executive order categorically restoring voting rights to 206,000 felons in Virginia, including convicted murderers. His action likely violated the state’s Constitution.
With such a narrow window of electoral viability in Virginia, it’s almost impossible to win the state if these overwhelmingly Democrat voters are added to the high floor of Democrat support in the state. Yet, Trump was one of the earliest supporters of the man who will likely tip the presidential election to Hillary Clinton if his executive order is not countermanded.
I hear many people say they are willing to forgive Trump’s plethora of liberal views because of his perceived stance on immigration. After all, as we’ve pointed out many times, if the immigration issue is not confronted Democrats will cement a permanent electoral majority, thereby rendering every other issue moot. The problem with this line of thought is that Trump is already responsible for helping Democrats create a permanent majority by supporting the very man doing so in one of the most critical blue states.
Trump likes to compare himself to Reagan and describes himself as a convert to the Republican Party. But Reagan fought for conservative values for decades prior to running for president. This man, on the other hand, has championed every left-wing cause under the sun until recently, and regarding several critical issues, still does to this very day. Worse, at a time when conservatives were fighting the consummate issues of our time – the Gang of Eight amnesty bill, sanctuary cities, and jail break – Trump was supporting its very leaders. He donated to the Gang of Eight and the Gang of Jailbreak.
For many Trump supporters, facts just don’t matter. However, Trump’s own support for the very people who have created a permanent Democrat majority will become evident even to them in the general election when he can no longer carry a state like Virginia, thanks to his liberal donations. In this case, he would have paid for the rope that ultimately hung himself.The O's will have four picks in the Top 91, the first two of which are compensation picks -- one for departed lefty Wei-Yin Chen (No. 27) and one for not signing last year's No. 68 pick Jonathan Hughes (No. 69). They also have picks 54 and 91, having traded away No. 76 to Atlanta in the recent deal involving Brian Matusz.
BALTIMORE -- With Wednesday being Draft Eve, executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette held court on the Orioles' game plan going into Day 1 tonight.
The O's will have four picks in the Top 91, the first two of which are compensation picks -- one for departed lefty Wei-Yin Chen (No. 27) and one for not signing last year's No. 68 pick Jonathan Hughes (No. 69). They also have picks 54 and 91, having traded away No. 76 to Atlanta in the recent deal involving Brian Matusz.
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"We hope to add significantly to our prospect base," Duquette said. "We've put a lot of focus on the pitching. The pitching we brought up from our Minors this year has done a great job for the big league club. You're talking about Mike Wright, Tyler Wilson, Mychal Givens, Dylan Bundy. And if we're going to have a competitive team year in and year out, we have to bring in good players to our system, and we hope to be able to replenish our system through the Draft this year."
The Orioles aren't sure exactly who will be available on the Draft board when they select at No. 27, but Duquette seemed confident in scouting director Gary Rajsich and his staff.
"We always look to add to our club and rank the players by their overall value, but over half the players we take will be pitchers," Duquette said. "We put a lot of value on that, obviously… We've done a good [job] of identifying some pitching in the late rounds to come up and help our team or to help us in a trade, and we're going to look to do the same thing again this year."
This year's Draft begins Thursday and runs through Saturday, starting with the Draft preview show on MLB Network and MLB.com on Thursday at 6 p.m. ET. Live Draft coverage from MLB Network's Studio 42 begins at 7 p.m., with the Top 77 picks being streamed on MLB.com and broadcast on MLB Network. MLB.com's exclusive coverage of Day 2 begins with a live Draft show at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, with exclusive coverage of Day 3 beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
MLB.com's coverage includes Draft Central, the Top 200 Draft Prospects list and Draft Tracker, a live interactive application that includes a searchable database of over 1,500 Draft-eligible players. Every selection will be tweeted live from @MLBDraftTracker, and you can also keep up to date by following @MLBDraft. And get into the Draft conversation by tagging your tweets with #mlbdraft.
Brittany Ghiroli has covered the Orioles for MLB.com since 2010. Read her blog, Britt's Bird Watch, follow her on Facebook and Twitter @britt_ghiroli, and listen to her podcast.Publication date 1994
Language English
Shadowrun is an action role-playing game for the Sega Genesis, never released for european or japanese systems (Sega Megadrive). Adapted from the cyberpunk role-playing game Shadowrun by FASA, developed by BlueSky Software and released in 1994. The game is the second in a Shadowrun series of video game adaptations and has a more open ended style of gameplay than its 1993 precursor, Shadowrun by Beam Software.
Shadowrun offers the player an open style of gameplay, where one controls the main character, Joshua, in third person perspective during both exploration and combat. Battles are real time, and although of varying difficulty, tend to be relatively short. Initially, the player is restricted to a single area of the game, but shortly gains access to almost all other areas. Access to other areas is accomplished primarily by taxi, although various restrictions and other modes of travel also exist, such as requiring a visa or bypassing the visa check with the use of a helicopter.
As in most role-playing video games, the characters' skills and attributes can be improved. However, Shadowrun uses a unique "Karma" system, which allows full character customization. Karma, roughly equivalent to experience, is earned for successfully completing a run, killing enough enemies, or advancing the game's plot. Karma is then spent on specific stats as determined by the player. To earn money and Karma, the player must participate in shadowruns, illegal jobs provided by pseudo-anonymous contractors who are, within the legal boundaries of their work, referred to simply as Mr. Johnsons. Mr. Johnsons usually are corporate liaisons who want their bosses' dirty work done without compromising them. All Mr. Johnsons work in backroom booths in different clubs and bars through the city. Depending on the Johnson, they will randomly offer different types of jobs such as raiding gang hangouts, search & retrieval, extractions, courier missions, ghoul hunting, or Matrix runs. Each mission will vary on the specifics to meet the requirements and location such as Megacorp headquarters or even the LoneStar's main building. Different Mr. Johnsons have varying levels of difficulty and pay for their jobs, which can be influenced by the player's negotiation statistic. (Note: In this game, the term “Mr. Johnson” is used where the word “fixer” would be used in the tabletop game. In the tabletop game, the player would know the handle of his fixer but the actual client would remain anonymous, hence “Mr. Johnson.” In this video game, the fixers are known both by their handles and “Mr. Johnson,” while also revealing the clients’ names to the player.)
At the start of the game, the player can choose for Joshua to be either a samurai, a decker, or a gator shaman. These only determine Joshua's beginning statistics and equipment; samurai begin focused on combat, deckers on use of the Matrix and electronics, and shamans on the use of magic. Over the course of the game, the player may choose to continue to focus on one particular skill or set of skills or branch out into other areas; however, only characters who choose to start as a shaman (and allied mages) can use magic and getting too many "cyberware" implants can reduce its effectiveness.
To help the player make things easier during hard shadowruns, Joshua can also recruit other characters to help him in his shadowruns. These are called shadowrunners, and can also be customized as Joshua can. The price of hiring a shadowrunner depends on the duration of the contract, as well as the runner's attitude toward the player. Shadowrunners can be hired for a single run or for a lifetime for ten times the price. The player can only directly control one character at a time; other characters (including Joshua) are controlled by the computer's AI. If the player completes the mission successfully and the shadowrunner was signed on for one job, they return to their location and can be hired back cheaper than before. If the squad is wiped out, however, the runner will be upset and charge more for their services.
The primary method of combat in Shadowrun is the use of firearms, although magic plays a significant role in combat in both an offensive and defensive capacity. Shadowrun keeps track of ammunition; if a character runs out they may have to resort to melee. The use of magic, on the other hand, is kept in check by damaging the player for casting high-level spells: the player can mitigate or even eliminate this through the use of items, or by reducing the success chance and/or power of the spell. While virtually useless when used by untrained, physically weak characters, with high skills and strength-boosting cyberware and implanted close-combat weapons (like spurs or hand razors), melee combat can be highly effective against most enemies all the way to the end of the game. Grenades are also available, though their effectiveness relative to other methods of combat is limited.
A variety of shops exist throughout the game, providing guns and modifications, cyberware, spells and spell upgrades, cyberdecks and utilities, and other miscellaneous items. In addition to the numerous shops in the game, the player can collect a variety of contacts who provide the player with information, services, or (frequently illegal) goods. Through these contacts Joshua late in the game can join either The Mafia or Yakuza. In Seattle, there are three local racial gangs that have well-defined territories: Halloweeners (humans of Redmond Barrens), Eye-Fivers (elves of Penumbra District) and Orks (orcs of Puyallup Barrens). The player can visit each of these gangs, and pay to speak with their leaders (or be asked to do so, depending on his reputation). There, Joshua can ask for protection from the gangs' random attacks, as well as for the phone number of their allegiance bosses. After Joshua's reputation has been highly upgraded, and after he obtains the numbers of these bosses, he can contact the Yakuza and Mafia, and pledge loyalty to either one of them himself, obtaining specific benefits and exclusive items and discounts. On the other hand, Lone Star, the ubiquitous private security force contracted by the government to provide police services, can not be contacted directly.
Shadowrun's story begins on January 31, 2058 in Seattle, United Canadian and American States. In the wilderness of the newly reclaimed Amerindian lands of the Salish-Shidhe, a small team of shadowrunners is brutally ambushed by unknown forces. The massacre is over quickly, but is captured in video by one of the slain member's cybereyes; the video is recovered and made national news. The last man to die in the video was a shadowrunner known as Michael, Joshua's brother.
Joshua spends his last nuyen and flies to Seattle, vowing to avenge his brother's death. He arrives at Sea-Tac Airport and traces back Michael's last credstick transaction to "Stoker's Coffin Motel", in the Redmond Barrens. Joshua travels there to inquire about his brother, only to be told by the owner that Michael never paid his bill and in fact has some belongings being held. He strikes a deal with Joshua, and by beginning to do small shadowruns for a small-time Mr. Johnson, called Gunderson, he gains enough money to pay his brother's bills. In Michael's belongings, he finds three "holopix": one of a young woman, Tabatha Shale; of an Amerindian, David Owlfeather, and of Seattle General Hospital Dr. Heaversheen. There is also a low grade cyberdeck, along with a credstick containing 500 nuyen, which could have been used to pay off Michael's bill (the irony of this is one of the game's many humorous points).
From there, the story divides into three branches that the player can go through in any order, either separately or at once. Each branch gives the answer to three main questions: who killed Michael, and under whose orders; what was Michael's last shadowrun; why was Michael killed. Because of the sandbox style of gameplay and the non-linear story, the entire mystery is not revealed until the three main branches are totally completed. Once they are, the plot slowly arises.
Emulator genesis Emulator_ext bin Identifier sg_Shadowrun_1994_Sega_US Scanner Internet Archive Python library 0.5.2 Year 1994Reviews
“I can never play Skyward Collapse again. I work from home. Frankly, having it – and the accompanying temptation – within arm’s reach would be detrimental to my productivity.”
Richard Mitchell, Joystiq
“Skyward Collapse offers a unique twist on a stagnant genre”
9/10 – Rob Savillo, GamesBeat
Features
A turn-based strategic god-game where you control neither faction, but instead strive to maintain the balance of power.
Make towns and war as the boardgame-like floating continent continues to construct itself around you.
Persuade your minions into doing what you want by controlling the circumstances of their (brief) lives.
16 gods, each with unique passive abilities and three active powers, help you further your goals as you pass into the Age of Monsters.
Level up your player profile by winning games. Twelve unlockable buildings in all!
Straightforward controls paired with an intuitive and helpful interface make this an easy title to pick up… but the strategy runs deep.
Multiple difficulty levels let you play a very relaxed game up to a nail-bitingly difficult one. There’s no one best way to win!
Co-op multiplayer for up to 8 players.
A God Game
How do you balance — and indeed encourage — a war between factions without letting either side obliterate the other? How do you rule over gods, creatures, and men who refuse to obey you? How do you build a landscape of villages when bandits and mythology are conspiring to tear it down? Skyward Collapse places you into the role of The Creator, and frees you to tackle these problems your own way. Brought to you by the developer of the modern strategy classic AI War: Fleet Command, Arcen’s second full strategy title is equally unique (but far easier to learn): a turn-based 4x strategic god-game.
Your task is to build and populate the floating continent of Luminith. You create — but cannot control — gods, creatures, and artifacts from both Greek and Norse mythology. The power you wield with these is immense: Heimdall’s horn causes everyone outdoors to drop dead, for crying out loud. Your task is to keep both factions alive and fighting until The Master calls you home — but this is harder than it sounds. Bandit Keeps pop up periodically, as do Woes such as floods, serial killers, guild strikes, and vegetarian uprisings. Every game plays out differently, and you’ll need even the craziest of your powers in order to survive what lies in store for you.
Buy Direct From Arcen!
System Requirements
COMPATIBLE OPERATING SYSTEMS
—————————-
Windows XP SP2 or later
Mac OSX Intel CPU and “Leopard” 10.5 or later.
Ubuntu 10.10 or later, although other unsupported distros may very well work
HARDWARE
——–
2 GB RAM
1.6Ghz CPU
500 MB Hard Disk Space
Screen resolution at least 720px high, and 1024px wide.
Broadband Internet Connection or LAN required for multiplayer
Demo!
This zip archive contains the OSX, Windows, and Linux demos all in one package. More than 99% of the files are the same between all three operating systems, so this gives you the flexibility of having all three operating systems in one package without needing to download multiple large archives. To play the demo, simply unzip the archive into the location of your choice.
To run the demo:
1. Windows: Run Collapse.exe (this is 32bit)
2. OSX: Run Collapse.app (this will run as 32bit or 64bit, depending on your OS).
3. Linux: Run CollapseLinux.x86 if you are on a 32bit OS, or CollapseLinux.x86_64 if you are on a 64bit OS.
That’s it!Image zoom John Sciulli/Getty
Lake Bell is the latest star to announce her pregnancy with a visible bump and some telling hand placement. The actress and her husband Scott Campbell appeared at the AG + Vanity Fair Opening of Saved in Los Angeles on Thursday night, revealing the happy news by cradling her already-popped baby bump.
The 37-year-old glowed in a high-neck black dress with sheer panel cutouts at her ribs and a figure-hugging silhouette. She curled her brown locks and swiped on a peachy gloss for the big reveal. The Secret Life of Pets star has been enjoying the first few months of her pregnancy outside of the public eye, as the last time we saw Bell was at a pre-Emmy celebration in September, showing no signs of a baby on the way.
Image zoom John Sciulli/Getty
The actress and her husband met on the set of HBO’s How to Make It In America in 2011, and wed two years later in New Orleans. They |
Prime Minister O'Neill made his "Ulster at the crossroads"' speech on television on 9 December 1968, appealing for calm in Northern Ireland. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/archive/historical-ulster-the-troubles-1969-in-pictures-28689341.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/migration_catalog/article25866736.ece/64482/AUTOCROP/h342/5cd51c97870d590bdc2a81dcb3.jpg
Email
Prime Minister O'Neill made his "Ulster at the crossroads"' speech on television on 9 December 1968, appealing for calm in Northern Ireland.
As a result of the announced reforms, the more moderate civil rights associations declared halt to marches until 11 January 1969. The People's Democracy ignored the government's statement.
Events escalated until August 1969, when an Apprentice Boys of Derry march was attacked after trying to march through the nationalist Bogside area of Derry.
The Battle of the Bogside 1969
The RUC intervened, and a three day riot ensued between the RUC and the Bogside residents (allied under the Derry Citizens' Defence Association. Rioting spread throughout Northern Ireland, where at least seven were killed, and hundreds wounded.
A moving interview from 1969
Thousands of Catholics were driven from their homes by Loyalists. These events were often seen as the start of the Troubles.
Belfast TelegraphAnita Sarkeesian – one of the many female victims of GamerGate
A reader explains why he no longer has any sympathy for GamerGate and why he thinks moderate supporters should abandon it.
I actually submitted this article to GameCentral a while ago in its initial form, but ended up asking that it not be published due to the fact it wouldn’t be topical anymore. I swore to myself I would never touch the subject of GamerGate again. However, recent events (namely the harassment of game developer Brianna Wu, and articles published by The Escapist which have shown themselves to be highly suspect) have prompted me to edit and resubmit this article and get everything out of my system once and for all.
Before I begin, please be aware that this article assumes that you know the basics of the GamerGate story; trying to recap the whole thing for the benefit of beginners is frankly more trouble than it’s worth.
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I also want to make it clear, before any of the ‘movement’s’ defenders claim that I don’t understand what it’s about, that I have done my homework on this. I’ve read all the manifestos, I’ve analysed every reasonable defence of GamerGate, I’ve cringed at the less-than-reasonable supporters, waded through every ludicrous conspiracy theory, and watched the analysis of those who have tried to stay somewhere in-between. What I’m about to say is what I’ve taken away from all that research, my own personal observations, and I’ll warn you now – it’s not pretty (and that’s putting it as politely as I can manage).
In fairness, I did have some sympathy for GamerGate when it first came about, especially after reading the vitriolic backlash written by some members of the gaming press. This article by Leigh Alexander in-particular is often cited as the main catalyst, though honestly I don’t see it as any more than questioning the usefulness of the term ‘gamer’ in response to the venom of those responsible for the initial anti-Zoe Quinn explosion (make no mistake; those initial voices belonged to nothing but a transparently vile hate mob of blatant misogyny and harassment).
In spite of all I’m about to say about GamerGate, and while I can’t say I really blame the journalists for venting their frustration, I stand by my view that such a backlash was highly unprofessional, and the attempts to fight fire with fire could only have backfired horribly. The main idea I got from GamerGate’s origins was that it originated as an attempt to defend gaming culture from accusations of misogyny, and to their credit some involved in the movement have pursued that goal in a positive and admirable way (such as those who have donated to movements that help get more women into game development).
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However, what’s been causing me to lose all sympathy for the movement is the continuing, often grasping-at-straws attempts to claim that GamerGate has stuck vigorously to the most legitimate-sounding issue to come out of the Zoe Quinn matter: ethics in gaming journalism. It’s a perfectly valid concern to have; let’s face it, the relationship between games publishers and the press is uncomfortably cosy, and there’s an understandable amount of resentment for games journalism in general. Indeed, I imagine that that concern is where GamerGate gets most of its more reasonable supporters from.
If that’s the case, though, where was this level of outrage when Jeff Gerstmann was sacked from GameSpot after posting a heavily critical review of Kane & Lynch? Where were the death and rape threats when Geoff Keighley was interviewed by Pixel Perfect sitting amidst a pile of product placements for Halo 4, Doritos, and Mountain Dew?
Only recently, critic Totalbiscuit (who himself is a semi-supporter of GamerGate) blew the whistle on the dodgy contracts Warner Bros. (or perhaps more specifically the PR company Plaid Social) were using in their brand deals for YouTube reviews of Middle-Earth: Shadow Of Mordor, which basically meant Warner Bros. had total control of what such reviewers said about the game. This to me is a shocking example of game companies trying to control how their game is portrayed by games journalists, yet I do not recall GamerGate spewing so much bile at the practice. In fact it seemed to slip almost completely under their radar. All the outrage that came about from the other blatant examples of corruption came about from the gaming press itself, not gamers.
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That’s why, to me, GamerGate is more about clamping down on feminism and progressive criticism in gaming, something that has almost nothing to do with ethics in journalism at all. Looking through the various arguments around GamerGate, that strikes me as the only consistent thread; the actual ethics stuff is muddied, half-baked, shifting and grasping at straws, constantly looking for something to legitimise the intense levels of rage that everyone initially joined in on.
The group seems to be heavily into endorsing ever-more-extravagant, unverified conspiracy theories surrounding websites that supposedly have an SJW (social justice warrior) bias (SJW, in this case, apparently meaning anyone who criticises GamerGate in any way or tries to stem the tide of vitriol – including, ironically enough, 4chan) and engaging in organised attacks on such blacklisted websites, reporters and developers, while sites with much more flagrant and proven ethical violations go untouched (for instance the movement’s alignment with Breitbart, a site that had nothing but contempt for gamers and geek culture until they saw GamerGate as a means to promote its own agenda).
In any case, removing politics and subjectivity from games coverage – from anything, in fact – is absolutely impossible. My own studies in journalism taught me this, and as John Walker from Rock Paper Shotgun pointed out, all reviews are inherently political. Whether a reviewer chooses to condemn or celebrate a specific feature of a game (for example, how its female characters are represented), or chooses not to mention it at all, they’re taking a political position on the matter. The rational thing to do would be to call for more coverage that represents the reader, or even do it yourself (why that has seemingly not occurred to anyone in GamerGate is beyond me; you could probably get such a thing funded through Kickstarter), not call for the destruction of coverage that does not.
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Events have confirmed to me that the ethics stuff is a spin job, a smokescreen attempting to divert us all from the fact that, in its pre-GamerGate incarnation, the movement was nothing but a sexist lynch mob, and in many ways it still is. The rampant hate and ugliness was the original goal of it, and not much has changed. The “#notyourshield” hashtag circulated to try to highlight the movement’s diversity, and ironically enough exists only as a shield, attempting to protect gaming culture from the consequences of the initial attacks. It’s a whitewash of the real issue – that a woman was attacked in an extremely vile and disgusting manner over allegations about her personal life made by an ex-boyfriend (accusations which have long since been debunked). You don’t get to drag a person’s name through the mud then arbitrarily claim it was never about them.
Attempts to stop the bile and harassment by closing comment sections and forum topics were arbitrarily decried as ‘censorship’, another term that’s become so rampant in the movement that’s in danger of losing any meaning and weight. While I’m on that note, trying to destroy, financially cripple and remove the advertising from gaming websites that don’t conform to a specific world view is censorship, and it is absolutely abhorrent.
I know I’ll get some responses along the lines of ‘The anti-GamerGate people are just as bad’, to which I have two things to say. Firstly, yes, it’s horrendous when anybody, regardless of which side of this debate they’re on, gets abuse; so channel that desire to condemn it and have the integrity to apply it to the abuse coming from GamerGate as well. To be tolerant of the abuse towards Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, Brianna Wu and so many others (none of whom are journalists, incidentally) defies all sense.
Secondly, there’s no such thing as an ‘anti-GamerGate movement’. While I don’t doubt that there are stupid, dangerous idiots responding to GamerGate in awful ways, there’s no organised affiliation going on, no dedicated forums or coordinated attack mobs or specifically-expressed desires to ‘destroy’.
Furthermore, someone saying what amounts to ‘Everyone involved in GamerGate is a dimwitted monster’ is not equivalent to thousands of people sending personalised, frightening abuse to one individual. I’ve yet to hear of any campaigns to force the likes of JonTron and Adam Baldwin out of their homes and make them fear for their lives. To try to draw equivalence on the matter is ludicrous, and only serves to cheapen the debate.
That’s my view of GamerGate, and the more reasonable-sounding defenders of the movement have failed to convince me otherwise. No doubt I’ll get a lot of responses claiming that I just can’t see it from the perspective of a GamerGate supporter, to which I reply that most of those involved in GamerGate seem to have zero awareness of how it looks to anyone outside of it.
I was going to end by just encouraging the more reasonable supporters to think about what it is they’re supporting, rather than actively try to push people away from the GamerGate label (as in my experience that just causes people to dig their heels in). However, in light of recent news regarding full-blown terrorist threats made against Anita Sarkeesian, I honestly don’t care anymore. After such a threat, GamerGate officially died. I’m sorry if you’re involved in the movement for benign reasons, but if you’re a reasonable person and genuinely believe in journalistic ethics, you’ll divorce yourself from the movement. It’s too toxic now, even moreso than it ever was.
No excuses. No false equivalences. No ‘this doesn’t represent us’. No false flag accusations. People have now officially put GamerGate in the same bracket as domestic terrorists, and that is now how the movement will forever be perceived.
If decent people really want to get some positive change out of all this, they first need to let GamerGate die.
By reader Andrew Middlemas
The reader’s feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. As always, email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk and follow us on Twitter.Body modification (or body alteration) is the deliberate altering of the human anatomy or human physical appearance.[1] It is often done for aesthetics, sexual enhancement, rites of passage, religious beliefs, to display group membership or affiliation, in remembrance of lived experience, traditional symbolism such as axis mundi and mythology, to create body art, for shock value, and as self-expression, among other reasons.[1][2] In its broadest definition it includes plastic surgery, socially acceptable decoration (e.g., common ear piercing in many societies), and religious rites of passage (e.g., circumcision in a number of cultures), as well as the modern primitive movement.
Explicit ornaments [ edit ]
Surgical augmentation [ edit ]
In contrast to the explicit ornaments, the following procedures are primarily not meant to be exposed per se, but rather function to augment another part of the body, like the skin in a subdermal implant.
Breast implants - insertion of silicone bags filled with silicone gel or saline solution into the breasts to increase their size, or to restore a more normal appearance after surgery
Male enhancement surgery to increase penis size for length and girth
Silicone injection [7]
Subdermal implant - implantation of an object that resides entirely below the dermis, including horn implants[8]
Removal or split [ edit ]
Genital modification and mutilation:
Nipple cutting:
Nipple removal [11]
Nipple splitting[12]
Nullification involves the voluntary removal of body parts. Body parts that are commonly removed by those practicing body nullification are: penis, testicles, clitoris, labia and nipples. Sometimes people who desire a nullification may be diagnosed with gender identity disorder, body integrity identity disorder or apotemnophilia.[13]
Tongue cutting:
Lingual frenectomy [14] - this is to expand the external physical protrusion of the tongue.
- this is to expand the external physical protrusion of the tongue. Tongue splitting - bisection of the tongue similar to a snake
Applying long-term force [ edit ]
Body modifications occurring as the end result of long term activities or practices
Corsetry or tightlacing - binding of the waist and shaping of the torso
Cranial binding - modification of the shape of infants' heads, now extremely rare
Breast ironing - Pressing (sometimes with a heated object) the breasts of a pubescent female to prevent their growth.
Foot binding - compression of the feet of girls to modify them for aesthetic reasons
Anal stretching [15]
Jelqing - penis enlargement with physical exercises by using a milking motion, to enhance girth mainly over a period of two to three months
Non-surgical elongation of organs by prolonged stretching using weights or spacing devices. Some cultural traditions prescribe for or encourage members of one sex (or both) to have one organ stretched till permanent re-dimensioning has occurred, such as: The 'giraffe-like' stretched necks (sometimes also other organs) of women among the Burmese Kayan tribe, the result of wearing brass coils around them. This compresses the collarbone and upper ribs but is not medically dangerous. It is a myth that removing the rings will cause the neck to 'flop'; Padaung women remove them regularly for cleaning etc. Stretched lip piercings - achieved by inserting ever larger plates, such as those made of clay used by some Amazonian tribes. Labia stretching or pulling to enhance sexual pleasure by stimulation, particularly reaching a orgasm that squirts, multiple orgasms that flow together frequently upon climax. Foreskin restoration or stretching to increase its physical size, desensitize the foreskin, move the foreskin further down the head for enhanced sensitivity and improve its appearance.
Others [ edit ]
Controversy [ edit ]
"Disfigurement" and "mutilation" (regardless of any appreciation this always applies objectively whenever a bodily function is gravely diminished or lost) are terms used by opponents of body modification to describe certain types of modifications, especially non-consensual ones. Those terms are used fairly uncontroversially to describe the victims of torture, who have endured damage to ears, eyes, feet, genitalia, hands, noses, teeth, and/or tongues, including amputation, burning, flagellation, piercing, skinning, and wheeling.[citation needed]
Some surgical procedures that modify human genitals are performed with the informed consent of the patient, using anesthesia.[20][21] The phrase "Genital mutilation" is sometimes used to describe procedures that individuals are forced to undergo without their informed consent, or without anesthesia or sterilised surgical tools.[22] The phrase has been applied to involuntary castration, male circumcision, and female genital mutilation. Intersex campaigners say that childhood modification of genitals of individuals with intersex conditions without their informed consent is a form of mutilation.[23]
Many use body modification and self-mutilation interchangeably. In many ways self-mutilation is very different than body-modification. Body modification gives one the feeling of pride and excitement, giving one something to show off to others.[24] Alternately, those who self-mutilate typically are ashamed of what they've done and want to hide any evidence of harm. Body modification is explored for adornment, self-expression, and an array of many other positive reasons, while self-mutilation is inflicted because of mental or emotional stress and the inability to cope with psychological pain. Those who self-mutilate do so in order to punish themselves, express internal turmoil, and reduce severe anxiety.[25]
Individuals known for extensive body modification [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Londonist
Top 10 Things To Do In The Borough Of Lambeth
This week, we move south of the river to the borough of Brixton, Clapham, Stockwell and Streatham.
Author's note: Zoe Jewell has lived in Brixton her whole life and runs the Brixton Blog, a website about life and community in Brixton.
1. Best History. Take a tour of Lambeth’s murals
Lambeth resident Ruth Miller has done a wonderful thing for London − she’s set up the London Mural Preservation Society, mapping the city’s painted walls and campaigning for their preservation. Whether on the backs of buildings, in railway stations or obscured by new developments, Lambeth is full of murals telling political and social histories, from Brixton’s famous ‘peace mural’ Nuclear Dawn to the Stockwell Memorial Mural. You can take one of Ruth Miller’s Brixton Mural Walks or design your own by following this guide. Sadly many of the murals are to be demolished or painted over, so join the campaign if you can.
2. Best Architecture. Stockwell Bus Garage
Image by Tubb in the Londonist Flickr pool.
Have to agree with Will Self on this one. The Stockwell Bus Garage is a working monument to utilitarian design, with an imposing whale-backed ribbed roof covering 73,350 square feet of space. The home of the 345, 196 and 88, among others, it has the capacity to host 200 buses and was originally the largest unsupported area under one roof in Europe. The garage was designed by Adie, Button and Partners in 1952, when a shortage of steel after the Second World War meant concrete was the building material of choice. As post-war modernist structures such as Robin Hood Gardens in East London are increasingly under threat from modern urban developments, there is even more reason to celebrate the survival of this awe-inspiring building − especially as it’s the 60th anniversary next year.
3. Best Gallery. Danielle Arnaud
Lambeth has plenty of private galleries. Danielle Arnaud is one of the best. Arnaud hosts beautifully curated exhibitions in her elegant Kennington townhouse. The intimidation on walking into minimalist private galleries is mitigated by furnished, welcoming rooms. Danielle Arnaud Gallery also features in the South London Art Tour, guided by local artists. The same group have helpfully created the South London Art Map.
4. Best Gentrifying High Street. Streatham High Road
Once voted ‘Britain’s worst street’ and much maligned for it’s traffic, tacky high street chains and empty shops, Streatham High Road is undergoing a renaissance. The tacky shops are still there but they are now broken up by a number of popular coffee shops, delis and gastropubs. Perfect Blend remains the local stalwart, frequented by star Lambeth MP Chuka Umunna, but it has been joined by others such as Thompson's Deli − in prime position next to the rail station − and the Kredens Polish deli. For something more substantial, try The Hamlet gastropub. Trinity Hospice Charity Shop (with another branch on Streatham Hill) is reputed to be one of the best second-hand shops in London, while for residents the 24hr Westbury Chemist remains the most useful shop in the area.
5. Best Hippy Bread. The Old Post Office Bakery
A veteran of Lambeth’s foodie scene, the organic bread from this bakery in Clapham is sold all over Lambeth. There's lots here for fans of heavy dark breads such as spelt and rye − beware, they have been dubbed ‘Brixton bowel bread’ by some − but they also sell delicious croissants, ciabattas and savoury pastries. For another Lambeth baking star, try the family-run Di Lieto bakery in Stockwell and their legendary olive bread.
6. Best Small Museum. Garden Museum. Lambeth Palace Rd
The Garden Museum was set up in 1978 in the abandoned St Mary's Church, also the burial place of Britain's first great gardener, John Trandescent. Tradescant was head gardener to Charles I and, from his botanical garden in Lambeth, he and his son John introduced many now common plants into the English garden. This museum is a shrine to the design and history of gardens, with three exhibitions a year and a permanent collection of garden ephemera.
7. Best Park. Brockwell Park
Lambeth’s premier park. Head up to the manor house for a top-notch view across London − the Thames to the north and Crystal Palace to the south. Clapham Common might get all the big acts, but Brockwell hosts some of the borough’s best local festivals. Admire the vegetable sculptures at the legendary Lambeth Country Show and feel rightfully smug at the Urban Green Fair. Brockwell Lido has lost some of its sass since a take-over a few years ago, but it’s still one of London’s top art deco lidos and the only place to be in Lambeth on a sweltering summer’s day.
8. Best Tapas. Rebato’s, Vauxhall
In an area where Portugese food rules the roost, Rebato's serves delicious Spanish food on the down-at-heel South Lambeth Road. The front bar is just for drinks and tapas, while the rather grand back room serves main dishes and tapas, from paella to roast suckling pig.
9. Best Market. Brixton Market
A hub of colour, music, smell and chatter, Brixton Market is what gives Brixton its buzz. The Granville Arcade now plays host to foodie heaven, with some fantastic new restaurants, but it's the outside market on Electric Avenue that still holds the draw for many. Favourite shops include the Chinese supermarket Wing Tai and Nour Cash & Carry, which is full of cheap vegetables and Middle Eastern delights. Mostly, it’s just nice to wander around to your heart’s delight.
10. Best church. Holy Trinity
The Holy Trinity church on Clapham Common is an imposing building with an important history. It was the place of worship for the Clapham Sect, a group of Christian social reformers who lobbied for the abolition of slavery in the late 18th Century. William Wilberforce, a leading abolitionist, moved to the Common in 1789 and was soon joined by other radical Christians horrified by the slave trade. Zachary Macaulay, previously Governor of Sierra Leone, even tried (unsuccessfully) to set up a school in Clapham for boys from Sierra Leone to be educated as future leaders of their country. The fight for abolition was a bitter one. It was only decades later, in 1807, that the Abolition of Slave Trade Act was passed, followed by the more wide-ranging Slavery Abolition Act in 1833.
Other posts in this series: Barnet, Brent, Bromley, Haringey, Lewisham, Redbridge, Southwark.
Know your borough inside-out? Interested in contributing one of these articles? Email us at hello@londonist.com
By Zoe Jewell
NOTE: This post was edited to replace Herne Hill Velodrome (actually just in Southwark) with the Garden Museum. Thanks to the reader who pointed this out.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption 'Ghost trees' are victims of rising sea levels; Video produced by the BBC's Bill McKenna
Dying wetland trees along Virginia's coastline are evidence that rising sea levels threaten nature and humans, scientists say - and show the limits of political action amid climate change scepticism.
Dead trees loom over the marsh like the bones of a whale beached long ago.
In the salt marshes along the banks of the York River in the US state of Virginia, pine and cedar trees and bushes of holly and wax myrtle occupy small islands, known as hummocks.
But as the salty estuary waters have risen in recent years, they have drowned the trees on the hummocks' lower edges. If - when - the sea level rises further, it will inundate and drown the remaining trees and shrubs, and eventually sink the entire marsh.
That threatens the entire surrounding ecosystem, because fish, oysters and crabs depend on the marsh grass for food.
Image caption Trees die as rising salt water soaks their roots, Watts says
"These are just the early warning signs of what's coming," says avian ecologist Bryan Watts, stepping carefully among the fallen pines.
The sea level in the Chesapeake Bay area and in south-eastern Virginia is predicted to rise by as much as 5.2ft (1.6m) by the end of the century.
Ancient geologic forces are causing the land literally to sink, while the amount of water in the oceans is increasing because of global warming, scientists say.
As a result, the low-lying coastal areas - and the towns in it - are at tremendous risk of flooding.
To address the problem, climate scientists, environmentalists and their political supporters say the US must dramatically reduce its fossil fuel emissions, while also taking steps to lessen the impact of coastal flooding and wetland erosion.
"There is time to turn the ship around," says Michael Mann, a former University of Virginia climate scientist, "but there is not a whole lot of time."
But in Virginia's state capital Richmond, as in Washington, many politicians remain sceptical about the extent to which humans are responsible for global warming.
They fear measures needed to curb climate change would hurt the economy, threaten private property, and harm commercial and industrial interests.
"Here in Virginia there is very little political will to address the mitigation side of things - reducing our carbon footprint, reducing greenhouse gas emissions," says Carl Hershner, who studies coastal resources management at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
"There is a high degree of scepticism in the political and the general public."
Virginia's attorney general, Republican Ken Cuccinelli, has waged an aggressive public battle against the Obama administration's efforts to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, which he said would drive up electricity costs and kill jobs in the state's coal industry.
A battle in the climate war In 2010, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli demanded access to Michael Mann's grant applications and correspondence. Mann was a prominent former University of Virginia climate scientist. Cuccinelli said he was investigating whether Mann had committed fraud in grant applications when he had said data showed a rapid rise in the earth's temperature. "The use of manipulated data to apply for taxpayer-funded research grants in Virginia is potentially fraud," Cuccinelli said. "This is about rooting out possible fraud and not about infringing upon academic freedom." But Mann and his supporters called Cuccinelli's move a politically motivated attack on a high profile climate scientist. The University of Virginia refused to give up the documents and hired a lawyer. Ultimately, the Virginia Supreme Court rejected Cuccinelli's demand for the documents, saying he lacked authority.
While politicians in Washington and in Richmond, Virginia's state capital, have done little to address the problem, authorities along Virginia's coast have watched the waters rise and have been forced to take action.
The city government of Norfolk spends about $6m (£3.8m) a year to elevate roads, improve drainage, and help homeowners literally raise their houses to keep their ground floors dry, says Assistant City Manager Ron Williams.
About 5%-10% of the city's lowest-lying neighbourhoods are subject to heavy flooding during storms. City planners do not currently recommend any areas be abandoned to the tide, but "you have to have the conversation as you look 50 years out", Mr Williams says.
At Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval base, the US Navy is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to replace aging piers with new ones better able to withstand the rising water.
"Sea level rise was having a measurable impact on the readiness of the ships," says retired Capt Joseph Bouchard, who was commander of the base from 2000-2003. "And that's unacceptable."
So the Navy decided to replace the old piers with double-decked piers - one for utilities, the other for the ship operations - with the upper deck 21ft above current sea level.
Image caption Dead trees ring the living ones as a hummock is slowly inundated
"Were it not for sea level rise caused by climate change, the Navy could have replaced those piers with single deck piers at much much less cost," he says.
Even a measure as ostensibly mild as funding for a flooding study was fraught with climate change politics.
Senator Ralph Northam, a Democrat, and Chris Stolle, a Republican member of the Virginia's lower House of Delegates, this year shepherded a resolution through the legislature spending $50,000 on a comprehensive study of the economic impact of coastal flooding on the Virginia and to investigate ways to adapt.
To pass the bill, at Stolle's suggestion Northam excised the words "relative sea level rise" from an initial draft of the bill, replacing them with "recurrent flooding" in the final version.
Stolle says the change was necessary to ensure the bill focused on the issues Virginia politicians can handle - flooding - and not those they cannot address - global warming. In any case, "the jury's still out" on mankind' s contribution to global warming, he says.
"Other folks can go argue about sea-level rise and global warming," Stolle says. "What matters is people's homes are getting destroyed, and that's what we want to focus on. To think that we are going to stop climate change is absolute hubris. The climate is going to change whether we're here or not."
Northam describes the change in language as pragmatic politics - necessary to win support from conservatives sceptical of climate change science.
"If you mention climate change to them, it's like a big red flag," he says. "A barrier goes up. That's the way it is here in the Virginia."To fall in love feels like such a personal and spontaneous process, it is strange — and a bit insulting — to suggest that we’re only copying what the novels and the movies tell us to do. However, the differences in how people have loved throughout history suggest that our style of loving is to a significant extent determined by what the prevailing environment dictates. In certain eras, we’ll swoon at the sight of the beloved’s ankle; in others, we’ll coldly put romanticism aside for the sake of dynastic or practical concerns. We learn how to love by copying a range of more or less subtle cues emitted by our culture. Or, as that brilliant observer of human foibles, François de La Rochefoucauld, wickedly put it: “There are some people who would never have fallen in love if they had not heard there was such a thing.”
Crucially, over the centuries, the most important factor to have shaped how we love is art. It is through novels, poems, songs and, latterly, films that we have acquired our ideas about what aspects of our feelings we should value and where our emotional emphases should fall.
This is unfortunate. It’s not that the art has been bad; indeed a lot of it has reached the highest aesthetic pitch. It’s simply that representations of love in culture have frequently been profoundly misleading at the psychological level. That we are quite so bad at loving — and the statistics on relationship breakdowns suggest we really are — is a problem that can at least in part be laid at the door of culture. The primary impediment to having better relationships may be the quality of our art.
To call for “better” art doesn’t mean art that is more moving or colourful or impassioned. The art that deals with love is already all those things and more. What it is lacking are crucial elements of wisdom, realism and maturity. Our love stories excite us to expect things of love that are neither very possible nor very practical. The narrative arts of the romantic tradition — everything from the poetry of Keats to films such as Before Sunrise (1995) and Lost in Translation (2003) — have unwittingly constructed a devilish template of expectations of what relationships are supposed to be like, in the light of which our own love lives often look grievously unsatisfying. We may break up with our partners or feel romantically cursed because we have been systematically exposed to the wrong sorts of love stories.
In western literary culture, the book that has most generously and deeply explored the issue of how love stories affect our relationships is Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary (1856). Early on in the novel, we learn that Emma Bovary spent her childhood in a convent immersed in heady Romantic fiction. As a result, she’s expecting that her husband will be a transcendent being, someone who understands her soul perfectly, a constantly thrilling intellectual and sexual presence.
Nigel Shafran’s ‘Ruth on the Phone’ (2001-02) is part of an ongoing series the artist began in the early 1990s in which he photographs his partner in various domestic situations. His latest book is ‘Dark Rooms’, mackbooks.co.uk
When she eventually does get married to the kind, thoughtful but in the end human (and therefore often humdrum) Charles, she is set up for a fall. She is quickly bored by the routines of married life. She has no interest in domestic chores, she hates having to prepare dinner, organise the linen cupboard and have quiet nights in with her spouse. Her dissatisfaction gets even worse when her first child arrives on the scene. She is convinced that her life has gone profoundly wrong for one central reason: because it’s so different from what the novels she knows told her it would be.
In a clumsy search to bring her reality in line with art, she embarks on a series of misguided affairs with louche figures, spends too much money, neglects her child and eventually commits suicide — bankrupt and in disgrace. Flaubert lays the blame squarely at the door of literature: a certain kind of Romantic novel is responsible for Emma Bovary’s death. He is writing the novel that she should have read in order to tolerate the reality of marriage — though sadly, she is the only one not to be able to benefit from Flaubert’s wry, realistic wisdom.
We are all, at points, as deluded as Emma Bovary, for our art is full of omissions. For example, in so many romantic tales, the whole business of work is rarely viewed as relevant to the enduring of a relationship. Yet of course, in reality, part of the rationale of any relationship is to enable two people to function as a stable joint economic unit for the education of the next generation. This is in no way banal. There are opportunities for genuine heroism here. Especially around laundry. We don’t hear much about this in art.
There are opportunities for genuine heroism in everyday relationships — especially around laundry
One of the central manuals of Romanticism — the book that more than any other taught people how to love in a new way — was The Sorrows of Young Werther, written by the German poet and philosopher Goethe in 1774, when he was in his mid-twenties. The book was an instant bestseller in Germany, England and France; Napoleon read it seven times. The novel tells the story of a student, Werther, and his doomed love for a young (betrothed) woman, Charlotte. The tone is intense and ardent. Yet, crucially, as his love for Charlotte grows, Werther is not distracted by the demands of an occupation. Romantic love is a leisured experience.
Romanticism and capitalism are the two dominant ideas of our time, guiding the way we think and feel about the two things that usually matter most in our lives: relationships and work. But combining romanticism and capitalism, as we are actually expected to do, can be arduous in the extreme. It’s an unhappy historical clash. We live under two very powerful but oddly incompatible systems — and art doesn’t help us here. The impressive philosophy of romantic love in art — with its emphasis on intimacy and openness and spending lengthy, carefree days together (often in nature, sometimes next to cliffs or waterfalls) — sits very badly with the requirements of working routines that fill our heads with complex demands, keep us away from home for long stretches and render us insecure about our positions in a competitive environment.
Photograph by Nigel Shafran, from his latest book 'Dark Rooms', mackbooks.co.uk © Nigel Shafran
In Richard Linklater’s irresistible film, Before Sunrise, two young lovers meet on a train, fall in love and spend hours talking about their feelings while walking the streets of Vienna at night. Like so many romantic works of art, the film suggests that love involves very close communication about pretty much everything. But the level of openness this assumes is wholly at odds with the realities of day-to-day life.
After a tricky day (or week), one’s mind is likely to be numb with worries and duties. We may not feel like doing much besides sitting in silence, staring at the kitchen appliances, or running through a series of dramas and crises at work. Such preoccupation is not pleasant to witness, and it risks expressing itself in a range of not very endearing symptoms: grunting, brooding silence and a short-fused temper. The most innocuous-sounding question about how the day might have gone can elicit a growl — then, if it is repeated, an explosion. None of this we’ll be prepared for if we stick to the romantic script.
When romantic writers have explored the troubles of relationships in their works, they have tended to draw attention to important, but notably limited, issues. The great Russian |
er's Rift, a 5v5 GD custom. Best 3 out of 5 will win.UPDATE, 7:57 p.m. ET: Cesaro provided an exclusive photo of him (below) before heading into surgery.
Throughout the course of 2015, few Superstars have resonated more with audiences and delivered better in-ring performances than Cesaro. The Swiss Superman’s cheering squad, the Cesaro Section, had also been sweeping arenas everywhere. However, Cesaro’s momentum was temporarily cut short the moment he learned he had torn his left shoulder rotator cuff. WWE.com sat down with Cesaro to get an update on his status, his goals for when he returns and what he wants to say the very-loyal Cesaro Section.
WWE.COM: Cesaro, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. How are you feeling?
CESARO: Well, I’m feeling great. I’ve had the injury for over two months, but I guess I never really knew how … “bad” it was, if that’s the right word? [Laughs] So, it’s more a mental thing, because all of a sudden you can’t do what you’ve been doing. Now you have to get surgery and you’ll be out for a bit.
WWE.COM: You said you’ve been working through the injury, not knowing how bad it was. Would you classify the situation as gradual?
CESARO: I knew something was wrong [for a while], but I thought that it was just sprained or something like that. So, I iced it and had it looked at. I was like, “Oh, I have range of motion” and didn’t necessarily have too much of a loss of strength, so I knew something got hurt, but I didn’t think it was injured, if that makes sense. I kept working out and working [in the ring] obviously, and it kept getting better, but there was still something lingering. Then I thought, “Maybe if I were to know exactly what it is, it will be easier to rehab and get it better” … and then I found out it’s a complete tear. [Laughs] So, no matter how much rehab I do, it will not reattach itself to the bone, unfortunately.
WWE.COM: But you went into that appointment having no idea of the injury’s extent?
CESARO: Exactly. I got the MRI done and was like, “Okay, cool, this will help me with how to rehab and get back to full strength.” But then I got the call the next day saying, “Hey, you tore a tendon and partially tore another one.” [Laughs]
WWE.COM: When is surgery scheduled?
CESARO: Yeah, so here’s the good part: Thanks to the quickness of WWE, I went to see the doctor this morning and will have surgery this afternoon. The faster the better for me, because the sooner I have surgery, the sooner I’ll be back. Luckily, they got me in before Thanksgiving.
WWE.COM: Do you have any timetable on when you may return, or is it too soon to say?
CESARO: It’s pretty much up in the air, and I don’t want to be quoted on a timeframe. I think the official timeframe I was told was like four to six months, but that all depends on how surgery goes, how my rehab goes and so forth.
WWE.COM: Beyond the obvious goal of rehabilitating the shoulder, do you have any goals you are setting for yourself upon your return?
CESARO: I just want to come back as soon as possible. I felt I was building a lot of momentum, and that was all thanks to the fans. I really appreciate all the support I’ve gotten and I’ve felt that the Cesaro Section is finally rising and it’s becoming undeniable … and then, of course, this happens. It’s funny, because I am having the surgery on the day we are in Nashville, Tenn. [for Raw], which is where the Cesaro Section originated. I was actually expecting a big Cesaro Section tonight, and I’m sure they’ll be there. Unfortunately, I’ll be getting out of surgery. [Laughs]
I will be there in spirit with them. I want to keep the momentum up when I return, and I’m sure the Section will still be there.
WWE.COM: Anything you want to say to the WWE Universe, or the Cesaro Section specifically, as you begin the rehab process?
CESARO: Well, to me, the Cesaro Section is the WWE Universe, and I really appreciate all the support. It has showed me that what I believe in, other people believe in as well. I still believe in old school values, I still believe in hard work, I still believe in wrestling, and people have showed that’s what they want to see. That’s what they enjoy, that’s what they appreciate and that’s how I have connected with them. That has helped me a lot and it’s cool to see people enjoy that. I can’t wait to get back and spread that message further.St. Cloud State's Drew LeBlanc Honored as Both WCHA Player of the Year and Outstanding Student-Athlete of the Year to Highlight 2012-13 Men's Award Winners
St. Cloud State Blueliner Nick Jensen Tabbed as WCHA Defensive Player of the Year by League's Head Coaches; Minnesota State Goaltender Stephon Williams is WCHA Rookie of the Year; Nebraska Omaha's Ryan Walters Earns WCHA Scoring Championship, MSU's Williams is WCHA Goaltending Champion; Minnesota State's Mike Hastings Honored as WCHA Coach of the Year; All-WCHA First Team Members are UNO's Walters (F), SCSU's LeBlanc (F), North Dakota's Danny Kristo (F), Minnesota's Nate Schmidt (D), SCSU's Jensen (D) and MSU's Williams (G); Record 164 Student-Athletes Earn 2012-13 All-WCHA Academic Team Honors
SCSU's Drew LeBlanc was named WCHA Player of the Year
MADISON, Wis. � St. Cloud State University forward Drew LeBlanc, a driving force behind the Huskies' success in earning a share of the program's first-ever conference regular season championship and MacNaughton Cup, has been honored as both the WCHA Player of the Year and the WCHA Outstanding Student-Athlete of the Year to highlight the league's individual men's awards for 2012-13 as announced by the conference today (March 14).
A senior from Hermantown, Minn., LeBlanc becomes the first league player to earn both of these prestigious awards. He is also a member of the All-WCHA First Team. The offensive catalyst behind the Huskies' drive to first place in the 2012-13 WCHA regular season standings, LeBlanc led the league with 25 assists and also had 10 goals for 35 points in conference play while charting 10 multiple-point games in WCHA action. Overall, he leads all Division 1 players this winter with 34 assists and ranks fourth in the nation with 46 points scored. A four- time recipient of the WCHA Scholar-Athlete Award and a four-time All-WCHA Academic Team honoree, LeBlanc has served as a team captain for the past two seasons at SCSU. He has helped the Huskies post a league-leading 3.36 goals per game in conference action and overall, SCSU ranks fourth in the nation with 119 goals scored. The Huskies enter the WCHA playoffs ranked eighth in the latest Division 1 national polls and own a 21-14-1 overall and 18-9-1 league record. A math education major, LeBlanc is currently completing his student teaching at nearby St. Cloud Apollo High School. He carries a cumulative grade-point average of 3.64, was a CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree in both 2010 and 2011, and has participated in numerous community service activities during his collegiate years, including programs such as Skate With the Huskies and Husky Haulers, helping first-year students move into their dormitories. Over his four-year St. Cloud State career, LeBlanc owns the program record for games played at 165, ranks sixth in career points with 143 and is third with 102 assists.
The WCHA Outstanding Student-Athlete of the Year Award is determined from nominations made by the member institutions and each institution then has one final vote. The criteria is as follows: 1) must be a senior student-athlete, i.e. one who is finishing his competition as an eligible player in the WCHA; 2) consistently displays outstanding sportsmanship on and off the ice; 3) is a good student making satisfactory progress toward a degree; and 4) is a good hockey player who has performed consistently as a regular member of the team.
The league's five other major individual awards for 2012-13 went to St. Cloud State University defenseman Nick Jensen as WCHA Defensive Player of the Year, Minnesota State University goaltender Stephon Williams as WCHA Rookie of the Year, University of Nebraska Omaha forward Ryan Walters as WCHA Scoring Champion, Williams as WCHA Goaltending Champion, and Minnesota State University first-year mentor Mike Hastings as WCHA Coach of the Year.
The league's 12 head coaches voted St. Cloud State defenseman Nick Jensen as the WCHA Defensive Player of the Year. A junior from Rogers, Minn., and an All-WCHA First Team choice, Jensen has been a leader on the Huskies' blueline throughout the 2012-13 campaign. In WCHA play this winter, he has scored four goals and added 19 assists along with a substantial +15 rating on the plus/minus. A leader in minutes played on defense for the Huskies, Jensen consistently faces the opposition's top lines and has helped SCSU's defense limit league opponents to just 2.36 goals per game. Among WCHA defenders, Jensen led the league with 19 assists and was second with 23 points. He has also posted 27 blocked shots in league play this season. In overall games played, Jensen ranks eighth among Division 1 defensemen with 28 points and second with 24 assists this season. He is +17 on the plus/minus for all games and has 36 blocked shots A two-time WCHA Scholar-Athlete and All-WCHA Academic Team selection, Jensen was named to the All-WCHA Second Team in 2011-12. An ironman for the Huskies, Jensen has started in 113 consecutive games and has notched 15 goals and 68 assists during his first three seasons in St. Cloud.
Honored by voters as the WCHA Rookie of the Year for 2012-13 is Minnesota State freshman goaltender Stephon Williams, who also earned All-WCHA First Team and All-WCHA Rookie Team accolades and was the WCHA Goaltending Champion. From Fairbanks, Alaska, Williams, stands 19-9-2 overall (tied for 11th in the country in winning percentage at.667), with a 1.83 goals-against average (sixth in the country) and a.929 save percentage (14 in the country). The two-time WCHA Rookie of the Week finished the WCHA regular season leading the league in goals-against average (1.93), ranking second in save percentage (.927) and third in wins (15). Williams also has four shutouts this season, which stands tied for third on MSU's single-season list, and he has started the last 27 games in a row for the Mavericks and has started 29 of MSU's 36 games in 2012-13.
The WCHA Scoring Champion for 2012-13 is University of Nebraska Omaha forward Ryan Walters, who also earned All-WCHA First Team accolades while having one of the finest seasons in UNO history. A junior from Rosemount, Minn., Walters topped all league skaters with 40 points in 28 conference games, scoring 16 goals and adding 24 assists while also averaging a league-best 1.43 points per game. He had 50 points overall during the regular season, a total that ties for third best in school history, and he is just the third Maverick to score 50 or more points in a season. He ranks second in the NCAA in overall points (21-29=50) and has scored points in 26 of the last 29 games (21-26=47). Walters was named the Hockey Commissioners' Association national player of the month for November, posting six goals and nine assists for 15 points and a +8 rating in seven games to help the Mavericks to a perfect 7-0-0 record. During that stretch, he scored goals in five straight games. Walters' 21 goals are tied fifth best in UNO history, he is just two points from becoming the 13th Maverick to score 100 career points, and he has played in 111 consecutive games.
The WCHA Coach of the Year for 2012-13 is Mike Hastings of Minnesota State University. In his first year as head coach of the Mavericks, Hastings has guided MSU to its first top-half league finish since 2007-08 with a 16-11-1 mark (22-11-3 overall), with his club in contention for the regular season title heading into the final weekend. The Mavericks, who achieved an all-time program best national ranking of No. 7 in the country on Feb. 25, had a seven-game unbeaten streak from Nov. 23-Dec. 14 and during the course of the season the Mavericks have claimed wins over No. 2-ranked Minnesota, No. 4 North Dakota and No. 15 Wisconsin. Minnesota State is positioned to make its second-ever NCAA postseason tournament appearance and under Hastings' guidance, the Mavericks claimed an all-time program-best 16 wins in WCHA games. Since Nov. 23rd MSU has gone 19-6-1.
Five conference-member teams � Minnesota, Minnesota State, Nebraska Omaha, North Dakota and St. Cloud State � are represented on the All-WCHA First Team for 2012-13, with the Huskies landing two players. Named to the All-WCHA First Team, with statistics for league games only, are: F - Ryan Walters, Jr., Nebraska Omaha (28 gp, 16-24=40); F - Drew LeBlanc, Sr., St. Cloud State (28 gp, 10-25=35); F - Danny Kristo, Sr., North Dakota (28 gp, 17-20=37); D - Nate Schmidt, Jr., Minnesota (28 gp, 7-19=26); D - Nick Jensen, Jr., St. Cloud State (28 gp, 4-19=23); G - Stephon Williams, Fr., Minnesota State (15-9-1, 1.93 GAA,.927 Sv%). LeBlanc was the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week on Oct. 30 and Feb. 5, Kristo was the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week on Nov. 20 and Feb. 27, and Williams was the WCHA Rookie of the Week on Nov. 27 and Dec. 4.
Members of the All-WCHA Second Team for 2012-13 are: F - Corban Knight, Sr., North Dakota (28 gp, 12-23=35); F - Erik Haula, Jr., Minnesota (26 gp, 13-24=37); F - Rylan Schwartz, Sr., Colorado College (27 gp, 12-23=35); D - Joey LaLeggia, So., Denver (28 gp, 10-13=23); D - Mike Boivin, Sr., Colorado College (28 gp, 13-10=23); G - Juho Olkinuora, So., Denver (9-3-5, 2.44 GAA,.924 Sv%). Knight was the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week on both Dec. 8 and Jan. 8, Schwartz earned the same honor on both Nov. 13 and Feb. 27, LaLeggia was WCHA Defensive Player of the Week on Nov. 20, Boivin was WCHA Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 16, and Olkinuora was WCHA Defensive Player of the Week on Jan. 8 and Feb. 5.
Voted to the All-WCHA Third Team for 2012-13 are: F - Matt Leitner, So., Minnesota State (28 gp, 13-19=32); F - Nick Bjugstad, Jr., Minnesota (28 gp, 15-8=23); F - Eriah Hayes, Sr., Minnesota State (28 gp, 15-13=28); D - Andrej Sustr, Jr., Nebraska Omaha (28 gp, 7-11=18); D - Jake McCabe, So., Wisconsin (24 gp, 3-12=15); G - Adam Wilcox, Fr., Minnesota (16-6-5, 2.13 GAA,.914 Sv%). Leitner was the WCHA Offensive Player of the week on Nov. 27, Bjugstad earned the honor on both Oct. 16 and Jan. 3, Hayes was the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week on Feb. 12, and Wilcox was the WCHA Defensive Player of the Week on March 5 and the league's rookie of the week on Nov. 13 and Jan. 3.
Members of the All-WCHA Rookie Team for 2012-13 as selected by the voters are: F - Tony Cameranesi, Fr., Minnesota Duluth (28 gp, 11-17=28); F - Alex Petan, Fr., Michigan Tech (28 gp, 11-18=29); F - Rocco Grimaldi, So., North Dakota (28 gp, 10-16=26); D - Nolan Zajac, Fr., Denver (26 gp, 4-10=14); D - Andy Welinski, Fr., Minnesota Duluth (28 gp, 3-12=15); G - Stephon Williams, Fr., Minnesota State (15-9-1, 1.93 GAA,.927 Sv%. Petan was the WCHA Rookie of the Week on March 5, Grimaldi was the WCHA Rookie of the Week on Dec. 11, and Williams was the WCHA Rookie of the Week on both Nov. 27 and Dec. 4.
Repeat members of all-league teams from 2011-12 were: Nick Bjugstad, F, Minnesota (All-WCHA First Team), Joey LaLeggia, D, Denver (All-WCHA Second Team, All-WCHA Rookie Team), Nate Schmidt, D, Minnesota (All-WCHA Second Team), Nick Jensen, D, St. Cloud State (All-WCHA Third Team), and Juho Olkinuora, G, Denver (All-WCHA Rookie Team).
Four players who were named as major award winners and/or to this season's all-league teams were previously honored on Feb. 13 as WCHA Scholar-Athletes for 2012-13. They were: Ryan Walters, Jr., F, Nebraska Omaha (All-WCHA First Team, WCHA Scoring Champion); Andrej Sustr, Jr., D, Nebraska Omaha (All-WCHA Third Team), Drew LeBlanc, Sr., F, St. Cloud State (WCHA Player of the Year, WCHA Outstanding Student-Athlete of the Year, All-WCHA First Team); and Nick Jensen, Jr., D, St. Cloud State (WCHA Defensive Player of the Year, All-WCHA First Team). To earn recognition as a WCHA Scholar-Athlete, student-athletes must have completed at least one year of residency at their present institution prior to the current academic year and must also have a grade-point average of at least 3.50 on a 4.0 scale for the previous two semesters or three quarters, or may qualify if his or her overall GPA is at least 3.50 for all terms at his or her present institution.
Major award winners and members of the various all-league teams who were also recognized today as members of the 2012-13 All-WCHA Men's Academic Team were: Rylan Schwartz, Sr. F, Colorado College (All-WCHA Second Team); Juho Olkinuora, So., G, Denver (All-WCHA Second Team); Nick Bjugstad, Jr., F, Minnesota (All-WCHA Third Team); Erik Haula, Jr., F, Minnesota (All-WCHA Second Team); Nate Schmidt, Jr., D, Minnesota (All-WCHA First Team); Eriah Hayes, Sr., F, Minnesota State (All-WCHA Third Team); Andrej Sustr, Jr., D, Nebraska Omaha (All-WCHA Third Team); Ryan Walters, Jr., F, Nebraska Omaha (All-WCHA First Team, WCHA Scoring Champion); Rocco Grimaldi, Fr., F, North Dakota (All-WCHA Rookie Team); Nick Jensen, Jr., D, St. Cloud State (WCHA Defensive Player of the Year, All-WCHA First Team); Drew LeBlanc, Sr., F, St. Cloud State (WCHA Player of the Year, WCHA Outstanding Student-Athlete of the Year, All-WCHA First Team); and Jake McCabe, So., D, Wisconsin (All-WCHA Third Team).
Voting for the WCHA awards is done by conference member team coaches, players, sports information directors and local media. Each team receives eight ballots for a total of 96 voters. Points for awards and all-league teams are awarded on a 5-point (for a 1st team vote), 3-point (for a 2nd team vote), and 1-point (for a 3rd team vote) basis. The WCHA Outstanding Student-Athlete of the Year award is selected by member team Faculty Athletic Representatives while the WCHA Defensive Player of the Year is selected by the league's 12 head coaches.
2012-13 WCHA Award Winners
All-WCHA First Team
Forward
Ryan Walters
Junior, Nebraska Omaha
(Rosemount, MN)
(28 gp, 16-24=40)
Forward
Drew LeBlanc
Senior, St. Cloud State
(Hermantown, MN)
(28 gp, 10-25=35)
Forward
Danny Kristo
Senior, North Dakota
(Eden Prairie, MN)
(28 gp, 17-20=37)
Defense
Nate Schmidt
Junior, Minnesota
(St. Cloud, MN)
(28 gp, 7-19=26)
Defense
Nick Jensen
Junior, St. Cloud State
(Rogers, MN)
(4-19=23)
Goaltender
Stephon Williams
Freshman, Minnesota State
(Fairbanks, AK)
(15-9-1, 1.93,.927)
All-WCHA Second Team
Forward
Corban Knight
Senior, North Dakota
(High River, AB)
(28 gp, 12-23=35)
Forward
Erik Haula
Junior, Minnesota
(Pori, Finland)
(26 gp, 13-24=37)
Forward
Rylan Schwartz
Senior, Colorado College
(Wilcox, SK)
(27 gp, 12-23=35)
Defense
Joey LaLeggia
Sophomore, Denver
(Burnaby, BC)
(28 gp, 10-13=23)
Defense
Mike Boivin
Senior, Colorado College
(Delta, BC)
(28 gp, 13-10=23)
Goaltender
Juho Olkinuora
Sophomore, Denver
(Helsinki, Finland)
(9-3-5, 2.44,.924)
All-WCHA Third Team
Forward
Matt Leitner
Soph., Minnesota State
(Los Alamitos, CA)
(28 gp, 13-19=32)
Forward
Nick Bjugstad
Junior, Minnesota
(Blaine, MN)
(28 gp, 15-8=23)
Forward
Eriah Hayes
Senior, Minnesota State
(La Crescent, MN)
(28 gp, 15-13=28)
Defense
Andrej Sustr
Junior, Nebraska Omaha
(Plzen, Czech Republic)
(28 gp, 7-11=18)
Defense
Jake McCabe
Sophomore, Wisconsin
(Eau Claire, WI)
(24 gp, 3-12=15)
Goaltender
Adam Wilcox
Freshman, Minnesota
(South St. Paul, MN)
(16-6-5, 2.13,.914)
All-WCHA Rookie Team
Forward
Tony Cameranesi
Fresh., Minnesota Duluth (Maple Grove, MN)
(28 gp, 11-17=28)
Forward
Alex Petan
Freshman, Michigan Tech
(Delta, BC)
(28 gp, 11-18=29)
Forward
Rocco Grimaldi
Freshman, North Dakota
(Rossmoor, CA)
(28 gp, 10-16=26)
Defense
Nolan Zajac
Freshman, Denver
(Winnipeg, MB)
(26 gp, 4-10=14)
Defense
Andy Welinski
Fresh., Minnesota Duluth
(Duluth, MN)
(28 gp, 3-12=15)
Goaltender
Stephon Williams
Freshman, Minnesota State
(Fairbanks, AK)
(15-9-1, 1.93,.927)
Record 164 Student-Athletes Named to Men's All-WCHA Academic Team for 2012-13; 85 are Repeat Honorees
A record total of 164 student-athletes, representing all 12 Western Collegiate Hockey Association-member institutions, have earned distinction as members of the men's 2012-13 All-WCHA Academic Team as announced today, March 14, by the conference office. Eighty-five (85) of those 164 individuals are previous honorees.
The highest numbers of student-athletes earning men's All-WCHA Academic Team honors in a single season prior to this year was 149 in 2012-13.
To earn recognition as a member of the All-WCHA Academic Team, member team student-athletes must meet the following criteria: 1) have completed one year of residency at present institution, prior to the current academic year; and 2) have a grade point average of at least 3.00 (on a 4.00 scale) for the previous two semesters or three quarters.
Following, by member institution, are the members of the men's 2012-13 All-WCHA Academic Team (*indicates repeat honoree).
University of Alaska Anchorage: Scott Allen (So., F, Edmonton, AB); *Matt Bailey (Jr., F, Winnipeg, MB); *Brett Cameron (Jr., F, Spruce Grove, AB); Austin Coldwell (So., D, Vancouver, WA); *Chris Crowell (Sr., F, Williams Lake, BC); Tyler Currier (Sr., F, Anchorage, AK); *Alex Gellert (Sr., F, Kelowna, BC); *Chris Kamal (Jr., G, Alpharetta, GA); Corbin Karl (So., D, Foremost, AB); *Daniel Naslund (Sr., F, Nykoping, Sweden); Andrew Pickering (Jr., F, West Vancouver, BC); Kory Roy (So., F, Anchorage, AK); *Quinn Sproule (Jr., D, Hussar, AB); *Scott Warner (Sr., D, Anchorage, AK).
Bemidji State University: *Jake Areshenko (Sr., D, Port Coquitlam, BC); *David Boehm (Sr., F, Naples, FL); Phil Brewer (Fr., F, Cambridge, ON); *Kyle Brodie (Jr., D, Northglenn, CO); *Matt Carlson (Sr., D, Grand Forks, ND); *Mathieu Dugas (Sr., G, L'Assomption, QC); *Matt Hartmann (Sr., F, Hugo, MN); Radoslav Illo (Jr, F, Bystrica, Slovakia); *Jeff Jubinville (Jr., F, Edmonton, AB); *Ben Kinne (Sr., F, St. Paul, MN); Danny Mattson (So., F, Minneapolis, MN); *Aaron McLeod (Sr., F, Ottawa, ON); *Brance Orban (Sr., F, Lethbridge, AB); Matt Prapavessis (So., D, Oakville, ON); Tyler Tosunian (So., F, Whittier, CA); *Brady Wacker (Sr., D, Jansen, SK); Andrew Walsh (So., G, Dawson Creek, BC); Sam Windle (So., D, Maple Grove, MN).
Colorado College: Jeff Collett (Jr., F, Calgary, AB); *Andrew Hamburg (Sr., F, Phoenix, AZ); *Joe Howe (Sr., G, Plymouth, MN); *Alexander Krushelnyski (Jr., F, Bloomfield Hills, MI); Courtney Lockwood (So., G, Breckenridge, CO); Joe Marciano (Sr., D, Alta Loma, CA); *Eamonn McDermott (Jr., D, Shaker Heights, OH); William Rapuzzi (Sr., F, Anchorage, AK); Rylan Schwartz (Sr., F, Wilcox, SK); *Archie Skalbeck (Jr., F, Hopkins, MN); Peter Stoykewych (So., D, Winnipeg, MB); *Scott Winkler (Sr., F, Asker, Norway); Ian Young (So., D, Missouri City, TX).
University of Denver: Wade Bennett (So., D, Gardena, CA); *Sam Brittain (Jr., G, Calgary, AB); Josiah Didier (So., D, Littleton, CO); Daniel Doremus (So., F, Aspen, CO); Larkin Jacobson (So., F, Sioux City, IA); *Chris Knowlton (Sr., F, Colorado Springs, CO); *David Makowski (Jr., D, Wildwood, MO); Scott Mayfield (So., D, St. Louis, MO); *Jarrod Mermis (Jr., F, Alton, IL); *Adam Murray (Sr., G, Anchorage, AK); Juho Olkinuora (So., G, Helsinki, Finland); *Shawn Ostrow (Sr., F, Calgary, AB); *Paul Phillips (Sr., D, Darien, IL); *Nick Shore (Jr., F, Denver, CO).
Michigan Technological University: *Kevin Genoe (Sr., G, Qualicum Beach, BC); *Milos Gordic (Jr., F, Burnaby, BC); *Blake Hietala (So., F, Houghton, MI); *Daniel Holmberg (Jr., F, Nykoping, Sweden); Tanner Kero (So., F, Hancock, MI); *Mikael Lickteig (Sr., F, Little Falls, MN); *Carl Nielsen (Sr., D, Lorain, OH); Aaron Pietila (Sr., F, Brighton, MI); Blake Pietila (So., F, Brighton, MI); *Chad Pietila (Sr., F, Brighton, MI); *Daniel Sova (Jr., D, Cottage Grove, MN); *Brad Stebner (Jr., D, Fort McMurray, AB).
University of Minnesota: *Mark Alt (Jr., D, St. Paul, MN); Seth Ambroz (So., F, New Prague, MN); Nick Bjugstad (Jr., F, Blaine, MN); Travis Boyd (So., F, Hopkins, MN); *Zach Budish (Jr., F, Edina, MN); *Nate Condon (Jr., F, Wausau, WI); Erik Haula (Jr., F, Pori, Finland); *Seth Helgeson (Sr., D, Faribault, MN); *Justin Holl (Jr., D, Tonka Bay, MN); *Jared Larson (So., F, Apple Valley, MN); Ben Marshall (So., D, Mahtomedi, MN); Jake Parenteau (Jr., D, Shafer, MN); Kyle Rau (So., F, Eden Prairie, MN); *Nate Schmidt (Jr., D, St. Cloud, MN); *Tom Serratore (Jr., F, Colorado Springs, CO); Michael Shibrowski (Jr., G, Andover, MN); Sam Warning (So., F, Chesterfield, MO).
University of Minnesota Duluth: Chris Casto (So., D, Stillwater, MN); *Aaron Crandall (Jr., G, Lakeville, MN); Justin Crandall (So., F, Lakeville, MN); *Keegan Flaherty (Sr., F, Duluth, MN); *Jake Hendrickson (Sr., F, Savage, MN); Caleb Herbert (So., F, Bloomington, MN); Adam Krause (So., F, Hermantown, MN); *Luke McManus (So., D, Apple Valley, MN); Tim Smith (Jr., D, Superior, WI).
Minnesota State University, Mankato: Phil Cook (Sr., G, Wheaton, IL); *Tyler Elbrecht (Sr., D, Edwardsville, IL); Max Gaede (So., F, Woodbury, MN); Chase Grant (So., F, Oklahoma City, OK); Eriah Hayes (Sr., F, La Crescent, MN); *Evan Karambelas (Jr., G, Fort St. John, BC); Mat Knoll (So., D, Edmonton, AB); Zach Lehrke (Jr., F, Park Rapids, MN); *Evan Mosey (Sr., D, Downers Grove, IL); Zach Palmquist (So., D, South St. Paul, MN); Brett Stern (So., D, Lino Lakes, MN); Charlie Thauwald (So., F, Rochester, MN).
University of Nebraska Omaha: *Bryce Aneloski (Sr., D, Pekin, IL); *Dayn Belfour (So., G, Morden, MB); *John Faulkner (Sr., G, Sarnia, ON); *Brent Gwidt (Sr., F, Minocqua, WI); Ryan Massa (So., G, Littleton, CO); Jaycob Megna (So., D, Northbrook, IL); *Brock Montpetit (Jr., F, Somerset, WI); Brian O'Rourke (So., D, St. Louis, MO); *James Polk (So., F, New York, NY); *Zahn Raubenheimer (Jr., F, Smoky Lake, AB); Andrew Schmit (So., F, Grafton, WI); *Johnnie Searfoss (Jr., F, Colleyville, TX); *Alex Simonson (Jr., F, Grand Forks, ND); *Andrej Sustr (Jr., D, Plzen, Czech Republic); *Tony Turgeon (Jr., D, Grand Forks, ND); Ryan Walters (Jr., F, Rosemount, MN); Dominic Zombo (So., F, Ballwin, MO).
University of North Dakota: Connor Gaarder (So., F, Edina, MN); Rocco Grimaldi (Fr., F, Rossmoor, CA); Mark MacMillan (So., F, Penticton, BC); Mitch MacMillan (Jr., F, Penticton, BC); *Andrew MacWilliam (Sr., D, Calgary, AB); *Tate Maris (Sr., G, Denver, CO); Nick Mattson (So., D, Chanhassen, MN); Brendan O'Donnell (So., F, Winnipeg, MB); *Derek Rodwell (Jr., F, Taber, AB); Dan Senkbeil (So., D/F, Fremont, CA); *Dillon Simpson (Jr., D, Edmonton, AB).
St. Cloud State University: Brooks Bertsch (So., F, Dubuque, IA); *Brandon Burrell (Jr., D, Brooklyn Park, MN); Tim Daly (So., D, Maple Ridge, BC); *Nic Dowd (Jr., F, Huntsville, AL); Ryan Faragher (So., G, Fort Frances, ON); *Kevin Gravel (Jr., D, Kingsford, MI); *Ben Hanowski (Sr., F, Little Falls, MN); Joey Holka (So., F, Phoenix, AZ); *Nick Jensen (Jr., D, Rogers, MN); *Drew LeBlanc (Sr., F, Hermantown, MN); David Morley (Fr., F, Richmond Hills, ON); Nick Oliver (So., F, Roseau, MN); Joe Phillippi (So., G, Shoreview, MN); Andrew Prochno (So., D, Minnetonka, MN); Jarrod Rabey (So., D/F, Rockton, IL); Joe Rehkamp (So, F, Plymouth, MN).
University of Wisconsin: *Tyler Barnes (Jr., F, Eagan, MN); *Chase Drake (Jr., D, Mosinee, WI); *Joe Faust (Jr., D, Bloomington, MN); *Gavin Hartzog (Jr., F, Pewaukee, WI); *Ryan Little (Sr., F, Fond du Lac, WI); Jake McCabe (So., D, Eau Claire, WI); Michael Mersch (Jr., F, Park Ridge, IL); Brad Navin (So., F, Waupaca, WI); Landon Peterson (So., G, Oregon, WI); Joel Rumpel (So., G, Swift Current, SK); *Frankie Simonelli (Jr., D, Bensenville, IL); *Mark Zengerle (Jr., F, Rochester, NY).10
Linkedin
In this previous article – Getting started with Java Cloud Service on the Oracle Public Cloud (WebLogic as a Service) – I have taken you on a introductory tour into JCS. That article describes how to get going – how to provision a JCS instance – associated with an instance in DBaaS and with backup set up with Storage CS.
In the article |
Fighting Spirit in the sixth set against Hungarian eagle-Terran skzlime. Both opened standard, then exploded. Within a few minutes skzlime tried to take his third, but couldn't, as goons already expected him. Meanwhile he raided Must's economy with a bunch of vultures, while he had to deal with reaver harass in his base. Both players came out quite even, Must lost probes, skzlime his CC on his third and a couple of SCVs. The game slowed down, both couldn't really believe what they just did, probably. Terran went for a big attack, Must went for a rather bad setup and went in full heartedly from a bad spot - 4-2 for the eagles!
VODs: Eagles vs. iFU
Standings
Preview: Week 3
For the third week we have more events. The Townswomen's Guild of AoV and LRM Evolutions will re-enact the battle of Pearl Harbor. Sziky, TechnicS, Bakuruy, TrutaCz and whatever they have else, are already eager to show war atrocities. But AoV's talents lined up their talents and read the script very well. They want to surprise the audience with their new faces. However, even though it seems we already know the winner, we shall wait and see. Maybe, the youngsters can re-write a bit of history there.
In the second war the stealthy Pain-Bunnies will face the Russians from iWL. Again, the winner might be clear here, PsB did not sent out their most scary players just yet, Chinese Dragon FengZi still waits, Canadian LoL Champion Bibiane was nowhere near. Still, there's the holy hand granade. iWL just needs to count to three, and not stop at two, also mustn't count to four - with all that they could be safe.
The Questions
Admins can and will abuse anything you do against you. Before the warriors of the first four wars could pass on, we asked them some questions, such as "what's your favourite color?" and "what is the capital of Assyria?". We picked Elky 2.0 aka. Glio, Canadian DRaW and one of our commentators: L_Master. Initially, I tried to contact Wallace, but missed it so far. Sorry Wallace, hugs and kisses. To name drop you again - WALLACE.
+ Show Spoiler [Glio from AoV] +
Hello! Could you please introduce yourself to the audience?
Gutten tag, I'm glio, the best iccup admin, since I lead 100% ratio win vs Great (1-0). MaD left iccup team because I couldn't bear this challenge vs me. I'm also the team mate of Mewka in AoV team and member of the best french team : nG.
That's really interesting. Don't you play for another team in a big league though? Could you tell us a bit more about this team?
Of course, I play with AoV, because they needed an extremely strong player, after weeks of negociation about the salary I choosed to joined them. We are now the favourite of the league, there are many talented players like Sabas and his guardian micro, Mewka and his scout timing push, Safina and his semi-agressive build by building gates in opponent base, Elegant who i heard is known, and MaD, who is in our team B, just in case.
You mentioned your incredible skill, viewers already called you Elky 2.0. What's your secret training method?
I used to do the traditional method, playing a lot of game with some team mates, (I think I've played more than 100 games with Sabas), and just playing ladder. I also play on a secret smurf when I reach C+ to reduce the chance of my hundreds of viewers seeing my losing. But this is the past. Now I watch Gamegene's tutorial video, and it really works.
Do you have any tipps for aspiring beginners like in_Dove, Mong or Hiya?
I smell irony in your question. Dove, Mong and HiyA are way better than me. HiyA vs me will probably be 5-95 in 100 games (™)
Alright. Let's talk about your match vs. vOddy, please sum that up in a few sentences and give us an impressio of your opponent - were you scared you might lose the opening game of the best league of the world? Or were you confident?
I didn't expected a terran opponent, and I thought vOddy was still protoss, and that he played terran only for TvP. So It was a surprise. My goal was to not be ridiculous, not to win. I've got lucky to have be able to defend quite easily his doom drop in my main, so I got a nice advantage which I kept throughout the game. But I was anyway the big favourite of the match, I'm Elky 2.0, did you already forgot that?
No, I did not. Your next match will be vs. LRM. If you could pick, who would you like to play and why?
Ah, LRM, they're the challengers, I think everyone in AoV will play with the keyboard, because I heard some of their players are decent. Lately I play a lot of reverse with KenZy (me Z, he T). He's not bad at killing third bases, but when I choose to stay on two bases, I'm just too good for him. I show him how to ZvT with my zerglings, and I would like to show him the ultimate lesson of ZvT in STL.
Alright, let's do some short questions. I throw a random word at you and you type what comes to mind first. Favourite defiler.ru meme?
:must:
Zerg
KenZy's marines nightmare.
SOSPA Proleague
Hope.
Pick the strongest: Marwin, FengZi, Sziky, Scan
I don't know any of them, I'd choose Marwin because I heard he beat this "Sziky"
Okay, that'd be all. Do you have any last words?
Sure, thanks Gecko for your time, thanks to all the iCCup staff for their work, especially iCCup.Glioburd for his perfect job. I give a kiss to Mewka because he loves it (I hope he will not make the team lose like vs sB/PaiN), and to all the other AoV and nG members. I hope I will get a 2nd win in this league. And of course thanks to the Swedish Broodwar Iniatiative and all the viewers.
+ Show Spoiler [L_Master] +
Hello, and stuff. Could you please introduce yourself?
Hello ladies and gentlemen of TL. I'm LMaster and if you are wondering why on earth I'm being interviewed, I'm "known" for casting various events whether it be D Ranks leagues, STL, and other various tournies. I also organize many of the lower rank events on TL, namely DRTL and DRIT.
Do you remember why you wanted to commentate games in the first place?
To be honest, I didn't really ever have any intentions of commentating. One of the common complaints casters typically got was that they had poor game knowledge and just talked out their ass; being something like D/D+ at the time...I was worried that would be me. However, while playing in DRTL I thought to myself "wouldn't it be fun for the players if they got their games casted just like for pro events"...and my casting was born.
I intended to cast only for DRTL, but people evidently enjoyed my casting enough that I was asked to help cast at times for ISL/Gambit's Cup, and I guess the rest is history.
Ok. What's the impression of the league so far? How's the quality of games? A favourite already?
The league so far is quite interesting, but still too early to see which teams are going to be the big contenders. On paper its LRM), sas, and iFU that seem most dangerous. LRM and iFU have very strong lineups, and possess lethal aces in Sziky and Scan; and sas is just a very, very deep team. If I had to pick a favorite off the top of my head, I'd say LRM; but given it's the foriegn scene and activity counts a lot...there is certainly no way to call it.
Game quality has been good, and we have had some nice showings already, especially "paper underdogs" AoV taking two games off PsB. As always in the foriegn scene, some games might not have been beautiful play, but were still very entertaining either from the mistakes or bizzare situations that occured.
Bizzare is what we're after right now. I remember the game of Justice vs FremAN, where Justice built like a thousand turrets. You were very good at describing all of FremAN's mistakes when he made a horrible push. Where's all the negativity come from? Did you feel inspired by Justice?
Had to rewatch to remember exactly what happened. Maybe I'm playing the "PC" game, but I wouldn't call it negativity. When a player trades a control group+ of goons and some zealots for no tanks...it IS a bad engagement. Especially when you run 8 of those goons headlong into a minefield. There is no other way to call it in my opinion, and at least for me it drive me nuts when other casters do that. Same thing as when casters freak out about storms and its one ling losing 20HP.
Right. So, about the players, do you fancy hard trash talk in the style of Justice or Julia, or do you prefer no chat? Did you encounter especially bad or good comments from users/players during or after a cast?
I like the "BM", as long as it is within reason. Like most people seem to, its just funnier to see "fucking lag" at the end of a 40 minute macro game than it is to see "gg" and a game exit. Obviously legtimate insults or 30 minute endless BM rants in channel are overkill...but as casters we don't usually see that in the replay! I think since I am quite GM and as laid back as anyone out there, I don't get any especially bad comments (only YOU have the power to change this). The worst was probably "fix your sound issues".
Speaking sound issues - we heard that Hackle always almost swallows his microphone. Did you follow up on your business plan advertising exactly "this sound" on "certain adult websites"?
It's a work in progress, but we have some nice offers on the plate. I'd say look for big things in the next 6 months or so. For those quick to judge...people gotta pay the bills.
Yah, hackle has probably large bills, considering that he owns a helicopter. Since this interview is entirely based on improvization, I'm going to throw random words at you. Just write what comes to mind first - long or short, I don't really care.
The first one: Zerg
TechnicS and Sziky. Guess I got the foriegn scene on my mind. DraW might be getting gosu at zerg as well, currently second on ICC ladder. Oh. And fuck lurkers.
Right, pick one: Sziky, FengZi, Scan, Marwin
Sziky, because I wanna see forigeners givin the SOSPA guys a run for there money. Scan and FengZi for whatever reason don't have the same home-grown foriegner feel that Sziky does...and while Marwin is a total badass, he doesnt quite have the results and resume that Sziky does.
Your favourite Defiler meme?
Cliche, but :must2: will always be #1. Which reminds me, I haven't been visting dephyla enough. Oh...if it counts, the GODDAMN slide puzzle. Took me some ungodly amount of time and I nearly missed a dephyla tour signup.
Last short question: What's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Probably faster than I can run a 5k. Maybe even faster than I can run a mile.
Any last words?
Shoutouts to hackle beast for coming back to cast, MAJOR shoutout to mystery man to coming back and helping out as well...people gave him significantly more crap than he deserved, and he was still willing to come back and be a total graphics boss for STL. I'd also like to thank all my buddies in TAKK/Jesus for practice, DraW and especially NinaZerg for being hilarious, and everyone else for making SkypeStarleague a chill place.
Lastly, LRM)Game for his work in ISL/GC. He is obviously opinionated and been involved in some controversy...but that doesn't change the fact that his tours largely sustained for the foreign scene for several years, and without that we might not be having STL right now.
Super lastly - SWBI. If the reason isn't obvious to you...you're beyond redemption and help
kkk! Thanks for the interview!
+ Show Spoiler [DRaW] +
Do you have a bit more time? Ineed interviews for the SBWI write up.
ok?I always have time, but sometimes i dont reply because i am doing things i should be doing, like writing notes in class, etc (E/N dodging interviews even nowadays)
Ok, since everybody should know you already, I'll make it short and introduce yourself. You're DRaW and the spambot of Defiler Chat, also some might consider you as strong protoss. Is this correct?
This is incorrect, everyone considers me the strongest protoss. The rest is true :yume:
Could you tell us a bit about the situation of your team - the eagles - right now?
The situation is very good, none of us practice at all. We just talk about how life is going. Pez is currently the #1 secret ace of the team, but we'll probably never need him since we won't ever reach an ace match. (If you don't understand this, basically we'll always win before then). Other than that, we just pick straws to see who gets to play which map. Zaraki and Skzlime are the best coaches imaginable, so the spirits within the team are great. Oh yeah, Lumix needs to stop dodging KidCanada style and help us out once and a while.
Tell us a bit about your last opponent - spx. Do you know him? Were you scared to face an oldschool Russian Terran nobody has heard of before?
This isn't true, I know Spx very well and he's pretty underrated. I have a decent record vs him so I wasn't that scared initially to play him. However, as the game progressed I saw that he was going very heavily macro oriented in his build so I had to do something quick. Luckily as the game progressed, he wasn't able to keep up so I was able to win after continually recalling his base and reducing his army over and over. BTW, he was in the army and got out a bit over a year ago, but didn't return to BW until recently, so it's nice to see him playing again since we can use a few more terrans.
We could use a lot more non Zerg players. Why are you promoting your Zerg play so much? Don't you feel a little bit guilty?
Playing zerg for me is very casual, since my last TLS performance I was very disappointed with my results. I really thought I should have done better and I didn't stick to my strategies I prepared after losing game 3 on wind and cloud vs technics. As a result, I decided that since BW was quite inactive at the time that I would just play as casually as possible so I went full zerg and played when I could. I find zerg to be quite relaxing, I don't even micro and I have achieved #2 on the ladder playing solely Zerg. I don't really feel guilty since it shouldn't be my responsibility to kill zergs :D but I will return for this SBWI and kill them all, even Sziky.
How do you see the chances of sas in the league? Are you scared you will be roflstomped by the good teams?
I'm not scared at all because we have Zimp and Pez as our trump card, so far they haven't lost a single set in TLS/GC1/GC2/GC3 and SBWI combined. Just curious, who are the "good teams"?
All of them. Skzlime mentioned you recruited Julia because of his trash talk skills. Did he teach your roster a few new tricks?
We didn't really need him since we have myself, Dsaqwe, and Skzlime. Sometimes michael will join in, but not often. Julia hasn't synced in as of yet but maybe he will teach us a few things soon. I like this strategy of blaming Peruvian lag though.
Alright, now for some short questions. What's the next excuse on your list of excuses for not showing up?
There was another game? I didn't even know about it.
I hoped for a bit more. Nervmind, next: What's your favourite Defiler.ru meme?
Oh, you said short. You want a whole list?
No, Teamliquid has a limit for characters I think. So, favourite Defiler.ru meme?
:wtf:
The first one to pick anything but :must: so far. Alright, write what comes to mind for this word: Zerg
easy
Pick one: Sziky, FengZi, Scan or Marwin
Fengzi cause he'll never play in the league.
Imagine you walk into a bar and see TossGirl. Come up with a StarCraft pick-up line to win her over.
You must be a high templar, because I just felt something eletric
can't really think of anything, that was tough
What's the capital of Assyria?
Buttyria
Ok. That's about it. Any last words?
Usual, thanks to everyone. Hoping for entertaining league and games. GJ to my team so far, even though iFU didn't have all their top players. sas for SBWI Champions!
p.s. hopefully yume streams more bw, this is a very entertaining guy all should go watch him @ defiler.ru!
thank you too!
Post Scriptum
As you can see, this news post was more confusing than the last one. If you don't know the Flying Circus and/or the Holy Grail, you probably didn't understand shit. That's bad for you. You can stop me from writing more confusing stuff if you want. It's fairly easy. Write a PM to JaEvLaTeErAn (or to me). Tell us you're a reliable helper. Seriously though, we need writers. We're not TL with all their fancy coin-incentives (lies), TL+ or whatever. We need you. Don't be a dummy, be a smarty and join the SBWI party!
Also, what the fuck is the
We're the Swedish Inquisition! Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as: fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion for the swarm. Wait, that was wrong. Let's start again. The ursadon is not a creature of the air. Now witness their attmpts to fly from tree to tree. Notice that they do not so much fly as... plummet. No, doesn't feel right again. Now for something completely different.The opening war between Peruvian team LaGFree and the new clan iM was, just like the Swedish Inquisition, not the way you expected it to happen. LaGFree did indeed not lag, they were organized like the Italian Cosa Nostra.The first set was rather ordinary, TerrOr for LaGFree opened the war against the Zerg widowkiller with a bunker rush and took the lead.A standard Protoss vs. Terran followed, Fazers (iM) being the Terran, Dark (LaGFree) being the Protoss. The score was even, nothing too exciting, nothing too boring either, Fazers won due to very good macro, Dark was a bit late on expansions and Tech. A textbook Brood War war so far. Then it got silly.Apparently, ZeTy (Zerg, LaGFree) and Probert (T, iM) weren't supposed to play each other initially, but were forced to clash, due to an unsolvable IP conflict between ZeTy and Fazers. Anyhow, ZeTy copied Terror's aggressive style in form of a 1 Hatch Lurker build. Probert was unable keep his mind calm when trying to defend versus such aggression: he built an e-bay in front of lurkers while losing 3 SCVs, and finally producing goliaths.This time in a fourth set an iM protoss Infernis decided to play cheesy versus LaGFree TerranBoy (Terran). It was a bad idea to proxy gate against a Peruvian player - Terranboy scouted and successfully denied the cheese. Next up: Vultures sneaking out. It was really not going well for the Protoss, who already transitioned into Dark Templar Drop. He was able to miss the vultures by a second with his goon, then blocked his ramp with a Dark Templar, but the vultures glitched in. GG, 3-1 for Peru.Luckily, the fifth set was just an ordinary, long drawn, micro heavy Protoss mirror between SuGo and DienMaX. DienMaX (LaGFree) came out on top of most engagements with a few units left and thusly gained small advantages. After more than fifteen minutes he defended a large attack and could make the 4-1 perfect.Team LaGFree showed that they are ready to fight, with a unique style, and united by TerrOr's leadership. Huge respect to him and to the team overall that showed ideal discipline and patience during the match.The second war between Hungarian Eagles (sas) and Russian iFU was far more interesting, with all due respect for the skill shown in the other war - it just couldn't live up with the games we were about to see.Already the clash between Cryoc (iFU) and Michael (Eagles) was brilliant. Cryoc showed that he is a sniper and specialist in this very match up and did his best to take down the monstrous Zerg. Michael showed that he was used to a player like Pro7ect or Heme and fought back valiantly. The game was going back and forth, despite only thirty people watching. It was a very great game. Sadly, Ultralisks are strong. 1-0 for the Eagles.Next up was the almost most boring match between Canadian DRaW and the Russian WCG National veteran spx. Both are skilled, but both decided to play a rather ordinary PvT on Colosseum. In the end, DRaW's macro 1a2a3aed effectively enough, so that the eagles were in the lead with a 2-0.Next up was King Tama of the edgy table of Defiler against Sir Flame-A-Lot aka Julia on Outsider. Outsider supports silly games. Tama took his sword and chopped of Julia's arm with the first blow using 2 Gate opening. But Sir-Flames-A-Lot didn't want to give in. He could still bleed on the Protoss base. Confused Tama had to take blow after blow (sneaked zerglings killing probes) and got more confused (losing mineral only exp) and nearly lost the game, since Sir-Flame-A-Lot didn't cave. Eventually Tama could destroy Zerg's third while establishing his natural exp. Still having very few probes he invested all resources into army that allowed him to win a final battle. The game was over and iFU could take their first point of the new season.eOnzErG vs Dsaqwe was over pretty fast, too. Dsaqwe lost the opportunity to scout well, eOnzErG built lings and hydras, busted and that's the game in a nutshell. The score was even.Must aka. Lancerx tried to even out the score on Fighting Spirit in the sixth set against Hungarian eagle-Terran skzlime. Both opened standard, then exploded. Within a few minutes skzlime tried to take his third, but couldn't, as goons already expected him. Meanwhile he raided Must's economy with a bunch of vultures, while he had to deal with reaver harass in his base. Both players came out quite even, Must lost probes, skzlime his CC on his third and a couple of SCVs. The game slowed down, both couldn't really believe what they just did, probably. Terran went for a big attack, Must went for a rather bad setup and went in full heartedly from a bad spot - 4-2 for the eagles!For the third week we have more events. The Townswomen's Guild of AoV and LRM Evolutions will re-enact the battle of Pearl Harbor. Sziky, TechnicS, Bakuruy, TrutaCz and whatever they have else, are already eager to show war atrocities. But AoV's talents lined up their talents and read the script very well. They want to surprise the audience with their new faces. However, even though it seems we already know the winner, we shall wait and see. Maybe, the youngsters can re-write a bit of history there.In the second war the stealthy Pain-Bunnies will face the Russians from iWL. Again, the winner might be clear here, PsB did not sent out their most scary players just yet, Chinese Dragon FengZi still waits, Canadian LoL Champion Bibiane was nowhere near. Still, there's the holy hand granade. iWL just needs to count to three, and not stop at two, also mustn't count to four - with all that they could be safe.Admins can and will abuse anything you do against you. Before the warriors of the first four wars could pass on, we asked them some questions, such as "what's your favourite color?" and "what is the capital of Assyria?". We picked Elky 2.0 aka. Glio, Canadian DRaW and one of our commentators: L_Master. Initially, I tried to contact Wallace, but missed it so far. Sorry Wallace, hugs and kisses. To name drop you again - WALLACE.As you can see, this news post was more confusing than the last one. If you don't know the Flying Circus and/or the Holy Grail, you probably didn't understand shit. That's bad for you. You can stop me from writing more confusing stuff if you want. It's fairly easy. Write a PM to JaEvLaTeErAn (or to me). Tell us you're a reliable helper. Seriously though, we need writers. We're not TL with all their fancy coin-incentives (lies), TL+ or whatever. We need you. Don't be a dummy, be a smarty and join the SBWI party!Also, what the fuck is the iM Logo supposed to be "Was macht Gecko da aus meiner BWCL." - AnnihilatorCritics of a government proposal to streamline the courts system by introducing an online dispute system for provincial offences warn Ontarians would be being denied their constitutional right to justice. Opposition is lining up against what is known as the Administrative Monetary Penalty System (AMPS), which is designed to simplify the process for offences under the Provincial Offences Act, including the Highway Traffic Act.
John Papadakis, a spokesperson for the Ontario AMPS Opposition Task Force, claimed at a Queen’s Park press conference Tuesday that anyone issued a ticket for various offences under the Provincial Offences Act would be presumed guilty. ( Richard Brennan / for Toronto Star ) Common traffic offences can clog up the court system. Critics charge that a proposed online dispute system for provincial offences could deny Ontarians their constitutional right to justice. ( Katie Daubs / Toronto Star file photo )
John Papadakis, a spokesperson for the Ontario AMPS Opposition Task Force, claimed at a Queen’s Park press conference Tuesday that anyone issued a ticket for various offences under the Provincial Offences Act would be presumed guilty. “Imagine if government could erase your rights as a Canadian citizen simply by changing the word offence to monetary penalty... that’s what administrative monetary penalty is,” said Papadakis, who ran unsuccessfully for Toronto council last fall. “And this is what the provincial government is trying to do in a dirty, sneaky rotten little trick by sliding this in.”
Article Continued Below
He called the proposal an “assault on your constitutional rights.” Attorney General Madeleine Meilleur later told reporters no decision has been made. But she did say that provincial offences take up about 17 per cent of the courts’ time, “so we wanted to look at other avenues” for dealing with parking tickets, speeding tickets and so on and “to reduce the numbers of cases that appear before the provincial court as we speak.” Meilleur acknowledged that under AMPS, a person would not be able to appeal to the court but rather a tribunal. She also added that Supreme Court has ruled that a system like this does not run counter to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as opponents have suggested. Christine Burke, a spokeswoman for Meilleur, said serious or criminal charges, including those that involve injury or death or likely to result in jail time, will continue to be prosecuted in the courts.
“No one will ever go to jail as the result of the AMP process,” she said, adding that anyone interested in providing their input have until tonight to do it. Papadakis doesn’t buy it.
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“Imagine you are driving along and you go through an amber light (and) a police officer pulls you over and say you went through a red light and you say ‘No, I didn’t’ and the officer writes you a ticket. Currently, you have the right to challenge the officer’s evidence, to obtain that evidence, to go before an impartial judge in a court.” But AMP, he said, changes all of that. “You are no longer innocent until proven guilty as guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” Papadakis said, adding a charged person will no longer have the opportunity to challenge the evidence against him or her. “You will go before a municipal employee, who is clearly going to be biased. You will make your argument not on your innocence or guilty, you will make your argument on how much penalty you will pay, because you are already guilty,” he said, adding that an appeal will also be heard by a municipal employee.The pastor of Atlah Worldwide Church, Rev. James David Manning, posted a message Tuesday on the church's marquee, rescinding its support of Donald Trump. View Full Caption Dartunorro Clark/DNAInfo
HARLEM — The homophobic Atlah Church has retracted its endorsement of Donald Trump because its pastor believes the presidential candidate was too pro-gay in the wake of the Orlando shooting.
Rev. James David Manning, who's posted controversial messages on the marquee of the Atlah Worldwide Church including "Jesus Would Stone Homos," had heaped praise on the candidate months earlier.
But on Tuesday, a new sign outside the 123rd Street church read: “The Bible condemns Mr. Trump’s acceptance of sodomy and I withdraw my support. Sodomy is more dangerous than Jihadists.”
Manning, who previously called Trump "humble, patient, generous but a strong leader,” was reacting to a speech the candidate made Monday in response to the deadly shooting at a gay nightclub which left 49 people dead and 53 wounded.
Gunman Omar Mateen reportedly pledged his allegiance to ISIS before the Orlando attack Sunday morning.
“Radical Islam is anti-woman, anti-gay and anti-American,” Trump said.
“I refuse to allow America to become a place where gay people, Christian people and Jewish people are the targets of persecution and intimidation by radical Islamic preachers of hate and violence.
“Ask yourself, 'who is really the friend of women and the LGBT community, Donald Trump with his actions, or Hillary Clinton with her words'?" Trump continued.
“Clinton wants to allow radical Islamic terrorists to pour into our country — they enslave women and murder gays. I don’t want them in our country.”
Speaking to DNAinfo on Tuesday, Manning said, “I thought some of the speech was actually quite good, but then he gave a full-throated endorsement and recognized the sodomite lifestyle and he acknowledged their lifestyle in ways in which the Bible condemns."
Manning was one of 100 black pastors who met with Trump in December at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Midtown to back his bid for The White House.
But Manning said his doubts began when Trump said he supported transgender people to use whichever bathrooms they choose, and Caitlyn Jenner took him up on the offer at Trump Tower.
Manning also said he was similarly troubled when Trump said Kim Davis, the controversial county clerk in Kentucky who was jailed after refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses last year, should follow the law.
“After yesterday’s speech I decided, as a man of God, I could not support a man who believes in such ideology,” Manning said.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) cite rising drug prices are the motivation for reintroducing their Safe and Affordable Drugs from Canada Act.
The goal of the legislation – a bipartisan effort that would modify the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act – is two-fold. First, to allow Americans to import prescription drugs from Canada and, second, bring greater competition to the marketplace, according to the senators.
“The rising cost of prescription medication in recent years is unfairly burdening families in Arizona and across the country who often worry about whether or not they will be able to afford filling a prescription,” said Sen. McCain in a release.
He called recent prescription increases “unsustainable,” such as those documented with EpiPen, and said the legislation could save U.S. resident hundreds of dollars a year.
RELATED: EpiPen CEO faces Congress on price hike
“To be clear, these are the same drugs with the same safety standards and the same dosages that are sold in the United States,” Sen. Klobuchar said. “Passing this legislation would increase competition, bring down drug costs, and save American families money.”
Under the law, the prescriptions would have to be ordered through an approved Canadian pharmacy and dispense by a licensed pharmacist.
McCain and Klobacher said the imported prescription drugs would be identical to those available in the U.S., but much cheaper.
Copyright 2017 KPNXConsent – no other term has been discussed so often in the past few years like this one. And no matter how many times people have thought about it, the meaning is still an enigma for some. And if you yourself have a doubt what affirmative consent means, it’s when a person voluntarily agrees to someone else’s wishes or desires.
Now, when it comes to discussing sensitive issues like rape and sexual consent, Twitter is often the most disastrous forum of them all. When a girl began arguing with a nursing student over the difference between abuse and regretful sexual encounter, one user had the perfect comeback to sum up her logic – or lack thereof. The rest of the Internet has also united to denounce her comments, as well as contribute their own points of view, and we’ve got it all on the screenshot for you below.
If you’re deciding to come online and offer your counsel on any given issue, at least make sure you’re fully aware of what you’re talking about first. Scroll down to follow this entire debate on consensual sex, and don’t forget to add your views at the end.
This nursing student perfectly summed up the difference between rape and regretting sex on Twitter…
And was countered by this user who disagreed with her
This brilliant comeback, however, exposes the problem with the girl’s argument
Some male users felt particularly perturbed by the supposed ‘revoked consent’ policy
Even female users, especially one rape survivor, took issue with it
There is actually some truth behind what the girl was trying to say
She brutally misfired, though, and the Internet had absolutely no time for it
Do you think consent can be revoked in retrospect, or does this concept harm real victims? Tell us below!Beginning with the matchup that started on December 6, the range of worlds yours can be matched up against has been greatly reduced. There will be fewer matches where one or two worlds are potentially steamrolled, though it comes at the cost of seeing more of the same worlds.
When WvW first began, matches were determined by sorting all worlds in order of their Glicko rating, then counting off sets of three. Matches eventually settled into nearly always being the same from week-to-week. In answer to this, matchup variance was introduced (see Jordan Massey’s blog post). This variance works by getting an adjusted version of each world’s rating, then sorting and counting off triplets.
The first values for this allowed your world’s matchup rating to be adjusted by as much as (deviation + 40), capped at 200. This fixed the staleness, and introduced a great deal more movement between ranks. We even saw some lower-rated worlds jump up the ranks now that they weren’t tied into the same matches week after week. For a good look at the history of world ranks, see Millenium’s charts for NA or EU (variance first began on June 7, or Week 23).
The new values allow for adjustments as much as (devation * 0.45 + 10), capped at 100. In both cases, the roll is plus-or-minus these values multiplied by a random real value in the range (-1,1).
Below, you’ll find four images showing estimated chances of each world facing the others under both the old and new values. Chances were calculated by matching up the various worlds 10,000 times, using current Glicko ratings. Chances were rounded and those under 1% omitted for readability.
NA:
EU:(CNN) Across the state of Florida, and up into Georgia and South Carolina, images of first responders have become a welcome sight amid the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.
But among the usual uniforms -- those of police, firefighters and paramedics -- a nun's habit stands out.
This nun took a chainsaw in hand to help clean up debris from Hurricane Irma https://t.co/noNcbZBrgT https://t.co/r6bixPDJx5 — CNN (@CNN) September 13, 2017
And when said nun is wielding a chainsaw, well, that is something that can renew faith in even the most downtrodden.
"There was a need, I had the means, so I wanted to |
in the future, and pick a vendor that has a clear 1-3 year roadmap. Keep an open mind when evaluating new vendors and approaches. Look for ways to get more value out of backup. For example, backup can support disaster recovery as part of the deal. (In the case of Druva, it can address challenges beyond backup such as eDiscovery and compliance.)
A mindset for cloud may still be lagging among the stalwarts at the heart of the data center. But new opportunities are emerging that bring organizations cloud entry points, such as protection and backup of data on endpoints and remote offices outside the data center. These new approaches offer a foot in the door for realizing cloud efficiencies. If nothing else, they are a great answer for when your boss asks for your plan for cloud backup so you won’t be caught with your head in the clouds or your feet kicking the tires of very real, but outmoded, legacy solutions.WORMHOLE is an indispensable tool for sound designers, film composers and and electronic musicians alike. Whether creating alien voices, surreal ambiences, space-ship drones, off-the-wall electronic instrument sounds, or other special effects, WORMHOLE delivers sounds so unearthly you’d swear they were generated in another dimension or parallel universe.
Zynaptiq Wormhole is a new effects processing plugin for creating otherworldly sounds. Wormhole combines an eccentric spectral warping section with a lush reverb and precision-engineered processor that integrates pitch and frequency shifting into a single process – offering unique sonic characteristics and near-perfect side-band and carrier suppression.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
WORMHOLE consists of 5 highly synergistic processing modules: the spectral WARP, the pitch/frequency SHIFT, the dual random modulated hall REVERB, a nifty little DELAY, and the dry/wet morphing FX BLEND sections. In combination with a flexible signal path, this makes WORMHOLE an ultra-fast and easy-to-use, high-end multieffects processor, that covers the full range from the subtle to the (very) extreme. Whether you're a sound designer, music producer or ambient artist, WORMHOLE is for you.
Dry-Wet Morphing, a.k.a. FX BLEND
When strongly processing sounds, a simple dry/wet crossfade often fails to do what you really want to achieve – dialling back the intensity of the effect. Instead, you'll get the impression of two sounds playing at once. This is why where other plugins have a dry-wet control, WORMHOLE has FX BLEND. The FX BLEND module expands on the dry-wet concept by providing multiple algorithms for combining the two streams.
In addition to the classic d/w crossfade, it features two implementations of our unique structural audio morphing technology to morph seamlessly between your input and the effect. This fuses the two – turning them into one single sound in-between – and can "wrap" the effect signal into the "silhouette" of the source for greater definition aka "tightness" than you typically get from heavy processing.
The dry-wet morphing also allows for much greater "realism" on heavily processed sounds such as monster voices, for myriad hybrid sounds to be explored, and for creating super-smooth transitions where the effect harmonics "grow out of the source" in a way you've never heard before.
WARP
WARP performs a unique localized time-domain spectral warping effect, whose flavor lies somewhere between ring- and frequency-modulation, frequency- and formant-shifting, modal resonation, and spectral mapping. WARP sounds mesmerisingly strange and always stays crisp, intelligible, and tight (unless you don't want that, of course). It even includes a mode that introduces discontinuity artifacts to generate grit for all sorts of space-age special effects.
SHIFT
SHIFT combines +- 4 octaves of pitch-shift with +-4kHz of frequency-shift into one single processing step.The PITCH SHIFTER is a unique design that is neither delay/grain nor FFT/phase-vocoder based. As a result, it exhibits none of the typical artifacts like grains, flamming, or aliasing, and is very low on pitch-jumping or warbling. It features 4 dedicated algorithm modes: SMOOTH, TIGHT, DETUNE A, and DETUNE B. SMOOTH and TIGHT do exactly what their names imply – shifting up or down by up to 48 semitones.
The DETUNE modes shift the left and right channels in opposite directions by +- 48 cents for that micro-shifting-chorus-that-is-no-chorus thickening effect. And we´re proud to be able to say that WORMHOLE´s PITCH SHIFTER sounds incredibly detailed, organic, and warm.
WORMHOLE's FREQUENCY SHIFTER is extremely clean, sporting around 96dB of carrier/side-band suppression, greatly enhancing the useful range of effects achievable. Like the PITCH SHIFTER, the FREQUENCY SHIFTER is fully aliasing-free. The SHIFT section also features a unique DECAY TIME control. By discarding signal components that exceed an adjustable duration, it unclutters and tightens up the sound in a very cool way. And, when shifting up, it greatly reduces the "ringing" effect caused by the naturally longer decay times of low frequencies being shifted into the subjectively louder mid-range. It can also be used for special effects like simulating analog communications circuit "sagging", or adding timbral "fluttering".
REVERB
What's better than a great reverb? Exactly, TWO great reverbs, of course. That's why WORMHOLE's REVERB section features two simple but super-lush sounding random modulated hall type reverbs with shared controls. One is placed before the FX BLEND – giving effects that aren´t quite your typical reverb when used with the dry-wet morphing. The other is placed after the FX BLEND. For maximum reverberation flexibility, you can use either one, or both at the same time.
DELAY
Living in the slot where other plugins have a pre-delay, WORMHOLE's very simple but highly effective DELAY represents an evolution of this concept. In addition to delaying the effect signal, it can delay the dry signal instead...or do both, in opposing directions for the L and R channels. This creates super-wide effects that are still fully balanced around the center of the sound stage. Within seconds. In combination with the pitch shifter's DETUNE modes and the dry-wet morphing (where the DELAY effectively modifies what gets morphed into what), unique sounds ranging from subliminal enhancement to the off-the-hook variety can be created.
So What Is This For?
While WORMHOLE excels at making the usually time-consuming workflows of creating high-quality Sci-Fi sounds and creature voices fast, easy, fun and extremely hi-fi, it actually covers a very broad range of applications – including musical sweetening and ambient effects from the grungy to the shimmering and lush, bread-and-butter mixing effects like creating suboctaves, widening, chorusing, filtering, harmonic shaping and reverberation, and some seriously psychedelic electronica colors and mangling effects. Here are some of the things WORMHOLE is great at.
Surreal Soundscapes and SFX
With WORMHOLE, spaceship atmospheres and neutrino accelerator field fluctuation induced interference oscillations are unbelievably easy to make – and sound unbelievably good, too. Turn cute metal clangs into huge impacts of intergalactic proportions, aircondition rumble into ancient planetoid displacement machinery hum, and synthesizer waveforms into mutated cyborg production facility power plant drones. Then, animate the sound organically by moving the dry/wet morph and section dry/wet mixes just a little bit. Or go crazy and automate everything all over the place, of course.
Alien, Robot and Monster Voices & Space-Age Transmission FX
WORMHOLE is insanely good for making all sorts of creature and robotic voices, as well as making them sound like the gravitometric faster-than-light transceiver went out-of-range. The WARP and SHIFT sections provide the mangling, while the dry/wet morphing ensures intelligibility (even with extreme transformations) and serves to fine-tune the alienification amount – reigning even the strongest processing back in if so desired. Or use the morphing to gradually transition from clean to mutated in an otherwise impossible, cool way.
Musical Effects – Shimmering, Ambient, Lush, Beautiful
Guitars, pianos, pads all love WORMHOLE. It does just that thing that you'd typically reach for your really awesome vintage rack multi-effects units for, and feed them back into each other through the console...if they weren´t out for service. Again. With unknown ETA due to the parts being unobtainium. And actually, WORMHOLE is the space-age version of that approach. No pitch-shifter induced disharmonic sidebands or graininess. Just pure, lushly blissfull glassy ambient fifths and octaves, micro-detuning shimmers, and more. Did we mention the dual, cascadable random modulated hall reverbs yet?
Mixing Effects – Widening, Chorusing & More
Since we gave WORMHOLE a really great pitch shifter, we figured: it would be smart to also make it do the L/R Detuning-Widening-Chorusing Thing. As we try to be smart as much as we can, we taught WORMHOLE how to do just that. The pitch-shifter has two dedicated L/R detuning modes and, taking the approach up another notch, we also created what we believe to be the first center-balanced widening delay. Together with the dry/wet morphing and the dual reverb engines, this makes for organic sounds from the sublimely subtle to the...well, NOT-so-subtle-at-all.
Far-Out Electronic Musical Effects & Destruction
Create sounds that mimic oscillator sync using any sound as the source. Even after the fact. Apply super-high fidelity frequency shifting, create wild pumping textures that sound far more aggressive than possible with a compressor, use the WARP circuit for emulating sample rate reduction and for creating unique lo-fi tones in a hi-fi way. Or, more generally speaking: transform your sounds in otherworldly ways. That´s WORMHOLE. If you dig modular synths (like we do), you´ll love it.
Simplexity
None of this complexity translates into your workflow, though – the WORMHOLE user interface is strikingly simple, and the plug-in is a breeze to use. A huge selection of meticulously crafted factory presets and a weighted randomization feature make exploring space beyond the WORMHOLE superluminally fast. Easy to use MIDI Learn for all controls makes fine-tuning parameters easier than translocating into a parallel universe. Well, quite a bit easier, actually. Give the free trial a spin to experience this multi-dimensional joyride for yourself!Competition may be heating up in Canada's wireless sector, but profit levels at the big three providers are still the highest in the developed world, according to a report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Canadian wireless companies — led by Bell, Rogers and Telus, which control about 95 per cent of the market — had earnings (before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of 46.7 per cent in the first quarter, a margin that topped 21 developed nations tracked by the bank in its regular Global Wireless Matrix report.
The average margin in the developed world was 38.3 per cent, with U.K. firms posting the lowest result at 22.6 per cent. The Canadian result was closer to the 42.2 per cent average found among the 29 emerging economies in Europe, Asia and Latin America tracked by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Margins in that group were highest in the Philippines, at 62.9 per cent, followed by Morocco, at 58.8 per cent, and Indonesia, at 56.6 per cent.
Canadian carriers also led all 50 nations with the highest average revenue per user (ARPU) per month, at $54.73 US. The average ARPU among developed nations was $42.90. In the United States, ARPU was $49.54 while in the United Kingdom it was $31.63. Greece had the lowest APRU in the group with $19.87.
P.O.V.: Is your monthly cellphone bill too high? Take our poll.
Canada also placed last among developed nations in penetration, or the percentage of the population that subscribes to wireless services, with 69 per cent. The average among peer nations was 109 per cent, indicating many people in other countries are subscribing to more than one wireless account.
The average penetration rate in the developing world was 66 per cent. Five countries — all of them in the developing world — had lower penetration than Canada: Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan and Nigeria. Canada also had the highest landline penetration of the countries measured, at 60 per cent.
Canada saw its lead slip in low per-minute revenue. While the average revenue of 10 cents per minute ranked Canada as having the fourth-lowest rate in the developed world, the gap with other countries has been shrinking rapidly. The average revenue rate in the first quarter was 11 cents per minute. U.S. carriers had the lowest per-minute revenue among their peers, with four cents.
While Canadian carriers posted low per-minute revenue, other charges — such as caller ID, voice mail and data — contributed to their otherwise high ARPU.
Canadians also posted high minutes of use, with the average subscriber talking 368 minutes per month, the third highest behind Singapore's 374 and the U.S.'s 814. All three countries were unique in the developed world by counting incoming calls as part of their minutes. Carriers in other nations charge only for outgoing calls.
Data usage represented 23.9 per cent of the average Canadian monthly wireless bill, which was below the developed world's average of 31.8 per cent. Japanese wireless customers led the pack with 49.1 per cent of their bills going to data.
New carriers that have started up in Canada over the past seven months — including Wind Mobile, Public Mobile and Mobilicity — have promised simpler and cheaper service plans.HASCON17: Jedi Temple Archives Interviews Hasbro
Jedi Temple Archives and our friends at Bantha Skull have been side by side throughout the entire HASCON event thus far. In fact, our Q&A sessions with Hasbro were back to back. Our Q&A with Hasbro is ready, so click through to listen to the audio. And be sure to keep checking back at BanthaSkull.com for their Q&A session in the very near future too! We sincerely thank Steve Evans and Joe Ninivaggi for taking time out of their schedule to talk to us (it was great seeing you guys) and Alyssa Hackman from Litzky PR for setting up the interview. We have also made Hasbro aware of all the questions you asked that we couldn’t add into our session, so rest assured they’re reading what you have to say. P.S. If anyone wants to transcribe this we will feature it in our comments. Thanks!
Listen to our full interview with Hasbro at HASCON 2017 using the player below. If you are unable to play the file, you can download it directly right here (downloadable MP3).[GNUnet-developers] Project proposal: The GNUnet of autonomous Things
From: Daniel Golle Subject: [GNUnet-developers] Project proposal: The GNUnet of autonomous Things Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2016 12:39:16 +0100 User-agent: Mutt/1.7.1 (2016-10-04)
Hi! I want to suggest a project to be (partially) funded by prpl's OpenWrt project grant. Abstract: Implement a secure autotonomous IoT hub using OpenWrt/LEDE's ubus service and the GNUnet P2P framework. Introduction: Despite the ongoing hype about the so-called Internet of Things, the current practise is rather chaotic and severe structural flaws of IoT devices became a common occurance, including easy-to-remote-exploit vulnerabilities and brain-dead mistakes such as a hard-coded DNS server address rendering thousands of IoT connected devices unusable now that the server is no longer being operated. Given the continous history of quite predictable security and privacy-related catastrophies in the still quite infantile IoT-sphere, taking a step back, a radical shift of praradigms, away from the patterns of Web/Cloud-based infrastrucure will help providing a much more secure and reliable user experience and thereby increase trust in future networked applications. Recent examples of typical problems related to the missing security model and centralized control servers: http://metropolitan.fi/entry/ddos-attack-halts-heating-in-finland-amidst-winter Or hard-coded server addresses: http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2016/october/singapore-telco-visits-customers-homes-to-secure-devices-after-cyberattack/ Or missing security by default: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37750798 >From a coders point of view, the lack of a vendor-neutral abstraction of low-bandwidth peripherals makes it hard to develop general purpose applications which do not depend on a specific hardware or middleware. This projects suggest a from bottom-to-top redesign addressing the diversity of components and local access methods (ranging from in-kernel-only drivers to almost pure userland implementations), connectivity (NAT traversal, discovery,...) as well as security and privacy-related concerns. As a first measure, a generic integration of low-bandwidth peripherals such as simple sensors and actors using the OpenWrt/LEDE core infrastructure will provide a great improvement to access and manage local IoT features. This may then be used by various higher level applications, such as data-logging/monitoring, WebUI or machine-to-machine communication. As dependence on centralized services providing remote access has shown to be problematic in terms of security and privacy as well as reliability, direct connectivity or application-agnostic indirect routing using well-known P2P techniques can bring about more interoperatibility and sustainability. GNUnet provides (among with many other things) a modular toolkit for P2P, ranging from a NAT-aware multi-transport, cryptographically addressed general purpose overlay network to pub/sub, filesharing and real-time conversation services. In a second phase of the project, this core infrastructure is going to be used to provide secure, reliable and privacy-aware remote access to IoT features on typical OpenWrt/LEDE target hardware. Using GNUnet implies inheriting all the advantages of a secure P2P infrastructure which has seen 12 years of intense research and several iterations of architectural revolutions within that long time. Having a remote-access method for ubus which already provides it's own set tools to work in a wide range of environments (think: behind NAT, using low-level transports such as UDP, TCP, HTTP and proper HTTPS over IPv4/v6 as well as raw bluetooth and wifi injection sockets for local area coverage) and got it's own built-in security mechanisms as well as management structures (think: a distributed personal PKI) also seems to be a very good match, especially due to the modular nature of GNUnet which allows using only the parts needed on resource constraint hardware. Obviously this may be also very useful for any kind of remote-management or other sort of remote-access to ubus and/or rpcd. GNUnet is extremely portable, works on a great variety UNIX-like systems as well as Windows and can be compiled using LLVM, thus be turned into a in-browser JavaScript-monster using enscriptem, see https://gnunet.io/ for an early example of an in-browser version of GNUnet's anonymous filesharing service. In the past 2 years I ported to OpenWrt/LEDE, contributed fixes as well as features back upstream and became a member of the GNUnet e.V. association, mainly having applications like the above in mind. In a third phase, a set of services utilizing that infrastructure such as a plugin for collectd (data logging), a programmable monitor/alarm service polling properties and emmit events and action triggers listing for events and controlling actors is going to be built. Project schedule (I) As a first step towards better integration of typical IoT USE-cases into OpenWrt/LEDE, a ubus service allowing access to low-bandwidth peripherals shall be created. It's modular design shall allow for plugins providing access to various different APIs and low-level busses. Plugins may expose read and write access to datastructures and emmitt event notifications. The ubus API shall be sound and well-documented. Sample plugins including verbose comments utilizing and demonstrating that infrastructure shall be implemented. (II) Once sensors and actores are available via the local ubus instance, a ubus rpc proxy which operates as a GNUnet service shall be implemented to allow secure and privacy-aware pairing of OpenWrt/LEDE devices and remote access to ubus using GNUnet. (III) Several follow-up users of the now available infrastructure shall be created in the third phase of the project, including a plugin to the most commonly used data logging service (collectd) and a polling service emitting events if defined thresholds are reached. A simple generic controller, similar to OpenWrt/LEDE's hotplug scripts (jsonscript) shall be implemented to take actions upon events. Phase (I) is estimated to be about 2 to 3 months of full-time development time, phase (II) slightly less, phase (III) depends on the intended volume and estimated adoptation of the previously created infrastruture by the community and it's cost should thus be evaluated after phase (I) has been completed and was received by the community. The different phases may be funded by different parties. I consider phase (I) as being most relevant to prpl and it's members. Phase (I) deliverables ubus IoT service Methods: - list - list_plugins - get {object} {property} [property,...] - set {object} {property} {value} Plugins: - sensors (read, emmitting events) - GPIO via sysfs (read, write) (- libmodbus (read, write)) (- libi2c (read, write)) (- libevdev (emitting events)) (- ola/DMX512 (write)) (- other IoT libraries like IoTivity? LinkIT?) (plugins in parentheses are optional and may be implemented at a later point in time imho, prpl and the OpenWrt/LEDE community may suggest different priorities) I'm looking forward to hear from you! Best regards Daniel
reply via email toHOUSTON — NASA is seeking proposals for studies and technology development efforts related to the use of space resources, particularly as they apply to future human missions to the moon and Mars.
NASA issued Dec. 4 an appendix to its Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships 2 (NextSTEP-2) program, calling for proposals on studies and technology development efforts related to what’s known as in situ resource utilization, or ISRU.
The program will cover both trade studies as well as development of key components and subsystems needed to extract water, carbon dioxide and other volatiles from the Martian atmosphere and the soils of Mars, the moon, and asteroids. Such resources can then be used for life support and as propellants, reducing the reliance future expeditions have on resources transported, at significant expense, from Earth.
NASA plans to make the bulk of the awards in one of three tracks, devoted to the development and testing of components for ISRU systems. In its solicitation, the agency said it expects to make between one and three such awards, valued at $250,000 to $500,000 per year for up to three years.
NASA also plans to make a similar number of awards for trade studies that will examine architectures for ISRU systems and technology gaps, with each valued at about $50,000. NASA expects to make one award for both component and subsystem development worth $250,000 to $750,000 a year for up to three and a half years. As with other NextSTEP projects, NASA expects companies to share in the costs of the projects.
The announcement comes as there is growing commercial interest in extracting resources from asteroids, in particular water from subsurface ice or hydrated minerals that could be used for propellant or life support. Companies such as Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources are planning robotic missions in the next several years to visit near Earth asteroids to determine the presence and accessibility of water.
“We are very much a mining company that is operating in space, rather than a space or a space technology company,” said James Orsulak, director of sales and business development at Planetary Resources, during a panel discussion Dec. 5 at the SpaceCom Expo here.
Planetary Resources is launching a six-unit cubesat in January, one of a number of secondary payloads on an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle mission, to test sensor technologies. Orsulak said the company is focused on a 2020 mission that will fly six spacecraft to six asteroids, mapping their surfaces for water resources and firing penetrator probes to perform analysis.
“That mission is really designed to help inform what is the first mine, what is the first asteroid that we will pick for the first mine,” he said.
The new NASA solicitation may not be of much help to asteroid mining companies, as it is focused primarily on using lunar and Martian resources. The interest in asteroids, as well as the Martian moons of Phobos and Deimos, is limited to “trade studies that address technical feasibility and identify critical architecture and technology gaps,” the solicitation states.
NASA, though, is interested in commercial applications of the technology, requiring bidders to discuss how the proposed studies and technologies “meets NASA’s strategy to stimulate the commercial space industry while leveraging commercial space and terrestrial capabilities.”
The emergence of space resources companies also encouraged NASA to pursue this project. Diane Linne, a senior research engineer at NASA’s Glenn Research Center who is project manager for an ISRU technology project supported by the agency’s human exploration and operations mission directorate, said on the panel that those companies’ efforts helped persuade NASA to invest in ISRU technology research. “Now we have a budget, and it’s our turn to help you.”
Space resources, whether developed for NASA missions or produced commercially, remains a long-term endeavor. “If you’re looking for a profit in three years or four years or something like that, you’re not going to find it in this kind of a company in a big way,” said Rick Tumlinson, founder of Deep Space Industries. “However, the payoff in the long term can be incredibly huge.”Update: | Dec. 16.--The owner of Jordan's BBQ says he is heartbroken for the man who lost his life yesterday but that he had no choice but to protect his family.
“Pretty much everybody knows me in this community, I’ve been out here going on eleven years, and I won’t harm a fly,” he said.
But Jordan says he had no choice but to act on Thursday.
He says around 3:30 p.m. a Hispanic man approached his barbecue stand off Eliand Drive and asked for money.
Jordan says he didn’t have any to give. But he did counter that offer with an opportunity for the man to earn it.
“Jordan asked him what I got for him to do, I said nothing at this point, but he can come tomorrow, unload the wood and unload the truck. It was something simple for him to do and he could continue to work with us,” Jordan's brother Mario said.
Sadly the man wasn’t looking for work; he was looking for an easy pay day and demanded all the money they had.
“He told me he wanted it all, so when he said he wanted it all, my son Malik was standing behind him and said daddy, he got something chrome in his pocket,” Jordan said.
He says he didn’t know what it was but assumed it was a gun.
“He’s not going to try four big guys with a knife, so he got to have a gun, that’s the first thing that went through my mind,” he said.
Jordan says he feared for his families life when he pulled out his own gun and fired.
“I looked at my brother and I was like man, it was him or us,” Jordan said.
They immediately called 911. The man who has not been identified died a short time later at a local hospital. Investigators later discovered an 8 inch metal spike in the mans pocket.
Jordan and his brother Mario say their hearts go out to the mans family for a tragedy they wish would have never happened.
“We’re gonna try to reach out to whoever his family is once they find out his name, whoever he is, and if we can help them with Christmas, we’ll do that,” Mario said.
At this point investigators are calling this an attempted robbery and have said Jordan acted in self defense.
Original Story: The owner of a popular Pasco County BBQ stand, Jordan’s BBQ, shot and killed a would be robber after Sheriff Chris Nocco says he tried to rob them.
This all happened at the BBQ stand located in a grassy area off of Hilton Road and Eliand Blvd in Zephyrhills.
Pasco County Sheriff said an unknown man walked up to the BBQ stand around 3:40 p.m. Thursday asking for money. The owner’s son told the man to come back tomorrow and he would get him a job to make some money.
“The conversation turned aggressive,” Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco said. “He makes a statement give me the F-ing money, he uses that word, and then he says ‘I want it all.’”
Nocco said the owner of Jordan’s BBQ feared for his life and “did what he had to do.”
“On the male there was about a six to eight inch spike that was in his person so he did have a weapon on him,” Nocco said. “The father then yells to his son who is the business owner, there is a weapon in his pocket, the business owner states he is scared very nervous he's in fear and he fears he's going to be robbed and at that point he takes out a.380 Taurus and shoots the unknown male one time.”
Investigators are now trying to pull fingerprints off of the man to try and identify him.
Nocco said they are not releasing the business owner’s name. They are also trying to determine exactly how close the suspected robber was when he threatened the father and son.Shutterstock
“I didn’t know that brown cheese burns so well,” said Kjell Bjoern Vinje of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. The inferno that occurred when close to 27 tons of caramelized goat cheese caught fire proves that, in fact, it does.
A truck carrying the Norwegian delicacy, known as brunost, was being transported through a tunnel near Tysfjord in northern Norway when the driver noticed that his cargo was on fire. According to the BBC, the driver abandoned the burning truck about 1,000 ft from the tunnel’s southern entrance, as the cheese burned on. The tunnel and two miles of road were shut down as firefighters attempted to battle the blaze.
(MORE: WATCH: The Norwegian Seafood Council Sushi Dance)
But not only did the goat cheese burn, it proved extremely difficult to put out. The fire raged for five days and filled the tunnel with toxic gases that have hampered recovery operations, officials said. According to the website Nordic Nibbler, brunost is not technically a cheese in the traditional sense but boiled, carmelized goat’s milk whey — a sweet, salty brick of dairy product that can contain up to 30 percent fat.
That high concentration of fat and sugar made it burn “almost like petrol,” police officer Viggo Berg told the BBC. The tunnel, which is reportedly badly damaged, is likely to remain closed for several weeks.
No one, apart from the brunost lovers waiting for their shipment, was hurt in the incident.
MORE: WATCH: Hero Pig Saves Baby Goat From Drowning
MORE: Snoop Dogg Banned from Norway For Two Years After (What Else?) a Pot BustMichael K and I both coughed up a mouthful of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos when we saw this picture of former mile-high coke head and current mermaid hunter Demi Lovato and hot mess mayor of Party City Sharon Needles at a NYC Pride event last night, because we were SO SHOCKED to see that Demi had channeled her inner butch and chopped off her hair. But after doing about 0.03 seconds of research, we discovered that there was no need to release a BREAKING NEWS bulletin, because she had simply pinned her hair back. I know, we truly are the Woodward and Bernstein of our generation.
Demi probably knew there was no use spending 3+ hours dyeing, drying, teasing, and styling that fried mess of ratty raver hay she calls a weave, because why give 110% when Sharon Needles is just going to show up in some busted bus-stop ELEGANZA and set the bar nice and low. It looks like this time Sharon set the bar somewhere around “Snickers Lady Amanda Lepore”, with a side of dyeing your wig in the hotel sink using an expired packet of Purplesaurus Rex. And I love her for it, because it meant Demi could leave the glamour to Sharon and serve up some sexy MILF realtor at her stepson’s first drag show in the city realness. This IS the look. All of it.
The only shade I’ll throw at Demi is for that Ann Taylor LOFT-looking jacket. DEMETRIA NO! A sexy MILF realtor is more of a Chico’s Outlet kind of lady!
Pic: TwitterRep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) on Thursday called for a "total and complete shutdown" on legislation advancing President 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's agenda in light of reports of possible coordination between his campaign and Moscow.
The accusation followed a CNN report claiming that several U.S. officials believe that the FBI has information that suggests possible coordination between President Trump's associates and suspected Russian operatives during the 2016 election aimed at releasing hacked information to damage 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.
“The bombshell revelation that U.S. officials have information that suggests Trump associates may have colluded with the Russians means we must pause the entire Trump agenda. We may have an illegitimate President of the United States currently occupying the White House,” Lieu said in a statement.
Cloud of treason means we must have total shutdown of any @POTUS agenda item. No votes on any item. My stmt https://t.co/stvzhHfMZ6 #GetWoke — Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 23, 2017
“Other than allowing routine governmental functions, there must be a total and complete shutdown of any agenda item being pushed by the Trump Administration. Congress cannot continue regular order and must stop voting on any Trump-backed agenda item until the FBI completes its Trump-Russia collusion investigation."
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Lieu urged Congress to appoint a special prosecutor and form an independent commission in order to investigate the alleged contacts "with impartiality and independence."
"Congress also needs to pass the Resolution of Inquiry, authored by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and I, to compel the Trump Administration to publicly disclose information on its Russian ties to the American people," the lawmaker maintained.
"At this point in our nation's history, there is nothing more important than finding out whether or not high crimes were committed by associates of Donald Trump or possibly by Trump himself,” he added.At TED conferences, a standing ovation is the ultimate award, validating that the audience was truly moved by the speaker. Can AI ever achieve that marker?
On Thursday at the TED Conference in Vancouver, TED’s Chris Anderson and the X Prize Foundation’s Peter Diamandis announced the AI XPrize, which will give an award to the first AI to take the stage (whether it rolls, walks, floats like a hologram or is a disembodied voice) and gives a TED talk that moves the audience enough to receive a standing ovation.
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The details and the rules are still being decided, and Anderson and Diamandis encouraged anyone interested to reach out via the website with comments and thoughts. Anderson said they’d give a couple of the finalists a chance every year at the annual Ted Conference the opportunity to give a talk to test whether they can receive the standing ovation.
“This might take 20 years, who knows,” said Anderson on stage. But Anderson noted that the new XPrize is a way for the TED community to keep track of the progress of AI and to help discover what computer intelligence can and can not do.UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd has once again demonstrated she does not know how encryption works, this time by explicitly admitting it to delegates at a Tory party fringe conference where she also hit out at "patronising" techies that "sneered" at politicians.
Speaking at a Spectator event, Rudd said: "It's so easy to be patronised in this business. We will do our best to understand [encryption].
"We will take advice from other people but I do feel that there is a sea of criticism for any of us who try and legislate in new areas, who will automatically be sneered at and laughed at for not getting it right," reported the Beeb.
"I don't need to understand how encryption works to understand how it's helping – end-to-end encryption – the criminals. I will engage with the security services to find the best way to combat that."
Rudd has repeatedly criticised tech companies for not doing more to work with the government to allow intelligence services to get into encrypted services such as WhatsApp.
But as many "sneering" experts have previously pointed out, if a backdoor exists then anyone can exploit it, including criminals, making it impossible to allow access to encrypted messages without compromising the entire system.
Rudd had previously been subject to much "patronising" commentary when she said the government needs to get people who "understand the necessary hashtags" talking. The Home Office later clarified that Rudd meant "hashing".
Later today the Home Secretary is expected to announced that people who repeatedly view terrorist content online could face up to 15 years in jail. ®FILE - In tbis Jan. 16, 2017 file photo, Washington Wizards guard John Wall (2) moves under the basket against Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) and forward Ed Davis (17) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Washington. The same fans who Wall once joked get more excited for a free chicken sandwich than a win are being treated to much |
Former JLS star Oritse Williams denies rape allegation The singer has not been charged Getty 6/9 Bill Gates announces $1bn investment fund for clean energy technology Team-up with Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and others aims to fight climate change - and reap'super' rewards Getty 7/9 Donald Trump's aide worked for anti-immigation extremists Poll was used by President-elect during campaign to justify banning Muslims from the US Reuters 8/9 Henry Kissinger tells Nobel Peace Prize forum to give Donald Trump a chance More than 7,000 people called for the'mastermind of war' to be arrested while visiting Norway EPA 9/9 John Travolta dismisses new Scientology documentary by former member Leah Remini The actor defends the church and says it was a source of support for him when he lost his girlfriend, mother and son Getty 1/9 US President-elect Donald Trump and musician Kanye West pose for media at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York City Reuters 2/9 Anna Wintour apologises for criticising Donald Trump on a train. Fashionista was reportedly heard saying the President-elect would use the Presidency 'to sell himself and his brand' Getty 3/9 Ivanka Trump and her husband might be joining the next administration. The couple is plotting a move to the nation's capital Getty 4/9 Samuel L Jackson calls Muslims 'the new black kids in America' 'People perceive them as a threat before even saying hello,' actor says of Muslims in the US Getty 5/9 Former JLS star Oritse Williams denies rape allegation The singer has not been charged Getty 6/9 Bill Gates announces $1bn investment fund for clean energy technology Team-up with Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and others aims to fight climate change - and reap'super' rewards Getty 7/9 Donald Trump's aide worked for anti-immigation extremists Poll was used by President-elect during campaign to justify banning Muslims from the US Reuters 8/9 Henry Kissinger tells Nobel Peace Prize forum to give Donald Trump a chance More than 7,000 people called for the'mastermind of war' to be arrested while visiting Norway EPA 9/9 John Travolta dismisses new Scientology documentary by former member Leah Remini The actor defends the church and says it was a source of support for him when he lost his girlfriend, mother and son Getty
"I guess there are bots who try your password thousands of time,” he added.
Mr Perkins also informed his Twitter followers of the hack. “Apologies for brief break in service, I believe my (temporarily hacked) Twitter account is now back in safe hands,” he wrote.
Perkins was Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces in Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet but resigned from this position on 27 June 2016.
Mr Corbyn’s Twitter account was also hacked back in January, with a series of foul-mouthed posts published from his account, including one mocking the former Prime Minister David Cameron by saying: “Davey Cameron is a pie”.
Increasing numbers of celebrities have been the victim of Twitter hacks in recent months. With Lana Del Ray, Katy Perry, Tenacious D and Drake all becoming the subject of hacks.
A representative for Twitter did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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Subscribe nowThe Trump Administration keeps trying to go after scientists, and being forced to retreat
As President George W. Bush said, “Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me... You can’t get fooled again!”
During the his Administration, political appointees censored climate science reports from government agencies, and mostly got away with it by gagging the scientists. A survey found that nearly half of 1,600 government scientists at seven agencies ranging from NASA to the EPA had been warned against using terms like “global warming” in reports or speeches, throughout Bush’s eight-year presidency.
Unaccustomed to being strong-armed by their own administrators, some government scientists reacted with what former US Climate Change Science Program senior associate Rick Piltz called “an anticipatory kind of self-censorship.” As a result, the Bush Administration’s efforts to smother scientific findings concerning global warming in government reports were remarkably effective.
Trump is dusting off the Bush censorship playbook
Perhaps assuming those tactics would work again, the Trump Administration has copied the Bush scientific censorship playbook. They issued de facto gag orders to government science agencies like the EPA and USDA, ordered that the EPA take down its climate webpage, and have mandated that any studies or data from EPA scientists must undergo review by political appointees before they can be released to the public.
However, the Trump Administration is quickly realizing that scientists learned from the Bush scandal. This time around they’re not trying to appease the political appointees by staying quiet and allowing the censorship to happen.
We saw an early indication that the Bush tactics won’t succeed in 2017 when the Trump transition team launched an inquisition into Department of Energy employees working on climate change. The department refused to provide the requested list, and in the face of public and media outrage, the Trump team retreated. Around the same time, climate scientists held a ‘rally to stand up for science’ in San Francisco, fearing that the new administration would bully and censor scientists.
Nevertheless, the Trump Administration ignored those warning signs and continued to follow the Bush climate science censorship playbook. It hasn’t worked.
Reacting to the deletion of some National Parks Service tweets of climate change facts, a number of “resistance” Twitter accounts ostensibly run by government scientists have been created. Most recently, the Trump Administration had ordered that the EPA delete its climate webpage, but again in the face of public and media outrage has retreated.
This time around, government scientists have been quick to blow the whistle against political censorship of science, either by contacting congressional offices or journalists. Whistleblowers can contact Guardian journalists securely and anonymously by following these instructions.
Scientists are even becoming proactive. Following on the tremendous success of the Women’s March on Trump’s first full day as President, a group is organizing a March for Science sometime in March 2017.
Scientists are right to feel threatened
It’s possible that reactions to these Trump Administration moves are overblown - that they’re simply the result of a clumsy transition period and weren’t meant to signal a permanent censorship of science. But Trump has given scientists every reason to feel threatened.
For example, he appointed Myron Ebell to lead his EPA transition team - an oil and coal-funded enemy of science who wants to gut the agency. That team also included David Schnare and Chris Horner, who have spent much of their careers harassing and intimidating climate scientists. Here’s what the transition team had to say about how the EPA currently uses science:
EPA does not use science to guide regulatory policy as much as it uses regulatory policy to steer the science... EPA has greatly increased its science manipulation.
Trump himself has described what the EPA does as “a disgrace.” He then nominated Scott Pruitt to head the agency - a man who has sued the EPA 14 times on behalf of polluters. For his science advisor, Trump is rumored to be considering two climate science deniers. He’s now appointed another climate science denier to lead the NOAA transition.
Who you gonna trust?
The head of the House [Anti-]Science, Space, and Technology Committee Lamar Smith suggested that for accurate information we should rely not on scientists or the media, but solely on Donald Trump.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX) tells us how to get “the unvarnished truth.”
Donald Trump recently said “I have a running war with the media,” but in reality his war is with facts, and since evidence and facts are the currency of science, scientists fear that he’ll also wage a war on science.
A war on science is a war he’s guaranteed to lose. Trump can deny the science, silence the scientists, censor their reports, even fire them from government agencies - but that won’t stop the Earth from heating and its climate from changing at a dangerous rate. At best he would survive a four or eight-year term, leave the planet a worse place for future generations, and be seen as a villain in the history books.
But it looks as though scientists and journalists aren’t going to let that happen without a fight, and kudos to them for standing up to the anti-science bullies on behalf of the planet and future generations. We’ll all have to do our parts to protect science and hold the administration accountable to facts and truth for the next four years.Leslie Lobel says it’s unclear whether birth defects in Brazil are linked to Zika, and any panic can cause more harm than the virus itself
One of the world’s leading virologists has warned against public hysteria surrounding the Zika virus, saying global health authorities need to focus more broadly on prevention of infectious diseases rather than finding a cure for specific outbreaks.
Leslie Lobel, an Israeli physician who has worked with the US military and the Uganda Virus Research Institute to try to find a vaccine for Ebola, believes public panic over epidemics can cause more damage than the diseases themselves.
Most of the current alarm focuses on a suspected link between Zika and a foetal deformity known as microcephaly, which leads to babies being born with abnormally small heads. In Brazil, where there has been a rapid increase in reported cases of both Zika and microcephaly over the past six months, the government is convinced there is a causal association. The World Health Organisation has declared a global health emergency.
Zika forest: birthplace of virus that has spread fear across the world Read more
But many scientists, including Lobel, say the evidence is not yet conclusive. “It’s not clear that what’s going on in Brazil is linked to the Zika virus. There’s no definitive proof that Zika is causing microcephaly. I believe the hysteria is way ahead of the research or the facts about the pathology surrounding this virus,” he said in a telephone interview.
Doubts focus on the uneven spread of the disease and birth abnormalities. Almost all the linked cases are found in the north-east region of Brazil. Elsewhere, the Zika outbreak does not appear to have had the same impact. In neighbouring Colombia, which has more than 31,000 Zika cases, including at least 5,000 pregnant women, there has not been the same sharp rise in foetal deformities. There, the virus is more closely associated with Guillain–Barré syndrome, an immune system failure that can cause paralysis and death.
Lobel has studied Zika in Uganda, where it was first discovered in 1947 and had always been believed to be relatively benign. He says the apparently different impacts from place to place could be caused by the “drift” of the virus. “Their genetics mutate all the time. That’s how viruses tend to survive. They constantly change to adapt to the environment.”
Based in Ben-Gurion University, where he is chair of the virology department, Lobel will visit Brazil in a few months to collaborate with scientists in São Paulo on a study of Zika and its impact on the immune system. This could eventually help in the development of a vaccine, but he emphasises it is more important first to understand whether the disease is really causing microcephaly, or whether other factors might be jointly or solely responsible.
Doubts about the causes continue to spark controversy. This week, the state government of Rio Grande do Sul in the south of Brazil banned the use of the larvicide pyriproxyfen after a report by the Argentinian group Physicians in Crop-Sprayed Towns suggested it might be causing the foetal brain deformities. Brazilian health authorities said there was no scientific basis for this claim. But Lobel said there was a strong possibility pesticides could be involved and this needed to be studied.
Climate change may have helped spread Zika virus, according to WHO scientists Read more
Most important, he said, was to strengthen global research networks to tackle all insect-born diseases. “If we can be ready for these things, we can predict them and we basically stop them from happening. It’s just like Ebola. We don’t need so many people to suffer to prevent these diseases. In other words, we have to stop putting out fires and start preventing them.”
On Wednesday, the WHO outlined its Zika action plan, saying that $56m (£39m) was needed to combat the virus from now until June, including fast-tracking vaccines and diagnostics.
The current panic over Zika, Lobel said, was a sign of how ill-prepared the world was for such epidemics, which meant it was always fighting the last outbreak rather than the next one. He believes the WHO declared an emergency with Zika this time because governments were nervous after failing to deal adequately with Ebola. Similarly, he said the US has suddenly announced almost $2bn in Zika research funding because it is worried the disease will head up through Mexico once the northern hemisphere summer arrives.
He believes the money could be spent more effectively to deal with future, more severe challenges. “There’s a lot that might be done that is not being done in a corrective way to control all disease, not just Zika. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are going to be a lot more.”
Compared to Ebola or dengue, he said Zika was not much to worry about other than for pregnant women, in which case it was prudent to take precautions until more is known about the risks and the possible link with microcephaly. “I don’t want to downplay this,” he said. “The association is very compelling, very clear. But we need a lot more work and we need to do it fast.”
In the meantime, Lobel calls for a measured response. “Hysteria is always unwanted. We need to educate. We need to make a calm response. We don’t want hysteria because that leads to massive social unrest, which can cause more damage than the virus itself.”Canadian side could enter English league as early as 2016Away fixtures would see flights and accommodation met by Canadian hosts
The man behind an ambitious bid to introduce a Canadian team into English rugby league has revealed that although no deal has been agreed, talks are ongoing about a side entering as early as next season.
Eric Perez, the chairman of Canada Rugby League, is driving forward the move to have a Toronto-based side play in League 1, the third tier of the domestic structure.
He told the Guardian that despite reports suggesting the deal had been given the go ahead, no move has yet been completed – but they are hopeful of something being agreed soon.
“It’s no big secret that we made a bid for it to happen,” said Perez. “We put a proposal together for a League 1 expansion team in Toronto, and currently we’re still in talks with the Rugby Football League. No deal has been done yet.
“I think the 2016 or 2017 season is our target at the moment. It would have to be determined on when we are approved, and how long it takes to put the deal together. We spoke to the clubs in October; they’re definitely interested in the proposal we put forward. It’s favourable to them because it won’t cost them a penny to come over to Canada. We believe we have pretty much every club’s support in this.”
Every team competing in League 1 is primarily part-time, leading to suggestions that such a long journey is financially unviable. However, the Canadians will fund all aspects of the trip, including flights, accommodation and other costs. They will even provide each club with a batch of tickets to sell which will help clubs turn a profit.
The logistics of travelling to Canada is also something that has been flagged up, but it is understood that they will play their games in blocks of four at home and four away – something Perez says is common for Canadian teams.
“In North American sport it’s common. We have a team in every major sporting league in North America based in Toronto, and when we’re playing a team in Los Angeles it’s a four-hour flight.
“You don’t just go to LA, play them and then come back; you have a West Coast trip – Portland, Seattle – then you come back. It’s standard in North America.
“You couldn’t pick a better city in Canada – Toronto is a former British colony, and we share the same ideals as the people in the north of England do.”
Outside of England, France, Australia and New Zealand, Canada is perhaps the country where rugby league is growing more than anywhere else.
They regularly attract bigger crowds than other countries for international games, and Perez says the style of the sport is what is attracting more and more people to it in Canada.
“We believe in rugby league so much and believe in the potential of it in Canada. It’s been displayed in our figures; we average 6,000 for international matches, the reception has been huge. We have big television numbers, we have our own weekly show which broadcasts all across Canada – and the timing couldn’t be better.
“Outside of your big four, we are the biggest market for the sport – we’ve got the people, the television coverage and the passion. We didn’t get the opportunity to play rugby league here, it was us who brought it into the spotlight. I was visiting Birmingham and saw a rugby league game on television – it blew me away.
“I grew up playing rugby union and the differences in the sports are so obvious. It’s the most Canadian-like sport that didn’t make it to Canada. It’s got the ‘biff’ – the high intensity and the rapid pace.”
Canada have a 2017 World Cup qualifying campaign to look forward to in a bid to reach the tournament for the first time, but Perez is adamant that having a domestic side competing in a league with promotion and relegation – something unheard of in North American sport – would be much bigger.
“The World Cup qualifying is going to be huge, but I think to get a team into League 1 would be exponentially bigger for us. We’re yearning for something like this to happen, and the idea of promotion and relegation is magical to us. If you take any sport that is worth anything and take the best bits, we believe you end up with rugby league.”This article is over 3 years old
Newspaper was tipped off before backpack device went off outside business lobby headquarters in the early hours of Tuesday morning
A bomb exploded outside the offices of a Greek business federation in central Athens early on Tuesday, police officials said, smashing windows but causing no injuries.
Attacks against banks, politicians, journalists and business people are not uncommon in Greece, which has a long history of political violence and has been mired in its worst economic crisis in decades.
Greece's coalition government weakened by EU-backed reforms Read more
Tuesday’s blast, which police believe was carried out by domestic guerrilla groups, is the first such attack since Alexis Tsipras came to power as prime minister in January.
The device, triggered by a timer and placed in a backpack near the entrance of the Federation of Greek Enterprises, went off around 3.30am. An anonymous caller had warned a newspaper some 30 minutes earlier, a police official said on condition of anonymity.
Witnesses saw glass from smashed windows strewn across the streets in one of the busiest parts of central Athens, close to parliament in Syntagma Square, an area lined with cafes, banks and shops.
Police cordoned off a two-block area surrounding the building and bomb disposal squads were examining the scene.
Makeshift bomb and arson attacks have escalated in Greece since 2010, when it first adopted unpopular austerity measures such as tax rises, wage and pension cuts in exchange for multi-billion euro bailouts by the European Union and the IMF.
In July Athens agreed to further rounds of austerity under its third bailout.An ambitious, billion dollar partnership is underway between TPG and Vodafone, where Vodafone’s network will migrate TPG’s subscriber base in exchange for optical fibre infrastructure to be serviced by TPG.
Vodafone’s experience migrating customers onto its network reads like a bad report card. Customers of 3 Mobile were migrated to its network after the two telcos merged in 2009.
Parts of Vodafone’s network infrastructure was as old as fifteen years. The network strained under the load with its customers enduring frequently disconnected calls and slow Internet speeds. Unsavoury experiences led to a mass exodus of more than a million customers and birthed a dark period in the network’s history known as “Vodafail”.
Upgrades exceeding $3 billion have since been made to Vodafone’s network. The extensive changes inspire confidence in the network’s abilities, said Craig Levy, chief operating officer at TPG Telecom.
“We’re confident in Vodafone’s 4G core network infrastructure. We took a number of steps to make sure the Vodafone network is in top shape before we committed our customer base to it. That network has a lot of headroom for expansion.”
Migrating TPG’s customer base to the Vodafone network is one part of a larger plan. The other involves TPG expanding Vodafone's optical fibre infrastructure at a cost of $300-to-$400 million.
“There’s two parts of this deal. We as TPG Telecom are selling Vodafone [access to] dark fibre. We’re putting in the infrastructure to carry the traffic,” Levy said during an interview with PCWorld.
‘Dark fibre’ refers to unused optical fibre infrastructure. It will make it possible to manage a high volume of data transfers at a lower cost to Vodafone.
Existing TPG customers have been roaming on Optus’ network since the company was founded in 2008. A number of factors led to TPG reevaluating its partnership with Optus, including mandates to soften its plans and a dated billing system.
“Two years ago we had taken our base from 220,000 to 360,000 [customers]. Those plans were taken away from TPG as part of a change under [former Optus chief] Kevin Russell.
“Our plans were not as attractive as they used to be. It forced us to increase the prices on legacy customers.”
Forcing TPG’s hand led to a decline in its customer base. Today it has 40,000 fewer customers at 320,000.
Plan pricing should be cheaper for its customers following the migration, said Levy.
“We’ve been dealing with delayed call records [at Optus]. We’re not passing on the delayed usage to our customers because you can only charge them for the prepaid amount they’ve committed to. If they did exceed their [committed] usage, as a company, we had to swallow those costs.
“Vodafone allows us to understand our cost of sale. The new system is a real time prepaid intelligent network sitting on the Vodafone network.”
More than a year went into finding and negotiating terms with a new MVNO partner. TPG considered Telstra Wholesale before settling on Vodafone Hutchison Australia.
Vodafone and TPG announced the two commercial deals exceed a billion dollars. Levy declined to break out the value of the MVNO partnership.
Existing TPG customers can choose to migrate across to Vodafone or sign up with another carrier altogether.
“We’re going to be inviting our mobile base. We’re going to give them a bonus period that lets them get a welcome pack and try the network without paying for it. Their access plan will come for free for a period, if it's an included value plan.
“If customers take the new offer from us and they're not happy, they can choose another alternative.”
The migration process will be handled by TPG directly and will be a process spanning “a number of months”.
“We have to do it in stages because the industry has porting limitations. We will invite customers in batches. We don’t want to melt our call centre.”
“We plan to handle the mobile experience directly with our customers in terms of doing those batches.”
Vodafone covers more than 96 per cent of metropolitan Australia with its 4G network. It is among the first to adopt virtualised infrastructure and the telco is the first in Australia to offer high definition voice calls over a 4G network. The core of its network supports Cat6 LTE, which has a theoretical maximum download speed of 150Mbps.
“One of the key things for choosing Vodafone was 4G. 4G was very important,” said Levy.
Read more: Optus fined $51k for duping customers on Internet speeds
Further future proofing is underway following its partnership with TPG. The extension of dark fibre infrastructure to 3,000 Vodafone cell sites across Australia will prep the network for future technologies.
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Construction will take three years to complete in 2018 and it is estimated the network will be 5G ready by 2021, timed for an influx of Internet of Things devices and the emergence of virtual reality technologies.The defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi today launched a formal appeal against the election result as his supporters took to the streets of the capital again, raising the prospect of more violent clashes.
Mousavi, who claimed his defeat by the hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was manipulated, said in a statement on his website that he had appealed to the ruling guardian council to overturn the result, and urged his supporters to continue protests "in a peaceful and legal way.
"We have asked officials to let us hold a nationwide rally to let people display their rejection of the election process and its results," said Mousavi.
With temperatures at 35C, the situation in the Iranian capital threatened to run out of control earlier today, as special forces in riot gear chased protesters through side streets near Fatemi Square. In a sign of the anger among Mousavi's supporters, they chanted "the president is committing a crime and the supreme leader is supporting him", highly inflammatory language in a regime where the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, is considered irreproachable. Shops, government offices and businesses closed early as tension mounted.
Crowds also gathered outside Mousavi's headquarters but there was no sign of Ahmadinejad's chief political rival. Supporters waved their fists and chanted anti-Ahmadinejad slogans. Mousavi's wife denied rumours that her husband had been placed under house arrest.
"People are tired of dictatorship," she told Reuters. "People are tired of not having freedom of expression, of high inflation, and adventurism in foreign relations. That is why they wanted to change Ahmadinejad."
Mousavi's newspaper, Kalemeh Sabz, or the Green Word, did not appear on news stands today. An editor speaking anonymously said authorities had been upset with Mousavi's statements. The paper's website reported that more than 10m votes in Friday's election were missing national identification numbers similar to US social security numbers, which made the votes "untraceable".
The president, who will address his supporters in a victory rally later today, was dismissive of the protests in a speech. "These [protests] are not important and these are natural," he said.
He said Iran's elections were the "model of democracy" and accused "western oppressors" of criticising the election process. "On Friday's election, the people of Iran emerged victorious," he declared.
He also said the country's nuclear issue "belongs in the past", an indication that he would not halt the programme that western leaders believe is geared towards creating weapons of mass destruction, despite the olive branch offered by the US president, Barack Obama.
Tens of thousands of flag-waving Ahmadinejad supporters gathered in the capital's Valiasr Square for the president's victory speech this evening, as he attempted a show of force he hopes will quell opposition protests.
The US vice-president, Joe Biden, said he had doubts about "the way they're suppressing crowds, the way in which people are being treated", although, using guarded language, he said the US had to accept "for the time being" Tehran's claim that Ahmadinejad won a resounding re-election.
"There's an awful lot of questions about how this election was run," said Biden. "We don't have enough facts to make a firm judgment."
The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said today that his government was worried about the situation and criticised "the somewhat brutal reaction" by authorities in response to demonstrations. The EU said in a statement it was "concerned about alleged irregularities" during Friday's vote.
Last night saw violent clashes after Ahmadinejad was confirmed as the winner of the presidential election on Friday, barely an hour after the polls had closed.
Protesters set fire to rubbish bins and tyres, creating pillars of black smoke among the apartment blocks and office buildings in central Tehran. An empty bus was engulfed in flames on a side road.
Police fought back with clubs, including mobile squads on motorcycles swinging truncheons, as protesters hurled stones and bottles at officers, shouting "Mousavi, give us our votes back" and "the election was full of lies".
More than 100 reformists, including Mohammad Reza Khatami, the brother of former president Mohammad Khatami, were arrested last night, according to leading reformist Mohammad Ali Abtahi. He told Reuters they were members of Iran's leading reformist party, Mosharekat.
A judiciary spokesman denied they had been arrested but said they were summoned and "warned not to increase tension" before being released.
Protests also broke out yesterday in the cities of Tabriz, Orumieh, Hamedan and Rasht.
Mousavi, who had been widely expected to beat the controversial incumbent if there was a high turnout ‑ or at least do well enough to trigger a second round ‑ has also appealed against the result to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
But Khamenei replied that the election had been conducted fairly and ordered the three defeated candidates and their supporters to avoid "provocative" behaviour.
A second four-year term for Ahmadinejad torpedoes prospects for the freedoms and economic competence Mousavi had promised Iran's 72 million people, creating a vibrant, youth-driven "green" reformist movement which had been peaceful until last night's clashes.
Overt signs of repression included the failure of phone lines for hours after the polls closed and the blocking of the English and Persian-language websites of the BBC and Voice of America, which are regularly attacked by the Iranian authorities as "imperialist". Text messaging also failed.The European Union is experiencing an existential crisis, as the European elections will soon brutally remind us. This mainly involves the eurozone countries, which are mired in a climate of distrust and a debt crisis that is very far from over: unemployment persists and deflation threatens. Nothing could be further from the truth than imagining that the worst is behind us.
This is why we welcome with great interest the proposals made at the end of 2013 by our German friends from the Glienicke group for strengthening the political and fiscal union of the eurozone countries. Alone, our two countries will soon not weigh much in the world economy. If we do not unite in time to bring our model of society into the process of globalisation, then the temptation to retreat into our national borders will eventually prevail and give rise to tensions that will make the difficulties of union pale in comparison. In some ways, the European debate is much more advanced in Germany than in France. As economists, political scientists, journalists and, above all, citizens of France and Europe, we do not accept the sense of resignation that is paralysing our country. Through this manifesto, we would like to contribute to the debate on the democratic future of Europe and take the proposals of the Glienicke group still further.
It is time to recognise that Europe's existing institutions are dysfunctional and need to be rebuilt. The central issue is simple: democracy and the public authorities must be enabled to regain control of and effectively regulate 21st century globalised financial capitalism. A single currency with 18 different public debts on which the markets can freely speculate, and 18 tax and benefit systems in unbridled rivalry with each other, is not working, and will never work. The eurozone countries have chosen to share their monetary sovereignty, and hence to give up the weapon of unilateral devaluation, but without developing new common economic, fiscal and budgetary instruments. This no man's land is the worst of all worlds.
The point is not to pool all our taxes and government spending. All too often today's Europe has proved to be stupidly intrusive on secondary issues (such as the VAT rate on hairdressers and equestrian clubs) and pathetically impotent on important ones (such as tax havens and financial regulation). We must reverse the order of priorities, with less Europe on issues on which member countries do very well on their own, and more Europe when union is essential.
Concretely, our first proposal is that the eurozone countries, starting with France and Germany, share their corporate income tax (CIT). Alone, each country is hoodwinked by the multinationals of every country, which play on the loopholes and differences between national legislations to avoid paying tax anywhere. National sovereignty has thus become a myth. To fight against this "tax optimisation", a sovereign European authority needs to be given the power to establish a common tax base that is as broad as possible and strictly regulated. Each country might then continue to set its own CIT rate on this common base, with a minimum rate of around 20%, and with an additional rate on the order of 10% to be levied at the federal level. This would make it possible to give the eurozone a real budget, on the order of 0.5% to 1% of GDP.
As the Glienicke group rightfully points out, this budget capacity would allow the eurozone to carry out stimulus and investment programmes, in particular with respect to the environment, infrastructure and training. But unlike our German friends, we feel it is essential that the budget of the eurozone comes from a European tax, not from contributions by the states. In these times of starving budgets, the eurozone needs to demonstrate its ability to raise taxes more fairly and more efficiently than the states; otherwise people will not grant it the right to spend. Beyond that, it is necessary to very quickly generalise the automatic exchange of banking information within the eurozone and establish a concerted policy to make the taxation of income and wealth more progressive, while at the same time jointly waging an active fight against tax havens outside the zone. Europe must help to bring tax justice and political will into the globalisation process: such is the content of our first proposal.
Our second proposal is the most important and flows from the first. To approve the tax base for the CIT, and more generally to discuss and adopt the fiscal, financial and political decisions on what is to be shared in the future in a democratic and sovereign fashion, we must establish a parliamentary chamber for the eurozone. Here too we join our German friends from the Glienicke group, though they hesitate between two options: either a eurozone parliament consisting of the members of the European parliament from the countries concerned (a sub-formation of the European parliament reduced to the eurozone countries), or a new chamber based on grouping a portion of the members of the national parliaments (eg 30 French MPs from the National Assembly, 40 members from the German Bundestag, 30 Italian deputies etc, based on the population of each country, according to a simple principle: one citizen, one vote). This second solution, which takes up the idea of a "European chamber" proposed by Joschka Fischer in 2011, is, we believe, the only option for moving towards political union. It is impossible to completely deprive the national parliaments of their power to set taxes. It is precisely on the basis of national parliamentary sovereignty that a shared European parliamentary sovereignty can be forged.
In this scheme the European Union would have two chambers: the existing European parliament, directly elected by the citizens of the EU 28, and the European chamber, representing the states through their national parliaments. The European chamber would initially involve only the countries of the eurozone that want to move towards a greater political, fiscal and budgetary union. But it would be designed to welcome all EU countries agreeing to go down this road. A minister of finance of the eurozone, and eventually an actual European government, would answer to the European chamber.
This new democratic architecture for Europe would make it possible to finally overcome today's inertia and the myth that the council of heads of state could serve as a second chamber representing the states. This wrong fable reflects the political impotence of our continent: it is impossible for one person to represent a country, unless we resign ourselves to the permanent impasse imposed by unanimity. To finally move to majority rule on the fiscal and budgetary matters that the eurozone countries choose to share, it is necessary to create a genuine European chamber, where each country is represented not by its head of state alone, but by members who represent all political persuasions.
Our third proposal directly concerns the debt crisis. We are convinced that the only way to put this definitively behind us is to pool the debts of the eurozone countries. Otherwise speculation on interest rates will renew again and again. It is also the only way for the European Central Bank to conduct an effective and responsive monetary policy, as does the US Federal Reserve (which would also be hard pressed to do its job properly if every morning it had to arbitrate between the debts of Texas, Wyoming and California). The pooling of debt has de facto already begun with the European Stability Mechanism, the emerging banking union and the ECB's Outright Monetary Transactions programme, which already affect the taxpayers of the eurozone to one extent or another. It is necessary now to go further, while clarifying the democratic legitimacy of these mechanisms.
We must restart from the proposal for a "European debt redemption fund" made in late 2011 by the council of economic experts to the German chancellor, which was designed to pool all debts exceeding a country's 60% GDP limit, and add in a political component. It is not possible to decide 20 years in advance how quickly such a fund could be reduced to zero. Only a democratic body, namely the European chamber formed out of the national parliaments, would be able to set the level of the common deficit every year, based concretely on the state of the economy.
The choices made by this body will sometimes be more conservative than we might personally wish, and at other times more liberal. But they will be taken democratically, based on majority rule, in the light of day. Some on the right would like these budget decisions to be confined to post-democratic bodies or frozen in constitutional marble. Others on the left, prior to accepting any strengthening of political union, would like a guarantee that Europe will forever carry out the progressive policies of their dreams. These two pitfalls must be avoided if we want to overcome the current crisis.
Debate over Europe's political institutions has all too often been pushed aside as technical or secondary. But refusing to discuss the organisation of democracy ultimately means accepting the omnipotence of market forces and competition and abandoning all hope that democracy can regain control of |
I wrote a bunch about how TFC have not just some 2017 milestones in their sights, but some all-time marks. The chance to claim the title of "best regular-season team in league history" is staring them in the face, and at this point I'd be a little surprised if they didn't take it.
Marky Delgado gave us our Pass of the Week in TFC's 3-1 win at Chicago, by the way:
FiveThirtyEight has them at an 80 percent chance to win the Shield. They're at that lofty height not just because they have the most productive trio of DPs in the league, but because they get contributions from guys like Delgado, and Drew Moor and Nicolas Hasler, etc.
If they play as well over their final nine games as they have over the previous 20 or so, they'll hoist the Shield.
TIER II: APEX PREDATORS
New York City FC
Sunday's win over the Revs was yet another example of NYCFC figuring out a way to get a result when they're not at their best, which is a very useful skill. Also useful is the ability to dominate games, which the Cityzens have done quite a bit of this season – they have by far the best expected goals differential in the league, which matches both the eye test and their record.
But there's also little question that TFC have opened some daylight on their southern neighbors. The two teams met twice in July, with the Reds taking a 2-2 draw out of Yankee Stadium (with a much-less-than-100% roster) and then hammering NYCFC 4-0 at BMO Field 11 days later.
NYCFC can still beat anybody in the league on their day, but they haven't been built to compete across multiple competitions for multiple months the way TFC are.
Seattle Sounders FC
Seattle didn't impress anybody in their 2-1 win over Minnesota United on Sunday night, but they've now won six of seven and sit atop the Western Conference. The goal they conceded was the first they've shipped in more than a month.
So yeah, the Sounders are right where most thought they'd be, and a home-heavy schedule the rest of the way means they're the odds-on favorites to win the West. With the defense play the way it has been, and Clint Dempsey figuring out how to poach goals every week, and Ozzie Alonso back healthy, they're in good shape to ride out indifferent finishing from their center forwards and less-than-stellar form from Nicolas Lodeiro (he's not been bad, mind you – just not the irresistible force he was last year).
There is still one obvious concern, which was exacerbated by Brian Schmetzer attempting to shoehorn Alonso, Gustav Svensson and Cristian Roldan all into the same midfield:
@MattDoyle76 matt is it just me or do we (sounders) still take way too much sweet time transitioning to attack — cowabungus (@JingyBrungus) August 21, 2017
Nonetheless, the 'Caps either aren't as explosive in attack or aren't as solid in defense as the teams in the tier above them. Maybe Reyna and Ghazal can change that, but it really is too late in the year to be playing with maybes(*).
(*) I'm fully aware that this could end up looking hella dumb if they run the table at home over the next seven weeks. The 'Caps truly could end up moving up a rung or two if they take care of business at BC Place.
Houston Dynamo
The Dynamo have been a lot of fun. Wilmer Cabrera's done great work protecting homefield and putting together a rotation that's kept most of his most important players well-rested and fully functional. They've also added a bit of creativity in Tomas Martinez, who should be able to go 90 minutes sometime in the next week or two. If he can, and he answers their needs re: central midfield creativity (no knock on Alex, who's been superb this year), then maybe the Dynamo can just go get into a few shootouts, a few track meets, and take some scalps.
But there's no reason to think they're capable of doing anything meaningful on the road, where they're just 1-8-4 with 10 goals scored and 23 allowed. At some point you have to do something away, especially since homefield advantage in Houston isn't as pronounced in autumn as it is in spring and summer.
There also remain concerns about the defense. Houston have held together so far, but feel free to add "just barely" as a useful qualifier.
Either way, this team is going to make the playoffs – undeniable progress – and you can see the attacking core that they have for the years to come. Houston are on the upswing for sure, but are a year away from climbing the tiers.
Portland Timbers
Portland are also going to make the playoffs despite giving the fans a scare/filling all of Oregon with heartburn throughout summer. They're now 3-1-1 in their last five, a string of results that includes a really useful win at Vancouver and a very nice draw at Houston. What felt like a nosedive in July has evened out significantly in August.
But they haven't been convincing either in possession or defensively, and sooner or later the spectacular saves they've been relying upon will dry up. Maybe it's not Sal Zizzo on the doorstep next time; maybe, instead, it's Clint Dempsey. The Timbers have played that tune before, and lost points because of it.
They have what should be a gimme at home against Colorado on Wednesday before going on the road for four of five. Three points against the Rapids are essential, or the statewide heartburn outbreak will return.
Columbus Crew SC
Like the Timbers, this is a talented attacking team that hasn't been anywhere near convincing enough either in possession or defensively. They can still be pressed and turned over in devastatingly bad spots, as shown in Saturday's 1-1 draw at Orlando City:
Unlike the Timbers, Crew SC play in the Eastern Conference, which means they're in trouble. Toronto, NYCFC, Atlanta, Chicago and RBNY aren't going to disappear. Montreal's smashed all comers in recent weeks, and are healthy again. Count 'em up and you get to six, and there are six playoff spots, and I don't think Columbus will be in one of them.
Of course, they do have five of their next six at home. If they hold serve they'll give themselves a shot heading into the season's final two weeks, but this team has been too prone to coughing up points when it really matters.
TIER V: YOU ARE YOUR RECORD
Real Salt Lake
Yeah they got rolled by Montreal, but sign me up for this rebuilding process that RSL have undergone, especially now that Joao Plata has clearly bought in. If they could get the same out of Yura Movsisyan – I remain stunned that he's not a 14g/7a type of guy, given his talent and past accomplishments in good leagues – they'd be my darkhorse 2018 pick.
But they haven't gotten that out of Yura, so center forward is and will remain a question, and there need to be two additions in central midfield as well. They do have young, match-winning answers in central defense, at fullback and on the wings, and they have useful trade chips, and they've shown an ability to identify, acquire and integrate under-the-radar imports like Jeferson Savarino. They've also played.500 ball, going 6-6-3, since the middle of May as Mike Petke has been able to instill some discipline and professionalism.
So there's lots to like, and they have four of the next five at home to keep building on that and maybe ruin somebody's day in the process. It almost certainly won't be enough for them to climb back into the playoff picture, but you don't have to look hard to find a bright future for this group.
San Jose Earthquakes
Saturday night's 2-2 home draw against Philadelphia was probably the end of the season for San Jose, who have been a hell of a lot of fun under Chris Leitch but who haven't been able to get the defense quite right. They're fragile on set pieces, and when they push numbers forward because of game states they leave themselves open on the counter, and they're not quite slick enough in possession to make up for it.
Still, there are some very nice, young pieces this team can work with for next year and the years to come. Tommy Thompson has looked like a centerpiece as a two-way central midfielder, and Vako has both the skill and the attitude of a DP forward, and Nick Lima and Jackson Yueill are promising rookies, and the center backs they imported this year should both be around for a while.
Needs remain, though. They have to convince Vako he's allowed to pass the ball once in a while, and they have to get more defensive awareness pounded into Yueill's head, and they need to figure out if Wondo has one more year left. But I like the pieces they have.
New England Revolution
Not much more left to say about the Revs. I expect some serious turnover this offseason, though given how untargeted their acquisitions have been in 2017 it's tough to figure out what shape 2018 will take.
Philadelphia Union
Another chance for me to beat the "Philly need a No. 10" drum, but it's also a chance to point out that there's been a worrying lack of development among some of their core youngsters. Josh Yaro has been woeful in his 317 minutes this season, which includes a back-breaker of a late penalty concession on Saturday night. Union fans are heated:
Josh Yaro should be benched for the rest of the season for that foul. Abso-freakin-lutely unacceptable — Brotherly Game (@BrotherlyGame) August 20, 2017
Keegan Rosenberry dropped off the face of the earth this year, and so did Richie Marquez. Philly have mostly made due with veteran Oguchi Onyewu and rookie Jack Elliott, but 1) Gooch is 35, and 2) who's confident in Elliott's improvement curve after what happened to Yaro, Rosenberry and Marquez?
Also: C.J. Sapong is having a career year that's probably papering over some cracks. What if he can't replicate that down the stretch, let alone in 2018?
So as they're constructed, Philly have been good enough to mostly beat the teams they should beat. But they haven't been good enough to really trouble the top 10 (or so) teams in the league on anything approaching a regular basis, which means they need to use this stretch run to re-introduce their youngsters to meaningful minutes, and to try to address their lack of midfield creativity.
TIER VI: TEAR IT DOWN, BUILD IT UP
D.C. United
This is maybe a bit optimistic for D.C., who have the league's worst PPG and worst goal differential (-24), but I'm rolling with it here. I like the Paul Arriola acquisition quite a bit, I think getting Steve Clark was a savvy buy in case Bill Hamid leaves, and Russell Canouse had a promising first outing in Black-and-Red. Zoltain Stieber should be a nice fit on that left wing as well, and now Ben Olsen gets to see how they all fit together for nine games before the season ends and more 2018 plans are drawn up.
There is hope – young and flexible hope – for D.C. now, and some of it was on display in Saturday's 1-0 win at Colorado. There still need to be upgrades at various spots, and Patrick Mullins needs to prove he can be a starting center forward for more than half a year, but the cupboard isn't bare, and they should be fun to watch down the stretch here.
LA Galaxy
The Galaxy have gone 0-7-1 in their last eight, which is doubleplus ungood. They have too many players for the same spots (box-to-box midfielder or winger) and not enough players at other, arguably more crucial spots (defensive midfielder and center forward). Their central defense is questionable at best, as are their fullbacks, as is goalkeeper.
But in the dos Santos brothers, Sebastian Lletget and Romain Alessandrini, they have four elite talents to build around for the rest of this year and into 2018. LA aren't going to make the playoffs in 2017, so this autumn would best be spent identifying 1) how to fit those four core pieces together, and 2) which other pieces can fit around them.
Orlando City
The Purple Lions are in a weird sort of holding pattern on a necessary rebuild because they haven't sold Cyle Larin yet, and they haven't decided if Kaká is going to be back yet, and they're still trying to work through what formation they should play, and young players like Carlos Rivas, Cristian Higuita and Tommy Redding haven't improved enough to stake a claim as definitively part of the core going forward, but they haven't been bad enough to say "yeah we've got to move on from these guys."
About the only guys I'm sure will be back in 2018 are Joe Bendik, Jonathan Spector, Will Johnson, Yoshi Yotun and Dom Dwyer. Those are solid dudes who've all won some games, but they're all mostly piano carriers, not piano players, and adding Kaká to this particular mix has not been profitable.
OCSC are just five points back of the final playoff spot in the East, but they've won just twice in their last 18 games and it's not an accident – they really have been that bad. The door to the postseason is closed.
Minnesota United
In theory, a front three of (left-to-right) Kevin Molino - Christian Ramirez - Ethan Finlay could be pretty damn nice, but who knows if we'll ever get to see that? Adrian Heath has preferred to use Molino inside as a central playmaker over the last couple of months, and he's picked up a bunch of other wingers who has probably going to want to put on the field, and Abu Danladi somehow has to fit into the equation, and I'm not sure anyone can honestly say they know what to expect from the Loons.
That's just one line on the field. Does anybody know what the central midfield will look like down the stretch, or next season? Or central defense? Or left back? There's been a lot of chopping and changing, and no real plan. It's let to some bad times, man:
MNUFC will have some assets to wheel and deal with in the offseason, and they have those three open DP slots they can still use. All's not lost for the future of this team, but I'd be lying if I told you I saw a clear plan.
Colorado Rapids
I liked some of the intent I saw out of Colorado in the first game of the post-Mastroeni era, despite that scoreline. And let's not beat around the bush: Losing 1-0 at home to the worst team in the league means that you're now the worst team in the league.
But still... Marlon Hairston at right back should be fun. Shkelzen Gashi in a position where he can actually go toward goal should be fun. Bismark Boateng in a position where he can get on the ball should be fun.
That's about it, though. It's difficult to look at this roster and identify any real silver linings for either the rest of the year or going forward, especially if Tim Howard suddenly loses his battle against Father Time.Greetings, Sentinels fans!
As many of you have noticed, we're running some Sentinels of the Multiverse RPG events at Gen Con this year. But what does that mean? Well, I'm here to share the details and bring you all up to speed.
Greater Than Games will be publishing an official Sentinel Comics Role-Playing Game in 2016! The game is being designed by the fantastic folks at Critical-Hits Studios and will also feature writing from me and art from Adam Rebottaro!
Here's what Critical-Hits has to say about it:
Cam Banks, Dave Chalker, and Philippe-Antoine Ménard of Critical-Hits Studios draw on their collective experiences chatting about, playing, running, and designing tabletop games. With Greater Than Games, they formed an instant rapport with the Sentinel Comics universe and its approach to storylines and memorable characters. Their focus in designing the Sentinel Comics RPG is to deliver the excitement and action of comic books with easy to learn rules and story-rich character designs, taking a new look at an incredibly popular gaming property.
The Sentinel Comics RPG uses a brand new system that was specifically created for the characters and setting of the Sentinel Comics Multiverse. It uses pools of varying sizes of dice combined with specific traits and abilities to make each character come alive at the table! The game provides fantastic storytelling opportunities as well as fast-paced action, providing players with a distinct "comic book" feel. Players can play as iconic characters from Sentinel Comics, or build their own characters to join forces and save the Multiverse!
At Gen Con this year, Dave, Philippe, and Cam will be running demos of the RPG, so come by and check it out! Then, keep an eye out in early 2016 for the Kickstarter campaign that will launch the game and also provide even more information!
And remember to keep on saving the Multiverse!LONDON, United Kingdom (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Representative to the UK, Karwan Jamal Tahir, on Monday explained that the Kurdistan Region's decision to hold a poll on independence is not recent, but rooted in history.
In partnership with the Center for Kurdish Progress, Kurdistan 24 held a public discussion in the United Kingdom’s House of Commons on the topic of the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum scheduled for Sep. 25.
The event titled “The Kurdistan Region: A Strategic Ally in a Tough Neighborhood ” was chaired by Gary Kent, the Director of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Kurdistan Region.
Among the keynote speakers were British Members of Parliament Jack Lopresti and Nadhim Zahawi, as well as the founder and General Manager of Kurdistan 24 Noreldin Waisy and the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Representative to the UK, Karwan Jamal Tahir.
Tahir mentioned that Iraq was formed out of “colliding interests” by the world's super powers following World War I and that the Kurdistan Region was merged to Iraq without the people’s consent.
He noted that forcibly uniting two nations within one boundary was a bad idea. Therefore, “Iraq has never been a stable country and never will be.”
The representative explained that history has shown Iraq’s handling of the people of the Kurdistan Region, whose rights were almost always denied. Prosecution, abduction, torture, and most notably, genocide against the Kurds, were Iraq's response to the Kurds' demand for greater rights.
He added that after 2003, despite their bitter history, the Kurds envisaged a new era of democracy and prosperity with their Iraqi counterparts and greatly contributed to the rebuilding of the country, both politically and economically. Once again, however, Baghdad refused to share power or accept the Kurds as an equal partner.
“2003 until 2014 was the honeymoon period of our relationship with Baghdad. We made a lot of efforts and concession to stabilize Iraq together, within the framework of Iraq,” he continued. “But the mindset of superiority by the authorities in Iraq over its other components transcended the logic of partnership and power sharing.”
Tahir said following the emergence of the Islamic State (IS) in 2014, there finally was a chance to strengthen ties between Erbil and Baghdad in the fight against a common threat - the jihadist group.
“Instead, we have been rewarded with a budget cut, obstacles with regards to the international community arming Peshmerga forces, and so forth.”The Trump Years Will Be a Constant Battle with the Media, the Left — and Their Special-Kind-of-Stupid Followers
RUSH: I want to share with you something that I have come cross.
In addition to discovering that the cast Hamilton has never voted — some of them have registered, like in 2006, but the big names in the show have never voted. These preaching, arrogant, condescending, look down their nose at everybody standing up there on their stage telling Pence that they’re scared to death of what he’s gonna do. He’s not gonna protect the planet.
Have you ever heard anything more ridiculous? We all live on this planet and these clowns somehow believe that we, conservatives, Republicans, and climate deniers, for some reason want to destroy the planet? We want dirty water? We want dirty air? This is what they would have you believe. That we don’t care and so we don’t think the planet is imperiled, and so therefore we won’t take the steps to protect it. It’s absurd! If you just look at this stuff logically, look at what they say logically, it falls apart.
But I have here, my friends, the second little bit of data that I want to share with you. I have here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers an email copy of an email sent to an elector. Electors will vote for the president on December 19th, many of them are being harassed, threatened, some of them their lives are being threatened. Others are being threatened with the destruction of their net worth. There is physical, psychological intimidation going on, all in an effort to get them to vote for Hillary Clinton on December 19th. And I have come across an email sent to an elector. I’m not gonna tell you who the elector is and I’m not gonna tell you what state, because it doesn’t matter. It could be any of them.
“Dear Elector: This is your time to truly serve your country. You have the power to save us from four years of an inexperienced, short tempered, undiplomatic, fascist nightmare. In the last week, his appointments of Stephen Bannon and Jeff Sessions alone signal big trouble for our country.” You know, we’re gonna be surrounded by this new kind of stupidity for the next four years, folks. They’re not gonna go away and I want to spend some time talking about this today.
I was gonna wait on all of this until after Thanksgiving. I was gonna try to have upbeat, fun-loving, just enjoy-what’s-going-on shows here today and tomorrow. But these people, I feel duty-bound to warn you and to give you a heads-up about what we’re gonna face. Donald Trump’s gonna have perhaps the most embattled presidency in — well, certainly in our lifetimes, and I dare say maybe in modern American history. They’re not going to quit and they are a new kind of stupid. They are not logical. They make no sense whatsoever. But they are going to have the media on their side, and that’s the danger.
The media is going to make them look normal. The media is going to make these people look like they are the majority. The media is going to try to convince you that somehow something went wrong and that you are the real minority this country and you didn’t deserve to have this election win on your side. It’s all an outrage. This is all they know in terms of how to behave and how to position things.
And the fight is really just beginning. However evil and intense the election was, I just want to make sure that you are all prepared for what’s coming down the road, because it isn’t gonna be pretty. And it’s gonna be really important for Trump to have people just like him surrounding him, and that is fighters, people who are fearless, who will not be daunted by this onslaught that’s coming. And I think he does in many respects.
Now, what is it about Jeff Sessions? The left has a laundry list of allegations against people that they object to. And it’s three or four things: racist, racist, racist, and racist, then sexist, bigot, and homophobe. And they’re calling Jeff Sessions a racist and they’re saying Jeff Sessions and Trump have a close connection to the KKK. They always take it way too far, beyond the bounds of either respectability or believability.
I want to tell you right now what it is that scares them about Jeff Sessions, and I want to tell you about Jeff Sessions. I know him. He’s a fine man. He is a great patriot, a great American who’s had his lumps and bided his time and done what he can do to overcome rejection. He’s won at the ballot box. He has patiently climbed the ladder of success and has ascended to an office now that he was previously… Well, he was appointed as a federal judge and rejected, from Alabama.
And his objective was not to get even, but he has gotten even. His objective has been to do the great job that he can, the greatest. But he’s a fine man. People in Alabama love Jeff Sessions, and he will extend a helping hand to anybody who needs it, university admissions, help here help there. Jeff Sessions is what a genuine public servant should be, and the reason they don’t like him is that he is the single greatest — next to Trump — immigration hawk in the administration.
What scares them about Sessions is his immigration stand. These people… See, to the rank-and-file of the left, immigration — illegal immigration, amnesty — is, of course, voter registration. For the special-kind-of-stupid followers, they really believe here that the stance on illegal immigration that we hold is purely based on white supremacy. They really… They have been taught this. There’s a certain amount of tolerance we’re gonna have to have for these people, because they are sad sacks because the literal garbage that they’ve been fed.
Maybe by their parents, certainly in their education and certainly by the media. Jeff Sessions is no more a racist than anybody. He’s not a racist. None of us are racists in the sense that we are alleged to be by these people. They’re crying wolf way, way, way too many times. But it’s his immigration stance that scares them and bothers them. What bothers them about Bannon is they can’t intimidate him. What bothers them about Bannon is he laughs at ’em.
What bothers them about Bannon is he laughs at ’em. What bothers them about Bannon is that he’s unafraid of them, and so here come all these allegations that don’t hold up. They’re based in nothing. They accuse every… You know one of the problems they’re gonna have? Right now, nothing has gone wrong. I mean, they just oppose who’s there. Wait until something maybe goes wrong. They’ve got nothing left to say. They’re firing every worst example they can right now.
So when something really goes wrong and they need to tell somebody, it’s gonna fall on deaf ears. Nobody wants to hear five, six months of this stuff but they’re going to because it’s all these people know. Now, back to the letter to the elector. “Dear elector,” I’ll start it again. “This is your time to truly serve your country. You have the power to save from us four years of an inexperienced, short-tempered, undiplomatic, fascist nightmare. In the last week his appointments of Stephen Bannon and Jeff Sessions alone signal big trouble for our country.
“Please stand between the American people and the white nationalists who are nothing more than Nazis.” I mean, what’s left to say? If we’re already Nazis, what could be worse than that? They’re firing everything they’ve got here in total desperation. “Please send the most powerful message possible that we do not stand for hatemongering, bigotry, and fascism.” They don’t even know what fascism is. “I know some of you must pay a fine if you don’t cast your ballots for Trump.
“The Democratic Party as well as other groups have started a GoFundMe account to pay your fines. You will not lose a cent,” and then they sign them: Sincerely, such-and-such from such-and-such. This is an example of… The electors are also getting phone calls. Some of them are having to block their phones, shut their phones down. They’re being intimidated, harassed and encouraged to break the law — and promised that they’ll be taken care of if they break the law.
So this is what we’re up against.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You know, I watched a little bit of Fox News last night and some of the other networks just to get a feel for this, and there were there were some Democrat strategists who I’ve been watching on TV for 20 years as Democrat strategists.
Ah, people like Mary Anne Marsh — I mean, people in their fifties and sixties or older now — 20, 30 years ago, they weren’t radical. I mean, they were leftists, they were Democrats, but they hadn’t gone over the edge. I mean, they wouldn’t ever have subscribed to the idea that every Republican’s a racist and every Republican is a bigot. But now you can’t tell the difference, and I’m watching them, and I’m asking, “What happened to you?”
I’m actually asking the TV as I’m watching, “What happened to you? Why didn’t you stand up when these nutcases were taking over this party?” Because this happened before Obama. Obama comes along and the transformation of the Democrat Party’s already underway into this radical, nonsensical, anti-American collection of ragamuffins. But gone are the old days of the lions like Bob Strauss and some of these others that, yeah, they were part of the establishment, and, yeah, they were Democrats, but they weren’t radicalized.
Like JFK. JFK would not fit in the Democrat Party today. I mean, he wouldn’t even get close to it. And these are the kind of people I’m talking about. I’m watching them on TV and I’m asking, “What happened here? Is it strictly party loyalty? When did you…? Doris Kearns Goodwin. When did you people become so special a kind of stupid? What happened? Why didn’t you resist this direction?” You know, this guy running for the leader of the Democrats in the House, Tim Ryan? I got a piece coming up here. He’s out saying the Democrat Party’s not even a national party anymore, and he’s exactly right.
He is exactly right. Nobody else is paying attention to the guy ’cause he wants Pelosi’s job, but he is dead on when he says the Democrat Party’s not even a national party anymore. They represent a very small group of genuinely radical — I’d even call ’em leftists. They’re further left than that. But every former mainstream Democrat — and I hope you know what I mean by this. When I say they were good Democrats, I mean, these are people that you could hang around with and laugh and joke with. You disagree on politics and so forth, but they weren’t wanting to end your career, put you in jail, destroy your life.
All of that’s gone. I don’t know what happened to ’em. I just don’t. I don’t know if they’ve always been this way and were masking it, which is probably the case. They’ve always been this way and were presenting a false front. But for those who weren’t and have actually been radicalized by this, it is stunning. I’d be embarrassed. You know, I’d like to look ’em in the face, “What in the world happened to you? You can’t possibly believe what’s coming out of the mouth of over half the people who speak for your party.”
But yet they profess to and they make it look like they really do. So we have to accept that that’s who they really are, and they’re not going away. And I want to spend just a little time today — we’ll get to the phones, too — I want to spend just a little time here getting into couple of details. Because I know your instincts are right on. You know what’s coming. You know what we’re up against, because you’ve been following it the last 20 years, and you’re sick and tired of the Republican leadership, whatever it is, whoever it’s been, standing down after not very much pressure.
The pressure on Trump and his administration is gonna be like nothing you have seen. And they are gonna continue to need your support more than ever. Because the election is the only thing that’s been won here, as we sit here right now. So let me take a break. We’ll come back and give you some examples of what we’re talking about, then we’ll start on the phones. We’re gonna call the woman back from yesterday that we had to cut short because of the straightens of time, so we’ll get to her. Yeah, ’cause I need to finish talking to her about a couple things, we ran out of time.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Two anti-Trump demonstrations are being planned for Washington. One of them on January 20th, Inauguration Day. Our old buddies at ANSWER, leftist protest group, it’s called Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, and then the next day, Million Woman March. We’ve had the Million Man March. We’ve had the million whatever march. Half Million Man March. Millions have not shown up at either one, but we’ve had ’em before. That’s where Calypso Louie went into the scandal and the conspiracy that is the number 19. Did that at the Million Man March.
Got the Million Woman March on January 21st. (interruption) They need to be together more than one day. You mean like the All-American 1st Cavalry Amazon Battalion syncing up menstrual cycles? No, no, no. The Million Woman March, I don’t think you could do that in one day, unless they’re gonna dorm themselves up for, like, three weeks before the march.
Snerdley is asking me a biological question, what I think about the idea that they could all be at that time of the month. They may plan that as part of the strategy, but it wouldn’t happen simply because they all got together one day. You know that. What are you asking me these questions for? The Million Woman March, what a sexist reaction. Million Woman March, what do you think of? Menstrual cycles. What, you tell ’em you’ve been trained? Yeah.
So the ANSWER crowd is gonna do their act now to stop Trump on Inauguration Day. In addition to that the mayors of New York and Los Angeles, as you’ve heard, have openly said: screw you, Trump, screw you, Trump, and screw you, America, we are gonna maintain sanctuary cities, LA, San Francisco, New York, probably Santa Cruz, and a whole bunch of other cities. They’re gonna defy the law and remain sanctuary cities.
Trump’s gonna root them out. You watch what’s gonna happen here. He’s not gonna be intimidated by this. But this is the stuff, the type of stuff that will be coming his way. These clowns get on stage at the Broadway show Hamilton, and the actor that portrays, I think it’s Aaron Burr, “We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope that this show has inspired you –“
The arrogant, condescending attitude of these superiorist special kinds of stupid people on one hand is hilarious. On the other hand, it is outrageous and maddening. And then you find out that they’ve never even voted. They’ve never even voted. Only a few of them have registered to vote. And even those who registered, some in 2006, but they’ve never voted. “We’re alarmed and anxious that you will not protect us and our planet and our children.” Yeah, yeah, like a bunch of people that want to destroy the planet have just been elected. You aren’t protected now. That’s what you people don’t get. You live in a great nation at risk in a dangerous world led by an incompetent boob who is risking us in more wars than we have been in, including during the Bush administration.
We are a great risk. We have a foreign policy administration that is incompetent and doesn’t realize who our enemies are. We have just permitted the state sponsor of terrorism of the world access to nuclear weapons, and you sit around and applaud it. It takes a special kind of stupid to applaud and support the current administration. If you are worried — what has this administration done about climate change? To listen to every climate change advocate, nothing’s happening except it’s getting worse. In fact, it’s gotten so bad we can’t fix it now, to some of these people.
What’s Obama done in eight years? All he’s done is said the magic words you want to hear. He hasn’t done diddly-squat ’cause there’s nothing he can do. It takes a special kind of stupid to believe that man can literally alter the climate of this planet, a special kind of stupid. For example, if Barack Obama gave an order to his cabinet to accelerate climate destruction, for whatever reason, I’m just making a point, there’s nobody who wouldn’t know what to do. There’s nobody that has a fail-safe way of doing that. All of this is just a bunch of jive. And they live on the coasts. They’re not even a national party. They are a bicoastal minority political organization that barely has a presence in 48 states.Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-01 00:24:08|Editor: huaxia
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KATHMANDU, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Nepali Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara will visit India early next week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday.
Mahara will be in the Indian capital of New Delhi on July 2-4 at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj.
This is the minister's first foreign trip since the formation of a coalition government in Nepal earlier this month.
During the visit, Mahara is scheduled to meet Swaraj and exchange views on matters of mutual interest, the ministry stated.
"Minister Mahara will also prepare the ground for the visit of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to India possibly in July-end," a senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Xinhua on Friday.
India and Nepal will review the political, trade, investment and development cooperation agendas between the two South Asian neighbors during the visit. Enditem- A woman who was fired from the Detroit Animal Control Center is filing a whistleblower lawsuit, saying the shelter is a dog slaughterhouse. This case could |
own, and you’ll get to enjoy some of the city’s famous Tex-Mex before the match. Then you’ll be off to the semis, where the US, if they make it this far, would likely face one of Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina or Chile.
Can you imagine a US-Mexico match … in the Copa America semifinals? That alone would make the trip worth it, no matter how many nights you have to spend in Flagstaff.
June 26 – Final – MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey
Odometer: 11,300 miles
One final push, one last stretch, and your odyssey – this fantastical Copa quest – will be over. Taking this trip would quite possibly break me. Just writing about it is exhausting. Reading about it can’t be much better. Actually doing it? I feel like that’d be a form of torture.
Thankfully, you have some time to get from Houston to New York and, compared to the wide open spaces of the wild west, not so far to travel. You’d start out the day after the semifinal, when you’d head from Houston to New Orleans. The drive isn’t too bad – only five hours – so you should have plenty of time to walk through the Garden District, maybe check out the National World War II museum, grab an excellent dinner and gallivant your way through the French Quarter.
Work off the previous night with some coffee and beignets at New Orleans institution Café du Monde, then start out for Nashville. If you’re interested in a scenic route, head up via the Natchez Trace Parkway, a beautiful stretch of road that runs all the way from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville. More interested in speed? Head up the interstate into Alabama, where you should stop off for ribs at Dreamland in Tuscaloosa or Archibald’s in Northport. Once you get to town, Nashville native Pablo Maurer – a.k.a. @MLSist – recommends Robert’s Western World for honky tonk and fried bologna sandwiches, Santa’s Pub for anyone looking for a divey feel and Husk for some incredible, southern-style cuisine in a repurposed mansion a few blocks from Broadway.
From Nashville, you’re on to Pittsburgh. My childhood friend Sam has lived in the city for four years, and he recommends checking out the Strip District for its summertime open-air market and a potential stop at the Andy Warhol Museum. Primanti Brothers is a Pittsburgh institution, but if you’re not feeling fries and coleslaw on your sandwich, head over to Gaucho Parilla Argentina. They have incredible Argentine-style steak sandwiches, and their grilled meats should get you in the mood for potentially seeing Messi and La Albiceleste in the final a few days later.
Leave Pittsburgh on June 25, and roll into New York City, land of infinite possibilities – and the end of our road. When you arrive in NYC, you’ll have driven 11,300 miles, been to 33 states, seen nine Copa America matches in eight different venues and lived on the road for more than three weeks.
So do whatever you want in New York. Rest up. Wash off the grime. Close the hotel curtains and hibernate. Go to Central Park, look at those long, long skies over New Jersey, and get ready for one final game on the trip of a lifetime.Five Reasons to Watch the Ocean Beach ‘Terriers’
Editor: Someday soon we’ll have our own local critics and reviewers of “Terriers” – the new FX television series filmed – mostly – in Ocean Beach. But until then, we have to rely on others ….
by Ryan McGee /TV Squad / Oct 13th 2010
The fall season hasn’t treated new shows kindly. With few exceptions, not many programs made a critical splash, and one of the few that did (‘Lone Star’) got the boot after just two episodes.
It’s all well and good to think in theoretical terms about what can be done to ensure that only the safest, most inoffensive and blandest programming gets the green light in the near future. But I’m here to propose a simpler, more concrete, and potentially more effective way to combat a future slew of boring TV: watch FX’s ‘Terriers.’
Lost in the shuffle in more ways than one, ‘Terriers’ had quietly produced five consecutively strong episodes right out of the gate.
Whereas many shows find their footing through trial and error, this show seemed sure of itself from the start. In its tone, characterization, and overall mythology, ‘Terriers’ harkens back to the best of both film and television noirs, but puts its own unique spin on each of these areas.
In a recent edition of the podcast ‘Talking TV with Ryan and Ryan,’ a show I co-host with AOL’s Lead TV Critic Maureen Ryan, ‘Terriers’ co-creator Shawn Ryan told us both that while the show will definitely air its full, 13-episode first season, any chance for a second season will hinge on the audience it acquires over the initial run.
For those lamenting quality new programs in the television landscape, I have five reasons why you should be watching this under-appreciated gem.
1. The title refers to a personal ethos, not a breed of dogs. Why certain names connect with the general population and others don’t is for social anthropologists, more than television critics, to decide. But it’s clear that the name ‘Terriers’ either made people think of Animal Planet or Michael Vick. The ‘Terriers’ in question are two down-on-their-luck private investigators who stumble upon situations far too large for them to possibly solve on their own. And yet, through a combination of stubbornness, street smarts, and a nagging moral compass they see their way through to live another day. And in the world of this show, simply surviving is a feat unto itself.
2. These private eyes boast one of the most unique relationships on television right now. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of watching Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James play off each other, do yourself a favor and watch these two real-life friends onscreen. Whereas so many buddy relationships on TV create friction by playing off the inherent differences between two people, Logue’s Hank Dolworth and Raymond-James’ Britt Pollack truly enjoy each other’s company. That enjoyment is infectious, spills through the television, and makes their occasional confrontations have that much more impact. But it’s not all laughs and pats on the back.
3. The show is much darker, and hurts more, than you might think. Watching the promos for this show, you might think that this show would have a sunnier, lighter tone than it actually does. However, for a show that’s the brainchild of the writer of the ‘Ocean’s 11’ trilogy and the creator of ‘The Shield,’ what’s actually onscreen is a unique hybrid that’s equal parts of both franchises, while still producing its own unique viewpoint. Sure, Hank and Britt joke about, but often they joke about because the situations they find themselves in are so deadly serious that the humor turns into a coping mechanism. Just as the way audiences often laugh at shocking violence in order to relieve built-up stress, so too do these partners make the other one smile in order to keep them from crying out in horror. Logue, in particular, has shown haunting depths in the early goings: a former cop battling drug addiction, the loss of his ex-wife, and the nagging sense that everything around him is somehow corrupt. Which leads me to reason No. 4…
4. This ain’t the O.C., y’all. In terms of look and feel, ‘Terriers’ matches another recent, overlooked gem of a detective show, ‘Veronica Mars.’ Veronica’s hometown of Neptune, Calif. has a spiritual sibling in the Ocean Beach featured on ‘Terriers.’ For a place supposedly so sunny, everything is shot through a seemingly filthy lens, as if the corruption in the town gives off a visible vapor. (Without spoiling things, that vapor might not merely be metaphorical, according to the show’s ever-expanding mythology.) It also shares the same capacity to make violence count: both ‘Veronica Mars’ and ‘Terriers’ show its protagonists in dangerous situations in which violence is possible but hardly ever carried out. As such, when fisticuffs fly, they both shock the audience and leave real marks behind on the participants. Finally, speaking of shocking…
5. The show exploits audience expectations in order to produce unpredictable television. There’s a huge difference between shows that are “unpredictable” as opposed to “intentionally vague.” There’s a total time and place for the latter kind of programming, but the twists and turns in ‘Terriers’ stem not from the show’s writers purposefully teasing out answers while finding ways to prevent those solutions from emerging from the lips of its characters. Instead, ‘Terriers’ allows us to discover things along with Hank and Britt, which in turn allows them to discover things about themselves. Not only do their cases play against stereotypical type, but the ways in which this pair solves them also betrays conventional wisdom and action. Just watch Hank go through the mundane task of obtaining a mortgage in the stellar third episode ‘Change Partners’ and name another show that would produce that type of arc for its lead character.
Indeed, for its apparently conventional strappings, ‘Terriers’ delights in its overall disregard for conventional wisdom. You might think it’s too late to jump in now, but whether you catch up through On Demand, iTunes, or simply start watching this Tuesday’s episode as your first exposure, you’ll be enjoying one of the most unique hours of television currently on-air on any network. And in this day and age of increasingly safe TV, you owe it to yourself to give this stellar, scrappy show a chance to show what it’s got.
‘Terriers’ airs 10PM ET Wednesdays on FX at 10pm.Ord Irrigation Scheme defended after scathing Australia Institute report
Posted
The $2-billion Ord Irrigation Scheme has been defended in the wake of a scathing report that found it had returned just 17 cents for every investment dollar.
The Australia Institute completed a cost-benefit analysis of the private and public money spent trying to develop a food bowl in the East Kimberley.
It found the project had performed poorly in relation to investment return and job creation.
But chairman of the Ord Irrigation Cooperative David Menzel defended the scheme, saying it was still delivering benefits to people in the region.
He also rejected the invested return figure of 17 cents in the dollar.
"I would be very surprised if it was that small," he said.
"The figure quoted was $2 billion and then suddenly a quarter of that was private investment. I think that there's a fairly grey area about where that is.
"There's no doubt the Ord has been an expensive project and I think a lot of the cause of that lays at the length of time it's taken to deliver, and there's a huge piece of infrastructure and some additional bits and it's never got to its design capacity.
"Obviously that's going to make it a lower than optimum return on the capital investment."
The Ord Valley has often been touted as a potential food bowl for Australia, and for South-East Asia and China.
The Australia Institute's paper said that after more than 50 years and $2 billion, there were only 260 people working in agriculture.
The institute's Rod Campbell said this meant each job virtually cost more than $5 million, and he asserted that large-scale, capital-intensive irrigation projects should be avoided.
But Mr Menzel said the seasonal nature of the work needed to be taken into consideration.
"I think it's very hard to narrow it down to absolute jobs, whether they're the people that are employed by the farmers, whether they're talking full-time jobs or part-time jobs," he said.
"There's definitely more than 260 people out on the farms at this time of the year but then there are very few out there in the wet season.
"You can do a lot of funny things with figures."
Industry expansion underway
State Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan said a $20-million output was expected across all the horticultural types in the area, and it was believed this could increase by a factor of five over the next five years.
Mr Menzel said the sector was undergoing a period of expansion.
"The community now is at the stage where we can consider secondary-type processing facilities and value-adding to some of the product, for instance there's talk of a small seeds cleaning and packaging plant being built fairly soon," he said.
"And there's talk of a cotton gin. We've just about got enough land to justify that, if everything else stacks up with the crop."
He said the sugar industry, which has been the subject of much media coverage in recent years, failed to take off because it was never economically viable and there was not enough land.
While cotton required around 10,000 hectares to justify it, sugar cane needed more than 20,000, plus investment in a mill.
He said there was a "reasonably diversified" economic base in the region, with mining, agriculture, tourism and services, and claimed the town Kununurra would not even exist without the Ord Irrigation Scheme.
Australia Institute report contained 'big lesson'
But Mr Menzel conceded that critics had made some valid points.
"The big learning lesson is that if you're going to build something of a scale, you need to build it and get it to that scale," he said.
"You can't have a 50-to-60-year time frame from when you install a dam to when you start to get the land available to utilise the water.
"It's taken such a long time, for a variety of reasons. You don't build an office block and then sell 10 per cent of it, you try and get the whole thing earning money as soon as possible."
Yet Mr Menzel called on critics to remember there was generally a low return on capital in agriculture and it required long-term commitments.
Topics: irrigation, wa, kununurra-6743, broome-6725COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Cuyahoga and Franklin counties would get five medical marijuana stores each, while many rural and some suburban counties would have none under a proposal to distribute Ohio's limited number of available licenses.
The Ohio State Board of Pharmacy expects more than 200 applications for up to 60 dispensary licenses. The board released draft maps this week showing how it would disperse them across the state.
Industry experts and patients have been concerned that number won't be enough to serve the state, especially in rural areas. The districts are supposed to ensure patients won't have to travel far to buy their medicine.
The draft maps bear out that concern, at least for the program's roll-out, expected in late summer 2018. The board can add more licenses after September 2018 to meet patient demand.
The state's six largest counties are single districts allotted three to five licenses apiece.
The rest of the state's 88 counties are grouped with at least two other counties to form a district. Fourteen districts containing three or four counties each are only allowed one dispensary license among them. One such district includes Lake, Geauga and Portage counties.
"Patients are not going to have real easy access," said Chris Lindsey, a legislative analyst with national group Marijuana Policy Project.
Lindsey said the distribution could be worse than the maps indicate because many local governments have temporarily or permanently banned medical marijuana businesses.
Dispensary applicants will pay a non-refundable $5,000 application fee and, if awarded a license, a $70,000 fee every two years.
The board considered Ohio's population, estimated patient population, access to major highways and the experiences of other states in determining the districts. The board is accepting public comment on the dispensary districts until Aug. 11 emailed to MMCPRules@Pharmacy.Ohio.gov.
Marijuana Policy Project and Industry analysts have estimated Ohio's program will enlist about 200,000 patients -- five times greater -- because chronic and severe pain is one of the state's 21 qualifying medical conditions.
Lindsey said the conditions list and willingness for doctors to recommend medical marijuana are two major factors in whether a state's program is large enough to adequately serve patients' needs and attract businesses to do so.
The pharmacy board estimates between.04 and.44 percent of Ohio's population -- or between 4,600 and 51,000 patients -- will sign up for the program in the first two years, said spokesman Cameron McNamee.
That's been the experience in Illinois, New York, Connecticut and Minnesota, which the board looked to while drafting its rules, along with Colorado and Nevada. But those states' programs did not initially allow chronic pain patients to enroll and have more restrictions than Ohio does.
"It has been the experience in many other programs that there is often a slow uptake in patient registrations in the first two years when programs first become operational," McNamee said in an email. "This is why the program has built in flexibility to expand and add more dispensaries as necessary to meet patient demand."
That flexibility is encouraging to Lindsey and local officials who were hoping a dispensary would choose their communities.
While cities and townships can regulate where medical marijuana businesses locate and how many are allowed within their borders, the state makes the final call whether to issue a license.
Cleveland Heights officials have been working with a group interested in operating a dispensary there. The draft district maps have caused concerns about competition with other Cuyahoga County communities, said Brian Anderson, the city's business development manager.
"We figured with only 60 dispensaries this wasn't going to be what you see in other states," Anderson said. "We thought we'd end up with one at the most and we have a good idea who that would be but now that might not be the case."
Mobile readers, click here to see the draft districts.A little bit about my background.
I am a fresh graduate from the Philippines and I was offered an internship in a tourism NGO company as an associate here in Thailand. Even though I came from a lower part of the society, my mom pushed for it. She said if I am exposed to a different culture and working environment, it will help me grow as a person and it could be vital for my career. So I decided to grab this opportunity. It turned out to be that way actually. After 3 months of internship, another company offered me a job! So I’m really happy!
Giving Back
Okay. I will say for us Filipinos, we always always prioritize family and every fresh graduate dream is to be able to help their parents to make ends meet. For my first job ever, I have a salary of 25,000 baht (around $713). The very first month, I got my salary I stopped asking allowance from my mom (she is a single parent – I know she borrowed money most of the time to so she can support me here :< ) and I started to send money to her instead.
Salary talk
Ok, so here is the breakdown of my salary. The point of this computation is to show you why every cent counts for me. It may seem like very little to you, but to me and to every Filipino out there it’s quite a big deal. In reality of course because I’m on probation period for 3 months before i get officially accepted, I roughly get 21,500 baht. (My boss agreed to give me 22,500 but because of the tax, it is less)
Rent for my place – 7,000 baht ( including electricity and water)
My food allowance – 6,200 (200 per day)
Transportation – 2,000 (Bts card – 100 rides)
House expenses – 1,000 ( different every month: shampoo&conditioners/soap/trash bag/tissue/biscuits/water etc)
It’s a grand total of 16,200 baht. What I have left is 5,300 baht and I always send 5,000 baht to my family. Ergo, I have 300 baht left.
Remittance Experience
As you can see above, I have so little money on hand and thus I need to make sure that I am not wasting it. If I spend it unwisely, say I randomly buy a dress, it will compromise my whole budget. My mom really needs to pay back for what she has spent for me when I first came here. (Airplane ticket, my monthly allowance, apartment rental and everything else. And she still owes a lot for sending me to college. Even if I had scholarship, the daily allowance is still difficult for us.)
Disclaimer: I have no means to harm any company. I’m just stating facts and comparing their services that helped me best. Exchanges rates vary. We know that. You have to constantly check. Rarely, some companies have the same or better rates.
Here are the channels I tried:
As of April 22, 2016 Bitcoin PayPal Western Union CIMB Fixed Fees 1% 3-4% around 4% ฿199 below ฿50,000 ฿250 above ฿50,000 Exchange Rate (TH-PHP) 1.33 1.29 1.31 1.31 Cash out Fees Mostly FREE depending on the method of cash-out method PHP 50 /Free Free 0.25% Fund ( Min. of THB 200 and Max of THB 200)
Break down of the difference.
Cash to send: 5,000 Baht Bitcoin PayPal Western Union CIMB Fix Fees 1%(฿50) 3.4-4.4%
(฿170-220) around 4% (฿200) ฿199 if below ฿50,000 ฿250 if above ฿50,000 How much I am actually transferring 5,000- 50= ฿4, 950 5,000-220 =฿4,780 5,000-200= 4,800 5,000-199= ฿4,801 Exchange Rate
(TH-PHP) 1.33 1.29 1.31 1.31 How much my mom will get ₱6,583.5 ₱6,166.2 ₱6,288 ₱6,289.31 Cash out fee (paid by mom) Mostly FREE depending on the method of cash-out method PHP 50 – Free Free 0.25% Fund ( Min. of THB 200 and Max of THB 200)
As you can see in the table I provided. My mom can get so much more if I send the money through Bitcoin! I get less fee for the fixed fee and my money has more money because it has higher exchange rates. The Bitcoin company I used was http://www.coins.co.th. It is very convenient because they have a branch in the Philippines (http://www.coins.ph). More than that comparing the rates, they have better rates in terms of bitcoin ( buy and sell price)
If you want to send money with better rates, I suggest you look for a bitcoin company in your originating country. Don’t fret if there is no branch of coins Thailand in your country. Once you found one, you send it there from the wallet you have here in Thailand. It is not necessary that it is from the same company. Remember: What is important is whether the company has good rates.
Going back. For my mom to be able to receive more money means, less debt for us. I am thankful for all her support and hard work that she has done for me just so I can have a good life. I’m dedicating this article to all the awesome and supportive moms out there! I am definitely trying to pay mine back! Not only for the money I can earn but to give her all the love that she deserves.
P.S.
I will get my mom and so we can live together here! I am her whole life. She has never been outside the Philippines and I am sure she will enjoy it here. There is so much better food here that will be better for her health. Plus cost of living is much cheaper here. We would be able to celebrate her 60th birthday together in Bangkok this year. 🙂 So until then, I will use bitcoin to send money in the Philippines.DC launches Gotham by Midnight in November Posted on Aug 24, 2014 by Jeff Hill in The Feed |
Fans of DC Comics’ Batman Eternal series will be happy to learn that Jim Corrigan, the man who would-be the Spectre, is getting his own ongoing series. Gotham by Midnight will launch in November, featuring the breakout (returning?) character from the hit weekly Bat book operating in the more mystical and magical realms of Gotham City.
Artist Ben Templesmith is joined by writer Ray Fawkes in what will most assuredly be a fan-favorite within just a few issues. Fawkes has been garnering quite a bit of positive buzz over at DC lately, with his varied and vast works across the New 52 line. He is a perfect fit for the character, proving he has what it takes to make him a powerful character yet again, for the first time in what seems like over a decade. I, for one, am ecstatic about this announcement. This sounds like a recipe for a sleeper hit to me!
So what do you think? Will you be adding this book to your pull list? Or are you Batman’ed out? We want to hear your thoughts!Last weekend, if you were interested in JS, Berlin was the place to be. The week started with RejectJS on Thursday and continued at Saturday and Sunday’s JSConf EU. For pure creative JS fuel, though, Friday’s Nodecopter hackathon was the pinnacle.
Organised by Felix Geisendörfer, Robin Mehner and the rest of the BerlinJS crew, this was somewhere between a Hackathon and a glimpse into a future where robots take over.
Node AR Drone
A few months ago, Felix, former NodeJS core member, published a library that allowed you to control a Parrot AR Drone 2.0 via a node server. Friday’s event was a chance to explore what kind of things that could lead to.
The drone is a flying, remote controlled machine with 4 propellers, 2 cameras (one down, one forwards) and a heap of clever electronics that automatically look after most of the tricky bits (staying level, not crashing into walls) leaving you the fun stuff.
The Event
The hackathon started at 10am in the Stadtbad Oderberger Straße – a large, empty, indoor swimming pool – and continued until about 7.30pm. The whole day had a true hackathon vibe as the library is quite new and doesn’t provide all the functionality available causing many JS devs to dig through the drone’s tech specs and calculate bitmasks and UDP control codes. Simultaneously, there were quite a few people trying hardware mods such as wiring a Wii nunchuck through an Arduino controlled via Johnny 5 (a JS framework) so that you could fly the drone with just your thumb. Chris Williams (founder of JSConf US), Matt Podwysocki and Fredrik Lassen took a similar approach to wire a Nintendo gamepad to control their drone.
There were quite a few attempts at image recognition, either by piping the video stream to OpenCV or (in the case of the overall winner), directly in JS. The most memorable example was James Halliday and Dominic Tarr‘s drone which was programmed to identify objects with large amounts of red and charge at them. It was memorable mostly for the image of Jed Schmidt adopting the traditional Matador stance in a bull-drone vs man stand-off.
Gaming was a popular theme with more than one team turning their drone, avatar-like into a first person shooter-style game. A less traditional gaming route was explored by Max Ogden, Brian Leroux and Matthew Smillie in their demo which turned the drone into a multiplayer game. One player had rotation control using their phone compass, one could make it go forwards by shouting “Brrrrrrumm” into their phone and one could give voice commands like “take off” and “flip” into their phone. At earlier points in the day, this did threaten to decapitate some of the other participants but, considering the amount of flying hardware, the injury count for the day was surprisingly low. The Nokia Maps team (of which I was a member) used their drone to automatically generate 360° panoramas.
Mid-way through the day, the big boys came around to play. There was a demonstration of the Octocopter – a professional-level drone, capable of carrying around 5kg of camera equipment. As one participant said “the Octocopter sounds like I think the robot apocalypse would sound.”
Here’s a video of the Octocopter in action.
The opportunities for advancing web technologies like JS beyond the web are endless. In the short-term, though, you may want to consider wearing a hard-hat while coding.Welcome, Montreal Canadiens fans, to the 2014 edition of Eyes on the Prize's Top 25 Under 25 series. This is the fifth summer edition of the ranking, and the first that will not feature PK Subban, Max Pacioretty, and Lars Eller. It's a changing of the guard for our youth, as those three excellent hockey players are now officially bestowed veteran status by our totally non-arbitrary cutoff of being 25 years old this summer.
I'm pleased to announce that this year's ranking features input from a very large panel of Eyes On the Prize editors, writers, and contributors. Sixteen ballots were submitted with a lot of thought put into them. If you ever think that we here at this site suffer from a groupthink mentality, just look at the lists voted on here when we're done. Trust me, we have a wide range of opinion on these players and their potential impact for the main team going forward.
In the following weeks, we'll be revealing the ranking one by one, with eleven different writers profiling the players. This is the biggest and most comprehensive group project we do annually here at Eyes on the Prize, and we hope you enjoy the articles while debating the case for a prospect's ranking on this list in the comments.
Here's our list of forty-one players who are under the age of 25 (as of Sept. 15, 2014):
Our ranking is based on one simple question: when choosing between two players, would you trade one player for the other? The player you value more, whether based on current production or the player you project them to be, is the one that gets ranked ahead of the other. Knowing what you know about Dustin Tokarski, for example, would you trade him to a team straight up for Zachary Fucale, a much younger prospect with a good track record in junior? These aren't exactly easy questions to answer, but no one said the choices would exactly be easy.
Alex Galchenyuk is the man to beat from last year's ranking. He finished second, and is the highest ranked player from last year remaining. But does our panel still feel as strongly about Galchenyuk this year as they did a year ago? Did Brendan Gallagher make a case to be considered at the top? What about 2014 top draft pick Nikita Scherbak? After a strong rookie AHL season, where does Sven Andrighetto land on the ranking? And how do we properly rank Tim Bozon as he continues to recover from a potentially fatal case of Neisseria meningitis?
Let us help you through the last six weeks before training camp with this ranking. Enjoy!IsoHunt has continued with its legal battle against Hollywood. The site has filed its reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals in which it hints that Google, not isoHunt, is the largest BitTorrent search engine on the Internet. Through the appeal, isoHunt hopes to reverse the permanent injunction which ordered it to filter its search results, and obtain a jury trial instead of a summary judgment.
Last month search giant Google got involved in a BitTorrent case for the first time in its history. The company took interest in the ongoing court case between isoHunt and the MPAA, fearing that the standing injunction has the potential to damage Google and other web-services.
Although Google did not dispute isoHunt’s liability, it is clearly concerned that some of the reasoning in the District Court verdict went too far, and wants to see it scrapped in the appeal.
As the case moves along Google continues to play a central role. In the reply brief filed by isoHunt, a study brought to the table shows that the majority of the files that can be found through its search engine are also available via Google.
“Neither Google nor Plaintiffs mention the 95% overlap between torrents available through Defendants’ systems and torrents available through Google and/or Yahoo!,” isoHunt’s legal team writes (pdf) to the Court of Appeals.
With this data isoHunt claims that what they do, Google does too, and perhaps even better. To a certain degree this is a valid point. Aside from indexing and caching hundreds of millions of pages with directs links to torrent files, Google also has a filetype command which allows users to search only for.torrent files.
In its quest for a jury trial, isoHunt suggests that they, but not Google, are hunted down and scapegoated by the movie studios. To put it in even stronger terms, isoHunt is indirectly telling the court that Google may be the largest torrent search engine on the Internet.
“Defendants might argue to the jury that it is unfair to hold Defendants liable if Google, unbothered by Plaintiffs, provides torrents to ten or twenty times the number of users that visit Defendants,” the reply brief reads.
It adds, “Defendants might argue that Defendants are being scapegoated. Defendants might argue that holding Defendants liable while ignoring Google would not curtail infringement.”
The reply further responds to several of the arguments made by the movie studios and eventually asks the Court of Appeals to reverse the permanent injunction and summary judgment. Instead, isoHunt favors a jury trial which it deems to be more appropriate considering the nature of the case.
“Defendants submit that upholding the right to jury trial is the best way to deal with rapidly-changing technology. Judicial rulings influence practical decisions for many years but cannot track changes in Internet technology.”
Commenting to TorrentFreak, isoHunt founder Gary Fung said that a trial by “jury of one’s peers” would be be fitting in more way than one.September 3, 2017
US Navy Website Shows Entire Planet Blanketed By Bizarre 'HAARP Anomaly' From Antarctica Including Direct Interaction With Rapidly Intensifying Hurricane Irma
- Is This More Proof America Is Under Weather Warfare Attack For Opposing Globalist Agenda?
By Stefan Stanford - All News Pipeline - Live Free Or Die
In the new gif image seen above taken from the US Navy Research Laboratory's MIMIC (Morphed Integrated Microwave Imagery at CIMSS - Total Precipitable Water (MIMIC-TPW) website as shared in the 1st and 2nd videos below, we see a bizarre HAARP anomaly shoot up into the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans from the Antarctic region with 'waves' directly interacting with rapidly intensifying hurricane Irma. Evidence that incoming Hurricane Irma has been 'weaponized'?
In some of the latest'spaghetti charts' coming to us from Foot's as seen in the image above, while the absolute track of Irma has yet to be determined, most of the models now show it striking somewhere along the East coast between Florida and New York. Interestingly, none of these show the hurricane going back out to sea as many of the original tracks did and, thankfully for the people of Houston, none of these latest tracks show it going into the Gulf of Mexico, either, thought that could change.
Note: the yellow lines and days/dates seen in the image above and below were added by
One of my personal, all-time favorite 'weather websites' called 'Foot's Forecast' out of the State College, Pennsylvania area very rarely puts out entries to their website, usually only penning a story when'something huge is coming' whether that be a winter storm or hurricane. The fact that 'Foot's' now has a new entry on incoming Irma should tell us that'something huge' may be on the doorstep. With the latest 'arrival forecasts' putting Irma very close to US shores between September 8th and 11th, Foot's 'Hurricane Irma 411 Center' will be visited heavily over the next 2 weeks.In some of the latest'spaghetti charts' coming to us from Foot's as seen in the image above, while the absolute track of Irma has yet to be determined, most of the models now show it striking somewhere along the East coast between Florida and New York. Interestingly, none of these show the hurricane going back out to sea as many of the original tracks did and, thankfully for the people of Houston, none of these latest tracks show it going into the Gulf of Mexico, either, thought that could change.Note: the yellow lines and days/dates seen in the image above and below were added by members of Foot's Forecast
As we see in the Irma tracks that we zoomed in on in the image above, numerous tracks show the monster storm coming ashore between North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland with multiple tracks showing the Washington DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia metropolitan areas directly in its pathway around the 10th of September.
Considering that it has has long been warned within 'prepping circles' that 'population density' is one of the keys to look out for in survival situations, just imagine the kind of damage a storm the size and scope of Harvey, or bigger, could do to the Northeast megalopolis should these latest forecasts be correct.
As we learn in this Wikipedia entry, the megalopolis that stretches from the Washington DC metro area up to the NY city area and into Boston is now the home of more than 50 million people. Making up roughly 17% of the US population on only 2% of the nation's land mass, the population density of the Northeast megalopolis is approx. 931.3 people per square mile, compared to the US average of 80.5 per square mile.Considering that it has has long been warned within 'prepping circles' that 'population density' is one of the keys to look out for in survival situations, just imagine the kind of damage a storm the size and scope of Harvey, or bigger, could do to the Northeast megalopolis should these latest forecasts be correct.
Showing much of the entire megalopolis from Washington DC to Baltimore to Philadelphia to New York under water or hurricane damaged, we may soon see Houston-like conditions along the East coast if the latest forecasts for Irma are correct with some meteorological
In the next amazing graphic seen above taken from this story over at My San Antonio, we see the geographical area that Harvey would have caused damage to if it had struck along the East Coast megalopolis rather than the Texas area.Showing much of the entire megalopolis from Washington DC to Baltimore to Philadelphia to New York under water or hurricane damaged, we may soon see Houston-like conditions along the East coast if the latest forecasts for Irma are correct with some meteor |
You are a perpetual foreigner in your own country.” The same for comments like “you speak English very well” and “What are you? You’re so interesting looking!” Saying to an African American, “When I look at you, I don’t see color” is a kind of “color blindness” that denies “the individual as a racial/cultural being.”
Once kids were taught about “sticks and stones,” which break their bones, but that “words will never hurt me.” Now, on some campuses, they and faculty as well are being taught the opposite, innocently uttered words can and do hurt, and speech codes and guidelines about what to say and what not to say, are all the rage.
The latest controversy is also at the UC system, where the Board of Regents is considering whether saying that Israel has no right to exist, or that Israel is mostly to blame for the troubles in the region, is a form of anti-Semitism, worthy of being placed on a list of offensive language..
[Speech code backers at UC, including its president, want tough criticism of Israel labeled anti-Semitism]
The debate over hurtful words, microaggressions, what can be said and what shouldn’t be said has been roiling campuses across California as well as places like Oberlin, Wesleyan, Ithaca, Columbia and elsewhere for several years now, complete with “microaggression” blogs, reserved strictly for those who are not “privileged,” meaning white people, in which the offended call out the offenders, for any number of perceived microaggressions, defined in the proposed UC tool as “everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.”
To critics, all this is petty and worse, stifling, and when supported by state university administrations, very much an imposition on free speech. “This concept is now being used to suppress not just, say, personal insults or discrimination in hiring or grading, but also ideas that the UC wants to exclude from university classrooms,” wrote Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor who leads the Volokh Conspiracy blog hosted by The Washington Post.
Fighting microagressions “has become a cottage industry in academe,” wrote Malcolm A. Kline on a conservative Web site called “Accuracy in Academia” earlier this week, pointing to, among other places, “The Microaggressions Project” where grievance is piled upon grievance.
“Each event, observation and experience posted,” the site explains, “is not necessarily particularly striking in and of themselves. Often, they are never meant to hurt — acts done with little conscious awareness of their meanings and effects. Instead, their slow accumulation during a childhood and over a lifetime is in part what defines a marginalized experience, making explanation and communication with someone who does not share this identity particularly difficult. Social others are microaggressed hourly, daily, weekly, monthly.”
At “I, Too Am Harvard,” which does not explicitly bill itself as a microaggression project, African Americans make similar points and provide similar examples.
Derald Wing Sue, a professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College, the best known scholar of microaggressions and the developer of the microaggression tool used at UC and elsewhere, remains a strong defender.
He said in an interview with The Washington Post that he has no desire to “silence” anyone, and does not see it as an issue of suppressing free speech by whites but encouraging speech by minorities to voice their grievances. “It’s interesting that many white people on campus see this as an issue of being silenced,” he said. “When people raise this, I often say this: That people of color have always been under the gun of forced compliance. They’ve not been about to talk about” their concerns. The microaggressions movement “frees people to say what’s actually happening.”
(Frame grab via Tumblr)
Likewise, the backlash to the anti-microaggression movement has become a cottage industry as well.
Much of it focuses on examples from the guidelines, like “Where are you from?,” “I believe the most qualified person should get the job” and “America is the land of opportunity,” which critics consider mystifying or even absurd. The latter phrase, about the “land of opportunity,” was said to be harmful in the California “tools” document because it advances the “myth of the meritocracy” deemed to send a message that “race or gender does not play a role in life successes.”
A conservative Web site published by college students, called the College Fix, is among those leading the charge against what one of its recent articles called “microaggression madness.”
(Frame grab from UC guidance for faculty)
A Daily Beast article on some of the microaggression examples was headlined “The University of California’s Insane Speech Police.” “How are students and faculty supposed to have an intellectual discussion about the merits of affirmative action if anyone making the opposite case is automatically branded a racist?” asked the writer, Robby Soave. “It’s not that every assertion in the seminar materials is wrong. Certainly, some of these statements, when uttered with sufficient malice, could cause offense. But when university administrators make preventing offense the paramount goal — and automatically apply the terms ‘racist’ and ‘sexist’ to perfectly mild forms of speech — free speech enthusiasts have every reason to worry.”
The most discussed and provocative dissection of microaggressions recently is a much broader critique published in the journal Comparative Sociology by Bradley Campbell of California State University and Jason Manning of West Virginia University. In “Microaggression and Moral Cultures” they see the anti-microaggression movement as a “a new species of social control,” which when “present in high degrees,” produces a “culture of victimhood.”
Bradley Campbell. (Courtesy of Bradley Campbell)
It’s very different than, they argue, than earlier movements like civil rights, because of its focus on otherwise unintentional slights, words alone, rather than concrete injustices, like being denied the right to vote or sit at a lunch counter. And its motive, they said, is not so much to educate offenders but elevate the offended.
“….When the victims publicize micoaggressions,” wrote Campbell and Manning “they call attention to what they see as the deviant behavior of the offenders. In doing so,” they “also call attention to their own victimization.”
And that, they concluded, is one of the reasons they do it. Because it lowers “the offender’s moral status” and “raises the moral status of the victims.”
“Comparative Sociology” not being widely read outside sociology circles, the paper went relatively unnoticed for about a year. Then it was discovered by Jonathan Haidt’s the Righteous Mind blog and, in September, by the Atlantic in a piece by Conor Fredersdorf called “The Rise of Victimhood Culture.”
(Frame grab UC guidance for faculty)
“I don’t consider myself an opponent of this stuff,” Campbell said in an interview with The Washington Post. “But it’s not a secret that I have moral concerns about the way it can limit academic freedom. I worry,” he said, “when people get in trouble because they’ve said something people consider offensive.” And “I worry when administrators feel like they have to do something about it.”
The Campbell-Manning paper has also been critiqued in articles and blogs across the country since the Atlantic publicized it, including in the Atlantic itself, where Simba Runyowa wrote a piece entitled “Microaggressions Matter.”
“When I was studying at Oberlin College,” she wrote, “a fellow student once compared me to her dog. Because my name is Simba, a name Americans associate with animals, she unhelpfully shared that her dog’s name was also Simba. She froze with embarrassment, realizing that her remark could be perceived as debasing and culturally insensitive.
“It’s a good example of what social-justice activists term microaggressions — behaviors or statements that do not necessarily reflect malicious intent but which nevertheless can inflict insult or injury. I wasn’t particularly offended by the dog comparison. I found it amusing at best and tone deaf at worst.
“But other slights cut deeper,” she wrote. “As an immigrant, my peers relentlessly inquired, “How come your English is so good?’—as if eloquence were beyond the intellectual reach of people who look like me. An African American friend once asked an academic adviser for information about majoring in biology and, without being asked about her academic record (which was excellent), was casually directed to “look up less-challenging courses in African American Studies instead.”
“There is nothing glamorous about being subjected to racism, and certainly no social rewards to be reaped from being the victim of oppression in a society that heaps disadvantage on historically marginalized groups.”
Derald Wing Sue. (Frame grab via YouTube)
Sue, at Columbia, recalls hurts similar to Runyowa’s, as he rose in his academic career. He grew up in Portland, Ore. Yet, he said, throughout his career “they’ll tell you, professor Sue, you speak very good English” and then “wonder why would that offend you? The message to me is I am a perpetual alien. Not a citizen in my own country.”
“Why are people of color raising these issues,” he said in an interview with The Post. “Not because they see themselves as victims,” as Manning and Campbell suggest. “Microagressions have empowered them by giving them a language of expression. It allows them to say this is happening, and given the fact that it’s happening, and doing all this harm, do they not have a right to say ‘this has to stop?'”
(Frame grab from UC guidance for faculty)
Correction: An original version of this story misspelled microaggressions.Lamp trees play a crucial role in the Aenean rainforest ecosystem. This family of black plants is one of the few that can survive the harsh chemical conditions of the forest floor, and their presence allows other plants to flourish nearby. Waste from the pseudofungus collects in pools of water, where it is consumed by a variety of microbes. Byproducts of pseudofungal and microbial activity are toxic in high concentrations. The system only remains stable over long periods of time because lamp trees continually filter out the metabolites and sequester them in modified leaves. Specialized microphylls have evolved into bulbous, luminescent structures that hang off of lower branches above the pseudofungal zone. They can become a burden if they number too many, and those that fall off will leach their contents back into the water that the tree worked so hard to cleanse.
One species, the hanging lantern tree, has developed a unique association with a species of murioid starrus to help discard the poison leaves. The harvester starmouse collects the leaves to line its nest. Because the pups are the same color as the toxic leaves, predators leave them alone. The risk of fatal poisoning is too great. After some time, the leaves lose their vibrancy and the pups stand out against the drab background. Because of this, starmice have an incentive to collect fresh leaves until their pups are old enough to fend for themselves. By this time, the worst of the chemicals have broken down and the leaves fall harmlessly to the ground.Microsoft founder Bill Gates delivered a strong message to Europe during a recent interview with a German news outlet: Control your borders.
Gates, who donated to the Obama campaign, warned during an interview with Welt am Sonntag — first translated by Breitbart News — that Germany’s open border policies will likely lead to a national catastrophe.
Gates believes that the nation’s foremost dilemma derives from its “attitude towards refugees.”
The tech entrepreneur’s criticism took specific aim at German chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been a strong advocate for taking in tens of thousands of migrants.
“Germany cannot possibly take in the huge, massive number of people who are wanting to make their way to Europe” Gates asserted, referring to the over one million migrants Germany welcomed in 2015.
Gates goes on to suggest that Europe as a whole needs to make it “more difficult for Africans to reach the continent via the current transit routes.”
As an alternative to mass migration, the tech titan suggests Europe spend more on foreign aid to cut incentive to relocate. “The more generous you are, the more word gets around about this – which in turn motivates more people to leave Africa,” Gates said in the interview.Early life Edit
Gay rights activism Edit
Later life Edit
Theory Edit
As he had throughout his life of activism, Hay continued to oppose what he perceived as harmful assimilationist attitudes within the gay community. "We pulled ugly green frog skin of heterosexual conformity over us, and that's how we got through school with a full set of teeth," Hay once explained. "We know how to live through their eyes. We can always play their games, but are we denying ourselves by doing this? If you're going to carry the skin of conformity over you, you are going to suppress the beautiful prince or princess within you."[181] Having rooted his political philosophy from the founding of Mattachine in the belief that homosexuals constituted a cultural minority, Hay was wary of discarding the unique attributes of that minority in favor of adopting the cultural traits of the majority for the purpose of societal acceptance. Having witnessed the move of Mattachine away from its founding Marxist activist principles and having seen the gay community marginalize drag queens and the leather subculture through the first decade of the post-Stonewall gay movement, Hay opposed what he believed were efforts to move other groups to the margins as the gay rights movement progressed.[182]
Legacy Edit
See also EditWinter won’t die, and finals season came too quick. Everyone is sick. It’s a hard time, fam, and we empathize.
But it’s not all daggers and bleakness.
Our name is Flashr, and our band of merry men are here to help.
This week, the team at Flashr will be hosting the inaugural
*~FLASHR FIESTA~* in McGill’s libraries.
We’ve taken out a loan, and instead of spending it on Prep 101 courses or tallboys at Korova, we’ve invested in something much more meaningful: prizes.
That’s right, McGill. We’re hosting a fucking treasure hunt.
Each day during exam period, we will be hiding fabulous booty all over McLennan, Schulich, Blackader, Bronfman, and the Music and Law libraries.
There will be regular prizes. There will be better-than-regular-prizes. And if you’re a lucky duckling, you might just find A GOLDEN TICKET (?!?)
Why? Well, for starters, we think it’ll be a good way to take the edge off of finals. And second, it’s a fun way to launch our new app, Flashr, which we made here at McGill. Who? Flashr (our baby). It’s like competitive Instagram. Where? McGill libraries, and beyond… When? Starting tomorrow, Friday, April 10th, at 11am. How? Hit us up on Facebook / Twitter / Flashr for more deets.
We will be announcing where treasure is hidden in real-time. There is lots to be won, but you’ll have to be clever.
Vamos!
FlashrA former Twin Cities journalist is suing toy giant Hasbro for selling a toy hamster with the same name.
A former Twin Cities journalist is suing toy giant Hasbro for selling a toy hamster with the same name, calling the plastic rodent "demeaning and insulting".
Harris Faulkner, who was a news anchor at KSTP from 2000 to 2004 and now appears on the Fox News Channel, is seeking $5 million from Hasbro for false endorsement and right of publicity, claiming the toy company used her unique name and likeness without her permission for its own financial gain, Courthouse News Service reports.
The big-eyed toy hamster, also named Harris Faulkner, was released in 2014 as part of Hasbro's "The Littlest Pet Shop" toy line, the lawsuit, filed Monday and published online by MSNBC, say.
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According to the suit, Hasbro's portrayal of Faulkner as a rodent is "demeaning and insulting" and the "manufacture, sale and distribution" of the hamster toy is "extremely concerning and distressing" to the journalist.
The lawsuit claims not only did Hasbro use her name without permission, but also made the hamster look like the journalist.
"Elements of the... hamster doll also bear a physical resemblance to Faulkner's traditional professional appearance, in particular tone of its complexion, the shape of its eyes, and the design of its eye makeup," the lawsuit says.
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The toy's packaging warning that it's a "choking hazard" is also upsetting to Faulkner, the lawsuit notes.
The lawsuit claims Faulkner "put Hasbro on notice" that using her name and likeness was illegal and unauthorized in January of this year, but a month later the plastic hamster doll was still available for sale on Hasbro's website.
Now however, the hamster doll is no longer for sale there, but the product can be found elsewhere online, the suit notes.
Hasbro has not commented on the lawsuit, the New York Daily News reports.Magazine Reviews
If you were looking to enter the world of offoad racing, you wouldn't immediately jump into a Pro-4 truck and take off toward the tabletops of Lake Elsinore Raceway; you'd start with a smaller Trophy Kart and work your way up. The RC world is the same way; there's no better way to start off your RC career than with a tough, fast, sporty truck like Team Associated's ProLite 4x4, which provides the solid platform on which to build familiarity with the hobby while preparing you for the thrills of racing fender-to-fender against your toughest competition - even if it's just in the backyard.
--Radio Control Car Action, March 2013
Even more impressive than its closed-course capabilities is how much fun it is to blast around native terrain, mating aggressive acceleration and predictable handling to create an overall package that is fun to drive and leaves you wanting more. Every time I drove the ProLite 4x4, I found new characteristics of its performance that I enjoyed, like its quick steering and stable jumping stature. But its intended audience will instead be focused on what really matters: durability, user-friendliness, and fun. The ProLite 4x4 does a fantastic job of combining all of these adjectives. For an aspiring new hobbyist, this truck is truly the total package.--Radio Control Short Course, Spring 2013
Team Associated is a leader in a number of competition segments and now it appears they are going after the entry-level fun crowd too. If the ProLite 4x4 is any indication how their Qualifier Series is going, it appears like it will have a successful future. The truck delivered on the ease-of-use and fun factor aspects. It's fast and is pretty impressive launching off of big jumps. There's no doubt AE will sell a lot of these to fun seekers.--Radio Control Car Action, April 2013A look at the current top five ranked NCAA hockey teams, their schedules, and how they’ve performed.
USCHO.comDivision 1 Men’s Poll December 10, 2012
Team 2012-13
Record Pts. Last Week 1 Boston College (35) 11-2-1 981 2 2 New Hampshire (9) 11-2-2 921 1 3 Notre Dame (3) 13-4-0 902 5 4 Minnesota (3) 11-3-3 815 4 5 Miami 10-3-3 775 3 6 Boston University 10-5-0 727 7 7 Western Michigan 10-3-1 723 7 8 North Dakota 8-5-3 630 9 9 Quinnipiac 12-3-2 541 13 10 Dartmouth 7-2-2 529 10 11 Denver 9-5-2 519 6 12 Cornell 6-3-2 438 11 13 Nebraska Omaha 10-5-1 389 14 14 Union 8-3-4 385 12 15 Yale 6-3-2 246 15 16 Niagara 10-2-3 239 18 17 St. Cloud State 9-7-0 234 17 18 Harvard 4-3-1 126 20 19 Ferris State 7-6-3 116 16 20 Minnesota State 9-5-2 96 NR
Boston College – It’s no surprise to see the Eagles back on top at the No. 1 spot. They began the season at No. 1, and since then have been ranked No. 1 in the NCAA 8 out of 10 weeks.
The returning champs are led by their lethal power play which operates at 27.42%.
Looking forward, the Eagles will have a slightly more difficult schedule in the second portion of their season then they’ve had so far. So far they have played 5 games against currently ranked teams. In the second portion of their season they will have to play 7 games against currently ranked teams, including 3 games against No. 2 New Hampshire and 1 game against No. 4 ranked Minnesota. Those match-ups will be a true test of Boston College’s dominance this season.
New Hampshire – After unseating Boston College from the No. 1 spot last week, the Wild Cats have slipped to No. 2 after losing 3-2 to No. 13 Boston University. Despite being un-ranked when the season began, the Wildcats have steadily climbed the rankings and have become one of the top teams in the NCAA.
Although the Wildcats score an impressive average of 3.60 goals per game, their defensive brand of hockey has been their forte. The team is led by their penalty kill which operates at 96.3%. The Wildcats have allowed just 2 power play goals in 17 games this year.
The Wildcats have played 6 games against currently ranked teams thus far, and going forward will only have to play 4 more games against currently ranked teams. However, 3 of those 4 games will be against No. 1 Boston College, and will be tough battles. Yet, New Hampshire’s strong defense and ability to shut down opponents power plays should give them the advantage over Boston College. Don’t be surprised if New Hampshire unseats Boston College for a second time this season.
Notre Dame – Over the last two months the Fighting Irish have slowly but surely fought their way from a No. 14 spot at the beginning of the season, to the No. 3 spot now. They are also No. 1 in the CCHA with a 9-1 conference record.
The Irish are another heavily defensive team. Their goal-tending, average goals allowed per game(1.65), and penalty kill (91.2%) are all some of the top ranked in the NCAA.
Notre Dame has a slightly tougher schedule than most this season. They’ve already played 6 games against currently ranked teams, and will play 7 more games against currently ranked teams later this season. As long they continue playing like they are, their strength of schedule should keep them among the top 5 ranked teams.
Minnesota– The Golden Gophers began the season, and have been ranked for most
of the season, at the No. 2 spot. Yet, since the emergence of teams like New Hampshire, Notre Dame, and Miami as contenders, Minnesota has slipped to No. 4.
Minnesota is an all-around balanced team. Their well-roundedness and ability on both sides of the puck has been, and will continue to be, their major advantage.
The Gophers will have their work cut out for them in the second portion of the season. So far this season they have only played 4 games against currently ranked teams. However, in the second portion of the season they will have plenty of currently ranked match-ups. Minnesota will play 10 games against currently ranked teams in the second portion of their season. This strong schedule could be what makes or breaks the Gophers in future rankings.
Miami – Until now Miami was the top ranked CCHA team in the NCAA rankings. Notre Dame has passed them in the NCAA rankings and the CCHA rankings, but Miami still remains one of the top teams in the country.
The Red Hawks have one of the top defenses in the NCAA, allowing an average of just 1.75 goals per game. They are a bit lacking on special teams however, particularly their power play. If they could find a bit more offensive spark, especially on the man advantage, they could easily find themselves climbing higher than the No. 5 spot.
Miami has had by far the easiest schedule of the current top 5 ranked teams. The Red Hawks have played only 2 games against currently ranked teams so far, and will only play 4 more this season. With this schedule the Red Hawks will have to be consistent and not drop too many games to un-ranked teams, while at the same time making sure that they beat the few ranked teams that they face.
Have a different take on the current top 5? Comment below.CHICAGO, IL - NOVEMBER 19: A'Shawn Robinson #91 of the Detroit Lions looks on during a game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on November 19, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. The Lions beat the Bears 27-24. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
By: Will Burchfield
A’Shawn Robinson does not enjoy speaking to the media. Tion Green does.
So the rambunctious rookie running back sat down beside the brooding second-year defensive lineman on Thursday and invited the cameras over for an interview.
“As part of the rookie process,” Green explained, “A’Shawn was named my big brother. I have to learn how to be a pro, and that was part of my 13 weeks of sitting out. He was teaching me how to do interviews.”
Robinson, the biggest player on the Lions’ roster at 322 pounds, slouched in his chair with a towel around his waist and looked on plainly as Green, some 100 pounds lighter, waited eagerly for questions and lit up the scrum with every answer. Pupil quickly became master.
Speaking about his NFL debut versus the Ravens last Sunday, Green explained he didn’t know he was playing until he found his jersey hanging in his locker at the end of warmups.
“I actually went to the equipment staff and asked, ‘Did y’all forget to take my jersey?’ They go, ‘Nah, you’re playing.’
“‘For real?'” Green asked.
For real.
The undrafted 23-year-old went out and picked up 33 yards on his first carry, scored a touchdown in the third quarter and finished as the Lions’ leading rusher. Robinson had told him before the game to run hard — “to run somebody over,” in fact — and Green mostly followed orders.
Right?
“Ahh, yeah,” he said, knowing Robinson was passing judgement.
Said Robinson, in a voice that seemed to be contained in an empty oil drum, “It didn’t happen as much as it needed to.”
“See!” said Green, with a big smile. “That’s what he was just actually telling me. He goes, ’51 yards, one touchdown, that’s it? That’s what we’ve been waiting on?’ “I’m like, ‘Man, alright.'”
Green himself was disappointed he didn’t do more. The Lions lost, and he felt like he left some yards behind.
“I’m not really one to be like, ‘Oh, I did really great.’ I mean, we didn’t win,” Green said.
So, personal success only matters in a victory?
Green and Robinson responded at the same time: “Yeah.” Then Robinson nodded his approval of Green’s answer.
“Is that a checkmark there?” Green asked. “I got that one right.”
There’s genuine affection between the two, even if it includes a good deal of rookie hazing. Green has to carry Robinson’s helmet in from practice, fetch his towel in the locker room and supply his preferred hot sauce on a strict schedule.
“Whenever he eats salmon,” said Green, as Robinson broke into a rare grin. “He eats salmon almost every Tuesday for lunch, and I have to have his hot sauce. It’s Cholua.”
Green’s a year older than Robinson, but in many ways their brotherly roles are reversed. Green is the playful thorn in Robinson’s side. Robinson is the voice of experience. Prior to Green’s debut on Sunday, Robinson was among those who helped settle the rookie’s nerves.
“Guys like A’Shawn, guys on offense telling me, ‘Take a deep breath, relax, you’ve been doing it your whole life,’ that did a lot for me,” Green said. “Kind of got my heart rate down a little bit.”
He said a joke from Robinson helped, too. Actually, he’s not so sure it was a joke.
“Were you joking when you grabbed my neck and told me to run somebody over,” Green asked.
“No,” Robinson replied, as if anyone would ever joke about that.
“See!” Green said again. “He was serious with it. That kind of calmed me down.”
The two could have a TV show, if only because they’re hilarious in their differences. They even have clashing styles of play. Green bounds around the field and barrels into people in delight. Robinson glowers behind his face mask, his beard protruding through his chin strap, and stalks the football in anger.
“I’m definitely the sweet one,” said Green. “He’s the mean one.”
The other day in practice, Green accidentally got in Robinson’s way. He grazed him, barely. In response, Robinson pushed Green halfway across the field, as if to teach his annoying younger brother a lesson.
“He goes, ‘Stay out of my way, little dude,'” said Green, mimicking Robinson’s deep voice. “He’s funny, though.”
In college, when Green was a bit heavier, he often got the call as Cincinnati’s goal-line back. It’s a role he can fill for the Lions too. They’ve struggled in short-yardage situations throughout the season, particularly in the red zone, and Green’s the rumbling kind of back that can push a pile.
Or maybe they need to go bigger.
“I think A’Shawn would be a perfect goal-line back, like who was that guy, The Freezer, a long time ago?” asked Green.
You mean, The Refrigerator — 300-pound defensive lineman William Perry?
“The Refrigerator, yeah! That would be A’Shawn, but you’d be the freezer!” Green laughed.
Said Robinson, “I get to hit somebody in they face I’m cool with it.”
He added, “I’m just trying to hit somebody in the face in general, take somebody’s face off.”
Green looked over at him, as if everything suddenly made sense, and asked, “Is that why you’re trying to take my face off every day in practice?
“Makes you better,” Robinson said flatly.
When the Lions take the field on Sunday in Tampa Bay, desperate for a win, they’ll need some of Robinson’s fury. Green’s expecting a lot.
“Two sacks, five tackles for loss, an interception to the crib, and a touchdown celebration dance,” he said.
They also might need some of Green’s energy. Robinson’s expecting even more.
“My standard’s held to the highest,” he said.
“I need about 150 (yards),” said Green.
“No,” said Robinson. “300.”
“In one game?” Green asked, incredulous. “Like Barry?”
“I’m hard to please,” said Robinson, and then with his towel around his waist — and a hint of a smile — he made his way to the shower.Bitwig Studio has been steadily attracting new users since its launch three years ago, and with it being so new, there are no doubt plenty of undiscovered techniques and workflows to come. Here, though, are six that every Bitwigger should know right now.
For more pro DAW tutorials and guides, check out the December 2016 edition of Future Music.
1. Per-note pitch
Did you know that Bitwig Studio allows you to pitchbend individual notes within chords by up to two octaves? When editing MIDI data in the Detail Editor Panel (aka piano roll), head to its top left and toggle the Micro-pitch toggle button. Now the centre line within a note represents default (ie, 0 semitones) - click to create automation-like breakpoints and draw in pitchbend curves. Hold Shift as you drag curves to lock them to semitone values. You can now bend pitch polyphonically (eg, individual notes within a chord), or add precise vibrato to only certain notes of a riff. The rather major caveat, however, is that this only works with Bitwig's own instruments, not third-party ones.
2. Cue it up
Bitwig Studio's Cue Markers are small flags that you place at the top of the arrangement window to mark out sections of your song structure, just like Ableton Live's Locators. Go to View>Show Cue Markers to expose the top area above the timeline, then right-click there to insert a new cue marker. These can be renamed, copied, pasted and muted.
3. Mod-a-lot
Bitwig Studio's Mod devices enable you to funnel audio or MIDI signals from anywhere in a session and use them to modulate something else. For example, imagine you have a session set up with a MIDI arpeggiator on one track and a sustained synth pad on an audio channel. Load the Note Mod device on the pad channel, select the arpeggiator channel as the modulator, then add a Ladder filter within the Note Mod's FX Chain and use it to modulate the Cutoff. Now, by tweaking the Note Mod's envelope parameters, you can define how the incoming MIDI from the arp channel will trigger the Ladder filter's sweeps.
4. Replacer
Bitwig Studio comes bundled with an awesome drum replacement tool, Replacer, which in Bitwig's words "analyses the level of the incoming audio and generates notes at a single pitch, which are sent to a nested device chain". As well as being great for straight-up drum replacement, it's a handy tool for bolstering or layering individual hits within a loop in parallel. To do this, add an Effect Track set to 100% Wet and drag an E-Snare instrument into its INST slot. Send your drum loop to this track in parallel, then tweak the Replacer's Freq and Threshold parameters to ensure that only the loop's snare triggers the E-Snare.
5. Identical mod settings
When working with multiple instruments within an Instrument Layer, you'll often want to apply the same Macro assignments and mod amounts to the same parameter across them. To do this in Ableton Live, you need to use the Options.txt workaround, but in Bitwig it's easy to do straight out the box: simply right-click the parameter, select Copy Modulation to all Layers, and that same parameter across all the layers will be assigned to the same Macro.
6. MS To Impress
In most DAWs, processing the mid and side components of a signal independently requires dedicated third-party plugins or some sort of fiddly routing - but not in Bitwig Studio! Simply load the Mid-Side Split Container on a channel, then load your choice of effects in the Mid and Side slots. You can now design your own custom effects chains for both the mono and stereo elements of a signal.“I was living in the darkest sin I’ve ever known, and dealing with a spiritual and emotional war too great for me to fight. I didn’t want to live anymore, and thought about ways to end it. God pulled me back to K-Wave, and the program I listened to every single day on my way to work was Walk in the Word.The Lord used messages from Pastor James MacDonald to convict me and shake me from the sin I was in. It’s like the messages were designed specifically for me and exactly what I was dealing with. I repented and asked God for forgiveness and have been made new in Him. I may not be alive today and I likely wouldn’t be saved if it weren’t for Walk in the Word. This ministry helped changed the trajectory of my life. Thank you for giving me hope, direction, and counsel!”
– CHELSEAby Will Falk / Deep Green Resistance
Recently walking up Main Street in Park City, Utah, I saw in the Visitor’s Center doorway what looked like a man holding a great-horned owl surrounded by children. As his voice carried across the street, I heard the man explain that this owl had been found with an injured wing after being struck by a car.
I love owls. I love the haunting sound of their hoots in the darkest hours before dawn. I love the joy that accompanies the lucky sight of a splash of brown feathers against newly-fallen snow when an owl makes the rare decision to reveal herself in winter daylight. I love how owls’ mysterious nature have made them omens in so many cultures’ imaginations. So, when I saw what I thought was a great-horned owl, I automatically crossed the street with a feeling of anticipation.
Many of a great-horned owl’s characteristics were observable in the creature the man held. There were beautiful, downy brown and white feathers flecked occasionally with yellow. There was a sharp, curved beak. There were powerful wide wings – though they were tightly-clasped as this creature hugged herself for comfort.
From a distance I could see her eyes had the same shape and colors of a great-horned owl’s – big and round with an orange ring circling black. I recalled the eyes of the great-horned owls I have seen watching me from the tops of ancient juniper trees in the chilly foothills of the Great Basin. The orange in their eyes flamed and blazed. Sometimes, the black reflected impenetrable depths of wisdom. At other times, the black became a pool reflecting the silver notes of stars in the Nevada sky. And, at still other times, the black became the night soaking up the shadows before lifting with flight to disappear into clouds.
As I approached, I saw that the man’s right forearm was wrapped in leather. Two steel rings pierced the leather. Connected to the rings was a chain, about two feet long, made of still more steel rings tightly wound and welded together so the chain would never break. The chain was wrapped around and tightened to the left leg of what I had mistaken for a great-horned owl.
This was no owl. Not anymore. An owl is so much more than her eyes, beak, and talons, than the small space |
, 1933, the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses was observed throughout Germany. Only six days later, the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service was passed, banning Jews from government jobs. It is notable that the proponents of this law, and the several thousand more that were to follow, most frequently explained them as necessary to prevent the infiltration of damaging, "alien-type" (Artfremd) hereditary traits into the German national or racial community (Volksgemeinschaft).[41] These laws meant that Jews were now indirectly and directly dissuaded or banned from privileged and superior positions reserved for "Aryan Germans". From then on, Jews were forced to work in more menial positions, becoming second-class citizens or to the point that they were "illegally residing" in Nazi Germany.
In the early years of Nazi rule, there were efforts to secure the elimination of Jews by expulsion; later, a more explicit commitment was made to extermination. On August 25, 1933, the Nazis signed the Haavara Agreement with Zionists to allow German Jews to emigrate to Palestine in exchange for a portion of their economic assets. The agreement offered a way to leave an increasingly hostile environment in Nazi Germany; by 1939, 60,000 German Jews (about 10% of the Jewish population) had emigrated there. Thereafter, Nazi policy eventually changed to one of total extermination. Nazi doctrine culminated in the Holocaust, or so-called "Final Solution", which was made official at the January 1942 Wannsee Conference.
Mischling (of mixed blood). The Nazis used the religious observance of a person's grandparents to determine their race. 1935 Chart from Nazi Germany used to explain the Nuremberg Laws. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 employed a pseudo-scientific basis for racial discrimination against Jews. People with four German grandparents (white circles) were of "German blood", while people were classified as Jews if they were descended from three or more Jewish grandparents (black circles in top row right). Either one or two Jewish grandparents made someone a(of mixed blood). The Nazis used the religious observance of a person's grandparents to determine their race.
Nuremberg Laws [ edit ]
Between 1935 and 1936, persecution of the Jews increased apace while the process of "Gleichschaltung" (lit.: "standardisation", the process by which the Nazis achieved complete control over German society) was implemented. In May 1935, Jews were forbidden to join the Wehrmacht (the armed forces), and in the summer of the same year, anti-semitic propaganda appeared in shops and restaurants. The Nuremberg Laws were passed around the time of the great Nazi rallies at Nuremberg; on September 15, 1935, the "Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor" was passed. At first this criminalised sexual relations and marriage only between Germans and Jews, but later the law was extended to "Gypsies, Negroes and their bastard offspring"; it became punishable by law as Rassenschande or racial pollution.[42] After this, the "Reich Citizenship Law" was passed, and was reinforced in November by a decree; it included only people of "German or related blood", which meant that all Jews were stripped of their citizenship and their official title became "subjects of the state". This meant that they were deprived of basic citizens' rights, e.g. the right to vote. This removal of citizens' rights was instrumental in the process of anti-semitic persecution: the process of denaturalization allowed the Nazis to exclude—de jure—Jewish people from the "Volksgemeinschaft" ("national community"), thus granting judicial legitimacy to their persecution and opening the way to harsher laws and, eventually, extermination of the Jews. Philosopher Hannah Arendt pointed out this important judicial aspect of the Holocaust in The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), where she demonstrated that to violate human rights, Nazi Germany first deprived human beings of their citizenship. Arendt underlined that in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, citizens' rights actually preceded human rights, as the latter needed the protection of a determinate state to be actually respected.
The drafting of the Nuremberg Laws has often been attributed to Hans Globke. Globke had studied British attempts to "order" its empire by creating hierarchical social orders, for example in the organization of "martial races" in India.
Jewish prisoners are issued food on a building site at Salaspils concentration camp, Latvia, in 1941.
In 1936, Jews were banned from all professional jobs, effectively preventing them from having any influence in education, politics, higher education, and industry. There was now nothing to stop the anti-Jewish actions that spread across the German economy.
Between 1937 and 1938, new laws were implemented, and the segregation of Jews from the "German Aryan" population was completed. In particular, Jews were punished financially for being Jewish.
From March 1, 1938, government contracts could not be awarded to Jewish businesses. On September 30, "Aryan" doctors could only treat "Aryan" patients. Provision of medical care to Jews was already hampered because Jews were banned from being doctors.
On August 17, Jews with first names of non-Jewish origin had to add "Israel" (males) or "Sara" (females) to their names[citation needed], and a large letter "J" was to be printed on their passports on October 5. On November 15, Jewish children were banned from going to state-run schools. By April 1939, nearly all Jewish companies had either collapsed under financial pressure and declining profits, or been persuaded to sell out to the government, further reducing their rights as human beings; they were, in many ways, effectively separated from the German populace.
The increasingly totalitarian regime that Hitler imposed on Germany allowed him to control the actions of the military. On November 7, 1938, a young Polish Jew named Herschel Grynszpan attacked and shot German diplomat Ernst vom Rath in the German embassy in Paris. Grynszpan's family, together with more than 12,000 Polish-born Jews, had been expelled by the Nazi government from Germany to Poland in the so-called "Polenaktion" on October 28, 1938. Joseph Goebbels ordered retaliation. On the night of November 9, the SS and SA conducted "the Night of Broken Glass" ("Kristallnacht"), in which at least 91 Jews were killed and a further 30,000 arrested and incarcerated in Nazi concentration camps. After the start of the war, and the conquest of numerous European countries, the Jewish population was put into ghettos, from which they were shipped to death camps where they were killed.
Jewish responses to the Nuremberg Laws [ edit ]
Gymnastics lesson in a Berlin Jewish school, 1936.
After the promulgation of the Nuremberg Laws, the Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden (Representation of the German Jews) announced the following:
The Laws decided upon by the Reichstag in Nuremberg have come as the heaviest of blows for the Jews in Germany. But they must create a basis on which a tolerable relationship becomes possible between the German and the Jewish people. The "Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden" is willing to contribute to this end with all its powers. A precondition for such a tolerable relationship is the hope that the Jews and Jewish communities of Germany will be enabled to keep a moral and economic means of existence by the halting of defamation and boycott. The organization of the life of the Jews in Germany requires governmental recognition of an autonomous Jewish leadership. The Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland is the agency competent to undertake this. The most urgent tasks for the "Reichsvertretung", which it will press energetically and with full commitment, following the avenues it has previously taken, are: Our own Jewish educational system must serve to prepare the youth to be upright Jews, secure in their faith, who will draw the strength to face the onerous demands which life will make on them from conscious solidarity with the Jewish community, from work for the Jewish present and faith in the Jewish future. In addition to transmitting knowledge, the Jewish schools must also serve in the systematic preparation for future occupations. With regard to preparation for emigration, particularly to Palestine, emphasis will be placed on guidance toward manual work and the study of the Hebrew language. The education and vocational training of girls must be directed to preparing them to carry out their responsibilities as upholders of the family and mothers of the next generation.[citation needed]
Sinti and Roma about to be deported from the German town of Asperg, 22 May 1940.
Sinti and Roma [ edit ]
Nazi Germany began persecution of the Romani as early as 1936 when they began to transfer the people to municipal internment camps on the outskirts of cities, a prelude to the deportation of 23,000 Gypsies to concentration camps. "Pure-blooded" Gypsies were considered by the Nazis to be Aryan, however, only about 10% were categorized as such.
Heinrich Himmler suggested creating a "Gypsy Law" to separate Gypsies from the German people:
The aim of measures taken by the State to defend the homogeneity of the German nation must be the physical separation of Gypsydom from the German nation, the prevention of miscegenation, and finally, the regulation of the way of life of pure and part-Gypsies. The necessary legal foundation can only be created through a Gypsy Law, which prevents further intermingling of blood, and which regulates all the most pressing questions which go together with the existences of Gypsies in the living space of the German nation.
A "Gypsy Law" to the liking of Himmler was never passed.
In Mein Kampf, Hitler described children resulting from marriages to African occupation soldiers as a contamination of the white race "by Negro blood on the Rhine in the heart of Europe."[45] He thought that "Jews were responsible for bringing Negroes into the Rhineland, with the ultimate idea of bastardizing the white race which they hate and thus lowering its cultural and political level so that the Jew might dominate."[46] He also implied that this was a plot on the part of the French, since the population of France was being increasingly "negrified".[47][48]
The number of black people in Germany when the Nazis came to power is variously estimated at 5,000 to 25,000.[47][49] According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., "The fate of black people from 1933 to 1945 in Nazi Germany and in German-occupied territories ranged from isolation to persecution, sterilization, medical experimentation, incarceration, brutality, and murder. However, there was no systematic program for their elimination as there was for Jews and other groups."[47]
Prior to Hitler coming to power, black entertainers were popular in Germany, but the Nazis banned jazz as "corrupt negro music".[47]
However, contrary to popular myth,[47] black American sprinter Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals in beating German athletes at the 1936 Berlin Olympic games, faced less segregation there than in the US, and felt snubbed by Roosevelt rather than by Hitler.[50]
Of particular concern to the Nazi scientist Eugen Fischer were the "Rhineland Bastards": mixed-race offspring of Senegalese soldiers who had been stationed in the Rhineland as part of the French army of occupation. He believed that these people should be sterilized in order to protect the racial purity of the German population. At least 400 mixed-race children were forcibly sterilized in the Rhineland by 1938. This order only applied in the Rhineland. Other African Germans were unaffected. Despite this policy, there was never any systematic attempt to eliminate the black population in Germany, though some blacks were used in medical experiments, and others mysteriously disappeared.[47]
According to Susan Samples, the Nazis went to great lengths to conceal their sterilization and abortion program in the Rhineland.[51] Hans Massaquoi describes his experience as a half-African in Hamburg, unaware of the Rhineland sterilizations until long after the war.[52] Samples also points to the paradoxical fact that African-Germans actually had a better chance of surviving the war than the average German. They were excluded from military activity because of their non-Aryan status, but were not considered a threat and so were unlikely to be incarcerated. Samples and Massaquoi also note that African-Germans were not subjected to the segregation they would have experienced in the United States, nor excluded from facilities such as expensive hotels. However, they both state that downed black American pilots were more likely to become victims of violence and murder from German citizens than white pilots.[47]
Policies regarding Poles, Russians and other Slavs [ edit ]
As early as 1925, Hitler suggested in Mein Kampf that the German people needed Lebensraum ("living space") to achieve German expansion eastwards (Drang nach Osten) at the expense of the inferior Slavs. Hitler believed that "the organization of a Russian state formation was not the result of the political abilities of the Slavs in Russia, but only a wonderful example of the state-forming efficacity of the German element in an inferior race."[53]
After the invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler expressed his future plans for the Slavs:
As for the ridiculous hundred million Slavs, we will mould the best of them as we see fit, and we will isolate the rest of them in their own pig-styes; and anyone who talks about cherishing the local inhabitants and civilising them, goes straight off into a concentration camp![54]
Nazi ideology viewed the Slavic peoples as non-Aryan Untermenschen ("sub-humans"), who were targeted for enslavement, expulsion and extermination.[11] The racial status of Slavs during the Third Reich was inconsistent over time.[55] Hitler viewed the Slavs as "a mass of born slaves who feel the need of a master".[56] Nazi propaganda portrayed the Germanic peoples as "heroes" in contrast to the Jewish and Slavic "sub-humans". Nazi propaganda depicted Eastern Europe as racially mixed "Asiatic" that was dominated by the Jews with the aid of Bolshevism. The Nazis considered some people in Eastern Europe to be suitable for Germanization (they were presumed to be of German descent); if they were considered racially valuable they were to be re-Germanized and forcefully taken from their families to Germany and raised as Germans.[12]
The final version of Generalplan Ost, essentially a grand plan for ethnic cleansing, was divided into two parts: the Kleine Planung ("Small Plan"), which covered actions which were to be taken during the war, and the Grosse Planung ("Big Plan"), which covered actions to be undertaken after the war was won (to be carried into effect gradually over a period of 25–30 years). The Small Plan was to be put into practice as the Germans conquered the areas to the east of their pre-war borders. The individual stages of this plan would then be worked out in greater detail. In this way, the plan for Poland was drawn up at the end of November 1939.
The plan envisaged removal of the majority of the population of conquered counties, with very small and varied percentages of the various conquered nations undergoing Germanisation, expulsion into the depths of Russia, and other fates, the net effect of which would be to ensure that the conquered territories would be Germanized.[11] Himmler declared during the Germanization process that no drop of German blood would be lost or left behind to mingle with any "alien races".[58] The Wehrbauer ("soldier-peasants") would settle in a fortified line to prevent civilization arising beyond and threatening Germany.[59]
The Nazis issued the Polish decrees on 8 March 1940 which regulated the working and living conditions of Polish laborers (Zivilarbeiter) used during World War II in Germany. The decrees set out that any Pole "who has sexual relations with a German man or woman, or approaches them in any other improper manner, will be punished by death."[60] The Gestapo were extremely vigilant about sexual relations between Germans and Poles and pursued any case relentlessly where this was suspected.[61] There were similar regulations used against the other ethnic groups brought in from Eastern Europe, including the death penalty for sexual relations with a German person.[61] During the war, hundreds of Polish and Russian men were executed for their relations with German women.[62][63]
Heinrich Himmler, in his secret memorandum "Reflections on the Treatment of Peoples of Alien Races in the East" dated 25 May 1940, expressed his own thoughts and the future plans for the populations in the East.[64] Himmler stated that it was in the German interest to discover as many ethnic groups in the East and splinter them as much as possible, find and select racially valuable children to be sent to Germany to assimilate them and restrict non-Germans in the General Government and conquered territories to four-grade elementary school which would only teach them how to write their own name, to count up to 500 and to obey Germans.[64] Himmler believed the Germanization process in Eastern Europe would be complete when "in the East dwell only men with truly German, Germanic blood".[65]
Other "non-Aryans" [ edit ]
freiwillige troops of the Volunteertroops of the Turkestan Legion in France, 1943
Though the laws were primarily directed against Jews,[66] other "non-Aryan" people were subject to the laws, and to other legislation concerned with racial hygiene. The definition of "Aryan" was never fully defined as the term was too imprecise and ambiguous, it was attempted to be clarified over time in a number of judicial and executive decisions. Jews were by definition non-Aryan, because of their Semitic origins. Outside of Europe in North Africa, according to Alfred Rosenberg's racial theories (The Myth of the Twentieth Century), some of the Berbers, particularly the Kabyles, were to be classified as Aryans.[67] The Nazis portrayed Swedes, the Afrikaaners – who are white European descendants of Dutch-speaking Boers in South Africa – and higher-degree Northern/Western Europeans of South America (mainly from Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina) as ideal "Aryans" along with the German-speaking peoples of Greater Germany and Switzerland (the country was neutral during the war). The Roma (Gypsies), who, while considered originally Aryan, were deemed a threat to the Aryan race because of their racial mingling.[68]
Although Turkic peoples had been perceived initially as "racially inferior" by the Nazis, this attitude changed in autumn 1941, when, in view of the difficulties faced in their invasion of the Soviet Union, the Nazis attempted to harness the anti-Russian sentiment of Turkic peoples in Soviet Union for political gain. The first Turkestan Legion was mobilized in May 1942. The East Battalions contained between 275,000 and 350,000 “Muslim and Caucasian” volunteers and conscripts.[69]
Other groups [ edit ]
About 10,000 Japanese nationals (mostly diplomats and military officials) residing in Nazi Germany were given the status of "Honorary Aryan" which allowed them to have more privileges than any other "non-Aryans". In Norway, the Nazis favored and promoted children between Germans and Norwegians, in an attempt to raise the birth rate of Nordic Aryans. Around 10,000–12,000 war children (Krigsbarn) were born from these unions during the war. Some of them were separated from their mothers and cared for in so-called "Lebensborn" clinics ("Fountain of Life" clinics).[70][71]
Germanization between 1939 and 1945 [ edit ]
Nazi policy stressed the superiority of the Nordic race, a sub-race of the white European population defined by the measurement of the size and proportions of the human body models of racial difference. From 1940 the Nazis in General Government (occupied Poland) divided the population into different groups.[73] Each group had different rights, food rations, allowed strips in the cities, separated residential areas, special schooling systems, public transportation and restricted restaurants. Later adapted in all Nazi-occupied countries by 1942, the Germanization program used the racial caste system of reserving certain rights to one group and barred privileges to another. Ethnic Poles were believed by Hitler to be "biologically inferior race" that could never be educated or elevated through Germanization. In 1940, Hitler approved of a plan regarding the Germanization of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, he estimated around half of the Czech population were suitable for Germanization but made clear that the "mongoloid" types and Czech intelligentsia were not allowed to be Germanized.
During the occupation of Poland, the Nazis kept an eye out for children with Nordic racial characteristics, those among them found to be classified as "racially valuable" were sent from here to the German Reich for adoption and to be raised as Germans, those who failed the tests would be used as slaves or murdered in medical experiments.[76]
Nordicist anthropometrics was used to "improve" the racial make-up of the Germanized section of the population, by absorbing individuals into the German population who were deemed suitably Nordic.[11]
Germanization also affected the Sorbs, the minority Slav community living in Saxony and Brandenburg, whose Slavic culture and language was suppressed to absorb them into German identity. Tens of thousands suffered internment and imprisonment as well, to become lesser-known victims of Nazi racial laws. Similarly, the Nazis considered the people living in the Goralenvolk area to be descended from ethnic Germans and were therefore classified as Aryans.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Notes
Bibliography
Further readingPunchdrunk on Kickstarter Juice
Monday Meeting
Although in this art from V20 Rites of Blood, the Advance PDF of which is coming this week to DTRPG, I have a hunch the liquid being served isn’t punch.
Last week, I mentioned that I’d like to talk more about some of the principles I’d like Onyx Path to hold to, but with all the hoopla and commentary being fired back and forth because of text included in the D&D5th Basic Rules, I think I’ll save talking about inclusion until a later blog.
Because Kickstarter has become a very visible part of our business model, but was never part of my initial plans for Onyx, it has had a huge impact on how we’re perceived now after 11 successful Kickstarter pledge drives. We’ve certainly had our ups and downs with it, and a lot of growing pains, but I’m pleased to see everybody here learning and improving with each KS we do. But because of the extended time frames, both intended and some we didn’t expect, and the ways our KSs have overlapped, the better processes and understanding of what we are doing can get lost in the upset and frustration of backers several KSs back. So we improve, but an upset backer is already gone- which we really regret. On the other hand, folks who stuck with us, and there are a satisfyingly large number of them, are reaping the benefits of our upward learning curve.
So here are a few things we’ve learned from each KS and how we’ve tried to implement changes based on that learning:
1- V20 Companion: some backers were upset that the book was the 80ish page count we always intended it to be, but hadn’t specifically written into the KS project description because both Justin and I had always based it on the classic companion books with the screens, which were that size. This was a mistake. Now every KS has an expected page count included, and I try and describe as fully as possible the overall look we’re trying for.
2- V20 Children of the Revolution: our first Stretch Goal project was added to this, and that project, the V20 Red List, is still being worked on. That’s because the project was added during the KS, and was pitched as a labor of love to be done in the writer’s spare time. Now all extra projects are confirmed as something that will be part of the line and time allotted to them like any other of our books. This realization was too late for the next KS, though.
3- W20: Hoo, boy. Multiple lessons here. Overstate the difficulties of doing new processes, like the die-cut through the leather and especially the Heavy Metal cover. Quadruple the estimated time until release. Don’t add a Stretch Goal that’s new and just getting started like the dice-roller. Go with the worse-case shipping numbers because those will be a lot closer to the real costs once this big book ships. Oh, and 400+ page books cost a ton more to ship than the smaller 120 page books did previously. Most of all, use a shipper who specializes in shipping and knows little of RPGs, as opposed to an RPG shipper.
4- Mummy: the Curse: This was the first new game core book we KS’d, and there were issues with the info we put into the KS not having enough actual details on what the game was about and played. When we did the Demon: the Descent KS we included a link to the almost complete actual text itself, as we’ve done with the supplement KSs as well.
5- V20 Hunters Hunted 2: Here is where we first learned that supplements fund more slowly, and so we tried adding in some changes to the text itself as Stretch Goals to stimulate the process. Boy did that work, and it also delayed the book getting finished as the extra material had to be added. We now plan for the extra Stretch Goal text to the book itself taking more time than originally assumed. We also learned we could create a cool looking Deluxe book that didn’t have to match V20.
6- Exalted 3rd Edition: This is one of those projects that are so big that we haven’t yet figured out everything we’re learning from it. I will say that I think I’d rather have folks getting frustrated over a KS taking a long time to start than over the project getting finished. So, although they are not KSs yet, we’re not announcing either a Trinity Continuum, or a Scion 2nd Edition KS until the text is actually near complete and not likely to get changed by system tinkering. For a similar project, Mage 20th, I pushed out the expected delivery date even though I had text in hand that was already close to completion.
7- W20 Changing Breeds: This is the book that reminded us that while we were starting to think there were only core books and supplements, that a book could have such interest and such an exciting KS that it would surprise us and require a bit of flexibility in thinking. It suffered a bit from the same extra Stretch Goal material issues as HH2, but Stew Wilson was ready for that and got writers working even as the KS wound down- the real issue was the extra art and added page count. That extra page count caused a bunch of trouble with the printer including more material like the cover leatherette needing to be bought. And I was finally made aware that standard page gilding adds a solid month to the manufacturing process. So subsequent KSs have been planned with an eye towards how much larger the books might go, and what we need to do to cover those costs and any extra time the printing might take.
8- Demon: The Descent: A lot of the learning experiences from previous KSs paid off here, but we did get some comments about how backers could use a PoD book to play with until the KS version is printed and shipped, and we should have included one in the Reward Tiers. Now, I had deliberately stayed away from including PoD rewards after our first KS and the PoD aspects not meshing with the Deluxe shipping. But, with the help of DTRPG’s Matt McElroy, we found a way to discount PoDs for backers in later KSs.
9- V20 Anarchs Unbound: This book was confirmation that supplements really need small Stretch Goals that enable additional text, and must be planned with that in mind. It also confirmed a sneaking suspicion I was getting that we wouldn’t be able to keep offering every X20 supplement as Deluxes, because while we funded this, it was hard to get the KS arranged in the schedule. We’ll be picking and choosing which X20 supplements get KSs from here on, and as Wyrm showed, they will have Stretch Goals that add to the book itself.
10- Mage 20th: Another biggie that was designed based on the previous big KSs, and is going well so far. We will be reviewing it as the projects go through their stages.
11- W20 Book of the Wyrm: We used the ideas garnered from other supplements, and also added the Pentex Board Meeting election to see how voting might shake up the KS. Still looking at what worked, and didn’t.
Just to say, these aren’t all the lessons we’ve learned- there are nitty-gritty artist or scheduling or printer aspects that we’ve also been fine-tuning. But they show the cumulative effect of two years of KSing.
In talking with Eddy today, he relayed that CCP is effectively on summer holiday, and I made the call to bring Eddy out to Gen Con with the rest of our Onyx Path cadre (poor fool will probably be rooming with me). So the Rich and Eddy “What’s Up With…?” road-show of panels continues into its fourth or fifth straight year. This is good news.
Here, Drink in These Projects:
– Book of the Deceived (MtC): In Editing.
– Sothis Ascends (MtC): Some text was re-distributed and needs further writing, otherwise in redlines.
– Cursed Necropolis: Rio (MtC): First drafts heading into redlines.
– Exalted 3rd Edition: From Holden: “Illness made the last week less productive than hoped. Work on the book largely consisted of a lot of playtest-based tweaks to Charms and social systems this week. Introduction is finished and heading off to editing today. Evocation work resumed, moving now into the home stretch.” Still need art notes- which are the descriptions of what needs to be illustrated created by the devs as guidance and inspiration for the artists.
Both EX3 novels are being worked on, and notes went back on Matt Forbeck’s synopsis. The EX3 Music Suites are at a standstill right now until our composer gets through his full time job commitments.
– V20 Anarchs Unbound: It is live on DTRPG in PDF, ePub, PoD and PDF/PoD combos. http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/127247/Anarchs-Unbound Meeting with Mirthful Mike about getting printer quotes finalized for Deluxe version on Tuesday.
– V20 Rites of the Blood: Advance PDF on sale at DTRPG this week. (Advance PDF designates a full PDF release, but one where we will take purchasers’ comments and fixes and tweak the files before the PDF and PoD are on sale together. Advance PDF purchasers get a discount link for purchasing the PoD version based on the cost of the PDF/PoD combo price.) And as pointed out above, our art piece this week is a full-page piece by Michael Gaydos from the book.
– V20 Dark Ages: Almost entirely in post-writing Development. David Hill has delivered some art notes. Full page art notes going out to artist.
– V20: Ghouls: In 2nd drafts.
– V20 Red List: In final draft stage.
– The Making of the Art of Children of the Revolution: Creating PoD files to go with PDF for sale on DTRPG.
– V20 Lore of the Clans: Was Blood Diaries. Writing.
– Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition: I’m told the very last missing W20s and W20 Screens in Europe are going out this week. Mike Lee has delivered several new chapters this week of the W20 “Houses of the Moon” novel for Bill to review. The White Howlers Tribe Book is in layout approval, and the comic was being scripted by Bill Bridges and John Bridges has started on the art.
– W20 Changing Breeds: Deluxes and Screens should be at the fulfillment shipper Tuesday (tomorrow) as the 4th of July holiday screwed up trucking and receiving of the books.
– W20 Book of the Wyrm- And done! It was a delightful KS, see above, and Stew is getting the new text an sections assigned. We’ll be moving very fast to get the Surveys out with the ballots for the Pentex Board seats on them right after Amazon Payments finalizes everyone’s pledges. Then after all that, work needs to begin on the Pentex Employee Indoctrination Manual Stretch Goal project.
– W20: The Umbra: In post-second draft development.
– Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition- Satyr Phil has handed all the text off to Bill. Bill has started his “second set of eyes” developer’s pass. The Character Pack book and the “How Do You DO That?” book would be next on our agenda. The M20 Quick Start PDF/PoD will go on sale as soon as we confirm with a new PoD proof that the binding is as we specified (the last proof was not what we’d asked for).
– Trinity Continuum: System Doc being assembled by Joltin’ Joe Carriker. He says system development is really hard and apologizes for the delay. The first new piece of art in YEARS has been commissioned. We’re doing some Gen Con things with that. Jumpin’ John Snead had to replace a writer for the Aeon core book, but says things are still coming together nicely.
– Scion: Sketch for Scion: Origins came in and WOW! Expect to see it and the new character’s art at Gen Con.
– Demon: the Descent Prestige Edition: at press.
– Demon: The Descent: Demon Seed Collection is in post-writing development- just need to get in all the city-based fact checking notes. DtD Seattle is in layout and art directed. Heirs to Hell backers’ PDF went out to KS backers last week- we’ll be assembling the errata and getting the PDF and PoD versions ready to go on sale. Demon Translation Guide is being written. The Demon Fiction Anthology + Interfaces is in post-writing development.
– DtD Players Guide: Flowers Of Hell: PDF is available now: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/131419/Flowers-of-Hell-The-Demon-Players-Guide. We’ll be assembling the errata this week to prepare the PDF and PoD on sale versions.
– nWoD: Dark Eras: The VtR section is benefiting from a focused dev pass, while the rest of the Eras are in editing.
– WtF: The Idigam Chronicle: In 2nd drafts. Stew Wilson is doing a remarkably regular Friday blog that focuses on specific topics for the book- lots of good discussion happening right now: http://theonyxpath.com/category/projects/werewolftheforsaken/
– GtSE: Geist Ready Made Characters: In redlines.
Reason to Drink: Humidity. Ugh.You wake up with a heavy heart knowing their plane leaves in a few short hours. That person lying beside you, the one you’ve shared so much with over the past few weeks; the joy, the laughter, the passion… they will be gone. Deep down you know there’s a strong likelihood you may never see them again. It’s hard, it’s always hard. Yet over time you become slightly numbed, the experiences aren’t quite as intense as that first time. You try to recapture that sensation but it’s just beyond your grasp… It becomes a kind of addiction.
Anyone who’s traveled for even brief stretches will likely have experienced the sensation of love on the road, at least something resembling love. It’s a unique feeling, different to what you would experience in a traditional dating/courtship ritual. The fleeting and finite nature of our interactions when journeying abroad leads to a swift intimacy and intensity which can completely absorb us. There are no pretenses, no expectations.. you’re both free to lay it all on the line.
When you’re in that moment, it can sometimes be hard to fully appreciate it. As with anything, we tend to look ahead, wandering what will come of our situation.. Maybe we are best to simply enjoy it while it lasts.
This is a guest post from my mate Brayden over at Lifenshit which sums up that sentiment pretty well.
A Story to Tell Your Grandchildren
You go into a travel fling thinking about how she’s fun and cute, but since you’re both leaving in a few days you’ll have your time together and that’ll be the end of it. Sometimes that’s how it works. But then there are the other times, when you’re still wrapped up together at 6 in the morning lying in a hammock, or a caravan, or their parents fucking guesthouse on the other side of the world thinking, why does this have to end?
Of course you know in your heart that it doesn’t, but you hardly know this girl, and it would be stupid to start making plans to meet up and live together in some made-up corner of the world. So, you don’t. You let your heart break again and again, and you push on with this twisted notion that sticking with one particular person will somehow stop you from “living your life”. Whatever the fuck that means.
Well, what if it’s the opposite? What if trying to build something together means experiencing life on a whole other level? What if there’s something more beautiful and profound about sharing your life with another than the widest river or highest mountain you’ll ever climb alone? What if for once in your life you fell in love with somebody other than yourself? A lot of your friends know this, and you used to mock them.
“But I fell in love with this girl”, I hear you say. No you fucking didn’t. You saw something in them that you thought you could love then ran the other way. You always say it’s a cliché, but what if she was the one? The one that might have ended the pangs of loneliness and pining for a familiar face you sometimes feel on the road. What then?
I guess you’ll never know.
Or, maybe you already do. Who says something has to last forever to be real? Maybe knowing that your time together has an expiry date brings you right into the present moment. For those few days together you try to soak up and relish every second of the experience and the most mundane tasks are all of a sudden filled with magic. A |
absolutely vile" material would be targeted, he said, adding by way of example that well-known novels such as Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita - which explores a middle-aged man's obsession and sexual involvement with a 12-year old girl - would not be covered.
Campaigner
Sir Paul, who was a minister in Sir John Major's government but has been on the backbenches since 1997, has been campaigning for ten years to tighten up laws on indecent material featuring children.
By raising issues in the Commons, amending government bills and and tabling private members' bills, he has helped change the legal definition of gross indecency with a child so that it applies to under-16s and increased the penalties for possession and distribution of indecent images of children.
He has also successfully campaigned for jail sentences for people who refuse to provide a decrypting key to allow police to inspect computers suspected of holding child pornography.
He was also involved in efforts to introduce a fast-track procedure for issuing warrants in cases where people on the sex offenders' register refuse police access to their home.
The MP's latest ten-minute rule bill was given an unopposed first reading by MPs but further progress depends on it being given sufficient parliamentary time.
The Ministry of Justice said that "as with all such issues raised in Parliament, the government will consider and respond in due course".Brandon Turner: The most interesting case, though, from Mill, that he makes in On Liberty is... What if the 1% is actually wrong, objectively wrong? What if we had a machine that could tell us with 100% certainty, "You guys are totally right about this. This person really is a crackpot. She has no idea what she's talking about."? Should we tolerate that view?
Just generally in On Liberty, On Liberty just gives the case for why we ought to tolerate... and by tolerate, I mean tolerate. Not just ignore someone, but confront someone with ideas that we find deeply offensive and deeply troubling, and yet, nonetheless allow them to say it.
Dave Rubin: Yeah. I'm glad you mad that distinction, though, because the word "tolerance" even, has become politicized these days, right?
Brandon Turner: Yeah, that's right. There's tolerance and then there's apathy. We tend to mistake one for the other. Tolerance, particularly religious tolerance, when Locke was writing about religious tolerance, the demands for this were high. It was a demanding doctrine that says, "Listen. There's your neighbor... he might be engaged in religious practices that you think not only are they condemning him to hell, but they might actually suck you down into the..."
Those are high stakes. Today, we're like, "Oh, this guy eats that food, and he eats that food, and he wears that dress, and I'm just not going to pitch a fit about it."
Mill, he'd say, "Listen. We've got to tolerate people with offensive views for a couple reasons." On the one hand, it might just be the case that they're right and we're wrong. We're the majority, we're 99% of a popular opinion on this particular issue, and then you have this one guy who won't shut up, and insists that we're wrong. Well, this is the Socrates case, right?
Dave Rubin: Right.
Brandon Turner: It might just be the fact that he's actually right, and that we're gonna be made better off through interacting with him on this.
Dave Rubin: Yeah. That's a pretty healthy way to view someone, that your opponent's intentions might be good, might be right.
Brandon Turner: Oh, yeah.
Dave Rubin: You might be wrong.
Brandon Turner: That's right. You might be right, which itself it's a very demanding doctrine. In that case, it's clearly justified to let him speak his mind, because if you're remedied of an error, of being in the wrong, then you're made better off, and so it's justified.
Or it could be, he says, it could be that the truth is maybe split between us. We hold most of the truth. We, the majority opinion, we're mostly right, but the other side might be right in some different ways, or the truth might be somewhere in between. In which case, we're gonna come to a better understanding of the issue through a kind of interaction one on one.
The most interesting case, though, from Mill that he makes in On Liberty, is what if the 1% is actually wrong, objectively wrong? What if we had a machine that could tell us with 100% certainty, "You guys are totally right about this. This person really is a crackpot. She has no idea what she's talking about."?
Should we tolerate that view? Of course, we can think of parallels for this all over the place. If I'm a Jewish community in Skokie or whatever, should I allow Nazis to walk through my streets and protest, and all this kind of stuff? We know Nazism is wrong. We know that anti-Semitism is wrong. We know all these sorts of... these are horrendous views, and hold no place in polite society.
Should we prevent them from speaking out, saying their mind? Mill says no, even in that case. You actually may be better off through interacting with these particular views. You are given a chance for your views on a particular matter to become, in some sense, more alive, to become better.
I see this all the time, so when I teach something like Locke, or when I teach Mill or whatever to students today, a lot of my students... these are good, 20 year old kids, they have the right views on most things. They know that human beings should be treated equally, but if you press just the slightest bit, if you say, "Why should they be treated equally? What sort of doctrine are your views based on? Is it based on a natural equality?"
In other words, once you start poking around the edges of this view, they tense up a little bit. They're not really sure... In other words, they have the right views, but they don't know, they don't [crosstalk 00:04:02] for the right reasons.
Dave Rubin: They don't know why.
Brandon Turner: They don't really remember why, or how they came to these particular views. They hold them in a shallow, or hollow sort of way. For Mill, interacting with someone who pushes you on these things, interacting with someone who genuinely does hold wrong views, gives you the chance to reinvigorate your own views on particular issues, that's the basic argument of On Liberty.Ah the joys of coming back to work after having an entire week off…..which was spent at the lake…..sipping cocktails and catching up on my favorite books…..le sigh. I guess there really isn’t anything “joyous” about returning home, but I am glad to get back to my normal routine which needs to seriously include more gym and less relaxation. I don’t know about you, but I really do try to eat as healthy as possible on vacation – it can just be super hard at times when you’re trying to feed a large group of people who all like different things!
Or that may just be my excuse…..
Regardless, bruschetta has always been my “go-to” when entertaining guests last minute, so why not make it on vacation as well?? The longer the bruschetta marinates, the more flavorful it becomes so make a huge batch and enjoy it for a few days! We needed some last minute ideas for dinner so we grilled up some chicken breasts, topped it with the leftover bruschetta and enjoyed it with a salad and some veggies. It was the perfect meal to end our summer and this really couldn’t be any easier to make.
You can choose to make your chicken however you’d like – I usually prefer to grill mine, but baking or pan frying would work just as well! Simply sprinkle with a little sea salt and pepper and the bruschetta will do the rest! I think the next time I make this I’ll try breading the chicken with whole wheat breadcrumbs along with some garlic and herbs, adding more flavor with a nice crunch. Who knows, maybe it will be similar to eating the brushetta on a toasted baguette….I’m totally open to ideas that involve stuffing my face with this again. That and yeah I just really love food. #sorrynotsorry
Also on a more serious note, I’d really appreciate your prayers for my sweet mom. I try not to share too much personal stuff since this is just a food blog, but the things I write on here are a direct result of the happenings going on in my life so I thought I’d share.
My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer about six months ago, but due to the stage and the rate of growth she had surgery soon after. She’s doing incredibly well, but found out she does in fact have to have chemo and will start this week. I’m so fortunate that I work with my mom so I get to see her every day, but to be honest I’m absolutely terrified of seeing her go through this and I cry at the thought of her losing all off her gorgeous hair. I thought about getting mine cut short so that they could make a wig for her from my hair, but mine sadly just isn’t long enough. She really is the strongest woman I know and this truly is the best thing for her so I have no doubt she’ll be okay. I just pray she has the strength to stay positive and know that there are so many people in her corner that love her. I know she’s scared, but rarely does she show it and is always more concerned about others before herself. I only hope to be as great a mom when I have kids as my mom has been for me!Most major North American cities have their own distinctive skyline. Coast to coast to coast, from old Quebec City to legendary Los Angeles and from scenic Vancouver to glamorous Miami, urban centers claim their visual identities with gleaming office towers and condominium buildings. Boston is no exception, and, although the city has gained a reputation of being quite recalcitrant to new construction in its preserved historic core, several tall edifices are currently planned or under construction in The Olde Towne. Recognizing Boston's new highrise enthusiasm, we present you with an overview of the tallest skyscrapers under construction in and around the city's central neighbourhoods.
One Dalton Street, Boston, image courtesy of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, Cambridge Seven Associates
Officially the tallest project under construction in Boston, One Dalton Street, also known as the Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences, will rise 226 meters above street level when completed in 2017. Designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Cambridge Seven Associates, this is also the tallest project in the city since Hancock Place was completed in 1976. The project is composed of a 26-storey office building at 30 Dalton Street and a 61-storey mixed-use tower at 1 Dalton. The 211-hotel room and 180-residence tower is currently in the early stages of construction, but will soon become a landmark in the city's skyline.
Millennium Tower, Boston, image courtesy of Handel Architects
The Millennium Tower, located on Washington Street, steps away from the historic Old South Meeting House, has recently topped out at its final height of 209 meters, and is scheduled for delivery in 2016. Designed by Handel Architects and developed by Millennium Partners MDA Associates, the tower will consist of 442 residences across 60 levels. With a blue-glass curtain wall that contrasts with the surrounding grey and brown concrete and marble buildings, Millennium brings a modern look to the area. The retail component on the first floors of the tower will house a grocery store and a much anticipated sushi bar.
Avalon North Station, Boston, image courtesy of CBT Architects
In the immediate vicinity of the TD Garden, Avalonbay Communities Inc. is developing a $250 million complex, consisting of a 127-meter high tower as the first phase, which includes a passageway between Nashua and Causeway Street, boarded with retail such as bars and restaurants. Designed by CBT Architects, Avalon North Station is scheduled for completion in 2017 and will bring 503 residential units to the area, ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments.
Boston Garden, image via Boston Properties
Other proposed projects will have a dramatic impact on Boston's skyline within the next few years. Indeed, developments such as 226-meters high 111 Federal Street or multi-tower projects like the Boston Garden, the Harbor Garage Complex and the One Congress Street Complex will all bring new office and residential spaces in the form of highrises, while adding a touch of modernity to the almost four-century old metropolis.
Harbor Garage Complex, Boston, image courtesy of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Meanwhile, additional information and renderings can be found in our dataBase pages for each project, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread, or leave a comment at the bottom of this page.In this new writing, Jeremy shares his views on Anonymous, #OpISIS, and the recent wave of anti-immigrant sentiment that has been sweeping the nation.
The attacks in France were a terrible but unfortunately predictable response by desperate people who, after a decade of war and occupation, want the west to taste what we have been regularly dishing out. But we cannot allow them to be used to justify more war.
In the wake of the Paris attacks, the Western governments are provoking Islamophobic hatred in order to escalate military operations in the Middle East and push police state powers. It’s a familiar script, and from prison, I’ve been following these developments, disturbed about the attacks on immigrant and Muslim communities and the resurgence of the fascist right.
I remember in the wake of 9/11, the waves of blind patriotism and xenophobia that the war-mongering politicians used to push police-state laws, mass surveillance, and rampant militarization. It was never about fighting terrorism or weapons of mass destruction, but about US empire: control over land, oil, and drug production, like all wars. Hundreds of thousands of innocents were murdered by the US military over the longest war in our history while we escalated drone warfare elsewhere in Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia, creating the conditions which gave rise to ISIS in the first place.
That same post-9/11 hysteria is back and all the war-mongers are again frothing at the mouth with hate for immigrants and refugees, pushing for national Muslim registration databases, and for regime change in Syria.
But I never thought Anonymous would join in on their frenzied call for war. Apparently, GhostSec and others purportedly associated with Anonymous have been DDoSing forums, taking down Twitter accounts, and reporting IP addresses to law enforcement in collaboration with shady military contractors like Kronos Advisory. The naïve fools behind the operation are being manipulated by intelligence agents taking advantage of the emotional reaction to the Paris attacks to harness our skills to fight their hypocritical “war on terrorism.”
As someone who hacked with Anonymous and marched against the war in Iraq, I completely oppose #OpISIS and any attempts to co-opt our movement into supporting the government’s militaristic agenda. Escalated US military involvement is certainly going to result in more civilian deaths, as it already has. All deaths of innocent civilians are a tragedy, and we cannot value one life over another. (And you are still more likely to be shot down by police than in a terrorist attack.)
The same intelligence industry that runs their own NSA hacker operations against ISIS uses the same counter-terrorism justification to spy on everyday civilians with no regards for rights to privacy, encryption, or anonymity. They have always targeted Anonymous and other dissident groups as terrorists, and when they aren’t trying to discredit or imprison us, they are attempting to co-opt us – sometimes openly by attending conference like DEFCON, seducing us with promises of money or calls for patriotic duty, other times covertly lurking around IRC channels attempting to steer us unwittingly into supporting their agenda. Remember, Sabu asked me to hack government websites of Syria and Turkey, among others, which I did, unaware he was an FBI informant. They didn’t want to talk about it at my sentencing hearing, but they did condemn my attacks against police and military contractors at length. The agents out there encouraging you to “hack the terrorists” will have no problem turning around and locking you up for years if you are not useful to their agenda.
We won’t let Anonymous be unwittingly used to further the military industrial complex’s imperialistic operations around the world. We don’t work for the government – we are against all governments. We are on the side of the oppressed, not the oppressors. We support the victims of war, not the war-makers. If you want to report membership lists and IP addresses of suspected terrorists, go join the CIA or hang out with wannabes like Stratfor or the th3j35t3r. Call it state-sponsored hacking, patriotic hacktivism, whatever – just don’t you dare call yourselves Anonymous.
I urge my comrades still out there in the trenches, sitting on some hot 0day, ready to loot databases and trash systems. If you want to stop war and terrorism, target who Martin Luther King Jr. called the “largest purveyor of violence in the word today” – the US government. So Anonymous, get to it – drone manufacturers, white hat infosec contractors, CIA directors, Donald Trump, and your local police department – they all have blood on their hands, they are all fair game.Hide Transcript Show Transcript
WEBVTT ting them up. These names don't sound likefireworks - but they are flying off the shelves at Iowa Fireworks company inPleasantville.<"SO THIS ISANOTHER HOT SELLER, THIS IS CALLED FIST BUMP, THESE ARE CALLED CAKES SO THIS IS BASICALLY A FIREWORKS SHOW IN A BOX."><"EVERYBODY INTHE STATE'S EXCITED, THEFIREWORKS HAVE BEEN BANNED FORNEARLY A CENTURY SO A LOT OFPEOPLE HAVE ENJOYED COMING OUTAND DOING IT LEGALLY."> But legally using fireworks can vary- depending on where you live.<"ALL THESE DIFFERENT TOWNS HAVE DIFFERENTORDINANCES AND THEY REALLY NEED TO FIND OUT WHERE THEY ARE GOINGTO BE USING THEM AT AND CHECK WITH LOCAL JURISDICTION.">In Marion County, residents are only allowed use fireworksduring certain hours. <"ON THEFOURTH OF JULY FROM 6 PM TO 11PM YOU CAN USE THEM OUT IN THECOUNTRY AND IN CERTAIN AREAS."> Some towns have banned the useof fireworks completely and ifyou don't obey, you could face afine. In Marion County its 750dollars.<"IT'S NOT THAT WE ARE TRYING TO BE FUN HATERSOR ANYTHING ELSE WE JUST WANT TOKEEP THE PUBLIC SAFE AND LETTHEM KNOW THAT THERE ARE RULESAND REGULATIONS OUT THERE.">
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For the first time in decades, the sale of fireworks is legal in Iowa this Fourth of July weekend -- but the use of fireworks may not be. City officials are encouraging residents to call their local governments before lighting them up. Fireworks are flying off the shelves at Iowa Fireworks Co. in Pleasantville. “So this is another hot seller, this is called Fist Bump, these are called Cakes, so this is basically a fireworks show in a box,” said Jeremiah Terhark, with Iowa Fireworks Co. “Everybody in the state’s excited. The fireworks have been banned for nearly a century, so a lot of people have enjoyed coming out and doing it legally.” But legally using fireworks can vary depending on where you live. “All these different towns have different ordinances, and they really need to find out where they are going to be using them at and check with local jurisdiction,” Marion County Sheriff Jason Sandholdt said. In Marion County, residents are only allowed use fireworks during certain hours. “On the Fourth of July from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., you can use them out in the country and in certain areas,” Sandholdt said. Some towns have banned the use of fireworks completely and if you don't obey, you could face a fine. In Marion County, it's $750. “It’s not that we are trying to be fun haters or anything else. We just want to keep the public safe and let them know that there are rules and regulations out there,” Sandholdt said. Some cities allow fireworks for a select number of days, while others only allow them for a few hours. That's why it is important to check with your local government before potentially breaking the law.The founder of a “White Students Union” at Towson University cited Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party as a model in an interview explaining his intentions to RT on Friday.
In the interview, Matthew Heimbach outlined his plans for the organization becoming a positive influence on the school, saying it was “kind of [like] the idea where you have political parties like Golden Dawn, which take care of Greek people first.”
After winning 18 seats in the Greek parliament for the first time in May, Golden Dawn’s leader, Nikos Michaloliakos, warned that “The time for fear has come for those who betrayed this homeland.” The party has subsequently been accused of engaging violent assaults against immigrants, a practice abetted by Greek police.
Heimbach obliquely referenced this practice, saying his group engaged in “safety patrols” looking for “people who have perpetrated violent crimes.”
The group will also bring in guest speakers to discuss “white identity” issues, Heimbach said, and protest policies like affirmative action, which he accused of being discriminatory against white students, and the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he said “sent our jobs overseas to third-world countries like Mexico that undercut our wages and put us out of work.”
Watch the interview, posted on YouTube on Friday by RT, below.Or else, you know, your life will be incomplete.
Oasis is often a polarizing group. I’ve read every criticism of this band (Beatles tribute band! One song! One eyebrow!), and I’d love to sit and refute every single one of them…but I figured this little list might be a bit more time efficient. Basic criteria for this list:
No A-side Singles, obviously. (Not only are these more instantly recognizable, thus negating the list’s purpose, but allowing these would have made this list impossible to narrow down to a reasonable number.)
Favoring of lesser-known B-sides. This basically translates to excluding anything found on The Masterplan compilation. Ya’ll should have that track-listing tattooed on your hearts already anyway. Again, using this criterion is the only way I could narrow this list down.
No more than one non-single, album track per album. This was pretty easy to follow–eat that, all ya’ll who say Oasis suck after the first two albums! Ya’ll dumb. And deaf.
No demo/alternate/live versions!! I’d be here all day. Have you heard the ’92 “Live Forever” demo? No? You call what you’re living LIFE? Get out. P.S. Listen to it.
I think that’s about it. I had an initial list of about 50 songs, before halving it using the above criteria. Finally, after moaning in pain and rolling around the floor screaming “I don’t wanna live in a world where I have to choose!” for about twenty minutes, I cropped the list at 15. It was kinda hard, if the moaning and rolling around the floor bit didn’t give that away. Let’s go!
Honorable Mention: “Bonehead’s Bankhead Holiday” [(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Vinyl-Only Bonus Track, 1995]
“Don’t ya know, I shoulda stayed in England
On my polluted beach with all my special friends?
Don’t ya know, I shoulda stayed in England
With me big house and me big car and all me friends there at the bar, la la la…”
Hahaha, like I really narrowed it down to 15 songs. Fooled ya’ll. I couldn’t cut out this track–not because it is anywhere near the standard of the other songs included in this list (and omitted from this list) but because I think it’s one of those songs that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s just a fun track. Let’s all just take a moment, though, to appreciate the fact that Bonehead chickened out of singing this. Can you imagine? Love you Bonehead but…no.
15. “Born on a Different Cloud” (Heathen Chemistry, 2002)
“Talking to myself again,
This time I think I’m getting through.”
Remember when Liam started writing songs and everyone laughed? “Live for your toys, even though they make noise” and all that. Well, that was pretty lame, not gonna lie, but when Noel proclaimed his younger brother a songwriting genius whose songs “make me cry ‘cos they’re better than mine,” he really wasn’t employing too much hyperbole. (Well, maybe a little bit. But not too much.) This track can easily be written off as a mere Lennon imitation (à la “Working Class Hero”), but you know what? I think Lennon would like this. And I reckon he’d like that cocky little lead singer, too. That voice!
14. “My Big Mouth” (Be Here Now, 1997)
“I ain’t never spoke to God
And I ain’t never been to heaven
But you assumed I knew the way
Even though the map was given
And as you look into the eyes
Of a bloody cold assassin
It’s only then you’ll realize
With who’s life you have been messing.”
Remember when this was part of Oasis’ set list for the first time since their Be Here Now tour in ’08? And then Noel decided to drop it before I saw Oasis later that year because the set list was “too long”? And then he briefly re-added after I saw them? And then I wallowed in tears and crappy fan videos of the song from that tour (see above)? No? Well, it was pretty disappointing. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.
13. “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down” (Liam Vocals) [No Official Release; 2005]
“I’m tired and I’m sick
Got a habit that I can’t, won’t lick
I feel hungover and I’m all in love
Let the lights go down,
Me and you are gonna shoot ’em all.”
Um, I think I broke one of my rules by including this. Oh well. They were dumb rules anyway. “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down” was a released as a stand-alone (and primarily digital download only) single in 2007, taken from the rockumentary of the same. The released version features Noel on lead vocals, but this song has Liam Gallagher’s name written all over it. This rough mix was obviously never properly produced, but you can still hear how much more awesome this song is when Liam sings it.
12. “Pass Me Down the Wine” (“The Importance of Being Idle,” 2005)
“To all my sisters: yeah, you’re looking pretty fine
And to all my brothers: bet you’re feeling kinda high
And to all the mothers: well, come on now, don’t be shy
And to all the fathers who are sick and f***ing tired.”
Confession: Don’t Believe the Truth is my least favorite Oasis album. I know, it was a supposed “return to form,” “creative rebirth,” etc. for the band, but I think it’s their weakest album. There’s only a handful of tracks I would take with me to a desert island. But this is a great B-side, written again by Liam, who has always struggled with lyrics and so I have subsequently have no idea what this song is actually about, but it sounds really, really cool. I just googled the lyrics, and the last line is: (Liam screeching). Oh yeah. Mad fer it.
11. “It’s Better People” (“Roll With It,” 1995)
“It’s better people love one another
‘Cos living your life can be tough.”
Life is hard. But it’s easy listening to this song. On repeat. All day. Every day.
10. “Idler’s Dream” (“The Hindu Times,” 2002)
“I never did say and I wish I could
I never could pray ‘cos it’s just no good
I hope you don’t break my heart of stone
I don’t wanna scream out loud
And wake up on my own.”
Two words: breathtakingly beautiful. That is all.
09. “D’Yer Wanna Be a Spaceman?” (“Shakermaker,” 1994)
“You got how many bills to pay and how many kids
And you’ve forgotten about the things that we did
This town where we’re living has made you a man
And all of your dreams are washed away in the sand.”
Who can’t relate to this song? The remembrance of what you once wanted to be–say, a spaceman–before reality caught up with you? And forgetting about feeling down, forgetting about life in this town, while you remember that dream? And thinking for a moment–just for a moment–it’s still not too late to be a spaceman? Totally.
08. “Fade Away” (“Cigarettes & Alcohol,” 1994; War Child Version–“Don’t Go Away,” 1998)
“Now my life has turned
Another corner
I think it’s only best
That I should warn you
Dream it while you can
Maybe someday I’ll make you understand.”
This song deals with some of the same themes found in “D’Yer Wanna Be a Spaceman.” My favorite thing about this song is that we have two official versions that allow us to see Liam’s Yin to Noel’s Yang. The version sung by Liam, found on the flip side of “Cigarettes and Alcohol” as well as The Masterplan compilation (there I go, breaking those rules again), is, of course, nothing but pure rock ‘n’ roll, while the Noel-sung version, recorded for the War Child Charity, is gentle and lulling. Which do I prefer? That is the eternal question.
07. “Let’s All Make Believe” (“Go Let It Out,” 2000)
“So let’s all make believe
We’re still friends and we like each other
Let’s all make believe
In the end we’ll need each other
Let’s all make believe
That all mankind’s gonna feed our brother.”
I just wanna know: what other band relegates a song like this to a B-side? (Beatles exempted.) Seriously, I wanna know.
06. “Sad Song” (“Don’t Go Away,” 1998; also included on the Japanese and vinyl editions of Definitely Maybe)
“We as people, are just walking ’round
Our heads are firmly fixed in the ground
What we don’t see, well it can’t be real
What we don’t touch we cannot feel.”
OK, bending the rules again because this could be considered an album track (and I’m going to choose another track from Definitely Maybe in a bit), but it’s not on most releases so…Basically, if you’ve ever wondered what an angel might sound like, you should listen to this song and find out. ‘Cos Noel Gallagher’s voice is otherworldly…seriously.
05. “Waiting for the Rapture” (Dig Out Your Soul, 2008)
“She said, I’m tiiiiiiiiired
Come get me off the merry-go-round
I’m wiiiiiiiiiiiiired
Well, heaven must sent ya to save me for the rapture.”
Yeah, the Doors’ “Five to One” and all that, who cares? This song is so much better anyway (in your face, Jim Morrison!), and I didn’t even realize how good it was until I saw Oasis play it live. Annnnnnd you should hear the alternate version, too. Per-fec-tion.
04. “Angel Child” (“D’You Know What I Mean,” 1997)
“When you find out
When you find out who you are you know you’ll be free
To see your own ability
But there’ll be no eyes
No eyes that see such beauty could lose their sight
And there’ll be no lies
No lies that you could tell me to make things right.”
Okay. So I’m breaking my rules again because this is technically a demo. WHATEVER. That rule has to be broken because this song is so amazing. Remember a few weeks ago how Liam Gallagher was the star of the Olympics Closing Ceremony as he and Beady Eye performed “Wonderwall”? Well, the next day, his beautiful older brother decided to play this song at a radio session for the first time since he recorded it. Way to induce a heart attack, Noel. Thanks.
03. “Cast No Shadow” [(What’s the Story) Morning Glory, 1995]
“Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say
Chained to all the places that he never wished to stay
Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say
As he faced the sun he cast no shadow
As they took his soul they stole his pride.”
Initially dedicated to Richard Ashcroft to bolster his spirits following the first (what are we on now, third? Fourth?) breakup of The Verve, Noel once explained “cast no shadow” was not a reference to Ashcroft’s skinny frame but actually means that one would be invisible. Duh. I think it’s a beautiful tribute (reflection?) to songwriters actually–Noel himself included.
02. “Slide Away” (Definitely Maybe, 1994)
I don’t know
I don’t care
All I know is you can take me there
Take me there, take me there, take me there…
WHAT FOR?
I know it’s required listening in Oasis 101 and all, but this song had to be on this list. ‘Cos I said so. I don’t know that there are any words in the English language to describe this song. Paul McCartney said it was his favorite Oasis song. Once. He’s kind of busy talking about writing “Hey Jude” and “Yesterday” to mention it more than once, y’know. But he said it at least once–and that’s just another indication of his good taste and this song’s genius.
01. “Gas Panic!” (Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, 2000)
“What tongueless ghost of sin crept through my curtains?
Sailing on a sea of sweat on a stormy night
I think he don’t got a name but I can’t be certain
And in me he starts to confide
That my family don’t seem so familiar
And my enemies all know my name
And if you hear me tap on your window
Better get on your knees and pray panic is on the way.”
Listen to this song and then try to tell me that Standing on the Shoulder of Giants is the worst Oasis album. Listen to this song and then try to tell me that Oasis lyrics lack meaning. Listen to this song and then try to tell me that Oasis’ sound has never evolved, not even a little bit. Listen to this song and then try to tell me that Oasis is a talentless, unoriginal band. Guess what? You can’t do it, poopstains.
Best.
Song.
Ever.
(Well, one of them anyway.)
This list is far from perfect. I feel physically ill thinking of all the songs omitted. It probably would have been easier to list my most-loathed Oasis tracks. Regardless, the point is that Oasis was a really great band with so many fantastic songs often overlooked. And you should listen to them before…you know…you die. ‘Cos you probably ain’t gonna live forever.
But they will.
AdvertisementsAmong the women paying $1,000 for a massage and the men lounging in $100m homes in the billionaires’ playground of the Hamptons is a largely unseen, mostly Latino, workforce toiling all summer in order to survive the winter
Every summer, the Hamptons becomes a billionaires’ playground. In the collection of historic towns and villages on the Atlantic Ocean where beachfront mansions change hands for more than a $100m (£64m), the streets are lined with designer boutiques and the roads are clogged bumper-to-bumper with Ferraris, Range Rovers and Maseratis.
Life is not so much fun, however, for the army of local people and recent immigrants who work to keep the swelling numbers of the super-rich happy. And as Labor Day approaches – the unofficial end of the American summer – life is likely to get worse.
“This is not paradise for me,” said Natacha Castillo, 19, who came from the Dominican Republic to Southampton, which is regarded as the most luxurious area of the Hamptons, in search of a better life three years ago. She didn’t find it.
Castillo works in a luxury beauty salon washing the hair of the world’s richest and most famous women for $9-an-hour. Her clients, who Castillo says don’t bat an eyelid at paying $60 for a blow dry or $1,000 for a massage, often ignore her “and sometimes they treat us like we are servants”. But they do tip well. Castillo, who is studying cosmetology at college, can make $650 a week with tips, but “without tips I can do nothing”.
Castillo is part of the largely unseen, mostly Latino, workforce toiling all summer clearing plates in the restaurants, scrubbing the mansions and maintaining their privet hedges. “I don’t like this town,” Castillo said as she walked home in the twilight after a long day at the salon. “You spend all your summer working to have something to live on in the winter.”
Her family – a stay-at-home mother, carpenter step-father and younger brother and sister – struggle to get by just a few miles from some of the most expensive real estate in the world. “Those of us who live here, we are not rich, we have to work to make money, even more in the summer. If we want to be OK in the winter we have to work a lot in the summer, so we can hardly enjoy the summer.”
Castillo doesn’t have any friends who live “south of the highway” – the Manhattan-to-Montauk highway that divides the richest of the world’s rich from the people who serve them. Her friends are without exception other Latinos, mostly from Mexico and Colombia.
Her best friend, Eliana Sabogal, 18, works “stupid hours” at McDonald’s, when she’s not studying. She said three generations of her family, who live in a small bungalow a few hundred yards north of the highway, are only able to survive by relying on the kindness of the |
an impact with New Hampshire voters.
Though former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has a strong double-digit lead for the Republican nomination in a new New Hampshire poll, Bachmann moved up to a tie for second with Texas Rep. Ron Paul.
The survey by Magellan Strategies, taken Tuesday and Wednesday, is the first conducted since the major debate in the Granite State, home to the nation's first presidential primary. Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman and Tea Party favorite, announced her presidential bid during the debate.
The survey, taken for the online NH Journal, shows 28% of those who watched Monday's debate say Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman, gave the strongest performance. Romney was the top choice, with 39% saying he did the best in the faceoff.
Overall, Romney leads the GOP field with 42% of the vote, followed by Paul and Bachmann at 10% each. Sarah Palin got 7% and Rudy Giuliani earned 6%; both are trying to decide whether to enter the 2012 race.
Tim Pawlenty received 5% in the poll, followed by Newt Gingrich with 4%, Herman Cain and Jon Huntsman with 3% each, and Rick Santorum at 2%.
The poll of 727 Republican voters and independents who lean to the GOP has a margin of error of +/- 3.63 percentage points.RULED OUT: Black Caps fast bowler Adam Milne will miss the rest if the Cricket World Cup with a heel injury.
Black Caps fast bowler Adam Milne has been ruled out of the rest of the Cricket World Cup with a heel injury.
Team management today confirmed Milne felt discomfort following the quarterfinal win against the West Indies and subsequently underwent an MRI scan on Sunday.
The results showed significant swelling around the region and he will not be fit to play any further part in the tournament.
McCULLUM MOSAIC: Support the Black Caps with a photo/selfie #backtheblackcaps
Getty Images GETS HIS MAN: Adam Milne celebrates after claiming the wicket of West Indies master-blaster Chris Gayle.
Canterbury fast bowler Matt Henry has joined the squad in Auckland and will replace Milne in the squad of 15, subject to ICC approval.
The Black Caps play South Africa in a semifinal at Eden park on Tuesday.
READ MORE:
* Black Caps CWC stats stack up
* Vettori - catch of the CWC
* Crowe: OMG what an innings Guptill
Milne missed the final pool match against Bangladesh with a shoulder injury picked up while taking a spectacular diving catch in the previous win against Afghanistan.
He returned to the playing XI for last Saturday's quarterfinal win over the West Indies.
He only bowled four overs, returning the figures of 1-42, claiming the crucial wicket of West Indies star Chris Gayle.
Milne is New Zealand's fastest bowler and his outright speed has been a key to the team's unbeaten run in the tournament.
The Black Caps replaced Milne with Mitchell McClenaghan for the scratchy win over Bangladesh with the big left-armer producing a rusty performance in his only appearance of the tournament.
The selectors will now have to weigh up the claims of McClenaghan against those of Kyle Mills, the veteran right-armer who hasn't appeared in the World Cup yet but has vast experience at Eden Park which is a nightmare ground for bowlers given its short boundaries.
Right-armer Henry will have claims of his own, simply because of his recent activity.
While the World Cup has been on he has played four first-class games for Canterbury, taking 17 wickets, including two four-wicket hauls.
Mills hasn't played a match at the World Cup and McClenaghan has been restricted to the one outing.
* Who should replace Adam Milne in the Black Caps starting XI? Share your views in comments below.Putin rips FIFA indictments, backs Blatter
Russian President Vladimir Putin has a message for the United States: Don’t kick around FIFA President Sepp Blatter.
Putin accused the United States of interfering with affairs outside its domain after the Wednesday indictments and arrests of officials in soccer’s top governing body. The dramatic arrests followed an FBI investigation that culminated with raids of a posh Zurich hotel where FIFA officials were gathering for a meeting.
Story Continued Below
“This is yet another blatant attempt [by the United States] to extend its jurisdiction to other states,” the Russian leader said Thursday, according to The Moscow Times.
Blatter, who is up for reelection as the body’s president Friday, faces only one opponent — Jordanian Prince Ali bin Al Hussein.
Putin called the arrests a “clear attempt” to stop Blatter’s reelection, which he said had the support of Russia, which won the right to host the 2018 men’s World Cup back in December 2010.
In a separate investigation, Swiss officials are looking into the bidding process for both the 2018 tournament in Russia and the 2022 tournament in Qatar. Russian officials have denied any wrongdoing, and FIFA insists those tournaments will proceed as planned.
Investigators also conducted raids in Miami, Florida, at the regional headquarters of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football.
Putin’s remarks echo those of a spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry who blasted the Justice Department on Wednesday for reaching too far “beyond its borders” and neglecting to follow “international legal procedures.”Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. is committed to protecting your privacy and developing technology that gives you the most powerful and safe online experience. This Statement of Privacy applies to the Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. Web site and governs data collection and usage. By using the Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. website, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.
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The remarks are one of Obama's sharpest Republican critiques — equating their recent activism with illness — and are sure to draw condemnation from the right.
From the pool report:
Most of the talk was standard campaign speech, but the president did say he hopes that Republicans will be more cooperative after he wins reelection.
"It will be coming to a head in this election. We're going to have as stark a contrast as we've seen in a very long time between the two candidates. 2008 was a significant election, obviously. But John McCain believed in climate change. John believed in campaign finance reform. He believed in immigration reform. There were some areas where you saw some overlap."
"In this election, the Republican Party has moved in a fundamentally different direction. The center of gravity for their party has shifted."
He talked of deficit reduction and said "we couldn't' get them to take yes for an answer."
"I believe that If we're successful in this election, when we're successful in this election, that the fever may break, because there's a tradition in the Republican Party of more common sense than that. My hope, my expectation, is that after the election, now that it turns out that the goal of beating Obama doesn't make much sense because I'm not running again, that we can start getting some cooperation again."
"I believe that If we're successful in this election, when we're successful in this election, that the fever may break, because there's a tradition in the Republican Party of more common sense than that. My hope, my expectation, is that after the election, now that it turns out that the goal of beating Obama doesn't make much sense because I'm not running again, that we can start getting some cooperation again."
Obama said he expects that after his reelection, Congress will pass a balanced deficit reduction plan, a highway bill, immigration reform.
"My expectation is that if we can break this fever, that we can invest in clean energy and energy efficiency because that's not a partisan issue.".- Father Scott R. Carroll, ordained a priest of the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, on May 8, died of cancer two days later after battling the disease for some time.
Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo ordained the transitional deacon a priest at his parents' home with immediate family members present. He was named associate pastor of his home parish, St. Joseph in Maumee, a Toledo suburb.
The ordination Mass was concelebrated by the priests of St. Joseph parish, Frs. Keith Stripe and Kishore Kottana, and by the diocesan vocations director, Monsignor Charles Singler.
Bishop Blair has asked that all the faithful of the Toledo diocese continue to remember Fr. Carroll in their prayers.
Fr. Carroll was due to be ordained with his classmates on June 22, but “it became clear this week that an earlier ordination might be prudent,” the diocesan vocations office said.
Born in 1966 to Robert and the late Patricia Carroll, the priest is the step-son of Connie Carroll, and is also survived by his brothers Patrick and Tim.
He studied education at the University of Toledo and went on to get a master's in history there as well. He also attained a master's degree in educational administration from the University of Dayton and taught middle school social studies before entering seminary.
Before finishing his studies at St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana, Fr. Carroll had attended Holy Spirit Seminary. He did summer ministry at St. Paul in Norwalk and at his home parish, and did a pastoral year at St. Paul.
In addition to teaching and history, Fr. Carroll was interested in 4-H and sports.
He wrote on Toledo's vocations website that “I consider the vocation of priesthood to be both the most demanding and rewarding thing that God could ever call me to do. It is my duty to find out if this is what is meant for me, to represent Jesus by teaching, learning and just being there for people.”
Shortly after the ordination, his classmate Mike Keucher of the Indianapolis archdiocese, said on his blog, “The Long Journey Into Light,” that Fr. Carroll “is one of the most humble, gentle folks here.”
He noted that Fr. Carroll was graced to die just after having finished saying Mass.
“When it was over, he fell asleep and died shortly thereafter,” Keucher wrote.A state of consistent right action without expectation of reciprocation, response, reward, or recognition. Marcus Aurelius makes this nirvanic state out to be ideal, but having a lack of expectations of others feels almost unnatural. Human beings have an ingrained desire to engage in all kinds of social transactions that have expectations tied to them. Person A does something because they believe that person B will respond in an expected way. This isn't negative. Expectations are the root of collaboration and the ability to collaborate in large numbers is one of humanity's few defining characteristics. Humans have a system of rewards that reinforces transactional social behavior. When the expectations we have for others are met satisfaction is experienced and when they are not met the opposite happens.
Even so, few people read this passage without feeling like the third man is in the ideal state. The lives of the men who have perpetuated ancient stoic ideals might hold a suggestion to how to become the third man. It's no coincidence that out of the three most famous ancient stoics one was a slave (Epictitus), one was the wealthiest man in Rome (Seneca the Younger), and the third was Rome's most famous and beloved emperor (Marcus Aurellius). This suggests that there might only be two natural paths to becoming the third man.
Give it all up and let go of ownership over anything. Achieve beyond the point where you could ever want for anything.
On a personal level I have trouble imagining myself or anyone reading this to be capable of giving up all ownership, wants, and desires to take some kind of Buddha like path. There is something appealing about the second path to a stoic life. It seems like repeated and habitual right action towards the achievement of an internal greatness leads to a detachment from transactional social behavior. High levels of persistent achievement make us into the grape vine that just continues to produce without a thought of what it is doing. Habitual achievement turns us into people who take right action without a thought of what others will think or what is owed to us.
At all decision points what should matter most is not just the result of an action, but that right action was taken. Good results can be received without good intentions and bad intentions can lead to good results. In fact, results in themselves are neither good nor bad. The quality of a result is a matter of perception. We don't need well intentioned action, but simply constant intentional right action is what is required.
Further Reading:Rares Bogdan
Realitatea TV și B1 TV, sancționate pentru emisiunile virulente din 19 și 20 iunie, la adresa comunității maghiare: 85.000 de lei, pentru Realitatea TV, în timp ce postul B1 TV a fost sancționat cu 20.000 de lei. Ce s-a întâmplat pe platouri, de s-a ajuns la aceste amenzi?
Discuțiile din cele două emisiuni veneau în contextul moțiunii de cenzură declanșată de PSD-ALDE contra propriului guvern, Grindeanu, și a unor concesii pe care liderii PSD ar fi fost dispuși să le facă celor de la UDMR. Printre acestea, un proiect de lege ce prevedea sărbătorirea Zilei Maghiarilor pe 15 martie.
Publicitate
Cazul a ajuns pe masa CNA ca urmare a unei sesizări din partea UDMR.
„Pe parcursul emisiunilor menționate, prezentatorii emisiunilor au creat o atmosferă ostilă orientată împotriva UDMR și împotriva comunității maghiare din România, folosind un limbaj injurios și un ton care are menirea de a incita la ură pe bază de naționalitate și etnie. Prezentatorii emisiunilor formulau într-un mod provocator și insinuator în așa fel încât să instige audiența la sentimente antimaghiare”, arată în sesizarea de la UDMR.
După analiza din forul audiovizual membrii CNA au decis: 85.000 de lei amendă la Realitatea TV, 20.000 de lei la B1 TV.
Sancțiunea de 85.000 de lei a fost una intermediară, după ce alte două propuneri nu au strând cel puțin șase voturi pentru: 100.000 de lei, propusă de Radu Călin Cristea, respectiv, 70.000 de lei, propusă de Orsolya Borsos, retrasă și preluată apoi de Dorina Rusu.
În cazul B1 TV, au fost două propuneri de sancțiune: Radu Călin Cristea a propus 50.000 de lei, în timp ce Dorina Rusu a propus 20.000 de lei (după ce sancțiunea a fost propusă de Orsolya Borsos și retrasă).
Motivele. Încălcarea mai multor articole de lege privind, informarea corectă, a unei dezbateri echilibrate și imparțiale. Dar și pentru articole ce privesc instigarea la ură și afirmațiile defăimătoare.
Dorina Rusu, membru CNA:
„După ce am văzut toate emisiunile, și eu tot cu B1 și Realitatea am rămas în minte. Nu cred că patriotismul asta înseamnă, să faci ce au făcut ei în aceste emisiuni. Nu am aceeași părere cu ei referitor la drepturile minorităților. Nu sunt de acord nici cu colegii mei care discutând cu privire la aceste emisiuni eludează chestiunea politică. Aceste discuții nu ar fi avut loc dacă partidul de la putere, PSD, nu s-ar fi gândit să aducă peste noapte discuția pe niște legi importante, sensibile, cu privire la care trebuie să existe dezbateri publice serioase, înainte de a fi adoptate.
Și toate astea au fost pentru un troc politic, pentru că așa se punea problema la momentul respectiv.
Dezbaterile de pe posturile TV ar trebuie să se desfășoare în cu totul alt climat. Trebuie să se discute pe textele de lege, cu invitați care știu despre ce este vorba, cu invitarea ambelor părți. Se poate discuta orice, dar în termeni civilizați. Poți să pui în termeni duri problema, dar fără să înjuri, fără să inciți.”
Monica Gubernat, membru CNA: „Rolul nostru în CNA nu este să discutăm despre trocuri politice. Aveți foarte mare dreptate, temele sunt extrem de sensibile, și tocmai de aceea nu poți să susții un singur punct de vedere care se bazează doar pe anumite momente din istorie.”
Radu Herjeu, membru CNA:
„Eu văd o diferență între B1 TV și Realitatea. La Realitatea TV mi se pare ca s-a exploatat și din punct de vedere istoric acest subiect, din motive politice. Nu pentru ca, vezi Doamne, era un subiect la zi si trebuie să-l discutam ci pentru că erau niște partide de atacat, pentru că erau niște frământări, se schimbau guverne și se căutau majorități în Parlament. Mie, la Realitatea, toată campania mi s-a părut că a fost un pretext. (...) Si virulenta extraordinara care pare de sorginte nationalista si patriotica, de fapt, este doar o strategie politică.
Mie mi se pare inadmisibil ce s-a intamplat la Realitatea. Daca o emisiune precum cea de la Realitatea nu este foarte gravă, atunci nicio emisiune nu poate naște un conflict. Toți neaveniții aceia care își dat cu părerea despre istorie, au fost niște discuții care au depășit orice fel de dezbatere, orice fel de derapaj. Deja sunt halucinante. Cred ca depășesc cu mult cadrul legal românesc. (...) Nu ai voie să nu ai niciun reprezentant de la niciunul dintre partidele alea pe ideea că ei nu vin.”
Oroslya Borsos, membru CNA: Pe mine m-a deranjat foarte mult faptul ca nici până azi nu știm ce conține acest proiect de lege. Nu scuză niciun proiect de lege acest tip de comportament și acest tip de incitare la ură. Domnii prezenți în platou chiar se joacă cu focul pentru că e foarte greu dacă te atingi de emotii e foarte greu să te abții.”
Fragmente din emisiunile Realitatea TV:
Pe ecran, în emisiunea Jocuri de putere, au rulat titluri precum „ Nu ne vindem țara, o dăm gratis ”, „ UDMR, noul partid balama ”.
„Centenarul unirii, Marii Uniri, este abandonat acest proiect, în schimb se pregătesc să creeze premisele unei dezvoltări de tip Kosovo, unei regiuni autonome după model Kosovo în Transilvania, doar pentru a obține 30 de voturi. Sunt absolut inconștienți acești oameni, mi se pare incredibil.”
„Ei asta generează o combinație de cocktail Molotov la nivelul minorităților inter etnice din Transilvania, o Transilvanie în care românii desigur conviețuiesc foarte pozitiv cu maghiarii acolo, dar o Transilvanie presată de data asta de aceste intenții halucinante ale lui Liviu Dragnea și ale lui Călin Popescu Tăriceanu și presiunea de tip șovin pe care, prin vectori de influență, Viktor Orban, prim-ministrul Ungariei o exercită asupra concetățenilor noștri din Transilvania. Am discutat noi mult la Realitatea despre proiectul Trianon, un proiect de tip revizionist care este implementat prin vectori de opinie, ne uităm că prin modificările la lege exact partea cu mass-media finanțată de către statul român în limba maghiară este una centrală.”
Ioana Ene Dogioiu:
„Eu chiar fac parte din categoria celor care sunt total nenaționaliști, dar aici deja mi se pare prea mult. Și mai trebuie să ne gândim la un lucru. UDMR-ul întotdeauna cântă, dansează după cum i se cântă de la Budapesta. Chiar îl lăsăm pe Viktor Orban să facă politica internă de la București? O fi un lucru așa de bun? Nu știu. Întreb și eu, poate ne răspunde domnul Dragnea, cel mândru că e român.”
Denise Rifai:
„Se duc tratative cu cuțitele pe masă în stil mafiot. Ciolanul și magia puterii șterg limite și principii, doctrine și afinități, șterg alianțe și șterg rivalități. Cum se spune în popor Grindeanu Ponta și Dragnea fac compania, se fac frate cu dracul ca să-și nimicească adversarii. Și totuși, să ne uităm mai atent cum procedează. Împart banii țării, uită ce le-au promis alegătorilor în campanie, amenință cu instituțiile statului și ne mint că o fac pentru noi, pentru binele nostru, așa ni se spune, că luptă pentru România. ”
Rareș Bogdan:
„Iar atunci când demenții prind aripi, aceștia trebuie opriți. Pablo Escobar de Teleorman și ordonanța sa, un ins care nu are altă carieră politică decât cea de atârnător, dau foc României. La propriu, pentru 30 de voturi, adică pentru 30 de arginți, înfig un cuțit în inima românilor din Transilvania. Batalioanele românești care au eliberat Transilvania sunt trimise înapoi.”
„Dacă acești doi derbedei care se află întâmplător în fruntea Camerei Deputaților și a Senatului României, care nu cunosc istoria, care-și bat joc de ea, nu știu ce înseamnă 15 martie, le spun eu. 15 martie 1848, în proclamația din acea zi, națiunea maghiară cerea unirea cu Transilvania, dobitocilor, imbecililor, cretinopaților, nenorociților, ați înțeles ce se cerea în 15 martie? Nu am ce să reproșez UDMR, nu voi reproșa nimic Uniunii Democrate a Maghiarilor din România, din contra, le voi felicita liderii pentru că se bat pentru radicalii lor, pentru că marea parte a electoratului maghiar nu vrea asta.
E plin Facebook-ul și mesajele Realității de către oameni de foarte bună credință, cetățeni de etnie maghiară, care spun – nu vrem asta, vrem liniște! Domnule Dragnea și domnule Tăriceanu, știți ce înseamnă 15 martie 1990? Vă spun eu, pentru că o să vă bată Dumnezeu pe amândoi, așa cum Mihăilă Cofariu, de 28 de ani, a fost bătut și nu de Dumnezeu, tot în 15 martie, iar voi o faceți zi națională. Știți ce conține proiectul? Prag de 10 pentru oficializarea limbii maghiare, autonomie extinsă. Este neconstituțional.”
Fragmente din emisiunile B1 TV:
Tudor Barbu: Plata pe care PSD-ul o face deja acum UDMR-ului pentru ca voturile maghiarilor să vină mâine în parlament alături de Dragnea. Atenție! Plata pe care PSD-ul poporului român o face UDMR-ului pentru ca să-și dea voturile lui Dragnea și alor lui. Dacă ați votat PSD-ul, bucurați-vă. Acum ați votat și intrarea UDMR-ului, contra cost, la guvernare.
Tudor Barbu: „Nu vă întrerup decât o singură secundă pentru a spune celor de acasă că vom ilustra acest impecabil discurs de bun român și înțelept al profesorului Coșea, îl vom ilustra, iată, cu imagini triste pentru poporul nostru, Csibi Barna spânzurând-ul pe Avram Iancu, vă aduceți aminte, asta știți de ce? Așa, doar ca remember pentru cei care cred că B1 TV uită. Nu uităm. Nu uităm și nu iertăm. Iată imaginile. Iertați-mă, v-am întrerup. Spuneți, spuneați bine.”
Mihai Neamțu: Este clar că maghiarii, deocamdată cei care îi trimit pe acei politicieni corupți în Parlament, încă nu și-au învățat lecția, o dată, trebuie cumva și nou să le comunicăm, poate că aceste lucruri contează. N-avem suficienți politicieni care vorbesc maghiara, români care vorbesc maghiara. Asta este o barieră care uneori poate să ne pună într-o situație delicată. Eu m-aș duce, sincer, dacă aș fi un vorbitor de maghiară eu m-aș duce la Tg. Secuiesc, le-aș vorbi despre cât de mult sunt ei înșelați.
Tudor Barbu: Nu, nu te-ar primi.
Mihai Neamțu: Nu sunt sigur.
Tudor Barbu: Sută la sută. Au încercat oameni care vorbesc maghiara perfect și care gândesc ca tine curat, românește, adevărat, cu înțelepciunea celui care vrea să facă bine. Adică muncă de mecenat. Nu te primesc pentru că acolo sunt elite murdare, elite murdare este o sintagmă cu ghilimele de rigoare, care au enclavizat, nu lasă mesaje... Ei își pierd pâinea dacă te duci. Tu dacă ai vorbi maghiară, Mihai Neamțu, și te-ai duce într-o zonă de influență a UDMR-ului, ca și secuimea, ți-ar lua capul UDMR-ul.
Mihai Neamțu: UDMR-ul, dar nu neapărat ungurii.
Tudor Barbu: Nu ungurii, UDMR-ul, Doamne iartă-mă.
Legislație invocată în cazul celor două posturi amendate :
Art 3, alineat 2
(2) Toţi furnizorii de servicii media audiovizuale au obligaţia să asigure informarea obiectivă a publicului prin prezentarea corectă a faptelor şi evenimentelor şi să favorizeze libera formare a opiniilor.
Art 64, alineat 1, litera a
ART. 64
(1) În virtutea dreptului fundamental al publicului la informare, furnizorii de servicii media audiovizuale trebuie să respecte următoarele principii:
a) asigurarea unei distincţii clare între fapte şi opinii;
Art 66
În programele de ştiri şi dezbateri informarea în probleme de interes public, de natură politică, economică, socială sau culturală, trebuie asigurate imparţialitatea şi echilibrul şi să fie favorizată libera formare a opiniilor, prin prezentarea principalelor puncte de vedere aflate în opoziţie, în perioada în care problemele sunt în dezbatere publică.
Art 47, alineat 3
Sunt interzise în programele audiovizuale afirmaţii defăimătoare generalizatoare la adresa unui grup/comunităţi definit(e) de gen, vârstă, rasă, etnie, naţionalitate, cetăţenie, credinţe religioase, orientare sexuală, nivel de educaţie, categorie socială, afecţiuni medicale sau caracteristici fizice
ART. 40
(1) În virtutea dreptului la propria imagine, în cazul în care în programele audiovizuale se aduc acuzaţii unei persoane privind fapte sau comportamente ilegale ori imorale, acestea trebuie susţinute cu dovezi, iar persoanele acuzate trebuie contactate şi invitate să intervină pentru a-şi exprima punctul de vedere. În situaţia în care persoana vizată refuză să prezinte un punct de vedere sau nu a putut fi contactată prin încercări repetate, trebuie preciz |
new buildings that are being launched here will be available with the electronic components as standard. The buildings come with all the components needed apart from batteries, two standard AA batteries are needed for most buildings, a couple require four AA batteries. No soldering is required or tools such as wire cutter/ strippers. The light circuits are made up and the parts for the buildings with motion simply need the battery pack attaching which can be done by twisting the wires together.
You can see all the buildings lower down the page, each will be available as a pledge. As a thank you for backing this Kickstarter these buildings are cheaper than they will be once they go up for sale, each building will be 10-20% cheaper than rrp. The deal pledges with multiple buildings can save you up to 25%. You will also receive your buildings before they will be available to anyone else as I will not be launching these on my own website or sites I sell on until all the pledges are filled.
I am hoping for a relatively fast turnaround of 2-3 months. Once the Kickstarter is complete, components will be ordered, this will be the largest factor for turnaround time as I will need to wait for delivery.
These Wargame buildings are intended for 28mm table top games
Construction
Some of the buildings come on sprues, these need to be cut off and have the tiny tabs cleaned up before construction.
The buildings come bagged/boxed in retail packaging in which you will find the buildings separated in to bags or rubber banded together. They are grouped by sections such as doors/windows, wall sections or detail panels etc.
Each building comes with picture and text instructions.
The MDF components can be assembled with PVA glue or similar and I recommend using super glue for gluing the electronics and plastic parts in place. A super glue activator can prove to be very helpful here saving time and ensuring that parts do not move.
The plastic windows are provided with several of the kits and are optional. They need to be cut to size which can be done with a craft knife or scissors. Templates are provided with the instructions so you can cut them quickly and easily. The windows can easily be altered or have damage effects such as bullet holes or smashed / cracked sections added.
Painting
These buildings can be painted normally like any other MDF terrain. As with my other buildings I recommend after construction of the buildings you undercoat them to seal the wood and give a nice base to paint onto.
Some buildings require you to add the lights as you construct them. When you come to under coat these buildings, be it with a brush, spray can or an airbrush you should cover the small LEDs with something such as Blue Tac, masking tape or fluid, if you do get paint on them it can be scraped off with a scalpel or similar.
Scale
The buildings-
Object 1
This is a small building, measuring 100 x 100 x 144 mm, it is designed to be used as filler terrain and would make a great objective.
Object 2
Another small building, measuring 140 x 102 x 78mm, this interesting little building is great for blocking line of sight and could be used as a great power generator or similar.
Object 3
The last small building measures 150 x 150 x 54mm. This little building disperses light across the battle field and blocks line of sight for small units. The building comes entirely on sprues.
Reactor cores
The reactor cores are a simple building, containing two small cores mounted on a base. This building measures 230 x 138 x 175 mm.
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Hub
This new building is a medium size building featuring a mixture of external and internal lights, it measures 267 x 215 x 141mm. Includes optional plastic windows.
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Tech post
The tech post is a small building with a good sized balcony on top giving great cover and a vantage point. This building has 3 external lights with the rest internal, giving you the option to place them in the balcony wall. Measures 300 x 200 x 75mm.
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Blasted power station
The blasted power station is a medium size building, the tower is a great place to position snipers etc. This buildings features three external lights and various details. Measures 210 x 210 x 152mm
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Power Station
The power station is a medium size building. This building features three external lights, plastic windows and various details. Measures 210 x 210 x 152mm.
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Troop barracks
A decent sized building featuring plenty of details and a good sized roof area for troops, the building has plenty of internal and external lights giving a great effect. Measures 250 x 310 x 100mm.
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Sector base
This is the sector base, a large armoured area control centre. The building covers a large foot print, and has a large balcony with commanding views over the area. Measures 250 x 250 x 70mm
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Spire
This building shares a similar bottom to the sector base but is not orientated to military use, it has a large tower section in the middle which effectively blocks line of sight for flying / large models. The building still has a decent sized balcony but has lost the armoured look. Measures 250 x 250 x 250mm
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Supply base
This large building has a superb open platform great for landing flyers on and filling up with troops. The building comes with 4 cargo crates which fit snugly on the top. Measures 375 x 190 x 55 mm.
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Tech Centre
The tech centre is a simple but large building that covers a decent area and blocks line of sight for large models. The model features several large plastic window sections. Measures 300 x 200 x 250mm.
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Mineral crusher
This large open building has a large pit in the centre and a crushing wheel which can be positioned facing in any direction. Comes with pipes and extra detail panels, measures 295 x 295 x 80mm.
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Rubbish furnace
The furnace building features two feed inlets with grinding wheels, and has a large extractor on the roof and a chimney for the remaining smoke. This building has a great feel and look to it, it’s a very compact and detailed building. Measures 200 x 200 x 190mm.
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Object pack
The object pack contains one of each of the three Object terrain pieces that are found above.
Armoury
The largest of the new buildings this one is designed for maximum size. Features reinforced doors, that can be assembled in several ways and defensive AA guns on the roof. Measures 350 x 250 x 200mm.
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Command centre
The command centre comes with 6 mini bunkers, a missile launcher and the main tower. Measures 350 x 350 x 190mm.
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Tool factory
The entire building is surrounded by a conveyor belt. The belt is raised up on small wheels and detailed supports. Features 6 detailed pallets and 2 blank pallets. The front of the building has several presses that can be assembled at any height. The roof has a railing around it and is removable to allow access to the top floor. Measures 250 x 250 x 140mm.
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Missile factory
The missile factory is a fantastically detailed and intricate building. It features an assembly line for missiles being transferred across the building into racks. The various missiles and sections can be posed in different stages of assembly. Measures 300 x 200 x 300mm.
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Promethea pump
This building features dual oscillating arms which run from a single motor. The arms are supported on pivots in the centre and strongly anchored into metal ball bearings. The rest of the working components are made from plastic to ensure longevity and reliability. The entire pump has various detailed sections to it and is housed in a fenced complex. This building measures 400 x 194 x 162mm.
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Satellite Dish
This is a small satellite dish and the entire dish on this one rotates. roughly once every 10 seconds. The main building also has a share of details and features. With the motor and batteries housed in the base it provides a good heavy foundation so that the dish is supported with ease. The angle of the dish can be varied by resting the dish into one of three positions to change the angle though 90 degrees. Measures 170 x 170 x 180mm.
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Hydrocarbon Power plant
The hydrocarbon power plant is my most popular building and is a perfect candidate to motorise. The large generator on the outside is attached directly onto a motor and rotates once every second. The building also features lighting and a huge array of details. The generator is a new simplified design making it much easier to assemble, again metal ball bearings are used to ensure quality of the motion and reliability. Measures 260 x 260 x 170mm.
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Stretch Goals
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1st
Satellite dish in yellow Perspex.
To get this entire building add £32 to your current pledge.
If you are getting a satellite dish in a bundle or the satellite pledge and would like to upgrade your MDF dish to Perspex add £5.
2nd
This building features two sets of lights allowing you to choose two different colours. Measures 150 x 150 x 250 mm.
Add £12
3rd
The Beacon comes with two sets of lights allowing you to choose two different colours. Measures 150 x 150 x 170 mm.
Add £12
4th
The Depot is a medium sized open building. It is supplied with 11 crates and 2 pallets. The roof is removable to allow access to the batteries. Measures 200 x 200 x 155mm.
Add £15
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5th
Free addon for pledges over £15.
This small building is the Node. It measures 120 x 120 x 60mm. Everybody who has made a pledge of £15 or more will get one for free.
6th
This Eldar styled building comes with 7 small barricade to spread out around the building. Measures 300 x 300 x 177mm.
Add £17
7th
This is the largest of the Eldar style buildings. It is supplied with two armoured walkways that fit around the central building and 4 smaller wall sections. Measures 430 x 300 x 177mm.
Add £22
8th
This building features extensive etching and details on the panels, it is supplied with 4 smaller wall sections that can be used separately. Measures 298 x 298 x 150mm
Add £19.
9th
Choice of colours for the satellite dish. Red, Blue and clear in addition to yellow.
If you are getting a satellite dish in a bundle or the satellite pledge and would like to upgrade your MDF dish to Perspex add £5.
10th
Shield Generator with perspex insert
Add £20, you can choose from Yellow, red or Blue Perspex. Rrp will be £25.
The Perspex panel can be lifted out and replaced at will.
Dimensions wide 400 x 50 x 90m.
11th
A detail pack.
This includes 6 walls, 2 cut to length ladders and numerous detailed panels. This pack will be free for anyone who has pledged £15 or more. Extra sets can be purchased for £5 each. The power station shows a bunch of them in place this sprue will add some more character to your buildings.
12th
This large building has a large walled barricade and features a central array of generators. All the generators are lit from below and light up the Perspex strips with a bright glow. The building measures 390 x 150 x 180 mm.
Add £22
13th
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This is my smallest building i have designed so far with powered movement in. It measures 200 x 100 x 151mm. The outside of the Reactor is covered in details and access hatches. The rear houses the motor, and battery cases.
Add £21
14th
Following colour choice Yellow, red or Blue Perspex.The Perspex panel can be lifted out and replaced at will.
Dimensions 190 x 50 x 90mm.
Add £20
15th
These are some street lights to add to your buildings / boards they will look great on top of other buildings, on corners or tucked away in crevasses. They are very small 36 x 36 x 115mm. They are made from laser cut mdf that has a pattern cut in it that allows it to bend.
£5 each or £20 for 5.
Red, Green, White, Blue or RBG colour change.
These are not available as a building choice in a bundle pledge.
Requires 2x CR2032 these are provided for UK backers only
16th
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A small smoke generator that will fit into my standard chimney design. These are available in one and two chimney versions. They emit a small stream of smoke that dissipates after about 50cms and will drift upwards. It uses 0.3ml of fluid at a time.
Each kit contains one MDF ring to hold the generator in the chimney. 10ml of the smoke liquid, one smoke generator, one battery pack, one battery power cable, cable connecter, and syringe.
Add £15 for a single kit.
Add £28 for a double kit suitable to add to dual chimneys or two buildings.
Each generator needs 10 AA batteries to run.
Extra smoke fluid can be added, for £3.50 for 50ml
The smoke generator comes with the parts to add this to my chimneys but it can be added to any of my other buildings by drilling a 6mm hole and inserting the unit into the hole. It needs to be placed in an accessible area as the fluid needed needs to be inserted into the top of the module.
17th
The skypad is a huge landing platform that can hold even the largest flying machines. It features 12 lights on the top to light up anything on top of it, as well as lights around the outside. The ramps have a fairly gentle climb so most models will stand on them nicely. Measures 300 x 350 x 60 mm.
Add £17
18th
One free for everyone getting a building, additional sets can be added for £1 each. This sprue will not be available after the kickstarter.
19th
These small spot lights can rotate 360 degree and about 90 degree up and down. They measure 45 x 50 x 55mm.
Red, Green, White, Blue or RBG colour change.
These are not available as a building choice in a bundle pledge.
Requires 2x CR2032 these are provided for UK backers only.
£5 each or 5 for £20
20th
Large Dome shield generator featuring a large energy ball in the centre
This comes with white LEDs only.
Measures 220 x 200 x 250mm.
Add £45 to get this.
If you wish to have this as a building choice with a bundle pledge then:
Add £25 if you are on a pledge for £20 only buildings
Add £20 if you are on a pledge for £25 only building
Add £15 if you are on any other pledge
21st
Modular stackable hab units, with Perspex windows and a huge array of detail.
Measures 100 x 95 x 50mm
Add £20, 5 in a set
22nd
Modular stack able hab units, with perspex windows and a huge array of detail. This is a double size unit
Measures 100 x 95 x 50mm
Add £22, 3 in a set
23rd
Large hab unit, it can have the smaller units stacked on the centre and they will tessellate around the outside. Single hab unit will fit around the tower, but stand proud by 1mm around the edges.
Add £22
Corridor addon on Add £7.50
24th
Comes with doors, plastic windows and some optional window panels and removable roof.
mesures 140 x 140 x 135
Add £15
25th
Comes with doors, plastic windows and some optional window panels and removable roof.
Measures 222 x 150 x 135mm
Add £18
26th
Comes with doors, plastic windows and some optional window panels and removable roof.
Measures 290 x 150 x 135mm
Add £20
27th
Measures 215 x 180 x 205mm.
Requires 2 x aa and 4xaaa batteries.
Add £35.
If you wish to have this as a building choice with a bundle pledge then:
Add £15 if you are on a pledge for £20 only buildings
Add £10 if you are on a pledge for £25 only building
Add £5 if you are on any other pledge
28th
Comes with doors, plastic windows and some optional window panels and removable roof.
Measures 300 x 225 x 135mm
Add £22
29th
Comes with doors, plastic windows and some optional window panels and removable roof.
Add £25
Measures 300 x 300 x 135mm
30th
If you have the skypad pledge add £12 for the tower. If you would like both add £29.The poll body's 2nd division rules in favor of petitioner Estrella Elamparo, who says the senator did not meet the residency requirements for presidential bets
Published 7:48 PM, December 01, 2015
MANILA, Philippines – It is the first step in what will likely be a long legal battle for presidential preference survey front runner Grace Poe.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Second Division granted the petition of Estrella Elamparo, which sought to cancel Poe's Certificate of Candidacy because the senator supposedly did not meet the residency requirements for presidential bets.
Poe's camp will "exhaust all legal remedies," spokesman Rex Gatchalian told media in a press conference Tuesday night, December 1.
Why did the 2nd division, composed of 3 commissioners, decide to rule in favor of Elamparo? Read the resolution in full here:
– Rappler.comOne of the greatest things about living in the UK is the BBC. Time and time again they manage to produce shows of such quality and enduring appeal that they enjoy as much success beyond Britain as they do within it; just look at Doctor Who, Torchwood, Sherlock or Luther.
While BBC One is the flagship and the holy grail for most new series, BBC Three, the ‘youth’ channel, has on more than one occasion produced some fantastic shows, which are often in danger of passing by completely unnoticed thanks to the reputation BBC Three has cultivated with such gems as the make-under show ‘Snog, Marry, Avoid’ and reality fodder like ‘Young, Dumb and Living off Mum.’
New show, ‘The Fades’ answers the age old zombies vs. vampires conundrum by mashing the two mythologies together into one fantastic premise (no word yet on a pirate/ninja crossover – get on it BBC!) A delightfully dark and blood-stained show, with surprisingly good effects, ‘The Fades’ is a supernatural horror series with a distinctly teen voice. The story follows Paul, the nerdy central character, as he encounters the ghostly world of the undead, or fades, as they’re known in the show, in his own hometown, and comes to realise that he is meant for greater things than wetting his bed and playing computer games with his hilarious best friend, Mac.
So far so average, right? However writer Jack Thorne, who is also responsible for ‘Skins’, turns a well-worn tale of the unlikely hero facing supernatural forces into something far more engrossing. The first episode may start off in familiar horror genre territory, but stick with it for fifteen minutes and you’ll be hooked. There may be a little nod in the direction of Buffy, but ‘The Fades’ stands on its own by creating its own monster mythology from the ranks of horror pop culture. The fades are ostensibly ghosts, but as the twisty series progresses, the distinction between ‘them’ and ‘us’ becomes less clear.
Up against the fades is a group of ghost busters who call themselves the angelics and, as is often the case, the dynamic between the two groups skews ideas of good and evil, heroes and villains, to such an extent that by the end, it’s no longer clear who is right and who is not. A race to prevent an apocalypse is not exactly what it appears either but to say anymore would give the game away, and I do try so hard to be spoiler free. Suffice to say that there is a high body count, plenty of gore and tons of Matrix and Star Wars references hidden with a genuinely compelling story. It is also packed with witty, geeky black humour, of the kind that the British do so well.
The BBC is having a great run recently of home-grown supernatural genre fare, and uncovering some stellar actors too. This would normally be my cue to highlight the particularly great performances in ‘The Fades’ but to be honest, pretty much everyone is outstanding in the show, with it being hard to choose between Iain De Caestecker’s Paul, Daniel Kaluuya’s funny and touching portrayal of his best friend Mac or Johnny Harris’s sometimes menacing turn as Paul’s angelic mentor, Neil. In fact, I could add to that list with ease, with the roles of young fade Natalie and former angelic Sarah also being fantastically heartbreaking. And that’s not even mentioning the big bad, John, who makes his appearance in episode three. A great cast, engrossing plot and twists galore make ‘The Fades’ one of the best shows of 2011 without a shadow of a doubt.
UK viewers can watch all six episodes of series one on BBC iPlayer for free. And good news for anyone across the pond, this was produced in conjunction with BBC America, and is apparently headed your way in January 2012. And if you watch it and love it (and you will) there’s a petition doing the rounds for a second series, so why not add your name to the list?
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NOTE : The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. ADDITION: Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray May 16' : Yes, we never covered the Masters of Cinema Blu-ray of Fantastic Planet (La Planete Sauvage) HERE, from 2012. The Criterion is certainly more Blue than the SDs (which, I believe both DVDs came from the same source where this Blu-ray is from a 'New 2K digital restoration'). I have no idea of the color accuracy of the 1080P but I can say that it is housed on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate and in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio. It doesn't have the minor damage marks of the SDs and it looks very rich and full in-motion. It seems marginally cropped beside the DVDs but the image quality is significantly improved on the HD transfer. I think I prefer the deeper darker contrast appearance. Criterion use a linear PCM 1.0 channel mono track at 1152 kbps (24-bit) in the original French language, and they give the option of a lossy Dolby Digital English DUB (also in mono). The score by Alain Goraguer sounds quite impacting via the uncompressed - more than I have noticed from the film in previous viewings. It's a substantial part of this presentation. The Criterion offers optional English subtitles and the Blu-ray is region 'A'-locked. Criterion include two early short films by director René Laloux and illustrator Roland Topor; Les temps morts (1965 - 9:47) and Les escargots (1966 - 11:17) - the latter also found on both the DVDs. Laloux sauvage is a, 26-minute, 2009 documentary on Laloux and it features and extensive interview with René Laloux. Also included is a 53-minute episode of the French television program Italiques from August 8th, 1974 about Topor’s work directed by Roger Boussinot which features an overview of the art and career of illustrator Roland Topor. We also get a short interview with Topor from 1973 and a trailer. The Blu-ray package contains a liner notes booklet with an essay by critic Michael Brooke. I enjoyed seeing the film in this 2K restoration - it really came to life with the richer colors and lossless sound. Plus I appreciated the extras especially the Italiques piece. Wonderful, inventive and thought-provoking science-fiction film and one that encourages repeat viewings - our highest recommendation! *** ADDITION: Accent - November 07': Although taken from the same source (same damage marks) - it appears as though the Accent (distributed by Facets Video) has had some boosting as colors are, perhaps falsely, enriched. Hence it also exhibits a tinge of edge-enhancement. Both are Region 0 in the NTSC format - and both are interlaced transfers. Plus both offer an English language version plus the original French edition with optional English subtitles. Other than that the subtitle font is different (see sample below) as well as the supplements. Accent also offers the René Laloux's 10 minute short film; Les Escargots, but adds a 30 minute interview with the director (with optional English subtitles) - and that is a nice touch. The Accent includes a music video by Sean Lennon - Would I Be The One (supposedly inspired by Fantastic Planet), a trailer and a photo gallery. MoC differs in the addition of Comment Wang-Fo Fut Sauvé (15 minutes - Laloux considered it his best work!) and a 40-page liner notes booklet with some essays about Laloux, Roland Topor, and Alain Goraguer. Hmmm... I lean toward the Masters of Cinema which is currently slightly more expensive at the writing of this comparison. I suspect many will go for the one most accessible to them but the MoC, to my eyes, has the more accurate and preferable image. On the Eureka MoC: The only master that Eureka Masters of Cinema were able to obtain was from an interlaced transfer. The good side to that is that it is not interlaced due to a weak DVD rendition. Hence, the 'combing' properties are virtually unnoticeable (even on most high end systems). I would say the print looks a shade dirty but I have no experience with this film which is animation from over 30 years ago (not comparable to today's standards). There appears to be no untoward damage and matches MoC's previous high quality with then anamorphic 1.66 original ratio. I suspect that the screen captures can tell you a better story of how this Fantastic Planet! DVD looks - it has good detail in warm pastel colors. It should be noted that there are at least two other DVD representation of this film available - (US Anchor Bay - now OOP - and Australian Force Entertainment). Unlike this Masters of Cinema edition both used a non-anamorphic 1.66 image, with *ingrained subs*. The fact that this is 1.66:1 OAR anamorphic and has optional subs leans it to be the definitive digital version available. Supplements include two René Laloux's animation short films; Les Escargots (10 minutes) and Comment Wang-Fo Fut Sauvé (15 minutes - Laloux considered it his best work!). There is also a 40-page liner notes booklet with some essays about Laloux, Roland Topor, and Alain Goraguer. Post Disney's classic era there was quite a lot of cult animation features made in the late 60's 1970's including Yellow Submarine, Ralph Bakshi's work and others. In the vein of artistic expression Rene Laloux's masterpiece "Fantastic Planet" stands out for its strong message (the evils of propaganda). A highly important film that we recommend! Gary W. ToozeIn The News By Harvey Binnall PLLC - 2016/08/12 at 12:40am
There’s substantial discussion and confusion about the rights of Bitfinex customers and their ability to recoup their losses from the recent Bitfinex hack. After looking into the details, I think there may be a cause of action against Bitfinex for most customers in this position.
Here’s why:
When customers signed up for an account at Bitfinex, the Terms of Service created a binding legal contract between the customers and Bitfinex. That contract confirms that the bitcoin in Bitfinex wallets (at any time) belongs to the customer and is owned by the customer. This means that Bitfinex must let customers withdraw that amount of bitcoin. Giving you ‘BFX Tokens’ probably does not satisfy this obligation. Arguably, this applies to customers who held USD, ETH, ETC, and LTC too.
There may also be other claims, like fraudulent conversion, if any of a customer’s funds were taken by Bitfinex and applied to other customers for purposes of “socializing” losses.
In any case, there may be a claim against Bitfinex in negligence, or breach of fiduciary duty, because Bitfinex breached a duty of care to you by failing to securely protect customers’ bitcoin.
Finally, if you are a US customer of Bitfinex and you weren’t able to withdraw the full amount of your USD, you may also have a claim to recover the full value of your USD.
Even if you have sold your BFX Tokens, you may still have a claim.
If you would like to discuss any of this, please feel free to email me at jbinnall@harveybinnall.com or call us at 703-888-1943.
Disclaimer: This summary is not legal advice and is not protected by the attorney-client privilege. No attorney-client relationship exists or will exist until we both agree to enter into such an agreementJudging from her response to this rather simple question about what the Vice-President does, one has to wonder:
Q: Brandon Garcia wants to know, “What does the Vice President do?” PALIN: That’s something that Piper would ask me! … [T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.
Now let’s see what the Constitution actually says:
The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.
The Vice-President isn’t “in charge” of the Senate in any meaningful sense. That fact was made clear way back in 1789 when John Adams, the first Vice-President, tried to take an active role in deliberations of the first Senate, he was quickly reminded that his only Constitutionally granted power was to break tie votes. In modern times, of course, the agenda of the Senate is controlled my the Majority and Minority Leaders and, except for ceremonial occasions or tie votes, which rarely occur, the Vice-President almost never presides over the Senate as President of that body. Instead, that duty falls to the most senior member of the party that controls the Senate and, more often than not, it’s actually some junior Senator who sits in for the President pro tempore.
So no, Sarah, you wouldn’t “run the Senate” if you became Vice-President anymore than you have control over America’s air defense network as Governor of Alaska.Iceland, Norway, and the rest of the Nordic countries are making the rest of Europe look like a continent of couch potatoes.
Way more people in those countries than in the rest of Europe do the recommended minimum amount of exercise, according to 2014 data from Eurostat: Two-and-a-half hours per week. In fact, more than half do so across Iceland and Scandinavia:
The stark difference may be due in part to northern Europeans’ love of the outdoors. Studies have found that exercising outdoors makes people move differently and, potentially, continue activities longer. A separate 2014 study, also by Eurostat, asked people who exercised where they generally did their training. Finns were the most likely to say they exercised in a park or outdoors, while half or more of Swedes and Danes also said they used the great outdoors. (That survey excluded Norway and Iceland, which aren’t in the European Union.)
Not every person in the Nordics is a fjord-swimming, cross-country skiing enthusiast, but encountering the natural world is a big part of Nordic culture, even though that world can often be tough—especially in the winter, when it’s cold and dark for much of the day. One recent theory suggests many humans today are crucially lacking that toughness, and that we crave it.
In overall measures of healthy life years, some of the Nordic countries are among the highest in Europe, but they’re not all up there. One reason for this might be historical problems with high alcohol use. But evidence from Finland shows that’s on the decline, while Swedish young people are increasingly less focused on alcohol and more on working out.
It’s also likely no coincidence that the Scandinavian countries, Finland, and Iceland tend to score high on measures of happiness and wellbeing. Research shows that physical activity leads to better moods. The Nordics could be proof of that on a national scale.Spread the love
More than 20,000 drivers in the state of New Jersey could have DWI charges wiped from their record because a police officer was caught tampering with multiple breathalyzer machines.
Last year, Sgt. Marc Dennis, a coordinator in the New Jersey State Police Alcohol Drug Testing Unit, was accused of skipping a vital step in the calibration of breathalyzers on multiple occasions. It has not been specified in police reports whether or not Dennis had malicious intent. However, given how quickly criminal charges were brought against him, it seems that this is far more than a simple oversight.
While Dennis denies the accusations, he was allegedly identified tampering with these machines on three separate occasions. Lt. Brian Polite, a spokesman for the State Police, said in a statement after the arrest that a supervisor at the police department witnessed Dennis committing these crimes and reported him immediately.
“Once it was determined that there was a possibility of criminal charges being filed, it was then referred to Division of Criminal Justice,” Polite said.
The following report shows the technical details of the alleged crimes:
This week, prosecutors have sent letters to over 20,000 drivers who were issued DWIs under his watch between the years of 2006 and 2008, saying that their case is under review and could possibly be thrown out.
“Sergeant Dennis’ alleged false swearing and improper calibrations of these three instruments may call into question all of the calibrations performed by Sergeant Dennis over the course of his career as a coordinator,” a copy of one of the letters published by NJ Advance Media said.
Dennis is now facing charges of second-degree official misconduct, third-degree tampering with public records and fourth-degree falsifying records. Dennis has not made any official statements to the public, but his lawyer said in a recent statement that they are confident the case will be won.
“At the end of the day, I’m sure he is going to be exonerated,” Ebberup said.
The state police have insisted the part of the calibration process that Dennis skipped is “legally required but not scientifically necessary.”
However, legal experts have voiced concerns about how important every part of the calibration process is, saying that these measures are “legally required” for good reason. Just a small percentage point on a breathalyzer could mean the difference between freedom and imprisonment.
Attorney and DWI expert Christopher Baxter said, “The science upon which the state obtained approval for the Alcotest device relies on proper calibration. Without proper calibration, the science behind the device’s accuracy falls apart.”
Jeff Gold, another DWI lawyer from New Jersey pointed out that, “Coordinators (like Dennis |
The training, technical assistance, and financial support from the government (mainly delivered through intermediate organisations) encourages social entrepreneurs to take on risk and has created a robust ecosystem to support them. Local government is very active as well. The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) established the Seoul Social Economy Center (SSEC), which provides technical support, capacity building, and connections to local social enterprise networks. In 2015, the Seoul Metropolitan Government purchased nearly 70 million USD worth of goods and services from social enterprises, according to the report “Status of Social Economy Development in Seoul.” Daniel Jintaek Oh of The Test Kitchen confirms that government takes its role as customer seriously: “Yes, they buy our products.”
Understand Avenue. A place in Seongdong-gu where social enterprises can offer there products.
The strong government support comes with caveats, however, as more social entrepreneurs are foregoing certification. The strict standards are pushing social entrepreneurs to seek other ways to demonstrate their commitment to business and social objectives. One social entrepreneur commented: “The government doesn’t understand what social entrepreneurship is about.” With the added pressure of social returns, some argue that the government financial support may be a crutch that is helping to keep the sector afloat.
More business skills needed
Coming in at #26 for attracting a skilled staff and #30 for making a living, social entrepreneurs are seen as being too soft. Few Korean social enterprises have been able to scale to other markets.
According to Hyekyung Hwang, Co-founder of Hive Arena, social entrepreneurs need more mature models that are scalable and sustainable, differentiating separate social enterprises from non-profits. Few social ventures have the long-term business and market experience that can support growth. Marie Myung-Hee Lee of the Work Together Foundation noted that social enterprises are too similar to non-profits. Seen as a separate movement from start-ups and non-profits, social enterprises in Korea are not viewed as “real businesses” under the current government social enterprise certification criteria.
HIve Arena, a buzzing co working space in Seoul
Growing private-sector ecosystem and impact investment
While Korea’s social enterprise ecosystem was built through government investment, a growing group of private-sector enterprises has begun to emerge in Seongsu-dong, a trendy neighbourhood in Seoul. Heyground (a project of Root Impact) will help bring together 24 of the largest social enterprises in South Korea under one roof in 2017.
Bright future ahead?
While one can question if Korea is the 7th best in the country in the world to a social entrepreneur, it’s clear that the ecosystem has developed impressively since 2007. Government policy is in place, investors step up and the idea of social entrepreneurship is gaining traction among youth who seek purpose in their professional life. But to really take it to the next level a few hard challenges need to be confronted. Here are a few of our ideas which can help the Korean social enterprise sector develop further:
Involve experienced business leaders
Most social enterprises are founded by (young) idealists, but these change makers often lack the ‘hard’ business skills which are needed to survive in the competitive Korean market. At the same time there’s a large pool of business leaders from the chaebols which are interested in bringing more purpose to their work. These groups can be linked to combine best of both worlds.
Align government policy more with need of social entrepreneurs
Government policy has been crucial to the development of the social enterprise sector, but complaints about the lack of alignment with entrepreneurs on the ground are severe. First step is to review if the certification process can be redesigned to make it more accessible and if non certified social enterprises can be supported as well.
Celebrate failure
Most (social) enterprises fail. Always and everywhere. But in Korea, failure is everything but celebrated and this is an important reason why people don’t start new social enterprises. It should be understood that ‘failure’ is part entrepreneurship and that the experience of setting up a start-up is very valuable for future employers. In a culture that equates success as money or power, failure is seen as reflection not only on one’s work but also on one’s character.
The Korean social entrepreneurship ecosystem is currently developing from a government project to a bottom up movement where private sector actors take the lead. If public and private initiatives can learn from each other and create a joint movement, the future of the Korean social enterprise sector looks very promising.
Please feel free to comment on this post!
Diana Won is a former Luce Scholar and has gained insight in the Korean social enterprise sector during her work as a consultant at MYSC.
Stefan Panhuijsen is the Head of Policy at Social Enterprise NL and is currently based in Seoul for six months where he studies the Korean social enterprise sector.Thursday on MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” The Atlantic senior editor David Frum warned of “recriminations” aimed at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his supporters should Trump lose and “lose as big as he’s going to.”
Frum was skeptical the movement Trump is leading would survive beyond the November election and said the new movement would be made out of opposition to the “Hillary Clinton administration.”
When Donald, should he lose and should he lose as big as he’s going to, there is going to be a scorched earth period of recrimination and Donald Trump will be the target of the recriminations and the people around him will be the target of the recrimination,” Frum said. “And as we discover in the weeks and months after the election how much self-dealing there has been in the campaign, how badly the campaign was run, and how even before it was over how everyone was preparing their parachutes and their post-election strategies. There’s going to be a revulsion in the Republican Party against this crew. I don’t think they’re going to have the clout they imagined they’ll have.”
“Even Organizing For America, President Obama’s extraordinary effort, after it was successful ceased to be powerful,” he continued. “Now imagine how much more true that is going to be if people were unsuccessful. I think we are going to discover we’re in a new terrain with new faces and new personalities and new issues driven by opposition to the agenda of the Hillary Clinton administration should there be one.”
(h/t RCP Video)
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poorWe’re familiar with the contours of the story: fifty-five delegates gathered in Philadelphia, in the sweltering summer of 1787, to do something about the inert Articles of Confederation. Having recognized that the old agreement was fatally flawed—it had no provisions for unitary foreign or tax policies, or for a national defense—the delegates set about creating a four-and-a-half-thousand-word lattice of compromises and counterbalances that has, with the notable exception of the years 1861 through 1865, cemented the union of the United States. The Constitutional Convention has become a sacrosanct chapter in American history, which is not to say that it has lacked an abundance of critics. In 1913, the historian Charles Beard dismissed the whole affair as a gathering of wealthy men, almost half of them slaveholders, scheming to preserve and enhance their economic power. Not so long ago, the late political scientist Robert A. Dahl and the legal scholar Sanford Levinson asked whether the constitution they produced was even properly democratic. But seldom have critics so thoroughly disdained the events in Philadelphia as to call for a do-over. Until recently.
Amid the stunning Presidential-election results last November, a smaller, though perhaps equally consequential, development went relatively unnoticed: the Republican Party now controls thirty-three state legislatures. On its face, this development demonstrates the discrepancies between the Democratic and Republican farm teams. Not only does the G.O.P. control the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives; it has created a pipeline of candidates to fill those offices for the foreseeable future. But there are more immediate implications.
Article V of the Constitution provides for amendments to the document when a proposed change has been approved by two-thirds of each chamber of Congress and is subsequently ratified by three-fourths of the states. In 1995, under the leadership of Newt Gingrich, House Republicans alarmed by the federal debt approved an amendment that would have effectively barred the federal government from adopting a budget in which expenditures exceeded revenues. That was a bad idea—deficit spending is a tested way to stimulate a sluggish economy. The amendment stalled in the Senate, where it fell just short of the sixty-seven votes required for it to be submitted to the states.
In the years since, a balanced-budget amendment—unlike faddish anti-flag-burning and defense-of-marriage amendments—has remained a lodestar of G.O.P. aspiration. In January, Senators Chuck Grassley, of Iowa, and Mike Lee, of Utah, introduced a new one. In the current Senate, it is likely to meet the same fate as Gingrich’s. Even so, a balanced-budget amendment is not completely out of the question, owing to the fact that it is high on the agenda of many statehouse Republicans. That is where the state-level results of the November elections come into play.
Article V allows an alternative method of proposing constitutional amendments, which cuts Congress out entirely: two-thirds of the state legislatures can call for a constitutional convention. To be in a position to do this, the G.O.P. needs to gain control of just one more statehouse, which could happen as soon as next year. (Last year, the Times reported that twenty-eight states had already adopted resolutions calling for a constitutional convention on a balanced-budget amendment, an effort supported by the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is funded by the Koch brothers, among others.) So far, this route to an amendment has not succeeded, but of late we are exploring a lot of novel territory in American democracy. And, as the events of 1787 show, these things have a way of taking on a life of their own.
The original Constitutional Convention was intended only to recommend changes to the Articles of Confederation, not to do away with them, but the delegates literally took the law into their own hands and drafted a new document. It’s easy to imagine that an Article V convention would find it difficult to limit its agenda to the technicalities of budget finance. Abortion, the most divisive social issue of the past forty years, has insinuated itself into nearly every discussion of nominees for the Supreme Court. Could a gathering intoxicated by the possibility of imposing permanent change resist the urge to achieve by amendment what decades of lobbying, protesting, and the cultivation of sympathetic judicial candidates could not? Similarly, as the battle over immigration has intensified, conservatives have toyed with the idea of ending birthright citizenship, currently guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. The allure of bypassing legislative stalemate on that issue might also prove tempting.
This sort of partisanship is precisely what the framers tried to avoid. The principle is that an idea should have demonstrated broad and transparent appeal before it is adopted into the framework of the republic. Since the ratification of the Bill of Rights, there have been five attempts to amend the Constitution that achieved congressional approval but failed to win ratification. With the exception of a proposed amendment to treat the District of Columbia as a state in matters legislative and electoral, the causes that these amendments expressed found some fulfillment through the legislative process (as with the eradication of child labor and the protection of equal rights for women), or aged out (such as a proposed prohibition from accepting titles of nobility from foreign powers), or proved wildly wrongheaded (such as the Corwin Amendment, of 1861, which would have curtailed any congressional attempt to end slavery). This would seem to suggest that most causes worthy of legitimacy can obtain it without the Constitution’s being amended; if the logic of a federal balanced budget were so compelling, it would have met with a greater degree of success legislatively.
Any proposed change to the Constitution would still require ratification by three-fourths of the states, but the mere theatre of a constitutional convention would be damaging to the nation. The last time a single party was dominant enough to amend the Constitution, the Republicans passed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, which were ratified by the states; eleven had seceded and later came under Reconstruction governments. That was a very different Republican Party in a very different era, but even that process was fraught. However deep our partisan trenches may have become, we are not currently at war with ourselves. The convention scheme is less about responsibility than about the prerogatives of power. ♦Would you be surprised if I told you another restaurant chain was making its way to Wichita?
This is one to be excited about though; I’ve been to their Texas locations and have longed wanted one in Wichita.
Make way for Fuzzy’s Taco Shop.
Fuzzy’s Taco Shop is set to make their Wichita debut at 306 N Rock Road. The location makes me wonder if that means they are taking over the former Pho Hot Bistro space. Looks like there are also plans to bring not just one but possibly two Fuzzy’s to town. One could imagine that means an east side location and a west side location.
There’s already a Facebook Page set up for the new Fuzzy’s to keep fans up to date on the new location information.
Fuzzy’s offers typical cantina-style food such as chips and queso, Baja tacos, stuffed burritos, quesadillas and smothered-in-sauce enchiladas. Breakfast options include tacos and burritos as well as traditional Mexican dishes such as huevos rancheros. Here is their menu if you are interested.
A time table of early October of 2017 is set for the opening. I, for one, am excited. For what it is, it’s pretty awesome.
Happy Dining,
Eddy
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For more from Wichita By E.B., follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, PinterestThe Democrats, their union supporters, and liberals in general are making a hard and concerted push for an increase in the minimum wage. President Obama mentioned the subject prominently in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night and even promised to take executive action to increase the minimum wage federal contractors must pay their workers starting in 2015. While Republicans and small business owners are sure to resist this push, it is important that everyone on both sides debates the issue with the correct facts. Much of what you hear about the minimum wage is completely untrue.
First, people should acknowledge that this rather heated policy discussion is over a very small group of people. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there are about 3.6 million workers at or below the minimum wage (you can be below legally under certain conditions). That is 2.5 percent of all workers and 1.5 percent of the population of potential workers. Within that small group, 31 percent are teenagers and 55 percent are 25 years old or younger. That leaves only about 1.1 percent of all workers over 25 and 0.8 percent of all Americans over 25 earning the minimum wage.
Within that tiny group, most of these workers are not poor and are not trying to support a family on only their earnings. In fact, according to a recent study, 63 percent of workers who earn less than $9.50 per hour (well over the minimum wage of $7.25) are the second or third earner in their family and 43 percent of these workers live in households that earn over $50,000 per year. Thus, minimum wage earners are not a uniformly poor and struggling group; many are teenagers from middle class families and many more are sharing the burden of providing for their families, not carrying the load all by themselves.
This group of workers is also shrinking. In 1980, 15 percent of hourly workers earned the minimum wage. Today that share is down to only 4.7 percent. Further, almost two-thirds of today’s minimum wage workers are in the service industry and nearly half work in food service. Because this is where the minimum wage workers are, that is what we will focus on for the rest of this column.
Having established that the number of minimum wage workers is small and shrinking, that most minimum wage workers are not poor, and that most of them are young and working their way up the ladder rather than supporting a family, I want to bust one more myth about the minimum wage: the relationship over time between the minimum wage and labor productivity. This one is particularly obnoxious because those selling this myth almost surely know that they are advocating for their preferred policy on the basis of a lie.
Liberals have been trumpeting a study claiming that if the minimum wage had risen in tandem with worker productivity, the minimum wage would be nearly $22 per hour. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has gone to great lengths to push this statistic into the policy debate. Liberals want you to believe that the minimum wage should have risen at the same rate as worker productivity to ensure that workers continue to take home the same share of the value of the output they produce. However, the statistic they quote is meaningless because it is not measuring the relevant concept.
Labor productivity may have risen faster than the minimum wage over the last twenty or thirty years, but the study getting all the press uses the productivity gains of all workers to calculate a hypothetical increase in the minimum wage. What is needed is a measure of the productivity gains of minimum wage workers.
Unfortunately, the government does not produce such a number. Luckily for the discussion at hand, the BLS does track labor productivity of food service workers. Because food service workers represent 44 percent of all minimum wage earners, this series is a pretty fair proxy for the productivity gains of minimum wage workers.
The BLS data show that in 2011 labor productivity gains in the food service industry were nonexistent (that is, equal to 0 percent). In 2012, it was slightly worse; labor productivity in the food service sector dropped by 0.1 percent. In limited service restaurants, where minimum wage workers are likely to be concentrated, labor productivity fell by 2 percent in 2012 while business owners saw their unit labor costs rise by 2.8 percent. Over the past few years, these workers, as a group, not only have not earned a raise, but they are getting paid more for doing less.
Taking a longer view, from 1987 to 2012 the same BLS data show that worker productivity in the food service sector rose by an average of 0.6 percent per year. In limited service restaurants, the gains were slightly lower, only averaging 0.5 percent per year. Meanwhile, unit labor costs have risen by an average of 3.6 percent. Over this period the minimum wage has risen from $3.35 to $7.25 per hour which is an average annual increase of 3.1 percent. In other words, at least in food service, the minimum wage has risen at a rate five or six times as fast as justified by the gains in worker productivity.
These numbers reveal not just the selective statistics employed by the proponents of raising the minimum wage, but also that the debate has little to do with helping the poor. Instead, this is really a debate about income redistribution. Raising the minimum wage is actually just an attempt by liberals to punish a subset of business owners by redistributing a share of their supposed wealth to their employees. It is just another attempt at class warfare. Unfortunately, in many cases (including restaurants), the minimum wage increase results in price increases paid by the customers; customers who may be no richer than the workers whose pay increase they are being forced to fund.
Comparing apples to apples, the facts change completely. If software engineers and mechanized manufacturing produce large gains in labor productivity that does not mean that minimum wage workers also became more productive. Focusing on the dominant minimum wage industry—food service—shows us the real story. In fact, the minimum wage has been pushed up much faster than any productivity gains by these workers.
If society believes in creating a minimum standard of living, the way to implement it is through mechanisms like the earned income tax credit, not the minimum wage. The myth that minimum wage workers are being treated unfairly is exposed by a look at the correct data on labor productivity. In a truthful debate we see that the minimum wage has been generous to workers receiving it when compared to the changes in the value of their output.Hurricane Harvey: Toxic Sites
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The Texas Gulf region has been devastated by Hurricane Harvey, but the threats from this storm will not subside as the clouds leave. For decades, Houston has been home to an immense concentration of chemical and plastics plants, oil and gas refineries, Superfund sites, fossil fuel plants, and wastewater discharge treatment plants among others, threatening the surrounding communities. The overwhelming majority of these facilities were constructed in communities of color, only adding to the burden felt from this disaster. Now, in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, the threat posed by these facilities has been magnified.
The map above details some of the major plants, refineries, and facilities that are posing heightened threats to the 25 counties most affected by Harvey. This site will be updated as we learn of actual reported and confirmed instances of releases, spills or accidents.
View raw dataRepublicans are looking for President 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 to get them out of a jam and convince Roy Moore to drop out of the Senate race in Alabama.
So far, their calls for Moore to step aside over allegations of sexual misconduct have fallen on deaf ears.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellHouse to push back at Trump on border Democrats block abortion bill in Senate Overnight Energy: Climate protesters storm McConnell’s office | Center-right group says Green New Deal could cost trillion | Dire warnings from new climate studies MORE (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he has talked with the president about Moore, and that the conversations would continue once Trump returns to Washington on Wednesday.
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It’s not clear whether Trump will pressure Moore to drop out, or if he has any interest in getting involved in a fight that pits McConnell against his former White House chief strategist, Stephen Bannon.
But Senate Republicans think Trump may be their best hope for stopping Moore, who is alleged to have had a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl in 1979, when he was 32.
A senior Senate GOP aide said leaders want Trump to join them in pressing Moore to drop out of the race and see the president as their most effective advocate.
“If he doesn’t have Trump, who does he have?” the aide said of Moore, whose support in the party has eroded since the allegations became public last week.
A Decision Desk HQ-Opinion Savvy poll on Friday showed Moore tied with his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, at 46 percent.
Another poll over the weekend by JMC Analytics showed Jones leading Moore 46 percent to 42 percent, with 9 percent undecided.
A source close to the Senate GOP leadership said Trump could tip the balance.
“The president is uniquely positioned to influence the outcome because of his own popularity in Alabama among Republican voters,” said the source.
“The best surrogate for Washington Republicans in Alabama is Donald Trump. His point of view would carry a lot of weight down there.”
But Trump’s influence over Moore is diminished by the fact that he endorsed his opponent, incumbent Sen. Luther Strange Luther Johnson StrangeDomestic influence campaigns borrow from Russia’s playbook Overnight Defense: Senate bucks Trump with Yemen war vote, resolution calling crown prince'responsible' for Khashoggi killing | House briefing on Saudi Arabia fails to move needle | Inhofe casts doubt on Space Force Five things to watch in Mississippi Senate race MORE (R), in the Alabama GOP primary in September.
Trump, for his part, was reportedly furious after he backed Strange and he lost, a blow to his perceived power over the Republican base.
Trump deleted his tweets supporting Strange and may not be willing to risk another loss by pressing Moore unsuccessfully to quit his bid.
McConnell, however, told reporters Tuesday that the president and his senior advisers are alarmed by the emergence of five women who have accused Moore of predatory behavior.
“The president called me from Vietnam on Friday. We had a chance to discuss this issue. I talked to General Kelly about it on Saturday, I talked to the vice president about it yesterday,” McConnell said, referring to White House chief of staff John Kelly John Francis KellyMORE and Vice President Pence.
“There’s no question that there’s a deep concern here,” he added, calling Moore’s accusers “entirely credible.”
The leader stopped short of endorsing a vote to expel Moore if he wins the seat in next month’s special election.
“He’s obviously not fit to be in the United States Senate and we have looked at all the options to prevent that from happening,” he said. “Obviously this close to the election it’s a very complicated matter, and I think once the president and his team get back we’ll have further discussions about it.”
Moore struck back on Twitter, calling on McConnell to resign instead.
“The good people of Alabama, not the Washington elite who wallow in the swamp, will decide this election! #DitchMitch,” he wrote.
McConnell said at an event sponsored by The Wall Street Journal later in the day that he wants Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump says he hasn't spoken to Barr about Mueller report Ex-Trump aide: Can’t imagine Mueller not giving House a ‘roadmap’ to impeachment Rosenstein: My time at DOJ is 'coming to an end' MORE to run for his old Senate seat as a write-in candidate. Allies of Sessions have reportedly said he is not interested.
A few Republicans on Monday called for a vote to expel Moore from the Senate if he wins the special election.
“The Senate should vote to expel him because he does not meet the ethical and moral requirements of the United States Senate,” National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Cory Gardner Cory Scott GardnerJon Stewart, 9/11 responders call on Congress to fund victim compensation program The Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump Don’t look for House GOP to defy Trump on border wall MORE (Colo.) said in a statement.
That could be a messy process, however.
The Senate has voted on several occasions by majority vote to unseat a senator because the results of an election were contested.
If Moore wins the race and the state of Alabama certifies the results, it would likely require an expulsion vote — which requires a supermajority of 67 votes — to kick him out of the Senate.
Senate Republicans and Democrats on Tuesday said the Senate Ethics Committee or another investigative body should examine the facts thoroughly before taking action.
“Right now we’ve got to get through the election and see if that’s something we even have to deal with,” said Sen. Thom Tillis Thomas (Thom) Roland TillisGOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration The Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump Don’t look for House GOP to defy Trump on border wall MORE (R-N.C.).
Prior to an expulsion vote, Tillis said, “we have to examine the facts as they exist.”
Sen. Jon Tester Jonathan (Jon) TesterOvernight Energy: Trump ends talks with California on car emissions | Dems face tough vote on Green New Deal | Climate PAC backing Inslee in possible 2020 run Dems face tough vote on Green New Deal How the border deal came together MORE (D-Mont.) said Moore or anyone accused of criminal behavior is “innocent until proven guilty.”
It could take weeks of investigation by the Ethics Committee before a vote on expulsion is held, and there is no clear legal justification to block him from being seated if Alabama’s secretary of State certifies his victory.
Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson John (Johnny) Hardy IsaksonOn The Money: Lawmakers wait for Trump verdict on border deal | Trump touts deal as offering B for security | McConnell presses Trump to sign off | National debt tops T | Watchdog details IRS shutdown woes Trump criticizes border wall deal: 'Can't say I'm happy' GOP senators offer praise for Klobuchar: 'She’s the whole package' MORE (R-Ga.) declined to comment on any action his committee might take.
Alabama voters began casting absentee ballots on Oct. 18, so there’s no way to get Moore off the ballot, according to Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill.
However, if the Alabama Republican Party disqualifies Moore as its nominee before the election and he still wins the race, the election results would be nullified.NEW DELHI:The Comptroller and Auditor General ( CAG ) has severely criticised India’s home-made Akash air defence missile system. It stated that the missile systems ordered by the Indian Air Force to counter China is “deficient in quality” and has a 30% failure rate, which posed an “operational risk during hostilities”.The CAG, in a report on the Indian Air Force (IAF) released on Friday, also stated that six squadrons of the missile system were to be deployed at six locations of an unidentified ‘S’ sector between 2013 and 2015, but this has not been done. This delay has happened even though `4,000 crore has already been spent for building the infrastructure for installing the systems.Although the report does not identify the strategic missile manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited ( BEL ), but has provided its specifications as a medium range, surface to air missile. These are the exact features of the Akash missile system.According to the report, the Defence Ministry in December 2010 concluded a contract with BEL for the delivery of six squadrons of the Akash missile systems for Rs 3,619.25 crore. The squadrons were to be located at six IAF stations in ‘S’ sector. Although the location of the sector has not been given in the report, the missile systems are to be deployed in the North East and Ladakh. A CAG audit found that the missile systems delivered by BEL were deficient in quality. “Out of 80 missiles received up to November 2014, 20 missiles were test fired. Six of these missiles, which is 30 per cent, failed the test,” says the report.BDE Destroyer Escorts to be transferred to Britain during World War II CG Destroyers loaned to the Coast Guard during 1924-1934 D Destroyer (prior to 1921) DD Destroyer (after 1921) DDC ASW Corvette DDE Destroyer converted to Fleet Escort DDG Guided Missile Destroyer DDH Destroyer with an assigned Helicopter DDK Destroyer, ASW (Submarine Killer) DDR Destroyer, Radar Picket DE Destroyer Escort, Escort or "Ocean Escort" DEC Destroyer Escort, Control (Amphibious Control) DEG Destroyer Escort, Guided Missile DER Destroyer Escort, Radar Picket DL Destroyer Leader (1920 to 1955) DL Frigate (after 1955) DLG Frigate, Guided Missile DLGN Frigate, Guided Missile, Nuclear Powered EDD Destroyer, Experimental Test Ship (before 2005) EDD Destroyer, Self-Defense Test Ship (after 2005) EDDE Experimental Escort Destroyer FF Frigate FFG Guided Missile Frigate FFH Frigate with an assigned Helicopter FFR Radar Picket Frigate FFT Reserve/Training Frigate PE Patrol Escort PF Frigate or Patrol Frigate PFG Patrol Frigate, Guided Missile TB Torpedo Boat
The United States built her first torpedo boat Cushing (TB-1) in 1890 and her last Wilkes (TB-35) in 1902. Most of these were decommissioned or re-purposed prior to the start of World War I. The surviving Torpedo Boats were renamed on 01 August 1918 as "Coast Torpedo Boat #X" where "X" was a new numeric series, starting with # 1. This number was given to the former USS Foote (TB-3) which was now renamed as USS Coast Torpedo Boat # 1 (TB-3). Like the old pre-dreadnought battleships mentioned above, this renaming of torpedo boats was done in order to free up their names for new destroyers. All of these torpedo boats were decommissioned the following year and soon afterwards sold for scrap. As these boats were all gone prior to the 17 July 1920 redesignation, the Torpedo Boat designation went out of service and was not replaced with a new one. New small warships of about this size were now designated in the Patrol Vessel category.
The first USN destroyer was Bainbridge (D-1) which completed in 1902. The designation for all existing destroyers was changed from "D-X" to "DD-X" as part of the 20 July 1921 redesignation mentioned above. During prohibition, twenty-five destroyers were loaned to the US Coast Guard and these ships were redesignated as "CG-X" starting with USS Cassin (DD-43) which became CG-1 on 7 June 1924. Most of these destroyers were scrapped following their return to the USN after the end of prohibition but a few were retained and these few were given back their previous DD designation and hull number.
Following World War II, many Fletcher (DD-445), Allen M. Sumner (DD-692) and Gearing (DD-710) class destroyers were modified and given new, specialized missions as Fleet Escorts (DDE), Radar Pickets (DDR) and ASW submarine killers (DDK). The ASW destroyers (DDK) were redesignated as Fleet Escort destroyers (DDE) on 4 March 1950. All Fleet Escort destroyers (DDE) were reclassified as destroyers (DD) on 30 June 1962. Most radar picket destroyers (DDR) were reclassified as destroyers (DD) during the 1960s. One Fleet Escort destroyer USS Saufley (DDE-465) was reclassified as an Experimental Escort Destroyer (EDDE) on 1 January 1951 and then used as a test bed during the 1950s for sonar and ASW experiments. She was reclassified as a general purpose destroyer (DD-465) on 1 July 1962.
Faced with a growing Soviet submarine threat, several conversions of the Benson/Livermore classes to an ASW "corvette" (DDC) design were proposed for FY1955. This would have entailed removing one boiler and a five-inch gun so as to increase tankerage and ASW capabilities. Nothing came of these proposals and most of these ships remained decommissioned until they were scrapped in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
USS Gyatt (DD-712) was modified to carry a twin Terrier launcher and she was designated as DDG-712 on 1 December 1956. She was redesignated as DDG-1 on 23 May 1957. Her missile emplacement was later removed and her designation reverted back to DD-712 on 1 October 1962.
The "DL" designation meaning "Destroyer Leader" was originally created as part of the 17 July 1920 designation system revision. This designation was not assigned to any ship prior to 2 February 1951 when the ASW cruiser USS Norfolk CLK-1 was redesignated as DL-1 as described above. In addition, the new fleet destroyers of the Mitscher class, which were originally designated in the DD series as DD-927 to DD-930, were redesignated on 2 February 1951 as DL-2 to DL-5. This designation change was meant to indicate that these warships were significantly larger than those destroyers built during World War II yet still smaller than cruisers. As these warships were not really "leaders" in the sense of being equipped as destroyer flotilla leaders, the DL designation was reauthorized to mean "Frigate" on 1 January 1955.
The follow-on Farragut class frigates were originally to be an all-gun design and the first three ships of this class were designated as DL-6 to DL-8. The next three ships starting with USS Coontz were to a similar design but were given a Terrier missile launcher and were designated accordingly as DLG-1 to DLG-3. However, the Navy subsequently decided to equip the Farragut class with Terrier missile launchers and their designation was then changed to become DLG-6 to DLG-8 on 14 November 1956. USS Coontz and her sisters were renumbered in sequence starting with DLG-9 on that same date. As a result of these changes, all DL and DLG warships were in the same hull number series.
The Mitscher class frigates Mitscher DL-2 and John McCain DL-3 were converted to carry a Tartar missile launcher during the 1960s and they were then redesignated as missile destroyers DDG-35 and DDG-36, respectively, in 1968-69. As noted above in the cruiser section, on 30 June 1975 most Frigates were redesignated as CG and CGN with the same hull number as previously, the exception being the Farragut DLG class which were redesignated as missile destroyers DDG-37 through DDG-46.
The designation "DE" was originally assigned to the Destroyer Escorts of World War II. The "DE" designation was changed to mean "Ocean Escorts" for those convoy escorts of the 1950s-1970s starting with the USS Dealey (DE-1006) class and ending with the USS Knox (DE-1052) class, but this was a seldom-used term. The DANFS entry for USS Knox herself describes her as "the prototype in a new class of destroyer escorts" while the Naval Vessel Register (NVR) currently lists all DE-designated ships as simply "Escort" including those built during World War II. As stated above, existing Guided Missile Escorts (DEG) were redesignated as Guided Missile Frigates (FFG) and those Escorts (DE) still in commission were redesignated as Frigates (FF) on 30 June 1975.
Some Edsall (DE-129) class destroyer escorts were converted to Radar Picket (DER) ships during the 1950s. They carried this designation during the rest of their careers, although none of them appear to have been used in that role after about 1960. As part of the 30 June 1975 reclassification program described above, two of these ships, USS Camp (DER-251) and USS Forster (DER-334) were redesignated as Radar Picket Frigates FFR-251 and FFR-334, respectively.
Similarly, three Destroyer Escorts (DE-698, DE-704 and DE-705) were converted to Amphibious Control Ships (DEC) in 195 |
failed to comply with required ethical standards when using human subjects in military research during war or threat of war." The "DOD used investigational drugs... in ways that were not effective. DOD and DVA [Department of Veterans' Affairs] have repeatedly failed to provide information and medical follow-up to those who participate in military research or are ordered to take investigational drugs. The Federal Government has failed to support scientific studies that provide information about the reproductive problems experienced by veterans who were intentionally exposed to potentially dangerous substances. The Federal Government has failed to support scientific studies that provide timely information for compensation decisions regarding military personnel who were harmed by various exposures.
Participation in military research is rarely included in military medical records, making it impossible to support a veteran's claim for service-connected disabilities from military research."
However, in 1977, it was revealed in a special Senate hearing that these "vulnerability" tests caused outbreaks of disease in dozens of test areas. Cases of influenza and pneumonia, for example, tripled in frequency in some test areas (28).
According to Dr. J. Mehsen Joseph, Director of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, by conducting biological warfare on U.S. citizens the U.S. government had created "an unjustifiable health hazard." His opinion was seconded by other scientists who reported that "normally non-pathogenic microorganisms," such as Bacillus subtilis, can cause serious infections and even fatal disease among children, the elderly, or individuals with weakened immune systems.
The Pentagon denied these reports, claiming that the "vulnerability tests... were a resounding success" and that the microorganisms and biological agents used in these tests were "harmless" (28).
Yet, we should ask: how would it be possible to gauge if the tests were a success if no one got sick and the bacterial agents were "harmless"?
When testing the reaction of U.S. soldiers to the effects of atomic explosions, they too were told that the tests were perfectly safe, as were the citizens of Utah and Nevada who were living down wind from the denotations (17). As a rehearsal for nuclear combat, soldiers were in fact ordered to march through these radioactive wastelands following atomic explosions. All were assured that there would be no risks to their health (17).
Of course, one of the primary purposes of such research is to gauge the effects of various debilitating agents on human health, beginning with the health of U.S. citizens. In this way, useful agents and dispersal methods can be identified for the purposes of attacking enemy combatants and the men, women, and children of other countries.
Consider, for example, the open air tests conducted over the city of Winnipeg. In 1953, a carcinogenic chemical, zinc cadmium sulphide, was sprayed over this city of 500,000 people (28,36). The U.S. military claimed that because this carcinogenic chemical had been watered down to a 1,000%-attenuated form, nobody would get cancer. However, the entire purpose of this open air test was to determine how many people became ill, which is why Canada, with its nationalized health services and records keeping, was chosen as a target. The military wanted to know if there was an increase in the percentage of people seeking medical assistance because of severe cold-like and respiratory symptoms, including sniffles, sore throats, headaches, or ringing in their ears (28,36). Based on this data, the military hoped to determine what percentage of a population would become immediately incapacitated or develop cancer if the chemical had been used at full strength.
It was the results of such tests on the prison population of Holmesburg State Prison in Pennsylvania which led to the widespread use of dioxin as a chemical warfare agent in Vietnam (37,38). Over 12 million gallons of dioxin, that is, "Agent Orange" was dumped on the citizens of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, as well as on the Marines and U.S. Army (38). Officially, "Agent Orange" was employed as a herbicide. One of its "unfortunate" side effects, however, is population control; i.e. a high rate of miscarriage and birth defects (37,38).
And that is exactly what happened in Vietnam.
U.S. soldiers were also adversely effected. Although the U.S. government denies that dioxin is a factor in the debilitating diseases developed by U.S. personnel who were exposed, the effects of dioxin was well known, which is why it was chosen. For example, in 1965, the U.S. Army and Dow Chemical repeatedly exposed 70 inmates at Holmesburg State Prison to dioxin (38). All developed skin rashes and lesions.
It was and continues to be the view of the political and military elite in this country, that despite the risks, it is the right of the United States government to expose American citizens to chemical and biological pathogens so as to protect "national security." In the Senate hearings held in 1977, we were in fact warned that the United States government reserved the right to continue attacking its own citizens in order to protect national security (28). According to Pentagon spokesperson, Lt. Colonel George A. Carruth, "additional tests" would be conducted in the future if the Army felt it necessary to assess our "vulnerability" to biological attacks (28).
The need to continue developing and testing chemical and biological weapons on U.S. citizens, including "open-air vulnerability tests," was openly championed by the Reagan-Bush administration based on their allegations that the Soviet Union was developing offensive biological weapons and violating international agreements (39,40). The Reagan-Bush administration in fact received congressional approval to conduct research and development in the science of biodefense, including pathogen genome sequencing, new vaccine research, and new therapeutics research, all of which would be conducted on human subjects; referred to as the Biological Defense Research Program.
As construed by the Reagan-Bush administration, the biological weapons protection program was to be part of an overall chemical and biological protection effort, which includes vulnerability testing and dual-use DNA genetic engineering biotechnology. According to the reasoning of the Reagan-Bush team, because "national security" was at stake, there are absolutely no moral or ethical reasons which should stand in the way of conducting additional "vulnerability tests" on U.S. and foreign citizens.
The Reagan-Bush administration did not just conduct "vulnerability tests" they engaged in biological warfare against the citizens of the US and other countries, including Nicaragua and Peru (41,42,43).
George Bush was Reagan's point man in the U.S. government's battle against the citizens of Nicaragua and its Sandinista government. The war, however, was illegal, which required that the United States use terrorism and clandestine methods, including biological warfare. The CIA began conducting "reconnaissance" flights over the capital city, Managua. Within days of the first low level flights, an epidemic of dengue fever began to rage throughout Managua. Over 50,000 people were infected (43).
As already detailed, this was not the first time the United States had engaged in germ warfare against a foreign people. In 1950, following successful tests on the citizens of San Francisco, the CIA and U.S. government are alleged to have use biological agents, including anthrax and fleas and mosquitoes contaminated with yellow fever, to attack civilians living in China and North Korea (35).
During the second term of the Reagan-Bush administration, Peruvian men, women and children were sprayed with Fusarium, a fungus which is used in biological warfare and which attacks crops and the human immune system. Fusarium is highly toxic. In the late 1980s, Peruvian peasants reported that American helicopters appeared over their villages and fields, releasing a "brownish smoke." A few weeks later, a Fusarium epidemic began to spread (42).
In 1999, Jeb Bush, governor of Florida, began pushing a proposal to spray parts of Florida with Fusarium, so as to wipe out the state's numerous marijuana farmers. However, Dr. David Struhs, head of Florida's Department of Environmental Protection, opposed the plan and pointed out that Fusarium was highly "mutagenic" and would also attack and destroy "tomatoes, peppers, flowers, corn and vines."
In fact, Fusarium is highly toxic and attacks the immune system. In one study, it was found that the mortality rate among hospital patients who were immune deficient and infected by the fungus was 76%. The program is tantamount to biological warfare (44). Bush was forced to abandon the plan.
The Bush clan is very fond of biological and chemical weapons. In open defiance of the 1972 treaty to ban such weapons, Donald Rumsfeld, Bush jr's. Secretary of Defense, has admitted in the year 2001, that the Pentagon operates a germ factory that has produced enough deadly bacteria to kill tens of millions of people (45). The Bush administration claims, however, that it must have these biological weapons for "National Security" describing them as "purely defensive."
Anthrax as a "Defensive Weapons"
According to the Bush doctrine, "defensive weapons" can also be used preemptively and thus offensively; that is, to sicken, kill, and destroy the enemies of the United States before these enemies have the opportunity to attack the United States (46).
These "defensive" biological weapons the Bush team were developing included a weapon's grade anthrax so potent that it can overwhelm the immune system of those who have taken anthrax vaccine (46)--such as U.S. soldiers and U.S. citizens. The first victims of this "weapon's grade" anthrax were not U.S. soldiers, but American men, women, children and members of the media who were exposed in October of 2001.
The U.S. Continued to Attack American Citizens After It Was Outlawed
Officially, "vulnerability testing" came to an end in 1969, when the United States and President Richard Nixon renounced the use of biological weapons and promised that it would destroy its arsenal of chemical and biological weapons.
In 1972, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 120 other nations signed the Biological Weapons Convention which prohibits the development, production, and stockpiling of biological weapons. And, in 1974, Congress enacted the National Research Act which was designed to prevent the U.S. government from attacking its own citizens with biological and chemical weapons.
Yet, unofficially, and thus in violation of these treaties and this act, the development and testing of biological weapons continued (45). American citizens continued to be victimized by the U.S. government. In 1974, when these treaty violations and unauthorized biological attacks first threatened to come to light, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, both top officials in the Ford administration acted in concert to explain away these crimes. According to the children of one victim, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, were directly involved in the cover up. "For 22 years there was a coverup. And then, under the guise of revealing everything, there was a new coverup" (47).
As revealed in a July 11, 1975, memo from Dick Cheney to his boss, Donald Rumsfeld, Cheney defended the cover up on the grounds of "national-security."
In 2001, Cheney became vice-president of the USA, and Rumsfeld the secretary of Defense. Within 11 months the U.S. was terrorized by a series of anthrax attacks. The Bush administration immediately engaged in a coverup.
NATIONAL SECURITY OR FINANCIAL SECURITY
We should ask ourselves, if perhaps part of the motive in conducting these tests has nothing to do with "national security" but everything to do with "financial security?" That is, if people get sick, they will seek a medical solution, they will buy drugs from the major pharmaceutical firms, some of which, like Bayer, are business partners with George H.W. Bush, and members of his previous administration. Indeed, George H.W. Bush in fact sits on the board of a number of pharmaceutical firms. Rumsfeld was the CEO of a pharmaceutical. These companies can only make money if people get sick, or if they become fearful of becoming ill and dying. Under these conditions, George Bush and friends get rich.
Consider, for example, the anthrax attacks which began soon after the 9/11/2001 terrorist assault on the World Trade Center. According to ABC News (49) sales of Bayer's antibiotic Cipro skyrocketed by over 1,000%. Terrified consumers were spending $700 per person for a two-month supply of the drug which normally sells for around $20.
Bayer, was is in business with George H.W. Bush (50). Bayer also has a most insidious past, as it was once known by the name of IG Farben. IG Farben is the Nazi chemical concern which ran many of Hitler's concentration camps, and which funded Naziexperiments on prisoners, and manufactured and supplied the poison gas which was used to kill millions of women and children in the Nazi ovens of Auschwitz et al (51). Prior to and during WWII, the Bush family and associates, were also in business with IG Farben (52).
As summed up by Dr. Leonard Horowitz, author of Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare, companies like Bayer have a history of sponsoring terrorist campaigns for profit. Referring to Bayer and related pharmaceutical companies as "white collar terrorists," Dr. Horowitz notes, "Bayer maintains enough skeletons in its corporate closet to fill a holocaust museum."
Many pharmaceutical companies associated with the U.S. government, have also been in the business of trying to create new diseases and artificial pathogens. If pharmaceutical firms create and then spread diseases and epidemics, and if they also own the "cure" then they and their partners can get very rich--like a part-time fire fighter who sets fires because he gets paid whenever he is hired to put out a fire.
DARPA is also promising its contractors that they will all soon get rich, as there will be a great commercial needs for their products in the near future--and those products include antidotes and treatments for new diseases.
Likewise, pharmaceutical firms would stand to make incredible sums of money if the government provides funds and tax breaks for conducting research on diseases that have no cure--which in turn may act as an inducement to create incurable diseases, or diseases that only they can cure.
The CIA and the U.S. military have been seeking to create incurable diseases for the last 50 years (29,53). The reasons are multi-fold but include genocide and theft. For example, if those who own desirable land or property become sickened and die, then their land and goods can be seized by those who unleashed the disease.
Likewise, if "inferior" and "subhuman" races can be killed wholesale through disease, then it is not necessary to round them up, Hitler-style, and transport them long distances to death camps. Instead, their bodies can be picked up off the street, or they can be identified through the numerous surveillance systems being developed by DARPA, and then studied, dissected, and their bodies disposed of.
"ETHNIC" BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS
Based on documents viewed by this scientist, DARPA is seeking to create genetics weapons which will selectively target the genomes of specific racial and ethnic groups.
The CIA has actively funded research into eugenics and "ethnic" biological weapons for over 50 years (63). The search for designer diseases or other biological or chemical weapons, which when released, would target and selectively sicken and kill the women, children, and men of specific ethnic groups, is still considered of high priority.
Related to this was research on biological or chemical compounds which could induce illnesses which are untreatable. Of particular interest are artificial diseases which would attack and destroy the body's immune system---research which is currently being carried out by DARPA, and is among the arsenal of genetic weapons it intends to release on various population centers.
This research has its origins in World War II and after over a thousand Nazi scientists were imported by the Dulles/CIA gang into the United States. Specifically, the CIA and the U.S. military sought to develop an "ethnic weapon" which would selectively target and eliminate specific ethnic groups (34,63). In order to destroy an ethnic group, their signature DNA must be targeted, as well as their immune system. And, of equal importance, the resulting disease must be incurable--again, this is just some of the research being conducted at DARPA.
It is the desire to develop an ethnic weapons that specifically targets the genetic makeup of specific racial groups, which explains in part why the U.S. government has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the Human Genome Project.
By the late 1960s, the CIA, and scientists at work at the Special Operations Division, High Security laboratory at Fort Detrick began to make significant progress in the development of a disease that attacks the immune system. In 1969, Dr. Robert MacMahan of the Department of Defense requested and received $10 million in funding from the U.S. Congress to develop a synthetic biological agent to which no natural immunity exists (64,65).
In his report to Congress (64,65), MacMahan states: "There are two things about the biological agent field I would like to mention. One is the possibility of technological surprise. Molecular biology is a field that is advancing very rapidly and eminent biologists believe that within a period of 5 to 10 years it would be possible to produce a synthetic biological agent, an agent that does not naturally exist and for which no natural immunity could have been acquired. Within the next 5 to 10 years, it would probably be possible to make a new infective microorganism which could differ in certain important aspects from any known disease-causing organisms. Most important of these is that it might be refractory to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon when we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease" (64,65).
The purpose of this research, which is now being carried out by DARPA, was, and is, to create genetically designed diseases that could "depopulate" huge land masses and eliminate entire populations from the breeding pool, and to murder, through disease, hundreds of millions of men, women, and children of a specific race.
"Population growth...[is] the gravest issue that the world faces over the years ahead.... A world of 10 billion... is not a world that any of us would want to live in. Is such a world inevitable? There are two possible ways by which a world of 10 billion people can be averted. Either the current birth rates must come down more quickly or the current death rates must go up. There is no other way." -- Robert McNamara, (former Secretary of Defense), President, World Bank, 10/2/1970.
"Depopulation should be the highest priority of US foreign policy towards the Third World. Reduction of the rate of population growth in these States is a matter of vital US national security." -Henry Kissinger (79), April, 1974.
In 1970, funding was approved under H.R. 15090 (65), and the U.S. immediately began to intensify efforts to develop "ethnic weapons" (63). The project, under the supervision of the CIA, was carried out by allied research laboratories at universities and private companies, as well as the Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, the army's top secret biological weapons facility. Within the CIA, the "ethnic weapons project" was also part of a secret program known as MKNAOMI that was also being carried out in conjunction with "The Special Virus Cancer Program," funded by NIH (66) as specified in H.R.15090 (65).
Although ostensibly, some of this research was conducted by the NIH in order to discover treatments for cancer, the key and operative word is "Virus" that is a "Special Virus" that would attack the immune system.
Also, it is important to emphasize that through NIH, as well as the CIA, other research facilities were also involved in creating these biological weapons including Yale--ground zero for the secret order of the Brotherhood of Death, i.e. Skull and Bones which includes George Bush, Percy Rockefeller, and the Harrimans as members (68). And then there is Merk pharmaceuticals, which had been acting in concert with the CIA since the 1940s (69).
A number of promising candidates for creating and synthesizing this artificial virus had been identified in the early 1950s. These included the human T-Cell Leukemia Virus (HTLV-1) which is highly infectious but not deadly; SV40, which is related to HIV and is deadly to non-human primates, but does not attack humans; and VISNA, a deadly viral disease that attacks sheep, but is not infectious to humans. Each of these and other viral organisms were isolated by the virus section of Fort Detrick's Center for Biological Warfare Research, and allied research facilities funded by the CIA, the Rockefeller Foundation, and NIH.
The pharmaceutical industry, of which Bayer, Merck, Baxter, Hoechst, and others are part, is an industry which feeds and profits on human misery. The pharmaceutical industry requires people to become ill, in order to make a profit. Business growth is dependent on the development of new disabling diseases which proliferate, or the resurgence of old diseases which again rage out of control. It is in the best interests of the pharmaceutical industry, for people to get sick, and to stay sick. It is not in the best interests of the pharmaceutical industry, for people to get well.
As is well known, anywhere from 90% to 98% of all pharmaceutical drugs neither prevent diseases nor cure them (88). Many of these drugs also cause deleterious side-effects, including diarrhea, stomach cramps, dizziness, sexual dysfunction, blurry vision, seizures, brain damage, heart damage, and even death. As summed up by the Journal of the American Medical Association, pharmaceutical drugs and their side effects, are the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. and other industrialized countries (88).
Many of these same companies have been the business of creating death since the 1930s. Bayer and Hoechst (as part of IG Farben) ran the Nazi concentration/slave labor and extermination camps (20,21,22,23,51). Representatives from these companies waited at the train depot as human cargo rolled in, selecting who was fit for slave labor, who was fit to become a human guinea pig, and who should be disposed of in the gas chambers.
Those who were selected to become human guinea pigs underwent incredible horrors, and were often purposefully infected with terrible diseases. Bayer A.G., both before and after the war, was particularly active in conducting research into biological warfare, and the development of designer diseases, and genetically modified viral and bacterial agents, such as anthrax and smallpox, that have no cure.
USING TERROR TO SELL PHARMACEUTICALS
Bayer does not act in isolation. Just as Bayer/Hoechst (IG Farben) was partnering with American businesses and businessmen, including the Rockefellers, the Harrimans, and the Bush family before and during the war, they would stay in business together after the war (50,52). Indeed, it is this enduring relationship with America's political elite, which explains why the U.S. government has purchased massive quantities of drugs from Bayer AG and Hoechst, even though it is not known if these drugs are effective or how dangerous they might be.
For example, in July 2000, Bayer's anti-anthrax drug, Cipro, received an unprecedented sole endorsement by the Federal Drug Administration, despite Cipro's largely untested status--one animal study for anthrax treatment in 1993. In October of 2001, the U.S. government agreed to pay Bayer, $70.00 per dose, even though Cipro is sold in other countries for less than $20.00 a dose. The Washington Times, referred to the sale as "ripoff" (90). Other Farben companies were also profiting.
On October 25, 2001, Tommy Thompson, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, asked Congress for $500 million to purchase enough of Acambis's smallpox vaccine "so every American will be assured there is a dose with his or her name on it if it is needed." However, the rules governing the testing of this smallpox vaccine produced by Acambis (previously OraVax) in partnership with Baxter (Hoechst) and Aventis (RhonePoulenc) were relaxed so that this incredible sale could go through for a drug that hardly anyone will use, but which will be stockpiled just in case! According to a press release by Acambis, in "November 2001, we were awarded a major contract by the US Government to provide 155 million doses of smallpox vaccine for the purposes of countering the threat of bioterrorism. This followed the award of an initial contract in September 2000 which had covered the development of a new smallpox vaccine and the production and maintenance over 20 years of a 40 million-dose stockpile. As a result, we are manufacturing 209 million doses of smallpox vaccine for the US Government." The entire contract is worth $428 million dollars.
That the U.S. government would purchase drugs that it may not need, and which may not only be ineffective, but dangerous, is not without precedent. During the Gulf War, the military injected soldiers with dangerous experimental drugs without their consent and without their knowledge, and then showed a callous disregard for their health.
The U.S. Sells Biological Weapons to Other Countries
In testimony before the 1994 Senate Banking Committee headed by Senators Donald Riegle Jr., and Alfonse M. D'Amato (5/25/94), it was revealed that between 1985 and 1989, the ReaganBush administration authorized at least 72 separate shipments, of incredibly virulent biological and chemical agents to Iraq. These included a nerve gas rated a million times more lethal than Sarin, and substances which could destroy crops, and sicken and kill men, women, and children and animals by destroying the brain, liver, spleen, heart, lungs, and spinal column. Diseases and agents such as pneumonia virus, salmonella, staphylcoccus, West Nile Virus, E. coli, anthrax, botulism, genetically modified tuberculosis and influenza, and a substance referred to as "histoplasma capsulatum" were provided to Iraq with the full knowledge that Iraq would use these weapons on its enemies.
The Commerce Department under the first Bush administration also authorized eight shipments of cultures that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classified as agents for "biological warfare."
In 1988, the Bush administration also shipped 19 containers of anthrax bacteria to Iraq. These weaponized anthrax had been created by the American Type Culture Collection company, located near Fort Detrick, MD, the site of the US Army's high security germ warfare labs.
The Bush administration was not alone. British firms also transferred numerous deadly biological and chemical agents to the Iraqi military. Some of these shipments were received in the months before the gulf war!
The purpose of these shipments was to provide Saddam Hussein with chemical and biological weapons which could be used to murder hundreds of thousands if not millions of men, women, and children. As part of the agreement regarding these shipments, CIA and U.S. scientists were allowed to collect data on the effects of these substances, some of which were unleashed upon Kurdish tribes in the north of Iraq.
The CIA and Bush administration also armed Iraq with biological and chemical weapons, as a pretext for giving U.S. enlisted personnel experimental drugs and for assessing how U.S. troops would respond to these same weapons.
Dick Cheney served as Secretary of Defense in the first Bush administration and during the Persian Gulf war with Iraq. Cheney, with his ties to the petrol-chemical industry, was a strong advocate of vaccinating the troops, many of whom were given experimental drugs with incredibly harmful side-effects (10).
The U.S. Exposed American Soldiers to Sarin
During the first Gulf War Cheney approved a U.S. Army plan to explode an Iraqi chemical weapons depot at Kamashiya, despite the fact that 20,000 U.S. servicemen and women would be exposed to VX and sarin nerve agents. This was not just an act of negligence. The CIA and Department of Defense were keenly interested in the short and long term effects of these chemical weapons on U.S. troops.
Over 20,000 US troops were thus purposefully exposed to VX and sarin nerve agents as a result of the U.S. operation at Kamashiya. Over 100,000 were given, without their knowledge, incredibly harmful drugs.
Later, tens of thousands of these men and women developed "Gulf War Syndrome" a disease the Army and Dick Cheney's Pentagon studied while denying its existence.
According to the 1994 Senate Banking Committee report, there are over "100,000 names on a national registry of gulf veterans who have reported illnesses they believe stem from their tours of duty there. Some of these people, who went over there as young able-bodied Americans, are now desperately ill," and many "have died."
As summed up by the United States Senate's Committee on Veterans'Affairs (10): the "DOD incorrectly claims that since their goal was treatment, the use of investigational drugs in the Persian Gulf War was not research. DOD used investigational drugs in the Persian Gulf War in ways that were not effective. DOD did not know whether pyridostigmine bromide would be safe for use by U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf War.
When U.S. troops were sent to the Persian Gulf in 1994, DOD still did not have proof that pyridostigmine bromide was safe for use as an antidote enhancer. Pyridostigmine may be more dangerous in combination with pesticides and other exposures. The safety of the botulism vaccine was not established prior to the Persian Gulf War. Records of anthrax vaccinations are not suitable to evaluate safety. DOD and DVA have repeatedly failed to provide information and medical followup to those who participate in military research or are ordered to take investigational drugs.
For at least 50 years, DOD has intentionally exposed military personnel to potentially dangerous substances, often in secret. DOD has repeatedly failed to comply with required ethical standards when using human subjects in military research during war or threat of war. The Federal Government has failed to support scientific studies that provide information about the reproductive problems experienced by veterans who were intentionally exposed to potentially dangerous substances. The Federal Government has failed to support scientific studies that provide timely information for compensation decisions regarding military personnel who were harmed by various exposures.
Participation in military research is rarely included in military medical records, making it impossible to support a veteran's claim for service-connected disabilities from military research. DOD has demonstrated a pattern of misrepresenting the danger of various military exposures that continues today."
THE MONEY TRAIL
When in the clutches of the DOD (Department of Defense) United States citizens are routinely used as human guinea pigs, or simply as an excuse to justify the purchase of dangerous or worthless drugs from a drug supplier who is connected to the DOD--of which DARPA is part.
For example, despite the scathing 1994 rebuke from Congress, in 1997 the Department of Defense ordered that all enlisted men and women would receive anti-anthrax injections using an experimental anthrax vaccine that would be sold by BioPort. BioPort is directly linked to Bayer A.G., the Saudis (including Faud ElHibri), the Bush family, the bin Ladens, and to Admiral William Crowe Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Ronald Reagan and George Bush (92). Admiral Crowe owned 13% of BioPort Corporation and sat on the Board of Directors when these orders were given.
The purpose of the anti-anthrax injections? To make money. Again, U.S. citizens in the armed services were forced to become human guinea pigs. If they refused the shots, if they refused to allow experimental drugs (and who knows what else)to be injected into their bodies, they would be court-martialed and imprisoned.
The idea behind this forced program had been in the works during the first Bush presidency. However, although he lost the election, it went forward with the blessing of Bill Clinton, his Defense Secretary William Cohen, and at the urgings of Admiral William Crowe (retired). Indeed, soon after Crowe and the Bush-connected Carlyle Group (92) made major investments in "BioPort" the company received a multi-million dollar contract to produce an "anthrax vaccine."
BioPort, of Lansing, Michigan, is the only corporation in the United States with a license to make anthrax vaccine. It acquired that license when it purchased Michigan Biologic Products Institute, from the State of Michigan in 1998. Michigan Biologic Products Institute had been selling the vaccine to the U.S. Department of defense.
BioPort had been plagued by contamination problems and has been repeatedly shut down by the Food and Drug Administration for "unsanitary conditions" (93,94). On 8/30/2000 and 9/1/2000 BioPort was forced to recall three products, including its anthrax vaccine because the wrong expiration date was put on labels. Moreover, its anthrax vaccine was linked to the death of one its own workers (93). In July of 2000, Richard Dunn died after receiving 11 injections. A coverup ensued, and his death was falsely labeled as due to a heart condition. Later, the truth emerged following an independent autopsy.
Because BioPort has repeatedly failed Food and Drug Administration inspections, it was prohibited from shipping any vaccine (94).
Nevertheless, the Department of Defense agreed to an exclusive contract making BioPort its sole producer of the untested drug and has paid out more than $130 million to the company (94). Between 1998 and 2001, over 487,000 military personnel were forced to receive 1.9 million doses of the vaccine. About 400 military personnel, including doctors, refused.
THE ANTHRAX PLOT
In September and October of 2001, the citizens of the United States of America were subjected to a series of biological terrorist attacks involving the release of "weapon's grade anthrax." The anthrax used in these attacks was subsequently linked to BioPort, Battelle, Fort Detrick, and Dugway (95).
Prior to the post 9/11/2001 anthrax attack on U.S. citizens, Donald Rumsfeld announced that the Pentagon was developing and testing a weapon's grade, biologically engineered anthrax virus. Rumsfeld and the White House denied that these tests were violations of existing laws and treaties, claiming that they were purely defensive. Yet, despite their claims, President Bush also refused to sign a draft agreement strengthening the 1974 convention on biological weapons as it would have required the Bush administration to reveal where and upon whom the U.S. was testing these biological weapons.
Although 140 nations signed the treaty, the Bush administration refused because it was especially concerned that military contractors, such as the Battelle Memorial Institute, located in West Jefferson, Ohio, might come under international and national scrutiny. The Battelle Memorial Institute has been actively involved in the creation of military grade, genetically altered anthrax.
In the months before 9/11, senior Bush administration officials announced that "this administration will pursue defenses against the full spectrum of biological threats," and would step up research on both microbes and germ munitions for "protective or defensive purposes." The Bush administration and CIA was especially keen on developing and testing methods of releasing and dispersing weapon's grade anthrax in densely populated areas and under different atmospheric conditions.
Anthrax can be severely debilitating, causing fever, chills, fatigue, muscle aches, pneumonia-like symptoms, and, if untreated, death. The CIA and Bush administration were eager to develop a genetically altered anthrax that would be especially virulent.
The next step would be "vulnerability testing," so as to protect "national security." According to U.S. government officials, the research and testing would be conducted by the Battelle Memorial Institute, in conjunction with the CIA which, according to CIA spokesman, Bill Harlow, had already conducted "laboratory or experimental" work. The results of these vulnerability tests, it was believed, could provide vital information useful for protecting "national security." What Harlow didn't mention was that the CIA had recruited almost two dozen Russian scientists with an expertise in anthrax and biological warfare and that the CIA was especially interested in conducting "vulnerability testing" on American cities and the American public.
The desire of the CIA to conduct a biological attack on the American public was justified, government officials believed. For example, what if terrorists released several pounds of anthrax in New York city. If antibiotics were not administered immediately, perhaps as many as 400,000 people would die within just a few days. Anthrax has an 80% mortality rate if untreated. And what of the millions upon millions of Americans who would panic at the prospect of being exposed? They too would seek treatment thus completely taxing and overwhelming heath care officials. Stockpiles of antibiotics and vaccines would be depleted within hours. And what of the panic and rioting which might ensue? Civil authorities and the police would be completely unable to cope and would require the assistance of the military to restore order.
The American public had to be exposed, in order to assess these vulnerabilities. It was recognized, of course, that the American public would not react kindly to being turned into human guinea pigs, and that if such tests were conducted and became public, Bush, like his father, would become a one term president. However, if the American public could be made to believe that a biological attack was the work of Arab terrorists, not only could the CIA obtain the information it sought, but the geo-political ambitions of the Bush administration and its desire to topple Saddam Hussein and the rulers of Afghanistan, could be quickly realized and his reelection, as a war-time leader, guaranteed.
Indeed, the Bush-Cheney doctrine of reprisal had been laid out in 1991, prior to the onset of the Gulf War. President George Bush and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney had publicly proclaimed that any attack on U.S. forces or U.S. citizens with chemical or biological weapons would be met with "massive retaliation." It was also realized that the U.S. government could easily prevent anyone from determining who actually carried out a biological attack, which meant that anyone could be blamed. It was also understood that by the use of propaganda, and the "Big Lie" repeated over and over again by the corporate controlled mass media, that the public could not only be terrorized, but convinced of the necessity of attacking countries, such as Iraq. By using propaganda and "information warfare" as a psychological weapon the American public could also be prepared to jettison some of their own freedoms, which in turn would further the fascist ambitions of Bush and associates.
ANTHRAX PANIC SPREADS ACROSS NORTH AMERICA
"The public as well as some in the security community probably do not fully appreciate the wide availability of (biological warfare)-relevant technology and knowledge. A biological attack |
decided to do everything out of here. That didn't really work out too well so we ended up getting a facility in Banbury. So you're putting all these pieces together and you have this final date that you're constantly building to but everything is changing and I give Guenther a lot of credit for being able to put all those pieces together.
"One of the things he was able to do was obviously develop a contract with [chassis supplier] Dallara and Ferrari, a substantial amount of the pieces came from them, which was really a great thing because I don't think we would have made it without that help. And also finding the personnel to come work for us. It's a real challenge to find people that want to work for a team that doesn't exist."
Given the current state of regulations, was this the best time to enter F1? As opposed to the start of 2017?
Haas: "I think the way everything worked out probably was the best for us because there's certain windows that open up and close up real quick. You can look at other teams and see they've taken different approaches. Manor has taken a different approach that was saved by a blink of a signature and they didn't have the time to do everything like we did. So there's penalties for that. The timing of it all, it was all real critical of how it all flowed together and got to where we were."
Steiner: "I would say it's never the right to do anything because then you don't do anything! If you say, 'Next year, the regulation change...' We don't know, maybe, next year we've got this new car and if there are some problems with it and if you change direction again, then would it be not better to wait another year?' And you wait and wait.
"Sometimes you have to say, 'Gene wanted to do this. Can we do it? Yes." Is it the ideal time? We don't know because we cannot look into the future. But Gene committed to it and said, 'Let's do it.'' And then you just try to do your best this year and next year. If you say, 'Yeah, but if we wait another, then maybe it's better."='But it's'maybe' - we don't know.
"At some stage, if you want to do something, you need to get it done. Is it the best time? I don't know. I think it was OK because it ended up being OK and now we need to do a good job for next year and we're working hard on it. I think we will be OK."
When did you begin allocating your resources toward next year?
Steiner: "This year is difficult to define. I would say we started in February to move to '17 and from the end of May, June, we stopped completely on the '16 development, everything was on '17 except if you've got problems with the car. Then you have to fix it for this year. But nothing to put on to go fast or anything."
Mark Thompson/Getty Images
You've had some issues this year with [brake suppliers] Brembo and [chassis manufacturer] Dallara. Will there be any changes in your relationship with either of those or your Ferrari technical partnership next year or are you committed to those manufacturers?
Haas: "We're always in negotiation. We're always trying to get more. There's constantly contacts going back and forth for every little detail and I think Ferrari is kind of learning a little bit, too, about exactly what do we offer Ferrari. So there's this going back and forth. Everything is always in Flux."
"They're changing the rules all the time, they're changing this, we've got to do that and here's our new rules for next year. They didn't really decide on the '17 car until a few months ago.
"Everything is always changing. If anything, we can say we have a very good relationship with all of our suppliers because we pay our bills. We understand Dallara better, we understand Ferrari better and hopefully they like working with us. So from just a personnel point of view, it all looks positive."
The original plan was to do all this from a U.S. base. You've split resources between here and the UK in your first year, is the eventual plan still to do it all in America?
Haas: "I think we will do more as we take on more CFD. But the cars are so technologically advanced that to develop a gear box would take you 10 years. I don't see how else you would do that. You just can't design one of these things and make it work. It's very, very complex, lots of track time involved, experience involved. How do you get that? You just can't get that by doing it yourself unless you've got 10 years to do it.
"So we're learning. Who knows? Maybe 10 years from now, maybe we will start to build our own gearboxes. Our relationship in NASCAR was very similar. We started off with Hendrick engines and chassis and now we're moving on to a Ford relationship. So as time goes on, things do evolve. But I can tell you right now, we would have stumbled very badly without Ferrari and Dallara's help."
Do you think it's feasible, Guenther, in the long run?
Steiner: "It's just a question of time. Anything is feasible. But, again, it's also a business decision, which is more down to Gene to decide.... It would not make sense. You would spend double the amount of money. We would have to decide because we would need to learn, we need to employ people, we would have to get people here at a high premium because they would need to relocate.
"Instead of having a shop of maybe 180-190 people working on the project, all of a sudden we would have -- the smallest F1 team is over 300. And they are doing it in a few years. We would end up with 400 people, 500 people and would we have a lot better result? I wouldn't go forward and say, 'Yes, Gene, let's do this because we can finish first.' No. I think we would go backwards in the beginning. So let's get a little bit more experience. We haven't finished our first season. Then see in a few years where it takes us."
Haas: "The good news is we are going to have a second season!"
Has this been a successful debut year, in your eyes?
Haas: "It's been super successful. We've said this a number of times, If we said [at the start] we would have 28 points by midyear, we all would have taken that one. Midyear has been a little tough on us because we haven't really scored any more points. But I think we did better than expected at the beginning, we were less than happy with what happened in the midseason but we have four more races. We have the latest aero package. So we're optimistic."
Haas has been consistently battling in the midfield throughout its debut campaign in 2016 Dan Istitene/Getty Images
Liberty Media have taken control of Formula One, an American-based group. They've said they will keep F1 based in Europe but do you think they can leverage the sport better in America?
Haas: "I would think that every team owner would be very optimistic that they're going to bring us more money for less work. But I doubt it! The honeymoon is on and we'll see how it all works out.
"I'm sure the previous Formula One owners are hoping that the new guys will bring in lots of new revenue ideas and the new owners are saying, 'We're going to make a lot of money out of this deal.' You have different opposing views. Everyone wants more money, let's face it. The teams want more money but I'm sure that the new owners are going to be thinking about, 'How can we pay the team owners less money' [laughs]
But is there a fanbase here that hasn't been reached, that could be?
Haas: "Oh, there's a huge number of fans in the United States that don't know about Formula One. How you reach them, I don't know. I don't really know how you do that. I think all the racing venues are struggling with that one. They're looking for their new fan base. They know that this is ultimately an entertainment show and they have to have a good product.
"I've been in Formula One only for only a few years now. It's pretty exciting even though it reminds me a little bit, I'm not a big baseball fan, but there's a lot of intricacies that are going on in Formula One that are completely different than NASCAR in terms of when the race starts and the excitement level in Formula One is pretty intense all the way from qualifying to race day. Where in NASCAR, that intensity really only happens in the last 25 laps."
Speaking of money and negotiations, you've previously said there's no deal with Bernie Ecclestone in terms of prize money for next year. Has that changed at all?
Haas: "Bernie doesn't negotiate! There is the Concorde Agreement which we race under and that's all spelled out in that agreement about how teams are paid. Any monies that we do get would come directly from that agreement."
So nothing has really changed?
Haas: "No. We haven't got anything, not any reimbursement from Formula One. But I think Bernie once said, 'We didn't ask these guys to show up and if they want to race here, that's their problem.'
When you started this, you talked about potential new business for Haas Automation. Have you had much?
Haas: "The market we're in is difficult. The amount of recognition that we get is pretty phenomenal. From people who know who we are and what we do is probably double or triple. There was one show in Paris or somewhere like that and usually you get 1,000 or 2,000 leads. It went to 10,000 leads. From a standpoint of recognition, it's been pretty phenomenal."
Your drivers for next year...
Haas: "We have two..."
Do you know who they are?
Haas: "Yes we do."
Romain and Esteban?
Haas: "I can't tell you that. At the moment, there's no big incentive to finalize that list. I think it's well-known that Grosjean has a contract for next year. Gutierrez, we're just in negotiations. Gutierrez is a Ferrari reserve driver, so a lot of those negotiations go back and forth with Ferrari."
Have you had interest from other drivers given your performance?
Haas: "I think there's always some phone calls here and there but I think nothing was more than general interest."
Steiner: "This year it's pretty flat with Jenson [Button] leaving and [Felipe] Massa, two senior drivers. The market is not an easy market. But we're OK. We'll have two drivers. We'll be happy. We'll be fine."
How valuable has Grosjean been to develop the car?
Steiner: "I think what he gave us is the confidence of where the car is. As much as he sometimes complains about the car, he knows what the car needs to do. He doesn't tell you to make you happy. He tells you with his experience, the car is doing this, that or the other. Or it isn't right or it's right. So we're confident. He's one of the crucial elements of our success here this year."
Esteban Gutierrez's future is still unclear, with the Mexican driver yet to be confirmed for another season with Haas Gasperotti/Sutton Images
Have you felt any more pressure or less pressure to have an American driver?
Haas: "We get a lot of people that would like to see us to, say, become the American team. We'd like to have people throw money at us, too [laughs]."
Steiner: "We'd all like a lot of things. Somebody has to pay for it."
Haas: "If we had to do everything American, we wouldn't have enough money or enough time for anything. We're here really to build a race team. If an American driver came along to have the pedigree to do this, yeah, we would seriously consider that. But at the moment, there aren't any F1 drivers. You're always looking for experience.
"It's a driver's market right now because we've lost two very experienced drivers and the newcomers really don't have much experiences. There's lots of drivers out there but you take that chance of the unknown. There's a lot of people that can compete well in GP3 and GP2. They qualify well but racing in Formula One is a whole different sport."
Have you thought about fielding a team in GP2 or GP3?
Haas: "If they start throwing money at us! I can't find those money throwers. As wonderful as Americans are, they are pretty tight, too..."
Gene, 17 races in, are you glad you did this? A lot of people doubted you would never show up, said you were throwing your money away... Has it been what you thought it would be?
Haas: "Yeah. It brings a lot of intense focus on racing and I've always said that the racing and my business kind of going hand-in-hand in the sense it kind of inspires you to want to perform better, not only in the racing part but the business part of it. It was the right thing to do.
"The timing seemed perfect. I have a lot of experienced people... I have Guenther who, as you know, is a little bit crazy in the sense he wants to go do this [laughs]. Time-wise, I can't spend that much time... I think I've actually made it to over half the races. That is a huge amount of time to get to these races. It's just a phenomenal burden to do Formula One with all that flying and jet lag.
"Actually, I'm kind of surprised another American didn't do it. I kind of scratch my head, there's so many Americans that profess to love racing. I'm kind of surprised another American didn't jump into this arena and say, 'I can do that.'"
Has there been a moment this year you've had buyer's remorse?
Haas: "There's some things we could have done better, but those were unknown. Actually, I never had any regrets. This seems like the perfect thing to do. I've done NASCAR for 15, 16 years now and this just seems like a natural progression of moving up the chain to get to the highest level.
"NASCAR is a high level, don't get me wrong. But I'm not sure where you go after Formula One. The only other thing left would be the Indy 500 or Le Mans or something like that. So there's always another goal. But you have to have goals or you just stop."An army of green crabs waits under icy waters from the Ipswich River to Plum Island Sound.
The crabs wait for spring and warmer temperatures. When they emerge they will devour the foundation of Ipswich’s largest industry, the soft shell clam. They will eat a key to the Great Salt Marsh, eel grass. They will erode tidal riverbanks.
From restaurant menus and the clamming industry to the Great Salt Marsh’s environmental and economic resources, the palm-sized green crab is attacking the region’s identity.
The seemingly insatiable, indestructible benthic scavenger lives in sheltered areas like salt marshes and intertidal zones, reproduces in massive numbers and, most importantly and most devastatingly, eats soft shell clams.
As the ravenous, invasive species proliferates, so does the green crab resistance movement that includes clammers, trappers, researchers, constables, chefs and senators. Their goal is simple: Save the clams and preserve the Great Marsh. Their strategy is equally simple: Kill as many green crabs as possible as quickly as possible.
Trapping the green crab seems to be the main way to control the population, so far, and Ipswich just received a $15,000 state grant on Tuesday, Feb. 2, to continue it’s trapping program in 2016.
Impact on clamming
Green crabs’ appetite for Ipswich’s main export, the soft shell clam — a $6 million-a-year industry in Ipswich — worries experts.
Jeff Kennedy said that N4 and N7, the clamming areas that include Ipswich waters, consistently represent about half of soft shell clam landings statewide. Massachusetts clammers landed 6.2 million pounds of soft shell clams in 2007. In 2014, that number dropped to just over 2 million pounds.
Kennedy is Massachusetts Shellfish Sanitation and Management program Regional Shellfish Supervisor.
Though Kennedy noted that industry shifts can’t be attributed to the green crab alone, many experts believe the green crab represents one of the most serious threats to the clamming industry.
Ipswich Shellfish Constable Scott LaPreste said that wherever seeded clam beds are found, the green crab is present in massive numbers.
The soft shell clam cost per pound reflects the lowered supply, jumping from $1.35 in 2007 to $2.13 in 2015.
A higher price for soft shell clams isn’t the only effect on seafood lovers. Food writer Heather Atwood said that as the price for soft shell clams rises, many restaurants are turning to sea clams to meet the fried clam demand. Unwitting restaurant-goers expecting soft shells are often served an entirely different species.
“They’re these huge clams,” Atwood said. “One clam can weigh half a pound. They cut them into strips and fry them. People aren’t realizing this. Those are not the same thing as soft shell clams. Clams with bellies are the true soft shell clams.”
Turner’s Seafood owner Joe Turner acknowledged that many people are fooled into thinking that the sea clam strips they order at some restaurants are soft shell clams. “A lot of people’s understanding is that it is a regular fried clam without the belly,” Turner said. “We would never sell a clam strip off disguised as a frying clam, but I can see why restaurants would do it and change the offering on the menu.”
Atwood worries that unless there is significant investment in curbing the green crab population, soft shell clams will disappear from menus. “We have to do something about this or they will be gone forever,” Atwood said. “Going to clam strips is the easy way out. They just want to stay in business and not let anyone know that they are using sea clams. I think if people knew that, these clam places would be hurting. I’ve been beating the green crab drum ever since I heard about this.”
Trapping
As the effects of the green crab became more apparent, Ipswich rallied against the predator, creating the area’s first green crab bounty program in 2014.
“Our clamming industry is a multimillion dollar industry,” LaPreste said. “Ipswich in one year landed one third of the entire soft shell clam total poundage for the whole state. It’s a big industry here and it’s worth a lot of money and the town understands that. We have a good shellfish committee here and we have a board of selectmen that understands the value, not only historically, but moneywise.”
In 2014, five fishermen that had expressed interest in full-time or near full-time green crab trapping were chosen to participate the program. Those same five boats are still trapping. LaPreste said Ipswich trappers brought in 73,720 pounds of green crabs in 2014, earning a total of $23,900. Trappers earned 20 to 25 cents per pound of green crabs caught that year, totaling $8,900 in bounty culled from Ipswich’s shellfish enhancement fund.
When the Division of Marine Fisheries provided $15,000 in state funding, crabbers were paid a bounty of 40 cents per pound.
In 2015, trappers landed 46,571 pounds of green crab, earning $18,101.40 in bounty. Because state funding for green crab trapping had been cut, the town put up $25,000 in municipal funds to pay the bounty, which rose from 30 to 40 cents in early September because of low numbers early in the season. LaPreste said that in addition to the remaining $6,898.60 in municipal funds left over from 2015, he hopes Ipswich will allocate additional money to keep the trapping program going in 2016.
Paying to trap green crabs is a better use of town funds than seeding clam beds, which are especially easy prey for the scavenger, LaPreste said.
“We were setting seed down, but right now, trapping green crabs gets you more bang for your buck,” LaPreste said. “Crabs will eat hundreds of thousands of juvenile clams. They just crush them. If you take the crabs, you’re letting the little clams have time to settle in and grow.”
Many are eager to get in on the hunt, but LaPreste said that a five-trapper program is most efficient. A larger program would be difficult to manage for one shellfish constable, LaPreste said, and ensuring that trappers have a large enough area to remain profitable is crucial to keeping the program running.
“I want to give these guys a big area to make it worth it for them,” LaPreste said. “For the program, we want to get as many as we can as fast as we can. We’ve got a nice system down.”
Green crabbing is becoming more lucrative as the trapping program is streamlined. LaPreste said that trappers composted most of their catch the first year, but in 2015, they were able to sell their entire green crab haul for bait on top of the bounty.
“We have no problem with that,” LaPreste said. “It gives them more incentive. We want the crabs out of the water. That’s my goal. If people make more money, God bless them.”
Data collection just begun
Though green crabs have scuttled around the northeastern shores of the U.S. for nearly a century, people are just starting to collect data that will measure their consequence to the clamming industry and the local environment.
Researchers don’t know why, for example, the green crab trapping haul dropped from 73,720 pounds in 2014 to 46,571 pounds in 2015. A colder winter and trapping may have combined to cut the green crab population. But no one knows for sure.
Boston University Research Professor Alyssa Novak is a member of the Great Marsh Resiliency Task Force, a group working to restore the Great Marsh to protect the area from devastating coastal storms. Novak became interested in the green crab population when the group began to notice that efforts to restore eelgrass beds in Plum Island Sound were being thwarted. The culprit? The green crab.
“As we planted the eelgrass, the crabs were ripping it up,” Novak said. “You plant eelgrass, they immediately come within five minutes.”
Eelgrass is a meadow-like haven to many species including scallops, crabs, fish and other important wildlife, providing food, oxygen, protection and nursery grounds according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Eelgrass is also a valuable resource for people. The grass filters polluted runoff and protects shorelines from erosion by absorbing wave energy.
In addition to their taste for eelgrass, green crabs will burrow into marsh banks and further erosion, Novak said.
In 2013, Novak started to gather data about the area green crab population by starting a monitoring program, throwing out traps and counting the number of green crabs caught in a 24-hour period. Novak said the numbers of green crabs pulled out of the traps haven’t changed much since the monitoring program began.
“In 2015, you could get a trap with anywhere between 15 and 500 green crabs,” Novak said. “That’s very high. There is definitely a big problem.”
Division of Marine Fisheries biologist Kelly Whitmore said that because there is no fishery — no commercial market — for green crabs, the state hasn’t conducted an abundance survey.
“We would be doing an assessment of some sort, but it’s not a fishery so we don’t know how the populations have changed,” Whitmore said.
Novak said reaching a population estimate through research like the monitoring program is crucial to attracting attention and funding to the green crab problem on the North Shore.
“You can’t start managing if you don’t know what’s in the system,” Novak said. “You need to be able to show with data that the green crab is having an impact.”
Is trapping effective?
Right now, evidence of the problem and the effectiveness of trapping is largely anecdotal.
LaPreste said that he’s consistently amazed at the number of green crabs trappers haul out of Ipswich waters.
“You throw in your trap, you fill it, you throw it in, and it’s filled again in two hours, you go back the next day, it’s filled again,” LaPreste said. “It’s like, man, how many are in here?”
LaPreste thinks the trapping program is starting to make a difference, however slowly. In 2015, trappers didn’t start landing a large number of green crabs until September. Unfortunately, when trappers did start catching them, the green crabs were bigger and stronger than the year before, LaPreste said.
“You can’t find a book that tells you,” LaPreste said. “We don’t know how many clams were saved, but look at the numbers we’re pulling out. It has to make an impact, it just has to, but we can’t prove that. One thing people said in the fall when the oystermen came back was, ‘I’m not raking up the green crabs like I was last year.’ That’s because we trapped that area heavily. That right there said to me we made an impact.”
Some researchers are skeptical that trapping will make a significant impact on the green crab population.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology research affiliate Dr. Judith Pederson said that green crabs are here to stay for the foreseeable future.
“Trying to reduce the population by trapping is difficult,” Pederson said. “There’s just so many out there.”
Coastal Resources Coordinator for Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Program Peter Phippen agreed that eradicating green crabs through trapping is unlikely.
“All we can really do is manage their numbers,” Phippen said. “People are trapping between a million and a million and a half in the Essex River in one fall period.”
Next week: Developing markets for green crabs.Motocross speedway and wind power – it’s a combination that doesn’t scream “natural fit,” but pairing the two is exactly what a Texas firm intends to do. In a press release, Here Enterprises said it had acquired Cycle Ranch, a 108-acre oak-strewn, red-dirt spread about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio with a 1.7-mile track. Here said it will develop wind-power resources at the site while also operating the speedway business.
CEO Mark Ryun said in a statement that the company’s strategy is “to co-locate wind energy facilities with commercial businesses in order to generate cash flow from the production of clean energy as well as from the businesses operating onsite.” Cycle Ranch is Here’s first acquisition in pursuit of this vision.
Here didn’t go into details about the scope of its intended wind-power development, but on its website it says the wind arm of its operation – dubbed Wind Here – will use the technology of A&C Green Energy, a Dallas-based company that manufactures variable-pitch turbines for smaller scale wind-power generation. No doubt seeking to take advantage of government wind-power incentives, Here, noting that Texas is a leader in wind energy, envisions being involved in things like “eco parks” (nature trails, camping, sports and recreation); “Wind Plex” (racing parks like Cycle Ranch, amusement parks, water parks, etc.); “Windustrial Parks (industrial and commercial “green zones” powered by wind turbines); and even some plain old “Wind Farms.”
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Sang Tan/Associated Press
Everton marched into the FA Cup's last 16, running out 4-0 winners against League One Stevenage.
Playing on a sticky surface, in a howling gale and in front of a raucous crowd, the scene was seemingly set for an upset—not that the Toffees took much notice.
Roberto Martinez's side grabbed a crucial early lead on five minutes, as Steven Naismith bundled home after a cutback from Aiden McGeady.
He doubled his and his side's tally on 32 minutes, running onto Leon Osman's pass and calmly converting.
John Heitinga then added a third goal on 55 minutes, nodding in Kevin Mirallas' overhead kick, before Magaye Gueye rounded off the scoring on 84 minutes—again via Osman.
Here's a look at some Everton-related talking points to emerge from this contest.Share
If you’re an owner of Samsung’s hefty Note 3 phablet, then you’ll be happy to know there’s chocolate in your future. Samsung has just begun its preliminary rollout for Android 4.4 KitKat in Poland, which means eventually your device should get it, too.
The Galaxy Note 3 was released in September, and it has since become an extremely popular phablet, with more than 10 million sold since. Since it’s been so popular, it’s a no-brainer that we’re already seeing Samsung prepare the device for Android 4.4, which was released about a month after the Note 3, back in late October.
Android 4.4 isn’t exactly a mind-blowing improvement to the OS, but it does bring some must-have features for any avid smartphone user. Android 4.4 adds general performance and stability improvements, as well as the option to choose a default SMS application, letting users choose between their favorite messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or even Google Hangouts. Since the Note 3 runs Samsung’s exclusive TouchWiz interface, it probably won’t include the Google Experience, which is Google’s new launcher featuring the iconic search bar at the top.
Poland has been selected by Samsung to be the “test region” for the launch of this new Android OS, and once it meets Samsung’s desired performance it’ll bring it to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, American users will be at the whim of their carriers before they see this update – unless of course they flash a custom rom with Android 4.4 already built in. Either way, it’s good to see Samsung keeping up with Android just months after the launch of KitKat.Police are asking for the public's help to find an Ottawa man wanted on a Canada-wide warrant after breaching his parole.
Victor Buglar, 37, is a three-time federal offender who is serving a two-year, nine -month sentence on charges including:
breaking and entering
theft over $5,000
possession of property obtained by crime
operating a motor vehicle while disqualified
Victor Buglar, 37, had been serving a federal sentence for theft and breaking and entering and is now wanted on a Canada-wide warrant after breaching his parole, the Ontario Provincial Police say. (OPP)
Buglar is five feet, nine inches tall and weighs about 186 pounds, said the Ontario Provincial Police in a media release Wednesday.
He has numerous tattoos including anchors on his left forearm, a skull/birds/flames tattoo on his left upper arm, a full sleeve tattoo with an eagle on his right arm, a scorpion on his abdomen and a map of Newfoundland on his chest, police said.
While Buglar is from Ottawa, he also has connections to Alberta, British Columbia and the east coast, police said.
Anyone who knows Buglar's whereabouts can contact the OPP's Repeat Offender Parole Enforcement (ROPE) Squad at 416-808-5900 or at 1-866-870-ROPE (7673) or Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).Where would the Minnesota Vikings be without Case Keenum? And how much longer can they afford to go without extending his contract.
Admittedly, there are sentences I did not ever imagine typing when the journeyman signed a non-descript, $2M contract with Minnesota in the offseason to fall somewhere behind Sam Bradford and, perhaps even Teddy Bridgewater, depending on the rate of Bridgewater's recovery from a gruesome knee injury suffered before the start of the 2016 season. Much less for it to be the lead sentences of a column written in Week 10 of the NFL season.
But then here we are, watching the Vikings soar to near the top of the NFC standings, with a legit shot at the top seed, with Bradford injured – as per the norm of his star-crossed career – and Bridgewater now healthy enough to play but stuck behind Keenum, a career backup, more or less, who has been one of the most productive passers in the league this season since taking over in Week 2. Lest one wonder, there is no quarterback controversy here, especially not after Keenum's magnum opus in Washington on Sunday, and there will likely not be one. It would take a prolonged slump of some magnitude – or any injury, of course – for Mike Zimmer to even consider a QB change now, given Bridgewater's long hiatus and the way this offense is expanding even after the loss of running back Dalvin Cook for the season.
Yes, Keenum had consecutive drives Sunday where he threw picks to DJ Swearinger (what a stud he is becoming), but outside of that he was perfect and he did more than enough, yet again, for Minnesota to keep this dream season going, one in which they have escaped the shadow of Adrian Peterson. Keenum has been downright special on more than one weekend, he has an otherworldly chemistry thing going with Adam Thielen and he has done more than enough for the Vikings to start thinking about that quarterback room next season before it's too late.
The reality for them is that they have no NFL quarterback under contract for next season, despite using a first-round pick on Bridgewater and despite trading a first-round pick and then some for Bradford. Both are unrestricted free agents at season's end, Bradford's chronic knees are going to preclude any team from truly counting on him in 2018, and who knows how much we'll learn, if anything, about Bridgewater's progress down the stretch … particularly if Keenum maintains his stranglehold on the position. Don't get me wrong, I am rooting for Bridgewater as much as anyone, and him even reaching this point is one of the feel-good stories of the season, with no fifth-year option on him for next season and no security at the position, I'd be checking in with Keenum's agent ASAP about getting a two-year deal done before he forces himself into another earning threshold.
No reason why you can't bring him and Bridgewater back, but Keenum would be my priority right now. At least extend something along the lines of what Josh McCown is making with the Jets this season ($6M base with chance to earn several million more in playing time incentives) and start trying to find out what the price point is while he is still exclusively Vikings' property. Because so far this season, he already has three games with a QB rating of 110 or more (Sunday's four touchdown, 304-yard performance was downright magical at times) and on the season he is completing 65 percent of his passes for a healthy 7.3 yards per attempt with 11 passing touchdowns to give interceptions and a rating of 92.6.
Keenum, mobile and elusive, has been sacked just five times this season, helping out his offensive line, and he's thrived despite missing top receiver Stephon Diggs for part of the season as well. He's proven to be a perfect on the offense being run by Pat Shurmur (get ready to hear his name again as a head coaching candidate after getting a raw deal in his brief tenure coaching the Browns) and its obvious how much his teammates enjoy playing with him and having him in the huddle. I'm not saying you break the bank for the guy – far from it – but he's proven he is more than worth having around next season, especially given Minnesota's murky future at that most important position.
Keenum averaged 10.5 yards per attempt Sunday in carving up the Redskins, and at one point in the second half he was statistically perfect from a rating standpoint. Then came the consecutive picks, which have been a bugaboo throughout his five-year career after entering the NFL as an undrafted free agent with Houston in 2013. But should not obscure the repeated great strikes he threw on the move, rolling right or left, throwing across his body when need be for an on-the-money 50-yard lob pass to Adam Thielen (only player in football with at least five receptions on every game this season) and Stefon Diggs (the two receivers combined for 12 catches for 244 yards and two TDs Sunday.
He certainly seems to be coming into his own, and given the rate at which quarterbacks are being injured or cycled through due to failure this season, keeping Keenum on the roster should be more of a priority than anyone would have expected back in September. Given all of the injuries, its fair to say he's saved Minnesota's season and maybe a few jobs as well.
In a wacky year in the NFL, with no truly great teams and quality quarterbacking in short supply, Keenum continues to stand out. And with the Vikings standing just one game behind the Eagles for the first seed, in a season in which anything possible and Matt Stafford is the only QB starting in the NFC North who was also doing so in Week 1, Keenum might not be done making people think twice about him by a long shot.
Bengals need to rid themselves of Burfict
I hope the next coach of the Bengals stops enabling some of the NFL's worst repeat offenders when it comes to undisciplined and un-sportsmanlike behavior. Vontaze Burfict's act was old and tired long ago, but he won't stop until he is suspended again, and he might just get that sooner than some would expect. It's not just that he keeps doing things beyond the norms of play, it's that he seems to revel in them, smiling at times after his ejection on Sunday for making contact with an official.
Burfict is one of the Bengals' best defenders, but he is also one of the league's dirtiest players who makes sure officials always keep a close eye on him, who seems to |
again, much depends on your location. Have a look at the image below. It’s an area called the Red Rectangle some 2300 light years from Earth in the constellation Monoceros. Although the center of the image seems to be a single star, it’s actually the double star system HD 44179. The Red Rectangle is a nebula, a cloud of gas and dust that shows what can happen when we move into areas of intense dust concentration. You can imagine that movement through an environment like this one would demand serious shielding requirements for any craft on a mission of interstellar exploration. And although we can avoid nebulae, any interstellar flyby probe has to reckon on the gas and dust within its destination system as it screams through to study the inner planets.
Obviously, we’d like to know more about dust, and that’s a problem. Donald York (University of Chicago) states the matter baldly, saying of interstellar dust “We not only do not know what the stuff is, but we do not know where it is made or how it gets into space.” York and collaborators have been studying the Red Rectangle looking for clues, and they’ve turned up a workable hypothesis.
Image: A Hubble Space Telescope image of the Red Rectangle. What appears to be the central star is actually a pair of closely orbiting stars. Particle outflow from the stars interacts with a surrounding disk of dust, possibly accounting for the X shape. This image spans approximately a third of a light year at the distance of the Red Rectangle. Credit: Credit: NASA; ESA; Hans Van Winckel (Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium); and Martin Cohen (University of California, Berkeley).
One of the stars at the heart of the Red Rectangle nebula has burned through its initial hydrogen, collapsing upon itself until it could generate the heat to burn helium. Such stars go through a period of transition that, in a matter of tens of thousands of years, causes the star to lose an outer layer of its atmosphere. The thinking is that dust forms in this cooling layer and is then pushed out from the star by radiation pressure, along with large amounts of gas. The larger star in the Red Rectangle is too hot to concentrate dust in its atmosphere, but double-star systems like this one often show a disk of material forming around the second star, creating a jet that blows dust out into the interstellar medium. Here’s Adolf Witt (University of Toledo) with more detail:
“Our observations have shown that it is most likely the gravitational or tidal interaction between our Red Rectangle giant star and a close sun-like companion star that causes material to leave the envelope of the giant. The heavy elements like iron, nickel, silicon, calcium and carbon condense out into solid grains, which we see as interstellar dust, once they leave the system.”
Take the Red Rectangle process and make it ubiquitous and you’ve located one source for the dust that is such a factor in interstellar space. Back to Daedalus, which was designed to move at 12 percent of lightspeed for the fifty year journey to Barnard’s Star. Along with its beryllium shield for the cruise phase, Daedalus would have needed additional protection for the stellar encounter, which designer Alan Bond suggested could take the form of a cloud of dust deployed from the main vehicle, heating and vaporizing any larger particles before they could damage the payload. And because Daedalus would deploy smaller probes within the system, each would need a cloud of its own.
Gregory Matloff and Eugene Mallove once suggested that a starship could use, in addition to a shield, a high-powered beamed energy device to destroy or deflect any larger objects in its path. So the options for interstellar protection are slowly being placed on the table. But first we have to learn more about the nature of the problem, which means studies like these that tell us how dust forms in the first place. The paper is Witt et al., “The Red Rectangle: Its Shaping Mechanism and its Source of Ultraviolet Photons,” accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal and available online. A University of Chicago news release is available.According to the Macquarie Dictionary a selfie is a "photograph one has taken of oneself using a digital device, such as the smart phone, usually with the intention of posting it on a social network". Throw in a farmer, and farm, and you've got a felfie! Brendan Taylor's felfie is on the far left. (Twitter:)
It might sound a little goofy; take a photo of yourself posing with a cow or sheep, or anything else on the farm, and post it to social media. But it's a phenomenon sweeping the world.
A sub-set of the popular selfie, a felfie is a 'farm selfie', and according to southern Queensland farmer Brendan Taylor, it's an easy way to have a bit of fun and celebrate life on the land.
He took a felfie while working on his tractor.
"Fortunately tractors are good subjects, they don't move by themselves," Taylor laughs. "But I can imagine there would be issues trying to get a good felfie with a cow!"
As the meme highlights life on the land, does Taylor think it'll help make farming cool?
"Farming's always cool! It can be a lot of fun taking photos of yourself, and the most interesting conversations I have on Twitter are generally not with other farmers, but with people who are interested in what we do. If I post a photo of what I might be doing I get a lot of questions from consumers."
Beyond this week's felfie fun, Taylor says social media is a valuable tool for farmers.
"It's made the world a smaller place. We spend a lot of hours glued to the tractor seat. Nowadays we basically have tractors that drive themselves, so we spend countless hours conversing on Twitter or reading articles and catching up on the world markets. Twitter's a great medium for that."
Considering the current drought in large parts of Queensland, Taylor has an 'ultimate' felfie in mind.
"If we get the rain we're hoping for, and fingers crossed it comes within the next couple of weeks and saves everybody's skin, you'll have felfies of people rolling in it."
"Standing in the mud somewhere...that'd be the perfect felfie!"Ulrich Bantle
The Cornell Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Team (CUAUV) consists of 35 students at Cornell University who gained recognition at the August 2009 AUSVI conference with their robotic submarine named Nova. The conference competition, now in its 12th year, requires entries to complete tasks through a rigorous underwater obstacle course without human intervention. The U.S. Navy provided the large acoustic testing pool. Among other things, the submarine needed to pass through a gate, ram a submerged buoy and fire a torpedo. The Cornell team was the only one among the 30 entries to complete the course, the last time being a team from MIT in 2002.
Benjamin Seidenberg, software team leader at CUAUV is full of praise for Debian: "Not only do we use it on the vehicle, we also run it on the computers in our lab and our servers, and use it to develop our custom electronics." The team reported using further open source software on the submarine, including OpenCV for image processing and Libdc1394 as an interface for its Firewire camera.Smartphone Price: Instant Economic Demographic
A website using WURFL device detection can instantly learn a user’s smartphone price. This info is one of the few economic indicators that a website can instantly discern about a customer. Websites’ user bases vary based on their affluence and willingness to purchase. MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) is a great tool for identifying a user’s economic preferences. In our MOVR research, we studied billions of hits and profiled them by their website category.
There is an over $300 variance in the average price of Android smartphones that visit these sites. Right in the middle are Shopping websites at $447/smartphone. Not surprisingly, e-commerce sites draw a wide range of users and their average MSRP is well-distributed.
The bookends of the data have Adult sites at the bottom with $206, and Religion at the top with $533. MSRP is an indicator of willingness to pay. Based on this, Adult sites face a huge hurdle to convert a user to paid based on how cheap the users are about their smartphones. On the other hand, it appears religion sites might already be “preaching to the choir” given the high willingness to pay for a smartphone of their user base.
Putting Smartphone Price to Work
Websites can use this MSRP economic intelligence in real time to target their sites and content more effectively. For example, a shopping site can rearrange their list of “featured” items based on the willingness to pay based driven by MSRP. When millions of dollars are transacted, this type of user-centric customization can drive significant additional sales.
For more information, sign up for MOVR and download our 2017 Q1 report.Thanks to the mindcorroding influence of the Sex Pistols, the word "anarchy" always conjures up (at least for me) images of wild-eyed punks smashing up stuff.
That's silly, of course. In essence, anarchism, with its long history as a social movement, favours abolishment of government. And, given the B.C. Liberals' recent hijinks, perhaps the notion is not so offbase.
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On Sept. 8 and 9, the Fernwood Community Centre hosts the seventh annual Victoria Anarchist Book Fair ("located on unceded Songhees territory in Victoria," the press release declares).
Timid types need not be put off - organizers say the book fair is for "anarchists and non-anarchists" alike. I suspect one of the most interesting speakers will be Victoria's Tom Swanky, who's written a provocative new book, Canada's "War" of Extermination on the Pacific. It suggests white colonialists deliberately introduced smallpox to First Nations' populations in the mid-19th century.
Book fair co-organizer Zoe Blunt says more than 2,000 people attended last year. Publishers and bookstores from Canada and the U.S. specializing in radical literature will be represented. So will indy types such as "zinesters, artists, patch and T-shirt makers and video/new media producers."
Workshops and speakers examine topics including the proposed pipeline developments in B.C., the Quebec student-protest movement, alternative parenting, activist media and, of course, anarchism. There's a legal workshop for those who risk arrest with civil disobedience. And there's a session titled "Baby I'm a Manarchist," led by members of Calgary "powerviolence" band Lab Rat (it's an exploration of masculinity in alternative communities). The full schedule is available online at the website victoriaanarchistbookfair.ca.
On Saturday afternoon, Tom Swanky will give a 90-minute talk based on his book. He says many First Nations people in B.C. have long believed smallpox was introduced as a way of eliminating them, rather than negotiating treaties or paying for land. Swanky spent a decade researching the selfpublished Canada's "War" of Extermination on the Pacific. And he, too, came to the conclusion that what happened was genocide.
Conventional wisdom has it that the smallpox contamination - which killed tens of thousands in a short time - was more or less accidental. For those of European descent, the illness wasn't usually life-threatening, as was the case with First Nations folk.
In conversation, Swanky doesn't come off as a wildeyed conspiracy theorist. A former news editor for the Quesnel Cariboo Observer, he holds degrees in political science and law. He first became interested in the smallpox epidemic while helping his son, a filmmaker, research a historical screenplay about the Cariboo/Chilcotin district.
Whether one agrees or not with Swanky's conclusions, few would deny the research that's gone into the 450-page book - with its 955 footnotes - appears impressive. Swanky interviewed First Nations people, some of whom were initially suspicious of a white man's motives. He spent years poring over books, yellowed newspapers and archives.
Swanky says smallpox was introduced to B.C. in 1862 by two white carriers, one arriving in Victoria and the other travelling to New Westminster. Selling infected blankets was one way of spreading the disease. He quotes a story about pioneer John McLain who "got a blanket well-infected with small pox" and deliberately left it with a pack horse found by Indians.
"I accomplished my purpose for they all died of small pox," McLain is quoted as saying in Maurine Goodenough's history of a First Nations community, Only in Nazko (2008).
Whether one accepts Swanky's genocide theory (other historians view the notion with skepticism), it's a certainty his presentation at the Victoria Anarchist Book Fair will be provocative.
Blunt says the event will reflect a genuine anarchist spirit that shrugs off the shackles of existing governing bodies.
"Anarchists reject the authority of Canada, reject the notion of a national government," she said.
"We don't accept the legitimacy of [those governing] the country here; along with many radical indigenous activists, we have that in common. We don't accept the dominance of patriarchy. We reject patriarchy and man's dominion over nature."
Blunt notes anarchist book fairs have sprouted up all over North America (including Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Hamilton and Saskatoon) and beyond.
"It's been gaining momentum," she said, "and it seems like there's more every year."
achamberlain@timescolonist.comThere’s a heartbreaking scene – one of many – in Three Girls, based on the Rochdale child abuse scandal, where a blank-eyed, fragile, underage girl describes to the police how she was systematically raped by different men.
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“You are passed around like a ball. They get your number… then there’s like 50 people you don’t know ringing you.” All of these calls are demands for sex.
Nicole Taylor’s harrowing story shows young girls being picked up from school in their abusers’ taxis, being plied with drink and cheap takeaways before being taken to derelict buildings to be assaulted. Then they are left to make their own way back to whatever they call home. If they are “lucky” they might be handed the odd grubby tenner.
I can understand that the prospect of three hours of such remorseless bleakness might be offputting (it’s broadcast Tuesday to Thursday on BBC1). But Three Girls provides a proper, valuable public service, shining halogen-bright lights into one of Britain’s most fetid corners.
This is what true-crime dramas – if they are careful and sensitive – can do so brilliantly. We’ve all seen and read coverage of the court cases into not just the Rochdale abuse ring, but also the murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones (Little Boy Blue, which ended on ITV on Monday), the Fred and Rosemary West murders (Appropriate Adult), the hoax kidnapping of Shannon Matthews (The Moorside) and the Ipswich prostitute killings (Five Daughters).
Some of us are old enough to remember our mums warning us not to go out to play on the waste ground near our houses during the hunt for and subsequent trial of the Moors Murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, dramatised in 2006 for See No Evil: the Moors Murderers.
We know the bald facts of all of these infamous crimes, but what a good dramatisation does is give a story emotion and dimension. Court cases are all foreground, true crime dramas give us background.
We get to “see” the victims, people like young Rhys Jones, and the girls in Three Girls, who were perhaps once filled with hope and happiness. Until someone came and snuffed out the light.
In Little Boy Blue we go home with Rhys’s broken parents, Mel and Steve, as their marriage starts to crumble under the weight of a grief they simply don’t know what to do with. “I don’t know if I love you any more, I can’t feel anything,” says Mel (Sinead Keenan). You don’t get that in court cases.
Both of them can do little except sit in their dead football-mad son’s bedroom and will themselves to be close to the child that has gone for ever, taken from them by a bullet fired across a pub car park.
It’s that sense of emptiness, of now hollow lives that can never be properly filled again, that good true crime dramas show us. Similarly, anger at a judicial system that fails those it’s meant to protect is rarely aired in court. But in Three Girls sexual health worker Sara Rowbotham (the splendid Maxine Peake) explodes into fury when police decide, at last, to take a serious interest in allegations of child grooming by gangs of largely British-Pakistani men.
Why should the girls say anything to detectives when they’ve been trapped in a cycle of “raped… beaten… not believed… raped… beaten… not believed,” yells Rowbotham in the face of a complacent cop.
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It’s these hinterlands we rarely hear about that make good true-crime dramas so valuable. We need them.PARIS, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- France has again expressed reticence to deliver Mistral-class warships to Russia, citing Russia's role in "the situation in Ukraine."
Russia has been accused by the West of inciting unrest in eastern Ukraine, and supplying both military equipment and personnel to the rebels in their battle against the Ukrainian government. The European Union and United States have imposed successive sanctions on Russia in response to its aggression toward Ukraine, and have pressured France to cancel its Mistral amphibious assault ship contract with Russia.
According to the $1.6 billion contract, the first Mistral ship, the Vladivostok, was scheduled to be delivered by mid-November and the second warship, the Sevastopol, in 2015.
France has repeatedly expressed reluctance to complete the contract. Finance Minister Michel Sapin told RTL radio in late October that "the conditions aren't met," explaining that those conditions include Russia improving relations with neighboring Ukraine.
On Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande's office announced it could not yet deliver the first warship because of "the situation in Ukraine."
Le président @fhollande considère que la situation en Ukraine ne permet toujours pas la livraison du premier #Mistral pic.twitter.com/lTaawd9jSg — Élysée (@Elysee) November 25, 2014
If the ships are not delivered, Russia plans to sue France, said Russian deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov. "If [France] won't deliver [Mistral], we'll sue and impose penalties."
RELATED France holds up delivery of warships to Russia
Some U.S. lawmakers, recognizing the potential precarious situation France could find itself in if it halts the deliveries, wrote to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg earlier in the month to propose "NATO purchase or lease the warships as a common naval asset."After years of speculation and rumors, Sting has finally signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) for a career-defining performance at WrestleMania.
Sting is one of the world’s biggest stars to never have performed in WWE, so his WrestleMania performance of Roxanne is expected to draw international media attention.
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At a press conference this morning, Sting confirmed that he has considered performing in WWE for decades, but the timing was never right due to the possibility of a Police reunion.
Asked by reporters whether he will attempt to break the Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak, Sting responded: “I don’t understand the question.”
Many fans who attended the press conference seemed visibly disappointed and angry when Sting took the stage.
Meanwhile, a face-painted professional wrestler also named Sting confirmed that he will never, ever wrestle in WWE.Cow urine being collected at Gopal Govardhan Gaushala in Jalore. Cow urine being collected at Gopal Govardhan Gaushala in Jalore.
Holy cow! When it comes to cleaning offices, bovine urine is the best. No wonder, this idea put forth first by Women and Child Development Minister and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi in March this year has found favour in government hospitals of Rajasthan that may soon switch over to it.
Gandhi had then said: "No harm to janitors by way of daily exposure to chemicals, and cows will be valued more." She was speaking after reports that government offices in New Delhi might replace phenyl with 'Gaunyle', derived from cow urine and carrying the fragrance of neem and pine.
To begin with, the product will be used in Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital, the state's premier hospital attached with the SMS Medical College.
"If this is a success in the SMS Hospital, its use would be extended to all hospitals acrossthe state," announced Medical and Health Minister Rajendra Rathore. He made this announcement while inaugurating a cow urine refinery, said to be first of its kind in the world, at Pathmeda village near Sanchore town of Jalore district on Sunday.
The Rs. 4-crore refinery has been set up by Parthvimeda Gau Pharma Private Limited, a foundation known for its 250-acre Gopal Govardhan Gaushala (cow shelter or sanctuary for cows, calves and oxen) at the village. The company manufactures and markets a large range of cow milk and urine based products.
The cow urine refinery at Pathmeda in Jalore. The cow urine refinery at Pathmeda in Jalore.
Senior executive of the gaushala and in-charge of the cow urine refinery Vaidya Shyam Singh Rajpurohit told Mail Today that the refinery has a daily capacity of preparing 7,000 litres extract of cow urine, of which about 50 per cent would be used for preparing the cleaner that would be marketed with trade name 'Gocleaner'.
Rathore asserted that cow urine has medicinal use for diabetic and heart patients. Referring to the successful use of panchgavya (cow's five products) - milk, ghee, curd, extract of cow dung and urine - in treating human ailments, he said that the state government would incorporate its knowledge in ayurvedic studies.
Commenting on the recent memorandum of understanding signed between Jodhpur-based Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Rajasthan Ayurved University and Bikaner's Rajasthan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, he emphasised on the need for research on various products obtained from cows.
Even, Professor Virendra Kumar Vijay at the IITDelhi's Centre for Rural Development and Technology said that while the cow urine-based liquid may not be as strong as phenyl, the absence of harmful side-effects makes the product preferable.
Last year, a BJP MP had suggested in Parliament that cow urine can be mixed with neem leaves to make a better insecticide.Around 12 years ago, scientists thought that two-dimensional materials were impossible. Then a team in the UK discovered a lattice material known as graphene that was just one atom thick, and everything changed. But even though we've now accepted that 2D solids can exist, it's generally thought that such thin membranes would never hold in a liquid state.
But now physicists have conducted a computer simulation that predicts a brand new phase of matter: one-atom-thick 2D liquid. And their research suggests that it could theoretically exist when liquid gold stretches across the tiny pores of graphene. Think of it like a soap film over a solid bubble blower.
"Here the role of graphene is similar to circular rings through which children blow soap bubbles," lead researcher Pekka Koskinen from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland told the press. "The liquid state is possible when the edge of graphene pore stretches the metallic membrane and keeps it steady."
So while the gold atoms flow and change places, the surrounding graphene "retains the planarity of the liquid membrane," the press release explains.
It's important to note that this flat liquid hasn't been experimentally confirmed as yet, but the prediction pushes the boundaries of the different phases we think matter can exist in. And further testing could change the way we think about materials forever.
So how could such a flat liquid exist? First of all, the liquid material needs to spread out quickly enough to become 2D before fluctuations grow so large that the membrane ruptures.
But it also it requires a solid template that it bonds strongly with and that stays stable at high temperatures to hold it in place. The computer simulations predict that the combination of graphene and liquid gold stretched across its tiny hexagonal pores meet these criteria, and can in theory hold in place a two-dimensional liquid material.
Of course, this flat liquid only exists in a computer model for now, and to demonstrate that such a phase of matter could really exist, the team will now have to experimentally create the material. The results have been published in the journal Nanoscale.
"Unfortunately, simulations suggest that the flat liquid is volatile," says Koskinen. "In experiments the liquid membrane might burst too early, like a soap bubble that bursts before one gets a proper look at it."
"But again, even graphene was previously considered too unstable to exist," she adds.Image copyright Narges Ashtari Image caption Ms Ashtari says local politics and corruption are to blame for her predicament
A British-Iranian aid worker accused of causing the death of a young Indian boy has been acquitted on appeal.
Narges Kalbasi Ashtari was convicted in 2014 and jailed for a year over the death of five-year-old Asim Jilakara, who disappeared from a picnic she had organised.
It is thought Asim was swept away by a strong current. His body was lost.
Ms Ashtari, 28, denied causing death by negligence and has been on bail pending the outcome of an appeal.
Image copyright Narges Ashtari Image caption Narges Kalbasi Ashtari started working in in India in 2011
She said she gave a statement about the death to the police on the day, but a month later officers filed a complaint against her, insisting that she had thrown the boy into the river.
Jilakara's mother accused the aid worker of killing her son, but Ms Ashtari maintained that she was caught up in local corruption after she refused to pay bribes to local officials after the accident.
She was banned from leaving India during her appeal, which drew the attention of international aid organisations. An online petition about her case was signed hundreds of thousands of times.
On the petition she wrote: "I have gone through the most horrific forms of abuse by a group of people with immense power, influence and protection."
Image copyright Narges Ashtari Image caption In 2015, Ms Ashtari bought 20 cycle rickshaws to help create employment for people
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif welcomed the acquittal in a post on his Instagram account.
He said: "I felt happy about the news of the acquittal of the benevolent Iranian lady Ms Kalbasi. Greatest congratulations to Ms Kalbasi and regards for her because of her patience and perseverance, and thanks to colleagues and [the Iranian] people's campaign in her support."
Born in Iran, Ms Ashtari moved to the UK when she was four and then to Canada to live with her aunt after losing both her parents.
She moved to India in 2011, to Mukundapur in Orissa, one of India's poorest states, where she established a foundation for orphaned children.Can you please send this out to theHomeschool Group?
Neal Hooks (former homeschool dad) is running for State Representative in District 33 against Bill McCamley, who is the incumbent. Your Homeschool Co-Op meets in District 33.
On Bill McCamley ‘s door hanger it says “One of the proudest things Bill has done was work with Dona Ana County Clerk Lynn Elinns in marrying same sex couples. No one should be discriminated against based on who they love, and Bill will always back laws that protect people’s rights to live in happiness without fear of being treated differently for who they are.” I copied word for word ~ any “run-ons” is his fault:)
I would like to ask the Homeschool group for young people, who can walk in Neal’s District and hang Neal’s door hangers. We will start this Friday, August 1st at 9:00 AM at my house (920 Raleigh Rd). Our walk will be very safe & organized, 4 – 6 young people per adult in a car. My plan is to go to certain areas, park car, kids split into two groups, one on each side of the street hanging the door hangers. Then back to the car and drive to the next street.
My house will be the “hub” where we will all meet, have refreshments, & go out again. We will finish between 11-11:30.
I am sure this could be counted as community service and Government extracurricular activities.
So far I have one other adult to help me, I hope I can count on more.
If anyone is interested in helping, please call and let me know by Thursday AM, so I can have a head count.
Thank you so much, I sure can use the help; it is critical to defeat Bill McCamley this year.
Very Sincerely,
Carole Ann HooksThis article is a preview from the Autumn 2015 edition of New Humanist. You can find out more and subscribe here.
The Happiness Industry (Verso) by William Davies
Hudson Yard real estate project in New York City is set to be the most ambitious experiment yet in “quantified community”. Set to cater for 5,000 apartments, offices, retail space and a school, Hudson Yard will be built to enable maximal data-mining of its population. “Treating humans like white rats,” as William Davies puts it, “is now becoming integrated into the principles of urban planning.”
Davies’s new book shows how “managing our happiness” is becoming an increasingly lucrative and insidious industry. True to its subtitle, “How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being”, it exposes the powerful interests that benefit from our increased willingness to monitor and meddle with our mental states. But Davies takes us much further than this. It is not just that Hudson Yard will soon exist. It is the fact that this Panopticon project is being heralded as “social progress” and – most disturbingly – that people actually want to live there.
The Happiness Industry is the story of how we got here. Davies guides us through a cast of characters who took us forward in this zigzag journey. We start, naturally enough, with the founder of utilitarianism. We know Jeremy Bentham for his principle of “the greatest good for the greatest number”. Davies presents him as a forefather of the happiness industry. His ideas about the state and the free market working to punish and reward, through pleasure and pain, set the stage for “the entangling of psychological research and capitalism” that was to shape twentieth-century business.
The “science of happiness”, then, has been around at least since the Enlightenment. From Wilhelm Wundt, who set up the first psych lab in 1879, through the post war Chicago School of Economics to Frederick Winslow Taylor, the pioneer “management consultant”, Davies’s book shows us that this thinking is nothing new.
Then why are we worrying? Google’s “chief happiness officers”, the opening up of official happiness statistics agencies around the globe: these are simply the latest developments in a trend ongoing since the eighteenth century. Not so fast. Yes, Davies’s book argues that the current science is “simply the latest iteration of an ongoing project which assumes the relationship between mind and world is amenable to mathematical scrutiny”. Yet the tools with which we are able to scrutinise ourselves are sharpening at a scarily exponential rate.
Davies is not a polemicist. He is an academic and a polymath par excellence. Now developing Goldsmiths’ new PPE degree, he has worked at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at Warwick and at Oxford’s Institute for Science Innovation and Society. This explains both the mastery of The Happiness Industry and the author’s tendency to fight shy of confronting the horror of his subject head on. Hints at the dystopic run through the book, dished out in parcels of grisly humour and flashes of electric-chair clarity. This is a world where the capitalist imperative to ensure compliant and productive subjects brings our interior life, what makes us human, under an ever-tightening grip. It’s a world where friendships are pursued for the chemical kick and “the only escape from a manager who wants to become your friend is to become physically ill”. As Davies points out, the World Health Organisation has predicted that mental health disorders will have become the world’s largest cause of death and disability by 2020.
In an article for The Atlantic promoting his book, Davies poses the question with clarity: “What if the greatest threat to capitalism, at least in the liberal West, is simply lack of enthusiasm and activity?” If so, we are entering an era of unprecedented levels of social control, merely in order to keep us all “working”. Gallup has estimated that the unhappiness of employees is costing the US economy $500bn a year in productivity, lost tax receipts and health-care costs. Britain has an even greater productivity crisis on its hands, while stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 39 per cent of all work-related illness in 2013-2014. Davies seems to understand the urgency, yet his talk of a “growing unease” feels too casual. “The risk is that science ends up blaming – and medicating – individuals for their own misery and ignores the context that contributed to it,” he warns. With therapists installed in UK Job Centres and the threat of benefits being withdrawn if mental health treatment is refused, isn’t this “risk” already a reality?
The Happiness Industry is a book about biopolitics, packaged as a journalistic exposé. As a critical history of social control, it has more similarities with Foucault’s histories of sexuality and madness than with The Secret World of Fifa or Criminal Capital. That Davies doesn’t position his book in this vein may broaden its appeal outside academia and the left. In one respect, this is a strength. The harnessing of our moods and emotions to the pursuit of economic success should be of prime concern to right-wing libertarians and indeed anyone who places humanity above the interests of the few.
Yet there is a rich seam of anti-capitalist thinking that explores the same core themes: Davies shares a concern with the way in which subjectivity and desire are bound up with the functioning of the capitalist system. He is likewise concerned with “the soul at work” – the effect on employees of having to invest so much of themselves in their labour, discussed by Emma Dowling in the Summer 2015 New Humanist – although he shuns such emotive language.
“Whenever experts seek to witness our shopping habits, our brains or our stress levels,” writes Davies, “they are contributing to the project that Bentham mapped out.” Davies sees this project – founded on the utopian assumption that we can resolve all moral and political questions with the help of a pulse monitor, brain scanner or iPhone 6 Health App – as profoundly mistaken. He has given us a book that traces the origins and permutations of this mistake, and argues that we are falling increasingly in its thrall.
But there is little attempt to sketch a response, let alone a politics of resistance. What if, asks Davies, the tens of billions of dollars spent on the happiness industry were channelled towards “designing and implanting alternative forms of political-economic organisation”? The benefits of deeper democracy, a participative economy and the four-day week are duly extolled. Yet this seems a circular argument. If the deep soil of our society is becoming as barren as this book implies, such seeds will simply not grow.
Davies acknowledges a more fundamental issue, residing in our use of language and communication. He proposes we relearn the lost skill of listening. “In a society organised around objective psychological measurement,” he says, “the power to listen is a potentially iconoclastic one.” Unsurprisingly for a book about social control, the call is for the people to take the power back, asserting their voice and their difference from the silent “white rats” imagined by the quantified community.
But it is not enough to call on the “enlightened” practitioners, experts and managers, as Davies does, to sign up to such a cause. Having worked in research and policy, Davies wants a solution, perhaps, that can be led by researchers and policy makers. There is none. As The Happiness Industry clearly shows, the science of wellbeing is shaped by the socio-political context of the times. It’s a signpost for how our era sees what it is to be human. Davies is ideally placed to show us how we got here. We need different thinkers to posit a way ahead.Mention of the C.I.A. in the 21st century brings cyberwarfare and espionage to mind, but in the ‘50s and ‘60s during the Cold War it engaged in a different type of international subterfuge: secretly funding a suite of literary and current affairs magazines throughout the world, in Europe, Asia and South America. It was an effort to win a culture war against the Soviet Union and communism by promoting essays and literature that reflected the so-called American worldview. The funding, which came through an entity called the Congress for Cultural Freedom, didn’t exactly start the Paris Review, the most famous of the magazines of that era. But a founder who turned out to work for the C.I.A. started it to help provide a cover. Peter Matthiessen admitted his C.I.A. link to the New York Times in 2008, though he denied it influenced the review. But the C.I.A. ties didn’t end with Mr. Matthiessen as Joel Whitney, the founder of the magazine Guernica, recounts in his new book Fink, a breathless and deeply researched account of the complex web of relationships and machinations involving the C.I.A., the freedom congress, the magazines and others. Mr. Whitney, who will be in conversation with Norm Solomon on Feb. 11 at Point Reyes Books at 7 p.m., wrote that the Congress for Cultural Freedom paid the review for reprint rights to a number of interviews, and the review even explored hiring an editor who would work for the congress at the same time in a joint employment of sorts. The C.I.A.’s secret funding was revealed decades ago, though even at the time rumors floated about the ties. While the idea of the C.I.A. funding literary magazines may seem odd to some, Mr. Whitney said the content was meant to show that the United States “had more than cadillacs and hamburgers. It was to remind people that America had values.” But |
as a forum where you can share your reviews with the other users of the platform.
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Cartoons On has a wide variety of cartoon videos available which makes it yet another popular website across the globe. The videos available here are classified into various categories such as shows, series etc. Every video has a brief description. This lets you pick the one you desire the most.
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Do you have a love for the older cartoon series that are no more aired on television? Boomerang is one such website that plays the old cartoon series including Tom & Jerry, Garfield, Pink Panther, The Flinstones etc. The site also offers several games and fun activities for the kids.
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Jaroo is one of the best online portals for the kids. Your kids and you can enjoy numerous cartoon episodes of popular series including Super Mario, Liberty’s Kids as well as Johnny Test. A subscription is required to view the full-length videos uninterrupted.
No matter how busy one is, traveling has been an indispensable part of everyone’s lives since ages. With the wide usage of internet and advancement in the technology, you can easily entertain yourself with your favorite cartoons while on wheels or any other place for that matter. All you need is a hand held technical device and an internet connection and the above-mentioned cartoon streaming sites can be availed within seconds by just a few clicks. Cartoons online streaming is the love of today’s parents as they can fix up the schedule of their kids as per their desires.
What are your favourite cartoon shows? Do let us know by dropping a line or two in the comments section. Keep watching this space for insights on cartoon streaming sites. Subscribe to our newsletter to know more about cartoons online streaming. Cheers!Okay ladies, I know we have all experienced it, those dry spells, that period of time when we just do not want sex and cannot imagine a single thing to get our motor running. It can be frustrating not just for our partners but also for us. Well I am here to tell you that you are not alone and do not need to suffer any longer. There is a new supplement that actually works and does wonders for your libido – Hersolution Pills.
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The Hersolution pills ingredients themselves are openly shown, they are niacin, to increase blood flow to the genitals, hops, which increases estrogen levels and counters the dryness in the vaginal walls. Then you have mucuna pruriens, which trigger the release of dopamine to increase pleasure levels so always a plus, Gingko Biloba which will help in obtaining those orgasms as well as reduce the symptoms of menopause. Then you have this ancient aphrodisiac epimedium sagitattum, it will really ramp up your sexual desires and the final ingredient is cayenne, this spice naturally increases vaginal lubrication and intensifies your orgasms to new heights.
This supplement will change your world and make your relationship infinitely better, with the increased sex drive you and your partner will be enjoying yourself and each other far more frequently creating a much more intimate bond between you and extending the relationship as well as preventing any future problems. Since as we all know, the vast majority of problems within relationships are to do with the bedroom activities, thanks to Hersolution you can prevent these problems before they start.
The thing that really takes the cake though for me, not only does Hersolution help you in the bedroom. But it also has a lovely side benefit, it will help reduce cramping during menstruation, reduce the flow and make your periods much more regular and quicker. It as well will help reduce those hot flashes for the menopausal woman and bring back her sex drive.
Just cause you are older does not mean you don’t enjoy passion anymore, and with Hersolution Pills you can have it all, so contact them now and try it out. They are even offering a 60 day trial so there is no risk what so ever for you, just a return of your sex drive and sex life!Defence White Paper: Australia joins Asia's arms race with spending on weaponry and military forces to reach $195b
Updated
Australia will embark on a decade-long surge in weaponry and military forces to defend its land, sea, skies and space from Asia's rapidly growing military forces.
Key points: Australia ratchets up military spending in response to rising tensions in Asia
Spending up by nearly $30 billion
Climate change and terrorism also listed as threats
Defence spending will rise even if GDP falls
The 2016 Defence White Paper maps a course towards a total of $195 billion in defence capability or equipment by 2020-21, together with a larger military force of 62,400 personnel, the largest in a quarter of a century.
Joining an Asian-region mini arms race, the White Paper promises 12 submarines to be built at a cost of more than $50 billion between 2018-2057.
However, maintenance costs will push that $50 billion budget much higher.
Navy will scoop a quarter of all new spending on capability, with nine new anti-submarine warfare frigates and 12 offshore patrol vessels.
The RAAF will build up two fleets of drones while also bringing its eventual fleet of 75 Joint Strike Fighters online.
The Army will claim 18 per cent of all extra spending on equipment, buying armed drones, new protected vehicles to transport troops, helicopters for special forces and a long-range rocket system.
Underscoring a sense of urgency to the renewal of Australia's defence power, the Government is aiming to build spending up to 2 per cent of GDP by 2020/21 — earlier than previously promised — representing an overall increase of $29.9 billion.
Defence officials have told the ABC the White Paper reflects Australia's "growing discomfort" with China's military activity.
Climate change and terrorism listed as threats
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the Government was committed to the "significant increase in spending" due to regional challenges as well as the threat from climate change and terrorism, among other issues.
The factoring in of climate change was not planned under the Abbott Government.
"In the next two decades, half the world's submarines and at least half the world's advanced combat aircraft will be operating in the Indo-Pacific region, in our region, and this complicates the outlook for our security and strategic planning," Mr Turnbull said.
"We would be concerned if the competition for influence and the growth in military capability were to lead to instability and threaten Australia's interests, whether in the South China Sea, the Korean peninsula or further afield.We have a strong, vital, vested interest in the maintenance of peace, stability and respect for the rule of law."
The language of the White Paper points to a realisation that Australia needs to increase the "potency and agility" of its forces in the face of rising wealth and power in Asia, coupled with the strategic tension already arising between China and the United States.
"Territorial disputes … have created uncertainty and tension in our region," the White Paper notes.
"Some matters that previous defence white papers have described as long-term issues, such as the impact of modernisation in our region, now fall to this White Paper to respond to."
Australia continues to throw its military lot in with the United States, assessed to "remain the pre-eminent global power over the next two decades".
The White Paper aims to deepen Australia's alliance with America, including the relocation of a US spy telescope known as an "optical space surveillance telescope" to Exmouth in Western Australia.
On the path to building defence funding up to 2 per cent of GDP, the Government will also "de-couple" its spending on the military from the general health of the economy, so that even if growth slows, defence will still get its 2 per cent share.
US Ambassador to Australia John Berry described the White Paper as a "well-considered, comprehensive approach to addressing evolving security challenges of the coming decades".
"As allies, we welcome the Government's sustained investment in defence capabilities and readiness and its support for rules-based international order," he said.
Topics: defence-industry, defence-forces, air-force, navy, army, defence-and-national-security, defence-and-aerospace-industries, industry, federal-parliament, federal-government, government-and-politics, australia
First postedOne man dead, two injured in Auburn industrial accident after becoming trapped in ink vat
Updated
Sorry, this video has expired Video: The Auburn ink business where three men were trapped (ABC News)
One man is dead and two others are in hospital after an industrial accident left them trapped inside an ink vat at a manufacturing business in Sydney's west.
Michael Stinson, a worker on site, told the ABC that two men rushed to help the third when he became trapped in the vat while conducting maintenance.
New South Wales Ambulance were called to the business, DIC Australia, at 8:45am.
New South Wales Fire and Rescue said the men, believed to be aged in their 30s or 40s, were "trapped by compression" at the site on Chisholm Road in Auburn.
The tank or vat was a cylinder shape and several metres high, Western Sydney NSW Ambulance Superintendent Paul Turner said.
"It is my belief that the arm inside the vat has caused the men to become trapped," he said.
"My understanding is that the men were doing maintenance … inside the vat but there was still ink hampering rescue efforts."
Two men were freed from the accident site and taken to Westmead Hospital with leg injuries and fractures, while the third man died inside the tank.
"The last person deteriorated on the scene … multiple ambulance resources [were] inside with the man trying to save his life," Superintendent Turner said.
"[The accident is] very tragic three weeks out from Christmas."
DIC Australia's website said the company produced inks for magazines, packaging and other printing products as well as metal decoration for foods and drinks.
NSW Police and WorkSafe NSW will be investigating the incident.
The man's body has been removed from the ink vat.
The two men taken to hospital are in a stable condition.
Topics: accidents, accidents---other, disasters-and-accidents, workplace, auburn-2144, sydney-2000
First postedIt’s been nearly six months since Nintendo announced that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild would receive a pair of DLC packs in 2017. The first pack released in June while the second still doesn’t have a release date, but could it be revealed next week?
Over the weekend, Nintendo announced that Japanese streaming service NicoNico will host a Breath of the Wild broadcast on December 12 at 7 a.m. EST. Included in the broadcast will be a focus on Japanese musician and voice actor Ichiro Mizuki’s clearing of all the game’s trials from June’s Trial of the Sword DLC. Nintendo is also soliciting players to submit their memories of playing through the game with selected entries being shared on the broadcast.
There’s no specific mention of The Champions’ Ballad, unfortunately, but with 2017 fast coming to a close, it would seem this is one of Nintendo’s last chances to reveal the DLC’s release date if it still plans for it to be this month. Producer Eiji Aonuma said that was still the plan in October and that the Nintendo eshop was updated in November to state The Champions’ Ballad would release this month, that would seem to be the case.
Alternatively, Nintendo may want to use Thursday’s The Game Awards as a platform for the announcement. It’s notable that Breath of the Wild is a Game of the Year nominee at the annual awards show.
more newsProgramming Freedom - February 1995 - Number 11
League For Programming Freedom
1 Kendall Square #143
P.O. Box 9171
Cambridge, MA 02139
Programming Freedom is the Newsletter of The League For Programming Freedom. Visit our web page: http://lpf.ai.mit.edu. Reproduction of Programming Freedom via all media is encouraged. To reproduce a signed article individually, please contact the author for permission.
Professor Donald Knuth of Stanford University is the world's leading authority on algorithms. His magnum opus, the three volume work the "The Art of Computer Programming," is the most important reference work on algorithms. Knuth also developed the mathematical text formatter TeX and the idea of "literate programming". Supporting evidence of Knuth's position are the following distinctions:
National Medal of Science Member, National Academy of Sciences Member, National Academy of Engineering Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences Turing Award, Association for Computing Machinery 18 Honorary Doctorates
The first four of these distinctions are the highest American awards for scientists. Since there is no Nobel prize in computing, the receipt of the Turing award is often regarded as having a similar status.
Through these honors, Knuth is perhaps the most distinguished living exponent of the field of computer science. He is also now a member of the League for Programming Freedom.
Here is the letter he sent in February 1994 to the Patent Commissioner on the subject of software patents.
Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks Box 4 Patent and Trademark Office Washington, DC 20231 Dear Commissioner: Along with many other computer scientists, I would like to ask you to reconsider the current policy of giving patents for computational processes. I find a considerable anxiety throughout the community of practicing computer scientists that decisions by the patent courts and the Patent and Trademark Office are making life much more difficult for programmers. In the period 1945-1980, it was generally believed that patent law did not pertain to software. However, it now appears that some people have received patents for algorithms of practical importance - e.g., Lempel-Ziv compression and RSA public key encryption - and are now legally preventing other programmers from using these algorithms. This is a serious change from the previous policy under which the computer revolution became possible, and I fear this change will be harmful for society. It certainly would have had a profoundly negative effect on my own work: For example, I developed software called TeX that is now used to produce more than 90% of all books and journals in mathematics and physics and to produce hundreds of thousands of technical reports in all scientific disciplines. If software patents had been commonplace in 1980, I would not have been able to create such a system, nor would I probably have ever thought of doing it, nor can I imagine anyone else doing so. I am told that the courts are trying to make a distinction between mathematical algorithms and nonmathematical algorithms. To a computer scientist, this makes no sense, because every algorithm is as mathematical as anything could be. An algorithm is an abstract concept unrelated to physical laws of the universe. Nor is it possible to distinguish between "numerical" and "nonnumerical" algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from other kinds of precise information. All data are numbers, and all numbers are data. Mathematicians work much more with symbolic entities than with numbers. Therefore the idea of passing laws that say some kinds of algorithms belong to mathematics and some do not strikes me as absurd as the 19th century attempts of the Indiana legislature to pass a law that the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is exactly 3, not approximately 3.1416. It's like the medieval church ruling that the sun revolves about the earth. Man-made laws can be significantly helpful but not when they contradict fundamental truths. Congress wisely decided long ago that mathematical things cannot be patented. Surely nobody could apply mathematics if it were necessary to pay a license fee whenever the theorem of Pythagoras is employed. The basic algorithmic ideas that people are now rushing to patent are so fundamental, the result threatens to be like what would happen if we allowed authors to have patents on individual words and concepts. Novelists or journalists would be unable to write stories unless their publishers had permission from the owners of the words. Algorithms are exactly as basic to software as words are to writers, because they are the fundamental building blocks needed to make interesting products. What would happen if individual lawyers could patent their methods of defense, or if Supreme Court justices could patent their precedents? I realize that the patent courts try their best to serve society when they formulate patent law. The Patent Office has fulfilled this mission admirably with respect to aspects of technology that involve concrete laws of physics rather than abstract laws of thought. I myself have a few patents on hardware devices. But I strongly believe that the recent trend to patenting algorithms is of benefit only to a very small number of attorneys and inventors, while it is seriously harmful to the vast majority of people who want to do useful things with computers. When I think of the computer programs I require daily to get my own work done, I cannot help but realize that none of them would exist today if software patents had been prevalent in the 1960s and 1970s. Changing the rules now will have the effect of freezing progress at essentially its current level. If present trends continue, the only recourse available to the majority of America's brilliant software developers will be to give up software or to emigrate. The U.S.A. will soon lose its dominant position. Please do what you can to reverse this alarming trend. There are far better ways to protect the intellectual property rights of software developers than to take away their right to use fundamental building blocks. Sincerely, Donald E. Knuth Professor Emeritus
http://lpf.ai.mit.eduMore than 30 individuals allegedly associated with the hacker group “Anonymous” have been detained by Turkish police according to a report from the Turkish state media on Monday. Police executed raids in 12 separate Turkish cities as part of the operation that resulted in 32 arrests across Turkey. The news follows reports that three men allegedly tied to the group were detained in Spain last week, a move that sparked a statement from an Anonymous spokesperson. “You have not detained three participants of Anonymous. We have no members and we are not a group of any kind. You have, however, detained three civilians expressing themselves,” the group wrote on Saturday in a statement directed at the Spanish government. “You are providing us with the fuel, but now you must expect the fire.” Anonymous, which refers to itself as an “international Internet hactivist collective,” has carried out cyberattacks on numerous high-profile targets including Visa, Amazon and Sony. Anonymous’ full statement can be read below.
Greetings Spanish Government:
We know you have heard of us; We are Anonymous. It has come to our attention that you deemed it necessary to arrest three of our fellow anons, … which you claim to be the leaders of Anonymous and for their participation in DDoS attacks against various websites…
First and foremost, DDoSing is an act of peaceful protest on the Internet. The activity is no different than sitting peacefully in front of a shop denying entry. Just as is the case with traditional forms of protest…
Regardless of how many times you are told, you refuse to understand. There are no leaders of Anonymous. Anonymous is not based on personal distinction…
Arresting somebody for taking part in a DDoS attack is exactly like arresting somebody for attending a peaceful demonstration in their hometown. Anonymous believes this right to peacefully protest is one of the fundamental pillars of any democracy…
You have not detained three participants of Anonymous. We have no members and we are not a group of any kind. You have, however, detained three civilians expressing themselves…
You are providing us with the fuel, but now you must expect the fire.
Awaiting your action,
Anonymous,
We are Legion.
We do not forgive your attacks on freedom.
We do not forget your ignorance.
Expect Revolution.
Expect us.Fox has made its first new series order this season, picking up its highest-profile project and drama front-runner The Gifted (fka untitled Marvel project), from writer Matt Nix and X-Men director Bryan Singer.
Written by Nix and helmed by Singer, The Gifted focuses on a suburban couple (Stephen Moyer, Amy Acker) whose ordinary lives are rocked by the sudden discovery that their children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family joins up with an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive.
The action-adventure drama, which features characters from the X-Men comic book franchise, comes from 20th Century Fox TV and Marvel TV. With its pickup and Gotham looking likely to come back for another season, Fox would become a rare platform to feature Marvel and DC series co-existing alongside each other.
Nix executive produces The Gifted alongside Singer, Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg of the feature X-Men franchise and Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory.
Related2017 Fox Pilots
Co-starring in the series are Sean Teale, Jamie Chung, Coby Bell, Emma Dumont, Blair Redford, John Proudstar, Natalie Alyn Lind and Percy Hynes White.
The Gifted was one of the most buzzed-about Fox pilots this year, along with comedies Ghosted and LA -> Vegas, which also are expected to get picked up to series.If China really is trying to drive down its currency in any meaningful way to gain trade advantage, the world faces an extremely dangerous moment.
Such desperate behaviour would send a deflationary shock through a global economy already reeling from near recession earlier this year, and would risk a repeat of East Asia's currency crisis in 1998 on a larger planetary scale.
China's fixed investment reached $5 trillion last year, matching the whole of Europe and North America combined. This is the root cause of chronic overcapacity worldwide, from shipping, to steel, chemicals and solar panels.
A Chinese devaluation would export yet more of this excess supply to the rest of us. It is one thing to do this when global trade is expanding: it amounts to beggar-thy-neighbour currency warfare to do so in a zero-sum world with no growth at all in shipping volumes this year.
It is little wonder that the first whiff of this mercantilist threat has set off an August storm, ripping through global bourses. The Bloomberg commodity index has crashed to a 13-year low.
Europe and America have failed to build up adequate safety buffers against a fresh wave of imported deflation. Core prices are rising at a rate of barely 1pc on both sides of the Atlantic, a full six years into a mature economic cycle.
One dreads to think what would happen if we tip into a global downturn in these circumstances, with interest rates still at zero, quantitative easing played out, and aggregate debt levels 30 percentage points of GDP higher than in 2008.
"The world economy is sailing across the ocean without any lifeboats to use in case of emergency," said Stephen King from HSBC in a haunting report in May.
Whether or not Beijing sees matters in this light, it knows that the US Congress would react very badly to any sign of currency warfare by a country that racked up a record trade surplus of $137bn in second quarter, an annual pace above 5pc of GDP. Only deficit states can plausibly justify resorting to this game.
Senators Schumer, Casey, Grassley, and Graham have all lined up to accuse Beijing of currency manipulation, a term that implies retaliatory sanctions under US trade law.
Any political restraint that Congress might once have felt is being eroded fast by evidence of Chinese airstrips and artillery on disputed reefs in the South China Sea, just off the Philippines.
It is too early to know for sure whether China has in fact made a conscious decision to devalue. Bo Zhuang from Trusted Sources said there is a "tug-of-war" within the Communist Party.
All the central bank (PBOC) has done so far is to switch from a dollar peg to a managed float. This is a step closer towards a free market exchange, and has been welcomed by the US Treasury and the International Monetary Fund.
The immediate effect was a 1.84pc fall in the yuan against the dollar on Tuesday, breathlessly described as the biggest one-day move since 1994. The PBOC said it was a merely "one-off" technical adjustment.
If so, one might also assume that the PBOC would defend the new line at 6.32 to drive home the point. What is faintly alarming is that the central bank failed to do so, letting the currency slide a further 1.6pc on Wednesday before reacting.
The PBOC put out a soothing statement, insisting that "currently there is no basis for persistent depreciation" of the yuan and that the economy is in any case picking up. So take your pick: conspiracy or cock-up.
The proof will now be in the pudding. The PBOC has $3.65 trillion reserves to prevent any further devaluation for the time being. If it does not do so, we may legitimately suspect that the State Council is in charge and has opted for covert currency warfare.
Personally, I doubt that this is the start of a long slippery slide. The risks are too high. Chinese companies have borrowed huge sums in US dollars on off-shore markets to circumvent lending curbs at home, and these are typically the weakest firms shut off from China's banking system.
Hans Redeker from Morgan Stanley says short-term dollar liabilities reached $1.3 trillion earlier this year. "This is 9.5pc of Chinese GDP. When short-term foreign debt reaches this level in emerging markets it is a perfect indicator of coming stress. It is exactly what we saw in the Asian crisis in the 1990s," he said.
Devaluation would risk setting off serious capital flight, far beyond the sort of outflows seen so far - with estimates varying from $400bn to $800bn over the last five quarters.
This could spin out of control easily if markets suspect that Beijing is itself fanning the flames. While the PBOC could counter outflows by running down reserves - as it is already doing to a degree, at a pace of $15bn a month - such a policy entails automatic monetary tightening and might make matters worse.
The slowdown in China is not yet serious enough to justify such a risk. True, the trade-weighted exchange rate has soared 22pc since mid-2012, the result of being strapped to a rocketing dollar at the wrong moment. The yuan is up 60pc against the Japanese yen.
This loss of competitiveness has been painful - and is getting worse as the shrinking supply of migrant labour from the countryside pushes up wages - but it was not the chief cause of the crunch in the first half of the year.
The economy hit a brick wall because monetary and fiscal policy were too tight. The authorities failed to act as falling inflation pushed one-year borrowing costs in real terms from zero in 2011 to 5pc by the end of 2014.
They also failed to anticipate a “fiscal cliff” earlier this year as official revenue from land sales collapsed, and local governments were prohibited from bank borrowing -- understandably perhaps given debts of $5 trillion, on some estimates.
The calibrated deleveraging by premier Li Keqiang simply went too far. He has since reversed course.
The local government bond market is finally off the ground, issuing $205bn of new debt between May and July. This is serious fiscal stimulus.
Nomura says monetary policy is now as loose as in the depths of the post-Lehman crisis. Its 'growth surprise index' for China touched bottom in May and is now signalling a “strong rebound”.
Capital Economics said bank loans jumped to 15.5pc in June, the fastest pace since 2012. "There are already signs that policy easing is gaining traction," it said.
It is worth remembering that the authorities are no longer targeting headline growth. Their lode star these days is employment, a far more relevant gauge for the survival of the Communist regime.
On this score, there is no great drama. The economy generated 7.2m extra jobs in the first half half of 2015, well ahead of the 10m annual target.
Few dispute that China is in trouble. Credit has been stretched to the limit and beyond. The jump in debt from 120pc to 260pc of GDP in seven years is unprecedented in any major economy in modern times.
For sheer intensity of credit excess, it is twice the level of Japan's Nikkei bubble in the late 1980s, and I doubt that it will end any better.
At least Japan was already rich when it let rip. China faces much the same demographic crisis before it crosses the development threshold.
It is in any case wrestling with an impossible contradiction: aspiring to hi-tech growth on the economic cutting edge, yet under top-down Communist party control and spreading repression.
That way lies the middle income trap, the curse of all authoritarian regimes that fail to reform in time.
Yet this is a story for the next fifteen years. The Communist Party has not yet run out of stimulus and is clearly deploying the state banking system to engineer yet another mini-cycle right now.
One day China will pull the lever and nothing will happen. We are not there yet.Marco Silva won eight of his 22 matches in charge of Hull City
Watford have appointed former Hull boss Marco Silva as their new manager on a two-year contract.
Silva is the ninth Watford boss in five years and the eighth since the Italian Pozzo family took over in 2012.
The 39-year-old Portuguese replaced Mike Phelan at Hull in January but was unable to prevent relegation to the Championship and resigned on Thursday.
Chairman Scott Duxbury said Silva is "one of the most sought after head coaches in the Premier League".
He added: "His pedigree and promise speaks for itself with his achievements in top divisions elsewhere across Europe, as well as his work at Hull City last season."
Silva succeeds Walter Mazzarri at Vicarage Road, with the Italian dismissed before the final league match of a season in which the Hornets finished 17th.
Silva previously managed at Estoril, Sporting Lisbon and Olympiakos and during his Hull reign he extended a combined unbeaten home record with all four clubs to 41 matches, which was ended by a 2-0 defeat against relegated Sunderland.
Hull were relegated in the penultimate week of the season and Silva said at the time: "It's my goal as a manager to work in the Premier League."
The Tigers won only once away from home and lost their final three matches, suffering a 7-1 thrashing by second-placed Tottenham on the final day.Donald Trump opened a cabinet meeting by inviting the media in to hear the important business of the country. What did the country hear? First, Trump took time to praise himself, saying that “nobody would have believed” how many jobs were created in the last seven months … which was less than the jobs created in the previous seven months. And that the papers were full of “big stories” about new mines opening. By which, he means this …
Corsa Coal Corp. will supply coal used in making steel and is expected to generate up to 100 fulltime jobs.
There was also a self-celebration of Trump’s great achievements as a signer of legislation. Which are the greatest. The most ever. It may be hard to think of a single piece of substantive legislation that bears Trump’s scrawl, but that’s because you’re not thinking hard enough. Besides, every tweet now counts as legislation. What’s passing that Lilly Ledbetter Act next to calling Comey a coward from the toasty comfort of your bed?
Once Trump got tired of hearing himself explain how great he was, it was time to share the duty with others. That big smacking sound was each Trump appointee taking his or her turn at telling Trump what a wonderful man he is, how right he is about everything, and how much everyone loves him.
At Trump’s behest, each member of the cabinet took just a moment to explain how much they love Donald Trump. Do you love me, Mike? Do you love me Jeff? Scott? Betsy? Other than the eye-rolling level of sycophancy, the cabinet meeting might not seem to have held any purpose. But it did.
It allowed Trump to scan his cabinet and make sure that a majority of his department heads weren’t lining up to Amendment 25 him to the sidelines. Instead he got a full volley of glorious, reassuring ego-stroking and pledges of obedience.
See James Comey? See Preet Bharara? This is how it’s supposed to be done.An anti-Chick-fil-A protestor holds a sign outside a Chick-fil-A fast food restaurant, August 1, 2012 in Hollywood, California. Thousands of Americans turned out Wednesday to feast on fried chicken in a politically-charged show of support for a family owned fast-food chain which opposes same-sex marriage. Long lines and traffic jams were reported throughout the American heartland after 630,000 people declared on Facebook they would take part in a Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day. AFP PHOTO / ROBYN BECK (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/GettyImages)
Students at North Carolina's Elon University this week became the latest to push back against Chick-fil-A and its anti-gay stance. The student government voted 35-11 to ask the school's food vendor, Aramark, to find another restaurant to take the fast food chicken chain's place, the Times-News reports.
While broader attention to Chick-fil-A seems to have subsided, college students have continued a push on several college campuses to give Chick-fil-A the boot. Two other colleges in North Carolina have ended their relationship with the company (even after North Carolina voters approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage earlier this year).
Yet despite the national outcry and dozens of petitions calling for the removal of Chick-fil-A restaurants from college campuses, very few schools have taken any action to kick out the chicken joints.
In July, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn wrote a letter to New York University President John Sexton requesting Chick-fil-A be removed from the school's campus in Manhattan. And even though NYU students have been speaking out against Chick-fil-A for some time, student leaders so far have resisted booting New York City's only Chick-fil-A location.
Duke University's on-campus location is closing in 2013, but due to campus renovations rather than student protests. Rick Johnson, associate vice president of housing and dining, told the Duke Chronicle he received some emails over the summer calling for the university to cut ties with Chick-fil-A. "I told them it’s a moot point because their contract is up at the end of the year," Johnson said. "That seemed to satisfy them."Rock N Roll Consciousness is now available at your local record store or click:
https://ThurstonMoore.lnk.to/RockNRollConsciousnessSo
Direct: http://thurstonmoore.kungfustore.com/
Thurston Moore — 2018 Tour Dates
12/4 The New School’s Glass Box Theatre New York, NY
12/5 The New School’s Glass Box Theatre New York, NY
12/6 The New School’s Glass Box Theatre New York, NY
12/7 The New School’s Glass Box Theatre New York, NY
12/8 The New School’s Glass Box Theatre New York, NY
Read More: Thurston Moore releases new single “Cease Fire,” announces tour | http://www.brooklynvegan.com/thurston-moore-releases-new-single-cease-fire-announces-tour/?trackback=tsmclip
We Sing A New Language: The Oral Discography Of Thurston Moore – Released On March |
competitive, consists of a ton of work, and is part of a league that will make around $5 billion in revenue this year. They must be rolling in dough.
There’s a reason I’ve purposely avoided talking about salaries all this time: I wanted to save the worst for last. You ready for this? According to the experts at scout school, the average salary for an NBA scout is somewhere around $65,000 a year. I know, I know. That’s more than double the median individual income in America, which is another way of saying that most people would love to make that kind of money. But holy smokes — the work that goes into making that money suggests that that number should have at least one more zero on the end. I mean, after two days of listening to everything NBA scouts are responsible for and all the headaches they put up with, I legitimately wouldn’t accept any scouting job unless I was making around $300,000 a year.
The top-level scouts do bring home close to half a million a year, so it’s not all bad, right? As Catlin said while explaining how he got his start in the business, that $65,000 average salary is skewed significantly since “you have to be willing to work for free for a few years if you want to be a scout.” Yes, that was an actual quote that was said with a straight face.
So why do these guys do this? Are they just wannabe coaches who are on the way up or down the coaching roller coaster, so they’re desperate for any job they can get in basketball? Or do they genuinely derive pleasure or satisfaction from this? This can’t be the end goal of their careers, right? What could keep them in a job that pays too little and asks them to work way too hard?
In a word: passion. In five words: passion, passion, passion, passion, and passion. Every person that touched a microphone at Pro Scout School mentioned passion for basketball so much that I couldn’t help wondering if they were trying to convince themselves that the way they make a living isn’t making them miserable. But if what they said was true — if they’re really driven by genuine, nearly all-consuming passion to go through all the hardships that come with the different forms of NBA scouting — then I just hope to someday love something half as much as these guys love basketball.Dominican drug trafficking gangs dominate the balance of heroin distribution in Boston, according to a new report from the Boston Police Department.
The Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC), a Boston Police division that also receives funding from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), released the “2016 Heroin Overdose Report” Tuesday to provide data on trends in opiate use in the city.
An analysis of arrest data for Class A drug trafficking — selling heroin, morphine and synthetic opioids — revealed the majority of individuals arrested in 2016 in Boston were not U.S. citizens, and most of those non-citizens were Dominican foreign nationals.
Of those arrested for Class A trafficking, 65 percent claimed to have been born in a foreign county. Within that group, 84 percent told police they were from the Dominican Republic. The share of heroin trafficking arrests attributable to Dominican nationals is likely even higher, the BRIC report says, because illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic often use fake Puerto Rican birth certificates to obtain state identification documents.
“There has been open source reporting that Dominican drug traffickers will use identities stolen from Puerto Rico to acquire drivers licenses in Massachusetts, and in other states,” the report said.
Identity fraud exploiting Puerto Rican nationality is a major facilitator of heroin distribution in Boston, according to the BRIC report. In particular, Dominican nationals were suspected of using Puerto Rican identity documents or aliases to mask their true country of origin and lack of legal status in the U.S.
“In 59 percent of the cases where the suspect listed Puerto Rico as their place of birth, there were signs of identity fraud or use of aliases. This would suggest that heroin trafficking in Boston is largely controlled by Dominican drug organizations,” the report concluded.
Overall, signs of identify fraud were present in 44 percent of all arrests in 2015 and 2016 when the suspect listed a place of birth other than the U.S.
Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh have both launched efforts to combat opioid abuse and addiction, but they have resisted the Trump administration’s strict enforcement of immigration laws and expanded detention and removal of illegal aliens.
Boston was one of five Massachusetts cities DHS singled out in March for not honoring federal immigration detention requests, and Walsh has previously pledged to house illegal immigrants in Boston City Hall to shield them from federal agents.
He also lauded a California judge’s decision in April that temporarily halted President Donald Trump’s executive order to withhold funding from sanctuary jurisdictions, claiming that such cities “have the Constitution on our side.”
“In Boston, there is no dollar amount that would ever change our essential character of inclusiveness of all people,” Walsh said.
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Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.Israeli security forces attack two Palestinian journalists covering a West Bank march commemorating the murder of Mohammad Abu Khdeir in the West Bank on Thursday. The incident follows numerous assaults on journalists in recent months, primarily Palestinians.
Israeli security forces attacked a demonstration commemorating Mohammed Abu Khdeir last Thursday, including pepper-spraying in the face two Palestinian journalists working for a Jordanian news station. Troops also used tear gas and stun grenades against participants in the demonstration, which took place near the settlement of Geva Benyamin in the central West Bank.
The two journalists, who were covering the event for Jordan’s Ro’ya TV, are wearing bullet-proof vests clearly marked as “press” in a video of the incident released by the network. Israeli soldiers and Border Police officers can be seen manhandling Nebal Farsakh, the station’s bureau chief for the Palestinian territories, and Mohamed Shousheh, her cameraman. After a brief scuffle Farsakh is seen running out of the fray screaming, her face covered in orange stains — a telltale sign of pepper spray. Shousheh is also seen with the same orange stains around his eyes, and is visibly distressed.
Israeli Border Police officers are also seen shouting at and pushing other journalists in the video, even though they are also clearly marked as members of the press. Maan News Agency reported that 11 people were injured during the demonstration.
Journalists and activists have reported numerous incidents of Israeli forces pepper-spraying non-violent demonstrators in the West Bank in recent months. The IDF is currently planning to distribute pepper spray to all non-combat soldiers, starting from 2016. Although considered a “non-lethal” weapon, pepper spray is a powerful inflammatory agent that can cause serious injury and even contribute to death.
Attacks on journalists — particularly Palestinian journalists — have been a regular feature throughout 2015. At the end of April, an IDF officer was sentenced to two weeks in prison for assaulting Palestinian and Israeli photojournalists — an attack that was caught on camera.
In May, Israeli forces fired tear gas at Palestinian journalists marching in a World Press Freedom Day event in Bethlehem. Two weeks later Nidal Ashtiyeh, a photojournalist with Chinese news agency Xinhua, was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet.
In mid-June, Palestinian journalists covering clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians in Jalazon refugee camp were attacked by Israeli soldiers who threw stun grenades at them, cursed them and pointed their guns at them. This incident was also caught on video.
Israel’s position in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index fell five places in 2014. RSF cited attacks on Palestinian journalists, the killing of journalists during Operation Protective Edge and the government’s censorship during the war as reasons for the Israel’s lower ranking.
Asked to comment on the Ro’ya TV video, a Border Police spokesperson alleged that the video was mendaciously edited, that the demonstration was illegal and that officers used reasonable force in order to disperse it. The spokesperson did not acknowledge or explain the attack on the journalists.
Correction:
A previous version of this article mistakenly identified the two journalists as Jordanian. The two are in fact Palestinian journalists working for a Jordanian satellite news channel.As CBS News veteran Lesley Stahl appeared as a guest on FNC's Media Buzz on Sunday, host Howard Kurtz might have almost gotten her to admit to liberal personal biases among her colleagues as she seemed to hedge on the issue of whether there is a liberal pro-Hillary Clinton bias in the news media.
After initially denying Kurtz's suggestion that "the liberal press wants Hillary Clinton to win," claiming that President Ronald Reagan received more favorable press than President Jimmy Carter, she then seemed to back off a bit when Kurtz pressed her.
After Kurtz followed up, "And just to be clear, you don't think there's any tilt in the press to the left or to the Democrats or away from Republicans," Stahl began her response: "Well, I don't want to go on the record saying that. I know how everybody votes."
After Kurtz joked, "Just between you and me," the CBS veteran added:
Just between you and me, I don't think you see it in the coverage. I think Hillary is getting a pretty tough press, and I think she will continue to get a pretty tough press because she is powerful now. She's pretty much almost certainly the candidate, and the focus and the high beams will be on her than they have been, and the same with him, Trump.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Sunday, May 8, Media Buzz on FNC:Cory Booker’s Testimony Against Jeff Sessions a Bizarre Call for Love, Hope and Healing (VIDEO)
In an unprecedented move Senator Cory Booker testified against fellow Senator Jeff Sessions at his confirmation hearing on the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Booker’s testimony included a bizarre call for love, hope and healing… at an AG confirmation hearing.
That was weird.
I pray that my colleagues will join me in opposing Jeff Sessions' nomination. – @CoryBooker pic.twitter.com/l3lW1asDBc — Sen. Cory Booker (@SenBookerOffice) January 11, 2017
Cory Booker Makes Public Plea For Attention
Attention hungry Cory Booker made history on Wednesday becoming the first sitting senator that testified against another sitting senator for a cabinet post.
Booker said that “The arc of the moral universe does not just naturally curve toward justice, we must bend it,” Booker said. “America needs an attorney general who is resolute and determined to bend the arc. Sen. Sessions record does not speak to that desire, intention or will.”
Sessions’ former staffer on the Judiciary Committee, William Smith came to his defense and countered the lies coming from Cory Booker.
“Members of this committee know Sen. Sessions … is fair and honest,” Smith said. “After 20 years of knowing Sen. Sessions, I have not seen the slightest evidence of racism because it does not exist. I know a racist when I see one, and I have seen more than one. Sen. Sessions is not one.”
FLASHBACK: Booker Says He Is Honored To Work Jeff Sessions
Booker Hits On Mitch McConnell’s Wife During Her ConfirmationThe Congress is quite silent after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his radio programme "Mann Ki Baat" on Sunday, called the Emergency former prime minister Indira Gandhi had imposed on the country on the intervening night of June 25-26 in 1975 a "dark night" for democracy.
During the address, Modi said: "The night of June 25 [in 1975] and the morning of June 26 was a dark night for us as Emergency was brought into effect then. Citizens' rights were taken away. The country was turned into a prison. Lakhs of people, including Jaiprakash Narayan, thousands of leaders and [people from] many organisations were put behind bars."
He pointed out that hundreds of books have been written on that "black incident," and it has been debated upon a lot. "However, when I am talking to you on this June 26, let us not forget that democracy, people power and each individual citizen are our strength."
The Congress, which is usually quick to hit back at any barb Modi aims at it and its leaders, has been quiet on this so far. While it may seem surprising to some, the reason behind the silence is not all that difficult to fathom. Put simply, this is a catch-22 situation of sorts for the Congress.
The Emergency is not something that the Congress wants to defend, or actually even can, given what happened during that time. Independent political observers have often called the power Indira Gandhi wielded at the time "dictatorial." And any person -- politician or otherwise -- opposing her moves were put behind bars.
Thus, this is an issue the BJP can rake up against the Congress without much repercussions. If the Congress chooses to speak on it or Indira Gandhi, it may come across as defending the Emergency. And if it remains silent -- as it is doing right now -- it is bound to bolster the belief that even the party thinks what happened at that time under its rule was wrong.
And this is especially important because of the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. The Congress is already on the back foot in Punjab, where it has been forced to shunt out Kamal Nath after putting him in charge of state affairs, simply because his name had cropped up in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
The raking up of the Emergency issue can push the party further on the back foot, and not just in the poll-bound states.If you’ve ever visited Cape Town, it will come as no surprise to find it has been awarded the honour of being the ‘Best City’ four years in a row. Whether it’s because of its magnificent views, world-class beaches, diverse culture or vibrant nightlife, Cape Town is the place to be.
Below, we summarise the best things to do in Cape Town, day or night. If you don’t already have a Cape Town bucket list, get your pen and paper ready because you're going to want to start one.
Cape Town is a bustling city and its people are always on the go, which is no surprise considering the range of cool activities it has on offer. Whether you’re an ultimate thrill seeker, or you prefer enjoying a casual picnic overlooking a gorgeous mountain range - Cape Town has it all!
Don't forget to check what's happening in Cape Town Today
Quick JumpActivities & AdventureHiking in Cape Town Lion’s HeadCrystal PoolsNewlands ForestSilverminePlaces to Visit & Tourist AttractionsBeachesWine Farms Theatre & Live Shows Museums & Art GalleriesMovies & CinemasNature & Game ReservesFood & Craft Markets Things to do with KidsShopping Malls The V&A WaterfrontCanal WalkCavendish SquareRelax & Unwind Spas in Cape TownChelsea Aesthetic CentreAngsana Spa The Spa At 12 Apostles HotelHeavenly SpaGolfing in Cape TownSteenberg Golf ClubKing David Mowbray Golf ClubPutt-PuttRestaurants & Coffee Coffee in Cape Town Restaurants in Cape TownTest KitchenMoyoYours TrulyBombay Bicycle ClubBrass Bell in Kalk BayBlonde and BeardThings to Do at NightSomething Different First ThursdaysSunset at Signal HillLion's Head full Moon HikeTransport & Weather Weather in Cape TownSummerWinterTransport around Cape TownMinibus TaxiMyCiTi BusMetrorail TrainsCar Hire
Activities & Adventure
Cape Town is a very active city, its people are always on the go and doing cool activities. There are also great mountain ranges perfect for slow walks, runs, or hikes.
Majestic in wonder, glorious in beauty@deancothil
With its luscious coastline and white sand beaches, your Cape Town bucket list is sure to be overflowing. Some activities include:
Blue Rock
Seal Island
Waterfront Harbour
For a full list of activities and attractions, take a look at our comprehensive guide:
Tip: For all best gift vouchers from spa treatments to helicopter rides, visit Experience Days here!
Hiking in Cape Town
Cape Town offers a plethora of beautiful hikes in and around the city. Choose from easy strolls to walks that will help you build up some brow sweat.
Read on for an idea of what's on offer.
Lion’s Head
Admire the clouds wrapped around Lions Head@naudewashere
This is easily the most popular hiking spot in Cape Town. Lion’s Head is the extension of Table Mountain and offers great 360-degree views of Cape Town, Camps Bay and the Atlantic Seaboard.
It ranks as a relatively easy hike, but be sure to take proper walking shoes, extra water and some snacks to enjoy once you summit.
Tip: Go early in the morning.
The route gets overpopulated very quickly later in the day and it can be quite frustrating when you’re queuing at every stop.
Crystal Pools
The view is crystal clear up here goatsbeflying
Crystal Pools is another favourite experience for nature lovers. It is a relatively easy hike to a series of beautiful mountain pools in the Steenbras Nature Reserve. It is open from 1 November to 30 April and closed in winter.
This hike has red pegs along the route to make sure you don’t get lost and once there, you can jump into the water pools from the rocks above. Remember to bring:
Sunglasses
Good walking shoes
Refreshments and water
Camera
Swimsuit
Sunscreen and a hat
Tip: Don’t dive and be mindful of swimming during a drought; the water levels may be lower than usual.
Entrance Fee: R60.00 pp
Operating Hours: Sunrise until sunset
Contact Number: 076 018 2577
Address: Kogelberg Nature Reserve Trail, Cape Town
Newlands Forest
The sun rays peek through the canopy above@deancothill
Located on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, Newlands Forest is a conservationist's dream. In the early 1800s a section of the forest was removed to make way for the pine tree plantation. Today there are still pine trees in Newlands and locals refer to that area of the forest as the Pine Forest.
Various hiking trails can be accessed from the forest, the ever changing biodome creates little pockets of vegetation that range from tropical to fynbos. There is a river that runs through Newlands Forest and small rock pools provide a cool escape from the heat. The forest is generally well shaded and is visited all year round.
The forest houses a reservoir and a fire department, on any given day visitors get to see helicopters coming and going from the helipad at the base of the forest walk. Higher up into the forest you can find wooden decks for picnicking. A short walk along the boardwalk takes you to the Old Fort at the foot of Table Mountain, with views of the Atlantic Ocean ahead.
Operating Hours: 24 hours/ 7 days a week
Address: Table Mountain (Nature Reserve), accessible from the M3 heading towards town.
More Info: Newlands Forest
Silvermine
Silvermine covers a section of Table Mountain National park@ hjschein
Located at the top of Ou Kaapse Weg, Silvermine Reserve offers visitors an intimate hiking experience. There are various trails to be found at Silvermine. The most popular trail is the Elephants Eye hike which is carefully marked out and leads you to an amazing spot that overlooks the suburbs of Cape Town.
If hiking is not really your thing then a day at the Silvermine Reservoir is right up your alley. The cold fresh black water provides relief from the South African sun. Braai facilities are available on non-windy days.
A Wild card gives you free access to the reserve but if you don't have one there is a gate charge for day visitors.
Entrance Fee: R50 Adult, R25 Kids U12 R60 per 2 dogs R70 Bicycles
Contact Number: (021) 789 2457
More Info: Silvermine Nature Reserve
Places to Visit & Tourist Attractions
With so many places to visit in Cape Town it is very easy to fill your days with fabulous attractions.
Visit the Castle of Good Hope@poushavida
So to help you get the best out of Cape Town, we've put together a guide to some of the most memorable places of interest and things to see in Cape Town. Some of these include:
The Castle of Good Hope
Robben Island
Table Mountain
Kalk Bay
For a full list of the most memorable places to visit and things to do in Cape Town, click on the link below:
Beaches
Cape Town is world renown for its beautiful beaches. Why not come and see what all the hype is about? Choose from beaches perfect for surfing, kiteboarding, SUPing and tanning.
While Cape Town is known for its many forms of entertainment, its beaches remain one of its biggest treasures. Some of these include:
Llundudno
Camps Bay
Fish Hoek
Dungeons
For the full list of the best beaches in Cape Town, see our guide below.
Wine Farms
The Western Cape is South Africa’s main wine-producing region and offers 26 districts of winelands.
Vineyards as far as the eye can see@ thepassportpair
Some of these include:
Groot Constantia
Eagles Nest Wines
Beau Constantia
Cape Point Wines
For a full list of the most fabulous wine farms in and around Cape Town, take a look at our guide below:
Theatre & Live Shows
The cultural scene in Cape Town really comes to life when the sun goes down. Cape Town has some phenomenal actors and talent, showcased at various different theatres.
Ballerina in motion at the Artscape@oneimagined
Some of these include:
The Fugard Theatre
Theatre on the Bay
The Rosebank Theatre
The Kalk Bay Theatre
...and so many more! For the full list, take a look at our guide to the best theatre and live shows Cape Town has to offer.
Museums & Art Galleries
Cape Town is proud to have a rich and culturally diverse heritage. South African westernised history and culture dates back to when Bartholomew Dias first explored the coastline in 1488.
Some of the museums and art galleries featured on our guide are:
District Six Museum
Bo Kaap Museum
Knext Art Gallery
Rust-en-Verde Art Gallery
For a more at our comprehensive look at the museums including prices, themes and location. Click on the link below.
Movies & Cinemas
Find the latest movies and showtimes in Cape Town. See Trailers, Reviews, Ratings, Release Dates & More - (2D, 3D, IMAX & IMAX 3D, Scene XTREME & VIP, PRESTIGE, 4DX)
You can also check out our guide to indoor and outdoor cinema experience's in Cape Town here.
Nature & Game Reserves
Looking to experience the Big Five or adventure on some of South Africa's most beautiful trails? Then this guide was made for you!
GET UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH THE BIG FIVE@pummaree_chev
Our guide includes the following and so much more:
Fairy Glen Game Lodge
Aquila Private Game Lodge
Sanbona Nature Reserve
For a full list of over 14 nature reserves and game farms near Cape Town. Click on the link below:
Food & Craft Markets
Cape Town has an awesome array of markets to keep you browsing for ages. Choose from stalls offering fresh produce, local arts and crafts, handmade items, second hand clothing and antiques.
Chitter Chatter as spices fill the market airOld Biscuit Mill
Our guide includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Oranjezicht Farmers Market
Bo Kaap Food and Craft Market
The Love Local Market
Bay Harbour Market
... and so many more! Take a look at the full list here:
Things to do with Kids
If you’re looking for fun, family-friendly things to do in Cape Town, then look no further. Cape Town is quite literally a playground of activities, places to see and things to do, which is why we’ve put this list together.
EXPERIENCE MARINE LIFE LIKE NEVER BEFORE@cape_to_byron
For the full guide to fun things to do with kids, click on link below:
Shopping Malls
The V&A Waterfront
Enjoy a beautiful sunset at the WaterfrontGreatrail
This is the hub of Cape Town. It is the working harbour and port for luxury yachts, it also hosts a world class shopping centre with a multitude of restaurants and both designer and affordable labels.
There are also a mass of other activities which can be found here.
Canal Walk
Shop till you drop at Canal walkCape Town Lately
Cape Town is home to the second largest shopping centre in South Africa, Canal Walk. Canal Walk is home to over 400 shops and was built around a canal, hence the name. It is just 15 minutes outside of the city centre.
This mall is great for shopping when you need a vast choice of options and have lots of time. It is open from 9am to 9pm daily, so it is perfect for those who prefer to avoid the crowds and shop in the evening.
Canal Walk offers an array of both designer and more typical retail stores. There are a variety of different restaurants to feed your appetite after all the shopping and walking around the 141 000 square feet centre. Speaking of feet, wear comfortable shoes and leave those heels at home.
Operating Hours: Mon-Sun, 9am - 9pm
Contact Number: 021 529 9699
Address: Century City, Cape Town
More Info: Canal Walk
Cavendish Square
Cavendish is located in the heart of the Southern Suburbs, it houses over 200 stores, a cinema, various restaurants and coffee shops. They have a daily outdoor market with vendors selling all sorts of goods. Street level restaurants open their doors to the shaded stone walk way.
The mall is easily accessible via public transport but if you do choose to drive parking will cost a small fee. General meandering of the upper levels is always a pleasure with the elegant decor. A food court is situated on the second floor just below the escalators that lead up to its own cinema.
This mall is every shoppers dream from its secure shaded parking areas to the beautifully done flooring and modern decor.
Operating Hours: Mon-Sat - 9am-7pm Sundays, 10am-5pm
Contact Number: (021) 657 5600
Address: 1 Dreyer St, Claremont
More Info: Cavendish Square
Relax & Unwind
After exploring all the vibrance and wonders Cape Town has on offer, you'll probably in need of some TLC. Have a look at some of our ideas to help you destress so you can get back to exploring!
If you're into yoga, we've put together just the thing for you!
Visit our comprehensive guide to the best yoga studios in Cape Town
Spas in Cape Town
Chelsea Aesthetic Centre
Soak your body under the steam of hot stonesHealth Spas
At Chelsea Aesthetic Centre they aim to provide quality affordable services to all their patrons. Being one of the top anti-aging clinics in South Africa, Chelsea Centre is highly respected in the beauty industry.
They offer both beauty treatments and non-surgical cosmetic treatments. The centre boasts numerous highly trained professionals including a dietician, medical physicians and beauticians.
Costs: Express Facial - R320 Back and Neck Massage (30 mins) - R360 Waxing - R70 to R200
Prices are subject to change so please check when you’re making a booking.
Operating Hours: Mon 8am-5:30pm Tues-Fri 7am-7pm Sat and Public Holidays 8am-5:30pm
Contact Number: (021) 797 5001
Address: 51A Waterloo Road, Wynberg
More Info: Chelsea Aesthetic Centre
Angsana Spa
Treat your body and mind to some TLC Africa Wellness
Found at the Vineyard Hotel, the Angsana Spa is an Asian beauty spa. They are the title holder of the Unique Spa Concept Category at the Les Nouvelles Esthetiques Spa Awards in 2006. Set on 6 acres of landscaped wonder you will never want to leave.
One of the more memorable treatment areas would be the luxury steam showers that overlook Table Mountain. They boast 6 treatments rooms, one of which is the first ever rain treatment mist room in South Africa. The treatment rooms are delicately decorated with Asian touches.
Prices: Blink Rosey Facial - R550 Bamboo Massage - R720 Waxing R65 - R250
Prices are subject to change so please check when you’re making a booking.
Operating Hours: Mon-Sun 8am - 9pm
Contact Number: (021) 674 5005
Address: Colinton Road, Newlands
More Info: Angsana Spa
The Spa At 12 Apostles Hotel
nestled at the foot of the 12 apostles mountain range@behind_capetown
The Spa is housed in the world renowned 12 Apostles Hotel, situated on the cliff side between Camps Bay and Llandudno. It promises spectacular views all year round.
The Spa is divided into two distinct sections, the Sanctuary and the Upper Sanctuary. The Sanctuary invites guests in with the outside standing waterfall guarded by two buddhas. Boasting hot and cold plunge pools, a sauna, a lounging area as well as South Africa’s only Rasul Chamber.
The Upper Sanctuary hosts the private treatment rooms that carry through the theme of bringing all elements into relieving stress with sound and light therapy treatments.
Prices: Micro Firm Lift facial - R1,350 Emelis Body Wraps from R600 - R1,450
Prices are subject to change so please check when you’re making a booking.
Operating Hours: Mon-Sun, 8am - 8pm
Contact Number: (021) 437 9000
Address: Victoria Street, Camps Bay
More Info: The Spa
Heavenly Spa
The Heavenly Spa, found on the 18th floor of the Westin Cape Town, perfectly balances well-being and luxury. They offer tailor-made treatments to unwind from everyday stresses that are life.
Additional treatments on offer are physiotherapy and a new tanning experience called Caribbean Tan, that leaves you with a seamless no streaking tan.
Prices are subject to change so please check when you’re making a booking.
The Classic Facial - R650
Reflexology - R450
Body Polish - R350
Allow your body to return to perfect symmetry with their signature treatments unlike any other in the world.
Opening Times: Everyday 8am - 6pm
Contact Number: (021) 412 9999
Address: Cape Town International Convention Centre
More Info: Heavenly Spa
Golfing in Cape Town
Steenberg Golf Club
Rated as one of the top 3 courses to visit in SA@cortedelvino
Steenberg Golf Course is found at the foot of Ou Kaapse Weg mountain pass. It is only 30 minutes from the city centre and airport. The large estate houses a variety of buildings, these features are:
Two Restaurants
A Vineyard
Gold Academy
Hotel
Property Agency
The course itself is both visually spectacular and often holes can be quite challenging. It truly is a great day of golfing.
Contact Number: (021) 715 0227
Address: 10978 Tokai Rd, Tokai
More Info: Steenberg Golf Club
King David Mowbray Golf Club
Well manicured courses at King David Mowbray@theofficialhillyne
Voted one of South Africa’s top 100 golf courses, the King David course recently joined with Mowbray Golf Club. The former host of the SA Opens, there are multiple holes that have become professional favourites.
Easily accessible it is only 10 minutes from the city, making it an ideal quick break away from work or everyday life chores.
Contact Number: (021) 685 3018
Address: Raapenberg Road, Mowbray
More Info: King David Mowbray Golf Club
Putt-Putt
Putt-Putt is a miniature golf course that is situated on the very popular Sea Point Promenade. It houses two courses of 18-holes each and is open everyday of the week weather permitting.
There is safe street parking free of cost. Come and enjoy some fun for the whole family.
Operating Hours: Mon-Sun, 9am-9pm
Entrance Fee: R22pp
Contact Number: (021) 434 6805
Address: Beach Road, Sea Point
More Info: Putt Putt
Restaurants & Coffee
Cape Town is well known for its market culture, with stalls selling a host of various delights including foods, crafts, clothing, handmade African jewellery and more. The V&A Food Market has already been mentioned, but there are plenty of other markets dotted around the city.
Coffee in Cape Town
Anyone who visits Cape Town will rave about its laid back lifestyle, vibrant coffee culture and creative energy. Capetonians have always shared a love of coffee, if you are one of them check out our list of top coffee spots in Cape Town here.
Restaurants in Cape Town
Test Kitchen
A taste of the food you can find at Test Kitchenthetestkitchenct
You will have to book well in advance to get a seat at this gem of a spot. Luke Dale Roberts is the head chef at this contemporary fine dining restaurant at the Biscuit Mill.
They have nouvelle Latin cuisine with a South African touch. You can expect to be impressed by this world-class experience. Less is more, so we won’t reveal too much about the Test Kitchen. Be sure to find out for yourself and you won’t be disappointed.
Operating Hours: Tue - Sat, 12:30pm-1:30pm Tue - Sat, 7pm-9:30pm
Contact Number: 021 447 2337
Address: 375 Albert Road, Woodstock
More Info: The Test Kitchen
Moyo
Enjoy views while dining at moyo@ukango_sa
This lifestyle centre is in Blouberg at Eden on the Bay and forms the hub of surfing in this area. Enjoy iconic views of Table Mountain over Table Bay while seated outside, at tables built out of surfboards, and let your feet hang in the water.
You can order authentic African foods in a setting full of African decor and dress or enjoy cocktails outside. There are also ladies who come around and paint your face with the trademark “Moyo” white dots (we promise it looks better than it sounds).
Operating Hours: Mon-Friday, 11am - 11pm Sat-Sun, 8:30 - 11pm
Contact Number: 021 286 0662
Address: Otto du Plessis Dr, Big Bay
More Info: Moyo
Yours Truly
Cofee, drinks and food at Yours Truly@yourstrulycafe
This gorgeous spot has a few branches, but Kloof Street is their flagship store. This misleadingly large restaurant is spread across both the upper and lower floors, with fairy lights and greenery to make you feel tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
It is popular for pre-drinks before going out on the town. It is also a great option for a first date, as it is tastefully quaint inside. The food is excellent, so you won’t be disappointed or leave hungry. Plus, there is lots to do in the surrounding areas when you’re done with your drink or meal.
A friendly word of advice: The parking garage opposite closes at 12pm. You don’t want to get your car stuck in there on a first date. It could get awkward, fast.
Operating Hours: Mon-Sun, 6am - 11pm
Contact Number: (021) 426 2587
Address: 73 Kloof St, Cape Town
More Info: Yours Truly
Bombay Bicycle Club
Grab some grub at Bombay Bicycle Club@devographic
“Welcome to the oldest gentlemen’s club in the world.”
The Bombay Bicycle Club in Cape Town has a wonderfully wacky bohemian theme and is situated at the top of Kloof Street. Expect the unexpected here.
There are vine swing tables, dress up items, stuffed tigers and other delightful things. This restaurant is headed up by Madame Zingara and everything about it is eclectic from the decor to the food and staff.
You are encouraged to let your hair down and enjoy this extraordinary experience. Their menu combinations sound bizarre but be adventurous! Their chilli chocolate steak is to die for.
Tip: They make the most incredible Margaritas!
Operating Hours: Mon-Sat, 4pm - 12am
Contact Number: 021 423 6805
Address: 158 Kloof St, Gardens
More Info: Bombay Bicycle Club
Brass Bell in Kalk Bay
Day trip to brass bell@storm_colley
If you are free on a Wednesday night and looking for something to do, try going to the Brass Bell for karaoke. You can find it in Kalk Bay; karaoke starts at 8pm sharp.
The Brass Bell was built in 1939, situated right on the water’s edge with a tidal pool on one side. There are two restaurants, one is more formal and the casual dining bar is on ground level. The latter is where you will find the karaoke.
Whether you can sing or not, no one really cares as long as you choose a “gees-filled” and well-known song. If you do decide to grace people with your singing presence, be sure to get there early to get your name on the list — it fills up really fast! The karaoke is definitely worth the experience and one for the bucket list.
P.S. We can recommend Drops of Jupiter by Train. It’s always a hit!
Operating Hours: Mon-Sun, 8:30am - 11pm
Contact Number: 021 788 5455
Address: Main Rd, Cape Town
More Info: Brass Bell
Blonde and Beard
Amazing sandwiches and coffee to topSimsstory
Blonde and Beard is a full restaurant and cafe located on the beachfront in Muizenberg. They serve an array of gourmet hipster dishes. The cafe has a private upstairs seating area and is often frequented by locals.
They reward early bird diners with a discounted breakfast that suits every pocket. The awesome partnering duo make guests feel welcome and well taken care of.
Operating Hours: Wed-Mon, 8am-5pm
Contact Number: (021) 788 1569
Address: 25 Beach Road, Muizenberg, Cape Town
More Info: Blonde and Beard
Things to Do at Night
Cape Town has an |
facade by Domènec Sugrañes i Gras, a friend and disciple of Antoni Gaudi, in 1914.
It was here that José Tomás, currently Spain's most celebrated matador, killed two bulls in the last Catalan bullfight, in September 2011. Since then, La Monumental has lain unused. Spanish architect Xavier Vilalta has proposed turning it into an eco-centre with offices, environmental laboratories, a beach volleyball court and organic shops: "A space dedicated to life and open to the public, as opposed to an arena dedicated to the destruction of life, open for only 15 days a year."
Music to environmentalists' ears, most likely, but probably a preposterous thought for Hemingway.UPDATE: Flint Water: A Killer Without A Criminal?
Jan. 22, 2016 (Mimesis Law) — Poisoning 100,000 people can’t be right. And, indeed, it’s not. That it happened in a poor, largely minority city like Flint, Michigan, just adds fuel to the fire of callousness about the lives of human beings.
From 2011 to 2015, Flint was in state receivership, its finances controlled by a succession of four emergency managers appointed by [Gov. Rick] Snyder’s administration. The state returned some financial control to the city last year, and Mr. Snyder said Friday that he wanted to give it still more autonomy. It was one of those state-appointed managers who, in a cost-cutting move, switched the city in April 2014 from taking water from Detroit’s system to drawing water from the Flint River.
Except the Flint River turned out to be a really, really bad choice of water sources, as its saltiness corroded pipes, putting lead into the water, which went into the mouths of Flint residents.
Almost immediately, people began to complain about the water’s color, smell and taste. Bacterial contamination was found, and then the chemicals used to disinfect the water caused a different kind of contamination, but state officials insisted that the problems had been managed and that the water was safe.
Not that the residents didn’t notice, and complaints started coming in, studies showed that this was a huge problem, and government cavalierly dismissed it.
The 274 pages of emails released under pressure on Wednesday by Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan show a cynical and callous indifference to the plight of the mostly black, poverty-stricken residents of Flint, who have gone for more than a year with poisoned tap water that is unsafe to drink or bathe in. There is little doubt that an affluent, predominantly white community — say Grosse Pointe or Bloomfield Hills — would never face such a public health catastrophe, and if it had, the state government would have rushed in to help.
The water from the corrosive Flint River would have been just as dangerous had it come out of taps in Grosse Pointe or Flint. But if Snyder’s office had to field calls from its pals in Bloomfield Hills, would it have blown them off?
The newly released emails show that members of Mr. Snyder’s administration consistently mocked and belittled the complaints of Flint residents and the evidence gathered by independent researchers. Outrage is the only sensible response to this man-made disaster, in which inexcusable decisions, by the state and emergency managers appointed by Mr. Snyder to oversee the city’s finances, led to corrosion of the water pipes and high levels of lead in the water and the blood of city residents.
To attribute this mockery to racism turns a blind eye to the financial hole in which Flint found itself. Grosse Pointe wouldn’t find itself in receivership, in need of drastic cost-cutting measures because it was broke. Flint was in the toilet and constrained to find ways to cut costs. In doing so, the emergency manager chose poorly.
In reacting to the overwhelming complaints, the credible studies demonstrating that the water being piped into Flint was dangerously bad, Snyder chose more than poorly. But now, after the residents of Flint were given water, a basic commodity of life, that was poison, after the governor should have known it was poison if only he didn’t hate Flint residents so much, what’s to be done?
Investigations have been started, though that’s by no means indicative of anything coming out of them on the back end. Was this a crime? Will anyone pay?
The New York Times condemns Gov. Snyder’s outrageous refusal to give a shit about 100,000 people being poisoned in Flint, calling it “depraved indifference.” For the unwary, this phrase has significance, as it’s one of the mental states that gives rise to a charge of Murder in the Second Degree under New York law. This was a calculated phrase.
Should it turn out that, buried within the emails, state officials acknowledged that they were killing Flint residents with the water and concealed it, that would give rise to one scenario. But if they just callously dismissed citizens’ complaints as cranks and malcontents, that would be what important public officials call “Tuesday.” Happens constantly, just as people complain constantly. There are always complaints. Sometimes, as here, they happen to be right, and the consequences happen to be deleterious. Who knew?
Assuming state officials didn’t knowingly allow 100,000 people to be poisoned on purpose, the question remains whether their indifference would subject them to prosecution for the violation of the constitutional rights of Flint residents. The answer, most likely, is no, as the officials would enjoy qualified immunity for the exercise of discretionary acts that did not violate a clearly established constitutional right.
Was it wrong of the emergency manager, appointed by Gov. Snyder, to try to find ways to save money in Flint? Of course not, though the rejoinder is that it should never have come at a risk of life. And indeed, it shouldn’t. And had it been Grosse Pointe, you can bet your ass it wouldn’t. But Flint was poor. Flint was black. Flint was, well, just not worthy of the government’s serious concern.
But was it depraved indifference? Without more, probably not. The stench of Snyder’s dismissal of complaints of 100,000 being poisoned, much like the stench of the water from the Flint River, stinks of banal indifference. The poor, the black, the complainers, the citizens, were treated with the ordinary callousness of government.
There is nothing to suggest that Snyder knew of, and deliberately ignored, the fact that he was allowing the residents of Flint to be poisoned. He just didn’t care enough about them to be bothered to take their complaints seriously. This isn’t a crime. It’s a disgrace. It’s government hard at work destroying lives because it just can’t muster enough concern to do otherwise.
Update: Some have noted that it’s possible that the investigation into what went so horribly wrong could unearth evidence to suggest that there was intentional or reckless conduct involved. That’s certainly true, but no such evidence exists yet, and should new evidence be found that alters the analysis, then the analysis changes.
What can’t be done is to presume the existence of non-existent evidence, and base an analysis on speculation. For now, we’re constrained to work with what exists. If that changes, then analysis will change with it.
Update 2: The expectation was that there would be no “smoking gun” to show that not only did the state have reason to know that the Flint River water was poisonous, but in fact believed that to be the case while it allowed Flint residents to drink the water under the guise that all was well. That expectation may be wrong:
The Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget decided to haul water coolers into the Flint state building in January of 2015 out of concern over the city’s water quality, a year before bottled water was being made available to residents, according to documents obtained by Progress Michigan.
So they introduced water coolers and bottled water into state offices, while allowing citizens to drink poison? Is this the smoking gun that is needed to prove that the state knew, and still let the children drink lead-tainted water? This could change everything.
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Twitterrajnath singh warns pakistan against interfering in india s internal matters
New Delhi: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said that Pakistan should stop interfering in India's internal matters and rather worry about their own selves.
"Pakistan should worry about themselves and should not interfere in the internal matters of India. We won't tolerate any nation's interference between India's internal matters," Singh said.
Singh's remark came in the wake of Pakistan's inference that any creation of 'dedicated' townships in Kashmir Valley for displaced Kashmiri Pandits would change the demography of the state and be in violation of UN resolutions.
"Any effort to establish dedicated townships or special zones to change the demographic makeup of the territory will be in violation of UN resolutions," Pakistan's Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam had said.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had earlier slammed Pakistan for its remarks on Jammu and Kashmir saying, "Kashmiri Pandits, Muslims and Sikhs are all an integral part of the demography of Jammu and Kashmir. It is natural that while we imagine their resettlement, every political party would want to see that whoever was uprooted and went out, should be brought back."
Furthermore, on contentious conversion programmes by several Hindu-radical outfits, Singh said, "Want to ask those who believe RSS & other organizations indulge in 'Dharma Parivartan', are they ready for anti-conversion bill? If they are ready, we are completely ready to introduce anti-conversion bill in Parliament."
He quickly added that the Narendra Modi government is committed to maintain communal harmony in the nation. "We believe people from all religions have been born out of 'Mother India', strengthening of this brotherhood is the 'Dharma' of the government. We are completely committed to maintain communal harmony in our nation, we don't need 'dictation' from any of the other nations on this," the Home Minister said.Breitbart is calling the move a “Christmas miracle”:
“Nikki Haley, United States Ambassador to the United Nations (U.N.), announced Sunday night that the federal government has reduced its contribution to the U.N.’s annual budget by 285 million dollars. … Haley’s statement comes after the U.N. voted to condemn the United States for President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The resolution, backed by nations with long records of extreme human rights abuses, passed 128-9 last Thursday. Haley immediately responded by threatening to reduce America’s U.N. funding. “The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation,” Haley told the assembly in New York City. …”
This is symbolic of where we are at with the Trump administration.
If you had told us two years that President Donald Trump was going to cut the UN budget by $285 million dollars for attacking our national sovereignty, we would have thought it was a great move. It sounds like we are putting “America First.” He is standing up to the globalists and asserting our national interests. This is a sort of Christmas present for his nationalist supporters.
Now, let’s suppose you had sat us down two years ago and told us the following: it’s true that Donald Trump is cutting the UN’s funding by $285 million, but that is because AIPAC and Sheldon Adelson have bought our foreign policy and have even more power than they did under George W. Bush and Barack Obama. In order to reward Sheldon Adelson for the millions of dollars he invested in the Trump campaign, we recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on Hanukkah, which outraged the rest of the world. We appointed Nikki Haley as our UN ambassador, who believes that Binomo is a real country, and she threatened foreign countries for asserting their independence from the Israel Lobby. Then in a bold assertion of our “America First” principles, we cut the UN’s funding on Christmas.
In other words, the Trump administration has managed to create a situation where the globalists at the UN come across as sympathetic, and the “nationalists” come across as the villains. This sort of “populist nationalism” is nothing more than a cat’s paw of Zionist billionaires. The real threat to our national sovereignty is Bibi Netanyahu, Sheldon Adelson and AIPAC, not the UN!
Note: The Alt-Right and MAGA are not the same thing.An anti-Brexit group wearing “thank EU for the Music” T-shirts will be handing out EU flags to concert goers of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms to lament what they see as the coming “Brexit Dark Ages” of culture.
The EU Flags Proms Team said they will be handing out the 10,000 flags to the 6,000 concert goers outside the Royal Albert Hall Saturday, reports The Telegraph.
Drawing an analogy that the EU is like the ‘Age of Enlightenment’ and Brexit, a United Kingdom extricating herself from the autocratic EU, is the ‘Dark Ages’, a spokesman told the paper:
“During the Age of Enlightenment Mozart, Handel, and Bach all lived and worked for part of their lives in London.
“Presumably under the Brexit Dark Ages, they would not be welcome. What an appalling backward step for our country.
“We hope that the EU flags will remind the audience, the musicians and those watching from all over the world that music is a universal language that unites people, breaking down barriers, and promoting communication, understanding, and peace.”
A Pox On Whiny Remainers Trying To Hijack Last Night Of The Proms https://t.co/uF8jwjQmEb pic.twitter.com/kV09JR69jU — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) September 8, 2016
Blasting the stunt, Brexit architect and former UKIP leader Nigel Farage told The Telegraph: “I am sure if Beethoven were alive today he would be horrified to learn that ‘Ode to Joy’ was being hijacked by a band of crooks in Brussels.”
Breitbart London reported in July that the BBC had come under criticism for allowing its Proms to become politicised, despite a BBC spokesman saying: “The BBC Proms is a music platform, not a political one.”
Conductor Daniel Barenboim used a performance to complain about what he described as under-educated pro-Brexit voters, and then got his German orchestra to play Elgar’s iconically English ‘Land of Hope of Glory’ in protest.
Asked whether he would be contacting Leave.eu founder Arron Banks, who last year handed out 10,000 Union flags to audience members, Mr. Farage said: “I will definitely be giving Arron a call about this.”
“As for this airy fairy ‘music crosses all borders’ nonsense, music is also an important part of national symbolism in every part of the world,” he added.
Twitter Follow @friedmanpress Follow Victoria Friedman on‘ The Walking Dead ’ season 3 shambles out its tenth entry with Sunday’s “Home,” but how does it hold up to the comic book continuity? The conflict between Woodbury and the prison rages as the Governor makes a deadly assault on the facility, while Rick continues trying to work through his recent breakdown, and Glenn steps up in leadership. So, what’s next for ‘The Walking Dead’ as the season continues?
As AMC's incarnation weaves in and out of storylines from the books and adds its own original characters and developments, we've compiled an in-depth guide for fans of the comic as well as AMC's ‘The Walking Dead’ to enjoy! Check it all the comparisons we found, and let us know your thoughts on ‘The Walking Dead’ season 3 episode 10 “Home" in the comments below!Two men from Pakistan, who came to Singapore to sell tissue paper, were yesterday sentenced to hang for murdering a compatriot to recover money that they had lost to him in a game of cards.
The duo, Rasheed Muhammad, 46, and Ramzan Rizwan, 28, took $6,000 from the victim after smothering him, and then sawed off his legs to pack his remains into two suitcases.
Each blamed the other for killing 59-year-old Muhammad Noor at their Rowell Road lodging house on June 11, 2014.
But the High Court concluded that the duo - who were caught on surveillance footage going together to buy suitcases and saws - had acted as a team in carrying out their common intention to kill the victim and rob him of his money.
"It seems clear that robbery was the motive to kill, as the money found on both accused persons shows," said Justice Choo Han Teck.
Ramzan was found with $3,318, while Rasheed had $5,745 on him. Ramzan claimed that his share of the loot was $1,100.
Said Justice Choo: "The motives were common; the plan required two persons... I do not think that one man alone could have carried out the dismemberment of Muhammad Noor's body."
Rasheed and Ramzan were calm after their death sentence was passed, and spoke briefly to their assigned lawyers - Mr Wong Siew Hong and Mr R. S. Bajwa, respectively - and a representative from the Pakistani High Commission.
The killing came to light when an 81-year-old man made a grisly find in Syed Alwi Road - a grey suitcase containing the victim's legless body.
Several passers-by tried to help him push the bag, but when they learnt there was a body inside, one of them called the police.
Investigations led police to the lodging house, and the duo were arrested the next day.
Rasheed later led police to a black suitcase containing the victim's legs at the Jalan Kubor Muslim cemetery.
During the five-day trial, the court heard that Rasheed and the victim were roommates at the lodging house. Ramzan arrived later and lodged in another room. All were in Singapore to sell tissue paper.
Rasheed said Ramzan was the one who wanted to kill the victim. He said he was forced to help because Ramzan had threatened to harm his family, and that it was Ramzan who smothered the victim.
Ramzan's version was that when he went to Mr Muhammad Noor's room to plead for the return of his money, Rasheed suddenly smothered the victim with a shirt. Ramzan said he took over the smothering on the instructions of Rasheed, who strangled the victim with a string. He said the victim was still alive when he ran out of the room in fear.
An autopsy confirmed that the victim was smothered; while there were marks on his neck, he was most likely dead by the time he was strangled.
Rasheed and Ramzan later went to buy a suitcase and two saws.
They then sawed off the victim's legs and stuffed his upper body in the bag, before going out to buy another bag for the legs.
Ramzan pulled the bag with the legs to the cemetery before returning to help Rasheed with the other bag.
But one of the wheels on the suitcase broke and the duo abandoned the bag when blood dripped out as they tried to lift it.
Yesterday, Justice Choo said he did not believe that Rasheed was threatened into helping Ramzan, who is 18 years his junior. If Rasheed had wanted no part in the plan, he could have simply walked away from the room, said the judge.
The judge also did not believe Ramzan's claim that he was outside the room during the murder.Internal Pentagon drama is strangling D efense Secretary Ash Carter’s signature initiative to make the military’s promotion system function more like a Fortune 500 company, leaving the controversial reform effort unlikely to succeed during the Obama administration's final months.
The Defense Department's most senior military and civilian leaders have spent months debating a detailed plan to rewrite the policy governing how military officers are promoted, part of a slate of reforms known as "Force of the Future." The idea is to end the "up-or-out" rules that force mid-career officers to leave the military if they fail to be promoted along rigid timelines, providing flexibility to pursue non-traditional career tracks or focus on developing technical expertise. But now the effort has stalled amid acrimony, finger pointing and disagreements.
At issue are reforms to the officer personnel system that would end the "up or out" rules that force mid-career officers to leave the military if they fail to be promoted along rigid timelines. As proposed, the change would give officers more flexibility, allowing them to pursue non-traditional career tracks or focus on developing technical expertise.
The standoff is outlined in a recent internal memo, a copy of which was obtained by Military Times. In a series of follow-on interviews, several insiders elaborated on the strife. All spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter remains unresolved. It's evidence, they say, of the Pentagon's crippling bureaucracy, especially on personnel matters, which historically have been relegated to the services to manage independently.
Some officials blame the breakdown on opposition from the military service chiefs, who generally support the traditional personnel system that defined their own careers. They reject the premise that today's system is "broken." Others say it's due to Carter's waning interest, that he underestimated the deep controversy his efforts have fueled. Critics also fault the Pentagon’s former personnel chief, Brad Carson, who resigned abruptly in April after spending much of the past year aggressively pushing these reforms and attacking the current system.
A spokesman for the Joint Staff declined to comment for this story, as did Carson.
A spokesman for the secretary said that Carson’s departure will not slow the reform effort.
"Secretary Carter is full speed ahead on Force of the Future," said Peter Cook. "He very much appreciates Brad Carson's substantial contributions to this effort, but this has always been about more than any one individual. This is about making sure the secretary's successors have the same access to great talent that he does currently."
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Photo Credit: Staff Sgt. Bernardo Fuller New Under Secretary of the Army Brad R. Carson gives remarks during his swearing-in ceremony at the Pentagon, May 9, 2014.
Brad Carson resigned from his Pentagon job in April after growing frustrated with the lack of movement on his recommendations for modernizing the military's personnel system.
Photo Credit: Staff Sgt. Bernardo Fuller/Army
Carson, the memo's author, spent months urging senior military leaders to agree on a compromise, leading a complex coordination effort with all of the individual military leaders, including the four-star service chiefs, the three-star personnel chiefs and their staffs. A former Navy officer as well as former U.S. Representative for the state of Oklahoma, he left in frustration after Carter refused to sign off on his final reform recommendations, according to several defense officials familiar with the internal deliberations.
His memo advocated the following :
Formally asking Congress to suspend laws imposing across-the-board up-or-out rules. The recommendation says the defense secretary should seek to shift this authority to the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, allowing each to determine how many times an officer can be passed over for promotion before mandatory separation. The changes would offer flexibility for non-traditional career paths, especially for those officers who want to spend more time developing technical expertise rather than preparing for high-level command assignments.
Formally asking Congress to grant the Pentagon more flexibility regarding how many years of service an officer must accumulate before facing a promotion board. This would allow individuals more flexibility to pursue non-traditional assignments — such as being a Rhodes Scholar (as was Carson); spending several years working in the private sector or taking family leave — without jeopardizing their careers. It would also clear the way for top performers to receive early promotions.
Formally asking Congress to suspend its caps on the number of officers allowed to serve in the military's "control grades," or the O-4 through O-6 paygrades, and shift authority to the individual services to shape the force based on individual needs.
Formally asking Congress to lift the requirement that officers must retire at 30 years of service if they are not promoted to general or admiral, and instead grant the individual services authority extend careers up to 40 years.
Carson spent months urging senior military leaders to agree on a compromise. He led a complex coordination effort with all of the individual military leaders, including the four-star service chiefs, the three-star personnel chiefs and their staffs.
The secretary has said the reforms are necessary to appeal to millennials and ensure the military continues to recruit and retain the best and brightest young people. But the effort fueled an internal battle that centered on two distinct schools of thought.
It found supporters in the Navy and the Air Force, where officers want time to develop more technical expertise and some prefer honing those skills rather than preparing for senior-level commands. Those services have a diverse array of career fields, many with professional counterparts in the civilian sector that invite non-traditional career paths.
Yet the reforms were opposed by many leaders in the Army and the Marine Corps, where the service cultures focus more on traditional leadership. The combat arms career fields are more homogeneous, have fewer counterparts in the private sector and arguably do little to encourage alternative career paths.
The debate over personal reform has revealed the Pentagon's crippling bureaucracy, especially on personal matters that have historically relegated to the services to manage independently.
In his memo, Carson, 49, said those disagreements were resolved, telling the secretary these detailed proposals were "agreed to by all the military and civilian leadership of the military departments."
Some Pentagon officials say that's false, and that concerns and disagreements remain. "There are still some people in the services who are uncomfortable with this," said one senior defense official. "Fairly or unfairly, some viewed Brad as trying to jam them."
Amid the internal battle, the secretary appointed a new personnel chief, Peter Levine. A longtime Capitol Hill staffer, he spent years smoothing over disagreements created by annual defense spending.
Levine is revisiting substantial pieces of the personnel reforms, going back to the individual service leaders to rehash their concerns and potentially rework the proposals that Carson left on the secretary’s desk.
"That is going to take time," said one Pentagon personnel official. Levine plans to " make sure we have a package that not only people in the department feel that they’ve had a chance to work on and contribute to, but that they’re happy with."
Carson declined to comment for this story.
A spokesman for the secretary said Carson's departure will not slow down the reform effort.
"Secretary Carter is full speed ahead on Force of the Future. He very much appreciates Brad Carson's substantial contributions to this effort, but this has always been about more than any one individual. This is about making sure the Secretary's successors have the same access to great talent that he does currently," said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook.
Major changes would require approval from Congress, where things have not gone well to date. Carson received a hostile reception at a February appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Republican Sen. John McCain, committee chairman, blasted the proposed personnel reforms as "an outrageous waste of official time and resources" and several times during the hearing accused Carson of lying.
Now the clock is ticking. Congress has begun drawing up its annual defense authorization bill, and so far its plans do not include any of these personnel reforms.
The Pentagon is acutely aware the window of opportunity is closing. Officials have initiated back-channel communication with Congress in case there's a last-minute shot at fast-tracking the legislative process if and when the defense secretary makes a decision.
"We've talked to Capitol Hill about it and let them know what may be coming so that we can preserve the option of working on it.... I don't think we're foreclosed from taking legislative approach where we need to [this year]," the personnel official said.
What went wrong?
Carter’s focus on personnel reform initially came as a surprise. A lifelong civilian with a doctorate in physics, the secretary spent much of his career in the Pentagon’s business and policy divisions.
Yet shortly after taking over the Defense Department's top job, Carter began talking about overhauling the military personnel system to appeal to millennials. He signaled a desire to change the up-or-out rules proscribed under the 1980 law known as the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act, or DOPMA.
Carter also expressed displeasure with the military's joint billet requirements mandated under the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act, which Congress passed in the wake of the Vietnam War in an effort to force the parochial services to coordinate more effectively on the battlefield. Many experts believe today’s joint force functions well and that the law is outdated. The law requires mid-career officers to spend at least 36 months in a job assignment officially designated as "joint" before they can be eligible for promotion to general or flag officer.
He questioned the traditional military rank structure and said mid-career civilians should be allowed to join the military without starting at the lowest rungs of the personal system. He said he wanted to create a military personnel system that "let people pause their military service for a few years — while they're getting a degree, learning a new skill, or starting a family."
Yet those ambitious goals have largely faded from his public remarks during the past several months. Some say the secretary bit off more than he could chew and underestimated how passionately career military professionals were going to feel about these personnel policies.
Coincidentally, the personnel reform effort came to a head at about the same time that Carter was signing off on new rules allowing women to serve in combat for the first time. Although it was a policy change initiated by a predecessor, Carter made the final call on that controversial issue, a move that strained his relationship with some senior military leaders. Some personnel experts inside and outside the military think that may have limited his willingness and ability to lobby in favor of his own personnel reforms.
"I don't think he really knew what he was getting into when he announced Force of the Future, said one observer familiar with Carter's efforts. "I don't think the secretary had a good appreciation for how passionately people were going to feel about this."
In addition, Carter has had his hands full managing President Obama's controversial strategy for fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria while balancing several other sensitive operations around the world — in Afghanistan, in Eastern Europe and in the South China Sea.
US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, March 25, 2016. The Islamic State group's second in command has been killed in a US raid in Syria, Pentagon chief Ashton Carter confirmed March 25, 2016, in a move he said would hamper the operational ability of the jihadists. "The removal of this ISIL leader will hamper the ability for them to conduct operations inside and outside of Iraq and Syria," Carter told reporters of the death of Abd ar-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, referring to him as Haji Imam and saying he served as finance minister for the group. / AFP / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
Defense Secretary Ash Carter
Photo Credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Personnel reform, although important to Carter, just doesn't have the same priority, said one person familiar with the internal discussions. "I think it's hard to focus on this kind of stuff when you're talking about counter-ISIL and dealing with two-hour meetings with [National Security Advisor] Susan Rice. It's hard to reorient yourself and say 'How do I make an ensign's life better?'"
Another source of friction was Carson himself, officials said. Immediately after taking over the job of undersecretary for personnel and readiness, Carson assumed an unusually public role as an advocate for reforms, talking about today’s "industrial-era" personnel system being "broken" and comparing it to "a Polaroid in the time of digital cameras."
His style was in stark contrast to his predecessors within the Pentagon's office of personnel and readiness who rarely spoke publicly or advocated for policy change.
It's not going away
While Carson earned praise from many personnel experts as a smart and hard-working reformer, others criticized his approach as too aggressive. One Pentagon official said his coordination with individual military leaders was "awful" and that Carson relied heavily on a small group of advisers, leaving many senior military leaders feeling like they had only limited input in the process. His departure may help clear the way for his reform effort to ultimately succeed, one defense official said.
"Maybe he overreached," said Tim Kane, a military personnel expert and author of the book "Bleeding Talent: How the US Military Mismanages Great Leaders and Why It's Time for a Revolution."
Kane strongly supports the efforts to change the up-or-out rules that are imposed under the Defense Officer Personal Management Act, or DOPMA, which he called "the root of all evil."
"It creates this one-size-fits-all career track. It doesn't allow people to specialize," Kane told Military Times. "What if you have someone who is a cyber-warrior and they just want to be a hacker? Maybe they don't want to command a squadron. But 'up-or-out' kind of forces everyone in the officer corps to be on the command track."
Carson's work forced the top brass to take a hard look at the personnel system, which will likely have a lasting impact on the politics inside the Pentagon.
The proposal may not make it to Capitol Hill this year, Kane added, but there's no reason why the next defense secretary and the next president — regardless of whether it's a Republican or a Democrat — can't continue the effort. The issue is not going away.
"This," Kane said, "is not partisan issue."Former EDL leader Tommy Robinson has been filmed repeatedly punching a man in a Royal Ascot car park - but he claimed it was done in'self-defence.'
The right-wing commentator had been at Ascot yesterday when dashcam footage from a coach in a car park showed him appear to push the man to the ground.
Robinson, wearing a black suit and shirt, is then seen throwing seven punches towards the man's head before three other men step in to separate the pair.
The incident is reported to have happened just after 7pm last night.
Former EDL leader Tommy Robinson faced police questions today after shocking footage emerged of him repeatedly punching a man
The right-wing commentator had been at Ascot yesterday when dashcam footage from a coach in a grass park showed him appear to push the man to the ground in a scuffle
A police complaint has not yet been made against Robinson - real name is Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon - and the other man in the altercation has not yet been identified.
More footage emerged this evening and shows the other man struggling to walk after the incident, reports Mirror Online.
Coach driver Asif Idris, 40, took Robinson to Ascot and told the website that he was not acting in self-defence and the man was 'not aggressive'.
Mr Idris, from Birmingham, revealed there was a verbal disagreement between the two men before things escalated.
He said: 'I didn't hear what the argument was about but I just heard Tommy saying "f*** off" three or four times.
'Then suddenly he turned to the man and you could see he was getting ready to hit him - he had his fist clenched. That's what caught my eye.
'I thought "they can't be friends". Tommy threw the first punch and then when the guy fell to the ground he kept punching.
'The man Tommy hit looked about 24 or 25 and was quite drunk. Tommy looked pretty sober.'
Assed Baig, who was given the video, said he was told that 'the other person was not aggressive'.
He said: 'A witness told me that Tommy Robinson threw the first punch after a verbal with the man.'
An onlooker described the moment they saw Robinson punch the man at Ascot racecourse.
The witness whose dash cam footage it was said: 'It started by the door of the coach, the first couple of punches by Tommy, that's why you see the other bloke fall in front of the coach.
'But the other bloke was speaking to him and Tommy didn't like what he said. Tommy was telling him to go away, basically f*** off.
'Tommy had clinched his fists was trying to make prove a point. The other person was drunk but not aggressive just talking not shouting. Tommy threw the first punch.'
Robinson, 34, tweeted a statement saying: 'Tommy was at the races with his wife. This man followed them both to their coach abusing them'
A Twitter follower of Tommy Robinson (left) said on social media (right) the other man 'hit him from behind as he was getting on the bus'
Robinson, wearing a black suit and shirt, is then seen throwing seven punches towards the man's head before three other men step in to separate the pair
Robinson, 34, tweeted a statement on Sunday that he had been acting in'self defence'.
He said: 'This is regarding an edited video being shared online regarding Tommy.
'Tommy was at the races with his wife. This man followed them both to their coach abusing them.
'Tommy and his wife went to board the coach but the man was not finished he attacked Tommy and dragged tommy (sic) from the coach.
'The man followed, instigated and attacked Tommy when he was with his wife. Tommy acted in self defence.'
After the statement, he then made a number of tweets claiming the 'coach drivers a muslim' and 'Is your witness a Muslim who had already had words with Tommy?'
Earlier yesterday Robinson shared a video of himself on the coach travelling to Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire.
A spokeswoman for Thames Valley Police told MailOnline: 'Thames Valley Police is aware of a video posted online which shows an altercation taking place at Royal Ascot yesterday and officers are investigating the circumstances.
'There has not been a report to police at this stage and no arrests have been made.'
Earlier this week, Robinson prompted fury after accusing the Finsbury Park Mosque of 'creating terrorists' just an hour after people were mown down outside their place of worship as they left evening prayers.
Robinson tweeted a statement on Sunday that he had been acting in'self defence'
After the statement, he then made a number of tweets claiming the 'coach drivers a muslim' and 'Is your witness a Muslim who had already had words with Tommy?'
Earlier yesterday Robinson shared a video of himself on the coach travelling to Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire
Mr Robinson said the mosque had created 'radical jihadists' and was guilty of 'promoting hate and segregation'.
He also described the mosque, where hate cleric Abu Hamza once preached, as a 'centre of hate'.
His comments came just one hour after at least ten people were hit by a white van near the Muslim Welfare House in north London, which is yard from the Finsbury Park Mosque.
The victims were Muslims leaving late-night prayers being observed for the month of Ramadan. One person is known to have died.
Robinson founded |
men from themselves by sacrificing the dignity of women.
"Sexual apartheid is also, to various extents, practiced by the orthodox wings of the other major religions, and takes similar forms—all using the excuse of the weakness, uncleanliness, or the tempting nature of women as a group. The restrictions, as well as the violence and vitriol used to enforce it, escalates as radical religious fundamentalism increases its numbers and sense of entitlement.
"Protection of religious values must be weighed against the harm caused to women. The message conveyed to the next generation of men should not be that women are unclean temptresses to be cloistered away at every opportunity.
"The U.S. would be a better place if the Declaration of Independence had not restricted itself to "All men are created equal" and if the Constitution had given women the right to vote.
"It was a wonderful breakthrough to have a black president, but anomalous that we haven’t yet had a female president; still have so few women leaders in, academics, and business; couldn’t pass the equal rights amendment; and face spurious challenges to Planned, which has done so much to further women's and reproductive rights. Where are the libertarians when it comes to protecting the liberties of women?
"Avoiding a simple handshake is by itself no big deal, but it is a very big deal that we are so blind to the civil rights of women."
Thanks Donna for this and for helping me understand women in so many other ways.
We have focused here on the prejudice of Orthodox Jews against women, not because they represent the worst example, but only the most convenient. Convenient because we have experienced it in some of our everyday contacts, but also because I am Jewish. Somehow, it seems more fitting and comfortable to be critical of my own people, rather than judge cultural and religious customs that are further away from my own origins.
We certainly don't have to look very hard to encounter even more egregious biases against women in all the major religions. Muslem and Hindu fundamentalists impose the harshest of taboos and the cruelest of punishments. And no accident Catholic priests are forbidden the "impure" joys of women and that the "impurity" of women disqualifies them from becoming priests. Or that China, influenced by millenia of Confucian and Buddhist prejudices, has such a demographically disastrous preponderance of men over women.
Problems of female inequality and discrimination are obvious, but solutions are not.
Sadly, there may be little or nothing we can do to directly improve the plight of women living in those countries that are most repressive. The U.S. has been a colossal flop at policing the world or preaching to it. We have neither the power nor authority to impose our values on other peoples and even our well intended initiatives usually have harmful unintended consequences. The best we can and should do (but aren't) is very generously support womens' health,, and family planning in every country that wants this kind of help. And we can also stop participating in dumb and losing wars, whose fallout is always heaviest on innocent women and children.
So if we can't right the wrongs abroad, how do we deal with ourselves—with the discriminatory practices of subcultures like the Orthodox Jews who exist within our own society?
The model here is clear. Women deserve the same civil rights protections we have provided to other groups that historically have been discriminated against because of race, religion, or sexual orientation.
We can't make it illegal for an Orthodox Jew to refuse to sit next to a woman on a plane, but we shouldn't have policies that honor his prejudice—any more than we would provide sanctioned support for a passenger's desire not to sit next to a person who is Jewish, or black, or gay. It is fine if he can switch seats unobtrusively on his own, but otherwise he would have to fit in or decide not to fly at all.
Respect for other people's religious practices does not require being subservient to them, especially when the practices are themselves inherently disrespectful.
1. When a Plane Seat Next to a Woman Is Against Orthodox Faith. By Michael Paulson,The New York Times, APRIL 9, 2015
2. “Why is it okay to discriminate against women for religious reasons?” By Amanda Bennett April 19 opinion section, Washington Post
3. http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/anglo-file/ultra-orthodox-jews-increasing...
4. Growing gender segregation among Israeli haredim seen as repressing women By Dina KraftNovember 13, 2011 10:13pm.The Washington game gave us a lot of information to unpack about the quarterbacks. A productive performance from Bryce Petty may have opened a competition between him and Geno Smith for the backup job. However, we’ve seen this story before with QBs like Matt Simms who beat up inferior competition. So how do we know if this is any different? The game will have the answers, as we go through each QB’s performance against the Redskins…
Ryan Fitzpatrick
All of Fitz passes vs Redskins pic.twitter.com/S9wwdza5Tr — Edward Gorelik (@edwardgorelik) August 20, 2016
Expectations for Fitzpatrick’s preseason should be set to boring. The Jets have no reason to put him under stress. Chan Gailey kept most of Fitzpatrick’s work limited to short/intermediate throws, on which he showed good placement and timing. Although there’s still accuracy hiccups, there hasn’t been anything to read into and the playcalling is too simple to get a feel for what to expect this year. For example, on his first play, the Jets ran a playaction post which drew in both ILBs, leaving a clean lane for a direct throw to Marshall. It’s a simple play that looks nice, but analytically there’s nothing there.
However, he did have his best throw of the preseason (so far) on a completion to Eric Decker.
Fitz best throw of the preseason so far. Looks like C3 zone, watched WR break into curl, thrown over a zone defender pic.twitter.com/LTmJKQhqYU — Edward Gorelik (@edwardgorelik) August 21, 2016
Facing a Cover-3 Zone, Fitz watched Decker from the snap (not wrong) and managed to throw right over a zone defender into Decker’s outstretched hands. It’s not much, but it’s the most difficult play he’s had to make so far.
Geno Smith
There’s no doubt Geno Smith had the worst day of the three quarterbacks. In fact, neither preseason game has been positive for the current backup QB. He also broke the seal of being the first Jets QB intercepted in preseason.
Geno’s INT;, C3 zone, reads S hips cmpletely wrong, assumes he’s chasing the post and throws the curl. Way wrong. pic.twitter.com/SZnAkkWbtG — Edward Gorelik (@edwardgorelik) August 20, 2016
Geno’s facing a pre-snap similar to what Fitzpatrick sees in the curl to Decker. The Redskins are showing press on the solo receiver while the opposite side shows three off-coverage defenders. At the snap, the defense is revealed to be a Cover-3, same as before. However, this route combo is meant to pull the intermediate defender (safety Will Blackmon) to the right by using a post-route from the slot receiver. Blackmon doesn’t bite on it, Geno mis-reads Blackmon’s intensions, and it turns into an easy interception. Geno bought into the play-design before confirming it succeeded and paid for it.
After the interception, Geno would get one more drive for the night and seemed to be bouncing back. Although his accuracy was suboptimal for the entire game, he had one good throw that deserves a little attention.
Geno to Robby Anderson for 17, little vertical stretch with out/corner, Geno throws well before WR is in break. pic.twitter.com/G15TXSSUnF — Edward Gorelik (@edwardgorelik) August 21, 2016
The Redskins show a cover-2 zone on the pre-snap, and drop exactly as such. Geno opens reading the left side of the field where there’s a vertical stretch with a quick out/deep out combo from the slot receiver and outside receiver, respectively. After the quick out pulls the outermost CB downwards and Geno immediately sets and throws to Robby Anderson; well before he’s even in his break. The ball lands in his arms uncontested at the sideline for an easy 17 yards.
One last play deserves some attention, the fourth down throw to Charone Peake.
Geno 4th Down to Peake. This looks like it’s on Peake imo. Geno throws it before the break in an uncontested spot pic.twitter.com/mIY0hF9Wof — Edward Gorelik (@edwardgorelik) August 20, 2016
Washington shows pure man coverage across the board. All the routes are heading in the opposite direction of Peake, leaving an open lane for the curl. Reading the CBs leverage (over and inside), Geno throws early to the back shoulder (as he should) but places it too far behind Peake. It’s a play Peake can make, but his technique stops him from finishing. He comes out of the break with his hands hanging down at the knees instead of up and ready at his hips. That minor change normally won’t make a difference, but on plays like this it does. He tries to one hand the back-shoulder throw and the mix of sub-optimal placement and technique results in an incompletion.
Bryce Petty
Bryce Petty stole the show against the Redskins. It wasn’t the dominant game some people have made it out to be but it’s a performance that deserves attention. At this point, Petty should be seriously considered for a roster spot with the preseason he’s having.
First two drives for Petty, kinda boring passes + near interception. pic.twitter.com/3ONzG1xPTn — Edward Gorelik (@edwardgorelik) August 20, 2016
It didn’t start out well. The first two drives for Petty had zero first downs, a sack where Petty was almost frozen, and a near interception. Facing a cover-2 look on the pre-snap that would turn into a cover-3, Petty tried to hit Jalin Marshall on a post that looks like a miscommunication; but that wouldn’t have mattered. The zone defender in-between them saw the play, got into the throwing lane, but couldn’t catch the ball. Not a great start, but he’ll bounce back.
Bryce Petty TD; Against C3, petty’s watching TE seam entire time and leads LB to lane, but perfect throw beats him pic.twitter.com/cmauN5tOLc — Edward Gorelik (@edwardgorelik) August 20, 2016
This pass overrides Geno’s back shoulder TD against the Jaguars for the best throw in preseason. It’s also the most impressive play Petty’s made since becoming a Jet. Facing a Cover-4 shell on the pre-snap, Petty sees it turn into a Cover-3 once the play is live. Staring down his target, Petty leads the rolling safety into the throwing lane, but a perfect throw goes over their head and fits past a second safety into the hands of Sudfeld. All this as pass rusher barrels down on Petty. These types of throws are exactly what I wanted to see after I criticized him last week for not finishing any passes that had resistance against them.
Petty goin deep take 2, had to add his INC to Kyle Williams pic.twitter.com/B6Mby6yCTo — Edward Gorelik (@edwardgorelik) August 21, 2016
Almost all of Petty’s good passes came from throwing deep (although not all of his deep passes were good). The four plays above start with Petty missing an open Kyle Williams down the seam. Then he hits Robby Anderson on an under-thrown deep pass against cover-2. Anderson is nearly 3 steps ahead of the corner before having to slow down and come back to the ball. On the next play, Petty reads the cover-2 zone perfectly and throws an adjustment pass up the seam behind Jeremy Ross. That keeps him from having to run straight into the safety to make this catch.
On the final play, the Redskins showed a single high safety and had a corner in press man against Robby Anderson (who had a great game too). Petty gave Anderson a good jump ball opportunity with very little room for error on the sideline and Anderson was able to high point the throw and take it all the way to the endzone.
Overall, Petty showed improvement but most of it came in what was expected out of Petty when he was drafted: his ability to throw far. He still remained hesitant when throwing underneath and his mental game seems limited to single decisions within plays. For a QB like him to grow into a success with his current skill set, he’ll likely have to maximize his big play potential and can’t afford to miss Kyle Williams in the seam or under-throw Anderson when he’s as open as can be. Especially when he has tendencies to bring defenders over to his targets and a strange pocket presence that sometimes borders on unaware.
Regardless of all that, he’s shown development and making a real case to stay on the 53; and unless Geno starts playing well, he may take over as the backup QB too.
–
Photo Credit: NJ.com
RelatedThe folks at Android Police released part two of their Android 4.2 Alpha teardown today. The first edition revealed Android may soon have a Quick Settings feature available in the notifications panel. Now, it looks like Google is also turning its focus to beefing up security on the open platform.
We already know there’s the possibility of a built-in malware scanner coming to the Google Play store to help users make better decisions about which apps they install. Users should also expect Bouncer, the server-side malware scanner, but there's evidence that more is on the way.
First on the list is Security-Enhanced Linux, essentially a set of kernel add-ons that keeps applications from running rampant and having access to all the user's files. Android Police found code buried in the Settings APK that hints at an option to enable this kind of security in Android 4.2. There are three options for SELinux, including Disabled, Permissive, and Enforcing. Permissive essentially allows apps to have access and will log when the OS would have blocked an application, but it won’t actually block anything from having root file access. Enforcing puts all "hands" on deck to keep applications from having root access, and Disabled implies there's no security at all. The prevalence of such a feature follows a bigger trend in mobile security, where OSes are adopting standard security features found in desktop operating systems like Windows and OS X. There is also the SE Android project that's been working to bring this kind of security to Android.
The APK also shows evidence of VPN lockdown. This function ensures that certain data is sent only while connected to a specific network. At present, if Android users are logged out of VPN during an active session, the data will still send over the active Internet connection (offering no security). With the code tweaks in the APK, the session will stop immediately if there’s no VPN access available, rather than default to the active Internet connection.
Lastly, users will now have SMS confirmation when sending out text messages. This is to help combat recent malware that charged user accounts for text messages they never actually sent. Now, Android might ask users before it sends out a text message to a short code phone number.
None of these features have been confirmed for Android 4.2, but even the idea is a step in the right direction. If Google focuses its efforts on making Android more safe and secure for users, it could help grow the operating system’s market share and finally give it the safety rating it needs for enterprise users who want to switch from BlackBerry or iOS.Gaelle Enganamouit, Amandine Henry, Kim Little, Carli Lloyd, Becky Sauerbrunn are the nominees for the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year award
Five players have been shortlisted for the 2016 BBC Women's Footballer of the Year award.
Cameroon striker Gaelle Enganamouit, France midfielder Amandine Henry, Scotland midfielder Kim Little and USA pair Carli Lloyd and Becky Sauerbrunn are nominated.
You can vote for your favourite online or by text until 08:00 GMT/09:00 BST on Monday 9 May.
Here we looks at the five contenders vying for the BBC World Service honour, which is in its second year.
Voting has now closed.
Gaelle Enganamouit
Country: Cameroon Caps: 43 Goals: 10
Club: FC Rosengard Position: Forward Age: 23
How was 2015?
Part of the Cameroon team that reached the last 16 on their Women's World Cup debut last year.
Started all four games and netted a hat-trick in the 6-0 group win over Ecuador, becoming the first African to score three times in a Women's World Cup match.
She was in the Eskilstuna United team that finished as surprising runners-up in Sweden's Damallsvenskan, finishing as the league's top goalscorer with 18 goals and helping secure qualification for the Women's Champions League.
Media playback is not supported on this device Women's Footballer of the Year: Gaelle Enganamouit profile
Career highlights
Helped Cameroon qualify for the Olympic Games for the first time in 2012, appearing as a substitute - aged 20 - in their three defeats.
Moved from Cameroon in 2012 to play for Spartak Subotica in the Serbian First League and the Women's Champions League. Scored what was reportedly the fastest goal in women's football history, after only three seconds.
Joined newly promoted Damallsvenskan team, Eskilstuna United, in December 2013, and switched to champions FC Rosengard two years later as a replacement for Germany's Anja Mittag.
Amandine Henry
Country: France Caps: 48 Goals: 6
Club: Olympique Lyonnais Position: Midfielder Age: 26
How was 2015?
Made it to the Women's World Cup quarter-finals last year with France, before going out to Germany on penalties.
Appeared in all five games, scoring one of the goals of the tournament with a stunning long-range strike in the 5-0 group win against Mexico.
A member of the Lyon team that won the Division 1 Feminine title in 2015 for a record ninth consecutive season.
Media playback is not supported on this device Women's Footballer of the Year: Amandine Henry profile
Career highlights
Played at Women's Euro 2009 and 2013, when France exited at the quarter-final stage.
Signed for Lyon before the 2007-08 season and went on to score 44 goals in 198 matches and win the Women's Champions League twice. Lyon are in the semi-finals again this season.
Will move to US side Portland Thorns in the NWSL at the end of the European season.
Kim Little
Country: Scotland Caps: 115 Goals: 46
Club: Seattle Reign FC Position: Midfielder Age: 25
How was 2015?
Seattle's leading scorer - and second in the league - with 10 goals in 2015, while topping the assists rankings on seven.
The Reign finished the regular season in first place before a 1-0 defeat in the Championship final against FC Kansas City.
Scored five goals in five qualifying games as Scotland edged towards qualification for Euro 2017 - which would be their first major tournament - and lit up Australia's W-League during the United States off-season with nine goals in 12 games for title-winning Melbourne City.
Media playback is not supported on this device Women's Footballer of the Year: Kim Little profile
Career highlights
Nominated for the first BBC Women's Footballer of the Year award - won by Nigeria striker Asisat Oshoala - having enjoyed fine form with Seattle Reign after her move from Arsenal.
Represented Scotland since the age of 16 and one of two Scots selected for the Great Britain squad that reached the quarter-finals of the 2012 London Olympics.
The 2010 FA Women's Player of the Year and 2013 PFA Women's Players' Player of the Year, her trophy haul at Arsenal included five league titles. Also won the Scottish Championship during an earlier successful stint with Hibernian.
Carli Lloyd
Country: United States Caps: 222 Goals: 87
Club: Houston Dash Position: Midfielder Age: 33
How was 2015?
Captained her country and scored six goals at the World Cup, including a hat-trick in the opening 16 minutes of the final against Japan, sealed with a goal from the halfway line which earned a Puskas Award nomination.
Won the Golden Ball as the best player of the tournament, for her efforts in leading the United States to a record third World Cup title, and first since 1999.
The first woman to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final and the first player - male or female - to do so since Geoff Hurst for England against West Germany in 1966 at Wembley.
Media playback is not supported on this device Women's Footballer of the Year: Carli Lloyd profile
Career highlights
A two-time Olympic gold medallist who scored the gold medal-winning goals in the finals of the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Represented the United States at three World Cups - finishing third, second and first.
Led Western New York Flash to the NWSL final in the league's inaugural 2013 season, she was traded to the Houston Dash prior to the 2015 season and was voted last year's Fifa Female Player of the Year.
Becky Sauerbrunn
Country: United States Caps: 105 Goals: 0
Club: FC Kansas City Position: Defender Age: 30
How was 2015?
Became the first player to win an NWSL end-of-season award for three years running when named Defender of the Year.
Played all 630 minutes for the United States during the 2015 World Cup, and her performances led to Sauerbrunn being named co-captain of the national team, alongside Carli Lloyd, earlier this year.
Captains FC Kansas City and helped them successfully defended their NSWL Championship.
Media playback is not supported on this device Women's Footballer of the Year: Becky Sauerbrunn profile
Career highlights
Bounced back from suffering a broken nose on her USA debut in 2008 against Canada to play at the 2011 and 2015 World Cups, and the 2012 Olympics.
One of three USA players to be allocated to the new NWSL club FC Kansas City at the start of 2013.
Co-captain when the side won the league title in her second season at the club.
Reporting by Sarah MulkerrinsGrandmother planted marigolds in her vegetable garden because that's what her mother did. Maybe she heard they were good for pest control, but we know they have no effect on the majority of garden bugs. Maybe they were planted just because marigolds brightened the hard-working space with aromatic fragrance and bright orange or yellow annual flowers.
Buried under some old-time garden and farming practices lies valuable science. The secret of Tagetes marigolds was finally revealed in modern times when they became the subject of research studies. The results proved marigolds affected just one pest that few gardeners know about, but many are forced to contend with.
Those regions afflicted with the dreaded root-knot nematode know the widespread impact of the microscopic roundworms, which can devastate home crops. They are the most notorious tomato killer. Nematodes are microscopic, round worms that live in healthy organic soil where most are harmless and some even beneficial. The problem is just one group, the root-knot species.
The root-knot nematode is so damaging because it enters plant roots and reproduces inside them. A female nematode can lay a single egg case containing 500 offspring. Her progeny quickly hatch and continue to invade the root and many others, munching their way right up to the stem. Wherever they are in the roots, tumour-like galls and swellings form. They are visible when you pull up the ailing or dead plant and study the roots. Such distortion destroys the root's ability to function.
You may not see any sign of a problem until temperatures rise and the leafy tips call for more water that can't be delivered in these damaged systems. Symptoms are wilting leaf tips when there's plenty of moisture in the soil. Leaves or whole limbs will turn brown as secondary evidence, and the plants literally stop growing. There is no way to halt this decline.
Agricultural research proved that dwarf French marigolds (Tagetes patula) contain a chemical called alpha-terthienyl, which is released from living roots into the soil. It interferes with the nematode's reproductive ability. The mother nematode may enter marigold roots, but her offspring won't survive limiting damage.
When marigolds are planted into a garden, existing nematodes will enter the marigolds and eventually die. When Grandmother planted her marigolds in every garden, she was preventing reproduction of the nematodes so they'd never reach levels that threatened her vegetables.
Those whose gardens are affected by root-knot nematodes often live wherever soils tend to be sandy. It's prevalent in India, too, where they plant so many marigolds for control they are the signature flower of their religious ceremonies.
To treat an existing problem, scientists recommend using marigolds as a cover crop, which masses the plants at close spacing so their roots invade the entire soil area. This interferes with reproduction by starving the nematodes out of existence so you can grow there the next year.
A shorter-term solution is to cover crop as early in the year as possible, let the flowers grow two full months to knock down populations, then remove those marigolds you must to plant vegetables while the others remain to keep working. Tend the marigolds throughout the remaining growing season for maximum results.Image caption Six babies died and 300,000 were ill during the 2008 melamine scandal
Chinese food safety officials have seized 64 tonnes of raw dairy materials contaminated with the toxic industrial chemical melamine.
The Chinese state news agency, Xinhua, reported that the quality watchdog in Qinghai province took the material from a dairy plant there.
Test samples showed the milk powder carried up to 500 times the maximum allowed level of the chemical.
The use of melamine in milk in 2008 killed six babies and made 300,000 ill.
The latest batch of contaminated powder was first found in Gansu province and traced back to the Dongyuan Dairy Factory in Minhe Country, in neighbouring Qinghai.
Another 12 tonnes of finished milk powder products, also found to be tainted, were seized.
The owner and a production manager at the factory have been detained.
Around 38 tonnes of the raw material were bought from Hebei province, the source of the 2008 scandal, police said.
This means traders may have bought tainted milk that should have been destroyed in 2008 with the intention of processing it and reselling it, Wang Zhongxi, deputy chief of Gansu's quality control bureau, was quoted as saying.
Serious concern
Melamine is used to make plastics, fertilisers and concrete.
When added to food products it indicates a higher apparent protein content but can cause kidney stones and kidney failure.
MELAMINE SCANDAL 10 Sept 2008: 14 babies reported ill in Gansu province
15 Sept: Beijing confirms first deaths from the contamination
22 Sept: Number of ill babies soars to tens of thousands
23 Sept: Other countries start to recall Chinese dairy products
23 Dec: Main dairy firm involved, Sanlu, goes bankrupt
31 Dec: Four senior Sanlu executives go on trial
22 Jan 09: Two men sentenced to death and 19 jailed in Hebei
In 2008, melamine was found in the products of 22 Chinese dairy companies - one out of every five suppliers in China.
The scandal caused outrage among consumers and fraught parents and led to an international outcry about the standards of food safety in China.
More than 20 people were convicted for their roles in the scandal, and two people were executed.
Despite a crackdown on melamine-laced milk products, some batches of tainted supplies have been found on sale since 2008.
It is not clear whether any powder from this new discovery has been sold on the open market or if anyone has fallen ill, but the fact melamine is still being used illegally will be a cause for serious concern, the BBC's Damian Grammaticas in China says.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Steve Rosenberg compares western and eastern Ukraine
A Ukraine-EU free trade deal would pose a "big threat" to Russia's economy, President Vladimir Putin has said.
He said Russia could be flooded with European goods virtually without tariffs because of an existing free-trade regime between Kiev and Moscow.
Kiev last week put on hold the planned signing of the deal, prompting the EU to accuse Moscow of pressuring Ukraine.
The move triggered mass pro-EU protests in Ukraine. But Ukraine's leader said he wanted better terms in the deal.
"As soon as we reach a level that is comfortable for us, when it meets our interests, when we agree on normal terms, then we will talk about signing," President Viktor Yanukovych told Ukraine's TV channels.
"When this will happen - soon or not so soon - time will tell. I would like that time to come as soon as possible," he added.
The demonstrators have pledged to continue their rallies until at least the end of an EU summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on 29 November, where Ukraine had originally planned to sign the free trade and association agreement.
'Not ready'
Image copyright AFP Image caption Protesters say Ukraine's future is with the EU, not Russia
Speaking during a visit to Italy, President Putin said Russia's economy would be hit if European goods - seen by Russian analysts as good-quality and relatively cheap - were allowed to transit through Ukraine tariff-free.
He said Russia's agriculture, car and aviation industries would suffer as a result and there could be a jump in unemployment.
"We are not ready to open our gates to European goods."
Mr Putin urged EU officials to refrain from "sharp words" on the issue.
Referring to them as "our friends in Brussels", he said: "Do we have to choke entire sectors of our economy for them to like us?"
On Monday, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said they strongly disapproved of Russia's "position and actions".
But Mr Putin denies pressuring Ukraine, accusing instead the EU of "blackmailing" Ukraine to sign the treaties.
Ukraine: The past was Orange 2004 Nov: PM Viktor Yanukovych declared winner of presidential election. Amid widespread claims of fraud, mass street protests become "Orange Revolution", and Supreme Court annuls election.
Nov: PM Viktor Yanukovych declared winner of presidential election. Amid widespread claims of fraud, mass street protests become "Orange Revolution", and Supreme Court annuls election. 2004 Dec: Orange leader Viktor Yushchenko elected president; his PM is Orange ally Yulia Tymoshenko
Dec: Orange leader Viktor Yushchenko elected president; his PM is Orange ally Yulia Tymoshenko 2005 Sept: The Orange alliance disintegrates, Yushchenko sacks Tymoshenko as PM
Sept: The Orange alliance disintegrates, Yushchenko sacks Tymoshenko as PM 2006 Jan: Russia cuts Ukrainian gas supplies in mid-winter, citing a price dispute. Kiev accuses Moscow of using gas as a weapon
Jan: Russia cuts Ukrainian gas supplies in mid-winter, citing a price dispute. Kiev accuses Moscow of using gas as a weapon 2006 : Yanukovych returns as PM, after winning polls and failure of Orange coalition
: Yanukovych returns as PM, after winning polls and failure of Orange coalition 2007 : New polls, Tymoshenko back as PM
: New polls, Tymoshenko back as PM 2009 Jan: Russia cuts gas supplies again
Jan: Russia cuts gas supplies again 2010 Feb: Yanukovych wins presidential elections, apparently cleanly, Tymoshenko ousted as PM
Feb: Yanukovych wins presidential elections, apparently cleanly, Tymoshenko ousted as PM 2011 Oct: Tymoshenko jailed for abuse of power, prompting strong Western protests
Oct: Tymoshenko jailed for abuse of power, prompting strong Western protests 2013 Nov: Ukraine abandons historic deal on closer EU ties, under Russian pressure
'Road-map'
Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov had earlier acknowledged that Russia had suggested delaying signing the treaty to conduct negotiations between Kiev, Moscow and the EU.
He said President Yanukovych would still attend the Vilnius gathering to discuss the possible three-way consultations, and that talks would be in the best interests of Ukraine.
"We absolutely do not want to be a battlefield between the EU and Russia. We want to have good relations with both the EU and Russia."
He also said a separate "road-map" talks with Russia aimed at reviving economic ties would start next month and no agreement had been finalised on possible new financial support from the Kremlin.
Ukraine's government said last Thursday it was halting preparations for signing the deal with the EU, amid concerns this would have a negative impact on Kiev's trade relations with Russia and cause mass job losses as a result.
Tens of thousands of people have since joined protests in Ukraine's major cities.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's David Stern revisited the scene of the protests
On Sunday, more than 100,000 people rallied in the capital, Kiev, in the largest show of public discontent since the Orange Revolution in 2004 - which saw Mr Yanukovych ousted and a Western-leaning government brought to power.
Mr Yanukovych returned to power in the 2010 presidential election.
Solidarity rallies have also been staged in a number of European capitals, the US and Canada.
Protesters are accusing the president of bowing to growing pressure from Mr Putin, who wants Kiev to join the Moscow-led Customs Union. The grouping also includes Belarus and Kazakhstan.
In a separate development, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, one of the leaders of the Orange Revolution who was jailed in 2011 for abuse of power, said on Monday she was starting a hunger strike in solidarity with the protesters.Jan 29 (Reuters) - U.S. meat industry groups and packers have stepped up efforts to seek repeal of a law that requires products to have a country-of-origin label, citing increased costs and conflicts with trade partners now that the Farm Bill passed by the House of Representatives on Wednesday keeps the COOL law in place.
The American Meat Institute, National Cattleman’s Beef Association, National Chicken Council, National Pork Producers Council, National Turkey Federation and the North American Meat Association as well as big meat packers have all lobbied to have the new Farm Bill change the country of origin labeling law.
But the House passed the farm bill, by 251 votes to 166, and it is headed to the Senate for a vote as early as Thursday.
“We had asked for a fix. Now, because that is not in the farm bill, we’re going to ask for a full repeal,” Dave Warner, spokesman for the National Pork Council said.
The industry has complained that COOL forces it to keep livestock and meat separated throughout the entire food processing chain, adding to costs.
Canada and Mexico are concerned that U.S. meat packers will stop sourcing livestock from outside of the United States. Additionally, both countries have both complained to the World Trade Organization (WTO) about the current U.S. labeling law, saying it discriminates against their animals and products.
Tyson Foods, the largest U.S. meat processor, stopped buying slaughter-ready Canadian cattle in October 2013 due to increased costs associated with COOL labeling.
“This law has increased costs by requiring additional product codes, production breaks and product segregation without providing any additional value to our customers,” Gary Mickelson, spokesman for Tyson Foods said.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow has said that if the WTO finds the U.S. COOL law illegal then it will be suspended, changed or repealed. The WTO dispute hearing is scheduled for Feb. 18.
COOL backers, including consumer groups and ranchers, say consumers have a right to know where their meat comes from.
The U.S. meat industry groups also fear retaliation, in the form of tariffs and other trade blocks from both Canada and Mexico, Warner said.
U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill, Inc. said the labeling law has resulted in significant costs to the American meat sector with no evidence of benefit.
“The prospect of $2 billion in retaliatory tariffs from America’s NAFTA partners to the north and south, we believe Congress should revisit this issue,” said Michael Martin, Cargill spokesman referring to WTO compliance.Before Ridley Scott decided to put the breaks on the project in order to focus on his upcoming Prometheus sequel Alien: Covenant, it looked like Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 was moving full steam ahead at Fox. Sigourney Weaver was on board as Ripley, while Blomkamp debuted a series of concept artwork suggesting that Michael Biehn would also be reprising his role as Hicks from Aliens.
Well, during an interview with Simon Thompson of Forbes ahead of the Aliens 30th Anniversary panel at Comic-Con, Biehn has confirmed that he will be involved in the project – if an when it moves ahead – and he also offered up a few words on the return of Newt.
“[Neill] tweeted out some pictures of me, he said he’s going take the third and fourth film and act like they never happened and things blew up,” said Biehn. “It looked like it was all go and then Ridley Scott decided that he was going to do a second and third film in the Prometheus series, but Sigourney says they are still doing their project. I think it would be very embarrassing to Fox if they don’t give Sigourney the movie that she really wants to go out on. I don’t know when it’s going to happen but I know it’s going to happen and I know I’m going to be in it and there’s going to be a new Newt, she’s going to be about 26 or 27 and looks a lot like Jennifer Lawrence to me but I don’t know. Maybe there’ll be a passing of whatever and then the franchise can move on so they can make more money |
moment, it’s almost like an out of body experience. I excel in those moments," Melendez said. "When I do get hit, I get pumped up. When a guy has a moment, it makes me want to go forward and not back down. I want to get to that moment so I can feel it and flip that switch.
"I want it to be like ‘wow’. I want the wow factor. I want them to say ‘that’s a new Gilbert Melendez, a better Gilbert Melendez, a Gilbert Melendez with perfect execution’. That’s what I want at the end of this fight."We’ve already looked at the three trades that were most influential in shaping the White Sox’ rebuild — Chris Sale, Adam Eaton and Jose Quintana.
The fourth one isn’t the biggest in terms of impact, but it’s the biggest in terms of the number of players involved. On the evening of July 18, the White Sox and Yankees cobbled together a megadeal in traditional slow-rollout #hugwatch fashion. When the smoke cleared, seven players found new homes, the Yankees had bolstered their bullpen for a postseason push, and the White Sox pared down their payroll while pursuing upside.
The White Sox traded...
*Tommy Kahnle, who was the true centerpiece of the deal, even if he was the least recognizable of the three.
Entering the season, it looked like his game had clicked over his last 16 games of 2016, as he allowed just one run and 13 baserunners to 18 strikeouts over 16 innings. He started the year in Triple-A because the White Sox had too many out-of-options relievers elsewhere, but he quickly returned when Jake Petricka hit the disabled list during the first week with a strained lat.
Kahnle may never go back to the minors. With a triple-digit fastball, a wicked changeup and improved command with both, the Latham product quickly became the White Sox’ best reliever, giving Rick Renteria true swing-and-miss stuff before David Robertson. He recorded at least one strikeout in 36 of his 37 games with the White Sox, and he recorded at least two in 22 of them.
He carried a 1.29 ERA, a.141 average against and a 51.3 percent strikeout rate into June, which made him a potential All-Star and a candidate for world’s best reliever. Regression set in shortly afterward to knock him down a peg. Over his last 15 games with the White Sox, he allowed a.300/.313/.417 line against, and only struck out a piddly 32.3 percent of batters faced.
If that’s what a struggling Kahnle looked like... well, the Sox have seen worse. As the deadline rolled around, he became quite a trade candidate. Yet there were also compelling reasons to keep him — he was under team control for another three years, the lack of career saves made him unlikely to see a huge spike in salaries through his arbitration-eligible years, and the Sox bullpen would need high-leverage types. Any drop in trade value because of his approaching free agency would be offset by the bolstering of his track record.
That said, the Sox dealt Kahnle back to the team that drafted him. Kahnle remained an effective reliever in his first stint with the Yankees, even though he walked more batters as Yankee (10) than he did with the White Sox (seven) in 9 1⁄ 3 fewer innings. The strikeout rate also settled into the low 30’s.
Kahnle saved his best stuff for the postseason, when he rattled off six scoreless outings, with six of them requiring six or more outs. He closed out Game 4 of the ALDS with a five-strikeout performance over two scoreless innings. Alas, his season crashed into the barrier, as he gave up three of the four runs the Yankees allowed in their Game 7 loss to Houston in the ALCS. That outing notwithstanding, he’s still in a very good position to be a very good reliever at a reasonable cost the next three seasons.
*David Robertson, who warded off signs of decline in 2016 by showing a more dominant streak in 2017. He converted 13 of 14 save opportunities with the White Sox, and they were easier to watch because 15 of his 33 1⁄ 3 innings were of the three-up-three-down variety.
He contributed to and benefited from the curveball revolution. After throwing them 30 percent of the time over his first two years with the Sox, his usage jumped up to 43 percent. The strikeout rate rebounded to 37.1 percent, matching his last year with the Yankees, and the walk rate dropped three points as well.
Over the winter, it looked like the White Sox might have to chip in some cash to offset the remaining $25 million on the final two years of his deal. However, his first half alleviated concerns on both the performance and financial fronts, which made it seem like he could be a standalone trade piece.
Instead, he was packaged with Kahnle and Frazier in a return to New York, where he took it up a notch as a setup man. He posted a 1.03 ERA over 36 innings, allowing just 14 hits and 12 walks to 51 strikeouts. Opponents hit just.119/.205/.195 against him after the trade, and he became Joe Girardi’s chief fireman in the postseason afterward.
Robertson started October by throwing a career-high 3 1⁄ 3 innings -- scoreless -- in the Wild Card game, carrying the game from the third to the sixth and picking up the win in the process. It was the first of eight appearances over 13 postseason games, five of them requiring more than three outs. He did give up a game-tying homer in Game 2, but he picked up the win in Game 5 with 2 2⁄ 3 scoreless innings.
He was less successful in the ALCS, although the five runs he gave up did not affect the games in any meaningful way.
Robertson’s a somewhat counterproductive fit for the Yankees because his $13 million will only be good for the second-highest salary in the bullpen, and it’s a team trying to get under the luxury tax. Then again, it may be fine as long as that money is cleared by the 2018-19 free agent class, of which Robertson will be a part.
*Todd Frazier, who continued slugging away as a low-average home-run threat with reliable defense at third base. He hit just.207 with the White Sox, although an uptick in walks and a rebound in his defensive metrics ultimately made him a decent starter. He had racked up 48 walks when the White Sox traded him, and that was good enough to make him the team leader despite missing the last two-plus months.
The market for corner infielders was limited — especially for teams needing a rental — but fortunately two teams lacking production from third base happened to be direct rivals. The Red Sox chose Eduardo Nunez and Rafael Devers, while the Yankees acquired Frazier. Frazier walked even more frequently as a Yankee, but otherwise his production mirrored his time with the Sox. This even extended into the postseason. Frazier hit just.186 with a.255 on-base percentage, coming up with a couple timely hits — including a very ugly three-run homer against Houston -- but also going 0-for-10 over the last three games.
He’s now a free agent who will turn 32 around the time pitchers and catchers report.
White Sox received...
*Blake Rutherford, whose draft status (18th overall pick in 2016) and prospect status (top-50) hinged on his fundamentally sound left-handed swing developing more pop as he matured.
One year in, the power remains a theory. He hit.260/.326/.348 with just two homers over 101 games between South Atlantic League affiliates Charleston and Kannapolis, and the Yankees saw the best part of it.
Charleston:.281/.342/.391, 24 extra-base hits over 71 games
.281/.342/.391, 24 extra-base hits over 71 games Kannapolis:.213/.289/.254, five extra-base hits over 30 games
At the time of the trade, it looked like Rutherford had found gap power, which is a step on the way to genuine power. After the trade, doubles were mostly a dream.
Rutherford spent the instructional league working on improving his launch angle, although the Sox don’t like using that word with players. This development is vital for him because he profiles more as a corner oufielder who can occasionally cover center, which is why Ryan Sweeney often comes to mind. Sweeney had his own power outage in the minors, hitting just one homer as a 20-year-old. The difference is that Sweeney was a 20-year-old in Birmingham, where fly balls go to die unless you’re Eloy Jimenez.
Rutherford still has time on side. He’s also got plenty of work cut out for him, especially in a crowded low-minors outfield situation.
*Ian Clarkin, who has had a difficult time staying healthy over his five professional seasons. The Yankees drafted him with a compensatory pick in the 2013 draft (right after Aaron Judge), and the lefty has a 3.16 ERA in the minors since, which reflects the quality of his pitch mix in A-ball.
He’s also never thrown 100 innings in a season due to a variety of DL stints. He came to the Sox with ankle, elbow and meniscus injuries in his past, and he added an oblique strain to the list after the deal. He was limited to just 11 innings with Winston-Salem.
If he can stay healthy, he profiles as a command-oriented lefty groundballer who has enough on his fastball to sit in the low-90s. He’ll be eligible for the Rule 5 draft, which is another reason why he was expendable to the Yankees, who have their own 40-man roster crunch. The White Sox probably don’t have to protect him, but since he’s a lefty, one can’t quite be sure.
*Tito Polo, an undersized spark plug of an outfielder whose production has exceeded scouting reports. After a breakout year in A-ball between the Pirates and Yankees organizations in 2016, Polo maintained his standing by hitting.289/.346/.434 with 20 steals for High-A Tampa. That warranted a promotion to Double-A Trenton, where he hit.382/.460/.545 in 14 games before a trade sent him to Birmingham.
Adjusting for the difficult hitting environment, and there’s nothing wrong with Polo’s.278/.342/.389 line with the Barons. It would’ve been nice if Polo played more than 21 games, but a DL stint interrupted the start of his time with the White Sox. Polo headed to the Arizona Fall League for reps, but was replaced a few days ago by Charlie Tilson because he needed a tooth pulled.
Assuming Polo is in full working order in 2018, he could grab some playing time in a very open center field situation for the White Sox. Before then, he’s eligible for the Rule 5 draft, and his skill set is potentially versatile enough to warrant a selection. Like Clarkin, though, the time missed might have been enough to suppress enthusiasm about his immediate prospects.
*Tyler Clippard, who wasn’t going to have a spot in the Yankees’ postseason bullpen, and had a little more than $2 million remaining on his deal. Given the White Sox sent their two best relievers and two of their bigger annual contracts to New York, it made sense to get some veteran ballast back.
This part of the deal was basically an accounting move. Clippard pitched well enough for the White Sox -- two runs over 10 innings, many of them adventuresome — to find his way back to a contender. In this case, the Astros picked him up, paying the White Sox $1 million in mid-August, which covered most of his remaining salary.
The White Sox fared...
... well, it’s a poor first impression. There’s still plenty of time for development, but the early returns have thus far reinforced the prospects’ fatal flaws (Rutherford can’t find power, Clarkin can’t stay healthy), and they’re not even out of A-ball yet. It’s pessimistic but realistic to predict that none of these players will reach the majors with the White Sox, which is something that can’t be said about the other deals we’ve examined (for Jimenez, it’d be pessimistic bordering on masochistic).
Of course, Sale, Eaton and Quintana had insanely valuable contracts while Robertson and Frazier earned the market rate. Moreover, while one could envision Sale, Eaton and Quintana playing for the next good White Sox team before their contracts expired, the windows of relevance were over for the two veterans dealt here. The Sox lacked leverage.
Kahnle was the exception as somebody who had a potential future with the Sox -- he would’ve made a fine extension candidate if he were amiable to a deal -- and so it surprised me to see him packaged with Robertson and Frazier. Then again, if the Sox really wanted Rutherford, Kahnle was the only player they had to get him, and a top-50 prospect was a strong return for a volatile reliever’s first good half-season.
But that assumed that Rutherford had established a trajectory, which didn’t turn out to be true. A few months later, Kahnle has a good full season under his belt with three affordable salaries ahead while Rutherford’s progress reversed in Kannapolis. Take a step back and recalibrate, and it looks like Rick Hahn sold Kahnle too soon.
Speaking of “too soon,” one can’t yet draw a conclusion about this deal, but that can be said for every prospect trade. For the time being, it’s a counterweight to the excitement from the Eaton trade. In that move, the White Sox received three pitchers whose collective progress would be hard to top. In this trade, the White Sox are still waiting for even one of these players to make a clear step forward.Getty Images
It's been an exciting, productive and often wild seven years for Bynum in L.A.
Andrew Bynum's rookie campaign was low on meaningful moments or minutes, particularly as the season progressed, but there nonetheless was one sequence for the ages. On Jan. 16, 2006, against the Miami Heat, Bynum packed about as much excitement as humanly possible into 3 minutes, 31 seconds of a first-half run. The kid was well outside the rotation, having logged less than nine combined minutes over the previous 10 games. But with Kwame Brown and Chris Mihm both in foul trouble and Shaquille O'Neal on the floor, Phil Jackson's hand was forced. A center newly of voting age was pressed into action.
Little time passed before he found himself on the wrong end of a "Diesel" dunk, a posterization ferocious enough to fear injury would result. (As I described the sequence, "it was like watching the roof collapse on a wheelchair-bound puppy.") It would have been understandable if Bynum had been too frazzled to bring much to the table afterward. Instead, the kid set up between the circles on the right side of the block, then left O'Neal in his dust with a spin move to the rack. So (rightfully) jacked up was the youngster, he opted to deliver a little elbow nudge to Shaq as the two went upcourt. "Superman" responded with a legit forearm shiver, and the two had to be separated.
In that moment, we learned a few things about Bynum: Even while absurdly inexperienced to be playing in the NBA, he contained real potential to become a talented player. This also was not a kid easily intimidated, nor content to bide his time before making his presence felt.
For better and for worse, this has been Andrew Bynum in a nutshell during his seven years as a Laker.
Often, this burning desire to be an integral part of the action has served the Lakers well. For example, the way he seemingly transformed overnight from the kid Kobe wanted to "ship out" for Jason Kidd into the center who convinced "The Mamba" his team was a championship contender even before Pau Gasol's arrival. Fuzzy history has since gone on to credit Kobe's parking lot tantrum as Bynum's motivation to improve, but he'd already been working hard with a personal trainer during the offseason. Bouts with on-court laziness acknowledged, Bynum nonetheless maintains a very high standard for himself as a player.
That urge to be a part of the action also explains why the center dragged himself around on one leg through the 2010 playoffs. After missing the whole postseason party in 2008 and operating as a semi-hobbled afterthought in 2009, Bynum wasn't just itching for a real taste of a deep run. He also recognized, even at a young age, that the opportunities to take true part in a title run can be fleeting. This chance was in front of him, and Bynum was determined not to waste it. By the time Game 7 against Boston rolled around, he was visibly limited and probably couldn't have handled a "Game 8." But make no mistake. Drew showed real guts in this effort to contribute to a title defense, impressing teammates, coaches, the front office and yours truly in the process.
However, that unwillingness to wait or acquiesce also has its downside. Over the past few years, even in his most dedicated moments defensively, Bynum's touches and role in the offense have been a point of contention. When deemed less than satisfactory, lackluster effort and mental lapses are disturbingly possible. And while it was impressive to see his boots fail to quake in Shaq's presence, authority figures often failed to register with Bynum as he grew older. Mike Brown and Mitch Kupchak both were treated dismissively on different occasions during a season marked with petulance. (Plus, that whole handicapped parking incident.) As much as I often appreciated Drew's candid nature, which served as an oasis in a desert filled with cliched soundbites and safe responses, I also wondered whether it reflected a general lack of concern toward consequences of any kind.
During his exit interview this past season, Bynum talked about the importance of playing for his teammates as much as himself and becoming a leader with the Lakers. That opportunity instead waits in Philadelphia, now that he is part of the Lakers' trade for Dwight Howard, but it's certainly Bynum's to earn (rather than take). And I really hope he does make good on this chance. This past season, I frequently expressed exasperation with Bynum's attitude, but generally speaking, I enjoyed my time covering him since the moment he entered the league. And even if I didn't, Drew is a talented player, and it's exciting to see greatness milked for all it's worth.
Bynum has long itched for the situation he's about to enter in Philadelphia. You can debate whether he's ready to handle that responsibility, but either way, it has been apparent for some time that a change of scenery was likely necessary for him to feel satisfied. Hopefully, the setting will prove to be what Drew wants, and he'll take full advantage.Rapper 50 Cent has been filmed striking a female fan at a concert in Baltimore, before bringing her onstage to twerk.
The 'Many Men' hitmaker goes to shake the woman's hand in the footage before she looks to pull him off the stage.
As he falls forward, 50 Cent, real name Curtis Jackson, appears to punch the woman in the chest.
There is some commotion as his associates and security move in to cool things down and after being helped back onstage, 50 Cent says "come over here - come here, come here".
She complies and the 'P.I.M.P.' rapper whispers something in her ear - before the video cuts to her bent over dancing onstage as the performance continued.
It's not the first time 50 Cent has perpetrated violence at his concerts.
In 2005, the G-Unit member was convicted of assault for jumping into a crowd and attacking audience members after someone threw a bottle at him.
Newshub.On July 11th episode of KBS 2TV 'Star Life Theater', popular idol group T-ara garnered much attention as they told the truth behind-the-scenes of their lives as idol stars.
On this day, T-ara's Jiyeon invited one of her best friends,�IU to her house. Already known to the public as best friends of the same age, Jiyeon and IU spent their time together cooking and eating Korea's top junk foods, ddukbokee and ramen.
In one of the conversations, Jiyeon said, "I tend to not laugh much when I'm outside. I am very shy." IU then added, "Jiyeon has the face of a city woman. The�glamour�and chicness of her face is very charming. Her face itself it very glamorous. She looks just like a city woman."
IU was then asked, "then what kind of face do you have IU?" she wittily answered, "I just look like an ordinary girl-next-door".
NO WAY!CLOSE Netflix original series "House of Cards" and "Arrested Development" both picked up major Emmy nominations Thursday, marking the first time that shows not aired on broadcast or cable networks were nominated in the top Emmy categories. VPC
This marks the first time shows not aired on broadcast or cable networks were nominated in top categories.
Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey star in Netflix's first TV series "House of Cards." (Photo11: Melinda Sue Gordon, Netflix) Story Highlights "Cards" joins familiar nominees in drama category
"American Horror Story: Asylum" leads with 17 nominations
Emmys will be broadcast Sept. 22 on CBS
House of Cards, the political thriller starring Kevin Spacey and streamed on Netflix, joined last year's incumbents Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, Homeland and Mad Men as Emmy nominees for best drama series.
Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, Girls, Louie, Veep and the departed 30 Rock were named best-comedy contenders.
NOMINEES LIST: See which shows and stars made the cut
BIANCO: Fresh breeze blows through Emmys
This marks the first time that shows not aired on traditional broadcast or cable networks were nominated in the top Emmy categories, something of a watershed moment for the awards, which in a 2008 rule change made shows distributed over the Internet eligible for TV's top honors. Arrested Development's Jason Bateman, also on Netflix, and Cards' Spacey and Robin Wright won nominations as lead actors.
"We are thrilled beyond belief," says Netflix's Ted Sarandos, who was behind its original-series push and considers the Emmy nods "a leveling moment. Change comes very slow, but Emmy voters recognized that great television is great television, and they didn't pay attention to how it got there."
Netflix, which has veered from a DVD-by-mail service to a streaming giant with 29 million U.S. subscribers, has moved heavily into original series this year, with budgets matching those for traditional networks, and far exceeding those for most other web content.
Spacey, who plays conniving congressman Francis Underwood, joined Jeff Daniels, the embattled anchor in HBO's The Newsroom, along with repeat nominees Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Jon Hamm (Mad Men) and Damian Lewis (Homeland). Wright will face off against Homeland's Claire Danes, Nashville's Connie Britton, Downton's Michelle Dockery, Bates Motel's Vera Farmiga, Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss and Scandal's Kerry Washington.
In the comedy field, Bateman (whose Emmy-winning show was canceled by Fox in 2006 but resurrected online in May), joined familar faces Alec Baldwin (30 Rock), Louis C.K. (Louie), Don Cheadle (House of Lies), Matt LeBlanc (Episodes) and Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory). Among actresses, Laura Dern, the star of HBO's canceled series Enlightened, joined Girls' Lena Dunham, Nurse Jackie's Edie Falco, 30 Rock's Tina Fey, Veep's Julia Louis-Dreyfus — last year's winner — and Parks and Recreation's Amy Poehler. Last year's nominees Zooey Deschanel (New Girl) and Melissa McCarthy (Mike & Molly) didn't make the cut. Neither did last year's winners Jon Cryer (lead actor for Two and a Half Men) and supporting actor Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family).
FX miniseries American Horror Story: Asylum, entered in the movies and miniseries category, won the most nominations, with 17 in all, followed closely by Game of Thrones, with 16. Other movie and miniseries nominees were HBO's Behind the Candelabra and Phil Spector, History's The Bible, Sundance Channel's Top of the Lake (for which Moss was also nominated) and USA's Political Animals. But BBC America's buzzy Orphan Black and its star, Tatiana Maslany, were left out.
As usual, there were plenty of repeat nominees in a medium that depends on long-running hits. But Daniels, Farmiga and Washington were first-timers. And AMC's Mad Men, which has dominated the writing honors in recent years, won no nominations in that category for a season that some critics saw as underwhelming.
HBO again led the nominees tally with 108, the pay channel's most since 2004, followed by CBS and NBC, tied with 53 apiece.
Homeland and Modern Family were the top drama and comedy winners, respectively, in 2012.
The 65th annual Primetime Emmy Awards will air Sept. 22 on CBS, with Neil Patrick Harris hosting.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/16LgqwnIt's worth remembering what the housing crisis actually means in practice for some people. Housing officers tell stories like that of a trafficked migrant sleeping in a derelict garage with only half a roof, accessed by a hole in the wall. And when you consider that a staggering 39 percent of Conservative MPs are themselves landlords, it's a reminder of how far removed they are from those on the sharp end of this catastrophe.
Perhaps with this in mind, they have been keen to position themselves as tough on the "unscrupulous Scrooges" giving saintly landlords like themselves a bad name. The Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government made a huge deal about the millions of pounds given to local councils for just this purpose: to "crack down on criminals that make tenants' lives a misery".
Today, VICE can exclusively reveal that these government funds to crack down on bad landlords were used to pay for dawn raids by police and border officials on vulnerable tenants. Hundreds of them were then evicted, arrested or deported.
Evidence gathered by the Radical Housing Network, via numerous freedom of information (FOI) requests, has discovered what is at best serious misrepresentation about the use of government funds. The coalition project saw the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) awarding the £5.8 million to local councils via two standalone funds: £1.8 million awarded in 2012 to tackle "beds in sheds", and then a further £4 million in 2014 to crack down on "rogue landlords". The latter announcement boasted the money would be used to "root out the cowboys and rogue operators", in the words of Tory Housing Minister Kris Hopkins, to "ensure millions of hard-working tenants get a better deal".
The Radical Housing Network report, Wolf in sheep's clothing? How funding to tackle "rogue landlords" has harmed tenants, is based on FOI requests submitted to the 30 councils participating in the government scheme. They asked how much each council had received, what that money had been spent on, how properties had been located (usually via aerial photography), how many had been visited and what the outcomes were for landlords and tenants alike.
Tens of thousands of properties were visited, many of them carried out as "multi-agency visits", featuring not just housing officers but the police, UK Border Agency, tax officers or the fire brigade. The east London borough of Newham received the most funding of all boroughs, over £1 million in total, and carried out 4,504 visits to properties, 341 raids and "nearly 400 arrests whilst on joint property licensing operations". The council has been unable to clarify what proportion of those 400 arrested are landlords, and what proportion are tenants.
Then-Immigration Minister Damian Green and then-Housing Minister Grant Shapps looking very important in a suspected rogue landlord's property (Photo via the Department for Communities and Local Government)
For a campaign sold as a piece of compassionate conservatism to rescue vulnerable tenants, it is revealing that it was launched with a macho publicity stunt for the press. In 2012, Tory ministers Grant Shapps and Damian Green launched the fund by joining dawn raids on six properties in Ealing with the police and UK Border Agency.
Then-Housing Minister Grant Shapps commented at the time, "I want to see all agencies from councils to the police and the UK Border Agency using the full range of powers at their disposal to work together on a national clampdown towards ridding our communities of this problem once and for all." It's not clear what "problem" he's talking about.
Action against landlords – the whole purported reason for the funds – appears to be limited. "One of the most common responses where landlords were found to be providing inadequate accommodation were 'improvement notices'," the report's authors write. These are "essentially polite letters to landlords asking them to make improvements" – no fine, no arrest, no censure.
Then there is the obvious distress caused by early morning police raids on already vulnerable tenants, especially where families with children are concerned. Why carry out a dawn raid at all? Landlords are unlikely to be living on the property – especially if it is squalid and overcrowded – and renting out an illegal property isn't the kind of thing you need to catch culprits at red-handed.
The FOIs also reveal that raids by police and border officers led to arrests and legal action against many tenants, including investigation for drugs offences or council tax irregularities (Peterborough), detention by UK Border Agency (Redbridge), or ASBOs (Barnsley and Herefordshire). Again, this is supposedly a crackdown on rogue landlords, making life safer for tenants.
There is also no evidence of support for those vulnerable tenants after the worst of the properties were shut down or demolished, or tenants were evicted because of overcrowding. Obviously no one wants rickety, cockroach-infested beds in sheds to be maintained, but what happened to their tenants when they were turfed out onto the street?
Don Flynn, Director of the Migrants' Rights Network, told VICE that the policy is explicitly targeting the wrong people: "This report shows that the people who are the victims of the appalling practices of rogue landlords are now being made to suffer, from what is little more than a ham-fisted publicity stunt, designed to make a few politicians look dynamic and proactive. The tenants lose whatever accommodation they have and the landlords are escaping with little more than a warning letter. By every standard 'beds in sheds' has proven to be a complete flop."
A suspected rogue landlord's property (Photo via the Department for Communities and Local Government)
And yet they merrily continue. Satisfied with the press photos of government ministers in the kinds of houses they'd presumably never set foot in normally (unless it was to chase up rent owed to them), in January this year they announced a £5 million continuation of the scheme. And how is it being sold to the public? "£5 million cash for councils to stop rogue landlords" – no mention of immigration enforcement or police, just "measures that will ensure millions of hard-working tenants get a better deal when they rent a home".
In a final grim irony, there's a strong case that the government actively made "beds in sheds" worse as they waged their supposed war. For one thing, David Cameron's government built proportionally the lowest amount of new housing of any Prime Minister since 1923, giving greater opportunities to "unscrupulous Scrooges".
The 2013 Immigration Bill compounded this by making private landlords actively check the immigration status of their tenants. The updated 2016 Immigration Act has built on this with new criminal penalties for landlords for non-compliance. The bigger picture was Theresa May, then-Home Secretary, trying to make the UK a "hostile environment" for migrants. A parliamentary Home Affairs Committee commented on this: "One likely consequence of making it more difficult for irregular migrants to access the rented housing market will be an increase in homelessness within that group, and an increase of those living in what the Government describes as 'the very worst privately rented accommodation': illegally occupied outhouses and unlicensed houses in multiple occupation."
Great work, guys.
@danhancox
More from VICE:
These North London Housing Activists Are a Rare Source of Hope in London's Housing Catastrophe
How Full-Time Airbnb Landlords Are Making the Housing Crisis Even Worse
Landlords Are Embarrassed to Admit That They Are Blood-Sucking Sub-Humans, ApparentlyA bitcoin sign in a window in Toronto. Reuters/Mark Blinch Bitcoin was down by 8%, or $85, at $975 a coin as of 4:06 p.m. ET on Thursday after at least two of China's biggest bitcoin exchanges announced they were blocking customers from withdrawing their bitcoins. The announcements followed Wednesday's meeting between the People's Bank of China and the bitcoin exchanges.
Thursday's announcements are notable because nearly 100% of all bitcoin transactions take place on Chinese exchanges. The cryptocurrency has had a wild start to 2017 after gaining 120% in 2016, when it became the top-performing currency for a second straight year.
Bitcoin gained more than 20% in the opening week of 2017 before crashing by 35% on concerns China would start cracking down on trading. China's largest bitcoin exchanges recently announced they would charge a flat fee of 0.2% on all transactions.
Thursday's steep slide has pushed bitcoin to its lowest level since the final trading day of January. It is still higher by 3.6% for the year.Now, #CalExit is more than just a proposed ballot measure…it is a comic book aimed at the safety pin set!
The new comic book series from Black Mask Studios portrays California leading the resistance against America’s Commander-in-Chief.
It’s about that hope and inclusion and also the challenges of finding solidarity among a diverse group but figuring it out and supporting one another,” says [#Calexit creator Matteo] Pizzolo. “Even if California split off, we’d still need to work together across cultural and political lines, probably even moreso. We’re not going to solve the problems we face alone. There’s a darkness to the situation and the world, but it’s a story of hope.”
The premise of the series is based an a heady mixture of fantasy, delusion, and fake news.
What if a fascist, autocratic President took over the United States? And what if that President lost California, the sixth largest economy on Earth, by nearly 2-to-1…a margin of almost 3 1/2 million votes? What if the day after that President took power, the largest mass demonstration in history occurred, and the state with the largest turnout was California. And then, the following week, two of the largest international airports in the world, California’s LAX and SFO, were blockaded by protesters? What if California refused to be ruled? …In CALEXIT, the citizens of California will struggle to seize power back from an autocratic government. The ongoing series tells the story of Jamil, a 25-year old courier (aka smuggler), and Zora, a 27-year old leader in the Pacific Coast Sister Cities Resistance, who escape together from a prison camp in Occupied Los Angeles, where martial law has been in place for the past year — ever since America’s demagogue President signed an executive order to deport all immigrants, and California responded by proclaiming itself a Sanctuary State. Each issue of CALEXIT will also include non-fiction material about local sustainability and grassroots campaigning for 2018 elections.
The first issue will be out in May of this year, though no word is available on if it can be ordered on our convenient Amazon link. I am sure Legal Insurrection readers will want to own their own copy.
In a nutshell, the hero is “The Resistance”. The villain? A fascist who lost the popular vote in California. I am sure any resemblance to President Donald J. Trump is purely coincidental.In theory, someone using the true keys provided from the qaballah could learn to shapeshift, and this was one mark of high level merkaba mystics. The infinite secret negative can't be disproved, but, i am a religious scholar and a world religions scholar and i see and know of no evidence to suggest that they are modernly capable of this, and would certainly not beleive in any case that magick can be used for dark purposes. True high magick utilizes The will of god and thus cannot go against divine will. This may enabale a merkaba mystic to shapeshift, but all powers would be instantly lost the moment a merkaba mystic incurred even minor negative karma. Bad Jedi make for good movies, but
are not supported by real metaphysics. Demons are in most senses not even a tenth as powerful as even the weakest human. However, people can give their power to darkness;
but that only makes them weaker not strong. Sidhis derive
from attention to virtues, no exploration of vice.
kucitizenx · 1 decade ago 2 Thumbs up 1 Thumbs down Report AbuseOntario's big moves on Thursday to dampen its housing market were watched avidly by many in British Columbia, after residents of the metropolitan Vancouver region went through two years of real estate pain before governments started acting.
Of particular interest is whether Ontario's plans to tax foreign speculators and toughen up protections for renters will simply put the province on an even footing with B.C. or if there are some new ideas that this province should copy.
Read more: Ontario's rent and housing reform: 16 big changes, explained in charts
Story continues below advertisement
Read more: Ontario unveils new tax, caps rent hikes in bid to cool housing
Margaret Wente: Wynne rides to the rescue on housing … and makes things worse
Here's what they're looking at most.
Non-resident speculator tax
Premier Christy Clark sounded pleased that Ontario had copied B.C., saying “the 15-per-cent tax on foreign buyers has really made a difference in slowing down the growth in the cost |
and we're going to try to be a positive community force," King told reporters at the press conference, according to local paper the Bangor Daily News.
LaMarche said the show would be targeting politicians who bully Maine residents – in particular those struggling with the welfare system. "There's an awful lot of bullying going on out there right now [and] nothing is more fun than standing up to a bully," she said. "We want you to laugh all the time because if you don't, you'll cry."
"We'd like to burn some feet once in a while – make some people a little bit angry," King added. "There are some people who deserve to be taken to the woodshed from time to time."A Democratic member of Congress is going to push for repeal of the law that bans federal recognition of same-sex marriage, following the Obama administration's decision to no longer defend the statute.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said he will reintroduce his bill to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act when Congress returns next week. Last year, Nadler got 12o co-sponsors for his measure, called the Respect for Marriage Act.
Nadler said he wants to "ensure that committed, loving couples can rely upon the legal responsibilities and security that come with the time-honored tradition of marriage." He is circulating a letter, co-signed by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to gin up more support for his bill.
The administration's decision on Wednesday to stop defending the law known as DOMA, which defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, was criticized by Republicans who have the majority in the House.
Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, said President Obama "will have to explain why he thinks now is the appropriate time to stir up a controversial issue" while Congress is grappling with the economy and reining in federal spending.
Nadler's office says all openly gay members of Congress -- Frank, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Jared Polis of Colorado and David Cicilline of Rhode Island -- are co-sponsoring the bill. They are all Democrats.Erik Swoope played basketball for the Miami Hurricanes. Now he's a Colts tight end. (Photo: Matt Kryger / The Star) Story Highlights NFL draft: Thursday through May 2
Colts' first pick is 29th overall in the first round
Last week, with the NFL draft looming and the ever-present pressure to build a Super Bowl roster intensifying, Indianapolis Colts General Manager Ryan Grigson did a very curious thing:
He held a workout for a 380-pound Australian shot putter. A football workout.
Some teams might consider such a move slightly preposterous.
But for a team that already counts among its numbers four former Canadian Football League players, two college basketball players and a Kenyan rugby player, it's called something else: Tuesday.
The Colts, perhaps more than any NFL team, have made scouring unconventional sources of talent an organizational priority. They will aggressively mine prospects from places near and far, from both familiar and unfamiliar territory.
The players must possess just one common characteristic.
"If you have elite athletic traits, you can do this," Grigson said. "This isn't one of those specialized sports, like golf. If you have a level of toughness and you can move and you have instincts, if you have those at an elite level, you're going to get a chance."
The NFL draft begins Thursday night, and the Colts will have nine selections with which to improve their championship-contending roster. You can rest assured that whomever the Colts select, for instance, in the first round, will be a certified, proven college prospect — a football prospect, to be specific.
But when it comes to filling out the bottom half of the 90-man offseason roster (regular-season rosters are capped at 53), Grigson and his scouting staff are prone to think outside the box.
Or the country.
"Hey, it could be Africa, it could be the South Pacific, it could be Eastern Europe," Grigson said.
The Colts have a growing list of players with backgrounds that hardly scream "NFL prospect."
Henoc Muamba (right) played in the Canadian Football League. A few other Colts, notably Jerrell Freeman, also did. (Photo: Matt Kryger / The Star)
The Canadian imports are easier projections. The Colts have four such players: restricted free agent linebacker Jerrell Freeman, a three-year starter; linebacker Henoc Muamba, who made the roster last season; and two recent signees, guard Ben Heenan and receiver Duron Carter. Muamba and Heenan played college ball in Canada, which makes theirs a longer learning curve.
But at least those guys have played the game, even if on a different size field and with modified rules.
Consider the case of outside linebacker Daniel Adongo. He is the embodiment of this alternative scouting philosophy, having played rugby at an elite level in Africa before being referred to the Colts as a possible NFL prospect.
He hopped off a 17-hour flight and went straight to training camp, saying at the time, "It's not really chasing a dream. I want to make it a reality."
He's closer than ever to doing just that. A torn biceps derailed his development and left him on injured reserve for all of 2014. But Adongo is expected to challenge for a roster spot this fall after briefly making the roster late in 2013, memorably blowing up a Cincinnati Bengals blocker on kickoff coverage.
Daniel Adongo was a star rugby player in Africa before joining the Colts in 2013. (Photo: Matt Kryger / The Star)
Adongo is probably the biggest success story of this kind, given where he came from and what he has a chance to do. And his achievements could pay off later because the Colts now have established relationships in the rugby world and anticipate finding more prospects there.
The globetrotting point man building those key relationships is special projects scout Jon Shaw. He's developed a critical and unique role with the team, taking on responsibility for scouting internationally, the CFL, arena leagues and other semi-pro leagues.
That's how he found defensive end Earl Okine, a recent signee who last played in something called the FXFL. Okine, who played in the four-team professional league for the Brooklyn Bolts, wowed Colts officials during his workout and landed a deal. He's still a long way from making the roster, but he has taken a gigantic step for a player with his background.
Tight end Erik Swoope and offensive tackle Demarco Cox come to the Colts after playing basketball at Miami and Georgia Tech, respectively.
Swoope, now entering his second season, made an impression on the practice squad last season and could challenge for an active roster spot this fall. A former high school coach of Cox's says Alabama coach Nick Saban pegged him for a football player during a recruiting trip to his Mississippi school, saying, "Man, kid, you're losing money."
Perhaps not.
Demarco Cox played basketball at Wake Forest. (Photo: Jon Barash / Associated Press)
Players like Cox wind up on the Colts roster because Grigson, himself a former scout and CFL player, carries those past experiences with him into the executive suite.
"The one thing you don't want to lose is that your job as a scout is to find players," he said. "F-I-N-D. They're not always just going to fall in your lap. You have to do a lot of work. Sometimes it's watching grainy film. Sometimes it's (going to) some obscure place where the head coach works at a steel mill half the time then he coaches in one of these leagues part time. We've had players like that who have actually contributed."
But while open-mindedness is great, the Colts generally are going to win with proven players. And an assistant coach can't spend every free moment teaching a rugby player the basics of American football, lest he neglect more important tasks.
Grigson admits not every long-shot player is worth the effort. The player's makeup, Grigson said, must be that of a player who can deal with the inevitable challenges and setbacks but persevere.
NEWSLETTERS Get the IndyStar Motor Sports newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong The latest news in IndyCar and the world of motor sports. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-888-357-7827. Delivery: Sun - Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for IndyStar Motor Sports Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
So the biggest keys are choosing wisely and knowing when to say when.
"You don't want to force anyone down their throats," Grigson said of his coaches. "We're at a point now where we're trying to win it all. You don't want to overload them."
Coach Chuck Pagano's past public statements suggest he's bought into the idea of acquiring these kinds of players. He has expressed admiration for the way Swoope has adapted and he remains high on Adongo.
The flexibility required to employ this philosophy is worth it, Grigson believes. He points to the willingness of the Pittsburgh Steelers in a previous era to scout historically black colleges, an effort that netted them players such as John Stallworth (Alabama A&M) and helped build and sustain their greatness.
"They built that dynasty with a lot of guys who weren't being scouted because of the nature of those times in America," Grigson said. "They broke the barrier and they killed it... It was such a different approach, but they were actually before their time and they reaped the rewards because of it. They had the guts to do it."
But taking chances means coming up short sometimes.
Shaw's shot-putting prospect ultimately didn't show enough in his workout to earn a contract. It left Shaw "dejected," Grigson said, but there's no time to sulk. There are borders to cross, semi-pro players to find, basketball players to convert.
"This isn't some circus sideshow," Grigson said. "Adongo's not the only one out there. Trust me. We're becoming such a global society and you just have to think globally. You have to cast a wide net.
"There's only so many elite athletes."
Follow Star reporter Stephen Holder on Twitter: @HolderStephen.In today’s “thing’s I’ve learnt about OCaml” I look back at my first OCaml code, and think about how I’d write it differently now.
Table of Contents
Removing ;;
Looking back at my code, the most obvious “this is beginner code” clue is the use of ;; everywhere. The OCaml tutorial gives a list of complicated rules for when to use ;;, but in fact it’s very simple:
Never use top-level expressions in an OCaml program.
Never use ;; (except when tracking down syntax errors).
If you want to run some code at startup (e.g. your “main” function), just put it inside a let () =... block. That way you’ll also get a compile-time error if you miss an argument. I don’t know why OCaml even allows top-level expressions. e.g.
1 2 3 4 5 6 (* Bad - mistake goes undetected and you need ';;' *) Printf. printf "Hello %s" ;; (* Good - compiler spots missing argument *) let () = Printf. printf "Hello %s"
In a similar way, I was a bit over cautious about adding parenthesis around expressions. For example, I had Str.regexp ("...") and match (...) with. They’re not needed in most cases.
Warnings
Always compile with warnings on. I don’t know why this isn’t the default. Use -w A to enable all warnings.
I actually use -w A-4, which disables the warning when you use a default match case. Default match cases should be avoided when possible, but if you’ve gone to the trouble of adding one then you probably needed it.
Exhaustive matching
One of the great strengths of OCaml (which I missed at first) is that it always makes you handle every possible case. Providing a catch-all case defeats this check. In my initial code, I needed to process a list of bindings. First, all the environment bindings, then all the executable ones. I made a do_env_binding function which applied environment bindings and ignored all others:
1 2 3 let do_env_binding env impls = function | EnvironmentBinding { var_name ; mode ; source } ->... | _ -> ()
I did the same for executable bindings. Then I applied them all like this:
1 2 3 4 5 (* Do <environment> bindings *) List. iter ( do_env_binding env impls ) bindings ; (* Do <executable-in-*> bindings *) List. iter ( do_exec_binding config env impls ) bindings ;
I now think this is bad style, because if a new binding type is added no compiler warning will appear. It’s better to have the functions accept only the single kind of binding they process. Then the code that calls them separates out the two types of binding. If a new type is added later, the code will issue a warning about an unmatched case:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 let do_env_binding env impls { var_name ; mode ; source } =... bindings |> List. iter ( function | EnvironmentBinding b -> do_env_binding env impls b | ExecutableBinding b -> Queue. add b exec_bindings ); exec_bindings |> Queue. iter ( do_exec_binding config env imps )
Handy operators
The recently released OCaml 4.01 adds two new built-in operators, @@ and |>. They’re very simple, and you can define them yourself on older versions like this:
1 2 let (@@) fn x = fn x let (|>) x fn = fn x
They both simply call a function with an argument. For example print @@ "Hello" is the same as print "Hello". However, they are very low precedence, which means you can use them to avoid parenthesis. For example, these two lines are equivalent (we load a file, parse it as XML, parse the resulting document as a 0install selections document and then execute the selections):
1 2 execute ( parse_selections ( parse_xml ( load_file path ))) execute @@ parse_selections @@ parse_xml @@ load_file path
The advantage here is that when you read an (, you have to scan along the rest of the line counting brackets to find the matching one. When you see @@, you know that the rest of the expression is a single argument to the previous function.
The pipe operator |> is similar, but the function and argument go the other way around. These lines are equivalent:
1 2 execute @@ parse_selections @@ parse_xml @@ load_file path load_file path |> parse_xml |> parse_selections |> execute
Intuitively, the result of each segment of the pipeline becomes the last argument to the next segment.
At first, I couldn’t see any reason for preferring one or the other, so I decided to use just @@ initially (which was most familiar, being the same as Haskell’s $ operator). That was a mistake. |> is the more useful of the two.
In the original post, I complained that you had to write loops backwards, giving the loop body first and then the list to be looped-over. With |>, that problem is solved:
1 2 3 items |> List. iter ( fun item -> Printf. printf "Item: %s
" item )
Using the pipe operator eliminates the mismatch between the desire to make the function the last argument and OCaml’s common (but not universal) convention of putting the data structure last. It can also make things look more object-oriented, by putting the object first. Consider this code for setting an attribute on an XML element:
1 set_attribute a b c
Which is the element, and which are the name and value? Written this way, it’s hopefully obvious that c is the element:
1 c |> set_attribute a b
Sequences become clearer. For example, consider adding two items to a collection in order:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (* Using () *) let items = Collection. add "two" ( Collection. add "one" items ) (* Using |> *) let items = items |> Collection. add "one" |> Collection. add "two"
I was even considering changing the order of the arguments to my starts_with function to make it work with pipe. Currently, we have:
1 if starts_with a b then...
But does it check that a starts with b or the other way around? They’re both strings, so type checking won’t catch errors either. Reversing the arguments and using pipe, it would be clear:
1 if a |> starts_with b then...
However, extlib’s version uses the original order, so I decided not to change it. Also, I used it in a lot of places and I couldn’t find a semantic patching tool to change them all automatically (like Go’s gofmt -r or C’s Coccinelle - which, interestingly, is written in OCaml).
Handling option types
I noted the lack of a null coalescing operator in my original code. I’ve now made some helpers for handling option types (I don’t know if OCaml programmers have standard names for these). I find them neater than using match statements.
The first I named |?. It’s used to get the value out of an option, or generate some default if it’s missing. It’s defined like this:
1 2 3 4 let (|?) maybe default = match maybe with | Some v -> v | None -> Lazy. force default
Using OCaml’s built-in lazy syntax makes this a bit nicer than having to define an anonymous function each time you use it. It’s used like this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 (* Use config.dir, or $HOME if it's not set *) let dir = match config. dir with | None -> Sys. getenv "HOME" | Some dir -> dir in (* Using |? *) let dir = config. dir |? lazy ( Sys. getenv "HOME" ) in (* Guess the MIME type if it's not set on the element *) let mime_type = mime_type |? lazy ( Archive. type_from_url url ) in (* Abort if not set *) let item = lookup name |? lazy ( raise_safe "Item '%s' not found" name )
The only slight issue I have is that if you forget the lazy when raising an exception then you don’t get a compile-time error. It just throws the exception in all cases. However, you should spot this problem quickly when you test it.
Another common task is to execute some code with the option’s value only if it’s set. I defined if_some for this. It takes a function to call with the value, but partial application means you usually don’t need to define one explicitly. For example, to stop a timer if you have one:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (* Normal method *) let () = match timeout with | None -> () | Some timeout -> Lwt_timeout. stop timeout in (* Using if_some *) timeout |> if_some Lwt_timeout. stop ;
Finally, there’s a pipe_some, which is the same except that it maps None -> None rather than None -> ().
Conclusions
After spending a few months writing OCaml, my coding style hasn’t actually changed much since my first attempts right after reading the tutorials. I’m not sure whether this is good or bad. Like Python, there is a one-obvious-way-to-do-it feeling to OCaml, unlike Haskell and Perl, which somehow seem to encourage clever-but-incomprehensible solutions. When I’ve read other people’s OCaml code (e.g. Lwt), I haven’t found anything new or hard to read.
The main changes have been cosmetic: the removal of ;;, fewer brackets, and the |> operator to make the code tidier, plus some common helper functions. I’m also finding more ways to make the type system do more of the work: e.g. avoiding catch-all match cases and using Polymorphic Variants.
The most useful functions I’ve added (some borrowed from other people) are:
|? for handling None values (see above)
for handling values (see above) if_some and pipe_some (see above)
and (see above) finally_do to work around the lack of a try...finally syntax in OCaml
to work around the lack of a syntax in OCaml filter_map (apply a function to each item in a list, filtering out any None replies)
(apply a function to each item in a list, filtering out any replies) starts_with (as in Python)
(as in Python) abspath and realpath (to resolve pathnames; translated from the Python standard library code)
If anyone else wants my realpath, it’s in Support.Utils.
What other useful tips or utilities do people have?TEENAGERS BELIEVE THAT cyber bullying is worse than traditional bullying.
The paper ‘Living in an ‘electronic age’: Cyberbullying among Irish adolescents’ by Pádraig Cotter and Sinéad McGilloway from NUI Maynooth took a closer look at cyber bullying in Irish schools.
They interviewed 122 pupils, aged 12 to 18 years, in two co-educational schools in the south and explored four main forms of cyber bullying - text message, email, phone call and picture/video clip.
The results revealed that 17 per cent of students admitted to being victims of cyber bullying while 9 per cent admitted to being the perpetrators.
Video clips
The teens surveyed said cyber bullying was the worst kind of bullying because they “can’t escape it”, even when at home and because pictures and messages can be spread easily and quickly.
Pictures, video clips and phone calls were the worst type of cyber bullying according to the pupils, and less likely to be noticed by an adult in comparison with traditional bullying.
More than a quarter of cyber victims did not know who their cyber bullies were. Of those who did, the bully was typically a single female or a small number of females, from a different class, but in the same year as the victim.
Most respondents indicated that cyber bullying was short term, lasting only one to two weeks. However, four reported that it had gone on for a period of six months up to several years.
Confide
Cyber victims mostly confided in friends and parents, however six respondents said they had told nobody.
More than half of teens felt that banning mobile phones and internet use in school would not be helpful, as students would engage in bullying in private or after school.
Although cyber bullying was found to be less frequent than traditional bullying, mostly short-term, and seems to be lower in Ireland than in other countries, it’s becoming more prevalent because of the easy access to electronic forms of communication.
The study comes after three girls, Erin Gallagher (13) from Donegal, Leitrim teenager Ciara Pugsley (15) and Lara Burns Gibbs (12) from Kildare are believed to have taken their own lives after being bullied online.[1] Harvester 300 BLK subsonic, 220-gr. Sierra MatchKing [2] CCI.22 LR Subsonic HP, 40-gr. hollow point [3] Hornady 300 BLK subsonic, 208-gr. A-Max [4] Sig Sauer 300 BLK Elite Performance subsonic, 220-gr. Open Tip Match The Voorhes
The label on the ammo box says subsonic, so this stuff won’t spook every deer in the county like your earth-shattering aught-six does, right? Well, sort of. Subsonic cartridges do produce less noise than full-velocity rounds, but there’s no free lunch—as usual. Your rifle will still go bang, and none of this quieter ammo is powerful enough for hunting big game much past slingshot range. Still, subsonic ammo does fill an important niche for many hunters and shooters. Lower the Boom At sea level, the speed of sound is roughly 1127 feet per second. When a moving object, such as a bullet, breaks that threshold, there is an audible shock wave that sounds like the crack of a bullwhip. Most of the noise inherent with shooting a rifle, however, comes not from the bullet breaking the sound barrier, but from expanding gases rapidly escaping the rifle’s bore. It’s the latter bang that causes hearing damage, reveals shooters’ positions, scares game, and works Mrs. Walney down the road into a fit of agita. So while subsonic ammo does eliminate the downrange crack, and does reduce the bang at the muzzle somewhat due to its lower velocity, it won’t make your centerfire rifle sound like mouse feet on felt. It’s just one way to mitigate the noise. Another way is to buy a silencer (legal in 39 states), which will greatly muffle those escaping gases. Quietest of all is to use a silencer in tandem with subsonic ammunition, which can reduce the sound of gunfire to a whimper in the rain. But if all we wanted was quiet, we wouldn’t pull the trigger at all. There’s still the question of performance, which is significantly hampered by going subsonic.
Mass Effect Since energy is the product of mass times velocity squared, a slower bullet has exponentially less energy than a faster one of the same weight. Take your average 55-grain.223 Rem. bullet. At 3250 fps, it produces 1,280 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle. But if you reduce the velocity to a subsonic 1100 fps, it produces only 150 foot-pounds. In other words, it turns a.223 Rem. into a.22 LR—the difference between a load for deer and a load for prairie dogs. This is one reason why you rarely see subsonic.223 loads on shelves. The other is because a lack of energy going forward equals a lack of energy going backward—and so they can fail to cycle semiautomatics. To compensate for less velocity, you need more mass. That’s why rounds with long, large-diameter bullets like the.300 AAC Blackout (which function well in modern sporting arms with a simple upper receiver swap) have become the preferred subsonic centerfire round for sportsmen, as well as for the military and law enforcement. It should be noted that these long bullets are most accurate when fired from barrels with fast 1:7 twist rates to stabilize them. Hornady’s 300 BLK subsonic 208-grain A-Max load, for example, delivers 480 foot-pounds of energy from a carbine’s muzzle. Think.45 ACP. But because of this long bullet’s incredible ballistic coefficient of.648, at 500 yards it surpasses the energy of a full-power 55-grain.223 Rem., and nearly triples the.45 ACP, and it does so in a hushed tone. That’s marginal performance for deer and hogs beyond 50 yards, but it’ll do the job on longer-range varmints where noise is an issue. This type of load is ideal for home defense, where shots are measured in feet and taken in tight confines that exacerbate hearing danger. At the very least, this ammo is a hoot to shoot on the range thanks to its mild recoil and low noise. It’s like shooting a rimfire but with more punch.
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Small Wonder Speaking of which, rimfires are where subsonics really shine. A standard.22 LR load delivers around 1200 fps and 140 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle. The typical subsonic.22 LR offers around 1050 and 100, respectively, a negligible difference to any rabbit. So while the energy to cleanly kill small game remains, the downrange crack vanishes. And as smallbore competitors know, subsonic.22 LRs are more accurate than supersonic.22s because they exhibit 37 percent less wind deflection due to the disproportional increase of air resistance near the sound barrier. When subsonic.22 LR ammo and a suppressor are combined, you’ve got a whisper-quiet, deadly accurate small-game firearm.South African riot policemen line up outside the parliament following a scuffle in the general assembly in Cape Town on August 21, 2014 (AFP Photo/Rodger Bosch)
Cape Town (AFP) - Riot police were deployed to South Africa's parliament as it collapsed into chaos on Thursday with a group of radical lawmakers yelling at President Jacob Zuma: "Pay back the money".
The unprecedented upheaval came as Zuma was grilled over the $24 million (18 million euros) of taxpayers money spent on "security upgrades" at his private residence.
Led by firebrand Julius Malema, a former member of the ruling party, about 20 members of his Economic Freedom Fighters party defied repeated orders to leave from Speaker Baleka Mbete.
Dressed in their usual "workers solidarity" outfits of red overalls, hardhats and maid's uniforms, they refused to budge -- chanting, pointing fingers and banging desks.
The speaker called for help from security and all MPs were asked to vacate the chamber while the EFF members were dealt with.
Zuma, who had at first smiled at Malema's display, was among the first to leave.
For around 10 minutes, live broadcasts of parliament showed the EFF members alone in the assembly and still chanting. The broadcast was then cut.
Riot police arrived and a forcible eviction appeared on the cards before negotiations with the EFF led to the suspension of the session. Zuma did not reappear.
A report by South Africa's public protector had called on Zuma to repay some of the millions spent on items such as a swimming pool, amphitheatre, cattle pen and chicken run at his rural home in Nkandla.
Zuma failed to meet numerous deadlines for a response, and then said he had appointed the police minister to decide whether he needed to pay back any of the money.
The EFF has risen from nowhere in the past few years on the back of populist policies such as the nationalisation of mines and banks, and the seizure without compensation of white-owned land.
The disruption of parliament was the latest in a series of publicity stunts by the EFF, which won 25 seats in the 400-seat parliament in May elections.
Last month, police threw stun grenades and fired rubber bullets when the EFF stormed the provincial legislature in the country's economic centre Johannesburg after they were evicted for wearing their "workers" outfits.
ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said "the violent nature in which the EFF engages on issues is likely to take South Africa backward.
"We warn them not to take us back to the past where we will have no option but to defend our hard won democracy."Things were looking good for the Indiana Pacers as they had won four of their last six games, but some of that optimism was muted by more injury news. Both Rodney Stuckey and Roy Hibbert left the game during the Pacers loss to the Phoenix Suns on Saturday and both are listed day-to-day.
Rodney Stuckey had an X-Ray on his left wrist and results were negative but he and Hibbert are listed as “day to day” — Candace Buckner (@CandaceDBuckner) November 23, 2014
When the Pacers take the floor on Monday, Hibbert, C.J. Miles and Stuckey may not be there but we know for sure Paul George, George Hill, C.J. Watson, and David West won’t be. Let’s just think about that. That is an entire starting line up and two subs. The Pacers have played with only 2/3 of an NBA roster this season and they are doing OK with a 5-8 record. It isn’t even a talent issue right now as far as the play on the court, there just aren’t enough bodies.
At this point the Pacers are playing with house money and have nothing to lose. With PG busy being an intern there isn’t any realistic hope for a deep playoff run, but with this many players missing it is miracle that the Pacers are winning at all. In a way, this has made this Pacers season much more watchable. Instead of watching the regular group of starters fight for a playoff spot, we are watching a team that shouldn’t be favored in most games are playing the roll of spolier. They have knocked off a number of quality opponents while also keeping it close in all but two games so far this season.
This isn’t frustrating like The Struggle was because this isn’t a talented roster struggling to beat teams they should destroy. This is a team decimated by injuries forcing healthy and more talented opponents to play four quarters to win.
If the team can keep this attitude as it gets healthy, then the Eastern Conference just got a little more interesting as the Pacers will at least wreck havoc on a playoff race people weren’t expecting them to be a factor in. I don’t see the Pacers winning a championship or the conference without their best player, but they can certainly make the season a helluva ride.
The Games
Indiana Pacers 88 Charlotte Hornets 86
In a game dominated by the “Lance Stephenson returns to Indianapolis” story line, it was Solomon Hill that stole the headlines in the win with a prayer of a putback at the buzzer. It may have been a lot of luck, but it is another box to check off in the young player’s development.
While Lance was worried about being booed (and was, sorta) and the Pacers didn’t look their best but had enough to ruin Stephenson’s homecoming plans. Hibbert shook off the poor performance he had in the last game against Charlotte and scored 18.
The win capped off a series of four wins in five games and was a boost on confidence until…
Indiana Pacers 83 Phoenix Suns 106
Phoenix has had Indiana’s number in recent match ups, but when Rodney Stuckey and Roy Hibbert both leave the game with injuries then you aren’t going to suddenly break that streak of wins for the Suns. Not a good night, but injuries don’t help. The Pacers couldn’t keep up with Phoenix’s pace in the loss.
Worth a read: 4 Numbers to Describe The Early Season
Worth a listen: Miller Time Podcast #87: Flying Solo
Also worth a read: Our Malice in the Palace 10th Anniversary Coverage.More than 2,000 join silent protest after China intervened in supposedly independent legal system to stop activists joining parliament
More than 2,000 lawyers and activists have paraded through Hong Kong in silence and dressed in black to protest against Beijing’s unprecedented intervention in the former British colony’s supposedly independent legal system as a means of ousting two democratically elected pro-independence politicians.
The demonstration, reportedly only the fourth of its kind since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, comes a day after Beijing issued a rare and highly controversial legal interpretation of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution to prevent two young activists from taking up their seats in the 70-seat parliament.
'Festering pustules': the two pro-democracy activists who are targets of China's wrath Read more
“I really don’t know how long Hong Kong can take it,” said Audrey Eu, a pro-democracy politician who was among those to join the march going from outside the high court to the court of final appeal on Tuesday afternoon.
The Civic party chairwoman, who like many of the protesters had come in black funeral attire, accused Beijing of seriously undermining the city’s autonomy with its actions.
“They think that by … taking away people’s rights [to take office] then Hong Kong people will become silent. But it doesn’t work like that. The more severe the attack, the more repression there is, very often the reaction goes stronger, particularly among young people,” Eu said.
“A lot of people feel that if measured response and rational discussion does not help then maybe they are going to go further down the road of violence – and that really does not bode well for Hong Kong.”
Sixtus “Baggio” Leung, 30, and Yau Wai-ching, 25, the two politicians at the centre of the storm, were elected to Hong Kong’s legislative council in early September, carried into office by a wave of discontent at what many perceive as Beijing’s growing meddling in the former colony’s affairs.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lawyers and law students gather outside Hong Kong’s high court. Photograph: Alex Hofford/EPA
But the two firebrands set themselves on a collision course with China’s rulers last month when they used their swearing in ceremony to lash out at Beijing, unfurling flags that read “Hong Kong is not China”.
On Monday, China reacted to what it appears to have viewed as an unforgivable affront by issuing an interpretation of Hong Kong’s Basic Law that in effect bars the pair from taking up their parliamentary roles.
Experts described the move as China’s most direct intervention in the semi-autonomous city’s legal system since handover.
Li Fei, the deputy head of China’s most important legislative panel, told reporters Yau and Leung were “national and ethnic traitors”, adding ominously: “All traitors and those who sell out their countries will come to no good end.”
China’s state media applauded the move on Tuesday. The Communist party’s official mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, vowed that “no mercy” would be shown to an intolerable and unrepentant collection of pro-independence “elements” who posed a direct threat to Chinese sovereignty.
Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post echoed those views, describing the intervention as a “strong tool to stamp out pro-independence forces”.
“Beijing is determined to keep separatists out of public office,” the pro-establishment newspaper said.
Pro-democracy activists have reacted to the intervention with astonishment and dismay.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Baggio Leung (left) and Yau Wai-ching during a protest march. Photograph: Isaac Lawrence/AFP/Getty Images
In a statement released on Monday night two of Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy voices, Nathan Law and Eddie Chu, said Beijing’s ruling was not simply an attack on two pro-independence politicians but rather an attempt to “put the political reins” on the whole of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
“All participants in the democratic movement must stand in solidarity, for no one is safe alone, in the face of such a dictatorship which sees any effort to strive for democracy as a secessionist threat to its rule,” they said.
Members of Hong Kong’s legal community are also aghast, with many viewing Beijing’s actions as a severe blow to the former colony’s judiciary.
This is the beginning of the end of Hong Kong | Claudia Mo Read more
Pro-democracy groups took out prominent advertisements in local newspapers on Tuesday morning that read: “Beijing destroys the rule of law – Hong Kong is a world city no more.”
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Period of Production,” Journal of Political Economy (Oct., 1935), pp. 577-624; Ludwig M. Lachmann, Capital and Its Structure (Kansas City: Sheed Andrews & McMeel [1956] 1978); Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles, Vol. 1 (Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand 1962) pp.273-386; Israel M. Kirzner, Essays on Capital and Interest (Brookfield, VT: Edward Elgar, 1996); and Mark Skousen, The Structure of Production (New York: New York University Press, 1990); Peter Lewin, Capital in Disequilibrium: The Role of Capital in a Changing World (New York: Routledge, 1999); and Roger W. Garrison, Time and Money: The Macroeconomics of Capital Structure (New York: Routledge, 2001).
Neue Freie Presse [New Free Press] (January 6, 8, and 9, 1914).
Quoted in Eduard Marz, Austrian Banking and Financial Policy: Creditanstalt at the Turning Point, 1913-1923 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984), pp. 26-27.
Carl Menger, “Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk” [1915] reprinted in, Carl Menger Gesammelte Werke, Vol. 3: Kleinere Schriften Zur Methode und Geschichte der Volkswirtschaftslehre (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1970), pp. 293-307. My translation from pp. 294-295.
Ludwig von Mises, “Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk: In Memory of the Tenth Anniversary of His Death” [1924] reprinted in, Richard M. Ebeling, ed. Selected Writings of Ludwig von Mises, Vol. 2: Between the Two World Wars: Monetary Disorder, Interventionism, Socialism, and the Great Depression (Indianapolis: IN: Liberty Fund, 2002), p. 329.
Schumpeter, “Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851-1914),” p. 145.
Carl Menger, Principles of Economics (New York: New York University Press, [1871] 1980). Carl Menger (1840-1921) was the founder of the Austrian School of Economics. After working as a journalist and civil servant in the Austrian Ministry of Prices, he was appointed a professor of political economy at the University of Vienna in 1871, two years after the publication of his Principles, a position he held until his retirement in 1903. In 1876 he was the tutor for Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria. He also served on the Imperial Commission on Currency Reform, which resulted in Austria-Hungary establishing a gold standard in 1892. His other major work was Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences, with Special Reference to Economics (New York: New York University Press, [1883] 1985), a critique of the anti-theoretical arguments of the German Historical School and a defense of the logic and relevance of abstract economic theory.
Friedrich von Wieser (1851-1926) was one of the leading members of the Austrian School of Economics in the period before and immediately after the First World War. His major contributions were to the theory of marginal utility, the concept of opportunity cost, and the theory of the determination of the value of the factors of production (imputation). His major works are, Natural Value (New York: Augustus M. Kelley [1889] 1956), Social Economics (New York: Augustus M. Kelley, [1914] 1967); and The Law of Power (Lincoln, NB: Bureau of Business Research, [1926] 1983). After serving in the Austrian Civil Service from 1872 to 1883, he was appointed professor of political economy at the University of Prague in the Austrian province of Bohemia. He was appointed professor of political economy at the University of Vienna in 1903, following Carl Menger’s retirement. He served as minister of commerce from 1917 to 1918 in the last government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest, Vol. 1: History and Critique of Interest Theories [1884]; Vol. 2: Positive Theory of Capital [1889]; Further Essays on Capital and Interest [1914] (South Holland, Ill: Libertarian Press, 1959). There are also earlier English translations of these works, prepared by William Smart: Capital and Interest: A Critical History of Economical Theory (New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1965 [1890]) and The Positive Theory of Capital (New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1971 [1891]). A translation of some of Böhm-Bawerk’s essays on the same themes, translated by William Scott, was published under the title Recent Literature on Interest (1884-1899): A Supplement to “Capital and Interest” (London: Macmillan, 1900).
Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital, pp. 121-256, Book III On Value - online </titles/bawerk-the-positive-theory-of-capital#lf0183_label_145>; This exposition of the theory of value and price was originally published in a slightly different form in Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, Vol. 12 (1886); see the English translation, Basic Principles of Economic Value (Grove City, PA: Libertarian Press, 2005).
Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital, pp. 207-235, Book IV Price - online </titles/bawerk-the-positive-theory-of-capital#lf0183_label_191>.
Böhm-Bawerk presented and defended the Austrian theory of value and price in several articles. Two of them, “The Austrian Economists” (1891) and “The Ultimate Standard of Value” (1894), are reprinted in Shorter Classics of Böhm-Bawerk (South Holland, Ill.: Libertarian Press, 1962), pp. 1-24, and 303-70; also see, Böhm-Bawerk, “Value, Cost, and Marginal Utility” [1892], Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics (Fall, 2002) pp. 37-79.
Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital, pp. 259-382, Book VI The Source of Interest - online </titles/bawerk-the-positive-theory-of-capital#lf0183_label_277>.
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, “Unresolved Contradiction in the Marxian Economic System” (1896), reprinted in Shorter Classics of, pp. 201-302; the same translation was published earlier under the title, Karl Marx and the Close of His System (New York: Macmillan, 1898).
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party [1848] (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1969); Karl Marx, Capital, 3 Vols. (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1956).
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, “The Positive Theory of Capital and Its Critics, I: Professor Clark’s Views on the Genesis of Capital,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, January 1895, pp. 113-31; “The Origin of Interest,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, July 1895, pp. 380-87; “Capital and Interest Once More: I. Capital vs. Capital Goods,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1906, pp. 1-21; “Capital and Interest Once More: II. A Relapse to the Productivity Theory,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1907, pp. 247-82; and, “The Nature of Capital: A Rejoinder,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Nov. 1907, pp. 28-47; and by John Bates Clark, “The Genesis of Capital,” Yale Review, November 1893, pp. 302-315; “The Origin of Interest,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, April 1895, pp. 257-78; “Real Issues Concerning Interest,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, October 1895, pp. 98-102; and “Concerning the Nature of Capital: A Reply,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1907, pp. 351-70.
L. G. Bostedo, “The Function of Savings,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (January, 1900), and Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, “The Function of Savings,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences (May, 1901), both reprinted in Richard M. Ebeling, ed., Austrian Economics: A Reader (Hillsdale, Mich.: Hillsdale College Press, 1991), pp. 393-413.
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, “The Historical vs. the Deductive Method in Political Economy,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. I (1891), pp. 244-71.
This episode is discussed in great detail in Alexander Gerschenkron, An Economic Spurt That Failed: Four Lectures in Austrian History (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977). The author’s interpretation, however, is that Böhm-Bawerk was a disloyal cabinet member irresponsibly opposing Koerber’s railway and canal projects. Böhm-Bawerk is called an “anti-hero,” and the chapter devoted to detailing his role in fighting these public-works projects is titled “The Stumbling Block.”
For a brief description of the seminar, see, Henry R. Seager, “Economics in Berlin and Vienna” (1893), reprinted in Bettina Bien Greaves, ed., Austrian Economics: An Anthology (Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996), pp. 44-46.
See, Ludwig von Mises, Memoirs (Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute [1940] 2009), pp. 31-32.
Böhm-Bawerk, “Control or Economic Law” [1914] reprinted in Shorter Classics, pp. 139-199.
RESPONSES AND CRITIQUES↩
1. Joseph T. Salerno, "Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk: Pioneer of Causal-Realist Price Theory" [Posted: April 3, 2015]↩
In his contribution, Richard Ebeling briefly notes that Böhm-Bawerk developed a theory of price formation that was based exclusively on the subjective valuations of buyers and sellers. In Böhm-Bawerk’s theory, prices are determined within the limits set by the “the marginal pairs” of buyers and sellers. Unfortunately Böhm-Bawerk’s pioneering work in price theory has been overshadowed by his brilliant contributions to capital and interest theory. I shall therefore focus my comment on delineating the key features of Böhm-Bawerk’s price theory.
The importance and originality of Böhm-Bawerk’s work in this area were recognized by three eminent historians of thought intimately familiar with the Austrian tradition. Mises considered Böhm-Bawerk’s three-volume Capital and Interest to be “no doubt … the most eminent contribution to modern economic theory.” “Especially important,” according to Mises, is the third book of the second volume, which contains Böhm-Bawerk’s exposition of value and price theory. Schumpeter also very favorably appraised Böhm-Bawerk’s contribution: “His theory of price is still the best we possess [as of 1914], the one that best answers all fundamental problems and all basic difficulties.” And Hayek maintained that the Austrian formulation of the subjective value doctrine “… including the theory of cost, was largely the result of Böhm-Bawerk’s brilliant exposition,” which went beyond Menger and Wieser “in matters relating to price.”
The foregoing are not just antiquarian tributes to Böhm-Bawerk’s theoretical acumen, but a testimony to the influence of his price theory that continues to live on today. Indeed, in the chapter on “Prices” in Human Action, Mises treated the basic theory of price formation as a closed chapter in economic theory. He summed up in a single paragraph Böhm-Bawerk’s analysis of the marginal pairs as the essence of the “pricing process” before moving on to a discussion of the complications introduced by entrepreneurship, factor pricing, monopoly, and other “microeconomic” topics. Rothbard devoted three full chapters in Man, Economy, and State to a modern elaboration of Böhm-Bawerk’s price theory, which undergirds the analysis in the rest of the treatise.
Indeed, Böhm-Bawerk is the originator of the causal-realist price theory that has seen a renaissance in Austrian economics in the past fifteen years. While Carl Menger must be credited with the original conception of the general causal-realist approach to economic phenomena, Menger never elaborated a complete theory of price. For this achievement the palm goes to Böhm-Bawerk, who heeded Menger’s dictum to devote “special attention to the investigation of causal connections between economic phenomena involving products and the corresponding agents of production... for the purpose of establishing a price theory based upon reality and placing all price phenomena... together under one unified point of view....” (Emphases are mine.)
In his analysis of price formation, Böhm-Bawerk developed four key features of modern causal-realist price theory. First, he sought to explain prices actually paid on markets, not hypothetical equilibrium prices. After elaborating the “basic law of the determination of price,” he concluded that “price is completely and entirely the product of men’s subjective valuations.” 1 Böhm-Bawerk emphasized that this explains actual prices. He referred to “the pricing process as a resultant that is derived from all valuations that are present in society” and declared, “I do not advance this as a metaphorical analogy, but as living reality.”
This is not to deny that Böhm-Bawerk used notions of equilibrium and the state of rest in formulating his price theory. He did so, but he distinguished between those that actually described the market situation at any point in time and those that were purely fictional and served an instrumental function. Recognition of this distinction is the second key feature of causal-realist price theory.
In Böhm-Bawerk’s view, actual prices are the consequence of “a momentary market situation” determined by “the magnitude of the valuations by ‘the marginal pairs.’” He used the term “momentary equilibrium” to denote this situation, which comes into being when all opportunities for mutually beneficial exchange in a market are completely exhausted. When analyzing the pricing and allocation of productive factors, however, Böhm-Bawerk employed a very different, long-run concept of equilibrium in which future wants are known with certainty, factor supplies are constant and instantly mobile, and technological change is absent. This construct allowed him to deduce actual tendencies for product prices to equal costs of production, all laborers and capital goods to be allocated to their highest valued uses, and the wage rate of labor to equal the value of its marginal product. He recognized, however, that an economy operating under such conditions was a pure fiction: “It is inconceivable that in actual practice production should pursue an ideally perfect course, untrammeled by limitations of time or space, free of any friction, with perfect foreknowledge of future wants, without any disturbing dislocations in demand, supply and the technique of production.”
This brings us to the third essential feature of causal-realist price theory stressed by Böhm-Bawerk: the central role of the capitalist-entrepreneur in the economic process. The insight that motivated all of Böhm-Bawerk’s work was that “production takes time.” But as time elapses, according to Böhm-Bawerk, things change unpredictably: “People and things can change.... Wants can alter, so can the relations between wants and coverage and... the insight into those relations can change.” Thus when the capitalist commits his property to production for an uncertain future, he at the same moment assumes the role of the entrepreneur. In planning production, the capitalist-entrepreneur therefore “anticipates” how much of his product he can profitably sell at the market price which he “estimates” will prevail in the future.
The fourth crucial element of causal-realist price theory present in Böhm-Bawerk’s work is the focus on explaining money prices, not merely the relative prices of a barter economy. In discussing the “individual determinants of price,” Böhm-Bawerk included “the subjective value of the good of exchange [i.e., money]” to both buyers and the sellers. This analytical breakthrough permitted him to explain how money facilitates the transformation of individual subjective valuations into a socially meaningful, objective structure of prices used by capitalist-entrepreneurs for economic calculation. According to Böhm-Bawerk, if the law of marginal utility
... is worked out within the broad framework of the market, then it is no longer a matter of direct relation to individual subjective wants, but of relation through them, by indirection, to money. Money furnishes, as it were, the neutral common denominator for the otherwise noncomparable needs and emotions of different individuals. (250)
Anticipating Mises, Böhm-Bawerk went on to show how the subjective marginal valuations of consumers mediated by the monetary calculations of capitalist-entrepreneurs ultimately direct resources to their “best paid uses.”
Since price theory is the core of any system of theoretical economics, contemporary Austrian economists do well to heed Mises’s counsel: “A man not perfectly familiar with all the ideas advanced in these three volumes [of Capital and Interest] has no claim whatever to the appellation of an economist.”
Endnotes
For Böhm-Bawerk’s value and price theory, see Bohm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest, vol. 2, Positive Theory of Capital, George D. Huncke, trans. (Spring Mills, PA: Libertarian Press, 1959), pp. 121-256; and idem, Basic Principles of Economic Value, trans. Hans F. Sennholz (Grove City, PA: Libertarian Press, 2005).
Ludwig von Mises, “Capital and Interest: Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk and the Discriminating Reader.” In idem, Economic Freedom and Interventionism: An Anthology of Articles and Essays, Bettina Bien Greaves, ed. (Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.: Foundation for Economic Education, 1990), p. 134.
Ibid., p. 133.
Joseph A. Schumpeter, “Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk: 1851–1914.” In idem, Ten Great Economists:From Marx to Keynes, H.K. Zassenhaus, trans., (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), p. 159.
F.A. Hayek, “Hayek on Wieser,” in The Development of Economic Thought: Great Economists in Perspective, ed. H.W. Spiegel (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1952), p. 558.
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. Scholar’s Ed. (Auburn, AL: Mises Institute, 2008), p. 324. Mises on the "Pricing Process" in Ludwig von Mises, Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, in 4 vols., ed. Bettina Bien Greaves (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2007). Vol. 2. Part 4, Chap. 16 "Prices" </titles/1894#lf3843-02_label_357>. For a recent exposition of the theory of marginal pairs, see John B. Egger, Clarifying and Teaching Böhm-Bawerk’s “Marginal Pairs,” The Journal of Economic Education, 27:1 (1997): 32-40.
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles, with Power and Market: Government and the Economy, Scholar’s Edition, 2nd ed. (Auburn, AL.: Mises Institute, 2009), pp. 79-317.
See, for example: Joseph T. Salerno, “The Place of Mises’s Human Action in the Development of Modern Economic Thought,” Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, 2:1 (1999): 35–65; Salerno, “Menger’s Causal-Realist Analysis in Modern Economics,” Review of Austrian Economics, 23: 1 (2010): 1–16; Peter G. Klein, “The Mundane Economics of the Austrian School,” Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 11 (2008): 165–87; Nicolai Foss and Peter G. Klein, Organizing Entrepreneurial Judgment: A New Approach to the Firm (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012); Per Bylund, “Division of Labor and the Firm: An Austrian Attempt at Explaining the Firm in the Market,” Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, 14:2 (2011): 188-215; G.P. Manish, “Error, Equilibrium, and Equilibration in Austrian Price Theory,” Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 17:2 (2014), pp. 127-53; Matthew McCaffrey, “Economic Policy and Entrepreneurship: Alertness or Judgment?” in Per Bylund and David Howden, eds., The Next Generation of Austrian Economics: Essays in Honor of Joseph T. Salerno (Auburn, AL: Mises Institute, 2015), pp. 183-99.
Joseph T. Salerno, “Carl Menger: The Founding of the Austrian School,” in Randall Holcombe, ed., 15 Great Austrian Economists (Auburn, AL: Mises Institute, 1999), pp. 71-100.
Carl Menger, Principles of Economics, James Dingwall and Bert F. Hoselitz, trans., 2nd ed. (Grove City, PA: Libertarian Press, 1994), p. 49.
Bohm-Bawerk, Positive Theory, p. 234.
Ibid., p. 229.
Ibid., p. 249.
Ibid., p. 231.
Ibid., p. 255.
For an exposition of Böhm-Bawerk’s neglected insights into entrepreneurship, see Matthew McCaffrey and Joseph T. Salerno, “Böhm-Bawerk’s Approach to Entrepreneurship,” The Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 36:4 (December 2014), pp. 435-54.
Ibid., p. 172.
Ibid., pp. 249-50.
Ibid., p. 250.
Ibid., pp. 251-56.
2. Roger W. Garrison, “Böhm-Bawerk as Macroeconomist” [Posted: April 6, 2015]↩
Despite the fact that many Austrian-oriented economists have an aversion to the term “macroeconomics,” I begin this essay with the claim that Eugen von Böhm‑Bawerk was a macroeconomist ‒ and a self‑reflective one at that. Richard Ebeling’s short sections on Böhm‑Bawerk’s theorizing about capital and interest give me a hook for making and justifying this claim. The classical economists, especially David Ricardo, could in retrospect be considered macroeconomists in an era that predates any specific attention to the micro/macro distinction. The word “macroeconomics,” of course, is a relatively modern one. It was Paul Samuelson who almost singlehandedly reorganized the subject matter of economics on the basis of a first‑order distinction between micro and macro, perversely putting macro ahead of micro in the pedagogical sequence. Samuelson traced the distinction itself to Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen and attributed the word’s debut in print to Erik Lindahl in 1939.
However, in an 1891 essay titled “The Austrian Economists,” Böhm‑Bawerk wrote that “[o]ne cannot eschew studying the microcosm if one wants to understand properly the macrocosm of a developed economy.” Packed into this understated methodological maxim are both his goal of understanding the macroeconomy and his judgment that microeconomic foundations are essential for ‒ and prerequisite to ‒ a viable macroeconomics. This is a view that, in mainstream economics, dates back only to the mid-1960s, a period during which the full-blown (mostly Keynesian) macro structure was in search of its own microfoundations.
Böhm-Bawerk’s Bull’s-Eye Figures
The critical aspect of the microcosm that Böhm-Bawerk had in mind was the micro-movements affecting the economy’s production activities that were brought about by changes in people’s saving behavior. Curiously, he represented those production activities as a sequence of concentric rings ‒ the innermost rings marking the beginnings of the production processes and the outermost rings representing the eventual maturation of those processes. The rings, then, stood for “maturity classes” of capital goods with the final class maturing into consumable output. (The initiation of the production processes evidently sprang from entrepreneurial actions at the center of the figure.) Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, which actually appear on opposing pages in Capital and Interest, depict a well-developed economy with ten maturity classes and a less-well-developed economy with only five.
These bull’s-eye figures may have been just right for capturing the readers’ gaze, but they function rather poorly as analytical devices. Nevertheless, Böhm-Bawerk made the most of them by posing a question about the nature of the market forces that govern the allocation of resources among the various rings. Let me paraphrase his key question here: “What changes in the microcosm would we expect to see on the occasion of a saving-induced increase in capital creation?” The answer to this key question, which distinguishes Austrian macroeconomics from what would later become mainstream macroeconomics, involves a change in the configuration of the concentric rings. Several sorts of changes are suggested, each entailing the idea that increased saving (which puts downward pressure on interest rates) spurs investment in the inner rings and reins in investment in the outer rings (which in turn tempers near-term consumption output and allows for increased future consumption output). Böhm‑Bawerk also indicates that in a market economy it is the entrepreneurs who bring such structural changes about and that their efforts are guided by movements in interest rates and changes in the relative prices of capital goods in the various maturity classes.
Note that the mainstream’s untimely search for the microeconomic foundations of macroeconomics did not focus at all on the market mechanisms that Böhm-Bawerk saw so clearly. And with other mainstream developments, such as theorizing in terms of a “representative agent” (instead of in terms of competing entrepreneurs), invoking the assumption of so-called “rational expectations” and, later, re-inventing macro as “stochastic dynamic general equilibrium modeling”), the search for meaningful foundations was effectively called off.
It is easy for modern Austrian economists to see that Böhm‑Bawerk was just a step away from articulating the Austrian theory of the business cycle ‒ a step that was taken by Ludwig von Mises ([1912] 1953) without the benefit of a graphical representation and by F. A. Hayek ([1935] 1967) with the benefit of his triangular figures. The critical step entails the comparison of changes in the configuration of the Böhm-Bawerkian rings (or of the Hayekian triangle) on the basis of whether those changes were saving‑induced or policy‑induced. A change in intertemporal preferences in the direction of increased saving reallocates capital among the maturity classes (or stages of production) such that the economy experiences capital accumulation and sustainable growth; a policy‑induced change in credit conditions, that is, a lowering of the interest rate achieved by the central bank’s lending of newly created money, misallocates capital among the rings (or stages) such that the economy experiences unsustainable growth and hence an eventual economic crisis.
Development of the theory in this direction was beyond Böhm‑Bawerk for the simple reason that he never ventured into monetary theory. His attitude toward monetary theory is revealed in letters to Swedish economist, Knut Wicksell, whose ideas about the divergence of the market rate of interest and the natural rate was to become an important part of the Austrian theory. In 1907, Böhm-Bawerk wrote: “I have not myself given thought to or worked on the problem of money as a scholar, and therefore I am insecure vis‑à‑vis this subject.” And in 1913, a year before his death: “I have not yet included the theory of money in the subject‑matter of my thinking, and I therefore hesitate to pass a judgment on the difficult questions it raises” ‒ this hesitation despite the fact that Mises, Böhm-Bawerk’s and Wieser’s student, had published his Theory of Money and Credit the year before.
On Böhm‑Bawerk’s Contribution to Capital Theory and Capital-Based Macroeconomics
We might ask: Is Böhm-Bawerk’s Positive Theory a precise and definitive statement of the economic relationships that constitute capital theory as it pertains to macroeconomics, or is it a crude, skeletal and nonsense-laden outline of these relationships? Assessments can be found to support either view:
Böhm‑Bawerk’s scientific work forms a uniform whole. As in a good play each line furthers the plot, so with Böhm‑Bawerk every sentence is a cell in a living organism, written with a clearly outlined goal in mind…. And this integrated plan was carried out in full. Complete and perfect his lifework lies before us. There cannot be any doubt about the nature of his message.
Alternatively:
Böhm‑Bawerk’s work [was not] permitted to mature: it is essentially (not formally) a first draft whose growth into something much more perfect was arrested and never resumed. Moreover, it is doubtful whether Böhm‑Bawerk’s primitive technique and particularly his lack of mathematical training could have ever allowed him to attain perfection. Thus, the work, besides being very difficult to understand, bristles with inadequacies that invite criticism ‒ for instance, as he puts it, the “production period” is next to being nonsense ‒ and impedes the reader's progress to the core of his thought.
These two passages provide a remarkable contrast, all the more remarkable when it is realized that both were written by one and the same Joseph A. Schumpeter.
For sure, Böhm-Bawerk’s Capital and Interest served as an important stepping stone between Menger’s Principles and the works of twentieth-century Austrian-oriented economists ‒ this despite Menger’s claim that “[T]he time will come when people will realize that Böhm‑Bawerk’s theory is one of the greatest errors ever committed” But what, exactly, was the nature of that “greatest error”? And why have modern schools of thought (Keynesian, monetarist, new classicism, SDGE modeling) turned a blind eye to the Austrian notion of a multi-stage, time-consuming structure of production? These and related issues may be ripe for discussion on this online forum.
Endnotes
Parts of this essay consist of condensed or elaborated material from Garrison (1990) and Garrison (1999).
Samuelson, Paul A. “Credo of a Lucky Textbook Author,” p. 157.
Hennings, Austrian Theory of Value and Capital, p. 74. The fact that Böhm-Bawerk issued so few methodological pronouncements makes this one all the more striking.
Böhm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest, vol. 2, pp. 106 and 107. Though rarely reproduced or discussed in modern assessments of Böhm-Bawerk, these figures, or rather the micro-level movements that they are supposed to illustrate, are central to his vision of a capital-using economy. Note that the numbering of the maturity classes (e.g., from 10 to 1 rather than from 1 to 10) conforms with Menger’s ordering of goods: Böhm-Bawerk’s least mature class is Menger’s highest-order goods.
Böhm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest, vol. 2, p. 112.
Forty letters from Böhm-Bawerk to Wicksell (1893-1914) are included as an Appendix to Hennings, The Austrian Theory of Value and Capital.
The first‑quoted passage was written on the occasion of Böhm‑Bawerk’s death: Schumpeter, 1951, p. 146; the second‑quoted passage is from Schumpeter, 1954, p. 847.
Schumpeter, 1954, p. 847, n. 8.
3. Peter Lewin, "Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk – A man for his time, and ours" [Posted: April 7, 2015]↩
True to form Richard Ebeling has provided us with an engaging and informative introduction to the life and work of Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk. Richard’s extensive knowledge of the period and the details of the lives of the prominent economists has equipped him well to tell the story of this remarkable economist, and remarkable man. Though well-known during his life and the half-century following, Böhm-Bawerk is not someone known to contemporary economists in general – which is a great pity because, as Richard as clearly shown, his pioneering contributions are as relevant today as they were in his own time – and in some cases their relevance and applicability has grown, as I argue below.
Unlike most economists, then and now, Böhm-Bawerk had actual real world experience in government – lots of it. His observations echo much of what was to follow concerning the process of policy formation and implementation. He clearly anticipated the idea of rent-seeking.
Yet he remained a consummate scholar, exploring and extending the fundamentals of economics inherited from Menger. We see this in his still very informative writings on subjective value and price formation. In fact his discussion of how price get formed through an iterative process in real time is still underappreciated in a profession tied to the use of equilibrium constructs. And his masterful analysis of Marxism is worth reexamining in detail in the age of Thomas Piketty.
He is most well known for his work on capital and interest. In part this is because he made real advances explaining the nature and use of capital in open economies – and produced a three volume work on this. In part it is because he became embroiled in lengthy, involved controversies over the nature of interest and of capital. It was even rumored that Menger did not approve of Böhm-Bawerk’s particular formulation of time in production.
Böhm-Bawerk realized that time enters production in a crucial way. Since production takes time, the relationship between value and time must be considered. Time has to be “spent” in order to get results in the form of products that are useful to consumers, that are valued more highly than the combined value of what went into them over time. This suggests that if “more” time is to be taken to produce anything, there must be a reward. This comes in the form of a higher valued product. In Böhm-Bawerk’s terms, wisely-chosen roundabout production processes are more productive.
But what does it mean to take “more” time? Consideration of this leads one very quickly into difficult territory. To attempt to “quantify” the “time-taken” raises a whole host of difficult questions. When does the “time-period” begin – or end? It is not time per se that is taken. Rather it is work-time – the application of effort over time by different kinds of resources. So it is input-time that is relevant and must be measured. In what units? And so on. In order to simplify the matter, and hopefully make it tractable, Böhm-Bawerk suggested the concept of the “average period of production” (APP) – a conceptual measure of the “average amount of time” taken in the production of any product. Several scholars picked up on this aspect of Böhm-Bawerk’s work and made it the basis of criticism. But the APP has refused to die. Over the decades it is reappeared in various guises, explicitly or implicitly, in a series of “capital controversies”.
While Böhm-Bawerk admittedly used a concept to capture the role of time in production that is very limited in it applicability to real world processes, the essential idea is incredibly important and is a precursor to much work on the nature of production in the modern world. In truth the APP was a very small part of his voluminous discussion of capital and time as we actually experience them. His message remains very valid. And, surprisingly, even the APP can be profitably seen as a simplified version of a construct in regular use today in the field of corporate finance. It is an idea that Nicolas Cachanosky and I are working on, trying to extend its range of application. Of which more below.
Consider first the basic idea that roundabout production is more productive than simple production. As pointed out by Ludwig Lachmann roundaboutness is perhaps better understood as “complexity”. Roundabout production is complex production. It involves complicated, multi-level interactions over time, that cannot be easily captured, but are clearly understood to be present. As Ludwig von Mises explains,
An increase in the number of stages of production – that is, an increase in specialization – necessarily implies an increase in complexity in that those stages closer to the final product are more complex than those stages further from it. Complexity is related to specificity: the construction of artifacts for specialized purposes implies more internal structure, and more linkages between the stages. "Iron is less specific in character than iron tubes, and iron tubes less so than iron machine parts. The conversion of a process of production [to another purpose, in response to unexpected |
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[Via Moca News]G UNPOWDER, an explosive composed of saltpetre, charcoal and sulphur. Very few substances have had a greater effect on civilization than gunpowder. Its employment altered the whole art of war, and its influence gradually and indirectly permeated and affected the whole fabric of society. Its direct effect on the arts of peace was but slight, and had but a limited range, which could not be compared to the modern extended employment of high explosives for blasting in mining and engineering work.
It is probably quite incorrect to speak of the discovery of gunpowder. From modern researches it seems more likely and more just to think of it as a thing that has developed, passing through many stages—mainly of improvement, but some undoubtedly retrograde. There really is not sufficient solid evidence on which to pin down its invention to one man. As Lieutenant-Colonel H. W. L. Hime (Gunpowder and Ammunition, 1904) says, the invention of gunpowder was impossible until the properties of nearly pure saltpetre had become known. The honour, however, has been associated with two names in particular, Berthold Schwartz, a German monk, and Friar Roger Bacon. Of the former Oscar Guttmann writes (Monumenta pulveris pyrii, 1904, p. 6): "Berthold Schwartz was generally considered to be the inventor of gunpowder, and only in England has Roger Bacon's claim been upheld, though there are English writers who have pleaded in favour of Schwartz. Most writers are agreed that Schwartz invented the first fire-arms, and as nothing was known of an inventor of gunpowder, it was perhaps considered justifiable to give Schwartz the credit thereof. There is some ambiguity as to when Schwartz lived. The year 1354 is sometimes mentioned as the date of his invention of powder, and this is also to be inferred from an inscription on the monument to him in Freiburg. But considering there can be no doubt as to the manufacture in England of gunpowder and cannon in 1344, that we have authentic information of guns in France in 1338 and in Florence in 1326, and that the Oxford MS. De officiis regnum of 1325 gives an illustration of a gun, Berthold Schwartz must have lived long before 1354 to have been the inventor of gunpowder or guns." In Germany also there were powder-works at Augsburg in 1340, in Spandau in 1344, and Liegnitz in 1348.
Roger Bacon, in his De mirabili potestate artis et naturae (1242), makes the most important communication on the history of gunpowder. Reference is made to an explosive mixture as known before his time and employed for "diversion, producing a noise like thunder and flashes like lightning." In one passage Bacon speaks of saltpetre as a violent explosive, but there is no doubt that he knew it was not a self explosive substance, but ony so when mixed with other substances, as appears from the statement in De secretis operibus artis et naturae, printed at Hamburg in 1618, that "from saltpetre and other ingredients we are able to make a fire that shall burn at any distance we please." A great part of his three chapters, 9, 10, 11, long appeared without meaning until the anagrammatic nature of the sentences was realized. The words of this anagram are (chap. 11): "Item ponderis totum 30 sed tamen salis petrae luru vopo vir can utri[1] et sulphuris; et sic facies tonitruum et coruscationem, si scias artificium. Videas tamen utrum loquar aenigmate aut secundum veritatem." Hime, in his chapter on the origin of gunpowder, discusses these chapters at length, and gives, omitting the anagram, the translation: "Let the total weight of the ingredients be 30, however, of saltpetre... of sulphur; and with such a mixture you will produce a bright flash and a thundering noise, if you know the trick. You may find (by actual experiment) whether I am writing riddles to you or the plain truth." The anagram reads, according to Hime, "salis petrae r(ecipe) vii part(es), v nov(ellae) corul(i), v et sulphuris" (take seven parts of saltpetre, five of young hazel-wood, and five of sulphur). Hime then goes on to show that Bacon was in possession of an explosive which was a considerable advance on mere incendiary compositions. Bacon does not appear to have been aware of the projecting power of gunpowder. He knew that it exploded and that perhaps people might be blown up or frightened by it; more cannot be said. The behaviour of small quantities of any explosive is hardly ever indicative of its behaviour in large quantities and especially when under confinement. Hime is of opinion that Bacon blundered upon gunpowder whilst playing with some incendiary composition such as those mentioned by Marcus Graecus and others, in which he employed his comparitively pure saltpetre instead of crude nitrum. It has been suggested that Bacon derived his knowledge of these fiery mixtures from the MS. Liber ignium, ascribed to Marcus Graecus, in the National Library in Paris (Dutens, Enquiry into Origin of Discoveries attributed to Moderns). Certainly this Marcus Graecus appears to have known of some incendiary composition containing the gunpowder ingredients, but it was not gunpowder. Hime seems to doubt the existence of any such person as Marcus Graecus, as he says: "The Liber ignium was written from first to last in the period of literary forgeries and pseudographs... and we may reasonably conclude that Marcus Graecus is as unreal as the imaginary Greek original of the tract which bears his name." Albertus Magnus in the De mirabilibus mundi repeats some of the receipts given in Marcus Graecus, and several other writers give receipts for Greek fire, rockets, &c. Dutens gives many passages in his work, above-named, from old authors in support of his view that a composition of the nature of gunpowder was not unknown to the ancients. Hime's elaborate arguments go to show that these compositions could only have been of the incendiary type and not real explosives. His arguments seem to hold good as regards not only the Greeks, but also the Arabs, Hindus and Chinese (see also Fireworks).
There seems no doubt that incendiary compositions, some perhaps containing nitre, mostly, however, simply combustible substances as sulphur, naphtha, resins, &c., were employed and projected both for defence and offence, but they were projected or blown by engines and not by themselves. It is quite inconceivable that a real propelling explosive should have been known in the time of Alexander or much later, and not have immediately taken its proper place. In a chapter discussing this question of explosives amongst the Hindus, Hime says: "It is needless to enlarge the list of quotations; incendiaries pursued much the same course in Upper India as in Greece and Arabia." No trustworthy evidence of an explosive in India is to be found until the 21st of April 1526, the date of the decisive battle of Panipat, in which Ibrahim, sultan of Delhi, was killed and his army routed by Baber the Mogul, who possessed great and small fire-arms.
As regards also the crusader period (1097-1291), so strange and deadly an agent of destruction as gunpowder could not possibly have been employed in the field without the full knowledge of both parties, yet no historian, Christian or Moslem, alludes to an explosive of any kind, while all of them carefully record the use of incendiaries. The employment of rockets and "wildfire" incendiary composition seems undoubtedly of very old date in India, but the names given to pieces of artillery under the Mogul conqueror of Hindustan point to a European, are at least to a Turkish origin, and it is quite certain that Europeans were retained in the service of Akbar and Aurangzeb. The composition of present day Chinese gunpowder is almost identical with that employed in Europe, so that in all probability the knowledge of it was obtained from Western sources.
In the writings of Bacon there is no mention of guns or the use of powder as a propellant, but merely as an explosive and destructive power. Owing perhaps to this obscurity hanging over the early history of gunpowder, its employment as a propelling agent has been ascribed to the Moors or Saracens. J. A. Conde (Historia del la dominacion de los Arabes en España) states that Ismail Ben Firaz, king of Granada, who in 1325 besieged Boza, had among his machines "some that cast globes of fire," but there is not the least evidence that these were guns. The first trustworthy document relative to the use of gunpowder in Europe, a document still in existence, and bearing date February 11, 1326, gives authority to the council of twelve of Florence and others to appoint persons to superintend the manufacture of cannons of brass and iron balls, for the defence of the territory, &c., of the republic. John Barbour, arch-deacon of Aberdeen, writing in 1375, states that cannons (crakys of war) were employed in Edward III.'s invasion of Scotland in 1327. An indenture first published by Sir N. H. Nicolas in his History of the Royal Navy (London, 1846), and again by Lieutenant-Colonel H. Brackenbury (Proc. R. A. Inst., 1865), stated to be 1338, contains references to small cannon as among the stores of the Tower, and also mentions "un petit barrell de gonpoudre le quart' plein." If authentic, this is possibly the first mention of gunpowder as such in England, but some doubts have been thrown upon the date of this MS. From a contemporary document in the National Library in Paris it seems that in the same year (1338) there existed in the marine arsenal at Rouen an iron weapon called pot de feu, for propelling bolts, together with some saltpetre and sulphur to make powder for the same. Preserved in the Record Office in London are trustworthy accounts from the year 1345 of the purchase of ingredients for making powder, and of the shipping of cannon to France. In 1346 Edward III. appears to have ordered all available saltpetre and sulphur to be brought up for him. In the first year of Richard II. (1377) Thomas Norbury was ordered to buy, amongst other munitions, sulphur, saltpetre and charcoal, to be sent to the castle of Brest. In 1414 Henry V. ordered that no gunpowder should be taken out of the kingdom without special licence, and in the same year ordered twenty pipes of willow charcoal and other articles for the use of the guns.
The manufacture of gunpowder seems to have been carried on as a crown monopoly about the time of Elizabeth, and regulations respecting gunpowder and nitre were made about 1623 (James I.). Powder-mills were probably in existence at Waltham Abbey about the middle or towards the end of the 16th century.
Ingredients and their Action.—Roger Bacon in his anagram gives the first real recipe for gunpowder, viz. (according to Hime, ch. xii.) saltpetre 41.2, charcoal 29.4, sulphur 29.4. Dr John Arderne of Newark, who began to practise about 1350 and was later surgeon to Henry IV., gives a recipe (Sloane MSS. 335, 795), saltpetre 66.6, charcoal 22.2, sulphur 11.1, "which are to be thoroughly mixed on a marble and then sifted through a cloth." This powder is nominally of the same composition as one given in a MS. of Marcus Graecus, but the saltpetre of this formula by Marcus Graecus was undoubtedly answerable for the difference in behaviour of the two compositions. Roger Bacon had not only refined and obtained pure nitre, but had appreciated the importance of thoroughly mixing the components of the powder. Most if not all the early powder was a "loose" mixture of the three ingredients, and the most important step in connexion with the development of gunpowder was undoubtedly the introduction of wet mixing or "incorporating." Whenever this was done, the improvement in the product must have been immediately evident. In the damp or wetted state pressure could be applied with comparative safety during the mixing. The loose powder mixture came to be called "serpentine"; after wet mixing it was more or less granulated or corned and was known as "corned" powder. Corned powder seems to have been gradually introduced. It is mentioned in the Fire Book of Conrad von Schöngau (in 1429), and was used for hand-guns in England long before 1560. It would seem that corned powder was used for hand-guns or small arms in the 15th century, but cannon were not made strong enough to withstand its explosion for quite another century (Hime). According to the same writer, in the period 1250-1450, when serpentine only was used, one powder could differ from another in the proportions of the ingredients; in the modern period—say 1700-1886—the powders in use (in each state) differed only as a general rule in the size of the grain, whilst during the transition period—1450-1700—they generally differed both in composition and size of grain.
Corned or grained powder was adopted in France in 1525, and in 1540 the French utilized an observation that large-grained powder was the best for cannon, and restricted the manufacture to three sizes of grain or corn, possibly of the same composition. Early in the 18th century two or three sizes of grain and powder of one composition appear to have become common. The composition of English powder seems to have settled down to 75 nitre, 15 charcoal, and 10 sulphur, somewhere about the middle of the 18th century.
The composition of gunpowders used in different countries at different times is illustrated in the following tables:—
English Powders (Hime).
1250. 1350. 1560. 1647. 1670. 1742. 1781. Saltpetre 41.2 66.6 50.0 66.6 71.4 75.0 75.0 Charcoal 29.4 22.2 33.3 16.6 14.3 12.5 15.0 Sulphur 29.4 11.1 16.6 16.6 14.3 12.5 10.0[2]
Foreign Powders (Hime).
France. Sweden. Germany. Denmark. France. Sweden. Germany. 1338. 1560. 1595. 1608. 1650. 1697. 1882. Saltpetre 50 66.6 52.2 68.3 75.6 73 78 Charcoal? 16.6 26.1 23.2 13.6 17 19 Sulphur 25 16.6 21.7 8.5 10.8 10 3[3]
When reasonably pure, none of the ingredients of gunpowder absorbs any material quantity of moisture from the atmosphere, and the nitre only is a soluble substance. It seems extremely probable that for a long period the three substances were simply mixed dry, indeed sometimes kept separate and mixed just before being required; the consequence must have been that, with every care as to weighing out, the proportions of any given quantity would alter on carriage. Saltpetre is considerably heavier that sulphur or charcoal, and would tend to separate out towards the bottom of the containing vessel if subjected to jolting or vibration. When pure there can only be one kind of saltpetre or sulphur, because they are chemical individuals, but charcoal is not. Its composition, rate of burning, &c., depend not only on the nature of the woody material from which it is made, but quite as much on the temperature and time of heating employed in the making. The woods from which it is made contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, and the two latter are never thoroughly expelled in charcoal-making. If they were the resulting substance would be of no use for gunpowder. 1-3% of hydrogen and 8-15% of oxygen generally remain in charcoals suitable for gunpowder. A good deal of the fieriness and violence of explosion of a gunpowder depends on the mode of burning of the charcoal as well as on the wood from which it is made.
Properties of Ingredients.—Charcoal is the chief combustible in powder. It must burn freely, leaving as little ash or residue as possible; it must be friable, and grind into a non-gritty powder. The sources from which powder charcoal is made are dogwood (Rhamnus frangula), willow (Salix alba), and alder (Betula alnus). Dogwood is mainly used for small-arm powders. Powders made from dogwood charcoal burn more rapidly than those from willow, &c. The wood after cutting is stripped of bark and allowed to season for two or three years. It is then picked to uniform size and charred in cylindrical iron cases or slips, which can be introduced into slightly larger cylinders set in a furnace. The slips are provided with openings for the escape of gases. The rate of heating as well as the absolute temperature attained have an effect on the product, a slow rate of heating yielding more charcoal, and a high temperature reducing the hydrogen and oxygen in the final product. When heated for seven hours to about 800° C. to 900° C the remaining hydrogen and oxygen amount to about 2% and 12% respectively. The time of charring is as a rule from 5 to 7 hours. The slips are then removed from the furnace and placed in a larger iron vessel, where they are kept comparatively air-tight until quite cold. The charcoal is then sorted and stored for some time before grinding. The charcoal is ground, and the powder sifted on a rotating reel or cylinder of fine mesh copper-wire gauze. The sifted powder is again stored for some time before use in closed iron vessels.
Sicilian sulphur is most generally employed for gunpowder, and for complete purification is first distilled and then melted and cast into moulds. It is afterwards ground into a fine powder and sifted as in the case of the charcoal.
Potassium nitrate is eminently suitable as an oxygen provider, not being deliquescent. Nitrates are continually being produced in surface soils, &c., by the oxidation of nitrogenous substances. Nitric and nitrous acids are also produced by electric discharges through the atmosphere, and these are found eventually as nitrates in soils, &c. Nitre is soluble in water, and much more so in hot than in cold. Crude nitre, obtained from soils or other sources, is purified by recrystallization. The crude material is dissolved almost to saturation in boiling water: on filtering and then cooling this liquor to about 30° C. almost pure nitre crystallized out, most of the usual impurities still remaining in solution. By rapidly cooling and agitating the nitre solution crystals are obtained of sufficient fineness for the manufacture of powder without special grinding. Nitre contains nearly 48% of oxygen by weight, five-sixths of which is available for combustion purposes. Nearly all the gases of the powder explosion are derived from the nitre. The specific gravity of nitre is 2.2: 200 grams will therefore occupy about 100 cubic centimetres volume. This quantity on its decomposition by heat alone yields 28 grams or 22,400 c.c. of nitrogen, and 80 grams or 56,000 c.c of oxygen as gases and 94 grams of potassium oxide, a fusible solid which vaporizes at a very high temperature.
Incorporation.—The materials are weighed out separately, mixed by passing through a sieve, and then uniformly moistened with a certain quantity of water, whilst on the bed of the incorporating mill. This consists of two heavy iron wheels mounted so as to run in a circular bed. The incorporation requires about four hours. The mechanical action of rollers on the powder paste is a double one: not only crushing but mixing by pushing forwards and twisting sideways. The pasty mass is deflected so that it repeatedly comes under first one roller and then the next by scrapers, set at an angle to the bed, which follow each wheel.
Although the charge is wet it is possible for it to be fired either by the heat developed by the roller friction, by stone, &c., or possibly by heat generated by oxidation of the materials. The mills are provided with a drenching apparatus so arranged that in case of one mill firing it and its neighbours will be drowned by water from a cistern or tank immediately above the mill. The product from the incorporation is termed "mill-cake."
After this incorporation in the damp stare the ingredients never completely separate on drying, however much shaken, because each particle of nitre is surrounded by a thin layer of water containing nitre in solution in which the particles of charcoal and sulphur are entangled and retained. After due incorporation, powders are pressed to a certain extend whilst still moist. The density to which a powder is pressed is an important matter in regard to the rate of burning. The effect of high density is to slow down the initial rate of burning. Less dense powders burn more rapidly from the first and tend to put a great strain on the gun. Fouling is usually less with denser powders; and, as would be expected, such powders bear transport better and give less dust than light powders. Up to a certain pressure, hardness, density, and size of grain of a powder have an effect on the rate of burning and therefore on pressure. Glazing or polishing powder grains, also exerts a slight retarding action on burning and enables the powders to resist atmospheric moisture better. Excess of moisture in gunpowder has a marked effect in reducing the explosiveness. All powders are liable to absorb moisture, the quality and kind of charcoal being the main determinant in this respect; hard burnt black charcoal is least absorbent. The material employed in brown powders absorbs moisture somewhat readily. Powder kept in a very damp atmosphere, and especially in a changeable one, spoils rapidly, the saltpetre coming to the surface in solution and then crystallizing out. The pieces also break up owing to the formation of large crystals of nitre in the mass. After the pressing of the incorporated powder into a "press-cake," it is broken up or granulated by suitable machines, and the resulting grains separated and sorted by sifting through sieves of determined sizes of mesh. Some dust is formed in this operation, which is sifted away and again worked up under the rollers (for sizes of grains see fig. 1). These grains, cubes, &c., are then either polished by rotating in drums alone or with graphite, which adheres to and coats the surface of the grains. This process is generally followed with powders intended for small-arms or moderately small ordnance.
Shaped Powders.—Prisms or prismatic powder are made by breaking up the press-cake into a moderately fine state, whilst still moist, and pressing a certain quantity in a mould. The moulds generally employed consist of a thick plate of bronze in which are a number of hexagonal perforations. Accurately fitting plungers are so applied to these that one can enter at the top and the other at the bottom. The lower plunger being withdrawn to the bottom of the plate the hexagonal hole is charged with the powder and the two plungers set in motion, thus compressing the powder between them. After the desired pressure has been applied the top plunger is withdrawn, and the lower one pushed upward to eject the prism of powder. The axial perforations in prism powders are made by small bronze rods which pass through the lower plunger and fit into corresponding holes in the upper one. If these prisms are made by a steadily applied pressure a density throughout of about 1.78 may be obtained. Further to regulate the rate of burning so that i shall be slow at first and more rapid as the powder is consumed, another form of machine was devised, the cam press, in which the pressure is applied very rapidly to the powder. It receives in fact one blow, which compresses the powder to the same dimensions, but the density of the outer layers of substance of the prism is much greater than in the interior.
The leading idea in connexion with all shaped powder grains, and with the very large sized, was to regulate the rate of burning so as to avoid extreme pressure when first ignited and to keep up the pressure in the gun as more space was provided in the chamber or tube by the movement of the shot towards the muzzle. In the perforated prismatic powders the ignition is intended to proceed through the perforations; since in a charge the faces of the prisms fit pretty closely together, it was thought that this arrangement would prevent unburnt cores or pieces of powder from being blown out. These larger grain powders necessitated a lengthened bore to take advantage of the slower production of gases and complete combustion of the powder. General T. J. Rodman first suggested and employed the perforated cake cartridge in 1860, the cake having nearly the diameter of the bore and a thickness of 1 to 2 in. with perforations running parallel with the gun axis. The burning would then start from the comparatively small surfaces of the perforations, which would become larger as the powder burnt away. Experiments bore out this theory perfectly. It was found that small prisms were more convenient to make than large disks, and as the prisms practically fit together into a disk the same result was obtained. This effect of mechanical density on rate of burning is good only up to a certain pressure, above which the gases are driven through the densest form of granular material. After granulating or pressing into shapes, all powders must be dried. This is done by heating in specially ventilated rooms heated by steam pipes. As a rule this drying is followed by the finishing or polishing process. Powders are finally blended i.e. products from different batches or "makes" are mixed so that identical proof results are obtained.
Fig. 1 -- Sizes and Shapes of Powders
Sizes and Shapes of Powders.—In fig. 1, a to k show the relative sizes and shapes of grain as formerly employed for military purposes, except that the three largest powders, e-f-f and h are figured half-size to save space; whereas the remainder indicate the actual dimensions of the grains. a is for small-arms, all the others are for cannon of various sizes.
Proof of Powder.—In addition to chemical examination powder is passed through certain mechanical tests:—
1. For colour, glaze, texture and freedom from dust.
2. For proper incorporation.
3. For shape, size and proportion of the grains.—The first is judged by eye, and grains of the size required are obtained by the use of sieves of different sizes.
4. Density.—The density is generally obtained in some form of mercury densimeter, the powder being weighed in air and then under mercury. In some forms of the instrument the air can be pumped out so that the weighting takes place in vacuo.
5. Moisture and absorption of moisture.—The moisture and hygroscopic test consists in weighing a sample, drying at 100° C. for a certain time, weighing again, &c., until constant. The dried and weighed sample can then be exposed to an artificial atmosphere of known moisture and temperature, and the gain in weight per hour similarly ascertained by periodic weighings.
6. Firing proof.—The nature of this depends upon the purpose for which the powder is intended. For sporting powders it consists in the "pattern" given by the shot upon a target at a given distance, or, if fired with a bullet, upon the "figure of merit," or mean radial deviation of a certain number of rounds; also upon the penetrative power. For military purposes the "muzzle" velocity produced by a powder is ascertained by a chronograph which measures the exact time the bullet or other projectile takes to traverse a known distance between two wire screens. By means of "crusher gauges" the exact pressure per square inch upon certain points in the interior of the bore can be found.
In the chemical examination of gunpowder the points to be ascertained are, in addition to moisture, freedom from chlorides or sulphates, and correct proportion of nitre and sulphur to charcoal.
Products of Fired Powder and Changes taking place on Explosion.—With a mixture of the complexity of gunpowder it is quite impossible to say beforehand what will be the relative amounts of products. The desired products are nitrogen and carbon dioxide as gases and potassium sulphate and carbonate as solids. But the ingredients of the mixture are not in any simple chemical proportion. Burning in contact with air under one atmosphere pressure, and burning in a closed or partially closed vessel under a considerable number of atmospheres pressure, may produce quite different results. The temperature of a reaction always rises with increased pressure. Although the main function of the nitre is to give up oxygen and nitrogen, of the charcoal to produce carbon dioxide and most of the heat, and of the sulphur by vaporizing to accelerate the rate of burning, it is quite impossible to represent the actions taking place on explosion by any simple or single chemical equation. Roughly speaking, the gases from black powder burnt in a closed vessel have a volume at 0° C. and 760 mm. pressure of about 280 times that of the original powder. The temperature produced under one atmosphere is above 2000° C., and under greater pressures considerably higher.
Experiments have been made by Benjamin Robins (1743), Charles Hutton (1778), Count Rumford (1797), Gay-Lussac (1823), R. Bunsen and L. Schiskoff (1857), T. J. Rodman (1861), C. Karolyi (1863), and later many researches by Sir Andrew Noble and Sir F. A. Abel, and by H. Debus and others, all with the idea of getting at the precise mechanism of the explosion. Debus (Ann., 1882, vols. 212, 213; 1891, vol. 265) discussed at great length the results of researches by Bunsen, Karolyi, Nobel and Abel, and others on the combustion of powder in closed vessels in such a manner that all the products could be collected and examined and the pressures registered. A Waltham Abbey powder, according to an experiment by Noble and Abel, gave when fired in a closed vessel the following quantities of products calculated from one gram of powder:—
Fractions of a gram. Fractions of a molecule or atom Potassium carbonate.2615.00189 molecule Potassium sulphate.1268.00072 molecule Potassium thiosulphate.1666.00087 molecule Potassium sulphide.0252.00017 molecule Sulphur.0012.00004 atom Carbon dioxide.2678.00608 molecule Carbon monoxide.0339.00121 molecule Nitrogen.1071.00765 atom Hydrogen.0008.00080 atom Hydrogen sulphide.0080.00023 molecule Potassium thiocyanate.0004 Nitre.0005 Ammonium carbonate.0002
From this, and other results, Debus concluded that Waltham Abbey powder should be represented by the formula 16KNO 3 +21.18C+6.63S and that on combustion in a closed vessel the end results could be fairly expressed (rounding off fractions) by 16KNO 3 +21C+5S=5K 2 CO 3 +K 2 SO 4 +2K 2 S 2 +13CO 2 +3CO+8N 2. Some of the sulphur is lost, part combining with the metal of the apparatus and part with hydrogen in the charcoal. The military powders of most nations can be represented by the formula 16KNO 3 +21.2C+6.6S, proportions which are reasonably near to a theoretical mixture, that is one giving most complete combustion, greatest gas volume and temperature. The combustion of powder consists of two processes: (i.) oxidation, during which potassium carbonate and sulphate, carbon dioxide and nitrogen are mainly formed, and (ii.) a reduction process in which free carbon acts on the potassium sulphate and free sulphur on the potassium carbonate, producing potassium sulphide and carbon monoxide respectively. Most powders contain more carbon and sulphur than necessary, hence the second stage. In this second stage heat is lost. The potassium sulphide is also the most objectionable constituent as regards fouling.
The energy of a powder is given, according to Berthelot, by multiplying the gas volume by the heat (in calories) produced during burning; Debus shows that a powder composed of 16KNO 3 to 8C and 8S would have the least, and one of composition 16KNO 3 +24C+16S the greatest, when completely burnt. The greatest capability with the lowest proportion of carbon and sulphur to nitre would be obtained from the mixture 16KNO 3 +22C+8S.
Smokeless and even noiseless powders seem to have been sought for during the whole gunpowder period. In 1756 one was experimented with in France, but was abandoned owing to difficulties in manufacture. Modern smokeless powders are certainly less noisy than the black powders, mainly because of the absence of metallic salts which although they may be gaseous whilst in the gun are certainly ejected as solids or become solids at the moment of contact with air
Brown Powders.—About the middle of the 19th century guns and projectiles were made much larger and heavier than previously, and it was soon found that the ordinary black powders of the most dense form burnt much too rapidly, straining or bursting the pieces. Powders were introduced containing about 3% sulphur and 17-19% of a special form of charcoal made from slightly charred straw, or similar material. This "brown charcoal" contains a considerable amount of the hydrogen and oxygen of the original plant substance. The mechanical processes of manufacture of these brown powders is the same as for black. They, however differ from black by burning very slowly, even under considerable pressure. This comparative slowness is caused by (1) the presence of a small amount of water even when air-dry; (2) the fact that the brown charcoal is practically very slightly altered cellulosic material, which before it can burn completely must undergo a little further resolution or charring at the expense of some heat from the portion of charge first ignited; and (3) the lower content of sulphur. An increase of a few per cent in the sulphur of black powder accelerates its rate of burning, and it may become almost a blasting powder. A decrease in sulphur has the reverse effect. It is really the sulphur vapour that in the early period of combustion spreads the flame through the charge.
Many other powders have been made or proposed in which nitrates or chlorates of the alkalis or of barium, &c., are the oxygen providers and substances as sugar, starch, and many other organic compounds as the combustible elements. Some of these compositions have found employment for blasting or even as sporting powders, but in most cases their objectionable properties of fouling, smoke and mode of exploding have prevented their use for military purposes. The adoption by the French government of the comparatively smokeless nitrocellulose explosive of Paul Vielle in 1887 practically put an end to the old forms of gunpowders. The first smokeless powder was made in 1865 by Colonel E. Schultze (Ding. Pol. Jour. 174, p. 323; 175, p.453) by nitrating wood meal and adding potassium and barium nitrates. It is somewhat similar in composition to the E. C. sporting powder. F. Uchatius, in Austria, proposed a smokeless powder made from nitrated starch, but it was not adopted owing to its hygroscopic nature and also its tendency to detonate.
BIBLIOGRAPHY [ edit ]
Vanucchio Biringuccio, De la pirotechnia (Venice,1540;
(Venice,1540; Tartaglia, Quesiti e invenzioni diversi (lib. iii.) (Venice,1546);
(lib. iii.) (Venice,1546); Peter Whitehorne, How to make Saltpetre, Gunpowder, &c. (London, 1573);
, &c. (London, 1573); Nic. Macchiavelli, The Arte of Warre, trans. by Whitehorne (London, 1588);
, trans. by Whitehorne (London, 1588); Hanzelet, Recueil de plusiers machines militaires (Paris, 1620);
(Paris, 1620); Boillet Langrois, Modelles artifices de feu (1620);
(1620); Kruger, Chemical Meditations on the Explosion of Gunpowder (in Latin) (1636);
(in Latin) (1636); Collado, On the Invention of Gunpowder (Spanish) (1641);
(Spanish) (1641); The True Way to make all Sorts of Gunpowder and Matches (1647);
(1647); Hawksbee, On Gunpowder (1686); Winter, On Gunpowder (in Latin);
(1686); Winter, (in Latin); Robins, New Principles of Gunnery (London, 1742) (new ed. by Hutton, 1805);
(London, 1742) (new ed. by Hutton, 1805); D'Antoni, Essame della polvere (Turin 176 |
who buy from them have had enough," he said in a swipe at Starbucks, which last month caved in to pressure to pay more U.K. tax.
Starbucks (SBUX) was responding to a public outcry from voters and local businesses over its tax practices. Google (GOOG) and Amazon were also heavily criticized, prompting the British government to step up efforts to close loopholes for big companies.
Related: 11 EU states to introduce tax on stock trades
But the British prime minister made clear that a tougher line on tax needed international coordination.
"Clamp down in one country and the traveling caravan of lawyers, accountants and financial gurus just moves on elsewhere," he said.
"This is about me and all the other G8 leaders being able to look our people in the eye and say that when they work hard and pay their fair share of taxes, we will make sure that others do as well."
Industry leaders and experts surveyed by the World Economic Forum rated wealth gaps as one of the top risks for the global economy.
Cameron will also push for the world's biggest economies to promote international trade, which has still not recovered to pre-financial crisis levels.
A trade deal between the EU and the U.S. could add over $80 billion to the EU economy alone, and completing all the trade deals currently under discussion could increase EU GDP by 2%, creating over two million jobs.
The speech came a day after Cameron promised the British people a vote on EU membership if he wins the next general election in 2015.
He said the referendum was about making a case for a more competitive, open and flexible Europe and securing the U.K.'s place within it.
"When you have a single currency you move inexorably towards a banking union and fiscal union and that has huge implications for countries like the UK who are not in the Euro and are never likely to join."To enthusiasts, true American barbecue is made by slow-cooking meat over low heat from a wood fire. The meat can vary, with pork, beef, chicken and lamb being most common, and when done right, the result is succulent, juicy and tender with a nuanced and robust flavour.
Of course barbecuing is not exclusively a US tradition. In India, meats are barbecued in a tandoor, or clay oven, fired by wood or charcoal. In Argentina, asado is made by barbecuing meat over an open fire or a wood-fired parrilla, or grill. In Mongolia, mutton is barbecued in a pot with heated stones and then cooked over an open fire for the dish khorkhog, while whole marmot or goat is stuffed with heated stones and cooked over a fire for boodog.
In the US, barbecuing was originally a common technique in Native American cooking. Sixteenth-century British colonists learned the method, and it eventually spread to the south, the part of the country most associated with barbecue today, around the 19th Century. Regional approaches to barbecue, predicated on local tastes and resources, then emerged in the early 20th Century, according to Robert F Moss’s Barbecue: the History of an American Institution.
Today, America’s obsession with barbecue is known throughout the world. While the four “capitals” of US barbecue are considered to be the Carolinas, Memphis, Texas and Kansas City, the nation has given birth to a myriad of regional styles, all of which have been honed to perfection over the years. Let this roadmap be your guide to the American states and cities that have elevated the act of slow-cooking meat to an art form.
The Carolinas
Carolina ‘cue changes a lot depending on where you are. North Carolina’s main styles are often referred to as “Eastern Carolina barbecue” and “Western Carolina barbecue” (or “Lexington barbecue”, since Lexington is the go-to barbecue town in the west), while South Carolina’s regional variations are less strictly delineated.
In all three varieties – Eastern Carolina, Western Carolina and South Carolina – pork is slow-cooked over a wood-fired pit or grill. The meat is pulled, chopped and served in a sandwich with homemade coleslaw. But while Eastern Carolina uses the whole pig, and dresses its pulled pork with vinegar and sometimes a touch of hot pepper, Western Carolina uses the shoulder of the pig and adds a thick tomato-based or ketchup-based sauce to its pulled pork, which it serves with red coleslaw. South Carolina barbecue uses the whole pig, shoulder, butt (the upper shoulder) or ham (the hind quarter), and the sauce varies throughout the state. A tomato-based or ketchup-based sauce can be found upstate; a vinegar and hot pepper sauce can be found in the northeast; and a mustard-based sauce can be found in the middle.
Memphis, Tennessee
While pulled pork sandwiches (using pork shoulder and served with coleslaw) can be found in most Memphis barbecue joints, ribs are the city’s specialty. Dry rub ribs, seasoned with salt and spices, are the shinning star of Memphis barbecue, though wet rub ribs, covered in a tomato-based sauce, are also ubiquitous. In all cases, the pork is slow-cooked over a wood-fired pit or grill.
Texas
In Texas, beef reigns supreme but pork barbecue is not hard to find. The state is especially known for its beef brisket, often served with no sauce. As with the Carolinas, barbecue styles shift through the state.
In central Texas, where many German and Czech immigrants settled in the 1800s, beef (brisket and sausage) and pork (ribs and sausage) are dry-rubbed and slow-cooked over a pecan or oak wood-fired grill. Ribs are often served with a thin tomato-vinegar sauce. In east Texas, pork shoulder, ribs and sausage are slow-cooked over a hickory-fired grill, sometimes with a tomato-based sauce. In southern Texas, certain places serve a style of Mexican barbecue, or barbacoa, in which the head of a cow is slow-roasted over a mesquite-fired pit and served with tortillas and salsa.
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City is known for its sauce-heavy barbecue and its “burnt ends”, or brisket tips, which come from a slow-smoked batch of beef brisket. Ribs are slathered in a tomato-and-molasses-based sauce and slow-cooked over a fire or grill, while burnt ends are smoked until crisp and charred and then served with the same sauce, which is usually very sweet and can be slightly sour and spicy as well.
St Louis, Missouri
In St Louis, pork steaks rule. Steaks are cut from the shoulder or butt, cooked on a grill and then covered in a sweet, tomato-based sauce. Unique to St Louis is its crunchy “snoot”, which is meat from the jaw/cheek and nose area of the pig’s face, accessed by cutting off the nostrils of its snout. Snoot is grilled until crispy and served in a sandwich.
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago ribs, slow-cooked over a wood- or charcoal-fired pit or grill, are all about the finger-licking sweet, tangy and smoky tomato-based sauce that they’re drenched in. In addition to pork rib platters, Chicago barbecue joints serve up rib tips, the juicy cartilage ends of the ribs that sometimes get cut off and thrown away.
Kentucky
The wool industry in Kentucky gave way to mutton as the popular meat for local barbecue -- especially in the west of the state -- since aging sheep are of more use for their meat than their fleece. The sheep meat is slow-smoked, either in a smoker or over a hickory wood fire, and brushed with a sour, tangy sauce. It is pulled, chopped and served in a sandwich, often with “Mutton Dip”, a local blend of water, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, lemon juice, brown sugar, salt, pepper and spices and sometimes even Kentucky bourbon.
Alabama
Alabama barbecue is known for its distinctive white sauce – a mayonnaise-based accompaniment made with vinegar, salt and pepper, and devoid of tomato flavours. In Alabama, either chicken or pork (shoulder, butt, ham or ribs) is slow-cooked over a pecan wood fire or grill, then pulled, chopped and served in a sandwich, covered in sauce. Sometimes the chicken is cooked in the sauce as well.
Santa Maria, California
Santa Maria is America’s stronghold for tri-tip beef barbecue, often served with salsa on the side. The tri-tip, the triangle-shaped bottom sirloin portion of the cow, is dry rubbed and then slow-smoked over a red oak wood fire. Its tradition began with early American cowboys who would slow-cook skewered meats over fires fuelled by red oak wood.
Hawaii
One frequent star of the lu’au, Hawaii’s lively celebratory feasts of traditional foods, is kalua pig – pork cooked all day long in an imu, an underground oven made by simply digging out a hole in the ground. The meat is dry rubbed with sea salt and spices, covered in banana leaves and cooked over a fire at the bottom of the imu. Hawaiian barbecue is not served with sauce.
Alaska
Competitive barbeque in Alaska is no different from barbecue elsewhere in the US, involving slow-cooked pork, beef or chicken. But as Michael Karl Witzel mentions in his book Barbecue Road Trip, one popular Alaskan barbecue dish is prepared using the state’s local, wild-caught specialty, salmon, which is placed on cedar planks and then smoked over a fire or a grill. The sauce, which typically uses the tomato-and-molasses base found in barbecue sauces throughout the country, is usually used to baste the fish, and the remainder is poured on top.
Travelwise is a BBC Travel column that goes behind the travel stories to answer common questions, satisfy uncommon curiosities and uncover some of the mystery surrounding travel. If you have a burning travel question, contact Travelwise.As Texas, the nation’s second largest state, moves through its biennial legislative session, a simple, short transparency bill has been proposed in both houses that would lift the veil hiding a little-known but nonetheless devastating crisis in higher education—grade inflation.
Over the past five decades, grade inflation has been quietly ravaging our universities, debasing academic standards and undermining morale. The national statistics indicate the severity of the crisis. According to Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy’s national, longitudinal studies, in the early 1960s, 15 percent of all college grades nationwide were A’s. Today, that number has nearly tripled—43 percent of all grades are A’s. In fact, an A is now the most common grade given in college nationwide. Moreover, seventy-three percent of all college grades nationwide today are either A’s or B’s. Why?
A number of factors account for the diminution in standards. Research performed by Texas A&M professor Valen Johnson demonstrates that students reward easier-grading professors with better teacher evaluations, which are crucial in deciding faculty tenure, promotion, and salary—thus setting into motion a toxic feedback loop described by Indiana University professor, Murray Sperber, who terms it the faculty-student "non-aggression pact": "I won't bother you and you don't bother me, and we'll all be happy here at college."
Less happy are employers, and for good reason. As monetary inflation devalues the dollar, grade inflation debases the currency of education: student transcripts. Consequently, employers regularly complain that transcripts have become less-than-reliable indicators of genuine academic achievement. When a plethora of new graduates appear every year at job interviews sporting sterling transcripts, how is one to tell the real A’s from the inflated ones?
As bad as grade inflation is for America’s workforce competitiveness, still worse is its effect on the souls of today’s students. At the deepest level, grade inflation is a moral issue. Why? Because it deceives students. How? One of the fundamental truths of existence, concurred in by all the world’s major religions and philosophers, is that life is difficult. Further, it is only through cultivating excellence of mind and character that we can learn to deal with life’s inevitable difficulties.
But grade inflation teaches our students exactly the opposite lesson. It teaches them that, with minimal effort, they can (and, in time, some come to believe that they should) receive high grades. The result? New graduates, still sloshed from years of imbibing the heady brew of easy A’s, are frequently floored on their entry into the working world, where results matter, and where “participation” alone is no guarantee of promotions or even of continued employment.
To be sure, this is not a problem that resides only in higher education. “Participation” trophies at the K-12 level, along with all the other measures developed since the ‘70s to enhance the young’s “self-esteem,” have played a role in jettisoning the rigor required of a sound education at all levels.
College grade inflation has been found to be most virulent in the humanities, whereas the natural sciences and mathematics have better maintained their standards. As a result, studies reveal that grade inflation disincentivizes students from majoring in the sciences and mathematics—at the same time that the country cries out for more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) graduates.
Given the severity of the crisis in college grading standards, it is understandable that Texas legislators would look to attempt to address it at their state’s public universities. In this rescue mission they are not alone. A study conducted by the Samford University Office of Institutional Research finds that “Columbia, Dartmouth, Indiana, and Eastern Kentucky are examples of schools that provide the number of students in each class and the average grade of the class on the students’ transcripts.” At Indiana University, for example, transcripts include the grade distribution for each course and the average student GPA (grade point average) in the course. The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill recently agreed to implement a similar measure, which it calls “contextual grading,” in which the GPA for the entire class is included next to the letter grade each student receives for every class. The University of California at Berkeley is currently looking at similar measures.
Is this is an idea whose time has come? Given the size of its population, as well as its prominence on the national stage, Texas could play a, if not the, key role in answering the question. Texas House Bill 1196, along with its identical companion, Senate Bill 499, would require “Open” or “Honest Transcripts” of all Texas public universities. Similar to some of the measures described immediately above, the bill would require schools to “place the average or median grade, as applicable, immediately to the right of the student's individual grade” on official transcripts.
Short and simple, the transparency bill stands out in an age of 1000-page federal laws. Moreover, the bill avoids seeking to micromanage the state’s institutions of higher education. It does not require them to do anything differently, but only to make transparent to students, their parents, and employers what it is that they are doing. Given that these are public institutions established and supported by tax dollars, this hardly seems to be an unreasonable request. It asks only that students, their parents, and taxpayers be informed of what they are getting for their tuition and tax dollars.
But would the law have its intended effect? That is, would it aid in arresting the crisis that is grade inflation? Only time will tell. But one thing the bill would do immediately is to make clear to all the scandal that has engulfed our universities and, in so doing, begin to build public support to restore sound standards. At the least, the larger culture would be alerted to those schools and majors that have maintained standards and those that have not. And would-be employers, along with graduate school admissions committees, would stand a better chance of distinguishing truly excellent graduates from those who have taken courses and majors with lax standards.
Supporters of the bill argue that something more could also occur as a direct result of passage of the bill. What would quickly come to be known nationally as the “Texas Transcript” could come to be regarded as the gold standard of collegiate reporting. Texas students, they argue, would immediately be given a leg up in the job market versus applicants from other states lacking transcript transparency. If this turns out to be the case, Texas could well spark transcript-transparency movements in the other 49 states, which would feel compelled to follow Texas’s example—if only to enhance their own college graduates’ job prospects in the face of the new challenge from the Lone Star State.
If such competition among the states over grading rigor occurred, everyone would win, most importantly, the students themselves, who would benefit from the ennobling experience of being tried and tested in learning institutions that have rediscovered their souls—and their spines.Digital Downloads Terms and Conditions
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Trion Worlds does not ensure continuous or error-free access, use, or availability of any game content, feature, gameplay, or server and may change, modify, disable, suspend, or remove any such content, feature, gameplay, or server at its sole discretion.Years of leaks about the CIA’s post-9/11 torture efforts failed to reveal a program as brutal, unaccountable and even chaotic as the one portrayed on Tuesday
Janat Gul begged the CIA for death.
Delivered to the CIA in July 2004 by a foreign ally, Gul was thought to have intelligence about an attack on the US planned to take place ahead of the presidential election. Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, authorized CIA director George Tenet to use all approved torture techniques on him save waterboarding. Soon he was hallucinating, seeing his family in the mirror.
A CIA cable recorded: Gul “asked to die, or just to be killed.”
There had been doubts about the intelligence justifying Gul’s capture even before the CIA had him in custody. One official said in March 2004 it was “vague” and “worthless in terms of actionable intelligence.” In August of that year, CIA officials at Gul’s detention site twice reported they did not think he was withholding information. But the response from headquarters was to continue torturing him, apparently out of fear of missing information on the threat.
By October 2004, Gul’s accuser recanted. It is unclear if that accuser gave up Gul in the first place after he was himself tortured. The CIA transferred Gul to an unknown foreign partner, and he was ultimately freed.
As Gul’s previously unknown case indicates, years of leaks and occasional official disclosures about the CIA’s post-9/11 torture efforts did not reveal a program as brutal, unaccountable and even chaotic as the one portrayed by the Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday. The committee’s report portrays a feedback loop: the CIA embraced torture, then failed to question and review its value.
“Having initially cited Gul’s knowledge of the pre-election threat, as reported by the CIA’s source, the CIA began representing that its enhanced interrogation techniques were required for Gul to deny the existence of the threat, thereby disproving the credibility of the CIA source,” the report found.
In another case, at a place in Afghanistan called “Cobalt,” believed to be the CIA’s infamous Salt Pit prison – torture chambers were also given other names like Cat’s Eye and the Dark Prison – the CIA presided over the following:
A man named Gul Rahman, suspected of ties to al-Qaida and its Afghan allies, was shackled to the wall of his cell in November 2002. He was wearing nothing but a sweatshirt. All his other clothing was removed after he was found to be “uncooperative”; his uncooperativeness came after he received, per a CIA cable to headquarters, “48 hours of sleep deprivation, auditory overload, total darkness, isolation, a cold shower and rough treatment.”
Rahman was found dead the next day. According to the committee, a CIA autopsy determined that Rahman had mostly likely died from hypothermia, in part because he “was forced to sit on the bare concrete floor without pants.”
Rahman’s death has been public for years. What the CIA did as follow-up has only been known in the broadest of outlines.
No CIA officials were disciplined – let alone charged – for Rahman’s death. Not even a month after he froze to death, CIA approved a plan to strip detainees nude in 45F rooms. Three months after that, one of Rahman’s interrogators was recommended to receive a $2,500 cash bonus for his “consistently superior work”. And for another three or so months, that interrogator continued to manage the Cobalt site and supervise other detentions.
Conditions at Cobalt – a site for what then-director George Tenet called “medium-level detainees,” like Rahman – later shocked visiting representatives from the federal Bureau of Prisons, who had “never been in a facility where individuals are so sensory deprived,” a CIA official would recount. One detainee there “literally looked like a dog who had been kennelled.”
Former CIA director George Tenet testifies before Congress in 2004. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images
For detainees whom the CIA couldn’t justify holding in Cobalt, the CIA relied on an unnamed partner country, paid off with cash: “I give them a few hundred bucks a month and they use the rooms for whoever I bring over – no questions asked.”
Years later, an internal review recommended a 10-day unpaid suspension for Rahman’s aforementioned interrogator. But a senior CIA official, Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, overruled any reprimand. (Foggo would later go to prison in connection with an unrelated fraud case.)
A tremendous amount of the Senate torture report remains unseen: the Senate on Tuesday released only 525 pages of a classified 6,000-page study. President Obama withheld even more from Senate viewing: 9,400 pages of relevant CIA documentation, according to a footnote. The CIA itself, while an interested party, considers the report even less complete, because the Senate investigators did not interview any CIA officials.
The CIA was not a monolith in favor of torture. Officers questioned its value and voiced disagreement about torturing detainees “whom they determined were not withholding information.” Medical staff – the subject of professional controversy for their involvement in torture at all – were found to question “both the effectiveness and the safety of the techniques.”
The CIA does not contest the Senate assessment that it was ill-suited to establish its detention program; director John Brennan, a former Tenet aide, conceded that on Tuesday. Rahman’s death occurred before Tenet issued detention and interrogation guidelines in January 2003. But by then, about 40 of the estimated 119 detainees the CIA would hold during the 2002-2008 lifespan of the program were already in captivity.
Nearly 10 months after Tenet issued the guidelines, CIA officials forced Arsala Khan, an Afghan detainee suspected of enabling Osama bin Laden’s escape from Tora Bora, to go 56 hours without sleeping, through forced standing. He began to be “visibly shaken,” hallucinated dogs being set upon his family, and grew nearly inarticulate. Sleep deprivation was paused for two days, and then resumed for another 21 hours.
Majid Khan was rectally inserted with a pureed cocktail of hummus, pasta with sauce, nuts and raisins
By 2005, however, a Justice Department lawyer reviewing the torture program wrote that he understood sleep deprivation “generally has few negative effects (beyond temporary cognitive impairment and transient hallucinations).”
Khan gave his interrogators no functional intelligence. Eventually, the CIA suspected him of not being the man they intended to capture. He would not be let go until after four more years of military detention, despite new intelligence indicating the man who snitched on him to the US had a family vendetta against him.
Related torture techniques that neither Tenet nor the Justice Department formally sanctioned were “rectal rehydration” and “rectal feeding.” The Senate report says the rectal insertions occurred “without evidence of medical necessity.”
Majid Khan, who once lived in Maryland and is currently at Guántanamo Bay, was rectally inserted with a pureed cocktail of hummus, pasta with sauce, nuts and raisins. Another detainee subjected to the procedure, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, experienced chronic hemmorhoids, an anal fissure and a “symptomatic rectal prolapse.” Medical officials, impressed with the “ancillary” effectiveness of the technique, were found to view rectal rehydration not as a medical treatment but “a means of behavior control.”
Senior CIA officials became aware of allegations that the rectal exams occurred with “excessive force” at Cobalt. “CIA records do not indicate any resolution of the inquiry” into those allegations, the report said, in a footnote.
The numbers tell a story of disarray within a torture program that was closely held to few within the CIA. At least 17 detainees would be tortured without Tenet’s promised headquarters authorization. According to what the report says is the CIA’s own internal accounting, at least 26 people were wrongfully detained out of 119 – approximately 22%. Michael Hayden, formerly the director of the CIA and the NSA, would tell the Senate in 2008 that the CIA had held fewer than 100 detainees.
Although the CIA would free Janat Gul after his accuser recanted, the total of CIA detainees whom the Senate considered wrongfully detained excludes him.
• This article was amended on 11 December 2014 because an earlier version referred to the report being a 6,000-word study, when it meant 6,000-page study.It’s already expected to have been the world’s fastest-growing economy in 2015. But India also has the best growth prospects for the coming decade, based on the increasing variety and sophistication of the products it exports.
In new forecasts by economists led by Ricardo Hausmann at Harvard University’s Center for International Development, India’s 7% projected annual growth rate through 2024 would continue to put it ahead of China, where similar advances in productive know-how propelled the country’s rise over the past decade but are now closer to being exhausted.
China’s output growth is forecast to be just 4.3% a year on average for the next decade. Meanwhile, East African countries like Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya are projected to grow at around 6%. Several Southeast Asian countries also fare well in the forecasts: The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam are expected to see expansion of between 4.75% and 5.7%.
The economists’ predictions are based on research that suggests a country’s prosperity is most consistently determined, not by political institutions, years of schooling or the ease of doing business, but by the ability to make stuff that few others can.
This kind of collective knowledge is captured by measures, developed by Mr. Hausmann and others, of “economic complexity.” Nations that export a wide range of advanced products—everything from jet engines to medicines to soybeans—score highly on these, whereas those that produce a few, largely ubiquitous items—such as cotton, crude oil or sesame seeds—do not.
If a country’s per-capita income is low relative to others at a similar level of complexity, then that suggests there is opportunity to grow and catch up. In India, average incomes are nearer to Sub-Saharan African levels than to East Asian ones, yet the country has built up world-class companies that export pharmaceuticals, autos and auto parts, petroleum products and more.
The other side of the coin is that more-advanced countries are less likely to diversify further. Germany, an innovative industrial powerhouse, was found to be the world’s second-most complex economy, according to 2014 trade data. But that is partly why its projected annual growth rate through 2024 is just 0.35%, below Cuba’s and Libya’s. U.S. growth is predicted to be 2.6%.
Economic expansion, in this model, is also harder in nations that are relatively rich despite being fundamentally limited in productive capability. Greece is in this category, as are countries dependent on mineral wealth: Venezuela, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia.
One limitation of the Harvard research is that it only uses data on trade in goods. Services such as business outsourcing, finance and software constitute a growing share of countries’ productive knowledge and output, not least in India.
For breaking news, features and analysis from India, follow WSJ India on Facebook.Football team spends Saturday helping community instead of playing
The University of Colorado was supposed to play host to Fresno State at Folsom Field on Saturday afternoon, but when historic rains led to massive flooding in and around Boulder this week the school postponed the football game and hosted flood victims and first responders at the stadium instead.
Colorado football players and coaches, joined by other student-athletes and athletic department staffers, served lunch to approximately 800 residents of married and family housing and first responders on the suite level at Folsom Field early Saturday afternoon.
Hundreds of residents in married and family housing units adjacent to the football practice fields had to be evacuated when Boulder Creek rose dramatically Thursday and Friday. The swollen creek cut off power and water and flooded some units.
Centerplate, the company that handles concessions in Folsom Field, had the food for Saturday's game delivered Friday before the school made the decision to postpone the game. Athletic director Rick George said it was a no-brainer choosing to give the food to those who need it most right now.
"A lot of the people we're giving it to are young kids who live in married housing who still don't have water or power and some of them don't have food in their refrigerators," George said. "To be able to do this is terrific. Our student-athletes and coaches are a great group of people."
Televisions and the stadium big screens showed other college games around the country as the Buffs served up hamburgers, hotdogs, brats, cookies and chips and other game day staples.
"It's been a really nice break and a nice little diversion for us," said officer Matthew DeLaria of the CU Police Department. "It's nice to see the players and everybody out here working to support the community.
"It's been hard. It's been exhausting. All the police, fire and ambulance crews are just running and running and running. We're all working 12-hour shifts at least. So we're tired but we're hanging in there. We've got a lot of support from the community. So it's been good."
Everyone would have preferred to see the Buffs on the field against the Bulldogs, but being able to relax, eat and watch something other than rising water was a welcome relief.
The Buffs won't play again until a Sept. 28 road game at Oregon State. Next week was a previously scheduled bye week. They don't play in Folsom Field again until Oct. 5 against Oregon.
Eugene and Shana Ding live approximately 100 yards from Boulder Creek in married and family housing. They were awakened by police at 2 a.m. Friday and told to evacuate. They chose to stay with their two sons and keep an eye on the rising water. Neighbors on the third-floor above their ground-floor apartment offered to open their doors to the family if needed.
"This is great," Eugene Ding said. "We celebrate that we survived.... We really feel like a family."
Mike and Barbara MacFerrin live at Smiley Court near 30th Street and Arapahoe. They were not evacuated and never lost power in their apartment, but they recently moved from a complex closer to the creek where residents were evacuated. The couple is expecting their first child together in a month and was in the middle of unpacking when the flooding began.
Mike MacFerrin, a CU graduate student who is working on his doctorate in the Geography Department, said he had never seen Boulder Creek running at more than 600 cubic feet per second. He said he received a text near midnight Thursday telling him the creek was running at more than 5,000 cubic feet per second.
The MacFerrins said they are thankful to CU for the meal and a few hours of distraction and they consider themselves lucky compared to friends and neighbors.
"Just moving in and my wife due in a month, I did not want to have our apartment flooded, everything ruined and trying to figure out what to do from there," Mike MacFerrin said. "We got lucky."
CU place-kicker Will Oliver is one of eight members of the football team who has been displaced from his apartment by the flooding. Oliver joined his teammates in serving food to others who have endured three straight nights of sirens and flood warnings telling citizens to move to higher ground.
"A lot of these people have lost their homes," Oliver said. "Their homes are flooded and they have no idea what they're going to do. It's nice to be able to give back and make sure everyone is OK."
CU coach Mike MacIntyre and his family pitched in, and, at times, MacIntyre looked like a proud father watching CU players carrying trays of food, emptying trash bags and talking with children and their parents.
"This truly teaches life lessons," MacIntyre said. "There are a lot more important things than football."
Contact staff writer Kyle Ringo at ringok@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/kyleringo.FirstHome launched to support provincial first home buyers
1 October 2013
FirstHome launched to support provincial first home buyers
A new Housing New Zealand initiative called FirstHome to help families buy their own home was announced today in Blenheim by Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith.
“FirstHome will help modest income earners in provincial New Zealand buy their first home by gifting them a 10 per cent deposit and giving them priority to purchase surplus vacant state houses no longer needed by Housing New Zealand,” Dr Smith says.
“FirstHome will improve housing outcomes at both ends of the affordability spectrum. It will help modest income families in provincial New Zealand buy their first home. It will also free up capital from these surplus vacant properties to invest in new state houses in high demand areas like Auckland and Christchurch.
“There is nothing new in selling surplus vacant state houses, with 1280 being sold during the last Government. The new policy is giving modest income first home buyers preference and gifting them a 10 per cent deposit rather than selling the properties on the open market.”
Dr Smith made the announcement at a three-bedroom FirstHome property in Blenheim which will be placed on the market on 7 October for $160,000.
FirstHome eligibility criteria is that applicants’ must be first home buyers, have an income equal to, or less than, the national household average (one person $53,000, two or more persons $80,600) and be committed to owning and living in the house for a minimum of three years. Housing New Zealand will make a grant of 10 per cent of the property’s market value, up to a maximum of $20,000. Buyers may also be eligible for other home ownership assistance such as the KiwiSaver first-home deposit subsidy and savings withdrawal, and a Welcome Home Loan.
“Housing New Zealand advises that with the high holding costs of these properties with council rates, vandalism and upkeep, the cost of the FirstHome grants will largely be offset. The revenue from the sales will be used to help fund the $2.9 billion record investment in Housing New Zealand’s state housing stock to ensure homes are in the right place, are of the right size and are of good quality,” Dr Smith says.
“The first 41 of these homes will be ready for sale on 7 October and consist of properties from Otorohanga to Invercargill. They have an average market valuation of $120,000. 100 properties will be available in the first year, with about 400 available for sale over the next three years.
“The properties available for FirstHome are those that are vacant and unlikely to be required for eligible state house tenants because of their size and location.”
This new initiative is a small part of the Government’s broader programme of measures to help families get into their first home. Action is being taken on freeing up land supply, reforming the Resource Management Act, reigning in council development charges, scrutinising building material costs, reducing compliance costs, and improving productivity in the construction sector. The Government has also made changes that will double the number of people eligible for a KiwiSaver first-home deposit subsidy and treble the number of people receiving a Welcome Home Loan, effective from today.
“My first home was an ex-state house. They are solid, well-built and many are well suited for renovation and home improvement. I welcome being able to help hundreds of other New Zealanders get onto the first rung of the property ladder,” Dr Smith says.
1. Questions and Answers.
________________________________________
FirstHome Questions and Answers
1. Who is eligible for the FirstHome initiative?
To be eligible for the FirstHome initiative the applicant must:
Be aged 18 years or older. Be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident. Be a first home buyer and not currently own property or land (previous home owners may be eligible for the initiative if their income, assets and liabilities represent a financial position that would be expected of a person who has never owned a property, as well as meeting the other FirstHome criteria). Be planning to live in the house for at least three years and not purchase it for investment purposes. Have not received a FirstHome grant before. Have a gross annual income of $53,000 or less (before tax) for one applicant, or a combined gross annual income of $80,600 or less (before tax) for two or more applicants (earned in the past 12 months). Be pre-approved by a certified lender and hold a valid pre-approved letter or certificate that shows the maximum amount that can be borrowed.
2. What do buyers need to do?
Check they are eligible for the FirstHome initiative by completing a self-assessment online or calling Housing New Zealand free on 0508 935 266. Obtain pre-approved finance from a certified lender. Apply to Housing New Zealand for a FirstHome grant and obtain an approval certificate. Contact the participating real estate agent in the area they are looking to buy for a list of properties for sale. A list of agents can be found by visiting www.hnzc.co.nz or by calling Housing New Zealand free on 0508 935 266. Once they have found a suitable home they would like to buy the real estate agent will guide them through the purchase process. Sign a Sale and Purchase Agreement with Housing New Zealand.
3. Are the properties stand-alone houses or units?
The properties for sale through the FirstHome initiative are a mixture of stand-alone and twin unit houses.
4. Will property values be affected in the areas where the houses are being sold?
The houses will all be sold at market value. Properties will be released on the market as they become available and Housing New |
Carter the FBI had just concluded its latest investigation and “was unable to uncover any evidence of theft, although the interviews included many current and former NUMEC employees.” In fact, the FBI investigation continued for two more years, and interviews of former NUMEC employees revealed suspicious circumstances concerning NUMEC's shipments to Israel in the mid-1960s. Brzezinski opined, “While a diversion might have occurred, there is no evidence—despite an intensive search for some—to prove that one did. For every piece of evidence that implies one conclusion, there is another piece that argues the opposite. One is pretty much left with making a personal judgment—based on instinct—as to whether the diversion did or did not occur.”
Brzezinski went on to say, “So far as we know however, (and we have made serious efforts to discover it) there is nothing to indicate CIA participation in the alleged theft.” There were rumors in Congress of possible involvement by government officials in the act itself or its coverup as evidenced by the questions asked during Shackley’s briefings of various congressmen in 1977. At the end of the memorandum, Brzezinski wrote, “We face tough sledding in the next few weeks (particularly in view of Cy’s [Secretary of State Cyrus Vance's] Mid-East trip) in trying to keep attention focused on ERDA’s technical arguments and, if necessary, on the FBI investigations, and away from the CIA’s information."
Document 28 "The NUMEC Case – Discussion with Staff Members of the House Energy Committee and Mr. Carl Duckett, Retired CIA Employee," CIA Memorandum for the Record, Theodore G. Shackley, August 3, 1977, labeled SECRET SENSITIVE before redaction and release.
Source: CIA FOIA Reference No. F-2010-01210|1:15-cv-00224.
On August 2, 1977, Theodore Shackley, Carl Duckett (by then retired from CIA) and a representative of CIA's Office of Legislative Counsel briefed staffers of the Subcommittee on Energy and Power of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, at the request of Congressman Dingell. Shackley pointed out that he was neither a scientist nor a first-hand participant in the events that unfolded from 1968 to 1977 relative to the NUMEC case. He merely provided "supervision to the people who were conducting research on the Agency's involvement in the NUMEC case."
The discussion centered on Duckett's recollections. Duckett said "CIA had been concerned about the nuclear weapons proliferation issue for a number of years (six lines redacted). As a result, CIA began to look at information which was available to it concerning possible diversion of uranium materials from NUMEC." Reading between the lines, it seems likely the Agency gathered some intelligence in Israel that there was enriched uranium in the Israeli weapons program that could not have been produced there. Hence, the Agency went looking for other sources and focused on NUMEC.
Shackley confirmed that Helms wrote to the attorney general in 1968 requesting an investigation because of the possibility that a diversion from NUMEC had taken place. Duckett told the staffers "he could say with certainty that CIA, as an institution, had not been involved in any kind of nuclear materials diversion operation."
Shackley said he did not know if an FBI investigation of the NUMEC case was currently underway. Why he would not know is a mystery. In response to questions about who would have first-hand knowledge of past investigations of the NUMEC case, Duckett referred the Congressional staffers to George Murphy of the Joint Committee staff and Richard Kennedy, who was then an NRC commissioner and had been a member of the National Security Council staff. Shackley stressed throughout the briefing that the CIA "did not have any facts which would stand up in court which could be used to conclusively prove that there was linkage between the alleged NUMEC diversion (six lines redacted)."
Document 29 "Briefing of Senator John Glenn Democrat, Ohio, on the NUMEC Case," CIA Memorandum for the Record, Theodore G. Shackley, Associate Deputy Director for Operations, August 6, 1977, labeled SECRET SENSITIVE before redaction and release.
Document 30 "Briefing of Congressman Mike McCormack, Democrat, Washington, on the NUMEC Case," CIA Memorandum for the Record, Theodore G. Shackley, Associate Deputy Director for Operations, August 6, 1977, labeled SECRET SENSITIVE before redaction and release.
Source: Both documents come from CIA FOIA Reference No. F-2010-01210|1:15-cv-00224.
Shackley provided briefings for Senator John Glenn (D-OH) and Representative C. G. Mike McCormack (D-WA). Leonard Weiss of Senator Glenn's staff attended the Glenn briefing. The cover memoranda did not get into the details of Shackley's two briefings. There were lengthy question-and-answer exchanges with Glenn and fewer exchanges with McCormack. Some of the exchanges were redacted completely when CIA released the memoranda. However, it is clear that Glenn and McCormack were interested in the involvement of the presidents who had knowledge of the case, i.e., Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter. Shackley and his colleague told Glenn they had not seen any single document "which would lead to a flat conclusion that a diversion had occurred …." Glenn asked if there were "bad connections between FBI and CIA on NUMEC." Shackley stressed that the two agencies took different approaches to the basic question. "CIA was trying to obtain information which would clarify an intelligence estimate. On the other hand, the FBI was looking for material that could be used in a criminal case." In response to another question, Shackley denied there was any U.S. government involvement in the diversion.
Shackley's summary of the McCormack briefing was much shorter. McCormack asked what he stressed was a hypothetical question, "If President Johnson had directed that a diversion of nuclear materials occur, would the CIA have known it?" Shackley responded, "This is a question that should be put to those who were direct participants in the events of the time. In short, this would be the type of question that Mr. Helms or Mr. Duckett could best comment on." Shackley gave a similar answer to another question by McCormack, "Suppose CIA Director Helms and FBI Director Hoover had stumbled on information suggesting a possible diversion authorized at the highest level of the U.S. Government? What then?"
Document 31 "Briefing of Representative Morris K. Udall, Democrat, Arizona, on the NUMEC Case," CIA Memorandum for the Record, Theodore G. Shackley, Associate Deputy Director for Operations, August 26, 1977, labeled SECRET SENSITIVE before redaction and release.
Source: CIA FOIA Reference No. F-2010-01210|1:15-cv-00224.
Shackley and two other CIA staffers briefed Congressman Udall and his committee staffer, Dr. Henry Myers. The briefing apparently followed the same outline as the August 5 briefings of Senator Glenn and Congressman McCormack. There were interesting similarities and some differences in Udall and Myers' questions compared to earlier briefings. When asked whether FBI had interviewed Zalman Shapiro, Shackley said the "Agency has no knowledge of any direct debriefing of Mr. Shapiro by the FBI." Asked if President Johnson, "who was known to be a friend of Israel, could have encouraged the flow of nuclear materials to the Israelis," Shackley responded: "There is no information in the CIA files which are currently available to us which would indicate that President Johnson had ever undertaken any action which would have resulted in a diversion of nuclear materials to Israel." The CIA redacted nearly two pages of the answer to the question of how one would go about diverting material from NUMEC to Israel. In another answer, Shackley "stressed that CIA had never obtained any hard intelligence (half line redacted) which clearly linked NUMEC to the subsequent production of uranium-based nuclear weapons by Israel." Perhaps that redaction concerns the HEU that CIA found in the environment near Dimona, which Shackley described to the ERDA officials on July 29.
Document 32 “Amendments to the Freedom of Information Act,” CIA Internal Memorandum for George Cary OLC, from Herbert E. Hetu, Assistant for Public Affairs, January 16, 1978, labeled before redaction and release.
Source: CIA CREST Database, March 24, 2005, CIA-RDP81M00980R0002002-0038-7
This document was among a group of internal memoranda that gathered CIA staff support for the Agency’s request for relief from the Freedom of Information Act. It was written at the time that NUMEC was a priority concern for two committees of the U.S. House of Representatives. It read in part, “In addition to the concerns raised by the Director in the referenced memorandum, I believe the Agency's image has suffered unnecessary damage and the public has been misled because of the FOIA requirement to release bits and pieces of information. Three good examples are: MKULTRA … Glomar … [and] Israeli firing on the Liberty …. The Berlin Tunnel operation, NUMEC and the Kennedy assassination are just three FOIA requests and appeals that have potential for similar damage.”
Document 33 "Meeting with the NRC," CIA Memorandum for the Record, February 3, 1978, probably written by ADDO Shackley, with attachments, labeled SECRET before redaction and release.
Source: CIA FOIA Reference No. F-2010-01210|1:15-cv-00224.
Shackley briefed officials of the NRC on CIA's "role and position relating to the NUMEC case." The briefing occurred in two settings, so there were never more than two commissioners in attendance to avoid a requirement for a recording of the meeting pursuant to the Government in Sunshine Act. The NRC attendees were given the opportunity to read a Talking Paper that summarized the CIA information. The four-page Talking Paper was completely redacted when released by the CIA. The summary of the meeting included the CIA statement, “We agreed with [NRC Commissioner Kennedy's] assessment, confirmed that there was no legal evidence of diversion from NUMEC. (One and a half lines redacted) which prompted CIA interest in the nuclear material missing from NUMEC …. Mr. Hendrie concluded, as a result of this discussion, that the time frame of the MUF [inventory difference]—mid '60's—was compatible with the time phasing expressed in the Talking Paper.” In response to an NRC question about evidence of a diversion, the CIA said, "… there is no hard evidence, but a series of events and facts led to our intelligence conclusion that a diversion was a likely possibility."
In addition to the Talking Paper, the CIA also released an outline of the February 2 NRC briefing. One entry in the outline read: "Process of deductive reasoning to find out how uranium obtained." This entry was followed by the subheadings: "Results of Deductive Analysis, NUMEC, Shapiro, Centrifuge, (redacted)." The outline summarized the "Key Issues" with the following subheadings: "No Investigation of NUMEC by CIA, No Diversion by CIA, and No Hard Evidence."
Document 34 “Inquiry into the Testimony of the Executive Director for Operations,” Volume I Summary Report, NRC Offices of General Counsel and Inspector and Auditor, February 1978, labeled SECRET before redaction and release.
Document 35 “Inquiry into the Testimony of the Executive Director for Operations,” Volume III Interviews, NRC Offices of General Counsel and Inspector and Auditor, February 1978, labeled SECRET before redaction and release.
Source: ISCAP APPEAL NO. 2012-004, documents 1 & 2, March 18, 2014.
These two volumes of the report describe a series of interviews by NRC’s Office of General Council (OGC) and Office of Inspector and Auditor (OIA) of people connected to the testimony of NRC’s executive director for operations, General Lee Gossick, before the Udall and Dingell committees of the House of Representatives in summer 1977. The second volume of the report contained documents referenced by the interviewees and answers to congressional staff questions. It is not provided here. The issue that prompted the inquiry was whether Gossick lied to Congress in saying there was no evidence of a diversion from Apollo. Central to this question was what Carl Duckett, CIA deputy director for science and technology, had told the NRC representatives in February 1976 about evidence CIA had garnered about such a diversion. The OGC/OIA people interviewed Duckett and recorded what he said he had told the NRC people. His recollections are found at pages 176 to 179 of Volume III of this report. ISCAP redacted some of the material in the section of the report where Duckett recounted CIA’s evidence surrounding the NUMEC affair.
Document 36 “Record of Interview with Bill Knauf and Jim Anderson, Department of Energy, Division of Inspection,” Glenn T. Seaborg, June 21, 1978.
Source: Glenn T. Seaborg Papers, Library of Congress.
Dr. Seaborg kept daily records of his business activities. He created this memo the same day that he met with the two inspectors from DOE. He said their purpose was "to interview me on the allegation that Zalman Shapiro … diverted large amounts of highly enriched Uranium-235 to Israel in the 1960's." They questioned him on the degree of surveillance by the AEC of NUMEC and the dispute the commissioners had with Attorney General John Mitchell over denying Shapiro an upgraded clearance without "granting him due process." The inspectors had already met with former AEC Commissioner James Ramey to discuss how he found a job at Westinghouse for Shapiro "rendering the question of clearance upgrade as moot." They asked Seaborg about his discussions with DCI Helms concerning NUMEC. Seaborg "asked them if any responsible persons feel that Shapiro actually diverted material to Israel. They replied that nobody with a scientific background believes this but that it is difficult to convince some members of congress. They said that some enriched Uranium-235 which can be identified as coming from the Portsmouth, Ohio plant has been picked up in Israel which, of course, has excited some members of Congress. However, such enriched material has been sold on an official basis to Israel and this could be the source of the clandestine sample." It is unclear from context whether the inspectors or Seaborg uttered the last sentence in the foregoing quote. However, it is certain from AEC/DOE records[15] that Portsmouth was the only source of 97.7 percent enriched uranium, that such uranium went entirely to U.S. naval reactor fuel, that NUMEC processed such uranium for naval reactor fuel, and that the only authorized HEU in Israel was for fuel for the research reactor at Nahal Soreq, which was 93 percent enriched.[16]
Document 37 “Notes of Washington Trips,” Papers of John L. Hadden, Briefings of DOE Inspector General and staff of Dingell and Udall committees, beginning in September 1978.
Source: Personal papers of John Hadden, Jr.
An envelope with the lettering “Washington Trip” in John Hadden's hand was included in his personal papers after his death. The envelope contained a September 1, 1978, invitation from the DOE inspector general asking him to come to the Germantown, Maryland, office of DOE. He wanted Hadden “to meet with representatives of my office to discuss freely and in complete detail your knowledge of matters relating to … Israel’s nuclear power capability ….” The envelope also included a September 1, 1978, letter from DCI Stansfield Turner stating, “The scope of the Inspector General’s inquiry may encompass information which you have pledged not to reveal pursuant to the terms of the secrecy agreement which you executed when you entered on duty with the Central Intelligence Agency. You are hereby released from the terms of that secrecy agreement, for the purpose of the Inspector General’s inquiry, within the limitations set out below ….” The envelope included handwritten notes on five sheets of yellow legal paper. The notes apparently were an outline of what Hadden told congressional investigators and the DOE inspector general. Hadden’s notes outline the basis for his conclusion that NUMEC was part of a broader Israeli-American conspiracy to support the Israeli nuclear weapons program.
Document 38 “Nuclear Diversion in the U.S.? 13 Years of Contradiction and Confusion,” Report by the Comptroller General of the United States, December 18, 1978, labeled SECRET before redaction and release.
Source: ISCAP Appeal No. 2013-078, document #1, March 18, 2014.
In 2010 the government released the December 18, 1978, GAO report and related correspondence in response to a FOIA request. There were multi-page redactions in the report encompassing almost every paragraph that referred to the CIA, even though the report was then 32 years old. On March 18, 2014, ISCAP released a less redacted version of the GAO report in response to an appeal by Grant Smith of IRmep. The report shows that in 1978 GAO joined a growing chorus saying a diversion could not be ruled out and added that there were differing professional opinions on the matter within the CIA. A letter from Stansfield Turner that was attached to the report addressed the allegations of possible involvement by the CIA and the president.
Document 39 “Transcript of Proceedings: Hearing Held before Executive Session of Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Informal Meeting between Interior Committee Representatives and Dr. Zalman M. Shapiro,” December 21, 1978.
Source: University of Arizona, Special Collections Library, Papers of Morris Udall.
On December 21, 1978, Zalman Shapiro finally had his chance to answer the charges made against him and set the record straight when Congressman Morris Udall (D-AZ) interviewed him at the Longworth House Office Building in Washington, DC. Three lawyers appeared on behalf of Shapiro from the Washington office of the Arnold & Porter law firm, a registered agent for the State of Israel.[17] Hadrian Katz from Arnold & Porter told Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) in 2009 that Shapiro was “our long-time pro bono client and friend.” Udall dubbed the interview “an informal meeting." Shapiro was not under oath. However, he and his lawyers filed a thick brief before the interview, a 116-page verbatim transcript was taken, written opening statements by Shapiro and Udall were appended, and Shapiro’s attorneys submitted supplemental remarks and corrections of the transcript on January 16, 1979. Inconsistencies and errors in Shapiro’s testimony were described by Mattson.[18]
Document 40 Interview of Charles A. Keller, Assistant Manager for Manufacturing and Support, Oak Ridge Operations Office, U.S. Department of Energy, "Atomic Energy Act; Obstruction of Justice," FBI report of [redacted], November 9, 1979, labeled TOP SECRET before redaction and release.
Source: FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, no document number, p. 65-130.
Charles Keller of AEC’s Oak Ridge Operations Office (OROO) led external oversight of uranium accounting at Apollo that led to the discovery that HEU was missing in unusual quantities. He then participated in AEC’s independent inventory in late 1965 that established how much HEU was missing. Years later, Keller recounted his assessment of the situation in 1965 in an interview with the FBI. “His [Keller’s] gut feeling is that NUMEC probably lost a major part of the material through mishandling and sloppy operations …. Mr. Keller felt that a great deal of collusion would have been required to remove 50 kilograms of enriched uranium. It would also be difficult to ship this amount of material to another company with forged documents because this would require collusion with someone in another plant, which would be even more difficult.” The NRC staff later concluded it would have been relatively easy to remove the material from the Apollo plant.[19] After opining on peripheral matters, Keller summarized for the FBI his assessment of the NUMEC situation. “He said essentially the problem in a nutshell is that the material was not there that the books said should have been there but there is absolutely no way to say how or where it went. His opinion is that sloppy plant operations, lack of records, and improper sampling probably [were] the reason for the loss. He indicated, however, that if he [were] planning to steal nuclear material he would use exactly this kind of operation, i.e., sloppy handling and accounting procedures.”
Document 41 FBI Internal Report of Interviews, "DIVERT," from SAC Pittsburgh to Director FBI and Criminal Investigative Division, Terrorism Section, March 25, 1980, labeled CONFIDENTIAL before redaction and release.
Source: FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 728, released by FBI in less redacted form on September 28, 2009 per FOIPA No. 1091168-000.
The FBI interviewed an unnamed former B&W and NUMEC employee on March 21, 1980. The former employee had employment concerns with B&W at the time of the FBI interview. It is not known why the FBI closed its consideration of his allegations. The essence of the observations the former employee reported to the FBI were as follows: “In late March or early April 1965 (exact date unknown) while working [at Apollo] on a swing shift … he walked out to the loading dock for a breath of air …. He noticed a flatbed truck backed up to the loading dock with some strange equipment on it …. He advised he then noticed the NUMEC owner, Dr. Zalman Shapiro, pacing around the loading dock while (Shipping and Receiving Foreman) and (NUMEC truck driver) were loading “stove pipes” into the steel cabinet type equipment that he observed on the truck …. He stated that the “stove pipes” contained three or four canisters … that normally are used to store high enriched uranium products, which he defined as 95 percent uranium …. citing his natural curiosity … he proceeded to read the information contained on the shipping order. He said he noticed that the destination for the equipment on the truck was Israel, and that it was to be transported by ship …. After he had quickly read the information contained on the shipping order, (redacted) grabbed the clipboard away from him, telling him in words to the effect that the material contained in the shipping order was confidential and not for his eyes …. Shortly thereafter, an armed guard ordered him off the loading dock …. He advised he had not come forward before because he had a large family to support and the day following the incident, the plant Personnel Manager (name unrecalled) of NUMEC threatened to fire him if he “did not keep his mouth shut” concerning what he had seen on the loading dock the night before. He further advised he mentioned the threat he received from the Personnel Manager to his union steward, whereupon he claims he was visited by ‘some union goons’ from Kittanning, Pa., and again told to keep his mouth shut.”
Document 42 NRC Letter, from Robert F. Burnett, Director Division of Safeguards, NRC, to (Redacted), Federal Bureau of Investigation, May 19, 1982, unclassified.
Source: FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 759.
One of the last documents in the FBI files on NUMEC is a May 19, 1982, letter from the NRC to the FBI transmitting a summation of the uranium found during the decommissioning of Apollo. The attachment says that processing of highly enriched uranium by NUMEC at Apollo began in 1957 and ceased in 1978 and that the cumulative inventory difference for the operating period from 1957 to 1978 was 463 kilograms of U-235. It concludes, “The total amount of material accounted for [recovered] to date as a result of the decommissioning effort is 95 kilograms U-235 …. Additionally, licensee measurements indicate that approximately 31 kilograms of U-235 are held up in the walls and floors. The resulting total cumulative ID [inventory difference] for the period from 1957 to present is 368 kilograms U-235.” That is, NRC told FBI to expect that 337 kilograms (368 minus 31) of U-235 would remain missing from the uranium plant at Apollo when B&W completed the decommissioning. The estimate that the NRC provided to the FBI was in close agreement with the aforementioned 2001 DOE report (declassified in 2006), which reported the cumulative HEU inventory difference at Apollo as 269 kilograms of U-235 through 1968 and 76 kilograms thereafter, for a total cumulative inventory difference over the life of the plant of 345 kilograms.
NOTES
[1] Stealing the Atom Bomb: How Denial and Deception Armed Israel, Roger J. Mattson, 2016. Divert: NUMEC, Zalman Shapiro and the Diversion of U.S. Weapons Grade Uranium into the Israeli Nuclear Weapons Program, Grant F. Smith, Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, Inc., 2012. “Revisiting the NUMEC Affair,” Victor Gilinsky and Roger J. Mattson, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March/April 2010. “Did Israel steal bomb-grade uranium from the United States?” Victor Gilinsky and Roger J. Mattson, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, April 17, 2014.
[2] http://www.post-gazette.com/news/obituaries/2006/03/10/Obituary-David-Lowenthal-Innovative-industrialist-who-helped-Jews-settle-in-Israel/stories/200603100223
[3] Former AEC Chairman Glenn T. Seaborg described the NUMEC affair in three of his books. He generally defended Shapiro and said there were alternative explanations for the HEU that went missing from Apollo. See Seaborg, Glenn T. with Loeb, Benjamin S., Stemming the Tide: Arms Control in the Johnson Years, Lexington Books, 1987; Seaborg, Glenn T. with Loeb, Benjamin S., The Atomic Energy Commission under Nixon: Adjusting to Troubled Times, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1993; and Seaborg, Glenn T. and Seaborg, Eric, Adventures in the Atomic Age: From Watts to Washington, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2001.
[4] Stealing the Atom Bomb: How Denial and Deception Armed Israel, Roger J. Mattson, p. 155, 167.
[5] Those claims are being put to the test by ongoing appeals of FOIA denials, Mandatory Declassification Reviews and at least one lawsuit against the CIA that seeks operational files underlying its summary reports on NUMEC.
[6] The Sampson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy, Seymour M. Hersh, Random House, NY, 1991, p. 255.
[7] “Highly Enriched Uranium: Striking a Balance, A Historical Report on the United States Highly Enriched Uranium Production, Acquisition and Utilization Activities from 1945 through September 30, 1996,” U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Revision 1, January 2001 (declassified and released in January 2006).
[8] Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the U.S.-Israeli Covert Relationship, Andrew and Leslie Cockburn, HarperCollins, NY, 1991, p. 79. “CIA Tales of ‘Lost’ Uranium Seem to Conflict,” John J. Fialka, Washington Star, January 28, 1979.
[9] “Scientist developed nuclear fuel for USS Nautilus.” TRIB LIVE, Mary Ann Thomas, July 18, 2016. “Zalman Shapiro, scientist and supporter of Israel, passes away at 96,” The Jewish Chronicle, Adam Reinherz, July 28, 2016.
[10] Stealing the Atom Bomb: How Denial and Deception Armed Israel, Roger J. Mattson, p. 55-56.
[11] LAKAM was an Israeli intelligence unit established in 1957 by Shimon Peres, then the director general of the Ministry of Defense. LAKAM is the Hebrew acronym for the Science Liaison Bureau. Its first director, who lasted in the job for 20 years, was a former Shin Bet operative named Binyamin Blumberg. The rationale for the creation of LAKAM was to provide technological intelligence to serve the nuclear project. Israeli intelligence officials have said that LAKAM’s original reason for being was to collect scientific intelligence behind friendly lines in the West.
[12] Stealing the Atom Bomb: How Denial and Deception Armed Israel, Roger J. Mattson, 2016, p. 109-116.
[13] Stealing the Atom Bomb: How Denial and Deception Armed Israel, Roger J. Mattson, 2016, p. 188.
[14] “CIA Tales of ‘Lost’ Uranium Seem to Conflict,” John J. Fialka, Washington Star, January 28, 1979.
[15] “Highly Enriched Uranium: Striking a Balance; A Historical Report of the United States Highly Enriched Uranium Production, Acquisition and Utilization Activities from 1945 through September 30, 1996,” U.S. Department of Energy, Revision 1, January 2001 (declassified January 2006).
[16] Stealing the Atom Bomb: How Denial and Deception Armed Israel, Roger J. Mattson, 2016, p. 27, 40, 214.
[17] Divert: NUMEC, Zalman Shapiro and the Diversion of U.S. Weapons Grade Uranium into the Israeli Nuclear Weapons Program, Grant F. Smith, Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, Inc., 2012. p. 204. "Supplemental Statement Pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended," U.S. Department of Justice, Registrant: Arnold and Porter LLP, Foreign Principal: State of Israel, December 31, 2014.
[18] Stealing the Atom Bomb: How Denial and Deception Armed Israel, Roger J. Mattson, 2016 p. 217 ff.
[19] “A Safeguards Case Study of the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation Uranium Processing Plant, Apollo, Pennsylvania,” W. Altman, J. Hockert, and E. Quinn, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NUREG-0627, January 1980.
March/April 2010, and a sequel in April 2014. Mattson is the author of a recent book, Stealing the Atom Bomb: How Denial and Deception Armed Israel.Connecting lists and forms, performance guidelines, editing features, and UI state
Intro
In Part 5, we added sourcemap support, used Redux-ORM to define and load data, and added some basic item selection tracking. This time, we'll connect lists and forms directly to Redux, discuss performance considerations, implement basic editing capabilities, and add conditional UI state handling.
The code for this project is on Github at github.com/markerikson/project-minimek. The original WIP commits I made for this post can be seen in PR #6: Practical Redux Part 6 WIP, and the final "clean" commits can be seen in in PR #5: Practical Redux Part 6 Final.
I'll be linking to each "final" commit as I go through the post, as well as specific files in those commits. I won't paste every changed file in here or show every single changed line, to save space, but rather try to show the most relevant changes for each commit as appropriate.
Table of Contents
Connecting Additional Components
Picking up where we left off, we can see that each of our main "panel" components are connected to Redux, as well as the TabBar component. However, none of the components within those panels are directly connected. Instead, we're passing data and action creators down as props from each panel to its children. It's perfectly fine to only have a few connected components, but as an app grows, this can become a pain point.
The Redux FAQ covers this topic in the question "Should I only connect my top component, or can I connect multiple components in my tree?". Quoting the answer:
The current suggested best practice is to categorize your components as “presentational” or “container” components, and extract a connected container component wherever it makes sense: Emphasizing “one container component at the top” in Redux examples was a mistake. Don't take this as a maxim. Try to keep your presentation components separate. Create container components by connecting them when it's convenient. Whenever you feel like you're duplicating code in parent components to provide data for same kinds of children, time to extract a container. Generally as soon as you feel a parent knows too much about “personal” data or actions of its children, time to extract a container. In fact, benchmarks have shown that more connected components generally leads to better performance than fewer connected components. In general, try to find a balance between understandable data flow and areas of responsibility with your components.
Following this idea, our next step will be to connect more individual components at a finer-grained level of detail.
Connecting the PilotDetails Component
We'll start with the <PilotDetails> component. Right now, the <Pilots> component is retrieving a list of all Pilot objects in its mapState function, plus the currentPilot ID value. Then, when it renders, it does a lookup to find which Pilot entry matches the selected ID, and passes that object to <PilotDetails>. We can connect <PilotDetails> directly, and remove that logic from <Pilots>.
This is a straightforward transformation. We'll add a mapState function to <PilotDetails>, look up the right Pilot object by ID if available, and return that entry. While we're at it, we'll also tweak the input components to be disabled, so that the user knows they can't actually interact with them.
features/pilots/PilotDetails/PilotDetails.jsx
import React from "react"; +import {connect} from "react-redux"; import {Form, Dropdown} from "semantic-ui-react"; +import schema from "app/schema"; +import {selectCurrentPilot} from "../pilotsSelectors"; +const mapState = (state) => { + let pilot; + + const currentPilot = selectCurrentPilot(state); + + const session = schema.from(state.entities); + const {Pilot} = session; + + if(Pilot.hasId(currentPilot)) { + pilot = Pilot.withId(currentPilot).ref; + } + + return {pilot} +} // Omit component code for space -export default PilotDetails; +export default connect(mapState)(PilotDetails);
features/pilots/Pilots/Pilots.jsx
render() { const {pilots = [], selectPilot, currentPilot} = this.props; - const currentPilotEntry = pilots.find(pilot => pilot.id === currentPilot) || {} // Omit irrelevant rendering code - <PilotDetails pilot={currentPilotEntry} /> + <PilotDetails />
The mapState connection replaces the logic we had in <Pilots>.
Connecting the PilotsList Component
Next up is the <PilotsList> component. The <Pilots> component currently extracts the actual Pilot objects from the store, passes them as an array to <PilotsList>, and then each individual plain Pilot object is passed as a prop to the "presentational" list items. We could just move the current mapState logic from <Pilots> to <PilotsList> and leave it at that, but instead, we're going to implement one of the most useful Redux techniques: a connected list that passes item IDs to connected list items. Let's look at the implementation, then discuss some of the details of the specific approach we're using.
The mapState for <PilotsList> will need to return an array of IDs for all Pilot entries. <PilotsList> will then render its list of <PilotsListRow> components, and pass the appropriate pilot ID into each list item. Either the list or the list item will need to determine if that list item is currently selected. There's valid arguments either way, but since we're already passing a selected flag into each list item, we'll leave that in place.
features/pilots/PilotsList/PilotsList.jsx
+import {selectPilot} from "../pilotsActions"; +import {selectCurrentPilot} from "../pilotsSelectors"; + + +const mapState = (state) => { + const session = schema.from(state.entities); + const {Pilot} = session; + + // Extract a list of IDs for each Pilot entry + const pilots = Pilot.all().withModels.map(pilotModel => pilotModel.getId()); + + const currentPilot = selectCurrentPilot(state); + + // Return the list of pilot IDs and the current pilot ID as props + return {pilots, currentPilot}; +} + +// Make an object full of action creators that can be passed to connect +// and bound up, instead of writing a separate mapDispatch function +const actions = { + selectPilot, +}; + export class PilotsList extends Component { render() { - const {pilots, onPilotClicked, currentPilot} = this.props; + const {pilots = [], selectPilot, currentPilot} = this.props; - const pilotRows = pilots.map(pilot => ( + const pilotRows = pilots.map(pilotID => ( <PilotsListRow - pilot={pilot} - key={pilot.name} - onPilotClicked={onPilotClicked} - selected={pilot.id === currentPilot} + pilotID={pilotID} + key={pilotID} + onPilotClicked={selectPilot} + selected={pilotID === currentPilot} /> ));
The Model.getId() method is useful if you don't happen to know the exact name of the ID field for a model type. Maybe it's actually name, or guid, or something else. We can declare the ID field name as part of the model declaration, and the getId() method will use that to look up the right field when asked.
There's a few other ways we could come up with the list of Pilot IDs. Since we do know the ID field name in the plain Pilot objects, |
rational, serious types with Gordon, Ashton, Jessie and Lillian-”
Jessie covered my mouth with her hand.
“You’re always a little fuzzy around the edges when you come back from the brink, Sy,” she said.
“Mmph,” I said. Then I gestured. Lies.
“It’s true,” she said. “You get a little bit wobbly. Minor blood loss and exhaustion might be helping to keep you wobbly. But those are our people in there. We made pledges to them.”
I nodded, Jessie’s hand clamped against my lower face.
“Of the last forty-five times we’ve been in a situation like this, me asking you to be serious, with good reason to be serious, you’ve only listened half the time. It’s actually very close to fifty percent, which… really says a lot. Are you actually going to be serious?”
I stuck my tongue out, and as slowly as I was able, I licked the palm of the hand that was clamped over my mouth.
I did get the faint break in composure I was looking for. A flash, too brief for my battered senses to even fully assess before they were gone, then a glance away, as if she was disappointed in herself for giving me that.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” she said, her hand dropping away.
“It was either that, or I was going to gesture something like ‘big sleep dragon’.”
“We don’t really have a gesture for dragon. Lizard-beast?”
I gestured. Man. Meat.
Her composure broke for real. She was so caught off guard that she snorted a little. She pushed her glasses up to cover her face with her hands.
“It sounds quiet,” I said, getting serious. “No sound from inside, except maybe the patter of talking. We’ll know more as we get close. The gunfire was brief, it really does look like a surrender, like you said. What can see through windows suggests that they’re calm, not agitated.”
“We should still focus,” Jessie said.
“I don’t know about you, blushing and thinking about Helen’s brother’s pendulum, but it’s an established fact that I can think about multiple things at once and it’s usually pretty good thinking.”
“Yeah? Then regale us with your brilliant idea, sir.”
“I don’t have the slightest of clues how to tackle this.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“This is your turn to step up, say you know the building layout and we’ve got this.”
“In a strange city, with no prior experience?”
“That’s where you say that you recognize the building design, it’s by so-and-so an architect, he builds things certain ways, and so we know there’s going to be an access point here and here and there.”
“I don’t have anything. But I’m going to read up on architects, if I get a chance. There can only be so many tall building designers.”
Helen reached out, waving a hand in front of us.
Her hands moved, and I could see the concerted effort she was making to get shaking fingers into specific shapes. The more effort she put in, the more her fingers seemed to shake, until they locked up.
She remained like that for a long moment, hands in claws, head bowed and face covered by hair, before I reached out to take her hands. Her head moved, resting so it lay sideways on Jessie’s shoulder.
“You want to say something?” I asked.
Helen nodded, her head still sideways.
The phantom Helen, intact, stepped to the fore, Fray’s arms around her shoulders, a possessive embrace.
Think like Helen thinks. I can finish the sentences of any of the Lambs. The other Lambs have changed some, but I can figure her out like this, can’t I?
Her hand pulled free of mine, and as if it were heavy, she lifted it, indicating a direction.
As if answering, her brother tore up the next part of the street. I could hear the distant avalanche of falling construction as he let it all settle.
“Okay,” I said.
She indicated the building that Cynthia’s soldiers and our rebels were gathered in.
“Right.”
Then, with uncooperative hands, she reached for the side of her skirt. There was a pocket hidden among pleats, and a small weight in the pocket.
My mind skipped along possibilities. Both Mary and Helen often kept some money in the same leather fold that had the badge we’d been given ages ago, that bore the Radham crest and the short message and signature that gave us a degree of access.
Had given.
The intact Helen held up the badge, indicating the emblem.
“Radham,” I said. Helen nodded. I then eyed the other Helen, who beat bloody Helen in touching her throat. “Buildings and cities are lifeforms. They need air, water, food of a sort, they need a spine.”
Helen was nodding with as much energy as I’d seen from her since she got shot.
“The building has its own veins and arteries, airways. You want to use the airways?”
Helen nodded.
“I’ll have you know that those airways are almost always half-filled with dust, they have nails sticking through everywhere, and half of them have ecosystems to keep them clear of rodents and pests.”
“But it’s a way of accessing them,” Jessie said.
Helen made a clumsy gesture.
“And Helen thinks it’ll be a healthier, more robust system, because it’s a taller building,” I said.
“I’m halfway convinced that you’re just making this nonsense up and saying Helen said it because I trust her sincerity more than I trust yours,” Jessie said.
I made my best ‘innocent’ face.
Jessie brushed at my face with her hand. “Don’t do that. Put that away. It’s creepy.”
I smiled and looked up at the building. It was tall, it wasn’t especially pretty, and it didn’t look like it did a fantastic job of being utilitarian either.
“Our kids deserve some sacrifice, huh?” I asked.
“They gave up their old lives,” Jessie said. “They deserve more than just some.”
“How long do you think we have to wait until the next shift comes to relieve the guys standing outside?” I asked.
“I couldn’t begin to guess,” Jessie said.
“Guess,” I said. “And come on. We want to be ready when they do.”
“It’s already been a while, but it wouldn’t be too trivial a length of time. I’d have to guess ten minutes. Fifteen at most.”
“I bet it’s one,” I said. “Want to bet who’s more right?”
We crossed the street from a point they couldn’t easily see us, and then we made our way closer to the building. I mentally counted the seconds, and gestured clearly as the time limit hit.
I was off by twenty seconds. We spotted the soldiers guarding the side door of the apartment building, and the relief guard stepped out to greet them as we took stock of their number.
I’d figured a minute because I had seen soldiers checking their watches with increasing frequency, because they weren’t lighting up new cigarettes, and because they were increasingly antsy, as if they were only feeling the cold now that there was a very short time before they could go inside.
Three soldiers to a door. Their job was less to shoot and more to keep watch and make sufficient noise to alert the rest if trouble came up. That posed us the task of going through them to get inside.
“You should wait here,” I told Helen.
She shook her head.
“I know you aren’t going to. But you should,” I told her.
She made her hands into claws, scratching them in the general direction of the soldiers. I wondered if that was perhaps a little overly optimistic. She barely had it in her to stand straight, let alone fight.
Three was doable, in a specific set of circumstances. We needed the drop on them, we needed them to be unarmed, or we needed them to be out of earshot of any reinforcements. Preferably two of the three.
“Helen,” I said. “Can you give me a cat noise?”
She barely moved, but my version of Helen gave me a theatrical-quality unimpressed look.
“Fine. Can you give me a dying cat noise?” I asked. “Those are the best ones.”
Helen opened her mouth, and she managed to produce a sound that resembled an old cat in a screw press; it was tortured, ragged, and yowly.
I motioned for her to stop, and I listened, waiting.
As predicted, the soldiers commented on the sound. They were concerned, they didn’t want to leave their post, but a sound like that bore investigating.
I wanted to draw them out, to create a window where they could be ambushed or where we could slip past.
Then I heard one of them say it. “Get some of the others from inside.”
I sighed. This wouldn’t be easy.
☙
All in all, it had taken us far too long to find a chink in the defenses, prodding and testing the waters at three different entry points. At the last one, the side door at the opposite end of the building to the one we had tried first, we ended up waiting until one of them was distracted before making our move. When one had stepped off to the side to take a leak, we got the attention of the remaining two. One had stepped inside, and Jessie and I had each taken one of the other two before the three of us slipped inside, just ahead of the incoming group of reinforcements.
They were careful, organized, and they had patrols throughout the ground floor of the building. But Jessie had enough of a sense of how these places were designed that she’d been able to lead us to the utility closet with access to the access door.
The access door featured a hatch in the floor that would lead down to whatever beast in the cellar was providing the voltaic power to keep the building lit, probably. The hatch in the ceiling led to the air ducts, which kept heat and airflow available in the various large apartments. There were few enough doors that I suspected that one apartment had nearly the same footprint as any small, one-level house.
Valentina was talking. The student council vice president, she was good at talking, at the emotional appeal, the marketing end of things. It sounded like she and her former superior on the student council disagreed on something important.
Davis sounded as heated as I’d ever heard him as he responded, “Is this how we’re supposed to forge a path ahead, now? We abandon anything that doesn’t show the slightest sign of working out?”
“Yes,” Valentina said. “Yes, absolutely yes. What do you expect, Davis? Sylvester and Jessie are brilliant, but they were never people I expected to be working with in five or ten years. This is a stepping stone. Just like time in the Academy was.”
“You see us with them in five years?”
“Maybe! Listen, Davis- no, Davis, listen to me, don’t turn your back. Listen. The seas are stormy out there. We’re individual ships without a port to call home. If our current employers aren’t up for keeping us fed, sheltered, safe, and giving us an opportunity to grow and learn, then we go someplace with someone who can.”
“That’s disingenuous. You’re arguing to your audience, not me.”
“Explain,” the Treasurer cut in.
“She buried the appeal to safety in there. All of you are feeling pretty darn unsafe right now. That’s alright, that’s natural. But what we’re doing, going rebel, it was never going to be safe. Now that’s finally hitting home, and I’ll be first to admit it’s lousy, but this was the deal with the devil I and every single one of you happened to sign. We knew this day would come. Anyone who pretended different was lying to themselves.”
“I have heard Sylvester admit a half dozen times that he doesn’t expect to live another two or three years. The deal with the devil was that we would make ourselves available to Sylvester and Jessie so long as they made themselves useful enough to deserve us. It was always going to be transient.”
“Can I break your confidence?” Davis asked.
“About?”
There was a pause. I began to crawl further along the wooden ventilation shaft, feeling my way to avoid the nails and carcasses.
The pause, I realized, was Valentina and Davis having a brief whispered conversation.
“Enough of that,” I heard a man say.
“It wasn’t meat to be in confidence,” Valentina said, at normal speaking volume.
“It was a private conversation, I wanted to be sure,” Davis said. “You told me you fell in love with Sedge and what it represented. That you felt happy. Our bosses provided that. That’s worth something. It’s worth us not turning around and immediately jumping ship.”
“They have guns. I don’t want to get shot at, I don’t want anyone that I’ve gotten to know to get shot at. I fell in love with Sedge because of the people who occupied it, because of the freedom it represented. I’m grateful to our employers for giving us that venue and giving us some direction, but what made Sedge Sedge wasn’t that. We did it. Collectively.”
“You’re pulling a ‘queen and all her subjects’ on me.”
“What’s this?” another student asked.
“Appealing to loyalties of the crowd,” the Treasurer said.
“Ah.”
It looked like our students were defecting, or enough were defecting that it was impacting how the enemy was handling them. Cynthia’s soldiers had to have seen us enter the city. They had adjusted and moved their forces, and moved against our people as we were getting sorted out. But the forces here were now holding position, which meant they expected company to arrive.
“A gun to my head counts for a lot. I don’t know about you,” Valentina said. “But if they’re willing to give us work and shelter and do what Sylvester and Jessie were willing to, I’m willing to accept the gun as a motivator and do what I might be willing to do otherwise.”
“That rebel group that’s sitting in the other room is ninety-nine percent male. Beattle, by virtue of association with all-girl’s schools, has a disproportionate fifty-fifty balance. Do the math, Valentina. They won’t necessarily want you for your brains.”
“That can be taken two ways, Davis. Both are unflattering.”
“Hold up,” the Treasurer said, talking over Davis’s response. “Stop.”
“I phrased that poorly,” Davis said.
“You did,” Valentina said.
“Why don’t we give someone else a chance to raise their voices?”
The discussion continued, with Mabel taking the floor. I moved on, with Jessie and Helen following behind. I could guess how most of the conversation would unfold, who would go where, and how things might flow from that point.
The surrender hadn’t been enticing enough. The prospect of recruiting several hundred students had been. I wasn’t sure who had fought for it or against it, but they had made the offer and now all bets were off. Valentina and Davis were debating things with students as an audience.
But they weren’t the voices I wanted or needed to listen to. The real danger was the rebel group that inhabited the building. They were the ones who were holding our people hostage.
The trick was to navigate the vents until we found a point where we could overhear the rebels. It made for a lot of crawling through ducts, two fingers on one of my hands in bad shape, my shoulder protesting at my being bent over.
I’d offered Helen a chance to sit out, and she hadn’t. I could most certainly do my share while she was struggling.
We found a spot where acoustics brought noise into the vents, a crossroads between multiple vents, with the next best thing to an open space in the middle of the chosen sector. A ladder extending up was especially useful, because it provided headroom. Helen, Jessie and I sat there, Jessie in the middle. Helen clung to her and draped over her, and Jessie turned away from Helen to fixate on my shoulder, undoing sodden bandages.
I called out, using those same acoustics to speak out to this entire part of the building.
“Cynthia is dead or dying. The woman crawls desperately through the drains, and the giant is tearing up the street as fast or faster than she can move. She will make a mistake. She will get tired. Your leader will die, if she isn’t dead already.”
All chatter had died down.
Someone in the enemy ranks shouted out, “Where are you?”
I was tempted to give a joke answer, but then Jessie pre-emptively elbowed me.
I elbowed her back.
“Cynthia is your lowest priority,” I spoke. “There’s a group of your people due east of here. They sent you ahead, or you reported to them. Franz led that particular group.”
I let the words hang.
There was more shouting and there were more attempts to provoke a direct response from me. Some even called out for me to show myself.
That could come later, if they were especially uncooperative.
“Franz is dead,” I announced. I paused, to give that reality some gravity. “The others… paralyzed. Eyes lost from sockets. It was messy and wholly deserved. I focused on disabling them. Smoke inhalation will have helped. The building is made of treated wood, so it wasn’t burning well, last we saw. There are two places you could be, and they aren’t here.”
There were more shouts, more threats. There were several gunshots, aimed at the ceiling. From our vantage point, we could see down the length of most of the ducts. None of the shots seemed to penetrate the ducts themselves.
They could come in after us, was the big threat, but that was a tricky proposition for all involved.
“I’ve told you what I did to the others. That was for hurting a friend of mine. Use your imagination to figure out what I’ll do to you if you kill anyone important to me.”
I heard more gunshots, and the timing was such that I was pretty sure that it was a response to my threat.
Jessie pointed, however, and I could see the faint light that was coming into one of the long ducts near us, a faint shaft of light spearing up.
Shooting at us, not at the kids.
It was too difficult, with what went into sturdy buildings like this one. I could hear the frustration in the words they exchanged, even if they had been closer or louder so I could make sense of it.
“Cynthia is desperate, a giant on her heels, and she’s resorted to crawling through ice cold water in the drains. Franz’s group burns. Every second counts. You can go if you let us slip the noose.
“Never forgive,” I heard a voice. One of Cynthia’s diehards.
“Then try forgetting, not forgiving. This whole embarrassing rebel-on-rebel episode has to stop.”
There were more responses, more shouts, many vulgar.
I could sense the change in tone though. I could hear the conversation between groups.
“Killing me gets you small fame and a small bounty,” I said. “Then because you chose this, you chose to tie my hands and force me to act, you’re left leaderless. No Franz, no Cynthia.”
It was, in a way, a turning of tables. They had been exploiting much this situation with our own rebels.
All that said and done, the best thing to do was to be quiet. Opposing discussions continued and intermingled in a way that mirrored the debates I’d heard between Davis and Valentina. They started talking about the people who should go, if anyone went. Following that, the if disappeared, they started talking about more people going.
I closed my eyes, my role done, and rested my head Jessie’s shoulder, my hand on her leg.
We gave them time, and they used it to make their decision. They’d known something was wrong, I suspected. The communication and coordination was too great.
When I emerged, I found the area empty. They’d left our people alone and vacated the area. A mutual truce.
They were soldiers, but they were soldiers of a stripe that needed someone to follow. Threatening the loss of Cynthia gave them pause. Taking Franz would take away more security. With the first and second in command out of the picture, there wasn’t much to be said and done.
The congregation of Beattle rebels emerged from the rooms they had been sequestered in.
I met Valentina’s eyes, and she looked away.
“It was good,” I told her. “Good bluff.”
“That was a bluff?” Mabel asked.
It wasn’t a bluff, but I wasn’t about to say it. If she was going to stick around after making a vehement case against going, I needed to give her the chance to save face.
She smiled, and it wasn’t a sure smile, and I smiled back, with roughly the same confidence.
Something would have to be done longer-term.
Previous NextHow does a poet represent two distinctly different cultures in their work? How did James Berry interpret his experience and those of other Jamaican’s that migrated to England in the late 1940’s into his writing? James Berry was born in Jamaica in 1924, but moved to England during the wave of immigration from the West Indies led by the Empire Windrush. From a young age Berry had an interest in language, and showed an aptitude for spoken word and through writing soon realised he could explore the world from different perspectives. He became part of a new generation of post-colonial poets who drew inspiration from their country of birth in addition to British culture. This album focuses on a selection of poems from his collection titled Windrush songs.
This material forms part of The Open University course A230 Reading and studying literature.Enjoy an exclusive stream of Wisdom In Chains‘ new album, The God Rhythm, available in full below the fold in advance of the official street date of June 16th, 2015. The members of this Pennsylvania-based powerhouse are nothing short of hardcore heroes to a legion of loyal fans and friends, having built a rock-solid reputation through years of consistently devastating releases and riotous live performances alongside many of the genre’s mainstays. Blow The Scene has had the pleasure of catching up with Wisdom In Chains on many occasions, everything from stacked Philly shows to the mighty This Is Hardcore Fest, which the band is scheduled to hit again this July 23rd-26th in Philadelphia, PA.
With The God Rhythm, Wisdom in Chains has upped the ante on previous efforts, offering a smoldering concoction of oi-laced hardcore punk. The God Rhythm was recorded by Len Carmichael at Trax East and Carmichael Sound, with the vocals recorded at Mountainside Studios by Rich Rescigno.
LP and merch pre-orders for The God Rhythm are now available at Fast Break! Records, and all pre-orders will ship the week of June 1st so fans get their hands on the gear ahead of the new June 16th street date.
Catch Wisdom in Chains Live
6/27/2015 Club Reverb – Reading, PA * record release show
7/23/2015 The Electric Factory – Philadelphia, PA @ This Is Hardcore
8/05-08/2015 Fortress Josefov, CZ @ Brutal Assault
Top photo by Aga HairesisA Northwest Portland psychiatrist who the state has reprimanded for wrongly prescribing drugs says he plans to open a facility in the city and charge fees to help patients end their lives under Oregon's Death with Dignity Act.
Stuart G. Weisberg has mailed invitations to local doctors and politicians inviting them to a July 21 "presentation" at the deluxe El Gaucho restaurant in downtown to unveil his new business, End of Life Consultants LLC.
Weisberg did not return calls Wednesday seeking more information on his venture, which apparently would be the first of its kind in the nation. Weisberg filed incorporation papers with the state June 2.
In the invitation to the July 21 dinner at El Gaucho, Weisberg said he has invited Jack Kervorkian, the Michigan pathologist who provided the drugs and the means for terminally ill people to kill themselves and served a prison sentence for his actions.
On the website for End of Life Consultants, Weisberg said he has obtained a Portland property that he calls "The Dignity House" where his patients under the Death With Dignity law can receive the medicine and die there. The website promises an address and photos next month.
Officials at nonprofit organizations that work with patients under Oregon's assisted-suicide law expressed surprise at the little information they could glean about Weisberg's proposal. The doctor has not spoken with anyone at the Death With Dignity National Center or Compassion & Choices of Oregon. Last year, doctors helped 59 people to die in Oregon under the law.
"Never heard of him," said George Eighmey, executive director of Compassion & Choices of Oregon, which assists more than 90 percent of Oregonians who die under the law. Eighmey said the only place akin to what Weisberg proposes is Dignitas in Switzerland.
And Eighmey said he does not believe Weisberg's services would be necessary anyway.
"Ninety-eight percent of the people who receive the medicine under the Death With Dignity Act take the medicine at home," he said. "It's going to be highly unlikely that people are going to use his service. And we don't charge. He charges $5,000."
The website lists a host of fees, including a mandatory $600 for the stay at Dignity House and a mandatory $600 for "End of Life Camera," which will record the patient's last hours.
Optional fees include $400 for End of Life Catering, $400 for End of Life Security – a consultation with a "certified security agent" – $400 for linens and flowers from Weisberg's home garden and $400 for End of Life Music, which promises two 100-minute sets of piano music that "will be magical."
Weisberg, 37, is a solo practitioner with an office in Northwest Portland. In 2006, the Oregon Medical Board disciplined him for improperly prescribing psychoactive drugs to seven patients who were recovering drug addicts or dealing with chronic pain.
The board's order said Weisberg, who earned his medical degree at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2000, was terminated from his four-year residency at OHSU several months before he was to finish. No explanation was given.
On July 9, 2009, the board ended Weisberg's probation a year early and put him instead under the wing of an unnamed "practice mentor," another doctor who was to meet twice a month with Weisberg and file quarterly reports with the board.
-- Anne SakerI'm and American legally I can advocate anything I damn well please. I can even advocate the murder of an individual. Hell I can't even be charged with a conspiracy to commit homicide until I take actual action to kill the target or hire and assassin.
Let me show you. SOMEBODY SHOULD PUMP TWENTY PUMKIN'BALLS INTO THAT HALF-BLOODED KENYAN NIGGER RAISED OUTSIDE OUR EMPIRE WHO CLAIMS TO BE THE PRESIDENT BECAUSE DINIDUS, WOMEN, AND SPICS VOTED FOR HIM.
I can't wait until we slaughter ever non-white in America, mestizos included.
It's also legal for me to make and store nerve agents.
I call it VV it’s about 1/3 as toxic as VX but it has a much higher vaporization pressure so it is more easily aerosoled and it is extremely persistent which makes it good for area denial.
VX is O-Ethyl S-(2-diisopropylaminoethyl) methylphosphonothioate
VV is O-Ethyl S-(2-dimethylaminoethyl) methylphosphonothioate.
into a very dry 2000 ml round bottom flask, the following ingredients are added, quickly, one after the other with swirling to mix them a few boiling chips, 800 ml anhydrous ethyl ether, 284 grams of methyl ethoxyphosphoryl chloride, 212 grams of dimethylaminoethanethiol, and 212 grams of triethylamine. it is very important that the glassware be very dry, and that the ingredients espescially the methyl ethoxyphosphoryl chloride be protected from moisture, because the presence of water really lowers the yield in this this reaction.
when the ingredients have been added and mixed, a good efficient condenser topped with a drying tube is attached to the flask and a flow of very cold water is put trought the condenser.
the contents of the flask are heated to boiling with a hot water bath and the reflux is maintened for one hour.
the byproduct of this reaction, hydrogen chloride, is absorbed by the tiethylamine as it is produced, forming triethylamine hydrochloride cristal cristal
at the end of the eating period, the mixture is cooled and the cristal of triethylamine hydrochloride are filtred out in a Buchner funnel.
the filtered reaction mixture is then returned to 2000 ml round bottom flask, a few boiling chips added, the glassware set up for simple distillation and the ether removed by distilling it of under a gentle vacuum.an aspirator is perfect for this job since it will flush the ether fumes down the drain.
when most of the ether is gone, the mixture is poured into a 1000 ml round bottom flask with a few boiling chips. the remnants in the 2000 ml flask can be rinsed out with ether an poured into the 1000 ml flask. once again this flask is set up for a simple distillation and full aspirator is applied to it. the last of the triethylamine and ether (bp 88 C°) will be gone shortly.
now a vacuum from a good quality vacuum pump is applied to the distillation. A vacuum of less 1 mmHg is to be preferred here to keep the distillation temperatures reasonable and to avoid burning product. BE CAREFUL THE PUMP MUST NOT BE STOPPED DURING THE DISTILLATION. IF THE PUMP STOPS, RUN OUT AND NEVER COME BACK!!!
after a small forerun is collected in a 250 ml flask, a 500 ml flask is attached and the main bulk of the product is collected at a boiling point of 80 C° at a vacuum of 0.6 mmHg.
the yield is 260 to 275 ml of product. a fair amount of tar remains in the distilling flask.
you have now VV agent.
Now privately purchase a van from another citizen, which is as unregulated as a private firearms purchase and totally untraceable. Then load the shit in 4 55gal drums with rubber seals. Drive to the target and steal a license plate. Replace your van's plate with the stolen one and discard the old plate far from the scene. Use tannerite, blasting caps, and track phones to detonate it and aerosolize the substance. If you set it off in an urban area under the right weather conditions you'll kill up to 30,000 people, but you'll probably get more like 2,000. All for about 10,000 dollars, 2 weeks of work, and shit you can buy at Walmart.
VX is O-Ethyl S-(2-diisopropylaminoethyl) methylphosphonothioate
VVX is O-Ethyl S-(2-dimethylaminoethyl) methylphosphonothioate.
New York is uninhabitable to true human life anyway. Downtown air causes all non-yuppies and hipsters to instantly get asthma due to the high concentrations progressive self-righteousness. And the outlying have a disturbingly high number of mutant gorillas roaming about.Mapping the Post-human
For a few days in the first week of September I was in the Breton port city of Brest (which although medieval is an architectural riot of modernity, nearly every building except its impregnable chateau having been
I found it strange to be listening in to serious academic discussion of ideas that originated on the fringes of science fiction, and to hear 'Kurzweil', 'Vinge' and 'extropians' pop up from a flow of French discourse like yellow plastic ducks on the Seine. About half the discussion was on the post-human in mainstream literature and philosophy, but popular culture, movies, and SF were just as minutely and seriously anatomised.
My own presentation touched on my earliest encounter with extropianism and (that cheap laugh out of the way) argued that Darwin had made post-humanism possible: first, by establishing that humanity was a species with predecessors and (by implication) possible successors, and (therefore) that the human mind was the outcome of a material process; and secondly, by shifting the notion of'species' from an essence to a population, with no intrinsic limit of variation. Once 'the human' ceases to be an essence, it loses its self-evident status as a standard of value. Watson and Crick followed up in 1953 by demonstrating the material basis of heredity, and hence the possibility of consciously changing it.
Two developments that were new in the 1980s and 1990s made post-humanism a project rather than a prophecy. The first was that thanks to Moore's Law and molecular biology, it became possible for the first time for people to imagine that they themselves might live into the post-human era. The second was that socialism, the global project whereby the International was to unite the human race, was over, and with it the counter-project of liberal humanism. Humanity is no longer an imagined community. If it's ever to become so again, something like the socialist project will have to be revived, or replaced by a different project with less hubris but no less ambition.
Otherwise the robots will rise up and eat our brains, if we haven't beaten them to it by bashing each other's heads in first.
For a few days in the first week of September I was in the Breton port city of Brest (which although medieval is an architectural riot of modernity, nearly every building except its impregnable chateau having been levelled in 1944) at an academic colloquium on Mapping Humanity and the Post-human to which I'd been invited by its organiser, the erudite and vivacious Hélène Machinal. Its programme was wide-ranging, and mostly in French. Although I couldn't follow everything that was said, I think I got the gist of most, and was kindly helped by a student who volunteered to sit beside me and pass notes.I found it strange to be listening in to serious academic discussion of ideas that originated on the fringes of science fiction, and to hear 'Kurzweil', 'Vinge' and 'extropians' pop up from a flow of French discourse like yellow plastic ducks on the Seine. About half the discussion was on the post-human in mainstream literature and philosophy, but popular culture, movies, and SF were just as minutely and seriously anatomised.My own presentation touched on my earliest encounter with extropianism and (that cheap laugh out of the way) argued that Darwin had made post-humanism possible: first, by establishing that humanitya species with predecessors and (by implication) possible successors, and (therefore) that the human mind was the outcome of a material process; and secondly, by shifting the notion of'species' from an essence to a population, with no intrinsic limit of variation. Once 'the human' ceases to be an essence, it loses its self-evident status as a standard of value. Watson and Crick followed up in 1953 by demonstrating the material basis of heredity, and hence the possibility of consciously changing it.Two developments that were new in the 1980s and 1990s made post-humanism a project rather than a prophecy. The first was that thanks to Moore's Law and molecular biology, it became possible for the first time for people to imagine thatmight live into the post-human era. The second was that socialism, the global project whereby the International was to unite the human race, was over, and with it the counter-project of liberal humanism. Humanity is no longer an imagined community. If it's ever to become so again, something like the socialist project will have to be revived, or replaced by a different project with less hubris but no less ambition.Otherwise the robots will rise up and eat our brains, if we haven't beaten them to it by bashing each other's heads in first. Labels: amazing things, evolution, skiffy, writing 3 Comments: Post a Comment HomeAutomatically start MongoDB in authentication mode using predefined admin / users
.gitignore Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 6, 2017
Scenario for me was to build an RPM that sets up the mongoDB and starts authenticated for the application to use appropriately. Solution I came up to start MongoDB by modifying the MongoDB init file. The following example shows how to create a root and multiple app users (with owner / write / readonly access rights).
Create two configuration files, one with security: authorization: enabled and the other without it
/etc/mongodb/auth.conf
/etc/mongodb/noauth.conf
security: authorization: enabled
Create script to add root user to DB
create_user_root.js
(optional) Create script to add application users to DB
create_user_app.js
Update init configuration for MongoDB as below:
* Line 9: config file location with security enabled
* Line 10: config file location with security disabled
* Line: 11: script location for creating root
* Line 12: script location for creating app users (my_app) — optional
* Line 14: mongo command required for adding users
* Line 21: start MongoDB without auth
* Line 23: Add root user and delete script file to prevent rerun
* Line 28: Add app users and delete script file to prevent rerun
* Line 34: Sleep to give enough time for restart
* Line 35: Stop Service
* Line 39 Start ServicePin Share 27 Shares
The Authors Guild had the ground cut out from under them today in an important copyright lawsuit.
The Second Circuit of Appeals released a ruling this morning which largely upheld Judge Harold Baer's October 2012 decision in The Authors Guild v HathiTrust, and went one step better. The court affirmed that the HathiTrust's book scanning efforts were fair use, and they also ruled that The Authors Guild had no standing to sue in the first place.
The HathiTrust Digital Library is a consortium of universities and public libraries. Firmed in 2008, this group had the goal of digitizing out of print and rare tomes in their collections in order to preserve the works and make them more widely available |
and slick, that matches up with certain forms of entertainment. Cats like to stare at things and lurk: They’re built for surfing on the Web. We bond with them in little spurts, like videos on YouTube. Dogs, meanwhile, demand a lasting interaction. They’re thick and shaggy, musty-smelling like a book, and while they have their standard tricks, they’re famously unable to adapt. “The dogge must lerne it, whan he is a whelpe, or els it will not be,” wrote John Fitzherbert in a very early book from 1534. As we might put it now: You can’t teach an old dog new publishing platforms.
* * *
In the summer of 1993, two years before anyone had ever used Internet Explorer, the artist Peter Steiner published a famous cartoon in The New Yorker. His picture shows a pair of mutts sitting in an office. One perches with its paw against a keyboard, explaining to the other: “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”
Back then we might have seen this as a comment on the new and growing World Wide Web, anonymous and strange. (Even dogs were logging into AOL.) Now the caption reads as something more morose. Looking back at Steiner’s image as it nears its 20th anniversary, it seems to me the pets are measuring the instruments of their own demise: They’re peering through the window of a brand-new edifice of culture, and finding that it wasn’t built for them. All dogs’ experience and expertise—the skills that made them scruffy darlings of the paper-printed word—would have no place in publishing 2.0. They were masters of an antique medium, mascots on a sinking ship.
Steiner’s message is more poignant for where it was disseminated. For years The New Yorker served as the leading dog park of the literati. An archive search of NewYorker.com comes up with 632 articles on mutts, going back to 1925. (There are just 245 articles on cats.) Last year, the magazine put out The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs, a 416-page anthology of the editors’ favorite dog-related essays. (The cat edition, held over to this fall, will be more than 100 pages shorter.) If Eustace Tilley has a pet, it’s the kind that wags its tail. Surely we can draw some connection to the fact that last year The New Yorker lost 6 percent of its advertising pages and 12 percent of newsstand sales. The canine media are in decline.
On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. Nobody cares, either.
So what’s the future of the literary pet? One thing is clear enough: As the print familiar starts to lose its influence—as that breed of dog slowly goes extinct—a well-trained kitten army lies in wait. “Cats and dogs are now equal for us,” said an executive with Animal Planet in a recent interview with the Boston Globe. For 15 years, his channel never aired a single show on domesticated felines, but now he says the rules have changed: “We tapped into this never-before-acknowledged-on-TV passion base.” The content cats have made the jump onto another screen. What’s to hold them back from reader apps and Paperwhites?
At some point, though, the media will have to merge into a mishmash whole, where cats and dogs live in peace and learn to play each other’s roles. To some extent, it’s happening already: You may have noticed that Marley has a blog and Maru has a book. The fence between the habitats has begun to fall apart, and one day soon we’ll end up in the world imagined by another great cartoon. Published in The New Yorker in 2002, it shows two skinless creatures with giant eyeballs as they slip into a pair of furry pelts. The first one’s costume has a set of whiskers and the other’s comes with floppy ears. Then one creature asks, “What say this week you be the cat and I’ll be the dog?”
Writers, let this caption be your motto. As the taxonomy of publishing continues to conflate, you’ll be left without a choice between a job online and one in print. The market will be looking for a hybrid animal instead: Some days you’ll be asked to purr, and other days you’ll bark.
—
See all the pieces in this month’s Slate Book Review.
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When it comes to dealing with the Russia scandal, the Trump administration is in quite a pickle. One administration figure after another seems to have conveniently "forgotten" their meetings with Russian officials. President Trump's 2016 campaign manager and his former national security adviser are being given head-to-toe examinations by special counsel Robert Mueller — and who knows, one or both of them might already have flipped. The president's own financial connections with Russia — particularly the oligarchs who had an unusual interest in funding Trump's projects and buying his properties — provide fodder for Mueller to look deep into his finances. Trump himself admitted on national television that he fired the FBI director in order to quash the Russia investigation. And then of course there's little Donald Jr., who arranged a meeting for himself, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort with a Russian attorney for the purpose, laid out explicitly in an email, of obtaining the Russian government's help in destroying Hillary Clinton.
But believe it or not, the administration has a strategy. Get all the facts out now to deal with them as quickly as possible? No. Persuade the broad public that their motives were noble and their actions scrupulously ethical? That'd never work. Their strategy is instead to focus intently on assuring Trump's most rabid supporters that this is all a bunch of fake news, and they can't believe anything they hear. It seems, like most of the tactical moves this administration makes, surpassingly stupid. But there's a logic to it — not a perfect one by any means, but one that might not be as crazy as it seems.
The core of the strategy is to blanket the conservative media, not only with Trumps but also with the rhetoric of resentment that helped the president win the far right's heart. So on Tuesday night, not long after we all read those amazing emails, Trump Jr. went on the program of Fox News lickspittle Sean Hannity to defend his actions, where he was duly praised and served a menu of the plushest softballs. President Trump will follow up by going on The 700 Club to give an interview to lunatic televangelist Pat Robertson (who among other things claims that God warns him of upcoming terrorist attacks with remarkable specificity). There will not be too many persuadable voters tuning in.
When Trump himself talks about this issue, it's usually to tell people that the whole thing is phony and fake. Like this, which he sent out Wednesday:
Remember, when you hear the words "sources say" from the Fake Media, often times those sources are made up and do not exist. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2017
The only problem is that the "source" who released the email in which Trump Jr. responds "I love it" to a suggestion that he set up a meeting to receive damaging information on Clinton from the Russian government was... Trump Jr. himself. When The New York Times told him that it was about to publish his emails, he put them up on Twitter. Fake news!
In the Oval Office, "the president is using his relatively light schedule to watch TV and fume about the latest scandal," Politico reports. So he has fallen back on a familiar argument, that anything you hear in the news that reflects poorly on him and his administration is fake, phony, made up. Which might be an effective way of inoculating his supporters against future twists in the scandal: If you convince them not to believe whatever they hear even before they hear it, then they may dismiss the next blockbuster revelation, their support for Trump undimmed.
It's easy to look at that and say that those hardcore Trump supporters are a small minority of the whole electorate — maybe 20 or 30 percent, depending on who you might include — so it's a strategy that can't succeed. But Trump doesn't necessarily need to win over a majority of the public.
If all he wants to do is survive, then he only needs the support of enough of his party's voters to convince Republican members of Congress to stick with him. Those members know that if Trump is impeached, it would be a catastrophe for their party, one that would drag them down with him. Most of them are also elected in conservative districts where the only fear they have is a primary challenge from the right. If the folks back home are saying, "Trump's right, this whole thing is fake news!", then supporting impeachment — or even just distancing yourself from Trump in anything but the mildest way — looks like the kind of decision that could end your political career.
For decades, conservatives have been told that the media is full of liberal bias; Trump took that argument and made it personal and vicious, characterizing reporters as dishonest knaves and encouraging his fans at rallies to jeer at them. Now part of the administration's strategy in dealing with the Russia scandal is to amp up their war with the media, as The Washington Post reports:
Their plan, as one member of the team described it, is to research the reporters' previous work, in some cases going back years, and to exploit any mistakes or perceived biases. They intend to demand corrections, trumpet errors on social media, and feed them to conservative outlets, such as Fox News. But one outside adviser said a campaign against the press when it comes to Trump Jr.'s meeting could be futile: "The meeting happened. It's tough to go to war with the facts." [The Washington Post]
In the end, that's Trump's real problem, whatever communication strategy he chooses. Much as the administration might try, you can't spin away the remarkably clear and explicit evidence of collusion we saw in Trump Jr.'s emails, especially when for months you've been saying that the idea that there might have been collusion is ludicrous. If there's nothing more that comes out, then the public may decide that while there were some shady goings-on, in the end it didn't amount to much. On the other hand, nobody truly believes this will be the last revelation of this scandal.
So for now, Trump is talking only to his most avid supporters. It's not much of a governing strategy, but if your goal is nothing more than surviving to fight another day, it just might be enough.St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in Holborn, widely known as the National Musicians’ Church, is set to ban non-religious events
A central London church that was a national hub for musicians for more than 70 years has rebuffed efforts by the acting bishop of London to persuade it to reverse a ban on “non-religious hiring” from the end of the year.
St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in Holborn, known more widely as the National Musicians’ Church, has rejected pleas from church figures and some of Britain’s most distinguished musicians to keep its doors open as an important concert venue and rehearsal space.
Despite long and robust discussions between Pete Broadbent, the acting bishop of London, and the rector and governing body of St Sepulchre, the church has declined to accept new bookings.
In talks, Broadbent stressed the importance of churches being open to the communities they serve. The acting bishop said: “The Church of England is called to be a welcoming, inclusive and engaging church. I have re-emphasised the importance of this to all those at St Sepulchre.”
UK's leading musicians fight church's ban on secular bookings Read more
Last month, the Rev David Ingall, who moved to St Sepulchre four years ago from the ultra-evangelical Holy Trinity Brompton, wrote to professional and amateur musicians and ensembles to say they could no longer make bookings from the end of 2017.
The decision to stop renting out space to musicians had not been easy, Ingall said, but added: “We have been conscious of the challenges of using a space dedicated to worship for non-religious hiring.”
The singer Aled Jones, the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, the composers John Rutter and James MacMillan, and Judith Weir, the first female master of the Queen’s music, were among more than 50 signatories to a letter urging a reversal of the ban, saying they could not understand why the church was willing to abandon its “unique national cultural remit”.
More than 7,800 people signed a petition to “save the National Musicians’ Church”, which holds the ashes of Sir Henry Wood, founder of the Proms, in its north chapel.
Broadbent’s statement said the London diocese wanted to encourage stronger relationships between the C of E and the musical community, “including making it easier for musicians to access rehearsal and concert space”.
He announced that a website would be launched in November to provide “easy access to hire space and booking options for musicians in London, as well as be used as a tool to promote concerts and events.
“I do hope this will also allow us to help support and encourage new musicians, as they form ensembles, and bring together family, friends and the wider public to enjoy the creativity and celebration of God-given musical talent.”
Ingall said St Sepulchre would “always strive to be welcoming, inclusive and engaging”, but said he was disappointed that debate had focussed “on the negative of a cancelled hiring programme in one church, rather than the wider role the church continues to play”.
His statement said: “We have tried to get the balance right in our activities, and we have tried to communicate our passion for music. We have not always succeeded. I regret that and where we have caused upset, I and the PCC [parochial church council], are sorry.”
Since the arrival of Ingall and a group of worshippers from Holy Trinity Brompton as part of a “church-planting” programme, St Sepulchre has hosted a series of evangelical Alpha courses. Evangelical churches favour contemporary styles of worship, including rock bands, dancing, charismatic preachers and speaking in tongues, which leave many traditional Anglicans feeling excluded.
Richard Robbins, the founder of the campaign to save the National Musicians’ Church, welcomed the new website but said it was “sad that the actions of St Sepulchre have been the catalyst for this”.
Dr Andrew Earis, the director of music at St Martin-in-the-Fields and former director of music at St Sepulchre, said it was regrettable that the church had not changed its position “despite huge pressure from the musicians’ community, the diocese of London and the wider Church of England”.
St Sepulchre’s decision was “doing irreparable harm to the church as a whole”, he said.The fire that destroyed Grenfell Tower and killed so many who lived there made clear what many have felt for years: London has become a city for capital not people. It builds for financial transactions, not for homes.
Jon Arnold · Getty
Government ministers seen as responsible for unceasing cuts to public services gave uncomfortable street interviews after a massive fire rapidly engulfed Grenfell Tower, a public housing block in one of London’s most affluent districts. The disaster made clear the terrible results of ideological commitments to cut corners and costs in building safety regulations, including the installation of what may have been fire-conducting cladding. Besides the anger and trauma at the loss of life (some 80 dead), people are questioning the political and economic choices that forced low-cost safety choices. There is a strong sense that poor people matter less in a city run for the rich.
Cutting funds to local authorities and public services, and red tape around health and safety regulations, combined with deep social inequalities to produce a catastrophe with major political repercussions. The tower was in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, a parliamentary constituency that changed in the general election, by just 20 votes, from Conservative to Labour for the first time, mostly due to concerns over housing. The borough ran budget surpluses and offered council tax rebates, while choosing to do public housing maintenance and safety on the cheap. London’s inequalities are most evident in the social geography of its inner western zones, where public estates offer vital affordable housing to those on no and low incomes among multi-million pound homes whose prices are inflated by offshore investment capital and wealthy buyers.
The slow-motion social disaster of austerity created a burnt-out landmark as a visible symbol of the callous political choices of the past decade. People sensed that the poor mattered less and got a raw deal in social and physical protection; some began to feel that the disaster might even be part of a plan to rid the area of unsightly low-income housing and poor people. The disaster seemed the defining moment of a precarious government struggling to build an alliance to govern, as promises to posture aggressively at Brexit negotiations were being broken.
The mood of London and its populace is changing. There is a sense of possibility that may generate more emphatic changes at future elections, with a now engaged youth vote and new respect for Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn. People are asking who London is for, and the answer isn’t capital. The Grenfell disaster has led to calls to invest in and reconstruct high-quality and affordable housing, and to recognise that declining public investment and the callous treatment of the urban poor are the problem, not public housing.
Massive inequalities
Most of London’s current and future high-rises aren’t public housing (1). More than 400 high-rise developments are now in progress or have received planning permission. Almost none of their homes will be affordable, and very few are public housing. In the stories now told of London’s massive inequalities and housing problems, the private towers signal the city’s social extremes and the inability of state or market to resolve social needs. These pads are intended for the global elite and look like a disposable environment that fits the need, in many cases, to rest money. The ‘community’ imagined by starchitects and estate agents on billboards and in brochures is a sales pitch to a floating class of the rich and investors. Whatever drugs the architects of the gold apartment block at Battersea Power Station were on, their inspiration was a pound sign, not the floating pig on Pink Floyd’s Animals album cover. Much of the development along the Thames is a parody of place and a mirage of communal life. These are dead spaces and dwellings, their lifelessness important for the realisation of maximum exchange value, rather than being valued for their residential use. The question of who benefits from such development is an ongoing irritant to managers and politicians.
Whatever drugs the architects of the gold apartment block at Battersea Power Station were on, their inspiration was a pound sign, not the floating pig on Pink Floyd’s Animals album cover
London’s position as a beacon for the global super-rich has not been good news for its wider population. When the good times rolled, they were marked by an aggressive expansion of gentrification, private tenant evictions, the demolition of dozens of public estates, welfare reforms and household displacement. The investment and destruction may be related; with Brexit deliberations, the potentially negative role of international investment has been glossed over by London’s elite.
Social philosopher Erich Fromm might be a ghost guide to the new follies and ruins created by investors and developers; in later life he was exercised by our culture’s focus on things rather than people, on having rather than being. He thought our desire for lifeless things suggested a necrophiliac culture, fixated on the denial of death and pursuit of shiny objects. Is London’s inflated skyscape the result of an urban political economy harnessed to the death drive of capital, and the unchecked global accumulation strategies of the wealthy?
Empty interiors
In The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973), Fromm identified necrophilia as an attraction to anything dead, a mechanical interest that evades social or human connectivity. This seems an apposite framing of the love for dead things of the world’s super-rich. Properties are snapped-up as signs of personal progress and status while remaining wholly or partially uninhabited. Marketing materials for many developments show empty interiors looking out over the city. Prospective buyers are able to project their presence as the city’s triumphant captains without having to witness community life or troublesome social difference.
This might not matter if these lifeless spaces were not so corrosive to the social life of the city. Massive injections of international capital have encouraged the logic of building for the needs of the wealthy and international buyers. Such investment damages the legitimacy and vital role of public housing, which is framed as lavish public expenditure while higher bidders wait in the wings. The wider sociality of the city withers as parts of the urban body are starved of a vital supply of people and social circulation by absent owners and their investment vehicles. All this is overseen by a political system that believed a city’s standing was to be indexed by the presence of wealth, rather than its creation and wider distribution.
Inferno: local residents in shock as flames rip through the 27-floor Grenfell Tower housing block in west London Daniel Leal-Olivas · AFP · Getty
If you want to see this process of accumulation and emptiness, wander past One Hyde Park or the many empty mansions lining The Bishops Avenue north of Hampstead Heath. People are exercised about the cost and lack of housing in London because they witness competition for these resources juxtaposed with a landscape of empty shells that should be homes. A surprising percentage of private housing is rarely or never occupied, while many households on local authority waiting lists are exported outside their borough or outside the city; and a third of a million households remain on waiting lists for public housing in London. Walking along the Thames’s south side near Nine Elms, you can see many new towers, apparently suspended along the river’s corridor. Like dead mackerel, these developments shine, but also stink of corrupt planning agreements and a housing system out of sync with the needs of ordinary folk.
The sense that there are outright winners and vulnerable losers raises big questions. If we bought the argument that the wider economy and population benefit from such investment, the new skyscape might be defended. Yet such arguments are threadbare. Those with economic and political power identify property and finance as the machine driving living standards and reputation. London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has moved in a slightly different direction, launching an enquiry into the number of unoccupied homes bought by offshore investors. A recent study examined utility records to locate homes with abnormally low electricity use, concluding that around 21,000 homes are empty long-term. Around 5% of homes in central and western London lie empty according to the government’s statistics agency (2).
‘Secrecy jurisdiction’
Non-partisan groups have also highlighted the criminal and anonymous purchase of thousands of homes. The head of the National Crime Agency has suggested that criminal money has driven up London property prices, and hundreds of millions of pounds of purchases are under criminal investigation as suspected proceeds of corruption, yet these figures only represent a fraction of the total (3). Transparency International has revealed that around 10% of properties in Kensington and Chelsea, the borough in which the Grenfell tragedy occurred, are owned through a ‘secrecy jurisdiction’, tied to £122bn of offshore money. Many cases are not pursued by resource-starved tax authorities.
One of the worst injustices is that while essential workers and even those on respectable incomes struggle to access decent housing, London is building thousands of apartments for people who may never use them. How broken is a planning system that does not challenge the construction of blocks of hundreds of flats in which a studio costs over £600,000, while including a few affordable homes is said to threaten market viability? Evidence shows that developers and planning consultants work hard to circumvent their duty to offer affordable housing or cash contributions to the local authority. Criticism has been growing for years, but now there is intense and rising anger, even if effective resistance remains elusive.
In 1951 the population of Greater London — its 32 constituent boroughs and the square mile of the City — was 8,164,416, making it a peak year for London (and many British cities). But by 1981 and the nascent Thatcher government, the population had fallen to 6,608,513 due to a changing economy and outward migration from most of Britain’s major cities to suburban areas. It is now hard to remember the time when Britain’s inner cities were places of economic stagnation, social decline and out-migration, and ‘inner city’ evoked a social imaginary marked by these features as much as any geographical place.
How much? Launch of a global tour of the Battersea Power Station development exhibition at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo Ken Ishii · Getty
The most recent census, of 2011, shows London’s population at an all-time high of 8,173,900. Yet this apparent demographic health belies massive shifts in the structure of London’s economy and new casualties in housing markets. With changes in London’s economy as it moved towards becoming a node in the world financial economy came changes to many neighbourhoods previously thought untouchable by gentrification.
Today London again faces an uncertain future. Economic pre-eminence in a global system of urban command centres is giving way to anxieties about the city’s future, including the possibility that financial institutions may move away. Trying to keep the goose that lays the golden eggs, even if it does little for London’s working class, is ever more the name of the game under Brexit.
Such worries add vigour to capital’s grab for land and sky, with projections for the numbers of the super-rich in London set to grow significantly. Those criticising construction aimed solely at international investors are called out of touch with the realities of selling in a global market (4). Yet even the trade in premium real estate appears fragile in the context of Brexit and the possibility that key financial institutions may be lured to competitor cities as crisis talks continue, with sales at the top of the market dramatically reducing in volume. Despite this, concerns about social inequality and exclusion have been pushed aside by a government that is scrambling to attract buyers and institutions to keep the national books balanced.
London’s patrician class recognised where the money is some time ago. What was once the establishment might now be better called ushers to capital and vendors of prized assets and products. The international rich come for financial services, generate construction and jobs for decorators and nannies, and are prepared to pay fees and taxes on property sales (or work hard to avoid them). Property professionals and financial wizards offer portentous assessments of how tariffs, taxes or regulatory moves would kill the flow of capital investment. This may be true now but it wasn’t just two years ago when selling £10m flats before they were built was possible. The systemic threats being revealed today will injure London’s poor and working classes even more given the inability of governments to extract more from the presence of the wealthy when times were good. If in the last decade we hung on to the Maserati exhaust pipes of the super-rich, our grip must tighten in the future. There will be less going spare.
London’s Achilles heel
The City’s strength is London’s Achilles heel. While the economic role of the City is well understood, its asymmetrical dominance in the structure of the urban economy presents risks. Any economic geographer will tell you that a key danger for any single-industry town is that it is more likely to die as its fortunes change because of competition from rivals. Where such change once devastated Glasgow, Sheffield, Birmingham and many others, London’s fate may be to lose core services to Dublin, Paris or Frankfurt. Analysts are now pondering how many bankers or institutions will leave after Brexit. The likely answer is thousands. Even if banks are not as mobile as the currencies and services they deal in, an orderly or partial evacuation over years remains a real possibility.
In the good times before the Brexit vote (bear with me if you were on a waiting list, crammed two to a rented room or saving for a deposit to get on the housing ladder), we were told not to touch the market, in order to maintain a low-tax environment to enable overseas monies to benefit London. With the risks to London’s economy from Brexit, this is more emphatic, and London now has a large neon ‘for sale’ sign. Many prized assets are the property of foreign wealth funds or individuals (Harrods, The Shard, Harvey Nichols). Much of the commercial property on Sloane Street is owned by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund. These changes symbolise shifts in class and taste and reflect a move from gentry and landed wealth to an expanding cadre of those who have benefited from globalisation, the lucky control of state assets, or associations with international criminal activity. Their brashness and raw money power is only matched by the hatred felt by the last wealthy long-term residents of inner west London who didn’t realise that others in their class put up the first ‘for sale’ signs.
It’s the money, stupid
The most obvious answer to any question about London’s problems is money. Money is why our political interests turn a blind eye to offshore and criminal purchasing of real estate, no matter how shady its source. Money is the reason that public housing is being demolished in the name of ‘affordable’ housing. Money is why gentrification is a good thing and poor residents might be better sent elsewhere. Money lies at the heart of keeping taxes low and regulations slack. Money is the reason for the dead spaces along the Thames and beyond. The London shaped by this dominating rationale is a negative doughnut with wealth and high-rise housing its centre, falling away to suburbs marked by slow physical decay and the exported city poor. London’s claim to world standing is playing host to the most ultra-high net-worth individuals of any city globally — 4,750 — of whom 80 are billionaires (5). Such boasts are poor slogans for a city that has become a sorting machine for opportunity and fortune: the rich come in one door, the poor go out the other, necessary casualties of a city dominated by a prime real estate and finance economy.
London’s dead homes result from demands for unfettered markets and ambitious urban remaking. Yet we need to recognise that for many others, London’s new architecture indicates a move in the right direction. The new director of Zaha Hadid architects, Patrick Schumacher, frankly disclosed values in some practices when he suggested paving over Hyde Park, removing public housing and letting the market dictate who lives where (6). He misjudged the views of the wider audience (London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, slammed the suggestions) but such ideas remain dominant among those whose bread is buttered by capital. Meanwhile, protecting municipal housing, alleviating real poverty in a rich city and wider regional inequalities, or caring for the elderly and disabled are seen as unfortunate problems for which there is no money due to the profligacy of a previous government. The prospects for challenging the overall direction of London and its politics could look dismal.
Twenty years ago, there was a television sketch in which the Ritz, one of the grandest of London’s hotels, was sold to an oligarch. He told the staff there would be few changes, but he had a small request: to change the name to the Titz (7). Such possibilities have become thinkable. The culture shock and clash of capital with everyday life are features of a city barely serving its working population. Gross excess is now a mainstay of reality TV about the super-rich, their tastes and demands gawped at by millions, with the unnecessary as the mark of success. More, bigger, shinier, emptier.President Trump on Monday harped on Sen. 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.) for opposing the GOP's latest health-care bill, sharing a video of edited clips in which the lawmaker repeatedly promises to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
A few of the many clips of John McCain talking about Repealing & Replacing O'Care. My oh my has he changed-complete turn from years of talk! pic.twitter.com/t9cXG2Io86 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 26, 2017
The montage of clips follows on another public attack in which Trump slammed the lawmaker for blocking the chance of a new health-care system for his constituents.How Remote Engineering Quadrupled Our Hiring Rate at Coinbase
Barry Kwok Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 16, 2016
What Was The Problem?
Last year we faced a major problem: engineering had become a bottleneck for the company. We needed to hire more engineers quickly yet maintain our hiring bar.
We brainstormed a number of ideas and decided to try hiring remote engineers.
What Are The Risks?
We saw two main risks in hiring remote engineers: communication and accountability; where teams distributed amongst various locations tended to make both more challenging. To compensate for this, we decided to adjust the recruiting process by holding a higher than normal bar for communication and autonomy.
With the risks considered we chose to execute our plan.
How Did We Do It?
The CEO/cofounder wrote a post on Medium announcing we were hiring remote engineers. At the end of the blog post we invited interested readers to take an open coding challenge where only an email address (no resume) was required for a submission. About 80% of people applied this way rather than the traditional web form via the careers page or by email to talent@coinbase.com.
Of the 800 or so people that took the coding challenge, only ~8% (~66 people) met the required threshold to be screened. From those 66 phone screens, we brought 9 on-site for interviews, whereby 5 were ultimately hired. You can see how the numbers compare to the standard in-house recruiting process for Q1 of 2016 below:
What Are The Initial Results?
We more than doubled our funnel at just about every stage, including engineers hired.
at just about every stage, including engineers hired. We’ve been able to tap into a lot of talented and interested engineers who live outside the Bay Area that we previously could not access.
of talented and interested engineers who live outside the Bay Area that we previously could not access. The remote hiring process was more efficient when coupled with a coding challenge because 90% of the candidates were filtered out by test scores. There was additional manual work required to reach out to candidates via email to get more information about them afterwards, but this was outweighed by the filtering the coding challenge provided.
One thing happened that we didn’t expect: people who started as remote candidates occasionally became in-house candidates. One person that joined us in-house started as a remote candidate.
Fewer candidates made it from a screening to an on-site interview for the remote role, largely because we lost signals on a candidate’s communication skills that we’d typically get from their email, resume, or web applicant form.
How Has It Worked Out So Far?
It’s still early for our new remote engineers (it’s only been 2 to 4 months) but things are working well so far. There are some limitations such as their projects that tend to be more individual tasks but we’ve reached a number of talented engineers we wouldn’t have been able to work with otherwise, and it’s given engineering the recruiting push it really needed. Our early thesis is that it works well up until a certain point (perhaps 30% of engineering and we are currently at 17%) and we will continue to hire remote engineers as we continue to evaluate this campaign.Somehow, calling the 1-800-Got-Junk people seemed appropriate for Germantown Reproductive Health Services as it prepared for its permanent closure.
A local pro-life activist snapped a photo of a junk truck at GRHS on August 30, 2017, as it was loaded up with office equipment and furnishings from the notorious late-term abortion facility.
“I’m not sure there is a sweeter sight than a junk truck coming for the contents of an abortion facility,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.
GRHS and an affiliated abortion facility, Prince Georges Reproductive Health Center, have been bought and closed by the Maryland Coalition for Life.
It was Operation Rescue that first identified GRHS as the new location of LeRoy Carhart’s late-term abortion business in 2010, after Carhart’s home state of Nebraska passed the first-in-the-nation 20-week ban on abortions due to evidence that pre-born babies can feel pain.
PRO-LIFE COLLEGE STUDENT? LifeNews is looking for interns interested in writing, social media, or video creation. Contact us today.
GRHS was one of the few facilities to conduct abortions throughout all nine months of pregnancy.
So, what will Carhart do now that GRHS is closed? Read Operation Rescue’s recent report for a “heads up” on possible plans.
LifeNews.com Note: Cheryl Sullenger is a leader of Operation Rescue.For their determination to put an end to veterans living on the streets, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will receive the highest honor given to homeless advocates.
The Obamas were chosen to get this year’s Jerald Washington Memorial Founders' Award, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV), and Barack Obama is the first person -- in history -- to receive the award more than once.
Barack Obama is tackling the issue with his “Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness,” an initiative that aims to end chronic and veteran homelessness by 2015. He's working to meet this goal by mainstreaming housing, health, education and human service programs.
On any given night last January, 67,495 homeless veterans were sleeping on the streets, a 56 percent decline since the president took office, according to the Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress.
"Under the leadership of President Obama, we are witnessing unprecedented national unity in the campaign to end and prevent veteran homelessness," Patrick Ryan, Chairman of the NCHV Board of Directors, said in a press release. "The progress we have seen from the federal agencies, the Congress, the community partners NCHV represents, and the American people in just the last three years give rise to the expectation that this campaign will succeed."
Michelle Obama has been doing her part to address the range of issues veteran face, including homelessness, with the one-year-old initiative, Joining Forces, which she founded with Jill Biden.
“Our goal was as ambitious as it was simple. We wanted to get every single American to ask themselves one simple question,” Michelle Obama said in an exclusive video for HuffPost Impact. “What can I do to give back to these families that have given us so much?”
To date, Joining Forces has helped employ 50,000 military spouses and veterans, encouraged schools to improve the experience of military children and connected veterans with community health centers in areas where the VA doesn’t have a prominent presence.For five years, Lana Del Rey has made a mint mixing old Hollywood iconography and spurned love stories. Her music was dour and gauzy, glacial and bass-heavy, with a kiss of hip-hop flair. 2012’s Born to Die came from |
the Battle of Vimy Ridge, see our post, The Battle of Vimy Ridge, April 1917--One Hundred Years of Memory and Myth
At his request, Jack was transferred on June 7, 1917 to the 2nd Division Signal Company, which was attached to the 6th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery. In this capacity, Jack saw action at Hill 70, August 1917 and Passchendaele (3rd Battle of Ypres), October-November, 1917.
In January 1918, after 15 months along the Western Front in France and Belgium, Jack fulfilled the one small dream that front-line soldiers allowed themselves: a “Blighty.” “This was the honourable wound,” historian Desmond Morton explains in When your numbers up, “that would release them from the squalor and terror of the trenches to a bed, sheets, regular meals, and the sight of a nursing sister.”
According to a biographical sketch published in Pioneers and Prominent People of Manitoba (1925) Jack was "wounded and gassed, 1918, Arras, invalided to England." However his war record indicates that his injury was a sprained ankle, which occurred when a horse fell on him. The incident was categorized as an “accident” rather than a “casualty,” and it had not been self inflicted.
Report of Jack Morris's injury, January 25, 1918. Library and Archives Canada
Whatever the cause, Jack was sent back to England, where he spent the remainder of the war. In January 1919, he returned to Canada aboard the Empress of Britain to be reunited with his wife, Helena Ritchie, and meet his 28-month-old daughter for the first time. He was officially demobilized in Winnipeg on February 18, 1919.
Jack Morris was one of the lucky ones - he survived the war with only minor injuries and lived for another 40 years. The war's most lasting effects may have been his fondness for tobacco (my husband has strong memories of watching his grandfather roll his weekly supply of cigarettes) and his antithesis to Methodists, probably believing that they had not "done their bit" during the war.
Jack with daughter Vaughn, grandson Jim Myrvold and wife Lena in Winnipeg, 1945. Myrvold family.
Jack retained a strong belief in serving your country, and made no objection when his only son, John Alexander Morris (1923-2013), enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy as a teenager during the Second World War. (John rose to the rank of lieutenant and patrolled the North Atlantic in corvettes.)
Jack with wife Lena and son John in Winnipeg, 1944. Myrvold family.
Jack never returned to Europe, but some of his descendants have visited the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France in his honour, most recently great-grandson Rob Myrvold, who was there on April 7, 2017, a few days before the centennial ceremony.
Canadian National Vimy Memorial, April 7, 2017. Rob Myrvold
First World War resources on Toronto Public Library's Digital Archive
Toronto Public Library's Special Collections Centre collects pictures, broadsides and printed ephemera, maps and manuscripts - letters, diaries and other unpublished documents - about the First World War. Click the preceding links to view items that are available on our Digital Archive. Some library materials specifically about Vimy were added recently to the Digital Archive for the 100th anniversary.
Selected items from the Library's collections have been featured in exhibits about the war, notably Doing our bit; Canadians and the Great War; Four families; one war; and Leonard L. Youell's war diary.
The following excerpt from Lieutenant Youell's diary records his observations on April 9, 1917, the first day of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. He was mentioned in despatches and awarded his first Military Cross (MC) for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during the battle.
Toronto Public Library provides several helpful online databases for its customers to learn more about their family's contribution to the First World War. Ancestry Library Edition is a good place to start. Also useful are Early Canadiana Online, Globe and Mail Newspaper Archive and Toronto Star Historical Newspaper Archive.
Followup
Personnel Records of the First World War digitized by Library and Archives Canada is an invaluable source.
If you would like to share your family records about the experiences of Torontonians in the First World War, contact staff in Toronto Public Library's Special Collections Centre by phone (416-393-7156) or email (trlspc@torontopubliclibrary.ca).
Finally, we encourage you to record your family's connection to the Battle of Vimy Ridge in the comments section below.No sooner had Arjen Robben scored the winner at Wembley than the Spanish grasped the true meaning of his goal. Bayern Munich had won the European Cup, just as Chelsea had claimed the Europa League. This was massive: the greatest, most attractive talents and the fiercest of grudge matches. The biggest rivals would meet in the European Super Cup final in Prague. No, not Chelsea vs. Bayern; José Mourinho v Pep Guardiola. The translator and the ballboy, face to face once more.
The clubs have changed, the backdrop too, but there they stand. Ah, Mr Pep, we meet again. Mourinho was at pains to dismiss suggestions that this was anything other than Bayern v Chelsea but he could not resist what appeared another dig at his adversary, insisting: "It was Jupp Heynckes's Bayern that was the best team in Europe. Now they have a new coach and new players and I'm not sure if they are still as good." And this is a game that fascinates for the men on the touchline as well as the talent on the pitch.
It was only two years but it was presented as if there was something eternal, something good v bad, about a battle that dominated everything: Madrid v Barcelona incarnated in Mourinho v Guardiola. The perfect literary and media storm: competitors with contrasting identities – although Mourinho insisted that Guardiola was not so different to him really beneath the mask – locked together in permanent struggle.
Two years were perhaps best defined by 18 days in April 2011, when Madrid and Barcelona faced each other four times, and above all by the night that Guardiola lost his rag. It was 27 April 2011, the eve of the Champions League semi-final first leg; it could have been a weigh-in before a prizefight, right down to the gauntlet thrown down, the bring-it-on challenge: "Tomorrow at 8.45pm."
Guardiola walked into the press room at the Santiago Bernabéu, looked at the mass of television cameras at the back of the room, asked which was Mourinho's camera, shrugged and said: "I guess they must all be." Then he began his now famous rant. "In this [press] room, [Mourinho] is the puto jefe, the puto amo – the fucking boss, the fucking master. I don't want to compete with him for a moment [for that]. Off the pitch, he is the winner … but this is a game of football."
Guardiola had finally given in and been drawn into battle. Many judged Mourinho to have won; his tactic of getting under Guardiola's skin had worked; the Catalan had lost control. He had, in fact, planned it and his players were grateful that he had spoken out, handing him a standing ovation when he arrived at the team hotel. The following night, Barcelona won 2-0 at the Bernabéu, virtually securing their passage to the Champions League final. Madrid had Pepe sent off.
This time it was Mourinho's turn; his rant, too, would become famous. Pep's puto amo speech gave way to Jose's ¿por qué? speech, in which he accused Uefa of fixing it for Barcelona to reach the final and belittled Guardiola's achievements. "Guardiola is a fantastic coach but I have won two Champions Leagues. He has won [only] one Champions League and that is one that would embarrass me," Mourinho said. "I would be ashamed to have won it with the scandal of Stamford Bridge and if he wins it this year it will be with the scandal of the Bernabéu. I hope one day Guardiola has the chance of winning a proper Champions League, a brilliant, clean championship with no scandal."
It had not always been this way. It might have been affected but there had been something a little hurt in Guardiola's tone the previous night when he had said: "I just want to recall that we were together for four years. I know him and he knows me. And that's what I hold on to."
Mourinho had arrived at Barcelona in 1996 with Bobby Robson. Theoretically, he was a translator – a job description that Barcelona fans used to insult him – but he was so much more: a talented scout, coach and link between manager and squad, fiercely loyal to the players, publicly outspoken, determined in defending his team and attacking Madrid. He famously celebrated one title by chanting: "Today and forever, Barça in my heart!" Among the men he most protected and courted was the club's captain and a former ballboy: Pep Guardiola.
Before one game, the Athletic Bilbao manager Luis Fernández threatened "this second coach who I don't know", warning him that he had better sit down and watch out, because the dugouts at San Mamés "are close together". When the touchline confrontations inevitably began, it was Guardiola who intervened, standing up for Mourinho. And according to the then Barcelona director Marc Ingla, when Mourinho was interviewed for the Camp Nou manager's job in 2008, one of the names he proposed as his assistant was Guardiola. Barcelona chose Guardiola but not as assistant; they turned down Mourinho, even though they recognised that he was the "safe option". It is tempting to see that rejection as the backdrop to all that came next.
In his first season as a coach, Guardiola won everything. In his second, Barcelona were defeated in the Champions League semi-final by Internazionale: Mourinho's Inter. There was tension and accusations; the relationship had definitively gone sour. When Thiago Motta was sent off, Mourinho whispered in Guardiola's ear on the touchline: "Don't think you've won yet"; when the final whistle went, he sprinted across the Camp Nou pitch in celebration.
Two months later, he was manager at the Bernabéu, brought in on a mission to do for Madrid what he had done for Inter. Defeat Barcelona, defeat Guardiola. One of his aims was to wear down Guardiola; to take him on. It was time to present him with a proper battle, off the pitch as well as on it. The atmosphere changed, turned nasty. Mourinho appeared the more comfortable; this was his territory. Guardiola called that run of four clásicos in 18 days "hard"; there was no joy. Zlatan Ibrahimovic later revealed in his autobiography that he had attacked the coach after a game at Villarreal: "I yelled to him, 'You have no balls!' and probably worse things than that. And I added, 'You're shitting yourself about Mourinho!"
Results were mixed but this was certainly a challenge. In the first season, Barcelona won the league and European Cup. They lost the Copa del Rey final to Mourinho's Madrid but they had defeated his side 5-0 in the league – Mourinho's worst defeat on his cv – and knocked them out of the Champions League semi-final. The following season, Barcelona beat Madrid in the Copa del Rey semi-final en route to winning it, but Madrid won the league for the first time in four years, winning 2-1 at the Camp Nou. Having returned to Chelsea, Mourinho recently claimed to have ended Barcelona's hegemony, even though he ended the following post-Guardiola season empty-handed.
Guardiola departed having won 14 of a possible 18 trophies, seven of them in confrontations with Madrid. Against Mourinho's Madrid, his record ran: two seasons, one league, one cup, one European Cup and one Spanish Super Cup. Yet of the four trophies Barcelona had not won under Guardiola, three had been ceded to Mourinho: a European Cup against Inter, plus a Copa del Rey and the league title against Madrid.
Now Mourinho's supporters claimed another victory: Guardiola's resignation. It was not the same without him, as if Mourinho had been orphaned by Guardiola's departure, no longer having someone to confront, and within a year he had gone too. For now, though, victory was his. Some Madrid supporters and some in the Madrid media claimed that Guardiola had gone because he knew he was beaten, because the balance had tipped. Mourinho was the winner. Ibrahimovic was right.
They gloated that Guardiola did not have the stomach for the fight and there was certainly a weariness to the Barcelona coach to which the Portuguese had contributed. Mourinho had waged a war of attrition; now only he was the one left standing, albeit not for long. Guardiola took a year's sabbatical, something that Mourinho pointedly noted: "I would never do."
Some even claimed that Guardiola had turned down the Premier League so as not to confront him any more. Guardiola, they said, had gone to Germany to avoid Mourinho. It did not convince and, if he had, it did not work.
Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid by Sid Lowe is published by Yellow Jersey Press on 26 SeptemberAbout
I created the company, Bring Your Board, so that I could invent products and promote what I like to call the BYB Lifestyle. A lifestyle where you're driven to find adventure. You're driving and you see a mountain you want to climb, a river you want to fish, or a hill you want to bomb. Because of who you are, you've come prepared with gear in your car.
Before now, keeping your boards piled in with the rest of your gear has been way too cumbersome, space-sucking, and just plain annoying. This pain has now been solved with the Longboard/Skateboard Rack! The rack turns this:
Into this:
Way more gear can fit and is so much easier to access!
Check that out! Way better! It creates so much space. The rack can fit up to 4 longboards, two in each slot, and can fit most vehicle types.
This is not a finished product, as Kickstarter requires. I am continually seeking and applying improvements. Check out the video below to see how the Longboard/Skateboard Rack was created and how we plan to have it manufactured. If you want to learn more about me, you can click on "See full bio" on the right-hand side of this page under my picture.
The rest of the pics show where the prototype stands right now - fully functional. The money that is pledged will go directly towards perfecting the rack and starting up production. Back our project now to help the Longboard/Skateboard Rack become a reality!
Two side panels with headset hooks. - Patent Pending
Bonus: the rack can be hung on your wall as well!
To see if the rack will work for your car and boards check the length of your longboard and/or skateboard against the distance between the centers of the headrests you plan on hanging the headrest hooks from. If the length of your board is greater than that distance, and your board will fit in your car width-wise, you're good to go!
Update (07-30-13):
I connected with another manufacturer and they offered some suggestions to lower the cost of manufacturing the rack. One suggestion that I think you'll be interested in hearing is to switch from the metals that we were using to a stainless steel. Turns out that the cost of powder coating and painting a typical grade steel is actually more expensive than using a higher grade stainless steel which doesn't need to be finished! Sweet deal, right?!
So instead of the black steel headrest hanger and the aluminum bracket attached to the side panels being made from the current materials, both pieces will be made from gorgeous stainless steel and will be super corrosion resistance! Because of this upgrade, and a few other minor changes, we're able to drop from the original price of $150 down to $100!Roland Simon of Théorie Communiste looks at revolution as communisation, through the lense of some recent struggles.
Autonomy, as a revolutionary perspective realising itself through self-organisation, is paradoxically inseparable from a stable working class, easily discernable at the very surface of the reproduction of capital, comfortable within its limits and its definition by this reproduction and recognised within it as a legitimate interlocutor. Autonomy is the practice, the theory and the revolutionary project of the epoch of “fordism”. Its subject is the worker and it supposes that the communist revolution is his liberation, i.e. the liberation of productive labour. It supposes that struggles over immediate demands are stepping stones to the revolution, and that capital reproduces and confirms a workers’ identity within the relation of exploitation. All this has lost any foundation. In fact it is just the opposite: in each of its struggles, the proletariat sees how its existence as a class is objectified in the reproduction of capital as something foreign to it and which in its struggle it can be led to put into question. In the activity of the proletariat, being a class becomes an exterior constraint objectified in capital. Being a class becomes the obstacle which its struggle as a class has to overcome; this obstacle possesses a reality which is clear and easily identifiable, it is self-organisation and autonomy. The bitter victory of autonomy Self-organisation everywhere, revolution nowhere
We can only speak of autonomy if the working class is capable of relating to itself against capital and finding in this relationship to itself the basis of and the capacity for its affirmation as dominant class. Autonomy supposes that the definition of the working class is not a relation but is inherent to it. It was a question of the formalisation of what we are in present society as basis for the new society, which is to be constructed as the liberation of what we are. From the end of the first world war up to the beginning of the 1970s, autonomy and self-organisation weren’t simply the wildcat strike and a more or less conflicting relationship with the unions. Autonomy was the project of a revolutionary process extending from self-organisation to the affirmation of the proletariat as the dominant class of society, through the liberation and affirmation of labour as the organisation of society. In freeing up the “true situation” of the working class from its integration in the capitalist mode of production, an integration represented by all the political and union institutions, autonomy was the revolution under way, the potential revolution. If this was explicitly the agenda of the Ultra-Left, it wasn’t only an ideology. Self-organisation, union power and the workers’ movement belonged to the same world of revolution as affirmation of the class. The affirmation of the truly revolutionary being which manifested itself in autonomy couldn’t have had the slightest hint of reality if it hadn’t been the good, unalienated side of the same reality which resided in a powerful workers’ movement “constraining” the class. The workers’ movement was itself also the guarantee of the independence of the class which was ready to reorganise the world in its own image; it was sufficient to reveal the true nature of this power to itself, by de-bureaucratising it, disalienating it. It was not a rare occurrence that workers passed from the necessarily ephemeral constitution of autonomous organisations of struggle to the parallel universe of triumphant Stalinism or, in northern Europe, to the bosom of powerful unions. Autonomy and workers’ movement nourished and comforted eachother mutually. The Stalinist leader was perhaps the “workers’ equivalent of the boss by divine right”, but he was also the institutional counterpart of autonomy. Self-organisation as a revolutionary theory made sense in exactly the same conditions as those which gave structure to the “old workers’ movement”. Self-organisation is the self-organised struggle with its necessary extension the self-organisation of the producers; in a word, liberated labour; in another word, value. A little step backwards. Already in the Italy of 1969, the sectors of workers in struggle are incapable of creating an “assembly” connecting up the diverse forms of self-organisation and the movement is “recuperated” by the CGIL and its workshop committees. Still in Italy, in the self-convened movements of February-March 1984 on the production line, self-organisation is seen to be defensive, in the sense that it expresses the defence of an old composition and an old relation of the working class to capital, a relation which restructuring is in the process of abolishing. For the same reasons, in Spain the assemblies movement (1976, ’77, ’78) creates or revitalises union structures; likewise the Dutch “hot autumn” of 1983. This is equally the epoch in which all sorts of “autonomous unions” are formed. It is fundamentally a historical type of working class whose existence is put into question by the restructuring. At Renault, during the strikes of 1975, it is the factory of Le Mans, where labour power is the most stable and the rate of unionisation, at 40% is double the national average for Renault, that the strike is the hardest and sometimes has the air of an “autonomous struggle”. At the beginning of the 1980s, when this process of streamlining “is completed” essentially by hitting the unskilled immigrant workforce, provoking an enormous wave of strikes in the car industry, the violence of the struggles is never formalised in attempts to set up autonomous organs. “They want to kill us, but we’re already dead”, such is the spirit of the struggles. If in 1983-84, it is equally difficult to qualify the miners’ strike in Britain as an “autonomous, self-organised struggle”, it is because it was in fact a strike without demands, without a programme, without perspectives. What it meant to be a class was now only defined in and through the adversary of that class, in the action against it. The decline and lost meaning of autonomy are not a simple product of the retreat of class struggles. The “struggle” is not a historical invariant constantly expressing the same class relation. The decline of autonomy is not the decline of the “struggle”, it is the decline of a historical stage of class struggles. In France, when self-organisation becomes the dominant form of all struggles, starting with co-ordination between the railway-workers in 1986, it no longer represents a rupture with all the mediations by which the class is a class of the mode of production (a rupture liberating the class’ revolutionary nature); self-organisation loses its “revolutionary meaning”: the overgrowth between the self-organisation of the struggle and workers’ control of production and society. Self-organisation is nothing other than a radical form of syndicalism. Any struggle over immediate demands of any amplitude or intensity is now self-organised and autonomous; self-organisation and autonomy have become a simple moment of syndicalism (here we mean syndicalism as opposed to the formal existence of trade unions). If the organisms of struggle which the Spanish dockers adopted in the 1980s attempt to guarantee their survival and change form, it is because they were nothing other than organisms for the defence of the proletarian condition. Therein lies the continuity which explains the transition of the one into the other. The theoreticians of autonomy would have it that as such the “autonomous organs” invent communism by remaining what they are: organs of the struggle over immediate demands. As such their natural inclination is permanence and thus their “transformation”. In all the current discourses on autonomy, it is remarkable to observe that it is the revolution which has disappeared. What was until the beginning of the 1970s the very raison d’être of the discourse on autonomy, namely its revolutionary perspective, has become almost unspeakable. The defence and valorisation of autonomy becomes an end in itself and care is taken not to articulate a revolutionary perspective there – the Italian workerists were the last to do that. Now people are content to repeat that the existing autonomy isn’t the right one. But now it is the very capacity of the proletariat to find in its relation to capital the basis for constituting itself as an autonomous class and in a powerful workers’ movement which has disappeared. Autonomy and self-organisation represented a historical moment of the history of the class struggle and not formal modalities of action. In all the current approaches, autonomy designates any activity where proletarians coordinate directly to do something together, a sort of ahistorical and general form of action on the condition that it is independent of institutions. The historicisation and periodisation of the class struggle vanish. We can only speak of autonomy if the class is capable of relating to itself against capital and finding in this relation to itself the basis and the capacity for its affirmation as dominant class (which in any case could only produce the counter-revolution which rendered this affirmation impossible). Currently, anywhere that self-organisation and autonomy triumph, dissatisfaction with them is immediately manifested. Already in France in 1986, the co-ordination between railway workers provoked movements of great defiance, as did the attempt to constitute broader forms of co-ordination beyond the local collectives in 2003. Within the current triumphant self-organisation, it is what opposes it which prefigures the abolition of classes. It is not a question of a dissatisfaction with a “recuperated” autonomy, but with autonomy itself in the sense that it is no longer anything other than “recuperated” by its very nature. This nature, consisting of the liberation of the class following from its autonomous affirmation (having “broken” its capitalist social moorings), was the definition of the revolution in the previous cycle; it is now that through which self-organisation and autonomy exist and are consciously experienced as the limit of all current struggles. Everywhere, as soon as self-organisation is established (and currently you can hardly escape it), people are fed up with it; it weighs heavily on the movement. As soon as it is initiated, it “winds us up”, because it reminds us bluntly what we are and what we no longer want to be. It is here, within self-organisation, against it, that the struggle of the proletariat as a class produces its own existence as a class as a limit to be surpassed. Autonomy is only ever the liberation of the worker as worker. Self-organisation, autonomy, in fact what we are as a class, have become objects of regular critique in the concrete course of struggles. It is a case of grasping the theoretical and practical discrepancy within self-organisation between what self-organisation is now as a necessary form of the class struggle, and the practical and theoretical critique that is engendered within itself, even as it is put into practice. However we have to take into account as a characteristic of this cycle of struggles the fact that the battle against “bad” self-organisation is waged in the name of “good” self-organisation. Currently, it is only within this battle in the name of “good” self-organisation that the battle against self-organisation itself manifests itself, i.e. only here does the perspective of the revolution appear as something which is no longer of the order of the affirmation of the class and which as a result can no longer be radically of the order of self-organisation or of autonomy. As long as class confrontation fails to positively initiate the communisation of relations between individuals as class action against capital, self-organisation will remain the only available form of class action. The search for “true” self-organisation is not an “error”, the “error” itself constantly indicates that self-organisation is to be superseded, by constantly taking as its target really existing self-organisation. This critique of really existing self-organisation in the name of an ideal self-organisation, in which it constitutes a process without end, creates a tension within self-organisation; it indicates the content of that which is to be superseded: the impasse of self-organisation, i.e. of its content, the affirmation, the revelation to itself of the proletariat. The supersession of really existing self-organisation will not be accomplished by the production of the “true”, the “right”, the “good” self-organisation, it will be achieved against really existing self-organisation, but within it, from it. In the current struggles, the proletariat recognises capital as its raison d’être, its existence against itself, as the only necessity of its own existence. In its struggles, the proletariat adopts all the necessary forms of organisation for its action. But when the proletariat adopts the necessary forms of organisation for its immediate goals (its abolition will equally be an immediate goal), it does not exist for itself as autonomous class. Self-organisation and autonomy were only possible on the basis of the constitution of a workers’ identity, a constitution which has been swept away by the restructuring. What is left now for these proletarians to self-organise? If autonomy disappears as a perspective, it is because the revolution can no longer have any other content than the communisation of society, which means for the proletariat its own abolition. With such a content, it becomes inappropriate to talk of autonomy and it is unlikely that such a programme would entail what is commonly understood as “autonomous organisation”. The proletariat can only be revolutionary by recognising itself as a class, and it recognises itself as such in every conflict and even more so in a context where its existence as a class is the situation that it has to confront in the reproduction of capital. We should not mistake the content of this “recognition”. To recognise itself as a class won’t be a “return to itself” but a total extroversion through its self-recognition as a category of the capitalist mode of production. What we are as a class is immediately nothing other than our relation to capital. This “recognition” will in fact be a practical knowledge, in the conflict, not of the class for itself, but of capital. On self-organisation in the current struggles
“The English system of shop-stewards which was born in the course of the First World War engendered a specific organisation of the factory, which was given the name of mutualism, in which the content of work-tasks and the rhythm of work were fixed by managers in agreement with the workers concerned through the intermediary of these elected delegates. This system was swept away by all the restructuring, even before the era of Thatcherism. In the course of the 1970s, numerous conflicts arose around this power of the shop-floor delegates; the swan-song of this system was on the one hand the proposals to transform production by the shop-stewards’ committees, notably in the weapons factories, and on the other it was the restarting of production by the workers when firms closed. All this combined to produce a movement around the notions of workers’ control and self-management, a British flavoured self-managementism which surpassed in terms of practice and ideas any French developments along these lines. Today, after the decimation of British industry, this current no longer represents anything at all.” ( Échanges, no.99, p23) “A complex autonomous movement developed over more than 30 years, a kind of hybrid which combined the system of elected shop-floor delegates (the shop-stewards) and the utilisation of base union structures (often reinforced by widespread use of the “closed shop”, i.e. enforced unionisation in a firm – in other words the management by the unions of the hiring of employees. A development of “wildcat strikes” was seen which on repeated occasions threatened governments which had decided to “impose themselves by force”. (…) The crisis which was brewing in this situation culminated in the Winter of 1978-79 – the Winter of discontent – in the course of which the country was plunged into a total chaos with no other perspective than the immobilism of this bloc of resistance”. The Thatcher government swept all that away through the destruction of the industrial apparatus, privatisation, globalisation, increasing the orientation towards finance of the economy, the generalisation of flexibility, workers’ precariousness and massive unemployment. “The balance of forces underlying the autonomous movement was undermined; but it could only be (provisionally) overturned after fierce disputes in the key areas of workers’ autonomy: the docks, the steelworks, the car factories, the printers and above all the mines.” (Échanges, no.107, Oct-Nov 2003) Returning to the current period to draw out the lessons from the strike of the British postal workers, the text concludes: “The foundations of the struggle, if they mark a break by workers on the shop-floor from the union leadership, also demonstrate the persistence of certain notions in labour relations and in the utilisation of base union structures, the very notions which the “bringing to heel” of the autonomy of struggles at the beginning of the 1980s had attempted to eradicate, but which are resurgent. (…) All the same, we have to consider that the Royal Mail is practically one of the only national industries in the UK which has not been dismantled, for various reasons, including the intervention of class struggle (it is one of the principal British employers, with 160,000 workers, whose numbers give them an obvious power). Also the shop-floor practices in labour relations, which were common previously in industry but eliminated in the 1980s, are alive and well here” (my emphasis). We could not be any clearer than this. Currently, in numerous disputes like that of the longshoremen of the West coast of the US, the bosses are attempting to break the unions for the same reasons that they break workers’ autonomy when it manifests itself, because both of them belong to the same epoch, the same logic of capitalist reproduction. This is a point which should exercise the minds of the advocates of the now secular ideology of workers’ self-organisation. In our times, in the post office in Britain or the ports of the West coast of the US, the autonomous struggle of workers becomes indistinguishable in its content to the defence of the large union institutions, not for reasons of the temporary utilisation of unions by workers, but for what they are: large institutions regulating the autonomy of labour-power. On the evening of Friday July 18th, a wildcat strike breaks out at the Heathrow airport against flexibility and the annualisation of work-time. After three days’ strike by ticket staff and baggage-handlers, they return to work with the announcement of the opening of talks between the unions and management. Similarly, in Spain, during the shipbuilders’ strike in Jan-Feb 2004, it is the renewal of the collective bargain and increased flexilbility which is at stake. On the 30th of January, the union demonstration ends up with barricades, cars set on fire, the police use rubber bullets. On the 5th February, in Puerto Real, “a base organisation attempts to co-ordinate the struggle if necessary” (Échanges, no.109, p23); on the 12th, after renewed battles, a general assembly of the workers decides to hold another demonstration in town which causes further trouble; on the 13th talks between unions and management resume. As usual, the wildcat strike, even when accompanied by the formation of autonomous organisations, is merely a substitute for or an accompaniment to union action. It has become impossible to expect anything else from it, or to hope for an internal dynamic which would constitute its supersession from its own basis and not against itself. On the 2nd June 2003, the IG Metall union calls for a strike in the metal-workers’ industry in 5 regions of the former GDR. The splits which have appeared between workers in the “West” and workers in the “East” partially explain the failure of the strike. The increasing number of conflicts in different workplaces, the multiplication of sub-contracting and other measures to reduce the costs of production are fragmenting sites of exploitation, with the corollary that global struggles by professional branches of an industry have almost completely disappeared. It is the question of the unity of the proletariat on the basis of struggles over immediate demands which is posed. Futhermore it has become obvious that the proletariat cannot be united for itself as a revolutionary class by the wage, in the framework of its position as seller of labour-power, everything proves more and more the contrary and this is so obvious that it almost jumps out and hits us round the head. In Italy, in December 2003, the strike movement of the autoferrotramvieri fails to lead to any formal organisation between depots. If the “disease of the wildcat strike hit very hard”, “the union anti-strike mechanism worked perfectly” (Lettre de Mouvement Communiste). The delegate from the drivers’ co-ordination committee in Brescia, a member of the national co-ordinating committee, is content to say that the illegal strike was “the only weapon available to the workers” and that ”if the unions have taken up our demand for 106 euros, it’s because they are listening to the rank-and-file”; he adds that the strike is not aimed against the unions”. Finally the tramdrivers of Milan resume the wildcat strike with the slogan: “we are the union”. The “base unions” played to the full their role as outlet for the anger of the employees, i.e. let’s make no bones about it, the employees fully accepted that they should play this role. Unfortunately no-one grasped for themselves the offensive political significance of the struggle of the autoferrotramvieri nor the permanent task of its organisation at the workplace, right up to the very last of the depots taken over by the movement. The base unions tried without great success to exploit the situation in order to reinforce themselves to the detriment of the large official union confederations, but they refused to facilitate the independent organisation of the struggle.” (ibid). No-one grasped this, not even the workers themselves. In a flash of lucidity this Lettre concludes: “It is as if defensive struggles no longer functioned as the school of communism, as if they no longer engendered their own political supersession.” “After the strikes of the railway cleaners, after the strikes in public transport, it is now the turn of the metal-workers. In each case we are dealing with extremely fierce struggles which develop outside and against the unions, properly autonomous struggles” (my emphasis) (Échanges, no.109, p19). This is simply wrong. At Melfi, the struggle of the FIAT workers in May 2004 started with strikes called by the unions over the payment of days of down-time due to technical problems; rapidly the workers go beyond this framework and add to these demands the organisation of working time and wages (these additions were accepted by the unions). The strike was controlled from top to bottom by the FIOM (union of the CGIL), including the blockading of the factory; the workers delegated the attempts to extend the struggle to the other FIAT sites and also the conduct of negotiations. When an agreement (“not a bad one” according to the estimation of Échanges no.109) is reached, |
and by a super PAC that opposed Trump.
Campaign and legal representatives for Trump could not be reached for comment Saturday. However, Jill A. Martin, vice president and assistant general counsel for the Trump Organization, said in a written statement in March that the allegations had “no substance.” She added that “Trump University was a professionally run company which provided students with a valuable and substantive education and the tools to succeed in business and real estate.”Media playback is not supported on this device Wiggins a loss to Sky - Froome
Chris Froome says defending champion Sir Bradley Wiggins's absence from the Tour de France is a "relief" after recent media scrutiny of the pair's battle to be Team Sky's leading rider.
But Froome said the loss of Wiggins, the winner of last year's Tour, would be a blow to the British-based team.
Froome, 28, was chosen to lead Team Sky's 2013 challenge, despite Wiggins saying he wanted to defend his title.
Wiggins, 33, later withdrew because of illness and injury.
Analysis Chris Froome gives a good impression of somebody who doesn't enjoy being interrogated, so the fact his pre-Tour de France media day in Nice is over is probably a big relief. But will it be as much of a relief as Bradley Wiggins not being on the start line in Corsica in 11 days' time? Froome might not enjoy these Q&As but he's getting better at them. Yes and no was the answer, with enough respect paid to Wiggo's absent "engine" to be tactful. He was less guarded about his real rival Alberto Contador. We will know more about that when Froome is next here in a fortnight's time for the team time trial. He will miss Wiggins then, but only a little bit.
Kenya-born Froome, who was second to Wiggins in the 2012 Tour de France, told BBC Sport: "From within the team it's a loss for us that we don't have his engine in the team time trial, and doing that support role for me in the mountains.
"From that side, it's definitely a loss.
"But from the media angle, always playing on the leadership question, that's certainly a relief."
Froome said the development had come at a time when he felt he was reaching his "prime" and said he wanted to challenge for the Tour de France title for years to come.
And while he was looking forward to his chance to shine in front of the British public, he said he was also keen to stay connected with his African roots.
"I'm 28 and for the next six or seven years my goal is to try to fight for the yellow jersey," he said. "If I can win it once I would be chuffed to bits.
"Certainly in Grand Tours I've been in before, I've been in support of Brad - and at Team Sky we always go in with a goal and stick to it. This is an opportunity for me to shine in that respect and definitely to get more known by the British public."
He added: "I certainly feel I'm carrying the flag for Britain. I feel an honour in that but, at the same time, knowing my roots are in Africa, I'd like that to help motivate people from there.
"Even coming from a third world country, it is possible to get to the top of wherever they want to be."
As for his prospects of taking the yellow jersey this year, Froome also acknowledged the threat of 2007 and 2009 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador in Wiggins's absence, but was confident Team Sky would be able to cope with the Spanish Saxo-Tinkoff rider.
"I've got his measure [but] I am expecting him to be at a different level again at the Tour," said Froome.
"I think everyone lifts themselves that little bit extra for the Tour de France, being the pinnacle of our cycling calendar.
"He knows what he is doing. He's won the Tour, he's won Grand Tours multiple times, but I don't think he is someone we need to be worried about in that respect. We've shown we can race against him, and we can certainly beat him."
Froome, winner of this month's Criterium du Dauphine, also feels this year's Tour de France had a chance of improving cycling's reputation following the revelations of the Lance Armstrong doping affair.
"Unfortunately, he left us with a lot of mess after him, but that gives us an opportunity to step up now and show people the sport has changed," added Froome.The heartbleed bug has been causing mayhem this week, many a headache has been felt in IT departments the world over. Second Life users were obviously concerned about this and Linden Lab have produced a blog post relevant to Second Life : Account Safety and the Heartbleed OpenSSL Bug.
There’s some really good news from the lab about this:
You do not need to take extra action to secure your Second Life password if you have not used the same password on other websites. Your Second Life password was not visible via Heartbleed server memory exposure. No secondlife.com site that accepts passwords had the vulnerable SSL heartbeat feature enabled.
However it should be noted that Second Life properties were not immune to this issue, as the blog post explains :
Supporting sites such as Second Life profiles are hosted on cloud hosting services. Some of these sites were previously vulnerable to Heartbleed, which may have exposed one of these servers’ certificates. As an extra precaution, we are in the process of replacing our SSL certificates across the board. This change will be fully automatic in standard web browsers.
Initially this may seem confusing, but login to Second Life profiles is done via the main website login, rather than a login directly on those servers, so the initial advice that there’s no need to take extra action stands.
However there are circumstances whereby you may want to change your Second Life password and that is if you use that very same password on a site that may have had login information exposed.
Linden Lab in the blog post offer the following sensible guidance:
If you used the same password for Second Life that you used on a third-party site, and if that third-party site may have been affected by the vulnerability, you should change your password.
Generally, the advice on passwords is to change them regularly and use different passwords on different sites. We all know that in practice people find this difficult. However passwords are an issue we should all take care with, back in 2009 Jeska Linden blogged : Is your password safe? That blog post contains some great password tips, such as :
No real words = important.
Long passwords = essential.
Mixed case = good.
Misspelled = better.
Added numerals and symbols = best.
That post is well worth a read, it also contains a link to what back in 2009 were considered the 500 worst passwords. There’s a lot more useful information in that blog post. Linden Lab also offer more advice on passwords on the Wiki : Linden Lab Official:Password Protection
Whereas Linden Lab have issued guidance that no further action is required, this may still be a good time to set your Second Life password to a more secure one or to get into the habit of changing your password regularly.
TweetSAN FRANCISCO/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - More than a decade ago, the late Steve Jobs pulled one of his trademark reality distorting maneuvers, browbeating music label executives into selling songs on Apple Inc’s then-nascent iTunes digital store for a mere 99 cents apiece.
The leaf on the Apple symbol is tinted green at the Apple flagship store on 5th Ave in New York April 22, 2014. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Now, the tables have turned and it’s Apple that is being forced into a deal that is far from a sure-fire winner.
The iPod and iPhone maker is expected to announce as early as this week a $3.2 billion agreement to buy Beats Electronics, the music streaming service and headphone maker founded by legendary music producer Jimmy Iovine and rapper Dr Dre, according to three sources familiar with Apple’s thinking.
The deal would come after Pandora Media Inc and Spotify have already claimed the vanguard of the music streaming revolution, while Apple’s riposte - the eight-month-old iTunes Radio - is stumbling.
“Apple is about two years late, behind Spotify,” said David Pakman, a digital music investor with Venrock Capital and a co-creator of Apple’s Music Group. “They need a streaming offering.”
With digital music downloads in decline, record labels have put pressure on Apple to get its act together on streaming, according to two of the three sources. The record labels hope Apple can turn Beats Music into a strong competitor with Spotify and other streaming services, the sources said.
“The labels wanted Apple to build a premium service,” said one of the sources, who like the others were not authorized to speak about the matter on the record. “They wanted... to make money through the stream.”
In recent months, the major labels had grown dissatisfied with the performance of iTunes Radio, the source said. Streaming subscriptions are now the fastest-growing revenue source for the music industry, but Apple has not made a dent.
Streaming subscriptions jumped 51 percent in 2013 to $1.1 billion, out of a $15 billion total spent on music, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Meanwhile, digital downloads slipped 2.1 percent.
Per-user spending is higher with streaming services than for music downloads. A good customer spends $25 to $35 a year on music purchases, but a subscriber spends $9 or more a month - or more than $100 a year, according to one source.
Labels earn royalties of a fraction of a cent for every stream, which the source said works out to a higher revenue per user than pure digital sales.
Apple, Beats and record labels Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment declined to comment for this story. A spokeswoman for Universal Music Group did not respond to requests for comment.
THAWING
In buying Beats, Apple would get an up-and-coming music streaming service, a well-connected team of industry executives, and high-margin hardware. But the high price tag would represent a departure for Apple after two decades of acquisitions mainly in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Some Wall Street analysts have termed Apple’s plan purchase of Beats “puzzling.” Despite the rapid growth of streaming, it remains a small slice of the overall music market. If the labels do not agree to lower royalties rates, then, like Pandora or Spotify, Apple may struggle to make its streaming profitable. And Beats is several years behind Pandora and Spotify, which have 99 million active users combined.
Still, the fact that the record labels are getting behind Apple marks a thawing in what had been at times an openly adversarial relationship, industry sources said. The “a la carte” model that iTunes introduced in 2001 had slashed revenue for the labels as it no longer required customers to buy whole albums.
Now, the music industry believes streaming is the way of the future, though its rise has not been smooth. Industry sources say licensing negotiations with the likes of Spotify and Pandora come up every 12 to 15 months and can be difficult.
It is unclear what terms an Apple-owned Beats might command. Apple does have a big bargaining chip in iTunes, which has 800 million members.
“ITunes is the number one for digital downloads,” said Daniel Weisman, a manager at Roc Nation who represents bands. “If iTunes can flip the switch on their user base to become streaming subscribers, that will be a huge win for everyone.”
A source at a music publisher said the labels like Beats because it was “created from within the music industry.” Getting Iovine on board will give Apple huge leverage across the negotiating table as streaming develops. He will likely leave Interscope records and join Apple, according to two sources.
Apple is seldom a first mover into markets, preferring to bide its time and monitor early entrants. The company had been watching Beats Music’s take-up rates since its January launch and was impressed when the service signed up some 1,000 customers a day in the initial weeks, one of the sources familiar with Apple’s thinking said.
“Google, YouTube, Spotify and others are working on ways to stream music,” said Andrew Mains, former vice president of digital at Interscope Records, who worked closely with Iovine and Apple’s iTunes team. “If Apple can control the future of music distribution by buying Beats, they will retain control of the devices.”Simple slingshot
A slingshot or catapult (UK), ging (primarily Australian and New Zealand), shanghai (Australian) or kettie (South Africa) is normally a small hand-powered projectile weapon. The classic form consists of a Y-shaped frame held in the off hand (nondominant hand), with two natural-rubber strips attached to the uprights. The other ends of the strips lead back to a pocket that holds the projectile. The dominant hand grasps the pocket and draws it back to the desired extent to provide power for the projectile—up to a full span of the arm with sufficiently long bands.
Use and history [ edit ]
Slingshots depend on strong elastic materials, typically vulcanized natural rubber or the equivalent, and thus date no earlier than the invention of vulcanized rubber by Charles Goodyear in 1839 (patented in 1844). By 1860, this "new engine" had already established a reputation for juvenile use in vandalism. For much of their early history, slingshots were a "do-it-yourself" item, typically made from a forked branch to form the "Y" shaped handle, with rubber strips sliced from items as inner tubes or other sources of good vulcanized rubber and firing suitably sized stones.
While early slingshots were most associated with young vandals, they were also capable hunting arms in the hands of a skilled user. Firing projectiles, such as lead musket balls, buckshot, steel ball bearings, air gun pellets, or small nails, slingshot was capable of taking game such as quail, pheasant, rabbit, dove, and squirrel. Placing multiple balls in the pouch produces a shotgun effect, such as firing a dozen BBs at a time for hunting small birds. With the addition of a suitable rest, the slingshot can also be used to shoot arrows, allowing the hunting of medium-sized game at short ranges.[1][2][3]
While commercially made slingshots date from at least 1918, with the introduction of the Zip-Zip, a cast iron model,[4] it was not until the post World War II years saw a surge in the popularity, and legitimacy, of slingshots. They were still primarily a home-built proposition; a 1946 Popular Science article details a slingshot builder and hunter using home-built slingshots made from forked dogwood sticks to take small game at ranges of up to 9 m (30 ft) with No. 0 lead buckshot (8 mm [0.32 in] diameter).[5]
The Wham-O company, founded in 1948, was named after their first product, the Wham-O slingshot. It was made of ash wood and used flat rubber bands. The Wham-O was suitable for hunting with a draw weight of up to 200 newtons (45 pounds-force), and was available with an arrow rest.[1][6]
The 1940s also saw the creation of the National Slingshot Association, headquartered in San Marino, California, which organised slingshot clubs and competitions nationwide. Despite the slingshot's reputation as a tool of juvenile delinquents, the NSA reported that 80% of slingshot sales were to men over 30 years old, many of them professionals. John Milligan, a part-time manufacturer of the aluminium-framed John Milligan Special, a hunting slingshot, reported that about a third of his customers were physicians.[6]
The middle 1950s saw two major innovations in slingshot manufacture, typified by the Wrist-Rocket Company of Columbus, Nebraska, later renamed Trumark. The Wrist-Rocket was made from bent aluminium alloy rods that formed not only the handle and fork, but also a brace that extended backwards over the wrist, and provided support on the forearm to counter the torque of the bands. The Wrist-Rocket also used surgical rubber tubing rather than flat bands, attached to the backwards-facing fork ends by sliding the tubing ends over the tips of the forks, where it was held by friction or adhered with the addition of liquid rosin.[7]
Slingshots are also occasionally used in angling to disperse bait into the water over a wide area, so that multiple fish are attracted near the angler's fishing rod.
A home-made derivative of a slingshot also exists, consisting of a rubber balloon cut in half and tied to a tubular object such as the neck of a plastic bottle, or a small pipe. The projectile is inserted through the tube and into the cut balloon, and the user stretches the balloon to launch the projectile. These so-called "balloon guns" are sometimes made as a substitute to ordinary slingshot, and is often used to create the "shotgun" effect with multiple projectiles fired at once.
A 1922 diagram showing the construction of an arrow-firing slingshot
A folding, steel framed wrist brace slingshot using tubular bands. Marketed by the Riley Kitchen Air Rifle Company.
Modern slingshot with ergonomic grip (center), arm support (left), stabiliser and sight (right)
Violent helmeted protester fires a slingshot during clashes on February 18, 2014, in Kiev, Ukraine
Record power shot [ edit ]
The world record for the most energetic shot with a handheld slingshot was 135 Joules. It was shot with a forward extended slingshot, also known as a "starship", which achieves more power by increasing draw length.[8]
Military use [ edit ]
Slingshots have been used as military weapons, but primarily by guerrilla forces due to the primitive resources and technology required to construct one. Such guerrilla groups included the Irish Republican Army; prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein released a propaganda video demonstrating slingshots as a possible insurgency weapon for use against invading forces.[9]
Slingshots have also been used by the military to launch unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Two crew members form the fork, with an elastic cord stretched between them to provide power to launch the small aircraft.[10]
On the Battle of Marawi, the soldiers of the Philippine Army's elite Scout Rangers were observed using slingshots with grenades as an improvised mortar to eliminate the Maute and Abu Sayyaf Terrorists.[11]
Dangers [ edit ]
A tubular band slingshot showing a band failure at the fork.
The ball-in-band attachment method used by the recalled Daisy "Natural" line of slingshots.
One of the dangers inherent in slingshots is the high probability that the bands will fail. Most bands are made from latex, which degrades with time and use, causing the bands to eventually fail under load.[3][12] Failures at the pouch end are safest, as they result in the band rebounding away from the user. Failures at the fork end, however, send the band back towards the shooter's face, which can cause eye and facial injuries.[13] One method to minimize the chance of a fork end failure is to utilize a tapered band, thinner at the pouch end, and thicker and stronger at the fork end.[14] Designs that use loose parts at the fork are the most dangerous, as they can result in those parts being propelled back towards the shooter's face, such as the ball attachment used in the recalled Daisy "Natural" line of slingshots (see image). The band could slip out of the slot in which it rested, and the hard ball in the tube resulted in cases of blindness and broken teeth. Daisy models using plain tubular bands were not covered in the recall, because the elastic tubing does not cause severe injuries upon failure.[13] Another big danger is the fork breakage, some commercial slingshots made from cheap zinc alloy may break and severely injure shooters' eyes & face. [15]
Legal issues [ edit ]
Many jurisdictions prohibit the use of arm braced slingshots. For example, New York law 265.01 defines it as a Class-4 misdemeanor.[16]
In popular culture [ edit ]
The slingshot is heavily featured in the popular gaming franchise Angry Birds, used as the primary launching device for shooting birds at enemy pigs.[17]
Bart Simpson is often depicted using a slingshot to engage many pranks.
Gallery [ edit ]
Simple slingshot using a wooden fork, tubular bands, and a leather pouch.
Steel ball used as slingshot ammunition
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve ( French pronunciation: [ʒil vilnœv]; January 18, 1950 – May 8, 1982), known as Gilles Villeneuve, was a Canadian racing driver. Villeneuve spent six years in Grand Prix racing with Ferrari, winning six races and widespread acclaim for his performances.
An enthusiast of cars and fast driving from an early age, Villeneuve started his professional career in snowmobile racing in his native province of Quebec. He moved into single seaters, winning the US and Canadian Formula Atlantic championships in 1976, before being offered a drive in Formula One with the McLaren team at the 1977 British Grand Prix. He was taken on by reigning world champions Ferrari for the end of the season and from 1978 to his death in 1982 drove for the Italian team. He won six Grand Prix races in a short career at the highest level. In 1979, he finished second by four points in the championship to teammate Jody Scheckter.
Villeneuve died in a 140 mph (225 km/h) crash caused by a collision with the March of Jochen Mass during qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. The accident came less than two weeks after an intense argument with his teammate, Didier Pironi, over Pironi's move to pass Villeneuve at the preceding San Marino Grand Prix. At the time of his death, Villeneuve was extremely popular with fans and has since become an iconic figure in the history of the sport. His son, Jacques Villeneuve, became Formula One world champion in 1997 and, to date, the only Canadian to win the Formula One World Championship.
Personal and early life [ edit ]
Villeneuve was born in Richelieu, a small town just outside Montreal, in the province of Quebec in Canada and grew up in Berthierville.[3] In 1970, he married Joann Barthe, with whom he had two children, Jacques and Mélanie.[4] During his early career Villeneuve took his family on the road with him in a motorhome during the racing season, a habit which he continued to some extent during his Formula One career.[5] He often claimed to have been born in 1952. By the time he got his break in Formula One, he was already 27 years old and took two years off his age to avoid being considered too old to make it at the highest level of motorsports.[6]
Niki Lauda said of him: "He was the craziest devil I ever came across in Formula 1... The fact that, for all this, he was a sensitive and lovable character rather than an out-and-out hell-raiser made him such a unique human being".[7]
His younger brother Jacques also had a successful racing career in Formula Atlantic, Can Am and CART.[8] Gilles' son, also named Jacques, won the Indianapolis 500 and CART championships in 1995 and became Formula One World Champion in 1997.[9]
Early career [ edit ]
Villeneuve's 1973 Magnum MkIII Formula Ford car, with which he won the Quebec Formula Ford championship.
Villeneuve started competitive driving in local drag-racing events, entering his road car, a modified 1967 Ford Mustang. He was soon bored by this[10] and entered the Jim Russell Racing School at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant to gain a racing licence. He then had a very successful season in Quebec regional Formula Ford, running his own two-year-old car and winning seven of the ten races he entered.[11] The next year he progressed to Formula Atlantic, competing there for four years, running his own car again for one of those seasons. He won his first Atlantic race in 1975 at Gimli Motosport Park in heavy rain. In 1976, teamed with Chris Harrison's Ecurie Canada and factory March race engineer Ray Wardell, he dominated the season by winning all but one of the races and taking the US and Canadian titles. He won the Canadian championship again in 1977.
Money was very tight in Villeneuve's early career. He was a professional racing driver from his late teens, with no other income. In the first few years the bulk of his income actually came from snowmobile racing, where he was extremely successful. He could demand appearance money as well as race money, especially after winning the 1974 World Championship Snowmobile Derby. His second season in Formula Atlantic was part-sponsored by his snowmobile manufacturer, Skiroule.[12] He credited some of his success to his snowmobiling days: "Every winter, you would reckon on three or four big spills — and I'm talking about being thrown on to the ice at 100 miles per hour. Those things used to slide a lot, which taught me a great deal about control. And the visibility was terrible! Unless you were leading, you could see nothing, with all the snow blowing about. Good for the reactions — and it stopped me having any worries about racing in the rain."[13]
Formula One career [ edit ]
After Villeneuve impressed James Hunt by beating him and several other Grand Prix stars in a non-championship Formula Atlantic race at Trois-Rivières in 1976, Hunt's McLaren team offered Villeneuve a Formula One deal for up to five races in a third car during the 1977 season.[14] Villeneuve made his debut at the 1977 British Grand Prix, where he qualified 9th in McLaren's old M23, splitting the regular drivers Hunt and Jochen Mass who were driving newer M26s. In the race he set fifth fastest lap and finished 11th after being delayed for two laps by a faulty temperature gauge. The British press coverage of Villeneuve's performance was generally complimentary, including John Blunsden's comment in The Times that "Anyone seeking a future World Champion need look no further than this quietly assured young man."[15]
Despite this, shortly after the British race McLaren's experienced team manager Teddy Mayer decided not to continue with Villeneuve for the following year. His explanation was that Villeneuve "was looking as though he might be a bit expensive" and that Patrick Tambay, the team's eventual choice for 1978, was showing similar promise.[16] Villeneuve was left with no solid options for 1978, although Canadian Walter Wolf, for whom Villeneuve had driven in Can-Am racing, considered giving him a drive at Wolf Racing. Rumours circulated that Villeneuve was one of several drivers in whom Ferrari's team was interested, and in August 1977 he flew to Italy to meet Enzo Ferrari, who was immediately reminded of the pre-war European champion Tazio Nuvolari: "When they presented me with this 'piccolo Canadese' (little Canadian), this minuscule bundle of nerves, I immediately recognised in him the physique of Nuvolari and said to myself, let's give him a try."[17] Ferrari was satisfied with Villeneuve's promise after a session at Ferrari's Fiorano test track, despite the Canadian making many mistakes and setting relatively slow times, and Villeneuve signed to drive for Ferrari in the last two races of the 1977 season and the 1978 season.[18] Villeneuve later remarked that: "If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari..."[13]
Villeneuve's arrival was prompted by Ferrari driver Niki Lauda quitting the team at the penultimate race of the 1977 season, the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport Park near Toronto, having already clinched his second championship with the Italian team.[19] Villeneuve retired from his home race after sliding off the track on another competitor's oil. He also raced in the last race of that season, the Japanese Grand Prix at the Fuji Speedway near Tokyo but retired on lap five when he tried to outbrake the Tyrrell P34 of Ronnie Peterson. The pair banged wheels causing Villeneuve's Ferrari to become airborne. It landed on a group of spectators watching the race from a prohibited area, killing one spectator and a race marshal and injuring ten people. After an investigation into the incident no blame was apportioned and, although he was "terribly sad" at the deaths, Villeneuve did not feel responsible for them.[20]
Villeneuve sitting on his car at Imola in 1979
The 1978 season saw a succession of retirements for Villeneuve, often after problems with the new Michelin radial tyres. Early in the season, he started on the front row at the United States Grand Prix West, but crashed out of the lead on lap 39. Despite calls in the Italian press for him to be replaced, Ferrari persisted with him. Towards the end of the season, Villeneuve's results improved. He finished second on the road at the Italian Grand Prix, although he was penalised a minute for jumping the start, and ran second at the United States Grand Prix before his engine failed. Finally at the season-ending Canadian Grand Prix, this time at the Circuit Notre Dame Island in Montreal (a circuit that was eventually named after him) Villeneuve scored his first Grand Prix win after Jean-Pierre Jarier's Lotus stopped with engine trouble.[21] To date, he remains the only Canadian to win his home race.
Villeneuve was joined by Jody Scheckter in 1979 after Carlos Reutemann moved to Lotus. Villeneuve won three races during the year and even briefly led the championship after winning back to back races in USA and South Africa. However, the season is mostly remembered for Villeneuve's wheel-banging duel with René Arnoux in the last laps of the 1979 French Grand Prix.[22] Arnoux passed Villeneuve for second place with three laps to go, but Villeneuve re-passed him on the next lap. On the final lap Arnoux attempted to pass Villeneuve again, and the pair ran side-by-side through the first few corners of the lap, making contact several times. Arnoux took the position but Villeneuve attempted an outside pass one corner later. The cars bumped hard, Villeneuve slid wide but then passed Arnoux on the inside at a hairpin turn and held him off for the last half of the lap to secure second place. Villeneuve commented afterwards, "I tell you, that was really fun! I thought for sure we were going to get on our heads, you know, because when you start interlocking wheels it's very easy for one car to climb over another."[23] At the Dutch Grand Prix a slow puncture collapsed Villeneuve's left rear tyre and put him off the track. He returned to the circuit and limped back to the pits on three wheels, losing the damaged wheel on the way. On his return to the pits Villeneuve insisted that the team replace the missing wheel, and had to be persuaded that the car was beyond repair.[24] Villeneuve might have won the World Championship by ignoring team orders to beat Scheckter at the Italian Grand Prix, but chose to finish behind him, ending his own championship challenge. The pair finished first and second in the championship, with Scheckter beating Villeneuve by just four points. During the extremely wet Friday practice session for the season-ending United States Grand Prix, Villeneuve set a time variously reported to be either 9 or 11 seconds faster than any other driver. His teammate Jody Scheckter, who was second fastest, recalled that "I scared myself rigid that day. I thought I had to be quickest. Then I saw Gilles's time and — I still don't really understand how it was possible. Eleven seconds!"[25]
The 1980 season was a complete disaster for Ferrari. Villeneuve had been considered favourite for the Drivers' Championship by UK bookmakers,[26] but only scored six points in the whole campaign in the 312T5 which had only partial ground effects. Scheckter scored only two points and retired at the end of the season.
For the 1981 season, Ferrari introduced their first turbo engined F1 car, the 126C, which produced tremendous power but was let down by its poor handling. Villeneuve was partnered with Didier Pironi who noted that Villeneuve "had a little family [at Ferrari] but he made me welcome and made me feel at home overnight... [He] treated me as an equal in every way."[27] Villeneuve won two races during the season. At the Spanish Grand Prix Villeneuve kept five quicker cars behind him for most of the race using the superior straight-line speed of his car. After an hour and 46 minutes of racing Villeneuve led second-placed Jacques Laffite by only 0.22 seconds. Fifth-placed Elio de Angelis was only just over a second further back.[28] Harvey Postlethwaite, who was hired by Ferrari to design the follow-on and much more successful 126C2 that won the Constructors' Championship in 1982, later commented on the 126C: "That car...had literally one quarter of the downforce that, say Williams or Brabham had. It had a power advantage over the Cosworths for sure, but it also had massive throttle lag at that time. In terms of sheer ability I think Gilles was on a different plane to the other drivers. To win those races, the 1981 GPs at Monaco and Jarama — on tight circuits — was quite out of this world. I know how bad that car was."[29] At the 1981 Canadian Grand Prix Villeneuve damaged the front wing of his Ferrari and drove for most of the race in heavy rain with the wing obscuring his view ahead. There was a risk of being black flagged but eventually the wing became detached and Villeneuve drove on to finish third with the nose section of his car missing.
The first few races of the 1982 season were promising. Villeneuve led in Brazil in the new 126C2, before spinning into retirement, and finished third at the United States Grand Prix West although he was later disqualified for a technical infringement. The Ferraris were handed an unexpected advantage at the San Marino Grand Prix as an escalation of the FISA–FOCA war saw the FOCA teams boycott the race, effectively leaving Renault as Ferrari's only serious opposition. With Renault driver Prost retiring from fourth place on lap 7 followed by his teammate Arnoux on the 44th lap Ferrari seemed to have the win guaranteed. In order to conserve fuel and ensure the cars finished the Ferrari team ordered both drivers to slow down. Villeneuve believed that the order also meant that the drivers were to maintain position but Pironi passed Villeneuve. A few laps later Villeneuve re-passed Pironi and slowed down again, believing that Pironi was simply trying to entertain the Italian crowd. On the last lap Pironi passed and aggressively chopped across the front of Gilles in Villeneuve corner and took the win. Villeneuve was irate as he believed that Pironi had disobeyed the order to hold position. Meanwhile, Pironi claimed that he had done nothing wrong as the team had only ordered the cars to slow down, not maintain position. Villeneuve stated after the race "I think it is well known that if I want someone to stay behind me and I am faster, then he stays behind me."[30] Feeling betrayed and angry Villeneuve vowed never to speak to Pironi again.[31]
In 2007, former Marlboro marketer John Hogan disputed the claim that Pironi had gone back on a prior arrangement with Villeneuve. He said: "Neither of them would ever have agreed to what effectively was throwing a race. I think Gilles was stunned somebody had out-driven him and that it just caught him so much by surprise." Hogan's company sponsored Pironi while he was at Ferrari. A comparison of the lap times of the two drivers showed that Villeneuve lapped far slower when he was in the lead, suggesting that he had indeed been trying to save fuel.[32]
Death [ edit ]
On May 8, 1982, Villeneuve died after an accident during the final qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. At the time of the crash, Pironi had set a time 0.1s faster than Villeneuve for sixth place. Villeneuve was using his final set of qualifying tyres; some say he was attempting to improve his time on his final lap, while others suggest he was specifically aiming to beat Pironi.[33] However, Villeneuve's biographer Gerald Donaldson quotes Ferrari race engineer Mauro Forghieri as saying that the Canadian, although pressing on in his usual fashion, was returning to the pits when the accident occurred.[34] If so, he would not have set a time on that lap.
With eight minutes of the session left, Villeneuve came over the rise after the first chicane and caught Jochen Mass travelling much more slowly through Butte, the left-handed bend before the Terlamenbocht double right-hand section. Mass saw Villeneuve approaching at high speed and moved to the right to let him through on the racing line. At the same instant Villeneuve also moved right to pass the slower car. The Ferrari hit the back of Mass' car and was launched into the air at a speed estimated at 200–225 km/h (120–140 mph). It was airborne for more than 100 m before nosediving into the ground and disintegrating as it somersaulted along the edge of the track. Villeneuve, still strapped to his seat, but without his helmet, was thrown a further 50 m from the wreckage into the catch fencing on the outside edge of the Terlamenbocht corner.[34][35]
Several drivers stopped and rushed to the scene. John Watson and Derek Warwick pulled Villeneuve, his face blue, from the catch fence.[36] The first doctor arrived within 35 seconds to find that Villeneuve was not breathing, although his pulse continued; he was intubated and ventilated before being transferred to the circuit medical centre and then by helicopter to University St Raphael Hospital in Leu |
Still, the Friends made progress, Gann said. The city wanted a database of vendors, so they made one. They charged non-art vendors a fee, which helped pay for street barriers, a dozen portable toilets and trash and recycling pick-up.
Neighbors still complained. When Charlie Hales became mayor this year, he ruled Last Thursday needed a city permit. He asked the Friends to bring in more volunteers and 80 portable toilets. He said Last Thursday, which starts at 6 p.m. at NE 15th Avenue, must end by 9 p.m. and suggested trimming the number of city blocks closed each month.
Negotiations between the city and Friends of Last Thursday fell apart days before June's festival.
This summer, the city-run Last Thursdays began with a huddle of bureaucrats, police and volunteers at the Portland Police Bureau's North Precinct. They ended with a street cleaning parade. For the first time ever, the city also sent volunteers to document "livability incidents."
They recorded about 200 a month. Other problems continue as well: The city added some portable toilets, yet couldn't afford 80. At the August artwalk, police arrested two men on accusations of assaulting a resident who had their car towed from in front of his driveway.
"It's been a long summer for all of us," Stover said.
Five city bureaus worked on Last Thursday this year, and city leaders haven't added up how much their efforts will end up costing taxpayers, Stover said. But he said the city can't funnel so much time and money into any single street fair, no matter its prominence.
Gann, the Friends volunteer, said that without the responsibility of helping manage Last Thursday, she had more time to spend on her fire-based performances. She doesn't want to give up on the event, though, and will work with other artists this winter to create a nonprofit to manage the festival. They plan to apply for a permit next year, she said.
That might not go over well at City Hall. Hales spokesman Dana Haynes said he isn't sure Friends of Last Thursday is the right organization to lead the artwalk. The artists offered to re-take responsibility for Last Thursday a month after quitting this summer if the city chipped in $4,000.
"That didn't seem like a good investment," Haynes said.
The city is willing to lend a financial hand to another group, say Alberta Street business owners or the nonprofit Northeast Coalition of Neigbors, Haynes said. But so far, no one else has stepped up to take Last Thursday off the mayor's hands.
- Casey ParksUS President Barack Obama speaks to US troops at Third Infantry Division Headquarters at Fort Stewart in Hinesville, Georgia, on April 27, 2012, prior to Obama signing an Executive Order to help US service members and their families make informed decisions about education and to protect them from deceptive targeting by educational institutions. AFP PHOTO/Saul LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/GettyImages) SAUL LOEB
(CBS News) President Obama's approval rating has risen slowly since last summer and is now its highest monthly average since May 2011, according to Gallup's daily tracking poll, which showed support increasing particularly among independents.
Mr. Obama's approval rating averaged 47 percent in April 2012 - just below his 50 percent approval rating last May, when a team of U.S. Navy SEALS killed Osama bin Laden. The poll boost comes as the president reminds voters of the successful raid on the al Qaeda leader, spurring debate over whether he is inappropriately politicizing the event.
The president's approval rating reached a low point in the summer of 2011, when it stood at 41 percent. Since then, it's climbed the most -- by eight points -- among independents. His approval rating improved particularly among independent women, according to Gallup.
Still, as in CBS News/ New York Times polling, Gallup finds that Mr. Obama remains essentially tied with Republican Mitt Romney among voters nationally.GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas on Tuesday invited Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to send officials to Gaza to resume control of the coastal enclave the Islamic terror group seized a decade ago.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said his group is serious about returning power to the Western-backed Palestinian leader and called on him to respond with “practical steps.”
Hamas has said it will dismantle a contentious committee that has governed Gaza in recent months — answering a key Abbas demand. It has also said it is ready to hand over all government functions to Abbas and to hold elections in Gaza and the West Bank.
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“We extend a clear and frank invitation without obstacles for the consensus government to work in Gaza,” Haniyeh said after returning from Cairo, where he and other Hamas leaders held rare talks with Egyptian officials.
He added that the party was ready to return to Egypt for direct talks with Fatah over the next steps.
“We are ready to return in a few days to Cairo to resume the dialogue,” Haniyeh added, stressing he was “committed to the success” of reconciliation.
On Monday Haniyeh spoke with Abbas for the first time in nearly a year, and Fatah officials have said they expect Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to visit Gaza in the coming days.
Hamas, an Islamist terrorist organization dedicated to the elimination of Israel, is in financial and political distress after years of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade, designed to prevent it from importing weapons, as well as recent economic pressure from Abbas.
The group won legislative elections in 2006 and the following year seized control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas’ forces, leaving the Palestinian president in charge of autonomous enclaves in the West Bank.
Several past attempts at ending the rift have failed, and thorny issues remain, including security arrangements in Gaza. Hamas has thousands of armed fighters and a sizeable arsenal of rockets and mortar shells. It has always resisted calls to disarm or place its men under Abbas’ control.
The two Palestinian factions are also divided over Israel. Abbas has recognized Israel and renounced violence, while Hamas seeks Israel’s destruction.
Abbas cautiously welcomed Hamas’ intentions on Sunday as he headed to New York for the UN General Assembly.
Haniyeh praised the rapprochement between Hamas and Egypt, which cut ties to the terror group and strengthened the Gaza blockade after the military overthrew an elected Islamist president, who had supported Hamas, in 2013.
Departing from his prepared remarks to the UN General Assembly, Egyptian President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi on Tuesday said he wanted to “tell the Palestinian people, it is important to unite … to overcome the differences and to be ready to accept co-existence with the other, with Israelis, in safety and security.”A landspout is a term coined by meteorologist Howard B. Bluestein in 1985 for a kind of tornado not associated with a mesocyclone.[1] The Glossary of Meteorology defines a landspout as
"Colloquial expression describing tornadoes occurring with a parent cloud in its growth stage and with its vorticity originating in the boundary layer. The parent cloud does not contain a preexisting mid-level mesocyclone. The landspout was so named because it looks like "a weak Florida Keys waterspout over land."[2]
Landspouts are a type of tornado which forms during the growth stage of a cumulus congestus cloud by stretching boundary layer vorticity upward and into the cumulus congestus's updraft. They generally are smaller and weaker than supercell tornadoes and do not form from a mesocyclone or pre-existing rotation in the cloud. Because of this, landspouts are rarely detected by Doppler weather radar.[3]
Landspouts share a strong resemblance and development process to that of waterspouts, usually taking the form of a translucent and highly laminar helical tube. Landspouts are considered tornadoes since a rotating column of air is in contact with both the surface and a cumuliform cloud. Not all landspouts are visible, and many are first sighted as debris swirling at the surface before eventually filling in with condensation and dust.
Lifetime [ edit ]
A landspout generally lasts for less than 16 minutes, however, they can live longer, and produce heavy damage. [4]
Damage [ edit ]
Landspouts are commonly weak, however, in rare occasions, a landspout can be as strong as an F3 tornado.[4][5]
See also [ edit ]Surfboards lean against a wall at the Google office in Santa Monica, California, October 11, 2010. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOG.O) will offer a prepaid debit card that will allow consumers to purchase goods at stores and to withdraw cash from ATM machines, the Internet company said on Wednesday.
The card, which is only available in the United States, lets consumers access the funds stored in their Google Wallet accounts. Google Wallet is a smartphone app and online payment service that lets consumers buy goods and transfer money to each other.
The new Wallet card will be accepted at “millions of locations” that accept MasterCard and at ATM machines, Google said in a post on its official blog on Wednesday. Google said the card is free and that the company will not charge cardholders any monthly or annual fees.
The card could help advance Google’s efforts to play a bigger role in commerce and provide the company with valuable information about consumer shopping habits, though it appears to be less ambitious than the full-fledged credit card once rumored to be in the works.
Plans for a Google consumer credit card were shelved when the head of Google’s Wallet and payments group, Osama Bedier, left the company in May, according to a report at the time in the technology blog AllThingsD.
Google, the world’s No. 1 Internet search engine, in 2011 began offering a special AdWords Business credit card that its advertising customers could use to buy ads on its website.
A Google spokeswoman confirmed that data about transactions made with the new Wallet card - including a description of goods purchased, the amount of the transaction and the name and address of the seller - would be added to the internal profiles that Google maintains for users of its services, which can be used to target ads.
Consumers add money to the new Wallet Card by linking it to a bank account or when another person transfers money to their Wallet account, according to Google. The card can be ordered online on Wednesday, and typically takes 10 to 12 days to arrive, a Google spokeswoman said.Clockwork Empires version 1.0 has emerged, glistening, from its development-spore and launched on Steam! We are out of Early Access and into the wild frontier that calls for Colonial Bureaucrats to manage bustling colonies and chop down all the trees and maybe start a cult maybe for Progress and Civilization! You can purchase Clockwork Empires through Steam or the Humble Store (which provides a Steam key*) for a 10% discount for the next week!
* We will be setting up non-Steam distribution of Clockwork Empires via the Humble Store and possibly other online distributors in the near future.
The Development Progress Report has been updated with a full annotated changelog for version 55A to version 1.0. We’ll put the full changelog at the end of this post for those interested in seeing what the last month month of Early Access has brought to the game.
This is not, of course, the end of work on Clockwork Empires: We shall be continuing support for game stability and bugfixes, and we have a list of additional content and some small features we’d like to add post-release.
Oh, did you catch the launch trailer by the way? Here it is again:
Major player-facing additions this month
performed a huge UI improvement pass for release
also a huge balance pass, including making the later biomes more difficult
added the Steam Knight Manufactory!
added Achievements
much stability & polish
oh yeah, we’ve released the game to 1.0 with all that entails!
Begin Full Changelog for version BETA 55A to version 1.0 of Clockwork Empires
Colonist Behaviour
awkward hugging made less likely to cause errors
“Drunkard” trait now additionally causes happier memories from drinking
“Hale and Hearty” trait now additionally causes barbershop treatments to heal more
“Mushroom Lover” trait now additionally gives happy memories when eating fungus-based foods
when deciding initial feelings toward other colonists, Overseers will now consider Labourers beneath their notice for friendship/rivalry unless said Overseer has the Common Mingler trait
made colonist auto-burial timer check itself more often (colonists are not given automatic burial orders if hostile enemies are nearby; this will now be checked upon every new workshift.)
colonist traits now affect certain climate quality of life effects
added booze vat pathing check to get drink / fill vat jobs
vicars can now convince cultists to leave their cult
“Made a friend/rival” memories will now have the name of said friend or rival
balance: Steam Knight presence now affects safety QoL
balance: added more despair and anger overall
balance: made people slightly more upset in general
balance: when your colonists die it will now decrease your empire standing a bit
FIXED: scripterror when using Leyden weapons
FIXED: military holding commodities while fighting
FIXED: characters would occasionally get stuck and stop moving when the entity “thinklocking” them would disappear w/o releasing the thinklock (in particular, if a spectre talked to a colonist then disappeared due to sunlight, the lock would not be released.)
FIXED: enraged characters will no longer build buildings
FIXED: Safety quality of life calculation for colonists was incorrect on days 2 through 5
FIXED: if a scientist is enhanced due to REDACTED their lab will properly update its skill display
FIXED: murder
FIXED: scripterror in military_interrogation_event.fsm
FIXED: some eldritch memories didnt give (enough) despair
FIXED: spectres should no longer freeze people in place forever under certain rare conditions
FIXED: slightly incorrect string compilation in conversation memories
FIXED: edge case error in ai_damage
Non-colonist characters
doubled trader mission time
Occult Inspector now inspects buildings more intelligently
made dormant spores more Fun
FIXED: steam knights freezing!
FIXED: possible steamknight issues with placement /not/ into buildings
FIXED: added safety check to fishpeople group deletion notification
General Gameplay Balance
changed overseer workplace cap modifier to scale w/ number of overseers
balance: adjusted incidence of bad guys in biomes according to difficulty scheme
balance: made certain enemies send more dudes when you’re later in game
balance: reduced Fishpeople incidence in desert biome
balance: non-temperate biomes impose various and increasing QoL penalties from tropics, desert, to cold as most penalized
balance: more vicious will spawn in non-temperate biomes
balance: biomes with extreme weather may produce unpleasant memories
balance: military interrogation has been made less effective by 50%
balance: doubled trade crops value
balance: added extra bandit spawning in desert + cold
balance: bandits in more difficult biomes now get better gun loadouts
balance: decor object trade value updated
FIXED: overvalued steam radiator (and other decor items)
FIXED: Bricabrac now has a trade value
Workshop/Buildings
added the Steam Knight Manufactory. Have fun!
more workshop interior textures changed
optimized Laboratory science refresh function
science has undergone a massive overhaul: The number of techs has roughly doubled. A number of advanced modules now require research before they can be built.
balance: Overseer house has had the windows requirement moved to its 2nd bonus condition
Assembly Workbench now has 2 access points (down from 4)
added naturalist’s office info to module descriptions
the Trade Office now has a module todo list that will determine how many traders arrive. Range is currently 4 – 14. (Traders will always use the best office in your colony to determine how many to send, rather than adding multiple offices together)
added some new options for increasing standing to the Empire via the Foreign Office
added more feedback to Foreign Office when changing standing
FIXED: ammo recipes now all make 1 ammo as intended
FIXED: a large number of incorrect recipe costs
FIXED: that typo in the laboratory
FIXED: house demolition crash
FIXED: invisible buildings
FIXED: airship masts work again
FIXED: rare door scripterror when a door was built before its parent building (or something)
FIXED: missing Steel Plates recipe
FIXED: connected components would fail to be computed correctly when creating a building with weird shapes (the actual problem is more detailed than that, but let’s go with that one)
FIXED: various path stutters related to the new connected component code, involving animals not correctly finding corrected components that ignored doors, various other issues with aquatic entities, etc.
FIXED: building can no longer consist of two discontiguous blueprints
FIXED: steam knight chassis recipe output is no longer world’s most expensive landmines
FIXED: incorrect recipe ingredient info for various products
FIXED: dismantle objects assignment beacon now works correctly
Events
replaced Sunny Day event with much more varied “Unusual Weather” event w/ unique effects per-biome
some events that spawned characters now properly allow clicking their event popups to zoom to those characters
made major eldritch events more Fun
re-added Ominous Dreams as event arc
Novorous Logging moratorium now checks for larch/bamboo farming
added Arguing Rivals event
if your Empire standing gets low enough the Ministry will limit and eventually entirely halt immigration until you pull it back up
balance: made Foreign Invasion redcoats not take > 7 days to despawn
balance: removed revolver locker chance from ministry supplies in foreign invasion event
balance: made disturbance points at slightly higher at low end of scale
balance: made cults easier to trigger
balance: adjusted weights of various events
balance: doing airship crash research now gives standing reward
FIXED: scriperrors in certain cases in “arguing rivals”
FIXED (55J): scriperror in cult art, fishperson cult arc
FIXED: scripterror with criminal work crew foreign office event
FIXED: some buildings would say you didn’t have required modules when eventlocked
FIXED: bureaucrat desk couldn’t be used for event arcs
FIXED: rare crash when using Aerial Surveillance
FIXED: order to kill all fishpeople now works correctly
FIXED: grimoire event had ending error if researcher died
FIXED: scripterror in Above 30 Population event
FIXED: scripterror in certain cases in Arguing Rivals
FIXED: possible scriperror in Mad Carpenter
UI / UX / Text
performed a major overhaul of the Colonial Handbook; all pages have images and have been reformatted to be easier to read
replaced many intrusive pop-ups with alerts
tooltips for missions (in Foreign Office) are now minimum sized and shouldn’t overrun container
added descriptions for sub commands (in bottom left menu)
improved alert tooltips (for pop-up alerts on right side of screen)
improved visibility of colonist traits via gameplay and fluff fields (ie. traits that affect workshop are highlighted)
rewrote a bit of the “wrapped label widget” to make the constructors more sensible
mineral survey waypoints now use assignment beacons (which is very nice)
consistency: any string that says “Cheap Cabinet” has been set to “Simple Cabinet”
Mine will give alert if assigned an owner and it has no supplies to operate
Naturalist’s Office will give alert if set to a different mode w/o Overseer assigned
Naturalist’s Office will give alert if set to a work mode w/o supplies for that mode
all instances of “citizenry” changed to “colonists”
adjusted Safety Quality of Life description so having a low rating doesn’t (necessarily) say that you have few soldiers (it’s possible to get a low rating due to other factors)
exclusive windows (ie. history log) now make a noise when they close
improved load screen UI
overhauled Trade Office interface
improved layout for character info panel
edited embark screen to show biome difficulty of site selection
added cancel button to the load screen
added per-workshop backgrounds to Overseers window (makes it much easier to see which overseer is assigned to which workshop)
made expression widget bgs round for thought/dialog
added better tooltips to Workshop production menu
polished up character info panel
moved “Unassign Overseer” to the top of the overseer assignment element (in building panels)
added detailed tooltips for terrain objects
added informative tag icons to map objects
did better tooltip requirement visualization for buildings
added hitpoints, quality to building tooltips
proposing and cancelling trades now work properly and update the UI on time
emoved zoom to worksite button for character panel (it did not really work)
FIXED: shortened some more overflowing memory names
FIXED (internally, really this time): cancelling a gabion creation job no longer leaves ghosts
FIXED: farms now display their farm type in the office creation menu
FIXED: dead colonists will no longer display a job as if they were alive
FIXED: changing the order of the workshop modules in the workshop didn’t work properly
FIXED: some more memory name ui overflow
FIXED: minor typosFIXED: some minor text overflow in the foreign office
FIXED: work crew UI now uses disabled scrollbar thumb properly
FIXED: the label for “sleep” wasn’t showing in the character info panel
FIXED: crashing the game when viewing the credits
FIXED: flashing character nametags
FIXED: new tooltip code no longer crashes the game if a product has no explicit definitions in data files
FIXED: overflow of recipe tooltip for product details in workshops
FIXED: farm overseer assignment display updating
FIXED: overflowing tooltip in house dialog
FIXED: blank tooltip on overseer in overseers panel
FIXED: embark icons flickering to incorrect states when switching between them
FIXED: clicking on the minimap while zoom-to is selected will now correctly reset it
Biomes / Nature Objects
adjusted ground textures in alpine terrain to look colder
added some more difficult stuff to provide Fun / blood for the blood god in harder biomes
renamed “Lacquer Tree” to “Lacquer Plant” (to imply that “Chop Tree” is not an appropriate tool to use with them)
mine survey point visuals redone
added informative tag icons to map objects
balance: non-temperate crops made more difficult
balance: increased vermin spawn and animal spawn timers (for less spam)
balance: forage output and regrowth time increased
FIXED: vermin will not spawn in invalid positions (caused pathing errors)
Engine/Tech/???
optimized connected component code to fix stuttering when flattening/building
FIXED: stutter when placing gabions, buildings, or flattening terrain
FIXED: scaling issues on fullscreen for Windows if the aspect ratio of your monitor exactly matches your suggested resolution (unngh)
FIXED: Longpork pie used incorrect model
Wish to peruse the full annotated changelog? Read it in the Development Report!
Have fun and let us know through our mysterious portal or forum if anything goes wrong.In southern Louisiana, a variety of people on the religious right tell Sam Thielman they no longer know whom they should vote for
Conservative Christians no longer agree on how to vote their collective conscience in America.
To liberals, this group has acted for 40 years with incredible political discipline so often, and with such force, that it seems like a single unit moving in lockstep. But in populous, rural southern Louisiana, a decidedly various body of believers representative of much of American Christendom argues about how to proceed. As the ghost of Ronald Reagan loosens its grip on the party, a vital segment is directionless. Many are solidly opposed to Hillary Clinton; many more are disgusted with Donald Trump.
Today, Henry Beck and Frank Fury, who graduated from the same high school in 1960, are arguing about politics with an agility that comes from regular practice. At the Faith Presbyterian men’s luncheon at Morton’s Boiled Seafood and Bar, a restaurant on the bank of of the Tchefuncte river in Covington, Louisiana, their pastor, Jason Wood, 32, watches quietly.
'Vitriol in American politics is holding the nation back' Read more
It’s a warm Thursday in May; a sign outside reads “HOT BOILED SEAFOOD WHEN ARROW IS FLASHING”, which it is.
Fury is short, enthusiastic and turns a memorable phrase: the south, he contends, gets a bum rap. “This is the place of Walker Percy, the great intellect,” Fury reminds me.
Beck, tall, deep-voiced and clad in suspenders, is unmoved: “There’s a lotta rednecks here, Frank.”
“That writer from Mississippi – Faulkner! And the little girl who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird! She’s from Alabama.”
The men are polite, but nervous about talking politics to a reporter. As Van Wilson, the only attendee over 90 years old, says grace over the meal, he asks that God would show me “that we southerners are no different from anyone else, and that we love the Lord”.
This isn’t meant to sting, but it does. Though I live in New York now, I grew up in a town of 600 people in the Blue Ridge mountains and went to college in Birmingham, Alabama, where Wood was my roommate. I go to church every week and I love the Lord, too.
I also recognize the impulse: No one likes to be stereotyped, and blue-state liberals often sneer at rural conservatives who vote against abortion access and gay rights on principle. And those liberals tend to be vindictive when they see those same people’s home cities and states suffer in large part because politicians paying lip service to conservative religious ideology have used their positions to vampirize the standard of living through corporate tax giveaways, union-busting, old-fashioned graft, or – as is too often the case in Louisiana – all three.
Many understand that they’ve been exploited to further the deregulation of trade and labor; they’re just not sure what to do about it.
Hot boiled seafood when arrow is flashing
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Faith Presbyterian church in Covington. Photograph: Sean Gardner for the Guardian
At lunch, the topic is the problem of populism, and the specific subject is Trump, a figure who divides politically and theologically conservative Christians as sharply as he does any group in the nation.
The Barna Group, a polling organization that specializes in Christian belief, found in May that while 81% of evangelicals – a term the group carefully defines – have a negative opinion of Clinton, 67% dislike Trump just as much.
Few of them – including his supporters – can look at Trump and see anything but a philandering, amoral grifter. He also doesn’t have a credible religious leader trying to field the concerns of Christians for him; those who have gotten close, such as Joel Osteen (whose “prosperity gospel” theology is more popular with notional believers than with regular churchgoers) or James Dobson, have been ridiculed.
The cult of personality is a familiar sight to Fury. “We didn’t like Huey Long,” he says pointedly. “We didn’t like him for the same reasons we don’t like Donald Trump. Or Mussolini or Adolf Hitler.”
Beck, who objects to the term “evangelical” (“It used to mean being like Billy Graham,” he sighs fondly) won’t say that he likes Trump, but he is excited about the candidacy. “He has no political baggage at all,” Beck says. In his youth a passionate liberal, Beck, a navy veteran, now relishes the position more conservative voices have found outside the mainstream. It’s hard to argue with a rural Louisianan that entrenched bad actors in the government aren’t at least part of the problem. Along these lines, Beck describes Fury as a “a big socialist”, probably to get his goat, but Fury simply nods his assent.
“I don’t like government, but boy, I’ve got to have government,” Fury says. “If I don’t have somebody to protect me, what do I do?”
Some tell me they aren’t sure they want to vote at all.
Linda Arendt, another Faith Presbyterian parishioner, says she’s not convinced she wants to vote for anyone in the race – she saw a meme (she says même – we’re not far from New Orleans) of “a little boy having the most awful tantrum, saying, ‘Please don’t make me vote for any of these people. I don’t like any of these people.’” For her, that sums it up.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Frank Fury, Jason Wood, Sam Thielman and Henry Beck outside Morton’s Boiled Seafood & Bar. Photograph: Sean Gardner for the Guardian
‘At least he’s my dog in the hunt’
Many associate conservative Christianity with slick beltway creatures like Ralph Reed or grassroots lobbyists like Jerry Fallwell’s Moral Majority and James Dobson’s Family Research Council. But those are the symptoms of a discontent built on the back of Roe v Wade in 1973 – the ruling that made abortion legal – and codified in Ronald Reagan’s 1976 address to the Republican National Convention.
“There is no substitute for victory,” Reagan told the gathering in what was ostensibly a concession speech. Ford, a more moderate candidate, had already bowed to pressure from the conservative wing of the party and dropped his vice-presidential choice, Nelson Rockefeller, from the ticket in favor of Bob Dole. When Ford lost to Jimmy Carter, Reagan’s words seemed prophetic and they helped usher in an era of uncompromising opposition to socially liberal politics by any means necessary.
That is largely why Jay Avance, pastor of First Baptist church in Baker, has no problem being designated evangelical, and sees a vote for Trump as pure realpolitik.
“Trump has said he’s Presbyterian – of course, when you say ‘Two Corinthians’ as opposed to ‘Second Corinthians’, he’s probably not a very good one,” Avance laughs. “But I think the fact is [First Baptist’s congregants] are looking for somebody that’s gonna defend their way of life.” Avance cites the openings on the supreme court as a point of concern – he admires the staunchly anti-abortion Antonin Scalia, who died in February – and says this isn’t his first rodeo, at least as far as supporting a distasteful politician goes.
“In the election that we just had here in Louisiana, of course they voted in a Democrat governor, which I do not like, and it’ll be better when he’s gone,” Avance says. “But the fact of the matter is the guy he was running against had been mired in controversy for having extramarital affairs and this kind of business.” The Republican David Vitter, the state’s senior senator, was pilloried throughout his campaign for his full-throated condemnation of same-sex unions – he tended to blame Hollywood – which he said violated the sanctity of marriage before and after his own prostitution bust.
Avance doesn’t care. “Everybody kept saying, ‘How can you support him? He’s a dog,’” Avance says. “And I said, ‘Let me tell you this story I heard from a hunter: he said, “Out there in my yard, I have a dog that’s my hunting dog. Now, he’s a dog, but he’s my dog. He runs the squirrels I want him to run. So he might be a dog, but at least he’s my dog in the hunt.”’”
‘They have a passion against Donald Trump’
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alfred N Young Jr poses for a photo at Covenant church. Photograph: Sean Gardner for the Guardian
Not everyone wants a dog. Alfred Young Jr has been a pastor in southern Louisiana for decades. Young, who is black, describes himself as “a product of the Ninth Ward”, the historically impoverished New Orleans neighborhood that was crushed into sticks by hurricane Katrina.
Like Avance, he is socially conservative and somewhat cynical about politics, but for different reasons.
“Republicans constantly say to black Americans that [their] values are more aligned with – if you’re Christian – the biblical values that we have,” Young says. “That’s very true.” But it isn’t enough, Young says: compassion is a Christian virtue, too, and his black parishioners don’t see enough of it from the right. “The message that black evangelicals pick up from Republicans is: ‘We’re right, but we don’t care.’”
Indeed, black conservative Christians have rarely rallied to Republicans – and conservative politicians have gone to great lengths to alienate them, from Reagan’s own “human predator” speech in New Orleans to the tragic lack of proportional response to need in the wake of Katrina.
Young’s mission is racial reconciliation; he leads an integrating small-majority white church in Covington, which, given congregational demographics in the south, where tiny towns often have one grocery store and two churches, is in itself strong evidence for the supernatural.
“I hear people telling me all the time that since President Obama was elected, they feel like racial relations have gotten worse and they feel like they should have gotten better,” Young says.
Young says many realized tensions weren’t going to ease when the South Carolina representative Joe Wilson stood up and screamed “You lie!” during Barack Obama’s first State of the Union speech. It was, in Young’s words, “the most disrespectful thing that could ever be, and there was not any major outcry”.
'The US? We're in bad shape': squeezed middle class tell tales of struggle Read more
“I had forgotten that,” I say.
Young chuckles. “Black folk haven’t.”
Young maintains close relationships across race and class lines among rural Louisianans – he used to pastor another, poorer, majority-black church – and he says polls woefully underestimate the very poor, who don’t keep phone numbers for long and rarely answer an unlisted caller for fear of a bill collector. For those people, Trump has become an avatar of that disrespect. Young admits that poor black people can be induced to vote only “if they have a passion”, but they will show up in November, he says, because they have a one now: “They have a passion against Donald Trump.”
When Ronald Reagan came to Covington
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Frank Fury and Jason Wood discuss politics and religion with members of the Faith Presbyterian church men’s club. Photograph: Sean Gardner for the Guardian
The day before his parishioners fight about politics over seafood, Wood offers to show me the town. He is much younger than everyone else interviewed here, and he’s a comparative newcomer to Covington, where he says his job and his family’s living situation fell into alignment so evenly and quickly that he could credit nothing but providence.
The sights in Covington, seat of St. Tammany Parish, which is home to nearly a quarter of a million people, include a town square with a refurbished train station that serves as a community center. At the center of the square is a strikingly inappropriate statue of Ronald Reagan, in many ways the architect of the now crumbling alliance between evangelicals and conservative politicians.
“Have you heard the story of when Ronald Reagan came to Covington?” Wood asks me as his truck pulls around the corner, revealing a saluting Reagan in his glory.
“No,” I say.
“That’s because he never did.”
The statue reaches at least 15ft off the ground on a pedestal that comes with a good story, told by Harvey Marsolan, the owner of the hardware store across the street.
Marsolan delightedly tells me the pedestal was installed upside down. “‘It’s supposed to be narrow at the top!’” the deliverers of the statue told the installers of the pedestal, according to Harvey. But the city decided it was fine the way it was, or at least not worth the trouble to fix, and so the Gipper presides over Covington with his base installed wrong.
Not everyone in town cares for the statue, erected by a wealthy local man named Patrick Taylor in 2008.
“There was a lot of people wondering why, but there it is,” Marsolan said.
“It’s gonna be like this election. A lot of people aren’t gonna like it, but there it is.”Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Seven Remain voters discuss the choice they face in the UK general election on Radio 4's Today programme
In three weeks' time we will discover whether that referendum vote has dissolved the glue that bound voters to the party they have supported in the past.
That is what I have set out to examine in my Election Takeaways - a chat over a bite to eat with different groups of voters to discover what is on their minds and how they are going about deciding who, if anyone, to vote for.
This week, I shared a Thai takeaway with seven people who voted Remain in the EU referendum in the Tory marginal of Bedford.
Like the Leavers I spoke to last week in Halifax, they were chosen for us by the pollsters Ipsos Mori.
When Theresa May strode out of the door of Number 10 to call this election she claimed it was all about Brexit and not, as many believed, about her desire for her own mandate and a bigger Commons majority.
Image caption The discussion among our Remain voters revealed divided opinions about what should happen next
My conversation revealed a fascinating split in the attitudes of Remainers. All seven still believed we should have stayed in the EU and shared their unhappy memories of the moment they realised that Brexit would win, but they are deeply divided in their views about what should happen now.
Four of our seven Remainers told me that they thought the debate about our membership of the EU is now over and it is time to "just get on with it".
Fiorella has lived in Britain all her life but until recently had an Italian passport.
"The reason why Theresa May called a snap election is because she is asking us to choose who we believe is the best person to stand for us all and select the best deal for us," she says.
And Abhijit agreed. He moved to Bedford from Italy seven years ago and works for a local engineering firm.
"The election is an opportunity to vote for somebody you think will get the best deal after Brexit," he says.
Builder James also supported this view: "This is the situation we're in and it's important now to look forward and come together and get the best deal we can," he says.
Leela, who works with a local housing association, worries that a second vote might cause more division within society: "I think the majority of us who voted remain have accepted it and we just want to |
out by the fuel industry but in this study you can see that even in Poland today it is more beneficial to the climate to drive an electric vehicle than a diesel.”
The new study uses an EU estimate of Poland’s emissions – at 650gCO2/kWh – which is significantly lower than calculations by the European commission’s Joint Research Centre science wing last year.
But its findings will likely be welcomed in Brussels, where a new emissions standard for 2030 is set to be unveiled in November, along with some potentially more radical proposals.
Speaking in the European parliament this month, the EU’s climate commissioner, Miguel Canete, said: “One option we’re looking at is a mandate to ensure a minimum share of low – for manufacturers it could be zero – emitting vehicles.”
Today, just 1.7% of new vehicles sold in Europe are electric, and some EU officials question whether Europe has access to enough lithium to create a 5-10% market share for electric cars anytime soon. Its capacity to scale up construction of battery plants may also be in doubt.
“You can’t have a massive explosion of electric cars as there’s no plants here to build the batteries,” one EU source said. “In any case, when you take into account the emissions from battery manufacture and electricity supply, their GHG emissions are not so attractive.
The VUB study says that while the supply of critical metals – lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite – and rare earths would have to be closely monitored and diversified, it should not constrain the clean transport transition.
As battery technology improves and more renewables enter the electricity grid, emissions from battery production itself could be cut by 65%, the study found.Ted Cruz, describing the difference between the political parties, said that Democrats are the party "that responds to the death of Americans at Benghazi by asking, ‘What difference does it make?’"
If you’ve been listening to Republican convention speeches this week, you’ll have heard many, many, many variations on this riff — Republicans aren’t quite sure exactly why it’s Hillary Clinton’s fault that Americans died at Benghazi (spoiler: because it’s not), but they are damn sure it was callous of her to respond that indifferently to the deaths when it occurred.
As you might suspect if you haven’t been marinating in conservative talk radio for the past five years, there’s a reason that response sounds unimaginably callous.
What actually happened is that at a 2013 hearing months after the attack took place, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) asked Clinton why it took the Obama administration several days to get its story straight as to what caused mob to approach the compound in the first place. Clinton’s answer was that given the emergency nature of the situation, getting to the bottom of that question was a relatively low priority (emphasis added):
Johnson: No, again, we were misled that there were supposedly protests and that something sprang out of that -- an assault sprang out of that -- and that was easily ascertained that that was not the fact, and the American people could have known that within days and they didn’t know that. Clinton: With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided that they’d they go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator. Now, honestly, I will do my best to answer your questions about this, but the fact is that people were trying in real time to get to the best information. The IC has a process, I understand, going with the other committees to explain how these talking points came out. But you know, to be clear, it is, from my perspective, less important today looking backwards as to why these militants decided they did it than to find them and bring them to justice, and then maybe we’ll figure out what was going on in the meantime. Johnson: OK. Thank you, Madame Secretary.
This is in some ways a small thing, but it’s important to understand that the decontextualized version of the story that Cruz told on the convention floor has been told over and over and over again by a variety of conservative figures to a variety of audiences for years. The people who hear this stuff assume they are not being lied to by the radio hosts whose programs they enjoy and by the politicians they vote for.
That’s why Republican supporters are chanting for Clinton to go to jail and calling her a traitor.Bill Maher (Screenshot)
In an interview with ATTN:, Bill Maher spoke about the possible dark reality for marijuana users under Donald Trump’s regime, noting how the US could potential go back to a time before the substance was legal.
The outlet specifically pointed to Trump’s pick for attorney general, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has been a vocal opponent of marijuana legalization. Such a possibility has left some worried about what that would mean for the 28 states that have already legalized the substance.
As recently as a Senate hearing in April, Sessions announced, “good people don’t smoke marijuana,” adding that it’s “not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized.”
He continued:
We need grown-ups in charge in Washington to say marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized, it ought not to be minimized, that it’s in fact a very real danger. I can’t tell you how concerning it is for me emotionally and personally to see the possibility that we would reverse the progress that we’ve made and let it slip away from us. Lives will be impacted, families will be broken up, children will be damaged.
Maher told ATTN:, “I had one friend who went to jail way back in 2000 because, we made marijuana medically legal here in California in 1996. But the feds came in and said, ‘Sorry.'”
According to ATTN:, lawyer and author Jeffrey Dorf wrote that if a Session-backed law enforcement came to power and led a crackdown on legal marijuana, “No one would offer regulated marijuana under the state’s regime, for fear of a federal raid; state and local government would not expend many resources to combat illegal marijuana; and federal resources would be inadequate to police illegal marijuana in a way that substantially reduces supply. The net result would be to increase the power of drug gangs and the associated violence.”
Maher warned that it would not be unheard of under Trump to see such federal raids happening even in states where marijuana has been legalized. “I certainly think it’s possible,” he said.
Watch the full interview below.Racial Disparity of Voting Power in the Electoral College
Andy Leeds Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 7, 2017
TL;DR Black votes are worth ~90% of a white vote, Hispanic ~75% of a white vote, and Asian ~%60 of a white vote, as calculated using 538’s Voter Power Index and US Census Data.
After the election, many people accused the Electoral College of causing Trump to win. In some ways, they were right, as Trump won the Electoral College and lost the popular vote. Many accused the Electoral College of being racist, based on the calculation that a vote from Wyoming is worth far more than California, Texas, or New York. They did not take this analysis far enough. As stated in the TL;DR, the voting power varies extremely.
538’s Voter Power Index. Taken from https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/
I used 538’s Voter Power Index to show that the voting power is very different amongst the races. The analysis is here. The rest of this post is a summary of the racist history of the electoral college, as well as a description of the analysis.
The electoral college has a bad history. The modern explanation is that it prevents populist swings caused by the populace being furious about a particular subject. However, many of the arguments for it at the time were based around the one of the most reviled pieces of the constitution: The 3/5’s Compromise.
There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to the fewest objections.
-James Madison
The existence of the 3/5’s Compromise makes the idea of a popular vote determining the president impossible back during the early days of the Constitution. This meant that some other form of election must be used to determine the presidency. Thus, the Electoral College was born.
With this foundation of racism, it would be best if the modern system exhibited no racial bias.
However, it exhibits major racial bias to this day, against Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. It is often commented that the Electoral College is racist because the different races are distributed disproportionately across the country, specifically that Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to live in California, Texas, and New York, the three states with the lowest electoral votes to population. Additionally, states like Wyoming are mostly white, and have comparatively larger numbers of electoral college votes. This fails to take into account Voting Power disparities which exist between the states. It’s more than just population issues. It is whether the state is likely to go one way or another. In this way, Wyoming’s voters are among the weakest. It will certainly go Republican, and therefore it does not matter that it is mostly white.
Fortunately, 538 has a Voter Power Index for each state their election forecast, which describe as a ratio, how powerful the voters in each state are. Using this data, along with US Census data about the racial breakdown of each state, we can compute Relative Voting Power Scores for each race in the electoral college.
The results from this data analytics are quite shocking. If we normalize the data so that the White votes are given a score of 1, we get the following results:
A Black vote is worth 0.92 of a white vote
of a white vote A Hispanic vote is is worth 0.752 of a white vote
of a white vote An Asian vote is worth 0.589 of a white vote
The general methodology behind finding this result was I computed first the “total racial power” by using populations modified by 538’s Power Index, and then dividing that by the “ideal racial power”, which is simply the total population of that race.
Notably, the Relative Voting Power Score for Asians is approximately 3/5. The 3/5 Compromise manifests itself in the electoral college to this day. This is unacceptable. Inequality should not be enshrined in the Constitution. This is by no means intentional but that does not mean that it is not real.
I got all data used from 538’s Presidential Election Forecast 2016 and the US Census Bureau.Soaring home prices in Vancouver and Toronto won’t keep the Bank of Canada from cutting rates to stimulate the economy, if it comes to that.
That’s the takeaway from an interview Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz gave the Wall Street Journal after the release of the central bank’s policy decision on Wednesday, in which it left its benchmark rate unchanged at 0.5 per cent.
“I don’t think of it as something that blocks us from changing interest rates,” Poloz said in response to a question about whether housing-related vulnerabilities would prevent a future interest rate cut. In a 2014 discussion paper (PDF), Poloz wrote that financial stability concerns of this nature “are not generally seen as a significant constraint on monetary policy actions.”
However, the rate of home price appreciation in Toronto — and especially in Vancouver — has been anything but typical.
Poloz’s affirmation that household imbalances won’t colour decision-making probably comes as a surprise to some analysts on Bay Street and Wall Street. In the run-up to the bank’s decision and in the commentary that followed, many private-sector economists suggested monetary policy makers would be reluctant to further inflame household debt and imbalances in the real estate market, which have been cited as key vulnerabilities in the domestic financial system.
“When we saw the comment on imbalances in the statement, I thought that might represent a signal that the bar to a cut is a little higher,” said Brian DePratto, an economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank. “The interview would suggest that’s not the case.”
Others cautioned against putting too much weight on the comment by Poloz, as it belies the bank’s recent messaging and emphasis on household imbalances that feature prominently in the bank’s statement, its Monetary Policy Report, and Financial System Review.
“The height of the bar for a cut, so to speak, would, of course, be higher if household imbalances were included,” said Frances Donald, senior economist at Manulife Asset Management. “But household imbalances aren’t the only – and may not be the primary – reason to not cut rates further.”
Cutting rates won’t help investment in the oilpatch recover, she said. Meanwhile, a significant drop in the currency could drain the Canadian consumer’s purchasing power. That could cause a problem for the bank, which is counting on consumption to drive growth in 2016. In addition, Poloz appears disinclined to approach the zero lower bound for interest rates, according to Donald.
Bloomberg.com1766 Views
On June 23rd, Futurama is back on the air. The second half of the sixth season is set to kick off on Comedy Central this Thursday, bringing the lives of Fry, Leela, Bender, Professor, Zoidberg, Hermes, Amy, Zapp, Kif, Nibbler, and all the rest of your sci-fi favorites back into your living room. Matt Groening’s often-revived series (a quasi spinoff of The Simpsons) made the transition from Fox to Comedy Central (with a few pit-stops at “off the air” in between) and has found a huge, loyal following at its new home. Not only will the remaining 13 episodes run from June through this summer, nicknamed “season 6B” but the network has picked up a seventh season of 26 episodes scheduled to air in 2012. So TOON in this Thursday at 10pm, and let the future times roll.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLpO-OvJU74A hundred years after the Battle of Verdun – one of the bloodiest battles of World War I – little is known about the young Americans who volunteered as ambulance drivers to save French lives on the front line before the US joined the war in 1917.
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“Some twenty huge – at least, they seemed huge to us – shells fell around us. This was the heaviest shellfire I have yet been under, and I was glad to have something to do to keep my mind off of it. Two men about one hundred yards away were decapitated and there were a number of dead horses about.” American William Yorke Stevenson wrote about his experience on the front line at the brutal battle between the French and the Germans at Verdun in 1916.*
Even though the United States would not join the Allied forces until a year later in 1917, there were already a number of Americans in France helping with the war effort. The American Hospital at Neuilly, a suburb on the western outskirts of Paris, began treating wounded on the front line in September 1914 – just months after the outbreak of the war. Around the same time, a few hundred young volunteers, the majority of whom came from the prestigious US Ivy League university system, set off for Europe.
“Probably some altruistically wanted to do what they could to ‘save civilisation from the barbarians’, and many had old family ties to England and France. But for many the motivation was excitement and adventure,” explained Ross Collins, a professor at North Dakota State University and World War I specialist.
In pictures: American ambulance drivers at the Battle of Verdun {{ scope.counterText }} {{ scope.legend }} © {{ scope.credits }}
American ambulance drivers under French army command
Three American ambulance organisations were created in France during the first year of the war: the Harjes Formation, the American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps and the American Field Service (AFS), which was founded in 1915 and would ultimately play the most important role.
“Initially, the French military did not allow volunteers from neutral countries to fight at the front for fear of spies – with the exception of the French Foreign Legion’s volunteers. They relented by early 1915 to allow ambulanciers (ambulance drivers) near the front,” said Collins. “The AFS was under French army command until the United States joined the war in April 1917... According to official regulations, a French officer was attached to each unit and an American representative ‘assistant’ relayed his commands.”
As a result, American ambulance drivers were subjected to the same rules and discipline as French soldiers. They were given the same pay and rations too.
At the end of February 1916, AFS volunteers were called to treat the many wounded at the Battle of Verdun – one of the largest and bloodiest battles of World War I. During the 10 months of fighting that ensued between the French and Germans, they cared for an estimated 60 men using specially equipped Model-T Ford ambulances. These young Americans were witnesses to the carnage taking place on French soil.
“At the station, men who had died in the ambulances were dumped hurriedly in a plot of grass by the side of the roadway and covered with a blanket. Never was there seen such a bedlam!” Henry Sheahan, a 28-year-old Harvard alumnus, wrote about the wounded at Verdun**.
Even though they weren’t in the trenches with the French infantry soldiers, many American ambulance drivers were killed by enemy fire. Overall, World War I claimed the lives of 127 of the nearly 2,500 AFS volunteers who rescued French soldiers by evacuating more than 400,000 men.
In pictures: American ambulance drivers at the Battle of Verdun {{ scope.counterText }} {{ scope.legend }} © {{ scope.credits }}
‘Saving thousands of lives’
The role American ambulance drivers played had a lasting impact on the US use of emergency services during wartime, according to Nyssa Runyan, who made a study of the subject at Washington State University.
“Although its efficacy was doubted initially, the American Field Service proved the effectiveness of motorised ambulances by the end of the war. The model set up by the AFS was used by the American Army for many years, as were their modified Ford ambulances,” she said.
“[While] the exact figures are not known, the AFS was credited with saving thousands of lives, and many of its drivers were honoured with French decorations for their service to France and her people,” Runyan added.
Their contribution to the war has inspired a number of tributes. American writer Ernest Hemingway, himself an ambulance driver for the Red Cross in Italy during World War I, eternalised the role in his 1929 novel, “A Farewell to Arms”. But perhaps the most beautiful homage of all was by former US president Theodore Roosevelt:
“The most important thing a nation can safeguard is its amour propre (soul or self-respect), and these young men have helped our country save its soul. There is not an American worthy of the name who has not incurred a deep debt of gratitude to these young men for what they have done,” he said, calling on the public to support them.
Roosevelt’s wish was fulfilled. A hundred years later, the AFS still exists. Far from the theatre of war, the organisation now works to promote “intercultural learning experiences” through its exchange programmes in over 50 countries.
A plaque commemorating the American Field Service in the 16th arrondissement (district) of Paris, where the organisation’s headquarters were located.
*Excerpt from William Yorke Stevenson’s 1917 memoir, “At the Front in a Flivver”
**Excerpt from Henry Sheahan’s 1916 memoir, “A Volunteer Poilu”
For more on this subject, you can read 'Gentlemen Volunteers: The Story of the American Ambulance Drivers in the Great War; August 1914-September 1918'On Friday night’s episode of HBO’s “Real Time,” Bill Maher criticized liberals for believing that Muslims share the same values as other religions.
“This idea that all religions share the same values is bullshit and we need to call it bullshit,” Maher said. “If you are in this religion, you probably do have values that are at odds [with American ones]. This is what liberals don’t want to recognize.”
“There’s a radical portion of this religion that takes these ideas and uses them as a fuel to crush people and to kill people and that is something that needs to be squashed,” said Federalist Publisher Ben Domenech.
“There’s 1.5 billion Muslims, surely we can agree that there’s a portion of them, a portion that does number in the millions, [that support radical portions of the faith],” Domenech said.
“What about Indonesia? The moderate country of Indonesia… Only 18 percent believe in honor killings,” Maher said. “Really? One out of five people in country that you’re holding up as the moderate country believes if a woman is raped, we blame and kill her?”
“This is just an elite piety that there’s no difference between these two things [radical Islamic values and America ones],” Domenech said.
“I think we can be optimistic though,” he said. “I think in the long run, our values actually do win the day.”
He explained that it’s easier for Muslims refugees to participate in American culture than it is for Muslim refugees to become a part of European culture.
“In Europe, Muslim refugees who come to France are never going to be true Frenchmen,” he said. “But if they come here, they will be Americans.”Some people who preordered their iPhone X early are now seeing their order’s status changed to “preparing for shipment/dispatch” ahead of November 3 launch.
Several users located in Europe noted in MacRumors’ forums that their order status has been changed recently to preparing for shipment or dispatch. When an order reaches that phase, it can no longer be changed or canceled.
No such order status changes were reported by US customers at post time.
Most products ordered through Apple’s online store ship directly from China. If you’ve received a notice saying your order is being prepared for dispatch, that doesn’t mean you were born under a lucky star and that the phone will arrive at your doorsteps earlier than expected.
iPhone X is officially arriving November 3, and that’s not changing.
The company prepares meticulously for an iPhone launch day—even if your iPhone X is leaving docks in China as we speak, it’ll be held up at the FedEx fulfillment center until November 3.
We’re expecting first iPhone X reviews to hit the web around Wednesday or Thursday next week. Apple usually lifts embargo on iPhone reviews 24-48 hours ahead of the official launch.
Due to time zone differences, customers in New Zealand and Australia will surely receive their iPhone X ahead of the rest of the world. Soon after the first orders arrive there, you’ll get your early unboxing videos from enthusiasts and an iPhone X teardown analysis from iFixit.
What’s the current status of your iPhone X order?
Let us know in the comments section below.
Photo top of post via Ryan Carter.A man who was trapped inside of the gay nightclub in Orlando where Omar Mateen massacred 49 people Sunday morning says that the ISIS-inspired terrorist selected victims based on their race.
The witness, who played dead for three hours during the attack, told ABC News that Mateen spared black club patrons.
“Are you guys black?” the man said Mateen, an American-born Muslim of Afghan descent, asked as he made his way through Pulse, Orlando’s largest gay club.
“I don’t have an issue with the blacks,” the 29-year-old killer said, according to the witness.
Witness: Orlando shooter asked club goers their race, said U.S. needs to “stop bombing ISIS” https://t.co/5QMQJeGrxr https://t.co/vckUgLqWaD — ABC News (@ABC) June 13, 2016
He also said that Mateen made several calls while he was killing.
“America needs to stop bombing ISIS,” he said during one call to either the police or to a news station, the witness said. Mateen reportedly placed a 911 call pledging his allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
It is unclear if Mateen called a news station during the attack. But he did phone Orlando-area station News 13 prior to the onslaught — the worst terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11 — to pledge allegiance to ISIS.
The station downplayed Mateen’s phone call in its coverage.
“Mateen called the News 13 newsroom hours before the shooting at Pulse nightclub,” the station’s web article reads.
The claim that Mateen spared black patrons has not been corroborated by other witnesses. But he is reported to have been a follower of a radical black imam who operated in the Orlando area.
Fox News reported Sunday evening that Mateen was a follower of Marcus Dwayne Robertson. Known as Abu Taubah, Robertson was recently released from prison where he served time on illegal gun charges. He operates the Timbuktu Seminary, a fundamental Islamic seminary that has allegedly financed terrorist activity in Mauritania.
Follow Chuck on TwitterApproximately 68 percent of Ukrainians consider Russians a friendly people, while 22.8 percent said they do not, according to the findings of a poll conducted by the Razumkov Center said.
Approximately 68 percent of Ukrainians consider Russians a friendly people, while 22.8 percent said they do not, according to the findings of a poll conducted by the Razumkov Center said.
Sixty-two percent of respondents see Russians as a fraternal nation; 28 percent have disagreed, according to the poll.
The view that Russians are a friend is held by 50.4 percent respondents in western Ukraine and 85.3 percent in the east. Russians are a fraternal nation, according to 37.9 percent respondents in the west, 55.3 percent in central Ukraine, 71.6 percent in the south and 80.2 percent in the east.
The poll was conducted by the Razumkov Center sociologists among 2,012 respondents at least 18 years of age in all Ukrainian regions on April 25-29, 2014.
All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.As the caffeination industry booms, we’ve become prey to the aching presence of the coffee bore, sneering at those who don’t know their beans
I remember when the first Starbucks opened in my hometown of Middlesbrough, probably in the late 90s. Nobody knew what a frappuccino was. Staff had to put a handwritten sign saying “milky coffee” next to the generic window sign plugging their “delicious latte”.
The queue was full of fearful locals who just wanted a pot of tea. But it was an undoubted thrill for the young folk. Actually, getting some frothy milk in a cup is still more fun than most people up here will have in a lifetime. And the sight of the first gingerbread latte of the year still gets me all hot and bothered.
To me, coffee shops are quite fun places for all – teens like them because it makes them feel grownup; adults like them for meetings; you can have a harmless date there, and some are even licensed (yay!). What you don’t want is some chin-stroking, smirking joy thief looking at you like you’ve done it wrong at the till. But that’s what’s happening.
As a nation, we drink about 165m cups of coffee a day. Men (1.7 cups) drink more than women (1.5 cups). More than eight out of 10 of us drink it at home, in the office, or in one of the tens of thousands of coffee shops that litter every town and city, which equates to an annual national spend of more than £1bn.
But as the industry grows, so does the aching presence of the coffee bore. And they’re everywhere. Not for the first time, the “craft” movement is slowly and earnestly sucking the joy out of something that isn’t half as complicated or important as some people think it is.
‘The “craft” movement is slowly and earnestly sucking the joy out of something that isn’t half as complicated or important as some people think it is.’ Photograph: Alamy
Until last week, I had never seen or heard of Caffeine magazine. But there it was, in an indie Manchester coffee shop that had just nervously taken three attempts to crack my order of black coffee with hot milk. “Is Fika just a fad?” pondered the magazine. I don’t know, but the reason I don’t know is because I don’t know what Fika is. I’ve never seen a more niche magazine – and I’ve worked for the company that publishes Coin-operated Laundry Monthly and Rubber & Plastics Weekly.
Do I want my beans ground fine or coarse? I don’t know. I don’t care enough about the production method. Yes, sneer if you like. But it’s only coffee, isn’t it? Well, not to the bloke who stood next to me in the latest coffee house to spring up in Manchester’s Northern Quarter recently, who spent a good 15 minutes cross-examining one of the poor baristas about which variety of Guatemalan bean he’d best be suited to. He wanted to see them. And sniff them. A lot.
The shiny tin of posh coffee. Photograph: Alamy
I am but a mere normal. I like quality but I’m not obsessive. I’ll go to Costa or Starbucks just as much as the indies. I don’t have a favourite variety of bean. I accidentally bought ground coffee in the supermarket the other day thinking it was instant, because all I was really looking at was the shiny tin it came in. Which wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that I don’t own a cafetiere.
I’m not an idiot. I went to university. I know how to change a car tyre. I’ve put two children through school. I just don’t know everything there is to know about coffee. Sorry. Has anybody else started to develop a jangling case of nerves as they approach a barista? Just me? How has this happened?
When the craft ale thing started to happen, it was made slightly less enjoyable by the intensely solemn “punk” taste-makers, who acted as a sort of unofficial booze police. In a nutshell, they were rude, patronising and painfully boring. I just want a nice cup of coffee.QUEBEC CITY—The federal government should get on board with a high-speed rail line linking Ontario and Quebec or risk being left in the dust by the Obama administration in the United States, the premiers of both provinces said Wednesday. Emerging from a joint cabinet meeting, Dalton McGuinty and Jean Charest warned Canada could miss a golden opportunity on fast trains as the U.S. pushes to create 13 high-speed corridors, including Boston to Montreal and New York City to Buffalo.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, right, and Quebec Premier Jean Charest preside a special joint cabinet meeting on Wednesday at the Quebec legislature. ( Jacques Boissinot / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
“Let’s take a moment to appreciate the situation here,” said Charest, a former leader of the federal Progressive Conservatives. “It would, after all, be ironic if we actually did more with the federal government of the United States than we did with the federal government of Canada on developing a fast train.” Ontario, Quebec and the federal government have partnered on $3-million feasibility study of high-speed rail due this fall. The effort is meant to update at least 16 previous studies or attempts to study a Quebec City to Windsor rail link since 1973.
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So far, both premiers have noted the Harper government in Ottawa appears cool to the idea because of cost concerns, with industry observers saying the price tag of a high-speed rail corridor linking populous southern Ontario and Quebec is $24 billion if the estimates in a 1995 study are adjusted for inflation. The benefits would include less crowded highways, less pollution, fewer greenhouse gases, more jobs and quicker travel times, proponents say, noting Europe and Japan have proven high-speed rail is economical with trains approaching speeds of 300 km/h between major cities, triple the speeds of most inter-city Canadian trains. “If we build this line here, it’s more than just connecting 16 million Canadians together, strengthening our regional economy and better protecting our regional environment. It’s going to plug us in to a North American network of high-speed rail,” said McGuinty. “That’s the exciting dimension to this.” However, government insiders note that it would take at least five to eight years of environmental assessments before shovels could go in the ground to create a rail corridor for fast trains, and there are the challenges of expropriating properties, particularly in urban areas.
The Obama administration, which has a renewed push to ease dependence on fossil fuels following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, has earmarked $8 billion to get rolling on high-speed rail corridors—which President Obama himself has acknowledged will take decades longer and hundreds of billions of dollars to create. Charest and McGuinty also used their meeting to push the federal Conservative government on another climate-related initiative: setting up a cap-and-trade system to limit harmful greenhouse gas emissions by major polluting industries.
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The two premiers said they hope to have their own regional systems ready by January 2012, a deadline set by the Western Climate Initiative including other provinces and states such as British Columbia, Manitoba, California and Utah. The group represents 82 million people. “We’re staying on that schedule. Whatever needs to be done,” said Charest, with McGuinty adding the federal government should keep an “open mind” about a cap-and-trade system. The joint cabinet meeting was the third since 2008 between the country’s two most powerful provincial governments. McGuinty and Charest banded together that year to push the interests of central Canada amid concerns the Harper government was “missing in action” on environmental and economic issues for the region, which is home to two-thirds of the Canadian population. The next meeting is set for a year from now in Toronto.
Read more about:How to write a simple web crawler in Ruby - revisited Crawling websites and streaming structured data with Ruby's Enumerator
Let's build a simple web crawler in Ruby. For inspiration, I'd like to to revisit Alan Skorkin's How to Write a Simple Web Crawler in Ruby and attempt to achieve something similar with a fresh perspective.
We'll adapt Skork's original goals and provide a few of our own:
must be able to crawl just a single domain
must be able to limit number of pages to crawl
the results should be represented as structured data so we don't have an incomprehensible soup of content
the results should be enumerable so we can have flexibility in how they're handled
Caveats! Please keep in mind that there are, of course, many resources for using resilient, well-tested crawlers in a variety of languages. We have mere academic intentions here so we choose to ignore many important concerns, such as client-side rendering, parallelism, and handling failure, as a matter of convenience.
Breaking it down
For this exercise, we're going to crawl Programmable Web to extract data from their API directory.
Rather than take the naive approach of grabbing all content from any page, we're going to build a webcrawler that emits structured data. Traversing from the first page of the api directory, our crawler will visit web pages like a nodes of a tree, collecting data and additional urls along the way.
Imagine that the results of our web crawl as a nested collection of hashes with meaningful key-value pairs.
# results [ { name: "Google Maps", api_provider: "https://google.com" api_homepage: "https://developers.google.com/maps/" categories: ["Mapping", "Viewer"], provider_formats: ["JSON", "KML", "XML"]... }, { name: "Twitter", api_provider: "https://twitter.com" api_homepage: "https://dev.twitter.com/rest/public" categories: ["Social", "Blogging"], provider_formats: ["Atom", "JSON", "REST", "RSS", "XML"]... }, ]
When using a web crawler, be aware of the limitations described in the website's robots.txt file. In this post, we skip automated parsing and detection of Programmable Web's robots.txt to filter out blacklisted urls and set a crawl delay dynamically. If you choose to run this code on your own, please crawl responsibly.
Designing the surface
If you've been following my posts lately, you know that I love Enumerable and you may not be surprised that I'd like to model our structured, website data with an Enumerator. This will provide a familiar, flexible interface that can be adapted for logging, storage, transformation, and a wide range of use cases.
I want to simply ask a spider object for its results and get back an enumerator:
spider.results => #<Enumerator:...>
We'll be able to do some interesting things, like stream the results lazily into a flexible storage engine, e.g. mongodb or PStore, available from the Ruby standard library:
require "pstore" store = PStore.new("api_directory.pstore") # create `spider`, then... spider.results.lazy.take(50).each_with_index do |result, i| store.transaction do store[result[:name]] = result store.commit end end
Writing the crawler
We're going to write a Spider class to enumerate website data. Our spider implementation borrows heavily from joeyAghion's spidey gem, described as a "loose framework for crawling and scraping websites" and Python's venerable Scrapy project, which allows you to scrape websites "in a fast, simple, yet extensible way." Both resources achieve the goals of being easy-to-use and extensible.
We'll build our web crawler piece-by-piece, but if you want a full preview of the source, check out it on GitHub.
Our Spider will maintain a set of urls to visit, data is collects, and a set of url "handlers" that will describe how each page should be processed. We'll take advantage of one external dependency, mechanize, to handle interaction with the pages we visit - to extract data, resolve urls, follow redirects, etc. Below is the #enqueue method to add urls and their handlers to a running list in our spider.
require "mechanize" # as of this writing, the latest release is 2.7.4 class Spider def enqueue(url, method) url = agent.resolve(url).to_s return if @handlers[url] @urls << url @handlers[url] ||= { method: method, data: {} } end private def agent @agent ||= Mechanize.new end end
As we process each page we'll need a way |
ordained to the priesthood—it took until 1978 to do so—Skousen insisted that communist agitators were behind the movement. Finally, after accusing President Carter of being a puppet of an international conspiracy, the Mormon Church issued a national order to “avoid any implication that the Church endorses” his views.
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Skousen had been famous in far-right circles ever since he wrote 1972’s "The Naked Capitalist: A Review and Commentary on Dr. Carroll Quigley’s Book 'Tragedy and Hope.'" It presented itself as an exposé of a relatively obscure academic book by Quigley, a Georgetown University history professor who was Bill Clinton’s college mentor (a bright red flag raised by many a conspiracy theorist). Since then, the 1,348-page "Tragedy and Hope" has been held up as a smoking gun. Skousen called it “a bold and boastful admission by Dr. Quigley that there actually exists a relatively small but powerful group which has succeeded in acquiring a choke-hold on the affairs of practically the entire human race.” By the early 1970s, "The Naked Capitalist’s" print run topped fifty-five thousand copies—far more copies than Quigley’s book ever sold—and in 1972 the Washington office of the Liberty Lobby reported that it was selling twenty-five copies a day. As a result of this attention, "Tragedy and Hope" was checked out of libraries and never returned. This made the out-of-print book even harder to find, provoking conjecture that lefty librarians were pulling it from the shelves to suppress its revelations.
“Skousen’s book is full of misrepresentations and factual errors,” an exasperated Quigley insisted at the time. “He claims that I have written of a conspiracy of the super-rich who are pro-Communist and wish to take over the world and that I’m a member of this group. But I never called it a conspiracy and don’t regard it as such.” He was actually describing a web of corporate and nongovernmental bodies, such as the Council on Foreign Relations and J. P. Morgan, which sought to “coordinate the international activities” of commerce and governance. Unfortunately, the professor made the mistake of calling this network an “elaborate, semi-secret organization.” Skousen believed that the Ivy League establishment—with its penchant for internationalism—was carrying out its wicked goals using the tentacles of the Rockefeller and Rothschild dynasties, the Federal Reserve, the Bilderberg Group, and the Council on Foreign Relations. None Dare Call It a Conspiracy, a book by Birchers Gary Allen and Larry Abraham, echoed Skousen’s assertions. Four decades later, Glenn Beck was telling radio listeners, “I know it’s not popular to quote Carroll Quigley but if you’ve ever read Tragedy and Hope from the 1960s, you see this being played out.”
In addition to reviving sales of "The Naked Capitalist," the conservative talk-show host made Skousen’s "The Five Thousand Year Leap" a best-seller. It was premised on the notion that the U.S. Constitution was based solely on biblical law, not Enlightenment principles. America was so remarkably different from any previous governmental system, Skousen argued, that it represented a five-thousand-year leap forward for civilization. Beck’s foreword to the book begins, ironically enough, “This is a story you won’t believe.” Skousen’s history was misleading, to say the least (the Mormon journal Dialogue condemned him for “inventing fantastic ideas and making inferences that go far beyond the bounds of honest commentary”). For instance, "The Five Thousand Year Leap" selectively quotes a letter written by Benjamin Franklin to make it appear that he was a champion of marriage and fidelity. Beck’s intellectual hero neglects to quote the rest of the letter, in which the Founder says married men should seek out older mistresses (“the pleasure of corporal enjoyment with an old woman is at least equal, and frequently superior”). Hundreds of study groups throughout America now teach Skousen’s unique “originalist” interpretation of the Constitution.
Beck, Skousen, and the Birchers all believe that their beloved Constitution suffered a deathblow after the election of President Wilson. “As I study history,” Beck told his audience, “I see that a lot of the problems—most of the problems, in fact—stem from Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive movement.” John Birch Society founder Robert Welch similarly claimed, “By 1920 the Insiders attained such Communist goals for the United States as a graduated income tax, the Federal Reserve System, and”—the horror!—“the Seventeenth Amendment for the direct election of Senators.” One of the most pronounced aspects of modern conservative thought is a deep-seated distrust of elites: international bankers, well-connected Ivy Leaguers, unelected technocrats, atheistic social scientists, and the like. In the book "Liberal Fascism," Jonah Goldberg argues that early-twentieth-century Progressives were far greater warmongers, crueler jingoists, worse racists, and more fascist than the right ever was. The National Review contributing editor conveniently ignores a few elephants in the Conservative Hall of Shame, but he makes some valid points. Some Progressives were racist eugenicists, and a few even supported Hitler and Mussolini (though so did plenty of right-wing capitalists).
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New Republic founding editor Herbert Croly, an archetypical Woodrow Wilson Progressive, was an early backer of the Italian fascist. He was also a big booster of social science, another longtime conservative foil. In 1925, Croly asked, “Who will be the prophets and pilots of the Good Society?” He concluded that a “better future would derive from the beneficent activities of expert social engineers.” The New Republic editor’s father, David Goodman Croly, also promoted positivism (the application of the scientific method to explain and regulate human events). Five years after his hoax, the elder Croly founded an American branch of the Church of Humanity, which was dedicated to ideas espoused by sociologist Auguste Comte. Given that most antiabolitionists used biblical arguments to justify slavery, the fact that Croly embraced secularist rationalism is unusual. But history is littered with odd ideological bedfellows (sometimes quite literal bedfellows—his wife, Jane Croly, was one of the first syndicated feminist columnists in America).
As for New Republic coeditor Walter Lippmann, there were times when he could sound downright conspiratorial when expressing his love of social engineering. Likewise, his colleague Edward Bernays enthusiastically noted, “It is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it.” A century later, these Progressive dreams of a social-scientific utopia still strike fear in the hearts of conservatives. In 2010, Tea Party–backed candidates took control of North Carolina’s Wake County school board, sweeping into power with the campaign slogan “Say No to the Social Engineers!” The majority Republican board promptly dismantled one of the America’s most successful and celebrated integration efforts as a rebuke to pointy-headed bureaucrats. Two years after Obama was elected, Tea Party candidates in Republican primaries began unseating incumbents such as South Carolina congressman Bob Inglis. During the 2010 primaries, angry voters confronted the representative about how the existence of Social Security numbers was proof they had been sold into slavery by a secret bank. “And then, of course,” Inglis adds, “it turned into something about the Federal Reserve and the Bilderbergers and all that stuff.”
Throughout the twentieth century, the political and religious right quietly disseminated these ideas through underground media channels. But by the new millennium, conservatives had Fox News, America’s number-one cable news network. It helped popularize views that were previously relegated to small-print-run newsletters and AM talk radio. Fox News gave Glenn Beck a platform to broadcast numerous conspiracy theories, such as “FEMA camps” that were secretly being constructed in Montana. Just like "Iron Mountain," it was a project so clandestine that no one could find evidence of its existence. When rumors about those detention centers first circulated in 2009, Beck interviewed Texas congressman Ron Paul, a longtime champion of the John Birch Society. In an awkward balancing act, they both implied that the FEMA camps might exist while also doing their best to sound sane. “So in some ways,” the U.S. representative told Beck, “they can accomplish what you might be thinking about, about setting up camps, and they don’t necessarily have to have legislation, you know, to do the things that we dread. But it is something that deserves a lot of attention.”
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Paul has also sounded alarms about a “NAFTA Superhighway” that will supposedly bisect the United States. “Proponents envision a ten-lane colossus with the width of several football fields,” Paul writes, “with freight and rail lines, fiber-optic cable lines, and oil and natural gas pipelines running alongside.” Ron’s son, Senator Rand Paul, said much the same thing while campaigning in Montana for his father’s presidential bid in 2008. “So, it’s a real thing,” he said, “and when you talk about it, the thing you just have to be aware of is that, if you talk about it like it’s a conspiracy, they’ll paint you as a nut.” Both father and son take care to present themselves as reasonable people, but they don’t always succeed. The "Ron Paul Survival Report," which the elder Paul published in the 1990s, contained the usual warnings about the Rockefellers, black helicopters, America’s “disappearing white majority,” and other far-right talking points. The senior Paul has also been a frequent guest on Alex Jones’s bat-crap-crazy radio show, where the congressman railed against a “cataclysmic shift toward a new world order,” made possible by “a new monetary order.... A world central bank, worldwide regulation and world control of the whole system, of all the commodities and all the natural resources, what else can you call it other than world government?”
Paul’s endorsement of G. Edward Griffin’s "The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve"—along with several other positions he holds—has made him an icon for New World Order conspiracy theorists. Griffin’s book is laced with standard-issue references to the Council on Foreign Relations, W. Cleon Skousen, Carroll Quigley, the Rothschild family, and the Bavarian Illuminati (a branch of which, the author suggests, played a role in assassinating Abraham Lincoln). Griffin was also a longtime affiliate of the John Birch Society, which published several of his nutty books. In Paul’s blurb for "The Creature from Jekyll Island," he calls it “a superb analysis deserving serious attention by all Americans. Be prepared for one heck of a journey through time and mind.” It sure is. The congressman is a principled libertarian conservative whose positions on civil liberties, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the legalization of drugs overlap with those of many people on the left. He is a learned man and not a nut. However, when this congressman appears on Alex Jones’s show, endorses Bircher books about a Federal Reserve conspiracy, and warns of nonexistent plans for a NAFTA Superhighway, it shows how the fringe ideas discussed throughout this book have infiltrated substantial parts of the political mainstream.
Excerpted from “Pranksters: Making Mischief in the Modern World” by Kembrew McLeod. Copyright © 2014 by Kembrew McLeod. Reprinted by arrangement with NYU Press. All rights reserved.Researchers at the Universitat Politècnica de València have developed a non-invasive means of determining the general state-of-repair of all kinds of materials in real time, which will help avoid potential safety issues.
The technique is based on advanced signal processing techniques and analyses the determinism of signals obtained from the ultrasonic inspection of the materials being tested. Variations in this parameter are indicative of possible damages. By running different frequency ranges, it is possible to know the internal structure of the material and quantify the extent of the damages much more precisely than using traditional techniques,
Patented by the UPV, this technique is more competitive than those currently in use, such as measuring speed and attenuation. It has several advantages, including the assessment of overall damages to a material. Additionally, the measurement parameter is normalized between 0 and 1, making it easier to understand the results.
It has multiple possible applications, such as in aeronautics, and naval and motor engineering for the continuous monitoring of fuselage. In this sector, given the high loads being carried, as well as fatigue cycles, and sudden temperature and pressure changes, it is necessary to periodically check the state of the hulls, airplane wings, car bodyworks, etc.
Furthermore, in the field of civil engineering and construction, this new method can be used to detect damages in bridges, inspect pillars and resistant elements in buildings, and assess defects in constructions affected by natural disasters, or corrosion in the marine environment, etc.
Other possible fields of application include state control of industrial sites, the inspection of energy transportation systems, such as oil or gas pipelines, and even quality control for 3D printing parts.
This invention also contributes to the evolution of non-invasive tests, making them independent of both the material being inspected and the calibration of the unit.Post updated to include additional assets: 12/19/13 – 2:30 p.m. PST
First Documentary Explores the Fabled Atari Mystery
Today, Xbox Entertainment Studios announced an original documentary series that will debut exclusively on Xbox in 2014. Xbox will produce the series with two-time Academy Award-winning producer Simon Chinn (Searching for Sugar Man and Man on Wire) and Emmy-winning producer Jonathan Chinn (FX’s 30 Days and PBS’s American High) through their new multi-platform media company, Lightbox.
“Our collaboration with Xbox offers an unparalleled opportunity to make a unique series of films around the extraordinary events and characters that have given rise to the digital age,” said Simon Chinn. “Our goal is to produce a series of compelling and entertaining docs which will deploy all the narrative techniques of Simon’s and my previous work. It’s particularly exciting to be partnering with filmmakers like Zak Penn who come to this process from other filmmaking disciplines and who will bring their own distinctive creative vision to this,” added Jonathan Chinn.
“Jonathan and Simon Chinn are the perfect team to spearhead this series for Xbox. They are consummate story tellers and they plan to match their creative sensibility with the best talent in the industry,” commented Xbox Entertainment Studios President Nancy Tellem. “These stories will expose how the digital revolution created a global democracy of information, entertainment and commerce, and how it impacts our lives every day.”
The first film in the groundbreaking series investigates the events surrounding the great video game burial of 1983. The Atari Corporation, faced with overwhelmingly negative response to the video game “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” buried millions of unsold game cartridges in the middle of the night in the small town of Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Fuel Entertainment, an innovator in cross-platform content development, secured the exclusive rights to excavate the Atari landfill and approached Xbox. Lightbox will document the dig, which is planned for early next year.
Filmmaker and avid gamer Zak Penn (X-Men 2, Avengers, Incident at Loch Ness) will direct. This episode will not only document the excavation, it will also place the urban legend of the burial in the context of the precipitous rise and fall of Atari itself.
“When Simon and Jonathan Chinn approached me about this story, I knew it would be something important and fascinating,” said Penn. “I wasn’t expecting to be handed the opportunity to uncover one of the most controversial mysteries of gaming lore.”
Shooting begins in January. The series will air exclusively on Xbox One and Xbox 360 in 2014 and will be available globally in all markets where Xbox Live is supported.A man who threatened to shoot his stepdaughter because he didn't like who she was dating forced a 1 1/2-hour lockdown of Carlisle Hospital, state police said Wednesday.
The incident began just after 4 p.m. Tuesday when Tony Hughes, 51, of Arendtsville, accosted his 28-year-old step-daughter, Emily Rex, while she was working at the South Middleton Township medical facility, Trooper David Highhouse said.
Hughes demanded that Rex get her boyfriend. When she refused he threatened to shoot her, although he didn't display a gun display, the trooper said. He said Rex fled back into the hospital, which was locked down.
Troopers rushed to the scene, which is just a few hundred yards from the Carlisle State Police Barracks, but could not find Hughes. Troopers from Gettysburg later arrested Hughes at his home on charges of making terroristic threats, stalking, harassment and disorderly conduct, Highhouse said.
Hughes was in Cumberland County Prison in lieu of $250,000 bail.Play 02:55 Play 02:55 Chris Jordan helped England reach the final of the World T20
Chris Jordan, the England fast bowler, has signed for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL. Jordan, a member of the England side that made it to the final of the World T20, will leave Sussex immediately as a replacement for the injured Mitchell Starc.
While Jordan emerged as one of England's key death bowlers in the World T20, he also had a decent chance of winning a place in the Test squad for the series against Sri Lanka in the absence of the injured Mark Wood. His decision to play in the IPL is unlikely to further his immediate Test ambitions, though the England management have previously recognised the benefits of their players gaining experience in other domestic T20 leagues. He was not picked up by a franchise during the auction in February.
Sussex had already been without Jordan for the opening two Specsavers Championship matches as he rested an elbow injury which flared up at the World Twenty20 but had hoped to welcome him back for Sunday's home game against Leicestershire. He will now miss their next three Championship matches - four if Bangalore reach the final.
Head coach Mark Davis told The Argus: "It is a great opportunity for Chris so we wish him well but obviously it is not ideal to lose one of our best players for a significant period of time. We knew something like this could have been on the cards because he showed at the World Twenty20 what a quality player he is."
Players required for Test duty by England will be required to return to the UK by noon on May 6, with most non-Test players required to return by noon on May 17 to ensure their availability in the opening round of T20 Blast matches on May 20. It seems safe to assume Jordan will not now return until May 17.
George Dobell is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.It wasn't the usual way Ball State wins.
It didn't feature the high-powered offense that came in averaging over 82 points per game or its high-octane pace of play.
Instead, for 40 minutes, Ball State (7-0) pressured the Purdue (5-4) offense into 18 turnovers and its worst 3-point shooting night of the season en-route to a 66-60 victory on Monday evening.
"This is a big one for us," Ball State head coach Brady Sallee said. "We're excited about it and I'm really, really happy with my crew."
Junior guard Carmen Grande scored 17 points and dished out seven assists to help lead the Ball State offense, which once again had more turnovers than assists — a common theme in each victory.
On the defensive end, it was junior guard Frannie Frazier who led the way. Frazier forced three steals while senior forward Moriah Monaco grabbed 11 rebounds to help power the Ball State defensive attack. As a team, the Cardinals forced 18 turnovers and committed just 14.
"Proud of my kids," Sallee said. "I thought we were tough. I thought we stretched it out there a little bit."
Through three quarters, Ball State had a 44-32 lead on Purdue after outscoring the Boilermakers 13-7 in the third quarter. However, in the fourth the Boilermakers would make things interesting.
Purdue shot 47.8 percent in the final frame and brought Ball State's lead down to as little as four.
But with the Ball State lead evaporating, down by just five, and the shot clock running out with under three minutes to play, Grande lifted a prayer from 40-feet out and between two defenders which went off the backboard and in, and summarized the way things had gone all night for the Cardinals.
"You're throwing in a bank shot from 40 feet? It was our night," Sallee said. "Carmen [Grande], believe me when I tell you, she'll say she meant to bank it. That's the way she thinks. To beat Purdue in this gym you got to get lucky. You got to get some of that stuff."
After that bucket, Purdue would close the gap again. But three late free throws by Monaco, who finished with a game-high 18 points, helped seal the victory.
Purdue made just four of its 22 3-point attempts, and no Boilermaker made more than one. For Ball State, sophomore guard Jasmin Samz hit a pair of triples and the Cardinals shot 40 percent from beyond the arc, including a big 3-pointer by Monaco with under two minutes to play.
"Whether you're at a Big Ten gym or an SEC gym, or what-have-you, seeing a ball go in the net just kind of calms everybody down," Sallee said. "I thought Moriah [Monaco] gave that to us. She was our go-to, and has been our go-to. She delivered tonight and really executed some things that we haven't had in for a very long time."
Freshman guard Lamina Cooper led Purdue with 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting. Outside of Cooper, Purdue shot just 27.1 percent as a team.
For Ball State head coach Brady Sallee, there's no doubt that this has the potential to be a program-changing win.
"This win is only as good as what we do with it," Sallee said. "If we get too full of ourselves right now, then it does not end up meaning anything. If we use this as a catapult to get better, this should be a big win.
"It opens up the committee's eyes. When you're a program that goes to Vandy and Purdue and win, that should have people's attention."
The victory ends a 16-game losing streak by Ball State against Purdue dating back to 1979. It also marks Ball State's second victory over a Power Five opponent. The Cardinals took down Vanderbilt 88-79 on Nov. 20.
Next up, Ball State returns to Worthen Arena to play Southeast Missouri State on Dec. 7 at 7 p.m.By David Jacobson, Temblor
See earthquakes in Cuba
At 4:08 a.m. local time, a M=5.9 earthquake shook Cuba, including the cities of Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba. While initial reports out of Cuba stated the earthquake had a magnitude of 5.4, the USGS and EMS Catalogs had it at 5.8 and 5.9 respectively. At this stage, very few reports have come in, and all suggest that no serious damage or injuries were caused by the quake.
Even though this earthquake appears to have struck along the Oriente Fault Zone, a large left-lateral transform fault (whichever side you are on, the other side moves to the left during the earthquake), the motion in today’s earthquake was not left-lateral, instead it was thrust motion. If the focal mechanism is correct, today’s quake struck on a parallel subsidiary fault, which could have loaded or unloaded the major left-lateral transform fault.
Based on the Global Earthquake Activity Rate (GEAR) model, which can be viewed in Temblor, this earthquake should not be considered surprising. From strain rates and the last 38 years of global seismicity, GEAR suggests that the likely earthquake magnitude in your lifetime in this location is 6.0-6.25. So, one or two of these would be expected in a lifetime here.
The Oriente Fault Zone, along Cuba’s south coast, accounts for much of Cuba’s seismicity. Approximately 70% of the country’s earthquakes take place within this zone, though most of them are not large enough to be felt. The last time Cuba experienced a large and damaging earthquake was in May 1992, when a M=6.9 quake injured approximately 40 people and destroyed over 100 homes. Hopefully with the opening of Cuba to the West, the seismic monitoring, and exchange of earthquake expertise will rapidly improve. For example, the 1992 quake was initially registered as a M=5.2. Understanding this fault is not only important for the safety of Cuba, but Haiti as well.
Sources
USGS
International Business Times
New York Times
Havana Times
The Sun
Faults from ATA DatabaseAt a public forum on Tuesday night, a potted plant was placed where no-show Conservative candidate for Calgary North-Centre, Michelle Rempel, would have sat. (Courtesy James Maxim) A potted plant was used as a stand-in for a Conservative candidate who didn't show up for a debate with her rivals for the Calgary Centre-North seat on Tuesday evening.
Michelle Rempel was the only candidate in the riding who missed the forum held at a church in the northwest.
The Tory candidate also skipped an all-candidates forum last Thursday at the University of Calgary.
Rempel could not be reached for a comment on Wednesday. But her campaign manager, Sean Snell, said she was busy with other voters.
"It just comes down to scheduling sometimes, and we can't have the candidate everywhere all the time. But we sure try," he said.
Rempel's absence was widely booed by the audience at the public forum, which drew a crowd of over 200 people, according to Liberal candidate Stephen Randall.
He added that such events are especially important in this election because Calgary Centre-North voters are replacing popular outgoing Conservative MP Jim Prentice.
"To assume that anyone, then, can come along and replace Prentice without establishing their credentials, I think, is frankly very insulting. It's insulting, frankly, to the other candidates as well," he said.
Rempel's campaign team rejected the notion that she is ducking or insulting the competition. The Conservative will be at an all-candidates meeting next Monday night, Snell said.Did you Know Content Creation is the Secret behind Online Marketing?
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While shaking hands with supporters at a campaign rally, a University of Pittsburgh student asked Clinton, “Will you reject money from registered fracking lobbyists?” In her defense, Hillary said, “Go read the articles. I’ve debunked all of that.”
Clinton’s donations from the fracking industry have become a campaign issue in the Democratic race, with rival Bernie Sanders attacking her that she is denying where she is getting her money from.
“(Hillary has) taken significant money from the fossil fuel industry,” and green groups such as Greenpeace tying her to more than $1.6 million in donations from industry employees or lobbyists and bundlers.
#StillSanders Hillary Clinton is Taking Money From Fracking Companies & Fossil Fuel Industry https://t.co/N5ffMhQUMh pic.twitter.com/rL0NvRjFEo — Swami Amala (@AmalaSwami) March 17, 2016
In response, Clinton has pointed to fact-checking groups that have largely dismissed those complaints, noting donations from fossil fuel interests represent a minor percentage of her overall fundraising this cycle.
“I feel sorry sometimes for the young people who believe this. They don’t do their own research,” Clinton said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press.
“And I’m glad we now can point to reliable independent analysis to say no, it’s just not true.”
As per the suggestion of Hillary, a popular YouTube channel, The Humanist Report, made an attempt to read the articles where Hillary had debunked all that in the video below.
He first googled for Is Hillary Clinton taking fracking money? There was not a single article which provided a straightforward answer to this on Google’s first page. The best he could get was an article, titled “Hillary Clinton wants to regulate fracking, but still accepts a lot of fracking money.”
@phemale61 Does that mean all the stuff written about Hillary taking money from Keystone and fracking are also lies? https://t.co/gsUpcBjnPT — Zero (@PantsStatusZero) April 3, 2016
Another article from Eco Watch that was shown by Google claimed Hillary was selling fracking to the world.
The video maker tried another way of search. This time, he used keyword evidence Hillary is not taking fracking money. Surprisingly, similar article showed up and there was no sign of the article Hillary was talking about.
The videomaker used another keyword this time. He used another keyword, Hillary Clinton not taking any fracking money. He still got the same results.
The frustrated videomaker uses keyword Tell me Hillary Clinton is not taking f**king fracking money for the last time. The first result that showed up was a reddit forum of the discussion of the article “Bernie Sanders will ban fracking, Hillary Clinton sold fracking to world” by the Huffington Post.
The videomaker then asks Hillary, “Hey Hillary, what articles?, you can’t debunk facts, stop taking fracking.”
Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing, the process of drilling down through shale rock to extract oil or natural gas, is an issue dividing the policies of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.
To the question about whether or not they support fracking, Sanders’ response was quick and concise. He simply replied.
“My answer is a lot shorter. No, I do not support fracking.”
Hillary on the other hand, Hillary had some details to put.
“You know, I don’t support it when any locality or any state is against it, number one. I don’t support it when the release of methane or contamination of water is present. I don’t support it, number three, unless we can require that anybody who fracks has to tell us exactly what chemicals they are using.”
“While Clinton laughs this off, voters who care about our climate and the influence of money in politics are still really disturbed by her continued acceptance of these industry donations,” Yong Jung Cho, a spokeswoman for the environmental activist group, said in a statement.
[Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images]For more than two years, patrons at a downtown Calgary eatery have enjoyed a 20 per cent discount on every bottle of wine on weekdays.
The Barcelona Tavern expected the promotion, dubbed "Time to Wine about Oil," to last only a few months at the beginning of 2015. The price of oil was tumbling and the restaurant wanted to attract recession-weary Albertans by promising cheaper wine until the price of crude rebounded past $70 US a barrel.
Twenty-seven months later, however, oil prices remain south of $50 and the promotion remains in place. The owners of the tavern, like nearly every other Albertan, never expected the downturn in the oilpatch to last this long.
Nathan Jokela shows off his restaurant's promotion 'Time to Wine About Oil,' meant to help draw in customers during the downturn. (Colleen Underwood/CBC )
It's also fair to suspect that neither did the federal government, though you can be sure the price of oil has been weighing on Finance Minister Bill Morneau as he crafted this year's budget, which will be unveiled Wednesday.
For several years Canada's biggest export was oil. Only since the price collapse has it fallen to second, behind vehicles and auto parts.
The fall economic update described the commodity price collapse as having a "profound effect on the Canadian economy." Over the last few years, the decline has cost the Canadian economy $112 billion, which works out to $6,200 for every working person.
If you want to know how the oil downturn can cause havoc on a government's budget, just look to Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador. Just last week Alberta announced another budget with a $10-billion deficit.
Oil production is increasing in the Alberta oilsands and the rest of Canada, but prices remain below $50 US per barrel. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)
Wednesday's federal budget would be easier for Morneau if oil prices were higher. The plunge in oil prices that began in late 2014 from more than $100 US a barrel has had several effects beyond the price of a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc at a Calgary restaurant.
Tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs, investment in the oilpatch has plunged by tens of billions of dollars and the loonie has lost significant value because of the oil downturn.
Revenue down, but expenses too
The federal government does not have a direct tie to oil prices, as there is no line item in the budget for royalty revenue, like there is in Alberta. However, the federal budget is still affected in several ways.
"As companies struggle and make less money, there is a hit to the federal government's corporate income taxes. As people lose their jobs and as wages decrease, there is a hit on personal income taxes," said Trevor McLeod, a natural resources analyst with the Canada West Foundation, a Calgary-based think-tank.
Many expenses and revenues change with a swing in oil prices, according to the University of Calgary economics professor. 1:06 At the same time, the federal government's expenses increased as it extended employment insurance benefits to the areas of the country affected by the oil downturn. Ottawa pledged $19 million to help Service Canada process the increased EI claims and a further $73 million to improve access to EI call centres.
If oil were to recover and companies began spending more money and hiring more workers, the federal government wouldn't have to spend as much on social services such as employment insurance.
On the flip side, some expenses will be lower. Energy and fuel costs are down, while some transfers that are explicitly tied to the size of the economy or the rate of inflation are affected. With low oil, those transfer payments will decrease.
Weigh it all out and the oil price collapse is leaving a hole in the federal budget.
From $50 to $80
If oil increased from its current level of $50 US a barrel to $80 US, the difference to federal coffers would be about an additional $5 billion. Considering the budget is about $300 billion, says economist Trevor Tombe with the University of Calgary, it's not a major shift for the federal government.
"It's certainly not as big of a deal for the federal government as it is for Alberta," said Tombe, who suggests the oil-reliant province needs structural change.
The federal government is currently running a $25-billion deficit, so at the very least an extra $5 billion would help, even if Ottawa remains in the red.
Outside of the federal budget, researchers say the oilpatch downturn is hurting just about every province in the country.
Many global factors impact oil prices, according to the natural resources analyst with the Canada West Foundation 1:16
"We find that almost every province (with the exception of New Brunswick) experiences a negative welfare impact," wrote Jared Carbone at the Colorado School of Mines and Kenneth McKenzie at the University of Calgary in a recent report.
"While the manufacturing sector benefits from the reduction in energy prices and increased international exports due to a depreciation of the Canadian dollar, on balance Ontarians suffer from the higher international prices of consumer goods and from the lower demand for the goods that they export to other parts of Canada, most particularly the oil producing regions."
Volatile oil prices
Most forecasts expect oil prices to gradually rise in the coming years, but the commodity's price is volatile and tough for experts to predict. The federal government built a contingency fund into its last budget in case its forecast for oil was wildly inaccurate.
"You look at global energy demand and everyone largely agrees that that is going up," said McLeod with the Canada West Foundation.
"But there is so much discrepancy with oil demand forecasts. Many think it is going up and will continue to rise through 2040, but there are projections having it dropping off a cliff before 2040. It's really hard given the range of projections."
The only way for the financial effects of the downturn to go away is for prices to bounce back, which at this point is uncertain.A significant drop has been recorded this year among in the number of Breslov Hasidim flying to the grave of Rabbi Nachman in Uman, Ukraine ahead of the Jewish High Holidays.
One of the reasons cited for this situation is the escape of Rabbi Eliezer Berland, leader of the "Shuvu Banim" Breslov community |
. “For us.”
Alex stood and walked to the other side of the room, respecting the privacy of the moment the brothers were having.
“What would he think of us if we just ran away?” continued Socks. “He fought so that we could live another day in this fucking hell.”
“And you want to throw away his gift by staying to fight?” asked Maxwell. He almost yelled this. Socks felt even more hurt. Maxwell hardly ever yelled at him. And now he was saying that by fighting he would be disrespecting his father and all he fought for.
Socks crossed his arms on the table and buried his face in them. He didn’t want to be a coward and run away. Socks had always fought. Even when he was younger. He fought for scraps in the streets. He felt that he had to fight to survive. He had never ran away from a fight. Maxwell practically had to drag him from The Fields.
And now Maxwell was telling him to abandon their home and with it his ideals of never running away. Not only was it cowardly to Socks, it made every struggle he had experienced in New Chicago meaningless.
Socks lifted his face from his arms. “It would be a bigger waste of dad’s gift to not stay and fight. He fought for us. Was it just so that we can live? Or so that we can carry on that fight? We’re always going to be at war with these fucking monsters. It’s not as if we run away and suddenly we’re safe. They’ll always be walking in every street just waiting for their chance to fucking kill us. Right now, you see danger coming this way. Me? I see an opportunity to kill as many of them as possible. Even if I die doing it.”
Socks stood up. “I’m not running away, Max. You can go ahead and leave. But don’t expect me to come with you.”
And with that, Socks walked out of the house.
Maxwell stood in silence. He couldn’t decide whether to be angry or hurt. He wanted to be angry at Socks for not wanting to go away with Alex and himself. They would be safer and that’s all he wanted for his little brother. But really, he was mostly hurt because his brother rejected his offer. Maxwell felt that Socks really had no idea how much he cared for him.
Finally, Alex broke the silence. “He’s right, you know.”
Maxwell glared at him. “You can’t be serious.”
The two roommates had planned an entire conversation to convince Socks to leave with them. Maxwell felt a little betrayed to see that Alex had sided with Socks.
“Well it’s not the safest thing to do, obviously, but the kid just wants to do what’s right. He doesn’t care if it’s reckless.” Alex paused for a few moments to let that sink in. “Maybe he feels like he has to prove something.”
“What does he have to prove?” countered Maxwell. “He’s always fighting; getting into scraps at school, sneaking out to The Fields, and all his other crap. If he wants to try to be a little tough guy, he’s notorious for it.”
Alex shrugged. “Maybe it’s because of his little friend. Moon, was it?”
Maxwell winced. He was so ready to chew out Socks for being stubborn and disobeying that he completely forgot that Socks had just experienced one of his own losses. He regretted wanting to yell at him. He should’ve been supporting him in everything he wanted.
Alex continued. “Maybe he doesn’t want to prove that he’s tough. Maybe he just wants to prove that he’s a hero. That he can save people. Actually, maybe he doesn’t even want to prove it. He just wants to be a hero. He wants to help people. You can’t be upset at him for that. In fact, you should support your little brother’s wishes.”
“But what if it can get him killed?”
Alex smiled. “Like I said: you should support your little brother.”
“You don’t mean to fight with him, do you?”
“That’s exactly what I mean. And don’t worry, I’ll be there to help you guys out.”
“But what if you get hurt?”
Alex shrugged again. “Fuck it. At least I’ll die with my brothers.”
That really hit a nerve in Maxwell. He realized that above all, Socks didn’t want to be a hero either. He wanted to fight like one, but he wanted to die alongside his brother.
Maxwell felt honored at first. But couldn’t imagine the thought of Socks passing away or worse: becoming a zombie.
“I guess I’ll just have to make sure that we won’t have to die.”
End of Part II
Part III
“Decontamination”
Socks crept in the night through what was once a parking lot. Now, it was a small military base surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Tents were scattered in the area and most soldiers were already asleep. Since the base wasn’t in zombie territory, the guards weren’t very alert. Still, he took care to avoid campfires and ducked behind tents at the sound of footsteps.
He had to get inside the building that neighbored the lot. The building used to be an old world market and was now used as a headquarters. Sheets of metal covered the windows and uniformed guards protected the main entrance. Socks snuck around to the rear entrance.
Each HQ had an old hurricane siren on the rooftop that was used to signal the citizens of danger. In the event of a zombie invasion, the sirens of each HQ would sound and all citizens would proceed to evacuation sites towards Lake Michigan while soldiers and defense volunteers rushed to the paradise’s perimeter.
Socks remembered his “briefing” with Maxwell and Alex earlier that morning.
“They’re not going to warn the people this time, Socks,” Maxwell had said.
“Who’s they?” he asked.
“The head people. The ones that make the laws and that were supposed to protect us.”
“But why not?”
“They figured that they will have a better chance to escape while Zeddie is distracted by the entire population of the paradise.”
“It may also be because they’d rather just abandon us then put in the effort to defeat a horde of this size,” added Alex.
“So your job, Socks, is to warn the people,” said Maxwell. “It won’t be enough to just run around in the streets and shout that a horde is coming; no one would believe you. You need to activate a siren at one of the headquarters. You should try the Kelly HQ. It’s closer and has a smaller staff. If the other headquarters follow procedure then they’ll sound their sirens until the whole city is alerted.”
Socks laughed. “That’ll blow up their little plan.”
Now Socks crouched in the darkness and watched the lone guard at the rear entrance of the HQ. Not only was he guarding the back door but also a ladder that led to the roof. Socks had to get him away from his post. He was sure that any of the soldiers in the base wouldn’t have a problem gunning down a trespasser.
Socks figured that he would be discovered immediately after sounding the siren so he decided stealth was not a priority at this point. He crept over to a nearby tent and made sure that no one was at the front of it. He reached over towards the campfire, pulled out a burning branch and hurled into the tent. He laughed as the dry cloth caught fire and then ran back to his hiding spot.
The guard ran from his post to help put out the flames. There were shouts and screams as soldiers ran out of the tent engulfed in flames.
Socks waited until the guard was out of sight and sprinted toward the ladder. He took a quick glance over his shoulder. The burning soldiers were now writhing on the floor. Woops, he thought to himself.
He reached the ladder and climbed up, taking care not to make too much noise and to not draw attention to himself. It didn’t matter, though, since the fire had now spread to a neighboring tent which served as a great distraction.
Socks stopped when he reached the top and peeked over the ledge. There were two guards as well on the roof. Socks cursed himself for not considering them before. Luckily they were gathered on a ledge away from the ladder, focused on the fire.
Socks climbed onto the roof.
Maxwell sat on his bike outside the base. He took care to remain in the shadows so the soldiers wouldn’t spot him and question him.
He had dropped off Socks a few minutes before. He got nervous when he spotted the first fire. He became worried when he saw it spread. And now he was scared for Socks’ life when he saw two bodies fall from the rooftop and a ladder topple over.
I shouldn’t have let him go alone. he thought.
Suddenly, the hurricane siren sounded. Faintly, at first, and then growing to a steady, piercing shriek.
He saw the confusion spread through the base as soldiers rushed out of their tents. They seemed unsure of whether to fight the fire or to set up the defenses.
Maxwell panicked when he couldn’t spot Socks. He began regretting all sorts of things. He began to regret letting him go alone. He began to regret not getting a gun for him. He began to regret not going himself.
Suddenly, a voice startled him out of his worries. “Alright, let’s go!”
Socks hopped onto the pegs of the bike.
“Riots erupt in all sectors as news of an inbound zombie horde spreads. Law enforcement is torn between executing rioters and sending officers to defend the city. Governor Baily is not available to comment on the threat of invasion. The question, however, on New Chicago’s mind is: How long has he kept this threat a secret?”
Socks, Maxwell, and Alex stood among hundreds of citizens just inside of the fence that Socks and Moon had crossed. The morning was humid and windy. Socks’ clothes clung to him. He gave Chowder sips from his water bottle.
The crowd was armed with bats, machetes, metal bars, and just about every type of club. Several people had rifles. All of them were eager to fight. They were eager to defend their homes. Socks was happy to see that other people shared his beliefs of not running.
The crowd watched through the fence as hundreds of soldiers lined up on the other side. Beyond this line of defense, dozens of trucks with mounted machine guns and several buses packed with heavily armed soldiers waited.
A few miles of land had been cleared around the fence. At the end of this clearing began the neighborhoods that Socks and Moon walked through.
And several into the neighborhoods, the horde marched.
At the rate they walked, they would be at their doorstep in an hour. Socks wasn’t sure why the soldiers were just waiting for Zeddie to come.
And then the first shots sounded. They came from behind him. The report shook Socks’ insides. It was as if a thunderstorm had erupted over New Chicago. Once the firing stopped and the echoes died out there was a whistling in the air.
A split second later, the artillery shells landed in the massive wave of flesh that was the horde. Socks saw their impact plumes of debris even from miles away. Pieces of houses flew into the air. A second later, the explosions sounded across the clearing.
A large portion of the crowd cheered. The rest stayed silent, wishing that they would get their chance to fight.
“Comanche 7 to base, there’s a lot of smoke out here. It looks like the shells did their job well, over.”
“Comanche 7, what’s the status of the horde? Over.”
“Hold on a sec, sir. It looks like—oh shit.”
“Repeat that Comanche 7. Is it safe to send in ground forces to exterminate any remaining infections?”
“Negative, sir. Suggesting another barrage to sector Gamma.”
The crowd cheered again as another volley of shells were fired into the horde. The neighborhoods exploded into debris and erupted into flames. A few more minutes passed and Socks saw the same helicopter circle back around over the area.
It hovered over the neighborhood and banked side to side. Socks guessed that it was delivering a report to whoever was firing the artillery.
Apparently the report was not good. The chopper sped away as another wave of shells was fired. This time, fewer people cheered. Then, no one cheered as more shots were fired consecutively.
About a dozen more volleys were fired until they stopped. The silence that replaced the shots was unsettling.
Either they ran out of ammo... or it’s not working, thought Socks.
The nervous looks on the soldiers outside of the fence didn’t help to calm the crowd who now whispered amongst each other. No one wanted to believe that the horde was so massive that the artillery shells weren’t enough.
The soldiers, almost reluctantly, started marching towards the horde that had now entered the clearing. The trucks and buses drove alongside them.
Socks walked closer to the fence and peered through. The soldiers marched as if they knew that they were going to die. He looked past them at the horde.
He could see no end to it. It was as if a sea of flesh and blood was pouring from the neighborhoods and was going to flood New Chicago with terror. Their combined groans and shrieks and roars sent chills through Socks’ spine. He was used to their calls of blood. But this time he was incredibly outnumbered.
Maxwell came up next to Socks.
He saw what Socks saw and let out a low whistle.
“Weren’t expecting this now, where we?” he asked.
The rattle of gunfire sounded in the distance. It was almost entirely drowned out by the sounds of the horde. A few explosions from grenades sounded. The crowd was deathly silent.
“At least we have a good fight coming to us,” said Socks.
Hardly five minutes passed until the gunfire stopped completely. “Pussies,” said Socks.
“Is it our turn now, brother?” asked Maxwell.
Socks expected more of a resistance against the zombies. He was actually hoping that they would survive. Deep inside, however, Socks knew that if he died he at least would die with his brothers, and he would die defending everything he loved.
Socks nodded. He pulled out Chowder, gave him a kiss on the head, and put him on the floor. “I’ll come back for ya’ later, buddy.” Chowder squeaked happily and scampered away. Socks then unsheathed Suzie. He turned to face Maxwell. “I’m sorry for being such a punk sometimes, Max. And for appreciating everything you’ve done.”
Maxwell put an arm around Socks’ head and pulled him closer. “Don’t worry about it, man. I’ll fight to the death for you.”
“Guess it’s about that time then,” said Socks. “Alex.”
“What’s up little man?” asked Alex.
“I’ve always hated you.”
Alex laughed. “See you on the other side, man.”
Socks gripped the fence and pushed at it. Maxwell ran to his aide and soon several people from the crowd joined. They knocked down the fence and brought their melee weapons to bear. Socks made sure to get the first kill.
“How shall we proceed, Governor?”
“How far has the infection spread?”
“The Willis Tower has been abandoned.”
*Radio Silence*
“Proceed with the detonation.”
AdvertisementsLong before "White Privilege" was a Macklemore song, it was (and continues to be) a social reality with tendrils extending into virtually all facets of our society. Some of its manifestations are a matter of life and death; others are subtle annoyances known as "microaggressions" which can build up and contribute to a general sense of not feeling safe or comfortable in a world that was never designed with us in mind.
As good as it might feel for those with white privilege to pretend we live in a "post-racial" society, one has only to give most dating sites the most cursory of glances to shut down this notion altogether. The biases and snap judgments that permeate our society are amplified through technology, and the swipe-to-reject models of popular dating sites can be utterly frustrating for people of color, because judgments based on photos are highly susceptible to the stereotypes and implicit biases that come into play when viewing photos of strangers.
("But not me!" you might be saying... However, have you ever taken an Implicit Association Test for racial bias? You can take one here. You might find the results surprising.)
* * * * *
One response to the micro-aggressions experienced on swipe-to-reject dating apps is the proliferation of racially-specific apps like BlackPeopleMeet, AsianPeopleMeet, LatinoPeopleMeet, NativeAmericanDating (and just to keep things driven-snow-pure, WhereWhitePeopleMeet). While these sites can seem to offer safe spaces for people looking to exclusively date people with shared cultural identities, the need for separate, race-siloed spaces to feel safe strikes me as outdated. A hundred and twenty years outdated to be precise, à la Plessy v. Ferguson's "separate but equal."
And yet, can you really blame marginalized people for seeking out safety and comfort? In 2009, OkCupid released a "Race Report." According to their heteronormative data, women using their site "penalized" (their word) Asian and black men. Male non-black users "applied a penalty to black women." A follow-up study in 2014 indicated that users had become no more-open minded than they used to be; if anything the racial bias had intensified.
Gross.
So... what are we really talking about when we talk about racial bias in online dating? We're talking about the conflation of race with tired tropes about masculinity, femininity, class, and real people reduced to exotic caricatures. We're talking about negative, dehumanizing stereotypes that work subconsciously to structure our assumptions about people we've never met, coupled with the misguided rationalization, "Well, people just can't help liking what they like!" that encourages and excuses our implicit and explicit biases. We're talking about perceptual junk that gets in the way of seeing another person as an individual worthy of the same respect we would hope others would give us.
Here are some common ways that racial bias in online dating is experienced by people of color. In each case, the stereotypes being perceived are never about the individual, but a projected expectation based on media portrayals and other falsehoods.
Race Fetishization
From Puccini's Madama Butterfly to Miley's cornrows, pop culture's worship of the exotic is as ubiquitous as it is downright creepy. As an Asian woman, I can spot the Asian hunters miles away. "Ooh.....Asian women are so mysterious." (Not me! I like clear, direct communication.) "I like pretty Chinese women." (Sorry, buddy...I'm not Chinese, either.) The comedian Jenny Yang has a brilliant sketch about "Yellow Fever" that lets me know I'm not alone. Even as a barely adolescent kid, my creep sensor knew something was really off about comments like these.
With any racial fetishization, you're definitely not seeing the person. You're projecting an annoying, very limited media portrayal onto an individual who is 99.999999% likely to be nothing at all like that fantasy, and you're completely missing out on whomever that person really is.
The Race Checklist, a.k.a. "Aren't you supposed to...?"
You're Black. Aren't you supposed to know how to dance? You're Asian, will you do my physics homework? You're Native American -- how 'bout that peyote!?
Every time someone says "Aren't you supposed to...?" a fairy of color dies. There are few things unsexier than being told that you must not a valid ethnic person because you don't know how to do the thing that white people saw someone do in that one TV show. And then when you respond with a flattened, "Nope," often the well-intended responses are: "Why are you so sensitive? These are compliments to your race!" (This is gaslighting, by the way. Microaggressions are real, and it's no one's job to pretend you're not a clueless boob when you persist in acting like one.)
Race Devaluation
I wish this wasn't even a thing to have to talk about, but race devaluation is the ugly, ugly flipside of race fetishization. Photo-based dating apps, paired with implicit bias, have the unfortunate consequence of really reinforcing toxic and pervasive stereotypes that undermine individual dignity. When you perceive someone as "less masculine," "hyper-masculine," "uneducated," or god-fucking-forbid "probably hostile toward the USA, Jesus, and Freedom™" based on whatever race they happened to be born, it doesn't matter what that person does or is; you've already put them into a category full of awful assumptions and they can never win. The best they can hope for is to become "the exception" to your racist rule. This mindset is reptilian. It fundamentally lacks empathy, it debases people, and it's astoundingly wrong. Take it to the Trump rally, or maybe one of those whites-only dating sites. Your libido is no good here.
* * * * *
So How Can We Do Better?
Well, for starters, we can stop rationalizing our racism as a legitimate preference and realize that if we take the time to look for it, we may find something worthwhile, fascinating and beautiful about virtually every human being on the planet.
In all the depressing news from OKCupid, there is a silver lining in the form of a curious trend: the percentage of people who say that they would strongly prefer to date someone of their own race has dropped significantly since 2009, and is still on the decline.
I find this discrepancy between belief and action fascinating, because it poses a challenge. People are more and more willing to put aside our differences and meet each other as individuals, which creates an opportunity for technology to provide us with ways of opening up to people we might not have considered dating before. As well, this study revealed that online dating users who receive--and reply to--a cross-race message initiate more new interracial exchanges in the short-term future than they would have otherwise. So it's time to reach out.
SIREN is designed to prioritize conversation and personality over the ability to take a hot photo. Encountering someone's words, attitudes and opinions about the world before making decisions about them based on appearance is one way to sidestep the stereotypes we've been conditioned to see when we look at each other, and judging from the growth of our community over the past few months, it's a model that's working.
Chemistry isn't about tired tropes; it's about an inexplicable one-to-one connection with another human being. Making meaningful connections starts with seeing people as individuals, not "exceptions" to outdated stereotypes.When I wrote my book (The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be) on the history of the American political debate, I spent a lot of time tracing the roots of both modern American conservatism and progressivism. It is the former I will occupy myself with today, for I have to confess a serious mistake of omission in my book.
I think I was accurate in describing John C. Calhoun — with his combination of traditionalism, authoritarianism, and worship of states’ rights — as the single most influential figure in American conservatism. And I think my discussion of the critical roles of people like Russell Kirk, William Buckley, Jesse Helms, and Barry Goldwater was true enough as well. But where I made my biggest mistake was in missing the importance of Ayn Rand as arguably the single most influential writer in the history of American conservatism. She is now getting a new round of exposure because of the film that her apostles just made, “Atlas Shrugged,” and I am pleased she is, because when her actual ideas get exposed to the light of day, they will hurt the conservative movement badly.
Frankly, when writing my book, I just couldn't reconcile myself to believe that someone as twisted as Ayn Rand could be such a huge influence on so many people. When you read her writings, it is hard not to recoil at the cruelty of her thinking. AlterNet had a nice piece the other day summarizing her philosophy:
The philosophy, such as it was, which Rand laid out in her novels and essays was a frightful concoction of hyper-egotism, power-worship and anarcho-capitalism. She opposed all forms of welfare, unemployment insurance, support for the poor and middle-class, regulation of industry and government provision for roads or other infrastructure. She also insisted that law enforcement, defense and the courts were the only appropriate arenas for government, and that all taxation should be purely voluntary. Her view of economics starkly divided the world into a contest between "moochers" and "producers," with the small group making up the latter generally composed of the spectacularly wealthy, the successful, and the titans of industry. The "moochers" were more or less everyone else, leading TNR's Jonathan Chait to describe Rand's thinking as a kind of inverted Marxism. Marx considered wealth creation to result solely from the labor of the masses, and viewed the owners of capital and the economic elite to be parasites feeding off that labor. Rand simply reversed that value judgment, applying the role of "parasite" to everyday working people instead. On the level of personal behavior, the heroes in Rand's novels commit borderline rape, blow up buildings, and dynamite oil fields -- actions which Rand portrays as admirable and virtuous fulfillments of the characters' personal will and desires. Her early diaries gush with admiration for William Hickman, a serial killer who raped and murdered a young girl. Hickman showed no understanding of "the necessity, meaning or importance of other people," a trait Rand apparently found quite admirable. For good measure, Rand dismissed the feminist movement as "false" and "phony," denigrated both Arabs and Native Americans as "savages" (going so far as to say the latter had no rights and that Europeans were right to take North American lands by force) and expressed horror that taxpayer money was being spent on government programs aimed at educating "subnormal children" and helping the handicapped. Needless to say, when Rand told Mike Wallace in 1953 that altruism was evil, that selfishness is a virtue, and that anyone who succumbs to weakness or frailty is unworthy of love, she meant it.
Given Rand's endorsement of terrorism, her strong admiration for a rapist and serial killer, her intense racism and vile hatred of people with disabilities, and her complete dismissal of traditional Christian values of altruism and generosity, I had a hard time believing that so many leading Republicans would be so openly embracing of her. But the same AlterNet piece summarizes a lot of the Republican leadership's excitement about her:
For over half a century," says Jennifer Burns, a recent biographer of the novelist, "Rand has been the ultimate gateway drug to life on the right." And with good reason. Besides her prominence in the Tea Party's intellectual and cultural lexicon, some of the Republican Party's leading lights have cited Rand by name as an inspiration. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) said she was the reason he entered public service. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) called Atlas Shrugged "his foundational book." Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is an avowed fan and quotes extensively from Rand's novels at Congressional hearings. His father Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) told listeners that readers ate up Rand's Atlas Shrugged because "it was telling the truth," and even conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas references her work as influence in his autobiography -- and apparently has his law clerks watch the film adaptation of The Fountainhead. The phenomenon holds amidst the right-wing media as well: Rush Limbaugh called her "brilliant," Glenn Beck's panel on Rand featured the president of the Ayn Rand Institute Yaroom Brook, and Andrew Napolitano enthusiastically recounted a story in which his college-age self introduces his mother to Rand's The Virtue of Selfishness. John Stossel and Sean Hannity have name-dropped her as well. Going further back, Alan Greenspan -- former chairman of the Federal Reserve and a fierce advocate of free-market ideology -- is an acolyte of Rand's thinking and knew her personally, and Rand was also dubbed the unofficial "novelist laureate" of the Reagan Administration by Maureen Dowd. Indeed, the most remarkable thing about Ayn Rand's reach on the right is how unremarked-upon it most often is....Given that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is the lead architect of the GOP's 2012 budget plan, his own devotion to the ideas of Atlas Shrugged and its author are worth noting. Conservative columnist Ross Douthat has dismissed the connection as Ryan merely saying some "kind words about Ayn Rand," which simply isn't a plausible characterization given what we know: Ryan was a speaker at the Ayn Rand Centenary Conference in 2005, where he described Social Security as a "collectivist system" and cited Rand as his primary inspiration for entering public service. He has at least two videos on his Facebook page in which he heaps praise on the author. "Ayn Rand, more than anyone else, did a fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism, the morality of individualism," he says. All of which reflects a rather more serious devotion than a few mere kind words. So it should come as no surprise that Ryan's plan comports almost perfectly with Rand's world view. He guts Medicare, Medicaid, and a whole host of housing, food, and educational support programs, leaving the country's middle-class and most vulnerable citizens with far less support. Then he uses approximately half of the money freed by those cuts to reduce taxes on the most wealthy Americans. By transforming Medicare into a system of vouchers whose value increases at the rate of inflation, he undoes Medicare's most humane feature -- the shouldering of risk at the social level -- and leaves individuals and seniors to shoulder ever greater amounts of risk on their own. But if your intellectual and moral lodestar is a woman who railed against altruism as "evil" and considered the small pockets of highly successful individuals to be morally superior, it's a perfectly logical plan to put forward.
It isn't just Republican political philosophy that Rand's ideas have infected, unfortunately. The selfishness-is-a-virtue and strong-taking-advantage-of-the-weak ethos have become the guiding principal of Wall Street bankers and multinational corporate CEOs as well. The invisible hand and enlightened self-interest of the free market has been pumped up on steroids and turned into a fist holding brass knuckles, and those too stupid or weak to be taken advantage of are freely hurt. And the bankers and media allies and politicians who are disciples of Ayn Rand don't just do it because the market demands it: they absolutely revel in it. Reading emails from some of these Wall Street traders about the joy they are taking in ripping their customers off, or watching Glenn Beck give a speech where he speaks with joy about how in nature, “the lions eat the weak," while his audience laughs and applauds is a truly sobering thing.
What is most bizarre about all this is that the conservatives who worship at the feet of Rand claim also generally to be Christians. When Rand Paul's exposure as a mocker of Christianity was revealed in last year's campaign, he was offended and appalled by these terrible smears, and spent the rest of the campaign quoting the Bible in virtually every speech, but his attitude in college is far more in keeping with Ayn Rand's own attitudes about religion — and with the logical conclusion of Rand's selfishness is a virtue, charity is evil philosophy. The Jesus of the Gospels was all about helping the poor, giving your riches away, helping others at every turn. In other words, the exact opposite of Rand's entire philosophy of life. Any politician or media figure who claims to be an admirer of both Rand and Jesus is either hopelessly confused or an out-and-out liar.
There is a deep and ultimately unresolvable contradiction buried in the heart of modern conservatism and the Republican Party. Their base is overwhelmingly churchgoing, theologically conservative Christians. These are folks who read their Bibles and take them seriously. The problem is that there is no way, no way whatsoever, to meld the philosophy of Ayn Rand and the Jesus of the Gospels. The Jesus who preached about the Golden Rule, the Jesus who preached the Sermon on the Mount, the Jesus who preached over and over and over again about mercy and charity and self-sacrifice cannot be reconciled with Ayn Rand. In his very first sermon, Jesus said that the Lord had anointed him to bring good news to the poor, proclaim liberty to the captives and sight to the blind.
The Ayn Rand who so inspired Paul Ryan thought the poor were vermin who deserved what they got, and was horrified at the idea that there might be government help for the blind. These two philosophies are in direct, unalterable contradiction, there is no way to smooth over the differences or magically synthesize them into a coherent ideology. Sooner or later, and I suspect sooner, this contradiction will tear the Republican Party apart.If you believe the headline seasonally adjusted figures, in August everything in the labour force was falling. Employment fell, unemployment fell - and workforce participation fell, to its lowest level since 2006.
There's no sense in that, so we have to remember that it's just a survey, and focus instead on the trend figures, in which the Bureau of Statistics smooths out the zigs and zags of the seasonally adjusted data. And the trend figures are just as sombre.
In the past three months, the bureau estimates, Australia's working age population has grown by 64,000. But in net terms, just 8000 jobs have been created, and full-time jobs have fallen by 1000. Yet unemployment rose by just 4000.
That leaves 52,000 people unaccounted for. Where did they go? According to the bureau surveys, out of the workforce altogether. Some are studying, or minding the kids, or taking an overseas holiday. Some have retired. But where are the rest of them?
If this was just happening over three months, you wouldn't worry about it. But the bureau says this has been the story of the Australian labour market since the end of 2010: when our workforce participation peaked at 65.9 per cent of all adults aged 15 and over, with a record 62.5 per cent in work.Goulburn prison brawl sparked by attempts to convert inmates to Islam, union official says
Updated
A gun shot and tear gas were used to control a brawl at Goulburn jail this week, which was sparked by attempts to convert inmates to Islam, according to a union official.
Key points: Corrective Services confirms prison guards shot live rounds to try to break up brawl
Tear gas was used in second altercation
Union says initial fight sparked by attempts to convert inmates to Islam
New South Wales Corrective Services confirmed a live gun shot was fired during attempts to break up the fight.
The violence had been triggered by an Islamic prisoner trying to convert others within the prison, Steve McMahon, a chairman with the Prison Officers Branch of the Public Service Association said.
However, a statement from Corrective Services NSW denied the fight was religiously motivated.
The statement said the fight between two inmates started on Tuesday and when staff tried to break it up they were not immediately successful.
"When both inmates refused to cease fighting, a warning shot was fired to alert other staff of the incident, as per procedure in NSW prisons," the statement said.
Prison officers also used gas in the incident, but a second altercation occurred shortly afterwards, the statement said.
"While inmates were being led back to their cells, a fight broke out between two other inmates," according to the statement.
"Gas was again used to defuse the situation."
The statement said there were eight inmates in the prison yard at the time of the first incident and no one was injured.
'Assault rates increasing': McMahon
Mr McMahon said the fight was sparked after an inmate took issue with conversion attempts.
"These are not really peace-loving Islamic inmates," Mr McMahon said.
"We're talking about ones who have other ideas in mind and they're often some of the worst inmates that we've had to deal with for behavioural issues within the prisons."
He said the initial fight between two prisoners escalated to involve three, and then multiple other inmates joined in.
Mr McMahon, who is also a senior prison officer at Goulburn jail, said staff have been responding to a growing number of violent outbreaks within NSW jails in recent months.
"It's certainly something that has been increasing over the past 18 months," he said.
"In the six or seven months of this year, I think we've had as many shots fired as what we would've had in the previous five years.
"Our assault rates in New South Wales prisons are the highest they have been in the over 20 years that I've been working in the industry."
Last month, the State Government committed to spending $3.8 billion on 3,000 new prison beds over the next four years in a bid to deal with overcrowding.
Religious tensions could lead to more violence: union
Mr McMahon said tension over religious conversions could lead to larger-scale violence.
"With all of our jails being overcrowded, it's much clearer that we have a problem growing in the jails around conversion into Islam," he said.
"What we're sort of concerned about is not just day-to-day violence growing in the prisons on the back of this.
"We're concerned that they want to start taking this hard-line and obscure view on how to be part of society and make some statement by seriously injuring or killing a prison officer - that's a major concern for us."
Mr McMahon said a Kempsey Prison assault in April, in which a prisoner alleged carved a jihadist slogan into the head of an inmate, caused the Government to confirm there were between 60 and 80 inmates of concern across NSW.
He said more resources and training for prison officers to identify and intervene in inmate radicalisation was needed.
Topics: prisons-and-punishment, law-crime-and-justice, states-and-territories, state-parliament, parliament, goulburn-2580, nsw
First postedGetty Images Payday loans are unaffordable for most borrowers. CFPB’s proposal will help, but it needs to be strengthened.
This fact sheet was updated May 26, 2016, to reflect new data released by the Center for Financial Services Innovation.
Pew has conducted extensive research on the high-cost small-dollar loan market over the past five years. The findings show that although these products offer quick cash, the unaffordable payments lead consumers to quickly take another loan to cover expenses. Twelve million Americans take out payday loans each year, spending $9 billion on loan fees.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is expected to release new rules this year |
4% of taxpayers claiming the mortgage-interest deduction, down from 21% today.
The itemized deduction for property taxes announced on Saturday by the Ways and Means Committee could help accommodate Republicans from New York and New Jersey who had opposed full repeal of the state and local tax deductions. Eleven of the 20 Republicans who voted against the House’s budget on Thursday were from those two states.
It wasn’t clear late Saturday whether that deduction for property taxes would be limited either by amount or by household income. As an itemized deduction, it would generally be available only to taxpayers whose combined deductions exceed the standard deduction, which would be $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for married couples.
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“Some of these districts, the local taxes are staggering,” Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R., Texas) said in an interview Friday, as he talked about conversations with fellow House members. “I mean, beyond the pale, and I don’t know how families frankly survive with that tax burden. So we want to make sure we’re writing and solving to help them.”
Republicans had long said that they wanted to keep the mortgage-interest deduction. The break is popular with voters, despite research showing little affect on homeownership rates and a disproportionate benefit for high-income households.
Mr. Howard said Saturday he had been working with House Ways and Means Committee staff on a credit to replace the mortgage-interest and property-tax deductions, and he said he had been optimistic throughout the week. A credit could have directed the tax code’s subsidy for homeowners more broadly across income groups, but it would have been more disruptive politically than leaving the mortgage-interest deduction alone.
According to the home builders, negotiations were ongoing with one version of the credit worth 12% of property taxes and mortgage interest.
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Eligible taxes would have been capped at $5,500, indexed for inflation. Eligible mortgage debt would have been capped at $500,000, also indexed for inflation. There would have been a phaseout for higher-income taxpayers.
But Mr. Howard got a call from Mr. Brady on Friday night and from House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) on Saturday.
According to Mr. Howard, Mr. Ryan said the idea hadn’t gotten enough discussion among rank-and-file lawmakers.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Ryan declined to comment Saturday.
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Mr. Brady, in a statement Saturday, said the issue would remain under discussion. He announced the retention of the itemized deduction for property in a later statement.
“The home builders have been great partners in developing a new home credit that helps more Americans with both their mortgage and property taxes, by expanding this tax relief to homeowners who don’t itemize,” Mr. Brady said. “I hope members of Congress will examine it closely to determine if they want it included before tax reform heads to the president’s desk.”
Many business groups are backing the Republican tax framework on the promise of lower tax rates for corporations and other businesses, but that could change as the details are unveiled. The home builders, along with the National Association of Realtors, are a powerful lobbying force, with members spread throughout the country and a significant stake in changes to homeownership incentives currently in the tax code.
Mr. Howard said his group’s members urged him to fight the bill even more aggressively than he had been prepared to support it.
Write to Richard Rubin at richard.rubin@wsj.comExcellent news out today. America is getting smarter when it comes to recognizing and accepting an inevitable change.
A new report released today shows that the number of “interracial” marriages in the U.S. had dramatically increased.
Interracial marriages in the U.S. have climbed to 4.8 million — a record 1 in 12 — as a steady flow of new Asian and Hispanic immigrants expands the pool of prospective spouses. Blacks are now substantially more likely than before to marry whites.
A Pew Research Center study, released Thursday, details a diversifying America where interracial unions and the mixed-race children they produce are challenging typical notions of race.
Progress indeed. The report added:
Due to increasing interracial marriages, multiracial Americans are a small but fast-growing demographic group, making up about 9 million, or 8 percent of the minority population. Together with blacks, Hispanics and Asians, the Census Bureau estimates they collectively will represent a majority of the U.S. population by mid-century.
And I love this guy quoted in the news article:
“Race is a social construct; race isn’t real,” said Jonathan Brent, 28. The son of a white father and Japanese-American mother, Brent helped organize multiracial groups in southern California and believes his background helps him understand situations from different perspectives.
That’s what I’ve been saying for years on this blog.
So this is a good way to start the day. Now if we can get the media to stop calling these relationships “interracial” we will be really cooking with gas.
Here is the link to the full article and report.
AdvertisementsHumans have a history of engineering landscapes to fit our purposes, sometimes with disastrous results. The Salton Sea is California's largest lake. With prolonged drought, the water level in the sea is dropping, the salinity of the lake is increasing, and thousands of dead fish are piling up along the shore. The question is, is this a disaster of our own design?
Historically, large seas have cyclically formed and dried over time in the basin due to natural flooding from the Colorado River. The current Salton Sea was formed when the Colorado River floodwater breached an irrigation canal being constructed in the Imperial Valley in 1905 and flowed into the Salton Sink. The Sea has since been maintained by irrigation runoff in the Imperial and Coachella valleys and local rivers.
Along the seashore, in the 50s and 60s, Bombay Beach was a popular resort destination in the desert but now the almost abandoned town looks like a dried up wasteland. Many scientists in the area warn that if we allow this lake to dry up, we will be facing an environmental health disaster of epic proportions.
Melon fields near the Salton Sea lie in ruin after one of the worst droughts in California history.
A melon wastes away as the owners were not able to secure enough water to finish growing this year's crop.
The fine dust left by the receding waters has been proven to cause significant respiratory problems to those exposed for extended periods of time.
A dilapidated trail runs along the water in the nearly-empty Bombay Beach, formerly prime waterfront property.
The low water levels have exposed the remains of docks that used to accommodate weekend tourists.
Highway 111 used to feed tourists to the many campgrounds and hotels that dotted this stretch of road along the north east shores of the Salton Sea.Electronic road signs encourage drivers to leave their cars at home. Atlas/ Alvaro García
Madrid awoke on Thursday to traffic restrictions imposed by the City Council in a bid to try and reduce the high levels of pollution that have plagued the Spanish capital in recent days.
The measures have been taken after 11 measuring stations of the 24 in the city revealed nitrogen dioxide levels of above the limit of 200 micrograms per square meter. Nitrogen oxides can cause respiratory irritation and provoke asthma attacks.
If the high levels of pollution continue, non-residents will not be allowed to use parking meters in the city center
Entrance roads into the center are, as a result, suffering long delays, according to a municipal spokesperson, although for now the same volume of traffic is being registered as a normal Thursday.
The breakdown of a vehicle in the southwest of the M-30 ringroad has also added to the delays, in particular the access to the freeways to Extremadura (A-5), Toledo (A-42) and Andalusia (A-4).
The council has imposed speed restrictions of 70km/h (down from 90km/h) in overground sections of the M-30, and on other ring roads. If the high levels of pollution continue today and tomorrow, the next measure to be imposed will be a ban on non-residents from using parking meter spaces in the city center.
The City Council is yet to supply figures for the number of vehicles that entered the capital city this morning. It says it is hoping to have them soon, with a view to comparing whether Madrileños left their cars at home due to a campaign yesterday via electronic signs encouraging people to take public transport. Up until now, say municipal sources, the traffic levels are “the usual” for a Thursday.
The traffic-calming measures were introduced by former Popular Party Mayor Ana Botella in March of this year. However, this is the first time that they have been put into effect, with the City Council now under the control of leftist Mayor Manuela Carmena, of the Ahora Madrid bloc. One of the campaign promises of the group was to deal with the high pollution levels in Madrid.
English version by Simon Hunter.Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda are taking part in a scheme to revive trees, with manifold benefits for farmers and their environment
Stephen Tumhaire rakes through the knee-high grass in his field to get rid of fallen tree branches that might stop the grass from growing. Sweat shines on his face, and he repeatedly mops it with his palm.
In 1972, Tumhaire’s grandfather moved from the west of Uganda to the central Nakasongola district, a once sparsely populated area now made up of small farms created when farmers started dividing land among their children.
With increasing rural-urban migration in the area, demand for charcoal grew in nearby towns and villages, and this accelerated a vicious cycle of deforestation that began with the clearing of land for cultivation.
“This place was good before charcoal burning took centre stage. There were very many trees, there was much grass and cows, hence abundant milk,” he says.
On Ghana's cocoa farms, Fairtrade is not yet working for women | Roy Maconachie and Elizabeth Fortin Read more
Tumhaire lives in Chamkama village in Uganda’s cattle corridor, 140km north of the capital Kampala. He says that in the mid-90s charcoal burning became so lucrative some young men dropped out of school to focus on making the fuel.
Now, efforts are under way to use farmers, like Tumhaire, to help revive the trees through a scheme known as farmer managed natural regeneration (FMNR). Farmers encourage regrowth by pruning and protecting existing trees, as well as encouraging new growth from felled tree stumps, sprouting root systems or seeds.
The regrown trees and shrubs improve the soil, prevent erosion and water loss, and increase biodiversity. This can translate into increased crop yields, more timber for firewood and better incomes for farmers.
Tumhaire was trained under the FMNR for east Africa project, funded by World Vision Australia and the Australian government. Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda are also taking part and the World Agroforestry Centre provides research and evaluation.
“After the training, I pruned the trees and cleared shrubs on my land and soon grass started growing. Pasture was usually a problem during dry seasons here but through FMNR, my cows have enough grass and I have managed to sell a surplus of 39 bags of grass worth 331,000 shillings [£70],” Tumhaire says.
“Milk production from my cows increased gradually … I sell seven litres per day, which fetches 9,100 shillings per litre, while the rest is consumed by my children.”
Tony Rinaudo, a natural resource expert for World Vision Australia and FMNR pioneer in Niger, says this land restoration technique is cheap, based on community knowledge, and it promotes the regeneration of indigenous vegetation.
Bananas facing a bleak future as staple African crops decline Read more
“Between 25-30% of the world’s agricultural soil has been degraded. The very natural resource relied on for food supply is washing away, hence the need for trees back in the landscape in order to maintain soil fertility and stop it from eroding,” he says.
In east Africa, where many farmers cannot afford inorganic fertiliser, trees can be an incredible resource in restoring soil’s fertility and nutrients.
“Many tree species are nitrogen-fixing species. Any tree species would drop leaf litter on to the soil and build up carbon stock and other nutrients,” he says.
The Australian government has injected $1.5m (£0.78m) into the project, says John Feakes, the Australian high commissioner to Kenya. “The programme has supported 160,000 farmers, of whom 60,000 are women,” he adds.
For Florence Namembwa, another farmer in Chamkama, FMNR means wood is easier to find for cooking and boiling water. And that has given her the gift of time.
“I now have enough time for other economic activities, such as working in the vegetable garden and attending our women’s savings group. My children can now concentrate on doing their homework since they don’t have to look for firewood any more,” she says.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sayian Leparmai tends an acacia tree in his grazing field in Kenya’s semi-arid Baringo county, which borders Nakuru county. Photograph: Robert Kibet
In Kenya’s Nakuru county, Jackson Mwangi stands between two acacia trees in his field of short grass and scattered bushes. The 46-year-old recalls how drought ravaged livestock herds in 2000, in this often-arid land 130km north of the capital, Nairobi. Today he practises FMNR.
“Human activities led to desertification here,” says the father of four. “I can’t believe that the piece of land that used to give me eight bags of maize three years ago is now producing up to 25 bags,” he says.
Kenya, like other nations in sub-Saharan Africa, has seen thousands of hectares of farmland become so degraded that they no longer produce adequate or regular crops or pastures for livestock.
Government officials have also received training in FMNR in Kenya, and this has been useful in helping implement a national policy to increase nationwide forest cover from 1% to 10% of land.
For Rinaudo, the benefits of FMNR go beyond the tangible. “Apart from FMNR’s contribution in increasing milk production and doubling crop yields, its biggest transformation is restoring hope to vulnerable communities in east Africa.”Sometimes you just feel for something really good and what can be better when summer is approaching than to have some blueberry ice cream. This blueberry ice cream is really easy to make and all you need is a mixer.
Ingredients for the blueberry ice cream
* 1 dL Crème fraiche
* 2 dL Cream (the 40%+ one)
* 1 dL Blueberries, frozen or fresh
* 1 Egg yolk
* 1/2 tablespoon vanilla powder
You start by whipping the cream until it starts to get a little fluffy. Put the whipped cream to the side and start whipping the crème fraiche until it also is starting to get fluffy. You can not do them both at the same time since they get ready in different time.
Add the cream, the yellow of the egg and some blueberries. The blueberries can be either frozen or fresh. It of course tastes much better when the berries are fresh. Whip everything together in your mixer until the blueberries have divided evenly in the ice cream. The ice cream will have a nice purple color when it is done.
Once you are done with mixing the blueberry ice cream all you need to do is add it into the fridge for around 1 hour. Then it is ready to be served. For serving spread a few blueberries on top or add some whipped cream on top. Does not matter if people are on a keto diet or not, they will just love this blueberry ice cream.
Nutritional information for blueberry ice cream
Ingredients Energy Protein Fat Carbs. Fiber Alcohol 1 dL Crème fraîche 323 kcal 2 g 34 g 3 g 0 g 0 g 2 dL Cream 741 kcal 4 g 79 g 6 g 0 g 0 g 1 dL Blueberries 37 kcal 0 g 1 g 6 g 2 g 0 g 1/2 tbs Vanilla powder 2 kcal 0 g 0 g 0 g 0 g 0 g 1 Egg yolk 45 kcal 2 g 4 g 0 g 0 g 0 g Total 1148 kcal 37 kcal 1041 kcal 65 kcal 4 kcal 0 kcal gram 9 g 118 g 16 g 2 g 0 g E% 3% 91% 6% 0% 0%
You can of course make it also with other berries. I have sometimes tried to make it with strawberry and it gets just as good. Strawberry also has a very similar percentage of carbs as blueberries have. If you do not like to have any berries at all in the ice cream you can instead add some coffee powder or other similar ingredients into your ice cream.Nelash Mohamed Das, 24, a citizen of Bangladesh residing in Hyattsville, Maryland, has been charged by federal criminal complaint with attempting to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organization, in connection with a plan to kill a U.S. military member.
The charges were announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein for the District of Maryland and Special Agent in Charge Gordon B. Johnson of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office. Das had an initial appearance at 2:00 p.m. today in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt before U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Sullivan. Das was ordered to be detained pending a detention hearing, which is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016, at 3:15p.m. before Magistrate Judge Sullivan in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt. The complaint was filed on Oct. 1, 2016.
“Nelash Mohamed Das is alleged to have plotted to kill a U.S. service member on behalf of ISIL,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin. “Individuals intent on carrying out violence in the name of foreign terrorist organizations pose one of the most concerning threats that law enforcement faces today and stopping these offenders before they are able to act is our highest priority.”
“Our goal is to catch dangerous suspects before they strike, while respecting constitutional rights,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein for the District of Maryland. “That is what the American people expect of the Justice Department, and that is what we aim to deliver.”
“The danger posed by Mr. Das during this investigation was very real. He was committed to carrying out an attack against a military member,” said Special Agent in Charge Gordon B. Johnson of the FBI’s Baltimore Division. “Through our proactive investigative stance, we were able to ensure the citizens of Maryland were protected. The covert nature of the defendant’s alleged actions is a stark reminder of the challenges we face in preventing attacks, and underscores the critical need for those with knowledge about terror plots to come forward.”
According to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Das was admitted to the U.S. in 1995 and is a legal permanent resident.
The affidavit alleges that from Sept. 28, 2015 to early 2016, Das used social media to express his support for ISIL, including support for terrorist attacks in Paris, France, and San Bernardino, California.
On Oct. 26, 2015, Das tweeted the name of an individual and the city where they lived, stating that the individual “aspires to kill Muslims.” Das knew that the individual hoped to become a member of the U.S. military. ISIL members and supporters have posted identifying information about U.S. military personnel in hopes that those inspired by ISIL would carry out attacks against them. The affidavit alleges that Das was advertising the individual’s identity and whereabouts in order to inspire violence against that individual.
On Jan. 30, 2016, Das tweeted a picture of an AK-47 assault rifle along with the text, “This is more than just a gun. This is a ticket to Jannah.” “Jannah” is a reference to the Islamic concept of paradise.
According to the affidavit, on April 30, 2016, Das attended the Handgun Qualification License class at a firing range in Prince George’s County, Maryland. After the class, Das told another individual that he wanted to buy a Glock 9mm handgun and an AK-47. Over the next five months, Das returned to the firing range to practice firing weapons, and submitted his fingerprints to obtain a handgun permit.
During May 2016, Das met a confidential human source (CHS) working for the FBI. Das believed the CHS to be a like-minded supporter of ISIL. On May 24, 2016, Das told the CHS that he knew people overseas in Al Dawla (a common name for ISIL) and communicated with them through online communications.
On July 23, 2016, Das told the CHS that he wanted to kill a particular military member who lived in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and whose identifying information Das had obtained the prior year from a list posted online by ISIL. Das stated that he could acquire a firearm from an individual he knows and stated his desire to travel overseas for ISIL if he had the opportunity. On July 30, 2016, Das advised the CHS that he could no longer find the ISIL list from the year before and asked the CHS if he had any ISIL contacts who could re-send the list.
According to the affidavit, on Aug. 19, 2016, even though Das had stated that he could acquire a firearm, the CHS told Das that he could acquire weapons for both of them. In subsequent meetings with the CHS, Das continued to state that he was looking for names of targets for them to kill. In a meeting on Sept. 11, 2016, Das confirmed that he was committed “100%” to conducting an attack and, “That’s like my goal in life.” In a meeting the following day, Das stated that he wanted to get paid by ISIL for future killings, but would do it for free as well. Das further confirmed that he specifically wanted to target U.S. military personnel.
On Sept. 28, 2016, Das and the CHS drove from Maryland to a firearms store in Virginia, where Das purchased one box (50 rounds) of 9mm ammunition and one box (50 rounds) of.40 caliber ammunition. At Das’ request, that same day, the CHS provided Das with the identifying information of a target, who the CHS claimed was a member of the U.S. military. The CHS told Das he received the information from an ISIL contact in Iraq. In reality, the CHS provided false information on behalf of the FBI. Based on discussions with the CHS, Das also believed that the ISIL contact in Iraq would facilitate the payment of approximately $80,000 in exchange for Das and the CHS conducting the attack. After purchasing the ammunition, Das and the CHS traveled from the Virginia firearms store to the Maryland address of the target in order to conduct surveillance.
The affidavit alleges that on Sept. 30, 2016, while the CHS was en route to pick up Das so they could conduct the attack, Das sent a text to the CHS that stated, “I’m ready.” When the CHS arrived at the residence, Das loaded ammunition into the magazine of one of the two firearms previously acquired by the CHS, with Das’ knowledge and support. Das inserted the magazine into the firearm and loaded a bullet in the chamber. The firearms were then placed into the trunk of the vehicle. Although Das believed that the firearms could fire ammunition, in reality, they had been rendered inert by the FBI. Das and the CHS then traveled to the address of the target, where Das exited the vehicle and approached the trunk, where the firearms were located. When Das was standing next to the trunk, FBI agents approached and Das attempted to run away. Das was taken into custody by FBI agents a short distance from the vehicle.
Das faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
A criminal complaint is merely an allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes. If convicted of any offense, the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
U.S. Attorney Rosenstein and Assistant Attorney General Carlin thanked the FBI for its work in the investigation.Pacifists always bear the burden of proof. They do so because, as attractive as nonviolence may be, most assume pacifism just will not work.
Some people may want to keep a few pacifists around, just to remind those burdened with running the world that what they sometimes have to do is a lesser evil, but pacifism simply cannot and should not be, even for Christians, a normative stance. To call, therefore, as Enda McDonagh and I have, for the abolition of war is an unrealistic proposal made possible by our isolation as academics from the real world. Nonviolence is unworkable or, to the extent it works, it does so only because it is parasitic on forms of order secured by violence. Those committed to nonviolence, in other words, are simply not realistic.
In contrast to pacifism, it is often assumed that just war reflection is "realistic." It is by no means clear, however, if advocates of just war have provided an adequate account of what kind of conditions are necessary for just war to be a realistic alternative for the military policy of a nation.
Just how realistic is just war theory?
In Christian tradition, realism is often thought to have begun with Augustine's account of the two cities, hardened into doctrine with Luther's two kingdoms, and given its most distinctive formulation in the thought of Reinhold Niebuhr. Thus Augustine is often identified as the Christian theologian who set the stage for the development of just war reflection that enables Christians to use violence in a limited way to secure tolerable order.
It is assumed, therefore, that just war is set within the larger framework of a realist view of the world. With his customary rhetorical brilliance, Martin Luther gave expression to the realist perspective by asking:
"If anyone attempted to rule the world by the gospel and to abolish all temporal law and sword on the plea that all are baptized and Christian, and that, according to the gospel, there shall be among them no law or sword - or the need for either - pray tell me friend, what would he be doing? He would be loosing the ropes and chains of the savage wild beasts and letting them bite and mangle everyone, meanwhile insisting that they were harmless, tame, and gentle creatures; but I would have the proof in my wounds. Just so would the wicked under the name of Christian abuse evangelical freedom, carry on their rascality, and insist that they were Christians subject neither to law nor sword as some are already raving and ranting."
Luther was under no illusions: war is a plague, but it is a greater plague that war prevents. Of course, slaying and robbing do not seem to be the work of love, but, as Luther put it, "in truth even this is the work of love."
Christians do not fight for themselves, but for their neighbour. So if they see that there is a lack of hangmen, constables, judges, lords or princes, and find they are qualified they should offer their services and assume these positions. That "small lack of peace called war," according to Luther, "must set a limit to this universal, worldwide lack of peace which would destroy everyone."
Reinhold Niebuhr understood himself to stand in this "realist" tradition. In 1940, in his "Open Letter (to Richard Roberts)," Niebuhr explains why he left the Fellowship of Reconciliation. He observes that he does not believe that "war is merely an 'incident' in history but is a final revelation of the very character of human history." According to Niebuhr, Christianity does not hold out "redemption" from history as conflict, because sinful egoism continues to express itself at every level of human life, making it impossible to overcome the contradictions of human history.
Paul Ramsey understood his attempt to recover just war as a theory of statecraft - that is, that war is justified because our task is first and foremost to seek justice - to be "an extension within the Christian realism of Reinhold Niebuhr." Ramsey saw, however, that there was more to be said about "justice in war than was articulated in Niebuhr's sense of the ambiguities of politics and his greater/lesser evil doctrine of the use of force." That "something more" Ramsey took to be the principle of discrimination which requires that war be subject to political purpose through which war might be limited and conducted justly - that is, that non-combatants be protected.
Yet it is by no means clear if just war reflection can be yoked consistently to a Niebuhr's brand of realism. Augustine's and Luther's "realism" presupposed there was another city that at least could call into question state powers. For Niebuhr, realism stands for the development of states and an international nation-state system that cannot be challenged. Niebuhr's realism assumes that war is a permanent reality for the relation between states because no overriding authority exists that might make war analogous to the police function of the state. Therefore each political society has the right to wage war because it is assumed to do so is part of its divinely ordained work of preservation.
"Realism," therefore, names the reality that, at the end of the day, in the world of international relations the nations with the largest army get to determine what counts for "justice." To use Augustine or Luther to justify this understanding of "realism" is in effect to turn a description into a recommendation.
In their article "Just War Theory and the Problem of International Politics," David Baer and Joseph Capizzi courageously attempt to show how just war requirements as developed by Ramsey can be reconciled with a realistic understanding of international relations. They argue that, even though a certain pessimism surrounds a realistic account of international politics, that does not mean such a view of the world is necessarily amoral.
To be sure governments have the right to wage war because of their responsibility to a particular group of neighbours, but that does not mean that governments have carte blanche to pursue every kind of interest. "The same conception that permits government to wage war," Baer and Capizzi argue, "also restricts the conditions of legitimate war making... Because each government is responsible for only a limited set of political goods, it must respect the legitimate jurisdiction of other governments."
But who is going to enforce the presumption that a government "must respect the legitimate jurisdiction of other governments." Baer and Capizzi argue that Paul Ramsey's understanding of just war as the expression of Christian love by a third party in defence of the innocent requires that advocates of just war should favour the establishment of international law and institutions to better regulate the conduct of states in pursuit of their self-interest. Yet Baer and Capizzi recognize that international agencies cannot be relied on because there is no way that such an agency can judge an individual government's understanding of just cause. As they put it, "absent effective international institutions, warring governments are like Augustine's individual pondering self-defence, moved by the temptation of inordinate self-love."
Baer and Capizzi argue a more adequate understanding of just war will combine a realist understanding of international politics with a commitment to international order by emphasizing the importance of just intention. This means that a war can be undertaken only if peace, which is understood as a concept for a more "embracing and stable order," be the reason a state gives for going to war. The requirement that the intention for going to war be so understood is an expression of love for the enemy just to the extent that the lasting order be one that encompasses the interests of the enemy.
My initial reaction to this is: And pacifists are said to be unrealistic? The idealism of such "realist" justifications of just war is nowhere better seen than in these attempts to fit just war considerations into the realist presuppositions that shape the behaviour of state actors.
(It would be quite interesting, for example, for Baer and Capizzi to address Philip Bobbitt's claim, in his majestic The Shield of Achilles, that the deepest immorality is to be found in those that attempt to avoid war. To make the going to war "a last resort" would only make the world more dangerous. Bobbitt argues the issue is never whether we ought to avoid war, but rather "we must choose what sort of war we will fight, regardless of what are its causes, to set the terms of the peace we want." The avoidance of war, therefore, cannot and should not be an objective because such a policy "counsels against the preparations for war that might avert massive, carefully balanced, large scale attacks by one state on another." Such a view rightly rejects those that assume war is a pathology of the state. Rather war is understood as that which gives birth to the state and is necessary for sustaining the state's existence.)
Ramsey, Baer and Capizzi are to be commended for trying to recover just war as a theory of state-craft, that is, as an alternative to the use of just war as a check list to judge if a particular war satisfies enough of the criteria to be judged just. Yet by doing so they have made the tensions between the institutions necessary for just war to be a reality and the presumptions that shape international affairs apparent. For example:
What would an American foreign policy determined by just war principles look like?
What would a just war Pentagon look like?
What kind of virtues would the people of America have to have to sustain a just war foreign policy and pentagon?
What kind of training do those in the military have to undergo in order to be willing to take casualties rather than conduct the war unjustly?
How would those with the patience necessary to insure that a war be a last resort be elected to office?
Those are the kind of questions that advocates of just war must address before they accuse pacifists of being "unrealistic."
To put the challenge more concretely, we could ask, Why was it possible for the United States to conduct the second war against Iraq? The answer is very simple. Because America had a military left over from the Cold War - a war that was fought according to an amoral realism - America could go to war in Iraq because nothing prevented America from going to war in Iraq. A war that is, moreover, justified as part of a "war against terrorism." Yet, in spite of the title of Jean Bethke Elshtain's much-praised book, Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World, it is by no means clear you can fight a just war against terrorism. If one of the crucial conditions of a just war is for the war to have an end, then the war against terrorism clearly cannot be just because it is a war without end.
I think the lack of realism about realism by American just war advocates, moreover, has everything to do with their being American. In particular, American advocates of just war seem to presume that democratic societies place an inherent limit on war that more authoritarian societies are unable to do. While such a view is quite understandable, I want to suggest that democratic societies - or at least the American version of democracy - are unable to set limits on war because they are democratic.
Put even more strongly, for Americans war is a necessity to sustain our belief that we are worthy to be recipients of the sacrifices made on our behalf in past wars. Americans are a people born of and in war - particularly, the Civil War - and only war can sustain our belief that we are a people set apart.
The Civil War as sacred war
For Americans war is a necessity for our moral well being. Which means it is by no means clear what it would mean for Americans to have a realistic understanding of war. In his extraordinary book, Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War, Harry Stout tells the story of how the Civil War began as a limited war but ended as total war. He is quite well aware that the language of total war did not exist at the time of the Civil War, but he argues by 1864 the spirit of total war emerged and "prepared Americans for the even more devastating total wars they would pursue in the twentieth century."
Stout's story of the transformation of the Civil War from limited to total war is also the story of how America became the nation called America. According to Stout (excuse me for quoting him at length):
"Neither Puritans' talk of a 'city upon a hill" or Thomas Jefferson's invocation of "inalienable rights' is adequate to create a religious loyalty sufficiently powerful to claim the lives of its adherence. In 1860 no coherent nation commanded the sacred allegiance of all Americans over and against their states and regions. For the citizenry to embrace the idea of a nation-state that must have a messianic destiny and command one's highest loyalty would require a massive sacrifice - a blood sacrifice... As the war descended into a killing horror, the grounds of justification underwent a transformation from a just defensive war fought out of sheer necessity to preserve home and nation to a moral crusade for 'freedom' that would involve nothing less than a national'rebirth', a spiritual'revival'. And in that blood and transformation a national religion was born. Only as casualties rose to unimaginable levels did it dawn on some people that something mystical religious was taking place, a sort of massive sacrifice on the national altar."
The generals on both sides of the Civil War had been trained at West Point, not only to embody American might and power, but they were also taught to be gentlemen. The title of "gentlemen" not only carried with it expectations that the bearers of the title would be honourable, but they would also pursue their profession justly. They "imbibed" the code of limited war which demanded that they protect innocent lives and minimize destructive aspects of war. According to Stout they were even taught by Dennis Mahan, a professor of civil engineering, to use position and manoeuvre of interior lines of operations against armies rather than engaging in crushing overland campaigns that would involve civilian populations.
Stout argues that Abraham Lincoln as early as 1862, prior to his generals, realized that the West Point Code of War would have to be abandoned. After Bull Run and frustrated by McClellan's timidity, Lincoln understood that if the Union was to be preserved it would require that the war be escalated to be a war against both citizens and soldiers. In response to Unionists in New Orleans who protested Lincoln's war policy, Lincoln replied:
"What would you do in my position? Would you drop the war where it is? Or would you prosecute it in future with elder-stalk squirts charged with rose water? Would you deal lighter blows than heavier ones? I am in no boastful mood. I |
bail last year after spending four months in custody.
Click for more from the BBC.Apr 29, 2017; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Sounders forward Will Bruin (17) runs the ball out of the goal after scoring against the New England Revolution during the second half at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Jennifer Buchanan-USA TODAY Sports
The Seattle Sounders made an attacking shift up front, resulting in six goals in the past two games. What did the shift do?
The defending MLS Cup Champions had a slower start to the season than most were expecting. In these first eight games of the season, Seattle has only picked up two wins, putting them in seventh place in the Western Conference. Other than the home win against the New York Red Bulls, the Seattle Sounders had a hard time creating offensively, scoring five goals in five matches (excluding the Red Bulls game).
After the loss to Vancouver, though, Seattle made a change tactically and since then the Rave Green have scored six goals in two games, igniting the offensive flare most Sounders fans expected to see at the beginning of the season.
Will Bruin Becomes Starter
Will Bruin joined the Sounders understanding that he would most likely become a substitute striker behind Jordan Morris, which is where he was used for the first six games of the season. Bruin was effective coming off the bench as well, scoring the late equalizer against the Montreal Impact and a consolidation goal against the Whitecaps.
Eventually, head coach Brian Schmetzer decided to give Will Bruin the chance to start. The former Houston Dynamo striker started up top, moving Jordan Morris out to the wing:
Should Will Bruin start on Sunday? What a fully healthy line-up could be for Sunday #LAvSEA pic.twitter.com/rJkC8Rg1gH — Matthew Nelson (@MattSoccerTalk) April 21, 2017
Bruin’s hold up play, which is significantly better than young and ever growing Jordan Morris, gave Seattle a different dynamic going forward. His play is reminiscent of Nelson Valdez’ role in last year’s MLS Cup run. Will Burin realizes his role and is very happy to be in it:
I think I can take some of the pressure off a lot of our creative guys and let them do their thing underneath me. My job is to occupy the center backs, keep the lines high and sneak in behind them if they’re playing too high
Will Bruin is also much more of a threat in the air as well. This adds a whole new dimension to Seattle’s attack. Though Morris has scored with his head, the threat that Bruin provides now forces the opposing defense to keep guessing and when Joevin Jones is serving in crosses the way he has been, it is good to have someone who can constantly be a threat at the end of those crosses.
Jordan Morris Moves to the Wing
As we said above, Bruin’s inclusion to the starting XI meant that Morris had to move out to the wing, a position he had played last season at the beginning of the year and once Nelson Valdez found his form going forward. Though Schmetzer and Morris have both stated that Morris’ best position is up top as a striker, his speed and quickness on the ball makes him quite a weapon on the wing for the Sounders to implement.
Morris started his time with the Sounders on the wing, with Valdez up top. Here, he wasn’t very effective at all and it wasn’t until he was moved to and out-and-out striker role did he start scoring goals with the Sounders. It was here where he build his confidence up and when Nelson Valdez hit his stride, Morris moved out to the wing again, but this time with much more success.
With Valdez’ move home the Paraguay, Morris moved back up top at the beginning of this season but was yet again not producing the way everyone expected him to. Now, with Bruin being put up top and Morris moving out wide once again, Morris is much effective going at the opposition. Seattle’s match against the LA Galaxy two weeks ago was the best we have seen him play all year and he was much more active against the New England Revolution last weekend.
Overall, Brian Schmetzer’s decision to move Morris to the wing and play Bruin up top seems to be working out very well so far. Expect to see this formation fairly often with the Sounders moving forward.Since writing about the Stede Bonnet breakfast, I’ve learned a bit more about the vessel itself.
Built by Symonette Shipyard in Nassau, Bahamas, the 105-ft M/V Stede Bonnet was one of two trawlers commissioned by the Royal Navy to serve as mine sweepers in Singapore.
Before the vessels were completed however, Singapore was captured by the Japanese and they were no longer needed.
One trawler became the M/V Church Bay.
The other was christened the M/V Stede Bonnet — presumably a nod to the 18th century Barbadian pirate with the same name — and assigned to service the mail run between Nassau and Abaco. Though known as “the mail boat,” the Stede Bonnet also ferried fuel, fresh produce and grocery items, dry goods, housewares, livestock and passengers.
On the day the mail boat was due, there would be excitement in the air. New Plymouth residents would finish their chores early, and gather to watch the vessel being unloaded and its cargo distributed.
In towns with shallower harbours, the Stede Bonnet anchored offshore. Tenders were sculled out to transport passengers and freight to shore.
The Stede Bonnet served as a vital link between Nassau and the Abaco mainland and cays for 27 years, before being replaced in 1970 by the M/V Deborah K.
In researching the Stede Bonnet, I uncovered two family connections to the vessel.
My cousin, Jack Albury, tells me that his father, Ancil (“Spotty”) Albury, brother of my grandfather, Lionel Albury, captained the Stede Bonnet in the early 1950s. Jack made many trips with his dad on the mail boat during school holidays.
Another cousin, Gail Lowe, tells me that her grandfather, Ludd Lowe (husband of Ma May’s sister, Sarah), was once the cook on the Stede Bonnet. And yes, Gail confirms, he did indeed cook Fire Engine many mornings to feed the crew and passengers.Stephen Bannon regularly took swings at the Republican establishment on his radio show. | Getty Trump brings GOP establishment-basher on board Bannon's radio show gave platform to politicians ready to make outrageous, even false, claims.
Just two days before Donald Trump tapped him as his new campaign manager, Breitbart News CEO Stephen Bannon was doing what he does best: punching the GOP establishment in the face.
Bannon, hosting his Breitbart News Daily radio show on Monday, welcomed Paul Nehlen — the primary foe who Paul Ryan easily dispatched last week — and treated him like a hero.
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“How did you make Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House, the golden child of the Republican establishment, how did you make him blink on [the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal]?” Bannon asked Nehlen, noting that the upstart candidate had earned just 17 percent of the vote against Ryan.
“We came with the truth … we had the message coming out, this gives away national sovereignty,” Nehlen replied.
During a four-minute exchange, Nehlen said “people like Paul Ryan don’t care” about globalization and also bashed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Koch brothers. He plugged a new PAC he’s running to support candidates who run on a Trump-like platform of limiting immigration, opposing multinational trade deals and “exposing career politicians on both sides of the aisle — from Paul Ryan, Hillary Clinton — who are wholly owned by corporate special interests.”
Bannon promised to plug Nehlen's PAC’s website on Breitbart.com and signed off by calling him “a real warrior.” “We love you, brother,” he said.
The conversation is just the latest example of the anti-establishment fervor that Bannon has fomented on his show and now brings to the Trump campaign. Bannon had great access to high-caliber guests for months — from Trump and his kids to Rafael Cruz to conservative members of Congress. He’s also given a platform to the seamier and more conspiratorial viewpoints of operatives, such as Trump confidant Roger Stone and former prosecutor Andy McCarthy, who insist Islamists have infiltrated the Obama administration and are eroding it from within.
“The president has been turning for advice, policy advice that has been implemented from the beginning of his administration to leaders of Islamist organizations with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood,” McCarthy said in a June 20 appearance on Bannon’s show.
McCarthy noted that President Barack Obama’s approval rating was hovering above 50 percent and suggested it was because compliant Republicans in Congress “believe that the country has changed.”
“Do you think it shows that our government is starting to become Sharia adherent, Sharia compliant?” Bannon wondered — and McCarthy affirmed.
Stone, a regular guest on the program, said in a July 5 interview that top Clinton aide Huma Abedin had been linked to “terrorism” and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a claim that has been repeated frequently in Breitbart’s coverage and by like-minded outlets.
In addition to questioning Democrats’ loyalty, Bannon has made a habit of calling out establishment Republicans — and not just Ryan. On July 28, he hosted Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, who bashed Arizona Sen. John McCain for supporting “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants. “What does he not get about this?” Bannon wondered.
But beyond the critiques of either party, Bannon’s show also reveals the potential blueprint of a Bannon-led Trump campaign. He has frequently hosted guests who highlighted shortcomings in Trump’s campaign strategy. One, Raheem Kassam, said Trump had spent too much time sparring with “low-level surrogates” for Clinton like Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who spoke against Trump at last month’s Democratic National Convention.
And on Tuesday, just hours before Trump announced Bannon’s hire, the Breitbart boss hosted political analyst Pat Caddell to break down why Trump has been lagging in the polls.
“The candidate kind of moved the campaign to other things that made his personality and himself the center of the issue,” Caddell lamented.
Bannon noted that Clinton had made millions of dollars since leaving the White House, and he noted wistfully, “I’ve not seen the Trump campaign mention [that] one time.”
“People that follow Donald Trump … they understand what it’s about. For the general population, they don’t understand it’s a change election,” he said.
Bannon also had another stark warning for Trump: The media has just started to come after him. “Trump hasn’t felt anything yet,” he said.
Trump himself has appeared on Bannon’s show a few times, including the first week of May, when Trump seemed to clinch the Republican nomination after Ted Cruz quit the race. Bannon used the appearance to skewer Ryan for declining to endorse Trump.
“Did he show a lack of respect for not just you but your followers?” Bannon asked.
Trump didn’t take the bait but did say he was caught by surprise. Bannon argued that Ryan was trying to manipulate him to abandon his plan to build a wall on the border with Mexico and “to drop your philosophy of slowing down Muslim immigration temporarily.”
Trump replied that the primary results showed that the party has changed, and he said Bannon “got it earlier than just about anybody else.”
Though Trump has benefited from Bannon’s advocacy in recent months, he’s expressed his own wonderment at his soon-to-be adviser.
In that May 6 appearance, Trump rattled off his sudden windfall of endorsements — Ryan’s non-endorsement notwithstanding. “You might be one of them,” he said. “You’re impossible to totally figure, Steve. I must also say that to your listeners. Anyone who thinks [they know] where you totally come from, they’re making a big mistake.”ST George Illawarra have secured a major signing coup with Bulldogs centre Tim Lafai set to join the club on a two-year deal.
The Samoan international informed Dragons officials on Friday afternoon he will join the club in 2016 after being released from his contract with Canterbury.
The 24-year-old became a free agent after receiving a release from the Bulldogs following their decision to recruit NSW Origin winger Will Hopoate.
The news comes as another blow for the Gold Coast, who were one of the clubs firmly in the hunt for Lafai, looking to make a key signing following the departure of James Roberts.
IThe Dragons officially announced the deal early Friday evening.
“He brings experience and strike to our backline and will fit well into our structures and club,” Dragons football manager Ben Haran said.
The deal comes following the news James Roberts’ manager was set to meet with the Red V on Thursday night.
It remains unclear whether Lafai’s deal will impact on the club’s pursuit of Roberts.
With Lafai’s future now sorted and Penrith snaring the signature of Peta Hiku, Roberts is the next piece of the off-contract puzzle who will need to fall into place.
Manly are expected to announce the signing of South Sydney young gun Dylan Walker in coming days, while Chris McQueen is Titans bound.
Brisbane are favorites to sign Roberts although Parramatta are also in the hunt as they search for a player to fill the void left by Hooate’s departure.69 SHARES SHARES ShareTweet
Blair Hull has been labeled by Forbes as, “One of the most successful traders of the last 40 years,” and he was also profiled in Jack Schwager’s, The New Market Wizards.
Prior to trading, Blair was a serious Blackjack player for 5-years during the 70’s. From there he took his winnings to the the Pacific Exchange to trade mispriced options, and in 1985, he founded one of the world’s premier market-making firms, Hull Trading.
At its peak, Hull Trading was active on 28 exchanges in nine countries. Then in 1999, the firm was acquired by Goldman Sachs for $531 million dollars.
Today, Blair is the founder of Hull Investments—the parent company of an actively managed ETF, Hull Trading Asset Allocation, and proprietary firm, Ketchum Trading.
Listening to this interview, you’re going to hear more about Blair’s career and his observations as a trader, why he believes great things happen in teams, and why everything revolves around having an edge.TORONTO — Long battered by complaints that it lacks the latest and greatest apps to attract consumers and keep them entertained, BlackBerry hopes the customers it’s now focusing on just don’t care about the dreaded “app gap.”
[np_storybar title=”Lenovo reportedly mulling takeover bid for BlackBerry: Wall Street Journal” link=”https://business.financialpost.com/2013/10/17/lenovo-reportedly-mulling-takeover-bid-for-blackberry-wall-street-journal/”%5D
A familiar suitor has re-emerged as a potential bidder for embattled Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd.
Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo Group Ltd., which has expressed interest in BlackBerry in the past,has reportedly signed a non-disclosure agreement to get an inside look at BlackBerry’s books, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
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When BlackBerry provided a dire update on its business last month, the floundering company signalled it was turning away from mainstream consumers to refocus its efforts on two markets: enterprise customers and so-called “prosumers.”
The company didn’t elaborate then on what exactly it considers a prosumer to be but during a recent demo of its new Z30 smartphone, which was released in Canada this week, two spokesmen defined the customer type and why they might choose a BlackBerry.
“Their sole purpose is that this is primarily a communications device and a productivity machine,” said Michael Clewley, director of handheld software product management, while holding up his BlackBerry.
“While applications are good to have in some respects they’re not primary or sometimes even secondary for that type of user. And if they do use applications they’re using very targeted specific applications, they’re not spending a lot of time in the storefront browsing for the latest or greatest or trying to find out what’s hot and stuff like that. They’re going to look for apps that help get the job done for them.”
Todd Wood, senior vice president of design, said some think the “pro” in prosumer stands for professional, but it can also be short for producer.
“They create more content than they consume, in most cases, and arguably that was the original definition of prosumer,” said Wood.
“There’s a set of BlackBerry users that really think of themselves as enterprises in and of themselves so they want to choose a more professional or semi-professional device.”
Clewley did emphasize that the company hasn’t given up on trying to land some of the biggest apps, including Netflix and Instagram. He said the new build of BlackBerry’s operating system, 10.2, incorporates the latest version of Google’s Android platform, which should lead to more Android apps getting repurposed for BlackBerry users.
“What we find is developers who bring their apps to BlackBerry 10 actually see a good uptake of those applications but you’ve got to sort of win them over,” Clewley said.
“So I think we’re doing things to help users get the more fun applications or the media-type applications and we’re continuing to drive and go after important productivity focused applications.”SINGAPORE: Goodwood Park Hotel's bakery, known for its popular durian puffs, has had its licence suspended following a spate of food poisoning cases between Mar 15 and Apr 16, the National Environment Agency (NEA), Ministry of Health (MOH), and Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) announced in a joint press release.
NEA, MOH and AVA said as of Apr 21, a total of 76 food poisoning cases were reported. NEA has ordered Goodwood Park Hotel to cease the production, sale and distribution of all pastries that are prepared by their bakery and to dispose of all pastries prepared there, with effect from Apr 22 until further notice.
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NEA has also told the hotel to clean and sanitise the bakery, including equipment, utensils, work surfaces and toilets, and review and rectify the lapses in food preparation processes identified during the joint inspections.
No durian puffs: Empty shelves at the Goodwood Park Hotel Bakery amid food poisoning probe https://t.co/LupZ61CwjU pic.twitter.com/A4QMwKl0Tb — Channel NewsAsia (@ChannelNewsAsia) April 22, 2016
When the first incident was reported on Mar 15, MOH said it immediately initiated epidemiological investigations and NEA inspected the bakery’s premises the next day. The Health Ministry stepped up investigations and inspected the bakery’s premises of Goodwood Park Hotel on Apr 4 after the second incident was reported.
Subsequently on Apr 13, the three agencies conducted joint investigations at Goodwood Park Hotel when more incidents linked to their durian pastries were reported. MOH’s investigations found that the consumption of Goodwood Park Hotel durian pastries was the only common epidemiological link.
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The agencies said some lapses in food handling were found at Goodwood Park Hotel’s durian pastry kitchen of the bakery but the premises were found to be clean with proper housekeeping and refuse management. No signs of pest activity and hygiene lapses were detected.
AVA said it has conducted upstream checks at the suppliers of food ingredients supplied to Goodwood Park Hotel, including durian pulp.
So far, no food safety lapses have been found at the suppliers’ establishments. There were also no other complaints of food poisoning from other establishments that used the durian pulp from the same supplier.
MOH has collected stool samples from the affected cases and food handlers, which have been sent for screening. Only those who are certified medically fit will be allowed to resume work after medical clearance by MOH, when the suspension is lifted. All food handlers working in the bakery are also required to re-attend and pass the Basic Food Hygiene Course, before they can resume work as food handlers. MOH and NEA are monitoring the situation closely, they said.
Based on joint investigation findings, NEA will take the necessary enforcement actions against the licensee if hygiene infringements are found, it said. Licensed food operators have the responsibility to put in place systems and processes to ensure high hygiene standards are observed by their food handlers at all times.
WE TAKE FOOD SAFETY STANDARDS "VERY SERIOUSLY": GOODWOOD PARK
In a statement on Facebook, Goodwood Park assured the public and its guests that it treats all matters related to food safety standards "very seriously". "We are addressing the food handling lapses in the durian pastry kitchen highlighted by NEA and aim to rectify them soonest possible," the hotel management said.
Goodwood Park said the hotel is cooperating closely with the Ministry of Health and NEA on necessary follow-up actions.
"Goodwood Park Hotel has had a good reputation for the past 33 years selling durian pastries, and we understand this suspension may cause some distress to our guests. We hope that they will give us a chance to restore their confidence in our usual high standards of quality of our pastries."
Statement from Goodwood Park Hotel
Responding to queries from Channel NewsAsia, a spokesperson for the hotel said the entire pastry production team will be sent for a stool test on Saturday. The team will also be re-attending a basic food hygiene course on Monday.
All pastries and ingredients used will be discarded, Goodwood Park stated.
"The hotel conducted a thorough cleaning and sanitising of the entire pastry kitchen, utensils and equipment today, and has also identified a contractor specialising in sanitising and conducting of a bio-decontamination for the pastry kitchen," said a spokesperson. "The other kitchens were not affected."
Goodwood Park said it is in the midst of reaching out to guests hit by food poisoning. It opened a pop-up stall at the Lot One mall at Chua Chu Kang on Monday, but closed it on Friday. "Guests who purchased our durian pastries at Lot One from Apr 18 to 21 are advised to throw them away and contact the hotel for their refunds," a spokesperson said.Screenshot by Eric Franklin/CNET
If you've been screaming from the rooftops for Microsoft to return the Start button to Windows, you're going to be happy. On Wednesday, Microsoft unveiled Windows 8.1 at its Microsoft Build conference. The update brings a long list of new features, but most notably, the Start button returns!
Along with the announcement of Windows 8.1 and its new features, Microsoft also announced the release of a preview version for Windows 8.1. Anyone can download and install the preview, but keep in mind it's not final software and is likely to be full of bugs and issues.
To get the Windows 8.1 preview you simply need to visit this link and click on "Get it now." Currently, however, the ISO files aren't available for download, with a note on the site stating that the proper files will be available "within the next day." You can also install the preview through the Windows Store if you don't want to wait for the ISO to become available.
Microsoft has posted a Preview FAQ page to help answer any questions concerning installing the preview via the various methods, or the stability of the beta version. You'll also want to be sure to check the FAQ to ensure your system is compatible with the update, but as a general rule of thumb, if you're already running Windows 8, you'll be able to run 8.1. Make sure to create a complete backup before updating, and treat installing the update as a permanent change on your machine, as going back to Windows 8 requires a complete restore of your system (thus the need for the backup).
Now playing: Watch this: Microsoft builds new features into Windows 8.1Designed by Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz, the Keep x Ad-Rock Ramos is a new take on our classic midtop. Inspired to make a sneaker that kept his feet toasty, the Keep x Ad-Rock Ramos features a water-resistant, nylon cordura body and is lined with synthetic shearling. The ankle features a channel quilted, silicon coated nylon accent, stuffed with synthetic down. The D-ring and bungee lace structure makes for easy slipping on and off, and both black and magenta laces are included. To finish, each pair features embroidery of Adam's name, split between left and the right shoes. Net proceeds of the shoe will benefit Planned Parenthood. As always, all of our shoes are cruelty-free and consciously produced in factories audited by international, third parties who monitor ethical working conditions.
“I collaborated with Keep because I support small business. I support women run business. I support Asian-American run business. Net proceeds of this shoe will be donated to Planned Parenthood because I support a woman’s right to choose and feel that women should not be punished for making decisions about their own lives and bodies. If you have similar beliefs, you might wanna grab a pair. Or, if you simply support fresh styles, then you too can be part of what peeps in Keeps are doing.” -- Adam HorovitzCLOSE Steven Mnuchin's net worth could be as high as $400 million. Time
Steven Mnuchin arrives at Trump Tower in New York on Nov. 15, 2016. (Photo11: Drew Angerer, Getty Images)
Facing opposition from Democrats and consumer activists, Treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin Thursday answered Senate confirmation hearing questions and fended off criticism about his banking career, including thousands of home foreclosures, as he outlined his views on taxes and economic policy.
Emerging poised to win Senate approval, President-elect Trump's pick for the nation's top economic post spent the roughly five-hour Senate Committee on Finance session navigating a difficult straddle.
He portrayed himself as a business champion who will help achieve pro-growth policies Trump has promised will help average Americans, even as he tried to explain how he and wealthy clients legally profited from offshore dealings and other investments unavailable to most people.
"We will work diligently to limit regulations, lower taxes on hardworking Americans and small businesses, and to get the engine of economic growth firing on all cylinders once again," Mnuchin, 54, said in an opening statement as his children, actress fiancée, father, and other family and friends sat behind him.
At the same time, he took on largely Democratic critics, saying that "it has been said that I ran a ‘foreclosure machine.’” He declared, “this is not true."
If confirmed, the multi-millionaire, former Goldman Sachs banker, hedge fund operator, movie industry investor and Trump 2016 national campaign finance chief would lead the department that supervises banks, issues debt securities, and enforces finance and tax laws.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the committee's chairman, said he expects Mnuchin will be confirmed.
“He has three decades of experience working in the financial sector in a wide variety of capacities," said Hatch.
But the panel's ranking minority member, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, voiced skepticism. "When you read about the nominee for Treasury Secretary, given all the power that position holds, you hope not to see phrases like 'foreclosure machine,''redlining,' 'offshore funds' and 'predatory lending,'" he said.
Wyden focused on taxation inequality and offshore tax avoidance, issues targeted in recent years by the IRS. He noted pointedly that Mnuchin's financial disclosure records show he has seven personal trusts, including one based in Anguilla and another known as a "dynasty trust," that could shield tens of millions of dollars from taxes.
Mnuchin said he established entities in Anguilla and the Cayman Islands to accommodate non-profits and pension funds that wanted to invest in his hedge fund. "I paid U.S. taxes on all that income" under rules for partnerships, he said..
Mnuchin added that he would "support changing tax laws to make sure they're simpler and more effective."
Separately, he acknowledged that he initially failed to include major personal financial assets — including homes and real estate valued at roughly $95 million — in his federal financial disclosure statement. The assets include a New York City co-op in one of Manhattan's most exclusive buildings, an oceanside vacation home in Southampton and real estate in Mexico — holdings collectively valued at roughly $95 million.
He said his attorney advised that the homes and real estate assets did not have to be disclosed.
Regarding U.S. economic growth, he repeated his earlier predictions "that we should be able to get to 3% to 4% sustained GDP" growth and called the issue his top priority.
Additionally, Mnuchin said he would:
Deal impartially with Trump's vast business holdings to ensure there are no conflicts of interest.
Enforce the toughened economic sanctions the expiring Obama administration recently imposed on Russia.
Examine whether IRS staffing cuts should be restored, look at the agency's "lack of first-rate technology" and support its use of private debt collection.
Keep the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a target of many Republicans, but make its funding dependent on congressional approval.
Support the Volcker Rule, a post-financial-crisis regulation which largely bars banks from proprietary trading. But he also said the rule "has eliminated liquidity in many banks."
Oppose big bank bailouts.
Support a "21st Century" reintroduction of the Glass-Steagall Act, which prohibited commercial banks from engaging in investment banking.
Try to avoid White House battles with Congress over the U.S. debt ceiling.
The nomination of Mnuchin, dubbed the “foreclosure king” by California anti-poverty and housing equality advocates, has roused opponents leery of handing broad federal power to an executive who made money from the 2008 financial crisis, the kind of cataclysm that Treasury tries to prevent.
After working for 17 years at Goldman Sachs, Mnuchin moved on to start a hedge fund and other investment vehicles, as well as finance films in Hollywood.
The career episode that drew the most focused Senate questioning opened in 2009, when Mnuchin led a group of wealthy investors that bought discounted assets of the failed California lender IndyMac Bank in a loss-sharing deal with Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Mnuchin rebranded IndyMac as OneWest, ran it for six years, then sold it, making millions in profits for himself and other investors.
The bank foreclosed on more than 36,000 California families and 24,000 additional households around the country, according to a study of banking data by the Urban Strategies Council, an Oakland-based anti-poverty organization, and the California Reinvestment Coalition, an advocate for low-income areas and communities of color.
On Wednesday, four homeowners who lost or faced losing their homes to OneWest foreclosures appeared at a Capitol Hill forum where they urged Senate lawmakers to reject Mnuchin's nomination on grounds that the bank used improperly aggressive foreclosure tactics..
Citing that criticism during his Thursday confirmation hearing, Mnuchin said he was "maligned as taking advantage of others' hardships in order to earn a buck."
"Nothing could be further than the truth," he responded
Instead, Mnuchin said he and the investor group inherited risky "legacy loans" underwritten by IndyMac.
"The responsibility landed on me to clean up the mess that we inherited," he said. Ultimately, OneWest extended over 100,000 loan modifications to delinquent borrowers, federal records show, but didn't necessarily finalize them.
Neither that tally, nor Mnuchin's answers, satisfied committee Democrats.
"With the combination of extreme foreclosure tactics and a bailout from the FDIC, OneWest became a rainmaker for Mr. Mnuchin and his fellow investors," said Wyden. "At precisely the same time the foreclosure machine was running, OneWest funds were poured into glamorous investments in Hollywood."
OneWest was eventually sold to CIT Group in 2015, and Mnuchin is no longer involved with either company.
Steven Mnuchin, nominee for Secretary of the Treasury, before the start of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Jan. 19, 2017. (Photo11: Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY)
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2jCkNeqProminent pro-GM activist, Mark Lynas has, as expected, attacked the study by Dr Judy Carman and her colleagues for their recent work titled, “A long-term toxicology study on pigs fed a combined genetically modified (GM) soy and GM maize diet.”
Criticism Source: marklynas.org Author: GMO Judy Carman Website Editors
ML: The authors are GM activists/campaigners and their results shouldn”t be trusted.
Answer Summary: The authors are not GM activists; they are highly credentialed experts.
Detailed Answer: Two authors are Associate Professors in Health and the Environment, School of the Environment, Flinders University in South Australia. Another is a Senior Lecturer at Adelaide University in South Australia. Two are veterinarians, one is a medical doctor, and two are farm experts. The authors have over 60 years of combined experience and expertise in medicine, animal husbandry, animal nutrition, animal health, veterinary science, biochemistry, toxicology, medical research, histology, risk assessment, epidemiology and statistics.
ML: The paper’s acknowledgements are a veritable who’s who of anti-biotech activism, includin Jeffrey Smith, John Fagan and Arpad Pusztai.
Answer Summary: Two of these individuals are scientists with serious qualifications (qualifications Mr. Lynas does not possess). Mr. Smith’s acknowledgement derives from his role in fostering the international collaborations that were necessary part of the study’s completion.
Detailed Answer: There were 38 people in the acknowledgement section, including an ex government Minister, an ex Chief of Staff to the Govt Minister and an ex member of the Board of Australia”s food regulator, as well as numerous scientists with more qualifications than Mr. Lynas has (as author, advisor, and speaker) and numerous farmers who were involved in the research.
Mr. Lynas has picked out three people in that list of 38 and alleged that they are anti-GM activists. This is not the case. In fact two of them are scientists with serious qualifications, qualifications that he doesn”t have.
The only anti-GM activist, Jeffrey Smith, is acknowledged simply because he suggested that Howard, who was seeing these effects in pigs and wanted to determine if they were scientifically real, should contact Judy who had the scientific expertise to conduct the sudy. That simple and singular action resulted in discussions between Howard and Judy which resulted in this research. This starting point was rightfully acknowledged, but importantly, the research was conducted entirely independently of all three people Mr. Lynas mentions.
ML: Funding for the research was derived from anti-GM advocates and therefore biases the results.
Answer Summary: Funding for the study was actually derived from a current supporter of GM technologies.
Detailed answer: It is clearly stated in the paper that the major funder of IHER”s involvement in the study is the Government of Western Australia, and the current governmentt is a supporter of GM crops.
With regard to IHER’s previous work in opposing Bt brinjal in India and CSIRO’s GM wheat in Australia, IHER conducted a thorough review of the evidence presented and concluded that there were serious safety concerns about GM brinjal and CSIRO’s GM wheat. The organization opposed the release of these based on a review of the evidence, not on ideology.
ML: All the animals were in very poor health. Weaner mortality rates indicate inadequate husbandry standards, and higher rates of abnormalities of the heart and liver in non-GM fed pigs were conveniently ignored.
Answer Summary: Mr. Lynas does not appreciate the role of statistics in ascertaining scientific certainty.
Detailed answer: Mr. Lynas is incorrect. These are not the mortality rates for weaners. The rates presented are for the entire lifespan of the animal. Furthermore, animal husbandry was the same for both the GM and non-GM fed groups. This effect has been randomised-out as an effect on the results. Therefore, animal husbandry is not a factor in the difference between GM and non-GM-fed pigs.
There are hundreds of numbers in the paper. Mr. Lynas has “cherry-picked” a few of these numbers that were not statistically significant and tried to allege that they are. Carman et al only discuss statistically significant findings because this is the scientifically credible approach. GM-fed animals had smaller livers, more pneumonia and more abnormal lymph nodes, but the researchers did not make any statements about these findings because they were not statistically significantly different when compared to non-GM fed animals.
ML: The authors used “statistical fishing” in their interpretation of the results, clearly attempting to skew or exaggerate their findings. What visual evidence is presented is done so to justify this statistical fishing experiment.
Summary: The authors executed careful and comprehensive statistical analysis to answer two hypotheses that had been generated by previous observations by the researchers in the U.S. piggeries.
Detailed answer: The authors performed statistical tests on all of the parameters that Mr. Lynas mentions, and none of them were found to be statistically significantly different. These analyses are clearly presented in the paper. Mr. Lynas either did not read the paper well enough or saw the analysis but did not understand them.
The counter argument from supporters of Mr. Lynas suggests that the study was not designed to test and statistically evaluate a sole hypothesis. If the authors had measured just the variables associated with the hypotheses being specifically tested (stomach inflammation and reproductive problems) and nothing else, few statistical tests would have been done and little to no statistical adjustment would have been suggested. The significant results that the authors found around the hypotheses that were tested should not be made invalid simply because the authors took some other measurements.
Furthermore, the level of inflammation in the non-GM fed group was concentrated in the mild to moderate range of inflammation. Feeding GM crops boosted that to severe inflammation, and this was a significant finding. Importantly, inflammation is a graded variable; the more inflammation, the more biologically impactful it can be to the animal. So, you cannot equalize the biological consequence of nil or mild inflammation to severe inflammation. Doing so goes against scientific knowledge on the effects of inflammation.
ML: This study subjects animals to inhumanely poor conditions.
Summary: The pigs in both groups were treated equally, humanely and within commercial piggery standards. Any assumption otherwise would be contesting the standards of the U.S. government and should be directed as a complaint to U.S. legislators.
Detailed answer: Pigs in commercial piggeries are not like laboratory animals that are raised and housed in specific-pathogen-free environments, sometimes only one animal to a cage. On the contrary, pigs in commercial piggeries are part of an industrialised food chain. Pigs are born in commercial farrowing facilities housing many sows at a time. Once weaned, pigs are housed communally in large pens. The result is a real-world experiment that is closer to the interactive, infectious-disease-transmitting and messy school yard than than the |
a point where he could have done almost anything and still won. Anticipating that Ken had taken a third, Life sent a force of ling/infestor into Keen's empty third base - and upon seeing this swooped around into Keen's natural. The awkward position worked into Life's favor, and traded rather well after he caught Keen's marines off guard and clumped.With no third base, and Life's economy spiraling out of control, Keen had to make a big play to stand any chance of coming back. At first he tried to push across the map with his formidable army, but infestors were able to slowly chip away at the Terran army with successive fungals. As more marines covered in green goo popped open, Keen realized that a push across the ground would never work. Somewhat defeated, Keen retreats back and decided to take his third. In his predicament the decision to take a third was arguably a misstep. At this point in the game he is so far behind that he really needed to commit to something, if he were looking to try and play a longer game he should have double expanded and not tried to slow push across the map. Seeing as he did push across the map, he should have committed to aggression via drops to distract Life while pushing across the map.With his third building, Keen went for a doom drop which luckily went through a blind corridor and landed safely in the main. The big doom drop was a nice decision, although doing so after taking his third is a bit peculiar. But while Keen's medivacs were en route to Life's main, Life had prepared a massive attack to crash through Keen's natural. With the vast majority of Keen's forces in a medivac, whatever units that were left in his natural offered no resistance against the might of the swarm. while clearing up the drop after sacrificing his main.Keen had no choice but to try and make his doom drop work. Since Life had few units at his base, Keen was able to clear out most of Life's main. However reinforcing infestors made short work of Keen's army as it clumped up to attack Life's natural. With no army, and no base, the game was lost.This game was decided at the 10 minute mark when Keen was unable to do sufficient damage with his elevator strategy to remain in the game. Life got a little bit lucky at the beginning and was able to survive Keen's 11/11 without any serious impairment, and defended Keen's subsequent attacks superbly. Once he obtained an advantage, he never let it slip away by playing a perfect mix of greed to build his advantage and aggression to keep Keen honest.Unlike the previous game, game 2 started out with Keen @7 electing to go with the safest TvZ opening: rax CC into reactor hellion. Life on the other hand had a very clear game plan in mind - he was going to go for his two hatch muta build. As this is a build which relies on the element of surprise, Life showed no gases to Keen's SCV scout but once the SCV had run home he immediately added two gases and got a lair with his first 100 gas.Keen added his starport and tech lab and begun to build banshees. The hellion/banshee build that Keen used in this game is the safest against normal allins, getting two gases before supply depot after command center, which leads to fast units but a late third command center. Meanwhile, his hellions showed up to Life's natural and saw no third, no spines, no evolution chambers, and a group of slow zerglings that got speed midway through the battle. The timing could not have been more fortuitous for Life, as Keen judged he could pick off the slow lings, only to have them gain speed mid-battle and slaughter the hellions.Unfortunately, Keen was not prescient enough to realize the muta/ling allin was Life's choice until his banshee showed up to the Zerg main. Although in his defense, with the gas timings he scouted if Life had only grabbed one gas and got speed then speed would have finished at the same time as it did in this game. With that said, the lack of units and third definitely warranted a scan to see what was up.Consequently, Keen was completely unprepared for Life's mutalisks. To add insult to injury, the losses of his hellions meant that Life was able to launch a successful speedling attack on Keen's natural. While only killing a few SCVs, the important thing is that it distracted Keen from getting his engineering bay down quicker and killed off all of Keens marines, further reducing his marine count for when the Mutalisks would hit.From here the rest of the game was straight forward for Life. He rallied his mutalisks straight to Keens natural and begun destroying everything - following the SCV train as it retreated back into the main. Life rallied more lings and more mutalisks into Keens base and it wasn't long before Keen tapped out.Keen had every opportunity to react properly to Life's build. If he had done his research on Life he would have known that the mutalisk build was a possibility. Moreover, if he had read the speedling timing, missing third and lack of units correctly he should have been able to deduce that Life was going to quick mutalisks. In any case, he didn't and that sealed his fate. Life once again masterfully concealed his intention of using this build, and once again it pays dividends.Once again Keen @ 9 chose to open with an aggressive build, this time an archaic reactor hellion into command center opening with a followup drop, counting on Life not drone scouting. Luckily for him, Life @ 3 did not actually drone scout, however, he did elect to acquire very early ling speed. Keen's hellion runby failed miserably as Life's speedlings successfully blocked their advance into the main and allowed his queens to slowly kill off the hellions. Life's defense is a reminder of why this build is now considered outdated!Keen managed three drone kills, far too few to justify the investment of four hellions. Rather than be deterred, Keen tried recover the deficit through dropping four more hellions into Life's main. The followup drop in the main actually killed some drones, 8 in total, but overall Keen's build had not done the 15+ drone damage it needed to pay for itself. As a result, the drop actually put Keen further behind than before. With all 8 hellions lost for nothing, Keen retained no initiative, which let Life drone freely and focus on his phenomenal creep spread.While the worker difference was momentarily similar, Life shot ahead once the game settled down and Keen transitioned into a 3 cc, 2 ebay, marine/tank/medivac army. But after investing so much into hellions and drops all his infrastructure was significantly slowed. Even in normal games on Metropolis the Zerg can safely drone to saturate 4 bases, and with Life's healthy lead this game, he had an easy time rushing hive and getting his econ perfect. Life had an iron grip on controlling the map with creep everywhere and a highly mobile infestor/zergling army able to shut down any initiative Keen might try.At 12 minutes Keen tried to take his third base, but Life's control over the map made this difficult. Immediately the attempt was spotted by a scouting zergling and it wasn't long until Life has ordered his ling/infestor army to lay siege to the base. But a good wall and tank positioning meant that Keen was successfully able to deflect Life's attack. Rather than using his monster economy to try and deny the third base, Life decided to be patient and wait for his tech and economic lead to pay off while denying any attempt at moving out from Keen using infestors.Keen could not move out onto the map until he was nearly maxed, and even then it was slow going as he methodically began taking out creep. Life's laxadaisical overlord spread gave Keen some options with small drops, but they were easily dealt with as he had no push threat due to creep. Before Keen could reach the watch tower, Life engaged with ultra/infestor and swatted the Terran army back home.Keen retreated momentarily and began plotting his next move. He realized that Life was weak to drops in this game, so sent out a 5 medivac drop straight for Lifes main. When the drop arrived Life was halfway across the map about to lay siege to Keen's main. However, he decided to turn around and defend the drop. Life couldn't get back in time and Keen razed most of Lifes main. This netted him an important victory as not only did he slow the Zerg juggernaut, he also bought time for his fourth base to get up. While he was still at a disadvantage, Keen was slowly but surely bringing himself back into the game.Wanting a simple end to the game rather than a drawn out war (that he was beginning to lose), Life chose to bludgeon his opponent to death by attacking moving ultralisks into his fortified choke. Fortunately, Keen complied with Life's wishes and sent out another 5 medivac doom drop which razed the Zerg main once again. However, this small success came at the cost of losing his entire army at home, as Keen's force was divided in two while Life's was concentrated at the front. Keen's force splitting might have worked against a broodlord army, but versus the ultralisks he knew Life had, a Terran must keep the vast majority of their army in one deathball instead of splitting it in half. Thanks to the starting disparity in strength, Keen's drop was handily cleaned up while Life went on to eradicate all Terran resistance.As with game 1, this game was decided through Keen's decision to be overly aggressive in the early game. Keen's investment into hellions/drop simply didn't pay off. As a result, Life was able to play however he wanted and as a result the whole map was covered in creep and locked down with infestors. While Keen started to make good headway with big drops, it was too little too late as Life already had the necessary forces to force a victory.To nobody's surprise, Keen @ 5 again elected to take the initiative with an aggressive build, this time choosing the much smarter option of proxy 11/11. Life @11 did not scout for it like last time, and this time paid dearly as Keen displayed much better micro than in game 1.Life is able to muster up enough zerglings to beat back Keen's marines, but simply deflecting the attack isn't good enough for Life. He is still at a disadvantage as he only has three drones to Keen's twelve SCVs. This forces Life to try and even things up with a big zergling counter. He is able to break through Keen's wall but a well placed bunker prevented Life from doing game ending damage.Life had to be content with a few SCV kills, which more or less evened up the worker count on both sides. Suddenly we found ourselves in a very similar situation to game 1, where both sides had stabilized but with significantly reduced worker counts. Life predicted that Keen would play the same as he did in game 1 and begin to tech up; however Keen went all BitByBit on Life. Keens decision to be aggressive after the Zergling counter, and his commitment to the aggression via the SCV train meant that there was no way Life could stop Keen.After both players exchanged blows with early aggression, it was Life's misread which caused him the game. Keen's follow up attack could have been defended if Life had kept a zergling below Keen's ramp. Nevertheless, Keen's decision to commit was a game winning move and at match point, a decision like that takes some serious balls.On Entombed Valley, Life@7 again went with his characteristic fast ling speed into third that he did on Metropolis, while Keen @ 5 opened the two factory reactor blue flame hellion aggression - the same variation that he used twice against Jonnyrecco in the Ro8. As Life had just begun to saturate his third base a stream of hellions came pouring across the map and begun to harass the base. This forced Life to get a roach warren and begin roach production - but that was still some time away.Life did what he could to keep the hellions at bay. Firstly he used his queens to the best he could to stall them for as long as possible. Next he kept the third populated with a handful of drones as to bait the hellions into staying in the third. To further encourage the hellions to stay in the third Life set up a fearsome looking speedling-spinecrawler wall at the top of his ramp. Life's ploy worked, and Keen kept his hellions poking into the third long enough for Life's roaches to begin popping from their eggs.Life and Keen continued to dance the hellion/roach dance for the next few minutes. While dancing, Life decided not to saturate his third base and instead decided to mass up a large attack and simply kill Keen right now. However, Keen interpreted Life's roaches simply as a reactionary measure to his hellions rather than the precursor to a killing blow. As Life's roach army begun to grow very large, Keen retreated with his hellions and finally realized the threat. Hurridly, Keen started siege mode and a tank, but it was too little too late. Keen was too ill-equipped to deal with 17 roaches complimented with banelings and was blown out of the water. The bunker and wall were broken, and his very late tanks were picked off. After losing many SCVs, Keen conceded.Life made a questionable attack which only worked because Keen overlooked the threat and didn't start siege mode. Had Keen gotten it in time, Life's attack would have flopped and Keen could have entered the midgame with a decent lead. But like the rest of the series, Keen's misread cost him the game and Life's risky strategy paid off.Both Life and Keen played highly aggressively and wanted to control the game from outset. Keen has shown fine TvZ before this, but he bizarrely insisted on playing an old style that is no longer valid, and was clearly not ready for Life's less-seen builds in games 2 and 5. But not only was Keen playing an old style he was also reading Life wrong in every match except the Ohana game.Keen had no business playing the followup he did in game 1 or the opening in game 3, and lacked the sophistication of a player such as MVP or Taeja in holding off Life's attack in games 5 or the game sense to see his plan in game 2. In game 3 he still had a small chance if he had adopted MVP's Metropolis game plan of turtling with mass cc, planetaries, and transitioning into raven/battlecruiser while keeping the Zerg at bay with drops, but instead he kept trying doom drops and questionable attacks before his defense could really be solidified. His game 5 build was one-dimensional and has been easily thwarted every time he has used it.Keen was potentially rattled from his series against Jonnyrecco, particularly his Daybreak loss, and only chose a normal opening once in game 2. Life did nothing special but played a solid game with few holes, and that was more than enough against Keen's meager resistance. His creep spread in game 3 was superb, and his defense in each game was commendable. Life brings his unique brand of Zerg into the TSL finals where he will no doubt make for interesting games.On Metropolis, Creator spawns at 3 o'clock while Sting appears at the 9 o'clock position. Creator opens with a standard 1 gate fast expansion while Sting opts for a proxy factory and then a non-proxied starport inside his base.Sting first runs his 3 hellions into Creator's natural and nets a cool 7 probes, a rather even trade, but definitely less than Sting wanted, especially considering how few units Creator had to defend with.Sting's medivac filled with 8 marines is late to the party, only arriving when all the hellions are dead. This leads me to believe Sting made a mistake somewhere along the way, as Sting first swings his medivac around a watch-tower, but then decides to pass through the tower anyways. If he had gone the fastest straight-forward path, he could have caught up with the hellions in time, and if he had completely gone around, his drop would have been more potentially hidden.Sting follows his aggression up with even more trickery, hiding a command center at the 12 o'clock main as early as the 6:15 mark. Later on, he builds a third CC inside his own base to draw away suspicion from this hidden CC.After Sting’s aggression is held off, Creator transitions into a Creator-esque style, opting to build double forges immediately. Sting goes into a standard bio transition including double tech lab and only a single reactor add-ons in order to catch up on the tech lab upgrades.Donald Trump isn't exactly a master of tact, but he has his supporters.
Red, White, and You PAC, a Nashville-based group, has released a country song called "Vote for Trump," seemingly adding to the cacophony of Trump lovers calling for his election.
"Our hope in branding ourselves as a political action committee is to make our song appear to be a legitimate anthem in support of Trump," Tom Maxwell, the song's co-creator, said in an email.
"Red, White, and You PAC and our song Vote For Trump are satirical and were created with the purpose of drawing attention to the absurdity of Donald Trump's candidacy," Maxwell continued. "We haven't raised any money and absolutely do not support Donald Trump for President of the United States."
Listen for yourself:You’re not tired of our never-ending Community obsession, are you? No? Good — because our infatuation with Dan Harmon has reached a new high. Last night, we found ourselves glued to our laptops for the CommuniCon livestream, which featured a writers panel, an actors (with non-major roles) panel, a surprise Gillian Jacobs and Yvette Nicole Brown, and a “Dan Harmon with a Microphone” segment. The latter was particularly fascinating because — as we’re sure you all know — our beloved Harmon was replaced as showrunner last spring and had no say in the show’s fourth season, which premiered last Thursday. Although the entire Q&A was inspiring and hilarious, we’ve thrown together a selection of noteworthy quotes after the jump.
[Image via]
On his CommuniCon talk:
“Please be warned: I did not write this down. I did not rehearse this. I thought about this while I was taking a bubble bath today.”
On the season 4 premiere:
“I didn’t watch because I’m the last person who should be watching. I’m the last person that anyone wants to hear from. All I could do is fuck things up — pardon my French. It’s the logical thing for me to do for myself, for everybody, for all of you. What if I loved it? What if I hated it? What could screw things up more than me speaking up about it in the mix of all of this turmoil and all of this confusion that we’re all feeling?”
On the creation of Community and his connection to Jeff:
“When I pitched the show, I was pitching a very meta story about an asshole that learned to love strangers. I knew it was meta already at the time, but I had no idea how meta it was going to get, because I had no idea that this was going to happen. I was pitching the story of a guy who, like me, had gone to community college and had at one point been invited to be part of a study group, but didn’t want to be part of a study group, because he had nothing to gain from it and everything to lose from it. At some time in that study group, during an all-night study session in that little tiny room at Glendale Community College, I all of a sudden started giving a crap about people that I had nothing to gain from in any realness, other than a human one. I thought cynically in my head at that point, ‘This is the kind of stuff that people eat up, right? This is what they’re always trying to give you on TV to keep you tuned in between Snickers commercials.’ Because people like people, and people that want to write television — people that want to direct it, people that want to edit it, people that want to be creative — we love people, but we’re so often dedicated to our love of people that we’re not actually part of people. I was one of those people, and I probably still am, but at that point I realized, ‘Wow, this is a weird story.’ This guy is not a part of people, but he’s going to become a part of people against his will.”
“The whole point of the show was that this thing happened beyond description in that room to this asshole in that study group. That’s what I was pitching. I didn’t have to know what it was. I’m not an expert at it. I don’t own that thing. I don’t carry that thing. All I had to do was say, ‘A thing happened beyond description,’ and that was the story.”
[Image via]
On Twitter:
“I was on speaker phone with marketing experts. They told me that the name of the show needed to be Community College, because the word ‘community’ algorithmically is not allowed to trend. It’s a very good reason. I mean — Twitter’s algorithm is very complicated. If it just went with words, the top ten Twitter trends would always be ‘the,’ ‘a,’ ‘Bieber.’ They have an algorithm that filters out the words like ‘community,’ ‘taxi,’ ‘cheers,’ ‘friends’ — you know, those words are not allowed to be trending profits because they’re incredibly basic words. Community is used over and over and over again. If you search for #community on Twitter, you’re going to run up against a bunch that will say ‘last night sucked’ and ‘this night was great,’ but beyond that, you’re going to see people going, ‘The #hispanic #community needs to do [this],’ and ‘The secret to #community is [this] and [that].’ The interesting thing is, we could go one or two ways with that. We could change the name of our show to Skittles McBittles so that we could consolidate our market, or we could make sure that the show is worthy of the name Community. It’s as powerful as any person who has ever wanted to be in touch with another human being.”
On alcohol and nerves:
“I was told there wasn’t going to be liqour served on the campus here tonight, so I maybe did a couple shots before I came here.”
On humanity:
“There are two kinds of people in this world. There are the people that will have you think that there are two kinds of people in this world, and there are the ‘good; people. There is no good, there is no evil, there is just a war going on between the people that want you to think there’s a war going on and the people that know there doesn’t have to be one.”
“There are two facts about humanity and they’re both undeniable. You are reminded of them every second of every breath you take. One is that we are separate. You’ll never be able to escape that. The other is that we’re absolutely together. Those two things are swirling and swirling and swirling around, and you have a choice with every breath you take and every sentence you make to celebrate one side or the other. You can celebrate the separation or you can celebrate the union, and you can forgive yourself for celebrating the separation, because that is what you are. You wake up in bed as not part of some blob of humanity. You wake up as John Smith or Kyle Davidson. You wake up as an individual, but all of those moments where that gets painful fall back on the fact that you are part of everyone around you.”
“I think the most important thing you can know is that you want to be a part of all the other individuals. You don’t want to be alone. There’s a personality disorder for every single thing you can name under the sun. There are people who put entire jars of peanut butter up their butt. There are people who are sexually attracted to cats. But there is no one who wants to be alone.”
On wrapping up a heartfelt speech about humanity:
“Let’s do some freestyle rapping.”
[Image via]
On the Community writing process:
“On Community, because of the nature of network TV, we settled into a process about coming up with premises and ideas freeform. You’re driving on the way to work and you see a billboard that says “Q-Tips are great.” The idea could be as simple as Shirley is allergic to Q-Tips, or Troy and Abed build a robot out of Q-Tips, or any random idea. The next step is to see whether or not those things can be cleaved into the beginning of a story.”
On his personal writing process:
“I still don’t have one. Give me nine months to write something and I will find out what I can masturbate to for eight months and three weeks, and then I will come to a confrontation with myself at a corner bar, or the ghost of my dad will say, ‘You don’t work hard enough,’ and I’ll go, ‘Screw you, I’ll have them put an extension on my deadline!'”
On wanting to make people laugh for a living:
“I always wanted to be the center of attention. I always wanted to make people happy. When I was a tiny itty-bitty little guy I used to do little shows for my mom’s birthday and for Valentine’s Day. I would use a desk and pretend I was Johnny Carson.”
On casting Community:
“It was asking people to run lines, and then it was asking them to run them a completely different way. ‘Prentend this is drama. Pretend that it’s comedy. Pretend it’s a three-ring circus. Pretend its a cereal box. Pretend its a cartoon.’ Those were the people we needed, and back then we didn’t know how much we would need that.”
On Chevy Chase in the “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” episode:
“Chevy Chase was amazing in that episode, because he was playing himself! I was like, ‘See? It’s him! And he’s going to win an Emmy doing this. He’s a villain! He’s a bad person! And he loves it!’ And he’s lovable for that reason — he saves a kid’s life, but he’s committed to be a bad person.”
[Image via]
On Community actors:
“They’re weird by nature. Their job is to be psychotic — they literally live in two different worlds. Don’t trust them.”
On “Dean” puns:
“Dean puns were like a drip pan for all the writers. Punnery is the lowest form of comedy writing. I can’t remember when it started happening… it had to be first season, there was a point when the Dean said ‘a new day is deaning,’ or ‘a new dawn is deaning.’ It’s like he’s so obsessed with being a good dean that he inserts ‘dean’ into stuff.”
On Nicolas Cage:
“For two seasons we wanted to do an episode where Jeff Winger pretended there was a class called ‘Nicolas Cage Appreciation,’ and then the Dean caught them and as punishment to them he was going to make that a real class and force them to watch all the Nicolas Cage movies in one night. The thing about Nicolas Cage movies is… unless you’re a total cynical dick, you have to embrace the fact that Nicolas Cage is a pretty good actor. He’s done a lot of weird, dumb movies, but that was supposed to be the point of the episode — that Nicolas Cage is a metaphor for God, or for society, or for the self, or something. It’s like — what is Nicolas Cage? What is he? Is he an idiot? Or a genius? Can you write him off, or is he inexplicably bound to your soul?”
On future TV projects:
“I wrote a thing for CBS, and it was driven by the idea of a certain actor being in it, but I don’t think he wanted to do it, so I think that thing will fizzle. It was a multi-camera thing. And I’m writing a thing for Fox that will hopefully be a single-camera thing. I don’t know how much like Community it will end up being, because it won’t have the same two-hundred people, so back to the drawing board on that. And then in 2014 I’ll have a show on Adult Swim, of all places.”
On making a feature:
“I want to really bad, but TV keeps beckoning to me. As soon as TV’s done with me, really, which won’t be long. I’m going to exhaust my access to network TV, which I’m doing a good job of… then I’ll try to emulate Vince Gilligan with basic cable, and whether I’m successful or not, I’ll have more time to do a feature script at that point.”
On future CommuniCons:
“I’ll come to every one, I swear to god.”
“If eight people have a Troy costume contest in their living room, I’ll be there.”Young children who are smacked 'go on to be more successful'
Disciplined: Children who have been physically admonished at a young age performed better on all counts
Young children who are smacked by their parents grow up to be happier and more successful than those who have never been hit, research claims.
It found that children who are smacked before the age of six perform better at school when they are teenagers.
They are also more likely to do voluntary work and to want to go to university than those who have never been physically disciplined.
But the study also revealed that children who are smacked after the age of six were more likely to exhibit behavioural problems, such as being involved in fights.
Smacking is currently banned in 20 European countries, including Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.
In Britain'reasonable chastisement' in the home is allowed unless it leaves a mark.
But the study, by Marjorie Gunnoe, professor of Psychology at Calvin College in the U.S. state of Michigan, found there was not enough evidence to prove that smacking harmed most children.
She said: 'The claims that are made for not spanking children fail to hold up.
'I think of spanking as a dangerous-tool, but then there are times when there is a job big enough for a dangerous tool. You don't use it for all your jobs.'
Professor Gunnoe questioned 2,600 people about being smacked, of whom a quarter had never been physically chastised.
The participants' answers then were compared with their behaviour, such as academic success, optimism about the future, antisocial behaviour, violence and bouts of depression.
Teenagers in the survey who had been smacked only between the ages of two and six performed best on all the positive measures.
Those who had been smacked between seven and 11 fared worse on negative behaviour but were more likely to be academically successful. Teenagers who were still smacked fared worst on all counts.
Parenting guru Penelope Leach disagreed with the findings.
'No good can come from hitting a child,' she said. 'I do not buy this idea that children will learn positive behaviour from being smacked.
'The law says adults hitting adults is wrong and children should be protected in the same way. Children are people too.'
But psychologist Aric Sigman said: 'The idea smacking and violence are on a continuum is a bizarre and fetished view of what punishment is for most parents.
'If it's done judiciously by a parent who is normally affectionate and sensitive to their child, our society should not be up in arms about that. Parents should be taught to distinguish this from a punch in the face.'
Two years ago, Britain was criticised by the UN for failing to ban smacking in the home, after experts said it was a form of abuse.
And growing numbers of the public seem to agree: A recent poll found 71 per cent of parents would support a ban on smacking.in Mumbai • Last updated on Wed, 30 Apr, 2014, 02:18 PM
With the Mudgal committee, which had been set-up by the Supreme Court to probe into fixing charges during Indian Premier League (IPL) 6, having submitted its report in a sealed envelope, media major, DNA now reports that it has gathered from an impeccable and highly-placed source that the list contains 3 players from Chennai Super Kings, whose boss N Srinivasan and his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan are also embroiled in the controversy, and 2 players each from Delhi Daredevils and defending champions Mumbai Indians.
The report also claimed that a top television commentator's name featured in the list. The report said: 'dna has reliably learnt that at least eight players and a leading commentator are on that list.' [sic]
The report added that another player who was also involved in the match-fixing saga went unsold in the auctions that took place in February, this year and that he had played in the Indian Premier League for the first six seasons.
There have been various reports claiming to know the contents of the sealed envelope, or at least the gist of it. It was initially speculated that the envelope contained a list of six tainted players, including at least two current India players, but the Indian Express said it has reasons to believe that the number of people under the scanner was more than double what was initially suspected.
With no definite evidence supporting any claim, many players and franchises will tread with trepidation and it will be interesting to see what unfolds.“The Phantom Tollbooth: Beyond Expectations” playfully explores the creation, creators, lasting impact and enduring relevance of one of the most universally beloved children’s books of our time. Through interviews, animation and archival materials, the documentary traces the friendship between author Norton Juster and Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Jules Feiffer, and the wit and wisdom of the novel over half a century.
Starting with its opening sequence, featuring actor David Hyde Pierce narrating an animated sequence created for the documentary, the film introduces viewers to the hilarious world of The Phantom Tollbooth, along with some of the novel’s more serious themes. Discover Norton Juster’s word play, watch Jules Feiffer draw Tollbooth protagonist Milo for the camera, and hear children’s author and illustrator Eric Carle reflect on the creative process and New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik share what makes the book a classic.
Historian Leonard Marcus, author of The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth, helps place the book – which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2011 – within a historical, cultural and literary context. Conceived in Brooklyn during the Cold War 1950s, The Phantom Tollbooth is about much more than a bored little boy who travels through a tollbooth to the Lands Beyond to rescue princesses named Rhyme and Reason. The film illuminates the book’s deeper themes: the value of learning, the state of children’s literature, the creative journey and the importance of the written word.
The year was 1961 when Juster and Feiffer, two young unknown artists with no intention of writing a children’s book, came together in a rundown duplex in Brooklyn Heights to create what has been called the “Alice in Wonderland of our time.” Formally trained as an architect, Juster, now in his 80s, describes himself in the film as an “accidental writer.” Longtime friend Eric Carle describes Juster as an incorrigible punster who “is so interested in words and word play, he had to put this down.” Also in his 80s, Feiffer, who was working as a cartoonist at the Village Voice, explains that he had his sights set on overthrowing the government through his political and societal satire. Neither of them expected “the little story about a kid who didn’t like to go to school” to be a defining moment in their lives and in the lives of generations of readers.
In the film, Jason Epstein, the legendary editorial director of Random House, reveals how he published the book against the judgment of others in the business and reflects on predictions that the book would fail because its vocabulary was thought to be too difficult for children and it didn’t conform to the prevailing rules of children’s literature in the 1960s. In spite of these forecasts, the book triumphed and has sold nearly 4 million copies to date and been translated into 20 languages.
Warm, smart and quirky, the documentary is a loving look at a book that, more than 50 years after its publication, continues to inspire millions of readers.
But then again, “it goes without saying.”Mysterious Happenings Update :
This update will be for Snapshot 18w50a, hopefully not much breaks by the time 1.14 comes out
-Gems:
*Powerful Gems can now be obtained from various locations
*The potential of Gems can be unlocked by helping a suspicious ally...
-Eclipses:
*Eclipses have a chance to occur after every time a Wave is won
*Kill Burger Bats for PizzaPoints and more...
-Meteors:
*Meteors spawn randomly during Waves
*Fall from the sky and can be mined for rewards once they land
-Optional Waves:
*2 New Optional Waves that unlock 2 new buildings
*Optional Wave RepairPercentage requirements adjusted (25 increased to 50, 100 increased to 125)
-The Pizza Colosseum:
*Changed and added some Prizes
*Added the new mobs from new Optional Waves to the pool of mobs
-Added Grindstones to all gear-related buildings
-Harvesting blocks now drops physical PizzaPoint items
-WaveRequirement increases every 50 RepairPercentage after 100
This was an update I did to add in some ideas I had for a while, and it creates something of a purposeful loop for the map in the late game. This is very likely the last update I will do to this map. I had fun working on this project, despite the huge time sync it was. I wish it had gotten some form of recognition though. Even if it did not get popular or anything, I wish it had at least gotten comments so I could know that the people that downloaded it played it. I'm proud in ways of the end result, but there's a part of me that recalls the sacrifices I'd make to devote the time necessary and it makes me wonder if it was worth it. This map was supposed to be finished around Christmas of 2015, and |
Both career days were empty, as the Chiefs beat the Broncos, ending their season at 8–8. The Broncos became the seventh team since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to miss the playoffs after a 6–0 start and the first since the 2003 Minnesota Vikings.
Standings [ edit ]
AFC West W L T PCT DIV CONF PF PA STK (2) San Diego Chargers 13 3 0.813 5–1 9–3 454 320 W11 Denver Broncos 8 8 0.500 3–3 6–6 326 324 L4 Oakland Raiders 5 11 0.313 2–4 4–8 197 379 L2 Kansas City Chiefs 4 12 0.250 2–4 3–9 294 424 W1
Staff [ edit ]
Final roster [ edit ]Okay, we get it -- Samsung sells a lot of handsets and has the profits to show for it. But the company said that its new Galaxy Note 3 is far and away the most successful so far of its entire Note lineup, with 10 million units sold in a mere 60 days. That's twice the sales pace of the Galaxy Note II, and even pushing its sales champ, the Galaxy S 4, which took 50 days to hit that magic number. The Note 3 is available in 58 countries, but Samsung singled out China out as a particularly strong market due to the popularity of the S Pen and just launched two new colors there. Anyway, given those numbers, it's a safe bet nobody's using "the ph-word" as an epithet for the Note 3 anymore.TL;DR If you are using go-jose, node-jose, jose2go, Nimbus JOSE+JWT or jose4 with ECDH-ES please update to the latest version. RFC 7516 aka JSON Web Encryption (JWE) and software libraries implementing this specification used to suffer from a classic Invalid Curve Attack. This can allow an attacker to recover the secret key of a party using JWE with Key Agreement with Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Static (ECDH-ES), where the sender could extract receiver’s private key.
Premise
In this blog post I assume you are already knowledgeable about elliptic curves and their use in cryptography. If not Nick Sullivan's A (Relatively Easy To Understand) Primer on Elliptic Curve Cryptography or Andrea Corbellini's series Elliptic Curve Cryptography: finite fields and discrete logarithms are great starting points. Then if you further want to climb the elliptic learning curve including the related attacks you might also want to visit https://safecurves.cr.yp.to/. Also the DJB and Tanja talk at 31c3 comes with an explanation of this very attack (see minute 43) or Juraj Somorovsky et al's research can become handy for learners.
Note that this research was started and inspired by Quan Nguyen from Google and then refined by Antonio Sanso from Adobe.
Introduction
JSON Web Token (JWT) is a JSON-based open standard (RFC 7519) defined in the OAuth specification family used for creating access tokens. The Javascript Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) IETF expert group was then formed to formalize a set of signing and encryption methods for JWT that led to the release of RFC 7515 aka JSON Web Signature (JWS) and RFC 7516 aka JSON Web Encryption (JWE). In this post we are going to focus on JWE.
A typical JWE is dot separated string that contains five parts:
The JWE Protected Header
The JWE Encrypted Key
The JWE Initialization Vector
The JWE Ciphertext
The JWE Authentication Tag
An example of a JWE taken from the specification would look like:
eyJhbGciOiJSU0EtT0FFUCIsImVuYyI6IkEyNTZHQ00ifQ.OKOawDo13gRp2ojaHV7LFpZcgV7T6DVZKTyKOMTYUmKoTCVJRgckCL9kiMT03JGeipsEdY3mx_etLbbWSrFr05kLzcSr4qKAq7YN7e9jwQRb23nfa6c9d-StnImGyFDbSv04uVuxIp5Zms1gNxKKK2Da14B8S4rzVRltdYwam_lDp5XnZAYpQdb76FdIKLaVmqgfwX7XWRxv2322i-vDxRfqNzo_tETKzpVLzfiwQyeyPGLBIO56YJ7eObdv0je81860ppamavo35UgoRdbYaBcoh9QcfylQr66oc6vFWXRcZ_ZT2LawVCWTIy3brGPi6UklfCpIMfIjf7iGdXKHzg. 48V1_ALb6US04U3b.5eym8TW_c8SuK0ltJ3rpYIzOeDQz7TALvtu6UG9oMo4vpzs9tX_EFShS8iB7j6ji SdiwkIr3ajwQzaBtQD_A.XFBoMYUZodetZdvTiFvSkQ
This JWE employs RSA-OAEP for key encryption and A256GCM for content encryption :
This is only one of the many possibilities JWE provides. A separate specification called RFC 7518 aka JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) lists all the possible available algorithms that can be used. The one we are discussing today is the Key Agreement with Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Static (ECDH-ES). This algorithm allows deriving an ephemeral shared secret (this blog post from Neil Madden shows a concrete example on how to do ephemeral key agreement).
In this case the JWE Protected Header lists as well the used elliptic curve used for the key agreement:
Once the shared secret is calculated the key agreement result can be used in one of two ways:
Directly as the Content Encryption Key (CEK) for the "enc" algorithm, in the Direct Key Agreement mode, or As a symmetric key used to wrap the CEK with the A128KW, A192KW, or A256KW algorithms, in the Key Agreement with Key Wrapping mode.
This is out of scope for this post but as for the other algorithms the JOSE Cookbook contains example of usage for ECDH-ES in combination with AES-GCM or AES-CBC plus HMAC.
Observation
As highlighted by Quan during his talk at RWC 2017:
Decryption/Signature verification input is always under attacker’s control
As we will see thorough this post this simple observation will be enough to recover the receiver’s private key. But first we need to dig a bit into elliptic curve bits and pieces.
Elliptic Curves
An elliptic curve is the set of solutions defined by an equation of the form:
y2 = x3 + ax + b
Equations of this type are called Weierstrass equations. An elliptic curve would look like:
y2 = x3 + 4x + 20
In order to apply the theory of elliptic curves to cryptography we need to look at elliptic curves whose points have coordinates in a finite field Fq. The same curve will then look like below over Finite Field of size 191:
y2 = x3 + 4x + 20 over Finite Field of size 191
For JWE the elliptic curves in scope are the one defined in Suite B and (only recently) DJB's curve. Between those, the curve that so far has reached the higher amount of usage is the famous P-256.
Time to open Sage. Let's define P-256:
The order of the curve is a really huge number hence there isn't much an attacker can do with this curve (if the software implements ECDH correctly) in order to guess the private key used in the agreement. This brings us to the next section:
The Attack
The attack described here is really the classical Invalid Curve Attack. The attack is simple and powerful and takes advantage from the mere fact that Weierstrass's formula for scalar multiplication does not take in consideration the coefficient b of the curve equation:
y2 = ax3 + ax + b.
The original's P-256 equation is:
As we mention above, the order of this curve is really big. So we need now to find a more convenient curve for the attacker. Easy peasy with Sage:
As you can see from the image above we just found a nicer curve (from the attacker point of view) that has an order with many small factors. Then we found a point P on the curve that has a really small order (2447 in this example).
Now we can build malicious JWEs (see the Demo Time section below) and extract the value of the secret key modulo 2447 with complexity in constant time.
A crucial part for the attack to succeed is to have the victim to repeat his own contribution to the resulting shared key. In other words this means that the victim should have his private key to be the same for each key agreement. Conveniently enough this is how the Key Agreement with Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Static (ECDH-ES) works. Indeed ES stands for Ephemeral-Static were Static is the contribution of the victim!
At this stage we can repeat these operations (find a new curve, craft malicious JWEs, recover the secret key modulo the small order) many many times and collecting information about the secret key modulo many many small orders.
And finally Chinese Remainder Theorem for the win!
At the end of the day the issue here is that the specification and consequently all the libraries I checked missed validating that the received public key (contained in the JWE Protected Header is on the curve), You can see the Vulnerable Libraries section below to check how the various libraries fixed the issue.
Again you can find details of the attack in the original paper.
Demo Time
INSTANT DEMO CLICK HERE
Explanation
In order to show how the attack would work in practice I set up a live demo in Heroku. In https://obscure-everglades-31759.herokuapp.com/ is up and running one Node.js server app that will act as a victim in this case. The assumption is this: in order to communicate with this web application you need to encrypt a token using the Key Agreement with Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Static (ECDH-ES). The static public key from the server needed for the key agreement is in https://obscure-everglades-31759.herokuapp.com/ecdh-es-public.json:
An application that wants to POST data to this server needs first to do a key agreement using the server's public key above and then encrypt the payload using the derived shared key using the JWE format. Once the JWE is in place this can be posted to https://obscure-everglades-31759.herokuapp.com/secret. The web app will respond with a response status 200 if all went well (namely if it can decrypt the payload content) and with a response status 400 if for some reason the received token is missing or invalid. This will act as an oracle for any potential attacker in the way shown in the previous The Attack section.
I set up an attacker application in https://afternoon-fortress-81941.herokuapp.com/.
You can visit it and click the 'Recover Key' button and observe how the attacker is able to recover the secret key from the server piece by piece. Note that this is only a demo application so the recovered secret key is really small in order to reduce the waiting time. In practice the secret key will be significantly larger (hence it will take a bit more to recover the key).
In case you experience problem with the live demo, or simply if want to see the code under the hood, you can find the demo code in Github:
https://github.com/asanso/jwe-receiver contains the code of the vulnerable server.
https://github.com/asanso/jwe-sender contains the code of the attacker.
Vulnerable Libraries
Here you can find a list of libraries that were vulnerable to this particular attack so far:
Some of the libraries were implemented in a programming language that already protects against this attack checking that the result of the scalar multiplication is on the curve:
* Latest version of Node.js appears to be immune to this attack. It was still possible to be vulnerable when using browsers without web crypto support.
** Affected was the default Java SUN JCA provider that comes with Java prior to version 1.8.0_51. Later Java versions and the BouncyCastle JCA provider do not seem to be affected.
Improving the JWE Standard
I reported this issue to the JOSE working group via mail to the appropriate mailing list. We all seem to agree that an errata where the problem is listed is at least welcomed. This post is a direct attempt to raise awareness about this specific problem.
Aside: Securing Applications with Auth0
Are you building a B2C, B2B, or B2E tool? Auth0, can help you focus on what matters the most to you, the special features of your product. Auth0 can help you make your product secure with state-of-the-art features like passwordless, breached password surveillance, and multifactor authentication.
We offer a generous free tier to get started with modern authentication.
Acknowledgement
The author would like to thanks the maintainers of go-jose, node-jose,jose2go, Nimbus JOSE+JWT and jose4 for the responsiveness on fixing the issue. Francesco Mari for helping out with the development of the demo application. Tommaso Teofili and Simone Tripodi for troubleshooting. Finally as mentioned above I would like to thank Quan Nguyen from Google, indeed this research could not be possible without his initial incipit.
That's all folks. For more crypto goodies, follow me on Twitter.
About Antonio Sanso:
Antonio works as Senior Software Engineer at Adobe Research Switzerland where he is part of the Adobe Experience Manager security team. Antonio is co-author of "OAuth 2 in Action" book. He found vulnerabilities in popular software such as OpenSSL, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and is included in the Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Paypal and Github security hall of fame. He is an avid open source contributor, being the Vice President (chair) for Apache Oltu and PMC member for Apache Sling. His working interests span from web application security to cryptography. Antonio is also the author of more than a dozen computer security patents and applied cryptography academic papers. He holds an MSc in Computer Science.Photo
The introduction of Windows 8 did not restore growth to the personal computer business over the holidays. Microsoft, though, says the product is just getting warmed up.
In an interview on Friday, Tami Reller, the chief marketing officer and chief financial officer of the company’s Windows division, said Microsoft was pleased with the progress of Windows 8, the most significant overhaul of the company’s flagship operating system in decades, although she delicately sidestepped questions about whether the product’s performance has fallen short of expectations in the PC industry.
“This is a generational change, and to try to evaluate success over one finite amount of time when you have that much change, I think, is tricky,” Ms. Reller said, sitting in a conference room on Microsoft’s verdant campus in Redmond, Wash. “I look at it and say, wow, it was a tremendous amount of innovation we brought to market. Is there more we can do? Oh, my goodness.”
One of Ms. Reller’s clearest messages was that a wave of compelling new Windows 8 devices is about to come out. To emphasize the point, she and Aidan Marcuss, principal director of Windows Research, arranged a dozen or so new notebooks, tablets and “convertibles” (hybrid devices that combine features of both) on a long conference table. Mr. Marcuss held up a sleek new ThinkPad tablet from Lenovo that runs on an Intel processor that operates without a fan and is designed to provide generous battery life.
Microsoft executives have conceded that Windows 8 PC sales could have been better over the holidays had more devices with touch screens been available on store shelves. Although the product works with a traditional keyboard and mouse or trackpad, it was designed with the idea that touch screens would become a common feature of computers.
Microsoft’s own research on how people are using Windows 8 shows that people with touch devices spend 4.5 times more time using apps downloaded from the Windows Store than those without touch screens.
Ms. Reller said that Microsoft had certified about 1,000 systems for use with Windows 8 by Oct. 26 and that the number is now about double that. She said the percentage of those devices with touch screens was “well below half, but it’s growing.”
“We’re really only just getting started,” said Ms. Reller, who has co-led the Windows business with Julie Larson-Green since the departure of Steven Sinofsky, the former president of the Windows division, in November.
Microsoft said last week that it had sold 60 million copies of Windows 8 by the end of 2012 — about equal to the sales level of Windows 7, an earlier version of the operating system, at the same point in its life. While shipments in the PC market as a whole declined over the holidays, Microsoft had the advantage of being able to sell upgrade copies of Windows 8 to people who already had computers.
When asked how declining PC sales affect the outlook for Windows 8, Ms. Reller said that at some point, it wouldn’t be as meaningful to look at those numbers to judge the health of Windows since the software also ships on tablets, which many research firms do not include in their estimates for the PC market.
“Over time, it will be more interesting to look at the Windows business and say, ‘How are you doing in the broader opportunity?’ ” she said.Image caption Many parents say they would like more support
Free parenting classes are to be trialled for all parents with children aged five and under in three areas of England, children's minister Sarah Teather has said.
They are intended for parents even if they are not struggling with raising children, she said.
About 50,000 parents in Middlesbrough, High Peak, and Camden will be offered vouchers for the classes from mid-2012.
Labour criticised the government cuts to the children's programme it set up.
'Firm and fair'
The classes, provided by parenting experts, are likely to cover areas such as communication and listening skills, managing conflict and "strengthening positive relationships in the family", as well as the importance of parents working as a team.
There will also be a stress on discipline, with "firm, fair and consistent approaches" encouraged and the importance of "boundaries" being set out for children.
And there will be advice on appropriate play for children's age and development.
Parenting has to be one of the toughest jobs and it doesn't come with a rule book. Sarah Teather, Children's minister
Ms Teather said she wanted to get rid of the stigma over asking for help.
"Parenting classes aren't just for struggling families," she said.
"All parents should know it's OK to ask for extra support and guidance when they need it - just as they do when they attend ante-natal classes before their child is born."
The trial will run for two years, with its impact tracked, the department said. It is hoped the results will lead a greater number of parents to seek help and advice themselves.
The government says it is still working on the details but it is likely that the vouchers will be distributed through various routes. It was unknown if health visitors, GP staff or nursery workers would be involved.
Ms Teather added that there was overwhelming evidence that a child's development in the first five years' of their life is the single biggest factor influencing their future life chances, health and education attainment.
"Armed with all this evidence, it is the government's moral and social duty to make sure we support all parents at this critical time.
"Parenting has to be one of the toughest jobs and it doesn't come with a rule book."
'Out of touch'
Shadow children's minister Sharon Hodgson criticised the coalition's policy towards Sure Start - a children's centre network established by Labour in the late 1990s to give more deprived children a better chance in life.
Some of the 3,600 Sure Start children's centres are being cut because the grant that funds them was cut by 11% in last year's emergency budget, and again in the comprehensive spending review by almost the same percentage.
The government also removed the protection from the Sure Start budget, leaving them potentially at risk as councils seek to make up losses to their central government grants overall.
Ms Hodgson said: "Labour is in favour of support for families and children, but the Tory-led government is completely out of touch if they think this is going to make up for the Sure Start centres that are being closed or hollowed out up and down the country...
"This government's reckless cuts programme is kicking away the ladders for the next generation and the closure of Sure Start centres is just another example of this."
Ed Owen, editor of fatherhood website www.daddybegood.com, said: "Every teacher, psychologist and educationalist will tell you that the first years of a child's life are important.
"Some suggest that the first two years are decisive. This does not mean that every child must be schooled, drilled and disciplined to make them model citizens at this young age. No, it means that in the first years children must be loved."In almost three decades in the major leagues, Bud Black has seen his share of pitchers.
He won 121 games and pitched more than 2,050 innings in the majors. And before becoming the manager of the Padres in 2007, Black spent seven seasons as the pitching coach of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
But on Tuesday afternoon, Black said he saw “some weird stuff.”
When asked to compare Pat Neshek to a pitcher from his past, Black drew a blank.
“That is funky,” said of Neshek. “That is a very unorthodox delivery. It’s deceptive. There’s a place for that type of pitcher. That’s funkier than Cla Meredith.”
Meredith, of course, was the submarine-style pitcher who worked for the Padres from 2006 until he was traded to Baltimore for infielder Oscar Salazar on July 19, 2009.
But if first appearances are correct, Meredith is orthodox compared to Neshek, who the Padres acquired from Minnesota on waivers Sunday.
Neshek starts out as a submariner, then “pops up” and raises his arm angle to deliver as a sidearmer. But that’s only part of the approach.
Unlike most relievers, he uses a windup when working with no one on. Of course, it’s not like a regular windup. The start has an exaggerated rock and Neshek works with his foot perpendicular to the rubber rather than parallel. Midway through the delivery, his body shifts.
Twenty-two hours after he first walked into the Padres clubhouse, Neshek worked an inning against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday. He threw 13 pitches. Eleven went for strikes. He retired all three hitters he faced. He struck out two, one on a fastball, the other on a slider.
“The first time you see that, it’s going to be tough to pick up,” said Black. “That gives Pat an advantage. Even the plate umpire (Derryl Cousins) said he was hard to pick up.”
That advantage could last a while. Before Tuesday, Neshek had worked only for the Twins of the American League. He now has a chance to make the Padres’ Opening Day roster and face National League hitters.
Black said Neshek will work again Thursday. The Padres have a week to make a decision on the 30-year-old who missed all of the 2009 season after having elbow reconstruction surgery in 2008.
Neshek was 0-1 with a 5.00 ERA in 11 games last season. The Twins waived him last week after he gave up a home run to Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera in a Florida exhibition.
But in 2007, Neshek was one of the American League’s top relievers, posting a 7-2 record and 2.94 ERA in 74 games.
“I’m starting to show signs of being my old self,” Neshek said before Tuesday’s outing. “My velocity was back to 89 in my last game. I’m used to going out there every day and pitching.”
Richard struggles
Left-hander Clayton Richard, who is on schedule to be the Padres’ starter in the season’s second game at St. Louis, gave up seven runs on 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings in the Padres’ 7-0 loss to Milwaukee Tuesday.
“I was falling behind and when you don’t get ahead you usually get hit,” said Richard. “I was not being aggressive enough early in the count.”
Richard saw a silver lining in his first inning. He gave up five runs on six hits in the fourth.
“You never want to have an outing like this,” said Richard. “But you are tested in a long inning. You don’t want it to happen, but when it does you usually learn something.”
Said Black: “I’m not worried about Clayton Richard. He was a little erratic with his fastball command. I like the fact he got to 80 pitches and felt good. He’s getting some things accomplished.”
Many of the hits off Richard were grounders, although some were hit hard. “Getting ground balls is somewhat encouraging,” concluded Richard.
Notes
•Left fielder Aaron Cunningham was a late scratch Tuesday with soreness high in his right calf.
•Will Venable returned to the outfield for the first time since suffering a sore muscle in his side nine days ago.
•Infielder Jarrett Hoffpauir could return to action by this weekend.Get the biggest football 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
Aitor Karanka has refused to apologise to Boro fans - and said his outburst was targeted at the club's new Premier League fans.
The Boro boss says he will “never regret” defending his players against what he believed was impatience on the terraces, and a stadium that was emptying.
Karanka stood firm by saying the “Red Army” of loyalists who have followed Boro for his three-year tenure were different from the “18,000” new fans who have arrived for the Premier League campaign.
The Boro boss had a dinner with owner Steve Gibson over the weekend to discuss the issue.
Karanka said: “Regret? No. I have been a coach for just three years but I will never regret something I said to defend the players.
(Image: Alex Livesey)
“The only thing I said is that I wanted respect for the players.
“The people who have been going to the stadium for the last three years know me. I can’t say any more good things about them.
“When I came here there were 12,000 people. I can’t say anything bad about the Red Army or the people who are travelling every day to support us - the people who went to Yeovil, for instance, in our first season.
(Image: Action Images via Reuters)
“It’s just the people who think they have always been supporting us, they have to know that three years ago they weren’t there.
“The fans last year were supporting us until the last minute. I ask them to stay patient.
“When we were fighting to get to the Premier League we played in one style. The people who are coming now are demanding them to play another style.
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“The last 10 minutes of the game were the best example - we conceded a goal and didn’t create one chance.
“We have scored so many goals in the last minute by playing in our same style.
“We got promotion and got to the play-off final playing this style. The people who weren’t going to the stadium have to know that we had a plan to get promotion. It has been successful for us.”The US Department of Homeland Security has told government departments and agencies to remove all security software from the Moscow-based company Kaspersky Lab from their IT systems.It said it was concerned about ties between company officials and the Russian intelligence services.
The move comes ahead of a vote in the US Senate this week to prohibit use of the company’s products by government. Kaspersky Lab has repeatedly denied that it has ties to the Kremlin. But the allegations have led to a number of US retailers withdrawing its products from sale.
Kaspersky has more than 400 million customers worldwide, but it has never succeeded in becoming a major supplier to the US government.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke gave government offices 90 days to begin to remove and replace the software.
“The department is concerned about the ties between certain Kaspersky officials and Russian intelligence and other government agencies,” she said in a statement. “The risk that the Russian government, whether acting on its own or in collaboration with Kaspersky, could capitalise on access provided by Kaspersky products to compromise federal information and information systems directly implicates US national security,” she added.
Kaspersky said it was disappointed by the decision but would attempt to prove that the allegations were unfounded.
“No credible evidence has been presented publicly by anyone or any organisation as the accusations are based on false allegations and inaccurate assumptions,” the company said in a statement.
Kaspersky is also used in large number of Government and business bodies in Pakistan. It is much needed that a comprehensive review is carried out in relation to Kaspersky.The premiere of the Twin Peaks revival series is coming up fast: It premieres May 21 at 9 p.m. on Showtime.
And while Seattle will no doubt have its share of viewing parties, there’s a chance to watch the show at one of the series’s most iconic filming locations.
The original series was largely filmed in North Bend and Snoqualmie, where many notable landmarks still stand for all your Twin Peaks tourism needs, like the R&R (otherwise known as Twede’s), The Great Northern Hotel (officially, Salish Lodge and Spa), or the Blue Diamond motel (Mount Si Motel).
The Salish Lodge and Spa, shown in the opening credits next to the waterfall, has really taken its cult status to heart, and has fully embraced Twin Peaks tourism. They have a Twin Peaks map, “damn fine coffee” cocktails—even housemade cherry pie (although that was feature of the Double R, not the Great Northern Hotel).
So naturally, they’re having their own premiere party. But they only have so much space—so tickets are only going to those willing to stake their social media reputation on the thing.
Through Monday, they’re having people interact with them on their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts to enter to win a coveted party spot—for example, a recent Facebook post asked fans to comment with their favorite quote.
Entries stack, so if you’re cool with your entire timeline coming from Salish Lodge, you could really stuff the ballot box in your favor.
If you don’t make it, though, you can always pack your favorite streaming device and go on a road trip to the old filming locations within driving distance. For that ambient setting, you can also grab a slice of pie and a cup of coffee at Twede’s.Groundbreaking Ceremony
President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency, presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple on Saturday, September 17, 2011—the 224th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States at Philadelphia's Independence Hall.1
Construction Approval
In January 2010, Church officials met with top administration officials of the City of Philadelphia to review preliminary plans for the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple. Darrell Clarke, councilman for the 5th district, referred to the plans as magnificent. "I think it's important for the city of Philadelphia to have such a facility in the city, as opposed to the suburbs. I think the long-term benefits of bringing that many people—upwards of 400,000 visits per year to the city—is very significant."2
On Thursday, April 15, 2010, Councilman Clarke introduced a bill to the City Council to amend Section 14-1611 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Benjamin Franklin Parkway Controls." The proposed ordinance would exempt certain building features from being considered as part of the height of a building within a specified area subject to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway Controls, which would allow for construction of the preliminarily designed Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple. The bill was referred to the Committee on Rules.3
On May 12, 2010, the Committee on Rules—a committee organized under the Philadelphia City Council—held a hearing to receive public comment on the ordinance, which would allow "monuments, belfries, cupolas, minarets, pinnacles, gables, spires, or ornamental towers not intended for human occupancy" to exceed the 125-foot height limit imposed on buildings subject to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway Controls up to a maximum of 209 feet. Following the hearing, the Committee unanimously recommended City Council approval, which would permit construction of the temple with double spires that reach just over 200 feet high.4
On May 18, 2010, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission added its endorsement to the zoning code amendment recommended by the Committee on Rules. Church spokesman Ahmad Corbitt explained to the Commission that three meetings with the community had already been held where the plans were explained; neighbors were supportive. He also noted that the spires will not reach the top of the cross of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul across the Parkway.5
On June 3, 2010, the Philadelphia City Council voted unanimously to approve the height ordinance in its second and final vote, enacting the ordinance into law. The first vote was taken on May 20.
On June 7, 2010, interagency discord was plainly evident at a hearing where City Councilwoman Jannie L. Blackwell—chair of the committee on housing, neighborhood development, and the homeless—criticized the Redevelopment Authority (RDA) for taking legal action in an attempt to reclaim land in high-profile, Council-supported projects including the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple. "Why fight projects we support?" Blackwell asked RDA director Terry Gillen. The RDA brought legal action against Stephen Klein, who has development rights on the property, on grounds that he let the site sit undeveloped too long. Klein signed an agreement to sell the site to the Church on August 10, 2009.6
On August 2, 2010, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter announced that construction of the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple would move forward at its Vine Street location near Logan Square. The fate of the project came under question when the RDA attempted to seize the property by suing the site's developer for letting the property remain undeveloped for too long. RDA officials then offered to drop the lawsuit if the developer would pay the agency 25 percent of the proceeds of the sale of the property to the Church. The mayor did not elaborate on how this dispute had been resolved, but he did express that the addition of the temple would make Benjamin Franklin Parkway "one of the most incredible boulevards anywhere in the world." Final site plans and architectural drawings, which may be available in September, still must go before the Planning Commission and City Council before final City approval is received.7
On September 8, 2010, Mayor Nutter announced the unpetitioned contribution of $300,000 from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Philadelphia's prisoner-reentry program, namely the Mayor's Office of Reintegration Services for Ex-Offenders (RISE). The program assists former prisoners to reenter society through schooling, job training, job placement, housing, drug and alcohol treatment, and "life coaches." Church leaders selected the program because "it fits with the mission of the Church." The month before, the mayor announced preliminary approval of the Church's plan to construct the Philadelphia temple. Renderings of the project have not been released, but the groundbreaking is expected to occur in late 2011 with completion anticipated in 2014.8
On September 21, 2010, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission approved an amendment to the Center City Redevelopment Area Plan, which would accommodate the Church's plans for facilities on Vine Street, including the temple.
On March 24, 2011, the Philadelphia City Council approved a contract between the Church and the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, designating the Church as the developer of the site at 1601 Vine Street—next door to the temple site at 1701 Vine Street. Purchase of the property has been finalized, which is intended to be used for a mixed-use development.
On October 3, 2012, the Philadelphia Art Commission granted conceptual approval to plans to erect the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple. Commission Chair Sean Buffington requested that the applicants return with more clarity on the depth and richness of the building's fa&ccedi;ade, a better plan for the landscaping and stormwater use, a selection of alternate views of the building and its impact on its "very distinguished neighbors," and a more complete lighting scheme.9
On November 7, 2012, the Philadelphia Art Commission gave the design of the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple the final nod with two last-minute dissenting votes. At the meeting, the applicants presented additional details on stormwater management, lighting, façade materials, and landscaping as requested during the their previous appearance before the Commission on October 3. One commissioner argued that honey locusts might be too lacy a choice for the building, and another commissioner voiced the opinion that while certain elements of the building were praiseworthy, the overall design was "too literal" in its classicism and imitative of its neighboring buildings. When the other commissioners were asked if they supported this opinion, no one responded. In the end, only these two commissioners voted "no" on the motion to approve the project.10
Temple Design
The granite-clad Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple has been designed with architectural elements to complement the classic architecture exhibited in the neighboring buildings and throughout historic Philadelphia where the United States was founded in 1776. The spires, for example, are reminiscent of the clock tower on Independence Hall, and the period furnishings inside the temple will create an air of historic Philadelphia. Exquisite panes of stained glass will run the length of the building, which will be surrounded by a landscaped plaza featuring a reflecting pool and gorgeous gardens open to the public. Also on site will be a low-profile temple services building. Ample parking will be provided by an underground facility.
B. Jeffrey Stebar of the Atlanta office of Perkins+Will was |
I’m ready for the gorge
I’m a hook
So deep. Anyway, let’s begin …
Find a topic of interest
So, step 1: Find a topic you’re interested in learning more about. The following app was inspired by an old college assignment (admittedly not the most common source of inspiration) that uses Markov chains to generate “real-looking” text given a body of sample text. Markov models crop up in all sorts of scenarios. (We’ll dive into what a Markov model is shortly.) I found the idea of probability-based text generation particularly interesting; specifically, I wondered what would happen if you used song lyrics as sample text to generate “new” lyrics…
To the internet! A quick web search shows a few Markov-based lyric generator sites, but nothing quite like what I have in mind. Besides, plugging away at someone else’s completed code isn’t a very effective way to learn how Markov generators actually work; let’s build our own.
So… how do Markov generators works? Basically, a Markov chain is generated from some text based on the frequency of certain patterns occurring. As an example, consider the following string as our sample text:
bobby
We’ll build the simplest possible Markov model out of this text, which is a Markov model of order 0, as a way to predict the likelihood of any particular letter occurring. This is a straight-forward frequency table:
b: 3/5 o: 1/5 y: 1/5
However, this is a pretty bad language model; besides how frequently letters occur overall, we also want to look at how frequently a particular letter occurs given the previous letter. Since we’re depending on one previous letter, this is a Markov model of order 1:
given "b": "b" is next: 1/3 "o" is next: 1/3 "y" is next: 1/3 given "o": "b" is next: 1 given "y": [terminates]: 1
From here, you could imagine Markov models of higher order; an order 2 model would start by measuring the frequency of each letter that occurs after the two-letter string “bo”, etc. By increasing the order, we get a model that starts looking more like real language; for instance, an order 5 Markov model that had been given lots of sample input including the word “python” would be very likely to follow the string “pytho” with an “n”, whereas a much lower order model might have come up with some creative words.
Start Developing
How would we go about building a rough approximation of a Markov model? Essentially, the structure we’ve outlined above with the higher-order models is a dictionary of dictionaries. You could imagine a model dictionary with various word fragments (i.e., “bo”) as keys. Each of these fragments would then point to a dictionary in turn, with those inner dictionaries holding the individual next letters (“y”) as keys with their respective frequencies as values.
Let’s start by making a generateModel() method that takes in some sample text and a Markov model order, then returns this dictionary of dictionaries:
def generateModel ( text, order ): model = {} for i in range ( 0, len ( text ) - order ): fragment = text [ i : i + order ] next_letter = text [ i + order ] if fragment not in model : model [ fragment ] = {} if next_letter not in model [ fragment ]: model [ fragment ][ next_letter ] = 1 else : model [ fragment ][ next_letter ] += 1 return model
We looped through all the available text, going up until the last available full fragment + next letter so as not to run off the end of the string, adding our fragment dictionaries to the model with each fragment holding a dictionary of total next_letter frequencies.
Copy this function into a Python shell and try it out:
>>> >>> generateModel ( "bobby", 1 ) {'b': {'y': 1, 'b': 1, 'o': 1}, 'o': {'b': 1}}
That’ll do! We have counts of frequencies instead of relative probabilities, but we can work with that; there’s no reason we need to normalize each dictionary to add to probabilities of 100%.
Now let’s use this model in a getNextCharacter() method that will, given a model and a fragment, decide on an appropriate next letter given the model’s probabilities:
from random import choice def getNextCharacter ( model, fragment ): letters = [] for letter in model [ fragment ]. keys (): for times in range ( 0, model [ fragment ][ letter ]): letters. append ( letter ) return choice ( letters )
It’s not the most efficient setup, but it’s simple to build and works for now. We simply built a list of letters, given their total frequencies of occurrence after the fragment, and chose randomly from that list.
All that remains is to use these two methods in a third method that will actually generate text of some specified length. To do this, we’ll need to keep track of the current text fragment we’re building while adding on new characters:
def generateText ( text, order, length ): model = generateModel ( text, order ) currentFragment = text [ 0 : order ] output = "" for i in range ( 0, length - order ): newCharacter = getNextCharacter ( model, currentFragment ) output += newCharacter currentFragment = currentFragment [ 1 :] + newCharacter print output
Let’s make this into a full runnable script that takes a Markov order and output text length as arguments:
from random import choice import sys def generateModel ( text, order ): model = {} for i in range ( 0, len ( text ) - order ): fragment = text [ i : i + order ] next_letter = text [ i + order ] if fragment not in model : model [ fragment ] = {} if next_letter not in model [ fragment ]: model [ fragment ][ next_letter ] = 1 else : model [ fragment ][ next_letter ] += 1 return model def getNextCharacter ( model, fragment ): letters = [] for letter in model [ fragment ]. keys (): for times in range ( 0, model [ fragment ][ letter ]): letters. append ( letter ) return choice ( letters ) def generateText ( text, order, length ): model = generateModel ( text, order ) currentFragment = text [ 0 : order ] output = "" for i in range ( 0, length - order ): newCharacter = getNextCharacter ( model, currentFragment ) output += newCharacter currentFragment = currentFragment [ 1 :] + newCharacter print output text = "some sample text" if __name__ == "__main__" : generateText ( text, int ( sys. argv [ 1 ]), int ( sys. argv [ 2 ]))
For now, we’ll generate sample text via the very scientific method of throwing a string directly into the code based on some copied & pasted Alanis Morisette lyrics.
Test
Save the script and give it a whirl:
$ python markov.py 2 100 I wounts You ho's humortel whime mateend I wass How by Lover
$ python markov.py 4 100 stress you to cosmic tears All they've cracked you (honestly) at the filler in to like raise $ python markov.py 6 100 tress you place the wheel from me Please be philosophical Please be tapped into my house
Well, that was just precious. The last two trials are decently representative of her lyrics (although the first sample of order 2 looks more like Björk). These results are encouraging enough for a quick code sketch, so let’s turn this thing into a real project.
Next Iteration
First hurdle: how are we going to automate getting lots of lyrics? One option would be to selectively scrape content from a lyrics site, but that sounds like a lot of effort for probably low-quality results, plus a potential legal gray area given the shadiness of most lyrics aggregators and the draconianism of the music industry. Instead, let’s see if there are any open APIs. Heading over to search through programmableweb.com, we actually find 14 different lyrics APIs listed. These listings aren’t always the most up-to-date, though, so let’s search through by the most recently listed.
LYRICSnMUSIC offers a free, RESTful API using JSON to return up to 150 characters of song lyrics. This sounds perfect for our use-case, especially given the repetition of most songs; there’s no need to gather full lyrics when just a sample will do. Go grab a new key so that you can access their API.
Let’s try their API out before we settle on this source for good. Based on their documentation, we can make a sample request like so:
http://api.lyricsnmusic.com/songs?api_key=[YOUR_API_KEY_HERE]&artist=coldplay
The JSON results it spits back in a browser are a bit hard to read; through them in a formatter to take a better look. It looks like we’re successfully getting back a list of dictionaries based on Coldplay songs:
[ { "title" : "Don't Panic", "url" : "http://www.lyricsnmusic.com/coldplay/don-t-panic-lyrics/4294612", "snippet" : "Bones sinking like stones \r
All that we've fought for \r
Homes, places we've grown \r
All of us are done for \r
\r
We live in a beautiful world \r
Yeah we...", "context" : null, "viewable" : true, "instrumental" : false, "artist" :{ "name" : "Coldplay", "url" : "http://www.lyricsnmusic.com/coldplay" } }, { "title" : "Shiver", "url" : "http://www.lyricsnmusic.com/coldplay/shiver-lyrics/4294613", "snippet" : "So I look in your direction\r
But you pay me no attention, do you\r
I know you don't listen to me\r
'Cause you say you see straight through me, don't you...", "context" : null, "viewable" : true, "instrumental" : false, "artist" :{ "name" : "Coldplay", "url" : "http://www.lyricsnmusic.com/coldplay" } },... ]
There’s no way to limit the response, but we’re only interested in each “snippet” provided, which looks just fine for this project.
Our preliminary experiments with Markov generators were educational, but our current model isn’t the best suited to the task of generating lyrics. For one thing, we should probably use individual words as our tokens rather than taking things character by character; it’s fun trying to mock language itself, but for generating fake lyrics, we’ll want to stick to real English. This sounds trickier, though, and we’ve come a long way to understanding how Markov chains operate, which was the initial goal with that exercise. At this point, we reach a crossroads: reinvent the metaphorical wheel for the sake of more learning (it could be great coding practice), or see what else others have already created.
I chose the lazy way out and headed back to search the innerwebs. A kind soul on GitHub has already implemented a basic single-word-based Markov chain and even uploaded it to PyPI. Taking a quick stroll through the code, it appears that this model is only of order 0. This probably would have been quick enough to build on our own, while a higher-order model might be significantly more work. For now, let’s go with someone else’s pre-packaged wheel; at least an order 0 model won’t end up sounding like Björk if we’re using whole words.
Since we want to easily share our creation with friends and family, it makes sense to turn it into a web application. Now, to choose a web framework. Personally, I’m by far the most familiar with Django, but that seems like overkill here; after all, we won’t even need a database of our own. Let’s try out Flask.
Add Flask
Per the usual routine, fire up a virtual environment - if you haven’t already! If this isn’t a familiar process, take a look through some of our previous posts to learn how to get set up.
$ mkdir lyricize $ cd lyricize $ virtualenv --no-site-packages venv $ source venv/bin/activate
Also as per usual, install the necessary requirements and throw them in a requirements.txt file:
$ pip install PyMarkovChain flask requests $ pip freeze > requirements.txt
We’ve added in the requests library as well so that we can make web requests to the lyrics API.
Now, to make the app. For the sake of simplicity, let’s split it up into two pages: the main page will present a basic form to the user for choosing an artist name and a number of lines of lyrics to generate, while a second “lyrics” page will present the results. Let’s start with a barebones Flask application named app.py that uses an index.html template:
from flask import Flask, render_template app = Flask ( __name__ ) app. debug = True @app. route ( '/', methods = [ 'GET' ]) def index (): return render_template ( 'index.html' ) if __name__ == '__main__' : app. run ()
All this app will do so far is load the contents of an index.html template. Let’s make it a basic form:
< html > < body > < form action = "#" method = "post" class = "lyrics" > Artist or band name: < input name = "artist" type = "text" />< br /> Number of lines: < select name = "lines" > {% for n in range(1,11) %} < option value = "{{n}}" > {{n}} </ option > {% endfor %} </ select > < br />< br /> < input class = "button" type = "submit" value = "Lyricize" > </ form > </ body > </ html >
Save this index.html in a separate folder named templates so that Flask can find it. Here we’re using Flask’s Jinja2 templating to create a “selection” dropdown based on a loop covering the numbers 1 through 10. Before we add anything else, fire up this page to make sure we’re set up correctly:
$ python app.py * Running on http://127.0.0.1:5000/
You should now be able to visit http://127.0.0.1:5000/ in a browser and see the lovely form.
Now let’s decide what we want to show on the results page, so that we know what we’ll need to pass to it:
< html > < body > < div align = "center" style = "padding-top:20px;" > < h2 > {% for line in result %} {{ line }} < br /> {% endfor %} </ h2 > < h3 > {{ artist }} </ h3 > < br /> < form action = "{{ url_for('index') }}" > < input type = "submit" value = "Do it again!" /> </ form > </ div > </ body > </ html >
Here we looped through a result array, line by line, displaying each line separately. Below that, we show the artist selected and link back to the homepage. Save this as lyrics.html in your /templates directory.
We also need to update the form action of index.html to point to this results page:
< form action = "{{ url_for('lyrics') }}" method = "post" class = "lyrics" >
Now to write a route for the resulting lyrics page:
@app. route ( '/lyrics', methods = [ 'POST' ]) def lyrics (): artist = request. form [ 'artist' ] lines = int ( request. form [ 'lines' ]) if not artist : return redirect ( url_for ( 'index' )) return render_template ( 'lyrics.html', result = [ 'hello', 'world' ], artist = artist )
This page takes a POST request from the form, parsing out the provided artist and number of lines - we aren’t generating any lyrics yet, just giving the template a dummy list of results. We’ll also need to add the necessary Flask functionality - url_for and redirect - that we’ve relied on:
from flask import Flask, render_template, url_for, redirect
Test it out to make sure nothing’s broken yet:
$ python app.py
Great, now for the real meat of the project. Within lyrics(), let’s get a response back from LYRICSnMUSIC based on our passed-in artist parameter:
# Get a response of sample lyrics from the provided artist uri = "http://api.lyricsnmusic.com/songs" params = { 'api_key' : API_KEY, 'artist' : artist, } response = requests. get ( uri, params = params ) lyric_list = response. json ()
Using requests, we fetch a specific URL that includes a dictionary of parameters: the provided artist name, and our API key. This private API key should not appear in your code; after all, you’ll want to share this code with others. Instead, let’s make a separate file to hold this value as a variable:
$ echo "API_KEY=[youractualapikeygoeshere]" >.env
We’ve created a special “environment” file that Flask can now read in if we just add the following to the top of our app:
import os API_KEY = os. environ. get ( 'API_KEY' )
And finally, let’s add in the Markov chain functionality. Now that we’re using someone else’s package, this ends up being fairly trivial. First, add the import at the top:
from pymarkovchain import MarkovChain
And then, after we’ve received a lyrics response from the API, we simply create a MarkovChain, load in the lyrics data, and generate a list of sentences:
mc = MarkovChain () mc. generateDatabase ( lyrics ) result = [] for line in range ( 0, lines ): result. append ( mc. generateString ())
In total, then, app.py should now look something like this:
from flask import Flask, url_for, redirect, request, render_template import requests from pymarkovchain import MarkovChain import os API_KEY = os. environ. get ( 'API_KEY' ) app = Flask ( __name__ ) app. debug = True @app. route ( '/', methods = [ 'GET' ]) def index (): return render_template ( 'index.html' ) @app. route ( '/lyrics', methods = [ 'POST' ]) def lyrics (): artist = request. form [ 'artist' ] lines = int ( request. form [ 'lines' ]) if not artist : return redirect ( url_for ( 'index' )) # Get a response of sample lyrics from the artist uri = "http://api.lyricsnmusic.com/songs" params = { 'api_key' : API_KEY, 'artist' : artist, } response = requests. get ( uri, params = params ) lyric_list = response. json () # Parse results into a long string of lyrics lyrics = '' for lyric_dict in lyric_list : lyrics += lyric_dict ['snippet' ]. replace ( '...', '' ) +'' # Generate a Markov model mc = MarkovChain () mc. generateDatabase ( lyrics ) # Add lines of lyrics result = [] for line in range ( 0, lines ): result. append ( mc. generateString ()) return render_template ( 'lyrics.html', result = result, artist = artist ) if __name__ == '__main__' : app. run ()
Try it out! Everything should be working locally. Now, to share it with the world…
Deploy to Heroku
Let’s host on Heroku, since (for these minimal requirements) we can do that for free. To do so, we’ll need to make a few minor tweaks to the code. First, add a Procfile that will tell Heroku how to serve the app:
$ echo "web: python app.py" > Procfile
Next, since Heroku specifies a random port on which to run the application, you’ll need to pass a port number in at the top:
PORT = int ( os. environ. get ( 'PORT', 5000 )) app = Flask ( __name__ ) app. config. from_object ( __name__ )
And when the app is run, make sure to pass this port in
if __name__ == '__main__' : app. run ( host = '0.0.0.0', port = PORT )
We also had to specify the host of ‘0.0.0.0’ because Flask by default runs privately on the local computer, while we want the app to run on Heroku on a publicly available IP.
Finally, remove app.debug=True from your code so that users don’t get to see your full stacktrace errors if something goes wrong.
Initialize a git repository (if you haven’t already), create a new Heroku app, and push your code to it!
$ git init $ git add. $ git commit -m "First commit" $ heroku create $ git push heroku master
See the Heroku docs for a more thorough rundown of this deployment process. Be sure to add your API_KEY variable on Heroku:
$ heroku config:set API_KEY =[ youractualapikeygoeshere ]
And we’re all set! Time to share your creation with the world - or keep hacking at it :)
Conclusion & Next Steps
If you liked this content, you might be interested in our current courses for learning web development or our newest Kickstarter that covers more advanced techniques. Or - just play around with the app here.
Possible next steps:The Last -Naruto the Movie- opened in Japan on Saturday and ended with an announcement that a new Naruto project will "open" next August. The Japanese term for "open" (kōkai) is usually used for movies in theaters. The announcement featured Bolt in a colored manga image, along with character sketches.
The Last -Naruto the Movie- is part of the larger "Naruto Shin Jidai Kaimaku Project" (Naruto's New Era Opening Project) marking the 15th anniversary of the original manga. The Naruto manga by Masashi Kishimoto ended in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine on November 10 after 15 years of serialization. A new mini-series by Kishimoto with "a newly budding Konoha story" will launch next spring. An art exhibition and a stage play will also debut next spring.
Kishimoto had said in an interview last month that he will still have other work left to do in the Naruto franchise until next summer, so he will not begin preparing his next non-Naruto title in earnest until after that.Many of us subscribe to false beliefs about how our memories work, sometimes with serious consequences. We debunk some common myths
As a lifelong user of human memory, you probably feel you've got a good idea of how it works, right? To test your understanding of memory, we compare several commonplace conceptions with insights from psychology...
Memory acts like a video recorder
In a US survey published in 2011, 63% of 1,838 respondents said they believed "strongly" or "mostly" that memory works like a video camera, "accurately recording events we see and hear so that we can review and inspect them later". Memory is, in fact, a creative, fallible process, highly prone to suggestion and other distorting influences.
Some people have photographic memories
An extension to the memory as video recorder myth is the idea that some people have a "photographic memory"; that they can take a snap shot of a scene or a page in a book, and then bring it to mind whenever they want to.
It's tempting to invoke such an ability to explain the achievements of celebrated memory champions such as Lu Chao. In 2005, he set a new world record (as recognised by the Guinness World Records) by reciting the first 67,890 digits of pi entirely from memory. However, studies of memory champions reveal that they depend on mnemonic devices and thousands of hours of practice.
A related concept is eidetic imagery, in which a person claims to "see" a detailed visual scene that is no longer visible. However, tests of "eidetikers" find their memory of images to be no more accurate than control participants. It seems they just feel as though the image is vivid and still "out there" rather than in their heads.
Forgetting occurs gradually
Some memory misconceptions have serious consequences for the way eye- (and ear-) witness testimony is treated in court. For example, many people, including psychologists (according to a recent Norwegian survey), believe that forgetting occurs gradually, as if memories decay like an ageing reel of film. In fact, most forgetting occurs immediately after an event.
Confidence is a reliable indicator of memory accuracy
While it's true that accuracy and confidence can correlate within a single person's repertoire of recollections, confidence is a poor marker of accuracy when judging a single act of recollection or when comparing across witnesses. One reason is that some factors, such as repeated questioning, can boost confidence without increasing accuracy. Also, we all vary in our baseline levels of memory confidence. So when judging a single witness, we don't know if their confidence is high by their standards. In the legal system, when convicted people are exonerated by DNA evidence, confident testimony from an eye witness is the most common reason they were originally found guilty.
A related myth is that emotional events lead to more ingrained, accurate memories. Memories for dramatic events often feel more vivid and people feel more confident in these memories, but, in fact, they are just as prone to being forgotten as ordinary memories. Furthermore, if an event is stressful, this is likely to interfere with remembering details of that event.
Traumatic memories can be repressed and "recovered" years after they occurred
While subscribing to the erroneous idea that memories of emotive events are highly accurate, many people also often hold the somewhat paradoxical belief that traumatic memories, such as of abuse in childhood, are prone to repression. A related belief is that such memories can be "recovered" later in life, dug out with the help of a skilled therapist, or perhaps a hypnotist.
In fact, studies of child abuse victims suggest strongly that they usually do not forget their experiences. Moreover, research has shown that memories of abuse "recovered" in therapy are far less likely to be corroborated by third parties, or other evidence, than abuse memories recalled later in life outside of therapy, or never-forgotten abuse memories.
The consensus of the American Psychological Association on child abuse memories says that "most people who were sexually abused as children remember all or part of what happened to them, although they may not fully understand or disclose it".
Hypnosis can be used to retrieve forgotten memories
Many people believe that hypnosis can be used to unearth not only past traumas but all manner of long-forgotten memories, including recollections way back to the womb or even to past lives.
In a way, it is a belief that is consistent with the "memory as a video recorder" myth; the mistaken rationale being that because everything we experience is stored, we just need to find a way to reach it. In fact, nearly all the evidence suggests that hypnosis fails to aid recall, but instead has the potentially harmful effect of increasing people's faith in their memories, whether or not they are accurate recollections of events.
Amnesiacs forget who they are
A persistent myth is the idea that people suffering from amnesia have lost their long-term memory, including any recollection of their identity. In fact, amnesia caused by illness or brain damage typically manifests as an inability to lay down new memories. Specifically what is broken is the ability to convert short-term memories into long-term memories. An amnesiac will usually be able to tell you who they are and share stories about their earlier lives, but they won't be able to tell you what they had for breakfast.
• Dr Christian Jarrett is author of The Rough Guide to Psychology. He blogs for the British Psychological Society at bps-research-digest.blogspot.com and is currently writing Great Myths of the Brain (Wiley-Blackwell). Follow him on Twitter at @Psych_Writer
• This article was corrected on 16 January 2012 because it said Hideaki Tomoyori set a new world record for reciting the first 67,890 digits of pi entirely from memory. Lu Chao set this record.The following table of United States cities by crime rate is based on Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reports statistics from 2017 for the top 100 most populous cities in America that have reported data to the FBI UCR system.[1]
The population numbers are based on U.S. Census estimates for the year end. The number of murders includes nonnegligent manslaughter. This list is based on the reporting. In most cases, the city and the reporting agency are identical. However, in some cases such as Charlotte, Honolulu, and Las Vegas, the reporting agency has more than one municipality.
Murder is the only statistic that all agencies are required to report. Consequently, some agencies do not report all the crimes. If components are missing the total is adjusted to 0.
Note about population
Often, one obtains very different results depending on whether crime rates are measured for the city jurisdiction or the metropolitan area.[2]
Information is voluntarily submitted by each jurisdiction and some jurisdictions do not appear in the table because they either did not submit data or they did not meet deadlines.
The FBI website has this disclaimer on population estimates:
For the 2009 population estimates used in this table, the FBI computed individual rates of growth from one year to the next for every city/town and county using 2000 decennial population counts and 2001 through 2009 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Each agency’s rates of growth were averaged; that average was then applied and added to its 2008 Census population estimate to derive the agency’s 2009 population estimate.[3]
Crime rates per 100,000 people
State City Population Violent Crime Property Crime Arson2 Total Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter Rape1 Robbery Aggravated Assault Total Burglary Larceny-Theft Motor Vehicle Theft Alabama Mobile3 248431 740.25 20.13 57.16 177.11 485.85 5453.83 1216.84 3730.21 506.78 22.94 Alaska Anchorage 296188 1203.29 9.12 132.01 262.67 799.49 5415.82 748.17 3619.66 1047.98 20.93 Arizona Chandler 249355 259.47 2.01 52.13 56.95 148.38 2329.61 314.41 1866.01 149.18 Arizona Gilbert 242090 85.51 2.07 16.11 21.07 46.26 1385.85 192.49 1137.59 55.76 12.39 Arizona Glendale 249273 488.22 4.81 38.91 192.96 251.53 4530.37 637.45 3426.36 466.56 19.26 Arizona Mesa 492268 415.83 4.67 51.19 92.23 267.74 2171.99 381.50 1610.91 179.58 4.67 Arizona Phoenix 1644177 760.93 9.55 69.46 200.28 481.64 3670.71 778.57 2426.69 465.46 11.56 Arizona Scottsdale 251840 157.24 1.99 40.90 39.71 74.65 2172.01 348.63 1725.70 97.68 9.13 Arizona Tucson 532323 801.77 8.64 93.55 268.82 430.75 5251.70 831.07 3968.46 452.17 29.31 California Anaheim 353400 354.56 2.83 32.54 135.82 183.36 2630.45 382.29 1809.00 439.16 12.73 California Bakersfield 381154 479.33 10.76 24.14 197.56 246.88 4068.43 962.08 2377.78 728.58 70.58 California Chula Vista 271109 298.04 0.74 22.87 112.13 162.30 1432.27 236.07 915.50 280.70 8.48 California Fremont 236368 182.34 0.85 28.77 79.11 73.61 2150.46 284.73 1499.78 365.95 11.00 California Fresno 526371 565.00 10.64 33.06 182.00 339.30 3841.40 693.24 2618.31 529.85 41.23 California Irvine 276115 61.21 0.72 16.66 19.92 23.90 1316.48 227.08 1019.14 70.26 3.62 California Long Beach 471397 657.83 4.67 43.06 262.41 347.69 2672.48 586.55 1507.01 578.92 26.94 California Los Angeles 4007147 761.31 7.01 61.27 269.87 423.17 2535.92 415.96 1640.99 478.97 35.29 California Oakland 424915 1299.32 16.24 94.14 629.77 559.17 5982.84 617.06 4072.58 1293.20 46.13 California Riverside 328023 508.81 3.66 50.61 165.84 288.70 3058.32 510.03 2020.89 527.40 22.25 California Sacramento 499997 675.60 7.80 19.80 220.00 428.00 2936.62 577.60 1815.41 543.60 41.80 California San Bernardino 217259 1291.09 15.65 72.72 403.67 799.05 3867.73 983.16 1836.52 1048.06 30.84 California San Diego 1424116 366.61 2.46 39.25 99.01 225.89 1842.97 268.03 1214.37 360.57 11.09 California San Francisco 881255 715.00 6.35 41.65 365.39 301.62 6168.02 560.00 5059.49 548.54 34.38 California San Jose 1037529 403.65 3.08 55.03 132.62 212.91 2440.70 378.40 1284.69 777.62 16.67 California Santa Ana 335699 488.53 6.26 56.00 180.22 246.05 2090.27 276.74 1223.72 589.81 17.87 California Santa Clarita 216350 162.70 1.85 18.49 56.39 85.97 1424.08 311.53 923.04 189.51 6.01 California Stockton4 309566 1414.56 17.77 49.75 390.22 956.82 3627.34 691.29 2274.15 661.89 67.19 Colorado Aurora 368018 608.39 8.15 86.68 184.50 329.06 3003.66 454.05 1954.80 594.81 18.48 Colorado Colorado Springs 472958 524.15 6.13 103.39 101.91 312.71 3216.78 530.28 2235.08 451.41 24.32 Colorado Denver 706616 675.61 8.35 98.92 174.35 393.99 3667.06 612.92 2267.29 786.85 18.26 District of Columbia Washington 693972 948.74 16.72 63.84 338.77 529.42 4156.22 260.53 3528.96 366.73 Florida Hialeah 238260 198.52 2.52 13.85 64.64 117.52 2213.55 248.89 1677.16 287.50 10.07 Florida Jacksonville 894638 631.32 12.18 60.14 153.81 405.19 3526.68 631.09 2568.64 326.95 10.73 Florida Miami 463009 720.94 11.23 22.68 211.23 475.80 4014.18 526.99 3090.87 396.32 15.77 Florida Orlando 283982 744.06 8.10 64.44 213.04 458.48 5454.57 840.90 4125.26 488.41 7.75 Florida St. Petersburg 263712 698.49 7.58 51.57 189.22 450.11 4312.66 671.95 3269.85 370.86 18.20 Florida Tampa 384360 464.41 10.15 31.48 105.63 317.15 1743.68 321.31 1274.85 147.52 10.15 Georgia Atlanta 481343 935.72 16.41 58.59 293.55 567.16 477 |
-fall and services unavailable.
Is the situation on the ground in Nauru really that chaotic?
Nauru's government
Nauru has had a turbulent political history since Europeans first took control in the nineteenth century, passing between Germany and Britain and then occupied by Japan.
What is certain is that [Nauru's] citizens and residents do not have the benefit of good government. Geoffrey Eames QC
After the Second World War, Australia administered it as a United Nations Trust Territory until independence in 1968.
On paper, Nauru is a beacon of freedom in the South Pacific: it is a parliamentary democracy with a written constitution that theoretically protects the "fundamental rights and freedoms" of Nauruan citizens.
At least every three years, all adults over 20 have to vote in elections for the 19 members of parliament.
In reality, with no political parties, Nauru's government can be unstable: in 1996 there were three different presidents in three months.
More recently, some opposition politicians were expelled from the parliament and public servants dismissed because they spoke to international media about interference by the government in the court system.
In June 2015, three opposition politicians were arrested following a protest outside parliament, a development that attracted attention in Australia and New Zealand.
"We have been concerned. We want an update on the prosecution of the opposition members of parliament and we want to ensure that this is all done openly and transparently and in a way that is accountable to the international community," Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told ABC Radio on July 10, 2015.
According to a submission to an Australian Senate Committee by Geoffrey Eames QC, formerly the chief justice of Nauru, in recent times the Nauru government has committed "a series of flagrant breaches of the rule of law".
Mr Eames told the committee that in January 2014, Nauru's resident magistrate Peter Law (an Australian), was arrested and deported because he made orders against the wishes of a Nauruan minister.
From his base in Melbourne, Mr Eames opposed the expulsion and as a result had his visa cancelled.
He could not return to Nauru to continue as chief justice.
Mr Eames tells Fact Check that while people can debate whether Nauru is a failed state, "what is certain is that its citizens and residents do not have the benefit of good government".
In September 2015, New Zealand suspended its aid contributions to Nauru's justice sector.
Nauru's economy
Nauru's main source of income since independence has been the mining and export of phosphate.
Mining revenue had been reinvested in the Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust, which amassed around $1 billion in investments around the world.
Mismanagement and excessive government spending led to the loss of most of this wealth.
With dwindling phosphate reserves, by the beginning of the 2000s, Nauru was poor, in significant debt and relied on foreign aid to survive.
But then came Australia and the offshore processing of asylum seekers.
Nauru's economy is now performing relatively well: it has experienced economic growth every year since 2011 and based on recent figures (2012) its GDP per capita is now higher than that of Thailand, Malaysia or Indonesia.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) says that the Nauru economy has been "boosted by strong aid flows, higher phosphate and fishing revenues and the reopening of the Australian regional processing centre (RPC) for asylum centres".
By September 2013, the RPC employed 600 Nauruans, and a boost to related industries such as construction means that the ADB now believes that Nauru is "likely at, or approaching, full employment".
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has estimated that the RPC will generate around $115 million in revenue for Nauru in 2015-16.
The country is also reforming its economy: the ADB says that Nauru has "run balanced budgets and significantly reduced government debt as well as introducing reforms in the financial sector, [state owned enterprises] restructuring, utilities, transport infrastructure and governance reforms".
There are also plans to establish a "Nauru International Trust Fund" with the help of Australia and Taiwan, intended to save some of the income from the RPC for future needs once the immediate boost is gone.
Nevertheless, DFAT says that "Nauru will continue to be dependent on external assistance over the long term".
Nauru had operated as a cash economy since the early 2000s, but in May 2015, Australia's Bendigo Bank opened a community bank agency branch.
The bank tells Fact Check that around 3,000 accounts have been opened in the months since then.
Nauru's economy lacks diversity and could suffer a major downturn if the Australian government stops housing asylum seekers there.
But as of today, Nauru's economy has a degree of health that would not be seen in a failed state.
Government services
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says that despite an improving economy "poor health and education outcomes persist".
However, it is beyond the scope of this fact check to assess whether the services provided by the Government meet the expectations of the community of Nauru.
What is clear is there are at least basic health, education and essential services in place.
Nauru has two hospitals and a dental clinic.
There are ten schools (primary and secondary), staffed by local and expatriate teachers.
DFAT says Australia's support has helped to achieve 100 per cent enrolment in primary school in 2013-14.
There is a desalination plant to supply clean water to the population and internet access and mobile phones are available.
Nauru has a police force in place, that has training agreements with the Australian Federal Police and the Fiji Police.
The verdict
There is no universal agreement on what exactly a failed state is, but experts consulted by Fact Check refer to a lack of government control or working economy and institutions.
There are serious concerns about the sustainability of Nauru's economic growth and the commitment of the government to human rights protections and the rule of law.
However, it is plain that Nauru does have a government that is in control and its economy is functioning.
The situation on the ground in Nauru does not come close to that of a failed state.
Mr Wilkie's claim is exaggerated.
Sources
Topics: foreign-affairs, federal-government, immigration, refugees, international-law, nauru
First postedThere are few foods as sensual and appealing as bacon. The mere smell of it can take you by the nose and lead you across the house to the kitchen. It vaults anything from eggs to chocolate to Brussels sprouts to new levels of deliciousness. (If you haven't seen the Portlandia sketch “The Celery Incident”, suggesting nefarious roots for the current add-bacon frenzy, I suggest you take a gander.) Bacon is vivid and specific and entirely unlike anything else. It even supposedly acts as a “gateway meat” to tempt vegetarians. So what makes bacon taste like it does? And could chemists make non-meat products with the same taste?
Sometimes in flavour chemistry you find a single molecule that's enough to evoke a specific taste. Almond flavour centres on benzaldehyde, and banana on isoamyl acetate, though of course the real deal involves a mixture of many compounds in addition to those. Likewise, there isn't just one molecule that screams bacon. But the flavour begins with the meat itself – the pork belly that's cured, smoked, and sliced thin.
Some of the major flavour players are the result of the pork belly's fat breaking down, says Guy Crosby, food scientist and science editor at America's Test Kitchen. It's not just the white marbling that's in play. The cell membranes of the muscle tissue contain fatty acids that disintegrate during cooking to yield a bouquet of flavourful compounds like aldehydes, furans, and ketones. By themselves, some of these molecules have distinct tastes or smells – furans have a sweet, nutty, caramel-like note, aldehydes a green, grassy note, and ketones tend to be buttery – but whatever they are doing together seems to be key. If any of these classes of molecules were missing from the overall bacon flavour, you would notice it.
The diet and breed of the pig affect just which specific fatty acids are present in the meat, and hence which molecules will result when they break down. In fact, a lot of what makes it possible to tell one species' meat from another, according to Chris Kerth, a professor of meat science at Texas A&M, is traceable to the fats in membranes of muscle cells. That gamey lamb flavour, for instance, is partly down to the particular array of membrane lipids and their breakdown products.
When the cured pork bellies are smoked, they take on another set of flavour compounds
The curing salts that are applied to the pork belly affect flavour too, in part by changing the course of the chemical reactions the fats can take. They arrest progress down certain routes and shunt the bulk of the molecules down others.
When the cured pork bellies are smoked, they take on another set of flavour compounds. The smouldering wood releases acrid-smelling phenols as well as sweeter-smelling compounds, including the evocatively named maple lactone. “It's the combination of those two – the acrid and the sweet – that creates the real flavour of smoke,” Crosby says. “You really don't have the flavour of smoke without both of those.”
Fake bacons
The last major contributor to bacon's goodness is the Maillard Reaction, which occurs when sugars and amino acids combine under high heat and which you induce whenever you toast bread or sear meat. Crosby says the molecules generated at this phase include more furans, as well as pyrazines and thiazoles, which have nutty, caramelised tastes and aromas. As it happens, chocolate also owes some of its flavour to the Maillard Reaction, thanks to the browning of the cocoa beans. But it's not clear if this shared chemistry has anything in particular to do with why bacon chocolate bars are so delicious – the science of flavour pairings is thorny and controversial.
There are many meat-free bacons – “fakeons” – on the market, although opinions vary on how well they mimic the real thing. So if you had to create a bacon flavour from scratch – no bacon allowed – what would be in it? The Jelly Belly Company, which creates exquisitely specific flavours for its confections, does not yet have a bacon bean and would not speculate on the subject. “You never know what may or may not be in development,” their spokesperson wrote. But Kerth was willing to muse. “It's overly complex, but you could come very close,” he reflects. “It all depends on the food product, but it would be a combination of the furans from the Maillard Reaction, the phenols from the smoke, and some salt.” Three ingredients – sounds simple enough. But that’s probably only the start. “And then you gotta have some aldehydes...”
In the end, it seems that a real bacon flavour, using no bacon, would be quite an undertaking.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Linked inLunokhod 1 was a robot type of rover that the Soviets landed on the moon in 197o thanks to the Luna 17 lander.
Using solar panels during the day and a radioisotope powered heater at night, the rover was able to explore the moon for 322 Earth days. From NASA:
This first successful Soviet rover operated for 11 lunar days, the equivalent of 322 Earth days. It traveled more than 10 km across the lunar surface, during which it transmitted more than 20,000 TV images and 206 high-resolution panoramas, performed 25 soil analyses with its spectrometer, and used a penetrometer to test the soil’s mechanical characteristics at more than 500 locations.
After losing contact with the rover, the project was terminated on October 4, 1971.
A team of researchers from the UCSD (University of California at San Diego) have been using reflective space junk left on the moon to show deviations in Einstein’s theory of relativity. This is accomplished by measuring the shape of the lunar orbit using light pulses, distance and time. The team leader is Tom Murphy, associate professor of physics at UCSD and they have been searching for Lunokhod 1 for many years.
Tom states:
We quickly verified the signal to be real and found it to be surprisingly bright: at least five times brighter than the other Soviet reflector, on the Lunokhod 2 rover, to which we routinely send laser pulses, Murphy said. The best signal we’ve seen from Lunokhod 2 in several years of effort is 750 return photons, but we got about 2,000 photons from Lunokhod 1 on our first try. It’s got a lot to say after almost 40 years of silence.
Link via (The Register)Yves here. Note that this post considers the cost of hard v. soft Brexit, as in having the UK lose access to the single market versus remain within it. It does not consider the cost of what we have been calling a “disorderly Brexit” or what others have labeled “crashing out of the EU,” meaning a Brexit with no deal at all.
Note that this paper only gives some consideration to non-tarrif barriers, like divergence of technical standards. It does not appear to factor in things like massive lines at customs and documentation requirements in a hard Brexit scenaio. So if anything, the estimates are likely to be conservative.
By Hylke Vandenbussche, Professor of International Economics, University of Leuven, William Connell, Doctoral Researcher, Department of Economics, University of KU Leuven and Wouter Simons, Doctoral researcher, Department of Economics, University of KU Leuven. Originally published at VoxEU
Global value networks make it difficult to evaluate the trade impact of Brexit. Using a new model of trade that accounts for the indirect effect of these networks, this column delivers fresh bad news for the UK, and for the rest of Europe. Brexit cuts GDP more, and costs more jobs, if we also consider global value chains. A hard Brexit would destroy four times as much GDP, and four times as many jobs throughout Europe, as a soft Brexit.
Production processes are becoming increasingly global. Acemoglu (2012) and Johnson (2014) have argued that, as a result, we can no longer consider bilateral trade in isolation when we evaluate trade policy.
In a recent paper (Vandenbussche et al. 2017), we develop a new approach to evaluate trade policy when global value networks exist. It extends a traditional gravity model to include sector-level input-output linkages in production. This allows a more complete assessment of trade policy shocks.
Brexit’s Losers
While the framework is entirely general, we used it to evaluate the impact of Brexit on the UK and the EU27. Our world input-output model can be used to predict the trade impact of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU on the domestic value added, and employment for every individual EU country involved. The trade impact is arguably the most important effect and leaves aside less influential, channels such as foreign direct investment (FDI) effects, budgetary issues, or potential trade diversion effects.
Losses from the trade impact of Brexit vary by EU country, depending on its openness to trade, its trade intensity with the UK and vice versa, its sectoral composition, and the positioning of its sectors within the global supply chain. The conventional wisdom of Brexit is that the UK has a great deal to lose, but a sector-level input-output approach indicates that there are only losers from Brexit. Both the UK and each bilateral trading partner in the EU would suffer substantial losses if they were denied free-trade access to each other’s market.
Our analysis clearly shows that the EU27 stands to lose considerably more than previously thought. This is because EU27 production networks are closely integrated, which implies that tariff changes with the UK do not affect only direct trade bilateral flows, but also indirect trade flows via other EU countries. For example, the Belgian steel sector would suffer both through a direct reduction in exports to the UK, and also through a reduction in demand for steel that would have been used in German-built cars for the UK.
On average these indirect effects account for about 25% of the total effect of Brexit, although their magnitude varies across EU countries. For example, in Slovenia indirect trade effects account for 50% of the total impact of Brexit, while in Malta they represent only 5%.
To create these impact estimates, we take the predictions from our world input-output model to the World-Input-Output-Database (WIOD). This database makes it possible to identify production networks and current supply chains in the EU For every country-sector in the EU28, WIOD provides total production, the inputs needed from other country-sectors, and how output is subsequently used by other country-sectors in their production process. Using this, we can distinguish ‘direct’ exports to the UK from ‘indirect’ exports that were shipped to third countries, then to the UK. Including indirect exports provides a more complete assessment of Brexit by identifying the European production network and value chains in detail.
To empirically obtain the employment effects of Brexit, we consider trade in domestic value added rather than gross trade. The reason is that only domestic value added embedded in exports, matters for domestic employment.
We consider two hypothetical Brexit scenarios (summarised in Table 1). Dhingra et al. (2017) quantified the future costs of trade between the EU27 and the UK in a soft and hard Brexit scenario:
Soft Brexit : Import tariffs between the UK and the EU27 remain zero. Non-tariff barriers (NTBs), measuring divergence in technical standards and other factors, would increase to the equivalent of a 2.77% tariff.
: Import tariffs between the UK and the EU27 remain zero. Non-tariff barriers (NTBs), measuring divergence in technical standards and other factors, would increase to the equivalent of a 2.77% tariff. Hard Brexit: Import tariffs between the UK and the rest of the EU would rise to most-favoured nation (MFN) rates. NTBs would rise to 8.32%.
Table 1 Soft and hard Brexit
Source: Dhingra et al. (2017).
Domestic Value Added and Employment Losses Under Brexit
Figure 1 shows projected job losses for each Brexit scenario when both the UK and the EU27 raise their barriers. The bars indicate the normalised job losses as a percentage of a country’s active population. Figure 1 also reports, in brackets, the worst-case number of job losses in each EU country if there was a hard Brexit.
Our results clearly indicate that the UK would be hit relatively harder than the rest of the EU27 (except for Ireland) in both scenarios.
In either scenario, Brexit would lead to a relative reduction in economic activity in the UK and EU27.
Hard Brexit would cost 526,830 jobs in the UK, four times as many as a soft Brexit.
Hard Brexit would cost 1,209,470 jobs in the EU27, again, four times as many as for a soft Brexit.
Hard Brexit suggests a loss of 4.47% of UK GDP, again four times as much as a soft Brexit (1.21%).
The loss of UK value added would be about three times as large as for the EU27, which would lose 1.54% of EU GDP (0.38% for a soft Brexit).
Again, these impacts differ substantially across EU-27 member states. The EU-27 countries that lose relatively most are those with close historical and geographical ties to the UK (Ireland or Malta, for example) and small open economies (Belgium, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic). While Germany would suffer the largest absolute number of job losses (291,930), as a percentage of the total active population its relative losses are more moderate when compared to the other EU27 countries.
Figure 1 Total job losses under Brexit
Source: Vandenbussche et al. (2017).
Note: Employment data in Eurostat is missing for some sectors in the following countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta and Sweden.
For each EU country, Table 2 shows which sector will be most affected under a hard Brexit scenario. For Germany, most jobs will be lost in motor vehicle manufacturing. For Belgium job losses are highest in the food sector. For countries such as France, most jobs are lost in administrative and support activities.
Again our results differ from other studies because our methodology additionally accounts for input-output linkages between goods and services sectors, and includes both direct and indirect trade with the UK.
Table 2 Most-affected sectors in the hard Brexit scenario (in value-added terms)
Source: Vandenbussche et al. (2017).
No Winners
Our findings indicate that both the UK and the EU27 would suffer substantial losses if they are denied free trade access to each other’s market when Brexit happens. While the current belief is that especially the UK has a great deal to lose from Brexit, our sector-level input-output approach clearly shows that the EU27 stands to lose considerably more than previous estimates. The reason is that EU27 production networks are closely integrated, which implies that tariff changes with the UK do not just affect each EU27 country’s direct bilateral trade flow to the UK but also the indirect trade flows (via third countries) that end up in the UK.
We estimate these indirect effects will account, on average, for about 25% of the total Brexit impact, but for some EU countries, these indirect effects would create 50% of the total employment effects. Compared to other studies, the inclusion of this production network structure increases the projected negative impact of Brexit on the EU27.
See original post for referencesA A
After a decade of planning and struggle, the construction of a landmark project could begin this summer.The creator of The American statue, says they are close to breaking ground in the Sand Springs area.The $35-million dollar project would give this area a landmark, that's comparable to the statue of liberty.But at 217 feet, it would be 60-feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. Sculptor Shan Gray first announced the project in 2004 and he tells us they are very close to construction.He says, "I am very confident the project will be built.""I am looking seriously at a July 4th ground breaking"The Sand Springs Chamber of Commerce is anxious to see the dirt being turned.President Mary Eubanks says statue could provide an immense boost to that community, but after all this time, it will be easier to get excited when that happens.The project could transform the peaceful, suburban city into a nation travel destination.While that would come with some traffic and growing pains, people like Tammy Moss says that's small price to pay.She lives near the project sight, on Highway 97 and says it will be good for the city.The park would be developed in this shallow valley about a mile north of the Osage Casino, that'sowned by the Sand Springs Home.The home has agree to donate some land, and sell an additional 400 acres to the developers, but so far the deed hasn't changed hands.The home and the city of Sand Springs are waiting for a financial report from the developers.Shan Gray says that's being prepared and should be in their hands in the next few days.County commission Karen Keith has supported the project from the start.She's been talking with the developers and says they are making progress.Keith says a successful project would be huge for our local economy.A current phenomenon in hiking trips is the availability of hiking trails really close to urban centers.
Lots of cities have a big push to bring hiking and other recreational opportunities closer to where people live.
For many city-dwellers, a stroll through a nearby park will do just fine.
But for those who have discovered the well-earned pleasures of climbing mountains, crossing rivers, traversing canyons, hopping boulders and dodging bears, en route to a particularly spectacular view or awe-inspiring natural wonder, hiking adventure counts as a sacred pastime [Tips for hiking].
And the journey is every bit as important as the destination.
According to the Outdoor Industry Association, more than 29 million Americans day-hiked in 2006; that’s nearly 11 percent of population.
The following hiking trails will satisfy any hiker who appreciates the physical, mental and spiritual benefits of a challenging trail.
Mt. Katahdin, Baxter State Park, Maine
Baxter State Park, a wilderness and forest area of 209,501 acres, has 10 campgrounds, located throughout the Park and available for camping from May 15-October 15.
There are 46 mountain peaks and ridges, 18 of which exceed an elevation of 3,000 feet, the highest being Baxter Peak at 5,267 feet.
The views are nothing short of spectacular. Hike in September and October to gaze at brilliant fall foliage.
Coyote Gulch, Escalante Subdistrict, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area offers unparalleled opportunities for water-based and backcountry recreation in & around Lake Powell. Glen Canyon stretches for hundreds of miles from Page, AZ up to the Moab area near Canyonlands National Park.
Hike 8.4 miles into an ecological orgy where the reservoir once ruled and now slot canyons open with new energy.
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Naples, Florida
( Photo by ~sage~ )
A 2.25-mile raised boardwalk takes visitors through several distinct habitats found within the 11,000-acre Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, including the largest remaining virgin bald cypress forest in North America.
There is tons of wildlife here to see so enjoy!
Grayson Highlands State Park, Virginia
With elevations up to 5,089 feet, Grayson Highlands is the loftiest state park in Virginia. From the Pinnacles, Grayson Highlands’ highest point, you’ll find breathtaking views of surrounding mountains, including Mount Rogers (5,729 feet), the tallest peak in Virginia.
The park has nine hiking trails averaging a mile in length. These trails lead to panoramic vistas, scenic waterfalls and a 200 year old pioneer cabin. The park also offers access to the Appalachian Trail and trails in the surrounding Jefferson National Forest.
Lost Coast, King Range National Conservation Area, Northern California
A spectacular meeting of land and sea is certainly the dominant feature of the King Range National Conservation Area.
The King Range contains over 70 miles of hiking trails spanning from the beach to the highest peaks. Most of the upland trails are strenuous due to the steep rugged nature of the area.
From scrambling along wet beach rocks while fighting pelting wind and rain, to climbing, descending, then re-climbing a cumulative 8,000 feet, the daunting 25-mile north Lost Coast Trail will motivate any hiker.
Maroon Bells Snowmass Wilderness, White River National Forest, Colorado
The 181,000 acres of Maroon Bells comprise Colorado’s fourth-largest wilderness area and include more than 100 miles of trails and six peaks over 14,000 feet.
These mountain peaks, two of the most photographed in North America. Valleys in the Maroon Bells–Snowmass Wilderness offer an exhilarating mix of aspen groves, flower-speckled meadows, and dark forests of spruce and fir.
Mount St. Helens, Washington
There are many trails in Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument; leading hikers into a variety of diverse landscapes. Crater views, new lakes, ancient lava flows, blown down trees, mud flows and old-growth forest can all be discovered here.
Trails vary in difficulty from short, accessible interpretive loops to longer, steep narrow trails that challenge even experienced hikers. Have fun exploring places like Lava Canyon, the Plains of Abraham, Spirit Lake, Ape Caves, Johnson Ridge, and the Loowit Trail which goes all the way around Mt. St. Helens on 34 miles of backpacking trails.
Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park, Kauai, Hawaii
The Na Pali Coast is a very special place. The pali, or cliffs, provide a rugged grandeur of deep, narrow valleys ending abruptly at the sea. Waterfalls and swift flowing streams continue to cut these narrow valleys while the sea carves cliffs at their mouths.
It has 45 miles of trails that can take hikers deep into the park’s rain forests or take them out to the precipitous ridgelines above Waimea Canyon and the Na Pali Coast.
Wrangell St Elias National Park, Kennecott District, Alaska
Yearning to go even deeper into the wild? Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is the largest in the United States – by far. One frequently quoted statistic is that it’s 6 times the size of Yellowstone National Park.
Giant glaciers, abandoned mining sites, icy rivers, waterfalls, spectacular mountain vistas, grizzly bears, 9 of the 16 highest U.S. peaks, and maybe even some auroral displays await.
These hikes range from short nature walks of less than a mile, to strenuous, all-day adventures. Most hikes begin from trail heads on the McCarthy or Nabesna Roads or else from the towns of McCarthy and Kennicott.
Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California
This is one of the most popular, but strenuous day hiking trail in Yosemite. The first four miles the trail climbs out of Yosemite Valley and up past Vernal and Nevada Falls towards Little Yosemite Valley Campground.
There are a few different routes to choose from and both will provide stunning views of waterfalls and spectacular views from Yosemite’s most famous landmark. Water is fairly plentiful along the trail, with the last source being a spring along the trail, 1.5 miles from Half Dome.
More resources:
Camping Destinations In The US
Canadian Camping DestinationsFirst up, the Vanguard Veterans. They're now all done and blended really pleased with how they turned out and I'm looking forward to adding yet more to the unit in the future, alongside doing some honour guard to match!
Having written a while back about Queek being the inspiration for me joining the hobby I figured it was only fair for me to get hold of the current version of the model. I'm looking forward to painting him up and potentially using him in some games of Warhammer Quest. Beyond that - he's mainly just around for the fun of painting and owning the model.
Here's my test scheme for the Kindred of Malebolgia - this photo washes the colours out a little, the red is very much more red than pink! I was really pleased with this as the basis for the scheme though, so much so I've picked up a pot of Khorne Red air to get the base layers laid down on the first curse and their allies.
Finally this week, we have a little heavy firepower joining the ranks of the Dusk Knights. These guys are actually a payment in kind from a friend so don't break my rule of not buying any 40k stuff in the first 6 months of the year! Look out for an article on Wednesday detailing my revised plans for the Dusk Knights, which include these guys as my fire base. After this photo I managed to get them undercoated and based up so if the commission painting goes well you may see some paint on them sooner rather than later - I'm hoping to test out the new list this week at club!
Hi all, welcome once more to the little window into my hobby world, where I cast a light on my painting station and what wonders lie on it at the moment, haha!This week marks the first hobby update where I'm looking at my commission painting. I've got a few projects on the go at the moment so I've decided to focus mainly on them this month. Before we get to that though, let's just cover off the finished stuff on the Dusk Knight side of things, and I've a little progress on the cult project too!Can't remember if I've featured these already, but this is the finished command squad, with apothecary and 4 plasma guns. The weapons are all magnetised so that I can use different options in other games.The first scout squad - half a dozen snipers, they may be more effective in larger units but I've got another 6 in the queue once I get round to them!Ok, so that's the Dusk Knights, what progress have I made on commission stuff?First up is the first screamer of a squad of nine - in this case my commissioner had already sprayed the blue basecoats on the models and wanted me to add in the detail work. We decided to throw in some splashes of pink to match the traditional colours of tzeentch, and the rest would be done with varying patterns, almost like dinosaur skin.For anyone contemplating painting screamers there areof spines on them. Each coat here takes 20-30 minutes and there's three of them!These are the rest of the squad - the colour has been thrown off by the lighting at work so they look a lot more pastel than they are in real life. You can see though how each has a distinctive colouration pattern.From a different commissioner we have fateweaver - the old version. He came to me still on the sprue so last night I spent some time putting him together. the foot on the right of this picture was a little twisted (urgh, finecast) so he's now had that splinted (ok, bathed in boiling water and straightened) and can stand up properly.Finally we have the terminator librarian - this one is getting close to being finished now with just a few armour highlights and some layering details to go, plus the base of course!Right, what else is in the works?Well, first up this little fella!If you’re a fan of the works of Neil Gaiman, radio drama in general, beautiful coats or world-famous Scottish actors then we have three very special treats for you today.
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But first, a little background. As you may recall, earlier this year it was revealed that smash-hit Radio 4 drama Neverwhere (based on Neil Gaiman’s book and TV series of the same name) was getting a sequel called How the Marquis Got His Coat Back, following offbeat character the Marquis de Carabas (Paterson Joseph, reprising his role from the 90s TV version of the story) as he seeks out his iconic missing garment in the magical parallel world of London Below.
Now, RadioTimes.com can reveal two “first-listen” previews for the new one-off audio drama (based on Gaiman’s novella of the same name), which have the Marquis in action with other Neverwhere characters – including the surprise cameo return of Hollywood star James McAvoy, who played the lead, Richard Mayhew, in the original 2012 adaptation and is now back to help the Marquis in his latest adventure.
“It’s just a privilege professionally,” McAvoy says of his return, adding that “it’s just fun to go back into that world where so much is unknown and anything is possible.”
As shown in the above clips, Richard is seemingly enlisted by the Marquis to help in his search (unlike in the novella, where he does not appear) – but he’s not the only old hand to be back a-questing. As can be heard in this next RadioTimes.com exclusive scene, another Neverwhere actor returning to the fold this autumn is Doctor Who star Bernard Cribbins, who is reprising his role as Old Bailey from the original radio play. Have a listen, and just start counting the days until the full drama is released next month.
And on top of all THAT, it turns out that James McAvoy isn’t the only surprise cameo in the series, as we can also reveal that Neil Gaiman himself is set to appear as a character called The Boatman who will ferry The Marquis and his guide across Mortlake, the River of the Dead. Phew. There are just so many revelations today our heads are spinning.
“I wrote the novel of Neverwhere about 20 years ago,” Gaiman says above in a RadioTimes.com-exclusive (we know, another one) introduction to the series. “And that was all! I had plans for other things, I never actually did them.
“And then the BBC made its Neverwhere drama series. And when it was done, I thought ‘I wish there was more of this!’ And I thought, ‘Oh, I’d better go and make some more of this’.
He added: “The Marquis is probably the most fun character I’ve ever written. He is always unpredictable, he is conniving, he is unreliable. He is… especially in Neverwhere, we see him from the outside. So I thought, it would be fun to see him from the inside. It would be fun to watch what happens when we’re actually following the Marquis on a usual day!
Gaiman (right) with director Dirk Maggs
“I mean, a usual day for him seems to involve the threat of him losing his life, several old enmities coming back, brainwashing and some unwanted family relationships. Plus, having to wear a poncho.”
How The Marquis Got His Coat Back also stars Adrian Lester, Mitch Benn and Don Warrington among others in an ensemble cast, and is directed by Neverwhere and Good Omens’s Dirk Maggs. It will be followed by another adaptation of Gaiman’s novels, Stardust, also directed by Maggs for later in the year.
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How the Marquis Got His Coat Back is on Radio 4 on 4 November at 2.15pm and on BBC iPlayer thereafter.The first problem with Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth is that at no point in the game does Gandhi show up to nuke anyone. That stumbling block has to do with psychology.
David McDonough and Will Miller know that's related second problem with Beyond Earth: The strategy game didn't have a a beta. That's a decision that Miller characterizes as "unfortunate," because the beta could have offered a bit more insight into how players would react to its radical departure from previous Civilization titles.
Must Read Launching Civilization: Beyond Earth
These are problems that the co-lead designers hope to fix. The duo detailed their triumphs and shortcomings in a 2015 Game Developers Conference presentation — and discussed their plan to fix their shortcomings by being bolder where they were once more timid.
Not long ago, developer Firaxis Games gave the young designers a chance that few get: To create a radical new entry in the venerable Civilization series. And they would do it at the studio where the man whose name appears on its games resides. In many ways, their efforts were bold. They took the franchise off-world for the first time, eschewing the comfortable confines of Earth for alien landscapes. It was received with critical acclaim last year.
Beyond Earth wasn't all bold new frontiers, though. In several ways, the newcomers now know they were a little too cautious. When creating their first Civilization game, they got some things wrong. And some of those things would have probably |
of a milligram.) Siebert’s experiments with volunteers who tried different routes of administration revealed that swallowing salvia was the worst way to absorb salvinorin A, which is “deactivated by the gastrointestinal system.” Two other routes were much more successful: through the oral mucous membrane (by holding masticated leaves or leaf juice in the mouth) and through the lungs (by inhaling the vapor).
This information, combined with the realization that salvinorin A is highly stable and remains in salvia leaves even when they’re dried, set the stage for the plant’s commercialization. Soon it was available from head shops and online vendors in the form of liquid extracts and smokable dried leaves, often fortified with extract. Holding the liquid in the mouth more closely resembles the traditional method of consuming salvia, with the effects felt in five to 10 minutes and lasting an hour or two. But the alcohol-based extract tastes terrible and produces relatively subtle effects. (See “Salvia and Salivation,” page 42.) The smoked form produces faster, more intense, and shorter effects, appearing within 30 seconds and subsiding after five to 10 minutes. It sells much better.
According to the latest data from the federal government’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 1 million Americans used salvia in 2007, up from 750,000 in 2006, the first year the survey asked about the drug. Those numbers make salvia currently more popular than LSD, used by 620,000 Americans in 2007. (In terms of lifetime use, however, acid droppers outnumber salvia smokers by nearly 10 to 1.) Salvia, like other psychedelics, is most popular among 18-to-25-year-olds, 2 percent of whom report past-year use.
As is often the case with drug fads, interest in salvia has been driven partly by the same press coverage that has encouraged legislators to crack down on it. Salvia distributors say they see spikes in sales after anti-salvia articles appear. “Every time there’s a news story on it,” says John Boyd, CEO of Arena Ethnobotanicals in Encinitas, California, “it brings it to people’s attention.”
Still, salvia is much less popular than marijuana, used by 25 million Americans in 2007. It is also less likely to be used more than once. Tiffin University psychologist Jonathan Appel, who co-authored a 2007 article on the rising popularity of salvia in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, says, “We’re talking about a small percentage of people who are using it and an even smaller percentage of people who go back and use it again.”
‘The Worst Substance of This Earth’
Siebert says the prevalence of smoking, which produces quick, intense effects, helps explain why many users report overwhelming experiences they are not eager to repeat. High doses are another factor, since vendors compete based on the potency of their fortified leaves, bragging that they are anywhere from five to 100 times as powerful as the untreated plant. “When you smoke,” Siebert says, “the effects come on almost instantly, and it’s disorienting. Suddenly you have this dramatic shift of consciousness, especially if you’re taking a high dose, and it can be frightening and uncomfortable. That starts everything off on the wrong foot.”
Last year a commenter on reason’s blog, Hit & Run, called salvia “THE WORST substance of this Earth,” adding, “If you want kids to stay off of drugs, give them some Salvia and tell them this is what cannabis, hash, and LSD are all like.” Erowid.org, a website that provides information on a wide variety of psychoactive substances for an audience that is more Leary than leery, is less vehement, but it notes that salvia’s effects “are considered unpleasant by many people.” Bryan Roth, a psychiatrist and pharmacologist at the University of North Carolina, led the research that showed how salvinorin A binds to the brain. “Most people will say they don’t like it,” he says. “It’s just too intense. If it has any effect at all, I would say it would be to diminish the tendency for drug abuse.”
Users are apt to be especially disappointed if they are expecting a fun party drug similar to marijuana. “I smoked with a friend last week who became the leg of a table,” says Rick Doblin, president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. In his 1994 paper, Siebert listed commonly reported themes of salvia experiences, including “becoming objects,” “visions of various two-dimensional surfaces,” “revisiting places from the past,” “loss of the body and/or identity,” “various sensations of motion,” “uncontrollable hysterical laughter,” and “overlapping realities.” Such experiences might be interesting, rewarding, or revealing, but they are not exactly conducive to social activities.
“Salvia is not a recreational substance,” says Jeffrey Bottoms, who works at Mazatec Garden, a salvia importer and distributor in Houston. “It isn’t pleasant. It doesn’t make you feel good. It’s not a mood elevator. If you’re depressed, it’s not going to make you feel a little better. In fact, it will make you feel a lot worse.” Ready to try it yet?
First you may want to check out the videos. Search for “salvia” on YouTube, and you’ll find hundreds of videos of teenagers and young adults staring into space, laughing hysterically, falling over, crawling on the floor, and speaking in tongues while their friends alternately giggle and reassure them that it will all be over soon. These videos, widely credited with helping to popularize salvia, do not make it seem very appealing. Nor are they all that alarming, except perhaps as a sign that a disturbingly large number of people want the world to see their displays of drug-induced idiocy. In some of the videos, the salvia smoker freaks out a little, but these “bad trips” (breathlessly advertised as such) look pretty mild, consisting mainly of restlessness and a repeatedly expressed wish for an end to the ride, which arrives soon enough.
Yet the YouTube videos come up frequently in newspaper stories about salvia and in the comments of politicians who want to ban it. In January, explaining his motive for sponsoring a prohibition bill, Maryland state Sen. Richard Colburn (R-Dorchester County) told the Baltimore Examiner that the YouTube footage is “pretty disturbing,” adding, “Just imagine if that was your child.” Colburn’s YouTube-inspired bill would classify salvia as a Schedule I substance, making people who sell it subject to prison terms of up to 20 years. According to the Santa Fe Reporter, New Mexico state Rep. Keith Gardner (R-Chavez), sponsor of a similar bill, “says all the evidence he needs of the drug’s dangerous potential is available on YouTube.” He told the paper the videos are “dramatic as hell—you gotta watch ’em. At first I thought, ‘This is just somebody pretending.’ It’s amazing how powerful this drug is.”
Texas state Rep. Armando Martinez (D- Weslaco) says he introduced a bill that would ban salvia sales to minors based on “what we’ve seen on YouTube and what a friend of mine’s nephew had mentioned about all this.” He settled on age restrictions, as opposed to a complete ban, because it seemed easier to accomplish. “Any way we could stop this from getting into the hands of our children or adolescents,” he says, “I think that it’s something we need to do. If that means a complete ban, then I would support a complete ban.”
Texas state Rep. Charles “Doc” Anderson (R-Waco) already does, arguing that age restrictions could “do more harm than good,” making salvia use a mark of adulthood. The New York Times reports that Anderson has tried to stir up support for a ban among his colleagues by citing a YouTube video that shows a salvia smoker behind the wheel of a car. The video in question, “Driving on Salvia,” is part of a humorous series called “Being Productive on Salvia” featuring a Los Angeles production assistant named Erik Hoffstad. Other episodes include “Gardening on Salvia” and “Writing a Letter to Congress on Salvia.” The running gag is that Hoffstad can’t manage to do much of anything after taking a salvia hit. In “Driving on Salvia,” he never actually tries to start the car, and the scariest moment occurs when a cat unexpectedly jumps on the hood.
‘Beyond Anything We Have Seen Before’
Martinez and Anderson both raise the specter of salvia-impaired driving, but neither can cite any real-life examples of it, in Texas or elsewhere. That’s not surprising, since (as Hoffstad’s video illustrates) someone tripping on salvia, unlike someone who has had a few drinks, is in no condition to get into a car, start it up, and drive away. It seems the only way this hazard could materialize is if someone brought a bongful of salvia with him on a drive and lit it up while stopped at a light. Although the driving scenario seems implausible, salvia prohibitionists are right that there is a potential for accidents under the drug’s influence, which is why vendors warn their customers to put away hazardous objects and enlist a “sober sitter” to keep an eye on them during their trip.
When I press Martinez and Anderson for examples of actual harm caused by salvia use, as opposed to hypothetical risks, the best they can do is cite bad but brief trips. Anderson also claims “we are seeing the flashback scenario.” But as Siebert notes, “Any kind of intense or traumatic experience,” including war, car crashes, and near-death experiences, “can produce flashbacks.…Intense psychedelic experiences can be extremely frightening, and it may be that there’s some internal psychological mechanism of revisiting that kind of material later. But it doesn’t appear that there’s any organic, direct reason for this. It’s not like the drug hangs around the system and suddenly pops up in your brain one day. It seems to be more like the way the brain deals with very intense or confusing experiences.”
Last fall Anderson told the Waco Tribune-Herald that “with a single use [salvia smokers] can cause some serious, serious damage to their brain.” Roth, the salvia researcher, says “there’s no evidence for that statement.” In fact, says Siebert, animal studies of salvia give “no indication of it having any significant toxic effects, even at doses that are hundreds of times more than what humans would ordinarily use.” Even salvia’s detractors concede that addiction does not seem to be an issue, since few people who try the drug want to use it on a regular basis. Despite a dramatic increase in use during the last few years, emergency rooms are not seeing a flood, or even a trickle, of salvia users, probably because a hospital trip usually takes longer than a salvia trip.
The lack of alarming statistics helps explain why the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which has the power to ban psychoactive substances without new legislation, is still waiting and watching six years after declaring salvia a “drug of concern.” DEA spokesman Rusty Payne says, “I don’t think we have enough information yet.” And there’s no telling when they will. “It’s going to take a while,” Payne says. “If we decide to schedule [salvia], we’ll publish a notice [in the Federal Register]. If we don’t, we won’t.” Although Payne says the delay should not be read as a judgment on salvia’s dangers, the DEA can act much more quickly when it wants to, as when it banned MDMA on an emergency basis in 1985. “When they say they’ve been looking at it for years,” says Rick Doblin, “it means it’s not much of a problem.”
Nor is salvia a high priority at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Officially, the FDA says herbal products like salvia are “unapproved new drugs” and “misbranded drugs” if they are “marketed with claims implying that these products mimic the effects of controlled substances.” Products are deemed to be “illegal street drug alternatives” when they are “intended to be used for recreational purposes to effect psychological states (e.g., to get high, to promote euphoria, or to induce hallucinations).”
“I am aware of that law,” says Arena Ethnobotanicals CEO John Boyd, “and that’s why if you check our website there are no references to anything like that.” Many salvia vendors do tout the psychoactive effects of their products, promising “psychedelic,” “visionary,” “enlightening,” and “enjoyable” experiences. Yet except for two warning letters it sent in 2002, the FDA does not seem to have taken any enforcement actions against companies that sell salvia. While FDA spokesman Christopher Kelly says “we do not discuss potential, pending, or ongoing actions,” none of the distributors I interviewed was aware of any recent warnings or seizures.
As for Congress, Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) introduced a bill to ban salvia in 2002, declaring, “We know very little about the drug, but what we do know is frightening. This drug’s power is beyond anything we have seen before.” But the bill died in committee, and Baca never reintroduced it. I contacted his office a couple of times to find out why but did not get an answer.
‘Our Existence in General Is Pointless’
By contrast, there’s been a flurry of anti-salvia activity at the state level in the last few years. With so little evidence that salvia is hazardous, prohibitionists lean heavily on anecdotes. Ohio state Rep. Thom Collier (R-Mount Vernon), who introduced a salvia ban that took effect in April, said he was motivated by the death of a Loudonville boy who was shot by a friend. But according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “it isn’t clear whether the friend was on the drug when he shot and killed the 12-year-old.” The Columbus Dispatch notes “there was no direct evidence…that the shooting was drug-related.”
Similarly, when Rep. Baca proposed a federal salvia ban in 2002, he cited the case of Daniel Moffa, a 15-year-old Rhode Island boy who smoked salvia one morning and stabbed his pot dealer on the way to school. Moffa later told WPRI, the Fox affiliate in Providence, that he was “paranoid” and “hallucinating,” thinking the dealer looked “evil” and “horrible.” The story sounded fishy to Daniel Siebert, since he didn’t think a salvia user on a trip that intense would be able to coordinate his movements well enough to meet someone and repeatedly stab him. Still, Moffa’s parents initially blamed salvia for the assault because “we had no other plausible explanation,” the boy’s father explained in a 2007 email message to Siebert. Since then, the father said, “we have found out that Dan suffers from bipolar affective disorder with psychosis.” While “the salvia may have contributed to an episode,” he added, it “was not the real cause.”
The most influential salvia horror story involves Brett Chidester, a Wilmington, Delaware, 17-year-old who in January 2006 pitched a tent in his parents’ garage, went inside it with a burning charcoal grill, and stayed there until he was dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. Brett had been experimenting with salvia and claimed it had given him profound insights. “Salvia allows us to give up our senses and wander in the interdimensional time and space,” he wrote in an essay discovered after his death. “Also, and this is probably hard for most to accept, our existence in general is pointless. Final point: Us earthly humans are nothing.”
A month after Brett’s death, his mother, Kathy Chidester, told the Wilmington News-Journal: “We just won’t have any answers, and we have to learn to accept that. But my gut feeling is it was the salvia. It’s the only thing that can explain it.” A month later, the state legislature had approved Brett’s Law, which made salvia a Schedule I drug. The same week the ban took effect, Delaware’s deputy chief medical examiner, Adrienne Sekula-Perlman, changed Brett’s death certificate, adding “salvia divinorum use” as a contributing cause.
Since then Kathy Chidester has campaigned for similar laws across the country, and 15 more states have either banned salvia or (in the case of California and Maine) prohibited sales to minors. The laws all passed by overwhelming margins, in some cases unanimously. Anti-salvia bills have been introduced in at least 22 other states. “My hope and goal is to have salvia regulated across the U.S.,” Chidester wrote in testimony supporting the proposed salvia ban in Maryland last January. “It’s my son’s legacy and I will not end my fight until this happens.”
Appel, the Tiffin University psychologist, does not think salvia should be legal for general use, but he is reluctant to draw any firm conclusions about Brett Chidester’s death. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable saying it caused him to commit suicide,” he says. Such explanations, he adds, are “a way to try to make sense of something that’s pretty senseless. We’re always looking for rationalizations and reasons, particularly when there aren’t any.”
Roth, the University of North Carolina psychiatrist, is also opposed to using salvia recreationally, partly because of the psychological risks. But he says it’s difficult to say what role the drug might have played in Brett Chidester’s suicide. Although “it’s tragic that this young guy killed himself,” he says, “there’s no way of knowing if salvia had anything to do with it.…There have been a couple of reports of people having long-term psychotic episodes after smoking it that have appeared in the literature. It would seem, given the apparent widespread use of salvia, that if these are side effects, they don’t occur at very high prevalence. Otherwise, the ERs would be filled with people having bad salvia reactions.”
Siebert concedes that salvia “might have influenced [Brett Chidester’s] thinking in some way” but adds: “He must have already had some thoughts about suicide. I don’t think salvia’s just going to put thoughts into peoples’ heads. Mentally healthy people don’t decide to take such a drastic action based on [an idea] they had during a drug state. Psychedelics basically amplify a lot of your own internal stuff. If you’re already having some kind of dark thoughts, a psychedelic experience could amplify that, and it could lead to a problem for some people.”
Notably, there is no indication that Brett Chidester was under the influence of salvia when he killed himself. The idea seems to be that using the drug encouraged him to reach conclusions about the nature of life that were conducive to suicide. That theory, notes Richard Glen Boire, a senior fellow at the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics, “could apply to some of the greatest pieces of art in the history of the world. It would make Nietzsche a controlled substance. There is a lot of cultural production out there that shows a way of looking at the world that isn’t all sunny and rosy.”
‘One Life Lost Is One Too Many’
If Brett Chidester’s suicide looms large in the thinking of anti-salvia legislators in other states, that’s partly because they rarely have evidence of harm caused by the drug closer to home. According to local press coverage in one state after another, police are not reporting salvia-related problems. Neither are schools, hospitals, or drug treatment centers. Legislators want to ban it anyway.
Their reasoning is simple: Why wait for a problem? Martinez, the Texas legislator, says he favors “a proactive approach.” Over the course of my 10-minute interview with him, he says “one life lost is one too many” four times and “you can’t put a price on life” three times. To his colleague Anderson, who utters the phrase “it’s a hallucinogen” eight times during a 30-minute conversation, it’s self-evident that any drug falling into that category should be banned.
Georgia state Sen. Don Thomas (R-Dalton) has a similar attitude. In 2007 he candidly told the Florida Times-Union he knew nothing about the benefits of salvia use. “I just know about the publicity of the dangers of it,” he said, “so my first impression is to ban anything of that nature.” That same year, defending legislation that would ban the sale of salvia to adults, Wisconsin state Rep. Sheldon Wasserman (D-Milwaukee) told the Wisconsin State Journal, “This bill is all about protecting our children.”
Salvia prohibitionists say a complete ban is necessary to protect children because, as Wisconsin state Sen. Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point) told the Wausau Daily Herald in 2007, “many people believe that because it is legal there are no risks associated with using salvia.” Last year Massachusetts state Rep. Vinny deMacedo (R-Plymouth) told the Plymouth News, “I believe by not making this drug illegal we are sending a message to our youth that it is OK.” Appel, the psychologist, agrees that salvia users “make the assumption that because it’s legal it’ll be safe.”
But people do not assume that tobacco and alcohol are safe simply because they are legal. Furthermore, anyone researching salvia online would come across myriad warnings from vendors and users about the drug’s risks, along with the YouTube videos, which highlight the potential for bad trips. “I don’t buy this idea that people think because it’s legal it must be good,” says Doblin, “because the corollary is not true.” Especially when it comes to marijuana, he says, “People don’t think, ‘It’s illegal, so it must be bad.’ ” People inclined to experiment with salvia, he says, generally don’t believe that “the drug laws make sense.”
To the extent that people do believe that, says Richard Glen Boire of the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics, it’s a dangerous misconception. “In a mature society,” he says, “you would laugh at the idea that if something is available it is therefore stamped ‘approved’ and ‘safe.’ I don’t think we should be creating a society that’s safety proofed in a way that [ignores] the reality of living.”
Yet the war on drugs has conditioned people to expect that, with a few grandfathered exceptions, psychoactive substances that are not classified as pharmaceuticals will be banned. You hear it from salvia smokers on YouTube as well as salvia scaremongers in state legislatures: I can’t believe this stuff is legal. Ultimately, that is the crux of the prohibitionist argument. Salvia must be banned because it’s legal.
Once a few legislatures act on that premise, public officials in other states start to worry they will look irresponsible if they don’t follow suit. Last year Van Ingram, compliance branch manager with the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, told the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, “Our neighbors in Tennessee and Missouri felt it was important enough, so it is important for us to look at it as well.” A month later, after the Florida legislature approved a salvia ban, state Sen. Evelyn Lynn (R-Daytona Beach) told the Associated Press, “I’d rather be at the front edge of preventing the dangers of the drug than waiting until we are the 40th or more.”
‘A Philosopher’s Tool’
Since there is no political upside to resisting prohibitionism, it’s surprising when legislators decline to panic. Two states—Maine and California—have prohibited salvia sales to minors instead of banning the drug completely. This year Maryland’s House of Delegates likewise ended up rejecting a ban and endorsing age restrictions, but the state Senate did not act on the bill before the end of the legislative session. The Drug Policy Alliance, which testified against the Maryland ban, also helped change a New Mexico prohibition bill into a ban on sales to minors, although the legislation has not passed yet.
One respectable antiprohibitionist argument is that banning salvia could impede valuable medical research. Salvinorin has intriguing properties that have made its derivatives the focus of research aimed at finding better treatments for pain, drug addiction, depression, and various neurological conditions. “For those of us who study this sort of thing,” says Bryan Roth, “the fact that salvinorin binds to just one [brain receptor] is pretty amazing. It opens up the possibility that if we can find drugs that block the effects of salvinorin at that receptor, they might be effective in treating a number of diseases.”
Roth worries that placing salvinorin on Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act, the most restrictive category, will “make it more difficult to do research on it and investigate the potential therapeutic utility of derivatives. By definition, a Schedule I drug is devoid of any medical benefit. That makes it next to impossible to demonstrate any medical benefit. They made LSD Schedule I in the ’60s, and they’re only now getting around to looking at potential medical benefits. It really slows things down.”
While some salvia prohibitionists say they don’t want to interfere with scientific research, they do not recognize any legitimate nonmedical use for the plant. They see teenagers getting wasted on YouTube, and they see medical applications that might one day be approved by the FDA, but nothing in between. Siebert, who thinks thrill-seeking salvia smokers do not understand what the plant is all about, recently told the German magazine Hanfblatt, “Salvia is not an escapist drug. Quite the contrary: It is a philosopher’s tool.” He says, “It produces a very internal state where you go into yourself. You’re more aware of your subconscious feelings, and often you gain insight into problems in your life that you’re trying to tackle.” Last year he told Newsweek, “I realized I wanted to marry my wife as a result of the salvia experience.”
In a 2003 Erowid survey of 500 salvia users who filled out an online questionnaire, 47 percent reported “increased insight,” while 40 percent said they felt an “increased sense of connection with the universe or nature.” Other commonly reported effects were improved mood (45 percent), calmness (42 percent), weird thoughts (36 percent), a feeling of unreality (32 percent), and a feeling of floating (32 percent). About 26 percent reported “persisting positive effects,” compared to 4 percent who reported “persisting negative effects” (typically anxiety). The sample was self-selected, so the responses are not necessarily representative, but they give a better sense than the YouTube videos do of why some people might find value in the salvia experience.
“It makes things that are bothering you become clear,” says Mazatec Garden’s Jeffrey Bottoms. Some users report that salvia relieved their depression or helped them break bad habits. A 2001 case report in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology described a 26-year-old woman whose chronic depression disappeared after she started taking small doses of salvia three times a week. Arena Ethnobotanicals CEO John Boyd says he tried to give up cigarettes many times over the years and finally quit the week after his first salvia experience. Doblin notes that Canadian Quakers who have used salvia during meetings “felt that it deepened the silence and made people speak more from the heart.”
Although Siebert does not put much stock in spiritualism, he recognizes that other salvia users see their experiences in religious terms. “It seems so real that people often interpret it at face value and think they have actually had some kind of spiritual journey,” he says. “I don’t personally believe that’s what is really going on. But that doesn’t mean it’s not meaningful for people.”
By contrast, Worcester County, Maryland, Commissioner Linda Busick is sure a salvia experience cannot possibly be meaningful, at least not in a good way. “It’s supposed to be inducing spiritual growth,” Busick scoffed in a 2008 interview with the Salisbury Daily Times. “It’s certainly detrimental to anyone who uses it. I don’t know of any beneficial effects that it has.” Van Ingram, the Kentucky drug control official, is on the same page. “Anything that makes you see visions or things that are not there,” he told the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer last year, “is hardly harmless.”
Anything? As Boire notes, “The visionary state goes back millennia, and it cannot be prohibited. Every night we enter into a visionary state. Every book you read, everything that goes through your sensory apparatus, creates a type of vision.” Doblin adds: “Seeing visions is the core of a lot of different religions, and whether that’s harmful or not depends on the context, the support, how people interpret the visions. Seeing things that are not there is not necessarily harmful. This whole idea that different is bad, that a change in consciousness is in itself harmful, is really one of the fundamental problems inherent in the drug war.”
Senior Editor Jacob Sullum (jsullum@reason.com) is the author of Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use (Tarcher/Penguin).The legend of El Chapo continues to grow. Alternatively, you could say the narrative of the infamous narco is flowing nicely. OK OK I’m done…
Today we learned that months after escaping from maximum security prison last year, Joaquin Guzman underwent elective male enhancement surgery in Tijuana [lead image via Rolling Stone].
Mexican newspaper reporters at Reforma, who apparently spoke in Spanish to sources close to El Chapo’s investigation, revealed that the Drug Lord had received a testicular prosthesis that improves blood flow and alleviate erectile disfunction. According to these same sources, it is believed that El Chapo suffered from ED.
Here’s a report from Mexican journalist Carlos Loret of SinEmbargo:
“According to sources at the first level in the National Security Commission, [Guzmán] went to Tijuana to receive an aesthetic treatment and undergo a surgery to implant a prosthesis, a procedure that usually requires general anesthetic and an operating room,” and which could not be done in the mountains of Sinaloa, according to Loret. Loret said that Mexican authorities also recovered injectable testosterone, syringes, antibiotics, anti-inflammitories, and a pharmacy note for more than 4,000 pesos’ worth of drugs to improve sexual performance from the home where he was recaptured on January 8.”
Don’t get me wrong here, El Chapo is still an extremely dangerous man responsible for the deaths of hundreds (possibly thousands) but it does not surprise me one bit that a man who made paisley shirts famous suffers from erectile disfunction. That’s an affliction that we all have to deal with as men at some point or other.
But can we talk about the balls this guy to leave his safe house in the Sierra Madre Mountains, head to Tijuana, and get put under anesthesia to get elective surgery on his penis? That requires some serious trust. Of course, he probably had the families of the doctors and nurses tied up and doused with gasoline in case something went wrong, but that’s still ballsy to me.
Did the timing of his surgery have anything to do with his upcoming meeting with Katie Del Castillo? There’s a good chance. Especially given the timing of both the surgery and their interview.
On the other hand, there’s definitely a possibility that this story is just propaganda that the Mexican government will use to take their Public Enemy #1 down a peg or two.A Promised Fulfilled
In one regard, January 1, 1863, was no different than all the other New Year’s Days in recent Washington memory—Civil War notwithstanding. Ushers threw open the doors of the White House around 11 a.m., and ordinary citizens surged inside to mingle with dignitaries. Towering above the throng was Abraham Lincoln, patiently greeting visitors by the hundreds, “his blessed pump handle working steadily,” marveled journalist Noah Brooks. But this was to be no ordinary New Year’s Day in the nation’s capital. Today history would be made.
Around 2 p.m. the president quietly slipped out of the East Room and walked upstairs to his office (now the Lincoln Bedroom) on the second floor. Waiting for him was Secretary of State William H. Seward, along with Seward’s son Frederick, who served as his father’s private secretary, and a few members of Lincoln’s staff. On the large table near the center of the room rested a vellum document written out by a professional “engrosser”—and corrected a final time only hours before, after Lincoln himself noticed an error.
Solemnly, Lincoln sat down at his accustomed spot at the head of the table. Now, at last, he would sign the most important order of his administration, perhaps of the century: the Emancipation Proclamation.
Exactly 100 days earlier, Lincoln had issued a preliminary proclamation, vowing to free the slaves in all states still in active rebellion against the federal authority on this day, January 1. The rebellion had continued, but many doubted until the very last minute that Lincoln would make good his threat. One persistent rumor held that Mrs. Lincoln, the daughter of a slaveholder, would bewitch her husband into reneging. “Will Lincoln’s backbone carry him through?” wondered New Yorker George Templeton Strong. “Nobody knows.” Lincoln took a steel pen in hand, dipped it in an inkwell, but then paused and put the pen down. To his own surprise, his hand was trembling.
It was not, Lincoln later insisted, “because of any uncertainty or hesitation on my part.” As he put it at that decisive moment, “I never in my life felt more certain that I am doing right than I do in signing this paper.” But the day had taken a toll. “I have been shaking hands since 9 o’clock this morning, and my hand is almost paralyzed,” the president lamented. “If my name ever goes into history it will be for this act,” he told the witnesses, “and my whole soul is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign the proclamation, all who examine the document hereafter will say, ‘He hesitated.’”
Hesitation was the last thing on his mind. “The South had fair warning that if they did not return…I would strike at this pillar of their strength,” Lincoln insisted. “The promise must now be kept.” Lincoln again took up his pen. Slowly but firmly, he wrote “Abraham Lincoln” in large letters at the bottom of the document that declared all slaves in the Confederacy “forever free.” Letting out a burst of relieved laughter, he glanced at his effort and declared, “That will do.”
What Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation did—and did not—do has been the subject of heated debate ever since. Did it free all the slaves? None? Or some? Was it a thunderbolt aimed at correcting generations of inhumanity? Was it rather a stroke of political expediency directed solely at foreign powers otherwise poised to intervene in America’s war on the side of the slaveholding South? Or was it merely an acknowledgment that slavery was already dying, thanks to forces beyond the president’s control?
One thing is certain: Lincoln himself believed his order would change the course of both the Civil War and the peace that would follow. And so did his contemporaries—including the painters, engravers and lithographers who commenced portraying him as a modern Moses in a host of artistic tributes—a sure measure of public opinion before the days of professional polling. For the most part, the graphic arts were somewhat slow to celebrate emancipation—waiting until the election campaign of 1864 to issue the first tentative tributes to (and virulent attacks on) the document, and withholding heroic portraits of the Emancipator himself until his assassination in 1865. But popular culture ultimately embraced Lincoln as a liberator, and for nearly a century most historians agreed he deserved the title.
Then, in the crucible of the 1960s Civil Rights revolution, dissenting voices began offering a different version of the story. Some insisted that the Emancipation Proclamation had achieved little—that, after all, it ordered slaves freed only in those states where Lincoln had no authority to do so, leaving slavery frustratingly untouched in a wide swath of geography over which he presided as chief magistrate. More recently some African-American historians advanced the additional theory of “self emancipation,” arguing that slaves, in essence, had freed themselves by fleeing from their bondage in such huge numbers (a mass of humanity known as “contrabands”) that Lincoln had no choice but to codify their flight by issuing his rather limp order.
Such criticisms, however, ignore the tremendous impact the Proclamation had in its own time, a far more accurate yardstick than hindsight. In the words of one contemporary, nothing so revolutionary had happened in America since the Revolutionary War itself. Perhaps that is why Lincoln anguished so long before doing what some of his supporters thought he should have done the moment he became president. And perhaps that is why, however long and arduously he labored to get its timing just right, his order triggered so much anger—putting Lincoln’s political party on the defensive and inspiring fears that white troops might refuse to fight to free black slaves. Modern Americans should never forget that above all else, in its own day the Emancipation Proclamation was immensely controversial.
We must also acknowledge that Lincoln personally opposed slavery all his life (even this inescapable truth has been challenged by a smattering of revisionists in recent years). Visiting New Orleans as a young man, he had been horrified by the sight of black men in chains like “fish in a trot line,” as he put it, a vision that tormented him for years. As a legislator in Illinois, he became one of the few to sign a resolution condemning slavery. And in his single term in the House of Representatives, he opposed the American war against Mexico, largely because its Democratic supporters hoped with conquest to acquire new Southern territory ripe for slavery. When Congress struck down the Missouri Compromise in 1854, Lincoln denounced the idea that settlers in America’s new western territories could now vote to import slave labor. At the very least, he insisted, slavery must be limited to those states where it had long existed.
True, Lincoln did not then (or perhaps ever) believe in perfect social equality for African Americans. Before he became president, he did not yet think blacks should be permitted to vote or to serve on juries, much less intermarry with whites. But he differed with the overwhelming majority of citizens (and politicians) of the day when he declared, “In the right to eat the bread which his own hands earn,” a black man “is my equal and…the equal of every living man.” Incredible as it seems today, such pronouncements still shocked many mid–19th century Americans. He took a further risk denouncing the Supreme Court’s |
bs, p<0.01). No significant differences were found between the verbal only and the addition of pain avoidance (99.5±29 ft-lbs and 109.9±26.3 ft-lbs, p=0.069) or the visual and pain avoidance trials (115.6±29 ft-lbs and 109.9±26 ft-lbs, p=0.43). In this study, training status did not significantly influence the response to type of encouragement. Individuals produced the most force during a MVIC with verbal and visual encouragement. The incorporation of verbal encouragement and visual feedback is an important factor in eliciting peak force in college-aged women. This may have important implications in training and rehabilitation models that incorporate resistive loading of the skeletal muscles.Mox Boarding House
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Date(s) - Saturday, January 24, 2015
11:00 am - 5:00 pm
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Organized off BGG forums, we have a small group of designers in the Seattle area coming together to playtest. We have a few open spots for other designers as well.
Jump at the chance to change the course of a game in the making. Local board game designers will demo their new creations and players will have the opportunity to play these games with the designers and give feedback. Get in on the ground floor of exciting unpublished games at this Unpub Mini at Mox Boarding House. If you are a designer and wish to present a game contact tom@13floors.com.
About the Mox Boarding House.U.S. telecom carrier Sprint is reportedly in talks to purchase Puerto Rico’s wireless operator Open Mobile. The deal is likely to be closed by the end of March this year, according to reports in local media.
The deal certainly bolsters Sprint’s operations on the Caribbean island, helping the provider to increase revenue and reduce operational cost, largely because Open Mobile runs a high speed 4G telecom network.
Moreover, Open Mobile comes with Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) certification, an important authorization that paves the way for Sprint to serve poor Puerto Rican residents entitled to phone subsidies, known as Lifeline.
Under this scheme, poor residents will receive around $10 a month in financial assistance to go toward a telecom service.
But, analysts say, the merger is unlikely to make any major impact on the operations of leading carriers, including AT&T and Claro.
Founded in 2007, Open Mobile is a joint venture between Columbia Capital and M/C Venture Partners. Its business model is based on advance payment and unlimited local call services, which generated good revenue in its initial six months.
It was the first on the island to offer no-contract wireless services, a practice that was replicated by other competing carriers. Considering a report from local media, the operator is currently struggling to sign up more customers, with its revenue shrinking by the year.
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There are six operators in Puerto Rico’s telecom market, but it lags well behind the mainland U.S. states in terms of affordable telecom services. The fundamental reason is the country is going through economic hardship, with many professionals leaving the island for the United States.Every year, the world’s most respected adventure travel outfitters reveal their newest trips to far-flung locales across the globe. And every year around this time, I review the itineraries of those new trips to select the best of the new batch.
My criteria: I’m looking for trips that take you to interesting, often untapped or emerging destinations; trips that offer unique activities and experiences; and trips that represent good value for the money, even when they’re upscale luxury excursions.
This year, my top 10 new adventures include volcano trekking in Indonesia, tracking gorillas in the Congo, following a pilgrim trail through the Pyrenees, and seeking enlightenment in Japan’s most remote alpine temples.
So lace up your hiking boots, fellow adventurers: Here are the best new trips to try in 2014.
Image Gallery (Photo: Thinkstock/iStock) View as one page Hidden China And Inner Mongolia (G Adventures) This new 12-day small-group trip offered by G Adventures pairs the usual tourist highlights—the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, Xi'an's Terracotta Warriors—with unusual experiences that veer way off the beaten path, like sleeping overnight in a traditional ger on the Mongolian grasslands, exploring the Yungang Buddhist Caves and Hanging Monastery, and learning traditional Chinese painting techniques from local artisans. What's Included: Accommodations; train, van, and bus transportation; some meals; English-speaking and local guides; and all excursions. The maximum group size is 16 people (average group size is 12 people). Provider: G Adventures
Price: $1,499 per person (allow an additional $200 or more for meals not included) (Photo: Thinkstock/iStock) Hidden China And Inner Mongolia (G Adventures) This new 12-day small-group trip offered by G Adventures pairs the usual tourist highlights—the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, Xi'an's Terracotta Warriors—with unusual experiences that veer way off the beaten path, like sleeping overnight in a traditional ger on the Mongolian grasslands, exploring the Yungang Buddhist Caves and Hanging Monastery, and learning traditional Chinese painting techniques from local artisans. What's Included: Accommodations; train, van, and bus transportation; some meals; English-speaking and local guides; and all excursions. The maximum group size is 16 people (average group size is 12 people). Provider: G Adventures
Price: $1,499 per person (allow an additional $200 or more for meals not included) (Photo: Kelimutu Volcano, Indonesia via Shutterstock) East Indonesia: Volcanoes, Trekking, And Dragons (Mountain Travel Sobek) On this new 14-day adventure offered by Mountain Travel Sobek, you'll explore the island of Flores in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, home to more than 15 conical volcanoes. You'll hike through forests and grasslands, view the world's largest lizards (Komodo dragons) in the wild, swim and snorkel from a private sailboat, and gawk at the multicolored lakes of the Mt. Kelimutu volcano. Take pictures—it's spectacular! What's Included: Accommodations, most meals, airport transfers, ground transportation, porters, entrance fees, basic medical and evacuation insurance, and guides. Provider: Mountain Travel Sobek
Price: $3,795 to $4,595 per person, plus $375 for internal flights. (Photo: Camino de Santiago via Shutterstock) Camino De Santiago Self-Guided Walking (CW) Walk through olive groves, vineyards, medieval hilltop towns, and fields of sunflowers at your own pace along one of the world's most renowned pilgrimage routes with this new self-guided walking holiday from CW. The nine-day trip samples some of Europe's most spectacular landscapes in the Pyrenees, Basque Country, and Galicia en route to Santiago de Compostela. What's Included: Accommodations in boutique hotels, most meals, luggage transfers, detailed maps and instructions, and 24-hour emergency assistance. Provider: CW
Price: $3,698 per person (Photo: Thinkstock/iStock) Trekking In Burma (Exodus) Explore ancient templates, trek through remote hill country, and immerse yourself in a rural life that has gone virtually unchanged for centuries with this new 14-day small-group trek though northwest Burma (also called Myanmar). After days of trekking, finish with an ascent and overnight at mighty Mt. Victoria, a 10,049-foot peak that surveys forested hills and lush valleys as far as the eye can see. What's Included: Five days of point-to-point trekking; accommodations in hotels, in guest houses, in village houses, and at campsites; most meals; and full porterage of overnight bags. The maximum group size is 12 people (average group size is five people). The minimum age is 16 years old. Provider: Exodus
Price: $3,655 to $3,855 per person (Photo: Thinkstock/iStock) Sailing Croatia: Dubrovnik To Split (G Adventures) Sail from island to island along the Croatian coast with this new trip offered by G Adventures. You'll embark in historical Dubrovnik, a well-preserved medieval town that doubles as the fortified King's Landing in the hit HBO show Game of Thrones. Each day features hikes to castles, waterfalls, and small coastal villages between hours sailing aboard a 50-foot yacht. What's Included: Overnight accommodations aboard a yacht (with a fully licensed skipper) and some meals. The yacht is equipped with five double-occupancy cabins, three bathrooms, and four showers. The maximum group size is eight people. Provider: G Adventures
Price: $1,102 per person (allow an additional $350 or more for shore meals not included) (Photo: Matsuyama, Japan via Sean Pavone/Shutterstock.com) Hiker’s Journey To Shikoku (Wilderness Travel) Wilderness Travel's new 13-day temple-to-temple hiking trip reveals a hidden Japan rarely seen by casual tourists. Walking an adapted version of the traditional pilgrim's circuit, you'll cut through mountain passes and deep gorges, climb to cliff-side temples, soak in hot springs, and take a cable car to western Japan's highest peak. The trip is scheduled for October during peak foliage season. What's Included: Accommodations, most meals, an English-speaking guide, entrance fees, and ground transportation. Provider: Wilderness Travel
Price: $5,995 to $6,795 per person (Photo: Thinkstock/iStock) Active In The Pyrenees (Intrepid) New for 2014, Intrepid's first trip inside Andorra, the tiny principality between France and Spain, is all about adrenaline. On this eight-day trip, you'll hike, cycle, mountain bike, off-road, and whitewater raft your way through the scenic Pyrenees Mountains. And if you've still got energy to burn after that, optional activities include horseback riding and zip-lining. Tired yet? You can soak your sore muscles in a thermal pool, too. What's Included: Chalet accommodations, most meals, airport transfers, private bus transport, and activities (cycling, mountain biking, whitewater rafting, zip-lining, et cetera). The maximum group size is 16 people (minimum group size is two people). The minimum age is 15 years old. Provider: Intrepid
Price: $811 to $859 per person, plus incidentals. (Photo: Panama Channel via Shutterstock) Panama Walking & Hiking: From The Canal To The Cloud Forest (Backroads) On this six-day trip, you'll see the Panama Canal, hike along the famed Sendero Los Quetzales trail with a naturalist guide, encounter the largest collection of rare orchids in Latin America, marvel at French and Spanish Colonial architecture on a walking tour of Panama City's Casco Viejo World Heritage site, and travel by boat to Taboga Island, called the "Island of Flowers," for stunning views. In the evenings, you'll stay at upscale accommodations and enjoy fine regional cuisine. What's Included: Accommodations, most meals, and guides. Provider: Backroads
Price: $4,098 to $4,198 per person, plus $300 for internal flight (Photo: Austin Adventures) Gorilla Tracking In The Congo (Austin Adventures) Still a largely untapped destination, the sparsely populated Republic of the Congo is just now beginning to develop the necessary infrastructure for supporting safaris after an extended period of political unrest. This seven-day high-end trip from Austin Adventures focuses on tracking western lowland gorillas in the Republic of the Congo's Odzala-Kokoua National Park, home to the world's second largest tropical rainforest (after the Amazon). You'll tour the pristine landscape by foot, by boat, and by 4x4 during the day, and then kick back at a luxury wilderness camp by night. What's Included: Luxury basecamp accommodations (Lango Camp and Ngaga Camp), all meals, excursions, transfers, park fees and entrance fees, and expert guides. Provider: Austin Adventures
Price: $7,398
Dates: Upon request (minimum of two people) (Photo: Red Sea Near Eilat, Sinai via Shutterstock) The Nature Of Israel (AdventureWomen) Discover the natural beauty of Israel with this new 13-day guided trip from AdventureWomen, the premier adventure-travel company for women over 30 years old. You'll participate in an archeological dig, swim in the Red Sea, eat local food on a kibbutz, and visit with Israeli artists and historians. What's Included: Accommodations, guided tours in English, internal flight between Eilat and Tel Aviv, most meals, all entry fees, and airport transfers. Provider: AdventureWomen
Price: $5,995 per person More From Smartertravel:
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10 Incredible New Adventures for 2012We've all seen those horribly sad commercials for the ASPCA, with the sad dogs and cats, while Sarah McLachlan tugs your heart strings in the background.
What people may not realize is that, SPCA's are completely independent non-profits, with no umbrella agency, a press release explains. The ASPCA is New York City's, so if a person in San Francisco sees the heart-wrenching commercial, sends some cash to the phone number listed, he or she is sending money to dogs and cats in New York, not in San Francisco, and the State Humane Association of California is filing a complaint against, what they say, are misleading commercials.
The complaint alleges that ASPCA's unfair and deceptive fundraising practices harm local humane societies and SPCAs by capitalizing on and reinforcing the widely-held mistaken belief that the ASPCA is a parent or umbrella organization to the thousands of humane societies and SPCAs across the country.
"Ever since the ASPCA began to aggressively fundraise several years ago, humane societies and SPCAs throughout the country have suffered," explained Erica Gaudet Hughes, Executive Director of the State Humane Association of California. "Our member humane societies and SPCAs frequently report hearing from people who gave to the ASPCA believing they were giving to their local shelter. These shelters believe they are missing out on funds that were intended for them."
Local SPCA Is In Dispute With National ASPCA
Local SPCA is fighting ASPCA on where money is going to. (Published Tuesday, May 3, 2011)
We reached the ASPCA for their response. They issued this statement:
"While we have not been served with a complaint, based on the press release we believe this claim is baseless and completely without merit. The ASPCA is a national organization dedicated to helping animals wherever there is a need. Animal welfare supporters are happy that we aid local communities, offer field investigation and recovery services and provide critical life-saving programs all around the country. In 2010, the ASPCA gave over 600 grants totaling nearly $7 million for animal welfare and anti-cruelty assistance in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the District of Columbia. In California, the ASPCA's average grant total per year for the past four years will be nearly $1 million by the end of 2011. And, the organization has pledged $250,000 in grants in 2011 to animal shelters and rescue groups in the Los Angeles-area with funding aimed at saving the lives of animals in the Los Angeles community. If a shelter or community is in need of animal welfare resources, disaster relief or anti-cruelty assistance, we stand ready to provide rescue support or aid."
Another option for animal lovers is to donate directly to your favorite shelter.The Google Play Store is supposed to be a safe haven, a walled garden designed to protect us from the dangers of malicious, unvetted apps and software that would do our smartphones harm. Although the Play Store has a robust anti-virus system in place, it appears that a new wave of malevolent applications has breached the Play Store undetected.
Fraud protection researchers at eZanga have uncovered hundreds of apps installed on Android smartphones around the world that are engaged in fraudulent advert click revenue generation. According to the company, more than 300 identified apps in the Store could cost the industry a staggering $6.5 billion in lost advertising revenue this year.
This issue was first uncovered after eZanga’s ad fraud solution Anura detected ad click attempts from a number of Play Store apps and closely monitored two wallpaper apps called Lovely Rose and Oriental Beauty. During a 24-hour period, the test phones with the app installed remained in sleep mode yet the apps requested a total of 3,061 ads and made 169 successful clicks.
As of June 16, the company has detected 317 of these apps on the Play Store, with 1,300 further malicious apps available from other sources. According to the whitepaper, even one $0.015 cost-per-click (CPC) ad payment per hour from these 317 active apps could cost advertisers between $62,000 and $214,000 a day, and these apps appear to be making many more requests than that. eZanga estimates that these apps have accumulated between 4.1 and 14.2 million installs so far, with the most popular app – Clone Camera – generating almost a million installs on its own.
The research identified a number of Play Store developers releasing multiple applications with the same characteristics. Some of those named include Attunable, Classywall, Firamo, FlameryHot, NeonApp, Goopolo, Litvinka Co, Livelypapir, Tuneatpa Personalization, Waterflo, X Soft, and Zheka.
Interestingly, the list also identifies the hugely popular ES File Explorer/Manager PRO as an app exhibiting similar behaviour. However eZanga has clarified to us that the malware is only found inside a cracked APK version of the app and not the legitimate copy that can be bought from the Play Store. The researchers tested both versions and found that only the cracked version has the malicious code inserted into it. If anyone needed a reminder why it’s wise to avoid cracked apps, here it is.
What are these apps doing?
While we’re used to hearing about malware and apps that target device security and compromise user data, this new wave of ad fraud apps are more subtle, simply using the host device to generate ad revenue for the parent company. In a nutshell, these apps are requesting ads and pretending that the app user clicked them, even when your smartphone is sleeping. This generates a small amount of ad revenue for the app developer, without any real person ever having seen or clicked on the ad. On a mass scale though, the profits can add up quickly.
So far, these type of bot apps are mostly downloaded as live wallpapers and other free cosmetic applications that the user will install and likely forget about. Most importantly they’re free too, which makes it easier for them to pick up casual installs. These bots are also now branching out into camera apps and web browsers too though.
These apps are particularly insidious as they don’t present any obvious issues for the user. You won’t suddenly be inundated with intrusive ads or find new apps automatically downloading themselves onto your device, or any other telltale signs of malware. Remaining inconspicuous is the key to generating revenue for the developer.
What’s the harm?
However these apps present some serious problems, both to us consumers as well as to other app developers and advertisers. For us users, these apps drain batteries faster and eat up our data, even while our smartphones are sleeping. Consumers may also begin to see adverts across various free to use services that don’t relate to their personal preferences, as personalized advertising profiles become warped by random bot clicking.
Infected consumer devices will suffer from increased battery and data usage, while advertisers and app developers will see the usefulness and profitability of ads fall.
Furthermore, these apps are still a type of malware and there’s no telling if they may become more aggressive in the future, potentially selling off other information collected by the application. This is particularly troublesome as these bots branch out into web and camera applications.
For the wider industry, this trend threatens to undermine both the usefulness and profitability of advertising. For companies looking to sell products, advertising budgets are simply being transferred to fraudulent accounts, which reduces makes meaningful advertising more expensive. Not to mention that the distortion of advertising profiles means that efficiently targeting advertising becomes more difficult, again raising the costs of reaching a target audience.
Advertising revenues per click are continually falling, and bots that reduce the effectiveness of advertisements means that this price could fall even further. That has a big knock-on effect for the revenue streams of a number of free services and apps, ranging from news sources to games. This will in turn dissuade development of further apps and products that would otherwise rely on advertising revenue, making places like the Play Store a less vibrant place.
In summary
Although this these type of stealthy ad fraud apps may not be entirely what we’re use to when it comes to smartphone malware, they’re by no means any less problematic than more typical malware. With the number of detected apps increasing notable in just a few weeks, there’s a danger that this could balloon into an expensive problem for advertisers and developers.
eZanga states that it will be informing Google about the issue immediately, so hopefully the company can get on top of this problem before it becomes more widespread. In the meantime, it might be best to steer clear of any poorly rated cosmetics apps, deny these type of apps access to background data, and to check your current installs against the list of developers above.“Tink aboot dis” When Teaching English to Italians
Teaching English to Italians
I really love my job, teaching English to Italians. Not only is it enjoyable and rewarding, but I meet a lot of great people from all walks of life here in Rome. The pay is decent (well, halfway decent) and it’s not too stressful. However, it’s not without some challenges at times.
One challenge involves teaching the phonetics of our language. While English grammar is relatively simple, the pronunciation can be quite difficult for foreigners. A particular torment for Italians is undoubtedly the “th” sound. This sound simply does not exist in their language. When asked to pronounce “think” or “thin” or “thick,” a beginner level Italian will usually say “tink,” “teen,” and “teak.”
Distrustful of this strange “th” sound, Italians simply refuse to put their tongue between their teeth(teet), which to them sounds like someone speaking with a profound lisp or some other speech impediment. And so they try to work around this obstacle by changing the “th” into an “f.” Consequently, an intermediate Italian will often produce, “fink,” “feen,” and “fick.”
This leads into the next issue: acknowledging that the letter “h” makes any sound at all. When attending primary school, Italians are taught that the “h” is a “mute little letter.” In their schoolbooks, you’ll often see an illustration of the pitiful, socially-outcast letter “h” with sad eyes and a bandage over her mouth to shut her up. In the Italian language, the “h’s,” like good little bambini, should be seen and not heard.
Indeed, there are a few (very few) Italian words that begin with an “h” merely to visually distinguish it from another word that would otherwise sound identical. For example: “ha,” which is a form of the verb “to have,” (meaning “he/she has”) and “a,” (which is the preposition “to.”) “Ha” and “a” sound absolutely 100% the same in Italian and kids learn this during their first year of kindergarten. Then, after many long years of silence from the letter “h,” an English teacher suddenly arrives from outer space trying to explain that “Hi!” and “I” are not only different words, but also sound very differently.
Much confusion then ensues when “Are you hungry?” is misunderstood as “Are you angry?” At this point the student will probably begin to believe that the “h” does, in fact, make a sound and that it’s an important part of the English language. As a result, they will begin putting a random “h” where there shouldn’t be one—while continuing to forget where the “real” ones belong for a few more years. Or until the teacher just gives up.
Then there are the grammar differences. When teaching their own native language to young students, Italian schools focus much more on grammar than we do in our American system. When learning English later in life, this can be both an advantage and a disadvantage for the student, as well as for the teacher. The student will often insist on finding an appropriate equivalent for each little part of a sentence. This is when the English teacher might—not having reviewed his or her grammar—be embarrassed to find him/herself not so well-versed in discussing direct and indirect objects, conditional forms, past participles, and so on. However after a short while, Italian students suddenly realize the good news: English grammar is much less complex than their own.
That’s not to say that they won’t make plenty of grammatical errors. A common mistake is trying to fit English verbs into reflexive forms. In Italian there’s a long list of reflexive verbs that in English are not used as reflexive. For example, the Italian “riposarsi,” “sedersi,” and divertirsi” (“to rest,” “to sit,” and “to have fun”) are all reflexive. So it should come as no big surprise when you hear an Italian saying, “I’m sitting myself here, if it’s ok with you, because I had myself a lot of fun dancing, and now I need to rest myself for a while.” All the extra “myselves” are the best they can come up with to translate their reflexive verbs. Good luck undoing this.
Of course, this only touches on a wide range of linguistic differences when teaching English to Italians. In future posts I’ll mention a few more, including the dreaded “false friends,” and idiomatic expressions.
(H)and if you tink of hany of your hown anecdotes to add to de discussion, plez don’t not esitate to post dem ear yourselves.
(This post is partially excerpted from my E-book, which is now available on Amazon.com. Please click the link here: Teaching English to Italians)
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Warren Buffet a highly influential American has finally hit the panic button, saying that we are going to be crushed under a mountain of debt taking into consideration the amount of debt the country is piling up.
Last year, Warren Buffett says, we were justified in using any means necessary to stave off another Great Depression. Now that the economy is beginning to recover, however, we need to curtail our out-of-control spending, or we’ll destroy the value of the dollar and many Americans’ life savings.
Here are some not-so-fun facts from Buffett’s editorial today in the New York Times:
* Congress is now spending 185% of what it takes in
* Our deficit is a post WWII record of 13% of GDP
* Our debt is growing by 1% a month
* We are borrowing $1.8 trillion a year
$1.8 trillion, that’s a lot of money. Even if the Chinese lend us $400 billion a year and Americans save a remarkable $500 billion and lend it to the government, we’ll still need another $900 billion.
Which brings us to the million Dollar question “where’s it going to come from?” Most likely the printing press. And, ultimately, that will destroy the value of the dollar.
Be Sociable, Share!MONTREAL -- As Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin went about changing the look of his team in the offseason, he had a keen observer in Alex Galchenyuk.
Bergevin traded away defenseman Josh Gorges and allowed a number of older veterans to leave as free agents, including captain Brian Gionta, in an effort to turn the Canadiens over to the younger players that make up their core talent.
Alex Galchenyuk Center - MTL GOALS: 3 | ASST: 4 | PTS: 7
SOG: 17 | +/-: 4
Most people took that to mean players like P.K. Subban and Max Pacioretty, established stars in the NHL, would be given more important roles with the Canadiens this season.
But Galchenyuk saw it differently.
He decided, at age 20, he would need to become a player the Canadiens could lean on. It is seven games in to the season, but the early returns are that Galchenyuk has become just that.
"There were some changes in the team and I knew the young guys had to step in," Galchenyuk said Tuesday after he scored the tying goal late in the third period of a 2-1 overtime win against the Detroit Red Wings. "I knew I would have this opportunity to play with guys like that and I knew I had to come in prepared. That really pushed me all summer, to know that it's my third year and I need to make a step to the next level. I'm happy with how things are going right now, but I can't stop. I need to keep improving and keep working harder."
Galchenyuk's goal was his third of the season and gave him seven points in seven games, one behind his center Tomas Plekanec for the team lead, and their line completed by newcomer Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau has become an offensive force for Canadiens coach Michel Therrien. Galchenyuk has registered at least a point in all but one of Montreal's seven games, and that was the only game the Canadiens have lost this season in what has been an impressive 6-1-0 start.
When he arrived for the first day of training camp, Galchenyuk boldly said he expected big things from himself this season. The No 3 pick in the 2012 NHL Draft was entering his third season, a time when many previous high draft picks found their stride and saw their careers take off.
His seven points this season match his total after the first five games last season, when he had a similarly hot start. But Galchenyuk is clearly a different player now, one far more likely to maintain some semblance of his scoring pace and not dip the way he did a year ago when he put up four points in his next 13 games.
Galchenyuk appears to be more confident in general on the ice, but the biggest change might be his confidence to win physical battles.
"I had a great summer of training and definitely got stronger and feel more confident physically," he said. "Every goal going into the summer is to start the year feeling confident about yourself, because when you do that you can do more things on the ice. Physicality is not an issue for me right now."
He showed that Tuesday, when Galchenyuk had a running battle with Red Wings defenseman Kyle Quincey and never backed down. On the tying goal scored with 3:09 left in the third period Galchenyuk was engaged with Quincey in front of the Red Wings net with a shot coming from the point and was the player left standing, allowing Galchenyuk to grab the puck behind the net and beat Jimmy Howard with a quick wraparound.
A year ago, the constant physical battle with Quincey might have thrown Galchenyuk off his game a little; Tuesday he appeared to thrive because of it.
"That goes with confidence and it goes with maturity as well," Therrien said. "Galchenyuk competes really hard, and that's the reason why he scored that goal, because he competes. His battle level is there, he's playing with a lot of confidence."
The night in Pittsburgh when Bergevin took Galchenyuk with the highest draft pick the Canadiens have had since 1980, he was asked what convinced him to choose a player coming off major knee surgery who had missed all but two games of the 2011-12 Ontario Hockey League regular season with the Sarnia Sting.
Bergevin said simply it was the look in his eyes that sold him on Galchenyuk.
No one but Bergevin and his staff know exactly what that look was, but chances are pretty good it was similar to the one Galchenyuk has every night he's taken the ice this season. There is an intensity about him that wasn't there before, a drive to take his game to the next level that appears to be at the root of his strong start to the season.
"The kid's got character," Therrien said. "This is what we like about him."Last weekend, an invite-only group of about 150 experts convened privately at Harvard. Behind closed doors, they discussed the prospect of designing and building an entire human genome from scratch, using only a computer, a DNA synthesizer and raw materials.
The artificial genome would then be inserted into a living human cell to replace its natural DNA. The hope is that the cell “reboots,” changing its biological processes to operate based on instructions provided by the artificial DNA.
In other words, we may soon be looking at the first “artificial human cell.”
But the goal is not just Human 2.0. The project, “HGP-Write: Testing Large Synthetic Genomes in Cells,” also hopes to develop powerful new tools that push synthetic biology into exponential growth on an industrial scale. If successful, we won’t only have the biological tools to design humans as a species — we would have the ability to redesign the living world.
Manufacturing Life
At its core, synthetic biology is a marriage between engineering principles and biotechnology. If DNA sequencing is about reading DNA, genetic engineering is about editing DNA, synthetic biology is about programming new DNA — regardless of its original source — to build new forms of life.
Synthetic biologists view DNA and genes as standard biological bricks that can be used interchangeably to create and modify living cells.
The field has a plug-and-play mentality, says Dr. Jay Kiesling, a pioneer of synthetic engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. “When your hard drive dies, you can go to the nearest computer store, buy a new one, swap it out,” he says, “Why shouldn’t we use biological parts in the same way?”
To accelerate the field, Kiesling and colleagues are putting together a database of standardized DNA pieces — dubbed “BioBricks” — that can be used as puzzle pieces to assemble genetic material completely new to nature.
To Kiesling and others in the field, synthetic biology is like developing a new programming language. Cells are hardware, while DNA is the software that makes them run. With enough knowledge about how genes work, synthetic biologists believe that they will be able to write genetic programs from scratch, allowing them to build new organisms, alter nature and even guide the course of human evolution.
Similar to genetic engineering, synthetic biology gives scientists the power to tinker with natural DNA. The difference is mostly scale: genetic editing is a cut-and-paste process that adds foreign genes or changes the letters in existing genes. Often, only a few sites are changed.
Synthetic biology, on the other hand, creates genes from scratch. This allows scientists far more opportunities to make extensive changes to known genes, or even design their own. The possibilities are nearly endless.
Biodrugs, Biofuels, BioCrops
The explosion of synthetic biology in the past decade has already churned out results that thrilled both scientists and corporations.
Back in 2003, Kiesling published one of the earliest proof-of-concept studies demonstrating the power of the approach. He focused on a chemical called artemisinin, a powerful anti-malaria drug extracted from sweet wormwood that’s often the last line of defense against the disease.
Yet despite numerous attempts at cultivating the plant, yields remain extremely low.
Kiesling realized that synthetic biology offered a way to bypass the harvesting process altogether. By introducing the right genes into bacteria cells, he reasoned, the cells could turn into artemisinin-manufacturing machines, thus providing an abundant new source for the drug.
Getting there was tough. The team had to build an entirely new metabolic pathway into the cell, allowing it to process chemicals otherwise unknown to the cell.
Through trial-and-error, the team pasted together part of dozens of genes from several organisms into a custom DNA package. When they inserted the package into E. Coli, a bacteria commonly used in the lab to produce chemicals, it created a new pathway in the bacteria that allowed it to secrete artemisinin.
With more tinkering to increase efficacy, Kiesling and his team were able to bring up production by a factor of a million and reduce the drug’s price more than 10-fold.
Artemisinin was only the first step in a much larger program. The drug is a hydrocarbon, which belongs to a family of molecules often used to make biofuels. So why not use the same process to manufacture biofuels? By swapping out genes used to make artemisinin with those coding biofuel hydrocarbons, the team has already engineered multiple microbes capable of converting sugar to fuel.
Agriculture is another field poised to benefit from synthetic biology. Theoretically, we could take genes used to fix nitrogen from bacteria, put it into cells from our crops to completely alter their natural growth process. With the right combination of genes, we may be able to grow nutrition-packed crops — directed by an artificial genome — that require less water, land, energy and fertilizers.
Synthetic biology may even be used to produce completely new foods, such as flavorings created through fermentation with engineered yeast, or vegan cheeses and other animal-free milk products.
“We need to reduce carbon emissions and toxic inputs, use less land and water, combat pests, and increase soil fertility,” says Dr. Pamela Ronald, a professor at UC Davis. Synthetic biology may give us the tools to get there.
Re-creating Life
Practical applications aside, one of the ultimate goals of synthetic biology is to create a synthetic organism made exclusively from custom-designed DNA.
The main roadblock right now is technological. DNA synthesis is currently expensive, slow and prone to errors. Most existing techniques can only make DNA strands that are roughly 200 letters long, whereas genes are usually over ten times as long. The human genome contains roughly 20,000 genes that make proteins.
That said, costs for DNA synthesis have been rapidly dropping over the past decade.
According to Dr. Drew End |
on just what genetic factors are at play in preventing cancer in other species, it will be time to bring it to the lab.
In other words, the evolutionary cost of fighting cancer was too great
The research currently being conducted on natural cancer suppressing mechanisms in whales and elephants is still in the discovery phase, which according to Maley means it will probably be a good 20 years before we seen any of this research being utilized in the clinic. Just what clinical use of this research might look like still remains highly speculative, but Maley can imagine a future in which we can take a drug that effectively "flushes out" mutated cells, similar to what elephants do naturally. Less is known about whales' cancer suppressing mechanisms than elephants' so its difficult to say just how our increasing knowledge of whales' genetics might help humans suppress cancer in the future, but Maley is optimistic on the subject.
"Evolution has spent the last billion years discovering and refining ways to suppress cancer. Each time a large or long lived organism evolved, they discovered a way to do this," he said. "[There are] powerful discoveries that mother nature has already made to prevent cancer and we should be mining them to improve human health."Political Lies and Weird Campaigns
Politics can get weird. This is to be expected since the stakes are high and money or power drives some folks to extremes. Then again, some of these people were no doubt a little extreme, weird, or extremely strange to begin with and politics was just their next logical step.
1. The Donation that really a Political Gambit
The letter from Constantine professed undying and rather expensive gratitude. The Emperor gave Pope Sylvester I the controlling sovereignty over most of Western Europe. Why? Well, according to the letter Constantine wrote he was so grateful for having been cured of leprosy by the pope. The only problem was there is no record anywhere then or now of the Emperor having the dread disease. In fact, the document itself wasn’t seen until around A.D. 750 or 800 about 400 years after the ruler passed on to his own reward. This did not keep the Vatican from using the letter as a sort of deed of custody to add land or tariffs paid to the Holy Roman Empire. A scholar named Lorenzo Valla discovered and published a report regarding a number of historical inconsistencies with the Donation letter, but no one really had the clout to put an end to the deceit until the end of the 1920’s. It was none other than Benito Mussolini, himself about to pull a few fast ones with the public, who finally forced Rome to let go of a huge slice of Italy.
Link
2. Too Delicate To Vote, Tough Enough to Be Tortured
Strangely enough in two places as committed to ‘fairness’ and the ‘rights of the individual’ women had to suffer and protest for their right to vote in the U.K. and the United States. For this reason the terms suffrage and suffragette is related to this fight, but few still remember how demeaning and difficult a time the women had it before winning such a basic right for themselves.
Most of the women who protested were from middle class backgrounds who felt stymied by their lack of ability to change their own situations either socially or economically. They started the movement for rights starting with the right to vote for their own representation in general elections. While there are currently many historians especially among those who lean toward the conservative trends who feel that the suffragettes did themselves a disservice by protesting, chaining themselves to fences or causing public disturbances it should be noted their methods gained them more attention and sympathy than simply writing letters to a newspaper.
Their fight also proved their point in a weird and ironic way as the reasons many politicians and religious leaders opposed women voting was their supposed fragility and inability to take on weighty subjects. During the course of the suffragettes movement in U.K. the woman were jailed, beaten, starved, and then out of fear of being blamed for having starved the woman jailers force fed a few of the group’s leaders by jamming a rubber tube down their throats. Women in the U.S. likewise faced adversity before finally winning their campaign. Strangely now that all the anger and hatred has died down even historians often discount or downplay the violence these women experienced which was in reality no differently or less viciously fought against than for any other group protesting for political equality.
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3. Conspiracy Theory gone wrong
The name Benjamin Loan isn’t as well known as many of his contemporaries like Andrew Johnson, Lincoln or General Lee. Loan started out well studying law and being admitted to the bar in 1840. Soon he became a practicing lawyer in Missouri. As he was an opponent of slavery he joined the Union Army and was immediately commissioned as a brigadier general. He continued his military service until 1863 when he was elected to Congress. After the assassination of President Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth however, his career took a drastic and weird turn. He and several other congressmen accused Andrew Johnson of having been involved in the conspiracy to murder President Lincoln. They demanded answers to certain questions and suggested that no one benefited more from the murder of Abraham Lincoln then Johnson who became acting President. It wasn’t that their questions didn’t have merit. They wanted to know about apparent changes made to diary of John Wilkes Booth.
They also wanted to know why John Wilkes Booth had visited Johnson’s house on the day of the assassination and left his card. The message Booth left was odd. “Don’t wish to disturb you. Are you at home?” Speculation ran on both sides about this quirky message some believing that the far thinking Booth was planning ahead and trying to cast Johnson in a suspicious light. Others like Loan thought the message sounded almost like a code, which seemed odd since a member of Booth’s band of conspirators named George Atzerodt was tasked to kill Johnson at home at the same moment Lincoln was being shot in the theater. Atzerodt claimed to have lost his nerve and tried to find it at a bar in several shots of whiskey. By the time he’d tried to carry out his deed men were already running through the streets shouting the news about Lincoln’s murder.
Still despite Atzerodt statements and confession the entire plot seemed strange to Loan and the conspiracy theorists so they made it known they didn’t think Johnson should be trusted. Their campaign of doubt backfired.
As it often happens to those who express such dark theories about their leaders Loan and the others felt public opinion turn against them instead. Johnson’s career and reputation continued untarnished by the allegations, but Loan lost his seat in 1868 and was forced back into his practice of law. He died in 1881 with none of his questions every truly answered.
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4. Might as well elect the dog…
Some of the weirdest campaigns haven’t even involved the human race at all. There have been a number of times through history when voters have shown either their angst or apathy regarding their political choices by running and even electing members of the animal kingdom. Perhaps the most amazing cases of a non-human being elected to office through involved foot powder getting the vote. Perhaps it was apathy, or a misunderstanding, or just a case of the voters deciding six of one, half dozen of the other but a company’s ad campaign for their foot powder resulted in a successful bid for office instead.
Apparently in July of 1996 elections were held in the small town of Picoza Ecuador and the foot powder company named Pulvapies decided to cash in by using the public’s interest in the process to promote their foot powder. They passed out a leaflet the same size, design, and color as the official voting paper imprinted with the slogan “For Mayor: Honorable Pulvapies.” The dozen or so candidates who found themselves beaten out of office by a cure for stinky feet were humiliated and threatening to sue the pharmaceutical enterprise for fraud.
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5. The strange tale of Mary Rosh - Woman, man or political beast?
John Lott is writer who likes guns, economic theory and conservative politics apparently in that order. Born in 1958 Lott holds several degrees and has held research positions at UCLA, Yale, Wharton and several other universities. When he began writing for the public with titles such as “More Guns, Less Crime”, “The Bias against Guns” and “Freedomonmics” it was natural that forums, chat rooms, and blogs heated up with either praise or criticism of the books. This wasn’t unusually, but soon internet users came to notice that time after time any place where the book was mentioned and especially if it was even tamely given a negative treatment a woman name Mary Rosh would show up and pen a long defense of Lott’s work. What was very strange was she didn’t have many other interests. She didn’t show to respond to other writer’s works, or haunt the blogs where such subjects were discussed at any other time. She appeared to be fairly obsessed with Lott.
Eventually Mary had a logical explanation for this - she was a former student of John Lott’s and she fondly remembered those days hearing his lectures. She continued to show up to give glowing reviews of the book on places such as Amazon.com and to fire back with critical remarks at any other researchers or critics of Lott’s research or writing. When it came to his theory about more guns meaning less crime Mary used her supposedly pint size to make her point claiming to weigh only 114 pounds therefore in need of a firearm for protection.
Forum and blog readers begin to grow suspicious and when some noticed that the writing and Mary Roch and John Lott was very similar they begin to uncover a trail that lead from Roch straight to John Lott. Blogger Julian Sanchez tracked Roch down to a fake persona Lott had taken on to defend and glorify his own work. Lott tried claiming his son and wife had used the alias to defend him, but few took this idea seriously. The non-existent Mary Roch has the distinction of being known as the very first internet “sock puppet” a beast designed to serve as a loyal online invisible friend to anyone with a political agenda.
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It’s said politics makes strange bedfellows, but the truth is it also breeds a lot of weirdness.
Written by Kacey Stapleton – Copyrighted © www.weirdworm.comGet the biggest Everton 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
The Everton fan who Duncan Ferguson gave a lift home then popped in for a brew after a recent match, has contacted the Echo to explain the circumstances of his surprise journey home.
Anthony Gandy, of Bodmin Road, Walton, is a middle-aged Blues fan who idolises Fergsuon.
He explained: "I saw Duncan after the Burnley match and just asked to shake his hand.
"I used to go home and away when Duncan was playing and he was one of my heroes.
"I only live around the corner from the ground so Duncan told me to jump in, gave me a lift home and stayed for a cup of tea.
"We just chatted about football and then he had his picture taken with me and my 21-year-old son Sam.
"He also had his picture taken with my partner, Antonia, but my other son stayed out after the match and missed him. He was gutted when we told him.
"Duncan was an absolute gentleman. Very polite. My son nearly fainted when I brought him in!"
A member of Tony's family took to social media at the time to reveal: "R Tony's just been talking to Ferguson in the car park after the match. Ferguson said 'Get in. I'll give you a lift home! He went in and had a brew! What a man he is!"
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Despite his hard man image as a player, Ferguson has renowned for spending time with supporters and donating time for charitable causes.
Former Blues team-mate David Weir once revealed: "Duncan was brilliant with all the young boys. With any young boy that came to train with the first team, most of the lads would just act normal with them, but he would be the opposite. He would make them welcome and try and help them - almost over do it. It was especially the case with the local lads - Liverpool lads.
"I think he wanted to help them becayse he felt he had been treated badly when coming through at Dundee United."
In 2015 he turned up at Blues fan Karen Nixon's front door unannounced to thank her for buying tickets to his testimonial match.Designed by Dr. Claudius Dornier, the Dornier Do-X was the largest and heaviest flying boat in the world upon its completion in 1929, with a wingspan of 157 feet and a maximum takeoff weight of more than 61 tons.
The massive aircraft was financed by the German Transport Ministry, but it was built in Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Constance, in order to comply with terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which forbade Germany from building certain classes of aircraft.
The Do-X was powered by a dozen engines mounted in a tandem “push-pull” configuration atop the wing, which could just barely haul the hulking craft up to an altitude of 1,650 feet. True to its boat-like design, the Do-X's complex engines were not directly controlled by the pilot — the captain in the cockpit had to send orders for throttle adjustments to a flight engineer in the engine room.BioShock 2 ditches GFWL for Steamworks, Minerva's Den free for current owners Now Microsoft has shut down Games for Windows Live, what happens to the one use anyone had for it--buying the Minerva's Den DLC for BioShock 2? Thankfully 2K has switched over to Steamworks, updating the game and very nicely giving the add-on free to everyone who already owned the base game. For goodness' sake, play it if you haven't already.
Now Microsoft has shut down Games for Windows Live, what happens to the one use anyone had for it--buying the Minerva's Den DLC for BioShock 2? Thankfully 2K has switched over to Steamworks, updating the game and very nicely giving the add-on free to everyone who already owned the base game. For goodness' sake, play it if you haven't already.
Multiplayer now uses Steamworks, and all MP DLC packs have been set free for everyone. People who buy BioShock 2 from now onwards via Steam will need to buy Minerva's Den separately, but if you already had it, you now have Minerva's Den too. Presumably setting up a way to verify whether people had purchased it on the GFWL Marketplace was not worth the effort.
If you have a boxed copy or snag BioShock 2 from another digital distributor, you can activate that key on Steam to add the game plus Minerva's Den and the MP DLC to your library, 2K explains.
Saves, achievements, and multiplayer progress from the GFWL version won't carry over, though.
Plus the game's been jazzed up by Digital Extremes for Steam, now boasting official controller support, Steam achievements, and Big Picture mode support. The SecuROM DRM is gone too.Photo: Gabe Camacho
The United States is not a battlefield, and our homes and communities should not be targets for military raids. But throughout Massachusetts today, forces composed of members of our public police departments increasingly resemble military units, backed up by advanced surveillance technologies, weapons, and battle vehicles. These units, known as SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) teams, conduct raids in our communities that increasingly resemble Special Forces operations executed by the US military in war zones abroad. For instance, SWAT teams break down doors in the middle of the night, dressed in combat gear, and hurl flash-bang grenades in civilian homes — too often merely to serve routine drug warrants. After more than a decade embroiled in wars abroad, the tactics, mentality, and tools deployed by the US military in overseas war operations are coming home to our cities and towns.
Law enforcement is a difficult job, and police officers are sometimes sent into very dangerous situations: active shooter, hostage, and violent barricade scenarios among them. Under these and a similar, limited, set of circumstances, militarized police raids may be appropriate. But all too often, as our review of open source material in Massachusetts and empirical figures from other states show, SWAT raids in America are executed in drug-related cases where there is no justifiable use of such extreme force. Worse still, these militarized drug raids do not impact all Americans equally: unjustifiable force and SWAT raids against people in their homes most often target people of color and the poor. The ACLU’s national office recently found that the majority of people impacted by the more than 800 SWAT raids it investigated were people of color.
Perhaps no story illustrates this problem more locally—and tragically—than the 2011 death in Framingham of Eurie Stamps, an African-American grandfather of twelve, in his own home. Using military-style tactics, including the use of a battering ram to break down the door after midnight, the Framingham SWAT team raided Stamps’ house in an attempt to apprehend his stepson and another man suspected of dealing drugs, when an officer killed the elderly, unarmed Stamps.
This report details the toxic effects the so-called “war on drugs” and “war on terror” are having in our communities—and their failure to address pressing public safety concerns. Revelations in this report include:
➢ Figures on the growing and unchecked transfer of military equipment to Massachusetts state and local police;
➢ Details about the adoption by local police of failed counterinsurgency battlefield strategies and tactics in Massachusetts communities;
➢ Previously secret National Guard involvement in counterdrug operations in the Commonwealth;
➢ Federal funding for local “counterterrorism” projects where there is no threat of terrorism;
➢ Widespread secrecy by state and local law enforcement regarding the equipment, tactics and consequences of deploying military tactics against local residents in Massachusetts.
This briefing paper is released in tandem with a study published by the national ACLU, which describes police militarization in other states and surveys the national landscape. The nationwide report demonstrates empirically that the inappropriate SWAT raids it investigated were disproportionately carried out against communities of color, which can exacerbate tensions between communities and the police. Rather than enhance public safety, federally-funded police militarization undermines police-community relations, endangering people and threatening the character of our open society. Public records and open source information indicates a similar problem in Massachusetts.
This paper is part of a growing body of literature calling for new public policy solutions to long-term social problems such as substance abuse and poverty. Counter to the dominant approach to security in America, the inappropriate use of SWAT teams, increased surveillance, and the monitoring of dissidents will not make us a safer or healthier Commonwealth.
Militarization of local police is fueled by the “wars” on drugs, terror, and dissent
The militarization of domestic law enforcement began in the 1970s with the war on drugs, and has been fueled by billions of dollars in federal funding throughout the so-called war on terror.
After the tragic Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, then-Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told Congress, “I do not endorse actions that move Boston and our nation into a police state mentality.” Despite this vow, the Commonwealth’s local police departments increasingly are adopting military weaponry, tactics and mindsets, often targeting poor and underserved communities, as well as people engaged in dissent and other forms of protected political speech.
In Massachusetts, many SWAT teams are operated by regional police department consortiums called Law Enforcement Councils (LECs). Approximately 240 of the 351 police departments in Massachusetts belong to an LEC. While set up as “corporations,” LECs are funded by local and federal taxpayer money, are composed exclusively of public police officers and sheriffs, and carry out traditional law enforcement functions through specialized units such as SWAT teams.
An additional 25 cities and towns maintain their own paramilitary police units (PPUs), and the State Police has a SWAT team of its own, called Special Tactical Operations (STOP). The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) also maintains a SWAT force.
Photo: Gabe Camacho
Militarization of police in Massachusetts is shrouded in secrecy
In preparing this report, the ACLU of Massachusetts filed numerous public records requests with Massachusetts police departments, drug task force operations, and regional Law Enforcement Councils, which operate regional SWAT teams. Most agencies denied our requests for public documents.
The federalization and militarization of local law enforcement—including with the US military—have taken place largely in the shadows, without democratic input or community oversight. Local Massachusetts police departments, for example, have largely refused to cooperate with ACLU requests for information about their SWAT activities. This failure to keep and make publicly available adequate records about SWAT raids obstructs the public’s view of police practices in Massachusetts, prohibiting the oversight necessary to prevent abuse and ensure democracy. Due to the weakness of Massachusetts public records law and the culture of secrecy that has infected local police departments and Law Enforcement Councils, procuring empirical records from police departments and regional SWAT teams in Massachusetts about police militarization was universally difficult and, in most instances, impossible.
The few documents obtained reveal that SWAT teams in Massachusetts do not keep adequate records. For example, there is no evidence of a standardized form in use across SWAT teams to document the reasons and justifications for deploying SWAT. Nor did the ACLU find evidence of any standard justification or use-of-force policy across agencies statewide. Worse still, in light of SWAT teams’ military-style operations, there is no uniform after-action documentation in use across departments. Some departments compile after-action reports; others don’t. In some cases, the ACLU was told that compiling available records for disclosure would be too costly because after-action reports are kept in individual case files, and are not stored in a centralized SWAT database.
The lack of standards, record keeping, and transparency poses serious threats to both public safety and democracy, and should be addressed immediately as a matter of both public record and public safety management. Police departments and regional SWAT teams are public institutions, working with public money, meant to protect and serve the public’s interest. If these institutions do not maintain and make public comprehensive and comprehensible documents pertaining to their operations and tactics, the people cannot judge whether officials are acting appropriately or make needed policy changes when problems arise.
In order to properly assess the value and dangers of using SWAT raids in specific circumstances, and to examine the trends more broadly, departments should be required to adopt appropriate use-of-force policies and after-action reports, while maintaining adequate records for periodic public examination.
Hiding behind the argument that they are private corporations not subject to the public records laws, the LECs have refused to provide documents regarding their SWAT team policies and procedures. They have also failed to disclose anything about their operations, including how many raids they have executed or for what purpose.
One SWAT team in Massachusetts was more transparent about its operations, but only after a deadly incident. Public pressure forced the production of information related to Framingham SWAT team operations after the team killed Eurie Stamps in January 2011. This information revealed the Framingham team conducted “four high risk tactical missions” in 2012 —all of them related to serving warrants for narcotics charges.
But even the limited publicly available information about the LECs reveals patterns of militarizing police operations. METROLEC, one of the largest of the law enforcement councils covering the metropolitan Boston area, operates a range of specialized resources, including a Canine Unit, Computer Crimes Unit, Crisis Negotiation Team, Mobile Operations Motorcycle Unit, and Regional Response Team, in addition to its SWAT force. The organization maintains its own BearCat armored vehicle, as well as a $700,000 state of the art command and control post. In 2012, METROLEC reportedly used its BearCat 26 times, mostly for drug busts, and applied to the Federal Aviation Administration to obtain a drone license.
The North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) similarly operates a SWAT team, as well as a Computer Crime Unit, Motorcycle Unit, School Threat Assessment & Response System, and Regional Communications and Incident Management Assistance Team. Its SWAT team members are trained and equipped to “deal with active shooters, armed barricaded subjects, hostage takers and terrorists,” and they dress in military-style gear with the words “NEMLEC SWAT” emblazoned on their uniforms. Given this training, it is not surprising that the NEMLEC SWAT team has over the past decade led numerous operations that involved armored vehicles, flash-bang devices, and automatic weapons.
Despite the difficultly we had in obtaining what is effectively secret information about the details of SWAT activities in our state, available open source information about police trends in Massachusetts leads us to the same disturbing conclusions reached in the ACLU’s national report: police increasingly view our domestic communities as war zones, and are acting accordingly. Unfortunately, counterinsurgency tactics have proven to be ineffective at building a nation that is safe and free, whether at home or abroad.
Photo: Gabe Camacho
Hand-me-down militarization: the transfer of surplus military weapons to state and local police
Massachusetts police departments have for years accepted equipment from the Department of Defense (DoD), free of charge. The transfers are governed by the US military’s 1033 program, which gives used DoD items to state and local law enforcement for “counter-drug or counter-terrorism activities.” State and local governments pay shipping costs and maintenance.
Between 1994 and 2009, 82 police departments and other authorized agencies in Massachusetts received 1,068 military weapons from the DoD—including 486 fully automatic M-16 machine guns and 564 semi-automatic M-14s. While the State Police received the most weapons, departments in towns like Wellfleet, Medford, Duxbury, and Hamilton also obtained machine guns from the military, free of charge.
West Springfield, Massachusetts, population 28,137, got two grenade launchers through the 1033 program.
Massachusetts police departments also received five “peacekeeper armored vehicles” valued at $1 million, 771 vehicles worth more than $11 million, and large marine craft worth $300,000. In 2012, Massachusetts agencies requested equipment worth over $2 million from the DoD, including night vision goggles, binoculars, telescopes, computers, and trucks.
This acquisition of military equipment including powerful weapons happens without a process for public input. A Boston Globe report found that when it surveyed 12 Massachusetts police departments, not one had informed the public that it was getting free military weapons through the 1033 program.
That public engagement is crucial, because not all communities are eager to receive military weapons, even when the DoD is giving them away.
Some leadership has provided a rare but helpful counterexample. In May 2009, then-Mayor Menino of Boston rejected a plan for the BPD to obtain 200 high-powered M16 rifles free of charge from the military. Then-Commissioner Davis told the Boston Globe, “The mayor has made it clear, and I agree, that this is not a weapon that an average patrol officer should have in his car or slung over his shoulder.”
However, despite that initial reluctance, four years later, the BPD announced plans to acquire 100 AR-15 assault rifles, even though gun violence is on the decline in the city. Some members of the department aren’t convinced it’s the right path: “All of a sudden the department seems to be rushing into this,” president of the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation labor union, Jack Kervin, told Al Jazeera. “It isn’t like this is Fallujah or we’re in a war zone.”
Photo: Gabe Camacho
Militarizing local police does not make our communities safer
The increasing tendency of police to adopt military tactics against civilian residents has not led to better public safety outcomes. Rather, this approach evokes the warning that when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Federal efforts to induce local law enforcement to adopt counter-insurgency and military tactics against civilians undermine community-police relations and divert police energies away from solving crimes that have already occurred. Instead, local police become preoccupied with surveillance, military-style strategies, and trying in vain to predict future crimes. The available statistics show that this flood of money for surveillance and military gear has not made police better at solving serious crimes or stopping the flow of illegal drugs into our communities.
Instead, applying counterinsurgency tactics and a war-zone mentality to problems that fundamentally originate from poverty and drug prohibition may actually undermine public safety. As Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), writes, these neighborhood-specific, aggressive tactics may actually make our communities less safe:
Prosecuting individual drug suppliers is a lot like squeezing a water balloon: when you tighten in one place, another part of the balloon necessarily expands out. The police might arrest a dealer in one area of the city, but when they do, they create a vacuum in the market which others enthusiastically fill. Worse, the scramble to fill that void often leads to violent confrontations between groups competing for market share. This is one way in which drug prohibition not only fails to prevent violence, it actively generates it.
One important metric of the competence of public safety agencies is the murder clearance rate—what percentage of murders result in criminal charges. Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid to state and local law enforcement for new technologies and weapons, homicide clearance rates in New England have fallen over the past decade. In 2003, before the torrent of DHS money to state and local law enforcement for ‘intelligence-led’ policing, the murder clearance rate in New England stood at 67.5%. Nine years later, in 2012 (the last year for which complete FBI statistics are available), the murder clearance rate in the region had actually fallen to 61.8%.
Another important metric is drug abuse rates. Decades into the costly drug war, federal money to fight it continues to flood Massachusetts police departments—as illustrated in more detail below. But in April 2014, Governor Deval Patrick declared a public health state of emergency as a result of a spike in opiate-related deaths in Massachusetts. Drug prohibition and aggressive policing strategies to combat drug sales and use have not made a dent in either the supply or demand for drugs in our state, nor staved off the public health crisis that has emerged around substance abuse, notably opiate abuse.
The federally orchestrated militarization of the police is not making our communities safer. At a time when we should move away from failed drug-war policies, providing them with more firepower—figuratively and literally—is a step in the wrong direction.
High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas
Police militarization perpetuates the failed “war on drugs”
Despite the fact that the war on drugs is increasingly politically unpopular and an objective failure, federal aid to state and local law enforcement shows governments at all levels are doubling down on this colossal public policy disaster. The pain of the drug war isn’t only measured in lives lost to incarceration, the criminalization of youth of color and the poor, the waste of scarce public resources, or premature deaths. The drug war is also directly militarizing local police and worsening an already substantial secrecy problem at departments statewide.
Documents obtained by the ACLU of Massachusetts show that the Massachusetts National Guard is intimately engaged in fighting the drug war in our state, applying battlefield techniques at home. The Guard trains local law enforcement in military-style tactics and operations and provides them access to military equipment. At least 14 National Guard employees work full-time to provide police departments with drug war operational support. One National Guard counterdrug analyst works permanently at the Commonwealth Fusion Center, a State Police surveillance center.
Among the military equipment available to local police is “aircraft…[for] counterdrug aerial reconnaissance.” Military personnel available to work with domestic police are Guard members “uniquely trained, and often experienced on the battlefield, to conduct field operations in both day and night conditions,” “personnel trained in counterdrug aerial reconnaissance techniques,” divers for underwater missions, and experts in maps and imagery. These National Guard counterdrug operations evidence a blurring of the lines between military and police missions.
Massachusetts also is home to more than 20 multiagency drug task force operations, due in part to funding from the Department of Justice’s Byrne grant program. Police and prosecutors from 181 cities and towns participate in these drug force operations alongside representatives of the FBI, DEA, ICE, and the National Guard. In 2005 alone, working with the assistance of 1,000 confidential informants, these task forces conducted 131 drug investigations and seized over $2 million through asset forfeiture.
One such task force operation, the New England High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (NEHIDTA), refused our request for public documents about its internal operations. When the ACLU of Massachusetts filed a public records request with the NEHIDTA, a federally funded drug war operation staffed by public employees, the agency replied:
The NEHIDTA is NOT a government agency. The NEHIDTA is a grant program administered by the Office of National Drug Control Policy…but is not part of the ONDCP…Under Federal Law, HIDTAs are not legal entities capable of possessing any information. Rather, HIDTAs are coalitions that serve ministerial and administrative functions. Any information that passes through a HIDTA remains the sole property of the originating agency, and NOT the property of the HIDTA.
Despite the NEHIDTA’s assertion that it is not a government agency, the Department of Justice website makes clear that these are government-run operations.
The Drug Enforcement Agency states on its website that HIDTAs provide “a federal presence in sparsely populated areas where the DEA would not otherwise be represented.” These task force operations combine “federal leverage and the specialists available to the DEA with state and local officers’ investigative talents and detailed knowledge of their jurisdiction [leading] to highly effective drug law enforcement investigations,” the DEA claims. But despite this lofty rhetoric, narcotics are cheaper, more potent, and more accessible than ever before in the United States.
The drug war has militarized our police and contributed to the growing secrecy problem in local law enforcement, but it hasn’t made a dent in the drug trade. Efforts underway in Springfield, Massachusetts illustrate that this failure has not stopped officials at all levels from doubling down on failed policies.
US forces conducting a military exercise during counterinsurgency operations in Iraq, March 2006
The enemy within: deploying counterinsurgency tactics in Massachusetts communities
Police officers increasingly are trained to view themselves as soldiers in a war against criminals, instead of public servants hired to serve and defend our communities. In Massachusetts, law enforcement’s adoption of military tactics and a military mindset has catalyzed this process.
One explicitly military model has been adopted by law enforcement in Springfield and South Holyoke. A former Green Beret who is also a Massachusetts state trooper, Michael Cutone, brought C3 Policing—Counter Criminal Continuum—to Springfield. On his return from Iraq in 2009, he and Thomas Sarrouf, another state trooper who had been in Special Forces in the Avghani region of Iraq, reportedly sold Springfield’s then-deputy police chief John Barbieri on their plan to adopt the Afghani Counterinsurgency Operations (COIN) model in Springfield’s North End.
According to an article in the scientific journal Nature, “When Cutone returned from Iraq, he realized that the chaos he saw in Springfield bore a strong resemblance to what he had seen in northern Iraq where he had been employed.” In this approach, so-called “gangs” in the North End of Springfield were equated with insurgents on a foreign battlefield. In this battlefield theory, gangs, like insurgents, would targeted for intelligence collection by turning the local population into the “eyes and ears” of militarized law enforcement in return for promises of enhanced security.
In Springfield, C3 Policing includes regular meetings for Springfield residents of the North End neighborhood to give “actionable intelligence” about crime, as well as ideas about how to “reduce gang activity and violence.” Kit Parker, a US army major teaching and researching at Harvard University after returning from Afghanistan, provided the intelligence analysis component.
Parker reportedly has involved college students in C3 policing in order to “to bolster the initiative with state-of-the art data-gathering and analysis.” This Harvard class, located some 89 miles away from Springfield, created a “war room” where students analyze information collected on “gang members and criminals” by using Lighthouse, a military data-collection system developed to gather information on insurgents in Afghanistan. The students perform data-mining and link analysis to map connections and associations as state troopers collect data on criminal histories, social networks, biometrics, and tattoos when they book suspects.
Major Parker “acknowledges that a domestic theory of counterinsurgency is a tough sell when many believe it has failed abroad.” Meanwhile, State Trooper Cutone—who has registered “C3 Policing” as a privately-owned trademark—reportedly has advised police departments from neighboring South Holyoke to Salinas, California on using counterinsurgency tactics against civilian populations.
While detailed metrics on the C3 program remain secret, some of the most illuminating information the ACLU obtained about the implementation of the counterinsurgency model in Springfield comes from grant application documents the city and police department filed with the Department of Justice in 2013. In October 2013, the Department of Justice’s Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (BCJI) grant program, overseen by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, awarded the City of Springfield $1,000,000 to expand its counterinsurgency policing to the South End neighborhood. The city’s grant application for DOJ funds suggests that the C3 system perpetuates many of the worst aspects of decades-old, failed, discriminatory drug-war policies.
The program abstract submitted to DOJ, for example, states that the primary objective of the C3 model is to “close down the area’s open drug market and reduce violent crime in the neighborhood by disrupting, denying, degrading, and displacing drug dealing and related criminal activity.” To achieve that goal, the police will conduct “data gathering and analysis,” encourage local residents to “call and/or text-a-tip…to police”, “increase the number of arrests made in the neighborhood from the baseline to 30% above baseline in the first year of implementation,” and deploy “intelligence-led policing.”
Rather than focus on violent offenders, however, the C3 model focuses resources on “increased misdemeanor arrests/intensive law enforcement,” involving “aggressive order maintenance techniques, including making arrests for public order violations, arresting drug dealers, [and] conducting ‘stop and frisks’ of suspicious individuals.”
The focus on low-level, non-violent offenders and heightened use of “stop and frisk” tactics is notable, particularly at a time when stop and frisk policies are coming under fire nationwide for their disparate racial impact.
Moreover, despite the reported failure of counterinsurgency strategies in Afghanistan and Iraq, the City of Springfield has pointed to these as models for their domestic counterinsurgency strategy. “It is a domestic adaptation of the highly effective Counterinsurgency Operations (COIN) strategy used in Afghanistan,” the city wrote to DOJ, seeking funds for C3 policing.
Supporters of counterinsurgency policing in Springfield claim that C3 policing strategies drove crime down 62% in the North End neighborhood in just one year. But despite the involvement of cr |
ground. He’s looked good.
Bad drop by WR Michael Clayton on a ball delivered by QB David Carr right into his chest.
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THE YOUNG GUYS
I spoke to Brown Sunday afternoon and at some point that will be turned around as a full story. In the meantime, I’ll mention he told me his healthy Achilles is allowing him to once again do his patented move: a jump cut that allows him to move laterally much more quickly than when he stays low to the ground. Brown had it working on Sunday night with a couple of quick jump cuts that had defenders shaking their heads, fans oohing and offensive teammates yelling, “Who is that guy?” He also pulled away from DB Darnell Burks as he got into the secondary. It wasn’t all sunshine and roses for Brown, as he fumbled on one carry, which is never a good thing in limited-contact drills with Coughlin watching. But still, he looks very, very sharp and there are signs he could finally be regaining his form here.
WR Duke Calhoun made a heads-up play to catch a ball on a deflection by S Jarrard Tarrant, had a well-run deep in cut in front of Webster and made a diving catch in front of Turenne. Good night for him, though CB Brian Witherspoon knocked away a ball for Calhoun on an in cut. I thought there might have been some excessive contact on the play, but there was no flag from the official nearby. Then again, there also wasn’t a flag from the ref when WR Hakeem Nicks blatantly flinched at the line before the snap, so maybe they were just being lenient.
WR Jerrel Jernigan probably should have made a catch after a move inside, though the ball from Rosenfels was delivered a bit wide. I’ll somewhat reluctantly call it a drop. And now, I’ll take it off the board completely because he made the catch on a similar ball late in practice after beating Thomas.
I keep mentioning undrafted free-agent DE Justin Trattou and it’s because he keeps showing up. He seems to be a good effort guy with decent skills who could be valuable as a practice squadder if he continues to flash.
LB Mark Herzlich looked really bad on one play when he came through the hole and tried to make the tackle with his head down. (Charles) Scott has proven to be pretty shifty so far in camp and he easily juked Herzlich, who was upset with himself even before defensive coordinator Perry Fewell yelled at him to keep his head up.
Here’s a name I haven’t mentioned much: DT Ibrahim Abdulai. He’ll get some mentions here, though, after a great practice that included a stop on Brown on a screen pass and a good fight inside OL Mitch Petrus on another play.
QB Ryan Perrilloux was high on a few rather easy throws before looking strong in the two-minute drill. He hit Clayton on an in cut to cap the impressive drill and practice.
For more Giants practice reports, check out the practice report page.
For more Giants coverage, follow Mike Garafolo on Twitter at twitter.com/MikeGarafolo
Mike Garafolo: mgarafolo@starledger.comWithout a trophy since 1993, Bayer Leverkusen have come ever so close to silverware but always failed. Under Roger Schmidt, ending this drought seems highly likely.
Reading into the first few games of the season, especially in the tumultuous Bundesliga, would seem fairly ridiculous. After all, Bayern Munich havenai??i??t hit their stride yet. Borussia Dortmund have begun with an injury crisis. Wolfsburg and Borussia MAi??nchengladbach are yet to gel completely. But to disregard a promising start is ridiculous too.
Bayer Leverkusen, dubbed Neverkusen for their innumerable title slip ups, have begun the new season in scintillating fashion. A 6-0 drubbing of DFB Pokal debutants Alemannia Waldalgesheim might not count for much but the three results since surely do count for something. Kick starting the league with a fairly comfortable 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund is no simple feat, especially when Leverkusen themselves are ushering in a new era under Roger Schmidt.
More than the result, it was the manner in which Leverkusen dealt with Dortmund. Sitting back, comfortably soaking all the pressure Dortmund had to offer, Leverkusen were immensely potent on the counter. Despite the shift from the more defense minded 4-3-3 to a free flowing 4-2-3-1, the back four had no problems dealing with Dortmundai??i??s attacking threats.
If the 2-0 win over Dortmund wasnai??i??t a good enough start, a 7-2 aggregate victory over FC Copenhagen in the UEFA Champions League compounds their early brilliance. While the first leg may have exposed a few chinks in the Leverkusen armory, the 4-0 thrashing at the BayArena put any worries to bed.
And it isnai??i??t just a start of four wins that is promising. The manner in which Leverkusen have gone about taking apart their opponents has been a treat to watch. They seem more fluid in attack under Schmidt, especially since they now have an additional attacking body. While a lot will depend on the fitness of Stefan KieAYling, Leverkusen have much needed depth in attack.
The likes of Hakan Calhanoglu and Karim Bellarabi seem at home in Schmidtai??i??s system. The previously used 4-3-3 may have made life hard for some of the new signings, but the more amenable 4-2-3-1 that Schmidt employs allows for a lot more freedom. Schmidtai??i??s Leverkusen seems to resemble the system that Klopp uses at Dortmund; gegenpressing, rapid counter attacks, quick interchanges in attack.
Leverkusenai??i??s lack of players at the World Cup this summer has worked greatly in their favour. In fact, only two of the players in the current squad made the trip to Brazil. This has left most of the squad a lot fresher than those of Bayern, Schalke and Dortmund, their most serious competitors in the league. This fatigue disparage should allow Leverkusen to build some sort of a gap between at least one, if not all three, of the title challengers.
All of Leverkusenai??i??s new arrivals have hit the ground running. The earlier mentioned duo of Calhanoglu and Bellarabi, who returned after a loan spell, have been ruthless in attack. 18-year-old Tin Jedvaj already seems like the signing of the season. Wendell hasnai??i??t been used in a competitive enough environment yet but seems like good cover for Sebastian Boenisch. Josip Drmic and Papadopoulos are yet to put in enough time but given their earlier exploits in the Bundesliga, they should do fairly well for Schmidt.
The Champions League group stage draws couldnai??i??t have been a lot better for Leverkusen as they were drawn into a group with Benfica, Zenit Saint Petersburg and AS Monaco. Although Leverkusen might not be odds on favourites to make it through, there isnai??i??t a call for the spectacular to progress from this group.
With schedules and draws working in favour of Leverkusen, they will surely be a threat on all fronts. Dortmund and Bayern might be the forerunners for glory in the Bundesliga and the DFB Pokal, but Leverkusen look more than able to match German footballai??i??s big boys. Die Werkself may still not have what it takes to go the distance in continental competition but they are more than just round of 16 walkovers. They have the depth in personnel to be able to compete seriously on at least two, if not three fronts and this is what separates them from the likes of Wolfsburg and Schalke.
What Schmidt is attempting to build at Leverkusen looks like a hugely exciting project. The style of play that Leverkusen are looking to adopt is what modern football is all about. While it may not be a side to take football by storm for a sustained period, they should be able to catch the attention of the football world over the next year or so. The physical stress that this Klopp-esque philosophy exerts may be too much to handle but over a really short period, Leverkusen will be a major threat.
German success at the World Cup couldnai??i??t have come at a better time for Leverkusen. The Schmidt project is already at full throttle, while others are still looking to get their sides to gel. Leverkusen finally have the depth to keep pace throughout the entire season. This may well be the year they bid goodbye to the Neverkusen tag. Their two decade long trophy drought looks very likely to end in the near future.
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including many with mental illness, and the cramped spaces only serve to compound their illness. Meanwhile, mental health patients in Hong Kong remain stigmatized and underserved. Wait times to visit a psychiatrist in a public hospital can last up to three years. The Economist Intelligence Unit scored Hong Kong behind Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan—its closest peers in Asia—in its Asia-Pacific Mental Health Integration Index (pdf) last year.
In order to depict the subject matter realistically, Wong and Chan conducted interviews with mental illness patients and their families prior to shooting. “My ultimate hope is that by showing mental illness in this way through the film, that it can help pull us all a little closer to the understanding of mental illness,” Wong said in an interview. Domestic audiences have responded positively to Mad World—the film grossed HK$16.8 million (US$2.1 million) during its first two months in theaters, compared with its budget of HK$2 million (US$256,000)
Wolf Warrior 2: China’s propaganda smash
While Taiwan and Hong Kong’s submissions are quiet independent films, Wolf Warrior 2 is an action blockbuster that projects Beijing’s idealized vision of China on the world stage, as well as the growing nationalist sentiment among its citizens.
The film tells the story of Leng Feng, a Rambo-esque former member of the Chinese Special Forces who leaves China for an unnamed African country after being discharged from the army. There, he winds up fighting to save overseas Chinese workers and locals stuck in a civil war. There’s also a subplot involving a fictitious disease known as “Lamanla,” and a romance between Leng and Rachel Smith, a dual US-Chinese citizen who worked with a team of Chinese doctors to develop the vaccine for the disease.
Of course, what appears as a generic action film on the surface is really a subversion of the white savior Hollywood trope, with Chinese characteristics. Its theatrical release came days before China opened its first-ever overseas military base in Djibouti, which also coincided with the 90th anniversary of the formation of the People’s Liberation Army.
The film’s overt politics will likely prevent it from receiving the nomination, but reviews suggest that there’s value in considering what a Hollywood-style action film would look like when the geopolitical context is flipped. Noel Murray of the Los Angeles Times writes, “There’s something bracing about its patriotic fervor, which asserts that the Chinese will act in the best interests of the world’s downtrodden, while the rest of the world just exploits them. It’s instructive to recognize the presumptions we’re used to finding in American blockbusters, but with the heroes and villains reversed.”
Chinese moviegoers have flocked to Wolf Warrior 2. The film has raked in 5.6 billion yuan ($824 million) to date at China’s box office (link in Chinese), making it the highest-grossing film ever in the country. Explosions and car chases certainly help draw viewers, but there is also a palpable sense of increasing nationalism (paywall) among Chinese citizens themselves. In Africa and elsewhere, China has asserted itself more aggressively, at times championing itself as a bastion of globalization particularly at a time when America’s leadership role is in question. Meanwhile, many Chinese individuals, whether online or in real life, are standing up for China’s interests in the face of criticism from abroad. After years of watching white men save the world, Wolf Warrior 2 gives Chinese audiences a hero of its own.Patient safety is, of course, an ongoing concern in hospitals and clinics that can be addressed through better processes and technological solutions. The healthcare environment is constantly shifting in order to accommodate these new advances. The changes are leading to greater speed and efficiency throughout the organization, but the wellbeing of the patient still has to come first.
This means that, no matter how fast the clinic can eventually process new patients, it must still be able to accurately perform diagnoses, keep perfect records, and ensure that the appropriate treatment is administered at the right time. These are critical elements of providing effective healthcare, and some of the options available through cloud computing is making it possible.
Clinical cloud computing could be said to improve patient safety in one simple way: Faster technology means faster responses and treatments in critical situations. Of course, the benefits and processes go much deeper than that, but this is a good place to start. If, for example, a caregiver has to wait to use certain applications at an end-point, it can significantly delay treatment and cause other problems. Cloud technology has made it possible to access the necessary apps and data from any device, and with a single sign-on, which can reduce some of the time-consuming activities that would otherwise hinder more effective treatments.
IT infrastructure focused on patient safety
The cloud is making inroads into hospitals, clinics, biotech firms, and more. In each of these cases, there are many ways that an IT infrastructure based in cloud technology can improve the level of care and safety that those organizations can offer.
Every patient has different needs, and if the clinic is dealing with a large number of people, things can get lost, details forgotten and diagnoses rushed. Doctors have to gather and share a lot of information -- sometimes within the building, sometimes over huge geographical areas -- which can also potentially create delays that hinder treatments. The right IT infrastructure should be able to address all these concerns by tracking the needs of each patient, even in an environment where such a thing would normally be extremely complex.
Benefits for healthcare providers
Cloud computing solutions can potentially limit the amount of time that doctors and nurses spend searching for open end-points and time spent accessing and re-accessing different applications. With a single sign-on, authentication is much easier, even at different end-points and across multiple applications. This can lead to faster, more secure access to important patient data.
Basically, moving the IT infrastructure into the cloud can create opportunities for healthcare providers to spend more time delivering effective care and less time managing client systems.
Benefits for patients
It has already been mentioned that faster responses to problems is the most directly beneficial aspect for the patient, but it goes even further than that. Cloud solutions can offer the power to perform clinical data analysis at a fast and more cost-effective rate than ever before. This can be extremely beneficial for patients who require some serious tests.
Previously, it would have taken days, weeks, or even months to complete certain blood tests, run RNA sequences, protein folding, or other procedures. Patients had to wait an indeterminably long time to “get results back from the lab,” which could lead to added stress, confusion and frustration. By taking advantage of cloud capabilities, this time can be significantly shortened and the treatment process accelerated.
What has changed that makes the cloud so important in healthcare?
One of the biggest developments that have impacted IT departments throughout the healthcare environment is the move to electronic health records. This has been a long time in coming, and the goal has been to take some of the traditional, legacy systems and replace them with a more convenient and reliable processes. This change has taken a lot of time, but the potential improvements to patient care and treatment have also been rather large.
As data is collected for these records, it can be transferred directly to the cloud, eliminating the potential for it to get lost somewhere between point A and point B. In some situations, it may even be possible to send information directly from monitoring systems and other sensors, so there’s no chance for user error to creep into the process at all. The cloud can store, process, and distribute that information as needed.
Electronic medical records are just the start, though. Eventually, cloud applications could impact communication systems, laboratory information systems, pharmacy systems, physician order entry and other elements of patient care. The more effectively these processes can be integrated with other applications and procedures in the hospital or clinic, the better care each patient will receive.Four people were arrested after a 30-person brawl broke out at a Gates, New York, Walmart on Sunday.
The melee reportedly began when two 17-year-old girls insulted a 24-year-old woman’s clothing. The families of the parties got involved as the confrontation erupted.
“It was in total chaos when the officers got there,” Gates Police Chief Jim VanBrederode told WHEC. “It’s just disgusting to see that kind of behavior happening right here.”
Some shoppers armed themselves with baseball bats from the sporting goods section, TWC News in Rochester reported. A teen also threw a can of food that hit a man’s head.
The teen who threw the can was charged with assault and harassment while another minor was charged with disorderly conduct, as were Patrick Goodwin, 21, and Jasmine Jones, 21, TWC News reported.
Part of the fight was captured on video (above) posted to social media, the New York Post noted. More arrests could be forthcoming.
H/T MSNA GROUP OF concerned citizens paid us a high compliment the other day — by showing up to picket outside our doors. Nice to know our words are provocative enough to protest. Community and Postal Workers United was calling attention to what its members consider consider our unduly stringent view of the need for the Postal Service to restructure, especially by reining in the labor costs that account for 80 percent of its overhead.
In particular, the protesters repeated the oft-made argument that the Postal Service would be just fine, financially, if only Congress would relieve it of an annual $5.5 billion retiree health fund pre-payment. This deserves a respectful reply that fortunately can be brief. Postal Service data clearly show that the agency would still lose several billion dollars per year over the next half decade even without the pre-payment.
The retiree fund payment is not causing the Postal Service’s collapse. Its essential problem can also be stated simply: Because of technological change, the volume of first-class mail is plummeting, with no end in sight. Yet the Postal Service remains geared to the demands of a bygone age, burdened by a large network of little-used post offices and mail-processing centers, as well as a unionized work force of more than half a million people. The union labor contracts insulate workers from layoffs and guarantee them more generous health-care benefits than the general public, or even other federal workers, receive. This is not a sustainable system.
The protesters chanted: “Whose post office? The people’s post office!” But if they expect the people’s sympathy, they should also consider the plight of the people in their role as taxpayers. That’s who will inevitably be asked to pay the cost of propping up this system in defiance of economic reality.
Congress is working on the issue, though efforts thus far do not inspire confidence that lawmakers can or will overcome entrenched interest groups that benefit from the Postal Service status quo. The House’s relatively realistic approach would empower a commission to decide on closing postal facilities, on the model of the military base-closing efforts of recent years. It would allow the Postal Service to move more quickly to five-day delivery and bar no-layoff clauses in labor agreements.
The Senate, alas, has approved a bill that would shrink the postal workforce by up to 100,000 through $7 billion in early retirement packages but is otherwise tepid. For example, it requires the Postal Service to consider downsizing installations before closing them.
Even that exercise in foot-dragging was too much change, too fast, for some. Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) recently inserted language into a pending appropriations bill that would effectively prevent any move to eliminate Saturday delivery over the next two years, prohibit rural post office closures in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 and protect 11 processing facilities, including two in his state.
The Postal Service is burning down, financially speaking. Time for Congress to stop fiddling.Toronto ranks number 2 in the world as a city of opportunity, according to a new report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Trumped by New York City, Toronto stood out among the world's "metro powerhouses" in the areas of finance, tourism, livability and innovation - and was the only Canadian city to make the cut.
The city ranked #1 in terms of quality of living, clean air, sports and leisure, as well as skyscraper construction - if you count that as a positive.
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Where did T.O. fail? The cost of public transportation - three bucks a ride thanks partly to the strongly unionized TTC.
Still, the city beat out 24 other juggernauts, including London, Berlin, Chicago and Hong Kong.
In an interview with The Atlantic, the report's chief architect Merrill Pond said Toronto was benefiting from Canada's immigration policies:
"A great city is all about growing, retaining and attracting talent."
Would you take any of the other 25 contenders over Hogtown?
Editor's Note: The TTC is expensive for a variety of reasons, including a lack of government funds and unionization of its employees. This text has been revised.It was the 13th episode of The Simpsons' 10th season when Homer changed his name to Max Power. He took the name from a hair dryer.
Former Melbourne lawyer Anthony Coleman liked the name so much he used it to dupe the State Revenue Office into believing he was Max Power to get the first home owners' grant.
Coleman, 47, a twice-divorced father of four from Yarraville, who also used the name Patrick Bateman - the serial killer in the book American Psycho - to get the grant, appeared in the Supreme Court on Wednesday to plead guilty to 14 charges of theft, obtaining property by deception and obtaining a financial advantage by deception from February 2003 to July 2007.
Prosecutor Susan Borg told the court Coleman became a lawyer in 1998 and had later set up his own firm, Coleman Lawyers, when a neighbour brought in a friend, Eric Smith, to have his will drawn up.
Mr Smith, who had no family or friends, wanted his neighbour to receive $40,000 and five charities, including the Salvation Army, to be beneficiaries from the rest of his estate which included a two-bedroom unit in Brunswick West and $80,000 in cash.I didn’t know what a men’s rights activist was until I fell in love with one. He didn’t know I was a feminist until our First Big Argument. Every couple went through one, but I doubt any of them had one based on something as petty as ours.
My boyfriend is a cis white male of European descent. He is 6’7, barely fits through a doorframe, listens to indie music and enjoys video games more than puppies. I grew up in a third world country and am currently studying overseas, where I met him through a mutual. I am a feminist because in my country, patriarchy is rampant, child brides are aplenty, and street harassment is commonplace. My boyfriend is an MRA because after objectively comparing the issues of both genders in a first-world context, he finds that the male activists need more support in fighting for their issues.
When I saw him scrolling through Reddit’s infamous r/mensrights for the first time, he had to explain to me what an MRA was. He didn’t — and never has — labeled himself as an MRA (but I did). He is a self-proclaimed gender egalitarian, and believes in the equality of both sexes. He often reiterates that feminism is the best thing since sliced bread, but developing countries are in need of it much more than his own and female oppression is no longer something to be dealt with in many nations.
Before I met him, I was part of the Tumblr feminists. I was a hardcore, misogynist-hating feminist who swallows whatever text post pops up on my dashboard. I questioned nothing. A woman earned 77 cents to every dollar a man makes? How dare they! Women don’t have the rights to their own bodies? Those cishet males at it again! Women are being victim blamed? Motherfucking shitlords!
I believed everything I read because Tumblr feminists are the most passionate people out there. And trust me, it’s hard refuting a claim made when it’s in a funny text post on my dashboard. I thought everything there were cold-hard facts. (Fun fact: they’re not.) So many of the statistics used by feminists are either outdated, warped, or completely bazoink.
It wasn’t until my boyfriend told me about the lack of men’s rights that I began to open my mind to the idea that men aren’t perfect creatures. Men, just like women, face issues at home, at work, and in the law. It’s just that whenever they try to raise awareness of a gender-specific problem, many extreme feminists belittle it and sweep it under the rug. It’s a competition of who has the bigger scar, and feminists will always win simply because they paint themselves as the perpetual victim.
When my boyfriend was sexually assaulted when he was drunk, he didn’t know what to call it. He was underage, and she was in her early 20’s. It was clearly statutory rape, but he never realized that it was because a woman sexually assaulting a boy is difficult to comprehend, even today. Many men who experienced something similar would be given congratulatory pats on the back, or asked if they enjoyed it. Because men always want sex, right?
Ironically, my boyfriend works at a female-dominated industry. By that I mean during his previous internship, he was the only male there, so it’s slightly more difficult for him to break into the industry. He recently showed me a group picture of the people in his previous office, and there were literally, I repeat, literally, no men in the entire office. And it’s not even a job that requires a vagina. If my boyfriend isn’t suited for the job, at least one man in this entire nation should be.
He gave me proof of laws that work in favor of women (and there is a lot) and how men’s rights are so often misunderstood that MRAs are seen as this misogynistic assholes. I’ve read terrible stories of women who went out with MRAs or being abused by them. But throughout our relationship, he has never violated or harassed me in any way. He equally does the cooking and cleaning in the house (and cooks better than me, I might add). He’s the one who will move overseas once I graduate university. He’s the one who will convert to my religion in order to marry me in a Church. He’s the one who loves his mother more than I love mine. I have never seen a kinder, more beautiful human being than the man sitting across from me.
My MRA boyfriend taught me about equality. He showed me the horrid things extreme feminists have done and are continuing to do. He proved that misandry exists. He brought to the table concepts about gender that I would never have learned if it weren’t for his belief in men’s rights. He grounded me and fed me with real facts that support his movement. MRAs, just like feminists, fight for the equality of the sexes, it’s just that we call it different things. But a rose by any other name still smells as sweet. We are all humans fighting for the same cause; the labels are not a strict dichotomy. There are extremists in both groups the same way there are extremists in every religion or movement, but to dismiss all MRAs as power-hungry patriarchs is as foolish as calling all feminists bra-burning misogynists.
Sure, we have our arguments about which gender has it worse (spoiler alert: if you’re talking on a global scale, it’s women), but all in all, my boyfriend understands the word ‘no’ better than many women. He still pays for dinner sometimes, but understands that I should return the favor, too. Many feminists shouldn’t dismiss the plights of men because that isn’t what equality is. Listen to what they have to say, and like me, you’ll see that these straight white males are not villains at all, but just humans struggling in several facets of this gender-obsessed world.Cheesy Mushroom Pull Apart Bread
I’m just going to come out and say this bread is AMAZING. Seriously. If you are looking for ideas for the Superbowl, MAKE THIS BREAD. Actually, you should make it this weekend to test it out and play with what flavors you want to use as a practice run. Then make it again next weekend to share with your friends at the Superbowl.
But be warned, it’s quite addictive. In fact, maybe you should plan to bring two to your Superbowl party. It’s seriously so gooey from the melted cheese. The butter, green onion, and poppy seed sauce on top really takes this bread to the next level.
When I saw this recipe, I was instantly thinking of other flavors you could stuff into the bread. Anything that works on pizza would be great here. I went with provolone and mushroom this time. I’m sure it would be great with pepperoni and mozzarella, bacon and cheddar, or just plan old cheese. If you guys make this, you have to come back and let me know what flavors you made.
Two Years Ago: Chocolate Covered Strawberries
One Year Ago: Vegan Sugar Free Chocolate Rum CookiesUPDATE: I’m told that the ribbon cutting has been pushed back to 10:00am on Thursday. The Supercharger is now live however.
Image Via TeslaMotorClubForums
Funny Earth Day story: I’m on my way back to New York today and could really use this thing (2) to be open today not tomorrow:
Join Us for the Grand Opening of Our 100th Supercharger in Hamilton Township, NJ! Hamilton Township Supercharger 425 Market Place Blvd, Hamilton Township, NJ 08691 Tuesday, April 22nd at 10am We are excited to announce our 100th Supercharger worldwide and our first Supercharger in New Jersey! The Hamilton Township Supercharger will be opening on Tuesday. To commemorate this important milestone for Tesla and our New Jersey community, we would like to invite you, your family and your friends to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony and celebrate with Tesla corporate staff.Details Please submit your RSVP if you would like to attend and let us know how many guests you will bring. Due to the expected volume of Model S owners, there may be a wait for charging. Please plan accordingly.
The Hamilton NJ supercharger would bridge the Newark, Delaware and the New York City area superchargers including JFK and the few on Long Island and Connecticut. It will also help those going to the Jersey Shore this summer (guilty).
The Earth Day celebration will mark Tesla’s 86th US Supercharger which added to the 14 in Europe give it triple digits for the first time.
Coverage
North America
Today – 85 stations
Complete West and East Coast coverage
Coast-to-coast travel
2014 – 80% of the US population and parts of Canada
2015 – 98% of the US population and parts of Canada
Europe
Today – 14 stations-Chapter 6-
"And you said that you only saw one animal, you said?" Nick asked into the phone. He was trying to take notes on the conversation while talking, so he had propped the phone in between his shoulder and head so that he could use both paws to hold the notepad and write at the same time. "Did you happen to catch what his face looked like?... Of course, ma'am, I understand. Well, the ZPD thanks you for this information and for your cooperation. Have a nice day."
"So, any new information about our suspect?" Judy asked Nick as he hung up the phone. They both had been calling witnesses and trying to get a better idea of what had occurred at Edvin's Bakery to little success. Because it had been such an early hour of the morning there were very few eyewitnesses who could give any information about what happened. The few accounts they had also didn't give very many details, as it had been hard to see who committed the crime both because of how dark it had been and because of the mask the suspect had worn.
"Not really," Nick sighed. "She said she only saw one animal run out of the shop after it had been lit on fire. She couldn't tell what kind of animal it was, but she said it wasn't taller than three feet."
"Well, I just got off the phone with Mr. Klosen himself," Judy said. "He gave me some details about why they may have targeted his shop, but not much else. Apparently he also immigrated to Zootopia at a young age."
"What about Etson's cafe? Any witnesses at all?" Nick asked.
"Yes. They gave the same accounts as the ones at Klosen's shop, saying it was a smaller mammal wearing a mask. So we're either dealing with one repeat offender or a bunch of similar types of animals," Judy replied. "And because neither shop had a security camera, that's all the evidence we've got."
Nick sat back in his chair as he stared at a map of Zootopia, contemplating which animals he knew would do something like this.
Hmm... he thought, obsessed with fire, vigilante, wears a mask...
Only a few came to mind as possible candidates, but they were all either larger animals or didn't fit the descriptions that he and Judy had been given. Normally he would be able to come up with at least a few names to run background checks on, but this time he was thoroughly stumped.
There was a knock on the door. Judy hopped out of her seat and went to open it.
"Hey Etson!" she greeted the raccoon. "How did it go?"
"I have no idea," he replied, shrugging, "but I zhink I did okay."
"You showed up at the perfect time," Nick remarked, spinning his chair around to face Etson. "We're just starting to go over the details of what happened at your cafe. So, whaddaya got?"
Etson sat there for a moment. It was an awfully large question to just have sprung on him like that.
"Uhm...I'm not sure where to start," Etson replied, tapping his index fingers together. "Everyzhing was turned over and burnt on both floors of the zhe building. Zhere was red spraypaint spelling P.P.P. on zhe wall of zhe second floor. From what I've heard, it was almost zhe exact same as what happened in zhe ozher shop."
Nick stared at the wall for a moment, thinking.
"Hm. Well, you're right about it being similar to the other attack," he said. "Unfortunately, that's all we have to go off of right now."
Judy paced back and forth through the office, habitually tapping her chin with her carrot pen again. "Did you find a note anywhere when you searched the place?"
"A note?" Etson raised his eyebrow. "I searched zhe whole place twice, and didn't find any note."
"They left one at the last place," Nick said very matter-of-factly, still leaning back comfortably in his chair. "It said something about 'wanting to open eyes.' Very cryptic and odd."
"So whoever did zhis to me was some sort of poet?" Etson asked.
"More or less, yes. We think that they're some politically motivated vigilante, seeing as you and Klosen were both predators from another city, which would indicate some kind of correlation. And as to who they are..." Nick paused briefly to allow his words to sink in, "we don't know squat."
Etson crossed his arms and began tapping his foot thoughtfully. He knew that there wasn't much to go off of for this case, but he had no idea that evidence was this sparse. "Have you Zoogled what P.P.P. means? Is it at all related to criminal activity?"
"Trust me, we've gone through lots of search engines," Nick deflected the idea nonchalantly. "Only corporate websites show up."
"Well, zhere has to be paw prints zhat we can examine," Etson suggested.
"They wore gloves."
"Even on zheir feet?"
"Yes."
"What about security cameras?"
"Neither store had any."
"Traffic cams?"
"No footage on either crime."
"DNA samples?" Etson desperately spat out possible solutions, hoping that something would stick, but Nick shot them all down.
"Too many other animals in the shops to confirm that it would be the DNA of the criminal," Nick casually grinned, watching the raccoon go through the exact same process he and Judy had. "Good try though."
Etson let out a sigh, only now realizing how big of a task it was going to be. Still, he was determined not to be discouraged. "Zhe lack of evidence isn't going to stop me from solving this case. Is zhere any other information we have?"
"Well, considering the fact that they got away undetected both times," Nick replied, "we assume that knew where the traffic cams are in the city, which shops have security cameras, and when those shops would be empty," he lectured to Etson, "Basically, whoever did this did their homework."
"So how are we going to catch zhis animal?" Etson asked, his arms crossed. "You guys must have zome plan."
"Well...I don't know if I'd call it a plan," Nick confided, "but it's something. We're trying to predict where they are going to strike next, so that we can catch them. We have a couple places in mind-" Nick was interrupted by a blaring voice coming through his radio.
"Hopps! Wilde! We have a 1052 on Vapor Street!" the voice yelled. Nick's eyes widened. He suddenly sat up in his chair. Judy stopped pacing and turned around, her ears perking up.
"Get down here, pronto!" it commanded.
"1052? What's a 1052?" Etson asked, looking at Nick and Judy.
"It's the code for vandalism," Judy mumbled. "Which means..."
Nick finished her sentence. "The P.P.P. have struck again."
"Excuse us," Judy said as she, Nick and Etson pushed through the crowd of animals. A small group had gathered at the end of the avenue to see what had happened, cut off from going down the street by yellow caution tape and a string of officers around the perimeter.
"Hey everyone, make way for these two officers please," one of the guards, a rhino, asked the crowd, recognizing Nick and Judy. A small pathway emerged, the three of them walking up to the front of the crowd. Judy and Nick went first underneath the crime scene tape. Etson lifted the tape above his head and started to duck under before he was stopped.
"Woah there pal, what do you think you're doing?" the rhino asked him, towering over the raccoon.
"He's with us, Rick," Nick said, calling the rhino by name.
"Oh. Sorry about that, sir," Rick apologized, lifting the tape up for Etson to walk underneath. The three of them walked down the street towards crime scene. The street was entirely abandoned, having been evacuated by the fire department for fear that the fire that had been reported would spread to other buildings. Afterwards they had decided to keep people off of the street so that they wouldn't interfere with the crime scene.
"So, what do we know about zhe victim here?" Etson asked, itching to find some more evidence. "Zhere had to be some reason that zhey went after zhis place."
"It's a female cheetah," Judy responded, continuing to lead the way down the street, "that's all they told us."
"Another predator," Nick noticed, shaking his head. "No surprise there."
They kept walking, finally reaching the victim's house. It wasn't hard to spot which one of the homes had been vandalized. The windows had been smashed, the flower pots destroyed, and the door knocked in, making it stick out from the other similar townhouses on the street.
"It looks just like my cafe did," Etson said. He still felt sad whenever he remembered what had happened to the cafe, but he was at least able to talk about it now.
"Let's go inside and see what we can find," Judy suggested. The three of them walked up the steps.
"Wow, they were even kind enough to leave the door open for us," Nick remarked sarcastically, the door lying in two pieces on the floor. "How thoughtful."
Judy shone her flashlight around the room. It seemed like the other two incidents in nearly every way - charred couch, toppled refrigerator, broken chairs. Whoever had done this certainly had a routine that they liked to follow.
The three of them decided to divide and conquer the investigation of all the rubble, reasoning that it would likely be just as effective but much quicker. Nick and Judy took the main living room, and Etson went to investigate the office.
"Hey, Carrots, do you think that we could sell any of the stuff we find in the wreckage?" Nick asked curiously, looking around at all the furniture and various other items. "You know, hypothetically speaking, of course."
"Don't tell me that you're actually thinking about that right now," Judy replied, her voice coming from across the room. "Even as a cop, you keep trying to hustle people."
"C'mon, Carrots, you have to admit, we could make quite a bit of money," Nick argued, trying his best to sell her on the idea. "I would take all of the things I found here, fix them up, and then sell them again. I could have my own little store, it would be great," he explained. "You know what I would call it?"
"I dunno, what?" Judy responded, half annoyed, half amused.
"I would call it, wait for it..." he grinned smugly, "Nicknacks."
Judy didn't respond for a moment. "That...I don't even know what to say to that," she replied. "Was that whole scenario a setup for that pun?"
"Yes," Nick answered, seemingly proud of himself. "Yes it was."
She sighed. "At least it was an okay pun," she admitted as she continued to look through the wreckage. "But you're still a dork."
They continued moving throughout the house, looking for anything out of the ordinary among the wreckage. Seeing nothing on the first floor, they went up the stairs to the second floor.
"Let's see which room they decided to spray paint this time," Judy said, walking into the first bedroom. The sheets had been burned, but nothing else was out of the ordinary. She noticed a closed door in the corner of the room, which she presumed led to the bathroom. Slowly, she walked over and turned the knob.
Judy gasped. "Guys, in here!" she yelled. "I found it!"
Etson and Nick both quickly scurried in from the other rooms they were investigating.
"What did you-...oh my god, why would anyone do this?" Nick asked, his tone clearly disgusted. He looked around the room, shaking his head in disbelief. "I mean, just look at how terrible this is. Who ever thought that this wallpaper was a good idea?"
Etson smirked, but Judy didn't find Nick's sense of humor funny. "C'mon Nick, this is supposed to be a serious investigation, not some home buying show."
"Serious? Carrots, it's plaid flower wallpaper that we're talking about here. Do you even understand how many rules of design that breaks?" Nick replied, apparently very passionate about the subject. "In fact, I would say that the P.P.P. spray paint on the wall actually adds to the room."
"Wait," Judy noticed something on the opposite side of the room. "What's this?" she picked a sticky note off of the wall, examining it. "It's another note..."
"Well, what does it say?" Etson asked.
"I will make my move... the tides will turn," Judy read aloud. "It's signed P.P.P."
"Ah, yes, more vigilante jargon, just what I was hoping to find," Nick complained sarcastically.
"If I didn't want to capture zhis guy," Etson commented, "zhen reading zhese notes would change my mind. Like seriously, who does he zhink he is?"
"Well, if this place is anything like the others, that clue will be the only one we get," Judy said, putting her carrot pen and notebook away, "Let's finish up here and see if we can get in contact with whoever lives, err...used to live here."
"Sounds good," Nick replied. "Lead the way."
The three of them explored the rest of the townhouse, and, unsurprisingly, found no further evidence as to who committed the crime. They walked back out the front door, which was still in pieces on the floor. They started walking back towards the crowd of animals, where there police cruiser was parked.
"I just don't get it..." Judy said, thinking through what she had seen again. "How does someone commit a crime like this in broad daylight?"
"You'd be surprised how easy it is," Nick answered. "It's not hard if you know how to properly conceal yourself."
"Yes, he's right," Etson confirmed. "All you have to do is stay in zhe shadows of zhe buildings, and zhen it's not really broad daylight anymore. Makes it a lot easier to sneak around," he said nonchalantly. His eyes widened, suddenly realizing what he had admitted to. "Not zhat I - I mean I've never, like, done anyzhing in zhe shadows, it's just that I...um..."
Nick laughed. "It's okay, pal. We won't tell anyone what you did."
"But I didn't do -"
"Shhhhh," Nick interrupted, putting his finger over the raccoon's lips. "Your secret is safe with us."
"He's just giving you a hard time, Etson" Judy said as she punched Nick in the arm. "We know what you meant."
Etson blushed, embarrassed that he had humiliated himself. He wanted to say something to try to redeem himself, but he was so flustered that he couldn't think of anything.
They had now reached the crowd of animals, who were all still waiting behind the caution tape.
"We're all clear," Judy said to Rick, who was still guarding the perimeter. Now that the three of them had been through the site of the crime, she suspected that they would allow the animals to have access to the street once again, as there was no chance of them disrupting potential evidence. They walked past the crowd and found where the cruiser where they had left it. Together, the three animals climbed back into the car.
"Where to next, Carrots?" Nick inquired, putting his aviators on as he buckled his seatbelt, riding shotgun. Etson climbed into the backseat.
Judy looked down at the screen of her phone. "Well, Bogo just sent me a text," Judy stated, "Apparently we're going to interview the victim of the attack now."
"The cheetah?" Nick asked.
"Yeah. Apparently she didn't even know that something had happened until they called her and gave her the news. She's still at work," Judy replied, reading the information off of her |
sought to ease concerns over the impact of the rescue loan on Spain's sovereign debt. Far from undermining Spanish public debt, it would "reinforce its overall solvency," the Treasury said in a joint statement with the Economy Ministry.
Spain vowed to carry on tapping the debt markets after raising 56.8% of the total €86 billion it plans this year through regular auctions of medium and long-term bonds. A formal request for the rescue loan is expected by the next euro zone finance ministers meeting scheduled for June 21, European Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said yesterday.
The final figure will be known after the European Union, European Central Bank and IMF finish a review of the situation and a formal accord will then be signed, he said.
A report by Barclays Capital analysts said that a loan of €70-80 billion would push up Spain's public debt by 7-7.5 percentage points from the end-2011 level of 68.5% of economic output. Under this scenario, Spanish public debt would likely peak at 95% of economic output by 2015, they predicted, meaning that fundamentally the state would remain solvent.
"However, the problem confronted by Spain and the rest of the periphery is bigger," the analysts said, warning that the crisis could not end while there remained a risk of fragile economies leaving the euro zone.
Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said yesterday that the deal ensured "the credibility of the euro" and insisted that rather than buckling to pressure for the rescue, he had sought it all along. His government has vowed to slash Spain's public deficit from 8.9% of total economic output last year to just 5.3% this year and 3% in 2013.
But economists say Spain faces a daunting task achieving those goals in a period of recession, which cuts on tax income, and with unemployment at 24.4%, which raises welfare costs.
Spain will be under Troika supervision - Almunia
Spain faces supervision by international lenders after a bailout for its banks agreed at the weekend, EU and German officials said today, contradicting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy who had insisted the cash came without such strings.
Rajoy said yesterday that Madrid had scored a victory by securing aid from euro zone partners without having to submit to a full state rescue programme, saying Spain's rescue had "nothing to do" with the procedures imposed on Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
But EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that as in those other bailouts, a "troika" of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank would oversee the financial assistance.
"Of course there will be conditions," Almunia told Spanish radio. "Whoever gives money never gives it away for free."
Spanish state finances are already under European Commission surveillance under the EU's excessive deficit procedure.
Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said in a letter to parliament that the loans would add to Spain's public debt, and he had insisted on full IMF involvement.
"It was essential for the Netherlands that the IMF will be involved in the whole process: reviewing the formal support request, determining the conditions, and monitoring progress," he wrote.
The Spanish government said it would stick to this year's borrowing programme on financial markets. Spain still needs to refinance €82.5 billion of debt maturing by the end of the year, with a big hump at the end of October, and the autonomous regions have a further €15.7 billion of debt maturing in the second half of 2012.
The central government and the regions also have to fund a deficit of about €52 billion this year.
The bank rescue package will add up to 10 percentage points to Spain's debt-to-gross-domestic-product level, taking it close to 90%, while the country faces a grinding recession, with nearly one worker in four unemployed.
Some economists believe Spain will eventually need a full state bailout, and that Italy may be next in line because of a similar combination of high debt and no economic growth, despite reforms initiated by Prime Minister Mario Monti.
Spain vows more austerity, reforms
Spain vowed today to pursue austerity and economic reforms after securing a euro zone rescue for its stricken banks of up to €100 billion.
The Treasury stressed that the vast loan would strengthen the solvency of Spanish public debt, and said it was committed to carrying on its programme of bond auctions to raise financing.
Keen to show no let-up in the government's austerity drive and to banish concerns about the loan, which raises Spain's overall public debt, the Economy Ministry and Treasury issued a joint statement.
"The Spanish government remains committed to the programme of fiscal consolidation and structural reforms that has earned Spain the confidence of its European partners," it said.
"The Spanish Treasury reaffirms its commitment to capital markets and will therefore continue to execute its funding programme through its regular auction calendar," it added.
The Treasury has already raised 56.8% of the total €86 billion it plans to rake in this year through regular auctions of medium and long-term bonds to finance the state.
Borrowing €100 billion in one go would raise Spain's public debt level by about 10 percentage points of gross domestic product.
"This financial assistance will not only not undermine the present conditions of the current stock of Spanish public debt; it will also reinforce its overall solvency," the statement said. "Furthermore, a sound and duly capitalised banking system will reduce future contingent liabilities of the state and will therefore reinforce the sustainability of Spanish debt," it said.
The upper limit of €100 billion "guarantees a credible backstop," it said, providing enough to cover any capital needs in the "most stressed hypothetical scenarios" plus an additional buffer.
Madrid stressed there were no new conditions for the broader Spanish economy. "The agreement will only entail the necessary policy conditionality pertaining to the financial sector, and does not require any additional commitments on fiscal consolidation and structural reforms than those already in place," the government said.
Format of Irish bailout ''a mistake''
A former special advisor at the Department of Finance, Dr Alan Ahearne, has described the format of the Irish bailout deal as a mistake.
Dr Ahearne said it would have been better if the bailout funds had gone directly into the Irish banks and not to the State to put into the banks.
He said the Spanish bailout deal is very similar to Ireland's programme in that money has been lent to the Spanish government to be put into its viable banks. He said it differs to the Irish one in that the Spanish government has not received a separate pool for state funding.
Instead the Spanish government is hoping to fill the gap in its budget deficit by going to the markets to borrow money.
Dr Ahearne said Spain is hoping now that sentiment improves and that it can get the cost of its borrowing down. Up to this, anybody buying Spanish bonds was taking a gamble on the losses in the Spanish banks and this was putting off investors.SWTOR Upcoming Items from Patch 5.6
SWTOR Upcoming Items from Patch 5.6 and Beyond.
Armor
Deep Cover Operative’s Armor Set
Dark-Force Commando’s Armor Set
Enigmatic Operative’s Armor Set – Spoils of War Pack
Zakuulan Security’s Armor Set – Spoils of War Pack
Revered Master Armor Set – Spoils of War Pack
Unyielding Stalker’s Armor Set – Spoils of War Pack
Restored Columi Smuggler’s Armor Set
Unamed 1
Unamed 2
Unnamed 3
Unnamed 4
Unnamed 5
Unnamed 6
Unnamed 7
Unnamed 8
Unnamed 9
Weapons
Beskad
Scorpion TK Electroblade
Scorpion TK Electrostaff
Scorpion TK Dualsaber
Scorpion TK Lightsaber
Scorpion TK Shoto
Scorpion TK Rifle
Scorpion TK Blaster
Scorpion TK Sniper Rifle
Scorpion TK Offhand Blaster
Scorpion TK Assault Cannon
Mantellian Frontline Blaster
Mantellian Frontline Sniper Rifle
Mantellian Frontline Assault Cannon
Mantellian Frontline Blaster Rifle
Mantellian Frontline Dualsaber
Mantellian Frontline Lightsaber
Mounts
Ascendancy Clawcraft
Oberle Banshee
Republic Guardian’s Dais
Vicious Drakag
Vectron Raptor
AC-5 Broadcast Infiltrator – Direct Purchase
Merry Ice Tromper
Misc
Advanced Gray-Red Color Crystal
Advanced Teal-Black Color Crystal
Juvenile Experimental Varactyl
Copero Jubilee Miniprobe
Model Umbaran T-20 Fighter
Emote: Scare
Emote: Cartwheel
Flair: Snowtacular
Repair Droid Weapon Tuning
Creature Companion: Krakjya
Dyes
Decorations
Coming soonMotorcyclist Simon Andrews has died as a result of the injuries he sustained at Saturday's North West 200 motorcycling races in Northern Ireland.
A statement from North West 200 organisers said that the 29-year-old had passed away on Monday.
The injured motorcyclist was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast by helicopter after the accident in the Superstock race.
The English rider was from Evesham in Worcestershire.
Last year, Andrews suffered serious injuries in the Le Mans 24-Hour race and was also involved in a number of other major accidents during his career, suffering a broken leg at Snetterton in 2011.
Saturday's incident happened at the Metropole section of the 8.9-mile North West circuit.
Media playback is not supported on this device Simon Andrews: Family 'devastated' by motorcyclist's death
It was the second serious crash at this year's North West 200 meeting.
On Tuesday, Franck Petricola crashed during a practice session.
The French rider, 29, is being treated at the Royal Victoria Hospital and is said to be in a "critical condition".
Andrews, who was competing for the Penz13.com BMW team at Saturday's meeting, died in the Belfast hospital with his parents, Stuart and Dee, and his girlfriend, Lisa, by his bedside.
His father said that the rider "loved road racing and he loved competing at the North West 200".
"He has had a motorbike since he was four years-old and started racing when he was 16," he added.
"From that first race, Simon progressed to riding for the factory Honda TT Legends team and his mum and I are very proud of his racing achievements.
"Road racing was in his blood and Simon preferred the roads to short circuits. He was fully aware of the dangers involved, but he loved the challenge that offered."
The rider first competed at the North West 200 in 2011 and according to his father, grew to love the event.
He was fully aware of the dangers involved but he loved the challenge that offered Simon Andrews's father Stuart
"Simon always said the North West fans were the most knowledgeable in the world as they knew everything about the sport and the bikes.
"Ireland had a special place in his heart as he scored his first ever championship point in a meeting at Mondello Park," added Mr Andrews, who revealed that the rider's organs had been donated following his death, as was his wish.
North West 200 event director Mervyn Whyte spoke of a "very sad day" and offered his condolences to the rider's family.
"Simon was a superb rider and a great character in the paddock," added the North West 200 chief.
"He was a huge asset to our race. It was an absolute pleasure to work with him and he was always very helpful when we asked for his assistance. He will be sadly missed by everyone at the North West 200."
In addition to his road racing career, Andrews was also a regular competitor in the British Superbike Championship and he also participated in four World Superbikes races in 2009 and 2010.
Andrews is the fourth competitor to have died at the Northern Ireland meeting in the last six years.
Robert Dunlop, the event's all-time leading winner, lost his life after a crash in practice in 2008, which was the first North West 200 death since Donny Robinson died in 1999.
County Tyrone rider Mark Young died following a crash at the Mather's Cross section of the circuit in 2009 while Scottish competitor Mark Buckley was killed at the 2012 meeting.A newly filed lawsuit accuses the former North Carolina state director of the Donald Trump campaign of pulling a gun on a staffer. The lawsuit further alleges that then-senior Trump campaign officials, including Corey Lewandowski, were aware of the incident but refused to intervene. WBTV reporter Nick Ochsner obtained a copy of the lawsuit and posted it online Thursday morning.
The lawsuit was filed by self-described “loyal Trump campaign staffer” Vincent Bordini. Both Donald J. Trump for President, Inc and Earl Phillip, the former North Carolina state director of the Trump campaign, are named as defendants. According to WBTV, Phillips was removed from his position with the campaign last week.
#Breaking: lawsuit filed against @realDonaldTrump campaign alleging fmr NC campaign dir pulled gun on staffer #ncpol pic.twitter.com/LAdjKZaHM7 — Nick Ochsner (@NickOchsnerWBTV) August 11, 2016
The complaint accuses Phillip of pulling out a loaded.45 caliber pistol during a car ride in February 2016 and then jamming the barrel of the pistol into Bordini’s kneecap.
“Vincent froze. Phillip’s gun was loaded and the safety was off. A bump in the road would likely result in a bullet hole, and worse, in Vincent’s knee,” the complaint states.
Bordini claims that when he reported the incident to the Trump campaign, the regional director for western North Carolina informed him that Phillip had previously done the same thing to him. Bordini also alleges that Stuart Jolly, the Trump campaign national field director, and then-Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, did nothing when he informed them of the incident.
The complaint further alleges that Bordini believes Phillip pulled a gun on at least two additional campaign staffers. He also accuses the campaign of retaliating against him for reporting the incident.
The Trump campaign, nor Phillip, have commented on the allegations, according to the WBTV report.
The lawsuit was filed in the Mecklenburg County Superior Court in North Carolina.
11:37 AM UPDATE:
Phillip reportedly spoke to WCCB in Charlotte this morning on the phone and also released the following statement:
“I have retained legal counsel. I have also stepped down from all affiliation with any and all organizations associated with Donald J. Trump for President to include the campaign and National Diversity Coalition for Trump.”
[image via shutterstock]On March 18, 1990, 13 works of art valued at a combined total of $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. In the early hours, guards admitted two men posing as police officers responding to a disturbance call. Once inside, the thieves tied up the guards and over the next hour committed the largest-value recorded theft of private property in history. Despite efforts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and multiple probes around the world, no arrests have been made and no works have been recovered. The museum initially offered a reward of $5 million for information leading to the art's recovery, but in 2017 this was temporarily doubled to $10 million, with an expiration date set to the end of the year. This was extended into 2018 following helpful tips from the public.
The stolen works had originally been purchased by art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924) and intended to be left on permanent display at the museum with the rest of her collection. Since the collection and its layout are permanent, empty frames remain hanging both in homage to the missing works and as placeholders for their potential return. Experts are puzzled by the choice of paintings that were stolen, especially since more valuable artwork was left untouched. Among the stolen works was The Concert, one of only 34 known works by Vermeer and thought to be the most valuable unrecovered painting, valued at over $200 million.[when?] Also missing is The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt's only known seascape. Other works by Rembrandt, Degas, Manet, and Flinck were also stolen.
According to the FBI, the stolen artwork was moved through the region and offered for sale in Philadelphia during the early 2000s. They believe the thieves were members of a criminal organization based in the mid-Atlantic and New England. They also claim to have targeted two suspects, although they have not been publicly identified and are now deceased. Boston gangster Bobby Donati, murdered in 1991 as a result of ongoing gang wars, has been cited as a possible collaborator in the heist. Significant evidence suggests that Hartford, Connecticut gangster Robert Gentile knows the location of the works, although he denies involvement.
Robbery [ edit ]
Around midnight on Sunday morning, March 18, 1990, a red Dodge Daytona pulled up near the side entrance of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum along Palace Road.[1][2] Two men with fake police uniforms waited for at least an hour in the car, possibly trying to avoid being noticed by people leaving a Saint Patrick's Day party nearby.[3] Later at around 1 a.m., security guard Richard Abath returned to the front desk after patrolling the museum to switch positions with a fellow guard, the only other person in the building. At this time, Abath opened and quickly shut the Palace Road door, claiming he was trained to do this to ensure the door was locked. He claimed security logs from other nights would show that he had done this many times previously. The FBI has seized the logs, but has not commented on the issue further.[3]
At 1:24 a.m., one of the two men outside pushed the buzzer near the door and told Abath they were policemen who heard of a disturbance in the courtyard, and requested to be let inside. Abath knew he should not let uninvited guests inside, but he was unsure on whether the rule applied to police officers. He could see the men and believed them to be police officers based on their uniforms. With his partner on patrol, Abath decided to buzz in the men.[3] When the intruders arrived at the main security desk, one of them told Abath that he looked familiar and there was a default warrant out for his arrest. Abath stepped out from behind his desk, where the only alarm button to alert police could be accessed. He was quickly asked for his ID, ordered to face the wall, and then handcuffed. Abath believed the arrest was a misunderstanding, until he realized he hadn't been frisked before being cuffed, and one officer's mustache was made of wax.[3] The second security guard arrived minutes later and was also handcuffed, after which he asked the intruders why he was being arrested. The thieves explained that they were not being arrested, but rather this was a robbery, and proceeded to take the guards to the museum's basement. They handcuffed the guards to pipes and wrapped duct tape around their hands, feet, and heads.[4]
Since the museum was equipped with motion detectors, the thieves' movements throughout the museum were recorded. After tying up the guards, the thieves went upstairs to the Dutch Room. As one of them approached Rembrandt's Self-Portrait (1629), a local alarm sounded, which they immediately smashed. They pulled the painting off the wall and attempted to take the wooden panel out of its heavy frame. Unsuccessful at the attempt, they left the painting on the floor. They cut Rembrandt's The Storm on the Sea of Galilee out of the frame, as well as A Lady and Gentleman in Black. They also removed Vermeer's The Concert and Govaert Flinck's Landscape with Obelisk from their frames. Additionally, they also took a Chinese bronze gu from the Shang dynasty.[4]
Elsewhere in the museum, they stole five Degas drawings and an eagle finial. The finial sat at the top of a Napoleonic flag, which they attempted to unscrew from the wall, but failed.[5] Manet's Chez Tortoni was also stolen from its location in the Blue Room. Motion detector records show that the only footsteps detected in the Blue Room that night were at 12:27 a.m. and again at 12:53 a.m. These times match to when Abath said he passed through on patrol. The frame for the painting was found on security chief Lyle W. Grindle's chair near the front desk.[3] The thieves made two trips to their car with artwork during the theft, which lasted 81 minutes. Before leaving, they visited the guards once more, telling them "You'll be hearing from us in about a year," although they were never heard from again.[1] The guards remained handcuffed until police arrived at 8:15 a.m. later that morning.[4]
Stolen artwork [ edit ]
Altogether, thirteen pieces were stolen at an estimated loss of $500 million, making the robbery the largest recorded private property theft in history.[6] Empty frames remain hanging in the museum, both in homage to the missing works and as placeholders for their potential return.[7] One of the paintings, The Concert, was Gardner's first major acquisition and one of only 34 known Vermeer works in the world.[8] It is thought to be the most valuable unrecovered stolen painting, with a value estimated at over $200 million.[9][when?] Another painting, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, is Rembrandt's only known seascape.[1] The bronze finial was taken from the top of a Napoleonic flag, possibly appearing like gold to the thieves.[8] The museum is offering a $100,000 reward for this piece alone.[10]
The following are the missing works of art:[5][8][11]
Notes
^ A Lady and Gentleman in Black to be a Rembrandt; however some scholars, including the Rembrandt Research Project in Amsterdam, say it is not.[4] The museum believesto be a Rembrandt; however some scholars, including the Rembrandt Research Project in Amsterdam, say it is not. ^ Landscape with an Obelisk was formerly attributed to Rembrandt until being associated with his pupil, Flinck.[12] was formerly attributed to Rembrandt until being associated with his pupil, Flinck. ^ Self-Portrait is postage-stamp sized. Not to be confused with Rembrandt's Self-Portrait (1629) oil painting also at the museum, which the thieves attempted to steal but did not take.[4] Thisis postage-stamp sized. Not to be confused with Rembrandt's(1629) oil painting also at the museum, which the thieves attempted to steal but did not take. ^ The gu is dated during the Shang dynasty
Investigation [ edit ]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took control of the case on the grounds that the artwork would likely cross state lines.[13] They have conducted hundreds of interviews with probes stretching across the world involving Scotland Yard, Japanese and French authorities, private investigators, museum directors, and art dealers.[1] The FBI believes the thieves were members of a criminal organization based in the mid-Atlantic and New England, and that the stolen paintings were moved through Connecticut and the Philadelphia area in the years following the theft. Some of the art may have been offered for sale in Philadelphia in the early 2000s, including The Storm on the Sea of Galilee; however, their knowledge of what happened to the works after the attempted sale is limited.[2][14][15] The FBI stated it believed it knew the identity of the thieves in 2013, but in 2015 announced that they were now deceased. They have declined to identify the individuals.[16]
Sketches of the suspects
No single motive or pattern has emerged through the thousands of pages of evidence gathered.[1] The selection of works puzzles the experts, specifically since more valuable artworks were available.[7] The FBI's lead agent assigned to the case, Geoffrey J. Kelly, finds it difficult to understand why this assortment of items was stolen despite the thieves being in the museum for enough time to take whatever they wished. On their way to the finial, the thieves passed by two Raphaels and a Botticelli painting.[4] Titian's The Rape of Europa, which is one of the museum's most well-known and valuable pieces, was not stolen.[4] Due to the brutish ways the criminals handled the robbery, cutting the paintings from their frames and smashing frames for two Degas sketches, investigators believe the thieves were amateur criminals, not experts commissioned to steal particular works.[3] Some investigators believe the works were destroyed, explaining why they have not reappeared.[1] Theories on the theft include that it was organized by the Irish Republican Army in order to raise money or bargain for the release of imprisoned comrades. Another theory states Whitey Bulger was the ringleader of the theft. At the time of the heist, he was Boston's top crime boss and an FBI informant.[1]
The museum first offered a reward of $1 million, but that was later increased to $5 million in 1997.[1] The reward is for "information that leads directly to the recovery of all of [their] items in good condition",[15] which remains on offer more than a quarter-century later.[1] In May 2017, the bounty was doubled to $10 million, with an expiration date set for midnight on December 31 of that year.[17][18][19] This reward was extended into 2018 following an outpouring of tips from the public.[20] Federal authorities have stated they will not charge anyone who voluntarily turns in the artwork, but anyone caught knowingly in possession of stolen items could be prosecuted.[2][21] The thieves cannot face charges because the five-year statute of limitations has expired.[2]
Loss of DNA evidence [ edit ]
In 2010, the FBI announced that some evidence from the original crime scene had been sent to the FBI's Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, for retesting with the hope of finding new DNA evidence to identify the culprits of the theft.
In June 2017, The Boston Globe reported that some of the crime scene evidence collected by the FBI was missing. Even after an exhaustive search, they were unable to locate handcuffs and duct tape used to immobilize the museum's two security guards that could have contained traces of the thieves' DNA material.[22]
Leads [ edit ]
In 1994, the museum director Anne Hawley received a letter that promised the return of the pieces for $2.6 million. If interested, the museum had to get The Boston Globe to publish a coded message in a business story. The message was published, but nothing further was heard once law enforcement got involved.[13]
Late one night in 1997, Boston Herald reporter Tom Mashberg was driven to a warehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn by William Youngworth, a career criminal and associate of New England art thief Myles Connor Jr.,[13] to see what was purported to be The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. Mashberg had been investigating the theft and was briefly allowed to view the painting with a flashlight. He was given a vial of paint chips for authenticity. These were later confirmed by experts to be fragments of Dutch 17th-century origin—but not from the stolen painting.[1] It was never concretely determined to be real or fake, and the FBI quit dealing with Youngworth after not making any progress.[13] The painting has since disappeared.[1]
On August 6, 2015, the FBI released a video from the night before the theft thought to possibly show a dry run of the robbery. Two men appear on the tape: one was initially unidentified, while the other has been confirmed as Richard Abath, a security guard on duty the night of the heist. The video appears to show Abath buzzing the man into the museum twice within a few minutes. The man stayed for about three minutes in the lobby, then returned to a car and drove off.[23] The New York Times points out that the recording draws new attention to Abath as a potential collaborator.[24] However, the guards had previously been interviewed and deemed too unimaginative to have pulled off the heist[1] – which is not to say they could not have been collaborators.
According to the WBUR podcast Last Seen, this surveillance footage is a red herring: the person Abath let in this night was his boss, the Gardner Museum’s deputy director of security. Although this was apparently against security protocol (no one was to be admitted after hours), the other security guard present that night (only referred to as "Randy"), claimed they were never instructed to not to let anyone at all in after hours, which is the reason why he and Richard Abath opened the doors for the two men dressed as police officers the following evening.[25]
In December 2015 FBI agents searched East Boston's Suffolk Downs horse racing track, acting on a tip consistent with rumors among Suffolk Downs employees in the 1990s that the stolen art was there. Stables, parts of the grandstand closed since the early 1990s, and two safes (which had to be drilled open) were searched without result.[21]
Suspects [ edit ]
Boston gangster Bobby Donati may have been involved in the heist. New England art thief Myles J. Connor Jr., in prison at the time of the robbery, has stated that he and associate Bobby Donati eyed the museum in the 1980s and Donati oversaw the operation.[1] Shortly before the robbery, Donati was seen at a nightclub with a sack of police uniforms.[13] Donati worked under Boston crime boss Vincent Ferrara, and visited him in prison in the early 1990s. When Ferrara asked about the robbery, Donati said he "buried the stuff" and would find a way to negotiate his release. Donati was murdered in 1991 as a result of ongoing gang wars.[13]
Hartford, Connecticut, gangster Robert "Bobby the Cook" Gentile has been suggested on multiple occasions as knowing the location of the Gardner works.[21][26] In May 2012, FBI agents searched Gentile's home in Manchester, Connecticut. They did not find any stolen works, despite searching his preferred hiding spot beneath a false floor with the help of his son. However, in the basement, they found a sheet of paper listing what each stolen piece might draw on the black market.[21] In January 2016, the FBI contrived gun charges against Gentile to force him to reveal the location of the missing works. During a hearing, a federal prosecutor revealed significant evidence tying Gentile to the crime. The prosecutor stated that Gentile and mob partner Robert Guarente attempted to use the return of two stolen pieces to reduce a prison sentence for one of their associates. Guarente's wife told investigators in early 2015 that her husband once had possession of some of the art, and gave two paintings to Gentile before Guarente died of cancer in 2004. Also, while in federal prison during 2013–2014, Gentile told at least three people he had knowledge of the stolen art. In 2015, Gentile submitted to a lie detector test, denying advanced knowledge of the heist or ever possessing any paintings. The result showed a 0.1% chance that he was truthful.[26] According to Gentile's lawyer, federal agents are convinced that Gentile has the stolen works.[21] Gentile's home was searched again by the FBI on May 2, 2016, even though his lawyer insists that if Gentile had the stolen artwork or knowledge of its whereabouts, he would have turned it in for the reward money a long time ago.[27] On September 5, 2017, Gentile was scheduled to be sentenced for a separate weapons charge in Connecticut.[28]
When the museum raised its bounty in 1997, Myles J. Connor Jr. said he could locate the missing artwork in exchange for legal immunity. Authorities rejected his offer. Connor now believes that the Gardner works have passed into other, unknown hands. "I was probably told, but I don't remember," he said, blaming a heart attack that affected his memory.[1] Louis Royce, another Boston area gangster, claims he is still owed 15% for devising the plan for two fake policemen to request access to the museum at night.[13]
In popular culture [ edit ]
The high profile Gardner Museum theft has been referenced and parodied in many different works. It was the subject of the 2005 documentary Stolen, which first appeared in a slightly different version on Court TV.[29] The more well-known paintings have been referenced in multiple TV shows, including The Blacklist episode "The Courier" (and an allusion to the Gardner Museum heist itself in the episode "Greyson Blaise"),[30] The Simpsons episode "American History X-cellent",[31] Drunk History episode "Boston",[32] and American Greed.[33]
Several books were written by former investigators: Artful Deception (2012) by James J. McGovern; Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures (2010), by Robert Wittman and John Shiffman; and Stolen Masterpiece Tracker (2006) by Thomas McShane.[34][35][36]
Stephen Kurkjian, a reporter for The Boston Globe, has written a book about his experience titled Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World's Greatest Art Heist (2015).[13] Journalist Ulrich Boser wrote a book called The Gardner Heist (2009), leaning heavily on the documented investigation of Harold Smith, an insurance underwriter who worked on art cases.[37]
The theft features in the novel The Art Forger (2012) by B.A. Shapiro.[38]
In 2018, The Boston Globe and WBUR-FM launched a podcast exploring the theft, titled Last Seen.[39]
See also [ edit ]The first fossil of an amphibious ichthyosaur has been discovered in China, and the scientists who made the discovery say it fills a longstanding gap in the fossil record.
Paleontologists have long known that ichthyosaurs--dolphin-like "sea monsters" that lived from about 250 million years ago until about 90 million years ago--descended from similar reptiles that lived on land. But there was no fossil showing a transitional creature adapted for life on land as well as in water.
"But now we have this fossil showing the transition," Dr. Ryosuke Motani, a professor in the department of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Davis, and a member of the international team of scientists who made the discovery, said in a written statement. "There's nothing that prevents it from coming onto land."
(Story continues below image.)
Fossil remains show the amphibious ichthyosaur found in China. The animal had large flippers and flexible wrists, which enabled it to walk.
Motani and his colleagues found the 248-million-year-old fossil in China's Anhui Province, according to the statement. The fossil measures about 1.5 feet in length and shows an animal with large, flexible flippers that would have made it possible to walk on land.
Ichthyosaurs fully adapted for aquatic life didn't have such flippers. And while fully aquatic ichthyosaurs had long, beak-like snouts, the fossil shows a short snout similar to the ones commonly seen in terrestrial reptiles.
Based on its anatomy, the amphibious ichthyosaur (known as Cartorhynchus lenticarpus) probably wasn't a fast swimmer, Motani told National Geographic. Instead, it probably rooted around for bottom-dwelling prey like shrimp in what was then an island-filled area of the ocean.
If the fossil is the first of its kind to be found, it probably won't be the last to reveal new insights into ichthyosaurs.
"There are more ancestral forms [of ichthyosaurs] still to be found,” Dr. Valentin Fischer, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Liège in Belgium who wasn’t involved in the discovery, told Science.
The team included scientists from the Anhui Geological Museum, the Chinese Academy of Science, the University of Milan, and The Field Museum in Chicago in addition to the University of California, Davis, and Peking University.Lawmakers have room for improvement in gaining voter trust, a survey finds. | POLITICO Staff Poll: Congress rates low on honesty
Americans’ opinion of congressional honesty has improved over the past year, but lawmakers are still more distrusted than even used car salesmen, according to a poll released Monday.
More than half of Americans — 54 percent — have a low or very low opinion of congressional honesty and ethics, Gallup found. That’s improved from 2011, when 64 percent had a low or very low opinion. Ten percent had a high or very high opinion of congressional trustworthiness, up from 7 percent a year ago.
Story Continued Below
The only similarly distrusted profession is used car salesmen: Only 8 percent trust them, and 49 percent do not.
Americans are also more likely to trust governors and senators than they are to trust rank-and-file members of the House of Representatives. One-fifth of Americans have high or very high opinions of gubernatorial ethics, and 14 percent said the same of senators.
The list of professions Americans trust is short. Nurses, pharmacists, doctors, engineers, police officers, dentists, college teachers and the clergy topped the list, with more than 50 percent rating their ethics as high or very high. Journalists fall somewhere in the middle.
The poll of 1,015 adults was conducted from Nov. 26 to Nov. 29. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
This article tagged under: Polls
Approval RatingsBANGKOK - Thailand said Tuesday that it was looking into requesting the extradition of the kingdom's fugitive former leader after he was invited to give evidence to a US government human rights panel. Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a 2006 military coup and lives abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption, is set to speak to the US committee on topics including deadly "Red Shirt" anti-government protests in Bangkok. The former billionaire telecom tycoon's invitation to Washington comes after the protracted legal battle for the extradition from Thailand of alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was eventually sent to America last month. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has rejected suggestions that there was a deal to swap Thaksin for Bout. Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said authorities in Bangkok were legally obliged to seek extradition. "Of course they have to act on it, they are just looking and evaluating what they have to do. This is a very normal procedure," he said. "It is |
over the years, have undergone some modernization with respect to manufacturing processes and materials used in weld and solder joints. The engine stands 2.33 meters tall, is 1.47 meters in diameter and weighs 566 Kilograms; it delivers a vacuum thrust of 582 Kilonewtons at a specific impulse of 326.5 seconds.
The RD-0210/0211 engines are strikingly similar to the RD-253/275 engines used on the first stage – sharing the same closed combustion cycle with oxygen-rich gas generator, single-shaft turbopump, regenerative cooling cycle for the chamber and nozzle (fuel), two-zone gas generator (oxidizer as coolant), and dual-feedback systems for engine control (fuel flow variation to the GG to keep engine pressures & temperature within bands; fuel flow variation through the regen cycle to control the even consumption of oxidizer and fuel). Changes from the RD-253 cycle lie in the use of boost pumps for both propellant components to prevent cavitation at low tank pressures
Another difference to the first stage engines is the ignition sequence of the RD-0210/0211 engines. Starting out as a first stage engine, they relied on a one-second long nitrogen purge prior to the ignition trigger followed by the injection of pressurized gas (air or nitrogen) from a ground system to get the turbine spinning and open the main fuel and oxidizer valves. To achieve an air-start capability outside the dense atmosphere, the engines have to bring the initial burst of gas pressure with them in the form of a small spherical gas tank.
All four engines of the second stage employ an electro-hydraulic, two-axis gimbal system, capable of moving each nozzle by 3.25 degrees to support three-axis control during the second stage flight phase.
Per Proton’s typical mission profile, the second stage burns for 210 seconds, separating from the third stage at the 327-second mark into the flight at a speed of 4.45 Kilometers per second and 120 Kilometers in altitude. Debris of the second stage impact 1,985 Kilometers from the launch site.
Third Stage
Type Storable Propellant Stage Inert Mass 4,185kg Diameter 4.14m Length 6.5m Propellant Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine Oxidizer Dinitrogentetroxide Fuel&Oxidizer Mass 46,562kg Guidance Inertial Propulsion RD-0213 Engine + RD-0214 Vernier RD-0123 Chambers 1 RD-0213 Thrust Vac 582kN Engine Diameter 4.1m Area Ratio 81.3 Chamber Pressure 14.7 MPa RD-0214 Chambers 4 RD-01214 Thrust 31kN Chamber Pressure 5.3 MPa Total Thrust 613.8kN Burn Time 238sec Vacuum Impulse 325s
The third stage of the Proton-M Rocket is the final stage of the actual launch vehicle that delivers the orbital unit to a preliminary orbit or a suborbital trajectory, depending on the mission profile.
This stage also utilizes a conventional design and consumes Nitrogen Tetroxide and Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine a propellants. An RD-0213 engine powers the vehicle providing 583 Kilonewtons of thrust.
This engine is a non-gimbaled version of the RD-0210 engine that is used on the second stage. For vehicle control and additional thrust, an RD-0214 Engine with four gimbaled nozzles is installed on the third stage.
The RD-0214 provides 31 Kilonewtons of thrust for a total 3rd stage thrust 62,600 Kilograms.
The third stage houses the vehicle’s Navigation, Guidance and Control System that operated the vehicle during all aspects of powered flight which is fully automated and does not require commands from ground stations. A triple redundant digital guidance system is used to control the vehicle.
The Control System has been upgraded several times since the Proton-M started operations in 2001. The guidance mode used is cosed-loop. A high-precision three-axis gyro stabilizer provides exact attitude data to the digital flight computer. The avionics system also provides flight termination in case of a major anomaly during ascent.
Briz-M Upper Stage
Type Briz-M Length 2.61m Diameter 4.0m Fuel Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine Oxidizer Nitrogen Tetroxide Inert Mass 2,370kg Propellant Mass 19,800kg Launch Mass 22,300kg Propellant Tanks Aluminum Alloy Tank Pressurization Helium Propulsion S5.98 Engine Type Gas Generator, Open Cycle Thrust – Vacuum 19.62kN Specific Impulse Vac 328.6s Engine Diameter 948mm Engine Length 1150mm Engine Mass 95kg Mixture Ratio 2.00 (+/-0.04) Burn Time Total: 3,200s, Single Burn: 2,000s Chamber Pressure 95-98bar Restart Capability Up to 8 Settling Thrusters 4 x 11D458M Fuel Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine Oxidizer Nitrogen Tetroxide Thrust 392N Specific Impulse 296s Thruster Length 469mm Thruster Diameter 192mm Thruster Mass 3.0kg Mixture Ratio 1.85 Inlet Pressure 14.7bar Min Impulse Bit 13.7Ns Burn Time 0.05 to 1,000s Cycle Life 10,000 Reaction Control 12 x 17D58E Fuel Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine Oxidizer Nitrogen Tetroxide Thrust 13.3N Specific Impulse 269s Thruster Length 140mm Thruster Mass 0.55kg Mixture Ratio 1.85 Inlet Pressure 7.8 to 34.4bar Burn Time 0.03 to 10,000s Cycle Life 450,000
Briz-M is a hypergolic upper stage developed for the Proton Rocket allowing access to a variety of orbits including Geostationary Transfer Orbit, Geosynchronous Orbit, escape trajectories and all types of lower orbits. Due to its propellant combination and low-performance engine, the payload capacity of Proton with Briz-M is much smaller than with Block-DM semi-cryo upper stage.
Briz was developed on the basis of an anti-satellite propulsion system studied in the 1980s and first flew as Briz-K before being developed into the smaller Briz-KM for the Rockot launcher and its larger sister, the Briz-M, for Proton missions. Briz-M first flew in 1999 and the KM version made its debut in 2000.
Briz-M is 4.0 meters in diameter and 2.61 meters in length consisting of a central block that houses propellant tanks, the engine compartment, pressurization systems and the flight control system. The Core Section is 2.49 meters in diameter. A toroidal tank section installed around the core vehicle carries additional propellants and is jettisoned after being emptied. In total, Briz-M weighs around 22,300 Kilograms including 5.2 metric tons of propellants stored in the core module and 14.6 tons of propellants carried in the Auxiliary Propellant Tank.
The Central block consists of an oxidizer tank on top of the fuel tank, both are separated by a common bulkhead. The tanks include hydraulic and pneumatic systems as well as internal baffles to prevent propellant sloshing inside the tanks. Structurally, the tanks are toroidal in shape, leaving a cavity at the bottom to provide space for the main propulsion system in order to minimize the length of the stage. Below the tanks, the engine compartment features the main propulsion system, settling and attitude control thrusters, spherical helium pressurant tanks and spherical high-pressure propellant tanks for the settling and attitude control systems. The tanks are coated with screen vacuum thermal insulation to avoid excessive cooling of the propellants that affects viscosity and can lead to freezing the lines and tanks.
On top of the Central Block is the equipment section of the Briz-M that is housed in an inverted truncated cone that features sub-frames to provide installation surfaces for the various controllers, telemetry modules, batteries and communications systems. Installed on the top frame of the Central Block is the payload adapter that provides the structural attachment point of the spacecraft and also includes communication interfaces. Payload adapters up to 2.49 meters in diameter can be supported.
At the bottom of the Central Block is a 60-centimeter long adapter section that builds the structural interface between the Briz-M and the second stage of the launch vehicle and also provides attachment points for the payload fairing to transfer loads from the fairing and house separation equipment. This interstage section is separated with the second stage. Briz-M is encapsulated in the payload fairing of the launcher and reduces the available payload envelope.
The Auxiliary Propellant Tank is mounted to the Central Block via a number of structural struts. Umbilical Interfaces are used to transfer propellants, power, and data between the two components. The toroidal compartment with cylindrical shells is divided into two separate tanks by an intermediate bulkhead creating an oxidizer tank (top) and fuel tank (bottom). Loads from the vehicle are transferred to the APT via the load-bearing cone inside the oxidizer tank and the outer cylindrical shell of the fuel tank. The tanks also include baffles to dampen propellant sloshing.
Once the 14.6 metric tons of hypergolics inside the APT are consumed, the tank section is jettisoned by initiating pyrotechnic bolts that cut the structural attachment points of the APT. Electrical and fluid connectors automatically disconnect at separation and spring pushers initiate the clean separation of the APT that is ensured by guide rails and roller supports on the tank and Central Block.
Briz-M includes two propellant systems – one low-pressure system for the main engine and a high-pressure system for the settling thrusters and the attitude control system. Both use Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine as fuel and Nitrogen Tetroxide as oxidizer. These hypergolic propellants ignite immediately when coming into contact.
Briz Propulsion Section (Photo: Briz-KM, similar to Briz-M)
Briz-M uses a single S5.98 main engine that delivers 19.62 Kilonewtons of thrust (2,000kgf) and is based on an open cycle design. In this propulsion scheme, a small amount of oxidizer and fuel are injected into a gas generator that creates a high-pressure hot gas consisting of combustion products. This high-pressure gas feed is used to drive the turbines of the turbopumps of the fuel and oxidizer to deliver high-pressure propellant components into the combustion chamber. Regenerative cooling is accomplished by flowing propellant through the engine heat exchangers that cool the combustion chamber and warm up the propellants to temperatures where they have favorable physical properties.
S5.98 operates at a chamber pressure of 95 to 98 bar and uses a propellant mixture ratio of 1.96 to 2.04. It generates a specific impulse of 328.6 seconds. Overall, the engine is 115 centimeters long and 94.8 centimeters in diameter weighing 95 Kilograms. S5.98 can support up to eight re-starts in flight.
S5.98 is protected by a cover that is opened for main engine burns and protects the engine during coast phases using a hinged opening mechanism.
The propellant settling system is comprised of four 11D458M thrusters installed on four thruster pods located on the aft end of the Central Block. These pods include one settling thruster and three attitude control engines connected to the same propellant supply. Also consuming hypergolic propellants, the settling and attitude thrusters use propellants supplied by the high-pressure system.
11D58M Thruster
Each settling thruster delivers 392 Newtons of thrust being 46.9 centimeters long and 19.2 centimeters in diameter with a mass of about 3 Kilograms. 11D458M operates at a mixture ratio of 1.85 and a propellant inlet pressure of 14.7 bar. It can be fired in pulse mode or make long steady-state burns and is certified for firings of up to 1,000 seconds and 10,000 duty cycles. For propellant settling, all four thrusters are activated 15 seconds before the main engine start to provide a forward acceleration for propellant settling inside the large tanks.
The attitude control thrusters used on Briz-M are known as 17D58E providing a nominal thrust of 13.3 Newtons. Each unit is 14 centimeters long and weighs 550 grams. The thruster also operates at a mixture ratio of 1.85 and a nominal inlet pressure of 14.7 bar, but it can tolerate a large pressure range from 7.8 to 34.3 bar. For attitude control, the thrusters are used in pulse mode with a minimum on-time of 0.03 seconds, but 17D58E is also certified for burns in steady-state mode up to 10,000 seconds. The engine is certified for 450,000 duty cycles.
Briz-M is outfitted with an inertial guidance platform, a digital flight computer and batteries that allow the stage to operate for up to 24 hours.
Payload Fairing
Diameter 4.35m Length 13.31m/15.26m Mass ~2,000kg Separation During 3rd Stage Burn
The Payload Fairing is positioned on top of the stacked vehicle and its integrated Payload. It protects the spacecraft against aerodynamic, thermal and acoustic environments that the vehicle experiences during atmospheric flight. When the launcher has left the atmosphere, the fairing is jettisoned by pyrotechnically initiated systems. The fairing is attached to the third stage and the Briz-M Upper Stage.
Proton-M can be equipped with two different fairing designs. Both are cylindrical in shape, but their overall length and weight varies. Both types of fairing have an inner diameter of 4.35m. The shorter version is 13.31m in length while the large fairing is 15.26m long.
Payload Adapter
Payload Adapters interface with the vehicle and the payload and are the only attachment point of the payload on the Launcher. They provide equipment needed for spacecraft separation and connections for communication between the Upper Stage and the Payload. The separation system can be based on either the traditional pair of pyrotechnically-initiated bolt cutters or a low-shock Clamp Band Opening Device (CBOD). Four off-the-shelf Payload Adapters are currently available for Proton Flights, however custom designs based on Spacecraft requirements are also provided by Khrunichev, the manufacturer of Proton Adapters.Monday, August 16, 2010 at 9:35AM
Did You Get Pears?
by MOLLY LAMBERT
Who else cheered when Allison chucked the golden snitch at Don? Yes that's right, Donald "This Never Happened" Draper, "this actually happened." You can't just stick the tip in one night and then pretend you forgot about it the next day because you were so wasted! I mean, you can! Unless you have to see them all the time by necessity, but that's why you don't dip your dick in the company cold cream!
Sometimes it's more important to tell the truth than to save face. The first three seasons of Mad Men were about the social pressures and restrictions that stop people from being honest with others, let alone themselves. So far this season has been about the unassailable internal problems that override those human constructed dams.
Everyone's an expert and a hypocrite when it comes to matters of the heart. When Allison's feelings about Don start leaking out in the conference room, Peggy tells her to stuff them in a sack. Later when Peggy finds out that Pete knocked up Trudy, she is unable to do anything but bang her head on a desk. Perhaps a more subtle gesture could've been used to indicate Peggy's feelings, but I thought it was very accurate.
Often when real emotional trash goes down you'll have a visceral physical reaction that feels especially unwelcome given that you are dealing with feelings, which theoretically ought to just give you mental anguish. And yet there you are, banging your head against the wall, or doubled over in violent pain, or throwing up in the hallway.
The difference between what should happen and what does happen is another one of Mad Men's major themes, along with the differences between the person you are and the person you present yourself to the world as being. Even if you want to keep your inner feelings entirely to yourself, as Don does, your body might still sell you out.
Don criticizes Faye Faith Popcorn for sticking her finger in people's brains and getting them to talk. One of Jon Hamm's greatest skills as an actor is his ability to convey simultaneously the many different levels of Don Draper's bluffing while making it fully believable that most other people would see only the very top layer.
Peggy's cool downtown party was perfect. I swear I went to that party last weekend. The guy with the bear head turned out to be a bear. Telling a lesbian that your boyfriend rents your vagina is the kind of flirty neg cool art dykes live for.
How many sweatshop drug parties and exhilarating dashes from the NYPD will it take Peggy's new lady friend to unlock her potential bicuriousness? Who will get Peggy to cuckold her dopey fiance first, her new lesbian buddy or her metrosexual officemate?
This episode was directed by none other than silver fox John Slattery! Perhaps that is why it was so very wry. It's like Matthew Weiner heard the internet complaining about how season 3 focused way too much on Don and Betty's marriage breaking down and not enough on the Sterling-Cooper office, and then granted us our dream of banishing Betty to a plotless corner so that we can spend more time with Joan, Pete, and Peggy.
We all know what the ancient couple with the pears signifies for Don's new secretary. Bobbie Barrett was a gateway drug and now Don's going to start banging old ladies on the reg. The real tragedy of this episode is that my intended, that all American idiot Ken Cosgrove, has given his dowry to some betch. Farewell to thee Kenny C, my blond prince of Vermont. I'm sorry your pretty boy swag was too much for creative.
Molly Lambert is the managing editor of This Recording. She tumbls here and twitters here. You can find last week's Mad Men review here.
"We Shall Be Free" - Woody Guthrie (mp3)
"Oregon Trail" - Woody Guthrie (mp3)
"Springfield Mountain" - Woody Guthrie (mp3)846
1141 Soquel Ave
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
(831) 426-5664
On a trip to Santa Cruz, we stopped by here as the place was recommended by a local. I got the Peanut Bowl (mild) and I really enjoyed it. It was packed with veggies, and the texture of the egg-less wheat noodles was very nice. There was no way I could finish it, so if you live nearby, you could easily get two meals out of it. My partner attempted to order the Gado Gado but the person at the front really wanted one of us to order the Kung Pao. Since we hadn't been there before, my partner took his recommendation and changed his order. Unfortunately, he didn't much enjoy the Kung Pao; when I asked him how it tasted, he said "kind of like nothing." But he'll eat anything if there's enough sriracha, so he just added a ton of that and soy sauce. From the other reviews and from our very limited experience, it seems like this place is hit and miss for flavor. But as many have also mentioned, it's hard to beat the price and the serving sizes are very generous.
I had been here many years ago and now just back. A pleasant, low-key, colorful place with a very veg-friendly menu. Sandwich was too small, salad bowl had too much dressing, rice bowl was pretty good, but the star was what they called Chiang Mai Noodles (they spelled it slightly wrong), which was a khao soi with a much less liquidy base than is traditional in northern Thailand. This dish is hard enough to get in the US and quite rare to find veg, so I was thrilled to find it and absolutely loved consuming it (I got an extra side tofu thrown in for good measure). I would certainly go back for the Chiang Mai Noodles (khao soi) with tofu.
I'd love to come back here and try something else. My coconut soup was lack luster with flavor, so disappointing when you order a coconut broth soup and it is watered down- also the mushrooms seemed like they came from a can... just my opinion though. I also ordered the cold noodle salad. It was flavorful but I had to succumb to adding siracha. The lettuce and everything wasn't mixed or chopped very well. Overall NOT a bad experience at all for $10 I left full eager to come back to try again!
This place is so cute! You order at the counter and the wait at the table. They have lots of vegan options and their bowls are great! Very affordable too. I got the spicy garlic tofu bowl with brown rice and broccoli. I loved it! The lady who rang me up was very nice too! The food doesn't take too long and they play some good slaps. I'd definitely come back when I'm in the area.
Visiting Santa Cruz and decided to try this place because it is still open upon our late arrival to city. We ordered Vietnamese chicken noodle soup and chicken teriyaki bowl. Soup was good, no veggies but basil and jalapeños. Chicken was tender and noodles were just right. The teriyaki bowl was DELISH, but the amount of chicken was little. The rice was almost five times more than the chicken. We also ordered a lemonade, which I thought was pricey for a small cup. Cookies (double fudge and oatmeal) weren't bad either. For the price, overall it was good.
It's been years since I have stepped foot into this place but new change in what I eat prompted a visit. The vegan options are decent and you can be ballin on a budget and get enough food for two meals (or one if you are starving and haven't eaten all day). This is the deal.... If you are looking for Chinese vegan options you are going to be severely disappointed... Go to Veggie Lees in Hayward...or if you want Asian fusion go to Loving Hut in San Jose. If you are looking for a decently priced eggless noodle or rice dish with curry and some hefty veggie toppings this place is a contender. I got an order of the Chaing Mai noodles. They were fine. A few things: The cleanliness of this place (the outdoor patio portion) can be questionable. Things need ot be wiped down... often times there are ants crawling up the wall.... if either of those things bother you..I suggest skipping this place. Parking is on the street and can be tight.
Cool little place for some Hong Kong fusion food. The parking can be a problem so make sure to find a spot close by. Its a casual self service set up. They have a variety of rice bowls, and you can choose an extra topping to add on to our bowl. I would not recommend any add on the rice, unless you like a messy bowl. I ordered rice bowl with beef. The food is bland for my taste but they do provide Siracha on the side. I tried the chicken soup too, it was decent except the pieces of chicken tasted like boiled chicken unseasoned chicken.
Good tasty food. Would come back more often if, when ordering a rice bow with hoison pork, the cooks would provide more than a few ounces of meat. Ton of rice left over. $7.40 not a bad price, so will be back sometime to see if any changes, maybe 5 stars if so.
For quick, flavorful, and relatively healthy food - Charlie Hong Kong is a happening spot. Charlie Hong Kong serves up low-key organic food for affordable prices They've been open since 1998 and it's evident that they're a local favorite, by their slew of regulars, excitedly sidling up to the casual ordering counter, beneath their bright green awning. I ordered their Goddess of Springtime Salad topped with King Salmon Teriyaki, and a side of avocado. It was delicious. The salad came with organic baby spinach, red leaf lettuce, marinated orgainic carrots and daikon - and was tossed in a creamy Tahini lime dressing. The dressing was fantastic and decadent. It paired well with the sweetly glazed salmon. The teriyaki sauce was a little heavy for my liking - but I sopped some of it up with a napkin and I liked that they use gluten-free tamari - rather than regular soy sauce to prepare it. I loved being able to enjoy some light breeze in Charlie Hong Kong's intimate casual seating area, while watching the early evening crowds descent on this cute spot. I've heard mixed things about their pad-thai and some of their dishes - but I would definitely order that salad again. Trust.
I loved it Let me start with how I found out about this delicious place I went to watch the sunset at the beach and smelled someone's food and I got the courage to ask where they had found such delicious smelling food. They guided me here and I'm so thankful Had the salad rolls ridiculously delicious. I ordered them twice so good Had the Dan Spicy peanut noodles 6/10 but I think it's my fault, not a huge fan of peanuts They ordered the Pad Thai was amazing Nothing comes spicy but they have a lot of spice on the side tables Cute spot and the prices are great coming every time I come to Santa Cruz
Will definitely come here again! I ordered the sweet garlic tofu rice bowl. It is delicious! Very flavorful food, large portion, fair price. The staff was friendly, and service was fast.
Updated review, I tried to give you guys a second chance after the salmon bowl came with no veggies. This time I found a warning sticker floating in the veggies after I ate half. I'm never coming back and I think your name is racist being there are no Asians working there.
Yummy yummy yummy! Chk is one of my favorite places to eat! The staff is amazing always so friendly and willing to make conversation even if it's just a short one. The food is bomb! Spicy or sweet they got it. And the portions are pretty large too! The best part is you can pretty much add anything from the menu to whatever you're getting (with a small charge of course) the patio is great too they always keep it pretty toasty especially when its chilly outside. Definately recomend to anyone in the area open 11-11 so you can pretty much get chk all day long! Just dont forget your stamp card!
I lived in Santa Cruz for years before growing the family and heading over the hill. When CHK opened and up until before my last visit it's been great. But alas, all good things come to an end. It's been a tradition when visiting friends or family we stop at CHK for some to-go food to bring back home with us. Always been pretty fast service and hit or miss on the parking and compactness of the location but hey Keep Santa Cruz Weird reigns true here. This time we got let down big time. Ordered two Noodle Salads (yes, I peeked inside to confirm they were indeed noodle salads before I left) but when we got home, they were just that - noodles and salad. NO SAUCE! Nada! Yuck. Sorry guys, I love your food but you failed me and I was miles away in the valley left holding (literally) a box of wet noodles. How you could miss the sauce/dressing is beyond me. One star from this guy. Hope your algorithm doesn't take a deep hit but that's my opinion and others need to be warned that mistakes as egregious as this can happen at your place. UPDATE: Though an unpleasant experience indeed, their offer to amend a mistake was honest and thoughtful. Updated stars reflect an effort to right a mistake they have owned up to and accepted. We'll try again next time we're in the area.
This is what I long for back home... A yummy organic goddess spring salad with huge pieces of avocado and broccoli. A cup of fantastic butternut squash soup. Teriyaki King salmon over a bed of rice with spring green onions and carrots with daikon. Great prices. Excellent customer service. Then to finish it all off with a chocolate chocolate chip cookie from the Buttery. So yummy!
Discovered this place the other day. Super cute and has a lot of great cheap options that are filling and yummy. I love that they have a heated patio and are really fast. I've enjoyed the Pho lots and I'm about to try the gado gado :)
Our family enjoys this place immensely. The food is so flavorful and made with high quality ingredients. Whenever we are in Santa Cruz, we make sure we stop by there for a meal and always look forward to it. Highly recommend the Pad Thai and all the other noodle/rice bowls. And for dessert, try the coconut milk chocolate pudding - not heavily sweetened and full of flavor.
Food not soo good to be authentic no taste at all noodles are hard to eat not cooked well. If I can I wouldn't rate it 1 stars but none.
Food was fresh, and nutritious! I took takeout and just not enough sauce but other then that for the price and the amount it is worth it for a quick dinner or lunch! Also vegan friendly!One thing that I absolutely adore is the sheer embeddability of JavaScript. It’s a (comparatively) simple language that is fiercely flexible. I tend to liken JavaScript to water – alone it’s painfully simple but it can take the form of its container – and mixing it with anything enhances its flavor.
Since JavaScript, alone, is so dumb (we’ve become spoiled by browsers which provide DOM, setTimeout/setInterval, and even a global object reference – none of which are necessarily required my an ECMAScript implementation) we must rely upon the spice of ‘larger’ languages to help it gain some taste.
We can start by taking a look at some of the most popular languages that are available today: Python, Perl, PHP, Ruby, and Java — all of which have, at least, one embeddable JavaScript interpreter.
One thing is the same in all the interpreter implementations, as well, they all have the ability to introduce (at least) simple objects into interpreter (from the parent language) and extract values again. Sometimes this may be as simple as executing a JavaScript function and getting its return value (which is often translated from its internal JavaScript form back into the native language).
There’s a couple points upon which I like to evaluate the embeddability of a JavaScript interpreter, specifically:
Object Translation: If objects/values are passed to/from the interpreter to/from the native language – is that translation handled automatically? Simplicity: How hard is it to get up-and-running? (Is extra compilation required or is it written using native language code?) Bleed-through: Can JavaScript communicate to the base language or is it a one-way-street?
The first point is the easiest one to find compatibility with – virtually all embeddable JavaScript interpreters do some form of object translation. Some do it better (like JE and Rhino) but it generally shouldn’t be a problem for simple scripts.
PHP
» PHPJS
A flexible, pure-PHP, JavaScript interpreter that even accepts compiling to an intermediary bytecode. There is no bleed-through but good object translation.
include "js.php"; # Introduce a new JavaScript function, named print, # which calls a PHP function function show($msg) { echo "$msg
"; } $jsi_vars["print"] = "show"; # Add in a new pure-JavaScript function which calls # our previously-introduced print function jsc::compile("function alert(msg){ print('Alert:' + msg); }"); # Prints out 'Alert: text' js_exec("alert('text');");
» J2P5: Pure-PHP ECMAScript Engine
Probably the simplest of the available interpreters – there doesn’t appear to be a clear way of communicating from JavaScript-to-PHP (or vice versa). Although, it is implemented in pure-PHP which allows for some nice cross-platform compatibility.
include “js/js.php”;WARSAW, Poland -- A huge outdoor art poster that blends Mickey Mouse's image with that of a swastika and a nude woman's body is causing a stir in Poland, where memories of the suffering inflicted by Nazi Germany remain strong.
The poster, which went up in June in the western city of Poznan just steps from a synagogue, is an Italian artist's take on what he calls the "horrors" of the American lifestyle and is one piece of artwork in a contemporary art exhibition opening in the fall.
But the reaction shows that there is little appetite in Poland for satirical or artistic uses of images linked to Nazi Germany, which invaded Poland in 1939 and built ghettoes and death camps across the country in which millions were murdered.
"This art provocation is a form of violence against the sensitivity of many people," said Norbert Napieraj, a city council member who asked prosecutors to ban the poster.
Prosecutors, however, determined that the poster is art and does not violate the country's laws against glorifying Nazism.
The poster has been vandalized twice since it first went up, and on Tuesday was no longer stretched across a building in the city center. Despite the uproar, gallery director Maria Czarnecka said she plans to put it back up.
"Art should be provocative and controversial," she told The Associated Press, insisting that the poster does not seek to propagate Nazism but instead wants to explore "symbols and how they work."
"The Mickey Mouse head and swastika are on the same level -- they don't mean anything and they are both part of the globalized world," Czarnecka said.
Jewish leaders, who have been outraged at the poster, would disagree, saying the swastika still means something very real to many Poles, Jews and non-Jews alike.
Poland was once home to Europe's largest Jewish community, which numbered close to 3.5 million people before it was nearly wiped out in the Holocaust. The Nazis also committed atrocities against the non-Jewish population, and killed some 6 million Polish citizens, about half Jewish and the other half Christian.
The head of Poznan's Jewish community, Alicja Kobus, 64, described being overwhelmed by revulsion when she first saw the poster. She had just been with Jewish visitors from Holland to the synagogue, which the Nazis turned into a swimming pool.
"It is a shock for people who still scarred by the hell of the Holocaust," she said.
The work -- "NaziSexyMouse" by Italian artist Max Papeschi -- is part of a series works that blend iconic American cartoon figures with images of warfare or destruction.
Papeschi explains on his website that the series -- which he dubs "Politically-Incorrect" -- is meant as commentary on the United States, revealing "all the horror of this lifestyle."
His images -- Mickey Mouse as a Nazi or Ronald McDonald as a machine-gun bearing soldier in Iraq -- lose "their reassuring effect and change into a collective nightmare," Papeschi said.
"NaziSexyMouse" also went on show this week in Berlin as part of an exhibition at a sister gallery. But the image has not been displayed publicly there and has sparked no outcry.
A Berlin art gallery manager said older people often do not understand that the combination of pop culture icons like Mickey Mouse and historical symbols like the swastika are meant to be satirical.
"For the younger generation, this painting is just a joke; older people sometimes don't like it or don't find it funny, but nobody has taken any offense so far," said Agnes Kaplon, manager of the Abnormals Gallery in Berlin.
A Russian art exhibition that also used Mickey Mouse's image has also been at the center of a legal case in Russia. Two Russian curators who angered the Russian Orthodox Church with an exhibition that included images of Jesus Christ portrayed as Mickey Mouse and Vladimir Lenin were convicted Monday of inciting religious hatred and fined, but not sentenced to prison.Thanks to fan site Making Star Wars, we’ve got a pair of new set photos from Star Wars: Episode VII, which – if you squint and look very, very closely – just about shows the white blur of an Imperial Stormtrooper. Take a look at the images, followed by a scene description below…
Some images are from the lot where they seem to be dumping a lot of trees, vines and rocks which I believe must be props, the other 4 are from the area around the blue screens, the castle/megaliths/ruins…and a Stormtrooper, well, just about.
Unfortunately they’re not quite as vivid as we’d have liked, but with a bit of zooming you should definitely be able to make out the Stormtrooper. There were 4 I think in this area, running through the explosions, I think I remember another 4 or so coming from the opposite direction, but that was not all…
Amongst the ruins were signs of high technology, apparently abandoned, something which reminded me of the guns on the X-wing sticking out of the ground, antenna, and this nearly made me fall out the tree; what looked like the middle section of a TIE fighter! I don’t think that’s what it was as it was probably a bit too small. It was black with a strip around it like a window, and I’d say it looked big enough for maybe one or two people – if indeed it was a ship.
My phone ran out of battery pretty soon after I took the photos of the Stormtrooper, frustrating but to be honest it was an experience that took us both, I think, back to that magical place from our childhoods and we were obviously really lucky to have been there! The smoke from the explosions gave the area a misty look as if we were on Dagobah or something! To hear ‘Run Chewie’, coming, unmistakably from the mouth of Han/Harrison Ford… it was electric! I think that moment… It was confirmation that this film IS STAR WARS!
SEE ALSO: STAR WARS: EPISODE VII CONCEPT ART
Star Wars: Episode VII is set for release on December 18th 2015 and sees returning stars Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Kenny Baker (R2-D2) and Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) joined by Adam Driver (Girls), Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis), Andy Serk |
do that. And there’s some more to pay so [lets end it]. What’s past is past, everybody made a mistake here, let’s move ahead. I think that’s the right way to go.”
The past is indeed past, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from it.
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MOST READWith the LCS in full swing again, I recently had a chance to talk to Jordan 'Patoy' Blackburn about the team's performance, how he thinks the competition stands up, and he sheds a little insight onto his support play.
Patoy you've just come off of the first week of LCS having gone 2-3. What were you expecting, and what is team planning to work on going into next week?
Patoy: I was expecting 2-3 or 3-2 due to our team having to relearn the game, we're far from where we were before the split and we have to work hard to back back on top.
In your game against Cloud 9 you pulled off a flawless level one, setting up lane swaps and taking complete control of the enemy jungle, yet C9 pulled it together and took the game off you. Why do you think they came out ahead?
Patoy: We had really a bad follow up to the way they played and ended up just losing everything.
Cloud 9 went 5-0 this week, taking down many top teams from last split. Is it beginner's luck, or do you think they will be able to maintain this momentum?
Patoy: I don't think Cloud 9 can maintain it. They're a good team but it's obvious in my eyes that it's more that every other team is playing worse than they did months ago.
So now we've had some time to see the new CLG roster in competitive play, how do you think their new team stands up with Chauser on Support now?
Patoy: Chauster's play coming back to support is lacking as expected, but I think he will be fine given the time.
Janna has started to spike in popularity. She has been a rare pick so far in Season 3, but Week 1 of this split she was one of the most popular supports played. What do you think of Janna, and why are we seeing so much of her?
Patoy: Janna has become popular alongside the popularity of Kennen, it's a simple concept that Janna can ulti away Kennen in teamfights, and everybody loves Janna's passive.
What did you think of the Allstar games? Many of the asian teams had impressive performances, are there any particular players that stand out to you, or any you look up to?
Patoy: I'm suprised Korea actually beat China as handedly as they did. I see the way China played team fights and I was EXTREMELY impressed, but Korea just outclassed them before any teamfights happened. No specific player stood out to me though, everybody made their separate great plays.
Your champion pool is one of the wider ones for a Support player in the LCS.What advantages does this bring over a player who just works on mastering a small core of champions?
Patoy: Having a small champion pool can be extremely bad, unless it's the holy trinity of supports, Lulu, Sona and Thresh, since they're so versatile and great for almost all small plays in the game. Having a big champion pool is great because other teams know they can't tunnel onto a specific strategy. For example a poke comp could be at risk of the support player countering it with a hard engage champion. It also opens up the option of taking the enemy by surprise with an unexpected pick.
Now that your team has been settled into a gaming house, what is it like living with the team? Who is your favorite person to live with?
Patoy: It's exactly what I expected. Everybody is a mess and everything is always dirty.
Many members of your team have become pretty popular streamers, do you have any plans to stream?
Patoy: I might possibly stream, who knows.
Patoy you've been with the team a long time, but you're always very quiet and reserved so I just want to ask a few questions to get to know you better. How did you get started playing League?
Patoy: I was an old WoW player and I ended up switching over after some friends invited me.
What's your favorite champion?
Patoy: Alistar and Zyra are my favorites.
What kind of music do you like to listen to? Do you have a favorite band?
Patoy: I listen to Electro, House, Rap, DnB and pop.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to me Patoy, and good luck this week in the LCS! Follow Patoy on Twitter @PatoylolEverything you need to know about where Canada’s top basketball prospects will be playing next season. (Getty Images)
When R.J. Barrett announced that he would be attending Duke University next season, the news flooded social media timelines for days. Basketball fans knew where four out of the five of Canada’s top prospects would be heading, but they were still waiting on one final decision to be announced.
On Nov. 22, Simisola “Simi” Shittu took to social media to tell the world his not-so-secretive decision that he would be attending Vanderbilt University next season. With this announcement via The Players’ Tribune, all five of Canada’s top prospects have picked their schools for next season.
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Simi Shittu wants to let you know where he's going to college. But first, he has some people from his life to thank. @LanX_Sims pic.twitter.com/CTv7iBoCQq — The Players' Tribune (@PlayersTribune) November 22, 2017
SIMI SHITTU, Vanderbilt University
In late September, Simi Shittu announced his official visits would include the University of Arizona, University of North Carolina, and Vanderbilt University — and on Nov. 22, he announced that it was Vanderbilt that made the lasting impression.
With Arizona assistant coach Emmanuel Richardson still under federal investigation after being accused of taking $20,000 in bribes to pay a recruit to commit to the school, it was commonly thought that Shittu would informally pick between UNC and Vandy. But after cancelled visits to North Carolina and Arizona, it became clear what his ultimate decision would be.
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The Tar Heels signed a five-star PG back in July 2016 in Coby White, and two small forwards; four-star Rechon Black and five-star Nassir Little, so it didn’t look like there would be enough ball to share if Shittu injected himself into an already stacked roster.
Less than two weeks ago, when five-star PG Darius Garland committed to the Commodores, it was in the back of basketball junkies’ minds how dangerous the duo of Garland and five-star Shittu would be on the hardwood — and it seems like Shittu agreed.
Vanderbilt is going on a freshmen frenzy; in addition to the pass-first point guard, and the Canadian big man, Vandy also clinched four-star Aaron Nesmith earlier this year — making 2018 one of the best incoming classes the program has ever seen. With a slew of freshman on this year’s roster and only three seniors, next year’s team has a chance to grow with each other under the leadership of the big-three-freshmen and make a push for the championship after being upset early in this past year’s March Madness tournament.
R.J. BARRETT, Duke University
As Canada’s unanimous top prospect for the class of 2018 — after reclassifying late this past summer — five-star R.J. Barrett announced his commitment to Duke University on Nov. 10. He had already narrowed down his top three schools to Oregon University, University of Kentucky and Duke, but for anyone who knows him, Duke was always the right pick for a player looking to go one-and-done to the NBA.
#1 ranked player in 2018 @RjBarrett6 is set to commit on Friday! Top schools are Duke, Oregon & Kentucky. ➡️ https://t.co/c0OC7BgPq8 pic.twitter.com/UKG7qBT7Ob — Courtside Films (@CourtsideFilms) November 6, 2017
The crafty left-handed guard plays the small-forward position and says he always dreamt of playing for Duke and Coach K as a kid. Plus, having alumnus and NBA legend Grant Hill walk him through campus on his official visit didn’t hurt the school’s chances. More importantly, this is the third year in a row that Duke has signed the top high school prospect, and the squad only graduates one senior from the roster for the 2018-2019 season.
Senior Grayson Allen, one of Duke’s top players who is shooting almost 50% from the field this season, will move on from college ball come March. But he won’t be leaving the only hole in the roster: the Blue Devils’ freshman class — Trevon Duval, Marvin Bagley, Jordan Tucker, Gary Trent and Wendell Carter — are arguably all (or at least four of five) shoe-ins for the one-and-done route. And that leaves a huge hole for the highly touted Barrett and No. 3 North American prospect Cam Reddish to fill.
IGNAS BRAZDEIKIS, University of Michigan
The Oakville-native might be the most underrated player in the 2018 class, and the Wolverines’ coaching staff took full advantage of that. After choosing Michigan over schools like Vanderbilt and Florida, he said playing for the Wolverines was a lifelong dream (especially after friend and Mississauga-native Nik Stauskas had a successful two-year career in Michigan before being drafted into the NBA).
Last year, playing for Nathan Johnson at Orangeville Prep, Brazdeikis blew up, averaging 30 points and 10 rebounds per game — including multiple 50-point games, one against Prolific Prep, a top American prep school in California. This season, Brazdeikis is already on a tear, averaging over 25 points per game and helping his team win the annual Westtown Classic tournament in Pennsylvania. In the championship game against Westtown School led by Reddish, Brazdeikis racked up 19 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Ignas Brazdeikis at Crisler will be electric pic.twitter.com/4yEcWvs3FG — Barstool Blue (@BarstoolUofM) November 11, 2017
Brakdeikis can do it all on the hardwood, known as a versatile small forward with unmatched scoring abilities. Small is relative, of course. Brazdeikis stands at 6’7″ and 220 pounds and is deadly slashing to the basket and finishing creatively around the hoop. He’s also emerged as one of the best 3-point shooters in his Canadian league. With Michigan’s two-guard offence, it will allow Brazdeikis to stay outside the 3-point line and give him enough space to do what he does best: drive, or pull the long-bomb. As he continues to build his arsenal to make an immediate impact on the Wolverines and develop into one of the NCAA’s top players, he is no doubt looking to make a push to the big leagues in the near future. He joins four-star Brandon Johns, four-star David DeJulius and three-star Taylor Currie in next season’s freshmen class.
LUGUENTZ DORT, Arizona State University
On the cusp of becoming a McDonald’s All-American, Luguentz Dort decided to leave the rat race and spend his last high school year north of the border attending Athlete Institute Academy. It turns out he didn’t need that McDonald’s All-American nod to pick up top-notch college offers. In mid-October, the Quebec-native narrowed his choices to Baylor University, Oregon University and Arizona State University, before eventually announcing his final commitment to the Sun Devils via a video played at his school’s Midnight Madness event.
This will only be Arizona State’s third five-star prospect in the last ten years (James Harden is one of those, and things turned out pretty well for him). ASU will also bring in Finnish four-star shooting guard Elias Valtonen to share in the freshman duties with Dort.
These highlights of Arizona State commit @luguentz Dort are just INSANE — FloHoops (@FloHoops) October 21, 2017
And although Dort has big shoes to fill in the shadow of Harden, he has the ability, and heart to do so. The 6’5″ 220 pound point guard is a beast (as his Instagram handle @luthebeast confirms). He can out-run, out-jump, and out-hustle almost any player on any court, and he proved that at the 2017 BioSteel All-Canadian game, the equivalent to the U.S.’s McDonald’s All-American game. In the spring showcase, Dort racked up 30 points on 12-for-16 shooting which included the most memorable and powerful dunks of the evening.
When asked why ASU, Dort replied that it was the relationship he had built with head coach Bobby Hurley.
ANDREW NEMBHARD, University of Florida
When Andrew Nembhard stepped back onto the court after a stomach surgery in July, he quickly reclassified to the class of 2018 and narrowed down his list of schools — he was on a mission to move on to the NCAA. His final four schools included Ohio State University, University of Southern California, Gonzaga University and University of Florida, where he eventually committed.
With the Gators’ only true pass-first point guard Chris Chiozza graduating at the end of this season, it left a gaping hole for Nembhard to slide in and see serious minutes from the moment he puts on the orange jersey.
Nembhard is a floor-general in every sense of the term: the 6’3″ four-star PG pads his stats with assists over points, collecting 30 assists in his first 10 games, while averaging about 10 points per game with Montverde Academy this year, his senior high school season.
Florida head coach Mike White’s point-guard driven system is enticing to a young player who wants veteran minutes from the get-go. The Gators play a four-out offense that is predicated on ball screens, and they rely heavily on the point guard making the right reads. With Nembhard’s basketball IQ and pace, he should slide nicely into the Florida system.Francesco "Baltazar" Redi (18 February 1626 – 1 March 1697) was an Italian physician, naturalist, biologist and poet.[1] He is referred to as the "founder of experimental biology",[2][3] and as the "father of modern parasitology".[4][5] He was the first person to challenge the theory of spontaneous generation by demonstrating that maggots come from eggs of flies.[6][7]
Having a doctoral degree in both medicine and philosophy from the University of Pisa at the age of 21, he worked in various cities of Italy. A rationalist of his time, he was a critic of verifiable myths, such as spontaneous generation.[8] His most famous experiments are described in his magnum opus Esperienze Intorno alla Generazione degl'Insetti (Experiments on the Generation of Insects), published in 1668. He disproved that vipers drink wine and could break glasses, and that their venom was poisonous when ingested. He correctly observed that snake venoms were produced from the fangs, not the gallbladder, as was believed. He was also the first to recognize and correctly describe details of about 180 parasites, including Fasciola hepatica and Ascaris lumbricoides. He also distinguished earthworms from helminths (like tapeworms, flukes, and roundworms). He possibly originated the use of the control, the basis of experimental design in modern biology. A collection of his poems first published in 1685 Bacco in Toscana ("Bacchus in Tuscany") is considered among the finest works of 17th-century Italian poetry, and for which the Grand Duke Cosimo III gave him a medal of honor.
Biography [ edit ]
Doctor Redi.
The son of Gregorio Redi and Cecilia de Ghinci, Francesco Redi was born in Arezzo on 18 February 1626. His father was a renowned physician at Florence. After schooling with the Jesuits, he attended the University of Pisa from where he obtained his doctoral degrees in medicine and philosophy in 1647, at the age of 21.[4] He constantly moved, to Rome, Naples, Bologna, Padua, and Venice, and finally settled in Florence in 1648. Here he was registered at the Collegio Medico where he served at the Medici Court as both the head physician and superintendent of the ducal apothecary to Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and his successor, Cosimo III. It is here that most of his academic works were achieved, which earned him membership in Accademia dei Lincei. He was also a member of the Accademia del Cimento (Academy of Experiment) from 1657 to 1667.[9]
He died in his sleep on 1 March 1697 in Pisa and his remains were returned to Arezzo for interment.[10][11]
A collection of his letters is held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland.[12]
Scientific career [ edit ]
Experimental toxicology [ edit ]
In 1664 Redi wrote his first monumental work Osservazioni intorno alle vipere (Observations on vipers) to his friend Lorenzo Magalotti, secretary of the Accademia del Cimento. In this he began to break the prevailing scientific myths (which he called "unmasking of the untruths") such as vipers drink wine and shatter glasses, their venom is poisonous if swallowed, the head of dead viper is an antidote, the viper's venom is produced from the gallbladder, and so on. He explained rather how snake venom is unrelated to the snake’s bite, an idea contrary to popular belief.[13] He performed a series of experiments on the effects of snakebites, and demonstrated that venom was poisonous only when it enters the bloodstream via a bite, and that the fang contains venom in the form of yellow fluid.[9][14] He even showed that by applying a tight ligature before the wound, the passage of venom into the heart could be prevented. This work marked the beginning of experimental toxinology/toxicology.[15][16]
Entomology and spontaneous generation [ edit ]
Esperienze Intorno alla Generazione degl'Insetti frontcover frontcover
Redi is best known for his series of experiments, published in 1668 as Esperienze Intorno alla Generazione degli Insetti (Experiments on the Generation of Insects), which is regarded as his masterpiece and a milestone in the history of modern science. The book is one of the first steps in refuting "spontaneous generation"—a theory also known as Aristotelian abiogenesis. At the time, prevailing wisdom was that maggots arose spontaneously from rotting meat.[6]
A modern rendering of Redi's experiment on abiogenesis
Redi took six jars and divided them into two groups of three: In one experiment, in the first jar of each group, he put an unknown object; in the second, a dead fish; in the last, a raw chunk of veal. Redi covered the tops of the first group of jars with fine gauze so that only air could get into it. He left the other group open. After several days, he saw maggots appear on the objects in the open jars, on which flies had been able to land, but not in the gauze-covered jars. In the second experiment, meat was kept in three jars. One of the jars was uncovered, and two of the jars were covered, one with cork and the other one with gauze. Flies could only enter the uncovered jar, and in this, maggots appeared. In the jar that was covered with gauze, maggots appeared on the gauze but did not survive.[17][18]
Esperienze Intorno alla Generazione degl'Insetti Illustration from Rediʼs
Redi continued his experiments by capturing the maggots and waiting for them to metamorphose, which they did, becoming flies. Also, when dead flies or maggots were put in sealed jars with dead animals or veal, no maggots appeared, but when the same thing was done with living flies, maggots did. Knowing full well the fates of outspoken thinkers such as Giordano Bruno and Galileo Galilei, Redi was careful to express his new views in a manner that would not contradict theological tradition of the Church; hence, his interpretations were always based on biblical passages, such as his famous adage: omne vivum ex vivo ("All life comes from life").[4][19]
Parasitology [ edit ]
Redi was the first to describe ectoparasites in his Esperienze Intorno alla Generazione degl'Insetti. His notable illustrations in the book are those relevant to ticks, including deer ticks and tiger ticks; it also contains the first depiction of the larva of Cephenemyiinae, the nasal flies of deer, as well as the sheep liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica). His next treatise in 1684 titled Osservazioni intorno agli animali viventi che si trovano negli animali viventi (Observations on Living Animals, that are in Living Animals) recorded the descriptions and the illustrations of more than 100 parasites. In it he also differentiates the earthworm (generally regarded as a helminth) and Ascaris lumbricoides, the human roundworm. An important innovation from the book is his experiments in chemotherapy in which he employed the "control"', the basis of experimental design in modern biological research.[2][4][20] He described some 180 species of parasites. Perhaps, his most significant observation was that parasites produce eggs and develop from them, which contradicted the prevailing opinion that they are produced spontaneously.[21]
Literary career [ edit ]
As a poet, Redi is best known for the dithyramb Bacco in Toscana ("Bacchus in Tuscany"), which first appeared in 1685. His bacchanalian poem in praise of Tuscan wines is still read in Italy today.[9] He was admitted to two literary societies: the Academy of Arcadia and the Accademia della Crusca.[10] He was an active member of Crusca and supported the preparation of the Tuscan dictionary. He taught the Tuscan language as a lettore publio di lingua toscana in Florence in 1666. He also composed many other literary works, including his Letters, and Arianna Inferma.[9]
Eponyms [ edit ]
Bacco in Toscana Statue of Francesco Redi on the Uffizi Gallery (Piazzale degli Uffizi) in Florence. At his feet is a copy of
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]The author of the New Yorker report about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie fetching McDonald’s for then-candidate Donald Trump said that former campaign aide Sam Nunberg's claim he was the source is false.
"This is incorrect," tweeted Ryan Lizza on Friday. "Sam Nunberg was not the source of The New Yorker’s anecdote about Chris Christie and McDonald’s."
This is incorrect. Sam Nunberg was not the source of The New Yorker’s anecdote about Chris Christie and McDonald’s. https://t.co/ZG7Re6W7z7 — Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) November 18, 2017
In a Politico piece published Friday, Nunberg said he made up the story to embarrass Christie.
“The sad reality is that it was believable,” Nunberg claimed.
Lizza later said he "unfortunately" was not contacted for the Politico piece.
Unfortunately we were not contacted. Not the end of the world. The piece is otherwise great. (The author, @jdawsey1, is one of the best reporters in Washington.) And Politico has updated it to reflect that Nunberg wasn’t my source. https://t.co/29be3FeNK1 — Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) November 18, 2017
In June 2016, Lizza reported a Republican told him “a friend of his on the Trump campaign used Snapchat to send him a video of Christie fetching Trump’s McDonald’s order.”
Christie’s office denied the story, which had gone viral, calling it a “bit of sleaze” and “pure trash.”For the rest of the week, Anna couldn't exactly think.
It was more like she moved on autopilot, her mind consumed by only one thing—this strange realization.
Anna had no other way to describe it.
She had never felt this way before, and spent many hours trying to logically talk herself out of it. There had to be some other reason to explain it; some other answer for her strange attraction besides the one that had so suddenly dawned on her.
But there just…wasn't.
She liked Elsa.
And eventually she just accepted it.
She had never been in any relationships in the past. Actually, Hans had been her first official date (minus the prom date her high school friends had found for her; he was definitely not someone that Anna would have found on her own). And she had thrown herself at the chance to go on a date with Hans without even really considering…anything.
"My life is complicated enough already," Anna sighed, putting her head in her hands.
Even the pre-calculus problem that she was currently attempting to solve seemed simpler when it took her half an hour to get the right answer.
And the one thought that plagued her mind the most was that if she herself had just realized this now, did anyone else know?
Did Elsa know?
And did she…could she…feel the same way?
No, Anna thought, almost immediately. How could you even think like that? She just barely started to have normal conversations with you. And you don't even know anything about her…in that regard, anyway.
And Anna apparently barely knew anything about herself, so how could she jump to conclusions about someone else?
Anna took in a sharp breath and let it out slowly.
She could deal with this.
She could live with this.
She just…wasn't quite sure how.
Maybe what Anna had overlooked most in her careful deliberation on the matter was just how natural talking to Elsa and getting to know her better really seemed to be.
Anna had worried that, after this, she would let her thoughts get the better of her; making her even more self-conscious in the presence of the senior with her newfound realization. But everything just seemed to remain, well, normal, the next time Anna showed up for work.
And maybe…that was what mattered most.
No, it was definitely what mattered most.
It wasn't something that she had to deal with.
Because if it was normal, then it was something that just was.
And Anna wasn't going to ignore it.
Or apologize for it.
Or make excuses for it.
She liked Elsa.
And while she wasn't certain that the senior felt the same way, Anna was almost positive that she was single.
But of course, there you go again, jumping to conclusions, Anna reminded herself as she worked her way down the rows of stalls. If there was one thing that was good about being assigned to stall work, it was that it gave her plenty of time to think. And she spent a good portion of the next Sunday's shift wondering if the idea was too good to be true.
She had never seen Elsa with anyone; had never heard her mention anything about anyone. So it was a fair assumption.
Just not one that can be proven entirely true.
Such complications.
Anna sighed, deciding that she had thought about it enough for one night. She finished with the stalls and went to feed the horses, and when she did so, she made sure to double check the list to make sure that none of the horses' feed requirements had changed. But when she looked at the paper, while there were no notes about dietary adjustments, Anna noticed something on her list of assignments that she had missed. She had been so caught up in her own thoughts that she hadn't really read the list; just assumed that everything was the same as it always was. Because not once yet had she actually been asked to do anything different written on the piece of paper.
But there, in Elsa's handwriting next to the normal typed list of jobs, was 'finish unloading hay delivery'.
My favorite thing in the world, Anna groaned.
She checked her phone, seeing that it was nearly seven fifteen. Had Anna paid attention, it would have been the first thing that she would have done. But…at least it said 'finish'. So, that had to mean it had to be at least half done, right?
Guess you'll just have to go and check.
Anna knew that, at her old barn, unloading hay was quite a tedious job. It came stacked on the truck about four or five bales high, and however many bales deep…and each one weighed about fifty pounds. The bales would all have to be taken off of the truck, and then stacked once more in the hay barn, which needed to be done very carefully and precisely because if one was out of place or slightly off balance, the entire stack could topple over within a few seconds.
And when Anna walked outside, she saw the pile of hay bales still sitting in the back of a black truck that she had just so happened to miss while bringing horses in and turning them out.
There were still about thirty or so left.
Great. And she expects me to do all of this by myself?
Thankfully, because it had indeed been started before she had arrived, the hay bales were only stacked three high on the truck. So while she would have to actually climb up onto the truck and toss the top ones down, she would be able to reach the rest of them from the ground afterwards.
Why? Anna groaned again, tossing her head all the way back and staring up at the sky, in a single moment of allowing herself to feel bad for her current predicament.
But when she did that, she noticed that even though it was nighttime and everything was growing darker, the clouds seemed to have lost their white hue and turned gray…
Dammit.
Well, now she had royally screwed up.
Now it was going to rain, and all these hay bales couldn't get wet because being soaked by rain, and then stacked in a humid environment to dry could cause them to catch fire very easily.
And I can't do it all by myself that quickly!
So she had two options.
She could try to get it all done before it started to rain. Or…she could go admit to Elsa that she hadn't been paying attention (although she didn't need to know why) and ask her for help. But if she tried to get it all done, she knew that whatever she didn't get inside would be wasted, essentially. And she knew that Elsa would probably be more upset with her if that happened, because hay wasn't cheap. So quickly she hurried to the office and knocked, hoping that Elsa wasn't busy or on the phone. And luckily, she wasn't.
"What's up?" Elsa asked.
"So…I kind of didn't completely read the list of what I had to do. And I just saw that note about unloading the hay now. And it looks like it's going to rain, and I know that they can't stay out there. But I don't think I can do it all by myself. I mean, I could do it by myself if I had more time, but I don't think I do have that much time because of the rain. And I didn't exactly know what to do and I'm sorry because I should have paid more attention, but I was just so used to the normal routine and I know it's no excuse but—"
"Anna, calm down."
Anna felt her face burn slightly when she realized she'd been rambling, "Sorry," she apologized again.
"I should have told you before you started," Elsa said.
And that was the last thing Anna had expected to hear from the senior. Elsa wasn't blaming Anna for being unaware (well, more like being insanely lost in certain thoughts). She was….saying that it wasn't entirely Anna's fault.
"You shouldn't have to tell me. It was written there. I should have seen it," Anna said.
"Well, what's done is done. So why don't we stop talking and go finish as much of it as we can, okay?"
We?
Did that mean…
Elsa typed something else on her computer, and then stood from the desk, "Come on. Let's not waste any more time."
Yes!
Anna grinned. Now she wouldn't have to do it all by herself.
She turned and followed the senior back to where she had left the untouched stack of hay bales.
"So if I toss down the hay bales from the top can you just bring them inside and we'll stack them all later?" Elsa asked.
"That's fine with me," Anna said, perfectly happy to stay on the ground.
And the view's not too bad either, Anna thought, as she watched the senior effortlessly climbed into the back of the truck and started lifting those hay bales like they were five pounds instead of fifty.
But don't get distracted, Anna reprimanded herself, that's the whole reason that you're in this predicament to begin with.
But somehow…the word 'predicament' didn't seem to fit the situation any more.
Because she really enjoyed working with Elsa.
In a way, it was almost like working without anyone else; the senior didn't really talk at all. She was completely focused on the task at hand.
And that was what Anna like the most. She could be in Elsa's presence without feeling the need to actually say anything at all.
With the two of them working together, the hay bales were under cover just before the rain began. And it wasn't just a light rain either—it was a downpour. The pastures were definitely going to turn to mud and…
Oh crap.
"The horses are still out," Anna said, and followed it with a sigh.
She looked to the ground in the hay barn, where the bales of hay were tossed here and there, in an extremely unorganized disarray around her feet, and remembered that she still had to feed the horses, and sweep the whole barn, and now she would have to bring in all of the horses in turnout…
"I'll get them."
"What? No, you don't have to do that," Anna said. Elsa had already helped her with the hay bales, after all.
"You need to finish stacking these," Elsa was already turning to go.
"But it's pouring and you don't even have a jacket."
"It's just rain," Elsa said, and before Anna could say anything more, she stepped outside.
You could have given her your jacket, Anna thought only seconds later.
But she didn't dwell on it.
In the words of the senior, what was done, was done.
And so, Anna began stacking the hay bales one by one. But because she was starting a new pile, most of the hay bales just needed to be moved around to make a stable base, which left only a few remaining hay bales to actually be lifted on top of the others. So while it felt like it had taken her forever, Anna found that it had only taken her about ten minutes.
And now all she needed to do was finish feeding the horses and sweep without her arms falling off.
She pulled her hood all the way over her head and ran to the main barn, attempting to avoid the massive puddles that had pooled in various spots along the path, but inevitably ended up misjudging most of them.
When she was once again inside, she unzipped her jacket, and while attempting to shake off as much of the excess rain water as possible, made her way to the feed room. On her way there, she saw Elsa walking back from the opposite end of the barn; no doubt having just brought in the last of the horses. But what Anna noticed as Elsa came closer was that, because of the senior's lack of a jacket, her entire shirt was soaked through, making the material cling to her in such a way that Anna had to force herself to look away from it. And when she had managed to do that, she noticed something else. Elsa had her hair all the way over to one side, completely wringing it out. And when she let go of it, Anna saw that it wasn't in a braid; instead it fell loosely around the senior's face, slightly wavy, and…
Really pretty.
"I think there's something that I definitely need to look into," Elsa said, and it took Anna a moment to realize that the blonde was now only a few feet away from her and actually talking to her.
Like wearing your hair down more often?
"And…what would that be?" Anna managed to string together a response.
"Getting run-in sheds for the pastures. Then we could actually leave the horses out there because they'd have somewhere to go."
Anna nodded slowly, "Yeah. That…would be a good idea."
And it would be a good idea to stop staring…
"Well I think I'm going to change," Elsa said, after a few moments, when Anna couldn't exactly seem to pull herself together, "And with everything you have left to do, I'm sure I'll be back by the time you're finished and I can drive you back to campus."
Seriously. Anna. Focus.
"Right," Anna said, "Yeah. I have to finish. Feeding. And sweeping. And a ride back would be great."
Anna's face burned again as soon as the senior had left.
I'm a mess.
But the thought that refused to leave Anna's mind was the fact that…Elsa didn't seem to mind.
The chill in the air was definitely present when Anna biked to the barn the following Sunday, and she instantly regretted not wearing something warmer. But there was nothing she was going to be able to do about it now. Instead of focusing on how cold she was, she left her bike leaning against the barn doors and walked to the office to sign in. But when she rounded the corner, she was met with a sight that made her eyes grow wide.
The office door was…open.
But why?
Maybe she's expecting someone else, Anna thought.
But that couldn't be right. Because it was only Anna who worked on Sundays, and by now, she knew that the lesson schedule on Sundays both began and ended early, meaning that all of the Sunday lessons ended before Anna's shift.
Anna didn't know what to think.
Except for |
‘THAT’S A SEASON KILLER’
Manny Muscat’s two yellow cards have proved costly for Melbourne City in their loss to Sydney FC on Friday night.
With a chance to cement themselves as the third best club on the ladder, City fell to Sydney 3-1 and have since been overtaken by Perth Glory.
And key to the loss was the dismissal of Muscat, who was exposed when playing out of position at centre back in the first half.
Conceding a penalty after bringing down Filip Holosko, Muscat was then sent off for dragging back Alex Brosque, compounding his earlier mistake after coughing up possession cheaply.
“You can’t go past [Manny Muscat],” said Kosmina, when outlining his ‘Shoothouse’ moment of the round. “It’s a coach killer, a team killer and a season killer for Melbourne City.
“I think Michael Valkanis questioned the validity of the penalty but there wasn’t any doubt and then [the second yellow] was just dumb.
“This is the top level of football in this country and you have to be thinking differently – that was just panic. But the question has to be asked – why was [Muscat] playing there instead of Ruon Tongyik?
“Because Manny Muscat has done a job before at Wellington as a defensive bulldog kind of role at fullback or in midfield and he used to get stuck in, but as a centre back against Sydney you have to have so much more to your game.”
WANDERERS’ SEASON TEETERING ON THE EDGE
Fresh off a high of finally winning a Sydney Derby, Western Sydney Wanderers’ season has come crashing back down to earth, losing 2-0 to Perth Glory on Saturday night.
Having been on the receiving end of a lesson in the Champions League, losing 4-0 to Urawa Red Diamonds, the Wanderers then copped two goals late in first and second half stoppage time to lose in Perth.
“It wasn’t good enough [from the Wanderers], not after watching what they did last week against Sydney,” said Mark Bosnich. “Can you imagine the frustration of the supporters who saw that and then see what they saw on Tuesday night [a 4-0 loss to Urawa Red Diamonds] and then this?
“They really have to take stock because their season is teetering on the edge.”
THE CLUB EMERGING AS A GRAND FINAL DARK HORSE
But in contrast to the Wanderers’ poor performance, it was Perth Glory who impressed, moving above Melbourne City into third spot.
So good has their recent form been, John Kosmina believes they are becoming a dark horse to win the Grand Final.
“Perth made a statement and they needed to make one,” he said.
“They’re really starting to find some form after being a little bit patchy early doors. I think if they got [to the Grand Final] they could certainly win it.”Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he was "not going anywhere," denying news reports that he was considering leaving his post, after shaking hands with Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani. (Reuters)
The State Department is supposed to host a major international conference next month, bringing leaders from more than 100 democracies together in Washington. But as of now, nobody involved knows how or if the conference will take place because for several months Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hasn’t signed off on the plans.
For some lawmakers and the pro-democracy community, the State Department’s handling of the issue is only the latest in a long series of signs that the Trump administration is turning away from the United States’ role as champion of democracy and human rights around the world.
The Community of Democracies is an international coalition of states that meets regularly to promote democracy, civil society and good governance. The organization was founded in 2000 by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and the late Polish foreign minister Bronislaw Geremek. Every two years, whichever country holds the rotating presidency pledges to host a foreign-minister-level meeting and all democratic governments are invited.
The ministerial meeting is the anchor for three days of events with officials, nongovernmental organizations, and democracy and human rights activists from around the world. But since the U.S. presidential election, neither officials nor the organizations involved have heard anything about the conference from the U.S. government.
Administration officials and organizers told me the planning is stalled because Tillerson’s office hasn’t responded to his own building’s months-old proposals about the event. As planning time runs short, many see the State Department under Tillerson as shirking the U.S. commitment as current president of the coalition.
“At a time when autocrats are becoming more aggressive and sophisticated in repressing their own citizens and working in concert to undermine democratic societies beyond their borders, the Community of Democracies is even more relevant today than it was 15 years ago,” Albright told me. “This is a time when democratic governments must join together to reaffirm their common cause, to support each other and to confront those forces that would threaten a more peaceful, stable, prosperous and humane world.”
Inside the State Department, the project is organized by the bureau of democracy, human rights and labor (DRL), which drew up the plans last year. The original idea was to hold it at the Washington Convention Center, with foreign ministers from all democracies invited and including robust engagement by senior U.S. officials.
Earlier this year, Tillerson’s office told DRL to come up with less ambitious options and the bureau complied. They proposed a scaled-down event that would be held at the State Department, shortened to half of one day and only include representatives of the organization’s governing council, which has 30 members. As of Wednesday, Tillerson’s office had not responded to that proposal.
In response to my questions, a senior State Department official said: “The Department is considering a range of options for concluding our Presidency of the Community of Democracies. The United States remains committed to standing with democracies.”
Meanwhile, three nongovernmental organizations have been cautiously planning their accompanying events. The Open Society Foundations, Freedom House and the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law are moving forward with bringing hundreds of democracy activists to Washington, even though they have no idea if there will be a formal ministerial meeting or any substantial U.S. government involvement.
Morton Halperin, a senior adviser to the Open Society Foundations and a co-chair of the Community of Democracies’ international steering committee, said that the United States has an obligation to host the ministerial meeting as every other presidency has done, despite in many cases an intervening election and change of government.
“At this moment when American leadership is in question and democracy is at risk in many countries, the role of the Community of Democracies in helping countries remain on the path to democracy is crucial and the holding of a ministerial meeting an important symbol of American commitment to remain the shining light on the hill,” he said.
Democratic lawmakers are incensed by what they see as the State Department’s shabby treatment of the Community of Democracies as an organization and Tillerson’s overall track record on democracy and human rights promotion thus far.
House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (N.Y.) said that the State Department’s actions were only the latest in a string of missteps, including crafting a draft for a new mission statement that would remove the words “just” and “democratic” from the list of U.S. foreign policy objectives.
“It’s bad enough that the State Department is abandoning justice and democracy as foreign-policy priorities, but it now seems that Secretary Tillerson is also preparing to snub our fellow democracies,” he said. “America’s security and prosperity demand that we continue as a force for good in the world — that includes our leadership in the Community of Democracies.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) told me that even if the State Department goes forward with a scaled-down version of the conference, it is sending the wrong signal to democracies and autocracies alike.
“Making what is a significant global conference on democracy something that’s pared down is a continuous undercutting of that as one of the State Department’s core missions,” Menendez said. “America’s interests first and foremost are aligned with the democracies of the world.”
The Trump administration may see the Community of Democracies as a wasteful expense they inherited. But the United States already committed, the investment is minimal and Tillerson at least owes the participants enough respect to tell them his plans. Tillerson still has time to avoid sending yet another signal that the United States is getting out of the democracy business.Senator John McCain (R-AZ) speaks during a press conference about his resistance to the so-called "Skinny Repeal" of the Affordable Care Act on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
Sen. John McCain is taking heat from critics who say he flip flopped on his positions on the national debt and the importance of regular order in the Senate by voting late last night in favor of the GOP's tax bill.
McCain was adamant last July that the Senate abide by regular order in passing a bill that would have repealed and replaced Obamacare. After undergoing surgery for brain cancer last summer, McCain returned to Washington to vote against the GOP's healthcare bill, which he criticized for its lack of bipartisan support and and for its rushed and secretive negotiation process.
"As I stand here today - looking a little worse for wear I'm sure - I have a refreshed appreciation for the protocols and customs of this body," the Arizona senator told his Senate colleagues. "Let's return to regular order … the old way of legislating in the Senate, the way our rules and customs encourage us to act."
On Friday, Democrats requested more time to review the nearly 500-page bill, which they received just hours before the vote. They were denied the request, and the bill passed the Senate in the early hours of Saturday morning, with a vote of 51 in favor to 49 against. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who will soon be retiring, was the lone Republican to vote against the bill, which garnered zero Democratic support.
Critics of the bill immediately pounced on several GOP senators, including McCain, Jeff Flake, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Lindsay Graham, whose support for the effort had been lukewarm before they ultimately voted to pass it.
McCain drew particularly harsh criticism, in part for his apparent lack of concern for regular order in the passage of the bill, which included significant last-minute revisions.
He said in his statement Saturday that the Senate's holding hearings about the tax bill was enough to please him.
"For months, I have called for a return to regular order, and I am pleased that this important bill was considered through the normal legislative processes, with several hearings and a thorough mark-up in the Senate Finance Committee during which more than 350 amendments were filed and 69 received a vote," McCain said.
"If John McCain even in the slightest way believed what he said about the regular order he would vote to take the weekend to read the bill," tweeted Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
"Is this really the regular order John McCain demanded?" Ezra Klein, editor and founder of left-leaning Vox Media, tweeted.
Others called out the senator for his apparent disregard for the bill's nearly $1.5 trillion projected expansion of the federal deficit. (McCain voted against former President George W. Bush's tax cut plan over concerns about the legislation's impact on the debt.)
"John McCain is a fraud who spent 8 years complaining about the deficit during the Obama presidency but voted for a Trump-backed #TaxScamBill that adds $1 trillion to the deficit in order to cut taxes for the rich," the progressive CNN political commentator Keith Boykin tweeted.
McCain's former presidential campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, called out all Republicans, including McCain, who voted for the bill, arguing that "everything everyone of them has ever said about spending was simply performance theater."
"This tax bill demonstrates, once again, the total collapse of all and any rigor around the policy making process in the GOP congress," Schmidt wrote. "It is built on a foundation of lies. It adds more than a trillion to the debt. No real conservative should vote for this."Is this the next YouTube?
Amazon's new Video Direct service will let users upload their own video content to the company's website and share it with customers and Amazon Prime members.
Amazon (AMZN) Video Direct launched Tuesday, and seems to have the same format as the Google (GOOG)-owned YouTube.
The new service will be offered through Amazon Video.
Users can upload videos and offer them free to Prime members. They can offer them free with ads to other Amazon customers or sell them to viewers who want to rent or own them. Videos can also be grouped together and offered as an add-on subscription.
Video creators will also be eligible for bonus rewards as part of Amazon's "Video Direct Stars," which also launched Tuesday.
The new rewards program enables users to get a share of one million dollars based on how well their videos do.
Related: Wheels up! Amazon is investing in airplanes
Amazon said in a release that creators can also share their videos with customers in countries where Amazon Video is available, such as Germany, Austria and Japan.
The new service will also be available on Fire TV, Fire and other devices that already support Amazon Video.
Content creators will be given data on how long their videos are streamed for, how many subscribers they have and how much revenue they're projected to make. They will have "full control" of their uploads, according to Amazon.
Related: Amazon is making an amazing comeback
Amazon Video Direct said it already has partnerships with groups such as Conde Nast Entertainment, HowStuffWorks, Samuel Goldwyn Films, The Guardian, Mashable, Baby Einstein and Mattel.
Content from those companies is already available online and new users can upload videos to the site immediately.With its buttery leather seats and brilliant platinum finish, the 2004 Volkswagen Jetta looked like one sweet ride. Priced at just $3,400, it was an irresistible deal, too. Unfortunately the online ad exhibited all the signs of a scam: there was no phone number, the car appeared to be on a dealer's lot and the price was one-third of what a model of its vintage should fetch.
This online car ad bears the telltale signs of a scam: photos taken at a dealership, no phone number and a cheap price tag that's too good to be true. ( SUPPLIED PICTURE )
To test our theory, we sent a query through the "contact seller" feature on the website. In two hours, the "seller" responded. "My 2004 Volkswagen Jetta is in great shape, no engine problems, damages or hidden defects. The total price is $3,400 CAD including shipping and handling. The sale will be made through eBay protection program for our safety," read the syntax-riddled email. Predictably the car was far away, preventing us from inspecting it.
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"I have recently moved from Canada to Washington and I took the car with me, that is why I am sending it from here. The car is still registered in Canada, it's E-tested and certified so you won't have to pay any custom taxes." We bit, agreeing to the price. We supplied a name and Toronto address, as requested. The seller replied quickly, sensing a mark. "I will contact eBay and I will open a case with them about our deal, and they will contact you with more details, and explain better the whole process." The eBay name is evoked to create a false sense of security. In reality, eBay does not service transactions beyond its own website. An email confirmation arrived within an hour. The message was fabricated using the site's logo and a lot of legalese lifted from the eBay website. It claimed the seller was an eBay Motors member in good standing.
The eBay invoice arrived two minutes later. It revealed a number of red flags: the reply-to email address was incorrect, no phone number was shown, none of the hyperlinks directed us to the eBay website, and it specified Western Union to handle the money. Most suspiciously, the invoice instructed us to make a $3,000 deposit in the name of Edward Reeves, an "eBay Customer Support Agent" in New York.
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Some 45 minutes later, the seller emailed again: "eBay informed me that they have contacted you. Please let me know if you received the information from them and when you will be able to make the deposit, because I need to know when to start the delivery process." We sought to clarify to whom to make the money order, and why the deposit was so large. Sensing our reluctance, the seller assured us the money would be held in escrow by eBay until the car was delivered and met with our approval. "You need to make the deposit of the eBay agent's name and address. EBay chose the amount of the deposit, but I won't be able to receive the payment until you receive the car and decide that you want to keep it or not." In reality, the Western Union money transfer would go directly to the bogus seller, who would promptly disappear. The Jetta, a collection of pilfered images, would never materialize. We received a reminder 24 hours later, wondering if we managed to make the payment. We decided to end communications and submitted a crime tip to the New York Police Department, though it's not known if our tip was pursued. Out of curiosity, we later found a 2004 Acura TL luxury sedan online for $4,800 and made an inquiry. A female identity responded this time, but the story had a familiar ring to it. "The total price is $4,800 CAD including shipping and handling. The sale will be through eBay protection program for our safety. I have recently moved from Canada to Washington after divorce and I took the car with me, that is why I am sending it from here."
Read more about:Matthew Ezekiel Stager (U.S. Marshals Service)
A wanted sex offender who disappeared after leaving a federal prison in Virginia was caught Wednesday in the District, police said.
Matthew Ezekiel Stager, 45, was released from federal prison in Petersburg, Va., on Feb. 2 and was supposed to fly to a transitional center in Texas that day, but he never showed up, the U.S. Marshals Service for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a statement. On Wednesday, authorities sought the public’s help in finding him.
About 2:40 p.m., D.C. police officers arrested Stager in the 500 block of 4th St. NW near the Judiciary Square Metro station, D.C. Superior Court and D.C. police headquarters.
A spokesman for the U.S. marshals said Stager was convicted in 1999 in North Carolina for indecent liberties with a minor, a charge that forced him to register as a sex offender.
In 2013, he was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender, a federal crime, and was serving a five-year sentence, the spokesman said.
The Bureau of Prisons allows some offenders to “self-report” when moving from one facility to another, according to the spokesman, but Stager, who was being moved from a medium-security facility to a transitional center near Austin, failed to show.
A Bureau of Prisons spokesman said Stager was headed to a residential reentry center, or halfway house, that would provide programming such as employment counseling that would ease his transition into the community as the end of his sentence approached.
“The only inmates allowed to move without supervision are considered minimal risk,” Jill C. Tyson, chief public information officer for the agency, said in an email.
Stager, who is 5-foot-8, 145 pounds, and has distinctive tattoos, has a history of drug abuse and mental illness, authorities said.NBC
A year and a half after her husband's death, Laurene Powell Jobs is carefully stepping into the national spotlight.
Tonight, NBC's Brian Williams will interview her on his show, Rock Center.
They're going to talk about a documentary Jobs is helping promote. It's called "The Dream Is Now," and it pushes for an overhaul of the American immigration system.
She wants the children of undocumented immigrants to be allowed to stay in the U.S.
In a clip previewing the interview, Jobs says forcing them to leave is "such a waste of lives, such a waste of potential, such a waste for our country."
"We need all these brains. Integrating dreamers into our economy will give a boost of over $300 billion."
This is Jobs' first interview since her husband's death in October 2011.
She's actually been a fairly vocal activist for some time, mostly concerned with education issues.
In a video from 2008, Jobs tells a story about how she volunteered as a college counselor at a local high school, and found that lots of students were not prepared to go to college at all.
Jobs and a bunch of other volunteers started putting together packets to help younger students make sure they were doing what they needed to do to make themselves eligible for college.
This led her to create something called College Track, an initiative to fix the same problem on a larger scale.
Here's that video:
Laurene Powell Jobs on College Track by FORAtv
And here's a video in which Jobs interviews Ben Affleck about his charity work in the Congo:Dead End Monsoon rain drenches the body of a man shot dead by unidentified gunmen in a Manila alley. Human rights monitors attribute many of the approximately 5,000 deaths in the drug war to vigilantes operating with police backing – a charge authorities deny. When Duterte was mayor of the southern city of Davao, more than 1,400 people died in vigilante-style killings. He denied involvement. October 11, 2016 | REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
Inconsolable Janeth Mejos watches as the body of her father, Paquito, shot dead in a police operation, is carried from their Manila home. Police say they have killed more than 2,000 suspects, mostly in self-defense, since the drug war began. But some bereaved families have told Reuters their loved ones were unarmed and pleading for mercy when police opened fire. October 14 | REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
Body Count A police investigator in Manila takes notes near a man killed in what police said was a shootout. Found in his pockets, said police, were sachets of crystal methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug known as shabu, imported in large quantities from China. This fits the pattern of many police reports: A suspect pulls a gun, police return deadly fire and shabu is found on the victim's corpse. October 21 | REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
Shot to Hell A gun is placed inside an evidence bag at a Manila crime scene, where police say they shot dead two men speeding from a checkpoint. Drug suspects almost never survive violent encounters with the Philippines police, a Reuters investigation found. The cops’ near-perfect 97 percent kill ratio bolsters evidence that officers are summarily gunning people down. October 29 | REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
Grim Pattern Funeral workers in Manila remove duct tape from the head and wrists of a man who police say was murdered by vigilantes. These killings have a familiar style. Vigilantes often arrive on two or more motorbikes with no license plates, their faces hidden by helmets and masks. One team seals off the street; another identifies and assassinates the target. Police say they have nothing to do with such killings. September 21 | REUTERS/Ezra Acayan
Line of Fire Seventeen-year-old Ericka Fernandez, shot dead by unidentified gunmen, lies in a Manila alley. A children’s rights group in Manila says 23 minors have been killed by vigilantes or in the crossfire of police operations. Duterte’s government wants to open up another front in the drugs war: It is pushing to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 9 years old, which critics fear could put more children in the firing line. October 26 | REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
Dead Again The body of another victim, shot dead by unknown gunmen, bleeds out behind a police line in Manila. Reuters found widespread flaws in the data Duterte is using to justify his deadly crackdown. Police say they are investigating all drug-war killings, but admit that most cases go nowhere because witnesses are too scared to come forward. October 25 | REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
Warning Sign The body of a man, his head swathed in duct tape, lies in a Manila gutter after what police said was a vigilante-style execution. The handwritten notice tied to his head reads, in Filipino: “I am a chronic thief and pusher. You better change!!!” Duct tape and crude signs are the hallmarks of vigilante killings in Duterte’s drug crackdown. To avoid a similar fate, hundreds of thousands of users have turned themselves in. September 20 | REUTERS/Ezra Acayan
Deadly Trade Funeral workers prepare to enter a Manila house where police and witnesses said five drug suspects were shot dead by unidentified gunmen. Duterte once urged supporters to open funeral parlors, vowing: “I’ll supply the bodies to you.” But the families of most drug-war victims are poor and often struggle to pay funeral costs. November 1 | REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
Blood Bath Manila pedicab driver Norberto Maderal was killed in this living room by police who said he had pulled a gun and “tried to open fire” during a drug sting operation. But Maderal’s nephew Joemari Rodriguez told Reuters he had heard his uncle pleading for his life. “He was begging them, ‘Sir, please!’” said Rodriguez. Then came two shots. October 19 | REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
Post Mortem The body of Florjohn Cruz, who was shot dead in what police say was an anti-drug operation, is dressed by a worker at a Manila funeral parlor. Police crime-scene investigations and autopsies are opaque and perfunctory, fueling suspicion among bereaved families that guns and drugs are planted on suspects. October 28 | REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
Helping Hands Funeral workers arrange a curtain behind the coffin of a man found dead in Manila with a sign accusing him of pushing drugs. After such killings, bodies are taken to police-accredited funeral parlors, which act as both official morgues and crime labs. Police perform most autopsies there, before the undertaker embalms the body for the family to bring to the wake. October 8 | REUTERS/Damir SagoljAt 7:30 a.m., the British launch a massive offensive against German forces in the Somme River region of France. During the preceding week, 250,000 Allied shells had pounded German positions near the Somme, and 100,000 British soldiers poured out of their trenches and into no-man’s-land on July 1, expecting to find the way cleared for them. However, scores of heavy German machine guns had survived the artillery onslaught, and the infantry were massacred. By the end of the day, 20,000 British soldiers were dead and 40,000 wounded. It was the single heaviest day of casualties in British military history. The disastrous Battle of the Somme stretched on for more than four months, with the Allies advancing a total of just five miles.
When World War I broke out in August 1914, great throngs of British men lined up to enlist in the war effort. At the time, it was generally thought that the war would be over within six months. However, by the end of 1914 well over a million soldiers of various nationalities had been killed on the battlefields of Europe, and a final victory was not in sight for either the Allies or the Central Powers. On the Western Front–the battle line that stretched across northern France and Belgium–the combatants had settled down in the trenches for a terrible war of attrition. Maimed and shell-shocked troops returning to Britain with tales of machine guns, artillery barrages, and poison gas seriously dampened the enthusiasm of potential new volunteers.
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With the aim of raising enough men to launch a decisive offensive against Germany, Britain replaced voluntary service with conscription in January 1916, when it passed an act calling for the enlistment of all unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 41. After Germany launched a massive offensive of its own against Verdun in February, Britain expanded the Military Service Act, calling for the conscription of all men, married and unmarried, between the ages of 18 and 41. Near the end of June, with the Battle of Verdun still raging, Britain prepared for its major offensive along a 21-mile stretch of the Western Front north of the Somme River.
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For a week, the British bombarded the German trenches as a prelude to the attack. British Field Marshal Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, thought the artillery would decimate the German defenses and allow a British breakthrough; in fact, it served primarily to remove the element of surprise. When the bombardment died down on the morning of July 1, the German machine crews emerged from their fortified trenches and set up their weapons. At 7:30 a.m., 11 British divisions attacked at once, and the majority of them were gunned down. The soldiers optimistically carried heavy supplies for a long march, but few made it more than a couple of hundred yards. Five French divisions that attacked south of the Somme at the same time fared a little better, but without British success little could be done to exploit their gains.
After the initial disaster, Haig resigned himself to smaller but equally ineffectual advances, and more than 1,000 Allied lives were extinguished for every 100 yards gained on the Germans. Even Britain’s September 15 introduction of tanks into warfare for the first time in history failed to break the deadlock in the Battle of the Somme. In October, heavy rains turned the battlefield into a sea of mud, and on November 18 Haig called off the Somme offensive after more than four months of mass slaughter.
Except for its effect of diverting German troops from the Battle of Verdun, the offensive was a miserable disaster. It amounted to a total gain of just 125 square miles for the Allies, with more than 600,000 British and French soldiers killed, wounded, or missing in the action. German casualties were more than 650,000. Although Haig was severely criticized for the costly battle, his willingness to commit massive amounts of men and resources to the stalemate along the Western Front did eventually contribute to the collapse of an exhausted Germany in 1918.AskMen may receive a portion of revenue if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service. The links are independently placed by our Commerce team and do not influence editorial content. To find out more, please read our complete terms of use.
You know what they say, carbon fiber is the new black. This space-age material has been popping up in more and more pricey gear lately, all aimed at the discriminating male who’d prefer to intrigue with finesse rather than sparkle for attention. And it’s easy to see why: lightweight, stronger than steel, and expensive (and difficult) to manufacture, carbon fiber combines futuristic Ex Machina technology with flat-out workman utility — pretty much the ultimate male intersection. The very look of its precisely woven aerospace textures, often glossed with light veneer, lends almost any item an imitable sheen of exclusivity.
We scoured the markets of the world to find some of the coolest gear possible rendered in carbon fiber, and collected it here. Some of the items may be ludicrously expensive, but if so there’s usually a more affordable, actually attainable alternative.Image copyright PA Image caption Madonna and Ritchie married in 2000 and divorced eight years later
Madonna and ex-husband Guy Ritchie have settled a court dispute over the custody of their 16-year-old son Rocco.
A spokesman for the New York State court system said the pair had reached an agreement, but did not reveal with which parent the teenager would live.
Ritchie's lawyer Peter Bronstein said Rocco would continue to live with his father in London.
The dispute arose in December when Rocco ignored a court order to fly back to live with his mother in New York.
He has since stayed with his father in the UK capital and enrolled in a school there.
Madonna's lawyers have not commented on the settlement.
In December, a judge ruled that Rocco should return to his mother. But she decided not to issue a warrant to enforce the order, urging the pair to reach an agreement.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Deborah Kaplan said: "No-one is disrupting his household other than the inability of the parents to reach a resolution.
"If they cannot resolve this matter then eventually the court will."
Ellen Sigal, Rocco's court-appointed lawyer, said in March that the dispute was causing him stress.
"It's been a very difficult time for him," she said in court. "We hope to put an end to this as soon as possible without exposing him to more litigation, press innuendo, any of that kind of thing."
Madonna and Ritchie married in 2000 and divorced eight years later.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram, or if you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.Answer by Jae Won Joh, MD, on Quora,
I can only speak for myself, but personally, I'm not a fan.
This is probably what most people think about the current state of diagnostics:
This is only somewhat accurate, but more on that later. This is what direct-to-consumer testing companies seem to see:
Which, understandably, led to this thought:
The problem with this is that not all clinical data is useful or relevant. For example, the knowledge that a female patient's great-grandmother had an episode of hemorrhage when giving birth to her fourth child. Yes, agreed, it's clinical data. Yes, it might sound terrifying to a layperson ("oh my goodness, what if the family has a heritable bleeding disorder!").
A well-trained ob/gyn, however, would know that multiparous women have an inherently higher risk of postpartum hemorrhage and probably not give it too much thought.
So really, then, what's happening is this:
The filtering and interpretation part is absolutely key, and I am always wary of anything/anyone that cuts it out. There is a reason we require physicians to have a minimum of 7 years of postgraduate training before they're allowed to practice independently -- it's kind of necessary. Pardon me if a few alarm bells go off in my head when someone presents the idea that all of a sudden, because of a new product, a layperson without those 7+ years of training can fully understand what's going on with their health.
Filtering and interpretation is doubly important for genetic data, because genetic data is not necessarily deterministic.
For example, let's say we have patient Joe, a 57-year-old male. Joe is a highly athletic runner and enjoys running marathons every 3-4 months (his personal record is 3:34:19). Joe is very health-conscious and is always looking for new meals to cook for his dear wife of 34 years. He's never smoked, never been on medication other than a daily baby aspirin. His BMI is 22. All in all, he's a very healthy guy who loves his job as an administrator in the local public school system. His mother and father passed away at ages 83 and 78, respectively.
Let's say Joe's genetic test comes back with a 17% increased risk of coronary artery disease compared to the average population. Should Joe be worried? Should he seek a cardiologist for further work-up? Should he perhaps undergo cardiac catheterization?
Um...no. Why? Because by clinical assessment, Joe's risk is tremendously low. In other words, the full diagram is as follows:
Based on his history, Joe's pre-test probability for coronary disease is minimal; at best, it's in the low single digits. Would it be ethical for a cardiologist to charge thousands of dollars to take a completely asymptomatic patient and electively expose him to the inherent risks of an invasive procedure under anesthesia?
No.
This is why every ethical healthcare provider follows this mantra: do not order a test or perform a procedure if it will not change your management of the patient, because doing so may cause needless harm/risk to the patient and will cause needless damage to the patient's finances.
The primary problem with direct-to-consumer testing is that it allows untrained laypersons to obtain clinically uncorrelated (and quite possibly unnecessary) information. The layperson is then required to draw their own conclusions when they do not have the requisite training to do so.
The secondary problem is the potential for net harm. When the consumer willingly sacrifices financial resources to purchase such a test, there is the expectation that the informational benefits will outweigh the financial burden. If the benefits are questionable and also have strong potential for inappropriate interpretation resulting in emotional harm in the form of unfounded fear, then is the consumer not being marketed a proposition that may be a net loss?
The tertiary problem is that when this harm occurs, the consumer's physician may be left to pick up the pieces of that fear, as seen in this quote from Why the FDA is targeting Google-backed 23andMe: Unnecessary MRIs, mastectomies:
One San Francisco-based neurologist, who asked to remain anonymous, told me that some of her healthiest patients — all 23andMe customers —have begun demanding unnecessary and expensive MRI tests for Alzheimer’s disease. “23andMe’s test is creating chaos with people in their 20s and 30s,” she said. “They generate havoc and walk away.”
If you read this far, thank you for your time and patience. Hopefully this answer sheds more light than heat.
This question originally appeared on Quora. More questions on Medicine and Healthcare:“It is not enough just to hire workers to dig holes and then fill them in again,” said Toshihiro Ihori, an economics professor at the University of Tokyo. “One lesson from Japan is that public works get the best results when they create something useful for the future.”
In total, Japan spent $6.3 trillion on construction-related public investment between 1991 and September of last year, according to the Cabinet Office. The spending peaked in 1995 and remained high until the early 2000s, when it was cut amid growing concerns about ballooning budget deficits. More recently, the governing Liberal Democratic Party has increased spending again to revive the economy and the party’s own flagging popularity.
In the end, say economists, it was not public works but an expensive cleanup of the debt-ridden banking system, combined with growing exports to China and the United States, that brought a close to Japan’s Lost Decade. This has led many to conclude that spending did little more than sink Japan deeply into debt, leaving an enormous tax burden for future generations.
In the United States, it has also led |
have stood at the far end of a long and punishing supply chain that transforms the bitter, slimy beans they grow on isolated farms here into one of the Western world’s most beloved foodstuffs. By the time the bright yellow pods dangling from cocoa trees become a candy bar or a bag of chocolate chips, the farmers who grew them will have generally been paid just 3.5 to 6 percent of the product’s final value. Most are too poor to have ever bought a chocolate bar. Many, incredibly, don’t even know what chocolate is.
So it’s hardly surprising to activists like Dawson that in the marginalized communities where cocoa farming takes place, child trafficking and other dangerous forms of child labor have long been part of a cruel bargain for survival. Part of the reason the exploitation of children has been difficult to stamp out is rooted in a fact of subsistence farming: Many children traditionally work with their families on cocoa farms, making it easier for abuses to slip by. Indeed, in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, 42 percent of children in cocoa farming families – some 2 million in all – do “hazardous work” on cocoa farms, according to a 2014 study by Tulane University in Louisiana.
Still, there’s reason for optimism. Beginning with the fair trade movement that blossomed in the 1990s, media, advocacy groups, and governments in Africa and the West have pointed the world’s gaze in the direction of cocoa’s youngest producers, managing to transform the fight to end child slavery and exploitation here from a fringe cause to a global moral battleground.
It’s a fight that’s been fought – and sometimes won – on the strength of consumer anger. Chocolate, after all, is one of the West’s most celebratory foods. Then how, many have asked, can we tolerate the miserable conditions under which it has long been produced?
Take Action: Putting an end to human trafficking
On the ground, the results of this attention and consumer soul-searching have been modest and uneven, stunted by a range of factors, from the foot-dragging of major chocolate companies to the churn of two civil wars in Cote D’Ivoire, the world’s largest source of cocoa. As activists and farmers continually stress, growing cocoa remains grinding and poorly paid work, and children are still a big part of it.
“Children have always worked on our farms,” says Frank Ofori, a farmer in the village of Akyekyere, in western Ghana, as he sinks his machete into a freshly picked cocoa pod on a recent afternoon. “But now things are quite different.” Children’s work is largely confined to weekends, he says. Most are in school, learning to read and write, as their parents never could.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff Farmers work on a cocoa farm on Nov. 11, 2015, in Akyekyere, Ghana.
Indeed, the cocoa industry’s worst child labor abuses are beginning to be cleaned up. The changes are, in many ways, unprecedented. Each of the world’s top five chocolate producers – from Nestlé to Mars to Hershey’s – are now busy developing or expanding third-party inspection systems meant to, among other goals, eliminate child trafficking and child labor by 2020 on the farms they purchase from. Meanwhile Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire – together responsible for about 70 percent of the global supply of cocoa – have responded to international pressure by passing laws prohibiting child trafficking and overwork, and mandating primary school attendance.
“I think the chocolate industry is among the most advanced in the world in grappling with these issues,” says Aidan McQuade, director of the human rights organization Anti-Slavery International. “Like many other industries faced with these kinds of accusations, their first response was outrage and denial that there was a problem at all. But since then, they really have begun to collectively respond, which is more than you can say for many other sectors.”
What made the West pay attention
That sea change began with a single, startling revelation.
“There may be a hidden ingredient in the chocolate cake you baked, the candy bars your children sold for their school fund-raiser or that fudge ripple ice cream cone you enjoyed on Saturday afternoon: Slave labor,” opened a June 2001 investigation by journalists Sudarsan Raghavan and Sumana Chatterjee for the Knight Ridder news service.
Trekking through remote corners of Cote d’Ivoire, the Knight Ridder reporters and several others, including a BBC crew, had found young children, their small bodies gangly and scarred by machete wounds, toiling on thousands of smallholder cocoa farms. Most were working for their families, but as many as 15,000, UNICEF estimated, may have been sold into slavery – some from as far away as Mali and Burkina Faso.
Quickly, the fuse was lit.
“We felt like the public ought to know about it, and we ought to take some action to try to stop it,” said now-retired Sen. Tom Harkin (D) of Iowa at the time, explaining the voluntary agreement he helped broker that year with major chocolate producers to gradually eliminate “the worst forms of child labor” – including trafficking – from their supply chains. “How many people in America know that all this chocolate they are eating … is being produced by terrible child labor?”
In Ghana, Dawson watched these far-off rumblings of outrage with amazement from the office of the Association of People for Practical Life Education (APPLE), his small anti-trafficking NGO.
Ending child trafficking “was something we had been promoting for a long time, but it was always being overlooked” – both domestically and internationally, he says.
In Ghana, the problem was far more widespread in the fishing, gold, and domestic-labor industries than cocoa. But it was cocoa, he says, that brought eyes, ears, and – most importantly – cash to the movement. Four years later, in 2005, Ghana passed a comprehensive bill outlawing all forms of human trafficking. Cote d’Ivoire followed suit in 2010 with a bill that barred child trafficking.
“It’s certainly not everything, but it’s lessened our work a bit,” Dawson says. “At least now we can report the crime to the authorities.”
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff Ekua Obinsuawo, a female cocoa farmer, stands beside cocoa beans spread out to dry, on Nov. 10, 2015 in Kwamang, Ghana.
With an estimated 2 million children working with their families on cocoa farms in Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, the idea that you could ever stop all of them from working was at best aspirational, and at worst culturally tone-deaf, says Pauline Tiffen, a longtime consultant on cocoa supply chain sustainability. “This isn’t about people [who send their children to work] being bad or morally bankrupt,” she says. “It’s a result of a combination of attitudes and opportunity – people don’t change their attitudes until the opportunities change, too.”
In recent years, West African governments, chocolate companies, and farmers seem to have taken heed, turning their anti-child labor efforts toward making cocoa-farming villages better places to be children.
And they are finding allies in many families. In Kwamang, deep in Ghana’s largest cocoa-growing area, the Western Region, parents like Benedict Avinah Blay and Grace Mensah say they want their seven kids to have the childhood they couldn’t. Both grew up around here, in a slice of Ghana where the rutted dirt roads regularly wash out in the rainy season and most adults cannot read.
“We went to school, but in harvesting season, the farm was first,” Mr. Blay says. “If they needed you on the farm, maybe you didn’t write your exams that year.” On Saturdays, he remembers, he and his siblings were often working from sunup to sundown, hacking apart cocoa pods and scooping out their sticky white beans to ferment and then dry in the sunlight.
Education as the way out
But on a recent Thursday afternoon, the fields around Kwamang are empty of children. Instead, the local primary school is bursting, with kids spilling from its rickety classrooms onto the playing fields outside. Inside one, Blay and Ms. Mensah’s 12-year-old daughter Boatema is hunched over a notebook, carefully copying out sentences from the day’s English lesson. Choose One: Ghana is free from/for colonial rule, reads one.
Like most of the kids at this school, Boatema and her six siblings work on their family’s farm, but only on weekends and school holidays, and they are largely kept away from the most arduous and potentially harmful tasks. Blay, who is also a teacher at a nearby secondary school, says this setup is now par for the course in this part of Ghana.
“Still, sometimes we find families who are working their children and not sending them to school, and when you come to them they say, ‘If my kids doesn’t work, how will we eat?’” he says. “I tell them, you will all eat better if your kids get an education and break this cycle [of poverty].”
Indeed, experts say education has been the single most influential element in breaking the cycle of child labor on West Africa’s cocoa farms, for the simple reason Blay describes: It’s a way out.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff Cocoa farmers open up cocoa pods with machetes to extract the cocoa beans in a cocoa-producing village, on Nov. 11 in Akyekyere, Ghana. Child labor in cocoa fields was a problem for generations. Today, children are in school and most work on the farms only on weekends and holidays.
The change has been dramatic. The number of children not attending school in cocoa-growing communities across Ghana has fallen by 87.5 percent over the past five years, according to Tulane’s surveys. And in Cote d’Ivoire – ground zero for child trafficking in the cocoa industry – the figure has been cut by 36 percent, even in the midst of a civil war and its aftermath. Earlier this year, Cote d’Ivoire took an important new step when it passed a law mandating primary school attendance for the first time. (Ghana already had a similar law).
Although statistics on trafficking are notoriously hard to come by, Mr. McQuade, of the anti-slavery coalition, says research suggests there’s been a “modest decline” in children being transported and sold into slavery in the cocoa industry over the past decade, coupled with much wider gains on the issue of child labor.
How much of that change comes down to the interventions of the international chocolate industry itself is debatable.
The International Cocoa Initiative – the major umbrella body for industry, civil society, and governments working on child labor issues – estimates that less than 5 percent of farmers are being actively monitored for harmful child labor practices, including trafficking. But industry, civil society, and farmers alike point to a widespread trickle-down of knowledge about children’s rights – and the legal and economic dangers of ignoring them – over the past 15 years amid a continued global flurry of criticism and attention.
“Before, parents didn’t know the importance of education because they themselves hadn’t been educated,” says Alice Owusua, a farmer and head of the child labor oversight committee in Akyekyere. Then, about six years ago, a representative from a buying company – the middlemen who purchase from farmers and sell to major chocolate producers – led a series of community meetings on the need to keep children safe and in school. Now, she says, even if farmers don’t always follow those rules, they all know that they are supposed to.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff A cocoa farmer opens up a pod with a machete to extract the cocoa beans in Akyekyere, Ghana. Most cocoa farmers are so poor they can’t afford to buy chocolate.
For their part, the five major chocolate companies – Mars, Mondelez (Cadbury, Oreo), Nestlé, Ferrero, and Hershey – have all agreed to independent monitoring of their supply chains. The goal is to eliminate “the worst forms of child labor” – trafficking and other exploitation – by 2020 at the latest. These projects, though many are still in their infancy, will in theory make monitoring of child labor on cocoa farms more widespread.
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“I don’t think we’ll make that, it’s very optimistic,” says Bill Bertrand, co-author of Tulane’s child labor studies. “But there’s no doubt the industry is moving in the right direction.”
Coming Dec. 8: Just how hard is it to get a verdict against traffickers, anyway?The fallout from WikiLeaks’ disclosure of alleged CIA hacking secrets stretched around the world Thursday, as Chinese officials accused the U.S. of “stealing secrets” and German prosecutors continued to investigate claims about a major American cyber-spying base in Frankfurt.
While stateside investigators hunted the source of the leaks -- a trove of more than 8,000 documents that WikiLeaks claims is the ‘entire hacking capacity of the CIA’ -- foreign officials were examining what the release revealed about the CIA’s interests abroad. Routers produced by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE were named as devices targeted by CIA hackers, Reuters reported, prompting a rebuke from Beijing.
"We urge the U.S. side to stop listening in, monitoring, stealing secrets and internet hacking against China and other countries." — Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang
"We urge the U.S. side to stop listening in, monitoring, stealing secrets and Internet hacking against China and other countries," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Thursday.
Thousands of miles away, federal prosecutors in Germany were looking into WikiLeaks-derived allegations that the CIA operated a hacking hub out of the U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt.
“We will initiate an investigation if we see evidence of concrete criminal acts or specific perpetrators,” a spokesman for the prosecutor's office told Reuters. "We're looking at it very carefully."
The probe may not end at Germany’s border. In a release explaining its document dump on Tuesday, WikiLeaks noted that “once in Frankfurt CIA hackers can travel without further border checks to the 25 European countries that are part of the Shengen open border area -- including France, Italy and Switzerland.”
The Frankfurt allegations represent the second awkward disclosure this decade regarding possible U.S. spying on its European ally. A previous WikiLeaks release showed the NSA had snooped on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government in 2011.
One of the more startling revelations divulged by WikiLeaks is an alleged CIA ability to turn Samsung smart televisions into microphones, technology the anti-secrecy website says was developed in tandem with Britain’s intelligence services. South Korea-based Samsung released a statement Wednesday saying it was “urgently looking into the matter.”
WikiLeaks said its Tuesday release was less than 1 percent of the total documents it possesses.
During a question-and-answer session that was streamed online Thursday morning, WikiLeaks head Julian Assange said the group would work with some of the affected tech companies "to give them some exclusive access to some of the additional technical details we have so that fixes can be pushed out and people can be secured."
Meanwhile, those at CIA headquarters are reportedly “irritable” and “frustrated” as the agency enters its third day of damage control while simultaneously hunting the mole who gave the files to WikiLeaks. A CIA spokesperson on Wednesday sent an unprompted statement stressing the agency’s mission was “to aggressively collect foreign intelligence overseas” and that the organization was “legally prohibited from conducting electronic surveillance.”
“They’re not developing these capabilities so they can turn them on to us,” former CIA covert operations officer and Fox News contributor Mike Baker said. “There’s this uniquely American notion that we all live these interesting lives and the government is so interested in what we do. Is it ‘1984’? No. It’s not. We do it ‘cause every other country out there is doing it.”A North Carolina Navy veteran parked in a spot marked for veterans at a grocery store Monday, but was shocked to find a note criticizing her when she returned.
Rebecca Hayes said she came out of the Concord store and found a note on her car that read, “This parking spot is for Veterans, lady. Learn to read and have some respect.”
Hayes told WBTV that she only noticed the note after about 30 minutes after she had left the shopping center.
"At first, I thought someone had left a note because they hit my car or something like that," Hayes told the station. She said she thought she was going to have to call someone and exchange insurance information.
However, when she saw the note accusing her of taking a parking spot away from a veteran, she said she began to cry.
Hayes responded to the note in a Facebook message. She said she’s sorry the writer couldn’t see her eight years in the U.S. Navy, and can’t imagine that there are female veterans.
She also said she was sorry she had to explain herself to “people like you,” and couldn’t speak in person to whoever left the note.
She concluded by saying, "I served, did you?"
Hayes told the station she believes the note was left on the windshield because she didn’t fit the stereotype of being a veteran because she’s a woman and what she was wearing at the time.
“Veterans come in all shapes, sizes, genders and colors," she said. "More veterans don't fit that stereotype than do."
Hayes said her husband is a U.S. Army veteran and has parked in the spot before and has never gotten more than a “Thank you for your service.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Click for more from WBTV.Wells Fargo’s Commercial Portfolio is a ticking time bomb
By Teri Buhl
In order to sort through the disaster that is Wells Fargo’s commercial loan portfolio, the bank has hired help from outside experts to pour over the books… and they are shocked with what they are seeing. Not only do the bank’s outstanding commercial loans collectively exceed the property values to which they are attached, but derivative trades leftover from its acquisition of Wachovia are creating another set of problems for the already beleaguered San Francisco-based megabank,
Wachovia, which Wells purchased last fall as it teetered on the brink of collapse, was so desperate to increase revenue in the last few years of its existence that it underwrote loans with shoddy standards and paid off traders to take them off their books.
According to sources currently working out these loans at Wells Fargo and confirmed by Dan Alpert of Westwood Capital, when selling tranches of commercial mortgage-backed securities below the super senior tranche, Wachovia promised to pay the buyer’s risk premium by writing credit default swap contracts against these subordinate bonds. Should the junior tranches eventually default, then the bank is on the hook.
Alpert says in reference to how he saw CMBS trades get done, “The Wachovia guys would say ‘We’ll just take back that silly credit risk you’re worried about.’ Of course that was a nice increase to earnings when they got the security sold. The bank made money at the time.”
When asked if Wells Fargo was prepared to pay out those credit default swaps if these securities default, a spokeswoman told Bank-Impode.com,” In keeping with our strong risk discipline, we continually monitor all of our outstanding derivative positions. We have provided extensive transparent disclosures on our derivatives in our 2008 annual report beginning on page 132.” The real question is, however, was enough disclosed to investors about this practice when Wells purchased Wachovia?
One top hedge fund manager who has experience in outing accounting fraud told Bank-Implode “They needed to estimate that CDS liability upon the purchase of Wachovia. If they didn’t, they’ve committed fraud.”
Since there is no way to track the amount of contracts Wachovia wrote due to the lack of a central clearinghouse for credit default swaps, the next best option for analysts is to examine how the loans that backed the mortgage securities are performing. An in-depth review by Bank-Implode shows significant weakness regardless of Wells Fargo’s recent claim to the Wall Street Journal that the merger integration is on track. [ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125304082083513011.html ]
According to the New York Post, Harry Markopolos, the whistleblower on Bernie Madoff, gave a speech this summer at the Greek Orthodox Church in Southampton predicting more major scandals will soon be revealed about the unregulated, $600 trillion, credit default swap market. Ouch!
One senior member of Wells Fargo’s commercial loan group who deals directly with the quandary, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says, “One third of this commercial portfolio we took on from Wachovia is impaired and needs to be completely rewritten. I’ve just hired five more guys and we can’t keep up with the volume of defaults. Southeast Florida and Tampa are serious trouble spots.”
Wachovia’s third quarter 2008 filings, which reflect their assets three days before Wells Fargo agreed to the acquisition, shows the bank held a whopping $230 billion in its commercial loan portfolio. Current figures show Wells’ 90-day defaults on its commercial portfolio are rapidly growing. According to data from WLMlab.com which tracks financial numbers that Wells files with its regulators, the bank’s Construction and Development portfolio, with $38.2 billion in loans, is defaulting at a level eight times greater than the rest of the nation’s banks, as of June 30th. [Link: http://www.wlmlab.com/bkLP.asp?inst=HC1120754&loan=lnrecons&met=loan]. Alarming right?
Wachovia commercial loan officers who spoke to Bank Implode say that the bank specialized in underwriting short-term loans up to five years during the credit boom of 2005-2007. The standard terms for such loans included interest-only payments on a floating rate with a huge balloon payment in the final year of the loan. If these loans cannot be refinanced, more waves of defaults are inevitable.
According to Susan Smith, author of a recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers investor survey about the state of the CMBS market, more trouble is brewing. “It’s going to be very difficult for these loans to get refinancing when the market value is going down and fundamentals are deteriorating,” says Smith. According to data from her report, problems in the South Florida region, to which Wachovia had large exposure, are amplified by an increasing overall cap rate, up 80 basis points from last year, and declining rent prices. The OCR is the perception of risk investors see. The overall cap rate goes up when the overall risk in the market is up.
Given the warning signs on the horizon, it’s plausible that Wells Fargo would try to unload some of these troubled loans on the secondary market. But according to multiple private investment shops set up to invest in distressed debt, Wells isn’t selling them. If Wells were to sell the loans, not only would the bank have to book a loss, but would also have to pay out those pesky credit default swaps.
Instead of selling the loans, sources inside Wells commercial group told Bank Implode that they have been instructed to modify loans for customers in default by adjusting the interest rate, but not change the maturity date. Why? According to Meredith Whitney, founder and CEO of Meredith Whiney Advisory Group, Wells is working an accounting game of “extend and pretend.”
“If the bank doesn’t change a maturity date, then it does not have to take an impairment charge on its books, which would affect earnings,” says Whitney. If the loans don’t look like they are impaired, the rating agencies then do not have to downgrade the billions of CMBS that Wachovia sold to other banks and investors. Moody’s backed out of such a downgrade last month, after it previously warned downgrades were coming on $4.1 billion of Wachovia Bank commercial mortgage securities because it now expects principal and interest payments to continue [link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125172997776872671.html ].
Adds Whitney “We’ve seen Wells Fargo play modification games with its own loans. Why wouldn’t they do it with the loans they took on from Wachovia?” On Tuesday on CNBC, Whitney said again “I don’t know if those commercial modifications are going to work.” [link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1254430805&play=1 ]
In response to analyst expressing doubts that the near $40 billion structured into the purchase of Wachovia for losses in its total portfolio will be enough CEO John Stumpf spoke out. Stumpf told investors at the Barclays conference this week, Wells Fargo has used $2.2 billion in credits for losses from Wachoiva’s commercial mortgages, or one-fifth of the $10.4 billion in total losses it expects from those loans. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125312018580716543.html)
Unfortunately for investors, banks hold CDS liabilities off balance sheet and do not recognize them as a loss until they actually have to pay it. Wachovia at least disclosed in its third quarter 2008 10-K on note 15, that credit derivatives are a regular part of how they finance commercial activities, and add that such instruments ‘don’t meet the criteria for designation as an accounting hedge’.
Given that a specific number for CDS exposure is not yet tenable, it’s hard to say how many billions are at risk. Yet most market players who follow this bank said when those CMBS de-lever and the derivatives come due, it will be a problem for which Wells is absolutely not adequately capitalized.
To give Wells Fargo credit, it might not even know the size of the problem. Bank Implode could not find an analyst who covers the stock to say Wells actually has enough loss reserves built in for it, but regardless the analysts are very concerned about the bank’s health based on the data that they do see. Both Whitney and Paul Miller of FBR Capital Markets both have gone on-air and written in notes [http://bankimplode.com/blog/2009/08/07/is-it-time-to-short-well/] to clients that Wells’ loan loss reserves are not enough to handle coming impairments to residential loans. Miller has a recommended stock price of $15 while WFC is currently trading around $29.
So how can Wells really have enough capital to handle the liability of credit derivatives that will likely come due within the year? As we watch more and more of the junior tranches of commercial mortgage back securities Wachovia sold become worthless how will Wells Fargo afford to pay for the risk premiums Wachovia promised they’d take care of if the loans blew up? From all indications, the bank cannot meet these obligations unless it raises more capital, sells good assets for a loss, or put more of that TARP money to use that CEO John Stumpf says is coming back to the taxpayer. So much for “earning our way out” of the financial crisis.
[Additional reporting by Chris Gillick]
Editors Note: This report holds no relevant stock positions
By Teri Buhl for BankImplode.com
In order to sort through the disaster that is Wells Fargo’s (quote: WFC) commercial loan portfolio, the bank has hired help from outside experts to pour over the books… and they are shocked with what they are seeing. Not only do the bank’s outstanding commercial loans collectively exceed the property values to which they are attached, but derivative trades leftover from its acquisition of Wachovia are creating another set of problems for the already beleaguered San Francisco-based megabank.
Wachovia, which Wells purchased last fall as it teetered on the brink of collapse, was so desperate to increase revenue in the last few years of its existence that it underwrote loans with extremely shoddy standards and paid traders to take them off their books.
According to sources currently working out these loans at Wells Fargo, when selling tranches of commercial mortgage-backed securities below the super senior tranche, Wachovia promised to pay the buyer’s risk premium by writing credit default swap contracts against these subordinate bonds. Dan Alpert of Westwood Capital says these were practices that he saw going on in the market at large.
Keep in mind, should the junior tranches eventually default, then the bank is on the hook.
Alpert says in reference to how he saw CMBS trades get done, “These guys would say ‘We’ll just take back that silly credit risk you’re worried about.’ Of course that was a nice increase to earnings when they got the security sold. The bank made money at the time.”
When asked if Wells Fargo was prepared to pay out those credit default swaps if these securities default, a spokeswoman told Bank-Impode.com,” In keeping with our strong risk discipline, we continually monitor all of our outstanding derivative positions. We have provided extensive transparent disclosures on our derivatives in our 2008 annual report beginning on page 132.” The real question is, however, was enough disclosed to investors about this practice when Wells purchased Wachovia?
One top hedge fund manager who has experience in outing accounting fraud told Bank-Implode “They needed to estimate that CDS liability upon the purchase of Wachovia. If they didn’t, they’ve committed fraud.”
Since there is no way to track the amount of contracts Wachovia wrote due to the lack of a central clearinghouse for credit default swaps, the next best option for analysts is to examine how the loans that backed the mortgage securities are performing. An in-depth review by Bank-Implode shows significant weakness regardless of Wells Fargo’s recent claim to the Wall Street Journal that the merger integration is on track.
According to the New York Post, Harry Markopolos, the most prominent whistleblower on Bernie Madoff, gave a speech this summer at the Greek Orthodox Church in Southampton predicting more major scandals will soon be revealed about the unregulated, $600 trillion, credit default swap market that Wachovia/Wells is playing in.
One senior member of Wells Fargo’s commercial loan group who deals directly with the quandary, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “One third of this commercial portfolio we took on from Wachovia is impaired and needs to be completely rewritten. I’ve just hired five more guys and we can’t keep up with the volume of defaults. Southeast Florida and Tampa are serious trouble spots.”
Wachovia’s third quarter 2008 filings, which reflect their assets three days before Wells Fargo agreed to the acquisition, shows the bank held a whopping $230 billion in its commercial loan portfolio. Current figures show Wells’ 90-day defaults on its commercial portfolio are rapidly growing. According to data from WLMlab.com which tracks financial numbers that Wells files with its regulators, the bank’s Construction and Development portfolio, with $38.2 billion in loans, is defaulting at a level eight times greater than the rest of the nation’s banks, as of June 30th. Alarming, right?
Wachovia commercial loan officers who spoke to BankImplode say that the bank specialized in underwriting short-term loans up to five years during the credit boom of 2005-2007. The standard terms for such loans included interest-only payments on a floating rate with a huge balloon payment in the final year of the loan. If these loans cannot be refinanced, more waves of defaults are inevitable.
According to Susan Smith, author of a recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers investor survey about the state of the CMBS market, more trouble is brewing. “It’s going to be very difficult for these loans to get refinancing when the market value is going down and fundamentals are deteriorating,” says Smith. According to data from her report, problems in the South Florida region, to which Wachovia had large exposure, are amplified by an increasing overall cap rate (OCR), up 80 basis points from last year, and declining rent prices. (The OCR is the perception of risk investors see. The overall cap rate goes up when the overall risk in the market is up.)
Given the warning signs on the horizon, it’s plausible that Wells Fargo would try to unload some of these troubled loans on the secondary market. But according to multiple private investment shops set up to invest in distressed debt, Wells isn’t selling them. If Wells were to sell the loans, not only would the bank have to book a loss, but would also have to pay out on those pesky credit default swaps.
Instead of selling the loans, sources inside Wells commercial group told BankImplode that they have been instructed to modify loans for customers in default by adjusting the interest rate, but not change the maturity date. Why? According to Meredith Whitney, founder and CEO of Meredith Whiney Advisory Group, Wells is working an accounting game of “extend and pretend.”
“If the bank doesn’t change a maturity date, then it does not have to take an impairment charge on its books, which would affect earnings,” says Whitney. If the loans don’t look like they are impaired, the rating agencies then do not have to downgrade the billions of CMBS that Wachovia sold to other banks and investors. Moody’s backed out of such a downgrade last month, after it previously warned downgrades were coming on $4.1 billion of Wachovia Bank commercial mortgage securities because it now expects principal and interest payments to continue.
Adds Whitney “We’ve seen Wells Fargo play modification games with its own loans. Why wouldn’t they do it with the loans they took on from Wachovia?” On Tuesday on CNBC, Whitney said again “I don’t know if those commercial modifications are going to work.”
In response to analyst expressing doubts that the near $40 billion structured into the purchase of Wachovia for losses in its total portfolio will be enough, CEO John Stumpf spoke out. Stumpf told investors at the Barclays conference this week, Wells Fargo has used $2.2 billion in credits for losses from Wachoiva’s commercial mortgages, or one-fifth of the $10.4 billion in total losses it expects from those loans.
Unfortunately for investors, banks hold CDS liabilities off balance sheet and do not recognize them as a loss until they actually have to pay it. Wachovia at least disclosed in its third quarter 2008 10-K (on note 15) that credit derivatives are a regular part of how they finance commercial activities, and add that such instruments ‘don’t meet the criteria for designation as an accounting hedge’.
Given that a specific number for CDS exposure is not yet tenable, it’s hard to say how many billions are at risk. Yet most market players who follow this bank said when those CMBS de-lever and the derivatives come due, it will be a problem for which Wells is absolutely not adequately capitalized.
To give Wells Fargo credit, it might not even know the size of the problem. BankImplode could not find an analyst who covers the stock to say Wells actually has enough loss reserves built in for it, but regardless the analysts are very concerned about the bank’s health based on the data that they do see. Both Whitney and Paul Miller of FBR Capital Markets both have gone on-air and written in notes to clients that Wells’ loan loss reserves are not enough to handle coming impairments to residential loans. Miller has a recommended stock price of $15 while WFC is currently trading around $29.
So could Wells really have enough capital to handle the liability of credit derivatives that will likely come due within the year? As we watch more and more of the junior tranches of commercial mortgage back securities Wachovia sold become worthless, how will Wells Fargo afford to pay for the risk premiums Wachovia promised they’d cover of if the loans blew up? From all indications, the bank cannot meet these obligations unless it raises more capital, sells good assets for a loss, or puts more of that TARP money to use instead of sending it back to taxpayers, as CEO John Stumpf has promised. So much for “earning our way out” of the financial crisis.
[Additional reporting by Chris Gillick]
Editors Note: This reporter holds no relevant stock positions. Teri Buhl is an investigative journalist who has written for Trader Monthly, New York Post, Housingwire, and Dealbreaker.Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop William E. Lori, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine, issued a joint statement “to correct the misrepresentations” of Church teachings advanced by Biden. Indeed, they argued that “the senator’s claim that the beginning of human life is a ‘personal and private’ matter of religious faith, one that cannot be ‘imposed’ on others, does not reflect the truth of the matter.”
Speaking explicitly of Biden, as well as those Catholic politicians who share his position, Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo, North Dakota, said, “they really should not be presenting themselves for Holy Communion because it is a scandal.”
Bishop Gregory Aymond of Austin released a statement by the bishops’ Administrative Committee, the highest authority of the USCCB outside the conference’s plenary sessions, affirming support for the position as outlined by Cardinal Rigali and Bishop Lori. “As teachers of the faith, we also point out the connectedness between the evil of abortion and political support for abortion.”
Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput said of Biden: “I certainly presume his good will and integrity and I presume that his integrity will lead him to refrain from presenting himself for Communion.”
Bishop Paul S. Coakley of Salina said, “Senator Biden confused the matter [of abortion] further by saying that he ‘knows when (life) begins for me,’ but that this is a ‘personal and private issue.’ That life begins at conception is a scientific fact, not a personal or subjective or philosophical or religious opinion.”
Denver Auxiliary Bishop James D. Conley joined with Archbishop Chaput in accusing Biden of “poor logic” and “bad facts.”
Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan accused Biden of taking it upon himself to “explain Catholic teaching on abortion to the nation — and blundered badly.”
Bishop W. Francis Malooly of Wilmington labeled Biden’s position “simply incorrect.” He said, “The Didache, probably the earliest Christian writing apart from the New Testament, explicitly condemns abortion without exception.”
When Bishop Joseph F. Martino of Scranton was asked what he would say to Biden, he restated his position that “No Catholic politician who supports the culture of death should approach Holy Communion.” He added, “I will be truly vigilant on this point.”
Bishop R. Walker Nickless of Sioux City slammed Biden for using a “false argument to justify [his] cooperation with evil.”
Boston Archbishop Sean Cardinal O’Malley complained that he finds it “disturbing when politicians and others try to dismiss us [the bishops] as people with merely an ecclesiastical or religious sectarian point of view or opinion.”
Bishop John Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee said Biden’s position indicated “a profound disconnection from [his] human and personal obligation to protect the weakest and most innocent among us: the child in the womb.”
Bishop Edward Slattery of Tulsa blasted Biden for his “erroneous beliefs” about the beginning of life and for creating |
in Germany’s legal sex industry. I was, like many girls in the club, underage; most of us were immigrants, nearly all of us had histories of trauma and abuse prior to our entry into commercial sex. Several of us had pimps despite working in a legal establishment; all of us used copious amounts of drugs and alcohol to get through each night.
Violence is inherent in the sex industry. Numerous studies show that between 70 percent and 90 percent of children and women who end up in commercial sex were sexually abused prior to entry. No other industry is dependent upon a regular supply of victims of trauma and abuse.
Legalization has spurred traffickers to recruit children and marginalized women to meet demand.
The presence of an adult sex industry increases both the rates of child sexual exploitation and trafficking. It may be true that some women in commercial sex exercised some level of informed choice, had other options to entering and have no histories of familial trauma, neglect or sexual abuse. But, these women are the minority and don’t represent the overwhelming majority of women, girls, boys and transgender youth, for whom the sex industry isn’t about choice but lack of choice.
The argument that legalizing prostitution makes it safer for women just hasn’t been borne out in countries implementing full legalization. In fact, legalization has spurred traffickers to recruit children and marginalized women to meet demand. Amsterdam, long touted as the model, recently started recognizing rates of trafficking into the country have increased and is beginning to address the enormous hub of trafficking and exploitation that it's created.
Criminalizing women and girls in commercial sex -- who are overwhelmingly victims of violence -- is not the solution, but neither is legalization. Focusing criminal justice resources on traffickers and buyers is a promising step, as is providing services, support and authentic options to women being bought and ensuring children and youth are treated as victims, a step taken by New York’s groundbreaking Safe Harbor Act in 2008.
To truly address trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation, it’s critical to address the systemic factors making girls and women so vulnerable -- poverty, gender inequity, racism, classism, child sexual abuse, lack of educational and employment opportunities for women and girls globally. Sanctioning an industry that preys upon some of the most marginalized and disenfranchised individuals in our society isn’t the answer.Two of the United States’ most banned titles are once again at issue in Virginia, where one school is considering pulling them from the curriculum after a parental complaint over racist language used in both books.
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" are no strangers to the American Library Association’s most banned books list, nor are they unfamiliar to the millions of American teenagers who read them each year as part of their schools’ curricula. The fight over whether these books remain valuable teaching tools decades, even a century, after publication is longstanding and complex. How should schools approach such material, if at all?
As questions of political correctness, historical whitewashing, and the merits of uncomfortable learning continue to trouble school administrators around the country, this incident serves as an example of how difficult it is for educators to reconcile the literary and historical value of novels such as "Huck Finn" with sensitivity towards those who have experienced prejudice.
"The question is not whether or not to teach this book, but how to teach this book, and it is an incredible opportunity to get students talking about our racial history and our racial present," says University of California, Santa Cruz literature professor Jody Greene. "As teachers, if we want a better racial future in this country, we have to guide the conversation better."
The Accomack County Public Schools in Virginia are currently in the process of reviewing the two books, and deciding whether it is worthwhile to keep them in classrooms and school libraries.
The debate began when the mother of a biracial high school student in the schools filed a complaint with the administration, saying that her son had struggled to read a page in "Huck Finn" that was filled with racial slurs.
"I keep hearing, 'This is a classic, This is a classic,'... I understand this is a literature classic. But at some point, I feel that children will not – or do not – truly get the classic part – the literature part, which I'm not disputing," she said at a Nov. 15 school board meeting. "This is great literature. But there (are so many) racial slurs in there and offensive wording that you can't get past that."
"So what are we teaching our children? We're validating that these words are acceptable, and they are not acceptable by any means," she added.
Does teaching these books, or other examples of difficult and uncomfortable racially charged literature, mean that teachers are condoning this language? Of course not, many literature experts say – in fact, for many teachers, avoiding such stories would amount to erasing the reality of racism. The real challenge, they say, is that the outcome of any lesson depends largely on the teachers involved.
"I think the key point to make here is that the burden of freedom of speech is not borne equally by all people. African-American students hear those words differently – the argument for banning the books is that the white kids don’t bear the burden of freedom of speech in the same way," Philip Nel, a professor of English at Kansas State University who specializes in children's literature, tells The Christian Science Monitor.
Dr. Nel says that while "Huck Finn," for example, is often touted as a great American classic, it is certainly not progressive insofar as it portrays African-American characters as racist stereotypes.
Nevertheless, the fact that these books make many students and teachers uncomfortable is not a reason not to teach them, Nel says. In fact, the very discomfort that they provoke can be incredibly helpful in the hands of a sensitive teacher who can guide students through the experience and create greater dialogue.
"The only way to teach these books properly is to be uncomfortable," Nel tells the Monitor. "That is why these books should not be banned."
"We need to provide resources and support for teachers to know how to curate difficult conversations," says Greene. "We cannot expect teachers and professors to do a good job of dealing with sensitive material unless we give them support on how to deal with these conversations."
The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom concurs. Director James LaRue tells the Monitor in a phone interview that the ALA supports not removing books from the curriculum, but rather adding more perspectives.
Teachers who are uncomfortable with the racial caricatures in "Huck Finn" or the use of slurs in "To Kill A Mockingbird" might add another book written from the perspective of an African-American person in the deep South, he says.
Book bans like the one proposed in Virginia are often met with opposition, for the sheer fact that banning books smacks of free speech restrictions that many Americans like to pride themselves on avoiding.
Other parents in the same Virginia school district have voiced concerns about slippery slopes, fearing even a well-intentioned ban could give way to wider censorship, local news site WAVY reports.
Amy Pattee, a professor of library science and children’s literature at Simmons College in Boston, says that avoiding conversations about controversial literature and cultural subjects can create disconcerting currents of censorship in society.
According to Dr. Pattee, recent studies by the School Library Journal show librarians increasingly engaging in self-censorship: choosing, without any directive from above, not to display books or materials that may be controversial. These choices, she says, are based on the fear of public recourse but are indicative of worrying concerns among librarians.
Instead of restricting literature from positions of authority, Pattee says, officials should trust teachers to evaluate and teach course materials in a constructive way, creating conversation rather than censorship.
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Whatever the path that institutions take to achieve these conversations, many experts agree that open dialogue is something worth fighting for.
As Dr. Greene told the Monitor, "I sympathize with the institutions who are under this kind of pressure. I don’t think that teaching racist books is a racist act – it's part of doing anti-racist work if teachers address it carefully. If we fear controversy so much that we refuse to have open, public conversations about race, we are sending ourselves into a far worse racial future than even our racial past."Step into the great Gothic cathedral of Chartres and you literally step on to a mystery. Set into the paving stones of the nave floor is an extraordinary black and white design contained within a circle. Unfortunately, it is often covered with chairs so you can only see parts of it and not get an impression of the whole but you will see diagrams of it everywhere.
This is the only undisturbed medieval labyrinth left in a cathedral nave in the world – although there is also an authentic labyrinth in the chapter house of Bayeux cathedral. There were other labyrinths in other churches but they were torn up in the 18th and 19th centuries. That of Reims, for example, now only exists as the logo on the “monument historique” (ancient monument) signs to be seen around France.
Medieval labyrinths, however, have been recreated in Amiens, St-Omer and St Quentin (all in northeast France), Guingamp in Brittany and Selestat in Alsace.
The exact form of these labyrinths varies but the principle is always the same. The word labyrinth is misleading. It is not to be understood in its modern sense as a synonym of a maze (a three dimensional puzzle with choices to make, a single right route from start to finish and dead ends to confound you) or a complicated cluster of streets or paths with no sense to their organisation.
You cannot get lost in an authentic labyrinth because it is flat and unicursal with only one path leading from the circumference to the centre. There are no junctions; no choices to make; and no walls or hedges to stop you cheating.
Clearly, a labyrinth was not placed in a great church such as Chartres for frivolous reasons, so what is it doing there? The short answer is we don’t know. Mystery surrounds the origin and purpose of medieval labyrinths. Much research and even more speculation has gone into deciphering these strange patterns and few definite conclusions can be drawn.
The labyrinth is not a Christian symbol per se. It has been found carved into rocks by prehistoric people thousands of years ago. For it to have been incorporated into a church it must have had a Christian purpose. We know that many pagan traditions were subsumed into Christianity in its early days and this may be an example of that process of assimilation.
One colourful hypothesis is that the labyrinth derives from superstition and serves as a trap for evil spirits. The labyrinths of Chartres and St-Quentin are placed near to the west door. Demons (and death) were thought to come into a church from the west and as they could only move in straight lines they would get caught in the devious twists of the labyrinth.
Another suggestion is that a labyrinth marks a “well” of earth energy, but this is taking speculation to an extreme.
The most popular theory about the labyrinths is that they provided a route of symbolic pilgrimage. The faithful would follow the path from the outside to the inside. This may explain why almost all labyrinths are in northern France (there is only one in the south, in Mirepoix in the Ariège), far from the pilgrimage routes towards Rome and Santiago de Compostela. The labyrinth may have served as a symbolic substitute…
Read the full article in The Good Life France Magazine – free to read online, download and subscribe.
By Nick Inman, author of Guide to Mystical France, a book which takes you beyond the coverage of conventional guidebooks, history, architecture, in search of the deeper truths. Delve deep under the psychic skin of France and discover the tales of the Templars, Cathars, mystics, Gurdjieff, King Arthur, Nostradamus and alchemists…Addressing the National Urban League Convention in New Orleans yesterday, President Obama once again displayed his fundamental misunderstanding of the Second Amendment:
I, like most Americans, believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual the right to bear arms. And we recognize the traditions of gun ownership that passed on from generation to generation—that hunting and shooting are part of a cherished national heritage.
That is similar to what Obama said as a presidential candidate in 2008, when he promised to "protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting." But as Ice-T could have told him, the main purpose of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms is not to facilitate hunting and target shooting; it is to facilitate self-defense, against both official oppression and private aggression. The rapper turned actor put it this way in a BBC interview noted yesterday by Damon Root:
The right to bear arms is because that's the last form of defense against tyranny. Not to hunt. It's to protect yourself from the police.
When a politician suggests the Second Amendment is all about hunting, he trivializes it, just as he would be trivializing the First Amendment by saying it's all about pornography. Here is another clue that voters should not put much faith in Obama's commitment to gun rights:
A lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals—that they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities.
An AK-47 is a selective-fire assault rifle, illegal for civilians. Presumably Obama is referring to semiautomatic rifles that resemble the AK-47, many of which were banned under federal law until 2004. Hence he is blurring the distinction between machine guns and semiautomatic "assault weapons" while perpetuating the false idea that such guns are uniquely suited for crime and have no legitimate uses. As Steve Chapman notes in his column today, with reference to the Smith & Wesson M&P15 rifle used in last week's Aurora theater shootings, that is plainly not the case, given the size of the market for these guns and the tiny percentage of owners who commit crimes with them. This demonization of military-style rifles, which deliberately plays on "the weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons" (as Josh Sugarmann of the Violence Policy Center admitted back in 1988), is an old trick of the anti-gun movement that the public may finally be seeing through. New York Times columnist Charles Blow notes (with dismay, of course) that a "2011 Gallup poll, in a reversal from previous polls, found that most people are now against an assault weapons ban." The fact that Obama is nevertheless sticking with this tactic, despite the long odds against reinstating the ban, is a gratuituous insult to people who care about gun rights.
So is Obama "the most anti-gun president in history," as the NRA warned he would be four years ago? Objectively, no. Political reality has deterred him from doing much of anything in this area, to the consternation of gun control activists. As Obama's lip service to gun rights and the tepidness of his policy proposals in the wake of the Aurora massacre show, he is keen to avoid anything that might alienate voters by seeming to confirm the NRA's portrayal. Given congressional resistance and the prospect of judicial review now that the Supreme Court has said the Second Amendment imposes limits on legislation, even a safely re-elected Obama is unlikely to take up the cause of gun control. But his current rhetoric and his past support for highly restrictive laws, including the D.C. and Chicago gun bans that were overturned by the Supreme Court, suggest the NRA has a pretty good handle on what Obama would do if Americans were not so adamant about clinging to their guns.AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas Legislature opened its special session Tuesday with Republicans vowing to pass a transgender "bathroom bill" and other conservative priorities in record time.
The House came into order at 10:02 a.m. in an orderly fashion, which was a departure from the last day of the regular session in May, when tensions over a new anti-"sanctuary cities" law provoked a near fight between lawmakers on the chamber floor.
The Senate suspended decades-old rules to let the session move fast.
Related: Texas House Speaker not worried about criticisms from people 'on the fringes'
Gov. Greg Abbott has an ambitious slate of bills that he wants passed for the 30-day extra session, which includes the "bathroom bill" and 19 other priorities.
Hundreds of protestors lined up outside the capitol. Rally about to start #KSATnews pic.twitter.com/2diz0T4VOd — Dillon Collier (@dilloncollier) July 18, 2017
The "bathroom bill" attracted protestors to the state Capitol, who put tapes over their mouths in silent protest.
"I'm very disturbed having watched the discrimination going on in the state. That my brothers and sisters who are in the trans community are having to face," said Mike Hendrix, of Keep Austin Proud.
Protest outside of TX Capitol in support of Planned Parenthood and the doing away of the bathroom bill #KSATnews pic.twitter.com/F3FsuLzcUC — Erica Hernandez (@erica_KSAT) July 18, 2017
Ron Avery, a Seguin resident, hopes Republicans gets the controversial bill passed.
"We ought to have two restrooms. Men, women. That's how God made us. Man and woman," Avery said.
Immigrant rights groups plan to increase protests of the Sanctuary Cities law that allows police to inquire peoples about their immigration status.
Democratic lawmakers plan to file bills in an effort to repeal the law, which goes into effect in September.
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Copyright 2017 by KSAT. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.I’m a bit of an introvert, but certainly not as much as one of my children. If he had his way, he’d be happy to read all day! This in some ways is beneficial because he is independent and I can actually have long, hot showers; in many ways, it is quite challenging: transitions can be hard, anxiety can be high, and indifference can reign. But the biggest problem is that sometimes I take for granted that his buckets are full because he is quiet, and I give much of my time to his extroverted brother who needs lots of attention.
This often leads to a build up of emotions that can explode without notice. Our introverts need loving support too. We can fill their buckets (their sense that they are seen/ heard/ important) in a way that is different from extroverted children.
In The Happy Kid Handbook, author Katie Hurley, LCSW, discusses this phenomenon: in her words, “Because they don’t necessarily get their feelings out, introverts sometimes experience big meltdowns or tantrums… Once you understand this about your child, you can help your child learn to express his or her feelings throughout the day.”
Here are some suggestions from Katie Hurley’s book to making sure our introverts feel our love for them:
Respect Their Need for “Down Time”
Spending time alone with their thoughts and ideas energizes introverted children—we need to give them this time. Hurley recommends giving our introverts at least forty-five minutes of downtime each day. I notice that my child needs a lot of time after school to wind down and can’t go straight to an activity or time with friends.
Understand Their Emotions
Introverts process their feelings internally, and they might not talk about their feelings with us. We need to remember that they still have these feelings, which can feel quite overwhelming. And we need to try to understand the root of the meltdowns. My guy becomes angry when his buckets are empty, and deep down, he’s often sad because who he is wasn’t respected.
According to Hurley, “As important as it is to teach introverts to express their feelings, it’s also important to normalize those big feelings. Given that introverted kids tend to keep their feelings hidden, they often fail to seek help from adults. They need to know that all feelings and emotions are okay and a part of growing up. Normalizing their experiences helps them feel a little less overwhelmed in what often feels like a very overwhelming world.”
Understand the Way They Think
It is quite easy for introverted children to get lost in thought. The problem is that the quiet thought processing might get misinterpreted as daydreaming or inattention. Hurley reminds us, “Bottom line: Introverted kids need time to think.”
We need to not demand quick answers from introverted children. Giving them extra time in scheduling, using transition signals, and giving time for answers in their time will certainly help when they’re lost in thought without disrespecting their need to process.
Give One-On-One Time
“Unlike their louder, very vocal sibling, introverted children don’t always cry out for one-on-one attention. But they need it just the same.”
Hurley is right! We can’t take for granted that our quiet child is getting enough of us. My child’s expression of this need is often through back talk and defiance. When I make sure to give him enough attention, this behaviour stops.
Find connection points in each day where you can put your other tasks aside to give your child your full attention. I usually start my connection time with, “I see yous…” like this: “Do I hear that you are working on a new song at choir? Is that a hard song to sing? I see you’ve been practicing it.” Depending on your child’s personality, you can chat, go for a walk or play a game of their choosing. Look into their eyes and let them feel how important they are to you.
Hurley reminds us that introverts often tend to have just a few interests, but they really thrive when they are able to showcase those interests. Do what you can to learn more about that interest.
Give Up Some Control
Power struggles are common with introverted children. The real world is often not like their slow-paced, introverted world, and they can easily feel out of control. We have to get to school, eat, do activities, and get ready to bed, and these things can often feel like they are in the way of an introvert’s full mind.
As much as we can, we need to give our introverted children control over their lives. They don’t need to be in charge of everything, but they do need to feel like they can make some choices—have some control. I let my child choose his clothes every day, pick the order of things that need to be done when it doesn’t matter, and decide whether or not he wants to participate in some activities or not.
But you should know, The Happy Kid Handbook isn’t just about introverts! Author Katie Hurley shares her therapeutic suggestions for helping all of our children live happier lives.10 Saturday snow facts
It's not for everyone, let's be clear to start with. The ground isn't cold enough in the south for proper lying snow. Most of the snow is brushing the coasts. Northern Scotland, especially Grampian will get the most. Could get over 10cm for the Scottish mountains It will feel like it should snow everywhere, it will be that cold. Snow is likely over the hills. It's starting on Friday in the north It will all be over by Sunday. If you wake up and look out of the window on Saturday, you will want to tell someone (real or on social media)
Are you actually going to get any snow?
Here's a map
And here's a handy Will It Snow? link, just put in your location and see how your snow chances look.
Nearer the time keep an eye on the Weather type radar or the Netweather Snow App to see just where the showers are going.Carlos Ramirez-Rosa lost his spot on the gubernatorial ticket of Daniel Biss for refusing to condemn global movements for Palestinian human rights.
Supporting efforts to suppress Palestinian rights advocacy will inevitably undermine resistance to Trump and bolster the rising white nationalist right that sustains him—so why do Democrats abide?
Earlier this month, Illinois State Senator Daniel Biss removed Chicago Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa as his running mate in the Illinois gubernatorial race due to Ramirez-Rosa’s refusal to oppose the 2005 Palestinian-led call to use boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) tactics to pressure Israel to respect Palestinian rights and to comply with international law. BDS campaigns, inspired by the South African anti-Apartheid struggle, are vigorously opposed by Israel’s fiercest defenders, who prefer to perpetuate a status quo that favors discrimination and apartheid over justice, freedom and equality.
Biss’ decision is the latest sign that, even among self-described progressive politicians, support for Palestinian rights remains taboo.
The movement for Palestinian rights sits at the intersection of some of the most troubling aspects of the Trump agenda. Trump coddles Israel’s far-right government while he doubles down on his campaign’s anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric. He rejects the rights of refugees and makes no secret of his disdain for dissent. Many Democrats have shown a willingness to support this harmful agenda, to avoid being perceived as sympathetic to Palestinian freedom.
Take, for example, bipartisan support for the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, currently being considered in Congress. The legislation is backed by the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
The bill, which is championed by Rep. Peter Roskam (R.-Ill.) and Senator Benjamin Cardin (D.-Md.), enjoys the support of 67 Democrats in the House of Representatives and 14 Democrats in the Senate. If enacted, it would prohibit—and in many cases criminalize—actions taken to comply with or support a boycott for Palestinian rights “fostered or imposed by” an international governmental organization. It has been widely condemned by activists and civil liberties lawyers as an unconstitutional infringement on First-Amendment rights, including the right to support and advocate for political boycotts.
If passed, a human rights advocate who distributes research on companies operating in illegal West Bank settlements could be slapped with a 20-year prison sentence and/or a $1 million fine if that individual’s intent was to support a human rights boycott initiated by an international governmental organization like the United Nations or European Union.
Trump’s open hostility toward Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims signals that, if enacted, his administration could use the Israel Anti-Boycott Act as a pretext to surveil, investigate and prosecute these communities.
Fear of being targeted for speaking out against Israel’s human rights violations is not irrational paranoia. It’s already happening.
In 2015, my organization, Palestine Legal, published a report, “The Palestine Exception to Free Speech,” which describes the tactics used to target and suppress Palestine advocacy in the United States. Published in partnership with the Center for Constitutional Rights, the report was based on our experience responding to and documenting such incidents. From 2014 to 2017, we responded to over 600 incidents of suppression of Palestine advocacy, and fielded nearly 200 legal questions in anticipation of such suppression.
In recent days, for example, we fielded questions from dozens of New Yorkers who received legal threats from an anonymous website incorrectly claiming that their advocacy for Palestinian rights violates New York law. The website blacklists these activists due to their perceived support for BDS campaigns, posting their pictures and listing their personal information online.
The website mirrors Canary Mission, an anonymous blacklist of more than 1,000 student activists across the country, which publishes online profiles in an attempt to smear their names solely because they support Palestinian rights. The website often tweets defamatory profiles to the students’ schools, employers and the FBI.
Blacklisting tactics, considered fringe since the McCarthy red-baiting era, are also being adopted by politicians of both major political parties. To date, 21 states, pressured by Israel advocacy organizations, have enacted laws aimed at undermining the movement for Palestinian rights in the U.S. by creating political blacklists of BDS supporters and punishing those who support BDS campaigns, in violation of the First Amendment.
Illinois, the first state to enact (and bungle) such a law, is now considering expanding it. When Palestinian rights and free speech activists successfully defeated a blacklisting bill in the New York State legislature last year, Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, signed an executive order creating a political blacklist of companies and institutions that support Palestinian rights.
These laws aim to send a clear signal that support for Palestinian rights is disfavored by our government and is potentially punishable. They create a severe chilling effect on people across the country who are otherwise inclined to support First-Amendment-protected boycotts for Palestinian rights, or who are curious to learn more.
Vocal right-wing Israel advocacy groups like the Amcha Initiative, Brandeis Center and the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) routinely pressure university administrators to investigate and punish students for organizing events and campaigns aimed at raising awareness for Palestinian rights.
For example, the ZOA has pressured the City University of New York (CUNY) to ban Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) from all twenty-three campuses. Last year, an independent, six-month-long investigation initiated by CUNY found ZOA’s claims against SJP either could not be substantiated or could not be attributed to the student group. The investigation affirmed that SJP’s activities were protected political speech. Nevertheless, the ZOA’s allegations convinced New York legislators to propose legislation to defund CUNY.
At Palestine Legal, we regularly receive reports from students who are censored and harassed, as well as individuals who receive rape and death threats due to their Palestinian rights advocacy.
When Fordham University’s student government approved students’ request to start an SJP club, the administration banned the group. The New York University chapter of SJP reported that they received anonymous threats on three separate occasions last academic year, including a message that read, in part, “At your next protest you will all die. We will murder you all. The blood will runs [sic] slowly on the streets of NYC.” At Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, an SJP activist received threating phone calls and was harassed anonymously online and in on-campus flyers.
Academics who speak out for Palestinian rights face public pressure campaigns aimed at ruining their reputations, chilling their speech and harming their careers. For example, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign fired Steven Salaita, a former professor of American Indian Studies, for tweets critical of Israeli policy.
Despite this blowback, grassroots support for Palestinian rights continues to grow in the United States, particularly among young people, progressives and people of color. In August, the Democratic Socialists of America overwhelmingly passed a resolution endorsing BDS campaigns.
But Democratic Party leaders continue to be out of touch with voters when it comes to Palestinian rights. Polls consistently show that nearly half of all Americans—and a majority of Democrats—would support sanctions against Israel due to its construction of settlements on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law and longstanding official U.S. policy.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton assured billionaire mega-donor Haim Saban that she would “make countering BDS a priority.” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and dozens of congressional Democrats support the Israel Anti-Boycott Act.
AIPAC and other Israel advocacy groups that pressure lawmakers to target Palestine advocates and crush popular boycott tactics in order to shield Israel from scrutiny are, in fact, aligned with Trump and the growing far-right on other anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant policy matters. In fact, the ZOA will welcome Stephen Bannon at its annual gala in November.
Supporting efforts to suppress Palestinian rights advocacy will inevitably undermine resistance to Trump and bolster the rising white nationalist right that sustains him—so why do Democrats abide?
Those of us who value justice and equality for all are searching for political leaders who will stand with us, and against Trump and AIPAC’s dangerous agenda. Ramirez-Rosa may have lost his spot on Biss’ fumbling gubernatorial ticket, but his refusal to denounce a movement for freedom, justice and equality will show him to be on the right side of history.The report covers forecast and analysis for the waste to energy market on a global and regional level. The study provides historic data of 2014 along with a forecast from 2015 to 2020 based revenue (USD Million). The study includes drivers and restraints for the waste to energy market along with the impact they have on the demand over the forecast period. Additionally, the report includes the study of opportunities available in the waste to energy market on a global level. In order to give the users of this report a comprehensive view on the waste to energy market. To understand the competitive landscape in the market, an analysis of Porter’s Five Forces model for the waste to energy market has also been included. The study encompasses a market attractiveness analysis, wherein technology segments are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate and general attractiveness. The study provides a decisive view on the waste to energy market by segmenting the market based on technology and regions. All the segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends and the market is estimated from 2014 to 2020. Based on technology the market is segmented into thermal and biological. The regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa with its further bifurcation into major countries including U.S. Germany, France, UK, China, Japan, India and Brazil. The report also includes detailed profiles of end players such as Foster Wheeler A.G., C&G Environmental Protection Holdings Ltd., Veolia Environment, Suez Environment S.A., KEPPEL SEGHERS, Babcock & Wilcox Co., Xcel Energy, Covanta Energy Corporation, Constructions industrielles de la Méditerranée (CNIM), China Everbright International Limited and Waste Management Inc. The detailed description of players includes parameters such as company overview, financial overview, business and recent developments of the company.
This report segments the global waste to energy market as follows:
Global Waste to Energy Market: Technology Segment Analysis Thermal
Biological Global Waste to Energy Market: Regional Segment Analysis North America U.S.
Europe UK France Germany
Asia Pacific China Japan India
Latin America Brazil
Middle East and Africa
Chapter 1. Introduction 1.1. Report description and scope
1.2. Research scope
1.3. Research methodology 1.3.1. Market research process 1.3.2. Market research methodology
Chapter 2. Executive Summary 2.1. Global waste to energy market, 2014 - 2020 (USD Million)
2.2. Global waste to energy market : Snapshot Chapter 3. Waste to Energy – Market Dynamics 3.1. Introduction
3.2. Market drivers 3.2.1. Global waste to energy market drivers: Impact analysis 3.2.2. Environmental regulation
3.3. Market restraints 3.3.1. Global waste to energy market restraints: Impact analysis 3.3.2. High cost
3.4. Opportunities 3.4.1. Research and development
3.5. Porter’s five forces analysis 3.5.1. Bargaining power of suppliers 3.5.2. Bargaining power of buyers 3.5.3. Threat from new entrants 3.5.4. Threat from new substitutes 3.5.5. Degree of competition
3.6. Market attractiveness analysis 3.6.1. Market attractiveness analysis, by technology segment 3.6.2. Market attractiveness analysis, by regional segment
Chapter 4. Global Waste to Energy Market – Competitive Landscape 4.1. Company market share, 2014
4.2. Price trend analysis Chapter 5. Global Waste to Energy Market – Technology Segment Analysis 5.1. Global waste to energy market: Technology overview 5.1.1. Global waste to energy market revenue share, by technology, 2014 and 2020
5.2. Thermal 5.2.1. Global thermal market, 2014 – 2020 (USD Million)
5.3. Biological 5.3.1. Global biological market, 2014 – 2020 (USD Million)
Chapter 6. Global Waste to Energy Market – Regional Segment Analysis 6.1. Global waste to energy market: Regional overview 6.1.1. Global waste to energy market revenue share, by region, 2014 and 2020
6.2. North America 6.2.1. North America waste to energy market revenue, by technology, 2014 – 2020 (USD Million) 6.2.2. U.S. 6.2.2.1. U.S. waste to energy market revenue, by technology, 2014 – 2020 (USD Million)
6.3. Europe 6.3.1. Europe waste to energy market revenue, by technology, 2014 – 2020 (USD Million) 6.3.2. UK 6.3.2.1. UK waste to energy market revenue, by technology, 2014 – 2020, (USD Million) 6.3.3. France 6.3.3.1. France waste to energy market revenue, by technology, 2014 – 2020, (USD Million) 6.3.4. Germany 6.3.4.1. Germany waste to energy market revenue, by technology, 2014 – 2020 (USD Million)
6.4. Asia Pacific 6.4.1. Asia Pacific waste to energy market revenue, by a technology, 2014 – 2020, (USD Million) 6.4.2. China 6.4.2.1. China waste to energy market revenue, by technology, 2014 – 2020 (USD Million) 6.4.3. Japan 6.4.3.1. Japan waste to energy market revenue, by technology, 2014 – 2020 (USD Million) 6.4.4. India 6.4.4.1. India waste to energy market revenue, by technology, 2014 – 2020 (USD Million)
6.5. Latin America 6.5.1. Latin America waste to energy market revenue, by technology, 2014 – 2020 (USD Million) 6.5.2. Brazil 6.5.2.1. Brazil waste to energy market revenue, by technology, 2014 – 2020 (USD Million)
6.6. Middle East and Africa 6.6.1. Middle East and Africa waste to energy market revenue, by technology, 2014 – 2020 (USD Million)
Chapter 7. Company Profile 7.1. Foster Wheeler A.G. 7.1. |
of the 1990s, I really had to look for new beers. Now they are coming from everywhere, it’s almost too many.”
(swissinfo.ch)
Fight for market share
But, when it comes to market share, there’s not always strength in numbers – Switzerland’s 16 largest breweries hold 97 per cent of the market, leaving small, craft brewers to fight for a sliver of the overall beer-drinking public’s attention.
Still, Corbat says that the remaining three per cent of the market is ripe right now, made up of people with a seemingly insatiable appetite for new, local brews, and “small Swiss breweries really have a lot of success” in their local areas as a result.
(swissinfo.ch)
However, he sees the brewery boom ending in the next five years or so, mostly because many brewers he knows must decide how to develop the enterprise and whether to take the risk of quitting their day jobs to brew full-time and increase their distribution.
“The question is, what is the part of the population can you win?” Corbat says. “In some US cities, it’s pretty high with a 40 per cent market share from craft breweries. I don’t think in Switzerland you can go that far - 20 per cent would be really good.”
Hill is optimistic – he sees the Swiss market share creeping up very slowly and urges patience among the country’s craft beer lovers.
“The increase is modest, but the whole environment is changing,” he says. “Even a small increase in the availability has created more interest. It didn’t happen overnight in other markets where it’s more developed…in Portland, it took 15 years to get to this point.”
Distribution issues
Getting their products into customers’ hands is another hurdle for building craft brew market share among Swiss brewers. According to Hill, a few of Switzerland’s supermarket chains have stocked his products and are becoming interested in offering more beer variety, and things are evolving bit by bit. However, most mainstream Swiss supermarkets still stock based on price and import a huge amount of cheap, lager-style beer from outside Switzerland.
As for restaurants, many of them are locked into contracts with big breweries like Heineken, Feldschlösschen or Carlsberg, which offer them perks in exchange for only serving their products - like a new tap system or bar improvements - that are hard to say no to. Those big breweries are even more eager to lock in restaurant contracts today, given that they’re seeing a lot of pressure on their market share from cheap import brands.
“Nobody has really asked for craft beer before, so the restaurants and grocery stores haven’t seen the market for it,” Hill says. “That makes sense; if no one is asking for it and they don’t think they can sell it, why bother?”
Cultural exchange
Craft beer enthusiasts in Switzerland often wish for the open-minded beer drinkers in so-called “blank slate” countries like the US or Denmark, where there was no established beer culture to dictate taste or tradition. Corbat says he is almost afraid to visit the US for a beer tour because, he says, “I might never come back”.
(swissinfo.ch)
However, the most successful American craft breweries, including New Glarus, are also looking back to the Old World for much of their inspiration: New Glarus’s brewmaster trained in Munich, and Oeschger says he was impressed by the amount of imported German equipment when he toured the brewery.
And, when Wisconsinites gather in the New Glarus brewery’s courtyard for this year’s Old World-style Oktoberfest celebration, they may be drinking more than just lager – but they’ll be surrounded by a borderline kitschy, amusement park-style replica of a monastery, complete with fake crumbling walls, paying homage to where Germany’s beer tradition originated centuries ago.
New Glarus Brewing Company Founded in 1993 in the Swiss settlement of New Glarus, Wisconsin, the brewery produces about 100,000 barrels – or approximately 90,000 hectolitres – of beer per year. It offers seven year-round beers, eight seasonal and six specialty brews, four of which are made in small batches as a sort of brewer’s experiment. All are distributed only within the US state of Wisconsin. end of infobox
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SWI swissinfo.ch on Instagram SWI swissinfo.ch on InstagramWhen Donald Trump started his campaign, he bragged that he was going to self-fund his campaign. He's not self-funding his campaign. He's not even coming close. And, worst yet, he's not playing nice with his fellow Republicans.
According to the latest filings from the Federal Election Commission, Donald Trump's campaign fund directly transferred to the Republican National Committee a measly $2.2 million in October, according to the latest report from the Federal Election Committee filed on Thursday.
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That stands in stark contrast to a more generous contribution for September. Last month Trump Victory, as the candidate's joint fundraising group with the RNC is called, forked over almost $50 million combined to the RNC and various state-level GOP campaigns, according to Politico.
As Politico noted, "The Trump campaign is unusually reliant on the RNC and state parties for its ground operations," which may explain Trump's underwhelming poll numbers in traditionally deep-red states like Georgia.
The decrease from September and October in the Trump campaign's contribution for down-ballot spending shows a chasm between the party and its nominee following the release of audio tapes from 2005 featuring Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women.
Trump's national finance chairman, Steven Mnuchin, told The Washington Post this week that the campaign would cease its "high-dollar" fundraising efforts.
Meanwhile, the campaign of the Republican presidential nominee has spent more than it brought in this month. According to its own filings, the campaign raised $30.5 million and spent $49.2 million, as of Oct. 19.
A sum of $30,000 of Trump's own money is somewhere among the net negative haul-in, the report shows, bringing his self-financing total to $56.1 million, according to The Hill. The billionaire real estate mogul had earlier in this election cycle promised to donate $100 million to his campaign, leaving him just 11 days to cough up more than $40 million.
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A small part of the Trump's larger financial woes can be attributed to his surrogates' reluctance to donate at all to the campaign. Last week The Huffington Post found "that among a dozen top staff members of his campaign who cumulatively have made over $2 million from it, only one has donated: spokeswoman Katrina Pierson, who gave $250 on June 30."
Among Trump's skinflint surrogates: the Trump kids. Only Eric has thus far given money to the campaign, according to The Daily Beast. That money — a $376.20 "meal expense" — was then reimbursed.
Trump's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, maintains a solid fundraising lead in large part due to her embrace of super PACs and special interests, which he has widely denounced. For all of Trump's talk about self-funding, however, Clinton gave more money to her own campaign in October than Trump gave to his.Story highlights North Korea makes'sea of fire' threat after South Korea holds exercises
The South stages one-year anniversary exercises near Yeonpyeong Island
A year ago, the North shelled the island, killing two marines and two civilians
One day after South Korea staged exercises near Yeonpyeong Island marking the anniversary of North Korea's deadly shelling, the North's military threatened "a sea of fire" upon the South's presidential office, the South's Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday.
A year ago Wednesday, North Korea launched an attack on the civilian island of Yeonpyeong, killing two marines and two civilians and shattering the sense of security that South Koreans had enjoyed for almost 60 years.
The island shelling came half a year after North Korea torpedoed a naval ship, the Cheonan, killing 46 sailors.
North Korea's military supreme command denounced the South's anniversary exercise as a rehearsal for war against the North and warned that the North's armed forces are ready for "a decisive battle to counter any military provocation," Yonhap reported.
If South Korea dares "to impair the dignity of (the North) again and fire one bullet or shell toward its inviolable territorial waters, sky and land, the deluge of fire on Yonphyong Island will lead to that in Chongwadae and the sea of fire in Chongwadae to the deluge of fire sweeping away the stronghold of the group of traitors," the command said in an official (North) Korean Central News Agency account, according to Yonhap.
JUST WATCHED Future of North Korea nuclear weapons Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Future of North Korea nuclear weapons 03:06
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The North Korean statement used a different spelling for both the shelled South Korean island and Cheong Wa Dae, Korea's presidential offices, Yonhap reported.
South Korea's defense ministry had no immediate comment, Yonhap reported.
North Korea invoked identical rhetoric in 1994, when Pyongyang had expelled international nuclear inspectors and threatened to turn Seoul into a "sea of fire."
With the United States mulling air strikes on North Korean facilities in 1994, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter flew into Pyongyang to meet Kim Il Sung, and that set the scene for the so-called "Agreed Framework" under which North Korea would give up its nuclear facilities in return for light water reactors from the international community.When Federal Communications Commission member Michael O’Rielly argued last month that "Internet access is not a necessity or human right," fellow commissioner Mignon Clyburn took notice.
In a speech at a policy conference yesterday (see transcript), she listed numerous reasons why Internet access really is necessary in the modern age:
Not a necessity... during a time when the majority of Fortune 500 companies post new job listings strictly on websites? And where if you are fortunate enough to secure a position, your new boss expects you to have an e-mail address? Not a necessity... where, in a growing number of states, those who are income-eligible can only apply for benefits or aid online? Not a necessity... when most colleges and universities post and accept student admissions electronically? Not a necessity... as the evidence grows daily, on how technology is bridging long-standing gaps when it comes to the delivery, quality of service, and cost efficiencies for access to health care and wellness? And when you make that face-to-face appointment or conduct business in person, when was the last time you bought or referred to a folded map when you traveled to that destination?
This could be seen as just a debate over semantics. O'Rielly doesn't argue that Internet access is unimportant, rather he says the word "'necessity' should be reserved to those items that humans cannot live without, such as food, shelter, and water."
Clyburn pointed out that the FCC is required to make sure everyone in the US has affordable broadband access. "Not only is the Internet a necessity today, but Congress actually directed the FCC to ensure that everyone, regardless of income, has access to advanced communications services," she said. "Congress also directed that such access should be affordable... we are mandated to close the digital divide."
O'Rielly is a Republican and Clyburn is a Democrat. In her speech, Clyburn supported a plan to let Lifeline phone subsidies be used for broadband instead. The FCC took a preliminary vote in favor of the plan, with Democrats supporting it and Republicans opposing.
"Let me warn you, any proposed transition will not come easy, for there are those who publicly proclaim that Internet access is “not a necessity,” Clyburn said.
"Those who cannot afford broadband can just go to the library, some often say," she continued. "Now, I am proud of the work the FCC has done through our E-rate program to help ensure that our schools and libraries have robust broadband and Wi-Fi. But we should not be satisfied if the library is the sole means by which an entire community can get broadband, particularly when there are no options for connectivity once the library closes for the day."The U.S. House is expected to vote on an appropriations bill this weekend that would block the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) from enforcing laws that protect public health by limiting mercury, ozone soot and global warming pollution.
Below is a statement by Rachel Cleetus, Union of Concerned Scientists senior economist.
“Under the guise of cutting government spending, some lawmakers are making fiscally irresponsible and short-sighted decisions. The fact is EPA regulations have a long history of protecting public health. For example, the Clean Air Act has a 40-year track record of cutting dangerous pollution, and in 2010 alone helped prevent an estimated 160,000 premature deaths and 1.7 million asthma attacks.
“In addition, the Clean Air Act has yielded financial benefits from the avoided health costs. On August 2, the net benefits of the Clean Air Act are projected to reach a staggering $50 trillion.”
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Below is a statement by Liz Perera, a Union of Concerned Scientists public health expert.
“Amendments tacked onto this spending bill would essentially give power plants and other emitters free reign to release harmful pollutants into the air without heed to public health. Mercury is known to cause severe damage to fetal and infant brain development, ultimately affecting a child’s ability to walk, talk and learn. Ozone pollution, a major problem during hot summers, can worsen asthma and other breathing problems.
“These air quality laws were put in place by Congress for a reason. But certain members want to take us back to early 19th century England when industrial emissions were so thick they coated buildings, not to mention people’s lungs.
“This isn’t the first time the House has voted on a proposal to block the EPA from regulating global warming pollution and it won’t be the last. These votes are about politics, not science.”Henry Lee
Did you miss out on this year's keen Orionid meteor shower or the super perigee moon? Don't fret, as a mega meteor shower this Thursday evening could appease those craving an extraterrestrial event.
Set your alarm for 11 p.m. ET on Thursday, as that's when the Geminid meteor shower peaks. It could deliver dozens (or even hundreds) of visible meteors per hour until about 3 a.m. on December 14. Keep your eyes (and scopes) toward the constellation Gemini for the best view of the shiny shower.
What causes the Geminids? The consensus among astronomers indicates that the light show originates from the remnants of an extinct comet known as 3200 Phaethon. The unusual object 3.2 miles in diameter once contained ice and the usual components of a comet, but gradually shed many of those features due to its extremely close orbit with the sun (it gets even closer than Mercury). However, some astronomers remain on the fence about the specific details of the Geminid shower's origin.
Regardless of the origin, every year around mid-December the Earth passes through the aforementioned debris, giving us the opportunity to witness a rare event.NARTH’s Disconcerting Pattern of Twisting Legitimate Research Should Be Considered In California SB1172 Court Cases, Says TWO
In what has become a disturbing pattern, a top researcher has accused Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, the co-founder of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), of grossly distorting his work to advance NARTH’s discredited view that gay and lesbians people are mentally ill.
Dr. Allan Schore, a leading psychotherapist and neuropsychologist, is the latest NARTH victim to have his research deliberately misused and politicized. This is particularly alarming because NARTH is the primary organization trying to use the courts in California to strike down a new law prohibiting reparative therapy for minors.
NARTH is not a scientific organization, but a disreputable public relations campaign that twists legitimate research in an effort stigmatize the LGBT community. NARTH members, including Joseph Nicolosi, are ethically challenged and should not be taken seriously by the courts or society.
According to Dominic Davies, of the London-based organization Pink Therapy, in the acknowledgments section of Nicolosi’s book, “Shame and Attachment Loss,” the author expresses a “deep gratitude for the assistance of Alan Schore, P.h.d,” implying a close a personal relationship between the two men (despite spelling Dr Schore’s name incorrectly).
“Throughout the text,” said Davies, “Nicolosi claims homosexuality as an Attachment Disorder and distorts and misattributes Schore’s work in Attachment Theory in support of his spurious argument.” Davies contacted Schore to clarify his relationship with Nicolosi. In their correspondence, the scientist made clear that he was “deeply disturbed” that he was misquoted by Nicolosi and said that “there is absolutely no neuropsychological research evidence that homosexuality is a disorder.” He further stated that Nicolosi is “grafting my shame and attachment models on to gender identity disorders, something I have never even written about.”
Despite pretending to be a scientific organization, NARTH does not conduct original research. In the absence of producing data, this disgraceful group quotes obsolete studies and cherry picks the research of real scientists like Schore.
This is not the first time NARTH has been accused of manipulating data to mislead the public. University of Utah researcher, Lisa Diamond, was interviewed by Truth Wins Out and claimed in a Youtube video that Nicolosi deliberately distorted her studies on sexual orientation. According to Diamond’s video statement:
Dr. Nicolosi, you know exactly what you are doing. This is a willful misuse and distortion of my research. Not an academic disagreement. Not a slight shading of the truth. It’s willful distortion. And, it’s illegitimate and it’s irresponsible and you know that. And you should stop.”
Dr. Schore is on the clinical faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, and at the UCLA Center for Culture, Brain, and Development. He is author of four seminal volumes, Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self, Affect Dysregulation and Disorders of the Self, Affect Regulation and the Repair of the Self, and The Science of the Art of Psychotherapy, as well as numerous articles and chapters.
Pink Therapy is the UK’s largest independent therapy organization working with gender and sexual diversity clients.Get the biggest daily 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
Greater Manchester leaders are committed to building a new ‘local’ prison and are now drawing up a shortlist of sites, according to the region’s interim mayor.
The government has asked town hall chiefs to identify suitable places for a new ‘resettlement prison’, a kind of open facility for low-risk offenders from the local area designed to rehabilitate them back into the community.
George Osborne announced plans for a series of such prisons several months ago and since then local authorities across the country have been asked by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to scope out locations.
Now, as Greater Manchester signs a deal to devolve criminal justice - so it can better line up the court, probation, police and prison system in a bid to cut offending - both the government and interim mayor Tony Lloyd say there will be a new prison built somewhere in the area.
Asked whether the region’s combined authority was ‘committed’ to the idea, Mr Lloyd said yes.
“We have got to identify what are good sites,” he said. “To me it’s a no-brainer because we know local prisons are better. If they maintain proper contact with partners and family, it’s more likely people come out of prison ready to go straight.
“We will work quickly to identify what’s the right site.”
There have been no indications so far of where the prison might go, but combined authority insiders said it could be on existing prison estate, privately owned land or a council-owned site - but since the latter are being prioritised by council leaders for housing, that is less likely.
Justice minister Andrew Selous said: “At the moment the ball is in the court of the Greater Manchester combined authority for the region to come up with some possible sites to present to the MoJ so we can have a look at them.
“We are looking at new prison capacity on a ‘new for old’ basis. We do want to close inefficient prison accommodation as part of providing these 10,000 new prison places in better conditions.”
However combined authority sources said a prison closure in the region was unlikely - as most facilities are relatively modern, while Strangeways is for category A prisoners rather than low-risk offenders and has recently had an expensive refurbishment.
Where should the new prison be based? Have your say in the comments belowRound Four NAB Rising Star nominee Caleb Daniel is set to return Saturday night against Adelaide, with club medical staff pleased with his recovery from a calf injury.
Speaking to BulldogsTV on Monday afternoon, Bulldogs General Manager, Football Graham Lowe said the savvy midfielder will have an unrestricted program this week.
“Caleb’s progressed well back into full training, he’s certainly done the right things to make himself available for selection this week.”
Someone that will also be monitored this week will be midfielder Lachie Hunter, after he exhibited signs of delayed concussion following Friday night’s clash with North Melbourne.
Hunter was the subject of a high tackle from North Melbourne’s Lindsay Thomas late in the final term of Friday’s match, and will face the appropriate protocol of concussion testing through the week to be declared available to face the Crows.
The Kanagraoos’ Thomas has subsequently been cited by the Match Review Panel for the incident, and will face a one game suspension with an early plea.
Lowe said that all recent signs had been positive for Hunter following Friday night’s match.
“Lachie showed some signs of delayed concussion post-game,” Lowe said.
"He was cleared to go home, but in consultation with the Club doctors he went into hospital for further observation which he came through well, he was released a couple of hours later.
“He presented to the Club well the next day (Saturday) and also today, and we’ll put him through the appropriate battery of tests to confirm that he is fit and available to be selected this week.”
Another player expected to be available for selection is Tom Liberatore, despite the midfielder suffering a corked thigh during Friday night’s match.
“Tom got a corky to his thigh, and quite a significant impact, but he coped well and worked through the game,” Lowe said.
“He’s come in well today and we’ll assess him as we go through the week to confirm his availability for the game this weekend.”
Tom Boyd’s return to football is one step closer after Lowe said the 20-year old was recovering well from his shoulder injury.
“We’re pleased to report that he’s made some really positive progress in terms of strengthening around his shoulder, he’s maintained his general fitness which is great.
“He’s probably about a week away but we’ll continue to monitor his progress.”Media distribution service Crunchyroll announced on Friday that it will stream the Yowamushi Pedal Grande Road sequel anime. The first episode will premiere on Monday, October 6 at 1:30 a.m. EDT for premium members and one week later for free members. The stream will be available in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, South Africa, and Central and South America.
The following cast and staff are working on the second season:
Daiki Yamashita as Sakamichi Onoda
Kousuke Toriumi as Shunsuke Imaizumi
Jun Fukushima as Shōkichi Naruko
Hiroki Yasumoto as Shingo Kinjō
Showtaro Morikubo as Yūsuke Makishima
Kentarou Itou as Jin Tadokoro
Daisuke Kishio as Junta Teshima
Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Hajime Aoyagi
Junichi Suwabe as Toji Kanzaki
Ayaka Suwa as Miki Kanzaki
Megumi Han as Aya Tachibana
Tomoaki Maeno as Juichi Fukutomi
Tsubasa Yonaga as Sangaku Manami
Tetsuya Kakihara as Jinpachi Tōdō
Satoshi Hino as Hayato Shinkai
Hiroyuki Yoshino as Yasutomo Arakita
Atsushi Abe as Tōichirō Izumida
Koji Yusa as Akira Midōsuji
Hirofumi Nojima as Kōtarō Ishigaki
Yukari Tamura as Kotori Himeno
Tomokazu Seki as Eikichi Machimiya
Original creator: Wataru Watanabe
Director: Osamu Nabeshima
Series Composition: Reiko Yoshida
Character Design: Takahiko Yoshida
Animation Production: TMS Entertainment
Wataru Watanabe's Yowamushi Pedal (Yowapeda) manga follows Sakamichi Onoda, an otaku at Sōhoku High School. He loves anime and games so much, that he would ride his commuter bicycle to and from Tokyo's Akihabara shopping district in a 90-kilometer (about 60-mile) round trip over steep slopes after school. Onoda's life changes when he encounters his school's cycling team, and he ends up joining the competitive sport of bicycle racing.DAMASCUS, SYRIA (11:15 P.M.) – On Friday morning, ISIS deployed a handful of armored technicals in an attack on a government-held road in the western part of Saladin province.
Pictures of the hit-and-run operation were released by Amaq Agency today and showed jihadist belligerents engaging a Humvee and pickup truck along the targeted road, located between Baghdad and Mosul.
While the assault did not yield any territorial gains, Islamic State insurgents did manage to torch an Iraqi Army encampment at the town of Al-Dabs:
Despite Islamic State aggression, the supply routes between Iraq’s two largest cities are still open and relatively safe for travelers.
Since losing control of Mosul and Tal Afar earlier this, ISIS has been unable to mount a single actual offensive in the country due to the Iraqi Army’s overwhelming manpower.
However, hit-and-run operations remain a daily occurence across desert territory in the embattled provinces of Saladin, Nineveh, Anbar and Kirkuk.
AdvertisementsImage copyright Thinkstock Image caption The traditional funeral business is gradually adopting new technologies
Death is big business.
With more than half a million people in the UK dying each year, the funeral industry makes about £2bn in annual revenues, according to market research company Ibis World.
Nearly 1,500 businesses employ 20,105 people, and industry revenue is expected to grow by 4.7% by the end of 2014, as increased competition for burial space is slowly pushing up the price of cremations.
With such a large and lucrative market, it's no surprise that tech firms have been eyeing up the death care and funeral industry.
Video wills
Your Last Will, for example, is an iPhone app that lets anyone create a last message for loved ones in the form of a "video will", to be viewed after death.
You create and upload a private video will and are then issued your own QR code - a kind of smartphone readable bar code - which you give to a trusted confidant who is likely to outlive you.
After your death, your confidant signs in to the app using the specified QR code and receives an email containing a link to your last message video. This link is automatically sent to your chosen list of recipients.
Image copyright Your Last Will Image caption Some people are leaving final messages to loved ones and the general public via iPhone apps
The company acknowledges that "in most countries video wills cannot replace written wills", but for an additional fee, Your Last Will does provide the opportunity to have your video submitted for legal review in what it describes as "an easy process".
"Death is obviously an unpleasant but unavoidable part of life and it's much easier to leave a last message or last will via video than in the traditional way, which involves a lawyer and witnesses," Wolfgang Gabler, chief executive and founder of Your Last Will, told the BBC.
He believes technology will continue to influence death care in the UK and across the world.
"There will be many new businesses around this theme in the near future. I already met with other start-ups that are working on other issues of life and death," he says.
"Our goal is to make it really easy and comfortable for people dealing with this important subject."
'Multi-planetary species'
Some firms are more creative with their ideas. Celestis, for example, is a US-based company that uses rocket technology to blast human remains into space.
There is an increasing number of apps being used by funeral directors National Association of Funeral Directors
The first "memorial spaceflight" took Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and psychedelic drug advocate Timothy Leary to the stars in 1997.
Since then, the company has added a variety of options. A simple Earth orbit service will cost $4,995 (£2,930), but something more fancy, such as a lunar orbit, will cost $12,500.
And in 2016 the Voyager service will truly go where no-one has gone before.
Using solar sail technology - which uses radiation pressure from the sun as a means of propulsion - to power the flight, the idea is that the craft will travel on indefinitely into deep space.
Appropriately enough, the remains of Gene Roddenberry and his wife Majel, and James Doohan who played Scotty in the series, are part of the crew on this continuing mission.
Once the remains have been launched into the stratosphere loved ones can track the deceased in real time with live satellite feeds on the Celestis website.
Biographies may also be uploaded and DVDs of the launch are available as part of the package deal.
Image copyright celestis Image caption Small canisters of loved ones' ashes are fitted inside the body of the rocket....
Image copyright celestis Image caption...before being blasted into space watched by friends and relatives
"We don't think of our services as an expensive novelty, with prices beginning at $1,000 and the average cost of a funeral in the US reaching $8,000," Celestis founder Charles Chafer told the BBC.
"But rather, we offer a compelling tribute for someone who has longed to travel in space as their final wish.
"We do believe that as humanity becomes a multi-planetary species we will take all of our rituals and memorials with us, including our funeral and memorial services, not as a solution to reduced available space on Earth but as part of a natural evolution."
Bitcoin funeral
Technology is also being used in less bombastic ways, with some individuals paying for funerals with bitcoins, the digital crypto-currency.
One user of popular news aggregator Reddit described last year how he paid for his grandmother's funeral with the currency.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Some undertakers have accepted bitcoins as payment for funerals
Kadhim Shubber, who writes for Bitcoin news site CoinDesk, is not surprised a funeral has been paid for with bitcoins, particularly as the currency is already being used in healthcare in various parts of the world, including London.
"On the whole we find that committed bitcoiners are keen to pay in bitcoin wherever they're able. Already there are doctors in California and elsewhere who accept bitcoin payments for privacy reasons and a private practice in London does too," he says.
Apps v tradition
The traditionally conservative funeral business is certainly becoming more technology aware, the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) believes.
"There is an increasing number of apps being used by funeral directors, and the NAFD has an arrangement with a company providing apps to our members," a spokesman said.
"The vast majority of members have websites, so there is a growing number of ways funeral directors can reach and inform the public."
For example, the NAFD's free online obituary service, Forever Online, enables relatives and friends to inform everyone of a bereavement via the internet, complementing the usual newspaper announcements.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Funeral directors are having to move with the times
While "smart funeral software" from the likes of Cemneo is on the increase, the NAFD, which represents 80% of all funeral homes in the UK, says it has yet to see the swathes of new funeral and death-care-focused start-ups that Your Last Will's Mr Gabler believes are on the horizon.
"Bereaved families are becoming more involved with funerals - how they should be conducted and the content of the ceremony - and there is a lot more personalisation of funerals than there has been previously.
"So the vast majority of funerals are still arranged face-to-face between the bereaved families and the funeral director," the spokesman said.
It seems that for the time being, funerals will remain relatively traditional.
But it may not be long before many of us are booking funerals on our smartphones, watching pre-recorded "wills" on our tablets, and blasting loved ones into space, quietly monitoring their ashes orbiting the earth on our smart TVs, instead of visiting a dreary graveyard.Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter is appointing the Recording Industry Association of America's top litigator to the Colorado Court of Appeals.
Richard Gabriel, who prosecuted the Jammie Thomas case, is a partner in the Colorado office of Holme Roberts & Owens. Gabriel, who assumes the $124,000 annual post July 1, was a convincing litigator in the Thomas case, the nation's first RIAA lawsuit against an individual for file-sharing that went to trial.
The Minnesota jury took five minutes to conclude Thomas was liable and a few more hours to ding her $222,000.
Thomas' attorney, Brian Toder, said he recently got a call from Colorado officials who were vetting Gabriel for the appellate post, which is one court above the state trial courts and one below the Colorado Supreme Court. "I gave him a very favorable rating. I think he's a standup guy and a good lawyer. And I think he would be a good judge," Toder said.
The Pirate Party of the United States took a different position. "Being the lead counsel in a multi-year campaign of extortion, pretexting, and sham litigation should not be rewarded with a seat in any court, except perhaps as a defendant," said the party's chairman, Andrew Norton.
UPDATE
In a telephone interview, the 46-year-old Gabriel said "I saw an opportunity to serve and thought I would throw my hat in the ring and see what would happen."
Gabriel added that "I love the practice of law. There are parts of it that I will very much miss. I'm looking forward to the next challenges and next phase in my life. I very much enjoyed being in a courtroom representing my clients to the best of my ability."
There was no immediate word on who would replace Gabriel as the RIAA's top litigator. The RIAA has sued more than 20,000 individuals for allegedly file sharing copyrighted music.
Hat tip: p2pnet
See Also:Google patents a new technology that might bring a real life 'Ted' to your house. The patent is aimed at building a stuffed toy that will be able to interact with the user using various sensors. Now this might sound a little creepy but the company touts that this technology will be great with children.
The images in the patent show a rabbit and bear soft toy that are marked with various pointers where the sensors and hardware will be placed. The soft toy will come with cameras in the eyes of the soft toy and a motorised neck that will be able to make eye contact with anyone in proximity. The ears will carry microphones and the mouth will carry speakers, creating an eerie effect of a live soft toy.
The soft toy will also be able to communicate with other devices in the house using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. The patent papers claim that this device can act like an 'intelligent remote contro. The toy will also feature a voice recognition module to react accordingly. According to the published papers, "The anthropomorphic device may be a doll or a toy that resembles a human, an animal, a mythical creature or an inanimate object."One local organization held an impeach trump rally in Davenport today.
Kyle Chapman is held back by his fellow Trump supporters from confronting Trump protester Nevin Kamath, far left, at the impeachment march at the Capitol in Austin, Texas, on July 2. (Jay Janner / Austin American-Statesman via AP)
The group marched from Lafayette Park across the Centennial Bridge to Schweibert Park in Rock Island.
Organizers say their main goal is to call upon Representative Cheri Bustos and Dave Loebsack from both Illinois and Iowa to enact articles calling for impeachment.
"It feels really good to have the Quad Cities representing and letting people know that we're watching, that his conflicts of interest and his obstruction of justice are not acceptable to us," said Dan Morris with Rock Island County Indivisible. "It's interesting that this is going on during the Fourth of July weekend and I hope as we reflect on how great this country is we can also reflect on how important it is to put country over party."
Protests and counter-protests also played out nationwide on Sunday. Demonstrators rallied outside the Texas state capitol in Austin, calling for the congressional ouster of our 45th president.
A pro-trump crowd joined in with a Confederate flag and voices loud enough to match those heading the impeachment rally.
A vocal but smaller crowd banded together at Atlanta's Piedmont Park, demanding impeachment in the peach state. Protesters there are calling the possibility of collusion with Russia the reason the president should leave office.
And New Yorkers convened at Columbus Circle, going round and round with Trump supporters at one point, with different views on how exactly to make America great again.
"I feel Donald Trump is demeaning the office of the presidency and putting me and my 5 children in danger. And the only think I have is to put my body on the line," said protester Henry Kaplan.While Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) juggles frazzled concerns over 3D sensing model malfunctions with overheating and an uphill quest to find the under-glass solution for the OLED model with the iPhone 8’s fingerprint sensor, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is edging right along, ready to stake a substantial claim in the future of virtual reality and augmented reality. Rosenblatt continues to be cautious on the tech giant, believing 3D sensing will be an easy fix, but the fingerprint sensor solution is a point for major apprehension. Conversely, Gene Munster tackles Microsoft from an excited stance, encouraging the Street to take a closer look at the dark horse in the VR/AR competition. Let’s dive in:
Apple Stares Down Trouble in 3D Sensing Paradise |
after an eight-month investigation into heroin distribution, Colchester police said.Tap here to view mug shots of people arrested in 2014 for alleged heroin-related activity.Adam Brown, 37, and Aliquan Umstead, 27, of Burlington were charged with possession of heroin with the intent to distribute and conspiracy to distribute heroin, police said. Jahlil Marsh, 21, and Marquese Jones, 23, both of Newark, New Jersey, were charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin, police said.Officers from Colchester, Burlington, the Northern Vermont Drug Task Force and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration executed a search warrant at 9:20 a.m. on Harrison Avenue in Burlington, police said.Officers seized 1,100 bags, an additional amount of bulk heroin valued at more than $30,000, and two handguns, police said.More arrests are expected, police said.
Four people were arrested Tuesday after an eight-month investigation into heroin distribution, Colchester police said.
Tap here to view mug shots of people arrested in 2014 for alleged heroin-related activity.
Advertisement Related Content MUG SHOTS: Suspected heroin dealers, users arrested in 2014
Adam Brown, 37, and Aliquan Umstead, 27, of Burlington were charged with possession of heroin with the intent to distribute and conspiracy to distribute heroin, police said. Jahlil Marsh, 21, and Marquese Jones, 23, both of Newark, New Jersey, were charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin, police said.
Officers from Colchester, Burlington, the Northern Vermont Drug Task Force and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration executed a search warrant at 9:20 a.m. on Harrison Avenue in Burlington, police said.
Officers seized 1,100 bags, an additional amount of bulk heroin valued at more than $30,000, and two handguns, police said.
More arrests are expected, police said.
AlertMeVolatiles and especially halogens (F and Cl) have been recognized as important species in the genesis and melting of planetary magmas. Data from the Chemical Camera instrument on board the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity now provide the first in situ analyses of fluorine at the surface of Mars. Two principal F‐bearing mineral assemblages are identified. The first is associated with high aluminum and low calcium contents, in which the F‐bearing phase is an aluminosilicate. It is found in conglomerates and may indicate petrologically evolved sources. This is the first time that such a petrologic environment is found on Mars. The second is represented by samples that have high calcium contents, in which the main F‐bearing minerals are likely to be fluorapatites and/or fluorites. Fluorapatites are found in some sandstone and may be detrital, while fluorites are also found in the conglomerates, possibly indicating low‐T alteration processes.
1 Introduction Fundamental questions exist about the amount and the nature of volatiles in the Martian crust and mantle. Indeed, elements such as hydrogen and halogens may play a key role during partial melting of the mantle and in the alteration processes that can subsequently affect primary igneous rocks. On the basis of bulk compositions of SNC meteorites, it has been suggested that the Martian mantle is relatively rich in chlorine and fluorine and poor in water compared to the Earth [Dreibus and Wänke, 1985, 1987; Filiberto and Treiman, 2009a; Taylor et al., 2010]. A Cl‐rich and H 2 O‐poor Martian mantle is feasible from the point of view of phase equilibria, and chlorine may play a role in Martian mafic magmas comparable to that of H 2 O in terrestrial magmas [Filiberto and Treiman, 2009b]. A Cl‐rich Martian mantle is consistent with nearly all observations including SNC meteorite compositions [Sautter et al., 2006], orbital Gamma Ray Spectrometer observations [Taylor et al., 2010], observations by the Spirit and Opportunity landers [Gellert et al., 2004; Rieder et al., 2006], and by the Phoenix lander [Hecht et al., 2009]. However, other studies have argued that the Martian mantle may have water contents comparable to that of the Earth [McSween et al., 2001; McCubbin et al., 2009; Stolper et al., 2013]. Indeed, the recently discovered ancient Martian meteorites Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034 [Agee et al., 2013] and NWA7533 [Humayun et al., 2014] have a much larger water content than the younger and drier shergottites. However, there is an increasing evidence that a large fraction of this water is not magmatic but located in secondary alteration phases like hydrous Fe‐rich oxides and phyllosilicates [Muttik et al., 2014; Nemchin et al., 2014]. In contrast to the ubiquitous Cl observations, no fluorine has been reported so far on Mars. This is largely due to the inability of the instruments on Viking, Pathfinder, Spirit, and Opportunity to analyze fluorine. Within the SNC meteorites, magmatic inclusions commonly contain amphiboles and micas which can readily accept F up to a concentration of 3 wt % [Beck et al., 2006; Johnson et al., 1991]. Apatite is also a ubiquitous magmatic mineral in the SNC meteorites. It is a significant reservoir of halogens in the SNC meteorites and has been used to estimate the halogen budget of Mars [Patiño Douce et al., 2011]. We report here the first analyses of fluorine on Mars, using the Chemical Camera (ChemCam) [Maurice et al., 2012; Wiens et al., 2012] data at Gale Crater. This detection is made possible by the observation of CaF molecular bands in the Laser‐Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) spectra at remote distances [Gaft et al., 2014]. They yield a much better F sensitivity than atomic emission lines, with an improved limit of detection (LoD) of ~0.2 wt % rather than several percent [Cremers and Radziemski, 1983].
2 Measuring Fluorine and Chlorine With ChemCam: Experiments Halogens are difficult to detect with LIBS via their atomic or ionic emission lines. The difficulty of detecting halogens with LIBS is attributed to, among other factors, their energy level distribution. For example, the strongest emission lines for fluorine and chlorine are in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) spectral range at 95.5 and 134.7 nm for F and Cl, respectively. Detection capability in this region is limited by atmospheric absorption and laser coupling as well as by detector sensitivity. Other optical transitions exist in the 500–850 nm range but with relatively high LoD around 5 wt % [Cremers and Radziemski, 1983], which is not well suited for most geological studies. These are transitions between the excited states (n + 1)s4P − (n + 1)p4D manifold (n = 2 for F and n = 3 for Cl), corresponding to wavelengths centered around 685.6 nm for F and 837.6 nm for Cl. Detection in this spectral region is more practical than in the VUV region, but these lines have upper levels of 10.40 and 14.50 eV, respectively, above the ground state [Cremers and Radziemski, 1983]. The detection limits for these lines are less than satisfactory for demanding applications. An alternative path to increase the LoD by an order of magnitude is to use molecular lines, which are formed when atoms recombine in the cooling plasma [Gaft et al., 2014; Parigger, 2013]. However, molecular analysis by LIBS has been much less investigated than elemental LIBS. Most of the observed LIBS molecular emissions are oxides for which the ambient air typically supplies the O atom [Cremers and Radziemski, 2006]. For the halogens, a different combination is required, and the most easily observed is with Ca. In order to investigate this problem, LIBS experiments on fluorine‐ and chlorine‐bearing samples have been performed [Gaft et al., 2014] using various delay intervals between the laser and the spectral exposure to accurately describe the temporal evolution of the molecular emissions. 2.1 Fluorine‐Bearing Materials The initial experiments were performed on natural fluorite CaF 2. The spectral features depend on the delay time applied to the spectral acquisition, and it is observed that with a delay time longer than 5.0 µs, the Ca atomic and ionic emission lines are quenched and only the molecular bands at 532.1, 584.5, 603.1 and 623.6 nm remain. Their relative intensities change somewhat as a function of the delay time: at 25 µs, the band at 602.9 nm is the strongest, while the other bands are relatively less intense. These bands are similar to those known from arc‐induced plasma. The band centered at 532.1 nm is associated with the green B2Σ–X2Σ systems, while the bands centered at 584.5, 603.1, and 623.6 nm are associated with the orange A2П–X2Σ systems of the diatomic CaF molecule. The band centered at 552.3 nm belongs to the green system of the CaO molecule [Peterson and Jaffe, 1953; Pearse and Gaydon, 1941]. The temporal evolution of a CaF 2 plasma plume was measured by the kinetic series method, which involves taking individual spectra at selectable time intervals using preset time‐gating parameters. The emission of Ca II lines decay very rapidly, with a decay time of approximately 140 to 150 ns, while the emission of Ca I line decays slower, with a decay time of approximately 700 ns. The molecular emission of CaF is temporally broader compared to the ionic species. It reaches its maximum after approximately 800 ns followed by a decrease with a decay time of 4 to 6 µs. These behaviors correspond well to this kind of band, where in ablation plasma, it has a temporal plateau in the 400 to 600 ns interval [Oujja et al., 2010]. Thus, such bands persist after a relatively long delay time of several microseconds, while ion emission lines are mostly quenched. The bands themselves are characterized by different plasma temporal evolution. The decay of the band at 532.8 nm may be approximated by two exponential laws with decay times of 1.1 and 4.5 µs; at 583.0 nm, it is characterized by one exponential law with a decay time of 4.0 µs; at 600.2 nm, it is by two exponential laws with decay times of 1.1 and 6.2 µs; and at 622 nm, it is by one exponential law with decay time of 4.5 µs. The longest decay component of the band at 600.2 is 3 orders of magnitude longer than the radiative lifetime of vibronic levels of the B2Σ–X2Σ states for different molecules, including CaF [Berg et al., 1996]. Thus, the decay time is connected to the lifetime of those molecules in the plasma plume. The band at 603.1 nm behaved differently from the other bands as a function of the laser energy. At lower excitation energy, all molecular CaF emission bands were stronger in comparison to calcium emission lines than at higher excitation energy, and the long‐wavelength orange band at 603.1 nm became relatively more intense than the others at low laser intensity. Differences between the orange system bands can be explained by the band at 603.1 nm belonging to the (0‐0) transition, while the other bands belonged to (1‐0) and (1‐1) transitions. To better understand the F molecular emissions, various F‐bearing terrestrial analogues were analyzed starting with cryolite [Na 3 AlF 6 ], which has the highest fluorine content of any common non‐Ca‐bearing mineral. This mineral did not exhibit such bands in its emission spectra. The same result was observed for calcite [CaCO 3 ], which is a calcium‐bearing mineral without fluorine, whose emission spectra contain only Ca I emission lines and CaO emission bands, peaking at approximately 550 and 623 nm, respectively. Finally, a powder mixture of cryolite and calcite, containing both calcium and fluorine but not in the same constituents, exhibited CaF bands in its emission spectrum. Fluorine‐ and calcium‐bearing minerals with lower fluorine content than fluorite [CaF 2 ] were studied, such as magmatic fluorapatite [Ca 5 (PO 4 ) 3 (F, OH)], sedimentary carbonate apatite (francolite) [Ca 5 (PO 4,CO 3 ) 3 (F,OH)], apophyllite [KCa 4 Si 8 O 20 F.8H 2 O], and charoite [K(Ca,Na) 2 Si 4 O 10 (OH,F).H 2 O]. The breakdown spectra of these minerals demonstrate that the detection sensitivities of CaF molecular emission bands, whose intensity is in proportion to the fluorine content, can be compared with that of the ionic F I emission line. Two other minerals were used: fluorite with approximately 50 wt % fluorine content and apophyllite with approximately 2 wt %. The strongest F I emission lines at 685.6 and 690.2 nm appeared in fluorite emission spectra with a minimal delay time of 100 ns. Apophyllite, with 25 times lower fluorine content than fluorite, did not exhibit F I emission lines. CaF bands were clearly visible not only in apophyllite but also in charoite with approximately 0.4 wt % fluorine content. The above experiments were performed at ambient Earth pressure; some were also performed in vacuum. In order to better characterize and quantify the fluorine content through its molecular emissions, as part of this work, experiments have been conducted mixing fluorite with a certified basalt powder standard, BHVO‐2, under Martian pressure conditions on the ChemCam‐dedicated setup [Wiens et al., 2013] at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Twelve mixing ratios ranging from 0.07 wt % to 50 wt % CaF 2 were analyzed, and for each of them, 5 observation points were acquired. The 30 spectra at each observation point were averaged together. After careful processing of the data [Wiens et al., 2013], it is possible to draw a relationship between the area of the CaF emission band centered at 603 nm and the amount of fluorine present in the sample (Text S1 and Figure S1 in the supporting information). With these new calibration experiments, realistic for ChemCam, a detection limit of 0.2 wt % fluorine can be reached (Figure S1 in the supporting information). 2.2 Chlorine‐Bearing Materials Molecular emission of CaCl was studied using only CaCl 2, as minerals containing both Ca and Cl are relatively rare and were not at our disposal. Broad, long‐lived emission bands were found in the orange part of the spectrum, with a peak at 593.5 corresponding to the CaCl orange system and peaks at 606.8, 618.8, and 631.4 nm belonging to the red system of CaCl. These emissions correspond to transitions from the B2Σ + A2П levels to the X2Σ + ground level [Peterson and Jaffe, 1953; Pearse and Gaydon, 1941; Walters and Barrat, 1928]. The connection with the CaCl molecule was confirmed by the fact that calcium‐bearing calcite (CaCO 3 ) and chlorine‐bearing sylvite (KCl) do not contain such bands in their breakdown spectra, while a mixture of the two exhibits narrow bands centered at 592.9, 606.5, 617.6, 620.0, and 630.0 nm. Bands centered at 550 and 615 nm in the calcite breakdown spectra are connected to the green and orange emission bands of the CaO molecule [Peterson and Jaffe, 1953]. Those bands have a long lifetime of about 5 µs and appear in all calcium‐bearing minerals. As with the fluorine, LIBS sensitivities of molecular CaCl and ionic Cl I can be compared. A weak line of Cl I peaking at 837.6 nm was detected in CaCl 2, whose chlorine content is approximately 64 wt %. It is not detected in a mixture of CaCO 3 with 10 wt % CaCl 2. Using molecular CaCl emission, Cl was detected not only in this sample but also in a mixture of CaCO 3 with 1.0 wt % of CaCl 2 corresponding to a concentration of 0.6 wt % Cl. Finally, it must be stressed that because these are molecular emissions, the detectability of the halogens is dependent upon sufficient abundance of calcium. In other words, without calcium, halogens would not be detected by molecular emission lines even if present. In the case of targets with low calcium content and high halogen content, there may not be enough calcium atoms to recombine with the halogens, implying that the halogen contents will be underestimated. The interaction efficiency can also be reduced by elements substituting to Ca, like Sr, but generally, the amount of substituting element is low, and the effect is expected to be small. For example, in the case of the sample “Link” (see below), which is very Sr rich [Ollila et al., 2014], the Sr content is nevertheless only about 1600 ppm, a concentration much lower than the total calcium available.
3 Measuring Fluorine and Chlorine With ChemCam: Observations Among more than 2500 observation points that have been sampled by ChemCam over the first 400 days of the mission, more than 20 points in 13 rocks exhibiting a CaF molecular emission have been identified (Figure 1 and Table S1 in the supporting information). The strongest fluorine signature was observed on Martian solar day (sol) 72 on the fifth point of the Epworth soil target [Meslin et al., 2013; Cousin et al., 2015] in which a 1 mm diameter light‐toned gravel lag was sampled with 30 laser shots. A preliminary estimate of the fluorine content yields ~5.5 ± 0.5 wt % F based on the strength of the CaF emission from laboratory data on fluorite (CaF 2 ). The atomic lines of F I were also seen at 685.8, 687.2, 690.4, and 691.2 nm. In order to constrain the host minerals of the fluorine in that observation, we have studied how the concentrations of F vary with other mineral‐forming elements on a shot to shot basis. Most elements were found to have a negative correlation with F, but calcium was a clear exception, showing a strong positive correlation. Strontium lines also showed this behavior, consistent with the fact that strontium is known to substitute for calcium in many minerals. Evidence for a positive correlation between fluorine and phosphorous was also found for this analysis point. Indeed, the strongest emission lines of P within the ChemCam observation range at 253.6, 256.4, and 256.6 nm have been observed (Figure S2 in the supporting information). This observation also indicates that P concentrations are high, given that the detection sensitivity of these particular lines is poor. Figure 1 Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Spectral region between 596 nm and 608 nm of the rocks exhibiting the characteristic CaF molecular signature. The highest intensity corresponds to a fluorine content of about 5.5 wt % for Epworth #5 and the lowest to a fluorine content of about 0.6 wt %. The atomic line centered at 598.2 nm is a Si II emission line. The legend gives the names of the targets and the number of the ChemCam observation point on that target. If the simultaneous variations of F, Ca, and P were those of a single mineral, we would conclude that it is fluorapatite [Ca 5 (PO 4 ) 3 F]. The latter stoichiometrically contains ~4 wt % F, 56 wt % CaO, and 42 wt % P 2 O 5. However, as mentioned earlier, the F content of Epworth #5 is ~5.5 ± 0.5 wt %, and we have calculated a total amount of CaO of 24 ± 3 wt % using the partial least squares method [Wiens et al., 2013]. Thus, there is too much F for fluorapatite only, and an additional F‐rich mineral is required to explain the observations. Fluorite [CaF 2 ] is the most probable solution since the fraction of F in fluorite is 0.49, and 5.5 wt % fluorine would account for around 8.0 wt % CaO. In addition to Epworth #5, strong CaF molecular bands have also been observed at Blackhead #7 (sol 367) and at the third point of a blind raster on sol 386 (CC_BT_0386a #3). Blackhead is a rough ventifacted textured rock with no grains and without apparent layering. CC_BT_0386a is a conglomerate. These points exhibit the phosphorous lines at 253.7 nm and/or 253.4 nm, making them similar to Epworth #5, indicating the presence of fluorapatite. In these two spectra, the F content is estimated to be ~3.0 ± 0.4 wt %, which could correspond to pure fluorapatite. However, the CaO content of these two targets is ~17 wt %, which is too low for a pure fluorapatite. Consequently, here also, fluorite is probably part of the fluorine‐bearing assemblage. Following Epworth #5, Blackhead #7, and CC_BT_0386a #3, the conglomerates Goulburn (sol 19) and Link (sol 27) [Williams et al., 2013] also show strong CaF signatures. It is of significant note that all the observation points in these conglomerates contain F, which is an indication that it is globally distributed and represents a bulk element in these rocks. Fluorine concentrations are estimated to be between 0.8 ± 0.2 and 2.4 ± 0.3 wt %, with Al 2 O 3 content on the order of 18 ± 3.0 wt %. Unlike the three targets mentioned earlier, these rocks have low CaO contents, on the order of 5.0 wt%. Furthermore, a shot to shot analysis confirms that among all the major elements, silicon and aluminum are the elements that show the best positive correlations with the CaF signature followed by potassium and calcium. These correlations are confirmed by an Independent Component Analysis (ICA) algorithm [Hyvärinen et al., 2001; Forni et al., 2013]. One of the ICA components is characterized by the CaF signature along with contributions from Al. In terms of the mineral host of F, we also note that the K 2 O content is relatively high, on the order of 2.5 wt %, with a high K/Na ratio and that the hydrogen signature, at least for Link, is noticeable [Williams et al., 2013]. This enrichment in K is also supported by the observed trace elements and particularly by the high rubidium and barium abundances found in Link [Ollila et al., 2014]. Phlogopite [KMg 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (F,OH) 2 ] is considered an unlikely host for F in light of the low MgO content (~1 wt %) of these analyses, the low Fe and Mg contents also arguing against amphiboles. On the other hand, muscovite [KAl 2 [AlSi 3 O 10 ](OH,F) 2 ] and topaz [Al 2 [SiO 4 ](OH,F) 2 ] are considered as plausible candidates especially points #2 and #4 of Link that show a nice correlation with Si, Al, and K (Table S1 in the supporting information). However, topaz and muscovite have SiO 2 contents around 33 wt % and 48 wt %, respectively, much lower than the abundances we observe in the conglomerates. Keeping in mind that we generally observe mixtures of minerals within the ~0.4 mm diameter beam [Maurice et al., 2012], topaz and/or muscovite could be mixed with a phase richer in silica, such as alkali feldspar [Sautter et al., 2014], that could also be contributing alkalis and certain trace elements. However, fluorite cannot be discounted as the sole fluorine‐bearing phase, especially in points #1 and #3, but apatite can because of the low bulk Ca contents. Additional F‐bearing observation points have been found periodically along the rover traverse (Table S1 in the supporting information). All these points generally have higher calcium and lower aluminum compared to the conglomerates described earlier. These are all likely to be fluorapatite, even if the phosphorous lines are not visible, since F is correlated with calcium in a shot to shot analysis. However, fluorite cannot be discounted as the F‐bearing phase. This is the case for the targets belonging to the Rocknest unit (Pearson and Rocknest6b) and for two targets (Nanok and Laddie) that are very similar to those observed in the Rocknest unit [Blaney et al., 2014]. However, a fraction of the rocks displaying the fluorine signature is also iron rich and often enriched in alkalis, especially potassium. The presence of these elements is consistent with a number of possible F‐bearing minerals, including biotite or amphiboles. This is the case for observations that are found in porphyritic igneous rocks [Sautter et al., 2014] (Mara1 #5 and Beacon #1; Table S1 in the supporting information), in which the fluorine content is estimated to be about 1.2 ± 0.3 wt %. Chlorine is also detected via CaCl molecular bands. Crest #9 (sol 125) and Measles #9 (sol 305) show evidence for chlorine (Figure 2). These samples are characterized by high calcium concentrations, and their spectra display sulphur lines [Nachon et al., 2014]. Surprisingly, no other sulphur‐rich targets among the many sulphate veins observed in Yellowknife Bay [Grotzinger et al., 2013] exhibit the CaCl band. These two observations are unique in having relatively high sodium concentrations, suggesting NaCl as a possible phase for chlorine, recombining with calcium in the plasma. Figure 2 Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Spectra of the rocks showing the CaCl molecular emission at 594.6 nm, indicative of NaCl. The spectrum of a rock (Rapitan) having a similar composition but without chlorine is shown for comparison. All these observation points are calcium sulfate dominated and appear white on the images of ChemCam remote microimager. In summary, we can confidently show that none of the fluorine‐bearing observations with or without phosphorous show the presence of chlorine, at least above the 0.6 wt % detection limit [Gaft et al., 2014], although this value has to be refined with experiments under Martian atmospheric conditions.
4 Discussion The F‐bearing parageneses found in the Gale conglomerates [Williams et al., 2013] are very peculiar, and with their silica‐, aluminum‐, and alkali‐rich compositions, they appear to be unique to the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) landing site. These minerologies are moreover very distinct to those found in the SNC meteorites. The observed enrichments in K and Al (and Rb and Ba in the case of Link [Ollila et al., 2014]) suggest the presence of an alkali feldspar under the laser beam, consistent with phase equilibria at low temperature in the system K 2 O‐Na 2 O‐Al 2 O 3 ‐SiO 2 ‐F 2 O −1 ‐H 2 O [Manning, 1981; Dolejs and Baker, 2007]. In terms of F‐bearing phases in this system, it has been shown that at 100 MPa, near‐solidus melts may saturate with topaz or cryolite, but the associated melt will contain low fluorine concentrations if the activity of alumina is buffered by micas or aluminosilicates in the crystallizing assemblage [Dolejs and Baker, 2007]. On the other hand, if only quartz and feldspars are crystallizing from residual melts, either topaz or cryolite will eventually crystallize, but the melt will continue its enrichment in fluorine. However, saturation in Al‐rich F‐bearing minerals requires low concentrations in CaO, as fluorite saturation typically occurs before that of Al‐rich phases. Indeed, natural and experimental peralkaline (alkali‐rich) and met‐aluminous magmas saturate in fluorite, buffering fluorine concentrations in the liquids to low levels, on the order of 0.5–1 wt % F [Scaillet and MacDonald, 2004; Dolejs and Baker, 2006]. Fluorite saturation may also occur in F‐rich peraluminous (Al‐rich) melts, but very high CaO concentrations are required in this case; thus, magmatic crystallization of fluorite in topaz‐bearing silicic suites is suppressed. The relatively high observed fluorine contents are thus consistent with the presence of topaz and/or muscovite (Table S1 in the supporting information). Alternatively, if fluorite is the F host in the conglomerates, this would be difficult to reconcile with a peraluminous magmatic system, as discussed above, although its presence may result from a secondary hydrothermal process as described in many pegmatitic systems, implying temperatures on the order of 500°C, possibly associated with impact cratering. Alternatively, it has been proposed that fluorite can form in secondary alteration systems [Filiberto and Schwenzer, 2013] especially at low temperature and low water/rock ratios. Although the protolith at Gale Crater may be more feldspathic than the Home Plate formation at Gusev [Sautter et al., 2014], the simulations of Filiberto and Schwenzer [2013] indicate that the formation of fluorite is thermodynamically stable and produced in significant amount, a prediction which nicely fits our observations. However, in these same conditions and in presence of CO 2, carbonates are a major output phase of the simulation but not observed so far in Gale Crater. In addition to Epworth #5, Blackhead #7, and CC_BT_0386a #3, the following targets have lower but still clear coenrichments of F and Ca (Pekanatui, Pearson, Rocknest6, Laddie, Nanok2, and Buit_Lake; Table S1 in the supporting information) and are thus probably dominated by a contribution from apatite. When apatite within the SNC meteorites is compared to apatite from terrestrial basalts, it is found that the Martian phosphates are poorer in water. In detail, Chassigny and Nakhlite meteorites contain two populations of apatite: fluorine‐rich and water‐poor population, found in melt inclusions, and chlorine‐rich and water‐poor population, found interstitially [McCubbin et al., 2008, 2013]. These observations are interpreted in terms of a high‐temperature closed‐system process that forms fluorapatite within melt inclusions and a lower temperature open‐system process that forms interstitial chlorapatite associated with fluid migration [McCubbin et al., 2013]. Indeed, experimental data have demonstrated that metasomatic apatites tend to be Cl rich, while magmatic apatites tend to be F rich [Patiño Douce et al., 2011]. However, the Cl‐rich apatites observed in the Nakhlites and Chassignites do not necessarily imply external fluids, as Cl‐rich fluids may be directly related to late‐stage magmatism, relaxing many of the previous constraints used to rule out the Nakhlites and Chassignites as comagmatic rocks [McCubbin et al., 2013]. The situation at Gale is clearly different, since chlorine at the LoD of 0.6 wt % is never detected in F‐bearing samples, indicating that the apatites observed by ChemCam, if primary, did not experience this interaction with comagmatic Cl‐rich fluids. Furthermore, the existence of F‐rich apatite measured at the surface of Mars may call into question the idea that the Martian mantle is Cl rich [Filiberto and Treiman, 2009b], arguing instead for an important role of fluorine. Our data therefore support the recent idea that fluorine is a key element affecting the petrogenesis of Martian basalts, since fluorine also has a large effect on liquidus depression of basalts and the chemistry of crystallizing minerals [Filiberto et al., 2012]. These effects will be especially important for low‐degree partial melts, which may start with relatively high abundances of fluorine and produce silica‐poor and alkali‐rich magmas. It is also of note that apatites occur in many hydrothermal systems on Earth. The famous Durango apatite is of hydrothermal origin, occurring in the Tertiary hydrothermally related iron‐magnetite deposits of the Cerro de Mercado deposit of Mexico [Piccoli and Candela, 2002]. This setting may be somewhat similar to the Rocknest unit that is characterized by low silicon content and high iron and titanium, reflecting the probable presence of ferrous and/or titanoferrous oxides like magnetite, hematite, and/or ilmenite. In this hydrothermal context, apatites may also be enriched in sulphur [Piccoli and Candela, 2002], whose presence is indeed suggested in the Rocknest unit. The few targets belonging to the Gillespie Lake sandstones [Mangold et al., 2015], part of the Yellowknife Bay unit, are unlikely to have formed in situ by hydrothermal alteration, given the low grade of local diagenetic alteration [McLennan et al., 2014]. Moreover, apatites that form in a diagenetic context are, on Earth, related to organic matter and biologic activity [Krom and Berner, 1981; Knudsen and Gunter, 2002], a process unlikely on Mars. They are also often accompanied by the presence of francolite [Ca 5 (PO 4,CO 3 ) 3 (F,OH)] [McArthur, 1985], which has not been observed in Gale Crater. Apatite at Yellowknife Bay may thus correspond to detrital grains deposited by past rivers, not enabling us to discuss their initial formation as magmatic or hydrothermal, despite the fact that many apatites found in the mesostasis of the nakhlites, likely to be hydrothermal, contain a large amount of chlorine [Bridges and Schwenzer, 2012]. These new analyses point to an important role of F on Mars. First of all, the presence of multiple primary F‐bearing minerals in rocks that are likely related to magmatism around the crater rim of Gale may have important implications for petrogenesis during mantle melting. Second, the unique environment represented by the conglomerates found in the early days of the mission (Table S1 in the supporting information) implies a high degree of differentiation of primary magmas at Gale Crater, similar to that found in granodioritic settings. The large amount of alkali feldspar and plagioclase combined with the observation of quartz normative mineralogy [Sautter et al., 2014] supports this interpretation, and it is of interest to consider to what extent halogens play a role in this process. Finally, the large amount of secondary F‐bearing phases, like fluorapatites and fluorite, can put stringent constraints on the fluid composition, temperature, and pH conditions that led to the alteration of the primary rocks.
Acknowledgments The development and operation of the ChemCam instrument was supported in France by funds from the French space agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales. Support was also received from INSU/CNRS. Support for the development and operation in the U.S. was provided by NASA to the Mars Exploration Program and specifically to the MSL team. Imaging and chemical data presented here are available in the NASA Planetary Data System http://pds‐geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/msl. We are grateful to the MSL engineering and management teams (and especially the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with NASA) for making the mission and this scientific investigation possible and to science team members who contributed to mission operations. We thank Pamela Conrad and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive remarks that greatly improved the manuscript. The Editor thanks two anonymous reviewers for their assistance in evaluating this paper.
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Writer/Artist: Joshua Cotter
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Nod Away, a complex and beautiful sci-fi epic, alternates between a narrative of scientists working on a space station to tweak a biologically wired “Innernet,” and back to nearly wordless scenes of a man traveling by himself through the desert, toward an unclear goal. Dreamy, packed with interesting ideas and suffused with the same quiet-but-felt emotions as cartoonist Joshua Cotter’s debut, Nod Away fills a void that makes the author’s eight-year absence all the more evident. Hillary Brown
18. Harrow County
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artists: Tyler Crook, Carla Speed McNeil
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse’s creepy, atmospheric flagship spook title continues to dive deep into a southern-fried nexus of horror, folklore and nostalgia. The bulk of the series has focused on Hester Beck, a witchy woman who wasn’t afraid to make Faustian deals with the townsfolk. But that plot has branched into myriad directions equally chilling and visually arresting. Most importantly, writer Cullen Bunn and artists Tyler Crook and Carla Speed McNeil keep a dark and magical heart thumping throughout Harrow County, even while expanding its borders. Their haunted storybook remains dangerous and inviting, disturbing and wistful. It’s a fitting look at the past; though it may appear kinder and simpler, it obscures a history of violence and discord waiting to erupt again. Sean Edgar
17. Midnighter/Midnighter and Apollo
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artists: ACO, Fernando Blanco, Various
Publisher: DC Comics
It was disappointing, if not surprising, when Steve Orlando and ACO’s Midnighter came to a close in the beginning of 2016; the “DC You” title was a critical success and a fan favorite for its expansion of DC’s “violent gay Batman” into a fully fledged (and still very violent) leading man, but sales never matched the book’s near-universal praise. Despite being the first successful integration of Wildstorm characters into the DCU since the two universes merged in 2011, Midnighter seemed destined to become a high-quality footnote as Rebirth reshaped DC’s shelf space. Midnighter and Apollo, the six-issue follow-up with new artist Fernando Blanco, takes the sting out of the original title’s cancellation by serving up the bloodiest, most homoerotic take on Orpheus and Eurydice the superhero world has ever seen, as Midnighter punches his way through hell to rescue his solar-powered lover, Apollo. For DC readers concerned that Rebirth might turn back the clock on queer representation, Orlando and Blanco’s sexy, violent, epic and, yes, romantic miniseries shines bright when it’s needed the most, and hopefully bodes well for Midnighter’s continued leather-clad presence in the DCU. Steve Foxe
16. Patience
Writer/Artist: Daniel Clowes
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Colored in the flat, desaturated hues that Clowes’ readers will recognize instantly, Patience is the Ghost World author’s longest work to date. The story of a man traveling back in time to rewrite history and save his wife, the book stumbles and falters in a number of key spots. The politics are unclear, and, at times, it falls prey to the same objectifying gaze that it seems to be criticizing. But it’s ambitious and complex, and it grapples with a set of emotions—honestly, forcefully and at length. Clowes’ familiar linework is intact, and the book feels timeless. Or rather, Clowes nostalgically conjures a mish-mash of past aesthetics, imbuing Patience with a lust for a time that never even existed.
The book has found both incredible praise and worthwhile excoriation, but regardless of how you end up feeling about it, it really is something you should read for yourself. Shea Hennum
15. Cosplayers
Writer/Artist: Dash Shaw
Publisher: Fantagraphics
This collection of Dash Shaw’s introspective dive into the most theatric element of comic fandom ripples with humanity and texture. Whereas the cartoonist’s previous works like New School and Doctors weren’t afraid to suspend realism for wildly inventive takes on exploratory fantasy and sci-fi melodrama, Cosplayers borrows from Shaw’s intimate observations on the con floors. The Perfect in the title is especially interesting, as the art, and the characters, are imperfect by design: instead of rendering facsimile versions of genre culture’s gods, mutants and heroes, Shaw’s mission is to make the flawless mundane—to make reality asymmetrically mirror surreality. For fans of Adrian Tomine and Dan Clowes, this is essential sequential art vérité. Sean Edgar
14. The Legend of Wonder Woman
Writers: Renae De Liz
Artist: Renae De Liz, Ray Dillon
Publisher: DC Comics
DC Comics offered fans no shortage of Amazon origins this year, from Jill Thompson’s gorgeous Wonder Woman: The True Amazon to Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette’s controversial Wonder Woman: Earth One to Greg Rucka, Nicola Scott and Liam Sharp’s in-continuity Rebirth soft reset. For our money, The Last Unicorn illustrator Renae De Liz did best by Diana this year in The Legend of Wonder Woman. This nine-issue outing retells Wonder Woman’s origin on Themyscira and her first encounter with the world of man in a way that distills the best, most hopeful aspects of the character for a brand-new audience—as well as the legion of Wonder Woman fans unhappy with her inconsistent treatment over the years. Illustrated with a clean line and clear respect for the subject matter, The Legend of Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Origins is the best sequential introduction to a character everyone is going to be talking about in 2017, as the heroine becomes the first female character to headline a solo superhero flick. Steve Foxe
13. Moon Cop
Writer/Artist: Tom Gauld
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Tom Gauld is the book-lover’s cartoonist. His comics appear regularly in populist high-minded publications like The Guardian and New Scientist, where they focus on literary genres, both fiction and nonfiction. They’re silly, but in a serious manner, where a sandpaper-dry delivery renders the absurd amusing. Gauld demonstrates a very British way of executing humor—the appearance of noisy attention-grabbing is strenuously avoided for more casual methods of engagement. At the same time, the comics swim in melancholy, even when they aim to make you giggle. Gauld’s simplified forms, which often appear in silhouette, have skinny arms and legs. If they have faces at all, he often defines those faces only with eyes and an occasional nose. This visual technique, along with the figures’ restrained body language, can make the characters seem down, and an atmosphere of failure pervades the strips (because failure is much funnier than success).
His latest work, Mooncop, is a great exercise in restraint: a brief page count, panels with an Ernie Bushmiller level of minimalism, emotions expressed with body language and a few words. Yet, despite its location, it’s not airless. Gauld mixes sweetness and melancholy in a story that’s slim but not slight. Hillary Brown
12. Black Hammer
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Dean Ormston
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Jeff Lemire’s portrait of a rural, dream-like (surrural?) town and the family of retired superheroes inexplicably trapped in its borders continues to be one of the most moody, captivating titles from the author in years. The comic pivots from the nostalgic battles of the characters’ pasts to the conflicts raging inside their heads as they navigate involuntary retirement. Ultimately, Black Hammer is an accessible, articulate comic that would be welcome to fans of post-prime-time series like The Leftovers and The Path, drawn with sinewy darkness by Dean Ormston. Sean Edgar
11. Monstress
Writer: Marjorie Liu
Artist: Sana Takeda
Publisher: Image Comics
Monstress may flaunt an exterior filled with unicorns, multi-tailed cats and angelic warriors, but much like its titular heroine, it hides something far more savage inside. Seriously: shit gets real dark real quick. Writer Marjorie Liu and artist Sana Takeda fearlessly address human trafficking, experimentation and the horrors of war through the travails of Maika Halfwolf, a survivor hiding a blood-thirsty behemoth in her soul—both metaphorically and literally. Takeda contrasts an escapist world and adorable character designs against unflinching horror, illuminating warfare’s brutality no matter the context. Liu has also constructed an ornate background mythology, where ruthless humans, body-harvesting witches and magical hybrids don’t even attempt to co-exist. Though the denseness of the plot and the streams of exposition don’t make Monstress the most accessible of comics, there’s nothing else like it on the stands. Sean Edgar
10. Ghosts
Writer/Artist: Raina Telgemeier
Publisher: Scholastic Graphix
Raina Telgemeier is our generation’s comics ambassador, producing touching, funny graphic novels that not only reach a ton of readers, but engage folks who lie outside the male adult demo most associated with the medium. Ghosts adds an intoxicating dose of magic to the cartoonist’s masterful grip on character and relationship; protagonist Catarina’s family forces her to move to a shady NorCal town to facilitate her sister, who’s diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. Not only does Catarina accept the presence of the playful undead, she also faces issues of mortality. Big issues for a kids comic, right? Leave it to Telgemeier to articulate daunting concepts with kindness and clarity, while packing her panels with a dizzying array of dancing skeletons and smiling ghouls. Sean Edgar
9. The Wicked + The Divine
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artists: Jamie McKelvie, Various
Publisher: Image Comics
Few books capture the zeitgeist like The Wicked + The Divine. The gods of old are back as pissy, prissy teen pop stars, adored by countless fans for two years and then snuffed out… Only someone is extinguishing the current pantheon before its time. Creators Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie bring every skill they’ve honed together over the last decade of collaboration to their work on WicDiv, from McKelvie’s expert facial “acting” to Gillen’s knack for perfect “wish-I-had-thought-to-say-that-during-my-last-breakup” dialogue. WicDiv, much like Saga, knows exactly how to leave its audience gasping and grasping for the next issue, and its ability to reach readers beyond comic-shop regulars make it one of the medium’s best cultural ambassadors. What could have been a cynical row on Rihanna, Kanye, Gaga and other overexposed pop stars has become a meditation of mortality, morality and the seeming invincibility of youth, with ample style and pure coolness to spare. Steve Foxe
8. Big Kids
Writer/Artist: Michael DeForge
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
The experience of reading Big Kids is almost synesthetic; it puts inarticulable emotional states into unrelated visuals that evoke those feelings with pinpoint precision. How can a six-panel page of two squiggly lines intertwining suggest a late-adolescent sexual encounter? Do guilt and shame translate as a body slowly absorbing raindrops that feel like tiny, heavy metal balls? How does one draw the concept of becoming aware of a new dimension of thought and feeling? Big Kids posits crazy and ambitious goals, and cartoonist Michael DeForge doesn’t always achieve them, but his work here is reliably intellectual and emotionally intelligent, as well as garishly beautiful. Hillary Brown
7. The Vision
Writer: Tom King
Artists: Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Michael Walsh
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Under Tom King’s direction, The Vision was Marvel’s most interesting character, thanks to this witty, startling, gorgeous series illustrated by Gabriel Hernandez Walta and Michael Walsh with colorist Jordie Bellaire. The premise is simple: the synthezoid Avenger literally makes himself a family and moves to the ‘burbs. Needless to say, shenanigans ensue, but not the type of winky, not-quite-funny antics of most of Marvel’s “quirky” titles: in this comic, the sci-fi horror plays out unflinchingly and tragically, like a lost Shakespeare play (The Visions of Verona?). This is a violent, over-the-top nightmare and a revealing look at domesticity. Mark Peters
6. Hot Dog Taste Test
Writer/Artist: Lisa Hanawalt
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Lisa Hanawalt’s second collection of work isn’t only about food, but it does have blurbs from Momofuku’s David Chang and Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold on the back, so food is certainly a large part of it. Most food writing can fall into insufferable extremes: too full of adjectives, too gross, too focused on morality at the expense of deliciousness, too boring, too self-important and/or too much about the writer. Hanawalt manages to avoid any of these traps. She is appreciative of weird foods without coming off like a dilettante, and expresses a love of junk without seeming like a glutton. She can even be directly autobiographical without being annoying, exemplified in her comic about how she prefers her egg yolks thoroughly cooked. One explanation is that she keeps things brief instead of rhapsodizing for 6,000 words on breakfast. A better reason is that her comics on food are no different from her comics on anything: the product of a mind with a marvelously weird perspective. Hillary Brown
5. Paper Girls
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Cliff Chiang
Publisher: Image Comics
Set in the 1980s, four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls are menaced by something even weirder and more malevolent than teenage boys. In this sci-fi mystery, writer Brian K. Vaughan brings the heart and charm of Saga to a story about kids that’s not just for them. This title is also a strong contender for the most Kirby-esque current comic. The lead characters are a gender update of The King’s many boy gangs, and Cliff Chiang’s art is bold and innovative. Whether illustrating a sci-fi gizmo or drunken stepmom, Chiang’s clear lines (and Matt Wilson’s evocative, day-glo colors) convey the wonder, fear and excitement of near-teenhood. This is one of the best recent comics to share with your friend who doesn’t read comics—especially if they have a hankering for the ‘80s. Mark Peters
4. Dark Night: A True BatmanStory
Writer: Paul Dini
Artist: Eduardo Risso
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo
More than two decades ago, Batman: The Animated Series writer, producer and editor Paul Dini was attacked by two men with such ferocity that parts of his skull were “powderized.” The event ignited a crisis of faith in Dini, who grappled with his day job of telling stories of good perpetually triumphing over evil when…sometimes it doesn’t. Is it irresponsible? Do men and women dressed in costumes offer facile escapism that deters its fans from acknowledging the severity of existence?
What starts as a harrowing autobiography spirals into something far more daunting and analytical, placing the very concept of fiction on trial. Artist Eduardo Risso renders Dini’s narrative in striking violence and moody, sensual palettes, balancing the impact of the event around a whirlwind of failed romances and supportive friends. But Dark Night isn’t just gorgeous, it’s one of the bravest, most intelligent expressions of the medium in recent memory. Sean Edgar
3. Panther
Writer/Artist: Brecht Evens
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Let’s cut to the chase: Panther is fucking terrifying. Belgian cartoonist Brecht Evens covers similar terrain as previous graphic novel, Night Animals, showing the perils of little girls cavorting with storybook monsters. In this lush, watercolored fever dream, adolescent Christine bonds with the talking, titular cat who emerges from the lowest drawer of her dresser. Panther regales Christine with fanciful tales of Pantherland before parading a medley of red flags, including emotional co-dependency, inappropriate touching and sketchy, sketchy, sketchy friends. As their time together grows, Panther stretches comic-book tension to its most affecting extremes, and attempting to reveal a metaphor or resolution is equally unnerving. Like some unholy love child between Winnie the Pooh and Harmony Korine, Panther is the harrowing comic event for 2016. Sean Edgar
2. The Sheriff of Babylon
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Mitch Gerads
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo
The Sheriff of Babylon is a murder mystery set during the fallout of Saddam Hussein’s rule, though the audience is fully aware of who murdered whom and why they did so. Writer Tom King takes full advantage of Alfred Hitchcock’s advice to let the watcher feel empathy through the characters instead of themselves. Watching police trainer Christopher, diplomat Sofia and disgruntled ex-cop Nassir collide and repel is far tenser than any clue-finding exercise could be—and more addictive. But it’s the small details and delicious slivers of characterization that make this dissection of unilateral politics so impressive. In a subject that’s often morally simplified, King calls upon his years as a CIA agent to explore a world with onion layers of morality. When Sofia states, “There is something about dirty Arab children that makes senators say yes,” there’s a dark realization that countless variations of this conversation fuel every warfare and reconstruction scenario. The Sheriff of Babylon is a thinking man’s comic grounded in realpolitik horror, where the corpses of patriotism litter yesterday’s battlefields. Sean Edgar
1. March Book Three
Writers: Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin
Artist: Nate Powell
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell conclude the autobiography of Lewis’ journey through the Civil Rights Movement, and this book’s importance can’t be overstated. Lewis played an integral role in combatting racial inequality throughout the ‘60s (and beyond), and these graphic novels have expertly captured that battle, whether against Jim Crow legislation or even state authorities attempting to block the movement’s voting campaign in Alabama.
The very fact that the creators chose the comic medium speaks to the genre’s versatility and potency. Artist Nate Powell’s expressive facial expressions and soulful streets imbue a sense of melancholy and hope to this defining chapter of American history. With this finale, it’s impossible to imagine a work with this degree of emotion, submersion or relevancy as anything other than the narrative of the year. Sean EdgarPhoto: Earl Gardner
Coming just over a week after the Supporters Summit, Sunday night’s River Cup was another shining example that there’s something a little bit special about the relationship between the Union and their fans.
The Union Front Office edged out the Sons of Ben by the final score of 2-0 in a match played for charity, with the proceeds going to the Philadelphia Union Foundation, whose mission statement says that it “provides opportunities for children through the power of relationships to offer transformational change in the areas of education, community, health and recreation.”.
On a beautiful night at PPL Park, the Sons of Ben fielded a team made up of a number of former college players that have reportedly been practicing for over a month. The Union team featured CEO/Operating Partner Nick Sakiewicz, interim head coach John Hackworth, assistant coach Rob Vartughian, Academy coach and former MLS defender Jim Curtin (who still looked to be in game shape), and Reading United head coach Brendan Burke.
The game itself was entertaining and generally good natured with the Union team on the front foot in the first half and the Sons of Ben controlling the game in the second. The scoring opened in the 18th minute with Nico Abelenda finishing into the far post from about 6 yards. A just lead after the Union staff dominated the early going.
After a halftime that featured two small-side games featuring players from the Philadelphia Union Foundation-supported Chester City United Soccer Club, the second half started much brighter for the Sons of Ben and they were awarded a penalty just minutes into the half. But Union VP of Ticket Sales Mike Quarino, who put in a Man of the Match performance, was down low to his right to make the save. Quarino would come to the rescue again just moments later, as a bouncing ball in the box was sent goalwards only to see Quarino push it aside.
Reading United Coach Brendan Burke would make the SoB’s pay for their misses, giving the Union staff a 2-0 lead in the 55th minute. Allowed room on the right side, Burke was able to side foot a right footed shot into the near post. Burke would unfortunately be the biggest casualty of the match as well when he was stretchered off for what word after the game said was a broken ankle. [UPDATE: Daily News reporter Kerith Gabriel tweeted on Monday that Burke suffered a high ankle sprain.]
The remainder of the game played out with those SoBs not on the field in good voice in the stands. They had a bit of fun with Phillies GM Rueben Amaro Jr, who was suited up for the Union FO, singing “Your trades are as good as ours” and “Layoff the sweets.” Most of the Union squad was in attendance and the SoB’s politely chanted, “Buy us a round.”
Overall, the night was a success for everyone involved. The players mingled with fans during the game and signed autographs. The Union staff edged out the SoB’s for another year of bragging rights. And most importantly, everyone came together to raise money for a good cause.
The Union FO defeated the SoBs 2–1 in the first River Cup in 2011.Half Girlfriend Movie Review: Shraddha Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor in the film
Half Girlfriend Movie Review: Arjun Kapoor in a film still
Half Girlfriend Movie Review: Shraddha Kapoor in a film still
Arjun Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Vikrant Massey, Rhea Chakraborty, Seema BiswasMohit Suri1 starRomanceWhere do you go when you've had it with the world? Tradition and cinematic cliche suggest some far-removed nook hidden from civilisation, a secret spot known only to you, but Riya Somani - the titular heroine of- has her fortress of solitude bang in the heart of New Delhi, atop the most securely fortified monument in the country. Whenever she feels overwhelmed, Riya casually slips past armed guards, steps over a chain or two and clambers up India Gate, sitting on the top to rhapsodise about the view.I wonder why more of us haven't tried this. Maybe take a barbecue grill up there, wave at the President every now and then?"Meet me now on India Gate," she nonchalantly texts a boy who lives to obey her, and he scampers to the task, while I find myself hoping these harebrained characters would be caught and shot on sight. No such luck, alas.Based on a book by Chetan Bhagat, Mohit Suri's new film is a preposterously dimwitted romance, irresponsible enough to lead on many a stalker-to-be. (The only good thing about this film is that it'll win you a round of charades, its full title being ''.)The film is about Madhav Jha, a boy from Bihar who wants to study sociology but seems adamantly opposed to the idea of speaking the English language, an odd applicant for a college visibly modelled after St Stephens. At this college he spots a girl playing basketball, one who grimaces angrily even while drinking water, and the boy - who, in turn, consistently makes faces so gullible the actor's cheeks must have hurt - is immediately smitten enough to inform his mother he's found a reason to live in Delhi. Ambition and admission were evidently not enough.Riya, willing to play ball with Madhav and go to movies with Madhav and to make out with Madhav, comes from a troubled family. This we know from a scene where she walks into her gigantic house, witnesses her father physically and verbally abusing her mother, and goes to her room, where she picks up a guitar and starts singing. Her dream, you see, is to perform in a New York bar.But hold the phone: if she is indeed kissing this lad, aren't they together? What is all this bizarre 'half' girlfriend business if not, as I suspected, some clumsy way to describe the friendzone?For a friendzone this certainly isn't. (Thus I remain at sea about the meaning of the film's title.) Riya is visibly fond of Madhav and loves being with him, but, at 19, is wary of the girlfriend tag and what it may entail. All systems seem go: She's making him meet her folks, she's using the word 'us' to describe them, she's initiating the first kiss, she's singing lovesongs to him across a crowded lawn. This warmth is countered by bewildering bouts of insecurity from the otherwise devoted but semantically obsessed Madhav, who disregards her affectionate requests to take things slow by manhandling her, and snapping that she should bed him or buzz off. She chooses the latter.The boy can't let go.Despite what you may believe, or what the makers may have intended at some point during the production, this isn't the story of a sincere young man confounded by urban love and left helpless by an unidentified relationship. It is instead the story of a man-child with a one-track mind who misses the point of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and relentlessly pursues a girl who would rather feign death than be with him. He's a sulker with a martyr complex who repeatedly upends his own life and then whines about how he did it for her, leaving classes and jobs behind. Arjun Kapoor plays this lousy protagonist in a lumbering manner, slackjawed, forever nodding his head, and - in a misguided attempt to look simple - blankly smiling ear to ear.Shraddha Kapoor is Riya, shrill and insubstantial, one of the film's many characters who insist on speaking in English without being good at it. The prize for mangling the language, however, must be shared by the actor playing Riya's father who, when shouting at her mother, sounds like he's discovering words for the first time, and by Riya's suitor, a man with an unbelievably cartoonish 'what-ho' accent who calls a simple diamond pendant 'baroque.' There is some reprieve in the form of Vikrant Massey, acing both English and Bihari tonality, and who, with the first smile he flashes - simple, confident, assured - demonstrates the straightforward vibe Madhav needed.He is not the highlight, though. Also starring in this film, after much noble talk of philanthropy and toilets for the girl-child, is Bill Gates. As in, a still photograph on Gates digitally glued onto another man's body. Words cannot describe how mortifying this sequence is, a cameo to rank right up there with the time Cindy Crawford played Dev Anand's mother is about two halfwits who belong together. It is a film that claims to celebrate romance and undying passion and gates both Bill and Indian, but all it does is applaud a spoilt man who believes he's a scapegoat. He is not. He is, in fact, a man who hands the woman he loves a butcher knife, gets down on all fours, sticks his neck over a earthen pot of biryani and goes baaaaa. Off with his head.Image copyright Thinkstock / Zurijeta Image caption The public health funding aims to reduce obesity by encouraging a healthy lifestyle
A £2.7bn fund to improve public health in England is not always being spent where most needed, a watchdog says.
The ring-fenced grant, paid to local authorities by Public Health England, is supposed to encourage healthier lifestyles and reduce disparities in life expectancies across the country.
The National Audit Office said some progress had been made but it was too soon to say if it was value for money.
Public Health England was set up in April last year.
Under the government's NHS reforms, responsibility for public health, which covers everything that prevents disease and prolongs life, has been passed to local government.
The NAO said Public Health England had made a "good start" in supporting councils in their new roles.
It said spending on public health "varies widely" between different areas, saying this was "not surprising" given local differences.
Spending risk
But it went on to highlight that areas where alcohol abuse increased the most between 2010/11 and 2012/13 were spending "significantly less" on alcohol services in the following year than the areas where levels of abuse had fallen.
"Some local authority spending decisions are not yet fully aligned with areas of concern," it concluded.
The NAO also said records of how the cash has been allocated by some local authorities were inaccurate.
Funding for public health went up by 5.5% in 2013/14 but the government has not decided how long the ring-fence will remain in place and the NAO warned that contingency plans must be put in place to deal with changes in funding.
"There is a risk that total public health spending will decline as local authorities face continued budget reductions," it said.
'Unacceptable'
The report also highlighted the continued wide gaps in healthy life expectancy, which for men ranges from 52.5 years in Tower Hamlets to 70 years in Richmond upon Thames.
Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, said this disparity was "unacceptable".
She said: "Good public health is critical to reducing the burden on local health economies and the wider NHS at a time when the health service is facing unprecedented financial challenges, as well as improving the lives of individuals."It is now August and Jaromir Jagr somehow still is without an NHL contract, who would have predicted that at the end of last season?
Its been said countless times but Jagr truly is a living legend and one of the best ever to play the game, even at 45 years of age now. He wasn’t named one of the top 100 NHL players of all-time for nothing.
No one is denying that Jagr isn’t quite the same player he was in his prime, but he’s still strong on the puck and has the ability to produce points and play big minutes. Age doesn’t seem to be slowing him down the way that it has so many other players. It’s surprising the Panthers didn’t want him back, he’s been as productive as other players who got big deals this summer.
Jaromir Jagr had as many points last season as Patrick Marleau. — Steve Dangle Glynn (@Steve_Dangle) July 5, 2017
Why Jagr Makes Sense for the Blues
Jagr plays right wing, a position that the Blues are seriously lacking in depth at. Sure they have Vladimir Tarasenko, but that’s really it. They don’t have a true secondary right winger on their team at the moment. Looking at the line projections for the upcoming season for the Blues on dailyfaceoff.com it shows Brayden Schenn as the number two right winger. Schenn spent the past six seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers playing center, whereas Jagr is a natural right winger and would be much more suited to the position.
Imagine a second line that had Alexander Steen on left wing, Schenn at center and Jagr on right wing. Much like Schenn is naturally a centre, Steen is naturally a left winger (look at his NHL.com page if you don’t believe me) so a Steen, Schenn, Jagr line makes complete sense. Lets be honest, that’s a pretty scary second line and would have to be rated as one of the best in the entire league. Tarasenko cannot be expected to continue to carry this team on his back for the most part year after year. Other teams seemed to have realized that if they can shut Tarasenko down in the post-season they’ll likely win the series. Until the Blues get some true depth at right wing to take some pressure off Tarasenko it’s hard to see the team making a deep run in the playoffs anytime soon.
Signing Jagr could also potentially help improve the Blues power play significantly. Jagr scored a total of eight goals on the power play last season, just one less than Tarasenko who led the Blues in power play goals last season. Jagr’s eight are more than anyone else who played for the Blues last season though.
Remember Jagr spent last season with the Florida Panthers, a team that failed to make the playoffs, and was near the bottom of the league in terms of power play production. Not to mention all the off-ice distractions the Panthers faced with their head coach being dismissed rather unceremoniously early into the season.
On a good team like the Blues, without all the distractions, Jagr could be a severe threat on the second power play unit. Once he has the puck it’s almost impossible to take it from him and he has an amazing ability to create space and time for himself out of virtually nothing. There is every indication that his goal and point totals on special teams would rise from what they were last season if he were playing for a better team such as the Blues.
Why Sign Jagr Now
The Blues window for a championship with their current group is closing. Tarasenko is only 25 years old and barring some horrific injury has a long career ahead of him. Much of the rest of the team core of the team though is beginning to exit the prime years of their career, Jay Bouwmeester and Steen are each 33, Paul Stastny is 31. It sounds odd to say that bringing in a 45-year-old makes this team more competitive but with Jagr it really does make sense.
Radulov at 5v5 last year: 8 goals and 23 assists in 1113 minutes. Jagr at 5v5 last year: 8 goals and 25 assists in 1129 minutes. Too old? — Andrew Berkshire (@AndrewBerkshire) July 2, 2017
The only person who really knows how much money and term Jagr wants in a contract is Jagr himself. Jagr has said he wants to play until he’s 50. I don’t think signing him for that long is a good idea but why not two years? The Blues are up against the cap but as the summer drags on and the start of the season looms ever nearer you have to think that Jagr’s price goes down if he wants to continue the play in the NHL. The Blues seem like a good fit for him.This article is about the federal constituent units. For the grouping of regions by a Presidential Decree, see Federal districts of Russia
The federal subjects of Russia, also referred to as the subjects of the Russian Federation (Russian: субъекты Российской Федерации, subyekty Rossiyskoy Federatsii) or simply as the subjects of the federation (Russian: субъекты федерации subyekty federatsii), are the constituent entities of Russia, its top-level political divisions according to the Constitution of Russia.[1] Since March 18, 2014, the Russian Federation constitutionally has consisted of 85 federal subjects,[2] although the two most recently added subjects are recognized by most states as part of Ukraine.[3][4]
According to the Russian Constitution, the Russian Federation consists of republics, krais, oblasts, cities of federal importance, an autonomous oblast and autonomous okrugs, all of which are equal subjects of the Russian Federation.[5] Three Russian cities of federal importance (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Sevastopol) have a status of both city and separate federal subject which comprises other cities and towns (Zelenograd, Troitsk, Kronstadt, Kolpino, etc.) within each federal city—keeping older structures of postal addresses. In 1993 the Russian Federation comprised 89 federal subjects. By 2008 the number of federal subjects had decreased to 83 because of several mergers. In 2014 Sevastopol and the Republic of Crimea became the 84th and 85th federal subjects of Russia |
continue to be the age group most affected.
Preliminary figures released today by Public Health England ( PHE ) estimate that around 56,000 previously unvaccinated 10 to 16 year olds in England have received a first dose of vaccine in the catch-up programme and around the same number of partially vaccinated children have also received an extra dose of MMR.
PHE estimates that around 120,000 extra 10 to 16 year olds need to have their first MMR doses to reach 95% uptake of the first dose – these are the ‘priority’ group who do not have any protection against measles, mumps or rubella. The 56,000 who have so far received a first dose suggests we are almost halfway toward this aim.
A detailed study on exactly who was unvaccinated, who has had one dose and who has had two doses is underway and is expected to be completed in the autumn.
Ninety-five per cent of GP practices have ordered extra vaccine and more than 200,000 extra doses of MMR vaccine have been delivered. To ensure as many children are vaccinated as possible, the need for a school based programme is being actively considered for the next academic year.
Dr Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisation at Public Health England said: “Measles is a highly infectious and unpleasant disease that can lead to very serious complications. Children who have not had the MMR vaccine are at high risk of catching the disease.
Thanks to the hard work of local health teams we are making good progress towards the 95% target, but there still remains a large number of 10 to 16 year olds, together with many younger children and adults who are under-vaccinated. The programme will continue until we reach as many children as possible in the age groups most affected. If your child has not had the MMR vaccine, the upcoming summer holidays is a good time to contact your GP to get them vaccinated.
Professor David Salisbury, Director of Immunisation at the Department of Health, said:
The best way to beat measles is to protect people before measles catches them. It’s encouraging that GPs have taken up the challenge wholeheartedly but we now need to make sure that all children at risk are vaccinated. The best thing that parents can do, if their children have not had two doses of MMR, is to make an appointment with the GP now.
ends
Notes to editors:These are the best of times, these are the worst of times. San Francisco voters will be making value statements when they head to the polls this November. Do we value diversity? Do we value and recognize the experiences, contributions and culture of people of color?
At a particularly ugly and contentious Board of Supervisors meeting in July, the six so-called “progressive” supervisors — John Avalos, David Campos, Jane Kim, Eric Mar, Aaron Peskin and Norman Yee — voted to kill a police reform ballot measure proposed by the board’s only African-American supervisors, Malia Cohen and London Breed.
The police reform measure, which ultimately survived as Proposition G on November’s ballot, was sure to win at the polls. But in an act of pure political retaliation against Supervisor Cohen, the progressives voted to kill it and roll its provisions into their Public Advocate measure, which was far less likely to pass. They jeopardized important police reforms for their petty political vendetta.
If you are willing to use police reform as a political ploy, a sacrificial pawn, it’s pretty clear you don’t care very much about the African-American community in this city — what’s left of us, that is.
Kanye West once famously said, “[George] Bush doesn’t care about black people!” I’m here to proclaim to the world today that the same can be said about the so-called San Francisco progressives. They do not care about black people.
Unfortunately, as an African American of both African and Latinx descent, it angers me when they use the lived reality of my community for political theater. I’ve learned a sad lesson after eight years in local politics: They don’t really care. The progressive political machine in San Francisco does not value black people.
When supervisors Breed and Cohen were fighting to pass neighborhood preference legislation, which prioritizes local residents for affordable housing and can help slow the displacement of African Americans from our communities, white progressive housing activists fought against it behind the scenes.
With public housing, which represents some of the last major housing for African Americans in this city, those same white, typically home-owning, progressive activists consistently ignore it altogether. Calvin Welch, the pony-tailed godfather of white paternalism in San Francisco, demeans Supervisor Breed’s work to rehabilitate public housing, saying it “added not one new unit.”
In other words, it’s OK if black people live in squalor, surrounded by rats and roaches and busted pipes, with no working heat or elevators. And anyone who dedicates themselves to fixing those issues is just wasting time.
Public housing residents are some of the most vulnerable people in The City. But the progressive Tenants Union won’t help them, and the progressive housing activists don’t even care.
Consider what the progressive political machine is doing on the issue of soda taxes right now. Soda companies disproportionately target black people, particularly black kids, for advertising. African Americans are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes, 3.5 times more likely to have a lower limb amputated because of diabetes, and twice as likely to die from it. An African-American supervisor, Cohen has proposed to tax soda for its health impact, and what is the progressive machine doing?
They are taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from big soda corporations. The progressive “Affordable Housing Alliance” has so far received $180,000 from Coke and Pepsi’s lobbying arm, the American Beverage Association. The Tenants Union has taken in $70,000, and the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic club is taking thousands more.
All of this soda money, earned on the backs of African Americans’ health, is funding campaign mailers for progressive supervisorial candidates and Jane Kim’s state Senate campaign against Scott Wiener, who rightly supports the tax.
In District 5, Board President Breed is running for re-election, facing a supposed progressive opponent named Dean Preston. Breed, a charismatic African-American woman who grew up in public housing, has been fighting for her community since childhood. She is the San Francisco dream: a hardworking, overachiever who made it big. Preston, on the other hand, is white, extremely wealthy — campaign filings show his millions in tech stocks — and also extremely entitled. He uses black people as political props.
In an effort, I guess, to appeal to D5’s black voters, Preston brags in his campaign literature and ballot statement about how his wife’s grandfather was African American. Really? Your grandfather-in-law? My cousin’s friend once had a roommate who knew a guy who was black. Do you have any idea how patronizing and offensive that is?
Sadly, this is what passes for political outreach to the black community from many in the progressive political machine. The San Francisco Democratic Central Committee had the opportunity to elect a very talented, truly progressive and widely adored gay African-American firefighter as chair. The “progressive” majority declined to do so. Why? Because he represented an independent voice who would truly advocate for the views and needs of diverse communities.
Being black in San Francisco can be a lonely experience. I fight for the political leaders — be they white, black, Asian, gay, straight or otherwise — who value our experiences, want to bring us together and who fight for all of us. I wish the progressive machine would occasionally do the same.
Jacquelyn Omotalade is an environmentalist who focuses her work on environmental justice, social equity and communities of color. She lives in the Mission.
Click here or scroll down to commentDetails Created on Tuesday, 17 December 2013 10:01
The impact of flavors variability on e-cigarette experience
An online survey published in a medical journal
A new study on e-cigarettes was published today in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The study from Dr Farsalinos and his group evaluated the impact of flavors variability on e-cigarette experience in dedicated vapers, through an online survey.
From 4618 participants, more than 90% were former smokers, while the rest were dual users. On average, 3 different types of flavors were regularly used by participants, with former smokers switching between flavors more frequently compared to dual users. At initiation of e-cigarette use, tobacco flavors were more popular, while subsequently there was a switch to fruit and sweet flavors. Participants rated flavors variability as “very important” (score 4 out of 5) in their effort to reduce or completely substitute smoking. Almost half of the population reported that restricting variability would increase craving for cigarettes and would make efforts to substitute smoking more difficult. Finally, the number of flavors used was an independent predictor of smoking abstinence.
The study (which can be downloaded for free here) is important because it is a peer-reviewed publication of what all vapers know: flavors are an important part of e-cigarettes’ success and pleasure perceived by vapers. Adults also like flavors, and this study shows that flavors are marketed because there is a demand by regular users. They are important for vapers’ efforts to stay off cigarettes and they are not targeting youngsters (as accused by the news media and several political groups). Considering the fact that adoption of e-cigarettes by youngsters is minimal (and mostly observed in smokers), any regulation that would restrict flavors variability would be inappropriate. It would cause harm to vapers while no public health benefits would be observed in any other population group. Instead, restrictions to the use of e-cigarettes by youngsters should be imposed, while flavors variability should be maintained both for current users and for smokers who should be tempted to use e-cigarettes as an alternative habit.The Pacific Whale Watch Association says there’s a reason orcas are called killer whales.
They say this week, a whale-on-whale battle between transient orcas, also known as Bigg’s killer whales, and 40-ton gray whales, played out not far offshore from Everett.
“It was a clash of the titans out there,” said senior deckhand and naturalist Tyson Reed of Island Adventures Whale Watching. “We had just watched this group of Bigg’s conduct an incredibly efficient hunt of some unlucky sea mammal just off the west side of Gedney Island – precise, quick, agile movements, ripping it apart, feeding the small parts to the young. Spectacular, as always with these guys, but then the show really began.”
The crew then saw the group of four killer whales continue north into Saratoga Passage and directly into the company of two adult “Saratoga gray whales,” part of about a dozen migratory eastern north Pacific grays that come into this part of Puget Sound each spring to feed on ghost shrimp.
“Four killer whales aren’t about to take on two 40-ton grays,” said Reed. “Or at least we thought they wouldn’t. But one of the transients, who we know as T137A, decided to have a go at these guys and the battle was on. Pec fins began to fly left and right as the grays rolled onto their backs and blasted T137A with their blows. They were definitely not happy to have the orca intruding on them and were fighting back.”
“It was a major altercation,” said Capt. Michael Colahan of Island Adventures. “Both grays rolled over maybe a dozen times. Pretty wild!”
PWWA says things soon took a bad turn for the intrepid orca as he found himself in the middle of two extremely perturbed leviathans. They say the killer whale, overmatched and likely calling for help, soon got some backup from his mother, T137, who quickly parked her two younger offspring safely about 500 yards to the north, changed direction and headed over to the tussle. What transpired then can only be speculated.
“But if orca mothers are like human mothers, chances are Mama sorta grabbed her boy by the ear, gave him a few stern words about picking fights on the playground, and led him away,” said Michael Harris, Executive Director of Pacific Whale Watch Association, which represents 36 operators in BC and Washington. “And sure enough, after a few more pec slaps and commotion, our young killer whale friend was dusting himself off and heading north with his mother – probably with a scrape or two to remind him to pick on something his own size next time.”
The two grays who survived the attack, known by researchers as #56 and #531, had no visible injuries.
Copyright 2016 KINGRomance of the Three Kingdoms XII Developer(s) Koei Publisher Tecmo Koei JP Date Released 2012 EU Date Released N/A US Date Released N/A Genre: Strategy Game modes: Singleplayer ESRB rating: Teen Platform(s): Windows
Media: DVD
Sangokushi 12 (三國志12) (English: Romance of the Three Kingdoms 12) is Koei’s 12th installment in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series. It was released in Japan in February 2012 on PC. Koei has not made any plans to release the game overseas. In December 2012 Wii U and PlayStation 3 versions were released in Japan, but not in Europe and the US. The game is designed to be played on low-end pc’s and features a simple 2D world map, 2D cities and 2D battlefields. The game can also be played on touchscreens and tablets.
481 characters appear in this game, which is a lot less than in Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI, but all characters do have new (high quality) portraits, which was not the case in XI.
In 2016 it's successor was released; Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII.
Contents show]
Gameplay Edit
The gameplay basically consists of two phases; the managing phase and the battle phase. In the managing phase you build buildings in your cities through which you gain money, food, fame and troops, or through which you can build up your defense, increase your army’s strength, defense, range and speed and research special plans and build siege weapons. The managing phase is turn-based. The battle phase is where you put all your acquired officers, troops, siege weapons and researches into action in hopes of either gaining new territory or not lose any territory. The battles in Romance of the Three Kingdoms XII are real-time, but can be paused at any minute to give orders or use special abilities.
Managing Cities Edit
There are four different types of cities: Agriculture, Commerce, Normal City and Big City. An agricultural city raises the effectiveness of farms by 1,5, a commercial city raises the effectiveness of markets by 1,5, a normal city does not raise effectiveness of anything but usually has more building spots and a big city has the most building spots of all city types and slightly raises effectiveness of farms, markets and barracks by 1,2.
In every city buildings can be places on building spots. There are eight types of buildings: farms, markets, barracks, guard stations, plots, smiths, finders and academies. Farms and markets will get you food and money. Food and money is both for your troops, but money is also needed to build or upgrade buildings, creating siege weapons and researching. A barrack will get you new troops. The more barracks you have the higher your draft. A guard station raises your fame, which will attract more officers, but it will also increase your city defense. At a smith you can build rams and catapults, with the latter being the most expensive but the more effective one. Before you can build siege weapons, you need to do a research at your academies. You need to place two Academies in a city to be able to let officers research there. Finally, the finder lets one of your officers recruit new officers or search for valuable items.
Early on it’s recommended to quickly acquire more troops and officers, so you should build a finder in a couple of cities and two or three barracks per city. The remainder of the building spots can be filled up with farms (one per city is more than enough), markets (the more, the better), one or two smiths and two academies in a big city. All cities that are adjacent to enemy territory should have a Guard Station and a Plot.
Battles Edit
Battles inare real-time. A battle can be triggered by deploying an army on an adjacent enemy territory. It is possible for both factions to request reinforcements. Victory or defeat is determined by a number of factors, such as the base strength of the officers involved, their special abilities, officer's LEAD, WAR and INT (which can be upgraded), troop size and army variety. When defending it might be wise to send archers and spearmen into battle. Archers can shoot arrows from your city wall, while spearmen can throw rocks. Enemy attacks are limited to special abilities (Fire) or archers, granting an advantage to defenders, while a city's gate is not destroyed (which often takes a while depending on its strength (Guard Stations) and the enemy's siege power). Horsemen can be valuable when used in quick ambushes on the enemy main camp as they are the fastest unit-type. While being on the attacking side it might be better to focus on siege weapons and infantry. Both of these units excel at taking down the enemy wall.
One downside of the game's battle system is the lack of depth. Pikemen have been removed, the battle maps are usually rather small and on most maps the enemy camp can only be attacked from one or two sides. The battles are further hampered by the 800-second time limit, which makes a lot of battles pretty straight forward. Battles in which one team only has a slight upper-hand over the other, might not even reach a conclusion before the timer reaches 0.
Despite all this, the game is still an enjoyable experience and should get an overseas release. If not retail, then as a download via the PlayStation Store or Xbox Live Marketplace.
Fan-made English Patch Edit
Some fans are currently busy creating English patches for the game. A few have been released already and can be downloaded here:
Trophies Edit
From Japanese to English with the help of online translators.
Trophies: 45
Gold: 2
Silver: 16
Bronze: 26
Name Trophy Type Description Full Domination Platinum Obtained all Trophies. Creator of history Gold Cleared all scenarios Supervise the Chinese Gold Have every general under your leadership at least once. Wang Ki virtue endeared Silver Had over 400 generals under your leadership at least once Tactics and Arrangements Silver Triggered a secret plan Peerless Warlord Silver Beat 200 generals Oryubi Hanzhong Silver Cleared the "Oryubi Hanzhong" scenario Pacified the state Silver Cleared the "Pacified The State" scenario Battle of Tong Gate Silver Cleared the "Battle of Tong Gate" scenario Special Confidence Silver Cleared the "Special Confidence" scenario Battle of the passing officer Silver Cleared the "Battle of the Passing Officer" scenario Lü Bu punitive campaign Silver Cleared the "War to Subdue Lü Bu" scenario Transition Xu Province Silver Cleared the Transition Xu Province scenario Powerful numbers Silver Cleared the Powerful Numbers scenario Anti-Dong Zhuo Alliance Silver Cleared the Anti-Dong Zhuo Alliance scenario Yellow Turban Rebellion Silver Cleared the Yellow Turban Rebellion scenario Nanao Sengoku Silver Cleared the "Nanao Sengoku" scenario Gathered Heroes Silver Cleared the Rise of Heroes scenario Reincarnation of Nobunaga Hidden Cleared the Reincarnation of Nobunaga scenario Committed Hero Bronze Total troop strength reached 1 million Supreme General Bronze Scored 20 victories Hero Bronze Killed over 100 troops Extroardinary Polemic Bronze Acquired first technique Testimony of an Oath Bronze Witnessed the Peach Garden Oath scene Witness of the Courtesan Bronze Witnessed the Beauty of Diaochan scene Testimony of optimum strength Bronze Witnessed the Battle of the Passing Officer scene Witness Fire Bronze Witnessed the Battle of Red Cliffs scene A Testimony of Gratitude Bronze Witnessed the Table of Expedition scene Majesty of a King Bronze Succesfully recommend an officer Knack of a Soldier Bronze Fire skill used 30 times Free Tactics Bronze Developed all tactics Artificer Bronze Researched all techniques to their max Small "Haou" Bronze Completely routed an enemy force Main Warlords Bronze Had at least 200 generals under your leadership Veteran General Bronze Killed 50 troops Phosphorus Piece Bronze Win your first battle Talented General Bronze Appointed as a military commander Introducing the Strategist Bronze Acquired a Skill Introducing the Politician Bronze Acquired a Technique Introducing the Scholar Bronze Researched a Card Honour of the Warrior Bronze Win a duel Disposition of the Minister Bronze??? Administration Bronze Upgrade a facility General Candidate Bronze Went to combat training
Selection of character portraits Edit
More portraits are stored HERE.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms XII Taisenban Edit
In 2014 TecmoKoei released Romance of the Three Kingdoms XII: Taisenban (Sangokushi 12 taisen-ban 三国志12対戦版) which included some new portraits.The Arizona Coyotes are making moves.
The Coyotes have acquired center Derek Stepan and goaltender Antti Raanta from the New York Rangers on Friday in exchange for the seventh overall pick in this year's draft and defenseman Anthony DeAngelo.
It was the Coyotes' second blockbuster deal Friday after acquiring Niklas Hjalmarsson from the Chicago Blackhawks.
Stepan, 27, steps in as the No. 1 center in Arizona, where he will lead a depth chart that includes Christian Dvorak and Dylan Strome. Stepan has four years remaining on his contract, carrying a cap hit of $6.5 million.
Stepan's contract has a no-trade clause that kicks in July 1. He scored 55 points in 81 games last season.
Raanta arrives in Arizona as the go-to goalie after the Coyotes recently dealt Mike Smith to the Calgary Flames. The Finnish netminder secured a 16-8-2 record and.922 save percentage in 30 games last season.
DeAngelo, 21, made his NHL debut with the Coyotes this season, recording 14 points in 39 games. He was originally acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning last June. The Lightning drafted DeAngelo with the 19th pick in 2014.SYDNEY — The Australia Prime Minister has ordered a fleet of bombproof BMWs to protect leaders during the G20 summit this year.
BMW Group Australia confirmed the Government purchased nine BMW 7 Series 760Li security vehicles. The vehicles are BMW armoured security vehicles with identical engineering and performance specifications.
The $6.2 million fleet can withstand AK47 fire, attacks with explosive devices or armour-piercing weapons.
See also: The 12 Most Expensive Cars at the New York Auto Show
"The optimised-armour plates are made from an incredibly strong special steel, and fit the bodywork of the car like a second skin," car manufacturer BMW said on their website. "And reducing the number of components also increases the level of protection for the occupants, as there are far fewer potential points of vulnerability."
A look in the boot of a BMW 7 Series High Security
Some of the features include a self-sealing petrol tank, an alarm to alert of attacks and an intercom which allows the occupants to communicate externally from inside the vehicle.
Luxury features include seat massages, 9.2 inch colour screens and adjustable seat temperature.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott's office confirmed the contract had been won by BMW, replacing the older fleet of Holden vehicles. A government spokesperson attributed the BMW Group’s success in the tender process to the high levels of security, performance, economy and service the company was able to provide.
The sale of the vehicles was completed through an official tender process conducted between BMW AG and the Australian government.
"As hosts of the G20, the Australian Government has an obligation to provide armoured vehicles for visiting foreign dignitaries — this security requirement is standard for all governments hosting international summits," a spokesman from Tony Abbott's office told the Daily Telegraph.
The BMW X5 Security, much like the BMW 7, can protect from an armed attack.
The style-conscious bombproof fleet of limousines, which retail for $525,000 each, will be used at the G20 summit in Brisbane in November to transport leaders such as U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
“The new vehicles will be used first during the G20 summit. After the G20, they will be placed around Australia and used as security transport for federal ministers, visiting foreign heads of state and senior foreign dignitaries,” the government spokesman said.Right now, Los Angeles can’t build roads fast enough. The city’s growth is outpacing highway construction crews. As the gentrification of the city’s core pushes low-income commuters farther out, traffic is condensing, and city planners are scrambling to find better ways to move cars, people, money, and just about everything else more efficiently. Ultimately, that conversation is about more than infrastructure; it’s about the cost and the quality of life in Los Angeles. And there’s really only one way to talk about that in terms of velocity. It’s called “effective speed.”
“We need a more holistic view of the costs of speed,” says University of New South Wales Professor Paul Tranter, an expert on assessing the value of built environments. “Speed often steals our time, steals our money, and steals our health.”
The idea of “effective speed” dates back to the mid-1970s, when Ivan Illich used it to bolster his critiques of institutionalized culture. And arguably, it’s older than that — as old as Benjamin Franklin’s borrowed dictum that “Time is Money,” which is the notion the term seeks to formalize. The idea of measuring speed as time valued in money — translating the marginal cost of travel into a unit — might seem basic, but it didn’t get much traction with planners until the expedited nature of modern urban development made it impossible to ignore. This is, after all, how people get screwed.
If a worker spends one hour total in transit driving to and from work, they might calculate their commute time as a single hour — but if they spent $10 in gas and mechanical wear over that same hour of travel, a more significant portion of their workday was spent supporting that daily commute. If this person makes $10 per hour, then their one-hour commute effectively costs them two hours of time. It doesn’t take long for the math to get untenable for low-wage workers, which presents a clear economic and less clear cultural problem for cities.
And the concept can be pushed further. For instance, cyclists subtract a few cents per day to cover lower health-care costs due to improved cardiovascular health. For one person, that doesn’t make much difference. For a city of millions, a bike lane’s astronomical value can be derived from these nickel-and-dime calculations. When the urban planning discussions orbit around the idea of effective speed, the goals can become clearer: Limit inequality of access and optimize for value over perceived convenience.
“Not everyone has the same amount of money,” Tranter laughs. “But no matter who you are, you’ve still got the same amount of time.”
He’s laughing because nothing is really that simple. As it turns out, low-income workers have high effective speed commutes, meaning that they take longer at a significant cost. People making less are effectively paying more time to do so. The vicious cycle of income inequality becomes apparent in this formulation: The difference isn’t just dollars, it’s hours lost, which is why effective speed undermines many of the truisms about urban planning. Nothing is built for drivers or cyclists or pedestrians. Those are not groups. The only group is people, and they end up paying vastly different amounts of time for access to the same places. The solution to traffic problems in Los Angeles shouldn’t — seen through this lens — only effect the people driving cars. Infrastructure is a way to give time back to the community writ large.
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That’s a big ask, which is why it’s rare to see public officials bringing up the idea.
“The concept has been met with either fear or hostility, either by people who love their cars or even some traffic engineers,” Tranter said, “since it calls into question the whole viability of an urban transport system based on cars, and it also demonstrates how futile it is to try to save time by building faster roads.”
Supporters of an effective speed-based model also believe that by embracing the efficiencies it optimizes for, we will necessarily undo some of the larger cultural implications of sprawl. If large numbers of families step down to owning only a single car, for example, they will need to consume more services closer to home. This could incentivize the re-fragmentation of central, driver-focused shopping districts into the scattered community businesses from whence they came. Effective speeds start to come down.
The inconvenient truth laid bare by effective speed is the extent to which cars make all other forms of transport less viable. Statistically speaking, Americans do not walk. And there’s a reason why: noise, smell, and the feeling of danger caused by cars. Clear some space on the roads, and lower the speed limits on smaller residential roads, and that new, tranquil space will be more viably used by pedestrians and cyclists alike. Costs are diminished, and effective speed once again goes down.
There are some issues that freeways don’t solve.
Imploring officials to invest in public transportation infrastructure is nothing new, however, and while many cities are investing in their own transportation futures, the latest plan for U.S. Federal transportation spending still puts an emphasis squarely on the privately owned and operated automobile. Seen through the lens of effective speed, this is an almost willful misunderstanding of what is good for citizens. Fixing roads may help Americans move faster, but it won’t move the country’s urban centers toward a sustainable future.Among registered voters in the latest poll, the spread is almost identical, with 51 percent saying they would vote for Mr. Obama and 38 percent saying they would vote for Mr. McCain. A New York Times/CBS News poll taken a week ago showed a similar margin of victory for Mr. Obama.
The latest nationwide telephone poll was conducted Sunday through Wednesday with 1,152 adults, of whom 1,046 said they were registered to vote. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.
To measure support for the candidates among specific voting blocs, The Times combined data from the latest poll with one conducted last week because some of the subgroups were too small to be statistically reliable when extracted from a single survey.
Despite Mr. McCain’s continued questioning of Mr. Obama’s readiness, the number of voters surveyed who say Mr. Obama has prepared himself well enough for the presidency was at its highest yet in the newest poll, 56 percent.
When The Times and CBS News first asked the question, more voters said they believed Mr. Obama was not ready, 49 percent, than believed he was, 44 percent. Mr. McCain still holds an advantage on that front, with 64 percent saying they believe he is prepared for the presidency.
There was also fresh evidence that Mr. McCain’s attacks on Mr. Obama’s character and qualifications in commercials, mailings, speeches and automated telephone calls were, if anything, harming Mr. McCain. The percentage of people who view Mr. McCain unfavorably was at its highest level since The Times and CBS began asking the question in 1999. Forty-six percent said they held unfavorable views of him, with 39 percent saying they viewed him favorably. Mr. Obama was viewed favorably by 52 percent of those surveyed, and unfavorably by 31 percent.
Voters were almost evenly split over Mr. Obama’s ability to handle a crisis wisely: 49 percent said they were confident he could and 47 percent said they would be uneasy. Respondents showed less ease with Mr. McCain: 51 percent said they would be uneasy with his approach and 46 percent expressed confidence.
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Mr. Obama fared better than Mr. McCain on economic matters: 65 percent said they were somewhat confident or very confident in Mr. Obama’s ability to handle the economy; 47 percent said the same thing about Mr. McCain.
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In spite of Mr. McCain’s sustained attack on Mr. Obama’s proposal to raise income taxes on households and businesses that earn more than $250,000 a year, Mr. Obama’s plan received significant support in the new poll. When voters were asked whether they supported the tax increase to help provide health insurance for those who are not covered, 62 percent said it was a “good idea” and 33 percent said it was a “bad idea.”
Voters were evenly divided over Mr. McCain’s plan to make permanent Mr. Bush’s 2001 tax cuts.
In another area where Mr. McCain could take heart, the last two polls offered fresh evidence that his choice of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate had helped to excite two traditional bases of support for Republican presidential candidates. White voters who say they attend church every week preferred Mr. McCain over Mr. Obama by 61 percent to 29 percent, and voters who live in the South preferred him over Mr. Obama by 51 percent to 40 percent.
But, over all, the percentage of those who view Ms. Palin unfavorably, 40 percent, was higher than those who view her favorably, 31 percent.
Senior strategists of both parties have viewed the unpopularity of Mr. Bush and the Republican Party as major drags on Mr. McCain’s chances. Favorability ratings for both are at all-time lows. Mr. Bush’s approval rating of 22 percent is tied for its worst in the history of the Times/CBS poll, and opinions of the Republican Party are at their lowest since the poll first included questions about the political parties in 1985. Only 36 percent expressed a favorable opinion of Republicans, compared with 56 percent who expressed a favorable view of Democrats.
That difference was reflected in comments from some respondents who said they had voted for Mr. Bush in 2004 but were planning to vote for Mr. Obama.
“I’ve always been a Republican, but I’ve switched in the last four years,” said Helen Taylor, 63, of Los Fresnos, Tex., in a follow-up interview. “I voted for Bush because I knew more about him than Kerry, and I stuck with the Republican stance on things at that time. But I became concerned about things Bush was doing, and now I’m more in line with the Democratic platform. I also like Barack Obama because he has intelligence and class and the ability to think on his feet.”
Mr. Obama has a 16-point advantage over Mr. McCain among women in the combined data of the last two polls; Senator John Kerry outpolled Mr. Bush by three percentage points among women in 2004, according to exit polls.
Mr. Obama is supported by 45 percent of white women, and Mr. McCain is preferred by 42 percent; Mr. Bush beat Mr. Kerry with 55 percent of the vote among white women, according to exit polls.
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Mr. Obama is tied with Mr. McCain among white men, a group that President Bush won with 61 percent of their vote. Mr. Bush’s father, George Bush, was favored by more white men than those who preferred Mr. Clinton when he won the White House in 1992.
Some voters ascribe racial motives to those opposing Mr. Obama. Among the 33 percent who said they knew someone who did not support him mainly because he is black was Robert Richter, a Democrat from Dunbar, Pa.
“Some people are prejudiced and don’t want to vote for him, for one thing, because he’s black and for another, because they feel he’s a Muslim,” said Mr. Richter, a gas station worker. “I think for some people saying Obama is a Muslim is their way of getting around the black issue.”
Mr. Obama is a Christian, but e-mail has circulated falsely identifying him as a Muslim.The final installment of the TMM Ramadan Series. This is a simple how-to guide about zakat al-fitr that every Muslim needs to know.
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We are nearing the end of Ramadan so this is the time you should reflect on how you did this month. Were you striving to uphold the Ramadan etiquettes the whole month, or did you fall short? If your Ramadan was perfect then thank and praise Allah and if your Ramadan was something less than perfect then seek His forgiveness in these last remaining days.
Allah, in his ultimate mercy, legislated zakat al-fitr at the end of this blessed month to give the Muslim a means to make up for whatever bad deeds he most surely committed during Ramadan. Ibn Abbas said:
“The Messenger of Allah obligated zakat al-fitr as a purification for the faster for any idle speech and inappropriate acts and to feed the poor, so whoever performs it before the prayer then the zakat will be accepted and whoever performs it after the prayer then it is a general charity.” (Ibn Majah, and Abu Dawud)
Zakat al-fitr is obligatory upon every Muslim male, female, adult and child according to the majority of scholars.
The zakat should be paid in the form of a staple food that is storable. The Sahabah used to give dates or barley, because they were staple food items for them at that time. Today it might be more appropriate to give rice, oatmeal, cereal, etc, depending on the food of the people in the area that you live.
Some of the Salaf, such as Abu Hanifah, Sufyan Ath-Thawree, Al-Hasan Al-Basree, and others were of the opinion that it is permissible to give the equivalent in money, but this opposes the clear hadith and the actions of the Sahabah.
The amount to be given is 1 saa’ per person in the family. A saa’ is a volumetric measurement equivalent to about 3 litres. Different grains have different weights so the best thing to do is weigh 3 litres of the food item you intend to give and then use that weight as a guide to how much you need to buy and disperse.
The following are the weights of common food items per person:
Rice = 82.5oz
Oatmeal = 40.5oz
Grits = 75oz
Cereal (Cheerios) = 12oz
So for example |
keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the Palestinian Authority for condemning the ramming attack in Nice on Friday, while encouraging such attacks in Israel.
“We experienced over the last few few days a shocking attack in Nice, which again shows the need for a united and aggressive position against the murderous terrorism that is striking the entire world,” Netanyahu said at the outset of the weekly cabinet meeting.
He said that he sent a letter of condolences and support to French President Francois Hollande in the name of government and the people of Israel.“The Palestinian Authority also sent condolences and condemnations, but with one difference,” he said. “Here not only do they not condemn ramming attacks, they encourage them. They praise the murderers and support them and their families in case the murderers are killed.”Terrorism is terrorism whether it takes place in France, or in Israel, Netanyahu said, adding that a united approach both to condemn and battle terrorism is needed in Israel and everywhere else.Netanyahu also made his first public comments about the situation in Turkey, saying that Israel believes the recently agreed upon reconciliation agreement between Israel and Turkey will continue “without any connection to the dramatic events in Turkey over the weekend.”Deputy Regional Cooperation Minister Ayoub Kara (Likud) told reporters before the cabinet meeting that Israel's interest is “not to intervene in what is happening inside Turkey, because there is an elected government there.”The Turkish people, he said, have decided that they want Recep Tayyip Erdogan as their president, “and we do not interfere.”Kara said that Israel is pleased “the crisis is behind us,” and that it only “strengthens the agreement that we wanted, and I think it will ties us closer together.”
Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>By Spencer Perry BEGIN SLIDESHOW Warcraft Blu-ray Set for September Release Date Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Legendary Pictures announced today that their video game-based epic fantasy film Warcraft will be released on Digital HD on September 13, and on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, 4K Ultra HD, DVD and On Demand on September 27, 2016. You can pre-order your own copy by clicking here. The Blu-ray release of the film is set to have over 90 minutes of special features, including: WARCRAFT: Bonds of Brotherhood Motion Comic : Take an interactive journey through the official WARCRAFT graphic novel with a never-before-seen motion comic that brings the story of the film’s young heroes – Prince Llane, Captain Lothar and Guardian Medivh – to life in this unique experience.
: Take an interactive journey through the official WARCRAFT graphic novel with a never-before-seen motion comic that brings the story of the film’s young heroes – Prince Llane, Captain Lothar and Guardian Medivh – to life in this unique experience. The World of Warcraft on Film : The “World of Warcraft” is much more than just a game – it is a cultural phenomenon as documented in this comprehensive multi-part feature focused on bringing the unique environs of WARCRAFT to film: The World of Talent : Fans can learn more about the casts’ reactions to being a part of the WARCRAFT film, how they prepared for their role and the challenges they encountered during filming. The World of VFX: The WARCRAFT universe wouldn’t exist without the tireless efforts of the VFX crew. Follow along with the filmmakers as they tell the story of how WARCRAFT came to life through VFX. Outfitting a World : Learn how the filmmakers worked with WETA workshop, Blizzard, and acclaimed costume designer Mayes Rubeo to create the weaponry and armor that must be familiar and otherworldly at the same time, all while creating a unique aesthetic for the film. The World of MOCAP : An overview of the creation of the Orcs and other digital characters from inception all the way through to the final execution. Through extensive footage of the actors in their MOCAP suits and live in-camera renderings during production, the audience will see the incredible effort that went into creating the Orcs. The World of Stunts : Though much of WARCRAFT was created through extensive VFX, the fight scenes and stunts had to be very real. In this featurette, fans can learn more about the extensive fight choreography and stunt work that fueled the film’s action from beginning to end.
: The “World of Warcraft” is much more than just a game – it is a cultural phenomenon as documented in this comprehensive multi-part feature focused on bringing the unique environs of WARCRAFT to film: Madame Tussauds’ Featurette : Featurette on the making of the WARCRAFT wax figures by Madame Tussauds.
: Featurette on the making of the WARCRAFT wax figures by Madame Tussauds. WARCRAFT Teaser : An early teaser which premiered at San Diego Comic-Con in 2013.
: An early teaser which premiered at San Diego Comic-Con in 2013. Deleted Scenes
Gag Reel
Origin Story
The Fandom of WARCRAFT : Delve into the history and breadth of the fandom behind the game and film, as well as the way it has influenced pop culture.
: Delve into the history and breadth of the fandom behind the game and film, as well as the way it has influenced pop culture. ILM: Behind the Magic of WARCRAFT: See some of the groundbreaking facial capture technology utilized by Industrial Lights & Magic to convey the emotion and depth of the visually impressive Orc characters in the film. Directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) and written by Charles Leavitt and Jones, the film stars Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Rob Kazinsky and Daniel Wu.
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images SHARE TWEET Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.The late film critic Roger Ebert is one of my personal heroes. I didn’t always agree with his star ratings, but I appreciated his thought process, his unapologetic nostalgia and sentimentality, and his willingness to bring morality into his reviews — something I rarely see outside of faith-based movie criticism. About the Tarantino knockoff “Thursday” (1998), Ebert wrote: “Watching it, I felt outrage. I saw a movie so reprehensible I couldn’t rationalize it using the standard critical language about style, genre, or irony. The people associated with it should be ashamed of themselves.” His take on the “torture porn” horror flick “Wolf Creek” (2005) was similar: “The theaters are crowded right now with wonderful, thrilling, funny, warm-hearted, dramatic, artistic, inspiring, entertaining movies. If anyone you know says this is the one they want to see, my advice is: Don’t know that person no more.”
Such statements, from a critic, might seem antiquated or hyperbolic. Yet I’m intrigued by Ebert’s belief that being appalled is a valid critical response to cinema, because it came with a crucial corollary. Ebert believed anything is theoretically OK to depict on film if — and this is a big if — the filmmakers earn the right to do so. How? By making movies that aren’t mindless, heartless, and soulless. Ebert was hardly a moral scold, and he definitely didn’t advocate censorship. He had few kind words for the MPAA, which hands down ratings with all the precision of a drone missile. But he didn’t mind expressing outrage, as a filmgoer and a human being, in moral terms.
I used to have a very strong aversion to horror movies. If they weren’t immoral, per se, then they seemed at least frighteningly amoral. Eventually, I started actually paying attention to horror and thinking about what it does and why. I have a better sense now of what horror’s place in the culture might be, and what it can achieve, but I still feel like an amateur when it comes to making sense of cinema’s most stigmatized genre (besides pornography, of course).
Three of my favorite horror films are “28 Days Later,” “The Cabin in the Woods,” and “Let the Right One In.” The first two take a hard look at what happens when individual rights such as freedom and life itself are brutally subordinated, supposedly for the greater good. They’re about Faustian bargains and power that corrupts. Some of their characters opt for the lesser of two evils and pay the moral price. But these films also hinge on human connections based in love, or at least empathy. The third movie explores similar ideas of power and moral compromise in a more intimate context. It uses a close relationship between two children to examine how even a child’s survival instinct might compel him to abandon conventional morality — essentially, to sell his soul for safety and protection.
Such analysis makes these movies sound hopelessly heavy, but in fact they’re quite entertaining to watch. “Cabin” is especially fun it belongs to possibly the riskiest of all subgenres: horror-comedy. So many films of this type seem like exercises in very poor taste, since their often unfunny “comedy” tends only to cheapen their already degraded depiction of human life. But “Cabin,” cowritten by “Avengers” director and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator Joss Whedon, comments on horror tropes even as it uses them to great effect. It also humanizes its archetypal characters through a deft mix of wit, cynicism, and philosophical playfulness (as revealed in the highly entertaining commentary track, which features Whedon and the film’s director, Drew Goddard).
The horror genre is often the first to be scapegoated when people shake their fists about the immorality of today’s movies. Indeed, the “Saw” and “Hostel” franchises evoke in me a kind of moral nausea. Yet a surprising number of horror films take on hefty moral questions in fresh and unexpected ways. (Meanwhile, plenty of non-horror movies uncritically propagate misogyny, racism, and so on. Once I got past the exploitative, stomach-turning worst that horror has to offer, I saw that the best of the genre doesn’t just have a moral compass: It can be an unlikely vehicle for thought-provoking social commentary.From the 2012 performance that nearly killed Jake Dobkin (Jake Dobkin / Gothamit)
Music nerds and music nerds with kids, rejoice: They Might Be Giants is playing a far-too-infrequent pair of shows for kids this Sunday at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, one at 12:30 p.m. and another at 3:30 p.m.
TMBG, "arguably the best pop band Brooklyn has produced in the last 30 years" according to, uh, Gothamist, does not dumb down their music for kids, but simply makes brilliant melodies with kid themes. (For those without ankle biters, that's what kindie rock is.)
When we spoke to John Linnell in 2008 about their child-friendly creative process works (they had already released kids' albums No! and Here Come the ABCs and were about to release Here Come the 123s), he said, "In general we apply the same aesthetic to the kids’ material as to the adult material, which is to say we just do something that mainly we like - and obviously it has to be appropriate for kids. But I don’t think we’ve tried to alter our notion of what’s good. I think we feel the stuff that’s at the core of what we like is something adults and kids can both get." Here Come the 123s earned TMBG a Grammy Award.
We hear that TMBG will be playing songs from No!, Here Come the ABCs, Here Come the 123s and Here Comes Science PLUS "some all time TMBG favorites." Also: "Expect confetti and foam fingers." Tickets are $25 each, but there's a $90 Family Fun pack for four tickets.
My daughter, husband and I have listened to a lot of TMBG children's songs. Here are some of our favorites (we really like the math and science ones):
From No!, "Where Do They Make Balloons?":
From Here Comes Science, "The Bloodmobile"—my daughter now understand how the heart works and what blood actually does!
Also from Here Comes Science, "Meet the Elements," which is my favorite; there's something a little wistful in it:
From Here Come the ABCs, "Alphabet Lost and Found":
From Home Come the 123s, "813 Mile Car Trip":
And did you see how TMBG covered Destiny's Child "Bills Bills Bills"? Maybe they'll do "Bootylicious" if you ask nice:Explore the wonders of the Universe
Astronomy Nights are free and open to all Astronomy Program Parking Pass
Welcome to the Mt. Tam Astronomy Program. This educational program is designed to give the public and students of all ages and backgrounds a better understanding of our universe by hearing about current theories and discoveries followed by an opportunity to observe through telescopes.
Evening programs are held each Saturday between the new and first quarter moon from April through October. A talk by a professional astronomer, physicist, or space scientist begins in the Mountain Theater (directions) near the end of twilight and lasts about 45 minutes. These presentations are typically enhanced by beautiful images projected on a large screen. The audience is invited to ask questions at the end.
Immediately following each month’s lecture, the audience is invited to remain in the Mountain Theater for a brief Night Sky Tour by the Urban Astronomer, highlighting the prominent constellations, stars and planets visible in the night time sky, before enjoying the observing session (starparty) conducted by the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers in the Rock Springs parking lot.
Following the lecture, audience members are invited to the Rock Spring parking area to view through telescopes provided by members of the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers. The observing session (or “starparty”) lasts from 1 to 1 1/2 hours, depending on the seeing conditions and the size of the crowd.
Viewing Etiquette
The observing sessions are courtesy of the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers. The equipment is the personal property of the members. Please do not handle or adjust any equipment without the explicit permission of the owners. White light ruins dark adeptness, so please use only filtered (preferably red) light around the telescopes. (The greeters in the Mountain Theater have filters and loaner flashlights for those who do not bring their own.) The observing sessions last about 1 to 1 1/2 hours after the programs.
Volunteers Needed
Volunteers are needed to keep these programs going. We need YOU to become a VIP (Volunteers In Parks, also Very Important Person). No experience is necessary. You can park cars, greet the audience, or help set up and take down our equipment, and still enjoy the speaker and observing session.
Volunteers are asked to attend a one-time, two hour orientation to become a State Park VIPP. Call Tinka at 415.454.4715 and sign up now to ensure that our programs will continue.
Parking
Parking is available at Rock Spring and is free (see Directions). All program participants are required to have an Astronomy Program Parking Pass displayed on the dash of all vehicles. Please register and pre-print your pass via the link provided Astronomy Program Parking Pass.
Note: Mt Tam State Park closes at Sunset. The Pantoll Road gate leading to Rock Spring and the Mt Theater will close at sunset. Please arrive before sunset (park closure).
Closing Time
The Program end will be announced. We ask that all guests leave the State Park promptly at the end of the viewing session that follows the lecture. State Park rangers will cite vehicles left in the park after the program ends.
Special Thanks
We thank and greatly appreciate the support of the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers, who conduct telescope clinics and provide telescopes for public viewing at Mt. Tam Astronomy events.
Check the Clear Sky Chart for Mt. Tam
Clear Sky Chart is the astronomer’s forecast for the next 48 hours. Read from left to right. Locate a column of blue blocks. That’s when the sky will likely to be clear and dark. Many thanks to Attilla Danko at Clearsky.com for this free service!Image caption The seventh launch of the year for an Ariane 5 rocket
A powerful new telecommunications satellite for the UK military has blasted into orbit.
The five-tonne Skynet-5D platform was sent up on an Ariane rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.
It complements three others already in operation, enabling British forces to stay connected over most of the globe.
The Skynet system, which includes the radio equipment deployed on ships, on vehicles and in the hands of troops, is the UK's single biggest space project.
It is valued at up to £3.6bn over 20 years and is run by a commercial company, Astrium, in a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) with the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
UK forces pay an annual service charge for which they get guaranteed bandwidth, with spare capacity then sold to "friendly forces". These third party customers include the Nato allies such as the US.
The Ariane left the ground at precisely 18:49 local time (21:49 GMT) and dropped off Skynet-5D 27 minutes later over the east coast of Africa. 5D will now use its own propulsion system to move into a geostationary position at an altitude of 36,000km. The eventual operating position early next year will be at 53 degrees East.
The first three spacecraft in the Skynet series were launched in 2007-2008. They all match the sophistication of the very latest civilian platforms used to pass TV, phone and internet traffic, but have been "hardened" for military use.
Classified technologies on board will resist, for example, attempts to disable the spacecraft with lasers or to "jam" their operation with rogue signals.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Jonathan Amos was given special access to Skynet-5D before its launch
Putting a fourth spacecraft in the fleet gives some assurance to the MoD that a basic service can be maintained through this decade even if there is a failure in orbit of one or two satellites.
5D is largely a clone of 5A, 5B and 5C, and even includes a number of spare parts held in reserve.
Image caption Antarctic science bases are using Skynet
"From a distance you would not be able to tell the difference between them all," said Van Odedra, the Skynet programme manager at Astrium, Europe's biggest space company.
"It is inside though that there have been some subtle changes in terms of the configuration - particularly the UHF payload. We were able to introduce some design changes to be able to provide more than double the number of channels compared with 5A, 5B and 5C."
UHF (Ultra High Frequency) is much in demand. The frequency supports "comms on the move" - soldiers in forward deployments with backpack radios, and the like.
The MoD wants more of it and Astrium is keen to be able to sell additional capacity to its third-party customers.
A lot of key encrypted data will go through the satellite's X-band (SHF, Super High Frequency) payload.
Astrium intends to purchase further X-band capacity on a Canadian satellite launching next year. This will be positioned over the Americas and when combined with Skynet's own X-band offering will give UK forces coverage from 178 West to 135 East - near global coverage.
Antarctic support
Although principally a military system, Skynet is finding use also in civilian sectors.
"Using Skynet, we also support something called the High Integrity Telecommunication System (HITS) for the UK Cabinet Office," explained Simon Kershaw, executive director of government communications at Astrium Services.
"HITS is a civil-response, national-disaster-response capability. It was deployed during the Olympics. It provides emergency comms support. The network runs from police strategic command centres across the UK into the crisis management centres, and into government as well," he told BBC News.
Image caption Skynet is one of the MoD's biggest PFIs
"And we still fly three of the old Skynet-4 satellites, one of which is now 22 years old - not bad for a design life of eight years.
"Skynet-4C is now in such an inclined orbit that we offer several hours of coverage over the South Pole each day. It's a niche and unique capability for what is a geostationary satellite." The British and American Antarctic operations make use of this service.
5D represents probably the completion of the current generation Skynet system. Already, Astrium is in discussion with the MoD about the shape of a possible follow-on.
It is not clear just yet what the military's requirements will be in the 2020s but it is almost certain to include some satellite capability.
Whatever happens, those spacecraft still working at the end of the Astrium contract will pass to the ownership of the MoD for the sum of £1.
Ariane's second "passenger" for Wednesday's flight was the three-tonne Mexican telecommunications platform Mexsat Bicentenario. It was released by the rocket's upper-stage 36 minutes after launch.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmosBuy Photo Artist Pamela Bliss’ mural of Kurt Vonnegut is featured on the exterior of a building in the 300 block of Mass Ave. (Photo: Frank Espich/The Star)Buy Photo
Councilman John Barth was telling me about one of his latest ideas — an ordinance to rename Downtown's Senate Avenue after Kurt Vonnegut — when the question struck me: We don't already have a street named after Vonnegut?
What the heck?
Why, after all these decades of acclaim, both before and since the literary giant's death in 2007, hasn't Indianapolis seen fit to name a street, an avenue, a boulevard or even a court or a place after one of the most important figures it has ever produced? A man that Barth's council colleague, Kip Tew, accurately labeled, "One of the most iconic writers in the second half of the 20th Century" and "maybe the most recognized name internationally of someone from Indianapolis."
Rather than tout its ties to Vonnegut, Indianapolis has long seemed stumped at the connection, unsure of how to react to it. The affectionate though strained relationship the writer had with his home city was no secret, of course. But don't most people have a complicated view of the hometowns they left? I know I do.
Fortunately, the city has taken nice steps in recent years to better acknowledge Vonnegut. There's that wonderful mural on Massachusetts Avenue that went up four stories high three years ago, the one of a rumpled Vonnegut looking down at those passing by. And most important, there is the charming Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library that opened Downtown four years ago.
Still, it doesn't seem enough. And that reality goes beyond this one celebrity.
"I don't think in general we do nearly a good enough job of celebrating our culture or the successes of our citizens," Barth said. "We also need to do more in our neighborhoods to help define them, and part of that is about celebrating the great people who have come out of this city."
So, Barth is crafting a modest ordinance that, if approved, would rename as Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Street the roughly mile-and-a-half stretch of Senate Avenue that goes from Washington Street to 16th Street. It's a street that, after cutting between the west side of the Statehouse and state government offices, is dotted with parking lots and garages, apartments, empty lots and a few businesses, including the Vonnegut Library at 340 North Senate Ave. If ever there was a street that wouldn't be disrupted much by a name change, this is it.
On a recent afternoon, a handful of tourists from Oregon milled about the library, looking at Vonnegut's art, typewriter, letters and other memorabilia from his life in and out of Indianapolis. Curator Chris Lafave talked with one of the tourists about a passage in Slaughterhouse-Five before walking me around the library and praising the push to rename the street outside its front door. It would, he said, be another important step toward fully embracing and championing the hometown author.
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Yes, I understand that this isn't an issue on par with those of crime, neighborhood blight and education — issues that occupy the bulk of Barth's council agenda, and that dominated most of our chat the other day. But what's wrong with doing something that celebrates our city's greatness a little more often? Amid all the political fights, why not jump on something that just feels good, fun and right?
And long overdue.
Who knows if it will happen. It's hard to find anything that doesn't get bogged down in politics these days. Critics of some of Vonnegut's political positions might resist the idea, and others might suggest other locations with deeper ties to Vonnegut. State lawmakers might not appreciate a change of the name of a street that runs alongside the Statehouse, even though it doesn't have a Senate Avenue address.
Nonetheless, it should happen. On Senate Avenue or somewhere else. Why? Because Indianapolis needs to do more to celebrate the greatness it has helped produce. That list doesn't end with Vonnegut, but he's a good starting point. And, as Tew said, there's another important argument to be made.
At a time when freedom of speech is challenged far too often, including by the evil that terrorized Paris last week, it's a good time to celebrate a writer who faced censorship and who spent his life writing and speaking fearlessly.
Related:More columns from Matthew Tully.
Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/1BU2T8OWe have followed the rapid destruction of the secular government and civil liberties in Turkey under the authoritarian rule of Recep Tayyip Erdogan — assisted by the long-standing and continuing support of the Obama Administration of Erdogan. Erdogan used the recent failed coup to push his effort to create a de facto Islamic regime and to complete his work in arresting his critics, including forcing the resignation of thousands of secular academics, and suspending all civil liberties in a proclaimed state of emergency. Recently, Erdogan threatened the United States that he wants his greatest critic, US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, delivered to him and that a failure to yield to his demands would be a “big mistake.” Now, he has ordered the round up of journalists despite the fact that journalists helped him stay in power during the coup by bravely continuing to broadcast during the coup. In addition, his government is now arresting people who express doubt (with many internationally) about the coup. Erdogan has been known to use trumped up events to expand his power and many believe that he is not only using the coup as an excuse but engineered the coup. His government now says that anyone raising such concerns is likely a coup plotter and should be arrested.
Erdogan’s government has declared a state of emergency and suspended all civil liberties. It has also issued arrest warrants for over 40 journalists who will join over 13,000 people detained in the wake of the July 15 coup bid. Erdogan is using the coup (which many believe was staged) to wipe out the supporters of one of his greatest critics: US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Yet, Erdogan remains our close ally as he eradicates the most fundamental rights of free speech, free press, due process, and democratic government. Amnesty International has announced that it has “credible evidence” of the beating and torture of detainees.
Erdogan’s Islamic parties are continuing to stay in the streets to guarantee that there is no more trouble as he “cleanses” the government, schools, media, and other parts of society of any critics.
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FacebookThe Wizard (Ian Brackenbury Channell) is the self-described "official Wizard of New Zealand", classified by art galleries and critics as a Living Work of Art, designer of the Post-Modern Cosmology, theorist of the Fun Revolution, founder of the Imperial British Conservative Party, role-model for Post-Feminist men, and Metaphysical Engineer”. Locals and visitors alike know him for his Cathedral Square orations.
Ian Brackenbury Channell was born in London, England in 1932. His career path involved time as a Royal Air Force Navigator. In 1963 he obtained a B.A. Double Honours in Psychology and Sociology. After travelling in the Middle East and teaching in Teheran, he became a lecturer, and later a Teaching Fellow, in Australia.
His career as a wizard began in 1969 when he was appointed Wizard of the University of New South Wales by the Vice Chancellor and Students' Union, enabling the continuation of experimental teaching and social reform techniques. The Wizard's living body was also donated to the National Gallery of Victoria as a Living Work of Art.
In New Zealand, he began his career with an oration in Cathedral Square in 1974. His fame grew to such an extent that the Director of the Robert McDougall Art Gallery in Christchurch contacted the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne and arranged transfer of Living Work of Art title to Christchurch.
In 1980 the Canterbury Promotion Council appointed the Wizard official Archwizard of Canterbury. Ten years later, he was appointed Wizard of New Zealand by Prime Minister Mike Moore.
Phone battles
During 1988, The Wizard took on the "tasteless tyrants of Telecom" by repainting the new blue telephone boxes back to their traditional red colour. The battle raged for twelve days, and the Christchurch City Council even got involved - suggesting they might charge rent for the public land on which the phone boxes stood, and voting to supply red paint. Most of the red phone boxes were later sold off, but a few remain, such as the metal one in Victoria Square. Read the Wizard's account of this story. It wasn't just local news either - The New York Times ran a piece in 1988.
Recognition
In September 1995, with the assistance from the Christchurch City Council, a week of activities took place celebrating 21 years of wizardry in Christchurch. There was a retrospective Living Work of Art exhibition in the city art gallery, a "hatching" from a giant egg, the construction of a large nest on top of the eleven-story University Library, and a Conclave of Wizards from Australia and various parts of New Zealand.
In 2005 The Wizard moved to Oamaru as he retired from his active duties. He still makes speaking appearances in Christchurch.
Some of the activities and issues associated with The Wizard:
Avoiding the filling out of census forms
Rain dances
Casting spells
The formation of Alf's Imperial Army
He proposed an alternative cosmology - the Upside-Down World, with Antarctica and South at the top of the map, and the Inside-Out Universe, which inverts all dimensions and measurements
The Wizardmobile, constructed from the front halves of two Volkswagen Beetles
His beliefs on the roles of men and women
A battle with Telecom over the colour of phoneboxes.
We recommend: Resources about The Wizard
Our online resources:
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Search the catalogue for material by and about The WizardThe highest rated reddit client for Windows Phone has been rewritten from the ground up and is now available for all Windows 10 devices. Now with a dynamic new UI, faster speeds, and features you have been asking for. Welcome to the new Baconit. We know you’re going to love it. Features Include: * A dynamic new UI that adapts to every device. * Speed. Everything is fast. Everything. * Beautiful “flip view” post navigation. * Subreddit and comment flair! (finally) * Instant comment access directly in flipview.. * Global navigation menu –jump to a new subreddit from anywhere. * Full subreddit sidebar support. * Reddit formatting helper for new posts. * Trending subreddits! * Inline markdown comment formatting. * Desktop wallpaper and lock screen updating. * User account and settings roaming. * Real-time comment markdown. * In-depth reddit search supporting all search filters * So much more! Do you have a feature you would love to see in Baconit? Do you have a change in the UI you want to make? Baconit is now open source and driven by the community. Stop by r/Baconit to learn more and get your hands dirty! Reddit is the web's best source for news, events, politics, technology, gamming, humor, and much more. With Baconit, you are able to quickly browse the vast information on reddit with a quick, clean, and beautiful interface. Official subreddit: www.reddit.com/r/baconit Baconit is not officially associated or licensed with reddit in any way.W
hen Giannis was drafted the expectations were low, with analysts saying in two years he might be a rotation player. Fastforward to now and he is coming off an impressive season and is expected to take yet another jump and possibly be in all star conversations.
Prior to the draft Giannis was regarded as a long and semi-athletic forward from Greece. What I think the pre-draft stuff failed to convey was just how athletic he was, which this recent ESPN article did. Giannis is a freak and you can see it in everything he does. Another thing that was totally missed in pre-draft stuff was the advanced vision Giannis displayed even as a rookie was nothing short of astonishing. At his size to have the feel for the game he has is what has spurred so many comparisons to Kevin Durant and Lebron James.
To be clear, Durant’s proficiency as a scorer and shooter make him an entirely different player and at 27 he is already a near lock for the hall of fame. Lebron is probably a better comparison as his game is more the all around game that Giannis projects to have rather than the superb scorer game that KD has shown. Giannis being anything close to either of these two would be essentially unprecedented for Bucks fans, so why does Giannis get mentioned in the same breaths as these hall of famers?
Passing:
Of guys 6’7″ or taller only fourteen guys had an assist percentage of 20 or higher. Giannis being tied for the tallest on that list with Joakim Noah. (As a side note, Giannis became a featured ball handler in the second half of the season his assist percentage likely would be much higher, but basketball reference does not do assist percentage splits) That list can be found here another thing that jumps out about that list; Giannis has the 5th highest true shooting percentage amongst those guys. Showing that he has an advanced shot selection for his age, which by the way Giannis is the youngest guy on that list, by almost four full years.
Scoring:
Giannis was 6th in the league with 143 dunks last season, this is particularly impressive due to the fact that everyone above him was assisted on many more of their dunks than Giannis was. Comparing Giannis to the league leader in dunks, Deandre Jordan, Jordan was assisted on 90% of his dunks compared to Giannis’s 65%. When looking at a shot distribution for Giannis he had a sweet spot on the left side of the free throw line, but he made his killing at the rim, with over half of his shot attempts coming at the rim. Accounting for 68% of his makes those shot attempts were incredibly efficient for him, if he is able to make some progress on the jumper, he could be a ridiculously efficient scorer. At the same time, Giannis could see a jump in his efficiency playing with better shooters, his most used lineup last season was with Carter-Williams, Middleton, Monroe, and Parker with almost 540 minutes (close to 250 more than the next one which simply swaps Bayless for MCW). Jabari taking a leap forward so defenses pay more attention to him could have very positive effect for Giannis.
Defense:
Giannis joined a very elite club last season as one of nine guys to average at least 1 block and 1 steal per game. 3 of those guys have made All-Defense teams the last two years and two more have made All-NBA teams. It is truly elite company, it shows that Giannis is beginning to tap into his elite defensive potential. Hopefully this season he takes a step forward with the team on that end of the court, he has defensive player of the year potential and has seen small improvements on that end each year. Well his offensive game gets all the glam, his wingspan and athleticism allow him to make plays on defense very few players in this league are capable of making.
Projections:
Giannis will in my opinion average 20 points 8 rebounds and 7 assists next season, which is only a small upgrade over his 2016 post All-Star break stats, but could cement his appearance in his first ever All-Star game. The Bucks will break their fourteen year drought and finally have a Buck in the All-Star game. Those type of numbers coupled with defensive competency could elevate him to a fringe top-15 player. The Bucks have not had a guy like that in a very long time, which is super exciting for Bucks fans.The Tapejara (Tap-a-har-uh) is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved.
Basic Info [ edit | edit source ]
This dossier section is intended to be an exact copy of what the survivor Helena, the author of the dossiers has written. There may be some discrepancies between this text and the in-game creatures.
“ Wild Tapejara imperator is a marvel to watch in the wild. It has astonishing agility compared to the Island's other flyers thanks in large part to the rudder-like fin that extends from its snout to the back of its skull. Initially, I'd thought the fin was simply composed of keratin, but closer inspection has led me to believe that it is actually some kind of sensory organ. Not only does it decrease Tapejara's turning radius even at high speeds, but it apparently provides Tapejara with extra information to help it fly through the air with unparalleled grace. I've even seen Tapejara hover and strafe side-to-side in the air without moving forward at all. It's quite remarkable. The creature also makes effective use of razor-sharp claws to latch |
, then 2.8 of those kids are very likely gay.”
Thinking that the GOP presidential candidate wasn’t listening to her, Schnell told her friend “She’s not listening to me.”
That prompted Bachmann to reply, “Well, that’s according to the Kinsey Report.”
A few seconds later, her husband Marcus jumped in and told Schnell, “Your facts are wrong.”
“That’s not valid?” Schnell replied back.
“No it isn’t,” he said. “No, it’s not at all. It’s been a myth for many years.”
The Kinsey reports are based on the two books written by Dr. Alfred Kinsey about human sexual behavior in 1948 and 1953. It is widely considered groundbreaking research that helped change popular perceptions about the size and make-up of America’s LGBT population.
This isn’t the first time Bachmann has been confronted on the campaign trail about her views on LGBT rights and the community at large.”
Two weeks ago, Bachmann encountered a 8-year-old who told her, “My mommy’s gay but she doesn’t need any fixing.”
WATCH: Video from CNN, which was broadcast on December 19, 2011.
(Photo credit: Gage Skidmore)A short while back I wrote a piece, Why Message Queues Suck. The gist of the piece is that for the same labor and overhead required to implement and maintain an inter-service notification architecture using message queues, you can just as easily implement inter-service notification by Direct To Endpoint communication. (Please see Figure 1 below.)
Figure 1: Direct To Endpoint notification is an alternative to using a standard Pub-Sub pattern
As you might imagine, the piece caused quite a stir, particularly on Reddit. Many readers did not buy the idea for a variety of reasons. One area of disagreement was around fail safety and high availability. A reader going by the handle, singlecoilpickup commented:
I feel like the topic is missing some discussion of high availability and fail over [sic]. Breaking the argument down, yes, the world is simpler if you just send a message to an http endpoint in your service. What makes that a bit less realistic though is guaranteeing that service is reachable and working as intended. Message queues are relatively easy to make highly available, even if you're not using something like SQS. Being able to send something to a highly available queue provides a better guarantee that the message will get processed, especially in the event of a failure.
Another area of disagreement was with support for retries, as articulated by the reader, threemux:
As others have pointed out, there is no such thing as a "simple POST". This article contains no mention of retry logic in the event of failed consumers. Or worse, slow consumers.
And the reader, washtubs:
I'm surprised there was basically no mention of guaranteed delivery which is one of the sticking points of electing to use a message queue.
Finally, the reader vkgfx refuted the assertion of cost savings:
...all those costs I just described are data transfer out of AWS. It's not always true, but if he's building his whole system on an AWS stack, any competent dev will try to have EC2 instances in the same region as their connecting SQS queues. So how much do those 1 billion messages cost in transfer in this case? $0.
Each of the points raised was valid and worthy of response, to which I made a few. I needed to be careful. It’s easy to get into to a flame war over fine technical points. It goes with the territory. Most developers are very smart and some are very very smart. One wrong step and you can end up on the receiving end of a merciless and sometimes painful retort.
But I was surprised. This discussion was different. It was an exchange of ideas, not a battle of unsubstantiated opinion. Reason and civility prevailed. And because the discussion was reasonable, I was willing to participate.
In his book, The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge, a thought leader about learning organizations, talks about creative tension. Creative tension is the intersection of vision and reality. Applying an idea to the reality of our situation will cause a tension from which a new, better idea will emerge. Creative tension is at the core of innovation. Was this Reddit page full of creative tension? Yes. Were better ideas emerging? Yes, seems that way. Could the same be said were the discourse to be full of insults and cynical barbs? I don’t think so.
So, where did we end up?
The reader Xiopos summed it up concisely, “As usual, there's a trade-off.”
As I mentioned in the article, I was and am to a certain degree a big supporter of message queues, if for no other reason than they promote event driven architectures. Understanding how to work with events is essential when doing asynchronous programming in the modern day Internet/Cloud. Using message queues is a fast track to this understanding. Yet, message queues are not the only means by which to work with events. Arguably Direct to Endpoint is an alternative. Still, there will always be tradeoffs. Each situation is different in terms of requirement, time and budget. To my thinking there is no black and white, only shades of gray. The best solution will come about by the iteration of ideas based on acquiring new information.
What do I think is the most important takeaway from my experience with having the ideas in my article jostled about on Reddit? It’s this: having observable proof that civility works when discussing conflicting ideas.
Let’s face it, technologies come and go. The technical landscape we will occupy in 5 years will be completely different from the one we have now. That’s the way the business is. Change is fast and furious. Conflicts will arise. But, we have a choice. When faced with the presentation of an idea that conflicts with our thinking we can fight it out, leaving the losers thrown to the side of some sort intellectual highway or we can discuss our conflicting ideas in a reasoned, civil manner that promotes a willingness participate in the creative tension at hand. Remember, it’s creative tension to produces innovation. Intellectual fistfights just promote bloody noses. Me? I’ll take innovation every time. And yes, given what I learned from the discussion on Reddit, message queues might not suck.The founder of a Colorado gun group is looking forward to November’s “hunting season” because it will be “time to hunt Democrats.”
Dudley Brown, who serves as the executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and the executive vice president of the National Association for Gun Rights, used some violent rhetoric during a Wednesday interview with NPR about how gun owners would deal with Democrats who supported President Barack Obama’s proposal for universal background checks.
“I liken it to the proverbial hunting season,” Brown quipped. “We tell gun owners, ‘There’s a time to hunt deer. And the next election is the time to hunt Democrats.'”
“This is a very Western state with traditional Western values,” he pointed out. “And citizens had to have firearms for self-defense, and right now that’s still the case.”
A 2010 post on Sarah Palin’s Facebook page had placed crosshairs over Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ congressional district only months before the Democratic congresswoman was shot in January of 2011. Palin had said supporters should “reload” and use their votes to “aim for” the Democrat’s defeat.
Watch this video from NPR, broadcast April 3, 2013.
[Photo: Facebook/Rocky Mountain Gun Owners]
(h/t: Think Progress)Alright, everybody. Check your privilege at the door, ’cause we’ve got some important things to talk about today. If you’re like me (a middle-aged white dude or dudette) this conversation might make you a little uncomfortable, but that’s okay, you can deal with a little discomfort, right? I see you nodding an enthusiastic agreement (or is that a seizure? either way, we’re moving forward. Tallyho!).
A couple weeks ago I did a cover reveal for my forthcoming novel, Mind Breach. Overall, it was very well-received. But, as is the case with most parties I’ve ever been too, somebody just couldn’t resist tinkling in the punch bowl. They sent me an email that could be distilled as follows:
“You’ll sell more books if you put a white girl on the cover.” – Probably A Well-Meaning Fan
Here, alone in my office, I expressed my frustration with a range of indignant hand-gesticulations and incoherent babbling. After working myself into a white-hot lather, I succumbed to the emotional exhaustion and took a nap (yes, I process most, if not all, my problems like a toddler). When I woke up, the anger had subsided, leaving me able to objectively analyze why this email had elicited such a visceral response.
The results were troubling because it brought to the forefront of my mind a problem I’d largely been ignoring (such is the convenience and villainy of white privilege, I suppose):
“Covers with people of color on them don’t sell.”
We’ve heard this one from the marketing teams at big publishing houses for a long time now. Without access to sales reports, we’ll just have to take their word for it—they are the experts after-all. Problem is, that adage is probably true; people of color on covers don’t sell books.
But the question you should be asking is: Why?
Trying to answer this leads to a Chicken or the Egg type puzzle. On the one hand, sci-fi/fantasy is a fairly homogeneous group dominated by people a lot like me (middle-aged white guy) with a fair smattering of people like my girlfriend (middle-aged white ladies). Common wisdom states people like reading about themselves, therefore you’d better put some white people on the cover. But, by that logic, the community is self-selecting the type of reader welcomed within the hallowed walls of fandom, and utterly ignoring everybody else.
So sure, the primary reader of sci-fi/fantasy is a white guy or gal precisely because that’s the demographic publishing houses are selling to.
Which, in fairness, is not always the same audience the author is writing to. Ursula K. Le Guin has populated her books with people of color for decades now, and even she (beloved Grandmistress of Sci-Fi that she is) has difficulty convincing the publishing houses to put people of color on her covers.
Le Guin has written frequently on this topic in the past, and summarizes the situation as follows:
“In a way it’s self-fulfilling, for if no one in America ever sees a book with a person of color on the cover, a book with a person of color on it may look quite strange, unfriendly, to something like 77% of possible American readers… Oh, it’s something about Them, it isn’t about Us, I only want to read about Us.” -Ursula K. Le Guin ( Knowing a Book by its Cover
So here’s the real question we should be asking ourselves: Do books with people of color on the cover not sell because nobody wants to read them, or because there are so few on the shelves that they look strange and out-of-place when we do see them?
Wait, I see you over there, arms crossed and shaking your head. You don’t believe me, do you? Think I’m making mountains out of moles or something (<—pretty sure that’s how the phrase goes).
I’m as contrarian as the next guy, so the preempt your protests I went on a little field-trip to the bookstore (which was really just an excuse to get out of the office for a few hours).
At Barnes and Noble I carried out one of the most tedious, and possibly lamest, tasks of my life. I rifled through 1,500 books in the sci-fi/fantasy aisle marking every time a white boy or girl appeared on a cover versus a boy or girl person of color.
From the outset I predicted there’d be an 80/20 split in favor of whites. Which would’ve been an incredibly lopsided result, but as it turns out, I was wrong. Very, very wrong.
Here are the results:
Of the 1,500 books polled there were 594 ethnically recognizable people featured on the cover. Of those 594, 248 were white males (42%) and 294 were white females (49%). 18 were a male POC (3%) and 34 were a female POC (5%). Meaning that people of color only represented 8% of the results.
Consider for a moment that I live in Oakland, CA where (according to the 2010 Census) white people only make up 25% of the population and you start to get an idea of how bonkers this result is.
I have to admit I’ve been swimming in a kiddie-pool of my own ignorance for years now. At the bookstore, those covers splattered with white people are directed at me; I never even noticed the utter lack of people of color.
I’m part of the problem because I didn’t even recognize that there was a problem.
This whitewashing of book covers has gotten so extreme that it’s become the rule (and not the exception) to put a white person on the cover even if the main character of said book is a person of non-white background.
Here are two classic examples of books with main characters clearly defined as being of color and the resulting covers. Note that in both of these instances, uproar and indignation from the readership and author eventually lead to new covers being released.
If nothing else this proves change is possible, if we demand it. Which is frustrating because it’s what…2015 or something? We shouldn’t have to remind the publishing houses that the world is not a white sugar-coated candy shell. It’s a thousand times more diverse and colorful than 90% of covers would indicate.
The world is shrinking a bit more everyday in terms of inter-connectivity. The lines that divide us are thinner than ever, but they still exist. It’s about time we let go of the antiquated idea that white people are the only market for sci-fi/fantasy.
Want to prove this to the publishing houses? There’s only one way to do it (actually there are probably more ways than just the one, but I’m lazy so you only get one action step): Support those authors and publishing houses forward thinking enough to put people of color on their covers. Show them that there is a market for diversity, and that white people on covers are not the only way.
Maybe then I won’t have to field emails from people wondering why there’s an Asian woman on the cover of my book (hint: it’s because she’s Asian!).
Don’t know which books to start with? Try some of these out…
Like this: Like Loading...WASHINGTON — With the prospects for future cooperation on arms control hanging in the balance, the Obama administration is sending a team of senior officials to Moscow this week to try to resolve American allegations that Russia has violated a landmark nuclear accord.
At the heart of the dispute is the United States allegation that Russia has tested a ground-launched cruise missile in violation of the 1987 Soviet-American treaty banning intermediate-range missiles based on land. Russia began testing the cruise missile as early as 2008, according to American officials. The Obama administration first raised its concerns with the Russians in May 2013 and formally alleged that the test was a violation in July.
The American delegation, led by Rose Gottemoeller, the State Department’s senior arms control official, is set to meet with Russian officials on Thursday, and includes experts from the National Security Council, the Pentagon and the Energy Department.
The talks would be difficult under the best of circumstances. But they will occur at a time of sharp tensions over Ukraine and broad differences over the future of arms control.In the summer and fall of 2009, hundreds of Toyota owners came forward with an alarming allegation: Their cars were suddenly and uncontrollably accelerating. Toyota was forced to recall 10 million vehicles, pay a fine of more than $1 billion, and settle countless lawsuits. The consensus was that there was something badly wrong with the world’s most popular cars. Except that there wasn’t.
“Blame Game” looks under the hood at one of the strangest public hysterias in recent memory. What really happened in all those Camrys and Lexuses? And how did so many drivers come to misunderstand so profoundly what was happening to them behind the wheel? The answer touches on our increasingly fraught relationship to technology and the dishonesty and naiveté of many in the media.
Car and Driver: How to Deal with Unintended Acceleration We put unintended acceleration to the test and examine how to handle a runaway vehicle. Read more.
Expert Recreates Sudden Acceleration in Toyota
View ABC Video
UpdatesThursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” host Joe Scarborough, weighed in on Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s rally in Pensacola, FL, a city of which was in the district that he represented in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Scarborough indicated that it was unprecedented for Pensacola to draw such attendance for a presidential campaign event.
“I was at George W. Bush’s campaign rally in 2004 at the final stages of that unbelievable presidential race in early November,” Scarborough said. “I saw Reagan come to Pensacola twice in 1980. I saw the crowds. I never saw anything like that in my hometown before. It’s absolutely staggering, here we are — in early January. I’ll be honest with you — I guess seeing it in your own hometown, I don’t get it as far as the size of these crowds go. It’s like nothing I saw with Reagan. It’s like nothing I saw with Bush. It’s nothing I saw with any political candidate what I saw come out of Pensacola last night.”
Later in the segment, Scarborough said he doubted any of Trump’s opponents could draw a crowd close to that of Trump’s crowd.
“I think it’s very safe to say Marco [Rubio] would get 150 people at an event,” Scarborough added. “Ted Cruz would probably get double — probably get 300-400 people at an event.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poorThis is a continuation of my exploration of the Marvel Netflix shows (part one, two, three, and four). I’m a big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and out of all its current expressions the Netflix shows are my favourite–the ultimate highlight of the format. The fan service surrounding these shows lack collated, contextualized, and expository material, so what follows addresses those elements.
SPOILERS below
The most recent Netflix venture has had a rough ride from the critics, but before we get into that let’s start with the basics. The show aired after the MCU’s Doctor Strange as the final installment before The Defenders team-up. Iron Fist was created to take advantage of the 70s martial arts craze (in 1974 by Roy Thomas, Gil Kane, and Bill Everett). Originally scheduled to be the third character to debut on Netflix, he was swapped for Luke Cage to take advantage of Mike Colter’s popularity after Jessica Jones aired (it also made a lot more sense leading into The Defenders). Any normal reception of the show became impossible with the issue-focused reviews it received and it will be years before we get level-headed analysis.
Showrunner Scott Buck’s version of the character borrows a great deal from the original origin story in the comics (with light borrowings from from the much later Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, and Duane Swierczynski’s Immortal Iron Fist). The very simplistic Rand-Meachum dynamic of that original tale is expanded considerably, but mixed with an occasionally confusing plot involving The Hand that was required as a set-up to The Defenders (one wonders how much that obligation handicapped choices made in the show). Buck’s pacing, and the show in general, is most similar to Luke Cage, but unlike that show an origin story for Danny was necessary (Luke had already debuted in Jessica Jones so there was no need to rush into his backstory).
Credited Writers (episodes in parenthesis; selected past credits noted)
Scott Buck (1, 2, 13) – Dexter, Six Feet Under; he’s the showrunner for the upcoming Inhumans
Quinton Peeples (3, 10) – 11.22.63, Unforgettable
Scott Reynolds (4, 12) – Jessica Jones, Dexter; he’s the first writer to be borrowed from another Marvel Netflix show
Cristine Chambers (5) – Boardwalk Empire
Dwain Worrell (6) – The Walking Dead
Ian Stokes (7, 11) – Teen Wolf, Warehouse 13
Tamara Becher-Wilkinson (8, 13) – Shades of Blue, Covert Affairs, Buffy
Pat Charles (9, 13) – Resurrection, Bones
Notable Easter Eggs
[I’ve noted in brackets which episodes these occur in–so (1) refers to episode one]
Needing to set-up The Defenders there’s a fair number of easter eggs (13): the unexplained Order of the Crane Mother is mentioned (2); the staple Avengers “incident” reference occurs (2); The New York Bulletin (Ben Urich’s and Karen Page’s newspaper) appears (3); Daredevil gets mentioned by name (3, 7); the Hulk (6) is referred to; Luke Cage (7) is mentioned by name; the ubiquitous Dogs of Hell are mentioned (7); Karen Page (7) is mentioned by name; Jessica Jones (8) is referenced (not by name–this is the most rewarding/entertaining easter egg in my opinion); Claire reads a letter from Luke Cage (8), which is a roundabout way of referencing his incarceration in Seagate prison (which debuted in Iron Man 2); Stark Industries (9) is mentioned; as is the Roxxon Corporation (11); finally, the blood-draining planned for Colleen (12) mirrors what the Hand does in Daredevil season two.
Iron Fist leads into The Defenders and has to do a great deal of work to set-up that show; Bakuto’s boss (presumably Sigourney Weaver’s character) remains unknown (with Bakuto himself likely to be resurrected); Gao remains free, as does (presumably) her faction of the Hand. As has been long suspected, the Hand itself will be the opposition for the quartet of heroes, although it could simply be a faction of the group.
Select Character Notes
Personal history: I’d never heard of Iron Fist until I started paying attention to the Netflix shows (he’d been killed off before I started reading comics (1986) and returned just as I was leaving (1992)).
Danny Rand/Iron Fist: debuted in Marvel Premiere 15; this version stays close to that original story, but with a greater emphasis on Danny’s naivety (his battles with Rand Corps’ policies has echoes of the first Iron Man); while in the comic he learns of the past from the monks of K’un Lun and rushes out for vengeance, here he seeks answers to his past that gradually reaches a desire for vengeance. Given the expectations for who Danny will be in The Defenders, Buck had little choice but to keep Danny fairly naive throughout the show; I liked Finn Jones performance, despite the limitations imposed on the character
Colleen Wing: the martial artist is Danny’s long-time ally and was an early addition to the Iron Fist comics (Marvel Premiere 19); her origin was changed considerably (The Hand, which has little to no place in Iron Fist–they are Daredevil villains in the comics–had no precedent in her past), nor do she and Danny have a romantic entanglement (normally Danny is with Misty Knight ; writer Tamara Becher-Wilkinson noted that the romance was created largely because otherwise there would be no romance in the show); Jessica Henwick does a fine job in the role, although her involvement with Bakuto’s faction creates some confusion (echoing, in a way, Danny’s own naivete)
; writer Tamara Becher-Wilkinson noted that the romance was created largely because otherwise there would be no romance in the show); Jessica Henwick does a fine job in the role, although her involvement with Bakuto’s faction creates some confusion (echoing, in a way, Danny’s own naivete) Harold Meachum: the business partner of Danny’s father dies very early in Iron Fist’s run (Marvel Premiere 18) and Buck makes him a vastly more interesting in the show; I’ve seen complaints about the character, but I enjoyed it thoroughly and it’s clearly meant to give us a taste of how The Hand’s resurrection will impact Elektra; in the realm of Netflix villains he doesn’t reach the heights of the best (Kilgrave, Kingpin, or Cottonmouth), but he’s far better than Diamondback, Nobu, etc and he’s much more integral to the development of secondary characters (his children) than any previous villain
Joy Meachum: the innocent Meachum in the comics, Jessica Stroup’s version is used as character development and motivation for those around her (with a tease for greater things in a second season, echoing an arc from the early Iron Fist comics); Stroup does a solid job with the limited material she’s given, but they could have done more with her
Ward Meachum: vastly improved from his cartoony comic book basis (he has been dead for quite some time (Namor the Sub-Mariner 18, in 1991)); in the show he is the son (instead of brother) of Harold; this is, to my mind, the best performance in the entire show (great work by Tom Pelphrey–it’s a slow burn with a maganificent payoff)–Ward goes through a truly incredible journey and has arguably the most interesting character arc in the show
Madame Gao: reprising her role from both seasons of Daredevil, I’d been convinced for a long time that she was Crane Mother, but that now seems unlikely; I thought she was a much more interesting villain than Bakuto who supplants her, but at least she survives to potentially cause trouble later; Wai Ching Ho is finally given room to work here and gives a fantastic performance as the character
, but that now seems unlikely; I thought she was a much more interesting villain than Bakuto who supplants her, but at least she survives to potentially cause trouble later; Wai Ching Ho is finally given room to work here and gives a fantastic performance as the character Claire Temple: she’s long since stopped representing her comic book basis and here enjoys her largest role to date–learning to fight (and indeed does fight) in the show; among other things she serves as a way to spoonfeed the various mystical elements of the show to the audience; she also remains the one character who has appeared in all the Defenders shows; it’s another strong performance by Rosario Dawson
Bakuto: a short-lived character borrowed from Daredevil (I haven’t been able to read the three issues he appears in, so I can’t directly compare); he’s the leader of another faction of The Hand (clearly hinted at as being the one we expect Sigourney Weaver to lead in The Defenders), but his goals aren’t entirely clear; like every Netflix venture that’s introduced a villain halfway through (Luke Cage, Daredevil season two), he’s not that effective and, indeed, his plotline is difficult to follow–he needed a couple of more episodes, but then why have a second villain at all if that’s the case?
Davos: another early character from the comics (Iron Fist 1 from 1975), the antagonist is well-established, but without a ton of appearances (perhaps because he’s largely a one-note villain); the major tweak from his comic book origin is that instead of failing to become the Iron Fist, here he was denied that chance (far better motivation in my opinion); he’s been hinted at in the Netflix universe since the beginning (Daredevil season one); Sacha Dhawan and the show do a good job of encapsulating who he is in limited time (and the show happily foreshadows him before he appears); there’s lot’s of potential here and he’s the only K’un Lun element that’s evocative (albeit, it’s difficult to imagine Dhawan as the son of Hoon Lee–not that anyone has made that complaint)
Jeri Hogarth: she’s primarily an Iron Fist character in the comics (she’s the lawyer for Rand Corps, as she remains here), but coming from a pivotal role in Jessica Jones she’s used sparingly (just 3 episodes)–there’s lot’s of potential to make more use of her here if they wish, although given that she’s meant to help Danny in this season there’s no opportunity for the usual interplay of good-hearted Danny vs cold-hearted Hogarth; there’s also a failed opportunity to acknowledge some of the trauma she went through in Jessica Jones (a failing shared by Luke Cage in Luke Cage)
Lei Kung the Thunderer: an original character in the comic who died recently (2014); here he’s used to represent the K’un Lun part of Danny’s psyche as well as serve as motivation for Davos; Hoon Lee has an amazing voice and I hope there’s more of him in the show if it gets a second season
Zhou Cheng: a short-lived and newer Iron Fist antagonist (appearing in Immortal Iron Fist 17-20), his desire to destroy the Iron Fist remains the same, but in the show he serves as champion of Gao’s faction of the Hand (he’s definitely less manic than he is in the comics); Zhou does a great job with the character and I’d love to see him again in the role
Bride of Nine Spiders: in the comics she’s the champion for the Kingdom of Spiders, but here she’s simply an exotic fighter for Gao’s faction of the Hand; the show doesn’t do anything interesting with her–she’s visually compelling and distinct from other fighters, but we don’t get any substance with her so it’s hard to assess Jane Kim’s performance (she has a martial arts background, but writer Dwain Worrell decided to focus away from that and make her more of a seductress/trickster–something not grounded in her comic book inspiration)
Scythe: the villain from the very first Iron Fist comic (his only appearance), but other than the name bears little resemblance to him; he has one of the better choreographed fights with Danny in the show
Hai-Qing Yang: created for the show to lead a group of triads, I bring him up as the worst performance in the series
Thembi Wallace: reprises her role as a reporter from Luke Cage
Daryll: no comic book basis, but appeared in Luke Cage previously (episode 10)
Shirley Benson: reprises her role as Claire’s boss from Daredevil
Comic Book Influences
Like the other Netflix shows we get a mix of adaptation with original material. I was surprised Buck kept Danny’s origin of getting his powers from Shou-Lao the dragon, given that there was no budget to really pay that off. This fit Buck’s general trend of trying to be faithful to the early comics (much like Luke Cage). Danny’s arrival at K’un Lun is changed slightly, as his mother does not survive the crash only to be eaten by wolves, nor does Danny learn that Harold Meachum plotted the crash while training in the city and then leave K’un Lun seeking revenge (the revenge element is preserved for the final sequence of the show). The Meachums are much improved from their cartoony comic originals (Ward and Harold in particular have much more depth). All the material involving The Hand was invented for the show, with various Danny antagonists stuffed into that envelope for the sake of simplicity (eg Zhou Cheng, the Bride of Nine Spiders, etc)–I’m sympathetic to this because the mystical factions are confusing enough as it is–no non-fan is ever going to be able to untangle it all if they’d simply followed the comics. The romance with Colleen is (as far as I can tell) without precedence; Misty Knight, who is Danny’s most frequent partner, does not seem likely to enter the picture (seemingly reserved for Luke Cage).
Critical Reception
Previously I’ve referenced the critical score for the show I’m reviewing, but in this case it’s so absurd I’ll simply give the caveat I’ve given in every other case: take critical scores with a grain of salt (Agents of SHIELD somehow has 100% each of its last two seasons–however much you like that show that’s simply ridiculous). Part of the problem is just how few TV critics there are–a movie will receive over 200 reviews (sometimes over 300), while TV shows are lucky to hit 40, which vastly slants percentages.
Assessment
I’ll dig into the reviews below, since the criticism is affected by the casting of the show, not its substance. For me Iron Fist is about mid-range among the Netflix ventures–it doesn’t approach the heights of Jessica Jones or Daredevil season one, but it isn’t as disjointed as Daredevil season two and or as glacial as Luke Cage (the former has better heights, so Iron Fist ranks at #4 out of the five Netflix seasons for me). The show has two intertwining threads: the Meachums (and thus Rand Corporation) and the Hand. While Buck is able to make the Hand less ridiculous than it is in Daredevil, it’s still the weak link of the two elements (all the calls I see for more mysticism seem impractical to me–as expensive as Netflix shows are, there’s simply no way for them to go down the road of The Immortal Iron Fist). The show struggles to explain what’s going on with the Hand–why are there factions and what do they want? It’s never made clear (MCU Exchange tries to explain–futilely I think). I would have much rather seen a Meachum focused season with just a light frosting of Danny’s mystical/ninja elements–Daredevil has already spent plenty of time with The Hand, but no other Defender can deal with the corporate angle the way Danny can. Danny himself is a difficult character to adapt (part of the reason he works so well when paired with Luke Cage is there’s less dependency on their fairly limited range as characters). The show kept his impulsive, headstrong nature, but we don’t see the jokester he becomes in the comics. Unfortunately Buck continued the trend of introducing a second villain for the second act who pales to the one they replaced–whether Marvel recognizes this as a flaw remains to be seen. There are pacing issues with the show as it occasionally gets bogged down in mystical exposition (which is, again, why I would have downplayed that element). There are also choreography problems in the first 5-6 episodes when it comes to Danny’s martial arts–these disappear in the second half of the run, but those early directors (John Dahl, Tom Shankland, Miguel Sapochnik, Uta Briesewitz, and to a lesser degree RZA) struggle in how they cut the sequences together (there’s no question that Finn Jones is new to martial arts, but that’s far less apparent in the latter episodes, indicating it could have been disguised better throughout). I have mixed feelings about the choice to use visual effects to show Danny’s anger (not a choice I’d make). I’m not a fan of the various flashback sequences to things that happened in the show–it’s something that functions in weekly television, but not in the Netflix binge format. The effects are a mixed bag (Danny’s flip in the first episode is terrible, as is the CGI bird we see occasionally, but the Iron Fist effects are fantastic). The performances are mostly good, with Tom Pelphrey as the standout (a bit like Mahershala Ali in Luke Cage); Henry Yuk is the most cringe-worthy. I think it’s a fair point that Ward probably shouldn’t be the standout, but given all the restraints on character growth for those appearing in The Defenders I can live with it. I’m not a hiphop fan so that music element didn’t work for me, but I did like the incidental music of the show.
Criticism
What a shit-show this has been as reviewers crammed themselves into an echo chamber and came out with issues-journalism–Iron Fist became the Rubicon that Doctor Strange was supposed to be (I have to wonder, given how muted things were when the casting occurred, if the uproar was in reaction to the failure to hurt Doctor Strange with similar complaints). There’s so much to unpack about the reviews here, but let’s preface a few things: 1) the reviewer pool for television is small and shown a tendency to put politics over criticism (the scores for Luke Cage are an easy comparison to make), 2) none of the reviewers have bad intentions–there’s no conspiracy or axe to grind against Marvel, Netflix, Scott Buck, or Finn Jones, 3) there could be an interesting discussion about the casting for the show, but that’s not what anyone is engaging in, 4) it’s unclear what impact the reviews will ultimately have on the show (the audience scores are roughly in the mid-70s% with clear signs of vote-brigading (there’s significantly more votes on the show than any other Marvel Netflix venture)–how much of the voting is a Streisand Effect isn’t clear, 5) it’s absolutely acceptable for you, as a viewer, to be outraged by the show (or simply dislike it).
With all of that aside, let’s deal with the obvious issue: there’s no white-washing in the casting of Danny Rand. The character was created white and remains so in the comics (43 years later). There are different ethnic (and gendered) versions of the Iron Fist (it’s a title, not a name), but none of them are Danny Rand. The argument (which isn’t presented as an argument) is more about cultural appropriation–simplistically, martial arts comes out of Asia, ergo as one of the first martial arts characters in Marvel television, that person should be Asian (Elektra was the first–Marvel did make an ethnicity change for her, eliminating the original Greek character in favour of an Asian (Thai) actress). This is a very complicated issue and none of the nuance associated with that debate is occurring here (instead it’s very nanny state, with the reviewers playing the role of knowing what’s best for you; it’s also a little insulting to all the Asian stars who made martial arts mainstream in the 70s). I don’t agree with the appropriation argument, but it’s not being made maliciously (excluding, of course, the people bullying Finn Jones on social media). One thing I will point out, just for logical consistency, is if you’re going to have an issue with Jones’ casting, then you also need to take issue with Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing (her comic book character is Japanese, whereas the actress is Chinese), Jane Kim (the character is Chinese, the actress is Korean), Rosario |
this is their normal business,” Niederhauser said.
State Democrats not only want the House to continue the investigation, but to expand it to include Powers and his political consulting firm, Guidant Strategies.
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Email: mkessler@stgnews.com
Twitter: @MoriKessler
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2013, all rights reserved.The result was so tight as to deprive her of the kind of clear-cut victory that would make it easy for her to fend off calls for her to drop out, raise money and campaign on into West Virginia in advance of a primary there next Tuesday where her campaign is confident of doing well.
In the last several weeks, Mrs. Clinton, seizing on the campaign’s new focus on the weakening economy, seemed to find new energy and a more populist voice. She ran hard on a proposal to suspend the federal gasoline tax, an idea that Mr. Obama scorned. As she battled away, Mr. Obama struggled to explain his relationship with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and his apparent inability to appeal to blue-collar voters. Polls suggested that Democrats were starting to develop doubts about the strength of his candidacy.
In short, Mrs. Clinton could not have asked for a better second chance to turn this campaign around and to make her central case to superdelegates: that Mr. Obama was a damaged general election candidate who would get swallowed up by the Republican Party.
Yet she was unable on Tuesday to build her base of support substantially beyond the white, working-class voters who had sustained her for the last month. That will not be lost on the superdelegates, the elected Democrats and party leaders who will ultimately decide this fight.
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And the superdelegates are where the fight is moving: after 50 nominating contests, there are only 6 left, with just 217 pledged delegates left to be elected, not enough to get either of them over the 2,025 threshold necessary to win the nomination.
Mr. Obama’s aides said Mrs. Clinton would have to win close to 70 percent of the remaining pledged delegates and superdelegates to win the nomination, a shift in the campaign’s trajectory that would seem possible only if some big development came along to hurt Mr. Obama.
“Unfortunately for her, the math reasserts itself,” said Carter Eskew, a Democratic consultant not affiliated with either candidate. “I don’t think this changes very much of anything”
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Mrs. Clinton made clear in her speech that she would “go forward in this campaign,” noting that she had won a state where Mr. Obama had once expected victory and asserting that she remained close to Mr. Obama in the popular vote and delegates.
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With few states left, she and her aides said they would step up their efforts to count the disputed results in Florida and Michigan, where the states held contests in defiance of Democratic Party rules. If Mrs. Clinton can win the battle to have the delegations from those two states seated at the conventions on the basis of the vote there, she could greatly reduce Mr. Obama’s lead in pledged delegates.
But neither candidate actively campaigned in Florida or Michigan, and Mr. Obama did not appear on the Michigan ballot.
Still, in a sign of where the Clinton campaign is going, her aides are asserting that the winner will need 2,209 delegates, not 2,025. That higher number reflects the full inclusion of Florida and Michigan, which held their primaries before the date permitted by the Democratic Party.
The goal of the Clinton campaign here is not just to get the delegate votes counted but also to get superdelegates to consider the popular vote Mrs. Clinton won in those two states; in some calculations that would put her over the top. The party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee is meeting in Washington at the end of the month to vote on an effort by the Clinton campaign to permit the seating of the delegations.
“We’re going to argue that it’s going to take 2,209 to get to the magic number,” said Howard Wolfson, one of Mrs. Clinton’s chief strategists. “We’re going to argue that Florida and Michigan need to be seated full-strength.”
The other big hope for the Clinton campaign is making the argument that Mr. Obama would suffer against Senator John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee. The exit polls gave Mrs. Clinton ammunition in that regard: half the Democrats who voted in Indiana and North Carolina said Mr. Obama’s association with Mr. Wright was very or somewhat important.
And in Indiana, for example, less than half of Mrs. Clinton’s supporters said they would support Mr. Obama in a general election, while one-third said they would vote for Mr. McCain. About one-fifth of Mr. Obama’s supporters in Indiana said they would vote for Mr. McCain in a general election should Mrs. Clinton get the nomination. Many of those Democrats can probably be expected to stay with their party in the end, but the figures suggest the intensity of the passion dividing Clinton and Obama supporters at the moment and the challenge facing the eventual nominee in uniting the party.000 ABNT30 KNHC 010513 TWSAT Monthly Tropical Weather Summary NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL 800 AM EDT Sat Dec 1 2018 For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico: No tropical cyclones occurred in the basin during November, which is not uncommon since a November tropical storm occurs about once every other year. Overall, the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season featured above normal activity. Fifteen named storms formed, of which eight became hurricanes and two became major hurricanes - category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. This compares to the long-term average of 12 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes. There was also one tropical depression that did not reach tropical-storm strength. In terms of Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE), which measures the combined strength and duration of tropical storms and hurricanes, activity in the Atlantic basin in 2018 was also above normal. In addition, 7 systems were subtropical at some point in their lifetime this season, which eclipses the previous record of 5 in 1969. Reports on individual cyclones, when completed, are available at the National Hurricane Center website at www.hurricanes.gov/data/tcr/index.php?season=2018&basin=atl. Summary Table Name Dates Max Wind (mph) --------------------------------------------------- TS Alberto 25-31 May 65* H Beryl 4-15 Jul 80* H Chris 6-12 Jul 105 TS Debby 7- 9 Aug 50 TS Ernesto 15-18 Aug 45 MH Florence 31 Aug-17 Sep 140 TS Gordon 3- 7 Sep 70 H Helene 7-16 Sep 110 H Isaac 7-15 Sep 75 TS Joyce 12-18 Sep 45 TD Eleven 22-23 Sep 35 TS Kirk 22-28 Sep 60 H Leslie 23 Sep-13 Oct 90 MH Michael 7-12 Oct 155 TS Nadine 9-12 Oct 65 H Oscar 27-31 Oct 105 --------------------------------------------------- * Denotes a storm for which the post-storm analysis is complete. $$ Hurricane Specialist UnitOn Thursday, Cisco announced it was acquiring Tropo, a Twilio-like service allowing developers to make and receive phone calls and SMS texts via a simple cloud API. The Cloverhound team and I are very excited about this. If you’ve read this blog, you know that we’ve always been proponents of cloud-based communications services and we’ve built quite a few things with Twilio in particular. Tropo offers some very unique features not available from competitors, and combined with Cisco I expect awesome things.
Not everyone in the Cisco UC world has drunk the cloud Kool-Aid however, so I think a demonstration is in order. To show off what you can do with cloud communications services and infrastructure — Tropo in particular — I’ve developed a simple Finesse gadget that lets agents SMS chat with a caller. Agents can use it to provide a caller with complex information like street addresses, URLs, email addresses, temporary passwords, ticket numbers, etc.
Here’s the result:
How it works
How did I do it? Well that’s part of the magic of Tropo and one of the key features lacking from competitors. Tropo essentially has PaaS-like capabilities for hosting Tropo applications directly within Tropo, no outside hosting necessary. I’ve combined this with Google Firebase — an awesome cloud data store and real-time messaging service — to connect Tropo to the Finesse gadget. The really cool part? No. Servers. Whatsoever. And that includes your typical IaaS and PaaS services. No Amazon AWS instances, no Digital Ocean droplets, not even a Heroku dyno.
All the resulting code can be found in our public Github repo. Feel free to use or adapt it however you like. If you do make use of it please drop us a line, we love hearing about our work being put to good use, but no pressure :). Now, let’s walk through how the app works.
Overview
When the Finesse gadget loads, it will connect to our Firebase instance. We’ll use the Finesse APIs to listen for call events, and when a call arrives, we’ll use the caller’s ANI to load any chat history from Firebase and start listening for events for that ANI. If the agent wants to send an SMS to the caller, we’ll directly invoke our Tropo app via an AJAX request from our gadget, and also save the message in Firebase so we have a full message history saved. If the caller wants to send an SMS to the agent, our Tropo app will save the incoming message to our Firebase via its HTTP APIs, and Firebase will in turn forward the message to our agent gadget via the real-time feed we subscribed to earlier. The gadget will display incoming and outgoing messages for the agent in a simple chat screen. When the call ends, we’ll clear the SMS chat screen and unsubscribe from the Firebase feed.
Firebase
Firebase provides a NoSQL data store where we can write arbitrary JSON documents. These documents can be stored or retrieved from any arbitrary path within your Firebase. The paths can then be used similar to tables in a SQL database, organizing different types of information.
Its real claim to fame though is its real-time APIs, which allows web (or other) clients to receive asynchronous updates every time a document is added or changed to a path being monitoring. That means we can use this as a real-time messaging service on top of a data store.
For this app, I used a base path of: https://xxxx.firebaseio.com/clients/test (xxx would be replaced with your instance name). Beneath that, the Tropo application uses a separate path for each caller’s phone number, and beneath that I store the list of messages below a /messages path. For example, messages sent to and from caller 15552221111 would be stored under: https://xxxx.firebaseio.com/clients/test/15552221111/messages. Our gadget will subscribe to that path via the Firebase javascript library, and our Tropo app will push any texts from that number to that path. I’ve used the following format for each message, though in general you can use whatever format you can dream up as long as it’s valid JSON:
{ "direction": "in", "message": "hello", "timestamp": ".sv" }
“direction” is set to “in” for texts received from the caller, and “out” for texts sent from an agent to the caller, “message” is the content of the text, and the value “.sv” is a special keyword that tells Firebase to generate a timestamp when the record is written. Here’s a screenshot of some actual data from Firebase’s Dashboard view:
Notice how each message added is automatically assigned a unique key. For more information on Firebase, checkout their many excellent tutorials on the site.
Tropo
Tropo works much like Twilio and its many competitors. You sign up for an account, add phone numbers, and assign applications to trigger when a call or text is received on a number owned by your account. Like Twilio, an application in Tropo can be a URL accessible over the internet pointing to a web application you own. When Tropo receives a call or text, it sends a request to the given URL which would then return specially formatted JSON documents to tell Tropo what to do with the call, like play a message, send a text, listen for keypresses, or transfer the call. In the Tropo world, this is referred to as the WebAPI.
Unlike Twilio, Tropo also lets you host application scripts directly within Tropo itself. These scripts can be written in JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, Python, or Groovy, and can do any of things you can do with the standard WebAPI. Tropo refers to this as the Scripting API. This feature is a pretty big advantage vs. Twilio, especially if you’re prototyping or your not as comfortable standing up web applications. With Twilio and its ilk, your first step in building an application would be to select a PaaS or IaaS hosting provider and what web framework you’ll use to host your app. With Tropo, you just click Create File and start scripting. Pretty powerful stuff.
Since I was trying to keep this application as self-contained as possible, and the scripting requirements are minimal, I used the Scripting API to host the scripting 100% within Tropo.
Inbound texts
When a text is received on the Tropo number, my script needs to upload a JSON document with the message contents to the appropriate Firebase path. Since Tropo doesn’t have any Firebase libraries built into its scripting engine, the only solution is to use Firebase’s REST APIs. This is as simple as POSTing the JSON document to the Firebase path via HTTP. Tropo doesn’t appear to provide any simple HTTP libraries within the Scripting API, but we can take advantage of the fact that all the scripting languages run within a Java environment. The JavaScript engine in particular is based on Rhino, which allows you to import and access anything in the standard Java libraries. We can use these libraries to perform our HTTP request.
Anyone remotely familiar with the standard Java HTTP libraries is probably cringing right now. Yes, they’re ugly, but we’ll have to make do. I translated the standard Java HTTP examples into Rhino’s JavaScript syntax, the result is below (the log function is provided by the Tropo Scripting API):
importPackage(java.net); importPackage(java.io); importPackage(java.util); function post(urlString, body) { var url = new URL(urlString); log("Opening connection."); var connection = url.openConnection(); connection.setRequestMethod("POST"); connection.setDoOutput(true); connection.setRequestProperty('Content-Type', 'application/json'); log("Sending output."); var output = new DataOutputStream(connection.getOutputStream()); output.writeBytes(body); output.flush(); output.close(); var responseCode = connection.getResponseCode(); log("Response is: " + responseCode); var scanner = new Scanner(connection.getInputStream(), "UTF-8").useDelimiter("\\A"); var result = scanner.next(); scanner.close(); return [responseCode, result]; }
If you’re thinking that’s a lot of code for an HTTP request, you are correct. That’s Java for you. In fact this is slightly streamlined compared to typical examples, like the ones here. The key difference is I’ve used the Scanner class, introduced in Java 5, to retrieve the response without a while loop. The reason I did this is Tropo tracks loop iterations and will tend to kill your script if it’s looping too aggressively. This is a good thing. We don’t want errant scripts taking down Tropo’s system after all.
That gives us an easy to use JavaScript function that takes a URL and message, body, and POSTs the body to the URL. To construct the message we’ll need to access information about the incoming text, like what number it’s from and what the message was. In the Tropo Scripting API, this can be done by accessing a global variable named currentCall, which has callerID and initialText properties that get’s us the information we need. The full list of properties in currentCall can be found here.
Given the above post function, we can upload incoming texts to Firebase like so:
function receivedSms() { var body = { message: currentCall.initialText, direction: "in", timestamp: { ".sv": "timestamp" } }; var bodyJson = JSON.stringify(body); var firebaseUrl = "https://XXX.firebaseio.com/clients/test/" + currentCall.callerID + "/messages.json"; log("Posting."); var result = post(firebaseUrl, bodyJson); log("HTTP response code: " + result[0]); log("HTTP body: " + result[1]); } receivedSms();
That’s it for inbound texts from the server-side. Now we just combine these and upload them to Tropo as a.js file (or create the file directly in Tropo’s code editor), and associate the file to our Tropo application as a text script.
Every text we send to the number associated with this Tropo app will now be written to Firebase. You can watch these pop into the database in real-time from the Firebase dashboard, which incidentally is very cool.
Outbound texts
Tropo works a little bit differently when triggering outbound calls and texts. With Twilio, you can simply call a REST API with your destination number and message (or other instructions) directly within the body of the request. With Tropo, the REST API launches the script or URL associated with your application just like it does for an inbound call or text. That means our application script needs to differentiate between inbound and outbound requests and handle both. This threw me off quite bit and feels awkward, but I can see how it might have it’s advantages. Ultimately it would be nice if a simpler option was available, or if you could select separate scripts/URLs for inbound and outbound requests, but it gets the job done.
To detect whether a given request is inbound or outbound, we can check whether the currentCall global variable is set. If it is, we’re dealing with an inbound text. If not, we’re dealing with and outbound REST request. Using this, we can modify our existing Tropo script to handle both inbound and outbound requests (I’ve left out the post function for clarity):
function receivedSms() { var body = { message: currentCall.initialText, direction: "in", timestamp: { ".sv": "timestamp" } }; var bodyJson = JSON.stringify(body); var firebaseUrl = "https://XXX.firebaseio.com/clients/test/" + currentCall.callerID + "/messages.json"; log("Posting."); var result = post(firebaseUrl, bodyJson); log("HTTP response code: " + result[0]); log("HTTP body: " + result[1]); } function sendSms() { message(msg, { to:"+" + numberToDial, network:"SMS" }); log("Sent " + msg + " to " + numbertoDial); } if (currentCall) { receivedSms(); } else { sendSms(); }
The message function is a global function made available by the Tropo Scripting API. You can view the other available functions on Tropo’s Scripting API reference page. The msg and numberToDial variables are custom parameters we’ll pass in when we call the REST API from our client. The API allows us to add whatever arbitrary parameters we like to our requests and they are automatically inserted into our script with global scope.
That’s it for the entire server-side of our application. Not bad. Now we need to build the actual client-side gadget.
Finesse
Finesse is Cisco’s web-based agent software for their Contact Center products. It uses the OpenSocial spec to allow developers to embed custom gadgets within the agent’s screen, and interact with agent and phone state via custom APIs. Since this is a Cisco focused blog, I’m going to mostly assume that readers are familiar with Finesse and so won’t go into much detail about it’s APIs. If you’d like to learn more, take a look at Cisco’s Finesse developer site.
To get basic texts working, we need our gadget to do the following at minimum:
Connect to the Finesse API and listen for new call and end call events to start and end chat sessions.
When a call starts, subscribe to the Firebase path for the current caller’s ANI to receive incoming messages.
Send texts from the agent to the caller via the Tropo API.
Present a simple user interface to display outgoing and incoming texts, and allow the agent to enter texts to send.
As a bonus we’ll also record outbound texts from the agent to the same Firebase URL, and automatically load any recent conversation when a new call starts.
Subscribing to Firebase events
Firebase provides an extremely easy to use JavaScript library which we can use to subscribe to and send changes to Firebase (among other things). It’s as simple as this:
var MAX_HISTORY_COUNT = 10; var number = "15552221111"; // Customer's number var messagesRef = new Firebase("https://XXX.firebaseio.com/clients/test/" + number + "/messages"); var messagesQuery = messagesRef.orderByChild("timestamp").limitToLast(MAX_HISTORY_COUNT); // Retrieves latest messages from Firebase and sets up a listener for new messages. messagesQuery.on("child_added", function(snapshot) { console.log("Adding message id: " + snapshot.key()); displayMessage(snapshot.val()); });
Let’s step through the key lines one-by-one:
1)
var messagesRef = new Firebase("https://XXX.firebaseio.com/clients/test/" + number + "/messages");
Here we create a reference to our Firebase path by using the Firebase constructor provided by its API.
2)
var messagesQuery = messagesRef.orderByChild("timestamp").limitToLast(MAX_HISTORY_COUNT);
This creates a Firebase query that we can use to listen to events on our path. While we’re here, have the query retrieve recent history — ordered by timestamp — via the limitToLast and orderByChild functions. Note that at this point, we haven’t made any actual requests to Firebase to retrieve or listen to events. That’ll happen in the next bit.
3)
messagesQuery.on("child_added", function(snapshot) {
Here the API sends a request to Firebase to send our application an event every time a new child item is added to our target path. When this happens the API will call the callback function we provided with a snapshot object containing the item that was added and it’s identifier (auto-generated in this case). Since our query is requesting the previous 10 records, the callback will also be called once for each of the last 10 items found at our target path, ordered by timestamp (as we defined in the query).
4)
console.log("Adding message id: " + snapshot.key()); displayMessage(snapshot.val());
The snapshot object provides a val() function which returns the added item directly as a JavaScript object, we don’t have to manually parse it from JSON. The displayMessage function takes the message content and updates the UI. For brevity I don’t have it shown here but it can be seen in the full code source.
That’s all we need to receive texts. Now how about in the other direction?
Sending texts via Tropo
I couldn’t find an official JavaScript client library for the Tropo REST API, but fortunately it’s simple enough that we don’t really need one. All we need to do is make a GET request to a URL like this:
https://api.tropo.com/1.0/sessions?action=create&token=YOUR_API_TOKEN&msg=MESSAGE_TO_SEND&numberToDial=DESTINATION_NUMBER
Your API token can be found by navigating to your application page in Tropo. The msg and numberToDial parameters are the custom variables we defined in our Tropo script above.
Putting this together, we can now create the following function to send an SMS to a caller:
function sendSMS(message, customerNumber) { var messageUrl = "https://api.tropo.com/1.0/sessions?action=create&token=XXXX"; messageUrl += "&numberToDial=" + customerNumber + "&msg=" + message; console.log("Sending: " + messageUrl); $.ajax({ url: messageUrl, success: function (data) { messagesRef.push( { message: message, direction: "out", timestamp: { ".sv": "timestamp" } }); console.log("SMS successfully sent."); console.log("Result: " + data); }, error: function (err) { console.log("Error sending SMS"); } }); }
Notice that once the request is successfully sent, we push the message into our Firebase to make sure the recent conversation function works properly and leave the door open for possible reporting enhancements. We assume messagesRef is already set in global scope, and use the push function provided by the Firebase API.
The final gadget
We now have all the building blocks we need to put together our gadget. Building a Finesse gadget is a topic unto itself, so I won’t discuss it here, but it isn’t terribly difficult if you have some basic HTML and JavaScript skills. You can see the end results in our code repo. To use it, upload the contents of the client-finesse folder in the repo to your Finesse install under files/smsagent, then reference it in your gadget layout specification like so:
/3rdpartygadget/files/smsagent/SMSAgent.xml
Details for uploading third party gadgets can be found in the Finesse developer guide. You can also host it externally, but you’ll need to add:
<Optional feature="content-rewrite"> <Param name="exclude-url">*</Param> </Optional>
within the ModulePrefs tag in the SMSAgent.xml gadget specification file to make sure the JavaScript and CSS resources load correctly.
Building your own
There you have it, fully functional SMS chat integrated with Cisco Finesse, built in a couple days and no servers required. You can find 100% of the resulting code in our public Github repository. Feel free to use it for whatever purpose you like. Here are the high level steps you’ll need to get this running on your own:
Sign up for a Firebase account (free for dev and up to 50 max connections). Create a base path within your Firebase instance where you will post messages. Sign up for a Tropo account (free for dev, 3 cents per text for production, though prices may change after the Cisco purchase). Via the Tropo site, open a support ticket requesting permission to send outbound calls and texts to your test mobile number (Tropo support is very fast, they responded to me within about 15 minutes). Edit the smsagent.js file with your selected Firebase instance name and base path. Upload the resulting file to Tropo via their site. Create a new Tropo application, and associate the new file to texts for that application. On the Tropo application page, select a phone number to provision for your application. Edit the SMSAgent.html file with your Firebase instance name and path, and your Tropo messaging API key, which can be found on your Tropo application page. Upload the contents of the client-finesse folder to Finesse (with your edited SMSAgent.html file), following the instructions provided by Cisco. Alternatively, host the folder on a web server available to your Finesse server, but add the code snippet mentioned above to SMSAgent.xml before doing so. Add a reference to the gadget in your Finesse layout. Login an agent and send them a call with your 10 digit test mobile number as the ANI. Bask in the glow of SMS chat.
Enjoy!Iraq hits the Iranian influence: Abadi heading toward dismantling Hashd al-Sha’bi, aligning himself with the will of the Marjaiy’a and the U.S.A
Original article:
http://www.alraimedia.com/ar/article/special-reports/2015/09/14/619795/nr/iraq
via @AlraiMediaGroup
Elijah J. Magnier:
A senior Iraqi official told “Al Rai” that “The Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is proceeding with his reform’s policy and intends to take further subsequent measures. Abadi is pushing for the formation of the National Guard, disregarding the PMU (Popular Mobilisation Units) and Iran’s who rather avoid promoting it and stop Abadi from presenting it to the Parliament. Such a step intends to prepare the future dissolution the PMU and, in consequences, to consider any rejectionist group as outlaw. It would also give the Prime Minister a full control over all the security and armed forces he is lacking at the moment. Such a step is also aiming to reduce any influence of Iran within the security institution and mainly among the PMU”.
According to the ministerial source, “the prime minister enjoys the support of the Marjaiya (religious authority) in Najaf, which would like to see a strong army and security forces, all under the control of Baghdad only that holds the decision on the ground and reduce the influence of the militia. Al-Abadi enjoys also the support of the U.S.A that is, not only encouraging him in his decisions, but also putting pressure on the Sunni and the Kurds MPs block to support the National Guard formation, back Abadi in his footsteps reform and the reduction of the expansion of Iranian influence across the PMU militias”.
The Prime Minister banned the Hashd al-Sha’bi forces from entering Anbar and Mosul to fight the “Islamic state” (ISIS) group and entrusted the battle to the army, the Federal Police and the Counter Terrorism units, backed by the U.S.A coalition, in agreement with the Americans based in Baghdad.
The source added: “However, the current Iraqi government is aware that eradicating ISIS is a difficult objective without the U.S help and full support. But Abadi has decided to drop the offer of help from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard – Quds Brigade General Qassem Soleimani, in charge of the coordination between Iran and Iraq on the military level and the War on ISIS only. The Iranian General failed to deal with Abadi since his is in office and the tension between the two men increased since. The Prime Ministre is not the only one who likes to see Soleimani out of Iraq and away from controlling militias in the country. The Marjaiya in Najaf support Abadi in his decision that also fits perfectly well with the American desire to see Iran far from controlling Iraq”.
“It is a question of settling the accounts between the two men and to reduce the Iranian influence in Iraq without necessarily create a sense of hostility between the two countries (Iran and Iraq) “, said the source.
According to the source, “the basic problem today is between the various Shiite parties and within the same Shia house. There are Shi’ite parties with strong influence within the Parliament see it in their interest to line up with the Prime Minister and to see the Iranian influence reduced within the institutions. For example, take the same “Da’wa” party, which is no longer fully loyal to the former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, but many support al-Abadi. The “Supreme Council” (Majlis al A’la) headed by Mr. Ammar al-Hakim interest in supporting al-Abadi after seeing “Badr” movement drifting away from his control. The Sadr movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr shares the same objectives of al-Hakim, contrary to rumors. Many ex-Sadrists went to Iran to create their own organisations, creating serious “disturb” in the Sadrist house. This also confirms that the Iranian policy in Iraq was not that successful since al-Abbadi took the power. The Prime Ministre believed, until very recent, that Tehran intends to remove him and encourage other candidates to become PM. ”
On the other hand, Iraq is observing difficult economic situation, where salaries are not fully paid to the security forces, due to the low price of oil, the main government resource in its budget, and also because of the warfare expenses emanating from ISIS occupation of large areas and cities of Iraq.
PMU commander confirmed to me that “PM Abadi did indeed give the order to halt any advance of the PMU into Anbar, allowing the regular forces to do the job”. He believed that the main reason is to ”prevent any victory in Anbar that could be attributed to Iran, through the militia”. We were asked to consolidate the front in Baiji and Anbar, keep ISIS engaged statically without necessarily attacking. We can only follow the orders of the Prime Minister, right or wrong, and we don’t support the formation of a National Guard that would lead the country into a partition”.
The source explained, “The Shiite and Kurdish regions are considered out of ISIS danger and no longer threatened. ISIS is operating mainly within the Sunni areas in Anbar and Nineneh where there are around 3 million inhabitants, which is not the case in Syria where Salafists Jihadists live in a relatively friendly society and an area of over 10 Million inhabitants. The problem of ISIS is no longer ours, directly. If the world is ready to eliminate ISIS, we can take part of it. Otherwise, let ISIS stay where it is”.
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Telegram"Gay marriage," as a term, is dead, and we should all stop using it. Ditto for "same-sex marriage." As of Friday, June 26, with the majority decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court ruled that marriage is a right for all Americans and there aren't two different kinds. Generations will grow up calling marriage, whether between two men, two women or a man and a woman, the same thing: marriage. That's a great and amazing effect of the ruling, and the implications are enormous for young people, who won't see any delineation in the future.
But this is also where things get very complicated and even dangerous, and where we have to pay attention more than ever. When anti-equality conservatives can't blatantly use bigotry or even name a group they're targeting because of a profound cultural shift in favor of acceptance, they resort to the dog whistle. And we've seen this time and again around issues of race and gender as voting rights, affirmative action, and pay equity are attacked using coded language, while the more naked bigotry still plays out on the streets in the form of violence that coded language and symbols often still embolden.
"Religious liberty" is one term we've seen enemies of equality trotting out as code for the supposed threat of LGBT rights. I watched them testing it out over the past several years at gatherings like the Conservative Political Action Conference and the Values Voters Summit. It will be a mantra moving forward, and they'll surely come up with more.
I've seen too many self-assured articles in recent days claiming that the battles over abortion rights and even gun rights can't be compared to the battle over gay marriage in discussing how things will proceed. Marriage as a right for gays, these arguments contend, will end as a debate, because opponents can't claim that a right of another is infringed upon by it, or that there's any harm to anyone else, as they do with abortion (pointing to the fetus or the woman herself) or gun rights (pointing to gun owners).
But I've found these arguments to be naïve and, more so, apples-and-oranges comparisons, particularly when they imply that the battle over LGBT rights and acceptance itself is finished while the battle over women's rights continues. Yes, marriage as a right itself cannot be chipped away at or restricted in the way abortion has been. That's true even though we're seeing judges and clerks resisting marriage equality in these first days after the ruling. Every couple -- gay, lesbian, bisexual or straight -- must be able to marry after the high court's ruling, and this will work its way out. States and localities that have resisted are already falling in line.
But just because gays and lesbians have the right to marry, does that mean that a particular county clerk or judge must perform it if it offends his or her religious convictions, and if that couple could go to some other clerk who would officiate over their wedding? A few weeks ago North Carolina legislators said "no" and passed a bill overriding the governor's veto, allowing public officials to opt out of performing certain marriages based on their religious beliefs. The law doesn't mention gays or gay marriage, but it allows discrimination based on "sincerely held religious objection." Sure, this can't apply to federally and state-protected groups, such as people of certain faiths or races, but LGBT people are not a protected group, federally or in the state of North Carolina, so the question is open. On the same day Michigan's GOP governor signed a law allowing state-funded adoption agencies to turn away gay couples -- who now have the right to marry in the state -- based on the agencies' religious beliefs. Again, the law doesn't name gays and lesbians as a group, but clearly it was meant to apply to them, especially since it can't apply to other protected groups, and gays and lesbians aren't protected in Michigan.
And how do gays and lesbians actually get those protections in the 29 states where they don't have them, even in pro-gay localities in those states where they might find support, since there are no federal protections? Well, Arkansas, for one, made that pretty difficult, passing a law last spring that anti-gay forces saw as a model, a law that doesn't allow cities or towns to pass anti-discrimination ordinances protecting any group that doesn't already have statewide protections. Again, the law doesn't single out gays as a group; it uses wording that could allow it to stand up in court. These are the ways that anti-gay conservatives will continue to attempt to inhibit or restrict LGBT rights. And I'm sure they're crafting others right now.
Justice Kennedy's powerfully written majority decision in Obergefell, like those decisions he's written in the past that support gay rights, doesn't make it clear just how far-reaching the marriage decision is with regard to other rights, even as it talks much about dignity and equal protection under the law. As constitutional scholar Adam Winkler and others have noted, the court did not use "heightened scrutiny," the highest standard with regard to discrimination, in its decision, though doing so would have done much to insure that cases that seek to sanction anti-LGBT discrimination aren't even brought to court |
world. Now, like on a real plane, there are stops that demand additional effort on passing certain points of the movement range at Idle, Afterburner, and Afterburner max.Same as on a real plane, both slider grips are equipped with individual stops. If desired, these stops can be deactivated, and the sliders will travel without additional effort along its entire range.The grips' shape, similar to MCG, is as close as possible to the real fighters' controls. We only very slightly altered it to optimize its use in simulated environment.Structural parts of the TECS's mechanism are all metal. Full slider travel – 110 mm.Our own contactless magnetic sensors are used for extra precision.We see no point in overloading the surface with as many control knobs and switches as possible – it would likely make flying less handy and controlling the plane would become trickier.Instead, we focused on making the design and ergonomics of the TECS "VR ready". Every element can be easily found and identified by feel.A complete complex made of Gunfighter base, MCG grip, TECS, T-Rudder Pedals (or Twist), and Extension Panels is the best possible cockpit set that offers the user exceptional control over the plane, unparalleled immersion, and allows to take pilotage to a much higher level.The rendered image shows the pre-production version of the TECS. We will work together with the DCS experts to finalize the panels' layout, and confirm the text of the prints. If you read Russian, you might like studying these prints now: there might be something you wouldn't expect to see.Desktop version will be the first to see the world, and cockpit version will follow. Stay tuned for announcements.We estimate the price range for the main TECS base somewhere about US$ 200, and the extension panels – about 40 galactic credits.Now, the question is WHEN?! – stay tuned!Yours as always, Last edited by UIV; 05-11-2018 at 01:01 AM. Reason: TITLEAdvice doesn't have to be complicated to be effective. The simpler the advice, the more likely it will be applied in the real world, thus the more likely it will produce the desired result.
If you can't summarize your theories in less than a few minutes, then either your kohai (student) won't understand it, you don't really understand it, you're trying to sound too smart, or the material is so complex that it won't work in real life situations.
Since I'm coming close to the end of my rookie season here on T NATION, I figured I'd give you a short, practical summary of what we've covered so far regarding fat loss nutrition. Colleagues, clients, and friends have called it a Paleo-meets-Sports Nutrition hybrid approach.
Here are the Cliff Notes:
A Paleo/caveman-style diet is a simple template from which everyone can start. Eliminating most man-made, modern, processed, and refined foods and emphasizing natural foods that we evolved from can go a long way in improving health markers while helping achieve physique enhancement goals.
However, high intensity exercise creates a unique metabolic environment and changes how the body processes nutrients for 24-48 hours upon completion of a training session. If you exercise 3-5 days a week, your body is virtually in recovery mode 100% of the time. It's an altered physiological state beyond pure resting conditions, thus its nutritional needs are completely different from the average, sedentary, overweight office worker.
We should keep in mind that surviving in the wild during caveman times is different than achieving elite performance or physique goals in modern times. "Life extensionism" at the cost of a sickly appearance, low libido/Testosterone, and an overall lack of "bad-assery" is not what the average T NATION guy is looking for. At the same time, an awesome physique at the cost of poor health or early death isn't what the majority are seeking either. How about an intelligent plan with some balance?
Just like the sedentary person shouldn't get caught up in following Food Pyramid dogma, the strength-training athlete shouldn't get caught up in following no-carb dogma. Treating sick populations (insulin resistant, obese, etc.) is not advising athletes. Targeted carbohydrate intake can help the athlete fuel, recover from, and respond to intense strength training sessions.
The athlete should look at adding back in some low fructose, non-gluten, or "anti-nutrient" containing starches (potatoes, yams, rice) into their plan.
This is my approach, based on my education and experiences. But it's not the only way. I encourage you to take some personal accountability and self-experiment to find what works best for you.
Just remember, there's more than one way to skin a cat, or more appropriately for us, to peel off body fat.
The Lost Art of Post Workout Nutrition
I've talked a lot about Paleo Nutrition specifics. This time around, lets talk about some Sports Nutrition specifics. Efficiency means starting with the most important thing first right? The key, core concept in Sports Nutrition is post-workout nutrition.
Before the rise of information overload, practical advice regarding post-workout nutrition was simple – down some damn protein and carbs as soon as you can after finishing your workout.
Lately, I've seen a disturbing trend rising amongst the gym population, particularly amongst those who fall victim to over-intellectualizing or over-theorizing everything. Turns out some scientist or evolutionary theorist somewhere stated that carbs in the post-workout period inhibit the fat burning environment created by exercise.
Thus, people are starting to believe that to maximize fat loss, you must go low carb all the time, even in the critical post-workout window.
I can hear Donnie Brasco right now, "Forget about it."
The result is that the Sports Nutrition principle that's more important for producing physique development results than anything else, namely combining protein with carbs in the post-workout period, has been lost. These days I have to fight with people to get them to include some damn carbs in their post-workout meal.
That's crazy!
Unfortunately, a few T NATION readers have fallen under this spell. I've had to help several regular Nation readers uncover the underlying problem concerning their lack of physique enhancement results despite consistent and intense training protocols.
The #1 culprit was a lack of carbs in the post-workout recovery period. For too long, many of us have been living on "A Nightmare on Carb Street."
It's time to wake up.
What to do can be explained in a sentence: down some Surge Recovery and/or eat a post-workout meal combining protein with carbohydrates in a 1:1 to 1:2 ratio after every strength training workout. Whole food examples include fish and rice, egg/egg white mixtures and rice cakes, chicken and yam, steak and potato, etc.
If you're already doing that, you're done. You're probably getting good results and don't need to read on. The rest of this article is geared towards those who've somehow been confused into thinking that post-workout protein/carb combos are detrimental to their physique goals.
Unfortunately, the why – the science behind simple practical recommendations – can get pretty complex. However, it's a worthwhile endeavor to learn a little bit. It gives you the knowledge-base necessary to separate fact from the brown stuff that comes out of a bull's backside. It helps you stick to the fundamentals of physique enhancement and not get pulled off track by highly intelligent theorists, but equally lacking in real world practical experience.
The Problem with No Carbs Post Workout
When most people think of getting shredded, they think of fat loss only. This often results in extreme calorie/carb cuts and exercise protocols that can be counterproductive in the long-term due to the presence of a chronic catabolic environment. For example, hours of cardio a day and cutting out lettuce because it contains 1g of carbohydrate.
Short-term catabolism is beneficial, as it helps us break down stored energy nutrients for fuel, both as glycogen or body fat. But chronic, long-term catabolism is highly problematic for physique enhancement goals. This ultimately leads to muscle loss and body fat gain despite high activity levels and low food intake.
So physique athletes can't just think about "burning" stuff off all the time, even during fat loss phases. We also have to pay attention to recovery and muscle growth, or at the very least, lean muscle maintenance. Enter post-workout nutrition.
I like to think of this as the "yin & yang" of physique enhancement. We need balance in everything in life.
When one side is unbalanced, such as when a sedentary person consistently eats refined carbohydrates, insulin is chronically elevated, and there's too much "anabolic" activity – the body is always in storage mode, including storing body fat. If this isn't offset with "catabolic" activity or the burning off of stored nutrients through exercise, the net effect is "Pillsbury Doughboy-ville."
What happens when the other side of that equation becomes unbalanced is a little more complicated.
If you lean too much in the other direction (i.e. performing intense activity while chronically restricting calories/carbs, especially post-workout), there are negative consequences. Most notably, a lack of physique development and body composition change despite sincere effort.
Exercise is a catabolic activity. We all know it causes microscopic damage/tears in the muscle tissue. But what some have forgotten is that this catabolic process must be offset with an anabolic recovery period for physical adaptation to take place. Muscular repair – an anabolic process – only occurs with proper nutritional intake.
If you perform high intensity strength training but don't include some protein and carbs for recovery, what you end up with is cortisol over-dominance and a constant catabolic state. This over-dominance of cortisol is compounded by two lifestyle factors:
Our modern lifestyles, especially those of career-driven professionals, are highly stressful. Cortisol levels are chronically high due to the stress of corporate life. You don't want to add to this negative hormonal environment with improper post-workout nutrition. Otherwise, what's intended to be beneficial (exercise) ends up being counterproductive by contributing even more to chronically elevated cortisol levels. Those who lack real anaerobic fuel from carbohydrate intake often make up for it with artificial energy coming from stimulants (coffee, energy drinks, fat burning pills). Now there's considerable research that caffeine, in moderation, is beneficial for fat burning, but the key, as with most things in life, is moderation.
Needing to drink 84 oz. of coffee or 6 energy drinks just to get through the day is not moderation. It's chemical dependency. If overdone, cortisol remains chronically elevated, and contributes to the "stubborn body fat" syndrome.
This is the exact scenario that plays out with many strength-training athletes who strictly adhere to low carbohydrate diets. They're confused, thinking the low carb diet plans that are the best for sedentary populations are also the best for them. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The result of this hormonal environment is the "Skinny-Fat Syndrome." Guys and gals who consistently train hard, follow the low-carb trend, think they're doing everything right, are lean everywhere else, but hold flab right around the midsection. Oddly enough, it's too low of a carbohydrate intake, and it's the refusal to offset catabolic activity with an anabolic recovery period that's keeping them fat.
These athletes may be improving performance parameters (improving strength, endurance, ability to perform a specific like max pull-ups, deadlift max, etc.), but their appearance isn't changing. In many instances, it's getting worse.
It's much easier to improve performance on a sub-par diet than it is to improve appearance. Fact is, for the person with average genetics and choosing a natural route, it's impossible to improve appearance on a sub-par diet.
Yes, if carbs are overeaten it will inhibit the fat loss process. Chronic elevation or overproduction of insulin can of course lead to fat gain. But in the right amounts and situations (i.e. following an intense workout where insulin sensitivity is high), it can be a good thing (anabolic, anti-catabolic).
As counterintuitive as it sounds, some carbs in the diet can offset the catabolic activity of exercise (insulin is a counter-regulatory hormone to cortisol), can initiate the recovery and repair process, can help build lean muscle, and can help burn fat in the recovery period.
I've worked with physique athletes who got over their misconceptions and "carbophobia," leaned up, and reached personal, record low body fat percentages by adding carbs back into their diet; starting of course, with the post-workout period.
The Inhibition of Fat Burning Myth
The biggest argument I hear against carbs post-workout is that they'll inhibit optimum fat burning. This may be true at other times of the day, under normal physiological conditions, but it's not true in the unique environment created by intense strength training.
As bodybuilding nutritionist Chris Aceto accurately stated, carbs have a "metabolic priority" in the post-workout period. The strength training athlete cycles periods of glycogen depletion with glycogen restoration, and in the post-workout period, even a high carb intake doesn't get stored as body fat.
Again, the prevailing confusion in our industry is due to dietary principles that are great for sedentary populations being extrapolated and applied across the board, even with athletes.
In the post-workout period, the main priority of ingested glucose is to refill depleted glycogen stores. As this is happening, fatty acids fuel normal resting energy requirements.
That's A Wrap
There's a lot more we can talk about regarding this topic, such as the effect of carb and protein levels on the free Testosterone:cortisol ratio in response to exercise, changes in glucose transporters, and the glycogen synthase enzyme in response to exercise, etc.
But these are all more about the why then the what to do with post-workout nutrition. For now, follow my advice and return to the simple: take in some protein and carbs post-workout, even when prioritizing fat loss. You may need to cut the carbs at other times during the day, but you shouldn't cut them in the post-workout period.
ReferencesIn a new round of turmoil at the long-roiling NBC morning show “Today,” Jamie Horowitz, a former ESPN executive brought in 10 weeks ago to supervise the show, was fired on Monday after what several people at the network said was a series of conflicts with members of the show’s staff as well as the management of NBC News.
In a memo sent to the staff Monday evening, Deborah Turness, the president of NBC News, said that she and Mr. Horowitz “have come to the conclusion that this is not the right fit.”
Ms. Turness did not describe the decision as a termination, and referred to the move as something she and Mr. Horowitz had agreed upon together. But other NBC News staff members said flatly that Ms. Turness, and her superior, Patricia Fili-Krushel, who oversees NBC News, had determined that Mr. Horowitz had to go.
The move comes days after Page Six, The New York Post’s gossip site, reported new personnel conflicts at “Today” — which has had its share of those in recent years. The trouble, Page Six reported, was between the show’s long-serving and popular newsreader, Natalie Morales, and a newer member of the broadcast team, Tamron Hall.We've all heard of the offense of "driving while black." But not everyone has heard the good news: It doesn't exist anymore. According to an authoritative report, black motorists are no more likely than whites to be pulled over by police. So how has that study been greeted? As proof that police racism is still a powerful force.
It's a widely accepted article of faith that cops systematically engage in racial profiling against dark-complexioned folks. Yet this is the second consecutive survey from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics -- using information supplied not by police but by citizens -- that finds law enforcement to be admirably colorblind when it comes to routine traffic enforcement. Not a puny achievement, but one that was overlooked by people straining to find lingering discrimination.
The complaint is that though they get stopped at the same rate as whites, minority motorists are more likely to get unfavorable treatment during the stop. According to BJS, 3.6 percent of whites are searched, compared with 9.5 percent of blacks and 8.8 percent of Latinos. African-Americans are more likely to have force used against them and to be arrested. And they more often feel their treatment is unwarranted.
What can we make of these figures? Not what is claimed by critics like those at the American Civil Liberties Union, which labeled the disparities "disturbing," and columnist Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post, who detected "powerful evidence that racial profiling is alive and well." Some people get their exercise jumping to conclusions.
The researchers at BJS tried to discourage snap judgments. "The apparent disparities documented in this report do not constitute proof that police treat people differently along demographic lines," they warn. "Any of these disparities might be explained by countless other factors and circumstances that were not taken into account in the analysis."
Plenty of other elements could generate these divergent patterns. Why would black drivers be arrested more often? Maybe because African-Americans commit crimes at a far higher rate and are convicted of felonies at a far higher rate. In 2005, for instance, blacks were nearly seven times more likely to be in prison than whites.
Those disparities are bound to affect the outcome of traffic stops. Most blacks, like most whites, are not crooks. But since the average black driver is statistically more likely to be a criminal than the average white driver, he's more likely to have an outstanding arrest warrant -- which the police would find when running a computer check of his license. A computer check that turns up a long rap sheet will probably induce the patrol officer to ask for a look inside the trunk.
A motorist of felonious habits is also more likely to have illegal guns or drugs on board. If the contraband is visible to a traffic cop, or if it shows up in a search, the driver can expect to be arrested. Not to mention that the vehicle itself may turn out to be stolen.
Given the racial gap in crime rates, it would be a shock if traffic stops didn't generate more searches and arrests of blacks than whites. Even in a world where cops are completely free of racial prejudice, that is exactly what you would expect. There is a similar difference, after all, between the sexes -- males are nearly twice as likely as females to be arrested during a stop. Is that because cops are sexists? No, it's because men commit more crimes.
Trying to find "compelling" evidence of racism in this data is a fruitless task. Robinson makes much of the fact that blacks who are stopped are more likely to be sent on their way without any corrective action, even an oral warning. That, he says, "suggests there was no good reason to stop these people." Or it might suggest that cops cut African-American motorists a bit more slack on petty issues, perhaps in the hope of improving their reputation.
Whatever they do, the cops can't win. Blacks don't get stopped more often? Big deal. Blacks have higher arrest rates? Proof of racism. More blacks are let off without a warning? More proof of racism.
And if fewer blacks were let off without a warning? I'll let you guess how that would be interpreted.
COPYRIGHT 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
Discuss this article online.Information on Himalayan Snowcock
of the Ruby Mountains
Other Himalayan Snowcock Pages - Photos
T his page is about the elusive Ruby Mountain Himalayan snowcock (tetraogallus himalayensis). This page contains Field Notes that I have made through the years, Audio from actual Ruby Mountain Snowcock and a list of sightings from fellow bird watchers and hikers through the years.
The Himalayan Snowcock are native to Pakistan and Kashmir. Some Himalayan Snowcock from Pakistan where introduced into the Ruby Mountains between 1963 and 1979 from numerous releases. According to the National Geographic Society Snowcock are 28 inches from the tip of the beak to the tip on the tail feathers. From the mounts I have seen they stand around 14 inches tall.
S nowcock feed on grasses, sedges and forbs that are found on steep rocky slopes and ledges. The photo to the right shows prime Snowcock habitat with very steep terrain and inaccessible ledges. Snowcocks droppings are around 2 inches long and 3/8 inches in diameter. Snowcock tracks measure 3 1/4" long and 2 3/4" wide.
H imalayan Snowcock can be found in many places in the Ruby Mountains. These places include Thomas Peak, Wines Peak, Ruby Dome, Mount Gilbert, Verdi Peak and Old Man on the Mountain. Most of these peaks are over 11,000 feet.
D uring the summer months Snowcock are usually found toward the top of the ridges. In winter months there have been sightings in the cliffs across from Camp Lamoille at elevations around 8500 feet. Even though these elevations are low the terrain in very steep and treacherous.
Most of the sightings that I hear about are in the Island Lake area. I know of two different sightings in the summer of 2001 above Island Lake. Although snowcock have been seen directly above Island Lake the best area for my money is around Thomas Peak (11,316 ft.) which is to the north of the lake. For more information and locations for sightings check out the Sightings section toward the bottom of this page.
If you would like to see photos of wild Ruby Mountain Himalayan Snowcock go to the Photos of Himalayan Snowcock page located on this site.
Taken by wildlife photographer Tim Torell September 2009
Click on image to enlarge.
Field Notes:
When looking for snowcock make sure you listen. Most of the snowcock that we see we hear first.
Over half the snowcock we see are first seen in the air. This leads to our second note. When snowcock land they usually walk away from the spot where they landed. So when you see where the bird landed spend most of your time spotting around the landing spot.
Snowcock like the ledges in cliffs and very steep slopes as shown in the photo above. These areas supply feed and cover. These ledges may be inaccessible on foot or may be so steep that all the bird has to do to escape is jump and they are air born and gliding away.
Snowcock like the rock pillars found in the middle of some chutes. These rock pillars provide snowcock with a great vantage point and a very easy means of escape.
When spotting for snowcock there are two main areas that I search. Grassy areas on ledges and slopes provide feeding opportunities for snowcock and the edges of cliffs provide a good lookout point for snowcock that are not feeding.
Snowcock are very jumpy. It is very easy to flush snowcock even when they are on the next ridge. Proceed with caution.
If you are hiking to Island Lake to view these birds I recommend getting into position above Island Lake before first light. To make this task easier pack your optics and use hiking sticks for the trek above the lake. Watch a Video on Snowcock: Watch a video posted on the American Birding Association site on the catch and release program of the Himalayan Snowcock. This is a priceless video from the Nevada Fish and Game Commission called "The Himalayan Snow Partridge Story". This is a 24:31 minute video that documents the entire transplant process starting in Hunza Pakistan as well as the incubation process in Nevada to the final release in the Ruby Mountains. Listen to a snowcock: The Himalayan Snowcock can be noisy birds. They make noise when they feed and it also has an alarm call when it is startled and flies. The snowcock I have seen will make this alarm call most if not the whole time it is flying. Below is the recording of 2 Ruby Mountain Himalayan Snowcock as they glided past. Snowcock Alarm Call The J. Willard Marriott Library of the University of Utah also has a great recording of the Himalayan Snowcok.
Photo taken by Larry Spradlin 23 March 08.
Photo taken by Bruce Thompson 25 June 04.
Photo taken by Bruce Thompson 1st weekend April 04.
Sightings : I would like to thank all the people that have taken the time to let this site know about their birding experiences in the Ruby Mountains while looking for Snowcock or Rosy Red Finch. I believe it is information like this that can help the next person find the bird they are looking for. Thanks again.
26 August 2016 by Brad Bates and James Alt - We were able to observe a Snowcock in the Island Lake Cirque at 5:45am. We hiked up the Lamoille Canyon, Island Lake trail at 4am and positioned ourselves about 500ft above the lake near a few evergreens for cover and waited for the sun to rise. At about 5:30am we were excited to hear the Snowcocks begin to call from about three locations. With help, from a spotting scope, I was able to locate a Snowcock on-top of the north ridge just before it flew down the slope. After watching it land in the boulder field below the north cliffs, we observed it for several minutes as it hunted around the rocks for things to eat.
3 July 2013 by Bradford Graham - Bradford went up to Island lake trail early for a sunrise start. This is what Bradford had to share with us. "From the lake I walked up to the next plateau where there's a small little marshy area and hunkered down on a large flat rock area. At sunrise I did hear a couple of birds call on & off and they did so for about an hour. I searched in vain but couldn't find them. My luck would change however around 9:30am when in flew a Golden Eagle! Would it flush a Snowcock? Turns out it flushed 10 birds! They were above the black rock face on the left side. The whole flock flew to the north east with in the rock face in full view until they circled around north end and out of sight. Over all a neat experience. The day prior I also had a pair of Black Rosy-Finch on the left side of the black rock face."
30 June 2013 by Ming & Chris Aquila and their group of 16 people with 5 non-birders. They started hiking around 3:45am and arrived at the area above the Island Lake around 5:30am; They heard the start of the vocalization at 6:30am and got a visual around 7:15am. They saw 3 snowcock and heard 1 more. Chris and Ming had this to say about their sighting. " We got to enjoy the Snowcocks feeding on a small grass patch below the tip of the cliff for about 15 minutes. The process from the moment of hearing the vocalization to locate the birds was painful and frustrating - it took us about 45 minutes to locate the birds. Even with scopes, the birds are hard to spot as they really look like a rock if they don’t move."
27 April 2012 by Steve Noseworthy & Sam Brayshaw - About 1pm we arrived at the top of the Lamoille Canyon road to find the parking lot covered with snow. We decided to hike the Island lake trail anyway in hopes of finding a snowcock at the lake. After a couple of hours of trudging through the snow, sometimes 2’ deep, we arrived at the lake. We spent the next 2 hours scanning the cliffs around the lake and hiking to the cliffs northwest of the lake. We did not find any wildlife. The next morning we decided to try the area east of the Glacier View overlook. We arrived about 6am and hiked up to the first ledge and listened and scanned the grassy ledges for snowcock. We did find mountain goats in abundance and heard some snowcock in the distance. We decided to head uphill (very steep) and follow the calls we were hearing. We were a little south of the route on Kyle’s map, probably around 800-1000ft above the road. We had excellent although far away views (through a scope) of a singe Himalayan Snowcock for about 20 min.
16 August 2011 by Ralph Browning - Only one Himalayan Snowcock was observed. I went up Island Lake Trail in mid-day to scout the trail for a possible walk up around 4 a.m. the next morning. Fortunately, the early morning trip was not required. It was around 1 p.m. on 16 August. I was at the flat where people camp above the Island lake where I first heard the elk-like call. About 30 minutes later I spotted a falcon sitting near what some call the tetons (left of the black cliff). I did not see it fly, but believe it was a Peregrine (it seemed too dark below for a Prairie). Looking down to rest my eyes for a second, I then looked back at the falcon, but it was gone. A few minutes later I heard cackling (not the elk-like call), and then saw a snowcock flying from somewhere between the right teton and the left side of the black cliff, make an arc toward my position and back to behind the right side of the black cliff. I waited at least 30 minutes for any other birds, but nothing. I met a man who told me he regularly "catches dinner" at Island Lake and that he almost always observes snowcock during the evening. A person at the U.S. Forest Service in Elko also said the snowcock is regularly found in the evening. All this seems contrary to advice that sunrise is the time, which requires tripping up the trail in the near darkness of very early morning.
18 June 2011 by Kyle Rambo - A group of us wildlife biologists and birders had just finished a DoD Partners in Flight meeting the week before at the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey and drove down to the Ruby Mountains in search of Himalayan Snowcock and other mountain birds and wildlife. Our party consisted of Kyle Rambo and a party of six others. We parked at the Glacier Overlook at 0600 and began climbing toward the cliffs across the road. We had just made up the first steep roadside pitch, onto a terrace of sorts, and were splitting into two parties. One following your yellow route to the left and one following your orange route to the right. At about 0645, a bird started calling from the cliffs down canyon to the left. We all had excellent looks at a single bird, silhouetted against the skyline, on the lowest outcropping of rock (even lower than the outcropping with the "window hole" in it). He stayed perched there for 5-10 minutes, leaving once for a minute or so and then returning. That was to be the only sighting at that location. We heard one or two birds calling there, but couldn’t locate them in our spotting scopes. Later that morning (maybe 11:00 - 11:30 AM), we drove up to the Island Lake trailhead in search of Black Rosy-finch (without any luck). But, half of our party did see another Snowcock launch itself from the highest rim of the steepest cliff face to the left at the parking circle. It dove down, then banked left, landed on a slope, and began feeding its way uphill again. Here is a copy of the map with the routes that Kyle refered to above. Route Map.
19 November 2010 by Larry Spradlin - Larry saw a snowcock in Lamoille Canyon when he was watching some mountain goats. The snowcock and mountain goats were in the same area. Larry said he saw the snowcock move out of the way for a goat. This is actually the second time Larry has seen snowcock and mountain goats in close proximity in the last two years.
13 August 2010 by Chuck & Lillian Almdale - Chuck and Lillian headed up to Island Lake and were lucky enough to find a snowcock and relay their experience back to us. Here is what they had to report. Our motel room in Elko was not available mid-morning, so we drove another hour to the top of Lamoille Canyon to check the trail, and decided to hike up despite our late start. We started hiking at 11am, and arrived at Island Lake about 12:30. The trail was not steep, but numerous rocks can trip and we're both over 60. On advice from birder Martin Myers heading downhill, we left the trail just before it crossed the outlet stream near the lake edge. We headed off to the right with the lake to our left, and angled up the hill in the general direction of the large blackened cliff. About 12:45 and approx. 50 ft. vertical above the lake, a helicopter approached the cliff, which I closely watched (thru Canon 10x40 stabilized binos) hoping it would flush a Snowcock, which it did. I followed its flight upcliff until it landed. Unfortunately it soon walked behind a rock and vanished. We climbed another 150 ft vertical towards the cliff. Around 2pm a Mountain Goat wandering near the top edge of the black cliff and caused the Snowcock to move, permitting us to view it in our telescope, which we did for about 20 minutes as it slowly walked, seeing it from all sides. It never called. I think it was the same bird in both sightings, as the locations were close to each other. Without stabilizing binos, seeing this bird walking at more than 1/2 mile distance would have been impossible for me. No Black Rosy-Finches were seen or heard. Snow patches were small and few.
31 July 2010 by Chris Conard - Chris was kind enough to share his siting via email. This is what he had to say. "I tried my luck on Saturday, 7/31/10. At 6:35 pm I was able to pick out a snowcock (with a scope) on the ridge midway between the highest portion of what I assume to be Thomas Peak and two rocky spires. It was silhouetted on the ridge, looking around, and even scratched the side of its head before going out of view. For the next 30 seconds, I could hear some cackling calls from the area where the snowcock had been. I set up my scope on the flat area about 200 feet above Island Lake. The mosquitoes were really bad, but it was worth it. I have twice climbed to the upper cirque just below the cliffs and have seen Black Rosy-Finch (in 2005), pikas and a long-tailed weasel, but had missed the snowcock. On the 2005 trip (also 7/31), my wife and I heard the snowcocks call, but didn't see them. Maybe since I wasn't as high on the mountain this time, I had a better angle to see the single bird on the ridgeline."
12-15 February 2010 by Patrick Grewe and friend - Patrick had this to say about his winter Ruby Crest Trail adventure. "A friend and I skied the Ruby Crest Trail, with some variation and exploration this past weekend Feb 12-15th. And we spotted quite a few Himalayan snowcock. The first one we saw was on Green Mountain, and then another in the vicinity of Tipton Peak. On the third day we saw a flock of six birds near the summit of Wine Peak."
15 February 2010 by Larry Spradlin & Bill Homan - We where hiking up a chute across the road from Camp Lamoille. Larry spotted something moving on a ledge above us. Once we arrived at that ledge we found some snowcock tracks in the snow. Later as I was checking the ledges below two snowcock flew off and glided around the ledge. A very short time later another snowcock was spotted gliding off the same ledge.
7 November 2009 by Ryan O'Donnel - Ryan found some snowcock above Island Lake. Here is what he had to say. "I and three friends hiked up to Island Lake in the early afternoon yesterday, 7 Nov 2009. Using a spotting scope we were able to find a group of three Snowcocks on an exposed rock outcropping very near the ridgeline above the lake. Later we saw a lone bird even further upslope, which may have been part of the original three or may have been a fourth bird. We also saw a flock of Black Rosy-Finches, another target bird, fly by the snowcocks while the snowcocks were in the scope."
29 August 09 by Tim Torell - Tim arrived at the base of the cliffs above Island lake at 7: am. As he hiked up the last steep incline 2 snow cock flew from the west ridge and landed at the base of the cliffs in the upper bowl. Tim also said "Spent most of the day at the upper level of the canyon. While there 9 more snow cocks flew over head as singles or in groups of 2 or 3.
14 July 09 by Jake Ward - Jake and some friends saw some snowcock by Echo Lake. Here is what he had to say. "When we were heading out of the lake (through the pass to the south) we heard snowcocks back to the east and looked over just in time to catch about a half dozen of them flying across the canyon. They flew straight into a cliff and we glassed them for a minute or two before they went out of sight."
28-29 June 09 by Joan Rankin & Thor Manson of Canada - On the 28th they hiked up the Island Lake Trail arriving at the Lake about 7:00 a.m. After scanning the ridges and peaks with the scope, they scrambled up the scree to the meadow area above Island Lake. At about 9:00 a.m. Joan Rankin got a close up look of a single bird which walked right by her as she sat motionless on a boulder. Efforts to relocate the bird were not successful. The next day, following a different strategy, they arrived at Island lake around 5:00 a.m. After setting up the scope by the lake, Thor immediately saw 3 snowcocks, beautifully illuminated by the rising sun on the top of what Thor thought to be Thomas Peak. Thor observed them with a 60 power scope for about 5 minutes. After which the snowcock flew down the hill. In flight Thor noticed that there had been 6 birds in the area.
14 March 09 by Bill Homan - I was in the same area as the day before looking for mountain goats when I saw a snowcock fly off a ledge and land farther out the |
the US.
But after falling overboard, the sea water corroded the card-packaging and the toys floated free. They circled the northern Pacific once before being washed up on the Alaskan shore, then all down the West coast of Canada and the US.
Mr Ebbesmeyer saw immediately how valuable the little toys would be to scientific research of the great ocean currents, the engine of the planet's entire climate.
He correctly predicted what many thought was impossible - that thousands of them would end up washed into the Arctic ice near Alaska, and then move at a mile a day, frozen in the pack ice, around their very own North-West Passage to the Atlantic.
It proved true years later and in 2003, the first "Friendly Floatees" were found, frozen and then thawed out, on the eastern seaboard of the U.S. and Canada.
So precious to science are they that the US firm that made them is offering a £50 bounty for finding one.
THE JOURNEY SO FAR:
10 JANUARY 1992: Somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean nearly 29,000 First Years bath toys, including bright yellow rubber ducks, are spilled from a cargo ship in the Pacific Ocean.
16 NOVEMBER 1992: Caught in the Subpolar Gyre (counter-clockwise ocean current in the Bering Sea, between Alaska and Siberia), the ducks take 10 months to begin landing on the shores of Alaska.
EARLY 1995: The ducks take three years to circle around. East from the drop site to Alaska, then west and south to Japan before turning back north and east passing the original drop site and again landing in North America. Some ducks are even found In Hawaii. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) worked out that the ducks travel approximately 50 per pent faster than the water in the current.
1995 - 2000: Some intrepid ducks escape the Subpolar Gyre and head North, through the Bering Straight and into the frozen waters of the Arctic. Frozen into the ice the ducks travel slowly across the pole, moving ever eastward.
2000: Ducks begin reaching the North Atlantic where they begin to thaw and move Southward. Soon ducks are sighted bobbing in the waves from Maine to Massachusetts.
2001: Ducks are tracked in the area where the Titanic sank.
JULY TO DECEMBER 2003: The First Years company offers a $100 savings bond reward for the recovery of wayward ducks from the 1992 spill. To be valid ducks must be sent to the company and must be found in New England, Canada or Iceland. Britain is told to prepare for an invasion of the wayward ducks as well.
2003: A lawyer called Sonali Naik was on holiday in the Hebrides in north-west Scotland when she found a faded green frog on the beach marked with the magic words 'The First Years'. Unaware of the significance of her find she left it on the beach. It was only when she was chatting to other guests at her hotel that she realised what she had seen.Police officers have killed three suspected militants in the Khasavyurt District of the Russian North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on the border with Chechnya, a law enforcement spokesman said.
MAKHACHKALA, June 12 (RIA Novosti) - Police officers have killed three suspected militants in the Khasavyurt District of the Russian North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on the border with Chechnya, a law enforcement spokesman said.
“Three militants were killed when they opened fire on police officers who tried to stop their Priora car,” the spokesman said.
He added that those killed were preliminarily identified as members of a local gang.
No law enforcers were injured.
Regional investigators confirmed the information. Two assault rifles, a handgun and a few grenades were seized at the site. An investigation is underway.
The Islamist insurgency, once confined largely to the republic of Chechnya, has spread across the North Caucasus in recent years. Attacks on security forces, police and civilians are reported regularly in the neighboring republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.
Russia's new federal district
Over a decade after the war against Islamist separatists in Chechnya ended, Russian security forces and police continue to fight militants in the volatile region.Anything worth doing is never easy - and one woman who knows all about this is Ailish Ryan, the co-founder of mocks.ie.
Anything worth doing is never easy - and one woman who knows all about this is Ailish Ryan, the co-founder of mocks.ie.
It's about six years since Ms Ryan and her brother Eoghain set up mocks.ie - an online resource for exam students - and the siblings recently ventured into what is probably their biggest business opportunity yet. A new site - irevise.com - is the company's bridgehead as they attempt their assault on the British market.
"The UK has 8.4 million secondary-level students versus 340,000 here," said Ms Ryan."Without any promotions, we had 3,000 students creating accounts within two-and-a-half months of our launch into Britain. And within a month of the students going back to school in Britain last September, there were about 70 students creating accounts on the site every day."
It hasn't always been plain sailing for the siblings, however.
At the time they set up mocks.ie, both worked in their own engineering practice, Ryan & Associates. When the recession hit, the practice wasn't getting as much work as it had previously.
"In 2009, we were faced with the recession and neither of us like to sit idle," said Ms Ryan.
At the time, more than 5,000 Irish students were failing ordinary and foundation level maths in the Leaving Cert - and it was this stark statistic which gave Ailish and her brother the idea for mocks.ie.
"It seemed astronomical that you had 5,000 people failing ordinary level maths," said Ms Ryan. "We decided to investigate if there was a way we could help people to pass exams. Being maths inclined, we thought there must be some way to help people pass their exams.
"We knew that practice makes perfect - so we developed a maths program in 2009 where students could get practical exam questions."
As well as allowing students to practice exam questions, the company also provided a correction service so students could discover exactly where they went wrong when answering questions.
"We had had a good take-up on the maths program and correction service," said Ms Ryan.
In 2011, the siblings also started supply the hard copies of mock exam papers. This almost broke them. "Teachers told us that there were only two existing mock exam paper suppliers - and so we thought there could be a gap in the market," said Ms Ryan.
In its first year of offering this service, mocks.ie supplied over 40,000 exam papers - and arranged corrections for 10,000 of these. Although this meant that the business had secured a 5pc share of the market, that share didn't increase that much in its second year.
"It was a very challenging line of business," said Ms Ryan. "It was a volume-based exercise rather than high margin. We broke even in the first year - but not in the second year.
"We were almost broken by it because we had two jobs at the time - the engineering practice and mocks.ie. There was a lot of time pressure - we'd be working with teachers who were dealing with parents and so on.
"We'd often be working 48 hours without sleep. So we made an executive decision in 2012 to stop supplying the hard copies of the mock papers."
Despite the time pressures of supplying hard copies of mock exam papers, by 2012, the company had already developed two apps - an aural app and a multi-choice question app. The aural app helped secondary school students revise for their listening exams, while the multi-choice question app allowed students to practice questions from past exams.
The company had initially charged €1.99 for its aural app - and was selling between 200 and 300 of the apps a month when it charged for the app.
However, Lord Alan Sugar inspired them to offer their apps for free - and it was then that the siblings discovered the power of free apps.
"We were watching The Apprentice one night and Alan Sugar challenged the contestants to develop an app which could be downloaded for free," said Ms Ryan. "We decided to put the aural app on the website for free. Within the space of three weeks, over 25,000 apps had been downloaded. That gave us an understanding that there was a demand for free apps."
So Ms Ryan and her brother took a step back and reviewed their approach to the apps. They then decided to offer a free app where 60pc of its products are available for free - with the rest available to buy through in-app purchases. It is the company's premium products - such as revision notes, sample answers, and a correction and feedback service - which can be bought through the app.
"There are already hundreds of millions of websites but there are only tens of millions of apps, so it is easier to be found - and there is less competition," said Ms Ryan. "Also, for in-app purchasing, there is less of a payment barrier."
In 2013, a private investor approached the company. This marked a watershed for the company because it was also around this time that it decided to target the British market -and to focus more on generating advertising revenue.
"By 2013, we had 30pc of the Leaving Cert market and 20pc of the Junior Cert market creating accounts on mocks.ie and using our products and services," said Ms Ryan. "So we saw that there would be advertising revenue around that."
The company also recently decided to adapt a dual business model, where between 50pc and 60pc of its revenues are generated by advertising, and 40pc of its revenues by product sales.
The siblings did some research to find out the best ways to advertise to young people. "A lot of children aged between 15 and 19 are not on Facebook much anymore - for advertising purposes," said Ms Ryan. "They're on Snapchat and WhatsApp. We found that students want to be advertised to online - through email or through a website. But they don't tend to go for Facebook ads if it's a serious matter."
The company also sent out surveys to students to find out exactly what they want when preparing for exams.
"There's a huge demand for mock papers, revision notes, multiple-choice questions and sample answers," said Ms Ryan.
The company is now selling its products through subscriptions - rather than on a pay-per-product basis, which had been the case previously.
It charges €46 a year or €5.99 a month for a subscription to its revision notes and exam questions.
Ms Ryan's main ambition for the year is to increase her company's share of the British market. "We know the UK won't be an overnight success but if it's anything like Ireland, it will grow organically," said Ms Ryan.
The siblings were born in Kilkenny but moved to Galway about 20 years ago.
Although Ms Ryan said she always performed "relatively well" in school, she wishes she had the hindsight she has now back then.
"In college, I didn't really like my course but I wouldn't be a quitter so I completed it," she said. "That gave me a good foundation and helped me to go on to do the masters. I found that the more exams I did, the better I performed. I wish I had had the benefit of that hindsight when doing my Leaving, as I may have been a 600 pointer."
Ironically, just as mocks.ie is expanding into one of its biggest markets yet, the siblings' engineering practice is getting busier.
"With the construction industry recovering, the engineering business has bounced back," said Ms Ryan.
"We're still very much concentrating on growing the mocks.ie business though.
"We might eventually sell it at the right price and retire early. I don't want to be still working at 50!"
Sunday Indo BusinessMonza seat swap for Hyundai duo
Hyundai team-mates Andreas Mikkelsen and Thierry Neuville have confirmed an unusual joint entry at the Monza Rally Show competition in Italy [1 - 3 December].
The pair will crew a single 2016-spec Hyundai i20 WRC and will alternate driving and co-driving duties on each of the event's nine asphalt stages.
Neuville has previous experience of the sprint rally, which is based at the famous Monza racing circuit and attracts big name entries from all forms of motorsport.
"After taking part in 2015 and finishing second behind Valentino Rossi, I could not wait to go back," he said.
"I really enjoyed it then and I'm sure sharing a car with Andreas this time will be even more amusing! The audience is extraordinary in Monza and it is always a pleasure to drive with so much support from the fans."
"I'm sure we will have a lot of fun," added Mikkelsen. "It will be my first time in Monza but I have heard a lot about the event and its passionate fans. We will do our best to entertain the spectators."
The competition features two stages on Friday afternoon, four on Saturday and three tests on Sunday morning. The event concludes with a separate 'Masters Show' pursuit race on Sunday afternoon.
Further details can be found at www.monzarallyshow.it
More NewsCoverage of Africa by Western media often portray the continent in a negative light or in a simplistic manner, placing emphasis on conflict, corruption and tribal divisions. But Western media don't adopt that same tone when they report on their own countries.
Following in the footsteps of Joshua Keating’s “If it happened there” series on US news magazine Slate, Tumblr user Ragamberi asked himself, “How would it sound, if African media reported US elections in the same tone as Western media report on polls in Africa and elsewhere?”
His answer became a post titled, “If It had Happened Over Here”. Here are a few excerpts of how he imagined African coverage of the contentious presidential race in the US might read.
Tribal violence
Pressure is mounting on the Obama regime to allow international observers and peacekeepers after tribal violence marred election campaigns in the troubled north American nation. In Addis Ababa, an emergency meeting was called by African leaders to demand a return to rule of law in America, after pro-regime militants attacked a rally addressed by popular opposition leader Donald Trump in Chicago. “Unless America allows independent international groups to monitor the poll and for peacekeepers to move in and restore order, the poll is a sham and cannot be declared free and fair,” the African Union said. […] Explaining the weekend’s clashes, America experts – based at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique, Southern Africa – say Illinois has longstanding, deep-seated ethnic and sectarian tensions that are sure to boil over if the Obama regime does not allow UN peacekeepers before the hotly contested polls in November.
Republican candidate Donald Trump has seen violence break out several times at his rallies. Trump in turn has used violent rhetoric in speeches and on social media:
Bernie Sanders is lying when he says his disruptors aren't told to go to my events. Be careful Bernie, or my supporters will go to yours! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2016
Voter fraud
The election has also been marred by reports of widespread voter fraud. Sanders has complained of voter fraud after a controversial narrow loss in the Iowa region to party rival Hillary Clinton, wife of former regime leader Bill. Trump himself has claimed voter fraud in the region of Florida, raising serious concern in the international community about the credibility of the forthcoming poll.
Throughout the primaries race, which determines the candidate who will represent the Democratic and Republican parties in the presidential elections, accusations of fraud have been tossed around on both sides of the aisle, and voters have complained the system is unfair.
Attacks on media freedom
There are also concerns over blatant attacks on media freedom. The International Committee for the Protection of Journalists condemned attacks on journalists during the campaign.
A journalist for CBS News was arrested while reporting on clashes at a rally for Donald Trump in Chicago in March. A charge of resisting arrest was eventually dropped.
Read the full post here.After taking Stanford right-hander Cal Quantrill with the No. 8 pick in the MLB Draft, the Padres used their other two first-round selections on high school shortstop Hudson Sanchez and Kent State lefty Eric Lauer.
Sanchez was selected 24th overall, immediately followed by Lauer at No. 25.
Sanchez, out of Southlake Carroll (Tex.) High, is one of the youngest players in the draft class. The 17-year-old is listed at 6-foot-3 and has considerable power potential. He is considered unlikely to stick at short in professional baseball and could wind up moving to third base or a corner-outfield position.
"He’s a bat-speed combo guy that’s really hard to find," Padres General Manager A.J. Preller said Thursday night.
Few draft projections had Sanchez going in the first round, though, as Padres scouting director Mark Conner noted, the teenager has a projectable frame and corresponding upside. The suggested value for the 24th pick is $2,191,200.
"I had contact with a lot of teams," said Sanchez, who indicated he plans to forgo his commitment to Texas A&M. "Some teams showed more interest than others, but the Padres were definitely at the top of the list interest-wise. They kept in contact with me a lot, I went to their workout and performed pretty well and got comfortable with the staff. I didn’t know what to expect when they were picking, but I’m glad that it happened.
"I was expecting to go pretty high, but it’s still pretty crazy, I guess," Sanchez said. "But I know I’m ready to play at this level. I’m just ready to start my career."
Lauer, who turned 21 last week, boosted his stock with a strong junior season at Kent State and could move quickly through the minors.
"I’d like to get up there as fast as possible," Lauer said. "I’d be happy wherever they put me.... If they want to throw me right into the fire, I’d be fine with that.
"My goal is to be up and helping the big-league club by next year, if I can. I don’t have too in-depth of a timeline, but as soon as possible."
The 6-3 southpaw led all of Division I with a 0.69 ERA, the lowest mark by a starting pitcher since Chris Rich had a 0.62 ERA for St. John's in 1979.
"It wasn’t anything that I changed really about myself," said Lauer, who threw a no-hitter last month to lead Kent State over Bowling Green for the Mid-American Conference title. "Control was a big thing and really getting back to simple mechanics and making sure I wasn’t trying to do too much to impress people. I think that was the key to unlocking the better command I had."
Lauer's fastball sits in the low 90s and is complemented by a slider, curveball and change-up. He projects as a mid-to-backend arm in a major league rotation. The 25th pick comes with a slot value of $2,159,900.
Lauer described himself as a "calculated power pitcher.
"I don’t blow up the radar gun with 98 and stuff like that, but the way I’m able to use my pitches and secondary pitches, it allows me to use my fastball as a power pitch," he said. "The command of every pitch has to be there, and that’s what’s allowed my fastball to be a little better than it might be on a normal day."
Conner had scouted the left-hander since Lauer was in high school.
"I saw him develop over the last five years as an underclassman to now," Conner said. "He's a left-handed pitcher with probably one of the best arm action-delivery combinations in the country, a very easy delivery."The late children’s book legend Maurice Sendak gave it a memorable review in a January appearance on “The Colbert Report”: “The sad thing is, I like it,” Sendak told TV host Stephen Colbert about Colbert’s planned children’s book.
And now Colbert’s picture book, “I Am A Pole (And So Can You!),” is a reality, having debuted earlier this month and currently holding the number one spot on the Hardcover Advice and Miscellaneous section of the New York Times bestseller list. (And that quote from Sendak is splashed across the top of the cover.)
The book was first introduced to the “Colbert” viewing audience when Colbert was interviewing Sendak in a two-part special and mentioned his interest in breaking into children’s books. Colbert had already written one original work, “I Am America (And So Can You!),” a book for adults. Colbert said the idea of introducing “Pole” into the discussion with Sendak arose during interview preparation.
“My character’s motivation for the [book] was his wanting to get into writing celebrity books, which we knew was something loathed by Mr. Sendak,” he told Publishers Weekly.
But Sendak’s reaction was unexpected.
“I knew when he laughed throughout and said he liked it, it could be a real thing,” Colbert said.
Parents, beware. Colbert's book is a parody of a children’s book than the real thing. Among other adventures, the pole of the title, which is going through an identity crisis, briefly moonlights as a stripper pole.
And of course, most of the jokes would go over kids’ heads, including “I wished I was the North Pole, and marked the home of Santa, or even just a Gallup poll, calling voters in Atlanta” and “I tried and failed at other things, that I shouldn’t talk about. Like that summer with the phone poles, getting totally strung out.”
But young adults and adults, especially those who are fans of the late-night host, will undoubtedly appreciate the humor, and Colbert himself makes a cameo near the end with a tongue-in-cheek verse. “For people it seems easy to find a role that suits you most,” the pole laments. “Like a job of true importance, such as late night TV host.” (The text is placed next to pictures of an astronaut, a doctor, a member of the military, and President Barack Obama.)
The inside flap on the picture book advertises “sequels,” including “Pole Eats His Vegetables,” “Pole Meets Another Pole,” “Pole Meets the Other Pole’s New Boyfriend,” “How the Pole Stole Christmas,” and “Pole Learns About Copyright Infringement.”
A Boston Globe review said the rhyming was clunky and the illustrations were basic, but that that was beside the point, calling it “deliberately bad.”
“The design? So-so at best,” wrote reviewer Chelsey Philpot, who is a book review editor at School Library Journal. “The relation of image to text? The pictures deliver the humor…. Overall, is it terrible? Does a Wild Thing like a rumpus? But it delivers some laughs, and Colbert’s fans especially will love the twisted humor.”
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Colbert's book aimed at adults, "America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't," is due for release in October.
Molly Driscoll is a Monitor contributor.Xiphos Profile Blog Joined July 2009 Canada 7500 Posts Last Edited: 2013-09-26 23:54:17 #1
I was just visiting the SOSPA thread and the BW streamer posted this: On September 26 2013 18:42 snipealot wrote:
sonic just announced KT Mind for sospa
4 more players to go
from SOSPA's head's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/sogoodtt
"kt전프로 박성균선수 섭외되었습니다
김태균선수가 도움 주셧습니다^^
아직 못푼 카드 4장 남아있습니다
기대되시죠^^?"
Bing translated to "Kt Pro has been the player Park Sung-Kyun Kim Tae-Kyun athletes help contact note was ^ ^ 4 not yet unpacked card are left looking forward to do ^ ^? "
Is Mind retiring? Any "official sources" yet (aka from Daily Esport or Fomos)?
UPDATE:
On September 26 2013 23:34 OopsOopsBaby wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 26 2013 23:33 JustPassingBy wrote:
Eh, weird. I'm sure Kespa is really strict about the participation of their players in other events, so I really can't think that they would allow one of their player to participate in the Sospa. On the other hand the facebook posts explicitly states "KT Mind" and not just "Mind" or "ex-KT Mind"...
kt전프로 means ex KT pro kt전프로 means ex KT pro
^Well I guess this semi-confirms it. I can't really trust 100% Sonic's update because he might just be saying it to hype up future events. Still need confirmation by actual KT managers and/or credible reporters. from SOSPA's head's Facebook page:"kt전프로 박성균선수 섭외되었습니다김태균선수가 도움 주셧습니다^^아직 못푼 카드 4장 남아있습니다기대되시죠^^?"Bing translated to "Kt Pro has been the player Park Sung-Kyun Kim Tae-Kyun athletes help contact note was ^ ^ 4 not yet unpacked card are left looking forward to do ^ ^? "Is Mind retiring? Any "official sources" yet (aka from Daily Esport or Fomos)?^Well I guess this semi-confirms it. I can't really trust 100% Sonic's update because he might just be saying it to hype up future events. Still need confirmation by actual KT managers and/or credible reporters. 2014 - ᕙ( •̀ل͜•́) ϡ Raise your bows brood warriors! ᕙ( •̀ل͜•́) ϡ
partydude89 Profile Blog Joined August 2012 1835 Posts #2 mixed feelings about this... #1 Official Hack Fan|#2 Bomber behind Wintex.|Curious|Life|Flash|TY|Cure|Maru|sOs|Jin Air Green Wings fighting!|SBENU Fighting!|
JustPassingBy Profile Blog Joined January 2011 10465 Posts #3 Eh, weird. I'm sure Kespa is really strict about the participation of their players in other events, so I really can't think that they would allow one of their player to participate in the Sospa. On the other hand the facebook posts explicitly states "KT Mind" and not just "Mind" or "ex-KT Mind"...
OopsOopsBaby Profile Blog Joined June 2010 Singapore 2524 Posts #4 On September 26 2013 23:33 JustPassingBy wrote:
Eh, weird. I'm sure Kespa is really strict about the participation of their players in other events, so I really can't think that they would allow one of their player to participate in the Sospa. On the other hand the facebook posts explicitly states "KT Mind" and not just "Mind" or "ex-KT Mind"...
kt전프로 means ex KT pro kt전프로 means ex KT pro s3x2-2 xiao3x2+2 bone3+2+2
Sinedd Profile Joined July 2008 Poland 7050 Posts #5
that would be just awesome!!! I hope that this is true Holy shiiiiit! :Dthat would be just awesome!!! I hope that this is true T H C makes ppl happy
PVJ Profile Blog Joined July 2012 Hungary 4495 Posts #6 Wouldn't be too surprised. The heart's eternal vow
TaShadan Profile Joined February 2010 Germany 1938 Posts #7 Gl Mind Total Annihilation Zero http://www.moddb.com/mods/total-annihilation-zero
JustPassingBy Profile Blog Joined January 2011 10465 Posts #8 On September 26 2013 23:34 OopsOopsBaby wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 26 2013 23:33 JustPassingBy wrote:
Eh, weird. I'm sure Kespa is really strict about the participation of their players in other events, so I really can't think that they would allow one of their player to participate in the Sospa. On the other hand the facebook posts explicitly states "KT Mind" and not just "Mind" or "ex-KT Mind"...
kt전프로 means ex KT pro kt전프로 means ex KT pro
Ah, okay, then the translation in the op is wrong. Well, if it really means ex-KT, then that pretty much settles it, doesn't it? Ah, okay, then the translation in the op is wrong. Well, if it really means ex-KT, then that pretty much settles it, doesn't it?
itsdaniel Profile Blog Joined December 2010 Austria 251 Posts Last Edited: 2013-09-26 15:24:04 #9, OFFICIAL #1 STORK FAN // Stork:"This past week, there's a foreign fan named Daniel who got caught on the camera a few times. He came from Vienna in Austria to come and see me, and he wanted to be mentioned in one of my interviews."
vult Profile Blog Joined February 2012 United States 8779 Posts #10 Sonic league is starting to look incredible. BW lives on. Polt plz come back
purakushi Profile Joined August 2012 United States 3240 Posts Last Edited: 2013-09-26 15:00:14 #11
Thanks SC2 BW revival <3Thanks SC2 June 2010 - August 2017: waiting for the return of Starcraft
Daswollvieh Profile Blog Joined October 2009 5551 Posts #12 Can´t even remember him playing SC2, so that probably didn´t help.
Darkhorse Profile Blog Joined December 2011 United States 22865 Posts #13 Wouldn't be a huge surprise. Mind didn't make much of an impact in SC2. He played four total games in the entire proleague season, and lost all four.
Still I guess it's cool that SOSPA is getting these players. Writer "I was born on the same day the fucking holocaust happened" - TL Writers Skype 9/22/2014
tar Profile Joined October 2010 Germany 990 Posts #14 SOSPA's looking great. Happy to see that there is a place to go for those who still have passion for bw whoever I pick for my anti team turns gosu
Lorch Profile Joined June 2011 Germany 3420 Posts #15 Well given that he would just retire if sospa didn't exist I'm pretty happy. Still sad to see all these guys retire, but when the game changes this much it's only natural that some loose interest.
Grumbels Profile Blog Joined May 2009 Netherlands 6921 Posts #16 I would much prefer it if the title was "KT Mind to play in SOSPA", instead of gloomy retirement news. He is not retiring, he will still be involved in gaming. For theories and schools, like microbes and globules, consume each other and, through their struggle, ensure the continuity of life
Ettick Profile Blog Joined June 2011 United States 2328 Posts #17 To be totally honest, he wasn't exactly doing too great in SC2, so hopefully he'll find more success in BW.
UmberBane Profile Joined March 2013 Germany 3036 Posts #18 On September 27 2013 00:19 Grumbels wrote:
I would much prefer it if the title was "KT Mind to play in SOSPA", instead of gloomy retirement news. He is not retiring, he will still be involved in gaming.
Then again, if you were to nitpick even further, you could still say that since he'd then be listed as "this player has retired from competitive Starcraft II" on Liquipedia, it could indeed be called a retirement in the context of the SC2 subforum. Then again, if you were to nitpick even further, you could still say that since he'd then be listed as "this player has retired from competitive Starcraft II" on Liquipedia, it could indeed be called a retirement in the context of the SC2 subforum.
JustPassingBy Profile Blog Joined January 2011 10465 Posts #19 On September 27 2013 00:31 UmberBane wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 27 2013 00:19 Grumbels wrote:
I would much prefer it if the title was "KT Mind to play in SOSPA", instead of gloomy retirement news. He is not retiring, he will still be involved in gaming.
Then again, if you were to nitpick even further, you could still say that since he'd then be listed as "this player has retired from competitive Starcraft II" on Liquipedia, it could indeed be called a retirement in the context of the SC2 subforum. Then again, if you were to nitpick even further, you could still say that since he'd then be listed as "this player has retired from competitive Starcraft II" on Liquipedia, it could indeed be called a retirement in the context of the SC2 subforum.
Well, anybody leaving KeSPA is retiring, at least according to KeSPA. I still remember when they claimed Boxer was retiring because he... hm... maybe that was when he tried out SC2? Well, anybody leaving KeSPA is retiring, at least according to KeSPA. I still remember when they claimed Boxer was retiring because he... hm... maybe that was when he tried out SC2?
FaCE_1 Profile Blog Joined December 2006 Canada 5401 Posts #20
Soon to be #1 tournement in world SOSPASoon to be #1 tournement in world n_n
1 2 3 Next AllSteve Mayes figures his beekeeping days are numbered.\
"The beekeeping industry is on life support right now," said Mayes, whose Mackinaw Valley Apiaries supplies honey to many stores in central Illinois.
Steve Mayes figures his beekeeping days are numbered.
"The beekeeping industry is on life support right now," said Mayes, whose Mackinaw Valley Apiaries supplies honey to many stores in central Illinois.
Bees have been the focus of intense scrutiny even before the term Colony Collapse Disorder was coined in 2006. It's used to describe the decline in the number of insects that pollinate a third of the food we eat, producing an estimated $15 billion impact on the U.S. economy, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Mayes said he has to work harder than ever to obtain the honey from the 300 hives he maintains throughout Tazewell County. While he doesn't know for certain why bee casualties have skyrocketed in recent years, Mayes counts pesticides high on his list of suspects.
"The indicators are pointing in the same direction. I know that we get good production from my bees that are in the woods by a 400-acre organic dairy farm in Tremont. I get 100 pounds of honey per hive there, compared to zero at another hive (located near fields that are sprayed)," he said.
Lawrence DuBose, a longtime Carol Stream beekeeper, recently donated $100,000 to the DuPage County Forest Preserve for its new Honey House at Kline Creek Farm in West Chicago. The house processes honey on the 200-acre farm that showcases 1890s agriculture.
It's important to recognize contributions bees make, said DuBose, who declared there's no mystery when it comes to what's harming them.
"Pesticides have killed bees ever since we've had pesticides," he said. "We have 3,000 organic beekeepers in the United States that have to be located at least three miles from agricultural sites (where pesticides are used). These people claim they don't have losses."
Large apiaries are being hurt by the collapse, he said. "Twenty years ago, I could buy a package of bees (about 2,500 bees and a queen) for $10 to $12. Today, the price is closer to $100.
Commercial beekeepers can't afford those kind of prices," said DuBose.
A study conducted by Penn State University, released earlier this year, found widespread and "remarkably high" level of pesticide contamination of bee hives and food.
The study found 121 different types of pesticides in pollen, bee and hive samples obtained from 23 states.
As winter approaches, Mayes fears the worst for his hives. "Winter is always a bad time for the bees, especially when it gets really cold. The problem now is you've got a sick animal going into winter," he said.
"Over the past two winters, I lost 60 percent of my bees while three years ago, I lost 80 percent," said Mayes.
Steve Tarter can be reached at 686-3260 or starter@pjstar.com.In Trump’s Washington even eating is politicized.
There really was a liberal media bubble, Nate Silver reports, and the only thing wrong with his assertion is that it’s in the past tense. The lack of diversity among journalistic ranks — even the sort of racial and sexual diversity championed every day in the pages of the Washington Post and New York Times — makes it easy for consensus to form and harden into unshakable groupthink. The media is a crowd without wisdom. There is hardly any variety of opinion, independence of mind is mocked and ostracized, and reporters increasingly are 20- and 30-year-olds living in either New York City or D.C. who are addicted to Twitter, where they out-snark each other to determine who can assume the best pose of knowingness. “As a result,” Silver concludes, “it can be largely arbitrary which storylines gain traction and which ones don’t. What seems like a multiplicity of perspectives might just be one or two, duplicated many times over.” Perspectives that Donald Trump is an oaf or Hitler or an oafish Hitler and Republicans are, in a word, awful.
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The remarkable thing is the bubble did not pop or even tremble after the election was over and the unthinkable had occurred. Instead it hardened into a shell, an impenetrable dome of the sort that walls off Chester’s Mill, Maine, in the novel by Stephen King. We moved effortlessly from a world in which Brexit would not happen and Donald Trump could not win to a world in which Putin colluded with Trump’s henchmen to influence the election and the Trump presidency was on life support |
into Valeant Pharmaceuticals.
Two years ago, the drug maker boosted the list price for Calcium EDTA by roughly 2,700 percent. After Valeant bought the drug in 2013 as part of a deal in which it took over another company, the list price for a package of vials started rising quickly. After being stable at $950, Valeant raised the price several times before closing out 2014 at more than $26,900.
“It’s a pretty grotesque example of corporate greed to see this kind of price increase,” US Representative Dan Kildee, (D-Mich.), who hopes to convince a Congressional committee to hold a hearing, told us. “We’ve seen such increases elsewhere, but that doesn’t justify it for a drug that, in most cases, is very likely to be used for a child who lives in poverty and exposed to high levels of lead ingestion. That makes it pretty egregious.”
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The price hikes have angered toxicologists, who note the drug is decades old and that other companies sell the same medicine for much lower prices in other countries. Ever since the price hikes began two years ago, poison-control specialists and physicians have been complaining, but until now, their efforts — which included reaching out to Washington lawmakers — did not gain traction.
As we noted previously, doctors acknowledge there are relatively few cases of severe lead poisoning each year, which means that only a small number of packages are stocked. There were about 50 serious cases reported in 2015, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, which also contacted Congress earlier this year about the increased pricing.
But even this small outlay can take a toll on hospital finances, and by extension public health, according to emergency room experts. In part, this is because the shelf life for the treatment is limited, but also because the funds could be used for other purposes, which can be an issue especially for some inner city hospitals that have limited resources and are more likely to see cases of lead poisoning.
The pricing further frustrates toxicologists because there are few viable alternatives. Most hospitals are not equipped to compound their own versions of the intravenous medicine. A pill called DMSA can be used, but since people suffering from severe lead poisoning are unconscious or can have seizures, it must be administered through a nasal tube into the stomach, which creates a risk of lung-related complications.
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Valeant has explained the current pricing is justified in order to maintain consistent supplies, and that there are high carrying costs, since about 200 to 300 units are sold each year. Each unit contains a pack of five vials. The company also must purchase sufficient supplies of needed ingredients in advance and this can amount to three to five times more than recent annual sales, which were between $3 million and $5 million last year. The list price also does not reflect any rebates or discounts that Valeant pays.
Kildee, by the way, represents a part of Michigan that includes Flint, where lead in the water has become a huge public health problem. However, he noted that, while exposures were very high, residents were exposed over a period of time, which would have precluded emergency treatment with the drug. “So the opportunities to be treated (with the Valeant drug) were made more difficult as a result,” he explained.
“But this isn’t just about Flint kids,” he continued. “This is about any child or person exposed to high levels of lead and about a kind of corporate greed that, if left unchecked, can just continue.”
[UPDATE: Valeant later issued a statement noting that it “does not sell a product that can treat chronic asymptomatic exposure to lead.” Also, Dr. Michael Kosnett, an associate clinical professor in the division of clinical pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Colorado’s School of Medicine and a consultant to the California Poison Control System, whose complaints about pricing were previously reported, has noted the drug would not be used for situations such as the Flint water crisis because concentrations of lead would not likely have been high enough.]Smoke and fire from the explosion of an Israeli strike rise over Gaza City, Wednesday, July 30, 2014, amid Israel's heaviest air and artillery assault in more than three weeks of Israel-Hamas fighting. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
Are you "pro-Israel" or "pro-Palestine"? It isn't even noon yet as I write this, and I've already been accused of being both.
These terms intrigue me because they directly speak to the doggedly tribal nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You don't hear of too many other countries being universally spoken of this way. Why these two? Both Israelis and Palestinians are complex, with diverse histories and cultures, and two incredibly similar (if divisive) religions. To come down completely on the side of one or the other doesn't seem rational to me.
It is telling that most Muslims around the world support Palestinians, and most Jews support Israel. This, of course, is natural -- but it's also problematic. It means that this is not about who's right or wrong as much as which tribe or nation you are loyal to. It means that Palestinian supporters would be just as ardently pro-Israel if they were born in Israeli or Jewish families, and vice versa. It means that the principles that guide most people's view of this conflict are largely accidents of birth -- that however we intellectualize and analyze the components of the Middle East mess, it remains, at its core, a tribal conflict.
By definition, tribal conflicts thrive and survive when people take sides. Choosing sides in these kinds of conflicts fuels them further and deepens the polarization. And worst of all, you get blood on your hands.
So before picking a side in this latest Israeli-Palestine conflict, consider these 7 questions:
***
1. Why is everything so much worse when there are Jews involved?
Over 700 people have died in Gaza as of this writing. Muslims have woken up around the world. But is it really because of the numbers?
Bashar al-Assad has killed over 180,000 Syrians, mostly Muslim, in two years -- more than the number killed in Palestine in two decades. Thousands of Muslims in Iraq and Syria have been killed by ISIS in the last two months. Tens of thousands have been killed by the Taliban. Half a million black Muslims were killed by Arab Muslims in Sudan. The list goes on.
But Gaza makes Muslims around the world, both Sunni and Shia, speak up in a way they never do otherwise. Up-to-date death counts and horrific pictures of the mangled corpses of Gazan children flood their social media timelines every day. If it was just about the numbers, wouldn't the other conflicts take precedence? What is it about then?
If I were Assad or ISIS right now, I'd be thanking God I'm not Jewish.
Amazingly, many of the graphic images of dead children attributed to Israeli bombardment that are circulating online are from Syria, based on a BBC report. Many of the pictures you're seeing are of children killed by Assad, who is supported by Iran, which also funds Hezbollah and Hamas. What could be more exploitative of dead children than attributing the pictures of innocents killed by your own supporters to your enemy simply because you weren't paying enough attention when your own were killing your own?
This doesn't, by any means, excuse the recklessness, negligence, and sometimes outright cruelty of Israeli forces. But it clearly points to the likelihood that the Muslim world's opposition to Israel isn't just about the number of dead.
Here is a question for those who grew up in the Middle East and other Muslim-majority countries like I did: if Israel withdrew from the occupied territories tomorrow, all in one go -- and went back to the 1967 borders -- and gave the Palestinians East Jerusalem -- do you honestly think Hamas wouldn't find something else to pick a fight about? Do you honestly think that this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they are Jews? Do you recall what you watched and heard on public TV growing up in Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Egypt?
Yes, there's an unfair and illegal occupation there, and yes, it's a human rights disaster. But it is also true that much of the other side is deeply driven by anti-Semitism. Anyone who has lived in the Arab/Muslim world for more than a few years knows that. It isn't always a clean, one-or-the-other blame split in these situations like your Chomskys and Greenwalds would have you believe. It's both.
***
2. Why does everyone keep saying this is not a religious conflict?
There are three pervasive myths that are widely circulated about the "roots" of the Middle East conflict:
Myth 1: Judaism has nothing to do with Zionism.
Myth 2: Islam has nothing to do with Jihadism or anti-Semitism.
Myth 3: This conflict has nothing to do with religion.
To the "I oppose Zionism, not Judaism!" crowd, is it mere coincidence that this passage from the Old Testament (emphasis added) describes so accurately what's happening today?
"I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods." - Exodus 23:31-32
Or this one?
"See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land the Lord swore he would give to your fathers -- to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- and to their descendants after them." - Deuteronomy 1:8
There's more: Genesis 15:18-21, and Numbers 34 for more detail on the borders. Zionism is not the "politicization" or "distortion" of Judaism. It is the revival of it.
And to the "This is not about Islam, it's about politics!" crowd, is this verse from the Quran (emphasis added) meaningless?
"O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are [in fact] allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you--then indeed, he is [one] of them. Indeed, Allah guides not the wrongdoing people." - Quran, 5:51
Please tell me -- in light of these passages written centuries and millennia before the creation of Israel or the occupation -- how can anyone conclude that religion isn't at the root of this, or at least a key driving factor? You may roll your eyes at these verses, but they are taken very seriously by many of the players in this conflict, on both sides. Shouldn't they be acknowledged and addressed? When is the last time you heard a good rational, secular argument supporting settlement expansion in the West Bank?
Denying religion's role seems to be a way to be able to criticize the politics while remaining apologetically "respectful" of people's beliefs for fear of "offending" them. But is this apologism and "respect" for inhuman ideas worth the deaths of human beings?
People have all kinds of beliefs -- from insisting the Earth is flat to denying the Holocaust. You may respect their right to hold these beliefs, but you're not obligated to respect the beliefs themselves. It's 2014, and religions don't need to be "respected" any more than any other political ideology or philosophical thought system. Human beings have rights. Ideas don't. The oft-cited politics/religion dichotomy in Abrahamic religions is false and misleading. All of the Abrahamic religions are inherently political.
***
3. Why would Israel deliberately want to kill civilians?
This is the single most important issue that gets everyone riled up, and rightfully so.
Again, there is no justification for innocent Gazans dying. And there's no excuse for Israel's negligence in incidents like the killing of four children on a Gazan beach. But let's back up and think about this for a minute.
Why on Earth would Israel deliberately want to kill civilians?
When civilians die, Israel looks like a monster. It draws the ire of even its closest allies. Horrific images of injured and dead innocents flood the media. Ever-growing anti-Israel protests are held everywhere from Norway to New York. And the relatively low number of Israeli casualties (we'll get to that in a bit) repeatedly draws allegations of a "disproportionate" response. Most importantly, civilian deaths help Hamas immensely.
How can any of this possibly ever be in Israel's interest?
If Israel wanted to kill civilians, it is terrible at it. ISIS killed more civilians in two days (700 plus) than Israel has in two weeks. Imagine if ISIS or Hamas had Israel's weapons, army, air force, US support, and nuclear arsenal. Their enemies would've been annihilated long ago. If Israel truly wanted to destroy Gaza, it could do so within a day, right from the air. Why carry out a more painful, expensive ground incursion that risks the lives of its soldiers?
***
4. Does Hamas really use its own civilians as human shields?
Ask Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas how he feels about Hamas' tactics.
"What are you trying to achieve by sending rockets?" he asks. "I don't like trading in Palestinian blood."
It isn't just speculation anymore that Hamas puts its civilians in the line of fire.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri plainly admitted on Gazan national TV that the human shield strategy has proven "very effective."
The UN relief organization UNRWA issued a furious condemnation of Hamas after discovering hidden rockets in not one, but two children's schools in Gaza last week.
Hamas fires thousands of rockets into Israel, rarely killing any civilians or causing any serious damage. It launches them from densely populated areas, including hospitals and schools.
Why launch rockets without causing any real damage to the other side, inviting great damage to your own people, then putting your own civilians in the line of fire when the response comes? Even when the IDF warns civilians to evacuate their homes before a strike, why does Hamas tell them to stay put?
Because Hamas knows its cause is helped when Gazans die. If there is one thing that helps Hamas most -- one thing that gives it any legitimacy -- it is dead civilians. Rockets in schools. Hamas exploits the deaths of its children to gain the world's sympathy. It uses them as a weapon.
You don't have to like what Israel is doing to abhor Hamas. Arguably, Israel and Fatah are morally equivalent. Both have a lot of right on their side. Hamas, on the other hand, doesn't have a shred of it.
***
5. Why are people asking for Israel to end the "occupation" in Gaza?
Because they have short memories.
In 2005, Israel ended the occupation in Gaza. It pulled out every last Israeli soldier. It dismantled every last settlement. Many Israeli settlers who refused to leave were forcefully evicted from their homes, kicking and screaming.
This was a unilateral move by Israel, part of a disengagement plan intended to reduce friction between Israelis and Palestinians. It wasn't perfect -- Israel was still to control Gaza's borders, coastline, and airspace -- but considering the history of the region, it was a pretty significant first step.
After the evacuation, Israel opened up border crossings to facilitate commerce. The Palestinians were also given 3,000 greenhouses which had already been producing fruit and flowers for export for many years.
But Hamas chose not to invest in schools, trade, or infrastructure. Instead, it built an extensive network of tunnels to house thousands upon thousands of rockets and weapons, including newer, sophisticated ones from Iran and Syria. All the greenhouses were destroyed.
Hamas did not build any bomb shelters for its people. It did, however, build a few for its leaders to hide out in during airstrikes. Civilians are not given access to these shelters for precisely the same reason Hamas tells them to stay home when the bombs come.
Gaza was given a great opportunity in 2005 that Hamas squandered by transforming it into an anti-Israel weapons store instead of a thriving Palestinian state that, with time, may have served as a model for the future of the West Bank as well. If Fatah needed yet another reason to abhor Hamas, here it was.
***
6. Why are there so many more casualties in Gaza than in Israel?
The reason fewer Israeli civilians die is not because there are fewer rockets raining down on them. It's because they are better protected by their government.
When Hamas' missiles head towards Israel, sirens go off, the Iron Dome goes into effect, and civilians are rushed into bomb shelters. When Israeli missiles head towards Gaza, Hamas tells civilians to stay in their homes and face them.
While Israel's government urges its civilians to get away from rockets targeted at them, Gaza's government urges its civilians to get in front of missiles not targeted at them.
The popular explanation for this is that Hamas is poor and lacks the resources to protect its people like Israel does. The real reason, however, seems to have more to do with disordered priorities than deficient resources (see #5). This is about will, not ability. All those rockets, missiles, and tunnels aren't cheap to build or acquire. But they are priorities. And it's not like Palestinians don't have a handful of oil-rich neighbors to help them the way Israel has the US.
The problem is, if civilian casualties in Gaza drop, Hamas loses the only weapon it has in its incredibly effective PR war. It is in Israel's national interest to protect its civilians and minimize the deaths of those in Gaza. It is in Hamas' interest to do exactly the opposite on both fronts.
***
7. If Hamas is so bad, why isn't everyone pro-Israel in this conflict?
Because Israel's flaws, while smaller in number, are massive in impact.
To be fair, these kinds of things do happen on both sides. They are an inevitable consequence of multiple generations raised to hate the other over the course of 65 plus years. To hold Israel up to a higher standard would mean approaching the Palestinians with the racism of lowered expectations.
However, if Israel holds itself to a higher standard like it claims -- it needs to do much more to show it isn't the same as the worst of its neighbors.
Israel is leading itself towards increasing international isolation and national suicide because of two things: 1. The occupation; and 2. Settlement expansion.
Settlement expansion is simply incomprehensible. No one really understands the point of it. Virtually every US administration -- from Nixon to Bush to Obama -- has unequivocally opposed it. There is no justification for it except a Biblical one (see #2), which makes it slightly more difficult to see Israel's motives as purely secular.
The occupation is more complicated. The late Christopher Hitchens was right when he said this about Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories:
"In order for Israel to become part of the alliance against whatever we want to call it, religious barbarism, theocratic, possibly thermonuclear theocratic or nuclear theocratic aggression, it can't, it'll have to dispense with the occupation. It's as simple as that. It can be, you can think of it as a kind of European style, Western style country if you want, but it can't govern other people against their will. It can't continue to steal their land in the way that it does every day.And it's unbelievably irresponsible of Israelis, knowing the position of the United States and its allies are in around the world, to continue to behave in this unconscionable way. And I'm afraid I know too much about the history of the conflict to think of Israel as just a tiny, little island surrounded by a sea of ravening wolves and so on. I mean, I know quite a lot about how that state was founded, and the amount of violence and dispossession that involved. And I'm a prisoner of that knowledge. I can't un-know it."
As seen with Gaza in 2005, unilateral disengagement is probably easier to talk about than actually carry out. But if it Israel doesn't work harder towards a two-state (maybe three-state, thanks to Hamas) solution, it will eventually have to make that ugly choice between being a Jewish-majority state or a democracy.
It's still too early to call Israel an apartheid state, but when John Kerry said Israel could end up as one in the future, he wasn't completely off the mark. It's simple math. There are only a limited number of ways a bi-national Jewish state with a non-Jewish majority population can retain its Jewish identity. And none of them are pretty.
***
Let's face it, the land belongs to both of them now. Israel was carved out of Palestine for Jews with help from the British in the late 1940s just like my own birthplace of Pakistan was carved out of India for Muslims around the same time. The process was painful, and displaced millions in both instances. But it's been almost 70 years. There are now at least two or three generations of Israelis who were born and raised in this land, to whom it really is a home, and who are often held accountable and made to pay for for historical atrocities that are no fault of their own. They are programmed to oppose "the other" just as Palestinian children are. At its very core, this is a tribal religious conflict that will never be resolved unless people stop choosing sides.
So you really don't have to choose between being "pro-Israel" or "pro-Palestine." If you support secularism, democracy, and a two-state solution -- and you oppose Hamas, settlement expansion, and the occupation -- you can be both.Being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high quality content. Please support us!
As if the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association (GMA) didn’t do enough to help propagate the corruption of the U.S. food system this year (the GMA was recently accused of improperly collecting millions of dollars of funding against GMO labeling for the Washington state anti-GMO labeling campaign), it was reported last week that the organization will submit a petition to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requesting that genetically modified foods be labeled as “natural.”
Say, what?!
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It was in a Dec. 5 letter that the GMA announced its charge and plans to petition the FDA by the end of the year. According to the FDA’s priority list, the agency will seek to create voluntary guidelines for the labeling of GMO food products at this time.
Use of the term “natural” has been a hotly-debated topic as of late; companies from Kellogg to Chobani to Naked Juice have faced lawsuits for their use of the term on its labels. And, according to a New York Times report, GMA has noted that there are 65 other pending class-action suits around the U.S.
Perhaps this has to do with the fact that the term “natural” has yet to be defined by the FDA, despite its proliferation on labels of all kinds over the past several years (in case you need a refresher: right now, it’s loosely regulated by the FDA — at best).
GMO opponents generally contend that GMOs are the very opposite of “natural,” making this recent petition from the GMA pretty outlandish.
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“There is nothing natural about genetic engineering, which is exactly why the Grocery Manufacturers Association wants FDA to create a special exemption for it. Natural is a great marketing tool and the industry doesn’t want to be restricted in using it,” said Colin O’Neil, the Center for Food Safety’s Director of Government Affairs. “[The] FDA should not respond to GMA’s demands for a special GMO loophole. [The] FDA has a duty to protect consumers, not industry,” he added.
Scott Faber, Vice President of the Environmental Working Group, called the GMA’s appeal to the FDA “audacious,” stating, “It’s like they’re trying to get the government to say night is day and black is white.”
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While we have yet to see how the FDA will react to the GMA’s request, we can only hope this deceptive loophole is halted in its tracks.
Image Source: Alex-Bayden Meyer/FlickrThe Friday night departure of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price Thomas (Tom) Edmunds PriceIs a presidential appointment worth the risk? Former Ryan aide moves to K street Grassley to test GOP on lowering drug prices MORE over the controversy surrounding the costs of his travel on charter aircraft is a rare instance of a scandal claiming the job of a presidential Cabinet member. In many ways, the Cabinet is the bellwether of an administration. Dysfunction in the Cabinet often heralds deeper difficulties. Disgruntled or marginalized Cabinet members, for instance, can be a symptom of over-centralization in the White House. Cabinet officials who repeatedly display ethical lapses can also signal a deeper culture of laxity.
History shows us both how Cabinets offer imperfect reflections of presidencies, and how the role of the Cabinet has evolved over time. George Washington brought together some of the greatest names of our nation’s founding. By surrounding himself with John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, Henry Knox and Edmund Randolph, Washington assembled a “dream team” Cabinet. From this early Cabinet of just four members, the steady expansion of the Cabinet shows the evolution of our country and the greater role the federal government would play as our nation grew in power and international stature.
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Much has been made of the great Cabinets such as Abraham Lincoln’s “team of rivals” and Franklin Roosevelt’s Cabinet of exceptionally diverse experts from many fields. Beyond examining the makeup of a Cabinet, however, it’s equally important to consider how they function as a team. Fundamental disagreements between Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Secretary of State George Schultz, for instance, were blamed for a disastrous response to the crisis in Lebanon, the death of hundreds of Americans in terrorist attacks, and the withdrawal of U.S. peacekeepers.
George W. Bush arguably named his own “dream team” Cabinet, only to see it similarly fall into dysfunction over disagreements over the Iraq War. Tensions between the White House staff and national security officials during Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaChicago's next mayor will be a black woman Obama portraits brought more than 1 million visitors to National Portrait Gallery in first year With low birth rate, America needs future migrants MORE’s administration led to Cabinet indecisiveness in responding to various crises, from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to civil war in Syria, to the rise of ISIS. Historically, the firing or premature departure of a Cabinet member has often come at a nadir in a presidency. Jimmy Carter fired four of his Cabinet members to show that he was reshaping his presidency, but instead fueled a narrative of instability leading into his 1980 election defeat. The firing of Donald Rumsfeld came at one of the lowest points in the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq War and after a Democratic wave in midterm elections.
The Trump Cabinet is essentially a hybrid model. On one hand, there are business and military leaders who were brought into the Cabinet because of President Trump’s affinity for private sector experience and distinguished military service. On the other hand, there are Cabinet members from the Washington establishment who represent key conservative policy priorities, to some of which Trump seems relatively indifferent. The former group of Cabinet members are widely seen as a source of stability, even when they are often criticized, sometimes by the president himself. How many times have we heard, within the same conversation, concerns about the number of military leaders in civilian posts, combined with a sense of relief that they are tempering the president’s erratic impulses. Even as these Cabinet members try and reassure American allies or put the best face on an unpopular policy or position, their efforts are often undercut by a presidential tweet.
For the second group that includes former Secretary Price, their fate is tied, to a certain extent, to the success of the policy they were hired to advance or their position in the Washington filament. For example, the Department of Transportation is currently exploring cutting-edge technology and laying the framework for self-driving vehicles, yet most of the political horse race coverage speaks less of Secretary Elaine Chao Elaine Lan ChaoGovernors bullish on infrastructure after Trump talks Former GOP chairman Royce joins lobbying shop Trump nominates Jeffrey Rosen to replace Rosenstein at DOJ MORE’s role in transportation policy and more of her marriage to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Senate Dems seek to turn tables on GOP in climate change fight Pence meets with Senate GOP for 'robust' discussion on Trump declaration MORE. While it was precipitated by his taste in travel and a lack of internal oversight, Price’s failure to deliver on the ObamaCare repeal left him exposed when scandal struck. Perhaps if he’d been better able to shepherd his former congressional colleagues towards repeal and replace, President Trump would help Price weather the outcry over his travel costs.
Looking past Price’s departure, it is important to consider the current structure of the Cabinet and how this unique team might better help an unconventional president tackle our nation’s challenges. First, the Cabinet needs to reflect a more cohesive vision about governing that in the best of circumstances is established even before a president takes office. The vision of Trump and his Cabinet should be brought into better sync through healthy debate and more regular discussion. Second, just as Cabinet members must constantly remember that their agenda is that of the president, the president must not reduce them to a ceremonial role or a mere cog between the White House and their agency. Finally, many business leaders would not understand a company structure where division leaders are constantly competing amongst themselves for critical attention and resources. Whether it’s a “team of rivals” or a “dream team,” a presidential Cabinet must be a team first and foremost.
As the depth and breadth of the issues confronting the presidency grows with the complexity of our world, the role of the Cabinet is more important than ever. It is never a positive sign for an administration when a Cabinet member is forced to leave. However, in a crisis that leads to the removal of a Cabinet official, there is an opportunity for renewal. History shows that bringing together a strong team, harnessing their advice and talents, and working together for the American people will lead to a successful Cabinet, and in turn, a successful presidency.
Dan Mahaffee is senior vice president and director of policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C.Pascal Renoux, nude photography
Photographs of maculins or female bodies. The photography of nude is useful to me has to determine the personalities out of the social context. Some of these photographs have an erotic connotation but never seek to shock.
I will want to also thank the models without which nothing would have been possible.
Photographs presented on this site are realized with a SONY camera.
Pascal Renoux,
photographies de nus
Photos de corps maculins ou féminins. La photographie de nu me sert a photographie de nu me sert a cerner les personnalités hors du contexte social. Certaines de ces photos ont une connotation érotique mais ne cherchent jamais à choquer ou provoquer. Je voudrai remercier aussi les modèles sans qui rien n'aurait été possible.
Les photos présentées sur ce site on été réalisées avec un appareil numérique de marque SONY. Bonne visite.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Crash spills paint over M606 motorway
About 12,000 litres of paint have been spilt over a motorway following an HGV crash in Bradford.
The white paint pooled across the M606 southbound after 12 containers fell off the lorry on Friday night.
The motorway is shut from Staygate to the Euroway industrial estate while a clean-up operation gets under way.
West Yorkshire Police said it was trying to establish what caused the crash. Highways England said the road needed to be resurfaced.
Image copyright West Yorkshire Police Image caption The white paint has pooled across the carriageway after 12 containers fell off the lorry
Image copyright West Yorkshire Police Image caption The paint was said to be hazardous and motorists were advised to find alternative routes
Nigel Fawcett-Jones, from the force, said: "One of the challenges is that it's hazardous to the environment and they can't just flush it down the drain.
"So they are trying their best to find a method to get it off the carriageway and dispose of it in a safe and appropriate manner."
Motorists have been urged to avoid the area.HHS specifically is calling on the public to evaluate how the department could design an “innovative and cost effective” pilot program to evaluate “alternative blood donor acceptance criteria for MSM.”
The department’s goal “is to conduct a... study, in which MSM who meet specified criteria would be permitted to donate blood, with additional safeguards in place to protect blood recipients during the course of the study.”
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The extending of the donor field has been brought on for several reasons. New technology allows for more accurate donor testing, potentially eliminating the need to “continue an indefinite deferral” of this donor category, the department states.In addition, the risk of infection from a blood transfusion is “extremely low,” with less than one in 1 million units transfused causing HIV infections and less than one in 280,000 units transfused causing HBV, the department explained.Despite this information, the department still has concerns regarding the switch in policy to allow gay men to donate. There is a “theoretical concern” that donors at higher risk of being infected by sexually transmitted diseases could also be at higher risk to receive future “sexually and blood transmitted infections” that cannot be identified through existing tests.But the department has received positive feedback from advisory committee meetings, public hearings, advocacy groups and congressmen, prompting HHS to move forward on the potential pilot program.Certain “funded studies” are already occurring that will “help re-evaluate the... deferral policy.”The studies examine existing and potential problem areas for inappropriate releases of blood with current and possible donor policies. Other reviews are investigating the prevalence of different pertinent infections and donor understandings and actions involving blood history questionnaires, among other issues.The comment period will be open for 90 days, starting Tuesday.The Republican National Convention flubbed Spanish grammar on a placard pledging Hispanic support for Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE.
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Signs seen being waved at the convention — presumably passed out along with other placards — read "Hispanics para Trump."
Not only did the text not translate "Hispanics" to "Hispanos," it also used "para" instead of "por."
The two words — which both denote various meanings of the word "for" — are easily mixed up and a common point of frustration for those learning the language.
Trump is lagging far behind presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE, who launched a Spanish language Twitter account Wednesday, with Hispanic voters.Lessons Learned Shipping Apps October 04, 2016
I shipped my first app Trapeze to real paying customers in January of 1987.
Yes, that’s thirty years ago. Man am I old.
Over the years I’ve worked on and shipped a lot of apps, and delivered app like projects. Although every industry and type of app may be different, some things stick out as being important, or at least worth considering.
These lessons may seem simplistic but I’ve noticed that the more projects do these the more likely things will work out well.
Be liberal at the start of the project and conservative towards the end.
The time to take risks is at the start of a development cycle, assuming it’s reasonably long. That’s the time to try new tools or frameworks or languages. The closer you get to the end the less you should consider something new. Sometimes you have no choice, like when I had to ship an app on iOS 7 launch day, but unless there is an unavoidable reason, don’t do it.
The fewer the people—not just programmers—involved the more likely you will succeed.
Big teams need way more processes, planning and time. The difficulties of disseminating information, knowing what is happening, and understanding state is hard to overcome even with massive effort if there are too many people involved. It’s always better to work with a small team that can communicate directly with each other. I’ve done very large projects with only handful of team members.
Big companies (like my present employer) generally fail at this, as company politics and empire building force too much specialization to have small cross functional teams.
Small teams—when given flexibility in how they work and make decisions—can get more work done with less waste. Handicap them with too much control and process and you lose all the benefits.
More flexible processes always beat more rigid processes.
Agile means flexible. Agile with rigid unmoving processes, detailed planning of every task, and central control is never really agile, though people still call it that. It doesn’t have to be chaotic, but it needs to be able to change directions, make changes and try something else without endless meetings and detailed agendas. Building software is never easy—why make it harder than it needs to be by process getting in the way of progress.
Obviously if the team is very large you may not be able to be so flexible, but that’s rule #2.
Constant informal communication between everyone involved is always better than meetings and status reports.
No one likes meetings or status reports. If your team is small enough you can avoid it all by having direct communication. If you are co-resident get used to talking a lot, or use a tool like Slack or whatever you like. It can be annoying to talk with people all day long, but it is actually more productive as you can ask and get an answer right away instead of waiting for some future meeting where the agenda may not even get to your question.
Back 30 years ago we didn’t have tools of any kind but my team was in the same space so we talked all the time and made adjustments and plans as we went along. It might be hard to get used to but it helps optimize the work.
QA/testing should always begin and continue from the start with development, and the whole app should always be tested not just the new things.
If there is anything I believe in it is this. I learned early on 30 years ago that having quality testers who worked with the development team from the first day anything functioned is an enormous benefit. Over time they understand the product better than any of the programmers do, they find all the dark corners, and can even help find UI/UX that is irritating. Building Deltagraph from 1988-1994 (5 major releases) we had a full time tester who tested it all day every day. We had to ship on floppies with no chance of any patch disk and we never needed any.
Compared to this knowledgeable testing, throw-it-over-the-wall testing (like we have at my present employer) is terrible. Generally the testers don’t know much about your |
ke, co-founder at Funomena (via Facebook)
Me too.
For every person who has suffered Sexual Violence, Sexual Harassment and Gender-Based Discrimination, I stand to be counted. It will change because we all demand that it changes. Together, we create a better tomorrow.
Mike Wilson, co-founder of Devolver and Good Shepherd (via Facebook)
For 20 years, I was part of the problem.
I've been an entrepreneur since I was 20, and an executive in video games since I was 24. I therefore have been in a position of power of some sort over other people, many of whom were women, for almost all of my adult life.
The irony, which I realize now is quite common in these situations, is that my transgressions occurred because underneath the flimsy power construct was an arrogant, ignorant, scared, insecure little man.
While I never forced myself on anyone physically or otherwise, I certainly did bask in the rather unnatural and artificial attraction that men in positions of power often enjoy, as often as I could.
So pathetically desperate for female attention and validation for my fragile little adolescent ego, I would cross professional and personal lines regularly, "flirting" as it's so harmfully referred to, with virtually every attractive woman I spent any amount of time with... constantly needing to assure myself that "I could have her," whether I was genuinely interested or not. Disgusting and humiliating.
It wasn't until my frame of reference and morality was profoundly reshaped under the hammer and chisel of some very powerful plant medicine that I accepted and faced my own culpability as part of the male problem. "As long as you're not hurting anyone," which is the slippery cousin of "what they don't know, can't hurt them," was forever decimated and replaced by "Do what is right. All of the time. Everything matters."
When taken literally, this mantra is all the truth anyone needs to realize that every single transgression against one's own integrity is indeed hurting someone (you and everyone around you) and that there is very little protection in feigned ignorance, since you always know in your heart.
"I pledge to work to heal others on both sides of this epidemic as part of my ongoing growth and penance"
I apologize deeply to every woman with whom I have a crossed any line; physical, verbal, and especially non-verbal, the most common, insidious, almost expected, relentless harassment "vibe" that most women endure constantly.
I apologize especially to my dear wife who so patiently (and then less patiently) waited for me to grow up and out of my insecurity and immaturity that lasted for way too many years.
I apologize to my incredible daughters for inadvertently teaching by example some of the worst traits of my gender and of myself. Luckily my son Doug won't be learning about manhood from that man.
I am incredibly grateful to be healed, and I pledge to work to heal others on both sides of this epidemic as part of my ongoing growth and penance.
#metoo #itwasme
John Smedley, SOE/Daybreak veteran (via Facebook)
Reading the staggering amount of women who are posting "Me Too" simply makes me super angry. We have got to do better. I've been in a leadership position pretty much my whole career. As much as I would like to say I haven't seen this, sadly I have.
Of course we had the requisite training. Of course we dealt with any issues that were brought up. To me that's a low bar and it's not good enough.
We were blessed with some of the best people in the business like Laura Naviaux Sturr, Candace Brenner, Torrie Dorrell, Laura Rockwell, Holly Longdale, Marie Harrington Fear, Jenn Brady, Linda Carlson, Sharon Morris and many other incredibly bright and talented women. Not only were they just as hard-working (and in most of those cases harder working) as their male counterparts, but in a lot of cases they were also having kids and dealing with the competing pressures they feel to be home with their newborns and trying to balance that with their careers. I've also seen men who resented that (you know who you are and you suck).
"Hire a LOT more women and make sure they are in equivalent positions of power up and down the company"
It wasn't an overt thing. Very passive aggressive, but it was some bullshit to watch. I lost my shit a few times when it was done in front of me, but if stupid people were dumb enough to make a comment in front of me I can only imagine some of the ones who didn't... or who did it quietly.
You suck even worse.
Personally I am of the belief that the only way to deal with this is the obvious way. Hire a LOT more women and make sure they are in equivalent positions of power up and down the company. I don't care how many daughters you have or how you're committed to equality. Blah blah blah. So what. We all have mothers too.
If you're in a position to do something about it, then do. I know I can do better. So can you. Even people who aren't in a direct position to hire can be part of the solution and simply recognize the issue is pervasive everywhere and being part of the solution by making sure that if you see something you both say something AND do something.
Also men in the game industry that don't see women as gamers need to check that shit at the door. Even though a lot of the games we make have a Male/Female ratio that's off balance, let's just look at that as an opportunity to win and get more female customers. Plus they're every bit as good as you. My daughter Catherine will smoke your ass at Overwatch. I'm happy to put money on that and shut some pieholes on that subject and stream it live.
Please think carefully before you comment. I'm not really interested in the "other side" of this issue. There's just the one side. We need to do better.Dave Currie, 65, first played rugby when he was 5.
When Dave Currie was punched in the face in a rugby game earlier this year, he could not help but smile.
After all, the 65-year-old had it coming.
"I had given the guy's father a whack 10 years earlier".
The man known as Curriz is accustomed to playing against multiple generations.
He has played rugby for 60 years and is a legend at Palmerston North's Old Boys-Marist.
While the game and his body have changed over the years, he said he has never altered the way he plays.
"I am too old to change," he said. "I am always being told that I do not keep up with the laws."
Currie is in his element in the dark depths of rucks, mauls and scrums - a key reason he has no plans to hang up his boots yet.
While he was never a star on the field, he managed a handful of games for the Old Boys-Marist senior side and represented Manawatu in rugby league.
But the ultra-durable frontrower was a fixture in the club's B team until his late 30s when he transferred to the president's grade side he still plays for.
He remembered when he first picked up a rugby ball as a 5-year-old at Our Lady of Lourdes School.
"The nuns used to coach us; they would roll up their dresses," he said.
He continued to play rugby through his schooling years and credited the sport for keeping him out of trouble in his teenage years.
"I started to get in a bit of shit when I was 14 or 15 and if I was not going back to the rugby club every week, I could have gone the other way," he said.
But that did not mean he did not get up to mischief.
His exploits on the rugby field pale in comparison to the laundry list of cheeky stories he has from off it.
From crashing a wedding to his yearly Christmas phone calls to Colin Meads, Ian Kirkpatrick and Brian Lochore, Curriz admitted he had "done some crazy things over the years".
"I did things that I wouldn't dream of doing now, but I shouldn't say that because then I am likely to do them."
It was the social side of the rugby club that has kept him playing.
He received the prestigious Freedom of the Marist Sports Club award last month, an award that can only be held by one living member at a time.
In a rare moment, the cheeky frontrower was left speechless as he comprehended just what the award meant.
"I was very proud," he said. "They have only given it out once before."
He has had his fair share of injuries over his career including back problems that forced him to have back surgery.
But his worst injury came off the rugby field.
In 1987, he was run over by a road sweeper in Palmerston North and broke his pelvis.
"I was in hospital for a long time," he said. "I lost all the skin off my back and legs where the brushes hit me."
The crash forced him to miss most of the season with injury, but he was back on the field the next year.
Currie put off knee surgery earlier this year so it didn't interfere with his season, but they were starting to cause him trouble again.
He was confident they would be right for the kickoff of the 2016 rugby season.Media playback is not supported on this device Relive England's 2016 Grand Slam success
The Six Nations, which begins on Saturday, is set to be watched by the highest average attendance per match of any tournament in world sport.
Over the next seven weeks the northern hemisphere showpiece, which features England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France and Italy, will see the cream of European rugby meet across five rounds, culminating in the final set of games on 18 March.
Scotland play Ireland in the tournament's opening match in Edinburgh at 14:25 GMT, before defending champions England host France at Twickenham at 16:50 GMT, while Wales play Italy at 14:00 on Sunday in Rome.
Last year's tournament attracted an average 72,000 fans a game, leading sport's global standings above American football's NFL in second and the Fifa World Cup in third - according to statistics published by European football body Uefa.
Best-attended sports events Event Average attendance per match Source: Uefa's European Club Footballing Landscape report Six Nations 72,000 NFL (American football) 64,800 Fifa World Cup (football) 53,592 Rugby World Cup (rugby union) 51,621 Euro 2012 (football) 46,481
More than a million people in total watched last season's 15 matches, with 81,916 fans packing in to see England beat Wales 25-21 at Twickenham in the best-attended game.
England secured the 2016 title with a perfect record of five wins from their five games, earning them the Grand Slam.
They are the bookies' favourites to win again but an Ireland team that claimed a famous win over world champions New Zealand in Chicago in November are serious contenders to regain the title they won in 2014 and 2015.
Wales are without head coach Warren Gatland - who has stepped away from his role for a year to coach the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand in the summer - but interim replacement Rob Howley leads a team that includes the likes of barnstorming wing George North.
Media playback is not supported on this device Six Nations tries of the tournament
Scotland come into the tournament buoyed by the domestic success of a Glasgow Warriors side currently fourth in the Pro12 and into the last eight of the top-tier European Champions Cup.
France and Italy are both under relatively new leadership, with Guy Noves and Conor O'Shea taking over in January and June 2016 respectively, but the former showed signs of their old form in an improved showing in the autumn Tests, while O'Shea was the mastermind behind Harlequins' 2012 Premiership title.
One of the key factors in deciding the destination of the title may be the strength in depth of each squad.
High-profile stars such as Ireland's Johnny Sexton, Wales' Taulupe Faletau and England's Billy Vunipola will miss the start of the tournament through injury, and the physicality of the modern game means more are sure to join them on the sidelines.
Opening weekend fixtures Full fixtures and BBC coverage details Saturday 4 February Scotland v Ireland 14:25 GMT Saturday 4 February England v France 16:50 GMT Sunday 5 February Italy v Wales 14:00 GMT
For the first time bonus points will be on offer.
In addition to the four points to be gained for a win, teams can pick up a further point for scoring four or more tries or by losing by seven points or less.
Another change is that referees have been told to pay extra attention to high tackles, with more severe penalties to be handed down to players who make contact with an opponent's head, whether accidentally or recklessly.
While the chance to clinch this season's title will spur on supporters, the tournament will also be a chance to renew age-old rivalries and add another chapter the tournament's long history of famous results.
And in a competition that saw England captain Bill Beaumont carried shoulder-high from the pitch in 1980, David Sole's slow walk onto the Murrayfield turf in 1990, Scott Gibbs carving through the England defence at Wembley in 1999 or a fresh-faced Brian O'Driscoll's hat-trick against France in 2000, there is every prospect of new heroes being made.Amy Adams was interviewed by Stephen Galloway for the Hollywood Masters interview series held at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film & TV in Los Angeles recently. It turns out, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice may not be as dark and serious as the trailers make it out to be. According to Adams, who will be reprising her role as Lois Lane, there are funny moments to look forward to. They even involve the Batsuit!
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It’s unclear as to if we’ll actually see this on screen, or if Adams was referring to behind-the-scenes moments, but she promised to explain more closer to the release of the movie.
Check out a full transcript below courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter. Adams also talks about director Zack Snyder and Holly Hunter, who plays a US Senator.
GALLOWAY: You’ve shot Batman v Superman now. Have you seen it? ADAMS: I haven’t seen anything of it, except what everybody’s seen. GALLOWAY: Was it an easy shoot? ADAMS: They’re kind of hard. They’re over the course of six months, so it’s a lot of time dedication, but really, really fun. GALLOWAY: What was your favorite moment? ADAMS: [LAUGHS] GALLOWAY: Ah-ha. ADAMS: Oh, I can’t give too much away, but I’m coming into a scene and Batman and Superman are both in the scene, so I can say that. And it was just fun. Because they had been working together for a couple weeks and just running it, seeing this dynamic. I’ll talk about this when we’re promoting the movie and we can tell more. But there were definitely funny moments involving bat-suits and such. GALLOWAY: Have you seen the trailer? ADAMS: I have, yes. GALLOWAY: It’s really good. ADAMS: Yeah. And Holly Hunter, I’m so glad. I love her so much. I love that Zack is into ladies, you know? GALLOWAY: Her work is extraordinary. ADAMS: She’s so lovely. I was quivering, meeting her in the makeup trailer, you know. She was one of my great influences when I started out.
SOURCE: The Hollywood ReporterOn Friday, Donald Trump will become the next President of the United States, but already, the number of people who have confidence in him to do the job has plummeted, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.
Trump will be taking office with a 40 percent approval rating, which is the lowest of any recent president for the start of his term. By contrast, Barack Obama took office with an approval rating of 84 percent, George W. Bush had a 61 percent rating, and Bill Clinton had a 62 percent rating.
The poll also shows that Trump’s handling of the transition into the White House has negatively impacted his approval ratings. Fifty-three percent of people polled said that the president-elects actions since Election Day have made them less confident in his ability to handle the presidency.
Additionally, the public is evenly split on whether or not Trump will be a good president, with 48 percent of people saying he will and 48 percent saying he will not.
The only place where Trump’s numbers stayed high was in public confidence about some of his campaign promises. 71 percent say he will impose tariffs on companies that manufacture goods in Mexico, 61 percent say he will renegotiate NAFTA, and 61 percent say he will create good-paying jobs in economically challenged areas.
As for his most high-profile campaign promise, though, only 44 percent of people actually believe that the wall between the United States and Mexico is going up.It’s one of the more puzzling plagiarism tales of recent memory: Q. R. Markham, the pen name of Quentin Rowan, a part owner of the bookstore Spoonbill and Sugartown, signed a deal with Little, Brown for a series of spy novels featuring a Bond-like hero named Jonathan Chase. The first of the books, “Assassin of Secrets,” was slated for release on the third of November of this year, and ahead of that date was reviewed and blurbed favorably by a number of reputable sources. Kirkus starred it and called it a “dazzling, deftly controlled debut”; Publishers Weekly praised the “fine writing”; and the crime novelist Duane Swierczynski deemed it “ambitious and audacious.”
The book was released and was selling moderately well until some time in the past few days, when an anonymous source contacted Little, Brown and pointed out instances of plagiarism. On the afternoon of the seventh, the publisher recalled all 6,500 print copies, sparking a run on the book (its Amazon ranking had gone from 62,924 on Tuesday afternoon to 174 by Wednesday afternoon), and launching a campaign to identify all the lifted passages. Dozens of passages from multiple books have now been catalogued, including one six-page stretch lifted from John Gardner’s “Licence Renewed.” (The most complete list can be found on Ed Rants.)
[#image: /photos/590953dbebe912338a37333e]In the hundreds of newspaper articles and blog posts that have been published on the subject of Markhamgate in the past twenty-four hours, one question appears over and over: How did Rowan think he’d get away with this, especially in the era of Google?
It’s the natural question, but in the spirit of playing detective I must ask: Is it the right one? We do not yet have all of the facts—Rowan and his agent have been silent since the scandal broke, and much of the book has yet to be mapped—but those we do have point to something much stranger and more richly textured than your run-of-the-mill plagiarism case. Consider:
As more lifted passages are identified, “Assassin of Secrets” is looking more and more like pastiche or collage, rather than a “novel,” as we properly understand the word.
An article by Rowan published on the Huffington Post on October 25th (and taken down on November 9th around 4 P.M. for plagiarizing passages from Geoffrey O’Brien’s “Dream Time”) reads like a warning. Rowan wrote (or sampled) about how reading spy novels had made him a better bookseller. He’d realized, he wrote, that the “Machiavellian tactics” he’d learned from Bond, M., and George Smiley, “could be employed in the seemingly innocuous world of book selling.” The article ran with a slide show entitled “Faking It.” Beneath a photo of Sean Connery, Rowan wrote that the spy doesn’t trouble too much with people’s opinions of him: “As a bookstore clerk … I find myself talking to customers as if they were children, the spy has no time for your trivial concept of what is real and what isn’t. “
If he is an artist whose intent is to dupe, he is a deft one. In 2002, the Paris Review ran his story “Bethune Street,” which contains a passage lifted from Graham Greene. The reviews of “Assassin of Secrets” read like near-misses, if not practical jokes on the part of the reviewers. These lines actually appear in the Kirkus review: “Containing elements of the 007 and Jason Bourne sagas, Graham Greene’s insular spy novels, William Gibson’s cyber thrillers, TV’s Burn Notice and Mad magazine’s classic Spy vs. Spy comic strip, this book is a narrative hall of mirrors in which nothing and no one are as they seem and emotion is a perilous thing to have.” Publishers Weekly notes that “the obvious Ian Fleming influence just adds to the appeal.”
There is, of course, one very strong argument against “Assassin of Secrets” being an elaborate ruse: writers typically want to sell their books, and Rowan’s has been recalled. Moreover, he has caused Little, Brown such embarrassment (and, potentially, financial loss) that “Assassin” is unlikely to be rereleased and the rest of the series will probably be cancelled. And yet, the revelation of plagiarism did turn the book into an sensation. Could this have been part of a plan? Did Rowan think that creating a highly readable plagiarism would benefit him?
Rowan wouldn’t be the only writer in recent years—the era of redefining what is meant by “intellectual property”—to use plagiarism to make a statement. Those whose points have been well-taken, however, have generally been up-front about their borrowing. Among the best-known are Jonathan Lethem, whose 2007 essay in Harper’s, “The Ecastasy of Influence: A Plagiarism,” comprised only lifted passages; and the British “collagiste” Graham Rawle, whose 2009 novel “Woman’s World” was “assembled from 40,000 fragments of text snipped from women’s magazines.” Both of these were praised for their meta properties: they worked on the story level and also critiqued and commented upon the stories they told through their acts of appropriation. If Rowan is trying to comment upon the spy genre—on how it is both tired and endlessly renewable, on how we as readers of the genre want nothing but to be astonished again and again by the same old thing—then he has done a bang-up job. If he wants to comment on our current notions of discovery, to turn us all into armchair detectives, Googling here and there and everywhere to solve the puzzle, he is a genius. (David Shields, whom James Wood wrote about last year in this magazine, might approve of his project.)
For all the fuss we make when a work is discovered to be unoriginal or untruthful, we are usually willing to forgive the culprit, so long as he or she keeps us entertained. In a his 1902 essay “The Psychology of Plagiarism,” William Dean Howells wrote of a journalist who had recently been pilloried for lifting another journalist’s work, but had moved on to bigger city and a job where he wielded more influence. Plagiarizing doesn’t injure the writer, Howells thinks, “a jot in the hearts or heads of his readers,” which is fine with Howells, because he does not consider plagiarism a sin: “It seems to deprave no more than it dishonors.” The only real qualm Howells has with plagiarizing is that so many plagiarists seem to think they will not get caught. This, he writes, is illogical:
You cannot escape discovery. The world is full of idle people reading books, and they are only too glad to act as detectives; they please their miserable vanity by showing their alertness, and are proud to hear witness against you in the court of parallel columns. You have no safety in the obscurity of the author from whom you take your own; there is always that most terrible reader, the reader of one book, who knows that very author, and will the more indecently hasten to bring you to the bar because he knows no other, and wishes to display his erudition.
The world is still full of idle people reading books, and Rowan has most certainly been hauled to the bar, where sooner or later he will have to speak. What he’ll say is anyone’s guess: I can only promise that the words will be Googled the instant they fall from his mouth, and that if he hasn’t found his own by then, he’ll have to locate them quickly. A reproduction is only fun if there’s an original lurking underneath.When I tell people about my fear of large birds and whales, I’m generally met with confusion. Probably because this information is offered without any context. Once I start explaining my position, the confusion turns to open mocking. “When are you ever going to see an ostrich?” “What have whales ever done to you?” “Wait, but you like sharks? You’re an idiot.”
The responses that I do not receive are those of sympathy and understanding. Despite this, I feel like it’s my duty to share with you some safety precautions designed to protect you against these two very specific types of animal attacks. I could hardly be blamed for sitting idly by and watching one of these former ridiculers get pecked to death by a giant bird. However, I’m not that sort of person.
Please peruse the below two links. It’s the least you can do, for yourself and your loved ones.
http://www.wikihow.com/Survive-an-Encounter-with-an-Ostrich
How to Survive an Encounter with an Ostrich
My problem with ostriches is this: if I’m going to get into a fistfight with a bird, I want it to be a bird with less than a 98% chance of killing me. And I am certain that an ostrich would eff me up beyond repair. A sparrow attacks me, it’s pretty likely not going to be in his favor. Also, the feathers. I hate feathers because they are musty and awful.
So right away we see that when confronted by an ostrich, the best thing to do is run. It doesn’t matter where: scale a fence, climb a tree like a cat, dive into some bushes, sprint into oncoming traffic. Any of those would be better than getting caught. Because, as you’ll notice, the graphic proves that ostriches have t-rex feet with talons bigger than a person’s head.
If there aren’t any cars around to leap in front of, you may be forced into a face-to-face encounter with feathered death. Should that be the case, your next line of defensive is a long stick or rake.
You’ll want to carry a gardening instrument with you when you go outside from now on. It’s sort of cumbersome, but a little inconvenience is a small price to pay for a solid 5 feet of wood in between you and Jesus.
You can also try putting a pillowcase over the bird’s head, or giving it a piledriver. These methods are a less effective. You should carry the pillowcase with your rake, though. Again, you hope you don’t have to use them, but just in case.
As much as I don’t like large birds, I’d never wish any animal harm. That being said, this site does have recommendations for last resort defenses. The kind you only use if your life is in immediate danger.
Here I will quote the site:
“If your life is in danger and you have a stout stick, a hard blow to the ostrich’s neck will usually break its neck and kill the animal. A well placed shot into the center of the main body (“center mass”) from a large caliber handgun (.44 or.45 caliber) will stop the ostrich. A machete blow to the neck will also kill the bird.”
I’d go on record as saying I’m pretty sure chopping any living thing in the neck with a big knife would kill it. It’s probably not specific to ostriches, but I guess you can’t deny it’s true. So an ostrich machete in your pillowcase might not be a bad idea.
If you’ve foolishly ignored this advice or aren’t one of the twelve people who read my site, all hope isn’t lost. There’s still a chance of surviving an ostrich encounter, even without a stick or a tiny sword. First step is to get down to the ground ASAP.
NO NOT LIKE THAT. That’s a really great way to get your wiener clawed off or your stomach disemboweled. You’re going to want to lay face down, like the ostrich is searching your for illegal drugs. Here’s why:
“Your back will still be exposed, but this is much safer than if your front were open to attack. Additionally, the ostrich is not able to kick very effectively at an object on the ground, and eventually it will lose interest if you play dead. The bird will still likely stand on you–it’s been described as dancing by some who’ve gone through the experience–and it may even sit on you for a while, but it will most likely not rip you open if you do this equivalent of burying your head in the sand”
You’ll look like a moron and every shred of dignity you have will slowly disappear with each dance move, but you’ll be alive. Maybe.
Follow these rules, and you may just live to tell the tale. Although if it comes to this:
“Ostriches have terrible ground fighting skills. If you can manage to get behind one, cinch your arm around its neck tightly and use your momentum to fall to one side. While on the ground and keeping hold of the neck, make sure to chop the throat repeatedly until the bird loses consciousness.”
… maybe don’t tell that story. I’m sure you’ll relive it enough in your weekly nightmares.
http://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A471548
Surviving Being Eaten by a Whale
There unfortunately isn’t a similarly Wikihow page on whale attacks, so this will be to the point. I did, however, find this site that details the horrors that await you in a whale’s stomach.
I will admit that there’s been no evidence that this has ever happened, so that may be why survival tactic literature is scarce. Whales are a dark and mysterious force, though. I don’t think that something that big should be allowed to live underwater where you can’t see it. Even if they aren’t directly attacking a boat, an ill-timed surfacing could ruin a seaside excursion in a heartbeat.
That said, there are no step-by-step instructions or fun graphics showing you what to do if swallowed. There is simply this:
“Unless someone is looking for you, or you have a very large cutting implement and a strong stomach, you may have to be satisfied with simply surviving until starvation takes you or good fortune saves the day.”
That’s pretty much the best case scenario. You’re swallowed. You’re surrounded by tiny fish, flesh-eating stomach acids and what I’m sure if a horrific odor. It’s hard to breathe and your screams echo meaninglessly into the blubber. The you live long enough to get really hungry and die. There’s not even any mention of a specific whale–cutting machete you can use to slice your way to freedom. Your ostrich rake would be useless.
I’d rather be eaten by a shark and at least have an awesome heading for my gravestone.
I hope this has been enlightening. Every once in a while, I try to include content on this site that will prove useful in everyday life. If there’s one thing I want you to take away from these sites, it’s that these animals can and will murder you if given the chance. All we can do is learn how to protect ourselves.
Unless we’re swallowed by a whale. Then we’re boned.Seattle Police are asking for the public's help to catch the bandit dubbed "Bob the Builder" for his construction worker outfit. (Photo: Seattle Police)
SEATTLE - Police are asking for the public's help to catch a crook dubbed "Bob the Builder" for his construction worker outfit.
Investigators said he's robbed at least six businesses in Seattle in just the last month - including small grocery stores and pharmacies.
"It was a bit bizarre," said Eddie Davis, who works at Pike Grocery that was hit by the bandit two weeks ago. "He's just walking around the store. the way he was dressed. He had full construction gear, painters mask. And when he talked, he had a raspy voice."
In each instance, police said he walked up to the cashier, demanded money and was gone in a matter of minutes.
Employees have told police they didn't see a weapon.
"He put his hand in his pocket and made the gesture he had one," said Davis.
Davis said the man got away with just a small amount of cash from his store.
Police are now reviewing surveillance video from the targeted businesses to try and identify the man. If you recognize the suspect, call Seattle police.You're a table top gamer and you love dice... AND you love your pencil.
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The Canucks put on their ‘Summer Showdown’ prospects game on Thursday night and while there were no formal betting odds on the game, you’d be hard pressed to find a fan willing to put his or her coin on Team Blue.
Team White’s starting lineup alone featured 2017 first-round pick Elias Pettersson, along with his highly touted former linemate in Sweden, Jonathan Dahlen and Brock Boeser at forward, as well as 2016 first rounder Olli Juolevi on the backend.
Yes, Team Blue did have Griffen Molino, who had a five-game stint as a Canuck last season, college standout Adam Gaudette and 5’6 analytics darling Petrus Palmu, but it was clear that 2017 pick Michael DiPietro (no relation to former NHL goalie Rick, thank the lord) would have to stand on his head in the crease.
The Team White and Team Blue rosters. Nathan Caddell
In the end, Team White walked away with a 5-3 win in a game that saw the amount of players reduced each period. The first period was 5-on-5 as usual, but the second featured 4-on-4 action and the third was a wide open affair at 3-on-3.
Takeaways:
1. OK, Elias Pettersson is pretty good.
Elias Pettersson scored two beautiful goals in the Canucks Top Prospects Game Jay Janower
Some chastised the Canucks for not taking Cody Glass with the No. 5 overall pick in June’s entry draft and |
ies, and by undermining the other centralizing and divisive tendencies that give rise to experts, technicians, authorities, and bureaucrats remote from or manipulating "the masses." Finally, Maoists seem perfectly willing to pursue the goal of transforming man even though it is temporarily6 at the expense of some economic growth. Indeed, it is clear that Maoists will not accept economic development, however rapid, if it is based on the capitalist principles of sharp division of labor and sharp (unsavory, selfish) practices.
B. The Making of Communist Man
The proletarian world view,7 which Maoists believe must replace that of the bourgeoisie, stresses that only through struggle can progress be made; that selflessness and unity of purpose will release a huge reservoir of enthu, siasm, energy, and creativeness; that active participation by "the ma sses" in decision-making will provide them with the knowledge to channel their energy most productively; and that the elimination of specialization will not only increase workers' and pe~sants' willingness to work hard for the various goals of society but will also increase their ability to do this by adding to their knowledge and awareness of the world around them.
Struggle — It is an essential part of Maoist thinking that progress is not made by peace and quietude, by letting things drift and playing things safe, or by standing for "unprincipled peace, thus giving rise to a decadent, philistine attitude ••• "8 Progress is made through struggle, when new talents emerge and knowledge advances in leaps. Only through continuous struggle is the level of consciousness of people raised, and in the process they gain not only under standing but happiness.
Mao sees man engaged in a fierce class struggle — the bourgeoisie against the proletariat — the outcome of which, at least in th~ short run, is far from certain. The proletarian world outlook can win only if it enters tremendous ideological, class struggles.
In China, although in the main socialist transformation has been completed with respect to the system of ownership, and although the largescale and turbulent class struggles of the masses characteristic of the previous revolutionary periods have in the main come to an end, there are still remnants of the overthrown landlord and comprador classes, there is..s~Ul ~'. bourge.0~isie, and the remoulding of the petty bourgeoisie has only just started. The class struggle is by no means over. The class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the class struggle between the different political forces, and the class struggle in the ideological field between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie will continue to be long and tortuous and at times will even become very acute. The proletariat seeks to transform the world according to its own world outlook, and so does the bourgeoisie~ In this respect,.the question of which will win out, socialism or capitalism, is still not really settled. 9
Selflessness — Maoists believe that each person should be devoted to "the masses" rather than to his own pots and pans, and should serve the world proletariat rather than reaching out with "gra~ping hands everywhere to seek fame,material gain, power, position and limelight. "10 They think that, if a person is selfish, he will resist criticisms and suggestions and is likely to become bureaucratic and elitist. He will not work as hard for narrow, selfish goals as he will for group, community, or national goals. In any case, a selfish person is not an admirable person. Thus, Maoists deemphasize material incentives, for they are the very manifestation of a selfish, bourgeois society.
Active Participation — While selflessness is necessary to imbue man with energy and the willingness to work hard, this is not sufficient, for man must also have the ability as well. And such ability comes from active participation — from seeing and doing • As Mao has written in a famous essay:
If you want to know a certain thing or a certain class of things directly, you must personally participate in the practical struggle to change reality, to change that thing or class of things, for only thus can you come into contact with them as phenomena; only through personal participation in the practical struggle to change reality can you uncover the essence of that thing or class of things and comprehend them.•• If you want knowledge, you must take part in the practice of changing reality. If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself •••. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience ••. There is an old Chinese saying, "How can you catch tiger cubs without entering the tiger's lair?" This saying holds true for man's practice and it also holds true for the theory of knowledge. There can bi no knowledge apart from practice. 11
To gain knowledge, people must be awakened from their half slumber, encouraged to mobilize themselves and to take conscious action to elevate and liberate themselves. When they actively participate in decision-making, when they take an interest in State affairs, when they dare to do new things, when they become good at presenting facts and reasoning things out, when they criticize and test and experiment scientifically -having discarded myths and superstitions — when they are aroused — then "the socialist initiative latent in the masses [will] burst out with volcanic force and a rapid chanfe [will take] place in production." 12
I noted above that both attributes of selflessness and active participation were necessary for the making of the Communist man. For a selfish person, who has nevertheless become fully aware and knowledgeable through correctly combining theory and practice, will be given to sharp practices for his own ends and will become bureaucratic and divorced from the masses. A passive, unknowing person who has nevertheless become selfless, will be well-meaning but largely ineffective, for he will not be able to use his energies productively. In fact, it is likely that in the long run "selfless" and "active" cannot exist separately, only together. If one is not active, he will eventually revert to selfish behavior; if one is selfish, he will eventually become passive, bureaucratic, and unable to gain true knowledge. 13
Finally, if men become "selfless," there will be discipline and unity of will, for these "cannot be achieved if relations among comrades stem from selfish interests and personal likes and dislikes."14 If men become "active," then along with extensive democracy they will gain true consciousness and ultimately freedom, in the Marxian sense of intelligent action. lS Together, selflessness and active participation will achieve ideal combinations of opposites: "a vigorous and lively political situation ••• is taking shape throughout our country, in which there is both centralism and democracy, both discipline and freedom, both unitl of will and personal ease of mind.,,16
It is :important to note the "discipline" and "unity of will." So far as the basic framework of Marxism- Leninism is concerned, Maoists believe that everyone should accept it, and they are quick to "work on" those who lag behind or step out of line. But, within this framework, the Maoists energetically and sincerely promote individual initiative, "reasoning things out and not depending on authorities or myths," "thinking for oneself," etc. Outside of this framework, an individual stands little chance; inside the framework, an individual is involved in a dynamic process of becoming "truly free,"in the sense of being fully aware of the world around him and an active decisionmaker in that world. Mao's thought is meant to lead to true freedom and to unity of will based on a proletarian viewpoint.
Non-Specialization. — For Marx, specialization and bureaucratization were the very antitheses of communism. Man could not be free or truly human until these manifestations of alienation were eliminated, allowing him to become an "all-round" communist man. 17 Maoists, too, have been intensely concerned with this goal, specifying it in terms of eliminating the distinction between town and countryside, mental and manual labor, and workers and peasants. The realization of the universal man is not automatically achieved by altering the forces of production, by the socialist revolution. Rather it can be achieved only after the most intense and unrelenting ideological efforts to raise the consciousness of the masses through the creative study and creative use of Mao's thought. Old ideas, customs, and habits hang on long after the material base of the economy has been radically changed, and it takes one mighty effort after another to wipe out this bourgeois superstructure and replace it with the proletarian world outlook. This trans~ formation of the "subjective world" will, then have a tremendous impact on the "objective world."
Intellectuals, party and administrative cadres, and other mental workers are prodded into taking part in physical labor — in factories and out in the fields. This will not only "encourage the initiative of the workers and. peasants in production and uproot the ingrained habit of bureaucracy, but even more important, it can ensure that leading cadres work among the people like ordinary laborers, and opens up a'way for the gradual integration of mental and manual work." Physical labor by intellectuals will eventually get rid of men whose "four limbs do not move and [who are] unable to distinguish the five grains."18
And laborers should become intellectuals.
“The characteristic feature of these efforts has been, and remains, a massive attack on the notion that. culture, science and technology are attributes of intellectuals … the widely propagated rallying cry is that the'masses must make themselves masters of science and culture.' For example, the purpose of 'half-work and half-study' programs is proclaimed to be to develop'red and ex pert socialist laborers who can grasp the principles of science and technology... and who are both mental workers as well as people who can go to factories and fields to engage in industrial and agricultural production,' thus refuting the notions of bourgeois intellectuals who 'oppose mental labor to physical labor and who hold that physical labor is the task of workers and peasants while only they themselves can engage in mental labor.,19
C. Maoist Ideology and Economic Development.
In many ways, then, Maoist ideology rejects the capitalist principle of building on the best, even though the principle cannot help but be followed to some extent in any effort at economic development. However, the Maoist departures from the principle are the important thing. While capitalism, in their view, strives one-sidedly for efficiency in producing goods, Maoism, while also seeking some high degree of efficiency, at the same time, in numerous ~Tays, builds on. "the worst." Experts are pushed aside in favor of decision-making by "the masses"; new industries are established in rural areas; the educational system favors the disadvantaged; expertise (and hence work proficiency in a narrow sense) is discouraged; new products are domestically produced rather than being imported "more efficiently"; the growth of cities as centers of industrial and cultural life is discouraged; steel, for a time, is made by "everyone" instead of by only the much more efficient steel industry.
Maoists build on the worst not, of course, because they take great delight in lowering economic efficiency, but rather to involve everyone in the development process, to pursue development without leaving a single person behind, to achieve a balanced growth rather thah a lopsided one. If Maoism were only that, we could simply state that, while Maoist development may be much more equitable than capitalist efforts, it is surely less efficient and thus less rapid; efficiency is being sacrificed to some extent for equity. But that would miss the more important aspects of Maoist ideology, which holds that the resources devoted to bringing everyone into the socialist development process — the effort spent on building on "the worst" - - will eventually payoff not only' in economic ways by enormously raising labor productivity but, more important, by creating a society of truly free men, who respond intelligently to the world around them, and who are happy.20
IV. U.S. Studies of Chinese Economic Development
The sharp contrast between the economic development views of capitalist economists and those of the Chinese Communists cannot be denied; their two worlds are quite different. The difference is not mainly between being Chinese and being American, although that is surely part of it, but rather between being Maoists in a MarxistLeninist tradition and being present-day followers of the economics first fashioned by Adam Smith and later reformed by J.M. Keynes. Whatever the ignorance and misunderstanding on the Chinese side regarding the doctrines of capitalist economics, it is clear that many western economic experts on China have shown little interest in and almost no understanding of Maoist e.conomic development. Most of the economic researchers have approached China as though it was little more than a series of tables in a Yearbook which could be analyzed by western economic methods and judged by capitalist values. The result has been a series of uni11uminating studies, largely statistical or institutional in method, and lacking analysis of the really distinctive and interesting features of Maoist development. But befor e pursuing this critical line any further it is best to turn briefly to what has been done in this area.
A. Economic Research on Communist China
Like seagulls following the wake of a ship, economists pursue numbers. The main concentration of numbers pertaining to the economy of Communist China is in Ten Great Years, which was published in September 1959 by the State Statistical Bureau: This volume contains a wealth of data on almost all phases of economic activity, and so it has become one of the main sources for much of the empirical work on Chinese economic development. But throughout the 1950s economic data were published in hundreds of other sources — in official reports, statistical handbooks, economics books, and articles — so that altogether massive information, of varying degrees of reliability, became available on the first decade or so of China's development efforts. After 1958, however, the release of aggregate data pretty much came to a halt, which meant that little research on the 1960s has been done by economists outside of China. The data of the 1950s continues to be worked over, adjusted, and refined, though there is no longer much more that can be said about it.
Much of this research has been concerned with China's national output its absolute size; its rates of growth; its components, such as agriculture and industrial output or consumption and investment goods; the extent to which national output has::been affected by international trade and Soviet aid; and the planning methods utilized in its production. The most detailed study of the measurement of China's national output during the 1950s was made by T.C. Liu and K.C. Yeh in their The Economy of the Chinese Mainland: National Income and~onomic Development 1933-1959, but other intensive investigations have been made by Alexander Eckstein and William Hollister. 2l Two recent compilations of research work — An Economic Profile of Mainland China, 2-Volumes (Joint Economic Committee of the U.s. Congress) and Economic Trends in Communist China (A •. Eckstein, T.C. Liu, and W. Galenson, eds.) — contain many specialized studies of agriculture, industry, investment, foreign trade and aid, manpower and natural resources, money and banking, and taxation. The most comprehensive work on Communist China's economic insttutions, which carries the story well into the 1960s, is that of the Britisher, Audrey Donnithorne, The Economy of Communist China.
These four works contain most of what is now known in t he West about China's economy, though there have been scores of other studies, mostly of an empirical nature, on specialized aspects of the economic process. Notable among these are Kang Chao, The Construction Industry in Communist-ahina(Aldine, 1968); Charles Hoffman, Work Incentive Practices and Policies in the People's Republic of China 1953-1965 (State University of N. Y. Press, 1967); Y.L. Wu, I I The Steel Industry in Communist China (Hoover Institution, 1965); Sidney Klein, t Politics versus Economics: The Foreign Trade and Aid Policies of China (International Study Group, Hong Kong, 1968); George Ecklund, Financing the Chinese Government Budget Mainland China, 1950-1959 (Aldine, 1966); Dwight Perkins, Market Control and Planning in Communist China(Harvard, 1966); and Alexander Eckstein, Communist China's Economic Growth and Foreign Trade (McGraw-Hill, 1966). Since data on China's foreign trade in the 1960s can be gathered from most of her trading partners, this area of research has received a great amount of attention. Finally, a few western economists have actually visited China infrecent years and have returned with much information, but mainly of a qualitative nature.
B. Criticism of Economic Research
Economic research on China suffers from an ailment common to most of economics — a narrow empiricism. Thus, most of the research studies of the Chinese economy deal with very small segments of the development process, and within these tiny areas the researchers busy themselves with data series — adding up. the numbers, adjusting them in numerous ways, deflating them for price caanges, and doing a lot of other fussy statistical work. Each economist tills intensively his small plot, gaining highly specialized knowledge in the process, finally ending up an expert in his cramped quarters.
There are not many economists in the China field who try to see Chinese economic development 'as a whole, as "the comprehensive totality of the historical process." If the truth is the whole, on China must be so far from the truth that it is hardly worthwhile listening to them.
Moreover, listening is often painful. Even a casual reader of the economic research on Communist China cannot help but notice that many of the researchers are not happy, to say. the least, with the object of their investigation. Ordinarily economists are utterly fascinated and almost in love with their special areas of study — even with such an esoteric one as "Game Theory Applied to Nonlinear Development." But not so our China experts! Indeed, it is quite apparent that many of them consider China to be, not The Beloved, but The Enemy. And in dealing with The Enemy, their research often reveals very strong biases against China.
These biases show up in a variety of ways, from such trivial things as changing Peking to Peiping (~ la Dean Rusk), which reveals a wish that the Communists weren't there; to the frequent use of emotive words (e.g., the Communists are not dedicated but "obsessed"; leaders are "bosses"; a decision not to release data is described as "a sullen statistical silence"; the extension of the statistical system becomes "an extension of its tentacles farther into the economy"); to the attribution of rather sinister motives to ordinary economic and cultural policies (e.g., education and literacy are promoted for the purpose of spreading evil Marxian doctrines; economic development is pursued for the principal purpose of gaining military strength for geographical expansion — which is the theme of W.W. Rostow's book on The Prospects for Communist China); to dire forecasts of imminent disaster which are based on little more than wishful thinking; to data manipulation of the most questionable sort.
This strong propensity to treat China as The Enemy has led, in my opinion, to some grossly distorted acco'unts of China's economic progress. The picture that is presented by these studies as a whole as Hegel claimed, most economic experts is one in which China, while making some progress for a time in certain areas, is just barely holding on to economic life. It is a picture of a China always close to famine, making little headway wl)ile the rest of the world moves ahead, being involved in irrational economic policies, and offering little reason for hope that the lives of her people will be improved. Our China experts, furthermore, know what is wrong, and that in a word is Communism. They seldom fail to pass judgment on some aspect or other of Chinese economic development, and this judgment is almost invariably capitalist-oriented. Thus, national planning and government-controlled prices cannot be good because they do not meet the criteria of consumer sovereignty and competitive markets;,communes violate individualism and private,property; ideological campaigns upset order and harmony; the deemphasis on material incentives violates human nature and so reduces individual initiative and economic growth; the breakdown of specialization lowers worker.' s productivity. This sort of thing pervades much of the economic literature on China.
Given all this — the narrow specialized studies that are sometimes useful but not often enlightening, the distortions by omission or commission, the capitalistoriented approaches and assessments, not to mention those evaluations of Communist Chi~a. that a're inspired by a s tr'9ng allegiance to Chiang Kai-shek — gi~en all this, it is little wonder that a fair picture of China's economic progress seldom gets presented. Seldom, not never: Barry Richman's new book on Industrial Society in Communist China, Carl Riskin's work, for example in The Cultural Revolution 1967 in Review, and several other research efforts are refreshingly objective, relatively free of capitalist cant, and approach Maoist ideology in a serious way.
The truth is that China over the past two decades has made very remarkable economic advances (though not steadily) on almost all fronts. The basic, overriding economic fact about China is that for twenty years she has fed, clothed, and housed everyone, has kept them healthy, and has educated most. Millions have not starved; sidewalks and streets have not been covered with multitudes of sleeping, begging, hungry, and illiterate human beings; millions are not disease-ridden. To find such deplorable conditions, one does not look to China these days but rather to India, Pakistan, and almost anywhere else in the underdeveloped world. These facts are so basic, so fundamentally important, that they completely dominate China's economic picture, even if one grants all of the erratic and irrational policies alleged by her numerous critics. The Chinese all of them — now have what is in effect an insurance policy against pestilence. famine. and other disasters., In this respect, China has outperformed every underdeveloped country in the world; and, even with respect to the richest one, it would not be far-fetched to claim that there has been less malnutrition due to ma1distribution of food in China over the past twenty years than there has been in the United States. 22
If this comes close to the.truth, the reason lies not in China's grain output far surpassing her population growth -for it has not — but rather in the development of institutions to distribute food evenly among the population. It is also true that China has just had six consecutive bumper grain crops (wheat and rice) which have enabled her to reduce wheat imports and greatly increase rice exports. On top of this, there have been large gains in the supplies of eggs, vegetables, fruits, poultry, fish, and meat. In fact, China today exports more food than she imports. As I have indicated, the Chinese are in a much better position now than ever before to ward off natural disasters •• There has been significant progress in irrigation, flood control, and water conservancy; the use of chemical fertilizers is increasing rapidly, the volume of which is now over 10 times that of the early 1950s; there have been substantial gains in the output of tractors, pumps, and other farm tmplements; and much progress has been made in the control of plant disease and in crop breeding.
In education, there has been a major breakthrough. All urban children and a great majority of rural children have attended primary schools, and enrollments in secondary schools and in higher education are large, in proportion to the population, compared with. preConnnunist days. If "school" is extended in meaning to include part-time, partstudy education, spare-time education, and study groups organized by the connnunes, factories, street organizations, the army — then there are schools everywhere in China; then China may be said to be just one great big school.
China's gains in the medical and public health fields are perhaps the most impressive of all. The gains are attested to by many recent visitors to China. For example, a Canadian doctor a few years ago visited medical colleges, hospitals, and research institutes, aad everywhere he found good e quipmen t, high medical standards, excellent me dical care; almosZall comparable to Canadian standards. 3 A member of theU.S. Public Health Service, a few years ago, stated that "the prevention and control of many infections and parasitic diseases which have ravaged [China] for generations" was a "most startling accomplishment." He noted, too, that "the improvement of general environmental sanitation and the practice of personal hygiene, both in the cities and in!he rural areas, was also phenomenal.,,24
While all these gains were being made, the Chinese have devot\ed an unusually large amount of resources to industrial output. China's industrial production has risen on the average by at least 11 per cent per year since 1950, which is an exceptionally high growth rate for an underdeveloped country. And industrial progress is not likely to be retarded in the future by any lack of natural resources, for China is richiy endowed and is right now one of the four top producers in the world of coal, iron ore, mercu:tly, tin, tungsten, magnesite, salt, and antimony. In recent years, China has made large gains in the production of coal, iron and steel, chemical fertilizers, and oil. In fact, since the huge discoveries at the Tach'ing oilfield, China is now selfsufficient in oil and has offered to export some to Japan.
From the industrial, agricultural, and other gains I have outlined, I would estimate that China's real GNP has risen on the average by at least 6 per cent per year since 1949, or by at least 4 per cent on a per capita basis. This may not seem high, but it is a little better than the Soviet Union did over a comparable period (1928 1940), much better than England's record during her century of industrialization (1750-1850) when her income per capita grew at one-half of 1 per cent per year, perhaps a bit better than Japan's performance from 1878 to 1936, certainly much superior to France's 1 per cent record from 1800 to 1870, far better than India's 1.3 per cent growth during 1950 to 1967, and much superior to the postwar record of almost all underdeveloped countries in the world.
This is a picture of an economy richly endowed in natural resources, but whose people are still very poor, making substantial gains in industrialization, moving ahead more slowly in agriculture, raising education and health levels dramatically, turning out increasing numbers of scientists and engineers, expanding the volume of foreign trade and the variety of products traded, and making startling progress in the development of nuclear weapons. This is a truer picture, I believe, than the bleak one drawn by some of our China experts.25
The failure of many economic experts on China to tell the story of her economic development accurately and fully is bad enough. But even worse, I think, has been the general failure to deal with China on her own terms, within the framework of her own goals and methods for attaining those goals, or even to recognize the possible validity of those goals. Communist China is certainly not a paradise, but it is now engaged in perhaps the most interesting economic and social experiment ever attempted, in which tremendous efforts a re being made to achieve an egalitarian development, an industrial development without dehumanization, one that involves everyone and affects everyone. But all those efforts seem not to have affected Western economists, who have proceeded ahead with their income accounts and slide-rules, and their free-enterprise values, to measure and judge. One of the most revealing developments in the China field is the growing belief among the economic experts t hat further research is hardly worthwhile in view of the small amount of economic statistics that have come out of China sine e 1958. Apparently it does not matter that 775 million people are involved in a gigantic endeavor to change their environment, their economic and social institutions, their standard of living, and themselves; that never before have such potentially important economic and social experiments been carried out; that voluminous discussions of these endeavors by the Maoists are easily available. No, if GNP data are not forthcoming, if numbers can't be added up and adjusted, then the economy is hardly worth bothering about!
V Some Suggestions and Conclusions
What can be done? Probably not very much until a substantial number of younger economists becomes interested in China. It is a hopeful sign that many young economists are now breaking away from the stultifying atmosphere of present-day "neo-c1assica1" economics and are trying to refashion the discipline into political economy — as it once was — so as to• take account of the actual world and not the world of highly abstract models, scholastic debates, a nd artificial assumptions — all designed to justify the existing state of things and to accept, without question, the rather narrow, materialistic goals of capitalist society. This reformulation by the young will have to take place first, but once this task is well along, China is bound to be attractive to many of these "new" economists. Only then will we begin to get a substantial amount of research on China that makes sense.
The research that would make sense is any that takes Haoism seriously as a model of economic development, in terms both of its objectives and of the means employed to attain those objectives. A thoughtful consideration of Maoism means paying proper attention to Marxism-Leninism as well as to the Chinese past of the Maoists. The Marxist-Leninist goal of the Communist man within a classless society in which each person works according to his ability and consumes according to his needs — this goal of the Maoists.shou1d be taken seriously in any economic analysis of what is now going on.
I mentioned earlier, when discussing the core of development theory that would probably be accepted by both the capitalist and Maoist sides, that economic growth can be attained by increasing the amounts of labor, capital goods, and land used in production, by improving the quality of these factors of production, by combining them in more efficient ways and inspiring labor to greater efforts, and by taking advantage of economies of scale. Now Maoism undoubtedly affects everyone of these ingredients of economic growth, and often in ways quite different from the capitalist impact. For example, it is likely that Maoist ideology discourages consumption and encourages saving and investment, and so promotes the growth of the capital stock; and does this by preventing the rise of a high-consuming "middle class," by fostering the Maoist virtues of plain and simple liv~ng and devoting one's life to helping others rather than to accumulating "pots and pans."
As another example, it is possible that Maoist economic development, by deemphasizing labor specialization and reliance on experts and technicians, reduces the quality of the labor force and so slows the rate of economic growth. On the other hand, as Adam Smith once suggested, labor specialization, while increasing productivity in some narrow sense, is often at the expense of the worker's general intelligence and understanding. For "The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations •••generally becomes I as stupid and ignorant as it is ~ossible for a human creature to become." 6 A major aim of the Maoist is to transfor m man from this alienated state to a fully aware and participating member of society. The emphasis on "reds" rather than experts is just one part of this transformation which, it is felt, will release "an atom bomb" of talents and energy and enable labor productivity to take great leaps.
In addition to this argument, which is based on Maoist interpretation of their own history and experience, particularly during the Yenan period,27 it is also possible that the "universal man" in an underdeveloped economy would provide more flexibility to the economy. If most people could perform many jobs moderately well, manual and intellectual, urban and rural, the economy m~ght be bette~ able to cope with sudden and large changes; it could with Ii ttle loss infefficiency mobilize its labor force for a variety of tasks. Further, since,experience in one job carries over to others, a person may be almost as productive, in the job-proficiency sense, in anyone of them as he would be if he specialized on it. A peasant who has spent some months in a factory can more easily repair farm equipment, and so on. Finally, a Maoist economy may generate more useful information than a specialist one and so lead to greater creativity and productivity. When each person is a narrow specialist, communication among such people is not highly meaningful -your highly specialized knowledge means little to me in my work. When, on the other hand, each person has basic knowledge about many lines of activity, the experiences of one person enrich the potentialities of many others.
The point is that this topic ~- which, 1 should stress, includes not only labor productivity, that is the developm ent of material things by human beings, but also the development of human beings themselves — this topic of generalists vs. specialists, reds vs. experts, the masses vs. bureaucrats, or whatever, is not a foolish one to be laughed away, as it has been in effect by some China experts. How men, in an industrial society, should relate to machines and to each other in seeking happiness and real meaning in their lives has surely'been one of the most important problems of the modern age. There is also another basic issue here: whether modern industrial society, capitalist or, socialist, does i~ ~act diminish man's essential powers, his capacity for growth in many dimensions, even though it does allocate him "efficiently" and increase his skills as a specialized input. Is man Lockean in nature, reactive to outside forces, adjusting passively to disequilibrium forces from without? Or is he essentially Leibnitzian, the source of acts, active, capable of growth and having an inner being that is selfprop~ lled? If the latter, how are these powers released?
The Maoists claim that the powers exist and can be released. If they are right, the implications for economic development are so important that it would take a bunch of absolute dunces on this side of the Pacific to ignore them.
FOOTNOTES
I should like to thank John Despres, Edward Friedman, and Mark Selden for answering my call for help.
1. This is always a main point. However, two other goals of producing the "right" composition of goods and achieving an "equitable" distribution of income are often stipulated.
A few of the better books on capitalist development are: Charles Kindleberger, Economic Development; Henry Bruton, Principles of Develop~ Economics; Gerald Meier, Leading Issues in Economic Develop!ent; Albert Hirschman, ~ Strategy of Economic Development; and W. Arthur Lewis, The Theory of Economic Growth.
2. In recent years, capitalist economists have paid increasing attention to "investment in hlUllan capital." (See, for example, Gary Becker, Human Capital.) Although this might seem to represent a basic change in their concept of man in the development process, actually it does not. "Investment in hlUllan cap i tal" means that economic resources are invested for the purpose of raising the educational, health, and skill levels of labor, not as an end in itself but as a means of increasing the productivity of labor. Thus, economists are concerned with the "payoff" to investment in human capital, this payoff being the profit that can be made from such an expenditure. Indeed, the very term "human capital" indicates vhat these economists have in mind: man is another capital good, an input in the productive engine that grinds out commodities; if one invests in man, he may become more productive and return a handsome profit to the investor — whether the investor is the State, a private ca~italist, or the laborer himself. Thus, the preoccupation of capitalist economics is still with man as a means and not as an end.
3. This has been expressed by Maoists in many ways. As Mao Tse-tung has put it: "of all things in the world, people are the most precious" (The Bankruptcy of the Idealist Conception of History," in Selected Works of Mao Tsetung, Vol. IV, p. 454). ThePetlngReview adds: "Whatever we do, we give prominence to the factor of man and-put man at the centre" (Nov. 11, 1966, pp. 19-20).
4. Mao Tse-tung, quoted in Peking Review, Nov. 11, 1966, pp. 19-20.
5. Peking Review, Dec. 23, 1966, p. 7.
6. For 3,000 years the Chinese have paid much more attention t,o human relations than to conquering nature. Mao Tse-tung, as a Chinese and as a Marxist, cannot help but follow in this tradition. But,.as a Chinese, he wishes to make China powerful in the eyes of the world> and, as a Marxist, through socialism. The world views power in terms of GNP and nuclear weapons, not in terms of perfection of human relations. So Mao has to go both directions at the same time, and the two goals often conflict with one another, at least in the short run.
7. Mao Tse-tung follows MarxismLeninism in adopting the world outlook of dialectical materialism, which is a. philosophy of hlUllan and natural change and interaction. Changes in society, for example, according to Mao, are not due chiefly to external causes but instead to internal ones — to the internal contradictions between the productive forces and the relations of production, between classes, etc. There is internal contradiction in every single thing, and it is the development of the contradiction that gives rise to chang"es — "eventuaily to qualitative changes." External causes by themselves could explain only changes in quantity or scale, but they could not explain qualitative or "leap" changes. "The development of things should be seen as their internal and necessary self-movement, while each thing in its movement is interrelated with and interacts on the things around it." See Mao Tse-tung, "On Contradiction," Selected Works, Vol. 1, p. 313.
8. Mao Tse-tung, "Combat Liberalism," Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 31.
9. Mao Tse-tung, "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People," in Quotations of Mao Tse-tung, pp. 17-18.
10. Peking Review, March 10, 1967, p. 22.
11. Mao Tse-tung, "On Practice," Selected Works, Vol. 1, pp. 299-300.
12. Peking Review, February 24, 1967, p.22.
13. Lenin implies that to reach the Marxian goal — "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" — people will have to become selfless and highly productive. If each j person is to take freely according to I his |
asurable morale booster for the soldiers," Capt. Stephen Machuga, U.S. Army (ret.) said in 2012. "Troops are accustomed to getting care packages from strangers full of baby wipes and socks. Our care packages are designed to blow their socks off."
Machuga, in the founding story of Operation Supply Drop, says he got the idea after receiving a care package full of Harlequin romance novels from a library. The books were used for target practice.
"It was about that time that he realized that, while people had their hearts in the right place, they just didn't know what soldiers wanted," Operation Supply Drop sayson its Facebook page.
The care packages are intended to combat the stress and loneliness of deployment, including fostering interaction and friendship among servicemembers and abating post-traumatic stress disorder and other conditions cited as a cause of concerning rates of suicide.
Polygon profiled Machuga and Operation Supply Drop at length in December. See more here.Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce apologized Tuesday for calling a 10-year-old autistic boy a “snowflake” in need of a "safe space."
The apology comes following a Friday night appearance by Bruce on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" with guest host Bill Hemmer to talk about a viral video of Vice President Pence accidentally bumping into the boy upon finishing a speech.
The boy, whose name is Michael, playfully asked the vice president for an apology.
“I guess we're giving birth to snowflakes now, because that looked like that kid needed a safe space in that room," Bruce said.
"Snowflakes" is a popular derogatory term on social media used by conservatives to describe liberals deemed to be too sensitive.
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But on Monday, Michael's mother, Dr. Ingrid Herrera-Yee, appeared on CNN with Jake Tapper to rail against Bruce.
“Michael is 10 years old. He is on the autism spectrum. He's a military child. And he loves the White House.”
"I was devastated when I saw what they were saying," she continued.
"People who — they didn't even know his age. They didn't know who he was, but really taking out of context a really innocent interchange between the vice president and my son."
Bruce apologized on "America's Newsroom" on Fox on Tuesday.
“I am so sorry to the family. My intention was never to hurt a kid and his mom. We had absolutely no idea that Michael was on the autism spectrum," she said.
"And as a gay woman and feminist, I have spent most of my adult life working to improve the lives of women and children and those who are disenfranchised," she continued.
"I get it and I apologize. … A main lesson here, no matter intent, is to leave kids out of our political discussions. We certainly agree on this.”Since Trump’s inauguration, EDGI has made a number of worthwhile discoveries. Information about international climate partnerships disappeared from EPA websites. Text describing two fracking regulations was removed from an Interior Department page. On a website for kids to learn about energy, information about the environmental impacts of fossil fuels vanished.
But after two months of work, the volunteers haven’t found the smoking gun. Government climate change data remains on government websites. No datasets have been purged—unless you count animal abuse reports that were pulled from the USDA’s website, purportedly for privacy reasons. There have been subtle language changes to many federal websites, but which merely signal that Trump has different priorities than President Barack Obama did; this is not unprecedented for a new administration, especially one that follows an administration from the opposing party.
Conservative media outlets have called these scientists “paranoid” “alarmists,” but the EDGI insists the danger is real. Trump has appointed cabinet officials, like EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and energy secretary nominee Rick Perry, who not only have been hostile to the agencies they seek to run but refuse to accept basic tenets of mainstream science. Moreover, some EDGI scientists fear a government-led war on science because they’ve already experienced one—north of the border.
“We were immediately concerned after Trump’s election, because many of us had been involved in or had been watching what happened under Stephen Harper’s administration in Canada,” Lave said, referring to the conservative former Canadian prime minister. During his nine-year reign, more than 2,000 government scientists were fired, and those who weren’t fired were effectively barred from talking to the news media. Budgets for environmental protection and scientific research were butchered. And it was done stealthily. “So much had been done by the time people even noticed it in Canada,” Canadian environmental journalist Chris Turner told The Atlantic last month. “That was part of the reason why it got so worrisome.”
In the event Trump followed Harper’s playbook, the scientists who started EDGI didn’t want to be playing catch up. “There was just a tremendous sense of urgency about not only preserving publicly funded federal environmental data for public use,” Lave said, “but also this sense that if we didn’t know what was changing in a detailed way, it would be very difficult to respond constructively.”
EDGI volunteers insist they’re not frustrated by a lack of bombshell discoveries. For one, no one at EDGI wants data to purged. “In some ways, I personally am thankful that we haven’t seen a ‘smoking gun’—though I would say we have seen some substantive changes—because our overall mission is to promote evidence-based environmental governance in the public interest,” Gehrke said. “The fewer threats to that, the better.”
It’s also possible that serious changes are still to come, considering that many major positions at science-based agencies remain unfilled (Perry, for instance, has yet to be confirmed). By getting organized early, EDGI is ready to catch whatever changes come, and the group’s very existence may be having a watchdog effect: Government agencies may think twice about making such changes, knowing that EDGI is tracking their every move.
The work has its personal rewards, too.
“There is a psychological value for a lot of people who come out and participate, who are looking for ways in which their skills can be put to use in a time of crisis,” said Nick Shapiro, EDGI’s co-founder.
But the work also takes a toll. Gehrke said she’d “be lying” if EDGI didn’t affect her other commitments. “I’m trying to figure out how to better navigate that,” she said. Lave praises her husband for shouldering the majority of childcare duties lately. Shapiro said he’s lucky to be single and without children, allowing him for more flexibility.
That may change, if Shapiro is able to secure enough grant funding to make EDGI his full-time job. The group is currently talking with several private foundations—Shapiro wouldn’t say which ones—and have a few large grants under review, including one for $600,000. If they secure those grants, Shapiro says, the money will provide salaries for the sleepless Harvard graduate students, two of whom are taking leaves of absence from their studies to monitor websites for EDGI. They don’t have day jobs, but because of Trump’s disdain for science, they soon might.TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Arizona Cardinals will be without running back Beanie Wells for at least seven games because of a severe turf toe injury suffered in Sunday's 27-6 victory over Philadelphia.
The team placed Wells on the NFL's new injured reserve/designated for return list. That allows him to return to practice Nov. 7 and to play in the Cardinals' home game against the St. Louis Rams on Nov. 25.
Quarterback Kevin Kolb called it "a huge loss."
"He's a big part of our team and he's a nice counter to the rest of our backs, the way he runs," Kolb said, "and a leader. He's stepped up as a big leader the last year and a half."
The injury will leave the bulk of the running game load on second-year pro Ryan Williams, who had been splitting time with Wells. Williams rushed for 83 yards on 13 carries against Philadelphia.
Williams said the performance helped him get over his critical fumble the previous week at New England, which gave the Patriots a chance at the game-winning field goal, an attempt that missed. He said he expects five or 10 more carries against Miami on Sunday and feels no added pressure.
"When times like this, when your number is called, you're supposed to step up to the plate," Williams said. "... There's no pressure, man, this is something I've wanted to do for the longest and that's play a lot of football. I'm getting the opportunity so I have to do something with it."
Kolb said the team is confident in Williams' ability to step into a larger role.
"We all know that he can, that he has the ability to," Kolb said. "I thought he had a nice ending to the game last week to build his confidence. He's working hard, even today, to make sure that he's up to date on everything, he's sharp with everything mentally."
In a corresponding move, the Cardinals re-signed running back Alfonso Smith, a backup for Arizona last season who was released in the team's final roster cuts on Aug. 31. The other running backs on the Arizona roster are LaRod Stephens-Howling and William Powell.
Stephens-Howling, however, is used primarily in specific situations that maximize his quickness and minimize the impact of his 5-foot-7 height. He missed Wednesday's practice with a hip flexor.
Powell, who won a spot on the roster with his play in the preseason, was inactive the first three games.
While Wells will be eligible to play the final six games of the season, there's no guarantee he will be healthy enough to do that.
"With the type of injury he has, we anticipate six to eight weeks at least before he'll be ready to go," Whisenhunt said after Wednesday's practice. "So if you look at where we still have games left, it will be good to have him back at that point."
Wells was Arizona's first-round draft pick, the 31st selection overall, out of Ohio State in 2009. He is coming off his best season, when he rushed for 1,047 yards despite a sore knee that bothered him most of the season and kept him out of the finale against Seattle. He rushed for a franchise-record 225 yards at St. Louis last Nov. 27.
This season, he was off to a slow start, gaining just 76 yards on 29 carries, an average of 2.6 yards per attempt.
At 6-foot-2 and 229 pounds, Wells' power running style complemented the more shifty approach of the 5-9, 207-pound Williams. Powell is just 5-9 and 207 pounds, probably a reason the team re-signed the 6-1, 207-pound Smith, who played in 15 games last season, rushing for 102 yards on 30 carries and a touchdown. He also caught three passes for 21 yards and had five special teams tackles.ALLEN PARK -- Lions tight end Eric Ebron was heading into his final year at North Carolina as the big man on campus. People were already talking about how highly, not if, he'd be drafted.
Then one day a freshman quarterback walks into the building, and starts throwing lasers.
"He was on the practice squad," Ebron said, "and I was just amazed how well he threw the damn football. I mean, there isn't a place he couldn't put the football. And I can't wait for him to develop in this league. I told him that. 'You can do this, bro. There's a lot of people we played with that come into the NFL, and I'm like, ehhh? But you? You can do this.'
That quarterback? Mitchell Trubisky.
The Bears caused a bit of a stir on draft day when they dealt the No. 3 pick, plus a third- and fourth-rounder this year and another fourth-rounder next year, to move up to second overall. Yes, just one spot. But they loved Trubisky. They wanted Trubisky. And nobody was going to beat them to Trubisky.
Now the Lions will get their first look at the golden armed rookie on Sunday at Soldier Field, and Ebron is looking forward to, well, giving his old friend the rookie treatment.
"I know he played well last week," Ebron said, "but I look forward to kicking his ass this week. And we'll trade jerseys afterward, because that's my guy."
Whether Trubisky is worth the bounty Chicago gave up remains to be seen. He moved into the starting lineup after a 1-3 start, and the results have been mixed. He's turned the ball over four times in five games, thrown just three touchdown passes and was sacked five times last week in a 23-16 loss against Green Bay.
Chicago is 2-3 in Trubisky's starts, and scored more than 17 points just once.
But nobody is sounding any alarm bells either, because the talent is obvious. He has a huge arm, and enough mobility to hurt you on the move too. He's averaged 7.3 yards on his 15 carries.
Right now, defenses are just throwing the kitchen sink at him to confuse the rookie. Welcome to the NFL, kid. It's tough on first-year players, and quarterbacks especially, and you can bet Teryl Austin will try to do the same on Sunday.
"You know the defensive coordinators are probably going to try to mess with you more than the veteran QBs, and they're always going to try to throw in new twists or a wrinkle in the defenses," Trubisky said. "So far throughout our season, every defensive coordinator has played us differently then what they've shown against other teams."
Ebron empathizes. He was taken 10th overall by the Lions in 2014, and the game was hard for him as a rookie too. He struggled to live up to the lofty expectations that come with being taken so highly, and fans hated him for it. Even though he's doubled his production the last two years, he remains perhaps the most unpopular player in Detroit.
So as Trubisky became a lightning rod in the days after his selection in Chicago, Ebron called with some advice.
"I just kind of told him to get ready for a rollercoaster," Ebron said. "I told him, 'You're not going to play perfect every game. You're not going to be the guy, like it was in college. You just got to go out there and give it your all, and ignore everything else."
Trubisky appreciated the call. They played just one year together, but he remembers Ebron fondly. He called Ebron "the center of attention" at North Carolina, and a "clown" in the locker room. Which will sound awfully familiar to Lions fans.
"Ain't nothing changed," Ebron said with a laugh. "I was probably 30 times worse back then actually."
But Trubisky also took Ebron's serious advice to heart.
"He's just told me to block out distractions," Trubisky said. "And I'm not on social media or anything (anymore), so I don't see what people say to me. Just blocking out distractions, and he has continued to tell to just be yourself, be the player that's got you to this point. Trust your abilities and just go out there and play and have fun because if you're not being yourself, then you're just running out there not playing your game and that's not what got you to this point.
"He said just relax, have fun, be yourself and you'll be successful."
That hasn't quite happened yet, but there's no reason to believe it won't either. Just last week, Trubisky completed 21 of 35 passes against Green Bay, for 297 yards, one touchdown -- and for just the second time in his career, no turnovers.
Ebron has seen enough of him to know it's only a matter of when, not if, Trubisky will be capable of hurting the Lions.
"I mean, this guy can just can throw the damn football," Ebron said. "Whenever he came in, we just knew that thing was going to be on a rope. I'm not expecting him to go out there (Sunday) and throw for 300 yards as a rookie. But do I expect it from him down the line, once he picks up the system and everything? Of course, because that's the kind of guy he is. He can ball."The Pebble stands out by not standing out — almost every other smart watch is a bulky, chunky affair, but chances are most people won’t even realize you’re wearing the Pebble until you tell them. It’s slim and sleek, and when the backlight is off the screen blends in seamlessly with the borders of my black review unit. On the right side you’ll find up / down and select buttons, while the left side has a back button and a set of contacts for the Pebble’s magnetic power connector, which aligns and latches on like Apple’s familiar MagSafe system. It’s a clever way to keep the Pebble waterproof without resorting to clunky port covers or flaps.
As for the screen itself, I would call it just okay: Pebble calls it "e-paper," but it’s really a 114 x 168 "transflective" LCD that’s designed for watches. It’s functional, but ultimately it’s a low-resolution black and white LCD, and low-resolution black and white LCDs are not renowned for their beauty. It’s also covered by a curved plastic lens that can reflect light in weird ways — it’s not a huge problem at all, but you’ll notice it from time to time.
Let's hope Pebble finds a better screen next time
The screen itself always has content on it, whether it’s the time, the music player, or a notification, and it’s fairly readable in daylight without the backlight on. But the backlight makes a big difference: when it’s off, the screen is roughly black and white, in the same way a Nook or Kindle screen is roughly black and white. But incoming notifications and particularly fast movements trigger the backlight, which adds an unexpected bluish tint to the screen. It works fine, but there’s no way for it to feel super-premium if the screen looks cheap — the experience here is fundamentally all about the display, after all. I hope Pebble finds a better part the next time around.
The Pebble’s polyurethane watchband is entirely unremarkable. It’s there, and it holds the thing to your wrist comfortably. But it’s tremendously boring and even somewhat cheap feeling, and I’m already shopping for a replacement — you can fit any standard 22mm band, so your options are basically unlimited.
But overall, the Pebble is a very nice piece of hardware — it’s comfortable and small, and it works. You could put it in the designer watch case at a department store and it would blend right in, which is a big accomplishment. Holding it in your hand, it’s amazing to think that it was designed and assembled by an independent hardware startup funded by Kickstarter. But we’ve known the Pebble looks cool for months now. The big question is — does it work?When I my grandmother babysat me years ago I had two objectives. 1) Convince her I needed to go to Children's Palace because there was a video game I just wanted to "look at" then hope she bought it for me. 2) Drop hints about the gorgeous, plentiful Pizza Hut buffet until we decided that it wasn't worth it to cook and we should head to the buffet post-haste.
These days it's hard to find a pizza buffet that's worth the caloric assault on your body, that is until Spirit Lounge (located on 51st street in Lawrenceville) came along to change the buffet game. Spirit's Slice Island has been experimenting with a Sunday pizza buffet for months. Now, they've finally perfected the formula and are formerly launching their buffet tomorrow, January 17th.
From their press release, "Each week a variety of food options are available, including pizzas with veg and meat toppings, biscuits and gravy, sausage, french toast sticks, salad, granola, yogurt, quiche, potatoes, and desserts."
Here's why this pizza buffet is the dopest thing you can do on Sunday between noon and 4pm.A healthy Cam Newton and continuity on the offensive line, middle linebacker Luke Kuechly and a defense that has been ranked in the top 10 the past three years, and an NFC South that remains down led me to predict a 10-6 record for the Carolina Panthers when the schedule came out.
The loss of star wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin, a key piece to the offense, leads me to adjust that to 9-7. But I still believe that will be enough to win the NFC South for the third straight year.
Here’s a week-by-week look at how this could happen:
Week 1: Sunday, Sept. 13, at Jacksonville, 1 p.m.
Even without Benjamin, the Panthers simply are more talented. These teams came into the league together in 1995, but as I said in May, the Jaguars still are playing like an expansion team. Carolina simply is too strong on defense for this to be a game without making mistakes. Score: Panthers 24, Jaguars 9. Record: 1-0.
Week 2: Sunday, Sept. 20, Houston, 1 p.m.
Brian Hoyer still is the quarterback and there's no reason to think Houston will be able to run against Carolina's front seven without Arian Foster. Score: Panthers 30, Texans 13. Record: 2-0.
Week 3: Sunday, Sept. 27, New Orleans, 1 p.m.
Nobody has replaced tight end Jimmy Graham, who caught 56 passes for 700 yards and eight touchdowns in 10 games against Carolina. I still don't see enough big weapons to beat this defense, particularly in Charlotte. Score: Panthers 27, Saints 17. Record: 3-0.
Week 4: Sunday, Oct. 4, at Tampa Bay, 1 p.m.
What I said in May still applies. The Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers twice last season with backup Derek Anderson at quarterback. Barring fractured ribs or another car accident, Cam Newton should be under center. Score: Panthers 24, Bucs 12. Record: 4-0.
Week 5: Sunday, Oct. 11, Bye
This comes at a good time for a team loading up for a tough stretch.
Week 6: Sunday, Oct. 18, at Seattle, 4:05 p.m.
This will look more like the 2014 NFC divisional playoff game the Seahawks won 31-17 to bring the Panthers back to reality instead of the last three regular-season games decided by five or fewer points. Remember Graham? Russell Wilson has him now. Score: Seahawks 20, Panthers 10. Record: 4-1.
Week 7: Sunday, Oct. 25, Philadelphia, 8:30 p.m.
A big reason I picked the Panthers to finish 10-6 was because of continuity. The lack of continuity in Philadelphia with major turnover at quarterback and running back is why I'm still picking Carolina to beat the reloading Eagles. Score: Panthers 24, Eagles 20. Record: 5-1.
Week 8: Monday, Nov. 2, Indianapolis, 8:30 p.m.
These teams have met just five times with the Panthers winning four. All those were before Andrew Luck became the Indianapolis Colts' quarterback, and he will be the difference here against a Carolina team that was 0-3 in prime time a year ago. Score: Colts 21, Panthers 17. Record: 5-2.
Week 9: Sunday, Nov. 8, Green Bay, 1 p.m.
Jordy Nelson was a big part of Green Bay’s 38-17 victory at Lambeau Field a year ago with a 59-yard touchdown catch. Even without Nelson (ACL), Green Bay still has Aaron Rodgers and enough weapons to make good defenses look bad. Score: Packers 24, Panthers 21. Record: 5-3.
Week 10: Sunday, Nov. 15, at Tennessee, 1 p.m.
One reason left tackle Michael Oher was so happy to get out of Tennessee was the environment. He didn’t think it was conducive to winning. The Tennessee Titans simply will be outmanned, particularly at quarterback, to "Blind Side" Carolina. Score: Panthers 28, Titans 14. Record: 6-3.
Week 11: Sunday, Nov. 22, Washington, 1 p.m.
The Washington Redskins are still a mess at quarterback, and this Carolina defense thrives on pressuring the quarterback into mistakes. Score: Panthers 30, Redskins 10. Record: 7-3.
Week 12: Thursday, Nov. 26, at Dallas, 4:30 p.m.
Newton better wear his best Under Armour running shoes, because former Carolina defensive end Greg Hardy will be out to prove the Panthers shouldn’t have given up on him. He will feast on Cam -- not yams -- this Thanksgiving. Score: Cowboys 20, Panthers 10. Record: 7-4.
Week 13: Sunday, Dec. 6, at New Orleans, 1 p.m.
Carolina turned its 2014 season around with a 41-10 victory in the Superdome. They've actually won two of their past three in New Orleans. But Drew Brees still is one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL. Score: Saints 21, Panthers 14. Record: 7-5.
Week 14: Sunday, Dec. 13, Atlanta, 1 p.m.
By now new coach Dan Quinn should have his system fully in place, but he still lacks the talent on defense. Score: Panthers 28, Falcons 13. Record: 8-5.
Week 15: Sunday, Dec. 20, at N.Y. Giants, 1 p.m.
For the first time, Carolina general manager Dave Gettleman faces the organization he helped win two Super Bowls. The New York Giants aren't a Super Bowl team, but at home they are good enough to win this one. Score: Giants 20, Panthers 14. Record: 8-6.
Week 16: Sunday, Dec. 27, at Atlanta, 1 p.m.
Remember what I said about Atlanta not being ready defensively two games ago? It won’t matter here. The Panthers can’t expect to hold wide receiver Julio Jones and quarterback Matt Ryan down forever. Score: Falcons 24, Panthers 21. Record: 8-7.
Week 17: Sunday, Jan. 3, Tampa Bay, 1 p.m.
This will be the first time since 2009 that the Panthers have finished the regular season at home. They've won their past three regular-season finales on the road, so there's no reason to think they won't win this one against a Buccaneers team that remains a few years from being competitive. That this will clinch the NFC South provides Carolina more incentive. Score: Panthers 23, Bucs 10. Record: 9-7.This post is to consolidate all our LXC networking guides and also explore some advanced container networking that have limited use but are interesting nonetheless hence the Flockport labs monicker. Experimental containers will now be posted under this label in our container section.
We previously looked at basic LXC container networking; bridging, NAT, static IPs, public IPs etc and then at connecting LXC containers across hosts with GRE tunnels or secure Tinc or IPSEC VPNs.
We also covered basic failover and load balancing with Keepalived and Nginx and with LVS. These networking guides apply to both LXC and VM networking in Linux in general with KVM or Xen for instance.
This would be a good time to brush up. This guide explores a few advanced LXC networking possibilities that depend on a fair understanding of LXC and VM networking.
We will cover extending layer 2 across remote LXC hosts with L2tpv3 or Ethernet over GRE in Part I and using LXC's support for multiple network interfaces to explore using a container as a router and touch on using VMs of software routers like Vyatta, Vyos or Pfsense to route your container or VM networks in Part II.
Jump directly to Extending Layer 2 across LXC hosts if you are up to date on LXC networking.
LXC Networking Refresh
The default LXC installation creates what is a known as a NAT bridge, this is a standalone software bridge that is created on the host (a software bridge is like a switch and is a basic functionality provided by the Linux kernel)
Your containers or VMs connect to this bridge and get IPs in a private subnet. The routing is done by some iptables rules.
The default lxcbr0 is this kind of a bridge. Bridging, DHCP and basic routing is configured by the lxc-net script. The virbr0 bridge used by Virt Manager for KVM is similar.
Take a look at the /etc/init.d/lxc-net script (in/etc/init/lxc-net in Ubuntu) Here is what the script does in short:
1. brctl addbr lxcbr0 ----- adds bridge 2. ifconfig lxcbr0 10.0.3.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 up ----- gives the bridge an IP and brings it up 3. Starts a dnsmasq instance with a specified interface lxcbr0 with DHCP subnet range 10.0.3.2-10.0.3.254 4. iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.0.3..0/24! -d 10.0.3.0/24 -j ACCEPT ----- Adds an iptables masquerading rule for lxcbr0 so containers can access the net
In the default lxcbr0 network, containers are isolated in a private 10.0.3.0/24 subnet within the host and can only be accessed by each other and the host.
To access the containers from beyond the host you would need to use port forwarding ie forward port 80 of the host to port 80 of the container to for instance make a web server in the container available on the host and the network. You can of course forward 'n' number of host ports to various containers but you cannot forward the same port to multiple containers.
If you are in an internal network you can use basic routing to connect containers across hosts with the IP route utility. A typical command to connect to let's say the 10.0.4.0/24 container network on a host with IP 192.168.1.10 from 192.168.1.5 would look like this.
ip route add 10.0.4.0/24 via 192.168.1.10
To make this kind of routing work you need to ensure containers subnets are different across hosts.
You can set static IPs inside the container using /etc/network/interfaces file (depending on how your container OS configures networking) or via the dnsmasq instance configured for the lxcbr0 network on the host by associating specific containers to IPs in the /etc/lxc/dnsmasq file.
In a NAT type network there is no way to associate a public IP to the container. If your host has a public IP you can associate that IP with a container with 1-1 NAT mapping or if you have 2 public IPs use basic IP aliasing to associate the public IP to a container via NAT mapping.
LXC Host Bridge
That was the NAT bridge. You can also create a different network for LXC containers in which containers are on the same network as your host. This is a direct bridge creating by bridging your physical interface usually eth0 to a bridge say br0 which containers and VMs then connect to.
If the host is 192.168.1.5 the containers will be in the same subnet 192.168.1.0/24. This is a flat network and easier to work with with no NAT layer between containers and the network. Containers connecting to this interfaces get their IP and networking services directly from the router your host is connected to.
In case this is a public network you can easily associate public IPs to the containers, and they can be directly accessed from the internet. If you bridge the other hosts on this network to their respective eth0 and connect their containers to br0 interfaces, all you hosts and containers will be on the same network and thus be directly accessible by all containers and hosts.
If you have 2 network interfaces in the host you can bridge eth1 to br1 for instance, to put containers across hosts in their own network via the br1 interface. Static IPs can be configured inside the container or the router.
Container networking in the cloud
For cloud vps instances you can use either of the above methods depending on the cloud provider. You can use a private NAT network and use port forwarding to access resources on the container, associate public IP via NAT mapping or if the cloud provider allows you to bridge or gives you private networks, you can become more creative in building your container network.
At this point its important to remember a lot of cloud, vps, server providers may not support bridging and most do not support things like multicast so services like Keepalived, LVS or an overlay protocol like VXLAN that uses multicast may not work in these networks, unless they support unicast.
Connect containers across several hosts over layer 3
We already showed you how to connect containers across hosts on the same network with a simple routing rule. You can connect containers across several remote hosts with IPSEC VPNs, plain GRE tunnels or the awesome tool Tinc for mesh networks and VPNs. Containers and VMs that you connect across hosts need to be on different subnets.
We have detailed guides on these in our News and Guides section.
You can think of these as overlay networks. But remember building VPNs across the public internet has a performance penalty; via the encryption of packets, latencies between your hosts and mtu issues. But these are tried and tested methods to build resilient networks and offer distributed services.The landmark decision establishes a middle ground between banning gay marriage and allowing it nationwide.
Challengers to California's same-sex marriage ban Jeff Zarrillo and his partner Paul Katami walk from the Supreme Court building to talk to the media after the court announced their decision on June 26. (Photo11: Eileen Blass, USA TODAY)
WASHINGTON -- A fractured Supreme Court paved the way for same-sex marriages to resume throughout California on Wednesday, saying it did not have the authority to decide a case challenging that state's ban on gay and lesbian weddings.
The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, does not directly overturn the same-sex marriage ban California voters approved in 2008. Instead, Roberts, writing for an unusual coalition of justices, sent the question back to a federal district court in California, which had barred state officials from enforcing the law, known as Proposition 8.
Hours later, California Gov. Jerry Brown said he had ordered officials throughout the state to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Those marriages can resume as soon as a federal appeals court confirms that it has lifted an order blocking the lower-court decision from taking effect while it was being challenged, a step that is likely to be only a formality.
"After years of struggle, the U.S. Supreme Court today has made same-sex marriage a reality in California," Brown said.
Roberts was joined by conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, as well as three of the court's more liberal justices. They said backers of Proposition 8 did not have standing to challenge a lower court ruling that invalidated the law, effectively reinstating the lower court's decision.
"Because we find that petitioners do not have standing, we have no authority to decide this case on the merits, and neither did the Ninth Circuit," Roberts wrote.
The decision came in the second of two resounding victories for they gay rights movement before the high court on Wednesday. In the first, justices invalidated a part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that denied federal benefits to same-sex couples from states that already permit gay marriage.
Advocates for same-sex marriage instantly hailed the two decisions as a huge victory. "Today's historic decisions put two giant cracks in the dark wall of discrimination that separates committed gay and lesbian couples from full equality," said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. "Marriages in California are expected to begin again soon."
Conservatives, meanwhile, breathed a sigh of relief that the court did not go further. "While we are disappointed in the Supreme Court's decision to strike
down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the court today did not impose the sweeping nationwide redefinition of natural marriage that was sought," Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the court's decision striking down DOMA, said in a dissent that the court should have weighed in on same-sex marriages, too. Joined by conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas and liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, he said the court's decision "fails to abide by precedent and misapplies basic principles of justiciability."
CLOSE Supporters of same-sex marriage cheered both Supreme Court rulings today, while proponents of traditional marriage say only God has authority over the 'nature of marriage.' (June 26) AP
The California Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriages four years ago, and quickly about 18,000 couples tied the knot. That led opponents of same-sex marriage to demand a voter referendum outlawing gay marriage, which passed narrowly in November 2008.
A federal district court invalidated that law three years ago after state officials refused
to defend it in court. Backers of the ballot measure appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the lower court decision and declared that the Constitution required California to recognize same-sex marriages.
The U.S. Supreme Court said Wednesday that the backers lacked legal standing both to bring that appeal and to pursue the case in front of the high court. Roberts wrote that federal courts are able to decide only an "actual case or controversy." Because Proposition 8's backers did not suffer a "a concrete and particularized injury" when the district court overturned the measure, they did not have standing to appeal the decision, he said.
"This is an essential limit on our power: It ensures that we act as judges, and do not engage in policymaking properly left to elected representatives," Roberts wrote.
The original lawsuit against Proposition 8, filed by a gay couple and a lesbian couple, had prevailed at both lower federal courts. The district court said the law violated the Constitution's equal protection clause because it was "premised on the belief that same-sex couples simply are not as good as opposite-sex couples." The appeals court ruled more narrowly that voters could not take away a right previously granted to the |
made it all happen, but whose role was relegated to “Technical Advisor” when distributor Adventure Films took the producer credit. Lung’s film Finding Kukan is an adventure, the journey of a woman attempting to track down a lost film, an artifact of Chinese-American heritage, all while honoring a bold Asian American woman who fought to battle American misconceptions of the Chinese. The film is screening Tuesday and Wednesday night in New York City as part of DOCNYC, a documentary film festival.
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“It’s funny because Li Ling-Ai was trying to bring the real story of China to the American people back in 1941, but she ends up teaching me in 2008 about Chinese history and culture,” writer and director Robin Lung told me. “So her work lives on to teach Americans who are of Chinese descent about their own history.”
Finding Kukan is a mystery film, attempting to figure out who Li Ling-Ai is and what exactly her relationship with the Rey Scott—the man who shot, wrote, and directed the film, and who received the Oscar—actually was through a series of letters, depicted by gorgeous shadow art and featuring voiceovers from Kelly Hu and Daniel Dae Kim. It’s an underdog film about an Asian American woman overcoming incredible odds to fight for accurate representation of her people. It’s a tragedy about how Li was denied the credit that was rightfully hers, the credit she had earned because of some of the same prejudices that face women filmmakers of color today. And it's an homage to documentary filmmaking.
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I sat down with Robin Lung to discuss Finding Kukan, being a Chinese American filmmaker in 2016, and what it was like helping both Chinese people and Chinese Americans reconnect with an important part of cultural history.
Throughout the film, you have these really beautiful reenactments done through shadow and voiceover. How did you decide that was going to be the medium to convey all these letters and documents?
We had so much great story that was on paper. As I found more and more clues, the story just got bigger and bigger and bigger and more and more epic, but the problem was we didn’t have a lot of archival footage. We knew we had to visualize it somehow and animation didn’t seem right, it was too modern for this 1930s-40s story.
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I saw this film by Zhang Yimou called To Live and that features a main character who is a Chinese shadow master. I had never known that shadow puppetry was a Chinese art form, so I thought maybe we could do something with that. And we came across this Shadow Master in San Francisco named Larry Reed who does cinematic versions of traditional shadow theater, and I contacted him. He said he loved my story and so he would be happy to work with me.
Every layer of this film has a meaning.
One of the things Larry taught me was that in traditional Indonesian shadow theater, it’s a spiritual storytelling. It’s bringing the past into the present, is what the shadow master is doing. And that for me was what we were trying to do.
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How does it make you feel to know that women in the film industry today face some of the same barriers that Li Ling-Ai faced in the 1940s?
Well, I do think we have progressed, but I know that across that board, not just in moviemaking, women are overshadowed by men when it comes to getting the money and getting the credit for the work that they do and you know, it pisses me off all the time. I think that we’re getting more sensitive about it and that women are starting to wake up and demand credit when it’s stolen from them or not given to them but there are certain areas of industries where males control things, and it’s really tough to get traction in that, and unfortunately Hollywood is one of those industries.
What do you make of the lack of representation and the whitewashing of Asian characters in mainstream media today?
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I get this sinking feeling in my stomach when that happens. Asians are the majority in Hawaii. There are so many kickass Asian men and women whose stories could fill many many books and many many movies and to think that you couldn’t have a hero who is Asian doesn’t make sense, first of all. Second, as we have more and more audiences who are Asian, they’re not going to go for that. They’re just not going to go for those movies. It’s a stupid economic decision.
Have you ever faced discrimination as a Asian woman filmmaker?
In the movie making industry as I go to try to get funding, for this film for instance, as soon as they see a Chinese woman behind the camera and a Chinese woman in front of the camera, my film gets put into a niche little pigeonhole, and that makes me upset because this is a totally universal story that everyone across the board, male, female, white, Asian, Latino, black, have all responded to. It’s much bigger than the niche people want to put it in.
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In the film, you actually traveled to China to present recovered footage from Kukan of this historic bombing to Chinese people whose family have actually been affected by World War II. What was that like, really threading the American Chinese experience and the Chinese experience together?
For me it was very personal. I didn’t grow up knowing about Chinese history and the history of Asia in World War II. I grew up in a very much American school system. We learned about the Holocaust, we learned about the Japanese internment camps, the bombing of Hiroshima, but we didn’t learn anything bout the Rape of Nanking or the fact that China was our ally in World War II. All I knew about China was, ‘Communist: enemy, Mao: bad.’ So this was a really eyeopening experience to learn about China in the '40s.
That's such a huge gap in American education.
And then when I went to China for the first time and was able to connect with historians and bring Kukan back to China, it was really a profound experience. I realized because of the communist takeover, their history before communism was also something that was lost and wasn’t being taught in school and had just started to be discovered. And for people whose ancestors had fought in World War II, and were citizens in the towns Kukan depicts, it was like bringing back their own personal history to them, history that hadn’t been seen on film and that was really powerful.
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Over the course of the eight years you spent working on this film, what was the most frustrating part?
For me, the biggest thing was that Li Ling-Ai’s story wasn’t documented before, and a lot of Rey Scott’s story was documented. There there were articles on Rey Scott. When they wrote about Li Ling-Ai, it was in the women’s section of the paper. And so they would write about the dress she wore, the color of the fingernail polish she had on, but they didn’t report on her behind-the-scenes work, the part that I really want to know about. She herself promoted herself in the way that the media wanted her to talk about herself. She knew how to get publicity. She was beautiful, so she posed for pictures and she did what she could, but there was this whole other story behind the scenes, and I wasn’t able to find any of it, and that was the most difficult thing.
Yeah, Scott's children had albums with all these articles on him, but there were only a few cut-outs on Li. What about anecdotal information?
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As I was doing research, I encountered resistance by older people. Not just her relatives, but older people who had experienced the war or experienced the time period. I’m not sure where that comes from but there’s that protectiveness about not wanting to air dirty laundry or not say anything bad about anyone, so a lot of the older people really didn’t want to go on record about this story.
I noticed in the film at least two of the older folks you interviewed were skeptical and asked why you were so interested in Li Ling-Ai? Do you think it’s just a generational thing?
It wasn’t an uncommon reaction. I think it’s kind of like brainwashing almost. The history that is touted and celebrated is the white male history and so if you’re going around asking people questions about a Chinese American woman who is forgotten, people are like, ‘Why are you concerned about her? Ask me about Eleanor Roosevelt! Why do you want to know about this unknown woman or make a movie about this unknown woman?You're crazy!’
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What was one of the most rewarding parts of making the film?
Going to China and seeing the people’s reaction to seeing Kukan and Li Ling-Ai. They fell in love with Li Ling-Ai, they see her as a hero, and that was a big validation for me. After so many years of resistance, and [people saying] this is not an important story, to really have a whole country embrace this story and say, yes she is a hero, and to thank me for bringing the story there? That was really heartening and encouraging. This has been worth something.
You mention finding a letter Ling-Ai wrote when she was feeling discouraged, something about how if even one person feels inspired by the work she’s done, she’ll feel like her work was worth it. Who do you want to inspire with this film?
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I totally want to target young women filmmakers. They have so many hurdles in front of them and so few role models. Storytelling through film, I experienced how lasting that is and how important that is. I’ve told a couple young women filmmakers who are starting off, the world doesn’t need another great administrator, the world needs another great woman filmmaker. You have to persevere. You have to stick with it.
Filmmakers are amazing. I hope to inspire some young filmmaker who is lured into the industry, who could become a banker or a CEO and make a lot of money doing so, but they have a passion for filmmaking. I want that woman to stick with it and be a poor filmmaker. [laughs]A public high school in Minnesota implemented a required, race-based English course aimed at eradicating “white privilege,” but it wasn’t billed that way to students or parents, according to a public policy organization.
“Pre-AP English 10 constitutes an abuse of parents’ trust, taxpayers’ money and — most importantly — vulnerable children,” Katherine Kersten, a senior policy fellow for the Center of the American Experiment, told Fox News. “Edina citizens should hold district leaders accountable for substituting political indoctrination for a real education.”
The Minnesota-based think tank started researching Edina public schools after they heard students, parents, and teachers in Edina complaining about the aftermath of the 2016 election, when 80 staff members — most teachers — co-signed an editorial in the student newspaper bashing President-elect Donald Trump and aligning themselves with the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton.
“Many of you [students] have made clear … that right now, you don’t feel physically safe,” the article read. “Know that we will do all that we can … to fight for you,” and that “we will teach rebellion against a broken world.”
Read moreCOLUMBUS, OHIO – The Columbus Blue Jackets have added Kenny McCudden to the coaching staff as an assistant coach, club General Manager Jarmo Kekalainen announced today. He joins the Blue Jackets after spending 16 seasons as the skating and skills coach of the American Hockey League’s Chicago Wolves.
The Chicago native, who originally joined the Wolves in 1994, spent three seasons with the club from 1994-97 and then returned prior to the 2002-03 season. He was a part of teams that qualified for the former International Hockey League Turner Cup Playoffs three times and the American Hockey League Calder Cup Playoffs on eight occasions. He helped the Wolves advance to the 2005 Calder Cup Final and capture the Calder Cup championship in 2008.
“Kenny has worked with players at every level from young kids to NHL All-Stars and is a very well-respected skills and skating instructor,” said Blue Jackets Head Coach Todd Richards. “He adds a new dimension to our staff and I’m really excited about the contributions he’ll make to our team.”
McCudden has worked with numerous NHL players and instructed at prospect camps for the Colorado Avalanche, St. Louis Blues and Atlanta Thrashers, as well as the Ontario Hockey League’s Sudbury Wolves and the Ontario Hockey Association. He was the skating and skills coach for the United States Women’s National Team from 2011-14. His stint with Team USA included serving as a scout for the silver medal-winning squad at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
The operator and owner of Ice Company Hockey Schools, he has worked with thousands of youth and amateur players in the Chicago-area since 1990. McCudden began his career with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1979 as a 17-year-old stick boy and was the team’s assistant equipment manager when he left the organization in 1985.After New Found Glory parted ways with guitarist Steve Klein in December, many fans had burning questions that are just beginning to be answered in an interview with Billboard. At the time, it was unclear whether a replacement guitarist would be selected for Klein. The band confirmed that they will remain a four-piece lineup:
“There was never any thought, nor will there be any thought or consideration to ever have a fifth member. It's always going to be the four of us,” said Chad Gilbert.
Regarding the live show, that's not decided yet:
“As far as live, we're figuring it out, but we like it better than having an extra person. It's definitely easier to worry about us four than trying to find someone.” He adds, “A lot of our songs aren't lacking a second part. We're not playing intricate, shredding things where we need more. There's not much of a loss sonically. I think a cool thing, too, is when we're writing for our new album, we'll be writing as a four-piece.”
Speaking of new material, it's coming out later this year:
“We're going to be announcing a fall tour pretty soon in the States. And people can expect to have a new album before that tour.”
Right now, NFG are aboard Paramore's Parahoy!, a four-day cruise to the Bahamas.Activists say they're going to protest Donald Trump's administration every Tuesday night in the Loop. Here's a scene from last Friday's protest on Inauguration Day. View Full Caption DNAinfo/David Matthews
DOWNTOWN — Weekly rush-hour protests could be the new normal Downtown.
Resist Trump Tuesdays will step off at 3:30 p.m. every Tuesday at Jackson and Dearborn streets through April 18, or roughly the 100th day of Donald Trump's administration, activists say. They said their inaugural march, which decried Trump's cabinet appointments, drew 300 protesters Tuesday evening.
The activists hope to capitalize on the anti-Trump momentum generated by the inauguration protests last weekend, one of which featured 250,000 women blanketing Downtown. But people who live and work Downtown may have to start factoring weekly street protests into their afternoon commutes.
"The Trump Administration has us all running around in a panic trying to put out 100 fires," said Tobita Chow of The Peoples' Lobby, a group behind the protests. "We need to start setting some metaphorical fires of our own to create some tension and some crises that forces people in the Trump Administration to react to us."
Each Resist Trump Tuesday will focus on a theme, Chow said, with topics including Trump's efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, temporarily ban refugees from certain Muslim countries, and deport undocumented immigrants from so-called "sanctuary cities" including Chicago.
Fair Economy Illinois, the coalition of progressive groups behind the frequent "Moral Monday" protests throughout the state in recent years, is also leading Resist Trump Tuesdays.
Chow said Trump's "unprecedented" agenda calls for an unprecedented number of protests in response. When asked if he's worried constant protests will annoy or desensitize Chicagoans — most of whom didn't vote for Trump last fall — Chow said that protests work to bring about social change.
In addition to street protests, the activists have also drafted legislation they're lobbying to top lawmakers including Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.)
"It’s not enough to march," Kristi Sanford, a spokeswoman for Fair Economy Illinois, said. "Marching is our entry point to have conversations with people about what we want Illinois to look like."
Chow said the activists chose Jackson and Dearborn for their protest starting point because the intersection is close to offices of the federal government and anything else in the Loop. Tuesday's march went to the Chicago office of Goldman Sachs, a prominent bank with six former bankers Trump has tapped for top cabinet positions.
But like previous protests here, protesters beget more protesters. An unaffiliated group of activists outraged at Trump's plans to resuscitate the controversial Keystone and Dakota Access oil pipelines blocked traffic on Wacker Drive during Tuesday's rush hour.
As long as Trump is president, people who live and work Downtown can expect more of the same, Chow said.
"Trump is not going to stop giving people reasons to want to get out onto the street and take the fight to the people that are contributing to his rise to power," he said.
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For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here.Contradicting Northcom denial that troops would be engaged in law enforcement, dealing with “civil unrest”
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Following Northcom’s denial that U.S. Army combat teams would be used to deal with “civil unrest” after the announcement that thousands of active duty military personnel were being moved inside the United States, an Army.com report now concedes that more than 400 Marines assigned to one unit includes a “security force” that would operate within the homeland.
A September 8 Army Times report stated that active duty troops from the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team returning from Iraq would be on call as a “federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks,” for a period of 12 months from October 1st.
This preceded a December 1 Washington Post article which reported on plans to station 20,000 more U.S. troops inside America for purposes of “domestic security” from September 2011.
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
According to the Army Times article, their duties would include dealing with “civil unrest and crowd control”. This admission was later denied by Northcom’s operations division chief Army Col. Michael Boatner, who told Homeland Security Today, “This response force will not be called upon to help with law enforcement, civil disturbance or crowd control, but will be used to support lead agencies involved in saving lives, relieving suffering and meeting the needs of communities affected by weapons of mass destruction attacks, accidents or even natural disasters.”
However, a January 7 American Forces Press Service story posted on Army.com confirms that at least some units operating inside the U.S. will rely on a “security force” to provide protection for troops responding to a mass casualty event in America.
Marines assigned to the Chemical, Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF) operating out of the Naval Support Facility in Indian Head, Maryland are “tasked by the Defense Department with responding to disasters that require federal assistance,” according to the article, a job that mandates “the squad’s weapons were replaced with metal pry bars, Kevlar helmets with construction hard-hats, and combat uniforms with coveralls.”
“The commandant of the Marine Corps set in place the guidelines for designing a highly trained and specialized unit designed to respond to such a threat in the event that state and local authorities need Defense Department assistance,” we read. “The 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force led the operational efforts of the unit until October 2008 when, in a historic move, the U.S. Northern Command pulled into its ranks nearly 5,000 active-duty forces designated to respond to homeland emergencies.” “Now, the CBIRF is associated administratively with the 2nd MEF, but can tap into the extensive medical, aviation, transportation and logistical support of the other units within Northcom’s response force.”
Although Marine Col. John M. Pollock states, “Security for our forces operating within the homeland is a law-enforcement issue, and I would much rather leverage local and state law enforcement to provide that security,” the article does reveal that a “security force” tasked with protecting Marines during their duties is a component of the unit.
“The unit has specialists in bomb disposal, technical rescue decontamination, chemical identification and detection, medical and casualty extraction. It also has a security force,” states the article.
Pollock also stated that the unit was in position at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota, an open violation of Posse Comitatus, the law that restricts the military from undertaking law enforcement operations except in times of declared national emergency.
Just who do the Marines need protecting from if all they will be doing is aiding rescue efforts and saving people’s lives? The only conceivable scenario in which Marines would need other Marines to protect them in a law enforcement guise would be if the tasks they were undertaking were highly unpopular and risked reprisals from the general public.
The fact that the original Army Times report of September 8 let slip that Marines would have access to non-lethal weapons to be used domestically, a revelation that was later retracted after it stoked media controversy, perhaps offers a not too subtle hint about what the real mission of the Marines will be in anticipation of a total economic collapse or the dreaded mass casualty terror attack that is constantly being hyped by the establishment and the corporate media.
This article was posted: Thursday, January 8, 2009 at 8:41 am
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Comment on this article“We are the example,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, an advocacy group. “If it can be done here, it can be done anywhere.”
The California Health Benefit Exchange has already hired 50 employees and is poised to hire 50 more. Construction of the Web portal through which some three million people are expected to buy insurance by 2019, and through which many others will likely enroll in Medicaid, is under way.
This fall, the board will seek bids from insurers to sell plans through the exchange, and it intends to have the portal up and running by next summer, several months before enrollment starts in October 2013.
Realizing that much of the battle will be in the public relations realm, the exchange has poured significant resources into a detailed marketing plan — developed not by state health bureaucrats but by the global marketing powerhouse Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, which has an initial $900,000 contract with the exchange. The Ogilvy plan includes ideas for reaching an uninsured population that speaks dozens of languages and is scattered through 11 media markets: advertising on coffee cup sleeves at community colleges to reach adult students, for example, and at professional soccer matches to reach young Hispanic men.
And Hollywood, an industry whose major players have been supportive of President Obama and his agenda, will be tapped. Plans are being discussed to pitch a reality television show about “the trials and tribulations of families living without medical coverage,” according to the Ogilvy plan. The exchange will also seek to have prime-time television shows, like “Modern Family,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and Univision telenovelas, weave the health care law into their plots.
“I’d like to see 10 of the major TV shows, or telenovelas, have people talking about ‘that health insurance thing,’ ” said Peter V. Lee, the exchange’s executive director. “There are good story lines here.”
Although the exchange will not start advertising until next year, the California Endowment, a foundation that has spent $15 million promoting the law, is running newspaper and television ads, including one in which the television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz exhorts viewers to “get educated, get engaged, get enrolled.” That campaign has targeted Hispanics, who make up more than half of the state’s uninsured population.
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But for all the progress, California’s intractable budget woes loom as a threat to implementation here. Even with the federal government financing most of the insurance expansion, the state’s contribution could exceed $2 billion a year, according to an estimate that was made by the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, who signed the legislation creating an insurance exchange here in September 2010, earlier than any other state. Diana S. Dooley, the state’s Health and Human Services secretary, said the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, was working on a new estimate.
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Mr. Brown, while supportive of the law, has not spent much time talking it up publicly, in part, Ms. Dooley said, because he is “absolutely laser-focused on getting the budget balanced.”
To help close a $16 billion deficit, Mr. Brown made more than $1 billion in cuts from Medicaid and other health programs even though about a million of the Californians expected to gain coverage through the health care law by 2019 would get it through a prescribed expansion of Medicaid. (Those who buy private insurance through the exchange will be able to get federal subsidies to help cover the cost if they earn up to four times the federal poverty level, or currently $92,200 for a family of four.)
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Mr. Brown is hoping voters will approve a package of temporary tax increases in November to avoid $6 billion more in cuts. Ms. Dooley said that without the tax package, carrying out the health law might be at risk, including the expansion of Medicaid.
“I wouldn’t characterize it as all bets are off,” she said. “I’m just saying nothing is protected.”
The exchange itself has so far been financed by three grants, worth $237 million, from the federal government. Most of the money is committed to consultants, including Accenture, which has a $327 million contract to build and support the initial operation of the enrollment portal.
Ms. Dooley said getting the enrollment system up and running in such a tight time frame was one of her biggest worries. The other, she said, was making sure the health plans sold through the exchange were affordable. The federal law lists 10 categories of “essential health benefits” that plans sold through exchanges must provide, but Ms. Dooley said those categories “go beyond what I would call essential.”
“It’s all good for consumers,” she said. “But somebody’s got to pay for it, and that’s going to go into the premium.”
Despite the full-throttle approach here, another uncertainty is the outcome of the presidential race. Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, has vowed to repeal the health care law and restructure Medicaid, not only scrapping the planned expansion but making the program much leaner. Even without a repeal, Republicans could undo the federal subsidies and other financing for the law if they won the presidency and even a narrow majority in the Senate.
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“If the federal funding stopped,” Mr. Lee said, “we would be at a ‘press reset’ button.”
In a Field Poll released on Aug. 20, 54 percent of California voters said they supported the health care law, compared with 37 percent who said they were opposed. Support was strongest among blacks (88 percent) and Hispanics (67 percent), who together make up more than 44 percent of the state’s population. Voters of Vietnamese and Korean descent also firmly supported the law, but white and Chinese voters were more divided. The poll of 1,579 voters, conducted in July, has a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Only 17 percent of respondents said they had seen, heard or read anything about the insurance exchange though. Still, 75 percent of those who are not insured through their employer or Medicare said they would be interested in using the exchange to shop for health insurance.
Mr. Lee said the fact that few people had heard of the exchange was “totally unsurprising.” A catchy new name might help spread the word, he said; a decision on Avocado and the other finalists should come next month.
“The fact that very few people have heard about us isn’t an issue,” Mr. Lee said. “Come back in a year.”A species becomes extinct when its last existing member dies. Businesses and business models become extinct when the last existing member dies. Like natural systems, where extinction can be a result of climate, natural selection, cosmic collision, disease/epidemic, invasive species, destruction of habitat, etc., other systems, such as economic and global operational systems, are subject to and have extinction trends as well. Why is this relevant and what does blockchain have to do with extinction? Blockchain will be the cause of the next major extinction event in business.
If one looks at centuries of economic and business evolution, it is easy to see the pattern of extinction that affects businesses. Business models have come and gone over the centuries. Some recent representative examples of business species extinction were caused by a cosmic collision (print film), by disease (automation), by natural selection (Internet businesses) and the list goes on.
The Next Extinction
Most are not aware, but there is an extinction looming. As it runs its cycle in the next approximate 50 years or less, all matter of business and economic species known today will become extinct. Like the sudden demise of dinosaurs through the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, the blockchain extinction event will be just as rapid, just as impactful and just as jarring to world economies and businesses as the K-T event was to living species on this planet.
The Blockchain Extinction Event – Defined
This extinction event is the looming transformation of current operational and businesses model designs from traditional centralized, hierarchical economic systems to distributed, trusted systems or blockchain architecture built on the distributed neutrality of the global electronic computer network on which the Internet resides. This architecture that is currently manifested in bitcoin, Ethereum, Hyperledger, etc. It is blockchain which is a distributed, trusted ledger architecture or system that, as the basis for new economic and business system design, is NOT a technology that will make today’s business operations better but will necessarily be the fuel for their demise. It will lead to their demise because it is impossible for today’s businesses to transition from their current operations and business models, which are built on a centralized model, to a distributed model. Why is it impossible? It’s impossible because it requires businesses to eliminate the very methods and capabilities they execute today that drives revenue and profits. A transition of this magnitude is not possible in today’s markets, where the necessary swing expenditures to move from the legacy models in favor of the new model, can be tolerated. If this weren’t enough, today’s businesses leaders will “sit it out” as it is NOT likely to impact them immediately and therefore it won’t affect their bonuses and salaries or even their stock value for a few more decades.
Extinction Through Invasive Species
This complacency and lack of capability will allow an invasive species to be the cause of this extinction cycle. Who will be the invasive species? It will be the entrepreneurs of today and the coming decades who build new businesses based on a distributed ledger. As millennials and next generation entrepreneurs approach the creation of business with:
No hierarchy, middleman or centralized authority,
A distributed ledger business model,
Open source ideals and characteristics,
A trust network modeled after tribal trade characteristics of the past,
The replacement of current business models in favor of those that no longer centralize power or wealth,
All members of the global community – first, second, and third world citizens – being equal members and equally trusted as participants in the resultant economies and businesses.
What will result are new models in which the need for "middlemen" is no longer required. All of this will be supported by the blockchain architecture which is evolving and rapidly strengthening daily.
Realize, as said above, it is impossible for a pivot of this magnitude to fully transform a business when an invasive species is attacking a species from all sides. Second, understand that if you follow blockchain and how the existing economies and companies are reacting to the blockchain, no one is looking at it as a fundamental threat to his or her survival in the context of the way entrepreneurs are. They, still, are looking at it from the standpoint of a technology advancement that will help companies scale, automate, and become more efficient.
Protected Species Still Become Extinct
In modern times, the Endangered Species Act is intended to assist species in danger of extinction from becoming extinct. Its intent is to reduce non-catastrophic stress on a species that is threatening extinction to allow the species to recover and thrive.
There is no protection, there is no work that can prevent a business who remains operating in the current economic or centralized model from becoming extinct. Pay attention to the words I used. There is no company “who remains operating in the current economic or centralized model” who can survive this extinction event.
Entrepreneurs are already beginning the process of peeling back businesses from the economy that are edge and early candidates for evolution to a distributed ledger. This will start the move toward extinction of small or one business line companies operating in the centralized model. Their extinction will be unstoppable. Larger companies will start to lose smaller or ancillary lines to this same extinction pull and as stated above, it will be almost impossible for a company to make the transition to this new model.
This K-T Like Extinction Event Will Be Rapid
Yes, this will happen fast. It will happen fast because the new models will eliminate multiple service providers at a time. The result, as you can see in the "back of the napkin" sketch to the left, is a rapid decline in companies that operate in the current model with a slower increase in companies that are distributed as it compares to the companies that are being eliminated. This is not to say that the overall impact on the economy is a net loss in employers, but that is to be expected and must be monitored closely as this "extinction" trend gains speed.
In Conclusion
As blockchain takes hold, we will experience the "crawl, walk, run" effect on the birth of the businesses that will be putting centralized business models out to pasture. As you explore blockchain for your business, ask yourself the following questions:
Am I looking at building a business model that truly converts my company to a distributed model?
Am I looking at blockchain as a technology replacement only?
Do I have the latitude to reinvent my business in the manner that truly takes advantage of a distributed ledger?
Am I looking at blockchain to update a process or an entire business problem?
These questions will help guide you and may slow down or prevent your extinction. If you have the latitude to truly turn the corner absorbing the inevitable short-term impact to revenues, you have a chance to avoid this extinction cycle.
Thanks for reading my post which was cross-posted in Medium. If you liked it, please like or share it so that others will see it as well.A seven-hour rescue operation by the Baltimore firefighters came to a bizarre conclusion Sunday as a male who had fallen through the roof of an abandoned Southwest Baltimore house while eluding police freed himself from the debris and got away.
Capt. Roman Clark, a spokesman for the Baltimore City Fire Department, said a call came in at 9:04 a.m. alerting firefighters that a suspect was trapped in the dilapidated house in the 1900 block of Ramsay Street.
Police officers had tried to arrest a person after witnessing "drug activity" around 9 a.m., said Det. Ruganzu Howard. He fled on foot and climbed onto the roof of a dilapidated home in the 1900 block of Ramsay Street.
While officers were trying to persuade him to descend, the roof collapsed and the suspect was trapped in debris, Howard said.
The male, who was not identified, fell two stories but was conscious and spoke to rescuers, Baltimore City Fire Capt. Roman Clark said at the scene Sunday morning. Clark said he did not know whether the male was an adult or a juvenile.
Crews from the Baltimore City and Howard County fire departments worked for hours to shore up the home before entering. Rescuers set up a makeshift carpentry shop on the street as they fashioned supports for the long-vacant red brick building.
For much of the day, the house was surrounded by dozens of firefighters and more than a half-dozen fire trucks or other large emergency vehicles.
However, at about 4 p.m., Clark told a reporter firefighters discovered the victim had vanished.
"I don't want to speculate" on what occurred, Clark said. He said he did not know when the suspect got out. Clark said the last rescue units were pulling out in late afternoon.
The incident took place in the Carrollton Ridge neighborhood, where many abandoned homes are interspersed with ones that remain occupied.
Sam Holmes, a lifelong resident of the area, said the neighborhood is the scene of rampant drug activity.
"It's like a new episode of 'Cops' every five minutes. You don't need a TV," Holmes said.
Holmes said efforts to renovate homes in the neighborhood are usually thwarted by theft.
"The more you try to fix them up, the more they go in and steal from you," he said. "Most of the abanadoned buildings are ready to fall down."
nsherman@baltsun.com
michael.dresser@baltsun.comThrough their associate, Billy at Spyke, Illusion procured 10 special order de-stroked 124ci S&S; engines with Illusion’s cam and stroke specifications. According to Illusion its 4.125-inch bore x 4.250-inch stroke, 114ci configuration provides longevity of the engine, less vibration, and the engine comes on strong at low rpm without having to downshift. The 114s are Illusion’s largest engines that are EPA/CARB certified.
Outlaw motorcycle clubs, arson, gunrunning, murder, kidnapping, drugs, porn, and white separatists; not quite things you’d associate with a homely little town dubbed “Charming.” And these are definitely not elements that you would think would attract a lot of people to said town. But to an outlaw motorcycle club trying to preserve its stake in its quaint little territory known as Charming, it’s business as usual for the Sons of Anarchy (SOA |
“monetary base” is therefore not the legal tender token money created by the Federal Reserve System—but is and must remain the gold bullion that is produced by industrial capitalists—mine owners and refinery owners—and ultimately the industrial workers they employ. This doesn’t mean that the gold must necessarily be held in the vaults of the monetary authorities.
True, the greater the percentage of the total gold held by the monetary authorities the more the metallic hoard can be wielded in a centralized way during a period of crisis. Unlike individual capitalists who must if they are to remain capitalists act in accordance with their own individual interests, a monetary authority—bound as it must be with the state power—can act in the broader interest of capitalist society as a whole.
For example, if there is a “run to gold” the state power and/or its “monetary authority” can sell some its gold and buy time until the “run to gold” subsides either of its own accord or in response to measures taken by the monetary authority. For example, in order to halt a “run to gold,” the monetary authority can reduce the quantity of token money—the “over-issue” of token money being the most likely cause of the “run to gold” in the first place.
Therefore, Lord Keynes and Michael Kalecki to the contrary notwithstanding, the quantity of loan capital that can exist is ultimately limited by the quantity of gold bullion in existence. In terms of purchasing power, the quantity of money cannot be increased to whatever is sufficient to achieve full employment. If it could be, we would be living in a very different world.
However, the relationship between the gold metallic base and the quantity of loan capital—the quantity of gold bullion being given—fluctuates sharply in accordance with the phases of the industrial cycle. This is key to understanding why the state under the capitalist system cannot increase monetarily effective demand to whatever level is necessary to achieve “full employment.”
In the section of Volume III of “Capital” entitled “Money Capital and Real Capital” (Chapters 30, 31 and 32), Marx examines how the relationship between loan capital and real capital changes during each industrial cycle. Marx found, based on his careful examination of the mid-19th century industrial cycle, that it was during the depression/stagnation phase that money loan capital is in greatest relative abundance in relation to demand. As the economy moves into the boom phase of the industrial cycle, loan money capital becomes increasingly scarce as reflected in a rising rate of interest. Then, with the outbreak of the crisis phase of the industrial cycle, loan capital virtually disappears.
Crisis and stagnation/depression—two stages of the industrial cycle
It is therefore important here to distinguish between two phases of the industrial cycle that are often confused but are radically different as regards the quantity of money loan capital available. These are the crisis proper, characterized by an acute shortage of loan money capital, and the the depression/stagnation phase of the industrial cycle, which features, on the contrary, a glut of loan money capital.
The reason that the crisis phase and the depression/stagnation phase that follows the crisis are often confused is that as far as the workers are concerned both these phases are marked by high unemployment—sharply rising unemployment during the crisis and a very slow rise in jobs and consequently lingering mass unemployment during the depression/stagnation phase of the cycle.
However, if we are to understand the discussions among our class enemies about the size of the budget deficits of the U.S. and other central governments, we must keep the distinction between the crisis phase and stagnation/depression phase of the industrial cycle clearly in mind.
Contrary to Keynes and Kalecki, it is quite possible to have an acute shortage of loan capital combined with a massive surplus of real capital, and this is true regardless of the monetary system—gold standard versus paper money—and the policies of the monetary authority. Marx explained not only is this possible but indeed is inevitable on a periodic basis under developed capitalism from the beginning of the second quarter of the 19th century onwards.
This combination of a surplus of real capital combined with a shortage of loan capital appears to one degree or another at the critical point—the tight money phase that precedes even mild recessions—of every industrial cycle. Marx was able to grasp this and avoid the confusions of the bourgeois economists surrounding the quantity of money loan capital and real capital because of his theory of value, money and price that I have been exploring throughout this blog.
Bourgeois economic historians often claim that the crisis broke out in such and such a period due to a “shortage of capital.” What these bourgeois historians mean is a shortage of loan money capital. The quantity of real capital, in contrast, is always “super-abundant” when the crisis erupts—the essence of capitalist crisis being a general overproduction of commodities, which of necessity means a surplus of productive capital—itself made up of commodities—that makes the overproduction of the commodities possible in the first place.
The crisis of 1931
To clarify this question, let’s examine the most extreme case that has so far occurred in the history of capitalism. I refer to the extreme glut of real capital existing side by side with the most desperate shortage of loan capital that occurred in the year 1931.
During that fateful year, massive runs developed on the banks in the United States, Germany, Austria, Poland and other countries. The runs on the banks in the U.S. played the most important part of this crisis within a crisis, since the U.S. banks were already at that time—and still are—at the very center of the global credit system. As a result of this bank run, bank credit seized up across the globe as the banks tried to hold on to their remaining cash reserves by halting new loans and calling in existing loans.
During the 1931 banking crisis, each individual bank was doing all it could to convert its non-cash assets—loans and securities—into the hard cash that long lines of panic-stricken depositors forming outside their offices were demanding. Remember, bank depositors demanded payment in money—not payment in loans or securities.
No fear of default on U.S. federal debt in 1931
At least as far as the debt of the U.S. federal government was concerned, despite the super-crisis conditions of 1931, there was no real chance that the federal government would default on its debts. But notwithstanding this fact, the U.S. banks could not pay off their depositors in government bonds; they could only pay them off in “lawful money”—green dollars. As a result, the prices of not only corporate bonds plunged—where there was a real possibility of default—but also the bonds of the federal government itself, where there was no possibility of default.
As the price of U.S. government bonds plunged (10)—each bond of a given face value sold for an ever smaller quantity of green dollars—the bankers found it ever harder to raise the cash they needed to pay off their panic-stricken depositors and prevent the collapse of their banks. Therefore, the price of government bonds was very closely linked to the drying up of loan capital, which in 1931 was driving the U.S. and world economies to ever lower levels. The administration of Herbert Hoover faced no more urgent task than halting this fall in the price of U.S. government bonds.
Austerity 1931 style
The Hoover administration and Congress decided to increase federal income taxes with the aim of reducing the quantity of government bonds on the market, thus encouraging their price to rise. This move by Hoover and the U.S. Congress has been sharply criticized by almost all schools of economists—the neo-liberals, who have made a fetish about cutting taxes in virtually all circumstances, but more interestingly by Keynesians economists as well.
The Keynesians correctly point out that in 1931 there was an extreme shortage of monetarily effective demand relative to real capital. Therefore, they argue, the very last thing that the government should have done was to further reduce demand by raising federal income taxes. Instead, the government should have cut taxes and increased its borrowing to expand monetarily effective demand in order to overcome the glut of real capital. Virtually every Keynesian-inspired economic textbook, and economic historians in general, continue to beat the ghost of Herbert Hoover over the tax increase of 1931.
However, Hoover—from the viewpoint of preserving the capitalist system—and the members of Congress of that day weren’t quite as stupid as our present-day economists with their 20-20 hindsight make them seem. As Hoover and the majority in Congress saw it, the virtually complete vanishing of loan capital was the very essence of the crisis they were facing. If under these conditions, the federal government had increased its borrowing, and thus thrown additional government bonds on the market, their price would have fallen even more, and quite likely the crisis would have gotten worse, with even higher unemployment. (11)
How Keynesian stimulus usually works
While the conditions of 1931 were extreme, they do illustrate the basic contradiction that Keynesian economics runs into even during normal industrial cycles.
During the lead-up to a recession, money is “tight” and there is considerable pressure to reduce the growth of spending and “balance the budget”—or at least reduce the budget deficit. The economists, including as a rule Keynesian economists, predict continued prosperity—they explain that the kind of imbalances that “usually” precede recessions “are noticeably absent this time.” Even after the recession begins, it takes many months before the authorities acknowledge a recession is actually underway.
As the National Bureau of Economic Research—the private economic body that semi-officially determines when “contractions,” or recessions, begin and end explains, the decline in economic activity must not only be generalized and severe, it must be “prolonged.” Therefore, by the time the NBER admits a contraction—that is, a recession—is underway, there has already been a “prolonged period” of massive layoffs and resulting skyrocketing unemployment. If the recession is of average length, it is pretty much close to bottoming out by the time the authorities and media acknowledge the fact that a recession is happening. (12)
Once a recession is finally acknowledged, it takes a few months for Congress or Parliament to agree on an appropriate “stimulus program” and even more time for it to take effect. Therefore, it is only the so-called “built in stabilizers” like unemployment insurance that actually kick in while the recession is underway. Only when the recession has created a sufficient amount of idle money to allow it, are additional stimulus policies adopted.
If we leave aside George W. Bush’s failed stimulus tax rebate program of 2008— which by increasing the federal budget deficit, financed by issuing government bonds, just when the quantity of loan money capital was sharply contracting—thereby making the crash in the fourth quarter of 2008 even worse—this is exactly what has happened during the current industrial cycle. Obama’s own far more ambitious “Keynesian” stimulus only took effect after the “Great Recession” proper had bottomed out in 2009.
Therefore, the stimulative programs beyond the built-in stabilizers may not so much shorten the recession proper as cut short the stagnation/depression phase that follows the recession. Because the beginning of a recession is characterized by a shortage of loan capital—”tight money”—Keynesian policies are actually powerless to prevent the outbreak of a crisis, and any attempt to follow a “Keynesian policy” prematurely will only worsen it, as happened in 2008. Keynesian policies are much better at cutting short the stagnation/depression phase that follows the recession proper.
Therefore, “practical” Keynesian stabilization policies (13), contrary to the hopes of Keynes himself, aim not so much at preventing recessions but rather at limiting them and preventing them from turning into prolonged periods of stagnation/depression that lead to prolonged mass unemployment and social crisis that can lead to revolution.
As the recovery gains steam through the multiplier and accelerator effects, intensified by Keynesian “pump priming,” government tax revenues rise and the extra demand generated by state borrowing plays a smaller role in the economy. Instead, the economic expansion is now driven by rising private investment, just like classic industrial cycles without Keynesian interference were. This is how Keynesian policy is “supposed” to work. (14)
In the early post-World War II period—from about 1945 to 1968—Keynesian policies seemed to work well, not so much in avoiding recessions but in preventing recessions from leading to prolonged periods of depression and the resulting mass unemployment and social crisis.
But as is the case when the government attempts to play with the basic economic laws that govern the capitalist economy, there was a catch that was not immediately apparent. Marx explained that during a crisis there is a sharp shift from a credit system to a monetary system. In a classic industrial cycle, as the process of credit deflation unfolds—debts are paid down or liquidated through bankruptcy—prices fall, which increases the purchasing power of the existing quantity of money, and gold production is stimulated, which increases the quantity of money—calculated in terms of weight—of the precious metal on a global basis that constitutes money material.
With more gold available, the central banks are able to create more “legal tender money.” This, combined with the contraction of the real economy, means that the economy becomes far less dependent on credit. Commodities are increasingly purchased with hard cash and not on credit as was the case on the eve of the preceding crisis. In this way, “sound” business conditions are restored. As Marx put it, the system shifts back to a monetary system as opposed to a credit system.
This cyclical transformation from a credit system into a cash system is simply the reflection in the financial sphere of the liquidation of overproduction that occurs in the real economy, just as the previous inflation of credit was the reflection of the previous industrial overproduction that caused the crisis in the first place.
The greatest shift from a credit to a monetary system in the history of capitalism occurred during the super-crisis of 1929-33. Never before—or since—was credit so brutally liquidated through paying off existing debts and through bankruptcy as it was in those years. In the years that followed the crisis, the post-crisis depression, and then the war economy of World War II and during the early postwar years, the economy was awash in hard cash. It was far less dependent on credit than it had been in the years leading up to the beginning of the super-crisis in 1929.
True, there was a sharp rise in the debt of the central governments, especially during the war. But this was matched by a contraction of all other debts—corporate and individual. It was this huge super-abundance of money and of money loan capital that made it possible to expand the market rapidly for a relatively prolonged period of time following the war.
Return to credit system
However, Keynesian policies by cutting short depressions have greatly limited the transformation of a credit system back into a cash system during and after recessions. Indeed, the whole point of post-Depression “stabilization policies” is to limit, if not prevent altogether, the contraction of credit and the consequent shift to a cash system. This seemed to work well in the early post-World War II years, since there was so much cash available thanks to the preceding super-crisis and the Great Depression.
As long as these conditions persisted, Keynesian economics could work reasonably well—though even then they were still powerless to prevent the outbreak of recessions. Even as late as the 1970s, the economy was not as credit-based as it had been in the 1920s on the eve of the super-crisis. But with each successive industrial cycle, the economy has become less and less based on cash and more and more dependent on credit. Commodities are more and more being bought with credit and credit money as opposed to hard cash.
Under Keynesian policies, the overproduction that occurred during the boom was therefore not completely liquidated during the recession/depression phase that followed, like more or less was the case before Keynesian stabilization polices were adopted by capitalist governments.
The result has been a gradual growth of cumulative overproduction across the industrial cycles. The problem is that this cannot go on forever. A powerful trend has been unleashed toward a “super-crash” that will finally forcibly liquidate decades of overproduction and force a return to a “monetary system.”
The last time the economy had a classic recovery was at the end of the super-crisis of 1929-33. The “Great Recession” and the subsequent retarded recovery is therefore no accident but is part of the broader tendency toward a “super-crash” and subsequent Depression with a capital ‘D’ that will finally force a return to a “monetary system” and clear out decades of cumulative overproduction.
The capitalist policymakers, not understanding the bitter lessons of the Great Recession, are still not reconciled to the inevitability of a super-crash that will restore “sound business conditions.” They still hope to head it off by once again pumping up the credit system—inevitably leading to still more overproduction—because they fear that their system might not survive a super-crash and its consequences.
It should be pointed out that even if/when a super-crash eventually occurs, the transformation of the capitalist system into a socialist system is not guaranteed. Capitalism, no matter how far down it goes, will only be transformed into socialism if the working class wins political power. Absent this, no “final crash” will transform capitalism into socialism. This is the bitter lesson of the earlier super-crisis of 1929-33.
If another super-crisis occurs and the capitalist system survives due to the failure of the working class to fulfill its historic mission during the crisis or its aftermath, this would be a great historical tragedy, just as the survival of capitalism during the Depression of the 1930s was. The next time it might end in the destruction of human civilization—for example, if the new super-crisis triggers a new inter-imperialist world war fought with today’s far more destructive weapons.
But even if we leave aside this very real possibility and human civilization survives and capitalism enters into a new historic cycle of expansion and capitalist prosperity, the basic economic laws discovered by Marx show this would be no solution at all. Inevitably, the contradictions of capitalism would start to grow again and lead to an even greater future crisis.
Federal Reserve’s great concern—prevent the collapse of the quantity of loan capital
As part of its ultimately doomed attempt to avoid a crisis that would bring into question the continued existence of the capitalist system, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board is doing all it can to prevent the kind of collapse in the quantity of loan money capital that occurred in 1931. Indeed, Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, who is seen as an expert on the Depression, considers nothing to be more important.
If loan capital vanishes like it did in 1931, Keynesian deficit spending will be powerless to prevent Depression II, which will likely stand in relation to Depression I in terms of severity as World War II stood in relationship to World War I.
This takes us into the sphere of monetary policy that aims at preventing a sharp contraction in the quantity of money loan capital Next month I will examine some very interesting recent moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve System.
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1 A manufacturing index number above 50 indicates a rise in manufacturing output, while a reading below 50 represents a fall in output. During actual recessions, the ISM index generally falls well below 50.
2 Real capital consists of productive capital, such as factory buildings and machines, raw materials and auxiliary materials such as electricity—constant capital—and purchased labor power—the variable capital that alone produces new value and surplus value, plus commodity capital—inventories. The commodities that make up real capital must be purchased with money—or be purchased with credit, and the resulting debts then must be paid with money. The money that is used to purchase the commodities that make up productive and commodity capital represents money capital.
In contrast, the money that you use for personal consumption represents money but not money capital. If you are a worker, you sell your labor power C—M (M representing your wages or salary) and then use the M to purchase your means of personal consumption C. This is the formula for simple circulation C—M—C as opposed to the formula for capital M—C—M’. Capitalists when they use their profits—surplus value realized in money form—to purchase consumer goods, whether necessities or luxuries, are also using money as means of simple circulation and not as money capital.
3 In reality, millions of unemployed workers and considerable quantities of idle machines exist even during economic booms. In the late 1920s, Soviet economic planners were surprised by how much they could raise industrial production above the levels reached in the boom year of 1913 in czarist Russia without undertaking additional new investments that actually increased the forces of production. The only time the capitalist economies come anywhere close to true full employment is during major wars. And this “full employment” cannot be sustained for long because war economy suppresses expanded reproduction in the absence of which capitalism cannot long exist.
4 Some Marxists put weapons and luxury commodities consumed only by the capitalists into a separate Department III because they do not re-enter the productive process. The notion of Department III is important for the various “neo-Ricardian” criticisms of Marx. Marx himself treated luxury items as a sub-department of Department II but did not place them into a separate department.
5 Bourgeois economists debate how strong the “multiplier effect” actually is, with anti-Keynesian “neo-liberals” claiming a very low multiplier, while Keynesian economists claim a much higher multiplier.
6 Modern bourgeois economics, despite its frequent use of higher mathematics, which tends to conceal this fact from the layperson, is built on “common sense.” Marx stated that if “common sense” was adequate there would be no need for science. This applies not only to social sciences like economics but also to natural science. Einstein’s special and general theory of relativity, not to mention quantum mechanics, stand in complete contradiction to our everyday “common sense.”
7 The industrial capitalists strongly resist productive state investment—except when they take the form of subsidies to the industrial capitalists where the private industrial capitalists get to keep all the profits—because the last thing the capitalists want is competition from the state.
8 The most progressive Keynesians would postpone any moves to balance the budget until something like real full employment is achieved, but the more mainstream pro-business Keynesians would consider “full employment” in the U.S. as perhaps six or eight million unemployed, as defined very narrowly by the U.S. Labor Department. Remember, the U.S. Labor Department considers the unemployed to be only those “pounding the pavement.” The rest of the jobless are considered to be voluntarily choosing leisure over employment.
Anything less than six to eight million unemployed, these pro-business Keynesians and other bourgeois economists claim, is “over-employment,” where bosses are forced to hire “unemployable workers.” The pro-business Keynesians agree with “neo-liberal” economists that millions of “unemployable” people should remain unemployed.
9 Of course, all schools of modern bourgeois economics strongly deny that the workers produce surplus value. However, neo-liberal economists do in effect acknowledge the truth of Marx’s theory of surplus value when their practical proposals such as shredding entitlements all have the effect of increasing the rate of surplus value.
Recently, the Keynesian economist Paul Krugman has explained that the problem U.S. and other capitalist countries is facing is not a shortage of skilled workers earning much more than unskilled workers, reflecting an alleged shortage of skilled workers, as Krugman previously claimed. Now he recognizes the problem as the rising share of the national income that goes to capital—not skilled workers—compared to the working class as a whole.
It could be that Krugman is, at least in private, examining Marx’s theory of surplus value—a theory that economics students are, to say the least, not encouraged to study. If at some point Krugman were actually to come out in support of Marx’s theory of surplus value, he would inevitably face serious consequences, much like Paul Sweezy did in the 1930s and 1940s when he defected to Marx from bourgeois economics. If Sweezy had remained loyal to bourgeois economics, he would not only have won tenure at Harvard but almost certainly would have won the Nobel Prize for economics, just has Krugman has.
The financial consequences and social ostracism that Krugamn will face if he continues in his current “dangerous path” will therefore be substantial. If the defection of an economist with the stature of Krugman to the camp of Marx and the working class occurs all the same, it would be a welcome development indeed for the camp of the oppressed.
10 Normally during the downturns in the industrial cycle, the price of government bonds rises.
11 Our modern-day economists and economic historians claim that the Federal Reserve System should have created massive quantities of additional dollars, which they say would have halted the decline in the price of government bonds and enabled the government to increase its borrowing and spending at the same time. This will be examined in next month’s post.
12 The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the beginning of the “Great Recession” to December 2007. Though the initial credit freeze that represents the first stage of the crisis occurred in July-August 2007, it is likely that economic output did peak in December 2007. The dates when economic output peaked in other countries might differ somewhat, though by the fourth quarter of 2008 when the crisis erupted with full force, industrial production was plunging across the globe.
13 In the late 1960s, Keynes-inspired policymakers really thought they might be able to abolish recessions once and for all. However, the stagflation of the 1970s soon put an end to such hopes.
14 At the end of World War II, many impressionistic young economists under the influence of Keynes, as well as many Marxist economists, assumed that the economic stagnation of the 1930s was permanent. The reason was that during their adult lives they had only known the Depression and the World War II war economy.
They drew the conclusion that the huge drop in government spending that would occur when the war economy ended would inevitably plunge the U.S. economy back into deep depression.
This didn’t happen, however, because there was a sharp rise in private investment as the industrial corporations replaced fixed capital that had been run down during the Depression and then the war and then moved to expand their forces of production to meet a “sudden expansion” of market demand.
Most Marxists of the time, who were understandably impatient for the arrival of a socialist revolution, were taken by surprise by this development and many were badly disoriented. But in reality this outcome was quite in accord with the laws discovered by Marx that govern the capitalist economy. Keynesian economic policies played no role in the “sudden expansion of the market” that made the post-World War II economic “Long Boom” possible.
AdvertisementsDaily Alpha Giveaway Winners:
Today's Question:
"What can Toontown do to better encourage teamwork and support clans?"
One small thing that can be done is clan name tags. In this feature, you can buy something that is called a clan tag... When you buy it, you will be able to gift it to other people in your clan/guild. You can type your clan name in it, and it will go under your name tag, so you will still have your name tag visible.
I think that toontown could possibly bring trolley tracks to a larger scale, and let more people on the trolley... My mind is fuzzy. :/
I think that adding a party system to Toontown would be great. Also little things like a clan list in game, and adding a clan tag above your name, and just adding an in game clan system.
Toontown should have contact with clans; always helping and trying to give them information to be up-to-date.
Chat for everyone so people can talk. And if they are using profanity on chat don't let them have it.
I think a better way to encourage teamwork would be to create tasks that say "Complete 5 buildings with 3 other toons" or something like that.
Toontown can encourage teamwork and support by enhancing the speedchat as well as the speedchat plus. By enabling toons to freely (minus foul language) chat with each other teamwork will follow...
I think if a Toon sees another Toon by himself, then they can talk and take over cog buildings or do ToonTasks together.
Ban everyone in hacking teams so we can be in peace while we play at estates
Help, Never Give Up even how hard it is, Cheer for each other, If there's a bully, stand up and Never Stop trying. :D
Slate's Story Contest:
What I liked the most about my main toon was that he was like a best friend to me. He always made me smile, and we did everything together.
My best Toontown memory is, get this, Toontown itself. You see, Toontown was not only my first online game, it was also the game that introduced me to the internet in general... Of course online games is nothing new now, but it was something I've never experienced before.
My favorite activity was just being apart of the toons that hung around helping other toons get there tasks, gag tracks, and doing boss battles. I can't wait to do that again.
Ladybug Pedalmuffin was my toon's best friend because we could relate to each other. The moment that we first met being the same level 14 cog suit in CFO's lobby, we clicked!... We were really productive together and we had a ton of laughs. We can't wait to rewrite our toon's friendship in Toontown Rewritten.
Total sadness. I cried, which is very unusual for me. But the feeling of absolute betrayal. My whole childhood (From beta to the last day) was invested in that game. It was the only thing I knew for so many years, and it was where I met my most amazing friends that helped me through some of the hardest things. It was horrible knowing I couldn't create anymore memories with my best friends on there...
I said goodbye to my original main Toon when I said (in exact words) "Goodbye Cool Pinky. I will always remember you no matter what. I hope to see you again one day. Bye."
On the big summer, when I heard tt is closing and I've got a membership, I played like 12 hours a day. I stayed up all night until the morning light. I was so addicted and I had so much fun. My parents were mad at me! And no, I didnt get sick of it.
The most I miss about toontown is the environment. I have played other MMO games and none of them have the teamwork that is needed in Toontown.
I took a group of lower toons in to the VP battle. There were some greeners there who left, and I was alone with one other Mr. Hollywood. We teamed up and helped the other toons with our highest gags and our best unites. It was a long and difficult fight but in the end we came out on top like champions.
Toontown helped me through a difficult time, after I lost my mom. That's when I created Taffy Beanfoot and started playing. I would lose track of time and myself in the game. It provided an outlet and a way to channel my emotions. I ended up making a good friend who I played with all the time and we became friends in the real world, as well. It has also been a wonderful way to spend quality time with my daughter and share a common bond, as we would play together and work our toons... There's not a day goes by that one of us doesn't mention Toontown, at least. It's a tie that binds us.
Toonbook Group Contest:
"A group of Toons who are thankful for having a re-made version of Disney's Toontown Online, and ready to to get vengeance on Toontown by defeating cogs, tasks, activities together as a group."
"In this group, we will be helping to stop the bullying in Toontown and in Toontown sites! We will be hosting events and rewarding toons for helping other toons... No one wants those nasty toons in Toontown!"
"...If you ever need assistance when Toontown Rewritten is out, simply post in the group and an officer will be off to help!... I hope you all utilize this tool to your advantage and enjoy it!"
Hello, everyone! Welcome to what would normally be Super Saturday, however we don't have much time for that today. We haveto hand out, after all!First Topic: Our Daily Alpha Giveaway. Once again we've got a whopping 4,500 entries, and the number won't stop climbing. Today we have another question that is less about what Disney did wrong, but what we have done wrong. "What is the worst thing that Toontown Rewritten has done so far, and how should we have done it?"Toonbook had a huge success yesterday as well. Over 600 new clans were made, and we gained a ton of new members. It seems like you guys had a lot of fun with it, and I'm glad that you did! It was a hard decision, but we managed to narrow down three groups that really stood out. Check them out with the other winners below.Finally, we need to get to some more serious business. Apparently a group of Toons have created " Toonter ", a Twitter for Toons. Obviously, they are. The! Don't worry, toons. I managed to infiltrate their systems to take them down. At least, until I gained a few followers... Head on over to Toonter to join in on their alpha key contest. All you have to do is make a meme relating to Toontown and "Toont" it with the hashtag listed in their rules. You can head on over there now to check it out!Enough of that, though, lets take a look at these winners.The people listed below were randomly selected from the entries to win. Head on over here to enter for tomorrow's giveaway!Don't worry Fat Dudley Pickleflinger, I get what you're talking about.On Thursday, we asked Slate to host a contest during her livestream. Using Google+, toons posted answers and stories to her page based off of the questions asked. One toon was chosen for each. Here they are!The following are clans, groups, and guilds that were created over the past 24 hours on Toonbook. The Toonbook staff judged them based off of creativity, maturity, and popularity. Each one received 3 keys to pass out to their group, with an extra key to the #1 winner.- 173 members- 85 members- 132 membersGMAC asked in passing on Facebook today… “So what is a Red Pill Woman?” in response to someone I didn’t know describing herself as a “Red Pill Woman.” I have to say it’s a great question, I’ve written a lot about Girl Game and Sexy Wives for a long time now, but never actually thought to define what the idealized Red Pill woman is like.
Anyway… let’s have a crack at it.
(1) Understands that physical appearance and her looks are what attracts men’s sexual interest. She stays in shape and while every waking minute she may not be dressed to the nines, neither does she get mistaken for a slob. She “looks good for [insert age]”
(2) Understands that all her skills, effort, kindness, intelligence and “inner beauty” et al, is what creates relationship comfort and makes her someone capable of having a functional relationship with.
(3) Understands that what she does with her vagina always has some sort of consequence.
(4) Understands that there is a sexual marketplace, and that women have an earlier peak of sexual desirability than men do. That the point (1) stuff comes very easily to young women, and that the point (2) and (3) stuff pays off over the longer term.
(5) Understands that men are the gatekeepers of commitment and that committed men place extreme value on sexual loyalty.
(6) Doesn’t need a man to save her from her own folly. Will not tolerate a relationship with a man that requires her to save him from his folly.
(7) Is aware of her own sexuality and understands what in a man attracts her and turns her on. Namely hypergamy, Alpha Traits, why she may Fitness Test and so on.
(8) Can delay gratification. Can pass on someone or something that is fun for now, but painful later on.
(9) Can articulate things that she did wrong in prior relationships. Even if the guy was clearly the greater cause of relationship failure, she can acknowledge things she could have done better, or differently. She can think consciously about her relationships, rather than simply follow her emotions from moment to moment. Has a learning curve.
(10) Understands that relationships are not static, that effort and intention to maintain them is an ongoing requirement. That while she can reasonably expect the man to take the lead, that doesn’t mean he’s the sled dog and she can curl up and take a nap on the sleigh.
(11) Expresses genuine relationship discontent, clearly and directly, allowing time to correct the relationship issue. Does not complain to everyone else but her husband, does not act out instead of addressing problems, does not plan and/or execute an exit strategy before stating her discontent.
(12) Lets go of resentment for relationship issues that are now resolved.
(13) Understands that divorce sucks and is more akin to getting treatment for cancer than having cosmetic surgery.
(14) Likes men in a general sense for who they are and what they do, rather than detesting all men in general and making an exception for the tiny few in her nuclear family.
(15) Understands the risks both men and women take in having serious relationships, and is willing to negotiate ways to verify trustworthiness in each other. Sees doing this as evidence of true commitment rather than an insulting invasion of privacy.
(16) With her chosen partner, is deeply and passionately sexual.
(17) Is aware of her own personal kink and can communicate her sexual desires. Takes responsibility for receiving her own sexual pleasure.
(18) Has a sense of humor.
(19) Respects the boundaries of other peoples relationships and doesn’t attempt to mate poach.
(20) Doesn’t keep the Red Pill a secret from those that need it.
As I write that, 90% of it seems to fairly directly apply to men as well as women. And for what it’s worth, these women really do exist. Maybe not in vast numbers, but neither do they ride on unicorns or speak elvish. There’s quite a few on the forum.To blog Previous post | Next post
Building a nirvana
What started out three years ago as in a form of a single ANT file has grown into literally a hundred of build tasks taking more than eight hours to complete from start to finish on sequential run. In this post we describe some of the tools and techniques |
not necessary to prosecute fraud," Natasha Bakht and Jordan Palmer write in the journal Windsor Review of Legal and Social Issues.
Watch: Under Coven: The Witches of Bushwick
"The witchcraft provisions in the Criminal Code reflect a culture, perspective, and legal system of an entirely different era. They are reminiscent of a time when women who did not conform to societal norms were not only shunned, but penalized," Omar Ha-Redeye, a lawyer at Fleet Street law in Toronto, told Broadly. "These provisions also reflect a primarily Christian mindset, where non-Christian traditions, including what we now may refer to as Wicca, totemism, or animism, or other traditions, were demonized as being evil. It's perhaps no surprise then that even today these provisions are used primarily against women or against people who follow non-mainstream religious traditions."
Bakht and Palmer add that the law is superfluous to overarching fraud laws: "While there is a social good inherent in preventing fraud, the line between legitimate practices, such as religious prophecy or spiritualism, and illegitimate or criminal pretending seems arbitrarily drawn."
The Canadian pagan community has spent time trying to get the law repealed. According to some blogs, people have feared that any valid practitioner could be risking arrest for simply doing tarot readings as long as the law is on the books. Now that the law is set to be repealed, witches can rest (on a bed of crystals) a little easier.It was recently revealed that HyunA had lost up to 5 kg (11 pounds) to reach a weight of 39 kg (89 pounds) for her latest comeback track, "Bubble Pop!". An agency representative stated, "HyunA (164cm) was normally around 42-44 kg, but she went down to 39 kg due to stress and exhaustive training for her second solo promotions." Although she threw in a lot of hard work, HyunA's "Bubble Pop!" promotions was forced to conclude prematurely as the Korea Broadcasting and Communications Review Committee (KCC) ruled that HyunA's choreography and outfits were "too sexually suggestive" for public broadcast. "I wish they had viewed the performances as just performances. K-Pop is quickly trending around the world and this, along with the limits to its genre, may lead to restrictions in freedom of expression." said her agency. Other representatives of the popular music industry also added, "We can't understand why her song suddenly became an issue when it was in the middle of its promotions." Meanwhile, it was announced that on August 10th, the PDs of the three public music programs will be given a chance to express their own opinions about the issue of sexually provocative material on music shows with the committee members of the KCC. "On the 10th, we will be exchanging opinions with broadcast representatives regarding this matter. PDs and other broadcasting staff are also allowed to participate; who will represent the companies is solely up to the choice of each. Instead of actively taking part in the discussion, people can also choose to send in written documents of their opinions. There is no obligation to participate." Source + Image: Sports Seoul via NateHere are this weekend's best bets in nightlife, music, movies, theater and much more around the Washington area.
The Yards Park announces Light Yards, a two week long art installation that will feature a large-scale projection mapping display on a giant illuminated "cloud," as well as enormous luminescent bunnies, live DJ sets, a giant Lite-Brite and more. This unique sensory experience will kick off on Saturday, February 20 and continue through Sunday, March 6, with featured events for families, and music and art lovers alike on Saturdays the 20th and 27th.
Saturday-Sunday: The Atlas Intersections Festival continues through this weekend at the Atlas Performing Arts, with performances in jazz, go-go, tango, dance, theater and more. Prices vary; for a complete schedule, go to atlasarts.org/intersections.
Saturday: There’s something new that feels so old at the Washington Antiquarian Book Fair in Rosslyn, now in its 41st year. In addition to bound collectibles on display and for sale (check out that first-edition tome by Thomas Jefferson from more than two centuries ago), on Saturday the Typewriter Rodeo will have artists creating on-demand poems for visitors, tapping away on vintage typewriters, in less than five minutes. The event at the Holiday Inn Rosslyn runs Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and tickets are $5-$14.
Saturday: Just a few months after releasing their massive, career spanning 35-track live record, “It’s Great to Be Alive!” — and in the midst of working on another studio album — the Drive-By Truckers hit the 9:30 Club, one of the band's favorite venues, for two nights. Doors open at 8 p.m. for both shows, and tickets are $35.
Saturday: Surely you've tossed back a few beers or shot some pool at Whitlow's a handful of times (or more) over the last couple decades? If so, consider a trip to Clarendon this weekend for Whitlow's on Wilson's 20th Anniversary celebration. On Friday, Whitlow's is releasing a collaboration with Devils Backbone, Whitlow's Good Time IPA; Saturday brings back Virginia Coalition, which used to regularly play at the bar. The party starts at 7 p.m. on Friday and 9 p.m. on Saturday, and there's no cover either night.
[The definitive guide to the best cheap-eats destinations in D.C.]
Saturday-Sunday: Now in its 18th year, the D.C. Independent Film Festival offers a number of world and U.S. premieres, starting on opening night with a screening at the Miracle Theater of the pilot episode of “Districtland.” After the show, which is about non-political life in Washington, the cast, filmmakers and writers will answer questions from the audience, and These Quiet Colours, whose music is featured on the show, will perform. The festival runs through March 13 at various venues through the District; screenings cost $7-$12 and seminars and workshops $16.
I, for one, welcome our new illuminated lagomorph overlords. #lightyards #acreativedc #blackandwhitedc A photo posted by Fritz Hahn (@fritzhahn) on Feb 28, 2016 at 5:59pm PST
Saturday-Sunday: If you haven't yet Instagrammed your selfie with the giant illuminated rabbits, they're back for this final weekend of Light Yards at the Yards Park, on Washington's Southeast Waterfront. The bunnies light up each night at dusk, and admission is free.
[6 new bars to try around D.C. right now]
Saturday: It's been quite a year for the Fair Winds Brewing Company. The Lorton brewery opened its tap room last March, but its flavorful saison, kolsch and IPAs have made a favorite at local bars. (It's not just neighbors taking notice: Siren's Lure Saison won a gold medal at September's Great American Beer Festival.) On Saturday, Fair Winds holds a birthday celebration with tours, tastings and food trucks, and the official release of Anniversary Ale barleywine in 22-ounce bottles. The event runs from noon to 9 p.m., and admission is free. — Fritz Hahn
Saturday: Quilt hits the stage at DC9 for its East Coast tour, just a week after the release of its breezy, somewhat psychedelic third album, "Plaza." The New York-based four-piece revisited some old songs while writing some new pieces for the record, which has received warm reviews. The show starts at 9:30 p.m. and tickets are $12.
Sunday: Versace, Versace, Versace, Versace — you already know the words, even if you really don't. You can sing along with the Atlanta hip-hop trio Migos at the Fillmore as their "Dab" tour makes its way down the East Coast. The show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $25.Feature | Interview : WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns
As he sits in a dark hotel room on very little sleep, mere hours after Monday Night Raw where he battled a group of superstars who are all vying for his championship, Roman Reigns is finding out what it means to be the champ and sitting atop of the mountain.
Reigns has never been down this road before. He’s no longer the hunter. He is now the hunted. After 8 months of chasing the title he nearly won at last year’s WrestleMania, Reigns finally grabbed the brass ring last month and won the coveted championship in front of a Philadelphia crowd.
Now Reigns must defend his title against 29 other WWE Superstars in Sunday’s Royal Rumble. That can be a lot to prepare for and handle especially when you’ve got the WWE Chairman Vince McMahon stacking the deck against you.
Luckily for us, Reigns took a moment to discuss his journey to the top, his family, life on the road, being “the man” and what lies ahead.
Feeling The Love
CraveOnline: You’ve always had a lot of supporters but now it seems you have less critics and an even bigger following. How does it feel to get all of that love now from the WWE Universe?
Roman Reigns: It’s success and hard work. If you really enjoy something and you have a lot of passion for what you’re doing, you put your heart out there and people see you’re having fun, I think it’s kind of a sparkplug and that’s what people want. They want that chain reaction and to feel a part of something. I think they seem to really enjoy myself this year and I busted my ass at the same time. It’s been a crazy year. It’s not like football or baseball. It’s not just a 16-week process. This is a 52-week process. They’ve seen me grow, mature and develop over the course of the year and I’m proud of that. I’m proud to say that the “Roman Empire” is growing every single week and I’m going to continue that.
Winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
CraveOnline: Last month you finally got over that hurdle and won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. What was going through mind when you finally won it?
Roman Reigns: Damn [laughs]. It was an overwhelming satisfaction. If you ever have some glory, to feel that moment, that’s what it felt like. It felt like hitting pay dirt and scoring that winning touchdown, you know what I mean? Strip, sack, scoop and score to win the game in overtime. I’m going to Disney World. I wish I had a camera in my face because I would have said it. For me, it didn’t even feel real because it really was my daughter’s birthday. Right now, I haven’t been home in 12 days. I’m sitting in my dark hotel room. I just woke up. I didn’t get to sleep until about 4 in the morning so there are a lot of things that go into this life. That’s why we’re so passionate about this business. We really live it every single day. It’s not just a job; it’s a lifestyle. It’s a way of life for us. For me, it was just an overwhelming feeling like God was tugging on some strings to make all of this line up. It felt like it made too much sense to make any sense.
Who was the first call you made after you won it?
My wife and daughter. My little girl was already asleep. She was passed out on the couch. She actually watched the whole show and three-fourths of the main event and then knocked out, bless her heart. By the time I got out there, she was struggling, my wife said. But she watched a good bit of it but thank God for DVR.
Starting the Royal Rumble as the No. 1 entrant
CraveOnline: We found out on Raw that you’re going to be the No. 1 entrant in the 30-man Royal Rumble to defend your WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Is fatigue a factor in a match like that?
Roman Reigns: Yeah. Anytime you’re out there in between those ropes, you always have to worry about fatigue. If you think about it, people get tired just doing cardio. You get tired doing cardio just by yourself. Now imagine running around, picking somebody up, picking you up, trying to pin you, trying to hold you down, it gets very tiring. Any time you involve 29 other competitors and unfortunately for me, they’re all going to be gunning for me because this is a lot different. This is the first time ever we’re having the champion defend his title. For me, it’s a huge responsibility to come in there fully prepared but the WWE is not giving me a lot of time to prepare, you know what I mean? With the schedule that we run, just the nature of the business and being at the top, the top part of the office has it out for me. They’re going to make it extremely hard for me. Either way I’m going to dig deep. You’ve seen me get knocked down. You’ve seen me spit out blood but I pick myself up and I’ll keep going.
Feuding with Vince McMahon
CraveOnline: You’re feuding with the legendary Vince McMahon. What’s it like to work with him and to see him come out on camera as your foe?
Roman Reigns: It’s cool. It’s totally different. It’s totally different than being in there conversing with any other superstar or any “bad guy.” He is probably going to be the best “bad guy” of all-time. He’s as good as it gets when it comes to being a jerk. It was an absolute pleasure just to be able to tell my grandkids, “Yep. I Superman Punched Vince McMahon right in the face twice.” You can put that on my mantle.
“I’m not John Cena. I want to be Roman Reigns. I want to do things my way.”
You’re “the man” now and you’re running with the ball. Do you feel pressure to be the face of WWE or are you embracing it?
I think there is pressure in anything we do in life. As a man, I feel pressure to provide and create a lifestyle and a future for my family. When it comes to representing the WWE, I don’t like calling myself the “face of WWE” because we have so many faces and so many superstars. We are a team, we’re a roster and we’re a locker room. It absolutely takes every man to make this ship sail. At the end of the day, all I can be is me. I’m not John Cena. In my 30 years, I’ve never been John Cena. I don’t even think about becoming him. I just want to be. I want to be Roman Reigns. I want to do things my way. I think that’s why I’m in the deep water with Vince McMahon and The Authority. I don’t even think we’re saying The Authority anymore. I think I busted that whole crew up. That’s all I can be. It’s just me representing myself and my family to the fullest.
Facing Brock Lesnar
“He tries to throw me as far as he can and I’m trying to rip his face off and break his ribs.”
CraveOnline: Last night you speared Brock Lesnar and it brought back memories of your physical and brutal main event match at WrestleMania last year. Is it different being in the ring with Lesnar compared to other WWE Superstars?
Roman Reigns: No because for me I have a chemistry with about everyone that I’m in there with. It doesn’t change but it’s a little bit different if that makes sense. If I’m in there with Bray Wyatt, we have chemistry. If I’m in there with Big Show, we have chemistry. I feel a fighting style and the way I go out there and do my thing, mixes well with a lot of WWE Superstars and the way they do their thing. It’s very simple [laughs] with the way me and Brock [Lesnar] do our battles. We hit really hard. He tries to throw me as far as he can and I’m trying to rip his face apart and break his ribs. It’s a brutal contest anytime him and I step into the ring. As you saw last night, you didn’t see any playing around. I went to the red button immediately and sometimes with him, you got to double-tap or triple that button. That’s probably what you’re going to see on Sunday.
Life Outside The Ring
CraveOnline: When you’re not in the ring and you’re on the road, what are you doing? Do you have any hobbies or guilty pleasures?
Roman Reigns: I’ve been on the road for over 3 years; the main thing when you’re on the road is you have to keep yourself comfortable. Make yourself feel like you’re at home because you’re not so you have to treat yourself a little bit and create a process that is going to help you to be able to do this every week. For me it’s not just traveling comfortable. I’m not in a bus or anything like that. I like to always have an SUV so whomever I’m traveling with we can always be comfortable. It’s important that you book a decent hotel because we spend a lot of time in these places so you have to be comfortable and treat yourself and take care of yourself. My body is the only body I have. This body has to carry me through and push through hopefully many, many more years to come.
You want to find a good gym. You want to eat and eat right but at the same time, if you’re dieting 24/7 and 52 weeks a year, you know I’ve never met a happy diet. You ever met a dude that is super shredded? He’s usually not cool at all. He’s usually not a nice guy because he’s so irritable because he’s been torturing himself for weeks so you got to have a guilty pleasure. Mine is I love to go eat some sushi with my family and friends and just hang out, have some beers and drink some sake. I’m actually on a little bit of a tip right now, unfiltered sake. So just a cold beer, a plate full of sashimi and all kinds of specialty rolls, that’s my example of a good time.
That sounds like “date night” with my wife and I, just sushi and beers.
That’s “date night”, that’s out with the boys, that’s where I spend my money just on hanging out and having dinner with my family.
Peyton Manning or Tom Brady?
CraveOnline: It’s the NFL conference championship week. Are you a Tom Brady guy or a Peyton Manning guy?
Roman Reigns: I’m a Brady and a Manning guy. What I like is when they play each other. I honestly think they’re possibly the two best ever especially [Tom] Brady if he snags another one. How many does Peyton [ManningI have? One? Yeah but if you’ve ever heard anything on the inside about him he seems cool and he seems like a great leader and it’s obvious by his stats and the career numbers he has put up. But I think Tom [Brady], he’s just won so many and he’s done it in some different ways with a different clientele. He’s done it with amazing squads like he had when they were almost undefeated and he’s done it when they barely squeaked into the playoffs and had to do the Wild-Card thing. I think in our lifetime we’ve seen two great quarterbacks and Tom Brady might be the best one ever but I think what pushes that is the rivalry between those great quarterbacks.
The Future
“I’m carrying the title all over the world…”
CraveOnline: Now what’s the ultimate goal for you and the dream scenario with this WWE World Heavyweight Championship run?
Roman Reigns: Well, I’ve been defending it and having big championship fights every single night, all the way from the tiniest little town in Ohio to India. I’m carrying the title all over the world at this point and soon will take it to Germany hopefully if I can get through this Sunday. Right now the goal is to get through Sunday and take out 29 men or however many. Hopefully somebody can help me out [laughs]. Can somebody else throw somebody else over the top rope? It would be nice if I didn’t have to throw all 29 out but that’s what I’m willing to do and if I can get through that then I can do anything.
WWE Royal Rumble is live on WWE Network Sunday January 24th from Amway Arena in Orlando, FL. For the first time in WWE history, the reigning WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Roman Reigns, must defend his title in the 30-Superstar Royal Rumble Match.
Photos courtesy of WWE.
Joshua Caudill is a writer for CraveOnline Sports, a surfing enthusiast, an unhealthy sports fanatic, and an expert on all things Patrick Swayze. You can follow him on Twitter @JoshuaCaudill85 or “like”CraveOnline Sports on Facebook.Amazing views as The Gobbins path close to reopening BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Northern Ireland's newest tourist attraction is to open at last - just in time to boost the end of summer numbers. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/amazing-views-as-the-gobbins-path-close-to-reopening-31428386.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/article31428385.ece/30e14/AUTOCROP/h342/2015-08-05_new_11705420_I3.JPG
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Northern Ireland's newest tourist attraction is to open at last - just in time to boost the end of summer numbers.
The spectacular Gobbins cliffhead path in east Antrim will launch on August 19.
Although some work remains to be done, Mid and East Antrim Council decided on Monday night to give the final green light.
The former Larne Borough Council championed the restoration of the historic, world-famous Gobbins path since the 1970s.
Now at last it is about to become a reality - and bookings will begin to be taken in the next few days.
Councillor Gordon Lyons, a member of the new council's Gobbins steering group, said: "We are absolutely delighted and looking forward to The Gobbins becoming one of the main tourist attractions in Northern Ireland.
"There is still some work remaining to be done, but we have decided to go ahead with opening on August 19 and it will be open all-year round."
An official launch event likely to involve Jonathan Bell, the minister responsible for tourism, is being organised for later in the year.
The path was to have opened in time for this year's summer season but was hit by a delay over getting the last bridge in place.
It was also struck by controversy when the Belfast Telegraph revealed The Gobbins had not been included among areas of the province marked for priority promotion over the next five years.
Councillor Mark McKinty, another steering group member, said: "Whatever has gone on before, we must now focus all our energies in ensuring The Gobbins becomes a first-class tourist destination."
Belfast TelegraphWhile gamblers staking money on the outcome of the EU referendum will either be scouring for their winning tickets or tearing the worthless betting slip into several pieces, one punter in particular will have double cause for celebration when he collects his winnings.
Ukip leader Nigel Farage, who helped steer Leave campaigners to an unlikely victory, also won £2,500 after placing a £1,000 bet on a Brexit verdict earlier in the month.
And bookies said they will be trying to identify how they got the odds so wrong - backing a Remain vote right up until the close of voting on Thursday, with odds of 3/10.
Read more: EU referendum - Bank of England announces £250bn of support for UK economy following Brexit
A Ladbrokes spokesman said: "Naturally there will be far more important implications of this referendum than those affecting the political betting community. But those of us who do this for a living have to face up to some tough questions today.
"A Remain verdict was rated about a 90% certainty as the polls closed."
Ladbrokes said the majority of players in the market were backing Leave.
Read more: Boris Johnson claims the UK will not be 'any less united' amid Brexit vote
As polls closed, Betfair put the odds of staying at 2/13, or 86%, while William Hill said Remain was its 2/9 favourite, equating to an 81% chance.
Bookies said they expect the EU referendum to be the most gambled upon political event in British betting history - beating the record set by the Scottish independence referendum.
William Hill spokesman Graeme Sharpe said there was a long history of betting on the referendum, dating back three years.
But he also said one customer bet in the early hours of Friday - moments before the result was announced - to win £1 off a £100 stake.
Read more: World Press highlights prospect of Scotland staying in EU as independent state
And there were also some big losers on the night. Mr Sharpe said one Remain punter lost £100,000, while others lost figures of £60,000, £40,000, £25,000 and £20,000.
Mr Sharpe said the oldest client to bet was an online customer aged 101 who bet £10 at 11/4 and won £27.50.Intro: There are millions of oppressed people inside the borders of the u.s., but I’m not one of them. I come from a privileged background. I’m not the main victim of the police. Nor am I a leader in the growing struggle against police violence. Recognizing how far I am from the front lines, I hesitated to write about cops at all.
In the end I decided that it’s important for all radicals, whether oppressed or privileged, to struggle for clarity about cops’ place in society.
There are many kinds of police, ranging from elite national political police like the FBI to local auxiliaries who direct traffic and write parking tickets. But at the heart of the police in the u.s. are its bands of street cops. These are the people who physically maintain “order,” dealing out street justice and funneling civilians into the prison system. All other aspects of police power revolve around them, and that’s what I discuss below. –B
U.s. cops killed over 1,130 people last year. They brutalized and tortured many thousands more. This systematic violence has nothing to do with “rogue cops” or “poor training.” It’s the predictable result of a carefully-camouflaged fact: cops are gangsters.
It’s not just that cops act like an ocupying army in oppressed peoples’ communities. Even though that’s certainly true. Or that cops repress ordinary people in the interests of the rich and powerful. (That’s true too, of course.)
I’m saying something additional: cops are literally criminals. That’s not an epithet or an insult; it’s a plain description. Cops have the parasitic vocation and the lumpen outlook of gangsters, violently preying on civilians to build themselves up. That’s their social and psychological character. It’s their class.
Capitalists and gangsters
To put this in perspective: The ruling class collaborates with gangsters—with organized crime—all the time. This is a perfectly normal part of modern capitalism.
In fact, there’s no hard and fast line between gangsterism and “legal” capitalism. Take the era of Prohibition, for instance. From 1920-1933, alcoholic beverages were illegal in the u.s. During that time the manufacture, distribution and sale of alcohol became the focal point of intense, murderous gangster competition, involving iconic mobsters like Al Capone and Lucky Luciano. Today these exact same activities are completely legal and peaceful.
On the flip side, marijuana was a normal legal commodity in the u.s. until it was outlawed in 1937, during a burst of racist backlash against Mexican immigrants (who supposedly used it to seduce white women). Today this same crop is a major profit center for deadly and powerful gangsters, and thousands of people are in prison for possessing, selling or transporting it.
As historian Gerald Horne puts it, “Organized crime – the ‘big lumpen’ – historically has been one of the bourgeoisie’s chief allies in this nation in maintaining its hegemony. In return, gangsters have been allowed, in some instances, to evolve “respectably” to bourgeois status themselves. In any case, mobsters in this nation have enjoyed a form of enrichment that the bourgeoisie in many nations will never see. This has added a level of coarseness and lack of principle to the otherwise crude and unprincipled rule of the bourgeoisie.”
We know that some of the biggest capitalist fortunes in the u.s. were accumulated through organized crime. The “robber barons” like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and Morgan became rich through the systematic use of thug mercenaries, corruption and fraud. The Kennedy clan made its first big money in bookmaking and bootlegging during Prohibition. They worked closely with the Mafia for decades. Henry Ford allied with organized crime to suppress unions.
Successful gangsters often try to diversify by investing their criminal assets in legal capitalist businesses. While for their part, “legal” capitalists turn readily to gangsterism to accomplish objectives that are difficult to achieve by other means. Modern capitalism as a whole is heavily dependent on organized crime, partly because the drug trade, human trafficking and arms smuggling are among the most profitable industries in the world.
In fact, the financial system would collapse overnight without gangster money. A few years back a whistleblower revealed how billions of dollars in profits from the Sinaloa cartel ended up in Wachovia Bank accounts in the u.s. between 2001 and 2004. Gangsters deposited their drug profits in small amounts at local currency exchange agencies (casas de cambio) in Mexico. This cartel money was then accepted for wire transfer to Wachovia branches here, where it became “legal,” no questions asked. Similarly, HSBC was recently forced to admit that they laundered billions of dollars belonging to Russian mobsters and Latin American drug cartels. The Bank of New York used shell corporations to organize the illegal transfer of $7 billion of Russian mafia money into the u.s. In 2011 the U.N. conservatively estimated that there was about $580 billion in organized crime money sloshing around in the world financial system, much of which was in the process of being transformed into “legal” investments.
Gangsterism and legal capitalism interpenetrate on many levels, and have various power relationships. Sometimes gangsters become strong enough to control large parts of a capitalist state, like narco cartels do now in Mexico. Many uniformed, official cops there report directly to the traffickers. (This hasn’t prevented Walmart and General Motors from making big profits in Mexico.) In the u.s., at least for now, it’s legal capitalists and their state who have the upper hand. These capitalists are proactive in their dealings with organized crime, though: they not only collaborate with gangsters, they also organize new gangs.
The interrelationship of u.s. capitalists and gangsters has a long history. Before permanent police forces even existed in the u.s., mercenary gangs were authorized to clear the way for settler land theft, and to enforce slave “law and order” for the capitalists and their governments. Gangs of “Indian hunters” such as the Pit River Rangers and the Oregon Militia were given official bounties for each Native person killed. California alone paid millions of dollars out of public funds to these murder squads. Slave patrols of white vigilante thugs were rewarded by plantation capitalists for capturing and “chastizing” escaped slaves. These early genocidal gangster mercenaries were the precursors of modern cops.
When radical labor insurgency erupted in the u.s. starting in the 19th century, leading industrialists relied on private police forces like the Pinkerton Coal and Iron Police to repress workers. These freelance mercenaries worked side by side with government cops and the military, acting with complete impunity. It didn’t matter that they didn’t have official badges. They used their own bombs, snipers, blackmail, arson and machine guns, and they reported directly to the capitalists who hired them.
In the 1980’s, the CIA collaborated with urban gangs to flood Black communities with crack cocaine and automatic weapons. The profits generated from this illegal trade were used to fund similarly illegal counterinsurgency gangs in Latin America. This kind of activity is routine. Criminal organizations, mercenaries and death squads have been employed by u.s. capitalists to repress the Left in dozens of places, from the New York waterfront to the streets of San Salvador.
Official gangs
Where do modern u.s. cops fit into this broader landscape of gangsters working for and with the ruling class?
First of all, police are institutionalized, “official” gangs. This reflects the fact that they are meant to act for the whole ruling class, rather than just a single capitalist group. Cops are sponsored and endorsed by the state; employed to keep the population under long-term control and to combat other gangsters who get too independent.
Instead of being paid as contractors, or through bounties, modern police get a regular government paycheck. But this doesn’t in any way indicate that street cops are mere government functionaries carrying out a list of instructions passed down through the political bureaucracy. While police may be paid as employees, they actually function as a confederation of loosely controlled gangs, with a broad mandate to terrorize civilians. Cops are given a free hand in enforcing “order.” They are also encouraged to create insular, thuggish, semi-militarized cliques that breed a lumpen culture with its own hunger for power. Like other organized crime groupings, they have their own strict internal codes of ethics and conduct that override and exist outside the law.
Cop influence extends outward into broader social layers, generating networks of informants, groupies, wannabes, hangers-on, cheerleaders and private donors. Cop-lovers attend rowdy cop parties, sign up as eager auxiliaries (like George Zimmerman), sponsor foundations to benefit cops, bring them donuts and plaster pro-cop stickers on their cars. These networks of civilian loyalty exist independent of the state, and are in fact generally contradictory to official state control. They have nothing to do with cops being civil servants. Rather, these support networks are drawn to cops’ independent street power. They are similar to the civilian networks that gather around other criminal confederations like the the Cosa Nostra and the Yakuza.
Intended to terrorize
When the capitalist state establishes and supports official police forces, it intentionally gives them wide leeway to function as semi-autonomous gangs. This has proven to be an effective formula that permits the ruling class to maintain a layer of separation and denial between themselves and the gangster violence they unleash. Capitalists pretend to have clean hands, even acting shocked by criminal cop behaviors. If public outcry becomes strong, their politicians re-shuffle top police leaders or initiate drawn-out bureaucratic investigations, making a superficial show of reining in police abuse. Nevertheless, it is fundamental to the ruling class’s repressive strategy that street cops operate with broad independence and impunity.
Cop violence is specifically intended to operate outside the law as well as inside. Police criminality isn’t a problem for the ruling class—it’s a solution. Cops are doing dirty work that regular state functionaries can’t do. Institutionalized, state-backed gangsterism is an effective tool of social dominance: it causes generalized fear and submission, while it also can be targetted at specific enemies. The ruling class recognizes that mad-dogging, upredictable sadism and deadly brutality are indispensible parts of the gangster arsenal, and considers their use by cops to be both inevitable and, with some limits, desirable.
From the cops’ point of view, impunity for criminal acts is a basic guarantee, an integral part of their vocation and their identity. They have little patience for politicians’ anxieties about public opinion, or capitalists’ desire to maintain ideological legitimacy. Cops strain to be let off the leash completely. Their lumpen instinct is to dominate the population through unchecked terror.
Cops push back hard against any attempts by civilian managers to establish day to day operational control. Police gangsters usually have the upper hand too, because they are indispensable to the ruling class and intimidating in their own right. Police have the power to make or break elected politicians. That’s why New York City Police Commmissioner William Bratton, currently the u.s.’s biggest celebrity cop, gets away with dictating policy to his supposed boss Mayor DeBlasio and publicly insulting the City Council. (His disrespectful comments play well with his underlings, although overall he is considered too compromising by regular NYPD cops.)
A parasitic way of life
Like other gangster forces, cops recruit heavily from the ranks of high school bullies, sadists and losers. Military drop-outs and children of cops also gravitate towards policing. All these people have a good idea of what they’re getting into. They want to become cops precisely because they get paid and rewarded for intimidating, assaulting and shooting people. San Antonio cop Daryl Carle could be the poster child. He bragged on Facebook that he loves his “job” because he can “kill people and not go to jail.” His bosses did think that was a little indiscreet of him. But nevertheless he’s still out there on street patrol with a badge and a gun.
As thugs, cops love the thrill of combat—as long as it’s one-sided in their favor. Listening to the media mythology about a so-called “war on police,” you might think that cops must take a lot of casualties. But actually, over the course of the police slaughter and torture that rolled across the u.s. last year, fewer than 40 cops were killed by suspects. Most of those deaths happened while responding to domestic disputes. As a point of comparison, hundreds of cops commit suicide every year in the u.s. By any statistical measure, being a cop is less dangerous than being a construction laborer or long-haul truck driver.
Then again, being a cop isn’t just a job; it’s a lumpen way of life.
Detective Louis Scarcella was an alpha cop in Brooklyn starting in the 1980s. He was involved in literally hundreds of murder investigations there. Scarcella, who was praised as one of New York’s top homicide detectives, is now suspected of obtaining fifty or more murder convictions using false evidence. At least six of these convictions relied on testimony from a single “eyewitness”—a desperate crack addict who appeared over and over in Scarcella’s cases, despite the fact that she kept contradicting herself. The entire “criminal justice system” looked the other way as Scarcella fabricated confessions, “lost |
Diana Taurasi, who are first and sixth in WNBA points per game, respectively.
Currie has three 20-point games this season including 31 against Washington on May 14 and 29 vs. Dallas on June 21.
In 2015, Currie started all 34 games, averaging 8.4 points during the season when Taurasi did not play in the WNBA.
"We are very excited to bring Mo back to the Mercury family," said Mercury General Manager Jim Pitman. "She is a known commodity in this league, a proven scorer who can contribute right away. We know how she fits in (coach) Sandy Brondello’s system, we know the kind of player she is in the locker room, and we know her will to win."
Currie was in Mercury preseason camp in 2016 before being traded to San Antonio for a second-round draft pick.
Currie began her career with Charlotte in 2006 then was with Chicago in 2007 and Washington from 2007-14 before her first stint in Phoenix. She will join the Mercury (7-5) for their home game Friday against Minnesota (11-1).
To fill an open roster spot after the trade, the Mercury signed 6-6 Angel Robinson, acquired last year in a trade with Seattle.
Robinson led Montenegro in scoring and rebounding at the recent EuroBasket Championships. She played in Turkey in the 2016-17 WNBA offseason. With Seattle in 2014, she averaged 2.2 points and 1.4 rebounds.
Mercury rename 1st Street in honor of Diana Taurasi
The City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Mercury have renamed 1st Street in downtown Phoenix to '7489 Taurasi Way' to honor Diana Taurasi for becoming the WNBA's all-time leading scorer.
A dedication ceremony on Wednesday featured Taurasi, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, Mercury general manager Jim Pitman and Mercury Vice President Ann Meyers Drysdale.
Taurasi broke Tina Thompson's mark of 7,488 points on June 18 to become the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer.0
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La Voz de Galicia C. B.
Caldas / La Voz 12/07/2017 05:00 h
Es un proceso natural que se repite, con mayor o menor intensidad, cada verano y que en circunstancias extremas puede llegar a afectar al abastecimiento de agua a la población. De momento, no es el caso. La Consellería de Medio Ambiente, a través de Augas de Galicia, acaba de decretar el estado de alerta en el embalse del Umia, en el municipio de Caldas de Reis, por la presencia de cianobacterias. En Galicia, además de la presa de A Baxe, está en esta situación el embalse de Beche, en Abegondo.
El aumento de las horas de luz solar y la subida de las temperaturas contribuyen a que prolifere el alga Microcystis en el embalse del Umia. Su multiplicación en colonias acaba tiñendo el agua de la presa de verde. Algo que ya se aprecia en las márgenes del río a su paso por la zona de A Pontenova, en los concellos de Cuntis y Moraña. En el embalse no es visible porque tiene una ocupación del 95,54 %.
Desde la Consellería de Medio Ambiente se hizo hincapié ayer en que el estado de alerta, decretado el 6 de julio, significa que se activa el protocolo de seguimiento de cianobacterias, que conlleva una mayor vigilancia de las aguas. La alerta se decreta y se hace pública cuando se supera un nivel determinado de células, en concreto, 2.000 por mililitro. Según los últimos datos que figuran en el portal del Sistema de Información Ambiental de Galicia (SIAM), el 3 de julio había 4.500 células de Microcystis por mililitro de agua.
Seis años combatiendo el alga de la presa con corteza de eucalipto
La presencia de la cianobacteria Microcystis sp en el embalse de Caldas se descubrió en el año 2006 a raíz del incendio y posterior vertido de la empresa química Brenntag. Uno de los peores años fue el 2010, cuando a mediados de septiembre se superaron los 2,4 millones de células y el nivel de clorofila alcanzó los 342 microgramos por litro. El sistema de depuración de la ETAP de Caldas se colapsó por la presencia del alga y hubo que abastecer a la población con cisternas. La imagen del embalse verde dio la vuelta a España.
En julio del 2011, hace seis años, se inició un tratamiento experimental que consistió en echar corteza de eucalipto a la lámina de agua para minimizar la proliferación del alga. El control de pozos negros y vertidos al Umia fue otra medida de la Xunta.New York's first men's fashion week wrapped up Thursday, with designers hailing the new four-day showcase as an effective platform to reach clients in a quickly growing market.
John Varvatos sent rock-and-roll dandies from the 1970s down the runway in the final show of the week, which saw about 50 labels offer colorful, relaxed and eclectic looks for spring/summer 2016.
Big-name labels Polo Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors and Calvin Klein joined forces with up-and-coming designers Michael Bastian, Tim Coppens and Public School for an exciting week.
Coppens, who was born and raised in Belgium, was thrilled with the new format, explaining: "It's separate, it focuses on men in the first place, because otherwise you always get shown in between all the women brands."
He also noted that the new fashion week was better aligned with the buyers' calendar. Men's collections are ordered in July, when the European shows are all held. Staging a runway show during women's fashion week in September was too late.
"And it is good that it is in New York, because we are based in New York, there is a vibe in New York, there is a freshness, there is something different than in Paris," Coppens said.
"That is very much also part of the brand and what I am about."
- Colorful, relaxed -
A breath of relaxed, colorful fresh air -- with a hint of the 1990s -- wafted through Coppens's show on Wednesday in the brilliant whiteness of the Skylight Clarkson studio in trend-setting West Soho.
"It's a group of kids, hanging around and doing things, the way I used to, like travel to cities with my friends and meet other people there... like when I was 18 or 19 and came to New York for the first time," he told AFP.
For Hilfiger, next summer will be very tailored -- and very colorful, with bright hues of red, yellow and teal.
Nautica focused on what it does best -- bathing suits worn with nothing else, or under an open rain jacket. Some of the prints were based on the iconic Chrysler Building. A smattering of stripes were on display.
Theory was minimalist and androgynous, with half of the men's collection worn by female models. Bastian took inspiration from the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, and also featured women in his show.
After working for two years to bring men's fashion week to life, the Council of Fashion Designers of America made the big announcement in February.
"New York Fashion Week: Men's" will now be held twice a year, in July and January, following established events in London, Milan and Paris.
Before, menswear designers could only stage runway shows during the traditional women's fashion weeks in the Big Apple in September and February, their work often lost in the hundreds of womenswear shows.
"American menswear has never been stronger or more creative," said Steven Kolb, CEO of the CFDA, hailing what he called "an opportunity to demonstrate the collective talent of an important segment of our industry."Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre on Tuesday morning, after interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose called Coderre's remarks about the Energy East pipeline "insulting" and said they threaten national unity.
The meeting between the prime minister and the former Liberal cabinet minister was held at Montreal City Hall. A range of topics, including Energy East, was on the agenda.
Speaking to reporters after, Trudeau said it's not up to the federal government to push for certain pipeline projects, but he was focused on putting in place a clear process for assessing the proposal.
Coderre said the city would participate in this process and stressed the need to strike the right balance between economic and environmental concerns.
Ambrose said Monday that Quebec-based opposition to the west-to-east pipeline project is reminiscent of a time when Trudeau's father was in office.
"I'll tell you that I'm hearing from Albertans, and people in Saskatchewan, that this is just like the [National Energy Program]. That's what they say," Ambrose told reporters Monday, the day Parliament returned for its winter sitting after a prolonged Christmas break.
Coderre, and 81 other mayors from surrounding municipalities, came out against TransCanada's pan-Canadian pipeline project last week — which would convert an existing natural gas pipeline to one transporting crude oil — setting off a war of words with political leaders in the West.
"This is just like back in the 1980s when the last government opposed, put strict measures in place that deflated the Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C. economy," Ambrose said of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau's attempt to nationalize parts of the oil and gas sector, and levy larger taxes on producers.
"My concern is... this is affecting national unity," Ambrose said, adding that some Westerners feel betrayed by Quebecers after shouldering the burden of equalization payments Quebec has relied on for decades.
Ambrose doubled down on her criticism in question period, while taking aim at the prime minister's trip to Davos for the World Economic Forum last week.
"The prime minister should stop using his cellphone for selfies with Leo DiCaprio and pick it up and call Denis Coderre to fight for natural resource jobs," Ambrose said, reminding the prime minister that more than 100,000 people have already lost their jobs in the energy sector.
Interim Opposition Leader Rona Ambrose and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrive for Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill. Trudeau said Monday he would meet with Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre to discuss his opposition to the Energy East pipeline. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
"Does [Trudeau] understand his lack of leadership on this issue is creating divisions in the country?"
Trudeau batted away the question, telling the Tory leader it was unreasonable to expect his government to greenlight a pipeline project in such a short time frame.
"It's interesting Mr. Speaker that the members opposite are criticizing us for not getting done in 10 weeks what they were unable to do in 10 years.
"We are working very, very hard right across the country with municipal leaders, with provincial leaders, to make sure we're creating the social license, the oversight, the environmental responsibility and the partnership with communities to get our resources to market in a responsible way," Trudeau said.
Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr added the government was working to modernize the regulatory process at the National Energy Board and restore its reputation among Canadians before moving ahead with new pipeline projects.
In Question Period, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defends his comments from last weeks speech in Davos, Switzerland. 3:45
Coderre whipping up Western alienation: Ambrose
In her earlier comments, Ambrose called on Trudeau to rein in his "friend," Coderre, himself a former Liberal cabinet minister, before he further whips up Western alienation.
Coderre took a shot at Brian Jean, the leader of the opposition Wildrose Party in Alberta, in an interview with Radio-Canada.
"You have to allow me a moment to laugh at a guy like [Jean], when he says he relies on science," Coderre said. "These are probably the same people who think the Flintstones is a documentary. But that's another story."
Jean dismissed the remark as "gutter politics."
Ambrose invited Coderre — and the other mayors who oppose the project — to come to Alberta to better study the province's new climate change plan, and review its record on pipeline safety before lobbing any criticism at other projects.
"The key to long-term growth for the energy sector across the board is pipelines and, yes, everyone across the country demands that they be build in an environmentally safe way," she said.
"But for Mr. Coderre to come out and insult Albertans and oppose a pipeline that hasn't even been built yet is unfortunate. This isn't the spirit of Confederation, it's not in the spirit of national unity."
Trudeau's Davos remarks 'insulting'
Ambrose also condemned Justin Trudeau for "insulting" Canadians working in the energy sector when he said last week in Davos that he wanted world leaders to know Canada more for its "resourcefulness" than its resources, a comment she said denigrated the work Canadians do in the extraction sector.
"[If] he thinks somehow if you work in the natural resources sector that you're not educated, or these are not high tech jobs with high value added components to them, he's wrong.
"[Trudeau] has not shown yet that he cares about this issue and he cares about the people that are suffering, and that's my concern."
The prime minister said Monday that Ambrose had misinterpreted his remarks, adding that workers in the extraction sector should also be lauded for their resourcefulness.
The Edmonton-area MP said Trudeau needs to take a stand once and for all on the Energy East pipeline to help an industry that is in dire straits, but also to send a message to his "friends at Queen's Park" that bashing the industry is the wrong move.
"There is no light at the end of the tunnel for people. When I was in Calgary [last week], I heard the words 'panic' and 'despair,' and I'm not exaggerating," she said. "I don't think some people realize how dire the situation is in Western Canada. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs."A Romani Gypsy who came to Britain in the first days of relaxed visa rules this year has thanked English taxpayers for unwittingly paying for his new house back in Romania, for which he is siphoning off £60,000 worth of benefits being paid to him and his family.
Apparently dumbfounded by the remarkably generous state welfare handouts in the United Kingdom, Ion Lazar, 36 said: “It’s coming in benefits. It’s like free money, thank you England”. Because Lazar has three children and works part-time as a scrap metal ‘collector’ he pays no tax but is eligible for some £1,700 a month in benefit, all of which he sends back to his home country.
The money is being used to extensively refurbish his house in Romania, which when completed will feature three bedrooms and a large plasma television. The Express newspaper has reported the comments of Lazar, who will feature in a Channel Five documentary being screened tonight. He said: “I know the benefit I can make very easily in England.
“I am very happy because in England I make this money. What can you say – thank you England, she has helped me. I have everything now. I think in two or three years I am going to make £60,000, maybe more.
“All the money that is coming from the benefit and my work is going to Romania because I have a family”.
Another family featured in the programme used money sent home to Poland to establish a restaurant in Warsaw.
Although gypsies like Lazar come from Romania, they are often shrugged by their ethnic Romanian countrymen, and despite finding themselves on the receiving end of discrimination in other European countries are often treated better than at home. Breitbart London reported on the decision of a North-West Italian town this year who, in reaction to a crime wave on local buses after the arrival of a large gypsy encampment voted to establish a new, parallel ‘gypsy only’ bus route.
Speaking at the time of the decision one young woman, was was described as a “blonde haired Moldovan” spoke of the violence that followed a gang of Romani gypsies boarding the bus: “Everyone was attacked. They punched the ticket machine. Then they got on the bus and stuck a knife to my cheek… if it wasn’t for the bus driver, I don’t know how it would have ended”.UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN has launched an investigation into claims that a group of male students shared explicit images of female students they had slept with on social media.
The College Tribune student newspaper reported earlier this week that as many as 200 students have been active in a private Facebook group chat used to share stories about and rate intimate photos of young women.
A spokesperson for UCD confirmed it is investigating the alleged behaviour.
“The university expects each and every one of its students to respect the dignity of all others at all times and in all circumstances,” they said.
The spokesperson added that breaches of the student code may result in sanctions up to and including expulsion from the university.
Lad culture
The controversy comes after another group of UCD students were criticised last year for objectifying women in a male-only Facebook group called ”Girls I’d shift if I were tipsy”.
One of its members was the current president of the university’s SU, Marcus O’Halloran, who apologised for his involvement shortly before he was elected to the position.
“This group is not representative of my opinions on women’s rights or gender equality,” he said at the time.
“There is a ‘lad’ culture prevalent across UCD and, as president, I would like to run a sexual harassment awareness campaign to combat catcalling and the objectification of women,” he added.
A spokesperson for UCDSU told TheJournal.ie today that it will fully support college authorities investigating the allegations of revenge porn.
“We are taking this matter very seriously,” they said.
The spokesperson said UCDSU has run a campus-wide campaign promoting sexual consent since the beginning of the academic year.
The union organised a “slutwalk” against rape culture last semester and is also facilitating consent workshops for students this semester.Image: University of Bath
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Researchers at the University of Bath in England have discovered, contrary to expectations, that in the field of “Valleytronics,” valley polarization can make electron spin polarization in silicon transistors easier. This discovery could have an impact on the development of silicon-based “spintronic” devices and quantum computing.
Despite this blog having covered the field dubbed “Valleytronics” with increasing frequency over the past year, it remains a fairly esoteric research area. A shorthand definition for valleytronics would be a movement away from exploiting the electrical charge of electrons as a means for storing information, and instead using the wave quantum number of an electron in a crystalline material to encode data. The “valley” of the portmanteau “valleytronics” refers to the shape of the graph you get when you plot the energy of electrons relative to their momentum: the resulting curve features two valleys.
Our coverage of the field has focused on efforts to achieve this effect with two-dimensional semiconductors such as graphene and tungsten diselenide. However, the UK researchers have focused their research on valleytronics in silicon.
The history of valleytronics in silicon is not one of achievement but more of an annoying curse. In silicon transistors, valleys cause electrons to lose speed. And in research for quantum-information-based devices, the valleys lead to decoherence, which can ruin the quantum state of so-called quantum computers.
In research published in the journal Nature Communications, the UK researchers looked at the behavior of electrons in the valleys of silicon-on-insulator quantum wells when exposed to a magnetic field. Conventional wisdom suggested that it would be more difficult to polarize the electrons after having polarized the valley, but the researchers discovered that the opposite was true.
Kei Takashina, lead author of the research said in a press release:
Our paper establishes the effect valley-polarization has on spin polarization in silicon transistors by using our unique capability to polarize valleys in the steady state. According to a simplistic way in which electrons are often thought about—that they move around independently of each other—it should become twice as difficult to polarize spins when valleys are polarized. In stark contrast, we find that at low enough electron density, it becomes easier to align their spin when valleys are frozen. This is a striking demonstration of how interactions between electrons lead to qualitatively new behavior.
Takashina believes that being able to control the valley polarization electrically will lead to new approaches to the development of either new silicon-based “spintronic” devices or interface complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology with silicon-based quantum information processing.Mario Balotelli has been in good form for Nice this season
Italy head coach Gian Piero Ventura is planning talks with Mario Balotelli, potentially paving the way for a return to the squad for World Cup qualifying.
The 26-year-old has not played for Italy since the ill-fated 2014 World Cup campaign in Brazil, where the four-time champions exited at the first hurdle for the second successive edition.
But following his disastrous stint at Liverpool and an ineffective loan spell at AC Milan, Balotelli has revived his flagging career at French side Nice, hitting eight league goals this season.
"I think no-one doubts Balotelli the player, his qualities are indisputable. He was sidelined due to other, behavioural factors," Ventura told the Tiki Taka television programme.
Balotelli last featured for Italy at the 2014 World Cup
"He has to resolve these problems by himself. Sometime in the future I will be going to watch a couple of Mario's games and I will speak with him. Not to fix his problems, but to discuss them with him."
Balotelli is currently embroiled in a dispute with Ligue 1 club Bastia after claiming to have been subjected to monkey chants at the Corsicans' ground last week.
Italy are tied with Spain at the top of their 2018 World Cup qualifying group after winning three and drawing one of their first four games.
They host Albania on March 24 and are expected to fight for top spot, which offers direct qualification for Russia, when they play Spain away on September 2,Slaven Bilic became the fourth Premier League manager to lose his job this season - but what month is the busiest for managerial casualties?
Frank de Boer was the first top-flight boss to face the sack this term in September, after just five games and 77 days in charge at Crystal Palace.
Crystal Palace sacked Frank de Boer after 77 days in charge
In October, Leicester axed Craig Shakespeare after 219 days at the helm, before Everton dismissed Ronald Koeman six days later.
In fact, all four clubs are among the most prolific of current top-flight teams for changing managers during the Premier League era.
Southampton have had more Premier league managers than any other club, excluding interim appointments
Bilic was the first casualty this month, but pressure is mounting on Swansea's Paul Clement, West Brom's Tony Pulis and Southampton's Mauricio Pellegrino.
Slaven Bilic became the first Premier League managerial casualty in November this year
We calculated the number of departures for bosses that managed in the Premier League during their reign since 1992, by month, and excluding interim appointments, to reveal when managers should be most concerned about losing their jobs…
DANGEROUS MONTHS
During the season, managers should be most concerned about their positions in the current month of November.
There have been 32 departures in the Premier League during that month, of which Tottenham, QPR and Portsmouth have each dismissed three.
Across the entire year, May is the most prolific month for sackings with 48 to date - but 29 of those occurred in the second half of the month.
During the season, November is the most prolific month for managerial causalities
As Shakespeare and Koeman discovered this term, October (25 departures) is the fifth-worst month for job security, behind December (31).
However, managers can take a sigh of relief if they make it through the festive period into New Year.
Everton sacked Ronald Koeman last month
Only 17 bosses have lost their jobs in January, and the same number in February - nearly half the total from November or December.
Throughout the year, the safest month for a boss is during the pre-season month of July (six). During the season, the best months for job security are the season-opening month of August and the penultimate month of April (both 10).
DANGEROUS DAYS
June 1 is the most prolific day for managerial exits, with nine bosses leaving their respective clubs on that day over the last 25 years. During the season, the busiest day for clubs severing contracts early is October 25 (five) - joint with May 24.
Departures on that day in October include Tim Sherwood (Aston Villa), Harry Redknapp (Portsmouth), Juande Ramos, Martin Jol (both Tottenham) and Ray Harford (Blackburn) - although Redknapp had resigned to replace Ramos at Spurs and Harford quit after a poor start to the season.
Tottenham sacked Martin Jol on October 25, 2007 and was replaced with Harry Redknapp
So, Premier League managers feeling the heat should count down the days to New Year and hope for a prosperous spring.
However, Southampton's most prolific month for dismissals is January and at Chelsea, behind May, it's February - emphasising that no month is safe for a Premier League boss.Twitter users are attacking U.S. Strategic Command (Stratcom) for promoting a Breitbart News article on its official Twitter account.
Top General: ‘Nearly All Elements of Nuclear Triad’ Outdated. Story: https://t.co/tmxbusyedr — US Strategic Command (@US_Stratcom) April 5, 2017
StratCom’s tweet included a link to a Tuesday article from the right-wing news outlet titled, “Top General: 'Nearly All Elements of Nuclear Triad outdated.’ ”
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The article — written by Kristina Wong, a former defense reporter for The Hill — centers on a warning from the commander of U.S. nuclear forces to modernize the nation's arsenal.
“At a time when our adversaries have significantly modernized and continued to upgrade their nuclear forces, nearly all elements of the nuclear triad are operating beyond their designed service life,” Stratcom commander Gen. John Hyten told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday.
Multiple Twitter users lashed out at Stratcom for linking to the Breitbart News article.
@US_Stratcom Outrageous you would retweet and source this racist and discredited "news" site. Demand a retraction. — Jon (((Wolfsthal))) (@JBWolfsthal) April 6, 2017
@US_Stratcom Good freaking grief. US Strategic Command is linking to Breitbart "News." This is getting really bad, folks. https://t.co/UjIH4O7GMh — Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) April 6, 2017
White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon served as executive chairman of Breitbart before becoming the chief executive of President Trump’s campaign last year.
Breitbart has faced criticism for its proximity to the alt-right movement, which detractors say at times promotes anti-Semitism, misogyny and racism.
Stratcom in a statement on Thursday defending its promotion of a Breitbart article.
"US Strategic Command uses social media and web tools to inform the public about its missions, people and activities," it said.
"We routinely repurpose stories of interest via social media that contain factual and accurate information about the command and its missile sets," Stratcom added.
"Our policy is that we do not endorse, nor discriminate against, any particular news organization."
This report was updated at 10:57 a.m.An extraordinary time lapse video showing the changing borders of Europe over the course of the past 1,000 years has re-emerged as a hit among social media users in the wake of the ongoing Crimean crisis.
David Cameron warned yesterday that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula had “sent a chilling message across the continent of Europe”.
Perhaps looking to provide a bit of context to the newly-changed border – which has not been recognised by the wider international community – Twitter users have been sharing the map in their thousands.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
Covering the years from 1,000 AD to around 2003, it was created using software from the Centennia Historical Atlas.
Following popular demand from viewers online, the video has had a year counter added at the bottom, though it fairly evidently fails at times to synchronise with major historical events.
The video shows the rise and fall of the Holy Roman, Ottoman and Golden Horde empires, the changing landscape of the British Isles and the until-recently patchwork nature of what is now Germany.
All taking place in just three minutes and 30 seconds (and set to the slightly jarring accompaniment of Hans Zimmer’s Inception score), it offers a timely reminder of the nature of European borders which, thanks to Mr Putin’s endeavours, remain in flux to this day.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe nowThe Roots Pull Out of NYC Bowie Tributes Due to “Bitchassness”
The star-packed New York tributes to David Bowie are set to kick off at Carnegie Hall tonight, with an encore concert scheduled for tomorrow night at Radio City Music Hall. Slated to play the events are Patti Smith, the Flaming Lips, Mumford & Sons, Pixies, Michael Stipe and many more, but notably absent from the performances will be The Roots, as drummer and bandleader Questlove announced via Instagram last night.
Apparently, there was an issue between Questlove and another unnamed act that refused to allow The Roots to borrow some equipment. As the drummer writes, “I’ve never been so insecure or petty as to deny a fellow musician use of ANY of my equipment (or my band’s equipment——or resources or contacts or knowledge or ANYTHING) it angers me when that same courtesy is not reciprocated.”
Questlove goes on to say that he was “about to get #TomPetty #PettyWap,” etc., but apparently decided against it. “But I’m also keeping it true: The Roots/Bilal/Kimbra (w/ Wendy Melvoin, DD Jackson & Ray Angry) pulled out of these Bowie gigs. We have patience. But we do NOT have patience for the #Bitchassness. Enjoy your precious equipment.”
See the full post below.A majority of respondents in a new poll think a government shutdown should be avoided at all costs.
A Politico/Morning Consult poll finds 63 percent of voters want Congress to take any necessary measures to avoid a shutdown.
Just 18 percent think that a government shutdown should be allowed if it assists lawmakers in accomplishing their policy goals. Another 19 percent don't know or don't have an opinion.
Forty-two percent of voters though, think that it would definitely be worth shutting down the government over the Children's Health Insurance Program.
About one-third of voters, 34 percent, said it would definitely be worth shutting down the government over hurricane-recovery aid.
Just 20 percent of voters think funding for President Trump's proposed wall along the country's southern border would definitely be worth a shutdown.
And only 25 of respondents think protections for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program would definitely be worth a government shutdown.
The poll was conducted from Dec. 1 to 3 among 1,997 voters. The margin of error is 2 percentage point.
The current funding deal expires on Dec. 8. Last month, Trump cast doubt on Washington's ability to avoid a government shutdown, writing on Twitter he didn't believe a deal could be reached with Democrats.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are planning to head to the White House on Thursday for end-of-the-year negotiations with Trump.
They said in a statement they "are hopeful the President will be open to an agreement to address the urgent needs of the American people and keep government open.”The Miami Heat are working on incorporating a lot of new players into a new system. As Erik Spoelstra, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh get used to life after, well, you know, there will likely be a lot of adjustments and changes. Tuesday night’s preseason win against the Houston Rockets have us a glimpse at how Spoelstra will use his players, at least at the beginning of the season.
The point guard rotation is still difficult to predict, and could be dictated by who among Mario Chalmers, Norris Cole and Shabazz Napier has the hot hand. Chalmers was the most effective of the three on Tuesday, so he closed the game. Napier, who closed many other preseason games, was zero-for-seven from the floor and Cole wasn’t aggressive on offense.
McRoberts hasn’t played all preseason, and Shawne Williams has gotten a lot of minutes in his place. He’s made the most of it, too, and looks like he will make the final 15-man roster.
Looking at who won’t make the team, we can assume Larry Drew II, Andre Dawkins, Tyler Johnson and Shawn Jones won’t make the regular season roster. One of either Justin Hamilton and Khem Birch will likely make the team.
Let’s take a look, based on how the preseason has played out–and, more specifically, the rotation used in Miami’s regular-season dress rehearsal against Houston–at Miami’s projected depth chart.
Point Guard
1. Norris Cole
2. Shabazz Napier
Cole has started most of the preseason, and it seems Spoelstra likes his on-ball defense to start games. Moreover, he may like Chalmers’ aggressiveness coming off the bench as the sixth man. Since Napier is just a rookie, that makes Cole the starter by default. We’ve talked a lot about the point guard battle in this space, but once Napier shows he can be consistent and earns the starting job, Cole becomes expendable.*
Shooting Guard
1. Dwyane Wade
2. Mario Chalmers
3. Shannon Brown
D-Wade has looked healthy and spry in the preseason. Hopefully that lasts this regular season and he doesn’t end up missing nearly 30 games like he did last season. Chalmers is listed as a shooting guard because he’s the sixth man, likely sliding in to rest Wade. Count him more as a combo-guard though. Like we saw against Houston, Spo’s willing to allow him to play off the ball or bring it up. Brown didn’t log any minutes against the Rockets and figures to be at the end of the bench. But he should see some time this season. On nights when Wade can’t go, he could even get the start in order to maintain the rotational pattern.**
Small Forward
1. Luol Deng
2. Danny Granger
3. James Ennis
Despite Spo playing around with different guys at small forward, some three-guard lineups and playing Granger at the 4 this preseason, Deng and Granger split all the minutes at small forward Tuesday against Houston. Deng played nearly 32 minutes and Granger nearly 16. That’s all 48 minutes. Maybe Granger plays some 4 and Ennis logs some time, but expect this to be the norm this season.***
Power Forward
1. Josh McRoberts
2. Shawne Williams
3. Udonis Haslem
McRoberts, still recovering from offseason toe surgery, hasn’t played this preseason. Williams has been starting in his place, playing upwards of 30 minutes per game. Look for McRoberts to get those minutes once he returns, something like 32 minutes a game. Williams has earned the backup power forward position, and should log nearly 10 minutes per game. As in years past, Haslem will be used sparingly. But his time will come.****
Center
1. Chris Bosh
2. Chris Andersen
3. Khem Birch
This is the most straight-forward position for the Heat. Bosh will log something close to 34 minutes per game and Andersen will get his usual 20. Birch will hardly play in the regular season and could be optioned to the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the D-League. Andersen remains the team’s third big, and we will see some Chris and Chris lineups this season when Bosh slides to the 4 spot.
*Napier is the more natural point guard on the roster. If he shows up, Cole could be moved from a 3-and-D wing or backup big. Just don’t expect a deal centered around a draft pick. A Cole for Shumpert swap–both on expiring deals–still makes sense for me.
**That’s quite a difference, I know. But Toney Douglas went from zero to 30 quite a few times last season and logged a few starts in Wade’s absence. Brown is the closest thing to Wade the Heat have in terms of his ball handling, defense and athleticism. Though, moreover, his drive to get to the rim is what’s most similar. If Wade has to sit out due to his knee, simply throwing Brown into the starting lineup makes the most sense.
***By the way, I wrote this in the pre-preseason version of this post: “When it comes to small forward, think 2010 Dallas Mavericks with Shawn Marion andVince Carter. Marion started games with defensive intensity and selective shooting while Carter came in later to add a scoring punch. That kind of complementary play is the best-case scenario for the Heat, with Deng a better version of Marion and Granger a less effective, less healthy version of Vince.”
****Justin Hamilton is absent from this depth chart, as he continues to recover from an off-season heart procedure. I’ll guess he recovers in the D-League before being an option to get called up once again.F |
the body -- prompting a person to drink liquids -- usually to satiate a dry feeling in the throat or mouth. Sweating, urination and vomiting are among things that can cause you to eliminate more water and salt than you take in. This results in dehydration and thirst. Drinking water is typically healthy, but persistent excessive thirst can indicate an underlying physical or emotional problem. Excessive thirst, experienced without any notable reason, is referred to as Polydipsia. Simple at-home solutions can alleviate the annoyance of an occasional episode of excessive thirst.
Determine if an activity is responsible for the feeling of excessive thirst. Consuming spicy or hot foods, exposure to warm temperatures and physical activity, can all increase your thirst.
Notice how much water you're consuming daily. As of 2010, the Mayo Clinic reports that, in general, doctors recommend drinking eight or nine glasses of water daily. Actively consume that amount to hydrate your body.
Adjust your fluid intake according to your physical activity and surroundings. If you are in warm, dry surroundings, or participating in more physical activity than you normally do, increase your fluid intake.
Consider natural remedies, if excessive thirst persists. Chinese food therapy suggests at-home options for excessive thirst.
For a one-time at-home remedy, wash two raw mangoes and cut them into chunks. Add half a cup of sugar to the fruit then mix, and then boil them in water until they turn soft. Add a teaspoon of mint leaf paste, half a teaspoon of cumin seed powder and salt as desired. Chill before drinking. Mangoes help prevent loss of water from the body, and aid with excessive thirst and even heat stroke.
You can also mix juice from half of a cut lemon into lukewarm water, which can aid in excessive thirst. Add a pinch of rock salt to the mixture and drink it slowly. Sour foods, including lemons, consolidate and stop loss of body fluid, thus allowing your body to retain liquid and halt excessive thirst.
Submerge an uncut sour green apple in boiling water. Remove the water and apple from heat and allow the apple to bathe overnight. The next morning, remove the apple and discard the water. Extract the juice from the fruit. This can be done by crushing the apple. Drink the extract and repeat the process daily, for five to seven days.
Another option is to add honey or sugar to tomato juice made with fresh tomatoes. Drink the juice daily for five to seven consecutive days to satiate thirst.
Consult a doctor if the excessive thirst persists, and cannot be quenched. Diabetes can cause thirst, so it's important to rule out medical conditions. In some cases, a very strong urge to drink may also indicate a psychological problem -- so seek the advice of your doctor.Australia's Great Barrier Reef is under serious threat as warming waters kill off large swaths of corals. But it's not "in danger" — at least not according to UNESCO.
The United Nations cultural body this week voted to leave the 133,000-square-mile World Heritage Site off its list of endangered sites, which is the last stage before a site is delisted altogether. Perplexingly, the same body last month warned the Great Barrier Reef will be dead by the end of this century unless countries sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
So, why the disconnect?
SEE ALSO: This adorable baby turtle blob is bringing hope to Southeast Asia
Because the decision has less to do with the reef's imperiled condition and more to do with avoiding political embarrassment for Australia's government and lasting damage to Australia's tourism industry.
Nemo, found. Image: evergreen/unesco
The coral reef system represents around A$56 billion — or $42.4 billion in U.S. dollars — in economic, social, and brand value to the Australian economy, Deloitte Access Economics said in a recent report. The reef's status as a World Heritage Site is part of what makes it so iconic, recognizable, and inspiring to tourists around the world.
Australian officials breathed a sigh of relief after the World Heritage Committee voted on late Wednesday in Krakow, Poland.
"The announcement overnight was a big win for Australia and a big win for the [Malcolm] Turnbull government," Australia's Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg told Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Image: UNESCO
He said the vote was "a strong endorsement" of the government's Reef 2050 plan to improve water quality, reduce land clearing, and increase the reef's resilience to climate change by mid-century.
But coral reef experts and environmental groups said they were frustrated by the outcome.
Putting the Great Barrier Reef on the endangered list would create pressure on the Australian government to reduce planet-warming emissions and to take more aggressive steps to combat marine pollution, starfish invasions, and other local threats, critics said.
"An endangerment listing, as tragic as that would be, would be a more realistic representation of the state of reef and would at least force the federal government to act on climate change," Alix Foster Vander Elst, Greenpeace Australia Pacific campaigner, told Reuters.
Damaged corals of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Image: ED ROBERTS/ARC CENTRE CORAL REEF STUDIES HANDOUT/EPA/REX/Shutterstock
Even with its 2050 plan, Australia's management of the expansive natural wonder is facing increasing criticism as sweeping sections of the reef turn bleach-white.
In 2015 and 2016, the Great Barrier Reef suffered its largest die-off ever recorded due to unusually warm waters, with 35 percent of corals on the northern and central reef declared dead, the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies said in late May.
Scientists blamed human-caused global warming and a strong 2015 to 2016 El Niño for the hotter water temperatures, which can cause coral bleaching. In this phenomenon, corals expel their symbiotic algae and become more vulnerable to disease and death.
Sea surface temperature departures from average in March 2016. Image: Mitchell Black
At the meeting in Poland, the World Heritage Committee did express "serious concern" about the health of the reef, which includes over 600 coral types and provides shelter and sustenance for thousands of marine species — everything from algae, worms, and snails to fish, turtles, and sharks.
But the decision not to list the reef as "in danger" suggests the committee believes the Australian government is doing enough to keep the precious reef from disappearing.
Given how rapidly oceans are warming, however, those efforts will likely fall far short, experts say.by Professors Lynn F Jacobs and Jeremy S Hyman
Many students feel out of gas just as the semester is heating up. Right around Midterms. Even though the semester isn’t even half over (and in many cases, much less than half the grade has been awarded), some students are already in a giant rut, wondering if this lame semester will ever end. But there’s hope. Especially if you follow our 10 best study tips for just-about-now:
#1 Make a move. Most people have a favorite place they like to study. But sometimes the place isn’t really conducive to good studying: it could be noisy or unpleasant, or it could simply have bad associations for you (like when you studied there unsuccessfully for the first test). Suggestion? Find a new place to study, one that will allow you to prepare really well for your midterms and, hopefully, put you in a better, non-defeatist mood. You’d be amazed at how much a change of scenery can help.
#2 Don’t go it alone. Many students get in a rut by staring down their computer, textbook, or notes all by their lonesome self. Your studying might go a lot easier if you join a study group, either in the flesh or virtually by Skype (Skype can now accommodate up to nine students). Not only will you feel better when you see other people sharing your pain, you might be able to have them explain to you some of the more difficult concepts that you didn’t fully get your mind around.
#3 Play with a full deck. Once in a while, you find as you get into your studying that you’re missing a key element that you really need to have. Perhaps you skipped some classes and don’t have notes, perhaps you didn’t get some handout, or perhaps there was an article or reading that you didn’t download. Since some professors test by “sampling”—that is, they select from among the material and figure that how well you address that issue is representative of how well you’ve learned the other material—you’ll be at a big disadvantage if you haven’t had all the material available to study. Why take the risk? Get all the stuff before you start to study. Use the textbook problems that your professor didn’t assign for homework as a practice quiz, Chegg has textbook solutions that walk you through the answer, a great way to check your work or get unstuck.
#4 Look to the skills. One of the main depressants around midterm time is when you realize that you didn’t really want to study Plato’s theory of knowledge and the theory of forms in the Phaedo. Sure, you had this humanities distribution requirement, and it seemed like Honors Introduction to Philosophy would be a good pick. But really? You’ll take some comfort, and be better motivated, if you attend to the skills you’re learning in the process: things like careful reading, perspicuous writing, thinking on your feet—all skills that you can use in other courses and eventually incorporate into a career.
#5 Visit the pros. Around midterm time professors and TAs are quite happy to visit with students, and to receive their e-mails, especially if you’ve been following the course and have good questions to ask. Not only will this help you improve your grade (in the best case), it’ll afford you one-on-one time with a real expert in the subject you’re studying. And if that’s not a lift, we don’t know what is. Chegg now has online tutors, who can instantly lend a hand with any subject. Up to 2 hours free »
Extra Pointer. If there’s a review session for the midterm, well, that’s a no-brainer...
#6 Divide and conquer. Studying will go a lot easier—and you’ll feel a lot better about it—if you break your preparation into bite-sized, manageable pieces. Not only will the task seem smaller—which will keep you upbeat about the activity—you will avoid procrastination and (surprise) build up speed as the preparation goes on.
5-Star Tip. Use the lulls. If you find yourself having free time between the major sessions preparing for one course, fill in the time with drudgework from other courses. For instance, if you’ve planned five two-hour sessions to prepare for your two-variable calculus midterm, but you find yourself with an extra 20 minutes on your hand, memorize a few German words or a few slides for your art history class. Even squeezed-in studying reduces the load.
#7 Increase your efficiency. The task of studying sometimes gets needlessly increased by doing things that needn’t be done. Doing all the reading again, copying over your notes, spending huge amounts of time on issues that will count at most 10 percent of the test—all of these are counterproductive activities that add to your workload and make the task seem overwhelming.
Reality Check. If the professor has given you sample questions or problems in advance of the midterm, make sure that you focus your studying on these. Very often, the questions that appear on the real test are minor variants (or, in the best case, exact replicas) of the questions handed out in advance.
#8 Don’t be an apatosaurus. According to popular images, the apatosaurus (or, as he used to be called, the brontosaurus) spends his life looking backwards. And so might you, especially if you haven’t done all that well on previous quizzes and tests in the course. Don’t. Keep in mind that each test or paper is independent of all the previous ones, and consequently, there’s no reason you need to do badly on the upcoming test just because you did badly on the last one (especially if you’ve taken the time to read the comments, redo the problems, or figure out how you could have done better).
#9 Shed commitments. Sometimes students feel overwhelmed around midterm time simply because they have too much on their plate. If you find yourself swamped with service projects, social activities, or family responsibilities, see if you can put one off or (gasp) tell someone no. After all, your midterm week should be at least as important as being a greeter at the community art gallery.
#10 Give yourself a reward. Studying will go a lot easier if you take one big break and do something you really, really would like to do: go to the $150-a-seat NHL game, buy the two-hour spa treatment, or spend at least part of the night at the club you’ve always wanted to go to (but have never quite gotten around to). Not only will this lift your spirits, you’ll find yourself studying better when you’re in a relaxed and upbeat mood.
Bonus Tip. If you’re sick, stop studying and get an extension. No one is served well when you have to rush out of the exam room to throw up (and you won’t get a good grade on that test, either).
If you liked the tips in this article, you’ll love the 837 tips in our newly-revised The Secrets of College Success: Over 800 Tips, Techniques, and Strategies Revealed. Write us with questions or blog ideas at jeremy@professorsguide.com. And follow us on Twitter @professorsguide. We’d love to hear from you – really.
© 2014 Professors’ Guide LLC. All rights reserved.We've all gotten angry at that laughing dog on Duck Hunt. Some of us may still hold a grudge. Well, this modified mid '80s Glock pistol may finally ease some of those NES frustrations on the practice range.directed me to this custom firearm created by Precision Syndicate LLC that looks strikingly similar to the Nintendo Zapper gun.
However, it's not the first of its kind. After posting the Mashable link on Facebook, a friend of mine ( EngineerNerd ) was quick to point me to a video of a similar Zapper Glock in action! Jerry Miculek posted a video onback in March that shows the pistol in action. Jerry also dresses as Mario riding Yoshii to add a little humor. Add an extra long clip and some slow-motion camera work and you have some very nostalgic amusement...As we welcome in a new year, you may be among the masses who are making resolutions to have healthier lifestyles and to pursue a higher level of overall fitness. I want to encourage you in your journey to wellness and health! 🙂
Wellness and Weight Loss in the New Year
It is no secret that I love essential oils. My whole family and I use them on a daily basis. One of the things I love the most about them is that they are 100% natural. They are not full of harmful chemicals or harsh toxins that could damage the very body you and I are working hard to keep healthy. I absolutely love essential oils for weight loss too! I am going to share my top 3 essential oils for weight loss (and my favorite essential oil wooden storage box)!
Ginger Essential Oil – I love ginger for its spicy yet sweet scent but there is so much more to this essential oil than just a nice aroma. Gentle on the digestive system, this oil is a powerhouse at the cellular level. Ginger essential oil is most known for its naturally occurring properties which reduce inflammation and help stimulate your body to turn fat cells into energy!
– I love ginger for its spicy yet sweet scent but there is so much more to this essential oil than just a nice aroma. Gentle on the digestive system, this oil is a powerhouse at the cellular level. Ginger essential oil is most known for its naturally occurring properties which reduce inflammation and help stimulate your body to turn fat cells into energy! Grapefruit Essential Oil – I have friends who wear this oil as perfume! Its lovely aroma is youthful and invigorating. This oil has won the popularity contest for most loved oil for weight loss too. grapefruit essential oil works hard to help your body boost its metabolism, eliminate fat and toxins all while cutting back on bloating.
– I have friends who wear this oil as perfume! Its lovely aroma is youthful and invigorating. This oil has won the popularity contest for most loved oil for weight loss too. grapefruit essential oil works hard to help your body boost its metabolism, eliminate fat and toxins all while cutting back on bloating. Fennel Essential Oil – This oil is not quite as well known the others but it is a wonderful aid for weight loss as it naturally aids your body in increasing the rate of your metabolism while it helps you feel full for longer periods of time.
How to Best Use the Essential Oils Listed Above
These Essential Oils can be:
diffused in a diffuser (I have this one from Amazon).
You can take them internally – please do your own research here on internal use as not all essential oils are safe to be ingested – (one or two drops each) in a tall glass of water or in a full stainless steel water bottle.
If you don’t care for the taste you can also drop the drops in veggie capsules.
These essential oils are also wonderful applied topically (one drop is enough) on the base of the neck and on pulse points.Israel-based web design company Wix has acquired longtime internet pillar DeviantArt for $36 million, according to a statement by the two companies. The purchase will give DeviantArt users access to Wix tools to improve their profiles, while Wix designers will also gain “access to DeviantArt’s thriving community of tens of millions of visual artists.” “Over […]
Israel-based web design company Wix has acquired longtime internet pillar DeviantArt for $36 million, according to a statement by the two companies. The purchase will give DeviantArt users access to Wix tools to improve their profiles, while Wix designers will also gain “access to DeviantArt’s thriving community of tens of millions of visual artists.”
“Over its 16-year history, DeviantArt has built an impressive online community that is incredibly loyal, highly engaged and regularly produces stunning art and design,” said Wix Co-Founder and CEO Avishai Abrahami. “The DeviantArt community is talented and robust and hungry for additional product expertise. We understand their passion, share their creative vision and are excited to offer the power of the Wix platform to their millions of artists.”
DeviantArt is a survivor in many ways. Founded in the early 2000s, it gained immense popularity with a niche concept. In spite of that limited scope, it attracted a collection of photographers, graphic artists, painters, and many amateurs to create their own artistic profiles. The website’s traffic ranks 63rd in the United States and 91st in the world at nearly 200 million views per month according to SimilarWeb.
“We founded DeviantArt to enable the creative spirit in everyone, creating a platform dedicated to the vision and talent of the community which could be shared with the world,” said DeviantArt Co-Founder and CEO Angelo Sotira, who joins Wix’s management team but will remain at DA’s longtime headquarters in Los Angeles. “This combined effort with Wix creates new opportunities for innovation never before seen on the Internet and an amazing super-charged offering to our community members. We look forward to being part of the Wix team, and we are humbled by the respect and love they have shown to our community.”
The notion of utilizing DA as an augment to Wix web design sounds good in theory, but might be difficult logistically. If one tried to think up how the two companies might build out that sort of option for DeviantArtists, one could imagine a freelance option being added to the website, a professional account premium membership for networking, or a simple way for businesses to contact artists to reach licensing agreements for their work. Wix CFO Lior Shemesh told Geektime he would not elaborate on exactly what they were thinking, but did offer some clues.
“Think about it this way. DeviantArt has the largest community for artists and Wix is one of the platforms for website builders. Many of our customers are designers as well. What we want to create is a situation if you are a website using Wix to manage your business, you can now create a [DeviantArt] profile and enjoy a very large community. Share your ideas with other people, share it within groups, get feedback on the work that you do.”
As a portal which has withstood 16 years of internet development and survives from an era when MySpace once ruled the web, it is hard to imagine DeviantArt being negatively affected by integrating more options into the site. Yet it could be the site’s consistency — with a little help from such a design-savvy community — that has enabled it to weather the storms and be one of the few powerhouse sites to be active during four presidential administrations.
Anyone who remembers how the site looked in the early days might be surprised by how little it has changed outside of its logo. The simple green layout and even its tucked away left sidebar menu are carryovers from over a decade ago, yet the site does not at all look antiquated. In spite of the rise and fall of several other social platforms, DA has had staying power and managed to build up its community over the same period of time. That’s an asset with which Wix’s web-savvy and marketing prowess will be careful not to tamper.
“We’ll continue to develop the community, make it even greater, larger and better. This is the affinity between the two companies. This combined platform will be really powerful, providing for the first time a place where they can manage anything they want,” Shemesh conveyed. “If you have a profile using DeviantArt, obviously [once] we complete our integration we can also use the power of the Wix platform whereas not only will you have a profile but also a website where you can sell your product.”In case you are wondering, Jolie did not and will not ever watch last night's episode. My believing that Shannon set me up and my response to Nina and Jaci's "neutrocious" (yes, I said that) lies will be revisited at the reunion, so Jolie probably will not be watching that either. I also asked the parents of Jolie's friends to please refrain from having their children watch the episode. The atrocious things that were said about me and my inappropriate responses, hopefully will never get back to "Shnuks" aka Jolie. I am so thankful that Jolie is still out of school for the summer while this episode is aired.
Losing my temper at the dinner party for Meghan was almost completely inexcusable. I acted like a raving lunatic. I admit I was wrong in many ways. I was embarrassed by my hysterical rants. I embarrassed my family and everybody involved. I want to apologize again here to Shannon and Tamra for the horrible names I called them. Of course they were in no way true or deserved. I also want to apologize to Meghan for ruining her special night. Clearly, I offended Heather's delicate sensibilities, so I apologize to her for that too.
The show is called REAL Housewives. It's real when I said I have anger management problems. My faults were on full display in this week's episode. This was me at my worst.
For someone to get irate there usually has to be a triggering event. For me, it was the fact that I believe Shannon set me up by giving Jaci and Nina a forum to spread vicious lies about my character. I have written about the set up in my blog now for the past few weeks. So, I am not going to restate the facts again here. Shannon denied it again at Kitiyama and continues to deny it to this day. In the '70s episode she fabricated some cock-and-bull story about Nina having some reason to attack me. At the sushi dinner, Shannon denied that Nina said "I don't need to suck anybody's dick to pay my bills" when she was sitting right there next to Nina on the couch, heard her say it, and told Nina she was keeping it real.
Shannon said I attacked her three times. On Heather's boat party I was joking with her about USC. Go back and watch it. I fist-bumped her to let her know it was a joke. So that strike doesn't count. At the '70s party I believe she set me up. So she initiated it. When I offered an olive branch to try to reconcile over lunch, she never admitted the truth, never apologized, and was equally guilty of yelling at me. We were both in the wrong. At Kitiyama, I was clearly in the wrong. So, by my count that's one strike.
In TV time it has been three weeks since the '70s party. Go Team USA! In real time, it was only a couple of days between me visiting Tamra at her house and the dinner at Kitiyama. When Tamra relayed the information that Nina Potter said I suck dick for money, it didn't really bother me at first because it was such a ridiculous lie. However, when I came home and I told Michael what Tamra had told me, he was pissed, which in turn got me pissed. Then Vicki comes over for dinner and I tell her what Tamra told me and she said, well Jolie may see it and other people who don't know you may hear about it as well. Now I am doubly pissed.
So, at Kitiyama I was thinking about what Tamra had told me and Vicki's advice. I felt distraught and started to cry. Then, I wanted to lash out at the source of my pain. I was trying to explain to the ladies how hurtful Nina's comments were. How could a mother say that about another mother? I felt I had to defend my character. So, I was explaining that I come from a good family, have a great work ethic, am financially secure and college educated. Shannon jumped in and criticized me when I said I went to college. That set me off. My temper boiled over. Regardless, I regret telling her to shut the f*** up and calling her a c***.
Tamra jumped in and said if I dish it out, I have to be able to take it. She is right. When I called Tamra a dumb f***, it was a case of ready, aim, fire. I should have directed my anger at Shannon, but Tamra got caught in the crossfire. I regret having said that to Tamra. To Tamra's credit though, she is resilient and forgiving. She bounced right back and didn't hold a grudge.
Did you all notice how Meghan said that at the '70s party she heard Nina say "I don't have to suck anybody's dick to pay my bills"? Huh? Meghan was in the other room at the time and couldn't have personally heard Nina say that. It just goes to show that rumors spread like wildfire. Meghan must have heard it from Tamra or Shannon before we had dinner.
So by now, dinner has gone loco. Heather said my behavior and the whole scene disgusted her. She had a good reason to be offended.
Interestingly, Heather must think she is the CPO (Chief Protocol Officer) and self-appointed boss of this crew. Trying to kick me out of my friend's party was uncalled for. She had no right to tell me to leave, that wasn't her party. Like I said, Heather tried to make it all about her.
You see at the end of the episode I am joking again, even after such as emotional night. It just goes to show that while I may get mad, I don't stay mad. I bounce right back, looking to have a good time. I am headed out of town. I will be in Hong Kong when the next episode airs. Fingers crossed, I hope things go better for me next week.A senior Afghan general has been arrested on charges of corruption and misuse of power, a government spokesman said.
Major General Mohammad Moeen Faqir was arrested by the Attorney Generals' Anticorruption Justice Center, defense ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said in a statement on March 27. He did not provide further details.
The government deployed Faqir to crack down on corruption in the restive province of Helmand, in southern Afghanistan, in 2016.
Faqir took command of the Afghan Army's 215th Corps after the former commander there was accused of making payments to non-existent "ghost soldiers."
At the time, a U.S. military spokesman said the Pentagon was "very, very impressed" with Faqir, saying "he is personally invested in turning around the 215th Corps."
In October, Faqir himself was replaced with no official explanation.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has promised to stamp out corruption in the government and the security services.
The Anticorruption Justice Center is among several new government taskforces to be established to target high-level officials accused of corruption.
Faqir's arrest came on the same day the Afghan defence and interior ministers and the head of the country's intelligence service survived a vote of confidence over the failure to tackle mounting insecurity and the Taliban insurgency.
Based on reporting by Reuters and Tolo NewsBY: Follow @@Cam_Cawthorne
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) released an interactive video on Tuesday detailing how Obamacare has failed and explaining why the American Health Care Act should be passed to replace it.
"What is the latest on health care in America?" the narrator says. "Simply put, Obamacare is failing. Premiums are skyrocketing and the choices of insurance providers are dwindling. Obamacare is hurting American families now and will produce unsustainable costs into the future."
The narrator goes on to say that premiums in 2017 have nearly doubled since 2014, as they have gone from $2,784 to $4,712 in three years.
"In three states, Alaska, Alabama, and Oklahoma, premiums have tripled from 2013 to 2017," the narrator says. "Next, let's consider insurance choice. Now, one out of three counties in America only have one provider to choose from, and 41 percent of counties could only have one Obamacare insurer next year. In fact, [in] five whole states only one choice of Obamacare coverage is available."
"What about the future?" the narrator adds. "Once again, Obamacare is failing miserably. Without reforms, federal and state Medicaid spending will top $1 trillion by 2027."
The narrator points out former President Barack Obama originally projected that 23 million people would be covered by Obamacare, but that "less than half" of that projection was covered in March 2017.
The narrator then pivots to describe the proposed American Health Care Act to replace Obamacare.
"The mission of the AHCA is clear. The choice and control you want, the affordability you need, and the quality care you deserve. The AHCA tackles three problems in health care today by protecting Americans with pre-existing conditions while lowering premiums and reforming Medicaid," the narrator says.
"The AHCA will lower premiums and at the same time increase the health care options available to everyone. The AHCA returns control over health care back to the states presenting Americans a more affordable, individualized, and flexible health care system," the narrator adds.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) announced on Tuesday that he will keep the Senate in session for the first two weeks of August, delaying the August recess, to focus on the Obamacare repeal bill.
"In order to provide more time to complete action on important legislative items and process nominees that have been stalled by a lack of cooperation from our friends across the aisle, the Senate will delay the start of the August recess until the third week of August," McConnell said in a statement.A MEMBER OF the Australian group, SydneyTrads, writes:
In his comments about the Union Flag, namely “who would want to be associated with that” given the United Kingdom is a “dead island,” Paul T makes a typical mistake – typical of those who don’t understand what that flag means.
While the grandchildren of the Yankee Revolution may see the Union Flag as a particularly negative symbol, for obvious historical reasons (if regrettable or mistaken), to Anglo patriots the world over the flag represents or symbilises the affinity between all peoples who trace their lineage (whether ethnically or culturally) to the root of Anglospheric civilization.
The Union Flag is, to put it perhaps crudely, a pictorial representation of a family name. It signals origins and the wealth that comes from those origins; and that wealth can be found in the dynamism of Anglospheric nations the globe over. To denounce it is to denounce one’s antecedents; ironically for self styled traditionalists who think the Union Flag is passé or embarrassing, that is an attitude and way of thinking which distinguishes the revolutionary leftist.
If we are to reject the identitarian importance, significance or relevance of the Union Flag for the global Anglo-Saxon Diaspora on the grounds that the United Kingdom itself is a “dead island”, I await for Paul T to denounce his own Stars and Stripes for the same reasons. After all, a nation that elects Obama (twice!) can hardly be called alive, or even remotely healthy.
Consider: the United Kingdom could be inundated in a communist revolution, or disappear in a puff of radioactive smoke, or worse still, become a republic, tomorrow. None of this impinges one bit on the meaning of the Union Flag. Its majesty and dignity may be missing from the actual, existing political order; there may not even be an historic Great Britain left; but the meaning of the flag resides in its history, its heritage, and yes, its myth – and this is something that unites us all as one super-extended family.
This is the flag under which all our settler nation’s Founding Fathers toiled. Defaming or belittling it should be a cause of offence to us all; yes, even the grandsons of the Yankee Revolution. Indeed, the flag should take on additional importance in light of the psychic genocide being perpetrated against us and our people by cultural Marxist elites. Those elites don’t care that your fathers bit their thumbs at “George” in the eighteenth century; they care to dispossess you of your homeland because of who and what you are. They have largely succeeded. Think about that before you talk of “dead islands” again.
The Union Flag is a reminder of something that grates our enemies: a proud people secure in its identity as a people. That is the reason why the left hates it, and that is the reason why we should embrace and defend it. All of us. That means you too, Paul, because in the greater scheme of things, you’re part of the family.
— Comments —
Buck writes:
I’m going to assume that the member of the Australian group, is Australian, and refer to him as the Aussie. I need clarification on the matters discussed as Yankee, Union, Anglo and Anglospheric. Multiple upper and lower Canadian rebellions and revolts were in a long mix of revolutions. I assume that’s all ended, except for the French/British thing. Which one is more represented by the Maple Leaf?
I’ll say this: I was born in Virginia, with the blood of Jefferson Davis in my veins. My father’s mother was his niece. I don’t fly a confederate flag, nor do I resent the number of stars not removed from the Union flag during our American Civil War, or our War Between the States, which ever started first. Flags mean what they mean to those who fly them, to those who create them, and to those who hate them.
They are symbols. They mean what we think that they mean.
I served in uniform. I’m angered at any abuse of my flag. I still feel that it is “my” flag. I honor and respect it for what it stood for. I fly a small Stars and Stripes and I display a large one that was folded and presented by an honor guard, next to a photo and a set of dog tags. They both represent a history. One symbolizes an orphaned pride and patriotism, the other a soldier dead and buried.
They are both, symbols of the past. No flag pole or carrying pole bears a standard that will lead the historical American nation back from the dead.
The anonymous Aussie says that he waits for Paul T. to denounce the Stars and Stripes in the same way that Paul has denounced the Union Jack. Impatient, he does it himself: “a nation that elects Obama (twice!) can hardly be called alive, or even remotely healthy.”
If the historical America is as dead as the Aussie says, which it is, then surely Great Britain, and all of the historical, now near-mythological “Anglospheric nations the globe over” are just as dead. A nation is one people, one language, one culture, defined borders, a shared heritage, and a shared identity; as the Aussie says: “a proud people secure in its identity as a people.” The Aussie, like most out of habit, misuses “nation”, even as he defines it. There is no American nation, no English nation, no British nation. Is there, by definition, an Australian nation?
“Marxist elites” have “succeeded” in “dispossessing” us. That’s true. The country belongs to anyone and everyone now. Just get here and grab you a flag. Make it mean whatever you want it to mean. That’s the American way.
Henry McCulloch writes:
Your Australian correspondent — I’ll call him Sydney Trad, instead of Buck’s “Aussie” — makes good points in response to Paul T’s saying the problem with the old Canadian flag is that it includes the Union Flag, now the banner of the “Dead Island.” I should add to Sydney Trad’s response that it’s worth remembering that pre-1965 Great Britain was a lot less dead than today. I agree with Sydney Trad: the Union Flag is the closest thing the English-speaking world has to a common symbol. Sydney Trad’s point that the greater British heritage the Union Flag represents remains worth commemorating even if today’s reality falls far short of the ideal – as indeed it does – is well taken. Paul T. also offers the criticism that “a continuing attachment to the old national ensign is now one of the badges of aging reactionaries.” A good reason to love it, I say!
Contra Buck, traditional symbols do not mean only what we think they mean. The Crucifix is laden with the most profound meaning of all, and its meaning is entirely independent of the thoughts of one who looks upon it. I’m not drawing a blasphemous equivalence between the Crucifix and any flag, only noting that each — at its level — is a symbol full of its own meaning.
When all Western traditions are under attack, most savagely from within, surely it’s good for English-speaking Westerners to be reminded of our shared heritage. (Though I would say that with greater conviction if the great crimes of Henry VIII and John Knox and the rest had not happened, and could be reversed. But the national crosses |
wider segment of the population? Do they want a break with tradition and the challenge of new policies and technologies?
In this guide to Election 2015, from the hotly contested mayoral field (of whom two will likely advance to a September run-off) to the crowded slate of at-large and district council representatives, we aren't trying to persuade you whom to elect or why. But don't listen to cynics who would justify their own laziness by telling you it doesn't matter who gets your vote. You'll find subtle distinctions among the platforms and positions outlined here — and those may well send ripples through the city's government for years to come.
So if you haven't made up your mind, maybe these pages will help. And if not, you can always roll up this issue for those who can't be bothered to exercise their most sacred American freedom — and swat them.
2015 Voter Guide:
• Your 2015 voter guide from the mayor’s race to council, from term limits to local hires
• Ten exciting Metro Council contests to watch closely on election night by Steven Hale
• A diverse group of council insiders, first-timers, Army vets and at least one medieval historian vies for Davidson County's at-large seats by Steven Hale and Andrea Zelinski
• Don't skip these additional matters — Council size and term limits, local hiring, vice mayor — once you've voted in the top races by Steven Hale and Abby White
Nashville's Next Mayor
Megan Barry
Vitals:
Birthdate: Sept. 22, 1963
Birthplace: California
College: Baker University
Post-grad: Vanderbilt University
Jobs: Council member at-Large, director of ethics and social responsibility at Nortel Networks, Ethics and compliance officer at Premier Inc.
Website: meganbarry.com
Mass Transit: Would create an office of transportation within the mayor’s office, with a transit czar responsible for coordinating all modes of transit with various departments. Supports a regional approach long-term, but would look at fully subsidizing existing transit to increase current ridership.
Education: Supports universal pre-K and a balance between traditional public schools and charter schools. Says both sides on that debate are wrong if they think the other is going away.
Affordable Housing: Co-sponsored a bill with Councilwoman Burkley Allen to direct 1 percent of the 6 percent hotel/motel tax to the Barnes Fund for Affordable Housing. More recently, voted for a bill directing the Metro Planning Commission to come up with a proposal for inclusionary zoning to be considered later this year.
Economic Development: Consistently supported Mayor Karl Dean’s economic development policies, including corporate tax incentives and big-ticket construction. Sponsored a living wage bill in 2010 — it raised the salaries of 14 Metro employees — and supports raising the minimum wage, although Metro can’t do it without the state legislature’s help.
Infrastructure: Has talked about incorporating green infrastructure like permeable pavement, as well as pedestrian-friendly items like sidewalks and greenways that connect neighborhoods to parks.
Other: Spent the past eight years in Metro government as an at-large councilwoman and nearly 20 years in the corporate world, most recently as an ethics and compliance officer. Earlier this month she received The Tennessean’s endorsement.
Charles Robert Bone
Vitals:
Birthdate: March 15, 1974
Birthplace: Madison
College: Rhodes College
Post-grad: Vanderbilt University Law School, J.D.
Jobs: Member and treasurer, Bone McAllester Norton; founder and member, Healthcare Compliance and Consulting Resources; President Obama’s National Finance Committee; finance chair, Harold Ford Jr. for Senate
Website: boneformayor.com
Mass Transit: Echoes calls for regional plan, but says city should also focus on sidewalks to improve access to existing transit. Would establish a pilot program allowing qualifying senior citizens to ride MTA buses for free.
Education: Asks what can we do with the 80 percent of children’s time when they’re not in school to make them more successful when they are at school, through after-school organizations like NAZA and Metro Parks community centers.
Affordable Housing: Has said that he would use data to pinpoint where gentrification is occurring, and that he’d like to significantly increase the city’s investment in the Barnes Fund for Affordable Housing. Wants to expand the Tax Freeze Program for senior citizens.
Economic Development: Calls for a citywide economic development plan that expands downtown prosperity to neighborhoods that haven’t seen as much, with different strategies for different areas. Says he would provide financial support to local chambers of commerce outside downtown.
Infrastructure: Describes infrastructure as the next mayor’s Music City Center; as such, says city should channel a solid share of the sales-tax revenue boost from increased tourism toward upgrading sidewalks, old roads and sewers.
Other: Served as counsel for the Music City Center project as an attorney with Bone McAllester Norton. Was an Obama campaign bundler in 2012 and has the support of former Vice President Al Gore.
David Fox
Vitals:
Birthdate: Aug. 1, 1961
Birthplace: Virginia
College: University of Virginia
Jobs: Nashville Post Co., Metro Board of Education, Titan Advisors
Website: foxfornashville.com
Mass Transit: Would explore public-private partnerships such as contracting a private company to build a regional mass transit system that Nashville and neighboring communities would lease while charging user fees to riders. Says sidewalks and buses also play a part and should be tailored to communities, instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach.
Education: Supports charter schools and wants to recruit more of the nonprofits to Nashville, with the caveat that they be high-performing. Wants pre-K available to any poor, at-risk kid whose family wants it and says the city should form public-private partnerships to increase the number of high-quality teachers.
Affordable Housing: Focuses on the Metro Rental Assistance Demonstration Program, which leans on private capital to fund projects. Seeing pros and cons to gentrification, says he would rather give developers incentives to develop affordable housing rather than mandate it.
Economic Development: Self-described “free enterprise kind of guy” is no fan of incentives; even so, recognizes they can be a necessary evil when competing for business with other areas.
Infrastructure: Says Nashville needs to address water and sewer lines, sidewalks and streets, particularly outside the the city’s core. Argues it’s dangerous to keep building and growing Nashville without maintaining the basics of what makes it work.
Other: Fiercely opposes adding to the city’s debt; just as passionate in favor of public-private partnerships, whether for transit, charter schools or funding school-facility improvements. Unafraid to give unpopular opinions if founded on fact, data and research, as when the former school board chairman and hedge-fund manager said he’d prefer mayoral control over schools. Zags when everyone else zigs.
Bill Freeman
Vitals:
Birthdate: Nov. 1, 1951
Birthplace: Nashville
College: University of Tennessee
Jobs: Director of development at MDHA; Freeman Webb Co.
Website: freeman2015.com
Mass Transit: Emphasizes regional system that brings commuters in from Franklin, Murfreesboro, Lebanon, etc. Has said The Amp was a distraction and says he would appoint a transit director in his administration.
Education: Supports universal pre-K and says education discussion in Nashville has been too negative. Would expand and implement community schools, which would include before- and after-school programs plus meal and health care services for students as well as the surrounding community.
Affordable Housing: Says he knows what incentives and other enticements developers need, having made his fortune in property management. Would create 10,000 affordable housing units in his first term using incentives, possibly utilizing underused or vacant Metro property and increased funding for the Barnes Fund.
Economic Development: Supports using corporate incentives and has criticized the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce for failing to put enough emphasis on the “Nashville” part of its title. Says he would be a “jealous advocate” and a “one-man chamber of commerce” recruiting companies and jobs to Nashville.
Infrastructure: Calls for focus on green infrastructure, saying his administration would conduct energy audits on Metro facilities, create further incentives for green roofs, and set greenhouse gas reduction goals. Would appoint a sustainability director.
Other: Co-founder of the Freeman Webb Co., a billion-dollar property management company, and well-known as one of the nation’s top fundraisers for President Obama in 2012. He is the largest self-funder in the race by more than a million dollars. Has been endorsed by all four unions that represent Metro workers.
Howard C. Gentry Jr.
Vitals:
Birthdate: Feb. 4, 1952
Birthplace: Nashville
College: Florida A&M, Tennessee State
Jobs: County Criminal Court Clerk of Metro Nashville and Davidson County (present), CEO of Nashville Area Chamber’s Public Benefit Foundation, CEO of Backfield in Motion, TSU athletic director and assistant vice president for university relations and development, executive director of the TSU Foundation
Website: howardgentryformayor.com
Mass Transit: Also stresses need for a regional plan, along with the need to confront how costly it will be. Says he would bring the community together to create a long-term plan.
Education: Says he will work with school system to build reputation of once-struggling schools and encourage the district to place top teachers there. Has also placed emphasis on issues such as poverty that affect students outside of school and hinder their success.
Affordable Housing: Would focus on areas such as Bordeaux and Antioch that get overlooked even though affordable housing is still available. Would invest in sidewalks and other amenities for those communities, and in doing so create a more economically integrated city.
Economic Development: Supports incentives if necessary, but would make them dependent on the quality of jobs that companies are bringing. Also says he’d like to attract companies by improving transit and affordable housing.
Infrastructure: Would make infrastructure investments in neighborhoods that have seen less attention in recent years.
Other: Has made violent crime a campaign focus more than any other candidate, particularly in recent months. The 2007 mayoral contender and former vice mayor would hold a Youth Violence Summit bringing together various community members to address the issue. Has also said he would create an Office of Social Equity and conduct an annual audit of the Metro workforce to ensure diversity.
Jeremy Kane
Vitals:
Birthdate: Feb. 2, 1979
Birthplace: Jackson, Mich.
College: Stanford University
Post-grad: Vanderbilt University
Jobs: Speechwriter, Office of Sen. John Kerry; teacher of American literature, government and economics, Montgomery Bell Academy; executive director, Tennessee Charter School Association; founder and CEO, LEAD Academy and LEAD Public Schools
Website: kaneformayor.com
Mass Transit: Believes that transportation should tie communities and schools together. On that front, wants to create regional hubs throughout town, e.g., the Southeast Community Center in Antioch. Also vows to invest in roads, sidewalks, bike lanes and green space.
Education: As a founder of LEAD charter schools, believes the publicly funded, independently managed schools should be difficult to open (but not impossible). Also big on affordable, accessible early child care, including universal pre-K, expanding after-school programs and encouraging schools to double as community centers. Wants a long-term capital improvement plan for schools that clearly states what will be improved when.
Affordable Housing: Vows to “lead the charge” revitalizing East Nashville’s James Cayce Homes. Says the city needs more affordable housing to be built through the Barnes Fund and paid for by parking fees. Hints at incentives to ensure teachers, police officers and firefighters can afford to live in communities they serve.
Economic Development: Says Metro business incentives should be paired and linked to community values. Maintains he would hold companies accountable for economic enticements used to lure businesses here. Wants to think outside the box, like by incentivizing retail and community spaces in the ground floor of affordable housing developments.
Infrastructure: Defines “infrastructure” as everything from sewers and schools to broadband Internet. Wants the public to keep the mayor accountable for promises to invest outside the city’s core.
Other: Wants to create an Office of Neighborhoods, Nonprofits and Faith to direct resources and support community aid organizations. Key to his administration would be uniting education, affordable housing and mass transit — i.e., great public transportation ensures true school choice, while a safe neighborhood removes distractions from learning. Also seeks support programs for senior citizens, including help with housing.
Linda Eskind Rebrovick
Vitals:
Birthdate: Dec. 26, 1955
Birthplace: Nashville
College: Auburn University
Jobs: Executive in professional services and consulting division, IBM; executive vice president and chief marketing officer, KPMG; vice president of health care sales, Dell; CEO, Consensus Point
Website: lindafornashville.com
Mass Transit: Make roads smarter — use real-time sensors on traffic lights to improve flow, high-occupancy transit lanes with tolls that could help fund rapid transit. On the ground, expand bike infrastructure; in the air, develop international connections to London, Europe and Asia.
Education: Make Nashville smarter by ensuring students are well versed in of-the-moment technology. Encourage businesses and nonprofits to team, mentor kids and help students secure jobs and paid internships.
Affordable Housing: Foster more mixed-use and mixed-income affordable housing developments. Also increase number of studio apartments, as well as co-housing that arranges small condo units around shared living spaces such as living and dining rooms. Wants to create an environment to attract developers to build affordable housing.
Economic Development: Urges keeping and growing the businesses Nashville already has, but wants to attract more — specifically, companies that will be good corporate citizens. Would remove barriers for entrepreneurs with streamlined permitting and regulations. Also recommends making Jefferson Street a tourist destination with live music and retail.
Infrastructure: Promotes innovations such as self-watering parks that turn on when soil is dry, permeable paving surfaces that reduce water runoff, and smart trash and recycling cans that run off solar power and compact waste and text the city when the cans are full.
Other: Touts building a “Smarter Nashville” by embracing technology and entrepreneurs in nearly every spectrum of civic operations. The 35-year business executive suggests smart meters that would alert officials when electricity goes down, apps to pinpoint empty parking spots, and technology that would dispatch police when a gunshot goes off.6th of the 34th Week
Dear Diary,
Another win for Team RWBY!
Our journey into the new "Forever Fall Crevice" went really well. There was apparently an earthquake recently, though no one could really feel it in Vale, and it opened up a big crack. Normally this wouldn't be too interesting, but someone figured out that it opened up into a big cave system, and the teachers thought it would be a good opportunity to give us a lesson.
A bunch of teams went out today, and I'm pretty sure that more are going out tomorrow too. I don't know all of them, but JNPR and CRDL were there too. Unfortunately we didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with them, and I'm pretty sure Jaune fell down or something and twisted his ankle. We didn't hear anything from them after that, so I guess they got taken back.
Anyways, the lesson was pretty awesome. We got shown the importance of being totally alert and aware of your surroundings, and got to walk around in an old creepy cave; though the part about how to survey an area was a little dull. They just kept telling us how important it is to pay attention to every little detail, and how if you ever get put on a scouting mission, you should be sure to remember or document everything you see. I mean, who has the time for that?
I made sure to stick close to Yang, Weiss, and Blake. I know I'm supposed to be the leader, but I'll admit, I was a little freaked out. We kept hearing a bunch of weird scuttling sounds, but Oobleck kept telling us it was the water flowing across the rocks. I guess he was right. Now that I think about it, there isn't a lot else it could've been.
I did keep seeing the walls move, or at least I thought i did. It was never really too noticeable, but little pieces kept on shifting around. I tried to show the others, but Yang said it was just water dripping down the wall. Weiss called me a child, and I might have gotten a little angry, but Blake got us all to shut up before any teachers heard us arguing.
I want to say that I believe Yang, but I just don't know. I really think that the wall was moving.
Anyways, we were together for most of the time. Yang and Blake had gotten separated from me and Weiss for a few minutes, but we managed to track them back down again. Blake looked a little panicked, but I didn't ask why. Maybe I should have.
It's too late now anyways. Blake is asleep. At least, I think she is. Everyone else is too, so I should probably get to sleep. Blake keeps making weird sounds, though. I feel like I should talk to someone about that.
That's all that happened today, and it's the weekend tomorrow. We should probably go and see if Jaune is alright (that will be fun to convince Weiss to do) and see if there's anything that we can help with. I'm sure that Pyrrha will appreciate the offer.
Goodnight!
-Ruby
7th of the 34th Week
Dear Diary,
The visit to Jaune went well, and it turned out that I was right. He got his ankle caught in a hole, and twisted it when he tried to pull it out. He was pretty embarrassed about that, so instead of talking about his injury, we talked about the cave.
He didn't get to see a whole lot of it, so he wanted to hear what it was like down there. I kind of get the feeling that he was expecting something a little more exciting than looking around a dark, dank cave with flashlights. I feel a little bad that there weren't any incredible experiences to share, but it really was just walking around in a slightly spooky cave.
We were going to do a few things we normally do, like going out for lunch and go shopping, but all of us kind of decided that it would be best to skip on those.
I don't think that Blake is feeling super good. I would say that she probably caught something in the cave, but I don't think that makes much sense. If she had caught it in the cave, the rest of the people who went down in there should've gotten sick too. I feel fine, and Weiss and Yang both seem like they're doing fine. Blake, though, seems like she's got a fever. She keeps swaying on her feet like she's about to fall over, and mumbling to herself, like there's someone else talking to her.
I'm pretty sure that Weiss has noticed, and Yang told me that she's worried. It seems a lot like the time that she didn't sleep. She doesn't look tired, though. Her eyes unfocused easily, and she seems really inattentive.
Yang and I have been talking, and if she doesn't start to get better by tomorrow, we're going to talk to her about it. She hasn't said anything yet, but I really doubt that Blake would complain even if her foot got cut off. So far, we haven't told Weiss anything about what we're going to do. If we do, it might make Weiss worry, or try and tell Blake about it before we're totally ready.
I really hope that Blake isn't sick. I know it sounds stupid, but that just wouldn't be fair. Everyone's asleep again, so I should probably go to sleep too.
Goodnight!
-Ruby
1st of the 35th week
Dear Diary,
I'm really starting to get worried now. I guess I should just start at the beginning of today, because a lot happened. When I woke up, I was pretty sleepy, just like I always am. I usually take a shower first thing, which all of us do, but when I looked over at Blake, I saw that she was sweating.
It wasn't like the normal waking-up-from-sleep sweat, she looked like she was completely soaked. That robe that she always wore to bed was dark and heavy looking, and was sticking to her skin like she had run a hundred miles in her sleep.
Again, I didn't say anything, and no one else seemed to have noticed. I was getting really nervous, because there was obviously something wrong with her. I didn't want to just come out and say it though, and I was still really tired, so I slid out of bed and went to take a shower. Maybe it wasn't the best time, I know, but I figured that everything would be better once I was more awake.
I hit the ground a little harder than I meant to, and Weiss looked up from her Scroll, making some sarcastic comment. I don't remember what it was, but it wasn't very good. I just grabbed my clothes and started walking to the bathroom.
Hot showers always help wake me up, but another really weird thing happened. The door to the bathroom opened about halfway through, and I heard someone else walking on the tile. That wasn't a big deal, the showers are in stalls, so we end up taking showers at the same time a lot. Usually though, if someone is already in mid-shower, we announce ourselves, so someone just plodding towards the stalls was kind of creepy.
I called out, you know, "Who's there?" but the only answer I got was a quiet mumbling that I could barely hear over the water. That was enough to tell me it was Blake.
The shower next to me turned on, and I heard Blake slowly walk into the water. I stayed quiet for a few seconds, trying to think of something to say, then I felt the water running past my feet get hot. I don't mean like the normal hot, I mean like boiling and steaming hot. Hotter than I even knew the showers at Beacon could get.
It was early in the morning, and I was half asleep, so my first reaction was to take a quick step towards the door to my stall, and get out of the water. I forgot how slippery the tile is when it's wet, though, and fell into the door.
It swung out, a hinge popping off and clattering against the ground, and I yelled as I hit the ground. It knocked the wind out of me, and I lay there for a few seconds before looking back around to Blake's stall, about to ask her what she was doing.
The stall door was still open, and she was just standing there, not moving at all as the huge cloud of steam around her started to fill up the room. Even though the water had to be burning her, she was still as pale as ever, like her body didn't know what was going on.
I don't remember exactly what I shouted at her as I started to pick myself off the floor, but I remember that she didn't even flinch.
I'm not really too sure about this next part, but it couldn't have been just my imagination. As I scrambled back to my feet, I think I saw something on Blake's body. I really don't know what it was, but it almost looked like some kind of worm. It looked weird, like a mix of the hard black hide that Grimm have, and the fleshy, gross texture of a leech. It was attached at both ends vertically, down the middle of her back. It looked like its body was pushed up against her, but I'm not sure.
That was all I managed to see before the bathroom door basically exploded open, and Yang came running in. She looked at me first, and started to come towards me, a confused look on her face, but I pointed, shouting, "There's something wrong with Blake!"
This time she reacted, turning to face me. She looked right at me, and for a second, I didn't recognize her. Every muscle in her face had gone slack, giving her a weird mask-like look, but that wasn't the thing that really grabbed my attention.
Her eyes were glowing red. Not really in like the horror movie way, where they just change color, but in focus too. I could feel that Blake was staring at me, sizing me up, like she was guessing a meal portion.
Then Yang stepped in front of me, and it was gone. She blinked, and her eyes turned normal again. That didn't stop Yang from running forward and reaching out to grab Blake. I didn't have time to warn Yang how hot the water was before she was being sprayed head-to-toe with it, making to pull Blake out.
I could see the shock on her face when she felt the water, and reached out to try and help extract Blake. Instead of letting me help her pull, she just shoved Blake out, hoping for me to catch her. I did my best, and managed to stop Blake from cracking her head open on the hard tile. Yang was next to come out of the shower, practically throwing herself out too. I could see that her skin was already starting to burn.
I set Blake down on the floor, trying not to hurt her any more, and helped Yang to her feet. She got up, looking down at Blake with a very concerned expression. The way that Blake had fallen shielded the thing on her back from view, but I still pointed, starting to stutter that I had seen something. I just couldn't put my thoughts into words. It had all happened too fast.
After all that, Yang rushed me out of the bathroom, grabbing the clothes I had brought in with me and shoving them into me before grabbing my shoulders, turning me around, and walking me out the door.
Weiss was standing in the middle of the room, peering into the bathroom with a confused look on her face. When I staggered out, totally naked and dripping wet, Weiss turned her head quickly to the side and asked what was going on.
After I got dressed and dried, I told her what I knew, about the shower, Blake sweating in her sleep, and the thing on her back. Unfortunately she didn't know anything about it.
We talked for a while more, wondering what could be wrong with Blake. Weiss thought that she might have been having a seizure, but I knew it had to be something else. Seizures didn't change eye color, and it didn't explain the leech thing.
Yang and Blake spent a lot of today in the bathroom, alone. Weiss and I tried to get them to come out, but the most Yang would do was tell us to go away. I practically begged at the door, and all Yang said was, "It's fine, don't worry!" and "I'm going to take care of it!"
I want to believe her, but I just can't. This whole situation is just too weird. I want to call for someone, like Ooblek, or Ozpin, but Yang keeps telling me I don't need to. She's fixing Blake in there, and she just doesn't want us to see her like that. Weiss keeps telling me that the whole thing is out of our hands, and that we need to go for help.
I just don't know what to do. Things are bad, and Weiss could be right, but Yang is my sister! She would never lie to me.
Ozpin wasn't lying when he said that being a leader is hard. I managed to make a deal with Weiss. We're going to wait a few more hours, and see what happens.
God, I hope they're ok in there.
-Ruby
1st of the 35th week (continued)
Dear Diary,
Blake and Yang came back out of the bathroom. Yang had an arm over Blake's shoulder, keeping her close. Blake seemed more aware, but now Yang seemed like she was becoming more absent. We tried to talk to her about what had happened, but she kept losing focus, and slipping off into what seemed like a trance.
Something changed with Blake. She isn't absent anymore. If anything, I'd say she's a lot more focused now. She's jumpy, too. Any time anyone speaks, her head jerks in their direction, and she just sits in her bed, blankets draped over her.
I can't be totally sure, but I think that her eyes are still glowing. It's constant now, and I'm sure that she's trying to hide her eyes from the rest of us. She's being very careful not to look directly at us, and I think she knows I'm writing about her. She keeps glancing over at me, and I feel like she's planning something.
Yang started to get sick around the time the sun started to go down. At first she was curled up on her bed, sort of passed out, then she started to shake. Me and Weiss were about to go to her side and check on her, but before either of us built up the nerve, she rolled over, puked off the side of her bed, and ran towards the bathroom.
Her steps were wide and uncoordinated, like she was disoriented, before the door slammed shut behind her. After that happened, I looked down at Weiss, and she was just as horrified as I was.
Whatever Blake had, it seems that Yang has it now.
I'm really scared now. If my feeling about Blake is right, and she is planning something, then Yang could be in on it too.
I don't want to think about this, but what if whatever it is that they have somehow changes them? Not like a normal disease, but like rabies or something. Something that changes who the person is.
I've been messaging Weiss with my Scroll, and we both agreed to sneak out during the night, and get Ozpin's help. It's the only thing we can do.
I just hope that he can help in some way, or at least tell us what's wrong.
2nd of the 35th week
It didn't work. I can't believe it didn't work. We were so careful. And now Weiss…
I should start at the beginning, while I still have time.
Weiss and I were awake, lying in bed, until the time that we'd agreed on leaving. We were both eager to go, though. About half an hour, Yang stopped vomiting in the bathroom, and went back to her bed. I didn't want to look at her, though. I knew I wouldn't like what I saw.
About two hours after midnight, Weiss tapped my bunk, signaling that it was time, and she was ready. I did my best to climb down quietly, and I'm sure that I didn't make any noise. Neither of us wanted to, but Weiss pulled out her Scroll, and passed a dim light quickly over our teammate's beds. They were both still there alright, but we could hardly see any of their bodies. They had blankets pulled tightly around themselves, and I thought I could see both of them moving under them, changing more.
I remember tugging on Weiss's shoulder, signaling that they should leave immediately. She seemed to agree, and we left as fast as we could.
The hallways were dead, just as you'd think they'd be. There was no sound at all, other than our footsteps. Or my footsteps, at least. Weiss didn't have her shoes on, and was barefoot. I felt bad, but there was nothing that I could do. The best thing we could do was hurry up, and get to Ozpin as soon as possible. We kept quiet and careful until we were out the door, then we both broke into a sprint.
Whatever was happening, we had to get help. There was no way that we could deal with it on our own.
We only made it about halfway there before I heard Weiss scream. Her words are going to be burned in my brain forever.
"Ruby, help me!"
When I turned to look over my shoulder, I felt my heart almost stop. Blake had Weiss by the throat, and was pulling her towards her face. Her mouth was open, and I could see her teeth were longer and sharper than any person's should've been. That didn't compare to her face, though.
The White Fang say they "wear the faces of monsters" but their masks don't even come close. One side of Blake's face was covered in a thick white plate, starting at the cheekbone, and working its way up the face. It looked half-formed, but the blood red lines that Grimm often had on their armor plates were already starting to appear.
Weiss was reaching out towards me, a desperate look in her eyes that I've never seen before. I was the only one who could save her. She knew it. I knew it.
I switched directions as fast as I could, trying to help her, but before I could even get my Semblance working, something slammed into me from the side, taking me to the ground.
The streetlights let me get a good look at who was holding me down, and it made me want to curl up and die right there.
Yang had the same burning red eyes Blake did, and looked at me with a terrifying smile. It didn't look like she thought she was attacking me at all, but like she was playing a game from when we were kids.
I remember how she used to pin me down and tickle me with her hair.
That obviously wasn't what was happening, though. Her mouth opened, and for a second I thought she was about to speak to me, but her jaw didn't stop where it should've. Instead, it kept opening, revealing her razor-like teeth. I kept thinking it had to stop at some point, it couldn't just keep going like that. But it did. Her lips split and her cheeks started to be ripped apart as her mouth opened wider than the skin was ever intended to do.
Yang's mouth was open wide enough that I could have fit my whole head inside, which made me wonder, what was she waiting for?
A retching sound from somewhere close by made me look away, and I saw Blake, her mouth stretched out like Yang's, a dark, slimy looking fluid pouring out. For a second, I couldn't see what she was doing, but then I saw Weiss's head still clutched in Blake's grip.
Her eyes were locked on Blake, a terrified expression on her face, and her mouth was wide open. Whatever was coming out of Blake's mouth was staining her white pajamas, and hitting the ground with a disgusting spattering sound. Her body was shaking, obviously trying to escape, but there was no way out. Her eyes were what got to me the most. As I watched, they flicked over to me, and it seemed like she was making one last-ditch effort to get me to help her.
The more I watched, the more I wished I could look away. The cool blue color that her eyes normally were started to shift, becoming a darker, glowing red. Her look changed to a smile.
I looked back to Yang in terror, realizing what was about to happen to me. Weiss looked like she had been robbed of all strength, all will to fight, and I didn't want to end up like that. I didn't want to turn into a monster.
I fought against Yang as hard as I could, pulling everything I had left to get away. In the end, I managed to get my feet on Yang's chest, and kick her off. I still have no idea how I managed to pull it off, but she flew a couple feet, and that was enough for me.
I stood back up as fast as I could, and took in the situation. Yang was now between me and Ozpin's office, and I knew better than to test her ability to grab me. It'd never worked when we were kids, and it wouldn't work now. I looked back over my shoulder, and say that Blake wasn't holding Weiss anymore, but sprinting towards me as fast as she could. I wanted to help Weiss, I really did, but I don't think there was anything I could have done. I mean, her eyes had changed already!
I ran.
I ran as fast as I could. Faster than my Semblance had ever carried me before, and I came here. The armory.
It was lucky, I guess, but I don't feel lucky. I feel like I'm just as much of a monster as them for letting Weiss get hurt, or whatever they did to her.
I managed to barricade the doors with lockers and stuff from around the room, but I don't know how long that will hold. I always thought the doors here were pretty big, but I never thought I'd be this thankful for it. I can hear them clawing at the doors, trying to get in.
I don't know if I should use Crescent Rose on them, or myself.
I don't want to be like them.
-Ruby
2nd of the 35th (continued)
I didn't have a choice. I had to do it. I'm so sorry Weiss.
I remembered Jaune talking about the time Cardin pushed him into his weapon locker and launched him away from the school, so I figured I had an alright chance of surviving the trip. I got in my locker and waited, hoping that they would just lose interest and leave.
They didn't.
Yang was the first one inside, and I wish I hadn't seen her. She had changed completely, there was nothing left of her face. It was all just that bone plate that had been growing before. Her eyes were so red, and her mouth hung open so far. She was still drooling that slime from before, and now I think I have a good idea of what it does.
Weiss and Blake came in behind her after she knocked down the doors, but I didn't look at them. I didn't want to see how much they had changed. I just wanted to wake up from this nightmare. I tried not to cry too loud so they wouldn't find me as I tried to guess the coordinates I'd have to use to get to Ozpin's office.
I must have made a little more noise than I meant to, because they started to come closer to my locker. I tried my best to keep quiet, even trying to hold my breath, but they just kept on coming closer and closer. I don't know if they remembered which locker was mine, and just figured out that I'd be in it, but it was like they knew.
I didn't have time to make sure that my coordinates were right, I just had to go. I hoped that they wouldn't react fast enough to catch what I was doing, but I was wrong. Weiss was the closest to me, and before the locker could get off the ground, she managed to jump on it, trying to tear the metal open to get at me.
Her face had been just a few inches away from the slots on the front, and I could see her eyes clearly. There was almost nothing left of the friend I had maybe an hour ago. All that was left was a kind of monster I'm sure I recognized. She was a Grimm |
bring them to the hotel by five. I checked the time. 2:30 p.m.
“See, ma’am, we have set up a special desk for the Mehta-Gulati wedding,” Arijit said. “We are doing the check-ins for your family now.”
He pointed to a makeshift counter at the far corner of the lobby where three female Marriott employees with permanent smiles sat. They welcomed everyone with folded hands. Each guest received a shell necklace, a set of key cards for the room, a map of the Marriott Goa property and a ‘wedding information booklet’. The booklet contained the entire programme for the week, including the time, venue and other details of the ceremonies.
“My side will take fifty rooms. The Gulatis need fifty too,” I said.
“If you take fifty, ma’am, we will have only thirty left for them,” Arijit said.
“Where is Suraj?” I said. ‘We will manage last minute’ is what he told me. Suraj was the owner of Moonshine Events, the event manager we had appointed for the wedding.
“At the airport,” Arijit said.
My father ambled up to the reception desk. “Everything okay, beta?”
I explained the situation to him.
“Thirty rooms! Gulatis have a hundred and twenty guests,” my father said.
“Exactly.” I threw my hands in the air.
Mom and Kamla bua came to the reception as well. “I told Sudarshan also, why all this Goa business? Delhi has so many nice banquet halls and farmhouses. Seems like you have money to throw,” Kamla bua said.
I wanted to retort but my mother gave me the Mother Look.
They are our guests, I reminded myself. I let out a huge breath.
“How many from our side?” my mother said.
“Mehta family has a hundred and seventeen guests, ma’am,” Arijit said, counting from his reservation sheets.
“If we only have eighty, that is forty rooms for each side,” I said. “Let’s reallocate. Stop the check-ins for the Mehtas right now.”
Arijit signaled to the smiling ladies at the counter. They stopped the smiles and the check-ins and kept the shell necklaces back in the drawer.
“How can we reduce the rooms for the boy’s side?” my mother said in a shocked voice.
“What else to do?” I said.
“How many rooms are they expecting?” she said.
“Fifty,” I said. “Call them now. They will readjust their allocations on the way here.”
“How can you ask the boy’s side to adjust?” Kamla bua said. “Aparna, are you serious?”
My mother looked at Kamla bua and me.
“But how can we manage in only thirty rooms?” I said and turned to my father, “Dad, Call them.”
“Sudarshan, don’t insult them before they even arrive,” Kamla bua said. “We will manage in thirty. It’s okay. Some of us will sleep on the floor.”
“Nobody needs to sleep on the floor, bua,” I said. “I am sorry this screw-up happened. But if we have forty rooms each, it is three to a room. With so many kids anyway, it should be fine.”
“We can manage in thirty,” my mother said.
“Mom? That’s four to a room. While the Gulatis will have so much space. Let’s tell them.”
“No,” my mother said. “We can’t do that.”
“Why?”
“They are the boy’s side. Little bit also you don’t understand?”
I didn’t want to lose it at my own wedding, definitely not in the first hour of arrival. I turned to my father. “Dad, it is no big deal. His family will understand. We are here for six nights. It will get too tight for us,” I said.
Dad, of course, would not listen. These two women, his wife and sister, controlled his remote. For once, these women were on the same page as well.
“Beta, these are norms. You don’t understand. We have to keep them comfortable. Girl’s side is expected to adjust,” he said.
I argued for five more minutes. It didn’t work. I had to relent. And do what the girl’s side needs to do - adjust.
“You and Aditi take a room,” my mother said, referring to my sister.
“Let her be with her husband. What will jiju think?” I said.
“Anil will adjust with other gents,” Kamla bua said.
Over the next twenty minutes the two women sorted out the extended Mehta family comprising of a hundred and seventeen people to thirty rooms. They used a complex algorithm with criteria like the people sharing the room should not hate each other (warring relatives kept in different rooms) or be potentially attracted to each other (mixed gender rooms were avoided, even if it involved people aged eighty plus). Kids were packed five to a room, often with a grandparent. Kamla bua, herself a widow, dramatically offered to sleep on the floor in my parents’ room, causing my father to offer his own bed and sleep on the floor instead. Of course, Arijit kept saying they will put extra beds in the room. But how can you compare sleeping on an extra Marriott bed versus the Punjabi bua’s eternal sacrifice of sleeping on the floor?
“I am happy with roti and achaar,” Kamla bua said.
“It’s the Marriott. There is enough food, bua,” I said.
“I am just saying.”
“Can you please focus on the reallocations? We need to be all checked in before the Gulatis arrive,” I said.
In the middle of this chaos, I forgot what I had come here for. I had come to change my life forever. I had come to do something I never believed in my whole life. I had come to do something I never thought I would do. I had come to have an arranged marriage.
Here I am, lost in logistics, guest arrangements and bua tantrums. I took a moment to reflect.
I will marry in a week. To a guy I hardly know. This guy and I are to share a bed, home and life for the rest of my life.
Why isn’t it sinking in? Why am I fighting with Suraj on chat instead?
Me: Major screw-up on rooms, Suraj. Not cool.
Suraj: Sorry. Really sorry. Political reasons. Tried. Really.
Me: You said it will be OK.
Suraj: I did. CM of Goa wanted rooms. Marriott can’t refuse.
Me: What else is going to get screwed up?
Suraj: Nothing. Indigo from Mumbai just landed. We are ready to receive guests. See you soon.
I went to the Mehta-Gulati check-in desk. All my family guests had checked in. Some did grumble about sharing a room with three others but most seemed fine. Mom said the grumblers were the jealous types, the relatives who can’t stand we have reached a level that we can do a destination wedding in Goa. The supportive ones, according to mom, are those who understand what it is like to be the girl’s side.
“Do not use this girl’s side and boy’s side with me again. I don’t like it,” I said. Mom and I sat in the lobby, ensuring that the staff readied the special check-in desk for the Gulatis.
“Can you stop waving your feminism flag for a week? This is a wedding, not an NGO activist venue,” my mother said.
“But...”
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.Some say that the word "cult" or "sect" is a pejorative label used to discriminate against "new religious movements."
However, it seems disingenuous to ignore the historical significance and modern day applications of the word cult or sect.
Today many controversial groups that have been called cults or sects are seeking to either eliminate that description or ignore it.
Some academics with close ties to such groups have become little more than apologists, labeling the word "cult" a "four letter word."
These apologists often prefer the supposedly politically correct title "new religious movement" (NRM).
But historically cults have always been with us and they continue to be a part of the world today.
The word cult can be broadly defined as "formal religious veneration," "a system of religious beliefs and its body of adherents," "a religion regarded as 'unorthodox or spurious,'" "great devotion to a person or idea" as well as "persons united by devotion or allegiance to an artistic or intellectual movement or figure."
These general definitions could potentially include everything from Barbie doll collectors to so-called "Trekkies" and die-hard Elvis fans.
American history is particularly rife with religious groups that can be seen as cults, such as the devoted followers of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, or the Mormons united through their devotion to Joseph Smith. Both of these religious groups were at one time also regarded by many as "unorthodox or spurious."
But the most salient concern to the general public, law enforcement and government officials today regarding groups called "cults" is what potential they might represent to do harm.
Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, who once taught at Harvard Medical School, wrote a paper titled Cult Formation in the early 1980s. He delineated three primary characteristics, which are the most common features shared by destructive cults.
1. A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose power. That is a living leader, who has no meaningful accountability and becomes the single most defining element of the group and its source of power and authority.
2. A process [of indoctrination or education is in use that can be seen as] coercive persuasion or thought reform [commonly called "brainwashing"].
The culmination of this process can be seen by members of the group often doing things that are not in their own best interest, but consistently in the best interest of the group and its leader.
Lifton's seminal book Thought Reform and Psychology of Totalism explains this process in considerable detail.
3. Economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.
The destructiveness of groups called cults varies by degree, from labour violations, child abuse, medical neglect to, in some extreme and isolated situations, calls for violence or mass suicide.
Some groups that were once seen as "cults" have historically evolved to become generally regarded as religions. Power devolved from a single leader to a broader church government and such groups ceased to be seen as simply personality-driven and defined by a single individual. For example the Seventh-day Adventists, once led by Ellen White, or the Mormons church founded by Joseph Smith.
Some groups may not fit the definition of a cult, but may pose potential risks for participants. Here are 10 warning signs of a potentially unsafe group or leader.
• Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.
• No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.
• No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget or expenses, such as an independently audited financial statement.
• Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.
• There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil.
• Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances.
• There are records, books, news articles, or broadcast reports that document the abuses of the group/leader.
• Followers feel they can never be "good enough".
• The group/leader is always right.
• The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible.
For legal reasons, comments on this article will be premoderated45User Rating: 4 out of 5
Review title of NordicWerewolf4 A game that should not go overlooked.
Dragons dogma is a game where most of its fun can be found in its combat system. You take on massive beast from Cyclops to dragons ect, but these arn't just your normal battles. You find weak points on each monster such as the Cyclops eye, and different areas on monsters that I won't spoil for you. You also climb on the monsters which allows you to get to the area you wish to attack. For example, if the club in the Cyclops hand is too big of a problem? Attack the arm it's in and make him drop it. Another thing, different areas of the world have tougher enemys than others which gives you that drive to make your character stronger and come back later to defeat those enemys. The world is huge an filled with little nooks where you can find useful items and enemys giving you a reward for exploration. There is no multiplayer but you can create a pawn to fight alongside of your own created character or fight with anyone who recruits your pawn. Overall, This is a great hidden gem worth playingImage copyright Getty Images
New figures show the UK government failed to reduce illegal levels of air pollution in the 18 months after a court ordered it to clean up the air.
At the end of 2016, the UK still had the same number of zones with illegal air pollution as in 2015.
That's despite being under a Supreme Court order at the time to bring down nitrogen dioxide emissions - mainly from transport - as soon as possible.
The government said it had put in place a £3bn plan to improve air quality.
Ministers have been forced to increase their ambition on pollution by a succession of court defeats to an environmental campaign group, ClientEarth.
Its chief executive James Thornton said: "These statistics show how ministers are failing to protect people from air pollution, which is blighting the lives of thousands of people across the country.
"We're deeply saddened to see how little progress was made last year and we will keep up the pressure to tackle this public health crisis, so that all of us - particularly young children - are protected from harmful pollution."
In July, the government produced its second air pollution plan ordered by the court.
But in the plan, most of the responsibility was passed to local councils. And they say they're not being adequately funded to make improvements in air quality like improving public transport or re-engineering the streets.
A government spokesman said: "We will end the sale of new diesel and petrol cars by 2040, and next year we will publish a comprehensive Clean Air Strategy which will set out further steps to tackle air pollution.
"We now have an opportunity to deliver a Green Brexit and improve environmental standards as we leave the EU."
Follow Roger on Twitter.It’s good to aim high. In his only election as leader of the NDP, Tom Mulcair led the party to a higher share of the national popular vote than Tommy Douglas, David Lewis, Alexa McDonough and Audrey McLaughlin ever had, and higher than Jack Layton managed to win in the elections of 2004, 2006 and 2008. Not good enough, delegates to the NDP convention declared.
Pack your bags, Tom: the party will reconvene in maybe two years to select a leader from among candidates Mulcair already beat in 2012, unless they prefer to pick a new leader with less experience in the federal NDP than Mulcair himself had.
The new leader must be able to speak to a party with a still-relatively-large caucus of Quebec MPs, while growing its appeal where most NDP voters live, outside Quebec. The risk of getting caught on a whipsaw of public opinion between the two language communities haunted Layton, who was born in Quebec and was wisely leery of the debate over Quebec secession rules. The same split in allegiances finally broke Mulcair, on the question of Muslim headscarves. The next leader needs to be more agile than Layton and Mulcair were along that fault line. No candidate speaks both official languages anywhere nearly as well as Mulcair does; most aren’t close to Layton’s level of fluency.
The NDP did a pretty good job of addressing the Quebec fault line this weekend by opening a new one around Alberta, which contains what will be, by the spring, the only provincial NDP government in the country. That government faces a jobs crisis caused by the collapse in the world price of the commodity that got every out-of-town NDP delegate to Edmonton: Hydrocarbons. Rachel Notley would prefer that Albertans keep working. The extended Lewis family, visiting from Toronto and points south, has a better idea. Delegates did not endorse their Leap Manifesto as such, but voted to ensure the party continues to debate it while searching for a leader.
The manifesto crystallizes an eternal conflict in left-leaning parties between the right of workers to work and the right of highly educated urban literati to express their opinion about how everybody else should live. While he was leader, Layton sought to split the difference with his 2008 platform, which eschewed a broadly applied carbon tax in favour of regulation or cap-and-trade schemes that would hurt “corporations” but not their employees.
A week before last autumn’s election, a senior Mulcair adviser told me the campaign was satisfied at having neutralized the Leap Manifesto by offering as little comment on it as possible. Perhaps that was poor strategy. The NDP will now get to try it a different way.
The choices the NDP made this weekend are legitimate. There is no point holding a leadership vote and arguing that it is somehow morally wrong to vote one way or another. On policy, including Leap, the Ottawa pundit class—including yours truly—is the worst predictor of any idea’s electoral appeal. We are addicted to dubbing the recent consensus as “the centre” and predicting punishment for any deviation. By that measure, the victories of both Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau could not happen.
So maybe alienating Rachel Notley while looking for a leader who can balance the regional tensions to which the NDP has always been prey is a good idea. We will soon get to find out. As will New Democrats. Their choices this weekend have the virtue of being real choices. They now need a new leader, and they have a new debate—in the temporary absence of that leader—that will open emotional rifts in the party membership. Making decisions is good. Whatever the consequences.We all know about vampires and werewolves, or at least we think we do. The legends and myths that inspired these monsters are sometimes surprisingly different, but no less chilling. In this series of posts, Monster Monday, we’ll investigate the monsters that have informed our modern notions, as well as some lesser known monsters. Today, we talk about the Strigoi.
The legend of the Strigoi comes from Romania and is arguably the most direct reference to what we today would call a vampire. A strigoi is the soul of a deceased person that rises from its grave at night to plague the living. There are differing accounts of its abilities. In some stories it is only an incorporeal spirit. In others it in an actual reanimated corpse. Sometimes it can shapeshift into an animal, or become invisible. Usually the strigoi visits living relatives and neighbors, causing illness and weakening them until they die. Only occasionally do they directly drain the blood of their victims.
A person can become a strigoi by a number of methods. The most common include generally being a bad person in life, being a redhead, committing suicide, being born with a caul, or being cursed by a witch. A person deemed likely to come back as a strigoi could be prevented from doing so by beheading their corpse or burying them with a stake through their heart. The best way to defeat a strigoi is also to dig up the body during the daytime and behead the corpse, cut out and burn the heart, or impale the body with a wooden stake.
An interesting version of the strigoi is the strigoi viu or “living” strigoi, who is a kind of evil magician capable of ruining crops and causing livestock to get sick and die.
Though no one knows for sure, some speculate that the strigoi originates from Dacian myths about evil spirits that plague the living. The word itself likely comes from the Latin word strix, which means “owl,” but is also a nocturnal blood-sucking monster in Roman mythology.A man charged with a 2011 murder who has been outside of Canada since the killing has been extradited back to Nova Scotia and will appear in court on Monday.
Steven Douglas Skinner faces a second-degree murder charge in the death of Stacey Adams, a Dartmouth man who was killed on April 10, 2011.
Skinner, 44, left the country the day of the murder, eventually landing in Mexico. The murder charge was laid against him in July 2011. Law enforcement officials eventually found and arrested Skinner on Margarita Island, Venezuela, on May 15, 2016. He's been held in custody ever since as Canadian officials attempted to arrange extradition.
'A long way to go'
The family of Adams said they received confirmation of the news on Saturday from the lead detective on the file.
Kendelle Blois, speaking on behalf of the family, told CBC News the family is feeling like "this is a step to another beginning."
"We still have a long way to go."
Stacey Adams had just turned 20 when he was shot to death in Lake Echo, N.S. (Facebook)
Blois said although it took a long time, no one doubted the day would come and the family is grateful to the Venezuela government for agreeing to extradite Skinner back to Nova Scotia. There were a lot of court proceedings to get to this point, she said, although the family isn't clear on all the details.
"We're just grateful it's happened," she said. "It is our hope the courts make him accountable for the charges that are brought against him."
Other charges
In addition to the second-degree murder charge, Skinner is facing several charges in connection with an incident in Lower Sackville on July 22, 2009, including aggravated assault, forcible confinement, assault with a weapon, uttering threats and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
Skinner was arrested in Ontario on July 25, 2009, and was returned to Nova Scotia, where he was brought into police custody and later released on conditions.Comedian Sarah Silverman thinks burying your head in the sand makes your problems go away.
Silverman slammed President Trump for declaring we will defeat “radical Islamic terrorism” during his first joint address before Congress.
It was a rhetorical departure from the past eight years, when former President Obama refused to utter those words, claiming it will turn all Muslims against the United States. Obama’s reasoning doesn’t sound insulting at all: If you offend a Muslim, they’ll immediately turn into terrorists.
Silverman tweeted: “We had a president of deep thought and introspection who kept us safe w/out use of fear. Now we have a bloated ego who’s gonna get us killed.”
Dem Congresswomen wear white to protest Trump: Stunt backfires completely
Except that Obama’s soft, sweet phrasing of “Radical Islamic terrorism” didn’t keep us safe at all. And many Twitter users were eager to remind Sarah Silverman of that pesky thing called reality:
Just the highlights toots Little Rock 2009
Ft. Hood 2009
Boston 2013
Brooklyn 2014
Chattanooga 2014
San Bernadino 2015
Orlando 2016 Idiot https://t.co/ypslIRPSAx — DaveinTexas (@DaveinTexas) March 1, 2017
@SarahKSilverman Tell that to the 49 people who were massacred by Omar Mateen (swore allegiance to ISIS) in Orlando Nightclub 6/12/2016. — Stewart Hanson (@Jaystew17) March 1, 2017
@SarahKSilverman People in Chicago felt real safe under Obama. Not all of us have gated communities and private security. Silly millionaire. — AZSpartan2 (@AZSpartan2) March 1, 2017
Good point. And then someone asked what must have been a rhetorical quesion:
Meanwhile, former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes also trashed Trump for using the words “radical Islamic terrorism.”
What was accomplished by declaring war on "radical Islamic terrorism"? Just alienating Muslim allies who we need, and emboldening terrorists — Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) March 1, 2017
Then Rhodes got shut down with one blistering tweet.
You gave pallets of cash to Iran & used hostages as a negotiating ploy. Probably should sit out the emboldening terrorists discussion https://t.co/OcMDUKt97y — Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) March 1, 2017
Many Americans are glad that President Trump is not afraid to name our enemy. The liberal media has bleated the fake news that Trump is against all Muslims, when in fact he’s opposed to radical Islamic terrorism. People who can’t tell the difference between the two are the real problem.
Vice President Mike Pence said, “We all fully support saying ‘radical Islamic terrorism,’ and added that we need to reach out to “moderate voices in the Islamic world to join us to eradicate radical Islamic terrorism from the world.”
Meanwhile, Twitter reminded Sarah Silverman of her past irrational fear-mongering. Like the time she mistook sidewalk construction markings for Nazi swastikas.
Others reminded Silverman of the tragic deaths suffered at the hands of radical Islamic terrorists.
I think Little Rock,Ft Hood,Boston,Moore,Queens,Brooklyn,Garland,Chattanooga,San Bernardino,Orlando,St Cloud,NY/NJ, &Columbus would disagree https://t.co/Q0yVXr14gU — ❌Alisha 🇺🇸 (@GolightlyGrl427) March 1, 2017
Wrong. Why did Obama give arms and trillions of dollars to the Middle East? To say thank you to ISIS? You're delusional — MelanieGore (@melaniesgore) March 1, 2017
silly libturd, saying "radical islamic terrorism" won't get us killed. *Bowing* to radical islamic terrorism will. — shimauma (@shimauma2) March 2, 2017
Many said that ignorant libs like Silverman are the true bigots because they’re the ones equating all Muslims with Islamic terrorists.
https://twitter.com/MarkDice/status/836799028646002688
U r 2 stupid to tell the difference between Islam, and radical Islamic terrorists, the problem is yours. — Michael (@MichaelK2009) March 1, 2017
The Left's failure to support president Trump is a recruiting tool for Radical Islamic Terrorism.#MAGA#TheResistance #CNNTownhall — Phil 🇺🇸 USA (@phil200269) March 2, 2017
Keep it up, libs. You’ll ensure that Trump becomes a two-term president.
.When your party leader hears the #President say, 'Radical, Islamic terrorism'… & you remain in your seat…. you in the wrong country#RR pic.twitter.com/ltEZsC6uQV — Buddy Belk (@LessGovMoreFun) March 2, 2017
‘Star Trek’ dumbass Patrick Stewart wants to become a US citizen so he can “fight” TrumpGaming has a tumultuous 12 months, and the very heart of many debates is how women are welcomed and treated in the space
To take a deeper look at this issue, Mashable's film online and IRL film screening series MashFlix will feature GTFO, a documentary that focuses on how women have been treated in gaming. The interview-driven documentary was funded on Kickstarter, then debuted at SXSW earlier this year.
We'll be spending the next few weeks showcasing content and contests surrounding the film, capping it all off with a screening in New York City on the evening of Thursday, August 27th. Following the screening, we'll have film director Shannon Sun-Higginson and a panel to answer questions. You can RSVP by clicking here
Sun-Higginson sought funding for her documentary in 2012 on Kickstarter, long before movements like Gamergate brought broader media attention to women's sometimes brutal treatment in online spaces. Her documentary focuses both on players themselves, like Grace "Gtz", the creator of Fat, Ugly or Slutty — a website that chronicles the gross, dehumanizing message women receive while playing games online. She also speaks to those making games, like game designer Brenda Romero and writers Jennifer Hepler and Rhianna Pratchett, and members of the media like Maddie Myers and Leigh Alexander.
There are interviews with female professional gamers, like StarCraft II players Flo Yau and Julia "Ailuj" Childress, as well as fighting game player Miranda “Super__Yan” Pakozdi, whose harassment and ridicule by a teammate on during a livestreamed event is a focal point of the film.
Sun-Higginson answered some of our questions about the movie and its reception.
What was the first thing that triggered the idea for GTFO?
I was first introduced to the concept by a good friend of mine, who sent me a video of a young woman being harassed during a gaming tournament. I was shocked, and started shooting the first few interviews that weekend. At first I had no idea that my little clips would eventually add up to a feature documentary, I just wanted this story to be told.
Then as the production moved forward, I quickly realized that there is so much more to women's experiences than harassment, so I broadened out the topic of the film to include the great work that women are doing in the industry, as well as solutions to obstacles that women may encounter.
Who do you hope views the film?
I don't expect trolls or harassers to be interested in watching the film (although I wish they would because I'd be curious to see their response). Rather, I want to focus on three other primary groups. I
want people involved in gaming to watch GTFO to have the chance to look at their culture in a different light and start thinking about ways they can improve the environment for women and other marginalized groups.
I want women in games and other male-dominated industries to watch the movie to know that they're not alone in their experiences. And I want non-gamers and other outsiders like myself to watch the
film to gain an understanding of what is happening in gaming right now and how it might relate to other areas of our lives.
How has reception been so far?
The overall response has been positive. A lot of audience members relate the movie to their own personal experiences - I've spoken with members of the military, women in the sciences, younger viewers, the
parents of gamers and many more. Everyone has a different takeaway from the film, but relates it to their own experiences in some way. Of course not everybody is going to be happy with the movie - some
viewers may feel that their experiences weren't represented, or that the film doesn't take a harsh enough view of harassers, or that it's too harsh. The film has also been review bombed by trolls, which is to
be expected.
Ultimately, we took the real life experiences of passionate people and found recurring themes and ideas, and used those to shape the narrative of the film. As a filmmaker, I tried to take a step back and stay as true as possible to what these women and men were sharing in their interviews, rather than including my own narrative voice. So while there are definitely valid criticisms that could be made, there's no real argument against somebody's authentic experience, and I stand by that.
Catch the trailer below:Last week, hard plastic baby and water bottles were not considered harmful.
Now, in the eyes of many users, they are toxic. Yesterday, CVS said it will join Wal-Mart, bottle-maker Nalgene, and other companies in pulling tens of thousands of the shatter-proof, transparent products off store shelves. Some parents are tossing hiking bottles into the trash, feeding their babies with glass containers, and searching for a safer alternative to see-through sippy cups.
So how dangerous are these bottles? And what should consumers do about the risk?
"The truthful answer is that nobody knows" their full health impact yet, said David Ozonoff, a professor of environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health. "And because we don't know, it's prudent to avoid something that is avoidable."
At the heart of the debate is an odorless, tasteless chemical called bisphenol A that is one of the most commonly used synthetic compounds. It is used to line most canned goods, from soups to soft drinks, to prevent corrosion. It helps make sunglasses and compact discs durable. And it strengthens virtually all transparent, light weight hard plastic baby and water bottles. The chemical has been used for decades, and millions of pounds are produced in the United States each year.
Animal studies have linked exposure to small amounts of bisphenol A to reproductive problems and possible cancers later in life, though the level of risk is unknown. A small body of research suggests that exposure to the chemical in the uterus could contribute to later obesity.
But chemicals that harm animals are not always bad for humans, particularly in the small amounts to which most people are exposed. Industry representatives say no study has proved a link between bisphenol A and health problems in humans.
Still, the US National Toxicology Program, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, last week released a draft report on the chemical, saying there was "some concern for neural and behavioral effects in fetuses, infants, and children at current human exposures." A few days later, Wal-Mart said it would stop selling baby bottles made with bisphenol A by next year and replace them with a bottle free of the chemical. Nalgene, the maker of the durable and ubiquitous hiking bottle whose parent company, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., is based in Waltham, also said it would replace its bisphenol A bottles in stores.
Last Friday, Health Canada delivered another blow, announcing that the compound was potentially harmful to people, especially newborns and infants. If no new scientific evidence is brought forward in the next 60 days, officials announced they would ban it from all baby bottles in the country.
"We have concluded that it is better to be safe than sorry," Tony Clement, the Canadian health minister, told reporters.A Kurdish business tycoon is building a $20 million replica of the White House in a swanky neighborhood in Erbil, Iraq. The knockoff is situated not 50 miles away from ISIS-held Mosul.
Shihab Shihab, a Kurdish business tycoon, commissioned the mansion to be built with Greek marble instead of sandstone, and while it is smaller than the original White House at 32,300 square feet, the home comes complete with a 9-foot crystal chandelier, 21-karat gold ceilings, and a Turkish bath.
Shihab dreams of Obama coming to visit the house in Kurdistan one day. "If Obama comes, I will invite him to come here," Shihab told NPR. "We will invite him to have Erbil kebab and fish."
Here's a peek inside the construction:
The mansion is being built in Erbil's Dream City, a luxury neighbourhood in northern Iraq lined with million-dollar villas. Matt Cardy/Getty Images
The mansion is slightly smaller than the actual White House, measuring 32,300 square feet instead of 55,000 square feet. The home's columns have been finished with 21-karat gold leaf. Matt Cardy/Getty Images
The banister of the home's grand staircase, as well as the ceiling, have also been trimmed with 21-karat gold. Matt Cardy/Getty Images
A large swimming pool is just one of many features Shihab has made on his replica of the White House. Matt Cardy/Getty Images
A Turkish bath, decorated with intricate Turkish tiles, is another. Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Shihab hopes people will talk about his copy as much as they talk about the real White House. He plans to make this colorful room the gym. Matt Cardy/Getty Images
The home will have two master bedrooms, but Shihab doesn't remember how many rooms the mansion has total — he told NPR it's so big, he can't keep track. Matt Cardy/Getty Images
When a buyer offered to pay $17 million for the mansion back in October, Shihab reportedly refused, according to the NY Daily News. Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesWelcome back to our 30 for 30 documentary short series.
In the summer of 2001, the kids from the Bronx were the feel-good story of the Little League World Series. Most of the attention went to their quiet, record-setting ace, Danny Almonte, who had recently moved to New York from the Dominican Republic. They didn’t win the title, but they were the toast of New York, meeting their neighbors the New York Yankees and receiving keys to the city from then-mayor Rudy Giuliani. The problem was, Almonte’s story didn’t hold up. A Sports Illustrated investigation revealed that he was a full two years too old to participate in Little League. The story instantly caught international attention, as Almonte was accused of cheating in the most sacred of all amateur sports. Twelve years later, the reclusive Almonte finally tells the truth about one of the strangest chapters in youth sports history.
Recent 30 for 30 Shorts
• The High Five, directed by Michael Jacobs »
• Mecca: The Floor That Made Milwaukee Famous, directed by Chris James Thompson »
• Posterized, directed by Andrew Jenks »
• From Harlem With Love, directed by Matt Ogens »
• Untucked, directed by Danny Pudi »House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank are the biggest cheerleaders for a Republican administration sponsored $700 billion giveaway. Both have caved in to administration whims so disgusting that most Republicans will not vote for this bill.
Please consider the New York Times article, Bailout Plan in Hand, House Braces for Tough Vote
The House braced for a difficult vote set for Monday on a $700 billion rescue of the financial industry after a weekend of tense negotiations produced a plan that Congressional leaders portrayed as greatly strengthened by new taxpayer safeguards.
The measure still faced stiff resistance from Republican and Democratic lawmakers who portrayed it as a rush to economic judgment and an undeserved aid package for high-flying financiers who chased big profits through reckless investments.
All sides had to surrender something. The administration had to accept limits on executive pay and tougher oversight; Democrats had to sacrifice a push to allow bankruptcy judges to rewrite mortgages; and Republicans fell short in their effort to require that the federal government insure, rather than buy, the bad debt.
“This is a major, major change,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday evening as she declared that negotiations were over and |
the mid-1970s, but fewer than 50 in 1988.
The environmentalists claim that disposable diapers and fast-food containers are the worst problems. To me, this has always revealed the anti-family and pro-elite biases common to all left-wing movements. But the left, as usual, has the facts wrong as well.
In two years of digging in seven landfills all across America, in which they sorted and weighed every item in 16,000 lbs. of garbage, Rathje discovered that fast-food containers take up less than 1/10th of one percent of the space; less than 1 % was disposable diapers. All plastics totalled less than 5%. The real culprit is paper — especially telephone books and newspapers. And there is little biodegradation. He found 1952 newspapers still fresh and readable.
Rather than biodegrade, most garbage mummifies. And this may be a blessing. If newspapers, for example, degraded rapidly, tons of ink would leach into the groundwater. And we should be glad that plastic doesn’t biodegrade. Being inert, it doesn’t introduce toxic chemicals into the environment.
We’re told we have a moral obligation to recycle, and most of us say we do so, but empirical studies show it isn’t so. In surveys, 78% of the respondents say they separate their garbage, but only 26% said they thought their neighbors separate theirs. To test that, for seven years the Garbage Project examined 9,000 loads of refuse in Tucson, Arizona, from a variety of neighborhoods. The results: most people do what they say their neighbors do — they don’t separate. No matter how high or low the income, or how liberal the neighborhood, or how much the respondents said they cared about the environment, only 26% actually separated their trash. The only reliable predictor of when people separate and when they don’t is exactly the one an economist would predict: the price paid for the trash. When the prices of old newspaper rose, people carefully separated their newspapers. When the price of newspapers fell, people threw them out with the other garbage.
We’re all told to save our newspapers for recycling, and the idea seems to make sense. Old newspapers can be made into boxes, wallboard, and insulation, but the market is flooded with newsprint thanks to government programs. In New Jersey, for example, the price of used newspapers has plummeted from $40 a ton to minus $25 a ton. Trash entrepreneurs used to buy old newspaper. Now you have to pay someone to take it away.
If it is economically efficient to recycle — and we can’t know that so long as government is involved — trash will have a market price. It is only through a free price system, as Ludwig von Mises demonstrated 70 years ago, that we can know the value of goods and services.
The cave men had garbage problems, and so will our progeny, probably for as long as human civilization exists. But government is no answer. A socialized garbage system works no better than the Bulgarian economy. Only the free market will solve the garbage problem, and that means abolishing not only socialism, but the somewhat more efficient municipal fascist systems where one politically favored contractor gets the job.
The answer is to privatize and deregulate everything, from trash pickup to landfills. That way, everyone pays an appropriate part of the costs. Some types of trash would be taken away for a fee, others would be picked up free, and still others might command a price. Recycling would be based on economic calculation, not bureaucratic fiat.
The choice is always the same: put consumers in charge through private property and a free price system, or create a fiasco through government. Under the right kind of system, even I might start separating my trash.
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MCDONALDS: I’ve always admired McDonald’s. It put restaurant dining within the reach of the average American, and made cross-country travel less of a culinary roulette. But these days, the gold on those arches is looking a little bit green.
For 15 years, McDonald’s put its hamburgers in styrofoam boxes, and no wonder. The containers kept the food hot, clean, and dry, and the foam even absorbed grease.
Styrofoam was a wonderful invention, as anyone who’s ever held a paper cup of hot coffee can testify. Light, strong, cheap, and insulating, styrofoam was a consumer godsend. So naturally, the environmentalists — whose declared enemy is the consumer society — despised it.
The Environmental Defense Fund persuaded McDonald’s to ban styrofoam as “bad for the environment.” By this, they do not mean the customers’ environment, since paper leaves a hamburger cold and soggy much more quickly than styrofoam.
The environmentalists say that styrofoam doesn’t biodegrade. But so what? Rocks don’t biodegrade either. Why should we mind styrofoam buried under our feet as versus rocks? Because styrofoam is manmade, and therefore evil, whereas rocks are natural, and therefore good.
Non-ecological factors may be at work, however. Edward H. Rensi, president of McDonald’s U.S.A., said the company can “switch to paper and save money.” And if the customers don’t like it? What are you, a spotted owl murderer?
But McDonald’s may not be getting off so easily. The Audubon Society criticizes the deal, saying that “a lot more paper means a lot more pollution.”
I guess the environmentalists won’t be satisfied until McDonald’s slaps the burger directly onto our outstretched hand. If it is a burger. An agreement with the animal rights movement may be next. Anyone for a McTofu?
Portland, Oregon — in a move that other cities are studying — has hired ex-New York bureaucrat Lee Barrett as a “styrofoam cop.” Since January 1990, no restaurant or other retail food seller in Portland has been able to use products made of the wonderful insulating foam. It is Barrett’s job to swoop down on businesses to make sure they are not styro-criminals. If they are, he can levy $250 fines for the dread offense — with $500 for hardened offenders.
ALAR: Just before the publication of a National Research Council study extolling fresh fruits and vegetables (why do government scientists get paid to repeat what our mothers told us?), and pooh-poohing the trivial pesticide residues on them, the environmentalists arranged an ambush.
A PR man for the Natural Resources Defense Council was featured on 60 Minutes, points out syndicated columnist Warren Brookes, and Ed Bradley denounced Alar as the “most potent carcinogen in our food supply.” This was disinformation.
Alar — used safely since 1963 — helps ripen apples, keeps them crisper, and retards spoilage. Using an EPA-mandated dosage 22,000 times the maximum intake of even an apple-crazy human, one rat out of the thousands tested developed a tumor. This was the extent of the “scientific proof” used not only to harm the manufacturer, Uniroyal, which had to pull Alar off the market, but the entire U.S. apple industry.
A saner voice — Dr. Sanford Miller, dean of the medical school at the University of Texas at San Antonio — noted that “the risk of pesticide residues to consumers is effectively zero.” But apple sales dropped, and apple growers lost more than $250 million, with many driven into bankruptcy.
Says Dr. Miller: 99.9% of the pesticide carcinogens now eaten by humans are natural. And as man-made pesticides and fungicides are banned, we are endangered. “Fungi produce the most potent carcinogens in nature.”
RATS: The attack on Alar was based on rodent testing. And many other helpful products have been forced off the market, and companies and consumers harmed, through such panics. And now it turns out, as many of us have long thought, that such tests are defective.
Two recent articles in the journal Science — by Bruce Ames of the University of California, Berkeley, and Samuel Cohen of the University of Nebraska Medical College — have shown that it is the massive dose itself, no matter what the substance, that causes tumors.
The hyper dosages, explain these scientists, kill cells in the test animals, which their bodies then replace. The more this takes place over the animal’s lifetime, the greater the chance of a cell mutation leading to cancer.
As with Alar, take thousands of rats and fill them full of a chemical for their whole lives, and it can be no surprise when one develops a tumor. This shows us that no one should try to live on Alar, but it tells us nothing about an infinitesimal residue, so small as to be barely measurable, of this helpful chemical.
GREENHOUSE: On the first Earth Day in 1970, environmentalists warned that we faced a new ice age unless the government took immediate and massive action. Today, using much of the same data, they claim we are endangered by global warming. These are the same climatologists who can’t tell us whether it will rain next Friday, but who are certain that the earth’s temperature will be x degrees Celsius higher in 2,011 than today. Increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will melt the polar icecaps and coastal areas will flood, we’re told. As temperatures increase, Dallas will become a desert and Baked Alaska more than a dessert.
The proposed solution to this “Greenhouse Effect” is, surprise!, more government spending and control, and lower human standards of living. President Bush’s new budget has $375 million for greenhouse research.
Yet the “net rise in world surface temperature during the last century is about one degree Fahrenheit,” nearly all of it before 1940, notes syndicated columnist Alton Chase. “And the northern oceans have actually been getting cooler. The much-vaunted ‘global warming’ figures are concocted by averaging equatorial warming with north temperate cooling.”
A National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration study of ground temperature in the U.S. from 1889 to 1989 found no warming. And a recently concluded 10-year satellite weather study by two NASA scientists at the Huntsville Space Center and the University of Alabama also found zero warming.
There is no evidence of global warming, but even if it were to take place, many scientists say the effect would be good: it would lengthen growing seasons, make the earth more liveable, and forestall any future ice age.
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CLEAN AIR ACT: Bush’s Clean Air Act, signed into law in October 1990, gives the EPA dictatorial power over every American business whose products might be harmful if burned. Since almost everything is toxic if burned, this is the establishment of Green central planning.
The bill also subsidizes ethanol, methanol, and compressed natural gas, and orders manufacturers to produce expensive cars that run on them.
Ethanol, a corn-based fuel beloved of Sen. Bob Dole (R-IRS) and his ethanol-producing mentor, Dwayne Andreas of Archer-Daniels-Midland, gives off other forms of pollution, and is much more expensive than gasoline. (Note: this provision, by artificially increasing this demand for corn, will also raise food prices by about $10 billion.)
Methanol is a highly corrosive fuel that destroys the normal automotive engine, requiring super-expensive alternatives. It costs more than gasoline, is only half as efficient, and is so toxic as to make gasoline seem almost benign in comparison.
Compressed natural gas requires massive steel tanks. A container holding the energy equivalent of a normal gasoline tank is much bigger and weighs 30 times as much, lowering mileage and wiping out most trunk space. And even a minimal number of refueling stations will cost $15 billion.
The Clean Air Act also has higher CAFE standards (fleet-wide economy regulations) that will have the effect of mandating lighter and therefore more dangerous automobiles.
The bill also places new and heavy regulations on hundreds of thousands of small businesses, in the OSHA tradition. OSHA is the quintessential Establishment regulatory agency, since the Exxons of the world can easily handle its depredations, while small businesses cannot. It has been a tremendous relative benefit to big business, and a barrier to entrepreneurs and small firms.
The new Clean Air Act replicates this, in spades. Any business using one of 200 common chemicals will have to undergo a lengthy and expensive licensing process. This includes your corner dry cleaner and print shop. And if the owner violates any regulations, knowingly or unknowingly, he will be subjected to heavy civil and even criminal penalties.
If a business gets new equipment, it will need a new permit — another bar to innovation for small companies. And if a factory changes its production method, it too will need a new permit. Again, this is no problem for Dow Chemical, only for Dow’s would-be competitors.
As bad as all these provisions are, the most serious and expensive aspects of the Clean Air Act involve “acid rain” and the ozone layer.
ACID RAIN: Environmentalists are adept at PR, and the very name acid rain conjures up images of drops eating through your umbrella and dissolving your hair. In fact, it means only that litmus paper turns a different color.
The environmentalists tell us that America’s streams, rivers, and lakes are becoming dangerously acidic, and that the villain is coal burning by utility companies. However, the government’s own ten-year, $600 million National Acidic Precipitation Assessment Project — which the EPA has censored — found that acid rain is a non-problem.
Virtually all of the few acidic lakes have been that way since before the Industrial Revolution, thanks to water running through topsoil heavy with decaying vegetation. This is also why the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt found the giant Rio Negro river system in South America acidic and fishless two hundred years ago.
Ironically, the fish in some Adirondack lakes — where there has been the most publicity — are affected by reforestation. Cutting down trees in the early part of the century led to less acidic soil, and a more neutral pH in the water, and artificially stocked fish thrived. Replanting over the last few decades has meant more acid.
OZONE: The other major focus of the Clean Air Act is the alleged deterioration of the ozone layer. We’re told that we need a robust layer of ozone to prevent too much ultra-violet B radiation. But this is another non- problem. Since 1974, when we began measuring the UVB radiation level, it has declined 10%. Less is getting through, despite alleged anti-ozone chemicals.
Ozone is created by the action of sunshine on oxygen, so it should be no surprise that over the South Pole in the winter, when there is little sunshine, the ozone layer might thin, or even develop a temporary hole. This has happened, it is the only place it has happened, and it was first recorded in the middle 1950s, long before the alleged chemical villains were in significant use.
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Ozone is harmed, we’re told, by chlorofluorocarbons, the wonder chemicals used in air conditioners, refrigerators, and spray cans, and which are essential to the computer industry as well. Stable and non-toxic, CFCs cannot catch fire, and they are tremendously energy efficient. Yet the Clean Air Act will heavily tax, and eventually ban, all CFCs and related chemicals.
The planned substitutes are not only poisonous and energy inefficient, they can catch fire and even explode. The exploding refrigerator: it seems a perfect symbol of what the Clean Air Act, and the entire environmental movement, will inflict on us for the sake of the mythical Mother Nature.
But ozone is good, we’re told, only in the upper atmosphere. To cut down on its incidence at street level in Los Angeles, the entire country will be fastened with additional anti-automotive and anti-industrial controls, with more bad economic effects.
A GREEN GNP?: The environmentalists feel they have a PR problem. Since their explicit agenda is to make us consume less, that is, to be poorer, they worry that this may not be popular. So they have a solution: the Green GNP.
GNP — gross national product — is already a deficient statistic. For example, as government spending grows, so does the GNP, even though government growth subtracts from real wealth. Nevertheless, as the statistical avatar of American business activity, the GNP has tremendous political significance.
To hide the fact that their legislation and regulation makes us poorer, the environmentalists want “environmental quality” incorporated into GNP. The Environmental Protection Agency and similar bureaucracies in Western Europe are funding research to make this possible.
The federal government already owns more than 40% of the United States. Say, under environmentalist pressure, another billion acres is taken out of production to save an endangered weed. Green accounting will claim that our environmental quality has been improved by x billion dollars, and add this to the GNP. Already, the GNP figures disguise how poor we’re getting along, thanks to government intervention in the economy. A Green GNP will take us even further from reality.
SPOTTED OWLS: When I visited a logging area in far northern California, I found no environmentalists. As the Sierra Club’s own studies demonstrate, environmentalists are upper-class types who live in places like Manhattan and Malibu, not in the woods. Those who do have no illusions about the Earth Goddess Gaia.
Loggers know that mankind’s very existence depends on bending nature to our will, and that if we ever stop doing so, the jungle will reclaim our cities.
The livelihood of 30,000 working families in the Northwest will be destroyed by Bush administration—approved anti-logging regulations on millions of acres, so 1,500 spotted owls can continue to live in the style to which they have become accustomed. If you think that wiping out 20 human families per owl seems excessive, it just shows how unenlightened you are.
(Note: if the spotted owl really is “endangered,” and environmentalists want to save it, they should buy some land and set up an owl sanctuary. But using their own money somehow never occurs to them.)
The environmentalists privately admit, however, that the owl is not their major concern. It is outlawing all “old-growth” logging, a controversy which cuts to the heart of the environmentalist movement (unfortunately not with an ax).
Old-growth trees are precious because they were not planted by man, the Great Satan of the enviro-druidic religion. Pollution questions, although they make use of them, are irrelevant to these people. Old trees produce much less oxygen than new trees, so according to the “rain-forest criterion,” we should harvest all old trees and plant new ones. I don’t notice any environmentalists recommending that, however. In fact, California had a Forests Forever ballot initiative defeated in November 1990, to ban all old-growth logging. These are the same people, remember, who wanted to let Yellowstone’s trees burn down because the fire was started by natural lightning.
To drive through far northern California is to be reminded of the aptness of Ronald Reagan’s “if you’ve seen one tree, you’ve seen them all” remark. The monotony is broken only by the occasional town, an oasis of civilization in a green desert. Yet the environmentalists would turn these into ghost cities. As one affluent environmentalist told me, “those people have no business living there.” Now if I can only find an Audubon Society meeting so I can wear my new logger t-shirt: “I Love Spotted Owls. Fried.”
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OIL: With the U.S. government prepared to go to war over oil, one would think that the environmental stranglehold on domestic energy production might be questioned. In fact, it has been made tighter, with millions more acres, off-shore and within the U.S., forever barred — or so the environmentalists hope — from energy production for humans.
The Arctic National Wildlife Reserve is full of oil, perhaps eight to nine billion barrels worth — even more than Prudoe Bay, points out columnist Stan Evans. So full of oil is this government wildlife reserve that oil seeps out of the ground and into the water, for some reason causing no media hysteria at the “desecration” involved. Yet this mammoth resource has been locked up by the feds through environmentalist pressure.
Production off the California, North and South Carolina, and Florida coasts is also banned, although there is probably 30 billion barrels there.
Through a coalition of rich people in places like Santa Barbara who don’t want their free views disturbed by a distant drilling platform, and environmentalists who feel drilling contaminates Mother Earth, and might injure a seagull, the American people have been made poorer.
All federal lands should be privatized, but so long as they are government owned, they should at least be opened to productive human use, including oil production, coal and other forms of mining, and tree harvesting.
SMOKING: In 1604, James I of England ordered his subjects to stop using tobacco, “the horrible Stydgian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.” Other anti-smoking politicians have tried whippings in Russia, nose-slittings in India, and beheadings in Turkey. One anti-smoking sultan roamed the streets of Istanbul in disguise and beheaded any tobacco seller he found. Even our present-day fanatics wouldn’t go that far. I don’t think.
Massachusetts outlawed the sale of tobacco in the 1630s, and in the 1640s, Connecticut banned public smoking and ordered private smokers to get a license.
These measures failed, just as Turkish capital punishment had. It was more than 150 years, points out our Gordon Dillow, before the anti-smoking movement revived.
All during the 19th century, what were called anti-smoking “agitations” increased. Eugenicist Orson Fowler even condemned it as an aphrodisiac, and warned that those who “would be pure in your love-instinct” should “cast this sensualizing fire from you.”
In 1984, The New York Times said that “the decadence of Spain began when the Spaniards adopted cigarettes.” With Americans using them, “the ruin of the Republic is close at hand.”
Tobacco was accused of causing color blindness, weak eyesight, baldness, stunted growth, insanity, sterility, drunkenness, impotence, sexual promiscuity, mustaches on women, and constipation.
In 1893, New York Schools Commissioner Charles Hubbell said that “many and many a bright lad has had his will power weakened, his moral principle sapped, his nervous system wrecked, and his whole life spoiled before he is seventeen years old by the detestable cigarette. The ‘cigarette fiend’ in time becomes a liar and a thief. He will commit petty thefts to get money to feed his insatiable appetite for nicotine. He lies to his parents, his teachers, and his best friends. He neglects his studies and, narcotized by nicotine, sits at his desk half stupefied, his desire for work, his ambition, dulled if not dead.”
By 1909, with the help of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the National Anti-Cigarette League succeeded in outlawing smoking in North Dakota, Iowa, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Washington, South Dakota, and Minnesota. New York City outlawed smoking by women, and 29-year-old Katie Mulcahey was jailed for lighting up in front of a policeman and telling him: “No man shall dictate to me.”
When drinking was outlawed, evangelist Billy Sunday said: “Prohibition is won; now for tobacco.” The Presbyterian, Northern Baptist, and Methodist churches called for tobacco prohibition, but amidst growing public dismay about the effects of alcohol prohibition, they failed to win many more converts.
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A popular song seemed to sum it all up:
Tobacco is a dirty weed. I like it. It satisfies no normal need. I like it. It makes you thin, it makes you lean, It takes the hair right off your bean. It’s the worst darn stuff I’ve ever seen. I like it.
Gradually the states repealed their anti-tobacco laws. Kansas’s was the last to go in 1927.
But tobacco prohibition fever is upon us once again. California always seems to lead the way in these matters, and today, not only do they have hectoring state anti-drinking signs in their restaurants, they are subjected to an expensive and intrusive state advertising campaign against smoking.
The anti-smoketeers were bolstered in the last decade by the Ruritanian admiral with the 1,000-mile stare, Dr. C. Everett Kopp. As Surgeon General, he preached about the dangers of “second-hand” smoke. But where was the evidence?
An American Cancer Society study of 180,000 American women has not detected any increased risk to non-smoking wives of heavy smokers. And a Yale Medical School study showed that tobacco smoke in the air very slightly improved the breathing ability of asthmatics!
But none of this matters. Our health Nazis are obsessed by the idea that someone, somewhere, might be enjoying a smoke or a drink. Therefore their $28.6 million government ad campaign.
I find the notion of state behavioral advertising chilling. (Although I wouldn’t mind trying anti-bribe ads in the legislature.)
No one was supposed to be persuaded by the slogans that used to festoon Moscow: “Glory to the Communist Party,” “Toil for the Motherland,” etc. They were there to demoralize the opposition. So it is in California.
With newspaper, TV, and radio ads, the state department of health services says it will “change the image” of smoking from “sexy, glamorous, youthful” to “dumb, dirty, dangerous.” While I don’t know anyone who thinks smoking is the former, the latter sounds like a great description of the California government.
The tobacco industry works through persuasion. The State of California (not to speak of the U.S. government) gets its money, and its way, at the point of a gun. Give me Virginia Slims over the tax man any day.
SIEG HEALTH: We’ve always known the Nazis were economic left-wingers (Nazi standing for National Socialist German Workers Party), but now — thanks to Robert N. Proctor’s Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis (Harvard University Press, 1988) — we know they were health nuts, exercise freaks, ecologists, organic food zealots, animal righters, and alcohol and tobacco haters.
Like today’s environmentalists, who place every bug and weed above humans, the Nazis were ardent conservationists. They passed a host of laws to protect “nature and nature’s animals,” especially “endangered” plants and animals.
The Nazis outlawed medical research on animals, with Hermann Goering threatening anyone who broke the law with being “deported to a concentration camp.” He jailed a fisherman for six months because he cut off a bait frog’s head while it was still alive, and the German humor magazine Simplissimus ran a cartoon with a platoon of frogs giving Goering the Nazi salute.
As believers in “organic medicine,” the Nazis urged the German people to eat raw fruits and vegetables, since the preservation, sterilization, and pasteurization of food meant “alienation from nature.”
They even hated Wonder Bread. “In 1935, Reich’s Health Fuehrer Gerhard Wager launched an attack on the recent shift from natural whole-grain bread to highly refined white bread,” says Proctor. Denouncing white bread as a “chemical product,” Wagner linked the “bread question” to a “broader need to return to a diet of less meat and fats, more fruits and vegetables, and more whole-grain bread.”
In 1935, Wagner formed the Reich Whole-Grain Bread Committee to pressure bakers not to produce white bread, and Goebbels produced a propaganda poster tying Aryanism to whole-grain bread. In 1935, only 1% of German bakeries were health-food stores. By 1943, 23 % were.
The Nazis were also anti-pesticide, with Hitler’s personal physician, Theodore Morell, declaring the DDT especially was “both useless and dangerous.” He prevented its distribution.
The Nazis funded massive research into the environmental dangers of background radiation, lead, asbestos, and mercury. They campaigned against artificial colorings and preservatives, and demanded more use of organic “pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, fertilizers, and foods.” Government medical journals blamed cancer on red meat and chemical preservatives.
Drinking was actively discouraged, and there were stiff penalties for anyone caught driving drunk, with the police — for the first time — empowered to give mandatory blood alcohol tests.
Hitler, a vegetarian and health-food enthusiast, was also a teetotaler. Himmler shared Hitler’s hatred for alcohol, and had his S.S. promote the production of fruit juices and mineral water as substitutes.
Hitler especially hated smoking, however, and he would allow no one to smoke in his presence. When the state of Saxony established the Institute for the Struggle Against Tobacco at the University of Jena in 1942, he donated 100,000 RM of his own money to it. He also banned smoking on city trains and buses.
The Nazis believed in natural childbirth, mid-wifery, and breastfeeding, and women who breastfed their children instead of using “artificial formula” received a subsidy from the state. By the middle 1930s, the Nazis had outlawed physician-assisted births in favor of midwives.
The Nazis also promoted herbal medicine, and the S.S. farms at Dachau were billed as the “largest research institute for natural herbs and medicines in Europe.”
No wonder our eco-leftists have that glint in their eye. From now on, I’m going to check if they are wearing armbands.
Animal Lovers and People Haters
One of the fastest growing and most radical parts of the environmental movement is the animal rightists. They too worship nature, but make a cult out of animals whom they equate with human beings, and in fact place above us.
BABY SEALS: About ten years ago, we were subjected to a barrage of photos and news stories about big-eyed seal pups hunted for their fur. Greenpeace stirred a worldwide propaganda campaign, and the European Community and others banned the import of the pelts.
This not only wiped out the livelihood of the natives who hunted the seals, but it harmed the fishing industry. With no hunting to keep the seal population under control, the animals are devouring increasingly scarce fish and damaging nets.
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Some bureaucrats are proposing a government seal hunt (no private hunters, of course), but the environmentalists have prevented it. Meanwhile, stocks of cod and other fish continue to drop. Do the environmentalists care? We “shouldn’t eat anything with a face,” one told me.
FLIPPED OUT: One environmentalists’ Victim of the Month was the dolphin. Some of the animals were caught inadvertently by tuna fishermen, but Flipper reruns on TV must have convinced millions of Americans that dolphins are intelligent, so the environmentalists were able to persuade them to spear the tuna industry.
Santa Barbara, California, has now declared a Dolphin Awareness Day; school children all across America engaged in letter-writing campaigns (those who still could, despite the government schools); and San Francisco kids were denounced if they brought tuna sandwiches to school.
The Audubon Society, the Humane Society, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and a host of similar organizations wanted an end, in effect, to the organized American tuna industry, and they may get it.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Reagan in 1981, imposed convoluted regulations on the industry in the name of saving dolphins. But that’s not good enough, says Congresswoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA): dolphins “have creative centers larger than humans.” Or at least larger than members of Congress. So new federal restrictions are needed.
Even before the politicians could act, however, Greenpeace and other environmental groups pressured the four major tuna companies to stop using fish caught by nets because an occasional dolphin might be caught. The livelihood of American tuna fishermen, with the life savings of whole families invested in expensive boats and equipment, was, of course, irrelevant. The companies will now only buy tuna from the western Pacific, where there are no dolphins, and no American fishermen.
The environmentalists admit, be it noted, that they also cherish the life of the tuna, and want it also protected from fishermen, but they will have to wait. Charlie hasn’t had his own TV show yet.
EXTINCTION: From the snail darter to the furbish lousewort, every existing animal and plant species must be kept in existence by the government — claim the environmentalists — even if human rights are violated. But why?
Most of the species that have existed since the “creation," from trilobites to dinosaurs, are now extinct through normal processes. Why not allow this to continue?
If, for scientific or entertainment purposes, some people want to preserve this species or that on their own land and at their own expense, great. Zoos and universities do this already. But the rest of us should not be taxed and regulated, and have our property rights wiped out, to save every weed and bug. The only environmental impact that counts is that on humans.
FUR: In Aspen, Colorado, voters defeated a proposed ban on fur sales, but in most places it is the furaphobes who make themselves felt, especially since they are willing to use almost any tactic.
They spray-paint women in fur coats, slash coats with razors and burn down fur stores. Last year, they put incendiary bombs in the fur-selling areas of department stores all over the San Francisco Bay area. Police suspect the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), which has been charged with using identical devices elsewhere. But such is the environmentalist influence in the media that there was little publicity.
ALF, which the California attorney general calls a terrorist organization, says it seeks “to inflict economic damage on animal torturers,” from fur sellers to medical researchers.
MEDICAL RESEARCH: A physician researching Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Dr. John Orem, “conducted ground breaking — and painless — research on cats,” notes Katie McCabe in The Washingtonian, “until his lab was trashed by the Animal Liberation Front.” Children may die as a result, but ALF says: so what? Anything is justified to stop the use of animals.
Congress listens respectfully to animal-rights lobbyists, and has passed legislation making medical research more expensive. One amendment from then-Sen. John Melcher (D-MT) requires researchers to protect the “psychological well-being” of monkeys (whom Congressmen must feel close to) at an estimated cost of $1 billion.
This plays, however, directly into the hands of people-killers. Who knows how many cures will go undiscovered because of these restrictions? Thousands of babies have been saved because we know about the Rh factor, which was discovered through the use of rhesus monkeys. But animal rights advocates say it is better that babies die than that monkeys be used to save them.
Even Rep. Bob Dornan (R-CA) has pushed animal-rights legislation that would add billions to medical research costs. Not that he goes all the way with these people. Although named “Legislator of the Year” by the radical PETA, Dornan still “wears leather shoes.” Until PETA outlaws them, that is, for the animal rightists see cow leather as no different than human skin.
Fred Barnes reports in The New Republic — itself pro-animal rights — that the Bush administration has buckled under animal rights pressure (Barbara is rumored to be a supporter) and “strongly opposed” legislation empowering the FBI to investigate terrorist attacks on medical research facilities.
In a cover story on the subject, New Republic senior editor Robert Wright says he was converted by the “stubborn logic” of the animal-rights movement, although he — like Dornan — doesn’t go all the way. He still believes in “the use of primates in AIDS research.”
ANTS AND SWANS: The animal rights lobby wants them to outlaw any use of animals in medical research, food, or clothing. There is “no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights,” says Ingrid Newkirk, director of PETA. “The smallest form of life, even an ant or a clam, is equal to a human being.”
The “murder of animals,” says Alex Pacheco, chairman of PETA, is equivalent to the “murder of men.” Eating oysters on the halfshell makes you Charles Manson.
Recently there was an uproar in southern Connecticut. The state’s wildlife division had proposed, in the face of an out-of-control swan population, to “shake eggs.” The swans — large, heavy, aggressive birds with no natural predators in the area — were attacking children. The swans couldn’t, of course, be hunted, so rangers were deputized to rattle fertilized eggs to prevent hatching.
Thousands of residents protested this violation of the swans’ rights, many proponents of human abortion among them. If children were injured by the swans, so be it. (Note: This is in the Green tradition. Rousseau abandoned his five children as “an inconvenience” and animal-rights activists are typically pro-abortion.)
Let’s get serious, says a PETA spokeswoman: “Six million Jews died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughter houses.”
The Politics of Environmentalism
From FDR to the present, the Democrats have been bad on environmentalism. It played an important part in the New Deal and the Great Society (Lyndon Johnson called himself “the Conservation President”), and any day I expect to see the Democrats designate trees as what Joe Sobran calls an Officially Accredited Minority, with a certain number of seats (plastic, of course) in their |
is mutually beneficial).
However, the Coase theorem is difficult to implement because Coase does not offer a negotiation method.[31] Moreover, Coasian solutions are unlikely to be reached due to the possibility of running into the assignment problem, the holdout problem, the free-rider problem, and/or transaction costs. Additionally, firms could potentially bribe each other since there is little to no government interaction under the Coase theorem.[32] For example, if one oil firm has a high pollution rate and its neighboring firm is bothered by the pollution, then the latter firm may move depending on incentives. Thus, if the oil firm were to bribe the second firm, the first oil firm would suffer no negative consequences because the government would not know about the bribing.
In a dynamic setup, Rosenkranz and Schmitz (2007) have shown that the impossibility to rule out Coasean bargaining tomorrow may actually justify Pigouvian intervention today.[33] To see this, note that unrestrained bargaining in the future may lead to an underinvestment problem (the so-called hold-up problem). Specifically, when investments are relationship-specific and non-contractible, then insufficient investments will be made when it is anticipated that parts of the investments’ returns will go to the trading partner in future negotiations (see Hart and Moore, 1988).[34] Hence, Pigouvian taxation can be welfare-improving precisely because Coasean bargaining will take place in the future. Antràs and Staiger (2012) make a related point in the context of international trade.[35]
Criticism [ edit ]
Ecological economics criticizes the concept of externality because there is not enough system thinking and integration of different sciences in the concept. Ecological economics is founded upon the view that the neoclassical economics (NCE) assumption that environmental and community costs and benefits are mutually cancelling "externalities" is not warranted. Joan Martinez Alier,[36] for instance shows that the bulk of consumers are automatically excluded from having an impact upon the prices of commodities, as these consumers are future generations who have not been born yet. The assumptions behind future discounting, which assume that future goods will be cheaper than present goods, has been criticized by Fred Pearce[37] and by the recent Stern Report (although the Stern report itself does employ discounting and has been criticized for this and other reasons by ecological economists such as Clive Spash).[38]
Concerning these externalities, some like the eco-businessman Paul Hawken argue an orthodox economic line that the only reason why goods produced unsustainably are usually cheaper than goods produced sustainably is due to a hidden subsidy, paid by the non-monetized human environment, community or future generations.[39] These arguments are developed further by Hawken, Amory and Hunter Lovins to promote their vision of an environmental capitalist utopia in Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution.[40]
In contrast, ecological economists, like Joan Martinez-Alier, appeal to a different line of reasoning.[41] Rather than assuming some (new) form of capitalism is the best way forward, an older ecological economic critique questions the very idea of internalizing externalities as providing some corrective to the current system. The work by Karl William Kapp[42] explains why the concept of "externality" is a misnomer.[43] In fact the modern business enterprise operates on the basis of shifting costs onto others as normal practice to make profits.[44] Charles Eisenstein has argued that this method of privatising profits while socialising the costs through externalities, passing the costs to the community, to the natural environment or to future generations is inherently destructive[45] As social ecological economist Clive Spash has noted, externality theory fallaciously assumes environmental and social problems are minor aberrations in an otherwise perfectly functioning efficient economic system.[46] Internalizing the odd externality does nothing to address the structural systemic problem and fails to recognize the all pervasive nature of these supposed 'externalities'. This is precisely why heterodox economists argue for a heterodox theory of social costs to effectively prevent the problem through the precautionary principle.[47]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Henrikh Mkhitaryan hailed his stunning goal in Manchester United's 3-1 Boxing Day win over Sunderland as the best of his career.
The Armenian, on as a substitute, met a Zlatan Ibrahimovic cross with a brilliant improvised finish, flicking a ball that was behind him into the net with his heel.
Although it appeared the goal should have been ruled out for offside, it put the seal on a convincing win for Manchester United's men.
Manchester United Manchester United Sunderland Sunderland 3 1 FT Game Details GameCast
Lineups and Stats
Mkhitaryan said on MUTV: "That was the best goal I've ever scored.
"I was very excited. The first thing I did was look at the assistant and I saw it was not ruled as offside so I just started to celebrate.
"I was expecting the ball to be in front of me and then I realised I was in front of it. As the ball was behind me, the only thing I could do was a backheel so I did that and I succeeded."
Earlier, United boss Jose Mourinho had hailed Mkhitaryan for playing well overall, in addition to his "phenomenal" strike.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored Man United's third goal with a spectacular finish.
"I think he scored in the right goal, the Stretford End, with the people very enthusiastic just behind," Mourinho said. "It was a great moment and for him important because he was going up and up and then the injury comes.
"He was out of two matches and he's back. And to be back not just [with] the goal, I think he also brought quality with his performance. I am obviously happy."
Mkhitaryan was making his comeback from an ankle problem and insisted he had felt no ill effects ahead of the New Year's Eve clash with Middlesbrough.
"I don't have anything of concern from a past injury so I'm happy to be back to help the team," he added.
"I will try to do my best for the next game. It's very important that we're in good shape and to keep going like this."The village in Rohtak, Haryana, where a young couple was killed on Wednesday
On Wednesday evening, a village in Haryana looked on as a girl was lynched by her family, and a boy beheaded. Hours ago, they had returned to the village, thinking that their families would finally allow them to marry.The girl's parents and uncle have been arrested and her brother is missing since the crime, a shocking example of medieval-style killings in the name of 'family honour' in Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda's hometown, Rohtak, and in a village just 80 km from the capital.Nidhi Barak, 20, and Dharmender Barak, 22, eloped and went to neighbouring Delhi on Tuesday, since their families back in the Gharnavati village did not approve of their relationship. Nidhi was a student of fine arts, while Dharmender was pursuing a technical course.Nidhi's parents allegedly persuaded her to come back, promising not to harm the young lovers.The police say what followed was hours of torture for the couple at Nidhi's home, ending with their death. The girl was beaten to death in full public view. The boy was brutally beaten and his arms and legs broken, before he was beheaded. His headless body was allegedly dumped at a public square in the village.The family of the girl was allegedly caught in the act of cremating her, when a police team arrived. They had been alerted by a villager. The police then took the girl's half-burnt body and the boy's remains for a post-mortem.Police say relatives of both the girl and the boy are on the run. Murders like these are chillingly common in villages of Haryana dominated by the diktats of lawless 'Khap panchayats' who forbid marriages within the same village or same caste. The Haryana Human Rights Commission has taken note of the horrific killings and asked for a report from the police.California high court puts redevelopment agencies out of business
The court's ruling will help generate funds for the troubled state budget but hobble local economic development and housing programs. More than 400 agencies will close after Feb. 1.
Redevelopment agencies, which use a portion of property tax money to partner with developers to encourage development in blighted areas, control about $5 billion a year in tax revenue. After agencies repay their existing bonds, those revenues will go instead to schools and special districts.
More than 400 redevelopment agencies will cease to exist after Feb. 1. Authorized by law since 1945, the agencies have been responsible for such success stories as Old Pasadena and San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter but also plagued by projects that some argued had little public benefit.
The court ruled unanimously in favor of a state law passed last summer that abolished redevelopment agencies and voted 6 to 1 to strike down a companion measure that would have allowed the agencies to continue if they shared their revenues.
The California Supreme Court threw hundreds of redevelopment agencies out of business in a ruling that will benefit state budget coffers but hobble local economic development and housing programs.
Gov. Jerry Brown, who first proposed eliminating redevelopment agencies to help solve the state's fiscal crisis, expressed satisfaction with the court's decision, noting that it "validates a key component of the state budget and guarantees more than a billion dollars of ongoing funding for schools and public safety."
Advocates for the agencies are expected to return to the Legislature to ask lawmakers to recreate them, probably under some sort of revenue-sharing agreement.
"We hope the Legislature goes back to fix this," said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities. "This is a tool the state cannot afford to lose."
The court's decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by redevelopment agencies and cities against both the law eliminating redevelopment and the companion measure that would have required revenue sharing.
The ruling, written by Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, said the Legislature had the power to create redevelopment agencies and the power to end them.
Los Angeles Councilman Tony Cardenas called the decision "a major blow to the City of Los Angeles and its ability to recover from this economic recession."
"Having grown up in Pacoima, I've seen firsthand the impact blight has on a community, and I've also been able to watch how a community can be revitalized with the right kind of redevelopment, like what we've seen with Pacoima Plaza, the NoHo Arts District and Bunker Hill," Cardenas said. "Without redevelopment agencies I am afraid we won't see the kind of investment our neediest communities deserve."
Larry Kosmont, who advises many cities on redevelopment and budgetary issues, called the court's action "a watershed event for cities." He predicted the decision could lead to cuts in city services, including police and fire departments.
But counties applauded the ruling.
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky said redevelopment over the years "evolved into a honey pot that was tapped to underwrite billions of dollars worth of commercial and other for-profit projects."
The projects "had nothing to do with reversing blight, but everything to do with subsidizing private real estate ventures that otherwise made no economic sense," Yaroslavsky said.Today we feature the third part of our interview series Meet Hi-Rez: our interview with HiRezDuke, who is Hi-Rez's Community Manager and Social Media Coordinator! You can follow Duke on Twitter and check out Lightning Round, a webshow that showcases content creators that Duke has been working on.
How and when did you join the Hi-Rez team?
Duke: About 6 months after the launch of Global Agenda, I contributed to the community and bugged Stew enough to get an interview at the studio. At first, most of my time was spent on the lighter side of technical support, but I worked more and more toward Community Management.
What is your primary role within Hi-Rez?
Duke: Recently, most of my focus has been on social media initiatives like posting news & events, private messages (TONS), and of course giveaways! I am still very much involved in Community Management, but most of it is behind the scenes work now.
What’s your usual day like at Hi-Rez?
Duke: I come into the office and make a point to harass Gavin and Gabe before doing anything else. They sit near me, and it is as important to their day as it is to mine. Once I have completed this most productive part of my day, I check out all of the Smite Facebook private messages to point people in the direction of the information they need. I verify that our free promotions on Twitter and Facebook are still running properly. Throughout the day, I respond to emails from community members and coworkers, check out discussion boards like /r/Smite and other community-run sites, and many times I join HiRezAlex in the playtest room to record for the next official video release. I contribute to some recurring video projects as well.
What’s your favorite part about working at Hi-Rez?
Duke: Casual dress code for every day that ends in Y.
What were your expectations for Smite when you first started?
Duke: I really was not sure what to expect. The devs were trying something that was not new to any of them, but it was new to the public. A MOBA that requires people to aim basic attacks? A camera that is locked on the character? While it was fun to play in-house, I was anxious to see what people thought outside the studio. Needless to say, many of us have been pleasantly surprised by how excited players and spectators are about SMITE.
How would you say Smite has evolved until now?
Duke: Oddly. But I mean that in the best way possible. On one hand, the game has become more similar to other MOBAs (Conquest map revisions). On the other hand, we have traveled into mostly uncharted territory for the genre (various game modes that are typically seen in other types of games). Overall, I would say SMITE has evolved from "another one of those MOBA things" into a 3rd person action game with MOBA mechanics. The game has a much broader appeal than I think any of us ever expected.
What can we expect from Smite in the future?
Duke: More gods. More items. Bigger tournaments. That's all I can really say about that.
If you had the ability to change any one thing within Smite, what would it be?
Duke: I would add Horde Mode to the game because I enjoy difficult PvE encounters. I know. I know. It's a PvP game. Still though. You versus 100 Fire Giants in a map where the floor can be lava anywhere. Amirite? (NOTE: This is not a tease. It's really just something I think would be fun with the Smite cast of characters.)
Who’s your favorite god in Smite?
Duke: Vamana. People say we look alike.
What’s your favorite game mode?
Duke: Arena. I enjoy chaotic gaming encounters. (See previous comments.)
What’s the biggest challenge you face as a Community Manager?
Duke: Holding back information that is not ready for public consumption even though I know most of the community will enjoy it.
Tell us about a project you’re working on right now.
Duke: Lightning Round! It's a little web show I've been doing with community content creators.
What is, in your mind, the ideal state for the Smite community?
Duke: Honestly, I enjoy a happy medium in all categories. In my experience, fanbois who think we do no wrong are as nonconstructive as insanely negative folks. Having steady growth month-to-month of reasonable fans who can have intellectually honest discussions is my desired happy place for the community.
A huge thanks to Duke for taking part in the interview series and thanks to our readers! If you like the interview, you can follow me on Twitter to get updates on my upcoming interviews and content. Thanks!While there may be some debate, today’s protocol says presidents retain their title for life. But it’s more than a bit creepy when a former commander-in-chief is still referring to himself as president.
Obama’s latest Twitter profile reads: “Dad, husband, President, citizen.”
Check out Mr. Obama Twitter bio. He thinks he's still the President, not ex, not former, P R E S I D E N T Wow!#TrumpDerangementSyndrome pic.twitter.com/g6oGxCJ9Hh — Christie 🎄 (@ChristieC733) February 28, 2017
A seemingly benign occurrence, until you consider Obama will continue to reside in Washington and that his website links to “Organizing for Action,” today’s remnant of his election apparatus Obama for America.
Recent reports allege OFA is actively sabotaging, degrading, and disrupting Donald Trump’s presidency.
Trump supporters claim victory after Oscar ratings are released; check it out …
Adding to the creep factor, while Jimmy Carter does not have a Twitter account, he is identified as “former U.S. President” on the Carter Center account. George H.W. Bush is identified as the “41st President of the United States of America,” and Bill Clinton bills himself as the “42nd President of the United States.”
So why hasn’t Obama followed suit with “44th President” of the United States?
Plenty of social media users offered their theories. While some opted to have a little fun, others were torn between hoping Obama would just go away and stressing the need to “keep eyes on him.”
Here’s a sampling of responses from Twitter:
@ChristieC733 @RealKyleMorris he needs a reality check, unless he’s got something under his sleeve. Need to keep 👀 on him. — Adriane Halaby (@nany_halaby) February 28, 2017
@ChristieC733 God I just wish he would go away. I’ve hated him for 8 years. Was looking forward to him disappearing pic.twitter.com/3c2VsfrCLp — Infidel Angela🇺🇸 (@TheMeemStreams) February 28, 2017
@ChristieC733 Well you got to give it to him, he still wants to feel that kind of Euphoria of being president once Trump got in #MAGA 🙂 — Nick Cavaluzzi 🇺🇸 (@nickyc743) February 28, 2017
@ChristieC733 He will NEVER STOP CELEBRATING HIS FAVORITE PERSON EVER! Delusions Of Grandeur! @BarackObama pic.twitter.com/bjw8qojzBO — Vickie (@tweetvickie) February 28, 2017
@ChristieC733 @Tambo4Freedom All former Presidents are referred to as president. No big deal. I just wish he would move out of Washington. — Clifford D Ingram (@Allisofthe1) February 28, 2017
@ChristieC733 @2ALAW he is NOT the president, he needs to get out of “la la land” and face reality. — Shelly (@shellyANN62) February 28, 2017
@ChristieC733 Must be tough to let the reins if power slip from your tight little fists. — Dr. Sheldon and Cora (@SheldonCoraRoth) February 28, 2017BY: Follow @@Cam_Cawthorne
Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) have coordinated behind the scenes for months to oppose Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare.
Kimmel, whose son was born with a congenital heart disease, has been an outspoken critic of the Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare because he believes that the most recent Republican efforts to replace Obamacare don't protect people with pre-existing conditions like his son, the Daily Beast reported.
The "Jimmy Kimmel Live" host has performed multiple monologues in the past week decrying the bill proposed by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (La.) to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Kimmel's public condemnation of the latest Republican healthcare bill was, behind the scenes, being supported by a number of "health care officials, charities and advocacy groups," as well as Schumer's office. Schumer "provided technical guidance and info about the bill, as well as stats from various think tanks and experts on the effects of [Graham-Cassidy]," the Beast reported.
Schumer encouraged Kimmel to speak out in opposition to Graham and Cassidy's bill when it became apparent that Republicans would again try to repeal Obamacare before the September 30 budget reconciliation deadline. The two were in touch "periodically" in a "continued conversation," one source said.
Kimmel slammed Cassidy, Fox News co-host Brian Kilmeade, and other Republicans on Wednesday night for their criticism of his commentary against the Graham-Cassidy bill.
"The reason I'm talking about this is because my son had an open-heart surgery, then has to have two more, and because of that I learned that there are kids with no insurance in the same situation. I don't get anything out of this, Brian, you phony little creep. Oh I'll pound you when I see you," he said.
Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) announced on Friday that he "cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal," prompting Kimmel to praise McCain on Twitter.
"Thank you @SenJohnMcCain for being a hero again and again and now AGAIN," he wrote.
Thank you @SenJohnMcCain for being a hero again and again and now AGAIN — Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) September 22, 2017
This is the second time that McCain has opposed the Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare since July.Editor's note: Sound off on how the oil spill is being handled on iReport.
Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama used his first Oval Office address to the nation Tuesday to say 90 percent of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico will be captured within weeks, and to call for a new clean energy policy to end U.S. dependence on fossil fuels.
The 18-minute speech, televised nationally, described what happened in the April 20 explosion and fire on a Gulf of Mexico oil rig that led to what Obama called "the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced." He compared the millions of gallons of oil leaking into the ocean to an epidemic "we will be fighting for months and even years."
Obama meets Wednesday with the chairman of oil giant BP, which owns the broken well at the bottom of the Gulf, and the president made clear he expects BP to pay all clean-up costs and damages from the massive leak.
He said he will tell BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg to "set aside whatever resources are required to compensate the workers and business owners who have been harmed as a result of his company's recklessness."
"This fund will not be controlled by BP," Obama said. "In order to ensure that all legitimate claims are paid out in a fair and timely manner, the account must and will be administered by an independent, third party."
In response to Obama's speech, a BP spokesperson said the company shared the president's goals of "shutting off the well as quickly as possible, cleaning up the oil and mitigating the impact on the people and environment of the Gulf Coast," and looked forward to Wednesday's meeting "for a constructive discussion about how best to achieve these mutual goals."
Earlier, senior administration officials told reporters that negotiations on the BP fund were continuing, with one major unresolved issue being whether workers who lose their jobs due to the government's six-month moratorium on offshore drilling will be eligible to file damage claims.
Republican critics have complained the moratorium is eliminating badly needed jobs as the nation recovers from economic recession, but Obama said the government must ensure the safety of such deep-water operations before allowing them to continue.
Obama said he knows the moratorium "creates difficulty for the people who work on these rigs."
"But for the sake of their safety, and for the sake of the entire region, we need to know the facts before we allow deep-water drilling to continue," he said.
Obama also called the Gulf oil disaster "the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now." The United States must end its dependence on fossil fuels, he said, calling for Congress to rise above partisan politics to take on the challenge of passing energy reform legislation that will lead the way to development of a clean energy economy.
In an attempt to counter complaints of a sluggish government response to the oil disaster, Obama noted cited resources have poured into the region including nearly 30,000 people working in four states to contain and clean up the oil, along with "thousands of ships and other vessels." He said he had authorized deployment of more than 17,000 National Guard members along the coast to be used as needed by state governors.
Republican responses, some distributed to reporters before the speech began, criticized Obama for using the oil disaster to push his energy reform policies, which GOP critics say will increase energy prices and eliminate jobs.
"Every day seems to bring more bad news about the size and scope of this crisis, and reversing that trend should be the president's priority," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky.
"The White House may view this oil spill as an opportunity to push its agenda in Washington, but Americans are more concerned about what it plans to do to solve the crisis at hand," McConnell said.
He complained the energy reform legislation supported by Obama also is endorsed by BP and will "raise energy prices for every American family and business" but "won't end our dependence on foreign oil or protect the coastline and marshes of the Gulf coast."
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said the administration's focus should be on stopping the leak, not pushing Obama's policies.
"I am concerned the administration is attempting to capitalize on public outrage over the spill in order to push through a cap-and-trade bill that will significantly raise energy prices for all Americans and add more burdens on businesses," Hutchison said in a statement. "Right now, the president's number one priority needs to be keeping the jobs in the energy sector from going overseas and restoring the Gulf of Mexico."
Environmentalists supported Obama's call for Congress to pass energy reform legislation, with former Vice President Al Gore, now chairman of the Alliance for Climate Protection, saying that "in the midst of the greatest environmental disaster in our country's history, there is no excuse to do otherwise."
Ultimately, Gore said in statement, "the only way to prevent this type of tragedy from happening again is to fundamentally change how we power our economy."
Earlier Tuesday, Obama named Michael Bromwich to direct the federal government's efforts to regulate offshore oil drilling. Bromwich, who was a Justice Department inspector general in the Clinton administration, will oversee the reorganized agencies that formerly comprised the Minerals Management Service in the Department of Interior.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told ABC News on Tuesday morning that Obama's goal is to "restore the Gulf, not just the way it was the day the rig exploded, but years ago."
Presidents have tackled a variety of topics in Oval Office speeches -- from the Challenger disaster in 1986 to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Energy was last a topic in 1979, when Jimmy Carter spoke about America's inability to overcome the energy crisis.
While Obama has dealt with major issues including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a major economic downturn since taking office in January 2009, he had never spoken to the public from the Oval Office until now.
CNN's Dana Bash, Anderson Cooper, Suzanne Malveaux, Ed Henry, Ed Hornick and Tom Cohen contributed to this report.Update: It looks like Halo isn't coming after all.
"We currently do not have plans to release any 'Halo' titles on Steam," said a Microsoft spokesperson in response to our query.
Original story: A giant list of games on the Steam database was leaked via the Steam Apps Database, a site dedicated to navigating the labyrinthine maze of knowledge and patent placement that is the Steam registry data.
Fez was EG's Game of the Year last year. Perhaps soon it will co-exist on the same platform as Hotline Miami.
The list contained such notable titles as Halos 1-3, Fez, The Witness, Quantum Conundrum 2, Lococycle, Owlboy, Gunpoint and Dyad.
No one knows how the Steam database works exactly, so it's unclear if these games are actually coming to Steam or if Valve will be adding community hubs for non-Steam games. Or maybe they're just placeholder registries just in case the publisher and Valve decide to bring them to the popular portal later.
While most developers aren't willing to disclose what their game's status is regarding Steam, Dyad creator Shawn McGrath has confirmed to Joystiq that his psychedelic PSN shooter would be making the leap. "This was a rather interesting thing that happened," McGrath said. "I didn't plan on announcing Dyad on Steam yet, but what can I do now?"
McGrath noted that he'd been in talks with Valve regarding a Steam port since March, but nothing was certain until October. He's shooting to have it out by March, "but who knows when it'll actually come out?" he added. McGrath is hoping for a simultaneous PC, Mac and Linux launch, but may have to settle for launching the PC version ahead of the other two.
Elsewhere, Fez creator Phil Fish simply responded to my query with a simple, "no comment for now!" response, but given that Fish has said he'd like to make Fez multiplatform, the Steam version seems very likely.
We're still ringing some proverbial doorbells trying to get the skinny on what games are definitely coming to Steam rather than just probably coming to Steam. For the full list of games originally outed on the database go here.Photos: Photos: Weather around the world Photos: Weather around the world – A rainbow appears in the skies above a Hong Kong office building on Wednesday, August 7. Click through to see other images of weather around the world. Hide Caption 1 of 125
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Photos: Photos: Weather around the world Photos: Weather around the world – People take shelter from the heat in the entrance of a subway station in Shanghai, on Wednesday, July 31. More than 10 people have died in China's commercial hub, a local health official said as the city swelters in its highest temperatures for at least 140 years. Hide Caption 14 of 125
Photos: Photos: Weather around the world Photos: Weather around the world – Children take the plunge to cool off in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Monday, July 29. Hide Caption 15 of 125
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Photos: Photos: Weather around the world Weather around the world – Boys dive into the cool water of the swimming pool "Schwanseebad" in Weimar, Germany, Tuesday, July 23. Meteorologists forecast the hot and sunny weather to continue in the country. Hide Caption 21 of 125
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Photos: Photos: Weather around the world Weather around the world – People cross a flooded road near the Triveni Sangam in Allahabad, India, on July 22. According to Hindu tradition, a bath at the confluence of three rivers -- the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati -- atones for sin. Hide Caption 23 of 125
Photos: Photos: Weather around the world Weather around the world – Sunflowers blossom on a field near Langerwisch, eastern Germany, on July 22. Hide Caption 24 of 125
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Photos: Photos: Weather around the world Weather around the world – Hudson the polar bear plays with a block of ice to cool down at the Brookfield Zoo during a massive heat wave on Thursday, July 18, in Brookfield, Illinois. Hide Caption 26 of 125
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(laughs)
Wired: For players who don't have consistent access to online connectivity due to their particular location or poor quality of service, how much functionality will they be able to get out of the Xbox One?
Harrison: So, Xbox One is designed to have an internet connection. You will recall what I said earlier about it not requiring one all the time, but just like many devices that we have in our lives today... they are an extension of the Internet.
Wired: Will there be region-locking? For example, if a person wants to import a game that's only available outside the United States, will it be able to play on the Xbox One?
Harrison: Generally, our policy on that is to let the developer or publisher choose how they want to implement that. I would imagine the same thing will happen with Xbox One, but I actually do not know.
Wired: Is the hard drive inside the unit upgradable? Also, is it proprietary, and will there be any external storage options?
Harrison: External storage, yes. Hard drive upgradability, I do not know.
Wired: So will Microsoft put out a separate external hard drive product that consumers can buy, or will Xbox One be compatible with non-Microsoft drives off a shelf?
Harrison: I do not know.
Wired: So can you clarify a bit about the fifteen exclusive games that were mentioned during the briefing this morning? Are any third parties involved, and are those for the general launch window, or will those be available right at launch?
Harrison: Microsoft Studios are developing fifteen games exclusively for Xbox One, of which eight will be brand-new IP. Those will be available during the Xbox One’s first year.
Wired: How many SKUs will you have at launch? Will there only be one unit to buy, or will you have varying packages with different price points?
Harrison: We will announce details on pricing and availability and configuration later on, but the current plan is to offer one SKU.
Wired: With regard to the feature that allows player to record their gameplay, will you be able to upload that anywhere, or will it only be shared between Xbox One owners?
Harrison: Game DVR is the feature you're talking about. It's a fantastic feature. Think of it as a video celebration of Achievements, but also players and developers will be able to record certain moments during the game as well. You can share that with your friends. It's saved in your private cloud storage that we give you. It is exposed on the dash and you can publish it to your social feeds.
Wired: So if I have a Twitch channel, can I send it there? Can I upload it to Twitter, Facebook, or anywhere else?
Harrison: As I said, you can upload it via your social feeds. We will share more details on this at E3, but it's a very powerful feature of the box.
Wired: So what's the status of Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox Live Indie Games? Is the plan to keep those programs going, or what do you envision for smaller games and smaller game developers?
Harrison: There's two parts to the question there. First, how will we curate that content and allow the user to find those games. In the past, we created three separate and distinct spaces. For Xbox One, we've very purposely done away with that. We just have "Games." There will be very big games, there will be very small games, there will be games in the middle... we don't mind. We don't want to categorize the type of game, or infer quality by the size of the developer who made it. I think it's up to users to discover which games are great, and it's up to them to share and talk about those things with their friends.
Also, the recommendation engine we've built into Xbox One will allow for much easier discovery of great games. The Game DVR feature will allow you to share with your friends what you've been playing, and they will be able to see it and say "that looks really cool, I want to play that game", so that actually has a massive benefit to the developer community, and helps solve one of the biggest problems developers face, which is discovery. How do they get their game to an audience? So, we've made some very thoughtful, purposeful decisions in the architecture of Xbox One which I think will be great for the developer ecosystem. These things have been very well-thought-through. And certainly, I'm extremely passionate about this space.
As you've seen on 360, we are already publishing and developing games which have a variety of business models, and we will continue that on Xbox One. We are committed to making that as global as we can, encouraging developers wherever they are to bring their games and experiences to our platforms.
The final piece is the Snap Mode part of the operating system. It's a Windows 8 kernel, so that expands the ecosystem of developers who can write for Xbox One by an order of magnitude. It will be a huge ecosystem of developers, and that's great for the consumer and the player that there will be even more developers who are tooled and capable of creating experiences for our system.As if this world weren't sad enough, it looks like we're getting an Expendables TV show. Here are some of the rumored early picks for the lead roles.
"I pity the fool who doesn't
think this will work."
It sounds like some tv action stars of the '80s may get a new lease on their small screen careers.
Apparently the show is going to center on a different set of characters than the movie. Early reports are saying that Tom Selleck, Mr. T, Scott Bakula, David Hasselhoff, Lucy Lawless, Richard Dean Anderson, Kiefer Sutherland, and Chuck Norris are all on the studio's wishlist to head up the televised version of the franchise. Sylvester Stallone and Avi Lerner are both attached as producers.
Considering the show is heading to Fox, Sutherland seems like he might be a lock due to his past history with the network. The show is being billed as an "event" series in the vein of last year's 24: Live Another Day.This was originally posted on PhanArt and shared here with Upstate Live readers as they prepare to head to Saratoga for Phish on July 6-8th.
Here is what you need to know about going to SPAC for Phish over July 6-8, 2012
This past month, Saratoga officials announced a crackdown on alcohol and intoxicated people in the state park known as SPA, which includes SPAC. In the past, there has always been a lot of chatter preceding the summer concert season at SPAC regarding the increased police presence and no-alcohol policy (with ticket enforcement and arrest potential) and this has led to alot of people wondering ‘So what do we do?’
Well, the great minds at PhanArt sat down to think about this one.
Well, first things first, follow PhanArt on Twitter for helpful hints will abound throughout the weekend. I’ll be up there all weekend and can share traffic info, park updates and let fans know what is going down with the police presence.
You’ll need this – the map of Saratoga Spa State Park. It is VERY easy to get lost, wind up walking around for an hour looking for the lot your car is in, or altogether become disoriented. Download link: spac map
For those who want to go to the Phish.net meetup and BBQ, it will be held on Saturday, July 7th from Noon-7pm at the Ferndell Pavilion, which you can find highlighted on this map here. Make sure to use the Route 9 to enter. The pavilion is reserved under “Mockingbird”, so if you are a regular on the board or want to meet some of the folks behind Phish.net and The Mockingbird Foundation, that’s the place to go on 7/7.
Things to keep in mind as you venture to SPAC on the 6th, 7th and 8th: DMB played a few weeks ago at SPAC. The cops were in full force to scare people and limit teen-drunk driving, and drunk driving in general. Take a look at the local coverage and note the fake IDs taken away by cops. Sure, that’s Dave’s crowd, but it wouldn’t be hard to imagine what Phish’s crowd would yield. They seem to be enforcing the ‘absolutely zero tolerance for drinking’ this year, so don’t provoke them. Dave’s fans somehow set a fine example for the summer with NO felonies (a first for them), but let’s show them we are better than DMB fans. Yes, Phish fan exceptionalism exists!
The cops will be looking for drugs more than booze with the older crowd. When you drive in, they will use an alcohol sensor on your car, and if they find any, you’re in for a no good very bad day. If they see you drinking, they’ll dip in a stick detector for alcohol into the drink and then they can search you. Arcane? Yes. Illegal? Possibly. Outlandish and Insane? Indeed. But this is real, this is happening and this isn’t alarmist commentary. This comes from people who have been there and people who work there. Use your heads this year. Hotels have also been given a contact number to call if they suspect drug use. So be careful when you are pre-gaming at the hotel or getting back and trying to enjoy the post-show scene or get some sleep. Getting into town early? Fishbone will be playing at The Putnam Den on Thursday! Post show, there will be checkpoints for drunk driving and K-9 units for the obvious. Don’t leave the park without a sober driver and when you do, drive the speed limit, the cops need only a small reason to pull you over. ________________________________________________________________ Speaking of post shows, there are a couple of Saratoga options for those who want to keep the party going, but are able to get to the shows with a sober driver. The Putnam Den has fast become the premier live music venue in Saratoga, after SPAC. There are three late night shows, one for each night of Phish, and only TWO miles from SPAC! The address of The Putnam Den is 63A Putnam St., Saratoga Springs, NY 12866. For more info on each of the shows, visit the Putnam Den website www.putnamden.com Friday, July 6 – Wyllys & The New York Hustler Ensemble featuring: Wyllys – Turntables, Jennifer Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band) – Trumpet/Vocals, Steve Molitz (Particle/Phil Lesh) – Keys, D.V.S. – Guitar, Bryan McNamara (Grippo Funk) – Sax. The Hustler Ensemble is an amazing group of musicians and a kick-ass dance party, as those who went to the post show after 12/31/11 can attest. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online. Saturday, July 7 – The WaterWheel Foundation 15-year Anniversary Party w/ Dead Sessions, a GREAT Grateful Dead cover band, featuring Seth Yacavone and has included in the past members of Trey Anastasio Band, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Grippo Funk Band, Turkey Bouillon Mafia, and Liquid Dead. Tickets cost only $10 with $1 from each ticket going to The Waterwheel Foundation. You can buy tickets online here. Sunday, July 8 – Dopapod – any fans of EDM that still have energy after the show should head here. Dopapod has been killing it lately, headlining smaller festivals and playing the big ones, including Gathering of the Vibes in late July. They put on an amazing show and are uber-talented. This and all shows mentioned are highly recommended. Tickets for Dopapod at only $5, available at the door. The Parting Glass, 40-42 Lake Avenue, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 will be having post shows on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, June 7th from 11PM – 3AM, The Garcia Project, a JGB cover band will be playing to benefit The Mockingbird Foundation. Admission is $10 at the door with no advance tickets sales. Mik Bondy, Garcia Project guitarist and other members will be sitting in and leading an “open jam” at the Phish.net meetup picnic Saturday afternoon in the Spa State Park, details of which can be found in the Phish.net forum and blog/news early next week. There will also be a ticket raffle on Friday night for the “Jerry Garcia FISH” batiks with 50% of raffle ticket sales to benefit The Mockingbird Foundation. On Saturday, local band Formula 5 will perform. This is a very hot local act that has drawn a great following over the last year. The cost is only $5 for Saturday’s post show. You can visit Facebook for more info or their website partingglasspub.com See you all at SPAC!
AdvertisementsOn June 5, 1981, the virus that would become known as HIV was mentioned for the first time in a medical publication. As we approach that anniversary, CNNHealth takes a look at 30 years of the epidemic that changed the world, through the eyes of people who've lived it.
(CNN) -- In 1985, Edmund White had five or six published books behind him, a Swiss lover with him and the outcome of an HIV test ahead of him. When the results came in, White told his partner:
"I'm a good enough novelist to know how this is going to work out. I'm going to be positive, you're going to be negative, you're going to be very nice about it, but you're going to break up with me within a year."
By many accounts, White is a good novelist -- a great one, actually, having written numerous acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction.
Unfortunately, his storytelling sensibility foretold how the HIV tests would turn out and how he would lose his lover because of the dire prognosis: only two or three years left to live.
Like so many gay men in the 1980s, White struggled with an illness that seemed like a death sentence and isolated him from those who feared contagion. But he didn't let himself be defined by his illness, nor did he try to hide it.
Through his activism, writing and public appearances, White gave a voice to so many of his peers who were afraid to announce their status and a memory for the hundred-some friends he has lost to AIDS over the past 30 years.
30 years of AIDS moments to remember
The price of free love
For many, HIV marked the end of what has been called the "Golden Age of Promiscuity." After the Stonewall riots of 1969, when gays fought back against a police raid at a bar in New York's Greenwich Village, gay activism exploded across the country, and social life became more open. And with birth control pills available, abortion legalized and antibiotics developed for many sexually transmitted diseases, the risks of all forms of sex seemed more minimal than ever before.
If you've read White's books, you know he's not shy about how much sex he had with a gamut of men in those days.
"New York seemed either frightening or risible to the rest of the nation. To us, however, it represented the only free port on the entire continent. Only in New York could we walk hand in hand with a member of the same sex," White wrote of the 1970s in his memoir "City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960s and 70s."
That relative bliss came under attack in 1981, when writer Larry Kramer invited White and dozens of other gay men to his apartment near Washington Square Park. Dr. Alvin Friedman-Kien, a dermatologist and virologist at NYU's Langone Medical Center, spoke to them about a mysterious illness that seemed to target gays.
Friedman-Kien had been finding Kaposi's sarcoma, a tumor normally seen only in older men of Eastern European or Mediterranean origin, in young gay men. Cases of that "gay cancer" were also cropping up in San Francisco.
"People asked me what they should do, and I said, 'well, really, we think there might be something about gay sexual activity related to the tumor and the other diseases that are occurring.' And the group was kind of outraged," Friedman-Kien remembers. "They weren't about to give up free sex and their open new lifestyle."
"Everybody looked at everybody like, is this guy crazy?" White recalls.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Dr. Michael Gottlieb had started seeing clusters of pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) among gays, leading to a June 5, 1981, report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention that's considered the first scientific publication regarding HIV.
In July, the CDC published a followup about the Kaposi's sarcoma cases that Friedman-Kien and other doctors had observed. Both the pneumonia and cancer symptoms indicated that a never-before-seen infectious disease was destroying the immune systems of many gay men.
A new "crisis"
As more people in their community came down with this illness, White, Kramer and four other men formed the Gay Men's Health Crisis. The name emphasized the target population of gay men and the seemingly temporary nature of the disease. White became the first president.
The organization, which met in people's living rooms, had ambitious goals that were hard to achieve in the early '80s. The men wanted to urge prevention, but no one knew exactly what was causing the disease or how to control it; they wanted to back research but didn't have enough funds; they wanted to sustain people who had the disease, even though there weren't effective treatments at the time. Also, they believed that society at large didn't care.
But the group was in the dark about how to best help the cause. "We were so benighted and so cut off from the mainstream and so low in self-esteem that all we could think to do was to have a disco party," he said.
Unfortunately, these parties didn't generate enough money to finance research or spread information, and researchers had trouble getting enough funding. Friedman-Kien and colleagues had to rely on handouts and private foundations for research money because they couldn't get the attention of the government, including the New York Public Health System.
"The attitude was, these (diseases) are only in gays and IV drug users, underdogs, people who didn't deserve any special attention," Friedman-Kien said. "It wasn't until the hemophiliacs developed PCP pneumonia and other opportunistic infections that the government suddenly felt they were victims."
Compared with other illnesses, though, the trajectory of HIV research and treatment development moved faster than almost anything else in medicine, said Dr. John Bartlett, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who has led the school's efforts to combat and prevent AIDS since the early '80s.
"The people that had it had the feeling that their needs were being ignored. I think that plays out with any really lethal disease. You just don't think scientists or medicine is doing enough. Some of it is not necessarily reality," Bartlett said.
After a few months, White was happy to hand over leadership of Gay Men's Health Crisis to Paul Popham, whom White remembers as a successful businessman. But Popham and Kramer fought, leading to Kramer's departure from the group. Kramer later wrote the play "The Normal Heart" about those early days of Gay Men's Health Crisis, now recognized as the world's first provider of HIV/AIDS prevention. Kramer went on to found ACT UP, an activist group instrumental in demanding better health care and research for HIV. Popham died in 1987, of AIDS.
No refuge in Europe
When White moved to France in 1983 through a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for writing, he thought he was escaping this new disease, at least for a while. He liked Paris so much that he stayed there -- "with its drizzle, as cool, grey and luxurious as chinchilla," he writes in the autobiographical novel "The Farewell Symphony" -- beyond the year that he had planned.
But HIV began hitting the country in a big way. One of its early victims was French philosopher Michel Foucault, also gay, who invited White over for dinner a few times for rich meals without vegetables. When White brought up AIDS, Foucault laughed and accused him of being puritanical, calling it an "invented" disease "aimed just at gays to punish them for having unnatural sex." The esteemed thinker died of the disease in the summer of 1984.
"In Paris AIDS was dismissed as an American phobia until French people started dying; then everyone said, 'Well, you have to die some way or another.' If Americans were hysterical and pragmatic, the French were fatalistic, depressed but determined to keep the party going," White writes in "The Farewell Symphony."
Since he'd had so many sexual encounters with different men, White had generally assumed that he was HIV-positive. But the reality of blood test results hit him hard: His own life party seemed to have stopped.
He was too dejected to write and had no support system to help him through that tough time. None of the American-style support groups existed in Paris. He had joined a group called AIDES, founded by Foucault's surviving partner, but the focus was more on political campaigning than on personal experiences with the illness.
"People didn't talk about things like that. If somebody became ill in Paris, they would go back to their village and die behind closed shutters," he said.
AIDS gave its victims what Bartlett calls "the three D's" that no one wants to have: dementia, diarrhea and disgrace.
"It was an awful way to live. They got emaciated. They died a lingering death," Bartlett said. "If you asked me, 'How would you least want to die?' I'd say, 'The way an AIDS patient died in 1990.' "
And back when people thought HIV could be transmitted through saliva or tears, they would limit their casual contact, White said. Bartlett remembers the same fears; people even wondered whether mosquitoes could transmit the virus.
"Mothers didn't want me picking up their babies. People didn't want to kiss you on the cheek. People certainly didn't want to have sex with you, especially other gay people. It was very isolating and demeaning," White said. "That was a long battle."
But within a year or two, educated people got the word that HIV doesn't spread through non-sexual gestures. The death of actor Rock Hudson in October 1985 played a big part in that, White remembers; there was so much publicity around Hudson's death that it had the effect of bringing AIDS out of the closet.
And back in the U.S., President Reagan also took the issue seriously. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop wrote a brochure about AIDS that was sent to all 107 million American households in 1988. Bartlett also gives a lot of credit to basketball star Magic Johnson for revealing his HIV-positive status in 1991, destigmatizing it broadly.
Still, it was harder to get a date (and still is). White said that once he reveals his status, he'll often be rejected instantly "unless people are very educated and scientific in their orientation."
Enlightenment
White isn't a religious or "New Age-y" person and considers himself an atheist. But about a year after the diagnosis, he had a moment of reflection that kept him moving forward.
He sat in his Paris apartment cross-legged on his little couch-bed, in a yoga position he barely knew how to do, and meditated. It was a way of coping with his positive status, since statistically it seemed inevitable that he would die soon.
"I asked my body if it was going to die or not from AIDS. And it said no," he said. "I sort of paid attention to that."
Superficially, he considers it a "totally superstitious, ridiculous moment."
But he listened to it, even when the reporters started showing up in Paris to interview him as a great writer who would be dead within a year. PBS's Peter Jennings and the BBC's "Face to Face" featured him in 1990.
White spoke to reporters about being HIV-positive when virtually no other prominent people were open about it. At that time, the only people seen talking about AIDS in the press were doctors, he said.
"I took it as being something like the original struggle to come out as a gay person. And I said, 'OK, well, now we have to come out as being positive.' But nobody else was that imprudent, because they really felt that it would lead to discrimination," he said.
Among his works from that period, he co-wrote a book of short stories with Adam Mars-Jones called "The Darker Proof," published in 1988, which was the first creative statement by gays about what living with the disease was like for ordinary people. The short story "Palace Days" fictionalizes the moment when he told his Swiss lover how he thought he'd be positive and his partner would be negative.
White devoted himself to researching the life of gay novelist Jean Genet, a project that took seven years before the highly acclaimed 1993 biography appeared. And in 1997, he published "The Farewell Symphony," the third of his autobiographical novels. Having recently lost his lover to AIDS, the narrator looks back on his sex-filled experiences in New York and Paris but confronts the disease head-on only in the last chapter, when he finds out his own status and loses many good friends to the illness.
"And now, as I numbered my dead, I felt that I'd spent my whole life social climbing and someone had sawed the ladder out from under me," he writes in "The Farewell Symphony."
The medication question
White didn't take any drugs in the early days. He was raised a Christian Scientist, and even though he didn't subscribe to that religion, he still kept the old habits of avoiding doctors for the most part.
In 1986, the year after White's diagnosis, AZT got approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, marking a breakthrough for AIDS treatment. Pharmaceutical companies had shied away from drug development because they thought it was impossible to treat a retrovirus, a disease like HIV that's incorporated into the genome of the infected person. Importantly, AZT quickly brought down the rate of babies infected with HIV, Bartlett said.
But everyone White knew who took AZT in the '80s seemed to die faster than those who didn't take it.
"We just knew that it worked, but we knew it didn't last long," Bartlett said. It seems, retrospectively, that AZT lengthened life by about four to six months at that time.
Since his T-cell counts were still relatively high, White didn't try AZT. The drug had to be taken every four hours, even during the night, and came with nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and other side effects.
"It made people sick, sick as a dog, because we gave huge doses," Bartlett said.
A more robust therapy came in 1996 with the "triple cocktail" of three kinds of drugs that help the body fight HIV and boost the immune system's defenses. That marked a game-changer, with the ability to lower people's virus load to undetectable levels. Still, the regimen was demanding at first: People needed to take their medications several times a day and had bad side effects, Bartlett said.
Since then, the drugs have gotten a lot easier to manage. There's even treatment that's a single pill, combining the three kinds of drugs, that can be taken once a day, and more like that are in the pipeline, Bartlett said. And with available treatments, many people are living with HIV as a chronic illness instead of dying and don't have specific symptoms. Patients on appropriate meds may have "near-normal" longevity, Bartlett said, though more research is needed to determine the illness' exact effect.
"The medicine that we have today restores health," Bartlett said. "It's a whole lot different than it used to be, and they look terrific."
No longer a death sentence
White eventually learned that he's in a small category of people with HIV called slow progressors, people whose disease does not develop as rapidly as in most patients. Since 2004, he has been on a simplified triple-therapy regimen.
Now 71 years old, White has been a beloved professor of creative writing at Princeton University since 1999, a position in which his knowledge, charisma and passion for prose often transform students' thinking about storytelling.
Gay Men's Health Crisis has also transformed from the small gathering of White and five other men in 1981; it now has 200 staffers, 900 volunteers and a corporate structure. The organization offers many services such as rapid testing, support groups and a hot line, and it advocates for more government funds for HIV/AIDS.
"We certainly stand on the shoulders on those six very brave and courageous men who challenged the larger society, challenged the gay community, challenged government to really take account of what was happening, even before it was officially named and even before people understood it," said Marjorie Hill, the current CEO of Gay Men's Health Crisis. "They said, 'We need to take care of each other.' "
As the endurance of that group suggests, the crisis is not over. The most recent data from the CDC suggest that there were about 56,000 new HIV infections in 2006, and 15,600 AIDS-related deaths per year, in the United States alone. And although fewer people are dying than in the 1980s, there's still a lot of work to be done, particularly with regard to prevention and education, Hill said.
"The continued service as well as advocacy we do is really a continuation and in honor of the courageous move that they made, what's for some people a lifetime ago," she said.
White writes, on average, a book every year. Teaching and writing take up most of his time. He has lived with his partner Michael Carroll, with whom he has an open relationship, since 1995.
"Now, I think there's every reason to be hopeful. It really is more like a disease like diabetes," White said. "There are a lot of inconveniences, but you can go on living. And I would say AIDS is about like that now."With the World Series a week and change behind us, but with the offseason still almost entirely ahead and unknown, now seems like the right time to try a little project I’ve had on my mind for a month or so. The annoying(?) bit is that the project requires your participation, in the form of voting in a poll, but then that’s a really easy thing to do, and the question should be pretty simple, and on my end, I get to spend a couple posts embedding polls for your own feedback. Something easy for you, and something easy for me? Everybody wins!
This post is for fans of teams in the American League. The National League post will go up Tuesday morning. If there are multiple teams you hold near and dear, feel free to vote in multiple polls. If you consider yourself more a fan of the game in general, then you can either sit this out, or vote in the poll for the team you feel most strongly about.
All I want to know: how did you feel about the 2015 season? As far as following your favorite team was concerned, how would you rate your overall fan experience? Use whatever criteria you like. How you feel is how you feel — vote according to that feeling. How was the regular season? Did the end spoil the middle? Did your team have a bunch of exciting young players? Did you love going to the ballpark? I understand there’s a lot of input here — there are months of individual days, each day with its own feeling. I just want to know your overall grade, as you reflect on the season that was. There are no wrong answers. Except probably in the Royals poll.
All the polls are below. Hopefully the anchor text works to send you to your team directly!
Angels
Astros
Athletics
Blue Jays
Indians
Mariners
Orioles
Rangers
Rays
Red Sox
Royals
Tigers
Twins
White Sox
Yankees
=====
Angels
Ultimately, no trip to the playoffs, but in playoff contention through to the last day of the regular season. Got to watch the best player in baseball patrol center field. Lost a general manager! He walked away of his own volition!
Astros
Breakthrough season that took the Astros to the playoffs maybe a year or two ahead of schedule. Carlos Correa arrived, supporting so many other impressive young talents. Yet a September slump threatened to spoil everything, and the playoffs featured a memorable meltdown against the eventual champs.
Athletics
Oh, sure, some people thought the A’s would be worse than some other people, but not very many people figured the A’s for the worst final record in the American League. On the plus side, the BaseRuns record wasn’t so bad.
Blue Jays
So long, longest playoff drought in baseball! A frustrating first few months led to a magical last few months, spurred along by an exhilarating trade-deadline week. Unfortunately only one team ends a winner, and the Jays lost what felt like a winnable series against the Royals. How long does it take to get over a couple bad strike calls?
Indians
The Indians never mounted that serious a run to contention, but the second half was still strong, and Francisco Lindor arrived to join the incredible collection of arms. Lindor subsequently slugged.482 and knocked 12 home runs, topping Michael Bourn by 12 home runs.
Mariners
So many looked at the Mariners and saw on-paper favorites. They went into the All-Star break second-worst in the league. Felix Hernandez had an uncharacteristic stretch leading people to wonder if he’s beginning his decline. Robinson Cano was dreadful for the first couple months, leading people to wonder if he’s beginning his decline. Cano snapped out of it, though. And Nelson Cruz was fantastic. For the first time in a while, the Mariners hit.
Orioles
The Orioles dropped by 15 wins, and it felt to some like all those wins were lost in the three weeks following the middle of August. On the plus side, Orioles fans got to watch Chris Davis, and they also got to watch Manny Machado establish himself as truly one of the league’s young elites. It still felt like a team caught in between.
Rangers
Division winners, all of a sudden. Only once since 2009 have the Rangers failed to win at least 87 games, and that was 2014, when the whole team got hurt. The injuries didn’t exactly go away this time around, but the team overcame so many of them, or, in the case of Adrian Beltre, somehow played through them. A series of deadline acquisitions drove home that the Rangers were playing for both the present and the future, and they caught fire, right up until they held a two-games-to-none ALDS lead over Toronto. Then what happened happened.
Rays
If I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t really know what the Rays did. But browsing the Internet has taught me at one point the Rays were 40-30 and leading the East. From then on they underachieved, dropping again below.500. (July was rough.) On the plus side, Rays fans most got to witness Kevin Kiermaier and Chris Archer. Fans of other teams didn’t appreciate those experiences so much.
Red Sox
A season that both punished the Red Sox for their rotation plan, and then justified it, when it no longer mattered. The Red Sox dropped out of relevance quick, despite having looked pretty good before the year. In that sense they were a terrible disappointment. Potentially mitigating that somewhat were the contributions made by several young players who could help for a long time.
Royals
Unfortunately, Jason Vargas got hurt and didn’t pitch after July.
Tigers
People have long forecast doom and gloom for the Tigers’ future, but it wasn’t supposed to come yet. The Tigers just couldn’t get good enough, so they sold, beginning a rebuilding process that might’ve been overdue. Perhaps it’s not rebuilding, though; more likely, it’s just attempted reloading. It helps to seemingly have Justin Verlander back.
Twins
The Twins were written off in February and then they spent almost the entire regular season close to the wild card. So they were a surprising success story, and they got to introduce the world to Miguel Sano, for which the world is thankful. The Twins seldom looked good, which might’ve been annoying. But it’s its own kind of satisfying to watch a team spend nearly six months overachieving. It made success feel not that far away.
White Sox
The White Sox were what they were going to be. But then, why should it be fair the Sox had their holes exposed, while, say, the Twins didn’t? Why couldn’t it have been the White Sox who got lucky? In any case, the core talent was there, and it was special. Carlos Rodon got himself to the majors. This wouldn’t have been so bad had Jeff Samardzija not somehow struggled under the watch of Don Cooper, but in that way the impossible was possible.
Yankees
Technically, a playoff team. Somehow, the Yankees kind of felt like the gritty underdogs. The rotation always felt like it was one more break from disaster, but the bullpen kept the team afloat, and Alex Rodriguez, improbably, wound up playing to cheers and widespread support. I don’t think that necessarily says good things about fans; I do think that inarguably says something about fans. And it’s not like I’m here to judge, either, because I wound up cheering for him too. What do I care? It’s sports.Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
A man lay in the street for almost an hour with a fractured skull and swelling on his brain after a vicious one-punch attack in Belfast city centre, his devastated partner has said.
The 35-year-old had been having a smoke while waiting for a train home after spending the day with pals for a friend’s birthday on Saturday.
But he was left with serious head injuries after being targeted in an unprovoked assault in the Great Victoria Street area at about 9pm, his girlfriend told Belfast Live.
His partner, who did not want to be named, said: "The CCTV noticed two fellas going up to him.
“Police said they started an altercation. One of the fellas took a thump at him and he fell.
“At ten to ten he was found by somebody who thought he just had too much to drink.
“They got him to hospital and he was sent for X-rays.
“They realised he had swelling to the brain. About 4am the |
proposes to eliminate nearly all public employees’ collective bargaining rights. Over the past few weeks, thousands of people have rallied in favor of workers’ rights outside the Wisconsin Capitol.
LePage supports right-to-work legislation that currently is being advanced by Republican lawmakers. Rep. Tom Winsor, R-Norway, has two bills that address unions’ ability to collect dues. The first, L.D. 309, would address public employees. The second would address all unions in the private sector.
Duane Lugdon of Bangor said he went to the pro-union rally Saturday in Augusta as a representative of the International Steel Workers to support Maine’s pulp and paper mill workers and state employees.
“This is all about a rush to Third World status,” Lugdon said. “Workers don’t deserve it, and we’re not going to stand for it. Workers didn’t get us into this mess. If you want to know who’s at fault, point to Wall Street.”
Emery Deabay of Bucksport said it’s not fair to “balance the budget on the backs of the workers.”
“We’re in this predicament because of unscrupulous CEOs and corporations that want to fill their pockets,” Deabay said. “They caused this mess and should be in jail. We’re here to make sure the governor doesn’t try to punish workers when he balances the budget and take away their rights and benefits.”
Harvey Ammerman of Madison, a 40-year union member and millwright who worked in paper mills and power-generating facilities in Maine, said Mainers need to know that there is big money behind these kinds of actions.
He said billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch have long used their wallets to promote fiscal conservatism and combat regulation. He said the Koch brothers are pumping millions into a nationwide effort to break the public employee unions to shift the blame for the nation’s economic ills from irresponsible corporations to public employees.
The New York Times reported last week that Koch Industries was one of the biggest contributors to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s election campaign.
Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause, a group critical of what it sees as the rising influence of corporate interests in American politics, said in the New York Times article that the Koch brothers are using their money to create a facade of grass-roots support for their favorite causes.
Ammerman said Mainers are not going to allow that to occur in their state.
“It’s a corrupt system, and they want us to take the fall for everything, and it’s not going to happen,” Ammerman said at the rally.
Dan Demeritt, LePage’s spokesman, stopped by Saturday’s rallies.
Demeritt said LePage’s budget doesn’t have anything to do with collective bargaining rights or union rules. “It will be a topic, but separate from the budget,” he said.
Demeritt said LePage believes everyone should have the right to organize, but thinks joining a union should not be a condition of employment. In Maine, non-union members must pay their “fair share” for benefits they receive from union negotiations.
“The state has what’s called ‘Fair Share,’ ” he said. “If you’re a member of the union, you pay about $20. If you’re not a member, the state still compels you to pay $10.90 for what’s called Fair Share.”
In his weekly recorded radio address Saturday, LePage said workers in Maine should have the freedom to pursue their happiness as they see fit. If an employee’s workplace has a responsive and effective union, he said, the employee should have every right to become a member and contribute.
But while attending the National Governors Association winter meeting in Washington on Saturday, he predicted that his drive to limit unions’ ability to collect dues will create a political firestorm similar to what is happening in Wisconsin.
“Once they start reading our budget, they are going to leave Wisconsin and come to Maine, because we are going after right-to-work,” he said at the governors’ event.
His weekly radio address outlined his stand in more detail.
“If you do not believe union membership helps in your pursuit of happiness, you should also have the right to decline participation,” he said.
Saturday’s pro-union rally was organized by the group MoveOn.org.
MaineToday Media Washington Bureau Chief Jonathan Riskind contributed to this report.
ShareSketch of Breuil's drawing
The Sorcerer is one name for an enigmatic cave painting found in the cavern known as 'The Sanctuary' at the Cave of the Trois-Frères, Ariège, France, made around 13,000 BC. The figure's significance is unknown, but it is usually interpreted as some kind of great spirit or master of animals. The unusual nature of The Sanctuary's decoration may also reflect the practice of magical ceremonies in the chamber.[1] In his sketches of the cave art, Henri Breuil drew a horned humanoid torso and the publication of this drawing in the 1920s[2] influenced many subsequent theories about the figure.[3] However, Breuil's sketch has also come under criticism in recent years.[4] A single prominent human figure is unusual in the cave paintings of the Upper Paleolithic, where the great majority of representations are of animals.
Breuil's drawing [ edit ]
Henri Breuil asserted that the cave painting represented a shaman or magician — an interpretation which gives the image its name — and described the image he drew in these terms.[citation needed] Margaret Murray having seen the published drawing called Breuil's image 'the first depiction of a deity on earth', an idea which Breuil and others later adopted.
His views held sway in the field for much of the 20th century, but they have since been largely superseded.[1]
Breuil's image has been commonly interpreted as a shaman performing a ritual to ensure good hunting.[5]
Critique [ edit ]
Certain modern scholars question the validity of Breuil's sketch, claiming that modern photographs do not show the famous antlers. Ronald Hutton theorized that Breuil was fitting the evidence to support his hunting-magic theory of cave-art, citing that "the figure drawn by Breuil is not the same as the one actually painted on the cave wall." Hutton's theory led him to conclude that reliance on Breuil's initial sketch resulted in many later scholars erroneously claiming that "The Sorcerer" was evidence that the concept of a Horned God dated back to Paleolithic times.[4] Likewise, Peter Ucko concluded that inaccuracies in the drawing were caused by Breuil's working in dim gas-light, in awkward circumstances, and that he had mistaken cracks in the rock surface for man-made marks.[6] However, these views have also been questioned, noting that "The Sorcerer" is composed of both charcoal drawings and etching within the stone itself. Details, such as etching, are often difficult to view from photographs due to their size and the quality of the light source. Particularly celebrated prehistorian Jean Clottes asserts that Breuil's sketch is accurate ('I have seen it myself perhaps 20 times over the years').[7]
Continuing influence [ edit ]
The general assessment has placed the figure as central to an understanding of cave art: as S.G.F. Brandon expressed it in 1959, "it seems to be generally agreed that this picture of the 'Dancing Sorcerer' was a cult object of great significance to the community which used the cave."[8]
Popular culture [ edit ]
Breuil's interpretation of the drawing as a shaman strongly influenced writer Pat Mills in the creation of the Lord Weird Slough Feg, a sorcerer, god, and early antagonist of the ongoing comic book title Slaine.[9]
The novel The Story of B by Daniel Quinn includes an interpretation of the painting as an expression of late Paleolithic animism, a symbol for the human sense of identity with other animal life.
See also [ edit ]Nick Percat has revealed how close he and co-driver Cameron McConville came to missing out on Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport’s sensational Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 third place.
Percat, who also confirmed at Bathurst yesterday he will be leaving LDM at the end of the season, said his Clipsal 500 Holden Commodore VF ran out of fuel as it approached the chequered flag and was literally pushed across the line by the fourth placed Monster Falcon of Cameron Waters and Jack Le Brocq.
“At the end we were the same as everyone fuel-saving and Cam Waters actually pushed me across the line because the thing wasn’t even running,” the 28-year old recounted.
“I will thank him for that one later.”
“It coughed at The Chase, went silent under brakes and then somehow just barked up again at the exit and I had just enough squirt to get over the hill.
“I then held the brake that little bit longer than he wanted me to at the apex of the last corner and we are on the podium.”
It was an amazing result for the perennial minnow team, which has had a turbulent year since breaking through for its first win at the Clipsal 500 in March. Of course, it must also wait on the result of Triple Eight’s appeal against Jamie Whincup’s time penalty to finalise this result.
Yesterday’s podium adds to Percat’s strong Bathurst record. He claimed a win on debut in 2011 with Garth Tander in a Holden Racing Team Commodore and third place in 2014 with Briton Oliver Gavin in a Walkinshaw Racing Commodore.
“I think I drove a better race this year (than 2014) with less mistakes and faster,” he said.
“I managed fuel for probably one of the first times since I have been in the category because we have never had to manage fuel like that - at least from my side.”
Percat praised McConville’s effort, the 42-year old Victorian coming out of retirement to join LDM for the Pirtek Enduro Cup.
“Cam did a ripper job all day and when the car was hard to drive he was faster than me in that first part so I learned from what he was doing and it was happy days.”
McConville was originally scheduled to only do the Wilson Security Sandown 500, where he and Percat finished ninth, but stepped up for the rest of Pirtek Enduro Cup when Gavin had more clashing commitments.
“I am very grateful for the opportunity and the call-up,” McConville said. “Nick drove very maturely today and the car was good.
“This is like a win for LDM and Lucas. It hasn’t been the best of years for the team and I am really proud of that small team and to share in this little bit of success with them.
“This is my sixth podium (at Bathurst), still without a win, so I just have to keep coming back.”
Asked about his future, Percat confirmed he and Dumbrell had discussed his future and agreed he would not be driving for LDM in 2017.
“We have spoken about it, but it’s not an option for him at the moment,” said Percat. “It’s quite a small team and it’s pretty obvious to see you need money to go racing and up until a few weeks ago the cars were bare.
“We spoke about a month ago and said we wouldn’t be able to do anything. It was probably pretty hard for him because we are such good friends and you don’t want to mix business and friends and he was mature about it.
“We just had a conversation in his office and he gave me permission to go and try and find another drive for next year. That’s what I have been off doing and it’s all good.”
Asked if he was still shopping around, Percat replied: “I might have something in the basket... it will come out in the wash soon.”Glendale police Officer Cody Howard was speeding on Nov. 30, 2013, when he drove into the intersection of 67th and Glendale avenues and crashed into a minivan, then struck another car. The minivan was sent spinning and hit two pedestrians, pinning one between the van and a concrete structure and knocking the other into a nearby parking lot, where she was then run over by a woman trying to help. She died later at the hospital. Glendale has paid out nearly $3.8 million to settle four lawsuits related to the fatal crash. (Photo: Glendale Police Department) Story Highlights Glendale settles four lawsuits more than three years after a collision involving an officer
Police car was traveling 71 mph in a 40 mph zone without lights and siren activated, report says
Officer was put on probation after fatal accident, then fired for speeding again
Glendale paid nearly $3.8 million earlier this year to settle four lawsuits stemming from a fatal multi-vehicle collision started by a police officer, according to records obtained by The Arizona Republic.
Glendale fired the officer, but not for speeding and entering an intersection on yellow light, which led to a chain reaction that left one woman dead and two men injured on Nov. 30, 2013. Police Chief Debbie Black suspended him for 10 weeks without pay and placed him on probation for eight months for that.
She fired Officer Cody Howard on June 5, 2015, for speeding and running a red light on another call 18 months after the fatal accident.
Police car hits minivan
Police investigation records obtained through public records requests paint a picture of the multi-vehicle collision Howard started on Nov. 30, 2013.
Howard, a five-year veteran on the police force, was responding to a non-emergency trespassing call that Saturday afternoon.
He drove his 2008 Ford Crown Victoria squad car south on North 67th Avenue into the intersection of West Glendale Avenue. Neither his overhead lights nor his siren were activated. The speed limit was 40 mph. He was doing 71.
What happened next threw four other people into a violent chain reaction that turned fatal:
The police vehicle collided with a 1996 Dodge Caravan driven by Robert Escobedo Jr., who was attempting to make a left-hand turn from northbound 67th onto westbound Glendale. The impact threw Escobedo from his van, and spun the van through the intersection.
The van struck Elmer Albert Hicks and Dorothy Cochran, neighbors who were walking along a sidewalk on the southwest corner of the intersection. The van pinned Hicks against a concrete irrigation structure and knocked Cochran into the parking lot of the Grand Beer & Wine Stop store.
Howard's patrol car then struck a 2005 Nissan Maxima driven by Maria Wright, who was stopped for a red light on eastbound Glendale.
Another driver, Teresa Doten, who stopped at the intersection in a Honda Accord, saw the police car speed by, then saw someone "fly out of the other car," according to police reports. In an effort to offer assistance, she turned into the liquor store parking lot and ran over Cochran, whom she didn't see, according to police reports. Witnesses shouted at her, and she backed up and ran over Cochran a second time.
Cochran was airlifted to a hospital and pronounced dead less than an hour after the collision.
CLOSE Dashboard camera of former Glendale Officer Cody Howard responding to a non-emergency trespassing call. Video by azcentral.com
Fallout from the crash
A police report described Doten as "visibly shaking, distraught and crying" as she told police what happened. Doten did not face charges in relation to the events. She declined comment when reached by The Republic.
Glendale paid $162,500 to Escobedo, who spent six days in a hospital. The sides settled on Feb. 24.
Glendale paid $2.7 million to Hicks, who was 79 at the time of the accident. He spent 28 days in intensive care and underwent several surgeries on his hips and legs, his attorney said. Hicks has used a wheelchair and lived in a rehabilitation facility since the collision. The city settled with him Feb. 19.
Glendale paid $700,000 and $235,000 respectively to Lena Rudulph and Enos Bannerman, the children of Cochran, who was 60. The city settled with Rudulph on Feb. 12 and with Bannerman on March 8.
The total: $3,797,500.
The city did not make a payout to Wright, a city spokeswoman said.
Glendale paid the settlements with money from its risk management trust fund, which is earmarked to cover city liabilities, and from the city's insurance carrier, said City Attorney Michael Bailey.
Glendale administrators do not expect the losses to significantly affect the city's future insurance costs, Bailey said in an email.
Attorney Robert Murphy said Hicks, a retired construction worker and personal driver, was lucky to have survived the collision. He was in acute care for a month, sustained orthopedic injuries to repair fractures in his hips and legs and skin graphs as a result of the surgeries.
"This man was completely independent before this, living on his own, taking care of himself. Now he is completely dependent on others to do that for him," Murphy said.
Joel Robbins, an attorney who represented Cochran's daughter, said Cochran was retired from a number of jobs, and was full of life.
"The thing that I remember most about her is the picture of her dancing, just dancing with her daughter, enjoying life and being a delightful person and a person that was loved by her daughter," Robbins said.
“The thing that I remember most about her (Dorothy Cochran) is the picture of her dancing, just dancing with her daughter, enjoying life and being a delightful person and a person that was loved by her daughter.” Joel Robbins, attorney for Cochran's daughter, Lena Rudulph
Rudulph, the daughter, lives in Las Vegas, he said. Rudulph did not return a message left with Robbins seeking comment.
The collision was preventable, according to the police investigation.
The accident report concluded that if Howard had been traveling at the posted speed limit, he would have been able to stop more than 57 feet away from the impact area. Furthermore, if Howard had remained in his lane and not steered into the van, he would have missed it.
Black suspended Howard on Dec. 2, 2014, more than a year after the collision. In a six-page memo notifying Howard of his suspension, Black wrote that his actions constituted "major performance deficiencies" and "gross negligence."
Even if Howard had his emergency lights and siren activated, his driving behavior and excessive speed were not within policy for emergency driving, she wrote.
"As a Police Officer, you primary duty is to protect human life. When Officers violate traffic regulations they create a risk to themselves and others. Even when responding to an emergency, Officers are prohibited from endangering life or property," Black wrote.
NEWSLETTERS Get the AZ Memo newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Get the pulse of Arizona -- Local news, in-depth state coverage and what it all means for you Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Mon-Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for AZ Memo Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office declined to prosecute Howard for two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of aggravated assault with serious physical injury because there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction, according to police reports.
On May 24, 2015 — less than six months after Howard was placed on probation — he joined a police pursuit of a man suspected of armed robbery and assault. Howard exceeded 60 mph in a 40 mph zone and ran a red light in the area of 91st Avenue and Camelback Road, records show.
Black fired him on June 5. "Your operation of a City of Glendale police vehicle was not within Department Policy and created substantial risk to the citizens of Glendale and Phoenix," she wrote in another memo.
"Based on this most recent performance deficiency which occurred during your disciplinary probationary period, I have decided to terminate your employment," she wrote.
On Jan. 20 of this year, the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, which certifies police officers statewide, suspended Howard's peace officer certification for a year, which bars him from working for another police department. The suspension was based on the May 2015 speeding incident.
Howard had previous marks on his record.
In June 2011, Howard was suspended without pay for two weeks after being arrested by Peoria police for domestic violence and disorderly conduct at his home, records show. A court later dismissed a charge of disorderly conduct.
Howard had been paid nearly $57,900 a year when he was fired. He had no previous law-enforcement experience. He could not be reached for comment.
Police diagram of the incident
Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/1SyP9bpSo I'll get to the main event and secret of the book (SPOILERS!!).. here's a hint from one of my fanfics
Elsa having a romantic interest and straight from Disney itself? How could I not read it? This was the story I waited for!! Finally Disney was going to tell us what it thought about Elsa and love in Frozen. No more terrible new sites with false rumors or stupid ship crazy fan girls screaming that Elsa is Jack's slave, Disney was now going to come out and say what they thought of this messy unneccesary addiction to Frozen. This is their Frozen Love Story!
:bademoticon: As you can tell, it involves Elsa being send romantic gifts from a secret admirer. Knowing me and my love for Frozen and both Sisters you knew full well that this was going to be a very special Frozen event, made no secret in the number of my fics that involve Elsa falling inlove.
So recently a new book in the "Anna & Elsa: Sisterhood Is The Strongest Magic" was released and while I enjoyed them usually I don't go out of my way to get them as most of the storylines won't have much of a impact on the actual movie canon. But this one was a special one.
If you been around as long as me you already saw it coming, if not then welcome to your first Precocious Crush story kids! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php…
Here's Elsa's secret admirer who likes to play pretend where he and Elsa save the kingdom together from dragons (take that HTTYD!) when he isn't sending love gifts to Elsa by itself into the castle.
Even Elsa joins on the kid's game! Which kinda goes a little off hand in the pretend..
Yes, Me and some very special DA members nail it that the story would play it safe and end up with the smitten child having a crush on Elsa. A predictable plot but a really classic story that is heartwarming. When done right of course...
You almost had it Gravity Falls..
So Elsa's secret admirer is a 7 year old boy (CALLED IT!) named Fredmund (but he likes to be call Freddy ) who seriously wants to married Elsa!
He pulled a shiny pebble from his pocket. Freddy offered the pebble to Elsa and got down on one knee. "Queen Elsa, will you marry me?" he asked politely.
Wow, and to think I was being out there with my fics... Anyway it doesn't go into that touchy subject as the boy is really interested in Elsa's skills as a ice bender because he wants to enter a ice carving contest. And he wants Elsa to teach him hence the matrimony request,.. He's already practice before and one of his love gifts to Elsa was a pretty good ice sculpture of her head.
Elsa tells him that she will teach him and that they don't need to be marry for that and immediately calls him her friend. She takes him as a apprentice and watches him as he enters the contest.
He doesn't place but instead get's an honorable mention. He's still happy that he hugs Elsa.
I really love the dialogue between these two especially when Elsa encourages him to continue during the contest when poor Freddy is about to give up.
"You have powers, too," she told him
"I do?" asked Freddy, astonished.
"Yes, but your powers are different from mine. You have the power of creativity and imagination," Elsa explained.
"You're just saying that to make me feel better," Freddy said.
"No, I mean it," Elsa replied gently. "You gave me some very creative gifts. Most people think queens just like flowers and jewelry, but you gave me things that were unique. Things you made with your own hands."
"I did, didn't I?" Freddy said, remembering.
Really there's more chemistry here than there is in 100% of the Jelsa fics out there then again this is done by a professional writer. I can really believe that once Freddy comes of age and reaches 17 or older he and Elsa might get to developt a special relationship.
One thing that's very special here and that really does show a lot about Elsa's mature adult character is how she acts toward discovering that a child has a crush on her as well as having a potential suitor. NOWHERE does Elsa freaks out and does a "fangirl scream" or "runs around happily" shouting "OMG!" like some bad fanfic written by a stupid Jack Frost fan. No, Elsa immediately recognizes she has a suitor and admires the gifts calmly. While she does wonder about the mystery she doesn't turn into a reckless Nancy Drew wannabe detective snooping around falsely accussing people of being the secret suitor, That's Olaf and Anna's job. Considering that Anna is still a teenager and Olaf is an idiot :bademoticon:
Once Elsa get's to know who her secret admirer is (before we even see him we are told he's 7) She immediately decides to visit him. If this was written by a stupid hyper active fan girl Elsa's reaction would most likely be "Eeeeewwww!! a kid! gross!! Creepy!!" or a ignorant "nah it's just a kid, let's forget him" or going emo in dissapointment. But this is not written by a idiot fangirl, so Elsa stays in character and acts like a responsible adult and decides to know who Freddy really is. When she discovers him outside his house she even decides to act playful and join in on the fun by creating a ice dragon statue for Freddy's pretend game.
The key here is that Elsa takes the kid's gifts and his marriage proposal seriously. She asks him why he does the thing he does and admires his efforts. Sure he's 7 but considering that he travel an hour to get to the mountain, an hour to get back to Arendelle all while carrying a heavy ice sculpture of Elsa's head and being able to sneak into the palace and leave the gifts and all done in the EARLY HOURS OF THE MORNING (Anna get's up early to catch him) this kid really is working hard to get Elsa's attention! Be it getting teach by Elsa or actually having feelings for her, this is some serious dedication. Elsa recognizes it and treats him with love and admiration. By the end Elsa has a special place in her heart for him.
"I'll remember it, too," Elsa said fondly. "It's the day my secret admirer became my friend."
They do say that your best friend is the person you love the most. So the whole crush thing is not play out as the kid just wanted to be taught by Elsa but still get hints that Freddy does like Elsa in a special way.
"It was very nice of you to send me those gifts," she said. "What made you decide to do that?"
"Well, you're just the neatest lady around!" Freddy gushed.
He still 7 years old but he has sort of an idea what this love thing is really about and getting ship is,
"Freddy, that's very sweet, but why do you want to marry me?" Elsa asked.
"I don't know. I heard it's what you do when you like someone," Freddy answered, shrugging.
Mother will definitely approve of his son's early taste in women. What better girl to laid your eyes on than the Queen herself? Even if the age is an issue or whatever, you bet that Freddy will make a good devoted servant to Elsa, perhaps a future devoted Knight to Elsa?
BTW, not that I badly want this to be part of Frozen 2 but.. is Freddy already part of Frozen canon??
Maybe there was a reason that the camera focus on him in the beginning, because he's a future character in F2 and this book is his official introduction!! Then again maybe it's just wishful thinking and I doubt that was something the writers had planned from the beginning. But that mom does look very similar to the illustration..
With that done, many fans still had a burning question in their minds.. Would love ever arrive in Elsa's life and does she dreams of having a special prince? Well Disney has a straight answer for that..
"Do you ever wish you had a someone special?" Anna asked.
Elsa threw an arm around Anna's shoulder. "But I do have someone special," she said. "My sister!"
Anna smiled.
Right as I believe and something that many jelsa fans refuse to believe is that Elsa is happy as she is! She has Anna and that's all that matters! After years of being separated from her she can finally love her sister without fear and that's all she ever wanted in life. If you ship Elsa then that's fine but don't act like Elsa is miserable or lonely (she is not YOU).. she is happy! She is the most wonderful person you'll ever wish to be around with. There's a reason why she's the most popular Disney princess right now.
Still even if the romance wasn't what I expected (or already expected) this has been my favorite book in the "Anna & Elsa: Sisterhood Is The Strongest Magic" series. It shows that the story is more touching when it's a ordinary boy that is trying to impress Elsa and she is the powerful one who shows her human side and humility to make people feel better as well as the reason why everyone in Arendelle loves her, no matter their age.
I know these stories are just one-shots and the characters just be for one story but please Disney make these two appear more often! They have a adorable relationship not seen since Ariel and Flounder.
After all, who needs romance when Friendship is magic!IN THE WINK OF AN EYE: MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES by Scott Corrales The Roman author Julius Obsequens, worthy perhaps of the distinction of being the earliest "Fortean" researcher, approached the subject of unexplained disappearances in his Liber Prodigiorum with a story that was well-known to his audience: "One day, when Romulus, founder of Rome, exhorted his troops in the vicinity of the Caprean Swamp, there erupted a sudden, noisy thunderstorm during which Romulus was enveloped in a cloud so dense that he was lost out of sight, and was never again seen by mortal men. He was then ascended to divine rank, and worshipped under the name Quirinus". People still disappear, perhaps not as spectacularly as Romulus did (nor are they elevated to godhead), but that they do so is an undisputed fact. It is necessary to separate what could best be described as commonplace disappearances--the ones involving people on the run from the law, deadbeat parents, parents who abduct their children to live in obscurity elsewhere, and a host of other mundane reasons--from the cases which boggle the mind and defy common sense: cases where people vanish without a trace from airplanes travelling at thirty thousand feet, or disappear from rooms that have been locked from the outside. Perhaps even more than UFOs, the enigma of sudden disappearance has challenged investigators for a hundred years, and an ominous silence stifles the small, silent question at the end of every case, often all-too-horrible to enunciate: where did these people disappear to? The ability to "take a powder" in antiquity was considered the exclusive province of sorcerers and witches. The notorious Apollonius of Tyana disappeared from the sight of the Emperor Domitian and his court, as tradition would have it, causing great consternation. Mexican author Artemio del Valle Arizpe gave us the legend of "La Mulata de C˘rdoba", a witch from colonial times who was imprisoned for her uncanny ability to find lost items and hidden treasures: when her jailor stopped by her cell to check on her, he was astounded to see the woman boarding a tiny sailing ship she had drawn on the wall, and sailed off, waving at her captor. The vampires of Eastern Europe were reputedly able to vanish and reappear at will thanks to the evil powers at their disposal. Even if the aforementioned were true, it would not begin to solve our dilemma: contemporary cases involving mysterious disappearances do not, as a rule, involve people who want to vanish from the sight of their peers for one reason or another. Their disappearance is often sudden and unexpected, taking place by day or by night, alone or escorted, and sometimes involving the evaporation of the vehicle in which they travelled. In 1941, a Swiss rescue team was called upon to search for a group of mountain climbers that had not returned to their base camp. After a number of days, the rescuers managed to find the footprints of the mountaineering party, which stopped abruptly in the middle of a glacier. In this case, the authorities determined "it was a disappearance under circumstances which could not be clearly determined, on account of the facts". The Florida state police would be next in line for bemusement, this time resulting from the 1952 disappearance of Tom Brook, his wife, and his 11 year-old son. According to the report, the Brooks had visited a friend some 30 miles away from Miami, and got into their car to return home at 11:40 p.m.. They never completed the trip: local law enforcement found their empty car, headlights ablaze and doors open,just 7 miles away from their friend's house. Mrs. Brooke's handbag was found in the back seat, containing a considerable amount of money. Police records indicate that the family's footprints led to a meadow at the edge of the road, stopping abruptly after a few dozen steps, as in the case involving the missing Swiss mountaineers eleven years earlier. A similar fate befell a French family in 1972: after spending an evening with friends, and heading back to their home in the early hours of the morning, they never reached their destination, a scant 2 miles away. No satisfactory explanation was ever provided. It is difficult enough to find conjectures to account for the fates of these hapless individuals. The task becomes overwhelming when the disappearance of hundreds, even thousands, must be accounted for. During the War of the Spanish Succession in 1707, a four thousand-man invasion force under the Habsburg Archduke, Charles, camped at the foot of the Pyrenees on their way to Spain, breaking camp the following morning and marching through a mountain pass. This well-armed and equipped force never reached its goal, nor was it ever accounted for. During the French invasion of Indochina in the mid 19th century, a column of 650 fusiliers marched toward Saigon, disappearing without having ever engaged the enemy. The possibility that the fusiliers had been ambushed by Vietnamese forces was discounted, since another group followed close behind and did not hear the sounds of an armed encounter, nor did it find any scattered arms, gear, or bodies. The preceding case histories are well-known to fortean and paranormal researchers. They are the "classic" cases which serve as an introduction to the more recent cases, which remain equally unexplained--a reminder to the determined investigator that others have covered the path before and have been unable to come up with answers. The more recent cases that follow are no less intriguing. When the Dutch sensitive Gerard Croiset was employed by the Puerto Rican police in the mid-1970's to find two children belonging to a local millionaire, he concluded, chillingly, that the children were nowhere to be found on this physical plane. Unwilling to be blinded by what they perceived as mysticism, the police thanked Croiset and resumed their investigations with conventional means: the children remain missing to this very day. Jose Marˇa Carnero, a 26 year old medical student, vanished off the face of the earth in April 1987 while on maneuvers with the military unit to which he belonged on the Montelareina Military Base in Zamora, Spain. Reports indicate that Jos Marˇa wandered away from his squad in the midst of a light rainfall, while the other soldiers tried to find shelter under the trees. The young man was never seen again, even after a massive search by the Spanish army, which to this day lists him as a deserter. Author Salvador Freixedo, who looked into the subject of these bizarre disappearances as part of his book La Granja Humana, cites the curious case of a vehicular accident in Burgos, Spain which caused the deaths of a number of people and the disappearance of a 10 year-old from one of the trucks involved in the accident. He was not found among the victims of the crash, and has never been seen again. The police initially believed that the boy had wandered away from the crash scene in an amnesic state, and a thorough search of the area was mounted by both civilians and police officials, yet nothing was turned up. In order to bring the case to a close, the authorities suggested that the boy had been disintegrated, in fact, by a cargo of sulfuric acid being hauled by the tanker truck in which he was a passenger. Some of the cases read like science-fiction in their thriller-like quality (bear in mind that science fiction author Isaac Asimov used a mysterious disappearance to transport one of his protagonists to the future in A Pebble in the Sky) and detail. In 1950, a New York City paper allegedly carried a four-line news item relating the death of a pedestrian hit by a car near Times Square. The car had apparently been unable to stop and a crowd of onlookers ran to offer assistance to the unfortunate victim, one Rudolf Fenz, who was pronounced dead. There were details to the sad but uneventful story which were impossible to overlook: the late Rudolf Fenz was wearing decidedly vintage clothing--a frock coat, narrow trousers, buckle shoes and a matching hat. His pockets contained several calling cards to his name, an invoice regarding the lodging and upkeep of a horse and carriage, and a letter postmarked 1876. A search of the New York phone book revealed the number of a Rudolf Fenz, Jr., who had passed away some years earlier. Nonetheless, his widow was able to tell investigator Hubert V. Rihn of the Missing Persons division that her late husband's father had disappeared mysteriously in 1876 while on a trip to the local tobacconist, and never returned home. Rihn allegedly looked through records for that year and found that one Rudolf Fenz, age 29, had disappeared on the same night, last seen wearing a black frock coat, narrow trousers, and buckle |
lowering it.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.Uber And Ola Again Hit The Headline In The Capital; Kejriwal Warns Strict Action Against The Taxi Aggregators
18 April, 2016, New Delhi: Delhi’s Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal has warned app-based taxi service provider companies Ola and Uber after he received few complaints from the commuters of hiking the fares during rush hour. The CM took to his twitter account and tweeted that strict action will be taken for such unethical practices that includes cancellation of permits and impounding of vehicles.
Strict action, incl permit cancellation n impounding vehicle, to be taken against taxis which charge rates more than govt prescribed rates — Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 18, 2016
According to the report in Indian Express, the rates were allegedly hiked, the first full working day of the fortnight-long odd-even scheme when offices, schools and other institutions reopened after an extended weekend.
The commuters were asked to register their complaints at 011-42400400 if they have been charged extra by the companies. The appeal was made by Gopal Rai, Transport Minister. “If we receive complaints against arbitrariness of any app-based taxi service, we will impound their vehicles.”
CM’s tweet has already gone viral and it has allured the users to join Kejriwal in curbing down such malpractices by app-based taxi service providers.
@ArvindKejriwal Sir, how will you identify them? What about companies like @Uber Who are charging upto 4 times the rate? — nandita kodesia (@nandita_zee) April 18, 2016
@ArvindKejriwal सर जी यही तो फायदा है odd/even का जो धड़ल्ले से चल रहा है। 3.5x तक रेट जा रहा है और आप वाहवाही लूट रहे? — Khushi Singh (@khushi2434) April 18, 2016
@ArvindKejriwal suggest a WhatsApp and telephone helpline number for uploading auto and taxi number of defaulters — PS (@oye_P_S) April 18, 2016
Image- Indian Express
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commentsArab media reports that Israeli aircraft targeted the Syrian army and a Hezbollah convoy near Damascus.
Arab media reported on Wednesday morning that Israeli aircraft carried out two airstrikes in the Damascus area overnight Tuesday.
One report said that the first airstrike hit a weapons warehouse belonging to the Syrian army near Damascus.
The second attack, according to the report, targeted a convoy of cars belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist group.
Other Syrian websites reported that the attack on the Hezbollah convoy was meant to thwart a delivery of missiles from Syria to Lebanon. According to these reports, the convoy was bombed after it left the airport in Damascus.
There has been no other confirmation of these reports. Israel does not usually comment on reports on attacks which appear in the Arab media.
On Monday morning, Israeli aircraft attacked a facility belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization in the Syrian part of the Golan Heights.
The attack was in retaliation to Sunday’s attack on IDF forces who were engaged in operations along the Syrian border.New research analyzing millions of U.S. medical records suggests that marijuana use raises an adult’s risk of stroke and heart failure.
The study couldn’t prove cause-and-effect, but the researchers said they tried to account for other heart risk factors.
“Even when we corrected for known risk factors, we still found a higher rate of both stroke and heart failure in these patients,” explained lead researcher Dr. Aditi Kalla, a cardiologist at Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia.
“That leads us to believe that there is something else going on besides just obesity or diet-related cardiovascular side effects,” Kalla said in a news release from the American College of Cardiology (ACC).
Landmark report released on marijuana's health benefits, hazards
Her team is slated to present its findings March 18 at the ACC’s annual meeting, in Washington, D.C.
In the study, Kalla’s group looked at 20 million health records of patients aged 18 to 55 who were discharged from one of more than a thousand hospitals across the United States in 2009 and 2010.
Of those patients, 1.5 percent said they’d used marijuana.
Such use was associated with a much higher risk for stroke, heart failure, coronary artery disease and sudden cardiac death. Pot use was also tied to common heart disease risk factors such as obesity, high blood pressure, smoking and drinking, the researchers said.
After adjusting for those risk factors, the researchers concluded that marijuana use was independently associated with a 26 percent increased risk of stroke and a 10 percent increased risk of heart failure.
“More research will be needed to understand the [reasons] behind this effect,” Kalla said.
Not everyone agreed the findings are cause for alarm, however.
Paul Armentaro is deputy director of NORML, a marijuana advocacy group. He called the increase in heart risk, “a relatively nominal one,” and said the study “is inconsistent with the findings of several other longitudinal studies finding that those who consume cannabis, but not tobacco, suffer no greater likelihood of adverse events compared to those with no history of use.”
NORML agrees that certain groups -- adolescents, pregnant or nursing mothers, people with a history of psychiatric illness, or those with a prior history of heart disease -- may want to avoid marijuana due to the potential effects on health.
But others may want to talk the issue over with their doctors. “As with any medication, patients should consult thoroughly with their physician before deciding whether the medical use of cannabis is safe and appropriate,” Armentaro said.
Study author Kalla noted that medical or recreational marijuana use is now legal in more than half of U.S. states -- so a better understanding of its health effects is needed.
“Like all other drugs, whether they’re prescribed or not prescribed, we want to know the effects and side effects of this drug,” Kalla said. “It’s important for physicians to know these effects so we can better educate patients, such as those who are inquiring about the safety of cannabis or even asking for a prescription for cannabis.”
Two heart specialists agreed.
The new study “suggests that marijuana may not be as safe as proponents for its legalization claim,” said Dr. Andrew Rogove, who directs stroke care at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, N.Y. He believes that “further studies need to be performed to elucidate how marijuana use can increase risk for stroke and heart failure and if any particular way that it is used confers a higher risk.”
Dr. Shazia Alam directs inpatient stroke services at Winthrop-University Hospital, in Mineola, N.Y. She believes there’s a growing number of patients of all ages with a history of marijuana use.
“As more of our patients will be on marijuana in the near future given the legalization trend, this study reminds us how important it is to ask about marijuana use early on and inform them of any potential consequences,” she said.
“Moreover, we have been seeing increased strokes in the younger population, therefore routinely inquiring about marijuana use may become an integral part in stroke prevention,” Alam added.
Because these findings are to be presented at a medical meeting, they should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.Review: Fire Emblem: Fates – Family Matters
AJ Moser February 26, 2016 11:22:02 AM EST
Disclaimer: The Special Edition of this game received by DualShockers for purposes of this review included all three versions of the game. Revelations, the third path, will be released on March 10, 2016. This review will not cover that version of the game.
The Fire Emblem series has never been bigger. Awakening was a massive success worldwide, adored by longtime veterans and first time players. For a series that includes many games never released outside of Japan, Awakening was an explosion of cultural relevance. Fire Emblem even now has six (count ‘em, six) representatives in the latest Super Smash Bros.
It’s fitting, then, that Fire Emblem Fates is far and away the biggest single entry in the series to date. The term ‘single entry’ is used very loosely here, as this game is one massive narrative spread over three separate titles. Each game stands on its own, though and offers something that any newcomer or series diehard will love.
The plot of Fates finds the player character, Corrin, in the middle of a civil war between two kingdoms, the traditionalist warriors of Hoshido and the noble but warmongering Nohr. Corrin might just be the most interesting Fire Emblem protagonist yet, as his history with each side is equally compelling.
This conflict is the central reasoning for the split between games, but not just a cheap plot to make more money. Choices the player must make regarding the future of each family are powerful and resonant, with each title providing a wholly unique experience.
Birthright is the more casually-inclined of the two main titles, as players side with the peace-seeking samurai of the Hoshido family. Conquest is billed more as ‘classic Fire Emblem experience’ as the the European-inspired Nohr clan wage war across a savage land.
Still, Fire Emblem‘s gameplay can rarely be described as simple. Both titles feature unique missions, characters and maps that amount to a full Fire Emblem game. Birthright allows for more exploration, similar to Awakening, where missions can be replayed to farm for gold and experience. The mission structure in Conquest is linear, but the battles themselves are much more rich, offering an onslaught of enemies and optional objectives.
The separate campaigns inform the perspective of the other and fit one overall narrative with notable twists and turns. Another benefit of the split is the wealth of memorable characters that are present as teammates.
You’ll likely fall in love with a few of these characters right off the bat, on both sides, and find yourself forced to choose between them. On the Nohr side, the mischievous mage Camilla and stubborn lord Leo made me want to stay with my adoptive family but the rash Hoshidan archer Takumi and pegasus-riding retainer Hinoka drew me back to my birth kin.
Players would be well advised to pick up the game they think they’ll enjoy more first, and download the additional path at the discounted cost when they want to see how the other side lives. Each campaign can run about 30 hours, not counting the multiple resets that will be required when a crucial party member falls in battle.
Speaking of which, Fates presents the same challenge we’ve all come to expect from Fire Emblem. Even Birthright (on Hard mode, with classic permadeath) backed me into several walls and made me second guess every tactic. Conquest is a much crueler beast in every way, and will even give series veterans a tough time. Gameplay is familiar, but a few updates make Fates stand out in the series.
A welcome change is the the overhauled weapon system. Excluding staves, weapons no longer have a finite number of uses. Additionally, the weapon triangle has been revamped outside of the “rock-paper-scissors” standard. Weapons are now based on color, as well as material. Using each different tool in battle offers pros and cons that never sacrifice the game’s complexity.
Managing your units is surprisingly streamlined, especially with a huge cast of characters. The UI can be simplified to show only relevant in battle, or expanded with a single tap to dive into each possible branch of customization.
The touch screen is an excellent way to check up on stats, skills and partner supports. Pairing units up in battle is required for success, and the support conversations that come out of these pairings can offer stat bonuses, protection and even new class options for each team member.
The only facet of Fates gameplay that really drags down the product is the lackluster multiplayer hub. Dubbed ‘My Castle’, players can customize their hub world and invade other players’ around the world. Think Metal Gear Solid V’s Mother Base features as a comparison.
Interacting with and customizing your units is a fun distraction here, but there isn’t too much to do, and the invasion system is a headache and just not as entertaining as it could be.
Also available in My Castle are the game’s controversial hot tub and “petting” segments. Nintendo has received a fair amount of criticism for censorship in the past, and Fire Emblem Fates also falls victim to some questionable changes.
You can’t physically rub your teammates outside of Japan, but you do get the same one-on-one segments, and you can even spy on other soldiers in their bath towels. The most lamentable omission in this game, personally, was the lack of dual audio dialogue options.
The localization team has also altered or even removed a quite a few of the dialogue lines from the Japanese original, at times in a way that appears almost arbitrary. In the original title, character’s support conversations were often humorous and ridiculous. However, with the new lines, certain characters come off as flat and unmemorable. With such a large cast, it’s a shame that some of the personality quirks were cut for fear of offending the potential audience, or for other reasons that aren’t really clear.
One of the biggest complaints that can be lobbed at the game is the questionable nature of some of the present dialogue. Characters will often repeat lines in an annoying manner, shout out simple phrases or in some cases just respond in complete and total silence.
The localization of Fates was clearly either rushed or botched altogether, because there are some frankly inexcusable omissions and alterations from what was present in the original title. For such a large game with so many characters, minor changes in dialogue shouldn’t stand out, but as bad as they are here, they do.
Outside of those unfortunate problems, Fire Emblem Fates provides the memorable gameplay of the series and a formidable, entertaining challenge for any 3DS owner. The added stress of betraying characters you’ve come to admire elevates the narrative tension to a natural and organic height.
Still deciding which version of the game you’re going to pick up? Take a look at the quick notes below to figure out which game is ideal for your style of play. After Chapter 6 of the game, you’ll be forced to choose, but your purchase will have already done that for you, unless you choose to download the other path.
Birthright:
Siding with Hoshido is clearly painted as the ‘good’ side of Fates, but the story still contains some sharp twists and turns. As you and your team trek across a ravaged countryside, you encounter a variety of enemy soldiers, villagers and monsters.
The map layout of Birthright is fairly standard across most missions, with little variation from the “Rout the Enemy” objective. Strategizing on what direction to go, and on which members to bring with you provides most of the variety in this version of the game. There’s a greater amount of weaponry and skills to account for while playing through the Hoshido storyline.
Conquest:
It may seem like you’re siding with ‘the bad guys’ in Conquest, but that notion will vanish within the first few chapters after making your decision. You’ll quickly come to understand exactly why the Nohr are doing what they are. Even the morally grey characters you’ll encounter are given dimensions to their actions that makes for a compelling look at the effects of this war.
Conquest significantly ups the challenge present in Birthright, allowing for less variety in team structure and experience division. You’ll want to pick a solid squad of soldiers early on and devote your time to them, or you’ll run into a challenge leveling up some lackluster units later in the game.Description
Save some money and be guaranteed to get your Random Fandom Box by preordering the next three boxes.
Each box comes with an exclusive t-shirt so check the sizing chart in the images and choose your shirt size when ordering.
What You Will Get
Avatars – Avatar The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra themed box that will ship October 2016. You will get to choose which element you want your box to focus on!
Wizarding Wares – Harry Potter themed box based around the shopping areas of the Wizarding World. This box will ship November or December 2016.
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To the USA: $36
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This set of boxes is a one time purchase so you WILL NOT be subscribed to get later boxes after these three have sold. Each box is available to be purchased separately as they are released.Humans have left such a huge impact on Earth that the consequences will leave behind their own geological records far into the future. Therefore, a group of 24 scientists said Thursday that such dramatic transformations warrant the declaration of a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. Under present definitions, we are currently in the Holocene epoch that began 11,700 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age.
The end of the Holocene epoch?
According to a study published in the journal Science, there is compelling evidence that mankind’s impact on the planet’s atmosphere, wildlife and oceans has pushed Earth into a new epoch. The research conducted by the Anthropocene Working Group will be presented later this year to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, a geological body that formally approves such time divisions.
The new study makes the strongest case yet that the Holocene epoch has ended. Lead author Colin Waters of the British Geological Survey said the Holocene was a natural phenomenon. But humans have initiated many developments that had a global impact, modifying not only the geosphere but also the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and cryosphere. More importantly, the changes have been incredibly rapid, from annual to decadal.
Concrete evidence warrants Anthropocene epoch
We have become “a geological agent in ourselves,” said Waters. If formally accepted, Anthropocene would be the third epoch after Holocene and Pleistocene that make up the Quaternary period. Scientists identified global impact ranging from the nuclear weapon testing to mining that displaces more than 57 billion tons of material every year. Scientists said the Holocene could last another 50,000 years without human impact.
Humans have left a lasting impact on the planet, warranting the Anthropocene epoch. Researchers believe that the new epoch began sometime between 1954 and 1964. More than 50% of the planet’s surface has been transformed for human use. Concrete has become so ubiquitous that you could cover every square meter of the Earth surface with 2.2 pounds of concrete if spread evenly.
Enough plastic is produced every year to cover the entire planet. Carbon dioxide emission is increasing 100 times faster than at any point in the past 800,000 years. All these will have a lasting impact on the planet.Quite possibly the most derived archosaurs that have ever lived, the discovery of cetacean-like dinosaurs in the Saurocene shocked the scientific community. Though scientists were initially cautious to classify them, genetic and skeletal evidence has made it abundantly clear that the ornithocetids are nested well within the aquaraptoriformes along with the better known aquaraptorids. Ornithocetids emerged in the late Oligocene and quickly spread across the world's oceans, filling the gap left by the sudden disappearance of many large marine reptiles in the late Eocene, including other more archaic types of aquaraptoriformes.Skeletally, ornithocetids are highly abnormal, much more so than the aquaraptorids. There bones are thick-walled and relatively solid; the naris and antorbital fenestra have combined into a nasoantorbital fenestra (similar to some pterosaurs) to accommodate the retracted nostrils; digits II and III of the hand are completely fused and usually clawless; the pubis and ischium are massively constructed and elongated to form a keel along the underside; the dorsal spines of the sacral vertebrae are elongated and often form a dorsal fin; the hind limbs are extremely reduced, but still functional; the hallux is vestigial and, unusually, lies on the outer side of the foot; and finally the last few caudal vertebrae have fused into a massive pygostyle to support the feathered tail fluke.Physiologically, their most peculiar feature, the one that sets them apart from all other archosaurs, is their ability to give live birth. They are ovoviviparous, meaning the hard-shelled eggs are retained inside the mothers body but there is little to no connection between them and the mother. The egg shells dissolve away and are excreted shortly before the young are due to be born. Dissected specimens have allowed scientists to determine that, for most species, eggs are rather large and usually number between 5 and 10. Young stay with their mothers for an extended period of time, though how long various between genera with some becoming independent at only a few months old, while others may remain with their family group for years. There is a high mortality rate amongst newborns.Locomotion is a simple cetacean-like undulation of the body and tail, occasionally accompanied by flapping with the forelimbs. Their most flexible points are their necks and the base of the tail, unlike aquaraptorids which also have a flexible lower back. Like all aquaraptoriformes, the feathers of the forelimbs and tail are unique, stiff, interlocking, and plate-like. The feathers that form the tail fluke are fixed in position, but those of the arm are a bit looser allowing the arm to flex normally, this lends them great maneuverability. These feathers are also detachable and may be shed at will (such as when they have been grasped by a predator!), similar to how some lizards can drop their tails; like the lizards' tail, the feathers will regenerate in time.Though webbed, the tiny hind limbs serve no purpose in locomotion and are used mainly during mating, hence their large claws. In receptive females, the feet may become brightly colored to advertise to the males. Ornithocetids rely mainly on sight and sound, though they do not use any form of echolocation. The gular pouches of males can become brightly colored in the breeding season and extended like the dewlap of anole to display to females and rivals. Most species are rather social and some even form large flocks. They are fairly large creature, on average being about 4-5 meters long and weighing over 700 pounds; some are much larger, while others are smaller. Behaviorally, they are quite similar to cetaceans in habits, but not in intelligence.There are four genera: Ornithocetus (O. callipeplus is pictured), Pelagisaurus, Ichthyoraptor, and the peculiar Mantaraptor. Small examples have been maintained in captivity, but they are nervous animals that must be given lots of space. The tank must also be covered, otherwise they will attempt to jump out (being stranded on land, via jumping out of tank or beaching themselves, almost always leads to a broken pelvis and certain death). Large individuals in the wild should be treated with caution, they are very inquisitive, sometimes too inquisitive......................................................................................................................................................................................................Sorry about all that text, genera descriptions will come next time.Steamed Steamed is dedicated to all things in and around Valve’s PC gaming service.
In Counter-Strike, players can earn, trade, and sell cosmetic flourishes for their weapons. Over time, this has given rise to a thriving unofficial gambling scene. Players bet skins with real world value on CSGO eSports matches. For some, it’s a means of making an awful lot of money. It can also be awfully sketchy, which is why one man is suing Valve.
Given Valve’s notoriously hands-off approach to, well, everything, you probably won’t be shocked to hear that CSGO gambling is entirely unregulated. Third-party sites like CSGO Lounge facilitate transactions through a combination of their own interfaces and Steam sign-ins, and Valve doesn’t really seem to mind. These sites often tend to have lax age requirements as well, allowing teens to participate in what essentially amounts to real-money gambling. Bloomberg did an expose on all of it earlier this year, in which they cited an estimate that CSGO’s gambling scene comprised millions of people and $2.3 billion in 2015.
That’s the crux of Connecticut resident Michael John McLeod’s suit against Valve, which—as uncovered by Polygon—alleges that Valve has “knowingly allowed... and has been complicit in creating, sustaining and facilitating” what amounts to an “illegal online gambling market.” The suit, which aims for class action status, claims:
“Defendant Valve knowingly allowed, supported, and/or sponsored illegal gambling by allowing millions of Americans to link their individual Steam accounts to third- party websites such as CSGO Lounge (“Lounge”), CSGO Diamonds (“Diamonds”), and OPSkins (collectively, “unnamed co-conspirators”)... In the eSports gambling economy, skins are like casino chips that have monetary value outside the game itself because of the ability to convert them directly into cash.”
Further, based on the Bloomberg report, McLeod’s suit claims that many CSGO gamblers are minors. “Unlike traditional sports, the people gambling on eSports are mostly teenagers,” the suit says, adding that “also unlike traditional sports, the company that makes the product being wagered on is directly profiting from that wagering” due to the fact that Valve takes a percentage of the money from every skin sold.
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The suit further alleges that McLeod himself gambled in CSGO and lost money as both an adult and a minor.
The consequences of this unregulated gambling market can be, according to the suit, pretty serious. “This unregulated market is ripe for scams, cheating, fraud and other harms to users,” the suit reads. “For instance, there have been numerous instances of match-fixing in CS:GO matches. For instance, in January 2015, it became clear that a highly qualified team of CS:GO players fixed matches against lesser teams.”
(For reference, the suit is referring to this incident.)
As of now, Valve has yet to respond to the suit.The notorious hacker collective WikiLeaks dumped a massive trove of e-mails from the Democratic National Committee onto the Web Friday just as Hillary Clinton was preparing to celebrate her presidential nomination at the Democratic convention next week.
In the thousands of internal e-mails, it was revealed that a Democratic Party official tried to use Bernie Sanders’ supposed religious beliefs to derail his presidential campaign; one staffer pitched an idea for a phony sexist Trump ad and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz tried to score a staggering seven tickets to the Broadway smash “Hamilton.”
BURNING BERNIE
The suggestion of going after Sanders based on religion was included in one of 19,252 e-mails.
In one message dated May 5, 2016, with the subject line “No s–t,” the chief financial officer of the Democratic National Committee, Brad Marshall, plotted how to portray Sanders, who was raised Jewish in Brooklyn, as an atheist.
“It might [make] no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief,” Marshall wrote, apparently referring to Sanders and upcoming Kentucky and West Virginia primaries.
“My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.” - DNC official Brad Marshall
“Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage,’’ Marshall asked.
“I think I read he is an atheist.”
“This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and atheist.”
The chief executive officer at the DNC, Amy Dacey, responded with a single word: “Amen.”
Marshall told The Intercept that he didn’t recall the sleazy e-mail.
But then he claimed it wasn’t an attempted hit job on Sanders.
“I can say it would not have been Sanders. It would probably be about a surrogate,” Marshall told the Web site.
He did not explain why the DNC would try to slime a Sanders surrogate.
NB-SEETHING
The DNC was supposed to be neutral in the primary between Clinton and the Vermont senator.
But the e-mails confirm the party establishment was in the tank for Clinton long before the primaries were decided.
And top DNC officials were not happy when they were called out for taking sides.
Wasserman Schultz sent an e-mail to NBC anchor Chuck Todd complaining about MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski, who was calling for her to resign for taking sides in an intra-party battle.
The subject line read: “Chuck, this must stop!”
In another e-mail, dated May 21, 2016, DNC press secretary Mark Paustenbach wrote to communications director Luis Miranda suggesting they plant a story that the Sanders campaign was in chaos.
“Specifically, [Wasserman Schultz] had to call Bernie directly in order to get the campaign to do things because they’d either ignored or forgotten something critical,” Paustenbach wrote.
“It’s not a DNC conspiracy, it’s because they never had their act together,” he wrote.
PLOT AGAINST TRUMP
In one oddball e-mail chain, a DNC deputy communications director plotted to create a fake Craigslist ad that portrayed Donald Trump as sex crazed.
Christina Freundlich — who took a smiling selfie at the scene of a tragic East Village gas explosion in March 2015 — pitched the idea for a fake employment ad for “hot” women who want to work for a Trump organization.
“Seeking staff members for multiple positions in a large, New York-based corporation known for its real estate investments, fake universities, steaks, and wine,” the copy read.
The job title was listed as “Honey Bunch (that’s what the boss will call you)” and the list of job requirements were as follows:
“No gaining weight on the job;” “Must be open to public humiliation;” and “A willingness to evaluate other women’s hotness for the boss’ satisfaction is a plus.”
The ad also noted that the boss may “greet you with a kiss on the lips or grope you under the meeting table.”
Freundlich sent the fake ad up the flagpole and got an OK from Miranda that read: “As long as all the offensive s–t is verbatim I’m fine with it.” It’s not clear if the ad ever ran.
AIN’T LIFE GRANDE
In an e-mail from Sept. 10, 2015, titled “Performer for POTUS” DNC finance director Zach Allen asks if pop star Ariana Grande can be vetted for a White House performance.
After she was probed, the answer came back, “Nope, sorry,’’ because she was once caught on video “licking other peoples’ donuts while saying she hates America.”
The e-mail said Grande’s donutgate “brought on two long YouTube apologies, but [the incident] won’t lead to criminal charges.”
ON SECOND THOUGHT
In one e-mail chain from May 12, Democrats considered allowing the lawyer representing a pedophile to host a fund-raiser with President Obama — but ultimately decided against it.
Lawyer Roy Black, who has represented Bill Clinton pal Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted pedophile, raised red flags when he underwent a thorough investigation before being given the honor of hosting Obama.
But he didn’t pass.
The White House’s Bobby Schmuck made the final call: “[N]o hosting, fine to attend.”
‘HAM’ IT UP
Wasserman Schultz asked DNC finance director Allen Zachary if he could snag seven tickets to “Hamilton,” the sold-out Broadway show, so she could celebrate a 50th birthday party with her college roommates.
“I’ve never seen an order of 7 fulfilled, I have seen as many as 4. Would you guys be willing to split up 4 and 3?” he responded May 24.
She said she would.
But it’s not clear from the exchange if Zachary came through.Scott McConnell observes with appropriate dismay an intelligence hearing scheduled for the House:
On Thursday the committee has scheduled hearings on “Israel’s Right to Defend Itself: Implications for Regional Security and U.S. Interests.” The invited witnesses are Elliott Abrams, Danielle Pletka, and Robert Satloff — all neoconservatives, all staunch backers of Netanyahu, the Iraq war, etc. The committee doesn’t even pretend that there might be other worthwhile perspectives, surprising since U.S. interests are meant to be the subject matter. I asked a congressional aide whether there was anything to be done about this, and was told, “No, witnesses are decided by committee chairman and ranking members” and that “the system is irreparably broken.”
Yeah, I’ll say. I’m a lot more pro-Israel than many, probably most, voices at TAC, and my view of the recent Gaza conflict is far more sympathetic to Israel. That said, unless this key GOP-controlled committee intends to host another hearing featuring a full roster of expert witnesses offering a more foreign-policy realist, or even pro-Palestinian, point of view — and there is no such hearing scheduled — then this planned hearing is a farce. Where is the balance? How are Congressmen supposed to make informed policy decisions when they only care to hear a single perspective — even if, in this case, it’s a perspective with which I largely sympathize?
Have the Democratic members of the committee complained about this? If not, why not?[Please see here for my follow-up letter to Dr. Woodcock.]
I just sent the following message regarding Hemispherx’s extraordinary 267% price increase for Ampligen to Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDA’s Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research:
Dear Dr. Woodcock,
I am writing to you regarding a matter of grave concern for the patients in Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc.’s (“HEB”) AMP-511 open-label clinical trial for Ampligen, a drug highly effective for many ME (or as the FDA calls it “ME/CFS”) patients. I have testified at the Ampligen Advisory Committee meeting and other federal committee meetings in favor of FDA approval of the drug and I remain convinced that this drug should be approved by the FDA without further delay because many patients would benefit from it and because there are no other FDA-approved pharmaceutical interventions for ME.
I have been a study participant for over three years. Last night, I learned through ME Action’s blog (http://www.meaction.net/2015/08/10/ampligen-price-increases-substantially-available-soon-in-europe/) that the price of the drug will go up 267%, from $15,600 to $41,600 per year, effective immediately as of July 24, 2015. Because it has not been approved by the FDA, the cost of the drug is currently not covered by private insurance or Medicare/Medicaid. Patients pay the entire cost out of pocket. Nevertheless, I have not received any notification from HEB of this extraordinary price increase.
HEB seems to claim that the price increase is necessitated by their increased cost in providing the drug to trial participants and that the increase has been verified by an accounting firm. However, accounting firms can avail themselves of a number of different methods to establish cost. For example, I understand that HEB recently expanded its facilities. Was the cost of this expansion, which would be a sunk cost at this point, included in the cost justification for the price increase either through depreciation or amortization? Moreover, HEB’s position itself is apparently contradictory as to the basic fact whether the new price includes merely manufacturing cost or also the cost of continued research and FDA-approval efforts. These points are merely illustrative of the various types of cost that may or may not have been included in the price-increase justification. It just does not seem probable that HEB’s cost increased that dramatically over night. A gradual increase seems much more plausible and would have been much easier to absorb for patients.
As you know, there are only four Ampligen trial sites in the country. Patients move and either leave their families behind or uproot them, either buy and sell houses or rent second homes, give up or change jobs, mortgage their houses, enroll their kids in new schools, etc. in order to relocate to a trial site and, in doing so, incur substantial long-term expenses far beyond just the price of the drug and the related infusion/physician’s cost. At the very least, HEB could have informed study participants of the fact that it is considering an increase at the time when it hired the accounting firm. The entire process from hiring the firm to the firm’s completed report typically takes time. That would have at least provided patients some advance notice. Some patients have very recently invested in relocating to a trial site just to find out now that they will not be able to afford the drug at the new price.
To be completely blindsided, not only without any advance warning, which was entirely feasible, but without any notification from HEB whatsoever upon effectiveness of the increase—more than two and a half weeks ago—is inexcusable and I would like to confirm with you that HEB followed any applicable federal rules both with respect to the magnitude of the price increase and the lack of notice.
I am looking forward to your response. Obviously, the matter is of utmost urgency, as many trial participants will be unable to afford the new price and will have to re-plan their lives without the drug. Most importantly, suddenly being cut off from a potent drug that patients’ immune systems have come to rely on might very well put the health of the current trial participants at risk.
Sincerely,
Jeannette Burmeister
cc :
Dr. Stephen Ostroff, FDA Acting Commissioner
Nancy McGrory, Hemispherx Patient AdvocateWe’ve seen the Organic Transit Elf go from a twinkle in founder Rob Cotter’s eye to the real deal in a matter of a few short months.
The solar-powered pedal hybrid vehicle first showed its face in prototype phase back at our Durham meetup, and shortly thereafter found its way to Kickstarter.
After asking for $100,000 in funding, Organic Transit actually received $225,000 and about 51 pre-orders for the $4,000 hybrid vehicle.
And that doesn’t include the original 400 pre-orders Organic Transit racked up before hitting Kickstarter.
But |
hear one presidential candidate say — even if it was a flip comment, which it was — ‘You’re gonna be in jail’ to another presidential candidate on the debate state in the United States of America? Stunning, just stunning.”
Former Attorney General Eric Holder responded angrily on Twitter, writing, “In the USA we do not threaten to jail political opponents. @realDonaldTrump said he would. He is promising to abuse the power of the office.”
In the USA we do not threaten to jail political opponents. @realDonaldTrump said he would. He is promising to abuse the power of the office — Eric Holder (@EricHolder) October 10, 2016
Watch the video, embedded below:A little lost? As the leaks get leakier, the details remain important: one day, if or when South Africa is blessed with a National Director of Public Prosecutions with even the vaguest interest in doing his or her job, there will be many people to charge for many different activities. But there is a larger, meta story at play here: the #GuptaLeaks themselves reveal how a particular democratic dispensation (mis)functions during capitalism’s end of days: everything in our lives is subject to a longstanding collaboration between governments and corporations, a bromance that has created societies far more dystopian than any sci-fi thriller could have posited, Blade Runner’s Tyrell Corporation notwithstanding. By RICHARD POPLAK.
This has happened before.
The leaks, I mean. They’ve happened before. And I’m not referring to Watergate or the Pentagon Papers or the Panama Papers or WikiLeaks or Snowden. I’m referring to an incident of toxic seepage that occurred right here in South Africa, in a past that was not so much a foreign country, but a galaxy far, far away.
In January 1977, barely six roiling months after the Soweto uprising, an envelope arrived at the Sunday Times offices. In the halcyon days before Mail Chimp and Snapchatted surgical wounds, tip-offs arrived via the postbox, and this particular note promised information concerning a super-secret society called the Broederbond. While the likes of dissident journalist Hennie Serfontein had been publishing leaked stories about the brotherhood since 1963, for most hacks at the time, this was not a story, but the story: wasn’t the Broederbond the exclusive club of blue-blood Afrikaner braai chommies who ran the most powerful, soon-to-be nuclear-armed white supremacist utopia in the world? Weren’t they a version of the Freemasons jacked up on Calvinism, chauvinism and paranoia, a dudes-only cultural-political circle-jerk so obscure they made even tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorists lose sleep at night?
Sure. But still, few outside of the ruling class truly understood the reach of the society, and nor could they prove how influential the brotherhood was within the governing National Party. Where were the documents to back up the assertions? Were there documents to back up the assertions?
Much smoke. No weaponry.
The letter, it turned out, was the portal into a universe. With almost no expectations, a Sunday Times journalist named Ivor Wilkins scheduled a meeting with the anonymous tipster. He was stood up. He scheduled a second meeting. Again he was ghosted. Wilkins shrugged it off: a story this big wasn’t going to be handed over like a boerie roll at an NG Kerk egg and spoon race. But one year after the arrival of the initial letter, Wilkins got a call from the Sunday Times reception desk, informing him that he had a visitor. Wilkins didn’t recognise the name, but nonetheless invited the man up to his desk. Minutes later, a small fellow drenched in flop sweat sat across from the reporter.
“I’ve come to talk about the Broederbond,” he said.
Many years later, the source of the country-redefining Super-Afrikaners leak would be revealed as an unassuming dominee, who apparently served as secretary of a Johannesburg Broederbond branch. His conscience had forced his hand, and the thousands of documents he eventually leaked to Wilkins and his news editor, Hans Strydom, would allow them to precisely map out the reach of the secret society.
The story of the leak itself has been lost to the tumult of history, which is a shame, because this is often how the news happens – a loyal soldier turns snitch because God keeps yelling Bible verses in his ear. It has happened all over the world, variations on a theme. Inexplicably, the most recent edition of The Super Afrikaners: Inside the Afrikaner Broederbond, redacts the backstory-containing preface to the 1978 edition, which was one of the single biggest publishing sensations of the apartheid years (outside of Scope, of course).
What Wilkins and Strydom were able to do with the dominee’s photocopying skills, first in the Sunday Times, and then in their mega-selling book, was to publish apartheid’s operating manual. One of the documents in journalists’ possession was called “Masterplan for a White Country: the Strategy”, which is fairly unambiguous as far as titles go: the Broederbond, since its very first meeting in 1918, was created to wrest the country from the other “race” – in this case, white English speakers. It was a vast, supremely well-executed shock-and-awe empowerment programme that distributed the country’s spoils to an Afrikaner elite, while uplifting the rural Boer from the shame and penury inflicted upon him during the South African war.
Before the Borg, the Broederbond: almost every single aspect of state, provincial or municipal policy was drafted by hundreds of committees attended by 12,000 “scrupulously selected” brothers, and then handed over to the government, as if by fiat. Verwoerd, Vorster, Malan – Broederbond. Members were deployed to every ministry, every state-run service provider, every business that did business with anyone who counted.
Historians claim that the society’s reach was over-emphasised, but if so, only slightly. One could call what they pulled off state capture, but it was more than that. It was rule from the shadows, and it worked to perfection.
* * *
There are, of course, echoes bouncing back between then and now.
“In South Africa, where the economy increasingly takes on the look of a socialist state,” wrote Wilkins and Strydom, in 1978, “there are a large number of semi-State corporations, all of which have Broederbond representation in their top echelons.” Later, they wrote, “It is the fusion of […] the Cabinet and the Broederbond Executive Council, and the forces they individually and collectively represent; that gives the National Party its present position of extraordinary power in South Africa.”
But we shouldn’t get too carried away by these political fugues: just because a fig resembles a human scrotum doesn’t necessarily mean anything. It just reminds us that the natural world – much like politics – only generates so many possibilities before it runs out of options and repeats itself.
That said, Freud described the uncanny as “the constant recurrence of the same thing”, which also serves as a perfect description of history. The point here is not to insist that the ANC has re-upped apartheid – the argument of equivalency is a false one, and not only because the whole world now basically functions like one big separate-but-equal penitentiary. But it is enormously strange that another leak has sprung, as if by magic, at another critical moment in this country’s wacko history. After the dominee spilled his can of Koo pork and beans, South Africans could no longer say that they were confused about what apartheid was, who was behind it, and what its intentions were.
But the apartheid regime existed in another epoch, and a self-contained elite like the Broederbond would be much harder, if not impossible, to maintain in a world that is so much more connected – not only within countries, but between countries. In fact, countries aren’t really countries any more, at least not in the 1970s conception of the term: South Africa is just another (small) node in a vast global system that has much less patience for Messianic proselytising than it does for officially sanctioned big canvas financial malfeasance.
And so, sadly, things are much messier this time around. The digital connections that render secret societies impossible generate a different form of cover fire. In the New South Africa, there is much to be said for the very elegant construction, as per a recent Pari publication called “Betrayal of the Promise”, of parallel, warring tracks of power – one a “constitutional” faction that has links with the formal economy and the old-school financial elite; the other a “radical” faction that dominates the procurement processes linked to state-owned enterprises (the gates of which are kept by the Guptas). If that was all there was to this country, we’d be in relatively good shape. The reality, as laid bare in the latest leaks, is that the divisions between “constitutional” and “radical” are far more porous than that.
Instead, we’re tiny players in the global game of corporate/ government collusion, where the average punter can’t shift $10 without getting FICA’d squarely in the nuts, and connected Mafiosi like the Guptas can cycle tens of millions through legit outfits like Standard Chartered, and get sent complimentary stress balls in acknowledgment of their continued custom.
KPMG, Liebherr, SAP, Bell Pottinger, McKinsey, to name only a few. Outside of the leaks, we could add many more enablers, mega bankers Goldman Sachs primary among them. As per a headline on this news-site, “More multinationals ensnared in Transnet kickback web,” which pretty much sums the situation up. The equation is simple: multinational + state-owned enterprise = dumpster fire. These enormous companies, pillars of the global economy, are all implicated in the corruption scandals that have whopped South Africa over the course of Jacob Zuma’s ruinous presidency. They have actively, knowingly collaborated with his proxies, sending obsequious little love letters to retain their business, ignoring the political cacophony that surrounded them in order to stay close to the boss’s bosses.
Now, here’s the critical part – it is the government’s job to regulate the activities of business, big and small. The government must also police those regulations, and punish those who subvert them. In any capitalist system, this almost always fails to happen satisfactorily. Why? Because the immense cumulative wealth of the corporate sector allows for commensurately immense bargaining power. In a globalised, neoliberal system, companies can simply up and leave, taking with them their tax disbursements (as pathetically crooked as these may be). The contract is thus less a contract than a gentlemen’s agreement, minus the gentlemen.
What’s more, the distinction between the formal corporate or business sector and government is murkier than it has ever been. CEOs become prime ministers; ministers of finance become members of the board. The cellular melding of business/government has been an unprecedented catastrophe that is literally ruining the planet, and it is indeed a planet-wide phenomenon. It has broken trust in the social contract, largely because corporates have become the first and most important citizens of any capitalist entity: above the law; subject to diminishing regulation; unpoliceable.
To be clear, this is not a breakdown of the corporate world. It’s a breakdown of government. The system was set up to anticipate corporate corruption; instead, the system rolls corporate corruption into the mainframe. The power that corporations wield extends into newsrooms, of course, helping to shape mainstream consensus, while the monarchical social heft of the business elite ensures that “thought leaders” (a term that should only ever be met with instantaneous projectile vomiting) are too fucking terrified to take on fellow members of the court, in case they’re shunned at an organic farm-to-table dinner party.
As the #GuptaLeaks make plain – and this really is their utility from a global point of view – there is no real distinction between corporate and government corruption any longer. The ANC – any governing party anywhere in the world, really – and “formal” business are co-stars in a seriously disgusting porn clip, one in which the sex is so punishing and intimate that it’s impossible to distinguish one body from the next.
* * *
Most, if not all, of the men mentioned in The Super-Afrikaners are dead, and very few of their names, 7,500 of which were published by Wilkins and Strydom, mean anything to anyone any more. And yet, without the leaks, the regime they helped design and maintain would have remained something of a cypher.
Different this time around, except the same: no one will remember who Malusi Gigaba is 30 years from now, and even fewer people will give a shit. But the state he helped create and maintain will hopefully become an anachronism: a government/corporate merger that disappears money through the international financial system, based on rules written by bought politicians, all of it Guptafied into a closed loop of constant, unending criminal activity.
If it isn’t an anachronism – if something like South Africa still exists decades from now – well, the data dump won’t count for much. We’re running out of water, money and time.
Our next leak occurs on the other side of the apocalypse. DM
Photo by Andrew Thrasher via Flickr.
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A Kenyan political group plans to protest US President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit by asking 5,000 people to march naked through the streets.
The Republican Liberty Party – an ultra conservative, far right political group and one Kenya’s most vocal anti-LGBT organisations – have sought permission to hold the “peaceful protest” to mark Obama’s visit at the end of July – by getting 5,000 men and women to strip off to greet him on June 22 & 23.
Party leader Vincent Kidala sent a formal notification of the march to the county commander yesterday (13 July), stating the purpose of the march is to show Obama and the Kenyan people the “differences” between the sexes, The Nairobi Times reports.
“The procession shall be carried out by approximately 5,000 totally naked men and women to protest over Obama’s open and aggressive support for homosexuality,” he said in the letter.
“The party’s main objective is for him to see and understand the different [sic] between a man and a woman”.
Kidala has confirmed the validity of the letter, worryingly telling Kenyan media that his party will hire a “network of prostitutes” in order to reach the expected goal of 5,000 people, as very few women have agreed to take part.
He claimed the prostitutes agreed to participate free of charge, as they will “lose customers” if homosexuality is legalised – clearly Mr Kidala believes homosexuality to be a far worse crime than forcing others to sell their bodies for sex.
Anti gay protesters in Kenya have already warned the President to avoid the subject of homosexuality and gay rights during his upcoming visit to the country, taking to social media and the streets of Nairobi in an attempt to dissuade any discussion on the matter.
However, a White House spokesperson has said the President has every intention of discussing gay rights on his trip – despite the country’s warnings not to.
Speaking last week, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said: “I’m confident the president will not hesitate to make clear that the protection of basic universal human rights in Kenya is also a priority and consistent with the values that we hold dear here in the United States of America.”
Gay sex is currently illegal in Kenya and punishable by up to 14 years in prisonDavid Kelly, owner of Atomic Glass, displays a variety of synthetic marijuana products for sale at the store in 2010. (Photo: Journal Sentinel files)
The Wisconsin departments of justice and consumer protection sued two Milwaukee retail stores Tuesday for selling designer drugs — specifically synthetic THC with such names as "Spice" and "Kush" — in violation of a state law prohibiting fraudulent drug advertising.
The synthetic cannabinoids are similar to THC, the main psychotropic compound in marijuana, but they have slightly different chemical makeups that make them unpredictable and dangerous, according to the lawsuits.
"I will not tolerate any drug dealer putting our communities at risk," Attorney General Brad Schimel said in a statement. "We work hard to bring all illicit drug dealers to justice, whether their retail venue is on the street or at a store."
The lawsuits ask a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge to block the two stores — Atomic Glass, 1813 E. Locust St., and Food Town Mini Mart, 4790 N. Hopkins St. — from selling the synthetic THC products.
The lawsuits seek penalties of up to $200 for every package of fraudulently labeled drugs that were sold at the two stores.
The products were mislabeled as incense and potpourri but were intended for consumption, according to the lawsuits. The product packages do not warn buyers of what is really in them, exposing users and others to risk of injury, law enforcement and consumer protection officials said in a statement.
Package contents include vegetation sprayed with synthetic THC, according to the lawsuits. Other package names for the products include "Dank," "Joker," "Scooby Snax," "Diablo," "Wanted," "Caution," "Geeked Up" and "WTF."
"The packaging for "Scooby Snax" depicts a cartoon dog similar to the trademarked Hanna-Barbera character with a protruding tongue and eyes crossed in a manner suggesting advanced intoxication," according to the lawsuit against Atomic Glass.
In September 2010, Atomic Glass owner David Kelly told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the store sold at least 10 packages of the synthetic cannabinoids each day. The newspaper story is quoted in the lawsuit against that store.
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At Food Town, an undercover drug enforcement officer purchased seven packages of the synthetic THC products as recently as January.
Food Town does not display the products but keeps them inside a black bag behind the counter and in storage in a back room so that customers must request them by using slang terms, according to the lawsuit.
A customer can request a "small" package, at a cost of $15, or a "large" package, at a cost of $30, the lawsuit says.
Attempts to contact Kelly, a Eugene, Ore., resident, and Faraj Jaber, owner of Food Town, were not successful. Calls to both stores went unanswered.
Synthetic cannabinoids on the state list of controlled substances are subject to criminal prohibition, officials said.
"Wisconsin and much of the United States has been awash in hundreds of new and dangerous psychoactive drugs, putting our youth at risk," U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent in Charge Robert Bell said in a statement. "This action holds accountable those who have targeted our kids for profit."
Read or Share this story: http://jsonl.in/2re0XedThe Panasonic Lumix GH series cameras have always been a popular camera among videographers. I still remember back in the GH2 days, a lot of videographers were hacking their GH2 to extract more features and quality than the factory firmware. The hacking seems to have die down since GH3 was released as the factory firmware is getting better and better. When I tested the Lumix GH4, I was really impressed by the 4K video quality. And now, the Lumix GH5 has arrived!
Few months ago, Panasonic contacted me and asked if I will be free in March to attend an event in Queenstown. Apart from the date of the event they didn’t tell me any other details otherwise. Of course, now we all know the event is for the GH5 launch. As mentioned in my other post, journalists and industry specialists from Asia Pacific as well as the Panasonic teams from Japan and other countries came to Queenstown, New Zealand to attend this multi-day event. We got a lot of chance to test the camera during this event.
If you want to know a bit more about that event, you can have a read of my post here. I really think an event like that is a great way to test the camera. Not only I was able to use the camera under a lot of different conditions that I normally can’t for time and other reasons, I also got the chance to talk to the Panasonic team directly when I have questions and problems with the camera (to be fair, the problems are mostly user error). It was also good being able to talk to other journalists and share thoughts about what we like and don’t like about the camera.
But anyway, let’s get back to the GH5 review first. Just like how GH4 was an evolution of the GH3, the Lumix GH5 is very similar to the GH4, and evolving into a camera primarily targeting professional users. The GH5 is a really solid camera, the body is one of the most solid mirrorless camera I’ve ever used. With the internal flash being removed, the GH5 is now splash, dust, and even freeze proof to -10 degree celsius. As it’s early Autumn here in New Zealand, I didn’t have a chance to test it’s freeze proof capability. But I have tested it’s splash proof from our jet boating ride during the Queenstown trip. The first activity upon arrival was a jet boating ride. Pretty much all the GH5s (mostly with the new Leica 12-60 f/2.8-4 lens mounted) held by all the journalists were wet after the boat ride, but none of the camera had any problem at all. Getting all our cameras really wet right at the beginning of a multi-day trip shows you how confident Panasonic is with their camera’s weather seal.
Panasonic GH5 |Panasonic Leica 12-60 f/2.8-4| ISO 400 f/6.3 1/60s
Lots of metal in the GH5, and look at that huge heat dispersing unit behind the sensor.
Compared to the GH4, the GH5 has grown a bit in size but otherwise not too many changes in GH5’s body layout. The most obvious is a new joystick control at the back of the camera which can be used for selecting autofocus point as well as a few other customisable features. For myself, I still prefer to use the touchscreen (in offset mode) to select the autofocus point as I found it is faster and more intuitive. The video record button is now moved from the back of the camera to the top. The input/output ports layout has changed a bit but the most obvious one is that there is a full size HDMI port on the side of the body, which should be a lot more secure than the micro HDMI port on the GH4. There is also a USB-C port as well.
Overall the placement of the controls are all quite sensible despite there are a lot of them. The only thing I don’t really like is where the DISP button is located. At first I thought it’s quite a nice location, but after using the camera for a few days, I found I would quite often press the DISP button by accident and end up have to press it a few more times to get it back to my original setting.
If you look at the other side of the body, you’ll see two SD card slots. GH5 is the first Panasonic micro four thirds camera that has dual memory card slots. As the GH5 is primarily designed for professional users, dual card slots is definitely something that would make a lot of users happy. Photographers can save a backup copy to the secondary slot and if you are a videographer, you can also swap the memory card when recording video. As the GH5 can record 4K video with unlimited length, the length of your video is now only limited by the battery.
Panasonic GH5 |Panasonic Leica 12-60 f/2.8-4| ISO 200 f/10 1/640s
Where’s Gandalf?
A lot of cameras with dual card slots have a slower secondary card slot to reduce cost, for example the new Fujifilm XPro2’s secondary slot is only UHS-I. The problem with that kind of setup is, if you want to save RAW to both slots (what I usually do when shooting weddings), or even just swapping cards all the time, your write speed is restricted as soon as you need to write to the slower secondary slot. The good news is, both of GH5’s card slots are high speed UHS-II type so the writing speed won’t slow down just because you have to use the secondary slot.
One thing I like (dual SD card slots). One thing I don’t really like (position of the DISP button)
The GH5 has a new 3.68M dot electronic viewfinder and it is simply amazing! It’s huge (0.76X) and has very minimal delay. Quite often I thought it is an optical viewfinder as the resolution and colours are both really good. That is until I saw the overlay text and icons and then I realise I was wrong. The GH5’s electronic viewfinder is really a joy to use.
The Lumix GX7 was the first Panasonic micro four thirds camera that has an in-body image stabiliser (IBIS). After the GX7 was released, a lot of people thought the soon-to-be-released (back then) GH4 would also have IBIS as it would help create smooth video footage. Unfortunately that didn’t happen and disappointed some people. But Panasonic has finally put an IBIS as well as their latest Dual IS 2 system in the GH5.
I have not spent too much time testing the IBIS and Dual IS2 for photos this time due to time constraint. I believe it should be at least as good as the G85‘s Dual IS2 performance if not slightly better. What I focused on is IBIS/Dual IS2’s performance when shooting video. I took a large amount of videos, from just walking around different places, to when sitting in a travelling car, golf kart, helicopter, to the most violent one when I was on a jet boating ride and held the camera up above my head with one hand only when my other hand and body was battling with the wind, speed bump and prevent myself from being thrown out of the boat. And I was really impressed with all the video results, especially the Dual IS2 video with the Leica 12-50 f/2.8-4 mounted on the camera. While it cannot completely replace a proper full size video stabiliser rig, the Dual IS2 (and to a lesser extent, the IBIS itself) really smooth out most of the vibration and jumpiness. Check out the footage below when I was on a jet boating ride, just look at how everyone’s head was bouncing and moving around but the video was really very smooth. If I’m shooting weddings or any documentary video with a GH5, I would certainly leave the gimbal at home and have a much lighter camera setup.
The GH5 has a new 20MP image sensor with no anti-aliasing filter. The new sensor has a much faster readout speed which reduces the rolling shutter when recording videos and also photos when using the electronic shutter.
High ISO image quality is really good for a micro four third sensor. Below are photos I took at various ISO value. All photos are RAW converted to JPG using Adobe Lightroom. Zero noise reduction, sharpening at default setting.
Left: Original Photo Right: 200% crop near the centre
While the photo starts getting quite noisy at ISO3200, (remember the photos above has zero noise reduction) they are all quite useable until ISO12800. That’s really not bad at all for this latest 20Mp micro four third sensor. The maximum ISO is rated at ISO25600, but I think Panasonic could squeeze another extra stop for emergency use (or bragging right) and make the maximum ISO 51200 instead.
To test the new sensor’s dynamic range or latitude for post processing, I’ve shot the following photos in RAW at different exposure setting (i.e. some intentionally underexposed and some intentionally overexposed), then try to recover them during post processing.
The underexposed photos recover very well from -1EV to -4EV. At -5EV, the recovered photo has obvious colour shift in the shadow and lost quite a bit of contrast as well.
Overexposed photos are usually a lot harder to recover for digital cameras. Once the highlight area is clipped, you lost all the information and there is nothing for you to recover. Now looking at my results above, the GH5 performs better than I expected. Even at +3EV, some of the sky/cloud details can still be recovered which is quite impressive. At +4EV, most of the highlight area is completely blown-out, but it’s expected even for cameras with the APS-C or full frame sensor.
During the Queenstown trip, I was mostly shooting with the new Leica 12-60 f/2.8-4 lens, even though I have both the Leica 24mm f/1.4 and Leica 42.5mm f/1.2 in my camera bag all the time. This is a bit unusual for me as I’m normally a prime lens shooter. I guess I am just really impressed by the image quality from the GH5 with the Leica 12-60. The colours from the GH5 and the 12-60 together are beautiful, the image sharpness is really good, sometimes there is a bit of flare but not enough to annoy me. And the lens is really well made. Metal, solid, smooth zoom ring. If you are looking at buying a standard zoom lens, I would highly recommend this, maybe even over the Panasonic 12-35 f/2.8 because of it’s wider focal range and more solid construction.
Panasonic GH5 |Panasonic Leica 12-60 f/2.8-4| Syrp Variable ND Filter | ISO 200 f/20 15s
The 4K photo mode and post focus are both photo feature that Panasonic heavily promoting. And not surprisingly the GH5 has both of them, and both are improved. Presumably with the faster sensor readout speed and more power image processor, the 4K photo mode can now shoot at 60fps. And if the 8MP image from the 4K mode is not big enough, there is a new 6K photo mode that can capture 18MP JPGs at 30fps. It’s pretty much full size JPGs at very fast frame rate.
As mentioned right at the start of this review, the Panasonic Lumix GH series is most popular among videographers. And with the GH5, there are so many new features for video shooter that I don’t think I can go through them one by one in this review. But let’s start with the biggest features first.
10Bit 4:2:2 4K internal recording is definitely one of the headline feature for the GH5. (10 bit 4:2:2 video gives you more colour depth and better colour information when compare to the normal 8 bit 4:2:0 videos) With the GH4 you can also record 10 bit 4:2:2 videos, but you need an external recorder which would easily cost you a few thousand dollars and it’s an external device you have to attach to the camera which increases the total weight, size and not to mention the external cable you have to be careful with when moving around. Now with the GH5, you can record it internally when shooting 4K up to 30fps. The GH5 can shoot 4K video up to 60fps, but for 10 bit 60fps video then you’ll have to use an external recorder (it can record 8bit 4K 60fps internally) So for a lot of videographers who want the best video quality but don’t need to record in 60fps, you can now leave your external recorder at home.
If you love slow motion videos, the GH5 can shoot variable frame rate full HD video at maximum speed of 180fps, which allows you to create up to 7.5x slow motion videos. It’s really great for shooting fast action and create some dramatic footage. Check out the short video clip below that were shot at 180fps.
Another important improvement is that the GH5 now uses the full width of the sensor when recording video in any resolution. Previous the GH4 uses only approximately 87% of the width of the sensor when recording 4K video, which makes wide angle lens becomes not so wide. GH5 has no extra cropping and video is created by full (width) sensor readout then downsampling. Because of that the 4K video quality is also improved. The most noticeable improvement is high ISO video quality. At ISO 1600, or even ISO 3200, the videos are beautiful with only small amount of noise. At ISO 6400, the unedited video becomes noisy but still maintain good quality. I would even go to ISO12800 if shooting under low light.
Below are two videos, first was shot at ISO3200 (unintentionally, as I just finished the long exposure photo a few paragraphs above and didn’t remove the ND filter when I took this quick video).
And the video below was shot at ISO6400, pretty low light. Note I was using autofocus when filming this video.
Apart from the improvement in video quality and higher frame rate, there are also many other new cool features. The one I like the most is Focus Transition. Basically this feature allows you to set up to 3 different focus distance, and the camera can smoothly change the focus between these pre-set focus distance at your preferred speed. It’s almost like you are using a focus follow system to do a smooth focus transition. The best thing is that setup is super quick and easy, and the result is 80-90% as good as if you are using a follow focus system.
Once again, it’s another thing that you previously have to rely on external add-ons to do, but now the camera can do it for you.
Oh and did I forget to mention the GH5 can record 4K video with no limit on the length? With so many cameras that either have a short length limit when recording 4k videos, or even worse some camera would overheat and shut down before it hits the limit, unlimited 4K recording length is really another trump card from Panasonic. Look at the photo near the top of the review where you can see all the internal components of the GH5, you can see there is a huge heat dispersing unit behind the image sensor, which also contribute to increase in camera size and weight. But I’m pretty sure this is not the only trick Panasonic used to solve the overheating issue that most other manufacturers still can’t solve.
If you think GH5’s video capability is very impressive (which it is), Panasonic said there will be a few firmware update coming later this year which further improve the camera’s video recording capability. The list includes 400Mbps All-Intra videos at various resolution, high resolution Anamorphic video (which will require special anamorphic lens) and also Hybrid log gamma 4K HDR video.
The GH5 has a total of 225 autofocus point that covers the whole image area. The large number of autofocus points allow more precise control of autofocus operation. The GH4 was the first camera that has the Depth From Defocus (DFD) technology which analysis the bokeh to improve autofocus. Now with the GH5, Panasonic has refined the DFD technology to improve the speed and accuracy of the autofocus operation and also tracking ability. Panasonic said GH5’s autofocus speed is 0.02s faster than the GH4, but I honestly can’t tell as the GH4 was already very fast.
But while I can’t tell the improvement in autofocus speed, I can definitely see the improvement in continuous focusing/tracking. GH4’s continuous focus performance was a bit slow and not really that accurate. The GH5 is better, a lot better! The camera manage to follow the subject with much better accuracy and faster. Not perfect but overall it is definitely a lot better than the GH4.
Look at the photos below. This is a set of photo I took when I saw a rider was riding his bike coming towards me and got really close in the end. All the photos with shot with the Leica 42.5mm f/1.2 at f/1.2.
It maybe hard to tell from the scaled down images, but out of the 14 photos, I would say 7 of them are focused correctly. The other 7 are either slightly front or rear focus. But the most important thing is none of the image is badly out of focus. The camera was able to follow the subject correctly and smoothly, just not 100% accurate. Remember I was shooting with a 42.5mm lens at f/1.2 so it was not the easiest thing for the autofocus system. Should I have shot at f/2.8 or even f/2, the increased depth of field would most likely cover any inaccuracy in continuous autofocus.
Panasonic GH5 |Panasonic Leica 42.5mm f/1.2| ISO 400 f/1.2 1/8000s
When I was shooting the fire performance (the ISO 6400 video above) during the GH5 Queenstown tour. Autofocus did struggle a bit especially |
", postulating instead the emergence of a primitive metabolism providing a safe environment for the later emergence of RNA replication. The centrality of the Krebs cycle (citric acid cycle) to energy production in aerobic organisms, and in drawing in carbon dioxide and hydrogen ions in biosynthesis of complex organic chemicals, suggests that it was one of the first parts of the metabolism to evolve.[228] Concordantly, geochemist Michael Russell has proposed that "the purpose of life is to hydrogenate carbon dioxide" (as part of a "metabolism-first," rather than a "genetics-first," scenario).[229][230] Physicist Jeremy England of MIT has proposed that life was inevitable from general thermodynamic considerations: "... when a group of atoms is driven by an external source of energy (like the sun or chemical fuel) and surrounded by a heat bath (like the ocean or atmosphere), it will often gradually restructure itself in order to dissipate increasingly more energy. This could mean that under certain conditions, matter inexorably acquires the key physical attribute associated with life."[231][232]
One of the earliest incarnations of this idea was put forward in 1924 with Oparin's notion of primitive self-replicating vesicles which predated the discovery of the structure of DNA. Variants in the 1980s and 1990s include Wächtershäuser's iron–sulfur world theory and models introduced by Christian de Duve based on the chemistry of thioesters. More abstract and theoretical arguments for the plausibility of the emergence of metabolism without the presence of genes include a mathematical model introduced by Freeman Dyson in the early 1980s and Stuart Kauffman's notion of collectively autocatalytic sets, discussed later that decade.
Orgel summarized his analysis by stating, "There is at present no reason to expect that multistep cycles such as the reductive citric acid cycle will self-organize on the surface of FeS/FeS 2 or some other mineral."[233] It is possible that another type of metabolic pathway was used at the beginning of life. For example, instead of the reductive citric acid cycle, the "open" acetyl-CoA pathway (another one of the five recognized ways of carbon dioxide fixation in nature today) would be compatible with the idea of self-organization on a metal sulfide surface. The key enzyme of this pathway, carbon monoxide dehydrogenase/acetyl-CoA synthase, harbours mixed nickel-iron-sulfur clusters in its reaction centres and catalyzes the formation of acetyl-CoA (similar to acetyl-thiol) in a single step. There are increasing concerns, however, that prebiotic thiolated and thioester compounds are thermodynamically and kinetically unfavourable to accumulate in presumed prebiotic conditions (i.e. hydrothermal vents).[234] It has also been proposed that cysteine and homocysteine may have reacted with nitriles resulting from the Stecker reaction, readily forming catalytic thiol-reach poplypeptides.[235]
Zn-world hypothesis [ edit ]
The Zn-world (zinc world) theory of Armen Y. Mulkidjanian[236] is an extension of Wächtershäuser's pyrite hypothesis. Wächtershäuser based his theory of the initial chemical processes leading to informational molecules (RNA, peptides) on a regular mesh of electric charges at the surface of pyrite that may have facilitated the primeval polymerization by attracting reactants and arranging them appropriately relative to each other.[237] The Zn-world theory specifies and differentiates further.[236][238] Hydrothermal fluids rich in H 2 S interacting with cold primordial ocean (or Darwin's "warm little pond") water leads to the precipitation of metal sulfide particles. Oceanic vent systems and other hydrothermal systems have a zonal structure reflected in ancient volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits (VMS) of hydrothermal origin. They reach many kilometres in diameter and date back to the Archean Eon. Most abundant are pyrite (FeS 2 ), chalcopyrite (CuFeS 2 ), and sphalerite (ZnS), with additions of galena (PbS) and alabandite (MnS). ZnS and MnS have a unique ability to store radiation energy, e.g. from UV light. During the relevant time window of the origins of replicating molecules, the primordial atmospheric pressure was high enough (>100 bar, about 100 atmospheres) to precipitate near the Earth's surface, and UV irradiation was 10 to 100 times more intense than now; hence the unique photosynthetic properties mediated by ZnS provided just the right energy conditions to energize the synthesis of informational and metabolic molecules and the selection of photostable nucleobases.
The Zn-world theory has been further filled out with experimental and theoretical evidence for the ionic constitution of the interior of the first proto-cells before archaea, bacteria and proto-eukaryotes evolved. Archibald Macallum noted the resemblance of body fluids such as blood and lymph to seawater;[239] however, the inorganic composition of all cells differ from that of modern seawater, which led Mulkidjanian and colleagues to reconstruct the "hatcheries" of the first cells combining geochemical analysis with phylogenomic scrutiny of the inorganic ion requirements of universal components of modern cells. The authors conclude that ubiquitous, and by inference primordial, proteins and functional systems show affinity to and functional requirement for K+, Zn2+, Mn2+, and phosphate. Geochemical reconstruction shows that the ionic composition conducive to the origin of cells could not have existed in what we today call marine settings but is compatible with emissions of vapour-dominated zones of what we today call inland geothermal systems. Under the oxygen depleted, CO 2 -dominated primordial atmosphere, the chemistry of water condensates and exhalations near geothermal fields would resemble the internal milieu of modern cells. Therefore, the precellular stages of evolution may have taken place in shallow "Darwin ponds" lined with porous silicate minerals mixed with metal sulfides and enriched in K+, Zn2+, and phosphorus compounds.[240][241]
Deep sea vent hypothesis [ edit ]
The deep sea vent, or alkaline hydrothermal vent, theory posits that life may have begun at submarine hydrothermal vents,[242][243] William Martin and Michael Russell have suggested "that life evolved in structured iron monosulphide precipitates in a seepage site hydrothermal mound at a redox, pH, and temperature gradient between sulphide-rich hydrothermal fluid and iron(II)-containing waters of the Hadean ocean floor. The naturally arising, three-dimensional compartmentation observed within fossilized seepage-site metal sulphide precipitates indicates that these inorganic compartments were the precursors of cell walls and membranes found in free-living prokaryotes. The known capability of FeS and NiS to catalyze the synthesis of the acetyl-methylsulphide from carbon monoxide and methylsulphide, constituents of hydrothermal fluid, indicates that pre-biotic syntheses occurred at the inner surfaces of these metal-sulphide-walled compartments,..."[244] These form where hydrogen-rich fluids emerge from below the sea floor, as a result of serpentinization of ultra-mafic olivine with seawater and a pH interface with carbon dioxide-rich ocean water. The vents form a sustained chemical energy source derived from redox reactions, in which electron donors (molecular hydrogen) react with electron acceptors (carbon dioxide); see Iron–sulfur world theory. These are highly exothermic reactions.[242][note 3]
Michael Russell demonstrated that alkaline vents created an abiogenic proton motive force (PMF) chemiosmotic gradient,[244] in which conditions are ideal for an abiogenic hatchery for life. Their microscopic compartments "provide a natural means of concentrating organic molecules," composed of iron-sulfur minerals such as mackinawite, endowed these mineral cells with the catalytic properties envisaged by Wächtershäuser.[228] This movement of ions across the membrane depends on a combination of two factors:
Diffusion force caused by concentration gradient—all particles including ions tend to diffuse from higher concentration to lower. Electrostatic force caused by electrical potential gradient—cations like protons H+ tend to diffuse down the electrical potential, anions in the opposite direction.
These two gradients taken together can be expressed as an electrochemical gradient, providing energy for abiogenic synthesis. The proton motive force can be described as the measure of the potential energy stored as a combination of proton and voltage gradients across a membrane (differences in proton concentration and electrical potential).
Jack W. Szostak suggested that geothermal activity provides greater opportunities for the origination of life in open lakes where there is a buildup of minerals. In 2010, based on spectral analysis of sea and hot mineral water, Ignat Ignatov and Oleg Mosin demonstrated that life may have predominantly originated in hot mineral water. The hot mineral water that contains bicarbonate and calcium ions has the most optimal range.[245] This case is similar to the origin of life in hydrothermal vents, but with bicarbonate and calcium ions in hot water. This water has a pH of 9–11 and is possible to have the reactions in seawater. According to Melvin Calvin, certain reactions of condensation-dehydration of amino acids and nucleotides in individual blocks of peptides and nucleic acids can take place in the primary hydrosphere with pH 9–11 at a later evolutionary stage.[246] Some of these compounds like hydrocyanic acid (HCN) have been proven in the experiments of Miller. This is the environment in which the stromatolites have been created. David Ward of Montana State University described the formation of stromatolites in hot mineral water at the Yellowstone National Park. Stromatolites survive in hot mineral water and in proximity to areas with volcanic activity.[247] Processes have evolved in the sea near geysers of hot mineral water. In 2011, Tadashi Sugawara from the University of Tokyo created a protocell in hot water.[248]
Experimental research and computer modelling suggest that the surfaces of mineral particles inside hydrothermal vents have catalytic properties similar to those of enzymes and are able to create simple organic molecules, such as methanol (CH 3 OH) and formic, acetic and pyruvic acid out of the dissolved CO 2 in the water.[249][250]
The research reported above by William F. Martin in July 2016 supports the thesis that life arose at hydrothermal vents,[251][252] that spontaneous chemistry in the Earth’s crust driven by rock–water interactions at disequilibrium thermodynamically underpinned life’s origin[253][254] and that the founding lineages of the archaea and bacteria were H2-dependent autotrophs that used CO2 as their terminal acceptor in energy metabolism.[255] Martin suggests, based upon this evidence that LUCA "may have depended heavily on the geothermal energy of the vent to survive".[256]
Thermosynthesis [ edit ]
Today's bioenergetic process of fermentation is carried out by either the aforementioned citric acid cycle or the Acetyl-CoA pathway, both of which have been connected to the primordial Iron–sulfur world. In a different approach, the thermosynthesis hypothesis considers the bioenergetic process of chemiosmosis, which plays an essential role in cellular respiration and photosynthesis, more basal than fermentation: the ATP synthase enzyme, which sustains chemiosmosis, is proposed as the currently extant enzyme most closely related to the first metabolic process.[257][258]
First, life needed an energy source to bring about the condensation reaction that yielded the peptide bonds of proteins and the phosphodiester bonds of RNA. In a generalization and thermal variation of the binding change mechanism of today's ATP synthase, the "first protein" would have bound substrates (peptides, phosphate, nucleosides, RNA'monomers') and condensed them to a reaction product that remained bound until after a temperature change it was released by thermal unfolding.
The energy source under the thermosynthesis hypothesis was thermal cycling, the result of suspension of protocells in a convection current, as is plausible in a volcanic hot spring; the convection accounts for the self-organization and dissipative structure required in any origin of life model. The still ubiquitous role of thermal cycling in germination and cell division is considered a relic of primordial thermosynthesis.
By phosphorylating cell membrane lipids, this "first protein" gave a selective advantage to the lipid protocell that contained the protein. This protein also synthesized a library of many proteins, of which only a minute fraction had thermosynthesis capabilities. As proposed by Dyson,[13] it propagated functionally: it made daughters with similar capabilities, but it did not copy itself. Functioning daughters consisted of different amino acid sequences.
Whereas the Iron–sulfur world identifies a circular pathway as the most simple, the thermosynthesis hypothesis does not even invoke a pathway: ATP synthase's binding change mechanism resembles a physical adsorption process that yields free energy,[259] rather than a regular enzyme's mechanism, which decreases the free energy. It has been claimed that the emergence of cyclic systems of protein catalysts is implausible.[260]
Other models [ edit ]
Clay hypothesis [ edit ]
Montmorillonite, an abundant clay, is a catalyst for the polymerization of RNA and for the formation of membranes from lipids.[261] A model for the origin of life using clay was forwarded by Alexander Graham Cairns-Smith in 1985 and explored as a plausible mechanism by several scientists.[262] The clay hypothesis postulates that complex organic molecules arose gradually on pre-existing, non-organic replication surfaces of silicate crystals in solution.
At the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, James P. Ferris' studies have also confirmed that clay minerals of montmorillonite catalyze the formation of RNA in aqueous solution, by joining nucleotides to form longer chains.[263]
In 2007, Bart Kahr from the University of Washington and colleagues reported their experiments that tested the idea that crystals can act as a source of transferable information, using crystals of potassium hydrogen phthalate. "Mother" crystals with imperfections were cleaved and used as seeds to grow "daughter" crystals from solution. They then examined the distribution of imperfections in the new crystals and found that the imperfections in the mother crystals were reproduced in the daughters, but the daughter crystals also had many additional imperfections. For gene-like behaviour to be observed, the quantity of inheritance of these imperfections should have exceeded that of the mutations in the successive generations, but it did not. Thus Kahr concluded that the crystals "were not faithful enough to store and transfer information from one generation to the next."[264]
Gold's "deep-hot biosphere" model [ edit ]
In the 1970s, Thomas Gold proposed the theory that life first developed not on the surface of the Earth, but several kilometres below the surface. It is claimed that discovery of microbial life below the surface of another body in our Solar System would lend significant credence to this theory. Thomas Gold also asserted that a trickle of food from a deep, unreachable, source is needed for survival because life arising in a puddle of organic material is likely to consume all of its food and become extinct. Gold's theory is that the flow of such food is due to out-gassing of primordial methane from the Earth's mantle; more conventional explanations of the food supply of deep microbes (away from sedimentary carbon compounds) is that the organisms subsist on hydrogen released by an interaction between water and (reduced) iron compounds in rocks.
Panspermia [ edit ]
Panspermia is the hypothesis that life exists throughout the universe, distributed by meteoroids, asteroids, comets,[265] planetoids,[266] and, also, by spacecraft in the form of unintended contamination by microorganisms. For example, planetary contamination by organisms like Tersicoccus phoenicis, which has shown resistance to methods usually used in spacecraft assembly clean rooms.[267][268]
The panspermia hypothesis does not attempt to explain how life first originated, but merely shifts it to another planet or a comet. The advantage of an extraterrestrial origin of primitive life is that life is not required to have formed on each planet it occurs on, but rather in a single location, and then spread about the galaxy to other star systems via cometary and/or meteorite impact.[269] Evidence to support the hypothesis is scant, but it finds support in studies of Martian meteorites found in Antarctica and in studies of extremophile microbes' survival in outer space tests.[270][271][272][273] (See also: List of microorganisms tested in outer space.)
Extraterrestrial organic molecules [ edit ]
Methane is one of the simplest organic compounds
An organic compound is any member of a large class of gaseous, liquid, or solid chemicals whose molecules contain carbon. Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the Universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen.[274] Carbon is abundant in the Sun, stars, comets, and in the atmospheres of most planets.[275] Organic compounds are relatively common in space, formed by "factories of complex molecular synthesis" which occur in molecular clouds and circumstellar envelopes, and chemically evolve after reactions are initiated mostly by ionizing radiation.[20][276][277][278] Based on computer model studies, the complex organic molecules necessary for life may have formed on dust grains in the protoplanetary disk surrounding the Sun before the formation of the Earth.[124] According to the computer studies, this same process may also occur around other stars that acquire planets.[124]
Observations suggest that the majority of organic compounds introduced on Earth by interstellar dust particles are considered principal agents in the formation of complex molecules, thanks to their peculiar surface-catalytic activities.[279][280] Studies reported in 2008, based on 12C/13C isotopic ratios of organic compounds found in the Murchison meteorite, suggested that the RNA component uracil and related molecules, including xanthine, were formed extraterrestrially.[281][282] On 8 August 2011, a report based on NASA studies of meteorites found on Earth was published suggesting DNA components (adenine, guanine and related organic molecules) were made in outer space.[279][283][284] Scientists also found that the cosmic dust permeating the universe contains complex organics ("amorphous organic solids with a mixed aromatic–aliphatic structure") that could be created naturally, and rapidly, by stars.[285][286][287] Sun Kwok of The University of Hong Kong suggested that these compounds may have been related to the development of life on Earth said that "If this is the case, life on Earth may have had an easier time getting started as these organics can serve as basic ingredients for life."[285]
Glycolaldehyde, the first example of an interstellar sugar molecule, was detected in the star-forming region near the centre of our galaxy. It was discovered in 2000 by Jes Jørgensen and Jan M. Hollis.[288] In 2012, Jørgensen's team reported the detection of glycolaldehyde in a distant star system. The molecule was found around the protostellar binary IRAS 16293-2422 400 light years from Earth.[289][290][291] Glycolaldehyde is needed to form RNA, which is similar in function to DNA. These findings suggest that complex organic molecules may form in stellar systems prior to the formation of planets, eventually arriving on young planets early in their formation.[292] Because sugars are associated with both metabolism and the genetic code, two of the most basic aspects of life, it is thought the discovery of extraterrestrial sugar increases the likelihood that life may exist elsewhere in our galaxy.[288]
60 buckyball is a complex molecule that has been detected in nebulae. The Cbuckyball is a complex molecule that has been detected in nebulae.
NASA announced in 2009 that scientists had identified another fundamental chemical building block of life in a comet for the first time, glycine, an amino acid, which was detected in material ejected from comet Wild 2 in 2004 and grabbed by NASA's Stardust probe. Glycine has been detected in meteorites before. Carl Pilcher, who leads the NASA Astrobiology Institute commented that "The discovery of glycine in a comet supports the idea that the fundamental building blocks of life are prevalent in space, and strengthens the argument that life in the universe may be common rather than rare."[293] Comets are encrusted with outer layers of dark material, thought to be a tar-like substance composed of complex organic material formed from simple carbon compounds after reactions initiated mostly by ionizing radiation. It is possible that a rain of material from comets could have brought significant quantities of such complex organic molecules to Earth.[294][295][296] Amino acids which were formed extraterrestrially may also have arrived on Earth via comets.[49] It is estimated that during the Late Heavy Bombardment, meteorites may have delivered up to five million tons of organic prebiotic elements to Earth per year.[49]
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are the most common and abundant of the known polyatomic molecules in the observable universe, and are considered a likely constituent of the primordial sea.[297][298][299] In 2010, PAHs, along with fullerenes (or "buckyballs"), have been detected in nebulae.[300][301] In March 2015, NASA scientists reported that, for the first time, complex DNA and RNA organic compounds of life, including uracil, cytosine and thymine, have been formed in the laboratory under outer space conditions, using starting chemicals, such as pyrimidine, found in meteorites. Pyrimidine, like PAHs, the most carbon-rich chemical found in the Universe, may have been formed in red giant stars or in interstellar dust and gas clouds.[302] A group of Czech scientists reported that all four RNA-bases may be synthesized from formamide in the course of high-energy density events like extraterrestrial impacts.[303]
Lipid world [ edit ]
The lipid world theory postulates that the first self-replicating object was lipid-like.[304][305] It is known that phospholipids form lipid bilayers in water while under agitation—the same structure as in cell membranes. These molecules were not present on early Earth, but other amphiphilic long-chain molecules also form membranes. Furthermore, these bodies may expand (by insertion of additional lipids), and under excessive expansion may undergo spontaneous splitting which preserves the same size and composition of lipids in the two progenies. The main idea in this theory is that the molecular composition of the lipid bodies is the preliminary way for information storage, and evolution led to the appearance of polymer entities such as RNA or DNA that may store information favourably. Studies on vesicles from potentially prebiotic amphiphiles have so far been limited to systems containing one or two types of amphiphiles. This in contrast to the output of simulated prebiotic chemical reactions, which typically produce very heterogeneous mixtures of compounds.[177] Within the hypothesis of a lipid bilayer membrane composed of a mixture of various distinct amphiphilic compounds there is the opportunity of a huge number of theoretically possible combinations in the arrangements of these amphiphiles in the membrane. Among all these potential combinations, a specific local arrangement of the membrane would have favoured the constitution of a hypercycle,[306][307] actually a positive feedback composed of two mutual catalysts represented by a membrane site and a specific compound trapped in the vesicle. Such site/compound pairs are transmissible to the daughter vesicles leading to the emergence of distinct lineages of vesicles which would have allowed Darwinian natural selection.[308]
Polyphosphates [ edit ]
A problem in most scenarios of abiogenesis is that the thermodynamic equilibrium of amino acid versus peptides is in the direction of separate amino acids. What has been missing is some force that drives polymerization. The resolution of this problem may well be in the properties of polyphosphates.[309][310] Polyphosphates are formed by polymerization of ordinary monophosphate ions PO 4 −3. Several mechanisms of organic molecule synthesis have been investigated. Polyphosphates cause polymerization of amino acids into peptides. They are also logical precursors in the synthesis of such key biochemical compounds as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). A key issue seems to be that calcium reacts with soluble phosphate to form insoluble calcium phosphate (apatite), so some plausible mechanism must be found to keep calcium ions from causing precipitation of phosphate. There has been much work on this topic over the years, but an interesting new idea is that meteorites may have introduced reactive phosphorus species on the early Earth.[311]
PAH world hypothesis [ edit ]
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are known to be abundant in the universe,[297][298][299] including in the interstellar medium, in comets, and in meteorites, and are some of the most complex molecules so far found in space.[275]
Other sources of complex molecules have been postulated, including extraterrestrial stellar or interstellar origin. For example, from spectral analyses, organic molecules are known to be present in comets and meteorites. In 2004, a team detected traces of PAHs in a nebula.[312] In 2010, another team also detected PAHs, along with fullerenes, in nebulae.[300] The use of PAHs has also been proposed as a precursor to the RNA world in the PAH world hypothesis.[citation needed] The Spitzer Space Telescope has detected a star, HH 46-IR, which is forming by a process similar to that by which the Sun formed. In the disk of material surrounding the star, there is a very large range of molecules, including cyanide compounds, hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide. In September 2012, NASA scientists reported that PAHs, subjected to interstellar medium conditions, are transformed, through hydrogenation, oxygenation and hydroxylation, to more complex organics—"a step along the path toward amino acids and nucleotides, the raw materials of proteins and DNA, respectively."[313][314] Further, as a result of these transformations, the PAHs lose their spectroscopic signature which could be one of the reasons "for the lack of PAH detection in interstellar ice grains, particularly the outer regions of cold, dense clouds or the upper molecular layers of protoplanetary disks."[313][314]
NASA maintains a database for tracking PAHs in the universe.[275][315] More than 20% of the carbon in the universe may be associated with PAHs,[275][275] possible starting materials for the formation of life. PAHs seem to have been formed shortly after the Big Bang, are widespread throughout the universe,[297][298][299] and are associated with new stars and exoplanets.[275]
Radioactive beach hypothesis [ edit ]
Zachary Adam claims that tidal processes that occurred during a time when the Moon was much closer may have concentrated grains of uranium and other radioactive elements at the high-water mark on primordial beaches, where they may have been responsible for generating life's building blocks.[316] According to computer models,[317] a deposit of such radioactive materials could show the same self-sustaining nuclear reaction as that found in the Oklo uranium ore seam in Gabon. Such radioactive beach sand might have provided sufficient energy to generate organic molecules, such as amino acids and sugars from acetonitrile in water. Radioactive monazite material also has released soluble phosphate into the regions between sand-grains, making it biologically "accessible." Thus amino acids, sugars, and soluble phosphates might have been produced simultaneously, according to Adam. Radioactive actinides, left behind in some concentration by the reaction, might have formed part of organometallic complexes. These complexes could have been important early catalysts to living processes.
John Parnell has suggested that such a process could provide part of the "crucible of life" in the early stages of any early wet rocky planet, so long as the planet is large enough to have generated a system of plate tectonics which brings radioactive minerals to the surface. As the early Earth is thought to have had many smaller plates, it might have provided a suitable environment for such processes.[318]
Thermodynamic dissipation [ edit ]
The 19th-century Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann first recognized that the struggle for existence of living organisms was neither over raw material nor energy, but instead had to do with entropy production derived from the conversion of the solar spectrum into heat by these systems.[319] Boltzmann thus realized that living systems, like all irreversible processes, were dependent on the dissipation of a generalized chemical potential for their existence. In his book "What is Life", the 20th-century Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger[320] emphasized the importance of Boltzmann’s deep insight into the irreversible thermodynamic nature of living systems, suggesting that this was the physics and chemistry behind the origin and evolution of life. However, irreversible processes, and much less living systems, could not be conveniently analyzed under this perspective until Lars Onsager,[321] and later Ilya Prigogine,[322] developed an elegant mathematical formalism for treating the "self-organization" of material under a generalized chemical potential. This formalism became known as Classical Irreversible Thermodynamics and Prigogine was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977 "for his contributions to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures". The analysis of Prigogine showed that if a system were left to evolve under an imposed external potential, material could spontaneously organize (lower its entropy) forming what he called "dissipative structures" which would increase the dissipation of the externally imposed potential (augment the global entropy production). Non-equilibrium thermodynamics has since been successfully applied to the analysis of living systems, from the biochemical production of ATP [323] to optimizing bacterial metabolic pathways [324] to complete ecosystems.[325][326][327]
In his "Thermodynamic Dissipation Theory of the Origin and Evolution of Life",[328][329][330][331] Karo Michaelian has taken the insight of Boltzmann and the work of Prigogine to its ultimate consequences regarding the origin of life. This theory postulates that the hallmark of the origin and evolution of life is the microscopic dissipative structuring of organic pigments and their proliferation over the entire Earth surface.[331] Present day life augments the entropy production of Earth in its solar environment by dissipating ultraviolet and visible photons into heat through organic pigments in water. This heat then catalyzes a host of secondary dissipative processes such as the water cycle, ocean and wind currents, hurricanes, etc.[329][332] Michaelian argues that if the thermodynamic function of life today is to produce entropy through photon dissipation in organic pigments, then this probably was its function at its very beginnings. It turns out that both RNA and DNA when in water solution are very strong absorbers and extremely rapid dissipaters of ultraviolet light within the 230–290 nm wavelength (UV-C) region, which is a part of the Sun's spectrum that could have penetrated the prebiotic atmosphere.[333] In fact, not only RNA and DNA, but many fundamental molecules of life (those common to all three domains of life) are also pigments that absorb in the UV-C, and many of these also have a chemical affinity to RNA and DNA.[334] Nucleic acids may thus have acted as acceptor molecules to the UV-C photon excited antenna pigment donor molecules by providing an ultrafast channel for dissipation. Michaelian has shown using the formalism of non-linear irreversible thermodynamics that there would have existed during the Archean a thermodynamic imperative to the abiogenic UV-C photochemical synthesis and proliferation of these pigments over the entire Earth surface if they acted as catalysts to augment the dissipation of the solar photons.[335] By the end of the Archean, with life-induced ozone dissipating UV-C light in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, it would have become ever more improbable for a completely new life to emerge that didn’t rely on the complex metabolic pathways already existing since now the free energy in the photons arriving at Earth’s surface would have been insufficient for direct breaking and remaking of covalent bonds. It has been suggested, however, that such changes in the surface flux of ultraviolet radiation due to geophysical events affecting the atmosphere could have been what promoted the development of complexity in life based on existing metabolic pathways, for example during the Cambrian explosion [336]
Many salient characteristics of the fundamental molecules of life (those found in all three domains) all point directly to the involvement of UV-C light in the dissipative structuring of incipient life.[330] Some of the most difficult problems concerning the origin of life, such as enzyme-less replication of RNA and DNA, homochirality of the fundamental molecules, and the origin of information encoding in RNA and DNA, also find an explanation within the same dissipative thermodynamic framework by considering the probable existence of a relation between primordial replication and UV-C photon dissipation. Michaelian suggests that it is erroneous to expect to describe the emergence, proliferation, or even evolution, of life without overwhelming reference to entropy production through the dissipation of a generalized chemical potential, in particular, the prevailing solar photon flux.
Multiple genesis [ edit ]
Different forms of life with variable origin processes may have appeared quasi-simultaneously in the early history of Earth.[337] The other forms may be extinct (having left distinctive fossils through their different biochemistry—e.g., hypothetical types of biochemistry). It has been proposed that:
The first organisms were self-replicating iron-rich clays which fixed carbon dioxide into oxalic and other dicarboxylic acids. This system of replicating clays and their metabolic phenotype then evolved into the sulfide rich region of the hotspring acquiring the ability to fix nitrogen. Finally phosphate was incorporated into the evolving system which allowed the synthesis of nucleotides and phospholipids. If biosynthesis recapitulates biopoiesis, then the synthesis of amino acids preceded the synthesis of the purine and pyrimidine bases. Furthermore the polymerization of the amino acid thioesters into polypeptides preceded the directed polymerization of amino acid esters by polynucleotides.[338]
Fluctuating hydrothermal pools on volcanic islands or proto-continents [ edit ]
Armid Mulkidjanian and co-authors think that the marine environments did not provide the ionic balance and composition universally found in cells, as well as of ions required by essential proteins and ribozymes found in virtually all living organisms, especially with respect to K+/Na+ ratio, Mn2+, Zn2+ and phosphate concentrations. The only known environments that mimic the needed conditions on Earth are found in terrestrial hydrothermal pools fed by steam vents.[242] Additionally, mineral deposits in these environments under an anoxic atmosphere would have suitable pH (as opposed to current pools in an oxygenated atmosphere), contain precipitates of sulfide minerals that block harmful UV radiation, have wetting/drying cycles that concentrate substrate solutions to concentrations amenable to spontaneous formation of polymers of nucleic acids, polyesters[339] and depsipeptides,[340] both by chemical reactions in the hydrothermal environment, as well as by exposure to UV light during transport from vents to adjacent pools. Their hypothesized pre-biotic environments are similar to the deep-oceanic vent environments most commonly hypothesized, but add additional components that help explain peculiarities found in reconstructions of the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) of all living organisms.[341]
Bruce Damer and David Deamer have come to the conclusion that cell membranes cannot be formed in salty seawater, and must therefore have originated in freshwater. Before the continents formed, the only dry land on Earth would be volcanic islands, where rainwater would form ponds where lipids could form the first stages towards cell membranes. These predecessors of true cells are assumed to have behaved more like a superorganism rather than individual structures, where the porous membranes would house molecules which would leak out andA few weeks ago, a friend of mine told me about his wonky laptop. It was a familiar story. His newish Vista box had, without much warning, begun collapsing into a blue-screen funk on almost a daily basis. He went on to explain that he'd spent countless hours on the phone with Dell support techs, all of whom were kind, polite, and intent on being helpful. The problem, of course, was that none of them had actually helped at all.
We were near my friend's office, so we stopped in so he could show me the laptop. I was startled by how new it was.
"When did you get this?" I asked.
"April," he replied.
It was early June. The PC was not even three months old. The blue screens had begun within a few weeks of owning the Dell XPS M1530 laptopone of PCMag's favorites (Cisco Cheng gave it four out of five stars). I asked my friend the usual questions: Had he installed any unusual apps, visited any odd sites, or opened an e-mail attachment that he probably shouldn't have?
His response: "No. It happens when I use the browser."
That seemed somewhat specific. In my experience, it's usually pretty hard to recreate a blue-screen experience. But my friend walked me through a simple series of steps
"I start it up, open the browser, visit this site [one chosen from his favorites in IE7], and then."
He trailed off as the system lapsed into a blue-screen coma. I was stunned. Rarely had I seen a consumer so expertly recreate a PC malfunction.
Holding a sheaf of papers in his hand, my friend pointed out notes from six different multi-hour support calls. He'd recorded the names of the support techs, as well as the time, date, and duration of each call. Each support tech had tried something different. For example, even though the PC came with security software, one had him install new protection from Trend Micro. In fact, there was a lot of utility installing and uninstalling. None of it worked.
At no time did the techs offer to take the PC back. That's not too surprising since no manufacturer wants to get back every PC with a problem. Typically, system issues arise from user ignorance or a simple setting change that's easily reversed or altered. For my friend, though, this was not the case.
I spent 45 minutes looking through the systems' processes in the Task Manager to see if I could find anything that could be hijacking his system or causing what I assumed was a driver collision leading to the blue screens. I found nothing. next: Lemon PCs >Furor After N.C. School Bans Non |
reported, “she was passed up for promotions and retaliated against because of her gender and for speaking out against the firm’s sexist climate.” Although she lost her case, as Kokalitcheva noted, Pao succeeded in “becoming a symbol of Silicon Valley’s sometimes sexist culture and lack of diversity.”
The issues with diversity in Silicon Valley aren’t a surprise to anyone who works in tech, where—as Mother Jones highlighted—the combined number of black employees at Google, Facebook and Twitter could all fit on a single jumbo jet. Although Asian-Americans represent a significant number of workers in the tech scene (27 percent, as National Public Radio reports), they largely don’t occupy positions of leadership, including at the executive level.
“Out of all the Asian-American women working in tech, only one in 285 is an executive. That compares to a ratio of one executive per 118 professionals in the workforce as a whole—and, for white men in tech, a ratio of one in 87,” NPR reported, citing research from the Ascend Foundation.
Pao’s Asian-American heritage, coupled with her gender, presents a double whammy for navigating the implicit and overt biases of a system created by cisgender, heterosexual white men—which continues to benefit them. With the odds stacked against her because of both social and institutional factors in the tech sector, reports of Pao’s lawsuit helped elevate a discussion about gender and racial diversity—and illustrated the struggles many of her contemporaries must still face.
“Being Chinese and being a woman, you kind of are expected to be more timid and shy,” Chenny Zhang, a tech startup co-founder, told NPR. “You’re just expected to work hard and do your job.”
Pao’s lawsuit didn’t make much ado about nothing, even if the public doesn’t know the full story as it actually happened, as New York magazine’s Ann Friedman noted. But now that she’s embroiled in yet another career crisis, chatter on Twitter, on Reddit, and various other corners of the Internet now reduce otherwise constructive criticism to a claim that Pao’s a ticking time bomb with an axe to grind.
Although celebrities such as Lorde, and many of the petition co-signers, have blasted Reddit and Pao for firing one of their favorite ambassadors of the site, in reality, none of them may be intimately aware with issues of company strategy or other vital components that could’ve resulted in Victoria Taylor’s working relationship coming to an end.
idc who calls the shots at reddit, they should’ve known rule #1 in their pr handbook was always VICTORIA STAYS pic.twitter.com/TXhnDXxOm5 — Lorde (@lorde) July 7, 2015
As the Verge reports, “Reddit still hasn’t given a reason for Taylor’s severance, but has been in full damage control mode since the site discovered the change last week. Some Reddit users have speculated that Taylor was fired because she opposed measures to commercialize the AMA section, but Reddit CEO Ellen Pao denied those theories.”
It will take more than an apology to win back the trust and goodwill of Reddit’s loyal following. But the rampant sexism in the criticism makes it even harder to call a spade a spade, especially when it comes to Silicon Valley’s woman problem. It means that many of the real issues here will continue to be ignored.
Writing at New York magazine’s Daily Intelligencer, Annie Lowrey posited, “Pao did not sue just because she felt that Kleiner Perkins fostered a sexist corporate culture. She sued because she felt that the culture prevented her from ascending in the firm, costing her work opportunities and hundreds of thousands of dollars. How to stop pernicious, subtle sexism, if you cannot prove it in the courts?”
Now that Pao is losing in the court of public opinion, however, it’s time to change the conversation. The response is indicative of an already hostile climate for women in Internet spaces, regardless of their public visibility or position of leadership. And it’s time to cut the crap.
Derrick Clifton is the Deputy Opinion Editor for the Daily Dot and a New York-based journalist and speaker, primarily covering issues of identity, culture and social justice.
Photo via Christopher Michel/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)Using Calipers To Measure Body Fat Percentage
The true goal of any dieter is to lose fat mass and perhaps increase muscle mass, ultimately resulting in a leaner body. By tracking your body weight and body fat levels it allows you to better track your goals. In the case of those trying to gain weight, you don’t just want to gain mass, you want to be lean and toned.
One of the best ways to determine the body’s fat content is with body fat calipers. My favorite caliper, made by Accu Measure, is just one of a host of similar devices designed to help determine the amount of fat within the body.
Fat calipers have replaced underwater weighing as the primary way to determine the body’s fat content. They work by measuring skin folds to determine the subcutaneous (beneath the skin) fat content of the body. The person using the caliper puts the measurement into an equation that predicts body density and fat content.
It’s important to remember that fat calipers do not determine the fat content of the body itself but rather provide a number that plugs into an equation to determine the fat content. As with any mathematical equation the possibility of “user error” exists.
However, the other methods of measuring fat content (body fat scales and hydrostatic or underwater weight measuring) are time consuming, budget restrictive and hard for a single person to accomplish.
Placing a pinch of folded skin between the points of a fat caliper and then using that information to extrapolate fat content is much quicker and easier.
Using body fat calipers to calculate body mass index or fat content may not be as simple as it seems, though. There are over 100 different mathematical equations that can be used depending on sex, age, ethnicity, fitness level and the overall amount of body fat a person has will determine which equation to use and the general consumer will have a virtually impossible time picking the best equation.
And, even using the best fat calipers on the market today, there is still a 4% margin of error. Fat calipers are best used not to determine the exact body fat content a person has but rather to help measure progress of a diet, exercise or supplement program.
The best way for you, the general consumer, to use body fat calipers is not to try to determine your exact body fat content and percentage but rather to use the measurements given by the calipers to measure progress. The numbers don’t tell the full story, although body fat calipers can be really useful when used as a comparison tool.
Most experts agree on the following steps for general consumer use of fat calipers:
1) Test yourself on at least four locations (belly, arm, leg and buttocks for example)
2) Use the EXACT SAME four locations every time you test, noting the measurements of each. Be specific – for example, location one may be one inch to the left of the naval. Location two may be on the back of the arm exactly half-way between the shoulder and the elbow. Many experts recommend using a marker on your body to note the testing sites.
3) Use high-quality calipers. This is definitely a case of “you get what you pay for”. Calipers can be found for as little as $10 but many of the cheaper versions lack the tension control of higher-end models and won’t stay accurate for very long. Remember – you’re in this for the long haul.
Although you don’t have to fork over the $500 for a professional set of calipers you can expect to spend about $100 on a decent fat caliper. A great place to find an expert to help you choose a reputable and accurate fat caliper is at a gym, health club, dietary supplement store or even your doctor’s office.
Once you have an idea of which caliper is right for you look for it online to find the best price (one word of caution – it is best to avoid buying “used” calipers from sites such as eBay because there may be no way to determine their accuracy). Small errors in accuracy can translate into big errors in calculation results.
It’s important to remember that measuring your body fat percentage is just ONE of the components of a successful weight loss campaign. Other factors include increased muscle mass (which would lessen overall weight loss as measured by your bathroom scale), blood pressure and the cholesterol contents of your blood.The Colts' defense is in dire straits.
Concerns over the front seven's ability to generate a pass rush have been trumped by a rash of injuries in the secondary, leading Indianapolis to take a flier on a veteran free agent who has drawn little interest from the other 31 teams.
The Colts signed cornerback Antonio Cromartie after the former Jets star worked out in front of coaches on Monday, the team announced. The deal is worth $3 million over one year, a source informed of the contract told Ian Rapoport. The deal includes $250,000 guaranteed and up to $500,000 in incentives, Rapoport added.
Rapoport reported last month that the 32-year-old was battling "lingering" hip problems. Monday's workout was Cromartie's first reported visit since he was released by Gang Green in February.
Although Cromartie earned an alleged four-year, $32 million contract after a bounceback 2014 season with the Cardinals, he was a bust in his reunion with the Jets last year. Once an athletic marvel even by the NFL's lofty standards, he clearly lost a step in 2015, allowing a passer rating of 112.0 on throws in his coverage, per Pro Football Focus.
How desperate are the Colts at the back end of their defense?
Top cornerback Vontae Davis is expected to miss 2-3 games due to a medial sprain in his ankle, per Rapoport. As the lone Pro Bowl-caliber player on coach Chuck Pagano's defensive roster, Davis' loss cannot be overemphasized.
The other starter, Patrick Robinson, injured his groin in Saturday's preseason game.
If that wasn't disconcerting enough, subpackage cornerback Darius Butler is nursing a hamstring issue after moonlighting at safety early in camp. Last year's third-round draft pick, D'Joun Smith, is still being eased back in after encountering a setback in his return from a knee injury that ruined his rookie season.
Pressed into action with the first-team defense, undrafted rookie Darius White appeared lost on a 41-yard pass interference penalty and a Jeremy Butler touchdown reception Saturday night.
Asked about the status of his cornerbacks on Monday, coach Chuck Pagano didn't mince words.
"It's a little scary," Pagano conceded, via George Bremer of The Herald Bulletin. "It's not pretty right now.""If a United Nations official in New York raped an American child, there would be hell to pay. Similarly, if a UN official in Geneva raped a Swiss child, there would be an outcry.
So why is it that when a United Nations official or peacekeeper rapes an African child, the organisation fails to ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted?
This a question that the world body has been avoiding for years. Only recently its top officials acknowledged that the UN has a very serious sexual violence problem.
Earlier this year UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres confirmed that UN peacekeepers and civilian staff perpetrated 145 cases of sexual exploitation and abuse involving 311 victims in 2016 alone. That is more than two victims for each case on average.
Many of the victims, by the UN's own admission, are children. And while the numbers are huge they are likely to be the tip of the iceberg because they only represent the crimes that have been reported. More than that, these numbers are only representative of sexual crimes committed within the organisation's peacekeeping forces...
For at least 20 years the leadership of the UN has known about this sexual violence problem and for years it has failed to act. Indeed, former Secretary General Kofi Annan listed his failure to address the problem decisively as one of his regrets. His successor Ban Ki Moon has also acknowledged that not enough has been done...
Are we today with the UN precisely where we were with the Catholic Church in the 1980s? If we are, then as a global community, we need to do better than just 'dramatically improve'. This scourge must be stopped now..."Well, this tweet from London Mayor Sadiq Kahn just two days before another terror attack rocked his city hasn’t aged well …
Climate change remains one the biggest risks to humanity. Now more than ever world leaders must recognise and act on this threat. pic.twitter.com/ZKc3crHLTs — Mayor of London (@MayorofLondon) June 1, 2017
If only he was tweeting this proactively about stopping terrorism … of course then he would have to admit that terror is a problem and that people are dying because of a ridiculous progressive narrative that says we can’t be mean to terrorists.
How many people died in London today because of climate change? And how many from terrorism? Think hard. — Juli Caldwell (@ImJuliCaldwell) June 3, 2017
Math is not their strong point, otherwise they wouldn’t be progressives.
Talk to me again after you've defeated Islam. — Uncommon Sense (@MeosoFunny) June 4, 2017
He’s too busy defeating climate change.
Heh.
His tweet did not age well……. — Sell, Sell Sell (@tdagostinoinstl) June 3, 2017
These tweets never do.
You keep using "climate change is biggest risk" I do not think it means what you think it means.#LondonBridge — Marky Covfefe Mark? (@fatherhoops) June 4, 2017
12 inch hunting knives … but HEY, we need to work on that whole ice caps melting thing.
What if I told you that Islamofacists don't re-cycle? Would you take them seriously then? — ItIsGoodToBeQueen (@redandright) June 4, 2017
Good point. We should start telling climate change fanatics that terrorists are killing the planet by not recycling and using aerosol while driving giant SUVs and littering
Maybe then they’d start taking terrorism seriously.
Related:Ed Gillespie. Karl Rove. Bob Schieffer. Associated Press. George Will. Politico. ABC. The list goes on and on with names and media outlets spinning the issue of foreign funds being injected into our elections as a trifling matter, unworthy of our attention.
It's not trifling; it's a major big deal, but I don't think anyone has done an especially good job of explaining it, so I'm going to give it my best shot.
All of the denials and debunkers seem to center around the Chamber of Commerce's insistence that AmCham funds just don't amount to much. Click any article above and you'll find Bruce Josten's vehement denial that AmCham funds are scrupulously segregated and separate from other funds. Yet they fail to mention money flowing in from the Business Councils, and what they ignore even more is that the Chamber of Commerce, by their own admission, can accept as much money as they want from any member - foreign or domestic -- without reporting, disclosing, or otherwise telling anyone about it.
In August of this year, before any news of foreign contributions came out, a Chamber of Commerce employee (and whistleblower) wrote a letter outlining how the Chamber handles donations in excess of annual dues:
According to a letter from a U.S. Chamber of Commerce employee, who wishes to remain anonymous, companies that give money to the Chamber are promised their donations will not be disclosed, even to the Government. [...] They are given specific instructions on how to circumvent campaign finance regulations. This is what Mr. Donohue uses to up the ante with companies so they will give more money. Mr. Donohue has given these same instructions to our lobbyists to pass on to companies... Mr. Donohue also promises companies that the Chamber's lawyers, lobbyists and public relations will provide a wall of protection for them in case they have any troubles with regulators or law enforcement officials, and he uses examples of past members who have been able to hide behind the Chamber.... It is a fact that the Chamber coordinates directly with the Republican Party on issues, ads, legislation, candidates and everything else. Steve Law is in daily contact with Mr. Donohue and he was chosen to lead the Karl Rove group American Crossroads so there would be that coordination. That group is the de facto Republican National Committee. ["I can say for certain that there is a vast amount of secrecy about what money comes in and what it is used for. I can say that there have been large cash transactions that have taken place that I do not believe have been ever placed in any accounting system. I also know that money meant for one thing has actually been redirected to another thing on orders from Mr. Donohue and without the knowledge of the company that gave the money. I also know that if there was an audit done of the Chamber's finances and cross referenced to those companies that gave money, there would be vast discrepancies between income and outlays."]
See that last bolded section there? That's why these foreign funds are a huge, major big deal. Here's a hypothetical to illustrate how the money could flow.
US Chamber of Commerce decides they want to make a $5 million ad buy. They look in their US funds account and there's $2.5 million there today, but they're expecting another News Corp contribution of $2.5 million toward the ad buy. Because the News Corp contribution hasn't arrived yet, and because they have operating expenses to meet in the same week, they're cash-poor. Remember, everything is commingled by their own admission. They only split the accounting on paper.
So really, there's $5 million in the account today, and they can slide the money they 'borrow' from the foreign funds account back to the column on the other side of the journal as soon as the Murdoch contribution arrives. Ads hit the major markets with key timing and....mission accomplished.
They can make denials until they're blue in the face, but it doesn't change the very real fact that the US Chamber of Commerce is structured to accept far more than dues payments. If BP wants to put some lobbying money into the US Chamber, there really isn't any way for us to know that, even at the time the 990 is filed. Nothing bars them from accepting foreign money for dues and donations. They're only barred from spending it on US election communications, but as I've shown, that doesn't stop it from being laundered to look like US funds. It all comes down to cash flow.
Now when Ed Gillespie says stupid things like he did yesterday about enemies lists and the like, he's just blowing smoke, as are the media outlets and everyone else grouping around the "they hardly get any money from foreign sources" reply. Until they produce books showing that the funds are physically segregated in accounts completely separate from the accounts they use to pay for their advertising campaigns, the burden of proof is on them.
This is a very, very BFD. It was big enough without the foreign donor issues to warrant one attorney requesting that they retain all emails, accounting records and other documents related to their campaign finance activities. It is now big enough that it has earned the attention of the President, who is rightly letting everyone know at every campaign stop what they appear to be doing.
Until they produce documents proving their accounting methods don't launder foreign money, it's safe to assume they are indeed, probably laundering foreign money.
Also, the 40,000 pages of documents reporting and DISCLOSING donors to Barack Obama's Presidential campaign are available to anyone on the FEC website. Yes, that's right. Every dang donor was disclosed, so let's just move right along to the next excuse, shall we?
A bonus: EJ Dionne on the shadow class war."What a shame you’re in a wheelchair, you’re so pretty!" a complete stranger once told record-breaking Paralympic swimmer Karni Liddell.
But that callous comment isn’t even the worst one the renowned athlete has heard.
Despite the profound hurt that such statements carry, Liddell, along with plenty of other activists with disabilities, are publicizing some of the harshest words that have been hurled their way. The Chatterbox Challenge -- which runs through September -- tasks supporters to commit to a period of silence and share a particularly painful moment on social media in order to give a voice to people with disabilities and to raise awareness for the challenges they face.
The initiative is raising funds for five Australian charities that support people with disabilities, including the Cerebral Palsy League and Life Without Barriers. It hopes to raise more than AU $150,000 (about US $134,500).
For Liddell, a longtime disability activist who was born with spinal muscular atrophy -- a degenerative muscle wasting disease -- this campaign is just another opportunity to dispel the myths and stereotypes that are still associated with people who live with disabilities, she wrote on Mamamia.com
When Liddell was born, her doctors told her parents that their daughter would likely not live past her teenage years and that exercising would likely exacerbate her condition. Instead of giving up, Liddell’s parents developed their own rehabilitation program.
She broke her first swimming world record at 14 and was the fastest woman in the world in all of her events upon entering the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, according her website.
The campaign has attracted a number of other famous faces, including retired Australian football player Warwick Capper and surfer Rebecca Woods.
But it’s the caustic comments that everyday people endure that demonstrate how deep discrimination runs.
Leslie Skerry, for example, was once pulled over by a policeman, and dragged out of his car because the officer didn’t "believe" that Skerry had a disability, he shared with the Chatterbox Challenge. Once the officer realized that Skerry had been telling the truth, he simply told him to leave and never apologized.
Participants are sharing images with the hashtags #ChatterboxChallenge and #Heardwhilstdisabled.
The latter is believed to have sprung up after Linda Smith -- a former employee of Triage, a British company that helps find jobs for people who get government benefits -- aired the shocking workplace discrimination she witnessed. Staff members often called their unemployed clients and people with disabilities, “LTBs," meaning "lying, thieving bastards", she told the BBC. People with disabilities struck back by sharing the abuse they constantly face with the hashtag #Heardwhilstdisabled, according to the Independent.
What the Chatterbox Campaign has revealed, is that strangers often try to make light of people disabilities, but the execution is rarely funny.
"Handicapped parking must be awesome, it's so close to the door." Ummm, yeah but you have to be handicapped to get it… #heardwhilstdisabled — Summer Plum (@summerplum) September 15, 2013
Perhaps some of the most disarming comments are those that suggest that there must be a logical reason behind developing or being born with a disability.
“Don’t worry, young lady. God chooses the afflicted!” #heardwhilstdisabled — Stella Young (@stellajyoung) January 26, 2014For many, Hocus Pocus might be the defining family-friendly Halloween movie of the '90s, but for the slightly younger crowd, 1998's Halloweentown might be a more impacting experience. In the film, a group of siblings are never allowed to celebrate Halloween, while their mom never quite makes clear why they can't partake in the festivities. One year, grandmother Aggie, played by Debbie Reynolds, whisks the children away to Halloweentown, a magical place where Halloween exists all year long. The film became so successful, it even spawned three sequels. The series of Disney movies was filmed in St. Helens, OR, which has taken to celebrating the holiday all month long with a variety of events. In honor of last year's passing of Reynolds, who appeared in all four films, the series' original cast, Emily Roeske, J. Paul Zimmerman, Judith Hoag and Kimberly J. Brown, all returned to St. Helens to partake in festivities to honor the on-screen grandmother.
Slide 1/4 – "Hello, I’m Princess Leia’s mother." The cast not only appeared together at the filming location, they all shared their personal experiences with Reynolds when speaking to the crowd at a massive celebration. “This is such a special year… to be able to get together and remember how special Debbie Reynolds was," Kimberly Brown expressed. "It’s hard trying to narrow down one story or one little tidbit because she was truly so full of wisdom and had so many funny stories and most of the jokes were at her expense." Brown continued: "She was so willing to share that wisdom with the rest of us and wanted everybody to shine in their own light. It was so refreshing, as a young actress, to work with somebody who was not only such a huge legend, but who was also willing to share the spotlight with everybody around her, which I think is so true in the business and just so true in life. Everybody has their own special light and everybody can shine brightly in their own way and it doesn’t mean that because one person is shining brightly that anybody else is shining any less brightly. Everybody’s own special shine is what we need in this world for it to be a more loving, happy place. That’s what she really taught me. I think one of our favorite joint stories is… there were fans that gather around the set and in her kindness, she would always come up and introduce herself as, ‘Hello, I’m Princess Leia’s mother.'” (Photo: Instagram/officialkjb)
Slide 2/4 – "We were so blessed to have her." "This movie would not be the lasting Halloween tradition that it is without all of you," revealed Judith Hoag, who played Reynolds' daughter. "It was an honor to do these movies and it was a huge honor to work with the absolutely incredible, iconic, unbelievable, creative, talented Debbie Reynolds." "No matter how busy she was… no matter what was going on, if they were calling her to the set and she was late… If a fan stepped up and wanted to say hello or take a picture or get an autograph, Debbie always stopped and she always made time for her fans," Hoag confessed. "I loved to tease her because she was the funniest person on the planet and she loved to play and to joke… she was the sauciest and funniest lady… I used to say, ‘Debbie… my god, you would pose with a coat hanger.’ She looked at me, absolutely serious, and said, ‘Judith… those are my fans. I would not have a career without those fans.’ The actress took many of Reynolds' lessons to heart, proving how much of an inspiration she was on screen and off. "And I have never forgotten that," Hoag admitted. "It was an honor to work with her and finding that she had passed was a very sad moment. But we were so lucky because we had her talent and her performances and her music and her collection… she had single-handedly kept so many legendary Hollywood props. We were so blessed to have her. Being here tonight to commemorate her life and her work and her fans is an honor.”
Slide 3/4 – "This is J. Paul Zimmerman from Halloweentown." Zimmerman, who also appeared in each installment in the franchise, shared with the crowd one of his favorite memories of Reynolds. “I’ve always wanted to be a director and there was a movie I wanted to make during Halloweentown High." he detailed. "Somehow, I got the guts to walk up to Debbie Reynolds, this legend, and say, ‘Hey Debbie, I want to make a movie. Would you be in my movie if I directed it?’ And she said that she reads every script that she’s given, she considers everything… and she gave me her home number. I sent her the script and then I called Debbie Reynolds at home… and I don’t remember how the conversation went because she picked up the phone… after two or three rings, Debbie Reynolds picks up the phone at her house… and I said, ‘Debbie, this is J. Paul Zimmerman from Halloweentown.’" "And there’s a pause and I’m thinking maybe she doesn’t remember me…," Zimmerman noted. "And she said, ‘Well… now that’s an interesting phone call to get… Not J. Paul Zimmerman from Boston, not J. Paul Zimmerman from Philadelphia, but J. Paul Zimmerman from Halloweentown.'” (Photo: Instagram/ officialkjb )SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE - James Triplett had his customers lined up around the corner in broad daylight, the feds say.
Not for concert tickets. Not for iPhones.
For heroin.
Now 42 people are facing state or federal drug charges for their alleged roles in supplying and distributing heroin around West Grenshaw and Independence in the North Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side. Among them is the 33-year-old Triplett, also known as “Trell,” who authorities said controlled the drug market in the area.
Investigators even included a photo in a federal criminal complaint spanning more than 200 pages. They said the photo depicts a line of people waiting June 16 to get their hands on heroin supplied by Triplett’s organization in the 3700 block of West Grenshaw.
The photo was taken just south of the Eisenhower Expressway, which has come to be known as “Heroin Highway.”
The feds said Triplett’s suppliers sometimes put the heroin in bags with logos that included green Playboy bunnies, Hershey kisses, basketballs, Batman, black pandas or “purple ladies.”
Chicago Police and Drug Enforcement Administration agents assigned to the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force led the investigation. Sixteen people face federal charges. They include Triplett, who is charged with drug conspiracy and faces a minimum of 10 years in prison if convicted. Another 26 face state charges.
Authorities said they arrested 32 people in all Wednesday morning, confiscating 12 guns, $50,000 in cash, nearly half a kilogram of heroin and more than half a kilogram of cocaine. They also searched several homes, three alleged stash houses and seized two cars, including a 2014 Maserati GranTurismo.
The federal defendants, all of who were in custody Wednesday, began appearing in the afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez.If you were walking past a cricket ground and a ball dropped from the sky and landed next to you, your first thought would probably not be 'that must have been hit by a Korean'.
But you might start thinking differently this September when South Korea's newly formed Twenty20 team make its Asian Games debut to challenge the likes of Sri Lanka and defending champions Bangladesh.
The team – unlike other embryonic cricket nations built on second-generation immigrants from the subcontinent – is fully South Korean. What made them ready for international competition was the fact that all of them were baseball players.
I've got players who bowl world class off-spin at least one or two balls an over – proper, proper Graeme Swann or Saeed Ajmal stuff. Julien Fountain, South Korea head coach
And having played at college level in a country that produced the likes of Ryu Hyun-Jin and Choo Shin-Soo of MLB fame, it means they are very good at batting, fielding… and even bowling.
"They're beginners but it's cheating to call them that," former Pakistan fielding coach Julien Fountain, who took over as head coach of South Korea in April, told Al Jazeera.
"Show me a beginner cricketer who can hit the ball 110 metres. I've got an opening batsman who hit 90 runs last week. He took the opposition apart. I'm still shocked by is that somehow these guys have learned to bowl spin just by watching YouTube. And they fizz it down at proper international pace.
"I've got a guy who can bowl a doosra and thats incredible.
"I've also got players who bowl world-class off-spin at least one or two balls an over – proper, proper Graeme Swann or Saeed Ajmal stuff. Obviously there are some terrible balls in there as well, but that's what we need to work on."
Over the rope
It was while on holiday in Sri Lanka that Fountain, a former county cricketer who also played baseball for the British Olympic team, went to check out South Korea on their tour of the island.
They were there to practice against club players, with just six months to go until South Korea would compete as the host nation at the Asian Games in Incheon - the team will be less than a year old at the event.
It was also when the Englishman had his brush with the big six that, to his eyes, had 'home run' written all over it. A strong believer in the transferability between the two sports, Fountain signed a contract soon after.
Koreans on cricket Park Soochan, 23, spinner
"You must be able to cope with different types of balls - speed, length, line and trajectory - which makes it very challenging. I like that the whole team must focus because they're all bowling and fielding and have to change positions constantly to outmanoeuvre the batters. This creates more unity and focus than baseball."
Sung Dae Sik, 28, opener
"The fact that all 10 dismissals happen in order means you have to focus hard not to mess up. It does give you confidence, as you have to be good to face the balls bowled at you."
Choi Jiwon, 23, all-rounder
"When making the switch from baseball, batting was quite tricky. Bowling was trickier. But fielding was easy."
Park Taekwan, 23, bowler
"I'm very proud to be part of the first Korea T20 cricket team, especially as we're the hosts. I feel humble and honoured to be part of such a great occasion."
"The ball landed about 20 yards over the rope and I thought that must be the South Korea team batting," Fountain, 44, said. "The funny thing was that they made a lot of basic mistakes but they still posted 165 in 20 overs. And they even had 59 dot balls. It's monstrous – they just hit.
"We're working on more cultured shots and running between the wickets but we'll keep it simple – there'll be no Don Bradmans here."
Baseball culture in South Korea runs deep. As well as the exodus to the major and minor leagues in the US, they won Olympic gold in 2008.
But a straw poll of South Korea's budding stars suggests that cricket could plant at least some seeds in the national psyche – major thanks to the adrenaline-fuelled Twenty20 format that has made the sport instantly accessible to new audiences over the past decade.
"What I like about cricket is there is more at stake when you bat," said all-rounder Choi Jiwon, 23.
"You only get one chance, unlike baseball where you may bat four or five times in a game.
"I really enjoy the fact that you have to focus so hard to achieve success."
Despite the enthusiasm in the squad, opener Sung Dae Sik has encountered mixed reaction among friends and family as he prepares to wear the Taegukgi flag on his chest.
Cricket is still fairly unknown, with just 12 clubs operating in the league and with coaching that would be considered schoolboy level in countries such as South Africa or Australia.
The matches in South Korea do not get crowds beyond the curious onlooker so the game has a lot of catching up to do.
"The reaction has been 50/50," Sung, 28, said. "Those who know and understand that cricket is a great sport are proud of me. Those who do not, are sceptical."
Cricket makes an appearance for just the second time at an Asiad when the Games begin on September 19.
And with crowds accustomed to being able to keep anything that clears the fence, the budget set aside for cricket balls could end up as a purely ballpark figure if Korea's big hitters get into the swing.Even as the new mayor’s executive committee spent Thursday afternoon debating and approving study on our Next Big Transit Project (his SmartTrack proposal), news of the cost of our waffling on the Last Big Transit Project (the Bloor-Danforth Scarborough subway extension to replace the Scarborough RT) kept coming. The city budget we’re all looking at now, the one presented on Tuesday, includes money to pay cancellation costs for the Scarborough LRT that the subway extension will replace, the Star learned. Of course, if you look at that budget, you won’t see the money. It’s hidden. But it’s there.
Mayor John Tory says he's confident his SmartTrack transit plan is ontrack. ( Keith Beaty / Toronto Star )
“Yes, it’s in the capital plan,” city manager Joe Pennachetti told the Star’s Jennifer Pagliaro. “No you’d not be able to see it.” You and I are going to pay those cancellation costs. How much we’re going to pay, and how, and where in the capital budget the funds are earmarked? Top secret, apparently. The mystery cheques are being prepared on our behalf behind the scenes, even though the agreement with the province to build the LRT has yet to be replaced with an agreement to build anything else.
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The subway extension seems a sure thing, of course, since John Tory won the election claiming it was his “top work priority.” But as we all know, there are no sure things in Toronto transit. This is the city where an under-construction subway tunnel on Eglinton was filled in. Where construction to build the Sheppard LRT was halted. Where assessments and engineering were completed on the Scarborough LRT and contracts were signed to build it, before city council changed its mind — which, coincidentally, is how we came to incur these costs the city has now secretly budgeted for. This isn’t a small amount of money we’re talking about. Though neither Pennachetti nor Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig would confirm the number, Metrolinx has long suggested it could be around $85 million, and the Star has been informed by a source that it’s likely to be at least $75 million. To give you a sense of how much that is in city terms, this same budget set aside $31 million to construct four new fire and paramedic stations, and will buy 50 new buses for $13.9 million. Seventy five million dollars to $85 million is a lot of coin, no matter how you slice it. And what will we get for it? Nothing at all. Or more precisely, we will get to not build something.
That’s the really frustrating part about paying cancellation costs, as it was in the case of the provincial Liberal gas-fired power plant scandal. The massive amount of money — valuable government money that |
as there would be nothing else--they would be so focused, like if we would develop only on Xbox One or PlayStation 4. But then we cannot afford such a game."
Asked specifically why The Witcher 3's graphics might have looked better in the VGX video (below), Iwinski explained that this footage--captured on PC--was derived from a "vertical slice" of the game. This demo was built specifically to run in as high fidelity as possible. It didn't have the game's full open world to contend with, and that helped boost the visuals.
"This is the nature of games development," he admitted.
Iwinski went on to suggest that, "Maybe we shouldn't have shown that [trailer], I don't know." But he also stresses that CD Projekt Red never set out to mislead anyone with the footage.
"It's not a lie or a bad will," he said. "We don't agree there is a downgrade but it's our opinion, and gamers' feeling can be different. If they made their purchasing decision based on the 2013 materials, I'm deeply sorry for that, and we are discussing how we can make it up to them because that's not fair."
Iwinski and the rest of the CD Projekt Red team have been personally affected by the graphics fallout.
"We don't feel good about it," Iwinski said. "And I treat it very personally." CD Projekt Red marketing manager Michal Platkow-Gilewski added: "The whole team was touched by this."
Finally, CD Projekt Red says there is a major patch coming soon to The Witcher 3 that should offer a series of graphical improvements. For the PC edition specifically, another new patch will allow players to edit.ini files. This should let players tweak their visual settings even more than they already can.
Head over to Eurogamer to read the full interview.
For more on The Witcher 3, check out GameSpot's review.Mark Levin: It’s time to make ‘mob boss’ McConnell ‘heel!’
Tuesday night on the radio, Conservative Review Editor-in-Chief Mark Levin endorsed both Judge Roy Moore in Alabama and Kelli Ward in Arizona for U.S. Senate.
Moore and Ward are each running in primaries against incumbent Republican senators backed for re-election by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. In the second hour of his program, Levin harangued McConnell’s failed leadership and dirty campaign tactics, vowing to rally the nation to unseat McConnell in 2020.
“McConnell has been threatening the conservative agenda and Trump’s agenda from day one,” Levin said. “He has nothing but contempt for the American people … nothing but contempt for you.”
Listen:
Expounding on how McConnell has lied about the government defaulting if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, on how McConnell is cozy with special interests, and on how McConnell uses his allied PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, to electioneer and smear conservative challengers to his favored, liberal incumbent Republicans, Levin urged conservatives to support challengers to McConnell’s incumbents.
“Mitch McConnell may think he’s a mob boss, but we don’t have mob bosses in the United States Senate, in the greatest Republic on the face of the earth,” Levin roared. “It’s time that we make this mob boss heel! It’s time that we bring him to his knee, like Kaepernick!”
McConnell currently has an 18 percent approval rating in Kentucky. President Trump has a 60 percent approval rating there, Levin noted. It’s clear the people of Kentucky are with the president and not with McConnell.
Don’t miss an episode of LevinTV. Sign up now!An award-winning Connecticut cop who had just arrested a man for domestic violence for an A & E reality television show called Live PD was arrested herself for domestic violence hours later.
As the Connecticut Post phrased it: “Perhaps A&E should have kept the cameras rolling.”
Had they kept the cameras rolling, they would have seen Bridgeport police Sergeant Stacey Lyons breaking into her ex-boyfriends home and assaulting him after finding him with another woman in an incident that took place in October.
The 33-year-old police officer soon found herself in the back of a Trumbull police car charged with disorderly conduct. She was also ordered to turn in her three guns, including her department-issued gun.
It was only hours earlier that Lyons was recorded on camera telling the mann she arrested on accusations that he choked his girlfriend that he must turn in his weapons.
“We have rules that are above me,” she tells him. “This is a domestic situation and I don’t have a choice.”
In the segment, which can be seen below, she talks to the television audience about the dangers of responding to domestic violence calls.
“Domestics are the most dangerous calls a police officer can go on,” she says.
Lyons, who last year won an award for heroism, was sued that same year along with two fellow cops for beating a woman in a restaurant in 2014, according to CT News.
Earlier this month, a judge dismissed the disorderly conduct charge against Lyons in the altercation involving her ex-boyfriend.
According to the CT Post:
Superior Court Judge Kevin Doyle dismissed the charge of disorderly conduct against Bridgeport Police Sgt. Stacey Lyons after the officer had completed the family violence counseling program. “She went through a similar process that other people accused of the same offense went through and had the same result,” said Lyons’ lawyer, Christian Young. “Now hopefully she can get back to serving the community as she has done with honor for the past 11 years.” Lyons, 33, had been arrested by Trumbull police in October after her former boyfriend complained that she had gained access to his apartment and attacked him. This was just hours after Lyons appeared on the A&E program, “Live PD,” in which she is seen on the program turning to the man who is sitting in the back of her police car, urging him to turn over any guns he has.
No word yet on whether the man she arrested on the show also had his charges dismissed by participating in same family violence counseling program.
Below is the trailer of the show she was on, followed by the full episode, where she comes on around the 45-minute mark.NWSL: The Best Sports League You’ve Never Heard Of
By: Karen Valenzuela, @VictoriaNoir89
March Madness is over and your life is suddenly and depressingly sportsless. You need a sport to watch that is professional, high quality, and full of talented athletes.
You need the National Women’s Soccer League. Wait, wait! Don’t click out of this article! “But I don’t even watch men’s soccer, let alone women’s.” Hear a fellow sports nerd out, though. Because there are a million and one reasons why the NWSL could be your next sports obsession.
First off, it is absolutely the most easily accessible professional league there is on the planet. All you need is Internet connection. The official NWSL YouTube channel streams every game live, and then leaves it up on the channel in case you missed it. The last two seasons’ matches are all still up there now in case you’re in the mood for a rewatch of one of your favorites. Even if you simply want to check out a game to see if you like it, just pop onto the NWSL YouTube page. You don’t need a cable subscription and there aren’t any fees. It’s simply there for you to enjoy!
There isn’t nearly enough support for the NWSL to function on its own yet, considering it’s only starting its third season this week. As a result, the average NWSL athlete makes between $6000 and $15000 per year, which is well below the poverty line, and a few of the teams have been finding host families for their players so that they can play during the season without needing to pay for housing, offering free season tickets as incentive. It’s preposterous, frankly, but it also puts into perspective how important this league and this sport is for the future of women’s sports as a whole. These women have a lot of passion when it comes to soccer. But they’re also driven and inspired by the young female fans who watch NWSL and hope to play professional sports one day. Considering NWSL players are playing a professional sport for an average of $25 to $50 per day, they really must have a staggering amount of passion for the sport and the impact they have as role models.
This is probably one of the biggest reasons why NWSL fans are so hospitable and welcoming to newcomers. We love new fans. We want more new fans. Because fans mean support, and support means money, which means these players might actually be paid appropriate salaries some day. This league needs to succeed and it needs more supporters to do so. Every team has gone above and beyond to connect with their fans for that reason.
During the YouTube live stream of each match, you have the option of participating in the chat with other viewers. Oftentimes, people of all genders who are new to women’s soccer come in from all corners of the globe to chat—about the sport, the teams, the players, the rules, etc. It’s such a warm and welcoming atmosphere, international fans joining in on the discussion with American fans. And while there are team rivalries (the Seattle versus Portland MLS soccer rivalry has crossed into the NWSL), we’re an incredibly close group of people across team boundaries. The NWSL is like a family. We’re bonded through the drive to support a league that might someday give women a chance to play a sport they’re passionate about without needing a second job on the side. Watch a game or two as the season starts this weekend. Join the discussion. NWSL fans will welcome you with open arms no matter who you are or where you hail from.
This season is the perfect time to start paying attention to NWSL. Besides the fact that the teams got makeovers with extra snazzy new kit designs before this upcoming season, 2015 is a huge year for women’s soccer in general. From June 6 to July 5, Canada will be hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup. That means a lot of the players you see playing for their NWSL club in April and May will be seen wearing their nation’s colors in June and July during the single biggest women-only tournament ever put on in the history of the world. This year’s WWC has already boasted record-breaking ticket sales in each of the six cities hosting the tournament. It is going to be huge. There will absolutely be a massive rise in popularity for women’s soccer all across the globe, as this year we have seen nations qualify who barely even had a squad four years ago. The level of play has gone up and the competition will be fierce.
The NWSL is going to play a huge part in the popularity wave, feeding off of the Women’s World Cup to showcase the stars of the tournament on their club teams after the Cup is over. Imagine paying $20 for a ticket to see the most important players from the biggest tournament of the year back playing with their club teams in July and August. And then you get to meet them because they always spend time with fans after the game. It doesn’t get any cooler than that!
The Teams
There are only nine teams in the NWSL so far. But if viewership continues to improve this season, we could be seeing other cities make bids to get their teams into the league for the 2016 or 2017 seasons.
FC Kansas City (Kansas City, MO)
NWSL 2014 Champions.
The A-Rod & Holiday Connection: US Women’s National Team forward Amy Rodriguez and midfielder Lauren Holiday are the dangerous duo, a truly lethal duo.
Strong professional ethic, nearly flawless, consistency when it comes to fundamentals of the game.
Becky Sauerbrunn, USWNT defender: Crucial to FCKC’s steadiness and consistency and a defensive mastermind. Named 2014 NWSL Defender of the Year.
Seattle Reign FC (Seattle, WA)
Regular season champions/Shield winners, 2 nd place in playoffs.
place in playoffs. Team manager Laura Harvey: After SRFC finished second to last in 2013 season, LH took a lot of risks, made a trade nearly every day. SRFC went on to have the best record of any NWSL team in 2014. (3 losses in 26 games)
Kim Little: Scottish national, midfielder, magician. 1 st in goals scored and 2 nd in assists in 2014 NWSL season. 2014 League MVP.
in goals scored and 2 in assists in 2014 NWSL season. 2014 League MVP. Hope Solo and Megan Rapinoe: Hope is the USWNT’s #1 goalkeeper, and arguably the best keeper in the world. USWNT’s Megan Rapinoe is tops in scoring goals, assisting goals, and celebrating goals. Also quite the personality, so look her up.
Mostly unchanged defensive line and midfield from last season. SRFC had the least amount of goals scored on them in the league.
A team of technical geniuses. Beautiful soccer.
Chemistry between players both on and off the pitch.
Washington Spirit (Washington, D.C.)
USWNT’s goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris, defender Ali Krieger, and defender Crystal Dunn combine to make a nearly unbreakable defense.
New additions from abroad should make a positive impact on level of play.
Potential to be in top 4 again this season, maybe even favorites for the championship.
Never Say Die mentality. Fight to the End drive.
Portland Thorns FC (Portland, OR)
Won the championship title in NWSL’s 2013 inaugural season.
Most popular team in the league (Portland is called “Soccer City, USA” for a reason).
Loud, proud, hugely supportive fans. NWSL’s biggest fan turnout to home games.
Star Power: USWNT’s poster girl Alex Morgan, mid/forward Tobin Heath, defender Rachel Van Hollebeke. German national team’s goalkeeper Nadine Angerer lauded by many as best GK in the world. Canadian great, Christine Sinclair.
Impressive off-season trades and signings will make them one of the teams to beat in 2015
Chicago Red Stars (Chicago, IL)
USWNT forward Christen Press (Stanford alum) can create goals out of nowhere.
USWNT Julie Johnston (NWSL Rookie of the Year in 2014, Santa Clara alum) is hugely solid in both midfield and defense.
USWNT Shannon Boxx: key for CRS at defensive mid position, veteran who has years and years of experience and skill.
Capable of reaching top 4, maybe even a dark horse for the championship title in 2015.
Known for being a very aggressive team on the pitch (some say overly aggressive).
Western New York Flash (Elma, NY)
Youthful squad, fresh faces, hungry to prove themselves.
Experience from USWNT defender Whitney Engen and USWNT forward Sydney Leroux brings a lot of speed to the front line.
Acquired Amanda Frisbie from Seattle Reign. She sat out 2014 season for Seattle due to injury and has plenty of untapped potential.
An underdog team you’ll want to root for.
Sky Blue FC (Piscataway Township, NJ)
Just barely missed out on play-off spot in 2014 season, but look fit to make it to top 4 in 2015 season.
Used to be a club in the Women’s Professional Soccer league (WPS) from 2008 until 2012 when the league folded.
Kelley O’Hara: USWNT defender, midfield, forward. Best-All-Around. Plays just about every position outside of goalkeeper.
New additions will be effective: Danish national Nadia Nadim and Australian Samantha Kerr up front as forwards.
Houston Dash (Houston, TX)
New kids in the league: 2014 was Dash’s first season in the NWSL, finished 2 nd to last.
to last. Stephanie Roche: Ireland national team superstar signed for 2015 season.
Morgan Brian: college draft first pick from University of Virginia and USWNT midfield wonder. Brings youth and experience.
experience. Carli Lloyd: Acquired from WNY Flash for 2015 season. Always the backbone of whatever team she’s playing for in the midfield. A goal scorer and a warrior.
Partnership with MLS club Houston Dynamo, so the Dash fan base has been steadily growing. With exciting new signings, they’re only going to get better.
Boston Breakers (Boston, MA)
Impressive in pre-season, defeating Jamaican national team twice with a score of 5-0 in both games.
Alyssa Naeher: USWNT goalkeeper, winner of 2014 season’s Golden Glove award for most saves, most impressive performance in the net.
Cat Whitehill: Former USWNT defender, brings veteran experience to the defensive backline.
A few coaching issues during off-season, technical issues in 2014 season with keeping possession of the ball.
They’ll be the wildcard team of the 2015 season. Nobody knows what to expect and they’ll be fascinating to watch for that reason.
Last year’s off-season action had nothing on this year’s. 2015 pre-season saw some signings of high quality international players: Houston Dash acquired Ireland international superstar Stephanie Roche, runner-up for the Puskas award (best goal of the year) at FIFA’s 2014 Ballon d’Or awards ceremony. (She beat out Robin Van Persie with an epic display of talent.) England’s clutch goal-scorer Jodie Taylor has joined the Portland Thorns. Washington Spirit picked up Nigerian superstar Francisca Ordega and Argentine Estefanía Banini. Seattle Reign picked up Denmark native Katrine Veje and Scottish defender Rachel Corsie, adding to SRFC’s duo of international bad asses—Scottish Wonder Woman Kim Little and the flying Welsh dragon Jess Fishlock.
The NWSL needs your support! These women who train hard and play hard because they love the sport, because they want to inspire others to do the same, need your support! Check out the NWSL schedule and YouTube channel! Give it a chance. It’ll be your new favorite thing. Trust us.
Houston Dash kicks off against Washington Spirit on Friday April 10 at 8:30 pm ET in the National Women’s Soccer League 2015 season opener! See you all on YouTube!AL AMARI REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank — Residents of this cinder-block ghetto, a few miles from the headquarters of President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, recently removed his portrait from the camp’s entrance.
Then they sought to embarrass Mr. Abbas by roundly rejecting his son’s bid to lead a local sports club. And in case the message was not clear enough, after the vote, men paraded through the streets chanting, “Tell your father that Amari camp doesn’t like you!”
Much attention has focused recently on the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s apparent disavowal of a two-state solution and his shattered relationship with the Obama administration.
But of perhaps equal importance is a growing discontent in Palestinian ranks, much of it focused on Mr. Abbas. While the United States and Europe seem ever more ready to pressure Israel to end its occupation of the West Bank, some Palestinians are questioning whether their leader, who celebrated his 80th birthday last week, will be able to seize the opportunity.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
Newcastle United have been rocked by a fresh injury to flying winger Rolando Aarons.
The Magpies winger has been missing with a calf injury since September and has made just four appearances this term.
Aarons, who played just one Premier League game last season with hamstring problems, was just a week away from returning to first team contention.
But the Chronicle understands that Aarons sustained a fresh injury last Friday in training after coming off worst in a 50-50 training ground tackle with a team-mate.
It is believed that Aarons could now be out for a number of weeks due to the injury on his right foot.
The winger was spotted at Newcastle’s reserve game with Aston Villa on crutches and wearing a protective boot as he watched the 2-0 win for Peter Beardsley’s side.
It means the injuries are now mounting up for Steve McClaren after the head coach watched Massadio Haidara retire early during the victory at St James’ Park.
Aarons will be out of contract at the end of season but McClaren had stated he will be staying on Tyneside. He said earlier in the year: “Absolutely, without a doubt (he will stay).
“I want him to mature very quickly because he is the kind of player I like in my team. He excites me and he excites the fans. He gets people off their seats because he’s got the pace and the power, he wants to work.”
United, though, will have to get by without his services in the latter part of the year.Every few weeks in Batman and the surrounding area in southeast Anatolia, which is poor, rural and deeply influenced by conservative Islam, a young woman tries to take her life. Others have been stoned to death, strangled, shot or buried alive. Their offenses ranged from stealing a glance at a boy to wearing a short skirt, wanting to go to the movies, being raped by a stranger or relative or having consensual sex.
Hoping to join the European Union, Turkey has tightened the punishment for attacks on women and girls who have had such experiences. But the violence has continued, if by different means: parents are trying to spare their sons from the harsh punishments associated with killing their sisters by pressing the daughters to take their own lives instead.
“Families of disgraced girls are choosing between sacrificing a son to a life in prison by designating him to kill his sister or forcing their daughters to kill themselves,” said Yilmaz Akinci, who works for a rural development group. “Rather than losing two children, most opt for the latter option.”
Women’s groups here say the evidence suggests that a growing number of girls considered to be dishonored are being locked in a room for days with rat poison, a pistol or a rope, and told by their families that the only thing resting between their disgrace and redemption is death.
Batman (pronounced bot-MON) is a grim and dusty city of 250,000 people where religion is clashing with Turkey’s official secularism. The city was featured in the latest novel by the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, “Snow,” which chronicled a journalist’s investigation of a suicide epidemic among teenage girls.
In the past six years, there have been 165 suicides or suicide attempts in Batman, 102 of them by women. As many as 36 women have killed themselves since the start of this year, according to the United Nations. The organization estimates that 5,000 women are killed each year around the world by relatives who accuse them of bringing dishonor on their families; the majority of the killings are in the Middle East.
Last month, the United Nations dispatched a special envoy to Turkey to investigate. The envoy, Yakin Erturk, concluded that while some suicides were authentic, others appeared to be “honor killings disguised as a suicide or an accident.”
Photo
“The calls keep coming,” said Mehtap Ceylan, a member of Batman’s suicide prevention squad. She said she had very recently received a call about a 16-year-old girl who had committed suicide, her family said, because they would not let her wear jeans. But when Ms. Ceylan visited the house, neighbors told her the girl had been a happy person and had been wearing jeans for years.
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“The story just doesn’t add up,” Ms. Ceylan said. “The girl’s family says their daughter was eating breakfast, walked into the next room and put a gun to her head. They were acting as if nothing had happened.”
Psychologists here say social upheavals in a region rocked by terrorism have played a role in the suicides. Many of the victims come from families in rural villages who have been displaced from the mountains to the cities because of warfare between Turkey and a Kurdish guerrilla group that wants to create an independent state for Kurds in southeastern Turkey.
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Young women like Derya, who have previously led protected lives under the rigid moral strictures of their families and Islam, are suddenly finding themselves in the modern Turkey of Internet dating and MTV. The shift can create dangerous tensions, sometimes lethal ones, between their families and the secular values of the republic that the young women seek to embrace.
The price can be heavy. When a woman is suspected of engaging in sexual relations out of wedlock, her male relatives convene a family council to decide her sentence. Once news of the family’s shame has spread to the community, the family typically rules that it is only through death that its honor can be restored.
The European Union has warned Turkey that it is closely monitoring its progress on women’s rights and that failure to progress could impede its drive to enter the union.
Until recently, a family member of a dishonored girl, usually a brother younger than 18, would carry out the death sentence and receive a short prison sentence because of his youth. Sentences also were reduced under the defense that a relative had been provoked to commit murder.
But in the past two years, Turkey has revamped its penal code and imposed life sentences for such killings, known as honor killings, regardless of the killer’s age. This has prompted some families to take other steps, such as forcing their daughters to commit suicide or killing them and disguising the deaths as suicides.
In an effort to bring honor killings out from underground, Ka-Mer, a local women’s group, has created a hot line for women who fear their lives are at risk. Ka-Mer finds shelter for the women and helps them to apply to the courts for restraining orders against relatives who have threatened them.
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Ayten Tekay, a caseworker for Ka-Mer in Diyarbakir, the regional center, said that of the 104 women who had called the group this year, more than half had been uneducated and illiterate. She said that in some cases the families had not wanted to kill their relatives but that the social pressure and incessant gossip had driven them to it.
“We have to bring these killings out from the shadows and teach women about their rights,” she said. “The laws have been changed, but the culture here will not change overnight.”
Derya, fiercely articulate and newly invigorated after counseling, said she was determined to get on with her life. “This region is religious and it is impossible to be yourself if you are a woman,” she said. “You can either escape by leaving your family and moving to a town, or you can kill yourself.”
Derya said the underlying problem was inequality between the sexes, even though the prophet Muhammad argued in favor of empowering women.
“In my village and in my father’s tribe, boys are in the sky while girls are treated as if they are under the earth,” she said. “As long as families do not trust their daughters, bad things will continue to happen.”When Donald Trump nominated Sam Clovis to be the Department of Agriculture’s top scientist, an obvious problem emerged: Sam Clovis isn’t a scientist. The USDA post manages research on everything from climate change to nutrition, and the president’s choice for the post seemed to have the wrong background.
As a Washington Post report put it in May, the nomination represented “a break with recent Republican and Democratic administrations alike, which have previously reserved the high-level position for scientists with expertise in agricultural research.”
But it as it turns out, this isn’t the end of the controversy. CNN reported yesterday:
Sam Clovis, Donald Trump’s pick to be chief scientist for the Department of Agriculture, has argued that homosexuality is a choice and that the sanctioning of same-sex marriage could lead to the legalization of pedophilia, a CNN KFile review of Clovis’ writings, radio broadcasts, and speeches has found. Clovis made the comments between 2012 and 2014 in his capacity as a talk radio host, political activist, and briefly as a candidate for US Senate in Iowa.
There’s more where this came from. CNN also reported a couple of weeks ago that Clovis “maintained a now-defunct blog for years in which he accused progressives of ‘enslaving’ minorities, called black leaders ‘race traders,’ and labeled former President Barack Obama a ‘Maoist’ with ‘communist’ roots.”
Clovis also questioned Obama’s birth place, accused then-Attorney General Eric Holder of being “a racist black,” and said then-Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, who now heads the Democratic National Committee, was “a racist Latino.”
At least so far, none of this has derailed Clovis’ nomination, which is still pending in the Senate.
But while we wait to see what senators have to say about the Iowa Republican’s fate, let’s take a minute to note why his name might sound familiar.
Last year, Clovis was described as Trump’s “national policy adviser.” In other words, when the Republican candidate needed guidance on matters of public policy, Trump ostensibly turned to the guy who thinks sexual orientation is a choice and Barack Obama’s a “Maoist.”
Trump only hires “the best people,” you know.
Postscript: Because so many Trump-related stories seem to connect to the Russia scandal, it’s probably worth mentioning that Clovis, by one account, worked with Carter Page during the campaign.
A Washington Post report added in May, Clovis “had worked on Russia-related issues at the Pentagon in the 1980s and, as a candidate for U.S. Senate in Iowa in 2014, had questioned the effectiveness of sanctions imposed after Russia’s incursion into Ukraine.”Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the ever present, oh just please shop any day sales event, are in full effect, causing mayhem and fisticuffs across the country, and even across the pond. So what products will be in the carts of stiff arming, shouting, left hook throwing customers on their way to the check-out counters during the festive holiday season for 2014?
This means that retailers have 7 large sales days including their number one sales day of the year still to come for this holiday season. Which means that significant revenues are still awaited by textile and apparel companies over the next few weeks of the shopping season.
Who to Look For
Columbia Sports (NASDAQ: COLM) a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) posted their seventh consecutive positive earnings surprise, and their seventh consecutive positive revenue surprise at the end of October of this year. This sportswear company increased both their revenue and earnings guidance for FY 14. Further, management raised their dividend by 7% to $0.15, and their initial guidance for FY 15 is expecting double digit revenue growth. All great indicators of sustained growth for the company.
Columbia Sportswear Company is a global leader in design, sourcing, marketing and distribution of active outdoor apparel, and footwear with operations in North America, Asia, and Europe. The company is one of the largest outerwear companies in the world, and the leading seller of skiwear in the U.S.
As you can see from the Price and Consensus graph below, Columbia Sportswear has been following their consensus estimates pretty closely for the past several years. Further, the growth expectations for FY 14 and FY 15 have risen in anticipation to strong seasonal sales in Q4 14 and Q1 15.
What lady, or very fashionable man, does not want the cool stylings of Michael Kors, and his select brand of global accessories, footwear, or apparel? Like millions of others, the top 2 items on my finance’s gift list was a MK purse, and an MK wallet.
Michael Kors (NYSE: KORS) is a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and offers two primary collections: the Michael Kors luxury collection, and the Michael Kors accessible luxury collection. They also offer select footwear, and outerwear through their accessible luxury collection. Further, the company also licenses their products and name to select partners.
In their most recent earnings announcement in early November, Michael Kors completed their seventh consecutive quarter with a both a positive earnings and positive revenue surprises. These solid beats caused management to increase both earnings and revenue guidance for FY15. Subsequently, estimates have risen for 11 coverage analysts over the past 30 days, increasing estimates from $4.05 to $4.17 for FY 15.
The Price and Consensus chart below shows Michael Kors’ consistent upward trend since its inception in 2011. The chart indicates that the current stock price is below the consensus analyst’s expectations for the remainder of 2014, and into 2015. A strong Holiday season, would put KORS right in line with expectations.
HanesBrands (NYSE: HBI) a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) is another apparel company that has had seven consecutive positive earnings surprises, and has posted a four quarter average positive surprise of 13.63%. Due to the consistent beats, and subsequent growth, HanesBrands raised their guidance after their most recent earnings announcement. Full year adjusted EPS guidance increased from a range of $5.40-$5.60 to a range of $5.55 to $5.65. Further, management increased guidance for adjusted operating profit from a range of $750 mm to $770 mm from a range of $735 mm to $755 mm.
The recent acquisition by HanesBrands to purchase DB Apparel in late September of this year, should start to see a positive impact on the top and bottom lines in the fourth quarter. The deal is expected to be immediately accretive to adjusted earnings, and is expected to add approximately $1.00 of adjusted EPS within three to four years, according to the company.
As you can see in the chart below, HanesBrands has produced solid growth in price and subsequently has seen their expected price to rise over the past two years.
Bottom Line
With the holiday shopping frenzy in full effect, it would be wise to look at some solid companies expecting significant inflows of revenue over the next 20 days. All three companies are well positioned to benefit from a solid holiday shopping season this year.
According to TipRanks.com, which measures analysts’ and bloggers’ success rate based on how their calls perform, blogger Zacks Investment Research has a total average return of 1.2% and a 52% success rate. Zacks Investment Research is Ranked #1668 out of 4026 Bloggers
Get the full Analyst Report on KORS – FREELast week was Valentines Day. For some of you, your respective boyfriends and girlfriends gave you flowers and took you out on a romantic dinner. But for others you had no such luck. The aftermath for the dateless population must seek treatment immediately.
If you are an active Tinder user, were dateless and went to the movies to see Fifty Shades of Grey keep reading. Below are a few questions to see if you are prone to “Casual Tinder Flings the week after Valentines Day”.
Were you alone this Valentine’s Day Season?
Did you attend Fifty Shades of Grey with your girlfriends?
Did you eat a big tub of ice cream and rationalize that it was okay?
Did your mom buy you flowers, since you weren’t getting any from anyone else?
Did you binge watch Netflix?
If you answered yes to at least 2 of these questions, you fall under the “I’m vulnerable on Tinder category, since I didn’t have a Valentine”.
Fifty Shades of Grey and Tinder is not for everyone. Call your doctor if your depression worsens or if you have unusual changes in behavior or thoughts of ex boyfriends or girlfriends. Watching Fifty Shades of Grey can increase these in children, teens and young adults. Elderly dementia patients watching Fifty Shades of Grey have an increased risk in death or stroke. Call your doctor if you have stiff muscles, confusion and anxiety to address a possible life threatening condition or if you have uncontrollable muscle movements, as these can become permanent. High sex drive has been reported with Tinder and dating apps like it. In some cases, high sex drive can lead to coma or death. Other cases include decreases in white blood cells, which can be serious, and lead to trouble swallowing and impaired judgment.
Image courtesy of OpiLike Michael Heseltine before him, Michael Gove has a rare feel for the the Conservative Party's erogenous zone. His robust defence of free expression at the Leveson inquiry and his continuing schools revolution have seen the Education Secretary's stock soar among Tory MPs and conservative journalists. As David Blackburn notes at Coffee House, he is increasingly spoken of as a future party leader.
On last night's edition of This Week, Michael Portillo described Gove as a "serious candidate for the future", adding that "He knows what he is about, he knows what he wants and these are things that people crave."
Elsewhere, in today's Daily Mail, ConservativeHome editor Tim Montgomerie (whom I profiled earlier this year for the NS), writes that "One day, some time in the future, this brave politician might well be the kind of leader that the Conservative Party chooses and the nation craves." A ConHome poll earlier this year found that he was the third most-popular choice (after William Hague and Boris Johnson) to take over from Cameron.
Against all this, however, one must set Gove's insistence that he neither wants the job nor deserves it. In a recent interview with Iain Martin in Standpoint magazine, he remarked:
I'm constitutionally incapable of it. There's a special extra quality you need that is indefinable, and I know I don't have it. There's an equanimity, an impermeability and a courage that you need. There are some things in life you know it's better not to try.
Those are not the words of a man who is merely hedging his bets. Gove did not say "we already have a very good leader" or that he had "no plans" to stand, he said he was "constitutionally incapable" of doing the job. It is hard to see him reversing that judgement.I did some digital tweaking on Night of the Living Dead to make it more watchable and made it into a DVD image that you can burn.
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Subject: Way Ahead Of Its Time! This still remains my most favorite public domain movie |
vers of power, has also gradually rubbed out the group's legal status.
A 1982 law stripped Rohingya of citizenship, subjecting them to suffocating controls on everything from where they can travel to how many children they can have.
"The army wants to clear the Muslim community from Rakhine state," says Kyaw Min, a Rohingya and former MP, who has had his citizenship revoked.
"The intention is to drive down the Rohingya population. They have achieved that in the south of Rakhine, now they are targeting the north."
Repression has fed Rohingya militancy, according to analysts.
0:00 Number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh surges 00:00 / 00:00 Share Share on Twitter
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'Next time no escape'
Last month a government-backed commission on Rakhine's troubles, led by former UN chief Kofi Annan, urged "all communities to move beyond entrenched historical narratives".
But a few hours after its report was published, the militants attacked, sparking a ferocious military response that the UN believes amounts to "ethnic cleansing".
The report also urged the government to boost the economy to uplift a poor population and build community bonds.
Business ties and personal relations once defied communal lines, with Rohingya who could not legally own property relying on Rakhine neighbours to secure deeds for them on the sly.
Now the fearful displaced inside Rakhine say there is no way they can ever again live alongside Rohingya neighbours.
Khin Saw Nyo, 48, an ethnic Rakhine, said nearby Muslim villagers suddenly turned on her community near the Bangladesh border, forcing them to flee to the mountains.
"We will die if we go back," she told AFP from inside a monastery sheltering refugees in Sittwe, adding Rohingya militants are still preparing to strike.
"They warned us to eat well... they said the next time we will not escape."Switzerland, the land of traditional and extremely safe banking institutions, heralded by high net worth investors worldwide as a safe haven for untold wealth, has taken a somewhat unorthodox step toward the acceptance of virtual currencies as a means of payment.
SBEX, an acronym for Swiss Bitcoin Exchange, has been authorized by national regulatory authority FINMA.
Alexis Roussel, founder and CEO of SBEX stated last week that the approval of SBEX by Switzerland’s financial regulator “opens up fantastic opportunities for crypto-currencies in Switzerland, creating a clearly regulated environment in this area.”
Mr. Roussel is also vice-president of the Swiss Association of Bitcoin.
The regulation of a Bitcoin exchange by FINMA marks a milestone in the long road to legitimization that virtual currency has traveled, as well as making a giant step toward easing the consumer protection related fears which continue to plague the minds of many since the demise of MtGox earlier this year, a situation in which the vast majority of investors were unable to seek recourse over their lost Bitcoins.
Additionally, with Switzerland’s gilt-edged reputation for ensuring that only the most reputable firms operate within its borders, the arrival of SBEX could serve to remove negative connotations previously associated with Bitcoin as a result of illicit trading conducted via annonymous market places such as Silk Road, itself having been the subject of seizure by the United States government last year.
In the period preceding the approval by FINMA, Switzerland’s authorities had become concerned with the 13 million units of crypto currency in circulation that were not subject to regulation. On this basis, the regulatory approval has been a welcome development.
At the end of last year, incumbent National Council for the Swiss Socialist Party, Jean Christophe Schwaab, demanded a postulate in the Federal Council to assess the risks to the economy of this new monetary unit. The Federal Council is preparing a report on Bitcoin which will be released at the end of this year.
One of the most advantageous and potentially market-changing factors relating to FINRA’s ruling is that Bitcoin has now become recognized as a means of payment in Switzerland.
“The two key points in this authorization from FINMA are that bitcoin is now treated as a payment in Switzerland, and a deposit bitcoins is considered a bank deposit, “said Alexis Roussel.
Currently, the SBEX platform does not facilitate the direct sale and purchase of Bitcoin, as offered by FX trading platforms. “We are finalizing the development of services to place orders to buy and sell online, says the CEO. It is already possible to contact SBEX to place orders by phone with our operators, who are responsible for providing market liquidity through their international suppliers” stated Alexis Roussel.
A point of interest is that it is now very much a possibility to go to a Swiss operator to buy Bitcoins. In the near future, SBEX will be come a sophisticated trading platform for Bitcoin, in which the virtual currency will be able to be traded online as per standard FX trading platforms. The current SBEX is set to launch a quick fix under the url www.fastcoin.ch, which will be operational within the next few days, on which individuals can buy Bitcoins online.
As for Bitcoin deposits from banks in Switzerland, FINMA has put into place a legal framework. However, “from a technical point of view, says Alexis Roussel, “existing banks are not yet equipped to host such deposits.”
If a new institution that specializes in Bitcoin would be brought into existence, it could apply for a banking license to accept deposits in Bitcoin, in exactly the same way as traditional banks accept fiat money. “This is a great step forward,” said Alexis Roussel.
The organization is now affiliated with the Association Romande des Intermediaries Financiers (ARIF), which makes it subject to the Swiss Money Laundering Act (AMLA). SBEX is part of DigiCapital Holding, based in Neuchâtel, a holding company that relies on private funding.
In addition to the web platform, it will be possible to exchange Bitcoin currency everywhere in Switzerland via ATM terminals. In order to facilitate this, SBEX has partnered with Canadian firm BitAccess, a prominent Bitcoin ATM provider to deploy an extensive ATM network throughout Switzerland. Its machines are used to exchange instant cash against an electronic wallet containing the equivalent in Bitcoins, or perform the reverse operation to convert bitcoins into local tender. The first ten ATMs have been sent from Canada to the United States. The first Bitcoin ATM was installed in Geneva earlier this year in a restaurant, attracting a lot of attention on the part of individuals and also the financial sector.
For BitAccess, “This partnership is a key step, because we wanted to build a presence in the heart of Europe, Switzerland is essential to its proximity to major financial institutions” says Moe Adham, co-founder of BitAccess.
Alexis Roussel claims that law students learn to encode electronic contracts, which therefore demonstrates that Bitcoin coding could become a mainstream activity in the future. According to him, it is not in the interest of banks or government departments to attempt to combat the popularization of Bitcoin, but instead better to take the approach adopted by Switzerland in setting out a regulatory framework. “History shows that once the mass adoption takes hold, it is hard to stop the machine” he concluded.Welcome to Anime News Network's Fall Manga Guide! You may have seen one of our seasonal Anime Preview Guides, where a team of critics writes up each new anime television premiere as it airs at the beginning of a season. Now, doing something like that for manga is tricky - there's no equivalent "seasonal" release schedule for new manga series, so here's what we came up with: a survey across three months' worth of manga releases (in the case of this guide, October, November and December 2017) with a focus on premiering series.
This is an ongoing guide. Every day for the next week we'll be updating the guide twice a day with new titles, in general release order (meaning we'll begin the guide with October books and conclude with December books). We also have a survey of the notable light novel releases from those months, publishing on Friday.
This guide focuses exclusively on series premieres; we thought that would be the most useful thing to do. Please remember these are reviews of Volume One only - we're not reviewing the whole thing, or the digital chapters beyond volume one. If you've read ahead, please try not to spoil things for people in the forums. All reviews use the same ratings scale: 1-5, with 1 being the lowest.
Check back every day this week for new reviews, and share your feedback in the forums!The temperature is quickly rising here at Walt Disney World and soon we will be in full summer swing with unbearable heat and maddening crowds. But don’t fear, Walt Disney World has made sure to come up with many new exciting things to keep you distracted this summer. Let’s check out what thrilling things we have to look forward to this summer of 2016!
1. New Star Wars entertainment offerings at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
With these Star Wars offerings debuting on April 4th they wouldn’t really be put in the summer category but as they will quite surely be popular all summer long they deserve a spot on the list. First we will see the new addition of the Star Wars stage show, “Star Wars: A Galaxy Far, Far Away”. Then there’s also a new stormtrooper march lead by Captain Phasma herself and in the evening a reimagined fireworks show called Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular. Party on!
2. Rivers of Light debut at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Debuting April 22, 2016, “Rivers of Light” will be an innovative experience unlike anything ever seen in a Disney park, combining live performances, floating lanterns, water screens and swirling animal imagery.
3. Two new character meet and greets opening at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Two new character meet and greets will be arriving at the parks this summer, one featuring Frozen’s Olaf and the other the golden couple themselves: Mickey and Minnie. Olaf will be found at the all-new Celebrity Spotlight in the Echo Lake district in his first ever Walt Disney World meet and greet. “Mickey and Minnie Starring in Red Carpet Dreams” will open near the Commissary Lane and the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant
4. “Frozen Ever After” attraction and Frozen sisters meet and greet opens at Epcot.
The “Frozen Ever After” attraction coming to Epcot in summer 2016 is an adventure fit for the entire family that will take guests through the kingdom of Arendelle on a lovely boat ride. Next door, the Frozen sisters will be holding court at the Royal Sommerhus.
5. Explore Kilimanjaro Safaris at Night
Each evening, the popular Kilimanjaro Safaris daytime experience is artfully bathed in the look of sunset with special lighting allowing guests to explore and enjoy this attraction well into the night. During the expedition guests can now enjoy the wildlife at night, and may discover two new species: African wild dogs and hyenas.
6. Soarin’ Around The World at Epcot
Coming this summer, Soarin’ Around the World will take guests on a journey to far-flung lands, over some of the world’s most unique natural landscapes and man-made wonders. It will use the same technology that will make the Shanghai attraction, Soaring Over the Horizon, so spectacular, ensuring that the very best Disney has to offer can be experienced at Disney Parks around the world.
7. Town Center shopping and dining complex opens at Disney Springs
The largest expansion in the Downtown Disney area ever, the re-imagined Disney Springs will provide even more opportunities for guests to relax and enjoy themselves. Including having 30 new retailers opening their stores (hello Sephora) the new Town Center area will also include the reimagined Planet Hollywood Observatory, the Coca-Cola Store and the D-Luxe Burger
8. New castle stage show, Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire, premieres at Magic Kingdom
This summer a brand new live stage show will be taking over the Cinderella Castle stage at Disney’s Magic Kingdom! Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire will feature characters from some of Disney’s more recent efforts such as the Princess and the Frog, Tangled, and Frozen.
9. STK Orlando restaurant opens their doors at the Landing, Disney Springs
STK Orlando will offer a modern twist on the traditional American steakhouse featuring an innovative menu mixed with a high-energy atmosphere, complete with a sleek lounge with a DJ and rooftop dining.
10. Finding Dory characters to join Turtle Talk with Crush at Epcot
Visitors to the attraction at Epcot will interact with Dory and her friends from the new movie including Bailey the beluga whale, Hank the octopus (or actually a seven-legged “septopus”), Crush’s son Squirt and even cameos from Nemo and Marlin.
11. New restaurant, Tiffins, opens at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Tiffins is a new restaurant set to open at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in 2016, will celebrate the art of traveling and include waterfront views from both indoor and outdoor seating areas. Open for both lunch and dinner, Tiffins’ menu will feature a diverse menu drawing from places that inspired the creation of Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
12. Get your cupcake game on with the Sprinkles ATM at Disney Springs
The Sprinkles cupcake ATM will feature all the classic Sprinkles cupcakes including vegan, gluten free, sugar free and even doggie options. The ATM will be open 24 hours so early morning or late night cupcake fans will not go without fulfilling their cravings. Don’t worry, each ATM holds about 400 cupcakes.
What are you most looking forward to this summer at Walt Disney World?Pet peeves are always a fun topic! I cannot stand people that make it impossible to have a relaxed, courteous smoke session. I wish some of the worst things that I can come up with on those sorts of people: like maybe that a balloon pops while they’re inflating it. Or, if the offense is particularly egregious, it’s my sincerest hope that they walk through a spiderweb unexpectedly.
Weed and weed culture aren’t free of these types. We’ve previously discussed stoner etiquette, but some of us only learn through doing these cringe-inducing things – that’s why puberty was invented, after all. We’ve compiled a list of common stoner pet peeves to serve both as a repository for your collection of PREACH gifs and a guide on what not to do.
Wetting the joint
Just leave your bodily fluids at the door, in fact. Nothing puts a wet blanket on a shared joint like a moistened roach. It’s the adulthood version of a Pixy Stick gone afoul, and every bit as gross.
If you’re sick and the joint comes your way and you still think having a puff is a good idea, then I don’t even know what to say to you. You’re this kid.
Not hitting the corner
If you’re sharing a bowl, hitting the corner is a must. It means that everybody gets some green. Lighting up the same way you’d do at home alone means that you’ll torch all the best bits for yourself. Bad if you’re the owner, infinitely worse if you’re not. This feeds into out next pot peeve…
Being stingy
You might not always have herb, and that’s fine. But don’t become the stoner who is always dankrupt and comes with a litany of excuses as to why they can’t pitch in for snacks. Being short on cash is fine, but there are surely other things you can do to make up for it. At the very least, show some courtesy and make up for it next time.
Stoking paranoia
Not so much in legal states, but yelling COPS! like it’s the new crying wolf is a great way to completely shatter the good vibes of a party. We know rationally that the police generally have better things to do than break up a puff puff, pass session, but highs aren’t always so rational. Making people anxious is a shitty thing to do, so remember that silence is always preferred to spouting off something that ruins the good vibes.
Being a sober snob
Speaking of rational, the worst thing you can do to annoy stoners is to be that one sober person, silently judging the rest of the group. Being the only sober one among high friends is mutually uncomfortable. If you’re that person, avoid making the group anxious by not asking too many questions or standing around if everyone is sitting down. Instead, try to read the room and have a good time.
Pet peeves vary from person to person, and these are just a small sampling of what’s out there. Let us know your personal peeves in the comments, and the appropriate punishments for them!Great white shark attacks 65yo surfer at Booti Booti, on NSW Mid North Coast
Updated
A 65-year-old man who was bitten by a shark while he was surfing on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales is "quite happy" and in stable condition.
Police said the man was attacked just off Booti Booti after 9:00am, by a shark later confirmed to be a great white.
He managed to swim to shore and contacted emergency services.
He was treated for puncture wounds to his arm and leg and airlifted to John Hunter Hospital in stable condition.
The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) said its assessment confirmed a great white shark was responsible for the attack.
Graham Nickerson, from the Westpac Rescue Service, said the victim was in good spirits despite his ordeal.
"Apparently the shark came up under his board, snapped his board in two and then dragged him under by the leg rope," Mr Nickerson said.
"He's quite happy … considering what he's been through, but he's got pretty severe lacerations to his lower limbs, but he's in a stable condition."
Mr Nickerson said the surfer was already thinking of returning to the ocean.
"He did mention to us that he needs another surfboard, which is pretty evidenced when you see the pictures of the surf board snapped in two with a large bite out of it," he said.
The beach has been closed until further notice.
The Government ordered smart drumlines be set up off the beach as soon as possible.
The DPI's Shark Smart app recorded four sightings of great whites yesterday morning, 10 kilometres to the north, at Forster.
Marine biologist Daniel Bucher, from Southern Cross University, said it was not possible to say whether the shark detected by the app yesterday was the same shark that attacked today.
"If it goes off as it has been over the last few weeks, we don't know whether that's one shark swimming in circles or a whole bunch of them coming through," he said.
Associate Professor Bucher said the location of the attack fit with shark migration patterns.
"The Shark Smart app has been showing regular sightings of white sharks around the Forster area and very few, in fact none at all, in the last few weeks up around the north coast, so we tend to get this contraction of the white shark population further south as the water warms up," he said.
Topics: shark, forster-2428
First postedChina’s Weapons of Mass Consumption
In August 2014, China’s state-owned Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Co. launched a new frigate, a small warship often used for submarine warfare or coastal defense, into Shanghai’s Huangpu River. As the frigate slid into the water, a casual passerby might have assumed that it was simply another ship in the Chinese Navy’s rapidly growing fleet. Yet its intended recipient was not China’s navy, but Algeria’s — the first of three that Algeria had ordered from China at a Malaysian arms expo in 2012.
China has long been one of the world’s leading suppliers of small arms, but its sale of the frigates was not an anomaly. As the independent Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported in mid-March, China is now the world’s third-largest arms exporter, having overtaken France and Germany, and trailing behind Russia and the United States. In 2010 to 2014, not only was China’s share of global arms sales nearly double that of the previous five-year period — 5 percent as against 3 percent in 2005 to 2009 — but its exports of major weapons platforms rose by 143 percent compared to the previous half-decade.
Over the next decade, advanced weapons platforms — once the purview of Western and Russian defense industries — will flood the arms market as China, and to a lesser degree India, become global suppliers. Developing countries that once could only afford secondhand Cold War-era weapons will soon be able to acquire everything from modern fighter aircraft and warships to precision-guided munitions, all without breaking the bank. And not unlike with consumer electronics, the quality of these platforms will increase over time, even as their prices fall.
Driving this change is the growth of the defense industries in not just China but also India, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi has prioritized reforming the defense sector to minimize reliance on foreign suppliers as well as to encourage exports. Initially unable to produce advanced weaponry on their own, yet aware of the risk of relying upon foreign suppliers, these countries have aimed to gradually attain self-sufficiency in defense procurement.
As a first step, they have been acquiring a wide variation of the same type of weapons over the past few decades. For example, among fighter aircraft, China acquired at least seven different types, while India acquired six different types. Although cost-inefficient and operationally challenging, such sampling allowed China and India to test and evaluate the technologies most appropriate to their operational needs.
They then poured considerable resources into reproducing these technologies by absorbing key foreign weapons technologies while investing heavily in indigenous weapons research and development programs. The result was the ability to produce technologies that, while perhaps not cutting-edge, were considerably more advanced than what they could have produced just a few years earlier. This strategy has enabled the Indian Navy to purchase heavily from domestic manufacturers. And the PLA Air Force now operates hundreds of indigenously developed J-10 fighter aircraft and is in the midst of testing prototypes of the J-20 and J-31 stealth fighters. If they are successful, China will join the United States as the only other country in the world with such capabilities.
Chinese weapons systems are often much cheaper than those of competing exporters. And while they’re not better than Russian or U.S. alternatives, they are often good enough. For example, in September 2013, Turkey surprised many observers by selecting the Chinese air and missile defense system over U.S., Russian, and Italian-French offerings. Although the Chinese system is less reliable than both the U.S. and Russian systems — and incompatible with other NATO systems — the price was right: At $3.4 billion, it was almost certainly priced considerably lower than its Russian and U.S. counterparts.
Since 2011, China has also sold the Wing Loong, an armed drone, to several countries in Africa and the Middle East, including Nigeria, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. At an estimated $1 million per unit, it provides capabilities similar to that of the U.S. Predator drone at less than a quarter of the cost. As Marwan Lahoud, then the head of marketing and strategy at the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, told the New York Times, “China will be competing with us in many, many domains, and in the high end.”
To be sure, China and India remain two of the world’s largest arms importers, accounting for 5 and 15 percent, respectively, of the global arms trade from 2010 to 2014. Neither country’s defense industry is capable of meeting all of the needs of its military, so for the foreseeable future, they will remain dependent on Russia and the West, especially with regard to complex platforms and technologies, such as anti-submarine warfare aircraft and jet engines. But their exports are part of a worrying trend.
What are the implications of the growing availability of modern weapons platforms? They will almost certainly disrupt the global arms market by providing cost-effective solutions for countries that do not need expensive, cutting-edge weapons. This will lead to a drop in orders for U.S., Western European, and Russian arms, as even more countries purchase more affordable Chinese and Indian alternatives.
The proliferation of these largely offensive weapons will also have a destabilizing effect on many regions where rivalries run deep. As countries equip their militaries with far more capable weapons, their neighbors may feel threatened and respond in kind, resulting in a ratcheting-up of tensions. This happened during the Cold War, when massive infusions of arms by the superpowers exacerbated existing disputes in the Third World. The Soviet Union’s arms sales to Egypt and Syria, for instance, fed Arab aggression and intensified the Arab-Israeli dispute.
The era in which the U.S. military has largely had uncontested freedom of action throughout the international commons is also ending. These weapons will enable even countries with limited defense budgets to acquire “anti-access/area denial” capabilities and make it more difficult for the United States to intervene militarily without suffering significant casualties.
U.S. and European policymakers must therefore be cautious in their decisions regarding arms sales, particularly to rising powers. Such lucrative deals are undeniably attractive, especially when defense manufacturers are scrounging for orders amid fiscal austerity in Western countries. However, these sales may eventually lead not only to the rise of competing defense industries, but also to greater instability worldwide.
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Hillary Clinton is stepping down as Secretary of State next January, regardless of whether President Obama is sworn in for a second term or Mitt Romney is inaugurated for a first. And it looks like Clinton is going out on a high note, says David Graham in The Atlantic. She boasts "sky-high" approval ratings, was the subject of a flattering "Texts from Hillary" meme (which she very cooly dipped her own toe in), and set the internet abuzz by dancing and drinking beer at a late-night club in Colombia. Really, Graham says, the blazing hot "secretary of cool" will be a hard act to follow. But someone will have to take over at State. Who exactly? A look at five possibilities, if President Obama wins a second term:
1. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman had hoped to be Secretary of State in Obama's first term, but "lost out to Hillary Clinton and Obama's 'team of rivals'," says Joan Vennochi in The Boston Globe. He's now waging an unofficial but "artful" campaign to get the nod in Obama's second term. As Secretary of State, Kerry would be powerful enough to "stake out personal turf" and bring his own informed viewpoint to the table. He's definitely on Obama's short list, says Leslie Gelb at The Daily Beast. And among the frontrunners, Obama believes "Kerry would travel a lot and successfully, and interfere least with policymaking."
2. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice
Rice is "perhaps Clinton's likeliest successor," says The Daily Beast's Gelb. Her "blend of soft and hard line sits well in the Oval Office," and she's close to Obama. Rice is also "a rising star in the U.S. political firmament," says Obadiah Mailafia in Nigeria's BusinessDay. And as a Rhodes Scholar from a family of prominent economists, she would fit right in at Foggy Bottom. Rice is "not shy in playing a role in foreign policy," says Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy. And if Obama taps her, it "would signal a redoubling of the effort toward engagement and international diplomacy."
3. National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon
"Donilon is regarded as the wisest policy and political head" on the short list, says Gelb at The Daily Beast. And he appears to want the job. Sticking to the "carefully established informal rules" of jockeying to win the Secretary of State nod, Donlion is said to have suggested Rice for World Bank president — a "justifiable" recommendation, but also one that would remove a top rival from contention.
4. NSC official Samantha Power
The Irish-born Power first went to work for Obama in 2005, when he was a U.S. Senator. Now a human rights and multilateral affairs director in Obama's National Security Council, Power "could be his next Secretary of State or National Security Adviser," says Cathy Hayes at Irish Central. Power is an expert on, and staunch critic, of genocide, and she is considered a key architect of Obama's Libya intervention. But remember, some conservatives and Israel proponents don't like Power because they consider her pro-Palestinian.
5. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.)
Our favorite dark horse candidate is Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress and the first black congressman from Minnesota, says Global Grind. He hasn't been in Congress all that long — since 2007 — but "Ellison would be an excellent choice, [and] his passion alone warrants him worthy of a candidacy."THE whitewash begins. Now that the carbon tax has passed through federal parliament, the government's clean-up brigade is getting into the swing by trying to erase any dissent against the jobs-destroying legislation.
On cue comes the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which this week issued warnings to businesses that they will face whopping fines of up to $1.1m if they blame the carbon tax for price rises.
It says it has been "directed by the Australian government to undertake a compliance and enforcement role in relation to claims made about the impact of a carbon price."
Businesses are not even allowed to throw special carbon tax sales promotions before the tax arrives on July 1.
"Beat the Carbon Tax - Buy Now" or "Buy now before the carbon tax bites" are sales pitches that are verboten. Or at least, as the ACCC puts it, "you should be very cautious about making these types of claims".
There will be 23 carbon cops roaming the streets doing snap audits of businesses that "choose to link your price increases to a carbon price".
Instead, the ACCC suggests you tell customers you've raised prices because "the overall cost of running (your) business has increased".
It's all very Orwellian: the tax whose name cannot be spoken. We are already paying for the climate-change hysteria that has gripped Australia for a decade. Replacing even a portion of our cheap, coal-fired power with renewable energy is hellishly expensive. It also requires costly adaptation of existing infrastructure.
That's a big reason why electricity prices have hit the roof already. So when we accelerate the process with the carbon tax, the pain will escalate. That's the whole point of carbon pricing. A record number of households have had their electricity disconnected because they can't pay their power bills.
Household energy costs are estimated to have risen 17 per cent since July, with the result that the ranks of the energy poor are swelling.
In NSW, the Energy and Water Ombudsman has reported an 18 per cent increase in complaints from people whose electricity has been disconnected.
Then there are all the little immeasurables. For instance, last winter the price of Lebanese cucumbers in NSW skyrocketed because soaring energy costs forced the biggest grower to shut off heat lamps in some of his growing sheds. Result: fewer cucumbers - so prices rose to meet demand.
But no matter how Orwellian the tactics, no matter how many carbon cops are sent into hairdressing salons to interrogate barbers on the precise nature of their price rises, the truth remains: Australia has gone out on a limb, imposing a carbon tax that will send businesses to the wall, cause undue hard-
ship to families, and tether Australians more tightly to government handouts.
And soon, we will send billions of dollars overseas to buy useless pieces of paper called carbon credits. Invest-ment bankers, lawyers and carbon traders will get rich, as will all the usual spivs and scam artists ready to stick a bucket under the government spigot raining taxpayer cash.
It doesn't matter how many fairy stories the Greens tell about how the carbon tax will "save" the Great Barrier Reef and Kakadu. Or how many gullible people believe hurricanes, floods and earthquakes are the result of man-made global warming. Eventually, the truth will out.
Even the International Panel on Climate Change, whose bureaucrat-written summaries cherrypick the most alarming scientific forecasts, is holding back in the face of runaway alarmist rhetoric from politicians.
In fact, leaked draft copies of the IPCC's latest special report into "Extreme Events and Disasters" reveal declining scientific certainty about the threat of human-produced greenhouse gases.
"There are a lot more unknowns than knowns," says BBC environment correspondent Richard Black.
The rising toll of extreme weather events cannot be blamed on greenhouse gas emissions, according to Black, who has seen the draft.
"Uncertainty in the sign of projected changes in climate extremes over the coming two to three decades is relatively large because climate change signals are expected to be relatively small compared to natural climate variability," says the IPCC report. In other words, the effect of human-produced greenhouse gas on the climate is insignificant when compared to natural climate change.
Since he's dropped in for 26 hours, US President Barack Obama could explain to his new best friend Julia Gillard why he decided not to impose a carbon tax on his ailing economy. Or why Canada has prudently ruled out a carbon scheme, and New Zealand is scaling its back and China and India continue to sit on their hands. Durban will be fun.
Originally published as Truth will out on Labor's carbon scam'You're a failure if you don't own a Rolex by the time you're 50,' claims Nicolas Sarkozy's best friend
Jacques Seguela's comments have sparked fury in France
Nicolas Sarkozy's closest personal friend has sparked outrage in France by branding anyone who doesn't own a Rolex watch by the age of 50 as 'a failure'.
The remark by millionaire advertising tycoon Jacques Seguela has been branded 'obscene' at a time when millions of French people are struggling with low wages and soaring unemployment.
It will also be acutely embarrassing to the president, who was urged by his own advisors last year to tone down his 'bling' image by not wearing his own £10,000 Rolex and Ray-Ban sunglasses in public.
Seguela - who introduced the president to wife Carla Bruni at a dinner party in November - made the quip during a TV interview this week.
Asked whether he approved of Sarkozy's love of flashy jewellery, the 60-year-old businessman replied: 'So what if he owns a Rolex, we can't blame him for that.
'Everyone has a Rolex. If you don't have a Rolex by the time you reach 50, then you have clearly failed in your life.'
The comment also comes as Sarkozy was hit by polls showing six out of then French people think he is failing to tackle the economic crisis.
But French news website Agora said yesterday: 'This remark is obscene. We would like to shove Seguela's own Rolex down his throat.'
French daily France-Soir said: 'There is a global financial crisis and people are struggling to make ends meet. Most workers will find this highly offensive.'
Jean-Frangois Copi, presdient of Sarkozy's own UMP party, added: 'It is ridiculous to say owning a Rolex is a mark of success in life.
'Success is realising your goals, being able to do the things you want to, and being with the person you love.'
Seguela refused to apologise for the comment, saying he only said it because he was 'trapped' by the journalist on the France 2 morning news programme.
Matchmaker: Seguela introduced Nicolas Sarkozy, who has also be criticised for his 'bling' lifestyle, to Carla BruniChris Harper-Mercer burst into a classroom at Umpqua Community College firing a single handgun, not the military-style rifle that investigators found at the scene, Oregon's chief federal prosecutor said Friday.
The semiautomatic rifle Harper-Mercer carried was recovered elsewhere on the campus and not fired, Billy J. Williams, the acting U.S. Attorney for Oregon, told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
The 26-year-old gunman, who reportedly asked his victims to state their religion before opening fire on them, got into a firefight with two members of the Roseburg police department. But not before he shot and killed nine and wounded nine others.
Billy J. Williams, the acting U.S. attorney for Oregon
Williams said the first-blush impression of investigators is that Mercer acted alone rather than as part of an organized hate group.
"They're still looking at the possibility of anybody else involved," Williams said. "But right now, the indication is that he acted alone."
Federal agents continue to support the Douglas County Sheriff's Office investigation to establish that Mercer acted without outside help and to learn what ideology - if any - might have motivated the slayings before the shootout that left him dead.
Computers, phones and other electronic data seized from Mercer, his car or apartment were expected to be sent to the FBI's Northwest Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory in Northeast Portland, law enforcement sources told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Experts there will mine the drives to learn what Mercer was writing, and to whom, in hopes of learning what might have inspired the attack or whether he had been radicalized by any hate groups, according to sources familiar with the process.
Mercer reportedly wrote a manifesto of sorts that detailed his anger and depression, according to CBS News.
He came to campus with six weapons, including five handguns and a military-style rifle that law enforcement officials described as a variation of the AR-15.
-- Bryan Denson
503-294-7614; @Bryan_DensonThe NFL's greatest supervillain reads to his kids at night before bedtime. He dotes on his wife and posts goofy things to Facebook like an A+ paper he wrote in high school or his resume from college. He doesn't drink coffee, won't touch tomatoes and rarely drinks. He's a dog lover, too, who's big on sharing recipes.
But don't get it twisted: Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. is a bad, bad man.
At least, that is, if you root for a rival team that's been on the losing end of Brady's dominance over the past 15 seasons. Don't even get Ben Affleck started on how many rival owners and teams have it out for Brady. In the cutthroat universe of pro football, Brady's (alleged) crimes against his cell phone, game balls and the NFL rulebook put him in the conniving company of other legendary scoundrels.
The heart-warming, straight-from Hollywood story of a sixth-round pick who became an NFL legend? The Brazilian supermodel wife? The four Super Bowl rings?
All nauseating to the multitudes of Brady haters. To them, Brady is Richard Nixon and the Pats ball boys are the Watergate burglars.
At least according to a totally unscientific survey of sports-radio hosts from the 32 NFL markets around the country. When asked who is Public Enemy No. 1 for local NFL fans, Brady's name -- and that of his masterminding co-conspirator Bill Belichick -- kept popping up.
From South Florida to the Mile High City, from the Hoosier State to the Empire State, the hatred for Brady and Belichick runs deep and wide.
CBSSports.com original
But No. 12 isn't the |
he will cover the first round of ASICs, at no loss to me. I didn't have to sign any contract; he would pay for the first round, as a friend. If I wanted further investment beyond this point, I would begin working for Moolah/Moopay. "Your first hit is free", right? I accepted this offer. vAsic was launched - and in retrospect, it marked an important date in the fact that Moolah, the "hardware ATM company", had now finally shipped custom hardware - ASICs that were voltmodded by myself. With vAsic, I was spending around 9 hours a day at my day job as a Software Developer, getting home, and spending around 5 hours soldering, and testing devices. At weekends, I’d put in around 30 hours to catch up on any backlog. I’m quite certain the amount of residual lead I’ve absorbed through my fingers at this point will ensure that I’m mad as a hatter by the time I hit my 40’s, but I digress – that’s not the point here. The whole operation went swimmingly, and I agreed with Ryan – he would invest aroundabouts $10,000 in a second round of devices, and would take 49% of vAsic. In return, I would continue working on vAsic, and also become a staff member of Moolah/MooPay. The reaction to vAsic was overwhelmingly positive. Yeah, the profits were razor thin (we’ll get back to this point shortly), but seeing people post up photos of their modded ASICs, mining Doge – and then having a laugh with everyone who wanted a “signed ASIC”? That was what made the project for me. Similar to the work I’d previously done on releasing the Amazon Miner AMI, and working on the Doge source base, I got to see people enjoying the fruits of my labour. The internal company response from Ryan, did not share my views. I was not at any point congratulated for getting all the orders handled – nothing in regards to soldering, reaching shipping deadlines, providing customer updates, handling the support side of things; that was all negligible. The response instead, was “why didn’t we sell them for a higher price?”. Now, I can understand that – but for those who weren’t around during the vAsic unveiling, let me re-cap over the plan than I ran with. The devices themselves would be sold at cost – or even slightly below cost. The main meat of the operation was to lie with vPool, a mining pool which would be run by us. The Pool would absorb a 2% fee, and allow you to either mine Doge, or multi-mine altcoins for a payout in Doge. I was working on software to accompany the mining hardware, which would allow for a “quick setup” – i.e; a pre-compiled miner that’d connect you straight to vPool, and pay out to your wallet address. The logic was simple enough; people receive their ASICs. They can use the pre-compiled miner to avoid the whole setup routine. They make a bang for their buck off the pool, which profit-switches. The 2% fee then goes towards covering any loss on the hardware, or making a profit; whichever Ryan choose to be prudent. We get to undercut prices, miners get cheaper devices. The Doge hashrate is boosted – worse case scenario, we’re doing something great for the community, and we are not making a loss from it. If our only profit is a positive PR – and we’re not making a financial loss, I saw it as a winning situation. So, time came to get the pool up and running – and I requested to work with the Moolah sysadmin Forrest (JRWR) to develop the pool. All I would need from JRWR is the backend work in setting up the daemons as you would with a standard pool; and I’d write the profit-switching algorithm. Ryan assured me that he would lend his own devices (which he claimed to run at a total power of 1GH/s – about 2% of the total hashrate at the time), in order to bolster the pool’s strength and viability. But then things, predictably in hindsight, went wrong. Ryan got angry at the idea of us using NOMP/MPOS to develop our system on. He claimed he was working on his own pool software. Well, not working on it – he was actually running on it. And he claimed it was a profit-switching pool already, with all algorithms already completed. This blindsided me. We were sitting on a profit-switching custom pool software? Why on earth was I not told about this? What’s it written in? Can you please send it on to me? No. “It’s not finished yet”, was the reply. Can you send me on the source base, so that I can finish it myself, considering how busy you are in other areas? “No”. A few weeks went by, and vAsic’s second batch was coming in. I took matters into my own hands – and convinced JRWR to set up a plain Dogecoin and Litecoin pool to run from vPool. The motive was very unappreciated by Ryan, but he seemed to understand to an extent, that vAsic will haemorrhage money if we leave out the most important element of the entire business model – being the pool software. We got the pool up and running, and requested the 1GH/s hashrate to be applied to it. As I’m sure many are assuming – and many are remembering from using vPool, this 1GH/s hashrate never arrived. Our hashrate was too low to find blocks at a reasonable pace, and it was unprofitable for miners. Myself and Landon (TheBoffin), pointed our own personal devices to the pool, lending it around 20MH/s. This was the best we could do at this time – and we had already taken thousands of dollars worth of orders for new devices. And they were all sold at cost; not including the price of solder, soldering tips, packaging, etc. Obviously, there was no real “labour” cost associated with vAsic – I was the one doing the soldering and testing, and a friend agreed to assist with the packaging for a small enough fee (around $200 for a full weeks work – which came to a total of 4 weeks for him). So, what happened? The devices got shipped – the pool was a flop due to the non-delivery and non-development of products we had been promised, and the company as a whole made a loss. I was, to be frank, flabbergasted – how could Ryan allow something like this to happen? If there was no custom pool software, I was ready and willing to develop it. If there was no 1GH/s hashrate to apply to the pool, we could’ve offered mining incentives to some of the bigger miners to assist us in finding blocks for a natural growth over time. Instead, we only had phase 1 of the plan – selling hardware without an incentive for profit. How on earth can a company justify doing that? Well, the answer was, the company was not going to justify it. The response to me was one of anger and blame. vAsic was going to be wound up as a result of these failures. To which, I did not agree with. The deal was that Ryan would take 49% of the company – and I would hold onto the other 51%, alongside lending myself to Moolah/the MooPay holding company. Later, an internal company call took place in regards to company logistics moving forward. This would be the first time I’d ever sat in on an “internal company call” – I was starting to think they only existed for playing League of Legends. At the start of the call, Ryan commented that his power had gone out – and I made the (admitably awful) joke of shouting “THEN WE WILL LOGISTICS IN THE DARK!”, in a tone reminiscent of Leonidas. Well, mistake number one. Ryan responded in stating “Eoghan, please take this seriously, this is a logistics call”. “Alright, let’s do this then”, was my reply. I was met with the response of “Ok, you appear to be having a problem at the moment Eoghan, we will talk to you later”. This was followed up with me being ejected from the conference. My housemate was sitting beside me at the time, and I recall his – excuse the expletive - response to this, was; “What the fuck is his problem?”. I contacted Landon, and told him he can make Ryan aware that I have no interest in continuing our business arrangement. I am happy for Ryan to continue holding 49% of vAsic, and I will continue development on it myself; but as far as Moolah and MooPay goes, I did want any part of it. Ryan’s reaction, and his behaviour towards me had been consistent with the above call. There was a constant sense of fear among staff, and an unsettling feeling that for the most part, would not pass. Landon agreed with me on many sentiments – and later would admit to me that the vast majority of staff members had approached him with similar concerns. However, back to the matter at hand – Landon delivered the message to Ryan, and I then found myself in a very similar situation to what others, such as Jackson Palmer and Ben Doernberg found themselves in before. The vAsic account had around $7500 left in it (after the second round device sales, a loss of around $2500 due to some broken G-Blade models, which we had been given “store credit” for, instead of a refund); and Ryan demanded it back. He also demanded the vAsic company in full; claiming that the fact that I followed his instructions in adding the text “vAsic is a trading style of MooPay Ltd…”, to the webpage footer, made it legally his property; that my 51% was in short, smoke and mirrors. I reacted very angrily. I refused to hand over anything. His response, was that he was contacting the local police station, and would sue me. My response? “Do it”. Suddenly, there was a calm. The story changed. Ryan told me about some personal things he was going through, he was sorry, and didn’t mean to snap at me – it was undeserved, etc. “We’ll make vAsic work. You’ll get more autonomy”. I was given an apology, to which I accepted. Everything was going to be fine, we all have bad days. It happens. What’s important is vAsic gets to continue on, and everything is fine now. Ryan said that we should meet, and celebrate working together – he booked me a ticket over to the UK, and we were going to head out and have fun for the day. Everything was swell again. When I met Ryan, he was as I said all along – a kind, captivating individual. He seemed to have a story for just about everything. He showed me his passport “to prove he was real”, which we both had a laugh at. He told me several stories/quoted several things – that admitably sounded a little far fetched at the time - that I would later read on his Encyclopedia Dramatica article, and mostly in relation to how he built up his personal wealth. Over time, his stories on gaining personal wealth seemed to change; and the strange part is, that in hindsight, I didn’t notice. Over the course of the months that followed, the stories that were being woven seemed to become more and more believable. One in particular, spoke about a relation to the old Earls of England, and a wealthy ancestry tied into this – and again, at the time, this seemed like an entirely reasonable explanation to me. Even though I had been told several different things by the same person, somehow, these things seemed real. Back home, my mind was more at ease with everything – I met the guy, and he was nice. He was genuine. I wanted to get back to work on vAsic. Ryan had other ideas. We spoke over Skype, mostly in regards to the logistical costs involved; packaging, absorbing the cost of broken devices (to which ASIC manufacturers rarely take responsibility for), scaling up the operation with staff requirements etc; and Ryan eventually convinced me that vAsic should be wound down. I agreed. And I can’t tell you why – honestly, because I can’t tell myself why, but I was no longer making the argument of vPool being the intended profit turner; or asking about his custom pool software. Come to think of it, he also stated he had direct contacts at Zeusminer who could give us excellently discounted deals – but none of this occurred to me. I accepted his advice on the situation, and we wound down vAsic. So, what did I do with Moolah/MooPay beyond this point? Well, on my second trip over to the UK to meet Ryan, someone asked me what my job was with Moolah/MooPay. My official title was “research and development”. But I joked “paid friend” when asked. Part in jest, part to drop a hint to Ryan that I was unhappy at how detached my work seemed to be from any of the core platforms. One of my first suggestions to Ryan, was in relation to staff; there are several members of staff working non-technical areas, whom have all proven their technical aptitude. Either from professional experience with programming/development, or from studying a Computer Science field. I stated that we have underutilised talent, whom I could train up on application development over time – giving us a free source of home-brewed coders. Startups nearly always have a self-educating environment with their staff, why wouldn’t we do the exact same, when we already have talented individuals at our disposal? The response was volatile. Insults were thrown towards those with development experience; they are not to be trusted with code. They cannot be good enough to do x, y, and z. It is not up for discussion. You have a project assignment, and I suggest you work on it. My project assignment was something I drew up the whitepaper for on request – and even in the whitepaper documents, I noted how terrible an idea it was from a financial perspective. Without going into great detail, think of rewriting the entire bitcoin protocol in a different language. With very minor changes – just a different language. It made no sense to me as to why it was approved. I constantly chimed in with stating that “there is no way for this to be profitable for the company” – Ryan consistently stated that it was not intended to be. Just to keep working on it. And that was it. I still to this date, do not understand what he was looking to do with this project. Things continued to turn bad for Moolah – but Ryan’s spirits always remained high. We were consistently assured of all the love and admiration that the adoring public are giving us; there’s just a vocal minority comprised of nutbags, rallied by the “downright evil” Ben Doernberg and Jackson Palmer that want to put us down for no reason. And I say this in assuring you, that this is what the staff believed. I stepped up to handle some PR – albeit without permission. I began reading the MoolahPIE subreddit, a discussion forum set up purely for anyone who had invested in the initial 750 BTC offering by Ryan Kennedy, into the newly formed Moolah company. I wouldn’t say that people were angry – rather, they were getting frustrated. Communications from the company on there were minimal; payout and financial information was consistently delayed, and the transparency around all matters were poor. There was a post on there at one point celebrating the fact that I had been hired by Moolah – there appeared to be the impression that vAsic and my own projects would fall under the Moolah banner, meaning they would share the profits from any system I developed. Ryan later told me this wasn’t true, and that any new products I develop would be under the holding company “MooPay”; but that I would still work on Moolah as a developer if needed. Ryan stated that investors were made aware of this. I’m sure I’m going to find out very soon if this statement was true or not. I spoke with a lot of the investors, and I raised all of their queries and concerns to Ryan. Ryan seemed unphased by any of this; and instead, again suggested that I should be working on my assigned projects. I again, spoke with Landon in regards to investor concerns; and he fully agreed with me. The investors have to date, funded the company with what I would personally call, an obscene amount of money. Landon and I both spoke with Ryan about this case; and we were promised more transparency, and better communications. This never occurred. I met Ryan once more in the UK – again, a very spontaneous visit. The tickets were booked by Ryan around 12 hours before the flight was due to fly out. He was again, the same captivating, kind, and generous individual I remembered him as. Any doubts that may have been forming in my mind about him quickly vanished when he gave me a hug on sight, and asked me how I was doing. We went go-karting with Chelsea Hopkins, checked into a flash hotel, and had drinks/a meal in a lavish casino. Ryan talked about how great Moolah was doing. He seemed to be in a really good place, and I was very happy for him. Why wouldn’t I be? He’s my friend and he’s doing so well – everything was turning out rosy for everyone involved. Upon returning home, I was again instilled with confidence – things are going to be great. I wrote up a proposal and whitepaper for a new internal project, which I suggested as a replacement for ‘MooFarm’ – of which, I believe the story is quite well known. Ryan ordered a large amount of Gridseed equipment for Scrypt mining, to which he later claimed became entirely unprofitable by Zeus’ entry into the marketplace, with their lower cost, higher powered ASIC devices. The project I presented had an aim to allow for profitable mining, and transferring across ‘MooFarm’ shares with the approval of the investors. Ryan later stated he was too busy to read over the project proposal, as he would be taking off for Japan shortly. Again, this travel arrangement came as news to everyone at Moolah. I sent on the project whitepaper to Landon Merrill instead. He reviewed over it, and loved the concept. Like me, he wanted to see it get implemented as soon as possible as an alternative to “save” MooFarm. Ryan on the other hand, suddenly became staunchly against the idea – without even reading the papers. He claimed that there will be no “saving” MooFarm. The MooFarm project is dead, and will not be discussed. This was the final word on the matter.. for a couple of days. Ryan spoke to me a few days later, from Japan, and stated we should launch the project I proposed – but not under MooPay or Moolah. It should be spun off as an entirely separate entity. This caught me off-guard; it was again, baffling to me as to why we would want to spin off this idea into a new company, rather than using it to restore confidence in Moolah/MooPay. I did not receive a response to this. Instead, the conversation went cold, and we did not speak of the project proposal again. Ryan’s focus right now was on MintPal. My main concern however, was along the lines of “Why on earth is he in Japan, when a major trading platform is about to get relaunched?”. The issues with the relaunch hoisted a red flag in my mind – but the difference is that this time, I did not wave that flag down and reassure myself everything was fine. In the event of a mass database migration, I have never heard of taking two platforms offline. The typical way that this would be done, is that the smaller of the two sets (being moolah/prelude), would be taken offline, and converted to the new database format. After a (mostly manual) audit over the accounts set for transfer, you would then run a consistency check against the “new” database. Make sure different people aren’t using the same usernames, make sure balances are fine, etc. You then run a “test” merge, using an offline copy of the “new” database, and check if everything transferred through correctly and without error. Following this point, the larger of the two websites (being mintpal in this case), should be taken offline for around 45-60 minutes (at most), to complete a quick database merge based on the success of your test results. Why would someone, who told me that he had worked in development for Microsoft, Amazon, and Telefonica to name a few, see several days downtime for what is in my opinion, a basic task? Things started to unravel; it became very clear that Ryan did not want to be questioned on this case. Any staff requests were ignored - and from the support staff I have spoken to, they have all stated that they are “behind closed bars” in handling customer/merchant/investor queries. They have no access to processing refunds or checking transactions themselves; it was all handled solely by the one and only, Ryan Kennedy. Information, and conflicting stories started spreading amongst the staff members like wildfire. Tension was high. MintPal went live in a “beta testing” state, and I had a quick look at it. I found an exploit very quickly; where I could inject the name of non-existent coins into the trading url, and a blank trading profile would be displayed for said coins. The main issue I had with this was that it was parsing in the text I had written into the URL, and displaying it on the page. I notified Ryan about it in Moolah’s private chatroom, and followed this up by stating that while I personally could not get any scripts to run (attempted injections of javascript/SQL Queries, which were then blocked by the backend as set up by MintPal’s old team) – I stated that “someone much smarter than you or I may find this bug, and find a way to exploit it better”. The response I received, again raised a red flag. “If you want to doubt your own intelligence Eoghan, you can. Do not doubt mine”. Any competent developer, any experienced developer, or really anyone with a decent understanding of the industry, will ALWAYS know that there is ALWAYS someone smarter out there. Any developer who thinks they are “the best developer ever” is extremely far from “the best developer ever”. Overconfidence is a trait that I always assign with brand new programmers. It’s not necessarily a bad thing – because brand new programmers need both excitement and confidence to carry them through the learning process, wile usually working on little bits of personal software. Not one of the largest altcoin trading platforms on the planet. In not so many words, I relayed the above opinion to Ryan. The response was apocalyptic. But not towards me. Several staff members were put on “paid suspension” – for various reasons. I witnessed all suspensions, and the reasonings (rather, the non-reasons) behind them were nothing short of outrageous. Random accusations of non-tangible targets not being met; the behemoth amount of support tickets coming in being the fault of the support team alone (when the exchange was not even running – and the public were audibly making references to a ‘MintGox’, implying Ryan may be doing a runner with their money); and Landon, who had his personal life dragged into the reasons behind his work suspension. I was initially told that I was suspended “until we can find a suitable project for you to work on”; as he showed displeasure in the fact that the month or so I had spent on entirely re-writing the bitcoin protocol in a new language, did not yet have any tangible software available. A few days later, he assured me that I was not suspended; and did not give any reason or explanation for this. Ryan re-iterated over his reasons for suspending the other staff members; and honestly, he managed to make them sound very tangible. Looking back on it, I was happy to believe it all. I was more happy that my job was apparently safe. Ryan began speaking about the great volume that MintPal was doing; and that he had been trading on it himself. Staff appeared to be “unsuspended”, with no reasons given. I remained in touch with Landon. We both had concerns at this point – to say the least. I got in touch with other members of the support team – namely Seb, and Alex ‘Hatz’. A big concern at the moment was that apparently, staff were not being paid. It was starting to dawn on us that something was seriously wrong; and all of a sudden, we all became blindsided by Ryan’s “bankruptcy statement” release. I will say at this point that I have never had any view over Moolah’s financials. I was never privy to that information – and in conducting a screencasted audit on the request of r/dogecoin users back far before my employment with Moolah began, Ryan proved to me that the wallets contained all of the financials that were purported. Beyond this point, the only information I had to go by, was in Ryan sharing positive news – or in most cases, boasting about huge volume going through Moolah’s Merchant and Storefront services. So why is it, all of sudden, after a 750BTC Fundraiser, alongside supposed private investments totalling up for several dozen additional BTC, and several months of profitability (to which MoolahPIE Investors received positive returns on), that one bad month can cause bankruptcy? How on earth is anything like that possible? Investors were furious; merchants and consumers were similarly, shocked by the sudden announcement. Ryan was not providing any answers beyond the point that “we did really well to make it 10 months as a startup, with limited funds”. My thoughts immediately recoiled back to the “leaked video” involving Ryan, Jackson, and Ben. During which, Ryan boasts that he has VC’s “bending over backwards” in attempts to invest; but Moolah didn’t need investment, he claimed. “Our MoolahPIE was just a marketing tool”. Moolah was, as Ryan declared it to be, unstoppable, financially secure, and apparently backed by what must have been the busiest legal team on the planet considering the amount of threats that were issued from Ryan. Investors were furious – the SYSCoin team in particular, were missing approximately 750BTC. Legal allegations began; and I couldn’t blame people. If this happened to me, if my money suddenly was “all gone” without explanation, and signed off with a gratuitous “Thanks for all the fish!”, my blood would boil. And as the legal threats poured in, suddenly the bankruptcy was called off. “Those people would love to see us go down”, Ryan stated. “We’ll make this work” he claimed, before following up with a pun on stating how it’d be great to silence everyone with ATMs being released too. I can only speak for myself on this matter – but I strongly believe all staff members felt the exact same I did. Something was seriously wrong. Something is wrong to the extent where I believe that law enforcement will become involved. I asked what was happening with MintPal – Ryan snapped back that MintPal no longer had anything to do with Moolah/MooPay, or otherwise. It was no longer our concern. Almost immediately after this occurred, I received a phonecall from Landon – who kept asking me to verify Ryan’s full name. I stated that “you know his name as well as I do – it’s Ryan Kennedy”. Landon asked me if I had read that off his identification, and I confirmed that I had. He then asked me if I remembered Ryan’s date of birth from seeing his passport. Now, as an admission – I am terrible for remembering birthdays. I’m truly awful at it. If it weren’t for Facebook, I wouldn’t even know when to wish my best friends a happy birthday. However, I clearly remember commenting on the day, on the fact that our birthdays are very close to oneanother. “Should be sometime in December, and I think he’s a year older than me”, I replied with. Landon’s voice audibly sank. He asked me if I had ever heard of the surname “Gentle”. I replied that I did not. Landon then linked me on to the now infamous Encyclopedia Dramatica article referencing Ryan Kennedy/Gentle (amongst other psuedonyms). He asked me to confirm that the photos posted on that page were of Ryan Kennedy. I stated that they certainly him. There is no mistaking that this is the Ryan Kennedy I know, and have met. But the article itself painted a different picture. “There is no way that this is the Ryan Kennedy I know, and have met”. And still in writing this document, I still do not feel like I am in any way writing about the Ryan Kennedy that I know, and have met. Sure he had volatile moments – but this cannot be him. Surely it cannot be. I spoke with Jackson Palmer that night over Skype, and I shared as much information as I could; maintaining that there must be an explanation behind all of this. And at a same time, all the inconsistencies in his past started shooting to mind – from his finely woven stories about his personal wealth, down to his ensuring that no member of Moolah/MooPay were given a written, paper contract; despite our constant attempts and efforts put into receiving one. Now my mind started to wonder if he was trying to protect us in the scale of a grand scam – or if he was ensuring that a paper trail was not left. I immediately got in touch with Mike, and Ferdous; the main shareholders in MintPal. They were as shellshocked by all of this information as I was. They then revealed to me something far more dangerous; Ryan is currently in complete control of the MintPal system, inclusive of the cold storage wallets. Coupled with this, over 1000 BTC in altcoins were not transferred in the “server migration”; and would have been lost forever if MintPal’s previous owners (Jay and Jason) did not reach out to the server host. The hopes that I had that this was all a big mis-understanding in regards to Ryan Kennedy in my mind, were soon quelled by an email that I was forwarded from Ryan’s server host. --- 17 Oct 2014 01:54 Yeah, it has been a total mess and the guy is extremely shady. The servers got suspended for non-payment. A few days later Ryan opened a ticket asking why the servers were down and we told him they were suspended for non payment. He then tried to pay by cycling through credit cards, which flagged in our system as potential fraud. This blocked future CC payments under the account. He then tried to pay with PayPal, and we unsuspended the machines. About 6 hours later the payments were disputed with PayPal as unauthorized and we then suspended again. He then said it was a new PayPal account and sorry for the trouble, he would take care of it… We did not unsuspend at this point and told him the disputes need to be closed. Several days go by and they are still open and unresolved and no word from him. Finally he states he got in touch with PayPal and fixed the issue and it should be resolved within 24 hours. The disputes were closed by PayPal in his favor and all funds refunded. We have the servers suspended still, but at this point we are about to just consider it a lost cause. The guy gave us a UK address, but not once has he logged in via a UK IP address. All of the IPs are from random high risk countries (Russia, China, etc). --- The information above is damning enough to begin with; but we all paid close attention to the last line of that email. “Not once has he logged in via UK IP address”. We know he’s not in China, nor Russia. Recall that earlier, I expressed doubts in my mind about his aptitude as a developer – and suddenly, we all flipped onto the same page. Was Ryan even developing for any of these platforms? April – the user Sporklin from reddit, contacted me and showed me that MintPal’s redesign was in fact, a template. A cheap template at that; around $25. And suddenly, everyone started asking me to same question; was I involved with Moolah’s core development, and have I seen Ryan’s code to date? No, I haven’t. I was always kept busy on what seemed like a pointless project to me. Absolutely nobody within the Moolah staff team had ever seen Ryan Kennedy’s code. Ryan at this time, was in the Moolah private channel, brushing the entire situation off like it was a smear campaign. Claiming he’ll legally go through people for what they’re doing. We should all ignore it. And honestly, a very small part of me still believed this. I kept speaking with Jackson Palmer, who later put me in touch with Ben Doernberg. The first thing I had to say to Ben was “I am so sorry”. I think I might’ve said it several more times throughout our conversation. He mentioned that he was relieved to see me on webcam, and verify that I wasn’t Alex Green/Ryan Kennedy myself. We both had a good laugh at this – conspiracy theories ran so far on Ryan Kennedy that now that everything was coming to light, it was hard to tell which “insane lies and tin-foil hat theories” were actually true. Ben was one of the first people to call Ryan out on his allegations; and he was responded to with legal threats. Ryan talked at length about how he would cut through Ben for a shortcut (in the legal regard) – I believe every member at Moolah were well conditioned to see Ben (and Jackson to an extent) as the antichrist. In speaking with Ben, we talked about everything – my involvement at Moolah, what I do at college, small-talk about ourselves as people, and having a laugh at how my terrible HP Webcam makes me look unhealthily pale with contrast problems. The most important thing that I took away from this conversation, was that Ben was not out to get anyone. In re-watching the “leaked video” now, I seem to do so from an entirely different light. I’m picking up on the inconsistencies in the stories being spun, rather than accepting them as fact. Ben had one purpose in all of this; he did not want to see people getting hurt, swindled, or defrauded. And I was one of those in what was a large group of people, who called him a spreader of lies. Someone who just wanted to see us lose our jobs. Someone who wanted to see this brand new, loving and friendly company go under for their own enjoyment. And for this, I cannot overstate how sorry I am. My thoughts immediately went back to Mike, and Ferdous, who are currently still in the midst of MintPal – whom are now being assisted by Jay and Jason (the previous MintPal team), in cleaning up the wake of destruction that was left by Ryan Kennedy. And the pity/remorse I had for Ryan’s case went out the window, when I realised that Mike and Ferdous were being targeted by those who have been wronged by Ryan. Ryan already made it plain and simple in Moolah’s private chat – “MintPal is not our problem anymore”. What happened to MintPal is the equivalent of a nuclear bomb being dropped on a City, and a two-man hazard crew consisting of Mike and Ferdous are now in charge of the cleanup – and attempting to follow the trail of a 3700BTC transaction from MintPal, which is now accused of being lodged into a personal account of Ryan Kennedy. I do not personally know what is going to happen with Moolah, or Ryan Kennedy beyond this point. I can take an educated guess that it will involve law enforcement – and an even more educated guess in that anyone whom previously worked with Moolah, certainly do not work for them anymore. The damage that has been done to this point is beyond extensive – and there’s still a small part in the back of my mind saying that “The Ryan Kennedy I know, my friend Ryan Kennedy is coming back to fix all of this”. Unfortunately, that is not how the story ended. It instead, ended with a whimper. [18/10/2014 23:54:00] moolah.io: I'm not saying anything after all I have done for everybody, you in particular, this is how you choose to repay me. Posting like this while you know legal talks are ongoing, and posting like this in what reads as a fairly clear attempt to throw me under the bus "just in case". To the person who has been leaking from this chat for some time, when it fails to be proven that any criminal activity has happened - I will be taking action against those that decided to contribute information to the attacks on me, and the other employees. I am not a passive person in this regard. If you all want to ensure you are protected? Fine. As of 2354 GMT on October 18th, 2014 - the employment of each and every one of you is terminated in full. Any access, or attempt at access to company resources or information; past this time, will be dealt with accordingly by law. If any of you wants to talk, you have my email. [18/10/2014 23:54:03] *** moolah.io removed Alex from this conversation. *** [18/10/2014 23:54:05] *** moolah.io removed Chris from this conversation. *** [18/10/2014 23:54:09] *** moolah.io removed Eoghan from this conversation. *** [00:44:34] moolah.io: You're welcome to post that if you wish, but I honestly recommend speaking with a lawyer first. [00:44:38] moolah.io: You should know me better, Eoghan. - /u/lleti (Eoghan) Signed with BTC: 1p3RLXWPLyRbidiX6Vo53Cc3qFmrLRHN1 Signature: IJGoIdA5M5QA9WAXuXSRJfSDVLVruY1qVF9cDUml/8EkMdJETf3AJh5s2z5eqsYJ1GJnxbNsyvytnz7X3uBIfHM=“Do you think that you will enter Paradise while such [trials] have not yet come to you as came to those who passed before you? They were touched by poverty and hardship and were shaken until [even their] messenger and those who believed with him said, ‘When is the help of Allah coming?’ Unquestionably, the help of Allah is near.” [ |
through a bad breakup knows the look well.
It’s not just Clinton. America's jilted candidates have resorted to any number of coping mechanisms after being rejected by their greatest love: America. And thanks to social media users who make it impossible for these former candidates to hide, we know what those coping mechanisms are. Here’s how other losing presidential contenders have muddled through the worst breakup of their lives.
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1. Retreating to the woods
Margot Gerster/Facebook
In addition to bathing in the blue light of her cellphone screen, Hillary has soothed her spirit through a more wholesome, time-honored practice: a nice walk in the woods. What better way to forget recent disappointments than hiking alongside eager picture-posting fans and a husband who happened to occupy the very position you were spurned for?
2. Growing a beard
Getty
Al Gore wisely went clean-shaven while campaigning in 2000—the U.S. hasn’t elected a bearded president for over a century. (Some suspect it’s because our nation’s greatest enemies all sport facial hair, so it’s a look we associate with scoundrels.) But after a few hanging chads put a stake in his heart, Gore went full Rumspringa: He ran off on a six-week Euro trip and grew a beard.
3. Making a big show of how much more fun you’re having now
AP Photo
The day he handed the presidency over to Bill Clinton in 1993, George H.W. Bush showed up at his home in Houston like a walking Cher gif. The only thing missing was a glass of white wine for him to lean over while confiding, “Getting out was the best thing that could’ve happened to me.”
4. Retail therapy
Following his loss in the 2016 Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders embraced a decidedly capitalist method of dulling the pain: Shopping at Costco.
5. More retail therapy
Reddit
In 2012, Mitt Romney also headed to the bulk-goods mothership, sporting the tried-and-true (hangover) recovery combo of a hat and sunglasses. He filled his cart with V8, bottled water, and a new puffer jacket like he was stockpiling for the apocalypse. Which is evidently how he viewed his loss to Barack Obama, since his post-election malaise also saw him...
6. Going on solo drives
Reddit
If the face doesn’t tell you he’s hurting, the hair sure does.
7. Indulging in guilty pleasures
A trip to Disneyland? Date night to go see Twilight: Breaking Dawn - Part 2? Romney is a man who clearly understands self-care. Still, he had a little healing left to do, which brings us to…
8. Eating the pain away
Reddit
Romney headed to McDonald’s for a McFlurry just hours after he visited Obama in the White House on November 29. The day after that, he stopped for a slice in Salt Lake City. In transit between the two, he got to mellow out the best way he knew how...
9. Taking to the skies
Mitt Romney is a mouth breather, based on this creepy picture my sister just sent me from her plane. pic.twitter.com/4e5uxJuAZx — McKalyn Danner (@mckalyn) May 27, 2014
Yes, he usually flies coach.
10. NOT wandering the streets
Let’s make one thing clear. Jeb Bush is a complete stranger to the Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Jeb Bush doesn’t roam the streets of Boston from dusk to dawn, shrouding himself in the dark night and wallowing in utter solitude. Jeb Bush is just a man getting from point A to point B. Nothing to see here.
11. Spending time in the great outdoors
AP Photo
Nothing puts a loss in perspective like a long walk on the beach in crisp new resort-wear. Walter Mondale retreated to the familial embrace (and the Virgin Islands) after Ronald Reagan bested him in 1984, and he’s never been happier.
12. Stockholm syndrome a.k.a. “Let’s stay friends”
Screenshot/Twitter
Ted Cruz headed straight into the arms of the ones who hurt him, phone-banking for Donald Trump after losing to him in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. But we all know what “Let’s stay friends” turns into after a few drinks.
13. Pursuing new hobbies
George Bush and the presidency parted amicably—sort of—but he still used his newfound freedom to reinvent himself. His new chapter showed he was more than capable of, ahem, self-reflection.The Italian 'pay to race' investigation has taken another bizarre twist after the appeal hearing was suspended due to a lack of heating at the Italian Cycling Federation offices. Related Articles Viviani provides testimony in Italian 'pay to race' inquiry
Italian team manager cleared after 'pay to race' investigation
Gianni Savio threatens legal action against witness after being cleared in 'pay to race' case
Italian investigation claims Italian riders forced to pay to race
The appeal was put back to February but with presidential elections only a week away and with a major change in the legal department expected as a consequence; it is unclear if a final verdict will ever be reached.
Bruno Reverberi, Angelo Citracca and Gianni Savio - the team managers at Bardiani-CSF, Wilier-Southeast and Androni Giocattoli - were all cleared of accusations that they somehow forced riders to find sponsors and pay to race as professionals with their Professional Continental teams.
The Italian Olympic Committee lodged an appeal and claimed that there was more than enough evidence for a guilty verdict. According to Gazzetta dello Sport, the appeal hearing went on for almost four hours, with lawyers and official wearing coats and gloves, before the president of the appeal decided to suspend the hearing.
The investigation dubbed 'pagi e corri' – 'pay to ride' – began after a detailed investigation by Italian journalist Marco Bonarrigo for the prestigious Corriere della Sera newspaper. By speaking to several riders and witnesses, Bonarrigo lifted the lid on the financial deals that are widely suspected of occurring in the lower levels of Italian cycling. Olympic gold medallist Elia Viviani was a key witness in the investigation, with six other riders reportedly confirming to investigators that they were forced to fund their place in the professional peloton.
Reverberi, Citracca and Savio all denied obliging riders to pay to race with their teams and other illegal financial agreements. They suggested that riders often helped secure sponsorship but that they operated within the UCI rules. The UCI has never failed to award the teams in question Professional Continental licences.
However several riders and their agents admitted that the system is widespread, with one agent, who wished to remain anonymous, admitting that most of the 15 riders he works with pay to race. The investigation focused on Italy. Similar illegal practices are suspected in other countries but are not believed to be as widespread.
Some Italian riders are apparently so desperate to turn professional after years of riding as an amateur that they are ready to accept virtually any contract. However, this favours riders who can, or are willing, to pay, and weakens the quality of the Italian peloton, while other riders quit the sport or try their hand with teams in other countries.
Former Tuscan amateur rider Matteo Mammini told Corriere della Sera that he was asked to pay 50,000 Euro to turn professional. He asked the bank for a loan but preferred to use the money to open a bar. Mammini was one of the best Italian riders in 2012, finishing fourth at the European under 23 championships and sixth in the world championships.The head of the euro group of euro zone finance ministers, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, warned on Monday that the euro zone was in danger of breaking apart. Leaders must use "all means at their disposal" to save the currency union, he urged.
"We have arrived at a decisive point," Juncker told German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. "The world is talking about whether the euro zone will still exist in a few months."
"There is no time to lose," Juncker added. "We must now make abundantly clear with all available means that we are firmly determined to guarantee the financial stability of the currency union."
Juncker also said the euro countries, together with the temporary bailout fund EFSF and the European Central Bank, were preparing to purchase government bonds of struggling euro-zone member countries.
"It still has to be decided what we're exactly going to do when," he said. This depends on "the developments in the next few days and on how fast we have to react."
Flurry of Leaders' Statements
Juncker's remarks echoed strongly-worded comments from EU leaders and ECB President Mario Draghi, who pledged action to protect the euro after the crisis was exacerbated last week with a sharp rise in Spanish borrowing costs to unsustainable levels above seven percent.
Draghi said on Thursday that he would do whatever was necessary to protect the euro zone from collapse, which triggered speculation over a new bond-buying program by the ECB.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande issued a statement on Friday saying they will "do everything" to defend the euro zone. Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti made the same pledge after a phone conversation on Saturday.
The statements were a sign that last week's events in financial markets had rattled EU leaders.
According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, the planned bond-buying operation by the ECB and EFSF will work as follows:
The bailout fund will purchase bonds directly from the government in so-called primary market purchases that central banks are forbidden to undertake.
The ECB will buy government bonds from banks or investment funds in the so-called secondary market in order to push down market interest rates.
The aim of the operation is to double the EU's firepower in the fight against the debt crisis.
Swipe at Germany's Rösler
Juncker praised Draghi, saying: "When Draghi speaks and the markets react it suits me very well." The ECB president wasn't saying things the government leaders weren't thinking themselves, he added. But the "ECB's credibility is higher."
He said Germany was partly to blame for the escalating crisis. The country was affording itself "the luxury to conduct domestic policy regarding euro issues," he alleged. In an indirect criticism of German Economy Minister Philipp Rösler, who said last week that a Greek exit had lost its "horrors," Juncker said "chit chat" about a Greek exit wasn't helpful.
He said Greece had a duty to deliver on the reform pledges it made in return for international aid. But its exit from the euro zone would not solve the bloc's problems. "On the contrary. The reputation of the euro countries around the world would be significantly damaged, and there would be enormous consequential damage," he said.
Greek Coalition Drafting Added Austerity Measures
In Athens, there were reports that government coalition leaders were close to finding additional savings worth 11.5 billion ($14.1 billion) for 2013 and 2014 to satisfy Greece's lenders. Officals from the troika of EU, ECB and International Monetary Fund are visiting Athens to evaluate the country's progress in complying with the terms of its latest bailout.
Meanwhile, former British prime minister Tony Blair urged Germany on Monday to accept a mutualization of European debt to save the euro. The efforts made so far to rescue the currency weren't enough, Blair wrote in a guest commentary published in Bild newspaper. "Giving up the euro now would be a disaster, not just politically, but economically," wrote Blair.
He said it wasn't surprising that Germans were reluctant to fund bailout packages, accept higher inflation and accept liability for the debts of countries that had failed to implement necessary reforms. But Germany now had to agree "to a form of collectivization of debt," he added. Debtor nations in turn would have to agree to reform themselves through precise and credible programs with an exact timetable.
In a further sign of how concerned officials are about the crisis, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble on Monday will meet his US counterpart Timothy Geithner on the North Sea island of Sylt, where Schäuble is vacationing. Geither is also scheduled to travel on to Frankfurt for talks with Draghi.Catholic priest Jose Palmar, a supporter of Venezuela's opposition, holds a rosary toward the police as they block the access to the building housing the National Assembly in Caracas, January 5, 2016. REUTERS/Marco Bello
Venezuela's capital, Caracas, earned the ignominious distinction of being the world's most violent city in 2015, based on its homicide rate.
Crime and violence are rampant throughout the country, and a recent report from Human Rights Watch and a Venezuelan human-rights organization indicates that the war on crime launched by the government has only added to the carnage.
In 135 operations conducted primarily in poor areas between July 2015 and the end of that year as part of the "Operation to Liberate and Protect the People" (OLP) 20 alleged extrajudicial killings were documented, hundreds of arbitrary detentions and some subsequent abuses were recorded, and thousands of people were evicted from their homes.
During OLP raids carried out by the national guard, national police, intelligence-service officials, and state-police forces last year, 245 people were killed, and in the cases included in the HRW/Venezuelan Human Rights Education-Action Program (PROVEA) report, evidence "suggests that the individuals whom security personnel shot and killed were non-threatening." In some cases, those people were allegedly killed after they were taken into custody.
The disparity between the number of people killed in those raids and the number of security agents killed or wounded "undercuts the government's claim that killings took place when criminals violently confronted the police," the report says.
Venezuelan soldiers detain and escort men whom local media reported were suspected to be linked to a paramilitary group from Colombia, during a special deployment, at San Antonio in Tachira state, Venezuela, August 22, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Eduardo Ramirez
More than 14,000 Venezuelans were temporarily detained between July 2015 and January 2016 to "verify" if they were wanted in relation to any crimes, according to official sources. However, fewer than 100 of those people were ultimately charged with an offense.
In some cases documented by the HRW/PROVEA report, law-enforcement agents physically abused those detainees, and some agents allegedly stole personal items from homes.
HRW/PROVEA also found evidence that government agents had evicted thousands of people and destroyed hundreds of homes in the course of OLP raids. In some cases, residents said they were not given the legally required notice before those evictions or the opportunity to challenge them.
A man shows a paper to a Venezuelan soldier, while he waits to try to cross the Simon Bolivar international bridge, on the border with Colombia, at San Antonio in Tachira state, Venezuela August 22, 2015. Reuters
Many Colombians living in Venezuela, some of who had refugee status, were also deported during OLP operations.
More than 1,700 Colombian citizens were deported from the border state of Tachira alone, and more than 22,000 left Venezuela in fear of deportation or other abuses.
None of the deported Colombians interviewed for the report said they were given a chance to appeal, and many said they had been physically abused by Venezuelan security agents.
While the toll OLP-related security measures have taken is surprising, the tactics themselves are not new.
"There is a longstanding belief actually among the population, and this predates Chavez … that the only real way to address crime is through'mano dura,'" or "iron fist," policies, Alejandro Velasco, a professor at New York University, told Business Insider in late 2015.
"And the exemplar of mano dura is the military or some sort of highly repressive force," Velasco added, "whether it's the military or the national guard."
With the failure of law-enforcement and gun-control reforms that were pursued between 2008 and 2014, the Venezuelan government has fallen back on these "mano dura" polices, which have emphasized a larger presence of the military and militarized police on the streets, particularly in poorer areas.
A boy with blood on his chest kneels in front of police after 14-year-old student Kluiver Roa died during a protest in San Cristobal, in Venezuela's western Tachira state, February 24, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Eduardo Ramirez
"When the army is deployed to do citizen security they follow the rules of engagement that are conventionally military," Velasco told Business Insider. "Their rules of engagement are so discretionary and broad that we have seen a significant amount of deaths."
These military forms of policing "have been proven ineffective time and again," David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), wrote recently, but they continue to have broad public support.
In the face of these reported abuses, victims have struggled to find justice or to challenge the conduct of government agents. "The Venezuelan judiciary has ceased to function as an independent branch of government and has routinely upheld abusive government policies and practices," the HRW/PROVEA report notes.
Venezuelan national guards deny the entry of a man and his son to Venezuela in the Tachira River, close to Villa del Rosario village, Colombia, August 26, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Miguel Gomez
PROVEA has reported accusations to the Venezuelan attorney general on numerous occassions, but it's not clear that charges leveled against officers taking part in OLP raids will be investigated, according to WOLA.
"The problem is impunity," a resident of Miranda state in north-central Venezuela told HRW/PROVEA interviewers. "As long as there is impunity, the mistreatment by authorities will continue."MexicoLeaks was announced by star journalist Carmen Aristegui last week when she told her audience that her MVS radio team was part of the initiative.
The website uses encryption software to encourage would-be whistleblowers, who would normally fear retaliation, to anonymously send documents to an alliance of news outlets and civic groups in order to expose corruption in a country plagued by graft.
While MexicoLeaks has only begun to receive documents, it was Aristegui’s seemingly benign announcement that snowballed into a scandal.
MVS distanced itself from MexicoLeaks and fired two journalists before sacking Aristegui on Sunday, sparking accusations that one of the voices most critical of the government was being muzzled.
Aristegui, 51, revealed last year that President Enrique Pena Nieto’s wife had bought a mansion from a government contractor, raising conflict of interest allegations, which the government rejected.
Calling her dismissal an attack on freedom of speech, Aristegui suggests that her firing was planned by someone with “much power”. She says her team was investigating the finance minister and the army when they were fired.
MVS has denied coming under pressure from the government or seeking to silence Aristegui.
While Aristegui and MVS feud, MexicoLeaks is quietly amassing documents through its secure website.
Discussions to create MexicoLeaks began last year, with the help of Free Press Unlimited, a Dutch-based foundation that helps journalists in conflict zones.
A person with secrets to spill must download the special web browse Tor, which hides their location, to be able to send them through MexicoLeaks without being detected.
The whistleblower can choose to send the documents to one or more of the eight members of the alliance of civic groups and national news outlets. The organisations then launch investigations to verify the information before deciding to publish anything.
Eduard Martin-Borregon, a member of the Poder civic group that participates in MexicoLeaks, says his pro-transparency organisation is already investigating tips it has received since last week.
“With MexicoLeaks’ secure filter system, we hope that many acts of corruption and human rights violations that occur in Mexico – but are not exposed because people are afraid of reprisals – can be published by the press and prosecuted,” he says.
The 30-year-old Catalan refuses to give any details about the documents.
But, he says, “I think we won’t have to wait too long for the first leak.”
The MexicoLeaks website may also offer a model for citizens in other countries to call their under-scrutinised and corruption-prone institutions to account.Google (S GOOG) is about to open up another front in the war for your living room: The company is set to announce the launch of Android TV at its Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco in June, according to multiple sources familiar with Google’s plans.
Android TV won’t be another device, but rather a platform that manufacturers of TVs and set-top boxes can use to bring streaming services to the television. In that way, it is similar to Google TV, the platform the company unveiled at its 2010 Google I/O conference. But while Google TV was focused on marrying existing pay TV services with apps, Android TV will at least initially be all about online media services and Android-based video games.
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Google has been talking to a number of media services about participating on Android TV in recent months, and it is expected that the usual suspects, including Netflix(S NFLX) and Hulu Plus, all are going to be available at launch. The company is likely also going to announce a few select hardware partners, which could have devices running Android TV available in the coming months.
Android TV’s secret weapon: Pano
Android TV’s key focus will be on simplicity, which will be reflected in the user interface. Key to that is something the company has internally been calling Pano. The idea behind Pano is that apps can surface individual pieces of content right on the home screen in a card-like fashion so that users can browse movies, TV shows and other types of media as soon as they turn on an Android TV.
Content will be presented in a series of cards that can be browsed horizontally, and each movie or TV show episode has deep links into publisher’s apps, giving users the option to start playback right away. That’s different from the traditional smart TV experience, where users generally first have to launch an app from a publisher, and then browse that apps catalog before they can play a title.
As I first reported in April, Android TV originally had an even more radical vision, which would have potentially done away with app user interfaces completely. Publishers would have instead used data feeds displayed via slightly customizable templates, leading to an experience in which apps would have more felt like content directories than disparate experiences with differing user interfaces.
Back in April, I reported that some app publishers apparently weren’t too happy with that idea, despite Google’s assurance that users could always switch to a native app view. At this point, it’s unclear how much of that original vision has survived in the version of Android TV we are going to see next month, but it looks like the original vision of Pano will live on at least for Google’s own movies and TV show catalog. A recently-leaked changelog file for the upcoming version Android 4.4.3 contains plenty of references to Pano, including some that suggest that Google will pull in Rotten Tomatoes ratings and other data to include on movie details pages.
We got a first preview of how Pano is going to look like in April, when the Verge published an internal document about Android TV in April that showed mocked-up screenshots consisting of a cards-based UI with a focus on content, and not apps. I’ve been told that this is largely consistent with what Google is going to announce next month. The look and feel of the UI will be similar to that of Amazon’s(s amzn) Fire TV, including a heavy focus on gaming, I have been told.
Why Google wants yet another platform
The big, obvious question about Android TV is: Why would Google do this? The company failed when it tried a similar platform approach with Google TV, and landed a success when it launched its Chromecast streaming stick last summer. Google still hasn’t provided any concrete numbers, but executives have said that the company has sold millions of Chromecasts, which is significantly more than Google TV’s hardware partners ever sold. Chromecast also has support from most major, and a growing number of smaller content publishers, and Google has said that it wants to get consumer electronics manufacturers to add cast capabilities to their own devices in the near future. So why would Google launch yet another, seemingly competing product?
There are two answers to this question. One is strategic, one is political. At Google I/O, you are likely going to hear the first one, which goes a bit like this: Chromecast is a great, inexpensive device for consumers that want to use their mobile devices to launch content on their TV. But due to its aggressively priced, limited hardware, it’s not capable of everything.
Gaming in paticular will never be its strong suit, and a more powerful device capable of running full Android apps, as opposed to the web apps that power Chromecast, could help to capture a market of casual gamers that aren’t willing to spend $500 for a next-generation game console, but still want to be able to play games that are at least as good as those on their tablet. Think of it as an Ouya done right, or as an attempt to steal some of Fire TV’s thunder. Plus there are arguably consumers that do want a real remote control, and navigate menus on screen — so why should Google leave those consumers up for grabs, and cede them to competitors like Roku and Apple(s AAPL)?
Android TV: The Android team’s answer to Google TV
There is another reason Google has been working on Android TV, and it has a lot to do with corporate politics. Google TV launched in 2010 as a new product that was based on Android, but beyond that didn’t share a whole lot with the company’s Android team. Google TV was based on Honeycomb, the branch of Android that briefly powered Google’s first foray into the tablet space, and it was developed by a team that was physically and organizationally separate from the main Android team.
I have been told by a source familiar with these discussions that there was some growing discontent between the Android team and the Google TV team as the latter floundered, which is why the Android team began to work on its own media player. These efforts were initially run by the media team within the Android@Home team, which also worked on the quickly-killed Nexus Q media player.
The Google TV team on the other hand started to work more closely with the Chrome team, began to add a full version of Chrome to Google TV, and briefly envisioned a version of Google TV that was largely based on Chrome and web apps. That vision evolved to eventually become Chromecast, which was developed by a team of folks coming from both the Chrome and Google TV teams.
At the same time, the Android team was busy developing its own device. Then-Android chief Andy Rubin reportedly showed partners a set-top box running Android with a focus on gaming at CES in 2013, and I have heard that the company intended to ship a version of that device late last year, but decided to scrap these efforts at the last minute.
Along the way, Google decided to merge Google TV with Android, and when Chromecast took off, it sealed the fate of Google TV: The company quietly got rid of the brand, opened up Android and Google apps for consumer electronics manufacturers, and decided to give the whole platform play another try with Android TV.
Google’s challenge is to win over consumer electronics manufacturers
Of course, a lot has changed at Google since the Android team started to work on Android TV. Most notably, Andy Rubin has moved on to other projects, and Chrome czar Sundar Pichai is now also in charge of Android. With Pichai at the helm, Google may actually have a chance to have its two TV projects work together, to a point where they are complementary, not competing. A first indicator for this: The aforementioned leaked Android changelog also contains references that suggest that Android TV will be Google Cast-capable. This means that users will be able to cast their content to an Android TV device, just like they can do with Chromecast today, or pick up the remote for a more immersive browsing experience.
The big question is whether Google will get consumer electronics manufacturers to support this vision. The failure of Google TV cost the company a lot of goodwill, but the success of Chromecast may have made up for at least some of that.
I haven’t been able to confirm which hardware companies are going to be part of the launch announcement, but a look at Google’s previous TV hardware partners offers us some clues: LG, which produced a number of Google TV-powered smart TV sets, has since launched its own webOS-based smart TV platform, so it’s unlikely that the company would join Google this time around. Long-time Google TV partner Sony (S SNE) on the other hand doesn’t have its own platform, which would make it a more likely candidate. Vizio could also once again join Google, and Chinese manufacturers like Haier may be interested in partnering as well.
In the end, Google has at least one thing going for Android TV: There aren’t a whole lot of good alternatives. Roku, Opera and a few others all are trying to establish their TV platforms as de-facto industry standards, but none of them have jaw-dropping features that would help a TV manufacturer to compete with the likes of Samsung and LG. Meanwhile, game consoles still sell like hotcakes, and Amazon isn’t waiting around. That means that for some hardware vendors, Android TV may just be what they’ve been waiting for.
Google didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.Lenovo's VP of Design, David Hill, wants to create a new ThinkPad laptop that is heavily inspired by the old-school designs of popular ThinkPad laptops from the IBM era, stretching as far back as 1992.
This new ThinkPad laptop would embody "all the latest technology advances" while strongly embracing the original design details. This includes a classic seven-row keyboard featuring function keys, a blue enter key and dedicated volume controls; a display with an aspect ratio of 16:10; rubberized paint; loads of status LEDs; and the classic multi-colored ThinkPad logo.
Hill's post on the Lenovo blog mostly details the design concepts for the laptop, although he does mention that this retro ThinkPad would be around 18mm thin and include a hinge that allows the display to move a full 180-degrees.
This retro-styled ThinkPad is just a concept at this stage, though Hill would like to gauge the feedback of users and see if there's a potential market for a laptop like this. Naturally Lenovo would require "significant sales volumes to justify the development effort and tooling expense", but if you'd like to see something like this hit stores, head over to the Lenovo blog and leave your feedback.Apology 'not enough' for gay marriage remarks
Updated
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Christian lobbyist discusses controversial comments (ABC News)
Gay rights campaigner and Liberal MP Warren Entsch says an apology from the head of the Australian Christian Lobby would not make up for his "highly offensive" comments on homosexuality.
Jim Wallace has come under intense criticism after comparing the health impacts of smoking cigarettes to the health of homosexuals.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard condemned the retired SAS commander's comments and cancelled her plans to speak at the Christian Lobby's national conference next month.
Mr Entsch has told PM that Mr Wallace's statement was "stupid, spiteful and disgusting" and that an apology would not be enough.
"When I read this I thought that Jim Wallace must have been hibernating under a rock or in a cave somewhere in the deep, dark depths of the wilderness of Tasmania, maybe on the western coast somewhere, and is suddenly awakened from an absolute sleep from probably 1,000 years ago," he said.
When I read this I thought that Jim Wallace must have been hibernating under a rock or in a cave somewhere in the deep dark depths of the wilderness of Tasmania. He's probably still walking on his knuckles. Warren Entsch
"He's probably still walking on his knuckles. I find it highly offensive."
He says Mr Wallace's suggestion that sexuality is a lifestyle choice is "unbelievable" and congratulated Ms Gillard for pulling out of the Christian Lobby conference.
But Beyond Blue chairman Jeff Kennett says the Prime Minister should have shown up.
"If she's rejected the invitation and they wish to invite me, I'll take it up," he said.
"There's no point running away from intolerance, discrimination and racial vilification.
"If I'd been the prime minister, I would have actually gone to that conference and I would have argued the case for the sorts of things Beyond Blue are doing and I believe most fair Australians would expect."
'Demonisation tactics'
Mr Wallace's comments were made during a debate on marriage equality with Greens leader Christine Milne on Wednesday.
He compared health statistics for smokers with those of homosexuals, pointing to figures showing that smokers were likely to live up to 10 years longer.
He is standing by his comments but argues he is being misrepresented.
"The Prime Minister's decision is made on the basis of media reporting which said that I said smoking was healthier than gay marriage," he said.
"I never said that. And my comments were much more nuanced.
"Just making the point that if we are to package gay marriage in with… or gay lifestyle in with the heterosexual lifestyle in marriage, then we are ignoring the fact that it's not equal love when the consequences of gay love... in health consequences are quite pronounced and disastrous."
This is a victory for the demonisation tactics of gay activism and it's a constant misrepresentation and spin of anything by people who support marriage as between a man and a woman. Jim Wallace
He says he cannot see why his comments would be offensive to homosexuals or the Prime Minister.
"This is a victory for the demonisation tactics of gay activism and it's a constant misrepresentation and spin of anything by people who support marriage as between a man and a woman," he said.
The Greens have lodged an official complaint with the Human Rights Commission over his statements.
Earlier on Thursday, Ms Gillard labelled Mr Wallace's comments as heartless.
"To compare the health effects of smoking cigarettes with the many struggles gay and lesbian Australians endure in contemporary society is heartless and wrong," she said.
And former prime minister Kevin Rudd backed her.
"I haven't seen the text of what Mr Wallace has said, but if reported accurately they strike me as homophobic," he said.
Mr Wallace was an Army brigadier and a former special forces commander before taking on his role at the Australian Christian Lobby.
He is no stranger to controversy. On Anzac Day last year he tweeted that the Australia which servicemen and women fought for was not gay marriage nor Islamic.
Topics: lgbt, christianity, federal-government, australia
First postedPauli Murray. Carolina Digital Library and Archives [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Being “in between” was both a curse and blessing for Pauli Murray, born Anna Pauline Murray, in 1910. Growing up in a segregated North Carolina, Murray displayed at an early age an artistic mind and a preference for the boys’ section of the clothing store. Variously tormented and buoyed in her life by her status as a woman, being of mixed race, and as a self-professed “boy-girl” who believed in her bones that she was really a man, Murray endured to become a journalist, an activist, a professor, a priest, and a lawyer who made monumental contributions to civil rights and women’s rights.
So why do we know so little about Murray, who, for example, laid out the seminal legal argument that Ruth Bader Ginsburg pursued to extend the Equal Protection Clause beyond the protection of white men? In 1971, Ginsburg, building on an influential law article Murray co-wrote, successfully persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court that the Fourteenth Amendment should apply to protecting both women and other minority groups from discrimination.
Barnard historian Rosalind Rosenberg, author of an exhaustive and transfixing new biography, Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray, sheds light on the dearth of information. The main reason: The executor of Murray’s estate, who holds the rights to 135 boxes of Murray’s most intimate reflections in the form of diaries, correspondence, legal briefs, and other archival material, was highly protective of how Murray would be portrayed following her death in 1985. “I think that’s why it’s taken so long for anyone to try to delve a little bit more deeply into her life,” Rosenberg told me.
Oxford Press
Rosenberg explained that publication of her book had actually been delayed because the family was horrified that Murray would be portrayed as anything other than completely middle-class and respectable. In particular, they disputed Murray’s gender identity. “This can’t be true; I would have known; I was very close to my great aunt,” Rosenberg said some relatives told her. Yet, in sifting through the boxes of archival material, Rosenberg had uncovered an astonishingly complex individual who was as petrified of being found out for her nontraditional gender identity as she was outspoken about human rights.
Murray believed identity and sexual orientation were private matters, and she discussed them with only a few intimate friends. So while she was elated on the occasions she was taken for a man, she does not appear to have asked to be identified as such. Rosenberg initially experimented with the use of pronouns in writing the book, concluding those efforts ultimately struck her as ahistorical. “Murray lived in a gender-binary culture,” she said.
It is within this context that Jane Crow, in its sensitive and nuanced synthesis of Murray’s private journal notes, determines she likely thought of herself as what we would now understand as transgender. Specifically, Murray viewed herself as a man in a woman’s body who fell in love with heterosexual, mostly white, women. For most of her life, science did not have the language to identify her dysphoria. To ameliorate it, Murray sought for many years a medical professional who would administer testosterone hormone therapy. None would agree to it.
Despite that inner turmoil, Rosenberg theorizes that Murray’s identification as a man may have propelled her to greater heights, giving her the confidence to aspire to go to law school in 1941, when so few women did: “She did not internalize the whole range of self-defeating attitudes our culture inculcates in those who identify as women.” Murray’s existence outside of so many societal boundaries also informed her understanding of injustices under the law. “It made her relentless,” said Rosenberg, “in-betweenness in terms of her gender, her race and her class, and her growing conviction as she aged that she had the power to turn what was a torment into a strength.”
Murray was acutely aware of what it meant to be both black and a woman—both Jim Crow and what she coined as “Jane Crow”—prejudice based on gender. She observed that not only have black women “stood shoulder to shoulder with Negro men in every phase of the battle, but they have also continued to stand when their men are destroyed by it.”
The first black person—male or female—to earn a J.S.D. from Yale Law School |
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