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, single bytes or words are not read at a time, instead possibly 512 or 1024 are read in a burst. It is dependent on the application if this was a good use of energy or if the extra bytes read were not needed and thus represent a waste. This is an example where performance has been the driving issue and may be an expensive power tradeoff for many systems. A similar type of problem exists with NAND-type flash memories that are unable to write to a single location, instead requiring that a block of memory is first erased and then rewritten. This means there is a power penalty associated with small writes. An SRAM cache, even though it consumes more power, defers writes and may finish up providing energy savings. For many systems, existing memory technologies may be too power hungry. “For systems that use power scavenging, they often have a requirement for write current less than 5µA and read current of a few µA/MHz,” says Goriawalla. “This is coupled with a minimum Vdd of 0.7~0.9V. So we are talking about tiny system power requirements. These figures are an order of magnitude less than most embedded flash technologies.” Other Considerations Similarly, there are many aspects to cost, some of which have already been discussed. Power consumption has a direct impact on cost, but other factors include number of pins, packaging, on-chip costs or costs associated with integrating on a board. “Smaller systems tend to have embedded flash that sits on the same die,” says Intrater. “But there are limitations with this. We are seeing systems that want to migrate to 28nm, but at that process node there is no embedded flash. Flash is lagging behind the standard CMOS process. If you can use embedded flash, it is invariable the best solution, but there are many cases where you cannot do that because of cost, or the rest of the system needs to be on a more aggressive process node. Then you need to revert to using external memory and you start running into issues of performance and power consumption. The link between the two needs to have the right characteristics to provide enough performance and it consumes a lot more power.” This decision becomes a lot easier with the new memory types. “It is getting to be difficult to have a flash process together with logic on the same chip,” says Harrand. “The new memories are friendlier and everything is on the back-end of the production process. This means you can have exactly the same transistors in the logic process, and this makes it easier to embed with logic or processor. At 28nm it is becoming very difficult to make an embedded flash process, so there is an opportunity to replace embedded flash with these new memories.” Many of the interconnect architectures were optimized for existing memory types. “The DDR interface is not well suited for NVM,” says Harrand. “With DDR you first declare what line or page you want to address and then you declare if you want to make a read or write. This is not good for the emerging NVMs where you have to know at the beginning if you want to do a read or write.” Harrand says there are ways to overcome this limitation but they reduce performance. Another barrier is accepting new tradeoffs. “Today you can have the speed of a DRAM with sufficient endurance but not density, but you have speed and endurance at the same time,” continues Harrand. “There will be some that are optimized to be close to DRAM and have full retention or ones that have a few days of retention but not 10 years or you will have ones optimized for retention, but they will not have the speed.” It is not yet clear when and which of the new memories will break down the barriers first, but microcontrollers are appearing with these new memories embedded into them. As volume increases, costs will come down and this will accelerate adoption. Before long, many IoT systems will have no choice but to incorporate them especially if they want to make use of newer fabrication technology nodes. Related Stories What Are FeFETs? How this new memory stacks up against existing non-volatile memory. How To Make 3D NAND Foundries progress with complex combination of high-aspect ratio etch, metal deposition and string stacking. Sorting Out Next-Gen Memory A long list of new memory types is hitting the market, but which ones will be successful isn’t clear yet. The Future Of Memory (Part 2) The impact of 2.5D and fan-outs on power and performance, and when this technology will go mainstream. New Memory Approaches And Issues What comes after DRAM and SRAM? Maybe more of the same, but architected differently.Poll: Majority of Utah Mormons Want LDS Church to Leave the Boy Scouts Nearly two-thirds of “very active” Utah members of the LDS Church believe their church leaders should separate from the Boy Scouts and start a new male youth organization, a UtahPolicy survey shows. In a just-completed survey, pollster Dan Jones & Associates finds that 63 percent of those who termed themselves “very active” in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- both men and women -- say church leaders “definitely” or “probably” should drop the long-standing relationship with the Boy Scouts of America and start their own program for boys. Jones finds that only 23 percent of “very active” Utah Mormons want their church to stay in the Boy Scout program, while 13 percent don’t know. So, two-thirds say get out of the Boy Scouts, while one-fourth say stay in. After the national Boy Scouts board voted several weeks ago to allow adult gay male scout leaders, a spokesman for the Mormon Church said its leaders – who traditionally take the month of August out of their Salt Lake City headquarters – would seriously consider the ramifications of the national organization’s decision, and later have a statement on where the LDS Church’s Boy Scouts programs would go. The LDS Church is one of the largest Boy Scout troop organizers in the world, with hundreds of thousands of boys in thousands of ward troops. The national Boy Scouts said it would be up to each troop – or group of troops – to decide for themselves whether to allow gay male troop leaders, and that religious organizations could place restrictions on who could serve as an adult scout leader. Thus, the LDS Church would not have to allow gay troop leaders. Under the current Mormon organization, worthy male Mormon men a “called” – or assigned – to be Boy Scout leaders. And it is an unofficial responsibility of faithful Mormon boys to be active in Boy Scouts and seek the highest rank – Eagle Scout – to be reached before the boy is 18 and becomes a legal adult and can then go on a two-year mission for their church. Gay Mormon men can be faithful members of the church and hold lay church assignments, as long as they don’t act on their homosexuality – in essence, stay chaste and practice sexual abstinence. Jones polled 500 adult Utahns between Aug. 7-14; with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.99 percent. Among all Utahns, Jones found that 32 percent favor the LDS Church staying in the Boy Scout program, 54 percent said church leaders should leave the Boy Scouts and form a new, separate organization for young men in their faith. Among those who told Jones they are “somewhat active” in the LDS Church, 44 percent said stay in the scouts, 47 percent said get out and 9 percent didn’t know. Those who said they were once active Mormons, but no longer practice the faith, 46 percent said stay in, 47 percent said get out of scouting, and 7 percent didn’t know. Catholics said Mormons should stay in scouting, 47-42 percent; Protestants said get out, 28-49 percent; with those who said they have no religion said Mormons should remain in scouting, 46-32 percent. The “very active” Mormons would be those who attend their church regularly, practice the faith’s doctrine and pay 10 percent of their gross incomes to the church – all of which allow those Mormons to attend their temples (closed to non-active Mormons) and participate in temple ceremonies. Of course, LDS Church leaders don’t govern the faith by public opinion polls. But they also likely attempt to take the pulse of faithful members on non-doctrinal matters such as membership in the Boy Scouts – which the Church has been closely tied to since the early 1900s. Many of the church leaders, including President Thomas S. Monson, have been active in scouting. Monson holds the Scouts' highest honor – being named a Silver Beaver. Here are some recent in-depth news stories about the LDS Church and the Boy Scouts, here, here and here.Josè Antonio Carav@ca Belongs to the latest batch of researchers and writers focused on the world of paraciences emerged in the early nineties in Spain. Viajero y gran lector has published more than 500 research articles on UFO, cryptozoology, archaeology and other heterodox issues. He collaborates with the specialized journals: ENIGMAS, AÑO CERO, MAS ALLA and EL OJO CRITICO, as well as other international media. In 2015 his groundbreaking research on the so-called "Roswell Slides" had wide worldwide repercussion. He is the author of 5 books dedicated exclusively to the subject UFO: "LA ULTIMA PROFECIA DE JULIO VERNE" (Espejo de Tinta. 2007) prologued by the journalist and writer J.J. Benítez. "EXPEDIENTE ROSWELL: EL INFORME DEFINITIVO" (Editorial Oblicuas.2016) prologued by the well-known novelist and researcher Javier Sierra. “OVNIS: LAS 50 MEJORES EVIDENCIAS”(Editorial Oblicuas.2017). “OVNIS: LAS 50 MEJORES EVIDENCIAS” (Editorial Cydonia. 2017). ENCUENTROS CERCANOS CON OVNIS ¿UNA ARQUITECTURA PSIQUICA DESCONOCIDA? INTRODUCCION A LA TEORIA DE LA DISTORSION (Editorial Guante Blanco.2018). In addition, in 2013 he participated in a joint work with several Spanish researchers and journalists under the title: "Hay otros mundos" (Editorial Cydonia).His other Web UFO site, www.caravaca.blogspot.comFrom Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia. Route 9 (Japanese: ９番道路 Route 9) is a route in eastern Kanto, connecting Cerulean City and Route 10. Route description Heading east from Cerulean, the route quickly utilizes the rocky terrain of the area, hopping down a ledge and passing a Trainer, making this portion of the route a one way, eastbound only passage. Turning east, the route passes an opening to the south that leads to another Trainer and TM30 (Teleport) in Generation I, or TM40 (Aerial Ace) in Generation III. Moving away from the passage, Route 9 comes to a four-way intersection. To the north is the one way, westbound only passage that returns to Cerulean and is occupied by two Trainers and a grassy area containing wild Pokémon. To the south is a long passage that ultimately results in a dead end, containing one Trainer and a Burn Heal in Generation III. The main path of Route 9 takes the east fork. To the east of two hills connected by ledges, the route turns north into the path of another Trainer. The route also comes to a three-way intersection here, with a fork to the west leading to yet another Trainer and a small patch of grass. Route 9 continues northward, turning east, passing another Trainer and turning south to the northeast of another small hill. After hopping another ledge that makes the passage east of the four-way intersection a one way, eastbound only path (and which utilizes the dead end passage, which is bordered to its north by a ledge for most of its length, as the westbound only path), the path crosses ways with another Trainer as it turns east. Just east of the Trainer is a pair of ledges that allow Trainers heading west from the Rock Tunnel to reach the four-way intersection that ultimately leads to Cerulean. Farther east, the route comes to an end at the western extent of a large grassy area, at which the path becomes Route 10. In Generations I, III, and VII, to get to Lavender Town and Celadon City, the player must travel through the route to reach the Rock Tunnel. Items Pokémon Generation I Pokémon Games Location Levels Rate Rattata R B Y Grass 14, 16-17 45% Rattata R B Y Grass 18 15% Raticate R B Y Grass 20 4% Spearow R B Y Grass 13, 16-17 30% Spearow R B Y Grass 17 10% Fearow R B Y Grass 19 1% Ekans R B Y Grass 11, 13, 15, 17 25% Sandshrew R B Y Grass 11, 13, 15, 17 25% Nidoran♀ R B Y Grass 16, 18 35% Nidorina R B Y Grass 18 5% Nidoran♂ R B Y Grass 16, 18 25% Nidorino R B Y Grass 18 5% A colored background means that the Pokémon can be found in this location in the specified game. A white background with a colored letter means that the Pokémon cannot be found here. Generation II Pokémon Games Location Levels Rate Rattata G S C Grass 15 30% 30% 0% Rattata G S C Grass 13-15 0% 0% 40% Rattata G S C Grass 13 30% 30% 0% Rattata G S C Grass 13-15 0% 0% 70% Rattata G S C Grass 15 30% Raticate G S C Grass 15 10% 10% 25% Raticate G S C Grass 15 15% 15% 30% Raticate G S C Grass 15 20% 20% 0% Raticate G S C Grass 15-18 0% 0% 25% Spearow G S C Grass 13 20% 20% 0% Spearow G S C Grass 13-15 50% 50% 0% Spearow G S C Grass 15 30% 30% 0% Fearow G S C Grass 15 5% 5% 0% Fearow G S C Grass 15 15% 15% 0% Zubat G S C Grass 15 0% 0% 5% Venonat G S C Grass 15 0% 0% 30% Venomoth G S C Grass 15 0% 0% 10% Mankey G S C Grass 13 30% Primeape G S C Grass 15 5% Marowak G S C Grass 18 5% 5% 0% Surfing Goldeen G S C Surfing 10-19 90% Seaking G S C Surfing 15-19 10% Fishing Goldeen G S C Fishing Old Rod 10 15% Magikarp G S C Fishing Old Rod 10 85% Goldeen G S C Fishing Good Rod 20 65% Magikarp G S C Fishing Good Rod 20 35% Goldeen G S C Fishing Super Rod 40 70% Seaking G S C Fishing Super Rod 40 10% Magikarp G S C Fishing Super Rod 40 20% A colored background means that the Pokémon can be found in this location in the specified game. A white background with a colored letter means that the Pokémon cannot be found here. Generation III Pokémon Games Location Levels Rate Rattata FR LG Grass 14, 16-17 40% Spearow FR LG Grass 13, 16-17 35% Ekans FR LG Grass 11, 13, 15, 17 25% Sandshrew FR LG Grass 11, 13, 15, 17 25% A colored background means that the Pokémon can be found in this location in the specified game. A white background with a colored letter means that the Pokémon cannot be found here. Generation IV Generation VII Pokémon Games Location Levels Rate Rattata P E Grass 17-22 20% Raticate P E Grass 17-22 10% Spearow P E Grass 17-22 20% Fearow P E Grass 17-22 10% Nidoran♀ P E Grass 17-22 15% Nidorina P E Grass 17-22 5% Nidoran♂ P E Grass 17-22 15% Nidorino P E Grass 17-22 5% Rare Spawns Chansey P E Grass 17-22 - While riding a Flying Pokémon After becoming Champion Spearow P E In the sky 3-56 60% Fearow P E In the sky 3-56 40% Rare Spawns Charizard P E In the sky 3-56 - Articuno P E In the sky 3-56 - Zapdos P E In the sky 3-56 - Moltres P E In the sky 3-56 - Dragonite P E In the sky 3-56 - A colored background means that the Pokémon can be found in this location in the specified game. A white background with a colored letter means that the Pokémon cannot be found here. Trainers Generation I Generation II Trainer Pokémon Picnicker Edna キミエ Kimie Reward: 680 Nidorina ♀ Lv. 30 No item Raichu ♀ Lv. 34 No item Camper Sid リョウスケ Ryōsuke Reward: 580 Dugtrio ♂ Lv. 32 No item Primeape ♂ Lv. 29 No item Poliwrath ♂ Lv. 29 No item Camper Dean ユウト Yūto Reward: 620 Golduck ♂ Lv. 33 No item Sandslash ♂ Lv. 31 No item Hiker Tim マサミチ Masamichi Reward: 992 Graveler ♂ Lv. 31 No item Graveler ♂ Lv. 31 No item Graveler ♂ Lv. 31 No item Picnicker Heidi リカコ Rikako Reward: 640 Skiploom ♀ Lv. 32 No item Skiploom ♀ Lv. 32 No item Hiker Sidney タカアキ Takaaki Reward: 1024 Dugtrio ♂ Lv. 34 No item Onix ♂ Lv. 32 No item Trainers with a telephone symbol by their names will give their Pokégear number to the player, and may call or be called for a rematch with higher-level Pokémon. Generation III Generation IV Trainer Pokémon Picnicker Edna キミエ Kimie Reward: 720 Nidorina ♀ Lv. 41 No item Raichu ♀ Lv. 45 No item Camper Sid リョウスケ Ryōsuke Reward: 640 Dugtrio ♂ Lv. 43 No item Poliwrath ♂ Lv. 40 No item Primeape ♂ Lv. 40 No item Camper Dean ユウト Yūto Reward: 672 Golduck ♂ Lv. 44 No item Sandslash ♂ Lv. 42 No item Hiker Eoin マサミチ Masamichi Reward: 1344 Graveler ♂ Lv. 42 No item Graveler ♂ Lv. 42 No item Graveler ♂ Lv. 42 No item Picnicker Heidi リカコ Rikako Reward: 688 Skiploom ♀ Lv. 43 No item Skiploom ♀ Lv. 43 No item Hiker Clarke タカアキ Takaaki Reward: 1440 Onix ♂ Lv. 43 No item Dugtrio ♂ Lv. 45 No item Trainers with a telephone symbol by their names will give their Pokégear number to the player, and may call or be called for a rematch with higher-level Pokémon. Generation VII Differences among generations Generations I and III Only a few cosmetic changes are present between Generations I and III. The normal tree on the side of the cut-able in the west of the route is changed to a fence and the same kind of tree south of the nearly tall grass is changed to a rock. Some hills are bigger, and all of them are made taller in FireRed and LeafGreen, adding another hill above. Also, the flowers in the west entrance are replaced by trees. Generation II In Generation II, the route was shortened by roughly 30%, and the corner between it and Route 10 belonged to it instead of belonging to Route 10 as it does in Generation I and III, making the north entrance to the Rock Tunnel placed practically in this route by three steps. Interestingly, the only way to enter the cave is entering Route 10 as the half of the Pokémon Center blocks the way. Also, almost all items were removed from the route and the number of Trainers was reduced to six. However, five of the six remained in positions occupied by Trainers in the other Generations. Generation IV The fence and the tree barricade Many changes are made in this route. The cuttable tree is removed, the tall grass in the west side is slightly moved to the south, the shape of the same grass is also different, the ledge north of the signpost is removed, as a new ledge is added near the center grass, and a hill is added to the route to give it a more in-depth feel. South of the east tall grass, a new fence with four cuttable trees is added replacing the ledge north of the Poké Center, one of these trees not being necessary to pass through the grass. Like in Gold, Silver and Crystal, the corner between it and Route 10 belonged to this route; however, this time the Rock Tunnel entrance is not placed in the route. For decorative purposes, rocks are added in some hills, as are the flowers near the Pokémon Center and two more hills in the east river. This river is not a dead end to the north like in previous generations; this time the water goes north, but it's still impossible to advance due to rocks blocking the way. The west-to-east part of the river is significantly shortened. Also, the trees in the west entrance are replaced by an extension of the south hill. The fence with the trees mentioned above is very similar to the tree barricade between the Pokémon Center and the Rock Tunnel in Route 10 in Generations I and III. In the manga Route 9 in Pokémon Adventures In the Pokémon Adventures manga Route 9 was featured from Can't Catch Caterpie! to The Primeape Directive, where Blue and Yellow trained at the mountainous areas of the route in preparation for the upcoming battle against the Elite Four. Soon after arriving at the mountains, Yellow encountered a Caterpie, which had followed her all the way from Celadon City. Following Blue's instructions, she eventually caught it and added it to her team, nicknaming it Kitty. As a result for her battles against Caterpie while trying to catch it, Yellow's Rattata, Ratty, evolved into a Raticate, much to Yellow's shock, since she hadn't been aware that Pokémon could evolve. After training together for a while, Blue and Yellow went on their separate ways by sea. Since Yellow didn't have a Pokémon that could Surf yet, she instead boarded the bypassing S.S. Anne to Vermilion City. In Pokémon Adventures, the industrial waste from the unfinished Power Plant to the south has spread all the way to this route, causing erosion and killing off most of the local plant life. This has also affected the food resources of the Pokémon living in the area, including a pack of Mankey, forcing them to travel far and wide in search for anything to eat. Trivia See alsoAt some of the biggest events in her career, Natalie Portman has donned show-stopping gowns by Rodarte. So when it came to the most important day in her personal life — marrying dancer Benjamin Millepied in California's Big Sur over the weekend — she again turned to the fashion label, which is run by her longtime friends, sisters Laura and Kate Mulleavy. The result? A conservative, rather understated creation, which seemed to fit in well with the overall vibe of the nuptials. While many Hollywood types tend to go for something more over the top on their wedding day, the 31-year-old actress beamed in the unadorned white, A-line style dress that was tea length with a layered bottom, and featured a sheer overlay that modestly covered her arms and chest. She accessorized the gown with a simple white floral crown, a veil, and nude-colored flats. [Related: How Natalie Portman slimmed down after baby] The 45-minute ceremony took place under the moonlight on a bluff that overlooked the ocean. The bride's Jewish faith was reflected with the chuppah made of twigs, prayer shawl, and Millepied breaking glass as guests cheered "Mazel Tov!" One hundred family members and friends, including Ivanka Trump and Macaulay Culkin, attended the reception at a private residence, where they noshed on vegan dishes, selected by Portman who follows a strict vegan diet. Instead of wedding cake, guests were served a sweet treat from Millepied's native France: macarons. Portman and Millepied, who met on the set of "Black Swan" and have a 1-year-old son Aleph, danced the night away, including a 20-minute traditional hora. [Related: 5 craziest movie role transformations] It was the first time the reclusive Culkin, a friend of Portman's since they were both child stars in New York City, has been seen following a tabloid story claiming he was addicted to heroin. A rep for Culkin, who has been dabbling in a new profession as a deejay, denied the claims. Portman has worn gowns by Rodarte on many occasions through the years, including the night she won the Best Actress Academy Award in 2011 for her role in "Black Swan." (Rodarte also designed Portman's tutu for the movie.) While she was pregnant that year and opted for a more conservative style, in 2009 she wore a sexy Rodarte number to the Oscars — a bright pink strapless gown with a flowing bottom. View photos View photos More celebrity features on Yahoo!: Follow omg! on TwitterAla. Peanut Butter Jailbreak Ends With Capture Of Final Inmate Enlarge this image toggle caption AP AP The headlines rife with puns about nutty escapes and sticky situations nearly write themselves. But the jam that Walker County Jail in Jasper, Ala., found itself in after 12 inmates skipped out using peanut butter Sunday appears to have ended with the capture of the final escapee on Tuesday. Walker County Sheriff James Underwood said the inmates were able to trick a new jailer by using peanut butter — scraped from sandwiches — to alter the number over the exit and persuading the guard to open it, thinking it was the entrance to a cell. The 12 men were then able to scale a barbed wire fence, reports WBRC. "Changing some numbers on the door with peanut butter — that may sound crazy," Underwood said at a news conference on Monday according to AL.com. "But these people are crazy like a fox." "We slipped up," Underwood added. As for the duped prison guard, "he made a mistake," Underwood said. "He's a young guy, he hasn't been there that long. This young man was a weak link, and they knew it." The Sheriff's Office said six of the inmates were captured shortly after their escape. Five more were caught within 24 hours of walking free, reports AL.com. By Tuesday, the 12th and final escapee, Brady Kilpatrick, 24, was captured in Tequesta, Fla. He had been the only one to make it out of Walker County. The inmates, ranging in age from 18 to 30, were facing charges including drug possession, theft and attempted murder. Underwood said some people will receive rewards for tipping off police to the inmates' whereabouts, but others may face criminal charges for aiding and abetting them. "They had some outside help," Underwood said, reports AL.com. And in Martin County, Fla., where Kilpatrick is being held, Sheriff William D. Snyder was asked by reporters whether he is worried the man facing drug charges will break free from jail once again. Snyder responded, "I can tell you this: He won't be getting peanut butter."The wife of a Georgia police chief is fighting for her life after her husband shot her at their quaint home, just a few hours into the New Year. At a Thursday afternoon press conference, Peachtree City, Georgia authorities identified the shooter as local Police Chief William McCollom, 57, and the victim as his 58-year-old wife Margaret. The incident happened just after 4am, when officers received a call from the chief, saying he accidentally shot his wife at their home on Autumn Leaf using his service handgun, a Glock 17 9mm. Scroll down for video What happened? On Thursday, Peachtree City, Georgia authorities confirmed that local police chief William McCollom (right) shot his wife inside their home early New Year's Day. His wife Margaret (left) was last listed in critical condition at Atlanta Medical Center Scene: McCollom allegedly called 911 shortly after 4am on January 1 to report that he accidentally shot his wife Investigators say the woman was shot in the home's bedroom. It was initially reported that the chief shot her two times, according to the 911 recording, but authorities now say she was shot just once. Margaret was flown by helicopter to Atlanta Medical Center, where she was still listed in critical condition Thursday afternoon. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations is taking over the case, and will file a report on the shooting to the District Attorney's office which will decide whether to press charges. GBI Director Sherry Lang said the police chief is being fully cooperative with the investigation. Meanwhile, McCollom has since been placed on paid administrative leave by the City Manager, pending an internal review. Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard said McCollom has not been arrested or charged with any crime. He had only officially been in the position for two months, but took over as interim police chief in July when the previous chief stepped down. Veteran cop: McCollom has been the police chief of Peachtree City since October, but on Thursday it was announced that he would be placed on leave pending an internal review Happy couple? One of the McCollom's neighbors described them as 'loving' and that he has 'never seen any problems over there'. William (left) and Margaret McCollom (right) pictured above in a picture posted to Margaret's Facebook. It's unclear what relation the young man in the middle has to the couple Before that, he served as assistant chief and joined the department in 2012. According to Mrs McCollom's Facebook, she is licensed practical nurse who used to work in an emergency room. A neighbor who lives across the street from the McColloms described them as a 'loving couple' who 'do a lot of things together' and that he says he has 'never seen any problems over there', according to Fox. Peachtree City Police Lt Mark Brown said the department is 'hurting' after the incident and concerned for both the chief and his wife.Showing entry 1 to 25 of 14775 WinZip 2 WinZip is an original and popular Zip file utility. Winamp 5 MP3 playing software for Windows. It also plays many other formats, is skinable, has plugins, and much more... Half-Life 8 Half-Life is based on the GoldSrc engine, that has spawned more add-ons that we can count. For example, Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, and Opposing Force Microsoft Word 10 Word Processing component of Microsoft Office. Microsoft Excel 11 Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications. It has been a very widely applied spreadsheet for these platforms, especially since version 5 in 1993, and it has replaced Lotus 1-2-3 as the industry standard for spreadsheets. Excel forms part of Microsoft Office. Microsoft Access 12 Design your own relational database. Microsoft PowerPoint 13 Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program currently developed by Microsoft, for use on both Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh operating systems. PowerPoint, initially named "Presenter", was created by Forethought Inc.. Microsoft's version of PowerPoint was officially launched on May 22, 1990, as a part of the Microsoft Office suite. PowerPoint is useful for helping develop the slide-based presentation format and is currently one of the most commonly used slide-based presentation programs available. Microsoft has also released the PowerPoint mobile application for use on Apple and Android mobile operating systems. Microsoft FrontPage 15 Microsoft FrontPage (full name Microsoft Office FrontPage) is a discontinued WYSIWYGHTML editor and Web site administration tool from Microsoft for the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. It was branded as part of the Microsoft Office suite from 1997 to 2003. Microsoft FrontPage has since been replaced by Microsoft Expression Web and SharePoint Designer, which were first released in December 2006 alongside Microsoft Office 2007, but these two products were also discontinued in favor of a web-based version of SharePoint Designer, as those three HTML editors were Desktop applications. Adobe Photoshop 17 Adobe Photoshop software is a popular professional-quality bitmap image editor that handles Cool Edit Pro 19 Cool Edit Pro is the digital audio software package you've been waiting for. It's a breeze to learn and use, packs enough top-quality digital effects modules to fill a room full of rack mounts, and can mix up to 64 tracks together, using just about any sound card. It's like having thousands of dollars' worth of professional audio equipment all in one easy-to-use software package. Adobe Illustrator 20 A vector graphics image editing program. Adobe Animate 23 Adobe Animate (formerly Adobe Flash Professional, Macromedia Flash, and FutureSplash Animator) is a multimedia authoring and computer animation program developed by Adobe Systems. Internet Explorer 25 Internet Explorer is the set of core Web browsing technologies in Windows. Lotus Notes 27 Lotus Notes is a email, calendar, and database application which works in conjunction with a Lotus Domino server. Yahoo! Messenger 29 Yahoo! Messenger (YIM) - an instant messenger to communicate with other Yahoo members. Microsoft Office (installer only) 31 This entry is for testing the installer of Microsoft's Office application suite. The individual applications included in the suite have their own AppDB entries; test results for running the applications should be submitted through their individual AppDB page. Microsoft Outlook 34 Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft Office suite. TablEdit 38 TablEdit is a program for creating, editing, printing and listening to tablature and sheet music (standard notation) for guitar and other fretted, stringed instruments. Also handles tin whistles, diatonic accordians, harmonicas... Proxomitron 39 The famous Universal Web Filter! Delphi 42 Delphi is a complete environment for the visual design, compilation, and debugging of Windows applications. Matlab 49 A numerical mathematics package Visual C++ 53 Microsofts well known, C++ integrated development environment (IDE) ICQ 55 Official instant messaging client for ICQ. Forte Agent Newsreader 59 One of the most widely used Windows news and email readersUsers of online underground bazaar Sheep Marketplace are trying to figure out who got away with $5 million, $40 million, or even $100 million worth of bitcoins from the site — and whether it might be the owners themselves. Yesterday, Reddit user CrazeeFruito posted a message from the front page of Sheep Marketplace, which appeared to have been shut down. Sheep is down We are sorry to say, but we were robbed on Saturday 11/21/2013 by vendor EBOOK101. This vendor found bug in system and stole 5400 BTC — your money, our provisions, all was stolen. We were trying to resolve this problem, but we were not successful. We are sorry for your problems and inconvenience, all of current BTC will be ditributed to users, who have filled correct BTC emergency adress [sic]. I would like to thank to all SheepMarketplace moderators by this, who were helping with this problem. I am very sorry for this situation. Thank you all. With bitcoins hovering around $1,000 apiece, that meant that "EBOOK101" had effectively stolen over $5 million from users. Bitcoin owners have experienced serious hacking losses before: last year, exchange site BitFloor had 24,000 bitcoins (then worth a mere $250,000 USD) stolen because of a security hole, and a little over 1,000 bitcoins went missing from virtual wallet BIPS last month. But users had serious doubts that an outsider had really found and exploited a bug, especially after what was described as a week of suspicious behavior. In late November, the site SheepMarketScam.com started warning readers that vendors and buyers couldn't withdraw money from Sheep Marketplace. At the same time, it said that market moderators had started offering bulk drug purchases if people would pay first rather than keeping the money in an escrow account. "All day, we've been chasing the scoundrel with our stolen bitcoins." "They know Sheep is closing and so they are reducing all prices, introducing new products, and making everyone [finalize transactions early] to try and take as much as they can," wrote the author. And the actual theft is thought to be much higher than 5,400 bitcoins. As noted by Tapscape, Andy Greenberg of Forbes, and others, some people have pointed to an address with transactions totaling a little over 39 bitcoins, supposedly the amount in Sheep Marketplace before it shut down, as an indication that the site's owners had absconded with the funds. On Reddit, a pair of users have worked to follow a trail of allegedly stolen bitcoins as they're bounced around addresses for laundering. "All day, we've been
news Saturday followed another big claim revealed in Brazile's memoir, as reported by Politico this week, that Clinton struck a deal with the DNC which looked like an "unethical" takeover. "We were shocked to learn the news that Donna Brazile actively considered overturning the will of the Democratic voters by attempting to replace Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine as the Democratic Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees," the open letter began. "It is particularly troubling and puzzling that she would seemingly buy into false Russian-fueled propaganda, spread by both the Russians and our opponent, about our candidate’s health." The letter was signed by the likes of longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, campaign manager Robby Mook, and campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri. Both Mook and Palmieri in particular were singled out by Brazile. Mook and his aides, she said, missed the "big picture" over their obsession with data. Brazile also took a swipe at Mook for having "all men in his inner circle,” in a campaign for a candidate would vied to be the first female president. As for Palmieri, Brazile described how she didn't like how Palmieri shot down her plan for a Kaine pep talk to DNC staff at the Democratic Party's convention in Philadelphia last summer. “I was thinking, If that b—-- ever does anything like that to me again, I’m gonna walk," she wrote in her memoir. Brazile also expressed ire over Brandon Davis, a protege of Mook's who acted as a liaison between the Clinton camp and the DNC. His signature does not appear in the open letter. The letter expresses some sympathy for Brazile over the circumstances in which she was thrust into the spotlight as interim chair following a controversy involving her predecessor, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was shown to have played favorites in the primary via stolen emails published by WikiLeaks. "Donna came in to take over the DNC at a very difficult time. We were grateful to her for doing so. She is a longtime friend and colleague of many of us and has been an important leader in our party. But we do not recognize the campaign she portrays in the book," the letter reads. The Clinton team members go on to discuss how Clinton herself, "more than any of us, persevered through an incredibly difficult campaign and her commitment and stamina inspired us every day. We are very proud of the effort she and the campaign made in both the primary and the general election." They also take an implicit jab at President Trump, mentioning how Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes. Ultimately they call on Democrats not to re-litigate the 2016 election and pressed the party to move forward to the next electoral contest. "[W]e are pretty tired of people who were not part of our campaign telling the world what it was like to be on the inside of our campaign and how we felt about it. We loved our candidate and each other and it remains our honor to have been part of the effort to make Hillary Clinton the 45th President of the United States," they write. "All Democrats should be doing everything they can — canvassing, phone banking, etc. — to help our candidates for Governor of Virginia and New Jersey and the other races around the country next Tuesday."I received calls from the President of Mexico and the Prime Minister of Canada asking to renegotiate NAFTA rather than terminate. I agreed.. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017 UPDATE 7:22 a.m. EST: Trump weighed in on his NAFTA plans early Thursday. ...subject to the fact that if we do not reach a fair deal for all, we will then terminate NAFTA. Relationships are good-deal very possible! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017 He threatened that if a "fair" deal was not reached, "we will then terminate NAFTA." UPDATE April 27, 5:50 a.m. EST: President Trump told the leaders of Canada and Mexico on Wednesday the U.S. would not be leaving the North American Free Trade Agreement "at this time," The Washington Post reports. The administration is expected to start the process of renegotiating NAFTA. ORIGINAL STORY: President Trump's administration is considering writing an executive order that would pull the U.S. out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Politico reported Wednesday. A draft executive order has been submitted for review and could be unveiled as early as this week, officials told Politico. Trump repeatedly promised to renegotiate NAFTA on the campaign trail, but lately has said the "very, very bad" trade deal, which he once called the "single worst trade deal ever" could be scrapped entirely. The U.S. has a 60 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2017 Trump has called NAFTA "one-sided." White House strategist Stephen Bannon speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Peter Navarro, head of Trump's National Trade Council, reportedly drafted the order with close cooperation from chief strategist Steve Bannon. Workers continue work raising a taller fence in the Mexico-US border separating the towns of Anapra, Mexico and Sunland Park, New Mexico, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017. U.S. President Donald Trump says his administration will be working in partnership in Mexico to improve safety and economic opportunity for both countries and will have "close coordination" with Mexico to address drug smuggling. It will set in motion the construction of his proposed border wall, a key promise from his 2016 campaign. (AP Photo/Christian Torres) Earlier this week, Trump signed a new tariff on softwood lumber imported from Canada. His insistence that a wall will be built on the southern border have angered Mexico. Other countries with walls on their borders Check the full list NASA just flew a spacecraft between Saturn and its rings WATCH \| For more news you need, check out our 60 Second Circa.Spotter cards: What they look like and how they work This kind of highly confidential document – pictured above – is rarely seen by the public. These so-called "spotter cards" are issued by police to identify individuals they consider to be potential troublemakers because they have appeared at a number of demonstrations. The photographs are drawn from police intelligence files. This card was apparently dropped at a demonstration against Britain's largest arms fair in 2005. H is Mark Thomas, the comedian and political activist. Asked why it was justifiable to put Thomas, who has no criminal record, on this card, the Metropolitan police replied: "We do not discuss intelligence we may hold in relation to individuals." Thomas had been acquitted of criminal damage after attaching himself to a bus containing arms traders at a previous fair. The Met said: "This is an appropriate tactic used by police to help them identify people at specific events … who may instigate offences or disorder." The arms fair "is a biannual event that is specifically targeted by known protest groups, who in the past have stated their intention was to shut down or disrupt the event." As the cards are "strictly controlled", the officers who lost it were "dealt with". On Comment is Free today Thomas writes: "Protesters – or, as the police call them, 'domestic extremists' – are the new'reds under the bed'." • Are you featured on the card? How do you feel about it? Let us know by emailing news.desk@theguardian.comLenovo’s latest 2-in-1 tablet looks familiar… and it should, because the new Lenovo Miix 520 tablet is basically what you’d get if you scooped the guts out of last year’s Miix 510 and replaced them with 2017-era components. Instead of a 7th-gen Intel Core processor, the new model is powered by an 8th-gen chip. But both models are 12.2 inch tablets with full HD IPS touchscreen displays, detachable keyboards, and support for an optional active pen. The new model will be available with up to an Intel Core i7-8550U quad-core processor, up to 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and up to 1TB of PCIe solid state storage. Thanks to far-field voice recognition, you can use Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant when you’re up to 13 feet away from the tablet. And optional features include a fingerprint reader and 4G LTE modem. The tablet and keyboard combined measure about 0.6 inches thick and weigh about 2.8 pounds, and the keyboard features full-sized backlit keys with 1.5mm of travel. Without the keyboard, the tablet is 1.9 pounds and 0.4 inches thick. Lenovo says the Miix 520 will be available in Europe in November for €899 and up. In the US it’ll sell for $1000 and up starting in October, but it’s worth noting that the US price includes a keyboard and pen. I should point out that the entry-level model has a 7th gen Intel Core i3 dual-core processor. Intel hasn’t released 8th-gen Core i3 or Core M chips yet.Here are some features from the fanzine, Graphic Story Magazine devoted to the genius of Basil Wolverton. Here is an article Wolverton wrote in 1948 for the Daily Oregonian… ACOUSTICS IN THE COMICS By Basil Wolverton The so called comic strip on my drawing board showed a heavy horse stepping on a bozo’s bean. The horse was tramping on the guy’s head in a delicate way, of course, so the situation would be more entertaining than grusome- depending on the reader’s sense of humor. But, like an old silent movie, the cartoon needed something, and that something was sound. There had to be a heavily lettered word oozing out from the exact point of contact between the horse’s hoofs and the man’s head. Thus the reader, pronouncing that sound word to himself, would actually hear within his mind the excitingly comical noise that would eminate from such action. Summoning both brain cells hurriedly together, I tried desperately to imagine just what sort of sound would ensue if a nag were to step on someone’s skull. The word CRUNCH popped into my mind. Then CRONCH. Then CRANCH. I settled for CRANCH because somehow it seemed more refined. But before I could letter the word on the cartoon, I suddenly recalled my latest unhappy interview with the person who publishes my comic strips. “I want realism!” he had bellowed. “No more of this wild imaginitive stuff that’s causing some people to want to ban our comic books! From now on, get that realism in there, and your strips will be horribly funny! Then the readers will go into hysterics and laugh like crazy, and our books will be acclaimed the most laugh provoking on the stands!” That meant that an imaginative word like CRANCH was taboo. It was up to me to get the real sound word. I looked furtively about as a preposterous plan permeated my pate. It was easy to rent a horse. It wasn’t as easy to argue my brother in law into placing his pan on the pavement, and letting me ride the nag over his noggin. “Horses are so heavy!” he foolishly kept countering. “Besides, I have a cold sore.” As he waddled away, I realized my plan was hopeless- until he stumbled over something in the street. Before he could pull his chin out of the asphalt, I had steered the rented mare over him, and her hind hoof scored a bull’s eye on his bare bean. The sound? It was far from CRANCH. The real thing turned out to be SLORNK. It was a sort of a slippery liquid sound. That was probably because my brother in law has oily skin and a thin skull. With the noxious noise fresh in mind, I streaked into my studio and feverishly lettered the word SLORNK boldly across the cartoon. Weeks later the fan mail began pouring in. They all said the same thing. In fact, both of them were worded the same. The first one read “I want to congratulate you on that completely true to life cartoon you drew of the horse stepping on a man’s head. The word SLORNK describing the sound was absolutely accurate. I know, because I am always getting my head stepped on by some careless nag.” The second letter was the same as the first, except for the signature. I figured when I wrote them that there should be some difference. Otherwise the publisher might get wise when I showed them to him. He was dumbfounded when he saw them. After recovering, he slapped me on my sunburn and rammed one of his dollar cigars into my mush. Unfortunately, he stuck the wrong end into my mouth. Besides, he was smoking it. “Two fan letters in eleven years” he murmured incredulously. “My boy, you have arrived! It’s just like I predicted,” my publisher beamed, “your horribly realistic sound words are paying off!” I leaped on his desk. “Then I’m ripe for a raise?” I queried. peering so anxiously and closely into his red-rimmed readers that I could detect his wife’s fingernail scratches on his contact lenses. Anticipation was causing me to quiver like a rat terrier with radio-active fleas on a cold day. The suspense was terrible. Finally he opened his trap. He was grinning. This was the day for which I had waited eleven long years. “It does not!” he roared, brushing me off his desk. “I was merely feeling pleased that at last you may be worth almost as much as I’ve been paying you!” While I gathered my teeth up off the floor, he pointed at me demandingly. “If you want a raise, every one of your sound effect words will have to be absolutely authentic! In other words, don’t draw a single sound word into your strips until you’ve actually staged the cartoon situation with real people and things!” (Incidentally, you readers should stop worrying about my brother in law. Ever since the day the horse stepped on his head, he has had nothing but good luck. Why shouldn’t he, what with a horseshoe embedded in the back of his bean? Furthermore, he’s the only living person who can slide his head inside those record-in-the-slot phonographs without crushing his ears.) My publisher pointed at me demandingly. “If you want a raise, every one of your sound effect words will have to be absolutely authentic! In other words, don’t draw a single sound word into your strips until you’ve actually staged the cartoon situation with real people and things!” As for my publisher’s demands, they resulted in my running out of friends and relatives within a week. Neighbors complained about howls and screams emanating from the studio. People su ed. The ASPCA hounded me. My wife and fourteen kids swore sudden allegiance to the Progressive party, then fled to Siberia. Meanwhile, however, I managed to catalog hundreds of authentic sound words- enough to last me for a lifetime of cartooning, and enough I thought, to cover any and all comic situations, regardless of how terrible. I was so proud of my achievement that I showed the lengthy list to my publisher. Here are some of the more subtle sound words describing various clashings, crashings, slashings, bashings, hashings, mashings, etc. Read the situation, then voice the accompanying sound word to yourself, and note how vividly the picture then comes to your mind: Pinheaded person pullingg pate out of a pop bottle: FOINK! Glass eye falling into tomato soup: PLOOP! Glass eye falling into a pitcher of thick syrup: PLOFF! Man sitting on short tack: SQUINCH! Man sitting on long tack: SQUONCH! Uppers dropping in gob of putty: FLUP! Hungry cannibal filing eyetooth: FWATCH! Man with calloused feet crossing rough linoleum: SKIRP! SKIRP! Thumb gouging eye: SPOP! Hot lava speweing on WCTU convention: FOOSK! Hot lava spewing on Elks’ convention: SSSCRISH! Person skidding on hot stove in bare feet: SCREESH! Beaver biting into wooden leg: CRASP! Car crashing into large vat of frogs’ eggs: SKWORP! False teeth falling through skylight: TWUNK! Sock in the face with Sears Roebuck catalog: PWOSH! Sock in the face with Montgomery Ward catalog: PWASH! Octopus slapping a tentacle on bald bean: SPOOP! Man dragging toenails over No.2 grade sandpaper: SKARP! Man falling on face in a barrel of wet teabags: FROMP! Sock in the kisser with a wet codfish: SCHALAMPF! Person socking wet halibut with his kisser: SCHLOOF! Lowers falling into a bucket of cup grease: UNPH! Man with small head drowning in a glass of tomato juice: GOIK! Woodpecker hammering on human head: DUD-DUD-DUD-DUD-DUD! Cannon ball landing in mush of toothless man: FWOCK! Two bald men colliding headon: KROCK! Garter snapping on varicose vein: SCHWIPP! Single BB shot landing on a cow’s udder: PWIP! Person pulling ponderous pate through a puny porthole: SPOOCH! Bear trap springing on human noggin: SPROCK! Rat trap springing on person’s big toe: SPACK! Man falling into a garbage can full of spoiled caviar: CROFF! Surgeon tossing gallstones into empty garbage can: KRANG! Man with one hair getting a haircut: WHICK! Person being kicked in the neck: PFWUMPFPH! Person getting kicked in snappers: PWACK! Measle germ snapping at skin: SCHLOPP! If you’ve been able to struggle through the foregoing list of cartoon words, perhaps now your acoustical sense has been sharpened to the extent that you can readily guess a situation just by reading a sound word. To test your ability, hee is a list of cartoon words denoting various noises. If you can guess the action by which even one of them is produced, then your extremely something or other. SNIKK / SPIRP / FAMP / SWORP / SPITCH / KANK / IKK / SPRATCH / PWOT / YOTCH / KZEEP / KLISH / FEEMP / SHZWOP / KOPYP Now check your definitions with the following list. Even if you missed defining all the words, it’s no reflection on your intelligence. Fact is, the more you miss, the brighter you probably are. On the other hand, the more you can guess, the better comic strip cartoonist you can become- unless, unfortunately, you’re already one. SNIKK: The sound made by an African pygmy idly snapping his fingernail against his skull SPIRP: Nose being caught in an orange juicer FAMP: Corpulent person falling on back in a vat of peanut butter SWORP: Meteor hitting obese dame on back of neck SPITCH: Man sticking his head inside huge dynamo in action KANK: Crazed horsefly crashing into dome of empty-headed man IKK: Person with protruding eyeballs falling face down SPRATCH: Court plaster being yanked off polose chest PWOT: Wet socks being tossed into the corner of the room YOTCH: Post office pen forming the letter O KZEEP: Man with rusty eyelid winking at gal KLISH: Man falling on chin on thin crusted beetle FEEMP: Mole (on chin) being hit with stray buckshot SHZWOP: Obese dame’s girdle splitting out KOPYP: Skin pore snapping shut on contact with cold air “Good work!” my publisher mumbled two days later, when he had finished reading the list. “Then I get the raise?” I gurgled hopefully. His brows knitted. (He was working on a pair of socks at the same time.) “Not until you complete that list by adding one more sound word! The word that’s missing is the one that describes the sound of a railway train running over a cartoonist’s conk!” “That should be easy,” I chirped. “I’ll just-” Suddenly, the awful significance of his demand dawned on me. My publisher had conceived of this diabolical plan to prevent my getting a raise. But I would fool him. A half hour later my noggin was resting uncomfortably on a railroad rail. They told me later at the hospital that it wasn’t too bad. Only 22 cars, plus the locomotive had been derailed. “The train crew wanted the day off anyway” my doctor said. “They will be up later to thank you.” While he poured glue in the cracks in my conk, I struggled to recall the exact sound of the locomotive passing over my pate. I became frantic at the thought that it had eluded me. Then I remembered. How could I forget something that had been so forcefully crammed into my mind? I raced out of the hospital and downtown to my publisher’s office. When that man saw the Scotch tape on my skull, he blanched a little. “Did you find out what the sound of a train running over a cartoonist’s head is?” he asked. “I did.” I announced triumphantly. He leaned expectantly so far forward that his rear suspender buttons flew off, zipped out the window, and nailed a burglar who was ransacking a safe in an office across the street. “What is the sound?” he asked shakily. “It is GJDRKZLXCBWQ.” “GJDRKZLXCBWQ?” he queried doubtfully. “No. It’s GJDRKZLXCBWQ. The L is silent.” My publisher is not emotional. I have never known him to be moved to tears. But now his lips quivered violently. Or perhaps he was just trying to get something out of his teeth. “Now I have heard everything!” he blubbered. “The raise.” I reminded him. “How about it?” “The raise? Oh yes. To show my appreciation for collecting the most complete and authentic list of cartoonists’ sound words, I’m going to double your salary!” Whereupon he reached into his wallet and tossed me twice as much as I had been getting previously per week. Then I realized that my list of sound words wasn’t quite complete until that moment. In all my life I had never heard that lush, lovely sound. It was a mild, whispery sound, barely audible. Here it is: FMNW! It was the sound made by my new doubled salary- two $1.00 bills brushing lightly together. Stephen Worth Director Animation Resources This posting is part of the online Encyclopedia of Cartooning under the subject heading, Comic Books. This posting is part of the online Encyclopedia of Cartooning under the subject heading, Magazine Cartoons. by CommentsGet our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. THE Soviet Union had three years left when rumbles hinting at its imminent collapse began to reverberate in the Caucasus. In 1988 leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, demanded a transfer from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia. The Kremlin refused and a nasty war between Azeris and Armenians followed. As Thomas de Waal, an author on the Caucasus, writes, “it was the first stone in an avalanche that swept away the entire multinational construction of the Soviet Union.” Some 20,000 people died in the war and over a million became refugees. Armenia won, gaining control over seven Azerbaijani regions next to Karabakh. A ceasefire came in 1994. Pipelines sprang up to ship oil and gas from Azerbaijan. Karabakh has gained some features of a state, but is the most combustive spot in the region. Worryingly, Azerbaijan has poured energy revenues into its army—it spends $3 billion a year (5% of GDP). It makes menacing noises about reconquest. A new war would risk Azerbaijan's petro-wealth, but irrational behaviour is all too common in the Caucasus. A renewed conflict in a region that includes Turkey, Iran, Russia and Georgia is the stuff of nightmares. Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, is the latest mediator. This weekend he will sit with his counterparts, Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliev and Armenia's Serzh Sargsyan, in the Russian city of Kazan to cajole them into accepting some basic principles first drafted in 2007. The idea is that Armenia should withdraw from Azerbaijani regions outside Karabakh and that the disputed territory should win “interim status”, giving it some international legitimacy but falling short of full independence. Mr Medvedev has invested time and effort in what will be his fifth trilateral meeting. Yet many experts who have watched these peace talks fail repeatedly remain sceptical. The two countries' semi-authoritarian leaders seem to prefer process to results and have done nothing to prepare people for peace. They may negotiate compromises in private, but they make fiery “no surrender” speeches in public. There are doubts over Russia's motives. A benevolent explanation is that it has leverage over its ally, Armenia. Helping to resolve a complex conflict would win Mr Medvedev kudos. Grigory Shvedov, editor of Caucasian Knot, an online news agency, argues that Russia's strategic goal is to increase its political and economic influence in the Caucasus. Dominating negotiations, he says, may be more important than a solution that increases Turkey's influence. Turkey would indeed benefit from a peace deal, but its sway over Azerbaijan is limited despite its big Azeri population. In a typical case of tail wagging dog, says Mr de Waal, Azerbaijan sabotaged moves to reopen the border between Turkey and Armenia in 2009. Yet he sees Mr Medvedev's initiative as the best chance for peace. The Armenians are signalling that they accept the draft. Azerbaijan has not rejected it but has not hinted at its agreement either. The Americans and French, the other two mediating powers with Russia, are increasing the pressure. At the recent G8 summit in France, all three presidents stated that “further delay would only call into question the commitment of the sides to reach an agreement.” If the two leaders agree in Kazan, it will be a big step, even if it leaves room for new disputes. Were Armenia to withdraw from its “security zone”, the question arises of who would replace it. Russia may hope its role would give it an edge for providing peacekeepers, but that may not appeal after the August 2008 war in Georgia. Any notion of involving NATO troops would be fiercely resisted by Russia and Iran. One thing is certain: making peace in Nagorno-Karabakh requires the skill of walking over a minefield.Interview Indigenism, Anarchism, and the State An Interview with Ward Churchill Tom Keefer and Jerome Klassen / Issue 1 / 10/8/2009 Ward Churchill is one of the most outspoken activists and scholars in North America and a leading commentator on indigenous issues. Churchill’s many books include Marxism and Native Americans; Fantasies of the Master Race; Struggle for the Land; The COINTELPRO Papers; Genocide, Ecocide, and Colonization; Pacifism as Pathology; and A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas. In his lectures and published works, Churchill explores the themes of genocide in the Americas, racism, historical and legal (re)interpretation of conquest and colonization, environmental destruction of Indian lands, government repression of political movements, literary and cinematic criticism, and indigenist alternatives to the status quo. Churchill has recently come under attack for views expressed in the article Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens, written in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. An important part of the future of US academic freedom in the coming years will likely be determined by the outcome of the ongoing attempts to strip Ward Churchill of his academic position at Colorado University in Boulder. Two members of Autonomy & Solidarity sat down with Ward Churchill in Toronto in November of 2003 to do this interview. It was transcribed by Clarissa Lassaline and edited by Tom Keefer, Dave Mitchell, and Valerie Zink. Upping The Anti: We want to start off by asking you about your thoughts on the anti-globalization movement which, in terms of anti-capitalist struggles, has been one of the most significant developments in the past decade. This movement has also been criticized in the US context, as being largely made up of white middle class kids running around “summit hopping”. What’s your take? Ward Churchill: I think the anti-globalization movement, for lack of a better term, is a very positive development in the sense that it re-infuses the opposition with a sense of purpose, enthusiasm, and vibrancy. The downside is that it’s a counter analytical movement in that it thinks it’s something new. We used to call it “anti-imperialism,” just straight up. The idea that “globalization” is something new, rather than a continuation of dynamics that are at least 500 years deep, is misleading. That needs to be understood. UTA: In your book Struggle For The Land, there’s an essay called “I Am Indigenous.” Can you elaborate a bit on the politics and genealogy of indigenism? WC: Perhaps I can by way of your introduction of yourselves. You know, you say you’re post-Leninists. Fine. But why are you something that goes beyond Leninism, rather than something that isn’t? UTA: It’s a reflection of the roots of where our political grouping came from. WC: But you top that off by describing yourselves as revolutionaries, and I’m saying “why?” Do you aspire to overthrow the presiding order in the Canadian state so that you can reorganize the state in a more constructive fashion? Then you’re a revolutionary. Do you want to see the Canadian state here when you’re done in some form or another? If not, then you’re a “devolutionary” and you might want to call it by its right name. UTA: So would you say that no anarchists could call themselves revolutionaries? WC: If they do, they’re deluding themselves. They’re not understanding themselves or the tradition that they’re espousing in proper terms because, for starters, anarchists are explicitly anti-statist. And the object of a revolution is to change the regime of power in a given state structure. So I think “revolutionary” is a misnomer. UTA: One of the issues with devolution is that, at least potentially, it represents an attempt to go back to some kind of ideal way the world once was. But we can’t just roll back the clock of history. WC: No, of course not. But again we’re into this implicitly Marxist progression, and anarchists aren’t especially progressive. In fact, you get a physical fight from some of them for using that term, because they consider it an insult. And I think properly so. There’s no immutable law of history. The structures, however, aren’t immutable either, and they can be devolved. One conflation of terms that really bothers me a lot, which still seems to be plaguing the discourse, is the conflation of the term “nation” and the term “state.” You have this entity out there called “the United Nations.” It really should have been called “the United States,” because to be eligible even for admission to the Assembly you have to be organized in that centralized, arbitrary structure. No “nations” as such are even eligible for admission to the United Nations. “The United States” was a name already taken, however, and this was very useful in obfuscating the reality. But the upshot of that is that you’ve got a whole lot of anarchists running around thinking they’re anti-nationalist, that nationality, nationalism in all forms, is necessarily some sort of an evil to be combated, when that’s exactly what they’re trying to create. You’ve got four or five thousand nations on the planet; you’ve got two hundred states. They’re using “anti-nationalist” as a code word for being anti-statist. With indigenous peoples, nationality is an affirmative ideal, and it hasn’t got any similarity at all to state structures. You may have nations that are also states, but you’ve got most nations rejecting statism. So you can make an argument, as I have, that the assertion of sovereignty on the part of indigenous nations is an explicitly anti-statist ideal, and the basis of commonality with people who define themselves as anarchists. We’ve got to deal with our own bases of confusion in order to be able to interact with one another in a respectful and constructive way. UTA: Are there correlations between your indigenous perspective and anarchism? Many people might make the argument that, in fact, indigenism is an ancestor to anarchism, and not vice versa. WC: Well, that is precisely my argument. The two are not interchangeable, point for point, but they have far more in common than they have dividing them, if each is properly understood. And part of the task here is to make them properly understood. If you look at green anarchy, for better or worse, you’re going to find all kinds of references to commonalities with indigenous peoples on every basis, from social organisation to environmental perspective. It will take some time, but you can make that conceptual bridge between indigenism and anarchism, and it’s understood. I would see the main distinction, on this continent, as being a detachment from base. Indigenous peoples are grounded, quite literally. There’s a relationship to the land that has evolved over thousands of years, and that’s completely denied to the people from the settler culture who self-describe as anarchists. With that distinction made, however, we’ve got all kinds of principles in common, aspirations in common, perspectives in common, and we need to build upon those in order to develop a respectful set of relations that allow us to act in unity against that common oppressor that we share. UTA: After the Seattle actions, you were part of the debate around the whole question of “diversity of tactics.” Do you see the Black Bloc as being an interesting or relevant political phenomenon? WC: It’s not that I think that breaking the windows of Starbucks is somehow going to bring the system crashing to its knees, or that they even had a conception of what they were actually up against. Clinton deployed Delta Force for that one in case things really did start to get serious. I mean that’s as serious as it gets in terms of repressive capacity in the United States. These are the surgical assassination units, and they were deployed in Seattle. But if you’re going to go up against that, or if you’re actually going to do serious damage to the structure of things, it isn’t going to happen in some sort of a frontal confrontation with whatever deployment of force the state makes. So it is symbolic, in the sense that it’s educational and kind of empowering. But if you’re going to engage with that force, you’re not going to simply wake up one morning, take a pill along with your glass of water and go out prepared to do it. You have to build the consciousness, you have to build the psychology, you have to build the experiential base, and you have to build the theoretical base, and that happens step by step by step. Maybe the thing that happened in Seattle was a sort of, “let’s get out of the chat rooms and see if we can’t actually make a physical confrontation.” There hasn’t been anything significant along those lines for 25, 30 years in the US. Now, on the level of street confrontation, what can we deduce from that experience? Well, maybe a first lesson would be: if you actually want to engage in street confrontations as part of a further building trajectory, you might want to ditch the uniforms and stop self-identifying as somebody the police want to neutralize immediately. Unmask yourself, put on a phony beard, or a clean shave. Mask yourself in another way. Just this level of tactical evolution, they’ve refused. And this is part of what leads some people to purport that the Black Bloc is more of a fashion statement than it is a serious political tendency. I’m not convinced of that, but people are clinging to their signs and symbols at a very basic level, in a way that precludes taking the action further. You get these cataclysmic statements of what is necessary, and yet they won’t even ditch the funny little signifier of their identity as a Black Bloccer. UTA: Is there a correlation between the militant tactics and direct confrontation against the state proposed by the Black Bloc, and the ways in which the Weather Underground evolved from the Days of Rage in Chicago? Do you see a similar kind of progression? What are the lessons to be learned from how those movements failed in the 60s? WC: The Weather Underground is another thing that I will completely defend. Of the spectrum of responses mounted by the white left at the time, Weather was the most valid response of all, which does not mean that it actually had a viable strategy. But the response pattern was entirely legitimate. But ultimately, they got boxed into symbolic actions, and that is explicitly the case now as well. Brian Flanagan and Mark Rudd, who are in this new film about the Weathermen, are saying “you know, we made a conscious decision to do only property actions,” which was not the original impulse and not the original understanding. It was a sort of wounded response to having three people killed in the Greenwich townhouse explosion. Well, in human terms I understand that these were their friends and all that, but if you are actually serious about engaging in an armed struggle and plan on testing the capacity of the United States, you have to anticipate that you’re going to incur casualties. And three is hardly an insurmountable toll that’s been taken. So again, you had middle class kids who were posturing as something else, and legitimately wanted to be something else and tried to transcend their origins. But they couldn’t do it in and of themselves, and they didn’t really have an interactive relationship with other movements, organizations, or people coming from a different experiential background and temper. They were a sort of bourgeois response. So you’re saying you’re going to do one thing, but actually you’re unprepared to do it. I can understand that, but I don’t accept that as being a model. I
. Other grains are more angular and may have originated closer to the rock's current location. Lighter and darker grains may have different compositions. MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.Image caption One passenger saw a woman collapse while she waited on the stricken train A Tube train that broke down in a tunnel stranding 733 passengers was a special Diamond Jubilee service, Transport for London (TfL) has said. Passengers were led down down the track after the train stopped on the Jubilee line at 17:35 BST on Wednesday near St John's Wood, in north-west London. TfL commissioner Peter Hendy said the system "won't be perfect, but it will be OK" for the Olympics. The train bears bunting decorations for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Jennifer Siggs, 27, from Acton, west London, was one of the passengers stuck underground for more than four hours. She saw one woman slumped on the ground who appeared to be struggling to breathe in the heat. She and another woman, a diabetic, were among those given first aid. 'Can't be happening' Ms Siggs said: "It was so frustrating. For the first hour the driver kept saying we would hopefully move shortly. The driver was talking so quietly and we couldn't hear him over the ventilation units." She said that the police, paramedics and TfL staff had been very helpful but the situation had been "ridiculous". She added: "You kept thinking, 'This can't be happening'." Image caption The train which broke down is one of two with special Jubilee livery The Met Office recorded the surface level temperature at Hampstead at 24C (75F) when the train broke down. London Ambulance Service said two ambulance crews, three duty managers and a hazardous area response team had been sent. They treated a 27-year-old woman, but would not specify what was wrong with her. She was taken to the Royal Free Hospital, while two others were treated at the scene. A TfL spokesman said the 733 passengers would receive £40, and fares would be refunded for anyone on the Jubilee line during the disruption. Nigel Holness, London Underground operations director, said it was "clearly not the level of service customers have a right to expect". 'Laughing stock' "Our staff tried to move the train. This was not successful and we subsequently took the decision to walk passengers off the train," he said. Passengers on the Jubilee Line have endured months of shutdowns Val Shawcross, Labour's transport spokesman Mr Hendy said the same "major failure" affected two trains at the same time. He responded to criticism, saying: "There's no transport system on earth that will perform perfectly all the time. We're working very hard to make it as reliable as possible." But London Assembly Member and Labour's transport spokesman Val Shawcross said she feared London could end up "an international laughing stock" when the Games are held. She said: "The Olympic Games opening ceremony is now less than nine weeks away and still ordinary commuters are being hit by delays caused by faulty track, faulty trains and faulty signals. "Passengers on the Jubilee Line have endured months of shutdowns for maintenance and upgrade works that were supposed to stop this happening. "So why are there still issues with the line? What will happen if the chaos happens during the Olympic Games?" Olympic venues Mr Hendy apologised for delays, telling the BBC it was "very unsatisfactory". But he said the experience was not typical of a line that operates 30 trains an hour and is "becoming more reliable". "Yes, there's a question about how well the system will perform during the Olympics, and the answer is, it won't be perfect but it will be OK. "And actually, if you look at last night, every one of the Olympic venues along the line was served during the entire period of the failure." He said London's transport network was "very dense" and part of its resilience was that "when one piece of it fails the rest of it is sufficient to carry us through".Image caption Severn Trent was called out to more than 4,600 blockages in Derbyshire in the past year, including cutlery flushed down a toilet Image caption Fat can build up "like cholesterol accumulates in our arteries", Severn Trent said Image caption The problem can lead to pollution Image caption Fat that is liquid when poured down drains can solidify in sewers previous slide next slide Derby has been named as having the most blocked and fat-clogged sewers out of anywhere in the East Midlands. Fat poured down drains combines with items blocking sewers and costing millions of pounds a year to clear. Some waste forms "fatbergs" - lumps of fat congealed with items wrongly flushed down toilets. Dozens of knives, forks and spoons flushed down a toilet recently caused a blockage in Chaddesden, Derby. The blockage caused sewage to back up in the area. Helen Fee, customer operations manager for Severn Trent, said: "How on earth people have managed to flush this amount of cutlery, I don't know. "Having sewage flooding inside your home due to sewers being blocked is one of the most horrible things that can happen to you." 'Like concrete' From the start of April to the middle of December, Severn Trent recorded 851 blockages in Derby. Severn Trent says liquid fat, oil and grease can stick and harden "like concrete" in sewer pipes, building up "like cholesterol accumulates in our arteries". The water company said its figures showed the problem was getting worse across the region. People are being asked to wipe oily cooking trays with kitchen roll before washing them, and invest in a bathroom bin instead of flushing items down the toilet. The water company currently spends more than £10m a year clearing waste in this form from its network, and about three-quarters of blockages are caused by people misusing the sewer system. High-pressure jets are used to chisel fat from the walls of sewers, and in serious cases heavy machinery is used to dig it out.President Obama is urging Congress to extend low interest rates on federal student loans. "In America, higher education cannot be a luxury; it’s an economic imperative that every family must be able to afford," Obama said in his weekly address. "That’s why next week I’ll be visiting colleges across the country, talking to students about how we can make higher education more affordable – and what’s at stake right now if Congress doesn’t do something about it." ADVERTISEMENT The White House began pushing the student loans issue on Friday when Secretary of Education Arne Duncan appeared at the daily press briefing, and the president will visit colleges in North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa next week. "If Congress doesn’t act, on July 1 interest rates on some student loans will double," Obama said. "Nearly seven and half million students will end up owing more on their loan payments." The College Cost Reduction and Access Act, introduced in the Democrat-controlled Congress in 2007 and passed on bipartisan votes, halved the rate on federally subsidized Stafford loans to 3.4 percent. If Congress doesn't act, the rate returns to 6.8 percent. Republicans contend keeping the low interest rate costs too much. "Bad policy based on lofty campaign promises has put us in an untenable situation," Rep. John Kline (R-Wis.), the chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, said in a Friday statement. "We must now choose between allowing interest rates to rise or piling billions of dollars on the backs of taxpayers." In his address, Obama tried to paint the GOP's objections to extending the loan rates as part of a pattern. "Over the past few years, Republicans in Congress have voted against new ways to make college more affordable for middle-class families, and voted for huge new tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires – tax cuts that would have to be paid for by cutting things like education and job-training programs that give students new opportunities to work and succeed," he said. "We cannot just cut our way to prosperity. Making it harder for our young people to afford higher education and earn their degrees is nothing more than cutting our own future off at the knees."For once I do not need to add a caveat about changes being inside the margin of error and not necessarily being significant – today’s YouGov poll for the Sun shows a huge surge for the Liberal Democrats on the back of Nick Clegg’s debate performance, putting the Lib Dems ahead of Labour and into second place. The topline figures are CON 33%(-4), LAB 28%(-3), LDEM 30%(+8). The surge in Lib Dem support therefore seems to have come pretty evenly at the expence of the Conservatives and Labour. This is the highest level of support YouGov have recorded for the Liberal Democrats since the aftermath of the Brent East by-election victory, way back in 2003. On a uniform swing these figures would leave Labour the largest party, despite being in third place. The Lib Dems would have around about 100 seats. In reality though, it’s almost impossible to say how this would translate into an election result. In 1983 when the SDP Liberal Alliance almost pushed Labour into third place UNS was actually a pretty good predictor of the result, but who knows how it would work in practice now. If the Lib Dems stay at this sort of figure I’m sure we’ll eventually see some more detailled polling to see how the electoral plates are shifting, but till then it is speculation. The questions now are firstly whether other polls show the same thing? Secondly how long this boost lasts. Is it mostly a publicity boost that will rapidly disappear, or will it stick around? Boosts after things like the Brent East by-election didn’t last long, but in this case the Lib Dems will probably enjoy a further publicity boost from the very fact there are polls showing them in second place, and on top of that there are two more debates to go. Thirdly, how does this change the narrative – can the Lib Dems start painting themselves as a contender to actually win?Sports columnist Barry Svrluga The hangover is obvious. You can still smell the whiskey on the Washington Capitals' breath, feel the throbbing in their heads. The new season is here. The Caps can't shake the last. They're lamenting the opportunity past, the guys who are gone. The Pittsburgh Penguins and Game 7, and the pucks that didn't go in during that first period and the air sucked out of the building and... it's all still here in October. Shouldn't be. But it is. And yet they still have a team that opens the 13th season of Alex Ovechkin's career Thursday night in Ottawa, and that team has a future. Not just over the next six months and not just with Ovechkin. For all the kvetching about the departures of Marcus Johansson and Karl Alzner and Justin Williams and Nate Schmidt, the Capitals' most significant moves of the summer revolved not around whom they let go but around whom they kept. Ovechkin's contract runs through 2020-21. But T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov? They're now on the Caps' books — and, presumably, their roster — through 2024-25. "Obviously," General Manager Brian MacLellan said this week, "we bet on a couple guys here." With the bet comes a burden, one that can be spread around. Start with MacLellan, the man who built back-to-back Presidents' Trophy winners the past two years and now brings a lesser version of that roster into this season. The bet was on Oshie's intangibles and Kuznetsov's skill. And it was MacLellan's to own: eight years and $46 million for Oshie, eight years and $62.4 million for Kuznetsov. The stakes are simple, and MacLellan knows it. In explaining the deal for Kuznetsov, he said: "If he's good, I'm good. If he's not, it was nice meeting you guys." Only an executive's career on the line, then. [The modern NHL is a young man’s league. And it’s getting younger. And better.] The contracts, though, have an impact on the players, too. They are no longer identified by the numbers 77 and 92, the digits on their jerseys. No, they now are linked inextricably to their salaries: Oshie and $46 million, Kuznetsov and $62 million. And they will be judged by those numbers above all else. "There's a responsibility," Oshie said. "It's about how a player is going to handle it, right?" Kuznetsov said. As the Caps barreled through last season, with a Stanley Cup the only goal that mattered, Oshie, an unrestricted free agent at season's end, and Kuznetsov, who would be restricted, knew what awaited them. The goal of the Cup is unifying and dominating, but there's a lot of idle time on the road to sit and think, too. "It never got in the way of my decision-making on the ice or my preparation," Oshie said. "But it creeps in. I thought about it. You have to. It's your future. I have a family." As does Kuznetsov. Now those families are taken care of — and then some. How does a player respond to such security? "I think it's tough because the player plays for the contract, and then he has a big year, and then there's a natural letdown," MacLellan said. "And then it becomes the pressure of the contract." This phenomenon isn't unique to hockey. (Paging Albert Haynesworth.) Jayson Werth will finish his seven-year deal with the Nationals at some point in the coming weeks — he hopes, very late this month or very early next month — and is being warmly embraced by the fan base as he reminisces about helping turn a loser into a winner. But his first season in Washington was a dud, one in which he hit.232. He knew the fans were thinking, "We paid $126 million for this?" It bothered him, so he pressed. It was counterproductive. Oshie and Kuznetsov need look only across their own locker room to find an example of how to handle their newfound riches, lifelong security — and the weight that comes with them. Nicklas Backstrom is entering the eighth year of a 10-year, $67 million deal. Find someone who thinks Backstrom has taken a shift or a practice off because of his contract, and I would like to meet him. "Somehow you got to try to put that aside and be the guy you normally are," Backstrom said. "You know you can be a good player, and that's why they signed you for that number." Simple enough. But also, this: "It's a lot mentally, too." [Capitals forward Tom Wilson suspended four games for boarding] So MacLellan's bet is that Kuznetsov's talent, which has produced 97 assists the past two seasons combined, will continue to develop to the point that he is a perennial all-star candidate. His bet is that the production from Oshie's career year — 33 goals playing alongside Backstrom and Ovechkin — won't drop off significantly and more importantly that his leadership, experience, work ethic and competitive spirit will infiltrate the locker room even if he never scores 30 times again. He is betting on the human beings wearing the skates. "You try and do your homework," MacLellan said. His homework showed that Mr. $46 Million and Mr. $62 Million — uh, Oshie and Kuznetsov — could handle all that comes with all those zeros. Each now knows what's ahead not just for himself but also for his family. Oshie's children are 3 and 1, and he and his wife love the fact that there are so many little ones "on the team," as Oshie said. There's a comfort level knowing his daughter is in the same preschool as Backstrom's little girl. Kuznetsov has one daughter and said he and his wife likely will have more children, so he can plan his life accordingly. The contracts bring comfort, security and pressure, maybe in equal parts. "Before I signed that deal, I knew it was going to be some pressure on me," Kuznetsov said. "But sometimes players need it. I think it's going to be even better for me." Shake off last season, Caps fans. Shoot, shake off last season, Caps players and coaches and execs. There's a present here that matters. More than that, there's a future — a future that's tied to two players on whom the organization has placed a $108 million wager. Odds are, given the people to whom those numbers are attached, they will be fine.Officials ID body found in downtown Santa Rosa Santa Rosa police are investigating the death of a homeless man whose body was found Monday outside a downtown Santa Rosa restaurant. Billy Edward Rosser, 32, was found in an enclosed patio area of the shuttered Rendezvous Bistro by a transient man who called police at about 7:30 a.m., Santa Rosa Police Lt. Ron Nelson said. Investigators found nothing immediately suspicious about Rosser’s death. Nelson said it appeared the man had slept there and was found alongside what appeared to be some of his belongings. Rosser grew up in Santa Rosa and had become homeless by choice three or four months ago after he was unable to pay rent, according to his brother Rickey Rosser, 34, of Santa Rosa. Ricky Rosser said he last saw his brother three days ago. “We tried to get him to come back home,” Ricky Rosser said. But Billy Rosser refused, he said. Ricky Rosser said he was surprised his brother was found downtown, because his brother recently told Rosser that he usually camped with a group of people off Stony Point Road near the Finley Center. He also said that he was concerned that his brother had been found wearing only his boxers following a cold, wet night. Temperatures dropped to 53 degrees early Monday morning in Santa Rosa. The city received.41 inches of rain in 24 hours Sunday through Monday afternoon. Jennielynn Holmes-Davis, director of shelter and housing for Catholic Charities, said rain often pushes homeless people to seek shelter closer to town where there are more awnings and covered areas. “Rain is different than dealing with the cold, it’s more difficult,” Holmes-Davis said. Monday morning, Catholic Charities staff opened up an additional 50 beds at the Sam Jones Hall shelter to address the increased need during the rainy winter months. “It was very busy. We had to have extra staff,” Holmes-Davis said. “We’re trying to get as many in as possible.” Rosser’s body was under the red awning of the restaurant, which has been closed since January 2014. It was out of view of anyone walking in front of the restaurant on the corner of Fourth Street and Courthouse Square. Word spread early Monday downtown about the death. “It’s so sad,” said Pete Mogannam, owner of Fourth Street Market & Deli, across the street from Rendezvous Bistro. Mogannam said he’s noticed an increase in the number of transients spending the night in the area in recent months. As he comes to work at about 5 a.m. he typically sees four to six people sleeping in plain sight in business doorways and front steps in the blocks around his shop. Many of the street folks regularly come into the deli, and he recognizes many of them. This year, it seems there are more than ever before, he said, wishing there was a better program available to help people get off the street and deal with alcohol or drug issues they may have. “I deal with it every day,” Mogannam said. “There are so many new faces.” Vice Mayor Chris Coursey said that Rosser’s death is “terrible” and an indication that the city needs to continue its growing Housing First initiative to connect people with housing. A point-in-time census of Sonoma County homeless done in January found the population had decreased 40 percent, to 2,000 people, compared to the last census in 2013. However, the number of transient people seen in downtown Santa Rosa appears to buck that trend, Coursey said. “It’s more obvious to anyone with eyes that there are more people on the streets these days,” Coursey said. Staff Writer Randi Rossmann contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com.Image caption Isobutanol is more powerful than ethanol and has now been approved for use in aircraft fuel blends Plans to cut airline CO2 using greener jet fuels made from waste wood have been dismissed as a "pipe dream" by environmentalists. Several high powered, waste-based biofuels are being tested by airlines as a way of curbing CO2. UN officials are set to endorse these fuels as a key part of global plans to stabilise aviation emissions by 2020. But critics say the plans are unrealistic and airlines are not taking the issue seriously. Contested airspace One of the big failures of the Paris climate agreement, adopted in December 2015, is that it doesn't cover emissions from shipping or aviation. We are short cutting mother nature and sucking carbon directly out of the atmosphere Andrew Hawkins, Gevo The scale and impact of carbon from the booming airline business is heavily contested. The industry points out that in 2015 only 2% of human emissions of CO2 came from aircraft. Environmentalists point out that this doesn't include the warming impact of contrails or other gases and aerosols. They believe the true impact is about 5%. Earlier this year, the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO), the UN body that regulates this sector, produced a report that predicted a three-fold increase in emissions from airplanes by 2050 if nothing is done to restrict carbon. Image caption Waste from the forestry trade is the prime ingredient in the new fuel Image caption The waste is combined with water and enzymes to form a pine scented "broth" Image caption Isobutanol is then extracted from the broth by genetically modified yeast ICAO has developed a long term plan that it says will ensure that, by the middle of the century, aviation emissions will be half of what they were in 2005. One of the key parts of that plan is green jet fuel. Since Virgin Atlantic flew the first flight powered partly by biofuel in 2008, there have been dozens of tests with many different types of alternative jet fuels, often made from oil seed crops or animal fats. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A new form of jet fuel made from wood waste is being tested on aircraft in the US But in the US earlier this year, the Federal Aviation Authority gave the go-ahead to a new fuel making process that some people believe will be a game changer for greener flying. The new biofuel is made from a type of alcohol called isobutanol, which occurs naturally in the fermentation process and can be found in many items including bread and scotch whiskey. Pine scented soup At a large, warm and sweet smelling industrial facility in St Joseph's, Missouri, fermenting tanks three stories tall contain a swirling mixture of wood pulp, water and enzymes. The engineers here call the liquid, a "broth", and it's from pine-scented soup that isobutanol is extracted. Image caption The UN says there could be a three-fold increase in aviation emissions by 2050 if no action is taken "It's like making a hot toddy, it has a bit of an alcoholic smell to it but you can still smell the undertones of the pine feedstock in the fermentation," said Andrew Hawkins from Gevo, the company that has been licensed to make jet fuel using this new method. The enzymes are used to extract the sugars from the pine. Genetically modified yeast then deliver the isobutanol from the sugars. By this stage, the smell of pine has long departed and the clear liquid remaining has the breathtaking whiff of a high-octane fuel. One more refining step, at another facility, is required to complete the process. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Matt McGrath's radio report on attempts to make sustainable jet fuel from wood waste What's making airlines excited about using isobutanol based fuel is the fact that it is much more powerful than ethanol, the current biofuel of choice for transport. Another attraction is that unlike, ethanol, jet fuel made from isobutanol can be carried and mixed in the same pipes and fuel trucks as petroleum products. By using forest residue, supporters believe the new fuel can make a real and sustainable difference to airline carbon emissions as trees soak up CO2 as they grow and it is only the waste from their harvesting that's used in production. "We are short cutting mother nature and sucking carbon directly out of the atmosphere, that maybe yesterday's plane put into the atmosphere," Andrew Hawkins told BBC News. "We then create sugars via these trees and then turn that back into fuel." A question of cost? Gevo say they are planning to increase production to around 1 million gallons this year. The company believe they can reduce the cost of production to around $3 a gallon - but that is still around $1.80 more than the current market price of petroleum based jet fuel. Isobutanol made from corn is now being been used in test flights by Alaska Airlines in blends of up to 30% with regular fuel. But whether they are made from wood waste or corn, the financial cost of these new fuels are likely to prove a major problem according to environmentalists. "They are far too expensive, and they are not delivering the emissions reductions that would justify the investment," said Bill Hemmings of campaign group Transport & Environment. "The new fuels are two or three times the cost of existing jet fuels, no-one in their right mind would pay that price. People continue to bang that drum about new biofuels, but they are not going to deliver. It's all fairytale stuff." Attempts to regulate airline emissions have proved very difficult as countries haven't been able to agree on the ways of measurement and responsibility. For example, if an airplane owned by a Middle Eastern airline flies from a poor African country to a poor Asian destination, who should "own" these emissions? ICAO believe they have found a way forward that would allow airlines to offset emissions in the future by purchasing credits from certified reduction schemes, such as tree planting. But their long-term goal of halving the level of 2005 emissions by 2050 depends on a rapid uptake of green fuels. Critics say that this is impossible - it would require around 170 large scale bio-refineries to be built every year between 2020 and 2050, at a cost of up to $60bn a year. Flying gorillas? As well as biofuels, UN officials meeting in Montreal in September will also announce tougher standards for new aircraft designs to curb CO2 that will come into force in 2028. Green campaigners say this approach is "incredibly weak". They say that around 15% of aircraft flying today perform better than these future criteria. Real change, they argue, won't come through these vague international efforts. They believe that the key to solving the problem lies in the US. "The US is the 800 pound gorilla of carbon pollution in the sky," said Vera Pardee a lawyer with the Centre for Biological Diversity. "More than 30% of all international carbon pollution comes from the United States. "It is the duty of the US to get us out of this problem. If the US Environmental Protection Agency were to adopt meaningful standards then the international community will follow. "The airplane manufacturers are not stupid, they need to meet the demands of their markets, when a regulation goes into effect for one of their major markets, that will be the catalyst to cause emissions to finally be handled correctly and come down." Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathBBC and on Facebook.MADISON — Wisconsin's unemployment rate has dropped to 7.3 percent for September. That is down from 7.5 percent in August. The state Department of Workforce Development reported the latest figures on Thursday. The state added 1,500 private sector jobs for the month, based on the survey of roughly 3.5 percent of Wisconsin businesses. For the year, the state has added 4,100 private sector jobs. Gov. Scott Walker promised to add 250,000 private sector jobs by 2015. Since he took office in January 2011 the state has added about 32,000 private sector jobs. The numbers reported Thursday are subject to significant revision month to month. Walker's administration has downplayed the significance of the numbers in favor of quarterly data based on a census of nearly all of the state's businesses.How to Outsmart Uber’s Demand-Driven Price Hikes Some simple steps to avoid the dreaded “surge pricing.” It happens to the best of us: You order an Uber ride, and the fare estimate shows a price several times the normal rate because there’s a blizzard. Or it’s St. Patrick’s Day. Or a big concert is letting out. Whenever demand outstrips supply—even just during rush hour—maddening “surge pricing” hits. Next time, use one of these three tricks. Hoof it—just a little. The prices Uber charges can be dramatically lower (or higher) just a few blocks away. So download a free iPhone app called SurgeProtector: It interacts with Uber’s app to check nearby rates automatically, letting you know if there’s a cheaper one within walking distance. (Come on, you know you need the exercise.) Know when to cab it. Use another free app, Quxsi, to quickly compare fares from UberX (the most basic service Uber offers) with taxi fares. Decided on a cab but can’t find one? Use Uber’s taxi tool. It’ll cost you a $2 surcharge on the cab’s usual metered fare, but that will work out to less than UberX pricing at peak times. Time it right. If you regularly catch a ride to work or home from Friday barhopping, become well versed in working the Uber rush. That means waking up a tad early or ducking out way before last call. Or use Uber’s Surge Drop tool to receive an alert when surge pricing has ended. As long as your departure time is flexible—you’re fine with staying late at work, for example—you’ll save some bucks to make the next happy hour all the better. Anatomy of a Surge How a less-than-four-mile trip can cost $80.87 1. You place an Uber order for a lift from Lake View to River North on the morning of November 18. Because of a couple of mishaps—a bus fire shuts down southbound Lake Shore Drive and a school fire halts CTA service on the Brown and Purple Lines—Uber imposes a surge multiplier of 4.9 times the usual fare. 2. Base fare for UberX, the no-frills service. 3. Distance rate is 90 cents per mile times 3.98 miles. 4. Time rate is 20 cents per minute for a 55-minute ride. 5. Wham! The surge multiplier makes up by far the largest part of your total cost. This article appears in the February 2015 issue of Chicago magazine. Subscribe to Chicago magazine. ShareManagua, Nicaragua - One week after his death, friends and family members are remembering Nicaragua’s only Orthodox Jew, who passed away, at the age of 86 after suffering a stroke several months ago. Max (Moshe) Najman was born in Nicaragua’s capital city, Managua, in July 1927 to Polish born parents who settled in the country after sailing from Europe to Cuba. “My father was a hard working man who continued his father’s small business, a shirt factory, turning it into one of the two biggest shirt factories in Nicaragua,” Jimmy Najman, the oldest of the five Najman children, told VIN News. “He foresaw that the shirt business was not going to be doing well and he made a trip to Japan where he started with plastics. He bought a small machine and starting making very small plastic key chains.” Over time the business grew and today, under the supervision of Jimmy Najman who manages the factory from his home in Miami, it produces school supplies and ring binders. Advertisement: Najman was also selected to serve as the honorary consul for Israel in Nicaragua for over 20 years. “He loved doing things for the State of Israel,” recalled Jimmy Najman. “The Israeli ambassador was stationed in Costa Rica but he would come to visit from time to time and my father would prepare for him. He always worked hard on that and it gave him a lot of satisfaction.” The Najmans were among the many who fled Nicaragua in the 1980’s when the country was seized by a revolution. “All Jewish businesses were confiscated by the communists and we moved to Miami,” recalled Jimmy Najman. During that time, the Najmans experience a major life change. “We were not always Orthodox,” said Jimmy Najman. “While we were in Miami my father met Rabbi Sholom Lipskar and it just happened. When we came back to Nicaragua in 1990 there was a new government and we were able to get our property back but very few of Nicaragua’s Jews returned and my father was the only Orthodox Jew now living in Nicaragua.” With the country’s only shul burned and confiscated during the revolution, the Najman home became the center for Judaism in Nicaragua. Despite the lack of kosher food in the country, the Najmans found that although kashrus did require careful planning, it did not pose an insurmountable problem. “We would go every month and get food from the Lubavitch rabbi in Costa Rica, an eight hour drive,” recalled Jimmy Najman. “My father told someone, ‘It is very easy to keep kosher in Nicaragua. All you need is a big freezer.’” Rabbi Hershel Shpalter, co-director of Jabad Lubavitch de Costa Rica, remembered Max Najman as his point person in Nicaragua for anything Jewish. “He would come to us for many of the important holidays since they didn’t have a real Shul,” said Rabbi Shpalter. “He held up the Jewish community of Nicaragua, maintaining the cemetery and making sure that only Jews were buried there. He as a very warm and loving Jew, a baal tzedaka who was full of love, devotion and tremendous dedication.” There were other occasions where the Najmans spent the Jewish holidays in Nicaragua. “One time there was a big hurricane which didn’t affect Managua but did a lot of damage in the countryside,” reminisced Jimmy Najman. “The United States sent a lot of medical teams and many of the doctors were Jewish. We stayed home for Passover that year and it was a very crowded Seder, with a lot of the foreigners who came to help joining us.” “For one reason or another there were many Jews who stopped by our house, either staying for Shabbos or because the rabbi in Costa Rica would send people to us,” added Jimmy Najman. Leo Freund, a Kiryas Joel businessman who met Max Najman in 1996 and kept in close contact with him over the years, recalled a story told to him about one exceptionally memorable Pesach in Nicaragua. “He had a big house, with cement walls for protection all around,” said Freund. “One Pesach in the middle of the Seder someone knocks on the window and Moshe wondered how is it possible for anyone to do that when there are guard dogs and shomrim all over the property. He looked up and saw he forgot to pour the Kos Shel Eliyahu. He had such emuna peshuta that he knew it was Eliyahu HaNavi reminding him to pour the kos. He even told me that he looked up again during Shefoch Chamascha and saw the top of the wine was shaking and he took it as a sign that Eliyahu HaNavi had just been there.” Having an outpost of yiddishkeit in Nicaragua was something not to be taken lightly, according to Freund. “You can’t imagine the feeling of someone who does business in Central America to find a heimishe yid, who is shomer Torah u’mitzvos,” explained Freund. “You get up in the morning and there is his wife, with her hair covered, saying Birkos HaTorah and Krishma. You look at the sinks and you see them labeled ‘leche’ and ‘carne’. You look out on the porch you see a Succah. In a country with nothing, he took care of any yid who came. Freund was effusive in his praise for Max Najman. “The ahava he had, the love of yiddishkeit, the emunah peshuta in bias hamoshiach, the way he lived to do chesed for everyone were all unbelievable. I would call him before I would come back to Nicaragua and say ‘Reb Moshe, what can I bring you from New York?’ and he would say ‘Just come. When you come it elevates me in kedusha.’ We davened together, we sang songs about emunah and danced together and he would have tears coming out of his eyes. To see the strength of this man, to be shomer Torah u’mitzvos in a place like that elevated me in kedusha too. It was a zechus to be able to mechaya a man like him and to receive his brachos.” Years later, Freund recalled a phone call from Max Najman who by that time was splitting his time between Miami and Nicaragua. “His son was getting married in Florida and he called and asked me to come to the chasana,” said Freund. “It was Chanukah but I went anyway. I was shocked when he gave me kriyas kesuba under the chupah. He told me he wanted me to do that in order to strengthen the kedushas yisroel of his children.” Max Najman made such a great impact on visitors that one in particular chose to honor him in a particularly touching fashion. “I once got a call from a rabbi in New Jersey who told me that there was a woman approaching her 80th birthday who wanted to do something special to commemorate the occasion,” recalled Rabbi Shpalter. “A friend who had traveled through Nicaragua suggested donating a Sefer Torah to the Jewish community there and the rabbi asked me if I could make it happen. I called
vote in favor of a resolution, which meant the resolution fell short by 830 votes. The resolution criticizes the fact that Israel has “has denied academics of Palestinian ethnicity entry into the West Bank” and “restricted the academic freedom of scholars and teachers who are United States citizens.” It calls on the State Department “to contest Israel’s denials of entry to the West Bank by United States academics who have been invited to teach, confer, or do research at Palestinian universities.” MLA is a major academic association with members in 100 countries. It has been seen by supporters and opponents of Palestinian rights as the next major battleground following last year’s vote by the smaller American Studies Association in favor of an academic boycott of Israel. The resolution criticizing Israel sparked an intense debate within MLA, as Alex Kane reported for Mondoweiss. “This will, of course be spun by opponents of the resolution as a defeat for the cause of Palestinian solidarity,” University of California, Riverside professor of English David C. Lloyd wrote in an email to The Electronic Intifada. “But the fact remains that of those who voted, a large majority supported the resolution. If further comment needs to be made, it is about the apparent apathy of American scholars rather than about the merits of this quite modest and far from radical resolution.” Still, Lloyd says that it was “unexpected and remarkable” that 60 percent supported the resolution, in spite of fierce opposition. “What it strongly suggests is that on the battleground of ideas, Israel and its supporters are continuing to lose ground.”SALT LAKE CITY — Tim Allen said he nearly walked out of a performance of “The Book of Mormon” musical, but hopes Utahns won’t do the same to him Oct. 20 when he comes to the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City. Ahead of his stand-up comedy performance, the actor and comedian spoke with the Deseret News sharing his thoughts on conservative TV characters in Hollywood. Allen also spoke about Mormons, his faith and his stand-up comedy career. “I’ve got to throw this one out there,” Allen said. “I almost walked out of ‘The Book of Mormon’ musical. I found that horrible. I don’t think it was funny at all.” Allen, who began performing stand-up in 1975, said he found the musical “troubling” and “mean-spirited” — that if any other faith had been presented the way Mormons were, the production would not have happened. “And again, it shows a level of class,” Allen said. “I mean, there wasn’t any blowback from the Mormons.” The comedian said he was a religious studies and philosophy major and has great respect for people of all faiths, including members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and knows when a joke about religion has gone too far. Allen recalled a joke he told about Mormons during a tour of Temple Square. After hearing the stories of the Mormon pioneers, studying the dioramas of the Salt Lake Temple, and seeing what he thought were the actual gold plates from the early days of the church, Allen said he thought, “This is amazing — I’m going to become Mormon.” But when the tour guide mentioned the real gold plates were taken back away by God, Allen said Joseph Smith must have simply misplaced them and couldn’t explain it to his wife. “Of all things, you’d probably keep those close in your house,” Allen said. “I think I put that in a book, and I got a letter from the Mormon Church that they were not (necessarily kept in Smith’s house). But, as odd as it is, you can’t get that story out of nothing.” Allen said he was raised Anglican and would get in trouble for constantly asking the priest questions. “They can’t answer it,” Allen said. “You kind of have to drop it. Anytime the prophets speak in the Old Testament, I’m like, ‘What? Does anyone understand that?’” He and his wife ultimately chose to raise their kids in his wife’s Catholic faith where Allen describes the current priest as “wonderful,” though he too is bombarded with questions from Allen. Although he is glad to be doing more stand-up in recent months following the cancellation of his hit ABC sitcom “Last Man Standing,” Allen said there was no shortage of comedy work for him to do over the past several years. Despite his heavy acting schedule — working 10-hour days, five days a week — Allen would still end some of his days doing stand-up in Las Vegas at The Mirage hotel and casino. Following the cancellation of "Last Man Standing," Allen was able to start traveling again for his comedy routines, performing them across the country. “There were some offers out there — Salt Lake being one of them,” Allen said. “I’m humbled and grateful there are offers coming in from cities I’ve loved coming to before. It’s exciting.” Allen said although he is not the biggest fan of travel, he has done it for years as part of his stand-up career and loves the opportunity it gives him to see and perform in other cities across the nation. He has been on TV shows, movies, and has even written books, but Allen said his home has always been in stand-up comedy. “Once I get out there, I’m extremely honored to be able to do this,” Allen said. “I love it. I love doing stand-up — there’s no question. “There’s nothing like midway through and I’ve got these big bits I can’t wait to deliver to the audience. It’s humbling to go back to this, but this is what I do, and I love being able to do it.” Content advisory: "Tim Allen Live!" is for mature audiences. If you go What: “Tim Allen Live! On Stage” Where: Eccles Theater, 131 S. Main Street When: Friday, Oct. 20, 8 p.m. How Much: Tickets range from $40 to $125 Web: live-at-the-eccles.comA woman in Arizona says that she was recently assaulted while working as a bell ringer for the Salvation Army because she greeted shoppers with the phrase “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” Kristina Vindiola told KNXV that she was collecting donations outside a Walmart in Phoenix and chose the wrong greeting for one woman. “The lady looked at me,” Vindiola recalled. “I thought she was going to put money in the kettle. She came up to me and said, ‘Do you believe in God?’ And she says, ‘You’re supposed to say Merry Christmas,’ and that’s when she hit me.” Vindiola said that she notified Walmart managers that the woman had hit her in the arm, and the police were notified. “She should’ve just been happy I said ‘Happy Holidays,’ but I got hit because I didn’t say ‘Merry Christmas,'” she pointed out. After reviewing Walmart surveillance video, Phoenix determined that there was not enough evidence to arrest the suspect. Vindiola is considering taking legal action against the woman. Watch this video from KNXV, broadcast Dec. 16, 2013.Afghan woman 'raped by police chief' when she tried to report her own rape Updated A young Afghan woman who went to the police station to report being raped was then raped by the district police commissioner in his office, she alleges. The 18-year-old, who gave her name as Mariam, was taken at gunpoint from her house in the Zareh district of Balkh province in northern Afghanistan in early July. The man took her to a house on the same street where he and another man raped her, she said from Kabul. "When I went with my father to report the rape case, the police commissioner ordered my father to wait outside, and took me into his office where he also raped me," she said. After raping her, he warned her to "keep her mouth shut" or she would be killed, Mariam said. Police commissioner Akram Zareh denied any wrongdoing. "I am an honest policeman. I am 60. She is like my daughter," he said. "This is a plot against me." Mariam's father, Khairuddin, brought his daughter to the capital Kabul to draw attention to her story and seek justice. "My daughter said that she would burn herself alive, because she could not go out of the house and could not make eye contact with anyone due to shame," Mr Khairuddin said by phone. He said he met Afghanistan's Attorney-General who promised to investigate the case. "Respecting her privacy, the Attorney-General asked Mariam to tell her story to a special female anti-violence officer in private," Baktash Azizi, the Attorney-General's chief of staff, said. "After hearing the case, the Attorney-General appointed the Balkh provincial prosecutor and a special military prosecutor to investigate and present their findings as soon as possible." Mr Zareh is still serving as the district police commissioner, and was already being investigated in another rape case, Mr Azizi said. In Kabul, Mariam said she would not go home until he was removed from office. "I will burn myself, but will not go back home where he is ruling. I will stay here until I get justice," she said. Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous countries to be a woman or girl in, and a shortage of female police officers means women rarely report abuse, rights groups say. Research indicates that more than eight in 10 women in Afghanistan have been sexually, physically or psychologically abused, but only a few thousand cases are reported each year. Reuters Topics: sexual-offences, law-crime-and-justice, police, afghanistan First posted1. Earliest life Hamelin Pool, Western Australia (3 billion years ago) Visit living stromatolites, pillars of cyanobacteria that are the modern relatives of the planet's primordial slime. Location: 26.38° S 114.15° E Find out more: Visiting Shark Bay (Image: Newhaircut/Flickr) 2. Earliest animals Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, Canada (575 million years ago) This rock shelf on the stormy Atlantic coast hosts thousands of bizarre fossils from the Ediacaran period. The delicate squiggles that look like squashed seaweed or pizza slices are in fact remains of the earliest multicellular life. Guide required. Location: 46.62° N 53.15° W Find out more: Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve (Image: Helen Goodchild/York University, Archaeology Department) Advertisement 3. Explosion of "weird wonders" Burgess Shale, British Columbia, Canada (540 million years ago) Deep in the Rocky Mountains lies evidence of the world's first complex life, reminiscent of beetles and lobsters. Fossils litter the loose shale. Guide required. Location: 51.43° N 116.51° W Find out more: Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation Tours: +1 800 343 3006 (Image: Michael Melford/Getty) 4. Dinosaurs Zhucheng, Shandong, China (100 million years ago) The world's largest dino graveyard is right here, and a tourist park is being developed. Location: 35.99 N° 119.4° E Find out more: UNESCO Global Geoparks Network Tours: Mr Wang Kebai, on +86 15153650001 (Image: STR/AFP/Getty Images) 5. Death of the dinos Gubbio, Italy (65 million years ago) See the meteorite dust thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs. The thin seam of the stuff, discovered by Luis and Walter Alvarez of the University of California, Berkeley, is plain to see in an outcrop near the Bottaccione restaurant. Location: 43.37° N 12.58° E (Image: Martin Bond/SPL) 6. Mammal mania Messel pit, near Frankfurt, Germany (47 million years ago) See the remains of pygmy horses, bats and the early primate nicknamed Ida. A tour guide is required at what is still an active dig. Location: 49.92° N 8.77° E Find out more: The Messel Pit Fossil Site: A National Geotope (Image: Jens L. Franzen; Philip D. Gingerich; Jörg Habersetzer; et al/PLoS ONE) 7. Whale of a time Wadi Al-Hitan, Egypt (37-40 million years ago) The site is famous for its fossil find of a whale with feet, capturing the evolutionary moment when whales were moving from the land back into the sea. Guide required. Location: 29.25° N 30.01° E Find out more: The Encyclopedia of Earth Tours: Minamar Hotels and Travel (Image: Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images) 8. Early human Sterkfontein, South Africa (2-3 million years ago) Delve into the caves of the "cradle of humankind", home to Mrs Ples, the most complete skull ever found of Australopithecus africanus. It helped prove that the skeletons here were of early humans rather than apes. Location:26.02° S 27.73° E Find out more: Maropeng: official visitor centre Tours: +27 14 577 9000 (Image: PZFUN under a CC 3.0 license) 9. Neanderthals Neander valley, Mettmann, Germany (30,000 years ago) On the village outskirts you can meet Homo neanderthalensis, who ended up taking a side path on the route map of human evolutionary history. The cave where the specimens were found isn't on the tourist trail, but there is a great museum. Location: 51.25° N 6.97° E Find out more: Neanderthal Museum (Image: Neanderthal Museum)Lifelong Health Starts Here I’m going to ask a question, and I want your gut response. Answer fast. What do you feed a lion? Meat. Meat is the obviously correct answer. You would feed the lion raw meat. I think even the most ardent vegan would admit that lions are supposed to eat meat. But why are they “supposed” to eat meat? How do we determine what a living thing is supposed to eat? Obviously, lions are predators. They hunt and eat prey animals in the wild. But that’s not the whole story. Lions hunt and eat animals, and they and their feline ancestors have been doing so for hundreds of thousands of years. Millions, even. That’s the key. The hunting, killing, and raw meat-eating informed the evolution of the lion over many millions of years. The lion’s genetic makeup was shaped by meat-eating. Its teeth and claws are made for killing, its digestive tract is meant to process protein and fat. You might even say the lion’s genes expect the ancestral lion diet of raw meat and function best on such a diet. Conversely, a diet that diverges dramatically from the ancestral lion diet will probably be harmful, with the harm incurred proportional to the degree of divergence. A vegetarian diet will make your lion sick, weak, and probably overweight; a vegan diet will probably kill your lion. No one would argue against feeding lions raw meat, and anyone who understands natural selection (and as a subscriber to this newsletter I’m sure you do) would agree that lions function best on a raw meat diet because they evolved on one. This works with other animals, too. Cows eat grass, not meat. Cats, those little house lions, eat meat, not grain and vegetable. And humans? Humans eat chicken nuggets, soda, and white bread. Wait. (Record scratch.) That’s not right. Humans are animals, too. We may be relative newcomers to this planet, but we’ve been around for a good 200,000 years, and our ancestors have been around for millions of years. And for a good 190,000 years of that, we were hunter-gatherers, living off the land, big game hunters who feasted on plant and animal alike. Then we developed agriculture, and for the next 9,900 years, grains ruled the human diet. 100 years ago, food production industrialized, giving us vegetable oil, man-made trans fats, cheap white flour, and inexpensive refined sugar. Now, we may not know exactly what our Paleolithic ancestors ate, day in and day out. We don’t have menus or food logs. But we do know what they did not eat. Our ancestors did not eat grains, refined sugar, or processed vegetable oils. The thing about people is that we are smart enough to exploit everything offered by the natural world. We don’t just stick to one source of food, like lions and their meat or cows and their grass. We branch out. We pick edible vegetation, we hunt large and small animals, we fish, we dig up edible roots, and we pluck berries from bushes. The wide variety available makes it difficult to pin down the specific evolutionary diet for humans… but that doesn’t prevent us from knowing what wasn’t available. Here’s what we know: Grains were not readily available until we developed agriculture roughly 10,000 years ago. Fossil records suggest that human health took a hit with the advent of agriculture, as much as you can tell from bones. Agriculturalists were shorter than and had more cavities, smaller brains, and weaker bones than hunter-gatherers. Life expectancy also dropped. High-fructose corn syrup and vegetable oils were only made available in the last 100 years, with HFCS coming just 30 odd years ago. Today, people are fatter, more diabetic, and get more cancer and heart disease than people living 100 years ago, even if you account for differences in lifespan. Most, if not all of those illnesses are directly attributed to our poor modern lifestyles and diets. If you accept that the biology of animals, like lions, functions best on ancestral, evolutionary diets, wouldn’t the same likely be true for humans? That maybe we should take a closer, slightly skeptical look at the foods that have only been available to humans for the last 10,000, 1,000, and 100 years? That maybe the meat, fish, fowl, nuts, seeds, fruits, roots and tubers that were available to hunter-gatherers for millions of years are actually good for us? That’s what I call “Grok logic“. Grok, my fun name for the archetypal hunter-gatherer ancestor, is us. We are Grok. Well, our bodies want to be, anyway. Our genes certainly think we’re still hunting and gathering because they’ve hardly changed in the last 10,000 years. Our genes expect certain things, certain foods, activity levels, and amounts of sleep. They function best when exposed to the same or similar conditions as under which they evolved. And here’s the thing about genes. Genes can be turned on and off. They can be expressed. Just because you “have” a gene for, say, breast cancer or type 2 diabetes, it doesn’t mean you are destined to get breast cancer or type 2 diabetes. It simply means that if triggered by something in your environment, that gene will switch on (or off) and you will have a higher (or lower) chance of getting the disease. This is called gene expression. The things we eat, the amount of sleep we get, our stress levels, how we exercise, whether or not we get sunlight exposure – all of these environmental factors can trigger gene expression – for good or bad. And while just about everything we do can trigger gene expression, the list of things we really need to pay attention is quite short. In fact, it can be summarized in 10 simple laws. (Read more about the 10 Primal Blueprint Laws here.) This is why I like Grok logic as a starting point when thinking about human health. It comes down to a pretty simple observation. When humans began diverting from their ancestral hunter-gatherer lifestyle, health suffered. When industrially processed food began crowding out natural, whole food, health suffered even more. Today, people obtain most of their calories from refined grains, sugar, and vegetable oils. They endure chronic stress, lead sedentary lives, work jobs they hate, and live indoors. Today, people have more diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and obesity than ever before. Correlation? Certainly. Coincidence? I doubt it. Causation? I think it’s worth investigating. In future lessons, we’re going to do that investigating. We’re going to look at many of the ways in which our modern lifestyles divert from our evolutionary past and how our health suffers for it. Everything from the food we eat, the shoes we wear, the sunscreen we slather, the chairs we sit in, and the exercise we do (or don’t do) is fair game. I think you’re going to learn a lot about how to recapture the health of you and yours by following your Primal Blueprint and nurturing positive gene expression, and I think you’re going to love what you learn. Stay tuned for Lesson 2 tomorrow. P.S. Health is an urgent matter. For some, more urgent than for others. If that’s you, feel free to read ahead and get the whole scoop right away. To get started, download the Intro to The Primal Blueprint, my Primal Blueprint Fitness e-book, and the reader-created cookbooks – all free of charge (Password: PBFPBINTROPDFS). To go a bit deeper, pick up a copy of The Primal Blueprint or cut to the chase and start getting Primal today with a copy of The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation. This lesson is the first of a 7-part course on how to achieve lifelong health with the Primal Blueprint. If you are not already a subscriber, click here to gain access to the rest of the lessons. You can unsubscribe at anytime and your email address will never be shared.This post is part of Polyarchy, an independent blog produced by the political reform program at New America, a Washington think tank devoted to developing new ideas and new voices. Here’s the most depressing news I’ve come across all week: There is a new “civic action” service called “Civi.” It allows well-off people to pay other (presumably less well-off) people to make calls to Congress on their behalf. For just $14.99 a month, you too can hire somebody to call your member of Congress for you — 21 times! (Thirteen calls are $9.99, six calls are $4.99.) “For a single issue,” the service boasts, “Civi will call your Representative, and keep calling until your Representative’s office picks up and Civi delivers your message regardless of how many attempts this takes.” That’s the kind of doggedness I like to see in my personal assistants! “Civic Action Network allows you to actively participate in our democracy without disrupting your day to day life.” (My italics.) How convenient! “Civi is a real person ready to call on your behalf. Your own personal assistant and direct line to Congress.” (My italics.) And why not? If I can hire somebody clean my house, to deliver my groceries, to put together my Ikea furniture, why not hire somebody to be my very own personal civic activist? After all, why shouldn’t politics be just like any other form of commerce in our service-based economy? If Washington is already overwhelmed by lobbyists for wealthy corporations and big donor–funded associations, why shouldn’t I also benefit from the commercialization of politics? Tell me: Why should responsive political representation be any different from getting your laundry done? “Welcome to modern-day civic involvement,” Civi boasts. Sigh, if true. But maybe I’m just old-fashioned, and think if you care enough about an issue that you want to contact your member of Congress, you should invest some of your own time and energy. Is the tide of history against me? For example, you can also now sign up for Resistbot, in which you can just reply to a text message and contact your members of Congress. Civic engagement from the comfort of a bar. But it’s worse. In addition to cheapening the meaning of civic engagement, services like these also don’t seem to have any consideration of how their demands will be received and processed. First, congressional offices are not equipped to handle this volume of constituent delegation of engagement. Members of Congress rely on tiny staffs, pay those staffs very little money, and lack adequate technology to process the nonstop onslaught. Offices typically have one or two people answering the phones, and a few to process the deluge of email and social media messages. So the easier it becomes to generate these communications, the more offices are deluged, and the harder it becomes to meaningfully respond. At the very least, if we want bots and assistants to be this engaged for us, we need to pay for larger congressional staffs to handle this engagement. Second, when it becomes exceedingly easy to communicate with your member of Congress, it’s very hard for members of Congress to determine who actually cares about what, and how much. If it’s essentially a thoughtless act to make a demand, members will be tempted to treat everything coming at them as equally thoughtless. That’s why participating in town halls is considered effective — it sends a strong message: “I care enough to show up and harass you in person.” But the more we have bots or paid assistants contact members of Congress, the easier it becomes for members of Congress to dismiss everything else as part of an atmospheric din — meaningless noise. To be fair, the rise of these “contact your member of Congress” services speaks to a real and growing desire among many people to actually get engaged in politics. And the current mechanisms for citizens registering their opinion effectively are not great. But let’s keep this in mind: House members used to represent 30,000 people. Now they represent closer to 700,000. Senators represent even more. Direct connection is increasingly difficult, given the size of constituencies and the complexities of modern policymaking. Certainly, technology could and should play more of a role in aggregating and delivering citizen sentiment than it does now. So here’s an idea: Perhaps all the folks who are building apps and services to make it effortless to deluge your member of Congress should also be working with Congress to build services to handle the deluge. All the hard work they’re putting in to channel citizen energy will turn out to be meaningless if Congress doesn’t have the capacity to effectively process it. Or if you’re going to pay somebody to call your member of Congress on your behalf, maybe also give your member of Congress some extra money to pay somebody to handle the added call volume. Certainly, I can see the appeal of Civi. I have a job. I have two young kids. I have very little free time. And if I didn’t live in DC and actually had real congressional representation, I might want somebody to call those representatives for me. I might want an app that made it easy for me. But I also want to live in a society where everybody has an equal voice (regardless of whether you can pay somebody to call Congress for you), and where civic engagement requires enough effort to actually mean something. These services and technologies are cheapening the meaning of civic engagement by turning it into a commodity that the well-off can afford (Civi), or something that is effectively cost-free (Resistbot). For democracy to work, civic engagement has to signal real thought and effort. Otherwise, it is too easily dismissed as what these services would turn it into: “paid protesting.” If we don’t invest our own time and care and energy into our democratic participation, what should we expect in response? If we want a government that takes policy trade-offs seriously, and that listens meaningfully to the public, we need to take our own engagement seriously too. If we don’t, we’ll get the government we deserve. Which sure looks a lot like the one we have these days.Griffiths knocked in his seventh goal of the season Celtic eased to a comfortable victory despite resting a host of key players for their visit to Dundee United. Leigh Griffiths raced away to slot in the opening goal and home goalkeeper Luis Zwick was kept busy in a one-sided first half. United's Mark Durnan turned the ball into his own net before the break but Chris Erskine replied with a penalty. A deflected shot from Callum McGregor gave Celtic breathing space in a scrappy second half. Media playback is not supported on this device Interviews - McNamara and Deila With an eye firmly on Tuesday's Champions League play-off second leg with Malmo, Celtic boss Ronny Deila made nine changes to his starting line-up. With their opponents so drastically altered, United may have thought they could improve on a record of three home wins against Celtic in a decade. But the contest could have been over in the first 20 minutes, with Celtic regularly slicing the home defence open with their high-tempo approach and slick passing. Griffiths headed wide before Durnan cleared a Commons shot off the goal-line and a Charlie Mulgrew free-kick whistled narrowly over the top. The deadlock was broken on 17 minutes when Durnan failed to cut out a pass from Anthony Stokes, allowing Griffiths to race clear and round Zwick to slot in his seventh goal of the season. Zwick was then called upon to make a hat-trick of good saves from Commons and stuck out a foot to stop a Griffiths shot. Scott Allan picked up a booking on his Celtic debut While the 21-year-old German was bailing out his shaky defence, Logan Bailly, making his Celtic debut, did not look too clever dealing with a routine back-pass and his clumsy challenge on Robbie Muirhead had the home fans calling for a penalty to no avail. There were more anguished cries from the Terrors support as Ryan McGowan slid a shot wide from near the penalty spot following a purposeful surge from Blair Spittal. And that misery was compounded as Celtic broke from defending a corner, with the unfortunate Zwick wrong-footed by Durnan's interception on a slack pass from Commons as the ball trundled into the centre of the net on 44 minutes. There was time for United to reduce the deficit before the interval as Scott Fraser was upended by the lunging Efe Ambrose and Erskine slammed in an assured spot-kick. Celtic's intensity dipped in the second half, with United more aggressive, and Paul Dixon hammered a shot into the side-netting. Scott Allan replaced Griffiths to make his Celtic debut and a misplaced kick from Zwick came his way within seconds of arrival but the midfielder could not beat the back-pedalling keeper with his first-time effort. McGregor, another Celtic replacement, did find a way past the keeper, although Zwick was again unlucky as defender Coll Donaldson deflected the shot from 18 yards low into the corner of the net. With the game growing increasingly scrappy, Bailly made sure Celtic did not concede two goals for the fourth game running, stretching to stop an Erskine shot and flamboyantly pushing away two free-kicks from Aidan Connolly. Durnan (left) scored an own goal just before half-timeLOS ANGELES, CA - JULY 12: A general view at the season 7 premiere of 'Game Of Thrones' at Walt Disney Concert Hall on July 12, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic) One of the most appealing aspects of Game of Thrones is the rich, elaborate characters established over the course of six seasons (and counting). Who is the Game of Thrones character living inside your favorite Miami Heat player? HBO’s Game of Thrones started their seventh season Sunday night with yet another hour of twists and turns as one of the most compelling and popular television shows stakes claim to your Sunday nights for the next two months. The characters on the show have taken on a life of their own far outside of the mind of George R.R. Martin and everyone has one or two they can personally relate to but where would some of your favorite Miami Heat players land in Westeros? Goran Dragic: Daenerys Targaryen The dragon connection is very obvious here, but if there was a point guard of Game of Thrones, it would be Daenerys. She’s spent the last six seasons fighting her way through this dark, twisted game all to one day find herself on the Iron Throne. The Mother of Dragons is crafty, she’s always three steps ahead of everyone else and when she finds herself in a bind, she often finds a way out of it much like a great point guard. Both also possess very difficult names to pronounce. Udonis Haslem: Sandor Clegane (The Hound) Once great warriors, the parallels between the Heat legend and The Hound are plentiful. While their best days may be behind them, there is no doubt that their importance has never diminished. Through his travels, The Hound gained a wisdom that he is now imparting on those younger than him as they move through the game. Haslem has been known to take young players under his wing to show them the path to glory that led him to three championships and a lengthy career in the NBA. Both have become leaders by example in their elderly state but never doubt that when they’re called upon, they will deliver. (No word on whether or not Haslem is afraid of fire.) James Johnson: Gregor Clegane (The Mountain) After a brutal battle with Oberyn Martell, Gregor Clegane (affectionately known as The Mountain) needed to be rebuilt. In a Frankenstein-like sequence, The Mountain was reinvented by Qyburn at King’s Landing into a lean, mean killing machine. While far less gory, James Johnson’s drastic transformation during his short time in Miami has been very Mountain-like. There is no doubt that Johnson is now the picture of toughness for the Heat and is moving into the role of enforcer, although not to the extent of Queen Cersei’s right hand man. The Mountain crushes skulls, James Johnson crushes MVPs. Dion Waiters: Jamie Lannister Time and time again, Jamie Lannister bet on himself. He did it when he was taken prisoner by Catelyn Stark and again when he forced himself to learn how to fight left-handed after losing his other hand to regain his royal standing. Lannister went from royalty to the pits of the Game of Thrones world in a hurry. Everyone counted him out, left him for dead and he found his way back to glory through a serious belief in himself. All of this, of course, also accurately describes Dion Waiters. While Waiters wasn’t exactly left for dead, many in the NBA discarded the former lottery pick as an afterthought when LeBron James returned to Cleveland. Now, in Miami, Waiters has returned to glory and cashed in to the tune of $52 million. Plus, The King Slayer? Say no more. Also applicable: Wayne Ellington, entirely due to his “Man with the Golden Arm” nickname. Jamie knows a thing or two about golden arms. Hassan Whiteside: Tormund Your favorite wildling, Tormund was once a direct threat to the survival of the men of the Night’s Watch, leading a band of murderous free folk beyond the wall. Now, he’s been shown the light of civility and together with Jon Snow will lead the men into battle against The Night King. Although Tormund is a killing machine with a weapon in his hand, he’s always good for a joke or a light-hearted moment when he isn’t brutally hacking away at what stands in front of him. The Heat’s big man owns the best Snapchat in the game and isn’t afraid to show it, but get in between him and the basket and you’ll find yourself in a world of pain. Much like Tormund, however, Whiteside also had some personal growth to do before he could get to that point. Erik Spoelstra: Jon Snow There had to be a Jon. Not only did both emerge from rather obscurity (Spoelstra from the video room, Snow as the outcast Stark child), but also Spoelstra and the current King of the North share a few broad qualities as well, most notably their keen ability to foreshadow various obstacles. Snow was among the first to understand that the real war wasn’t amongst themselves but rather the coming Night King and his massive army of the undead. Spoelstra has always prided himself on being at the forefront of the coaching game, and you could argue that he brought the “pace and space” theory into popularity with his LeBron-era championship teams. Plus, it’s easy to root for Spoelstra just like its easy to root for Snow, and you wish everyone else would get on board and buy what they’re selling. Pat Riley: Cersei Lannister The fearless (and sometimes fearful) leader that you need. They’re ruthless, but you need that to survive. Riley and Cersei demand a level of respect because they’ve been around the game longer than most and seen the evolution take place. As the leader, you’re also never immune from criticism. Whether that’s being locked up and forced to pay for your sins or dealing with bad press after missing out on another free agent, being the leader can be tough but that’s part of the job. Both have gotten to where they are by always making the smart move even if it sometimes gets messy and launches them into unpopularity for a time. And of course, if things aren’t working they’re never afraid to….blow it up. The Heat may be entering the season merely a playoff hopeful–while the Warriors of Golden State and Cavaliers of Cleveland seem destined for yet another clash in the finals–but the NBA is a long game. Unlike Game of Thrones, you can have a new winner every season.She winced when I told her that I supported and voted for President Donald J. Trump. "Why? How does that happen?" she asked. And I told her the truth: it happens when social justice is shoved down the throats of free thinking Americans, and when political correctness trumps common sense in fiscal and national security situations. That was a recent conversation with another adjunct faculty instructor in my area, suburban Essex County, New Jersey. For most of 2016, I vocalized my support for the president and got involved in social media campaigning — unofficially — to help the cause to elect President Trump. I've been banned from Facebook consistently, called hateful names, had my photo circulated online with nasty captions, and I've even been cyber stalked over my political choice. I am white and I am male, from the suburbs of New Jersey, which forfeits my free speech in the eyes of leftists, but I haven't played my ace just yet. I'm also a gay Christian and a registered Democrat (for now). But above all, I am American. I feel compelled to speak up and speak out because I've been on the receiving end of so much hate over the last year or so that I am starting to
ynn's R (prioritizing closest) 5) Non-champs Zyra has AA'd (prioritizing most recently attacked) 6) Any unit in range (prioritizing closest) The changes in 5.18 are that: 2 and 5 now use "most recent" over "closest", allowing Zyra to better re-direct plants to higher priority targets; Plants will no longer get hung up on invisible targets, such as champions in fog of war; Plants will no longer sometimes mis-believe that they attacked on spawn (which caused a long delay before their first real attack); Plants will quickly move to face the target they are going to attack next, so you can get a better sense for how your actions shape their priorities." CertainlyT "This is a buff to both solo lane and duo lane Zyra. Gold agnostic power is still power... if you want to play her mid, go for it! No reason to be spiteful over a buff that helps her in both situations. We continue to think that Zyra should feel like a supportive midlane pick (high CC within role) and a mage-like support (high damage within role)." Braum Q PBE Changes Meddler "Back in 5.12 we buffed both Braum's mana cost and damage on Q. He's now looking a bit strong, so we're pulling back on the Q buff (restoring the cost to its pre 5.12 values)." Lyte ask.fm round up Lyte's [Link] Will normal blind pick ever be disabled in favor of team builder? If everyone was actually using team builder then the issue of queue times for it wouldn't exist, and I think that's who so many don't play it. Even if you just disabled blind pick for the weekend, it would get more people used to TB.. The new Team Builder Draft experience is a brand new Champion Select experience, and one we believe fixes most of the issues players had with the original Team Builder experience such as matchmaking quality, queue times, and Champ Select toxicity. In the new experience, players will have to choose 2 positions (such as Mid/Top, or Top/Jungle), and we're introducing the "Fill" position for players who like to just play anything a team needs. We're also introducing small rewards for playing the high demand positions such as "Fill." Once you've chosen your positions, we send you into a new Champ Select lobby experience to do blind pick or drafting, then get sent to loading screen. We've made a few upgrades to the Champ Select lobby experience as well and will be discussing these changes more in the near future. We've been doing a lot of internal testing where we bring players into Riot HQ to test the new experience out and feedback has been super positive; so, if this continues when we launch to PBE, we'd love to replace some of the older queue experiences. [Link] Do you oppose the idea of allowing those who received 14 day bans, but have reformed and have not received any restrictions, to get season rewards? Not opposed to the idea; however, it's important to figure out how much "time" has to pass before a player is considered reformed. For example, if you say something racist, does 5 days of neutral play count as reform? Or does 10? Choosing the right numbers is critical. [Link] Whats the difference between a neutral player and a positive one?‎ Generally, a neutral player might be pretty quiet and keep to themselves. They might only use Smart Pings to communicate about objectives, but don't really talk much otherwise. A positive player might actively rally their team, or give some team instructions to gather for a team fight, or be the positive force that diffuses any arguments between two players with things like, "Hey, let's just focus on the next fight." [Link] Why do you put so much effort into language rather than behavior? I've literally never been bothered by anything other than slurs and easily mute people. But supports that don't ward/break CS, junglers that dive turrets 2 or 3 levels below their enemy...these are far more annoying to play with. When we look at player behavior in League of Legends, we break it down into two categories: verbal toxicity (such as verbal abuse and hate speech) and gameplay toxicity (such as intentional feeding or leaving). It turns out that the majority of players rate verbal toxicity as more impactful than gameplay toxicity or equal impact. Of course, some players also believe that gameplay toxicity is worse than verbal toxicity. Because of this, we decided to focus our initial efforts on verbal toxicity for the first year and developed features such as the "All Chat Filter", Chat Restrictions and the Instant Feedback System. However, there's no silver bullet to solving player behavior so we always knew that we'd had to pivot and spend some time tackling gameplay toxicity as well. In the past year, we've launched the new LeaverBuster system which dramatically reduced leavers/AFKs in the game (although we generally see an uptick in leavers/AFKs close to the end of a Ranked Season in Ranked Mode), and we're going to soon be doing a global launch of the new Intentional Feeder Detection system which will target intentional feeders and ban them 5-15 minutes after a game. So while you aren't bothered by hate speech and slurs, the majority of players are. But, we do want to solve both types of toxicity and LeaverBuster and the Intentional Feeder Detection are steps towards reducing gameplay toxicity. [Link] Why does everyone have a 45-55% win rate? Is there a system that "balance" our winrate so we cant win more than lose? Once in awhile, we'll hear players say that the matchmaking system arbitrarily tries to make you lose if you're on a win streak, or intentionally tries to make everyone a 50% win rate. To understand how a matchmaker works, you have to first understand the theory behind matchmaking. A perfect matchmaker does not necessarily ensure that every single player in the game has a 50% win rate. In fact, a perfect matchmaker has perfect predictability--this means that for every single match, no matter who we put on either team, we can perfectly predict who will win the match, and what the odds of winning are. For competitive queues, fairness is critical, so matchmaking will try to make every match as close to a 50% win chance as possible. This means that when you win matches, your MMR goes up, and you face tougher and tougher opponents (which means eventually, when you reach your true MMR potential, you'll start losing about half your matches and winning half your matches). When you lose matches, your MMR goes down, and you face weaker opponents until you start winning your matches. So if a player is smurfing, they are playing matches against much lower skilled players and will win a lot of matches in a row and be on a win streak. Their MMR will increase dramatically, and they'll face tougher and tougher opponents until they are at their true MMR level, and will start losing a lot more games until their win percentage stabilizes around 50% (because their MMR gains have stabilized, not because the system forced a 50% win rate on them). So, there's no features or systems that intentionally forces players to have a 50% win rate, it just so happens that in competitive queues where fairness is the key for every patch, players stabilize around 50% win rate when they settle on their true MMR. Ququroon ask.fm round up Ququroon [Link] Was the Fiora VU necessary? I've started playing her quite a lot and I have to say her new gameplay is fantastic (don't nerf pls). One thing that bothers me though is that stupid walk that simply doesn't fit her at all. Any chance they could change it into something less... ridiculous? Well, nothing is necessary, but I suppose that isn't a good answer. Glad to hear you like her new gameplay. We had her kit in a finished state for a little bit, and wanted to find a time to ship it out. Since it had a bunch of visual changes that were needed to support the gameplay (basically a full VFX set and a need for animations), we went ahead and grouped in the model/rig/animation changes with it. Fiora had her share of problems before, biggest one being that her silhouette was really weak, which was the largest push for updating her model. Her thematic identity was a little weak too, kinda just being... chick with sword. We didn't aim to destroy who she was, just increase the fidelity. We had an opportunity, and we took it. Hopefully you enjoy it on the whole. Our aim with her animation set was to increase the dynamics and expressiveness as she's moving about- this is something you'll see in general if you compare older animations to newer ones. (This is a good link to check out on that: http://the12principles.tumblr.com/)However, perhaps her run is just overdone. I can talk to her animator tomorrow and pass on your feedback. [Link] To continue asking about poppy's VU and rework, I am very anxious for it and would love some insight on when you think it might come out? She is my favorite champion of all time my very first champion ever and currently the only rank 5 mastery one I have can I please get a guesstimate if anything? I'm anxious for it too! Not gonna give any dates (things change), but I can assure you she's in active development. She'll be out when she's good and ready. :D Be sure to let me know what you think when you see her, yeah? [Link] I honestly don't plan on ever playing Cass or Skarner again after their reworks (I own Battlecast Skarner). The games ignore champ identity in exchange for something forced on that feels like Riot just wanted such and such in the game. Why is Riot so unwilling to rethink radical changes to champs? Let's hold on the two specifics for a sec, if that's alright. I'd like to go into the mindset of why we update when we do. First off, no change will make 100% of people happy. It's a sad reality, but true. People have preferences, and attempting to appeal to everyone will result in a poor product. That's not an excuse, mind you. We make efforts not to alienate players, and we make mistakes at times. We constantly have retrospective looks at updates we've shipped, identifying what we could have improved, what we did well, etc. If a change is actionable, we'll implement it past ship; but at some point we need to continue onto the next project, and after that and so on. A large reason for larger changes to champions is when they live in a realm of unbalanceable. Certain characters are just unable to be balanced- they're either completely OP or completely UP, it has nothing to do with numbers. As I -roughly- understand it, Cassiopeia was difficult because her DoTs were incredibly hard to appreciate even when drastically overpowered. For Skarner, he lived in a weird space where you'd usually want to pick another tank over him, especially since most of his power lives in his ultimate. I can't fully speak to Cass (not enough context), but for Skarner, we tried to add to his design. He still has his monstrous pick potential with his ultimate (to the fear of ADCs), but now has the added spice of the spires to augment his jungling experience. His gameplay has changed, but his identity should be similar? I'm truly sorry to hear that you're not a fan of the new reworks. We'll continue to tune them now that they have balance levers, so hopefully we can find a happy medium between what you knew, and what they've become. If you want more context on design, I'd suggest reasking the question towards ‎@RiotGhostcrawler. He knows a lot more in that area than I do. [Link] Even with the texture update, I feel like Swain needs some help. Thoughts? Agree. His model is on the weaker side, his animations are rigid, and his kit is kinda all over the place. With him being a GIANT BIRD DEMON and all, there's a good amount of things we could do. [Link] You said this regarding Evelynn: "She's still a priority, and being slowly burned on". Should we take this to mean that we CAN actually expect an Evelynn update in the future? Even if not short term? It's been so disheartening watching her get passed over for work for so long :( I know. :c You can and you should expect an Evelynn update. She's a bit lower on priority because she's somewhat cobbled a bit of an update together over time. Kit, VFX, animation, and most recently her textures, have all been updated over the years. Not the best, sure, but it still puts her ahead of the worst of the worsts. However, c'mon man. She would be so much cooler if her theme was fleshed out. [Link] hey what are your thoughts on Kennen? will he receive a rework, or at least a VU?? Nothing currently slated, but yeah, he could probably do with both. Bump him up to the new Yordle proportions (KNEES), give him a bit more dynamic of a silhouette, play up his animations and VFX a good amount... Yeah. That'd be pretty sweet. 2015 All-Star Event Announced "After the confetti descends at the 2015 World Championship, we’ll head into the offseason with players around the world setting their sights on our last international event of the year. The 2015 All-Star Event (ASE) will bring the unexpected to the Rift featuring a clash of the regions, epic 1v1 matches, fan-voted comps, fun game modes, and mixed region roster showdown. As we announced earlier this year, we’re hosting two large-scale international tournaments outside of Worlds. Before Summer Split, there was the intense and competitive Mid-Season Invitational which hit Tallahassee in May. After Worlds, we’ll be hosting the All-Star Event, a new exhibition at the NA LCS Studio in Los Angeles from December 10-13. The ASE will bring beloved players from around the world together, all in a revamped “theatre-in-the-round” studio layout to accommodate more fans than ever before. Evolving from 2014’s All-Star voting format, fans will vote in five players to represent their regional "dream teams" for the NA LCS, EU LCS, LCK, LPL, and LMS this year. With IWC’s top team added to the mix, these six teams will be assigned to Team Fire or Team Ice based off their region’s performance at Worlds. The teams will battle for fame, fun, and player rewards for their region. Want to send Rush Hour or see Sneaky Bunny represent the NA LCS? Global voting will open in November and we’ll share more information about how to cast your votes when we get closer to the event. The International Wild Card teams will also be getting in on the ASE action, just as they participated in MSI and Worlds. Before the All-Star Event, there will be the first ever International Wild Card All-Star which will be held in Australia in November. The winners of this tournament will represent IWC at the ASE. We’ll share more details about this new event soon. We look forward to welcoming stars from Leagues around the world to Los Angeles in December to close out the year in style. Want to join us in the studio? We’ll be sharing ticket information in the coming weeks, so stay tuned." New Engineering Blog Articles This morning's red post collection includes thearticle, the 5.17 patch rundown, discussion on theandplant PBE changes, the announcement of the 2015 All-Star event, another round of ask.fm responses, and much more!Continue reading for more information!With patch 5.17 out on live, joinand friends for the latest patch rundown As you've likely seen, the 9/2 PBE update including oodles of changes toW including the ability to self cast it and the addition of a health cost.When asked about these changes on the boards,He continued, noting W's damage zones can also no longer be stacked for double damage:In a reddit thread inquiring about a change to allow players to lock in bans instead of instantly banning on click in draft modes,For those still holding on to hope or spying the " They Are Coming " teaser for the first time, commented on the boards that there will be no new champion in that next live patch - patch 5.18:When asked for details on theplant AI changes that are currently on the PBE,also added in: As for the.5 second increase on her R's knock up,In the 9/1 PBE update Q mana cost was increased by 10 at all ranks. When asked why,We also have a a few more bits of discussion fromWe also have more ask.fm responses from, a member of a the Champion Update team!Next up is the announcement of the the 2015 All-Star event taking place this December in Los Angeles, CA!If your the tech savvy type, the Riot Games Engineering blog has also been updated with two new articles:Thanks for your patience, CME Universe. Nah, jokes, patience is not your motherfuckering virtue, guys, you know that? You grumbled and groaned the whole week Chad was off visiting his in-laws in Florida and then grumbled and groaned some more when Ben caused a delay on Wednesday. We’d like to say we love you for it, but … no, that’s not quite right. It’s more like begrudging respect. We begrudgingly respect your tenacity when it comes to demanding the podcast. So thanks for that kind of. In any case, there’s plenty to talk about here, from rumors of a UFC sale, to Anderson Silva’s recent gall bladder problems–what the hell is a gall bladder, anyway?–to big wins over the weekend from Alistair Overeem and Stefan Struve. It all sort of nicely sets the stage for Saturday’s UFC 198 pay-per-view, where Fabricio Werdum will defend the heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic. We promise after this no more delays. Except maybe next week. Maybe. We’ll see. Direct downloaders can choose a brother in WSOF’s brother vs. brother fight right here.Crown bouncers found guilty in assault case Updated Two Crown Casino bouncers have been found guilty of violently assaulting two patrons in 2011. Security staff Quoch Tran, 34, and Jacques Fucile, 31, were on trial for assaulting Olivia Ferguson and Matthew Anderson when they restrained the couple at the casino two years ago. The jury was told the bouncers abused their positions of power and used unnecessary force when the couple were slammed to the floor after Ms Ferguson slapped one of them. The court heard Mr Anderson suffered a broken nose and elbow in the fracas. The bouncers' lawyers argued they had acted in self-defence and in accordance with their training. However, the jury found Tran guilty of assault and intentionally causing injury and Fucile guilty of intentionally causing injury. A third bouncer Nicholas Levchenko was cleared of assault charges. All three men were convicted of false imprisonment. The court heard Olivia Ferguson and her partner Matthew Anderson were violently thrown to the floor of the casino after their friend, Anthony Dunning, 40, was asked to leave for being drunk in April 2011. Dunning was later held in what the casino refers to as "the shut down" position and died four days later in hospital. Prosecutor Andrew Tinney, SC, told the jury Ms Ferguson was slammed to the floor with unnecessary force and pinned down after she slapped Tran. The jury heard she was forcibly held down and called names before her partner was also thrown to the ground and restrained "like an animal". Security footage The court has now released security vision of the drama captured by the casino's CCTV system. The footage shows bouncer Matthew Lawson approach Dunning who stands alone, swaying and trying to use his phone. Within a few minutes, Ms Ferguson and Mr Anderson are seen talking to their friend, surrounded by bouncers, as they try to coax him into leaving. As the trio are escorted from the venue by a large group of bouncers, Ms Ferguson is seen to slap Tran. The court heard she struck him after believing he had insulted her friend. The video then shows Tran throwing Ms Ferguson to the ground and putting his weight on her. She does not appear to resist and lies still beneath him. While his partner is thrown to the ground, Mr Anderson can be seen falling backwards as bouncers, including Levchenko and Fucile, push him down on the floor. He was then turned over with force, his face hitting the floor as his arms were held back. The vision from the cameras show Ms Ferguson as she was taken through a series of corridors by at least five bouncers. She was held in a twisted wrist lock before being ejected onto the street. Mr Anderson, who appears in pain as his broken arm is held back, was taken to a different exit. Last year, three other bouncers - Mr Lawson, Benjamin Vigo and Cameron Sanderson - were found not guilty of charges relating to Dunning's death. A short time ago Crown Casino released a statement. It says Crown has been advised of the jury's verdict and is considering its implications. The statement says Crown is not in a position to make any further comment. Topics: law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, melbourne-3000 First postedBy Doug Tyburski Coming off their first winning season in 20 years, the Pirates are finally in the position of not only trying to add players during the off season, but keeping their own. One player who we already know may not return, is fan favorite and veteran leader, A.J. Burnett. The Pirates officially declined to make their former ace a qualifying offer on Friday. Pirates GM Neal Huntington went on 970 ESPN Radio in Pittsburgh, and stated they did not make a qualifying offer to Burnett because they simply, “could not afford the $14.1 million hit to their 2014 team budget”. Huntington went a bit deeper when addressing the non qualifying offer, stating, “”It’s not where we value A.J. Burnett, it’s how do we build a championship team in the big picture. And as we look to fill some of the other gaps that we have, or we look to upgrade some of the other spots we feel we’d like to upgrade and should upgrade if possible, we felt that $14MM in one player was a bit steep for us.” Does that mean Burnett will not be back in a Pirates uniform next year? The answer is no. Pittsburgh could be pinning their hopes that Burnett liked his success and surroundings in Pittsburgh so much, that he will sign a one year deal in the $10 million dollar range. The pitcher went on record this past season when he said he would either retire or return to Pittsburgh in 2014. If he holds to that train of thought, maybe the Pirates can sign him at a discounted rate. That may be a gamble on the Pirates part at best though. Burnett is sure to get larger offers from other teams during the upcoming free agency period. While the Burnett situation will eventually play itself out as the off season goes on, the Pirates will add to payroll. Where they add that money is the question. Let’s take a look at the Pirates position by position and look at what needs they must address. First Base: For much of the season, the Pirates platooned Garrett Jones and Tony Sanchez. While Jones was useful against right handed pitching, his power numbers and average against left handed pitching dropped dramatically. Sanchez was average at best. The acquisition of Justin Morneau in September was an upgrade, but Morneau did not perform up to the expectations of the Pirates during their playoff run. Morneau could not hit one ball out of the park during his short tenure and his average was nowhere near his career stats. If the price is right, Pittsburgh could take another flyer on Morneau, but only at the right price. Jones’ career in Pittsburgh may have come to a close, while Sanchez may be tendered and could be a useful bench player. An upgrade at first base is a must though. There are some Mark Trumbo trade rumors. He would be a perfect fit, but at this point it appears to be just that, rumors. Second Base: Neil Walker is currently under contract and rumors continue that the organization and Walker are working on an extension. While the Pittsburgh native is inconsistent at times, when healthy he puts up solid numbers and should give you 15-20 home runs a year and hit for.270 average. No need to upgrade at that position. Shortstop: This is a spot that has plagued this franchise for years. It seems the Pirates have had no luck upgrading this position. Clint Barmes was signed two years ago, most likely due to his affiliation with Clint Hurdle in Colorado. Barmes is one of the best defensive players at his position, but his offensive numbers, are just that…offensive. Towards the end of the 2013 campaign, Jordy Mercer took over the bulk of the playing time at the position. While Mercer’s offensive numbers are an upgrade, he is a defensive liability and those liabilities showed, contributing to a number of key errors, costing his team important games down the stretch that could have also ended the hopes of a central division title. This is a major position where the organization MUST upgrade during the off season. Third Base: Pedro Alvarez is set here. While he may eventually move to first base a few years down the road, there is no need to change things up now. He led the NL in home runs, and while the Pirates would like him to bring up his average and cut down his strikeouts, he is young enough and will have a number of seasons to improve on those stats. Catcher: Russell Martin was everything the Pirates thought he’d be. Outstanding defensively. Valuable veteran to work with some of the young pitchers on the staff. Gave them a few walk off hits and had some clutch home runs as well. Look for fan favorite and decent back up Michael McKendry to return as the backup. Pitching: Look for the Pirates to upgrade their starting rotation with or without Burnett. Wandy Rodriguez will be returning as the Pirates plan to pick up his option. His only question is his health. If he can remain healthy, that is a big plus for the rotation. Charlie Morton had a very good bounce back season after Tommy John surgery. He will be penciled in the starting rotation potential future all star Gerrit Cole. This could also be the season that another highly touted prospect cracks the Pirates rotation. Former first round pick, Jamison Taillon appears ready to take the next step in his career. If not in the rotation opening day, a June call up is likely. The need for another veteran starter is necessary though, and look for Pittsburgh to address that. The bullpen should be set. As long as Jason Grilli can remain healthy, he will be the team’s closer and Mark Melancon return to set things up for Grilli in the 8th inning. Adding Justin Wilson, Tony Watson, and Vin Mazzaro, to that list, the bullpen should be one of the best in baseball again in 2014. Left Field: Starling Marte will be the starting left fielder and should be for a long time. While he does tend to strikeout more than the team would like, he is still learning and his talent out weighs any negatives. Marte has great defensive skills, and a very strong arm. One of the fastest players in the game and has some power and will eventually be a 15-20 home run type player. Marte is still a raw talent, but has the potential to be one of the best left fielders in the National League. Centerfield: Not much to say here. Potential MVP Andrew McCutchen is one of the best players in the game. Obviously no need for any upgrade here. Right Field: This is the position that must be addressed as well. The Pirates tried many platoons at this position, and until Marlon Byrd was acquired late this past season, it was one of the Pirates weaknesses if not their biggest. Jose Tabata, Garrett Jones, Tony Sanchez, Andrew Lambo, Travis Snider, and possible a few lucky fans tried to take over that position, but no such luck. Right field is where you can expect a major upgrade. Marlon Byrd may be the answer, but he comes with a few questions. With his surprise season, does he price himself out of the range the Pirates are willing to commit to? Was Byrd’s season a fluke? Will his age (36 years old) catch up to him? If the contact demands based on years and amount are acceptable, look for the Pirates to possibly try and re-sign Byrd. They should and will do their due diligence and look elsewhere first, just in case they can find a younger bat with a more consistent history. It will be an interesting off season for the Pirates. It will be an important one too. The team is coming off a major season and they won the fans back in a football & hockey town. It’s now up to Neal Huntington to make sure he keeps the momentum going in 2014. ______________________________________________________________ Doug Tyburski is a graduate of Nassau Community College & Suny Stony Brook. He has always been a huge sports fan and his favorite team’s include the NY Islanders, Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Eagles, and Brooklyn Nets. You can follow him on twitter at @dtybur AdvertisementsHello everyone, patch 9.4 is coming out on RU server today (in the night) or early tomorrow, so we can expect EU patch this week as well, likely on Wednesday. - Q: “Why is Wargaming against introducing new matchmaker?” (SS: I think the player means skill MM, unclear) A (SerB): “There were already two ‘new matchmakers’. How many more there will be is not known for now. But they will not be designed by players.” - SU-122-44 will not get preferential MM - Storm apparently liked the Fury movie - Storm states that the tank textures will not be in the future in such a resolution as from 9.0 onwards (HD models), but the resolution will be higher than pre-9.0 - according to Storm, the HD models from 9.2 onwards are of higher quality than the War Thunder ones - Storm, when asked, where exactly is the “sufficient armor” of the Lowe: “Gun mantlet.”A century-old industrial-complex-turned-film-set in Lincoln Heights is now slated for a third makeover as a mixed-use development. According to plans filed earlier this week with the City of Los Angeles, the cluster of vintage buildings at 2626 N. Lacy Street would be repurposed with a combination of live-work lofts, low-income housing, commercial office space and pedestrian-oriented retail. According to records from the Department of City Planning, the project would include nearly 260,000 square feet of programmed space within three renovated warehouses and three newly constructed buildings. The project's case filing indicates that the development is being spearheaded by RM/d, a Los Angeles-based real estate advisory firm. Fifteen Group, a Miami-based real estate investment firm, also has involvement with the proposed development. Further details about the project are currently unknown. The approximately 2.11-acre property is located in close proximity to numerous amenities, including the Lacy Street Neighborhood Park and the Metro Gold Line's Lincoln Heights/Cypress Park Station.The following prayer to the Æsir, Vanir, alfar, dísir, and landvættir is the invocation I wrote for my blóts. It is part of my effort to develop a consistent liturgy for my own use. I have found that it provides me with a consistancy that I desire and it makes writing blóts much, much faster. I’m fond of having consistent prayers, bolstered by prayers tailored to the blót, because it allows me to memorize things and helps reduce the amount of time I spend reading from “the script.” I hope you enjoy it. Hail the Gods Hail the Æsir! Hail the Vanir! Glorious Host of my kin I bid you welcome, High Ones Stand with me, as in day of old I pray you accept my offerings true Hail the Gods of the North Shining Ones, Mighty Ones I give honor to you, Holy Kin So that our troth may be renewed Hail the alfar! Hail the dísir! Worthy ancestors of my blood I bid you welcome, Honored Kin Stand with me, as in days of old I pray you accept my offerings true Hail the ancestors of my line Ancient Ones, Recent Ones I give honor to you, Worthy Kin So that our Urd may be strengthened Hail the landvættir! Hail the huldrafolk! Hidden dwellers of Midgard I bid you welcome, Beloved Friends Stand with me, as in days of old I pray you accept my offerings true Hail Unseen Ones, greetings I give Holy vættir, full of Might and Main I give honor to you, Guardians of the Land So that this land may be protected AdvertisementsFrench President Emmanuel Macron was caught on camera Wednesday saying workers protesting his economic policies should “stop stirring up sh*t” and get a job instead. Macron visited a struggling car parts plant in south-west France with workers facing the possibility of lay offs protesting outside the factory. The president was told that another plant 93 miles away was looking for workers as he discussed clashes between police and protestors. “There are some who’d be better off seeing if they could get a job there rather than stirring up shit,” Macron said in the recording. “Some of them have got the qualifications to do it.” Opposition lawmakers called out Macron for having an elitist attitude. Florian Philippot, formerly a senior member of the populist National Front party, said in a tweet that Macron has “contempt” for low-income workers. Hard-left politician Clementine Autain used similar language. “It shows a great class contempt,” she said, according to Reuters. “He can’t stop coming out with unfair comments targeting the masses.” Macron has taken a lot of heat after introducing a reform package that will soften labor restrictions and take powers away from unions. A series of mass protests have taken place across the country and major unions have gone on strike. The newly-elected president has not backed down despite widespread outcry. He promised to not “yield anything, either to the lazy, the cynics or the extremes” during a visit to Greece in early September. Macron later clarified that he used the word “lazy” with the intention of “moving the country forward.” Follow Jacob on Twitter 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.The logo of U.S. mobile network operator Sprint Corp is seen at a Sprint store in San Marcos, California August 3, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake By Aishwarya Venugopal (Reuters) - Sprint Corp, the No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier, estimated quarterly operating revenue above analysts' expectations as heavy promotions helped attract more postpaid customers. The company, majority owned by Japan's Softbank Group Corp, said on Tuesday that postpaid phone subscriber additions doubled to 347,000 in the second quarter from the prior quarter. But the company's shares, which touched more than two-year high earlier, reversed course to trade down 3.3 percent at $6.68. The stock had nearly doubled this year through Monday's close. CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino attributed the stock's fall to Sprint missing adjusted EBITDA expectations. Sprint estimated adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $2.35 billion for the quarter, slightly below the Street's expectation of $2.4 billion. This would be the company's first EBITDA miss in six quarters, Zino said, citing aggressive promotions and new launches. Sprint, along with rivals AT&T Inc, Verizon Communications Inc and T-Mobile US Inc, offered a free iPhone 7 to customers turning in recent iPhone models. Sprint said in September demand for iPhone 7 was strong, with pre-orders nearly four times higher than a year earlier. T-Mobile US Inc also reported a similar rise in pre-orders. Postpaid subscribers are customers who pay their bills on a monthly basis. The company also estimated a postpaid phone churn, or the rate at which subscribers defect to other networks, of 1.37 percent for the second quarter ended Sept. 30, a slight improvement from the prior quarter's 1.39 percent. Operating revenue rose 3 percent to $8.25 billion in the second quarter, beating the average analyst estimate of $8.02 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Sprint's net loss fell 75.7 percent to $142 million. The latest quarter included a non-cash after-tax gain of $218 million related to certain spectrum swaps with other carriers, the company said. Sprint is scheduled to release results on Oct. 25. (Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Sriraj Kalluvila)Domestic blockbuster 'Veteran' topped 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' to become the No. 2 film of 2015. Ant-Man finished at No. 1 in the South Korean box office for the second consecutive week from Sept. 11-13, while local films continue to occupy the rest of the ranks. Though the Marvel flick distributed by Walt Disney Company Korea was the only Hollywood film among the top five films during this time frame, it accounted for a whopping 40.8 percent of the weekend revenue according to the Korean Film Council's KOBIS database. The market share was slightly down from last week's stellar debut (45.7 percent) but Ant-Man nevertheless has earned a cumu $16.8 million. Local titles followed suit. Veteran also maintained its No. 2 spot by taking 21.8 percent of the share for a gross total of $82.8 million. Moreover, the CJ Entertainment title crossed 12.5 million admissions over the weekend, beating Avengers: Age of Ultron to become the second best film of the year and the seventh most-watched Korean film of all time in the domestic box office. Local industry observers primarily use attendance
This is quite a notorious prison of course in Egypt. JURIS GRESTE: Well we do believe that he has the basic minimum comforts but yes I made the mistake of Googling a little bit about Tura Prison, which I shouldn't have done because it gave me nightmares. LOIS GRESTE: He's got a toilet I understand as well as a wash basin. NANCE HAXTON: What about the progress of his case? Has there been any clarification on the allegations he's facing? JURIS GRESTE: Well that's one of the harrowing things. Without exaggerating, certainly from our position here and our point of view, we are staring into a bit of a black hole. We have requested a number of times for some kind of prognosis from the legal people down there and really it's all kind of perceptions and conjectures because at the moment we really don't know where it will head and I'm frightened to say how long it will be. NANCE HAXTON: There are still no charges laid. LOIS GRESTE: Absolutely there is no charges laid. All of the allegations are quite ludicrous really because we know that Peter, he's a veteran journalist, foreign correspondent, who goes in and out of countries consistently. He was only doing his job. NANCE HAXTON: There is some sort of hearing you believe on the 23rd? LOIS GRESTE: Yes, we don't quite know what will occur there. It might be an extension of his detention or it could be anything. We really don't know. NANCE HAXTON: And it may not happen from your understanding either? LOIS GRESTE: And it may not happen. Peter has had his questioning finished but the other two are still being questioned as far as we know. And sometimes we understand that when they're called in for questioning it actually doesn't happen. NANCE HAXTON: Have the Australian authorities, the Australian Government, been helpful? JURIS GRESTE: Very helpful indeed. We have no misgivings at all about the fact that the Australian Government is doing everything possible and in Peter's best interest. LOIS GRESTE: We've had a call from Julie Bishop that lasted for about 20 minutes. I would like to add that the other thing that both Juris and myself and the family are extremely grateful for is that the journalists here in Australia have signed a petition and we believe it is over 830 now and still increasing. And the journalists in London, Al Jazeera English, are holding a press conference there and there is movement along the similar lines there. In Cairo a week or so ago, 33 of the journalists who were in Cairo at the time for the referendum all got together and signed a petition and took it to the Egyptian authorities. NANCE HAXTON: Your appeal today is directly to the Egyptian authorities? LOIS GRESTE: Absolutely and we would just like dearly for them to release Peter and this whole debacle stops. JURIS GRESTE: And of course his colleagues too, because I'm sure that Peter would feel very, very deeply if he were to be released without his mates. BRENDAN TREMBATH: Juris and Lois Greste with Nance Haxton in Brisbane.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard says George Osborne should rethink his economic plan The International Monetary Fund's twice-yearly look at the world economy has lowered its forecasts for most developed economies, including the UK. The IMF said world growth would now be 3.3% for the year, down from 3.5% forecast six months ago. For the UK, it is forecasting growth of just 0.7%, after saying in January that the country's economy could expect 1% growth. The figure is slightly above the 0.6% growth forecast in last month's Budget. That figure came from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility. The IMF's World Economic Outlook report also cut its forecast for the eurozone this year to -0.3%, with Germany, the strongest economy, expected to grow by 0.6%, but France on course to shrink by 0.1%. Slowing down The IMF said the UK was "progressing slowly". It suggested the Chancellor, George Osborne, should consider reining back his austerity plan. The chancellor is not fixing our problems nearly as fast as he hoped The IMF's report said: "In the United Kingdom, the recovery is progressing slowly, notably in the context of weak external demand and ongoing fiscal consolidation." It said economic weakness and a lack of willingness to lend were holding back the private sector. The IMF rarely gives direct advice, preferring to give discreet prompts. It said about the UK: "Greater near-term flexibility in the path of fiscal adjustment should be considered in the light of lacklustre private demand." Stephen Gifford, director of economics from the business lobby group the CBI, said: "With recent data from our business surveys suggesting that growth at the beginning of this year was broadly flat, it's not surprising that the IMF has lowered its forecast. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Olivier Blanchard, IMF chief economist: "We have moved from a (global) two speed recovery, to a three speed recovery" "Consumers are being squeezed by high inflation and low wages and business confidence remains unsettled, so the pace of growth is expected to be muted through 2013." Japan was the only developed economy to come out with a good prognosis from the IMF. It said that the country, which has been mired in recession for much of the last 20 years, would see growth both this year and next, of 1.4% and 1.6% respectively. It also said consumer prices would notch up 0.1% this year and hit a rare height of 3% in 2014, thanks to the Bank of Japan's new bout of monetary easing announced earlier this month. More generally, the IMF said "the road to recovery in the advanced economies will remain bumpy". Its report forecast US growth of 1.9% this year, an Chinese growth of 8% for the year as a whole, slightly higher than the 7.7% growth rate it reported this week.Russia's state-run television channels are not known for their impartiality.Their coverage of the massive pro-European protests that have engulfed Ukraine is no exception, analysts say.Russian state television has been churning out what critics describe as misleading, at times downright odd reports since protests erupted almost two weeks ago in Ukraine against President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to walk away from a key association deal with the European Union.On December 8, as hundreds of thousands of angry demonstrators flooded Kyiv's Independence Square to call for the government's sacking -- felling a statue of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin in the process -- Russia's Channel One reported that "only a few hundred people" had turned out and assured viewers that the protests were "dying out."Russian television reporters have spared no efforts to portray the protesters as a horde of hooligans funded by the West to topple Yanukovych and sow chaos in Ukraine."State channels have been shifted into combat mode, it's particularly clear and striking this time," Aleksandr Melman, a television critic for the Russian daily "Moskovsky Komsomolets," says. "People have received their assignment and are trying hard because they understand that this is the Kremlin's uncompromising stance and that there cannot be any halftones or compromises."In Ukraine, demonstrators are not amused.Ukrainian journalist Vitaly Sedyuk on December 8 interrupted Rossiya 24's live coverage from Independence Square to present the Russian channel -- and star anchor, Dmitry Kiselyov -- with an "Oscar" for broadcasting what he described as "nonsense and lies" about the mass protests."Here's an Oscar for your channel and for Dmitry Kiselyov, for nonsense and lies in live broadcast," Sedyuk mocked. "We love Russians, but not how you are covering this."Rossiya 24's reporter, Artyom Kol, eventually succeeded in pushing Sedyuk out of the frame.Kol then proceeded to describe the crowd's chants of "Shame on you!" and "Tell the truth!" in Ukrainian as "propaganda" aimed at pressuring his channel into showing only positive coverage of the demonstrations.Kiselyov, a top television personality who was tapped on December 9 to lead a new state-run media conglomerate, has been spearheading Russia's information campaign against the protests."What Kiselyov has been up to over the past two weeks is a piece of work," Melman says. "Yesterday, he descended into complete lies and manipulation. Even Soviet propagandists did not allow themselves such comments. He is really an extreme case; others do it in a more acceptable manner. Channel One is a little more subtle."In a particularly vitriolic 20-minute report aired December 8 on the state-controlled Rossiya 1 channel, Kiselyov described Ukrainian opposition leader and world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko and his brother Vladimir as gay icons.He went on to explain how demonstrators camped out on Independence Square survived on warm lard heated on burn barrels and used "ancient African military techniques" against police.He also accused them of depriving law-abiding Kyiv residents of a proper Christmas by dismantling the giant artificial tree erected for the festive season."The protesters barbarically dismembered the green beauty and used her to build barricades," Kiselyov said. "Under the slogan 'Ukraine is Europe,' life in central Kyiv is becoming more and more archaic."Just days before, Kiselyov had appeared in another television program in which he used footage from a Swedish children's series about bodily functions to disparage Europe and Ukraine's EU ambitions.He insisted that the children's program -- which features an orchestra of backsides dressed in hats, glasses, and ties -- showed "European values in all their glory" and charged that "early sex from the age of 9" was the norm in Sweden.Kiselyov, however, doesn't hold a monopoly on bizarre coverage of the political turmoil in Ukraine.Rossiya 24 channel last week ran a whole segment in which weather forecaster Vadim Zavodchenkov blamed the demonstrations on the onset of winter, noting that the 2004 Orange Revolution also started at the time of year."It isn't the first time that a sharp deterioration in the political climate in Ukraine coincides with the change in the seasons," Zavodchenkov said. "Maybe this is no coincidence. Scientists at Columbia University in the United States have put forward a bold theory: Bad weather incites people to conflict. And it appears that their Russian colleagues agree with them."Zavodchenkov advised the protesters to roll up their banners and go home for the sake of their health, warning of "a sharp rise in acute respiratory viral infections in Kyiv."UPDATE [10:40 a.m.]: 8Arm and Octopus Bar remain open for business. The full menu is available at Octopus Bar. 8Arm is only serving coffee; no food is available at this time. UPDATE [8:55 a.m.]: Channel 2 Action News reports that the units that responded to the scene said they found Brown's death to be consistent with that of a medical, overdose death and that small amounts of narcotics were located at the scene. ORIGINAL STORY: Angus Brown, chef and co-owner of 8Arm and Octopus Bar and one of the most prominent names in Atlanta’s restaurant community, died Wednesday. He was 35 years old. Brown was found unresponsive Wednesday morning; the cause of death has not been confirmed. “We’re devastated and heartbroken,” said Brown’s business partner, Nhan Le. “Angus will forever be remembered for his generosity of spirit, enthusiasm and extraordinary talent. His favorite place was in the kitchen, and he was someone that everyone wanted to be around. We’ll miss him every day.” Brown and Le had been business partners since 2011, when they opened late-night hot spot Octopus Bar in East Atlanta, which was featured on Anthony Bourdain’s “The Layover.” They followed that with a fine-dining concept, Lusca, in 2014. Despite the south Buckhead eatery’s numerous accolades — making Bon Appetit’s list of America’s 50 Best New Restaurants of 2014, and garnering a James Beard Foundation nod as a best new restaurant semifinalist in 2015, plus Brown’s 2015 best new chef nomination from Food & Wine magazine — doors shuttered at Lusca in early 2016. However, the pair rebounded, launching another concept, 8Arm, an edgy cafe on Ponce de Leon Avenue, this past summer. Angus and Le also had announced plans to open a cafe called Ama in Paris on Ponce. “I was always a champion of his stuff,” former Atlanta Journal-Constitution dining editor John Kessler said of Brown’s culinary talent. Kessler called Brown, who grew up in Buckhead, “a true Atlantan.” “That was what is so cool about 8Arm — it was real Atlanta. There’s this great feeling of homegrown quality to it,” said Kessler, who dined at 8Arm two weeks ago during a visit to Atlanta. “It was great. It felt so right.” After attending College of Charleston, Brown cooked in restaurants throughout Oregon, Florida and Maine before returning to his hometown. It was at Miller Union that he kick-started his culinary career in 2010. Chef-owner Steven Satterfield recalled that Brown contacted him to request a chance. The unpaid stint led to a full-time position as a line cook. “He was a great employee,” Satterfield said. “He really wanted to learn.” Satterfield said he considers Brown’s time at Miller Union a “real incubation period” for his westside restaurant. Among the rising stars working in the kitchen with Brown were Justin Burdett, now executive chef at Local Provisions in Asheville, N.C., and Sean Telo, who helms upscale dining spot 21 Greenpoint in Brooklyn, N.Y. A 2012 Creative Loafing article by Stephanie Dazey explains Brown’s next, pivotal move: “He landed a position at Miller Union, but only intended to stay for six months while waiting for an opportunity in Boston to unfold. Little did Brown know, a late-night encounter with Le at Bottle Rocket in Castleberry Hill would alter those plans significantly. ‘Nhan (who owned Bottle Rocket at the time) knew my landlord, so he stuck his head out the door and invited us in. We became friends instantly, drinking all night long just talking about the things we liked to eat but never got to cook,’ Brown says. A few successful pop-up dinners later and the concept for Octopus Bar was born.” Brown and Le were off and running. “I find it hard to think of two restaurateurs who have broken more of Atlanta’s rules than Angus Brown and Nhan Le,” AJC dining critic Wyatt Williams wrote in his December 2016 review of 8Arm. “When their hit restaurant Octopus Bar opened... it seemed less like a restaurant than an experiment in pushing the boundaries of Atlanta diners.” While Brown’s originality, unconventionality and experimentation in the kitchen will be missed, his peers also appreciated him for his eclectic personality and passion for life. “He had a great sense of humor,” Satterfield said. “He’s somebody that everybody loves. He was a fun person that people wanted to be around.” “Angus was always there for anything we needed,” said Jonathan Fox, co-owner of Fox Bros. BBQ and a close friend of Brown. Fox called Brown’s death a “devastating blow.” “This was their year,” Fox said of Brown and Le’s culinary ambitions. “I will always respect his cooking, but more for doing what he wanted to. He was a true free spirit.” Brown's survivors include his mother, Terry Brown, sisters Mackenzie Brown Bartlett and Terry Brown, and brothers Fiver Brown and Walker Brown. Funeral arrangements had not been made by Wednesday evening. MORE: Atlanta chefs react to news of Angus Brown's death Review: 8Arm delivers unexpected pleasures on Ponce First Look: Angus Brown is in the kitchen at 8Arm Angus Brown on closing Lusca and opening Ama on the Beltline Lusca named a semifinalist for James Beard Awards best new restaurant Lusca makes GQ's 25 Most Outstanding Restaurant list Review: Lusca in Brookwood HillsStanding beside Mr. Obama at the Japanese equivalent of the White House, the Kantei, Mr. Hatoyama said, “We’ve come to call each other Barack and Yukio, and gotten quite accustomed to calling each other by our names.” White House officials said that the United States had agreed only to talks “on the implementation” of the 2006 Okinawa agreement, and said they did not expect to alter the larger shape of the agreement, which also calls for relocating about 8,000 Marines to Guam. “It is a fact that we did campaign on this issue, and the Okinawans do have high expectations,” Mr. Hatoyama said, explaining why he was intent on reopening the subject. The United States also appeared to give ground on the other security point of dispute, accepting Mr. Hatoyama’s pledge of $5 billion in aid to Afghanistan, which the prime minister linked to his government’s decision to end the Japanese Navy’s refueling mission near Afghanistan. Mr. Obama said the promise “underscores Japan’s prominent role” in the international effort in Afghanistan. Still, there have been ample signs that the half-century alliance may be entering a new phase. Recently, squabbles between the United States and Japan have focused mostly on trade disputes over luxury cars and semiconductors, while the security alliance between the two remained stable. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Now, the conflicts have shifted to security, more specifically, on the Marine bases on Okinawa, the southern island that is home to about two-thirds of the 37,000 shore-based United States military personnel in Japan. Okinawans have said that they shoulder a disproportionate burden, and simmering resentments erupted in 1995 after the rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl by three American servicemen. In 2006 the United States agreed to rebase thousands of soldiers to Guam, and to move the Marine base at Futenma elsewhere on Okinawa. But Mr. Hatoyama campaigned for office on a pledge to move the airfield off Okinawa altogether. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Political analysts and the Japanese news media now speak of a communication gap opening between Washington and Tokyo, which has led to what they call excessive American concerns that Japan may try to alter the two nations’ postwar military alliance. These analysts say that the two nations are actually much closer on bilateral issues than they realize, and that Japan cannot afford to alienate a protector upon whom it still relies for its security as it faces a fast-rising China and a nuclear-armed North Korea. But they say relations have fallen into a vicious cycle in which Tokyo sends conflicting signals, and Washington makes matters worse by raising public pressure. Yasunori Sone, a professor of political and policy analysis at Keio University in Tokyo, said of the Japanese leaders: “There are too many places where we don’t know what the new government really wants. Their public relations has been poor.” At the same time, the experts also blame the Obama administration for overreacting to what they say is essentially language aimed at a domestic audience and for failing to see that Tokyo’s government has little stomach for big changes to the alliance. Japanese officials, in Washington last month to prepare for Mr. Obama’s trip, asked their American counterparts and foreign policy experts to give the new Japanese government time to get its house in order. The American frustration over the Hatoyama government’s refusal to back down from the campaign pledges on the Okinawa base came to a head when Mr. Gates visited Tokyo in October. Mr. Gates, known for speaking bluntly, pressed Mr. Hatoyama and Japanese military officials to keep their commitment on the military agreements. “It’s time to move on,” Mr. Gates said, calling Japanese proposals to reopen the base issue “counterproductive.” Then, adding insult to injury in the eyes of Japanese commentators, Mr. Gates turned down invitations to attend a welcoming ceremony at the Defense Ministry and to dine with officials there. Mr. Obama will try to make up for some of the ensuing upset. On his agenda Friday night: dinner with Mr. Hatoyama.Canadian Politician Removed From Provincial Assembly For Threats She Didn't Make On Facebook Group She Didn't Join from the wut? dept We've heard stories in the past about people being blamed for the comments of others on Facebook groups, such as an attempt to hold parents responsible for the groups their children join. While my position is that such blaming is reactionary and silly, there is at least a modicum of a tangential relationship between the parties. So what should the response be if such a relationship doesn't exist? What if someone is added to a group without their knowledge and members of that group advocate violence? What should be done then? Well, if you're a member of the Newfoundland House of Assembly in Canada, apparently you are removed from the house of assembly proceedings entirely. Such was the case with Gerry Rogers. Earlier Tuesday, Justice Minister Darin King said Rogers was a member of the Facebook group Kathy Dunderdale must GO!!! in which users had posted comments containing death threats against the premier. "What kind of message is that sending to the people of the province, to our children in the province, when we talk about bullying and harassment and intimidation?" said King. "I did not join this Facebook group," Rogers told reporters during the recess. Rogers said that she thinks that the government does not understand how Facebook groups work. "I was added to this group without my knowledge, without permission, and by somebody that I do not know," said Rogers. "I'm not going to be bullied or intimidated into doing something that I don't think is in the best interests of the people in this province," said Dunderdale. Bullying? Well, the definition of the verb is "to treat abusively; to affect by means of force or coercion." Call me crazy, but it seems to me that forcing someone out of the duties of their elected office as a means for coercing them to apologize for something she had absolutely nothing to do with sort of meets the criteria, doesn't it? That's exactly what happened here, as Rogers aptly contends.Premier Kathy Dunderdale, against whom the threats were made, responded specifically to that point, insisting that the government did indeed understand how Facebook groups operate, but it's up to each member of government to monitor all the comments on all the groups they belong to, whether they had chosen to belong to them or not. She also said:No, Madame Premier, that privilege appears to be reserved for Gerry Rogers, and the people she represents, I might add, unless your government wants to rethink its concepts over whether to blame people for the actions of others. Filed Under: canada, democracy Companies: facebook groupsSo the lady and I went to Golden Buddha in Fishkill, NY. As you may or may not already know from having read (or not) my blog, we love Thai food. We had been here one time before and our previous visit warranted a return. For journalism, of course.The restaurant is located right on Route 52 in Fishkill, NY. It's a stone's throw away from I-84 and Route 9 so it's very easy to get to. There are just two or three spots in front of the restaurant, but park around the side at the beer and soda shop - there is ample parking available there. The restaurant is not huge inside and we neglected to count exactly how many seats there were. We'd estimate there were between 20 and 30 seats. The decor is absolutely lovely - There is bamboo covering the front window, beautiful tapestries, paintings, and super neat chandeliers. The whole place is very attractive aesthetically.The wait staff is also dressed is what we imagine to be Thai clothing - the whole atmosphere is very nice and comfortable inside.When you arrive at the table, you'll notice a small electronic device on the table - the device has three buttons: One with a little waiter icon, one with a drink icon, and one with a good old dollar sign on it.When you want something from the wait staff, you press the appropriate button, and somebody will quickly come to your table to take care of your request. Service on this visit was quite attentive and quick to take care of us.Okay, now the proverbial meat of the review: The food! Before mentioning what we DID get, let me mention some of unusual offerings that we did NOT get:Deep fried Frog with pepper and garlic,Lychee Curry Cha Cha ChaThey're available on the extensive in house menu, but not found on the takeout menu. The in house menu is large and has a lot to offer - You'd be hard pressed to not find something to suit your tastes, and for lovers of Thai food like us, there is enough to keep us coming back for the foreseeable future.We started our meal with the lady ordering her standard Thai Iced Tea. I noticed that they didn't add tons of cream like they do at some Thai restaurants, letting the real taste of the tea shine through. This was a plus in my book, and the lady agrees :)We ordered two appetizers: The Thai-style fish cakes ($6.95) and Curry Puffs ($6.95)The Thai-style fish cakes, as described on the menu, are made of white fish and green beans and seasoned with Keffir lime leaves and red curry. These were very tasty! Not a strong fish taste - chewy, rather than flaky. All around yummy! My lady as a rule does not like white fish or most fish in general and she liked these - we each ate half the order, of four.The Curry puffs were made of chicken, potatoes, carrots, with curry powder and fried up in a little pockets of wonderment. All around, delicious. About what you'd expect by the description. The fish cakes were a bit more exciting but both appetizers were delicious. We'd order them again.Both appetizers came with sides of sweet and sour sauce with peanuts and a spicy but somehow cooling cucumber sauce. Tasty!For our entrees, I got the Drunken Crispy Duck ($18.95) and the lady got the Royal Chicken ($13.95)The Drunken Crispy Duck was basically a deep fried portion of duck on top of Drunken Noodles. I was feeling adventurous, so I decided on this. The portion of the duck was very tasty - it was a good size. The portion of the Drunken Noodles could have been a little bigger, but it was suitably delicious - all in all, for the quality of the dish and the fact that the portion of duck was good and good quality - the dish was a fair value. I know the price of food and a nice duck breast like that isn't cheap - it was fried very nicely, and the Drunken Noodles themselves were delicious. I would get it again - except I'm so tempted by the Golden Buddha's other offerings, that it'll be hard to confine myself to just this one dish! :)The lady's Royal Chicken was delicately flavored. Mild red curry sauce, big chunks of mango, and some slices of bell pepper. Presentation was just lovely. The spice was sneaky and slowly built over the course of the dish - well balanced! The lady enjoyed it very much. I had a small bite or two and from what I tasted, it was delicious!The presentation of the Royal Chicken was impressive - the metal dish, the artful arrangement of the rice and garnish - the whole thing was very attractive. Things do taste better when they look good and the chefs at Golden Buddha really have presentation down pat. A word about the spice. Thai food is usually very spicy. On this visit, both of our dishes were mild. This is not to say that they weren't flavorful and delicious - but as far as HEAT? Very mild. We spoke with the owner about this after the meal. On our first visit, the lady ordered Drunken Noodles, which is usually very spicy. Well, these Drunken Noodles would have melted your face off. Insanely spicy. Thai spicy. It was just awesome. I commented to my lady that you really had to have big stones to bring something so spicy to a customer - that unless a dish was that damn good, you would never dare. Well, they did dare. And the dish was that damn good. So we were surprised this time around when things were less spicy.We really ought to have expected that - most people will NOT want a dish that is Thai spicy - it's really a whole other level of spice from what people in this country are used to. Me and my lady? We love it. But the moral of this diatribe is - tell them how spicy you want it. Don't be afraid to ask for it very spicy if that's your style, because they may err on the side of caution.The owner mentioned they their newest batch of peppers was insanely spicy which is why they were playing it safe. It makes sense - you don't want customers to return food because it's too spicy. And hey, you can always ask for the spice tray.Golden Buddha in Fishkill, NY is delicious and highly recommended, both by me and my lady. If you're a fan of Thai food, be sure to stop by - and maybe you'll see us there! :)Golden Buddha is located at 985 Main Street in Fishkill, NY (Route 52).The phone number to reach them is 845-765-1055Check out their website at http://www.goldenbuddhathai.comThanks for reading :)Psychiatrists who believe in and practice the disease model of so-called mental illness to the detriment of their patients are displaying, in my opinion, a trait that the Oxford Dictionary describes as “stupidity” — that is: “behavior that shows a lack of good sense or judgment.” I gradually came to this belief about most psychiatrists as I worked alongside them every day for 28 years in the public mental health system in the SF Bay Area. I’ve probably known 40 or 50 psychiatrists professionally over the past 40 years. I’ve known several of them personally as friends. All of them are bright, accomplished medical doctors who are very dedicated to practicing their specialty of medicine to benefit the health of their patients, as they have been trained to do and as the APA and NIMH reinforces them in doing. None of them suffer from a lack of intelligence. But only six of them that I’ve known have practiced from a perspective that shows good sense and judgment, and that is because they were not devotees of the disease model of mental illness. Those six medical doctors, like Loren Mosher of Soteria House and my friend and mentor John Weir Perry of Diabasis House, were proponents of a humanistic, heart-centered and non-pathologizing approach to helping people in extreme states and other experiences of emotional suffering. I’ve previously written about the huge failure of imagination of most psychiatrists that is inherent in their formulation and zealous defense of the psychiatric disease model. I explore that lack of imagination in my article titled “If Madness Isn’t What Psychiatry Says it is, Then What is it?” in the ISPS journal Psychosis. The narrow constraints of the disease model theory and practice create a closed system of thinking where a kind of unquestioning conformity exists — one that lacks the permission for broader imaginative exploration, as was the spark and genesis for the powerful work that RD Laing contributed, for instance. Laing’s heretical rebellion broadened the scope of our understanding. His imagination and brutal honesty allowed him to see the forest for the trees. He could see the bigger picture of the toxic social and economic factors of modern industrial society that alienate and traumatize all of us and our families. The groundbreaking vision of psychiatrist Carl Jung (who said, “The gods have become diseases… curious specimens for the doctor’s consulting room.”) also shows how a broader perspective can help to encourage exploration of our human birthright. We aren’t automatons, faulty beings that need technicians to manage us and modulate an arbitrarily defined range of emotional experience and expression, as psychiatrists seem to do in their assembly-line, med-dispensing function, where they hurriedly scan and adjust the dosages of four or five patients every hour. In contrast, Jung and Perry and other transpersonal and humanistic leaders such as Maslow saw our birthright to include spiritual, soul, psychic, archetypal, mystical, shamanic and mythic dimensions that need to be honored for the sacred manifestations that they are. Here at MIA I also wrote an article challenging the hubris of psychiatrists that Jung asserted. It’s called “Are Some Psychiatrists Addicted to Deference?” It too focuses on what I’ve come to imagine makes psychiatrists believe what they do and act the way they do towards those they try to serve. Their elevated status as licensed physicians gives them enormous power to dominate in the mental health hierarchy where MDs are held out to be at the top of the food chain. Most psychiatrists that I’ve worked alongside arrogantly expect deference from their patients and co-workers. They take it as impertinence if their ideas and authority are questioned or challenged. Even though I’ve been speaking out on MIA against the hegemony of the psychiatric power structure and its underlying belief system since 2012, I still want to attempt to further demystify the aura of self-serving legitimacy that most psychiatrists protectively wrap themselves in. I want to do that because of the ongoing chorus of anguish by the people I see every week who have been injured by psychiatry. Dozens of people over the decades have basically asked me the same kind of anguished question: “How can someone like my psychiatrist who is very smart, someone with a medical degree, who has been sitting a few feet away from me for years, keep on totally missing what I need as they persist in treating me like I’m invisible?” So today, with those many suffering people in my thoughts and that damning question burning away inside me, I decided to write this article on the inherent stupidity of blindly adhering to the failed theory and practice of psychiatry. The most glaring and tragic fact that shows this blind allegiance to the failed disease model is the real-world track record of that model. There, psychiatry stands alone among all other medical specialties with a death rate of psychiatric patients that has them dying 25 years sooner than the average life expectancy. And this obscene death rate is for so-called diseases — such as what wrongly gets called schizophrenia — that have zero lethal, physical or organic risk. The disease model of psychiatry is also used as justification for true human rights abuses such as forced treatment, medicating children and teens and vulnerable seniors, ECT, psychosurgery and more. So I think it is fair to say that many psychiatrists display an enormous lack of good sense and judgment — that the stupidity charge that I’m making is possibly deserved. I’ve seen this disease model-induced stupidity be manifest very clearly when a psychiatrist who has been in the presence of people in emotional distress countless times consistently responds with the most parsimonious amount of empathy and compassion. Because of their true-believer ideology that they were first indoctrinated into in medical school, later reinforced by guild membership, most psychiatrists perceive the suffering person sitting only a few feet away from them through the aperture of pathology. And from that clinically detached, diagnosis-bound vantage point, they emotionally distance themselves and blindly inflict medical interventions that often harm rather than help the person in distress. They also proclaim that such illness is lifelong, and diagnostically label the person in a hope-killing ritual ceremony of identity degradation. It’s a testament to the power of the brainwashing that has been done to psychiatrists that such a rigid, unscientific and almost religiously zealous belief in so-called mental illness is the hallmark of these practitioners. Psychiatrists are in the firm grip of a collective force field of an almost fundamentalist belief system that blinds them to the harm they unwittingly do and the human rights abuses they commit. NAMI, big pharma, major university research, enormous federal DSM-based program funding and draconian forced treatment laws all combine to reinforce, promote and financially support this belief system. From within the cultic echo chamber of convention and the orthodoxy of medical schools, reinforced by the constant drumbeat of the APA and the NIMH, there is tremendous pressure exerted on the 25,000 psychiatrists in the United States to not deviate from the disease model party line. The very brave dissident psychiatrists that I’ve personally known such as Loren Mosher, Peter Breggin, Daniel Fisher and John Weir Perry all paid dearly for breaking ranks with their fellow psychiatrists. They were ostracized as class traitors, were marginalized and mocked for their humane approaches to helping people. I like what the social prophet George Orwell bluntly cautioned about the human proclivity for blindly embracing stupidity: “To see what is in front of one’s nose takes a constant struggle.” In reading Orwell’s 1946 essay, I started to get some more clues to the riddle of why psychiatrists can behave with such a lack of good sense and judgment, can blindly cling to a paradigm that defies the facts, no matter how smart and well-meaning they are. I think old Orwell contributed something more than what is revealed via cognitive dissonance theory, which tells of how we may deceive ourselves and create self-serving narratives that relieve our emotional discomfort even though they clearly are not objectively true. Orwell wrote, “We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against a solid reality, usually on a battlefield.” We see this dynamic too in Anderson’s iconic story “The Emperor’s New Clothes” which has become a classic idiom about logical fallacies — errors in reasoning that invalidate the argument. In that story the naïve but honest and clear sight of the child was able to see through the hoax that others believed, and soon they began to see through it too: “But he hasn’t got anything on!” the whole town cried out at last. The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he
imm’s winter, and this is further enhanced by the angostura. The cointreau on the other hand helps sweetening the cocktail somehow, while applejack add some fruit tones. There is a nice golden red tone to the drink, and decorating with a yellow lemon zest seems very appropriate. Maybe it could be nice to add just a few drops of simple syrup to fend off the bitter tones a bit. Another way to achieve a slightly higher sweetness would be to use 0,5 oz of cointreau instead of the suggested 0,25 oz.On July 30, 1916, German saboteurs targeted the ammunition depot on New Jersey's Black Tom Island, shipping point for three-quarters of U.S. ammunition bound for Allied Europe. The resulting explosion was heard as far away as Philadelphia. (Library of Congress) ‘The blast shattered windows in lower Manhattan and along the Jersey waterfront and awakened people as far away as Maryland and Philadelphia’ From the air the soot-covered Lehigh Valley Railroad terminus at Jersey City, N.J., looked like a black cat with an arched back, calling to mind its nickname “Black Tom.” The depot rested atop Black Tom Island, which jutted into New York Harbor. In 1916 some three-quarters of the ammunition manufactured in the United States and destined for the Allied armies on the Western Front shipped from there. Still, few Americans gave it much thought, despite its prime location near the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan. To German agents active in the New York City area, however, Black Tom became an obsession. After all, the depot served as the transit point for arms going from America to the very armies killing German soldiers. To the German government it made a mockery of President Woodrow Wilson’s stated policy of American neutrality. The round-the-clock operations at Black Tom proved beyond doubt to the Germans that the Americans were hardly neutral. They were instead providing Germany’s enemies with the means to continue the war. In the dark, early morning hours of July 30, 1916, even as German soldiers vied against those of Britain and France in the murderous Battles of Verdun and the Somme, a massive explosion ripped through Black Tom. More than 1 million pounds of ammunition and TNT on the docks detonated, causing a series of shocks equivalent to a 5.5-magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale. The blast shattered windows in lower Manhattan and along the Jersey waterfront and awakened people as far away as Maryland and Philadelphia. It killed at least five people, including a 10-week-old infant thrown from his crib more than a mile from the blast. Security guards rushed to evacuate Ellis Island, fearing that cinders from the explosions might set the immigrant dormitories on fire. Officials later checked the structural integrity of the nearby Brooklyn Bridge and closed the Statue of Liberty’s shrapnel-scarred torch arm to tourists. Property damage was later estimated to exceed $20 million (more than $400 million in 2013 dollars). Given the risk of further explosions, the authorities’ first concern was to minimize further loss—not to investigate the cause of what was then the costliest manmade disaster in American history. Destruction near the blast epicenter was so complete that investigators had trouble collecting forensic evidence. Six piers, 13 warehouses and dozens of railcars had simply vanished; in their place gaped a 300-by-150-foot crater filled with contaminated water and debris. Within days the investigation centered on two night watchmen who had set smudge pot fires to deter the port’s invasive and annoying mosquitoes. But police soon ruled out the smudge pots as a cause, concluding they were too far from the munitions to have triggered the blast. It became apparent, moreover, that the catastrophe was no accident. It had begun at the far end of the terminal, the perfect spot to both escape detection and set off a chain reaction. More and more the Black Tom explosion was looking like a deliberate act of terror. One man, New York City Police Department inspector Thomas J. Tunney, had an idea who might have been behind the brazen and dastardly sabotage at Black Tom. Tunney was an Irish-American veteran of the NYPD who had a deep knowledge of bombs from his time tracking anarchist groups around the turn of the century. In 1916 he was head of the NYPD bomb squad, which by then had turned its focus on foreign agents. Along with two other lawmen, A. Bruce Bielaski and William Offley, Tunney had formed a task force to investigate allegations of a German spy ring running out of New York City. Notably, Tunney named his task force the Bomb and Neutrality Squad. A 1917 poster warns against loose lips. (Library of Congress) Although officials hadn’t turned up much evidence of an organized effort, indications suggested German agents were active across the United States and Canada. In 1914 U.S. federal agents had uncovered a German plot to dynamite Ontario’s Welland Canal, with the twin goals of disrupting commerce and convincing the Canadian government to stop its support of Great Britain. In February 1915 a German agent set off a dynamite-packed suitcase on a railroad bridge between Canada and the United States at Vanceboro, Maine, but caused only minor damage. Authorities foiled other plans for sabotage in Seattle, San Francisco and Hoboken, as well as a plot to buy American passports from dockworkers and use them to bring German agents into the country; the latter prompted federal officials to introduce photographs on passports. The German ambassador, the likeable and pro-American Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, denied the existence of any plot, claiming these actions were those of individuals not connected to the German embassy. The Wilson administration, eager to preserve American neutrality, took him at his word, even though Tunney and other law-enforcement officials were uncovering evidence to the contrary. The Vanceboro plot yielded the first big break. The man who placed the dynamite on the bridge was a dimwitted German agent named Werner Horn. He set the charge on the Canadian side of the span, then ran back to the American side to evade arrest as a spy in a belligerent nation. American officials had little trouble finding Horn, as he had changed into his German army uniform in order to claim to the neutral Americans he was a soldier not a spy. The investigation soon revealed that Horn’s paymaster was Franz von Papen, a former military attendant to Kaiser Wilhelm II and military attaché in Washington, D.C., who had returned to the United States in 1914. Papen had diplomatic protection and political savvy. Investigating him would not be easy, but Tunney and his lieutenants, with help from federal officials, persevered. They soon met with a federal prosecutor involved in the Welland Canal investigation who told them that while he had been unable to prove the connection, he had evidence Papen had been involved in that plot, as the one to hire Irish-Americans to sabotage American shipping. The mounting evidence was too much even for the Wilson administration and its desire to maintain American neutrality. At year’s end 1915 the government ordered Papen to leave the United States. He did so, and a confiscated briefcase full of his papers (stolen, he claimed, by British agents) showed the Americans had been right to suspect him. Included were documents revealing a nationwide plot, from New York to San Francisco, to blow up bridges and tunnels. Papen had also planned to recruit agents and conduct a sabotage campaign, including the use of Americans and Canadians of Indian descent to target ships leaving from Pacific Coast ports. The documents also led investigators to a New Jersey–based group that had been manufacturing “rudder bombs” for saboteurs to attach to the sterns of outgoing ships. The rotation of the propellers mixed certain chemicals and thus ignited the bombs, which disabled or sank the ships. As many as 30 vessels might have been damaged or destroyed by the plot before it was uncovered. Coming in the wake of public anger over the May 1915 sinking of the British liner Lusitania by the German submarine U-20, these charges ratcheted up Americans’ fear of German activity within their own borders. The British, meanwhile, had uncovered another arm of the German network. From intercepts obtained by the famed Room 40 decryption operation, they knew Papen had been complaining about one of his subordinates, chemist and naval intelligence officer Franz von Rintelen. They also knew Rintelen planned a return to Germany using a fake Swiss passport bearing the name Emil V. Gasche. When his ship docked in Falmouth en route to neutral Holland, the British arrested Rintelen and broke his initial insistence he was a Swiss businessman. According to his interrogator, they simply had a policeman burst into the interrogation room and shout, “Achtung!” whereupon Rintelen leapt to his feet and clicked his heels. The German spent 21 months in a British jail before being sent to an Atlanta prison for sabotage. American agents had also been following two other Germans: former naval attaché Karl Boy-Ed, the son of a Turkish sailor and a well-known German novelist, and Wolf von Igel, Papen’s chief assistant and successor. Boy-Ed was a flashy and suave epicure well known to many in the New York elite. He was a frequent guest at the city’s Army and Navy Club, where he dazzled audiences with his knowledge of naval warfare. Sophisticated and well dressed, he mixed easily in New York social circles and was hoping to meet and marry an American heiress. Boy-Ed had also been running a spy ring out of a welcome house and part-time brothel for German sailors on Broadway near Battery Park. American investigators had already tied him to both the passport-fraud scheme and a plan to buy property on the Atlantic seaboard where the Germans could install artillery batteries in preparation for a potential German amphibious landing. Boy-Ed, compromised by the evidence in Papen’s papers, also left the United States. Papen and Boy-Ed left Igel in charge of the financial network that paid for these operations. He ran it out of Papen’s former office on the 25th floor of a building at 60 Wall Street, a far more respectable address than the Bowling Green house Boy-Ed used to meet with the spies he recruited. There Igel, who had been deeply involved with the rudder bomb plot, continued to run a ring of German agents. As investigators closed in, he arranged to move his papers to the German embassy in Washington and thus secure them under the umbrella of diplomatic immunity. On April 19, 1916, Igel began packing more than 70 pounds of documents into cases for the trip to Washington. American investigators were on to him, however, and burst into his office with guns drawn. Igel leapt for the safe, trying to close it and claim diplomatic privilege, but the federal agents stopped him. As Igel shouted that the Americans were committing an act of war, the feds seized the documents. The papers proved German complicity in the Welland Canal plot, as well as in a scheme to buy arms in the United States from Irish-Americans and then send the weapons to India to fuel an anti-British uprising. Igel’s arrest made front-page news in New York, as did the German embassy’s demand the Americans return the papers without examining or copying them. The Wilson administration did not comply with that demand, but Wilson remained anxious to play down the incident in hopes of preserving American neutrality. Although tensions mounted, Secretary of State Robert Lansing did not challenge Bernstorff’s claim the arms were in fact headed to German forces in East Africa. Bernstorff also dissociated himself and the German embassy from any illegal activities. Wilson may have been mollified, but his archnemesis (and former NYPD commissioner) Theodore Roosevelt was not. Roosevelt had recently given a speech in Brooklyn accusing the Germans of “a campaign of bomb and torch” against American industry. The pugnacious former president laid the blame for all acts of sabotage at the feet of the German government, noting that Boy-Ed went home to a hero’s welcome and a personal decoration from Kaiser Wilhelm II. Roosevelt also noted the close relationship among Boy-Ed, Rintelen and the anti-American Mexican dictator Victoriano Huerta. In the heated political environment of 1916, which produced one of the closest presidential elections in American history, the issue of German sabotage contributed to the wider debate about the wisdom of American neutrality. As his campaign slogan “He Kept Us out of War” indicated, Wilson hoped to maintain that neutrality. Even after the Black Tom explosion Wilson tried to avoid making the 1916 election a referendum on the war. Fortunately for him, so did his opponent, Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes. Hughes, while anxious to attack Wilson’s record on domestic affairs, had to be careful to dissociate himself from the pro-intervention agenda of Roosevelt and his supporters. Wilson’s slogan was thus less a boast than a warning about what might happen if Hughes, with Roosevelt supposedly whispering in his ears, won. The following February, with Wilson re-elected by the slimmest of margins, New York Sun reporter John Price Jones detailed the German plots in a book that featured an introduction by Roger Wood, former assistant U.S. attorney for New York, and a preface by Roosevelt. The former president praised the book for exposing what he called a two-and-a-half-year secret war waged by Germany against the American people. Jones himself alleged the German government had bribed American newspapers to write positive stories about Germany and, in at least one instance, bought a newspaper through a shadow company to use as a propaganda vehicle. Meanwhile, the Black Tom investigation continued. An elderly landlady in Hoboken reported to police that one of her boarders, a nephew named Michael Kristoff, had behaved strangely on the morning of the explosion, pacing and muttering to himself, “What [did] I do?” In late August police arrested him and soon broke his alibi. Kristoff then wove a wild tale about nationwide networks of German agents paid for and operated out of New York City. Without firm evidence, however, authorities had no choice but to release their suspect. Convinced Kristoff had something to do with the Black Tom blast, Lehigh Valley Railroad officials hired a detective to shadow him. Alexander Kassman, himself a recently arrived immigrant, attached himself to Kristoff for several months, posing as an Austrian anarchist in order to dig more deeply into the co-conspirators he had mentioned. Kristoff reportedly told Kassman that rich friends had provided the funding for the Black Tom operation. One of the alleged backers, David Grossman, lived in Bayonne. Kassman arranged to meet Grossman and gleaned more details of the plot from him. Grossman denied knowing the money had been for sabotage. But, Grossman told Kassman, he later learned Kristoff had served as a lookout while another man placed dynamite on a small boat beneath the piers and a third put explosive charges between railroad cars loaded with ammunition. In spring 1917 Kristoff vanished. Grossman refused to testify, but his interrogation helped police identify two other men—Lothar Witzke, a naval officer with an intelligence background, and Kurt Jahnke, a naturalized American citizen with connections to the German consulate in San Francisco. Both men used pseudonyms, moved around frequently and were suspected of involvement in the bomb plots on the West Coast. After Black Tom they went to the Southwest and spent time in Mexico, where both had contacts in the Huerta government. As the investigation continued to turn up leads but no arrests, Wilson’s neutrality policy collapsed. On Feb. 3, 1917, Wilson broke off diplomatic relations with Germany in response to its resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare. A few weeks later the contents of the Zimmerman Telegram, the German proposal that Mexico make war on the United States, hit American newspapers. The telegram put the issue of German sabotage in a new, more sinister light. It, coupled with continued fears of German sabotage and espionage, helps to explain, though does not excuse, the wave of anti-German sentiment that soon swept the country. Americans felt they faced a real and present danger from Germany—not overseas, but at home. Wilson was soon out of options, and his cabinet was finally in unanimity about the need to enter the war. Roosevelt reportedly told a friend that if Wilson did not declare war, he would go to the White House and “skin him alive.” Wilson did, of course, bring the United States into a war that was no longer about the maritime rights of neutrals but the need of the government to fulfill its central role of protecting American lives and property. America’s age of isolation was over. While several of the key players in Germany’s wartime sabotage efforts in North America went on to further notoriety, none, perhaps, had a more sinister role in history than Franz von Papen. He became chancellor of Germany in 1932 and was among the men chiefly responsible for persuading President Paul von Hindenburg to name Adolf Hitler chancellor in 1933; Papen then served briefly as Hitler’s vice chancellor. Papen’s powerful position also allowed him to complicate continuing investigations into the Black Tom disaster, but in 1939 a German-American Mixed Claims Commission found the German government of 1916 responsible for the blast. In 1953 the commission awarded damages of $50 million, which were finally paid off in 1979. Today the Black Tom lies within Liberty State Park in Jersey City, although the only evidence of the historic explosion is a poorly worded information panel and the remnants of piers on the south end of the park. Ironically, Papen’s headquarters at 60 Wall Street is today the site of a 1989 skyscraper that houses the U.S. headquarters of Germany’s Deutsche Bank. Michael S. Neiberg is the author of several books on the 20th century world wars, most recently Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I (2011) and The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, 1944 (2012). For further reading Neiberg recommends Sabotage at Black Tom, by Jules Witcover; The Detonators, by Chad Millman; and New York at War, by Steven Jaffe. Sponsored Content:When the Redskins selected Kirk Cousins in the fourth round of the 2012 NFL Draft, the plan was for him to serve as the backup for the second-overall pick, Robert Griffin III. But things don't always work out as planned, and after a stellar rookie season, RG3 floundered, Cousins eventually replaced him, and by 2015, it was clear that Cousins was now Washington's quarterback of the future. Except that Cousins was set to become a free agency this offseason, which is why the team slapped him with the franchise tag. And unless the two sides come to terms on a long-term deal by July 15, Cousins will earn nearly $20 million in 2016, and more importantly, won't be able to sign a new contract until after the season. Last month, Cousins admitted that "no progress" had been made on a multi-year contract, and on Friday, ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio reported that "[N]othing is happening by way of negotiations between Cousins and the team, and nothing will be happening. The two sides won't be reaching a long-term deal before the July 15 deadline." There's inherent risks for both sides; the looming specter of injury could cut Cousins' career short, or he could put up Hall of Fame numbers and substantially increase his value. By way of comparison, Joe Flacco entered the final year of his rookie deal in 2012, and the Ravens chose not to extend his contract at the time. Flacco ended up leading the Ravens to a Super Bowl title -- and earning MVP honors in the championship game -- and parlayed that into the a shiny new deal that made him the NFL's highest-paid player. In the three years since, Flacco has suffered a serious knee injury and gone 22-22. But Flacco -- like Cousins -- plays the most important position in football, and quarterbacks have leverage where other plays don't. Redskins general manager Scot McCloughan understands this. "Let me overpay him if he's good," McCloughan told Bleacher Report in April. "If you have a productive guy, it helps everything, and it proves out. You look around this league and see the teams that are in the playoffs every year and look who the quarterbacks are. Look at the ones who win. It proves out." As to what Cousins might be looking for, former agent Joel Corry, who contributes to CBSSports.com, gave these ballpark figures during a radio interview last month: Joel Corry on a July Cousins deal: "You're going to have to give him $60M in guarantees, $35M in full guarantees and at least $20M a year." — Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen) June 30, 2016 Cousins' 2016 performance will determine much those numbers change by next offseason. Unless, of course, the Redskins choose to franchise him again, which will cost them roughly $24 million -- not an unreasonable sum for a franchise quarterback. Whatever happens, it's a nice pay bump from the $660,000 he made in the final year of his rookie deal.Investigation comes after video was posted on YouTube showing men running over bear with off-road vehicles A criminal investigation has been opened into a group of men who filmed themselves killing a bear in Siberia by running over it with off-road vehicles. A video posted on YouTube on Monday and apparently filmed on a mobile phone showed a brown bear being crushed to death in the snow by two heavy duty trucks, of the kind used by oil and mining workers. The video has since been removed. In the clip, one of the men in the trucks shouts: “Squash him! Squash him!” and squeals as the truck drives back and forth over the bear, Agence France-Presse reported. The men can be heard saying: “It’s still alive”, and are seen poking the bear with a metal rod as it struggles to get out of the snow. Investigators in the Yakutia region of Russia announced on Wednesday that they had opened a criminal inquiry into the incident. They will be looking into whether the men caused the death of an animal through sadistic treatment, an offence that carries a maximum jail term of two years, Reuters reported. The investigators said the men were shift workers for a mineral prospecting company. A spokeswoman for the interior ministry told TV reporters they had established that the men were Yakutia residents. The clip, which was picked up by Russian state media, caused public outrage. “There should be real jail time for this sort of crime!” Sergei Donskoi, Russia’s minister for natural resources and the environment, wrote on social media. “We’ll make sure these villains get the most serious punishment.” Mining and oil activity in remote territories such as the Siberian Arctic increasingly bring people into conflict with wildlife. Bears can be dangerous, and those that fail to go into hibernation are often shot, legally, if found near towns and villages. Last year, a video emerged showing a construction worker at an Arctic military base feeding a firecracker to a polar bear, which roared with pain after it exploded in its mouth.Mozilla is working on a small stick that you can plug into a TV to stream internet videos or other content while using the Firefox web browser on your phone or other device as a remote. Sound familiar? That’s because this is basically Mozilla’s answer to Google’s Chromecast. But it could actually be much more than that. Mozilla Evangelist Christan Heilmann posted a photo of the “open TV casting prototype device” on Twitter recently, saying that it’s running Firefox OS and features an open bootloader. Meanwhile GigaOm’s digital media specialist Janko Roettgers says he’s been following the project for a while, and has a video of an early prototype. Mozilla already includes support for streaming videos from an Android phone running the Firefox web browser to a Roku set-top-box. So unlike Google’s Chromecast software, Mozilla isn’t limiting its media streaming to a single device. The Firefox OS stick also supports some apps that are designed to work with Chromecast. Roettgers shows the YouTube app sending video to a TV using the Mozilla device. He says it also works with Google Play Music, but many other Chromecast-capable apps don’t yet work. It’s not clear when Mozilla’s streaming stick will be available, what name or band it will have by the time it hits the streets, or how much it will cost. But for the right price, it could be an interesting alternative to the Chromecast… especially for folks interested in a more open platform.A study by UNICEF shows that girls across the world do 50 percent more chores than boys. The disparity leaves less time for education and social development and widens gender gaps later in life. (Courtesy of UNICEF/Ose.) For the first few years of life, boys and girls are mostly equal. They develop mentally at about the same rate, are disciplined similarly and are equally likely to start school, a new UNICEF study says. But the study suggests that gender differences begin to grow as the children do — particularly when girls become big enough to pick up a broom, care for an ailing grandparent or fetch water. Worldwide, girls spend about 50 percent more time on chores than their brothers, according to UNICEF. In the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, the gap is wider — girls ages 5 to 14 spend twice as much time on chores. The hard work doesn't build character, says the organization, which is dedicated to providing humanitarian and developmental assistance. "The types of chores commonly undertaken by girls — preparing food, cleaning and caring for others — not only set the stage for unequal burdens later in life but can also limit girls' outlook and potential while they are still young," according to the study. [Ladies, there’s a good chance that every guy you knew in college earns more money than you] The chores socialize girls into thinking that domestic duties are the only ones they're qualified for. Chores such as cooking, cleaning and fetching water are not as highly valued as other tasks that may earn money for a family. That has "lasting effects on [girls'] self-esteem and sense of self-worth," the study says. Among the study's findings: Globally, girls ages 5 to 14 spend 550 million hours every day on household chores, 106 million more hours than boys their age. In the three countries with the highest girl involvement in household chores, more than half the girls spend 14 hours per week on chores. Two-thirds of girls worldwide help with cooking and cleaning in the house. Fifty percent help with shopping and 46 percent fetch water or firewood. About 43 percent care for other children. The increased time on household work negatively affects girls' lives — and their futures — compared to boys. Every hour a girl spends on chores is an hour she can't spend making friends, doing schoolwork or playing. A girl helps prepare her family's evening meal, outside their makeshift home, in the Majo camp for displaced people, in Mogadishu. (UNICEF/Holt) [Amelia Earhart didn’t die in a plane crash, investigator says. This is his theory.] The early typecasting reverberates as girls become women, making it harder to close gender gaps in education and employment, UNICEF says. According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap report, a quarter of a billion women entered the global labor force between 2006 and 2015, "and yet, the annual pay for women only now equals the amount men were earning TEN YEARS AGO." The forum's report shows similar problems in skilled labor: "While more women than men are enrolling at university in 97 countries, women make up the majority of skilled workers in only 68 countries and the majority of leaders in only four." The Economic Policy Institute said years of social programming and gender expectations can explain the complex reasons for the gender pay gap in the United States. According to a recent study by the institute: "By the time a woman earns her first dollar, her occupational choice is the culmination of years of education, guidance by mentors, expectations set by those who raised her, hiring practices of firms, and widespread norms and expectations about work–family balance held by employers, co-workers and society," the study says. "In other words, even though women disproportionately enter lower-paid, female-dominated occupations, this decision is shaped by discrimination, societal norms and other forces beyond women’s control." The UNICEF study suggests some solutions for gender disparities. A first step: a more even distribution of chores. "Household chores and negative gender patterns must be addressed before they become cemented in adulthood," the study says. "Supporting girls to stay in school and be involved in sports, play and other leisure and asset-building activities — and investing in infrastructure, technology and childcare to ease uneven burdens — can help put girls on the path to empowerment and the world on course to great gender equality." Harvard's Making Caring Common project has come up with recommendations about how to raise girls to be strong leaders. (The Washington Post) Read more: There is no hijab emoji. This 15-year-old student is trying to change that. ‘I will NOT wear a hijab’: U.S. chess star refuses to attend world championships in Iran Opinion: What’s the real gender pay gap?Update Staurday Feb 17. With huge thanks to Katia at The Wee Boulangerie, we've made it past £19k. Now there's hope for Jani's legs. Can you help us save them? It's a big hill and a long road but this is the last, best hope for them. Very FAQ: you can put every soupon in either a single or joint name so if you want to share a Silver, Gold or Lifetime soupon - you can Hello In October 2011, I set up Union of Genius, Scotland’s first soup café. The idea was simple - to make the best soup in Edinburgh from locally sourced, seasonal ingredients and reward my customers for recycling their packaging. By offering six different soups everyday I believed there would be something for everyone. Our cafe Fourteen months later, even though there are now four of us soupmongers we can no longer keep up with demand. Eight other cafes already stock our soup and several more want to. Many of our friends and customers have asked us to open up in different places in Edinburgh and beyond. We can’t do that (yet) but we can do the next best thing and bring our soup to a café near you. To do that we need to set up a proper commercial kitchen allowing us to make soup in 20 litre batches to the same standard we do now. Such things don’t come cheap and with banks hoarding their money we have decided to bypass the broken financial system and fund the new kitchen directly. For that, we need you. Our new kitchen We have found a site that is ideal for us. The landlord is supportive, the location is right and the facilities are just what we need. What we have to do is to outfit it. The big-ticket items we need to invest in are a substantial blast-chiller, cabinet fridge, chest freezers, six-ring gas hob, commercial vegetable dicers, food preparation counters, shelving and a whole load of pots and pans. This is the fridge we are looking for. This will cost us around £10,000 in total. What it will allow us to do is to make each soup fresh, chill it down for a minimum of 12 hours for the flavours to meld then test and season it just before delivery. It is important to us that every soup is made from scratch - no pre-mixed pastes here - and made by hand every single time. This is very labour intensive but the kitchen equipment will enable us to make sure that every soup is made safely and with the attention to detail we pride ourselves on. You need soup Our aim has always been “to make soup the star of the show.” That means every single one of our soups is made by hand from just the ingredients you can get in the grocers. We don’t use pre-mixes and we don’t thicken with flour, so most of our soups are gluten-free. We also work to make sure that we have a soup for everyone. Each day we make two meat-based, two vegetarian and two vegan soups. All of them packed with vegetables and focused on seasonal ingredients. Some of our spices The secret to it is giving the soup time to meld. We make our soups the day before and leave them overnight so that the different flavours can mingle. Like a good Scotch whisky, a soup needs time to mature. The day we serve it, the soup is tasted, seasoned and adjusted and doesn’t leave the kitchen until the soupmonger in charge is completely happy with it. The other secret is that the humble soup does not need to be humble at all. It’s too often relegated to a single “soup of the day,” the item on the menu that no one pays attention to. Not with us. To give you a taste of what we do, here are just some of the 60+ soups we’ve made in the last few months. Caldo Verde - chorizo and kale in a broth of potatoes, onions and garlic seasoned with sweet, smoked paprika. Afghan spiced carrot - a bright and cheerful vegan soup with subtle, fragrant spicing and chunky carrots. Broccoli, bacon and chilli - all the goodness of a cream of broccoli soup with the added joy of salty bacon and a kick of chilli. Cock-a-leekie - a classic Scots recipe of chicken and leek with prunes. Devilled pumpkin with lemongrass & sour cherry - a dairy-free dream that makes pumpkin sexy. The Mighty Merguez - merguez-spiced soup with lamb & beef merguez-spiced sausages for a double helping of merguez, which is why we call it “mighty.” Moroccan Harira - the classic lentil and chickpea soup with harissa and cinnamon. Sweet potato with ginger, coconut and tamarind - a silky smooth soup with a hit of both sweet and sour. Keeping it green From the beginning we have aimed to be an eco-friendly, sustainable business. All our take-away packaging is made from compostable plant starch by Vegware. Instead of rewarding our customers for consumption, we reward them with a loyalty point for bringing back their packaging. The charity Edinburgh Cyrenians then compost all our food waste and returned packaging and then the compost helps grow new plants. From making to eating we have closed the loop which is why we call the idea “Full Circle.” As we have moved into delivery we have taken the same approach. Our soups are delivered in Edinburgh by bicycle courier, Pronto Pedal Power. The containers we use are returned, washed, sanitised and reused so there is no plastic waste. The courier even gets fed soup to keep pedalling. Now we are looking to expand our wholesale supplies, we can build on the success of our bicycle deliveries to keep our impact on the environment to a minimum. It is more expensive than sending a staff member around Edinburgh in a van but we think it’s worth it. Neil from Pronto Pedal Power Meet the soupmongers Union of Genius is the brainchild of Elaine Mason, once a geologist and bookseller, now Scotland’s first soupmonger. Amy Brewer has been with us since day one. Drummer in a rock-band and former linguist, she’s the one who keeps the café running smoothly and makes sure everything is in its proper place. Cheryl Donohoe is our newest recruit. With many years of experience in catering, she makes soup like a well-oiled machine and is helping us expand our repertoire. Janahan Balasubramaniam is our ace server, barista and self-declared eye-candy. With a background in sales and marketing, Jani is the one who will be looking after our new customers. Bruce Mason likes to be called “Dr Genius” and thinks of himself as a soup Svengali. In reality, he helps with the books and washing up. The noble art of peeling Union of What? Union of Genius is a big name for a small cafe. But it does represent what we think a soup should be: a union of diverse flavours that is more than the sum of its parts. It is also how we think we should be as a team and how we work with local companies such as Vegware, Pronto Pedal Power and Edinburgh Cyrenians. We have been utterly delighted with how our first year has gone. We thought it was a good idea but even we didn’t expect it to have the impact it did. If you want to have a look for yourself we have put some links to reviews in the FAQ at the end. Kickstart our kitchen We realise that many of you reading this won’t have seen Kickstarter before and you might be puzzled by it. The main thing you need to know is that this is an “all or nothing” deal. You pledge a certain amount. If the total amount pledged meets the goal (£10,000) then the project gets funded, your payment card gets debited and we arrange for you to receive the reward you asked for. If we don’t reach our total then nobody’s card gets debited and nobody gets any money. We think that Kickstarter is a way of expanding our business that matches our ethos. Everyone who backs us, no matter how much or how little, is important to us. Our first year of trading has given us the track record and confidence to know that we are ready to take the next step. Working with backers through Kickstarter means we can bring the best soup we can possibly make to cafés across Edinburgh in the greenest way we know. We are excited. We hope you are too, and hope you want to become part of it. ---Elaine & the soupmongers Mystery hand Stretch goals Kickstarter veterans will know all about these. Basically if we manage to reach a certain total above our goal we add something extra to the rewards. £11,500 Everybody gets one - achieved! Everyone is getting a sixth recipe card - The Big Green - added to their rewards for free. The Big Green is one of the soups we are most proud of. It is as good ambient (lightly chilled) as it is hot. It is the soup that was awarded Lunchquest's "exceptional" status and is one of our most popular spring and summer soups. £13,000 Help us help others - achieved! We will provide free soup to Edinburgh's Care Van in perpetuity or for as long as they want.The Care Van is run by Bethany Christian Trust in partnership with the Edinburgh city mission. It provides provides soup, rolls, clothing, blankets, support and homelessness information to between 20-60 rough sleepers in Edinburgh city centre every night. £18,000 A year in soup - achieved! We will replace the six indvidual recipe cards with a collection of 12 soup recipe cards in a sleeve: one for each month of the year. Everyone who has
campaign financing. At the first event, held by the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council at the Iowa City Public Library, Biden denounced a possible war with Iran. "If you're part of the reality-based community, it should worry you," he said at the event, which was also sponsored by the UI's Honors Program and both the UI Democrats and College Republicans. "War with Iran is not just a bad idea, war with Iran at this point in the [United States'] history would be a disaster." Five minutes before Biden was scheduled to speak, empty seats were scarce, and a number of the 150 people who showed up to the event were forced to stand. Directing his speech to the interests of his Foreign Relations Council hosts, Biden rarely drifted off foreign policy, breaking from that topic only in the question-and-answer session when he spoke on his Violence Against Women Act. He rejected a war against Iran as detrimental to American interests, instead arguing that the United States should pursue diplomatic solutions, as well as economic sanctions against the country. Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also blasted the Bush administration for pursuing policies that, he said, directly hurt America's image abroad. To change this, he said, current policy needs to be "turned on its head." He stressed the need to appeal to Iran's people and moderates in the region, denounce torture, and shut down the Guantánamo Bay prison, and cut U.S. dependence on foreign oil. "We need to end our dependence on not the 'axis of evil' but the 'axis of oil,' " said Biden, who also urged action on ending the genocide in Sudan's Darfur region. And he also did a little bit of selling his candidacy. "A lot of people say I'd be a good secretary of State," he said. "But are you prepared to vote for anyone for president who wouldn't be a good secretary of State?" UI senior Joe Traw said the speech just cemented his thoughts on Biden and the presidential field. "I thought it kind of reaffirmed what I already thought: that he has the most extensive knowledge of foreign policy of any of the other presidential candidates," he said, who listed foreign policy as his No. 1 issue and is supporting Biden. At the second event, Biden emphasized one important presidential character trait: authenticity. "I can only promise you this: You'll never have to worry if there is a difference between what I say and what I do," he said to the crowd of about 140. This, he asserted, was the main way America could increase participation in the democratic process. The senator also pointed to publicly financed elections as a way to reduce the need for great amounts of money to run for political office. Additionally, Biden rejected negative campaigning, arguing that it unnecessarily produces cynicism and said he's never run a negative ad in his 30-plus years as a senator. E-mail DI reporter Shawn Gude at: shawn-gude@uiowa.edu © 2007 The Daily Iowan via U-WIREIn the beginning, there were zines. Shortly after fish crawled out of the primordial ooze, and were greeted by First Fandom, zines started to appear. Science Fiction fandom wasn’t even invented when folks started doing the earliest things we’d call fanzines. Mostly, they were related to sports at first, and later to film stars and the like. Science Fiction fandom evolved and became the group most strongly associated with fanzines, largely because we popularized the name ‘fanzine’. Over the years, zines became the primary way that fans communicated when they couldn’t be in the same place physically. Over the years, this was slowly replaced, first by more frequent cons and ever-growing clubs, later by electronic bulletin boards, then USENET, then CompuServe, then AOL, and nowadays we’re up to blogs and such. Zines themselves evolved, first in the technology used to create them, later in the way they were presented. Most fanzines today are either done completely electronic or have a PDF version that echoes a printed version. And there are a few that have no electronic version at all. Not a lot, but there are some. We’ll get into that later. I came into fanzines twice. My Dad loved ‘em. He had a fairly good little collection that he had for years. I used to color in them, but I learned how to read from issues of Granfalloon and Niekas. Over the years, I drifted out of fandom, only to return around 2004, finally starting my own zine, The Drink Tank, on January 31st, 2005. Over the last seven years, I’ve expanded the number of zines I’ve done, have got myself nominated a few times for the Hugo, managed to somehow win one of the things, and have made friends from around the world. That’s what zines have done for me. To me, a zine has a feeling of completeness to it. It’s not a record of a moment; it’s a record of a period of collaboration. There are zines that are entirely the work of one person, but they’re getting rarer and rarer, it seems. In a way, those are the precursors of blogs, as I see it. Most zines are a mixture of writing and art, laid out in some form. The end result is an artifact; something with cohesion and a sense of togetherness. Many would say that Zines are a form of communication, and I’m not quite sure I agree. There are lots of ways to communicate, and I’d never really use a zine for that. To me, it’s a place for presentation, to show some of what you’re thinking, to show off the work of other folks. I’m lucky in that I’ve got a band of friends who are willing to send stuff to me to include in the zines. Of course, I’m not the only one doing zines, and maybe that’s part of why people are having a hard time continuing to take zines seriously. There aren’t as many zinesters as there were in the late 1980s up to the mid-1990s. That was probably the peak as far as numbers go. The number of zines being produced on paper alone is pretty small, frequent Hugo nominee Banana Wings is the most prominent, but there are dozens that do both print and web editions. Some of the zines that do both include the exceptional Chunga by J. Randrew Byers, carl juarez and Andy Hooper, Steven H Silver’s wonderful Argentus, Guy H. Lillian’s excellent Challenger, and Journey Planet, where James Bacon and I team up with some great folks every few months. The combination form has become more and more popular as recent years have seen costs in printing and mailing increase greatly and this allows for a larger audience. And yes, there are web-only fanzines. Since 2005, web-only fanzines have seen an explosion made possible by Bill Burn’s eFanzines.com. Many people have pointed to Arnie Katz’s Vegas Fandom Weekly for starting a flood of other web fanzines like The Drink Tank and Science Fiction San Francisco. An unexpected side effect of the existence of eFanzines is the return of a fair number of zines that hadn’t been published in decades. Pete Weston’s Relapse, Rob Jackson’s Inca, and Mike Maera’s A Meara For Observers all returned after long layoffs, and fans who hadn’t seen the light of day for years like John Neilsen-Hall and Eric Mayer came back to regularly give us zines and articles. Legendary 1960s fan and former WorldCon chair Earl Kemk’s eI recently ended a near-decade long run as one of the most impressive and far-ranging zines of all-time. More and more fanzine activity seems to be happening on or around the eFanzines crowd, including the current youth movement that seems to be taking hold. Yipe!, the Costumers Zine of Record, John Coxon’s Procrastinations, Dark Matter by Nalini Harris, and the darkly humorous Bullshit! from William Housel are all a part of a youngening that has been happening over the last few years. For me, fanzines are about having a good time. I love layout, I love playing with art and text and I especially love finding strange connections. I also love that there’s absolutely nothing that I HAVE to do. There’s no requirements for what a fanzine has to be or do. I guess that’s what’s drawn me all these years, the freedom to work on what I want to do and not to have to worry about anything. Yeah, sometimes this leads to a “somewhat sloppy effect” (according to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction), but it makes me happy to get to do it all the way I get to do it. It’s a lot of fun, and to me, if it’s not fun, why do it? That attitude would also explain the lack of grammar-checking in GarciaZines… There is also a lovely community that gathers annually at a convention called CorFlu. It travels around the world, usually attracting between 50 and a hundred or so folks from several countries. A lot of folks participate in on-line mailing lists as well. It’s a community that can seem to be a bit closed off to folks who are new, but what’s interesting is that anyone can find themselves in the fold if they participate. It’s a good bunch of folks, a lot of fun to drink with! There are challenges that face zines. There’s the general aging of a lot of Fanzine Fandom. While we’ve got a string of youth woven in at the moment, there’s a lot of folks in their 50s and 60s. There’s the ever-increasing number of folks who might have gone in for fanzines back in the day who are now finding themselves blogging or engaged in other kinds of writing. There’s the costs of printing for those who enjoy the feel of their works on paper. There’s the problem of getting folks to notice what you’re doing. There are so many other forms of writing out there, and the view that Fanzines are an old folks’ pastime has helped to keep younger fans from checking out what’s going on in the world of zines. For us web-based folks, there’s the problem of Letters of Comment. In the past, Letters of Comments, LoCs, were very much the norm with many zines consisting of long letter columns that would sometimes outpace the length of the rest of the contents all together. Many of electronic zines have trouble getting comments. These things happen. There are many impressive zines out there today. The first ones that come to mind are some of those I’ve already mentioned, plus ones like Askance from Mr. John Purcell. You can’t go wrong with Trap Door from the legendary Robert Lichtman and a contributors list which reads like a list of the finest fannish writers in the world. Rich Coad’s Sense of Wonder Stories is one of the best of all the zines about both fandom and science fiction. If you like your discussion of science fiction deep, thoughtful and thorough, you must try and read Bruce Gillespie’s SF Commentary. It may well be the best writing about SF in the world today. So, that’s Fanzines to me. I really believe that some of the finest writing in the world is happening in zines. It’s a world that you might wanna give a try. Start with eFanzines.com and look at what’s out there. The variety of stuff there is huge and you can’t go wrong… and if you do, well, there’s so much more that might just work for ya!The Zika virus is the new health threat that the world is facing. This mosquito borne virus is spreading rapidly in South and Central America and the Caribbean. According to World Health Organization (WHO) scientists, there will be 3 to 4 million new infections in the Americas and the virus could spread in the southern United States, where cases of Zika have already been confirmed. WHO has declared Zika a public health emergency and gave the factors leading to this declaration as the large area potentially affected by the virus, the lack of vaccines and reliable diagnostic tests, and lack of population immunity in the affected countries. Spread through bites of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the most common symptoms of Zika virus infection are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes). However, studies show that an estimated 80% of persons infected with Zika virus are asymptomatic. As there is currently is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, the CDC says that the best way to avoid the infection is to prevent mosquito bites. According to the CDC, Zika virus disease can often be diagnosed after the first week of illness by performing reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on serum. However, the CDC also says that the problem with this antibody assay is that cannot accurately distinguish between Zika and similar viruses such as the dengue virus. First found in 1947 in a rhesus monkey in Uganda’s Zika Forest, Zika attracted attention in 2015 when pregnant Brazilian women who became infected with the virus gave birth to babies with an abnormally small head, a condition called microcephaly. Though the link between Zika infection in pregnancy and microcephaly is not confirmed, the CDC’s updated guidelines offer recommendations for testing in pregnant women exposed to risks of Zika virus infection. Zika virus testing is also recommended for infants with microcephaly or intracranial calcifications born to women who traveled to or resided in an area with Zika virus transmission while pregnant, and for infants born to mothers with positive or inconclusive test results for Zika virus infection. The most important tool necessary to face this viral outbreak is a reliable, accurate and easily accessible diagnostic test. As the number of cases raise, the absence of such as test poses a major challenge for researchers and governments trying to understand the disease and accurately assess the threat it poses to public health. Therefore, many companies are aggressively involved in research to develop a simple diagnostic test to detect Zika virus infection as well as a vaccine to prevent it.McAfee Threat Report - Malware Dominates The Threat Landscape McAfee has released its 'McAfee Threats Report: Second Quarter 2010' threat analysis report, showing that malware is at an all-time high but that spam has shown slow growth figures when compared to the first quarter of 2010. According to the report, volumes of spam circulating on the internet increased by merely 2.5 percent as compared to Q1'10, after reaching its highest of 175 billion spam emails a day in the third quarter of 2009. The report informs that spam still accounted for 88 percent of emails sent on the Internet. Meanwhile, spam emails referring to 'Canadian pharmacy' websites continued to be on the top of the list of spam messages being sent from infected systems. Additionally, 63 percent of spam messages were health-related while only 10 percent were credited to generic spam messages. Phishing emails on the other hand, accounted for only 2 percent of spam emails, but registered an overall growth of 81 percent when compared to last year. The FIFA World Cup this year has also acted as a breeding ground for spam messages that contained malware attachments and redirected users to websites that are laden with malicious content. The report went on to highlight the example of a cyber scam that attacked Brazilian football fans, prompting them to download a malicious file with the promise to show a video showing former coach of the national football team fighting with two unruly fans. Spam email messages containing malware have been on a rise in countries such as Columbia, India, Russian and Vietnam, while users in United States, Italy, Spain, China and Great Britain have been targeted with fake delivery messages and non-delivery receipt email scams. The report highlights the alarming rise of malware during the first half of 2010, with the company discovering and cataloging 10 million new malware samples since the year began. The most common type of malware, AutoRun malware, which spreads via USB dongles and portable storage devices was on a rise, while malware spreading from fake anti-virus software registered a slower growth rate as compared to last year. Sophos, in its mid year 2010 threat report, says it receives an average of 60,000 new samples of malware each day - about one piece every 1.4 seconds. The McAfee report also warned that popular social networking platforms, such as Facebook, continued to be the favored hunting ground for hackers looking to install malware on systems of unsuspecting users. McAfee said that Kobeface, a malware specifically designed to target Facebook users, continued to wreak havoc on the platform. The full report can be downloaded at: http://www.mcafee.com/us/local_content/reports/q22010_threats_report_en.pdf Related Reading: Report Reveals Cybercrime Trends, Thoughts on Cyberwarfare and Threat PredictionsIn early 2010, police responded to calls about a “suspicious black male” and found a young black man waiting outside a local school library. An officer approached Reginald “Neli” Latson, then-18 and also autistic. He did not give his name when asked, and he attempted to walk away. The initial contact led to an altercation. Afterward, Neli was charged with assaulting a police officer and later sentenced to two years of prison and eight years of probation. Police profiled Neli as suspicious and then attempted to arrest him after he failed to state his name. This incident was avoidable, but the consequences afterward were even more devastating for Neli, who has been repeatedly subjected to inappropriate and ineffective punishment. While on probation after serving two years in prison, Neli had another unfortunate encounter with police during which he threatened suicide. Since September 2013, he has been back in prison. Neli has languished for over a year in 24-hour lockdown solitary confinement. In theory, this was for his own protection after he attempted suicide inside his prison cell. Because of his developmental and intellectual disabilities, Neli was deemed too vulnerable to place in the prison’s general population. The already inappropriate prison environment has in turn led to increased behavior difficulties. Isolating vulnerable prisoners in solitary confinement is a violation of human rights. Solitary confinement is particularly pernicious and potentially counterproductive for those with disability-related behavioral difficulties. Neli has lost coping skills while in isolation, and remains at continued threat of further adverse psychological impact. Yet instead of providing him with appropriate supports and a meaningful transition plan, the system continues to fail him. In 2012, the Massachusetts Department of Corrections settled a lawsuit filed by the Disability Law Center over routinely housing inmates with psychiatric disabilities in solitary confinement for the convenience of prison staff. Psychological and neuroscience research have repeatedly demonstrated that prolonged solitary confinement has a profoundly negative impact on prisoners’ emotional and mental wellbeing. For those like Neli who are wrongfully imprisoned, the effects are no doubt exacerbated by the complete injustice of the situation. Neli Latson should not be in prison, let alone in solitary confinement. His placement in prison is entirely inappropriate and not conducive to positive learning or behavior supports. Governor McAuliffe still has an opportunity to remedy this injustice immediately by pardoning Neli or commuting his sentence. There is no public safety or rehabilitation justification for his continued imprisonment either in general population or in solitary confinement. Neli could be significantly better served in a community-based setting with appropriate re-entry services and behavior supports, including someone to accompany him in the community. For these reasons, we call for Neli’s immediate release. This statement compiled by Samantha Crane, ASAN’s Director of Public Policy, and Lydia Brown, ASAN Policy Analyst.After a total of nine days touring the desert flats in the tours of Dubai and Qatar, it’s now time for the general classification riders to stretch their legs on the Arabian peninsula. After all, nearly every Tour of Oman raced since its inception in 2010 has been won by a sprightly climber, thanks to the inclusion most years of the tough climb up Green Mountain. Over half the times the climb has featured in the tour, the winner of the stage has gone on to win overall. This year the climb, which features on stage 4, has been extended to an even greater distance, and it now will stretch to over 7km, at a beastly average of over 10% gradient. Despite the lumpier parcours, there are still chances for the sprinters to shine in Oman. Stages 3 and 6 will be circled in the race handbooks of all the fast men. And the remaining stages, 1, 2, and 5, will suit punchier finishers or a diminished bunch finish. This is definitely the most interesting and varied parcours on offer in the Persian gulf, and it’s a total mystery why it isn’t being televised. Stage 1 Expect the focus on stage 1 to fall on the last 25km, which feature two short and steep climbs in succession. Both the Al Hamriyah and Al Jissah climbs are around 9% averages, and the latter is only 4km to the finish, which comes after a quick downhill run. This is perfect for late attackers, and we’d expect riders like the in-form Edvald Boasson Hagen and Greg Van Avermaet to have a roll of the dice here. It’s a good finish, too, for the general classification riders to gain a handful of seconds early on, and we’ll see Tom Dumoulin, Rui Costa, Dan Martin, and Richie Porte at the head of affairs at all times. However, Vincenzo Nibali can’t be overlooked for this terrain. Nibali loves a late climb and is the peloton’s master descender. He also rarely shies away from a shot at bonus seconds, so he’ll be a marked man on the run in to Al Bustan. Stage 2 Stage 2 boasts the first of two summit finishes in this year’s tour, not to mention the first time the riders will see the Bousher Al Amerat climb. The Bousher Al Amerat will also be tackled not once, not twice, but thrice on stage 5, and it should prove a leg-sapping ascent. Teams with G.C. ambitions will most likely control the pace today, and the chances of a breakaway succeeding are low; the climb up to the finish marks this one out as one for the overall favourites, and the pace will be high on the way up to Quriyat. The climb itself isn’t close to being in the same league as Green Mountain, so a punchier climber might have a better chance at taking bonus seconds. Nevertheless, we fancy Richie Porte for this. He was unstoppable on Old Willunga Hill in the Tour Down Under, and the similar ascent to the line should be enough to tempt an attack out of him. If he does go, we’ll see a hot pursuit, and we don’t think Nibali will be far behind. The old man of the peloton, Davide Rebellin, might also try his luck, and, with his recent success up the Hatta Dam in Dubai, he might even take the general classification men by surprise. Stage 3 Stage 3 is by far the best chance all week for the sprinters to shine. So expect to see Katusha, Bora-Argon18, and LottoNL-Jumbo set the pace, working for their men Alexander Kristoff, Sam Bennett and Moreno Hofland. There are also chances here for Team Wanty’s Roy Jans (who performed well in Qatar last week), BMC’s Jempey Drucker and Greg Van Avermaet, and Etixx-Quickstep’s Gianni Meersman. There’s also the former Milan-Sanremo winner Gerald Ciolek, who’s riding for his new team Stölting Service Group — but it would be asking a lot for them to steal a win when they’re up against stronger and more seasoned teams. Who will triumph? It’s hard to look past Alexander Kristoff, with his three stage wins last week alone. Stage 4 Here it is, then, the now-annual Queen stage of the Tour of Oman, and the site where the race will no doubt be decided overall. The favourites should be obvious: Nibali, Porte, Martin, and Dumoulin all stand head and shoulders above the other riders here. Given displays of recent form alone, Richie Porte is a good bet for victor on Green Mountain, and overall. He’s got the super-strong Daniel Oss to work for him, as well the clearly on-form Greg Van Avermaet and Manuel Quinziato; BMC should be able to clear a path for Porte right up the foothills of Green Mountain, in the hopes that he can dance away alone to the summit. Nibali is with his right-hand man Jakob Fuglsang, so Porte will have his work cut out if he wants to stay away. Dan Martin looks good, too, and he has Bob Jungels for support. We’ll be hoping he has a lucky start to his season in the colours of new team Etixx — his luck has been mixed at best in recent years. Tom Dumoulin is the big uncertainty here. We’ve not seen his form yet this year, and, because of the crash at a Giant-Alpecin training camp, he comes here with a much-reduced squad. However, he will have a strong asset in Søren Kragh Andersen, who rode like a dream in Qatar. If Dumoulin rides anything like he did in last year’s Vuelta, he might just be king of Green Mountain after all. Other notables includes the Ag2R duo Domenico Pozzovivo and Romain Bardet, Lampre’s Rui Costa, and don’t forget Jacques Janse van Rensburg for Dimension Data, who finished 7th on this stage last year. Rensburg comes here supported by Serge Pauwels, who himself had a great Tour de France in 2015, as well as fan-favourite Daniel Teklehaimanot. It’s worth noting that Rafael Valls took everyone by surprise last year, so let’s have a real outsider pick, too: the young Argentinian Eduardo Sepúlveda looks good coming into this race, after an impressive Tour de San Luis. It’s going to be a great stage to watch, that’s for certain – that’s if the broadcasters bothered to show it! Stage 5 There’s no chance for a breather after Green Mountain, with stage 5 returning to the territory of stage two for that triple climb of Bousher Al Amerat. The manner in which this stage is raced will depend upon how the G.C. stands after Green Mountain. If it’s tight at the top, then we could see the main contenders fighting for stage bonifications, in which case a breakaway is doomed. But if there’s a clear winner, then this does look like a good chance for a group of opportunists to go long. From the last peak of Al Amerat it’s 13km of downhill and flat to the finish, so it might even suit a solo effort. It’s a very tough one to pick. We’ll go with the gifted descenders of the peloton Vincenzo Nibali and Romain Bardet to go long at the end. Should a breakaway make it, then we’ll have our eyes on Pieter Weening, Nathan Earle, Marco Marcato, and Rasmus Guldhammer. Stage 6 The final stage should be perfect for a bunch sprint to round off the tour, which has been the case three out of the last four years. However, two obstacles could scupper that: Al Hamriyah and Al Jissah, two 9% climbs that measure 800m and 1.4km respectively. If a decent group or a strong rider finds a healthy gap over Al Jissah, then we could see the break or an individual take the day — as we did with Matthias Brändle last year. That final climb will be crested with 35km remaining, so the big engines will be needed for a break or solo escapee to stick it. They don’t come much bigger than Stijn Vandenbergh. The Belgian strongman rode to a similar victory, with a bag flapping in his wheel, no less, at the recent Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. He’d be a great pick for a late attack on stage 6. However, we’re still counting on a final sprint at Matrah Corniche. Expect a repeat of stage 3, then, and look to Alexander Kristoff to steal the show. Here’s hoping Sam Bennett can also go well today, and take something with him from the Arabian peninsula. Picks James like Dan Martin for this one. He’ll be looking to follow in the footsteps of Kittel, another new Etixx signing, by getting a win in early for his new team; he’s also got the motivation of wanting to shrug off a bad 2015 season. Martin’s been looking to prove himself as a G.C. man, and not just as a stage racer, and Oman offers him the right opportunity, especially on the short summit finish on stage 2. Andy, based on the form shown in the Tour Down Under, thinks Richie Porte will take this, thanks to a likely win on Green Mountain. Its early days yet, but the move to BMC seems to have given Porte a new lease of life. He also comes here with an exceptionally strong team, who are in top shape after Qatar. Chris is going for Vincenzo Nibali. We’ve not seen anything of Vincenzo’s current form, but let’s be honest: nine times out of ten he’s up there with the best of them, fighting on the inclines, and hurling himself down the descents. He’ll give it his for an early-season win. Amendment: This article originally mentioned Dumoulin as having suffered an injury during the Giant-Alpecin training camp crash. In fact, Dumoulin wasn’t involved in that crash.Andrea Heming disappeared before her sentencing two years ago after pleading guilty to poisoning her husband A woman from Nevada is on the run after poisoning her husband's Lucky Charms cereal all to get out of having sex with him. Andrea Heming pleaded guilty to contaminating her husband's food after putting boric acid in his cereal, energy drinks and even whipped cream. The chemical is often used to kill cockroaches. The man suffered from diarrhea and nose bleeds for months before he realized what was happening. When questioned by police, Heming admitted to poisoning his food. A police report states Heming told police, 'I wouldn't use that much to kill him, but just enough to make him not have an erection.' Heming poisoned her husband's Lucky Charms cereal with Boric acid (file) Video courtesy of KTNV The night before she was due to be sentenced she went on the run and has been on the lam for the past two years. 'I was very surprised,' her ex-husband, identified by 3 News only as 'Ralph,' told the station. 'I thought we had a better system of keeping track and holding people responsible.' 'I had been getting sick awhile back. Like six to eight months. I got stomach cramps.' Ralph told the station that his wife's erratic behavior wasn't just aimed at him: 'She did reveal to me a story where she was a flight attendant at one time, and she had a customer — you know a passenger who was she said was unruly,' he told the station. 'She actually put sedatives in her drink.' Law enforcement officials believe Hemming is hiding in Mexico. If she is ever caught, she could face up to 15 years in prison.By Chris at www.CapitalistExploits.at Market dislocations occur when financial markets, operating under stressful conditions, experience large widespread asset mispricing. Welcome to this week’s edition of “World Out Of Whack” where every Wednesday we take time out of our day to laugh, poke fun at and present to you absurdity in global financial markets in all its glorious insanity. While we enjoy a good laugh, the truth is that the first step to protecting ourselves from losses is to protect ourselves from ignorance. Think of the “World Out Of Whack” as your double thick armour plated side impact protection system in a financial world littered with drunk drivers. Selfishly we also know that the biggest (and often the fastest) returns come from asymmetric market moves. But, in order to identify these moves we must first identify where they live. Occasionally we find opportunities where we can buy (or sell) assets for mere cents on the dollar – because, after all, we are capitalists. Join our Insider membership and find out what we're doing with our own money... targeting asymmetric investment opportunities In this week's edition of the WOW: Le Pen. But then what? On the 7th May France will have a new political party complete with a shiny new President and then everything will get better, right? Why don't we take a look. But first... The bond market is finally waking up to what I outlined some 7 months ago in 7 steps to the easiest short in recent history. A couple of snippets as a reminder... With respect to the rise of the right: "Those who state the obvious gain ground not because they’re smarter, necessarily have better ideas, or are virtuous, but because they bring to the attention what citizens can see with their own eyes." And as I write this to you now we have this: Another wee snippet from that same article from last year - on how the voting masses will be swayed: "When Le Pen is elected to power in France next year it will be the European Union she blames for the daily murder, mayhem, and chaos erupting in France’s previously quiet and quant neighbourhoods. It will be the European Union she blames for the loss of French culture. And so, rallying a frightened populace desperate to retain what’s left of their culture will be easy as pie." And so while the media retain a near complete blackout of the daily mayhem sweeping Paris' previously genteel streets, the MSM are simply making themselves increasingly irrelevant. Sources of mine in Paris tell me the rioting has been going on for a week solid and yet the media coverage has been scant. Parisians themselves can't understand it and with it their trust in the status quo erodes. Except perhaps for octogenarians the average Joe (or Pierre) increasingly source their news via social media channels and alternative media sources. Chairman Trump understood this trend and played to its advantages by completely circumventing traditional media channels and delivering his message via alternative media. The ROI was epic. The elites are still scratching their heads, wondering how the hell it all happened. Bless them. The more the MSM refuse to report on the issues which Parisians see when they step out of their door or that they hear about when they receive that call from Aunt Sofie telling them that her neighbourhood looks like Mogadishu, the more they lean right. When trust is lost, it's over. The existing kleptocrats in Brussels are so far behind the zeitgeist curve that pulling this one back is going to take the kind of fancy footwork that would put Maradona to shame. The odds look increasingly dismal that they'll be able to do so. Scenes such as this play directly into the hands of madame Marine Le Pen. If you doubt that she's going to win then you've not been paying attention. This isn't solely a French issue. It is the rise of the strong men. We can see that the bond market is coming to terms with these realities. So the bond market is beginning (finally) to price in a Le Pen victory, complete with all the promises she's making on the campaign trail, not least of which is exiting the Eurozone and exiting the euro. And so capital is shifting into German bunds and out of French bonds. Fine but before you think this is a trade to jump into I'd suggest considering timeframes. Let me remind you that Germany kicks Merkel to touch on the 24th September, a mere 5 months after the French elections. Pray tell what the holders of German bunds do in 5 months time? Incidentally, 2-year yields have just collapsed to -0.87% on a shortage of bunds. Isn't this exciting? It's as if Germany doesn't have the same set of problems France has. Think it through. Ultimately there's one home for this capital folks and it isn't in Europe. Moving Backwards Forward... the French Plan Anyway, today let's take a look at what life with madame Le Pen at the helm of Europe's 3rd largest economy could look like. Le Pen's secretive economic plan was recently unveiled for all to laugh at see. I'm not sure why it was so secretive. There's nothing particularly "new" in the plan that hasn't been tried before. Clearly Le Pen and her economic advisors have been vacationing with Robert Mugabe and Nicolas Maduro. Bloomberg ran this article listing the initiatives. Let me summarise them for you. A fustercluck of state interventionism, which will absolutely 110% require money printing - like the Italians used to before the Euro. God bless those times. Didn't we all love a good devaluation making those Mediterranean holidays so much more enjoyable? Well, it looks like the French Riviera is soon going to be on sale. Give it a couple of years. What else? Eliminating the central bank's independence. Because we know state control is always better. She'll need this actually in order to print all the francs needed to employ all the government workers she plans on hiring. I can't wait to see how this works out. Nationalisation of "strategic sectors". Because this has proved to produce the economic miracles of Venezuela, Cuba, and dozens of African nations. You know, the ones where kids all have flies on their faces. Free enterprise and capitalism are to be lined up and summarily executed. Shareholder rights obliterated (this doozy is couched in a bill to "protect" French firms from "vulture funds" and takeovers.) Watch and see the capital scurrying away from this unholy concoction of insanity. Wait for it, it's coming. Lowering the cost of credit for French families and businesses. She doesn't say how this is to take place but I assure you with her other policies in place we've got better odds on Australia sinking. Eliminating all trade deals in existence. Not renegotiating, just eliminating. No, seriously. There are a dozen other initiatives each of them more scary than Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. Funniest of all, though, has to be "intelligent protectionism", an oxymoron if ever there was one. Here's What's Going to Happen France, already wildly uncompetitive, will become more so. How can it not? Exiting the euro is going to involve a divorce from hell. There is no easy way to do this folks. Capital controls
. 6. Starbucks, MacDonalds and lots of shopping malls have free Wi-Fi. We are used to being connected 24/7 but achieving that in a foreign country can be very expensive. If you want to upload pictures to Facebook or check your e-mails, remember that plenty of places now offer free Wi-Fi. Sometimes you have to engage with an advert to access it but Starbucks and MacDonalds are not the only places offering a free connection: also try other coffee houses and fast food restaurants as well as larger tourist attractions and anywhere where truckers stop. 7. There are a lot of restrooms available. The Interstate system is pretty well served by a network of Rest Areas and these are generally clearly marked in road atlases, allowing you to plan your stops. Be aware that the frequency and quality of these Rest Areas varies from state to state so check when crossing borders. Supermarkets and gas stations generally have decent restroom facilities as well as coffee shops and shopping centres. 8. Bring your iPod and load it with a wide variety. The quality of the radio reception can vary dramatically, especially outside of towns and cities. Most rental cars now have an auxiliary jack where you can plug in a music player so make sure that you fill your iPod with your guilty pleasures as well as your hottest new find. Podcasts and audiobooks are also great when you have long distances to cover. Make sure you bring a variety, as you’ll soon get tired of that Road Trip playlist you made before you came no matter how much you thought you’d love it! 9. Talk to people and ask them what they think. Talk to the cashier in gas stations, the wait staff in the coffee house and the people sitting beside you at the diner. Ask them if there’s anything local that is worth a visit – you’ll be amazed at the things that are suggested that often turn out to be the highlight of your trip! 10. Remember that almost every journey takes significantly longer than Google Maps says it will. Yes, time spent walking around National Parks and visiting landmarks is relatively easy to take into account but the things that will eat into your time unexpectedly are searching for somewhere to stop for a drink because you really need to go the toilet, sitting on a bench in a shopping mall while you check Facebook, Twitter and e-mails, pottering around WalMart marvelling at the variety of items on offer when all you came in for was shampoo, chatting to an elderly couple you met at a Scenic Lookout who want to give you advice about where to visit in the next town etc. Always add a couple of hours into a day for these ‘lost hours’. Advertisements“Today’s vote gave a clear signal to the European Commission. This proposal could turn on its head what has been achieved with the single market and the customs union”, said rapporteur Giovanni La Via (EPP, IT), whose recommendation to reject the proposal was approved by 577 votes to 75, with 38 abstentions. “Over the last few months, serious concerns have been expressed about the lack of any impact assessment, the proposal’s compatibility with the single market, and also whether it is actually feasible. There was no evaluation of the potential consequences or of other available options”, he added. “I believe that this proposal could have negative consequences for agriculture in the EU, which is heavily dependent on protein supplies from GMO sources. It could also have indirect negative effects on imports. Finally, there are concerns over whether this proposal could even be implemented, because there are no border controls in the EU”, he concluded. The proposal, which would amend existing EU legislation to enable member states to restrict or prohibit the use of EU-approved genetically modified food and feed on their territory, was tabled by the EU Commission on 22 April 2015. The Commission suggested that this proposal should be modelled on another EU law, on GMOs intended for cultivation, which entered into force in early April 2015. This allows member states to ban the cultivation of EU-approved GMOs on their territory. But whereas cultivation necessarily takes place on a member state’s territory, GMO trade crosses borders, which means that a national “sales and use” ban could be difficult or impossible to enforce without reintroducing border checks on imports. Next steps European Commissioner for Health and Food safety Vytenis Andriukaitis has said that the European Commission will not withdraw the legislative proposal, which will be discussed by EU ministers. Procedure: Co-decision, 1st readingAllison Ikley-Freeman says that she “was not supposed to win.” But the 26-year-old mental health counselor did win earlier this month—albeit by a razor thin margin—in a special election for the state senate seat in Oklahoma’s District 37. What made her win especially dramatic—and what shaped the headlines around her victory—was the fact that she was both a Democrat and an out, married lesbian mother of three running against a Republican for a seat in the GOP-controlled legislature of a red state. “Lesbian Democrat” became the go-to shorthand to describe the young victor. “The reality is that I didn’t hide being gay but I did run just as being a regular Oklahoman,” Ikley-Freeman told The Daily Beast in an interview about her candidacy. Ikley-Freeman’s campaign—as reflected by her website—focused primarily on housing, health care, and education. Talk with her longer than thirty seconds and she’ll start talking at length about the ongoing budget crisis in the Oklahoma state legislature, about dollar stores displacing grocery stores creating food deserts, and about how her previous experience of being homeless informs her approach to low-income voters. But Ikley-Freeman doesn’t mind that the national media coverage of her narrow victory tends to highlight her sexual orientation. “When I see headlines like that, I’m not disappointed because then I have people all across the nation being like, ‘What? There’s hope!’” she told The Daily Beast. “Headlines like that give people hope who feel disenfranchised.” This month has been full of historic LGBT political headlines. On the night of November 7th, incoming Virginia delegate Danica Roem and at least six other transgender candidates for public office won their elections—an unprecedented result in a moment when transgender rights more broadly seem imperiled. Several other LGBT candidates scored victories—including Seattle’s incoming lesbian mayor Jenny Durkan—in an evening that was widely interpreted as a referendum on Trumpism. Roem’s victory, in particular, was electrifying because she is now set to become the first transgender candidate elected and seated to a state legislature, displacing the virulently anti-LGBT author of a bathroom bill. But when it comes to the drastic underrepresentation of LGBT people in American politics, firsts are not all that matter: Ikley-Freeman, as the Washington Blade reported, will be the third openly gay person elected to the Oklahoma state legislature. Ikley-Freeman believes she may have gotten lucky, telling The Daily Beast that “if [Oklahoma] weren’t in such a state of crisis, the fact that [she] was gay might have been a bigger issue,” but she is also keenly aware of how much societal change had to happen to make her candidacy viable. “You know, ten years ago, this wouldn’t have been possible,” she said. “It wouldn’t have. They would have printed something in a major newspaper and there would have been a whole lot of outcry about it.” Indeed, although being openly gay can still be a campaign liability, it’s possible that some of the coastal media surprise at Ikley-Freeman’s victory may be the result of giving more credit to anti-LGBT forces than they deserve. “I think what really happens is people don’t realize how much louder that anti-LGBT voice is than the everyday person voice, typically,” she told The Daily Beast. “So it gets disproportionate attention and, therefore, when you’re removed from it, you disproportionately think that’s what the overall opinion is.” According to the Pew Research Center, only 32 percent of Americans still oppose same-sex marriage—although Oklahoma’s resistance to it is noticeably greater. Sixty-eight percent of Americans support transgender military service, and per data from the Public Religion Research Institute, over 70 percent of Americans support nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people—with a heartening 60 percent support in Oklahoma. It can be easy to forget that anti-LGBT voices, despite being loud, represent a small and ever shrinking fringe of voters—even in Trump’s America. As Ikley-Freeman puts it, “the squeaky wheel gets the oil” when it comes to press coverage. Still, though, the anti-LGBT fringe is frightening and often influential enough to keep many LGBT people out of public office—and to dissuade others from even trying. LGBT Americans, according to Gallup, constitute an estimated 4 percent of the population; representation in the United States Congress is currently at about one percent, with seven openly LGBT members out of over 500 total. The Daily Beast asked Ikley-Freeman if she thinks her win in Oklahoma is proof that the country is finally crossing the bridge to a point where a candidate’s sexual orientation or gender identity no longer matters—to a point where she can just be a “Democrat” instead of a “lesbian Democrat.” “I mean, yes, I think we’re crossing the bridge but I also think that it’s a really, really, really long bridge—and it’s going to take us a while to get to the point where it’s not a thing,” she said. How long that will take remains unclear. But what Ikley-Freeman can say for certain is that, if she hadn’t taken the long shot that she did, victory would have been impossible rather than improbable. After the Republican who previously held her seat—Dan Newberry—resigned from the state senate, Ikley-Freeman says she “realized that nobody that lived in the district who was a Democrat was willing to run for the seat.” If the first-time candidate didn’t decide to run, her Republican opponent would have likely nabbed an uncontested chair. “We were really thinking about what we were looking for in a candidate, trying to call some people and convince them to run,” Ikley-Freeman remembers. “And I just had this moment where I was like, ‘I need to do this.’” She did—and she won by a reported 31 votes. The anti-LGBT crowd may make a lot of noise. But it only takes 31 votes to send yet another LGBT politician into a conservative legislature in the era of Trump.It’s been a long-time coming, and long rumored, but it’s finally here: Today Samsung pushed live its iOS app for the company’s high-end Gear S2 and S3 smartwatches. The Samsung Gear S app delivers support, tracking for the watch as well as the ability to download and install watch faces and apps directly from the Gear store. This makes the Gear watches one of the first major non-Apple smartwatches to come to the iPhone with robust support. Currently, the only smartwatch with full support for the iPhone is Apple’s own Apple Watch. The bulk of smartwatches run on Android Wear, which is designed for Android devices. Google’s Android Wear does have an iOS app but it does little more than offer up a small number of watch faces and notification support. It leaves behind the robust line-up of apps created for Android. Samsung was able to do this because its watch doesn’t run on WatchOS or Android, but on Tizen, and has its own store. The app appears to include support for a large number of watch faces as well as quite a wide variety of watch apps, like CNN, Flipbook and Yelp. We’ll have a full review of the new iOS app later this month as part of our review of the Samsung Gear S3 Frontier smartwatch. In the meantime, make sure you check out our guide to the best smartwatches of 2016. Update: Google officials reached out to point out that Android Wear 2.0 will allow iOS users to download apps from the new Google Play store directly to a supported watch. Google has not yet announced a date for Android Wear 2.0, but did say it was continuing the preview program into early 2017.People who use weight training to ease their lower back pain are better off than those who choose other forms of exercise such as jogging, according to a University of Alberta study. The study, done in conjunction with the University of Regina, showed a 60 per cent improvement in pain and function levels for people with chronic backache who took part in a 16-week exercise program of resistance training using dumbbells, barbells and other load-bearing exercise equipment. In contrast, people who chose aerobic training such as jogging, walking on a treadmill or using an elliptical machine to ease their back pain only experienced a 12 per cent improvement, said Robert Kell, an assistant professor of exercise physiology at the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus. The resistance-training group showed improvements in pain and function of about 60 per cent, while those who took aerobic training experienced only a 12 per cent improvement. "Any activity that makes you feel better is something you should pursue, but the research indicates that we get better pain management results from resistance training." The extra benefits stem from using the whole-body approach required in resistance training, Kell believes. "We tried to strengthen the entire body and by doing that, we decreased the fatigue people felt throughout the day. They were better able to perform their activities of daily living." Aerobics training generally works just the lower body, he added. Approximately 80 per cent of North Americans suffer from lower back pain at some point in their lifetimes, and for 85 per cent of them the pain is chronic. Both types of training did provide other fitness benefits, such as lower body fat, the study showed. The findings are to be published in early 2009 in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. ### For more information on the study contact: Robert Kell, assistant professor Department of Social Sciences Augustana Campus, University of Alberta 780-679-1651 Rob.kell@ualberta.caAn early-voting poll site in Minnesota. Though Donald Trump told a national TV audience at the end of Monday’s debate that he would “absolutely support” Hillary Clinton if she wins the election, at a Friday-night rally in Detroit, he was back to his scaremongering ways and making unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud to his supporters. The Los Angeles Times reports that Trump once again deputized his supporters to become poll watchers, telling the crowd, “Make sure it’s on the up and up, because, you know what? [Voter fraud is] a big, big problem in this country, and nobody wants to talk about it; nobody has the guts to talk about it.” Nobody except Trump, of course, as his comments on Friday echo the irresponsible rhetoric he has often used in the past when implying to his supporters that the only way he can lose the election is if it is somehow “rigged” against him. The Times also notes that civil-rights groups consider Trump’s poll-watching incitement to be an attempt to empower white voters to disenfranchise minority ones. Trump also reneged on his debate statement in a Friday New York Times piece, saying instead that “We’re going to have to see. We’re going to see what happens. We’re going to have to see.” Widespread U.S. voter fraud is a myth, according to all available evidence, but a new poll from the Associated Press/NORC Center of Public Affairs Research has nonetheless found that half of Trump supporters have little to no confidence in the integrity of the vote count, and some even admit that they are just taking Trump’s word on the matter. Overall, only a third of Republicans (and 29 percent of Trump supporters) say they have a great deal or quite a bit of confidence in the vote, though the poll found that 7 in 10 Americans have anywhere from moderate to significant confidence in the votes being counted correctly, while 59 percent of Clinton supporters are quite confident to very confident. Regardless, 8 in 10 Americans favor requiring voters to present photo IDs at polling sites, a practice which many Democrats worry would disenfranchise poor and minority voters. One area of agreement, according to the poll, is that a majority of Americans are worried about hackers interfering with the election. Some 41 percent of poll respondents say they are extremely or very concerned about hacking attempts, while another 35 percent say they are somewhat concerned. These worries are a lot more founded than the voter-fraud ones, since the AP also reports that a Homeland Security Department official told them that hackers have already targeted voter-registration systems in more than 20 states.Michael Kruse is a senior staff writer for Politico. It started Monday morning with Donald Trump calling his own attorney general “beleaguered.” It continued with an Air Force One flight to West Virginia and a rambling, partisan speech to thousands of hollering Boy Scouts. And it kept going with another manic jag of tweets on Tuesday, as the president took a second shaming swipe at Jeff Sessions, delegitimized the acting director of the FBI, urged senators to “step up to the plate” on getting rid of Obamacare and railed away in his exclamation-laced syntax about Democrats who are “obstructionists” and the “Witch Hunt” of the Russia investigation. Meanwhile, his new communications director was threatening to fire his entire staff for leaking as rumors swirled about Cabinet-level departures. Chaos bordering on crisis. This is how Trump ran his business, and it’s how he ran his campaign. For six months now, it’s how he’s run his White House. But within the whirl of these past two nonstop, dizzying days, it has reached blinking-red-light levels. To people who have been around him, and those who still are, from Trump Tower to the West Wing, this can be unnerving. To people across the country and the world, it can feel dismaying or disorienting or just plain insane. Story Continued Below For Trump, though, it feels like … the start to another week. “This is Donald,” former Trump Organization Vice President Louise Sunshine told me Tuesday. “This is his style.” “He’s operating just like he always has,” former Trump Shuttle President Bruce Nobles said in an interview. “The prince of chaos,” said Trump biographer Gwenda Blair. The spawn of Norman Vincent Peale and Roy Cohn, Trump has stomped through life armed with the obstinate, self-centered tenets of optimistic thinking and the sneering, deep-seated lessons of attack, attack, attack. He creates chaos, and then he responds to that chaos, withstanding it, even embracing it, feeding on it—and then he outlasts the outrage, emerging not only alive but emboldened. “Hey, look, I had a cold spell from 1990 to ’91,” Trump said almost a quarter-century ago to a reporter from New York magazine, referring to the breakup of his marriage to the mother of his first three children, his affair with a busty, B-movie actress and the reckless spending and negligent management of his company that left him nearly a billion dollars in debt—all of which was covered breathlessly by the press. “I was beat up in business and in my personal life. But you learn that you’re either the toughest, meanest piece of shit in the world, or you just crawl into a corner, put your finger in your mouth, and say, ‘I want to go home.’ You never know until you’re under pressure how you’re gonna react.” This crisis was formative, and Trump survived because of family money, permissive banks that were tied to him as much as he was tied to them, the Houdini-esque work of a lender-mandated financial rescue artist and far more than his fair share of chutzpah. The close scrape with personal bankruptcy and business ruin didn’t chasten Trump. It did the opposite. “The fact that he got through it,” former Trump Organization Vice President Barbara Res said, “made him believe he could accomplish anything, conquer anything.” His path from The Art of the Deal to The Art of the Comeback to "The Apprentice" consisted of a media-stoked stew of self-promotion and provocation. WrestleMania antics and celebrity feuds were fuel. And he talked when he could about running for president. It was always a bluff. Until, of course, it wasn’t. His campaign was a rolling crisis. Beset by backstabbing and infighting, careening from one five-alarm fire to the next, Trump’s unprecedented presidential bid seemed perpetually on the edge of political viability. And he won. “Chaos creates drama, and drama gets ink,” former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg told me Tuesday. “This is a new kind of presidency. He’s followed the tabloid model, and it got him to where he is, and it’s the model that will be followed until it doesn’t work. And it has worked. He’s sitting in the Oval Office.” On Monday, at the fairly standard hour of 6:40 a.m., he kickstarted a particularly agitated sequence of tweets by labeling Washington not a “Swamp” but a “Sewer” and yelling “Fake News!” He insisted there’s “Zero evidence” of his or his campaign’s collusion with Russian officials. Then he called Sessions, the first senator to endorse him and for a long period during the campaign his most credible surrogate, “beleaguered.” Then he called a member of Congress “Sleazy.” Then he poked Republicans about their “last chance” to “Repeal & Replace.” Then he boarded the presidential plane to go talk to the Boy Scouts. In Glen Jean, West Virginia, at the National Scout Jamboree, at a gathering of “the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training,” Trump pledged to the crowd of an estimated 40,000, mostly boys between 12 and 18 years old, that he wouldn’t talk about policy fights or political disagreements. “Who the hell wants to speak about politics when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts?” he said. He did. The president talked about Tuesday’s health care vote and called Obamacare “this horrible thing that’s really hurting us” and found ways to criticize Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and told the amped-up teens stale stories about his big win of 2016. “USA!” they chanted back. By Tuesday morning, he was back on Twitter, blasting the FBI boss and Sessions, too, for his “VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes” and “leakers.” He also praised John McCain for being a “Brave” “American hero” after disparaging him for being captured in Vietnam not once but twice before. (Trump never apologized.) This is not the way it’s supposed to work, or at least not how it has. “I have not seen any indication of a normal appreciation of the functioning of government coming from the president,” former Senate attorney and Watergate prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste told POLITICO on Tuesday. But while members of Congress scrambled to respond, their assessments of the president’s latest behavior ranging from confusion to condemnation to twisted justification to tepid defense, the people who have watched Trump for a lot longer simply shook their heads. “Typical Donald,” Sunshine said. “I’m not surprised by anything I’m seeing,” said Nobles, the former Trump Shuttle boss. “He’s always liked chaos.” “He’s spent his life creating and surrounding himself with chaos,” Res said, “so that he can be the one person who can emerge in charge. The winner. The guy on the top. It’s a way of slaying his enemies.” “If you’ve ever been on a construction site, they’re always chaotic,” Billy Procida, another former Trump Organization vice president, told me Tuesday. “And he’s good at construction.” But he’s no longer on a construction site. He’s the most powerful person in the world. “This is certainly different. It’s certainly new,” Nunberg said. “But it’s what people want.” Chaos? All the time? “Entertainment,” Nunberg said. “Entertainment.”Emily Graslie was named Chief Curiosity Correspondent at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History in June 2013. In that role she hosts "The Brain Scoop," a weekly educational YouTube channel devoted to exploring the worlds of taxidermy, zoology, natural history museums and the culture of animal preservation. Graslie received a bachelor's degree in studio art in 2011 from the University of Montana where, as part of her degree program, she interned during her senior year at its Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum. She appeared in a "VlogBrothers" video in 2012, explaining specimens in the zoological museum's collection. The video's popularity led to her being offered the role of host on "Brain Scoop," which debuted in January 2013. She has become a champion of involving women in science and of broadening science education. She has written op-ed articles about these topics for the New York Times and Crain's Chicago Business. Her interview with GlassCeiling.com follows: You're ending an amazing, eventful year. Looking back at all that has happened, what is most surprising to you? I'm truly surprised by how fast things have moved. Before I was a part of YouTube, I knew of it and that there are people called "vloggers" who create videos about their lives and upload them. I knew all that was different from the music videos and whatever else was on YouTube but I wasn't a part of it. I really didn't understand the degree to which the educational community had anything to do with YouTube. But after becoming a part of that community, I looked around and realized that we had an amazing platform and a good start toward making free, high-quality educational content available to anyone with an Internet connection. That's when I started to take my role more seriously. I realized that these people are not just reaching a couple hundred people each month; we're reaching millions of people. You didn't just become well known overnight; you've become influential. Yes. And I suppose that has been the biggest surprise to me. It still feels awkward just for me to say I'm influential. Has that the realization made you approach what you do differently? Oh absolutely. As I say, it makes me take my job more seriously. Actually, it makes me take my life more seriously! Not just my job. I really deliberate about the conversations I have with people and how I can influence young people. I'm starting to adjust to living my life where every moment is a public moment; where I imagine there is an audience everywhere. Leading by example has definitely influenced how I do things. Have you passed the point where you feel free to toss off a funny line in one of your videocasts without worrying about how it will be taken? Yes. Now I try to be careful about what I say. I think I'm humble. I think modesty goes a long way. But awareness is important, too. I've learned to be aware that what comes out of my mouth can be misconstrued or taken in an unintended way. What's the best part of the celebrity you've achieved? It's hearing from young people. Honestly that makes everything worth it. I feel like I've been given the best gift. Just today I went up to gift shop here at The Field Museum to get some postcards. The fellow working in the shop--I don't know him at all--said, "It starts with one person. And you're that one person who's influencing young women and making a difference." This total stranger knows what I do because my videos play in Stanley Field Hall [the museum's main gallery] and he says he's seen me on the news. He wants to let me know that he likes what I do. It's 8:30 in the morning and someone is telling me I'm the leader of some cultural revolution. It's astounding. And flabbergasting. Last November you did a much-talked-about Brain Scoop episode titled "Where My Ladies At?" You pointed out there are "significantly and noticeably fewer women making science educational channels on YouTube" than men. Was that the first time you realized that you have influence? I think it was. I took a chance with that video; I didn't know it was going to be received at all. I could not have predicted how it was. It was a case where I started to realize I did have a little influence and that if I had a choice number of words to say, I wasn't going to expend them frivolously. I decided that if I'm in this position, what I say is going to be deliberate, pointed and well thought out. That was really the first time I used the leverage of my platform to express myself. That video moved you to the forefront of an important discussion about the lack of women in science careers. Is it a topic you want to champion? Absolutely. It's something that was important before and something that is going to continue to be. While I don't want to go to the media every week to proclaim, "We need more women in science!" it's a fact we live with. It's an issue that impacts volunteers and interns and who we hire. It is something continuing that we need to be conscious of. The other focus of that November video was you addressing the nastiness and sexism of some of the comments about your appearance you've received. Have the percentages of snarky and nice comments changed since then? I think they have. The people who leave the snarky comments are fewer and a lot easier to identify. Before it was people leaving comments that they thought were being helpful. It was, "Hey, Emily, it might help for you to dress a little sexier." They weren't being intentionally derogatory but I've seen less of that "helpful but not helpful" kind of comment and more audience participation about comments that are derogatory. The people who really value and take to heart the educational quality of what I do have sort of taken it upon themselves to police the site. Not police like censorship but saying, "Hey. Watch the 'My Ladies' video. Your comments aren't appreciated by anybody here." Now that you're someone whom younger women look up to, what do you tell them about finding opportunities? Identifying opportunities is the beginning of taking advantage of them. Opportunities may come our way and they're subtle; they don't have a lot of bells and whistles, or with an announcement. I encourage people to look for opportunities in places they may have overlooked. People often ask me, "How can I do what you do and work in a big museum?" I tell them to look for a small natural history museum or a university collection. It doesn't matter how many specimens it has or how large or small it might be; get your foot in the door. In fact your first volunteer work at the University of Montana museum was a departure from what you'd been doing, wasn't it? You were pursuing a fine arts degree, weren't you? It was totally out of the blue. I didn't know you could work in a museum like that or who did or what they did, or what their educational backgrounds were. I had no idea what was in a museum collection beyond what you see. I had no clue. That probably has helped you because there's an intelligent innocence to your discoveries at the Field Museum. Do you feel you're learning along with your audience? I think it helps a lot; it makes the science accessible. Science is difficult. The science that the researchers and curators at The Field Museum pursue is years and decades of long hours and many publications. It's dense. There's very little middle ground for people who express an interest in science. They don't want to be condescended to but at the same time a lecture from someone with two Ph.Ds. can be unapproachable. But interest in science in our society is increasing. It seems you took to your role easily. Do you have a background in theater or performance? It's funny you ask that because I do. I was in children's theater at a young age. I never got the main roles. I did after-school theater programs through high school. I acted in a children's theater when I was 14 to 16 and put on kids' plays at a park. But I never really took it too seriously. I played the secondary roles. So "Brain Scoop" wasn't the result of any determination to return to performing? No, not at all. But doing that children's theater gave me some useful tools. Spending 10 hours a week in a dark auditorium in high school and hearing a teacher/director yell "Diction!" or "Enunciation!" paid off. Speech or debate or any communications pursuit is invaluable I believe. It wasn't any desire for the limelight. Being in the limelight can have its stresses, can't it? Sure. I have a personal blog in addition to "Brain Scoop." It has a small but devout audience. I can speak to them sort of as an aside. It's stuff I don't talk about on "Brain Scoop." This job can get hard. It can be stressful. To be in a world where everything's been turned upside down in the last 12 months can be tough to grapple with sometimes. I've had people--older women as well as young--who've said to me, "Thank you for being so candid about this because these are struggles that I've had in the field, too." Sometimes you're expected that everything is a walk in the park, and it's not; realizing that can be motivating. There aren't many other women who have a job like yours, so might it be that your mentor is feedback from people you've touched or influenced? Yes. It is, I suppose. I'm learning from experience and trying new things. But I'm not going to be the only woman doing this forever. I've identified a community, a very small community, of women who are science communicators and writers. We all share the same joys and laments and discouragements. We make email groups and Facebook groups and having that sense of community helps. You've recently returned from Kenya. Could you have imagined that was possible for you? No. It was amazing. Life changing. I forget how little of the world I've seen. I grew up in a small town [Rapid City] in South Dakota. I lived in a small town in Montana. Moving to Chicago was a real experience. I've finally eaten Indian food! That's the sort of thing people who live in cities take for granted But, wow, I saw Africa. I never imagined I would. To feel so wonderstruck and so stupid at the same time, it was like I've lived under a rock. I had a lot of interesting conversations there with a Kenyan biologist. She works at the Nairobi National Museum and has essentially the same job that I had in Montana, doing specimen preparation and such. Just to talk with her about being a woman in science was fascinating. She asked me how old I am and if I'm married and have kids. She asked when I will have children and I said "I don't know. Maybe never." She was flabbergasted and said I have to have children. It was so different from women in this culture. What's the career arc you see for yourself? What are the things you know you want to do? I don't know. Everything has been such a whirlwind. Now that I feel like I'm getting my footing a little, I see giving our videos a longer-term scope as far as planning. And I want more interaction with the public. I spend a lot of time in my office with my head in email and I should do more outreach.Hubbard College of Administration International is an unaccredited[3] school that teaches administration using methods developed by Church of Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard.[4][5][6][7] The headquarters for the school is located at 320 North Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90004. The school began operations in 1990 and its current headquarters were established in 2001.[citation needed] It is a 501(c)(3) public charity, and as a religious organization does not file an annual return,[8] however it states itself to be a "secular educational institution".[9] Admission requirements [ edit ] Students are not required to have a high school diploma to gain early admission and start taking courses at the school. Students are not required to take the ACT or SAT tests to gain admission. The school does have an application form that must be completed and submitted with a $150 fee. The school requests letters of recommendation and says it tests students for IQ, leadership qualities, and reading level. The admission process may also include interviews to determine an applicant's qualifications and desire to further his/her education. Programs offered [ edit ] The school grants a "Specialized Associate Degree Program" which it calls, "Associate of Applied Science Degree of Management and Administration". The school also offers "Continuing Education Certificate Programs". There also exist a number of "Public Workshops and Corporate Programs" which are short courses on specific topics. The school also provides WISE certificate programs; WISE being a Scientology-affiliated business group.[10] Hubbard College of Administration Is now in the process of being accredited.[citation needed] Cost [ edit ] As of October, 2006, the tuition for the "degree program" costs $30,179; books and supplies cost $2,643.28; the total cost is $32,852.28. Costs for the continuing education programs range from ~$3000 to ~$18,000. Costs of public workshops and corporate programs are ~$250. WISE certificate programs range from ~$6000 to $8000.[citation needed] The school's website says that financial aid is available, however, since the school is not accredited, students are not eligible to participate in any federally-funded financial aid programs, such as Pell Grants, Perkins Loans, or any other government assisted loan programs. As of January, 2015, the tuition for the "degree program" costs $52,000–books and supplies excluded. Teaching [ edit ] The school teaches a method of business administration developed by L. Ron Hubbard. The school uses a teaching method called "Study Technology", also developed by Hubbard, as a method of teaching its students. The school does not have semesters or terms. Students can begin taking courses at any time of the year and they may attend either full-time or part-time.[citation needed] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Coordinates:(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) OPINION \| In a recent impassioned speech, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren used the word “anarchy” repeatedly to describe the tea party’s role in the ongoing government shutdown. So did Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who said on the Senate floor that “anarchists have taken over.” If only that were true. The figure of the anarchist has long dominated our national imagination. It’s a word that conjures up the lawless, the nihilistic and even the violent. It’s the image Senators Reid and Warren invoked in their talking points against the Republicans, and it’s the image law enforcement officials use over and over again to break up protests and illegally surveil social movements. But political
"When my grandkids look back on this, I want them to see their grandfather was on the right side of history." Pink Dot, Singapore’s annual LGBT Pride celebration, took on an air of resistance this weekend as more than 20,000 people crowded into Hong Lim Park, despite government regulations barring foreigners and multinational corporate sponsors. ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images An amendment to the Public Order Act in October meant that organizers of public events at the Speakers Corner “must ensure that only citizens of Singapore or permanent residents of Singapore participate in the assembly or procession.” For the first time, attendees had to go through security checkpoints, where their IDs and bags were inspected. Multinational companies like Google, Facebook and Barclays, who normally helped sponsor the event, were also barred from making contributions. (Singapore also banned the rainbow emoji on Facebook.) ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images “Foreign entities should not fund, support or influence events that relate to domestic issues, especially political issues or controversial social issues with political overtones,” the Ministry of Home Affair said in a statement last month. “These are political, social or moral choices for Singaporeans to decide.” The Ministry insisted the regulation applied to anti-LGBT demonstrations as well as pro-LGBT ones. Fortunately more than 120 local companies stepped in and picked up the slack, donating $240,000—well in excess of the $150,000 goal. ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images Male homosexuality is illegal in Singapore, though the law is rarely enforced. Each year, attendees at the Pink Dot celebration wear pink and gather to form a giant “pink dot” in support of diversity, inclusiveness and the freedom to love. As the sun set on Saturday evening, participants turned on lights, creating the image of a rainbow and the word “Love” from above ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images “One day these people will be given the freedom to love and marry someone of the same sex,” 63-year-old Loh Kwek Leong—who came with his wife, daughter, and his daughter’s boyfriend-told the Straits Times. “And when my grandkids look back on this, I want them to see their grandfather was on the right side of history.”Introduction Steve Smedley/The Pantagraph, via Associated Press A recent Times article noted that the number of men age 65 and older increased by 21 percent from 2000 to 2010, nearly double the 11.2 percent growth rate for women in that age group. What are the implications -- the benefits and the costs -- of having more men around longer? While most experts say it may be only a blip, some demographers say that a surprisingly rapid rise in the number of men could cost society even more in retirement costs, since they earned more than women and would collect more, and they would add to the long-term care problem. Other forecasters see economic as well as social advantages: if there are more couples, and shorter widowhoods, the spouses might take care of each other's chronic conditions, perhaps reducing the burden on nursing homes, for example -- or maybe increasing the appeal of plastic surgery among older men and women interested in finding a mate and looking as young as they feel. How might this narrowing gap change society and male-female relationships?Save this picture! Despite never formally becoming a licensed architect, Le Corbusier would for ever alter the profession with his writings (including "Towards a New Architecture") and designs. Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, c. 1950. Image © Sureh Sharma A few days ago I took part in an AIA-organized Twitter discussion (#aiachat) focused on the subject of IDP, or what we here in the US call the Intern Development Program, administered by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). I periodically get sucked into these Twitter discussions when I’m busy procrastinating and not writing what I’m supposed to be writing. Call it a weakness for provocative questions thrown out on Twitter by faceless moderators: Q1: What advice do you have for interns getting started with IDP? Q2: Many states allow concurrent completion of IDP and ARE4. What are the benefits of participating in both at the same time? Q3: What resources have you used to help navigate IDP? And so forth. The discussion brought back painful memories of my own tortuous IDP experience. By the time we got to Q7 or Q8 I came to a conclusion: IDP needs to be radically overhauled and re-conceptualized. You readers in the EU and elsewhere must be wetting your pants, laughing so hard at us “emerging professionals” and “interns” over here in the US, where it takes an average of 8.5 years after graduation to obtain a license. Furthermore, according to a recent NCARB survey, it takes 5.33 years just to complete IDP (which, by the way, they tout as an improvement). By NCARB standards, Pritzker Prize-winner Peter Zumthor, missing a few credits in certain knowledge areas, wouldn’t qualify. Bjarke Ingles would be an “intern.” As Amanda Kolson Hurley reported in Architect Magazine, “Mickey Jacob, FAIA, the 2013 president of the AIA, is equally concerned: ‘Unless the industry leaders from all the collateral representative organizations come together to seriously address this issue, we will find ourselves facing a much more serious problem 10 to 15 years from now—a shortage of licensed architects unable to meet the demands of the marketplace.’” The article suggests cutting the time to licensure down to 7 years, but is this good enough to make a real difference? Is anybody listening to the president of the AIA when he says there are major problems with the licensing process that need to be addressed? Before everybody starts writing comments, let me be clear and state that I understand the purpose of IDP and the existence of NCARB and all the state boards that seek to protect the public by regulating the standards of the profession. I also appreciate the hard work NCARB’s 80 full-time employees do to further the architectural profession. However, I, like many, view the process of jumping through IDP’s hoops as unnecessarily time-consuming, expensive, restrictive, and complicated. In fact, candidates should earn a few credits just for figuring out how to keep track of the whole system: proving eligibility, tracking credits, reporting credits, maintaining credits, working with coordinators and mentors, paying fees, filling out forms, etc. What if NCARB, the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB - the body tasked with accrediting US professional degree programs in architecture), the AIA, and state architecture boards all agreed to radically transform IDP toward the goal of making it more efficient? IDP could be compressed and fast-tracked for the benefit of candidates and the profession as a whole. But how? Allow me to give my own two cents. Currently candidates are required to achieve 5,600 credit hours in the core areas of Pre-Design, Design, Project Management, and Practice Management. If we divide 5,600 hours by a 40-hour work week (though I don’t know anyone in architecture who works a mere 40 hours), we get 140 work weeks. This is roughly equivalent to just over 2.5 years. So, if all you did for work was IDP you could conceivably finish in 2.5 years. That basically cuts NCARB’s 5.33 years in half. That difference is where the problem resides and where a solution can be found. Does IDP really need 5,600 credit-hours? What if we went down to 3000? Would that still be enough? Do you really need 240 hours of Construction Administration? 1,200 hours for Construction Documents? 80 hours of Programming? What are these numbers based on, anyway? Scientific studies? Why not 1,000 hours for Construction Documents instead of 1,200? So my first suggestion? The credit-hour requirements should be reevaluated and adjusted down. Secondly, schools should include earning IDP credits as part of their programs. As it is, it’s a good thing NCARB allows candidates to begin earning credits in school. But this could be refined so schools could facilitate IDP through studios and courses, require working in firms, and allow students to sit for the ARE exams prior to graduation (currently candidates have to complete their degrees first). This would allow students to rack up significant IDP credits before they graduate. Then it would be conceivable for IDP Associates (let’s not call them interns anymore) to graduate from architecture schools with licenses in hand, ready to serve the public as full-fledged architects. Of course, this would take serious coordination between schools, ARE, NAAB, and NCARB to make it work. But why not? Then again, the way things stand, it would take a student close to ten years to graduate in a program that included all of this. Many IDP credits require working on real projects and engaging in the day-to-day business of architecture - things that just can’t be gotten in school (nor should). OK. So maybe graduating with a license is a little extreme. But what if the entire system were overhauled to not just allow candidates to make significant headway on credits during their school years, but then to complete them with a post-graduate year of solid IDP-dedicated work? Hence, suggestion number three (and the most important): Establish an “IDP Year.” In other words, that first year out of school, while (hopefully!) working for a reputable firm, you would be engaged full-time with an IDP coordinator to fulfill credit requirements. Your work would be IDP. Think of it as an intensive residency program. How is this different from what we already have? The first difference is that it would take significantly less time after graduation to finish. The other difference is conceptual. By implementing IDP Year as central to the program, work assignments would follow IDP rather than the other way around. It would also bring more focus to the process. In the long-run this would benefit firms because their associate architects would ideally transition more quickly to full professional status. Additionally, during IDP Year, a candidate’s work load should be limited to 40 hours per week to allow more time for ARE exam preparation. There will be plenty of time for those long hours later. Of course, to take the cynical view, you could say NCARB might not be interested in reform since, though they are non-profit, they do depend on a steady stream of fees to keep their complicated operation running. Are they worried that making the process easier would flood the marketplace with too many architects? But by being so “rigorous” about the path to licensure, architects end up looking like a joke in comparison to other professions, such as law or medicine, where it takes far less time and the process is far more systematic. Maybe the simplest thing to do would be to scrap all this new stuff NCARB paid for and go back to the old paper system. How long did that take to complete? Four days (IDP didn’t come around until 1976). Is the system really better today? NCARB keeps telling us it is, but, like many, I have my doubts. Guy Horton is a writer based in Los Angeles. In addition to authoring “The Indicator”, he is a frequent contributor to The Architect’s Newspaper, Metropolis Magazine, The Atlantic Cities, and The Huffington Post. He has also written for Architectural Record, GOOD Magazine, and Architect Magazine. You can hear Guy on the radio and podcast as guest host for the show DnA: Design & Architecture on 89.9 FM KCRW out of Los Angeles. Follow Guy on Twitter @GuyHorton.On Wednesday morning, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was shot while practicing for Congress’ annual charity baseball game in Alexandria, Virginia. Two Capitol Police officers, a lobbyist and a congressional staffer were also wounded. The shooter, Illinois man James T. Hodgkinson, had a history of domestic abuse, as mass shooters often do, and was apparently a Bernie Sanders supporter. He died after being shot by Capitol Police officers. Scalise remains in critical condition at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. In the wake of the news, Vox’s Ezra Klein tweeted this: Klein got (rightfully) dragged for it: Advertisement Advertisement It is a mistake to limit your definition of “political violence” to riots and assassinations alone. It is indeed rare that our elected representatives are shot down in the street; it is decidedly less rare that our citizens are gunned down by armed agents of the state, with the unqualified support of the entire justice system (and a significant level of public support, too). The founding myth of America is that the country was benevolently settled by morally righteous colonists; that the nation they founded constituted the leading light of democracy in the world, thanks to the timeless wisdom of our Founding Fathers. But bloodshed has been an essential component of the American experiment since day one. America is a bloody place, and remains so even in an era of declining violent crime. Americans are ten times more likely to be killed by gun violence than people in other developed countries. The shooting on Wednesday morning marked the 154th mass shooting in this year alone, and the sixth incident this week. Just hours after the Alexandria shooting, news broke of another shooting at a UPS facility in San Franscisco, which left three people dead and two injured. Advertisement In American politics, as in American life, violence is not the exception, but the norm. Our political system is organized in such a way that structural state violence against the poor or otherwise marginalized isn’t considered real violence, but that violence is nonethelesswoven into the fabric of American politics. As Chris Hooks wrote shortly before the election, politics is “the way we distribute pain”: It’s not a sport or a fraternity or a game. It’s how we determine who gets medication and who dies young, who learns in a class of twenty kids and who learns in a class of thirty, whose school has a counselor that’s trained to look for signs of sexual abuse and who doesn’t. In the past six years alone, Americans have witnessed the following events: January 2011: Eighteen people, including Rep. Gabby Giffords, were shot at a grocery store parking lot near Tucson, Arizona. Six people died, including an nine-year-old girl. Giffords survived being shot in the head, but remains paralyzed on much of the right side of her body. She also had to learn how to speak again, and can now only speak in short sentences. Advertisement February 2012: George Zimmerman, 28, shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin as the black teenager returned from a convenience store. Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch coordinator in his gated community, called the police non-emergency number to say that Martin “looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something.” He added, “These assholes, they always get away.” The dispatcher told Zimmerman he didn’t need to follow Martin, but Zimmerman continued to pursue him, eventually wrestling Martin to the ground and fatally shooting him in the chest. In July 2013, a Florida jury found Zimmerman not guilty, and three years after Martin’s death, the Department of Justice announced there was “not enough evidence for a federal hate crime prosecution.” July 2012: James Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70 others at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado. While in the theater, Holmes listened to techno music through headphones so he wouldn’t hear people’s reactions. August 2012: White supremacist Wade Michael Page fatally shot six people and wounded four others at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. He then killed himself. A friend of Page’s said he had spoken of an impending “racial holy war.” Advertisement December 2012: Jacob Tyler Roberts, 22, opened fire at the Clackamas Town Center outside of Portland, Oregon. Two people were killed, and a third person was injured. December 2012: Adam Lanza, 20, walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School with and fatally shot 26 people, including 20 children between the ages of six and seven. His motive appeared to be a toxic combination of mental illness, alienation, resentment, and a perverse desire to be famous. April 2013: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, detonated two homemade bombs near the Boston Marathon finish line, killing three people and injuring 264. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during the subsequent police chase. In 2015, a federal jury sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death, but the appeals process could last many years. Advertisement May 2014: Elliot Rodger, 22, stabbed three men in his apartment in Isla Vista, California, including his two roommates, who were Asian-American. He then drove to a sorority house, where he shot three female students and killed two. Before going on the killing spree, Rodger wrote a 107,000-word manifesto about the “cruelness of women,” whom he blamed for his virginity. Rodger, who was half-Asian, wrote about the rage he felt toward another Asian man at a college party: I came across this Asian guy who was talking to a white girl. The sight of that filled me with rage. I always felt as if white girls thought less of me because I was half-Asian, but then I see this white girl at the party talking to a full-blooded Asian. I never had that kind of attention from a white girl! And white girls are the only girls I’m attracted to, especially the blondes. How could an ugly Asian attract the attention of a white girl, while a beautiful Eurasian like myself never had any attention from them? Advertisement Rodger killed six people and injured 14 before killing himself. July 2014: New York City police stopped Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black man, on the sidewalk, and accused him of selling loose cigarettes. NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo put Garner in a chokehold. Garner said “I can’t breathe” eleven times before he died. A grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo, and he settled with the Garner family out of court. August 2014: White police officer Darren Wilson, 28, fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Wilson and Brown wrestled over Wilson’s handgun through his car window, and when Wilson regained control, he fired 12 bullets at Brown. After huge public outcry over the shooting, the St. Louis County grand jury decided not to indict Wilson, and he later resigned from the Ferguson police department. Advertisement November 2014: White Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann, 26, shot and killed black 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was playing with a toy gun on a playground. Loehmann, who shot Rice within two seconds of arriving on the scene, was fired two-and-a-half years after the boy’s death. February 2015: White 46-year-old Craig Stephen Hicks fatally shot three Muslim-American students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in their apartment. One of the victims, 23-year-old dentistry student Deah Barakat, had been raising money for a trip to give Syrian refugees dental care. Local authorities said the crime was “not part of a targeted campaign against Muslims in North Carolina,” but merely the result of “an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking.” April 2015: White North Charleston police officer Michael Slager shot and killed Walter Scott, an unarmed black man, after stopping Scott for having a broken brake light. Eyewitness video showed Scott running away from the officer when he was shot. Advertisement April 2015: Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died while in police custody in Baltimore. Police officers had arrested Gray for having a knife in his pocket. While waiting for a van to take him to the police station, Gray sustained “catastrophic damage to his spine and was not breathing.” Gray’s death was ruled a homicide, and a grand jury indicted the six police officers involved with Gray’s death on assault and homicide charges. June 2015: White supremacist Dylann Roof, 21, walked into a black church in Charleston and killed nine congregants, including the church’s pastor. “You rape our women and are taking over the country,” Roof said before opening fire. July 2015: Texas state trooper Brian Encinia pulled over Sandra Bland, 28, for failing to use a turn signal. The stop should have ended with a fine, if anything, and Encinia allowing Bland to drive away. Instead, Encinia ordered Bland to put out her cigarette, and threatened to forcibly remove her from her car when she refused. Encinia arrested Bland for assaulting a police officer, and three days later, she was found hanging in her jail cell, from a noose made from her bedsheets. Advertisement November 2015: Robert Lewis Dear, Jr., attacked a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, killing three people and injuring nine. Dear called himself “a warrior for the babies.” A judge found Dear incompetent to stand trial, and the case could take years to be decided. December 2015: Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik opened fire on a Christmas meeting of public health workers at Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and injured 22. Inland Regional Center houses adults with developmental disabilities. Police shot and killed Farook and Malik as they fled the scene. June 2016: Omar Mateen, 29, killed 49 people and injured 58 others at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. On the night of the shooting, Pulse was hosting a Latin Night, and the majority of the victims were Hispanic. The Pulse shooting was the deadliest single attack on LGBT Americans, and the deadliest terror attack in the United States since 9/11. Advertisement July 2016: During a traffic stop in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, police officer Jeronimo Yanez shot and killed Philando Castile. Castile informed the officers that he was carrying a weapon in his pants pocket, and when reached for his drivers’ license, Yanez shot Castile seven times. Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, was sitting in the passenger seat, and live-streamed the aftermath of the shooting on Facebook. Castile’s four-year-old daughter was sitting in the back seat when Castile was killed. February 2017: Adam Purinton, 52, shot two Indian-American men in Olathe, Kansas, killing one of them. Before the attack, Purinton, a white man, yelled “get out of my country” and called the men “terrorists.” On June 9, a grand jury indicted Purinton on two federal hate crime charges, and may face the death penalty. May 2017: Bowie State University student Richard Collins III, 23, was waiting for an Uber when 22-year-old University of Maryland student Sean Christopher Urbanski approached him and stabbed Collins to death. The police said the attack was “totally unprovoked.” Collins, an ROTC member, was set to graduate that week. Urbanski was a member of a now-defunct white supremacist Facebook group called “Alt-Reich Nation.” The FBI is investigating whether the killing was a hate crime. Advertisement May 2017: White supremacist Jeremy Christian stabbed two men to death and severely injured another man on a Portland MAX train, after the men came to the aid of two teenage Muslim girls who Christian had been yelling at. Before he died, 23-year-old Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche said, “Tell everyone on this train I love them.” According to eyewitness accounts, Christian had made anti-Muslim slurs and yelling that “colored people were ruining the city.” October 2017: Stephen Paddock, 64, used an automatic rifle to open fire on a crowd of concert-goers in Las Vegas from his hotel room at the Mandalay Bay resort and casino. The attendees were gathered to watch country singer Jason Aldean perform at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, across the street from Mandalay Bay. At least 58 people were killed, and more than 500 were injured, making it one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history. “It just kept coming,” concert-goer Robyn Webb told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It was relentless.” (This list does not include the political violence committed in the name of U.S. national security abroad. The Obama administration dropped at least 26,171 bombs in 2016 alone, and the Trump administration continues to fund Saudi Arabia’s genocidal campaign in Yemen.) Advertisement Just because violent acts are directed at non-politicians doesn’t make them apolitical. Killings in the name of white supremacy are, by definition, political. Killings in the name of male supremacy over women are political. Killings in the name of homophobia are political. And killing in the name of American global supremacy is political. Such violent acts may be deemed just or unjust, but you cannot separate politics from hate—hate, and especially violent hate, is a fundamentally political act. A congressman getting shot is an obvious, visceral example of political violence. It is an event that merits reflection and discussion. But there is another level of violence that those in power tend to ignore: The structural, often invisible violence of the state against our nation’s least fortunate. You can see it in the housing crisis, in the draconian cuts to welfare programs, and, yes, in Republicans’ plan to take away health care from one in 14 Americans. Advertisement Scalise’s home state of Louisiana has one of the highest rates of poor health in the country: Residents of the state, which has the nation’s fourth-lowest life expectancy, live nearly six years less on average than residents of the healthiest states, according to federal data. And Louisiana had among the highest uninsured rates. Scalise once reportedly described himself “David Duke without the baggage.” Duke is the former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. I bring this up not to condone what happened to him, but to show that Scalise was a participant in this violence—as all Americans (all humans) are, in ways large and small—before he became a victim of it. Advertisement We will never know how many deaths the KKK was responsible for, but one recent report found that nearly 4,000 African-Americans in Southern states were lynched between 1877 and 1950. Violence isn’t a collection of pinpoints on a map. It’s the map itself. Update, October 2, 2017: This story has been updated to include the mass shooting that took place in Las Vegas on October 1.Georgian international back row Lasha Lomidze is the latest acquisition to London Irish’s squad ahead of the 2017/18 season. Lomidze, 24, who can play at either blindside flanker or No. 8, has played 25 times for Georgia including appearances at the 2015 World Cup where eventual winners New Zealand were their opponents in Pool C. Born in Tiblisi, Lomidze began his career at French TOP 14 side Montpellier in 2012 where he spent two seasons before making the move to Beziers. A move to play in Russia materialised earlier this year, with the Exiles’ monitoring his development closely. “We have been tracking the progress of Lasha for some time and we are delighted to have signed him,” said London Irish Director of Rugby Nick Kennedy. “Georgia has a very good reputation for producing strong, industrious forwards and Lasha fits into that mould. We are delighted that he has joined the club and he will be a solid addition to the squad.” Be part of the London Irish family with a 2017/18 Season Membership. Great value from £295 for adults and under 13s are free for 18 home games and so much more. Visit www.london-irish.com/membership or call 0118 968 1016 to find out more..................................................................................................................................................................................... SANTA FE, N.M. — “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens addresses themes of duality, class struggle, social injustice and transformation. A recent report by the Oakland, Calif.-based Human Impact Partners, done in conjunction with Santa Fe’s Chainbreaker Collective and the New Mexico Health Equity Partnership, tells the tale of two cities that exist within Santa Fe. Santa Fe may be known as “The City Different,” but “Equitable Development and Risk of Displacement: Profiles of Four Santa Fe Neighborhoods” focuses on differences within the city. It also talks about what needs to be done to achieve the “One Santa Fe” ideal that city leaders say they seek. “People in Santa Fe experience life here in very different ways,” said Tomás Rivera, executive director of Chainbreaker Collective. “What’s happening is we’re creating a city that’s increasingly segregated, and it’s very much along race lines. Some of that is beyond the city’s control, but not all of it is. They can make policies that can change that.” ADVERTISEMENTSkip Rivera started Chainbreaker as a bicycle resource center more than a decade ago, but it morphed into an economic and environmental justice organization. “What brought us into the realm of urban planning was that we kept seeing money going to infrastructure projects downtown at the expense of other neighborhoods,” he said. “A bike share program, for example, would have taken money away from our bus system and put it toward serving tourists downtown.” Rivera said he understands that, in a city heavily reliant on the tourist economy, city leaders are apt to cater to the tourism dollar. But they can’t forget about the people who live here, the people they represent. “Those are investments in the city and, when they are not being invested in a way that’s equitable, it may look good politically, but it’s not good for people and is actually harmful. It’s that which is creating this tale of two cities,” he said. Chainbreaker’s intervention helped keep the bike share initiative from gaining traction. Instead, the $50,000 earmarked for bike sharing was reallocated to free bus passes for people who got a bicycle through Chainbreaker – paid for with their own labor – or participating bike shops. “It’s helped out a lot of people,” Rivera said. But that was just one small victory and there are more injustices to be corrected, he said. For example, the study shows that, while a large proportion of children live on the south side, that part of town has the fewest parks. It is also under-served by bicycle infrastructure and access to buses, he said. “What we’ve seen are things that are inherently inequitable are constantly getting prioritization at the expense of lower income neighborhoods and neighborhoods of color,” he said. “It’s the small decisions – a sidewalk here, a trail here, bike share infrastructure here – it’s all those little things that add up to people being segregated.” The 40-page report, released in August, focuses on four Santa Fe neighborhoods impacted by gentrification, the gradual displacement of lower income families caused by urban renewal efforts and the influx of the affluent. The neighborhoods are Downtown and Canyon Road, which the report describes as areas that have undergone major transformations over the decades as the city evolved into an art hub and tourist destination; the Hopewell-Mann neighborhood, now most at risk for gentrification; and the Airport Road Corridor, the fastest-growing section of town, due partly to the displacement of families from other parts of town and the fact that city planners have designated the area for urban growth. A city divided Kim Gihuly of Human Impact Partners said the nonprofit group is generally made up of public health researchers who conduct these kinds of studies all over the country to help guide local government decision-making. “Decisions that are made are often based on economic factors, but a lot of decisions also have an impact on public health. For that reason, this type of research can be used as a tool to give decision-makers another perspective,” she said. The research, funded from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, drew from data produced by local, regional and national sources, and a pair of focus group sessions. More than 20 indicators of gentrification, displacement and investment were used, including demographic data, home values, transportation, parks and affordable housing. The report defines gentrification as “a process that occurs when an urban neighborhood has relatively low housing costs along with desirable qualities such as proximity to employment centers or attractive housing stock.” It goes on to say, “In many urban areas, gentrification is a racialized process, and occurs as wealthier White residents move into historically African American and Latino neighborhoods.” ADVERTISEMENTSkip The report says that pretty much describes what’s happened in Santa Fe. “Over the last 50 years, as tourism, the arts, upscale dining and retail transformed the core of Santa Fe, residents who could no longer afford to live close to Downtown moved to the outskirts,” it says. “Over time, these changes shifted where and how people live, splintering the city into more distinct – but more stratified – neighborhoods.” Half of Santa Fe’s population is Latino, though the study notes it is a largely segregated population. Seventy-two percent of people living in the Hopewell-Mann area, and as much as 89 percent in some census tracts on the southwest side, are Latino, while that group makes up just 17 percent of the population around Canyon Road and roughly 25 percent Downtown. The study says that poverty disproportionately affects Latinos, with the latest U.S. Census data showing that, while 18 percent of Santa Feans live in poverty, 25 percent of them are Latino and 11 percent are White. Close to 30 percent of the city’s children live in poverty, nearly double what it was 15 years ago. Elaine Baca and her family have felt the effects. She used to live in the Hopewell-Mann neighborhood on Calle Lorca with her husband and five kids, one of whom is autistic. Between her job with Santa Fe Public Schools and her husband’s with the postal service, they were bringing in about $60,000 per year and barely making it. When her husband went on disability, it got harder. Even with Section 8 assistance that reduced their rent payment to something between $300 and $800 per month, they couldn’t make ends meet. “With the added cost of utilities, such as trash and water for a family of seven, we were forced to move because we could not afford to continue living in Santa Fe,” she said. While her kids still attend school in Santa Fe and she’s still employed there, they drive 45 minutes into town each day from their new home on Santa Clara Pueblo. ADVERTISEMENTSkip “We commute every day because we can afford this home and couldn’t afford that one,” she said. “My kids go to school here, we shop here but, at the end of the day, we leave where we live our lives and go to the home we sleep at.” Their situation is not unique. As the study points out, a city survey indicates that 62 percent of the people who work in Santa Fe don’t live in the city – an increase of 11 percentage points since 2002. Seventy-two percent of those commuters say housing in town is too expensive. The study includes testimonials from Santa Fe residents, and former residents, gathered during two focus group sessions. “A number of Santa Feans moved to Rio Rancho because of affordability and they commute every day,” said one lifelong resident, who added that, because of that, “a lot of Santa Feans are taken out of the local economy.” “My cousin’s family lived on West Alto Street for generations,” said another. “Then their house was condemned by the city, bought out, and now it’s a casita/B&B.” Working to create ‘One Santa Fe’ Because she wanted to help others who experienced the same plight, Baca got involved in helping Chainbreaker get the “Residents’ Bill of Rights” resolution passed by the City Council in July. The resolution is intended to help guide city leaders when making decisions on housing and urban planning. It calls for the city to make sure that housing opportunities are accessible to historically marginalized populations, that neighborhoods are protected from economic factors and policies that lead to displacement, and that residents of minority and low income neighborhoods have a say in decisions that affect their lives. “I think it’s a good first step,” Rivera said. “It creates a framework for policy-makers to look at and say, ‘Equity is something we need to look at first.’ ” ADVERTISEMENTSkip City Councilor Joseph Maestas, whose district includes Hopewell-Mann and Canyon Road, sponsored the bill. “It’s the first salvo in an effort to really, truly integrate a policy that makes sure investment is allocated equitably,” he said, adding that he has plans for a bigger, broader social justice initiative that would be modeled after the Equity and Social Justice strategic plan adopted by Washington state’s King County. “It’s going to require a lot of effort from groups like Chainbreaker and others, but we need to get behind this,” Maestas said. District 3 City Councilor Carmichael Dominguez co-sponsored the Residents’ Bill of Rights resolution and wants to be sure the city backs up its rhetoric. “Santa Fe is very proud of being a progressive community, but I wonder sometimes if we are progressive because it makes us feel better or because we are really interested in equity,” he said, adding that the city has passed progressive affordable housing laws and has one of the highest living wages in the country. “The question is, are we really prepared as a community to talk about inequities? That’s where the truth lies.” Rivera says inequity is the elephant in the room no one likes to talk about. “The purpose of this report and the purpose of our organization’s work is to point to the elephant in the room and say, ‘OK, now we know,'” he said. “At this point, it’s out in the open and we’re talking about it. It’s the responsibility of all of us in the community to make these changes.” A Look At The City Different By Neighborhood By sections of Santa Fe, here are some of the findings from the Human Impact Partners report. Downtown ADVERTISEMENTSkip Primarily a commercial neighborhood. It is an aging neighborhood made up of primarily white residents. It has experienced a decline in population and housing costs in recent years, and it’s the only one of the four neighborhoods that had an increase in household income. Downtown residents tend to walk more and are less car-dependent. Gentrification and displacement is not much of a concern these days, the economic and demographic changes having already taken place in the 1960s and ’70s. “Today, as Downtown is not a residential neighborhood, few people live there and those that do live there do not experience the economic vulnerabilities and housing insecurity that typically put people at risk of displacement,” the
went very very much in our favor. What sorts of things do I mean by “luck?” Well, we try to pick release dates that make sense for purposes of the wider market, but there is a lot of luck in that, anyway. Bionic Dues got squashed by other releases on launch and disappeared from view before people could really evaluate it well. The Last Federation dominated the Steam front page for days, which was partly based on the high clickthrough rates to it but also based on just being at the right place at the right time. In terms of getting the attention of people in forums, of reviewers, of press in general, etc, there’s also a luck factor. Skill in PR/marketing, too, but also luck. Some games we put out are loved by major reviewers or youtubers, and they tell us this privately, but then they never wind up having time to actually do a review or video, because of other titles that are more pressing in terms of their audience and what will make them money on views, etc. Then by the time they do have time for a theoretical review, the game is old news. That happened to Bionic Dues in multiple instances. But for TLF, we had the opposite luck, where a lot of big names just jumped on it immediately and wrote or did a video about it immediately, rather than having a delay. You could argue that that is partly due to the degree to which they connected with one game versus the other, and that is surely partly true, but I think that anyone who denies the role of luck in books, movies, games, and basically all creative things is kidding themselves. You can’t get lucky if you aren’t prepared and actually having something worth talking about, but it is possible to do everything right and still fail. There are indies all over the place where that is the case. The most notable recent example of that, to me, is Source by Fenix Fire. That game got a ton of press attention, looks gorgeous, seemed to do everything right on Kickstarter, had a hilariously modest goal for a game like that ($50k), and yet still failed to get funded. WTF? That’s just bad luck, and something those devs need to realize and not feel too bad about. Please don’t misunderstand and think that I think luck is the only factor that matters, though. There’s a lengthy followup discussion in the forums where longtimer ptarth raises a number of really interesting points and question (about both the role of luck and other things), if this topic interests you further. Okay, back to the actual question. AI War’s Ongoing Performance – Solid AI War is now somewhere north of $1.3 million, I’m not sure exactly where. We’re at over 5 years of the game being out now, and our 6th expansion is in the works for release this August. There’s not a lot to really say here, this just continues to be a strong game for us. It’s fallen a lot in terms of how big a portion of our yearly income it is, but that’s mainly because of the rise of other games for us, rather than a fall of AI War itself. Bionic Dues – Not So Hot Bionic Dues, as noted above, was a recipient of bad luck. It hasn’t sold abysmally, it’s not like Shattered Haven or Tidalis, but it just hasn’t really been “discovered” yet, in a lot of senses. Overall it’s had a really solid reception, and certainly some major press. We bungled some things with Bionic in terms of advance press, but a big part of that was the fact that we weren’t really ready to show anything until the last second because the development cycle on Bionic Dues was so short. Our “luckier” titles had longer development cycles with more teasing of stuff prior to them. Bionic is at a semi-respectable $95k(ish). It’s not something we’ve broken even on yet, although I have to go back and calculate exactly how much we spent making that one. We will break even on it eventually, but it’s much slower than expected. We were planning on doing an expansion for Bionic, but unfortunately the support just isn’t there to make that viable. We had already done some features that we were going to include in an expansion for Bionic, and with the decision not to go ahead with an expansion we just rolled those out as new free features to the base game a week or so ago. There aren’t going to be many updates to Bionic aside from bugfixes; it’s a complete, self-contained game at this point. That’s actually true for all of our titles now except for AI War and The Last Federation. Though we are going back and adding Linux support to everything that didn’t already have it (even Tidalis, after all!). The Last Federation – Phenomenal Our latest title, The Last Federation, just passed $500k in 10 weeks, so it’s our new most-amazing success. AI War has still earned more than twice as much, but it did it over 5 years rather than 10 weeks, and with 5 expansions as opposed to zero. As noted above our 6th expansion is in the works for AI War, nevertheless — we’re not abandoning that game just because we have something newer and more successful. And naturally an expansion for TLF as well. TLF continues to go great guns, and is basically single-handedly funding our work on our next title, Spectral Empire, a 4x which will come out next April. To say that we are amazed and grateful for the reception that The Last Federation has had would be a huge understatement. To put things in perspective, if you take an average of how the entire rest of our catalog has sold over 2014 so far, and then compare 10 weeks of that average to the first 10 weeks that TLF was out, TLF outsells everything else in our catalog combined by 7:1. TLF was expensive to make, but it broke even somewhere around 7 weeks after coming out. Skyward Collapse broken even much faster than TLF, but it also cost something like 1/8th as much to make. Shattered Haven – Worse And Worse Well, this is our worst-selling title ever, even “topping” Tidalis, which I had not expected to ever manage to do. We have a lot of disparate income from various bundles and whatnot now, so it’s harder and harder to collate exactly how much specific games are making unless we keep careful track of it. With TLF, you bet we were watching that with fascination (and it hasn’t been in any bundles, anyway). For Shattered Haven, we’ve not been watching the numbers super closely. I would hazard a guess that the total gross is around $30k total, based on the concrete numbers that I am looking at at then going from memory on the smaller gaps. The Silver Lining On Shattered Haven (And Similar Games That Don’t Fare Well) That said, I’m really gratified to see that some people do connect with it as much as I do, and come into the forums and say how much they love it. Here’s an awesome thing: every single game that we have ever made is somebody’s favorite game that we’ve ever made. In other words, even our “worst game” is one that somebody (that I’ve never met) feels is our best game. In some cases, we get people saying that our “worst game” is actually their favorite game ever in a genre — or even out of all games in general! That’s a huge honor, and always takes me by surprise. Cynics will go “there’s no accounting for taste,” and sure, that’s true in a literal sense. I think all of us like certain things that are not popular, and it’s not because we’re hipsters. Shattered Haven’s gameplay was very inspired by both Zelda 1 and Lode Runner: The Legend returns, and I think that people who like the latter in particular (or games like that) are likely to respond well to Shattered. Story-wise, some people think that it’s not really a good story (and some say the same about Tidalis). But for those who connect with the emotion in Shattered, or the humor in Tidalis, it’s really quite wonderful. It comes down to taste. I mention this because this is also true of lots of other games around the Internet. I see it in the forums of other indie developers all the time. They make something that the market hates, that the critics spurn, and that is a financial ruin for them. Yet there are strangers telling them how much they love that title. It’s an odd thing to experience. In some ways, I guess I kind of feel fortunate to have both this experience and the experience of having something much more widely popular and accepted. Being able to recognize the nature of personal taste, and the role of luck as well, kind of helps take the sting off of my failures. Or at least helps me put them in some kind of context, if that makes sense. Very few people love every game we’ve ever made, and plenty of people don’t like ANY game we’ve ever made, but somebody loves every game we’ve made, and some games are loved by a LOT of people, and that has to be good enough for me; that’s the best anyone can really expect, I think, in all honesty. Think about it; even for someone like Stephen King, who is like the Notch of novels. A Valley Without Wind 2 – Sigh The gross total last year on Steam for the package that includes both this and Valley 1 was a mere $109k. That’s… pretty pathetic, honestly. Given the huge expense of making this game, the Valley 1 and 2 package has been pushed so far into the red that they are never going to climb out of the hole. People always complained about the graphics in Valley 1, but then once we did Valley 2 (which is vastly prettier, I think), people started complaining about how they preferred the character animations in Valley 1. Go figure. Valley 1 also is excessively more popular in terms of playtime. It gets played more than Valley 2 by about a 5:1 ratio. Valley 2 is the one that I actually prefer out of the two of them, although both are really fun. But it was a complete genre shift from being a Metroidvania to being a Contra-like. And the crafting and mild citybuilding from Valley 1 was instead replaced by procedural bonuses, character classes, and a semi-intimidating strategic layer in Valley 2. A lot of fans of the first game didn’t respond all that well to the shift, because they basically wanted more of the first game, but prettier. Which I can understand. Valley 2 probably would have been better received as a completely standalone separate game with no connection to the first. Though critics did like Valley 2 better. For myself, behind AI War, I think the game I have put the most time into playing recreationally from our library of games is a tossup between Shattered Haven (with my wife) and Valley 2 (with my 4 year old son). Go figure! This is kind of what I mean about there being no accounting for tastes. Sometimes my taste is really odd to the point the market goes “what?” and that’s something I’m having to learn to live with (and to try to avoid, where possible, as it really risks the company). Skyward Collapse and the Nihon no Mura Expansion – Ehhh… At the time this came out, it did phenomenally well. Its first month was not our highest-grossing launch, but it was our most units moved by a large margin. It broken even in 3 days, and was 6% of our historical revenue within a month. That’s more or less where we left things at the last postmortem, a year ago. Well, what’s happened since then? Sales tapered off pretty fast, actually. The expansion came out to a resounding lack of interest from all except the core players, and gaming moved on. This seems to be what happens to most games — that’s why the initial launch is so important — but for Arcen the long tail has always been where the meat of our income comes from, so this was a surprise to me. With the expansion, we deliberately released that in August just to see what would happen. That’s a real dead period in gaming, and we figured we could pick up some extra press due to that, and that we’d make up the initial shortfall in sales via long-term sales in discount promos and whatnot. It was a reasonable plan, although a speculative one, and we knew the risks when we tried it. It didn’t pay off. Actually, by putting so much work into Skyward 2.0 and the expansion, we managed to UN break even on the game that broke even in 3 days. Facepalm. But, by the end of 2013 we had re-broken even on the combination of the two, although the role of the expansion in that was questionable at best. Looking At Company-Wide Numbers – Strength In Numbers, Actually Still, despite the above, overall Skyward Collapse did respectably for last year. The base game generated about $125k gross in that year on Steam, out of about $510k total for all our products on Steam last year, so Skyward was 24% of our Steam income last year. That’s no slouch at all! And frankly, Valley 1 + 2 were 21% of our Steam revenue from last year. By the end of last year we had 7 full games released, plus 1 expansion for Skyward and 5 expansions for AI War. That’s a lot of back catalog, and it’s not the sort of back catalog that starts to look stale after a few years like the latest 3D games do. Our graphics start out retro and stay retro, and I think that’s part of the long tail that we experience. And a number of other 2D or retro-styled games by other developers, frankly. Anyway, aside from a dip in 2012 (I think it was the Q4 economy there, which hurt everyone), Arcen has always had at least around a 10% growth in year over year income. Our big problem was always having expenses that grew at that rate or higher, thanks to my bringing on more and more staff. So despite the constant growth, there was also a constant struggle. Anyway, last year Arcen grossed over $700k in all, and no one product was more than 40% responsible for those numbers. That’s a big win for us, given how dominant AI War has been in our history. Our strategy in 2013 was kind of the opposite of what we did in 2011 and 2012, where we focused on just one or two really giant games. Instead we focused on a larger number of smaller titles, the two chief amongst those being Skyward and Bionic. That strategy paid off in some respects, but by the same token it doesn’t create titles with the longevity of AI War or The Last Federation. So 2014 has seen us swing back the other way, working on larger titles again, but with more of an emphasis of keeping steady pacing without runaway expenses. Historical Performance, Updated Overall, Arcen has now grossed somewhere around $2.7 million dollars. $500k of that came from The Last Federation in the last couple of months. About $1.3m of that came from AI War over a span of 5 years. That leaves $1.8m divided amongst all the rest of our products combined (6 games). Valley 1 and 2 are the largest component of the rest of that, with about $500k in gross income between the two of them (since April 2011). Skyward and its expansion and complete version account for about $180k. Tidalis, something like $110k. Bionic Dues, $95k or so, and Shattered Haven at something like $30k. So, we’ve been all over the map, in terms of financial success. I’m okay with that, so long as we stay solvent and free, though. I look at Maxis games from way back in the early and mid 90s, and I really admire what they did. They had some really hit games (SimCity, sort of SimTower), but then they also had a sizeable number of ones that never really took off. But someone loved all of their games, even the “flops,” and there was value and innovation in everything that they created. I’m okay with a track record like that. That said, our next title is a semi-traditional 4x, so we are playing it somewhat safe. Granted, it has our own twists and uniquenesses on it, but we’re not mashing up two unrelated genres like we so often have. In the end it just boils down to being able to make what we’re most interested in making at the time, and then doing the best job on it that we can. With a lower amount of expenses, and more money shelved away for security, we currently don’t have to run around with our hair on fire quite so much. I’ve been basically in crunch mode for 5 years, and it’s really nice to be able to actually take a more reasonable amount of time to do things. Anyway. For the moment, things are looking very much up, and I’m feeling very fortunate for the situation that we’re in. I had hoped to stabilize as a fulltime staff of 8, but ultimately we wound up stabilizing at a fulltime staff of 4. That’s the one thing that really kills me, but it’s just more realistic for a company of our nature. All in all, despite the many bumpy things last year, we managed to have a really solid year, and despite a very scary start, this year has now exceeded last year in every way. Here’s to the future. Forum discussion. PS: In the forums, I was asked about what I think about Jeff Vogel’s recent posts about how the indie bubble is bursting, and what that means. Unfortunately, I agree with him on most of his points. If you’d like to read that discussion, it is here. PPS: The forum discussion continues to be wide-ranging and detailed on a variety of subjects, some only tangentially related. It’s an interesting read if you like this sort of thing.For the last few years, we have witnessed Russia using nonmilitary tools of power to achieve strategic goals, which include undermining NATO, the EU, and the U.S.-led international order. In January 2017, the U.S. Intelligence Community released a report detailing Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The report concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign aimed at supporting Donald Trump’s election against his opponent. His reasons for doing so are not hard to surmise: Hillary Clinton promised that she would “deter” Russian aggression in Europe if elected, whereas Donald Trump supported the UK in leaving the EU, spoke ambivalently about NATO, and said he would consider lifting sanctions against Russia. Accordingly, a strategy to shape the preferences and opinions of U.S. voters in support of Donald Trump was the logical coercive action to take in support of Russian strategic goals. Regardless of how these new incentive structures play out, one thing is clear: the success of Russia’s influence operations illustrates the new normal. Evidence of Russian operators engaging in similar influence campaigns—shaping public opinion in support of candidates and parties based on Russia’s national interests—is prevalent across Europe. These influence operations are not just limited to shaping preferences during electoral campaigns. In 2016, Russia mobilized its public opinion shaping tools in an attempt to undermine public support for a military partnership between Sweden and NATO. Russia also used similar tools to support the “leave” campaign in the UK. On both occasions, Russia prioritized public opinion shaping tools above traditional hard power tools as a means to achieve two of its highest priority objectives: undermining both NATO and the EU. Experts may argue that these actions do not represent a new international dynamic. In fact, some may even propose that Russia’s strategic doctrine represents a return to Soviet era active measures. While this may be true, what is different about these strategies is their rising efficacy because there are more democracies in the post-Cold War era, and with the rapid expansion of information technology, even more ways to directly influence their voters. According to a 2016 Pew Poll, 62% of American adults now get their news from social media sites. Meanwhile, in another 2016 study, Stanford researchers found that even young, savvy social media users were easily duped by fake information sources online, concluding “we worry that democracy is threatened by the ease at which disinformation about civic issues is allowed to spread and flourish.”September is always a crazy busy gymnastics month, and this weekend was no exception. Several big international and domestic meets took place, and if you’re worried you’ve missed anything, have no fear. We’ve got you covered! The Romania-France Friendly Romania hosted this team competition on Saturday, marking the returns of Diana Bulimar after her knee surgery in June, Larisa Iordache after nearly a year out due to minor overuse injuries, and Catalina Ponor, who performed her first routines since London 2012. Iordache and Ponor looked great, and with a bit of fine-tuning in the coming weeks will completely turn this team around as they contend for a podium spot at Worlds after narrowly missing out to Russia in 2014. The French women also showed great strength with three fabulous all-arounders in addition to big scores from vault specialist Camille Bahl and beam/floor specialist Claire Martin. [ Results \| Recap ] The Golden League Italy’s Golden League acted as a team competition for the top four finishers of the Serie A, held in the spring, as well as the country’s first step in the Worlds selection process. Vanessa Ferrari was missing, but all other top Worlds contenders looked fabulous, especially Carlotta Ferlito, who posted two big scores on beam in addition to winning the all-around, and Martina Rizzelli, who took all-around silver while finally showing what she’s capable of on bars. Erika Fasana had a strong floor performance on Saturday, but didn’t compete the event in finals (national team director Enrico Casella chose the finalists and perhaps thought Fasana didn’t need another ‘test’ after proving her strength all year). Enus Mariani showed consistency on both days, Lara Mori returned from injury with a steady all-around performance and then a fantastic bar routine in finals, and junior Sofia Busato – a 2000 baby – showed why she could be a big threat in 2016, especially with her super strong DTY. [ Results \| Recap Coming Soon! ] The British Team Championships This meet features competition between Great Britain’s top club gyms, and while some of the big names were missing – like Claudia Fragapane – most of the Worlds contenders showed at least a few of their routines, and both Ruby Harrold and Rebecca Tunney returned to competition after extended absences (though neither competed bars, the best event for both). National champ Amy Tinkler won the all-around, followed by Kelly Simm in second and Charlie Fellows in third. In team competition, Liverpool defeated Welsh club Park Wrekin by a nearly five point margin with The Academy coming third. Danusia Francis, who will compete for Jamaica at Worlds this year, attended as a guest for her first elite competition in over three years, earning a 52.9 in the all-around. [ Results \| Recap Coming Soon! ] The Belgium-Sweden-Austria Friendly Belgium won the meet they hosted on Sunday with a team score of 211.549 to Sweden’s 202.466 and Austria’s 191.581. Unfortunately, Julie Croket injured her ankle in vault warm-ups, which could bring a challenge in the team’s quest to place in the top 16 at Worlds so they can contend for a team spot at the Olympics in next year’s test event (especially as Laura Waem still isn’t back fully from an injury of her own, and Jelle Beullens isn’t operating on all four events). The team achieved their win with six falls, so it was a bit of a rough day, though Gaelle Mys emerged victorious with four solid sets to capture the all-around title with a 54.4, placing ahead of teammate Rune Hermans with a 52.783 for silver and Sweden’s Emma Larsson with a 52.033 for bronze. Mys had the highest score of the day on any event with her 14.2 on beam. [ Results \| Recap Coming Soon! ] The Bosphorus Tournament This annual meet held in Istanbul attracts mostly gymnasts from the Middle East and Central Asia, and in addition to host team Turkey, the women saw competitors from Jordan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Sweden. Demet Mutlu of Turkey won the senior all-around with a 53.366 followed by teammate Ekin Morova with a 50.0 for silver and Ralitsa Mileva of Bulgaria with a 48.5 for bronze. Julia Rumbutis, who changed her allegiance from Sweden to Georgia this year, made her competitive debut for her new country, competing just on beam for an 11.633, the fourth-highest score on the event. Turdikhon Islomova of Uzbekistan won the junior all-around with a 50.599. [ Results \| Recap Coming Soon! ] The Israel Open This MAG-only competition saw a big win from Azerbaijan’s Oleg Stepko with an 88.9. Croatia’s Filip Ude won silver with an 85.95 while Israel’s Alexander Shatilov won bronze with an 85.25. Marian Dragulescu of Romania also returned to competition in a big way, sticking his eponymous vault – check it out below! What’s next? The Chinese Individual Championships began yesterday in Liupanshui, the Russian Cup begins Wednesday in Penza with all major Worlds contenders aside from Aliya Mustafina expected to compete, the Osijek World Challenge Cup begins with qualifications on Thursday (look forward to seeing Jade Barbosa, Rebecca Tunney, and Ruby Harrold there!), and then German National Championships will be held in Giessen over the weekend. Article by Lauren Hopkins Photo thanks to the Belgian Gymnastics Federation AdvertisementsOne of the less-discussed aspects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sudden demonitisation drive is that this action has reflected once again that the “Modi-vision” is never limited to the long-established outlook of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or that of its ideological mentor Rastriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS). In fact, Modi has always challenged some of the core principles of the ruling party in more ways than one. He had done that during his long stint as the chief minister of Gujarat and now he is doing the same as the prime minister of the country. That explains why Modi is not worried that by banning overnight the use of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, thus rendering 86 percent of currency in circulation worthless, he has badly hurt the urban-centric traders and businessmen, traditionally one of the strongest constituents of the BJP. As could be seen from the news reports from all parts of the country, traders, particularly the retailers, have been facing difficulties in running their business in the face of the shortage of smaller currencies. And predictably, Modi’s opponents like Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who once had said to be proud of being a “baniya”, are exploiting the situation to portray the BJP as an “anti-trader party”. In fact, the latest episode is not the first of its kind by the Modi government that has affected the traders. In March this year, the issue of excise duty on non-silver jewellery had drawn adverse reactions from Gold traders, jewelers and artisans; so much so that there were strikes in various parts of the country. On that occasion too, Arvind Kejriwal had led the protesters in Delhi. Addressing a gathering of jewellers at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, the Delhi Chief Minister had warned, “The notion was that BJP is a party of traders. Then what has happened now? I want to tell the PM that Jaitleyji will not have to gather votes or contest elections. You need votes so please be a little careful. If jewellers are cheated, then traders will leave BJP's side." Now the question is: How important have the traders been for the BJP’s electoral prospects? This question is all the more relevant when it is the same BJP which had forestalled the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s plan in 2011 of bringing 51 per cent foreign direct investments in the retail sector, which would have created, as the government had projected, “ at least 10 million jobs,” would have helped “ farmers secure remunerative prices by eliminating exploitative middlemen,” and would have resulted in “ a minimum investment of $100 million with at least half the amount to be invested in back-end infrastructure, including cold chains, refrigeration, transportation, packing, sorting and processing”. My answer to the above question is very simple. When the BJP protested against the Manmohan Singh government’s move in the Parliament through Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley (then leaders of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively), Modi had nothing to do with the top leadership of the BJP as a party. I doubt whether if Modi was the top leader of the BJP then, the party would have stalled the Parliament over the “Retail Tale.” In my considered view, as a political ruler (politician in power), Modi has always taken big risks in carrying out anti-populist measures, measures that have adversely affected BJP’s traditional vote banks, including the traders. Let me quote here an article in The Financial Express, Modi was then BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, the heading of the news item was: “Narendra Modi 'abandons' Indian traders, backbone of Bharatiya Janata Party 'vote bank' with surprise retail remarks.” Going against BJP’s official position of opposition to foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail, Modi said, “There is no need to fear global challenges, try to convert the situation into an opportunity. Make the most of this situation. We are a powerful nation and have taken a lead in information technology. This is the age of online marketing, accept modern science and make use of it.” He then went on to emphasise why small traders must learn to build brands and go online, creating virtual malls to take on large and multinational retailers. “Customers from even small towns are now going for branded stuff. They are going to malls to buy them. Small traders can build a virtual mall by getting into agreements with brands. You can have a virtual mall in small shops at the click of a button”, he said. One can give yet another example. In 2004, when he was seeking fresh mandate as the Chief Minister, Modi had defied the party command to promise in the BJP-manifesto that he would be lenient to the farmers and shop keepers in small towns who were stealing electricity. One diamond merchant had told this writer during the electioneering then, “what is the use in having uninterrupted electricity by Modi if people are forced to pay for its consumption. Earlier we never paid for electricity. We never cleared our bills, but nobody cut our connections. But under Modi, not only are our connections cut, we are also being forced to go to courts to face legal charges against us”. This merchant had vowed that he and the entire trading community would campaign for Modi’s ouster. And this was threatened at a time when detractors of Modi like the veteran party rebel Keshubhai Patel and the opposition Congress were saying that that there was nothing wrong in stealing electricity and that they would write off the unpaid electricity bills if voted to power, apart from promising to supply free electricity to the farmers in the villages. However, as events have proved, Modi has always won spectacular electoral victories despite his “ruthless” policies that went against BJP’s traditional belief. All told, the BJP in India is not a Conservative Party, even though it talks of the importance of a strong military, robust nationalism and assertive Hindu culture (most of the BJP cadres and supporters are assertive political Hindus, though some of them are also, and that is highly unfortunate, flaming bigots). On the economic front, the BJP, unlike a genuine Conservative party, believes in socialism and populism (it talks of pursuing “Gandhian Socialism”). The party has top leaders who literally hate the liberalisation of the economy and globalisation. In fact, these elements, whether in the BJP or the RSS, are always opposed to Modi’s economic policies. They believe that it is the job of the government to provide everything free or subsidised. They do not talk, like Modi, of less government and more governance. They do not highlight the importance of empowerment of the poor so that they do not remain poor; they will like poor to remain beggars for the government freebies and subsidies. In contrast, Modi usually talks of growth and development and does not glorify poverty. I have invariably argued that in the last general elections people voted for Modi, not necessarily for the BJP. And that was because Modi promised to be the harbinger of real changes in the Indian polity and economy. As the chief minister of Gujarat, Modi had delivered on the front of economic reforms that India desperately needed – slashing red tape, cutting the licensing raj and minimising the role of the government in managing the economy – all these measures were important for removing corruption that, incidentally, was a dominating feature during the Manmohan Singh regime. In that sense, the demonitisation move by Modi – a strong anti-corruption step, which, in turn, has the potentials of bringing down inflation and turning common man-friendly - was a logical conclusion for him. All told, Modi, with his “strong-man image”, got an absolute majority in Lok Sabha, nearly after 30 years in the country, because in 2014 he won as many as 178 seats from rural constituencies, hitherto considered impossible for a BJP that was traditionally a party of middle class, traders, businessmen and upper castes. Viewed thus, the demonitisation move is also in line with Modi’s thinking that if at all the BJP will remain the ruling party in 2019 (or become the ruling party in states like Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand next year), then it has to be a party of “all” in both urban and rural areas, not of some sections like the traders only. 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.WWE News: NXT tapings will move to Atlanta, Georgia going forward Jeremy Bennett FOLLOW FEATURED WRITER News 9.95K // 30 Nov 2017, 02:49 IST SHARE Share Options × Facebook Twitter Flipboard Reddit Google+ Email Full Sail Arena in Orlando, Florida is the home of NXT What's the story? For the first time since NXT became a brand in 2012, the television tapings will be away from Full Sail University for an extended period in the near future. Tonight's NXT tapings will be the last at Full Sail before moving to Atlanta, Georgia starting in January. In case you didn't know... NXT originally was a reality competition where the winner would be awarded a WWE contract. The winner of the first season of NXT, Wade Barrett, was actually awarded a world championship opportunity. NXT would continue with the reality competition format for a total of five seasons before becoming its own brand. Past winners of the series included Kaval (Low Ki), Kaitlyn, Johnny Curtis (Fandango). The final season had three wrestlers that were not eliminated in Derrick Bateman (EC3), Titus O'Neil, and Darren Young. The heart of the matter Mike Johnson of PWInsider is reporting that due to scheduling conflicts with the Full Sail Arena, Atlanta, Georgia will be the home of NXT for the next several months. There were instances where a set of NXT tapings occurred on location such the Arnold Classic in Columbus, Ohio, but it has not been away from Full Sail for a lengthy amount of time. At the time of this writing, there is not any information about what is causing the scheduling conflict that will stretch over the course of several months. The first taping from Atlanta will occur on January 4th at the Center Stage Arena. What's next? NXT moves on from WarGames to focus on NXT Takeover: Philly during the Royal Rumble weekend. With Drew McIntryre out injured, it will be interesting to see who steps up to challenge NXT Champion Andrade Cien Almas. Author's take It will be interesting to see NXT television from a different location. I thought it was unique how the arena was set up when they ran a set of tapings during the Arnold Classic, and I wonder if they will make any sort of tweaks or changes to the set up in Atlanta. AdvertisementThe Government is committed to getting its hands dirty to help more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) transform digitally to stay in business amid disruptive technological innovations. The Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA), the government agency leading the charge, will play sector "chief information officer" to SMEs, providing customised help from funding and consultancy to approving tech products to participating in joint pilots. This will be available under a new scheme dubbed SMEs Go Digital Programme, targeted at the 200,000 SMEs here. During the debate on his ministry's budget yesterday, Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim said: "It will help raise SMEs' overall level of digital-readiness by giving them step-by-step advice on the technologies to use at each stage of their digital journey." The kitty is $80 million over four years from this April under this scheme, first announced two weeks ago by Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat. SMEs Go Digital aims to defray up to 70 per cent of the cost of technology purchases, capped at $300,000 per SME. It will replace the seven-year-old iSprint scheme, which provided similar subsidies and basic tech advice, benefiting some 8,000 SMEs. SMEs Go Digital aims to be more comprehensive than iSprint by also helping SMEs with more advanced needs such as cyber security, data analytics and artificial intelligence, through a new SME Digital Tech Hub to be set up by September. In response to Dr Yaacob's announcement, nominated MP Thomas Chua, who is president of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, voiced concern about the prospect of disparate technologies being implemented by different firms. $1.32 billion Total bill;
only to listen and learn. Anthony and some other women immediately walked out and announced a meeting of their own, which created a committee to organize a women's state convention. Largely organized by Anthony, the convention of 500 women met in Rochester in April and created the Women's State Temperance Society, with Stanton as president and Anthony as state agent.[24] Anthony and her co-workers collected 28,000 signatures on a petition for a law to prohibit the sale of alcohol in New York State. She organized a hearing on that law before the New York legislature, the first that had been initiated in that state by a group of women. At the organization's convention the following year, however, conservative members attacked Stanton's advocacy of the right of a wife of an alcoholic to obtain a divorce. Stanton was voted out as president, whereupon she and Anthony resigned from the organization.[25] In 1853, Anthony attended the World's Temperance Convention in New York City, which bogged down for three chaotic days in a dispute about whether women would be allowed to speak there.[26] Years later, Anthony observed, "No advanced step taken by women has been so bitterly contested as that of speaking in public. For nothing which they have attempted, not even to secure the suffrage, have they been so abused, condemned and antagonized."[27] After this period, Anthony focused her energy on abolitionist and women's rights activities. Teachers' conventions When Anthony tried to speak at the New York State Teachers' Association meeting in 1853, her attempt sparked a half-hour debate among the men about whether it was proper for women to speak in public. Finally allowed to continue, Anthony said, "Do you not see that so long as society says a woman is incompetent to be a lawyer, minister, or doctor, but has ample ability to be a teacher, that every man of you who chooses this profession tacitly acknowledges that he has no more brains than a woman."[28] At the 1857 teacher's convention, she introduced a resolution calling for the admission of black people to public schools and colleges, but it was rejected as "not a proper subject for discussion."[29] When she introduced another resolution calling for males and females to be educated together at all levels, including colleges, it was fiercely opposed and decisively rejected. One opponent called the idea "a vast social evil... the first step in the school which seeks to abolish marriage, and behind this picture I see a monster of social deformity."[30] Anthony continued to speak at state teachers' conventions for several years, insisting that women teachers should receive equal pay with men and serve as officers and committee members within the organization.[31] Early women's rights activities Anthony's work for the women's rights movement began at a time when that movement was already gathering momentum. Stanton had helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, a local event that was the first women's rights convention. In 1850, the first in a series of National Women's Rights Conventions was held in Worcester, Massachusetts. In 1852, Anthony attended her first National Women's Rights Convention, which was held in Syracuse, New York, where she served as one of the convention's secretaries.[32] According to Ida Husted Harper, Anthony's authorized biographer, "Miss Anthony came away from the Syracuse convention thoroughly convinced that the right which woman needed above every other, the one indeed which would secure to her all others, was the right of suffrage."[33] Suffrage, however, did not become the main focus of her work for several more years. A major hindrance to the women's movement was a lack of money. Few women at that time had an independent source of income, and even those with employment generally were required by law to turn over their pay to their husbands.[34] Partly through the efforts of the women's movement, a law had been passed in New York in 1848 that recognized some rights for married women, but that law was limited. In 1853, Anthony worked with William Henry Channing, her activist Unitarian minister, to organize a convention in Rochester to launch a state campaign for improved property rights for married women, which Anthony would lead. She took her lecture and petition campaign into almost every county in New York during the winter of 1855 despite the difficulty of traveling in snowy terrain in horse and buggy days.[35] When she presented the petitions to the New York State Senate Judiciary Committee, its members told her that men were actually the oppressed sex because they did such things as giving women the best seats in carriages. Noting cases in which the petition had been signed by both husbands and wives (instead of the husband signing for both, which was the standard procedure), the committee's official report sarcastically recommended that the petitioners seek a law authorizing the husbands in such marriages to wear petticoats and the wives trousers.[36] The campaign finally achieved success in 1860 when the legislature passed an improved Married Women's Property Act that gave married women the right to own separate property, enter into contracts and be joint guardian of their children. The legislature rolled back much of this law in 1862, however, during a period when the women's movement was largely inactive because of the American Civil War.[37] The women's movement was loosely structured at that time, with few state organizations and no national organization other than a coordinating committee that arranged annual conventions.[38] Lucy Stone, who did much of the organizational work for the national conventions, encouraged Anthony to take over some of the responsibility for them. Anthony resisted at first, feeling that she was needed more in the field of anti-slavery activities. After organizing a series of anti-slavery meetings in the winter of 1857, Anthony told a friend that, "the experience of the last winter is worth more to me than all my temperance and woman's rights work, though the latter were the school necessary to bring me into the antislavery work."[39] During a planning session for the 1858 women's rights convention, Stone, who had recently given birth, told Anthony that her new family responsibilities would prevent her from organizing conventions until her children were older. Anthony presided at the 1858 convention, and when the planning committee for national conventions was reorganized, Stanton became its president and Anthony its secretary.[40] Anthony continued to be heavily involved in anti-slavery work at the same time. Anti-slavery activities In 1837, at age 16, Anthony collected petitions against slavery as part of organized resistance to the newly established gag rule that prohibited anti-slavery petitions in the U.S. House of Representatives.[41] In 1851, she played a key role in organizing an anti-slavery convention in Rochester.[42] She was also part of the Underground Railroad. An entry in her diary in 1861 read, "Fitted out a fugitive slave for Canada with the help of Harriet Tubman."[43] Susan B. Anthony In 1856, Anthony agreed to become the New York State agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society with the understanding that she would also continue her advocacy of women's rights.[44] Anthony organized anti-slavery meetings throughout the state under banners that read "No compromise with slaveholders. Immediate and Unconditional Emancipation."[45] She developed a reputation for fearlessness in facing down attempts to disrupt her meetings, but opposition became overwhelming on the eve of the Civil War. Mob action shut down her meetings in every town from Buffalo to Albany in early 1861. In Rochester, the police had to escort Anthony and other speakers from the building for their own safety.[46] In Syracuse, according to a local newspaper, "Rotten eggs were thrown, benches broken, and knives and pistols gleamed in every direction."[47] Anthony expressed a vision of a racially integrated society that was radical for a time when abolitionists were debating the question of what was to become of the slaves after they were freed, and when people like Abraham Lincoln were calling for African Americans to be shipped to newly established colonies in Africa. In a speech in 1861, Anthony said, "Let us open to the colored man all our schools... Let us admit him into all our mechanic shops, stores, offices, and lucrative business avocations... let him rent such pew in the church, and occupy such seat in the theatre... Extend to him all the rights of Citizenship."[48] The relatively small women's rights movement of that time was closely associated with the American Anti-Slavery Society led by William Lloyd Garrison. The women's movement depended heavily on abolitionist resources, with its articles published in their newspapers and some of its funding provided by abolitionists.[49] There was tension, however, between leaders of the women's movement and male abolitionists who, although supporters of increased women's rights, believed that a vigorous campaign for women's rights would interfere with the campaign against slavery. In 1860, when Anthony sheltered a woman who had fled an abusive husband, Garrison insisted that the woman give up the child she had brought with her, pointing out that the law gave husbands complete control of children. Anthony reminded Garrison that he helped slaves escape to Canada in violation of the law and said, "Well, the law which gives the father ownership of the children is just as wicked and I'll break it just as quickly."[50] When Stanton introduced a resolution at the National Woman's Rights Convention in 1860 favoring more lenient divorce laws, leading abolitionist Wendell Phillips not only opposed it but attempted to have it removed from the record.[51] When Stanton, Anthony, and others supported a bill before the New York legislature that would permit divorce in cases of desertion or inhuman treatment, Horace Greeley, an abolitionist newspaper publisher, campaigned against it in the pages of his newspaper.[52] Garrison, Phillips and Greeley had all provided valuable help to the women's movement. In a letter to Lucy Stone, Anthony said, "The Men, even the best of them, seem to think the Women's Rights question should be waived for the present. So let us do our own work, and in our own way."[53] Women's Loyal National League Anthony and Stanton organized the Women's Loyal National League in 1863 to campaign for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would abolish slavery. It was the first national women's political organization in the United States.[54] In the largest petition drive in the nation's history up to that time, the League collected nearly 400,000 signatures to abolish slavery, representing approximately one out of every twenty-four adults in the Northern states.[55] The petition drive significantly assisted the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery. Anthony was the chief organizer of this effort, which involved recruiting and coordinating some 2000 petition collectors.[56] The League provided the women's movement with a vehicle for combining the fight against slavery with the fight for women's rights by reminding the public that petitioning was the only political tool available to women at a time when only men were allowed to vote.[57] With a membership of 5000, it helped develop a new generation of women leaders, providing experience and recognition for not only Stanton and Anthony but also newcomers like Anna Dickinson, a gifted teenaged orator.[58] The League demonstrated the value of formal structure to a women's movement that had resisted being anything other than loosely organized up to that point.[59] The widespread network of women activists who assisted the League expanded the pool of talent that was available to reform movements, including the women's suffrage movement, after the war.[60] American Equal Rights Association Anthony stayed with her brother Daniel in Kansas for eight months in 1865 to assist with his newspaper. She headed back east after she learned that an amendment to the U.S. Constitution had been proposed that would provide citizenship for African Americans but would also for the first time introduce the word "male" into the constitution. Anthony supported citizenship for blacks but opposed any attempt to link it with a reduction in the status of women. Her ally Stanton agreed, saying "if that word'male' be inserted, it will take us a century at least to get it out."[61] Anthony and Stanton worked to revive the women's rights movement, which had become nearly dormant during the Civil War. In 1866, they organized the Eleventh National Women's Rights Convention, the first since the Civil War began.[62] Unanimously adopting a resolution introduced by Anthony, the convention voted to transform itself into the American Equal Rights Association (AERA), whose purpose was to campaign for the equal rights of all citizens, especially the right of suffrage.[63] The leadership of the new organization included such prominent activists as Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone and Frederick Douglass. Its drive for universal suffrage, however, was resisted by some abolitionist leaders and their allies in the Republican Party, who wanted women to postpone their campaign for suffrage until after it had been achieved for male African Americans. Horace Greeley, a prominent newspaper editor, told Anthony and Stanton, "This is a critical period for the Republican Party and the life of our Nation... I conjure you to remember that this is 'the negro's hour,' and your first duty now is to go through the State and plead his claims."[64] Anthony and Stanton refused to postpone their demands and continued to push for universal suffrage. In 1867, the AERA campaigned in Kansas for referenda that would enfranchise both African Americans and women. Wendell Phillips, an abolitionist leader who opposed mixing those two causes, blocked the funding that the AERA had expected for their campaign.[65] After an internal struggle, Kansas Republicans decided to support suffrage for black men only and formed an "Anti Female Suffrage Committee" to oppose the AERA's efforts.[66] By the end of summer, the AERA campaign had almost collapsed, and its finances were exhausted. Anthony and Stanton created a storm of controversy by accepting help during the last days of the campaign from George Francis Train, a wealthy businessman who supported women's rights. Train antagonized many activists by attacking the Republican Party and openly disparaging the integrity and intelligence of African Americans.[67] There is reason to believe, however, that Anthony and Stanton hoped to draw the volatile Train away from his cruder forms of racism, and that he had actually begun to do so.[68] After the Kansas campaign, the AERA increasingly divided into two wings, both advocating universal suffrage but with different approaches. One wing, whose leading figure was Lucy Stone, was willing for black men to achieve suffrage first and wanted to maintain close ties with the Republican Party and the abolitionist movement. The other, whose leading figures were Anthony and Stanton, insisted that women and black men should be enfranchised at the same time and worked toward a politically independent women's movement that would no longer be dependent on abolitionists. The AERA effectively dissolved after an acrimonious meeting in May 1869, and two competing woman suffrage organizations were created in its aftermath.[69] The Revolution Anthony and Stanton began publishing a weekly newspaper called The Revolution in New York City in 1868. It focused primarily on women's rights, especially suffrage for women, but it also covered other topics, including politics, the labor movement and finance. Its motto was "Men, their rights and nothing more: women, their rights and nothing less."[70] One of its goals was to provide a forum in which women could exchange opinions on key issues from a variety of viewpoints. Anthony managed the business aspects of the paper while Stanton was co-editor along with Parker Pillsbury, an abolitionist and a supporter of women's rights. Initial funding was provided by George Francis Train, the controversial businessman who supported women's rights but who alienated many activists with his political and racial views.[71] The Revolution's office at the far right below The World and above Scientific American. Printing House Square in Manhattan in 1868, showing the sign fors office at the far right belowand above In the aftermath of the Civil War, major periodicals associated with the radical social reform movements had either become more conservative or had quit publishing or soon would.[72] Anthony intended for The Revolution to partially fill that void, hoping to grow it eventually into a daily paper with its own printing press, all owned and operated by women.[73] The funding Train had arranged for the newspaper, however, was less than Anthony had expected. Moreover, Train sailed for England after The Revolution published its first issue and was soon jailed for supporting Irish independence.[74] Train's financial support eventually disappeared entirely. After twenty-nine months, mounting debts forced Anthony to transfer the paper to Laura Curtis Bullard, a wealthy women's rights activist who gave it a less radical tone. The paper published its last issue less than two years later.[71] Despite its short life, The Revolution gave Anthony and Stanton a means for expressing their views during the developing split within the women's movement. It also helped them promote their wing of the movement, which eventually became a separate organization.[75] Attempted alliance with labor The National Labor Union (NLU), which was formed in 1866, began reaching out to farmers, African Americans and women, with the intention of forming a broad-based political party.[76] The Revolution responded enthusiastically, declaring, "The principles of the National Labor Union are our principles."[77] It predicted that "The producers—the working-men, the women, the negroes—are destined to form a triple power that shall speedily wrest the sceptre of government from the non-producers—the land monopolists, the bond-holders, the politicians."[78] Anthony and Stanton were seated as delegates to the NLU Congress in 1868, with Anthony representing the Working Women's Association (WWA), which had recently been formed in the offices of The Revolution.[79] The attempted alliance did not last long. During a printers' strike in 1869, Anthony voiced approval of an employer-sponsored training program that would teach women skills that would enable them in effect to replace the strikers. Anthony viewed the program as an opportunity to increase employment of women in a trade from which women were often excluded by both employers and unions. At the next NLU Congress, Anthony was first seated as a delegate but then unseated because of strong opposition from those who accused her of supporting strikebreakers.[80] Anthony worked with the WWA to form all-female labor unions, but with little success. She accomplished more in her work with the joint campaign by the WWA and The Revolution to win a pardon for Hester Vaughn, a domestic worker who had been found guilty of infanticide and sentenced to death. Charging that the social and legal systems treated women unfairly, the WWA petitioned, organized a mass meeting at which Anthony was one of the speakers, and sent delegations to visit Vaughn in prison and to speak with the governor. Vaughn was eventually pardoned.[81] Originally with a membership that included over a hundred wage-earning women, the WWA evolved into an organization consisting almost entirely of journalists, doctors and other middle-class working women. Its members formed the core of the New York City portion of the new national suffrage organization that Anthony and Stanton were in the process of forming.[82] Split in the women's movement Susan B. Anthony 1870 In May 1869, two days after the final AERA convention, Anthony, Stanton and others formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). In November 1869, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and others formed the competing American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). The hostile nature of their rivalry created a partisan atmosphere that endured for decades, affecting even professional historians of the women's movement.[83] The immediate cause for the split was the proposed Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would prohibit the denial of suffrage because of race. In one of her most controversial actions, Anthony campaigned against the amendment. She and Stanton called for women and African Americans to be enfranchised at the same time. They said that by effectively enfranchising all men while excluding all women, the amendment would create an "aristocracy of sex" by giving constitutional authority to the idea that men were superior to women.[84] In 1873, Anthony said, "An oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor; an oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant; or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but surely this oligarchy of sex, which makes the men of every household sovereigns, masters; the women subjects, slaves; carrying dissension, rebellion into every home of the Nation, cannot be endured."[85] The AWSA supported the amendment, but Lucy Stone, who became its most prominent leader, also made it clear that she believed that suffrage for women would be more beneficial to the country than suffrage for black men.[86] The two organizations had other differences as well. The NWSA was politically independent, but the AWSA at least initially aimed for close ties with the Republican Party, hoping that the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment would lead to a Republican push for women's suffrage. The NWSA focused primarily on winning suffrage at the national level while the AWSA pursued a state-by-state strategy. The NWSA initially worked on a wider range of women's issues than the AWSA, including divorce reform and equal pay for women.[87] Events soon removed much of the basis for the split in the women's movement. In 1870, debate about the Fifteenth Amendment was made irrelevant when that amendment was officially ratified. In 1872, disgust with corruption in government led to a mass defection of abolitionists and other social reformers from the Republicans to the short-lived Liberal Republican Party.[88] As early as 1875, Anthony began urging the NWSA to focus more exclusively on women's suffrage rather than a variety of women's issues.[89] The rivalry between the two women's groups was so bitter, however, that a merger proved to be impossible for twenty years. The AWSA, which was especially strong in New England, was the larger of the two organizations, but it began to decline in strength during the 1880s.[90] In 1890, the two organizations merged as the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), with Stanton as president but with Anthony as its effective leader. When Stanton retired from her post in 1892, Anthony became NAWSA's president.[91] National suffrage movement Letter by Susan B. Anthony to US Congress in favor of Women's Suffrage "By the end of the Civil War," according to historian Ann D. Gordon, "Susan B. Anthony occupied new social and political territory. She was emerging on the national scene as a female leader, something new in American history, and she did so as a single woman in a culture that perceived the spinster as anomalous and unguarded... By the 1880s, she was among the senior political figures in the United States."[92] After the formation of the NWSA, Anthony dedicated herself fully to the organization and to women's suffrage. She did not draw a salary from either it or its successor, the NAWSA, but on the contrary used her lecture fees to fund those organizations.[93] There was no national office, the mailing address being simply that of one of the officers.[94] That Anthony had remained unmarried gave her an important business advantage in this work. A married woman at that time had the legal status of feme covert, which, among other things, excluded her from signing contracts (her husband could do that for her, if he chose). As Anthony had no husband, she was a feme sole and could freely sign contracts for convention halls, printed materials, etc.[95] Using fees she earned by lecturing, she paid off the debts she had accumulated while supporting The Revolution. With the press treating her as a celebrity, she proved to be a major draw.[96] Over her career she estimated that she averaged 75 to 100 speeches per year. Travel conditions in the earlier days were sometimes appalling. Once she gave a speech from the top of a billiard table. On another occasion her train was snowbound for days, and she survived on crackers and dried fish.[97] Both Anthony and Stanton joined the lecture circuit about 1870, usually traveling from mid-autumn to spring. The timing was right because the nation was beginning to discuss women's suffrage as a serious matter. Occasionally they traveled together but most often not. Lecture bureaus scheduled their tours and handled the travel arrangements, which generally involved traveling during the day and speaking at night, sometimes for weeks at a time, including weekends. Their lectures brought new recruits into the movement who strengthened suffrage organizations at the local, state and national levels. Their journeys during that decade covered a distance that was unmatched by any other reformer or politician.[98] Anthony's other suffrage work included organizing national conventions, lobbying Congress and state legislatures, and participating in a seemingly endless series of state suffrage campaigns. A special opportunity arose in 1876 when the U.S. celebrated its 100th birthday as an independent country. The NWSA asked permission to present a Declaration of Rights for Women at the official ceremony in Philadelphia, but was refused. Undaunted, five women, headed by Anthony, walked onto the platform during the ceremony and handed their Declaration to the startled official in charge. As they left, they handed out copies of it to the crowd. Spotting an unoccupied bandstand outside the hall, Anthony mounted it and read the Declaration to a large crowd. Afterwards she invited everyone to a NWSA convention at the nearby Unitarian church where speakers like Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton awaited them.[99][100] The work of all segments of the women's suffrage movement began to show clear results. Women won the right to vote in Wyoming in 1869 and in Utah in 1870. Her lectures in Washington and four other states led directly to invitations for her to address the state legislatures there.[98] The Grange, a large advocacy group for farmers, officially supported women's suffrage as early as 1885. The Women's Christian Temperance Union, the largest women's organization in the country, also supported suffrage.[101] Anthony's commitment to the movement, her spartan lifestyle, and the fact that she did not seek personal financial gain, made her an effective fund-raiser and won her the admiration of many who did not agree with her goals.[93] As her reputation grew, her working and travel conditions improved. She sometimes had the use of the private railroad car of Jane Stanford, a sympathizer whose husband owned a major railroad. While lobbying and preparing for the annual suffrage conventions in Washington, she was provided with a free suite of rooms in the Riggs Hotel, whose owners supported her work.[102] To ensure continuity, Anthony trained a group of younger activists, who were known as her "nieces," to assume leadership roles within the organization. Two of them, Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna Howard Shaw, served as presidents of the NAWSA after Anthony retired from that position.[103] United States v. Susan B. Anthony The NWSA convention of 1871 adopted a strategy of urging women to attempt to vote, and then, after being turned away, to file suits in federal courts to challenge laws that prevented women from voting. The legal basis for the challenge would be the recently adopted Fourteenth Amendment, part of which reads: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States".[104] Following the example set by Anthony and her sisters shortly before election day, a total of nearly fifty women in Rochester registered to vote in the presidential election of 1872. On election day, Anthony and fourteen other women from her ward convinced the election inspectors to allow them to cast ballots, but women in other wards were turned back.[105] Anthony was arrested on November 18, 1872, by a U.S. Deputy Marshal and charged with illegally voting. The other women who had voted were also arrested but released pending the outcome of Anthony's trial.[106] Anthony's trial generated a national controversy and became a major step in the transition of the broader women's rights movement into the women's suffrage movement.[107] Anthony spoke throughout Monroe County, New York, where her trial was to be held and from where the jurors for her trial would be chosen. Her speech was entitled "Is it a Crime for a U.S. Citizen to Vote?" She said, "We no longer petition Legislature or Congress to give us the right to vote. We appeal to women everywhere to exercise their too long neglected 'citizen's right to vote.'"[108] The U.S. Attorney arranged for the trial to be moved to the federal circuit court, which would soon sit in neighboring Ontario County with a jury drawn from that county's inhabitants. Anthony responded by speaking throughout that county also before the trial began.[109] Responsibility for that federal circuit was in the hands of Justice Ward Hunt, who had recently been appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Hunt had never served as a trial judge; originally a politician, he had begun his judicial career by being elected to the New York Court of Appeals.[110] The trial, United States v. Susan B. Anthony, began on June 17, 1873 and was closely followed by the national press. Following a rule of common law at that time which prevented criminal defendants in federal courts from testifying, Hunt refused to allow Anthony to speak until the verdict had been delivered. On the second day of the trial, after both sides had presented their cases, Justice Hunt delivered his lengthy opinion, which he had put in writing. In the most controversial aspect of the trial, Hunt directed the jury to deliver a guilty verdict.[111] On the third day of the trial, Hunt asked Anthony if she had anything to say. She responded with "the most famous speech in the history of the agitation for woman suffrage", according to Ann D. Gordon, a historian of the women's movement.[112] Repeatedly ignoring the judge's order to stop talking and sit down, she protested what she called "this high-handed outrage upon my citizen's rights", saying, "you have trampled under foot every vital principle of our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights, are all alike ignored."[113] She castigated Justice Hunt for denying her a trial by jury, but said that even if he had allowed the jury to discuss the case, she still would have been denied a trial by a jury of her peers because women were not allowed to be jurors.[113] When Justice Hunt sentenced Anthony to pay a fine of $100, she responded, "I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty"[114], and she never did. If Hunt had ordered her to be jailed until she paid the fine, Anthony could have taken her case to the Supreme Court. Hunt instead announced he would not order her taken into custody, closing off that legal avenue.[115] The U.S. Supreme Court in 1875 put an end to the strategy of trying to achieve women's suffrage through the court system when it ruled in Minor v. Happersett that "the Constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon anyone".[116] The NWSA decided to pursue the far more difficult strategy of campaigning for a constitutional amendment to achieve voting rights for women. History of Woman Suffrage Life magazine in 1913. Titled "Ancient History", it shows an Anthony-like figure in classical dress leading a protest for women's rights Cover ofmagazine in 1913. Titled "Ancient History", it shows an Anthony-like figure in classical dress leading a protest for women's rights Anthony and Stanton initiated the project of writing a history of the women's suffrage movement in 1876. Anthony had for years saved letters, newspaper clippings, and other materials of historical value to the women's movement. In 1876, she moved into the Stanton household in New Jersey along with several trunks and boxes of these materials to begin working with Stanton on the History of Woman Suffrage.[117] Anthony hated this type of work. In her letters, she said the project "makes me feel growly all the time... No warhorse ever panted for the rush of battle more than I for outside work. I love to make history but hate to write it."[118] The work absorbed much of her time for several years although she continued to work on other women's suffrage activities. She acted as her own publisher, which presented several problems, including finding space for the inventory. She was forced to limit the number of books she was storing in the attic of her sister's house because the weight was threatening to collapse the structure.[119] Originally envisioned as a modest publication that could be produced quickly, the history evolved into a six-volume work of more than 5700 pages written over a period of 41 years. The first three volumes, which cover the movement up to 1885, were published between 1881 and 1886 and were produced by Stanton, Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage. Anthony handled the production details and the extensive correspondence with contributors. Anthony published Volume 4, which covers the period from 1883 to 1900, in 1902, after Stanton's death, with the help of Ida Husted Harper, Anthony's designated biographer. The last two volumes, which bring the history up to 1920, were completed in 1922 by Harper after Anthony's death. The History of Woman Suffrage preserves an enormous amount of material that might have been lost forever. Written by leaders of one wing of the divided women's movement (Lucy Stone, their main rival, refused to have anything to do with the project), it does not, however, give a balanced view of events where their rivals are concerned. It overstates the role of Anthony and Stanton, and it understates or ignores the roles of Stone and other activists who did not fit into the historical narrative that Anthony and Stanton developed. Because it was for years the main source of documentation about the suffrage movement, historians have had to uncover other sources to provide a more balanced view.[120][121] International women's organizations International Council of Women Anthony traveled to Europe in 1883 for a nine-month stay, linking up with Stanton, who had arrived a few months earlier. Together they met with leaders of European women's movements and began the process of creating an international women's organization.[122] The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) agreed to host its founding congress. The preparatory work was handled primarily by Anthony and two of her younger colleagues in the NWSA, Rachel Foster Avery and May Wright Sewall. Delegates from fifty-three women's organizations in nine countries met in Washington in 1888 to form the new association, which was called the International Council of Women (ICW). The delegates represented a wide variety of organizations, including suffrage associations, professional groups, literary clubs, temperance unions, labor leagues and missionary societies. The American Woman Suffrage Association, which had for years been a rival to the NWSA, participated in the congress. Anthony opened the first session of the ICW and presided over most events.[123] The ICW commanded respect at the highest levels. President Cleveland and his wife sponsored a reception at the White House for delegates to the ICW's founding congress. The ICW's second congress was an integral part of the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. At its third congress in London in 1899, a reception for the ICW was held at Windsor Castle at the invitation of Queen Victoria. At its fourth congress in Berlin in 1904, Augusta Victoria, the German Empress, received the ICW leaders at her palace. Anthony played a prominent role on all four occasions.[124] Still active, ICW is associated with the United Nations.[125] World's Congress of Representative Women The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was held in 1893. It hosted several world congresses, each dealing with a specialized topic, such as religion, medicine and science. At almost the last moment, the U.S. Congress decided that the Exposition should also recognize the role of women. After it was over, one of the organizers of the Exposition's congress of women revealed that Anthony had played a pivotal but hidden role in that last-minute decision. Fearing that a public campaign would rouse opposition, Anthony had worked quietly to organize support for this project among women of the political elite. Anthony increased the pressure by covertly initiating a petition that was signed by wives and daughters of Supreme Court judges, senators, cabinet members and other dignitaries.[126] Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition A large structure called the Woman's Building, designed by Sophia Hayden Bennett, was constructed to provide meeting and exhibition spaces for women at the Exposition. Two of Anthony's closest associates were appointed to organize the women's congress. They arranged for the International Council of Women to make its upcoming meeting part of the Exposition by expanding its scope and calling itself the World's Congress of Representative Women.[127] This week-long congress seated delegates from 27 countries. Its 81 sessions, many held simultaneously, were attended by over 150,000 people, and women's suffrage was discussed at almost every session.[128] Anthony spoke to large crowds at the Exposition.[129] "Buffalo Bill" Cody invited her as a guest to his Wild West Show, located just outside the Exposition.[130] When the show opened, he rode his horse directly to her and greeted her with dramatic flair. According to a co-worker, Anthony, "for the moment as enthusiastic as a girl, waved her handkerchief at him, while the big audience, catching the spirit of the scene, wildly applauded."[131] International Woman Suffrage Alliance After Anthony retired as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Carrie Chapman Catt, her chosen successor, began working toward an international women's suffrage association, one of Anthony's long-time goals. The existing International Council of Women could not be expected to support a campaign for women's suffrage because it was a broad alliance whose more conservative members would object. In 1902, Catt organized a preparatory meeting in Washington, with Anthony as chair, that was attended by delegates from several countries. Organized primarily by Catt, the International Woman Suffrage Alliance was created in Berlin in 1904. The founding meeting was chaired by Anthony, who was declared to be the new organization's honorary president and first member.[132] According to Anthony's authorized biographer, "no event ever gave Miss Anthony such profound satisfaction as this one".[133] Later renamed the International Alliance of Women, the organization is still active and is affiliated with the United Nations.[134] Changing relationship with Stanton Anthony and Stanton worked together in a close and productive relationship. From 1880 to 1886 they were together almost every day working on the History of Woman Suffrage.[135] They referred to each other as "Susan" and "Mrs. Stanton".[136] Anthony deferred to Stanton in other ways also, not accepting an office in any organization that would place her above Stanton.[137] In practice this generally meant that Anthony, although ostensibly holding a less important office, handled most of the organization
time and do his research before making any significant roster decisions. Go With The Rotating “A” A third option exists for the Maple Leafs. However, for this one to happen, Phaneuf would either need to get traded or he would have to voluntarily relinquish the captaincy. Stripping him of it could also happen, but the potential fallout is simply too much of a risk. Maybe giving Phaneuf an “A” could be a good thing. He wouldn’t be the sole leader and whipping boy after every loss. It would also enable other Leafs to step up into leadership roles and assume collective responsibility when the team doesn’t play well. The Maple Leafs have a ton of options when it comes to their captain. Each scenario holds interesting potential that will have some type of ramification on the team. It will be up to the new coach and the management team to decide exactly how to tackle this situation.Photo credit: MSNBC Disgusting a disturbing mentality of the leftist media is once again on full display after an MSNBC contributor advocated for having his young daughter raped in a disturbing tweet. The tweet, by MSNBC Contributor Sam Seder was both outrageously shocking and horrendously demented, in which he said (the typos are his own) the following: “Dont care re Polanski, but i hope if my daughter is ever raped it is by an older truly talented man w/ a great sense of mise en scene” as per his tweet. As a precautionary measure in case, Sam Seder attempts to delete his tweet I've taken the liberty of As a precautionary measure in case, Sam Seder attempts to delete his tweet I've taken the liberty of permanently archiving it to ensure the evidence is held forever. Dont care re Polanski, but i hope if my daughter is ever raped it is by an older truly talented man w/ a great sense of mise en scene — Sam Seder (@SamSeder) September 30, 2009 If the embedded tweet above goes down it's due to the fact that he's deleted it, hence the screenshot below. He's clearly listed as a “Verified” Twitter user which Twitter has stated is condoning the offline actions of the user. Even worse, he's listed as a contributor to MSNBC, the ultra-left leaning fake news television station. There should be no defense for even joking about raping a child let alone Sam Seder’s own daughter. I'm not sure what his defense will be, but this is hugely disturbing. His Twitter bio reads as saying he's a host at His Twitter bio reads as saying he's a host at Majority.FM daily and Ring of Fire Radio weekly as well as being an MSNBC contributor. lists him as follows: Wikipedia lists him as follows: Samuel Lincoln Seder (born November 28, 1966) is an American comedian, writer, actor, film director, television producer-director, and progressive talk radio host. His works include the film Who's the Caboose? (1997) starring Sarah Silverman and Seder as well as the television shows Beat Cops (2001) and Pilot Season (2004). He also appeared in Next Stop Wonderland (1998). Seder also made guest appearances on Spin City (1997), Sex and the City (2000) America Undercover (2005), and Maron (2015). He voices Hugo on the animated comedy series Bob's Burgers. So not only is Sam Seder just a political commentator, but he stars in multiple Hollywood projects or did at one time. This disturbing tweet which was found once again exposes the sickening trend that continues in the world of entertainment. I hope, since this man is indeed a father to more than one child, that child protective services are warned about these disgusting remarks, and all of his employers are made aware of this. On Twitter: Tips? Info? Send me a message!On the evening of May 3, 1999, a massive tornado tore through the Oklahoma City area. Known today as the Bridge Creek-Moore Tornado, it’s infamous for its size (a mile wide) and strength (wind speeds reached 300 miles per hour, on par with a Tokyo bullet train). It moved, as tornadoes so often do, from the southwest to the northeast, touching down in the rural plains before churning its way through the suburb of Moore and up to Midwest City, just east of downtown — which was where it pulverized my dad’s truck. My dad, Howard Koerth, moved to Oklahoma in 1994 to teach art at Rose State Community College in Midwest City. He was there May 3, right in the tornado’s path. Instead of going to the storm shelter, he opened the back door of his building and watched the fat funnel tear apart an auto dealership. The tornado was gray, tinted with red from the layers of clay-filled topsoil it had peeled off the Earth. If you watch video of it today, you see it surrounded by a haze of confetti. When the camera zooms in, the ticker tape turns out to be, instead, a blizzard of two-by-fours, siding, whole trucks. Sixteen years later, Dad has yet to exorcise that image from his mind and he’s still asking me about the Bridge Creek-Moore tornado. Or, rather, he asks me about its sister storms — tornadoes that, to him, seem to follow the same path, flattening the same places over and over. Especially Moore. Always Moore. He called me in 2003, when a slightly less powerful tornado — and, by “less powerful,” I mean one classified as “devastating” (an EF4) rather than “incredible” (an EF5) — hit Moore. He called me in 2010, when another EF4 struck the town. He called me in 2013, when Moore was hit — improbably — by a second EF5. He always asks the same question: “What is going on here?” One town. Sixteen years. Four big, powerful tornadoes. It’s a hell of a coincidence. Can it really be just the work of random chance? My dad isn’t the only person vexed by this question. And the question isn’t limited to Moore. Instead, asking about Moore is really asking a bigger question: Why do tornadoes strike some places and not others? About 1,000 tornadoes touch down in the United States every year, and the majority of them happen in one of two areas — a vertical swath running from roughly Nebraska to Texas and a horizontal swath from Oklahoma to Georgia. Within that, there are places where tornadoes seem to cluster, such as Birmingham and Little Rock, said Tom Grazulis, a researcher who, in the 1980s, compiled records of American tornadoes back to the 17th century for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But those clusters usually happen over longer periods of time, say, 40 years or 100 years. He couldn’t think of any other place hit as hard in such a short period of time as Moore. CAT. SHARE OF ALL TORNADOES EF1 71% – EF2 21 – EF3 6 – EF4 1 – EF5 <1 Distribution of U.S. tornadoes, 1994-2012 Source: Environmental Research Letters Nobody knows how likely it is that a given town would be hit by four violent tornadoes in 16 years; if we knew that, then we’d also know whether Moore really is especially tornado prone, or just suffering a streak of bad luck. But we do know big tornadoes, themselves, are rare. Devastating EF4s made up 1.37 percent of all the tornadoes that hit the U.S. from 1994 to 2012. Just 0.14 percent were incredible EF5s. And that’s enough to make Moore’s recent history turn heads. People who live in the Plains states, as I once did, have a special relationship with tornadoes, wary but familiar, like your grandma’s dog that’ll bite if you aren’t careful. This is a part of the country where little kids dream about growing up to be storm chasers. Where tornado sirens go off every Wednesday at lunchtime, just as a test of the system. It’s a part of the country where art professors like my dad duck outside for a peek at one of the most powerful tornadoes in recorded history. But this thing with Moore even weirds out Oklahomans. “For years people have asked me, ‘What about Moore?’ ” said Gary England, a retired TV meteorologist who shepherded generations of Oklahomans through more than 40 tornado seasons. “People talk about topography. They talk about geomagnetic forces. I think it’s very unusual. But I think most scientists would probably tell you it’s just a roll of the dice.” The first big tornado recorded in Oklahoma happened on April 25, 1893. Witnesses claimed it was more than a mile wide. It hit Moore, which had just been incorporated that same year. Yes, one of the first things that happened in the town was the destruction of the town. But that still doesn’t mean that a tornado in Moore is anything more than a roll of the dice, as England put it. Even Grazulis, who was surprised by what had happened to Moore recently, thinks the events of the last 16 years reek of random clustering. That’s because, all things considered, it’s no big surprise that a place in central Oklahoma is being hit by a lot of tornadoes. There’s a mystery about the risks associated with Moore, but it’s a mystery that’s complicated by matters of scale. If you zoom out — look at our hemisphere or our continent — the part of the country Moore is in really is more likely to be hit by tornadoes than most other places, that’s not random. But the fact that Moore, specifically, is being hit over and over … that could still just be bad luck. To understand why, you need to know a little about how tornadoes work. All tornadoes that touch down in central Oklahoma start their lives in two places: the Gulf of Mexico and the Rocky Mountains. Warm, moist air comes up from the Gulf in the south. From the west, air ripples over the mountaintops, losing moisture and heat as it goes. This odd couple meets on the downward slope into the plains. The air currents from the south tend to be at a lower level of the atmosphere than those from the west, which creates an opportunity for naturally buoyant, hot, moist air to rise up through layers of cool, dry air. That produces condensation, just like water droplets form on the outside of a cold can of soda on a hot day. Now you have the ingredients of a thunderstorm: moisture, rising air currents, and the instability that happens when Gulf air and the mountain air jockey for position. This is why the infamous Tornado Alley of the Plains states is Tornado Alley. It’s the place where the Gulf air and the mountain air meet. “The central part of the U.S. is incredibly well designed to produce tornadoes,” said Harold Brooks, senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Weather Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma — a suburb just south of Moore. There are a few other places on Earth with similar profiles, but they have limitations the Plains states just don’t have, such as a mountain range like the Andes, which is thinner and can’t dry or cool air as well as the Rockies. The central U.S. is the most likely place for tornadoes to form, on this continent and anywhere in the world. Insomuch as it sits right in the middle of that, yes, Moore is at a higher risk. But that’s Moore in comparison to Cleveland or Buenos Aires. What about at the smaller scale: Moore in comparison to, say, Tulsa? That’s a question that hasn’t been explored as much as the science of tornadoes themselves. Researchers at the National Severe Storms Laboratory say there isn’t much emphasis placed on the question of whether a specific region or town might be more prone to tornado activity than another. Instead, they’re more interested in how the storms form, how to track them and how to get more accurate warnings out faster. But some scientists are trying to find out more about the distribution of tornadoes. Brooks, along with fellow meteorologists Patrick Marsh and Gregory Carbin are among the scientists who are fascinated by the possibility that Moore (and certain other places) really could be tornado magnets. They’ve published research relating to it and written about it on blogs. But none of them do that work as their main job. “What about Moore?” is a question guys like these talk about over beers at the end of the day, Brooks told me. The research they are doing might one day make it easier for them to answer that question. Right now, though, they can’t. There are three big problems. First, tornadoes are really complex systems. They only form if a storm begins to rotate vertically, a corkscrew of air rising high into the sky. Scientists think that rotation starts because of wind shear, quick changes in wind speed or direction at different levels of the atmosphere. Imagine holding a piece of Play-Doh between your flattened hands. If you move them past each other, in opposite directions, the dough in between rolls up into a tube. Similarly, wind shear creates horizontal columns of spinning air. When those get caught by rising warm air, they can tip up, become vertical, and turn a thunderstorm into a supercell. A tornado happens when that spinning supercell touches the ground. If hurricanes are nature’s nuclear warhead, tornadoes are its smart bomb. Each of the steps in the storm’s formation – from the meeting of the Gulf and mountain air currents, to the moment the supercell stretches down and scrapes its fingers through the dirt – involves forces scientists don’t totally understand and elements of random chance. Add it all together and you have a dark, churning mass of mystery and probability. For Gregory Carbin, that reality sank in as he watched the Bridge Creek-Moore tornado. From Carbin’s vantage point, just outside the Severe Storms Laboratory, the tornado itself wasn’t visible, but the supercell was. It rose up, black and boiling, a chimney belching angry water vapor 50,000 feet into the air. And Carbin thought, “It’s so fragile.” “It occurred to me that, you know, what would it take for it to just be a rain shower or nothing at all? Everything needs to come together just right, and if you don’t have those conditions, if something is off — and we don’t even know what that something might be — you don’t get a tornado,” he said. The second problem is that tornadoes are pretty rare. One thousand a year, scattered across the continent, does not produce many data points at the scale of an individual city. Most days, there aren’t tornadoes anywhere. That problem is exacerbated by the third issue: Scientists really only have about 50 years of really good tornado documentation. Essentially, Brooks told me, scientists can’t tell us whether what’s happened in Moore is abnormal because they don’t know what a “normal” amount of violent tornadoes is. With all of that, Brooks said, there’s not a good way to clearly tell the difference between patterns and pareidolia. After all, the human brain is primed to find significance in the random. In the creaky corners of our neural pathways, a jumble of rocks can become an old man, a coat hanger can become a drunk octopus, a bunch of craters on the moon give us a friendly smile. It’s so easy for a few random events to make one small town look like a tornado magnet. It would be harder not to see it. And Moore, itself, facilitates that pareidolia. Located about 11 miles due south of downtown Oklahoma City, Moore is a town for which Interstate 35 serves as a virtual Main Street, running through the middle of town. Businesses cluster on either side: A movie theater, Hollie’s Flatiron Steakhouse, Furr’s Fresh Buffet, the skating rink, Leon’s Pharmacy. Even the public library, community center and the Chamber of Commerce abut the frontage roads. The town may have been incorporated in 1893, but until suburbia dropped out of the sky and landed on it, Moore was so small that there was no real historic center to anchor businesses to. Stretching away from the highway, on either side, streets of tidy, middle-class homes wind around parks and curve into cul-de-sacs. Many have brick facades and a stubby look, hugging the ground like Corgis. It took me a minute to realize that this was because the construction is almost uniformly slab on grade. Central Oklahoma is tornado prone, and the National Weather Service recommends basements and storm cellars as first-line tornado shelters. But few buildings in central Oklahoma are built with either one. Like many places with this kind of history, Moore is somewhat amorphous, its 22 square miles bleeding into Oklahoma City to the north and the more well-known (and well-off) college town of Norman to the south. It’s easy for even longtime residents to be unsure of where their city ends and another begins. The official size is misleading in other ways, as well. That’s because Moore’s school district is 159 square miles, encompassing parts of the southern end of OKC, itself. The result is a colloquial Moore that is much larger than what the census might tell you. “The largest high school in Oklahoma City is Westmoore High School. So people think of all that southwestern Oklahoma City as being Moore,” Brooks said. Keep that in mind while you think about the tornadoes that hit the Oklahoma City area on May 31, 2013. This was 11 days after an EF5 destroyed large chunks of Moore, grinding houses, parks, churches and two grade schools into rubble. This storm dropped at least five individual tornadoes all over the region. Sirens went off in Moore that night. Plenty of people who lived there fled for their lives. Among them was Chris Fox, his wife, two kids, his mother and his grandfather. That night, a local TV news anchor advised people to get out of the tornadoes’ way by any method possible – including by car. So they did. “Which, had I been in my right mind, we would have stayed put and would have been fine,” Fox said. “What we ended up doing, we drove into the path of this smaller spin-off and we had to pull out of traffic into a church parking lot. As we’re pulling off, trees are coming out, roots are coming up, rain is going sideways, my kids are crying and screaming. We end up arriving at this church with 20 other people who have come from different directions to get here. The inner doors are locked. We’re in a vestibule. And this guy whips out a crowbar from his truck.” Fox, who went on to found a community volunteer organization called Serve Moore, survived his brush with both the fury of nature and breaking and entering. But the tornadoes he and his family were fleeing never hit the place they were fleeing from. According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, those tornadoes touched down in El Reno, southwest Oklahoma City and other suburbs … but not Moore. Moore’s tornado problem exists both as data and as mythology. There are the tornadoes that hit Moore and then there’s the pervasive sense that Moore gets hit by tornadoes. Consider the suburb of Norman, which sits just to the south of Moore. It’s the next set of exits off I-35. Patrick Marsh, of the Severe Storms Weather Laboratory, told me initially that Moore had been hit by more tornadoes in recent years than Norman. But, as we continued talking, he went through that recent tornado history and ended up stopping and correcting himself. Actually, Norman probably had been hit about as frequently as Moore, he said. It’s just that Norman had avoided the big EF4s and EF5s that everybody remembered, and so Norman hadn’t taken on the status of being tornado prone. “I don’t think you can statistically prove that your risk is any lower than what happened two miles up the road in Moore,” he said. “But everybody in Norman thinks, ‘Oh, I’m safe. Because the tornado will hit Moore.’ ” Between the large-scale likelihood of tornadoes, the pareidolia and the self-mythologizing, I was ready to believe that the Moore mystery wasn’t really that mysterious. Bad luck and supposition seemed to account for everything. That’s certainly the sense you get from a cursory glance at the historical data. Harold Brooks showed me a map of Oklahoma City sprinkled with multicolored tracks of all the tornadoes that had gone through the area since 1880. There’s no obvious confluence over Moore. The whole region is littered with tornado tracks. Bethany, a town on Oklahoma City’s northwest side, has been hit seven times since 1930. On the map view, it looks about as beleaguered as Moore. Meanwhile, there’s a chunk of northeast Moore that’s never been hit, at all. But then Brooks brought out one more data set. In the late 1990s, he’d been a part of an effort to quantify what was normal and what wasn’t about the distribution of tornadoes. As I already mentioned, this is difficult work and it’s made even more complex by fudging and inconsistencies in the historical documentation. National Weather Service records go back to 1950. Tom Grazulis’ data set, which is based on newspaper accounts and records kept by local postmasters, picks up the trail back to the 1600s, and Brooks considers it reliable to about 1870. But both of those are likely missing a lot of smaller tornadoes and tornadoes that landed in lightly populated places. Perspective matters. In 1880 a mapmaker promoting colonization of the Oklahoma Territory claimed the area was virtually tornado free, Grazulis told me. Even when these records don’t miss a tornado, they have clearly been fudged in many ways. It’s unlikely, as Brooks pointed out, that so many tornadoes would start punctually at the top of the hour, the way they tend to in the historical records. But these records can still tell us something useful about the statistical probability of a tornado’s touching down in one place and not in another. At the very least, it tells you what is possible. Brooks analyzed the data to find the times of the year and places in the country where tornadoes seemed to be more likely to happen. It wasn’t exactly a prediction of the future – more a detailed observation of the past. Using this, he came up with the most likely place and time for a big tornado: a town called Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, on May 2. “So, has a tornado ever hit Pauls Valley on May 2?” I asked him. “No. I don’t think so,” he said. But when I laughed, he explained. That location comes with a caveat. It’s got some built-in margin of error to make up for all the poorly collected reports and missed tornadoes of decades past. Scientists call this smoothing the data, and Brooks’ estimate is smoothed to within 50 miles or so. Moore is 46 miles north of Pauls Valley. Brooks presented this data at a conference on April 30, 1999. Three days later, the Bridge Creek-Moore tornado came to town. “In some sense,” he said, “That tornado on May 3 was about as likely of a violent tornado as you could imagine.” Michael Bewley was 11 years old in 1999, when the Bridge Creek-Moore tornado flattened the house he shared with his mother on the outskirts of Moore. One day, they had a small, neat home on three acres at the end of a long dirt road. The next day, they had rubble. Bewley and his mother had no basement. They could have crawled into the bathtub, pulled a mattress over themselves, and hoped for the best. Instead, they ran for the car. “She was a waitress and she grabbed her time cards, I grabbed the dog, and we left,” he told me. When they came back later that night, everything was gone. Their belongings had been crushed, thrown and rained on. Bewley is certain they wouldn’t have survived if they’d stayed. But, in one sense, he did stay. Bewley still lives in Moore. Today he manages Chris Fox’s Serve Moore foundation. Bewley has an infant daughter whom he plans to raise in Moore and who has already taken her first turns in the storm shelter. These are the realities of his life: Has it been shaped by chance, or something else? We can’t completely discount the possibility of something else. In 2004, Brooks’ colleagues Chris Broyles and Casey Crosbie published a paper that analyzed the locations of all the EF3, EF4 and EF5 tornadoes that touched down between 1880 and 2003. They focused on these three classes of tornado because that filters out the smaller type of tornadoes that more easily get left out of records. By smoothing the data in this way, the researchers saw some places where larger tornadoes really do seem to be more common. Looking at it this way is looking at tornadoes on a zoomed-in scale, regional instead of national. At this level, Moore still isn’t unique. But it is part of a clique — a gang of cities and counties marked by the invisible target painted on their backs. Broyles and Crosbie drew a frequency map of the 979 big tornadoes to touch down in 123 years, showing the number of tornadoes per 1,000 square miles. Plotted out this way, they found clusters. There are dark blobs – tornado alleys within tornado alleys – scattered across the continent. One of those blobs sits over central Oklahoma, north of the Canadian River, stretching from Oklahoma City to Tulsa. Moore is a part of that blob. Other places, including Fillmore County, Nebraska, and Union County, Mississippi, appear to be even more prone to big tornadoes. This study wasn’t perfect. For one thing, Brooks said, it’s probably no coincidence that the highest frequencies were east of the Mississippi River – where the population density, even in rural areas, is higher than in Oklahoma and other Plains states. That higher population density probably means more thorough reporting of tornadoes. It’s also possible that there are differences between locations in how tornado damage is recorded — and, thus, in how the tornadoes, which are classed based on the damage they cause, get counted. Recently, a Severe Storms Laboratory research scientist named Corey Potvin teamed up with Brooks and Broyles to re-evaluate the mini-tornado alleys data. They tested out some new ways of accounting for flaws in historical records and calculated the probability that these mini-alleys occurred randomly was just 3 percent. In October of 2015, they presented the results as a poster at the National Weather Association Annual Meeting. Their conclusion: “At least some of the mini-tornado alleys likely are real.” Potvin now thinks that may be a bit premature to say and there are a lot of caveats that go with it, but he is confident they aren’t just a relic of the sampling: garbage data produced by flaws in the way the tornadoes were documented and categorized. What’s happened in Moore is shaped by chance — but it’s also, probably, more than that. Unfortunately, this is where tornado science dusts its hands and wanders off for a beer. Meteorology can tell us about how tornadoes form at the continental scale. Detailed study of the historical records can tell us about regional probabilities. But when you get to the hyper-local level — the real question of, what is up with Moore? — scientists go mute. Luckily, we have insurance agents. (If anybody would know about the risks of natural disasters, it’s the insurance industry, right?) And from their perspective, Moore just isn’t that special. People who live in Moore don’t pay any more in home insurance premiums than people in nearby communities around OKC and central Oklahoma, said Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute. Frankly, he told me, insurers are more concerned about the thunderstorm that moves across the whole state than they are about the tornado that drops from it to wreck part of a county or two. Oklahomans have the fourth-highest property insurance premiums in the nation, and much of that is tied up in risks that might be tornado related, but aren’t tornado specific, such as hail, straight-line winds, tree branches crashing through the roof. That’s because, unlike a hurricane, which can flatten property for hundreds of miles, tornadoes are a more discrete threat. The Bridge Creek-Moore tornado left a mile-wide path of complete destruction, but houses a few blocks away went untouched. Most people who got hit by that tornado haven’t been hit by any of the others. Parts of Moore have never been hit, at all. If hurricanes are nature’s nuclear warhead, tornadoes are its smart bomb. That difference impacts individual risk. And so the hurricane-prone states of Florida, Louisiana and Texas come before Oklahoma on the list of states with the highest premiums. Knowing that, it becomes less surprising to learn that during the 16 years when Moore has been earning its reputation as America’s tornado magnet, it’s also been growing like gangbusters. A 2014 Census Bureau report showed a 41.3 percent increase in population between 2000 and 2013. “Our growth rate is higher than the state average and is typically one of the highest of the larger cities in Oklahoma,” said Deidre Ebrey, Moore’s director of economic development. That’s not because of the tornadoes. (If anything, it’s probably because of Oklahoma’s oil and gas boom.) But if you’re looking for a place to live near OKC, you could do worse than Moore. As many people who live there told me — the cost of living is low, the schools are good, the commutes are short. And you probably aren’t any more likely to be hit by a tornado than you are in a neighboring suburb. Even if evidence comes along someday to prove that there really is something that draws tornadoes to Moore, specifically, that might not really matter all that much to the individual risk of the people who live there. Scale matters. And it contributes to the difficulty of figuring out why tornadoes strike some places and not others. To ask “why,” you first have to know “whether.” And whether tornado hot spots happen or not is relative. “Moore is a mystery, and you aren’t going to get an explanation,” Grazulis told me. If that’s where we have to leave it … well, it wouldn’t be the first time tornadoes have led people on a bit of a wild goose chase. Take the case of Codell, Kansas. On May 20, 1916, Codell was hit by a tornado. It was hit again on May 20, 1917. On May 20, 1918, a third tornado tore through town. Yes, really. You can find the records with the Kansas State Historical Society. Was there something special about Codell? Maybe. And then again, maybe not. “What I really would like to know is what it was like on May 20, 1919,” Brooks said. “That’s the story I want. But we don’t really know much. I guess the 1918 tornado just sort of ended the town.” And after that, Codell, or what was left of it, was never hit by a tornado again. CORRECTION (May 26, 12:28 p.m.): An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of a town in Oklahoma. It is Pauls Valley, not Paul’s Valley. CORRECTION (June 1, 6:09 p.m.): A previous version of a map caption in this article misidentified the federal office where Chris Broyles and Casey Crosbie work. It is the Storm Prediction Center, not the National Severe Storms Laboratory. Both are divisions of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.TRUMP HITS BACK: White House Filing Emergency Request To Stop Judge’s Halt Of The Ban! The White House Responds Immediately To Rebellious Judge On Friday The Gateway Pundit reported that a federal judge who had been appointed by former President George Bush had halted President Trump’s immigration ban. That same judge is also a supporter of the radical and violent Black Lives Matter group. In a matter of minutes the White House and Department of Justice responded to this latest development by saying that an emergency request is being filed to stop the judge’s nationwide halt of President Trump’s immigration order according to CNN. From CNN: “At the earliest possible time, the Department of Justice intends to file an emergency stay of this outrageous order and defend the executive order of the President, which we believe is lawful and appropriate,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement. “The president’s order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people.” Follow Ryan Saavedra On Twitter @NewsRevoltRyanAdvertisement In October of 2009, we wrote about the very first version of EPFL's AirBurr micro air vehicle, called HoverMouse. It was an innovative design: a roll cage protected the MAV's engine and flight surfaces, enabling it to crash into walls and floors without damage and then take off again, provided it had enough room to get airborne. Seven iterations later, the AirBurr V8 Samurai includes an active self-righting mechanism that allows it to crash and take off again even in rugged and cluttered environments. AirBurr's latest trick involves first crashing into something and falling to the ground, which I imagine was a pretty easy thing to get it to do. Second, the MAV rolls over onto its side thanks to a clever arrangement of carbon fiber caging plus a carefully designed center of gravity. Third, AirBurr activates an "Active Recovery System" consisting of carbon fiber legs that deploy out from the body, pushing the body of the MAV into a vertical position from which it can lift off straight up. Watch: Overall, this system is sort of like a cross between a WeebleCopter and that nifty little jumping robot that can self-right after landing. The big advantage that AirBurr has is that it doesn't have to be super clever apart from the structural design. This isn't to say that the robot isn't clever, but what makes it clever is that it doesn't have to localize, it doesn't have to detect objects, and it doesn't have to rely on all kinds of sensors and onboard computing power. Instead, it can just smash into things and recover and keep on going. As the video points out, this is a very insect-like behavior, and AirBurr is ideal for confined and cluttered environments that are bad for traditional sensors, like disaster areas or anywhere indoors or underground. According to a forthcoming paper in IEEE Transactions on Robotics (authored by Adam Klaptocz, Ludovic Daler, Adrien Briod, Jean-Christophe Zufferey, and Dario Floreano), the AirBurr Samurai was able to autonomously right itself within 25 seconds in 100% of the time after being manually knocked over on a flat surface. The robot had a little bit of trouble trying to get back up after landing on slopes greater than 10 degrees, and gravel and rocks proved tricky as well. Part of the problem is the autonomous controller, and EPFL researchers are already working on the AirBurr V9, which will be even smarter: The active uprighting mechanism described in this paper is a first mechanical implementation that could be extended through improved sensing and control. Initial investigations show that lightweight strain gauges integrated into the legs can measure the shape of the leg and, thus, the force it provides at its tip. Further, strain gauges can measure tension in the string and, thus, contact with obstacles. Such information can be leveraged to create a more intelligent controller that can extract the platform from ever more complex situations. Now, as we've mentioned, the Samurai is the 8th generation of the AirBurr. Just for fun, here's the whole lineup, dating back to 2009: AirBurr V1 "HoverMouse": The first prototype of the AirBurr, weighing only 25g, and featuring a gravity-based self-recovery system which allows it to return to a takeoff position after a collision. AirBurr V2 "ICRA2010": As its namesake may suggest, "ICRA2010" is a modified version of AirBurr V1 "HoverMouse" built for publication at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. The main improvements include the use of 3D-printed connection points between the carbon fibre rods to increase repairability. AirBurr V3 "Flying Stick": "Flying Stick" is the first AirBurr prototype to feature embedded sensing in the form of the BurrSens V3 Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). It is capable of autonomous hovering flight stabilization. AirBurr V4 "Crashy": "Crashy" was designed to test improved collision energy absorption techniques. It uses deflecting carbon-fibre beams and rods to absorb the energy of head-on collisions. AirBurr V5 "Bumpy": "Bumpy" is the first prototype to have a sense of touch thanks to force sensors strategically placed inside the carbon fibre structure. The signals from these sensors are analyzed using an embedded algorithm and can detect the position and amplitude of a force on its outer ring to an accuracy of around 0.5 N and 10 degrees. AirBurr V6 "Sticky": "Sticky" is the first attempt at using gecko-inspired dry adhesives to attach to smooth surfaces such as windows. AirBurr V7 "Multitasky": "Multitasky" is a platform used for experiments in robust orientation stabilization. It is the first AirBurr platform to have altitude stabilization using an ultrasonic distance sensor. AirBurr V8 "Samurai": "Samurai" is the first flying robot to feature an active self-recovery mechanism, allowing it to return to an upright position and take off after a collision, no matter how it lands on the ground. The mechanism has been successfully tested in a variety of environments ranging from hardwood to gravel to rocks. [ EPFL AirBurr Project ] Thanks Markus!As we reported a few weeks ago, production on STAR TREK BEYOND will be heading overseas to Dubai later this year — and today, the Dubai Film and Television Commission confirmed the movie’s intent to film in their city. ‘STAR TREK’ TO BE FILMED IN DUBAI The next installment of the ‘Star Trek’ franchise will film scenes in Dubai in October this year Dubai, UAE: The Dubai Film and TV Commission (DFTC) has announced that the third installment of globally renowned sci-fi franchise, ‘Star Trek’, directed by Justin Lin, will film scenes in Dubai. Filming of the project is planned to commence in October this year,
Ms. Benítez now stand on two sides of a sharp divide created by disagreements over how far a president can change immigration policy by executive action. Those like Ms. Benítez, whose hopes were raised by the prospect of the expanded program, must continue to live with fears of being fired or detained. At the same time, they are watching others make progress they hoped to achieve. Immigrants like Mr. Péndola who participated in the program have seen many doors open. Still, they worry about how the fiercely contested politics of immigration could affect their fate. Mr. Péndola was finishing a college degree in chemistry, but before the program the best job he could get was selling magic tricks in a Miami tourist shop. With his work permit and Social Security number from the initiative, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, Mr. Péndola, now 23, was able to get a driver’s license and buy his own car, freeing him to commute to college and work without fear of being pulled over by the police. After his college graduation, the high school where he had been a standout science student asked him to come back as a teacher. At the MAST Academy in Key Biscayne, a magnet school that draws science students from across the Miami area, he is earning a steady official paycheck, with his tax withholding in order. And he is loving his work. “This is a very nerdy school where the kids are encouraged to be curious,” Mr. Péndola said in his laboratory after an advanced chemistry class. “I like being able to excite them about chemistry, which is not normally everyone’s favorite subject.” Nearly 640,000 young immigrants have received protection since 2012. As many as 270,000 others could be eligible under the new rules. The immigrants, most of whom came with parents and either crossed the border illegally or overstayed legal visas, receive temporary work authorization but no lasting legal immigration status. Ms. Benítez, who has lived in the United States since she was 13, is now 36. She was too old in 2012 for the age limit of 30 in the program. Under the expansion, Mr. Obama eliminated that age cap. He also reset the date by which applicants must have been in the United States from June 2007 to January 2010 and extended the term of the deportation deferrals from two years to three. Ms. Benítez’s mother is a legal resident, and several siblings are American citizens. In 2004 she applied through the legal system for a resident green card, but because of vast backlogs she still has many years to wait. With a 10-year-old daughter who is a citizen, Ms. Benítez would also be eligible for the other program the court order suspended, for as many as four million undocumented parents of citizens or legal residents. It had been scheduled to begin in May. Ms. Benítez graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, with an engineering degree. But she has been clinging to a job as a quality control manager on a castings production line, relying on car pools to get to work and keeping quiet about her legal status. “You can’t show your face because you are holding on to the one job that will feed your family,” she said. She hired a lawyer and assembled years of tax returns and bills for her application, laying plans to get a data job and apply to graduate school. Then she heard the news of the injunction. “I was really raging,” she said. “Now I’m just numb.” In his opinion blocking the expanded initiative, Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Federal District Court in Brownsville, Tex., explicitly did not evaluate the original program. He found that the new initiatives would strain state budgets and ruled that Mr. Obama should have allowed public comment before he started them. Recent scholarship, though, supports what young people have said about the changes they see. In a new study by the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego, 79 percent of youths with deportation deferrals said they were earning more in better jobs, gaining financial independence. Some 41 percent said they had returned to college after dropping out. “The huge emotional burden of having to lead a clandestine life has been lifted,” said Wayne Cornelius, a political scientist who was an author of the study. No longer dependent on proxies, they opened bank accounts and signed leases and mobile phone contracts in their own names. They found stable housing and stayed there longer. “Before they had to rely on friends to fill out papers, and now they have a new kind of security,” said Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, dean of the graduate school of education at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an author of a national study of undocumented undergraduates. In the U.C.L.A. study, 86 percent of those with deferrals reported a positive impact on their education because of new access to financial aid or paid internships. More than other students in the country illegally, the study found, those with deferrals had a strong desire for belonging in the United States, with 94 percent saying they would become citizens if they could. Some Republicans in Congress want to shut down the program completely, saying it is part of a constitutional overreach by the president. Next week lawmakers will have to try to break an impasse over a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security passed by the Republican-led House, which includes provisions to end all the president’s actions, including the existing program. Democrats blocked the measure in the Senate. José Santiago, a Mexican student in Homestead, Fla., said the youth program was his ticket out of the hard life of his parents, who are farmworkers in the vast fields around his hometown. After one miserably hot, backbreaking day picking squash, Mr. Santiago realized he needed another line of work. With his working papers, Mr. Santiago, 19, graduated from high school and went straight to Miami Dade College in Homestead as a full-time student in computer science. “I’m passionate with computers,” Mr. Santiago said. “It’s kind of a natural thing, since I’m good with math.” The legal foothold allowed him to win a private scholarship, get a car and start plotting a course to a four-year degree and a computer engineering career — indoors. Mr. Santiago is part of a group that is helping students who have deferrals to renew them and trying to bolster the sinking spirits of first-time applicants now in limbo. “I feel protected, at least,” Mr. Santiago said. “But it’s just a work permit. I can’t say I’m more American until I have a way to citizenship.”Image: Google Project Zero Google's Project Zero has open-sourced an automated security testing tool that helped find 31 security bugs across all major browser this year, but most of them were in Apple's Safari browser. If you read Apple's security update documents each month, a name that has regularly appeared this year under bugs patched in Safari's WebKit engine is Project Zero's Ivan Fratric. The tool he used to find them is a fuzzer called Domato, which has exposed 17 now-patched bugs in Safari. It also found bugs in Chrome, Edge, and Internet Explorer, but far fewer. Domato is designed to uncover bugs in the DOM or Document Object Model engines of Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Internet Explorer. The DOM engines are part of each browser's rendering engine, such as Chrome's Blink engine, which Google created in 2013 after forking WebKit. As Fratric points out, DOM engines are a major source of browser bugs, and are occasionally targeted by attackers, such as the zero-day exploit in Firefox found to be used against users of the Firefox-based Tor Browser last November. That exploit was accidentally leaked by Exodus Intel and reportedly was used to identify visitors to a child pornography site. Along with revealing the browser bugs his tool has helped find, Fratric has now open-sourced Domato in the hope that others can improve it. Each browser was fuzzed -- which involves throwing random code at it in an attempt to cause crashes -- around 100 million times. Since a single machine would be too slow at this, the browsers were tested from Google's cloud. According to Fratric, fuzzing at this scale on Google's Compute Engine would cost about $1,000, which a determined attacker could easily afford. The good news for all browsers, except Safari, is that Domato's results suggest no browser's DOM engine is better or worse. Fratric found two in Chrome, four in Firefox, four in Internet Explorer and six in Edge. However, according to Fratric, Safari's performance was concerning so, before today, he offered Apple access to Domato, which was eventually taken up when a Project Zero member was hired by Apple. "Apple Safari is a clear outlier in the experiment with a significantly higher number of bugs found. This is especially worrying given attackers' interest in the platform as evidenced by the exploit prices and recent targeted attacks," he writes. The other notable finding is that the gap between Safari and Chrome's DOM-related bugs widened after Google forked WebKit. "It is also interesting to compare Safari's results to Chrome's, as until a couple of years ago, they were using the same DOM engine (WebKit). It appears that after the Blink/Webkit split either the number of bugs in Blink got significantly reduced or a significant number of bugs got introduced in the new WebKit code (or both)," he notes. "To attempt to address this discrepancy, I reached out to Apple Security proposing to share the tools and methodology. When one of the Project Zero members decided to transfer to Apple, he contacted me and asked if the offer was still valid. So Apple received a copy of the fuzzer and will hopefully use it to improve WebKit." He also gave props to the Microsoft team that created MemGC or Memory Garbage Collector, an exploit mitigation feature it built for Edge and Internet Explorer 11. "It is also interesting to observe the effect of MemGC, a use-after-free mitigation in Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. When this mitigation is disabled using the registry flag OverrideMemoryProtectionSetting, a lot more bugs appear," he writes. "However, Microsoft considers these bugs strongly mitigated by MemGC and I agree with that assessment. Given that IE used to be plagued with use-after-free issues, MemGC is an example of a useful mitigation that results in a clear positive real-world impact. Kudos to Microsoft's team behind it." Previous and related coverage iOS 11 rolls out today with Safari anti-tracking: Here's why advertisers hate it Ad industry pleads for Apple to change tack with Safari's new privacy feature. Ransom scam exploits Apple iOS Safari flaw to target porn viewers The scareware campaign duped victims into paying a ransom. More on browser securityShannen Doherty is starting off the weekend with great news. On Friday evening, the Charmed and Beverly Hills, 90210 star took to Instagram to update fans on her breast cancer diagnosis. As it turns out, the actress got the news that she is in remission. "Moments. They happen. Today was and is a moment," Shannen shared with her followers. "What does remission mean? I heard that word and have no idea how to react. Good news? YES. Overwhelming. YES. Now more waiting." She continued, "As every single one of my fellow cancer family knows, the next five years is crucial. Reoccurrences happen all the time. Many of you have shared that very story with me. So with a heart that is certainly lighter, I wait." Back in August of 2015, E! News confirmed that Shannen was diagnosed with the cancer. Since then, the actress has documented many of the highs and lows of her journey on social media.Gone are the days in the NHL when high-scoring Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux lit up goaltenders at will. Goals are down across the league over the past decade and even hockey's biggest stars struggle to score these days. Except Alex Ovechkin. Story continues below advertisement The Washington Capitals left winger is three goals away from becoming the 43rd player in NHL history to reach 500 for his career and will likely be the fifth-fastest to hit that milestone. Gretzky, Lemieux and fellow Hall of Famers Mike Bossy and Brett Hull are the only ones to do it in fewer games. Ovechkin will play his 800th game Saturday at the New York Rangers. As he approaches one of hockey's magic numbers, Ovechkin continues to show why he's among the game's best by scoring at a pace that no one else in this era can match. "I thought I could score every night. I thought I was unstoppable," Hull said. "And I watch him in today's game, and it's scary to watch him do what he does.... For him to do what he does in today's game is awesome." What Ovechkin is doing is almost unheard of in today's game. His 497 goals are by far the most of any player since he entered the league in 2005. The second closest is 350 by Jarome Iginla, who just reached the 600-goal mark for his career last week at the age of 38. Ovechkin is 30 — beyond what is usually a goal-scorer's prime — and he already has six 50-goal seasons, including 65 in 2007-08. In the 1980s, seven or eight goals a game was the norm and Gretzky, Hull and Bossy were scoring 80-plus a season. Ovechkin was the only 50-goal scorer last year and is defying hockey's curve that has made elite goal-scorers almost extinct. "He's been able to do it because he's probably the greatest goal-scorer of all time," former Capitals general manager George McPhee said. "He's an incredibly powerful man, and the way that puck comes off his stick — the power, the thrust behind it — is unlike anything most people have seen." Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement Ovechkin tires of talking about how he's done it. "Just Google it: What's Alex Ovechkin's answer to this question?" the Russian said. "I just try to shoot the puck as much as I can because if you don't shoot, you can't score." Only 717-goal-scorer Phil Esposito and Hull shot the puck as much as Ovechkin, who averages five a game. But it's not that simple: Ovechkin is the most effective shooter of this era because of his physical strength, skating ability and a release that can freeze goaltenders even when they know what's coming. "The superstar in him is definitely there," said Adam Oates, who coached Ovechkin for two years and played alongside Hull during his Hall of Fame career. "Watching him for two years close up reminded me a lot of Hully in the sense that Brett could shoot a puck from anywhere at any time. "A lot of guys just shoot it when it's in their wheelhouse. He can shoot it from anywhere." Naturally, Ovechkin has his spots. When opponents figured out how to slow him down to 32 and 38 goals in back-to-back seasons, he and the Capitals adjusted. Story continues below advertisement On the power play, Oates told Ovechkin to stay in the faceoff circle to make the most of his patented one-timer. At even strength, Oates moved Ovechkin to right wing, a change that once it took hold led to him winning his third Hart Trophy as NHL MVP in 2013. And even though new coach Barry Trotz moved Ovechkin back to his more comfortable left wing, two seasons on the right side helped reinvent him as a scorer. "You see him get goals in front of the net five-on-five, you see him get backhand goals, you see him get tip goals," Oates said. "Playing a little bit of right side has helped that evolving five-on-five because I think it's made him a little bit more of a complete player." Ovechkin said one of his improvements has been relying less on power-play goals, and only seven of his 21 this season have come on the power play. It helps that the Capitals are the league's most complete team and lead the NHL with 61 points, so Ovechkin doesn't have to put all the pressure on his shoulders. A Stanley Cup has eluded Ovechkin, and that's what he's most focused on. But reaching the 500-goal plat is a testament to how important a generational player Ovechkin is. "You can tell that Gretzky would score a lot of points now, you would know that Ovechkin would score a lot of goals in the '80s," former Capitals coach Glen Hanlon said. "No matter where he played, when he played, he'd be doing those things."1 The Suppression of Inconvenient Facts in Physics "Textbooks present science as a noble search for truth, in which progress depends on questioning established ideas. But for many scientists, this is a cruel myth. They know from bitter experience that disagreeing with the dominant view is dangerous - especially when that view is backed by powerful interest groups. Call it suppression of intellectual dissent. The usual pattern is that someone does research or speaks out in a way that threatens a powerful interest group, typically a government, industry or professional body. As a result, representatives of that group a ttack the critic's ideas or the critic personally-by censoring writing, blocking publications, denying appointments or pr omotion s, withdrawing research grants, taking legal a ctions, harassing, blacklisting, spreading rumors." (1) Introduction Science is in a state of crisis. Where free inquiry, natural curiosity and open-minded discussio n and consideration of new ideas should reign, a new orthodoxy has emerged. This 'new inquisition', as it has been called by Robert Anton Wilson (2) consists not of cardinals and popes, but of the editors and reviewers of scientific journals, of leading authorities and self-appointed "skeptics", and last but not least of corporations and governments that have a vested interest in preserving the status quo, and it is just as effective in suppressing unorthodox ideas as the original. The scientists in the editorial boards of journals who decide which research is fit to be published, and which is not, the science bureaucrats at the patent office who decide what feats nature allows human technology to perform, and which ones it does not, and the scientists in governmental agencies who decide what proposals to fund, and not to fund, either tr uly believe that they are in c omplete knowledge of all the fundamental laws of nature, or they purposely suppress certain discoveries that threaten the scientific prestige of individual s or institution s, or economic interests. Research that indicates that an a ccepted theory is incomplete, severely flawed, or completely mistaken, is frequently rejected on the grounds that it "contradicts the laws of nature", and therefore has to be the result of sloppiness or fraud. At the heart of this argument is the incorrect notion that theory overrides evidence . In true science, theory always sur renders to the primacy of evidence. If observations are made that, after careful verification and theoretical analysis, are found to b e inconsistent with a theory, than that theory has to go - no matter how aesthetically pleasing it is, how much mathematical elegance it contains, how prestigious its supporters are, or how many billions of dollars a certain industry has bet on it. This article will show that a different reaction occurs with disturbing regularity. Anomalous evidence is first ignored, then ridiculed, and if that fails, its author attacked. Scientific conferences will not admit it to be presented, scientific journals will refuse to publish it, a nd fellow scientists know better than to express solidarity with an unorthodox colleague. I n today's scientific world, the cards are stacked heavily against true scientific breakthroughs. T oo many careers are a t stake; too many vested interests are involved for any truly revolutionary advancement in science to take place a ny more. All too often, scientific truth is determined by the authority of experts and textbooks, not by logic and reason. In 20th and 21st Century Science: Reflections and Projections (3)For as long as I can remember, designers working in digital media have wanted the ability to lay out text in columns — first on the Web, now within multitouch apps. I’ve flirted with it myself, back when when it was relatively difficult to pull off, but in recent years CSS3 has made it possible, if not probable, that columnar layouts can be delivered to wide swaths of Web users. On multitouch devices, iOS developers routinely columnize text using Core Text and other methods, and their successes with these techniques have led columnized text to be common on that platform, creating perhaps the most ‘print-like’ digital layouts we’ve seen yet. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to suggest that, along with other recent improvements in digital typography, columnized text augurs the future of digital layout design. That is, some might argue that screen-based content will over time look more and more like magazine-style pages, where text is flowed from one parallel column to another, rather than the more common Web convention in which a block of text exists in a single column, reading top to bottom within a screen that scrolls. I take a different position, though. I think that the desire to approach screen-based layout with columnized text is misguided. Multiple columns are an effective layout technique in print because they improve legibility for long blocks of text. But for digital media, it’s my feeling that they make it harder to read text. Paging Dr. Column To organize a long body of text into columns, designers must almost always paginate their content across multiple screens, either with buttons that let users click to the next and previous pages or, on multitouch devices, by letting users simply swipe left or right. As a navigation framework, pagination is usually intuitive, or very easy to learn. The act of swiping, in particular, is elementary, even fun. In fact, this is the way the majority of photo slideshows work, both on the Web and within multitouch apps: users click on the right or swipe to the right to get to the next image, and they click on the left or swipe to the left to get to the previous image. It works exceedingly well, and on the Web at least it generates tons of page views. When we optimized for this kind of interaction with slideshows at NYTimes.com several years ago, we saw an immediate and significant increase in Web traffic. People really, really like clicking on that next button or swiping to that next image. What’s Next, Next, Next From what I’ve seen in user tests I’ve participated in, as well as what I’ve observed in real world use, this convention that works so great for images doesn’t work so well for text. Because it’s so easy to click next or swipe to the next page, users can’t resist that advancing action, even when what’s presented to them is not a single image but a set of text laid out in columns. They’re practically compelled to keep advancing — next, next, next, on and on, and as a result they end up not reading the text at all, only skimming it until they’ve exhausted their interest and they decide to move on to another site or app. If they can resist advancing the text and hunker down to actually absorb it, they usually find the columnized structure somewhat uncomfortable to read within. The reason is that a body of text, unlike a slideshow of images, is not easily boiled down into a canonical core unit. What I mean by this is that a slideshow might be made up of any number of photos, but everyone agrees that the building block of that slideshow is the single photo. Users want to see one photo at a time (and perhaps, at the left and right, a hint of the previous and next photos too). By contrast, you can’t break down a body of text into a mutually agreeable core unit — but columns try to do exactly that. One person might want to read 150 words at a time while someone else might want to read twice that, but columnized text pays no heed to those preferences. It only presents what can fit into the columns that appear on the screen at once, and users must then advance in multiples of those columns. In some ‘fluid layouts’ the number of words and even the number of columns is determined by the amount of screen real estate available to the user, but that’s hardly a direct function of that person’s reading pace, either. It doesn’t matter how many columns containing how many words are put on a screen because it’s unlikely that that given number of columns and that given word count will match the reading comfort level of a given user. It’s different for everyone. Take It from the Top All of this, I would say, makes columnized text inferior to the alternative: a single column of text, scrolling from top to bottom on a page that’s as tall as is necessary to accommodate the entirety of the text. Scrolling text allows users to advance at exactly their own pace — a paragraph at a time or even a line at a time. It also lets them shoot down to the bottom of an article — or even its middle — in an instant, without the multiple clicks or repeated swipes required in paginated layouts. This is the way most digital media works and for good reason. Some designers lament the prevalence of this convention, arguing that it makes for too-wide columns that impede legibility (that can be true too but it’s a separate issue) and that it makes precise control of layout elements like embedded photographs, pull-quotes and illustrations difficult. What they’re arguing though is that columnized text makes it easier for the designer, gives them an added level of control over the design through which they can exercise their own prerogatives. It’s not an argument for optimizing the user experience; it’s an argument for optimizing the designer’s experience. There are of course good uses for columnized text. They continue to work great in print because there’s agreement that a page is a logical core unit of an article, and within that core unit it’s easier to pace ones’ reading. Columns actually work fine in digital media when they’re presenting a menu of items composed of short bits of text — the main interface for Flipboard comes to mind. Still, it’s no accident that 99% of screen-based text scrolls from top to bottom and eschews columns. The Web is at its heart a scrolling text medium and so is email. Most mobile apps scroll text and, to my mind, the most successful tablet apps do too. Twitter scrolls and so does Facebook. All of these user experiences scroll because that’s what works best. Try as they might, proponents of columnized text can’t win this battle even with the recent improvements in CSS or with the column-friendly medium of multitouch tablets; scrolling text didn’t become the dominant convention just because the medium once made it hard to columnize text; it dominates because it’s the medium’s natural posture. +The hand might look like an X-ray from the doctor's office, but it is actually a cloud of material ejected from a star that exploded. NASA's NuSTAR spacecraft has imaged the structure in high-energy X-rays for the first time, shown in blue. Lower-energy X-ray light previously detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is shown in green and red. Religion and astronomy may not overlap often, but a new NASA X-ray image captures a celestial object that resembles the "Hand of God." The cosmic "hand of God" photo was produced when a star exploded and ejected an enormous cloud of material, which NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, glimpsed in high-energy X-rays, shown in blue in the photo. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory had imaged the green and red parts previously, using lower-energy X-rays. "NuSTAR's unique viewpoint, in seeing the highest-energy X-rays, is showing us well-studied objects and regions in a whole new light," NuSTAR telescope principal investigator Fiona Harrison, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said in a statement. The new image depicts a pulsar wind nebula, produced by the dense remnant of a star that exploded in a supernova. What's left behind is a pulsar, called PSR B1509-58 (B1509 for short), which spins around 7 times per second blowing a wind of particles into material ejected during the star's death throes. As these particles interact with nearby magnetic fields, they produce an X-ray glow in the shape of a hand. (The pulsar is located near the bright white spot in the image but cannot be seen itself, NASA officials said.) Scientists aren't sure whether the ejected material actually assumes the shape of a hand, or whether its interaction with the pulsar's particles is just making it appear that way. "We don't know if the hand shape is an optical illusion," Hongjun An, of McGill University in Montreal, said in a statement. "With NuSTAR, the hand looks more like a fist, which is giving us some clues." The red cloud appearing at the fingertips is a separate structure called RCW 89. The pulsar's wind may be heating the cloud to produce the low-energy X-ray glow, astronomers believe. The X-ray energies seen by NuSTAR range from 7 to 25 kiloelectron volts, or keV, whereas the energies seen by Chandra range from 0.5 to 2 keV. The Hand of God is an example of pareidolia, the psychological phenomenon of perceiving familiar shapes in random or vague images. Other common forms of pareidolia include seeing animals or faces in clouds, or the man in the moon. Despite its supernatural appearance, the Hand of God was produced by natural astrophysical phenomena. Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.Now that all recent bond auctions have settled, and with no further bond auctions scheduled until the rest of the year, we can look at the final tally of US total debt: the number - $13,879,785,000,000. This represents a $1.568 trillion increase in total US debt held by the public for 2010, and $4.388 trillion since the collapse of Lehman. This is in essence the cost to US taxpayers to keep the financial system solvent, as the US has become the biggest marginal leveraging actor in the world, with everyone else, notably US consumers, and Europe, doing all they can to strip as much debt as they possible can. Of course, since this money does not have to be repaid any time soon, or ever, nobody seems to mind, especially not the politicians in Washington. As we have said before, and pro forma for the Obama tax deal, we expect total debt issuance in 2011 to accelerate once again, and to hit just under $2 trillion, putting total US debt at the end of next year at around $16 trillion. We also fully expect the Fed to monetize the bulk of that issuance. We can't wait to hear the positive spin on this one.Today's presidential race unfortunately reminds me of the bitter 1991 gubernatorial runoff in Louisiana, a state long associated with colorful politics. That was the runoff that pitted former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, then a Republican state legislator, against three-term governor Edwin Edwards, a Democrat who had been acquitted in two racketeering trials. The most memorable bumper sticker from the race was "Vote for the crook. It's important." That's what reminds me of the presidential race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump calls Clinton "crooked Hillary." Clinton accuses Trump of "taking hate groups mainstream." An appropriate bumper sticker for Clinton could be, "Vote for the alleged crook. It's really important." After covering a couple of decades of crime and politics as a reporter in Chicago, a city in which those beats sometimes overlap, I'm willing to give "bad" a chance in order to avoid "worse." Bad is how I would describe Bill and Hillary Clinton's record for avoiding the appearance of impropriety, whether actual impropriety has occurred or not. For example, "extremely careless" was the worst that FBI Director James Comey concluded after investigating Hillary's handling of State Department business over her private email server. Yet she didn't help herself by later misquoting Comey in a televised interview as having completely exonerated her. Trump doesn't look any better with his overblown calls for a special prosecutor to probe what he calls a corrupt "pay for play" arrangement with the Clinton Foundation. In fact, actual evidence of a quid pro quo arrangement is severely lacking a "quo." There is no evidence revealed so far that shows any favors granted to the foundation's donors that probably would not have been granted anyway if the foundation did not exist. Yet for all the great work the charity has done to fight AIDS and other global problems, it also kept the Clintons connected to rich and famous folks who potentially could help her presidential aspirations. Bill Clinton says he will leave the foundation if his wife wins and that it will no longer take foreign or corporate money. Yet their daughter Chelsea could take the reins, and suspicions about wealthy favor-seekers would continue. The best solution I have heard would be for the Clintons to turn the foundation over to another presidential family or two so its good works could continue under a new name. The "Kennedy-Reagan Foundation" sounds nice, if both families go along with it. But for now, Trump's erratic, shoot-from-the-lip campaign style has given the Clintons little reason to do anything drastic. For example, Trump now has softened his hard-line position on immigration, his signature issue. After more than a year of promising to round up and deport 11 million unauthorized immigrants, Trump promised a different policy in a town hall hosted by Fox News' Sean Hannity: Round up the "bad ones" and as for the rest, "we work with them." It apparently only occurred to Trump after "some really great, great people" came up to him and pleaded how "it's so tough" to start ousting people who have "been here for 15 or 20 years and throw them and their family out." Oh, so now you think about that? Trump's immigration policy now sounds very much like the bipartisan reform bill passed by the Senate three years ago before hard-liners killed it in the House, calling it an "amnesty bill." Watch out, folks. The nonpolitician is sounding increasingly like a politician. Trump also went on the offensive, repeatedly calling Hillary Clinton "a bigot" without bothering to offer any evidence. Clinton, by contrast, offered a speech and video to link Trump to the alt-right, a largely web-based white nationalist movement that finds the conservatives on Fox News too moderate. Trump's new campaign CEO, Stephen Bannon, was chairman of Breitbart News, a go-to hive of alt-right activity. That's another bad sign for those who hoped Trump would move away from the far right. No, Hillary Clinton is hardly the only candidate who invites suspicions, warranted or not. But thanks to Trump's misfires, her bumper sticker could well be: "We could do worse." Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/pagespage. cpage@chicagotribune.com Twitter @cptimeA A NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A female New Jersey high school teacher has pleaded not guilty to having sex with six male students. Nicole DuFault of Caldwell was charged with aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment in a 40-count indictment handed up in February. She entered her plea Monday during a court hearing in Newark. Authorities say the victims were 14- and 15-year-old boys and the assaults occurred many times in 2013 and 2014. They say some of the sex acts occurred on school property and in DuFault's car. The 35-year-old DuFault was a language arts teacher at Columbia High School for several years before she was arrested last September. She's been suspended without pay and remains free on $500,000 bail. Her attorney has said the charges "run contrary to her commendable background and unblemished work performance."The Cavaliers have noticed LeBron James’ occasionally peculiar behavior of late and have addressed it with their star. Two members of the team’s top brass – coach Tyronn Lue and general manager David Griffin – have had conversations with James over the past few days regarding separate items. Lue spoke with James after Saturday’s 122-101 loss in Miami, during which at halftime James was noticeably chatting it up with his friend, Heat star Dwyane Wade, instead of warming up with the Cavs trailing by 21. Griffin replaced former coach David Blatt with Lue in part to demand more accountability from James — which the player covets — and their chat was an example. Griffin’s talk with James on Wednesday afternoon was a little more general, but was sparked by James’ comments to The Bleacher Report that he wanted to play with Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Paul on the same team for a “year or two.” Lue said James apologized to him for his behavior at halftime Saturday night, and Griffin’s discussion with James was positive and productive, with James echoing recent public statements about an upward trend for the Cavs heading into the playoffs. … It’s difficult to determine precisely what caused James’ shift in focus, and there have been some questionable moments since the change. He skipped speaking to reporters at shootaround Monday (a rarity for him); unfollowed the Cavs on Twitter and then declined to say why; and barely communicated with teammates who tried to talk to him before the game. And on Tuesday, James said he might join Snapchat, which raised questions of a conflict with his own business interests via Uninterrupted – the digital platform he created for athletes (it’s really not a conflict). But perhaps James’ sharpening can be traced at least in part to the discussion he had with Lue, in which the coach told him his interactions with Wade sent the wrong message to his teammates. “I just told him we can’t have that, being down like we were and him being the leader,” Lue told cleveland.com. “Just me being a competitor, I didn’t like it. We had a long talk about it. It was good. He understood, he apologized, and he’s been great.” … In the course of a long session with reporter Howard Beck about his friendship and rivalry with Anthony, James said he would “take a pay cut” to play on the same team with Anthony, Wade and Chris Bosh, and was hopeful the union could happen. While the comments themselves were made long ago, they were published at a time when James and the Cavs are under enormous scrutiny, in part because of several cryptic messages James has posted to Twitter and Instagram over the past few weeks that have raised questions about his desire to stay in Cleveland. James has said those messages were not about anyone on the Cavs but declined to disclose
the right tools, this would be a good time to do it." To recap: Ancel still needs to build a team, retrieve elements, and says this would be a good time. If there is a reason to believe that this time really will be BG&E2's moment, it's that we're about to tick into a new round of consoles - giving what Ancel admits were over-ambitious plans the tech they need to be realised. "In Beyond Good & Evil 1 at first it was a full planet, you could go to the North Pole and see the eternal day," he said. "But we had to limit it as we were only 35 people. We couldn't fill the whole world with all the things we wanted. We were frustrated at the end of BG&E1, and when we started the sequel we started again with this idea - you're free and can investigate and travel the world as much as you want." On the otherside of this long-spinning coin, there's a potential roadblock: management. "They [the Ubisoft bosses] have done really well with the different games that are coming out right now and the ones they've already released," Ancel said. "They're in a good place in terms of the business, and it could be very interesting to make a game like that as there aren't too many games out there right now that would be like ours. So I think it's the right time and I'm confident that they will follow the team."Do the Eagles have the best group of running backs in the NFL? Posted by Jimmy Kempski at 09:16:38 AM on May 27, 2013 This weekend, NFL Insider Adam Caplan joined Dave Spadaro on PhiladelphiaEagles.com, and had extremely high praise for the Eagles' trio of running backs, LeSean McCoy, Bryce Brown, and Felix Jones. "I'd have to say, if Felix Jones is healthy, this is best group of running backs in the league," said Caplan. "Adrian Peterson is the best back in the league, but (from) one to three tell me a team that's deeper than this." Caplan poses a good question. Are there any teams more deep and talented at RB than the Eagles? Personally, I'd trade all three of the Eagles' backs for Adrian Peterson in a heartbeat, but Peterson aside, I think Caplan makes a strong case. Here's a menu of other teams around the league (listed in alphabetical order) who might be in the conversation, and their backs from one-to-three (via Ourlads' depth charts). I'll quickly note here that the Patriots have LeGarrette Blount as their 4th back, but he does not appear in the chart below: Pete Prisco of CBS penned a Top 100 list of NFL players. LeSean McCoy did not make the list… at all. It’s kind of funny how perception of players goes. In 2011, McCoy had 1309 rushing yards on 273 carries (4.8 YPC), and 20 total TDs. People were calling him a clear-cut Top 3 RB in the NFL. In 2012, 80% of McCoy’s offensive line was lost for the season and the Eagles were playing from behind in every game (even the games they won). Is McCoy’s talent suddenly gone? I find that hard to believe. McCoy's numbers were down last season, but I didn't see any loss of ability. He's still quite clearly among the elite at the RB position, in my opinion. Bryce Brown, meanwhile, is the reincarnate of Bo Jackson, provided he can stop fumbling, and Felix Jones is a bona fide home run threat if you can get him the ball in space. The Adrian Peterson corollary aside, would you trade the Eagles' trio of backs for any other trios around the NFL? Follow Jimmy on Twitter. Trackbacks Current Comments Let's be honest, the Texans backfield is better. Texans backfield is excellent. But when you break it down, player by player, here's what you have: Foster vs McCoy: Foster has better yardage numbers the last three years, by far, but he also had way more carries. Foster had 956 carries. McCoy had 680. In other words, Foster has an entire season's worth of carries under his belt than McCoy the last three years. It would be interesting to see what McCoy could do with that kind of workload, and he might get it this year. What if McCoy played in Houston? What if Foster played in Philly? How much different would their numbers look? In terms of pure ability, I'd take McCoy, but I certainly wouldn't argue if someone liked Foster better. They're both outstanding backs. Tate vs Brown: Tate had good numbers in 2011, down in 2012. Again, on ability, I'll take Brown. But obviously, if Brown continues to fumble, I wouldn't want him seeing the field at all. Close call here. The Texans don't have a legit 3, so Felix wins by default. I wouldn't take any issue with someone preferring Houston over Philly, but I think it's far from a "Let's be honest, they're better" situation. Felix Jones hasn't been a home run threat in a few years. Same comment you made for Lesean applies to the Panthers- Its still a very good group. Leave A Comment The comments to this entry have been closed.KIEV (Reuters) - A peace plan to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine came under renewed strain on Wednesday, with Ukraine and Russia rowing publicly over the next steps and further Ukrainian military casualties from rebel attacks testing a fragile ceasefire. Moscow reacted sharply after Ukraine agreed on Tuesday to confer special status on rebel-controlled eastern regions and grant them limited self-rule - but only once local elections had been held under Ukrainian law, something unpalatable for rebel leaders who have proclaimed their own “people’s republics”. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Ukrainian parliament had sought to “re-write” the agreement reached in Minsk, Belarus, last month. The Kremlin said the Minsk deal was now further away from being realized than it was a few days ago. In Kiev, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk responded that no one on the Ukrainian side had much optimism that Russia “and the terrorists” would readily fulfill the Minsk plan. “First and foremost: to comply with the Minsk agreements, the Russian bandits must clear out of the territory of Ukraine and give the possibility to Ukraine of carrying out honest and transparent elections in line with international standards,” he said in televised comments at a government meeting. The row, which could lead the deal into a dead-end, starkly highlighted the different strategies towards the issue of self-rule in the east. SOLDIER KILLED Kiev is pushing a decentralization agenda in which it makes concessions aimed at blunting a drive for independence, while Moscow appears to be supporting a push by the rebels for powers that could give them veto over national policy and coming closer to officially recognizing the setting-up of the two “people’s republics” in Ukraine’s east. The ceasefire struck at the summit of the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France in Minsk came under pressure with the Kiev military saying one Ukrainian soldier had been killed in rebel attacks in the past 24 hours and five wounded. Fighting in a conflict in which more than 6,000 people have been killed has greatly diminished, although huge areas of Ukraine’s industrialized east, including the big cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, are under rebel control. Heavy military equipment has been withdrawn to put the opposing sides out of range of each other’s big guns in line with the agreement. But there is concern in Kiev that Mariupol, a port city of half a million on the Sea of Azov and which is still held by the government, could be a prime target for the Russian-backed rebels should the ceasefire collapse. Comments by Ukrainian leaders suggest the pro-Western leadership of President Petro Poroshenko steamrollered the law through parliament, not through any real conviction it would be acceptable to the rebels, but to show the West - whose financial and political backing it relies on - it was abiding by the deal. Western governments, who are backing a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine over four years, regard the Minsk agreement as still the best opportunity for a lasting settlement. “If (Russian President Vladimir) Putin takes a decision to attack, he will attack regardless of whether we adopt this law or not,” parliament vice-speaker Andriy Parubiy said on Tuesday before the law was passed. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Judging by the last decision made by the Rada (Ukrainian parliament), we are today further from realizing the Minsk agreements than we were a few days ago.”November 26th, 2013 ---- 2 ±±±± 1 ±±±± 0 ±±±± 1 ±±±± 2 ++++ Behold the status quo by-elections that supposedly changed everything. After months of the full pundit treatment, each party kept its seats in the face of stiff competition and shifting terrain. By-Election Metrics – 2013 By (Nov) Conservative candidate and former Arthur-Virden MLA Larry Maguire squeaked through for the government in Brandon-Souris, MB by a margin of 391 votes or 1.4% of the vote, obtaining a 44.1% vote share, over her nearest competitor Liberal Rolf Dinsdale (at 42.7%), while NDP candidate Cory Szczepanski took one for the team, coming in at just 7.4%, as voters punished the federal NDP for the provincial government's sales tax hike to pay for flood mitigation. Maguire saw the Conservative vote drop by some 10,000 votes since the 2011 general eletion, while Dinsdale picked up almost the same number. Lower turnout accounted for the NDP and Green drops. Likewise in Provencher, MB, Conservative candidate Ted Falk was able to carry the day with a 58.1% vote-share, even as he shedded 14,800 votes since the 2011 GE. His nearest Liberal opponent picked up around 4,100 of them, while the NDP shedded 5,200. But it's in the hotly contested riding of Toronto Centre, ON that we see the most interesting movements. The Conservatives lost some 14 percentage points in vote-share over 2011 GE, while the NDP picked up 6 and the Liberals gained 8. But did the NDP really gain 6 points from the Conservatives? Likely not, given that the Conservative vote dropped by some 9,600 votes, and the NDP dropped a further 4,200. It was the Liberals who actually gained 5,800 votes or so, even over Bob Rae's performance in 2011. Of course we'll need to see the poll-by-poll results to know who or where that came from for sure, but it seems likely more of it came from 2011 Conservative voters than NDP ones. Finally, we now know that the low advance poll turnout in Bourassa, QC was simply presaging the low turnout on Election Day itself. Liberal Emmanual Dubourg handily won, increasing his vote share by 9 points, while the NDP held its ground, and the Bloc and Conservatives both fell back. Taken together, the by-election results provide some evidence that the Liberal Party grew in this round of by-elections from out of its right flank. Given that the media winner of the last round of by-elections was Elizabeth May's Green Party — which is nowhere in the current round – it remains to be seen how long-lived the impact of this growth will be. Party Scorecard – 2013 By (Nov)Why We Need Ruth Bader Ginger Ice Cream Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of Amanda McCall Courtesy of Amanda McCall Last week, Amanda McCall proposed "10 delicious solutions to Ben & Jerry's women problem": a suite of new flavors calling attention to Ben & Jerry's gross underrepresentation of women in their flavor names. By McCall's count, only two of Ben & Jerry's more than 20 person-named flavors over the past three decades have featured women: "Liz Lemon's Greek Frozen Yogurt" and "Hannah Teter's Maple Blondie." Of course, ice cream flavor names aren't exactly political mandates or awards for lifetime achievement. As McCall acknowledges, flavor-name parity won't close the gender pay gap or elect more women to office. But calling attention to gender disparities of this kind is valuable precisely because such disparities so easily go unnoticed. A string of female flavors would seem anomalous (Ruth Bader Ginger, Coco-nut Chanel, Angelina Jolie Rancher, Jane Austen Cream Pie...), yet in many domains, it takes a stunt like McCall's for most of us to notice a trend of female absence. As another example of women's unexpectedly stark underrepresentation, consider the findings from a report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film released earlier this year. Among the top grossing 100 films of 2014, women comprised only 29 percent of the major characters and 30 percent of the speaking characters. Focusing on the casting for leaders of various kinds, the asymmetry was even more severe: Women comprised only 19 percent of scientific or intellectual leaders, 18 percent of political leaders, 11 percent of business leaders and 4 percent of criminal leaders. What's notable about these patterns of underrepresentation isn't just that they exist, but that they don't immediately and obviously strike us — the consumers — as unrealistic and undesirable. Most of us don't walk out of Ben & Jerry's disturbed by the disparity in flavor names, or leave mainstream movies wondering why so few women were capable of speech. We need writers like McCall and organizations like the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film to run the numbers precisely because some forms of under- (and over-) representation stay under the radar — they strike is as "normal" when they really should raise alarms. How can this be? The short answer is that people's perceptions of gender parity are informed in subtle ways by their beliefs about how men and women do, and should, behave, and by their beliefs about how men and women are, and should be, treated. A case in point: Take people's perceptions of how much women speak relative to men. There's a widespread belief that women speak more than men — a belief that's often backed by authoritative-sounding numbers, such as Louann Brizendine's 2006 claim that "A woman uses about 20,000 words per day while a man uses about 7,000." The trouble is, this isn't supported by data. In fact, there's good reason to believe that women speak no more than men. Instead, people may believe that women speak more than their share, and consequently overestimate their relative contributions. In fact, we know from independent research that a contribution from a woman can be perceived as excessive, while a comparable contribution from a man might be perceived as just right. For example, a set of studies I wrote about in 2013 found that both men and women judged hypothetical female CEOs more harshly for voicing opinions often than for tending to withhold their views, with the opposite pattern for male CEOs: They were judged more harshly for holding back than for voicing their opinions often. The expectations that generate these diverging judgments can be subtle and implicit — they're no indication of explicitly sexist views, and they're likely to operate without people's conscious awareness. So, there seem to be two forces at work in people's perceptions of women's relative share of speaking: the reality people actually encounter (which is roughly comparable amounts of speaking) and people's expectations about how much women should speak relative to men. If people focus on episodes that violate their expectations that women should be reticent (or that men should hold forth), their perceptions of gender parity will be systematically skewed. When it comes to ice cream names or movie roles, the story is much the same: People aren't just doing the math. They're more likely keeping track of deviations from their expectations as they choose their flavors and watch their films. If they aren't surprised to see men honored or lampooned by Ben & Jerry's (Cherry Garcia! The Tonight Dough!), or to encounter men in film with the power of speech or the power to lead, they're unlikely to make much of an overabundance of males. As a result, many people won't notice the relative absence of women. toggle caption Courtesy of Amanda McCall To test this pet theory, I ran a little poll: I asked 40 people on Amazon Mechanical Turk to estimate — without independent sources — three numbers related to gender parity: the percentage of Ben & Jerry's person-themed ice cream flavors named after women in the last 30 years (they guessed 29 percent; the reality is less than 10 percent); the percentage of speaking roles in the top grossing 100 films of 2014 that were occupied by women (they guessed 46 percent; the reality was 30 percent); and the percentage of major character roles in the top 100 films of 2014 that were occupied by women (they guessed 38 percent; the reality was 29 percent). In each case, my respondents provided estimates below 50 percent (significantly so for flavor names and major character roles), suggesting that they were at least somewhat sensitive to the reality. But they, nonetheless, overestimated women's actual representation by a statistically significant amount in each case, suggesting that their perceptions were also a function of something more. If I'm right, it could be that encountering men in these roles feels normal, non-deviant, or natural in some way — not an experience worth logging in our mental tally. And that this feeling is different when we encounter women. If so, that ought to change, and feminist ice cream flavors are among the more palatable ways to get started. And that's why we need Ruth Bader Ginger ice cream. Tania Lombrozo is a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She writes about psychology, cognitive science and philosophy, with occasional forays into parenting and veganism. You can keep up with more of what she is thinking on Twitter: @TaniaLombrozo.Image caption More than 900 people have put their names forward for the presidential election Presidential elections will be held in Egypt in May - the first since Hosni Mubarak was removed in last year's popular uprising - and it looks as if the list of candidates will be a long one. Outside the office of the Presidential Election Commission, close to where President Mubarak used to have his residence, the candidates come out in a steady stream, brandishing the papers they need to begin their run for election to be the next president of Egypt. Sami Ibrahim Abdul Latif is a man of humble origins, from a simple village in the Nile Delta, wearing the traditional Egyptian galabeya. He scrapes a living reciting the Koran in graveyards. His programme is to support the poor - people like himself, he says. His campaign team consists just of himself. He has no campaign funds whatsoever. Image caption Sami Ibrahim Abdul Latif says he will support less well-off Egyptians "What about the requirement to secure 30,000 signatures," I ask him, in order to get his name on the ballot paper? "That's wrong," he says, and he pledges to challenge it with national and international lawsuits. In Egypt's more than 5,000 years of history, only three people have ever stood in a contested election to lead the country and that was the less-than-free presidential race won by Hosni Mubarak in 2005. But this year, even before nominations have closed, more than 900 Egyptians have already put their names forward. It looks like democracy has really caught on. Those aspiring to follow President Mubarak include a cleaner, an undertaker and someone described as a repentant thief. One photographer, who proudly declared he had no educational qualifications whatsoever (and surely just as little chance of success), appeared on a TV chat show. Image caption Farghal Abu-Deif Atiya believes his appeal lies in being a "man of the people" When he was introduced as a candidate, he upbraided the presenter: "My dear lady, I am not a candidate. I am Egypt's next president. I believe I am Egypt's undisputed next president." I met another of the candidates, Farghal Abu-Deif Atiya, holding court at his cafe in a poor neighbourhood. It is called the Freedom Club Cafe but he hopes soon to rename it the Presidential Cafe when he is successful. "If I can run my cafe efficiently, why not Egypt - indeed the world?" he says. "The old regime used to deal with us as ignorant people," he says, "as a nation of deaf and dumb. Egyptians will respect me as a man of the people." He insists that he has begun trying to gather 30,000 endorsements needed to get on the ballot paper. But I did not see much sign of any urgent action, as we sat round pleasantly chatting, drinking shai (tea) and tasting the sweet, milky Egyptian concoction called sahlab. New broom or old guard? The contrast could hardly be more stark at the campaign headquarters of the man currently leading in the polls, former Arab League chief Amr Moussa. Serious-looking men and women bustle round in suits. There is modern Egyptian art on the walls and fine chandeliers hanging from the ceilings. Upstairs, a team of volunteers is busy collating the thousands of signatures they have already gathered to get on the ballot. This being Egypt, there are great long forms that have to be filled in correctly to the smallest detail, lest the whole candidacy be declared null and void. Here they have media advisers, outreach advisers, political advisers. Thousands of volunteers and countless offices spread across this vast country of more than 80 million people. They could not even tell me precisely how many. Image caption Amr Moussa stood down as head of the Arab League to run as a presidential candidate They say their mission is to rebuild Egypt. It is an impressive display of professionalism for a country so new to the concept of free elections. The candidate, Amr Moussa, was Hosni Mubarak's foreign minister for a decade before moving to the Arab League. His advisers almost visibly bristle at the suggestion that he is tainted by association with the old regime. "Mr Amr Moussa has a long and distinguished career," one told me. "He is very proud of his achievements. There is nothing to be ashamed of. There is nothing he or we shy away from." Maybe Egypt needs such a man. Still, some are asking whether this is the sort of candidate Egyptians were fighting for when they died, in their hundreds, during the revolution last year. Of course it is early days yet. The largest political force, the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood, are still agonising over whether to put up a candidate or to give their support to someone else. So will Egypt's next president be someone with, shall we say, experience of the old system and good contacts with the mighty military? Or will Egyptians opt for a completely new broom? If there is one lesson of the last year, it is that Egyptians are no longer prepared to be taken for granted, and are still capable of surprising the world. How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent: BBC Radio 4:A 30-minute programme on Saturdays, 11:30 GMT. Second 30-minute programme on Thursdays, 11:00 GMT (some weeks only). Listen onlineordownload the podcast BBC World Service: Hear daily 10-minute editions Monday to Friday, repeated through the day, also available tolisten online. Read more orexplore the archiveat theprogramme website.SPRINGFIELD, Ore. (AP) — A businessman in Springfield, Ore., says it's time for the city to embrace its most famous fictional residents and create a shopping district with a "Simpsons" theme. Jack Koehler owns Sweety's Frozen Yogurt, and he says business has been up since he put a set of Simpson statues in front of his store. He thinks the city should get involved, and he' proposing that a few blocks of downtown Springfield be turned into a Simpsons-themed shopping district. The city's community relations manager, Niel Laudati, tells KVAL (http://bit.ly/ODBgEb) there's no demand from the public, and he doubts anyone wants to spend tax dollars to license cartoon characters. But Laudati says the city would get behind the idea if it would benefit downtown and if other business owners and the community supported it. "The Simpsons" show creator Matt Groening acknowledged earlier this year that the western Oregon city about 100 miles south of his hometown of Portland is the basis for the Springfield in his sitcom.0 SHARES Facebook Twitter The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild did many things right. Emphasis on MANY. But arguably more than anything else, they showed just how vibrant and full of life the realm of Hyrule is. Now sure, all Zelda games have memorable characters, but Breath of the Wild gave a voice to them for the first time. We got to truly hear them and not just imagine what their voices would be like. Zelda especially came off well, as did the four Champions and many other characters. So, it made us here at the Nintendo Entertainment Podcast wonder…what are the best The Legend of Zelda supporting characters? Like we said above, Legend of Zelda games are known for their characters, but which ones stand out the most? For this list, any TRUE Zelda game is available for picking from. The only catches are that they can’t be villains or Link…cause Link is the main character…despite the series being named after Zelda…moving on. So, Zelda fans (and NEP hosts) Todd, Tyler and Will are here to each give you their favorite top two Zelda supporting characters. This should be fun: Todd’s Picks History with Legend of Zelda: Tri-Force Todd here, and I’ve been a Legend of Zelda fan since pretty much the beginning. My childhood was born on the handheld Zelda titles, and once I got consoles, I got them as well. I made sure to pre-order or pre-purchase many of the recent Zelda games, including buying Twilight Princess before I even had a Wii! It was worth it. So, who are my top 2 supporting characters in Zelda? Well… 2. Mipha It says a lot when a new character makes a big impact on you for one reason or another, and though all the Champions of Breath of the Wild were great, Mipha stood out to me the most, and it was for a very simple reason…she had the backstory you cried over. While it’s known to the fanbase that Link is a player of sorts (seriously, look at how many women he had in Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, etc.), with Mipha, we really got to see just how deep their relationship went. She didn’t like Link, she loved him. So much so that she made Zora Armor for him, which in their culture was their version of an engagement ring. She wanted to be with him forever, and yet fate wouldn’t allow that to happen. Through the various memories, and the final conversation with her after freeing her spirit from the Divine Beast Vah Ruta, we got to see just who Mipha was. She was a kind, compassionate soul, one who understood the honor and duty of being a Champion, yet one who also knew her feelings. She loved Link and would do anything to protect him, and though he technically didn’t show it, you could feel Link’s heartbreaking when he saw Mipha again and knew they couldn’t see each other again after that. And yes, it broke my heart too. 1. Midna Yes, I do see the irony that both my picks are female characters that start with the letter “M”, it’s completely coincidental!!! Anyway, if Mipha was the kind girl you couldn’t help but fall in love with, Midna was the mysterious and mischievous girl you desperately wanted to know more about. Twilight Princess is my favorite Legend of Zelda game of all time, and Midna was a big reason why. From the moment we met her, we knew that Midna was special, but she was also a bit…mean, in a good way. She only helped Link because she felt it would help her in the long run. She would offer hints and directions, and would even ride Link when he was in Wolf Link form. It was an interesting relationship. But, like any good character, it was one that grew and evolved. We soon learned the tragic backstory of how she was the true ruler of the Twilight Realm, and was deformed and cursed by Zant as he made a bid for the throne. What’s more, though she thought herself better than Link and the “Realm of Light” at first, she soon grew to truly care for Link, and was humbled by the sacrifice Zelda made to save her. So she did everything she could to stop both Zant and Ganondorf, including risking her own life to save Link and Zelda. And then…in another heartbreaking moment…she left. Knowing that the Twilight Realm and Realm of Light couldn’t mix, even though she clearly had feelings for Link. I’ll miss you Midna! So yeah, those are my favorite Legend Of Zelda supporting characters. Over to you Will! William’s Pick History With Zelda: I was young when I saw my brother play A Link to the Past on the Super Nintendo. I witness the rest of the games, but it was until the GameCube that I had my first experience with Wind Waker. Since then, I’ve been a home console Zelda player ever since. While I’m not too renown on the series’ great cast, there are two characters that are pronounced to me. 2. Princess Ruto Okay, hear me out. Yes, I’m aware of the infamous reputation of the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time. When meeting with Ruto for the first time, she was a downright spoiled princess who insisted that you carried her throughout the dungeon. Only to declare to make Link her husband at the end of it all. What’s a man supposed to think?! A definition of a Tsundere Princess. Even with Link’s time skip, she still held strong feelings for him but knew that she had to set them aside for the Kingdom of Hyrule. This is even more sad when she became the Sage of Water. Knowing that her engagement will never be due to her duties, you can’t help but feel for the princess. She is spunky, honest, and knows her role. Though she pompous, she will live up to her role of Princess and do what is best. That doesn’t mean she will let Link get away. Link, how many women have you left in your incarnations?! 1. Impa Zelda’s Attendant Bodyguard and Remaining Sheikah. Her character is that of a stalwart knight who will do nothing to protect Princess Zelda. Seeing her ride off with Zelda in Ocarina of Time fleeing from Ganon, it sets the tone for the rest of the game. Throughout her incarnations, she is an ally that you really don’t want to mess with. Even with Hyrule Warriors, she only exudes pure strength. Heck, she uses a giant sword like its nothing. A real samurai bodyguard. For the games themselves, she passed the teachings of Sheikah to Zelda to defend herself in Ocarina of Time. After escorting Link to the Shadow Temple, she takes up the role of being the Shadow Sage knowing that she cannot be by Zelda’s side. Another example is in Skyward Sword. She guarded Zelda through her journey, but also guided Link at the same time. To find out that the same old lady in the Temple, is the same Impa who gave you lip on your poor performance of protecting Zelda. Impa understands the meaning of sacrifice and places duty before all else. She is another who guides Link and the players to their destination. Serving as both a guide and bodyguard to the royal family. Impa is a supporting character that deserves the utmost respect. Tyler, want to finish it off? Tyler’s Picks History with Zelda: I fell in love with the Zelda with Wind Waker on the GameCube, although I didn’t fully appreciate the series for what it is until I revisited Ocarina of Time. Ocarina still stands out as my favorite Zelda title, and definitely is on my Top 10 all-time list. While there have been so many coming of age stories throughout history, Ocarina of Time‘s tale struck an emotional chord and played a huge role in making me the person I am today. 2. The Great Deku Tree The Great Deku Tree guides link in Breath of the Wild, Ocarina of Time, and Wind Waker, giving the young hero the knowledge he needs to begin his journey. In Ocarina of Time, The Great Deku Tree is particularly indispensable. He gives himself up to stop Ganondorf from receiving the Kokiri Emerald, informs Link of his destiny, and gives him Navi as a companion. He watches over the Master Sword in Breath of the Wild as well, keeping the blade safe so Link can retrieve it when he is ready. Plus, have you seen his mustache? That’s legendary in its own right! 1. Medli I’ve always loved Medli… I’d be lying if I said third grade Tyler didn’t have a huge crush on her. She has all the makings of a true hero, willing to put herself in danger to protect others. When she learns that her role in life is even more important than attending Valoo and Prince Komali on Dragon Roost Island, Medli doesn’t hesitate to answer the call. She embraces her role as the Earth Spirit and joins Link in one of the most unique dungeons in Zelda history. If I’m being completely honest though, I love Medli because her harp song is one of the most beautiful pieces in gaming. So…what do you think of our lists? Who are YOUR favorite Legend of Zelda supporting characters? Let us know!VANCOUVER — A week after shooting two dogs who had allegedly killed multiple chickens on his property, an Elkford man says he wishes “things could be different.” James Bonnell said when he arrived home at around 8:30 p.m. MT on May 1, he went to check on his chickens, but found an upsetting sight instead. “Came in here, had the dog sitting right here killing the chicken,” said Bonnell. Bonnell said two dogs, neither of which had tags, somehow managed to get into his side yard, breaking into the coops where the chickens are housed by tearing through wire and pawing open the door. “They wrecked the pen. Ripped all the wire off, chewed it really bad.” In total, he said nine of his chickens were killed. Two more are still missing. Bonnell said he was upset about the dogs killing his birds and felt he needed to protect himself and his livestock. In a prepared statement, he explained what happened next: “I went into the house and got my low velocity.22. As the dog was chewing on the chicken, I shot it and it went down. I looked up and seen another dog coming around my camping trailer and it was growling at me. I shot it and it went down. I went inside to put the gun away. When I come back outside, to check on the dogs, they were gone from the yard. I went and got my gun again and went looking for the wounded dogs because I didn’t want them to suffer and I found them nearby. I put them into the truck and drove them a few kilometers out of town where I put them out of their misery as humanely as possible. My neighbour drove up where I put them and said he was going to report me. He did not say he knew who’s the dogs were belonged. I drove home and did a check of my yard. I found seven dead chickens in one coop, two dead ones in the yard and two missing. There were feathers everywhere. The dogs had torn into four of my pens, ripping heavy chicken wire, leaving teeth and claw marks.” Bonnell said he’s never done anything before to harm anyone’s pets, adding that since the incident, he’s been having trouble sleeping. He said had he known who the dogs belonged to, he wouldn’t have shot them. “I really feel bad about what happened. I wish things had been different.” Owner upset The owner of the two dogs, Jen Bryant, is also wishing things could have ended differently too. Bryant said her dogs, Raven and Star, got out of her fenced yard when her seven year-old son accidentally left it open. “He came through the back gate and it happened to be windy out and he thought he had gotten it all the way shut and then next thing you know a big gust of wind came over and blew it open,” explained Bryant. “Soon as I noticed the dogs were out, I got in my car, got around, started to look for them and we just weren’t able to find them.” Bryant says she was alerted to what happened by another neighbour. She said the dogs weren’t innocent–they shouldn’t have been in Bonnell’s yard. However, she feels strongly that killing them was not the answer. “Unfortunately, with him being in town, I don’t think he had the right to take matters into his own hands,” she said. “Not only that, if he had shot them while they were killing the chickens, we probably would have a been a little bit more understanding, but to pick them up after they’ve left on their way home and put them in his truck and then take them out of town–that’s not ok.” A puppy named Halo has been donated to the family, and though Bryant says nothing can replace her dogs, the new pet is helping with the healing process. The investigation into what happened is now in the hands of the SPCA. “There could be charges under the Criminal Code of Canada or the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act,” said SPCA general manager, Lorie Chortyk. Chortyk said necropsies on the two dogs is happening this weekend, but the investigation could take a few more weeks. The investigating officer still needs to conduct more interviews with witnesses and gather evidence. While there have been claims over social media that Bonnell has killed other animals in the past, Chortyk said they are not aware of any other incidents.Three hospitalized, five more fell ill after class on Friday Two University of Colorado students are facing multiple felony charges after campus police say they provided marijuana-laced brownies to unsuspecting classmates and their professor on Friday, sending three to the hospital and sickening five others. The two students – Thomas Ricardo Cunningham, 21, and Mary Elizabeth Essa, 19 – were arrested Saturday night on suspicion of second-degree assault, inducing the consumption of controlled substances by fraudulent means, conspiracy to commit second-degree assault and conspiracy to induce
by ships and is known among sailors as the “Maracaibo Beacon.” Interestingly, generally little to no sound accompanies this fantastic light show, as the lightning moves from cloud to cloud—far, far above the ground. You can see a short video of the phenomena on youtube.well, long time no post but I have a cool one this time! I just completed designing and building an 8×10 large format digital video camera, the first in the world that I know of. LargeSense has some interesting tests with x-ray sensors (I think?) but this camera can be made for orders of magnitude less cost, and I don’t think they have yet made a fully working camera. I get into how it works in the video below, but essentially its off-axis reimaging of a projected image. you lose some light, but with advances in large aperture wide angle lenses (I am using an Irix 15mm f2.4 Firefly) and sensitive cameras (a Sony a7s in my case) this sort of camera is now a practical possibility. it is a bit like IMAX, but waaaaay bigger 🙂 I used C4d virtual cameras to model the fields of view of the various lenses and ensure that the slider didn’t appear in the bottom of the shot, even at infinite focus. if you have any questions or want to build your own, let me know! I am happy to share everything I learned along the building process. expect to see lots more from this camera and ones like it from me. light field version next, eh? AdvertisementsDanish restaurant Noma commissioned Polyform Architects to create a landscape based on Nordic terroir to give pilgrims to the world's best restaurant a taste of what's inside, without disturbing diners (+ slideshow). Recently named 'the world’s best restaurant' for the fourth time in a list compiled by 900 international experts for Restaurant magazine, Copenhagen's Noma attracts diners from all over the world. It features an interior by Space Copenhagen, as well as an experimental food laboratory by 3XN. With a wait of up to two months for a table, the restaurant also attracts foodies without reservations, keen to see the location, get their photo taken outside, and peer through windows to get a glimpse of the innovative dishes being served inside. Guests have been finding the voyeurs distracting, so Noma contacted Polyform Architects for a design solution. "Head chef René Redzepi was not interested in putting up a red rope in front of the restaurant," said Polyform partner Thomas Kock. "He didn't want to exclude the curious minds but rather create a buffer zone around the restaurant, which gave visitors the experience of Noma and in this way included them." Like the ingredients for the new-Nordic cuisine the restaurant specialises in, the landscape design is based on indigenous plants and common features from Norway's natural environment. "We wanted a landscape that showcased the Nordic region's rugged beauty and told the story of the terroir that has shaped and inspired the new Nordic," Kock told Dezeen. "With that in mind, we brought in typical robust plants from the coasts of the countries and lava stones from Iceland where these plants also grow naturally," The restaurant wanted the new intervention to look like it had been there for a long time, so the designers used fully-grown plants including hare's tail cottongrass, bluebells, mountain avens, primula nutans, platt's black and sea thrift. Beehives in the garden will produce honey for the Noma kitchen with a unique taste, thanks to a bespoke combination of plants that bees feed on. Guests with reservations can now enjoy a disturbance-free gastronomic experience inside, while guests without reservations still get a taste of Noma outside. "We expect the visitors to have a taste of the new Nordic - even though they might not have a reservation to taste the new Nordic gastronomy inside Noma," said Kock. Polyform was established in 2006 by Royal Academy of Fine Arts Copenhagen graduates Jonas Song Berg and Thomas Kock. Photography is by Wichmann+Bendtsen.As we inch ever closer to May when the networks will decide which shows are coming back and which pilots they’ll pick up to series, TVWise presents the second edition of its broadcast TV buzz, which lists, by network, the latest industry intel (buzz if you will) on which shows will be back next year and which shows we will be saying goodbye to. There has been a fair amount of movement since our first edition last month, with CBS having renewed 18 shows, and the fate of several others having firmed up. ABC: While ABC has yet to renew a single show, there had been some movement in recent week. With five shows 666 Park Avenue, Don’t Trust The B—- In Apartment 23, Last Resort, Private Practice and Zero Hour) already cancelled, the network looks poised to renew the majority of its line up. I hear that Castle, Grey’s Anatomy, The Middle, Modern Family, Once Upon A Time, Revenge and Scandal are all locks for renewal and will be back next season. While not the dead certs, my sources tell me that Last Man Standing, Malibu Country, Nashville and Suburgatory are all set to be renewed. Body of Proof and The Neighbors are both firmly on the bubble, but I hear that as things currently stand The Neighbors could well swing a second season, depending on the state of the net’s comedy pilots in May. Despite its strong supporters at the network, I’m now told that Happy Endings is a goner and joins Red Widow as the only shows at the network that I’m being told will be cancelled. CBS: Over at the eye, the network has now renewed 13 scripted shows including 2 Broke Girls, The Big Bang Theory, Blue Bloods, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Elementary, The Good Wife, Hawaii Five-0, How I Met Your Mother, The Mentalist, Mike & Molly, NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles and Person of Interest. While cancelled shows include Made In Jersey and Partners. Of the remaining shows, I hear that Criminal Minds and Two And A Half Men will be back next season, and it’s just a matter of hammering out those deals. Friend Me has yet to premiere on the network, Golden Boy is on the bubble and its performance in the coming weeks will determine its fate, while I’m being told that CSI: NY, Rules of Engagement and Vegas are set to be cancelled. The CW: There hasn’t been a lot of movement over at The CW. Having already cancelled 90210 and renewed Arrow, Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries there are only a handful of shows in question. I’m still being told by by sources that Nikita and Hart of Dixie will be renewed. Cult is a goner and will not appear on next seasons schedule. Of the two bubble shows, I hear that Beauty and the Beast is still on track for renewal while The Carrie Diaries is set to be cancelled. Fox: Just like The CW, there hasn’t been a lot of movement at Fox. The network suffered this season from poor ratings and not having a deep enough bench of originals to replace its under-performing series. As such they are expected to be more bullish with its series orders this May. The network has already cancelled Ben and Kate and renewed American Dad, Bob’s Burgers, Family Guy, The Simpsons, The Following, New Girl, The Mindy Project and Raising Hope. According to my sources, Glee is looking good for a renewal, with negotiations currently underway. I hear that The Cleveland Show is firmly on the bubble, while Touch will be cancelled. Despite the fact that the series won’t premiere until late May – word is that The Goodwin Games also won’t be back next season. NBC: At NBC, the return of Revolution and The Voice has eased some of the ratings pains at the network, but their fall 2013 line up still looks like it will contain a large number of new shows. I’m being told that 1600 Penn, Deception, Guys With Kids, The New Normal, Smash, Up All Night and Whitney are all set to be cancelled by the time of the upfronts in May. My sources tell me that Chicago Fire, Grimm, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Parenthood and Revolution are all locks for renewal and will all be back. Community, Go On and Parks and Recreation are looking good for renewals and, barring any significant ratings declines in the coming weeks, should all be back next year.LAST WEEK Rangers Chairman Dave King invited supporters to send in questions and below you can read the fifth part in series as he addresses the topics raised by fans: Disabled Fans A number of our disabled supporters, and others who have concerns about the facilities available for their disabled friends, have asked questions about what the Club is planning to do for them. It is fully appreciated by the Board that the lack of investment by previous regimes (that we unfortunately have cause to regret on so many fronts) has also caused the current facilities to be less than adequate for disabled supporters. I confirm that the Club has already committed to make funds available to enhance significantly the overall matchday experience for disabled fans. The degradation in facilities has happened over a protracted period of time and the committed improvement will also necessarily take time as the implementation entails some actions that can be undertaken quickly and others that require consultation and approval. The Board is 100% committed to making Ibrox fit for purpose for disabled fans. The Club has established the “Disability Matters” Group to engage proactively with the Club on all issues affecting Disabled fans. The Group consists of supporters who are either disabled or care for supporters who are disabled, and includes two senior members of the Rangers management team, Liz Kay and Susan Hannah, who are to be commended for their work in this area. Initial meetings have been very positive with several of the proposals put forward by the Group already implemented by the Club. These include: Fan-led pricing proposals have been implemented for season 2016/17. Parking arrangements for disabled fans that will allow parking closer to the stadium. Access routes to the Stadium have been improved. Dedicated “blue routes” for wheelchair fans have been created easing movement within the stadium concourses. Dedicated stewards with specialist training have been allocated to the sections reserved for wheelchair users. Stewards now take food and drink orders for wheelchair fans. A Sensory Room is being constructed in the corner between the Sandy Jardine and the Broomloan Stands for families with young members with sensory processing disorders such as autism and it is hoped this will be completed by the start of the new season. The Club will continue to work closely with the Disability Matters Group and consult on how best to implement improved facilities and the matchday experience for disabled fans.I have been musing about the dialogues between Einstein and Niels Bohr, and also the relations between the greatness of Einstein and the greatness of Kurt Godel. My solution to this dialogue is that there are key insights which overshadow the doubts that emerged at the time. You will excuse me if I introduce some psychology in the schematizing of the thoughts of the time, as psychology is often what is warranted in solving intractable problems. In part because mathematics and physics have often been seen as related disciplines, it can be seen that there is some factuality to the influence of hormonal competitiveness with Einstein in the specific design of theories of his competitors, such as Godel’s incompleteness.I will leave that complex idea as an initial lemma, except that there is a particular relation between logic and mathematics that may be worth discussing. This is specifically the role between proof theory (a.k.a. Einstein), and the causal relationship between mathematics and physics.For, we would not ordinarily say that physics is incomplete----at least I wouldn’t. Instead of criticizing this point as having irrelevance out of the inherent incompleteness of physics, we can adopt a logical tool, and say that physics is semantically complete. For, after all, in logic we would not say that a theory is incomplete if it appeared (like Aristotle’s syllogisms), to provide an explanation for any type of conclusiveness we might imagine. Nor would I say that this view is naïve, since even in science the deference is to the best available theory. We would not say science is wrong because it does not know absolutely everything. Instead, we would say that it is relatively complete. And, I argue, it is the same with physics. Unless we are being very technical about what completeness means----and I think we aren’t absolutely technical here, just as the physics is not absolutely complete----then it makes sense to consider physics as though it has some degree of completeness, e.g. it is a relatively successful attempt at a complete explanation. Even if there are multiple categories of physics (relative, quantum, string theory), each category undoubtedly contributes to the completeness of physics, or the theories would be regarded as quack science.Now that I have argued that physics is considered relatively complete, I would like to make an interesting stipulation. If physics is considered complete, and math is not considered complete, is there something that can be had here? Although math is not normally considered ‘physical’ ---- could it be that the immaterialism of math is groping with a primitive spiritual idea, instead of what it should be doing, which is accepting some perhaps unseen form of objectivity?For, what is ‘incompleteness’ saying except that math cannot be objective? Wouldn’t objective incompleteness be an oxymoronic definition? Or would it just mean that math cannot ever be complete? Then, are we saying that math cannot ever be complete in a complete sense, or are we saying that math is itself un-objective? I think no one will make the claim that math is un-objective, and asking if math can be complete in a complete sense begs the question of whether we are in fact being relativistic. For there is no sense of math apart from the objective sense, unless it becomes a math of un-objective things. But, instead of wading deeper and deeper into the sense of math as an un-objective application----which clearly leads to un-objective conclusions----the principle that truth is the obviation of the obvious gives us several options: (1) Truth is obvious, (2) Truth is about obviating, (3) Truth isn’t obvious, and (4) Truth isn’t about obviating. Clearly I think it is the case where math is not about obviating that seems like the weak point. But have we proved for definite that math cannot obviate truth? I think regardless of the amount of education required to learn math, it certainly can! And this goes against the principle of Godel’s incompleteness.However, to prove for definite that there is some mathematical principle based on physics that could be foundational for math requires additional reasoning. But there is nothing which says such ideas could not be foundational in some exceptional, acceptable sense.In my own theories on logic, I have arrived at a concept of a bounded Cartesian Coordinate system defined by polar opposite word pairs. In this case, it was simply conceptualizing differently which permitted the context to be understandable. I would advocate a similar solution for math. The concept that some mathematical principles are complex, unavailable, or infinite may be limiting the cogency of mathematics. Furthermore, there may be some way in which infinity is not being conceptualized appropriately. My own solution has been that the trans-finite is a product of division rather than multiplication. Unless there is a concept of a whole, math will remain incomplete. But if infinity is a byproduct of multiplying and adding exponents, this assumes the consequence that there is no whole, and thus, that math is incomplete. But the process by which this occurs is not mathematical, instead, it is a more rudimentary logic that might be proven wrong, as I have shown. Certainly the concept that math is not whole does much to refute mathematics, if it comes last. But I think it could just as easily have come first. If it is a matter of cause and effect, and it could be either one, then it is clear that incompleteness is not 100% correct.In logic, if there is something ambiguous, the process is to search for new and creative ways to solve the ambiguity. These tools are not as easy to apply in math, when the assumption is that it is a product of its products. However, math sometimes involves philosophy. It sometimes involves logic. Some of its assumptions could be wrong. And I think this is the most likely explanation for any form of absolute mathematical incompleteness.As I mentioned, I have thought of some possible ways to support math by combining it with physics. What if, for example, there was some strength to physical arbitrariness? Once we assume that math is physical, as it may well be in some sense, we can then perhaps prove that since math is more arbitrary than physics, then math has greater support than physics! By this form of arbitrariness, what I mean is that it is not as directly influenced by causal laws. Or, more precisely, it applies to a wide range of phenomena without participating directly in their chain of causality. And, even if math did participate in an object’s chain of causality, this would not make math less arbitrary than the objects being determined. The objects are by definition, the most determined things about observation. Math, then, whether it depends on observations, or does not depend on observations, remains less determined than matter. And, where it is less determined, so far as it does not disappear, it has a more permanent influence.So, at this point we have a few options. Either (1) math disappears, or (2) math has some influence. But, here is the important corollary. If math has influence, math is physical. And what is physical is not incomplete. We already know, since it is less determined than matter, that it is more influential than matter. Therefore, math is more complete than matter!---Nathan CoppedgeJuly 21st, 2015New Haven, CTIt will also be available as an academic paper at: https://www.academia.edu/14269683/Logical_Solutions_to_Mathematical_Incompleteness if you want a more cite-able format.TRENTON-Apparently, legal gun ownership in New Jersey is a big problem for one percenter Phil Murphy and the National Rifle Association is no better than Hollywood producers who sexually assault aspiring actresses. After being caught with his hand in Harvey Weinstein’s cookie jar, New Jersey Millionaire and Wall Street mogul Phil Murphy said taking Weinstein’s money is equal to Republicans taking money from the NRA. “He was going to be part of something,” Murphy said of the Hollywood icon who has been shamed in recent days over his accused thirty-year pattern of sexual harassment against women. “We heard there was something happening, we dropped him…and canceled the entire event.” Murphy immediately accused Guadagno of getting money from the National Rifle Association. Murphy says the NRA has supported Republican candidate Kim Guadagno, giving at least $65,000 to the candidate. “I find that unconscionable particularly since what happened over the past 9 days,” he added, invoking the Las Vegas massacre. “Let’s make sure we’re focused on the facts.” Murphy said he hasn’t taken a dime from Weinstein, whose reputation in Hollywood had proceeded him for decades as a womanizer. Weinstein did not say how much money he intended to take in from Weinstein after meeting with him, along with Hollywood loud mouth liberal, Robert DeNiro in August.Marshall came back to Magic after discovering Limited and never looked back. He hosts the Limited Resources podcast and does Grand Prix and Pro Tour video commentary. Ah yes, the build-around-me uncommon. After you play Limited Magic for a few years, you start to notice things like build-around-me uncommons. After your twentieth draft in a given format, the "normal" archetypes may start to lose their novelty, and you'll start looking around for something else to experiment with—a way to go deeper. A build-around-me uncommon is a card that is not very good on its own but begs to have a deck built around it. This usually involves taking some risk both in the draft portion and the games themselves. The reward is the interesting part. Sometimes it's huge, allowing you to hit from an angle that the format isn't ready for. Other times, the risk doesn't pan out and you end up building around an effect that isn't worth it. One of my favorite build-around-me uncommons showed up in my favorite draft format ever—triple Innistrad: Innistrad was a deep format and it took a while before my eye started wandering toward new strategies. Around my eightieth draft, I finally went all-in on Burning Vengeance. Flashback was a big mechanic in that set; it lets you play cards from your graveyard. So the key was to get a Burning Vengeance and then take all the flashback cards you could get. You would even play some flashback cards you wouldn't normally consider playing. This is the "going deep" part of the equation. You're forced to think outside the box and venture into new territory. I used the knowledge I had with the Burning Vengeance deck in Draft to turn a mediocre Sealed pool into a Day-Two Sealed pool at Grand Prix Austin that year. Going deep has its rewards, but you do have to keep yourself from going too deep. This week, we have two new Khans of Tarkir previews for you, both of which fall under the category of build-around-me uncommon. First up is Goblinslide: Cracks Knuckles Let's get down to business. First things first, Goblinslide (and our other preview, Quiet Contemplation) doesn't affect the board the turn it comes into play. The reason I mention this first is because it's the most important thing to remember about these cards. They come with a significant drawback. If you have ever been on the wrong end of a turn-two, -three, and -four creature curve-out in Limited, you'll know that taking a turn off to do almost nothing isn't an option. So we'll keep that in mind as we continue. But what is the upside here? Free creatures! We have discussed in the past how important creatures are in Limited. They are easily the single most important card type in Limited, and this cards gives you them for free...ish. We get 1/1 Goblins with haste. (Of note: unlike some of their cousins, they don't have to attack.) Not bad. Those 1/1s with haste are pretty good at keeping the pressure flowing, and can create some interesting blocking situations, as well. Additionally, we can get these at instant speed, provided the noncreature spell we cast is also an instant. This could change combat math for our opponent, who isn't expecting a new attacker. Or maybe make an unexpected blocker that jumps in front of some huge creature on our opponent's turn. It adds an additional colorless mana to each of our noncreature spells if we want the token, which could be awkward. It also puts an emphasis on cheap noncreature spells so you can pay to get the Goblin as often as possible. In order to maximize on a card like this, you have to get every bit of value possible. Speaking of getting every bit of value out of the card, it brings us to our next preview, Quiet Contemplation: Now we're really talking. Quiet Contemplation "freezes" (frosts?) a creature for a turn cycle, similar to the ability from Frost Titan or Frost Lynx. This is a pure tempo play, but can be a very strong one if timed properly. And by "timed properly" I mean "done at instant speed," which you can totally do with this card. When you think about it, it's quite powerful: if you cast an instant on the opponent's turn, before he or she declares attackers, you get to lock down a creature for an attack, a block, another attack, and another block. Wow. In some game states, that's essentially acting as removal. It does fall under the same warnings that Goblinslide does: It doesn't affect the board the turn you cast it, and you have to be able to play cheap noncreature spells in order to pay for the extra colorless mana. But once things get rolling, Quiet Contemplation feels like it will pull its weight and then some. The effect from this card isn't quite worth a full card on its own. It's probably closer to half a card's worth of value. (This is a common tool for figuring out how good an effect is—figuring out if you would play a card that simply had this effect on it.) But if you can get multiple activations going, you can quickly climb the ranks and get two or three cards' worth out of this. Where Does it Fit? This brings us to an important question about both of these cards: what kind of deck wants a card like this? Goblinslide seems better in an aggressive deck. If you get ahead on board with a few attacking creatures and can turn your removal spells into more (hasty) attacking creatures, you'll close out the game in short order. It also lets all of your pump spells, card-draw spells, and combat tricks add to the beatdown. If you have a way to augment all of your creatures (an "anthem" effect, as we call them), it gets even better. Goblinslide \| Art by Kev Walker We have also seen that the Mardu have the raid mechanic on their side, which rewards attacking. Sometimes you may want to trigger raid but won't have any great attacks. This is precisely what Goblins specialize in. They will happily run headfirst into a bigger creature just to trigger your raid effect. With Quiet Contemplation, things aren't as clear. I could see this seeing play in an aggressive, tempo-based deck. Acting as a source of repeatable "removal" could easily keep the opponent off balance long enough to finish the game. Especially when you consider that removal spells will trigger Quiet Contemplation. Imagine using a removal spell to kill a key blocker, paying the cost for Quiet Contemplation, and freezing another one. Insane. But there is another use for this card that I could see: control decks. Normally, temporary effects like freezing or bouncing creatures aren't great for the control player. They intend to make the game go long, and that means the spells they play have to deal with creatures permanently, else they just come back and fight another day. Quiet Contemplation \| Art by Magali Villeneuve But control decks also tend to run more noncreature spells than your average Limited deck. And if you can consistently keep something (the opponent's best thing) locked down for most of the game, I could see it seeing play. Again, when you turn your card-draw spell into a lockdown play, and your actual removal into a lockdown play, it adds up. This will scale in a similar way to a tapper. The big question is if there is an aggressive enough archetype in Khans of Tarkir to punish taking the turn off you cast Quiet Contemplation. After all, this card is way better against decks that present big, but relatively few, threats. It's not very effective against a deck based around tokens, for example. Talking Numbers So these are powerful cards, with Quiet Contemplation being a bit more powerful than Goblinslide from what I can tell in the early stages. The big question that you should be asking yourself here is, "How many noncreature spells do I have to play in my deck to get my value out of these?" It's a tough question. On one hand, if you trigger these two or three times a game, you are probably at least breaking even on the transaction. On the other hand, how do you know you'll be able to do that? The fact is that you won't know. You are taking a risk by playing this strategy, and you have to accept that. There are a few ways to mitigate the risk and maximize on value. First, I would look for cards that are effectively both creatures and spells at the same time. Cards like Raise the Alarm and Triplicate Spirits from Magic 2015 come to mind as recent examples. Cards like this will be able to trigger your enchantment while also adding to your board in a meaningful way. Mardu Charm out of Khans of Tarkir, for example, is one such way to make creatures with spells. Next, as I've noted before, it's important to keep an eye on the cost of the spell. Expensive noncreature spells will be harder to trigger in tight games, so put a premium on cheap noncreature spells. Another cool thing is...these trigger each other. You could just build some insane brew with as many of them as you can get your hands on, and they work great in multiples, too! The mana starts to get a bit restrictive at some point, but you get the idea. Summary These are potentially powerful, but they aren't called "build-around-me" uncommons for nothing. They ask a lot of you. They cost three mana (an important turn in most games of Limited) and don't affect the board at all the turn you cast them. This is not to be ignored! They also demand that you play a significant number of noncreature spells in your deck. Most Limited decks have fifteen to eighteen creatures. This doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for noncreature spells. And remember, the card itself is taking one of those slots. Then they also ask that you have an extra one colorless mana when you cast your noncreature spell. They ask a lot. But they also give you back a lot, particularly if you can get multiples and especially if you build your deck appropriately around them. Plus, they look super fun and, after about twenty drafts, I'm guessing they are exactly what I'll be looking for. Until next week! @Marshall_LRIs this Britain's vainest person? Barman who wants to look like ‘the perfect man’ gets £5,000 nose job on the NHS (which won't fund cancer care for a five-year-old girl) Sam Barton, 22, wants to'mirror' Joey Essex so he 'looks and feels good' The Sutton Coldfield man said it was 'easy' to get NHS to pay for nose job It was funded by NHS Birmingham CrossCity Clinical Commissioning Group Cancer victim Kelli Smith, five, has been told her treatment won't be paid for Kelli's father said those wanting cosmestic surgery should 'pay for themselves' A man who says he is seeking a celebrity lifestyle has been given a nose job by the NHS while it refuses to fund the cancer treatment of a five-year-old girl who lives nearby. Sam Barton, 22, has boasted about how easy it was to get the £5,000 procedure and admits he only wanted it so he could look like ‘the perfect man’. The operation was paid for by NHS Birmingham CrossCity Clinical Commissioning Group. Five-year-old cancer victim Kelli Smith has been told her treatment won’t be paid for. Britain's vainest man: Sam Barton, 22 from Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, was given a £5,000 nose job on the NHS as part of his bid to become 'the perfect man' She has suffered from neuroblastoma, an aggressive and often deadly form of childhood cancer, and has already had three tumours removed after a relapse. She cannot get further treatment on the NHS, so her family are attempting to raise £500,000 so she can have it abroad. Kelli’s father, Tom Attwater, 31, who has a terminal brain tumour, said last night it was wrong for the NHS to ‘throw away’ money on cosmetic procedures. ‘This man and anyone else should pay for themselves, unless they have a serious medical condition,’ he said. ‘I wake up every day with a terminal illness worrying about how to fund-raise £500,000 for Kelli’s treatment if she relapses. This is where NHS funding should go.’ Mr Barton, who lives close to Kelli’s family in Sutton Coldfield, admits he secured the cosmetic surgery by pretending to cry in front of his local GP. Mr Barton had the operation, left, to try and copy the lives of people such as Joey Essex, right, who appeared on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! He said: 'I feel that if I mirror celebrities, like Joey, I will look and feel good' ‘Getting the NHS to pay was the easiest thing I have ever done,’ he said. ‘If you say it is ruining your life and you are a good actor it is easy. I can be very manipulative. ‘I said that all my friends are celebrities or glamour models and really beautiful and I am the only ugly one in my group of friends. If you don’t know what to say, just cry.’ Mr Barton, who works part-time in a bar and a supermarket, already had his nose straightened two years ago. He claims he could have had that on the NHS as well, but having it privately was quicker. He says he has spent £20,000 for dental work, including full porcelain veneers, and friends and family have paid for Botox, eyebrow threading, tanning injections, body waxing and hair extensions. The nose job was paid for by the NHS which has refused to fund treatment for cancer victim Kelli Smith, five Mr Barton is also expecting the taxpayer to foot the bill for further cosmetic surgery, including another nose job, as well as having his ears pinned back and jaw reshaped. He said: ‘I understand why people get angry when the NHS pays for people like me to have nose jobs, but when they make it so easy how can you blame me?’ He says he is friends with White Dee, who has gained notoriety after featuring in Channel 4’s Benefits Street, and says he plans to accompany her when she goes partying in Magaluf again next month. On social media there are dozens of photographs of Mr Barton posing with minor television celebrities. He says he is trying to copy the lifestyles of people such as Joey Essex, who appeared on I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! ‘It is my ultimate dream – as everyone wants – to look and feel like a celebrity,’ he said. ‘I’m chasing a lifestyle and I feel that if I mirror celebrities, like Joey, I will look good and feel good. ‘If the celebrities are spending all their money on treatments, I want to too. I will definitely go to the NHS first and try my luck.’ He said he has to wait 12 months before he can go back again. ‘I will just say that they had not done what I asked for and that it looks worse than before and do the whole routine that it is ruining my life and turn on the waterworks,’ he said. ‘I try to see a different GP every time so that they buy my story.’ Last year, aspiring glamour model Josie Cunningham, 22, had her breasts enlarged at a cost of £4,800 on the NHS using a similar tactic – by claiming her flat chest was ruining her life. Under NHS guidelines, cosmetic surgery should be funded only in rare circumstances ‘to protect a person’s health’. Mr Barton’s procedure was paid for by the NHS Birmingham Commissioning Group after he was referred to a consultant by his GP. A spokesman for the group said: ‘We do not comment on individual cases. All operations and interventions would only be undertaken on medical grounds and would require the approval of an appropriate clinical consultant.’ Other families whose children have been refused life-changing operations on the NHS last night told the Daily Mail of their anger at the case of Mr Barton. Jake Foster, 13, was refused an operation that would prolong his life. His mother Debbie said: ‘It makes me so angry that someone can play the system like this. Crocodile tears may have worked for him, but we cried real tears, begged, started a petition and went to our local MP but nothing worked.’ Oliver Dockerty, three, was refused an operation that would allow him to walk. His mother Claire said: ‘What I don’t like is when people like this rub it in your face. People are struggling to get the money for procedures that could genuinely change someone’s life.’Me: “Thank you for calling **, this is Bill in the breast aesthetics department. How may I help you?” Customer: “My left boob popped.” Me: “Okay, so the implant failed?” Customer: “Yes.” Me: “Are your implants silicone gel or saline?” Customer: “The water kind.” Me: “So, we’ve had a saline deflation. I need to ask you some questions in regards to how it may have deflated.” Customer: “Why, don’t you believe me?” Me: “Of course I believe you, but as part of making our implants even better and evaluating where under the device’s warranty this falls, I need to know what may have led up to the implant’s leak.” Customer: “Oh, so you think this is my fault?! You make a crappy implant and you have the nerve to blame me?” Me: “Wait, wait. First, I didn’t make your implant, my company did. I’m here to help you get this fixed in the fastest way possible and that starts with finding out how the implant deflated.” Customer: “So you want to know what I did to screw them up, is that right? I spend a fortune on these things to be walking around with a flat tire of a tit and you think it’s my fault?” Me: “No, ma’am. I simply need to know how to cover this under your warranty, to see how much money we are going to give you to fix the problem. We give you a check for money to fix the problem if you’ll just answer my questions. What do you remember doing when you first noticed the deflation in your breast?” Customer: “Me and my boyfriend were playing sex hide-and-seek in the house and he thought it would be more fun if my boobs glowed. So, he used a needle tube to insert little red lights into them… what do you call those little glowing lights? It’s like three letters?” Me: “… A diode?” Customer: “Yes. He’s a trained professional… he uses them on animals at his job all the time.” Me: “So, your boyfriend punched a hole in your chest and tried inserting a diode inside the implant?” Customer: “Well, not in my chest. Just on the top side of my boob so it wouldn’t hurt. He numbed it first.” Me: “… And this is the implant’s fault, how?” Customer: “It started leaking and getting flat.” Me: laughing* “I’m sorry, can you repeat that? I’m recording this and no one is going to believe me!” Customer: click Also seen on: Not Always Romantic.GETTY Victor Orbán wants to hold back migration The stinging rebuke came after the European Commission president wrote to Mr Orbán accusing him of turning down help to deal with the country’s migrant crisis. Mr Juncker accused the country of a lack of solidarity by making demands on
to keep their eyes closed, although they were requested not to fall asleep. Wakefulness was assessed throughout the recording via an intercom link to the scanner chamber. The fMRI acquisition parameters were as follows: repetition time (TR) = 2000 ms, echo time (TE) = 24 ms, field of view (FOV) = 256 × 256 mm 2, matrix = 64 × 64, slice thickness = 3 mm and flip angle = 90°. For each participant, 34 trans‐axial slices with no gap were acquired to encompass the whole brain volume. The scan time of the resting‐state fMRI was approximately 6 min. Sixty‐two (25 males and 37 females) healthy control subjects were also recruited. Their average age was 29.9 ±8.62 years, and their mean education duration was 15.3 ± 2.39 years. One of the subjects was left handed and the remaining 61 right handed. All of the controls were assessed in accordance with DSM‐IV criteria as being free of schizophrenia and other Axis I disorders. None of them had any neurological diseases or suffered from clinically significant head trauma and none had a history of any substance dependence. Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants, and all of the research procedures and ethical guidelines were followed in accordance with the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the National Taiwan University Hospital. The patient and control groups were well matched by gender (χ 2 = 1.4234, P = 0.2328) and age ( t‐ test, P = 0.2836) although the controls had a slightly longer education duration ( t‐ test, P = 0.0064). From July 2009 to December 2011, we recruited 69 patients with chronic schizophrenia, with 35 males and 34 females who were identified according to the DSM‐IV diagnostic criteria by qualified psychiatrists at the National Taiwan University Hospital. Exclusion criteria included the presence of DSM‐IV Axis I diagnoses of other disorders such as bipolar disorder, history of any substance dependence, or history of clinically significant head trauma. Patient and healthy control demographics are shown in Table 1. Illness durations ranged from a few months to 30 years (mean ± SD: 7.17 ± 6.61 years). All patients were being treated with a range of antipsychotics (see Supporting Information Table S1 for details) with the most common being Abilify (aripiprazole— n = 20) or Zyprexa/ZyprexaZydis ( n = 12). Their average age was 31.6 ± 9.6 years and they had a mean education duration of 14.2 ± 2.16 years. Only two of the patients were left handed and the other 67 were right handed according to the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Symptom severity was measured using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) assessment which was given to all schizophrenic participants either one week before the MRI scan or one week after it. However, five patients were not able to complete their PANSS assessment because of their poor health condition. GM and WM changes in schizophrenia patients. ( a ) The detected ROIs with significant GM and WM volume difference between patients and healthy controls. There are 58 ROIs with significant GM difference in which the ratios of GM volume of healthy controls over patients are all larger than 1, the sequence and names of the ROIs are as listed in Table 2. There are four ROIs with significant WM volume difference in which the volume of healthy controls are all smaller than the patients. ( b ) ROIs which have significant correlation between GM and illness duration. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.] Table 7 and Figure 5 show that 58 out of the 90 ROIs show significantly decreased (GM) volumes in schizophrenia patients compared with controls and none show an increase. The two functional canonical networks showing the greatest effects were the auditory network (RSN 4) where all structures were affected, and the attention network (RSN 2) where all regions other than the SPG had reduced GM volumes. In the remaining four networks, around half of the structures in each showed changes. In the key IPL‐SPG‐PCUN‐SMG‐ANG and HIP‐PHG‐AMYG networks showing the greatest functional connectivity change in schizophrenia patients, the IPL, SMG, and PHG bilaterally, and left AMYG, showed significantly reduced GM volumes in patients. However, none of the GM volumes in these regions correlated significantly with either illness duration or PANSS scores and also did not correlate significantly with the strength of functional connectivity links in either patients (IPL‐ANG = −0.16, IPL‐SMG = −0.18, IPL‐SPG = 0.20, PHG‐AMYG = 0.16, AMYG‐AMYG = 0.004, P > 0.1 in all cases) or healthy subjects (IPL‐ANG = −0.03, IPL‐SMG = −0.03, IPL‐SPG = −0.12, PHG‐AMYG = −0.19, AMYG‐AMYG = −0.06, P > 0.2 in all cases). By calculating ordinary Pearson correlation, the GM volumes of three ROIs including the IFGoperc, inferior orbitofrontal cortex (ORBinf), and superior orbitomedial cortex (ORBmed) correlated negatively with illness duration (see Fig. 5 ). However, when the other GM volumes are treated as covariates, these three ROIs are no longer significant. No GM changes in any ROI correlated significantly with PANSS scores. Only four ROIs showed increased WM volumes in the schizophrenia patients (right PreCG, left PoCG, left triangular region of the IFG, and left CUN—see Fig. 5 ). None of these showed a significant correlation with illness duration or PANSS scores. Predictive value of connectivity changes for identifying schizophrenia patients. ( a ) Histogram shows (mean ± SD)% accuracy in the SVM classifier analysis using all connection changes in the group of schizophrenia patients compared with healthy controls across a range of training samples and when one connection is randomly left out. The table gives mean percentage values for specificity and sensitivity as well as accuracy. ( b ) Same as (a) but just for the circuit most changed in schizophrenia patients (IPG‐SPGPCUN‐SMG‐ANG). [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.] In order to test the performance of the most changed circuit (IPL‐SPG‐PCUN‐SMG‐ANG), we compared the discrimination accuracy of this circuit with the overall circuit. In the present study, SVM is used to discriminate between subjects belonging to patients and healthy controls. For different training samples, we first selected the correlation coefficients of those links with the significant P value of the difference between two groups less than 0.002 among all possible links and repeated it for 1,000 times. The trained SVM is then applied to the remaining test data and a mean rate of correct classification for the test data is obtained. It can be seen from Figure 4 a and Table 6 that the classification accuracy is 82.4%. Next, we only select the correlation coefficients of the links in the most changed circuit (IPL‐SPG‐PCUN‐SMG‐ANG) as features to obtain the result which is shown in Figure 4 b with a classification accuracy being 68.2%. The result shows that the IPL‐SPG‐PCUN‐SMG‐ANG circuit makes a strong contribution to the overall predictive value. A range of different antipsychotic treatments were being given to the patients and around 30% of them were receiving Abilify (aripiprazole) which, unlike the other treatments being used, can have a partial agonist effect at the dopamine D2 receptor [Kessler, 2007 ]. To determine whether treatment with Abilify produced different effects to the other drugs, we compared the strength of functional connectivity changes in the groups of patients receiving either Abilify or not. Results showed no significant differences in any of the altered pathways (see Table S9 in the Supporting Information section). In view of the wide range of illness durations, and the possibility that there might be different patterns of altered networks over time, we also performed a secondary analysis where patients were divided into groups with either short (up to 2 years), medium (3–9 years), or long (10–20 years) illness durations. Supporting Information Table S8 shows that the same general pattern of significant changes occurred in most of the networks in the three patient groups, and particularly in the key IPL‐SPG‐PCUN‐SMG‐ANG one. The IOG‐FFG came close showing a significant difference across the three groups ( P = 0.069), with the 0–2 year illness duration group showing a much smaller and non‐significant change compared with controls. Significant ROIs with altered interhemispheric partial correlation coefficients between schizophrenia patients and control subjects. ( a ) Shows a pseudocolor plot of comparisons between all individual healthy subjects (1–62) and schizophrenia patients (63–131). ( b ) Histograms show specific brain regions with significantly altered interhemispheric connectivity— P value is given above each set. ( c ) Location of these significant ROIs. ( d ) Correlation of the mean correlation coefficients (MCC) of these significant ROIs and the illness duration/negative PANSS score. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.] Since a number of regions showed evidence for altered connectivity between the two hemispheres, a further partial correlation analysis was carried out just for inter‐hemispheric connections for each of the 45 brain areas. This revealed significant reductions in correlation coefficients for nine regions (PCG in RSN 1; ORBsup and MFG in RSN 2; IOG in RSN 3; insula cortex (INS) in RSN 4; PoCG in RSN 5; and AMYG, pallidum (PAL) and thalamus (THA) in RSN 6 (see Fig. 3 a–c). When the correlation coefficients for all nine regions were combined, they showed an overall negative correlation both with illness duration (−0.32, P = 0.0079) and negative PANSS (−0.25, P = 0.0425) (see Fig. 3 d). However, when the individual correlations with PANSS scores were computed it was clear that it was only the amygdala connectivity change that correlated significantly and negatively with negative PANSS (−0.395, P = 0.0012) although not with positive PANSS (−0.16, P = 0.20577) or illness duration (−0.22, P = 0.1081). An analysis of correlations with individual PANSS questions revealed that for the amygdala significance was achieved for all the negative symptoms other than N5 (difficulty in abstract thinking). There was also a small significant correlation with P3 (−0.25, P = 0.0472 ‐ hallucinatory behavior) and with G4 (−0.31 ‐ tension), G6 (−0.29 ‐ depression), G7 (−0.39 ‐ motor retardation), G8 (−0.311 ‐ uncooperativeness), G13 (−0.30 ‐ disturbance of volition) and G15 (−0.34 ‐ preoccupation). For the remaining 8 ROIs with weakened interhemispheric connections only the ORBsup, INS and THA showed any significant correlations with a small number of PANSS question scores (see supplementary Tables S5–7). The other networks with significant changes included all sensorimotor structures (RSN 5), the pre‐ (PreCG) and post‐central (PoCG) gyri, paracentral lobule (PCL), and supplementary motor area (SMA) with s = 0.435 ( P = 0.004), subcortical (RSN 6), amygdala (AMYG), parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) and hippocampus (HIP) with s = 0.301 ( P = 0.005) and visual networks (RSN 3) including the connection between the IOG and fusiform gyrus (FFG) ( s = 0.289, P = 0.006) and calcarine cortex (CAL) and cuneus (CUN) ( s = 0.162, P = 0.038). Additionally, there were changes within the default network involving the medial (SFGmed) and dorsal superior frontal (SFGdor) gyri and anterior cingulate cortex (ACG) ( s = 0.287, P = 0.005), the attention network (RSN 2) between right and left MFG, inferior frontal gyrus (opercula—IFGoper) and ORBsup and auditory (RSN 4) networks; STG and Herschl's gyrus (HES) and in the olfactory pathway between the olfactory bulb (OLF—RSN 6) and rectal gyrus (REC—RSN 1) (see Table 3 ). However, Table 4 shows that none of these connectivity changes were significantly associated with illness duration, with the notable exception of the IOG‐FFG (−0.21, P = 0.003). Only the HIP‐PHG‐AMYG (0.28, P = 0.028) connection change showed a significant positive correlation with negative PANSS scores (Table 5 ). Analysis of this latter pathway, in terms of significant correlations with specific PANSS questions, showed that it was primarily the PHG‐AMYG that was important (significant correlations with P2—conceptual disorganization, N1—blunted effect, N3—poor rapport, G1—somatic concern, G4—tension, G8—uncooperativeness, G11—poor attention, G13—disturbance of volition, G15—preoccupation, G16—active social avoidance—see Supporting Information Table S4). In order to provide a clearer assessment of the relationships between the different connections and schizophrenia symptoms we calculated ordinary Pearson correlations for each component with each of the PANSS questions (7 Positive, 7 Negative, and 16 General). This confirmed an absence of correlation with any question for the IPL‐SPG‐PCUN or IPL‐SPG alone (see Supporting Information Tables S2 and S3). For the SPG‐PCUN pathway, small positive correlations with general questions G4 (0.27—tension) and G15 (0.26—preoccupation) were found (Supporting Information Table S3). On the other hand, for the IPL‐ANG connection, there were significant positive correlations with 6/7 positive and 5/7 negative PANSS questions and 6/16 general ones (see Supporting Information Table S2). Supporting Information Table S2 shows that the strongest significant correlations for changes in IPL‐ANG were for P1 (0.27—delusions), P2 (0.34—conceptual disorganization), P4 (0.48—excitement), P7 (0.52—hostility), N2 (0.35—emotional withdrawal), N5 (0.29—difficulty in abstract thinking), N7 (0.40—stereotyped thinking), G14 (0.34—poor impulse control), G1 (0.28—somatic concern), and G15 (0.43—preoccupation). The IPL‐SMG pathway (Supporting Information Table S3) showed overlap with IPL‐ANG with significant correlations for P5 (0.30—grandiosity), P6 (0.27—suspiciousness/persecution), G1 (0.26—somatic concern), G11 (0.33—poor attention), and G15 (0.33—preoccupation) but unlike the IPL‐ANG pathway also had significant correlations with N4 (0.30—passive/apathetic social withdrawal), G2 (0.33—anxiety), and G3 (0.30—guilt feelings). For the next stage of analysis, we calculated the significance of overall changes in circuits in the two groups. With the large number of individual connections analyzed between 90 different brain structures, the changes for individual links could fail to be significant after making corrections for multiple comparisons. We, therefore, also carried out a permutation analysis on total scores for different circuits (the summation of the scores for all altered links within a circuit) to assess the significance of changes in schizophrenia patients. Table 3 gives the score and P ‐value for the circuits showing significant changes. It can be seen that by far the most altered circuit involves primarily connections between and within the default (RSN1), attention (RSN2), and auditory (RSN4) networks, including the IPL, SPG, precuneus (PCUN), supramarginal gyrus (SMG), and ANG with s = 1.123 ( P < 0.001). Figure 2 a,b shows that the IPL is at the centre of this altered circuit with its connections with the SMG and ANG being weakened and those with the SPG and PCUN being strengthened. Interestingly, we found significant correlations between the change in the score in this circuit and both illness duration and positive and negative PANSS scores although involving different components (see Tables 4 and 5 ). The IPL‐SPG‐PCUN component of the circuit, which is strengthened in schizophrenia patients, was significantly positively correlated (0.26, P < 0.05) with illness duration but not at all with PANSS scores (0.03 positive and 0.04 negative; P > 0.05). On the other hand, the IPL‐ANG connection, which is weakened in patients, was strongly positively correlated with both PANSS positive and negative scores (0.43 and 0.35; P < 0.01) but not at all with illness duration (0.10, P > 0.05). To illustrate more clearly the connectivity changes in the schizophrenic patients, Figure 2 a plots the altered links between the schizophrenia and healthy patient networks within and between the different RSNs with the two hemispheres merged into one. Additionally, Figure 2 b shows the localization of the altered circuits in the brain. It can be seen that the three most altered individual links were those between the olfactory bulb (OLF) and rectus gyrus (REC) in the left hemisphere and bilaterally between the superior parietal gyrus (SPG) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL) which were all stronger in the schizophrenic patients. The most notable pattern of change in terms of stronger connections in the healthy subjects is between the same regions in the left and right hemispheres. Seven different regions show this altered pattern, including the medial frontal gyrus (MFG), superior orbitofrontal cortex (ORBsup), opercula inferior frontal gyrus (IFGoperc), angular gyrus (ANG), inferior and medial occipital gyri (IOG and MOG), and the superior temporal gyrus (STG). Functional maps are constructed for 69 schizophrenia patients and 62 healthy controls. Figure 1 a shows the scores for different links between the schizophrenia patient and healthy control networks and indicating links that are either strengthened or weakened. The summation of the scores for links within each RSN is shown in Figure 1 b. Overall, the canonical network most affected in the schizophrenia patients was the attention network (RSN 2) followed by the visual (RSN 3) and default (RSN 1) ones. DISCUSSION Overall, our results have demonstrated that across a range of illness durations from several months to 20 years the key functional network showing significant changes in the brains of schizophrenic patients is one involving components of the default network and the cortical mirror neuron system. Both systems are associated with a range of sensory and cognitive functions, particularly those involving self‐processing and a sense of agency and changes were both correlated with illness duration and symptom severity and had a high predictive value for identifying schizophrenic patients compared with healthy controls. However, interestingly the components of both networks which were most strongly linked with schizophrenia did not include the frontal cortex but mainly parietal regions. Studies investigating the neural circuitry underlying the sense of self have generally employed paradigms involving self‐recognition, self‐referential judgments, self‐appraisal, and judgments of personality traits, and such information is clearly of great importance not only for evaluating one's own behavior but also for providing a basis for comparison with the behavior of others [Gillihan and Farah, 2005; Legrand and Ruby, 2009; Uddin et al., 2007]. Research to date has emphasized the importance of a number of different regions within the default circuit in the brain containing a number of frontal and parietal regions characterized by high resting‐state activity and commonly showing deactivation during task conditions. Indeed, since they show higher activity during the resting state, when it is assumed there is a high level of self‐awareness, and this is decreased by any tasks requiring attention (where self‐awareness is assumed to be reduced), this has led to the proposal that they are involved in self‐processing [see Buckner et al., 2008; Fox and Raichle, 2007]. As such the default circuit has been proposed to be important for self‐referential and mental activity [Cavanna and Trimble, 2006; Gusnard et al., 2001]. The main default circuit brain regions implicated in self‐relevant information processing includes a group of cortical midline structures including the medial frontal cortex, anterior PCUN, posterior cingulate gyrus, temporal pole, and temporoparietal junction. There is, however, some debate as to the extent to which they are actually more selectively activated by “self” compared with “other” related tasks [Christoff et al., 2011; Legrand and Ruby, 2009]. This same default midline system is also apparently involved in evaluating the mental states of both self and others and as such is central to mental state attribution (theory of mind), social cognition, memory recall, and inferential reasoning [Gilihan and Farah, 2005; Legrand and Ruby, 2009; Uddin et al., 2007]. Christoff et al. 2011 have argued that most studies on self‐related processing focus on the self as “an object of attribution” as opposed to “the knowing subject and agent,” i.e., the difference between “me” where the self is identified through its physical and mental attributes and “I” where the self is the subjective knower and agent. They have therefore proposed that this cortical midline system forms part of a comparator which acts to distinguish self through “reafference” (afferent, sensory signals arising as a result of an individual's own efferent motor command processes) from non‐self through “exafference” (afferent sensory signals arising as a result of environmental events). In this way, the self becomes “I” the subject and agent of perception rather than “Me” the object of perception or attribution [Christoff et al., 2011]. In addition to the cortical midline structures in the default circuit that have been associated with internal, “mental self” processing it has been proposed that components of the cortical mirror neuron system may play an important role, particularly in the context of the external “physical self” primarily through motor simulation mechanisms [Uddin et al., 2007]. Uddin et al. propose that the fronto‐parietal mirror neuron system functions as bridges between self and other through a process whereby recognition of the actions of others supports self‐representation. Importantly, the cortical midline and mirror neuron systems are interconnected at two main points via connections between the PCUN and intraparietal lobule and between medial frontal areas and the inferior frontal gyrus [Uddin et al., 2007]. Schizophrenia has long been recognized as being characterized by profound disturbances to the sense of self involving a loss of ability to direct thoughts and attribute action [Bleuler, 1950; Kircher and David, 2003; Kraepelin, 1896; Sass and Parnass, 2009]. It has also been proposed that schizophrenia is fundamentally a “self‐disorder” and that this may provide a unifying account of the seeming heterogeneity of schizophrenia symptoms [Sass and Parnas, 2003]. Sass and Parnass have proposed that schizophrenia involves an ipseity disturbance, that is, of a “first person perspective of the world” which manifests itself through self‐alienation, a diminished sense of subjective self‐presence and a disturbed grip on and awareness of the salience and stability of external objects. The distinction between self and other can virtually disappear in schizophrenia patients [Sass and Parnas, 2003]. How do our current results relate to this? The key functional link altered in our schizophrenia patients, and correlated with the severity of both positive and negative PANSS scores, involves interconnections between closely related and adjacent structures, the IPL, ANG, and SMG. All of these regions have been reported to be involved in aspects of action awareness, sense of agency, or self‐recognition [Farrer et al., 2004, 2008; Fuller Torrey, 2007; Macuga and Frey, 2011] and there is some evidence that they are involved in another common symptom of schizophrenia, illness unawareness [Fuller Torrey, 2007]. We also found significant correlations between specific illness symptoms involving disturbed sense of self and IPL‐ANG functional connectivity (notably for presence of delusions, suspiciousness/persecution, somatic concern, and preoccupation). All of these regions have been reported to exhibit structural or functional changes in schizophrenia [Farrer et al., 2004, 2008; Fuller Torrey, 2007]. von Angyal as early as 2007 [von Angyal, 1934] observed that the IPL (including the SMG and ANG) were among the cortical regions most seriously damaged in schizophrenia patients. A recent study has also provided evidence that misattributions of agency in schizophrenia are due to impaired predictions concerning the sensory consequences of one's own actions [Synofzik et al., 2010] in line with proposed comparator model of self discussed above [Christoff et al., 2011]. Consistent with links between these regions and sense of self damage to this general temporoparietal area and parietal lobe epilepsy is also associated with occurrence of psychotic symptoms including delusions and hallucinations [Levine and Finkelstein, 1982; Salanova et al., 1995]. While a disturbed sense of self may be considered as a core symptom of schizophrenia there are clearly many other relevant symptoms and in that respect it is important that this same key circuit involving midline cortical and mirror system structures has also been implicated in disturbed sensory integration (including perceptual dysfunction, blunting of pain perception, stereognosis, graphesthesia, and double‐simultaneous stimulation), awareness of body image (including right‐left disorientation), and executive function (including attention and working memory deficits, dual‐task management and decision making) [see Fuller Torrey, 2007]. The observation in our study that the disrupted link between IPL and ANG was particularly correlated with scores across almost all positive and negative PANSS questions and many general pathophysiology ones, further support is likely to contribute to a diverse range of symptoms, not just those involving the sense of self. It is interesting to note that the SPG, PCUN, IPL, SMG, and ANG are amongst the last brain regions to reach full developmental maturity and to be larger and more complex in humans than in other species [Cavanna and Trimble, 2006; Fuller Torrey, 2007]. Indeed, the late development of these structures has probably contributed to their widely recognized individual variability in terms of anatomical landmarks [Bailey and Von Brodin, 1951; Ingalls, 1914]. Functional connections involving these regions are therefore potentially vulnerable to developmental and experiential changes over a long period, consistent both with the observed late onset of schizophrenia and its being considered as a developmental disorder [Insel, 2010]. Indeed, recent evidence has shown delayed and altered maturation of some brain regions in schizophrenia [Douaud et al., 2009]. Increased functional connectivity in the AMYG‐PHG‐HIP pathway in the schizophrenia patients is consistent with the widely reported hyper‐responsivity to emotional stimuli and emotional memory changes in schizophrenia patients [Hall et al., 2007; Herbener, 2008] However, while the change between PHG and AMYG correlated positively with negative PANSS scores it did not correlate with illness duration. Similarly the raft of changes in face (IOG‐FFG), vocal (HES‐STG), and olfactory (REC‐OLF) processing pathways are consistent with well established face [Chen et al., 2008; Kohler and Martin, 2006] and odor recognition [Cumming et al., 2011; Turetsky et al., 2009] deficits and auditory hallucinations [Nenadic et al., 2010]. The altered connectivity between the CAL (V1) and CUN (V2) may also indicate reported dysfunction, in general, visual processing in schizophrenia [Butler and Javitt, 2005]. Changes in motor control networks involving Pre‐ and Post‐CG, PCL, and SMA may reflect aspects of motor dysfunction common in schizophrenia patients [Dazzan and Murray, 2001]. The presence of interhemispheric connection differences in schizophrenia patients is also an issue of great interest. There is a large literature describing laterality changes in Schizophrenia [Crow, 1990; Crow et al., 1989] and abnormalities in the corpus callosum [Crow, 1998]. Our finding of reduced interhemispheric connectivity between a number of the ROIs which correlated with both illness duration and negative PANSS scores is consistent with other studies reporting either structural or functional changes in interhemispheric communication in schizophrenia [Crow, 1990, 1998; Crow et al., 1989; Ribolsi et al., 2009]. It also supports the general hypothesis that schizophrenia is characterized by an extensive pattern of disconnectivity in the brain. Overall, the strength of these functional interhemispheric connections was negatively correlated with illness duration and with negative PANSS scores. However, the major contribution to symptom severity was from the amygdala where connectivity strength between the left and right was strongly negatively correlated with six out of the seven PANSS negative questions (the only exception being lack of spontaneity and flow of conversation) as well as with many of the general pathophysiology ones. The strongest correlation here was for social interactions, including poor rapport, passive/apathetic social withdrawal, lack of spontaneity, and flow of conversation. Connections between the right and left amygdala may be important for controlling coordinated cognitive and emotional responses to threat [Hariri et al., 2003]. Face emotion perception is well known to be impaired in schizophrenia [Mandal et al., 1998] and there is a corresponding reduced activation to emotional faces in the bilateral amygdala [Li et al., 2010]. Part of this may be mediated by the changes between the amygdala and PHG as already discussed, but could also be contributed to by impaired functional connectivity between the left and right amygdala. An interesting aspect of our findings is that different functional connections were found to correlate with illness duration and symptom severity. Thus in the main altered pathway, the IPL‐ANG‐SMG components were exclusively associated with symptom severity and the IPL‐SPG‐PCUN with illness duration. The IOG‐FFG was only correlated with illness duration and the AMYG‐AMYG and PHG‐AMYG connections only with symptom severity. This suggests that illness progression and symptom severity may exert differential effects on functional pathways. In broad agreement with many other studies [Brambilla et al., 2005; Brambilla and Tansella, 2007; Lui et al., 2009], we observed extensive structural changes in our schizophrenia patients using VBM. These changes were mainly in GM volume (in 58 out of 90 ROIs) although importantly there was no correlation between these and the key changes in functional connectivity we observed. Thus there appears to be no simple correspondence between structural and functional connectivity changes in schizophrenia. While one might perhaps anticipate that functional connectivity and GM volumes in different regions might correlate to some extent we are not aware of any study that has investigated this directly at a whole brain level. Also a recent study has reported only weak non‐significant correlations between genetic factors contributing to functional connectivity and GM density in the default network, suggesting a degree of independent regulation [Glahn et al., 2010]. Possibly in our current study, the lack of correlation might reflect compensatory changes that have occurred in functional connectivity following progressive GM volume reductions or alternatively each may contribute independently to symptoms. A recent report has found that reduced GM and WM volumes correlate with dose and duration of anti‐psychotic treatment more than with symptom severity in long‐term patients [Ho et al., 2011]. While we did not investigate this possibility directly, the lack of correlations in our study between illness duration, symptom severity, and the structural changes we have observed could suggest they are more linked to the effects of anti‐psychotic treatments than to the illness per se. Interestingly, also many of the structural changes we observed occur in frontal cortical regions which did not figure strongly in key functional connectivity changes. Given the number of previous studies reporting links between structural and functional changes in the frontal cortex and schizophrenia [Hill et al., 2004; Insel, 2010; Yoon et al., 2008] it is perhaps surprising we found none that were particularly strongly correlated with the illness and none of the well established links between the frontal and parietal regions were implicated either. While this does not necessarily imply a lack of contribution by the changes in these frontal regions to either the development or expression of symptoms of schizophrenia it does suggest that it may not necessarily be the pre‐eminent area contributing fundamentally to this disorder and that changes in the temporoparietal region should receive greater consideration in future studies. A limitation of our study is that all the patients were being treated with a range of antipsychotic medications and these could have contributed to both functional and structural changes observed. Several studies have reported structural and function changes associated with both typical and atypical anti‐psychotic treatments [Ho et al., 2011; Lui et al., 2010; Smieskova et al., 2009]. While we cannot rule out some contributory treatment effects a number of the structural and functional changes we have found have also been described in drug‐naive patients [see Smieskova et al., 2009] or considered a high risk for developing psychosis [Meisenzahl et al., 2008]. We also found a remarkably consistent pattern of changes in our patients over a long period of time despite receiving different types and durations of antipsychotic treatments. The atypical Abilify (aripiprazole), which has a somewhat different mode of action compared with other atypicals, in that it is a partial D2 receptor agonist [Kessler, 2007], was also associated with broadly similar patterns of functional and structural changes as all the other antipsychotics. Our patients were mostly being treated with second generation atypical rather than typical antipsychotics and it is the latter which are more associated with causing GM volume reductions [Ho et al., 2011], whereas atypicals are associated with increases [Smieskova et al., 2009]. The brain‐wide association study (BWAS) as we reported here [see also Cheng et al., in press] is appealing in that the model is simple and the interpretations are straightforward. However, it also has some limitations. First of all, we ranked each functional link according to the value of its risk difference. We then selected and concentrated on a few top links with the most changed risk difference. The statistical significance of these top links was then assessed and their biological meanings are explored. Certainly, as in the genome‐wide association study (GWAS), we can use different statistical quantities such as the odds ratio to rank the altered functional links. Different quantities, for example, the odds ratio and the risk difference, will give us different ranks, although the difference could be small, in particular, when the sample size is large enough. Alternatively, we can rank all altered functional links simply by their P‐value and a multi‐comparison correction was naturally introduced here. The pros and cons of these different approaches is an interesting topic and a detailed and theoretical investigation is beyond the scope of the current paper. On the other hand, although we confined ourselves to ROIs here, our approach can be pushed further to analyze voxel‐wise differences by identifying the most changed voxels in the identified ROIs: a typical post hoc study. Of course, to choose which approach (including the ICA, seed‐based method and methods mentioned above) to tackle your data was finally decided by cross‐validations: either by independent data sets or further experiments. From our current results on independent data sets and genotyping results, we concluded that the approach presented in the current paper was the most successful. In summary, our results using resting‐state fMRI to analyze of functional connectivity changes in medicated schizophrenia patients have shown that by far the most affected pathway primarily includes parietal components of the medial cortical and mirror neuron systems involved in a number of self‐processing and other sensory, cognitive and executive functions known to be impaired in this disorder. These changes were also widely correlated with a range of positive, negative, and general symptoms of schizophrenia. Additionally, we found evidence for reduced functional connectivity in brain regions involved in aspects of emotional memory processing and also between the two brain hemispheres. These were mainly correlated with negative symptoms. Interestingly, associated structural changes occurring in some of these regions did not correlate with these functional changes and there was no evidence for a major functional contribution from frontal cortical regions.The crew of “Star Trek Continues” poses on the bridge of the starship Enterprise. The web series seeks to pick up where the five year mission of the original “Star Trek” series left off. "Star Trek Continues" is exactly what it sounds like: A fan-made science fiction series that picks up where the original "Star Trek" TV show left
freedom (and many other things) today, because it’s a sign that not much has changed, or a confirmation that history has repeating cycles. One way or the other, it’s not good progress for humanity. Here are some of the pictures I took of the campings and the signs and some Hair music to accompany them: 01 Let the Sunshine In by Ritter Hanz What do you think about the movement? Have you participated in one? Tell me what you think in the comments, as a foreigner, I’d like to learn more about it. About the author Gabriel Saldaña is a web developer, photographer and free software advocate. Connect with him on Google+ and Twitter Share this: Twitter Google Reddit Facebook Pinterest More LinkedIn Email TumblrBentley has added another feather to the Bentayga's cap with the help of Mulliner – the firm’s bespoke, personal commissioning division. This latest modified Bentayga is what the firm calls “the ultimate accessory for the falconry enthusiast”, and it features a series of bespoke installations in the boot, designed to house all the equipment a Bentley owner with a falcon could possibly need. To give it its full name, the car is known as the Bentley Bentayga Falconry by Mulliner. • Best luxury cars 2017 Image 2 of 8 Image 2 of 8 The vehicle really does have everything the keen falconry fan will have been preying for when enjoying a nice afternoon out with their big birds. In the back, you’ll find two new storage units, trimmed with natural cork fabric. One of them is a drinks cabinet, but the other is a ‘master flight station’ for keeping falconry equipment. Both of these units sit on a sliding tray. Open up the master flight station, and inside is drawer finished with a shiny, piano black veneer and a falcon crest. In here, some the bespoke equipment the Bentayga Falconry by Mulliner comes with is kept. There’s also storage for a GPS bird tracking unit, binoculars, plus hand crafted leather bird hoods and gauntlets, though these are optional extras. Image 5 of 8 Image 5 of 8 Two perches are stored in a bespoke cork-trimmed case which slots into a hard pocket in the side of the boot. As for the refreshment cabinet, it comes with three metal flasks and cups, plus a blanket and face cloths. The Bentayga Falconry gets some tweaks in the cabin too. There’s a removable perch and tether on the central armrest, while a bespoke veneer depicting a falcon flying over a desert scene finds its way onto the dashboard – it makes use of 430 individual pieces of wood and takes nine days to craft. Image 7 of 8 Image 7 of 8 It’s not the first time Bentley has used Mulliner to woo outdoor types with the Bentayga – last year, the firm revealed a similarly fettled version of its SUV with keen anglers in mind, with the Bentayga Fly Fishing by Mulliner. Fly fishing, now falconry. Which outdoor activity will Bentley turn the Bentayga towards next? Have a guess in the comments!Troisi, who has missed out in Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou's last three squads, joined Liaoning – his ninth club of a much-travelled career – from Saudi side Al-Ittihad Club in January on a six month contract. He has made just three appearances this season for the club which is also home to fellow Aussie Michael Thwaite. Liaoning are close to agreeing a transfer fee with Western Sydney for marquee attacking midfielder Vidosic who headed to Wanderland following his departure from Swiss club Scion. It’s believed Vidosic, who made 28 appearances for the Wanderers in his debut season - including coming off the bench in the grand final loss to Adelaide United - will be released from the second year of his two-season deal to take up what is believed to be a highly lucrative offer. He will initially sign for six months, with an option for another season, and is seen as a possible panacea by a team languishing bottom of the the CSL with just eight points from 11 games. Vidosic, who has also fallen out of favour with Postecoglou in recent times, will see the move as a chance to put himself back into the frame while, at the age of 29, securing his financial future. He is expected to jet to China within a week for a medical, while the immediate future of Troisi, 27, appears yet to to be determined. Vidosic will add to the growing Australian Contingent in the CSL which features Socceroos icon Tim Cahill and Matthew Spiranovic (Hangzhou Greentown), Australia striker Apostolos Giannou (Guangzhou R&F), Australia defender Ryan McGowan (Henan Jianye) and the lesser known Aleksandar Jovanovic (Tianjin Teda).The European Southern Observatory's plan to begin construction of the world's largest telescope — the European Extremely Large Telescope — will take a big step forward in 2012 now that early funding for the project has been secured. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) governing body approved the 2012 budget, which paves the way for preparatory work to begin at the planned site of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) at the Cerro Armazones mountain in the central part of Chile's Atacama Desert. The telescope, which represents a joint collaboration between 15 countries, will be the world's largest ground-based optical telescope. Builders selected the observatory's location in Chile because of the optimal weather conditions in the area, where skies are clear overhead roughly 320 nights of the year, ESO officials have said. The E-ELT's primary mirror will be a staggering 138 feet (42 meters) wide. For comparison, the Keck Observatory in Hawaii has a mirror that measures 33 feet (10 meters) wide, and the Subaru telescope, also in Hawaii, has a primary mirror that is 27 feet (8.2 m) wide. June 2009 version of the design of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) in its enclosure, currently being planned by ESO. (Image: © ESO) The ESO governing council's approval of the 2012 budget includes funding for some initial work on the E-ELT project, such as the development of access roads to the telescope site and early construction efforts on one of the telescope's five mirrors. This work is expected to begin in early 2012, ESO officials said in a statement. [Stacking Up the 10 Biggest Telescopes on Earth ] "The E-ELT is starting to become reality," ESO Director General Tim de Zeeuw said in a statement. "However, with a project of this size it is expected that approval of the extra expenditure will take time. Council at the same time recognizes that preparatory work must start now in order for the project to be ready for a full start of construction in 2012." The ESO governing body is expected to make a final approval decision for the entire E-ELT project in mid-2012. Plans for the E-ELT have seen steady progress over the past few months, ESO officials said. In October, ESO reached an agreement with the Chilean government that culminated in support for the project and the donation of land for the mega-observatory. Panoramic view of Cerro Armazones in the Atacama Desert, near ESO's Paranal Observatory, at sunset. Cerro Armazones is the selected site for the planned European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), which, with its 40-metre-class diameter mirror, will be the world’s biggest eye on the sky. (Image: © ESO / S.Brunier) In that same month, an external review confirmed that the E-ELT could feasibly be built within the proposed budget of about $1.43 billion (1.082 billion Euros). Previous reviews also confirmed that the telescope's design is technically sound, ESO officials said. Several ESO member states are already financially committed to the project, and funding is expected to be agreed upon between all members by mid-2012, which will enable the council to make its approval decision at that time, ESO officials said. The E-ELT is expected to be operational early in the next decade, they added. ESO already has three observatories in Chile, including the Paranal Observatory, which houses the Very Large Telescope, and the La Silla Observatory, which hosts the New Technology Telescope. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.PHILADELPHIA — Former Gov. Deval Patrick couldn’t resist tweaking Gov. Charlie Baker on his way out of a breakfast this morning to rally Democrats on the morning of Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech at the DNC. “You know, look, I’ve been biting my tongue for some time now on that sort of thing,” said Patrick when asked by reporters about Baker blaming Patrick for budget deficits shortly after taking over the State House. “It’s what you hear. They’ve been in office now for whatever it is, a year and half now. Sooner or later, they’re going to take responsibility for the offices and responsibilities that they sought.” Patrick, now an executive at Bain Capital, left Beacon Hill in 2015 after two terms. In his address to the Massachusetts delegation breakfast, he blasted Republicans for what he described as feigned outrage about Donald Trump’s racially charged rhetoric. “I will say I’m not particularly surprised that the Republicans chose the nominee they did,” said Patrick. “What surprises me a little bit is the kind of pearl-clutching that some in the establishment on the Republican side have been doing when their nominee is just saying out loud what they have been saying in code for many, many years.” But asked whether Baker himself should do more to denounce Trump, Patrick would only say: “You’d have to ask Governor Baker those questions.”As much as I love bike culture and everything bikes stand for, I, like many, may have underestimated the profound significance of the bicycle as a cultural agent of change. Thanks to a brilliant new book, I no longer do. National Geographic‘s Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) (public library) tells the riveting story of how the two-wheel wonder pedaled forward the emancipation of women in late-nineteenth-century America and radically redefined the normative conventions of femininity. To men, the bicycle in the beginning was merely a new toy, another machine added to the long list of devices they knew in their work and play. To women, it was a steed upon which they rode into a new world.” ~ Munsey’s Magazine, 1896 A follow-up to Sue Macy’s excellent Winning Ways: A Photohistory of American Women in Sports, published nearly 15 years ago, the book weaves together fascinating research, rare archival images, and historical quotes that bespeak the era’s near-comic fear of the cycling revolution. (“The bicycle is the devil’s advance agent morally and physically in thousands of instances.”) From allowing young people to socialize without the chaperoning of clergymen and other merchants of morality to finally liberating women from the constraints of corsets and giant skirts (the “rational dress” pioneered by bike-riding women cut the weight of their undergarments to a “mere” 7 pounds), the velocipede made possible previously unthinkable actions and interactions that we now take for granted to the point of forgetting the turbulence they once incited. “Success in life depends as much upon a vigorous and healthy body as upon a clear and active mind.” ~ Elsa von Blumen, American racer, 1881 Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel.” ~ Susan B. Anthony, 1896 Many [female cyclists on cigar box labels] were shown as decidedly masculine, with hair cut short or pulled back, and smoking cigars, then an almost exclusively male pursuit. This portrayal reflected the old fears that women in pants would somehow supplement men as breadwinners and decision-makers.” ~ Sue Macy Poignant and playful, Wheels of Change explores the early history of women in bicycling with equal parts illuminating insight and freewheeling fun. via Sarah Goodyear / GristWhat is wrong with that? The bill says that in September 2012, a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that 95 percent of the information that the NTIS sold to the public was available for free on other websites and that the agency lost $1.3 million a year. “I find it staggering that the agency is selling government reports both to the public and to other federal agencies that are widely available for free and easy to find with a simple Google search — and the agency is still losing money,” McCaskill said in a statement. “I think Americans would gain a little more confidence that their tax dollars are being spent wisely if we ended this display of waste and inefficiency.” The agency is currently funded to the tune of $67 million. For more information, try Googling it.Kindergarten is a tough time for a kid. You’re not in first grade, but you’re not in preschool anymore. You want to be independent, but there are so many unwritten rules for your behavior. Here’s a guide to navigating that awkward period where you’re no longer a baby, but not yet a big kid. 1. The Alphabet Come on, guys. You’re halfway to ten years old. It’s “LMNOP,” not “NMNOP.” Also, it’s “twenty,” not “tenteen.” Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Got it? Good. 2. What Paste Tastes Like You’ve got to experiment. You show me a kid with no regrets, and I’ll show you a kid who’s lived a boring life. Try the paste. Pick your nose and eat it. If you’re not living on the edge, it’s probably because you still don’t have really good balance! 3. If you’re a girl, boys have cooties. If you’re a boy, girls have cooties. It’s just a medical fact. Stay clear, or you could get them too. 4. “And-a-Half” Doesn’t Matter Just because you’re five and your friend is five and a half, it does not mean that he is better than you. In a few years, it’ll all even out. Don’t let them hold it over you. 5. Fire Trucks are Red They’re red. And they go “woooo-oooo, wooo-oooo.” They’re not yellow. They don’t go “oooh-eeee, oooh-eeee.” Don’t be stupid. 6. Santa Claus is Real I don’t care what your big brother says. He’s a poop face. Santa is real. My parents told me so. If you’re Jewish, he just doesn’t go to your house. 7. If you can run faster than someone else, you are better than that person. If you win a race across the playground, you are better than the person you beat. At everything. Even things that have nothing to do with how fast you are. I don’t make the rules. I just follow ‘em. 8. It’s Okay to Cry Don’t bottle those feelings up. It’s okay to cry if something is really important. Like if a goldfish dies. Or you run out of crackers. Especially goldfish crackers. 9. Don’t Touch The Stove Seriously, it’s hot. Sometimes grownups say things, and they’re not true. But this one is. The stove is hot. Really hot. Don’t touch it. 10. No One Will Ever Be Stronger Than Your Dad Your dad is the strongest person ever. He can lift you up over his head and open really tight jars. Other kids’ dads are not as strong. Make sure you let them know that. 11. Drawings of People Don’t Need Bodies, Just a Head, Arms, and Legs Don’t even bother with bodies. Who needs ‘em? They take up valuable time and space. If you have to include a body, a fat person is a circle, and a skinny person is a straight line. Done and done. 12. Naps are For Babies It does not matter how tired you are. Naps are for babies. Yes, if you do not nap, you will be very, very cranky in the afternoon. But if you do, then you are a baby. If you poop your pants while taking a nap, you will never ever recover. You will need to move to a new school. It’s that bad. 13. Learn How to Read It may seem like a useless skill, but reading tells you lots of important stuff. Which animals are poisonous, what foods are most delicious, what channel Bob the Builder is on. Do not slack off on this. It will pay dividends. 14. You Can Only Have One Best Friend Your teachers say that everyone is your friend. But you know better. You have to pick one best friend. Make sure every other friend knows that he or she is not your best friend. If you are a boy, your best friend should probably be a boy. If you are a girl, your best friend should probably be a girl. But look, it’s 2011. You don’t have to live by that. Whatever you do, though, change best friends often. Keep people guessing. 15. Police Are Cool Police are strong and drive fast and have guns. They are really into justice. They are only helpful. In fact, they are the best people to talk to if you are in trouble. Police are never a bummer. Everyone knows this. 16. Strangers Are Dangerous Strangers are big trouble. Sometimes strangers wear coats and have mustaches. Other times they look regular with no mustaches. It’s hard to tell the difference, since strangers are tall and kind of all look alike. Everyone is a suspect except your mom and dad! Even grandparents if you haven’t seen them in a while. Trust no one! (Except police.) 17. Stop, Drop, and Roll If you are ever on fire, you need to remember to stop, drop, and roll. Grownups tell us this all the time. Probably that means everyone will be on fire at least once. This will come up! Remember it! 18. The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round Round and round, round and round. It’s what wheels are for. Wheels on cars and trucks do the same thing. But bus wheels, for some reason, get a song. 19. Lunchables Are Delicious The tiny juice box, cheese slices, and meat pogs are as delightful a cuisine as you could ever want. If you don’t get one for lunch, it is okay to cry. 20. You Can Be Batman or a Princess When You Grow Up, For Real Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.Betrayed and broken, former street racer Tyler Morgan is ready to take on the House and reclaim his former life in a world of glitz, glamour, and crime. Need for Speed Payback launches November 10 on PS4. The next entry in the long-running arcade racing series, Need for Speed Payback tells a personal story revolving around Tyler, his crew, and their white-knuckle exploits. Take on ferocious street races, evade the police, and pull off dangerous heists in Ghost Games’ latest. Offering a massive open-world of on-road and offroad racing, deep car customization, and robust multiplayer support, Payback has a little something for every adrenaline junkie. For the full list of new games coming to PlayStation next week, read on. And enjoy The Drop! New Releases: Week of November 7, 2017 PS4 — Digital (Out 11/9) You can now openly admit to the desire we all share to become seafood. Because Ace of Seafood is an action game where you scavenge the depths of ocean while battling other life forms and increasing the strength of your own forces. ATV Drift & Tricks PS4 — Retail Abandon two-wheeled dirt bikes in favor of a more intense, fun, and extreme racing experience! ATV Drift & Tricks is the essential quad game for thrill-seekers looking to own the road in rugged all-terrain vehicles. PS Vita — Digital (Out 11/9) Cursed Castilla (Maldita Castilla EX) is an arcade action platformer full of creatures from medieval myths from Spain and the rest of Europe, as well as from chivalric romances. This game is an extended version of the renowned classic arcade Maldita Castilla, originally created by the indie Locomalito. PS4, PS VR — Digital Explore a giant world made of blocks and modify it with your own creations. Construct houses, build entire villages, cities, monumental constructions, or dig deep underground. Ghosts in the Toybox: Chapter 1 PS VR — Digital (Out 11/6) Help! Professor Milestone’s latest experiment has gone disastrously wrong. He’s accidentally trapped a fright of playful poltergeists inside toys which are scattered around his home. You need to destroy the toys to free the spirits from their patchwork prisons! PS4 — Digital Hand of Fate 2 is a dungeon crawler set in a world of dark fantasy. Master a living board game where every stage of the adventure is drawn from a deck of legendary encounters chosen by you! PS4 — Digital America’s favorite quiz show, Jeopardy, makes its long-awaited return to home consoles in full HD. Master your lightning-quick reflexes with new streamlined controls to solve more than 2,000 clues. PS VR — Digital League of War: VR Arena is a hands-on, fast-paced war game the likes of which you’ve never seen! Deploy your tanks, choppers, and infantry onto a virtual battlefield, swiftly countering your opponent’s units as you drive towards destroying their base. PS4 — Digital In the aftermath of an unbearable sacrifice, the Guardians finally fracture. With her opposition in shambles, Hala renews her campaign of death and devastation, carving a path of indiscriminate destruction en route to Knowhere. PS4 — Digital (Out 11/8) A warm Summer day, Max comes home from school and finds his room in a mess. His little brother Felix is playing with his toys again! In anger, Max turns to his laptop and makes a search: “How to make your brother disappear.” PS4 — Digital After narrowly escaping from the Admin’s twisted prison, Jesse and the remaining fugitives discover not just a forgotten city, but an entire hidden world buried beneath the bedrock. PS4 — Digital, Retail (Out 11/10) Need for Speed returns with a vengeance in the new action-driving blockbuster Need for Speed Payback. Set in the underworld of Fortune Valley, you and your crew were divided by betrayal and reunited by revenge to take down The House, a nefarious cartel that rules the city’s casinos, criminals, and cops. PS4 — Digital Steel your mind and ready your blade for an intense action RPG experience set in bloody Sengoku era Japan. Combining real life historical events with dark fantasy and folklore, face off against bloodthirsty warlords and otherworldly demons. Professional Construction – The Simulation PS4 — Digital Immerse yourself in the sprawling and fascinating world of road construction! Experience life on the construction site like the pros, and use heavy equipment and massive machinery. PS4 — Digital, Retail (Out 11/10) Join Sonic as he tries to take back the world in Sonic Forces, the newest game from the team that brought you Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations. PS4 — Digital If you have a passion for eSports and you want to test your skills, your time has arrived: Way of Redemption was made for you. PS4 — Digital Spin the wheel with America’s Game, Wheel of Fortune, the most-watched program on television. Solve up to 4,000 unique puzzles as you compete against friends, family, and online players around the world. PS4 — Digital (Out 11/10) After losing its home, one lonely Wum must travel the length and width of the world to find a new place to live. The Hitman’s Bodyguard (plus Bonus Features) The Hitman’s Bodyguard (plus Bonus Features) Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (plus Bonus Features) Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (plus Bonus Features) Wind River (2017) Wind River (2017) Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge- November 6 and 7 at 9/8c (HBO) Drop The Mic- November 7 at 10:30/9:30c (TBS) AMC Visionaries: Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics- November 12 at 11/10c (AMC)Pure Witch Hazel Extract Our Witch Hazel is top quality. It is a 14% alcohol concentration which is the typical concentration for premium Witch Hazel. Where to buy witch hazel...look no further. We are a massive user of bulk witch hazel and have some of the best wholesale prices in the industry. Before you buy witch hazel elsewhere, give us a try. We have the ability to supply totes and tanker trucks for larger users. Buy Witch Hazel Wholesale Witch Hazel, also known as winderbloom in North America, is a liquid derived from witch hazel shrubs or smaller-sized trees. Most commonly, the substance is used medicinally on the skin for various uses. There are 3 known species of witch hazel, one of which is found in Japan. It is a simple, natural product that can do wonders for the skin. Application: -On skin, dab a cotton ball in the witch hazel and rub onto the affected area. -For the throat, mix witch hazel (3-4 drops) with warm salt water and gargle/spit. -For varicose veins, soak towel in witch hazel and put towel onto the affected area for roughly 20-30 minutes a day. Disclaimer: As always, it is important to consult with your doctor before ingesting anything new. In some cases, it may cause minor skin irritation. Make sure you don’t have any allergies to the product. Pregnant women or women who are breast-feeding should also consult with a physician before using or ingesting. Terms of Use Important! Customers should purchase products from Bulk Apothecary with the clear understanding that all products must be used at the customers own discretion and only after referencing Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) and all other relevant technical information specific to the product. Bulk Apothecary shall not be held responsible for any damages to property or for any adverse physical effects (including injury or bodily harm) caused by insufficient knowledge or the improper use of a product. The user of the product is solely responsible for compliance with all laws and regulations applying to the use of the products. As with any manufacturing process, Bulk Apothecary strongly recommends small scale testing for evaluation purposes prior to full commercial manufacturing. The information on Bulk Apothecary website is obtained from current and reliable sources but makes no representation as to its comprehensiveness or accuracy. Nothing contained herein should be considered as a Recommendation by Bulk Apothecary as to the fitness for any use. Information found on this site should be used for research purposes only. As the ordinary or otherwise use(s) of this product is outside the control of Bulk Apothecary, no representation or warranty, expressed or implied is made as to the effect(s) of such use(s) (including damage or injury), or the results obtained. The liability of Bulk Apothecary is limited to the value of the goods and does not include any consequential loss. Bulk Apothecary shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Please note, the International Federation of Aromatherapists do not recommend that Essential Oils be taken internally unless under the supervision of a Medical Doctor who is also qualified in clinical Aromatherapy. In addition, Essential Oils must be properly diluted before use in order to avoid any damages to property or adverse physical effects (including injury or bodily harm). All other products on this site have their own dangers and customers should ensure they are aware of any and all risks with products prior to use.According to a news report, Australia's Attorney-General's Department wants to permit the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) to hack IT systems belonging to non-involved, non-targeted parties. The report cites a spokesperson for Australia's Attorney-General Nicola Roxon as saying that the agency would then use these systems to access the actual target computers belonging to security targets such as terrorist suspects or suspected criminals. Stringent conditions would be attached to the use of these powers to ensure that they would be used only in exceptional cases. Their use would not, however, require the approval of an independent court. The spokesperson says that Roxon would have to approve all such interventions. The ASIO would not be permitted to investigate third-party computers used in this way online or to obtain intelligence material from them. Covert online searches and surveillance of target systems would, however, be permitted. To date, the Australian secret services have not had broad powers to deploy governmental malware and in particular are not allowed to alter data on or interrupt processes running on target computers. The plans are opposed by civil rights organisations and data protection officials. The Electronic Frontiers Australia organisation has criticised the government for copying the techniques used by cyber-criminals. The Privacy Commissioner for the State of Victoria has complained that the plan is "extraordinarily broad" and intrudes deep into the basic rights of the third parties involved. He describes the proposed powers as "characteristic of a police state". The Attorney-General's department previously submitted a discussion paper calling for data retention to be required for up to two years irrespective of whether or not the owner was a suspect. Following major protests, including from ISPs, that proposal has been shelved for the time being. It is, however, expected to be resubmitted after the next general election, likely to take place sometime this year. (Stefan Krempl / sno)WARSAW (Reuters) - The Polish prosecutor’s office is investigating allegations that there was a CIA prison in Poland where al Qaeda suspects were questioned and guards might have used methods close to torture, the prime minister’s top adviser said on Friday. A guard shuts the gate to the airport in Szymany in northeastern Poland in this file 2005 picture. Human Rights Watch identified the airport as a potential site of alleged CIA prisons used to interrogate al Qaeda captives. Poland strongly denied it was hosting such facilities. REUTERS/FORUM/Tomasz Marek Polish media reported earlier on Friday that a classified note written by the Polish secret service had proved the existence of a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency base in Poland. “I am not familiar with such a note and I don’t think Prime Minister Donald Tusk is either,” Slawomir Nowak, who heads Tusk’s political office, said in an interview with Tok FM radio. “But the premier asked the justice minister to clarify this matter and the country’s prosecutor’s office is investigating the potential existence of the CIA prison.” The Washington Post reported for the first time in 2005, quoting unnamed CIA sources, that CIA prisons existed in Europe. A U.S. human rights group, Human Rights Watch, later said Poland and Romania hosted the prisons. “There definitely was cooperation between Polish and American secret services,” a source close to the secret service told Reuters. “But whether there was torture at the base, hopefully we will learn about that soon.” Foreign and local media speculated that the base was operational between 2002 and 2005, while Aleksander Kwasniewski was president and Poland was run by the leftist governments of Leszek Miller and Marek Belka and then a rightist administration under Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz. DENIALS All three have denied any knowledge of such a prison or base, as have many other senior officials including top secret service personnel. Tusk’s centre-right cabinet has also played down speculation about such a place. “I hope this will not be confirmed,” Nowak said. “It would not only have serious consequences inside the country but would also take a very serious toll on the international scene.” “This has to be investigated very carefully, without emotions.” Defense Minister Bogdan Klich told a news conference on Friday he knew nothing about the case but that a final judgment should not be based on speculation. Since 2005, separate reports by the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the European Commission have concluded that CIA prisons did exist in Poland and Romania. All Polish political parties have played down speculation about the existence of a CIA prison. Under Polish law, a Pole who was party to an agreement allowing the CIA to torture suspects could be sued in the regular courts or even in the State Tribunal, a special court for government officials. “We demanded official information from the prime minister about the prisons in June, but we never got it,” said Dawid Szescilo of the Polish unit of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. “This is the third government that has banned (the release of) any information about the case, and public opinion should be given knowledge of all of this.”ES Football Newsletter Enter your email address Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in or register with your social account Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has confirmed he could play Vincent Janssen ahead of Harry Kane this season. Kane has been undisputed first choice centre forward at Spurs since he broke into the team but now faces competition from Netherlands international Janssen for regular game time. Kane started Tottenham's 1-1 draw with Everton on Saturday but the north Londoners made a marked improvement when Janssen was introduced alongside the England striker in the second half. Deploying two strikers saw Pochettino stray from his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation and the Spurs manager is clearly relishing the new options at his disposal, but has suggested Kane may not be called upon as regularly as last term. "Harry needs to be ready for every game and it is my decision whether he plays or not," Pochettino told the Times. "But I am open too. It is about performance. "Maybe they can play together or maybe we can play Vincent or Harry," he added. Janssen arrived at White Hart Lane in fine form, having scored 27 Eredivisie goals for AZ Alkmaar last term, but Everton goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg denied his compatriot a debut strike at Goodison Park. And Kane believes his side would have gone on to claim all three points had it not been for Stekelenburg's ability between the sticks: "I thought we dominated the game and should have gone on to win it. "The 'keeper has pulled off a couple of very good saves. Overall it is an alright result but there is plenty to work on for next week."In the 1960s and '70s, Farah Diba Pahlavi, the wife of the late shah of Iran, collected what is reputed to be the greatest lineup of modern masterpieces outside of Europe and the United States, includes major works by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol, along with Iranian contemporary artists. "For me, art is very important in life. I think that artists really must exist to give their messages to the world. Artists are people who remain forever. If people forget the name of leaders or kings or presidents, they never forget musicians and singers and artists," the former empress of Iran told DW during an interview at her Paris residence. How the collection started Farah Diba Pahlavi was crowned in 1967 "When I married my husband, the king, I wanted to support the Iranian contemporary artists," she said. She discovered several Iranian painters and sculptors through the Biennale that the country's ministry of culture had organized in the early 1960s. She decided to establish the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in 1977, which would also include major Western artists: "I said why not have also foreign art, because all the rest of the world has our art in their museums," she recalls. Diba Pahlavi collected the works which make up the Tehran collection until the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, forcing the couple into exile. First big show outside Iran was to be in Germany Since then, the masterpieces had not been shown outside Iran. Berlin was supposed to be the first city to exhibit 60 works loaned from the collection. In the end, Tehran refused to provide an export permit, and the show was canceled at the end of December. The loan project was complicated by a controversial award given to an antisemitic cartoon about the Holocaust by Tehran museum director Majid Mollanoroozi. Resistance to the project also reportedly came from some Iranian authorities who feared that the former empress of Iran could undertake legal claims to obtain the artworks if they were sent abroad. "This is ridiculous," Diba Pahlavi told DW in reaction to those alleged suspicions. "I helped build this museum for Iran and for the Iranian people and these works belong to Iran and the Iranian people." She had also declared in many interviews that she hoped the Berlin museum would make sure the works would freely return to Iran after being sent to Germany. The gallery above shows some of the works that would have been part of the exhibition. The collection includes works by Francis Bacon; it was on show in the Tehran museum in 2005 'Opening up' society The exhibition project had been initially hailed as a sign of Iran's "cultural and social opening up" by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Farah Diba Pahlavi sees such enthusiastic declarations with some skepticism, reminding that the Western countries' relations with Iran are primarily ruled by the country's oil: "Everybody is rushing to Iran to sell something," she said, adding that opening up society should be about giving people "more freedom to say what they want. It's not four modern paintings that will change mentalities. There are many more important things that should change."small, The 9 Most Unpronounceable Words in Polish, Can there be something more frustrating than transcribing names like Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz? How about pronouncing it? In this scene from the, brzeczy_kolaz.jpg The notoriously difficult phonology of the
by To some extent we probably all share the frustration. We’ve all been driven into the political wilderness by recent events, but it’s been coming a long time. At least since Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his most important and most famous speech on Jan. 17, 1961. “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.” We failed to heed Ike’s warning, fell into that rabbit hole and it’s been one horror show after another ever since. Today the MIC rules the world. It is perverse, horrific and the greatest impediment to anything like the actual advancement of civilization, bar none. It will either kill us or we will dismantle it and/or repurpose it. With it gone or transformed, we will be able to focus our attention, our treasure and our genius on things that matter – not the mindless slaughter of random people for corporate profit. But the MIC’s not the whole story. There are parallel stories going on, many of which are much more cheerful and hopeful, stem cell therapies and solar roofs. The world is big and complicated, paradoxical even, much like the larger universe (not to even get into the multiverse). In terms of our biological evolution, we are cavemen in fancy new clothes. Much of what we’re evolved to do no longer has much value. When saber cats came sniffing around the cave at night, we learned to be specially attuned to anything that sounded or seemed the least bit alarming. Alarm was a thing to be taken very seriously. Being scared shitless served us pretty well when we were prey for voracious beasts. We were slow, naked and crunchy. And we tasted delicious (presumably). Consequently, we are drawn like moths to the flame to anything alarming. ‘Terrorism’ is a fine example. The Powers That Be help create terrorism, and then use it to manipulate and control us. AQ, ISIS, all self-created to be a problem for us and a weapon for them (the horrific assholes who run the world, aka the Powers That Be, aka the global elite, aka, the 0.01%). Our biological evolution (geologically slow) has been outpaced by our cultural evolution (hyper-fkn-fast). As a species, we have transformed our own reality in mind-blowing ways from our days in caves to men on the moon. We left biology in the dust, baby! But biology isn’t done with us yet. We’re still cave men at the deepest level. Just look around. Especially if you happen to be one of the unfortunates living in a war zone. Not hard to see the caveman in that context. Surprisingly enough, the world’s a much less scary place now that we have shelter and are not often preyed upon, at least not by animals other than humans. Not that it’s not still scary, just not nearly as. Fear is still a useful adaptation in the right context. We still need it, just not so much of it, but our genes haven’t caught up with our new, generally safer realities. Our genetic disposition for fear is still based on saber cats, cave bears and the like. Pathogens and diseases that would have killed us outright eons ago, are frequently handled with simple medicines of one sort or another or prevented via sanitation or whatever. We drive cars with crumple zones and air bags. And it looks like we’re headed to self-driving cars and no accidents. Safety, safety, safety. Even with all our fucked up wars (and I hate them with a passion) our chances of being slain in war are generally less than at most other times in history. Of course we are (as cavemen) still prone to being scared shitless, and that unfortunate fact is used against us relentlessly by the Powers That Be (namely the MIC, or its owners in the 0.01%). The MSM, rank propaganda organs all, excel in ramping up fear for political purposes. It’s what they do. It makes it easy to push us around. You get people scared enough about anything and it’s easy to run right over them. Though it often evades our attention because of our intense focus on all that’s alarming in the world, there are levels upon which things have gotten better and better over time. This doesn’t mean that other things haven’t gotten shittier because many of them totally have. We see the truth of this in the appalling daily spectacle in Washington D.C. The scary part there is that Trump is a symptom of a much larger disease that’s been decades in the making. Remember how fucked up things in Washington have been for decades, well before the Trump crazy train ever got there? Yeah, he’s a whole new level of crazy but things have been crazy in Washington for a long long time. The evolution and dominance of the MIC has made a mockery of our highest principles and most fervent hopes. It has forced on us and the larger world unnecessary wars with all the attendant horrors and a government so corrupt as to be largely if not completely useless for it’s intended purpose. The MIC and their phony wars for profit devour precious resources that could radically improve our lives. Without this immoral and unwarranted drain on our resources, we could have: universal healthcare, free education, a refurbished and modern infrastructure, a phenomenal public school system, an actual safety net worthy of the name, and Universal Basic Income for all. And this last item is critical because most of our jobs are going away. Bill Gates says that entrepreneurs are going to have to create and invent new jobs to replace all the ones lost to automation. Yeah, no. The simple fact is that there are not going to be many jobs left and not many reasons to invent new ones. If they’re not needed they’re not needed. We face a future of very little work available. What to do? UBI is the obvious solution and the only humane one. People are often skeptical about technological fixes to climate change, and maybe they are right to be. No one really knows what the window for solutions may be, how much time we’ve got left in which to act. Certainly urgency is called for since the window may be tight. Some say it’s too late, and maybe it is, but do we give up fighting? I say no. Because we don’t know. There may be just enough time left to get our act together if we don’t give up or delay. Maybe if we bear down and do the right things, we can turn it all around. There are technological solutions but they may or may not work, or even if they do they may or may not save us. It depends to a large degree on how much time we have left. But some tech solutions show great promise: China Cancels 103 Coal Plants, Mindful of Smog and Wasted Capacity The Philippines’ renewable energy sector is booming (and it could get bigger) 2016 was the year solar panels finally became cheaper than fossil fuels. Just wait for 2017 Elon Musk: Tesla’s Solar Roofs Will Be Cheaper Than Regular Roofs & Have “Infinity Warranty” Unsubsidized wind and solar now the cheapest source for new electric power The world is changing slowly, maybe too slowly, but who knows, maybe we’ll make it. 10 signs that climate change success is coming 1/ The first of recent rumblings comes from an unusual source. The Oil Minister of the world’s largest exporter of crude oil, Saudi Arabia’s Ali al-Naimi, spoke in mid-May about how he could see the phase-out of fossil fuels by mid-century and said his country planned to become a global leader in solar and wind energy. 2/ On 3 June, the world’s largest furniture retailer, IKEA, pledged $1 billion of climate finance, dwarfing amounts pledged by some entire countries. The money would be split with $600 million in renewable energy investments putting the company on track to become energy independent. The other $400 million would go to help vulnerable communities affected by climate change, setting an example for national governments that they need to split their own finance contributions between mitigation-focused spending to reduce emissions, and adaptation to help at-risk countries. 3/ The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Norway’s $890-billion pension fund, has just agreed to divest $10 billion of coal stocks, joining a global divestment movement turning its back on the most polluting fossil fuel. 4/ On 8 June, a study by Lord Stern and the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics revealed that Chinese emissions could peak by as early as 2025, 5 years ahead of a government-agreed deadline of 2030. 5/ On the same day, a poll by the International Trade Union Confederation showed that 9 out of 10 people around the world are demanding their elected leaders do more to tackle climate change. 6/ In what was clearly a busy day for climate news, 8 June concluded with front-page headlines around the world as the G7 called for the decarbonization of the global economy by the end of the century and announced reform of the national energy systems of G7 nations. 7 Even the UN climate negotiations are showing progress, aiming to peak at the first fully global pact to begin addressing climate change at the COP21 meeting in Paris in December. Countries are in the process of submitting their ‘intended nationally determined contributions’, or INDCs, which will make up the Paris deal. 8/ Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, said it would target a 64% reduction in its current emissions trajectory within 15 years. At the UN talks in Bonn, countries asked for the co-chairs of the negotiations for the Paris deal to provide a clearer agreement for ministers to work on, suggesting they are beginning to realize the need for more urgent progress. 9/ This momentum is expected to continue this week with the publication of Pope Francis’ Papal Encyclical on the Environment on Thursday, which will likely argue that humanity’s exploitation of the planet’s resources has pushed the world to breaking point and make the case for an ethical and economic revolution to address climate change. 10/ On Wednesday 17 June, people are urged to take part in the first mass lobby of Britain’s Parliament. Up to 10,000 people are expected outside Westminster in London to speak to MPs, urging them to make tackling climate change a government priority. The event is being organized by The Climate Coalition, consisting of more than 100 British organizations, from Christian Aid to Surfers Against Sewage, calling for a clean, safe and prosperous planet. From oil-producing nations and furniture shops to economists and the Pope, the world is seemingly beginning to get on board the transition to a low-carbon world. I’m not saying ‘hey, we got this,’ nothing to worry about, I’m just saying there’s more than one thing happening and some of them are hopeful. We aren’t attuned to things that are hopeful, we’re attuned to things that are harmful and threatening. So I think we have to make special effort to try and let some sunshine into the darkness of the day. As for the left in the US, we have been so viciously and dishonestly attacked by the rightwing PTB, who dominate everything, including our entire political system (both sides of the duopoly), and the media, etc., that people who self-identify as leftists have shriveled on the vine to practically nothing. So, in that sense, yes, ‘the left’ is virtually nonexistent. But there is reason to think that’s more about the semantics than the policy. Bernie’s astonishing success as a self-proclaimed socialist (democratic socialist to be precise) proved that vast swathes of Americans want socialist policies. Not even the dreaded ‘socialist’ label hurt Bernie. The only thing that hurt Bernie was the DNC and the cheating assholes in the establishment dems who are rabidly committed to the 0.01%, the PTB and the status quo. Bernie supporters, by far the most enthusiastic I’ve ever seen, may or may not think of themselves as leftists or socialists or want to be so identified, but they sure loved Bernie’s socialist policies. So, in that sense, the not left (but left) are rising. It seems to me that leftist identification is not what’s most important, it’s the policy. We saw the people rise up in the 60s, we saw it more recently with Occupy Wall Street, Food Not Bombs, the Bernie movement, etc. We saw the people rise only to see them narrowly defeated by trickery and skullduggery, and we may see it again even bigger and maybe even sooner. It seems to be coming in waves. Each time the people rise it gets bigger and better. We may see the wave we’ve been waiting for, working toward, pining for. We may be closer than ever. It may at least be a solid step forward on the path to higher civilization. Will it manifest in a 2020 Bernie run or something else? Yes, I know Bernie has problems, but his policies are popular, seen by a surprising number of Americans as just what the doctor ordered. With or without Bernie, I think this is where we’re going: universal healthcare, universal education, universal basic income and all the rest – and precisely because the not left (but left) is growing and demanding sane and humane policies – or leftist policies, if you prefer. A leftist by any other name would smell as sweet. We may look weak, we may feel weak, but I’m starting to think we may be stronger than we’ve ever been and getting stronger. We seem to be tipping, contrary to every effort by the PTB, and however unexpectedly, into at least single-payer healthcare. That ain’t everything but it ain’t nothin’. I could be wrong of course, but I’m hopeful, which is a nice feeling. Am I hopelessly naive? Yeah, maybe. But I like to think that, no matter what, we’re going to pull through this shit and come out better. It’s not like there isn’t generous room for improvement. The story of 2016 turned out to be a nightmare – but it almost turned out differently. What if Bernie had won? How much different would it have been? It’s impossible to say of course, but maybe significantly so. There would still be the PTB and the knuckle-draggers in Congress, etc. but it would at least be better fighting for free education and universal healthcare than fending off the insane clown posse – and don’t tell me our prospects for being sane and responsible regarding climate change wouldn’t be vastly superior to the outright lunacy with which we find ourselves saddled. So yeah, I don’t think Bernie would usher in a socialist paradise, but he might represent a solid first step toward something approaching such an ideal. It would certainly legitimize socialists. It’s not about Bernie, it’s about those amazingly sane and responsible policies he constantly pushes. However sincere, honest, trustworthy or what have you, Bernie may or may not be, Bernie is beside the point. Those policies are leftist policies, they are what this country needs and they are wanted by vast swathes of the voters in this country. WE ALMOST BEAT THEM…with a socialist. That’s an astonishing fucking thing. Our next big push may do it. We have been driven into the political wilderness for now, but remember, we almost beat them – and with little people money and a socialist candidate. Would I rather have a total revolution, sweeping the status quo into the dust bin of history in one swell foop? Sure. It’s just hard to conjure a vision of how that would work. I just think we’re in a space where we are constrained by a series of inconvenient facts: they have the guns, they’re spying on us all, they own the government (which is supposed to be ours, remember that?) and they’re fully prepared to slaughter us if we get testy. Of course we’re going to get testy, that’s already happening, but we also need to get crafty. No point in just baring our throats. A powerful civil uprising is preferable to a blood bath, in my opinion at least. 2016 knocked me for a loop and it’s taken me a while to sort out what I think I learned from it all (still workin’ on it). From a political viewpoint, I think a Bernie-style ‘political revolution’ may be our only hope of avoiding a real blood ‘n guts revolution. I hope we manage to be wise enough to avoid that. I’m a humanitarian first and foremost and I believe the future belongs to humanitarians. I’m not particularly well schooled in socialist theory, but the humanitarian nature of it is what attracts me. My basic belief is that we should all take good care of each other and make everyone’s lives as much better as we possibly can. From a broader perspective, I think our political system may become irrelevant before it can ever manage to do anything good. This has been a hard thing for me to get my head around, but I think we may be witnessing two major dynamics working themselves out in the same time and space, that is to say simultaneously. On the one hand we see a bizarre and precipitous decline and fall of American civilization. It’s broken, kaput and circling the drain. It’s obvious if you’re looking and not inclined toward denial. Nowhere is it more apparent than in our political system. Even the good guys (democrats) suck now. The corruption is profound. And now we’ve descended into outright idiocracy. And the rich boys are cool with it…as long as they keep getting richer. It’s the ONLY thing they care about. Piss poor humans they are. The other major dynamic I see is what may be the new higher civilization rising, like the Phoenix from the ashes but simultaneous to the decline and fall. All the crazy shit that is troubling us now (racism, greed culture, warmongering, political corruption) may be in the final phases of hanging on by the skin of its teeth. All these things, these ancient centers of power, all these ancient curses, may soon fall away as we emerge from our 20th century cocoons and fly into the future as 21st century butterflies. Ha! I’m sorry. I have a disease that causes me to lapse into silly purple prose. I’ll try an’ watch that. I guess my main point is that things may look pretty grim, and they do, but there is reason for hope. Please don’t despair. March on. Peace out.LOS ANGELES (AP) Hip-hop was well-represented at this year's Grammys, with OutKast, producer-singer Pharrell Williams, Jay-Z and his girlfriend Beyonce all winning honors. Not bad for a genre that wasn't even acknowledged by the Grammys until 1989. Here's a timeline of hip-hop's Grammy history: 1989 Grammys give out first rap award, for "best performance," to the lightweight "Parents Just Don't Understand" by Will Smith (known then as The Fresh Prince) and DJ Jazzy Jeff. Rap community claims that voters ignored the best artists, like KRS-One, Big Daddy Kane and NWA, whose debut album "Straight Outta Compton" launched gangsta rap. 1990 MC Hammer's megaplatinum "Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em" nominated for best album; his "U Can't Touch This" wins best rap performance. Rap community still upset, especially by best rap performance nomination for Vanilla Ice, widely considered a fraud by knowledgeable fans. Public Enemy boycotts show despite nomination for best performance, accusing Grammys of racism. 1993 Arrested Development is first rap act to win best new artist trophy. They also win best group rap performance for "Tennessee." 1999 Lauryn Hill is first rap act to win best album category with "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill," a mainly R&B album with rap and hip-hop touches. She sets a record with five awards, which was the most ever for a female artist. Jay-Z's "Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life" wins best album, but he boycotts awards show, saying the Grammys don't respect rap. 2000 Burying the legacy of Vanilla Ice, the well-respected Eminem becomes first white rapper to win rap category, taking best rap album over Busta Rhymes, Nas, Missy Elliott and The Roots. Also wins best rap solo performance. 2001 Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP," which slurs gays and women, is focus of protests after being nominated for album of the year. Eminem loses best album to Steely Dan, but sweeps rap categories. 2004 OutKast wins album of the year for the genre-busting double CD, "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below."A day after the New York Times published a front-page report purporting to show the involvement of Russian Special Forces in protests in east Ukraine, its report, titled “Photos Link Masked Men in East Ukraine to Russia,” has been exposed as a blatant fabrication. The Times printed low-resolution pictures of fighters—allegedly wearing Russian insignia while in Georgia, and then later as protesters in east Ukraine—asserting they were the same men, thus proving the existence of an armed Russian intervention in Ukraine. It was based on a crude trick first noted by a commenter on a link posted on Reddit. The photos in the Times were down-sampled versions of higher-resolution images circulating online, which show that the men in the different pictures are in fact not the same. Images from the New York Times with text and captions: Original images posted on reddit: It very rapidly became clear that the Times ’ claims to have proven that Russian soldiers were driving the east Ukraine protests against the pro-Western regime in Kiev were complete rubbish. The BBC compared the high-resolution pictures of two bearded men theTimes falsely asserted were the same fighter. It concluded, “In the 2014 photos, the man’s greying beard appears to be black, while in Georgia six years ago, the slimmer-looking man shown has a reddish beard.” It also noted that Russian Special Forces patches on the men’s uniforms, highlighted by the Times as proof that they are Russian troops, “can be bought on the Internet for less than $5.” Asking whether the pictures “prove anything,” the BBC concluded: “It cannot be said for sure that they are actual Russian Special Forces, as the Ukrainians argue.” In publishing the false allegations, the Times worked closely with the US government, which received the photos from the unelected pro-US regime in Kiev and “endorsed” them before passing them on. At a press briefing, however, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, whom the New York Times quoted in its article, indicated that the administration was well aware that the photos did not constitute proof of what was being claimed. Pressed about whether she was certain the pictures showed individuals linked to Russia, Psaki replied: “What we see in these photos that have been, again, in international media, on Twitter, and publicly available, is that there are individuals who visibly appear to be tied to Russia. We’ve said that publicly a countless number of times. I will let you draw all the conclusions yourself as to whether these are individuals who look similar or not to other events.” A journalist at the briefing objected to calling this “evidence,” and asked, “Do you think this is evidence that would stand up in a court of law?” Psaki replied, “I don’t think it’s a legal—we’re not making a court-of-law case here. We’re just showing that this is photographic evidence that indicates the connection we’ve been talking about for weeks now.” The journalist asked, “You think it is proof of connection, or it’s just—or you’re just alleging that it’s another sign of this?” Psaki replied, “It’s another sign.” In fact, the Times has worked to mislead its readers, uncritically presenting concocted photos delivered by its contacts in the State Department. Washington, as it passed the pictures on to the Times, knew very well that they did not constitute evidence of anything, but were simply a new propaganda point supporting its as-yet unsubstantiated accusations of Russian involvement in Ukraine. The Obama administration relied on theTimes to publish the pictures, fanning the flames of the media campaign to denounce Russia, without doing any due diligence to check that its materials were accurate or that proved anything at all. A decade ago, Times journalist Judith Miller was the conduit for broadcasting lies that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD), touching off a huge media campaign that set the stage for the US invasion of Iraq. Today, the lies the Times is palming off as news could provoke a war with Russia, a nuclear-armed power. By fabricating evidence of Russian involvement in east Ukraine, the Times was providing political ammunition for calls in Ukraine and in the Western imperialist powers for a military crackdown against protests in east Ukraine, a region with a large Russian population. This could lead to a military intervention by Moscow in eastern Ukraine to break up the crackdown, and a clash between Russia and Ukraine drawing in the Western powers. The Times ’ fabrications also served to obscure the fact that this conflict arose out of the decision of Washington and its European allies to topple Ukraine’s previous, Russian-aligned regime in a fascist-led putsch in February. The unelected pro-Western regime in Kiev has now encountered significant popular opposition in pro-Russian regions of eastern Ukraine. It is this aggressive policy of the Western powers that is driving the explosive standoff in eastern Ukraine. The employees of the Times who were involved in producing this article, like Judith Miller before them, reflect the growing integration of the media and the state. Henry Kissinger, the Secretary of State under President Richard Nixon, intervened personally four years ago to try to obtain a Chinese visa for the lead author of the Times article, Andrew Higgins. Higgins has been refused entry into China ever since 1991—when, after reporting on the Tiananmen Square massacre, he was found traveling with Chinese state documents in his briefcase and expelled from the country. Higgins’ reporting on Ukraine in the current crisis has been largely oriented to downplaying the dangers posed by the fascist forces Washington and its European allies put in power in Kiev, and demonizing Russia. One particularly foul piece published on April 8, “Among Ukraine’s Jews, Bigger Worry is Putin, Not Pogroms,” attacked the idea that these groups posed any danger to Ukraine’s Jewish population. The Right Sector militia and the fascist Svoboda party occupy key posts in the unelected Kiev regime and glorify World War II-era fascist forces, such as the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists of Stepan Bandera, who allied with the Nazis during the Ukrainian Holocaust. Yet, according to Higgins, such organizations are far less dangerous to the Ukrainian people that the Russian government. “Even Right Sector, a coalition of ultranationalist and in some cases neo-Nazi organizations, has made an effort to distance itself from anti-Semitism,” Higgins wrote. “In late February, its leader, Dmytro Yarosh, pledged during a meeting with Israel’s ambassador in Kiev to fight all forms of racism.” Higgins’ attempt to whitewash the right-wing character of the Kiev regime is of a piece with the current concocted denunciations of Russia by the Times, shamelessly supporting Western imperialism’s intervention in Ukraine.Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. These days, perhaps the most hotly debated issue in climate change circles has little to do with science. Rather, it is over how to communicate that science to a public that still does not get it. The leading communication strategy at present is built on a now famous 2013 paper—whose main result was tweeted out by no less than President Obama—finding that 97 percent of scientific papers (those that took a stand on the matter, anyway) supported the scientific consensus that humans are causing climate change. This result is often simplified down to the idea that “97 percent of scientists accept the consensus that humans are causing global warming.” Spreading this simple message, say supporters, is a critical way to get people past the wrongheaded idea that climate science is still subject to “debate.” The strategy has its critics, including Yale science communication researcher Dan Kahan, who contends that the approach will backfire among conservative ideologues. A new study just out in the journal Climatic Change, however, suggests not only that the “97 percent consensus” message can be effective, but that it will work best when expressed in the form of a simple phrase or (eat your heart out, USA Today) a pie chart. Like this one, which is an actual image designed to spread the “97 percent” message: The new paper is the latest collaboration by the George Mason and Yale projects on climate change communication, headed up, respectively, by Ed Maibach and Anthony Leiserowitz. They set out to test not only whether the “97 percent consensus” message works, but whether it works best when conveyed in one of three formats: as a simple statement (“97 percent of climate scientists have concluded that human-caused climate change is happening”), as a metaphor (for instance, “If 97 percent of doctors concluded that your child is sick, would you believe them? 97 percent of climate scientists have concluded that human-caused climate change is happening”), or as a pie chart. The actual pie chart used in the study is pictured at right. The study had 1,104 participants, who were divided up into 11 separate experimental treatments. One group read the simple statement, one group saw the pie chart, eight groups received a variety of different climate communication metaphors, and there was, of course, a control condition. Before and after encountering one of these messages, participants were asked their estimate of the current degree of scientific consensus on climate change. The upshot was that all of the messages worked, to an extent, to improve people’s perception of scientific consensus. However, the simple phrase fared the best—improving the subjects’ perceptions of scientific consensus by 17.88 percentage points—and the pie chart came in second (14.38 percentage points). The various metaphor-based messages (using the doctor metaphor above, a similar engineering metaphor, and so on) were all roughly equal in their effectiveness, but none was as good as the simple image or phrase. Notably, however, the pie chart proved most effective among one group—Republicans—that is notorious for being the most difficult audience to sway on climate change. The effect was pretty impressive, as this figure shows: The authors do not speculate on why Republicans, and Republicans alone, seem to respond more strongly to pie charts. However, their bottom line conclusion is this: “presenting information in a way that is short, simple and easy to comprehend and remember seems to offer the highest probability of success for all audiences examined.” This study probably won’t end the debate over whether telling people that “97 percent of climate scientists” agree on climate change is the best way to save this rock. But it certainly validates something that writers, bloggers, and media outlets have long known: You keep it simple, and you show pretty pictures.How much money do the nation's biggest Internet providers invest in upgrading their networks every year? The answer can affect how reliable your connections are, what kind of speeds you get and the amount you pay for service each month. And with all the debate about big telecom mergers, net neutrality and the future of broadband, capital expenditures — or the resources companies sink into their networks — offer an important source of insight into how it all works. It turns out that, as a percentage of the money they pull in, ISPs have generally spent less on infrastructure over time — from a high of 37 percent of revenue in some cases to a low of around 12 percent more recently. The data, compiled from public filings by Harvard scholar Susan Crawford and telecom analyst Mitchell Shapiro, includes over a decade of information about how ISPs have allocated their resources. Before you jump to any conclusions about these companies, though, remember that the turn of the millennium was precisely when a lot of modern Internet cabling was being rolled out. "Comcast’s capex to revenue ratio climbed as high as 37 percent in 2001, following very large-scale acquisitions, a relatively large proportion of which required substantial network upgrades," Shapiro wrote in a report accompanying the data, adding that in 2000 many ISPs were transitioning to a model known as hybrid fiber coaxial (basically using a mix of fiber and copper to make up a network). Because establishing a network involves steep upfront costs but comparatively low costs thereafter, every dollar an ISP makes from you off your monthly bill is effectively profit, which helps explain the large gap between the early years in the chart and the later years. Here's another chart — this one showing the actual dollar amounts ISPs have spent in the last dozen years. A company can use its network profits in dramatically different ways. Although like all ISPs AT&T's spending has fallen from its aughties peak, it has also plowed more money into its network each year since 2007. That blue spike you see in the middle of the chart coincides with a massive expansion in AT&T's broadband offering, U-verse; between 2006 and 2008, AT&T connected nearly 30 cities to its U-verse networks. While U-verse still only serves about a quarter of the country, AT&T has been spending aggressively to build it out. Network technology has come a long way since the 2000s. Fiber optics seem to be the connection method of choice for the future: Fiber supports a tremendous amount of bandwidth and the signals don't degrade nearly as easily as on traditional copper cables. (A quick caveat: Don't count copper-based DSL technology out just yet.) Some companies are building out fiber directly to the home. But not all; fiber is expensive. The question now is whether ISP spending will rise again to meet the new demand. Have more to say about this topic? We take your questions every week in our weekly livechat, Switchback, Fridays at 11 a.m. ET. The comment box is open, so submit your questions now.Might Philip Rivers be entering his last season with the San Diego Chargers? Rapoport: How to fix Philip Rivers Ian Rapoport talks to a man with a plan. Philip Rivers is coming off two disappointing seasons. Can the QB be salvaged?talks to a man with a plan. More... Three years ago, it was unthinkable that the Chargers willfully would cut ties with Rivers. But consecutive mediocre seasons, combined with the reality of new faces at head coach (Mike McCoy) and general manager (Tom Telesco), puts Rivers in a precarious position as he enters his 10th NFL season. U-T San Diego columnist Kevin Acee summed up the situation during a Wednesday appearance on NFL Network's "Path to the Draft." "No one will say it, but I think that 2013 is the final audition of Philip Rivers," Acee said. Acee bases his assumption on the Chargers'decision not to restructure Rivers' contract this offseason despite the team's tight salary-cap situation. Acee says the Chargers' choice to sit tight on Rivers "speaks volumes." The evolution of the NFL: Take a look at how the NFL has evolved from its humble roots, and the efforts being made to ensure it continues to grow. Rivers has committed 47 turnovers over the past two seasons, the most of any player not named Mark Sanchez. The prior regime did Rivers no favors, depleting the cast of playmakers around him while allowing the offensive line to turn to mush. Rivers was sacked 49 times last season. You'd probably be chucking and ducking, too. If Rivers truly is in "prove it" mode, the Chargers owe it to the quarterback to give him a better support system in 2013. That starts with finding a new left tackle with the 11th overall pick. Providing a better receiver option than Robert Meachem also would help. We're of the opinion that Rivers has good years left in him. He just can't do it alone, which puts him in the same company as every other quarterback in NFL history. Follow Dan Hanzus on Twitter @DanHanzus.As Russian intelligence demonstrates ever more alacrity with American political and social disruption, we must remember that the great bear still has a major weapon in reserve that’s tailored for this purpose. Like many of Russia’s most destructive tools, this one is radioactive, and must be shielded to contain a field of mildly harmful emissions. It can be easily delivered between continents — and indeed, its very nature makes it a precision weapon aimed squarely at American democracy. Edward Snowden is widely believed to be one of Vladimir Putin’s more successful gambits. The ex-Booz Allen security contractor may tweet the occasional criticism of Putin’s surveillance state, but it’s generally acknowledged that that’s a small price to pay to make the US look foolish and impotent around the world. By keeping him in public view, Russia can make sure that past US transgressions remain near the surface of the global consciousness, and visibly put the lie to any narrative about the omnipotence of American power. #Putin has signed a repressive new law that violates not only human rights, but common sense. Dark day for #Russia. https://t.co/J4I2SQ9VCe — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) July 7, 2016 Both of these virtues are fading quickly in importance. The NSA has, at this point, entirely weathered the PR nightmare of the Snowden leaks, and Americans have fully embraced the idea of cyber security agencies with an aggressively preventative mission statement. And, to put it mildly, Snowden is no longer the most high-profile example of American political and security overreach. So the question becomes: At what point will Snowden’s virtues cease to outweigh his faults, from the perspective of Russian PR and desinformatsiya? The answer: whenever the reborn KGB decides his return could do the most harm to American political unity, its standing around the world, and perhaps do large amounts of splash damage against a third party as well. Consider the choice of Julian Assange to be their unthinking mouthpiece for anti-Democrat cyber-espionage. As easy as it would have been to simply post the emails under a Fancy Bear-style hacker group pseudonym, or just throw the whole thing up on PasteBin, the choice was instead to use a well-known surrogate whose involvement in the case would complicate any political resolution. By using Assange as the most visible source for the leaked emails, the exact same content can be made to generate a totally different sort of headline. Snowden carries this same inherently disruptive power, greatly magnified. The media circus of a Snowden return (even, if not especially, a highly secretive return) would pressure certain portions of the American political world more than others. By releasing Snowden to the US with the media’s knowledge, Putin could instantly create tension between any sitting Democrat and the left wing of their own party. It could bring the issue of American surveillance and jurisprudence back to the fore. It would also force America either to persecute a widely beloved figure via widely distrusted laws, or to opportunistically fold to pressure and let Snowden walk. In the
the predecessor to the FIFA Confederations Cup. In 1996, Crespo was a member of the Argentina men's football squad for the Olympic Games. Crespo helped take Argentina to the final with braces against Spain in the quarter-final and Portugal in the semi-final. However, Argentina lost the final to Nigeria, despite Crespo scoring his sixth goal of the tournament from the penalty spot.[29] Crespo scored his first goal for the Argentina senior team in a 1998 World Cup qualifier against Ecuador and hit a hat-trick against FR Yugoslavia in a pre-World Cup friendly.[30] Crespo was called up to the final roster for the 1998 World Cup but only made one substitute appearance, as Gabriel Batistuta led the Argentine attack. Crespo missed his kick in the second round penalty shoot-out with England, but Argentina progressed 4–3.[31] During qualification for the 2002 World Cup, Crespo was top scorer for Argentina with nine goals as they topped the South American group.[32] During the finals, Batistuta was again preferred to Crespo as Argentina's starting centre forward. Crespo appeared as a substitute in all three group matches, including the final match against Sweden, which Argentina needed to win in order to qualify for the second round. Though Crespo scored an 88th-minute equaliser, it was not to be enough and Argentina were eliminated. After the 2002 World Cup, Batistuta retired from international football,[33] and Crespo took over as Argentina's number 9. During the 2006 World Cup qualifying stage, Crespo scored seven times, including two goals in Argentina's 3–1 World Cup qualifying win over arch-rivals Brazil in Buenos Aires, which made him Argentina's career scoring leader in World Cup qualifiers. Crespo scored Argentina's first goal of the 2006 World Cup in their opening match against the Ivory Coast. He also scored in the second group game against Serbia and Montenegro and the second round match against Mexico. However, Argentina's run was ended as they were knocked out by host nation Germany on penalties in the quarter-final. Crespo's final appearances for Argentina came at 2007 Copa América. He scored twice in Argentina's 4–1 victory over the United States in their Group C opener, tying Diego Maradona's team scoring record.[34] He then overtook Maradona in Argentina's second match, scoring a penalty kick against Colombia. However, he substituted immediately after converting the kick due to injury and missed the remainder of the tournament.[35] After the Copa América, Crespo did not receive any further call-ups to the national team and ended his international career with 35 goals in 64 matches, making him Argentina's third highest goalscorer of all-time, behind Gabriel Batistuta and Lionel Messi. Style of play [ edit ] Crespo was a fast, tenacious, powerful, and complete striker, who possessed good technique, composure in possession, and an eye for goal; he also excelled in the air. A prolific and opportunistic goal-scorer, he was capable of finishing well both with his feet and with his head, and was known for his ability to score acrobatic goals.[36][37][38][39] He was also effective off the ball due to his work-rate, tactical intelligence, and attacking movement, which he often used to provide depth for his team or create space for his teammates;[40] he was also capable of linking up well with other forwards.[39] Due to his goalscoring ability and wide range of skills, he is regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation, and as one of Serie A's best ever foreign players.[41] Despite his ability, he faced several injuries throughout his career, which limited his playing time at times.[38][42] Nicknames [ edit ] While commonly known as Hernán, Crespo was christened Hernando Jorge Crespo, after his grandfather of the same name.[citation needed] His most common nickname is "Valdanito", after legendary compatriot striker Jorge Valdano, as he was thought to be his heir due to their similar appearance and eye for goal. He is also called, although less often, "El Polaco" (or "The Pole") because his grandmother was Polish.[36][43] Media [ edit ] Crespo was sponsored by sportswear company Nike and appeared in Nike commercials. In a global Nike advertising campaign in the run-up to the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, Crespo starred in a "Secret Tournament" commercial (branded "Scorpion KO") directed by Terry Gilliam, appearing alongside footballers such as Thierry Henry, Ronaldo, Francesco Totti, Ronaldinho, Luís Figo, Roberto Carlos and Hidetoshi Nakata, with former player Eric Cantona as the tournament "referee".[44][45] Post-playing and managerial career [ edit ] Coach: Parma and Modena [ edit ] On 12 November 2012, Crespo announced that he would pursue a career in coaching and would begin work in early July 2013.[28] He served as youth coach for the Primavera team of Parma during the 2014–15 season. After the disbandment of Parma, on 30 June 2015, Crespo was announced as the new manager of Serie B club Modena.[46] He was sacked on 26 March 2016.[47] Back to Parma [ edit ] On 22 June 2017, Chinese businessman Jiang Lizhang bought 60% of the stocks of Parma, and assigned Crespo as the new vice president of the club. He worked for Jiang's company Desport as a technical adviser beforehand.[48] On 2 January 2018, with the club opting to remove the figure of vice-president from its board, Crespo was named new club ambassador.[49] Banfield [ edit ] On 19 December 2018, Crespo was appointed manager of Argentine Primera División side Banfield.[50] Personal life [ edit ] In May 2005, Crespo married equestrian Alessia Andra Rossi, with whom he has three children. She is half Italian and half Romanian.[51][52] Career statistics [ edit ] Club [ edit ] [53]Will Smith’s fatherly advice might be falling on deaf ears these days. The Concussion star attended the NYC premiere of his new drama on Wednesday, December 16, where he talked about seeing the film through a parent’s eyes. “It was a little scary because my son played football for four years, and I wasn't — it never even was a subject,” he said of the extensive brain injuries his real-life character, Dr. Bennet Omalu, uncovered in football players. “It never came up. We were concerned about him breaking his leg, or spinal injury was the big thing that all of the parents were concerned about. So it was scary to me — it was almost as if it was hidden in plain sight. And as I started to understand the science, I knew that it was something that I wanted to deliver to the world.” As for whether the father of three would let his kids play now that he knows the truth behind the game, Smith, 47, noted, “I’m glad that that's a hypothetical question. Anybody that has kids, you know how hard it is to tell your kids, ‘No.’ So if he wanted to play, I would want him to be thoroughly informed, and as a family we would have to make an informed decision.” These days, his children — Trey, who he shares with ex-wife Sheree Zampino, and Jaden and Willow, who he shares with wife Jada Pinkett Smith — tend to do their own thing. “You know, listen, I have a 23-year-old, a 17-year-old, and a 15-year-old, so they were done listening to me a long time ago,” he said, laughing. Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox! Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now!After playing with Minnesota United on loan last season, midfielder Bernardo Añor has signed with the club ahead of the 2017 Major League Soccer season. The Venezuelan comes to the Loons from Sporting Kansas City, and has played five seasons in MLS. Añor came to Minnesota in 2016 on a season-long loan during preseason training. After a promising start with the Loons, he suffered an ankle injury during training that sidelined him for much of the season. The Venezuelan-native managed to make a speedy recovery and played in a pair of games at the end of the 2016 campaign. Using his skilled touch, Añor excels as a holdup player, allowing his team to get up the pitch and build a sustained attack. He works well along the wings and can also thrive in a central midfield role, acting as a pivot player to distribute the ball up the flanks. He came to the U.S. in 2007 to play college soccer for the University of South Florida. Añor was the leading scorer for the Bulls in three of his four seasons, missing much of his sophomore year after suffering an ACL tear midway through the season. He was selected 48th overall by Columbus Crew SC in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft and signed with the club shortly after. The midfielder made 13 appearances in his rookie season, and progressively earned more time with the club during his four-year tenure. Añor was traded to Sporting Kansas City ahead of the 2015 season, where he managed to get 13 appearances in a crowded midfield, before joining the Loons on loan. His father, also named Bernardo, was a professional soccer player in Venezuela, while his brother Juanpi currently plays for Málaga in Spain. Join Minnesota United for the 2017 MLS Season at TCF Bank Stadium by purchasing season tickets today. Be there for every key match from the home opener on March 12 to the playoff push in October by calling 763.4SOCCER or visiting MNUFC.COM and selecting your seat. TRANSACTION: Minnesota United has signed midfielder Bernardo Añor to Major League Soccer contract. VITALS Bernardo Añor Position: Midfielder Born: 5/24/1988 Height: 5’8” Weight: 158 Last Club: Sporting Kansas City Hometown: Caracas, Venezuela Birthplace: Caracas, Venezuela Citizenship: Venezuela Twitter: @BernardoAnorAnother casino is about to open in San Diego County, but this one is asking folks to gamble with their lives. Penn National Gaming, the East Coast firm bankrolling the Hollywood Casino in Jamul, is pitching the place as a glitzy, glamorous palace worthy of the Las Vegas Strip. But Jamul is not Vegas. It’s not Tinsel Town. The casino, with its big, garish “Hollywood” sign out front, is a slap in the face to a community that has fought for decades to stay as rural as possible. Shoehorned onto a tiny sliver of land along a windy, two-lane highway, the giant gaming hall is setting the stage for disaster. Driving rural State Route 94 can be deadly. Since 2005, according to the California Highway Patrol, there have been 1,150 collisions on the highway, from Rancho San Diego through Jamul. Hundreds of people have been injured. Twenty-two killed. Much of the road has the lowest Caltrans safety rating possible — an F. Since 2014, nearly 50 collisions have occurred just along the part of SR-94 near the casino construction site. Locals already consider the road a deathtrap. Now comes the casino, which is expected to add 9,000 daily car and truck trips to the area. That’s a 50 percent jump over today. Who’s to blame for this Hollywood horror show? I blame the leadership of the Jamul Indian Village. No one can fault them for wanting to improve their economic situation. However, when other options were raised over the years, like possibly working with another tribe to develop an alternate location, the Jamul Indians balked. I blame Penn National. The massive building is in a terrible location, and Penn is trying to put lipstick on this pig. The firm is looking to cash in big time, and to heck with the community. My biggest beef right now is with the state. State officials are failing to do their most important job — protecting the public. Caltrans is allowing the casino to open without all the needed traffic improvements in place. That includes new turn lanes, retaining walls and signals at critical highway intersections, including next to a fire station. Making matters worse, the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control is allowing the casino to serve alcohol before the completion of all the road improvements and before a public hearing on the liquor permit. This, on a highway that has seen nearly 100 DUI-related collisions in the past decade. It took other Indian casinos, including Sycuan and Barona, many years to get liquor licenses. The Jamul casino got one in less than 12 months, despite fierce opposition from the county and the Sheriff’s Department, along with formal protests from thousands of people. Hollywood Casino isn’t even open yet, and the state is helping Penn National and the Jamul Indian Village roll out the red carpet — at the expense of public safety. I’ve talked with state officials in recent days and here’s what I said: I intend to hold them responsible for their reckless decisions that will likely lead to injury or loss of life after the casino opens. I don’t want blood on my hands. I’m sure they don’t either. There’s still time to make things right. I urge the state to rescind the alcohol permit, hold a public hearing and make sure all the critical road improvements are in place before the casino opens. Here’s the nightmare scenario I worry about most: A big wildfire breaks out in our backcountry and, with the Santa Ana winds, aggressively pushes west. At the same time, a collision occurs on this rural highway. SR-94 turns into a parking lot. Residents can’t escape. Folks in the casino’s gaming halls and bars can’t get out. I’m not talking about a Hollywood movie. I’m talking about a real “Perfect Storm.” This casino represents a clear and present danger to the community. State officials need to step up, do their job and put public safety first. Jacob is vice-chairwoman, San Diego County Board of Supervisors. RELATEDRound Rock Police arrested a 17-year-old man at Stony Point High School for allegedly assaulting an assistant principal after he rode a motorcycle through the halls. Round Rock Police said Scott Fickey was on a Honda “dirt bike” motorcycle in the hallway and drove through the hallway that had students inside. The assistant principal said he stepped in front of Fickey to try to stop him from riding any further. Police said the assistant principal said FIckey accelerated the bike to try to go around him, but swerved, skidded, and eventually laid down the motorcycle. The motorcycle allegedly struck a teacher while it was sliding and police said Fickey tried to run which is when he allegedly scratched and cut the assistant principal. Fickey, who was wearing a GoPro camera, told police the incident was intended to be a senior prank. He now faces a third degree felony charge of assault on a public servant.The Cyclones are paying tribute to the legendary Jack Trice with a throwback uniform worn during the 1920s. The uniform will be used this year when they host the Iowa Hawkeyes on September 14th in Ames. This comes on the heels of dropping the very cool Iowa State 2013 football commercial which featured "Jack Trice" standing in the shadows of the stadium named after him. Earlier this year, Joshua Kagavi did some incredible research on Jack Trice's uniform number, and there have been rumors of a Jack Trice throwback for almost a year. Last month, @CycloneRecruits also noted that the entrance tunnel has been redone to honor Jack Trice. New Iowa State tunnel at Jack Trice! A nice touch incorporating Jack and his letter #CyclONEnation #JackTrice pic.twitter.com/1WPgRn65kI — Cyclone Recruiting (@CycloneRecruits) August 1, 2013 If you are unfamiliar with the tale of Jack Trice, it's an incredible story of the first African-American athlete at Iowa State who died as a result of injuries on the football field in 1923. He was forced to stay in a racially segregated hotel in Minneapolis before a game against the University of Minnesota, and ended up being trampled during the game by Gopher players. The legend of Jack Trice was mostly forgotten until 1973 when students started the push to honor him. In 1997 the football stadium was officially named Jack Trice Stadium. Today, Jack Trice Stadium is still the only Division 1 stadium named after an African-American, and Iowa State is continuing to honor his memory with a classy looking throwback jersey.A number of reporters seemed shocked on Monday when President Obama's Executive Order imposing sanctions on Venezuela cited a threat to the United States to justify the action. "I, BARACK OBAMA... find that the situation in Venezuela, including the Government of Venezuela’s erosion of human rights guarantees, persecution of political opponents, curtailment of press freedoms, use of violence and human rights violations and abuses in response to antigovernment protests, and arbitrary arrest and detention of antigovernment protestors, as well as the exacerbating presence of significant public corruption, constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States," the Executive Order reads, "And I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat." How could Venezuela, struggling with the effects of the crash in oil prices, post an "extraordinary threat to the national security of the United States"? Advertisement: In fact, most sanctions Executive Orders make the same claim, which -- given the ineffectiveness of most sanctions efforts and the extended period they've been in place -- suggests the U.S. has to be inflating its claims about "unusual and extraordinary threats" to U.S. national security. Persons undermining democratic processes in Zimbabwe, persons (who are not Israel) undermining the sovereignty of Lebanon, persons (who are not Saudi Arabia) threatening the security of Yemen, persons undermining democratic processes in Belarus, persons contributing to the conflict in the Central African Republic, and persons contributing to the conflict in Cote d’Ivoire have all been deemed extraordinary threats to U.S. national security, many of them for years. The standard practice of naming sanctions targets a threat to U.S. national security was a point an anonymous senior administration official noted in a briefing on Monday explaining the sanctions -- though the SAO added in economic threats not mentioned explicitly in this EO. "[M]ost of our sanctions programs began with the declaration by the President of a national emergency that results -- that’s a threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States." But, perhaps because those covering our long-sour relationship with the Bolivarist regime in Venezuela found the claim, at this moment, to be so absurd, the claim has focused more attention on the dubious claims about national security made to sustain the sanctions. Especially given America's obvious interest, whether or not backed by actions, to end President Nicolas Maduro's rule. In February, apparent intelligence authorities detained Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma Diaz. Since then, Venezuela's President Maduro has been claiming Ledezma was involved in a coup plot hatched in the U.S., alleging the same kind of phone contacts that the U.S. points to when it arrests terrorist targets. Given that one of the seven people targeted by the sanctions is the prosecutor, Katherine Nayarith Haringhton Padron, prosecuting Ledezma, this might be regarded as a direct attempt to influence that prosecution. Yet given Maduro's past claims about a coup -- and U.S. involvement in the 2002 coup attempt against Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chávez, it's understandable why Venezuelans and others in Latin American might believe Maduro's claims. Indeed, reporting suggests the sanctions may have backfired in the region, raising new concerns about U.S. big-footing in the region. Otherwise, you're left with the litany of crimes laid out in Obama's statement: "erosion of human rights guarantees, persecution of political opponents, curtailment of press freedoms,... as well as the exacerbating presence of significant public corruption." Advertisement: There's just one problem with that list. Venezuela is in no way the most egregious human rights violator. U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Egypt are worse, as are Mexico and Colombia. Those countries the U.S. has already overthrown -- Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya -- rank among the worst human rights violators. Indeed, Saudi Arabia just convicted a key human rights and opposition leader, Mohammed al Bajadi, as a terrorist, with no squeak from the administration about how an oil country's persecution of its opposition leaders pose an exceptional threat to U.S. national security. If this is about human rights, the U.S. should be sanctioning a long list of countries before sanctioning Venezuela, regardless of some real reason for concern. Perhaps for that reason, in Monday's briefing, an anonymous SAO emphasized Venezuela's corruption. "Venezuela is considered the most corrupt country in Latin America and one of the most corrupt in the world by Transparency International," said the top official who would not permit his or her name to be used in print. "This executive order allows us to target the corrupt figures who deprive Venezuela and the Venezuelan people of needed economic resources, and will also help protect the U.S. financial system from the illicit financial flows from public corruption in Venezuela," the SAO emphasized, as if Venezuela's corruption would significantly affect a very corrupt Wall Street. With corruption, too, the evidence suggests regime change by the U.S. may exacerbate corruption, as it has in Iraq and Afghanistan. Advertisement: Perhaps the most intriguing claim from the administration attempts to rebut the claim it is interfering in Venezuelan affairs -- basically an attempt to rebut Venezuelan citizens' concerns about American imperialism. This is, one of the SAOs refusing to go on the record Monday explained, about U.S. sovereignty. "The actions we take today are clearly sovereign actions by a country about its own financial system," the SAO claimed these sanctions were about protecting American banks. "They’re not actions taken to involve ourselves in another country." That's simply not credible. Worse, at a time when America's dominant position in the world's financial system is newly contested, such a claim may not only intensify Latin American opposition to U.S. intrusions, but also ignite Russian and Chinese efforts to establish alternatives to U.S. default financial tools. Advertisement: For years, the U.S. has used its dominant position in the global financial system to use sanctions to punish people it doesn't like -- without much evidence those sanctions help to change the underlying behavior. The Venezuelan sanctions reflect a new degree of pettiness, given Venezuela's own fragility in the face of depressed oil prices. And because of a confluence of issues -- including the obviously bogus rationalization for these sanctions -- these sanctions may backfire on several levels, both in U.S. efforts to undermine Maduro's rule, but also in U.S. efforts to pretend its sanctions represent anything but an easy way to selectively enforce obedience to its demands.Blake closed her eyes, exhaling as she got into position to attack. The world was upended, the ground passing by above her head and the sky far beneath her. She pulled her legs in tight, and crossed her arms over her chest as she spun through the air. She had to wait for just the right moment, just the right position in the arc of her jump. With her heightened situational awareness, she was aware of Gambol Shroud spinning past her head, connected to her by its ribbon, which coiled through the air, looping around her several times. All of this was passing in between beats of her heart. Just the right moment... Blake snapped her eyes open, yanked the ribbon and sent Gambol Shroud flying past her head. She stretched her limbs back out to counter-balance the change in her momentum. Gambol Shroud found its target, its blade wedging deep into the neck of the lunging Beowolf. As the arc of Blake's jump sent her dropping back down to the asphalt, she yanked on the ribbon, wrenching the Grimm's head to one side and interrupting its attack. Her feet hit the ground behind the creature. As she landed, she thrust forward, working with her momentum rather than fighting it. She pulled as hard as she could on the ribbon, which now ran over her shoulder and to the Grimm behind her. The Beowolf was pulled right off its feet, and flew backwards, directly towards Blake's back. Gambol Shroud had been ripped free by this motion. The weapon flew back to Blake, and she caught it just before once again leaping into the air, straight up this time. The Beowolf flew by beneath her feet, blood spewing from the hole ripped in its throat. It swiped at her as it flailed, but she'd leapt out of its reach. As her jump peaked, Blake took aim and put a shot right through the Grimm's skull. Its flailing ceased, but its body continued flying forward. As Blake dropped back down to the ground, the dead Beowolf crashed into another, very much alive Beowolf. The creature's lunge was interrupted as it was struck from the side. It crashed to the ground and writhed about, so enraged that it had trouble getting back to its feet. Blake permitted herself a quick, sly grin at her feat. The target of the Beowolf that now lay on the ground had had her back turned, dealing with another of the monstrous creatures. Bringing both fists together into an uppercut, her knuckles struck her adversary under the chin. She grinned as she fired a shot from either half of Ember Cecelia. The Beowolf's head was blown apart and its body was sent flying over her, brushing through her hair as she ducked. Yang glanced behind her at the Beowolf that was now righting itself. She gave her partner a quick glance, nodding to acknowledge the save. She planted her foot directly in the Beowolf's face, sending it tumbling backwards. She charged forward, pointed behind Blake at more Grimm closing in, then leapt into the air. She rolled, then fired both her gauntlets downwards as she flew over the Beowolf. The creature was blown to bits. Yang used the recoil to extend her jump and complete the flip, landing fist-first into the face of yet another Grimm. "Front flip for style!" Yang declared victoriously, as the Grimm crumpled to the ground before her. She turned to Blake, who was leaping in between the halves of one Grimm to reach another. She impaled it through the chest with her sword, and clung to its chest as it stumbled back. Yang noticed a final Beowolf charging Blake, between the two Huntresses, and sprinted to intercept it. Blake swung around, positioned herself on the impaled Beowolf's shoulders, and wrenched Gambol Shroud free. Not a split second after it was free from the creature's chest, she stabbed it through the back of its head and out its mouth. She pulled the sword back out, looked up, and saw the final Beowolf coming at her. She didn't notice Yang flying through the air towards it, fist pulled back to strike. She jumped from the Beowolf's shoulders, dropped a Shadow and propelled herself off of it. She flew at the Grimm, slashed her sword, and landed next to it as its head went flying into the air. Then she noticed Yang, who now was flying directly at her. Yang's eyes widened in surprise, and she abandoned her attack position as she flew at Blake. Blake had only time to raise her hands up to shield herself as Yang crashed into her. They both tumbled over each other, holding each other tight. The came to a stop with Blake on her back and Yang laying face down on top of her. Yang raised her head up and looked around. "Ow," She said, chuckling, "Well, that wasn't the coolest way we could have ended that. You okay?" Blake tried to answer, but her words were muffled. Yang looked down in confusion and realized that her breasts were pressed down against Blake's face. "Oh, sorry!" Yang said, quickly jumping off, unable to hold in a smile, "I'm so sorry, Blake!" Blake sat up, and gave her head a quick shake. She looked at Yang and smiled back. They held in snickers for a couple of seconds, then both busted out laughing. Blake laughed harder than Yang had ever heard her laugh. Tears were in Yang's eyes. She tried to speak a couple of times, failing to form words. "I c- I couldn't breathe." Blake said, between laughs, "I actually couldn't." This only made Yang laugh harder. They both sat on the ground, surrounded by disintegrating Grimm, holding each other as they laughed. Eventually they quieted down and began catching their breath. "So, that happened," Yang said. "How many- how many Grimm was that?" Blake asked "Oobleck will want to know." They had been wandering the destroyed cityscape of Mountain Glenn all day, killing Grimm as Oobleck observed. They had, just a couple of minutes previously, gotten separated. They'd been looking for the other half of their team and the professor when the Beowolf pack had ambushed them. "Seven," Yang said, "We killed seven Beowolves in like ten seconds. Damn, we're good." "We make a good team," Blake agreed, "When we're not crashing into each other." "Hell yeah. Go Team Bumblebee!" Yang said, putting on her sunglasses. She collapsed Ember Cecelia down into bracelet form. Blake stood, and picked up Gambol Shroud from where it had fallen when Yang had run into her. She returned it to her back. "We should probably go find the others," Blake said. "What's the hurry?" Yang asked, "This is a nice spot when there's not a bunch of Grimm spoiling it." Blake leaned against a lamppost and look around, crossing her arms. "I guess so. The ah, decay and destroyed buildings kind of ruin the view a bit." Yang hopped on top of a mailbox next to the post and sat, looking over at Blake. "Well, yeah, there's that," Yang said, "But there are prettier things here, if you know where to look." Blake raised an eyebrow, curiously, "Like what?" "Like you." Yang said, smiling. Blake rolled her eyes, but smiled, too. Yang shrugged, and blushed a bit. She looked around. A quiet moment passed. Blake looked down at the steaming black puddles which were all that remained of the Grimm. She looked back up at Yang. "Thanks," She said, blushing a little herself. Yang hopped down from the mailbox and walked over to Blake. She pulled her sunglasses off, returning them to their usual spot, hanging from her top. She got in close, placing her hand on the post just above Blake's shoulder. She looked Blake in the eyes, smiling. "What're you doing?" Blake asked, raising an eyebrow. Yang's eyes wandered down a bit, then up, stopping at the bow in Blake's hair. She reached up and touched it, apparently examining the fabric. Blake was confused, but patient. "Mind if I ask you something?" Yang asked. "Is it about the bow?" Blake asked, a bit apprehensively. "No." "...What, then?" "What's with the bow?" Blake rolled her eyes again, looking away. Yang smiled and shrugged apologetically. "I just don't understand why you still hide them," Yang said, "You're not ashamed of them, right?" "Of course not," Blake said, defensively, "Its not shame, its..." Yang was silent, patiently waiting for Blake to speak when she was ready. "When I told you and Ruby and Weiss about me, I mean, I blurted it out, but... I said it because I wasn't guarding my words. I felt safe saying it. I trusted you. I've learned to be cautious about trusting people." Yang smiled warmly. To Blake's surprise, she pulled on one end of the ribbon, unravelling the bow. Having the long, black ears exposed made Blake feel a little vulnerable, but here, right next to Yang, she felt safe. "I think they're really cute, you know?" Yang said, "You're like a little kitten." Yang scratched Blake behind one ear, playfully. Blake blushed and made an effort to squirm away. Yang laughed. They awkwardly avoided each other's glances for a moment. Suddenly, Yang looked into Blake's eyes and seemed to be struck with an impulse. Without warning, she moved in and kissed Blake. She pulled back, eyes wide as if she herself was surprised by this. Blake stared back at her, stunned. Yang removed her hand from where it had found itself, resting on Blake's shoulder, and took a step back. "I'm sorry, I-" Yang stammered, "I just, you looked..." Blake placed a hand over her own lips, still speechless. "S-sorry, if I made that weird," Yang said, looking at the ground, "I should have... asked, or..." "Hey." Blake said, lowering her hand and grinning. Yang looked up at her, "Yeah?" "Do that again." Ruby collapsed her Scythe into compact form even before the top half of the Beowolf even hit the ground. The halves of the dead monster hissed as they began dissipating into wisps of smoke. It joined the other half dozen creatures and parts of creatures that now littered the street. She turned to Professor Oobleck, a hopeful look on her face, looking for any sign of approval from the experienced Hunter. He took a sip for his thermos, thoughtfully. Weiss, standing nearby, waved Myrtenaster, dispelling the glyph she had created in the air for Ruby to repel off of at one point in the fight. "Well done, Miss Rose," Oobleck said, with a nod. "Thank you, professor," Ruby said, beaming, "I tripped up a bit on the third one because I thought it was going to swipe, but it pounced instead, and I had to dodge up and to the right, and that's when Weiss placed the glyph, and I know I was supposed to be fighting solo-" Oobleck waved his hand, dismissively, "You performed admirably on your own, and I'm confident you would have emerged the victor even without your partner's intervention. I will not deduct anything from your grade for relying on your teammate. Or from yours, Miss Schnee, for recognizing when your partner needed help." "Thank you, professor," Weiss said. "Come here, look at this," Oobleck said, beckoning with his hand as he strode over to one of the dead Grimm. Ruby, glanced over at Weiss, who raised an eyebrow, and they both accompanied the professor. They gathered around the corpse, which was slowly sublimating into nothingness. It was little more than a puddle of black slime already. "Does it not seem odd that the creatures of Grimm disappear when killed?" Oobleck asked. "Of course, sir," Weiss said, "One of the reasons the Grimm are still such a mystery is that their bodies can't be studied." "Makes clean up easier, though, doesn't it?" Ruby quipped. "A good attitude, Miss Rose," Oobleck agreed, "Do you know what old legends say about the nature of the Grimm?" "I do, sir," Weiss said, "That they're made of Evil. Pain and suffering and negative emotions made flesh. Our ancestors believed that was why they so relentlessly try to destroy anything good, or anything with a soul." "Indeed," Oobleck said, "And what would you say, Miss Rose, that says about the way they disappear when destroyed?" Ruby bit her lip, thoughtfully. She looked over to Weiss, who shrugged, equally at a loss. Oobleck sipped again from his Thermos, and waved towards the buildings about them. "Look at this place. Buildings, statues, evidence of Humanity. They remain." "But Mountain Glenn fell, professor," Weiss pointed out. "True. And yet, what we built, this good thing, did not vanish. It endures as a monument to what we achieved, at least for a time." "But the Grimm don't last!" Ruby said, starting to understand. "Indeed!" Oobleck shouted suddenly, causing the two of them to jump, "The Grimm are like any other terrible thing, or painful event. At the time, we're fearful of them, and they may even seem insurmountable. But once they're overcome, they fade away. Eventually, all that's left is the memory of something we're stronger for defeating. But when we create something, when we achieve something good, it lasts. And when something is really good, it can last a very long time." "Like the kingdoms," Weiss said, nodding "Or the peace after the War." "Or this team!" Ruby declared. Oobleck smiled, slyly, "I think RWBY will last a very, very long time." Weiss laughed. They were quiet for a moment. Zwei barked. "Well, anyway," Oobleck said, adjusting his glasses, "Let's find your teammates, I'm sure they're nearby." "I think I heard Yang firing her Shot Gauntlets from the east earlier," Weiss said. They set off at a casual pace. Ruby took the lead at first, but stopped at an alley she seemed to find promising, and called for Yang. Oobleck stopped beside her and looked down the alley curiously. Weiss found herself running ahead. She stumbled onto a spot further down the road where the asphalt was torn with the distinct appearance of having been hit by Shot Gauntlet rounds. She looked around and noticed a piece of black ribbon laying abandoned atop a mailbox by the side of the road. She walked over to it, picked it up, and looked at it, curiously. It was most definitely Blake's bow. Weiss heard a commotion from the destroyed coffee shop in front of her. She walked through the old door frame and saw her teammates in the corner. They were wrapped in each other's arms, with Yang against the wall. She was playing with Blake's ears affectionately with one hand, and squeezing Blake's posterior with the other. Blake was passionately kissing her neck. Yang's eyes were closed, she seemed to be enjoying it greatly. Weiss took in this sight for a moment, then averted her eyes and coughed quietly. Yang cracked one eye open.
create the AutoHotkey Script. That was created by /u/squible on reddit. You can read his post here and view his GitHub page here. The rest of the guide and notes is my original content, synthesized from various websites and instructions in order to create a streamlined & easy to follow installation process. The instructions contained within this guide were used on a Windows 10 computer. This method will not work on non-Windows machines; however it may be achievable through other means. This guide includes an explanation of what a Smashbox is for those out of the loop. If you just want instructions, scroll down to the "Make-Your-Own-Smashbox Guide" section. Screenshots of each step are included. Whether or not you think the Smashbox should be banned or legalized, the information within this guide is easy to understand and follow. If more people can experience first hand what playing with a system like the Smashbox feels like, we will see less speculation on what ifs when discussing the Smashbox's legality and practicality. Right now only 6 Smashboxes are available, and only a select few people are able to learn first hand how the Smashbox interacts with the game; however, this guide will give everyone with dolphin and a keyboard a chance to educate themselves and make informed decisions when forming opinions on the Smashbox's place. ____________________________________________________________________ What is a Smashbox? Smashbox is a third-party controller GameCube controller for Super Smash Bros. that is currently in development by Hitbox Dustin. Hitbox Arcade is a company that has been prevalent in the FGC community for years now. Hitbox specializes in creating arcade style "fight-sticks" without the actual stick through an overhaul of the controller layout. Here is the introductory teaser video of the Smashbox released July 7, 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM-NKXS1m2I Here is an image of the current alpha build of the controller: Image Why is this being created? The GameCube Controller, which I will refer to as GCC, is far from being the perfect human-game interface device in terms of precision, consistency, and ergonomics. Due to the analog nature of the control stick and variances during the controller manufacturing process, every single mass produced GCC is slightly different straight out of the box. This variance has led to the rise of players outsourcing controllers to have them custom tuned and modified so that precision, consistency, and accuracy of the controller is ensured. Here is a list of some of the various issues/problems with mass-produced and uncorrected GCCs and their use: In his video on the legality of the Smashbox, Hitbox Dustin says that with the Smashbox he aims to solve these problems with the GCC through the implementation of a new controller layout that is both an innovative alternative to current smashers and a familiar alternative to current FGC members who have used fight sticks for years and are looking to venture into the Melee community. How can I get one? Hitbox Dustin's announcement has sparked lots of conversation within the smash community as many people have become very interested in the potential of this controller. The current existing models of the smash box are alpha-prototypes that Dustin has made as a working proof of concept. Only 6 exist right now, and are being used by professional smash community members, most notably Gravy, to test it and evaluate its effectiveness and viability. Hitbox Dustin has stated that his goal is to get enough support from the community so that he can confidently do a Kickstarter program and mass produce the Smashbox for the average person to buy. Sadly, this is a long way away, with the earliest consumer models most likely not being released until late 2017 (my assumption); however, it is possible to recreate the Smashbox at home for no cost to you using Dolphin Emulator and your keyboard. ____________________________________________________________________ Make-Your-Own-Smashbox Guide What you will need: It is possible to recreate a Smashbox on your keyboard for no cost using the following: Windows 7/8/8.1/10 This has been tested on and works on Windows 10. I can not guarantee it will work with other versions. Keyboard with at least 6-key N-key rollover Click this if you don't know what N-key rollover is Dolphin Emulator This guide uses the Faster Melee build of Dolphin (Ishiiruka v4.3) Installation & Setup: Congratulations, you've finished the installation process. How to Run your Smashbox: Now that everything is set up, all you have to do is run it! Run AutoHotkey. It should be in your programs on your Windows Start Menu To make things easier you can set up AHK to run at computer startup The smashbox wont turn on until you activate the specific script so AHK can be on at all times Open Dolphin Emulator Run the "smashbox-gui.ahk" script by double clicking it. This is the file from Step 14b in the installation section Once this is run, the keyboard keys bound to the Smashbox will be turned into virtual controller inputs Start playing Melee on your Smashbox keyboard! NOTE: If you want to take a break from the Smashbox temporarily or need to type something, hit the "Pause/Break" key on your keyboard. This will Suspend the script so that it is temporarily disabled so you can use your keyboard normally. To Resume the script, hit the "Pause/Break" key again If you are on a 60% / 10-key-less / laptop keyboard and don't have a "Pause / Break" key, right click on the AutoHotkey icon in your system tray and click the "Suspend Hotkeys" option. This is exactly the same as the "Pause / Break" shortcut. Pic Controls: Below is an image of the default control scheme that is reflected onto the Smashbox format. If you wish to change the controls, follow the instructions below: Double-click the "smashbox-gui.ahk" script to start it Located either in your system tray or taskbar, right click on the "AutoHotkey" Icon Click "Edit Controls" Pic This will bring up a menu so that you can easily rebind the buttons to be more ergonomic, depending on your keyboard Pic Change controls to your liking ____________________________________________________________________ General Notes: Tournament Legality: The following does not necessarily represent my view or opinions. I am simply stating facts that I have gathered from various sources. More information about the various arguments will be added and edited in as I get more free time. Is it Legal? The Smashbox is currently a hot-topic debate in the community, and currently there is no universal decision on whether it is legal or not. Because the Smashbox is a 3rd-party controller that draws design philosophies from FGC fight-sticks and Hitbox's no stick/all-button design, it must use modifier buttons for the directional input buttons so that more angles and "tilted" inputs can be achieved. These modifier buttons act like shift keys so that when the player presses a combination of the modifier keys with the directional input keys, a single specific angle is input. The analog to digital input conversion used in the Smashbox's design along with the difference in difficulty in pressing buttons in the new layout compared to moving a joystick has caused the community to be split on their opinions of the Smashbox's legalization or prohibition. The Smashbox's tournament legality currently depends on what each individual TO decides to allow. If you want to know if it is legal at an event you are attending, contact your TO. Creator's Response to debate of Tournament Legality In his recent video response to the debate titled "#freethehitbox," Hitbox Dustin explains how the current design was decided upon and draws the analogy that the directional modifiers are simply a button version of the analog gate controller modifications provided by controller modders such as Kadano. He emphasizes that the controller does not have any macros as the Smashbox respects the 1 button press = 1 action/output philosophy. His stance is that the decision regarding the legality of the Smashbox has no influence on the legality of controller mods because the Smashbox is a controller that you'd buy in a store, not a mod. Hitbox Dustin's video is linked above in the paragraph and below along with all other videos that discuss the Smashbox. Smashbox and Changing Melee's Difficulty Although the Smashbox does not have any macros, many people see the directional button modifiers as an unfair advantage because it arbitrarily changes the physical barrier to the game. The current "physical barrier to play" is a precedent set by the universal use of vanilla 1st-party GCCs to play Melee's since the game's release. Opponents to the Smashbox's legalization cite that changing the difficulty of important actions/tech such as SDI, shield drops, pivot smashes, dash backs/smash turns, and etc. fundamentally change the difficulty of the game, giving unfair advantages to those who own Hitbox's newest controller. This reasoning is basis for some people's argument that only vanilla GCCs should be allowed because limiting input to GCCs would force a standard of accessibility to the game that offers no advantage to specific players due to choice of input method. The FGC, Smash 64, Brawl, Project M, and Smash 4 on Controllers In the FGC, several input methods are widely accepted and tournament legal across the entire realm of traditional fighting games. Retro gamepads such as the all-digital PlayStation 1 controller see usage and tournament wins just like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 1 controllers that ship with the consoles of the newest fighting games. he FGC allows not only the controllers that were used for previous versions of their fighting games but also 3rd-party input devices that span a wide number of shapes, sizes, and input types. Examples of these include Fightsticks, Arcade Pads, Fightstick/Gamepad Hybrids, and even various Hitboxes 1, 2. Each of these input devices have had users that win tournaments from the smallest of locals and online play to the world-renowned Evolution Tournament Series The FGC is not alone in the adoption of a variety of controller types. The Smash 64 community has had to deal with controller controversy and change since the end of 1st Party N64 controller production. Similar to the problem Melee is facing now, the analog stick of the N64 controller is the root of several problems. Over time as the analog stick and bowl of the N64 controllers experienced use, the apparatus would slowly wear itself away, eventually becoming useless when directional inputs would completely failed to register. The poor stick lifespan after consistent use plagued pro smashers and casual retro gamers alike, causing eBay prices for replacement 1st-party sticks & bowls to soar in price and scarcity, companies to sell inferior replica replacements on Amazon, and even a Kickstarter for a company to sell 1 to 1 replicas of the 1st-party apparatus. Although all of these attempts to save first party controllers sprung up, several threads of people complaining still appeared because even the Kickstarter replacements didn't fix the inherent problem of the controller. In today's 64 community and tournaments, controllers of all type are accepted and used, from keyboards, to Xbox controllers using adapters, and third party controllers combining GCC sticks with N64 buttons made by Hori. Even though all of these controllers are used, the 64 scene has not seen a massive overhaul in rankings, and 1st-party N64 controller users still outperform other controller users in terms of technical skill such as SDI in a game where SDI is even more critical due to lack of mechanics such as wall techs. Even right now the number 1 SSB64 player, SuPeRbOmMfAn, uses a first party controller himself. Whether or not you think the Smashbox should be banned or legalized, the information within this guide is easy to understand and follow. I think that if more people can experience first hand what playing with a system like the Smashbox feels like, we will see less speculation on what ifs. Right now only 6 Smashboxes are available, but this guide will give everyone with dolphin and a keyboard a chance. Discussion Resources: The following aggregation of community driven discussion on the topic of the Smashbox is non-discriminatory. I will not exclude or include an article or discussion piece based on the level of player or community figurehead. Any pieces I find will be linked here and the creator of the topic will be noted. I will not post tweets or screenshots of Twitter unless the tweet itself contains a link to a discussion piece. Videos Reddit Threads Web & News Articles Formal Decisions ____________________________________________________________________However, the Carters decided not to go ahead with the procedure as it would have to be repeated. Instead they applied for Sophie to have a hysterectomy. The Guardianship Tribunal approved it and when Sophie was 21 she had the operation. Her limited independence is no longer compromised by menstruation, Merren said. Sophie continues to take swimming lessons without monthly interruptions and doesn’t have to have pap smears, under general anesthetic, which many of Sophie’s friends have to endure. The Carters consider themselves lucky. The Guardianship Tribunal concluded that the potential distress to Sophie’s spiritual, mental, and physical health caused by menstruation justified the procedure. However, many of Sophie’s mentally handicapped friends have had similar applications rejected and some have gone overseas, to New Zealand or Thailand, for hysterectomies. It is likely to get even more difficult for Australian parents in situations like the Carters’ to get approval for sterilizing a disabled child. A July Senate committee report recommended that sterilizing disabled children without their consent should be banned unless it can be proven that the child is never likely to develop the capacity for consent. The report also recommended that taking children or attempting to take children overseas for a sterilization procedure should be a criminal offense. The report followed a 10-month inquiry, with submissions from parents, carers, human rights groups, and disability advocates. The committee’s list of 28 recommendations include that the definition of an individual’s capacity to consent be identical in every Australian state and territory, and that sex education information be targeted at the disability sector. In one of the recommendations, the committee said that it “abhors” suggestions that sterilization should be used to manage pregnancy risks due to sexual abuse. Sterilizing disabled people exudes more than a whiff of eugenics. It recalls U.S. policies in the 20th Century that led to the sterilization of more than 60,000 people by 1960, as well as the infamous Nazi “Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases,” in 1933. But due to difficulty with menstrual management or a fear of pregnancy, carers often feel that sterilization is their only option. A 2003 study in the journal Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews about the ethics of involuntary sterilization of mentally handicapped people examined surveys from the 1980s and 1990s and found that roughly half of all parents with mentally disabled children have considered or would consider sterilizing their child. These decisions are often controversial. The 2006 Seattle “Ashley Treatment” case, in which a hysterectomy, among other procedures, was used to stunt the growth of a six-year-old girl, who had static encephalopathy, is still contentious. Her parents decided on these treatments to ease the burden of caring for her. “Most parents have mixed motives,” said Douglas Diekema, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital, who wrote the study. “Clearly many of them do want some help with menstrual control, but they really, almost all of the time desperately want their child never to get pregnant… They are concerned about sexual abuse and their child been taken advantage of. Although a sterilizing procedure doesn’t do anything to alter that possibility, what it does do is that it prevents, in their mind, a pregnancy on top of that.” U.S. laws also vary from state to state. Diekema says that, generally, getting approval for the procedure is “fairly restrictive” throughout the country. Much like in Australia, the rate at which sterilization in disabled populations occurs is unknown. At the Seattle Children’s Hospital, Diekema says one or two procedures are approved a year. Carolyn West, a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and professional member of the New South Wales Guardianship Tribunal, said that approximately one to three procedures are approved yearly in the state. One of the committee’s recommendations is to record the number of child sterilization cases in Australia “in the same way in each jurisdiction.” Even though the exact number of procedures are hazy, the figures seem to have been high enough to have caught the attention of the United Nations, which in its 2012 Conventions on the Rights of the Child Report, wrote that they were “particularly concerned” that the sterilization of disabled women and girls continues in Australia and advised that the practice be banned for non-therapeutic purposes. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture has highlighted that forced sterilization of disabled women may constitute torture, or ill treatment. Submissions to the Australian Senate inquiry detailed some distressing instances of forced sterilization. One woman’s father, who believed that she should not have children, told her she was going to the hospital to have her tonsils taken out. “I did not have a sore throat afterwards,” she told the committee. It was only when she was trying to have kids with a long-term partner that she had realized what happened. Her partner eventually left her because he wanted children. Another woman was forced to have a hysterectomy by her parents, even though she told them that she did not want to have the operation. Another disabled woman who was sterilized collected more than 100 strollers, as well as diapers, toys, and clothes for children that she would never have. Stella Young, a comedian and disability advocate who suffers from osteogenesis imperfecta, a congenital bone disorder, wrote in her submission that a specialist tried to convince her parents that a hysterectomy would be best for her, to avoid the “inconvenience” of menstruation. Young was just four years old at the time. “My parents, to whom I’m eternally grateful, were horrified and rejected this ‘advice,’” Young wrote.AP Images The San Francisco Zoo is offering an alternative to traditional Valentine's Day festivities this year. Jilted lovers can adopt a hissing cockroach or giant scorpion in the names of their current or future ex(es). "Nothing says 'I've moved on' like adopting a giant cuddly cockroach in the name of your favorite ex," the cockroach's adoption page says. There are multiple levels of giving available, based primarily on the extent of the sender's level of "residual contempt." Donation amounts range from $25 (for the cockroach) to as much as $1,000. "Fallen prey to love's cruel sting? Consider adopting the giant hairy scorpion, the largest in North America, for an unsuspecting victim," the scorpion's adoption page says. "Much like your low-life ex, they are usually found in and around low-elevation valleys where they dig elaborate burrows or 'caves.'" Adoption packages do not actually include live animals — the adoptions are in name only. Donors do receive official certificates of adoption from the zoo, as well as a plush scorpion or a special Valentine's-themed gift box containing plastic cockroaches, depending on the adopted animal. Zoo officials said the less-than-romantic gift will protect the sender's karma and help the zoo continue its mission of connecting people with wildlife, while clearly communicating that the relationship is definitely over. Claims from zoo officials about the effect of adopting a scorpion on one's karma could not be verified. For those still happy in their romantic pursuits, the zoo is also offering cuter, more Valentine's Day-appropriate adoption opportunities. Those include the zoo's red panda, Magellanic penguins and ring-tailed lemurs. There are also a number of big cats available, including the African lion, Sumatran tiger or snow leopard. Copyright Bay City News / NBC New YorkInside 3D Printing San Diego is here. The conference, tied in as the Frontier Tech Forum alongside RoboUniverse and Virtual Reality Summit, officially kicked off this morning in San Diego. To open the show, Asimov Ventures‘ Tyler Benster took to the podium to welcome attendees and present an overview of what we can expect to see over the next two days. “This term, frontier tech, has really taken off in the last few years,” Benster said. “At Inside 3D Printing we are particularly excited to explore the paradigm switch from rapid prototyping to final production.” Ahead of the first keynote of the conference, Benster welcomed to the stage Graham Bredemeyer, Founder of Collider, as his company is set to come out of stealth at this event, as well as Turlif Vilbrandt, CTO of Uformia, to introduce us to The Nature Game, which will be taking place here based on Alan Turing’s famous test. “We’ve been developing a technology over the last 18-24 months,” Bredemeyer told us of their new offering, which will be on display with the first production machine on the showroom floor. “It’s a hybrid technology — continuous DLP technology and traditional plastic casting technology.” Following these overviews of the show, Hod Lipson took to the stage for his opening keynote, “3D Printing: The Next 25 Years.” We’ve been looking forward to this presentation for months now, and of course Lipson did not disappoint. In order to look 25 years into the future of 3D printing, Lipson began first with a look 25 years back into the history we are building from. “I like to see where things are going and what patterns emerge in where they are going,” he began. Drawing back to 1983, when “3D printing was alive and well back then” and “a lot has had to happen since then,” Lipson noted that “3D graphics, CAD, the internet — a lot of things play into this technology before it can become what it is today.” A major aspect of the growth of the 3D printing industry over the last decade in particular has been seen in the hype curve, which has seen reflections in both tumultuous stock prices and in a loss of faith, the feeling that “the revolution ain’t happening.” “Companies come and go, but what’s behind the scenes is the industry itself,” Lipson explained. “Stocks rise and fall, and the industry itself is averaging 35% growth rate. The growth is exponential.” Looking back just one decade, Lipson pointed out that we saw a major inflection point around 2005, when smaller-scale 3D printers first began to appear on the scene, from Fab@Home and RepRap. “They didn’t disrupt the big technologies, they just made it more accessible,” he said. That accessibility has been a major boost to the growth of the industry itself, as with the technology reaching more individuals from a younger age, we are seeing growth in the toolboxes given to our next generations. “Creating the new generation of designers, who we’re seeing in universities today,” Lipson said. “These new engineers are going to sweep the industry in the next couple of years.” Lipson drew next to several key trends in the market, and where we’ll be seeing the business moving next. From materials to scale to applications, 3D printing is poised indeed for additional adoption across the board. A significant focus lately has of course been in metal technologies, as Lipson explained: “Just like we’ve seen the market shakeout in plastic printers, we’re going to see that next in metal printing. We’re seeing a new wave of metal printers that is going to disrupt the industry — not so much taking away the business of established businesses but creating an even larger pie. There are many companies that want to use metal printing but can’t afford it, they are waiting on the sidelines.” Any Materials “We’re seeing an expansion of new materials. New processes, new materials keep coming out. In 2005, we could print in any material we wanted as long as it was a photopolymer. You could even choose the color, as long as it was a yellowish, translucent plastic. Now you go to a company and ask, Can you print in material X? They say yes, but ask about the market,” Lipson explained. “We’re seeing anything from cheese to gold.” Any Scale “Microscale, nanoscale — we’re talking at printing at sub-micron resolution — all the way up to architectural scale, to building scale,” Lipson said. “Not all of these systems are commercial, but we’re definitely seeing people explore these technologies.” Any Field “We’re seeing this technology worm its way into every field, not just engineering. My favorite is robotics,” he noted. “We’re seeing this in fields now where if 10 years ago you had asked, ‘Is 3D printing relevant to you,’ they would say, ‘It is not.’…In classrooms, empowering kids to make things. We see growth in the area of bioprinting, using live cells. It used to be this crazy idea that only a few academics dared to try, now we’re seeing this whole industry focused on this area of printing live cells, the FDA is seeking to understand how to regulate this. And of course one of my favorite areas to work on is food printing. It was controversial when we started working on it in 2006, we thought it was this kind of frivolous thing, we can print the Cornell ‘C’ inside a cookie. It turns out that food printing might eventually be the killer app. Most people don’t make anything at home except food, most people don’t have a factory at home except their kitchen.” Exponential Trends “When you look at trends, it can be hard to tell if something’s long-term or if it’s just a fad,” Lipson noted, affirming that he feels 3D printing is certainly a long-term trend that is seeing exponential growth. Expansion in additive manufacturing draws strength from its foundation of disruption, and Lipson detailed his thoughts on eight key points of disruption that benefit the industry: Disruption 1: Complexity is free Disruption 2: Variety is free Disruption 3: No assembly required Disruption 4: Zero lead time Disruption 5: Zero constraints Disruption 6: Zero skill manufacturing Disruption 7: Compact, portable manufacturing Disruption 8: Less waste by-product What’s Next? “We’re in the biggest growth in these charts, looking at the industry trends, from the growth of functional parts,” Lipson stated, underscoring a significant trend we’ve been seeing come to light lately. He noted a figure from the 2015 Wohlers Report, in which 29% of AM activity was for production parts: “This number is the number to watch.” “We’re seeing new technologies,” he continued. “HP finally released their final 3D printer to make printing faster, cheaper, and better. We’re seeing claims about speed, robustness of materials (Carbon), feedback-control printers that don’t just print open-loop. They watch, they learn, and learning from the printing process is important as we expand the range of materials. I can’t tell you how important that is when we print with food materials; you think printing in titanium is difficult, try printing in cookie dough and butter. We now use food printers to teach control.” From here, we began to turn to the future, as Lipson explained that we are now at the first of four phases of technology as we took a longer-term view of the industry. Episode I: Printing Shape and Form “Any shape you can imagine, and describe to a computer, you can make. We are now at a point where our imagination and our design tools are the problem. Our CAD tools aren’t keeping pace, our design tools aren’t keeping pace with technology. One important trend will be for software to catch up with technology. AI as a designer: in the future, you can go to your printer and tell it parameters and have it design it for you. Design has become a dialogue between you the customer and the printer. This is how future design software will look like. We can’t rely on point-and-click design as we do today.” Episode II: New Materials “What I’m talking about is creating new materials on the printer, not just blending or making a part from multiple materials, but actually creating materials on the printer. Metamaterials here. If you combine two materials in lots of different ways, it’s hard to predict what their properties will be. The pattern matters.” Episode III: Printing Integrated Active Systems “Metal, titanium, plastic, cheese — they’re all passive parts. Active parts move, compute; the goal is ultimately to print a full robot. Synthetic muscles. I’m hoping pretty soon we’ll be able to print a robot that can walk out of the printer. It’s all about integrated systems. People keep asking if you can print a cell phone. Stop asking that. We printed something similar, a full telegraph machine. Not quite a cell phone, but an electroactive system. Another example, a 100% 3D printed loudspeaker. I confess this is a lousy and expensive loudspeaker, but it was completely 3D printed. When you can embed electronics in a 3D print, all bets are off. Our goal is for a robot to walk right out of a printer, batteries included.” Episode IV: From Analog to Digital “I’m talking 20, 30 years into the future. Everything you see on the screen is made of pixels, it’s made of small building blocks, and that’s true for all technologies. Digital technologies are made of small bits. What would happen if one day we transitioned physical things from being made of a continuous material to being made of small building blocks? Printing with discrete building blocks, tiny Lego blocks if you like. We already make buildings out of bricks, that idea of making things out of building blocks is well-established and we can bring that into the printing realm as well. Physical voxels.” Overall, Lipson’s keynote kicked off this conference on a pretty optimistic note. As we begin to see 3D printing technologies truly take their place in manufacturing, particularly of production components, we can see the patterns he spoke of indeed emerging. Lipson concluded by noting that industrial revolutions are “all about going back to zero” and that that is when this way of manufacturing will have truly reached maturity and market acceptance. “Some technologies don’t follow the curve of perception, the hype cycle,” he said. “We see these previous revolutions were all about going back to zero. No one looked back and said, ‘Steam engines were a hype.’ Cost of computation went to zero in the ’70s, and that again created a cascade of new industries. Third industrial revolution, the cost of communication went to zero. Now we send terabytes across the planet and don’t think twice about whether they will get there on time. What is going down to zero for 3D printing? A lot of things, and that’s what’s going to drive this forward.” [All photos taken by Sarah Goehrke for 3DPrint.com]A week ago, I wrote that LeBron James was the best player alive, but even he wasn’t good enough to beat the Warriors singlehandedly. The Cavaliers were about to enter the NBA Finals without their third best player, Kevin Love, and with a severely hampered second-best player in Kyrie Irving. Then Irving went down for the entirety of the series. In my head, it was over. Everything we’ve learned about the NBA over the past 15 years says that no man is good enough to win an NBA Finals by himself. It didn’t matter how well James played, how scrappy Tristan Thompson was on the offensive glass. The Cavaliers would lose, because that’s what happens in the NBA. The Cavaliers aren’t losing. They have a 2-1 lead over the Warriors, and I don’t even really understand what’s going on. Before we get to James, and we will get to James, let’s talk about a few other things. It has to be said that the Warriors haven’t played up to their usual standards. Draymond Green has been subpar all series, and was plain awful last night. It took Stephen Curry an entire half to wake up. The offense has been unusually sluggish at times, and other times the shots the Warriors make just aren’t falling. More importantly, the Cavaliers are playing excellent defense. They’re bringing a wall of players out to the perimeter and daring the Warriors to beat them inside, and in doing so, slowing the game down — exactly what they want to do. They’re forcing the high-flying Warriors to pound out possessions. It’s working. And laugh all you want, but coach David Blatt has been excellent. I know James has sometimes put all the attention on himself for leading this team, and we all like to think of Blatt as this dude who’s along for the ride, but for Blatt to figure out how to take this team and stop the Warriors while still playing great offense, you can’t sell that short. He’s coached brilliantly. He’s made adjustments, and he’s been confident enough to ride supposed “role” players while they’re hot, something not every coach has the confidence to do in this league. Which leads us to Matthew Dellavedova. I mean, I don’t even know anymore. Nothing makes any sense. I remember vividly the first time I got to know Dellavedova, when he was a wild-haired maniac on a Saint Mary’s team that made a run in the NCAA Tournament. My friend and I thought he looked like The Feral Kid from Mad Max 2 and he cracked us up constantly. The fact that the Feral Kid is now dropping 20 points in Game 3 of the NBA Finals is something I can’t even begin to comprehend. It doesn’t make any sense. He got the Cavaliers at least four extra possessions last night out of pure hustle. He was taken to the hospital after the game with severe cramping, taking an ambulance there. He was hospitalized last night from effort. And while Dellavedova is a nice story, the real story here is LeBron James. This is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Michael Jordan had Scottie Pippen. Tim Duncan had Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. The old James had Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Larry Bird had Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. Magic Johnson had Kareem and James Worthy. This Finals, James has Thompson and Dellavedova as his wingmen. And he’s winning. He has the most points in the first three games of an NBA Finals of anyone in history. He’s running the offense and still the best perimeter defender on the team. He’s calling plays and giving speeches in the huddle and barking out defensive assignments. He’s the quarterback of the team, but he’s also the offensive coordinator, the running back, the star wide receiver, and the linebacker. My head tells me that James can’t keep this up for the entire series. That no human being can. That he and Dellavedova and Thompson and Timofey Mozgov can’t keep playing 40 minutes a night and not have their bodies break down. I mean, Dellavedova was hospitalized last night. They can’t recover fast enough. James can’t keep breaking down one of the best defenses in the league. The Warriors will regroup, they’ll dig down, and they’ll win the thing in seven. That’s what my head tells me. My heart, though. I don’t know. I want to see if this is possible. I want to see if LeBron James can drag this group of misfits up the mountain. There’s still a J.R. Smith game coming. You know it’s coming. And if J.R. Smith can win them a game with a crazy nine 3-pointer night, then maybe James can dig down and find that last one. Maybe, without Kyrie Irving or Kevin Love, he can take this group and win a title. It will be something we’ve never seen before.At first we were skeptical about requiring the labeling of genetically modified food in Maine, thinking it a fringe issue. But it turns out a large majority of Maine residents from a number of political affiliations want to know what they’re eating. A bill, LD 718, sponsored by Rep. Lance Harvell, R-Farmington, and co-sponsored by 123 Republicans, Democrats and independents, would require that foods containing genetically modified organisms be labeled as such. It should pass. A decision about the bill should not be based on assertions that GMOs lead to health problems as there have been no long-term, independent, conclusive studies conducted on humans that show such risks associated with GMOs. However, there has also not been enough adequate testing to ensure complete safety, according to the National Institutes of Health. The uncertainty has made some people wary and has led 62 countries, including those that make up the European Union, to require the labeling of all GMO products. A label that says “produced with genetic engineering” doesn’t imply risk. Governments require labeling to publicize information about a number of things, not all of which are nutrition related. Juice is labeled if it’s from concentrate, for example, and food products are labeled as to their country of origin. The opposition has stated the bill would impose a burden on farmers, but for the most part it would affect out-of-state producers. Only a few vegetables are currently genetically modified in Maine: some sweet corn and a small amount of zucchini and yellow squash. The bill would require growers to send an affidavit with their food or seed stock shipments, certifying that products — that have the capability to be genetically modified — are not. It exempts restaurants and alcoholic beverages from requiring labels, and it would not require the labeling of animal products, such as meat or milk, that were fed GMO crops. LD 718 would take effect only if similar legislation passes in at least five other states or in states with a combined population of at least 20 million. That means producers and growers wouldn’t have to change their practices for the small population of Maine. If not enough states pass legislation by 2023, LD 718 would be repealed. Some of the bill’s opponents assert that genetic engineering has been done for thousands of years, with farmers breeding plants and animals to produce desired characteristics. But selective breeding depends on nature to build the gene. Genetic engineering is when a scientist moves genes from one plant to another, or one animal to a plant, to get a desired effect. Genetically engineered organisms can have great benefits. They can make certain crops drought resistant or grow faster. They can reduce the need for pesticides. But some people worry about modified organisms interbreeding with natural ones and out-competing them. They also worry that genetically modified plants may be resistant to some pests but more susceptible to others. Until the Food and Drug Administration pursues a wide-ranging evaluation process to test the safety and benefits of genetically modified foods — and does not rely on the biotechnology companies themselves to conduct safety testing — it’s reasonable to let people decide for themselves what agriculture practices to support and what food to consume. Opponents of LD 718 have said consumers can simply buy organic if they
, including McCain and Democratic Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, claim the project will be an economic boon to the state, digging out nearly two billion tons of ore and generating up to $60 billion in commercial activity over several decades. Since the National Park Service put the site on the National Register of Historic Places earlier this month, the EIS will also study how, or if, mining activity would damage the place's historical significance. Sandy Bahr Sierra Club Usually, the EIS process would allow the government to evaluate a project like this, then reject it based on the findings if the impact is too severe. But under the 2014 land-swap law, Rio Tinto gets title to land two months after the EIS is complete, whatever the EIS finds. Still, it's not a done deal until that "dotted line" is signed, says Sandy Bahr, executive director of the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter. She's confident the results of the EIS will "make it clear this swap is a bad deal for the American people." The best hope for activists is a new law that unravels the land swap before it's finalized. Last June, Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva unveiled the "Save Oak Flat Act," which now has about 40 co-sponsors. It's been stalled by the GOP-dominated House, but the more time that goes by, the better the chances for that bill or something similar, says Curt Shannon, policy analyst for the Access Fund. "If things get strung out four or six years, the makeup of Congress could change," Shannon says. The EIS, being a mandatory bureaucratic government process, will build a long delay into the process that's welcomed by environmentalists like Shannon and Bahr. The new historic designation will slow things down even more. Now, the EIS "has to take into account cultural issues that it would not have had to take into account otherwise," Shannon says. But mining advocates cried foul over the sudden NPS designation. Republican Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar said earlier this month that the Obama administration's historic designation was "incompatible" with efforts to start mining operations. Gosar also noted that Apache historian Dale Miles disputes the claim that Oak Flat is an important Native American site. Andrew Taplin, RCM project director, said the company welcomes the EIS review "to identify potential environmental and cultural concerns so that they can be analyzed and mitigated... As we move from project permitting to a mining operation, our pledge is continually improve our performance." RMC expects to start mining in about five years, having already spent several years and more than a $1 billion in preparations. Below: Information from the Forest Service on how to submit comments about the mine and on the upcoming open-house events. Submit a comment at www.ResolutionMineEIS.us Email written comments to: comments@ResolutionMineEIS.us Send written comments via postal mail to: Resolution EIS Comments, P.O. Box 34468, Phoenix, AZ 85067-4468 Send fax or voicemail to 866-546-5718 Attend an open house public meeting The open house meetings will be held from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. with a formal presentation at 5:30 p.m., followed by a brief question and answer session. March 31, 2016, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. Queen Valley Recreation Hall, 1478 East Queen Valley Drive, Queen Valley, Arizona. April 4, 2016, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. Superior High School, Multi-purpose room, 100 Mary Drive, Superior, Arizona. April 5, 2016, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. Elks Lodge, 1775 East Maple Street, Globe, Arizona. April 6, 2016, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. Southwest Regional Library, 775 North Greenfield Road, Gilbert, Arizona.LATIFA ATIKAOAMANI, an election official, has just started counting ballot papers. All day, the teaching supervisor and her wards have been helping women to vote in a classroom in Sarghuna High School in central Kabul. She tallies each vote from piles of paper sorted according to the candidates in Afghanistan’s presidential election. From behind a cordon, three young election agents watch carefully. Ninety-two women voted in Ms Atikaoamani’s classroom. Of that number, 58 voted for Hamid Karzai, the current president, who has led Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001. In second place came Abdullah Abdullah, the former foreign minister, with 19 votes. Trailing the leaders were Ashraf Ghani, a finance minister and former World Bank official, and Ramazan Bashardost, an anti-corruption campaigner. In the section of the school reserved for men’s voting, the story was much the same. In one classroom, a large pile of ballots was accumulating for Mr Karzai, beside a more modest one for Mr Abdullah. Preliminary results in the presidential election are expected on Monday. The poll at the girls’ school falls in line with polls conducted ahead of the election. It also concurs with predictions by senior diplomats in Kabul that Mr Karzai has a good chance of winning outright in the first round, thereby avoiding a run-off. However, a low turnout in yesterday’s election, even in central Kabul, where security was tight, is likely to undermine the legitimacy of the result. The Independent Election Commission predicted a 50 per cent turnout, but a considerably more slight vote threatens to give the losing candidates grounds to launch challenges. It also plays into the hands of Taliban insurgents, who have urged people not to vote and who terrorised the ballot, which they claim is stage-managed by the US. “The number of voters is particularly low. It doesn’t really compare with previous elections,” says Sayed Omar, an election observer and mathematics lecturer at King Fahd University in Saudi Arabia. “I’m very surprised. Some say it’s because of security worries. Others say it’s because people have no interest,” Mr Omar added. “The government has done much bribery and people don’t trust the elections. [There are so few voters that] it’s like the people are dead.” He has heard that some polling stations in the Kabul area even closed by noon. Mr Omar will be dumbfounded if Mr Karzai wins. He cites the inability of Mr Karzai’s government to spend money on improving basic services. Similar complaints have been voiced by Mr Karzai’s political opponents, who bemoan electricity shortages, bad roads and poor standards of education. “This area is one of the richest in the country. But look at the [broken] chairs that our daughters have to sit on. Look at the lights. This is the best school in Kabul but it’s worse than it was 40 years ago,” he says. Not everyone agrees. Farida Nikzad, a high school graduate, said she was voting for Mr Karzai because life in Kabul was getting better. Senior international election observers said turnout among the nearly five million registered voters varied considerably in different parts of the country. “It’s going to be a lot of different elections – the question is how to put them all together,” said an observer with the National Democratic Institute, a US not-for-profit group. “It’s a really mixed bag in terms of normalcy, violence and low voter turnout.” He pointed to difficulties in provinces in the southern Pashtun belt, such as Khost, Paktika and Paktiya. He added that voting in the north of the country, which has largely been spared the insurgency, had also been disrupted. If turnout was disappointing in the capital, it was far worse in the provinces. Insurgent attacks continued unabated across the country, in spite of efforts by the government to buy temporary peace on election day. In Kabul, rocket and bomb attacks were reported. In the Afghan capital’s District 8, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at a polling station. In the ensuing gunfight, which lasted for two hours, three militants were killed, said an eye-witness. “The Taliban deployed in small cells. It seemed that they were creating diversionary tactics,” said one security expert. In Kandahar, the police said 28 incidents had taken place before noon. These included Taliban attacks on three checkpoints and rocket fire into Kandahar city, killing three civilians. Two roadside bombs exploded in polling stations, while 12 roadside bombs were deactivated in the city. In District 10, a poorer yet peaceful suburb of Kabul, the turnout was a little better than expected. Fifty-two women came to the polling station staffed by Malalai Anwry, a psychology student at Kabul University, by midday. Ms Anwry said more women, who usually work at home, had come to the polling station than she had expected, but she also said Afghanistan’s turbulent history cast a long shadow over its people that was difficult to shake off with democracy. “Many people have lots of problems in the mind,” she said. “There was 10 years of fighting and the Taliban regime was hard weather for them – for women.” As yesterday’s vote shows, the country’s “hard weather” has yet to lift. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009)0 We almost made it an entire week with only two Star Wars rumor stories, but alas, we’ve got one more to close out the week. To be fair, this latest rumor does have some weight to it, if only to clear up confusion regarding the possibility of a release date delay. As you well know, Harrison Ford recently injured his leg pretty badly on the set of Star Wars: Episode VII. The actor will be out of commission for two months, which is a significant blow to the production as Han Solo is said to play a major role in director J.J. Abrams’ sequel. On Monday, a rumor surfaced that filming could maybe be postponed due to the injury, but now word comes that Disney is adamant that Episode VII will be released on December 18, 2015—despite the fact that Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy have apparently been lobbying for a delay to May. Hit the jump to read on. The folks over at Latino Review are reporting that the release date of Star Wars 7 will absolutely not be delayed. Abrams and Kennedy apparently would like the release date to be pushed to May 4, 2016—putting the film back into the traditional Star Wars release date—but Disney CEO Bob Iger has given a firm “no.” One may think that delaying the Star Wars sequel a mere five months isn’t a big deal, but it would actually be a huge deal. You see, when Bob Iger announced that Disney had purchased Lucasfilm for a very hefty sum and would be moving forward with a new series of Star Wars films, he promised shareholders a Star Wars movie in 2015. Disney is, first and foremost, a business, and they are counting on an enormous amount of profits from Star Wars merchandise due on shelves for the 2015 holiday season. There’s also the revenue from the movie as well. This is and has always been the plan, and Iger doesn’t seem keen to deviate at this point. As with all rumors, none of this is confirmed, but it is important to keep the business side of things in mind when speculating about things like release dates and production delays. I’m not saying it’s right (I’d much rather have a good movie—the movie Abrams intended to make—rather than a movie that makes its initial release date). But alas, it appears that Abrams and Kennedy will have to work around Ford’s injury and barrel towards Christmas 2015. I’m sure Abrams realized that taking on Star Wars would be a herculean task when he signed on, but I wonder if, had he known what issues would arise (the script troubles, Ford’s injury, etc.), would he still have signed on? I feel for the guy. Hopefully it’ll be smooth sailing from here on out and it’ll all have been worth it come December 18, 2015. At least Rian Johnson is already hard at work on Episode VIII, right? Click here to catch up on all of our Star Wars news, or peruse the recent links below:AP Photo/Franklin Reyes YESTERDAY during the foreign-policy debate, Mitt Romney promised that as president, he would indict Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, for incitement to genocide. One of Mr Romney's senior advisors explained he had been referring to an indictment at the "World Court"—presumably meaning the International Criminal Court in The Hague, since the International Court of Justice doesn't carry out criminal prosecutions of individuals. I've been covering the international courts in The Hague for over a year, and I've never heard of any case remotely like this being brought there; so my first thought was that this was the sort of campaign nonsense nobody should pay any attention to. But then I thought, why not have a quick go at trying to understand what Mr Romney might have meant? Would it actually be possible to charge Mr Ahmadinejad with incitement to genocide? So I called up Guénaël Mettraux, a lawyer I've previously talked to while covering the trials of Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, and Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military leader. Mr Mettraux has served as counsel for several defendants at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and has consulted for the International Criminal Court and for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. He is the author of "Perspectives on the Nuremberg Trial" and "The Law of Command Responsibility". (I should note that he has a somewhat hard-bitten perspective on the way the international court system works, and thinks that the interests of relevant nation-states play a large role in deciding who goes to trial.) Anyway, to summarise his answer: it's not impossible. It's just very, very unlikely to work. Here's a lightly edited transcript of our interview. MS: Do you have a take on whether it would be possible to charge Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with incitement to genocide? Guénaël Mettraux: It depends on the political will. Knowing the place of Iran in the world, the chance is close to zero. But look, every international criminal-law case depends on the alignment of the political stars. It's not a matter of wanting to do it, or of the merit of the case, it's whether it's politically feasible. MS: So how would that actually work? Guénaël Mettraux: There are two possible routes. One would be a national tribunal, a prosecutor in a national court who is willing to take on that case. Many jurisdictions could claim universal jurisdiction over such a crime. It might be in a country where there were people who could claim they were victims of the crime. Or alternatively, you would have an international tribunal that would be competent. There, you have two possibilities. Either you have an ad hoc tribunal [like those set up to prosecute war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda - ed.], or else you would have a referral by the UN Security Council to the International Criminal Court to investigate the alleged crime of Mr Ahmadinejad. MS: So you could in fact bring a case like this? Guénaël Mettraux: Well the problem with the crime in question is, you'd have a hard time establishing that anyone truly is a victim at this stage. It's highly theoretical, but imagine you have an Israeli citizen who is also a French citizen, or a group of them. They could go to the prosecutor of the ICC saying we are victims of Mr Ahmadinejad's crime and we are citizens of a state party to the ICC, and therefore you have the power to investigate since the crime in question has no particular geographical location—a little statutory annoyance. [Ed. note: This part requires a bit of elucidation. Under the Rome statute establishing the ICC, the court has jurisdiction over crimes committed on the territory of any states that are parties to the treaty. The problem is, neither Iran, Israel, or the US are parties to the treaty. The court can also investigate alleged crimes committed anywhere, if they're referred by vote of the UN Security Council. But if America were unable to get the security council to approve a referral and nevertheless wanted to launch a case, Mr Mettraux wrote me in a subsequent email, it would probably need to do two things. First, it would need to claim that incitement to genocide was a crime with no geographical location, which could be said to be committed anywhere where the incitement was heard or broadcast. Then, since America is not a party to the Rome statute, it would need to find a proxy, either a state party or a citizen of a state party, to initiate a case.] Guénaël Mettraux (cont'd): An added issue with the crime of incitement is, it's exceptional that it's charged without the crime having actually been committed. If you look, for example, at the international tribunal for Rwanda, incitement to genocide was charged as a backup to charges of actual commission of genocide. If you can't prove the defendant actually committed or otherwise contributed to genocide himself, you charge him with incitement. Charging without actual commission is theoretically possible, but you would have a hard time proving that the crime was committed and worth prosecuting. MS: But private individuals can actually initiate such charges at the ICC? Guénaël Mettraux: No, in the sense that they can't force a prosecution. They can send information to the prosecutor asking them to take steps to investigate the crime. They can't as citizens request the authorities to commence criminal prosecution. They can formalise a complaint to the prosecutor, and if the prosecutor is satisfied, they could theoretically take on such a case. The prosecutor has the competence to initiate a case proprio motu (ie, on his own initiative). But the fact is, the prosecutor of the ICC has never done that up to this point. To date we have two sets of cases before the ICC: either a referral by the UN Security Council, as in Darfur or Libya, or a referral by a state party itself, as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or the Central African Republic. MS: And the fact that Iran is not a party to the ICC doesn't affect things? Guénaël Mettraux: Well, the fact that Iran isn't a party to the Rome statute means one route of jurisdictional competence is closed. So you can't rely on that. But if you were to find a number of perpetrators or even victims who were nationals of a state party, subject to the little legal trick discussed before—namely, incitement to genocide is committed on the territory of any and every state, you could imagine initiating it on that basis. Creative, but where the mind is keen…. MS: So, the point of this article is... [Explains Mitt Romney's quick reference to indictment in yesterday's debate] Guénaël Mettraux: Very interesting! So now I can call up Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and offer him my services as defence counsel at the ICC! Click here to subscribe to The Economist[Updated January 2, 2015, regarding the DMCA issues. See below.] I used to be a fan of David Boies back when he was defending Napster, and I recall liking the guest lecture he gave at Temple Law, though I don’t remember what it was about. These days, though, like an unnecessary movie sequel, it seems he’s given up his integrity for a paycheck. As part of the Sony hack, a huge slew of potentially embarrassing information has come to light, including a whole bunch of internal emails about, for example, why David Fincher had to direct the Steve Jobs biopic, and how casting African-Americans is inconsistent with Sony’s “fiduciary obligations to their shareholders.” This isn’t just gossip. These are matters of public interest. See, e.g., Synder v. Phelps (2011)(“Speech deals with matters of public concern when it can be fairly considered as relating to any matter of political, social, or other concern to the community, or when it is a subject of legitimate news interest; that is, a subject of general interest and of value and concern to the public.” Citations and quotations omitted.) Sony is a major corporate conglomerate that spends millions every year lobbying Congress. (Here, for example, is just one disclosure from earlier this year in which Sony Pictures Entertainment is lobbying for preferential tax treatment and for “support of strong IP chapter in trade pacts.”) Moreover, though the term “entertainment” is thrown around as if movies were just any other business, the truth is that movies — like all forms of art — are a key part of our culture. (Yes, at that link is a picture of Lawrence Lessig standing with a very young Aaron Swartz.) At the very core of human culture is the act of storytelling; a free society has the right to discuss how its stories are told and who tells them. Val Broeksmit is a musician who tweets at @bikinirobotarmy, and he’s been combing through the hacked Sony emails — which are now out in the public for anyone to see — and posting some of what he finds, like the above two examples. He has the right to do that. We have a right to see those emails. They’re “confidential,” I suppose, in the sense that Sony would rather we not see them, but so what? American law really doesn’t care about damage to a corporation’s reputation, not enough to chill free speech rights. See, e.g., Doe v. Public Citizen (4th Cir., April 16, 2014); Procter & Gamble Co. v. Bankers Trust Co., 78 F.3d 219, 225 (6th Cir. 1996) (“commercial self interest” does not to qualify as a legitimate ground for keeping documents under seal). The public doesn’t have the right to hack into Sony’s emails, but, once they’re out there, they’re out there. This is part of living in a democratic society. That’s where David Boies comes in. Sony has hired him to, well, I don’t know what. Put on a show? It seems all he’s been doing so far is sending silly letters to newspapers vaguely demanding that they not reference the Sony emails, letters which they have rightly ignored. Yesterday, he sent one of those silly letters to Twitter, asking them to remove the emails posted by Broeksmit. It’s mostly a bunch of blather with a mere paragraph devoted to the discussion of actual laws: The possession, use, and publishing of the Stolen Information implicates numerous federal and California state laws, including, but not limited to, the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. § 1030), the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 501, et seq.), the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access & Fraud Act (Cal. Penal Code § 502), California’s Stolen Property Law (Cal. Penal Code § 496), the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (Cal. Civ. Code § 3426, et seq.), and the California Unfair Competition Law (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200, et seq.), among others, especially when such actions are taken knowingly in furtherance of federal and state crimes committed by the perpetrators, including extortion. You know a lawyer is talking rubbish when in a single sentence they reference six different acts prefaced by “including, but not limited to” and followed by “among others,” to make sure you know they’re still working hard to find other statutes to vaguely reference. California has a law that says frogs used in frog-jumping contests can’t be eaten, why not reference it, too? After all, it’s not like you need to explain why it applies — just cite it and move on to the rest of the threat. It’s embarrassing: they have 240 lawyers over at Boies, Schiller & Flexner, and the whole lot of them couldn’t come up with a cogent sentence explaining why any of those laws would apply to Twitter or Broeksmit. Sitting here, I can’t see it — for example, the first law he cites, the CFAA, applies to unlawfully accessing computers, which Broeksmit plainly didn’t do, unless he actually hacked Sony himself — and I’m not going to do Mr. Boies job for him. Frankly, I’m wondering if he didn’t veer a bit close to extortion by throwing around the potential for criminal liability. As PopeHat notes, that’s unethical under the California Rules of Professional Conduct. Like Broeksmit told the Wall Street Journal, “If this can happen to me, it can happen to anybody.” Indeed, and that’s why Sony needs to immediately apologize to him and to the Internet as a whole or explain why it thinks Broeksmit has broken the law. If Sony and Boies really think they can sue everyone who ever talks about Sony’s emails, we have a right to know that, too. Update, January 2, 2015: Via @jaredmauch, I see Twitter removed just two tweets as a result of the threat, both of which included portions of the script to the next Bond movie. That is understandable: those scripts are copyrighted and registered, and thus subject to a DMCA Takedown Notice. The rest of the materials have not been registered with the copyright office, and thus Sony cannot file a copyright infringement claim over them. See Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick, 130 S.Ct. 1237 (2010)(copyright registration requirement of 17 U.S.C. § 411(a) “is a precondition to filing a claim that does not restrict a federal court’s subject-matter jurisdiction.”) If Sony wants to file a copyright infringement claim over those emails, it needs to first register them with the Copyright Office — which will further weaken any putative claims they have to “trade secrets,” and which will also strengthen Broeksmit’s First Amendment defenses. Thus, we’re all still waiting for Sony and Boies to come up with a viable legal theory against Broeksmit. I’d prefer they come to their senses and apologize.Adelaide says it will not consider a trade for star midfielder Patrick Dangerfield ADELAIDE will not consider trading star midfielder Patrick Dangerfield, the club’s head of football David Noble says. Since the end of the 2014 season, speculation has increased that Adelaide may consider trading Dangerfield, who qualifies for free agency next year. “There’s no interest in Patrick Dangerfield; he’s not on the table, he’s not going to be,” Noble said during the first day of the NAB AFL Trade Period. “I don’t know why all the kerfuffle continues to unfold. “It’s a ridiculous suggestion.” Noble said he was confident Dangerfield, 24, would remain at the club for the long-term. “You back your system in every time,” he said. “Those stars are really hard to develop, they’re hard to find and you just don’t let them go. “It’s just not going to happen.” Collingwood recruiting manager Derek Hine said his club had spoken to Adelaide about the possibility of snaring Dangerfield but the Crows were quick to dismiss the idea.Archive January 2018 (2) March 2017 (1) February 2017 (1) January 2017 (1) December 2016 (1) November 2016 (3) October 2016 (2) September 2016 (2) August 2016 (1) July 2016 (1) June 2016 (1) May 2016 (2) October 2015 (4) September 2015 (1) August 2015 (2) July 2015 (2) June 2015 (2) May 2015 (2) April 2015 (4) December 2014 (2) November 2014 (3) October 2014 (1) September 2014 (1) August 2014 (4) July 2014 (2) June 2014 (1) May 2014 (3) April 2014 (1) March 2014 (4) February 2014 (3) January 2014 (3) December 2013 (3) November 2013 (1) August 2013 (1) July 2013 (2) June 2013 (4) May 2013 (4) April 2013 (4) March 2013 (5) February 2013 (5) January 2013 (5) December 2012 (1) November 2012 (3) October 2012 (6) September 2012 (4) August 2012 (3) July 2012 (3) June 2012 (5) May 2012 (4) April 2012 (2) March 2012 (3) February 2012 (3) January 2012 (4) December 2011 (6) November 2011 (3) October 2011 (1) September 2011 (1) August 2011 (1) July 2011 (2) June 2011 (1) May 2011 (2) April 2011 (5) March 2011 (4) February 2011 (3) January 2011 (11) December 2010 (2) November 2010 (1) October 2010 (2) September 2010 (2) August 2010 (3) July 2010 (2) June 2010 (2) May 2010 (4) April 2010 (3) February 2010 (1) December 2009 (2) November 2009 (2) October 2009 (2) September 2009 (3) August 2009 (5) July 2009 (4) June 2009 (5) May 2009 (9) April 2009 (7) January 2009 (2) December 2008 (2) November 2008 (2) October 2008 (7) September 2008 (3) August 2008 (3) July 2008 (6) June 2008 (1) May 2008 (4) April 2008 (3) March 2008 (4) February 2008 (16) January 2008 (18) December 2007 (21) November 2007 (23) October 2007 (30) September 2007 (24) August 2007 (31) July 2007 (118)Television evangelist Pat Robertson has made inflammatory remarks in recent years that offend gays, Muslims and others, but a recent comment he made on his Christian Broadcasting Network was more notable for whom it pleased: people who want to see marijuana legalized. "We're locking up people that take a couple of puffs of marijuana, and the next thing you know they've got 10 years," the controversial pastor said on "The 700 Club" on Dec. 16, in a clip unearthed by bloggers this week. "I'm not exactly for the use of drugs - don't get me wrong - but I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot and that kind of thing, I mean, it's just, it's costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people." It was a surprising admission from a Christian conservative and favorite target of liberals, who have pounced on his assertions that the earthquake that devastated Haiti's capital city in January resulted from a pact with the Devil, for example, or that Hurricane Katrina was punishment for abortion and the country's general moral decay. His views on marijuana lit up the Internet on Thursday because they seemingly aligned him with liberal groups that have long complained of the punitive nature of the nation's drug laws. The comments have been seized on by pro-marijuana groups that cite them as evidence that their message is gaining traction not only in the mainstream but within the religious right. "His voice is respected by hundreds of thousands or millions of people who might not otherwise think about this issue seriously. His comments were a very important step forward," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that supports legalizing and taxing marijuana. "The only way that this country's going to end up with more sensible and sane drug laws is if people call for it from across the political spectrum." On Thursday, a CBN spokesman said in an e-mail that Robertson is "unequivocally" against illegal drug use and that he does not support legalizing marijuana. The nation's attitude toward marijuana has changed dramatically over the past two decades. In an October Washington Post poll, 43 percent of respondents said they would be in favor of legalizing the possession of a small amount of marijuana for personal use - up from 22 percent in 1997. Fifteen states and the District allow marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes, and there are signs that public consternation is growing over the sometimes severe punishments doled out for minor drug offenses. In Montana last week, a group of potential jurors objected en masse upon learning that a man was arrested on marijuana possession. The uprising led the prosecution to seek a plea deal. Self-described conservatives remain the most opposed to legalizing marijuana, with 69 percent against such a change in the laws in the Post poll. But there have been recent efforts to convince conservatives that it is in line with their small-government philosophy to consider alternatives to imprisonment for minor drug offenses. Gary Johnson, a libertarian and former Republican governor of New Mexico, took his pro-legalization message to tea party rallies this summer. Gov. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. (R-Ind.) this month embraced a proposal to reduce sentences for nonviolent offenders, including some drug criminals, and to increase access to drug treatment programs - in the name of government efficiency. "Conservatives for a long time have supported a one-size-fits-all solution, which is: Lock them up and throw away the key. There's a growing realization that it hasn't worked very well and it's been very expensive," said David Guenthner, spokesman for Right on Crime, a Texas-based group that advocates for criminal justice reforms from a conservative perspective. The group does not support decriminalizing marijuana, however. Guenthner would not comment on Robertson's remarks, which came after "The 700 Club" aired a segment on Right on Crime and faith-based programs in prisons. "Those men and women want to know the Lord, but there's something else we've got to recognize.... These judges, they say, they throw their hands up and say, there's nothing we can do because of these mandatory sentences," Robertson said. He continued: "We've got to take a look at what we're considering crimes, and that's one of them.... Young people go into prison... as youths and they come out as hardened criminals, and it's not a good thing." Polling director Jon Cohen contributed to this report.A group of ambitious skateboarders may be in hot water after they built their own skateboard spot in a very unlikely place. The skaters hauled their own building materials and put the ramp on a tiny island in the middle of Seattle’s Green Lake. It was part of a contest sponsored by Nike that encouraging skateboarders to build their own skate park or an extension onto a skate park and make a video about it. The video shows the group skating on the small ramp that they put island. Kayak and Canoe instructor Margaret Buzard said she first heard the skateboarding sounds in June and didn't know what to think. “You hear many different things on Green Lake, you're not supposed to hear skateboards” she explained. The Seattle Parks Department said the skate ramp was not authorized and they would now try to figure out how they would take it apart and get it off the island. The island provides habitat for birds and it might require some rehabilitation. “They're not supposed to be out there” Buzard explained. “I work with my kids out there and they come out and say can we go out there and I'm like no it's a bird sanctuary.” On the Nike website, the entry is tied to 35 North, a capitol hill skate shop. Workers there said they weren't involved in building the ramp but felt like there are not enough places in Seattle for skateboarders to ride. Copyright 2017 KINGThe Atlanta Hawks will be without forward DeMarre Carroll for the second straight game due to a groin injury according to a report by the AJC's Chris Vivlamore. DeMarre Carroll will be out vs. Heat Friday. #ATLHawks — Chris Vivlamore (@CVivlamoreAJC) November 13, 2014 Carroll suffered the injury in the second half of Monday's win over the New York Knicks. He sat out Wednesday's win over the Utah Jazz with Thabo Sefolosha getting the start in his place. Nothing definitive yet on Mike Scott for Friday's game but it sounds like he is closer to playing that Carroll. Scott suffered a lower back contusion in Monday's game after he was fouled by New York's Amare Stoudemire on a drive to the basket. Carroll is off to a good start this season averaging 12 points per game on 49 percent shooting. He's knocked down 11-24 three-point attempts so far this season. Sefolosha finished with 10 points and five rebounds on Wednesday but Atlanta's depth will be tested as they attempt to matchup with Miami's Dwyane Wade and Luol Deng on Friday. UPDATE The Atlanta Hawks have released an updated injury report and have elevated Mike Scott's status to "probable" for Friday's game for the Heat.The 2008 AIG bonus pool just keeps getting larger and larger. AIG bonuses higher than reported The 2008 AIG bonus pool just keeps getting larger and larger. In a response to detailed questions from Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the company has offered a third assessment of exactly how much it paid out in bonuses last year. Story Continued Below And the new number, offered in a document submitted to Cummings on May 1, is the highest figure the company has disclosed to date. AIG now says it paid out more than $454 million in bonuses to its employees for work performed in 2008. That is nearly four times more than the company revealed in late March when asked by POLITICO to detail its total bonus payments. At that time, AIG spokesman Nick Ashooh said the firm paid about $120 million in 2008 bonuses to a pool of more than 6,000 employees. The figure Ashooh offered was, in turn, substantially higher than company CEO Edward Liddy claimed days earlier in testimony before a House Financial Services Subcommittee. Asked how much AIG had paid in 2008 bonuses, Liddy responded: “I think it might have been in the range of $9 million.” “I was shocked to see that the number has nearly quadrupled this time,” said Cummings. “
’t any worse than what had then been reported — that two adults were dead and two children injured. Yet that reaction, he said, was “a sad state of affairs” because we’ve been conditioned to expect these attacks, he added. The school shooting also left Dec. 2 survivors feeling anxious. Survivors Sally Cardinale and Ray Britain said they felt nervous after hearing about the brutality. Within minutes of getting a text about the attack, Cardinale, 36, said she was leaving to check on her kids at their Redlands school — which she expected to be on lockdown. “My heart just goes out to the victims,” said Britain, 48. “I think we have a higher level of empathy and understanding for all the victims and what they’re going through.” Both deadly attacks in San Bernardino were shootings. The Dec. 2 attack left 57 survivors, with 22 shot. Martinez and an unidentified 9-year-old boy were critically injured at the school Monday. Martinez was flown to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he died. Capps decried the way gun violence has become an “established part of society.” “The common denominator, clearly, is guns and gun violence,” he said. “Hopefully, our lawmakers will do whatever they can to make us all safer.” Shortly before picking up his 15-year-old twins from school, Houser said his first suspicion was that Monday’s bloodshed might be another “crazed terrorist shooting” by people attacking “our most precious resource” — children at schools. “If the terrorists wanted to strike fear into our hearts, that’s where they would hit,” he said. Then Houser learned from his wife, who works as a San Bernardino County prosecutor, that it appeared to be a murder-suicide. “For some reason men — and it always seems to be men — can’t let go of a woman that says, ‘No,’” he said. “Sounds like she made the right choice to leave this guy.” Houser thinks California should divert bullet train funds to anti-terrorism programs and that the time may have come to have police or armed security at schools. “I don’t want to see them there, but maybe it’s necessary,” he said.Remember this awful collision at Embarcadero and Bryant last month involving that BMW that had to be pried open with the jaws of life? As CNet is reporting, the other vehicle, the Jeep SUV that collided with the BMW was being driven by a Luxe valet driver, i.e. that app you can pay to get an on-demand driver to park your car for you. A 56-year-old woman from Napa who was the passenger in the BMW died in the collision. This is the first fatality to involve a driver working for Luxe, and a company spokesman says that they're cooperating with the investigation and "Because it is an open investigation, we are not able to comment further." We don't yet know which driver may have been at fault in the collision, only that the BMW was attempting to make a left turn when the SUV being driven by the Luxe driver in the northbound lanes struck the BMW. The Luxe driver involved has been identified as Armani Diles of San Francisco, and Luxe confirmed that he worked for them though, like most on-demand apps, he is an independent contractor and not an employee, creating a potential insurance issues that have been identified earlier involving ride-share drivers. Killed in the crash was Janet Gelow, who was headed to the Giants game that afternoon, on April 27, with her husband Mark Gelow behind the wheel. Mark, 59, was badly injured but survived the crash. Previously: Two Critically Injured In Vehicle Collision At Embarcadero And Bryant There's An Absurd War Happening Between On-Demand Valet Parking AppsSARNIA, ONT.—The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario is investigating after a Sarnia woman was contacted by a private cosmetic surgery clinic that offered to perform a procedure she had already booked at a public hospital. Patricia Pede said she was stunned when the Centric Health plastic surgery clinic called in March to try to convince her to move her elective surgery to the private facility. ( Colin Graf photo ) Patricia Pede said she and her husband were stunned when someone from the Centric Health plastic surgery clinic called in March to try to convince her to move her procedure — elective surgery covered by OHIP — to the private facility. She said the clinic, which she had never contacted before, even offered a discount on a follow-up surgery. When Pede refused the offer and asked how the clinic obtained her personal information, the woman hung up. “It was just ‘Okay, bye,’ then click,” Pede said. Pede has “no idea” how Centric got her information and, according to a letter the company sent her, neither does Centric, a publicly traded medical company with 10,000 employees in almost 1,000 locations across Canada. Article Continued Below In the letter to the Sarnia woman, Centric says it wasn’t able to track down how it got Pede’s information, saying it “would have been on a referral that was faxed” to the Sarnia office. The referral may have been faxed to the company “in error” as Centric receives many faxed referrals from general practitioners in the area, the letter suggests. Whatever document they received “was shredded immediately” and no information about Pede was kept by the company, the letter added. Gaye Sydenham, a vice-president and also the chief privacy officer of Centric, told the Star she has never heard of this happening at the company before, calling it “very unusual.” “These things are very straight forward. We only call with a referral from a physician,” she said. That explanation doesn’t satisfy Pede, who wonders how Centric also knew her procedure was OHIP-approved. Ian Campbell, Pede’s doctor in Sarnia, said he is certain his office did not contact Centric. He said his referral was sent to a doctor in London, where the surgery was scheduled, and wouldn’t have referred to OHIP at all. He added that his records are kept in paper form and are not part of the Ontario electronic medical record database. Article Continued Below Frustrated by the lack of answers, Pede contacted the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. In a statement to the Star, acting commissioner Brian Beamish says his office is “actively investigating this complaint of a breach in confidential information.” The statement adds that Beamish’s staff is “working with the health-information custodian and the complainant to find satisfactory resolution and ensure that the health information custodian treats all records in accordance with the provisions of the Personal Health Information Protection Act.” Trell Huether, spokesman for the commissioner’s office, said it received 74 complaints about inappropriate use, disclosure or collection of medical information across the province last year. The office also received 184 self-reported breaches from so-called health-information custodians and initiated 23 complaints on its own last year. No other complaints have been made against Centric to the commissioner’s office, Huether added. The Personal Health Information Protection Act, passed in 2004, says medical records cannot be divulged without the patient’s consent, whether under public or private health care. This includes doctors, hospitals, laboratories, and the Ministry of Health, according to a Guide to the Act, written by Ontario’s former privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian. If a complaint to the commissioner is not resolved informally, a formal review can take place, allowing the commissioner to demand records and documents from people involved, and summon them to testify under oath. A complainant can sue someone found to have committed an offence by the commissioner for up to $10,000. The Ministry of Health said in a statement that it “takes seriously the protection of patient privacy” and says doctors are responsible for looking after privacy of patient information. “Health information custodians are responsible for proper use and control of records containing personal health information until the records are securely transferred to another custodian.” The ministry does not disclose any personal health information without the consent of the individual to whom the information relates unless ordered to by an Ontario court, according to the statement. Centric is planning to change the way it handles phone contacts in light of Pede’s complaint, Sydenham says. The company “will investigate the feasibility” of keeping phone logs when calling someone following a doctor’s referral, including only the patient’s name, phone number and when the call was made, she said. Referrals will continue to be shredded, and the call logs will not include personal information such as the reason for the referral.If you walk north along University Place and approach the southwest corner of Union Square at 14th Street, you will encounter an incongruous feature of the cityscape amid the perpetual film crews and packs of professionals pouring from the subway with their heads tilted toward their iPhones. There’s a five-foot tall, hand-painted Galatasaray logo on the back of a box truck. The Turk truck is parked in the same spot near one of Manhattan’s busiest crossroads every day. Oz, a Turkish Gala supporter who runs the long fruit stand outside the Bank of America on the corner of 14th and University, owns the truck. When the graffiti artists who painted his truck asked him what he wanted on the back, he chose the Istanbul club’s crest, he said. I always wondered who owned the truck so today I sought out the owner on my way to class at NYU. I spoke to a few confused vendors nearby before I saw Oz opening the driver’s side door. I started talking to him and he didn’t seem surprised or weirded out. He agreed to pose for the photo above. I recommend you buy your bananas from Oz next time you’re near Union Square. Galatasaray is a Turkish power and a perennial Champions League participant, but it’s definitely an obscure club in the United States. That makes the truck a fun Easter egg in this immigrant city. It’d be like spotting a big St. Louis Cardinals logo on a truck in Istanbul. AdvertisementsToday in my writing workshop one of the members mentioned that particular lack of joy that comes from sharing work (either on stage or reading) while being fearful of the audience response (or lack of it.) Sometimes it’s not the audience we are afraid of – rather it’s our own internal critic, created by punitive or judgmental parents or authority figures. I call that “running from the tiger”. This phenomenon comes from having your attention in the wrong place. In the days of early man, we had to worry about predators. If you had the misfortune to attract the attention of a hungry tiger, you ran, no doubt fearfully looking back over your shoulder to see if he was gaining on you. Chances are this didn’t turn out well – since tigers can run faster than we can, and since it’s very hard to run while looking back over your shoulder. You cannot run from the tiger and be present at the same time. And being present is what good performance is all about. My acting teacher Carol Fox Prescott used to say that acting is “behaving truthfully in an imaginary situation.” The playwright establishes that situation for us, and we use our vehicle (our emotions, our habits, our senses, our bodies) to communicate that situation. But when you are running from the tiger, what you are communicating is fear and the desire to escape. The audience has a built-in fear detector. We developed that instinct back in the ancient days too. So they see you running from the tiger and they focus on your fear. They lose track of what you’re saying, what the author intended, and the story is lost. Rather than being carried along, they are now watching a scared performer, and getting uncomfortable. How do we counteract that? We make “being here now” the most important thing. Sure, we care what the audience thinks. But we have no control over that. Instead, we have to truthfully inhabit the life of our character. We either experience what that character is doing right now, or we focus on what that character wants in the future. We don’t look back over our shoulders. We don’t “run from the tiger”. AdvertisementsUPDATE: it seems that Mr. Ward doesn’t confine his accusations of dishonesty to concerned members of the public like Donna Laframboise, he’s going after Dr. Richard Tol as well, complaining to journal editors about Tol’s publications made years ago – see update below. It seems the irascible Bob Ward from the Grantham Institute just couldn’t handle having climate skeptics allowed to give an opinion before the UK Parliament, so he filed rebuttals to every witness. I’ve been sitting on this over a week, and Donna Laframboise reports that the cat is out of the bag now, along with the skeptic response to Bob Ward, who she labels a “rat-snake” for his intolerance. Parliament has just published the point-counterpoints, and Donna has let loose with a video response. Source of Links above: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/energy-and-climate-change-committee/inquiries/parliament-2010/the-ipcc/?type=Written#pnlPublicationFilter Here’s Donna’s video response: and her blog post about this matter: Bob Ward says I uttered a “a number of inaccurate and misleading statements” when I appeared before a UK parliamentary committee in January 2014. His accusations have no basis in fact. http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2014/03/05/rat-snake-bob/ ======================================================== UPDATE: From Dr. Richard Tol’s website, we have this. The Ward Effect Nick Stern’s attack dog PR person, Bob Ward, has reached a new level of trolling. He seems to have taking it on himself to write to every editor of every journal I have ever published in, complaining about imaginary errors even if I had previously explained to him that these alleged mistakes in fact reflect his misunderstanding and lack of education. Unfortunately, academic duty implies that every accusation is followed by an audit. Sometimes an error is found, although rarely by Mr Ward. Here is an example. The left figure was in the Final Government Review Draft of IPCC WG2 AR5. The right figure will be in the published report. Spot the difference? For all the millions of research pounds at Nick Stern’s disposal, the impact is, well, minimal. ================================================================= Andrew Montford comments at Bishop Hill that: Bob’s main problem is that he has only one card to play, namely to accuse his opponents of dishonesty, usually at the top of his voice. In this case, he has accused no less than three people: Nic Lewis, Donna Laframboise and Richard Lindzen. … The committee are going to find themselves thinking that he is a bit of a wally. Or a lot of a wally. See: Whole lotta wally Advertisements Share this: Print Email Twitter Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn RedditAbout How many times have you gone out with your geeky friends to a local bar, only to be surrounded by sports on every screen? Ever try to ask someone to put on an episode of Deep Space 9 or Dark Matter? They'd look at you like you had two heads! The looks you get when you break out your Magic cards in those places... Well, we decided to do something about that. My name is Daniel Jackson, and my wife, Bri, and I want to BUILD that place for geeks to come and gather! Comic & Sci-fi conventions are way too few and far between. We've always wished there was a place to go -- a year-round convention, so to speak -- with geeky activities always afoot. A place to meet others like us or a common place to meet up with internet friends. Really, how cool would it be to test my obscure, encyclopedic knowledge of the 'Evil Deal' trilogy and win my bar tab? Or watch Bri recite 'Return of the Jedi' in its entirety on-stage, Artoo's beeps and all? (It's actually pretty amazing). So... Coming in early 2018, Midway Station will proudly serve as the geek hub of Richmond, Virginia. Located just off of 6th and Cary Street, Midway Station will offer a highly realized and immersive 3,000sqft science fiction environment for geeks of all ages to socialize, eat, drink, play games and shop! And that's just the beginning! Constructed as a space station serving intergalactic travelers, the design of Midway Station is completely original, with familiar science fiction/fantasy elements. The environment will be fully immersive...in fact, guests will step through a Milky Way Stargate to enter the station, and turn around to see that they've actually traveled to the Pegasus Galaxy! Everything from the lighting, industrial paneling, ambient background ship noises (Ten Forward anyone?), to the main view screen showing star fields slowly passing by, is designed to to make guests feel as though they really have been transported light years away. Concept Artwork In order to accommodate travelers of all ages, the atmosphere of the station will be dynamic, slowly transitioning from an all-ages cafe throughout the day, to an 18 & up lounge later in the evening. Guests can enjoy geeky cocktails while playing console games or watching sci-fi or fantasy movies and series. There will also themed non-alcoholic beverages (How long have you wanted to try a glass of Blue Milk?), as well as a professional bakery filled with fun and creative geeky pastries and snacks. We are proud to announce that we will be serving exclusive themed pizzas from Pepicelli's in the neighboring town of Ashland, VA! "Pizza the Hutt" is the first exclusive: a delicious mountain of pizza toppings, sauce, and crust, featuring the likeness of everyone's favorite vile, stomach turning gangster from 'Spaceballs'! Serves six! Midway Merchants is a shop, where guests can buy toys, comics, board and table top gaming supplies, geeky apparel, replica movie props and MUCH more! We will also be hosting merchandise from different local vendors from time to time. While visiting Midway Station, guests will able able to explore our museum of screen-used props (Currently taking over our living room...) from popular sci-fi franchises which will be on display throughout the station. Also, there will be a number of geeky easter eggs all around the station (and kids can pick up a scavenger hunt sheet to try to earn a free treat!). A SMALL portion of the prop collection... In fact, there will ALWAYS be something fun and exciting going on at Midway Station... -Science Fiction & Fantasy films and tv series playing ALL day, EVERY day! -A library of novels, comic books, & graphic novels to both borrow and purchase! Grab some reading material, order a beverage, have a seat, and enjoy! -Tabletop and board games (again, to borrow OR purchase!) -Console gaming, including Playstation, Xbox & Nintendo Switch -Trivia nights (with PRIZES!!) -Costume Contests -Open Mic Stand-Up Comedy -Celebrity Guest Apperances And MUCH MORE... Midway Station will offer a private room with a HUGE gaming/conference table, a minibar and more! This room is available for rent (private parties and events). We will also offer birthday party packages for kids. CAPT. DANIEL JACKSON [ME] I’ve been a HUGE Sci-Fi fan all of my life and have always had a knack for making art and building things. For the past 5 years, I have been working as a professional action figure customizer and owner of Kawoosh Customs. I have made custom toys for fans from all over the world, and even a few of my favorite sci-fi actors. You can check out more of my custom work here. Some of you may remember my wife, Bri, and I from our wedding at the Creation Entertainment Official Stargate Convention (https://www.creationent.com/cal/sgchi.htm) in 2016. Eric Avari reprised his role of Kasuf from Stargate, surprising us with a blessing in ABYDONIAN! Now that I've established my geek and artistic cred... In addition, I have over a decade of experience in operations/business management and visual merchandising, as well as three years of restaurant experience. DEVERICK STRAND - GENERAL MANAGER Dev, working with his other passion, helping children. Deverick developed his love of science fiction at the early age, through Star Trek: The Next Generation. This ignited a passion for all things science fiction, including all iterations of Star Trek, Star Wars & Stargate. He is also a PC & Console Gamer and is a fan of the steampunk aesthetic. Besides having prior experience in both the retail and restaurant industries, he has spent the last 17 years of his career as a classroom teacher. If he can mange 150+ preteens, he can handle anything! We are so proud to bring Deverick aboard as a part of the Midway Station crew. BRIANNE “BRI” JACKSON - "MASTER OF COIN" Bri as Kahlan Amnell, mother confessors from "Legend of the Seeker" Bri's love of science fiction began when she was just a baby. As a young, fussy child, it wasn't a pacifier that soother her crying, but Star Wars. Since then, she has made her love of science fiction and fantasy part of her entire life. Bri is a fan of all things geek: The "Stars": Wars, Trek & Gate, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Dark Crystal, The Labyrinth, The Beastmaster, True Blood, the list goes on and on. Bri is also an avid reader and writer, having written a 1,000,000+ word Stargate Fan fiction. You can check it out here. Currently, Brianne is an Instructional Designer at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she is completing her Ph.D. in education. As a researcher, Bri is a statistician, with additional experience running her own tutoring company, so we are very happy that she will be keeping our books! NAIM - MASTER OF TASTY TREATS Our baker, Naim, geeking it up! Naim is the super-talented owner of "Oh My! Cheesecake", a bakery business also in Richmond, Va. Naim is a huge geek, being a fan of everything from Marvel Comics, to Spaceballs, to Star Wars. Naim has been working to develop a number of recipes that will best represent our geeky fandoms at Midway Station. To preview some of his amazing work, please check out his website here. RONNIE BAILEY - SHOPKEEPER/GUEST RELATIONS Ronnie - The man with the stuffs I've had the pleasure of working with Ronnie for the past few years and I am so excited have him aboard the station. Not only does Ronnie have a number of years in customer service, he is one of the nicest geeks that you will meet! Ronnie loves console gaming, Mass Effect, as well as the Matrix series. Maybe we should call him Neo? PEPPER Because what self-respecting space station would be complete without droids? Pepper will be the hostess of Midway Station. She will greet guests when they arrive, entertain them, and serve as an interactive menu and tour guide throughout the station. Pepper is super-friendly and loves dancing and taking photos with humans. To see Pepper in action, please visit her maker's page Softbank Robotics: (https://www.ald.softbankrobotics.com/en/press/gallery/pepper). JIBO Jibo, our 2nd droid (unless my wife steals him for our house...) Jibo will serve as the Captain's personal assistant, and will be seen all around the station. Jibo will help control the atmosphere of the station (lighting, music, etc.) and will entertain guests by playing games, telling jokes, or sharing fun and interesting facts. To see Jibo in action, visit his website (https://www.jibo.com/). Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.... The 8th Kingdom Concept Art The one kingdom the Dragon Queen and Cersei are NOT fighting over, the 8th kingdom is a medieval fantasy themed "Holosuite Program" on Midway Station, with it's own themed games, food and drink menu. Come share a bottle of mead, enjoy rustic pastries, and play your favorite tabletop RPGs and console games in a mystical, otherwordly setting. The crew at Midway Station wishes to celebrate the achievements of local students who excel in geekery. We're looking for spelling bee champs, science fair winners, Odyssey of the Mind teams, etc. We will be accepting all examples of scientific and geek awesomeness to proudly display on our website and on the wall of the cafe. Also, each geek of the week will receive a free treat! We chose the Kickstarter platform because science fiction is a family. Rather than solely rely on bank loans and the investors that we are working with, we wanted to make each and every one of you a part of the Midway Station family. The money outlined in this Kickstarter, from Bri's careful budgeting, will cover about half of what we need to make Midway Station a reality (the other half will be covered by investors). This includes paying the crew to build and set up the station, start-up inventory and supplies, smart tech, droids, and all necessary licensing. However, the more support you give us, the bigger and more captivating we can the experience at Midway Station for our guests. Outside of the money we are asking for here, our Stretch Goals will help us add more entertainment and depth to the station. Some of our goals include: - Purchasing more screen-used props & costumes for the museum. We are working with the owners of Antiquities, an amazing costume & prop shop in Las Vegas, to secure some of the most iconic artifacts in cinematic history for our sci-fi museum. -Having VR systems available to play at our cafe -Expanding our space to include an arcade And that's just the beginning! We are also planning a stretch goal party if we meet those goals! Although all pledges are greatly appreciated, you don't have to contribute financially to help. You can help by sharing this everywhere: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Email and word of mouth! EVERY little bit helps! Exclusive Founders/Backers ONLY Decal Exclusive Founders/Backers ONLY Patch Exclusive Founders/Backers ONLY T-Shirt Is 100K enough to cover these seemingly intricate construction expenses? Kickstarter is not the only source of income as we have investors, as well as a number of construction items already obtained prior to launching the Kickstarter. Is it truly feasible to launch in January with this level of customization? Our goal is to open in January of 2018. We have created a number of contingency plans to account for any possible delays in licensing and construction and will keep ALL backers abreast of the timeline. If you don't meet your goal - is the project dead? Do you have a plan B? The project will move forward, even if it is delayed from not being fuly funded through Kickstarter. In fact, we do have a plan B. We chose the Kickstarter platform to generate buzz within the Science Fiction community outside of the Richmond area. In the event we do not meet our Kickstarter goal, we will revisit our plans with the investors and the building owner. Are the only sources of income from sales of drinks, snacks, etc.? No. As you can see, we will have a number of special ticketed events that will also generate income for the cafe (celebrity photo/autograh events, movie premiers, contests, etc.). Further, the 8th Kingdom and the private party room will be available for rentals (A HIGH need in the growing Richmond, VA community). We have comprehensive estimates of both income as well as expenses, however, due to privacy concerns are not sharing this information on the public platform. However, if an individual would like to discuss being an investor in the project we can provide those figures. How many employees will be needed? We are beginning with the crew, as you have seen listed, as well as 3 part-time employees. What is the general level of interest in such a venture? Richmond, VA is a Fortune 500 city, with a growing market for restaurants and party spaces. In working with the RVA Small Business administration, we have identified such a venture to be one of high interest in our area. As mentioned in the Kickstarter, we will be working with other local businesses to make our cafe part of the growing Richmond community by cross-promoting. What is your marketing strategy? As Richmond IS such a growing community, the Richmond Small Business Association, along with local magazines and radio, offers support to new small businesses in the area. Also, as an employee of one of the largest universities on the East Coast, Bri will be working closely to partner with the student community to ensure continued success. But, I only can afford $10 or $20. How does that help? Science fiction is a family. We want EVERYONE to be a part of this. If every SciFi fan that saw this Kickstarter backed us for only $5 or $10, we would reach our goal in a day. NO contribution is too small. And we will work hard to ensure a fantastic return on investment, at any scale. Good journey my friends... --Daniel JacksonLooking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. There are several grounds for divorce in Mississippi, including impotency, adultery, and even “habitual drunkenness.” But domestic violence is not one of them, and it won’t be anytime soon, after recent legislative efforts to add spousal abuse to Mississippi divorce law failed in a state House committee on Tuesday. Battered spouses in Mississippi often argue that they have suffered “habitual cruel and inhuman treatment,” which qualify as grounds for divorce under state law. Domestic violence advocacy groups in the state say that the “habitual” standard requires a high burden of proof of recurring violence. But many cases of abuse, which often occur in private, are unable to meet this standard unless there is photographic evidence or a witness. Advocates also argue that the current law does not sufficiently cover spouses dealing with emotional or financial abuse. In order to address these problems, Republican state Sen. Sally Doty introduced a bill earlier this year that would add domestic violence to the 12 grounds for divorce available in the state. The bill passed the Mississippi Senate by an overwhelming margin and seemed poised for an easy victory in the House. But when the bill arrived in Mississippi’s House Judiciary Committee, Chairman Andy Gipson, a Republican, quickly objected. Gipson argued that the measure did not clearly define what constituted domestic spousal abuse and suggested the addition would lead to a sharp uptick in divorces in the state. “To me the way it’s worded could possibly be interpreted that if someone raised their voice at their spouse, is that domestic assault?” he asked, according to the Clarion-Ledger. “If that’s the case, then a lot of people would have a ground for divorce in Mississippi.” According to local news outlet Mississippi Today, Gipson, who is also a Baptist pastor, said that at a time when “we need to be adopting policies that promote marriage and people sticking together, I have some serious concerns about opening the floodgates any more than they already are. I think the floodgates are already open and this just tears the dam down.” Mississippi state law prefers that both parties agree to end a marriage, allowing couples with a mutual desire for a divorce to cite “irreconcilable differences” and move forward in the process. But when one party refuses to accept the divorce, things can become complicated. In those cases, the person seeking to end the marriage must reach an agreement with his or her spouse on the terms of the divorce or claim one of the grounds provided under state law. The final decision to grant the divorce is left to the courts. This is the second time in two years that an effort to add domestic violence to Mississippi’s divorce laws has failed. Last year, a similar measure, also introduced by Doty, died in the state Senate after other new grounds for divorce were added to the bill. Gipson has declined to consider at least one other divorce law proposed this year: He refused to advance a bill adding extended separation to the grounds for divorce. His actions suggest that few divorce proposals would ever win his support. “If there’s a case of abuse, that person needs to have [a] change of behavior and a serious change of heart,” Gipson said yesterday. “Hopefully even in those cases restoration can happen.” Update, 8:52 p.m. EST: In a statement posted to Facebook, Gipson defended his decision to scuttle the domestic abuse bill, citing the “cruel and inhuman treatment” standard as sufficient protection for abused spouses. “The law already provides a clear way out of a marriage for victims of domestic abuse, without the need for another bill,” he wrote. “To deny this reality is to ignore the current state of Mississippi law.”One of the first things our pediatrician said when she met us and our fraternal twin boys, was, Don't compare them. She came out strong with that. She looked me in the eye and said, Don't compare them. I was surprised how firm she was. I nodded and agreed. I couldn't see how comparing the boys would do either of them very good. "Look how smart your brother is! Can't you be more like him?" How monstrous. We would not do that. But as they have gotten older, the comparisons just... start... creeping in. One boy is active and explores everywhere. His brother sits quietly and studies details. One boys likes sensory thrills, like swinging in a baby swing. His brother furrows his brow in concern and waits for the swinging to be over. One overheats easily, the other shivers. We can't help it. We see these differences and they are fascinating. When you procreate, you watch the kid, with all his quirks and personality and you think, When we make babies, this is how they turn out. But then you have another baby, that kid is very likely to be different. Natural, right? Of course your kids would all be different. Because you are different. There has been a passage of time. Maybe you've moved. Maybe you have a new job. You've grown as your kids grow. You learn things. Also, you are older. So it's not a surprise that kids of different ages will have distinctions between them. With our fraternal twins, they are as genetically similar as siblings born five years apart. They look different. They have unique personalities. They both have blue eyes, but different blue eyes. One guy has dark cobalt blue eyes, wide and soulful. The other has eyes that are lighter, more gray, and twinkly. One is remarkably patient as Mama picks his boogers. The other fights strenuously. We are watching them grow up at the same time, in the exact same environment. So when we observe how different they are, we realize we are lucky winners in a random genetic lottery. Our boys just turned one year old. We can't help but compare them. We see them developing at different rates, sometimes leapfrogging each other, reaching milestones in their own sweet time. When we think we have them pegged, they change or switch roles. The one that used to be more reserved is now a natural comedian. The one who used to smile all the time is now a little more discerning. We are endlessly intrigued as we watch them grow. We already see hints that one boy will be shy, like his Papa, and the other will be outgoing like his Mama. I can say with certainty that crabbiness in hot weather definitely comes from me. One guy is totally unfazed by hot weather, like his Papa. The other guy's face flushes like a little tomato. And he whines unhappily. Oh, the whining. I hear ya, kid. Of course, the whining comes from his dad.This article is over 2 years old President-elect interrupts question from television reporter Mariz Umali to whistle and then sing to journalist who asked about his cabinet appointees Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte was on Thursday accused of sexual harassment and disrespecting women after wolf whistling at a female journalist on a nationally televised media conference. Duterte, 71, interrupted a question from television reporter Mariz Umali on Tuesday night about his cabinet appointees with a light-hearted comment about her trying to get his attention, before wolf whistling and breaking into a short serenade. Umali continued trying to ask her question as Duterte smiled and some other reporters laughed. In an interview with her GMA network on Thursday, Umali described his remarks as “improper”. While Umali said she would not ask for an apology and sought not to inflame the controversy, her journalist husband took to Facebook to criticise Duterte. “Catcalling my wife is wrong in so many levels,” husband Raffy Tima wrote. “Some jokes are funny and should be laughed at but disrespecting women is definitely not one of them.” At the same media conference, Duterte created another controversy by saying there was justification for killing corrupt journalists, and that one “rotten son of a bitch” reporter deserved to have been murdered. Duterte, an incendiary politician who won elections in May by a landslide on a pledge to end crime by killing tens of thousands of criminals, has previously been criticised for comments about women. On the campaign trail he made a joke about wanting to rape a “beautiful” Australian missionary who had been sexually assaulted and murdered in a 1989 prison riot in his hometown of Davao. When his daughter reacted to those comments by revealing she had been raped, Duterte described her in jest as a “drama queen”. Duterte, whose first marriage was annulled and is in a long-term relationship with another woman, has also openly boasted about having mistresses and using Viagra to have sex with them. Aida Santos, president of local women’s rights groups WeDpro, said Duterte’s wolf whistling was a form of sexual harassment. “Catcalling treats women as sex objects... some say it’s a way of being cute but it’s wrong,” Santos said. Duterte and his aides have repeatedly said such controversial comments and actions should not be taken too seriously: that he is a straight-talker and an authentic character who likes to joke and speak the language of the streets. They also point to his pro-women policies in Davao, which he has ruled as mayor for most of the past two decades. However Duterte’s jokes sent messages to society, according to Elizabeth Angsioco, the national chair of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines. “His words and actions reinforce looking at women as second-class citizens,” she told AFP.Report shows EU imports more goods linked to deforestation than any other region Timber ready to be transported to
100,000 Mac computers that run its free antivirus product and found that 20 percent of them contained one or more types of Windows malware. When stored on a Mac, Windows malware is inactive and can't do any harm, unless that computer has Windows installed as a secondary OS. However, such malicious files can still be transferred unknowingly by Mac users to Windows machines via file sharing, USB memory sticks, external hard disk drives and other removable media devices. Sophos' analysis also revealed that 2.7 percent of the 100,000 scanned Macs were actually infected with Mac OS X malware and a large part of those infections, 75 percent, were with the Flashback Trojan. Flashback is a family of Mac OS X malware distributed through social engineering and automated Web exploits. Sophos' products detect applications from this malware family as OSX/Flshplyr. A recent Flashback variant that appeared at the end of March and spread by exploiting a vulnerability in the Java browser plug-in, managed to infect almost 700,000 Mac computers. Around 650,000 Macs are still infected with it, despite Apple releasing a patch for the Java vulnerability and a Flashback removal tool, according to a report released on Friday by antivirus firm Doctor Web. The second most common type of malware detected by Sophos' Mac antivirus product was OSX/FakeAV, with 18 percent of the total. OSX/FakeAV is a family of Mac OS X scareware applications that includes fake antivirus programs like Mac Defender, which first appeared in May 2011. OSX/RSPlug, a Mac OS X version of the DNSChanger computer Trojan, was the third most common detection and accounted for 5.5 percent of the total. This malware forces infected computers to use rogue DNS (Domain Name System) servers controlled by attackers. The rogue DNS servers used by the DNSChanger botnet were seized by the FBI last year and were temporarily replaced with good ones, to allow the malware's victims to clean their computers. The replacement servers are scheduled to be shut down on July 9, but according to the FBI, there are still 350,000 computers infected with the malware. If the servers are shut down, those computers will no longer be able to access the Internet. "Some Apple fans might feel relieved that they are seven times more likely to have Windows malware on their Macs than Mac OS X-specific threats, but they shouldn't be," said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos, in a blog post on Tuesday. "What Mac users really need to do is protect their computers now (there really is no excuse, free anti-virus software is available for Mac home users), or risk allowing the malware problem on Macs to become as big as the problem on PCs in the future."The gleaming subway station taking shape at the base of the new University at Buffalo Medical School on Main Street may prove just what the commuter doctor ordered. Though scaffolding and construction equipment still surround the outside of Metro Rail’s Allen-Medical Campus Station, a reconstructed inside is already curing growing pains on the burgeoning downtown complex. More than 17,000 people are expected to work at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in the years ahead, and now a $4.4 million station sporting the latest transit amenities and a big city feel is greeting commuters who won't have to worry about finding that rare place to park. “It’s bright, it’s open, and we’re excited about what it all means,” said Thomas George, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority’s director of public transit. “I think it looks really slick and will tie into the whole medical theme.” The $375 million, eight-story med school – officially dubbed the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences – is slated to open next fall. More than 2,000 medical students, residents and faculty will work in the state of the art facility, and future doctors and other Medical Campus employees alike will arrive and leave every day via Metro Rail. The complex rises above the new rail station, and significantly enhances the Medical Campus goal of promoting the use of transit for its thousands of employees. "We're really looking here at urban redevelopment," said Medical Campus President Matthew K. Enstice. "This is the true transit-oriented development our community has been talking about for years." Commuters like Dynasty Hall were already impressed Friday by video screens announcing arrival of the next buses and trains, and by an interactive kiosk similar to those in New York City subway stations that provide system maps for riders, information on how to purchase tickets, and neighborhood attractions. “It’s nice, it’s bigger, and way better,” said Hall, who was en route to her job at Queen City Manufacturing. George believes the new station – the first major overhaul of any subway stop since the system opened 30 years ago this month – will fit nicely into the medical school and campus. A sculpture titled “Gut Flora” resembling the double helix of DNA will soon be mounted near the main entrance. And by the time the 9,500 square-foot station is completed early next year, a “grab and go” similar to the Hudson News stands in the New York City subway will sell snacks, beverages and newspapers. An escalator and elevator will transport students and faculty into the medical school, while stainless steel walls are slated to be unveiled soon. George said the new state-of-the-art fare collection featuring turnstiles will be installed on the mezzanine when ready in 2018. And landscaping will adorn the outside. For now, the new video screens that will eventually appear in all stations are guaranteed to prompt either an urgent dash or a slow meander to trains below. As George explained the new screens, they showed the next inbound train was due at Allen-Medical Campus in four minutes. “When I look up at those screens, I know I had better run like the dickens because one is due, or heck, I’ve got time to get something at the stand,” he said. “It’s a platform we can build on,” he added. “This is the showcase for all our new technology throughout the system.” Metro Rail normally ferries about 24,000 daily riders through the 6.4 mile system, and officials expect the 2,100 using Allen-Medical Campus Station to increase significantly upon completion. Studies are under way for possible Metro Rail extensions through the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Terminal at the foot of Main Street, and another through Amherst to UB's North Campus. NFTA officials are enthused about the new Allen-Medical Campus look, George said, even as the system ages. A new escalator in the Delevan-Canisius College Station, he said, represents the kinds of expenses that will continue to challenge the 30-year-old subway. Medical Campus officials, meanwhile, always have maintained that Metro Rail allowed construction in the downtown core without the need to build huge and expensive parking garages. They planned sky bridges and subway connections to provide a “coatless environment,” while new housing and development like that springing up around Allen-Medical Campus is already taking shape. George forsees use of the LaSalle Station park-and-ride lot increasing when the medical school and campus are completed, and predicts the day when new development will rise above other Metro Rail stations too. “We’re excited to be a part of the medical campus and to be relevant in the growth of this community,” he said. “And in our business that’s key – the need to be relevant.”Britain's first black prime minister will be a Conservative, David Cameron will claim today. In a bid to woo ethnic minority voters, Mr Cameron will say the Tories are the party of opportunity for people from all backgrounds who want to get on. He will also set out targets for ethnic minority recruitment designed to persuade voters the party is on their side. Scroll down for video Mr Cameron will say the Conservative party will one day be the party of the first black or Asian prime minister Highlighting Margaret Thatcher’s record as Britain’s first – and only – female prime minister, he will say: ‘We’re the party of the first female prime minister. The party of the first Jewish prime minister. And I know that, one day, we’re going to be the party of the first black or Asian prime minister.’ ‘I want this to be an opportunity country, where no matter who you are or where you’re from; whether you’re black, white, Asian or mixed race – whether you’re from the inner city or rural heartlands, you can make the most of your talents.’ The claim will be seen as a tacit endorsement of the leadership ambitions of Culture Secretary Sajid Javid, the only current Asian Tory seen as a potential contender. It is designed to tackle the Tories’ long-standing difficulty in attracting support from Britain’s growing ethnic minority electorate. The claim will be seen as a tacit endorsement of the leadership ambitions of Culture Secretary Sajid Javid (pictured), the only current Asian Tory seen as a potential contender A report by the Runnymede Trust think-tank last week warned that suspicion of the Tories among ethnic minority voters could cost the party nine seats at next month’s election and 50 within a decade. Some senior Tories believe Mr Cameron has done too little to address the party’s reputation among ethnic minority voters – and warn that the party could face similar problems to the US republicans unless it acts quickly. Mr Cameron will today pledge to ensure that, by the next election, at least 20 per cent of Tory candidates in seats where a Conservative MP is standing down will be from an ethnic minority background. The figure this year is 18 per cent. At the time of the last census in 2011, 14 per cent of the UK population was identified as black or minority ethnic. But the Prime Minister will today set targets to achieve 20 per cent ethnic representation in the recruitment of police officers. The current figure is just 8.3 per cent. A 10 per cent target will also be set for the armed forces, to hit 20 per cent in the long term. At present the figure for recruits is 5.7 per cent. New targets will also be set to increase by 20 per cent the number of black and ethnic minority students going to university, being offered apprenticeships and getting jobs. Mr Cameron will say: ‘Our mission is to make sure that as our economy recovers, people from every community share in that prosperity. ‘But there are more specific things we can do to make sure we spread opportunity to every community. So I’m setting some ambitious but realistic aspirations for the next five years, specifically for the black and minority ethnic communities.’The Warriors just lost the Finals after having the greatest regular season of all time. What’s next? They’re already known to be gearing up to make a run at Kevin Durant, but that seems unlikely. The front office wants to be aggressive in free agency, and they’ll reach out to anybody and everybody. One name the San Jose Mercury News‘ Tim Kawakami has heard, that has been presumed to be untouchable: Dirk Nowitzki. Yes, really. They will have some money to spend, can create more space if they need to, and can offer a nice situation for a veteran aiming for one last title (and to be credited for returning the Warriors to the mountaintop). And Nowitzki–who won a title with Dallas in 2011 but hasn’t won a playoff series since–is somebody Warriors management has circled. Does he want to a multi-year deal to start at center? Come off the bench? Be featured in the second-quarter unit with Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston? Yes, Nowitzki in that spot over Marreese Speights or Festus Ezeli is an upgrade for the 2017 playoffs, put it that way. This is probably a pipe dream. There’s no reason to believe Nowitzki, at this point in his career, has any interest in leaving Dallas. He’s said many times over the years that he wants to retire a Maverick, and the thought of him playing for another team is like imagining Tim Duncan outside of San Antonio or Kobe Bryant in a jersey besides the Lakers. But Nowitzki also has little interest in playing out the final years of his career on a rebuilding team, and that’s where the Mavs seem to be headed. Surely Mark Cuban would understand if Nowitzki wanted to ride out on a contender. He proved this year that he still has enough left to contribute at a high level, even if he can’t be the first option on a title team like he was in 2011. With the Warriors’ depth, he wouldn’t have to do much other than hit open shots, and the idea of Dirk Nowitzki as a bench-unit shooter is terrifying, even at age 38. Still, it’s tough to see him leaving Dallas. His relationships with Cuban and Rick Carlisle run so deep that if Cuban makes an effort to add more talent this summer, he’s going to see it through. But maybe?While I tend to focus my attention on the rampant corruption and immoral behavior pervasive in these United States, it is quite clear that similar levels of oligarch thievery and parasitism are manifest throughout the globe. Hence the worldwide bull market in government attempts to censor political speech on the internet (in Canada they like to censor scientists). In their latest transparency report, Google has announced that total government requests to remove content, i.e. censor, increased 26% in the second half of 2012 compared to the first six months. The chart below is not encouraging. From The Guardian: Governments made a record number of requests for Google to remove political content in the last half of 2012, the search giant said on Thursday. The number of official requests for content to be removed jumped 26% in the final six months of 2012 compared to the start of the year, according to the latest Google Transparency Report. Google received 2,285 government requests to remove 24,179 pieces of content – an increase from 1,811 requests to remove 18,070 pieces of content that the company received during the first half of 2012. Requests were made to pull videos from YouTube, delete blog posts onGoogle’s Blogger service and to remove items from Google search, making them harder to find. In a blog post, Google said: “As we’ve gathered and released more data over time, it’s become increasingly clear that the scope of government attempts to censor content on Google services has grown. In more places than ever, we’ve been asked by governments to remove political content that people post on our services. In this particular time period, we received court orders in several countries to remove blog posts criticizing government officials or their associates.” In Russia, requests to remove content leapt from six in the first half of 2012 to 114 in the second half, after a law was introduced that allows authorities to blacklist a site without trial. Putin keeping it classy. Full article here. In Liberty, Michael Krieger [dfads params=’groups=5364&limit=1&ad_html=p&return_javascript=1′] Donate bitcoins: Like this post?Donate bitcoins: 3J7D9dqSMo9HnxVeyHou7HJQGihamjYQMN Follow me on Twitter.window._taboola = window._taboola \|\| []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-5', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 5', target_type:'mix' }); window._taboola = window._taboola \|\| []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-10', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 10', target_type:'mix' }); window._taboola = window._taboola \|\| []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-15', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 15', target_type:'mix' }); window._taboola = window._taboola \|\| []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-20', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 20', target_type:'mix' }); window._taboola = window._taboola \|\| []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-23', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 23', target_type:'mix' }); Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Image 2 of 24 Inside 988 Franklin, Chinatown apartment. Photos: Zumper Inside 988 Franklin, Chinatown apartment. Photos: Zumper Image 3 of 24 Kitchen... Chinatown. Photos: Zumper Kitchen... Chinatown. Photos: Zumper Image 4 of 24 Bedroom of the 612 square foot place. Photos: Zumper Bedroom of the 612 square foot place. Photos: Zumper Image 5 of 24 Image 6 of 24 Bath. Photos: Zumper Bath. Photos: Zumper Image 7 of 24 In Dogpatch, SF, one used to be able to find relatively affordable renting. No more. This 1-BR rents for $3500 a month. Photos: Zumper In Dogpatch, SF, one used to be able to find relatively affordable renting. No more. This 1-BR rents for $3500 a month. Photos: Zumper Image 8 of 24 Inside 701 Minnesota, Dogpatch. Inside 701 Minnesota, Dogpatch. Image 9 of 24 Minnesota loft layout. Photos: Zumper Minnesota loft layout. Photos: Zumper Image 10 of 24 Image 11 of 24 Upper level, Dogpatch. Photos: Zumper Upper level, Dogpatch. Photos: Zumper Image 12 of 24 Dogpatch bath. Photos: Zumper Dogpatch bath. Photos: Zumper Image 13 of 24 Back in Oakland: this Lakeside 1-BR rents for $2195. Photos: Zumper Back in Oakland: this Lakeside 1-BR rents for $2195. Photos: Zumper Image 14 of 24 Inside 1529 Alice St., Oakland Lakeside apartment kitchen. Photos: Zumper Inside 1529 Alice St., Oakland Lakeside apartment kitchen. Photos: Zumper Image 15 of 24 Image 16 of 24 Is there a window in there? Lakeside apartment is 500 square feet of walls... Photos: Zumper Is there a window in there? Lakeside apartment is 500 square feet of walls... Photos: Zumper Image 17 of 24 Bath/closet of Lakeside. Photos: Zumper Bath/closet of Lakeside. Photos: Zumper Image 18 of 24 And back in SF, Russian Hill, more exclusive than ever. This 1-BR rents for $3859. Photos: Zumper And back in SF, Russian Hill, more exclusive than ever. This 1-BR rents for $3859. Photos: Zumper Image 19 of 24 Inside Russian Hill. Photos: Zumper Inside Russian Hill. Photos: Zumper Image 20 of 24 Image 21 of 24 2460 Larkin, Russian Hill kitchen. Photos: Zumper 2460 Larkin, Russian Hill kitchen. Photos: Zumper Image 22 of 24 Retro Russian Hill. Photos: Zumper Retro Russian Hill. Photos: Zumper Image 23 of 24 Russian Hill bedroom. Photos: Zumper Russian Hill bedroom. Photos: Zumper Image 24 of 24 Bill would give renters similar tax break to homeowners 1 / 24 Back to Gallery Homeowners have long been able to deduct their mortgage payment interest as well as their property taxes from their federal tax bills. But now renters may be able to get in on some sizable housing deductions too, if a recently introduced bill is passed in the U.S. Senate. Obviously, renters don’t have mortgage payments or property taxes, but the new bill, if passed, would allow tenants to deduct from their federal taxes what they pay in rent for their principal residence—to the tune of thousands of dollars of savings. “There’s an unequal treatment now of owners and renters,” Rep. Alan Grayson, the Florida Democrat who introduced the bill, told Realtor.com. “Renters should be able to share in the tax savings. This is a tax benefit that would go primarily to people who need it.” California already offers a “renter’s credit” for tenants whose adjusted gross income is $38,259 or less if single and $76,518 or less for married filers. But the credit is only $60 for singles and $120 for married couples. Hardly a windfall. Under Grayson’s program, renters in expensive cities like San Francisco could get tens of thousands in deductions. In the article, Grayson gave the example of an average taxpayer paying about $1,500 a month (or $18,000 a year). If he or she is in the 25% tax bracket, the savings could be $4,500 a year. Obviously in the Bay Area, where the average one-bedroom is well over that (check out the gallery above), the savings could be much greater. But living in an expensive area could also be a negative. Under the bill’s current language, renters would be unable to claim the deduction if their principal residence had an assessed or appraised value of over $1 million for the taxable year or $500,000 in the case of a married individual filing a separate return. In San Francisco, that could mean a family renting a newer two-bedroom condo wouldn’t qualify. Then there’s the question of whether or not the bill even has a chance of passing. For now, it is sitting in the House Committee on Ways and Means. Plus, Grayson currently has no cosponsors, which makes it unlikely that it will make it out of the Republican-held house. But you never know. Renters, reach out to your representatives or continue to let the homeowners have all the fun come tax time.This article is about the 1954 Hitchcock film. For other uses, see Rear Window (disambiguation) Rear Window is a 1954 American Technicolor mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by John Michael Hayes based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder". Originally released by Paramount Pictures, the film stars James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter, and Raymond Burr. It was screened at the 1954 Venice Film Festival. The film is considered by many filmgoers, critics, and scholars to be one of Hitchcock's best[3] and one of the greatest films ever made. It received four Academy Award nominations and was ranked number 42 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list and number 48 on the 10th-anniversary edition, and in 1997 was added to the United States National Film Registry in the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Plot [ edit ] Recuperating from a broken leg, adventuresome professional photographer L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies (Stewart) is confined to a wheelchair in his Greenwich Village apartment. His rear window looks out onto a courtyard and several other apartments. During a powerful heat wave, he watches his neighbors, who keep their windows open to stay cool. He observes a flamboyant dancer he nicknames "Miss Torso"; a single middle-aged woman he calls "Miss Lonelyhearts"; a talented, single, middle-aged composer-pianist; several married couples; a female sculptor; and Lars Thorwald (Burr), a traveling jewelry salesman with a bedridden wife. Jeff's sophisticated, beautiful socialite girlfriend, Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly), visits him regularly, as does his insurance company's nurse, Stella (Thelma Ritter). Stella wants Jeff to settle down and marry Lisa, but Jeff is reluctant. One night during a thunderstorm, Jeff hears a woman scream "Don't!" and then the sound of breaking glass. Later, he is awakened by thunder and observes Thorwald leaving his apartment. Thorwald makes repeated late-night trips carrying his sample case. The next morning, Jeff notices that Thorwald's wife is gone, and then sees Thorwald cleaning a large knife and handsaw. Later, Thorwald ties a large trunk with heavy rope and has moving men haul it away. Jeff discusses all this with Lisa and with Stella. Jeff becomes convinced that Thorwald has murdered his wife. Jeff explains this to his friend Tom Doyle (Wendell Corey), a New York City Police detective, and asks him to do some research. Doyle finds nothing suspicious; apparently, Mrs. Thorwald is upstate, and picked up the trunk herself. Soon after, a neighbor's dog is found dead with its neck broken. The dog's owner yells across the courtyard, complaining of her neighbors' callous disregard of others. All the neighbors run to their windows to see what is happening, except for Thorwald, whose cigar can be seen glowing as he sits quietly in his dark apartment. Certain that Thorwald is also guilty of killing the dog, Jeff asks Lisa to slip an accusatory note under his door, so Jeff can watch his reaction when he reads it. Then, as a pretext to get Thorwald out of his apartment, Jeff telephones him and arranges a meeting at a bar. He believes Thorwald buried something incriminating in the courtyard flower bed, and killed the dog to stop it digging there, so when Thorwald leaves, Lisa and Stella dig up the flowers; they find nothing. Much to Jeff's amazement and admiration, Lisa then climbs the fire escape to Thorwald's apartment and clambers in through an open window. When Thorwald returns and grabs Lisa, Jeff calls the police, who arrive in time to save her by arresting her. Jeff sees Lisa has her hands behind her back, wiggling her finger with Mrs. Thorwald's wedding ring on it. Thorwald notices this, and, realizing that she is signaling to someone, he sees Jeff across the courtyard. Jeff phones Doyle and leaves an urgent message. Stella heads for the police station to post bail for Lisa. When his phone rings, Jeff assumes it is Doyle, and says that the suspect has left the apartment. When no one answers, Jeff realizes that Thorwald himself had called, and is heading over to confront him. When Thorwald enters, Jeff repeatedly sets off his camera flashbulbs, temporarily blinding him. However, Thorwald grabs Jeff and manages to push him out of the open window, as Jeff is yelling for help. Police officers enter the apartment as he falls to the ground; other officers have run over to break his fall. Thorwald confesses to the police soon afterward. A few days later, the heat has lifted, and Jeff rests peacefully in his wheelchair, now with casts on both legs. The lonely neighbor is chatting with the pianist in his apartment, the dancer's lover returns home from the army, the couple whose dog was killed have a new dog, and the newly married couple are bickering. Lisa reclines on the daybed in Jeff's apartment, wearing jeans and apparently reading a book titled Beyond the High Himalayas. As soon as Jeff falls asleep, Lisa puts the book down and happily opens a fashion magazine. Cast [ edit ] Uncredited Harry Landers as young man guest of Miss Lonelyhearts [4] Ralph Smiles as Carl, the waiter [4] Fred Graham as detective[4] Cast notes Director Alfred Hitchcock makes his traditional cameo appearance in the songwriter's apartment, where he is seen winding a clock.[4] Production [ edit ] The film was shot entirely at Paramount studios, which included an enormous indoor set to replicate a Greenwich Village courtyard. Set designers Hal Pereira and Joseph MacMillan Johnson spent six weeks building the extremely detailed and complex set, which ended up being the largest of its kind at Paramount. One of the unique features of the set was its massive drainage system, constructed to accommodate the rain sequence in the film. They also built the set around a highly nuanced lighting system which was able to create natural-looking lighting effects for both the day and night scenes. Though the address given in the film is 125 W. Ninth Street in New York's Greenwich Village, the set was actually based on a real courtyard located at 125 Christopher Street.[5] In addition to the meticulous care and detail put into the set, careful attention was also given to sound, including the use of natural sounds and music that would drift across the courtyard and into Jefferies' apartment. At one point, the voice of Bing Crosby can be heard singing "To See You Is to Love You", originally from the 1952 Paramount film Road to Bali. Also heard on the soundtrack are versions of songs popularized earlier in the decade by Nat King Cole ("Mona Lisa", 1950) and Dean Martin ("That's Amore", 1952), along with segments from Leonard Bernstein's score for Jerome Robbins' ballet Fancy Free (1944), Richard Rodgers' song "Lover" (1932), and "M'appari tutt'amor" from Friedrich von Flotow's opera Martha (1844), most borrowed from Paramount's music publisher, Famous Music. Hitchcock used costume designer Edith Head on all of his Paramount films. Although veteran Hollywood composer Franz Waxman is credited with the score for the film, his contributions were limited to the opening and closing titles and the piano tune ("Lisa") written by one of the neighbors, a composer (Ross Bagdasarian), during the film. This was Waxman's final score for Hitchcock. The director used primarily "diegetic" sounds—sounds arising from the normal life of the characters—throughout the film.[6] Reception [ edit ] A "benefit world premiere" for the film, with United Nations officials and "prominent members of the social and entertainment worlds"[7] in attendance, was held on August 4, 1954, at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City, with proceeds going to the American–Korean Foundation (an aid organization founded soon after the end of the Korean War[8] and headed by Milton S. Eisenhower, brother of President Eisenhower). The movie was released wide on September 1, 1954.[citation needed] The movie went on to earn an estimated $5.3 million at the North American box office in 1954.[9] The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and is considered one of Hitchcock's finest films. On the website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has been universally praised, garnering a 100% certified fresh rating, based on 61 reviews, with the consensus stating that "Hitchcock exerted full potential of suspense in this masterpiece." Critic Bosley Crowther of The New York Times attended the benefit premiere, and in his review called the film a "tense and exciting exercise"[7] and Hitchcock a director whose work has a "maximum of build-up to the punch, a maximum of carefully tricked deception and incidents to divert and amuse." Crowther also notes: "Mr. Hitchcock's film is not'significant.' What it has to say about people and human nature is superficial and glib, but it does expose many facets of the loneliness of city life, and it tacitly demonstrates the impulse of morbid curiosity. The purpose of it is sensation, and that it generally provides in the colorfulness of its detail and in the flood of menace toward the end."[7] Time called it "just possibly the second-most entertaining picture (after The 39 Steps) ever made by Alfred Hitchcock" and a film in which there is "never an instant... when Director Hitchcock is not in minute and masterly control of his material."[10] The same review did note "occasional studied lapses of taste and, more important, the eerie sense a Hitchcock audience has of reacting in a manner so carefully foreseen as to seem practically foreordained."[10] Variety called the film "one of Alfred Hitchcock's better thrillers" which "combines technical and artistic skills in a manner that makes this an unusually good piece of murder mystery entertainment."[11] Nearly 30 years after the film's initial release, Roger Ebert reviewed the Universal re-release in October 1983, after Hitchcock's estate was settled. He said the film "develops such a clean, uncluttered line from beginning to end that we're drawn through it (and into it) effortlessly. The experience is not so much like watching a movie, as like... well, like spying on your neighbors. Hitchcock traps us right from the first... And because Hitchcock makes us accomplices in Stewart's voyeurism, we're along for the ride. When an enraged man comes bursting through the door to kill Stewart, we can't detach ourselves, because we looked too, and so we share the guilt and in a way we deserve what's coming to him."[12] Awards and honors [ edit ] Analysis [ edit ] In his book, Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window", John Belton addresses the underlying issues of voyeurism, that are evident in the film. He asserts "Rear Window's story is "about" spectacle; it explores the fascination with looking and the attraction of that which is being looked at."[13] Voyeurism [ edit ] John Fawell notes in Dennis Perry's book, Hitchcock and Poe: The Legacy of Delight and Terror, that Hitchcock "recognized that the darkest aspect of voyeurism…is our desire for awful things to happen to people...to make ourselves feel better, and to relieve ourselves of the burden of examining our own lives."[14] The Master of Terror challenges the audience, forcing them to peer through his rear window and become exposed to, as Donald Spoto calls it in his 1976 book The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures, the "social contagion" of acting as voyeur.[15] In an explicit example of a condemnation of voyeurism, Stella expresses her outrage at Jeffries' voyeuristic habits, saying, "In the old days, they'd put your eyes out with a red hot poker" and "What people ought to do is get outside and look in for a change." One climactic scene in the film portrays both the positive and negative effects of voyeurism. Driven by curiosity and incessant watching, with Jeffries watching from his window, Lisa sneaks into Thorwald's second-floor apartment, looking for clues, and is apprehended by him. Jeffries is in obvious anxiety and is overcome with panic as he sees Thorwald walk into the apartment and notice the irregular placement of the purse on the bed. Jeffries anxiously jitters in his wheelchair, and grabs his telephoto camera to watch the situation unfold, eventually calling the police because Miss Lonelyhearts is contemplating suicide in the neighboring apartment. Chillingly, Jeffries watches Lisa in Thorwald's apartment rather than keeping an eye on the woman about to commit suicide. Thorwald turns off the lights, shutting off Jeffries' sole means of communication with and protection of Lisa; Jeffries still pays attention to the pitch-black apartment instead of Miss Lonelyhearts. The tension Jeffries feels is unbearable and acutely distressing as he realizes that he is responsible for Lisa now that he cannot see her. The police go to the Thorwald apartment, the lights flicker on, and any danger coming toward Lisa is temporarily dismissed. Although Lisa is taken to jail, Jeffries is utterly mesmerized by her dauntless actions. With further analysis, Jeffries' positive evolution understandably would be impossible without voyeurism—or as Robin Wood puts it in his 1989 book Hitchcock's Films Revisited, "the indulging of morbid curiosity and the consequences of that indulgence."[16] Legacy [ edit ] In 1997, Rear Window was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". By this time, the film interested other directors with its theme of voyeurism, and other reworkings of the film soon followed, which included Brian De Palma's 1984 film Body Double and Phillip Noyce's 1993 film Sliver. Rear Window was restored by the team of Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz for its 1999 limited theatrical re-release (using Technicolor dye-transfer prints for the first time in this title's history) and the Collector's Edition DVD release in 2000. American Film Institute included the film as number 42 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies, number 14 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills, number 48 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) and number three in AFI's 10 Top 10 (Mysteries).[17] Ownership [ edit ] Ownership of the copyright in Woolrich's original story was eventually litigated before the Supreme Court of the United States in Stewart v. Abend.[18] The film was copyrighted in 1954 by Patron Inc., a production company set up by Hitchcock and Stewart. As a result, Stewart and Hitchcock's estate became involved in the Supreme Court case, and Sheldon Abend became a producer of the 1998 remake of Rear Window. Rear Window is one of several of Hitchcock's films originally released by Paramount Pictures, for which Hitchcock retained the copyright, and which was later acquired by Universal Studios in 1983 from Hitchcock's estate. Home media [ edit ] On September 4, 2012, Universal Studios Home Entertainment re-released Rear Window to DVD, as a Region 1 widescreen DVD. This release includes the items available in the 2001 release. On May 6, 2014, Universal Studios Home Entertainment released Rear Window to Blu-ray format, with slightly expanded extras. In popular culture [ edit ] Rear Window has been repeatedly retold, parodied, or referenced. Film Television Literature Nova Ren Suma's short story "The Birds of Azalea Street", in the anthology Slasher Girls and Monster Boys (2015), was partially inspired by Rear Window.[35] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Notes Further readingLuminosity end the first day at ELEAGUE with two more wins, this time over Liquid (Dust2 16-6, Cobblestone 16-14). The third and last match of day one of the first week in Atlanta was between Luminosity and Liquid and it started out on Dust2, where the latter team already lost earlier to Cloud9. Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski and Eric "adreN" Hoag kicked it off with doubles on the CT pistol, but their five-SMG buy in the following round backfired and gave Luminosity a string of rounds. It wasn't until 8-1 for the Brazilians before Liquid won their second round in the half due to a 2v2 afterplant win on the A bombsite. Day one in Atlanta came to a close with Luminosity on top It wasn't quite enough to turn the match on its head however, Luminosity broke their opponents' economy afterwards and got to 11 rounds before Liquid closed out the half with two rounds in a row. Nearly all hope for the Americans was lost when the pistol round went into the hands of the favorites, who
to see what you will do with the three when they roll out in Common Test. Take them for a test drive and share your impressions with us on the forum.An official at the National Labor Relations Board has called for the agency to toss out the results of an unsuccessful vote to unionize adjunct instructors at Marist College after concluding that the election had been tainted by the college’s interference and by ballots wrongly cast by administrative employees. Thomas A. Miller, a regional NLRB hearing officer, said in a report released on Monday that illegal actions by the private college, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., justified disallowing the narrow vote against unionization that had resulted. He said the college’s administration had interfered in the process just before ballots were cast last June by offering adjuncts pay raises, proposing the establishment of a faculty committee on adjunct issues in lieu of a union, and enforcing a faculty-email policy in an inconsistent manner to put the union organizers at a disadvantage. Mr. Miller called for a new union election to be held if a recount of 39 ballots that had survived challenge does not cause the results of the voting in June to tip in favor of the formation of a collective-bargaining unit affiliated with the Service Employees International Union. He said the board should exclude from consideration 47 other ballots that were challenged and had remain uncounted because the people who cast those ballots were administrative employees with some teaching duties rather than members of the part-time faculty population that the union hopes to represent.© John Cheng LAS VEGAS, Feb. 21, 2015 – Paul Ruggeri of Manlius, N.Y./Team Hilton HHonors (U.S. Olympic Training Center), won the all-around competition at the Winter Cup Challenge at Las Vegas’ Riviera Hotel & Casino’s Royale Pavilion. He posted a combined total of 175.250, ahead of Steven Legendre of Norman, Okla./Team Hilton HHonors (University of Oklahoma), 174.700, and Donnell Whittenburg of Baltimore, Md./Team Hilton HHonors (U.S. Olympic Training Center), 174.500. Ruggeri began on the high bar, where he performed a layout Kolman and a nearly stuck layout double-double dismount for a 15.050. In rotation two, he tumbled an Arabian double layout and a tucked full-in for a 15.350. He earned scores of 13.400, pommel horse, and 13.650, still rings, in rotations three and four, respectively. Ruggeri vaulted a Yurchenko half-on, front double full off for a 15.350. Entering the final rotation with just a.050 lead over Legendre, Ruggeri delivered a 14.750 on the parallel bars to win the title. Legendre, who was competing in his first event since last year’s Winter Cup, posted scores of 15.450, floor exercise; 13.600, pommel horse; 14.850, still rings; 15.300, vault; 13.650, parallel bars, and 14.250, high bar. Whittenburg’s best score came on the parallel bars where he posted a 15.400 in the final rotation. His other scores were: 13.850, high bar; 14.950, floor; 13.250, pommel horse; 14.850, still rings; and 15.000, vault. Legendre earned the floor exercise title with a combined score of 31.100. Ellis Mannon of Indianapolis/University of Minneapolis, won the pommel horse gold with a 30.700. Marvin Kimble of Milwaukee/Swiss Turners, took the top spot on the still rings with a 30.300. Ruggeri posted the high scores on vault (30.700) and high bar (30.550). Danell Leyva of Miami/Team Hilton HHonors (Universal) won the parallel bars title, posting 30.550. Performances at the 2015 Winter Cup Challenge will help determine the 15 men who will comprise the U.S. Men's Senior National Team through the 2015 P&G Gymnastics Championships in Indianapolis Aug. 13-16. The six members of the 2014 World Championships squad, plus the alternate, retain their spots on the national team. The remaining eight spots will be determined based on the following criteria: the top three ranked all-around athletes who are not already on the senior national team; two based on the National Team Points System; two athletes selected by the Men's Program Committee; and one selected by the national team coordinator. The top 42 gymnasts, according to the Men's Program Committee's points ranking system, will advance to the final competition, along with the top three gymnasts on each apparatus. The all-around and individual event champions will be determined via a combined two-day score. For information on the points ranking system used for advancement to the final round, as well as the one for determining the national team, click here.I was listening to my local NPR outlet this morning when a particular news story piqued my interest — the ACLU and Kairys Rudovsky Messing & Feinberg had just filed their Third Report to the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania regarding the monitoring of stop and frisk practices. I said to myself: “I need to get a copy of this report right away.” Which I did. And I read it. And I got furious. According to the report, the police are doing an excellent job of determining who the bad guys are, searching them, and finding illegal guns and drugs arresting lots of people for no reason and violating citizen’s rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Here are some highlights. Let’s talk about stops first. In the first and second quarter of 2012, police stopped 1852 pedestrians. Of those stops, in only 976 did police have reasonable suspicion to stop the pedestrian (about 53%). Police had no reasonable suspicion in 876 stops Pedestrian stops are being made without reasonable suspicion in 47% of cases. How about frisks? In the first and second quarter of 2012, police frisked 265 pedestrians. Only 97 of these were done with reasonable suspicion. 115 of them were done without reasonable suspicion. Frisks are being conducted without reasonable suspicion in about 43% of cases! But they’re stopping all people equally, right? Justice is colorblind! African Americans and Latinos make up 76% of the people police decide to stop. Overall, 85% of stops are minorities. In predominately African American districts, most marijuana possession arrests were of young African American men. , most marijuana possession arrests were of. In predominately white districts, most marijuana possession arrests were of … also young African American men. , most marijuana possession arrests were of …. In District 5 (a predominately white district) there were no possession of marijuana arrests. The police are aware of this problem, though, and are working to fix it in complete denial and using that new math to come up with significantly different results. Police analysts found that, depending on the police division, that between 96 and 100% of stops were legally justified ( only 0%-4% without reasonable suspicion). only 0%-4% without reasonable suspicion). They also found that, depending on the police division, that between 98% and 100% of frisks were legally justified (only 0% to 2% without reasonable suspicion). But Politicians and Law Enforcement say that Stop and Frisk gets weapons and drugs off the streets! They are either stupid, in denial, or lying. You pick. In Philadelphia, there were 1,852 stops in the first two quarters of 2012. stops in the first two quarters of 2012. Contraband of any kind was recovered in only 29 of these stops. That’s a 1.57% effective rate of recovery. Guns were recovered in only 3 of those stops. That’s a 0.16% recovery rate. Top three completely valid and constitutional reasons excuses for conducting illegal searches and seizures: “officer protection.” “narcotics investigation.” “suspect was in a high crime or high drug” area. What defense attorney hasn’t and rolled their eyes (internally, at least) after hearing words while an office is testifying? For good measure, here’s the text of the Fourth Amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. And the Pennsylvania Constitution has this to say: Section 8. Security From Searches and Seizures The people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers and possessions from unreasonable searches and seizures, and no warrant to search any place or seize any person or things shall issue without describing them as nearly as may be, nor without probable case, supported by oath or affirmation subscribed to by the affiant. If you are stopped by police while on the street: Stay calm. Getting agitated is a natural reaction, but it will not help your situation. Keep your hands where police can see them (e.g. out of your pockets). Ask “am I free to leave?” If they say “yes”, then say nothing and calmly walk away. If they ask “you mind if I take a look around/search you/check your pockets?” say “I do not consent to a search.” If you let them search you, this could hurt you in court if you end up getting arrested. Remember that you do NOT have to consent to a search of your belongings, but police may conduct a pat-down of your outer clothing if they suspect that you have a weapon. Ask “am I under arrest?” If they say anything but an unequivocal “yes,” walk away. Otherwise, stay quiet. If you’re arrested, and the police start asking your questions, the only words you should say are “I want to talk with my lawyer.” The police should immediately stop questioning you. If they continue, just answer with “I want to talk with my lawyer.” The bottom line: stop and frisk is, at best, security theater. At worst, it’s a state intrusion into the lives of law-abiding citizens who get thrown up on a wall by a cadre of officers who rifle through your pockets because you’re black or latino. It’s most certainly complete bullshit. Read the report below, or download it here. Read more about the case on the ACLU’s site. Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Print Email Like this: Like Loading... RelatedRecovering Hill staffer Ted Henderson wants to liberate congressional aides from the specter of having their deepest, darkest work gripes traced back to them via pre-existing communication platforms. His solution: the identity-eschewing Cloakroom. Ex-Rep. Dale E. Kildee's former aide, who mined his inside-baseball experience to create the online advocacy tool Capitol Bells, told HOH he carved out the haven for free expression to enable no-holds-barred dialogue among rank-and-file feds. “The listservs are all based on your staffer email address, so everything you say is attributed to both you and your boss,” Henderson said of internal channels used for everything from talking up potential new hires to extorting favors. “What you say might be scrutinized, manipulated or leaked,” he said, citing social media as equally dangerous territory. Not so in Henderson’s fledgling clubhouse. “Cloakroom is completely disconnected from your real identity,” Henderson explained, adding that users are welcome to adopt up to five aliases within the virtual community. “So you can use one alias to write about natural resources and another to become the preeminent Longworth cafeteria critic — without worrying about your boss putting two and two together and figuring out it's you challenging his lunch priorities.” In an effort to keep the conversation flowing among actual peers, the app requires users to “check-in” at least once every 24 hours (the associated mobile device must be within one kilometer of the Capitol to sync up) before granting full access. Per Henderson, anyone willing to provide a dedicated congressional email address can automatically bypass the geographic tagging altogether. “In that case the plain-text email is deleted before the user even finishes verifying the account,” he said of the service’s commitment to shielding users’ personal data. “We even provide a nuclear option to users to permanently delete all the messages they've written using the app,” Henderson said of a custom designed fail-safe. “Political professionals shouldn't have to risk their careers to speak candidly on social media, whether it’s serious or fun,” he said. The 114th: CQ Roll Call's Guide to the New Congress Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call in your inbox or on your iPhone.Waste from the 700 climbers and guides a year who attempt to scale the mountain is becoming a health hazard Human waste left by climbers on Mount Everest has become a problem that is causing pollution and threatening to spread disease on the world’s highest peak, the chief of Nepal’s mountaineering association said Tuesday. The more than 700 climbers and guides who spend nearly two months on Everest’s slopes each climbing season leave large amounts of faeces and urine, and the issue has not been addressed, Ang Tshering told reporters. He said Nepal’s government needs to get the climbers to dispose of the waste properly so the mountain remains pristine. Hundreds of foreign climbers attempt to scale Everest during Nepal’s mountaineering season, which began this week and runs through May. Last year’s season was canceled after 16 local guides were killed in an avalanche in April. Why whale poo matters \| George Monbiot Read more Climbers spend weeks acclimatising around the four camps set up between the base camp at 5,300m (17,380ft) and the 8,850m-high (29,035ft) summit. The camps have tents and some essential equipment and supplies, but do not have toilets. “Climbers usually dig holes in the snow for their toilet use and leave the human waste there,” Tshering said, adding that the waste has been “piling up” for years around the four camps. At the base camp, where there are more porters, cooks and support staff during the climbing season, there are toilet tents with drums to store the waste. Once filled, the drums are carried to a lower area, where the waste is properly disposed. Dawa Steven Sherpa, who has been leading Everest cleanup expeditions since 2008, said some climbers carry disposable travel toilet bags to use in the higher camps. “It is a health hazard and the issue needs to be addressed,” he said. Nepal’s government has not come up with a plan yet to tackle the issue of human waste. But starting this season, officials stationed at the base camp will strictly monitor garbage on the mountain, said Puspa Raj Katuwal, the head of the government’s Mountaineering Department. The government imposed new rules last year requiring each climber to bring down to the base camp 8kgs (18 pounds) of trash the amount it estimates a climber discards along the route. Climbing teams must leave a $4,000 deposit that they lose if they don’t comply with the regulations, Katuwal said. More than 4,000 climbers have scaled summit since 1953, when it was first conquered by New Zealand climber Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay. Hundreds of others have died in the attempt, while many have succeeded only with help from oxygen tanks, equipment porters and Sherpa guides.MEMPHIS, TN - DECEMBER 1: Nikola Vucevic #9 of the Orlando Magic handles the ball during a game against the Memphis Grizzlies on December 1, 2016 at FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2016 NBAE (Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images) There were no Playoff proclamations at Media Day this year. The Orlando Magic are taking a more measured approach, turning to the daily process to improve. This time last year, the Orlando Magic were fairly open with their goals. They were not hiding from the pressure the team was under to make good on a four-year absence from the Playoffs or the investment the team had made in its team financially. Players stated they were planning on making the Playoffs. They did not mince words or hedge their bets. The goal was to make the Playoffs. Their ultimate arrival in the postseason was not to be doubted, no matter how few people actually picked them to make the Playoffs beforehand. The confidence was positively bursting. The Magic believed wholeheartedly they had taken that last step. <Narrator voice> They had not. The 2017 season was a rough one that the Magic are still, in many ways, coming to terms with. The season wore on coach Frank Vogel throughout, frustrating him to no end. Longtime player with both the Indiana Pacers and Orlando Magic Damjan Rudez said it was clear to him Vogel was frustrated. Vogel is a guy who wears his emotions on his sleeve he said and Vogel felt very responsible for what happened last year. Damjan Rudez even said it was clear at points of the 2017 season the team did not play hard enough. Bismack Biyombo added if a player was not frustrated with last season, they do not really love basketball. Nikola Vucevic admitted to letting frustration get the best of him at times. Several players at the Magic’s 2018 Media Day outright called the 2017 season a failure. In many ways, the offseason provided some therapy from such a difficult season. And a tempering of expectations as they enter the next one. “Day to day and game after game is really the mentality right now,” Evan Fournier told Orlando Magic Daily at Magic Media Day on Monday. “We have to get better each and every game. After each practice, we have to get better. That is how we are going to win. If we are going to be successful, we have to create something and build it from the ground. Every practice and every game is going to be important for us if we are going to have a good year.” Very few players on the Magic would deviate from that focused goal. The Magic were not going to fall back into the trap of promising the Playoffs and coming up short on the delivery. In many respects, they said it would be skipping steps. And this time the Magic are not going to skip the steps necessary to win — even if the process takes a bit longer. Bismack Biyombo said the goal was simply to play to win. The goal is not to make the Playoffs but to focus on winning every single game and doing what it takes to win each individual game. He said the goal is not to win more games necessarily or to judge the season based on that number. Playing the right way and accumulating wins individually will help take care of the larger goal. This all sounds like coachspeak in a lot of ways. Saying a team has to focus on winning is the kind of obvious statement that receives some ridicule. But for a franchise that has not been the Playoffs in five years and struggled with all those expectations last year, the seemingly mundane and obvious becomes a goal in itself. The team is returning to a process-driven approach. An approach where the goal is to get better each day and build the team up. The results would take care of themselves. “We can’t focus on the end result, we have to focus on the process and the task at hand,” Vogel told Orlando Magic Daily at Media Day on Monday. “That is how you achieve the result. I’m definitely focused on that.” Vogel said he felt the team played the right style for the team it had to start the season. But things had to improve overall. As that collapsed, the team clearly needed a shift. And even as the Magic changed their style and found some success, there was still a lot the team had to improve. Orlando knows it is still working with small margins for error. Nobody is ready to put the cart before the horse with this team again. Still, there is a quiet optimism about the team. A growing excitement to get things going, perhaps born out of the reality of being 0-0 and an anxiousness to start the season. “Every season is a new season,” Nikola Vucevic told Orlando Magic Daily at Magic Media Day on Monday. “I think guys have improved over the summer. We brought in some good veterans. Some guys who have played for good teams and good coaches. They will bring us a lot of experience. There are young guys who have been here the last few seasons who have improved.” Vucevic said the pressure to make the Playoffs was real last year. He said the team overthought things a lot of times last year trying to chase that goal. Once things started falling apart, he said the frustration sank in and the team did not play to its full level — individually and as a team. The Magic needed a fresh look. While Orlando did not get a full makeover on the roster, the front office had a major turnover. The Magic hired president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman and he worked to remake the bench as a start. But his task was to help instill confidence and faith in the players that remains. Vogel’s shift to a smaller lineup helped begin that process. It appears the Magic are set to run that experiment again and hope for better overall results. “I think the goal is to put our guys in a position to succeed,” Weltman told Orlando Magic Daily at the Magic’s Media Day on Monday. “I don’t feel you can ever go wrong by adding character and shooting and veteran experience. We’re trying to add the best players and the best people that we can and evaluate and see how it looks. I think it is important to get to know our players both the ones we brought in this summer and the ones we inherited. Putting them in the best position to show what they can do is priority one for us.” The Magic’s expectations for this year are very different. The tenor from the team as they gathered together for the first time is very different than it was a year ago. That is not to say the Magic do not hope to make the Playoffs. The way they are going about achieving that goal is very different. Perhaps these are some of the scars from last year’s frustrating defeat. They do not want to get anyone’s hopes or expectations too high. Yet, the Magic still want to demand a lot from themselves. By narrowing the focus, perhaps they have done that. So Orlando is trying a different approach entering this season. The team is not going to outright proclaim themselves ready for the Playoffs and put that pressure on. The pressure to win remains. It remains in the pressure to get better every day. It may be cliche. But the Magic are hoping this refreshed approach can lead to the progress the Magic have lacked the last few years.F17 heads up: gnome-shell for everyone! As of tomorrow's rawhide [1], gnome-session will no longer treat llvmpipe as an unsupported driver. This means gnome-shell will run even on hardware without a native 3D driver, including virt guests. There are probably bugs! I've done some quick tests on the hardware I have handy and in kvm, and things do appear to work. You, lucky contestant, might have a different experience. If you do, bugzilla is standing by and ready to take your call; please file against the'mesa' component and set me as the assignee. In the meantime you can still get to fallback mode through the Graphics section of the System Info control panel. Very little performance work has been done on this yet - like, literally, none - though there are some things you can do [2]. Outside of virt you will probably want to tell your driver to use ShadowFB in xorg.conf. This will disable hardware acceleration, but in exchange you won't be doing very slow GetImages all the time to get textures loaded into the compositor. In virt, however, the double-buffering done by ShadowFB just slows you down, so you're probably best off switching your driver to NoAccel instead. The vesa driver should get this right for you already, as should cirrus under virt. Beyond that, most of the performance work is going to require new kernel and Mesa features. For details, please see: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/Gnome_shell_software_rendering If you're interested in contributing to this effort, please follow up on dri-devel at lists.freedesktop.org. [1] - In particular, you'll need these packages or newer for things to work: mesa-*-7.11-9.fc17 cogl-1.8.2-4.fc17 gnome-session-3.3.1-2.fc17 [2] - It's something of a policy decision to get some of these things "right" by default, because you're deciding to throw away hardware accel on old chips, and some people who aren't using gnome-shell might think that's worth keeping. We'll figure something out, I'm sure, but contributions are most welcome. - ajax -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 198 bytes Desc: This is a digitally signed message part Url : http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/devel/attachments/20111103/dabd7173/attachment.binThe days of putting up with crumbling asphalt streets might just come to an end. Construction company VolkerWessels has revealed plans for recycled plastic roads that are both more sustainable and more practical than old-fashioned blacktop. Besides reusing material, they’d last about three times longer and survive greater temperature ranges (between -40F and 176F) — despite their fragile look, they’re less likely to crack under the strain of vehicles or the weather. You can pre-assemble them to lay them down faster, too, and their hollow structure is handy for cabling and pipes. This is just a concept at the moment, but VolkerWessels fully intends to test it and make sure that it holds up in the real world. That’s not idle talk, either. The Dutch city of Rotterdam is interested in trying out these plastic surfaces in its “street lab,” and the company hopes to have an honest-to-goodness route in operation within three years. If the idea still sounds outlandish, look at it this way: it’s likely the closest you’ll ever get to driving a Hot Wheels track in real life.The message on Zirtual's site now. Zirtual In the middle of the night, a startup that had raised $5.5 million dissolved and disappeared. It deleted its Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, and Google+ profile. It changed its website to say it was "pausing operations." At 1:34 a.m. PT on Monday, Zirtual, a virtual-assistant company, sent an email to all of its employees saying it had ceased operations, effective immediately. A follow-up note to its clients said it was "pausing operations" to reorganize its structure. The news stung because there was no warning from the company, according to several former employees who spoke with Business Insider. The company and its CEO, Maren Kate Donovan, did not respond to requests for comment on this article. Everything seemed normal... Even 13 hours before it shut down, Zirtual was still accepting sign ups and the money that came with them, according to Aaron Weber, who posted photos of his short-lived run with Zirtual on Twitter. Donovan, the company's CEO and cofounder, had just written three weeks ago in Fortune about the need for transparency during a company shift, saying employees needed time to adjust: Because what my employees don't know could ultimately hurt the entire business. The sooner your team knows about upcoming shifts in the company — the better. Additionally, give your employees ample time to adjust, as change in a company can often lead to people feeling unstable in their positions. And be transparent. Maren Kate Donovan, CEO of Zirtual. Zirtual Yet Monday's email was not a warning to employees, but a door slammed in their face. Employees said they felt blindsided and not prepared for the news, according to the employees Business Insider spoke with and the outpouring of shock on Twitter. "I woke up this morning thinking it was a normal Monday morning. I was going to wake up, have my coffee, and have my weekly morning call with my client," Carol Murrah, who had worked for Zirtual for 2 1/2 years, told Business Insider. Before Murrah had a chance to read the email, the client broke the news over the phone as Murrah tried to fire up her computer and found herself locked out. "I always knew I was going to get my paycheck, until today," Murrah said. "I expected to get paid this Friday, and that's not happening." Growing, but too fast? Former employees told Business Insider the company had been on a rapid hiring spree during the past 18 months, ballooning its numbers from around 150 to the 400 employees it laid off Monday. In an interview on Friday with Jason Calacanis — who is also an investor in the company — on "This Week in Startups," Donovan said the hardest part of scaling Zirtual was "growth capital." "Since we're employees versus contractors, it's hiring ahead, building out this stuff," Donovan said of the challenges, just three days before the startup shut down. "It's seeing the future and playing the game right now." Over the past few months, work had slowed from some of its virtual assistants, but many thought it was because of the summer vacation season. "In the last two months or so, work has slowed down significantly," Murrah said. "We were pretty confused as to why. We weren't having client cancellations. We were never once told that was something to worry about." For employees, it seemed as if growth was on the up-and-up, according to several virtual assistants we spoke with. Donovan's monthly "state of the union" emails never hinted at problems, and there was even talk of gradually raising the minimum wage of virtual assistants to $15 an hour from $11. Zirtual was beta-testing a teams product that could allow whole teams to sign up. "We were looking at it as, 'Oh, there's progression, we're growing,'" Daniell Wells, a virtual assistant who was with the company since February, told Business Insider. What goes up, must come down In the end, it's unclear why Zirtual has shut down, though it's clear it was in haste. While the company had raised $5.5 million, all of its rounds after seed funding were debt rounds, including one at the end of July. When it started, Zirtual was a personal, virtual concierge service that charged only $99 a month for unlimited tasks, Donovan said on the show. The company has been loyal to some of those plans, though, and that may have cost it. "A completely unsustainable business model, but we still have some legacy plans that are sticking around," Donovan told Calacanis. "We grandfathered a crap ton of stuff." Calacanis, who had interviewed Donovan on Friday, said on Twitter he found out as an investor that there were problems only on Saturday, though he hopes it can make a comeback. Calacanis did not immediately respond to requests for comment. While some may be more positive about a restart, the shock is still fresh for those who lost their jobs. Wells said they had received only the notice of the company ceasing operations, but no other massive direct communication from leadership. Important information regarding things such as severance and health insurance is still unresolved. Former employees said they didn't know whether Zirtual would even be able to make this Friday's paycheck for the employees' last week of work. Despite the lack of communication from leadership, former employees have created a Facebook group and a Slack team so they can stay in touch and share what little information they have received. They are scrambling to educate themselves on how to be come 1099 contractors, how to get in touch with old clients and how to rebuild their careers. "There are 400 employees who were given the notice this morning," Wells said. "They are all available for work. It was a really poor move. I'm at a loss for words."Tahoe OG Kush is an evenly balanced hybrid (50% sativa/50% indica) strain created through as an OG Kush phenotype. This celebrity child is well-loved for its sensually uplifting effects powered by a THC level that typically falls between 14-21% on average. The Tahoe OG Kush high starts with a numbing uplifting head high that’s smooth and euphoric in nature with a slight sense of clarity and alertness. You’ll be insanely giggly and social in this state, making it perfect for social occasions. This high slowly ebbs throughout the body with a calming tingly sensation that leaves you incredibly aroused and horny yet surprisingly hungry. Because of these effects, Tahoe OG Kush is said to be the perfect bud for treating conditions such as appetite loss, chronic fatigue, mild to moderate cases of depression, and chronic stress or anxiety. This bud has small and piecey shaped musty green nugs with dark amber hairs and a thick frosty coating of amber hued trichomes and sweet sticky resin. Tahoe OG Kush has a classic lemony earthy aroma with a spicy pungent kush taste that has a sweet citrusy aftertaste upon exhale, making this bud as delicious as it feels! Chrono’s Comments: A really solid strain with, nice bling, some purple hues on nugs, and sparkling thc makes this an even well balanced strain. Somewhat scrappy appearance with a mid-day/dinnertime high. Very nice aroma og or pink-link nose, quite heavy. Slight fox tailing on some nugs, mildly airy with some denser nugs mostly small to medium consistency throughout the bags. Burn is nice and consistent after light, quite white, all around winner for our supersale item! Great quality for economical price.Joe Buhnerkempe / Vimeo If this sign for Burger King looks a little off, that's because it doesn't belong to "Burger King," the huge fast-food chain known for the Whopper. This is the original Burger King, in Mattoon, Ill., which opened in 1957. Its name was registered as a trademark in Illinois a couple of years later by owners Gene and Betty Hoots. When a national company began opening a chain of Burger Kings across the U.S., the Hootses sued — and won. But only in Illinois. The case is a famous precedent in trademark law. The ruling prevents Burger King from opening any competing store with a 20 mile radius of the original in Mattoon. This search result for "Burger King Mattoon" links to the wrong restaurant site. Google Burger King the chain has gone to some lengths to ignore Burger King of Mattoon. If you do a Google search for "Burger King Mattoon," the results show a link that goes to Burger King the corporation's homepage, even though it is labeled with a Google map of the Mattoon location. The Hoots seem to have a sense of humor about their role in intellectual property jurisprudence. They sell a menu item called the Hooter Burger, a play on the family name. The better-known restaurant chain that goes by the name Hooters has chosen to ignore them. Here's George... Joe Buhnerkempe / Vimeo And here's Gene... Joe Buhnerkempe / Vimeo And here's the restaurant...Roger Roger (5 August 1911 – 12 June 1995) was a French film composer and bandleader.[1] His aliases included Eric Swan and Cecil Leuter, the last being a pseudonym he used for his electronic productions. He was one of the first, with Pierre Henry and Jean-Jacques Perrey, to experiment with the Moog synthesizer; his Pop Electronique album was released in 1969,[2] five years after Bob Moog put his electronic device on the market. Roger died in Paris in 1995. Since his death, renewed interest in light music has seen several CD albums released, both in dedicated albums and in compilations, including music used under the test card by the BBC in the 1970s. He is listed as the composer for two episodes of the Flash Gordon (1954) television series, and for the series' incidental music.[3][4] In 1971 he released the album Jungle Obssession, on Neuilly Records, with frequent collaborator of childhood friend Nino Nardini.[5][6] Farmer Alfalfa [ edit ] His piece "Komic Kapers" was used in the 1950s by the Commonwealth cartoon distribution company. They put it as the opening music when adding sound to many of Paul Terry's silent Farmer Alfalfa cartoons from the 1920s (also known as Farmer Grey). Although never chosen by Terry, Rogers's piece was indelibly imprinted on a whole generation of children as the signature tune for these strange, eerie, frantic cartoons. Discography [ edit ] Major records Catalog Nr. Artists Track listing 5217 Roger Roger A – 1. Dramatic Appasionata, 2. Dramatic Appasionata; B – Morning Breezes 5218 Roger Roger A – The Fascinating Valse; B – 1. Peasant Dance, 2. Cavern Mysterioso 5219 Roger Roger A – Dawn's Awakening; B – 1. Ballerina Petite, 2. Fanfare 5220 Roger Roger A – The Coyote Serenade; B – Metropolitan Rhapsody 5222 Roger Roger A – 1. The Queen's Processional, 2. The Clown's Frolic; B – 1. Devilish Menace, 2. Dismal Mists; 3. Caribbean Winds, 4. Rhythm of Doom 5224 Roger Roger A – 1. Adoration of Love, 2. Komic Kapers, 3. Dramatic Finale, 4. Uplift Finale, 5. Steps of Mystery; B – Our Industrial World 5225 Roger Roger A – 1. Love Triumphant, 2. Tipsy Mockingbird; B – 1. Deserted City, 2. Rue de la Paix, 3. The Cafe Musette Waltz 5231 Roger Roger A – Hope's Awakening; B – Tread of Doom 5266 Geo. S. Chase/Roger Roger A – Valse Charmante (Geo S. Chase); B –
things? As we continue to grow, perhaps time will tell.On Monday, the UK House of Commons passed the Digital Economy Bill, which will require British nationals to register with the government in order to watch porn. The Digital Economy Bill will now go on for review at the House of Lords, the Belfast Telegraph reports. In addition to the special age verification system, the law includes other features that sound like they were ripped out of a George Orwell book—and may not even be effective in achieving their intended aim. The proposed law also makes provisions for increased data-sharing, restricting access to online commercial pornography, and altering the county’s electronic communications infrastructure and services, according to the UK Parliament. Free speech advocates and security experts argue that pornographic material banned by the bill could still be made available via non-adult outlets such as Twitter, according to the news outlet, and that the age verifications could jeopardize UK residents’ cybersafety. Matt Hancock, UK Culture Minister, said that the changes will protect children under a more robust regime, even though the proposed measures do not add up to a “utopia,” the Belfast Telegraph reports. And there are other, less threatening features of the bill, such as entitling consumers to a minimum internet speed, updated regulations dealing with telecommunications infrastructure, and modernized intellectual property statutes for digital industries, according to the Commons Library analysis of the Digital Economy Bill. For his part, Ed Vaizey, former UK Minister for the Digital Economy said following publication of the bill that it would “provide the necessary framework to make sure we remain world leaders” at the frontier of technological change.US researchers have identified drug pricing as one area of high costs of cancer care, and say that they can be reduced without harming patients. End-of-life care and medical imaging are two other areas where costs can safely be reduced, say Johns Hopkins experts Prof Thomas Smith and Dr Ronan Kelly, in a review article published in The Lancet Oncology. Rising numbers of new cancer cases among an aging population are inflating total US cancer costs, which are projected to increase by nearly 40% in 2020, and changing practice patterns should be a priority among oncologists to achieve affordable costs, they say. And the biggest opportunities for safe and ethical cost-cutting solutions rest in caring for patients with metastatic cancer, not on new surgical or radiation treatments, clinical trials, curative care or paediatric care, they add. For example, improving end-of-life care with better decision-making and planning could reap large cost savings by reducing hospitalisations in the last month of life. Most people prefer to spend their last days at home, but US Medicare data show that 60% of poor-progress cancer patients are admitted to a hospital in the last month of life, and 30% die there. Also, studies show that hospice care improves symptoms, helps caregivers and costs less with equal or better survival for patients, but only half of cancer patients use hospices in their last month of life. The researchers call for patients with poor prognoses to have better and earlier discussions with their oncologists about chemotherapy use at the end of life, as well as transitions to hospice care. Unneeded and expensive imaging poses another opportunity to limit costs of care, they add. PET and other scans, for example, are often used to detect cancer recurrence in patients after initial treatments, but studies show that cure rates are just as good when recurrences are found through other examinations. Finally, the authors suggest that reducing the prices of new cancer drugs can help contain cancer costs. “There are drugs that cost tens of thousands of dollars with an unbalanced relationship between cost and benefit. We need to determine appropriate prices for drugs and inform patients about their costs of care,” says Prof Smith. One approach suggested by the authors is to price drugs according to how well they prolong life. “We need to include patients, pharmaceutical companies and legislators in our efforts to contain cancer care costs, so that we can afford to provide innovative, quality care to future generations,” adds Prof Smith.Scientist Says "Exotic" Life Could Exist in Pluto's Heart "Life can tolerate a lot of stuff: It can tolerate a lot of salt, extreme cold, extreme heat, etc. But I don't think it can tolerate the amount of ammonia Pluto needs to prevent its ocean from freezing," MacKinnon said in a statement. "If you're going to talk about life in an ocean that's completely covered with an ice shell, it seems most likely that the best you could hope for is some extremely primitive kind of organism. It might even be pre-cellular, like we think the earliest life on Earth was." "What I think is down there in the ocean is rather noxious, very cold, salty and very ammonia-rich - almost a syrup. It's no place for germs, much less fish or squid, or any life as we know it," he added. "But as with the methane seas on Titan - Saturn's main moon - it raises the question of whether some truly novel life forms could exist in these exotic, cold liquids." "All of these ideas about an ocean inside Pluto are credible, but they are inferences, not direct detections," McKinnon said, sounding the call. "If we want to confirm that such an ocean exists, we will need gravity measurements or subsurface radar sounding, all of which could be accomplished by a future orbiter mission to Pluto. It's up to the next generation to pick up where New Horizons left off!" Recent studies have indicated that there is likely a subsurface ocean underneath Pluto's Sputnik Planitia. But does that mean there could be extraterrestrial life? Pluto is most definitely too cold to host any life that would be recognizably human-like, but according to researchers, there is a chance that there could be unrecognizably exotic life in Pluto's heart.According to William MacKinnon, professor of earth and planetary sciences in at Washington University in St. Louis and co-author of two new Pluto studies published yesterday in Nature, there is a subsurface ocean underneath the Sputnik Planitia that is filled with ammonia, which is highly toxic to life as we know it. As a result, it's unlikely that we would find any multicellular life on Pluto, simply because the environment is too hostile to life. However, there could still be unicellular or even "pre-cellular" organisms in the ammonia-rich ocean:Researchers who first proposed the subsurface ocean hypothesized that it was "slushy" in its icy texture, and MacKinnon agrees to an extent, although he amends it to "syrupy":But of course, this entire theory rests on the notion that there is, in fact, a subsurface ocean on Pluto. And while MacKinnon's research supports this thesis, he emphasizes that we need another mission to Pluto to confirm any of this theoretical research:WASHINGTON, DC—Calling the current U.S. Capitol "inadequate and obsolete," Congress will relocate to Charlotte or Memphis if its demands for a new, state-of-the-art facility are not met, leaders announced Monday. "Don't get us wrong: We love the drafty old building," Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) said. "But the hard reality is, it's no longer suitable for a world-class legislative branch. The sight lines are bad, there aren't enough concession stands or bathrooms, and the parking is miserable. It hurts to say, but the capitol's time has come and gone." Advertisement "If we want to stay competitive, we need to upgrade," said House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-MO), who has proposed a new $3.5 billion capitol on the site of the current edifice. "Look at British Parliament. Look at the Vatican. Respected institutions in their markets. But without modern facilities, they've been having big problems attracting top talent." Its cornerstone laid in 1793 by President Washington, the capitol has been built, rebuilt, extended, and restored countless times over the past 209 years. Legislators say another multimillion-dollar renovation is not an acceptable alternative to a new building. "How many times can you put a fresh coat of paint over an old, broken-down horse?" asked Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), co-chair of the Senate Relocation Subcommittee. "We need a building that befits our status as the nation's number-one democratically elected legislative body. And if D.C. isn't willing to provide that, I can think of plenty of other cities that would be more than happy to." Advertisement The leading candidates for a possible congressional relocation are Charlotte and Memphis, both of which have long sought a major organization to raise their national profile. San Francisco civic leaders have also lobbied hard, offering to finance a $4 billion Pac Bell Capitol Building using a combination of private corporate funds (40 percent), a county sales tax (35 percent), and a local cigarette tax (25 percent). Dallas, Seattle, and Toronto have also been mentioned as long shots. Demonstrating its commitment to "stay in Washington if at all possible," Congress has invited more than a dozen architectural firms to submit proposals for a new D.C. capitol. Among the early favorites is the ambitiously titled "Halls Of Power," a retro-futuristic design by the Kansas City architectural firm of Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum. The Halls Of Power would feature a retractable rotunda for daytime sessions, a Dancing Waters fountain in the front courtyard, and 55 more luxury boxes than the current building. Advertisement "This is just the kind of thing we need to stay competitive in today's lawmaking environment," said agent Barry Halperin, who represents many prominent government officials, including Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-VT) and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. "Washington can no longer afford to ignore the fact that visitor attendance has dropped every year since 1989. Our elected officials don't like coming to this building and, clearly, neither do their constituents." Experts attribute the decline in congressional attendance to a number of factors, including increased home viewership of legislative activities on C-SPAN, with which Congress signed an exclusive 20-year, $360 million broadcast pact in 1984. It is not known how a new capitol building would affect the terms of that soon-to-expire contract, but Congress is expected to restructure the deal to increase its share of revenues and secure possible advertising rights, regardless of whether it opts for rebuilding or relocation. According to the lawmakers' constituents, the capitol is not the problem. "Sure, the capitol's a little beat-up, but it's got its charms," said Geoff Lapointe, a Glendale, CA, voter. "The real problem is the legislators. Back in the old days, you had big stars like John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Who've they got today? Evan Bayh? Paul Sarbanes? Who's gonna get excited about those guys?" Advertisement Lapointe said he is "fed up" with the legislators and their demands. "Those guys are all just a bunch of spoiled, overpaid crybabies," Lapointe said. "All they want is money—they don't care about all the hardworking people who pay their salaries. Look at 'em: When's the last time you saw them acting like a team? They can take their capitol and shove it."faces = {{2, 3, 4}, Reverse@ {1, 3, 4}, {1, 2, 4}, {1, 2, 3}}; faces = {{2, 3, 4}, Reverse@ {1, 3, 4}, {1, 2, 4}, Reverse@{1, 2, 3}}; (* important ) facesRev = Reverse /@ faces; startV = N@{{0, 0, Sqrt[2/3] - 1/(2 Sqrt[6])}, {-(1/(2 Sqrt[3])), -(1/2), -(1/( 2 Sqrt[6]))}, {-(1/(2 Sqrt[3])), 1/2, -(1/(2 Sqrt[6]))}, {1/ Sqrt[3], 0, -(1/(2 Sqrt[6]))}}; bestVec = 0 Flatten[{{0.0030786234640517588`, -0.0012713757639448969`, 0.005921062251657448`}, {-0.0017401845032882991`, \ -0.0020681936130036126`, 0.005393869601475211`}, {0.0020298099367479444`, 0.0005102453293635576`, 0.0029724999287053682`}, {-0.00023558451188598613`, 0.0009452979460132543`, 0.005798188590794252`}, {-0.000027554327839240944`, 0.0020459864295050674`, 0.0034435421203985097`}, {0.0025981484730485446`, 0.0007355749150532`, 0.0012539109619916077`}, {-0.006626782180945919`, \ -0.0005807683214184328`, 0.0038058021075369495`}}]; choices = {1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1}; ( found by luck and trial and error in August 2013 ) perms = Permutations[Range[4]]; dist[tet1_, tet2_] := Min[Table[Max[Norm /@ ((tet1 - tet2[[pp]]))], {pp, perms}]]; nextTetPushed[currentV_, freeVert_, moveVertInd_, pVec_] := ( vertToMove = DeleteCases[Range[4], freeVert][[moveVertInd]]; vertToMovVal = currentV[[vertToMove]]; reflectface = DeleteCases[Range[4], vertToMove]; centroid = Mean[currentV[[reflectface]]]; newpos = vertToMovVal + 2 (centroid - vertToMovVal); newVerts = ReplacePart[currentV, vertToMove -> newpos]; {# + pVec & /@ newVerts, vertToMove}) count = 0; Clear[func, st]; func[{a1_?NumericQ, a2_, a3_, a4_, a5_, a6_, a7_, a8_, a9_, a10_, a11_, a12_, a13_, a14_, a15_, a16_, a17_, a18_, a19_, a20_, a21_}] := (st[0] = {startV, 1}; change = Flatten[Table[{{a1, a2, a3}, {a4, a5, a6}, {a7, a8, a9}, {a10, a11, a12}, {a13, a14, a15}, {a16, a17, a18}, {a19, a20, a21}}, {10}], 1]; Do[st[i] = nextTetPushed[st[i - 1][[1]], st[i - 1][[2]], choices[[i]], change[[i]]], {i, Length[choices]}]; L = Length[choices]; data = st /@ Range[0, L]; store = {{a1, a2, a3}, {a4, a5, a6}, {a7, a8, a9}, {a10, a11, a12}, {a13, a14, a15}, {a16, a17, a18}, {a19, a20, a21}}; bb = dist[data[[1, 1]], data[[-1, 1]]]; count++; If[Mod[count, 500] == 0, Print[{bb, Norm[Flatten[store]]}]]; bb); funcPercent[{a1_?NumericQ, a2_, a3_, a4_, a5_, a6_, a7_, a8_, a9_, a10_, a11_, a12_, a13_, a14_, a15_, a16_, a17_, a18_, a19_, a20_, a21_}] := (st[0] = {startV, 1}; change = Flatten[Table[{{a1, a2, a3}, {a4, a5, a6}, {a7, a8, a9}, {a10, a11, a12}, {a13, a14, a15}, {a16, a17, a18}, {a19, a20, a21}}, {10}], 1]; Do[st[i] = nextTetPushed[st[i - 1][[1]], st[i - 1][[2]], choices[[i]], change[[i]]], {i, Length[choices]}]; L = Length[choices]; data = st /@ Range[0, L]; store = {{a1, a2, a3}, {a4, a5, a6}, {a7, a8, a9}, {a10, a11, a12}, {a13, a14, a15}, {a16, a17, a18}, {a19, a20, a21}}; bb = dist[data[[1, 1]], data[[-1, 1]]]; count++; dataAll = Flatten[First /@ data, 1]; dubs = Table[ Count[dataAll, p_ /; Norm[p - dataAll[[i]]] <.35 /1000], {i, Length[dataAll]}]; dups = dataAll[[Position[dubs, 2] // Flatten]]; close[p_] := Select[dataAll, Norm[# - p] <.35 /1000 &]; close[p_] := False; dataClose = close /@ dataAll; dataAllFixed = Table[ Mean[dataClose[[i]]], {i, Length[dataAll]}]; dataTetFixed = Partition[dataAllFixed, 4]; ans = {Max[#], Min[#]} & @ Flatten[Table[ Norm[#[[1]] - #[[2]]] & /@ Subsets[dataTetFixed[[i]], {2}], {i, 48}]]; ans = ans[[1]] - ans[[2]]; If[ans < best, best = ans; storedBest = store]; If[Mod[count, 200] == 0, Print[{count, ans, bb, Norm[Flatten[store]], best}]]; ans + 10 bb); funcPercent[Flatten[bestVec]]; ( important ) dataAll = First /@ data; aa = {Max[#], Min[#]} & @ Flatten[Table[ Norm[#[[1]] - #[[2]]] & /@ Subsets[dataAll[[i]], {2}], {i, 48}]]; aa[[1]] - aa[[2]]; dataPols = First /@ data; {vp, vv} = {{-0.5736193192422712`, -1.2442823717517009`, 0.40843880317618597`}, {-0.6180067894290332`, 0.8698216744526492`, -0.3761742628418529`}}; cols = Lighter /@ Prepend[Join @@ Table[{Blue, Green, Green, Blue, Red, Red}, {50}], Red]; gg = Graphics3D[ Table[{ EdgeForm[Black], FaceForm[{Opacity[.9], cols[[i]]}], FaceForm[Lighter@Red, Green], Polygon[(dataPols)[[i]][[#]]] & /@ If[EvenQ[i], facesRev, faces]}, {i, Length@data - 1}], BoxRatios -> Automatic, ViewAngle ->.47 2, ViewPoint -> vp, ViewVertical -> vv, PlotRegion -> {{-.15, 1.15}, {-.25, 1.45}}, PlotRange -> {All, {{-1, 1}, {-1, 1}, {-1, 1}}}[[1]], Boxed -> False, Axes ->! True, ImageSize -> 700, Lighting -> {Automatic, "Neutral"}[[2]]] There are some orientation issues.... but they were fixed above. Inside is green. Outside is red. So orientation is all good. Next it makes sense to remove the interior faces. polys = Cases[gg, Polygon[_], \[Infinity]]; Length[polys]; polys1 = polys /. Polygon[z_] :> Polygon[Sort[z]]; Last /@ (tt = Tally[polys]); (polys1 = First /@ Select[tt, #[[2]] >= 1 &]) // Length g1 = Graphics3D[{Opacity[1], FaceForm[Lighter@Red, Green], Table[Polygon[polys1[[i, 1]]], {i, Length[polys1]}]}, Boxed -> False, Axes ->! True, AxesLabel -> {x, y, z}, ImageSize -> 600, Lighting -> "Neutral"] polys = Cases[g1, Polygon[_], \[Infinity]]; Moving the error around to make the last = first. Joint work with Michael Elgersma.This defines the rim edges. special[{L1_, L2_}] := ((( L1[[1]] <.4 -.3 L1[[ 2]]) && ( L2[[1]] <.4 -.3 L2[[ 2]])) \|\| ((( L1[[1]] >.4 -.3 L1[[ 2]]) && ( L2[[1]] >.4 -.3 L2[[ 2]])))) && (Norm[ L1[[{2, 3}]] - cen[[{2, 3}]]] > 1.7 && Norm[L2[[{2, 3}]] - cen[[{2, 3}]]] > 1.7 ) ; This shows the rim edges in yellow. Sort of like railway tracks. cen = {.7, 2, 0}; qq = Flatten[ Cases[g1, Polygon[z_] :> {Line[{z[[1]], z[[2]]}], Line[{z[[2]], z[[3]]}], Line[{z[[3]], z[[1]]}]}, \[Infinity]], 1]; Show[g1, Graphics3D[{Thickness[.04], Table[{www = Which[special@q, Directive[{Yellow, Thickness[.02]}], special@q, Directive[{Yellow, Thickness[.02]}], True, Directive[{Black, Thickness[.004]}]], Line@q}, {q, First /@ qq}]}](, plane;), PlotRange -> {{-2.2, 2.2}, {-1, 5}, {-2.5, 2.5} 1.1}, ImageSize -> 500, Boxed -> False, Axes -> False] Now the idea is to start the process from the beginning with a parameter, \, that is used to length the rim edges, while all the other edges remain at length 1. This is a little trickier than I thought. I use SOLVE at each point. Here we change the start to allow \ for the one rim edge. startVerts[\[Epsilon]_] := {startV [[1]], {x, y, z} /. Quiet@Solve[{ ({x, y, z} - startV[[1]]).({x, y, z} - startV[[1]]) == ( 1 + \[Epsilon])^2, ({x, y, z} - startV[[3]]).({x, y, z} - startV[[3]]) == 1, ({x, y, z} - startV[[4]]).({x, y, z} - startV[[4]]) == 1}, {x, y, z}][[1]], startV[[3]], startV[[4]]}; startVerts[.01 0] Out[] = {{0., 0., 0.612372}, {-0.288675, -0.5, -0.204124}, {-0.288675, 0.5, -0.204124}, {0.57735, 0., -0.204124}} nextTetElgersma[currentV_, freeVert_, moveVertInd_, \[Epsilon]_] := ( vertToMove = DeleteCases[Range[4], freeVert][[moveVertInd]]; vertToMovVal = currentV[[vertToMove]]; reflectface = DeleteCases[Range[4], vertToMove]; centroid = Mean[currentV[[reflectface]]]; newpos = vertToMovVal + 2 (centroid - vertToMovVal); oldVerts = Delete[currentV, vertToMove]; edges = {#, newpos} & /@ oldVerts; pos = Position[edges, _?special]; newVerts = ReplacePart[currentV, vertToMove -> If[pos == {}, Select[{x, y, z} /. Quiet@Solve[{ ({x, y, z} - edges[[1, 1]]).({x, y, z} - edges[[1, 1]]) == 1, ({x, y, z} - edges[[2, 1]]).({x, y, z} - edges[[2, 1]]) == 1, ({x, y, z} - edges[[3, 1]]).({x, y, z} - edges[[3, 1]]) == 1}, {x, y, z}], Norm[# - vertToMovVal] >.5 &][[1]], ss = edges[[pos[[1, 1]]]]; others = Complement[Range[3], {pos[[1, 1]]}]; specCount++; Select[{x, y, z} /. Quiet@Solve[{ ({x, y, z} - ss[[1]]).({x, y, z} - ss[[1]]) == ( 1 + \[Epsilon])^2, ({x, y, z} - edges[[others[[1]], 1]]).({x, y, z} - edges[[others[[1]], 1]]) == 1, ({x, y, z} - edges[[others[[2]], 1]]).({x, y, z} - edges[[others[[2]], 1]]) == 1}, {x, y, z}], Norm[# - vertToMovVal] >.5 &][[1]] ]]; {newVerts, vertToMove}); The following was found using FindMinimum and also some trial and error at the start. The value of 0.0027 means that each edge is between 1. and 1.0027 in length. So the error in terms of difference from a regular tetrahedron of side length 1.00137 is about 0.13%, or 1/7 of one percent. This is likely within the tolerances of a 3D printing machine. Still, it would be nice to make it even smaller. bestepsilonvalue = 0.002743438209350663; The last tetrahedron is now indistinguishable from the first. funcElgersma[.002743438209350663] Out[] = 2.0618610^-14 We fix the last points to match exactly, though at 10^-14 difference this hardly matters. data[[-2]] data[[1]] data[[-2]] = {{data[[-2, 1, 1]], data[[1, 1, 2]], data[[1, 1, 3]], data[[1, 1, 4]]}, data[[1, 2]]} Here is a picture of the fake tetrahedral torus. gg = Graphics3D[ Table[{ EdgeForm[Black], FaceForm[{Opacity[1], GrayLevel[RandomReal[{.3,.9}]]; cols[[i]]}], Polygon[(First /@ data)[[i]][[#]]] & /@ faces}, {i, Length@data - 1}], BoxRatios -> Automatic, ViewAngle ->.47 2, ViewPoint -> vp, ViewVertical -> vv, PlotRegion -> {{-.15, 1.15}, {-.25, 1.45}}, PlotRange -> {All, {{-1, 1}, {-1, 1}, {-1, 1}}}[[1]], Boxed -> False, Axes ->! True, ImageSize -> 500, Lighting -> {Automatic, "Neutral"}[[2]]] Posting detailed code here. The initial image, with the gap: I zeroed out the "bestVec", which was used in an earlier attempt to optimizeThere are some orientation issues.... but they were fixed above. Inside is green. Outside is red. So orientation is all good. Next it makes sense to remove the interior faces.Moving the error around to make the last = first. Joint work with Michael Elgersma.This defines the rim edges.This shows the rim edges in yellow. Sort of like railway tracks.Now the idea is to start the process from the beginning with a parameter, \, that is used to length the rim edges, while all the other edges remain at length 1. This is a little trickier than I thought. I use SOLVE at each point. Here we change the start to allow \ for the one rim edge.The following was found using FindMinimum and also some trial and error at the start. The value of 0.0027 means that each edge is between 1. and 1.0027 in length. So the error in terms of difference from a regular tetrahedron of side length 1.00137 is about 0.13%, or 1/7 of one percent. This is likely within the tolerances of a 3D printing machine. Still, it would be nice to make it even smaller.The last tetrahedron is now indistinguishable from the first.We fix the last points to match exactly, though at 10^-14 difference this hardly matters.Here is a picture of the fake tetrahedral torus.This spring, Arc System Works will be delivering a system upgrade to their arcade title Guilty Gear Accent Core Plus R with Version 1.10A. This new version adds support for Sega’s Aime card system, and with it, the implementation of the highly-demanded Players Guild service. On the Players Guild site at http://ggacpr.net, players will be able to view their national ranking and battle records as well as customize their profile. . In addition, beginning February 14 and spanning an indefinite period, location tests will be held at the following six arcades: Fixed Machines SEGA Kagurazaka Ikebukuro GiGO SEGA Akihabara Building 1 Selectable Machines Shinjuku Sportsland Main Building CLUB SEGA Akihabara New Annex CLUB SEGA Shinjuku West Gate GGXXAC+R Ver.1.10A will also be available for play at the February 15-16 Japan Amusement Expo (JAEPO) 2013, the newly-formed joining of the Amusement Machine Show and the AOU Amusement Expo. Two Daisuke Ishiwatari original design Aime card stickers will be given out at JAEPO at Sega’s booth. You can find SEGA’s specially-prepared JAEPO page at http://am-show.sega.jp/jaepo13/. Source: Dengeki Online, 4Gamer, Guilty Gear XX websiteMount Rushmore carvings will be first test of plan to guard historic sites from ravages of weather and pollution by creating accurate 3D models British scientists are to begin work on a revolutionary project to record three-dimensional models of world heritage sites so that they can be re-created if they fall victim to climate change, natural disaster, war or terrorism. The team of six – from Historic Scotland and the Glasgow School of Art – will team up next month with an American company, CyArk, to shoot laser beams at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, creating a 3D model accurate to within 3mm, digitally preserving the carved faces of former presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln should archaeologists need to repair them. Funding for the project was rushed through because of concerns over the deterioration of the granite rockface. CyArk has identified several other "at-risk" sites, including the Acropolis in Athens, threatened by acid rain, and Machu Picchu in Peru, which suffers from excessive tourism. Pollution, over-expansion and deforestation may have already permanently damaged Tikal National Park in Guatemala, one of the largest archaeological remains of the pre-Columbian Maya civilisation. CyArk's ultimate aim is to create 3D models of 500 sites around the world. Work began this year on scanning the underworld of Rome, 170km of winding catacombs dating back two millennia, and the Zapotec capital of Monte Albán, in Mexico. Other sites proposed for digital mapping include Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Khmer temple complex built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century, Thebes in Egypt and Pompeii, the Roman town buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Digital scanning might have saved some of the historic buildings destroyed in the L'Aquila earthquake in Italy in April. They include Santa Maria di Collemaggio, the church that was the site of the coronation of Pope Celestine V in 1294, and Porta Napoli, Naples's oldest gate, built in 1548 in honour of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. David Mitchell, director of the technical conservation group at Historic Scotland, cites the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan – blown up by the Taliban in 2001 – as another example of what could have been saved by the new technology. Although the Japanese government has pledged to help rebuild the giant monuments, carved from sandstone cliffs, it will be difficult to replicate the originals. "If only they had been scanned, we could have helped rebuild them to their original state," said Mitchell. CyArk, founded by Ben Kacyra, the "John Logie Baird" of laser technology, teamed up with Historic Scotland and Glasgow School of Art after witnessing the latter's pioneering work at digital documentation conferences in the United States and Scotland. Mitchell said the Americans were amazed by the Scottish team's technical capabilities, which have been used to create 3D models of Stirling Castle and Rosslyn Chapel in Midlothian. "When Ben saw the work we were doing he said we were miles ahead of anyone else and was blown away," said Mitchell. "We have worked with Glasgow School of Art for a number of years on laser scanning and became the first group to use this technology on heritage sites. It can pick out millions of points on a monument down to an accuracy of 3mm, which has never been done before. It's cutting-edge stuff. Working on Mount Rushmore will give us the opportunity to put Scotland on the world stage." Michael Russell, Scotland's minister of culture, said the link with CyArk was the beginning of what he hoped would become "a successful long-term international partnership". Speaking from the US, Kacyra told the Observer he was delighted the Scottish team was on board for the five-year project. "I was amazed at their advanced work," he said. "I had never seen any government organisation acquiring this kind of scanner and then start experimenting with it in the heritage field. We are indebted to Historic Scotland for their very generous donation of resources and technology." Scanning is almost complete on New Lanark's world heritage site, a restored 18th century cotton mill in southern Scotland. Once work is complete at Mount Rushmore in October, the team will move to Skara Brae, "the heart of Neolithic Orkney", which is under threat from coastal erosion. The Antonine Wall, St Kilda and the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh are the remaining Scottish world heritage sites to be scanned. The remaining four international sites have yet to be decided, but the Taj Mahal in India and the Longmen Grottoes in China, 2,345 niches carved from rock that house more than 100,000 statues, have been suggested as possibilities. Several European companies have already expressed "huge interest" and have said that they are eager to utilise Historic Scotland's scanning equipment for the preservation of other world heritage sites. Kacyra added: "I hope we can continue our collaboration beyond the Scotland 10 and CyArk 500 and eventually transfer our technology to developing countries."Indeed, the spacecraft Cassini — which inserted itself into orbit around the giant gas planet in July, 2004 — has transmitted imagery and sensory data back to Earth that has given us a new understanding of our bejewelled neighbour three doors down. Of the astronomically profound discoveries it’s made over a decade of circling, the startling hint this April of a new moon being formed in the rings of Saturn is merely the latest. Rein is especially intrigued by the natal moon — tentatively named Peggy — that Cassini detected in Saturn’s outermost A Ring this spring. “Fantastic … the stunning images, this is unprecedented. They’re an order of magnitude more exciting than anything we’ve seen before,” Rein says. “It’s one of the most successful (space) missions probably ever,” says University of Toronto astrophysicist Hanno Rein, whose own work has been significantly informed by the tiny craft’s output. Jesse Rogerson, a PhD candidate in astrophysics at York University, has followed the Cassini project for years and says it’s been revolutionary for our understanding of the sixth planet. Yet the proto-moon simply joins in the metronomic output of discovery that Cassini has hurled back to Earth since reaching Saturn a decade ago — and during its seven-year, 3.5-billion
The Bank of Japan is 55% government-owned and 100% government-controlled. Of the remaining debt, over 60% is held by Japanese banks, insurance companies and pension funds. Another chunk is held by individual Japanese savers. Only 5% is held by foreigners, mostly central banks. As noted in a September 2011 article in The New York Times: The Japanese government is in deep debt, but the rest of Japan has ample money to spare. The Japanese government’s debt is the people’s money. They own each other, and they collectively reap the benefits. Myths of the Japanese Debt-to-GDP Ratio Japan’s debt-to-GDP ratio looks bad. But as economist Hazel Henderson notes, this is just a matter of accounting practice—a practice that she and other experts contend is misleading. Japan leads globally in virtually all areas of high-tech manufacturing, including aerospace. The debt on the other side of its balance sheet represents the payoffs from all this productivity to the Japanese people. According to Gary Shilling, writing on Bloomberg in June 2012, more than half of Japanese public spending goes for debt service and social security payments. Debt service is paid as interest to Japanese “savers.” Social security and interest on the national debt are not included in GDP, but these are actually the social safety net and public dividends of a highly productive economy. These, more than the military weapons and “financial products” that compose a major portion of U.S. GDP, are the real fruits of a nation’s industry. For Japan, they represent the enjoyment by the people of the enormous output of their high-tech industrial base. Shilling writes: Government deficits are supposed to stimulate the economy, yet the composition of Japanese public spending isn’t particularly helpful. Debt service and social-security payments — generally non-stimulative — are expected to consume 53.5 percent of total outlays for 2012... So says conventional theory, but social security and interest paid to domestic savers actually do stimulate the economy. They do it by getting money into the pockets of the people, increasing “demand.” Consumers with money to spend then fill the shopping malls, increasing orders for more products, driving up manufacturing and employment. Myths About Quantitative Easing Some of the money for these government expenditures has come directly from “money printing” by the central bank, also known as “quantitative easing.” For over a decade, the Bank of Japan has been engaged in this practice; yet the hyperinflation that deficit hawks said it would trigger has not occurred. To the contrary, as noted by Wolf Richter in a May 9, 2012 article: [T]he Japanese [are] in fact among the few people in the world enjoying actual price stability, with interchanging periods of minor inflation and minor deflation—as opposed to the 27% inflation per decade that the Fed has conjured up and continues to call, moronically, “price stability.” He cites as evidence the following graph from the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs: How is that possible? It all depends on where the money generated by quantitative easing ends up. In Japan, the money borrowed by the government has found its way back into the pockets of the Japanese people in the form of social security and interest on their savings. Money in consumer bank accounts stimulates demand, stimulating the production of goods and services, increasing supply; and when supply and demand rise together, prices remain stable. Myths About the “Lost Decade” Japan’s finances have long been shrouded in secrecy, perhaps because when the country was more open about printing money and using it to support its industries, it got embroiled in World War II. In his 2008 book In the Jaws of the Dragon, Fingleton suggests that Japan feigned insolvency in the “lost decade” of the 1990s to avoid drawing the ire of protectionist Americans for its booming export trade in automobiles and other products. Belying the weak reported statistics, Japanese exports increased by 73% during that decade, foreign assets increased, and electricity use increased by 30%, a tell-tale indicator of a flourishing industrial sector. By 2006, Japan’s exports were three times what they were in 1989. The Japanese government has maintained the façade of complying with international banking regulations by “borrowing” money rather than “printing” it outright. But borrowing money issued by the government’s own central bank is the functional equivalent of the government printing it, particularly when the debt is just carried on the books and never paid back. Implications for the “Fiscal Cliff” All of this has implications for Americans concerned with an out-of-control national debt. Properly managed and directed, it seems, the debt need be nothing to fear. Like Japan, and unlike Greece and other Eurozone countries, the U.S. is the sovereign issuer of its own currency. If it wished, Congress could fund its budget without resorting to foreign creditors or private banks. It could do this either by issuing the money directly or by borrowing from its own central bank, effectively interest-free, since the Fed rebates its profits to the government after deducting its costs. A little quantitative easing can be a good thing, if the money winds up with the government and the people rather than simply in the reserve accounts of banks. The national debt can also be a good thing. As Federal Reserve Board Chairman Marriner Eccles testified in hearings before the House Committee on Banking and Currency in 1941, government credit (or debt) “is what our money system is. If there were no debts in our money system, there wouldn’t be any money.” Properly directed, the national debt becomes the spending money of the people. It stimulates demand, stimulating productivity. To keep the system stable and sustainable, the money just needs to come from the nation’s own government and its own people, and needs to return to the government and people. ELLEN BROWN is the author of Web of Debt: the Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We Can Break Free. She can be reached through her website.OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn This is a guest post from Melissa Donovan, founder and editor of Writing Forward, a blog packed with creative writing tips and ideas. As I wander around the web, I come across a lot of writers who spend their days in cubicles, and then fill up their evenings and weekends writing. Some of them are just starting to submit their work. Some of them are already published authors. In fact, more and more of them are self-published authors with decent repertoires. They dream of quitting their day jobs so they can write, full time, for a living. To achieve their dreams, these writers have to successfully market their work and sell their books. The burden of marketing almost always lands squarely on an author's shoulders, whether the author has chosen traditional publishing or self-publishing. The vast majority of these writers are making one big mistake in general: they are not treating their writing like a business. I know, all the artists roll their eyes and get angry when I say things like that, but there it is. If you don't treat your writing like a business, you will fail. That's all there is to it. Luckily, the Internet makes running a business a whole lot easier than it used to be. It still requires a lot of time and energy, but it's not as costly and it's much easier to do yourself. As a writer striving to make a career out of writing, your number one asset is your website. Through your website, you can connect with agents, editors, publishers, other writers, and most importantly, readers. Below are the five most common mistakes that writers make on their websites. These are big mistakes that could result in missed opportunities and they are mistakes that are easily repaired. 1. No Bio In business, an about page is one of the three standard pages every single website should have (the other two are home and contact). It's not unusual for this to be the second most visited page on any website (after the home page). For an author, this page should be called a bio (short for biography), and every writer's website should include this page. Agents, editors, and readers are interested in knowing what you're all about, and this is where they'll go to find out. What to include: Your full (pen) name, your purpose or mission (to publish a novel, for example), credentials, and achievements. Check the bios of successful authors for examples. 2. No Social Media Presence A lot of writers and business owners initially rail against social media, but once they learn how to use these sites effectively, they're hooked. There are huge communities of readers that you can tap through sites like Twitter, Facebook, and GoodReads. In fact, many writers (including myself) will tell you that using social media marketing properly can lead to publishing opportunities and increased sales of your work. Tips: Make sure you get a Facebook page (also called a fan page or like page) as opposed to a personal profile, and make sure links to your social media profiles are clearly visible on your website. 3. No Contact Information This is probably the single biggest mistake that writers make on their websites. They hide their email addresses somewhere or forget to include them at all. If you're already a huge success, then maybe you don't need to make yourself accessible via email. But what if an agent is interested in representing you? What if an editor wants to publish your work or offer you a book deal? It's not enough to leave your blog comments open and share links to your social media profiles. You should provide a clear and easy way for visitors to contact you privately. What to include: Create a contact page and make sure it appears in your navigation menu. Use a form for privacy (a form hides your email address). 4. The Content is Not Polished If you're a writer and you want to be considered professional, every single word you publish should be polished. Yes, the occasional typo will slip through. That happens to everybody. But when a reader or publishing professional comes to your site and every published page reads like a first draft, they're going to click away in search of writers who know how to proofread, edit, and use good grammar. Tips: After you finish composing a page or a post, read through it a couple of times to clean it up. If possible, let it sit overnight and give it a final review before you publish it. 5. The Design is Abysmal There are so many lovely free website and blog templates that there's no excuse for having a cluttered, ugly, difficult-to-navigate website. Nobody wants a cookie-cutter site that looks just like dozens of others but it's a heck of a lot better than having a site nobody wants to visit at all. We get it. You're a writer, not a designer. If you can't afford to hire a professional designer, get a decent freebie until you can. Tips: Use a blog as your website platform. There are tons of free blog themes available. I recommend getting a self-hosted WordPress site. This weekend, set aside a couple of hours to step back and look at your website. Are you making any of these mistakes? Look for other areas of your site that could be improved. Read through some of your content and check for typos and other mechanical errors. Take a little time to clean it up, and then get back to your writing. Good luck! Do you have any questions about your writer's website or blog? Add them in the comments below. About the Author: Melissa Donovan is a professional website designer and copywriter. She is also the founder and editor of Writing Forward, a blog packed with creative writing tips and ideas. Top image: Flickr CC Mouin MJodi Hilton for The New York Times Dr. Marcia Angell is a senior lecturer in social medicine at Harvard Medical School and former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine. A longtime critic of the pharmaceutical industry, she has called for an end to market-driven delivery of health care in the United States. She spoke with freelance writer Anne Underwood. Q. President Obama hopes to increase the number of Americans with insurance and to rein in costs. Do you believe any of the plans under consideration by Congress will accomplish those goals? A. They won’t, and that’s the essential problem. If you keep health care in the hands of for-profit companies, you can do one or the other — increase coverage by putting more money into the system, or control costs by decreasing coverage. But you cannot do both unless you change the basic structure of the system. Q. Segments of the health care industry — pharmaceutical companies, for instance — are promising to cut costs. A. It’s not going to happen. These are investor-owned companies. Their fiduciary responsibility is to maximize profits. If they behaved like charities, heads would roll in the executive suites. Q. But what about market mechanisms for reducing costs? Wouldn’t the public option, for instance, provide competition for the insurance companies? “I’m afraid the president squandered a good opportunity.” A. Theoretically it would, but I doubt the public plan will pass. Industry is lobbying against it, and the president has not said this is a “must.” Even if it does pass, I’m afraid the private insurance industry will use their clout in Congress — and they have enormous clout in Congress — to hobble the public option and use it as a dumping ground for the sickest while they cream off the young and healthy for themselves. Q. How? Won’t insurance companies have to cover all applicants regardless of health status? A. It’s hard to regulate an enormous industry without setting up a bureaucracy to oversee it. That’s very expensive and creates a whole new set of problems. Q. How about the individual mandate? Wouldn’t it reduce costs per capita by bringing in young, healthy people who are currently uninsured? A. No. In Massachusetts [which enacted an individual mandate in 2006], there is no real price regulation. Essentially what the mandate does is say to people, you will go into this treacherous market and buy insurance at whatever price the companies choose to charge. In effect, it’s delivering a captive market to these profit-oriented companies. Q. Are people at least getting better health care in Massachusetts now? A. Massachusetts already spends one-third more on health care than other states, and costs are rising at unsustainable rates. As a result, they’re chipping away at benefits, dropping beneficiaries and increasing premiums and co-payments. Q. Then what’s the path to meaningful cost control? A. The only way to both control costs and have universal comprehensive coverage is a single-payer system — a nonprofit, single-payer system. Nothing else will work. All other advanced countries have some form of a single-payer system, and they pay less than half as much per person as we do. We should be asking, why is that so? It’s not because we provide more basic services. We do provide more tests and procedures for those who can pay, but not more basic services — and we don’t cover everybody. So why is it so? We are the only advanced country that delivers health care in a system that’s set up to generate profits, not to provide care. Q. If a single-payer system isn’t feasible politically, aren’t the current proposals at least better than doing nothing? Isn’t half an aspirin better than none? A. I think not. As costs continue to soar, people will not say, “That didn’t work. Let’s try a single-payer system.” Instead, they’ll try to pay for the costs in piecemeal ways, by increasing co-pays and deductibles, by limiting services, by making the system less equitable and less comprehensive. I’m afraid the lesson they’ll draw is that universal care is impossible. But I’m not convinced that getting a single-payer system now is politically infeasible. The public would be happy with Medicare for all. Polls have shown that the public loves Medicare. The problem isn’t the public. It’s Congress, which caves in to special interests. Q. If Congress is reluctant to cut out the insurance companies, is that partly because they, like the major banks, are too big to fail? A. A nonprofit, single-payer system would lead to job losses in this sector, which constitutes 17 percent of the economy. But what about the other 83 percent of the economy? They’re being bled to death. Businesses can’t compete globally because the cost of providing coverage to their workers is so exorbitant. Whatever loss of jobs you might see would be more than offset by benefits and job gains in the rest of the economy. [As for the insurance companies,] you could introduce the program incrementally. You could do it state by state. Or probably better, you could do it decade by decade. Medicare kicks in at age 65. In the first stage, you could take it down to 55. Between 55 and 65, people are vulnerable. They’re losing jobs, losing health care. They’re starting to have more medical needs. After a few years, you could drop it to 45, then 35. It would give insurance companies time to adjust. Q. But Medicare is already hugely expensive. How can we afford such a plan for everyone? A. Medicare costs are rising at an unsustainable rate because care is provided in a profit-maximizing system. The prescription drug benefit was nothing but a bonanza for the pharmaceutical industry. I would change that. I would also adjust the fee schedule, which preferentially rewards highly paid specialists for very expensive tests and procedures. For the system to work, it would have to be a nonprofit delivery system. Q. How much could we save in administrative costs? A. On average, the private insurance industry takes 15 to 20 percent right off the top of the premium dollar for its administrative costs and profits. That’s a lot to siphon off by an industry that adds almost nothing of value. It’s just a middleman. Medicare has overhead costs of less than 3 percent. With the money in the system right now, we could cover everyone for every medically necessary service. But the system has to be distributed according to medical need and not as it currently is — as a commodity. Today, those who can pay get lots of M.R.I.’s they don’t need, while those who are uninsured can go without ones they do need. Q. Military historians say we’re always fighting the last war. Is Mr. Obama now fighting the last health care war, in which Congress rejected the Clinton plan partly because it was developed without consulting other interested parties? A. Yes. Mr. Obama has decided that he will listen to everybody. But it’s not working for him, because the public can’t become enthusiastic about a plan that doesn’t exist. That’s what he’s asking. Now Congress has gone home, and for the next month the special interests will be out there scaring people with stories of rationing and socialized medicine. Q. Is the president really bringing everyone to the table? A. He’s bringing everyone to the table except the single-payer people. It’s very odd. When he was a state senator, he emphatically favored a single-payer system. And in his July 22 press conference on health care, he stated that the only way to provide universal health care is with a single-payer system. Then he moved right on, as if that was somehow self-evidently absurd. Q. So are you opposing this reform? A. I am, though not for the same reasons as the Republicans and Blue Dogs. I’m opposing it more in sorrow than in anger. I’m afraid the president squandered a good opportunity.Azure Site Recovery is a Microsoft Azure feature that enables you to replicate virtual machines (VM) from one site to another and orchestrate the failover in case of disaster. It is a great tool to implement a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) for your Hyper-V or VMware VM or for physical machines. There are several scenarios available with Azure Site Recovery to protect your workloads. The two first regards the use of two On-Premises datacenters: In the first scenario, you have two On-Premises sites where Hyper-V hosts and Virtual Machine Manager are deployed. Virtual Machines are replicated between both sides with Hyper-V Replica or SAN array replication. Health replication monitoring and orchestration management are located in an Azure Site Recovery vault in Microsoft Azure. On the VMware side, the InMage Scout has to be downloaded and deployed on both datacenters. Then you will be able to protect your servers. The three others scenarios regard the use of Microsoft Azure as DRP site: In the first scenario you have Hyper-V Hosts and Virtual Machine Manager. In this scenario an agent will be deployed on VMM server and on Hyper-V Hosts. Then Azure Site Recovery will protect VM in VMM clouds. The second scenario is the same without using of Virtual Machine Manager. An agent is deployed on Hyper-V hosts and the VMs are protected and replicated in Microsoft Azure. To finish, Azure Site Recovery supports to protect VMware VM and/or physical server in Microsoft Azure. It can also be a great way to migrate your VMware VM or your physical server to Hyper-V VM J In this topic, I will present you the scenario where you use Microsoft Azure as DRP site and where you have deployed Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Manager On-Premises. Common Azure Site Recovery scenario Usually your applications leverage some other services as SQL Server for the databases or Active Directory for the authentication. These services have some built-in replication process to support the High Availability. So instead of using Azure Site Recovery to protect these services, we can use their replication process. So for the Active Directory case, we will deploy VM in Azure. These VM will execute domain controllers. It will be necessary to create an Active Directory Site for domain controllers in Azure and create a replication link to manage the weight. On SQL Side, we will deploy VM in Azure where SQL Server will be deployed. Then an asynchronous replication will be set between SQL Server On-Prem and SQL Server in Microsoft Azure. Then the VMs in application tier will be replicated with Azure Site Recovery. When a disaster will occur, only servers in application tier will failover to Microsoft Azure. Requirements To use Microsoft Azure as DRP site with Virtual Machine Manager you need: Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2 with at least Update Rollup 5 Hyper-V hosts under Windows Server 2012 R2 The protected VM must be supported in Microsoft Azure A Microsoft Azure Account An Azure Site Recovery vault A virtual Network in the same region as the Azure Site Recovery Vault A Storage Account Geo-Redundant in the same region as the Azure Site Recovery Vault Deploy requirements in Microsoft Azure Virtual Network configuration I have created a virtual network in Central US called POC-ASR-Exakis. This virtual network contains two subnets called Subnet-LAN and Subnet-DMZ. Storage Account creation Then I have created a Geo-Redundant storage account called pocasrexakis in Central US. Azure Site Recovery vault creation Next I navigate to Recovery Services to create a new vault. Then I select Site Recovery Vault and I specify ASR-Exakis as name. Then I choose Central US location. Once the Site Recovery Vault, I choose the scenario that I want to implement. So I choose Between an on-premises VMM site and Azure. First of all, we need to prepare VMM server. Download the registration key and the Microsoft Azure Site Recovery Provider for installation on VMM server. On-Premises configuration Now that the Site Recovery vault is created, we have to deploy agent in VMM server and in Hyper-V hosts. Prepare VMM servers Once you have downloaded the registration key and the ASR provider binaries, you should have both files in your VMM server. Then run the AzureSiteRecoveyProvider executable. When you are in vault settings screen, specify the registration key file. Then you have to specify a location to save a certificate. VMs protected in Azure will be encrypted. If you have to unencrypt data, this certificate will be required. So keep this certificate in several vault! To finish, specify a friendly name for your VMM Server. If the registration has worked, you should have your server connected to the site recovery vault as below. VMM configuration On VMM side, I have created a cloud called MyApps. Three VMs belong to this cloud. If you edit the properties of a VM, you should have something as below in Microsoft Azure Site Recovery tab. Deploy agent on Hyper-V hosts Now that VMM is ready, we are in step 2. Download the Microsoft Azure Recovery Services agent on Hyper-V hosts and run the executable. Specify an installation folder and a cache location. In real world, the cache location should be located in a separate disk. Then specify the registration key file that you have downloaded on the VMM server. Azure Site Recovery configuration Now that On-Premises configuration is finished, we can configure Site Recovery vault to protect and replicate your VM. Then we will create a recovery plan to orchestrate the failover in case of disaster. Map network resource First of all, we have to bind the On-Premises networks with the Virtual Networks created in Microsoft Azure. So navigate to resources and networks as below. Without any configuration, you should have the list of your On-Premises network marked as Unmapped. To bind the On-Premises network to a Virtual Network in Microsoft Azure, select the network and click on map. Then select the target Azure network and click on ok. Protect virtual machines To protect VMs, navigate to protected items and select VMM Clouds. In this view, you should all Clouds that you have created in Virtual Machine Manager. Below you can see that I have the Cloud MyApps. When you select the Cloud, you can configure it as below. You can select the storage account, if you want encrypt stored data, the copy frequency and so on. Once you have configured the Cloud protection, we can enable protection on VM. So just select Enable Protection. Select the VM that you want to protect and specify the storage account. Once the protection is enabled, the replication should start. Below you can find a screenshot of the throughput on my router and the state synchronizing on VMs. Once the replication is finished, the status is protected. If you click on a protected VM, you can configure its name, its size and its network when it will be failover in Microsoft Azure. Create a recovery plan Now that VMs are protected, we can create a recovery plan to orchestrate the failover in case of disaster. Navigate to recovery plans tab and select create recovery plan. Give a name to your recovery plan then choose the source and the target. Select the VMs that will be included into the recovery plan. Then you can create groups. Each VM in a single group will be started simultaneously. You can add manual tasks or scripts between groups. To use scripts, you need an Azure Automation account. Below I have a recovery plan with three groups and a single manual task. Test the plan Once you have created your recovery plan, you can test it or make a real failover. When you test failover, the source VM will not be stopped and the VM will be started in Azure in a specific network to not disturb the production. When you run a real failover, you can choose unplanned failover or planned failover. With the planned failover, the source VM will be stopped and a final synchronization will be executed. To try my recovery plan, I choose Test failover. When I click on Test Failover, Microsoft Azure asks me the network where will be connected the VMs. Then the recovery plan is executed. After the group 1, I have added a manual task. So I have to click on complete manual action to continue. The VMs are created in Microsoft Azure and started regarding to the recovery plan. When the plan is finished, Microsoft Azure asks me to complete the test. When you have finished to verify that all is ok, you can click on test completed and all VMs will be deleted in Microsoft Azure (the VM only, not the VHD). Monitor the virtual machine health Azure Site Recovery is able to monitor the state of the VM. For example, I have stopped my Hyper-V host to apply some updates. Azure Site Recovery had detected an issue on VMs.Last summer, Chef Art Smith opened Homecoming Florida Kitchen and Southern Shine in Disney Springs — and it quickly became one of our new favorite dining spots at Walt Disney World. The menu is full of Southern comfort foods including Church Lady Deviled Eggs, some of the best Fried Chicken we’ve ever tasted, and just-like-mom-used-to-make Macaroni and Cheese. The dessert menu showcases several Southern specialties but two of the items absolutely stand out! When you’re there, you MUST try the Shine Cake and the Hummingbird Cake! Today we have the recipe for the amazing Hummingbird Cake, a southern specialty combining a moist pineapple and banana cake with luxuriously thick cream cheese frosting! This cake is one of Chef Art’s classics – he made it for Maya Angelou’s 75th birthday – and now you can serve it up at your next family gathering (or, you know, make some and keep it all for yourself!). Chef Art Smith’s Hummingbird Cake Chef Art Smith’s Homecoming Florida Kitchen and Southern Shine Cake Ingredients 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups granulated sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 cups chopped ripe bananas 1 cup drained crushed pineapple 1 cup vegetable oil 2 large eggs, beaten 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 1 cup (4 ounces) finely chopped pecans (optional) Frosting Ingredients 8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter at room temperature 1 pound confectioners’ sugar (about 4 1/2 cups, sifted) 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Make sure you position racks in the center and bottom third of the oven. 2. Lightly butter two 9-inch round cake pans, sprinkle evenly with flour and tap out the excess. You can also line the bottom of each cake pan with rounds of parchment paper, then flour the pans and tap out the excess. 3. Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, stir or whisk the bananas, pineapple, oil, eggs, and vanilla until combined. Do not use an electric mixer. Pour into the dry mixture and fold together with a large spatula just until smooth. Do not beat. Fold in the pecans. Spread evenly into the pans. 4. Bake 30-35 minutes until the center of cakes spring back when pressed. Transfer the cakes to wire racks and cool for 10 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the racks (remove the parchment paper now if you used it). Turn cakes right side up and cool completely. To make the icing: Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until combined. On low speed gradually mix in the sugar, then the vanilla to make a smooth icing. To frost the cake: Place 1 cake layer upside down on a serving platter. Spread with about 2/3 cup of the icing. Top with the second layer right side up. Spread the remaining icing over the top and sides of the cake. The cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead and stored, uncovered in the refrigerator. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving. Serves 12 Pin this recipe for later! Will you be whipping up Chef Art Smith’s Hummingbird Cake? Let us know in the comments.Image copyright AFP Image caption France has stepped up strikes on IS following the Paris attacks France has launched its first missions against Islamic State (IS) militants from its Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, military sources said. The newly-deployed carrier has 26 fighters, tripling French capacity. French President Francois Hollande has vowed to intensify strikes against IS in Syria and Iraq after the group said it was behind deadly attacks in Paris. Belgian police meanwhile said they had arrested five more people in anti-terrorism raids. France stepped up its bombings of IS following the attacks on Paris, in which 130 people were killed. The latest series of strikes launched from the Charles de Gaulle targeted sites in Iraq, the French military said. On Monday, Mr Hollande met British Prime Minister David Cameron for talks as part of a fresh diplomatic push. He will also meet the leaders of the US, Germany and Russia this week. Mr Hollande said: "We will intensify our strikes, choosing targets that will do the most damage possible to this army of terrorists." Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption David Cameron: "We will do all in our power to support France to defeat this evil death cult" Image copyright PA Image caption French President Francois Hollande and UK PM David Cameron paid their respects outside the Bataclan concert hall in Paris The two leaders agreed to step up co-operation on countering international terrorism, including increased data-sharing and sharing of airline records. Mr Cameron offered his support for Mr Hollande and said it was his "firm conviction" that Britain should also be striking IS in Syria. Earlier, Mr Hollande and Mr Cameron visited the Bataclan concert hall, where at least 89 people were killed. The Charles de Gaulle Image copyright AFP France's only aircraft carrier Powered by two nuclear reactors Took 13 years to make at a cost of about $3.5bn (£2.3bn) Weighs 38,000 tonnes, with a runway 195m (640ft) long Has suffered a series of technical problems, with part of a propeller breaking during an early test In Brussels, the federal prosecutor's spokesman said five people had been arrested following a police operation on Sunday night in the Brussels region and in the Liege region. These arrests bring to 21 the number of people arrested as part of Belgium's ongoing terror alert. But Salah Abdeslam - suspected of involvement in the Paris attacks - remains at large. Analysis: Lucy Williamson, BBC News, Paris This is just the start of Mr Hollande's week of diplomacy. The emphasis in each meeting will be slightly different. Aside from the need to assess the US-led military strategy in the Middle East, there are growing calls from European leaders to improve intelligence- and data-sharing. Security forces in both France and Belgium have been embarrassed by revelations that key suspects behind the Paris attacks moved around freely in the weeks leading up to the assaults, and in the days afterwards, even passing through checkpoints with apparent ease. And hanging over all the discussion of military and technical co-ordination is the elusive goal of a political solution in Syria that can help eradicate the militants' territory and source of revenue. That's likely to be central to Thursday's talks in Moscow, between Mr Hollande and Vladimir Putin, his fourth national leader in as many days. As experts point out, France - with its historically cordial ties to Russia, its membership of Nato, and its presence in the Middle East region - is in a unique position to help procure an agreement, and with it greater security at home. France looks for allies in 'war with IS' Interview transcript: 'My brothers were manipulated, not radicalised' Paris attacks: The unanswered questions Paris attacks: Who were the victims? Who were the Paris attackers? Special report: In-depth coverage of the attacks and their aftermath The Belgian capital, Brussels, meanwhile remains on the highest level of terror alert for a third day. Universities, schools, large stores, shopping centres and the metro system will stay closed on Monday, following renewed warnings of possible attacks. Soldiers are patrolling the streets of the capital. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said that everything was being done to return the city to normal as quickly as possible - but the authorities feared a repeat of the events in Paris. Brussels has been on lockdown all weekend amid a manhunt for Salah Abdeslam. Image copyright AP Image caption Brussels - normally bustling - is under lockdown Image copyright Reuters Image caption Soldiers are patrolling the Grand Place, one of the city's landmarks Mr Michel told reporters that authorities feared "an attack similar to the one in Paris, with several individuals who could also possibly launch several attacks at the same time in multiple locations". France has stepped up security in schools, imposing a series of measures including compulsory safety drills and banning parking outside school premises. The Belgian authorities have so far charged three people with involvement in the Paris attacks. French media have reported that nine militants carried out the attacks on 13 November, and seven died.Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? Even in death, Hugh Hefner—who died in late September at the age of 91—continues to be a creep. As he arranged way back in 1992, he’ll be buried next to Marilyn Monroe, whose nude photos he published without her consent or knowledge in the first issue of Playboy. The male-gazer in chief sleeps eternally next to the world’s most fetishized sex object. The ancient toad who bullied a harem of grossed-out would-be starlets rests beside the ill-used beauty who was smart, kind, well-read, didn’t have an orgasm until the end of her life, and described herself as a “sexless sex goddess.” If only Marilyn could get up and go lie down next to someone else. Ad Policy Looking back, it seems incredible that Playboy was ever taken for a liberatory text, even in the stodgy 1950s. “Can man be free if woman be a slave?” the poet Shelley asked in 1818
and their hopes of getting to the playoffs. CAPTION Miami guard Josh Richardson talks about the obstacles that lead hs team's loss to the Phoenix Suns. Miami guard Josh Richardson talks about the obstacles that lead hs team's loss to the Phoenix Suns. iwinderman@sunsentinel.com. Follow him at twitter.com/iraheatbeat or facebook.com/ira.winderman For daily Heat mailbag go to sun-sentinel.com/askiraApple Pay has gained a 98% satisfaction rate among those that have used the mobile payments service to make an in-store payment in the US, Auriemma Consulting Group’s Marianne Berry has told NFC World, adding that the average number of in-store Apple Pay purchases per week among all users now stands at 2.6. The findings form part of the company’s bi-monthly Apple Pay tracker research that was released in July, revealing that more than two fifths of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users (42%) used the mobile payments service in May and June, with 84% having made more than three in-store transactions. “They are very satisfied with the Apple Pay experience in all manifestations,” Berry told NFC World. “That has been true since the beginning. Both the satisfaction with the experience as well as the recommendation measure, the net promoter score, are very high and they’re high for both in-app and in-store.” In addition to the 42% of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners that are now using the service, 16% are planning to do so. Some 69% have added an average of 2.4 cards to Apple Pay, with users spending an average of $40 on their first purchase, increasing spending thereafter. The service also experienced a 93% satisfaction rate for in-app users. “The primary barrier to usage is simply the number of merchants that are accepting it in the US right now, which is still a minority,” Berry continued. “It’s going to be extremely interesting to compare the usage levels and adoption curve in the UK with that of the US, because the UK has a much higher penetration of NFC terminals. “There’s no question that the relationship that iPhone owners have with Apple is stronger than we may see between other handset manufacturers. It’s not surprising in a sense that iPhone owners, in particular the owners of the newest phones who tend to be the early adopters, are positive about this. “Within a year and a half from now, a good substantial majority of iPhone owners in the US will have a phone that could use Apple Pay. If this current level of usage continues, it will constitute quite a significant success in our opinion. For 40% of that population able to use Apple Pay to start using a new payment method within its first six months of introduction to the market is quite substantial.” “When Android Pay comes to market, we believe that that’s going to provide a boost to all mobile payment systems,” Berry added. “When Apple Pay came out, we saw the usage of Google Wallet go up and issuers in the US have also confirmed that they see that in their portfolios. I think that part of what happens is that mobile payments in and of themselves start to become less of a novelty and more mainstream. “In the US, we’re going through EMV conversion right now so merchants are trying to cope with that piece of conversion in the payment process, which may also open the door up a little bit for mobile payment. We don’t expect plastic cards to go away any time soon; I think it’s difficult to say what the tipping point is going to be. “I think it’s probably more determined by the reaction of the merchant community. The people that are using Apple Pay right now like it very much and they want to use it wherever they can — the only thing holding them back is the lack of places where they can use it.”YouTube Weddings cost a ton of money, and one hotel has found a way to collect even more cash. The New York Post reports that the Union Street Guest House in Hudson, New York, fines couples $500 for every negative review posted online (on any website) by one of their guests. But it doesn't end there. The hotel will also fine you $500 if you're staying there to attend a wedding at another venue in the area, but leave a negative review about your stay. Union Street Guest House The hotel, which the Post reports is an estate built by the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers, has this policy on its website: Please know that despite the fact that wedding couples love Hudson and our inn, your friends and families may not. If you have booked the Inn for a wedding or other type of event anywhere in the region and given us a deposit of any kind for guests to stay at USGH there will be a $500 fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review of USGH placed on any internet site by anyone in your party and/or attending your wedding or event. If you stay here to attend a wedding anywhere in the area and leave us a negative review on any internet site you agree to a $500 fine for each negative review. The hotel agrees to give you back your money if the negative review is taken offline. The Union Street Guest House's Yelp page is currently full of one-star reviews, putting the hotel on blast for "terrible service" and using intimidation instead of correcting their policies to meet their guests' needs. Yelp Yelp Business Insider reached out, but the Union Street Guest House was unavailable for comment.Psychological studies have previously attempted to discover what a person's musical taste reveals about their personality and intellect. By asking thousands of students at the University of Texas about what music they liked, they concluded that extraverts tend to seek out songs laden with bass, while people who enjoy listening to jazz and classical music tend to be more creative and have higher IQs. So far, so expected, you might think. Here, researchers found that people who liked pop music tended to be honest but lacked creativity; rap fans had high self-esteem; people who listened to heavy metal were found to be gentle but lacked confidence; indie music fans were introverted and not particularly hard working; while people who liked jazz and classical music were found to be highly intelligent and full of self-confidence respectively. He plotted the most liked acts and genres on Facebook by students of different US colleges against those colleges' SAT scores (entrance exams). In this quite unscientific way he uncovered a "correlation between musical tastes and dumbitude (smartitude too)!". Radiohead, Beethoven and Bob Dylan fans are among the smartest college students, with people who listen to Beyonce and gospel music at the other end of the spectrum. Comfortably middle ground meanwhile are acts such as Coldplay, Maroon 5 and Snow Patrol.The Trump administration has stuck a fork in new regulations requiring that “certified organic” cows and chickens have enough room to spread their wings and hooves. The Obama-era rules required that organic poultry have enough room to run around, while livestock sold under the label had to have year-round access to an outdoor space and comfy indoor pens, The Hill reports. The regulations were supposed to go into effect March 20, but the Department of Agriculture delayed them three times and on Friday officially announced its intention to put them out to pasture — arguing they will “hamper market-driven innovation and evolution and impose unnecessary regulatory burdens.” The move had many organic trade groups madder than a wet hen. “Consumers trust that the Organic seal stands for a meaningful difference in production practices,” huffed the Organic Trade Association. “It makes no sense that the Trump Administration would pursue actions that could damage a marketplace that is giving American farmers a profitable alternative, creating jobs, and improving the economies of our rural areas.” But the pork industry is going hog wild for the move — with the National Pork Producers Council praising Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue for scrapping regulations that were “not based on science” and “outside the scope of the Organic Food Production Act of 1990.” “We’d like to thank Sec. Perdue and the Trump administration for listening to our concerns with the rule and recognizing the serious challenges it would have presented our producers,” said council president Ken Maschhoff.Apr 19 2011 Suicide by Edouard Levé Laird Hunt web exclusive Suicide (French Literature Series) by Edouard Levé translation by Jan Steyn Dalkey Archive Press $12.95 List Price For more info visit: Amazon • IndieBound • Barnes & Noble Suicide by Edouard Levé tells two intertwined stories. In one, a young man has killed himself and a friend meditates on the dead man’s life. In the other, a young author has killed himself, but not before writing a novel in which a young man has killed himself and a friend meditates on the dead man’s life. Part of what makes the experience of reading Suicide so singular is that the young author in question is Edouard Levé himself: Ten days after handing in his manuscript, Levé hanged himself, at age forty-two. It is all but impossible when reading, then, not to be constantly aware that Levé was about to kill himself when he was writing and did kill himself soon after he stopped—facts proclaimed both in the novel’s publicity materials and in the translator’s afterword, not to mention by the media frenzy around the book in France. Suicide, which has been translated into English by Jan Steyn, probably could have functioned successfully as a work of literature without the reader’s knowing about Leve’s fate. The narrator’s associative ruminations on his unnamed friend’s life are filled with haunting, strangely hopeful observations that accumulate into a moving treatise on the territory of life, literature, and death. “Only the living seem incoherent,” he speculates at one point. “Death closes the series of events that constitute their lives. So we resign ourselves to finding a meaning for them.” Meanwhile, the sustained second-person address—“One Saturday in the month of August, you leave your home wearing your tennis gear, accompanied by your wife”—places the reader uncomfortably, provocatively, in the shoes of someone who is about to end his life. The reference to the opening of Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, which also employs the second person and also blurs the line between reader and character to thought-provoking effect, is hard to miss. The possibility that the narrator, in addressing his unnamed friend (with whom the reader has become identified), is in fact addressing himself, and so is drafting a kind of suicide note, adds another fascinating, dizzying layer to the text. The many blanks surrounding the precise nature of the relationship between the narrator and his former friend further, interestingly, accentuate these effects. But this is a novel that does not function on its merits alone, and the floor falls out from under us entirely when we recall how Levé—who shared numerous autobiographical points in common with the suicide in the novel—chose to end his days. Suicide is both fiction and final, nonfictional statement, both novel and memoir. It is we, as readers and participants, who stand at the center of these two mirrors hung opposite each other and find the author infinitely, diminishingly multiplied. Though we’ll probably never know whether Levé—who in addition to being a writer was a successful photographer with an interest in conceptual art—killed himself to bring his grim metafiction full circle, it is all but impossible not to read his haunting Suicide in this troubling light.Photos by Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego Publications For the sixth consecutive year, the University of California, San Diego has been ranked the number one university in the nation by Washington Monthly for its contributions to the public good. The magazine released its 2015 College Guide today, an annual issue that takes a different approach to ranking the nation’s colleges and universities. Washington Monthly also rates colleges that are doing the best job of helping non-wealthy students attain marketable degrees at affordable prices. UC San Diego was listed as 16th in the Best Bang for the Buck Colleges in the West category. “It is an honor to once again receive this prestigious recognition from Washington Monthly,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “Through our mission of education, research and service, we are committed to creating civic engagement opportunities, producing cutting-edge research that solves critical problems, and providing financial aid to enable upward social mobility for our diverse student body.” The magazine’s college rankings consider how universities are acting on behalf of the true public interest by measuring three criteria: social mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and Ph.D.s,) and service (encouraging students to give back to their country). Social mobility UC San Diego earned high marks from Washington Monthly in the category of social mobility, based on the number of students who receive federal Pell Grants (need-based grants for low-income students) and their graduation rates. According to the 2015 UC San Diego college profile, 68 percent of undergraduates received financial aid (including student and parent loans), and 58 percent were awarded need-based scholarship or grant aid. In addition, UC San Diego has many initiatives that are designed to promote social mobility, including the Chancellor’s Associates Scholars program. Established in 2013 by Chancellor Khosla to improve the pathway for students from historically underserved communities to achieve a higher education, the program represents UC San Diego’s full commitment to support and develop scholars through graduation. It provides a wide range of services and opportunities to ensure that they thrive as undergraduate students, and are fully engaged in academics, student life and university experiences. When coupled with other forms of financial aid, the scholarship essentially covers all costs associated with a UC San Diego education including housing and books. “I knew I wanted to come to UC San Diego, but I had no idea how I would pay,” said 2015 Chancellor’s Associates scholar Felipe Soltero. “When I received the news about the scholarship, I was overjoyed.” Research UC San Diego was ranked by Washington Monthly on the number of undergraduate alumni who go on to receive a Ph.D., faculty awards, research expenditures and other criteria. In 2015, UC San Diego’s research funding once again surpassed $1 billion, positioning the campus among the nation’s top 10 universities for annual research funding. The funding supports research in many branches of medicine, the sciences, the arts, the humanities, oceanography, engineering, the social sciences, supercomputing and other fields—research that UC San Diego is internationally recognized for translating into innovations, medical breakthroughs, jobs and new businesses in San Diego and California. Recent graduate Peter Dykstra will be attending Stanford University this fall to pursue a doctorate in bioengineering. “I’m very proud of the research that I’ve gotten to do as a UC San Diego undergrad and I hope to continue with the same themes as I begin my Ph.D. studies at Stanford,” he says. Service UC San Diego faculty, staff and students are acknowledged often for public service. From recognition as a top college by the Peace Corps to inclusion in the President’s Community Service Honor Roll, the university has been honored for its support of volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement. For second year student Genevieve Fleming-Hollinger, UC San Diego’s reputation as a service-oriented school is one of the main reasons she chose to enroll. “This commitment to giving back has been apparent to me since my first day of school,” she said. “I’m so proud UC San Diego is my university.” UC San Diego provides students many opportunities for community service in the region. The Partners at Learning (PAL) program, offered by the Education Studies Department, pairs local underserved students with undergraduate tutors who serve as powerful advocates for higher education. The university’s Thurgood Marshall College, working with UC San Diego’s Center for Research on Educational Equity, Assessment and Teaching Excellence (CREATE), created the Partnership Schools Program to provide undergraduate students the opportunity to volunteer at The Preuss School UCSD or Gompers Preparatory Academy as positive role models and mentors for grades 6-12 college-bound youth. Other colleges sponsor similar efforts. UC San Diego students also engage with the community through the campus’ more than 600 registered student organizations—over 90 organizations have a primary focus on service. In 2015, a total of 17,234 students completed 3,110,520 hours of community service. The University of California snagged the top five slots in this year’s rankings. “The University of California system dominates our national university rankings, with a combination of research prowess and economic diversity among undergraduates,” the magazine noted. “Top-ranked UC San Diego and UC Riverside enjoy international reputations for scholarship while enrolling racially and economically diverse student bodies.” The complete 2015 college rankings and feature stories can be found here. Founded in 1969, Washington Monthly is a bimonthly nonprofit magazine covering politics, government, culture and the media.Story highlights Angus T. Jones says he never intended to disrespect his colleagues Jones, 19, says the sitcom's crew and cast are an extension of his family Charlie Sheen: Jones' "meltdown" shows "the show is cursed" In an online video, Jones calls the sitcom "filth" and asks viewers not to watch it A day after a video posted online showed him describing "Two and a Half Men" as "filth" and advising viewers to stop watching the sitcom, actor Angus T. Jones apologized to the show's cast and crew Tuesday. "I apologize if my remarks reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues and a lack of appreciation of the extraordinary opportunity of which I have been blessed," Jones said in a statement released by his publicist. "I never intended that." The 19-year-old actor -- who plays Jake Harper, the CBS sitcom's "Half" man -- didn't detail what motivated him to make comments. "I have been the subject of much discussion, speculation and commentary over the past 24 hours. While I cannot address everything that has been said or right every misstatement or misunderstanding, there is one thing I want to make clear," he wrote. "Without qualification, I am grateful to and have the highest regard and respect for all of the wonderful people on Two and Half Men with whom I have worked and over the past ten years who have become an extension of my family." It's unclear how Jones' comments could affect the show in the long run, but sources close to production told CNN that Jones will not appear in either of the two remaining episodes that the CBS sitcom will shoot before going on holiday break. The sources said both of the episodes were written well in advance of Jones' video confession, which whipped around the Web on Monday. JUST WATCHED Jones: Stop watching my TV show Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Jones: Stop watching my TV show 01:58 JUST WATCHED Conan: Andy's advice for Angus T. Jones Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Conan: Andy's advice for Angus T. Jones 00:10 JUST WATCHED 'The Office' spoofs Angus T. Jones rant Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH 'The Office' spoofs Angus T. Jones rant 00:47 In the video, the actor, who's been on the show since 2003, repeatedly asks viewers not to watch the sitcom. "I'm on 'Two and a Half Men,' and I don't want to be on it," Jones said. "You cannot be a true God-fearing person and be on a television show like that. I know I can't. I'm not OK with what I'm learning, what the Bible says, and being on that television show. You go all or nothing." According to a statement from the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Jones joined a church in the San Fernando Valley area in June, making him one of the 1.1 million North American members of the Protestant organization. However, the church said it's not affiliated with the video clip that's gone viral online and says the online show's host is not a pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Church spokesman George Johnson said the church did not have additional information about Johnson's comments but said the church was happy Jones has "found a place in which he feels comfortable to worship and grow his faith." Jones' comments come nearly two years after Charlie Sheen was fired from the hit sitcom after a two-week public meltdown that included attacks on the show's producer. On Tuesday, Sheen described Jones' comments as a meltdown. "It is radically clear to me that the show (2 1/2 Men) is cursed," Sheen said in a statement released by his publicist.According to the firm Carbon Black, Android ransomware kits are very popular in the dark web, and the median price range for them hits $200. According to the firm Carbon Black, Android ransomware kits are very popular in the dark web, more than 5,000 Android ransomware kit listings have been discovered in 2017. Even if most ransomware kits are still focused on targeting Windows systems, Android ransomware kits are expected to grow in volume and price. The median price range for Android ransomware kits hits $200, 20 times higher than the $10 median price of Windows ransomware kits. Researchers at Carbon Black found 1,683 Android ransomware kits out of a total of 5,050, their price ranges from $250 up to $850. The experts explicitly mentioned the case of the DoubleLocker ransomware for Android that was spotted early this year by security researchers from cybersecurity firm ESET. DoubleLocker is the first-ever ransomware to abuse the Android accessibility feature that implements alternative ways to interact with a mobile device, it was a new malware that not only encrypts the Android mobile devices but also changes PIN lock. Well, experts at Carbon Black reported a case of a cybercriminal that wanted $854 for the Locker Android ransomware kit. “We are already seeing an uptick in Android Ransomware kits in underground markets, selling for a much higher price. In our research, we discovered that the median price of ransomware targeting Windows OS is $10, whereas Android-capable ransomware has a median range of $200.” reads a report published by Carbon Black. Rick McElroy, a Carbon Black security strategist, explained that there is a significant difference between typical iOS users and Android ones. Apple users have a tendency to buy new devices everytime a new model is on the market and update their applications and operating systems on a regular basis. Android users being remiss in updating their devices, giving much more opportunities to the attackers. “One of the most surprising things was how many Android devices are out there that have not been updated for two years now, and probably never will,” McElroy says. “Updates are usually simple to conduct, but many users simply don’t do them.” Crooks choose to target Android users because Android holds the largest OS marketshare worldwide for smartphones, roughly 86% in the first quarter of Q1. Another factor that influences the median price higher for Android ransomware kits is the level of coding sophistication that is needed to create these tools compared to the efforts necessary to develop similar kits for Windows. “This speaks a bit to how easy it is to get ransomware onto a Windows system versus other operation systems,” McElroy says. “The longer a developer has to spend to get his ransomware to work effectively at scale the higher the price will be.” The last catalyst that is driving the median price higher for Android ransomware kits is the spike in the value of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the currency used for payments of the ransom, “with Bitcoin value increasing so quickly, the expansion of this space will likely be connected closely to the value of BTC.” “However, as those attacks become tougher, and crypto-currency, such as Bitcoin, gains popularity; we believe ransom-based attacks such as screen-lock and file-encryption will gain popularity going forward.” concludes the report. Pierluigi Paganini (Security Affairs – Android ransomware kits, Dark Web) Share this... Linkedin Reddit Pinterest Share OnGet the latest news and videos for this game daily, no spam, no fuss. Valve today announced Steam Family Sharing, an all-new service feature that will allow friends and family to share their libraries of Steam games. The feature will be supported on PC, Mac, and Linux and will become available next week through a "limited" beta. According to Valve, Steam Family Sharing is designed to let family members and friends play one another's Steam games. Individual members can earn their own achievements and keep their own saves and application data intact via the Steam cloud. "Our customers have expressed a desire to share their digital games among friends and family members, just as current retail games, books, DVDs, and other physical media can be shared," Valve's Anna Sweet said in a statement. "Family Sharing was created in direct response to these user requests." When a user authorizes their device to allow sharing, the lender's library of Steam games will become available for others to access, download, and play. Though simultaneous usage of an account is prohibited, the lender is always able to play their games at any time. If the player decides to start playing while a friend is borrowing a game, the friend will be given a "few minutes" to purchase the game or quit. Gamers interested in joining the Family Sharing beta can sign up through the Family Sharing group on the Steam community. The beta is expected to begin in about a week, when 1,000 accounts will be given access. Those chosen will be notified via email. Users can authorize their Steam account for sharing on up to 10 devices at a time. Users can't share specific games, as libraries are shared and borrowed in their entirety, Valve said. In addition, not all Steam games can be shared, the company said. These include games that require a third-party key, account, or subscription. Concerning downloadable content, a borrower will have access to the lender's DLC, but borrowers cannot purchase DLC for the base game that they do not own. In addition, in-game items cannot be shared between accounts. Valve also addressed the issue of cheating or fraud while a friend or family member is playing their game. The company said Family Sharing privileges may be revoked in the case of a borrower being caught cheating or perpetrating fraud. "We recommend you only authorize familiar computers you know to be secure," Valve said. Valve is the first digital ecosystem to allow trading. Microsoft had planned to be first out of the gate with its own Family Sharing plan for the Xbox One, but it scrapped this plan in June when it reversed a number of its digital policies. Still, this plan is not gone forever. Senior Xbox director Albert Penello told GameSpot at PAX Prime that the Family Sharing plan will return. "I get a lot of mails saying, 'God, please bring back the family sharing.' We'd love to figure out how to bring that back. I still think it was a good idea," Penello said at the time. "Maybe it was a little too soon for some people, but I still think there were a lot of good ideas in there. And we'll bring it back when the time is right."ADVERTISEMENT The video: Video of a police officer pepper spraying a baby squirrel has incensed animal-rights advocates — and become a YouTube sensation. Last week, administrators at Kimbrough Middle School in Mesquite, Texas, called animal control after reports surfaced that the rodent had been chasing students around school premises. When an officer arrived, he wasted little time in uncorking a can of pepper spray on the skittish animal, to the horror of students, who can be heard urging the officer to stop, shouting "No!" and "Don't spray him!" as the squirrel writhes in agony. (Watch the cellphone video below.) The squirrel survived the incident unharmed, and was eventually released back into the wild. The reaction: The Mesquite Police Department defended the officer's actions, claiming that the squirrel had been acting erratically, and may have been rabid. Students at the school, though, claim it wasn't bothering anyone. "[It] didn't do anything at all. It didn't try to attack us or anything," said one eighth grader, quoted by the local Fox affiliate. Oh, c'mon, says Carmel Lobello at Death + Taxes. "As everyone knows, squirrels are punks. They're responsible for greedy, destructive nibbling, torturing cats by luring them into trees, and in the case of this little squirt, terrorizing middle-schoolers." The video really tells the story, says Max Read at Gawker. "Now that the cop has been caught on film, let's hope PETA or some other animal rights group comes calling." Judge for yourself:Adult female humpback found on bow of ship owned by Princess Cruises – the third whale incident involving the firm since 2001 A dead whale has been found pinned to the bow of a cruise ship off the coast of Alaska, the third such incident in a decade. The whale was removed from a Princess Cruises ship on Wednesday afternoon, having apparently become lodged on the bulbous bow that morning. The unfortunate whale, believed to be an adult female humpback measuring 13m (43ft) in length, was found at around 8am on Wednesday, as the Sapphire Princess ship travelled from Ketchikan to Juneau in Alaska. The Sapphire Princess then stopped south of Douglas Island until the carcass could be removedon Wednesday afternoon. The bow protrudes from the bowline of large ships just below the waterline. It is designed to reduce drag, increasing speed and stability. Biologists will conduct a necropsy today to try to determine the cause of death, according to local news channel KTUU. Humpback whales are protected under the US endangered species act and the marine mammal act, although it is unclear whether any legal action would be taken. A spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it was possible the whale was already dead before becoming pinned to the bow. Last year, the same ship was discovered to have a dead fin whale – which, like humpbacks, are classified as endangered – pinned to its bow when it returned to Vancouver. In 2007, the firm paid $750,000 (£480,000) to settle a criminal charge related to a dead whale found just outside Glacier Bay, Alaska in 2001. The dead whale, a pregnant humpback, was found to have had its skull crushed. Although Princess did not admit in the settlement to striking the whale, the company pleaded guilty to failing to operate one of its vessels, the Dawn Princess, at a safe speed around whales. In a statement released yesterday, Princess said it was "fully co-operating" with the investigation into the incident near Tracy Arm fjord, south of Juneau.This article is about the basal ganglia of vertebrates. For detailed information on the circuitries specific to primates, see Primate basal ganglia The basal ganglia (or basal nuclei) are a group of subcortical nuclei, of varied origin, in the brains of vertebrates, including humans, which are situated at the base of the forebrain and top of the midbrain. There are some differences in the basal ganglia of primates. Basal ganglia are strongly interconnected with the cerebral cortex, thalamus, and brainstem, as well as several other brain areas. The basal ganglia are associated with a variety of functions, including control of voluntary motor movements, procedural learning, habit learning, eye movements, cognition,[1] and emotion.[2] The main components of the basal ganglia – as defined functionally – are the striatum; both dorsal striatum (caudate nucleus and putamen) and ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens and olfactory tubercle), globus pallidus, ventral pallidum, substantia nigra, and subthalamic nucleus.[3] Each of these components has a complex internal anatomical and neurochemical organization. The largest component, the striatum (dorsal and ventral), receives input from many brain areas beyond the basal ganglia, but only sends output to other components of the basal ganglia. The pallidum receives input from the striatum, and sends inhibitory output to a number of motor-related areas. The substantia nigra is the source of the striatal input of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which plays an important role in basal ganglia function. The subthalamic nucleus receives input mainly from the striatum and cerebral cortex, and projects to the globus pallidus. Popular theories implicate the basal ganglia primarily in action selection – in helping to decide which of several possible behaviors to execute at any given time. In more specific terms, the basal ganglia's primary function is likely to control and regulate activities of the motor and premotor cortical areas so that voluntary movements can be performed smoothly.[1][4] Experimental studies show that the basal ganglia exert an inhibitory influence on a number of motor systems, and that a release of this inhibition permits a motor system to become active. The "behavior switching" that takes place within the basal ganglia is influenced by signals from many parts of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex, which plays a key role in executive functions.[2][5] The basal ganglia are of major importance for normal brain function and behaviour. Their dysfunction results in a wide range of neurological conditions including disorders of behaviour control and movement. Those of behaviour include Tourette syndrome, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and addiction. Movement disorders include, most notably Parkinson's disease, which involves degeneration of the dopamine-producing cells in the substantia nigra, Huntington's disease, which primarily involves damage to the striatum,[1][3]dystonia, and more rarely hemiballismus. The basal ganglia have a limbic sector whose components are assigned distinct names: the nucleus accumbens, ventral pallidum, and ventral tegmental area (VTA). There is considerable evidence that this limbic part plays a central role in reward learning, particularly the mesolimbic pathway from the VTA to the nucleus accumbens that uses the neurotransmitter dopamine. A number of highly addictive drugs, including cocaine, amphetamine, and nicotine, are thought to work by increasing the efficacy of this dopamine signal. There is also evidence implicating overactivity of the VTA dopaminergic projection in schizophrenia.[6] Structure [ edit ] In terms of development, the human central nervous system is often classified based on the original three primitive vesicles from which it develops: These primary vesicles form in the normal development of the neural tube of the embryo and initially include the prosencephalon, mesencephalon, and rhombencephalon, in rostral to caudal (from head to tail) orientation. Later in development of the nervous system each section itself turns into smaller components. During development, the cells that migrate tangentially to form the basal ganglia are directed by the lateral and medial ganglionic eminences.[7] The following table demonstrates this developmental classification and traces it to the anatomic structures found in the basal ganglia.[1][3][8] The structures relevant to the basal ganglia are shown in bold. Primary division of the neural tube Secondary subdivision Final segments in a human adult Prosencephalon Telencephalon Diencephalon On each side of the brain: the cerebral cortices, caudate, putamen, hypothalamus Globus pallidus, ventral pallidum, thalamus, subthalamus, epithalamus, subthalamic nucleus Mesencephalon Mesencephalon Mesencephalon (midbrain): substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc), substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) Rhombencephalon Metencephalon Myelencephalon Pons and cerebellum Medulla Video of relevant anatomy The basal ganglia form a fundamental component of the cerebrum. In contrast to the cortical layer that lines the surface of the forebrain, the basal ganglia are a collection of distinct masses of gray matter lying deep in the brain not far from the junction of the thalamus. They lie to the side of and surround the thalamus.[9] Like most parts of the brain, the basal ganglia consist of left and right sides that are virtual mirror images of each other. In terms of anatomy, the basal ganglia are divided into four distinct structures, depending on how superior or rostral they are (in other words depending on how close to the top of the head they are): Two of them, the striatum and the pallidum, are relatively large; the other two, the substantia nigra and the subthalamic nucleus, are smaller. In the illustration to the right, two coronal sections of the human brain show the location of the basal ganglia components. Of note, and not seen in this section, the subthalamic nucleus and substantia nigra lie farther back (posteriorly) in the brain than the striatum and pallidum. Striatum [ edit ] Basal ganglia The striatum is a subcortical structure generally divided into the dorsal striatum and ventral striatum, although a medial lateral classification has been suggested to be more relevant behaviorally[10] and is being more widely used.[11] The striatum is composed mostly of medium spiny neurons. These GABAergic neurons project to the external (lateral) globus pallidus and internal (medial) globus pallidus as well as the substantia nigra pars reticulata. The projections into the globus pallidus and substantia nigra are primarily dopaminergic, although enkephalin, dynorphin and substance P are expressed. The striatum also contains interneurons that are classified into nitrergic neurons (due to use of nitric oxide as a neurotransmitter), tonically active[clarification needed] cholinergic interneurons, parvalbumin-expressing neurons and calretinin-expressing neurons.[12] The dorsal striatum receives significant glutamatergic inputs from the cortex, as well as dopaminergic inputs from the substantia nigra pars compacta. The dorsal striatum is generally considered to be involved in sensorimotor activities. The ventral striatum receives glutamatergic inputs from the limbic areas as well as dopaminergic inputs from the VTA, via the mesolimbic pathway. The ventral striatum is believed to play a role in reward and other limbic functions.[13] The dorsal striatum is divided into the caudate and putamen by the internal capsule while the ventral striatum is composed of the nucleus accumbens and olfactory tubercle.[14][15] The caudate has three primary regions of connectivity, with the head of the caudate demonstrating connectivity to the prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex and amygdala. The body and tail show differentiation between the dorsolateral rim and ventral caudate, projecting to the sensorimotor and limbic regions of the striatum respectively.[16] Striatopallidal fibres connect the striatum to the pallidus. Pallidum [ edit ] The pallidum consists of a large structure called the globus pallidus ("pale globe") together with a smaller ventral extension called the ventral pallidum. The globus pallidus appears
an architect and do a bit of decorating themselves." Other countries are way ahead, he says. In Austria 80% of all homes are self-built. In Germany, France and Italy the figure is 60%. In the US and Australia it is over 40%. By contrast the figure for the UK is about 10%. There's huge interest and growing demand, says Stevens. Over three million people watch Grand Designs, 100,000 subscribe to websites announcing available plots of land and a similar number buy self-build magazines. But only 13,860 built their own home last year. Why so few? A community self-build Image caption Ashley Vale Ashley Vale is a self-build neighbourhood in Bristol made up of around 40 homes built on a former scaffolding yard. In the late 1990s the site was about to be sold to a volume housebuilder. But a group of likeminded local people persuaded the council to sell them the site instead, to develop as a self-build neighbourhood. It now has 40 environmentally-sustainable homes, some of them built entirely by the residents, others put together by builders. "For people to work around each other on the houses is an amazing way to create a community," says Jackson Moulding, a director of the Ashley Vale Action Group. "There are conflicts but in the end it worked out well." The reward is getting the house you want at an affordable price, he says. "It's really hard to get your hands on a plot of land," says Stevens. "The housebuilders are very nimble, always sniffing around to find a field that might one day get planning permission." The planning system also fails to take self-builders into account, he says. Grant Shapps wants to make land and mortgage lending available to self-builders. The aim is to rebrand it from something for the wealthy over 50s and "bring the opportunity of self-building to the masses". But this is unrealistic says Steve Turner, a spokesman for the Home Builders Federation. Self-build will never move beyond being a fringe activity for a committed few to something mainstream, he argues. "Building a house is a very complex procedure from the planning stage, to designing the shell, to the electricity, plumbing and insulation. I wouldn't want to live in a house I'd built myself." Because the self builder is the landowner, they are also liable for improvements to local infrastructure, a cost that would normally be borne by the housebuilder. But overall, self-build saves money, supporters argue. The average new build home costs £189,940 compared to a self-build cost of £84,000 if you do the work yourself or £146,000 if you employ tradesmen to do it for you. I love my home. I quite often look up and remember when we built that section Lynda Williams, self-builder Lynda Williams was given a plot of land in mid Wales by her father. She didn't have the money to hire a project manager so ended up building it herself from a timber frame. It took eight months and meant putting it together in the evening after work. The main motivation was getting value for money. Her mortgage was £110,000 but it is now valued at £260,000. In addition to the financial spin-off, there is an emotional payout from being connected to the design and construction of your home. "I love my home. I quite often look up and remember when we built that section." Planners are supportive of the concept. But there's a danger that allowing people to start building their own homes en masse could leave a blot on the landscape, they warn. "When you build a house you're creating an asset for a hundred years," says Hugh Ellis, chief planner at the Town and Country Planning Association. "The design is not just a matter of personal taste, it has an impact on the wider community." He fears the government's deregulation of the planning service may allow self-builders to "stick two fingers up" at planning controls. Poor design is not the real problem, says Edwin Heathcote, the Financial Times's architecture critic. "The mass housebuilders have done such an appalling job of despoiling the countryside. So from an aesthetic point of view self-builders can't do any worse and should be encouraged." Self-build action plan Planners address self-build Government land made available Mortgage lending increased £10m land fund Source: NaSBA The trouble with self build is that it steers clear of city sites - where development is most sustainable - as few can afford the land prices there. Instead self-builders buy land outside cities, where they are reliant on cars, and use larger plots than necessary, encouraging suburban sprawl. "Although the idea of self-build is potentially quite hippyish, it's relatively unsustainable," Heathcote says. The answer, he says is to do self-build on a collective level and create a new city development. One current scheme is Ashley Vale in Bristol where likeminded people came together to redevelop an inner city site. It boils down to giving power to the individual, says Stevens. "You've found the site, specified to the architect what you want, decorated and landscaped. So it feels different to just turning up one day to the house and picking up the keys."22539 Rundfunklizenz für YouTube-Kanäle? : "Nur so abwegig wie das Gesetz, auf dem es fußt" von Constantin Baron van Lijnden 31.03.2017 Bild: Screenshot PietSmiet Stream auf Twitch Unter dem Namen "PietSmiet" streamen fünf junge Männer, wie sie Computerspiele spielen. Nach Auffassung der Landesmedienanstalt brauchen sie dafür eine Rundfunklizenz. Das hat weniger mit Schikane zu tun als mit unzeitgemäßer Gesetzgebung. Anzeige Die Erkenntnis, dass der Gesetzgeber der technischen Entwicklung hinterherhinkt, hat im Laufe der vergangenen zehn Jahre vielleicht an Originalität, aber keinesfalls an Stichhaltigkeit verloren. Wie schlecht Realität und Rechtsordnung im Bereich derz "neuen" Medien bisweilen zueinander passen, lässt sich an kaum einem Beispiel so schön zeigen wie am aktuellen Vorgehen der nordrhein-westfälischen Landesmedienanstalt gegen das Let's-Player-Kollektiv PietSmiet. PietSmiet muss man nicht unbedingt kennen. Man könnte allerdings: Ihr YouTube-Kanal verfügt über 2,1 Millionen Abonnenten, der Kanal auf der Live-Stream-Plattform Twitch kommt auf 320.000. Dort kann man den PietSmiet-Mitgliedern dabei zuschauen, wie sie Computerspiele spielen, und zuhören, wie sie mehr oder weniger geistreiche Kommentare zum Geschehen liefern. Inzwischen geht das fünfköpfige Team auch auf Tour, der namensgebende Mitgründer Peter Smits wird von Politikern zum Gespräch gebeten – zuletzt etwa von SPD-Generalsekretärin Katarina Barley und CDU-Generalsekretär Peter Tauber. Kein Wunder: Smits ist, was man einen "Influencer" nennt – und es ist Wahljahr. Unlängst konnte er auf einem Anlass dieser Art auch gleich ein Petitum in eigener Sache loswerden: Bei einem unter dem Titel "Deutschland 2025" veranstalten politischen Abend der CDU warf Smits die Frage auf, ob es denn zeitgemäß sei, wenn über das Internet verbreitete Videokanäle wie der seine bei den Landesmedienanstalten eine Rundfunklizenz beantragen müssten. Eben dazu hatte die Landesmedienanstalt NRW PietSmiet kurz zuvor nämlich aufgefordert; sollte der Kanal dem nicht bis Ende April nachkommen, würde die weitere Ausstrahlung untersagt, bei Zuwiderhandlung drohten Bußgelder. Was Rundfunk ausmacht Die Argumentation der Behörde: Das Angebot von PietSmiet falle unter § 2 Abs. 1 Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (RStV). Die Vorschrift definiert Rundfunk als "ein linearer Informations- und Kommunikationsdienst; er ist die für die Allgemeinheit und zum zeitgleichen Empfang bestimmte Veranstaltung und Verbreitung von Angeboten in Bewegtbild oder Ton entlang eines Sendeplans unter Benutzung elektromagnetischer Schwingungen." In etwas weniger angestaubten Worten fasst die Landesmedienanstalt NRW die Kriterien zusammen. Rundfunk ist demnach ein Streamingdienst, der linear, also live verbreitet wird, von mehr als 500 Zuschauern/Usern gleichzeitig gesehen werden kann, redaktionell gestaltet ist und "entlang eines Sendeplans" regelmäßig und wiederholt verbreitet wird. Da nur lineare Übertragungen erfasst werden, ist der PietSmiet-Kanal auf YouTube nicht betroffen – sehr wohl aber derjenige auf Twitch. Denn während YouTube-Videos jederzeit ("on demand") abgerufen werden können, ist Twitch (in erster Linie) auf Live-Streams zugeschnitten, bei denen nicht der Zuschauer über Start und Ende der "Sendezeit" bestimmt, sondern der Veranstalter. PietSmiet streamt auch "regelmäßig", nämlich täglich. Und schließlich ist das Angebot "redaktionell gestaltet", da das Spielgeschehen nicht einfach nur abgebildet, sondern von den Kommentaren der Spieler begleitet und oft auch in einen größeren Kontext gestellt wird (z.B. Vorstellung neuer Spiele oder Konsolen, Spendenaktionen, Kooperationen mit anderen Streamern etc). Landesmedienanstalt: Kein Kreuzzug gegen Streamer geplant Ob PietSmiet sich fügen oder den Rechtsweg beschreiten wird, ist noch nicht bekannt. Aufwand und Kosten würde beides bedeuten: Die Erteilung einer Rundfunklizenz schlägt mit Gebühren zwischen 1.000 und 10.000 Euro zu Buche und bedeutet oft einen monatelangen bürokratischen Spießroutenlauf; außerdem gehen mit ihr bestimmte Pflichten einher wie z.B. die Begrenzung von Werbung, die Offenlegung von Beteiligungen und die Bestellung eines Jugendschutzbeauftragten. Das wäre für einen Kanal mit der Reichweite und den finanziellen Ressourcen von PietSmiet wohl zu verschmerzen, doch die Kriterien der Landesmedienanstalt dürften auch zahlreiche weit kleinere Twitch-Kanäle erfassen. Diese sind auch durch die 500-Zuschauer-Schranke nicht geschützt: Denn der 2009 in den RStV eingefügte § 2 Abs. 3 Nr. 1 fordert lediglich, dass das Angebot technisch "von mehr als 500 Zuschauern gleichzeitig gesehen werden kann", nicht, dass dies auch tatsächlich geschieht. Nach eigener Auskunft plant die Landesmedienanstalt NRW dennoch nicht, nun massiv gegen Twitch-Streamer vorzugehen. Tatsächlich wirkt ihr Tätigwerden gegenüber PietSmiet weniger wie der Auftakt zu einer groß angelegten Offensive, und mehr wie ein Appell in Richtung Politik. Dazu passt auch, dass sie selbst in der vergangenen Woche eine Pressemitteilung veröffentlichte, in welcher der Vorsitzende der zuständigen Kommission mit den Worten zitiert wird: „Das Netz ist voll von rundfunkähnlichen Angeboten. Daher sollte es hier zeitnah zu einer Anpassung der Gesetze kommen. Wir brauchen offline wie online gleiche Voraussetzungen für Rundfunkangebote.“ Solange dies nicht der Fall sei, werde man die bestehenden Rechtsgrundlagen anwenden, heißt es dort weiter. Viel deutlicher kann man sich vom eigenen Handeln nicht distanzieren.The first benchmarks of a low TDP Skylake processor have been published by a Chinese source. The site pits the Core i5-6400T, a low TDP, Skylake based processor in two sets of performance benchmarks which include DDR4 vs DDR3 tests in gaming and synthetic applications. The processor was tested on two separate ECS boards since one supports DDR3 and the other supports DDR4 memory. Intel Core i5-6400T Performance Compared With DDR4 and DDR3 Memory – Low TDP Skylake CPU Peaks at 40W System Power Consumption We have been reporting specifications of Skylake processors since the past few months. We know that the desktop lineup (Skylake-S) comes in three different segments, the unlocked lineup will be launching on 5th August followed by locked chips in late August-September time-frame and a similar schedule for the CPUs featuring low power TDPs (SKUs featuring T-Suffix in codename). The entry level model of the Low-TDP line is going to be the Core i5-6400T, the processor which has been tested today. The Core i5-6400T is a quad core processor with four threads which indicates that it is single threaded. The core clocks are maintained at 2.2 GHz base and 2.8 GHz boost while the processors comes with 6 MB of L3 Cache. Since this processor is a locked chip, no overclocking is available but being a 14nm processor, the T-Series has a TDP of just 35W. The processor has support for DDR4 and DDR3L memory given the boards also have support for the said memory DIMMs. The iGPU featured on the Skylake CPU is a GT2 Skylake chip which will come with 24 Execution Units and a base clock of 350 MHz. The boost clock has not been mentioned but it should be lower than what’s going to be featured on the higher TDP variants. The two motherboards include the ECS made Q170-SF100 and H110-SF100. Both of these are Mini-ITX boards and there isn’t a large visual difference between both. These boards come with the LGA 1151 socket, M.2 SSD slots, HDMI/Display Ports for display output and a range of I/O ports that we can look in detail in the pictures below. The main difference between these boards is that the Q170-SF100 comes with DDR4 memory support and the H110-SF100 comes with DDR3L memory support. The motherboards only support SO-DIMM form factors of either memory stick. The H110-SF100 also comes with a Type-C USB 3.1 port and a MicroSD card slot. There’s no need for an external PSU to power the board as they are delivered power through a 19V / 7.1 A DC power adapter that is bundled in the package. The H110 and Q170 chipset on both boards is integrated on the back of the board and covered by a small metallic heatsink. The tester used two 16 GB DDR4 SO-DIMMs (2400 MHz) with the Q170-SF100 motherboard and just 8 GB DDR3L SO-DIMMs (2133 MHz) with the H110-SF100 motherboard. Testing both boards indicated a power draw of 10-20W on system idle and peaking at 40W on full system load. Giving a quick look at the benchmarks, the Core i5-6400T scores 417 marks in Cinebench R15 which can be compared to the 404 Marks scored by a Core i5-4670T which is a higher clocked CPU that operates up to 3.30 GHz. Gains in CPU benchmarks with DDR4 ram over DDR3 are small but gaming benchmarks show decent gains in performance running on the iGPU. Intel Core i5-6400T DDR4 (Q170-SF100) Benchmarks: Intel Core i5-6400T DDR3 (H110-SF100) Benchmarks: Intel Core i5-6400T Test Rig Setup and Pictures: http://beautyz.net/10509.htmlRobin had some audio of Hayden Panitierre talking about the rest of the season of ''Heroes.'' Howard said he'll be watching that. They ended the show a short time later, right around 11:05am. Robin read that the movie ''Taken'' was the number one movie at the box office this weekend. She read the other top 5 movies as well. She said that there's a new Drew Barrymore movie coming out this week and had some audio of Drew talking about that. Howard cut her off and made fun of the way she marries just about anyone she meets and joked that she married the interviewer right after the interview. Robin had a story about people who are going to fertility clinics to have twins so they can get all of their family out of the way in one fell swoop. Robin said that women are selling their eggs to get money too. She had a story about a woman who made $8,000 selling her eggs. She had some details about what that process can be like and how painful it can be. Robin read some news about the woman who had octuplets. Howard said he didn't want to talk about that. Robin said that the woman wanted to have babies since high school and now she has 14. Robin said that the mother of that woman is thinking of leaving because she didn't plan on raising kids with her daughter. Howard said that the woman already had 6 kids and that wasn't enough for her. Robin said that she's looking for a TV deal or some sponsorship deals. Robin said that she's going to be going on Oprah's show and will be interviewed by Diane Sawyer as well. Howard said he couldn't even come up with 14 names for kids. Robin read a story about the wife of Dr. Atkins and how she took his $600 million and found a new husband. Howard said that's a lot of money. The wife isn't listening to critics who think that her new husband is just a gold digger. She's fighting to get that money from the people in charge of it. Artie ended up comparing that to a Godfather scene. He recited some of the lines from that scene and then Fred played a clip. Howard said he loves that movie. Robin read some news about Yngwie Malmsteen having to sell off a bunch of his stuff because he was ripped off by a manager. Howard said that guy doesn't sing so he's put out some albums that are just music and it sounds like something is missing. Howard said he thinks that the guy is famous mostly because of his unusual name, like Engelbert Humperdink. Fred played some of Yngwie Malmsteen's stuff and Howard said that you keep waiting for the lyrics to come and it never does. Then there were lyrics in the song that Fred played so Howard said that maybe he does have some singing in there. Richard said that Scott has to deal with a bunch of Chinese people to create his Video Caddy thing. Scott said that he has a good idea for the iPhone and he's going to try and make it happen. Richard said Scott found this thing on the internet that's supposed to grow your hair by running a laser over your head. Richard came in and told Howard that they have chess games for the iPod. Howard said that Richard should be playing a game of ''brush your teeth.'' Artie said that Scott DePace is working on an application for the iPhone and he's really secretive about it like it's going to be some big deal. Howard said that it'll probably be just like his video caddy thing. Scott DePace came in and said that he's not going to talk about it but it has nothing to do with golf. Artie said that he and Scott got into an argument about him being a Type-A personality and he's so not. Artie said that Scott told him that he's going to draw up the plans for this app and then have someone else develop it. Artie said that he's not a type-A personality. Robin read a story about the new iPhone that's supposed to be coming out this summer. It's supposed to be a full fledged gaming platform. Howard said he's getting jealous of people who have iPhones because they can do so many things that he can't do. That led to the guys talking about the differences between instant messaging and texting. Howard said it's basically the same thing. Robin read some news about Madonna and A-Rod. That led to Artie saying that he hopes that A-Rod gets a sore on his cock from Madonna's ass. He really dislikes the guy and went off on him for a few seconds. Robin talked about Black History month starting this week. She read some stuff about that and then Howard played some audio of Morgan Freeman talking about how he hates Black History Month. Freeman said he doesn't want to have just one month to discuss his history. He said that black history is American History and he wants to stop calling people white and black. Robin read a story about the 50th anniversary of Buddy Holly's death. That led to Howard singing ''The Day The Music Died'' for a few seconds. Robin read some audio from a Buddy Holly expert who told the story about why Buddy Holly had decided to fly that night. Howard played a few seconds of that but cut it off quickly. Robin said that today is Groundhog Day and the groundhog saw his shadow and that means another 6 weeks of winter. Robin had some audio of them talking about Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog and being excited about the Pittsburgh Steelers winning. Howard said he doesn't get that whole thing and doesn't want anything to do with it. Robin had a story about Barack Obama talking about the threats we still have against this country. He hopes to get some of the troops home from Iraq by next year so they'll be home for the next Super Bowl. Robin had some audio of Obama talking about that and some other things. Robin read some news about the Super Bowl and had a bunch of audio clips from the teams commenting on the outcome of the game. Jon Hein came in to talk about some of that stuff as well. After the break, around 10:20am, Howard had Robin get back to her news. Robin read about President Obama's half-brother getting in trouble over drug possession. Howard wondered if Obama even knows the guy. Robin said that he doesn't know him at all. Robin said that his name is George Hussein Obama. Howard wondered how that guy ended up with a normal first name while Barack is stuck with that name. Robin read through that story and said that he's going to be charged with drug possession but George claims he was released and not charged with anything. Robin read some news about Michael Phelps getting caught smoking weed. Howard said that if you're ever lucky enough to be in that position, just don't get caught doing something like that. He said it drives him crazy thinking about this guy getting caught like that. They had to go to break after that story. Robin read a story about DMX being in jail for 90 days. She said that he was in on animal abuse and theft charges. She said that he's not allowed to own any animals once he does get out. Robin read more about the kid with six fingers and toes. Howard wondered if maybe people had six fingers and toes when we were evolving. Howard said that some people are born with webbed feet like a duck too. Artie said he heard a rumor that Dan Aykroyd was born like that. Robin read a story about a baby that had six fingers and six toes on each hand and foot. Howard said that he'd kill himself if he had a baby. He said he wouldn't be too happy about having a kid with six fingers and toes. He said he wouldn't want to deal with trying to explain that to people. Robin read a story about a father who was arrested after his 2 year old ate some cocaine that was left out in the house. Robin had another story about a skydiver who had their instructor die of a heart attack as they jumped out of the plane. That led to Robin talking about flying to Martha's Vineyard over the weekend and flying on a plane so small that she was in the co-pilot's seat. Then Howard and Fred got into their Ted Kennedy impressions since she had mentioned something in the Massachusetts area. Jon got back to his show preview and ran through some more of the stuff they were going to cover. Howard said that Roosevelt is the only high school in history that has had to be taken over by the state to be run because it was so out of control. Howard said that the blacks there in Roosevelt were the toughest blacks around. Robin said that the kids in Baltimore were pretty tough too. Howard said that the kids in Roosevelt were tougher. They went back and forth with that stuff for a couple of minutes. Jon Hein came in with his Wrap Up Show preview. He ran through his list of subjects they'd be covering and ended up talking about some of the Flavor Flav interview. They talked about how rough Flavor's life was. Gary told Howard that he was still hanging out in the green room. Howard said that he had to have been a nightmare in Roosevelt High School because that's like the last stop in the world. Howard said that only an axe murderer would get kicked out of that school. Howard asked when that's going to be airing. Richard said that they're going to do that in March. Ronnie said that when this one girl, Pinkie, came on the guy was trying to rub it out so they moved him right to the front row and next to JD. JD said that he was moaning and it was creeping him out. JD said the guy was saying a lot of ''god damn's'' during that shoot. Ronnie came in and said that they never said anything to the guy. They tried to get it on camera and never said a word to him. Richard said the guy was sitting in the back with sweat pants and a hoodie on. He said that he saw him touching it and the guy would start rubbing even more. Ronnie said the guy came in with the 40 year old virgin guy they had on the show. He said that even Sal was getting creeped out with the moaning. Richard said that when they were recording the show on Friday they found out that one of the audience members was jerking off. He said that Ronnie asked him to cool off with that and then they moved him to the front row so he couldn't finish. JD figured it was the guy who was sitting next to him. Richard confirmed that. Steve talked about Bruce Springsteen being on Mad Dog Russo's show over the weekend. Howard said that he'll ask Russo about that later this week when he comes in. Steve said that they have a story about the ''Inside the Porn Actor's Studio'' and how some of their mics were left on while they went to the bathroom. Robin said that she had a friend who would get upset when she lost a girlfriend and she ended up being gay. She seemed to think that maybe that's where Richard was going. Howard said that it was because of him that he's actually wearing a diaper. The fans told him that Richard had just pissed his pants one time at a concert because he didn't want to leave the show to piss. He said that the diaper is Richard's civilized way of pissing his pants. Richard said that he was going to get a ride from some friends who had a nice new car and he didn't want to get piss in the car. Richard said that he was a mess that night. Howard said that Richard went to see Metallica on two nights this weekend. Richard said that they played two different sets on those two nights. This coming weekend he's going to see Coheed and Cambria and he'll be wearing his diaper again so he doesn't have to go to the bathroom. He'll be pissing the diaper instead of taking a break to go to the bathroom. Artie told Richard that he's a really weird guy. He used to have a picture of Brad Pitt hanging in his room because he admired the fact that he came out of a very small town like he did. Richard said he wasn't attracted to the guy, he just admired him. Richard said that he wouldn't do anything gay for the guy, other than maybe a hand job. Richard asked Howard to play the parody of ''One'' for Robin's news that he had created. Howard said that he had heard that song one other time and he didn't think the words were very understandable and he didn't think the audience would know the song that well. Howard said that he remembers his mother getting all dressed up to go to Radio City and he finds it weird that people smoke weed there. He talked about his mother squeezing into a girdle back then. Richard said that all of the people working there at Radio City were dressed up and walking all of the stoners to their seats. Artie talked about going to see ''The Sting'' there at Radio City when it had a short run there. Richard said that he wanted to talk about the Cheech and Chong thing at Radio City. Richard said that it was weird going back there after seeing the Christmas show there just a month ago. He said that this time it was a bunch of 50 year old stoners there smoking weed. Howard pointed out that Artie had cried over Michael Jackson's ''Man in the Mirror.'' Artie said that he thought about his dad when that happened. He wasn't thinking about his high school buddies. Howard asked Richard if he ever had sword fights or anything with those friends. Richard said that he never did that with them. Howard said that he gets goose bumps when he hears ''One'' but it doesn't make him cry. Artie kept throwing stuff at Richard as he was talking and crying about the song. Richard said that Artie was throwing stuff at him while he was crying. Howard told him to think about Cotton from ''King of the Hill'' dying and that would make him cry. Richard said that he did cry like a baby when he died. Howard tried to get Richard to cry. He told him to listen to the song and just think about his friends like he did at the concert. Howard stayed quiet for a minute and Richard said he was getting really emotional thinking about it. He told Howard that the part coming up was going to really get to him. Richard told Howard that music really means a lot to him and he had so many great times listening to that song. He was crying as he told him about that. Fred played Metallica's ''One'' and Howard said that it really is a great song. Richard wasn't crying but he was thinking about his friends who he'd listen to the song with. Richard said that it brought back memories when he heard the song that night. Sal said that he saw Howard there at the Metallica concert and told the usher to go say that Sal the Stockbroker was there. The usher went down and told him and came back to him saying that Howard claimed he didn't know any such person and to leave him alone. Richard went to see Metallica over the weekend and ended up crying during the song ''One.'' Howard said that Richard is fucked up and he's very weird. He said that the song reminded him of another male friend. Richard said that music means a lot to him and he can cry over a song like that. Howard asked how great they were live. Richard said that they were incredible. Howard said he saw them about 9 years ago and they really were great. Richard said that his dad isn't circumcised so he looks pretty big. Sal came in and said that his grandfather was injured in World War II and he had to help him stand up on his walker when he had to piss. He said that he had him hold his penis when he had to piss in a cookie jar. Sal said that he did that and pretended it never happened. Richard came in and told Howard to just whip it out so they can see it. Howard said that he's too embarrassed to do that. Howard said he heard that Sal had to hold his grandfather's penis when he pissed. He said it's no wonder he's so fucked up. Howard said that maybe his father's dick looked big because he was a little kid when he saw it. Howard said that his is very skinny and it probably wouldn't look big to a kid. He said that it looks like a little bird in a nest when it's small. He said it grows pretty big. Artie asked Howard if his father had a big dick. Howard said that he remembers it being pretty big and thick. Artie said he saw his father's dick when he was paralyzed. He said that he never really saw it walking into a bathroom though. Howard said that he wasn't able to pee in front of other guys so that was always a problem. Howard said that he remembers the bathrooms where they had big troughs to pee in. Robin asked why guys are forced to do that. She said that's ridiculous. Howard said that he would see one of those things and all of a sudden he wouldn't have to pee. He said he never knew what to do. Howard talked about his Dad taking them out to eat before the show. He said that he'd be sitting there in pain from the gas pains. He said that he'd have to hold in the gas and the pee and his father telling him that it was okay to fart. He said his father would get pissed about him not farting and would tell him to just let it out. Howard came back and said that Richard was telling Gary about seeing Cheech and Chong at Radio City Music Hall and everyone there was smoking weed. Howard said he used to go to Radio City when he was a kid and it was a really family friendly place. Howard said that you'd sit down for a movie there and they'd have the Rockettes there. He said that they'd get all dressed up to go there and they'd get a whole show before the movie. Howard said that he did put Flav in all of his (one) movies. He said that he was very prompt showing up on time for him. Howard wrapped up with Flav, gave him some more plugs for the movie and went to break a short time later. Howard asked Flav about this movie '' Nite Tales '' and found out that it's kind of like a Twilight Zone type of thing. Flav said that he plays the ''Rod Sterling'' of the movie. He said he starts the movie off and he ends it. Flav said that he's the narrator and the story teller in the movie. He said that it's going to be a series and they have some stuff for Howard that they want him to do. Howard said that he has to look at that stuff before he can commit. Howard took another call from a guy who said that Howard should feel good sitting next to Flav because he's not as bad looking as Flav. The caller said that he did some time in jail and Flav was there and he was talking non-stop there, even in his sleep. Howard told Flav that the abuse is coming from his parents having beat him. Flav said that he wasn't abused, he was being disciplined. He said there is a difference there. Howard kept telling Flav that he was abused but Flav refused to agree with him on that. He said his mother wasn't abusing him, she was just disciplining him. Howard took a call from a woman who asked Flav if he feels bad for beating up that puppy on the Surreal Life. Flav said that they made a bigger deal out of that than it was. He said he was just teaching the dog not to piss on the floor. Howard had Dominic Barbara on the phone. Dominic said that he represented Flav's wife in a family court thing. Flav asked where they dug this guy up. Dominic asked if he's still in his kid's lives. Flav said that he stays in touch and he has grand kids now. Howard and Robin asked him how old he is. Flav is turning 50 soon. Howard said it sounds like Flav's life was pretty tough. Flav said that it's not so bad now that he has some money. He said that he'd have no problems if he had Howard's money. He asked Howard if he thinks that he would be good on the air. Howard said he would if he got real and became himself on a show. He said that would be one of the greatest radio performers of all time. Flav said that he knows how to do that. Howard said he'll ask Tim Sabean to talk to him about doing an hour of radio. He said he'd like to hear some stories about his life growing up. Howard and Robin asked about the gang thing some more and tried to find out what he had to do to get out of it. Flav said that he got beaten up going into it and coming out. He said that he didn't feel bad when he had to beat someone else up because they didn't feel bad beating him up. Howard asked Flav if he ever hears from his old gang members. Flav said that he doesn't hear form them. He said that was a long time ago and his gang is gone now. He didn't even want to talk about how he got out of the gang because he didn't want to start something that could get out of control. Howard asked Flavor if he heard Chris Rock giving him a beating in his act. Flavor said he heard that he was giving him a beating but he didn't understand why he was bashing him. He said that he was told that Chris loves him but he's not sure what he was saying about him. Howard said he heard it and it wasn't very nice. He said that he would stick up for him if he runs into Chris. Howard asked Flavor when he's going to set the date. Flavor said that it should be in '09. He said he wants everyone to shoot it too and he wants every channel to cover it. He said he wants all of the radio stations, TV stations and all of that, just like the inauguration. Howard asked Flavor about this girl he's with now. Flavor said that he thinks that they may set a date to get married soon. He said they've been together for about 5 years now and he loves her. He said that he wants this thing to be big so that's why he's taking his time with her. Howard said he found it hard to believe that Flavor had never heard this version of ''911's A Joke'' from Duran Duran. He played some of it for him and asked Flavor what he thinks about it. Flavor said that he thought it was hot and he liked it. Howard said he's happy that
". He added: "Some of the players as individuals have let themselves down, but as a team they have been pretty poor in their thinking and planning. "We seem to be light years behind other teams in the way we think about one-day cricket. The game has moved on very quickly and it is very different from even 10 years ago." He was also critical of Moores' focus on data analysis and statistics, and his lack of international playing experience: "I watch the game because I've played, I don't need a computer. "He doesn't have that experience. I don't say it's impossible to coach if you're not a former player. You don't have to be a former player but it sure as hell does help." Moores said he felt "hollow inside" and "hugely disappointed" following England's demise. "It's not my decision if I'm given time," he added. "I understand why people would think I'm not the right man, but it's a bigger picture than that." He said England's one-day form has not been good "for a while" and insisted there was a lack of top talent. "The reality is we're not overloaded with a lot of high-class one-day players," he said. "It's something we have to look at. It's not to be done now. Today is about the emotion of the day for me. We're out of the tournament." Japan Cricket Association tweet: "Dear @ECB-cricket, this might not be a great time, but as there's room in your schedule, fancy a game in Japan on the way home? #challenge." Former England captain Andrew Strauss echoed that view, saying: "The truth is we are not good enough. "From 1 to 11, we haven't got the players who can compete with the top teams. We couldn't compete with Bangladesh and we certainly can't compete with Australia and South Africa. "We have been poor for 20 years and we will be poor for another 20 years unless we change the way we play our domestic one-day cricket." Former England all-rounder Ian Botham described England's performance as "pathetic", adding: "When are we going to pick the selectors to pick a team for the one-day format? Time for change." Ex-England captain Allan Lamb told BBC Radio 5 live: "I really think we need to restructure this team and our game. I just think we don't take one day cricket seriously in this country." Former England bowler Steve Harmison told BBC Radio 5 live: "I don't think we've been in a position like we are now for a number of years. We just haven't been good enough, it's as simple as that. "We've got good players and Peter Moores is a very good coach." But he admitted: "He's in a result business job, and they've not been great." Moores insisted England had "prepared well", adding: "The players aren't bad players, but we haven't played well enough. We have to take that." Set 276 to win in Adelaide, England were bowled out for 260 despite Jos Buttler's 52-ball 65. Rubel Hossain claimed 4-53 for Bangladesh, who had posted 275-7 thanks to 103 from Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim's 89.Some of the MPs in Westminster never regained their mental faculties ater drugs in their youth, a prominent Tory has insisted. Hitchin and Harpenden MP Peter Lilley, who served as social security secretary under John Major, said drugs had "disabled" his colleagues minds. "I'm a total moralist on drugs. I hate the idea of getting stoned or drunk or anything," he told House magazine "God gave us a mind and a conscience and drugs effectively disable both your mind and your conscience. "The only reason that I have a clear head on cannabis is that I've never taken any. Much of my friends, colleagues in this place did and don't seem to have recovered." Many MPs, including former home secretary Jacqui Smith and current business secretary Chuka Umunna, have admitted smoking cannabis. The prime minister is understood to have faced disciplinary action for trying to buy cannabis while in Eton, although he has never confirmed or denied the story. The comments come amid an unprecedented push for liberalisation in parliament, with a home affairs committee report calling for a deeper look into the consequences of decriminalisation of drugs. The prime minister ruled out any such move, despite having supported a similar report when he first entered parliament as a backbencher.Demolition work has begun on the 100-year-old Schiel School in Corryville. The school has long served as a landmark for the Short Vine business district, but was closed by Cincinnati Public Schools in 2010. To preservationists the demolition of the school marks yet another dramatic loss to the historic fabric of Uptown, but to many urbanists the $20 million development to take its place marks a turning point for the long-troubled business district on the east side of the University of Cincinnati’s main campus. “Greater residential density will support the existing and incoming merchants and add the kind of vitality that helps to enrich and secure a neighborhood,” says Kathleen Norris who is the vice president of Brandt Retail Group’s Urban Focus division. “Housing of this quality is likely to attract not only undergraduates but also grad students and even area professionals from the educational and medical communities.” The historic Schiel School is prepared for demolition in Corryville. Project officials say that the five-story, mixed-use development will include 102 apartments geared towards students, and several street-level retail spaces. Fifth Third Bank has already signed on as one of the retail tenants, and will serve as the retail anchor for the project. The development is part of a larger wave of multi-story residential development sweeping through historic uptown neighborhoods like Clifton Heights, Corryville, Clifton, University Heights, Avondale and Mt. Auburn. The developer of this project, Uptown Rentals, now has three developments within the immediate vicinity of Short Vine that are bringing hundreds of new housing units to Corryville. A new $20M mixed-use development will rise where one of Short Vine’s most prominent historic structures once stood. Visitors to the area will also notice other residential developments nearby including one such project sits almost immediately across the street from the Schiel School site on Short Vine. There, older structures have already been cleared, and the new development is now rising from the ground. Community leaders in Corryville do expect the redevelopment of the Schiel School site (map) to transform the Short Vine business district, and it also seems certain that the addition of hundreds of new residents to the neighborhood will change the area’s demographics and urban form. “Business at Dive Bar is great and has been steadily growing,” said Joe Pedro, owner of the recently opened establishment. “We see the new residential units being constructed in the neighborhood as an excellent driver for the business district, and ultimately we are excited to see new tenants coming to the street and feel it will positively impact all of the businesses in the area.” Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story included an incorrect rendering for the $20 million redevelopment of the historic Schiel School site in Corryville.First published by the Atlantic Council On January 16, 2016, Russia’s First Channel reported that a Russian-speaking girl named Lisa was allegedly raped by a gang of refugees in Germany. Credit: Courtesy Screenshot. Russian disinformation is working overtime to undermine European democracies. Much of the disinformation in 2016 came from original Russian sources that presented poorly digested information designed to provoke and to push an agenda that the Kremlin finds favorable. It aims to disconnect ordinary European citizens from supranational EU institutions and national politicians. With key elections in the Netherlands, Germany, and France this year, it is clear that Russia will try to use the refugee and migrant crisis that has battered Europe for its own foreign policy goals. By promoting the idea that the EU and local politicians no longer listen to ordinary people, encouraging inter-state disagreements among EU member-states, and implying that Europeans cannot help Ukraine, the Kremlin aims to weaken the EU’s internal cohesion, force it to drop sanctions, and accept Russia’s hegemony over its former republics in Eastern Europe. This assault can have serious long-term consequences for Europe, which may soon have hardline anti-EU parties and politicians in power. Thus, identifying major narratives in Moscow’s disinformation campaign and debunking fake news and sensationalist false stories is crucial in the battle to combat foreign propaganda and disinformation. No doubt there are legitimate and serious issues inside Europe, but they are exploited by a hostile foreign power to make serious but solvable issues look apocalyptic and shift the attitude of local electorates. Looking through the weekly EEAS Disinformation Review, we identified six narratives that Russian disinformation pushed during 2016: 1. Europe is facing Armageddon due to migration Migration is singlehandedly portrayed as the evil force that will soon destroy “weak” European countries. For example, Russia’s leading state propaganda channel Rossiya 1 compared the disturbing migrant violence against local women on New Year’s in Cologne to “Kristallnacht.” Each time an event like that happened, Russian media rushed to emphasize the offenders’ refugee or immigrant status, even if they were EU citizens. For example, a Bulgarian national who kicked a woman in the Berlin metro was portrayed as “an Arab,” which was false. The most visible fake news story is well known: a Russian-speaking girl named Lisa was allegedly raped by a gang of refugees in Germany. This story launched a whole campaign involving the Russian media, Russian-speaking minorities in Germany, and the Russian Foreign Minister, in order to “expose” Merkel’s government’s attempts to cover up crimes perpetrated by refugees and immigrants. In reality, the rape never occurred. The whole story was a fake launched by a dubious Facebook group called Anonymous.Kollektiv and on an anti-refugee website called Asylterror. The stories from these two sources varied to the point of inconsistency, and searches for the alleged victim produced no results in any social network. Thus, the public was left with nothing but outrageous claims by a conspiracy-themed Facebook group and a website dedicated to anti-immigration hysteria, all of which were refuted by the Berlin police. 2. Europeans want to recognize Crimea as Russian but the EU stands in the way An Italian regional council’s decision to “recognize” Russia’s annexation of Crimea has been widely reported by Russian propaganda outlets. The narrative implied that there is a gradual acceptance of the changed status quo in Europe, and the regional council’s decision is more evidence that Europeans want to recognize Crimea as Russian but are not allowed to by the EU establishment. However, if there was an overwhelming desire to change the status quo, this view would have more prominence in national governments rather than local councils, whose resolutions are not binding and whose authority in international affairs is practically nonexistent. 3. The murder of British MP Jo Cox was an inside job to sway the Brexit vote Russia’s First Channel compared the murder of British MP Jo Cox to the assassination of Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, insinuating that the UK government may have been behind Cox’s murder prior to the Brexit referendum to swing public opinion in favor of the “stay” vote. First Channel apparently decided to take the narrative of the “sacrificial lamb,” similar to the one they used in explaining the assassinations of Boris Nemtsov and Aleksandr Litvinenko, blaming Western secret services for organizing them to discredit Russia. In this case, it was allegedly done to discredit the Brexit campaign. However, such theories have no ground and do not offer a valid explanation; there is no evidence for the alleged cover up. Besides, as the Brexit referendum’s results have shown, the murder had little effect on Britons’ opinions, making any conspiracy claim even more dubious. 4. Ukraine isn’t part of Europe The Russian military’s official news channel TV Zvezda posted a piece claiming that Poland is planning to build a wall to keep out Ukrainian refugees, citing an interview Poland’s interior minister gave. However, in that interview, nothing about a wall is mentioned beyond talk of strengthening the country’s border service. The narrative here is twofold: there is a general European hostility toward Ukraine, which implies that Ukraine belongs in the “Russian sphere” and not in the common European family; at the same time, there is a difficult and complex history behind Polish-Ukrainian relations, which supports the idea of a sort of Russo-Ukrainian unity when compared to Poles, who are more distant from Russia in language, culture, and religion than Ukrainians. 5. Latvians are perpetual fascists The death of Russian militant Arsen Pavlov, nicknamed “Motorola,” who gained prominence as one of the more visible separatist combatants in the Donbas, was blamed on a Latvian hitman. In reporting on this fake story, the media emphasized the role that Latvians played in Russia’s history, referring to the Latvian riflemen who fought for the Bolsheviks during the first years after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution in exchange for their country’s independence. The Russian media likes to remind its listeners that Latvians either killed Russians under the Bolsheviks or killed Russians as the members of the Waffen SS to delegitimize and perhaps even dehumanize them as perpetual fascists. Regardless, the claim that a Latvian citizen was behind Motorola’s killing proved to be false. 6. Merkel, Hollande, and the EU are to blame for the migrant crisis The case of an Austrian boy raped by an Iraqi immigrant is similar in many ways to Russia’s campaign against Germany and Merkel’s policies. In this case, Russia’s First Channel reported that the accused was acquitted by the Austrian court because he “did not understand” if the boy was consenting or not, due to his insufficient knowledge of German, and his “sexual emergency.” Austria is portrayed as a victim of unwise European policies. In the end, this is another example of a criminal case being used by Russian state propaganda for its own political goals. In reality, the accused shall remain in custody until a retrial starts, in which he will face an even harsher sentence. The good news is this: Seeing this massive disinformation assault, some Western governments are waking up to seek appropriate responses. There are various counter-measures being implemented by European democracies right now. A comprehensive proposal is available here. Jakub Janda is the head of the Kremlin Watch Program and Deputy Director at the European Values Think Tank based in Prague. He tweets @_JakubJanda. Ilyas Sharibzhanov works at the Kremlin Watch Program at the European Values Think Tank.CENTENNIAL, Colo.—Prosecutors in the Colorado theater shooting case are defending themselves against allegations that they showed “reckless disregard for the truth.” Defense attorneys on Aug. 27 asked Arapahoe County District Court Judge William Sylvester to punish prosecutors. The request was filed three days after a hearing in which Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Pearson raised the possibility that suspect James Holmes may been have motivated by anger over a failing academic career. The hearing involved access to his school records. A court document released Friday shows prosecutors responded to the request for sanctions. The exact nature of their response and the defense attorneys’ allegations weren’t released because those documents are sealed, like most documents in the case. Holmes is charged with killing 12 people and wounding 58 others in the July 20 shooting.Last Wednesday, Dr. J. Leroy Hulsey of the University of Alaska Fairbanks presented the findings and conclusion of his team’s two-year engineering study evaluating whether fire caused the collapse of World Trade Center 7 on September 11, 2001. Many “9/11 Truth” researchers focus on the mysterious collapse of World Trade Center 7 (WTC7) as the smoking gun evidence that Americans were lied to about the attacks. WTC7 was not hit by a plane, yet it collapsed at 5:20 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2001. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the collapse was caused by office fires leading to thermal expansion of the building’s supportive columns and girders. Dr. Hulsey’s presentation, “A Structural Reevaluation of the Collapse of World Trade Center 7, September 2017 Progress Report”, detailed how his team eliminated fire as the cause of the collapse of the 47-storey building. Hulsey explained that NIST’s report on the collapse found fires on floors 7 through 9, 11 through 14, 19, 22, 29, and 30. However, there is no evidence of fire below floor 7, Hulsey said. Watch Hulsey’s presentation below: “You have to ask yourself lots of questions … Where is the combustibility in this building? … Did WTC7 collapse because of fires?” Hulsey asked during his presentation. “Our study shows that it did not collapse because of fires.” This revelation matches what Hulsey told MintPress News in September 2016, when his team’s preliminary finding was “that fire did not produce the failure at this particular building,” adding “additional calculations are further substantiating the finding.” Dr. Hulsey and his team developed an AutoCAD drawing that they then used to create a virtual geography of the building. The research team first partnered with the non-profit Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth in May of 2015 to study of the collapse of WTC7. They did not release their final report in April 2017 as originally planned, but Hulsey said a draft report of the study will be released in October or November 2017 and will be open for public comment for a six-week period. “I am still examining the progressive collapse. We thought we would be complete by the time announced but it is taking longer than I expected,” Hulsey told MintPress. “I simply am not going to release it until I am sure we are totally correct.” A final report will be published in early 2018 and submitted to peer-reviewed journals. “It is my plan to provide the opportunity for public and technical input, a form of review and peer review,” Dr. Hulsey stated. “I will have it reviewed during this time frame. Once we have gone through that preliminary review; I will submit the findings to peer-reviewed journals for publication.” The Bobby McIlvaine Act Today, on the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, the organization funding Hulsey’s study, held a press conference discussing the conclusions of the study and the introduction of the “Bobby McIlvaine World Trade Center Investigation Act.” The Bobby McIlvaine Act is draft legislation that would impanel a select committee in either chamber of Congress to reinvestigate the destruction of the three World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001. The act is named after Bobby McIlvaine, who was tragically killed at the age of 26 while entering the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Richard Gage, the founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, spoke today about the Bobby McIlvaine Act at the National Press Club in Washington. “The Bobby McIlvaine Act will, for the first time, put in Congress’ hands the resolution which will cause an investigation of the three World Trade Center skyscrapers’ destruction,” Gage told Mint Press. “We are putting Congress on notice and hopefully this act will be successfully legislated into law.” Following the press conference, Mr. Gage and Bob McIlvaine, Bobby McIlvaine’s father, began the process of distributing informational packets related to the Bobby McIlvaine Act to every member of Congress. The next stage in their campaign will involve attempting to organize a bipartisan group of sponsors to introduce the resolution by September 11, 2018. Mr. McIlvaine has been independently investigating the 9/11 attacks since his son’s death and calling attention to what he says are discrepancies in the government’s narrative of the events of that day. McIlvaine has been an outspoken leader in the so-called “9/11 Truth” movement, advocating for a new investigation since the release of the 9/11 Commission Report in 2004.\ The 9/11 Truth movement includes victims, their families, and experts in a range of fields who are skeptical of the government’s official line on 9/11. Some of the groups include Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, Firefighters for 9/11 Truth & Unity, Pilots for 9/11 Truth, 9/11 Families United for Justice Against Terrorism, Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice, and other local activist groups and individuals from around the globe. It’s a loose-knit movement without an official position, and the opinions, theories and ideas held among its members sometimes conflict with one another. However, those working within the broader movement are bound by the belief that the official narrative promoted by the U.S. government is full of holes. 9/11 Truth in the Donald Trump era The election of Donald Trump brought fear and paranoia to some of the American population, and hope and elation to another segment of the nation. Elements of the 9/11 Truth movement believed Trump might support their cause for a new investigation. Although Trump never officially discussed his interest in a new investigation into the events of September 11, 2001, he did make vague references to the “secret papers” and to the Saudi government’s possible role in funding the 9/11 attacks. During a campaign event Trump called out former president George W. Bush for the Iraq war and referenced “very secret” papers involving the Saudi government and 9/11, elaborating: It wasn’t the Iraqis that knocked down the World Trade Center; we went after Iraq, we decimated the country. Iran’s taking over, okay. But it wasn’t the Iraqis, you will find out who really knocked down the World Trade Center, ‘cause they have papers in there that are very secret, you may find it’s the Saudis, okay? But you will find out.” The “secret papers” Trump referred to are the now-declassified 28-pages of the “Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.” Although the final report amounts to over 800 pages, the 28 pages were classified by former President George W. Bush shortly after the report was released in 2002. The papers detail the story of Saudi nationals suspected of being Saudi intelligence agents involved in the terror attacks. In July 2016, after nearly 15 years of secrecy and resistance from the Bush and Obama administrations, the report was released to the public and the family members of the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks. While campaigning for the presidency, Trump also gave an interview on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” stating that the release of the pages would be “very profound” and relate to Saudi Arabia’s role in the 9/11 attacks. “It’s nice to know who your friends are, and perhaps who your enemies are.” @realDonaldTrump on 9/11 report pageshttps://t.co/zXldgQwKwJ — FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) April 19, 2016 That’s very serious stuff,” Trump said. “It’s sort of nice to know who your friends are and perhaps who your enemies are. You’re going to see some very revealing things released in those papers.” Trump also flirted with the 9/11 Truth movement when he criticized former President Obama for his veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA, which unanimously passed the House and the Senate in 2016 after a hard-fought battle by the families of the victims of 9/11. The law, passed over Obama’s veto, has now opened the door for lawsuits from the victims of 9/11 and their families against Saudi Arabia to inspect the Kingdom’s possible role in 9/11. Trump called Obama’s veto “shameful” and “one of the low points of his presidency.” It is these comments that caused some “9/11 truthers” — including some family members of 9/11 victims — to believe a Donald Trump presidency might lead to a new investigation into the terror attacks. The 9/11 Families and Survivors United for Justice Against Terrorism — the organization largely responsible for pushing JASTA — sent a letter to President Trump asking him to clarify his position on Saudi Arabia and its role in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. “This letter is inspired by news reports that today you met with Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman al Saud,” reads the letter from Terry Strada, a widow and the national chair for the 9/11 Families & Survivors. Strada’s letter continues: As you know, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a defendant in our lawsuit because of the involvement of its agents in supporting the 9/11 hijackers, and for support that flowed to al-Qaeda through institutions the Kingdom established and funded to spread a radical form of Islam that lies at the root of both al-Qaeda and, more recently, ISIS. Despite mounting evidence, the Saudis have refused to accept accountability for their actions and the injury they have caused across the globe.” Since becoming president, Donald Trump has shown little interest in carrying his “you may find it’s the Saudis” campaign rhetoric any further. Instead, he has signed an arms deals worth more than $100 billion with the Saudi Kingdom and has continued to offer support for their bombing campaign in Yemen. Trump has not taken any steps towards calling for an investigation into the 9/11 attacks or Saudi Arabia’s possible role. He has remained silent on the controversial topic. The upcoming release of Dr. Hulsey’s study on the collapse of World Trade Center 7 may force Trump to publicly address the situation. Terry Strada, whose husband Tom Strada died in the twin towers, is skeptical of the importance of Dr. Hulsey’s study. “It doesn’t matter to me what happened to Building 7. I know what happened to the Twin Towers and I know how my husband was murdered. I know who worked with al-Qaeda. That’s all I care about,” Mrs. Strada explained to MintPress News via phone. “It’s a very separate incident. I don’t see how anything that happened to Building 7 has to do with the Twin Towers.” Despite her skepticism towards the study, Strada is still calling on President Trump to address the concerns of the 9/11 families: We would like to see some action. We would like to sit down and meet with him, have him hear our side. We know he hears it from the Saudi’s all the time. We want our chance.” Top photo \| A photo of World Trade Center 7 taken a few days after the September, 11th 2001 attacks on New York City.Image copyright Sujatro Ghosh A photography project which shows women wearing a cow mask and asks the politically explosive question - whether women are less important than cattle in India - has gone viral in the country and earned its 23-year-old photographer the ire of Hindu nationalist trolls. "I am perturbed by the fact that in my country, cows are considered more important than a woman, that it takes much longer for a woman who is raped or assaulted to get justice than for a cow which many Hindus consider a sacred animal," Delhi-based photographer Sujatro Ghosh told the BBC. India is often in the news for crimes against women and, according to government statistics, a rape is reported every 15 minutes. "These cases go on for years in the courts before the guilty are punished, whereas when a cow is slaughtered, Hindu extremist groups immediately go and kill or beat up whoever they suspect of slaughter." The project, he says, is "his way of protesting" against the growing influence of the vigilante cow protection groups that have become emboldened since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, came to power in the summer of 2014. "I've been concerned over the Dadri lynching [when a Muslim man was killed by a Hindu mob over rumours that he consumed and stored beef] and other similar religious attacks on Muslims by cow vigilantes," Ghosh said. Image copyright Sujatro Ghosh Image copyright Sujatro Ghosh In recent months, the humble cow has become India's most polarising animal. The BJP insists that the animal is holy and should be protected. Cow slaughter is banned in several states, stringent punishment has been introduced for offenders and parliament is considering a bill to bring in the death penalty for the crime. But beef is a staple for Muslims, Christians and millions of low-caste Dalits (formerly untouchables) who have been at the receiving end of the violence perpetrated by the cow vigilante groups. Nearly a dozen people have been killed in the past two years in the name of the cow. Targets are often picked based on unsubstantiated rumours and Muslims have been attacked for even transporting cows for milk. Ghosh, who is from the eastern city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), says he became aware of "this dangerous mix of religion and politics" only after he moved to Delhi a few years ago and that "this project is a silent form of protest that I think can make an impact". So earlier this month, during a visit to New York, he bought the cow mask from a party shop and, on his return, began shooting for the series, taking pictures of women in front of tourist hotspots and government buildings, on the streets and in the privacy of their homes, on a boat and in a train, because "women are vulnerable everywhere". "I photographed women from every part of society. I started the project from Delhi since the capital city is the hub of everything - politics, religion, even most debates start here. "I took the first photo in front of the iconic India Gate, one of the most visited tourist places in India. Then I photographed a model in front of the presidential palace, another on a boat in the Hooghly river in Kolkata with the Howrah bridge as the backdrop." Image copyright Sujatro Ghosh Image copyright Sujatro Ghosh His models have so far been friends and acquaintances because, he says, "it's such a sensitive topic, it would have been difficult to approach strangers". Two weeks ago when he launched the project on Instagram, the response was "all positive. It went viral within the first week, my well wishers and even people I didn't know appreciated it." But after the Indian press covered it and put out their stories on Facebook and Twitter, the backlash began. "Some wrote comments threatening me. On Twitter people started trolling me, some said I, along with my models, should be taken to Delhi's Jama Masjid [mosque] and slaughtered, and that our meat should be fed to a woman journalist and a woman writer the nationalists despise. They said they wanted to see my mother weep over my body." Image copyright Sujatro Ghosh Image copyright Sujatro Ghosh Some people also contacted the Delhi police, "accusing me of trying to instigate riots and asking them to arrest me". Ghosh is not surprised by the vitriol and admits that his work is an "indirect comment" on the BJP. "I'm making a political statement because it's a political topic, but if we go deeper into the things, then we see that Hindu supremacy was always there, it has just come out in the open with this government in the past two years." The threats, however, have failed to scare him. "I'm not afraid because I'm working for the greater good," he says. A positive fallout of the project going viral has been that he's got loads of messages from women from across the globe saying they too want to be a part of this campaign. So the cow, he says, will keep travelling.SEATTLE - Thousands of Seattleites marched across downtown Saturday to protest President Donald Trump's environmental policies. The People's Climate March in Seattle was one of several hundred expected across the nation, organizers say. Organizers estimate at least 3,500 people participated locally. The protests mark Trump's hundredth day in office. Participants say they're objecting to Trump's rollback of restrictions on mining, oil drilling and greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants, among other things. Protesters in Seattle started gathering at Occidental Square Park in downtown Seattle around 10 a.m., marching up 4th Avenue and rallying at Westlake Park. Similar marches were in held in Olympia, Port Angeles and Bellingham. Organizers estimate there were as many the 300 marches nationwide. Trump has called climate change a hoax, disputing the overwhelming consensus of scientists that the world is warming and that man-made carbon emissions are primarily to blame. More than 1,000 people gathered Saturday in Northeast Portland. At the marquee event, the Peoples Climate March in Washington, D.C., tens of thousands of demonstrators made their way down Pennsylvania Avenue in sweltering heat on their way to encircle the White House. The Associated Press contributed to this report.Carl P. Paladino, the Republican candidate for governor, has seemed to relish taking a scorched earth approach to his campaign. No one seems to be immune from his wrath, even members of his own party. Of former Gov. George E. Pataki, Mr. Paladino was quoted as calling him a “degenerate idiot.’’ On Thursday, Mr. Pataki, choosing a more restrained approach, said he was not happy to be called that, but nonetheless was still inclined to endorse Mr. Paladino — under certain conditions. Mr. Pataki said at a forum in Manhattan that Mr. Paladino needs to “turn anger into a positive agenda of change” and demonstrate “the demeanor and character we want for a governor.” “He has got to show he has the character and ability that he will represent the state in a way we all believe is appropriate,” Mr. Pataki said. “It comes down to who is going to be a better leader for the state. I expect that it will be him, but I’m not sure yet.” As for Mr. Paladino’s characterization of him, Mr. Pataki said: “Obviously, I’m not pleased to be called that.” Mr. Pataki’s two Democratic successors, Eliot Spitzer and David A. Paterson, meanwhile, branded Mr. Paladino unfit to be governor. “I don’t think he is fit for public service,” Mr. Paterson said, accusing Mr. Paladino of practicing “the politics of confusion” and of making offensive statements. “He transferred emails back and forth that were racist, homophobic, misogynist,” Mr. Paterson said and described one e-mail in which a plane crashes into Africa and uses a racial epithet to describe blacks. “These are the kinds of things we don’t need in politics,” Mr. Paterson said. “I never heard an apology. I never heard accountability.” In Tuesday’s Republican primary, Mr. Paladino, a bombastic Buffalo businessman who galvanized voters with his throw-the-bums-out message, upset former Representative Rick A. Lazio, the party designee, whom Mr. Pataki had supported. The three governors, who collectively have presided over the state for nearly two decades, were interviewed together at a forum hosted by The Wall Street Journal at the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. All three agreed that Mr. Paladino and his Democratic rival, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, would have to offer more specific solutions to the state’s budget crisis — Mr. Paterson estimated the budget gap over the next three years at $35 billion — in the less than seven weeks before Election Day. Mr. Spitzer said that while Mr. Paladino’s oratory was “not useful,” he was tapping into middleclass resentment over two decades of stagnant income. They also concurred in their denunciation of the political process in Albany that has allowed legislative leaders to thwart the governor’s agenda. Mr. Pataki described it as “a corrupt stranglehold.” Mr Spitzer agreed that legislators are more concerned with incumbency than party loyalty and noted that in Tuesday’s primary, “virtually no incumbents lost. That is an unfortunate reality we have to face up to.” But he and Mr. Pataki clashed sharply in a spirited give-and-take over the efficacy of President Obama’s economic stimulus program, so much so that Mr. Paterson, sitting between them, commented: “I feel like I’m at the West Side Tennis Club.” Asked by the moderator, Michael Howard Saul, what he would have done differently, Mr. Paterson replied: “I would have appointed myself to the United States Senate” (when Hillary Rodham Clinton left to become secretary of state). Was Mr. Paterson the right choice for lieutenant governor Mr. Spitzer was asked? “He was also the right choice for the United States Senate,” Mr. Spitzer replied, suggesting that he chose Mr. Paterson to be his running mate with the intent of appointing Mr. Paterson to fill Ms. Clinton’s Senate seat. “That was the game plan,” he said. The plan, of course, was thwarted when Mr. Spitzer was forced to resign because of his involvement with a prostitute.F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby, 1925). "American theory of life" "We Americans have all been taught from childhood that it is a sort of moral obligation for each of us to rise, to get up in the world." In the crisis of the Depression, however, that belief appeared absurd. The United States now confronted what Anderson called "a crisis of belief." As Anderson knew, the notion that the United States is a uniquely open society, where the talented and industrious always have the chance to better their lot, is a central element of American self-understanding. The notion has been a prominent feature of American culture since the days of Ben Franklin, and it remains a core feature of the national ethos to this day. Indeed, in recent months the election of Barack Obama has reminded Americans of the promise that in the United States opportunity can be open to all. The Great Depression, however, subjected even the strongest convictions to stark challenge, revealing cracks in the vision of social mobility that the recent prosperity of the nineteen-twenties had managed to obscure. In truth, the notion that the U.S. was an open and fluid society had always been nearly as much myth as reality -- even when, as was necessarily the case, it was assumed to apply to white men alone. But the myth had come to an especially paradoxical stage in its development in the years leading up to the crash. Never in American history had the vision of social mobility been more forcefully asserted than in the 1920s. And rarely had the image been so far out of keeping with reality. The Republican Party, which dominated national politics throughout the decade, extolled the twin virtues of economic competition and personal ambition, reminding Americans often that they lived, as Herbert Hoover remarked, in "a fluid classless society...unique in the world." That rhetoric was redoubled by a booming new advertising industry
Could it be he's confirmed the whereabouts of the Orbs?” “I think he mentioned something about that, but who are you?” Nina asked, even as the man was clearly getting anxious to leave. “Maximilian,” the man said, “But my employees call me Maxie. I need to go, it seems Archie has outmaneuvered me again. I need to find a way to get ahead of him...” And with that, he turned and left without a word, leaving Nina alone with the Voices again….There was a story told by the mayor of the town of Niterói, across the bay from Rio de Janeiro, that expresses perfectly the epic stature of the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who has died aged 104. In the spring of 1992, after Niemeyer's first visit to the seafront site chosen for the town's new museum of contemporary art, Mayor Jorge Roberto Silveira took Niemeyer and his colleagues to a restaurant for lunch. During the meal, Niemeyer described his vision of the museum "rising upward, like a flower, or a bird". This satisfied everyone except Silveira, who requested a clearer idea in the shape of a drawing, and asked a waiter to bring Niemeyer some paper. The waiter was on his way back with a notepad when he was intercepted by a colleague who had overheard their conversation. "Boy," he cautioned the first waiter. "This is the man who built Brasilia. Go and get something bigger." Thus the first sketches of the Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art were made on a tablecloth. It was to be another four years before the elegant, cantilevered concrete dish was opened in 1996, to universal acclaim. Like Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which opened the following year, the Niterói museum marked a surprising success for unrestrainedly expressionistic architecture. But where Gehry employed titanium alloy and a battery of computers, things were done differently at Niterói. Not only was Niemeyer's project much smaller (as was its budget), but its materials and methods belonged to another age. Where 3D computing in Bilbao permitted unprecedented precision, Niterói, located on a promontory with the sea on three sides, featured low-tech concrete work, ill-fitting glazing and cheap polycarbonate balustrading. In terms of timeless architecture, such disadvantages are unimportant, for Niterói is a modern triumph, something that deserves to be considered alongside such great buildings as Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater; Le Corbusier's chapel at Ronchamp and Mies van der Rohe's Farnworth house. Using one basic material, plus daring structural engineering, Niemeyer turned poured concrete painted white into an expressionist masterpiece. Niemeyer, the son of a graphic artist and one of six children, was born in the Laranjeiras district of Rio de Janeiro. He was raised by his maternal grandparents – his father's family was of German descent – and at the age of 23, he enrolled at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio to study architecture, graduating in 1934. Early on during his studies, he found unpaid work in the office of the architect and town planner Lúcio Costa, one of the few modernists practising in Brazil at that time. Coincidentally, Costa had been among the group of Brazilian architects who had invited the celebrated Swiss modernist Le Corbusier to Rio in 1929 and then again in 1936. By the time of the second visit, Costa had promoted Niemeyer to the team formed to design a new ministry of education building. As a result, Niemeyer spent much time with Le Corbusier and was permanently influenced by his vision of a new architecture. The Contemporary Art Museum, one of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer's most famous designs. Photograph: Marcelo Sayao/EPA Niemeyer swiftly learned to design according to Le Corbusier's five principles: full-width strip windows; rigid sun shading; roof gardens; pilotis (columns raising a building above the ground); and, most important of all, free-forming plans within a grid of columns. The marriage between these principles and construction methods was made in heaven. In Brazil's benign climate, concrete structures require no expansion joints and there are no problems of insulation or condensation. In any case, steel was far too expensive at the time. Niemeyer added to these advantages a tremendous exploitation of free form, greater perhaps than that deployed by the master himself. As Le Corbusier observed years later: "From the outset Niemeyer knew how to give full freedom to the discoveries of modern architecture." Sent by Costa to supervise the construction of his Brazilian Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair, Niemeyer returned to be placed in charge of the ministry of education design team, where he remained until the building's completion in 1943 – a milestone in the history of modern architecture. Working for nothing and reliant on his family, Niemeyer transformed the Corbusier scheme into the serene, high-rise building that adorns Rio today. A national monument, it has since been renamed Capanema Palace. Although rigid by Niemeyer's later standards, it abounds with curves inside; its exteriors are decorated with romantic wall tiles, depicting scallops and sea horses, and shaded by deep sun-louvres. Photogenic and, characteristically, a convincing fusion of art, engineering, craft, landscape and architecture, this confident building was ecstatically received. By the time of its completion, Niemeyer was already immersed in the design of a dramatic series of leisure buildings and a church around an artificial lake in a suburb of Belo Horizonte. The plasticity and originality of these buildings – products of the patronage of Juscelino Kubitschek, then the new mayor of Belo Horizonte and later president of Brazil – brought Niemeyer fame on his own account. In 1944 he was the star of a New York Museum of Modern Art exhibition and book entitled Brazil Builds, and was subsequently invited to contribute to the design of the United Nations building in New York. The Museum of the Republic in Brasilia, designed by Niemeyer. Photograph: Corbis Meanwhile, in Brazil, Kubitschek's political career was developing. Elected governor of the state of Minas Gerais in 1949, he embarked on a modernisation programme that involved numerous commissions for Niemeyer. Schools and libraries were followed by two 32-storey apartment towers of Corbusian dimensions in Belo Horizonte, called Governor Kubitschek Buildings, but even these would have been outdone by a vast mixed-use building planned for the city of Petropolis which, had it been built, would have been a quarter of a mile long, with 5,700 apartments, shops, offices and hotels. The scale and invention of Niemeyer's work expanded with the growth of the Brazilian economy, and when in 1955 Kubitschek rode to power as president on a wave of trade union and Communist party votes, Niemeyer found himself on the brink of the greatest commissions of his life. The event was the realisation of a dream enshrined in the 1891 constitution, to transfer the capital from Rio to a location on the central plateau some 600 miles to the north-west and 3,000ft above sea level. The new capital would be called Brasilia, and Kubitschek decreed that it would have a population of 500,000 and would be built in four years, before his term of office expired. In 1956 Costa won the competition for a masterplan of the new capital, and Niemeyer was commissioned to design all the principal public buildings. Within two years, the city was employing a workforce of 40,000, and an epic series of modern public buildings designed by Niemeyer was under construction. These included the Square of the Three Powers, the National Congress building (with the twin towers of the secretariat, the dome of the senate and the bowl of the lower house), the diaphanous lakeside residence of the president (better known as the Alvorada Palace), the high court, the national theatre and the endless rectangle of the Brasilia Palace hotel. Living and working in a timber cabin – the Catetinho, a national monument today – architects, engineers and even the president himself on his many visits to Brasilia, "went to the same dances and bars as the workers", according to Niemeyer. "This was a liberating time. It seemed as if a new society was being born, with all the traditional barriers cast aside." Images of these structures, to be joined later by the foreign ministry and the circular cathedral, were published and marvelled at across the world, to this day retaining their awe-inspiring impact. In his memoirs, The Curves of Time, published in 2000, Niemeyer declared: "I am not attracted to straight angles or to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. I am attracted to free-flowing sensual curves. The curves that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuousness of its rivers, in the waves of the ocean, and on the body of the beloved woman. Curves make up the entire universe, the curved universe of Einstein." In an interview with Architectural Record, he said, "My work is not about form follows function, but form follows beauty or, even better, form follows feminine." Niemeyer made modern architecture sensual and alluring, even in the great red desert-like plains of Brasilia, far from ocean and mountains. But as the day for the transfer of power from Rio to Brasilia approached, unease at the incompleteness and cost of the project began to sweep through Brazil. Massive foreign loans had been taken out to build the capital, and a crippling currency inflation was the result. In the event, the transfer occurred on the appointed day in April 1960, but Kubitschek's power base had been so gravely eroded that he did not contest the election that October, and his opponent swept to power with the largest majority ever recorded in a presidential election. Oscar Niemeyer's 2003 Serpentine pavilion. Photograph: Peter Cook/View Pictures/Rex In the aftermath of the election campaign, Niemeyer, exhausted by overwork, was seriously injured in a road accident. For several months he was bedridden, and when at last he could walk again, he removed himself to Israel to escape the hunt for scapegoats that was in full swing under the new regime. Until his return to Brazil in 1985, Niemeyer worked in Israel, France and north Africa, designing among other buildings the University of Haifa on Mount Carmel; the campus of Constantine University in Algeria (now known as Mentouri University); the offices of the French Communist party and their newspaper l'Humanité in Paris; and the ministry of external relations and the cathedral in Brasilia. In all these buildings he demonstrated no waning of his powers with advancing age, but rather he expressed his epic mastery of concrete with the same vigour and daring as he had first deployed in Belo Horizonte many years before. Although semi-retired, he continued to attend his office – cheroots ever to hand – and design into his second century. He drew every morning and received visitors from around the world, and across the generations, once his day's work was done. His 21st-century buildings include the Oscar Niemeyer Museum at Curitiba, Paraná (2002), the National Library of Brasilia (2006), the Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre in Aviles, Spain (2011) and the Brasilia Digital TV Tower (2012). In 1987 Brasilia was made a Unesco World Heritage Site. In 1988 Niemeyer was awarded the Pritzker prize. The Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, the most prestigious British award, followed 10 years later. In 2003 he designed his first British building, the Serpentine Gallery's summer pavilion in Kensington Gardens, London. Niemeyer had joined the Communist party in 1945 and, unwavering in his support, was its president from 1992 to 1996. He was awarded the Lenin peace prize in 1963. His close friends included Fidel Castro who, in later years, joked, "Niemeyer and I are the last communists of this planet." While his political allegiances led to the ransacking of his office in 1965, following the coup d'etat the year before that brought the military to power under General Castelo Branco, Niemeyer remained a well known and popular figure among ordinary Brazilians, to whom he was always "Oscar", and evidently adored, although younger generations of Brazilian architects have inevitably felt hidden in his shadow. His first wife, Annita, whom he married in 1928, died in 2004. Their daughter, Anna Maria, died in 2012. He is survived by his second wife, Vera Lucia Cabriera, his former assistant, whom he married in 2006. • Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares, architect, born 15 December 1907; died 5 December 2012 • Martin Pawley died in 2008Baby Orca Can't Stop Jumping For Joy After Miracle Birth An orca preschool in the Salish Sea continues to be encouraging news for members of the Pacific Whale Watch Association. Image credit: Heather MacIntyre The calves - named J50, J51, J51, and L121 - have been seen almost every day, but J50 has received the most attention. J50 / Image credit: Naturalist Clint "Showtime" Rivers "I've never seen a baby whale breach like J50's been doing," said Michael Harris, executive director of PWWA, which represents 33 operators in Washington and British Columbia. "Her energy is astounding – I guess not unlike my small kids. She's constantly leaping into the air, and often curling up and doing belly flops. Of course we never know exactly why orcas breach, but when you see a young one do what J50's been doing, over and over again, and being so playful and affectionate as she is with her family members, you sorta lose that cold scientific analysis and just conclude she's leaping for joy. It's definitely a joy to watch." J50 / Image credit: Naturalist Clint "Showtime" Rivers On July 4, whale watchers on an Eagle Wings Tour in Victoria got a show from J50. "J50 stole the show, and hearts, with more than 60 breaches as she and her family moved south in Haro Strait," said Clint Rivers, a naturalist and photographer. "It's like she just figured out how this breaching thing works and couldn't stop. She was still breaching well into the evening." Image credit: Naturalist Clint "Showtime" Rivers J50 was born about two weeks after J-Pod lost a female member while she was giving birth. That dropped the population to 77 whales. However, researchers believe that two members of the pod actually mid-wifed the birth of J50, pulling the baby out of its mother. The teeth marks can still be seen on J50's back. Image credit: Heather MacIntyre "Maybe all this exuberance somehow has something to do with that, this miracle birth," said Harris. "Who knows? Maybe the other members of her family realize how precious she is, and how close she came to never making it into this world. Perhaps with all of this love surrounding her, this baby orca is just bursting with happiness. There's no doubt that J50 feels safe and well-cared for, like all of these babies are. We have some amazing families out there." Image credit: Barbara BenderBinge watching is the cool new way to binge! So new that the wiki article was made barely over a year ago. This is only the beginning, though, because binging is the FUTURE. Here are some exciting binge trends to look out for in the near future: Binge-Driving Sure, this could be called a “joyride” or a “road trip,” but Binge-Driving is the new cool! Just get in the car and DRIVE until the car breaks down or you soar off of a pier and into the ocean. Binge-Farming You ever get so hooked on something that it became your profession? Someday there will be people on the planet who spend all of their time growing crops out of the ground. They might even LIVE on these “plant camps.” Binge-Architectural-Engineering This is when you wake up on the couch in the morning you’re surrounded by blueprints for skyscrapers. We’ve all been there at least once, but it’s really going to pick up once once we finally enter the urban-sprawled dystopian retrofuture you see in sci-fi movies. Binge-Drinking You know how it’s fun to have a drink or two to loosen up? Well, what if instead we drank to excess?? That’d be NUTS. In the meantime, we suggest saying goodbye to moderation by going back and reading all 900 of our old comics, binge-style. wesOn Friday, the Washington Post described the discovery of Russian-linked malware on a computer owned by Vermont’s Burlington Electric utility. The software was detected in a search after information about Russian-associated malware was released by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, in conjunction with a new U.S. intelligence report about Russian hacking. However, even as media and politicians reacted with alarm to this apparent new evidence of Russian malfeasance, critics took shots at the Post for what they said was a hyperbolic headline and misleading story. The story was originally titled “Russian hackers penetrated U.S. electricity grid through a utility in Vermont, officials say.” But, speaking to the Burlington Free Press after the Post story’s publication, a Vermont utility official clarified that the software was found only on one computer, which was not connected to the electrical grid, and that the grid was “not in danger.” Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter. The Post has since updated its headline to remove references to the power grid being “penetrated,” since it wasn’t. But observers, particularly those further to both the left and right ends of the political spectrum, are still crying foul. Glenn Greenwald, calling the story a symptom of “Russia Hysteria,” points out that the presence of Russian-made malware isn’t necessarily evidence of a “Russian operation,” as the Post’s amended headline still claims. The software could have been placed by nearly anyone. Meanwhile, The Daily Caller describes the Post’s report as a “False News Story.” That confluence of perspectives is worth marveling at for a moment. Greenwald is broadly affiliated with the progressive left, while the Caller was founded by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, and now at least occasionally dallies with alt-right nationalism. The two have different reasons for questioning an emerging status quo that paints Russia as a hacking villain. Greenwald’s association with Wikileaks and Edward Snowden’s NSA leak gives him a personal stake, since those players are increasingly being tarred as having more than incidental ties to Russia. But Greenwald, a veteran opponent of the Iraq War, also sees overstatements about Russian hacking as a symptom of the same sort of “group-think, fear-mongering, [and] coercive peer-pressure” that silenced critics in that era. For more on Russian hacking, watch our video. The Caller, meanwhile, seems to be falling in line with a right-wing anti-consensus that regards the Russia hacking story primarily as a bid to discredit President-elect Donald Trump. Conservative outlets have also begun aggressively labelling stories from the mainstream media “fake news,” at least partly to push back against another post-election narrative that had misleading stories swaying voters towards Trump. Regardless of attribution, the detection of the malware should be extremely worrisome. The risks of malicious hacking of utilities and other vital systems are real, and no one has disputed that the malware got near a sensitive target. What’s less clear is whether a fragmented U.S. can find enough common ground to respond coherently.The story said that the Senate Intelligence Committee was examining the fund and that Mr. Scaramucci had met with the head of the fund, Kirill Dmitriev, several days before Mr. Trump’s inauguration. It also said the Treasury Department had been looking into the meeting at the request of two Democratic senators, who had expressed concern that Mr. Scaramucci might have promised to help get sanctions against Russia waived by the new administration. The story was written by Thomas Frank, who had been a Pulitzer Prize finalist at USA Today. But Mr. Scaramucci, who was jockeying for a position in the White House, disputed the information when CNN contacted him for comment, according to a person close to Mr. Scaramucci; the story quoted Mr. Scaramucci as saying “there is nothing there,” in reference to his meeting with Mr. Dmitriev. Mr. Lichtblau was editing the article and, according to the people with direct knowledge of the events, he sent a draft of the story to Lex Haris, the head of the investigative unit. Mr. Haris, who was traveling to Phoenix for a conference, signed off — as long as the story passed muster with CNN’s internal review system, known as the Triad. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story DealBook DealBook delivers the news driving the markets and the conversation. Delivered weekday mornings and afternoons. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Recaptcha requires verification. I'm not a robot reCAPTCHA Privacy - Terms Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. You are already subscribed to this email. View all New York Times newsletters. See Sample Privacy Policy Opt out or contact us anytime The Triad includes CNN’s fact-checkers and its standards team, both of which approved the article. But the third prong, the legal department, had at least one question that went unanswered. It is not clear what specific concerns the legal department raised, or why Mr. Lichtblau and Mr. Haris did not address them; journalists at CNN said it was sometimes difficult to keep track of the flurry of inquiries that could come during the review process. (Mr. Frank, Mr. Haris and Mr. Lichtblau declined to comment for this story.) Mr. Lichtblau moved forward with publication. He emailed an editor affiliated with KFile, Kyle Blaine, who had not been involved in the story, and instructed him to publish it on his behalf. Advertisement Continue reading the main story When the story was posted that afternoon, it received little attention — inside the newsroom and out. But Mr. Scaramucci and his representatives quickly contacted CNN officials, including the network’s Washington bureau chief, Sam Feist, to complain. It was an “all hands on deck’’ rebuttal, said the person familiar with Mr. Scaramucci’s response. Breitbart News, a frequent critic of CNN, soon posted an item that questioned CNN’s reporting, and called the network’s story “very fake news.’’ Citing its own source, Breitbart said there was no Senate investigation. When CNN managers began to review the piece, they discovered the legal department’s concerns — and that they had not been addressed. They also realized a factual error had slipped through the fact-checking process; it was a technicality related to a Russian bank’s relationship to the fund, but managers found it to have been a troubling lapse. And there was a more problematic issue, two people familiar with the review said. Mr. Frank’s single source had wavered before the story was published, expressing concern about how the information was being presented. But Mr. Frank had not relayed that hesitancy to his colleagues. Between Mr. Frank’s wavering source and the discovery of breakdowns in the editorial vetting process, executives concluded that the network could not stand behind the story. The day after the article was published, CNN removed it from its website and issued a formal retraction and an apology to Mr. Scaramucci. “That story did not meet CNN’s editorial standards,” the network wrote Still, it is unclear to what degree the story was inaccurate. CNN has never said that the article’s reporting was incorrect, and Mr. Zucker made clear on a morning conference call, soon after the retraction, that the network would not go back and report the story again. Some journalists inside and outside the network said privately that they believed the story was materially true. But the story also suffered from a lack of clarity. A reader could easily come away with the impression that Mr. Scaramucci himself was under investigation for some kind of illicit dealings with the Russians — an assertion that the article does not explicitly make. Significant Consequences The fallout came quickly. The day after the retraction, Rich Barbieri, the editor of CNN’s business and finance site, sent his team an email barring the publication of “any content involving Russia” without editorial approval — “no exceptions.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story As Breitbart News and other CNN critics gloated over the retraction, Mr. Zucker decided that stern action was necessary to demonstrate to its employees — and to the outside world — that the network would not tolerate such mistakes. The network asked Mr. Lichtblau, Mr. Haris and Mr. Frank to resign. Photo Eric Lichtblau won a Pulitzer Prize at The New York Times before joining CNN. Mr. Lichtblau was the editor on the retracted story. Credit Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times The episode shocked many inside CNN and created anxiety in the newsroom. Some staff members said they thought the punishment had been overly harsh, a view expressed by some media commentators as well. Though corrections are not uncommon for news organizations, full retractions are more unusual and typically signify major factual errors or ethical breaches. When news organizations do retract a story, they normally also make an effort to correct the record, and explain to the reader what went wrong. But the brief editor’s note from CNN, some journalism experts said, provided more questions than answers. “CNN failed in its duty to enlighten the public,” said Edward Wasserman, the dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. “Instead, it muddied the waters to correct something and we don’t know what it’s correcting.” Mr. Trump quickly seized on the resignations. He posted on Twitter the next morning, “Wow, CNN had to retract big story on ‘Russia,’ with 3 employees forced to resign. What about all the other phony stories they do? FAKE NEWS!’’ At CNN, executives took some time to regroup. Mr. Zucker vowed that the network would not be cowed by the Trump administration. After a reassessment period, CNN asked the investigative unit to resume its work. Its ranks have been replenished: new journalists have been brought on from other parts of CNN, and there is a new team leader in place, Matt Lait, a veteran former editor at The Los Angeles Times. On Aug. 2, weeks after he informed the investigative team of the resignations, Mr. Burke, the CNN executive, convened another meeting — this time to outline the unit’s refocused mission. The team would engage in longer-term reporting on national issues, with less focus on the White House. He affirmed that the unit should leave the Russia investigation story to CNN’s staff in Washington. Mr. Scaramucci, meanwhile, had been named Mr. Trump’s communications director. His successful tangling with CNN was said to have greatly pleased the president. Before Mr. Scaramucci was himself forced out of the White House, he was overheard on a live television microphone referring to the retracted story and Mr. Zucker. “He helped me get the job by hitting those guys,” Mr. Scaramucci said, referring to the resignations. He added, “Tell him he’s not getting a placement fee for getting me the job.”Everyone Is Missing the Point About Sanctuary Cities Instead, focus on 287(g) agreements. Get a compelling long read and must-have lifestyle tips in your inbox every Sunday morning — great with coffee! If we have learned anything in this first month of the Trump presidency, it’s how malleable the term “sanctuary” can be, with respect to protections afforded undocumented immigrants. And given the frenetic pace of this administration, it can be hard to keep track of all the moving parts, and which ones could prove decisive in the debate over immigration policy. Mayor Marty Walsh signed the Trust Act in 2014, prohibiting Boston police from detaining anyone based on their immigration status unless they have a criminal warrant. Still, Boston wasn’t considered to be a full-blown “sanctuary city,” like Cambridge, which has long embraced the label. Just before announcing his mayoral bid, Councillor Tito Jackson suggested that Boston make the leap to full sanctuary status, though what this meant wasn’t immediately clear. Then the parlance shifted again, and Boston was a sanctuary city after all. Daily Show host Trevor Noah introduced Walsh as the mayor of one during his recent national media blitz, and Walsh has since made abundantly clear that he isn’t worried about President Donald Trump’s threat via executive order to strip federal funding from any city that does not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts. Mayor Joe Curtatone also made clear that Somerville, which has considered itself a sanctuary city for the last 30 years, is “not going to run away from our fellow man for a bucket of money.” The city has a Trust Act of its own, paired with Curtatone’s 2014 executive order limiting its participation in Secure Communities, a federal program launched under President George W. Bush. Aimed at coordinating efforts between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local police, it allows officers to detain people for an additional 48 hours while their fingerprints, already in an immigration database, are flagged for ICE officials, who decide whether to begin removal processing. “It can be anything you want it to be, which is a problem,” said Liza Ryan, organizing director at the Mass. Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), at a recent meeting of the Boston Democratic Socialists of America. “We don’t want people who are threatened or afraid to feel like, ‘I’m going to run to this city, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement can’t get me there. I’m safe.’ Unfortunately, that’s not true.” “We can’t stop the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement from coming anywhere. If they want to go in and detain and deport an eight-year-old out of their elementary school, they’re allowed to do that,” Ryan said. Besides, Trump’s executive order threatens to strip federal funding from jurisdictions in violation of U.S. Code 1373, which prohibits governments from restricting in any way the flow of information to or from ICE. Under its Trust Act, Boston could argue, with precedent on its side, that it isn’t refusing to comply with 1373; it simply doesn’t have that information to give. One way to avoid the shifting definitions of sanctuary status (for sanity’s sake) lies not at the municipal level, where cities and towns can self-identify anywhere across a wide spectrum of enforcement, but at the county level, in the form of 287(g) agreements. Named after the section of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, 287(g) agreements between the federal government and counties deputize local police to help with immigration enforcement, allowing them to detain people for up to 48 hours after they’re otherwise free to go. These agreements differ from the Secure Communities program by allowing local police to determine the immigration status of those who commit their first non-immigration crime—casting a wider net for removal. “A 287g agreement is more, ‘We are going to do your job for you and help you round people up, or help identify people for you.’ So that’s more of an affirmative agreement between a state or locality with ICE,” says Mary Holper, director of the Immigration Clinic at Boston College Law School. “The true [area] where people can make a difference is going to the state, the locality, and just saying, ‘Don’t do this. This is a bad idea, on lots of different levels.'” Two counties in Massachusetts currently have 287(g) agreements: Plymouth and Bristol, whose Sheriff Thomas Hodgkins offered to ship inmates to the border to help build Trump’s wall. (The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to request for comment on whether it was mulling a 287(g) agreement of its own.) But opponents say local police shouldn’t even be involved in determining immigration status. “This is not our job, so it shouldn’t be our money,” Ryan says. “The fact that we’re even discussing it or the fact that the president is trying to take away resources from the state because they’re not doing what [ICE] should be doing is silly. And also, it’s not possible.” According to Ryan, 287(g) agreements further expose municipalities to the liability of a potential breach of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unwarranted search and seizure, just as Secure Communities had. Conversely, the federal government stands to violate the 10th Amendment, Holper says, by mandating how local law enforcement conducts its policing, a power vested in the state government. “Not only are we putting ourselves at risk of being sued for violating people’s rights if we embrace the 287(g) agreements,” Ryan says, “but we will also be paying to do the job of the federal government—while at the same time, making our local and state police forces less effective because they won’t be able to engage in community policing because the communities that they police will be afraid of them.” In response, state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, an Acton Democrat, has introduced the long-stalled Massachusetts Safe Communities Act, a sort of statewide Trust Act, which would not only forbid counties from entering into collaborative partnerships like 287(g) agreements, but prevent the establishment of a state Muslim registry as well. Ryan called the bill “low-hanging fruit” for those who wish to combat Trump’s immigration agenda, yet it faces a bumpy path forward. Both House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Gov. Charlie Baker have said they support municipalities making their own decisions on immigration. “We need to bring this issue to the floor, allow our members to vote on this matter and then bring it before him so that he can then decide if he wants to veto it or not,” bill co-sponsor Rep. Juana Matias, a Lawrence Democrat, told WBUR’s Bob Oakes. “What was very impressive about our legislation in the first month [of Trump’s presidency] was that hundreds and hundreds of residents called their state representatives.” Through a spokesperson, Walsh declined to take a stance either way on the Safe Communities Act. “Boston is and will continue to be a City that values and respects immigrants, and the Mayor will continue to stand strong with our immigrant community,” press secretary Nicole Caravella said in a statement. In an interview Wednesday, Jackson offered full-throated endorsement of the bill, while outlining his proposal for a pilot legal defense fund for undocumented immigrants, similar to programs in place in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. “It is the policy that keeps our neighborhoods and communities the safest. And the reason why is that we want people who have been harmed to be able to call the police, and know that they will not be deported,” Jackson says. The term “sanctuary city” distills one component of the exceedingly complex debate over immigration policy into a convenient buzzword, and for this reason, it will likely remain part of the continued debate. But the final battles could very well play out on the state and county level.Mumbai, officially named Bombay until 1995, is the financial capital of India and the home of India's Bollywood film industry. Also called India's "maximum city", Mumbai is known for its extreme standards of living, fast-paced lifestyle, and the making (or breaking) of dreams. It's a cosmopolitan and increasingly westernized city that's an important base for industry and foreign trade. This Mumbai information will help you plan your trip. History Mumbai's interesting history saw it ruled by the Portuguese for 125 years until, incredibly, it was given to the British as part of a wedding dowry. Catherine Braganza (the Princess of Portugal) married Charles II (the King of England) in 1662, and the city was included as a dowry gift. The British firstly developed Mumbai as a port, before embarking on extensive urban construction works in the early 1800s onwards. After India obtained Independence in 1947 and the British departed, a population boom followed, brought about by the lure of wealth and opportunities unavailable elsewhere in the country. Location Mumbai is located in the state of Maharashtra, on the west coast of India. Timezone UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) +5.5 hours. Mumbai does not have Daylight Saving Time. Population Mumbai has a population of about 21 million people, making it India's second largest city (rapidly expanding Delhi is now the largest). A majority of the people are migrants from other states, who have come in search of employment. Climate and Weather Mumbai has a tropical climate. It experiences very hot, humid weather during April and May, with temperatures around 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit). The onset of the southwest monsoon begins in early June and rain is experienced until October. The weather remains humid, but the temperature drops to around 26-30 degrees Celsius (80-86 Fahrenheit) during the day. Following the monsoon, the weather gradually becomes cooler and drier until winter sets in, in late November. Winters in Mumbai are pleasant, with top temperatures of 25-28 degrees Celsius (77-82 Fahrenheit) during the day, although nights can be a little chilly. Airport Information Mumbai Chattrapathi Shivaji Airport is one of the main entry points into India, and is undergoing major renovation and upgrade. New domestic terminals have been added along with a new integrated Terminal 2, which opened in February 2014 for international flights. Domestic airlines are currently in the process of relocating to Terminal 2 in a phased manner. Terminal 2 is located in Andheri East while the domestic terminals are in Santa Cruz, 30 kilometers (19 miles) and kilometers 24 (15 miles) north of the city center respectively. A shuttle bus transfers passengers between the terminals. Travel time to the city center is around one and a half hours but is much less early in the morning or late at night when traffic is lighter. Viator offers private airport transfers from $11. They can be conveniently booked online. Transport Options The best way to get around the city is to take a cab or auto rickshaw. You'll only find auto rickshaws in the suburbs,
succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 5 feet away from you. You create a blast of air capable of moving one object that is being neither held nor carried and that weighs no more than 5 pounds. The object is pushed up to 10 feet away from you. It isn’t pushed with enough force to cause damage. You create a harmless sensory effect using air, such as causing leaves to rustle, wind to slam shutters shut, or your clothing to ripple in a breeze. The maximum distance you can push objects and creatures with this spell increases by 5 feet when you reach 5th level (10 feet for a creature, 15 for an object), 11th level (15 feet for a creature, 20 for an object), and 17th level (20 feet for a creature, 25 for an object). The maximum weight of objects you can push is equal to the number of feet you can push it minus 5. Potent Infestation Conjuration cantrip Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: 30 feet 30 feet Components: V, S, M (a living flea) V, S, M (a living flea) Duration: Instantaneous You cause a cloud of mites, fleas, and other parasites in your hand and hurl it at a creature or object made of vegetable matter within range. On a hit, the creature takes 1d6 poison damage and moves 5 feet in a direction of your choice if it can move and its speed is at least 5 feet. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks. If you hurled the cloud at an object made of vegetable matter, it takes the maximum damage possible from this spell. In addition, any Strength check made to break the object within the next minute has advantage. The spell’s damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6). Potent Light Evocation cantrip Casting Time: 1 bonus action 1 bonus action Range: 30 feet 30 feet Components: S S Duration: 1 hour You target one object within range that is no larger than 10 feet in any dimension. Until the spell ends, the object sheds bright light in a 20 foot radius and dim light for an additional 20 feet. The light can be colored and textured as you like. Completely covering the object with something opaque blocks the light. The spell ends if you cast it again or dismiss it as an action. If you target an object held or worn by a hostile creature, that creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw to avoid the spell. Alternatively, you can choose for this light to be sunlight. The spell otherwise remains the same, however the object sheds bright light only in a 5-foot radius, and dim light for an additional 5 feet. The radius of the bright and dim light, but not the sunlight, both increase by 10 feet when you reach 5th level (30 feet), 11th level (40 feet), and 17th level (50 feet). Potent Mage Hand Conjuration cantrip Casting Time: 1 bonus action 1 bonus action Range: 30 feet 30 feet Components: V, S V, S Duration: 10 minutes A spectral, floating hand appears at a point you choose within range. The hand lasts for the duration or until you dismiss it as an action. The hand vanishes if it is ever more than 30 feet away from you or if you cast this spell again. You can use your action to control the hand. You can use the hand to manipulate an object, open an unlocked door or container, stow or retrieve an item from an open container, or pour the contents out of a vial. You can move the hand up to 30 feet each time you use it. The hand can't attack or activate magic items. When attempting to carry or manipulate something heavier than 10 pounds, the hand makes a check using your spellcasting ability modifier. The DC is equal to 10 + the number of pounds above the limit you are trying to manipulate. On a success, you are able to manipulate that object for one round (6 seconds). The weight of objects you can manipulate freely increases by 10 pounds when you reach 5th level (20 pounds), 11th level (30 pounds), and 17th level (40 pounds). Potent Mending Transmutation cantrip Casting Time: 1 minute 1 minute Range: Touch Touch Components: V, S V, S Duration: Instantaneous This spell repairs a single break or tear in an object you touch, such as a broken chain link, two halves of a broken key, a torn cloak, or a leaking wineskin. As long as the break or tear is no larger than 1 foot in any dimension, you mend it, leaving no trace of the former damage. This spell can physically repair a magic item or construct, but the spell can’t restore magic to such an object. Alternatively, you can cast this spell to magically fuse up to 6 square inches of non-living material to an object touching it, such as a sword to its scabbard or a rope to a ledge. This fusion lasts for 1 hour. Creatures attempting to separate the fused objects must make a Strength check against your spell save DC. The fused objects can support a number of pounds equal to your spell save DC x 10 before they separate. The size of a break or tear this spell can repair increases by 1 foot when you reach 5th level (2 feet), 11th level (3 feet), and 17th level (4 feet) Potent Message Transmutation cantrip Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: 120 feet 120 feet Components: S S Duration: 1 round You point your finger toward a creature within range and whisper a message. The target (and only the target) hears the message and can reply in a whisper that only you can hear. You can cast this spell through solid objects if you are familiar with the target and know it is beyond the barrier. Magical silence, 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood blocks the spell. The spell doesn't have to follow a straight line and can travel freely around corners or through openings. Alternatively, you can send out a message to every creature within a 15-foot cube centered on a point you choose within range. This message must be 4 words or less, and cannot be replied to. This spell's range increases at 5th level (150 feet), 11th level (300 feet), and 17th level (600 feet) Potent Minor Illusion Illusion cantrip Casting Time: 1 bonus action 1 bonus action Range: 60 feet 60 feet Components: V, S V, S Duration: 1 hour You create a sound or an image of an inanimate object within range that lasts for the duration. The illusion also ends if you dismiss it on your turn (no action required). If you create a sound, its volume can range from a whisper to a scream. It can be your voice, someone else's voice, a lion's roar, a beating of drums, or any other sound you choose. The sound continues unabated throughout the duration, or you can make discrete sounds at different times before the spell ends. If you create an image of an object - such as a chair, muddy footprints, or a small chest—it must be no larger than a 10-foot cube. The image can't create sound, light, smell, or any other sensory effect. Physical interaction with the image reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it. If a creature uses its action to examine the sound or image, the creature can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC. If a creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the illusion becomes faint to the creature. You can have up to five instances of this spell active at a time. Upon casting the spell again, the oldest one dissipates. Potent Poison Spray Conjuration cantrip Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: 15 feet 15 feet Components: V, S V, S Duration: 1 round A cloud of noxious gas ejects from your hand, harming one creature you can see within range. The creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 2d8 poison damage and have disadvantage on their next attack until the start of your next turn. A creature takes half damage on a successful save. This spell's damage increases by 2d8 when you reach 5th level (4d8), 11th level (6d8), and 17th level (8d8). Potent Prestidigitation Transmutation cantrip Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: 30 feet 30 feet Components: V, S V, S Duration: 1 hour This spell is a minor magical trick that novice spellcasters use for practice. You create one of the following magical effects within range: You create an instantaneous, harmless sensory effect, such as a shower of sparks, a puff of wind, faint musical notes, or an odd odor. You instantaneously light or snuff out up to 5 candles, torches, or small campfires. You instantaneously clean or soil an object no larger than 1 cubic foot. You chill, warm, or flavor up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material for 1 hour. You make a color, a small mark, or a symbol appear on an object or a surface for 1 hour. You create a non-magical trinket or an illusory image that can fit in your hand and that lasts for 1 minute. In addition, you can make a spell attack against one creature you can see within range, and deal 1d4 damage from a type of your choosing to them. Perhaps a small ember burns across their cheek, they experience a sudden migraine, or feel an invisible knife stab into their arm, dealing piercing damage. If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its non-instantaneous effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect at will. Potent Ray of Frost Evocation cantrip Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: 60 feet 60 feet Components: V, S V, S Duration: Instantaneous A frigid beam of blue-white light streaks towards a creature within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, it takes 1d8 cold damage, and its speed is reduced by 15 feet until the start of your next turn. The caster can also choose to cast this ray as a 1-foot wide, 15-foot long line. Creatures in the line must make a constitution saving throw or take 1d6 cold damage and have their speed reduced by 10 feet until the start of your next turn. This spell's damage increases when you reach 5th level (2d8, 2d6), 11th level (3d8, 3d6), and 17th level (4d8, 4d6) Potent Shocking Grasp Evocation cantrip Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: Touch Touch Components: S S Duration: Instantaneous Lightning springs from your hand to deliver a shock to a creature you try to touch. Make a melee spell attack against the target. You have advantage on the attack roll if the target is wearing armor made of metal. On a hit, the target takes 4d4 lightning damage, it can't take reactions until the start of its next turn, and it has disadvantage on the next Dexterity check made before the start of your next turn. The spell's damage increases by 2d4 when you reach 5th level (6d4), 11th level (8d4), and 17th level (10d4). Potent True Strike Divination cantrip Casting Time: 1 bonus action 1 bonus action Range: 60 feet 60 feet Components: S S Duration: Concentration, up to 1 round You extend your hand and point a finger at a target in range. Your magic grants you a brief insight into the target's nature. You gain advantage on your next attack roll or ability check against the target, provided the spell hasn't ended. The spell's range increases when you reach 5th level (90 feet), 11th level (150 feet), and 17th level (300 feet). Improved Spells Looking through various forums, and even playtesting these spells myself, many people found them to be lack-luster for their level, requirements, or their effects in general, so here are some ways in how to make them more potent. Witch Bolt (Improved) 1st-level Evocation (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: 60 feet 60 feet Components: V, S, M (a clear, crystal or glass orb) V, S, M (a clear, crystal or glass orb) Duration: 1 minute A beam of crackling, blue energy lances out toward a creature within range, forming a sustained arc of lightning between you and the target. Make a ranged spell attack against that creature. On a hit, the target takes 1d12 lightning damage, and on each of your turns for the duration, you can use your action to deal 2d6 lightning damage to the target automatically. The spell ends if you use your action to cast another spell. The spell also ends if the target is ever outside the spell's range or if it has total cover from you. At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the initial damage increases by 1d12 for each slot level above 1st, and the sustained damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st. Ray of Enfeeblement (Improved) 2nd-level Necromancy (Warlock, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: 90 feet 90 feet Components: V, S, M (a clear, crystal or glass orb) V, S, M (a clear, crystal or glass orb) Duration: 1 minute A black beam of enervating energy springs from your finger toward a creature within range. The creature must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the target's speed is reduced by 10 feet, the target deals half damage with melee weapon attacks, and the target has disadvantage on Strength and Dexterity checks. At the end of each of the target's turns, it can make a Constitution saving throw against the spell. On a success, the spell ends. Mordenkainen's Sword (Improved) 7th-level Evocation (Bard, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: 30 feet 30 feet Components: V, S V, S Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute You create a sword-shaped plane of force that hovers within range. It lasts for the duration. When the sword appears, you can move the sword up to 30 feet, and make up to three melee spell attacks. Each creature or object can only be hit once until the end of your turn. On a hit, a target takes force damage equal to 4d6 plus your spellcasting ability modifier. If a creature moves away from the sword in a way that could trigger an Opportunity Attack, as if a creature occupied the sword's space, you can use your reaction to make one attack against it using the sword. Until the spell ends, you can use a bonus action on each of your turns to move the sword up to 30 feet and repeat the three attacks against the same targets or different ones. Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting (Improved) 8th-level Necromancy (Sorcerer, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: 150 feet 150 feet Components: V, S, M (a bit of sponge) V, S, M (a bit of sponge) Duration: Instantaneous You draw the moisture from every creature in a 30-foot cube centered on a point you choose within range. Each creature in that area must make a Constitution saving throw. Constructs and undead aren't affected, and plants and water elementals make this saving throw with disadvantage. A creature gains one level of exhaustion and takes 10d8 necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Creatures who succeed the save aren't exhausted. Plants and water elementals automatically take maximum damage. Circle of Death (Improved) 6th-level Necromancy (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: 150 feet 150 feet Components: V, S, M (a bit of sponge) V, S, M (a bit of sponge) Duration: Instantaneous A wave of negative energy ripples out in a 60-foot radius sphere centered on a point you choose within range, thinning the veil between life and death. Each creature in that area must make a Constitution saving throw. A target takes 5d10 necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Undead affected by the spell regain hit points for the damage rolled on the dice, instead of taking damage. In addition, creatures that fail their saving throw mark off a failed Death saving throw, even if they are not dying. If a creature begins dying and rolls Death saving throws as usual, they keep any failed Death saving throws already present. When a creature reaches three failed death saving throws at any time, it dies. Death saving throws failed because of this property of circle of death are only reset by a greater restoration spell or similar magic. Epic Versions of 9th Level Spells Astral Projection (Epic) 10th-level Necromancy Casting Time: 1 minute 1 minute Range: 120 feet 120 feet Components: S, M (a forked, metal rod worth at least 250 gp, attuned to a particular plane of existence) S, M (a forked, metal rod worth at least 250 gp, attuned to a particular plane of existence) Duration: Special You and up to eight willing creatures within range project your astral bodies into a plane of your choosing, for which you need the forked, metal rod, or the astral plane, for which a rod is not needed. The spell fails and the casting is wasted if you are already on that plane. The material body you leave behind is unconscious and in a state of suspended animation; it doesn't need food, water, or air, it doesn't age, and its resistant to all damage. Your astral body resembles your mortal form in almost every way, replicating your game statistics and possessions. The principal difference is the addition of a silvery cord that extends from between your shoulder blades and trails behind you, fading to invisibility after 1 foot. This cord is your tether to your material body. As long as the tether remains intact, you can find your way home. If the cord is cut—something that can happen only when an effect specifically states that it does—you must find a way back on your own. Your astral form can freely travel through the chosen plane and can pass through portals there leading to any other plane. If you enter a new plane or return to the plane you were on when casting this spell, your body and possessions are transported along the silver cord, allowing you to re-enter your body as you enter the new plane. Your astral form is a separate incarnation. Any damage or other effects that apply to it have no effect on your physical body, nor do they persist when you return to it. The spell ends for you and your companions when you use your action to dismiss it. When the spell ends, the affected creature returns to its physical body, and it awakens. The spell also ends after 7 days (168 hours) have elapsed if you used the spell to travel to a plane other than the Astral Plane. The spell might also end early for you or one of your companions. A successful dispel magic spell used against an astral or physical body ends the spell for that creature. If a creature's original body or its astral form drops to 0 hit points, the spell ends for that creature. If the spell ends and the silver cord is intact, the cord pulls the creature's astral form back to its body, ending its state of suspended animation. If you are returned to your body prematurely, your companions remain in their spectral forms and must find their own way back to their bodies, usually by dropping to 0 hit points. Foresight (Epic) 10th-level Divination Casting Time: 1 minute 1 minute Range: Touch Touch Components: S S Duration: 8 hours You touch a willing creature and bestow a limited ability to see into the immediate future. For the duration, the target can't be surprised and has advantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws. Additionally, other creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws caused by the target under foresight for the duration. This spell immediately ends if you cast it again before its duration ends. Gate (Epic) 10th-level Conjuration Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: Sight Sight Components: V, S V, S Duration: Until dispelled You conjure a portal linking an unoccupied space you can see to a precise location on a different (or the same) plane of existence. The portal is a circular opening, which you can make 1 to 30 feet in diameter. You can orient the portal in any direction you choose. The portal lasts until the caster chooses to dismiss it on their turn as an action, or until it is dispelled. The portal has a front and a back on each plane where it appears. It can also appear as invisible. Travel through the portal is possible only by moving through its front. Anything that does so is instantly transported to the other portal, appearing in the unoccupied space nearest to the portal. Deities and other planar rulers can prevent portals created by this spell from opening in their presence or anywhere within their domains. When you cast this spell, you can speak the name, pseudonym, title, or nickname of a specific creature. The portal opens in the named creature's immediate vicinity and draws the creature through it to the nearest unoccupied space on your side of the portal. You gain no special power over the creature, and it is free to act as the DM deems appropriate. It might leave, attack you, or help you. Imprisonment (Epic) 10th-level Abjuration Casting Time: 1 minute 1 minute Range: 30 feet 30 feet Components: V, S, M (a special component that varies according to the version of the spell you choose, worth at least 300 gp per Hit Die of the target with the most Hit Die) V, S, M (a special component that varies according to the version of the spell you choose, worth at least 300 gp per Hit Die of the target with the most Hit Die) Duration: Until dispelled You create a magical restraint to hold up to three creatures that you can see within range. Each target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be bound by the spell; if it succeeds, it is restrained, and must make saving throws at the end of each round of combat. Upon failing the save twice, the spell takes effect, and it ends on two successes. The successes and failures don't need to be consecutive. A creature that succeeds on its saving throw to fully resist the spell are immune to its effects for 1 month. While affected by this spell, the creature doesn't need to breathe, eat, or drink, and it doesn't age. Divination spells can't locate or perceive the target. When you cast the spell, you choose one of the following forms of imprisonment: Burial: The target is entombed far in the outer realms in a sphere of magical force that is just large enough to contain the target. Nothing can pass through the sphere, nor can any creature teleport or use planar travel to get into or out of it. The special component for this version of the spell is a small, perfectly crafted mithril orb. Hedged Prison: The spell transports the target into a demiplane that is warded against teleportation and planar travel. The demiplane can be a labyrinth, a cage, a tower, or any similar confined structure or area of your choice. The special component for this version of the spell is a miniature representation of the prison made from jade. Minimus Containment: The target shrinks to a height of 1 inch and is imprisoned inside a gemstone or similar object. Light can pass through the gemstone normally (allowing the target to see out and other creatures to see in), but nothing else can pass through, even by means of teleportation or planar travel. The gemstone can't be cut or broken while the spell remains in effect. The caster of the spell can use an action and allow the creature(s) inside the gemstone to communicate telepathically with any creature within 5 feet. The special component for this version of the spell is a transparent gemstone, such as a corundum, diamond, or ruby. Slumber: The target becomes catatonic and cannot be woken. Creatures not normally affected by sleep are still affected by this. The special component for this version of the spell is a rare combination of herbs. Ending the Spell: During the casting of the spell, in any of its versions, you can specify a condition that will cause the spell to end and release the targets. The condition can be as specific or as elaborate as you choose, but the DM must agree that the condition is has a likelihood of coming to pass. The conditions can be based on a creature's name, identity, or deity but otherwise must be based on observable actions or qualities and not based on intangibles such as level, class, or hit points. This spell cannot end prematurely by any means other than the specified condition. You can use a particular special component to imprison multiple creatures at a time, as long as they have less hit dice than the creature imprisoned that has the most hit dice. If you cast the spell again using the same component, the new target joins the previous one in its imprisonment. Each component can have up to three creatures imprisoned by it at a time. Mass Heal (Epic) 10th-level Evocation Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: 300 feet 300 feet Components: V, S V, S Duration: Instantaneous A flood of healing energy flows from you into creatures around you. You restore up to 1000 hit points, divided as you choose among any number of creatures that you are aware of within range. Creatures healed by this spell act as if they had lesser restoration cast upon them. You can choose different lesser restoration effects for each creature. This spell heals undead and constructs. Meteor Swarm (Epic) 10th-level Evocation Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: sight sight Components: V, S V, S Duration: Instantaneous Blazing orbs of fire plummet to the ground at ten different points you can see. Each creature in a 40-foot-radius sphere centered on each point you choose must make a Dexterity saving throw. The sphere spreads around corners. A creature takes 10d6 fire damage and 10d6 bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A creature in the area of more than one fiery burst is affected only once. The spell damages objects in the area, ignites flammable objects that aren't being worn or carried, and deals double damage to structures. Power Word Heal (Epic) 10th-level Evocation Casting Time: 1 action or 1 bonus action 1 action or 1 bonus action Range: 60 feet 60 feet Components: S S Duration: Instantaneous A wave of healing energy washes over the creature you choose. The target regains all its hit points and hit dice. If the creature is charmed, frightened, paralyzed, stunned, incapacitated, petrified, poisoned, prone, or any combination of the above, the conditions end for that creature. The creature loses all levels of exhaustion, if it has any. Power Word Kill (Epic) 10th-level Enchantment Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: 120 feet 120 feet Components: V V Duration: Instantaneous You utter a word of power that can compel one creature you can see within range to die instantly. If the creature you choose has 300 hit points or fewer, it dies. Otherwise this spell has no effect. Prismatic Wall (Epic) 10th-level Evocation Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: 60 feet 60 feet Components: V, S V, S Duration: 1 hour A shimmering, multicolored plane of light forms an opaque wall—up to 100 feet long, 50 feet high, and 1 inch thick—centered on a point you can see within range. Alternatively, you can shape the wall into a sphere up to 50 feet in diameter centered on a point you choose within range. The wall remains in place for the duration. If you position the wall so that it passes through a space occupied by a creature, the creature is forced to a side of the wall of your choosing. The wall sheds bright light out to a range of 100 feet and dim light for an additional 100 feet. You and creatures you designate at the time you cast the spell can pass through and remain near the wall without harm. If another creature that can see the wall moves to within 20 feet of it or starts its turn there, the creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or become blinded for 1 minute. The wall consists of eight layers, each with a different color. When a creature attempts to reach into or pass through the wall, it does so one layer at a time through all the wall's layers. As it passes or reaches through each layer, the creature must make a Dexterity saving throw or be affected by that layer's properties as described below. The wall can be destroyed, also one layer at a time, in order from red to violet to white, by means specific to each layer. Once a layer is destroyed, it remains so for the duration of the spell. An antimagic field has no effect on it. 1. Red. The creature takes 10d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The layer can be destroyed by dealing at least 60 cold damage to it. 2. Orange. The creature takes 10d6 acid damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The layer is destroyed by a strong wind (at least 25 miles per hour). 3. Yellow. The creature takes 10d6 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. This layer can be destroyed by dealing at least 60 force damage to it. 4. Green. The creature takes 10d6 poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A passwall spell, or another spell of equal or greater level that can open a portal on a solid surface, destroys this layer. 5. Blue. The creature takes 10d6 cold damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. This layer can be destroyed by dealing at least 60 fire damage to it. 6. Indigo. On a failed save, the creature is paralyzed. It must then make a Constitution saving throw at the end of each of its turns. If it successfully saves two times, the spell ends. If it fails its save, it permanently turns to stone and is subjected to the petrified condition. This layer is destroyed by bright light shed by a daylight spell or a similar spell of equal or higher level. 7. Violet. On a failed save, the creature is blinded, deafened, and knocked prone. It must then make a Wisdom saving throw at the start of your next turn. A successful save ends the blindness. If it fails that save, the creature is transported to another plane of the DM's choosing and is no longer blinded or deafened. (Typically, a creature that is on a plane that isn't its home plane is banished home, while other creatures are usually cast into the Astral or Ethereal planes.) This layer is destroyed by a dispel magic spell or a similar spell of equal or higher level that can end spells and magical effects. 8. White. The creature takes 10d6 force damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. While this layer is in place, nothing can pass through the wall, including spells, attacks, and teleportation, including intra-planar travel. This layer has an AC of 20 and 200 hit points. It is immune to force, necrotic, poison, and psychic damage. It automatically fails Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws. It uses the caster's mental stats for Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws, but is classified as an object when determining if it is a valid target for spells and features. It is destroyed when it's hit points reach 0. Shapechange (Epic) 10th-level Transmutation (ritual) Casting Time: 1 bonus action 1 bonus action Range: Self Self Components: V, S, M (a jade circlet worth at least 5,000 gp, which you must place on your head before you cast the spell) V, S, M (a jade circlet worth at least 5,000 gp, which you must place on your head before you cast the spell) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour You assume the form of a different creature for the duration. The new form can be of any creature with a challenge rating equal to 24 or lower. You must have seen the creature at least once. You transform into an average example of that creature, one without any class levels or the Spellcasting trait. You gain any Innate Spellcasting trait of the creature, however. Your game statistics are replaced by the statistics of the chosen creature, though you can retain your alignment and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores, or any combination thereof. You also retain all of your skill and saving throw proficiencies, in addition to gaining those of the creature. If the creature has the same proficiency as you and the bonus listed in its statistics is higher than yours, use the creature's bonus in place of yours. You can't use any lair actions of the new form. You assume the hit points and Hit Dice of the new form. When you revert to your normal form, you return to the number of hit points you had before you transformed. If you revert as a result of dropping to 0 hit points, any excess damage carries over to your normal form. As long as the excess damage doesn't reduce your normal form to 0 hit points, you aren't knocked unconscious. You retain the benefit of any features from your class, race, or other source and can use them, provided that your new form is physically capable of doing so. You can't use any special senses you have (for example, darkvision) unless your new form also has that sense. You can only speak if the creature can normally speak. When you transform, you choose whether your equipment falls to the ground, merges into the new form, or is worn by it. Worn equipment functions as normal. The DM determines whether it is practical for the new form to wear a piece of equipment, based on the creature's shape and size. Your equipment doesn't change shape or size to match the new form, and any equipment that the new form can't wear must either fall to the ground or merge into your new form. Equipment that merges has no effect in that state. During this spell's duration, you can use your bonus action to assume a different form following the same restrictions and rules for the original form, with one exception: if your new form has more hit points than your current one, your hit points remain at their current value. Storm of Vengeance (Epic) 10th-level Conjuration Casting Time: 1 action 1 action Range: Sight Sight Components: V, S V, S Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute A churning storm cloud forms, centered on a point you can see and spreading to a radius of 500 feet. Lightning flashes in the area, thunder booms, and strong winds roar. Each creature under the cloud (no more than 10,000 feet beneath the cloud) when it appears must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 5d6 thunder damage and becomes deafened for 5 minutes. Each round you maintain concentration on this spell, the storm produces additional effects on your turn. Round 2: Acidic rain falls from the cloud. Each creature and object under the cloud takes 5d6 acid damage. Metal structures take double damage as they deteriorate. Round 3: You call ten bolts of lightning from the cloud to strike ten creatures or objects of your choice beneath the cloud. A given creature or object can't be struck by more than one bolt. A struck creature must make a Dexterity saving throw. The creature takes 10d6 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Round 4: Hailstones rain down from the cloud. Each creature under the cloud takes 5d6 bludgeoning damage. Structures take double damage. Round 5-10: Gusts and freezing rain assail the area under the cloud. The area becomes difficult terrain and is heavily obscured. Each creature there takes 5d6 cold damage. Ranged weapon attacks in the area are impossible. Creatures maintaining concentration on spells must make a concentration check equal to your spell save DC at the end of each of their turns. Finally, gusts of strong wind (ranging from 20 to 50 miles per hour) automatically disperse fog, mists, and similar phenomena in the area, whether mundane or magical. Structures take 5d6 bludgeoning damage each turn. Time Stop (Epic) 10th-level Evocation Casting Time: 1 bonus-action 1 bonus-action Range: Self Self Components: V V Duration: Instantaneous You briefly stop the flow of time for everyone but yourself. No time passes for other creatures, while you take 1d8 + 1 turns in a row, during which you can use actions and move as normal. This spell ends if one of the actions you use during this period, or any effects that you create during this period, affect a creature other than you or an object being worn or carried by someone other than you. True Polymorph (Epic) 10th
modernity and the pulsing heart of the Land of the Rising Sun. Finding a place to call home is a constant challenge in the most populous city on Earth. In the Tokyo Towers content pack, you’ll build residential towers full of apartments that cater to those seeking an urban oasis of calm amid the carefully choreographed chaos of Japan’s capital. Your towers will sprout balconies and terraces to provide a serene views of the city’s skyline far above the traffic filled streets.With new apartments, you’ll have many new choices as you seek to master the complicated, crowded (and expensive) world of Tokyo’s vibrant residential market. Ranging from smartly designed micro apartments to palatial penthouses, you’ll be able to design a quintessentially Tokyo residential block complete with matching exteriors and cityscapes inspired by Japan’s unique urban landscape.Tokyo has always been a forward-looking metropolis on the cutting edge of art and design. From fountains and gardens to prints and statues, the content pack also features an array of new artwork to improve your building’s prestige and complete your truly Tokyo tower.The police watchdog has described the comments of a South Yorkshire police chief constable about the Hillsborough disaster as "at best ill-judged and at worst offensive and upsetting". Chief constable David Crompton sent an email to his senior staff in preparation for South Yorkshire Police's response to the publication of the Hillsborough Independent Panel's report last year. Crompton's email implied the Hillsborough Campaign for Justice group were not telling the truth about the 1989 disaster. The email read: "One thing is certain - the Hillsborough Campaign for Justice will be doing their version... in fact their version of certain events has become 'the truth' even though it isn't!! "I just have the feeling that the media'machine' favours the families and not us, so we need to be a bit more innovative in our response to have a fighting chance otherwise we will just be roadkill." Last month, the police and crime commissioner of South Yorkshire, Shaun Wright, wrote to the IPCC when he was made aware of the emails and associated documents. But IPCC commissioner Nicholas Long said the majority of the emails and documents he considered "raises no issues". However, he said one email from the chief constable "caused me concern". He said: "It referred to preparing what 'amounts to the case for the defence' and stated that the 'Hillsborough Campaign for Justice's... version of certain events had become the truth even though it isn't'. "I consider that this is at best ill-judged, and at worst offensive and upsetting. I have written to Chief Constable Crompton to express these views. Families and individuals affected by the Hillsborough tragedy, along with the wider public, will rightly be concerned over the apparent attitude displayed by this communication within the highest ranks of the force which is currently under investigation in relation to the actions of its officers and staff around the disaster." Mr Long added that while "these emails have serious implications for public confidence" they do not amount to recordable conduct and the IPCC does not require a formal referral. In response Mr Crompton said: "It was never intended to cause any offence and I apologise if it has done so. Nor was it intended to challenge the integrity and views of those who lost loves ones in the Hillsborough disaster." The report's publication provoked widespread condemnation of the police's response to the disaster at Sheffield Wednesday's ground in April 1989 which left 96 Liverpool fans dead. It also revealed that police statements had been altered so the authorities would be portrayed in a better light. The police and crime commissioner for South Yorkshire police, Shaun Wright said he was disappointed with the language and had raised his concerns with Crompton. He said: "I accept the chief constable's regret for his language in this one particular email and his apology." Information from the Press Association was used in this report.This is the first touchdown the Ravens scored Sunday against the Raiders, a 26-yard pass from Joe Flacco to Crockett Gillmore. As you can see, there's some trickeration: Gillmore is lined up in the spot where the left tackle is normally lined up, and in the slot, there's a big ol' offensive lineman, sprinting backwards. Does that play look familiar? It should. As Ben Volin of the Boston Globe pointed out on Twitter, it's the exact same play the Patriots ran against the Ravens last year in the playoffs -- a play Ravens coach John Harbaugh famously complained heavily about: The play design is identical. And it had the same result: The Ravens didn't know they had to guard Michael Hoomanawanui, the "left tackle" who caught the pass in the playoffs, and the Raiders didn't know they had to guard Gillmore on Sunday. However, the Ravens didn't do the actual thing that Harbaugh was upset about. The thing he complained about was the Patriots' personnel: The Pats sent four offensive linemen out on the field, along with six players who usually would be considered eligible receivers. However, you're only allowed five players as eligible receivers. So Shane Vereen -- the circled player in the GIF above -- had to declare himself as ineligible, then line up in an ineligible spot. Vereen looked like an eligible receiver: He's a tiny little guy, wearing a running back's number and standing in the slot. But he's "covered" -- he's on the line of scrimmage, as is Rob Gronkowski below him -- and therefore ineligible. The Ravens' only clues that he was ineligible were that subtle difference and the refs' announcement. They had to quickly realize that and figure out they needed to guard Hoomanawanui. Harbaugh was upset his team wasn't given time to interpret all that information, although the rulebook doesn't say that the refs need to allow that time. What the Patriots were doing was perfectly legal... at the time. This offseason, the NFL passed a rule making what the Pats did illegal, saying that otherwise eligible receivers declaring as ineligible had to line up inside the tackles. So Vereen chilling out there, pretending to be eligible when he wasn't, wouldn't fly anymore. The Ravens got very, very excited about the passing of that rule. In the play they ran Sunday, the Ravens didn't send out funky personnel. They sent out five linemen and five eligible receivers. Nobody had to declare they were eligible or ineligible, so this didn't break the NFL's new rule. They just had to line up right and hope the Raiders didn't notice. They put Gillmore where the left tackle is and an offensive lineman in the slot. But Gillmore doesn't have a player on the line of scrimmage between him and the sideline, so he's eligible. The offensive lineman does, so he's ineligible. You almost have a better chance of surprising an opponent this way -- the refs don't need to pre-announce to the defense something is up. The Vereen trickery certainly caused a ton of confusion, but at least it made the defense aware that they needed to look out for something. Here, the defense had to figure out something was up all on their own. The Raiders kinda did -- they made no attempt to cover the ineligible lineman in the slot -- but didn't figure out they needed to guard Gillmore. Coaches take plays from each other all the time. After all, Bill Belichick got the play design from his friend Nick Saban, who ran it last year in Alabama's overtime win over LSU. (The only difference is Alabama instructed its big ol' offensive lineman in the slot to jump up and down and create a distraction, which neither NFL team did.) But it's pretty funny that Harbaugh took the play he got so upset about, a play that the NFL drafted a rule in direct response to. Perhaps he was trying to show he could pull off this play without the eligible receiver confusion. Perhaps he secretly realizes that Belichick's gambit was damn good coaching. * * * SB Nation video archives: One of the best NFL trick plays you'll ever see (2014)Armin_van_Buuren_presents_-_A_State_of_Trance_Episode_592_(Top_20_of_2012) added : 2012-12-20 date : 2012-12-20 genre : Trance dj : Armin van Buuren title : A State of Trance Episode 592 - 20-12-2012 radiostation : di.fm remarks : top 20 of 2012 files : 1 file 120 minutes 219.86MB Tracklisting 01. Gareth Emery feat. Christina Novelli - Concrete Angel [Garuda] 02. Armin van Buuren feat. Ana Criado - I'll Listen [Armind] 03. Omnia & IRA - The Fusion [Coldharbour] 04. Gaia - J'ai Envie De Toi [Armind] 05. Andrew Rayel feat. Jano - How Do I Know (Club Mix) [Armind] 06. Armin van Buuren feat. Ana Criado - Suddenly Summer [Armind] 07. Andrew Rayel - Aeon Of Revenge [A State Of Trance] 08. Aly & Fila with Roger Shah feat. Adrina Thorpe - Perfect Love [Magic Island] 09. W&W - Invasion [A State Of Trance] 10. Andrew Rayel - 550 Senta [A State Of Trance] 11. Paul van Dyk feat. Plum - I Don't Deserve You (Giuseppe Ottaviani Remix) [Vandit] 12. Ferry Corsten & Armin van Buuren - Brute (Armin's Illegal Drum Edit) [Flashover] 13. Solarstone feat. Claire Stagg - The Spell (Pure Mix) [Black Hole] 14. Jorn van Deynhoven - Headliner [A State Of Trance] 15. Armin van Buuren - We Are Here To Make Some Noise [Armind] 16. W&W - Moscow [Captivating] 17. Tenishia - Where Do We Begin (Andrew Rayel Remix) [S107] 18. Aligator feat. Daniel Kandi - The Perfect Match (Club Mix) [Disco:Wax] 19. Simon O'Shine - Your Distant World [Trance All-Star] 20. Markus Schulz feat. Ana Diaz - Nothing Without Me [Coldharbour] Download ::: server #1 [!] file not available. reason: [!] :: This file is temporary not available. Please check back later Comments ( 12 ) file not available. reason: © Livesets and shownames are the property of their respective owners.For both better and worse, bitcoin has also been highly sensitive along the way to demand in emerging economies, especially China. The ban there pushed the cryptocurrency to lows under $3,000 in September, but now even the potential for renewed Chinese participation is enough to push bitcoin to a new record as well. In many ways, Thursday’s gains neatly encapsulated the bitcoin market in general. As bitcoin jumped more than 20 percent this month alone and quintupled so far in 2017, it has attracted more and more speculators placing bets based on hunches and rumors. The buying was driven in part by rising hopes that China will soon reverse a recently imposed ban on crypto trading. In the meantime, buying from South Korea, Japan, and other countries has helped bolster demand and push the market to new highs, according to the widely followed site CoinDesk. The leading cryptocurrency denomination leapt more than 9 percent Thursday and easily crossed the $5,000 threshold for the first time, trading near $5,300 by mid-afternoon in New York. Just in case you had any doubt, Thursday’s trading underscored that bitcoin needs China more than the other way about. Read more Just in case you had any doubt, Thursday’s trading underscored that bitcoin needs China more than the other way about. The leading cryptocurrency denomination leapt more than 9 percent Thursday and easily crossed the $5,000 threshold for the first time, trading near $5,300 by mid-afternoon in New York. The buying was driven in part by rising hopes that China will soon reverse a recently imposed ban on crypto trading. In the meantime, buying from South Korea, Japan, and other countries has helped bolster demand and push the market to new highs, according to the widely followed site CoinDesk. In many ways, Thursday’s gains neatly encapsulated the bitcoin market in general. As bitcoin jumped more than 20 percent this month alone and quintupled so far in 2017, it has attracted more and more speculators placing bets based on hunches and rumors. For both better and worse, bitcoin has also been highly sensitive along the way to demand in emerging economies, especially China. The ban there pushed the cryptocurrency to lows under $3,000 in September, but now even the potential for renewed Chinese participation is enough to push bitcoin to a new record as well. Several other factors have also worked in bitcoin’s favor the last few weeks. Among them: Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for improved regulation of bitcoin trading but stopped short of calling for an outright ban in his country along the lines of China. Goldman Sachs is reportedly planning to launch a bitcoin trading desk soon, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Oct. 2. Traditional banks have mostly been wary of bitcoin until now, but it’s definitely caught their attention as a potential profit center. In remarks last month, J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called bitcoin a “fraud” and likened it to an infamous seventeenth-century financial bubble that drove tulip bulb prices up in Europe. On an earnings call of his own yesterday, Dimon was asked again about bitcoin. He replied: “I’m not going to talk about bitcoin anymore.”The court has decided to let Uber depose Alphabet CEO Larry Page as part of the lawsuit Google’s parent company brought against the ride-hail firm. “As set forth in Uber’s letter brief, Larry Page has first-hand non-repetitive knowledge of relevant facts,” a court filing reads. “Further, less intrusive means, such as interrogatories, are not sufficient.” The ride-hail company plans to ask Page about why Alphabet chose not to partner with Uber on self-driving, why Alphabet chose to compete with Uber instead and why Page did not inform Uber CEO Travis Kalanick that he discovered a former executive, Anthony Levandowski, allegedly downloaded proprietary files before leaving Alphabet. This is all in an attempt to discern Alphabet’s motivation in suing the ride-hail company. Uber has long held the position that Alphabet, which is also an investor, was simply trying to slow a competitor with this lawsuit — a position that the company believes has been bolstered now that Alphabet has decided not to pursue some of it patent claims. Alphabet is suing Uber for allegedly misappropriating trade secrets and patent infringement, claiming that Levandowski stole 14,000 files before leaving to create a startup the ride-hail company later acquired. Uber also sought to depose Alphabet chief legal officer and former board member at the ride-hail company David Drummond. The court has determined that Uber can depose Drummond unless Alphabet explicitly agrees not to call him as a witness. This is developing...Fifteen people, including children, were shot in a Miami nightclub early Sunday morning. Now police are on the hunt for those responsible. NBC 6's Marissa Bagg and Jamie Guirola report. (Published Monday, Sept. 29, 2014) Fifteen people, including children, were shot in a Miami nightclub early Sunday morning. Now police are on the hunt for those responsible. Police responded to a call about shots fired at The Spot club, located at NW 7th Ave and NW 64th Street, around 1 a.m. Rescuers found people wounded by gunshots both inside and outside the club. "People were screaming, people were saying they were shot," Miami Fire Rescue Captain Ignatius Carroll told the Associated Press. One clubgoer who did not want to be identified said the scene was chaotic as gunfire erupted. "I just fell to the ground and balled up," the witness said. "There were so many bullets, and shots from different guns." Miami Police spokeswoman Frederica Burden said fifteen people, between the ages of 11 and 25, were shot. A 15-year-old is listed in critical but stable condition after being shot multiple times. Seven people were rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Some have since been released. At least three of those injured were transferred to a pediatric unit at JMH. "What was very surprising to the responders was that these were kids that were out at 1 o'clock in the morning in a club, and this type of violence took place where a bunch of kids were gathering," Carroll said. "It's very disturbing to see that." Investigators said a large party was inside the club when shots rang out. Police are trying to determine how many shooters there were and the motive behind the shooting. They said it is not clear why children and teenagers were in the club. "It may have been a private party but the club owner is cooperating so they could shed more light on that," Burden said. Police hope surveillance video both inside and outside the club will shed some light on the shooting. Anyone with information is urged to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS (8477). Copyright Associated Press / NBC 6 South Floridawah Władze Torunia chcą przekazać działkę parafii p.w. Świętego Andrzeja Apostoła. Chodzi o niemal 10 tys. metrów kwadratowych. Rynkowa cena? Około 1,6 mln złotych. Ale dla Kościoła przewidziano gigantyczną bonifikatę. Pomysł wzbudził protesty mieszkańców i parlamentarzystów z regionu. Na terenie, który ma zostać przekazany parafii, powstanie kościół oraz budynki parafialne. W takiej sytuacji, zgodnie z ustawą o gospodarce nieruchomościami, miasto może przekazać teren bez przetargu w użytkowanie wieczyste. Możliwa jest też 99-procentowa bonifikatę. Może na nią liczyć parafia p.w. Świętego Andrzeja Apostoła. Dzięki temu za działkę zapłaci 16 tys. zł, ale rozłożonych na 99 lat, przy czym pierwsza opłata ma wynieść... 4 tys. zł., a kolejne niecałe 50 zł. Pomysł przekazania gruntu za bezcen wzbudził protesty mieszkańców, którzy w internecie zbierają podpisy pod petycją, sprzeciwiającą się transakcji. Działania toruńskiego magistratu wzbudziły też sprzeciw posłanki Nowoczesnej Joanny Scheuring-Wielgus, która złożyła w poniedziałek 23 stycznia wniosek o dostęp do informacji publicznej z zapytaniem o to, ile gruntów i nieruchomości przekazano Kościołowi, w trybie bezprzetargowym, w czasie trwania kadencji prezydenta Michała Zaleskiego. - Złożyłam ten wniosek, ponieważ nie pierwszy raz miasto daje Kościołowi bez przetargu, na preferencyjnych warunkach, nie tylko grunty, lecz także nieruchomości – wyjaśnia „Gazecie Pomorskiej” Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus. - Chcieliśmy np. otrzymać na preferencyjnych warunkach kamienicę przy ul. Podmurnej w Toruniu dla organizacji pozarządowej. Taką możliwość dostał jednak Kościół. Zobacz też: Ile kosztowała budowa Świątyni Opatrzności Bożej w Warszawie Swój sprzeciw wobec przekazania gruntu bez przetargu wyraziła także partia Razem. Toruńscy członkowie tej partii rozpoczęli w Internecie zbiórkę głosów pod petycją „Dość prezentów od miasta dla Kościoła”. „Uważamy, że jest to marnotrawienie pieniędzy podatniczek i podatników, a te fundusze należałoby przeznaczyć na potrzeby miasta. Urzędnicy państwowi powinni dbać o obywatelki i obywateli, a nie dotować bogatą instytucję religijną. Gdyby uchwała weszła w życie, miasto straciłoby na tym ponad 1,5 miliona złotych. Uważamy, że taka rozrzutność przy dysponowaniu pieniędzmi podatników byłaby karygodna” - piszą członkowie Razem. „Dość prezentów od miasta dla Kościoła” - dodają. Zgodnie z ustawą o gospodarce nieruchomościami, miasto może przekazać teren na cele sakralne w trybie bezprzetargowym w użytkowanie wieczyste uwzględniając 99-procentową bonifikatę. Czytaj też: „Myślę, że gdyby Jezus dzisiaj przyszedł na ziemię i głosił Ewangelię, to ojciec Rydzyk nawoływałby z anteny do jej bojkotu”It's not hard to understand the Amazon Echo. Today Amazon announced the the device, a 360-degree speaker that plays music and podcasts at the command of your voice. The Echo also functions as an all-in-one A.I. servant, answering banal questions about pounds to ounces or how to spell alligator. You know, like Siri. In fact, "Siri but crappier" seems to be the hot take floating around the tech sphere, a new niche pool I've found myself wading through, where men tell you why shit sucks until it's popular, and then they tell you why it's the future even though it's a thing of the past. "Siri but crappier" seems to be the hot take floating around the tech sphere Echo isn't that. For normal people, tech objects are their bluntest component. Millions of people use the iPhone mostly as a phone, thousands of others use Apple TV as a Netflix box. The Echo is a speaker and it will be used by me and plenty others as just that. That's what has me on board. The Siri-like feature is the added touch, something I might get in the habit of using the way I got in the habit of using Microsoft Kinect's more expansive voice commands after months of simply using it to turn my TV on and off. Unlike my iPhone, which I never control with voice commands, and regularly forget features Siri, the Echo has at least some small shot at becoming the robot I speak to in my day-to-day life. Because we will speak to a robot if the Great Tech Gods have their way. It's just a matter of whose robot. The Echo is Phase 1 of Amazon's effort. The company already promises an app will allow Echo to follow you wherever you go, albeit in a limited form. But with Amazon's rapidly increasing obsession with hardware, assume Echo will be responding from televisions and shouting from drones should it find success in these early days. Right now though, the Echo's a speaker that plays music in your bedroom, living room, or kitchen, priced comparably to other speakers its size and style — the kind that sell like hotcakes on Amazon.com. The Echo's a speaker that plays music in your home Amazon took a product that's becoming increasingly common in our lives and crammed some future tech inside, in the off chance it can Trojan horse its way into every room in our homes. Apple did the same thing with your phone. Some people called that crazy, too. If there's anything to question here — if there's anything to not fully understand — it's what the hell we're sacrificing allowing giant corporations that store our personal data and control the flow of everything we purchase to know what we're saying when we're offline, an idea that itself is false. We aren't offline with an Echo in the home. Plugged into the internet, the next wave of "helper tech" is always listening, prepared to tell us who directed Street Fighter: The Movie. But come on, we've already cashed the check of our personal privacy. Between Kinect, smartphones, Facebook, Twitter, and every other window into our lives, we've become accustomed with the screens we look into looking back at us. The only difference now is the machine isn't looking, it's listening.Book News: Novel Mocking Literary Prizes Wins Literary Prize : The Two-Way Also: Jennifer Weiner on blurb inflation; the best books coming out this week. The Two-Way Breaking News From NPR Book News: Novel Mocking Literary Prizes Wins Literary Prize Books Book News: Novel Mocking Literary Prizes Wins Literary Prize The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly. Edward St. Aubyn's new novel Lost For Words (reviewed below), an acid satire of literary prizes, has won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. St. Aubyn's brutal portrait of the book-award scene features, among other literary horrors, a French theorist who, in bed with a woman, muses on the "late capitalist utopia of obligatory permissiveness," a journalist who is obsessed with literature's "relevance" and likes to get into Twitter fights, and a glum literary novelist writing careful books "of impeccable anguish." St. Aubyn was quoted in a press release as saying: "The only thing I was sure of when I was writing this satire on literary prizes was that it wouldn't win any prizes. I was wrong. I had overlooked the one prize with a sense of humour." For The New York Times, novelist Jennifer Weiner writes about blurb inflation, observing that "a trip to the New Releases section of a bookstore offers more 'gripping' than a glue factory, enough 'absorbing' for the feminine-protection aisle, and enough 'transcendence' for a hundred ashrams." Some Notable Books Coming Out This Week: Edward St. Aubyn's brutal and lovely Patrick Melrose novels feature a family life that rivals the splendor and the depravity of the reigns of certain Roman emperors: Raised in extravagant wealth, Patrick was raped by his tyrannical father and neglected by his mother, and spends the rest of his life dealing with the aftereffects. St. Aubyn's book Lost for Words is (at least for him) light: funny, but with a gleaming edge of malice. In this parody of the hype surrounding literary prizes, a publisher accidentally submits an Indian cookbook to the prize instead of a novel. Instead of realizing the mistake, the judges hail it as a bold piece of metafiction and the bewildered cookbook author is forced to endure, among other things, lengthy conversations with a French poststructuralist about "the text-as-textile." This week sees the release of not one, but three books by British author Geoff Dyer: two early novels released in the U.S. for the first time, and Another Great Day at Sea: Life Aboard the USS George H.W. Bush, about two weeks spent aboard an American aircraft carrier. One of the early novels — The Search — is a quiet mystery, about a professional tracker who hunts for the husband of a beautiful woman he meets at a party. The other — The Colour of Memory — is about a group of poor young people drinking and wandering in grim South London of the 1980s. Dyer is a neat, careful writer and this is mostly an asset, except when the artfully incomplete pictures he provides are meager rather than suggestive. The best of the three is probably the new one, which combines skepticism with military order (and a wry horror of acronyms) with real awe at a great and terrible war machine. The Two-Way Breaking News From NPR NPR thanks our sponsors Become an NPR sponsorDavid Bowie during a press conference at the 36th Cannes Film Festival in 1983. Photo by RALPH GATTI/AFP/Getty Images Two years ago, David Bowie cut short his supposed retirement and released The Next Day, his first album in 10 years and a wondrous return to the angular, lock-groove rock that characterized his ’70s output. The Starman’s kept a low profile since then, but the Times of London reports that his 25th record, Blackstar, is due in January. That’s good news in itself, but even more compelling is just how out-there Blackstar seems, even for Bowie. A seven-song LP recorded with local jazz musicians in New York’s Magic Shop studio, the Times describes it as “an album of long, jazzy jams mixed with the kind of driving beat pioneered by Seventies German bands Can and Kraftwerk.” Later in the story, a “Bowie insider” calls it “completely bonkers.” There is also a mention of “Gregorian chants.” There’s no confirmation from Bowie’s camp, but it sounds like the artist is cooking up quite the treat, and given Kraftwerk’s influence on Bowie’s famed Berlin trilogy it’s hard to see Blackstar disappointing. The album will be released on Jan. 8, Bowie’s 69th birthday; until then, you can get a taste of its title track by watching the opening credits of The Last Panthers:The Danbury Police Department has quietly become the latest viral video star with a lighthearted short film designed to recruit officers. Produced by the Danbury-based production company RMediA, the video opens with Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton and Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour remarking on their city’s safety yet bemoaning the need for additional officers. While viewing the department’s ongoing recruitment effort – a smiling officer holding a “Help Wanted” sign on the street in front of Ridenhour’s office – the men decide that a recruitment video would be a more effective tool. Boughton also throws in a self-deprecatory reference to his Trumpesque passion for Tweeting to further help spread the word. From there, the video is hosted by Lt. Vincent Daniello, who played the cop with the “Help Wanted” sign. While explaining how the recruitment process works, Daniello doubles as the least effective rookie and gets into predicaments from locking his keys in his patrol vehicle, failing to hit his target in shooting practice, getting imprisoned in a holding cell by his colleagues and getting caught lounging in Ridenhour’s office with his feet on the desk. The 4-minute video was quietly posted on the department’s YouTube on May 30, and has since reached a combined viewership between YouTube and the department’s Facebook page of more than 108,000 views – not bad for an unpublicized video for a police force serving a city of less than 80,000. The department will be accepting applications for new officers through July 31.A spokesperson for presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Wednesday shocked conservatives by suggesting that a woman whose husband was laid off from a Bain Capital-owned plant would have lived if she had been covered by a health care law similar to President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. During an interview on Fox News, host Bill Hemmer asked Romney campaign spokesperson Andrea Saul to respond to an ad released by the pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action that linked former factory worker Joe Sopic’s job loss to his wife’s eventual death from cancer. “When Mitt Romney and Bain closed the plant I lost my health care, and my family lost their health care,” Sopic says in the ad. “And a short time after that my wife became ill.” “I do not think Mitt Romney realizes what he’s done to anyone,” he adds. On Wednesday, Saul didn’t dispute the facts, but called the attack “disgusting.” “Obviously, it’s unfortunate when anyone loses their job,” she explained. “This particular case was a plant that was closed years after Gov. Romney left the company. Saul continued: “And to that point, you know, if people had been in Massachusetts under Gov. Romney’s health care plan, they would have had health care.” Romney has spent much of the election season running away from his record of creating an individual health care insurance mandate in Massachusetts so it wasn’t surprising to see conservatives calling Saul’s remarks a misstep. “OMG,” Redstate’s Erik Erickson tweeted. “This might just be the moment Mitt Romney lost the election. Wow.” “Not sure if the Romney camp realizes what a huge opening they’ve just created for Ds on Obamacare,” the Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein agreed. Watch this video from Fox News’ America’s Newroom, broadcast Aug. 8, 2012. (h/t: Politico, Talking Points Memo)Arlington High goalie Mike Schiller and his father, Craig, have plenty to smile about beyond the Spy Ponders’ big victory over St. John’s Prep last week. The hockey goalie voice inside Mike Schiller told him to be prepared, to find out more, brace for the shot unexpected. It was a holiday weekend, Thanksgiving 2012, and the caller from the Lahey Clinic insisted that his dad return there immediately, with a bag packed, just in case. The only thing father and son knew in the moment was that Craig Schiller’s white blood count was “off the charts.’’ Something, something potentially far more troubling, was going on other than the strep throat the medical staff in Burlington ruled out when Schiller visited an hour or two earlier in the day. “So, I Googled it,’’ recalled Mike Schiller, unaware then that the save of his life, and his father’s life, was coursing through his veins. “And it kept coming up that either my dad had a bad infection, or he had leukemia. But somehow, in the back of my head, I just knew... ’’ Advertisement Within a few hours of his return to the hospital that day, Nov. 24, 2012, Craig Schiller, then age 56, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and soon learned his hope of survival would rest in a stem cell transplant. Some 90 days later, doctors finally discovered his best match, his near-genetic twin, was son Mike, the 17-year-old kid wearing blocker and glove on the Arlington High School hockey team. Mark Lorenz for the Boston Globe Craig Schiller reacts to a save made by his son, Mike, during Arlington’s win over St. John’s Prep. Get Sports Headlines in your inbox: The most recent sports headlines delivered to your inbox every morning. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here Mike Schiller, student-athlete, goalie and golfer, and sometimes Googling medical sleuth, turned out to have exactly the right stuff. On April 4 of last year, he skipped a day of classes, checked into Mass. General to have some four million stem cells harvested from his blood, and promptly made his way home to Arlington as soon as doctors transfused his father with all those healthy, life-saving, high schooler’s cells. Saturday night, Mike Schiller was back in goal for the Spy Ponders, standing guard in a 6-3 win over St. John’s of Shrewsbury in the quarterfinals of the Division 1 North tournament. Craig Schiller was there, too, in the stands at the Chelmsford Forum, feeling strong, healthy, relieved, and renewed. Soon to turn 58, the longtime mechanical engineer will start a new full-time job Monday, as proud of his son as he always has been, yet somehow better able to express that to him in recent months. “At one point, I sent him a text,’’ recalled the elder Schiller, thinking back to when Mike required a shot a day for nearly a week to gin up his own stem cell count ahead of the procedure. “I wrote, ‘You know, we don’t get a lot of time to talk seriously... but just know that I love you and that I’m proud of you.’ ’’ Craig Schiller hit “send.” And he waited. He waited a little longer. Advertisement No return text. OMG. “Nothing,’’ he said. “I wondered if he didn’t know how to react, or... ’’ Turned out, Mike was driving. He needed to shut off the car. “Finally, he wrote back, ‘17 years ago you gave me life,’ ’’ recited Craig Schiller as he sat with a Globe reporter last week, ‘ “I think it’s only fair that I return the favor.’ That’s my son... that’s a while ago now, and I still tear up.’’ Maturity beyond his years Mike Schiller probably is finished with competitive hockey upon the conclusion of Arlington High’s season. He figures he’ll major in computer science and already has been accepted at UMass in Lowell and Amherst. He’s waiting to find out if Northeastern will make his choice more difficult. Advertisement Prior to Saturday night’s game, Schiller was in a job share with fellow goalie Ryan Cote, and Wednesday night turned in a spectacular performance against heavily favored St. John’s Prep to preserve a 1-0 victory. The Prep pelted Schiller in the third period, heaving up more than 20 shots in an offensive feeding frenzy. But the 6-foot-3-inch, 200-pound netminder handled each one flawlessly, his size and unflappable demeanor at times reminiscent of another towering goalie who also once wore No. 29, the legendary Ken Dryden, ex- of Cornell and a Canadian-based NHL squad of moderate success. Last season, amid his father’s illness, Schiller played but one period for Arlington. For the most part, that was because he was slotted behind Luke Tremblay and John Lepore, both of whom graduated, Tremblay to Hebron Academy and Lepore to military service. “If they’re shooting at John now,’’ mused Arlington coach John Messuri, “I hope they’re all getting by him.’’ Messuri, a Spy Ponder alum who went on to play at Princeton, lauded Schiller
And from an early age, we honed our Chubbs-instructed putting at Sir Gooney’s Putt-Putt shortly after demolishing Daytona Style wings at the adjacent Hooters. So, these are the three restaurants we will judge every city by largely in fact because it is all we know. We will use Yelp predominately to determine the reviews of the golf courses and restaurants. We won’t be consistent. And we will show bias at every opportunity. For our inaugural week, the PGA opens its first real tournament inside the contiguous United States with an event that is not a “CareerBuilder” in a city famous for creating the Taco Bell of motel chains. Torrey Pines in San Diego is to the Ritz Carlton as the PGA West in La Quinta is to the, well, La Quinta. For comparison, there are no Chili’s in La Quinta proper and the nearest titty bar is the Lynx Gentlemen’s Club which is permanently closed. If the Lynx GC was still open, La Quinta would have been on the map for a Golf Town solely for the name of their nearest strip club. San Diego, and for that matter La Jolla where Torrey Pines is located, is infested with golfers. With 82% of the population being White Non-Hispanic, and 31% of the population, the majority of that we’re sure are in the 82%, being in finance, I’m assuming the majority of the population are golfers. The income per capita in San Diego is nearly three times the national average. That excess money is either going to hookers and prescription meds in Tijuana or greens fees and country club memberships. It is safe to assume San Diego’s statistical orientation as Golfer. While San Diego seems flush with cash, few cities can escape the undying need for a goat track. With the added element of California droughts, it seems San Diego is no exception to this rule. Two courses are up for the Moc Bend Award in San Diego. The first course, although not technically a golf course, is the cleverly named 3Par Golf Course. As Yelp reviewer Tim W. put it: “This is a golf course like a ping pong table in a bar is a tennis court.” Coming in with only 1.5 stars, and the sole positive review obviously from an employee or owner, this course seems to be a complete shit hole. While we appreciate shit holes, it is important that people are still having fun at these shit holes like we have and will continue to do so at Moc Bend. In this case, 3Par Golf Course is a shit hole devoid of fun. No Moc Bend Award will be given to 3Par Golf. 66 reviews on Yelp and a strong 2.5 rating leads us to believe that Mission Trails seems to be the go-to city course of San Diego. Mission Trails is 30 minutes south of Torrey Pines, closer to the non-golfer district of San Diego. A wide range of reviews shows the true versatility of Mission Trails. Josh R. writes “This course is ok for beginners..but the women’s club is a disgrace to golf…on Tuesday mornings…you can expect a 5 1/2 hour round..its absolutely pathetic.” Maybe if Josh would stick to the Men’s club and quit delaying his review with ellipses he could finish his round in under 5 ½ hours. His review reads like an asthmatic. Kyle F. writes “They need more restrooms throughout the course apparently. One guy totally crapped his pants in the restroom. So, two stars for game play. Minus three stars for the crappy customer service.” One of the great privileges of being a male on a golf course is being able to utilize the great outdoors as your own toilet. The reason Josh R. is so pissed at the delays in gameplay is because Kyle F. is wasting his time in a bathroom when he should be peeing in the woods while looking for his ball. But the stench of shit brings us back to our home course so points for Mission Trails for blown-up bathrooms. The top review of Mission Trails is an 8 paragraph long account of some nerd’s first experience on the golf course where he would “Zip around in your cute little carts, rail ciggys, imbibe craft brews, tell a few war stories and jokes and your crummy play will be eclipsed by a wave of mirth.” His review ends with them calling it quits after 10 holes. He wrote a try-hard, corny version of a Hunter S. Thompson article that lasted 8 paragraphs and only finished 10 holes of golf. The fact that this dweeb has played this golf course eliminates Mission Trails from earning a Moc Bend Award. San Diego might be known for its fish tacos, but the top tier restaurants in town still remain the big three: Chili’s, Applebee’s, and Hooters. From Torrey Pines, Hooters is a staggering 14.8 miles away, while Applebee’s and Chili’s are 12.8 and 6.3 miles away respectively. The distance is not a deal breaker on our judgement because we understand it is California, land of the free(way). For starters (brought to you by Chili’s Triple Dippers) Justin C., a La Jolla local, writes this about Chili’s: “Very Cozy feeling.” And: “The tortillas were just tortillas.” And: “Nothing really stood out.” But he ended with “Okay Lunch eating my friends!” We will take it Justin C. Cindy M. wrote “Order to go for both me and my co-worker. The tilapia was raw in the middle for both order.” San Diego is known for its fresh fish and if Cindy M. wasn’t in the mood for tilapia sushi she and her coworker should have gone to Long John Silvers. Moving on to Applebee’s, Michelle N. had to say this: “So I’m here with the bf after shopping Old Navy and Ross across the street. We’re looking around and deciding where to eat and he says, ‘Oh, I have a gift card to Applebees.’” If I had a nickel every time I was at Old Navy or Ross and remembered I had a gift card to Applebee’s I wouldn’t need these gift cards to Applebee’s. Lastly, Jose A. gives the only review of Hooters we need: “We come to this hooters every time we feel like going to a hooters in SD. I must say is like a tradition for us. I like what I see, and im sure a lot of guys do too. LOL. […] So guess what a fresh Marine out of boot camp. wanted Boobies and booties, I mean wings and chicken breast. Lol. we had a good time and even took a good picture to remember that day.” We support the troops and the troops support this Hooters. As far as nightlife, Goldfingers Gentlemen’s Club is only 8 miles away. Converting California miles to American Miles, that’s only like a couple blocks. Rounding out the stellar restaurant reviews and the near walking distance to the GC, the restaurant and nightlife scene is as prominent as expected. Justin Thomas is taking a vacation from his vacation of mele kalikimaka-ing the field in Hawaii, but he would be facing more than a bunch of Rob Schneider’s from 50 First Dates this week in La Jolla. (Take a moment to appreciate the range in accents from Rob in this scene. He goes from LA cholo to stereotypical Japanese to Australian out of nowhere.) For our picks as to who will eventually replace Brandt Snedeker as the We Are Farmers champion, the following have emerged as front runners: Andrew Loupe: Seems to have been released from the Neanderthal Research at the Musculoskeletal Center at Scripps Clinic before his tee time on Thursday. Look for him to finish slightly ahead of the Geico Caveman this week. Brandon Stone: If his PGA.com profile picture is any indication how he will play this week, look for close, beautiful shots. Tim Wilkinson: After the crown of his head being smashed flat in a paragliding accident off the shores of Torrey Pines, we expect Tim Wilkinson to forget he is Tim Wilkinson and play more like Tom Williamson. Peter Malnati: Sponsored by MLB.com, Peter should have a huge crowd following this week, playing in a city now only known for their Major League Baseball team. This week’s Cart Path Only Expert Pick: Harris EnglishA recent Greenpeace report found China’s coal consumption declined in the first half of this year, while new Chinese government data suggest the country’s coal imports have dropped. Estimates indicate that by year-end, China’s coal imports could be 8% below last year's level. China imported 18.9 million tonnes of coal last month, the lowest amount since September 2012. Part of the reduced demand reflected a slowing Chinese economy. After years of double-digit growth rates, China’s GDP expanded by just 7.7% last year, and it could struggle to hit its 7.5% target this year. Some analysts are predicting an average growth rate of only 6% in the coming years. But a lower GDP growth rate is only part of the reason. As Justin Guay of the California-based Sierra Club pointed out, China may be beginning to “decouple” its growth from coal consumption. In other words, China’s economy could continue to expand even while its coal consumption drops, something unthinkable not long ago. That’s due in large part to China’s declared “war on pollution” announced earlier this year. Years of increasingly choking smog have sparked public anger and even led to protests. Last year, a government survey of 74 Chinese cities found all had pollution levels exceeding those the World Health Organization deemed safe. “We will resolutely declare war against pollution as we declared war against poverty,” Premier Li Keqiang said in March. The plan calls for the closure of old and dirty steel, cement and coal plants — an estimated 1,725 small-scale dirty coal plants are expected to be shuttered. The government also declared it would spend US$275 billion in the next three years to reduce pollution. China has also set up environmental courts, instituted fines for offenders of environmental standards and granted non-governmental organisations the right to sue polluters and now requires the nation’s largest factories to disclose pollution data to the public. The efforts are starting to pay dividends, as evidenced by declining coal import levels. This is a major reason international coal prices have reached their lowest levels in six years. And the low prices are not succeeding in stoking a resurgence in demand. And more declines could be coming thanks to a series of proposed new laws. The central government on Sept 10 released a draft version of a law that amounts to an outright ban on coal with a high sulphur and ash content. This could significantly hurt coal exporters, notably Australia and South Africa. The government is also seeking to cut coal production by 10%, as low demand is causing economic losses for 70% of China’s coal companies. Moreover, China is considering a permanent limit on the overall consumption of coal. The current five-year plan aims at consumption of 4.1 billion tonnes of coal next year, up from 3.7 billion tonnes last year. But in the next five-year plan, from 2015-20, China could cap its coal consumption at the same level of 4.1 billion tonnes a year or even ratchet it downwards. And in 2016, efforts to slash coal demand are likely only to accelerate, considering China’s announcement that it would introduce a nationwide cap-and-trade scheme. Details are murky, but if successfully implemented, major producers will be incentivised to improve efficiency and switch to cleaner sources of energy. As the world’s largest consumer of coal as well as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the significance of China’s policies on coal use cannot be overstated. Thanks to a concerted effort by the government to improve air quality, the era of insatiable Chinese demand for coal could be over. Nick Cunningham is with Oilprice.com. For more information, visit www.oilprice.com/energy/coal/why-chinas-insatiable-appetite-for-coal-has-likely-peaked.htmlAs soon as we’d ordered lunch at the local Japanese restaurant I launched into my story of the week. “I’ve just discovered female ejaculation.” Sonja rolled her eyes slightly, “Oh yes. Men really get off on that because it makes them feel powerful to watch a woman squirt.” “Can you do that?” “Yes.” “So why haven’t you told me?” She shot me a quizzical look, “You’ve never asked.” True. Female ejaculation isn’t a popular topic of conversation, even among my women friends who discuss ménage a trios and anal sex in the same sort of way some women talk about manicures and finding new restaurants. Nurse Pamela, maneuvering her chopsticks around the recently arrived plate of sushi, remained skeptical. “What happens? Does it make your orgasms spectacular?” I told her I didn’t know as I’d only had one experience. “Hummmm, then I’m not all that interested. Sounds too much like work.” Determined to find out if I was the only other woman in Australia, or possibly on the planet, who didn’t know about female ejaculation I started to ask around. A few people had the experience; many had heard about women who ejaculated and almost everyone had a vague idea about the topic; the majority, however, thought female ejaculation was a myth. Like other obscure topics, such as cathartic orgasms, egusi soup and chaos theory, some people knew exactly what I was talking about. Bob, a friend in Auckland said, “My first wife used to ejaculate if I spent a lot of time and did everything just right. But I didn’t like her much so mostly I didn’t bother.” In my case it was a matter of ‘When you are ready a teacher will appear’. As a sexually active woman, a demanding lover and a dominatrix perhaps I should have stumbled across female ejaculation earlier. But I didn’t. It wasn’t until I met Alexander, who introduced me to the sport, that I had my first ejaculation. Like so many people I’ve since talked to, I thought female ejaculation was something you could either do or you couldn’t – rather like rolling your tongue or wiggling your ears. The idea of learning how to ejaculate had never occurred to me, until Alexander came into my bedroom and started to teach me about it. While there are references to female ejaculation in women’s magazines, sites dedicated to it on the web, it still isn’t a topic a lot of people set out to study. Like so many other things, such as new food or travel, it isn’t until we have a personal experience that we become involved and want to know more. Wanting to write about female ejaculation so I could tell other people about it, I put fresh batteries in my tape recorder and plopped it in front of Alexander. By way of background information, Alexander is one of the about.1% of men in the world I would classify as an exceptional lover. The characteristics of an exceptional lover are that s/he views sex is an art form. As well as techniques, s/he is also concerned with safety (both sexual and personal), pushing boundaries without being threatening and encouraging her/his partner to give and receive the best s/he can. While a lot of men claim to love sex, they seem to confuse it with ejaculation – theirs. When I asked Alexander how many sexual partners he’d had he wasn’t sure. In fact, he couldn’t even give me an estimate within ‘give or take fifty’. So we settled on ‘enough – probably in the hundreds’. I asked Alexander how he’d learned to make women ejaculate. Recognizing his ‘Damn it, here we go again with all her questions’ sigh I topped up his glass of wine and settled back on the sofa determined to extract the information I wanted, no matter how much Sauvignon blanc was involved. Alexander started by talking about orgasms in general, saying that from a young age there’s a lot of pressure on people to be sexually proficient, even though they may not know a lot about what they’re doing. “It wasn’t uncommon for girls to fake an orgasm, timed perfectly with the real male one. After all, that’s how it happens in the magazines and romance novels. The first time I saw a girl ejaculate I was shocked. She’d often gushed a lot of light watery fluid at the peak of her orgasm. I loved it – it was involuntary, it was different and, so naturally, I assumed all women could do that if they really enjoyed sex.” According to Alexander it was different from the lubricating wetness he was used to. “She couldn’t explain it, but it definitely wasn’t pee. I had no idea what had happened and there was no one to really ask. And I wasn’t going to find it in World Book Encyclopaedia, that’s for sure. My assumption was that it was just extra good and, in hindsight, I realized she’d sometimes fake her orgasm to get the timing of that perfect mutual orgasm just right. I’ve since discovered that the fluid varies in scent from person to person and ranges in viscosity from a watery liquid to a thick creamy lubricating fluid.” Apparently ejaculation rarely occurs from clitoral stimulation alone. “I constantly hear complaints from women about men who think that if a little is good, then harder and faster is better. That’s not the case, in my experience, with the quest for female ejaculation.” Other critical influences he identified include a combination of positioning, a range of movements, pressure variations, speed and, most importantly, verbal encouragement. “I’ve found that what I say and how I say it is so very important. It’s not just about permission to let go without consequence, but encouraging my partner to do it in a big way. As we know, the mind is our greatest sexual organ. Quite a few women are afraid to completely lose control, so when I say something like “Go ahead and squirt, piss all over my hand and saturate me” they can see that I’m aroused by the idea and they tend to relax and let things happen naturally. Of course, talking and encouraging a partner during sex nearly always has positive results. Some women have a lot of inhibitions. The idea that nice girls soak beds isn’t something they learn in school. Or even from their girlfriends. There seems to be so little known, that it would be easy for people to confuse it with some type of pissing and avoid it at all cost” While the traditional orgasm and ejaculation are often concurrent, they don’t have to be, according to Alexander. “I can only assume it’s a combination of psychological, emotional and physical stimuli. Sometimes a woman will ejaculate before reaching orgasm. For most though, ejaculation and orgasm occur at the same time and she just goes wild because of the physical and mental overload, almost more than she can handle.” Alexander finds that the more experience he has and the more he encourages his partners to experiment, the more women he meets who can learn to ejaculate. “During my twenties, I’d say about 5% of the women I had sex with ejaculated. In my thirties, about 10%. Now I’d say about 20% of women I know will readily ejaculate. Mind you, there are different manifestations. Some need a little more coaxing and coaching, but no matter what I try, about 80% of women just don’t ejaculate and I don’t know why. From a man’s perspective, women feel about as different on the inside as they look on the outside. Add to that all sorts of emotional, physical and psychological variations, plus my mood, patience and motivation and there are a lot of reasons ejaculation may not happen. It might with another man or under different circumstances.” I asked Alexander to describe the kinds of ejaculations he’d seen. “Everything from a slow and rhythmic pulsing of clear viscous liquid over minutes, to the most drenching and explosive spraying that soaked everything within a one meter radius. In the explosive scenarios, only smell and texture would differentiate it from gushing urine. In one instance, a woman sprayed and some of her fluid hit a window that was two meters away. At the time my hand was pushing against the natural flow, which likely increased the pressure and caused her to squirt across the room. We had a chuckle about it later when we found it during the cleaning up. The most dramatic example though, was a woman who would just continue to orgasm and ejaculate from finger work so long as I didn’t let her come down from the high. I lost count, but it was in the vicinity of 30 separate orgasms and ejaculations. Thankfully we were in a hotel room as the mattress and base were drenched through. I was tired, but she was totally exhausted and couldn’t stand up for an hour. I’ll never forget that morning” The porn industry has a lot to answer for regarding making female ejaculation seem unusual. “I’ve seen plenty of videos depicting squirting like it’s a freak of nature. It’s not. Some of the porn videos portray the women as sluts who somehow achieve this unusual feat for the camera. I sometimes wonder if it is real ejaculation or it’s just orchestrated to make the film.” Helping a woman discover ejaculation can be a very intimate and moving experience. “It certainly excites me. As you’re not experiencing it yourself, you have to be acutely tuned in to your partner’s responses. If you aren’t intuitive about it, your chances of success are limited. As both a participant and a spectator, any amount of fluid that squirts from the urethra is spectacular in my books. The more fluid, the more aroused I get and the more pleased a woman seems to feel with herself. As a man, it’s wonderful when a woman says, ”Hey guess what I did… I managed to hit the bed head, soak two towels and it still went through to the mattress.” Alexander’s analysis of my experience, which was more like a dribble than a waterfall and interesting but not spectacular, was “You’re so bloody clinical, you have to understand everything. Why can’t just lie back and enjoy it for what it is?” My somewhat limp excuse is that I’m a recovering academic. Wanting to experiment further I waited until I had a free Sunday afternoon. Then I settled into bed with lube, a hand towel and the determination to discover a formula that worked for me. It was time to move beyond being perfunctory and get serious about learning how to ejaculate properly. I inserted my finger into my vagina and then curled it around so it touched the back of my pubic bone. Ah yes, there was the pad, the bit of flesh that feels different, rougher somehow, like the surface of a tongue. So I squeeze and rubbed the area softly and then increased the pressure and the motion. Nothing much happened except that I felt like I was going to pee and knew that was the first sign that I was doing something right. So I pressed harder and rubbed faster. Still no squirting, nothing to get excited about. Frankly, by this time I was starting to get a touch bored with the entire process, not an uncommon reaction given that immediate gratification is one of my specialities. Not wanting to waste my self-indulgent time I used my vibrator to bring myself to the point of clitoral orgasm and then inserted it to see if it had any effect. It was a pleasant enough sensation, but still no towel soaking gushes. I turned off the vibrator and reinserted my finger. The difference was amazing! The pad had spread to a larger area. And the center was engorged and felt about the size of a cashew. So again I rubbed and pressed. Nice feeling, but it still wasn’t happening. I was getting frustrated. Why had it worked before? Why couldn’t I reproduce it? Almost at the point when I was ready to admit ejaculation defeat, I slowly extracted my finger until it was at the opening of my vagina, which had become the outer reaches of the pad. With my finger lightly resting there I felt a slight dribble. Then a gush. And then another spasm of pelvic floor muscles contractions that shot fluid over the end of the towel. There was no doubt that I’d discovered female ejaculation at last! Always the intrepid researcher I had to make sure I had it right – not difficult as I was enjoying the field research. After repeated re-enactments, which soaked the hand towel, another bath towel and seeped through the sheets and the mattress cover I decided I’d earned the title of ‘Female Ejaculator.’ The method that works for me to become sexually aroused, curl my finger back over the centre of the pad behind my public bone and then press. The pressure builds up the tension until it becomes almost uncomfortable. Then when I slide my finger to the edge of the pad area I start to squirt. Sometimes it starts as a dribble and turns to a gush. Other times it is a reaction to the muscles convulsing and the fluid erupts into waves. By the end of my experiment I was exhausted. Dehydrated. And very pleased with myself. My ejaculatory fluid is clear, watery and slightly acidic. Although it comes from the urethra – as do both semen and urine – it is as different in smell, texture and taste to urine as Sauvignon blanc is to single malt. I was very excited when I rang Alexander. “Hey, I’ve discovered the formula for female ejaculation.” “No, you’ve figured out what works for you – and we all know that you don’t represent most women. Each woman has to discover what does or doesn’t work for her. Another thing to remember is that not all women can ejaculate, any more than all women can orgasm or get pregnant. It’s very much an individual process, with varying reactions and expectations. Can you imagine if everyone in the world suddenly decided women should ejaculate? There would be a lot of disappointment and finger pointing at people’s apparent failure: “You’re frigid”; “No, you’re useless”. According to Alexander people have to keep female ejaculation in perspective. “Techniques should be considered merely as guidelines from which you adapt according to the infinite number of variables in people, moods and relationships. This, like tactile pleasure generally, is not just about technique. Remember we’re not talking about operating a ‘female machine – model 1972, version blond’ here. It is an intimate and personal experience, with everything that involves. Our mind interprets pleasure and then translates it so that it makes sense. It’s what you create in your partner’s mind that will have the greatest influence over her reaction, and probably her chance of reaching orgasm and ejaculating, if possible. Stimulation is really just a series of electrical messages. Creating a safe place for a woman to willingly open herself to new experiences requires an understanding of her personally, what’s important to her, her fantasies and, most importantly, her fears. That requires genuine attention and reassurance on the man’s part. It’s a fair generalization that women are more likely to share more intimate thoughts with those they trust than men are. It is all about trust and you have to give it to earn it. It’s big picture stuff. Once you understand the environment and context you need to be in, you can then work on the details, like technique. What guides you then is listening and responding to what is happening in the moment, subtle or otherwise, and not focusing on the expected outcome. And I shouldn’t have to mention it for the guys, but more of everything doesn’t necessarily mean better. It’s up to you to learn about the individual or you’ll be forever wondering why something works one day and not the next. Patience serves everyone well. Trying to blueprint every technique is a waste of time. Males of every species have innate reproductive techniques. Humans are fortunate in that we can continue to consciously explore the pleasure of sex. What works for us today, may not do it for us next week. But there are always new discoveries, if we want to invest our time in sexual adventure. At an early age, I learned that carefully focusing on my partner’s responses was rewarding because my pleasure increased by having my partner get off. From a male perspective, being trusted and sought after is wonderful for the ego.” While I’m having a lovely time experimenting with ejaculation if I’d never had the experience my sex life would have continued along on its merry way and I wouldn’t have felt it was inadequate. Female ejaculation is just an added extra. Having said that, I would still encourage women who haven’t ejaculated to experiment. Informational web sites include: www.drsusanblock.com, www.doctorg.com, www.fetishexchange.org, www.holisticwisdom.com Alexander speculates, “It would be great to be able to work closely with more women to fine tune the techniques that work for them and to work with men to heighten their awareness. Not just that female ejaculation exists, but that there are serious rewards for everyone in attentive exploration – regardless of the outcome.” He is also right about people realizing it will work for some but not for all. The expectation of orgasm or ejaculation detracts from what spectacular sex is all about – pleasure, enjoyment and intimacy. Want to share your experience with emission orgasm? See the comment section below. Thanks! By Mistress J Want to read Image Source: Wikimedia CommonsHis promise to tax "Wall Street speculators" as social restitution for the taxpayer-funded bailout of 2008 is misguided at best. This tax targets helpful market activity that had nothing to do with the risky subprime mortgage loans that prompted the bailout. Further still, it goes beyond Wall Street to tens of millions of investors whenever they, or those managing their retirement savings, trade stocks and bonds. Recently, the Dutch Finance Ministry called a financial transaction tax "a charge on pensions." An ironic twist given the strong support Sanders enjoys from unions. A link on Sanders' website explaining how the tax "would generate about $300 billion in revenue," leads only to a memo by Robert Pollin and James Heintz of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. That document begins "we emphasize that our conclusions are not based on anything close to the type of solid foundation in research and evidence that one would normally expect in considering such an important question." (Note: After this piece was published, the link on the Sanders campaign web site was changed.)Henry Hazlitt says that this book is "One of the most powerful and influential arguments for limited government, laissez faire and individualism ever written." Spencer played a huge role in the history of ideas, one that contemporary sociologists have sadly neglected other than to dismiss him as "social Darwinist." In fact, his great contribution was precisely to untangle the study of society from all claims that it operated as a life form apart from the choices made by individuals. He was a laissez-faire radical in times when academia was becoming ever more illiberal. He was an opponent of militarism, economic regulation, infringement on personal liberty, and government centralization. This edition of Herbert's fiery book published in 1884, includes additional material — the great English libertarian sociologist Herbert Spencer sees a statist corruption appearing within the liberal ideological framework, and warned of the Coming Slavery. It was Darwin who took his metaphors from Spencer, who was one of the last defenders of the classical-liberal idea in England. He was the scholar who argued for the law of equal freedom: "Every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man." In this book, he presents that argument that liberalism, which liberated the world from slavery and feudalism, was undergoing a transformation. Its new love for the state would put liberalism behind a movement to create a new despotism that would be worse than the old. He understand that freedom must also mean freedom from the state: The degree of his slavery varies according to the ratio between that which he is forced to yield up and that which he is allowed to retain; and it matters not whether his master is a single person or a society. If, without option, he has to labour for the society, and receives from the general stock such portion as the society awards him, he becomes a slave to the society. Socialistic arrangements necessitate an enslavement of this kind; and towards such an enslavement many recent measures, and still more the measures advocated, are carrying us. Further: The final result would be a revival of despotism. A disciplined army of civil officials, like an army of military officials, gives supreme power to its heada power which has often led to usurpation, as in medieval Europe and still more in Japannay, has thus so led among our neighbours, within our own times. His essay on political superstitions is a brilliant argument on behalf of self-organizing society, as against nearly all his contemporaries who had come to believe in the merit of power. He writes to condemn "the political superstition that governmental power is subject to no restraints." As David Gordon has written, "Spencer's arguments against the early manifestations of the welfare state are of far reaching importance." This edition includes the Introduction by Albert Jay Nock. Nock writes:LG has unveiled a grand plan to dethrone Samsung as king of televisions. The Korean company is aiming for mass-market releases for its range of OLED and 4K UHDTV sets across the globe next year. Despite launching its OLED and 4K Ultra-high definition televisions in a few key markets already, LG hasn't sold the sets in volumes. That's thanks in part to their high cost when compared to regular televisions, but it's also because the sets aren't available in many markets. That'll change soon, says LG, as 2014 will see the company push 4K and OLED towards the mainstream. To achieve that, it's accelerating its launch plans in many markets, and claims premium and economy versions of its next-generation hardware will be available in 50 countries by the end of next year. 2014 will see LG push 4K and OLED towards the mainstream At IFA last week, LG announced a brand-new TV that's unlikely to help with worldwide marketshare, but is nonetheless impressive. The uninspiringly named 77-inch Ultra HD OLED TV is important for a number of reasons. It's currently the world's largest OLED display, and it's also the first 4K OLED from LG. Although it hasn't committed to releasing the 77-inch set in its current state, LG does say that it'll launch televisions with its "Ultra HD OLED technology" next year. LG's final weapon against Samsung is software. The company bought webOS earlier this year, and is hard at work developing the failed mobile operating system for use in its TVs. The company has previously said that webOS will be ready for retail next year, which falls in line nicely with its plans to push high-end televisions out to the masses.The Alchemist asked if I wanted a drink. I did, but no amount of staring could make my eyes settle on the color of the liquid in the flask. And the gold the alchemists paid the taxmen smelled funny and made crackling noises. I declined. I took the summons and set it on the table between us. The King’s son was dying. The doctors, astrologers, witches, and other assorted wise people of the kingdom could not save him. The King had asked for an alchemist, and been given one. He, too, had failed. But he had let on that there were other alchemists in the guild, greater alchemists, who knew far more than he. So the king had demanded that all the guild’s top alchemists come to the palace and try to save his son’s life. And the alchemists’ guild had refused, saying their studies could not be interrupted. So here I was, come to make the request again, more formally but less politely. The Alchemist pretended to read the parchment. I could tell he was faking; his eyes stayed still the whole time. Finally he gave me the same answer he had given the king’s courier: the alchemists’ studies could not be interrupted. “Why is a few weeks subtracted from your studies more important than the prince’s life?” I demanded, staring straight into his creepy too-still eyes. He spent too long not answering. I worried I’d broken him, that he was some kind of intricate clockwork machine and I’d yelled too loud and shifted a gear out of place. Finally he asked: “How long would you have to study architecture before you could build a castle like this one?” “I’m no architect,” I said. “I’m a man of war.” “Yes. So how long would you have to study, before you were an architect?” “Ten years?” I asked. “Twenty?” “Why so? There are books of architecture, some of them written by men far greater than the planner of this castle. Some are five hundred pages long, others a thousand. Are you so slow a reader, that it would take you ten years to read a thousand pages?” “You can’t just read a book and know architecture.” “But why not?” “Because…you wouldn’t…” I had been annoyed when he first asked, but now I found the question interesting, at least amusing. Why couldn’t a great architect write his knowledge down in a book? And why couldn’t I read it and become as good as he? “Because you’d have to memorize it all,” I finally concluded. “Not so. I will let you carry the book with you as you build the castle.” “It wouldn’t help. It wouldn’t be…indexed properly in my head. I would want to build a wall, and I wouldn’t even know what things to consider when building a wall, and I would have to search the whole book for them each time.” “You are a man of war,” repeated the Alchemist. “Do you know Caesar’s histories?” “Almost by heart.” “Are you as good a general as Caesar?” “No.” “Why not?” I took his point. Caesar had written down everything he could about war. I had mastered all of it. But I was no Caesar. It couldn’t just be the difficulty of memorizing books. “Knowledge,” said the Alchemist, “is harder to transmit than anyone appreciates. One can write down the structure of a certain arch, or the tactical considerations behind a certain strategy. But above those are higher skills, skills we cannot name or appreciate. Caesar could glance at a battlefield and know precisely which lines were reliable and which were about to break. Vitruvius could see a great basilica in his mind’s eye, every wall and column snapping into place. We call this wisdom. It is not unteachable, but neither can it be taught. Do you understand?” I did. If I trained with Caesar for years, some of his skill at reading a battlefield might rub off on me; I might dimly see the outlines of his genius. But he couldn’t just tell me. It wasn’t a secret which he hid from other men to remain above them. It was a power belonging to him alone,
live without it. Where are you going, sir? To the office? Yes? Will you give a true account of all this? One can be temporarily incapacitated, but that's just the moment for remembering former services and bearing in mind that later on, when the incapacity has been got over, one will certainly work with all the more industry and concentration. I'm loyally bound to serve the chief, you know that very well. Besides, I have to provide for my parents and my sister. I'm in great difficulties, but I'll get out of them again. Don't make things any worse for me than they are. Stand up for me in the firm. Travelers are not popular there, I know. People think they earn sacks of money and just have a good time. A prejudice there's no particular reason for revising. But you, sir, have a more comprehensive view of affairs than the rest of the staff, yes, let me tell you in confidence, a more comprehensive view than the chief himself, who, being the owner, lets his judgment easily be swayed against one of his employees. And you know very well that the traveler, who is never seen in the office almost the whole year round, can so easily fall a victim to gossip and ill luck and unfounded complaints, which he mostly knows nothing about, except when he comes back exhausted from his rounds, and only then suffers in person from their evil consequences, which he can no longer trace back to the original causes. Sir, sir, don't go away without a word to me to show that you think me in the right at least to some extent!" But at Gregor's very first words the chief clerk had already backed away and only stared at him with parted lips over one twitching shoulder. And while Gregor was speaking he did not stand still one moment but stole away towards the door, without taking his eyes off Gregor, yet only an inch at a time, as if obeying some secret injunction to leave the room. He was already at the hall, and the suddenness with which he took his last step out of the living room would have made one believe he had burned the sole of his foot. Once in the hall he stretched his right arm before him towards the staircase, as if some supernatural power were waiting there to deliver him. Gregor perceived that the chief clerk must on no account be allowed to go away in this frame of mind if his position in the firm were not to be endangered to the utmost. His parents did not understand this so well; they had convinced themselves in the course of years that Gregor was settled for life in this firm, and besides they were so preoccupied with their immediate troubles that all foresight had forsaken them. Yet Gregor had this foresight. The chief clerk must be detained, soothed, persuaded and finally won over; the whole future of Gregor and his family depended on it! If only his sister had been there! She was intelligent; she had begun to cry while Gregor was still lying quietly on his back. And no doubt the chief clerk so partial to ladies, would have been guided by her; she would have shut the door of the flat and in the hall talked him out of his horror. But she was not there, and Gregor would have to handle the situation himself. And without remembering that he was still unaware what powers of movement he possessed, without even remembering that his words in all possibility, indeed in all likelihood, would again be unintelligible, he let go the wing of the door, pushed himself through the opening, started to walk towards the chief clerk, who was already ridiculously clinging with both hands to the railing on the landing; but immediately, as he was feeling for a support, he fell down with a little cry upon all his numerous legs. Hardly was he down when he experienced for the first time this morning a sense of physical comfort; his legs had firm ground under them; they were completely obedient, as he noted with joy; they even strove to carry him forward in whatever direction he chose; and he was inclined to believe that a final relief from all his sufferings was at hand. But in the same moment as he found himself on the floor, rocking with suppressed eagerness to move, not far from his mother, indeed just in front of her, she, who had seemed so completely crushed, sprang all at once to her feet, her arms and fingers outspread, cried: "Help, for God's sake, help!" bent her head down as if to see Gregor better, yet on the contrary kept backing senselessly away; had quite forgotten that the laden table stood behind her; sat upon it hastily, as if in absence of mind, when she bumped into it; and seemed altogether unaware that the big coffee pot beside her was upset and pouring coffee in a flood over the carpet. "Mother, Mother," said Gregor in a low voice, and looked up at her. The chief clerk for the moment, had quite slipped from his mind; instead, he could not resist snapping his jaws together at the sight of the streaming coffee. That made his mother scream again, she fled from the table and fell into the arms of his father, who hastened to catch her. But Gregor had now no time to spare for his parents; the chief clerk was already on the stairs; with his chin on the banisters he was taking one last backward look. Gregor made a spring, to be as sure as possible of overtaking him; the chief clerk must have divined his intention, for he leaped down several steps and vanished; he was still yelling "Ugh!" and it echoed through the whole staircase. Unfortunately, the flight of the chief clerk seemed completely to upset Gregor's father, who had remained relatively calm until now, for instead of running after the man himself, or at least not hindering Gregor, in his pursuit, he seized in his right hand the walking stick which the chief clerk had left behind on a chair, together with a hat and greatcoat, snatched in his left hand a large news paper from the table and began stamping his feet and flourishing the stick and the newspaper to drive Gregor back into his room. No entreaty of Gregor's availed, indeed no entreaty was even understood, however humbly he bent his head his father only stamped on the floor the more loudly. Behind his father his mother had torn open a window, despite the cold weather, and was leaning far out of it with her face in her hands. A strong draught set in from the street to the staircase, the window curtains blew in, the newspapers on the table fluttered, stray pages whisked over the floor. Pitilessly Gregor's father drove him back, hissing and crying "Shoo!" like a savage. But Gregor was quite unpracticed in walking backwards, it really was a slow business. If he only had a chance to turn round he could get back to his room at once, but he was afraid of exasperating his father by the slowness of such a rotation and at any moment the stick in his father's hand might hit him a fatal blow on the back or on the head. In the end, however, nothing else was left for him to do since to his horror he observed that in moving backwards he could not even control the direction he took; and so, keeping an anxious eye on his father all the time over his shoulder, he began to turn round as quickly as he could, which was in reality very slowly. Perhaps his father noted his good intentions, for he did not interfere except every now and then to help him in the manoeuvre from a distance with the point of the stick. If only he would have stopped making that unbearable hissing noise! It made Gregor quite lose his head. He had turned almost completely round when the hissing noise so distracted him that he even turned a little the wrong way again. But when at last his head was fortunately right in front of the doorway, it appeared that his body was too broad simply to get through the opening. His father, of course, in his present mood was far from thinking of such a thing as opening the other half of the door, to let Gregor have enough space. He had merely the fixed idea of driving Gregor back into his room as quickly as possible. He would never have suffered Gregor to make the circumstantial preparations for standing up on end and perhaps slipping his way through the door. Maybe he was now making more noise than ever to urge Gregor forward, as if no obstacle impeded him; to Gregor, anyhow, the noise in his rear sounded no longer like the voice of one single father; this was really no joke, and Gregor thrust himself-come what might-into the doorway. One side of his body rose up, he was tilted at an angle in the doorway, his flank was quite bruised, horrid blotches stained the white door, soon he was stuck fast and, left to himself, could not have moved at ale his legs on one side fluttered trembling in the air, those on the other were crushed painfully to the floor-when from behind his father gave him a strong push which was literally a deliverance and he flew far into the room, bleeding freely. The door was slammed behind him with the stick, and then at last there was silence. Literature Network » Franz Kafka » The Metamorphosis » Chapter IJust a week after threatening attacks on the United States and South Korea, North Korea is now threatening a specific target, in this case, Manhattan. Much of the posturing follows weeks of escalating rhetoric from North Korea after its initial claim of a successful hydrogen bomb test in early January. The state-run media outlet DPRK Today issued the statement that read, in part: “Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet Union... “If this H-bomb were to be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile and fall on Manhattan in New York City, all the people there would be killed immediately and the city would burn down to ashes." The threat is just the latest in a string of threats from the country. At the beginning of March, North Korea fired missiles into the sea in response to U.N. sanctions regarding that January test and later said, "We sternly reject the U.N. sanctions as we view them to be the most reckless provocation." North Korea then issued a threat against the U.S. and South Korea, saying, "If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies even right now, all bases of provocations will be reduced to seas in flames and ashes in a moment." On Thursday, the country responded to sanctions from South Korea by claiming it would liquidate all remaining South Korean assets at former cooperative projects in the North. The notoriously closed-door country also claimed to have developed a nuclear warhead small enough to be launched on a ballistic missile but, as with many claims from North Korea, the international community expressed skepticism about the development. North Korea says it has developed a nuclear warhead small enough to be carried by ballistic missile. But is it real?https://t.co/UC1ImB3y5D — BBC Three (@bbcthree) March 9, 2016 Meanwhile, the country is dealing with the apparent loss of a military submarine after losing contact with the vessel during a recent exercise. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.His own firm is expanding rapidly in Riyadh. Its local office has doubled in size in the past year, and Goldman is reportedly advising on a number of merger deals involving Saudi companies. JPMorgan, which opened an office in Riyadh in 2006, employs 78 people and has won a significant role in the planned Aramco offering. Although it is not yet clear whether Goldman will have a role in the Aramco deal, the firm’s asset-management business has a footprint in Saudi Arabia, it worked on the kingdom’s international bond offering last year, and its president, Mr. Schwartz, flew in for the investment conference, speaking on a panel and holding more than a dozen meetings with clients and officials. The kingdom’s reform push remains tightly linked to Prince Mohammed, who is seen by many as the kingdom’s de facto ruler, with the blessing of his elderly father, King Salman. After failing to appear as planned to open the conference on Tuesday morning, he unveiled an ambitious plan in the afternoon to create a new city from scratch on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast that would rely on renewable energy and be staffed largely by robots. The project, Neom, would cost $500 billion and seek to create “a leading global hub that exemplifies the future of human civilization by offering its inhabitants an idyllic lifestyle combined with exceptional economic prospects,” according to promotional materials distributed by the Royal Court. “It’s head-spinning in its ambition,” wrote Mr. Yergin, the energy strategist. “This is taking on a very big challenge that will be measured not in decades, but over a generation.”FIDE April 2006 Rating Lists For the first time in decades FIDE publishes a rating list without Garry Kasparov, not at the top nor anywhere in the list. Kasparov has been removes due to inactivity, as required by the ratings conventions and announced in advance by FIDE. The above chart makes clear who the "crown princes" are: Veselin Topalov, the current FIDE world champion; and Viswanathan Anand, the former FIDE world champion and 1995 title challenger in New York of Garry Kasparov. Topalov and Anand are almost 50 points ahead of the nearest rival, Armenian GM Levon Aronian, who has just won the Morelia/Linares tournament. In place four we find Peter Svidler, who had some very disappointing results and lost 22 points, but had enough on his account to maintain his ranking – taking into account that Kasparov vacated one place. Five points behind Svidler are Peter Leko and Ruslan Ponomariov. The latter gained 15 points to move from tenth to joint fifth place. Alexander Morozevich gained 9 points to climb back into the top ten. Classical chess world champion Vladimir Kramnik lost 12 points, mainly due to illness, and dropped from sixth to eights place. It is interesting to note, in our age of child prodigies and teenage grandmasters, that the average age of the top ten is over thirty. Top 100 Players April 2006 Top Women April 2006 Top 20 Juniors April 2006 Top 20 Girls April 2006 All data by courtesy of FIDE (http://www.fide.com).Hillary Clinton remains the top choice for voters in the presidential race, rebounding from her brief health scare at a 9/11 ceremony a week ago. She is still leading Donald Trump by 2 percentage points among likely voters. In a new Morning Consult survey conducted Sept. 15 and Sept. 16, Clinton leads the Republican nominee, 42 percent to 40 percent — within the margin of error — among likely voters, while 8 percent opted for Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and 3 percent chose Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Related: Concerns About Hillary Clinton’s Health Abound, Poll Shows Likely voters Sept. 15-16, 2016 Sept. 6-8, 2016 Hillary Clinton 42% 41% Donald Trump 40% 39% Gary Johnson 8% 10% Jill Stein 3% 3% Among registered voters, the Democratic nominee leads Trump by 1 point, 39 percent to 38 percent. And in a head-to-head matchup, Clinton’s lead over Trump swells to 4 points among both likely and registered voters. Last week, she only led Trump by 1 point among likely voters and 2 points among registered voters. Both major-party candidates benefited slightly at the expense of Johnson, who dropped 2 points among likely voters since last week. Friday’s announcement by the Commission on Presidential Debates that neither he nor Stein polled high enough to appear in the first debate on Sept. 26 will not help his case with the American electorate. A majority of registered voters think the Democratic and Republican parties chose poorly when it comes to their respective standard bearers, who are both historically unpopular. Roughly six out of 10 registered voters (61 percent) said they think Trump is not the GOP’s best pick for a nominee, including 43 percent of Republicans. Similarly, 59 percent of voters said the Democratic party did not make the best pick by nominating Clinton, including about four out of 10 Democrats (41 percent). Half of registered Republican voters think Trump is the best choice from an extremely crowded field of candidates, while 55 percent of Democrats think Clinton is the best pick for the party. In a week of welcome news about the economy, the American public is also taking a rosier view of President Obama’s job performance. Half of registered voters said they approve of the president, the highest mark in Morning Consult polling since mid-May. And with him hitting the campaign trail more for Clinton — as he did a few days ago in Philadelphia — it could bode well for her chances. Correspondingly, registered voters’ confidence in the trajectory of the United States also rose from previous months. About one-third of voters (32 percent) said they believe the country is on the right track. The last time the percentage was that high was also in mid-May. The sentiments underline the importance that voters place in economic issues when it comes to how they vote. Economic issues are consistently viewed as most imperative by voters. One-third of both registered and likely voters in the new poll said the economy is their top issue, which is at least 10 points higher than the next top issue, national security. (Among registered voters, 21 percent chose national security as their top issue, while 23 percent of likely voters did so.) The national Morning Consult survey polled 1,861 registered voters and 1,639 likely voters for a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, respectively. Registered voters: toplines and crosstabs. Likely voters: toplines and crosstabs.The plan is set in motion. It’s all over save for the fighting. Our heroes are set to spring the Greenbark gang. They’ve gathered allies, researched lores, and acquired gear. After a short time to prepare their alchemical concoctions and nurse their injuries, Reed, Isolde, and Kaija finally face off with the Redstone Gang. Divided, they stand against their enemies. Will they see the Greenbark Gang reunited? Kaija bluffs, Reed throws something, and Isolde drops the bomb. Adventure Moves inspired by The Sprawl: http://crookedthimble.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/HarrasreikaAdventureMoves.pdf Iron Immortals Class Sheets: http://crookedthimble.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/DW_Iron_Immortals_Play_Sheets_Reduced.pdf Iron Immortals Setting Primer: http://crookedthimble.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/IronImmortalsSettingPrimer.pdf Game Master: Trick Dempsey (@trickdempsey on Twitter) Players: Briana Dempsey (@BrianaNDempsey on Twitter), Bob Poteete (@RobertPoteete on Twitter), Hannah Garbacz (@CindersElla on Twitter). Game System: Dungeon World! http://www.dungeon-world.com/ Order Seven Days a Servant: https://www.inkshares.com/books/seven-days-a-servant Support our Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/crookedthimble Music Credits: Nothern City’s Secret by Sergey Cheremisinov – http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Sergey_Cheremisinov/Northern_Citys_Secret/Sergey_Cheremisinov_-_Northern_Citys_Secret_-_08_Northern_Citys_Secret Night in the Forest by Sergey Cheremisinov – http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Sergey_Cheremisinov/Hidden_Crystal/Sergey_Cheremisinov_-_Hidden_Crystal_-_02_Night_In_The_ForestTwo teasers – one gyral and one viral – to usher in the annual celebration of maths Can you solve it? Pi Day puzzles that will leave you pie-eyed Hi guzzlers. Tomorrow is Pi Day – March 14 – the annual excuse for the mathematical community to circulate puns about buns. I mean to honour pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, which to two decimal places is 3.14, hence 3/14, as the Americans write tomorrow’s date. In recent years Pi Day has gone from a geeky American eccentricity to a global celebration of maths, and I’m getting my r’s in a day early with two puzzles from the brilliant minds at Brilliant.org. (That’s r for radius, obvs.) The first is all about pie, in all its homonymic glory. Pictured below are three identical boxes packed with pies. Which box contains the most pie? You can assume that all pies are exactly the same height. The next question is about a virus. One hundred computers are connected in a 10x10 network grid, as below. At the start exactly nine of them are infected with a virus. The virus spreads like this: if any computer is directly connected to at least 2 infected neighbours, it will also become infected. Will the virus infect all 100 computers? The image shows a possible example of the initial infection. You can try to fill it in to see if ultimately the network will consist of 100 orange dots. But the question is not asking what happens to this example. I want to know what will happen given any initial configuration of infected computers. It’s a lovely question - or rather, the solution is lovely. (And there is a connection to pi, but not an obvious one). Have a think, and then submit your answers to both questions here. This week’s puzzles come from a corner of the web where Pi Day is highly celebrated! Brilliant.org is a website of maths and physics problems that has more than 4 million registered members. It’s a bit like the world’s very own after-school maths and science club. Sue Khim, CEO of Brilliant.org, says: “Brilliant is a community of people who love a challenge in math, science, and engineering. We bring together students, educators, professionals, olympiad champions, and enthusiasts from around the world. Our community pushes and supports each other as they stretch themselves as problem solvers. Our members contribute problems and articles – people introduce each other to their favorite topics and ideas. And each week, we curate the best 15 problems in our Problems of the Week. We also publish Explorations: popular guided problem-solving courses, which are built on our principles for learning. We welcome thinkers and problem solvers of all types and ages to join our community!” Brilliant keeps the data on all its multiple choice questions - and has kindly provided me with their figures for today’s two puzzles. So when I post the solutions, we’ll be able to see how the readers of this column compare to the global community of brillianters. Shine on, you crazy diamonds! In the comments below, please NO SPOILERS! Please discuss pies, Pi Day and the virality of puzzles. I’ll be back at 5pm GMT with the solutions, explanations and poll results. UPDATE: The answers and results are now live here. I set a puzzle here every two weeks on a Monday. Send me your email if you want me to alert you each time I post a new one. I’m always on the look-out for great puzzles. If you would like to suggest one, email me. My puzzle book Can You Solve My Problems: Ingenious, Perplexing and Totally Satisfying Math and Logic Puzzles is just out in the US. It is already out in the UK with a slightly different subtitle. I’m also the co-author of the children’s book Football School: Where Football Explains The World, which was a runner-up in the Blue Peter Book Awards 2017.For adolescents, Health Canada recommends no more than 2.5 milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight per day. (iStock) My 11-year-old loves to go to the coffee shop with her middle school friends. Chai latte is the drink of choice, and it includes a dose of caffeine. If it’s a Starbucks grande chai latte, that’s 95 milligrams. Most kids don’t drink coffee until adolescence, but there are many sources of caffeine available to them before then: soda (38 milligrams in a 12-ounce can of Pepsi), bottled iced tea (60 milligrams in an 18.5-ounce bottle of Lipton Pure Leaf), energy drinks (80 milligrams in a can of Red Bull) and even Hershey’s kisses (one milligram in each of the little candies.) (A listing of the caffeine content of various foods and drinks can be found at www.cspinet.org/new/cafchart.htm, a Web site of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.) Should parents worry about how much caffeine their kids are consuming? The effect that I get from my cup of coffee — a clearing out of the cobwebs in my head as I set about my morning — doesn’t sound all that risky. However, caffeine is a stimulant — a naturally occurring one in coffee and tea and chocolate, but a drug nonetheless. Besides sparking mental alertness, it also increases heart rate and blood pressure and keeps you awake when maybe you should be sleeping. Sometimes it can cause agitation, stomach upset and heart palpitations. And those are only the immediate effects. Scientists don’t know what caffeine’s long-term effects might be in children. “What does it do to an 8-year-old’s cardiovascular system? Or her brain?” asks Judith Owens, director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital. “There’s really no reason for kids to have caffeine.” And yet American kids are eating and drinking caffeine-containing products. Results from annual surveys conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 73 percent of Americans from age 2 to 22 consume caffeine on any given day. In the first survey year, 1999-2000, 63 percent of it came from soda, but that declined to 38 percent in the last survey year, 2009-2010. Over that same time frame, the proportion of caffeine coming from coffee increased from 10 percent to 24 percent, and caffeine from energy drinks grew from nothing to 6 percent. (The overall amount of caffeine held steady from 60 to 80 milligrams per day over the 10-year period.) How much is too much? Unlike U.S. agencies, Health Canada makes caffeine recommendations: no more than 400 milligrams per day for healthy adults, 300 for pregnant or breast-feeding women. And for kids? A 45-milligram limit for kids age 4 to 6, 62.5 milligrams for kids 7 to 9 and 85 for kids 10 to 12. For adolescents, the recommended limit is 2.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. Owens scoured the scientific literature for studies of how caffeine affects kids and published a paper last year in the journal Nutrition Reviews. Caffeine does reduce sleepiness, she says. This might be handy for a high school student tackling a mountain of homework. But later, there’s a big downside. “You’ll have more trouble falling asleep and more sleep disruptions through the night,” she said. For a sleep-deprived nation of teenagers, this is not good news. A study of 191 Ohio middle schoolers found that caffeine intake varied from zero to 800 milligrams per day, with an average of 53 milligrams per day. Students in the study reported their sleep patterns and consumption of caffeine-containing foods for 14 days in a row. Higher caffeine intake was associated with shorter sleep duration at night, increased wakings at night and increased sleeping during the day. The energy boost is a key reason many adults drink coffee. If you watch commercials for energy drinks, you might be convinced of their capacity to improve just about every aspect of your life. The marketing of energy drinks causes as much concern among caffeine researchers and pediatricians as the ingredients in these beverages, which also include sugar and herbal extracts. “Party like a rockstar!” says the Rockstar ads. Likewise, Red Bull and Monster sponsor active sports such as BMX biking and skateboarding — and their appealing athletes. In 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics published a policy statement declaring that “energy drinks have no place in the diet of children and adolescents.” The statement also accused energy-drink makers of marketing to children, a charge that Red Bull quickly denied. “Red Bull says they don’t market to kids, but their Web site is a 13-year-old boy’s dream,” Owens says. Some researchers argue that energy drinks are a gateway to other drugs, legal and illegal. Students might graduate from using a shot-size energy drink to sharing a roommate’s Ritalin for a better study boost. “The earlier kids use caffeine, the more likely they are to smoke and to drink alcohol,” Owens says. Cause and effect are not clear: It could be that the kids buying into the caffeine messaging are more likely to try out other mind-altering substances as well. Caffeine can also affect mood — in both positive and negative ways. In a small 2008 study, 30 children (ages 7 to 17) who had been diagnosed with depression averaged five servings of caffeine a day, whereas an age-matched group of 23 kids with no psychiatric diagnoses averaged one serving per day. “The causality here is not known,” says study co-author Jennifer Silk, a psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh. It wasn’t clear whether caffeine was contributing to depression or depression was making kids seek caffeine, she says. “We suspected the kids might be self-medicating. When they’re sluggish or down, they need a pick-me-up.” Silk’s study also found that the kids with depression reported more anxiety on the days they consumed more caffeine. “I don’t see any reason to give kids caffeine,” Silk says. “It’s used to counter fatigue, low mood and anxiety. But it could be causing those things too.” I think I’ll encourage my 11-year-old to order decaf.After taking the world by storm with The Act of Killing, his surreal and disturbing 2012 documentary about these events, director Joshua Oppenheimer has now made a companion piece, or perhaps prequel, The Look of Silence, about the same subject matter. Adi Rukun confronts Amir Siahaan in The Look of Silence. In this film he focuses closely on the inhabitants – both murderers and their victims – of one village in North Sumatra. Some were armed with machetes and the certainty of religious righteousness and ordered by the army to hack their neighbours to death and discard them into Snake River. The victims were demonised as atheists and communists, and still are. Drinking their blood was supposed to protect the killers from the psychological consequences of their crimes. "Human blood tastes salty and sweet at the same time," reminisces one, old and toothless, but still evidently satisfied with his role. "Two glasses per night; that's enough," says another. At the moral heart of the new film is Adi Rukun, a 40-year-old optometrist born shortly after his brother Ramli became a victim of one of those murderous nights. Adi Rukun's brother was killed in the Indonesian anti-communist purge. Ramli's death, it's revealed as the film progresses, was even more gruesome than most. His father, Rukun, was so traumatised by it that afterwards he lost one tooth everyweek until he had none left in his mouth. But the boys' mother, Rohani, unlike most people in these tiny villages, could not force herself to pretend it never happened. She regarded her youngest son Adi, born after these events, as a kind of replacement Ramli and spoke to him regularly of the circumstances of his brother's death. Adi was a surprise guest at a screening this week of the new film to a small audience in Jakarta. He said that, when Oppenheimer came to the village in about 2005 to interview his mother, Adi had volunteered to visit the killers as an optometrist in the guise of checking their vision. Rohani, mother of Adi and Ramli, in The Look of Silence. As the test lenses pop in front of the rheumy eyes of these superannuated monsters, Oppenheimer's camera observing them in aching close-up, Adi asks: "Is that more clear? Less clear?". It's a powerful metaphor. As he tests their vision he's also gently probing their memories, seeking clarity for himself about their mutual history. Their answers, for the most part, demonstrate pride and boastfulness; an eager retelling of gory details. Inong Sungai Ular has his eyes tested in The Look of Silence. There is a good deal of swagger here. Almost 50 years have passed, and those who wielded the machetes have got away with it. They've lived long lives and enjoyed wealth and power (often built on the back of their crimes). Indonesia has never faced its past or apologised to the victims. "The perpetrators are still in power all across the country, as we all can see," Adi tells me after the film has finished rolling. The stigma attaches not to the killers, but to the victims and their families, who are still tarred with the communist brush. Rukun was so traumatised by his son's murder that afterwards he lost one tooth per week until he had none left. Inevitably, at some point during Adi's optometry appointments, though, he confronts them with the fact that he is a victim of their crimes, that his brother was murdered in the purge. The killers respond with offence and the full gamut of denial: "We were acting under orders"; "The communists were Godless animals"; "Let the past rest, don't dig it up". And, from a former militia commander turned long-time politician: "If you had come to visit me under the Suharto dictatorship, you can't imagine what would have happened [to you]". These awkward confrontations do not normally happen in Indonesia, Adi says after the film: "It's truly covered up. We pretend not to know … Nobody dares talk about it." The consequence of such silence is predictable. A scene in a schoolroom shows children being told of the evil of the communists and how the government was right to take strong action. The collective impulse to forget is strong, but the truth is available to anyone who encourages these old men to boast. In sequences shot by Oppenheimer more than a decade ago, groups of old militia men giggle as they reminisce about their exploits at Snake River. They've even brought props to help them. You can see in these scenes the genesis of the Oscar-nominated The Act of Killing, in which Oppenheimer encouraged one particular killer, Anwar Congo, to make a docu-drama about his own past. But while The Act of Killing is full of artifice and the thin veil of fiction, The Look of Silence is unflinching, seeking the clearest possible lens. It was this week named the best film at the Venice Film Festival and has found an Australian distributor, Madman Entertainment, though it's unlikely to be seen in Australia for another year. In Indonesia, meanwhile, some of the anonymous local crew hope that, under new president Joko Widodo, they will be able to seek censorship approval for the film. (The Act of Killing was never submitted to the censors for fear that screenings may be violently disrupted.) Adi says wide distribution would be a start, but not enough in itself. The government needs to start a truth and reconciliation process, he says. "If we ignore it all the time, the same things might happen again. We need to clearly state, 'This was right and this was wrong'." He wants the truth taught in schools. Reconciliation, though, is a long way off. Adi revealed that, a few weeks after the film finished shooting in 2012, he and his family were visited by some of the old killers. "They threatened us … I got out of [the village]," Adi says He now lives with his family in another city. Even his wife, though, who was initially sceptical about what he was doing, supports his decision to confront these men, some of them who were quite literally bloodthirsty. "We had no choice," Adi says. "Someone has to sacrifice themselves if they want to find the truth."Back on May 6th, Lawrenceville Plasma Physics and the Focus Fusion Society launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in an attempt to harness commercial fusion power using Eric Lerner’s theories on temperature and compression in a controlled plasma emission. Simply put – the research is proving out. The money needed is running out. The Focus Fusion effort is a nuclear fusion project where a bit of private citizen funding will have a huge impact. Here is where anyone – not just the rich and super rich – can light sparks for the future. Nope – you’re not gonna get rich. But you might change the world and make history. The target of the crowdfunding effort is to buy crucial beryllium electrodes, vital to the final push toward net energy. As you can imagine these electrodes will be custom made to never before seen specifications and are expected to perhaps deliver enough energy into the plasma that the fuel inside will yield back more energy than went in. The group, which is Dr. Lerner and the staff at Lawrenceville Plasma Physics and the Focus Fusion Society that is made up of determined folks bent on making some history and changing the world, have raised over $40,500 in the first week. $159,500 to go. No one is asking to get paid, take a slice off the top (Indiegogo gets a percentage), no brokers, salesmen or hustlers. There are some goodies for pay back. Its a raw, man up and thrown in for the future kind of thing. Here’s the ‘why not’. Your money will be gone. So if you’re uncomfortable trash canning something worth $10 or more – you’re out. Here is the ‘why’. The research is well understood, some of it around for decades. Lerner’s take has evolved over the years somewhat, but the idea runs just the opposite of the huge multigovernment, big science, $10s of billions spent and $10s of billions to go for decades version resisting the natural physics. Focus Fusion simply uses natural physics in an insightful and clever way. The fuel is cheap. The technology to harvest the energy is known and low cost with very few moving parts. The waste material is helium. Non toxic, fills kid’s and party balloons. No radioactive waste. Its fusion combining atoms, not fission blowing them apart into dangerous pieces. The problem
’m not saying business and new technology will solve this on their own, but it is a tremendous benefit, a legitimate basis for hope.” Gore’s film also deals with aspects of his own role in the Paris negotiations, highlighting efforts he made to broker a deal with the Indian government, which initially took a tough line in the talks, arguing for developing countries to continue using fossil fuels. Gore helped to win a cooperation with the renewable company Solar City that would benefit India. Though the film casts his role as pivotal, Gore acknowledged that “there were many elements involved, a lot of people – President Obama, [Indian prime minister Narendra] Modi, the World Bank and others.” He also praised the French hosts of the talks for a “virtuoso performance” in gaining the global agreement, particularly former president François Hollande and foreign minister Laurent Fabius. The new film highlights the increasing threat of extreme weather. Hurricane Sandy, which caused widespread damage on the US eastern seaboard in 2012, is a taste of disasters to come, according to Gore. He also spent time filming floods in Florida, the low-lying US state most threatened by climate change. Since his election defeat in 2000, Gore has made climate change his focus. He co-founded, with former Goldman Sachs banker David Blood, the fund manager Generation Investment Management, which specialises in renewable energy and other emissions-cutting technologies, and has run a series of “climate leadership” programmes to train politicians, businesspeople and civil society leaders in climate science. Gore, who will turn 70 in March, has no plans to let up on his globetrotting efforts on climate change. Does he have any regrets over his long and varied career? Just one: “I might have campaigned an extra week in Florida.”There’s big news this week regarding chefs at some popular signature dining restaurants throughout Walt Disney World! Chef shakeups at three spots may mean changes at some of your favorites. Read on for all of the details. Chef Yuhi Fujinaga Takes on Role of Executive Chef at Morimoto Asia Earlier this week, Chef Masaharu Morimoto and Patina Restaurant Group announced that Chef Yuhi Fujinaga had taken on the role of executive chef at Disney Springs’ Morimoto Asia. Chef Yuhi first met the famous Iron Chef and restaurant mogul early in his career. “I met Chef Morimoto as a young chef in Hawaii, where I grew up. We bonded quickly over our love of fresh fish, big flavors and new cooking techniques,” said Chef Yuhi. While the two chefs would run into one another throughout the years at various functions, Chef Yuhi went on to accept positions throughout Spain and later, in New York City. In fact, Chef Yuhi comes to Morimoto Asia from a position as Executive Chef at Patina Restaurant Group’s New York City-based Sea Grill. We look forward to seeing what Chef Yuhi brings to the table at Morimoto Asia! Chef Brian Piasecki Leaving California Grill Thanks to Scott Joseph’s Orlando Restaurant Guide, we also have big news about the chefs who helm two of Walt Disney World’s most popular Signature Restaurants. Joseph reported on Sunday that Brian Piasecki, Chef de Cuisine at the California Grill in Disney’s Contemporary Resort, will be moving on to an executive position within Walt Disney World. Chef Piasecki, who has headed the fine dining spot for seven years, will be moving to the role of Executive Chef WDW Resorts, Moderate, Value, and Standalone DVC properties. While he says the decision to leave California Grill was a difficult one, he looks forward to the opportunities that await him in the newly created position. “…[T]he holistic scope of the opportunity will allow me to develop and grow in new ways,” said Chef Piasecki. But he isn’t the only chef who will be leaving the Disney Signature kitchens. Chef Tim Keating Leaving Flying Fish Cafe According to Joseph, Executive Chef Tim Keating of Flying Fish Cafe at Disney’s BoardWalk Inn will also be departing his role. Unlike Chef Piasecki, however, it doesn’t appear that Chef Keating will continue on with the Walt Disney Company. And so it appears that when Flying Fish Cafe reopens later this year after undergoing extensive renovations, they’ll have a new chef as well as a new look. As of press time, Chef Keating had not been reached for comment, and replacements have not been named for either chef. Wow! That’s a lot to process! But now we want to hear from you. How do you think the departure of Chefs Piasecki and Keating will impact California Grill and Flying Fish Cafe? Leave a comment and share your thoughts with us! Source SourceEveryone is madly searching onin an attempt to find more about BTS The K-Pop boy group by Big Hit Entertainment beat Western artists - Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Shawn Mendes, and Ariana Grande - and made history as they won Top Social Artist at the '2017 Billboard Music Awards' Following the historical victory, numerous fans and celebrities around the world congratulated BTS while many netizens, majorly international netizens who aren't Kpop fans, asked Google for help to find out who these amazing boys are. Currently, the question ''Who is BTS?'', automatically pops up on Google search when searching for "Who is". They follow the top two questions, ''Who is Ariana Grande?'' and ''Who is Drake dating?'' Thanks to BTS, K-pop is going far and beyond, and the world is now asking, ''A MAN who "sarcastically slapped" a police officer who found him sleeping in a crashed car at a beauty spot has been sentenced to 60 hours' unpaid work. Northallerton Magistrates Court heard Jack Beattie, of Crescent Road, Middlesbrough, struggled to get out of the passenger seat of a car found in a ditch at Sheepwash, on the North York Moors, near Osmotherley, at 6.30am on March 17. Michael Hammond, prosecuting, said North Yorkshire Police officers PC Mark Thompson and PC Mark Waller had found the 23-year-old in the car with two friends after binge drinking. When Beattie left the car, he stumbled and slapped a police officer on the back several times, punched one on the chest before becoming embroiled in a brawl that saw him on top of an officer on the ground, leading to the officer suffering cuts and bruises. Beattie thrashed around on the ground and attempted to persuade a friend to smash the windows of the nearby police car before he was subdued. The court was told Beattie, who admitted being drunk and disorderly and two counts of assaulting a police officer, had previous convictions for assault, being drunk and disorderly and assaulting a police officer. Nick Woodward, mitigating, said: "He accepts that he and his friends had been drinking heavily before. He accepts that he sarcastically slapped one of the officers on the back." Magistrate Ron Stead told Beattie he would also be subject to a 12-month community order.Pro-lifers at the University of California at Davis were heckled by pro-choice student-protesters who grabbed their flyers and threw them on the ground—in full view of a campus security officer. The counter-protest was organized by the UC-Davis Women's Resources and Research Center, which enlisted students to make "content warning signs"—visual trigger warnings—and even hold umbrellas for pro-choice demonstrators (so they don't get sunburns, I guess?). The center also provided counselors for any pro-choice demonstrators who were traumatized by the event. "Mind Spa Peer Counselors will also provide empathetic listening, support, and access to Mind Spa Services on the first floor of North Hall," a representative of the Center wrote on its Facebook page. In other words, the Women's Center did everything it could to provide a safe space—and a "mind spa"—for pro-choice students. But if anyone needed a safe space, it was probably the pro-life students. After all, pro-choice demonstrators grabbed their materials and threw them on the ground. This interaction was caught on video, and generated widespread applause. A campus security officer talked to the aggressor, but did not discipline her, according to Campus Reform. It would be nice if pro-choice students could exercise their First Amendment rights without violating anyone else's.Tomorrow, Sunday 6th November, the legendary Mankind Tracer – in real life one very talented Seth Regan will be hosting his annual “Peace Love and Belief” (PLB) concert across Second Life. Marking its fifth year, PLB will be broadcast across a total of 60 sims (eight more than last year), with Seth performing for two hours between 12:00 and 14:00 SLT. This year, 50% of all proceeds will be given to research into Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which affects some 350,000 people worldwide, and leads to some 50% of victims dying within three years of diagnosis. The show will comprise live video and audio streams to the 60 sims involved in the event, and Seth himself will be appearing in-world at one of the locations to take requests. Regions participating in the event comprise: Solace Beach, Black Sand Beach, The Majestic, JSP Lounge, Chompers, The Mad Hatter, Club Graffiti Mary Jane Shoes, The Bay, Best of SL (BOSL), Monaco Yachts, Brews & Blues, The Hourglass, Gizza Creations, Miss Darcy!, Champion Horses, Cranberry Cove, MJ’s Blues and Dance, Big Bad Wolf Road House, NY HealthScape Expo Center, Hobo Juke Joint, Mojo Haven Blues and Rock Club, The Rose Theatre, Club NaggnRoth, Bakari’s Island Paradise, Two Moon Paradise, Club Blue Twilight, Neon Moon Lounge, Palazzo Celestiale, Club Myst, Cerridwen’s Cauldron, Nouvel Eden, White Tigers Island, Cafe Andromeda, Villa Lobos, The Crazy Parrot, Crossroads Bar, Yehonatan, Palm Springs, Phoenatopia, Club Kasra, Key west, Fire n Ice, Paris Metro, Plaza Luna, Frank’s Elite Jazz, The Labyrinth Theater, Warung Beats, The SL Enquirer, Sanctuary Beach, Mahalo Kai, PRAKA, Kickin Club, Dream Isle of Love, Giant Snail Races, Blue Bloods Mall, Twisted Thorne Textures, Global Online Hockey Association, The New Colour Factory, Absolut Model District. Sadly, I can’t include LMs for each venue – I’d be hopping all over the Grid with no time for anything else :). However, each venue will have a Landmark board with a clickable list of venues, which will ease getting to one if you find the first you choose is too crowded. You may, however, wish to start your journey from the board at Good Day Sunshine, or see the Destination Guide. AdvertisementsThis list acts as a part 2 of ‘10 Things You Ought to Know‘. Again, the facts here are all from ‘The Book Of General Ignorance‘, based on the British TV show ‘Qi’. The book is written by John Lloyd and forwarded by presenter of Qi, Stephen Fry, and contains a multitude of interesting facts from the show. Although all facts are quite interesting, I learned from the last list that there is always a level of dispute regarding the authenticity of the information involved, however, to the best of my knowledge, they are true!! And quite interesting! 10 Highest Mountain Where is the highest mountain? It’s on mars. The super-giant volcano called Olympus Mons (Latin for mount Olympus) is the largest single mountain in the solar system and, at the moment, the know universe. At 14 miles (22 km) high and 388 miles (624 km) across, it is almost three times as high as mount Everest, and so wide it’s base would cover Arizona, or the whole of Britain. The crater is easily large enough to swallow London. However Olympos mons doesn’t conform to people’s idea of a mountain; its sides are so slightly inclined, you wouldn’t even break a sweat if you climbed it. 9 Nostrils How many nostrils have you got? Four. Two you can see, two you can’t. This discovery came from watching how fish breathe. Fish get their oxygen from water, most of them have two pair of nostrils, a forward facing set for letting water in and two ‘exhaust pipes’ for letting water out. So, since humans evolved from fish, where did the other nostrils go? The answer is, they migrated inward, towards the back of the head, to become internal nostrils called ‘choannae’ – Greek for ‘funnels’. They connect to the throat and are what allow us to breathe through our noses. Some recent research on noses shows that we may use each nostril to detect different kinds of smells. 8 Headless Chickens How long can a chicken live without its head? About 2 years, but that’s just the one chicken, so far. On 10th September, 1945, a young cockerel/rooster in Fruita, Colorado, had it’s head chopped off and lived. Incredibly, the axe left the jugular vein intact, and left enough of the brain stem to, apparently, keep the rooster chirping. Mike, as he came to be known, was something of a national celebrity in his time, featuring in Time magazine. His owner, Lloyd Olsen, charged twenty-five cents to see ‘Mike the headless wonder chicken’ in sideshows across the USA. At the height of his career, Mike was making around $4,500 a week, and was valued at $10,000. Mike was fed and watered using an eyedropper, but tragedy struck one night when Mike’s owner had left his eyedropper at a previous show. Unable to clear his airways, Mike choked to death. 7 Toilet Water Which way does the toilet water spin when flushed? It depends, not on which side of the equator you are on, but on the shape of your toilet bowl. The widely held belief that the Coriolis force, created by the earth’s spin, that drives toilet water into a spiral, is untrue. Although it does influence very large, long lasting weather patterns such as hurricanes and ocean currents, it is by orders of magnitude far too weak to affect domestic plumbing. The direction of the water spin is determined by the shape of the bowl, the direction in which water is ejected into the bowel when flushed and by vortices introduced when the flushing action begins. 6 Camel Humps What do camels store in their humps? Fat, not water. The fat stored in the humps of camels is used as an energy reserve. Water is stored throughout their bodies, predominantly in their bloodstream, which makes them very good at avoiding dehydration. Camels can go seven days without drinking, but when they do drink, they really go for it: up to 225 liters (50 gallons) a time! Enough to easily keep a family of four satisfied on the driest of summer afternoons. On a different note, camel-racing in the United Arab Emirates has started to use robot jockeys, in place of traditional child riders. The remotely controlled jockeys were introduced following the ban of the use of children under the age of 16 in races. 5 US States How many states are there in the USA? This is merely a technicality, but there are actually just forty six. Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts are all officially Commonwealths. This grants them no special constitutional powers; they simply chose the word to describe themselves at the end of the war of independence. Virginia, named after the ‘Virgin’ Queen Elizabeth I, was one of the original 13 states (hence the 13 stripes on the flag, although common knowledge in the US, this bit of trivia is an excellent little factlet for us non-Americans) and the first of the states to declare itself a Commonwealth, in 1776. Pennsylvania and Massachusetts followed suit shortly afterwards, and Kentucky, which was formally a county of Virginia, became a Commonwealth in 1792. 4 Thai Capital What is the capital city of Thailand? Bangkok, although it hasn’t been called that for around 200 years. The city’s day to day name is actually Krung Thep (pronounced Grung Cape), and is referred to as such throughout Thailand. Only us ignorant foreigners call it Bangkok. Krung Thep means ‘City of Angels’ (the same as Los Angeles) and is an abbreviation of the full name, which is possibly the largest place name in the world. The full official name is ‘Krungthep Mahanakhon Amorn Rattanakosin Mahintara Yudthaya Mahadilok Pohp Noparat Rajathanee Bureerom Udomrajniwes Mahasatarn Amorn Pimarn Avaltarnsatit Sakatattiya Visanukram Prasit’. In Thai, this is written as a single word of 152 letters. It translates roughly as ‘Great City of Angels the supreme repository of divine jewels, the great land unconquerable, the grand and prominent realm, the royal and delightful capital city full of nine noble gems, the highest royal dwelling and grand palace, the divine shelter and living space of reincarnated spirits’, quite a mouth full I’m sure you’d agree. 3 Ice Age When did the last ice-age end? We’re still in it. Geographers define an ice age as a period of the Earth’s history when there are polar ice caps. Our climate is in an ‘interglacial’ period, which doesn’t mean we are between ice ages, but means we are in a period of time when the ice retreats to the poles because of warmer temperatures. The period started 10,000 years ago, in what we think is the fourth Ice age. When the ice age will end is anyone’s guess, estimates range between 12,000 to 50,000 years (without man-made influences). Causes of the natural fluctuations in global temperature are not well understood, theories range from the locations the continents happen to be in, atmospheric components, the position of the Earth’s rotation, and even the position of the Sun’s rotation in the galaxy! 2 Sound Barrier What was the first invention to break the sound barrier? The whip. Whips were invented in China 7,000 years ago, but it wasn’t until the Invention of high speed photography, in 1927, that the ‘crack’ of the whip was shown to be a mini sonic boom, and not the leather hitting the handle/floor. The sound is caused by the small loop that forms in the whipping action of the leather, as the loop travels along the loop, it builds in speed, until, at the end of the whip, it breaks the sounds barrier at about 742 mph! The first aircraft to break the sound barrier was the Bell XI, piloted by Chuck Yeager, in 1947. 1 Evolution What did Human beings evolve from? This will probably be the best known fact on the list, but I thought I’d include it anyway. At no point did Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, or any right-minded evolutionary biologist since, ever insinuate that human beings evolved from chimps, or any ape for that matter. The theory of Evolution through natural selection states that Homo sapiens share a common ancestor with all members of the Ape family. The common ancestor lived more than five million years ago. This organism evolved from squirrel-like tree shrews, which, in turn, evolved from hedgehogs, and way before that, starfish.If you would like to see more articles like this please support our coverage of the space program by becoming a Spaceflight Now Member. If everyone who enjoys our website helps fund it, we can expand and improve our coverage further. Expect fewer missions to study planet Earth in NASA’s future, agency officials told an advisory group last week. A blueprint of the Trump administration’s proposed NASA budget would cancel four Earth science missions already in the agency’s portfolio and slash research funding geared toward future projects. NASA officials said last week that the proposal, if enacted, will reduce the scope of the agency’s Earth science program, but still continue development of many key missions. “I’d say science funding was stable at the top line,” said Robert Lightfoot, NASA’s acting administrator. “Some missions in development will clearly not go forward in the Earth science arena.” The White House’s budget document released March 16 was light on details, but the Trump administration proposed a $19.1 billion budget for NASA in fiscal year 2018, which begins Oct. 1. The agency’s Earth science division would get $1.8 billion, roughly 6 percent less than enacted in fiscal year 2016. “We continue to be committed to studying our home planet,” Lightfoot said Thursday in an address to the NASA Advisory Council. “We’ll reshape our focus based on the resources available to us, and the budget, while it’s lower, is still in pretty good shape for us, for what we’re going to do in Earth science.” Four Earth science missions are singled out for cancellation in the preliminary budget blueprint. The Earth-observing component of the Deep Space Climate Observatory, a mission led by NOAA, is on the cutting block. The DSCOVR spacecraft, stationed at the L1 Lagrange point nearly a million miles from Earth, is primarily used by NOAA to produce space weather warnings, but it also hosts two Earth science instruments that fall under NASA management. The budget overview released last month proposes the end of analysis and support work for the NASA-managed Earth science sensors on DSCOVR, which include a camera looking back at Earth providing multiple color images of the “blue marble” every day. DSCOVR launched in February 2015 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The analysis work conducted by NASA on DSCOVR’s Earth science instruments include “mission operations and algorithm monitoring, calibration and validation,” said Michael Freilich, NASA’s Earth science division director. The other three Earth science missions that could be canceled include Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3, or OCO-3, an instrument built from spares developed for NASA’s OCO-2 satellite. The OCO-3 instrument was planned to launch as soon as next year inside a commercial resupply ship for attachment to the International Space Station, where it was designed to monitor concentrations of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere. Another mission NASA recently approved to start development could also be ended. A demonstration of sensor technology for the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory, or CLARREO, was scheduled for launch to the space station in 2020. The CLARREO Pathfinder project, identified for cancellation in the White House budget overview, would have reduced technical risk for a future satellite mission in the 2020s aimed at detecting changing climate trends. The fourth project that would fall victim to the Trump administration’s proposed cuts is PACE, short for the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud and ocean Ecosystem mission, set for launch around 2022. PACE is being developed as a standalone satellite to examine the interactions between Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, with an emphasis on monitoring ocean color to study marine food webs, harmful algal blooms and other aquatic organisms. NASA’s planetary science division, which oversees the agency’s robotic probes sent throughout the solar system, would fare better under President Trump’s budget, which calls for $1.9 billion for interplanetary exploration next year. That is an increase of nearly 17 percent over the planetary science budget approved by Congress for fiscal year 2016. NASA would see a 0.8 percent reduction in its overall budget from this year under the Trump proposal. Thomas Zurbuchen, head of NASA’s science mission directorate, said March 28 that the budget proposal would still offer a “sizable” level of funding in Earth science. “What you see is the first step of the process that always happens,” Zurbuchen told members of the National Academy of Science’s Space Studies Board. “The first step of a process that, based on normal circumstances in the past, changes.” The White House budget office is expected to submit a more detailed line-by-line budget request to Congress in May. The “skinny” budget document released last month offers few details on Trump’s vision for the federal budget, but it would cut most discretionary spending programs and seeks a $54 billion uptick in military spending. “That will be what goes to Congress,” Freilich said March 28. “That will represent the input to the congressional process to come up with an appropriations bill.” Lawmakers will write a budget for NASA later this year, or vote on a continuing resolution to keep the government’s agencies operating with minor funding modifications. “We have every expectation that the detailed FY18 budget proposal that will be coming out in May puts flesh on the ‘skinniness’ of the blueprint,” said Freilich, who added that NASA expects the detailed proposal to hold to the $1.8 billion top line number for the Earth science division included in last month’s White House budget overview. The budget blueprint did not mention any changes in funding for other major NASA Earth science missions, such as the ICESat 2 satellite scheduled for launch in late 2018 to track changes in Earth’s polar ice. The Earth science division’s new “Earth Venture” initiative to select relatively low-cost research missions through competitions also remained untouched. The Earth Venture program was pioneered by the development and launch of NASA’s eight CYGNSS hurricane research satellites in December. NASA officials offered no further information on additional Earth science cuts that could be proposed with the release of the final budget request in May, but Freilich did not rule out that more of his division’s missions might be terminated by the time a final budget is approved by Congress and signed into law. Email the author. Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1. Comments will be monitored for language.The Chuck Hagel debate has moved into a new phase: the neoconservatives are completely on the defensive. NYT op-eds by Tom Friedman (“Give Chuck a Chance“) and James Besser (“Don’t Let Pro-Israel Extremists Sink Chuck Hagel”) have now successfully positioned Hagel as a centrist being attacked by extremists. And the neoconservatives have got their back up, as you will see below. This is what MJ Rosenberg– who framed this mainstream debate as much as anyone by sticking to his guns on Israel-firster, thereby calling out the Iran-war neocons for dual loyalty, a strategy that played out in the presidential election– always said: the minute that politicians begin to get sharp questions at press conferences (from mainstream reporters) about their reflexive support for Israel, the debate will change. This new phase suggests that even if Obama, subject to his usual “invertebracy” (as Idrees Ahmad puts it), doesn’t put Hagel’s name forward, the neoconservatives have become a punching bag in the discourse. Though of course many of those delivering the blows supported the Iraq war, as Hagel himself did. The American Jewish Committee has responded angrily to James Besser’s “Pro-Israel Extremists” article in the New York Times. Note ahead of time that Besser was the Washington correspondent for The Jewish Week from 1987 to 2011 and was a syndicated columnist for several Jewish newspapers. AJC’s David Harris wants to portray him as a nutjob. But Harris is himself shrill: Essentially, the author argues that a group of wealthy right-wing zealots now call the shots in American Jewry. They have either taken over or, at the very least, intimidated mainstream groups like AJC into supporting, openly or quietly, their extremist agenda. This includes settlement expansion and seeking to silence anyone who doesn’t yield to their political orthodoxies. To be blunt, this is absolute and total rubbish. …….. Decision-making and direction are determined by AJC’s Board of Governors through discussion and debate, involving close cooperation between lay leadership and staff. We welcome different points of view among our leaders and outside speakers who inform our thinking, a long-standing hallmark of AJC. David Harris, please show me any meaningful statements the AJC has made against settlement expansion. Here are some more defensive misleading statements, which culminate in Harris’s real concern, Hagel won’t support a war on Iran: Third, our stance on Israel-related issues is staunchly centrist and non-ideological. An incredibly long paper and voice trail underscores that point, as do the daily examples of our diplomatic and political advocacy…… Project Interchange, AJC’s educational initiative bringing leaders from different sectors in the U.S. and other countries to Israel, visits Ramallah regularly to meet with the Palestinian Authority. AJC’s Board of Governors, during its upcoming visit to Israel, also will meet with PA leaders, as it has consistently done on previous trips…. There are good reasons to be concerned about Hagel in the Pentagon, and one need not be a “zealot” or “extremist” to hold such views….. Hagel’s voting record and statements on Iran-related issues alone should give pause to anyone who wonders what message his appointment could send to Tehran. At the neoconservative Weekly Standard, Daniel Halpern is also on the defensive. The attacks are hitting a nerve: Instead, these articles (and many more like them) just attack those concerned that Hagel is not the right man for the job. No one, I believe, is actually making the argument that Hagel is well qualified to be secretary of defense Let’s move on to the Hagel supporters. Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council has a prominent op-ed at Huffington Post that begins by stating that the right is now on the run over the Hagel possibility: The right wing pro-Israel forces — described by the New York Times today as “extremists” — seem to be falling on their swords. They are learning that Senator Chuck Hagel is the wrong guy to pick a fight with… Hagel’s detractors appear to be motivated by two factors. First, vengeance over Hagel’s push to have the U.S. leave Iraq and end the neoconservatives’ pet project. Second, fear that Hagel’s independence and insistence on asking tough questions and ensuring that force is only used as a measure of last resort will complicate the neoconservatives’ other pet project: preventive war with Iran. Hagel is no pacifist. There is nothing in his record that suggests that he would categorically oppose using force. After all, he did vote in favor of the Iraq war. But on Iran, his presence in the Obama administration would inject a much-needed dose of clear-sighted realism and strategic thinking. He would provide Obama’s national security team with the patience needed to ensure that America doesn’t commit another strategic mistake such as Iraq. Precisely because of his own military background, he knows full well the cost of impatience and ill-conceived wars. I’m glad that Parsi brought up Hagel’s Iraq war vote. Hagel tries to rationalize it in his 2008 book, but it’s completely inconsistent with the antiwar mindset he supposedly brought, wounded, out of Vietnam. At Al Jazeera, Muhammad Idrees Ahmad marvels that the Israel lobby, “an interest group lobbying on behalf of a foreign state,” has been able to impose a rigid litmus test on White House appointments. First he surveys the anti-Hagel forces: The ECI [Emergency Committee for Israel], a relatively new actor, has not been alone in targeting Hagel. It has been ably assisted by the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, AIPAC, the Republican Jewish Coalition, the National Jewish Democratic Council, The Israel Project, and the Zionist Organisation of America. Affiliates from both within and outside the government have gone on the offensive. The op-ed pages of the Washington Post, the Weekly Standard and the Wall Street Journal have all helped amplify the smears. The chorus has been joined by the familiar cast of Israel apologists in Congress, led by Chuck Schumer, Joseph Lieberman and Eliot Engel. Besides accusing Hagel of “endemic hostility towards Israel”, one of them, Engel, has also detected a “prejudice”. Then he laments the influence of the lobby. “Every appointee to the American government”, [Natasha Mozgovaya of Haaretz] wrote, “must endure a thorough background check by the American Jewish community.” This is a curious position for a democracy to find itself in where an interest group lobbying on behalf of a foreign state can exercise veto power over government appointments based on ideological litmus tests. The distortion it engenders has been obvious in the disastrous course of recent US foreign policy. For the majority of Americans who are tired of perpetual war, the battle over Hagel’s appointment presents an opportunity to check this decline. They can finally confront the forces of militarism and restore much-needed sanity. It is not a coincident that the line-up of Hagel’s detractors looks remarkably similar to the line-up that promoted the Iraq war and is eager to bomb Iran. Hagel is far from a perfect candidate but he has many qualities that make his candidacy worth defending. (P.S. If Haaretz reports that the “Jewish community” is vetting appointments, then isn’t Hagel excused for speaking of the Israel lobby as the “Jewish lobby”?) It’s interesting that J Street, the kinder gentler Israel lobby, is now fundraising using the Hagel possibility as a benchmark battle against the neocons– “Extremism in our community”: We’re pushing back hard against fierce, personal attacks against Senator Chuck Hagel’s possible nomination to be Secretary of Defense – the kind that intimidate politicians and policy makers into silence. Now, Washington knows that a serious pro-Israel lobby will have their back if they’re attacked for refusing to take only the most hawkish positions on Israel. Though the statement is also aimed at the likes of me, for being too critical of the blessed Jewish state in the face of sensible moderate liberal Zionists, the impact of the statement lands almost entirely on neocons, who are “in our community.” I.e., inside the Jewish establishment. In that vein, Robert Naiman, another two-stater, has a list of all those supporting Hagel against the “jackboot of the neocons.” What do we want the next four years to be like? Do we want to spend the next four years under the jackboot of the neocons, even though we beat them in the last three presidential elections, starting with the 2008 Democratic primary? If we don’t want to spend the next four years under the jackboot of the neocons, then we have to stop the neocons from blocking the nomination of diplomacy advocate, war skeptic and decorated Vietnam combat veteran Chuck Hagel to be the next Secretary of Defense. Oh and here’s a CNN panel trashing Hagel, mostly over his “aggressively gay” slur (14 years old, for which he’s apologized) and featuring Republican pundit Ana Navarro saying that a Hagel appointment would be “obtuse,” offending critical constituencies, including the pro-Israel crowd, and is therefore “DOA.” She also says that Israel advocates are not a “special interest.” Huh. Thanks to Annie, and James Wall. .Since Nintendo finally entered the mobile gaming market with their partnership with DeNA, they released some details about their business model at their 75th annual shareholder meeting. According to Nintendo's CEO, Satoru Iwata, the company's upcoming mobile games will be "free to start", meaning there won't be an up-front cost to try the game, but players will need to spend money to unlock the full game. This means that Nintendo will not be adhering to the traditional "free to play" with cash shop model that most mobile games use to monetize. Nintendo further explained their strategy by emphasizing the need to appeal to a broad audience without specifically targeting "whales", which are big spenders in free to play games. This free to try but buy to unlock model is interesting because it prevents games from becoming pay to win, but on the downside it's hard to get people to fork over money for mobile games. Mr. Iwata's statement: ... people often call it the “free-to-play” system. However, since Nintendo is a company that wants the value of the games to be appreciated by consumers and wants to keep the games’ value at as high a level as possible, we do not want to use the free-to-play terminology that implies that you can play games free-of-charge.... If I can add a few more explanations about the free-to-start system, even though you can start playing with the application for free, it later requires you to pay if you want to play beyond the initial area or to pay for items if you want to play the game in a more advantageous position. Personally, I think Nintendo is making a mistake. The free to play model is the most profitable business model for mobile games and companies like Mixi (Monster Strike) and GungHo (Puzzle & Dragon) have proven that a single successful game can make millions per day. Hopefully Nintendo isn't late to the game and can make a name for themselves in the rapidly growing mobile games market. Source: Nintendo 75th Annual Shareholders Meeting Q&A. Details on the mobile business model available on page #3.Thank You, Chester Bennington. Brendan Farrell Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 20, 2017 In 2007 my mom got me an iPod Nano for Christmas. The first thing I did was download Hybrid Theory, Meteora, and the newly released Minutes to Midnight. Those three albums quickly became the only thing I’d ever listen to on my free time. A year later when Linkin Park released Road To Revolution: Live at Milton Keynes I was completely consumed with the live talent that Linkin Park brought to the table. I was enamored and obsessed immediately, keeping their entire discography on loop every single day. In the summer of 2010 the only thing on my mind was the new Halo game coming out on September 8th. But then Linkin Park announced that their fourth album, A Thousand Suns, would be released that same day. I skipped out on the midnight release of Halo: Reach with my friends and instead picked up a CD of A Thousand Suns and was so preoccupied with the album that I didn’t even get around to Halo until two days later. I have vivid memories of being 12 years old and sitting in my bed with my door locked listening to A Thousand Suns and playing Halo: Reach that to this day still stand out to me. Myself and Mike, respectively, before our Mohegan Sun concert (August 12, 2012). This is the first photo I ever posted on Instagram. When Living Things was released in 2012, I knew it was time to finally spend my money to see them live. My friend Mike and I went to Mohegan Sun in Connecticut on August 12, 2012 and had the pleasure of watching Linkin Park play in one of the first shows of their Living Things tour. I remember screaming the lyrics to Bleed It Out in Mike’s face, I remember shedding tears when the whole arena had their phone flash
luxury prohibited in Cuba until an ailing Castro gave up power in 2006 to his younger brother, Raul, who began a series of slow reforms. The ashes arrived late Wednesday in the central city of Santa Clara, where they spent the night at a memorial to fellow revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, whose remains are interred in Santa Clara. The second leg of the journey is to take the ashes to the eastern city of Camaguey. They will be interred Sunday in the far-eastern city of Santiago, ending a nine-day period of mourning that saw Cuba fall silent as thousands paid tribute to photographs of Fidel Castro and sign oaths of loyalty to his socialist, single-party system across the country on Monday and Tuesday. With files from The Associated PressJust in time for the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and upcoming Triple Crown, NBC Sports Live Extra is now available on the Roku and Apple TV streaming platforms via TV everywhere. Authenticated subscribers of cable and satellite operators can access Live Extra's more than 3,000 live events per year. In addition to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Triple Crown, Live Extra streams all live sports content televised by NBC, NBCSN and Golf Channel, including: the Summer and Winter Olympics; Sunday Night Football and NBC's NFL pre-season and post-season coverage; NHL regular-season games; the PGA TOUR, including the FedExCup Playoffs, and the LPGA; the Premier League; studio content surrounding many of the aforementioned properties; and original programming such as The Dan Patrick Show and Men In Blazers. "We are constantly striving to provide our content to consumers on the newest platforms, which now includes connected TVs," said Rick Cordella, SVP and GM for digital media at NBC Sports Group. "From the Olympics to Sunday Night Football to the Stanley Cup Playoffs to Triple Crown and much more, millions of [additional] customers can now stream NBC Sports Live Extra's unprecedented portfolio of sports rights, award-winning production and unparalleled roster of commentators."The strongest nation in the world should not have to rely on politically connected firms to provide security for our military’s supply chain in Afghanistan. Massachusetts Congressional candidate Rob McCarthy says the bribes must stop now. Rob McCarthy for Congress in Massachusetts End -- Saugus – Responding to a recently published report that claims U.S. tax money may be funding Afghan insurgents Rob McCarthy, Republican candidate for Congress in Massachusetts sixth district, said, “This has got to stop now.”“I'm a Marine and as a Marine I know you don't send our military off to fight a war without all the resources they need,” McCarthy said. “Whether anyone thinks we should have ever went there does not matter, what does matter is our military is in Afghanistan and they should be given all the support and resources they need.”“It is absolutely ridiculous that the strongest nation in the world is relying on politically connected firms to provide security for our military’s supply chain,” McCarthy added. “Perhaps if John Tierney, Nancy Pelosi and President Obama had ever served in uniform we might treat this war differently.”“The safety of our troops is what matters most,” McCarthy continued. “If that means sending additional troops to protect the supply chain ourselves, then so be it. It’s certainly safer, better and more reliable than using politically connected firms who do nothing more than pay bribes to warlords.”“The bribes are being paid with U.S. taxpayer money and then in all likelihood being used to finance attacks on our troops,” McCarthy said. “The bribes must stop now.”# # #Rob McCarthy is running for Congress in the 6th Congressional District of Massachusetts. Rob was an officer in the Marine Corps and now operates a law practice in Saugus. He is a life long resident of Massachusetts, is married and has three children.In Massachusetts, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are running neck and neck. Nationally, though, it’s a different story — Trump is winning Halloween in a landslide. Local retailers say the two presidential candidates are easily the most popular costumes this Halloween, with blond wigs, faux pearls, and orange makeup flying off the shelves. But while the candidates appear to be splitting the popular vote in Boston-area costume shops, Spirit Halloween, which has stores around the country, said Trump is easily leading its national Presidential Mask Index, 55 percent to 45 percent. Advertisement That’s a number worth watching because Spirit says that since 1996, the candidate with the best-selling mask has gone on to win the presidential election. Get Metro Headlines in your inbox: The 10 top local news stories from metro Boston and around New England delivered daily. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here “Any time there’s a presidential election, the candidates are going to be the popular costumes,” said Jeanne Keenan, the owner of the Costume Company in Arlington, which sold its last Trump mask on Saturday. This Halloween, Keenan said, Trump jumped out to a lead with early buyers — Trump masks were selling big as far back as September — but Clinton has made a steady comeback. “You can do more with Trump because he’s more of a fun character and Hillary is nondescript, but we’ve seen some creative Hillarys,” she said. “One went as Superwoman Hillary; another went as jail Hillary.” Indeed, choosing to dress as a candidate is not necessarily an endorsement. Advertisement In a poll Spirit did with 2,000 adults, the top reason people said they were dressing up as Trump was to be funny, while the top reason people were dressing as Clinton was because they like her. According to the Spirit poll, those who dressed as Trump were twice as likely to be doing it to mock the candidate, as opposed to those who dressed as Clinton — 32 percent versus 16 percent. Democrats and Republicans were evenly split in another category: About 1 in 4 said the reason they were dressing as the opposition candidate was “to frighten America.” “I’ve voted Republican my whole life, but I am not voting for Trump,” said George Leavitt, 41, of Salem, N.H., who dressed as Trump for a Halloween party on Saturday. “I just thought it would be funny, and we’ve got a similar build, and I needed to buy a new suit anyway,” he said. When he went to buy the suit, the tailor told him he should get it a few sizes too big if he really wanted to look like Trump. Advertisement “My wife painted my face orange and my eyes white, and I thought my costume was going to start more of a political discussion, but people just laughed,” he said. He was the only Trump at his party, but not the only Trump-themed costume. There were two different women dressed as Miss Universe, and they both rushed up to take a photo with him. Chris Roddick, 35, of Hyde Park, took his Trump costume to another level by covering his power suit with Trumpisms — “Nasty woman” and “Rigged” were two of the more printable lines — as he went party hopping in Provincetown Saturday night. “I ran into a couple of other Trumps, and a woman in a Hillary costume,” said Roddick, who plans to vote for Clinton. “I told her she was going to jail.” The National Retail Federation says that consumer spending on Halloween jumps each presidential election year, and that 4 percent of adults over the age of 35 will be wearing a political costume this year, making it the third most-popular category after witches and pirates. In 2008, when President Obama was first elected, Halloween retail sales jumped 14 percent over the previous year, much of it on the heels of the wildly popular Sarah Palin costumes. In 2012, when Obama won reelection over Mitt Romney, Halloween sales again jumped, up 16 percent over the previous year, according to the National Retail Federation, which is predicting that Halloween sales this year will jump to an all-time high of $8.4 billion. At Boston Costume in Cambridge, which is located inside The Garment District, a vintage clothing store, manager Sean Clark said people have been combing the racks for pantsuits and power ties. They’ve already sold out of masks for both candidates, and Clark said he’d give a slight edge to Clinton in popularity. “If anything, Trump was more popular last Halloween,” Clark said, “when all this stuff was just starting.” Billy Baker can be reached at billybaker@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @billy_bakerA least 22 people, including 13 policemen have been injured in two days of clashes between ethnic groups and police in the Republic of Macedonia's capital, Skopje. Police have used tear gas and stun grenades to quell the crowd as they demolished a bus station in front of the government building, burned Macedonian flag and threw stones at police lines. Cars and shops have also been vandalized. Police say 18 people were arrested so far, five of whom are minors. The demonstrations which have begun on March 1 were started by ethnic Macedonians furious at the appointment of ethnic Albanian Talat Xhaferi's as defense minister. The next day, Saturday, ethnic Albanians staged their own protest in the capital. Both protests turned violent, with Macedonians and Albanians clashing with police. Xhaferi, a former rebel guerrilla commander, was named defense minister on February 20. In the 2001 conflict he fought for the rights of Macedonia's 25 percent ethnic Albanian minority seeking greater rights for their community. Ethnic tension has been simmering in Macedonia since the end of the 8-month-long armed rebellion. The conflict left 80 people dead and ended with the intervention of NATO troops. Ethnic Albanians, who are mostly Muslim, make up nearly a third of Macedonia's population of 2.1 million people in a country that is majority Orthodox Christian."PTH Promotes Allograft Integration in a Calvarial Bone Defect" Molecular Pharmaceutics Bone grafts, which are used to treat head injuries and birth defects, still pose major medical challenges, but scientists are reporting progress toward a new hormone therapy that could improve the outcomes of these surgeries. Their study, which was conducted on mice, appears in the ACS journal Molecular Pharmaceutics. Zulma Gazit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Edward Schwarz from Rochester University and colleagues note that surgeons perform nearly 100,000 head and facial bone-grafting procedures every year to treat bone loss from disease, birth defects or traumatic injuries. Though this kind of reconstructive surgery dates back to ancient times, the options for implant materials remain limited. Doctors can remove bone from another part of a patient’s body or use lab-made materials, but these methods can lead to serious complications. Currently, one of the preferred alternatives is to use bone grafts received from tissue banks, but they often don’t join with the bone they’re supposed to fix. Preliminary studies have shown that parathyroid hormone (PTH), a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat osteoporosis, helps repair fractures in long bones. The team wanted to see if PTH also would help head and facial donor grafts fuse into place. They tested the hormone in mice with skull defects that they implanted with donor grafts. Daily short-term PTH treatment improved bone formation around the grafts and prevented scar tissue, which can interfere with graft integration, from forming. “These findings will aid in the development of an attractive bone graft, which is readily available, for use in craniofacial reconstruction,” they say. The authors acknowledge funding from the U.S. National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (grant number DE019902)..- When a missile hit the roof of the church of Saint Francis Parish in Aleppo, Syria, the congregation didn’t flee. Instead, they continued Mass outside, confident in the Virgin Mary’s protection. “If the bomb had gone off on top of the dome, there could have been a tragedy,” said Father Ibrahim Alsabagh, the Mass celebrant. “Even if it had made the chandelier fall, it could have killed about 10 people. As I told my congregation, it was the Virgin's mantle that protected us.” About 400 people were attending Oct. 25 Sunday Mass, but only six suffered minor injuries. The attack took place at 5 p.m. According to the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the priest said that the missile was probably launched from the old town area of Aleppo, which is controlled by jihadist rebels. Fr. Alsabagh decided to continue Mass in the church garden after the faithful had calmed down. “Some people were surprised at my reaction. But it’s in the Lord that we find our strength, in union with Him through prayer. The strength to carry on, and even with more energy now that we have to repair our church,” he said. Fr. Alsabagh is a priest of the Franciscan Custodians of the Holy Land. He told ACN that the attack was tied to anti-Christian hatred. He said previous attacks have targeted this church as well. “There are some who want to eliminate any possible sign of reconciliation and openness,” he said. “We long for the end of this chaos and that we’ll soon be able to talk about these incidents as something from the past. And without fear that the attacks could happen again at any moment.” In recent weeks the bombardments in Aleppo and other Syrian cities have intensified since Russian warplanes began to take part in the four-year-old civil war. The Russian military command has reportedly maintained that it is targeting rebel and jihad groups, including both ISIS and U.S.-backed rebel groups, which are fighting against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, told NBC's Chuck Todd on Sunday that the Senate was putting together an obstruction of justice case against President Donald Trump. 'As you know, I'm ranking on Judiciary and the Judiciary Committee has an investigation going as well and it involves obstruction of justice,' she noted. 'And, I think, what we’re beginning to see is the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice.' The contents of the indictments and statements made by the White House show signs of obstruction of justice, Feinstein suggested. 'I see it in the hyper-frenetic attitude of the White House, the comments every day, the continual tweets,' she said. 'And I see it, most importantly, in what happened with the firing of Director Comey and it is my belief that that is directly because he did not agree to lift the cloud of the Russia investigation.' Comey was fired by President Trump in early May. 'That's obstruction of justice,' the top Judiciary Committee Democrat said. Sen. Dianne Feinstein suggested the Senate was putting together an obstruction of justice case against President Trump Sen. Dianne Feinstein (left), who is the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee and also a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, talked about the Capitol Hill probes with NBC's Chuck Todd (right) on Meet the Press Sen. Dianne Feinstein (left) told Meet the Press host Chuck Todd (right) that she hit an 'enough is enough' point with President Trump last month, though wouldn't openly call for impeachment President Trump has continually stated that he's not the individual who is under investigation, Todd reminded the senator, asking her if she thought Trump was. 'Well, I would assume that many in the White House are under investigation in this,' Feinstein said. She added that she did not believe that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty of lying to the FBI on Friday, was a 'rogue agent.' Flynn's plea was over conversations that he had with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak during the transition. Conversations he initially didn't tell authorities about. 'I don't believe that on his own conclusion, he would go out and try to tell the Russians in two instances, once to stop a national security resolution going through the United Nations regarding Israel, and on the sanctions that President Obama had just put in, urge that they not be tampered with by the transition committee,' Feinstein said. 'I think he had to have been directed,' she noted. 'Now whether the special counsel can find that evidence or not, whether we can, I don't know yet. But I see that that's where this is going.' Feinstein said that Flynn cooperating with Mueller's investigation doesn't necessarily slow down the probe the Senate Intelligence Committee, which she also sits on, is pursuing. 'I think the investigation that really has the clout is Bob Mueller's investigation,' she noted. 'He's got all the tools he needs, investigative and legal, to do what he needs to do. And I think what we're seeing is some of the fallout from that.' She suggested that witnesses are becoming more forthcoming to the Congressional committees probing Russia, because of Mueller's investigation. 'For example, Jared Kushner,' she said. Feinstein said she and Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, had sent Trump's son-in-law and top White House adviser a letter asking for information. 'He has agreed to give it,' Feinstein said. 'I think that's very important... I think there's no question, but that he is a principal in this.' She paused saying the doesn't make 'allegations.' 'But I think his testimony would be very important,' Feinstein said of Kushner. Todd also pressed Feinstein on impeachment, as Democratic super-donor Tom Steyer, who's also a Californian, has been running pro-impeachment advertisements on TV. Feinstein said she had to be cautious because of her role on the Judiciary Committee, which is investigating some of the Russia stuff, but that she was losing patience with this president. 'Now, I'm not without the powers of observation, or seeing what's going on around me,' Feinstein noted. 'The concern rises with the day,' she said. Todd interrupted and asked if she meant a concern over the president's ability to do his job. 'Oh yes, oh yes,' she answered. 'I've been here for 25 years now, there is a kind of instability, unpredictability. It’s one issue after the other. We’ve got major problems in the world with our allies now, in the Middle East, with North Korea. It goes on and on.' 'And I think that this president is just precipitating more and more angst that's going on to lead to serious discord,' she added. Todd asked when the longtime senator hits her 'enough is enough' moment. Feinstein confessed that had already passed. 'Well, it happened about a month ago, and I can’t give you any particular event,' she said. 'But it happens – you know, those of us that are here – understand how the White House functions.' 'And, as you begin to see, one day it's one story, the next day it's another story, the third day it's another story, it's very concerning to get at the truth,' she said. Todd tried taking it a step further, asking the senator, 'Do you believe it's time to think about getting him out of office?' Feinstein wasn't quite ready to make that proclamation yet. 'I believe it's time for us to finish our investigation and I don't want to bias any part of the investigation with premature thinking,' she answered. 'I think that's very important.'The computer hacker Jeremy Hammond has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for hacking into the computers of the private intelligence firm Stratfor. Hammond has admitted to being a member of the group Anonymous and to stealing files from Stratfor, as well as other government and corporate sites. Some five million Stratfor emails ended up on the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, showing how the firm monitors activists and spies for corporate clients. Hammond pleaded guilty earlier this year in part to avoid a longer sentence of at least 30 years in prison. He has already spent 18 months behind bars, some of it in solitary confinement. On Friday, Hammond attorney Sarah Kunstler said Hammond’s sentencing judge had overlooked his political motivations. Sarah Kunstler: “The words that the judge used a lot and that the government used a lot in their sentencing submission were'maximum mayhem.' And the government and the judge felt that the idea of causing mayhem or causing destruction was incompatible with Jeremy’s stated political goals. And we disagree with that. You know, advocating for political change, struggling for political change involves being disruptive at times. It involves being destructive at times. These are some ways the — sometimes the only pathways to change.” Hammond’s 10-year sentence is one of the longest ever in a criminal hacking case. During his sentencing, Hammond said an FBI informant had directed him to hack into the websites of several foreign governments, including Brazil, Iran and Turkey. According to Hammond, the FBI used him and other hackers to disrupt vulnerabilities in the home pages of foreign states. (Click here to watch Democracy Now’s full coverage of this press conference.)Abstract Importance Antipsychotics are used increasingly in youth for nonpsychotic and off-label indications, but cardiometabolic adverse effects and (especially) type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) risk have raised additional concern. Objective To assess T2DM risk associated with antipsychotic treatment in youth. Data Sources Systematic literature search of PubMed and PsycINFO without language restrictions from database inception until May 4, 2015. Data analyses were performed in July 2015, and additional analyses were added in November 2015. Study Selection Longitudinal studies reporting on T2DM incidence in youth 2 to 24 years old exposed to antipsychotics for at least 3 months. Data Extraction and Synthesis Two independent investigators extracted study-level data for a random-effects meta-analysis and meta-regression of T2DM risk. Main Outcomes and Measures The coprimary outcomes were study-defined T2DM, expressed as cumulative T2DM risk or as T2DM incidence rate per patient-years. Secondary outcomes included the comparison of the coprimary outcomes in antipsychotic-treated youth with psychiatric controls not receiving antipsychotics or with healthy controls Results Thirteen studies were included in the meta-analysis, including 185 105 youth exposed to antipsychotics and 310 438 patient-years. The mean (SD) age of patients was 14.1 (2.1) years, and 59.5% were male. The mean (SD) follow-up was 1.7 (2.3) years. Among them, 7 studies included psychiatric controls (1 342 121 patients and 2 071 135 patient-years), and 8 studies included healthy controls (298 803 patients and 463 084 patient-years). Antipsychotic-exposed youth had a cumulative T2DM risk of 5.72 (95% CI, 3.45-9.48; P <.001) per 1000 patients. The incidence rate was 3.09 (95% CI, 2.35-3.82; P <.001) cases per 1000 patient-years. Compared with healthy controls, cumulative T2DM risk (odds ratio [OR], 2.58; 95% CI, 1.56-4.24; P <.0001) and incidence rate ratio (IRR) (IRR, 3.02; 95% CI, 1.71-5.35; P <.0001) were significantly greater in antipsychotic-exposed youth. Similarly, compared with psychiatric controls, antipsychotic-exposed youth had significantly higher cumulative T2DM risk (OR, 2.09; 95% CI, 1.50-52.90; P <.0001) and IRR (IRR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.31-2.44; P <.0001). In multivariable meta-regression analyses of 10 studies, greater cumulative T2DM risk was associated with longer follow-up (P <.001), olanzapine prescription (P <.001), and male sex (P =.002) (r2 = 1.00, P <.001). Greater T2DM incidence was associated with second-generation antipsychotic prescription (P ≤.050) and less autism spectrum disorder diagnosis (P =.048) (r2 = 0.21, P =.044). Conclusions and Relevance Although T2DM seems rare in antipsychotic-exposed youth, cumulative risk and exposure-adjusted incidences and IRRs were significantly higher than in healthy controls and psychiatric controls. Olanzapine treatment and antipsychotic exposure time were the main modifiable risk factors for T2DM development in antipsychotic-exposed youth. Antipsychotics should be used judiciously and for the shortest necessary duration, and their efficacy and safety should be monitored proactively. Introduction Antipsychotics are used increasingly in youth for many psychiatric disorders, particularly second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs).1-3 Although antipsychotic use in youth had long been restricted to schizophrenia spectrum disorders,4,5 significant data for SGA efficacy have accumulated for nonpsychotic disorders, leading to regulatory approval for bipolar mania and irritability associated with autistic disorder and Tourette syndrome.6-9 However, antipsychotic use in youth has broadened substantially to many off-label indications,10,11 including impulsivity, mood dysregulation, aggressive behaviors, depression, and anxiety.12-15 Antipsychotic efficacy should be balanced against adverse effects, which requires adequate information concerning their short-term and (especially) long-term risks. Yet, little is known about long-term risks.16,17 Compared with first-generation antipsychotics (FGAs), SGAs have significantly fewer neuromotor adverse effects but generally have more cardiometabolic consequences, including weight gain, dyslipidemia, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).16,18-20 Because cardiometabolic effects, which can start even after short antipsychotic exposure and at low dosages,18,19,21 are associated with increased morbidity and premature mortality, they are a current focus of concern.18,22 Cardiometabolic adverse effects of antipsychotics tend to appear faster and to a greater extent in youth than in adults.21,23,24 Antipsychotic treatment results in relevant weight gain in a significant proportion of youth.23,25-27 Whether this overall heightened risk of short-term cardiometabolic adverse effects in youth compared with adults is due to developmental differences or because of less prior antipsychotic exposure and lifetime antipsychotic-related weight gain remains debated.16,17,21 In adults, there is a clear link between antipsychotic treatment and impaired glucose tolerance, insulin resistance, and risk for T2DM that seems to differ across agents,28-30with the most serious concerns revolving around SGAs.31-33 Despite the substantial use of SGAs in youth, far less is known about the T2DM risk in children and adolescents than in adults treated with antipsychotics.34-36 Given these uncertainties, a much smaller available database regarding the difficult-to-study long-term antipsychotic adverse effects in young people, and the importance of T2DM as a potential risk factor for cardiovascular disease,37 we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the incidence of T2DM in antipsychotic-exposed youth compared with psychiatric controls and healthy controls. In addition, we sought to identify potential moderators of T2DM risk. Based on the literature in adults, we hypothesized that antipsychotic treatment would be associated with significantly greater T2DM risk than in both control groups. Methods This systematic review was conducted in accord with the Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology38 guidelines and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses39 standard. Literature Search Two independent authors (B.G. and A.R.) searched PubMed/MEDLINE and PsycINFO without language restrictions from database inception until May 4, 2015, using the following search terms: (child* OR adolescent* OR pediatric OR youth) and (antipsych* OR neuroleptic) and (hemoglobin A1C OR HbA1C OR glucose OR hyperglycemia OR diabetes OR prediabetes OR insulin OR hyperinsulinemia). The electronic search was supplemented by a manual review of reference lists from eligible publications and relevant reviews. Authors were contacted for additional information. Inclusion Criteria We included longitudinal studies reporting on the incidence of T2DM (defined by American Diabetes Association40 criteria), prescription of antidiabetic medications, or recorded medical diagnosis of T2DM in at least 20 youth 0 to 24 years old exposed to antipsychotics for at least 3 months. When available, T2DM incidence data were included from psychiatric controls unexposed to antipsychotics or from healthy controls. Studies of individuals with T2DM at baseline that reported on the proportion receiving antipsychotics were ineligible for inclusion. Data Abstraction Two of us (B.G. and A.R.) abstracted all data, and any inconsistencies were resolved by consensus or by a third author (C.U.C.). When articles reported on overlapping samples, details of the largest study sample for each respective outcome were included. Data Analysis Demographic information about the pooled study samples was calculated by weighting the study mean values according to sample size. The unadjusted, cumulative T2DM risk was computed as the number of patients with new onset of study-defined T2DM divided by the number of individuals free of T2DM diagnosis and T2DM treatment at baseline. Incidence rates per patient-year were computed by dividing the number of patients with study-defined T2DM by the number of patient-years of follow-up. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs were computed by comparing the unadjusted, cumulative T2DM risk in youth exposed to antipsychotics vs the unadjusted, cumulative T2DM risk in psychiatric control youth or healthy control youth and between the 2 control groups. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and 95% CIs were used to compare the T2DM incidence rates per patient-year in antipsychotic-exposed youth vs psychiatric control youth or healthy control youth and between the 2 control groups. Data were analyzed with a software program (Comprehensive Meta-Analysis, version 2; http://www.meta-analysis.com). All analyses used a random-effects model41 and were 2-sided, with α =.05. Heterogeneity was assessed with the I2 statistic,42 where I2 of at least 50% indicated significant heterogeneity. The number needed to harm (NNH) was calculated by dividing 1 by the risk difference. We also conducted exploratory subgroup, sensitivity, and meta-regression analyses to identify potential moderators of the unadjusted, cumulative T2DM risk and incidence rate in antipsychotic-exposed youth. The subgroup analyses examined whether the T2DM risk was replicated when separately analyzing studies restricting their sample to youth 18 years and younger. The sensitivity analyses examined whether the T2DM risk was replicated when separately analyzing (1) studies with different T2DM definitions, (2) studies that potentially included type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), (3) studies that potentially included patients with a prescription of oral antidiabetic medications for reasons other than T2DM, and (4) studies after excluding one study23 with 100% olanzapine-treated youth. After excluding a significant effect of study quality using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale43 (NOS) on the results, a backward elimination mixed random-effects meta-regression analysis was conducted with the initial variables of sex, age, sample size, percentage of patients with specific psychiatric diagnoses, and percentage of patients receiving SGAs (pooled). A second meta-regression analysis replaced pooled SGAs with percentage of patients receiving specific SGAs. Variables were entered into the initial backward elimination model if in univariable analyses they reached P <.20. Publication bias was assessed with the funnel plot, Egger regression test,44 and the “trim and fill” method.45 Finally, descriptive statistical methods were used for the exploratory summary of study-reported correlates of T2DM incidence based on patient-level data not available for study-level meta-regression analyses. Results The initial search produced 4647 results, and 4517 studies were excluded on the title or abstract level. Of the remaining 130 references, 117 were excluded after full-text review, yielding 13 meta-analyzable studies23,34,35,46-55 (1 study reported on 2 subsets based on antipsychotic class) (eFigure in the Supplement). Study Characteristics Eleven studies34,35,47,48,50-55 (n = 1 825 343) were retrospective database investigations, 2 studies46,49 (n = 565) were prospective naturalistic cohort investigations, and 1 study23 (n = 121) pooled data from 6 prospective olanzapine investigations. The mean (SD) NOS score was 7.4 (1.8), and the median NOS score was 8. Twelve of the 13 studies of antipsychotic-exposed youth provided information on the mean (SD) follow-up duration, which was 1.7 (2.3) years (310 438 patient-years). The study quality was high overall, with scores between 7 and 9 on the NOS in all but 2 studies, which had scores of 3 and 4, respectively (eTable 1 in the Supplement). Eight studies34,46-48,50,52,55 compared data with a healthy control group, and the mean (SD) follow-up was 1.6 (2.9) years (463 084 patient-years). Seven studies34,35,47,48,51,53,54 had a psychiatric control group, with a mean (SD) follow-up of 1.6 (3.1) years (2 071 135 patient-years). Two studies23,49 did not have a control group (Table 1). Patient and Treatment Characteristics The mean (SD) age of the antipsychotic-exposed sample (n = 185 105) was 14.1 (2.1) years (age range, 2-24 years), and a mean (SD) of 59.5% (8.0%) were male. The mean (SD) age of the psychiatric controls (n = 1 342 121) was 13.8 (1.1) years (age range, 5-24 years), and a mean (SD) of 55.7% (9.2%) were male. The mean (SD) age of the healthy controls (n = 298 803) was 13.9 (3.2) years (age range, 4-19 years), and a mean (SD) of 52.6% (9.0%) were male. In the antipsychotic-exposed sample, most had a disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (in 46.9%) or a mood spectrum disorder, including mood disorder not otherwise specified (in 22.8%,), depression (in 26.9%), bipolar disorder (BPD) (in 16.2%), and BPD or psychosis (in 5.1%). Less commonly observed were anxiety disorders (in 7.9%), psychosis (in 5.7%), pervasive developmental disorder or autism (in 5.3%), substance abuse disorder (in 4.6%), and tic disorders (in 0.0003%). In the psychiatric control group, the psychiatric diagnoses were mainly DBD or ADHD (in 51.8%) and mood spectrum disorder (in 34.1%). Other diagnoses included anxiety disorders (in 8.7%), pervasive developmental disorder or autism (in 5.4%), psychosis (in 0.3%), and substance use disorders (in 0.2%). All but one study53 provided general information regarding antipsychotic treatment class, consisting predominantly of SGAs (in 94.9% [n = 169 621]), with few youth being treated with FGAs (in 3.7% [n = 6744]) or combinations of 2 or more antipsychotics (in 2.4% [n = 4309]). In 10 studies with specific antipsychotic use data, risperidone was the most commonly used (41.7%), followed by quetiapine fumarate (26.6%), aripiprazole (17.2%), and olanzapine (10.2%). Outcome Definitions The analyzed studies used the following definitions of T2DM: (1) the prescription of an antidiabetic medication or a clinical diagnosis of T2DM (6 studies35,47,50,53-55 [42.9%]), (2) T2DM diagnosis based on a fasting blood glucose level of at least 126 mg/dL (2 studies23,46 [14.3%]) (to convert glucose level to millimoles per liter, multiply by 0.0555), (3) a recorded T2DM diagnosis and antidiabetic medication prescription (2 studies52 [14.3%]), (4) an antidiabetic medication prescription only (1 study51 with 2 separate samples [7.2%]), (5) a clinical diagnosis of T2DM only (1 study48 [7.2%]), (6) a questionnaire-based T2DM diagnosis (1 study49 [7.2%]), or (7) a T2DM diagnosis, antidiabetic medication, glycated hemoglobin level of at least 7%, or random plasma glucose level of at least 200 mg/dL (1 study34 [7.2%]). Regarding T2DM definition, 7 studies23,34,46,47,49,50,53 potentially included cases of T1DM, while 5 studies34,47,50,53,54 would have potentially included patients treated with oral antidiabetic medications for reasons other than T2DM (Table 1). Procedures to reduce confounding, including matching and multivariable analysis, are summarized in eTable 2 in the Supplement. T2DM in Antipsychotic-Exposed Youth, Psychiatric Controls, and Healthy Controls The meta-analytically calculated T2DM risk was highest in the antipsychotic-exposed cohort, with an unadjusted, cumulative risk of 5.72 (95% CI, 3.45-9.48) per 1000 patients and an incidence rate of 3.09 (95% CI, 2.35-3.82) per 1000 patient-years (P <.001 for both). The risk was intermediate in psychiatric controls, with an unadjusted, cumulative risk of 2.61 (95% CI, 0.80-8.52) per 1000 patient-years and an incidence rate of 1.74 (95% CI, 1.
probably an orange narcissistic duck. — Josh Grubbs (@JoshuaGrubbsPhD) February 16, 2017 Frances also echoed the oft-repeated line that to talk about NPD and Trump is to stigmatize the mentally ill. Generally speaking, this is a valid, important concern given that mentally ill people do face all sorts of stigmatization and victimization. It’s just hard to see how it applies here. If people were pointing to Trump to make the argument, People with mental illness shouldn’t be given rights or power, full-stop, or People who have politics different from my own must be mentally ill, those would be offensive and wrongheaded arguments. Those don’t seem to be the most common claims, though — rather, clinicians and others are arguing that giving someone with NPD, or whatever it is that Trump has, this much power could be extremely dangerous. When you break it down, this isn’t very different from saying that someone with major, untreated depression who is suicidal shouldn’t be flying airliners, or that someone with untreated schizophrenia that causes them to constantly be tormented by voices shouldn’t be teaching young children. Some forms of mental illness, if they’re not under control, clearly are disqualifying when it comes to certain positions. No one would seriously deny this, and these claims aren’t generally seen as stigmatizing in some big, broad, damaging way, so it’s strange to think they couldn’t apply to someone as powerful as the president as well. Either way, while Trump certainly seems to exhibit most of the hallmarks of NPD, no one can know for sure that he would or wouldn’t meet the threshold if he were examined in a formal diagnostic setting. But again, it might not really matter. We do know, with certainty given the huge pile of evidence that has accured, that Trump is deeply narcissistic — much more so than past presidents. And since, as Grubbs suggests, deeply narcissistic people act in certain somewhat predictable ways regardless of whether or not they meet the threshold for NPD, this could be a good midway approach to trying to understand Trump’s actions: Focus more on the trait itself, and its potentially dangerous ramifications in extreme cases, and less on hypothetical diagnoses.NEW YORK -- There are two prisms through which to view President Obama's LGBT fundraiser on Thursday night. The first is presidential politics and, mainly, Obama's continued evolution on gay rights. New York is poised to pass a law legalizing same-sex marriage, making the president's reluctance to come out in favor of it (despite clear signs of support in the past) the source of obvious tension. The second, more telling prism, is the political potency of the gay rights movement itself. In less than a decade, the LGBT community's sway over the political narrative in the country has grown as fast -- if not faster -- than its membership. Once shunned by politicians, gay rights leaders and donors are now courted by Democratic candidates (and even some Republicans). Advocacy groups have sprouted both locally and nationally. Coverage of LGBT-related issues has gotten front-page treatment in newspapers and top billing on blogs. The combined effect has been incredibly beneficial to LGBT causes, casting them up the list of pressing political topics. But it also has produced a tension in its own right among gay rights groups. There is, on the one hand, the veritable old guard, who recalls the days when they were part of the national political sideshow. And then there is a new generation of activists -- not all of them young, per se -- far less willing to see their priorities addressed in incremental fashion. "Years ago, I would absolutely defend politicians who didn't come out for marriage because I felt it was just falling on your sword," said John Aravosis, the gay rights activist, prominent blogger, and vocal critic of incrementalism. "Now … things have gone into hyperdrive in terms of advancement of the movement." When Obama takes the stage on Thursday night he will be addressing both groups. But as long as he doesn't make an implicit endorsement of same-sex marriage, he will be welcomed far more warmly by the former than the latter. "This is the third president in which I've been very focused on LGBT advancement in terms of Washington," said Elizabeth Birch, the former Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign who will be in attendance on Thursday. "The fact remains this is the very first president who has every broken through that thick congressional wall for our rights." As Birch sees it, national politics is "like playing chess, underwater in a toxic swamp." To repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, codify employer protection benefits and hospital visitation rights, and begin down the path of doing away with DOMA is a slate of accomplishments worth praising. Marriage is the prize and purview of the next generation. "I am so old that one of the biggest advantages of being a lesbian, when I figured it out, is that I didn't have to get married," Birch said. "Now it is sort of the hot thing. That is the absolute job of youth. It is to act as if all things should already exist and that it is possible and obtainable if the will is there." Generational divides have long been a defining feature of the LGBT community, driving activists and advocacy groups to conduct their politics in demonstrably different ways -- be they chaining oneself to the White House fence or pushing for inclusion in the White House strategy meeting. Richard Socarides, president of Equality Matters, recalled how, not too long ago, gay rights activists were practically "giddy" at the prospect of being invited to a presidential event, let alone hosting a high-profile gala. It was President Bill Clinton who first reached out to the gay political community, getting longtime activist David Mixner to drum up support for his campaign (Mixner would later abandon Clinton over DADT and DOMA). "It was breathtaking," recalled Socarides, who served in various positions in the Clinton White House, "because it was the first time anybody had ever sought our support. Up until that moment candidates didn't even want to be associated with us. Jimmy Carter famously went to San Francisco and didn't even want to be photographed with Harvey Milk." Today, feeling comfortable taking a photo doesn't cut it. And Obama won't be absolved merely by attending a gala or hosting a Gay Pride event at the White House (as he is set to do next week). The administration, Socarides notes, has helped produce laudable achievements on LGBT issues. But "if there is a calculation on marriage, it is always that if people don't have any alternative, they can hang out in the middle without consequence," he said. "I would say to them there is a big downside to looking inauthentic, and right now they look inauthentic." Indeed, despite improved relationships with some of the very same gay rights activists who once protested the president's fundraising events, Thursday's gala still risks being overshadowed by the singular issue of same-sex marriage. The president is not expected to address the political developments in New York, and if he does it, will likely be through the rather stale construct of respecting the sovereignty of states. It won't necessarily be demoralizing for attendees. But it will prolong the often-intense debates among LGBT activists over how, exactly, they should exert their widening political clout.Several previously unseen photographs taken during the Halifax Explosion have surfaced at a home in Cornwall, England. Lt. Victor Magnus with the Royal Navy took photos during the Halifax Explosion. (Victor Magnus) The photos were shot by Lt. Victor Magnus, an avid photographer in the Royal Navy during the First World War who was on board a ship in Halifax Harbour during the explosion on Dec. 6, 1917. “He was on board ship, he was on watch,” his daughter, Anne Foreman, tells CBC News. “He would have been on the bridge doing his six hours, or whatever it was, on watch. On duty, with a camera around his neck. And it just happened that he got these pictures.” Foreman, 89, says her father was hardly ever without his camera and he took about two dozen shots in the aftermath of the explosion. “He always had a camera around his neck and usually a very good one,” Foreman says. Foreman says some of the photos appeared in the 1962 book The Town That Died, written by Michael J. Bird. But many have not been seen by the public before. She says she dug them out and showed them to a BBC reporter after the broadcaster put out a request for stories from the First World War. “I’ve just lived with them all my life. I’m just amazed that they’ve caused such a stir,” Foreman says. Foreman plans to turn the collection over to the Imperial War Museum for further study.WHITE SUPREMACY AS AN IDEA should never have happened, and at the very least, should have been consigned to the waste bin of history long ago. But recently, it’s been on the rise once again, in part because of American demographic shifts, in part because of racist backlash against the first black president, and in part because of the vile, cynical rhetoric of certain political candidates who have brought racist speech back into the mainstream. As one white supremacist told Politico, “Demoralization has been the biggest enemy and [Republican frontrunner Donald] Trump is changing all that.” It now looks like he might be right: the website Think Progress used Google’s Trends tool to see how frequently certain racist code words have been searched for over the past couple of years, and while they’ve all been on the rise during the Obama Presidency, they’ve spiked considerably over the past year as Donald Trump has come onto the scene. Here’s the graph for searches of the phrase “pro white”: It hit its peak in December of 2014, shortly after the Paris attacks, and the month of Trump’s comments about banning Muslims from the US. Here’s the chart for the phrase “white genocide”: Here’s the chart for “Black on white crime,” which spiked in July 2013, the month George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murdering unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. All of this comes with reports that American right-wing militias are getting stronger in many parts of the country and are, indeed, a greater threat to national security than Islamic extremists, and indeed have killed more people than Islamic extremists since September 11th. This rise of the racist crazies is no small matter, and deserves our attention. So the next time someone tells you Donald Trump’s (or anyone else’s) racially charged speech is harmless, gently explain to them that it’s extremely harmful, and shouldn’t be entertained by a diverse, civilized modern society. Via ThinkProgressPlease enable Javascript to watch this video The Damian Lillard era is underway in Portland. The two-time All-Star is unquestionably the centerpiece of the Trail Blazers. In fact, general manager Neil Olshey has even said that Portland will only target players who complement Lillard’s skill set and are on the same career arc as the 25-year-old point guard. Portland’s front office has been extremely active this summer. Gone are veterans like LaMarcus Aldridge, Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum and Robin Lopez, replaced by younger players like Mason Plumlee, Ed Davis, Noah Vonleh, Al-Farouq Aminu and Maurice Harkless among others. Lillard is the lone returning starter for the Blazers, and he’s ready to carry the franchise on his shoulders. Like the Blazers, Lillard has been incredibly busy this offseason as well. He signed a five-year, $120 million extension to stay with the Blazers long-term. He traveled across the globe promoting his signature adidas shoes. He dropped five rap tracks under his stage name Dame Dolla. He ran his annual Lillard Camp in Oregon. Not to mention, he’s put in extensive work with his trainer to improve his game. With so much going on, Basketball Insiders’ Alex Kennedy recently caught up with Lillard to discuss the Blazers’ additions, LaMarcus Aldridge’s decision to join the San Antonio Spurs, Lillard’s contract extension, Portland’s expectations for next season and, of course, Dame Dolla’s success in the rap game. Here is the full Q&A: Basketball Insiders: The Blazers have been very active this summer, adding Mason Plumlee, Ed Davis, Al-Farouq Aminu, Noah Vonleh, Gerald Henderson and Maurice Harkless among others. What do you think of the new additions and how they’ll fit alongside you? Damian Lillard: “I like all of them. I’ve always been a huge fan of Moe Harkless. I really like Ed Davis. Overall, put all of them together, and I love the size and length and athleticism that they offer. Obviously all of them are younger, which means we can all grow and get better together. We’ll have time to get more familiar with each other and get comfortable with each other, so I like that part of it.” Basketball Insiders: Ed Davis recently told me that one of the main reasons he wanted to join the Blazers was to play with you. Have you ever recruited free agents and is that something you’re open to doing in the future? Damian Lillard: “I have never recruited anyone. I’ve spoken to guys with games that I like to see if they wanted to be in a different place and things like that – guys I thought would fit with our team. That was that, but I’ve never gone out and recruited people. I’ve always felt like people will go where they want to be, where they feel most wanted, where they can most benefit and benefit the team, so I let people make their own decisions. It’s kind of up to the player. If you go out there and you recruit somebody and, I guess, butter them up and they come and it’s not what you made them believe it to be then that can be bad, so you got to let people feel it out for themselves and work it out that way.” Basketball Insiders: You signed a five-year extension with Portland this summer – congratulations, by the way. Lately, a lot of players have been signing shorter deals so that they can hit free agency again sooner. Why did you want to lock in the longest deal possible with the Blazers? Damian Lillard: “First of all, as much as you want to have the greatest financial situation possible, I don’t play the game for money. I’m not trying to have a plan like, ‘Oh, I can make this much money and I can do this and this.’ I know right now I qualified for what I signed for and I know that I’m playing where I want to be playing at, and I know that the team I’m playing for wants me here. I think both sides just committed to another. It wasn’t about free agency and all those things like that. I don’t play that game.” Basketball Insiders: I know Blazers fans were thrilled when you signed that deal. If all goes as planned, can you see yourself finishing your career in Portland? Damian Lillard: “Definitely. I mean, I love it here. I love living here. I love the people here. This is just my kind of place. After growing up where I grew up, you just want to be in a nice, peaceful place. You want to be somewhere where people respect you and somewhere that you have built something. And I feel like I’ve built something great in my first three years here and I will continue to build on it. I consider this a second home. As long as they’ll have me, I’ll be here.” Basketball Insiders: During Summer League, Neil Olshey said that he expects you guys to play more of an up-tempo style since you have a lot of young athletes on the roster. Are you excited about that? Damian Lillard: “I am. I think playing faster is going to be the best thing for our team. We have a lot of really athletic guys that can really run. It’s not like we can play the same way [as last year] because we don’t have the same personnel. So I really like that idea of playing a faster game because of where we’re at. It’s something we can really take advantage of, and it’s something that we can do well. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” Basketball Insiders: Because the roster features so many young players, some people are writing you guys off entering next season. Does that motivate you and do you think this group will surprise people? Damian Lillard: “I do think we can definitely surprise people. I’m not sure why they would expect anything. We have myself, who’s been doubted. This is not my first time being doubted and second-guessed. And then we have a lot of young guys who are going to be put in certain roles and situations that they haven’t been in the past. Their responsibility is going to change. I think things like that is why we’ve been second-guessed or written off, but I think we’ll be fine.” Basketball Insiders: With so many of last year’s veterans gone, are you looking forward to taking on an increased role next season? Damian Lillard: “Definitely. I mean, the way I see it, anytime you get an opportunity to rise, grow and face a challenge, I’m all for that. This will be my first time being in that position in the NBA. It kind of reminds me of my sophomore year in college. I played my freshman year with a lot of good players and the MVP of the league and then everybody left. A new group of guys came in and I ended up being the leader right away. I did what I had to do. I just embraced the situation and took it for what it was. People have no expectations for us, so I mean that takes the pressure off. We’re just going to see what happens.” Basketball Insiders: How much of an adjustment will it be not having guys like LaMarcus, Wesley, Nic and Robin around on and off the court? I know you were close with some of those guys. Damian Lillard: “I mean, it’s definitely going to be an adjustment because you take a four-time All-Star out of the picture, you take a small forward who can do everything out of the picture, you take a shooting guard who is a lights out shooter and great defender out of the picture you take out a center who is as low maintenance as they come, who just wants to rebound, protect the paint and just cares about the team wining. You take guys like that away and of course everything changes. But like I said, the position we’re in, it’s all a part of growth. We just got to embrace that. Embrace the fact that the challenge is in front of us and this is what we’re faced with. We just got to step up to it like men and if it does work out, great; if it doesn’t go perfect, then that’s what it is. We just got to be ready to embrace the challenge.” Basketball Insiders: Were you surprised to see LaMarcus leave to go to the Spurs? Damian Lillard: “No, it didn’t surprise me. He spent nine years of his career in Portland. Last year we went to the second round, and this past year we lost in the first round and he’s at that point in his career where he’s thinking about a championship. Not that we couldn’t win it, but it’s not uncommon for a guy at his age to make changes for themselves and for what they want for their careers, so I wasn’t surprised by it at all.” Basketball Insiders: What aspects of your game have you been working to improve this offseason? Damian Lillard: “I’ve been doing a lot of stuff. Just working on different spots, different types of shots in different spots. I’m working on my balance, my core, ball-handling, my passing, things like that – a lot of stuff that’s going to allow me to make things easier for myself. Like you said, all the threats that I’ve had around me these first three seasons [have left] so now I’ll get a lot more attention on the offensive end. I have to be able to do other things, whether that’s getting to a certain spot on the floor, making the play to pass the ball out and sprint to another spot for an open shot instead passing the ball out, standing out and watching. I’ve been working on a lot of stuff like that.” Basketball Insiders: Let’s talk about your rapping. First of all, you are ridiculously talented. Are you putting out an album and is there a timetable for that to drop? Damian Lillard: “Well, I plan on putting out a short album. I want to do it way before the season is even creeping up on us; I want to get something done early. But it’s already done. If I do put something out, it’s not something that I need to do now, it’s already done. I recorded a lot stuff. But the crazy thing is, I don’t spent a lot of time doing it. I have things that I do. I work out twice a day, I get my lift in, I hang out with my family and I’ve just been relaxing a lot. But some nights, I decide to go the studio and do some music just to give myself some balance, to put my mind in a different place and kind of put my emotions out there a little bit. I don’t spend a lot of time doing it, so it’s been kind of funny to see people like, ‘Oh he better get in the gym!’ Basketball Insiders: I hate people who say stuff like that, like you guys are supposed to live in the gym. Damian Lillard: “This is how I can break that down to you. So, they want us as professionals to be humble, right? They like for us to be humble and not act like we’re this and that, but at the same time you need to treat us like a normal person. Put it like this, for my mom growing up, she had two jobs. You praise the average person for working two jobs. But the fact that I have like a second career, possibly, people want to say just focus on [basketball]. So it’s kind of like you’re automatically making me not a normal person. You’re almost, in a way, taking my normalcy away by saying just focus on one thing, when you praise the average person for having a second job. That just doesn’t make sense!” Basketball Insiders: Finally, I want to ask you about Lillard Camp. You go all out for this – working directly with the kids, bringing in talented coaches and even taking all of the campers to a movie theater to see Ant-Man! What made you want to do this camp and take it to that level? Damian Lillard: “People pay their money to come get a great camp, and for their kids to learn something. I just want to give people what they signed up for and [what they paid for]. I just want to have that presence [at the camp] because making an impact on the kids is everything, man.”The Doom and Glory of Knowing Who You Are: James Baldwin on the Empathic Rewards of Reading and What It Means to Be an Artist “A society must assume that it is stable, but the artist must know, and he must let us know, that there is nothing stable under heaven,” James Baldwin (August 2, 1924–December 1, 1987) wrote in his classic 1962 essay “The Creative Process.” By then, he was already one of America’s most celebrated writers — an artist who shook up the baseboards of society by dismantling the structures of power and convention with unflinching fortitude, dignity, and integrity of conviction. On May 17, 1963, Baldwin appeared on the cover of TIME magazine as part of a major story titled “Nation: The Root of the Negro Problem,” whose lead sentence read: “At the root of the Negro problem is the necessity of the white man to find a way of living with the Negro in order to live with himself.” Although Baldwin’s civil rights advocacy was the focus, the piece shone a sidewise gleam on Baldwin the artist and raised the broader question of the writer’s role in society. The following week, the May 24 issue of LIFE magazine — which was owned by the same company — built on that cultural momentum with an extensive profile of him by journalist Jane Howard, where under the dated title “Telling Talk from a Negro Writer” Baldwin’s timeless wisdom on life and art unfolds. The lengthy profile is divided into several sections covering different aspects of his life and views. Beneath the spectacular subhead “Doom and glory of knowing who you are,” Baldwin — who had read his way from Harlem to literary celebrity — considers the unparalleled empathic gift of reading: You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was Dostoevsky and Dickens who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive. Only if we face these open wounds in ourselves can we understand them in other people. A year after he formulated his abiding ideas on the artist’s role as a disruptor of society, and more than a century after Emerson insisted that “only as far as [people] are unsettled is there any hope for them,” Baldwin considers this vital commitment to generative unsettlement as the central animating force of the creative spirit: An artist is a sort of emotional or spiritual historian. His role is to make you realize the doom and glory of knowing who you are and what you are. He has to tell, because nobody else in the world can tell, what it is like to be alive. All I’ve ever wanted to do is tell that, I’m not trying to solve anybody’s problems, not even my own. I’m just trying to outline what the problems are. I want to be stretched, shook up, to overreach myself, and to make you feel that way too. Two decades before he shared his advice on being a writer in The Paris Review, Baldwin reflects on the inevitability of the calling: The terrible thing about being a writer is that you don’t decide to become one, you discover that you are one. Echoing what E.E. Cummings wryly termed “the agony of the Artist with capital A,” Baldwin adds: In this country … if you’re an artist, you’re guilty of a crime: not that you’re aware, which is bad enough, but that you see things other people don’t admit are there. Complement with Baldwin on the artist’s struggle for integrity, freedom and how we imprison ourselves, and the writer’s responsibility in a divided society, then revisit his increasingly timely forgotten conversations with Chinua Achebe about the political power of art, with Margaret Mead about identity, race, and the experience of otherness, and with Nikki Giovanni about what it means to be truly empowered.For nearly its entire existence, Twitter has not just tolerated abuse and hate speech — it’s virtually been optimized to accommodate it. With public backlash at an all-time high and growth stagnating, what is the platform that declared itself “the free speech wing of the free speech party” to do? BuzzFeed News talks to the people who’ve been trying to figure this out for a decade. Ariel Davis / BuzzFeed News If you want to fully understand Twitter’s abuse problem, a good place to start is at Google, years before the first tweet was ever sent. While working at Blogger, the wildly popular Google-owned publishing tool, Ev Williams, Biz Stone, and Jason Goldman — all of whom went on to found or work at Twitter — were faced with what now feels like a familiar predicament. Like Twitter, Blogger had grown quickly as a broadcast tool, becoming home to a wide spectrum of voices, no small number of which were loud and obnoxious and objectionable. But rather than censor the unsavory blogs, Williams and company saw an opportunity to build a platform committed to free expression and the democratic spirit of the internet. That decision was fought internally, pitting Goldman against Sheryl Sandberg, at the time head of Google AdWords, in what Goldman called “a straight-up turf war.” Goldman won. Working with Alexander Macgillivray, a die-hard free speech advocate who was then a Google attorney, Blogger made a core principle of the universal right to publish, despite outside criticism. “We don’t get involved in adjudicating whether something is libel or slander,” Goldman told Forbes in 2005. The passage that followed reads like it could be written about Twitter today: “In squabbles between anonymous bloggers and victims Google sides with the attackers, refusing to turn over any information unless a judge orders it to open up. 'We’ll do it if we believe we are required to by law,' [Goldman] says." Less than a year later, when Williams and Stone founded Twitter along with Dorsey, they brought along Goldman and continued largely where they’d left off. “We worked hard at the outset of Twitter to maintain freedom of speech with clear limits,” Stone told BuzzFeed News in a recent email. “This stemmed from my time at Google working on the same issues with Blogger.” But as Waldman’s case exemplifies, even early on, Twitter’s “freedom of speech with clear limits” found critics who saw those limits as opaque and arbitrary. And while Blogger’s free speech problems were novel, small-scale, and often abstract, Twitter’s follower model and public reply system proved thornier to manage. There’s a big difference between people saying hurtful things on the easily moderated comment section of a hard-to-find blog and people showing up in your mentions spewing hate speech. “The product quirks were secondary... to free speech,” one former employee said of the company’s early days. “The Blogger brain trust’s thinking was set in stone by the time they became Twitter Inc.” In the summer of 2009, the company’s values were validated when Twitter was lauded for its role in giving voice to Iranian election protesters. By the time the State Department asked Twitter to delay scheduled maintenance on its servers in order to keep protest communication lines open during the election, Twitter’s reputation as a powerful broadcast tool was solidified. Just weeks later, the company hired Macgillivray away from Google as its first general counsel. “What was once lauded as a virtue has now become the company’s Achilles' heel.” “Here you have a great, influential lawyer who philosophically believed you don't shut down a platform because of controversial speech,” one former employee who worked during Macgillivray’s tenure told BuzzFeed News. “That ethos was bought into by everyone in the company. Hard.” 2011 brought the Arab Spring and more international acclaim for Twitter as a platform for revolutionaries. That same year, Twitter fought secret government order to provide user information for WikiLeaks. According to a source, Macgillivray and Stone spent months working on a blog post that would be published during the WikiLeaks controversy, titled “The Tweets Must Flow.” It was Twitter’s boldest commitment to free speech to date. “There are Tweets that we do remove, such as illegal Tweets and spam,” the post read. “However, we make efforts to keep these exceptions narrow so they may serve to prove a broader and more important rule — we strive not to remove Tweets on the basis of their content.” Not long after, Twitter executives began publicly touting that “Twitter is the free speech wing of the free speech party,” a phrase sources attribute to Macgillivray. This maximalist approach to free speech was integral to Twitter’s rise, but quickly created the conditions for abuse. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, which have always banned content and have never positioned themselves as platforms for free speech, Twitter has made an ideology out of protecting its most objectionable users. That ethos also made it a beacon for the internet’s most vitriolic personalities, who take particular delight in abusing those who use Twitter for their jobs. This spring, the Just Not Sports podcast posted video of sports fans reading a sampling of the hateful tweets that the sportswriters Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro received while writing and reporting. The video amassed over 3.5 million views on YouTube. Its message: This level of depravity is commonplace on Twitter. “What was once lauded as a virtue has now become the company’s Achilles' heel — it’s the axis around which all this shit with harassment rotates,” a former senior employee told BuzzFeed News. Nearly all former employees BuzzFeed News spoke to in the course of reporting this story said the same thing. “The whole ‘free speech wing of the free speech party’ thing — that's not a slogan, that's deeply, deeply embedded in the DNA of the company,” Twitter’s former head of news, Vivian Schiller, said. “The people that run Twitter... are not stupid. They understand that this toxicity can kill them, but how do you draw the line? Where do you draw the line? I would actually challenge anyone to identify a perfect solution. But it feels to a certain extent that it's led to paralysis.” A senior engineer who left the company before its 2013 IPO echoed Schiller’s point. “You have this opposition between defending the user’s experience and not shutting down speech all while there's this big, toxic mass of people that are abusing,” the source said. “That tension has now, I think, in the past few years, flipped on its head. It’s clear something needs to be done.” Looking back on Twitter’s early years, multiple former senior employees cite Twitter’s disproportionately white, male leadership — a frequent, factual critique of Silicon Valley’s biggest and most influential tech companies — as creating an environment where building tools to combat harassment was a secondary concern. “The original sin is a homogenous leadership,” one former senior employee told BuzzFeed News. “This is part of what exacerbated the abuse problem for sure — because they were often tone-deaf to the concern of users in the outside world, meaning women and people of color." “The original sin is a homogenous leadership.” Talk to enough Twitter insiders and one thing becomes painfully evident: The company’s understanding of its platform hasn’t always been clear to employees, even at senior levels — a problem that has made it difficult to understand how to police harassment. One source recalls that, when asked, Jack Dorsey refused to answer exactly what kind of tool Twitter was. “He said, ‘Twitter brings you closer,'” the former employee recalled. “And I said, ‘To what?’ and he replied, ‘Our users always finish that sentence for us.’ And to me, I thought, Well, it’s going to be really difficult to set policy in place if we can’t define what this thing is." Internally, employees have long raised questions about whether Twitter was a media company — a broadcast platform that should be governed by content standards and practices similar to a a television network — or a piece of the internet’s infrastructure, like an ISP, that should remain open and free. “If Twitter is the pulse of the planet, then you’re in the realm of Verizon,” one former senior employee said. “And you don’t tell Verizon that they have to police the words and topics coming in over their phone lines. I think part of what exacerbated the abuse issue for so long is that there's an absence of a clear thesis from Twitter.” To hear former employees tell it, the better part of Twitter’s corporate history is defined by a seemingly unending set of problems, from keeping the servers running in the early days (Twitter’s service disruptions were so frequent, its ‘Fail Whale’ error page became famous) to IPO fundraising to a sharp pivot to mobile. “There were literally always other fires to put out, always growth targets being missed and execs leaving,” one former employee told BuzzFeed News. One source described the internal culture as “never once tranquil” and another said it was “intense, chaotic, and morale-draining, despite working with some of the best people I’ve known.” “They had the ability to step up and be a leader in this space — to be proactive instead of reactive. That they haven’t done that is beyond me.” All the while, the abuse intensified and the public began to take notice. In 2013, Caroline Criado-Perez launched a campaign to put Jane Austen on UK currency and quickly became the target of more than 50 rape threats per hour — which forced Twitter to roll out a “report abuse” feature for individual tweets. The feature came roughly six years into the company’s history and more than five years after Waldman’s ordeal. “It feels like, not only did they have opportunities early on to tackle this, but they had the ability to step up and be a leader in this space — to be proactive instead of reactive,” Waldman said. “That they haven’t done that is beyond me and it's reckless.” Around that time, high-profile harassment cases became a weekly, if not daily, occurrence, especially in the UK. Sinéad O’Connor was driven off the service in 2011; she later told the Daily Mail she was “getting too much abuse.” Downton Abbey actor Lily James quit after she became the target of hundreds of hateful tweets about her appearance. Actor Matt Lucas had to shut down his account after trolls wouldn’t stop harassing him after the death of his partner. In the US, stories of Twitter harassment of women, people of color, and religious minorities appeared with increasing frequency, coming to a head in August 2014, when Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda was forced to quit Twitter after trolls flooded her mentions with photoshopped images of her recently deceased father. Williams’ departure from Twitter went viral and prompted Twitter’s Trust and Safety head, Del Harvey, to condemn the attacks. “We will not tolerate abuse of this nature,” she said, noting that the company would work to find policy fixes to prevent cases like Williams’. It was also around this time that Twitter began broadcasting grisly ISIS beheadings and Gamergate’s multipronged misogynist harassment campaign toward female gamers. Harvey’s team rolled out more streamlined forms for reporting abuse, dispensing with its cumbersome nine-part questionnaire and adding back-end flagging tools for Twitter’s Trust and Safety team. One month later, Anita Sarkeesian, a feminist writer and video game critic, took to her Tumblr page and posted 157 of examples of misogyny, gendered insults, victim blaming, incitement to suicide, and rape and death threats she’d received in a recent six-day stretch on Twitter. Despite the overtures from Twitter, the trolls were winning. Ariel Davis / BuzzFeed News On October 25, 2013, Twitter released video of its IPO roadshow presentation to Wall Street underwriters. The 37-minute pitch, which resembles a grainy Skype session crossed with a PowerPoint presentation, features a well-dressed Dick Costolo (then Twitter’s CEO) in front of a blue background, staring down the barrel of the lens. “We think we’ve only scratched the surface of everything we think Twitter can become,” Costolo said unblinkingly into the camera. “There are over 2.4 billion connected people worldwide and over 230 million users on Twitter — we are less than 10% penetrated across the globe.” The implied logic: Twitter
Life in their race for 2015 championships, CJ Entus buy ByuL a house Without even taking his results into consideration, Maru is a remarkable player. From his debut as the youngest player to play a game of professional Starcraft to his much-delayed evolution into a championship-caliber player to the eye-catching features of his style and the abilities only he seems to possess, Maru is unique in many ways. To a greater extent than any other player, I think, Maru is distinctly threatening. Like most Terrans originating on Prime, he shares a love for aggression. Not the kind of aggression that you would expect from players like herO or Taeja, which might be relentless and hard to stop but nonetheless at least sensible. With Maru, you know that an unrelenting wave of marines and marauders -- backed by medivacs that tear at you through incessant drops -- is coming. Rather aptly described as 'banging his head into a wall with the force of a sledgehammer', Maru employs a high-risk style that he makes work through peerless control and calm under pressure. More so than his most dangerous opponent Life, Maru is an intimidating opponent because knowing how to stop him is not, in fact, half the battle. Save for Parting, no player seems to reliably push Maru into a defensive posture, and as a consequence the Jin Air Terran is allowed to attack, attack and attack until he has beaten the opposing player into a bloody pulp. Violent imagery, perhaps, but no less violent than the way in which Maru ekes out his victories. Granted, his playstyle has him walking a fine line on which he balances only because he has the form required to maintain efficiency in all aspects of his play, but putting him off-balance takes incredible play or extremely tailored builds. Even Life, although he beat Maru at IEM Taipei and fought evenly with Dream -- whose TvZ I would argue is better than Maru's -- struggles to keep up with Maru's pace, and as a result has dropped below Maru in this ranking. Protoss players cower in fear as Maru drops them into oblivion and Zergs seek to regain their balance in a new ZvT environment where they no longer have the safety of the Swarm Host to lean against when facing mech. Fantasy and Dream are largely unproven in TvT, ensuring that there will be no competition from his own race. Maru is at the top of his game, prepared to take the championship. Fewer players than ever seem capable of stopping him. Yeah we thought that might be a good thought experiment. "Who has looked the most impressive in the past X months," also crossed our minds. There are many different factors that enter our discussions (and yes, we do thoroughly discuss this) when we try to answer the question: "Who's better?" and we couldn't list down all of them if we tried. If it were up to lichter though, he'd probably just vote for who he finds more entertaining. However, thanks to our spreadsheet heavy, completely democratic, and reasonably systematic process that involves a lot of name calling and secret google doc editing, we're pretty confident someone will agree with us on this. Hopefully.Alright, let's get it on!: SSL S1 top eight, SSL S2 top 16: "I’m not completely dead yet guys!": Everyone checks to see if they’ve slipped through worm hole to 2013.After suffering through a lengthy slump in 2014, Dear seems to have foundrhythm in the early months of 2015. He has occasionally shown flashes of his 2013 peak form, but Dear is nowhere near as dominant as he once was. This wildcard protoss reached the quarterfinals of SSL S1 and could have potentially gone further had he not drawn a red hot Life as his opponent. To follow up, Dear displayed yet another strong performance in the KeSPA Cup qualifiers by defeating the likes of Flash, Sora, and Rain. Then he was dumped out of his GSL PvP group. Now he must face a heavily favored CJ.herO in the first round. These two protoss heavyweights have dueled on three occasions in HotS, with herO winning two. However, Dear was able to defeat herO in their most recent meeting in the current Proleague season. Even if he manages to get past herO, Dear will likely meet PartinG in the next round. This may not bode well for the Samsung Galaxy Protoss, who recently lost two PvPs against Stats and PartinG to get eliminated from SSL S2. While few would pick Dear as a favorite to win this tournament, most believe he can still compete with the best of the best.As much as fans want to write Dear off, he just refuses to quit. He hit the deck hard after being blindsided by Mousesports but still managed to get back on his feet. Dear is the type of player who pushes forward no matter what doubters think of him. His moments of brilliance have been few and far in between, but he could make a deep run in the KeSPA Cup if he can just string a few solid performances together. As of now, most fans will say it’s impossible, but there will always be a small voice in the back of their heads whispering, “you should never count him out”.The esports world will always remember Dear as the man who walked the WCS royal road twice in 2013. While that certainly makes for a memorable legacy, Dear is capable of leaving behind a better one. Winning KeSPA Cup might not catapult him straight into the discussion for best protoss in the world—a title he briefly held two years ago—but it would at least get him into the picture. At times past, Dear has shown he can be the most dominant player at a tournament, sometimes seeming untouchable. But has that time come and gone? Will we ever catch another glimpse of the Dear who swept Soulkey in a WCS grand final, who defeated Maru and soO to win a GSL? When one becomes the best player in Korea, the spotlight can shine to the point that it blinds. Alas, that magnitude of attention overwhelmed Dear, and he was crushed beneath the weight of expectations. Only a select few, like Life or Zest, have embraced the challenge of being the best. Both KT players have qualified for KeSPA Cup, and so has Dear. He has proven he belongs amongst Korea’s elite once before, but now can Dear prove he belongs in the company of the greatest?: GSL S1 Ro16, S2SL S1 Ro16: "I vaguely remember you cause of your ID.": "He gets to ask sOs to stop 2 gating him in practice."For most of his career Terminator has been unremarkable. In 2013 and 2014 he failed to make a dent in GSL, often failing to qualify outright. However towards the end of 2014 and early 2015 we've seen a new and improved Terminator. This 2.0 version has managed to bag 9th-12th place in Hot6ix Cup, a GSL Ro16, and a S2SL Ro16 in late-2014 to 2015. And as he has improved as a player he has also started distinguishing himself through his gameplay.It is remarkable to notice the effects that particular teams have on certain players. While KT and SKT T1 are more known for their solid and methodical macro players, you can clearly see the influence of Jin Air's craziness on all of its players. From sOs' crazy builds to Maru's proxy antics and Rogue's peculiar plays in strange situations, Terminator looked like the odd man out. He tended towards the same macro builds during the beginning, but before long, Jin Air's—and in particular sOs'— influence has started to show. Terminator still leans towards macro plays but he brings the Green Wings air force with him wherever he goes, from phoenix openings to void ray comps, but those aren't his signature. Terminator chose the carrier as his flagship unit to lead his golden armada in glorious victory over Dark in the GSL. Unfortunately the victory was short lived as Terminator wasn't able to get a grip of his PvT woes and ultimately lost to INnoVation.This new Terminator now resembles his protoss teammates more. He has traded his consistent mediocrity for inconsistent brilliance. This season, his runs in both GSL and S2SL were stopped before they had started, failing to qualify or make it out of Challenger. However, Terminator partially redeemed himself by qualifying for KeSPA Cup, and it is his only chance in season 2 to show that his improvements were not temporary.: Advanced to GSL Ro16 first in his group, left Prime.: "Later Prime, I need some new kicks.": The Apocalypse happens.Who the hell is Kim Myung Sik to stand up to PartinG and proxy gate him two games in a row, and win the seriesbeating Dark? Who the hell is Kim Myung Sik to save Prime from eternal ignominy by winning the ace set in their last Proleague match and preventing a winless round? Who the hell is Kim Myung Sik to leave Prime for StarTale, the only team worse than Prime? Perhaps it was the allure of the fresh leather on Sbenu sneakers, the nagging catch of the alliterative slogan, and the promise to become even more the undisputed protoss ace on his team. Or maybe it was just for the shoes. Regardless, it seems like we must ponder more seriously the nature of this eccentric protoss. Gone are the days of the random Proleague appearance and an even more random triple stargate phoenix build or four immortal allin. Now he incorporates those into his arsenal along with his "standard" stalker-heavy and colossus-averse compositions.MyuNgSiK's performances in GSL and Proleague are now impossible to ignore. He seems to have finally crossed the threshold of "always worth mentioning," even if it's more in anticipation of how long he'll stay on two bases or which buildings he'll proxy for his allin. His preposterous preferences in PvZ might not catch us off-guard anymore, but they might have received a boost in legitimacy with the shift in the meta after the swarm host patch. This will certainly work to his aid against Rogue, but beyond that he's drawn an extremely tough bracket, with the promise of either a streaking ByuL and respectable ZvP or his weakest matchup against the toughest opponent, Maru. But if there is anything to take away from MyuNgSiK's recent surge, it's that he is not to be underestimated. While at face value and in terms of strategic depth he is not the steady rock that Zest is or the ruthless killer that Stats is, MyuNgSiK is the essence of 2013 sOs with the soul of 2012 PartinG. It's an odd combination, but surprisingly potent in the right circumstances. If the Sbenu Protoss does his homework and sustains his reputation, he might make it farther than people expect.: Double Starleague qualification S1, IEM WC Ro8, GSL S2 Ro16: "Leaving Kespa has greatly improved my skill, unlike Rain.": Everyone feels that feeling you get after watching a feel-good movie, like Air Bud or Cool RunningsThe SKT exodus of late 2014 was, without a doubt, one of the weirdest free-agent seasons we've ever seen. After being humbled by their eternal rivals KT Rolster in the Proleague Grand Finals, Rain, Soulkey, PartinG and FanTaSy all decided to bolt for foreign pastures. While the first three were established starters on the team and were considered some of the best players in Korea, FanTaSy had seen his stock plummet to the point where rounds passed without him ever leaving the bench. He had become a glorified cheerleader; though he struggled with his lowly place on the team, he remained the consummate professional. Then, when his contract expired, nobody blamed him for seeking a change of scenery. It wasn't out of greed; it was out of frustration.Unlike Rain or Soulkey, his change has borne some good. After languishing in Code A during his time with SKT T1, his switch to Dead Pixels immediately met a rise in form. He qualified for both Starleague main events, and though he stumbled at the first hurdle in each, it was still more than he had accomplished in 2 years. When he then qualified for IEM WC, he was written off against Rain. Instead, FanTaSy tore him a new one with his deranged style of terran. His path was blocked off in a tough 2-3 loss against Trap, but his fans finally believed that he had arrived in SC2.Unfortunately, it will take more than a few qualifications to finally be considered a good player. FanTaSy has shown flashes of brilliance and uncanny tenacity, but he has often been held back by his inability to steady his rocking ship. He continues to stockpile minerals for no reason and bash into brick walls, but he's one of those players that can pull moments of magic out of nowhere. His departure from KeSPA finally appears to have set him on an upward trajectory, but his ceiling will be determined by how much he can clean up his mistakes without completely sanitizing his rabid play. Nobody knows how high he'll reach before dropping back down, but everyone wants to believe he can do it.: IEM Taipei Ro4, Qualified for both Starleagues: "Rebuilding the Iron Wall": Axiom regrets dissolving their partnership with TCM... Okay probably not.KeSPA is not for everyone. The strict regime which sometimes seems to border on torture has been known to make and break players in equal measure. Having a minute schedule and the stern, watchful eye of a full coaching staff on your back is often a benefit, but not always. The success many KeSPA players enjoy stems from the relinquishing of personal freedom and—as it appears—stylistic identity. KeSPA players, on the whole, do not possess the same diversity as non-KeSPA players do. But given the heights their stars have reached, it seems a small price to pay for a shot at the superstardom all players desire.For Soulkey, it seems safe to say that the chief influence is his own mind and dedication. 2014 might have been a step down from his illustrious 2013, an anonymous leap year of no significant results, but 2015 has signaled the imminent return of the player that awed us in 2013. Now playing for TCM Gaming, Soulkey has established himself—not without setbacks on the way—as a zerg on the rise. Semifinals appearances at IEM Taipei and Fragbite Masters may not yet be something to write home about, but dual qualifications for GSL and S2SL alongside his run through the KeSPA Cup qualifiers (where he beat soO, sKyHigh and First among others) all add to the image of a Soulkey just now beginning to rise from the rubble of 2013's Iron Wall.I'm going to say it upfront: if Soulkey wins this tournament, I'm going to eat my hat. The bracket format is far too punishing for a player of Soulkey's present weaknesses, but I would not be surprised to see him take games or even the series against PartinG. It's the little things.: Top 4 at HSC X, 9-5 record in Proleague 2015, Qualification for S2SL Season 2: "Resurrected by Choya": stuchiu creates the Church of Choya and becomes unbearableOut of all of Choya’s charges, it’s Losira whose improvement was most unexpected. The ex-Incredible Miracle star found the transition to HotS difficult; struggling to replicate his preferred ultralisk heavy style. Once known as a late game zerg(seriously, if you’ve somehow managed to miss out on his epic series against GuMiho, you owe it to yourself to catch up here ), his curious decision to leave IM at the end of 2013 proved to be near-disastrous. His fall was dramatic, dropping instantly from Code S to the doldrums of Code B. He played a mere 85 maps of Starcraft 2 in the first half of 2014, mostly in online qualifiers, and we feared that we had seen the last of the zerg with the fastest hands in Starcraft.His return to a stable team environment at MVP was viewed more as a curiosity than anything else—an opportunity to reminisce on his glorious resumé. However, behind the scenes, Losira began to move through the gears again—357 maps played in the second half of the year shows the vast difference that support, confidence and determined application can bring to results. His rebirth at HomeStory Cup X was a delight to watch; shedding the KangHo tag in favour of his original moniker, it really seemed that the old Losira was back. In 2015, he’s gone from strength to strength: successful qualification for an individual league in Korea for the first time in well over a year, while proving to be the anchor behind an ever improving MVP Proleague lineup.In the Starcraft scene, we tend to put results above all else. We’re constantly judging, ranking, and reappraising. We care about statistics in Proleague; about runs in Code S and the S2SL; about who wins IEMs and Dreamhacks and Blizzcons. We care so much that sometimes, we lose track of what truly makes the game great—the characters that give colour to this vibrant scene. There are few players in the world—let alone the militaristic KeSPA regime—as expressive and open as Losira. We’re used to seeing a meek bow after wins; a thumbs up if a player’s truly letting off steam. Losira is different. From dancing his lings in Bomber’s face before giving the thumbs down to the entire StarTale bench in the GSTL, to the sheer joy he radiated after beating ByuL in Proleague Round 1, Losira has always showed that he loves the pantomime as well as the game. There may be better players than him competing this weekend, but there are few worth cheering for more than Losira.: GSL S1 Ro16, S2SL S1 Ro16, IEM Katowice Ro4: "Great in PL, disappointment in individual leagues—the new Flash?": Valdes creates the Church of Dark.Several years after BoxeR discovered him, Dark has finally started to show that he's more than just potential. He has gone from consistently failing to qualify for individual leagues to frequently making the Ro32 and now Ro16s in both GSL and S2SL. Not only that, he has now become a mainstay of Proleague, unexpectedly usurping INnoVation for the crown of SKT Ace. His list of victims in Proleague include: Flash, Maru, Rogue and sOs; and in individual leagues he has taken down: Trap, Classic, Flash, TY and MMA. His most impressive result was at IEM Katowice 2015, where he managed to defeat both Taeja and Maru back to back in dominating fashion.However, as is often the case with many players, their ascent to the top is often littered with many bumps, pitfalls and hurdles. Despite often looking dominant and brilliant in the earlier rounds of individual leagues and tournaments, Dark increasingly falters the deeper a tournament goes. The Ro16 seems to be his new wall; however he has proved at IEM that he is capable of breaking through this wall occasionally. This KeSPA Cup represents one of those opportunities to better himself and make another deep run. However, Dark has one major Achilles heel right now: his ZvP, even before the swarm host patch, has been poor. He recently lost to both PartinG and MyuNgSiK in Code S Ro32, appearing weak to all ins and bad at taking gambles. It isn't clear how he should go about it, but perhaps it's about time he began incorporating early game aggression to give him the space to win games with his macro. If he can rustle up some ZvP wins when it counts, or if Dark manages to dodge ZvP altogether, he can definitely make it far.: 3-kill of CJ Entus, Ro8 GSL, Ro4 Gfinity: "Cannon me again Classic, I dare you!" (Alternate Headline : "Does anyone know the Heimlich?"): Soularion from a year ago becomes an accidental prophet (and even more unbearable than if Maru won).Very carefully, Rogue has risen to a surprisingly high level within Korea. His success has brought him to second place in Proleague wins (and holding a better win record than pretty much any high-level player), while remaining relevant in the various solo leagues. This is a feat no other zerg except Life has accomplished—and even then, Life's Proleague success has been dwarfed by both ByuL and Rogue. However, it seems that Rogue misses out on the extra bit of talent that breeds champions, seeming to fail when the pressure gets too heavy for him to handle. His recent 3-kill of CJ (even though Jin Air ended up losing the set) is very interesting in this regard. Sure, it was more preparation than simply being far better, but it was still an impressive run.. That got completely overshadowed by ByuL's reverse 3-kill.In many ways, that one word captures Rogue's entire career—overshadowed. When 2015 Proleague began, Rogue was an unlikely backup man for Jin Air, but got completely overshadowed by Maru's stellar 7-3 record. Even in the recent round—where he went 5-0—he still can't seem to grab the headlines ahead of the terran prodigy, or ahead of players such as herO and Stats. What Rogue lacks is that moment. That moment where he can say that he fully embodies his potential. Being a routine ace, like ByuL. An all-kill, like Stats. A fierce run in GSL, like the one he almost achieved but barely fell short of against herO. A championship, like Life. That one loss to ByuL may have cost him his best chance at complete victory, and instead, he was overshadowed one more time, by a zerg who did largely the same thing he did but in a situation that made it far more noticeable.Like so many others, Rogue's looking for a huge run here at the KeSPA Cup. With how the brackets have been drawn, it seems that Rogue is destined to be overshadowed, but the chance at vengeance is always there. Most interesting is the Ro8 match against either his teammate Maru, or the very zerg that crushed his hopes in Proleague, ByuL. It's certainly one of the bigger matches to watch over the weekend, and it gives Rogue one definite chance to step out of the darkness and into the light. To become the champion he's routinely fallen short of. But until then, it's hard to rate Rogue as anything more than middle-tier. Significantly better than the bottom-feeders, but still destined to be picked on by greater predators.: 2nd at SSL S1: "I beat Life in a Bo7.": Takes trophy and rubs it in the face of every player that mocked him at SSLDream's entire career can be summed up as this: after having one mind blowing performance, he then spent the rest of the year in obscurity. In 2012, Rain gave up his spot in GSL to attend MLG. He then came back to fight Dream in Code A for a spot back into Code S. Instead he was summarily kicked out by Dream as Dream put on (what we thought) was a once in a life time performance as he completely dismantled and outplayed Rain in the macro game. Hopes were high to see how far the young player could go, but nothing came of it and he went dormant for the year. He then rose up to play Scarlett at the ATC Finals where he put on another once in a life time performance as he played one of the best games of the year on Red City against the Canadian Zerg. And then again Dream went dormant.Until this year After joining SKT, Dream quickly made his way through S2SL, where he met Life in the semi-finals. Anyone who was anyone would have told you that Life was easily the out and out favorite. And then in one of the greatest series played in 2015 (and arguably all-time), Dream took on Life head to head and defeated the best player on the planet in a Bo7.Yet going into S2SL Season 2 group nominations, it was clear what the other players thought of Dream. He had gotten lucky to get this far, his run to the finals was a fluke and he should feel grateful to even be counted among them. Here at KeSPA Cup and later in S2SL, it will be Dream's turn to provide a rebuttal. Has he truly awoken in 2015—his once-a-years finally becoming his everyday—or will history repeat itself as he is sent once more into obscurity?: Double Starleague qualification S2, Proleague R2 Finals MVP: "I came in like a wrecking ByuL.": A wrecking ball crushes the building and ByuL rides out on itSo basically, ByuL is the reverse Solar. While the latter has floundered in Proleague, the former is in the argument for best zerg in the league. The Samsung man has balanced his team league struggles with some good runs in GSL and even titles at MSI Beat IT and DH Stockholm; the CJ Entus player has yet to taste any sort of individual league success apart from a silver in WCS AM 2013. Curiously, the two players even share a similar name: ByuL means star in Korean, and the sun is a star (unless you're stupid). It wouldn't be a surprise if it turns out these two players' fates are intertwined; they were both Samsung Khan B-teamers once upon a time, after all. If so, ByuL likely won't get far this KeSPA Cup after such a brawling performance in the R2 Finals.Based on form alone, ByuL is behind only Life as Korea's best zerg. With Proleague giving us great games and elite matchups each week, it has become one of the best proving grounds for anyone hoping to break into the upper echelon of the swarm. While Dark and Losira have received the accolades for their impressive winstreaks, ByuL has plodded through opponents to put together one of the best records in Proleague. On the one hand, rating a player so highly purely out of team league success seems counter-intuitive. On the other hand, there aren't really any zergs apart from Life who have accomplished anything in Korea since soO's quadruple silvers. While that distinct lack of worthy contenders should temper the gravity of ByuL's ascent to the top, it's still quite an achievement to carry your team to a round title in the world's toughest team league.Yet, even if he does continue to chop down his opponents in Proleague, ByuL will never be considered a great player until he can translate some of that success into an individual tournament title. That's why he can only rank above all the other aspirants and below the recent champions and finalists—at the end of the day, a trophy with your name on it matters more than a trophy with your team's. CJ Entus may be sweating at the prospect of ByuL taking this KeSPA Cup and following Solar's Proleague implosion, but for ByuL, it's a trade he must be willing to make.: Best PL record in 2015 (14-3), NSSL Season 2 Round of 8: "I am not in danger, Flash. I am the danger. ": The protoss race loses respectability faster than post-GSL May InCaObscured by the popularity and success of his more explosive counterparts, Stats has been largely ignored as a threat by the larger public. PartinG, Zest and herO have boatloads of effusive charm and exuberance to spare; even PartinG’s more self-aggrandizing moments are a relief simply because they present an alternative to the worst stereotypes of Korean demeanor. sOs’ shyness serves as a balance to his unhinged approach to the game. Rain has no need to be exciting in front of the cameras. His legacy can substitute for personal connection until he hangs up the mouse and keyboard. Meanwhile Stats is largely associated with PvZ dexterity and a face reverse-engineered from a banana cream pie prank. As a player, he is well-respected in the way one respects a veteran carpenter. He is not a bold “artist” or “innovator”, but he can do a bang-up job on any house as long as he knows the problem beforehand.Attention to detail is crucial for preparation-based tournaments, and Stats seems to have acquired some mighty fine microscopes after he botched his chance at a NSSL final (he lost to the eventual winner Maru). So far his 2015 Proleague performance has been impeccable, recently sweeping SKT T1 in the playoffs. His S2SL S1 group went swimmingly as well, although Stats admits adapting a spray-and-pray approach when it comes to committing to fights. For the first time since September of last year he looks sharp. His PvT finally has that pristine shine and no matter how much Stats protests, his PvP victories don’t look like flukes either. Little do-gooder Stats, quietly honing his craft while his contemporaries ate up all the attention, is ready for his closeup.: Advanced to 3SL Ro8 second in his group, IEM Katowice Champion: "The rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated.": Olli becomes unbearable; SackOfWetMice curses him from the depths of hellAs it turns out, losing to TANGTANG really was just a fluke for Zest. Despite some lackluster outings in Proleague, Zest shredded the IEM World Championship and expunged any doubts about his form. With highly adaptable and sturdy PvZ, Zest overcame a 2-0 deficit to beat Hydra. The 3-2 win over INnoVation was not as close as it sounds, because Zest completely dominated in macro games and only faltered with his cheeses. The same can be said for his series against Bbyong. Then in the finals, Zest completely outclassed Trap in PvP. It's usually very difficult to label a player as "good" at PvP due to the nature of the matchup, but Zest is outstanding at finding his way into the mid-game, where his understanding and decision making rise above all others.KeSPA Cup is once again loaded with great Protosses, but it happens that Zest won't be able to hit a PvP until the semifinals at the earliest. Instead, beyond his initial PvT, it looks like the road is paved with zergs. While Zest's flexibility and breadth of strategies in the matchup establish him as one of the most formidable, he can err on the side of greed, and his aggressive allins are quite stoppable. Nevertheless, like herO, his shortcomings are only exploitable by some of the best. Similarly, his PvT is all around excellent, but he is shaky against the most prolific attackers, both with early factory-based aggression and relentless mid-game bio assaults. Although FanTaSy's macro game and scv pulls are unquestionably outmatched by Zest, his penchant forearly harassment could prove to be a problem for the KT Protoss, much like it was for even the defensive rock, Rain. However, Zest's quick recovery of form after his GSL slump shows no indication that he will feel threatened until at least the semifinals. From there, he'll have to fight as hard as ever to stay in the running for best protoss.: GSL S1 Ro4, IEM Katowice Ro8, Advanced second in his group to the 3SL Ro8.: I beat 2 gate, plz stop 2 gating me D:: banjoe becomes unbearable.Tragic heroes are defined not by their noble birth or remarkable achievements. Tragic heroes are, by design, instead defined by their tragic flaws. For our tragic herO, the main downfall is strategic selection. The bulk of herO's losses, particularly the important ones, stem from either a stubbornness to adjust to the situation or a predictability that is easily countered (and in some cases, both). From both perspectives, herO is just not a difficult player to outwit before the game starts. He has lost to proxy 2gates (and died trying), his greed in PvZ has been exposed, and his inflexible build selection per map has cost him too many times. While herO excels in nearly every aspect of macro play and is both fearsome and fearless when aggressive, he is too reluctant to deviate the slightest bit in order to account for the weaknesses his opponents might look to exploit.Despite the cracks in herO's play, that's all they really are: cracks. The most dexterous of opponents, like Stats or Rogue, can navigate herO's road map and get right down into those cracks, able to dig at them and widen them enough to squeeze in a few wins. Even so, the CJ Protoss is a prolific winner. Although it's a vastly different dynamic, it does mean something that herO consistently reaches the latest stages of the death trap Korean qualifiers for nearly every tournament. Sure, he can be reluctant to vary his strategies within a series, on a map, or in a specific matchup, but he has the raw skill to do almost anything he wants and make it work. The only terran he has trouble beating is Maru, whose advantage stems from his own strengths more than herO's weaknesses, and Bbyong, who abused the s*** out of herO's repetitive tendencies. The only zerg he struggles with is Life, who adroitly punishes herO's greed. He has a more glaring problem with PvP at the highest level, but even that seems to have improved after his advancement from the quad-protoss group in 3SL. The bottom line, however, is that it's not a bad place to be if your two biggest obstacles the two best players in the world.: 2nd GSL S1 2015, Top 4 IEM Taipei: "Greatest Protoss of 2015, suck it Zest!": Kicks out Leenock for Top 15 All TimePartinG has spent the last year as an entertainer. He is SC2's best interviewee, best trash talker, best ceremony maker and one of its biggest personalities today. Which makes it all the more amazing when you realize that he can back up his talk and his braggadocio with his in-game skill. He talks the talk and walks the walk. There is no other player in the world quite like him and he has become one of SC2's biggest and most beloved stars and one of the few Koreans that actively tries to engage the foreigner scene as much as he can.Which may be why he is the first and only Korean player to have ever commented on the Greatest of All Time list at all. His exclusion was a shock not just to PartinG, and was one of the more controversial placings on the list. PartinG in a recent interview after getting past his GSL Ro32 group said this: "I asked myself if it was possible for him to hit the cannons from below, and then as the situation unraveled itself I found out that the distance actually worked out for him. If I had been able to force out a draw then I think an article could have been published where my unbelievable sense of game could have come to light so it was really disappointing."For PartinG, being the one of the world's most loved players and one of its strongest players is no longer enough. It is more clear now than it ever was before that PartinG wants to be more. He wants to be the greatest not just now, not just of his race, but one of the greatest to have ever done it.: IEM Taipei #1, GSL Season 1 #1, SSL Season 1 Ro4: "Deadenemies.": Life acquires his eleventh title, tying Taeja for most championships in SC2 (and makes Zealously unbearable in the process)What do Marineking, Flash, DRG, Mvp, Taeja, Leenock, Symbol, San and Creator and others have in common? They all at some point, in one way or another, competed directly with Life. Be it for championships, consensus ”greatest player”-titles or simply through oft-recurring face-offs across Korean Starcraft, or by directly interfering with Life's quest for never-ending glory.Where are they now? Don't answer, the question is rhetorical; they are all gone. Retired, all but retired, or simply outmatched by a field of opponents rising to overtake them. Outmatched by the Zerg prodigy that in the end bested them all. Since Blizzcon, Life has been under attack from all sides. Since becoming World Champion, Life's day-to-day schedule has involved more televised games than that of almost any other player. He has suffered losses to ForGG, Maru, Dream, Rogue, Innovation and others amid a veritable sea of triumphs, and more often than not avenged those losses mere weeks later. soO and Soulkey may have their eyes set on their own past heights, but it is still Life that rules the Swarm in Korea. In this, he has no equal. In Korea, he has no rival that outshines him.Life has always been at his very best in a pinch. There are countless examples from tournaments on multiple continents across three years and two different games of Life performing below his own standard when he isn't being pushed to the limit. When there is someone at his heels, chasing him, he runs faster. When someone pulls him down, he climbs higher. Life's career is a rollercoaster of falls and high rises, and when he remains unchallenged at the top for too long he becomes complacent and inevitably suffers as a consequence. KeSPA Cup comes at an opportune time, following a GSL championship that put Life past $400.000 in career winnings. With a new trophy to set his eyes on, Life doesn't have the time for contentment.Fortunately, this tournament has gathered all of his potential adversaries. Maru, Dream, Stats, herO, Parting and Rogue – all of whom have pushed him to the brink recently. All of whom appear to be legitimate threats to Life's continued dominance in Korea. Contrary to what one might think, this is not detrimental to Life's chances, but conducive to a performance on the level that has awed us in the past. For Life, challenges are not challenges, and triumps are not triumphs. In a pinch, Life is the very best he can be.With all his potential rivals gathered in one place,
the medieval Islamic world are artistic wonders and perhaps mathematical wonders as well. A study of patterns in 12th- to 17th-century mosaics suggests that Muslim scholars made a geometric breakthrough 500 years before mathematicians in the West. Peter J. Lu, a physics graduate student at Harvard University, noticed a striking similarity between certain medieval mosque mosaics and a geometric pattern known as a quasi crystal—an infinite tiling pattern that doesn’t regularly repeat itself and has symmetries not found in normal crystals (see video below). Lu teamed up with physicist Paul Steinhardt of Princeton University to test the similarity: If the patterns repeated when extended infinitely, they couldn’t be true quasi crystals. Most of the patterns examined failed the test, but one passed: a pattern found in the Darb-i Imam shrine (seen in the first video above), built in 1453 in Isfahan, Iran. Not only does it never repeat when infinitely extended, its pattern maps onto Penrose tiles—components for making quasi crystals discovered by Oxford University mathematician Roger Penrose in the 1970s—in a way that is consistent with the quasi crystal pattern. Among the 3,700 tiles Lu and Steinhardt mapped, there are only 11 tiny flaws, tiles placed in the wrong orientation. Lu argues that these are accidents possibly introduced during centuries of repair. “Art historians always suspected there must be something more to these patterns,” says Tom Lentz, director of Harvard University Art Museums, but they were never examined with “this kind of scientific rigor.” Go to the next story: 60. Diamonds From Outer SpaceDean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio's daily program "The Dean Obeidallah Show" and a columnist for The Daily Beast. Follow him @deanofcomedy. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. In fact, one Trump supporter rushed the stage in Central Park on Friday night in an effort to stop the show -- claiming those behind the production have "blood on their hands because it contributes to the overall desensitization of violence." The play depicts the Trump lookalike being stabbed to death. The protester documented her actions on Periscope. After she was arrested, prominent Trump supporters tweeted their defense of this attempt to silence the play. Ironic to see this response, given that many on the right are so often outraged when college students interrupt or try to silence political views they don't agree with In any event, the person who stormed the stage was far from the only one on Team Trump going after this production of Caesar. Trump's cheerleaders-in-chief Newt Gingrich and Sean Hannity also railed against the production, claiming it incites political violence. But targeting this production of Caesar is the soul of hypocrisy. Where was this outrage in 2012 when a Minneapolis production of "Julius Caesar" starred a Barack Obama-lookalike as Caesar? The conservative publication "The American Conservative" reviewed the play at the time, explaining in no uncertain terms that this Caesar was clearly intended to be Obama while praising the production as "riveting." And where was the outrage in 2015 when the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence staged the headline-grabbing production of "Julius Caesar" that featured a middle-aged female Caesar wearing a pantsuit who was stabbed to death? Media outlets at the time, from NPR to reviewers, noted that this production was clearly intended to evoke Hillary Clinton. We could possibly forgive this lack of consistency if the Trump supporters had at least called out their candidate when he explicitly called for and defended political violence on the campaign trail on various occasion s. Some of the most alarming examples include Trump's words after one of his fans beat up a protester, "I thought it was very, very appropriate." Trump shockingly added, "And that's what we need a little bit more of." At another event Trump reminisced about the "old days" where protesters would "be carried out on a stretcher." Candidate Trump even offered to provide legal fees if his supporters would attack people in his name, "If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you?" Trump added, "I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise." Let's be blunt: Trump's words inciting his crowd to beat up protesters and then publicly defending their actions was, and remains, far more dangerous than any reinterpretation of a Shakespearean play. And to be clear, Shakespeare's intention with this classic play is not to make light of killing leaders but is actually a cautionary tale about "the costs of political violence." This is truly the opposite of Trump's own words on the campaign trial where he expressly called for political violence. Yet can you recall Trump supporters protesting his incitement of political violence and streaming their protest on social media? I can't. But I can recall them cheering and actually attacking people in response to his words. In fact, there's a federal lawsuit currently pending against Trump and his campaign by protesters injured by Trump supporters at a Kentucky campaign rally after Trump yelled, "Get 'em out of here." Just two months ago a federal judge ruled the lawsuit could proceed, noting that Trump's words -- "Get 'em out of here" -- "at least implicitly encouraged the use of violence or lawless action." And if Trump supporters were sincerely upset by those who employ violent imagery in a political context, they should've been screaming in April when Ted Nugent visited the White House. After all, in 2016, Nugent declared that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton "should be tried for treason & hung." Nugent also called Obama "a piece of s***" and declared that the then-President should "suck on my machine gun." Follow CNN Opinion Join us on Twitter and Facebook But not a word from these Trump supporters about Nugent's despicable violent imagery. At least Nugent belatedly seems to get it ; he announced after the horrific shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise earlier this week that he would no longer use such "harsh" terms, saying, "we have got to be civil to each other." If Trump supporters are really worried about political violence, they should begin by urging the President to admit that his actions and words on the campaign trail were destructive and wrong. Anything less sends a message that those who support him are more concerned with shutting down a play because they oppose its content than with reducing political violence in America.It’s time to take stock of the year’s best music, and one thing is clear: the musical landscape of 2017 was varied and diverse. Not only were we treated to new music from some of Canada’s biggest stars, including Drake, Feist and Arcade Fire, but it was a year that marked the emergence of exciting new artists like Jessie Reyez, Partner and Colter Wall. We also witnessed the re-discovery of musical pioneer Jackie Shane and celebrated Gord Downie’s posthumous masterpiece. Here is our roundup of the Canadian albums of 2017, as chosen by our staff of CBC Music producers and music programmers. Scroll through the ranked list of albums below and tell us what your favourite Canadian release was this year via Twitter @CBCMusic. Editor’s note: All albums were chosen from Canadian releases between Jan. 1 and Nov. 17, 2017 — not including French releases, which is a task our sister site ICI Musique will be undertaking. 17. Colter Wall, self-titled Colter Wall's debut album caught a lot of attention this past year, with Steve Earle calling him "the best singer-songwriter I've come across in years,” and Pitchfork calling him “one of country music’s most exciting voices.” It's hard to believe this songwriter from Swift Current, Sask., is only 22. He calls his songs, which include murder ballads and tales of brushes with the law, “mostly autobiographical.” There is a gravity in his voice and an authentic feel to his lyrics that makes you wonder how much of it is true. — Reuben Mann 16. Vivek Shraya, Part-Time Woman Few albums can broaden or even upend one's whole world view, but Vivek Shraya's perfect collection, Part-Time Woman, makes it happen in just six songs. Exploring femininity, feminism, race, sisterhood, the male gaze, identity, violence and violence against transgender and racialized bodies in particular, Shraya interrogates what it means — and what it takes — to be a woman in 2017 against a backdrop of sing-along choruses, lush arrangements and evocative, avant-garde pop. — Andrea Warner &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://vivekshraya.bandcamp.com/album/part-time-woman"&amp;amp;gt;Part-Time Woman by Vivek Shraya &amp;amp;amp;amp; Queer Songbook Orchestra&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; 15. The Weather Station, self-titled Tamara Lindeman’s voice has been compared to Joni Mitchell’s for years, but it’s not a manipulation; Lindeman, a.k.a. the Weather Station, is the next chapter in Canada’s folk tradition. With this self-titled release, Lindeman said she wanted to make a rock 'n' roll album, “but one that sounded how I wanted it to sound, which of course is nothing like rock and roll.” Lindeman’s crisp folk is turned up to a relative Weather Station-level of rock on this 2017 release, as her vocals glide through each song, highlighting lyrical nuance that mines everyday minutiae with a fine-toothed comb. “I notice f--king everything,” Lindeman sings on single “Thirty,” and we know it’s absolutely true — and that we're better for the stories she tells because of it. — Holly Gordon 14. Majid Jordan, The Space Between Majid Al Maskati and Jordan Ullman aren’t wasting any time. Following the release of their self-titled debut in February 2016, the Toronto R&B duo known as Majid Jordan got right back to crafting their signature nocturnal slow jams. While Drake was the only feature on that first album, lending his vocals to the lead hit single “My Love,” he’s physically absent on The Space Between, which actually works better to showcase Majid’s undulating falsetto. That said, it’s still very much an OVO family affair, with both PartyNextDoor (“One I Want”) and dvsn (“My Imagination”) making appearances. It’s also still rooted in the Toronto Sound that the “Hold on We’re Going Home” co-writers helped to create, though a much more refined and accessible release than their debut. With The Space Between, Al Maskati and Ullman further carve out their place at the forefront of the next generation of Canadian R&B artists. — Jesse Kinos-Goodin 13. Jackie Shane, Any Other Way Any Other Way is a fantastic, triumphant, headrush, and it's such a loss that Shane's incredible, soulful voice was all but erased from Canada's music history. An R&B artist who made her home in Toronto for most of the '60s, Shane was a groundbreaking part of the city's LGBT scene and her live shows were legendary. This double-album reissue begins the work of restoring Shane to her rightful place as one of Canada's first soul queens. — AW 12. Arcade Fire, Everything Now While Arcade Fire’s Infinite Content marketing campaign didn’t go over well with music fans this year, the Montreal band’s main offering still delivered enough for us to forgive the litany of absurd headlines. Everything Now finds Arcade Fire continuing in its evolution from earnest rock band to a more relaxed (yet ambitious) dance-rock force. Whether it's flirting with ABBA-style melodies or borrowing rhythms from reggae and synth-pop, Arcade Fire is eager to expand its scope — and when it hits just right on tracks like “Put Your Money On Me” or the Regine Chassagne-led “Electric Blue,” it stills feels invigorating. This may not be Arcade Fire’s strongest album to date but the band's batting average remains higher than most musical acts around. — Melody Lau 11. Tei Shi, Crawl Space Valerie Teicher, the Buenos Aires-born singer who spent her formative years in Colombia, British Columbia and Quebec, has been releasing singles and EPs since 2013, slowly garnering a fanbase and critical acclaim — and upwards of 4.5 million views on her video for the 2014 single “Bassically.” But 2017 marked the year that Teicher, a.k.a. Tei Shi, stood front and centre with her debut full-length album, filling it with jam after beautifully crafted jam that bounces between R&B and electro-pop, shoegaze and rock, and a knowing glance to ‘80s influences. Teicher wrote and produced the album, adding two tape memos to the tracklist that she recorded when she was about 10 years old — “I just hope that one day, I can be like Britney Spears,” she states on one — resulting in a full-length that gives us insight to Teicher’s artistic process, balancing her vulnerability with vocal and production confidence that can only push her closer to stardom. — HG 10. Land Of Talk, Life After Youth For Land of Talk’s Elizabeth Powell, 2017 was the year of the big comeback. Her last album was 2010’s excellent Cloak and Cipher, and after that, Powell seemed to all but disappear from the musical landscape (you can read more about that here). It wasn’t until last year that she started to slowly emerge from her self-imposed exile, and this year marked her full return with the triumphant release of Life After Youth. Many of the songs on this album come from Powell's period of retreat and introspection, but it also has its share of hook-filled rockers. From the soaring, gorgeous opener “Yes, You Were,” to the sweetly sentimental “In Florida,” you can hear Powell's newly won sense of optimism and gratitude woven through every song. — Andrea Gin 9. Partner, In Search of Lost Time On paper, you might not be sure what to make of this rock duo at first, which lists Weezer, AC/DC, Melissa Etheridge, Ween and Beavis & Butthead as key influences. One listen to the album’s opening song, “Everybody Knows,” though — with its catchy riffs, shredding guitar solos, hooky pop songwriting sensibilities and sage lyrics about getting baked — and you know that all those influences have added up to something good. Describing itself as “unflinching in its exploration of intimacy, friendship, sexuality, drugs, and the existential predicament of being a lesbian barista in the year 2017,” Partner's Josée Caron and Lucy Niles are not only the set of guitar-rock heroes we want this year, they’re also the ones we need. — AG 8. Broken Social Scene, Hug of Thunder A reunion that was well worth the wait, Broken Social Scene returned this year at a time when many needed to feel a sense of real unity and upliftment. On Hug of Thunder, the band’s spirit is reinvigorated with new blood (Ariel Engle joins the fold) and a focused mission statement in light of the 2015 Bataclan attacks in Paris. All the hallmarks of Broken Social Scene’s anthemic sounds are back in full swing: open-hearted declarations shouted in harmonic unison over triumphant horns and walls of guitars. It’s a rock record that unabashedly swells with emotion and is infused with equal parts nostalgia and forward-moving momentum. It’s some of the band’s best work yet. — ML 7. Weaves, Wide Open For Weaves, replicating the beautiful disarray of manic ideas that collided into the pop-rock gem that was their debut album would be impossible. So, in its equally great followup this year, the Toronto-band band teased apart its strengths, aligned them, and polished them into something much more focused — but just as thrilling. Wide Open finds frontwoman Jasmyn Burke taking centre stage, channelling her unique version of Bruce Springsteen, and proving that, underneath Weaves' DIY charm lays a band that can wield a powerful hook. — ML 6. Jessie Reyez, Kiddo Jessie Reyez dropped her debut single, “Figures,” in 2016, introducing us to the 26-year-old Brampton, Ont., singer who would soon command our attention. “Figures/ I gave you ride or die/ and you gave me games,” she sings over simple guitar, lulling us in while stating in no uncertain terms that she’ll (eventually) be just fine: “You say sorry once and you think it's enough/ I got a lineup of girls and a lineup of guys/ begging for me just to give 'em a try.” On her 2017 debut EP, Kiddo, Reyez’s heart remains unchecked, as does her energy and anger: she will enrage you with a song like “Gatekeeper” — “Oh I'm the gatekeeper/ spread your legs/ open up/ you could be famous,” she taunts, retelling her experience with a sexual predator in the music industry — and break you down with an outpouring of love for her family on “Great One.” Throughout the six tracks on Kiddo, plus a nearly minute-long interlude from a voicemail of her parents singing her happy birtrhday in Spanish, Reyez is vulnerable yet unwilling to be anything but herself, letting her raw emotion serve ballad-like tracks and bangers alike. Having already worked with the likes of King Louie, Chance the Rapper, Skrillex and Calvin Harris — and now immediately selling out shows — Reyez is looking at one hell of a 2018. — HG 5. Gord Downie, Introduce Yerself In recent years, we've had a few remarkable opportunities to glimpse our musical heroes coming to grips with their mortality (David Bowie's Blackstar; Leonard Cohen's You Want it Darker). Gord Downie's posthumous release, the achingly beautiful, musically adventurous Introduce Yerself, not only deserves its place alongside those brilliant goodbyes, but it's also a devastating masterpiece. — AW 4. Feist, Pleasure It had been six years since Feist released her last album, and she almost didn’t come back. 2011’s Metals was an overwhelming success — debuting at No. 9 on Billboard, named album of the year by the New York Times and winning the three Juno Awards, among other accolades — but Feist didn’t want to make another record just because that’s what she was supposed to do. After a period of “quiet reckoning,” she started working on music again, and we’re glad she did. Pleasure showcases Feist at the height of her creative powers: looking inward, pushing forward and experimenting with her sound. It’s adventurous, artful and a complete delight. — AG 3. Drake, More Life Perhaps the term “album” has become too confining for Drake. The Toronto rapper’s two best releases over the same number of years have been a mixtape (If You’re Reading This it’s too Late) and now something he deems a “playlist.” More Life springs back from the overworked Views, and frees up some boundaries for the Toronto rapper. His grab bag of sounds feels much more relaxed and willingly experimental, swerving from grime cut “No Long Talk” straight into the trop-house ease of “Passionfruit.” We’ll happily accept another “playlist” next, Drizzy. — ML 2. Alvvays, Antisocialites A lot of pressure can result from such a critically acclaimed beginning, but there are no visible nerves on Alvvays’ Antisocialites, the followup to the Toronto-based band’s much lauded, self-titled debut. Building on the jangly surf-pop that made Alvvays so popular in 2014, Antisocialites takes all the parts of Alvvays that worked and builds on them, proving that the band can consistently create some of the best pop in the country. It wasn’t all rose-coloured success, though: frontwoman Molly Rankin told us that, after more than a year of non-stop touring, she and her bandmates needed to “get back to our apartments and walk through the city and have space and get back to ourselves” before she could write the new album. The self-imposed break resulted in Rankin’s artist retreat on Toronto Island, where she wrote the basis for these 10 new tracks of shimmery break-up songs, with hooks that shine brightly amid Alvvays’ trademark devastation. A taste of cotton candy after a long day at the fair, Antisocialites stands up no matter the season. — HG 1. Daniel Caesar, Freudian Daniel Caesar's stunning debut is all sleepy tenderness, laidback wisdom and confident intimacy. Freudian opens with these deep, vibrating notes that are wholly immersive, swallowing the listener inside a world rich with soul-stirring organs, beautiful piano lines, sinuous, seductive arrangements and lush production. Caesar's voice, lyrically and physically, radiates warmth and intelligence, but one of the other things that makes Freudian feel so radically inspired is how Caesar makes space for so many women-identified and gender non-conforming collaborators and voices, and not simply as objects, either, but in dialogue with them as actual characters with agency within the narratives of his songs. With Freudian, Caesar illuminates another path forward for Canadian R&B, and it's a glorious one. — AW More to explore: 100 best Canadian songs of 2017 Our 10 favourite Canadian classical albums of 2017 Exclusive: watch breakout Montreal band Milk & Bone play their new single liveTaking lots of selfies is not currently considered a mental disorder, but the amount of products coming out to support our selfie obsession is ridick. There’s the selfie stick, toasted selfies and now there’s even the Belfie, a selfie stick for your butt. Kim Kardashian came up with the term while striking a pose of her behind in the mirror for Instagram one day. Model Cheryl Cole and Kelly Brook soon followed the trend with their own Instagram belfies and even Lady Gaga used a flattering rear photo for the cover of ‘Do What You Want.‘ http://instagram.com/p/fjw59uuS7b/ But capturing your rear-end isn’t exactly easy if all you’ve got is your phone. Kim K is an expert selfie taker but a source close to the belfie incident told Life & Style magazine: “She took so many pictures and deleted them before she and Kanye decided on the one she posted.” The creators of selfie-plastered social network site On.com invented the Belfie to finally, “make it easy to take pics of your bum in any angle.” “We’ve noticed a huge spike in users taking butt selfies in recent months so the natural next step was for us to develop a device to assist our users in taking one,” On.com’s CTO Kevin Deegan told Business Insider. A regular selfie stick will cost you about $15 but this is obviously no ordinary selfie-taking tool. The uniquely designed piece that lets you take selfies of your back side goes for a cool $79.99. Also, it’s currently sold out. Those hoping to get in on the butt pic taking tools trend can sign up to get on the waiting list here.With the Zero, Broken Anchor has devised a universal lens focus gear ring that truly feels like it could work on any lens that needs it. Pretty much every filmmaker has at some point tried to make equipment do something it wasn’t designed to do. While vintage cinema lenses create beautiful imagery, and the world of still glass offers cost-effective options for building out a lens kit, neither were designed to work with modern cinema follow focus units. To overcome this, you can of course buy individual delrin rings to attach to each lens you acquire, but unless they are custom made and fit, they often slip. Most have at least some form of a mounting gap where the follow focus unit will slip for a gear, which can be disastrous when trying to do precise focus moves in your shot. Broken Anchor might just have a solution with their ZERO universal focus ring, and they shipped us a pre-production model to put through the paces. Credit: Broken Anchor CNC-machined out of aluminum, and anodized for hardening and durability, this ring is designed to last for a very long time. Through an ingenious combination of ratchets and springs, you twist the ring in order to move the lens-arms in until the ring is locked firmly onto the lens. This system makes installation completely tool-free, as opposed to the allen keys that are usually required to mount lens focus rings. Each lens arm is tipped with silicon rubber, and in our tests no lenses were marked in any way. Credit: Broken Anchor When properly tightened, the ring was surprisingly secure to the lens barrel, holding down with 2.25lbs of force. You can twist the ring around your hand to feel its force, and it feels secure without feeling like it would damage a lens. We did some extreme speed focus racks to see if we could get the ring to skip, and only encountered some very limited slip when reaching the very end of the intended barrel rotation. Since you don’t generally want to be torqueing hard on a lens barrel past it’s focus range, a bit of slip when reaching the end isn’t a problem. While you might worry about the extra force of a focus motor, you calibrate motors so they don’t apply force outside the focus range of the lens, so you won’t have a problem there either. As long as you stay in the focus range of the lens barrel, the ring works perfectly, never slipping, hopping, or drifting. Credit: Broken Anchor The ring can be fitted on any lens with a 60-90mm lens body diameter, which covers a surprisingly large array of lenses, especially still and vintage glass. Even on lenses with a larger front diameter, it was usually possible to slide the lens on from the back and find a secure fit. Moving the ring from lens to lens was surprisingly fast and east, just twisting the ring to tighten, and then pushing the button to release the arms. The designer clearly worked hard to ensure that the fewest possible screws and access points are visible, making for an attractive accessory that is sleek and self-contained. There are screws on the lens mounting arms, but these come as something of a relief, since they give the option for repair in the future if for some reason one of the arms has an issue. While the construction is top notch and seems very durable, sometimes objects on a film set break not because they were made poorly but because, for example, the camera gets dropped off the back of a moving truck. Seeing screws, which can then be serviced, instead of internal clips, is a good sign that if the device takes some impact, limited repair and tweaking should be possible. Credit: Broken Anchor The ZERO even comes in a surprisingly well thought-out box. Overall, if you are a filmmaker with a wide collection of lenses that require rings to work with follow focus devices, and you’ve been planning to buy an individual ring for each set, buying a single Broken Anchor ring could be a cost-effective alternative. Broken Anchor is running a Kickstarter now with a launch price of $299 for the ZERO. Tech SpecsMellow Mushroom and Manju’s are leaving Guadalupe Street because of Urban Outfitters’ upcoming expansion across five neighboring stores. Urban Outfitters bought out the leases of five stores on Guadalupe Street, including Manju’s and Mellow Mushroom. Austin-based BHF Guadalupe LLC, a business service company, owns all of these stores except for Mellow Mushroom, which the Washoe Company of Luling, Texas, owns. “Starting in March, we will begin a renovation where we will add two restaurants, a larger selling space and some other great features,” said Andy Schmidt, Urban Outfitters store merchandiser. “We hope to be 100 percent complete with the additions by fall.” Chase Bank’s lease did not expire in January, so Urban Outfitters’ expansion will not affect it. Urban Outfitters has bought the lease for its back parking lot, though. Urban Outfitters is currently applying for a wine and beer retailer’s permit with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, according to a sign posted on the abandoned Texadelphia building. The permit would allow the store to sell alcohol on its premises and require it to provide seating for customers. The company plans to expand its retail space and add areas for food and drink. There are no definite design plans as of yet for the expansion, Schmidt said. “I think it’s good for the block,” Schmidt said. “It needs a little love.” Mellow Mushroom manager David Torres said the only thing he is sure of is that the restaurant’s lease will expire in June. Marshall Tidrick \| Daily Texan Staff Urban Outfitters’ expansion into alcohol and food parallels an Urban Outfitters in Brooklyn, New York, called Space Ninety 8. Described as “a unique retail concept” by its website, Space Nintey 8 offers a bar, restaurant and gallery in the same area as its retail store. Urban Outfitters currently has more than 400 stores worldwide and has a market capitalization of $5.07 billion. Manju’s owner, Kavita Sajnani, said she will not be able to renew her lease because of Urban Outfitters’ purchase. “We didn’t know really what was happening until two, three months back,” Sajnani said. “We knew [BHF Guadalupe LLC was] doing something with the property, and they put the sign up next door that Urban Outfitters is applying for permits [for] the six stores down this way. [Texadelphia] has been closed for a while.” Sajnani opened the clothing store 37 years ago with her husband after moving to Austin from India. BHF Guadalupe LLC originally told Sajnani to close at the end of February, but the company gave her a three-week extension to close out. Aerospace engineering senior Francisca Jaramillo has been working at Manju’s since last May. She applied for a job at Tyler’s when she heard Manju’s was closing, but said she would miss Sajnani as a boss. “I just wanted a job for the summer,” Jaramillo said. “It’s a good place to work, and [Sajnani is] really nice. She’s like a mom. She really cares about us. She treats us like daughters. She keeps snacks for us in the back, stuff like that.” Mellow Mushroom may relocate to Round Rock, Torres said, but that move is not definite. Manju’s will not relocate unless a location near campus opens up, according to Sajnani.The victory at the Eurovision contest of “bearded woman” Conchita Wurst has evoked stormy popular reaction ranging from ecstasy to utter disgust. The different sides are energetically discussing the event, and each other’s reaction to it. Donna Rosa de Alvadorez watching Eurovision Deputy of the “One Russia” party Olga Batalina expressed her extreme anxiety over the intensification of gay propaganda. Philip Kirokorov [a pop star in Russia and former participant in Eurovision] called all to respect the winner. The Latvian nationalist Raivis Dzintars saw “Putin’s hand” in this: “One could argue that Conchita Wurst is a PR invention of Putin. It’s impossible to imagine a better gift to Putin in the information war.” “This is yet another link in the chain of cultural legitimization of vice in the modern world, an attempt to establish new cultural norms in society. The process of legalization of what the Bible calls nothing other than an abomination has long ago ceased to be news in the modern world. Unfortunately, tendencies in the fields of both legislature and culture are moving along parallel lines, and the results of this contest testifies to that,” comments the head of the Synodal information department for the Russian Orthodox Church, Vladimir Legoida. “At first glance it’s hard to understand why there was such an uproar. There are men dressed as women every weekend on television, and at all the gala concerts you’ll see Verka Serduchka [female stage persona of Andrei Danilko, a stand-up comedian from Poltava, Ukraine]. You’ve never seen a woman with a beard? By the way, the phenomenon of the bearded woman is something widely known in world culture and Russian culture,” the popular publicist Valery Paniushkin expresses his perplexity and cites more examples of popular bearded woman from the last century. Even Yury Denisov on Lenta.ru [a well known Russian news site] insists that bearded women are traditional. Well, maybe that’s true—what’s our problem? Why the ruckus? What makes us react so strongly to what would appear to be just another cheap vaudeville show? Let’s think about this. First of all, let’s get rid of the false targets presented to us by the liberal press—“bearded women” past and present, by which they try to confuse us, not giving us a correct assessment of what has happened. The root difference between the bearded women of medieval times and Conchita Wurst consists in the fact that, first of all, Conchita Wurst is not a woman. He’s a man. Secondly, the bearded women of the past were looked on as freaks, while Conchita Wurst is now considered by modern Europe as a pinnacle of their civilization. When Kalyagin [a famous Soviet film actor] sings “Love and Poverty” in the role of Donna Rosa de Alvadorez, or when Dustin Hoffman plays “Toostsie” it is in the first place funny, and in the second place intended to explain to the audience the essence of love and camaraderie, and show the relationship between wealth and poverty. When it comes to Conchita, there is nothing funny about it. To the contrary, it is all beastly serious. At the announcement of the contest results, the “female artist” wept and gave a speech: “This evening is dedicated to all who believe in the future of peace and freedom. You know who you are: we are one, and we cannot be stopped. This is a celebration for all. It is for all those who believe in a future where there will be peace, love, tolerance, and where people will be accepted for what they are.” Later the “female artist” addressed the President of Russia: “I don’t know if he is watching… But if he is, it seems I have already said it clearly: we cannot be stopped!” It sends chills up your spine. Who “cannot be stopped”? What are they—legion? The medieval bearded women midgets who worked as jesters and circus actors, and Kalyagin and Hoffman dressed as ladies, made no such claims. They did not make them, for obvious reasons: the former were in no position to do so, and the latter were not dressing up as women for that reason. Let’s take Conchita at his word and accept it as a given that he is talking precisely about freedom and about the fact that the followers of this freedom cannot be stopped. I think that the Christian world’s morbid reaction to Conchita Wurst’s triumph shows just this difference between the understandings of such concepts as freedom for Christians, and freedom for those whose hero, if not to say, “icon”, is Wurst. Furthermore, I suspect that this very conflict is right now the greatest conflict of mankind; and the resolution of this conflict, to put it more exactly, will determine the world’s future. Our problem is that our opponents are trying very hard to keep the essence of this conflict under wraps, and we ourselves for some reason—perhaps by force of prejudices in which Christians also abound—do not bring the essence of the conflict out for society to judge. Or perhaps we are hiding this essence from ourselves—something even worse and more dangerous. As I see it, in one way or another the time has come to call a spade a spade, to give people real knowledge about the world they live in, and about its global conflicts. Only in this way can we receive their support and a real, conscious and free choice in our favor. Thus, we are talking about an ancient conflict between two concepts of freedom, which in turn comes from differing understandings of man’s essence—an understanding based upon an even more fundamental difference: the difference in understandings of the role of God, material, and spirit. It would seem to be a long stretch from this to a feminine looking man winning a music contest, but in fact the road between them is very short. The Christian worldview is based upon the premise that man was created by God, and in His image. And God is the Father, Creator, Love, Truth, and Life. God is all-good, omnipotent and omniscient, and the world He created—to cite the words of the Creator Himself—is “very good”. The Christian worldview presupposes the presence of God’s Providence for the entire world and mankind as a whole, as well as for each person individually. Everyone in life has his or her own significance and aim. Even more: as the classic says, “You know, there is always room for struggle and labor.” Someones’ struggles and labors are “just like everyone else’s”, while others’ may be more unique, but the result should be what Orthodox Christians call the “deification” of man—that is, his drawing ever nearer to the state of perfection in which God abides. Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father in Heaven in perfect (Mt. 5:48). To draw ever nearer to the One Who is Love and Truth. Furthermore, the world created by God, the laws of life He established, and we ourselves are His images—all this is cause for struggle and labor. By this I mean the activity that results in profound change in a person, in his beneficial spiritual growth. A very simple example of this is the change from boyhood to manhood—a change that is achieved through love for a woman and the bearing of all those burdens and limitations that come with it. Our freedom has meaning—the achievement and embodiment on our life path of God’s Providence for us, turning us from something that “drags out an existence” into something that is truly alive, the being that God intended us to be. A Christian’s highest achievement is the ability to unite himself entirely to God: Not my will, but thine, be done (Lk. 22:42). Freedom is not an end in itself, but the necessary condition or instrument needed for self-development, for learning to love people, life, and peace, for establishing ever newer connections with people, strengthening old ties, and for the sake of their preservation, doing what was considered impossible. This transforms us and
:GL all!“This victory is the common victory of all women of Turkey, ” Selahattin Demirtaş, co-president of the Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP), said in a television address to millions of citizens awaiting the outcome of the national elections on 7 June. As a young feminist, I was pleasantly surprised when the election results delivered a blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s growing authoritarianism. It’s important to be aware of the weight of Demirtaş’s words. In an environment where politicians rarely recognise women in the public sphere other than as someone’s mother, wife or daughter, his words were revolutionary. Official speeches concerning women in Turkey are delivered to console grieving mothers when sons die in the conflict-ridden south-east, when routine gendercide claims the life of someone’s wife, or when a mourning father is interviewed about the rape of his daughter. Erdoğan’s Justice and Development party (AKP) and his socially conservative electoral base does not recognise the importance of female participation in the public and political sphere. Last November, while attending a women’s rights conference, the president said he did not believe men and women are equal and that feminists don’t accept the concept of motherhood. The secular, modern, urban elite is not so promising on gender, either. The Kemalist section of the population still backs a discourse suggesting that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk – a male politician, naturally – “gave” women constitutional rights, but more specifically the right to vote and be elected, in the 1930s. Consequently, until the arrival of the HDP, there has never been a party recognising that women have struggled to assert their rights throughout Turkey’s history. The Kemalists have failed to acknowledge the struggle of Ottoman women, who sought labour rights, political representation and the end of forced marriage and polygamy as early as the 18th century. Islamists and secularists, meanwhile, have failed to recognise that Turkish women acquired their most fundamental rights through setting up associations and trade unions, organising marches and writing in newspapers – even at the cost of imprisonment and violence. It was not because they were helped by male politicians. The record number of women elected as MPs is the result of an enduring struggle over generations, despite entrenched gender violence, institutionalised impunity to perpetrators, and a political system that arbitrarily restricts women’s participation in the public sphere. On election day, the behaviour of one MP, the AKP’s Muzaffer Çakar, was emblematic of the discourse pertaining to women’s place in politics. He told the women of Karahasan village in Muş to go home and send their husbands to vote on their behalf. The HDP’s victory is not just groundbreaking, it’s revolutionary. Not only because Turkey will have the highest number of women in its history in the next parliament – almost a fifth of MPs – but also because a party is attempting to challenge the dominant political discourse and gender discrimination. The HDP is the only party with a “declaration on women”. In its official party documnents, it calls itself a “women’s party”. It promises a women’s ministry to address gendercide and institutional gender discrimination. The election result has given me hope for Turkey’s future. However, this hope istempered by an awareness of the persistent challenges that female politicians face. They will have to operate in an environment where their legitimate roles will be challenged by high-level government officials. They will have to acknowledge Turkey’s role in the Syrian conflict. The newly elected female MPs cannot ignore the suffering of thousands of Syrian women that is partly due to Turkey’s support for radical groups in Syria. Additionally, women will have to play an active role in the suspended peace process with Turkey’s Kurdish minority, to ensure that a gender-sensitive approach is implemented. The responsibility on their shoulders is immeasurable. Filiz Kerestecioğlu, a feminist human rights lawyer who is now an HDP MP, said before the elections: “We deserve happiness and freedom.” Keep an eye on Turkey – a gender revolution that could have an impact on the wider region is on its way. Semanur Karaman is coordinator of the women human rights defenders programme at the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (Awid)Happy PECOTA day! By the end of Tuesday, all of Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA projections will be released. The AL East is not quite finished yet, but we do have a finished preview of the Yankeees’ season. New York is expected to go 85–77, staying competitive with the Blue Jays and Red Sox, but Holy Moses—look at the Rays! Tampa Bay is expected to lay waste to the rest of the division with some stout defense (57.8 FRAA). As for the Yankees, the algorithm expects decent offense (.261 TAv), with above-average defense. In what is considered a rebuilding year of sorts, the team will deal with middling offensive production as their fielding improves. Here’s how the team’s starting lineup is expected to fare (in no particular order). Brett Gardner:.256/.329/.389, 12 HR, 56 RBIs Jacoby Ellsbury:.274/.330/.413, 15 HR, 61 RBIs Starlin Castro:.274/.313/.411, 11 HR, 51 RBIs Alex Rodriguez:.243/.333/.416, 22 HR, 74 RBIs Mark Teixeira:.236/.328/.452, 27 HR, 79 RBIs Brian McCann:.243/.315/.436, 26 HR, 80 RBIs Carlos Beltran:.258/.322/.445, 20 HR, 70 RBIs Chase Headley:.258/.340/.405, 15 HR, 63 RBIs Didi Gregorius:.253/.309/.379, 11 HR, 55 RBIs They could do worse than four 20-homer seasons, though some of those on-base percentages aren’t so attractive. It’s important to note that PECOTA can be wrong; it hated the champion Royals last season, and it hates them again this season. 85 wins seems like a somewhat generous, yet realistic, projection for New York. Lead photo: Adam Hunger / USA Today SportsMeasure comes a week after the worst street violence since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak on February 11 [AFP] Egypt's military rulers have issued a decree prohibiting all forms of discrimination, after clashes between soldiers and Christians killed 26 people in the country's worst violence since a revolt this year. Saturday's amendment to the criminal code states a punishment of a fine of no less than $5,000 for discrimination based on "gender, origin, language, religion or beliefs". "I am not very optimistic that the current government will be able to protect the rights of its citizens and implement this law in the face of growing popular support of religious extremist groups" - Nader Shoukri, reseacher The punishment for a government employee found guilty of breaking the new rules is at least three months in prison or a minimum fine of $16,800, the council said in a statement published on Saturday. The caretaker cabinet said on Thursday that it would discuss the sensitive issue of building permits for Christian churches at the heart of sectarian tensions in the overwhelmingly Muslim country. The announcement came as nearly 3,000 mourners gathered in central Cairo for a candlelight vigil in honour of Coptic Christians among 26 people killed in weekend clashes during a demonstration over an attack on a church. The military, in power since a popular uprising toppled president Hosni Mubarak in February, has denied Coptic witness accounts that its soldiers fired on the demonstrators and ordered an investigation. Copts, who comprise about 10 per cent of Egypt's 80 million population, say the laws on obtaining building or renovation permits for churches are overly restrictive, and that Muslims enjoy a much more liberal system for mosques. Hafez Abou Saada, head of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, described the decree as a limited but positive symbolic step. Nader Shoukri, a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said on Saturday that the law is meant "to contain the crisis but laws are not the issue, the bigger challenge is to put it into effect''. "I am not very optimistic that the current government will be able to protect the rights of its citizens and implement this law in the face of growing popular support of religious extremist groups,'' he added.This time San Francisco wants to be second — second in the nation to have a publicly owned bank, that is. There’s only one right now: the Bank of North Dakota. The reasons? The legalization of marijuana in California, the constant demand that the city divest from one bank or another for one political reason or another, and the fact that undocumented immigrants can’t get bank accounts. “The time is now to begin addressing this, because people in San Francisco are at a point where they are no longer willing to accept the status quo and they are open to exploring other alternatives,” said Supervisor Malia Cohen, who wants to create a task force to assess the feasibility of establishing a San Francisco-owned bank. Supervisor Sandra Fewer agreed: “Now is the time. Especially when we see the big banks are investing in bad actors that are not aligned with San Francisco values. This would give us control over our money.” And San Francisco has company. The Oakland City Council’s Finance and Management Committee is set to look into setting up a bank where cannabis businesses could park their money. The nation’s only public bank, the Bank of North Dakota, was created in 1919 in a populist wave when farmers there were unhappy with decisions being made by major banks. Its mission is to promote agriculture, commerce and industry in that state. The idea of a bank owned by San Francisco has been bandied about for a few years. A 2011 report by the city’s budget and legislative analyst listed the potential benefits of a city-owned bank: creation of a new revenue stream without raising taxes, decreased borrowing costs, and increased support for small businesses and community development programs. Another potential benefit: It would give San Francisco more control over how its money is spent — an issue in a city that regularly tries to divest from banks, companies, states and countries viewed as unaligned with its progressive values. In recent years, supervisors have called for divesting from banks that helped finance the Dakota Access Pipeline; Wells Fargo Bank, because it opened 2.1 million unauthorized accounts; and companies producing fossil fuels, firearms and ammunition. Most banks are incorporated with the federal government as a standard corporation, or C corporation, meaning their primary fiduciary responsibility is to maximize shareholder value. If San Francisco were to open a public bank, it could incorporate as a benefit corporation, or B corporation, meaning it could prioritize other goals. Cohen said she hoped a city-owned bank could help undocumented immigrants, who are largely left out of the banking system because of federal laws aimed at preventing money laundering. Those laws mean bank customers must produce a driver’s license or other legal form of identification. As a result, unauthorized immigrants rely on check-cashing services, which charge high fees. Joseph Lynyak III, an expert on regulatory reform who advises banks and financial institutions, said a public bank would run into the same problems of needing to check customer identification. Still, he said, he thought work-arounds could be found. “Theoretically you could do it,” he said. Lynyak was less optimistic that a city-owned bank could open accounts for cannabis dispensaries, because marijuana is illegal under federal law. The federal government could charge the bank with “aiding and abetting violation of federal drug laws and also engaging in money laundering,” he said. But Fiona Ma, a member of the California Board of Equalization, said she believed a public bank could do business with dispensaries in limited circumstances. She said dispensaries might be able to hold their money in a city-owned bank, take out cash only in San Francisco and use it to pay local taxes. Still, she acknowledged, there would be some risk. “The question always is, can the federal government come and take the money if it’s not used for taxes and it’s just sitting there in an account?” Ma said. Fow now, there are more questions than answers. Among the questions Cohen wants the task force to look into: how much initial capital the city would need to open the bank and where that money would come from, operating costs, scope of operations, how it would be insured, potential revenue streams and risks. City Treasurer Jose Cisneros said he would consider the idea, but didn’t exactly endorse the concept. “The treasurer takes his fiduciary responsibility seriously,” his spokesman, Amanda Fried, said in a statement. “The voters have elected him four times to keep the city’s money safe. He is reviewing this resolution carefully, and looks forward to working with the Board of Supervisors to better understand their policy goals regarding the creation of a municipal bank.” Cohen said opening a bank would be tough, but thought it could be done. “I think it’s realistic. It will be incredibly difficult, though.” One thing’s for sure: It wouldn’t be called the Bank of San Francisco — there’s already a private bank with that name. Emily Green is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: metro@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @emilytgreenWater supply shortages, pollution and poor sanitation pose disease threat to residents of Zimbabwe's capital By Jeffrey Gogo HARARE, Jan 29 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Health officials in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, have detected several cases of typhoid fever in the past week, adding to fears that a water crisis will fuel the spread of infectious diseases. The city's health director, Prosper Chonzi, said six cases of typhoid had been confirmed, with more expected to emerge. "The conditions on the ground - frequent water cuts and poor sanitation - are conducive to a typhoid outbreak," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Last year, more than 40 people in Harare were hospitalised due to typhoid, a bacteral infection that causes fever, headaches and constipation or diarrhoea. Health officials have been deployed to affected areas including Hopley, a sprawling township without sewers and tap water, to contain the situation and identify suspected cases. "As long as there is no constant supply of water to residents, we will continue to have sporadic cases of such outbreaks," Chonzi warned. Separately, at Roosevelt High School, nearly 50 students were recently hospitalised due to shigellosis, a diarrhoeal disease that thrives in places with poor water and sanitation. In Zimbabwe's biggest referral hospital Parirenyatwa, a 32-year-old nurse who did not want to be named, said she feared the city's worsening water problems could lead to her own two young children falling sick with a deadly waterborne disease. "I live in the townships, and there we do not have water four days of the week from 4am to 10pm, and no water at all for the other three days," she said, tending to a child suffering from severe diarrhoea. "When available, the water is visibly dirty, brownish or greenish in colour, and smells like raw sewage," she added. The city authorities deny the water coming from Harare's taps is polluted. But it is clear that frequent and prolonged droughts - including the current dry spell linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon - have wreaked havoc on Zimbabwe's water supplies. POLLUTED LAKE As Harare struggles through its third drought since 2013, the city's main reservoir, Lake Chivero, cannot keep up with water demand for domestic use and irrigation. In December, the city was forced to cut its already inadequate household water supply by 18 percent to 450 million litres a day, just over half of daily needs, leaving thousands of residents without enough safe water for drinking and washing. As a result, Harare's inhabitants fear an impending epidemic, like the 2008-2009 cholera crisis that originated in the capital, killing 4,000 people and affecting 100,000 more across the country. As drought has shrunk Chivero's water levels, siltation is making things worse. The lake's capacity has shrunk one fifth in the last 60 years, the Environmental Management Agency says. In late 2015, Chivero was only 40 percent full, before a bout of heavy rain raised it to just over 70 percent, according to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority. But water volume isn't the only problem. City spokesman Michael Chideme said the lake was also "heavily polluted" with raw sewage and industrial chemical waste, as well as fertiliser and pesticide run-off from urban farming. A 2014 ministerial committee report blamed Harare for pumping 3,885 megalitres of raw sewage into Lake Chivero each month. Several industrial and mining companies discharge harmful chemical waste into the Manyame and Mukuvisi rivers and other tributaries that feed the lake, degrading water resources and corroding pipelines, the report said. The pollution has pushed the lake's pH levels above 8, an alkaline state that increases water treatment costs. Harare now spends $4 million on chemicals and power each month to purify water - about $800,000 more than it would cost for less polluted water. "So for us to treat water to required standards, the logical thing was to reduce the amount treated," Chideme told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. CLEAN WATER ACCESS PLUNGES A combination of drought, ageing infrastructure, pollution and a ballooning population makes it almost impossible for the city to adapt to a water crisis it has suffered for 15 years. A 2014 survey by the government and international aid agencies showed the number of Harare households with access to clean drinking water and sanitation had plummeted to just below 40 percent, from 95 percent in 2009 - the fastest decline among Zimbabwe's 10 provinces. Chideme said the city has sunk 240 boreholes in the worst-affected areas to try to bridge the deficit, but experts say it will not be enough. "The 20-litre minimum water requirement per capita which the World Health Organisation recommends for basic daily hygiene has been a challenge," Khumbulani Murenga, head of the independent Institute of Water and Sanitation Development, said by email. "Water cuts will further deepen this challenge." With the water supply to some townships, such as Mabvuku and Hatcliffe, completely cut off since early December, health experts warn Harare is sitting on a time bomb. "Untreated or poorly treated drinking water may contain traces of dangerous pathogens... that cause diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid," said Vivek Solanki, a doctor at Harare's Trauma Centre. And it could be years or even decades before the city's 2.1 million residents get safe drinking water again. Water scarcity is predicted to worsen across southern Africa, with a 2012 World Bank report predicting that dam and lakes levels will fall by up to 50 percent by 2080 due to the effects of climate change. For the nurse at Parirenyatwa Hospital, the threat is more immediate. "The risk of the spread of waterborne diseases, particularly among children, is probably at its highest since 2008," she said, checking the sick boy's temperature as a colleague fitted him with a saline drip. "The only way we can help contain it is through public education, health promotion and changing attitudes - and improving sanitation and waste management," said Harare health director Chonzi. (Reporting by Jeffrey Gogo; editing by Jumana Farouky and Megan Rowling. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org) Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.Fast bowler Lasith Malinga will face a disciplinary inquiry from Sri Lanka Cricket for "repeated breach" of the terms of his contract. The inquiry was precipitated by Malinga's response to sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekara, who had alleged Sri Lanka's poor fielding standards were owed to players' inadequate fitness - in particular their "big bellies". Malinga had not taken direct aim at Jayasekara in a stinging response, but nevertheless had implied in an interview that the sports minister was no more than an armchair critic, and had not played cricket at a sufficiently high level for his criticism to be taken seriously. A release from SLC said the fast bowler had twice acted in "contravention of the terms of agreement," which bar him from making any statements to the media without the prior consent of the board's Chief Executive Officer. SLC said it had decided to take disciplinary action after Malinga's first violation around June 19, before a subsequent breach around June 21 prompted the board's executive committee to expedite the inquiry, which will be conducted by a three-member panel. The findings of the hearing will be forwarded to the executive committee for disciplinary action. SLC also called an emergency meeting on Tuesday to address several issues, which include the resignation of coach Graham Ford, interim appointment of a head coach, and the inquiry against Malinga.Is Apple planning to launch the iPad 3 on Steve Jobs’s birthday next year? The idea might sound more like a conspiracy theory than a rumor but if you’re looking for an update on when Apple might be launching its iPad 3, a new report says late-February. According to Focus Taiwan, Apple’s component suppliers and manufacturing partners are hustling to build enough devices in time to get the tablet on store shelves by February 24th — Steve Jobs’s birthday. Foxconn, which is reportedly building between 9.5 million and 9.7 million units, has allegedly asked its workers to work through the Lunar New Year holiday. While anything is possible at this point, the date doesn’t quite match up with earlier rumors that suggested Apple will launch the device in March or April. The new iPad 3 is expected to offer a slightly revamped design and a high-resolution Retina Display, but Apple may have some competition right out of the gate this time around — BGR exclusively reported earlier this month that Samsung is planning to unveil a tablet with a Retina-like resolution in February. [Via 9to5Mac] ReadEverton have finally reached an agreement with Swansea City to sign Gylfi Sigurdsson, who will move to Goodison Park for a club-record fee of £45m subject to completing a medical on Wednesday. The breakthrough will come as a relief to both clubs after protracted talks and negotiations that have lasted for more than a month. Swansea rejected several offers from Everton for Sigurdsson, with the Welsh club valuing the 27-year-old at £50m, yet a compromise was eventually reached for a player who was directly involved in 22 Premier League goals last season. Sigurdsson was not part of the Swansea squad that drew 0-0 with Southampton on Saturday in their opening Premier League game and has not played a match of any description since a pre-season friendly at Barnet on 12 July. His decision to pull out of the club’s pre-season tour the following morning made clear his intention to leave and prompted Swansea to adopt a strong stance over the terms of his departure. Swansea will now press ahead with reinvesting the Sigurdsson money by making a couple of signings of their own, starting with Wilfried Bony, who is expected to rejoin from Manchester City. The Ivorian had a hugely successful spell at Swansea prior to moving to the Etihad Stadium and a deal in principle is believed to be in place to bring him back to the Liberty Stadium. Nacer Chadli has been targeted as a more direct replacement for Sigurdsson, with the Belgium international keen to leave West Bromwich Albion after less than a year at the club. Chadli joined Albion from Tottenham Hotspur for £13m last August – Swansea also showed an interest in signing him at the time – but the Midlands club will be looking to recoup significantly more for the 28-year-old. Joe Allen, another former player, is also of interest to Swansea, yet that move seems highly unlikely. Stoke are determined to hold onto the Wales international, who was available to Swansea when he left Liverpool in 2016, and there is no suggestion that Allen has agitated for a move. Meanwhile, Sigurdsson’s imminent arrival has seen Gareth Barry complete his move from Everton to West Bromwich Albion. The 36-year-old former England midfielder, who missed Everton’s opening Premier League match of the season against Stoke City because of an ankle problem, has signed for the Baggies on an initial one-year deal for an undisclosed fee.After what just happened in Nice, France, officials are likely even more concerned about the potential for violence and terrorism at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland next week. Details are still coming in as I write this article, but what we know so far is that a 31-year-old Tunisian man plowed his truck into a huge crowd that was gathered along the waterfront for a fireworks display during Bastille Day celebrations in the French city of Nice, and he reportedly shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ at the police before they shot him dead. His rampage of death reportedly lasted for two kilometers before he was finally stopped, and dozens have been killed. This comes on the heels of the massacre of five police officers in Dallas, and that came not too long after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history in Orlando. Clearly we have entered a time when the usual rules don’t apply anymore. So will the Republican National Convention be the next target to get hit? Both the Republican and the Democratic conventions have been designated as “National Special Security Events”. What this means is that the Secret Service will be running security at those venues. It is being projected that 50,000 people will attend the Republican convention, and in addition to that there will likely be tens of thousands of protesters. So needless to say, this will represent a big, juicy target for anyone that wants to make some sort of a statement. We have already seen tremendous violence at Trump rallies in recent months, and there is no reason to think that the Republican convention will be any different. The radical left dislikes Donald Trump with a passion, and many leftist organizations have already stated that they plan to show up in Cleveland in force. As emotions run high, could something go terribly wrong? On Thursday, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and FBI Director James Comey both told Congress that they are extremely concerned… U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers on Thursday that they were preparing their agencies for the possibility of violence, both from unruly demonstrators and terrorists, at the upcoming Republican and Democratic nominating conventions. It is likely that we are going to see more security at these conventions than we have ever seen before. In fact, Johnson told Congress that DHS will be sending approximately 3,000 agents to each of the conventions… “I am concerned about the prospect of demonstrations getting out of hand,” Johnson said. “I am concerned about the possibility of violence. We have, within DHS, some 3,000 personnel that will be dedicated to the security of the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National convention, each.” And Comey told Congress that he is particular concerned about the potential for “domestic terrorism”… Comey told the committee that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was monitoring the threat of violence at the conventions “very, very carefully.” “Anytime there is a national spotlight on a political event in the United States, there is a risk that groups that aspire to do just that, engage in acts of domestic terrorism, will be attracted,” Comey said. Of course the feds are not just sitting back and waiting for next week to roll around. As you read this article, they are actively “monitoring social media” and “tracking protest groups” in anticipation of what might happen… Law enforcement agencies are monitoring social media posting and tracking protest groups such as Black Lives Matter, which have disrupted Trump rallies over the past several weeks. The Secret Service is even using its Twitter account to warn users about their commentary. The agency tweeted recently, “Watch what you say on Social Media!” with a link to a news story about how agents visited a man who joked about sending a bomb when Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were visiting his region. For one, I am certainly glad that I am not going to be in Cleveland next week. The security is going to be absolutely suffocating, but no level of security can stop a deranged individual that is absolutely determined to kill people and that is not afraid to die. As we have seen, it only takes a few moments for a gunman to start mowing down those around him or for a crazed lunatic to plow a truck into a crowd of people. And one thing we do know is that there will be lots of guns in Cleveland. Some of the protesters have already announced that they plan to bring guns with them, and many of those attending the convention will be bringing guns as well… As the Republican convention in Cleveland approaches, several delegates from Pennsylvania who support Donald Trump say they are planning on bringing their guns with them to the GOP gathering. Why? They say they are worried about possible violent protest and even an attack from ISIS. James Klein, a pro-Trump delegate from the Harrisburg area, notes that guns won’t be needed inside the convention hall and that delegates won’t be allowed to bring in weapons. “But,” he adds, “there’s the hotels. There’s going to be dinners.” We may get a preview of coming attractions during the nationwide “Day of Rage” protests on Friday. There are supposed to be protests in more than 30 cities, and they have been much hyped. We shall see if they amount to anything or if they just fizzle out. Regardless, it is clear that we have entered a time of increased violence. After what just happened in France, people all over the world are going to think twice before gathering for any sort of large public event. A huge crowd is an enticing target for any aspiring terrorist, and it is inevitable that we are going to see more attacks of this nature. The era of the free and open society is ending. As the violence and terror get progressively worse, our liberties and freedoms will be increasingly restricted, and we will be told that this is for our own good. Of course this has already been happening since 9/11, but now we have entered a time when this process is going to accelerate significantly.As reported by the Los Angeles Times, a deranged man in Illinois named Andre Barkanov has been arrested for making telephone threats against the Church of Scientology and its leader David Miscavige. The article stated: Barkanov had been arrested several times by the Chicago Police Department, and he had twice been convicted of impersonating a police officer. During my many years of being a public Scientology critic I have consistently called for peaceful and nonviolent means to dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form. I deplore violence. The Church of Scientology is a malicious and violent organization that spies on its enemies, breaks up families, bankrupts many of its members, and has left a trail of ruined lives and suicides in its wake. However, let the Church be threatened by an insane man in Illinois and it seizes the occasion to paint itself as a righteous victim. The Los Angeles Time quoted Church spokesperson Karin Pouw trying to spin the threats made by one lunatic into a story of persecution: “From what we have been told, his actions appear to have been incited by anti-Scientology propaganda,” said Karin Pouw, the spokeswoman. Parishioners and the church’s leaders do not routinely face threats of violence, Pouw said, adding that the church does not discuss threats made against Miscavige or others. She also blamed rising levels of “religious hate and bigotry” for driving such violent threats. “This case involving an apparently unstable man who told police he was incited by anti-religious propaganda shows the dangers of bigotry and hate spread by irresponsible individuals,” Pouw said. To which I reply to Ms. Pouw: Your “Church” killed my wife’s son Alexander Jentzsch through its toxic policy of disconnection. Your Church did not let my wife see her dead son’s body to kiss him goodbye one last time. Compounding the tragic death of Alexander at age 27, the Church of Scientology has slandered my wife as a prostitute on the Church of Scientology’s disgusting and vile hate websites. The “bigotry and hate spread by irresponsible individuals” is a description David Miscavige, OSA spy boss Linda Hamel, and her team of vicious “no integrity” operatives. The Church of Scientology needs to clean up the vicious hate-and-propaganda-spewing insane asylum that is OSA before daring to lecture anybody on bigotry. The Church of Scientology’s hypocrisy is truly appalling. Even as it is playing “righteous victim” because a lunatic made some phone calls, the Church has hate websites up on Alex Gibney, Lawrence Wright, HBO, Mike Rinder, and everyone else who dared to speak out against Scientology and David Miscavige in Gibney’s Going Clear, a brave film that has now won three Emmy’s and is an odds on favorite to win the Oscar for Best Documentary. The brutality, obscenity, and inhumanity of the Church of Scientology explains precisely why it is being dismantled by Culture and exposed as a greedy killing machine that needs to be ended by the revocation of its 501(c)3 tax exemption. Scientology is creating and perpetuating its own meltdown and has no one to blame but itself. In the meantime, Andre Barkanov needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Share this: Twitter Facebook Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email PrintOn November 18th, 1998, the first trailer for The Phantom Menace debuted in select theaters across 26 states - it was the first time a Star Wars trailer had debuted in almost two decades, and the first to premiere during the internet age. Despite this, it was still the early days of the 'net, and movie studios weren't exactly great about releasing trailers online (this is SEVERAL years before the rise of Youtube), so most people had to actually buy tickets to movies to see movie trailers. Movies like A Bug's Life, Meet Joe Black, The Waterboy, and The Siege all got some minor boosts by people buying tickets JUST to see the trailer, and then leaving immediately after. Fun fact - literally no one has ever sat through Meet Joe Black ever in history. And while we have the benefit of hindsight, at the time, the reaction to the trailer was overwhelming positive. After all, how could it not be? It's a pretty good trailer, especially considering the context: the first new Star Wars film in about 15 years, one that will begin a new trilogy chronicling the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker, and using all kinds of fancy new technology to show us Jedis in their prime and the badass lightsaber battles we could only have imagined? Hell yeah. At an afternoon screening of "Meet Joe Black" yesterday at the Uptown Theater in Cleveland Park, fans -- mostly male -- sat in anticipation, reading comic books and scholarly texts about cinema. But at least a dozen people left before the film started. It wasn't the thought of three hours of Brad Pitt as Death that scared them away: They had come just for the trailer. "Unbelievable," said a visibly elated Rob McNeese, 24, an Arlington college student. "I consider myself a harsh critic, but after the trailer I was applauding." "It's going to be incredible," said Jim Herr, 31, after quietly escaping from "Meet Joe Black." Herr, who predicts the film will knock "Titanic" off its No. 1 worldwide box office perch, heard about the advance screening at a funeral. via TheForce.net via The Tuscaloosa News From the moment the "Lucasfilm Ltd." logo appeared, the crowd was cheering. From the serene, opening shots of (presumably) Naboo, Tatooine, and Coruscant to the action shots from all over, we were glued. As this is one of probably 8 thousand reviews to be posted in the last 24 hours, I'll stick to the highlights: - A lot of Japanese influence with Coruscant and the young Queen's (Natalie Portman) costume and make-up. - Darth Maul is one incredible looking villian. Dressed all in black, his head is coverend in a demonic red and and black pattern and he fights with a short staff with a light saber at either end. - There's a shot of R2D2 and C3PO together where C3PO has no outer shell. - Jar Jar Binks, the all CGI sidekick looks pretty cool. - The folks at Kenner will be busy as we see a whole bunch of future action figures and ships. - Yoda's still a muppet, but a younger, more cherubic one. (Isn't he only around 40 years younger than in "Empire" here? He's supposed to live for centuries so should he look that different?) - Thankfully, we don't see much of the actual plot. So, does it appear to live up to our expectations? Yup. As "Jedi" was an indication Lucas was burned out on the whole thing, he seems to have spent a great deal of time considering why "Star Wars" worked as well as it did. I think he figured it out. "Episode I" feels like "A New Hope", only on a grander scale. While there are some comic relief CGI characters on display, it doesn't appear anything like "Jedi: the Muppet Movie", and while "Empire Strikes Back" is a fine film with more character depth, you can't get lost in it like the first one. That's what I see the man in the back of the theater going for, right here. I can't wait to see it. I hope he went home to the ranch a happy man, tonight. His job is done. -Ron Wells, FilmThreat All around me, there were actual tears of joy. There was excited hollering. There were hugs, people laughing uncontrollably. As the haze passed and I realized there was a movie playing, one thing kept going through my head. Thank you, George. Thank you, George. Thank you, George. As I prepare to sleep now, visions of the prequel dance behind my eyes. I am exhausted, but I know sleep won't come easy. Now that the worst wait is over, the final stretch begins. Six months. I could do that standing on my head. Whatever we're going to see in those theaters next May, it's going to be something special. More importantly, the experience of seeing it with all of you will make it even more special. I am thankful I saw it with that crowd tonight. There was love pouring out of everyone in that theater. There was joy, pure and simple, over the viewing of the footage. I felt like I was among family. It was a wonderful, magical night, the kind that
the next 30 years. It calls for exchanging hydrocarbon production and processing technologies and expertise, conducting geological exploration, carrying out joint projects to develop oil and gas fields using Russia’s advanced technologies, designing and building infrastructure for the transportation and storage of hydrocarbons, and supplying equipment for the oil, gas and petrochemical industries. The government of Iran has launched an ambitious program to overhaul its ore mining and metallurgical industries, under which it intends to increase the production of steel from 20 million to 55 million tons and that of aluminum from 400,000 to 1 million tons by 2025. Russia has wide experience of providing technical assistance in these sectors since Soviet times. Iran’s fifth five-year development plan (2011-2015) envisages the purchase of new planes for the country’s airline fleet. Russia made attempts to foster cooperation in this sector in the past, jointly with third countries, and should resume these efforts again. Owing to its geographical location, the Iranian market offers good opportunities for Russian exporters of agricultural produce (wheat, rye, barley, corn, and sunflower cake). In 2012, Russia exported 485 million U.S. dollars’ worth of grain to Iran and was one of its largest suppliers. The Bushehr nuclear power plant, being built with Russia’s technical assistance, is to be commissioned in September 2013. Now the two countries need to make a decision on their further nuclear cooperation. This will largely depend, of course, on how the international community and influential regional countries view Tehran’s policy, especially in the field of nonproliferation, and on how the situation inside Iran, the region and the world as a whole evolves. The Syrian crisis is also a factor to consider. IRAN IN THE REGIONAL CONTEXT Damascus is one of the few close and trusted partners of Tehran in the region and Iranians are deeply involved in Syrian affairs. Tehran’s official position on Syria is that the crisis should be resolved through Syrian-Syrian talks without outside interference. The Iranian leadership has held meetings with the UN Secretary-General’s special representatives for Syria (Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi). According to Iran’s Six-Point Plan for Syria, once hostilities cease, arms and troop supply to the Syrian opposition must be stopped in order to create conditions for Syrian-Syrian talks. They should lead to the formation of an interim government, which will be able to prepare a free national election in Syria. The future government will be formed on the basis of the will expressed by the Syrians, without outside interference. Tehran supported a plan to create a quadripartite committee with the participation of Iran, Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Iranians attended all of the committee’s meetings at all levels. Iran presided at a trilateral meeting with Syrian and Swiss officials, which made it possible for European countries to send humanitarian aid to Syria. Iranians have come close to understanding that the Syrian crisis can hardly be resolved without changing the situation in the region as a whole and without creating a regional security system. This will give Tehran a role in the search for a comprehensive solution to regional security. What can be done to intensify the dialogue with Iran? First of all, it is necessary to acknowledge the fact that the situation around Iran is part of a larger conflict-ridden area that encompasses the Middle and Near East and the adjacent regions. Problems associated with the “Iranian file” can be resolved only if Tehran is treated respectfully and if an atmosphere of trust, security and stability is created in the region. The Iranian crisis should be considered in conjunction or even in a package with other regional problems that worry Iran. There is no need to devise new negotiation mechanisms. Instead, it is necessary to restore the format that worked before – the multilateral Middle East Arms Control and Regional Security Working Group. It was created as part of the Middle East peace process in January 1992 at a Moscow meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia, the United States and other leading world and regional nations. The Group made progress in drafting a code of conduct for the Middle East countries in the field of security, which called for rejecting the use or threat of force. There were plans to create a regional center to monitor the military situation in the region and send fact-finding missions to problem-ridden regions of the Middle and Near East. Unfortunately, the Group’s regional security activities were stopped at Egypt’s initiative (which was its big strategic mistake, as time subsequently proved) in 1996 under the pretext of “pressure” on Israel which had run into new difficulties at the talks with the Palestinians. The work of a body to address Middle East security issues could be restored as follows. At the initial stage, experts could meet to prepare a ministerial meeting. In addition to the traditional parties to the Middle East peace process (Russia, the U.S., the EU, the UN, Arab countries participating in the League of Arab States, and Israel), the Group should also engage with Iran and Turkey. The decision on the resumption of the Middle East Arms Control and Regional Security Working Group’s operation can be made by the foreign ministers of interested countries at their meeting. There have emerged subjective prerequisites for implementing this plan: Mohammad Javad Zarif, an experienced diplomat, former Iran’s permanent representative at the United Nations, has been appointed new minister of foreign affairs. He is one of the leading experts on regional security in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf area. Zarif has repeatedly put forth constructive proposals on the matter at various international forums. The situation in Egypt is similar. The post of foreign minister has been given to Nabil Fahmy, a former permanent representative at the UN and ex-ambassador to Tokyo and Washington. Fahmy took an active part in all of the Working Group’s major events. The participation of experts of this level could guarantee continuity and effectiveness of the Group’s activities. Renewed contacts between Israel and Palestine are one more factor in favor of the restoration of a multilateral format of the Middle East peace process. In fact, the bilateral format cannot produce a formula for the final Israeli-Palestinian settlement, which would address such issues as refugees, the distribution of water resources, the future of Jerusalem, and relations with other countries in the region. There must be a multilateral negotiation mechanism that would tie the proposed solutions to the interests of other countries in the region. The people of Iran and its new leadership can become constructive partners in building a regional security system for all countries without exception. Hassan Rouhani made quite an encouraging inauguration speech in the Iranian parliament on August 4, 2013. “Regarding foreign policy, as a person who has been elected by the noble people of Iran, I state with all determination that the Islamic Republic of Iran stands for peace and stability in the region. Iran is a haven of stability in this turbulent part of the world… Calm and stability in all the surrounding regions are not only a dream and wish but a need and comprehensive necessity for the Islamic Republic of Iran… Transparency is the key that opens the gate of trust. The kind of transparency we mean cannot be unilateral or exist without practical implementation mechanisms in bilateral and multilateral relations.” Much will now depend on Iran’s readiness to take practical steps towards a broader dialogue with other countries.The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation (Манчжурская стратегическая наступательная операция, lit. Manchzhurskaya Strategicheskaya Nastupatelnaya Operatsiya) or simply the Manchurian Operation (Маньчжурская операция), began on 9 August 1945 with the Soviet invasion of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. It was the last campaign of the Second World War, and the largest of the 1945 Soviet–Japanese War, which resumed hostilities between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Empire of Japan after almost six years of peace. Soviet gains on the continent were Manchukuo, Mengjiang (Inner Mongolia) and northern Korea. The Soviet entry into the war and the defeat of the Kwantung Army was a significant factor in the Japanese government's decision to surrender unconditionally, as it made apparent the Soviet Union had no intention of acting as a third party in negotiating an end to hostilities on conditional terms.[1][2][10][11][12][13][14][15] Since 1983, the operation has sometimes been called Operation August Storm after U.S. Army historian David Glantz used this title for a paper on the subject.[1] Summary [ edit ] As agreed with the Allies at the Tehran Conference in November 1943 and the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Soviet Union entered World War II's Pacific Theater within three months of the end of the war in Europe. The invasion began on 9 August 1945, exactly three months after the German surrender on May 8 (9 May, 0:43 Moscow time). Although the commencement of the invasion fell between the American atomic bombing of Hiroshima, on 6 August, and only hours before the Nagasaki bombing on 9 August, the timing of the invasion had been planned well in advance and was determined by the timing of the agreements at Tehran and Yalta, the long-term buildup of Soviet forces in the Far East since Tehran, and the date of the German surrender some three months earlier; on August 3, Marshal Vasilevsky reported to Premier Joseph Stalin that, if necessary, he could attack on the morning of 5 August. At 11pm Trans-Baikal (UTC+10) time on 8 August 1945, Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov informed Japanese ambassador Naotake Satō that the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan, and that from 9 August the Soviet government would consider itself to be at war with Japan.[16] At one minute past midnight Trans-Baikal time on 9 August 1945, the Soviets commenced their invasion simultaneously on three fronts to the east, west and north of Manchuria: Though the battle extended beyond the borders traditionally known as Manchuria—that is, the traditional lands of the Manchus—the coordinated and integrated invasions of Japan's northern territories has also been called the Battle of Manchuria.[17] It has also been referred to as the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation. Background and buildup [ edit ] Combatant forces [ edit ] Soviets [ edit ] The Far East Command,[2] under Marshal of the Soviet Union Aleksandr Vasilevsky, had a plan to conquer Manchuria that was simple but huge in scale,[1] calling for a massive pincer movement over all of Manchuria. This was to be performed by the Transbaikal Front from the west and by the 1st Far Eastern Front from the east; the 2nd Far Eastern Front was to attack the center of the pocket from the north.[2] The only Soviet equivalent of a theater command that operated during the war (apart from the short-lived 1941 "Directions" in the west), Far East Command, consisted of three Red Army fronts. Western Front of Manchuria [ edit ] [2] Basic map showing the Soviet invasion plan for Manchuria The Transbaikal Front, under Marshal Rodion Malinovsky, included:[1] The Transbaikal Front was to form the western half of the Soviet pincer movement, attacking across the Inner Mongolian desert and over the Greater Khingan mountains.[2] These forces had as their objectives firstly to secure Mukden (present day Shenyang), then to meet troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front at the Changchun area in south central Manchuria,[1] and in doing so finish the double envelopment.[1] Amassing over one thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, the 6th Guards Tank Army was to serve as an armored spearhead, leading the Front's advance and capturing objectives 350 km (220 mi) inside Manchuria by the fifth day of the invasion.[1] The 36th Army was also attacking from the west, but with the objective of meeting forces of the 2nd Far Eastern Front at Harbin and Tsitsihar.[2] Eastern Front of Manchuria [ edit ] The 1st Far Eastern Front, under Marshal Kirill Meretskov, included:[1] The 1st Far Eastern Front was to form the eastern half of the pincer movement. This attack involved the 1st Red Banner Army, the 5th Army and the 10th Mechanized Corps striking towards Mudanjiang (or Mutanchiang).[1] Once that city was captured, this force was to advance towards the cities of Jilin (or Kirin), Changchun and Harbin.[1] Its final objective was to link up with the forces of the Transbaikal Front at Changchun and Jilin thus closing the double envelopment movement. As a secondary objective, the 1st Far Eastern Front was to prevent Japanese forces from escaping to Korea, and then invade the Korean Peninsula up to the 38th parallel,[1] establishing in the process what later became North Korea. This secondary objective was to be carried out by the 25th Army.[1] Meanwhile, the 35th Army was tasked with capturing the cities of Boli (or Poli), Linkou and Mishan.[1] Northern Front of Manchuria [ edit ] The 2nd Far Eastern Front, under General Maksim Purkayev, included:[1] The 2nd Far Eastern Front was deployed in a supporting attack role.[1] Its objectives were the cities of Harbin and Tsitsihar,[2] and to prevent an orderly withdrawal to the south by the Japanese forces.[1] Once troops from the 1st Far Eastern Front and Transbaikal Front captured the city of Changchun, the 2nd Far Eastern Front was to attack the Liaotung Peninsula and seize Port Arthur (present day Lüshun).[1] Soviet forces under the Far East Command[1] Total Transbaikal Front 1st Far East Front 2nd Far East Front Men 1,577,725 654,040 586,589 337,096 Artillery pieces 27,086 9,668 11,430 5,988 Multiple rocket launchers 1,171 583 516 72 Tanks and self-propelled guns 5,556[e] 2,416 1,860 1,280 Aircraft 3,721 1,324 1,137 1,260 Each front had "front units" attached directly to the front instead of an army.[1] The forces totaled 89 divisions with 1.5 million men, 3,704 tanks, 1,852 self propelled guns, 85,819 vehicles and 3,721 aircraft. Approximately one-third of its strength was in combat support and services.[1] The Soviet plan incorporated all the experience in maneuver warfare that they had acquired in fighting the Germans.[1] Japanese [ edit ] The Kwantung Army of the Imperial Japanese Army, under General Otsuzo Yamada, was the major part of the Japanese occupation forces in Manchuria and Korea, and consisted of two Area Armies and three independent armies:[1] Each Area Army (Homen Gun, the equivalent of a Western "army") had headquarters units and units attached directly to the Area Army, in addition to the field armies (the equivalent of a Western corps). In addition, the Japanese were assisted by the forces of their puppet states of Manchukuo and Mengjiang. Manchkuo had an army of about 170,000 to 220,000 troops, while Mengjiang had around 10,000, with the majority of these puppet troops being of dubious quality.[citation needed] Korea, the next target for the Soviet Far East Command, was garrisoned by the Japanese Seventeenth Area Army.[citation needed] The Kwantung Army had over 700,000 men in twenty-five divisions (including two tank divisions) and six Independent Mixed Brigades. These contained over 1,215 armored vehicles (mostly armored cars and light tanks), 6,700 artillery pieces (mostly light), and 1,800 aircraft (mostly trainers and obsolete types). However, the Kwantung Army was far below its authorized strength; most of its heavy equipment and all of its best military units had transferred to the Pacific Theater over the previous three years to contend with the advance of American forces. Some Kwantung Army units had also re-deployed south against the Nationalist Chinese in Operation Ichigo in 1944. By 1945 the Kwantung Army contained a large number of raw recruits and conscripts, with generally obsolete, light, or otherwise limited equipment. Almost all of the tanks were early 1930s models such as the Type 95 Ha-Go and Type 89 I-Go, the anti-tank units only possessed Type 1 37 mm anti-tank guns that were ineffective against Soviet armor, and the infantry had very few machine-guns and no anti-materiel rifles or submachine guns. As a result, the Japanese forces in Manchuria and Korea had essentially been reduced to a light-infantry counter-insurgency force with limited mobility and limited ability to fight a conventional land war against a coordinated enemy. In fact, only six of the Kwantung Army's divisions existed prior to January 1945. Accordingly, the Japanese regarded none of the Kwantung Army's units as combat ready, with some units being declared less than 15% ready.[18] The Imperial Japanese Navy did not contribute to the defense of Manchuria, the occupation of which it had always opposed on strategic grounds. Additionally, by the time of the Soviet invasion, the few remnants of its fleet were stationed and tasked for the defense of the Japanese home islands in the event of an invasion by American forces. Compounding their problems, the Japanese military made many wrong assumptions and major mistakes, most significantly: They wrongly assumed that any attack coming from the west would follow either the old railway line to Hailar, or head into Solun from the eastern tip of Mongolia. The Soviets did attack along those routes, but their main attack from the west went through the supposedly impassable Greater Khingan range south of Solun and into the center of Manchuria. Japanese military intelligence failed to determine the nature, location and scale of the Soviet buildup in the Soviet Far East. Based on initial underestimates of Soviet strength and on the monitoring of Soviet traffic on the Trans-Siberian railway, the Japanese believed that the Soviets would not have sufficient forces in place for an offensive before the end of August 1945, and that an attack was most likely in autumn 1945 or in the spring of 1946. Due to the withdrawal of the Kwantung Army's elite forces for redeploying into the Pacific theatre, the Japanese made new operational plans in the summer of 1945 for the defence of Manchuria against a seemingly inevitable Soviet attack. These called for redeploying most forces from the border areas; the borders were to be held lightly and delaying actions fought while the main force was to hold the southeastern corner in strength (so defending Korea from attack).[10] Further, the Japanese had observed Soviet activity only on the Trans-Siberian railway and along the east Manchurian front, and accordingly prepared for an invasion from the east. They believed that when an attack occurred from the west, the redeployed forces would be able to deal with it.[10][11] Although the Japanese redeployment in Manchukuo had started, it was not due for completion until September 1945, and hence the Kwantung Army were in the midst of redeploying when the Soviets launched their attack simultaneously on all three fronts. Campaign [ edit ] The operation was carried out as a classic double pincer movement over an area the size of the entire Western European theatre of World War II. In the western pincer, the Soviet Red Army advanced over the deserts and mountains from Mongolia, far from their resupply railways. This confounded the Japanese military analysis of Soviet logistics, and the defenders were caught by surprise in unfortified positions. The Kwantung Army commanders were engaged in a planning exercise at the time of the invasion, and were away from their forces for the first eighteen hours of conflict. Japanese communication infrastructure was poor, and the Japanese lost communication with forward units very early on. However, the Kwantung Army had a formidable reputation as fierce and relentless fighters, and even though understrength and unprepared, put up strong resistance at the town of Hailar which tied down some of the Soviet forces. At the same time, Soviet airborne units seized airfields and city centers in advance of the land forces, and aircraft ferried fuel to those units that had outrun their supply lines. The Soviet pincer from the East crossed the Ussuri and advanced around Khanka Lake and attacked towards Suifenhe, and although Japanese defenders fought hard and provided strong resistance, the Soviets proved overwhelming. After a week of fighting, during which time Soviet forces had penetrated deep into Manchukuo, Japan's Emperor Hirohito recorded the Gyokuon-hōsō which was broadcast on radio to the Japanese nation on 15 August 1945. It made no direct reference to a surrender of Japan, instead stating that the government had been instructed to accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration fully. This created confusion in the minds of many listeners who were not sure if Japan had surrendered. The poor audio quality of the radio broadcast, as well as the formal courtly language in which the speech was composed, worsened the confusion. The Imperial Japanese Army Headquarters did not immediately communicate the cease-fire order to the Kwantung Army, and many elements of the army either did not understand it, or ignored it. Hence, pockets of fierce resistance from the Kwantung Army continued, and the Soviets continued their advance, largely avoiding the pockets of resistance, reaching Mukden, Changchun, and Qiqihar by 20 August. The cease-fire order was eventually communicated to the Kwantung Army, but not before the Soviets had made most of their territorial gains. On the Soviet right flank, the Soviet-Mongolian Cavalry-Mechanized Group entered Inner Mongolia and quickly took Dolon Nur and Kalgan. The Emperor of Manchukuo (and former Emperor of China), Puyi, was captured by the Red Army. On August 18, several Soviet amphibious landings were conducted ahead of the land advance: three landings in northern Korea, one landing in South Sakhalin, and one landing in the Kuril Islands. This meant that, in Korea at least, there were already Soviet soldiers waiting for the troops coming overland. In South Sakhalin and the Kurils, it meant a sudden establishment of Soviet sovereignty. The land advance was stopped a good distance short of the Yalu River, the start of the Korean Peninsula, when even aerial supply became unavailable. The forces already in Korea were able to establish control in the peninsula's northern area. In accordance with arrangements made earlier with the American government to divide the Korean Peninsula, Soviet forces stopped at the 38th parallel, leaving the Japanese still in control of the southern part of the peninsula. Later, on 8 September 1945, American forces landed at Incheon. Aftermath [ edit ] Soviet Red Army Martyrs Cemetery built in Manzhouli after the war The invasion of Manchuria was a major factor that contributed to the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II. In addition, the Soviet occupation of Manchuria, along with the northern portions of the Korean Peninsula, allowed for those regions to be transferred by the Soviet Union into the control of local communists. The control of these regions by communist governments backed by Soviet authorities would be a factor in the rise of the Chinese Communists and shape the political conflict of the Korean War. Several thousand Japanese who were sent as colonizers to Manchukuo and Inner Mongolia were left behind in China. The majority of Japanese left behind in China were women, and these Japanese women mostly married Chinese men and became known as "stranded war wives" (zanryu fujin).[19][20] Because they had children fathered by Chinese men, the Japanese women were not allowed to bring their Chinese families back with them to Japan, so most of them stayed. Japanese law only allowed children fathered by Japanese fathers to become Japanese citizens. War crimes [ edit ] According to Soviet historian Vyacheslav Zimonin, many Japanese settlers committed mass suicide as the Red Army approached. Mothers were forced by Japanese military[21][22] to kill their own children before killing or being killed themselves. The Japanese army often took part in the killings of its civilians. The commander of the 5th Japanese Army, General Shimizu, commented that "each nation lives and dies by its own laws." Wounded Japanese soldiers who were incapable of moving on their own were often left to die as the army retreated.[22] British and US reports indicate that the Soviet troops that occupied Manchuria (about 700,000) looted and terrorized the people of Mukden, and were not discouraged by Soviet authorities from "three days of rape and pillage". In Harbin, Chinese posted slogans such as "Down with Red Imperialism!" Soviet forces ignored protests from Chinese Communist Party leaders on the mass rape and looting.[23][24][25][26][27][28] The Soviets laid claim to Japanese enterprises in the region and took valuable materials and industrial equipment.[23] Konstantin Asmolov of the Center for Korean Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences dismisses Western accounts of Soviet violence against civilians in the Far East as exaggeration and rumor and contends that accusations of mass crimes by the Red Army inappropriately extrapolate isolated incidents regarding the nearly 2,000,000 Soviet troops in the Far East into mass crimes. According to him, such accusations are refuted by the documents of the time, from which it is clear that such crimes were far less of a problem than in Germany. Asmolov further asserts that the Soviets prosecuted their perpetrators while prosecution of German and Japanese "rapists and looters" in WWII was virtually unknown.[29] See also [ edit ] Notes [ edit ]Once upon a time, infants were quietly removed from orphanages and delivered to the home economics programs at elite U.S. colleges, where young women were eager to learn the science of mothering. These infants became “practice babies,” living in “practice apartments,” where a gaggle of young “practice mothers” took turns caring for them. After a year or two of such rearing, the babies would be returned to orphanages, where they apparently were in great demand; adoptive parents were eager to take home an infant that had been cared for with the latest “scientific” childcare methods. This scenario is the premise of The Irresistible Henry House by Lisa Grunwald. The lovely novel, which I had the delight to read over my holiday vacation, charts the life of Henry, a orphan who started his life as a practice baby at a women’s college. But the “practice baby” idea is more than just a fictional device–it is, bizarrely enough, a historical fact. I didn’t know that until I had reached the end of the book and saw “A Note From the Author.” “This novel,” Grunwald writes, “started with a real photograph.” Then, she includes the following image. Grunwald’s author note continues: I found it, quite by accident, on a Cornell University website about the history of home economics. On the opening page of the online exhibit, among other thumbnail images, was the captivating snapshot of a baby with a beguiling smile and roguish eyes. I clicked on the photograph and learned that “Bobby Domecon” (the last name short for Domestic Economics) had been a “practice baby”… As Grunwald discovered, practice baby programs were in place not only at Cornell but at all sorts of other colleges. As she did her research into this phenomenon, she discovered “one case that drew national attention when an Illinois child welfare superintendent questioned what the effects of this kind of upbringing might be. My wish for an answer is what inspired this book.” As Grunwald tries to provide an answer, she delves into plenty of science, ranging from the influence of the famous Dr. Spock to the attachment experiments run by Harry Harlow. The novel’s a great read, but it also inspired me to want to know more about the whole practice baby phenomenon, so I did a little reading of my own. My first stop was the online Cornell exhibit that Grunwald mentioned. The material is all still online, and I encourage you to check it out. Cornell’s program ran from 1919 to 1969 (which strikes me as incomprehensibly recent). At Cornell, eight female students at a time spent a full semester living in a fully-kitted out practice apartment. The women were there to learn the entire spectrum of homemaking skills, and, the exhibit says, “an early proponent of the program, believed that babies were essential to replicate the full domestic experience. Albert Mann, Dean of the College of Agriculture, called the apartments ‘essential laboratory practice for women students.'” The Cornell exhibit has more photos of Bobby Domecon, as well as several other practice babies: Edna Mae, Denny, and Troy Domecon. You can also find pages from the baby books that the student mothers kept for each child, meticulously charting their development. During this time, homemaking (as the name home or domestic economics makes clear) was considered to be something that could be conquered by science. Running a home based on instinct was considered to be woefully old-fashioned; the idea that raising a child and maintaining a home could be optimized by following a set of scientific rules was gaining currency. And these practice apartments were designed to teach young women the latest, scientifically “proven” techniques for running a home. Accordingly, the practice babies were raised according to strict rules that governed everything from naps to diets. A paper published in The Journal of Home Economics in 1920, reveals this kind of thinking. The report, called “The Training of Children as A Part of Laboratory Work in Home Management,” chronicles the practice baby program at the University of Minnesota during the 1918-19 school year. The work was undertaken (1) to show that laboratory work in the care of children can be fitted into a college program; (2) to demonstrate methods of child care, both physical and mental, which are known to result in the well-being and development of the child; and (3) to work out some management problems involved in the care of children. The paper details the strict rules that governed the care of the babies. Consider the daily schedules to which the babies were held: METHODS OF CARE EMPLOYED Daily program Russell Earl Waken 6:30 Waken 6:00 Breakfast 6:30- 7:30 Breakfast 6:00- 6:00 Quiet play in crib 7:30-8:30 Quiet play in crib 6:30-7:30 Bath 8:30- 8:50 Bath 7:30- 8:00 Play 8:50-9:30 Play, ride 8:00-11:00 Sleep 9:30-12:00 Dinner 11:00-12:00 Dinner 12:00- 1:00 Sleep 12:00- 3:00 Play, ride 1:00-5:00 Play, ride 3:00- 5:00 Supper 5:00- 6:00 Supper 5:00- 6:00 Bed 6:00 Bed 6:00 The babies’ diets are similarly specific. Here, for instance, is what baby Russell, 13-months-old, ate every day: Milk (skimmed), one pint. Toast, crackers, both white and graham. Cereal thoroughly cooked but not strained. Fruit juice and pulp, two kinds each day, especially orange juice and prune pulp. Potatoes, mashed or baked, served without butter. Vegetables other than potatoes, almost any kind, especially spinach, carrots, tomatoes. Meat in the form of scraped beef, veal, or chicken, two or three times per week or Eggs 2 or 3 times per week or Custards 2 or 3 times per week. Cod liver oil, 3 tsp. per day. Of course, these sorts of practice baby programs would not last. As the Cornell exhibit puts it, “As time passed, however, new research in child development pointed to the need for a primary bond with a single caregiver, and social changes in the lives of women made the practice house focus on domesticity seem old-fashioned.” And a Time article from 1954 reveals some of the doubts experts were beginning to have about such programs. “Imagine,” cried Mrs. Babette Penner, director of the Women’s Services Division of United Charities, “what anxieties there are in a child who is given a bottle in twelve or more pairs of arms.”… Meanwhile, as the experts wrangled, little David went right on risking future neuroses, and his assorted mothers went right on gaining some worthwhile “practical experience.” Indeed, though the minutiae of the infants’ lives were recorded while they were practice babies, it doesn’t seem as though anyone thought to follow up on these children after they were adopted. So we’re left to wonder about the big questions: How did these babies actually turn out? What were they like as adults? Did they bear any evidence of their early upbringing? The best we may be able to do is read Grunwald’s imaginative take on these questions. The Irresistible Henry House is a great novel but it is, obviously, fiction. How I’d love to know the facts. Further Reading Cornell University Library’s online exhibit about practice apartments and babies. “Babies Serve as Laboratory Material at ‘U’: Home Economics Classes Will Use Babies to Practice On.” Minneapolis Sunday Tribune. March 23, 1919. “The Training of Children as A Part of Laboratory Work in Home Management,” The Journal of Home Economics. 1920. “Education: Case of the Resident Baby.” Time. January 25, 1954. Grunwald discusses her discovery of the Cornell practice baby program. The New York Times review of The Irresistible Henry House. Images: 1. Cornell Library 2. Cornell LibraryAmazon's Echo and associated Alexa assistant have taken the world by storm. Despite being a big company, Amazon's success in this market was very unlikely. Companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple should be leading, but no, an online bookseller has been the true trailblazer in voice assistant technology. Today, Amazon unveils the next generation Echo, and oh my, it looks amazing. Not only is it much shorter than its predecessor (still taller than Echo Dot), but it is wrapped in fabric, creating a more inviting experience in a home. It even has improved audio quality. Best of all? It is even less expensive at a mere $99. Unfortunately for Apple, this will essentially make its upcoming $349 Siri-powered HomePod dead on arrival. "With an all-new compact design, Echo fits easily into any room in your home while delivering next generation far-field performance and improved room-filling sound. Pick from a variety of shell colors and finishes to fit into your home’s décor -- choices include charcoal, sandstone, heather gray, oak veneer, walnut veneer, and silver," says Amazon. For $50 more, you can purchase the "Echo Plus", which focuses more on home automation, and comes with a Philips Hue light bulb in the box. This device looks like a first-generation Echo -- not wrapped fabric, and a taller design. Amazon explains, "With its built-in smart home hub, Echo Plus makes connecting to compatible smart home devices easy. Just say, 'Alexa, discover my devices,' and Echo Plus will automatically discover and set up compatible lights, locks, plugs, switches, and more without the need for additional hubs or apps. This simple set-up works with a variety of ZigBee products from leading brands such as Philips Hue, GE, Kwikset, and more. To help get your smart home started, Amazon customers will receive a Philips Hue smart lightbulb with the purchase of an Echo Plus while supplies last." Amazon is not stopping there, however. In addition to the new Echo, it is selling the $35 Echo Connect -- a device that connects your Echo to your landline phone line. In other words, you can make actual phone calls using your Echo and your existing landline phone number. While this sounds sort of cool, it will be speakerphone only -- private calls will not be possible. The company is also launching what it calls "Echo Buttons," which are standalone buttons that can be used to do things like play games. Imagine a trivia game, for instance, where every family member has a dedicated wireless button to "buzz in." It could be fun. They are priced at $20 for two, essentially making them $10 each. It is not clear if they will be sold individually, however. A family of three might have to buy four. As a final surprise, Amazon is also introducing the "Echo Spot." This is sort of a mix between an Echo Dot and an Echo Show. It is a diminutive smart device with a circular color screen. You get a visual UI without having the bulk and size of the Show. It is priced at $129. Tom Taylor, Senior Vice President, Amazon Alexa says, "Echo Spot combines the popular small design of Echo Dot, the display of Echo Show, and the features you love about Alexa into an all-new, stylish and compact device. See the weather, watch video news briefings, glance at your alarm clock, check on your kids, and more -- we think customers will find lots of places for Echo Spot in their homes." What do you think of these new Amazon devices? Does Apple stand a chance selling a home assistant at more than triple the price of the new Echo flagship? Please tell me in the comments below.Joyce Kinsey lives in a clay-colored house in a forested area of the US state of Maryland. She views the world through two openings. One is her flat-screen TV, the other her kitchen window. She watches nature shows, crime dramas and Fox News through the one opening, and the seasons, her neighbors and the weather through the other. Until recently, it was easy for Kinsey to separate these two windows from reality. But then the lines between them became blurred. Her kitchen-window images appeared on her TV screen, while television crews appeared outside her kitchen window. No matter where she went in her house, the images were all the same. And sometimes she even saw herself on TV, as if looking into a mirror. That was last summer, when whistleblower Edward Snowden shocked the world with his revelations. Snowden was once Kinsey's neighbor. It was a while ago, but she hasn't forgotten the experience. He lived on the other side of a narrow path between their two kitchen windows. They were 12 feet (3.7 meters) apart, says Kinsey. Perhaps she's just guessing, or perhaps she actually measured the space. For a time, the distance seemed relevant
oner or later, he said, the “moral blindness of this indifference comes to light,” and the hidden wounds caused by it become visible: “The unemployment is real, the violence is real, the corruption is real, the identity crisis is real, the gutting of democracies is real.” Specifying that he wasn’t talking about anyone in particular but of a social and political process that flourishes throughout the world, Francis said that “the system’s gangrene cannot be whitewashed forever. “Sooner or later the stench becomes too strong; and when it can no longer be denied, the same power that spawned this state of affairs sets about manipulating fear, insecurity, quarrels, and even people’s justified indignation, in order to shift the responsibility for all these ills onto a ‘non-neighbor’.” A neighbor, he said, can be whomever is in need: “You must become a Samaritan” and also the “innkeeper from at the end of the parable to whom the Samaritan entrusts the person who is suffering.” The Church, the Christian community, people of compassion and solidarity and social organizations are that innkeeper, Francis said. The pontiff then spoke of the gathering’s commitment to fight for social justice, defend “our Sister Mother Earth” and to stand alongside migrants. On this, Francis said he wanted to share two reflections. The first one is the fact that the ecological crisis is real, and that a solid scientific consensus indicates “that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system.” He acknowledged that science is not necessarily “neutral,” because “many times it conceals ideological views or economic interests. “However, we also know what happens when we deny science and disregard the voice of nature,” he said, asking Catholics but also native peoples, pastors and political leaders to avoid falling into denial and to instead defend creation because “time is running out.” The second reflection he offered is one he’d given in November, during the World Meeting of Popular Movements held in Rome: “no people is criminal and no religion is terrorist. Christian terrorism does not exist, Jewish terrorism does not exist, and Muslim terrorism does not exist.” He argued, instead, that the different forms of aggression and conflict find a fertile terrain among the poorer peoples, yet if they were given equal opportunities, things would be different. “There are fundamentalist and violent individuals in all peoples and religions—and with intolerant generalizations they become stronger because they feed on hate and xenophobia,” Francis said. “By confronting terror with love, we work for peace.”It is common knowledge that research studies have demonstrated the harmful effects of divorce on children. Surprisingly, that common knowledge turns out not to be supported by evidence. Although proponents of marriage would like us to believe that kids with divorced parents have more emotional, academic and psychological problems than they would have had if their parents had stayed together, no credible data exist to back up those claims. The reason why there is no scientific evidence for the effects of divorce on children is that nobody has ever performed a rigorous study. That is not entirely the fault of the research community, because this turns out to be an extremely difficult question to address. First, people who get divorced are different, on average, from people who stay married. That causes researchers to compare apples to oranges, which can lead to false conclusions. For instance, parents with low incomes are more likely to divorce than wealthy parents (paywall). Children from poor families also, on average, do worse in school. A researcher could conclude that children whose parents divorce do worse in school and would be statistically correct. The researcher would be just as correct to conclude that children who never vacation in Europe or ski in Aspen are more likely to drop out of school. If the researcher went one step further and said that divorce causes children to do poorly in school (or that sending a child to Paris will prevent her from dropping out of school), that would be an example of the second problem with divorce research, which is confounding correlation and causation. Our brains are wired to look for causes and effects everywhere. When you hear that children whose parents’ divorce are at increased risk of becoming divorced themselves, do you begin to think of reasons why children would react to their parents’ divorce in that way? Most people do. However, there are many reasons for this association that may have nothing to do with causation. One simple example is that alcoholics have a heightened risk for divorce, and their children have a heightened risk of alcoholism. If mom is an alcoholic and divorces, and her daughter Olivia is also an alcoholic and divorces, can we conclude that Olivia’s parents’ divorce caused her divorce? It seems just as likely that alcoholism (or some other trait that runs in families) contributed to both of their divorces. Separating causation from correlation is impossible when there are so many factors that contribute to both divorce and the success and well-being of a child, and when most of those factors can’t be measured or quantified. The complexity of factors that contribute to outcomes for children also leads to a third problem with divorce research. To tease out the effect of divorce from the effects of poverty, genetics, mental illness, neglect or abuse, and many other things nobody even thinks to measure, researchers would need to study far more children than has ever been done before. Studies that claim to have found an effect of divorce on children report tiny effect sizes, on the order of one-quarter of one standard deviation. To put this in perspective, imagine that a study revealed that men who live in Boston are tall, whereas men who live in New York City are of average height. The difference between the two groups of men is one-quarter of one standard deviation. That means that the average man in New York is 5’10 inches tall, whereas the average man in Boston is 5’10 and three quarters inches tall. When you meet a man who is 6′ tall, can you predict with any reasonable certainty whether he is from Boston or New York? Of course not. Even if the studies that purport to find negative effects of divorce on children were confirmed with much larger sample sizes, when you see little Jackson running around screaming and whacking other children on the head while little Noah sits calmly reading chapter books, you could not possibly predict which boy has divorced parents. How could anyone properly study the effects of divorce on children? The best solution would be a large, randomized study. Researchers would need to randomly assign tens or hundreds of thousands of married parents to two groups, one where everyone gets divorced and one where everyone stays married. Imagine participating in a trial where you were told, “You will get an envelope in the mail, selected at random, that will tell you whether you need to get divorced next week or whether you must stay married for at least the next five years. Then we will test your kids every year to see how they are faring.” Even if you were willing to participate, there is not enough money in government or private foundation coffers to pay for such a study. This is why no reliable studies about the effects of divorce on children exist. Of course, nobody needs a scientific study to tell them that divorce is painful. Divorce is upsetting to children, and some grow up to feel that they are emotionally crippled because of their parents’ divorce. Even children who view the changes resulting from divorce as positive still have to suffer through the upheaval of changing family structure. Parents should be encouraged to make every effort to mitigate the pain for their children. What parents should not be told is that their children’s long term happiness and success will be jeopardized if they divorce. This adds unnecessary guilt and grief to a process that is already excruciating. There is no evidence that divorce meaningfully impacts the sort of adult a child will become. Moreover, even if good quality studies existed, decisions about divorce need to be made based upon all of the individual details of each situation, not based on some faulty notion of the law of averages. This article is part of Quartz Ideas, our home for bold arguments and big thinkers.Sex offenders'marked men' in California prison as many are killed at higher rate Shortly after 2 am on 6 April 2010, a guard at Salinas Valley state prison noticed Alan Ager’s cellmate trying to stuff something under a mattress. It was Ager, blood trickling from his mouth and a cloth noose tied around his neck. The convicted child molester died 10 days later without regaining consciousness, his death earning his cellmate a second life sentence. California state prisoners are killed at a rate that is double the national average – and sex offenders like Ager account for a disproportionate number of victims, according to an Associated Press analysis of corrections records. Male sex offenders made up about 15% of the prison population but accounted for nearly 30 percent of homicide victims, the AP found in cataloging all 78 killings that corrections officials reported since 2007, when they started releasing slain inmates’ identities and crimes. The deaths – 23 out of 78 – come despite the state’s creation more than a decade ago of special housing units designed to protect the most vulnerable inmates, including sex offenders, often marked men behind bars because of the nature of their crimes. In some cases, they have been killed among the general prison population and, in others, within the special units by violence-prone cellmates. Officials acknowledge that those units, which also house inmates trying to quit gangs, have spawned their own gangs. Corrections officials blamed a rise in the prison homicide rate on an overhaul meant to reduce crowding. As part of the effort, the state in 2011 began keeping lower-level offenders in county lockups, leaving prisons with a higher percentage of sex offenders and violent gang members. Violence and homicides won’t decline unless the state goes well below the prison population level set by the courts– 137.5% of the system’s designed capacity, said James Austin, president of the JFA Institute, a Washington, DC, consulting firm that works on prison issues. “Until the state gets its prison population below 100%of capacity, you’re going to have this,” he said. Overall, 162 California prisoners were killed from 2001 to 2012, or 8 per 100,000 prisoners – double the national average over the same time period and far higher than that of other large states, including Texas, New York and Illinois, according to federal statistics. Officials in Oklahoma mainly blamed gang violence for giving that state the nation’s highest long-term prison homicide rate, 14 per 100,000, although a quarter of its inmate homicide victims in the last decade had convictions for sex crimes. In California, from 2012 to 2013, the most recent years for which data were available, the rate rose to 15 per 100,000, according to a report by a federal court receiver, though corrections officials said the number of deaths dropped last year. Department spokeswoman Terry Thornton would not comment on the possible reasons for California’s long-term trend of inmate homicides. The problem is most acute with sex offenders. Last fall, the corrections department’s inspector general reported that so many homicides occurred in the “increasingly violent” special housing units reserved for vulnerable inmates that the department could no longer assume that inmates there could peacefully co-exist. The report looked at 11 homicide cases that were closed in the first half of 2014 and found that 10 victims were sensitive-needs inmates. Using corrections records, the AP found that eight of them were sex offenders. The inspector general recommended the reinstatement of a policy dropped 15 years ago that required potential sensitive-needs cellmates to fill out a compatibility form before they are housed together and that inmates with a history of violence toward cellmates should be housed alone. Thornton said the report led to an ongoing review of the policy of housing most prisoners, including vulnerable inmates, two to a cell. Experts said the state could better protect sex offender inmates by separating them into their own facilities. Prison gangs, though made up of inmates often convicted of heinous crimes themselves, have long made it a practice to target sex offenders. “They’re going to clean up anybody on that yard with ‘hot charges,’” said former inmate Todd Siefert, referring to any crime against a woman or child, including a sex offense. The very lowest rung is reserved for child molesters. Seifert said he was confronted by white supremacist inmates less than a half-hour after he arrived at the California Institution for Men in Chino in 2004 and was severely beaten by a half-dozen fellow inmates for his sex crime involving a woman. Corrections department spokesmen in Illinois, New York and Texas said the targeting of sex offenders is not considered a problem there. Some states have stricter protocols for keeping sex offenders away from other inmates. Those participating in Maine’s rehabilitation therapy program are housed separately, and none has been injured or killed in the decade it has been in existence, said Dennis McNamara, executive director of the Counseling and Psychotherapy Center Inc., which runs the program. However, only about 11 percent of the state’s inmate sex offender population is in the treatment program, corrections spokesman Scott Fish said in an email. Of four Maine inmates killed behind bars since 2001, two were sex offenders. In Massachusetts, state policy calls for sex offenders to be placed in a “therapeutic community” that offers intensive treatment aimed at changing their behavior, preventing relapses and preparing them for eventual release. The state had a high-profile inmate homicide in 2003, when John Geoghan, a former Roman Catholic priest whose sexual abuse conviction sparked a widespread abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, was killed by a fellow inmate who claimed he was chosen by God to kill pedophiles. Adding to the problem in California, the department identified nearly 100 gangs that formed in sensitive-needs units, said Matthew Buechner, a special investigator who trained other corrections officials on problems with prison gangs until he retired last fall. In Ager’s case, the 5-foot-4, 135-pound inmate was kept in special housing when he first entered the prison system at San Quentin. But he was housed with general-population inmates soon after his transfer to Salinas Valley because officials there decided he didn’t need extra protection. Ager, 63, was housed with Clyde Leroy Beaver, a convicted murderer who has spent the last four decades in prison. Beaver pleaded guilty to murder in Ager’s slaying and got another life sentence that Ager’s son considers essentially meaningless. A federal judge ruled in March that Ager’s family failed to show that prison officials acted with deliberate indifference. “The very day they let him into the yard, he was filing complaints, ‘Get me the hell out of here,’” said Ager’s son, Daniel. “This is not safe. I’m going to get killed out here.”The Worst Vice President Ever goes to Baghdad and says: “I was last in Baghdad 10 months ago, and I can sense, as a result of the progress that’s been made since then, that there have been some phenomenal changes, in terms of the overall situation, both with respect to the security situation, where Iraqi and American forces have done some very good work, as well as with respect to political developments here in Iraq.” Meanwhile: At sunset Monday, however, a female suicide bomber killed at least 40 people* and injured more than 50 when she blew herself up in a crowded pedestrian area near a Shiite Muslim shrine in the southern holy city of Karbala, according to government and hospital officials. Among the victims were several Iranian pilgrims who’d come to worship at the Imam Hussein shrine, one of Islam’s most sacred sites… The majority of casualties in the Karbala suicide bombing were female pilgrims whoâ€™d gathered at refreshment stands about a half-mile from the shrine.The majority of casualties in the Karbala suicide bombing were female pilgrims who’d gathered at refreshment stands about a half-mile from the shrine, said Saleem Kadhim, a spokesman for the Husseini Hospital, which received 40 dead and 56 injured from the blast. Medics from nearby towns were called in to help the overflowing hospital, and the government imposed an open-ended citywide curfew on Karbala. “I was near the bus station when I saw a woman who was pushing others and then, a few seconds later, I saw a flame in the sky,” said Jassim Hussein, 32, who helped carry victims from the scene. “I blame the Baathists and members of the old regime. As you know, Karbala is a target for so many enemies, especially those against the Shiites. And I also blame the security forces because we don’t have checkpoints in this area.” …In other violence Monday, a car bomb exploded at a busy intersection in the Baghdad neighborhood of Karrada, wounding eight people. Three separate roadside bombs in the capital also left casualties: One policeman was killed and one wounded when their patrol was targeted near a teachers’ training institute in Mansour; three Iraqi civilians died at a busy intersection near the Shaab Stadium in Zayuna; and one civilian was injured near the landmark Mr. Milk grocery store in Mansour. And: And the U.S. military announced the deaths of two soldiers who were killed Monday when their Humvee struck a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, bringing the number of American troop deaths to at least 3,990 since the war began. The media meme on Cheney’s trip is that it was a “surprise,” but when word of his trip to the Middle East came out last week, who didn’t think he would detour to Iraq? The bombings were probably all planned then. Maybe he was there to crack the heads of Prime Minister Nouri al Malki and his government, but the trip comes off like one big photo op to give Cheney a platform for spouting administration talking points on the occupation: U.S. forces would “not quit before the job is done,” he said, without a trace of irony. And “[it] would be a mistake now to be so eager to draw down the force that we risk putting the outcome in jeopardy. And I don’t think we’ll do that.” Update: An Iraqi health official says the death toll in Monday’s bombing in Karbala near the shrine of Imam Hussein has risen to 52.There are times when Scott Stevens looks out from the Wild bench and feels a bit of the old anger welling up. That’s when some pipsqueak of a forward crowds the Minnesota goaltender, jabbing and bumping him with impunity. “Yeah, but now it’s like you almost forget the old days and how it was played,” Stevens said with a smile. A Hall of Fame defenseman, Stevens would not have tolerated such behavior. An opposing forward entered Stevens’ territory at his own risk. And he usually discovered rather quickly that the risk-reward profile was not favorable. Ka-pow! Stevens, an assistant coach for Bruce Boudreau, was the best open-ice hitter I ever saw. And this was especially true during the playoffs, when he’d release his inner Amtrak and turn into a locomotive when opposing players tried crossing the blue line. YouTube is filled with videos of skaters flying through the air after being greeted by Stevens. A 13-time all-star and winner of three Stanley Cups, he also was a master of the now-lost art of hip-checking. His 22-year career ended just before massive, and mostly ineffective, rule changes were introduced to try to juice scoring. A whole generation now has grown up with a kinder, gentler NHL. Defensemen no longer are allowed to clear the front of the crease. Referees protect forwards who take up squatters’ rights dangerously close to the crease. This has resulted in such a mob in front of the net that pucks rarely get through to the goaltender. And most goals come from mad scrambles. Stevens has adapted beautifully and developed appropriate teaching techniques. Wild defensemen are having an outstanding season. “I enjoy watching the game so I learn,” Stevens said. “You look to what works and how it has evolved. It’s always evolving. Obviously with the rule changes and the red line and penalties and what not, that was a big thing. “I still think, overall, what works hasn’t changed, to a certain extent. We still emphasize boxing out. Not letting guys get to the net. I’m not a big fronting guy. I would rather they get to people before they get to the front. Let the goalie see the puck. We want to protect the middle of the ice.” I knew it really wasn’t going to happen, but when Stevens was hired I had this vision of Wild defensemen delivering hip checks and sending opposing players sailing through space. “No, I’m not going to teach anybody to hit,” Stevens said. “Unless they ask me.” No one has asked. “I think that’s something that’s in the person. You’re either a physical person or you’re not,’’ he said. “You can sort of push people in there a bit, but it’s either in your DNA or it’s not. That’s my opinion.” Without the red line, the game has turned into a speed-skating exhibition. Guys skate furiously back and forth, often with very little happening hockey-wise. Because of the high speed, all body checks are potentially lethal. It’s no wonder physical play has diminished. “It is because guys are worrying about injury, guys are worried about getting suspended and losing pay,” Stevens noted. “And obviously the league has had to make the game safer. Football’s done that with the receivers and the quarterbacks, so I think it was just time and it was going to happen and it’s here now. “Those good old hip checks … Now everybody analyzes, ‘Is he too low? Is he too high?’ It’s an art, it’s a timing. It takes practice and skill to make those hits. But it sure seems like everybody frowns upon them. They think, ‘oh, he’s trying to hurt his career, take his knees out.’ But if you hit him right, and I’ve received a few of those checks, it’s actually a very easy fall to the ice. A real slow motion type of thing. It’s not violent.” So Stevens, known as Captain Crunch when he played, emphasizes other tactics, such as preventing clean entries into the zone and turning the play around as quickly as possible. I just want to emphasize here that he is a very modern coach. And during our conversation, I was the only dinosaur in the room. “There’s no question east-west has been taken out of the game,” he said. “There are still are some players that are good at it. Patrick Kane is excellent at playing east-west. There’s only a few of those guys that can do that.” Stevens notes there are a few defensemen with an old-school mentality. He mentions Alexei Emelin of Montreal and Radko Gudas of the Flyers. In fact, he said he saw Emelin deliver a hip check during a Canadiens rout of the Avalanche. “There’s still a few defensemen that are pretty physical,” he said. “But not many.” Younger fans don’t know what they are missing.Women have already taken back Trump's 'nasty woman' insult CLOSE Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton a 'nasty woman' at the third presidential debate. USA TODAY In what may be the fastest case of reappropriation in this election cycle, women have already taken back one of the insults Republican nominee Donald Trump lobbed at Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during Wednesday night's debate. "Such a nasty woman," Trump interjected as Clinton answered a question about funding Social Security. Cue Janet Jackson's Nasty Boys — streams of which have been up 250% on Spotify. Twitter erupted with ladies proudly claiming the mantel, tee-shirts were promptly designed, someone snagged the domain name nastywomengets**done.com, which now redirects to a Hillary Clinton donations page and clothing retailer Nasty Gal got in on the fun, changing the name to Nasty Woman for the day. Hell hath no fury like a woman "nastied" by a game show host during a debate #nastywomenvote — cathy rhodes (@zackmomma) October 20, 2016 Currently updating my women contacts to Company Name: Nasty Woman. #nastywomen2016#nastywomenvote — Lexi B. Harv (@Lexi18B) October 20, 2016 Though many were having fun proclaiming themselves nasty women, reappropriation has long been used by social activists. For women's groups, this has taken several forms. One of the most notable is Take Back the Night, a foundation working to end sexual assault and violence against women that spread from Europe to the U.S. in the late 1960s that still holds events on hundreds of college campuses. One of the first occurred in October 1975, after microbiologist Susan Alexander Speeth was murdered while walking home alone at night. Incensed by the notion that women should stay at home out of fear of attack, many took to the streets and flipped the narrative, calling for safer environments. Amber Rose at her SlutWalk 2016 at Pershing Square. (Photo11: Amanda Edwards, FilmMagic) That concept got an update in 2011 when a Toronto police constable told students at Osgoode University that they could prevent sexual assault if they stopped dressing like sluts, and Slut Walk was born. It's since gone from the streets of Toronto to cities worldwide, and has found a vocal supporter in Amber Rose. So while the hashtag #nastywomenvote has been trending due mostly to women getting in a few jokes about Trump's comment, it is following traditional paths of women's rights groups. Will it work in the Twitter age? We'll see on Nov. 8. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2eVeeSMEvent Period Feb. 27, 2017 12:00 a.m. to Mar. 12, 2017 11:59 p.m. (PT) Feb. 27, 2017 8:00 to Mar. 13, 2017 6:59 (UTC) ■Event Details ★Team up with Hercules for Exclusive Medals! ・In this event you canto win your way through a tournament!・There is a total ofto complete!・Clear certain challenges to get the exclusiveMedal! ■Tips for Success! an ability to strengthen your defense after the enemies attack in the first turn an ability that greatly increases your strength after the enemies attack in the second turn ・If you can't withstand attacks from two enemies try focusing your attacks on one enemy first, then defeating the remaining one on your second turn!・Hercules usesandUse these hints and withstand their attacks until the third turn to unleash powerful attacks to blow them away!1 of 15 View Caption Courtesy \| Utah State Historical Society Children at the Pioneer Park playground. July 23, 1911. Courtesy \| Utah State Historical Society Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City. Sept. 16, 1912. Courtesy \| Utah State Historical Society Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City. Sept. 16, 1912. Courtesy \| Utah State Historical Society Children at Pioneer Park. Aug. 12, 1920. Courtesy \| Utah State Historical Society A girl at Pioneer Park. Aug. 12, 1920. Courtesy \| Utah State Historical Society Children at the Pioneer Park playground. July 23, 1911. Courtesy \| Utah State Historical Society Children at the Pioneer Park playground. July 23, 1911. Courtesy \| Utah State Historical Society Children at the Pioneer Park playground. Sept. 1, 1911. Courtesy \| Utah State Historical Society Pioneer Park playgrounds. Sept. 1, 1911. Courtesy \| Utah State Historical Society Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City, May 10, 1911. Courtesy \| Utah State Historical Society Children at Pioneer Park. Aug. 12, 1920. Courtesy \| Utah State Historical Society Children at the Pioneer Park playground. Sept. 1, 1911. Courtesy \| Utah State Historical Society The east side of the old fort in Pioneer Park Square. Date Unknown. Courtesy \| Utah State Historical Society Children at the Pioneer Park swimming pool. Sept. 1, 1911. Courtesy \| Utah State Historical Society Pioneer Park in front of the Rio Grande depot. March 22, 1910.Trent Reznor is working with Apple on a new project related to music delivery, the Nine Inch Nails frontman revealed in an interview with Billboard. Reznor, also the chief creative officer of Beats Music, said that following Apple's acquisition of Beats the company "expressed direct interest in me designing some products with them." While he declined to go into detail about what he was working on, Reznor said it's "very creative work" and hinted that it's "in the world" of music delivery. "I am on the side of streaming music, and I think the right streaming service could solve everybody's problems," he told Billboard. "Ownership is waning. Everybody is comfortable with the cloud... I just think we haven't quite hit the right formula yet." Apple is in the midst of overhauling Beats Music and plans to relaunch the service as part of iTunes in the coming year, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. Other reports have suggested the company is negotiating with record labels to offer a discounted music streaming service. Reznor also weighed in on the recent U2 giveaway debacle, saying the band made a "misstep" in how it presented the giveaway. "I am assuming the momentum of that situation led to the oversight in not thinking that people might feel intruded upon," he said.What is the Bevometer? It's a totally new and unique twist on the standard koozie. The Bevometer counts your beverages, keeping track of the number of drinks you've consumed both "this time" and over the "lifetime" of the Bevometer. Design + Function We are very proud of the Bevometer's quality construction and materials, perfected over a long course of product design. It is important to us that the Bevometer be the same size as a traditional foam koozie, lightweight, fun to look at and even more fun to use. Done, done and done!! It feels great, it looks awesome and it functions exactly as we envisioned from day one... maybe even better. Easily track your consumption of adult beverages, ounces of water and number of sodas. Use it for fun and for a healthy lifestyle. Bevometer with Soda, Water and Beer Why is the Bevometer Awesome? The Bevometer is truly unique: There is nothing else available similar to the Bevometer. It's hip and relevant: The Bevometer definitely adds to fun times, but also promotes responsible consumption, helping us all to be accountable. It's extremely versatile: The Bevometer works for adult beverages, soda and water. Here are a few other ways to use the Bevometer: Promote your business, product, bar, gym or band Support your sports team, athletic event or race Celebrate a wedding, family reunion or birthday Use as a promotional item at a festival, charity event or other special cause Show appreciation to employees and customers Give for birthdays, stocking stuffers, Father’s Day and other holidays Give as a party gift for a bachelor/ette party, college house party, backyard BBQ, family reunion and other fun times Track what your husband...or wife... is sipping And, of course... keep your own beverage cool Fun with Friends + the Bevometer How Does the Bevometer Work? Just insert a beverage and both counters on the display screen -- "this time" and "lifetime" -- will increase by one. Hold down the "reset" button and "this time" will return to zero. Press the hard reset button on the base if "lifetime" needs to be reset. Press "wake" to turn on the display screen, which will go to sleep after the Bevometer is unused for a while to conserve battery life. Two watch-size batteries, which are included, will run the Bevometer for more than six months of regular use. The memory chip will ensure that your count is never lost should you ever need new batteries. Base, Front, Interior + Display Justin's Inspiration My parents were visiting us when we lived in Portland, Oregon. As always, my dad brought "the Bud kooz" to aid in his beverage enjoyment. It's a serious understatement to say that this koozie had seen better days. We started joking about how many beverages this relic had seen during years of dedicated use. My dad's stories became our inspiration for the Bevometer. Details evolved as we vetted the concept. Everyone we talked with encouraged us, reinforcing our conviction and propelling us forward. We've worked for more than three years validating and protecting the idea with a patent and trademark, prototyping, refining and perfecting countless other details. We are on the brink of realizing our dream: a truly great product supported by a strong brand identity and a resilient business structure. Evolution: The Bud Kooz -- Prototypes 1, 2 and 3 -- Final Sample (Perfecto!) Now... We Need Your Help All of the financing up to this point has come out of our own pocket. We have exhausted our resources with one big step left -- our first minimum-quantity order. It's a big one: 5000 units per color, plus components for the next 45,000 units. The entire payment is due before the Bevometer even leaves the factory. It's a hurdle that we cannot overcome without the generous, inspired Kickstarter community. By backing the Bevometer, you will help us be able to place our first order. From that point, it will take approximately two months for production and shipping. The factory will print large quantities in-house. Smaller customized orders will be printed locally. We will personally fulfill orders until this number exceeds our ability and then the same print shop will also help us with fulfillment. During the Kickstarter campaign, we will finalize packaging so that it meets the needs of our expected diversity of customers and perfect the printing so the quality meets our standards. Production Plan Back the Bevometer The Bevometer rewards are awesome! We're thanking our backers with many reward options. We know that without your support, it will take us another three years to overcome the hurdle we've reached. Not to mention, we are really proud of the Bevometer and are beyond excited to share it with our backers. How Can I Help? We are humbled so many people have asked this question during the preparation of our Kickstarter. Here are three easy ways to help us reach our dream: Back the Bevometer Your support gets us over the hurdle of minimum order requirements, and maybe even into our next steps via our Stretch Goals. Spread the Digital Word Share, like, follow and pin the Bevometer on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, My People App and other media accounts. View and vote for the Bevometer on Reddit, YouTube and others. Talk with Family + Friends Nothing like a good old-fashioned conversation to express your enthusiasm! When was the last time you called your old roommate, sibling, cousin, bar buddies? They will love to hear your voice, and remember how cool you are, when you tell them about the Bevometer! Back the Bevometer --- Help Us Realize Our Dream --- Thank You! Special thanks to our family and friends who have helped us along the way... especially those kind enough to take part in the "photo shoot."The shops where New Yorkers buy milk, beer, and other last-minute basics go by many names. To some, they’re delis; to others, corner stores. But to most of us, any small shop stocked with grocery essentials is a bodega. Yours might have a cat, and yours definitely has the best bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, since proximity makes food more delicious. But the bodegas listed here, though standard at first glance, offer within their doors items worth a special trip to their neighborhoods. Tokyo Market, 33-15 Broadway, Queens, NY 11106 You’ll find a good assortment of Japanese pantry goods — including Kewpie mayonnaise and soba noodles — between the Budweiser and tins of La Morena pickled jalapeños at this Astoria shop. Sushi and sashimi are prepared daily at the front of the store before they’re packed and displayed in a refrigerated section that also holds pre-packaged, house-made “Tokyo special” sandwiches, seaweed salad, and vacuum-sealed packages of imitation crab. Three bucks will get you a “classic” sushi roll (the basic salmon avocado is a good bet) that is fresh and mildly sweet, with vibrant-green avocado and a smooth, buttery texture that transports you from a bustling Queens street to the seashore. You can’t beat that price at any of the many nearby Japanese restaurants — and what you save on dinner, you can use to splurge on a six-pack of Orion beer. Cherry Valley Deli 1229 150th Street, Whitestone, Queens A business strip bordering a quiet residential neighborhood may not be where you’d expect to find a 24-hour deli, but if you need to grab milk for cereal at 3 a.m., Cherry Valley is here for you. More likely, though, at that hour you’ll be stepping inside to eat something to soak up some of the evening’s booze; drunkenness might have inspired some of the more outrageous sandwiches here, anyway, where restraint is left at the curb. Cherry Valley ups the ante on Pittsburgh-style fries-filled sandwiches, adding waffle fries to its Coyote — along with chicken cutlet, bacon, mozzarella, and ranch dressing on a garlic bread hero (the bread of choice for several sandwiches on the menu). But why stop at fries? The Bomb, an accurately named gut-assault of grilled steak, bacon, cheddar, and gravy, again on a garlic hero, includes onion rings. J & H Farm 214A Prospect Park West, Brooklyn At J&H Farm, peanut butter, potato chips, and other American pantry basics sit adjacent to jars of fermented black bean paste and bags of the Korean red pepper flakes known as gochugaru. And next to the mozzarella cheese are dozens of plastic clamshell containers filled with kimchi — all made in the back of the shop by Sandra Kim, who owns the place with her husband, Sam. The varieties of this fermented Korean staple include cucumber, sliced or cubed daikon, and “Mom’s kimchi,” in which cabbage, daikon, and Kim’s special combination of spices mingle into a funky treat. Even that traditional version is prepared in two ways — with or without pungent brined baby shrimp. “For the vegans,” Kim explains with a knowing nod. Blue Sky Deli (Hajji’s) 2135 First Avenue, Manhattan Between a controversial, tone-deaf viral video review and some pricey “upscale” versions at White Gold and Whole Foods, a sandwich that’s about as humble as they come has prompted surprise at all the attention. The chopped cheese sandwich is rumored to have started in East Harlem at Blue Sky Deli (better known to customers as Hajji’s,
or who commune with the new calendarists, are excommunicated and are thus without divine Grace! Of course, the Zealots were not so naïve as one might think based on their odd ecclesiology. They knew they needed a dogmatic reason. One had to be found at all costs. Unfortunately, they were aided by those who promoted a syncretistic ecumenism through ecumenistic dialogues; excessive longing for union with the heretics; occasionally imparting to them the holy Mysteries; the isolated cases of recognizing their mysteries as valid; the acceptance of an ecclesiastical character in their confessions; and joint prayers, among canonical transgressions. The Zealots, therefore, declared as heretics those responsible for the above actions, and thus the longed for reason was found, albeit delayed. For them it is not important that the calendar schism occurred a few decades earlier. The important thing is that the dogmatic justification was found! They also rejoice that they were delivered “just in time” from the Ecumenists. In any case, many times, during periods when heresy was being preached, the holy Fathers implemented praiseworthy oikonomia towards heretics in order to help them change their train of thought. They never, however, instigated schisms on account of some clairvoyant ability [that gave them insight into the outcome of the controversy—ed.]. Unfortunately for the Zealots, it must be stressed that the above canonical transgressions, no matter how grievous and worrisome they are, do not comprise in and of themselves heresy. They comprise “crimes” against the Canons of the First-Second Synod, as well as transgressions of other sacred Canons, but not heresy. Heresy is “to deviate in something from the dogmas laid before us, concerning the correct faith,”42 and estrangement from the faith[43]. What about the sporadic and unofficial—i.e., devoid of any Synodical recognition—unorthodox declarations, agreements or theories of isolated Ecumenists? These do not comprise an official proclamation of heresy. Even the most extreme Zealots teach that the sporadic proclamations of the heresy of the Filioque—which was preached for centuries, and to a much greater degree[44] than the Protestant branch theory—did not comprise a cause for schism[45]. Therefore, since these heterodox teachings have not been [officially] recognized or become hardened and settled, they do not comprise a cause for schism. The faithful do have a responsibility, of course, constantly and fervently to struggle against these heterodox teachings, to wipe out or at least limit them, so that finally the Ecumenistic attitude and tactic arising from them may cease. Even the lifting of the anathemas of 1054 against the papists by Patriarch [Athenagoras] of Constantinople—an act condemned by many Orthodox as a very great “achievement” of the Ecumenists—was a formal “gesture of love”, without any relationship to the theological positions of the Orthodox and the Papists. It did not mean the Schism was over, nor was there any change in the teaching, canonical order, divine worship or ecclesiastical life of the Church, nor was there restoration of sacramental communion[46]. 2. Similar situations from previous times Similar canonical transgressions, as well as direct or indirect deviations from Orthodox Ecclesiology, have occurred in times past, especially in parts of the world where the heterodox were a majority. Notably, these transgressions did not result in schisms. Unfortunately, the Orthodox diaspora has brought about an increase in these worrisome and unacceptable transgressions and deviations. Subsequently we will mention a few occasions of oikonomia, canonical transgressions and unofficial (direct or indirect) ecclesiological deviations, on account of which the holy Fathers did not, however, interrupt ecclesiastical communion with those responsible. These cases, of course, are much milder than the official declaration of the Filioque in the Symbol of faith, or the huge spreading of the heresy of Monotheletism. Despite this, as we have previously mentioned, for many years the Fathers employed the established method of oikonomia in these more serious cases. 1. The Fathers of the Third Oecumenical Synod condemned Nestorius. They did not, however, anathematize his “father”47 and teacher Theodore of Mopsuestia, who had already died, “so that some people will not, by being devoted to the man out of respect, cut themselves off from the churches. Their application of oikonomia in this was most excellent and wise”, according to Saint Cyrill[48]. Later on, when an issue arose whether to anathematize the heretic Theodore, the sacred Cyrill wrote to St. Proclus of Constantinople and urged him for the sake of “oikonomia”49 “not to allow him to be anathematized, as this would become a cause for disturbance”[50]. As St. Theodore the Studite wrote, “the divine Cyrill practiced oikonomia so that those of the West would not be cut off (by oikonomia he communed with them), who in the diptychs mentioned Theodore of Mopsuestia as indeed a heretic”51. 2. The 95th Canon of the Penthekte [Fifth Oecumenical] Synod defines that, kat’ oikonomia, Nestorians and Monophysites can be accepted with a simple libellum[52]. This Canon was also used by St. Theodore for the Iconoclasts[53]. Therefore, these applications of oikonomia were accepted by the Orthodox without creating schisms. Today’s “super-Studites”, however, accept the new calendarists with chrismation. What is more, they claim to act “out of extreme economy,” saying that canonically they ought to rebaptize them (as if it were a case like the Manicheans!). 3. St. Photius bore the iniquitous customs of Rome as long as they did not impose them on the Church of Constantinople. He knew that “what is being neglected is not the faith”54, and consequently there was no reason for schism. Deviations included fasting on the Sabbath, eating non-fasting foods during the first week of Great Lent, forbidding Priests to marry, allowing Chrism to be administered only by the bishops[55], and overturning the apostolic restriction concerning the eating of choked animals and blood. Thus, according to the Eighth Oecumenical Synod (879), the restoration of the relationships between Saint Photius and Rome occurred through the recognition of the Symbol of Faith without the addition[56], though Rome did not cast off the aforementioned customs. 4. The holy Fathers bore the Western church of the 10th century, which was undergoing the age of “the reign of fornicators”57. 5. During the age of the Latin occupation the sacred the Germanos the New of Constantinople, along with his Synod, allowed kat’ oikonomia the Cypriot Bishops to accept the profiteering demands of the Latins. Specifically “for their successors to be appointed by the Latin archbishop, who also has the right to judge even every episcopal decision that has been appealed by one of the litigants.”58 6. Following the schism of 1054 there was always a longing for union. At times many epistles were exchanged and dialogues occurred, specifically 1098, 1113, 1136, 1154, 1169, 1175, 1206, 1214, 1232, 1234, 1250, 1253, 1254, 1272, 1333, 1339, 1366, and 1438. Furthermore, in 1253 concessions also occurred[59]; and in 1136 and 1234, conciliatory solutions were suggested by the Orthodox, such as the phrase “the spirit proceeds from the father through the son”60. Schisms on account of the dialogues, however, did not occur, except during the false unions of 1274 and 1439. Today, both the Haghiorite fathers and all pious Christians proclaim that they will never accept union with the Latins, Monophysites or other heretics if they do not denounce their heretical dogmas. Unfortunately, in texts of the Zealots we observe much confusion. The Latin-minded ones which accepted the Union of 1274 are identified with those who today engage in joint prayers, dialogues, excessive pro-union efforts, or other similar activities. Likewise, the words of St. Mark of Ephesus concerning those who accepted the false Union of Florence are also applied to them, as if they are the same as those who actually entered into union with the heretics! If matters were so simple Orthodoxy would have been lost centuries ago. 7. St. Mark, when discussing the prospect of true union with the Latins, named them not brothers but “fathers”61. His teacher and great opponent of the Latins, Joseph Vryennios, had previously held union discussions with the Latins. He furthermore wrote a consultative homily regarding the union under consideration. In it, however, he fiercely condemned the “Ecumenists” of his age: in other words, those who wanted—according to the “branch theory” of that day—to be united with the pope even though the Filioque remained in the Symbol. He urged, without separating from those irresponsible parties, that any union must occur in a correct manner—i.e., that the Orthodox not be subjected to error, so that “we do not fall from the intention”62 (of true union in Christ.) 8. Many transgressions or deviations (direct and indirect) from the Orthodox phronema—transgressions that are similar to today’s—occurred in those times, especially in parts of the world where the Latins abounded. A multitude of testimonies during the 16th and 17th centuries indicate that it was customary for the Orthodox to commune with the Latins, and vice versa. To this we add the commemoration and recognition of Latin bishops, isolated concelebrations, mixed Mysteries, the granting of Mysteries to heretics, funerals for heretics, studies in heretical schools,[63] the granting leave to the papist Capuchins to confess and teach, etc. Even Metropolitans and monks confessed to Latins (in areas occupied by the Turks and Latins), something which the sacred Makarios of Patmos condemned fiercely, without, however, initiating a schism.[64] During the middle of the 17th century “the monasteries of Athos repeatedly called the Jesuits to found a school on the Holy Mount for the spiritual training of monks”!65 Also in the same period “in many places, in Jerusalem, in Alexandria and other places, in one church, in one area, the easterners chant, and in the other [the westerners chant]”!66 During the same periods dialogues also occurred with various branches of the Monophysites and Protestants, who were liked and defended by a significant number of Orthodox Christians. Nevertheless, schisms did not occur in the Orthodox Church, even though holy Fathers struggled against union with groups such as the “Lutheran Calvinists”67. 9. St. Nikodemos condemned the “Latin-minded ones” of his age, or “volunteer defenders of the Latin false baptism”, as he named them[68]. In 1755 the Eastern Patriarchs synodically decided that the Orthodox “who came from the Latins should be baptized, because until then the Latins were accepted into Orthodoxy mainly by chrismation. Despite this, the Latin-minded ones fought this decision and continued accepting those having the papal sprinkling of the Latins merely by chrismation. St. Nikodemos grieved over the great falsification, corruption and misinterpretation of the sacred Canons, and for the “fruit that is fatal and an accessory to the perdition of the soul” which was born of them[69]. He also mourned over the severe transgressions of the sacred Canons (especially Canon 6 of the Fourth, and Canons 14, 19, and 23 of the Sixth). As well he grieved for the Simoniacs, who, according to Saint Tarasius, are worse than the Pnevmatomachi[70]. He wrote that this God-hated (according to Saint Gennadios) heresy had become a virtue[71], and that most are ordained for money[72]. Simultaneously he prudently censured the theologians of his age for their heretical and blasphemous mindsets[73]. The Saint, along with the other Kollyvades Fathers, struggled fiercely for the sacred traditions. Yet nowhere can we find that they interrupted communion with the Latin-minded ones or the other erring Orthodox. These prudent zealots, contrary to those of today, were able to discern the difference between the Latin-minded ones of their age and the more egregious Latin-minded ones who entered into the false unions of 1274 and a 1439. St. Nikodemos knew that there are “two types of governing in the Church”74: exactitude (akribeia) and economy (oikonomia). Although he was a lover of akribeia, he implemented oikonomia, as a long as there was no officially preached heresy. He taught that when hierarchs or priests transgress, we must toil to convince them that God’s will should be done, without however making schisms which desolate our souls[75]. 10. The sacred Synod of the Church of Greece, in Her decision of 1834, officially allowed marriages with heretics (they were unofficially done prior to this), a decision which is “illegal and contrary to the sacred Canons”76. Constantine Economos relates also the dissolution of more than four hundred monasteries, the approval of forbidden marriage relations, the founding of theological schools according to Protestant models, and many other painful things that occurred during that time. It should be obvious, of course, that the above canonical transgressions are condemnable. Moreover, whoever takes them as a model for their relationship with the heterodox is not imitating the holy Fathers, who struggled for their elimination. 3. Contemporary Zealotism We believe that the inconsistency of the Zealots is made clear when they equate the severity of the calendar change or joint prayers with the fearful heresy of Nestorius, which overturned the “mystery awaited of the ages” [81] and corrupted the meaning of the salvation of the human race. Contemporary Zealotism cannot be seen as in agreement with the teaching and action of the holy Fathers. It rather resembles the Studite schisms [arising from canonical infractions] (we do not mean, of course, those which happened in a praiseworthy manner and with an utterly confessional mindset against the heresy of Iconoclasm). This resemblance leads to its condemnation, since these particular Studite schisms were not recognized by anyone, but instead were condemned. In reality, however, the present-day schisms do not exactly resemble these Studite schisms either, since at that time there were not so many mutual defrocking and “Churches”. The unsuspected and lightening-quick defrockings and “acquittals” of zealot clergy can find no parallel in church history. The Zealots have fallen into a multitude of contradictions, from which it is impossible for them to be freed, since they persist in their positions. Specifically: 1. When they want to justify their schism due to the calendar change (1924) or one of their internal schisms (in other words, situations that do not involve heresy), they call upon the Studite schisms (which justify a schism for canonical transgressions) or the 31st Apostolic Canon, which allows a schism for reasons “of piety and righteousness”. They do this, as we have noted, by misinterpreting the word “righteousness”. 2. When however they want to justify their schism due to Ecumenism, or in order to prevent one of their internal schisms, they call upon the 15th Canon of the First-Second Synod (which allows schism only for reasons of heresy). Of course the invocation, on the one hand, of both the Studite schisms and of the 31st Apostolic Canon, and on the other hand of the 15th Canon of the First-Second Synod, creates a huge contradiction; for the latter was instituted (as we have said above) in order to avert the Studite schisms and to clarify or interpret properly the 31st Apostolic Canon! The above contradictions are what contribute to the Zealot divisions. The Zealots typically explain the existence of nine churches for the Genuine Orthodox Christians, as well as other independent groups, as the fruit of bad administration and human passions. We are not in agreement. Rather, their schisms are an outpouring of their utterly deluded and distorted ecclesiology. Their divisions will never end as long as they invoke the Studite schisms and the 31st Apostolic Canon for disagreements over the consecration of metropolitans[82], ordinations[83], constitutions[84], the publication of an encyclical against the new identification cards[85], iconography[86] and other minor issues. (There even exists a group of “Hexagonists”!) The presidential chair of “the Synod in Resistance” was created out of three schisms, which brought about an equal number of defrockings. These activities remind us of the schisms of those abandoned by divine Grace, such as the Monophysites, Protestants and Old Believers. Their internal schisms prove how groundless is their schism from the Church. The ease with which they characterize the remaining Zealots as heretics reveals that long ago that they have lost an understanding of the true meaning of heresy and ecclesiastical schism. The simple people have become confused because they are constantly found in a different group without even realizing it! Every group believes that they alone constitute the Church of Christ, resulting in the performance of rechrismations between themselves. According to information we received, an archbishop was even reordained. They have approximately fifty bishops in Greece for only 60-70,000 people. Years ago the “Andrewite” group in Greece had ten bishops and eighteen priests. Half of the groups have bishops consecrated by either one hierarch or no hierarch at all. In 1955 one of the two groups was left without a bishop. By necessity they took refuge in the graceless (according to their theory, since they communed with the new calendarists) Russians of the Diaspora[87]. The ends justified the means. Unfortunately they were not able to recognize that this was matter of abandonment by God, which their impasse had revealed. The Zealots, despite their polemics against Ecumenism, appear to fully implement Ecumenist practices. This is so, because the “heretical” new calendarists are [often] allowed to receive divine Communion and other Mysteries [in their churches]. We reiterate that the means by which they deceive and gather to themselves followers is the misappropriation or misinterpretation of Church history. In time this should be more fully revealed in a detailed and systematic refutation of zealot ecclesiology. For all these things we believe that whoever joins the schism of the Zealots in order to fight syncretistic Ecumenism is making a serious mistake before God. They harm themselves, as well as those who are properly struggling against Ecumenism, and who are in need of strengthening. Despite our strong words of correction, we love the Zealots and pray that God will enlighten them to be enlisted in the Church, which would allow them to follow the old calendar, as has happened in previous instances. We are certain that the Church will exhaust every oikonomia to effect their return and will show the foremost care for them, since, moreover, they are not heretics. C. THE CASE OF ST. SOPHRONIOS Father Nicholas criticizes me for what I wrote concerning the stance of Saint Sophronius during the period of Monotheletism. He said that from this I concluded that the Fathers did not cease commemorating heretics before a Synodical diagnosis occurred. I never said such a thing. Rather, I wrote that, based on the stance of Saint Sophronius, especially in his address “to the concelebrant”88 regarding the heretic Sergius of Constantinople in 634, the obvious forbearance and oikonomia of the Church to those officially proclaiming heresy is proved. By implication, of course, this oikonomia prevails much more today—an age during which no similar heresy is being so openly preached. Father Nicholas describes the ecclesiastical condition during that time and concludes that in 634 no heresy was officially being preached. As such, he argues that there was no reason for interrupting communion or applying oikonomia. He specifically supports the following: 1. The events leading up to the heretical “Exposition” of Sergius (638) consisted of discussions and other efforts to ensure the triumph of the Orthodox position. Clarification was needed concerning the definitions of Chalcedon, which solved very difficult ideological problems. 2. In 634 Saint Sophronius rightly calls Sergius a concelebrant because the latter’s Monothelitism is not officially proclaimed until in 638. I answer the above as follows: His first argument is surprising. After carefully researching the writings of more than twenty-eight historians I realized that a clarification of the Definition of Chalcedon (which had occurred 170 years before) was not at all in view at that time. On the contrary, the only goal was a means for union with the Monophysites. As a result, the following expression: “two natures in Christ on the one hand, but one energy and will”89. This confession comprised the bare minimum threshold for Monophysitism, since all the Monophysites accepted one energy and will[90.. Father Nicholas writes that efforts were put forth for the Orthodox positions to prevail. Does this not reveal that heretical views existed against which the Orthodox ones had to prevail? It is clear that the Zealots label certain periods when heresy was preached in one of two ways, according to their whims: “a period of heresy” or “a period of struggle for Orthodox positions to prevail” (concealing by this choice or words that heresy was truly being preached.) Moreover, in ten points of the article Father Nicholas admits that Sergius had an heretical phronema (mindset), that he negotiated union (which also was achieved), and that Saint Sophronius reacted to the union and condemned Monoenergitism. These events are not, however, described in chronological order. Moreover, the terms “union with heretics” and “heresy” are also avoided, resulting in confusion. His is, for the most part, a copy of the synoptic history of Stephanidis. The following precise enumeration of the ecclesiastical situation at that time will thus prove how groundless Father Nicholas’ second argument is: Sergius of Constantinople sent to the bishop of Pharan Theodore a false libellum of Minas of Constantinople (+552), asking his opinion about the monenergetic and monothelite positions of this libellum. Theodore accepted it. Sergius also sent this libellum to a certain heretic, Paul, stating his and Theodore’s agreement with it. These two events, which must are surely not the only ones, are mentioned by Saint Maximus in his dialogue with Pyrrus[91]. The historians place them around 615-618, since it is certified later in the homily of St. Maximus. The Saint mentions that Sergius also wrote to the Severian George Arsa and asked him to send patristic statements about the one energy. He furthermore told him that based on these statements he would enter into union with them. Saint John the Merciful became acquainted with this epistle and wanted to depose Sergius. However the invasion of the Persians (619)[92] in that year prevented him. Around this time Saint Maximus embraced the monastic life. He was frustrated by the condition of the Church due to the expansion of Monotheletism[93]. As a result, when he saw the heresy “expanding rather completely”94, he departed around the year 626 to Africa, where Orthodoxy prevailed. In 626 Sergius also wrote to Cyros of Phasidos, certifying the heresy[95]. In 629, based on the acceptance of one energy and will, he is united with the monophysite bishop Athanasius, whom he actually recognizes as Patriarch of Antioch[96]. Cyrus ascends in 630 to the throne of Alexandria and begins a struggle for union with the Monophysites[97]. Saints Sophronius and Maximus unsuccessfully try to prevent him [98]. Cyrus united with the Monophysites in 633 based on the heretical confession “one theandric energy in Christ”99. Sergius, who had already projected “in many ways his own illness” and corrupted “the majority of the Church”100, accepted this union. He was furthermore united in the same year with the heretical Armenians, based on the same heretical confession[101]. Saint Sophronius then went to Constantinople, and “with the appropriate humble-mindedness of his schema”102, entreated Sergius not to renew this old heresy. Frustrated by Sergius’ lack of repentance, however, he goes to Jerusalem and informs the believers that the patriarch and the pope are heretics[103]. Sergius was troubled by these Orthodox voices. He decided to abandon Monoenergitism and to limit himself to milder Monotheletism[104]. In the “Vote”, which he published around the end of the 633, he preached the heresy in a milder form. St. Maximus hoped for a moment that he would disavow the “innovation”[105], which had occurred in Alexandria. Furthermore in his epistle to Abbot Pyrrus he likened Sergius with Moses[106]. In 634 St. Sophronius ascended to the throne of Jerusalem. He sent his enthronement epistle to Sergius and the patriarchs, striking a blow against the heresy of one energy and will. Nevertheless, he refers to Sergius as “the most holy of all bishops, and most blessed brother and concelebrant Sergius”107. He asked him to accept his dogmatic epistle and to send him the “longed for letters”, which will clearly express the correct faith[108]. Unfortunately, Sergius did not change, and in 638 he publishes his heretical “Exposition”. So we see that Saint Sophronius was in communion with Sergius until 634, even though the latter preached heresy from about 615, had caused the frustration of St. John in 619, had corrupted the majority of the Church, and had accepted the unions of 629 and 633.** We have no historical witness that the sacred Sophronius cut communion until his repose in 638. These events triumphantly proves the point of which I spoke, to wit, that the Church was longsuffering and used economy towards bishops who then preached heresy. These events also show that the Zealots are wrong when they argue that the 15th Canon of the First-Second Synod is obligatory[109]. In the Synod of the Lateran (649) against the Monothelites there is clear talk about this oikonomia. In his libellum Sergius, bishop of the Cypriots writes the following: “For until today we kept silent owing to oikonomia, thinking they would correct their own teachings”110. I will conclude by refuting one more argument of the article. Father Nicholas mentions that St. Maximus did not accept the conciliatory “Formula” (Typos) and cut communion with the heretics. “Finally”, he concludes, “because he was chased from Constantinople, the Saint managed with the convincingness of his teaching to call Local Synods in Chalcedon (646) and in Rome (641) during the reign of Pope John the Fourth, and in 649 with St. Martin, which condemned Monophysitism and his Monophysitic expressions”. This is a perversion of history. For the sake of the simpler readers I will only say the following: Sergius’ lack of repentance became finally became clear in 638[111]. Saint Maximus then began new struggles to convene Synods which condemned Monothelitism (641, 646, 649). During this period the Saint must have also cut communion with the heretics. The “Formula (Typos)” which Father Nicholas mentions, was published in 648[112]. Saint Maximus was led in 653 to Constantinople to be judged[113]. He was chased out in 655 and sent to exile in Vizyi of Thrace, and finally to Laziki[114], where he died as a confessor. So Father Nicholas in his article commits an historical error when he writes that St. Maximus, after being chased out in 650, managed to call the Synods of 641,646 and 649! Accordingly, the result would be [if Fr. Nicholas’ historical math were correct] the Zealots’ beloved conclusion, namely, first the breaking of communion and later synodical judgment. Finally, we posit that Zealotism and syncretistic Ecumenism actually comprise two great ecclesiastical deviations, both of which bring about many harmful things for the Church. We pray that the God-man Jesus will protect His Church from both of these extremes, abundantly spread abraod His illuminating Grace, “so that we will all say the same thing, and schisms will not be among us”115. Endnotes * The author probably has in mind only the Church of Greece. Concerning all of the Orthodox Churches, “The sole exceptions are the autonomous Church of Finland, which adopted the uncanonical Western Paschalion at the instigation of the Patriarch of Constantinople, after the so-called “Pan-Orthodox” Congress of 1923, as well as several parishes in Western Europe, including that of Froisek (Switzerland), which celebrate Pascha at the same time as Roman Catholics and Protestants and thereby, at times, with the Jews, contrary to the First Canon of the Council of Antioch....” A Scientific Examination of the Orthodox Church Calendar, p. 173. ** See also the Life of St. Meletius the Confessor. During the Antiochian Schism he was consecrated in part by Arians, in full knowledge thereof. His irenic, conciliatory personality is similar to that of St. Sophronius. 1. Volume 27 July-December 1999. 2. P.G. 137, 1068 A-C. Presided over by St. Photios the Great. 3. S. Milia “Of the sacred synods...collection, Paris 1761, vol. 2, p. 737. 4. Letter 102, P.G. 37, 196A. 5. Faith of the saints...The Fathers in Nicaea, P.G. 28, 1641C. 6. Letter 240, P.G. 32, 897A. 7. Precise exposition of the Orthodox faith, ch. 13, (86), P.G. 94, 1153B. 8. Letter 24, book 2, P.G. 99, 1189C. 9. Saint Theodore the Studite, Letter 220, book 2, P.G. 99, 1669A. 10. Interpretation concerning the divine temple, ch. 28, P.G. 155, 708D. 11. Saint Anastasius of Antioch, Guide, P.G. 89, 48C. 12. Saint Ignatius the Godbearer, P.G. 96, 508C. 13. P.G. 137, 349-353. 14. Saint Symeon Metaphrastes, Life and lifestyle of our venerable and godbearing father Theodosius the Ceonobiarch, 49, P.G. 114, 517C. 15. A. Dimitrakopoulou, History of the schism, Leipsia, 1867, p. 70-74. 16. Saint Nikodemos, New Eklogion, p. 320-322. 17. Orthodox Christians...everywhere upon the earth, 6 in Jn. Karmiris, The dogmatic and symbolic monuments of the Orthodox and catholic Church, in Athens 1960, vol. 1, p. 427. 18. Dodekabiblos, book 4, ch. 10, 3. 19. Saint Cyrill of Alexandria, letter 11, P.G. 77, 81BC. 20. Saint Nikodemos the Haghiorite, Rudder, Athens 1970, p. 358. 21. F. Vafeidou, Ecclesiastical History, 113:1. 22. Concerning ecclesiastical communion and the memorial and the 15th sacred canon of the 1st and 2nd holy synod, related to them. Holy Mountain 1993, p. 62. 23. Op.cit. book 8, ch. 2:6. 24. Op.cit. book 6, ch. 7:9. 25. Presbyter Gregory, Life of Saint Gregory, P.G. 35, 261C. 26. Orthodox Informer, Sacred Metropolis of Oropos and Filis, vol. 27, p. 1, 2. 27. Presbyter Gregory, op. cit. P.G. 35, 261D-264A. 28. Ch. 19-20, P.G. 35, 745-748. 29. Canon 31, P.G. 137, 96C. 30. M. Gedeon, Patriarchal Charts, Athens 1996, p. 185. 31. Saint Symeon Metaphrastes, Life.....of our venerable father Ioannikios, ch. 51, 52,.P.G. 116, 85A-88B. 32. Concerning Tarasius and Nicephorus the holy patriarchs, P.G. 99, 1853C. 33. P.G. 99, 157CD. 34. Concerning Tarasius and Nicephorus the holy patriarchs, P.G. 99, 1853D. 35. Op. cit. book 7, ch. 4:5. 36. P.G. 108, 992B. 37. Orthodox Informer, Sacred Metropolis of Oropos and Filis, vol. 3427, p. 1. 38. Les Saints Stylites, Bryxelles 1923, p. 85. 39. Op. cit. 216. 40. Voice from the Holy Mountain, that is: Response to...the censure of the Calendar accusations,” Holy Mountain 1981, p. 16. 41. 1st canon of the synod in Antioch, P.G. 137, 1276B-1277A. 42. Saint Symeon the new Theologian, Catechism 32. 43. Basil the Great, Canonical epistle 1 (188), ch. 1, P.G. 32, 665A. 44. V. Stefanidou, Ecclesiastical History, Athens 1970, 22, p. 343-344. 45. Concerning ecclesiastical communion and the memorial and the 15th sacred canon of the 1st and 2nd holy synod, related to them. Holy Mountain 1993, p. 62. 46. Jn. Karmiris, The dogmatic and symbolic monuments of the Orthodox and Catholic Church, Graz..1968, vol. 2, p. 1024 (1104). 47. Saint Cyrill of Alexandria, letter 79, P.G. 77, 341A. 48. Letter 72, P.G. 77, 345B. 49. Op. cit. P.G. 77, 345D. 50. Op. cit. P.G. 77, 344B. 51. Letter 49, book 1, P.G. 99, 1085C. 52. Saint Nikodemos the Haghiorite Rudder, Athens 1970, p. 305. English editor note: “As for Manicheans, and Valentinians, and Marcionists, and those from similar heresies, they have to give us certificates (called libelli) and anathematize their heresy, the Nestorians, and Nestorius, and Eutyches and Dioscorus, and Severus, and the other exarchs of such heresies, and those who entertain their beliefs, and all the aforementioned heresies, and thus they are allowed to partake of holy Communion.” (The Rudder, p. 401) 53. Letter 40, book 1, P.G. 99, 1052C. 54. Saint Photios, Letter 2, book 1: P.G. 102, 605C. 55. Saint Photios, Letter 13 book 1: P.G. 102, 724-725. 56. F. Vafeidou, op. cit. 112, 1. 57. Op. cit. 136, 1. 58. K. N. Satha, Library of the Middle Ages, Venice 1873, vol. 2, p. 85. 59. V. Stefanidou, op. cit. 23, p. 384, Feida, Ecclesiastical History, Athens 1994, vol. 2, p. 588. 60. F. Vafeid
my back problems worsening now at a frequency that's its severally impacting my day2day life : I have had in the last x 7 lateral lumbar shifts, where my body is tilted from the waist up with my shoulders to the left. When these acute episodes occur the pain is quite simply excruciating and I'm unable to walk or even bare weight during these periods - on the occasions these occur, I literally have to crawl into bed or lay anywhere I can get to to lay down and take drugs such codine and diazepam in attempt to release the spasm and reduce the pain. Background: Back in 2004 I was cleaning my car on a slope: picking a sponge out of the bucket at a twisted angle - I slipped a disc. A couple of weeks of physiotherapy and wearing a supportive brace with pain management left me assuming the injury had resolved itself. No pain followed for a long time.... Then four years ago I started suffering, from what I simply put down to lower back ache from aching muscles. I assumed at this point there were no more complicated issues - the pain was from due to me cycling. Then three years ago whilst doing some gardening my back went into a lateral lumbar shift: this for me was the first major incident whereby backpain was so debilitating, I was unable to stand and had to seek bedrest and I didn't know this was to be the start of a very long journey...... After I'd rested that night, my fiancé commented the following day that I wasn't standing upright, that I was standing odd...looking in her words 'wonky' - I then saw In the mirror from the waist up I was leaning to the left approx 5' degree's off centre. I felt locked up and twisted with acute pain. I then started to explore treatments & help, being referred by my Doctor to see a physiotherapist. The back ache was worsening and daily activities including driving inflamed the pain. I pursued this line of physiotherapy every few days for 3 months however, this was unsuccessful and I was then referred to see a spinal pain specialist who suggested immediately an MRI scan. This first scan identified a bulging disc in L4/5. Minimally invasive treatment of percutaneous disc decompression was undertaken: then unfortunately eight weeks after the operation, another back episode occurred (same as before lateral lumbar shift to the left - this time tilting at a greater angle). This initial treatment had clearly failed. Failure of this treatment, left me feeling quite beaten frustrated and for the first time experiencing mild depression as a result of chronic pain, re-occurring physcioloigical stress and previous life enjoymens now becoming more impossible - my world socially was shrinking and I was starting to live in fear of reoccurring attacks of these episodes. My back pain and the episodes were becoming debilitating. It was very difficult for friends and family to understand what I was experiencing and I kept trying to push myself on however, this was only worsening the problem and causing the frequency of episodes to reoccur more often - for a period of months following the operation, I tried to avoid doing anything active and manage the back pain with Ibuprofen and on rare occasions stronger drugs such as Arcoxia - I was starting to live in fear of the episodes of acute pain reoccuring. When the episodes did occur (attack) I would simply have to return home ASAP, take bedrest then on coming out of spasm, start living again....on a few occasions when the pain was at its worse, I revisited my doctor who specialised in spinal treatment and pain Managment: he then gave me injections and on a couple of occasions epidurals to release me from the severe spasms. I was previously a very active individual In good health, who didn't smoke, excersised regularly. I never expected to be a back pain sufferer however, my only assumed reasoning for being affected by backpain would be through having a stressful, career/job that encompasses lots of travel and high stress working environment with bad luck! Then last summer a severe episode occurred. I then had another MRI scan which showed that my L5/S1 And L4/5 discs were looking dehydrated and degenerated. A distinct bulge was viewable and a few days later I undertook Disc FX treatment. I was hopeful that this treatment would have resolve my pain and stop the episodes and return my life back to normal however a few months later another major episode occurred. This impacted me badly and sent me into a state of depression two treatments although both minor to me had included general anethestic and mental anguish. I have now seen spinal surgeons who are suggesting either discectomy or multilevel spinal fusion. I am very worried about undertaking surgery wanting to know if anybody else has ever suffered these lateral lumbar shifts and the associated affects. I am also being offered to have the Disc FX treatment for a second time as a last suggestion before off to see further surgeons to consider my options for surgery Has anyone had similar symptons with lateral lumbar shifts and discovered other causes? Also has anyone had Disc FX twice with the second time successful. Lastly - thanks for reading my journey. I hope to be myself again one day.Playboy Models at 'Bowling for Boobies' Breast Cancer Fundraiser (Photos) The 4th Annual Bowling for Boobies fundraiser presented by the Busted Foundation held their fundraiser at Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood on Monday evening, October 13, 2008. Celebrity bowlers on hand for the event included Playboy models Holly Madison, Cristal Camden, Jayde Nicole and Kelly Carrington. The fundraiser helps to provide financial assistance to women who are battling breast cancer. The women at the Playboy mansion have been making news lately. Holly Madison has dumped Hugh Hefner and has hooked up with Criss Angel. Check out photos here. Holly isn't the only Playmate to stray from the mansion. It seems Kendra Wilkinson has shunned the aging Hef for NFL football player Hank Baskett, who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles. Check that out here. Before you start feeling too bad for the octogenarian Playboy founder who seems to be left high and dry, check out the beautiful new twins that have moved into the mansion. Karissa and Kristin Shannon are hot. Check out the fundraiser photo gallery below. Click to enlarge. Photos: WENNActivision's developers have aggravated a portion of the Muslim community by hanging a painting above a toilet in Modern Warfare 2. The painting has holy teachings written around its frame. "Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty," the text is reported to have read. Apparently the presence of holy teachings in a place of number-ones and twos does not sit well with Islam. So Activision has pulled the Favela map out of rotation and will return it when edits have been made. Wrote Activision to Kotaku: "We apologise to anyone who found this image offensive. Please be assured we were unaware of this issue and that there was no intent to offend. We are working as quickly as possible to remove this image and any other similar ones we may find from our various game libraries. "We are urgently working to release a Title Update to remove the texture from Modern Warfare 3. We are also working to remove the texture from Modern Warfare 2 through a separate Title Update. Until the TU is ready, we have removed the Favela multiplayer map from online rotation. "Activision and our development studios are respectful of diverse cultures and religious beliefs, and sensitive to concerns raised by its loyal game players. We thank our fans for bringing this to our attention."Almost half of Republicans say they are in favor of courts shutting down media outlets that publish inaccurate or biased information, according to a new survey. Forty-five percent of Republicans in the Economist–YouGov poll said courts should be able to shut down media outlets, while 20 percent of Republicans are opposed the idea. Just 18 percent of Democrats said they would favor the notion, while 39 percent of them are opposed to it. A majority of Republicans also said they support fines for media outlets that put out biased or inaccurate news reports. Fifty-five percent of Republicans said they would favor fining news outlets, compared to just 12 percent who opposed the move. The new poll comes amid heightened tensions between the media and the White House. President Trump has recently ratcheted up his rhetoric toward news outlets, often invoking the term “fake news” and launching attacks on Twitter and at public appearances. Trump mocked “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski on Twitter last month, calling her “low-I.Q.” and “crazy.” The president later tweeted a video of him tackling a man with a CNN logo superimposed over his face. The White House has also deployed surrogates, such as counselor Kellyanne Conway and assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka, to hit back in interviews against what the administration sees as unfair coverage. Trump appointed former hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci to lead the White House’s communications shop last Friday. Scaramucci during an interview on Sunday said he is hoping for a "fresh start" with the media. The Economist/YouGov survey of 1,500 respondents, 1,282 of whom were registered voters, was conducted between July 23-25. It's margin of error is 3 percentage points.Economic Un italian si-a convins vecinii sa puna mana de la mana pentru a renova una dintre cele mai frumoase cladiri istorice din Timisoara, Casa Bruck. Construit in urma cu peste 100 de ani, in stilurile Art Nouveau si Secession, imobilul din Piata Unirii si-a regasit gloria de odinioara gratie unei investitii de 300.000 de euro in renovari. Casa Bruck din Timisoara se afla pe strada Mercy nr. 9, colt cu Piata Unirii. Imobilul a fost construit in anul 1910 de arhitectii Szekely Laszlo si Arnold Merbl, la propunerea proprietarului de la acea vreme, farmacistul Salamon Bruck. Istoricii timisoreni spun ca atunci cand a fost inceputa constructia cladirii unul dintre arhitecti, Arnold Merbl, si-a ridicat in zona o baraca din lemn care intr-o seara a fost sparta de un grup de hoti ce sperau sa gaseasca sume mari de bani in interior, insa in loc de bani au descoperit doar un birou gol, relateaza Mediafax. Cladirea, formata din subsol, parter si trei etaje, a fost construita in stilurile Art Nouveau si Secession si are motive folclorice maghiare. Pentru fatada au fost folosite ca ornament placi ceramice cu motive folclorice maghiare, generalizate la arhitectura Secession din Ungaria, iar pe frontonul casei, care aminteste de constructii din Budapesta, sunt inscriptionate literele "BS", reprezentand initialele primului proprietar, Salamon Bruck. Fundatia imobilului este din caramida, la fel si zidurile care au o grosime de 70 de centimetri, in timp ce tavanul este prevazut cu bolti. Dupa construirea casei, in 1910, Salamon Bruck a deschis o farmacie la parterul imobilului, care functioneaza si acum si care pastreaza inca o parte din mobilierul original. Pe partea superioara a vitrinei frontale este inscriptionat cuvantul "Farmacie" in limbile romana, maghiara si germana. De-a lungul timpului, cladirea s-a degradat, iar fatada nu a mai avut stralucirea de odinioara. Cu toate acestea, un cetatean italian, Gianluca Testa, venit cu afaceri la Timisoara in anul 1997, s-a indragostit de Casa Brück si si-a spus ca o asemenea bijuterie trebuie renovata. Acum, la etajele Casei Brück sunt amenajate apartamente detinute de mai multi proprietari, iar la parter sunt spatii comerciale. Primul pas facut de italian a fost sa isi cumpere un apartament in imobil. S-a intamplat in anul 1999. Apoi, incetul cu incetul, si-a lamurit vecinii ca este cazul sa puna mana de la mana si sa repare imobilul, fara sa astepte sprijin de la autoritati. "Eu am facut demersurile pentru a obtine autorizatiile necesare. Fiind vorba de un imobil istoric, nu a fost simplu deloc, pentru ca parea ca primaria nu are interes. A durat aproape trei ani si jumatate, timp in care am primit patru refuzuri nejustificate, dar m-am ambitionat mai ales ca patrimoniul nu e numai economic, ci si istoric in acest caz. Fiind proprietar, m-am ambitionat, asa cum spuneam. Am vrut sa fie respectate toate componentele tehnice: materialele, culorile, tot. Am colaborat bine cu Directia de monumente istorice din cadrul primariei privind culorile originale si elementele care s-au reconstruit, inclusiv faianta si gresia, cele originale, care in timp s-au distrus", a povestit Gianluca Testa corespondentului Mediafax. Omul de afaceri italian spune ca este multumit ca a reusit sa repare si interiorul imobilului, care este "o minune". "E o poveste care s-a sfarsit bine. Ma bucur ca am reconstituit-o. Am facut si casa scarilor, e o minune. Am respectat absolut tot, am refacut inclusiv in camere", mai spune Testa. Cat despre costuri, acestea s-au ridicat la 300.000 de euro. "Repararea imobilului a costat 300.000 de euro, iar in cladire sunt cinci sau sase apartamente. Am impartit banii si am refacut cladirea. Procesul nu e complet terminat, pentru ca asteptam sa se refaca Piata Unirii (in Piata Unirii din Timisoara sunt lucrari de schimbare a retelelor de apa si canalizare in cadrul unui proiect privind reamenajarea centrului istoric - n.r.), sa se reconstituie canalizarea. Pentru ca reteaua era infundata, o parte din fatada s-a stricat din cauza umezelii. Asteptam acum sa se rezolve ca sa inlocuim ultima faianta", a spus Gianluca Testa. Omul de afaceri se lupta acum si sa ii convinga pe proprietarii farmaciei de la parterul imobilului si pe reprezentantii Primariei Timisoara sa inlature firma luminoasa care anunta ca acolo se afla o farmacie si care nu se potriveste cu arhitectura casei. "Farmacia de la parter a plantat o emblema, o reclama care nu are legatura cu palatul si nici cu piata si conform legii trebuia facut un studiu de fezabilitate aprobat de Comisia de monumente si de primarie. Se pare ca s-a sarit peste lucrurile astea. Eu, deocamdata sunt in litigiu si cu primaria si cu farmacia, pentru ca nu mi se pare normal. Scrie acolo cu sticla de Murano ca e farmacie. Ar fi bine sa se curete acea sticla si sa se reconstituie. Eventual sa fie iluminata cu LED-uri delicate", spune Testa.Last month, amid the holiday hustle and bustle and with little fanfare, a landmark legal ruling in the world history of animal rights occurred in Argentina. The ruling concerned an orangutan named Sandra, a resident of the Buenos Aires zoo for the last twenty years. The court ruled that Sandra was considered a “nonhuman being” and she was granted basic rights, such as life, freedom and a premise of “no harm” either physically or psychologically. Argentina’s Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation ruled the primate is a subject of law, “a nonhuman being that has certain rights, and can enforce them through legal procedure,” according to Andrés Gil Domínguez, Sandra’s attorney. Previously in Argentina, as in the rest of the world, the law interpreted animals as things. Lawyers for Argentina’s Association of Professional Lawyers for Animal Rights (Afada) had argued that Sandra was “a person” in the philosophical, not biological, sense. They argued further that she was in a situation of illegal deprivation of freedom as a “non-human person” and had filed a “habeas corpus” writ in her favor last November over “the unjustified confinement of an animal with probable cognitive capability.” The court judges had rejected the writ several times before deciding finally that Sandra could be considered to have rights to freedom which needed defending. Sandra was born in 1986 in a German zoo and was transferred to the Buenos Aires zoo in September 1994. She was considered to be shy and regularly tried to avoid the public in her enclosure. The Buenos Aires zoo has 10 working days to seek an appeal, after which time there are plans to transfer Sandra to a sanctuary to live out the rest of her years. Captive orangutans have been known to live as long as 60 years, while the average lifespan of a wild orangutan is 35-45 years. Afada lawyer Paul Buompadre was quoted as saying by La Nacion newspaper: “This opens the way not only for other Great Apes, but also for other sentient beings which are unfairly and arbitrarily deprived of their liberty in zoos, circuses, water parks and scientific laboratories.” Similar cases are occurring more frequently. A U.S. court this month rejected a similar case regarding a privately owned chimpanzee in New York. The court ruled that “Tommy’ was not a “person” entitled to the rights and protections afforded by habeas corpus. In 2011, the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) filed a lawsuit against Sea World, alleging five wild-captured orca whales were treated like slaves. A San Diego court dismissed the case. As one with experience working in zoos and aquariums, I am heartened by the progression of mankind towards consideration of the sentience of animals, albeit slow progress. There would be no captive animals in a perfect world, but the world is far from perfect. Man kept captive animals as long ago as the Neolithic era, possibly earlier. In the U.S. alone, 175 million people visit AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums annually. Therefore, there is still much to achieve towards establishment of animal rights and a movement away from animals in captivity. A shy, unassuming orangutan named Sandra has quite possibly set us upon a new path. She will be known by name among the masses and for decades to come. Her name will be in all the relevant college texts and legal briefs. I am already her biggest fan. AdvertisementsZogby’s recent poll asking “Whom would you NEVER vote for president?” was kind of mischievous, wasn’t it? But if I were a member of the Democratic National Committee, not to mention a congressional Democrat, I’d be sweating bullets over it. A neat 50% claim they would never, even under pain of waterboarding (kidding), cast their presidential vote for Hillary Clinton. “Never say never,” Howard Dean or the Democratic Leadership Council’s Harold Ford might say. That may have been right seven months ago when 46, not 50%, claimed they would never vote for Hillary. But now, at a time, when other polls show her pulling ahead of Senator Obama in the Democratic race, it’s looking more like “Always say never.” Worse, her campaign is beginning to emit the stench of Bob Dole’s 1996 Republican presidential run. You know — hand her the nomination because it’s owed her. In his case, likely payback for key votes he swung the way of congressional colleagues. In hers, out of appreciation to the Clintons for their magic touch raking in money. Dole never had a chance because of poor funding, his caustic personality and, of course, because he was running against a popular president, Hillary’s husband. Meanwhile, she’s been polling well against leading Republican candidate Giuliani. But, as one commentator explained, it just may be because voters are becoming resigned to her. The cynicism of such a strategy notwithstanding, Democratic leadership forgets there’s little margin of error because of the likelihood that Republicans will engineeer widespread voter fraud again. Hillary’s campaign seems to have developed a mind of its own. Is there any way to stop it before it leads the Democratic party over a cliff only to be dashed to pieces on the rocks below?The missionaries record that the places of worship have been turned into manure pit, the statues have been shipped to the British museum and the temples were either burnt down or converted into their 'prayer houses'. After the colonial period, in the independence era also the Christian destruction of the sacred shrines continue. While the well built temples escape every day hate attacks, the village or forest-based places of worship, much like the Hawaiian sacred stones which the US actress arrogantly insulted, continue to get destroyed. For example, in 2006-07 period, a series of forest shrines were destroyed by local Christians. They were reported in the local evening dailies but seldom were they reported in the mainstream media. The desecration of the 'other' places of worship has been always an integral part of missionary conquest. It can take many forms. Another example of that was Henri Le Saux (1910-1973), a Benedictine Catholic missionary, who wore orange robes, assumed a pseudo-Hindu name, Abhishiktananda and visited Hindu places of worship. In January of 1965, he climbed to the summit of Arunachala – the hill worshipped by Hindus as sacred and conducted a Christian mass there. While at Uttarkashi, another highly esteemed place of Hindu pilgrimage, while enjoying the hospitality of a Hindu Ashram, he went into ‘the crypt of a small temple besides Ganges, “sitting cross-legged, round the bread and wine after the order and rite of Melchizedech...” ‘He then self-congratulated this act as ‘a prophetic sign’. From the colonial destruction of Hindu-Pagan temples to the continued destruction of local shrines by converted Christians to the sophisticated clandestine conduction of Christian rituals inside Hindu temples, centuries of hatred for the other places of worship and their demeaning have now percolated into the very being of Western popular culture. When BBC hosts laughed with the total absence of empathy for the sense of sacred of the other, they revealed one thing: at the heart of the West perhaps still resides the darkness of centuries of colonial evangelism. The actress and the BBC team should not be allowed to escape with the 'apologies if offended' statement. The whole episode is as offending to Hindus and Pagans as a hooked cross on a SS uniform worn by a TV host would offend any human being. In fact what the actress and the BBC team did should be condemned by all humanity and they should be made to pay a compensation to the Shamans and maintainers of the sacred site.The Republican presidential front-runner reversed course on a whole load of issues – all on May 4. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) The Republican presidential front-runner reversed course on a whole load of issues – all on May 4. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) Every preliminary electoral-map forecast this spring paints a bleak picture for Donald Trump in his effort to win the presidency against Hillary Clinton. The consensus is that there is only a very narrow path to victory, and that will probably shape the opening phase of the general-election campaign. (One Democratic strategist, who knows as much as anyone about the demographics and voting histories of the battleground states, recently speculated on a not-for-attribution basis about the matchup between Clinton and Trump. His bottom line: There’s a high likelihood that Clinton at least matches the 332 electoral votes President Obama won in 2012. But he could also see a path for Trump, constricted as it may be.) Among the earlier forecasts, the University of Virginia’s Larry Sabato sees a Clinton romp in the making. A year ago, his forecast showed Democrats with an advantage in states adding up to 247 electoral votes, Republicans with an edge in states adding up to 206 and six states totaling 85 votes rated as toss-ups. Today, Sabato sees no states as toss-ups. Instead, he shows Clinton with 347 electoral votes and Trump with just 191. The Cook Political Report shows a similarly dire map for Trump: 304 electoral votes leaning or solid for Clinton, 190 leaning or solid for Trump and 44 up for grabs. The four states Cook rated as toss-ups include three carried by Obama in 2012 (Iowa, New Hampshire and Ohio) and one carried by Mitt Romney (North Carolina). The Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report offers a more conservative estimate, but one no less daunting for Trump and Republicans: 263 leaning or solid for the Democrats, 206 for the Republicans and the remaining as toss-ups. The toss-ups in this analysis are Colorado, Florida, Ohio and Virginia. Hillary Clinton (Melina Mara/The Washington Post) [Clinton moves to protect key states from Trump] These forecasts are the reason so many elected Republicans are worried about Trump at the top of their ticket. If he crashes, so too might their current majorities, particularly in the Senate. No wonder House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) remains a holdout in his willingness to fully embrace Trump and why Senate leaders expressed their concerns to the presumptive nominee when they met Thursday. To hold the Senate, Republicans must fend off a series of Democratic challenges in states that are traditional presidential battlegrounds or, worse, states that have been in the Democrats’ presidential column repeatedly. Cook’s Senate list shows six Republican-held seats as toss-up races. Three are in presidentially blue states: Mark Kirk in Illinois, Patrick J. Toomey in Pennsylvania and Ron Johnson in Wisconsin. Three others are in traditional battlegrounds: Rob Portman in Ohio, Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire and the seat being vacated by Marco Rubio in Florida. Only one Democratic seat is currently a toss-up, that of retiring Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. If it becomes necessary, these embattled Republican incumbents will distance themselves from Trump in an instant to run their own campaigns — but will need to defy recent history to be successful. For some years now, voters increasingly have cast their votes for Senate in line with their presidential preference. This election could become a major test of whether that trend toward straight-ticket voting in recent years can be reversed. A counter to the electoral-map projections showing Trump a potentially sizable drag on other Republican candidates came last week, when Quinnipiac University released polls from Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. Clinton and Trump were neck and neck in Florida and Pennsylvania, and Trump led narrowly in Ohio. Critics of the surveys asserted that the samples understated the likely size of the nonwhite vote and overstated the percentage of Republicans. It’s also worth noting that all of the surveys had a relatively high percentage of undecided voters. 1 of 45 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail View Photos Businessman Donald Trump has become the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for president. Caption Businessman Donald Trump officially became the Republican nominee at the party’s convention in Cleveland. Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Trump Doral golf course in Miami. Carlo Allegri/Reuters Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. More evidence is needed, and subsequent surveys will either ratify or contradict those numbers. But the three states in question are one path to the presidency for Trump. If he could hold all of the states that Romney won — by no means a certainty — and flip Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, he would become president. Many Democrats express the belief that there are traditional GOP states that may be in play in November, starting with Arizona. Clinton strategists are not assuming major changes in the geography of the battlegrounds. To that end, the key will be to prevent Trump from bringing out disaffected white, working-class voters while energizing the Obama coalition. The Washington Post’s Abby Phillip described one step that the Clinton campaign is planning to protect states that are must-wins this fall, which is by starting to organize as early and as robustly as possible in Midwestern states with white, working-class constituencies, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. All three states have voted for the Democratic nominee six times in a row, although Obama won Pennsylvania, where there was no real campaign, by just more than five points in 2012. That five-point margin was almost identical to the margins by which he won the contested states of Colorado and New Hampshire and is a source of potential concern for Clinton’s team. [Nine House committee chairs endorse Trump, but not yet Speaker Ryan] The Clinton camp has been eager to get moving on its general-election operations for weeks, knowing that it takes time and resources to build the kind of organization they need to get all of their voters to the polls in November. The persistence of the challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont notwithstanding, the leadership of Clinton’s campaign in Brooklyn is now moving ahead on that front. Clinton’s other strategy will be to disqualify Trump to any possible persuadable voters, among them independent women, and to generate the biggest possible turnout among Latinos and African Americans. Clinton’s liabilities as a candidate make it more difficult for her simply to run a positive campaign to win over these voters, although she will need to do that. In addition, she and her outside allies will probably emulate the strategy followed by Obama against Romney four years ago by unloading soon. The barrage will come in the form of TV ads and other means of communication — through social media, surrogates and talking heads, all recounting the many controversial things Trump has said about women, about Mexicans, about Muslims and anything else that might be in the opposition research files. Trump should expect an all-out assault from the Democrats starting in early June. The goal will be to make it as difficult as possible for him to gain a foothold in the places where he will need it most. Whether Trump and the Republicans, who are all scrambling to try to unify as best as they can, will be ready to answer is a major question. Trump has proved to be largely impervious to attack in the primaries, but he’s now facing a much different electorate. If he isn’t ready for what is coming at him, the opening phase of the general election could prove decisive.2015-2016 Guaranteed Salary $58,077,790 Only guaranteed dollars 2015-2016 Inclusive Salary $66,826,132 Including non-guaranteed dollars 2015-2016 Held Salary $91,040,194.3 Including non-guaranteed and cap holds The projected salary cap for the 2015-2016 season is about $67.4 million. This means the luxury tax line will be set at about $82 million and the apron set at $86 million. Barring any trades, this means that the most salary cap room the Clippers could manufacture this offseason would be about $5.6 million, but that would mean letting every unrestricted free agent walk, cutting all the non-guaranteed players, and replacing them with all minimum rookie contracts. Cap-Holds: The way that a cap hold works is that when calculating a team's salary cap, it serves as a type of placeholder for a team's own free agents. The cap hold is an estimated amount of salary for those players in the upcoming season. The way that a cap hold disappears is if that player signs with his prior team, his new salary replaces the hold, signs with a new team, the hold goes away completely, or the team renounces the free agent, thus losing his bird rights (more on this later). However until a cap hold disappears, a team has to take that hold into account when calculating team salary in signing free agents. Cap holds also are placed until a team reaches the minimum roster requirements. Non-Guaranteed Salary: In the case of Jamal and Barnes, the teams has the option to either pick up their whole salary for this next year, or instead to cut them and only have a part of their salaries counting toward their salary cap. So if the Clippers did not want to keep Jamal next season and cut him, only $1.5 million would count toward their cap instead of the $5,675,000 he would make if they guarantee his contract. If they cut Barnes, they would only have a $1 million dollar cap hit instead of his $3,542,500. The Clippers can cut both Lester Hudson and Jordan Hamilton without owing them any money for next year. Bird Rights: A type of exception that allow teams to exceed the salary cap in order to resign their own veteran free agents. There are different types of Bird Rights and these are the basics of them: Non-Bird Rights (Non-Qualifying Veteran Free Agents): A player that ends the season with a team, having only one year of experience without clearing waivers or changing teams as a free agent. Non-Bird players can be resigned for up to 120% of their previous salary, or 120% of the minimum. The Clippers have non-bird rights on Udoh and Jones, meaning they could offer them contract from the minimum up to about $1,098,292 A player that ends the season with a team, having only one year of experience without clearing waivers or changing teams as a free agent. Non-Bird players can be resigned for up to 120% of their previous salary, or 120% of the minimum. The Clippers have non-bird rights on Udoh and Jones, meaning they could offer them contract from the minimum up to about $1,098,292 Early-Bird Rights (Early Qualifying Veteran Free Agents): A player that has played two seasons without clearing waivers or changing teams as a free agent. The team can offer this player the greater of 175% of his previous salary or 104.5% of the league average salary in the previous season. The Clippers have Early-Bird rights for Big Baby and H3do, so they could offer them anything from the minimum up to about $5.6 million. A player that has played two seasons without clearing waivers or changing teams as a free agent. The team can offer this player the greater of 175% of his previous salary or 104.5% of the league average salary in the previous season. The Clippers have Early-Bird rights for Big Baby and H3do, so they could offer them anything from the minimum up to about $5.6 million. Bird Rights (Qualifying Veteran Free Agents): A player that has played three seasons without clearing waivers or changing teams as a free agent. The team can offer this player up to his maximum salary. The Clippers have Jordan's Bird Rights, so they can offer him from the minimum up to a full max contract next year starting at about $19 million. A player that has played three seasons without clearing waivers or changing teams as a free agent. The team can offer this player up to his maximum salary. The Clippers have Jordan's Bird Rights, so they can offer him from the minimum up to a full max contract next year starting at about $19 million. Limited Bird Rights: If the team does not choose to pick up a rookie player's 4th year option, then the team can only resign that player with bird rights with the first year being no greater than that 4th year. See the New Orleans Pelicans declining Austin River's fourth year contract. He was then traded to the Celtics, then to the Clippers, with his Bird Rights remaining intact as he wasn't didn't clear waivers or changed teams a free agent. Thus, the Clippers have Doogie's Bird Rights to resign him, but it is limited in the first year by the declined fourth year's salary so they can offer him the minimum up to a max of $3,110,796. The Clippers' options for soliciting outside help this off-season are limited, because even though the team is (for once) likely not facing a hard-cap scenario, this year it's because they will already be over the hard cap threshold without utilizing any of the tools that enable it, or even if they tried would be unlikely to remain under it. By rule, utilizing the full, non-taxpayer Mid-Level Exception, the Bi-Annual Exception, or acquiring a player in a sign-and-trade cause a team to be bound by the hard cap. This season, the Clippers will have none of those three options--they will likely already be over the luxury tax of $82 million and apron of $86 million, with their held salary number being over $90 million, as outlined above. This limits Doc Rivers and the front office to only a few options. They don't have the full, non-taxpayer mid-level exception, and instead have the taxpayer mid-level which is a bit smaller at around 3.376 million; while they may not be able to get a bigger player with the full MLE, the lack of a hard cap will allow the Clippers much more flexibility if filling out depth. They will also be able to sign veterans at the minimum exception. So in total, without trades, the Clippers free agency options are their players on Bird Rights, the mini MLE, and vet minimums. The Clippers, currently, have nine players under contract for next year: Paul, Hudson, Redick, Crawford, Wilcox, Barnes, Hamilton, Grififn, and Hawes. Here is the toolbox of all of the ways they can add players (besides a trade):04.09.2017 Renato Sanches und Kingsley Coman sind Sorgenkinder des FC Bayern Sport Renato Sanches wird vom FC Bayern abgegeben - aber nur auf Leihbasis, um Spielpraxis zu sammeln. Renato Sanches wird in dieser Spielzeit für Swansea City in der englischen Premier League spielen. Nach der Saison soll er zurückkommen. Alle
subpoenaing Holmes's educational records -- which is what they were arguing about in court when Pearson mentioned that Holmes had been banned from campus. And for a sampling of the heavy redaction we mentioned, check out the document below entitled "Return of Service on Subpoena to Produce SDT 2," which is essentially series of black rectangles covering every paragraph. Continue to see more newly released Aurora theater shooting documents -- including one in which all the text has been redacted. More from our Aurora Theater Shooting archive: "James Holmes case: Aurora Century 16 owner Cinemark files to dismiss victims' lawsuits."LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is investing in extra patrol boats and surveillance to try to prevent migrants crossing the English Channel, a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday. Cargo ships are seen as they sail across the English Channel with the French coast on the horizon, from Dover in Britain, January 9, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Twenty people, including 18 Albanians, were rescued from the Channel over the weekend after their inflatable boat started taking on water. Last year, extra fencing, cameras and police were deployed at the French terminal of the channel tunnel after passenger and freight services were severely delayed by migrants trying to stow away to Britain. “We have taken measures at Calais which have improved the situation there: it is clear that people are now trying different routes and we will look to cut those off,” Cameron’s spokesman said. “We take every necessary action to protect our border security and will continue to do so.” The government has said the Border Force, which currently has three vessels, will get extra patrol boats to help tackle smuggling of weapons, drugs and migrants. The first batch will be in place in the coming months, it said, but declined to specify how many boats that would include. Border Force officers have been given extra powers to stop, board, divert and detain vessels and make arrests, and three maritime hubs will also be set up to improve intelligence. “Our intent is to prevent people attempting to cross the Channel... we are taking steps to improve our ability to combat them,” the spokesman said. Immigration is a key part of the debate over Britain’s European Union membership ahead of a June 23 referendum. A poll published in Tuesday’s Daily Telegraph newspaper showed support for leaving the EU had grown by 4 points to 46 percent, with Cameron’s former political strategist Lynton Crosby attributing the boost to the “Out” campaign’s focus on migration over the last seven days.“Washington, DC has the most talented and passionate police department in the country. Every day, the men and women of MPD live up to the department’s motto: We are here to help. Join our team and be part of building a world-class police department that represents and reflects the community it serves.” Mayor Muriel Bowser One of the 10 largest local police agencies in the United States, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is the primary law enforcement agency for the District of Columbia. Founded in 1861, MPD has a sworn authorized strength of 4,000 members and approximately 600 civilian employees. MPD has a wide variety of sworn and civilian career paths and seeks to ensure that every resident, in every neighborhood, can feel safe and secure. Getting there will require that police and community work even more closely and more cooperatively than ever before. MPD's mission is to safeguard the District of Columbia and protect its residents and visitors with the highest regard for the sanctity of human life. We strive at all times to accomplish our mission with a focus on service, integrity and fairness by upholding our City’s motto Justitia Omnibus -- Justice for All. Learn MoreAs well as showing the scale of the devastation, the images also show plane debris that was found at the site The building was severely damaged when American Airlines flight 77 crashed into it, killing 187 people The FBI has released previously unseen pictures showing the damage at the Pentagon after the 9/11 terror attacks The FBI has released previously unseen pictures of the devastation at the Pentagon on 9/11. Hijacked American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the building in the 2001 terror attack, killing 187 people. The images show debris from the jet strewn on the floor, rescue workers searching for survivors and the extent of the damage to sections of the building. Almost 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks, which were claimed by al Qaeda and its then leader Osama bin Laden. Hijackers seized control of passenger jets and crashed them into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Another flight, United 93, was also taken over and believed to be heading for Washington DC, but it crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after the passengers and crew tried to regain control.Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Nick Clegg is ready to ditch key Lib Dem policies in an attempt to be more honest with voters about spending cuts. The Lib Dem leader warned party members its next manifesto could not be a "shopping list" of unfunded pledges. He indicated that nothing was sacred - even core policies such as free tuition fees, higher state pensions and personal care for the elderly. But Lib Dem MP Evan Harris, a member of the party's policy committee, said they would not agree to ditch such policies. 'Commitments' Dr Harris was adamant free tuition fees for undergraduates in particular would be in the next manifesto, as the party had only just agreed the policy and wanted to scrap Labour's 50% target for all young people going to university to help pay for it. He said: "Nick Clegg is right to say that we will be making tough choices about what policy commitments we can afford in our manifesto given that all new spending has to be funded by cuts in other areas. "But the media are wrong if they think that tuition fee abolition with student debt reduction will not be one of our key proposals to put before the British public." What people want is to be treated like grown-ups Nick Clegg But Mr Clegg has been keen to stress that nothing is off the agenda - and that all he wants at this stage is for the party to agree a mechanism at their autumn conference in Bournemouth for deciding what should be cut. Challenged on BBC Radio 4's PM programme about whether tuition fees would be one of the policies facing the axe, he said Dr Harris was "running ahead of the debate". He said: "What we will be debating in the conference is not a specific list of policies. It is an approach about how we choose between different policies." And he stressed that voters would be told before the next election which policies the party wanted to axe. But Labour said the "u-turn" on tuition fees left the party's higher education policy "in a shambles". "Students and the general public alike will be fed up with the Lib Dems using fees as a political football," said higher education minister David Lammy. Spending principles Mr Clegg says he wants his party to sign up to the principle that there would not be an overall increase in public spending - and that any new spending pledges would have to be paid for with cuts elsewhere. Speaking at the launch of new policy document A Fresh Start for Britain, he said: "To my knowledge, we're the only party saying there are difficult choices. We're not going to be able to do everything we aspired to do before. We have to drop some things." The document is short on specifics but it does identify some potential long term savings. These include downgrading the replacement for Trident, cutting future public sector pensions, scrapping the government's "arbitrary" target of 50% of young people going to university, simplifying tax credits and cutting red tape. It also singles out children and young people as the party's top priority and reaffirms its commitment to "clean-up" politics and bring in tax cuts for low and middle income workers paid for by green taxes on industry and higher taxes for "the rich". Mr Clegg said more details would be revealed as the state of the public finances became clearer. He said the party had to be "disciplined and honest" about what would be in its general election manifesto. He said: "What people want is to be treated like grown-ups - I don't think people want a standard line from politicians that somehow the world hasn't changed - it's changed a lot. Everyone knows that. "It seems to me that what we need to say to people is we're going to have to take difficult decisions. "We're not going to pretend we can do everything we did in the era of plenty because it's just not plausible any more. "But I think it's deeply unfair on the next generation to hand on to them the sins... of this generation." Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionThis should not be breaking news, and yet it will be for many. Why is this so? Back in the 1990's, lesbian and gay organizations started adding transgender people to their missions. It seemed to be a reasonable expansion -- transgender people face many of the same prejudices that gay people do. But much like the general population, most people in the gay and lesbian community did not understand that, while the prejudices were similar, the underlying issue is quite different. Many still don't understand this. So when the missions were expanded, many gays and lesbians innocently continued saying that their organizations "serve the needs of all gay Americans." Many still do say this. The result is that many Americans who have heard the word transgender think it means another kind of gay. The problem is that some transgender people are not gay. Take Chaz Bono for example. Chaz came out as a lesbian in 1995 because, living as a female since birth and being attracted to other females, that made him a lesbian in society's eyes. It took Chaz until 2008 to realize that he was truly a man. Now, living as a man who is in a relationship with a woman, Chaz is considered by society to be straight. Many people don't think this through when a friend or loved one undergoes a transsexual transition. In my case, I was living as a male since birth and was attracted to females, making me considered to be straight. After I concluded my true gender was female, some were truly speechless once it clicked for them that my continued attraction to women meant I was now considered a lesbian. But some don't continue to be attracted to women after transition. In her book When The Opposite Sex Isn't: Sexual Orientation In Male-to-Female Transgender People, Dr. Sandra Samons postulates that these transitioners are surprised to find that they like the way men react to them as women, enough to seek a romantic relationship with one. Confused? Don't be. All you have to remember is that sexual orientation is completely different from gender identity. You can't tell one from the other. As a lesbian, I'm comfortable being involved with LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) organizations. And while gays and lesbians have generally welcomed me, they usually don't get why more of my trans friends are not involved. So, let's imagine that you were born male and that you've undergone a transsexual transition to live as a woman. You have done everything you can to blend in as a woman and it rarely comes up that you are trans. You are attracted to men. You'd like to meet a man and have been very careful to be sure people know this. You never go to lesbian or gay social situations to avoid giving the wrong impression about your sexual orientation. (And, of course, because your chances of meeting a straight man there are pretty slim.) But in spite of your best efforts, people keep referring to LGBT people as if they are all gay. As a result, straight men who know your history avoid dating you to avoid appearing to be gay. Dates with other straight men abruptly end when your history comes out, again because of your date's fear of appearing gay. Don't get me wrong - as a gay woman, I don't think there is anything wrong with being gay. Society is very slowly moving toward the same conclusion, too. But fear of being mislabeled as gay is not going away fast enough to allow many of my straight trans women friends to experience the love and validation that comes from being in an enduring, committed relationship.Copyright by WNCN - All rights reserved By The Associated Press - MIAMI (AP) - A Florida man has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for his involvement in the attempted sale of a gold bar stolen in a $4.8 million North Carolina truck heist. Copyright by WNCN - All rights reserved CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PHOTOS Copyright by WNCN - All rights reserved CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PHOTOS A judge handed that sentence Tuesday to Miguel Bover, who pleaded guilty in July to an attempted extortion charge after his cellphone was used to make threats when the sale fell through. Bover was not involved in the March robbery of 275 pounds of gold bars from a truck along Interstate 95 in North Carolina. But Bover admitted that he agreed to help unidentified people he knew sell one bar, seeking assistance from a Miami-area pawn shop owner. The FBI was alerted when the pawn shop owner brought the bar to a metals refinery. The truck theft remains unsolved.The waning fortunes of the Ford regime and its defeat on planning for the eastern waterfront have emboldened many to focus on the resurrection of the Transit City LRT plan. Advocates despaired as the newly-minted Mayor Ford so unceremoniously and undemocratically cancelled the plan. We watched as Queen’s Park, terrified of a “Ford Nation” juggernaut decimating Liberal ranks in the 2011 election, caved in with a “Memorandum of Understanding” completely undoing the principles of their own “Big Move” transit scheme. Now we’re in 2012, rumour has the Liberals wanting a return to the original plan, but fearing a unilateral move without a request from Toronto Council. Oddly enough, the absence of any Council approval for Ford’s actions, a requirement of the MOU, is never mentioned. The economics of the all-underground Eglinton “LRT” and the private sector Sheppard subway don’t look encouraging, and Queen’s Park faces widespread constraint in public sector spending. This is hardly the time to be blowing billions to gold plate projects, to cover them with “gravy” that would invite ridicule in other circumstances. The left may engineer a vote at Council once the 2012 budget debates are out of the way seeking to resurrect Transit City as it was originally proposed and agreed to. CodeRedTO has formed with the intent of seeking a way, preferably through compromise, to a revised transportation plan that will keep the best of competing views of our future. They hope to copy the success of the waterfront’s CodeBlueTO. Whether this will be possible given the bluster and intransigence shown by the Mayor whenever surface transit is mentioned remains to be seen. Unlike the Portlands fiasco, a scheme hatched and promoted by the Mayor’s brother Doug, the transportation file is firmly part of Rob Ford’s agenda. It was in his campaign platform, and the Mayor has often repeated his loathing for “streetcars” and his mantra that the war on the car is over. Unlike Waterfront Toronto, transit agencies don’t have a string of projects to show off as a mark of their expertise. The TTC still hasn’t lived down the St. Clair project even though many of its problems were not of the TTC’s making, and “St. Clair” is as much a conjuration of urban myth than today’s experience. Local transit is more a collection of horror stories, of fights between the system and its customers, rather than of day-to-day triumphs. Right at the top, the TTC is infected with the premise that transit is for somebody else, for the folks who can’t afford to drive, rather than an essential part of the region’s network for everyone. Metrolinx does well as far as it goes, but has the comparatively easy job of serving a small, concentrated and select market. It’s easy to do well when you deliberately ignore millions of potential customers and see high farebox returns as a mark of success without seeing all those trips not taken (because service isn’t provided) as a cost to travellers and to the region. However the politics works out, a vital challenge for advocates is to avoid an endless debate on thirty years worth of future transit plans, pitched battles between various transit schemes, technologies and alignments. Taxpayers who must fund whatever we build, and politicians who must get re-elected, need a focussed, clear objective. The waterfront file was an easy fight in this regard: a widely-praised, detailed plan already exists that was demonstrably better than what was proposed. The rivalry between agencies (Waterfront Toronto vs Toronto Port Lands Corporation) and the desire to get quick sales to fund property tax breaks in Toronto exposed the shallow goals and cronyism of the Ford alternative. The situation with Transit City is much different. What is a Transit City? Transit City is not just a map with a few LRT lines. It is an attitude, a philosophy about what the city and the region could be: a city where people have the option to choose a “transit first” lifestyle. This is not anti car, but pro transit, ensuring that transit is an option everywhere and that transit gets the priority in space and funding. That may seem “anti car” in a context where the network has been designed to serve auto trips for as long as anyone can remember. The presumption by motoring advocates that transit will never compete and that, by default, planning must concentrate on serving cars is quite understandable. One need only attempt to travel across the suburbs, or counterpeak from downtown, or especially beyond the 416 boundary to see how inadequate transit is as an alternative. This is a powerful incentive for motorists to dismiss claims that transit can be their mode of choice. When transit does get attention, the inevitable request is for express services — commuter rail and subways. Everyone knows what these are and the type of service they are likely to find. If a scheme for alternatives like LRT is to succeed, advocates and transit professionals must convince their target audiences that the plan will work and is worth supporting. There is no room for a sense that we are “making do” with anything less than a subway network. The term “Transit City” predates the LRT plan by two years. Back in 2004, the Commission asked TTC and City staff to report on how transit would support the then-new Official Plan, and specifically to develop an LRT network plan. The first response appeared at the January 2005 Commission meeting under the name Building a Transit City. The objectives, quoted from the Official Plan, were: Link land use and transportation planning policies to create an effective strategy for accommodating the City’s future trip growth in a way that reduces auto-dependency by making transit, cycling and walking more attractive alternatives. “No one should be disadvantaged getting around Toronto if they don’t own a car” The Official Plan has Council’s blessing, and unless there are moves afoot in the new plan to rescind this outlook, it remains the policy today. Those who decry the “war on the car” would do well to remember that this is City policy approved and never revoked by Council. Map 4 from the Official Plan (included in the staff presentation) shows a network of “higher order transit corridors for both the GO and TTC networks. The TTC proposals are quite different from what we would eventually see in “Transit City” and they include a mix of subway, LRT and BRT on Finch (hydro corridor), Sheppard, Eglinton, Kingston Road and the Waterfront. The Spadina and Yonge subway extensions are also shown along with an extension of the SRT taking it north across the 401. Equally important is Map 5 showing a network of surface priority corridors for bus and streetcar operations. A more dense version of this would appear in August 2009 in the Transit City Bus Plan. The TTC’s priorities for subway expansion were little more than a rehash of plans from the early 1990s, and they reflected the constraints of planning for an expensive mode. Only the Spadina extension to Steeles and the Sheppard extension to the STC were shown as “TTC Priorities”. In a review of travellers’ reasons for not taking transit, service related problems such as speed and reliability ranked top by a wide margin while the cost of fares ranked right at the bottom. Service issues were of particular concern for those who travelled by transit only. Many of the proposals in “Building a Transit City” were for improvements to the bus network through provision of exclusive access and signal priority. An LRT network was not proposed at this time, although one can see the beginnings of what would become the Transit City map in 2007. The most important change by 2007 was that the LRT network started from a clean slate without the many vestiges of older plans that were still present in the 2005 report. Moreover, it addressed the design concern of putting transit where people actually were and wanted to travel, not just where there was an available off-street corridor (e.g. Finch hydro lands). An underlying premise throughout the report is that transit be improved, and that this continue with visible results year to year to sustain support for further work. The same idea was a foundation of the provincial Move Ontario 2020 plan with initial investments to show people what could be achieved before asking for new taxes or other revenue tools. This too is an important part of a “Transit City” campaign — development of political support for spending on transit through demonstrable improvements. The Scope of a New Plan If Transit City is to be revived, it is vital that advocates not overreach by redoing planning work of the past decade and attempting to solve every transit problem with one proposal. Large scale planning is not really Council’s mandate anyhow, but rather lies with Metrolinx and Queen’s Park. Parallel to anything that might happen in Toronto itself, there is a separate battle to get the planning and funding in place for an entire region’s services, and to integrate them in a more meaningful way than simply using one fare card. A few principles must be settled at the outset: Where will a Sheppard east line go — Scarborough Town Centre, Meadowvale, University of Toronto Scarborough Campus — and what technology will be used for the most expensive part, the crossing of the DVP? How does Malvern fit in and what is the future of service on the SRT beyond STC? Is a surface alignment for Eglinton east of Leaside and west of Black Creek (with some exceptions such as Don Mills and Weston) the preferred option? Can the Finch LRT be revived from Keele to Humber College as a short-term project to open with or soon after the Spadina subway extension? Can Waterfront transit be integrated with the plan so that a major development area isn’t left behind in our “transit city”? Further out, many issues remain for debate including the Don Mills, Jane and Eglinton/Morningside LRT proposals, service to the Airport, the Downtown Relief Line, and the future role of GO Transit in serving inside-416 travel. These will not be solved in the next few months, and a debate on “Transit City” needs to focus on work already in the pipeline. Transit City is More Than a Handful of LRT Lines A fundamental premise of pre-Ford transit planning is that “just enough” isn’t acceptable across the entire network. We already know that people prefer subways because, relative to other modes, they are built and operated at a level of service generally exceeding demand except during peak periods. They are fast and truly “all day” services for which timetables or concerns about frequencies are unknown. If the subway lines were subjected to the same service planning criteria as surface routes, off-peak service would suffer and some might even close early for the greater good of releasing money to provide service elsewhere. This doesn’t happen because the capital investment in subways is high, and running less than frequent service is seen as counter-productive. Imagine, for example, opening a new line to Vaughan but providing trains only every 10 minutes or so. On the surface network, the standards are completely different and the concept of good, frequent service is under attack. Crowding standards will be relaxed in mid-February unless Council provides more TTC funding, and routes that cannot scare up 15 riders per vehicle hour are dropped with no regard to the network gaps this might create. Express buses are a nice idea, but unless they can be operated at no marginal cost, they are unlikely to show up on TTC routes. Recently the concept of “Transit Oriented Development” resurfaced in a report prepared for Councillor Peter Milczyn, chair of Toronto’s Planning and Growth Management Committee. This report considers various options that could be incorporated in an updated Official Plan. Few of the ideas regarding transit are new. After all, the TOD concept has been around for decades. Sadly, it’s a concept that fails in Toronto on two important counts: Development occurs more or less where land has been assembled, not on a strategic basis to support the transit system. Most lands are privately held, and publicly financed imposed land assemblies are illegal in Ontario. Actual transit construction occurs so infrequently and on so small a scale that the idea of “orienting” development to it is meaningless. Where transit is built, the surrounding land use may not be compatible with intensification. Indeed, a forced change in land use following rapid transit construction could work against acceptance of a project. Two views of a future “Transit City” compete with each other, and these mirror the debate over rapid transit technologies. Nodal development plans tend to produce clusters of towers separated by open spaces and to focus on a few widely-space rapid transit stations. Corridor development produces smaller buildings, but with redevelopment spread along a route whose stations/stops are close enough together that being right at at station is not essential to the attractiveness of a site. Both of these will play a role in Toronto’s future, and we should not attempt to impose one view on all streets and sites. Moreover, the built form debate turns on more than transit access and includes walkability, availability of local services and a wide variety of concerns about building neighbourhoods that serve a wide range of people (the 8-to-80 premise). Paying for Transit An overwhelming challenge for any transit plan will be how we will pay for more and better transit, and how we will convince voters that new revenue sources (whatever they be called) are justified and worthwhile, not the work of fiscal devils and incompetents. Political leadership and a credible plan are essential, and half measures, the muddling-through so common in our politics, will not do. At a time when government spending generally is under attack, when costs and expectations continue to rise, and the economy is, at best, wobbly, everyone needs to know what the options might be, what they will cost, what benefits they will bring (and when), and how they might be paid for in the short and long term. The value of transit must be shown for its mobility, for its economic benefits, not just for the dollar value of construction projects or future development. We hear often about how poor transportation systems hobble the GTA, but inevitably return only to the spending side of debates on new transit lines, not on their benefits. Everyone understands that schools and hospitals have a value in delivering educated and healthy citizens, not just consuming tax dollars, but a comparable view is not extended to transit infrastructure and service. Where to find the money is not a new discussion. Back on June 13, 2008, the Metrolinx Board saw a presentation on the Investment Strategy. Many public consultations have been organized or sponsored by Metrolinx since then, and they cover the same ground over and over. What would the support be for new funding schemes? Which are the least unattractive? Unfortunately, the audience for such discussions tends to the the “usual suspects”, and those who advocate new revenue tools are mainly preaching to the converted. Meetings like this do not bring leadership for difficult debates and choices. Many options are available to generate the billions needed to build, expand and operate the GTA’s transit networks including higher fuel taxes, road tolls, parking lot taxes, regional sales tax, vehicle registration fees, payroll taxes and development benefit or worth capture. Each has its advocates and detractors, and only a few offer revenue on the scale needed to fund plans such as the Metrolinx Big Move. There is a philosophical problem here right at the heart of liberal/conservative debates about individual versus community benefits and costs. Do we tie revenue streams to specific user costs and benefits, or examine the larger societal level? For example, making motorists pay for everything ignores the wider benefits of transit and demonizes a major political group who feel they have no alternative way to travel. We know Queen’s Park has no money in current revenue streams and has competing demands much bigger than the transportation and transit file. How will new transit revenue tools fit into larger scheme of public revenues and programs? Are new/increased taxes politically saleable? Should some potential revenue streams be reserved for other types of programs rather than going just to transit? There is much hand-wringing over a long term decline in the quality of transportation, the cost of doing business, the attractiveness of region, but we don’t want to engage in discussion of how to pay for projects. Even worse, a cost effective transit plan is discarded for political expediency. This is leadership? Where Should We Go From Here? In the short term, advocacy should focus on getting existing, committed funding re-deployed to a more sensible network. This will include issues such as tradeoffs between a limited Sheppard subway extension to Victoria Park, the design and choice of LRT routes in eastern Scarborough, implementation of the Finch LRT and proper funding for the eastern Waterfront transit lines. These are matters for open, public information, not for backroom decisions at City Hall, Metrolinx or Queen’s Park. Longer term issues should not be bundled into this debate even though many are important: the role of GO and its future frequent all day service including electrification, a Downtown Relief line (or lines) east and west of the core, regional planning for good, widespread service that is more than a fare card. Selling new revenue tools will require that we make what we have and what we build short term a clear benefit, not a distant second choice. The momentum of Move Ontario and of Transit City must be recaptured. The integrity and attractiveness of what we have now — service quality, facilities and vehicle maintenance — must be maintained and improved. Winning billions for a transit future is pointless if transit present is starved and forced into decline.Treasurer Joe Hockey says Commonwealth debt limit being increased to $500 billion Updated The Federal Government has announced a $200 billion increase to the Commonwealth debt ceiling and a six-month audit into government spending in the face of a "deteriorating" budget position. Treasurer Joe Hockey announced the measures after a federal Cabinet meeting in Canberra on Tuesday. "The Coalition Government will have to increase the debt limit for Commonwealth government securities to $500 billion," he said. "We are increasing it to that level because I've been advised that on December 12, the current debt limit of $300 billion will be hit." He said the last Treasury assessment, provided in the pre-election fiscal outlook, predicted debt would peak at $370 billion. What is the Government debt limit? The Government issues Commonwealth Government Securities (CGS) to meet budget deficits Examples of CGS include Treasury Bonds, Treasury Indexed Bonds, Treasury Notes and Aussie Infrastructure Bonds The amount that can be issued is governed by the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911 Before today the limit was $300 billion If the debt limit is reached, the Government faces the possibility of running out of money and defaulting on its obligations However, recent trends show it will instead "exceed $400 billion". Mr Hockey would not give any more details, saying only that the Treasury figures would be available in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) due to be delivered before Christmas. "We need to put it beyond any doubt and we do not want to have to revisit this issue again," he said, adding the Government needed to "move quickly" particularly in the wake of the recent US debt limit crisis. "This is Labor's legacy," he told ABC TV's 7.30 program following the announcement. "They were leaving us with a debt of $370 billion on their own projections. I've been advised that that will be significantly larger, and we are not going to allow ourselves to get into the position that the US is in where there's tremendous uncertainty about the capacity of a country to live within its means." "I can't stop the debt that has accrued because of Labor policy," he continued. "We need to deal with the budget as it stands, and quite frankly it has deteriorated since the election." Opposition says Hockey asking for 'blank cheque' Opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen has called on the Government to release MYEFO as a "matter of urgency" given the size of the increase. "What he's asking for is a blank cheque," Mr Bowen told PM. "He's asking for a very big increase in the debt cap without releasing figures." Mr Bowen conceded that some increase to the cap was "justified" and said the Opposition would take a "responsible" look at the issue when it came before Parliament next month. Hockey says 'no restrictions' on what commission can recommend The Opposition has also criticised the National Commission of Audit, announced by Mr Hockey as crucial to helping the Abbott Government "fix the budget". "What matters is not the debt limit, it's the debt. And the level of the debt," the Treasurer said. "You've got to have a credible plan to bring the debt down and that's what we're developing. "That's why we're having the commission of audit. "This is the moment of truth for Labor. We are discovering all the things that they failed to reveal properly to the Australian people. Over the next few weeks and months we will explain that to the Australian people, but most importantly we are going to have a road map to get the budget back in good shape. "I'm going to have to have remedial action and that's going to come in the form of a commission of audit. And the commission of audit is going to deal with these issues, which is what we announced [Tuesday]." The commission will assess the "scope, efficiency and functions" of the entire operations of the Federal Government, including the potential privatisation of Commonwealth assets. "Every area of government will be examined. There are no restrictions," Mr Hockey said. Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, who also announced the measures, said the commission would deliver an initial report by the end of January and give its final recommendations by the end of March. "We have inherited from Labor a budget which continues to deteriorate," Senator Cormann said. "The Government has to be able to live within its means on a sustainable basis over the long term and this is of course what the commission of audit has to help us achieve in a calm, methodical and orderly fashion." Mr Bowen warned the tight timeframe pointed to imminent cuts. "We're seeing a very tight timeframe - early reports over just a matter of months," he said. "That indicates they will be cutting this term - they won't be going to the people to get a mandate for their cuts." Business Council president to head commission The commission will be chaired by Business Council of Australia president Tony Shepherd. Four other commissioners have also been appointed: former Howard government minister Amanda Vanstone, NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal chairman Dr Peter Boxall, former Treasury Secretary Tony Cole and former WA senior bureaucrat Robert Fisher. During the election campaign, Prime Minister Tony Abbott promised the audit would not trigger any action "inconsistent with our mandate". The Labor Party has previously slammed the plan as a "licence to cut" spending. The last Commonwealth commission of audit was established by the incoming Howard government in 1996. Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, federal-parliament, australia First postedIn the video shared online on Monday, Freeman said the United States was “at war” with Russia. The Russian government has offered another theory to explain Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman’s cameo in a video campaign calling for an investigation into Russian interference in U.S. affairs. Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that, "Morgan Freeman was set up, just like Colin Powell was in his day," referencing the former secretary of state’s initial support for U.S. war in Iraq. "This is another case where the short-sighted goal justifies any means," she added. Washington has launched three investigations and an independent special counsel probe into allegations that Russia influenced the 2016 presidential election in support of President Donald Trump. The Committee to Investigate Russia, the non-profit group which published Freeman’s appeal, says it wants to help Americans “understand the gravity of Russia’s continuing attacks on our democracy." The Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday described Freeman’s plea “as purely emotional.” “Many creative people fall prey to emotional stress without real information about the real state of things.”Electric Plane Using Siemens Motor Sets 2 New Speed Records April 5th, 2017 by James Ayre The Extra 330LE aerobatic plane — an electric aircraft featuring a propulsion system created by Siemens — recently set two new speed records, according to a press release on the matter. The two new records are: a top speed record of 337.50 kilometers per hour (over a distance of 3 kilometers, for an electric aircraft with a takeoff weight less than 1,000 kilograms); and a top speed record of 342.86 kilometers per hour for an electric aircraft with a takeoff weight of over 1,000 kilograms. The second record was set by modifying the Extra 330LE aerobatic plane somewhat to make it heavier. The records were set on March 23, 2017 at the Dinslaken Schwarze Heide airfield in Germany. They were officially recognized by the World Air Sports Federation (FAI). Notably, the following day (March 24, 2017) saw the Extra 330LE become the first “electric aircraft to tow a glider (a type LS8-neo glider) into the sky,” as well. The Extra 330LE took the glider to a height of 600 meters in 76 seconds. “This aerotow provides further highly visible evidence of our record-setting motor’s performance capabilities,” commented Frank Anton, head of eAircraft at the Siemens venture capital unit next47. “Just 6 such propulsion units would be sufficient to power a typical 19-seat hybrid-electric airplane.” The press release provides more: “The new propulsion system from Siemens only recently completed its maiden flight, which took place in July 2016. In addition, the lightweight electric motor for aircraft already held a world record for power-to-weight ratio: weighing just 50 kilograms, it supplies a constant electric output of 260 kilowatts, which is 5 times more than comparable propulsion systems. “The Extra 330LE
to the Book of Mormon are absurd. In Joseph Smith’s day, we see a very mature dialogue on Christian subjects. We have centuries of prior debate on topics such as original sin, free agency, infinite or finite nature of sin, infinite or finite nature of sacrifice of Jesus Christ, depravity of man, predestination, irresistible grace. This discussion came naturally, with arguments being founded in the New Testament, and then added on. Then someone adds on that. Then someone combines a few different theories and adds something unique to it. This is how ideas evolve. We can trace ideas back through time to see the progression. The Book of Mormon is beautiful in the sense that it distills these arguments in a masterful and logical way, taking the best of what was available and adding a few original concepts. But it’s very difficult to assert that these Book of Mormon phrases and ideas could have come anciently and independently, without the body of work of centuries of Christian theologians to build upon. I applaud “traditional view” LDS apologists who do work to attempt to show that Christian doctrine was known anciently, to show precedent for the Book of Mormon. They try to make connections between the Book of Mormon and ancient writings, be it Biblical or other ancient non-biblical writings such as the Dead Sea Scrolls or Apochrypha. But in the information age, and with history and science advancements making “traditional view” Mormon apologetics more and more difficult, it’s time we embrace new perspectives. If we believe God is in this religion, which I believe he is, then we need to make sense of these issues. As Elder Ballard recently declared, we must not rely on “outdated understandings and explanations of our doctrines or practices from the past”. The critic might say, “there’s the proof, Joseph made it up.” But as LDS scholar Grant Hardy says, “we probably know less about what constitutes an ‘inspired translation’ than we do about ancient Israel.” We need to consider the possibility that the 19th century language and ideas found in the Book of Mormon could be perfectly legitimate in terms of comparing how scripture has come to man throughout history of mankind. My next post will go into these possibilities. I love the Book of Mormon and am grateful for this great chapter on the atonement that helps us grow closer to God through reading it and striving to live by its principles.Ulster scrum half Ruan Pienaar has announced his retirement from international rugby. Capped 88 times by South Africa and a member of the 2007 world cup winning squad Pienaar just wants to concentrate on helping Ulster to win silverware before he departs Belfast at the end of the season. “I think that’s probably it. I’m happy with my decision, I’ll put my energy into Ulster now and whatever is waiting for me in the next year or two. “ I’m still supporting the guys but that’s probably the end,” said Pienaar. Pienaar’s removal from Ulster has caused huge controversy but he was overwhelmed by the support he received from the Kingspan faithfully. “The first week when everything broke out was quite emotional but the support has been fantastic, the way they responded to that. “It’s sad that this will be my last season but I want to enjoy the last couple of months that I have left. “I will just play as well as I possibly can, the emotions will come out towards the end of the season when I realise I’ve only got a handful of games left. “For now, it’s about performing well and enjoying it.” And Pienaar sits out tonight’s Pro12 game in Connacht. “I think I played 80 minutes in every game up until Ospreys. “I’m now just trying to get me a bit fresher with some time away,. “And with Paul not having played for a month or so it’s a good opportunity for him to get game time before we head into Europe. I’m enjoying the week off.”But Rheumatoid Arthritis patients are not just affected by the physical disabilities, they also must deal with the mental struggles that accommodate a chronic illness. The disease is unpredictable, flaring at any time of the day or night without warning. Imagine if your flu continued to resurface every few days, indefinitely, or you woke up in the morning already feeling like you had just run a marathon? What if your injury never healed, and it began to spread to a dozen or more additional places in your body? With Rheumatoid Arthritis, every day becomes a constant manipulation of tasks, which can weigh heavily on both those who have the disease as well as those whose lives are affected because of it. Managing both the physical and emotional effects of RA can be taxing and frustrating, but if the patient finds a solid support system it can make a big difference in their ability to cope. Unless you have Rheumatoid Arthritis, you can never know exactly what a patient endures, but perhaps now you can empathize a little more by relating your experiences to the most common characteristics of the disease. However, in order to truly understand, you must envision your injury, the flu, and the exhaustion all occurring at the same time. You must accept that your body would not heal in a few days, you would not be refreshed after a night of good sleep, and your ‘normal' would forever be compromised. But like all RA patients, in time you would learn to adjust. Having Rheumatoid Arthritis is not the end of the world it's just another way of living in it. Tiffany is Founder & CEO of the International Autoimmune Arthritis Movement (IAAM) www.IAAMovement.org. All images downloaded from istockphotoThe Saskatchewan Roughriders’ bye week was marred for quarterback Darian Durant by the sudden death of his uncle, Michael Gordon. Gordon suffered a heart attack Sept. 26 at the age of 53 while Durant and the Riders were on their second bye week of the 2016 CFL season. “He was my favourite uncle and Number 1 fan,” Durant said after Monday’s walk-through at Mosaic Stadium. Durant appreciated being at his home in Florence, S.C., for the memorial service. “They always say that God works in mysterious ways,” he said. “How crazy is it that I’m going home for the bye week and he passes and I’m able to make the funeral? If it’s in the middle of the season or we have a game coming up, who knows if I would make it to the funeral or even make it home to be with the family.” Justin Durant, Darian’s younger brother and a linebacker with the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, was able to make the funeral. Justin Durant fit in the funeral before Sunday’s game in San Francisco against the 49ers. It was important for Justin and Darian to be on hand for Gordon’s memorial service. “If I told you my parents were my biggest fans, I would be lying,” Darian Durant said. “My uncle Mike was my biggest fan in the whole wide world and he travelled to Canada more than Mom and Dad did to see me play. Every East Coast trip, he was there.” Durant appreciated Gordon’s support throughout his football career. “I called him my father beside my father and he was definitely my father figure,” said Durant, who had a copy of a photo from Gordon’s memorial service taped to his locker at Mosaic Stadium. “He was also my mom’s baby brother. Seeing her go through (Gordon’s death) was tough.” Durant said that Gordon had made trips to Regina and other CFL cities to watch him play since the quarterback joined the Riders in 2006. “It’s hard to explain or put into words how blessed am I,” Durant said. “For him to be able to travel … “We all know that the most expensive flight in Canada is probably coming into Regina. He never asked for a penny and he did it on his own dime. He would fly to Regina and he would fly to Hamilton. He would fly to Buffalo and then drive to see us play in Toronto or Hamilton. For him to support me in my early years wasn’t about football. It was all about love.” Durant’s last contact with Gordon was via text message after the Riders beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 20-18 on Sept. 24 to improve their record to 3-10. “He congratulated us and let us know that we still had a chance to make a playoff run,” Durant said. The Riders (3-10-0) are still mathematically in the hunt for a post-season berth entering Friday’s game against the host Ottawa Redblacks. A Riders loss or a win by the Edmonton Eskimos (7-7-0) would eliminate the Riders from playoff contention. Durant, meanwhile, didn’t suffer any ill effects during the bye week from a head injury that he suffered late in the third quarter of the win over Hamilton. He was kept out of the remainder of the game as part of the CFL’s concussion protocol. Durant said he wanted to return, but remained on the sideline while Mitchell Gale led the Riders to the win. “I’m fine,” Durant said. “It was just doctors being smart and making sure that we did everything right with the concussion protocol.” mmccormick@postmedia.com twitter.com/murraylpRFS pulls out of CSG protest site after criticism Updated The New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) says it has withdrawn its support for police at an anti-coal seam gas protest on the state's north coast, after public criticism. The RFS catering truck was providing back up support for police at an anti-CSG protest site yesterday near Kyogle. Police had requested the catering service be there for local police and a tactical squad, which had been called in to protect Metgasco's drilling equipment and activities. Don Durrant resigned yesterday in protest against the RFS's role. Mr Durrant says he has been a volunteer for almost 30 years and supporting a coal seam gas company is not what he signed up for. "I was amazed that they would do that, that they would be called to do that and accept that task," he said. "I've never known that before, never heard of it. "We do things at fetes, or whatever, at the school we do certain things to raise money for our brigades, but we don't go out and aid gas companies, foreign-owned gas companies in our land." The RFS says it is a contentious local issue and should not involve its volunteers. Superintendent Michael Brett from the Northern Rivers RFS says he is disappointed to hear about the resignation. "People that were there were volunteers, were members of the community and they just thought that what we were doing was probably not in the best interest of the community," he said. "The RFS being a community-based organisation has to really look at that very closely and the decision was made yesterday afternoon that we would have to withdraw our services." Topics: mining-environmental-issues, emergency-incidents, kyogle-2474, grafton-2460 First postedAbstract CRISPR/Cas9 and single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides (ssODNs) have been used to direct the repair of a single base mutation in human genes. Here, we examine a method designed to increase the precision of RNA guided genome editing in human cells by utilizing a CRISPR/Cas9 ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex to initiate DNA cleavage. The RNP is assembled in vitro and induces a double stranded break at a specific site surrounding the mutant base designated for correction by the ssODN. We use an integrated mutant eGFP gene, bearing a single base change rendering the expressed protein nonfunctional, as a single copy target in HCT 116 cells. We observe significant gene correction activity of the mutant base, promoted by the RNP and single-stranded DNA oligonucleotide with validation through genotypic and phenotypic readout. We demonstrate that all individual components must be present to obtain successful gene editing. Importantly, we examine the genotype of individually sorted corrected and uncorrected clonally expanded cell populations for the mutagenic footprint left by the action of these gene editing tools. While the DNA sequence of the corrected population is exact with no adjacent sequence modification, the uncorrected population exhibits heterogeneous mutagenicity with a wide variety of deletions and insertions surrounding the target site. We designate this type of DNA aberration as on-site mutagenicity. Analyses of two clonal populations bearing specific DNA insertions surrounding the target site, indicate that point mutation repair has occurred at the level of the gene. The phenotype, however, is not rescued because a section of the single-stranded oligonucleotide has been inserted altering the reading frame and generating truncated proteins. These data illustrate the importance of analysing mutagenicity in uncorrected cells. Our results also form the basis of a simple model for point mutation repair directed by a short single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides and CRISPR/Cas9 ribonucleoprotein complex. Citation: Rivera-Torres N, Banas K, Bialk P, Bloh KM, Kmiec EB (2017) Insertional Mutagenesis by CRISPR/Cas9 Ribonucleoprotein Gene Editing in Cells Targeted for Point Mutation Repair Directed by Short Single-Stranded DNA Oligonucleotides. PLoS ONE 12(1): e0169350. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169350 Editor: Shuang-yong Xu, New England Biolabs Inc, UNITED STATES Received: October 27, 2016; Accepted: December 15, 2016; Published: January 4, 2017 Copyright: © 2017 Rivera-Torres et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper. Funding: Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers P20GM109021 and P20GM13446, and by the Leukemia Research Foundation of Delaware (EBK). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Introduction Single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides (ssODNs) can act as templates for the repair of point mutations in human cells. These molecules direct nucleotide exchange at precise positions and without detectable off target effects [1,2]. While there is great utility in single agent gene editing, the frequency with which single base repair takes place has been consistently lower than needed for long-term development. The mechanism and regulation of single agent gene editing, however, has been elucidated [3–5] and based on these studies two important enhancers of the frequency have been uncovered. The first involves double strand DNA breakage induced by the activity of anticancer drugs such as Camptothecin or VP16, etc in a process that leads to the activation of pathways involved in DNA damage response [6–9]. The second method of increasing the frequency of point mutation repair involves the modulation of the cell cycle. It has been widely reported that synchronization of cells at the G1/S border followed by release, generates a population of cells that are more amenable to gene repair thereby increasing correction frequency by 5 to 10 fold [10–13]. Recently, several research groups have demonstrated that RNA guided engineered nucleases (RGENs) particularly CRISPR/Cas9 systems, can elevate the frequency of point mutation repair when used in combination with single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides [14,15]. By and large, the mechanism and regulation of combinatorial gene editing are similar to the pathways described for single agent gene editing, enhanced by the manipulation of the cell cycle prior to targeting. While this approach has generated a considerable and understandable level of excitement in the field, there are concerns that CRISPR/Cas9 activity, dependent upon or independent from ssODNs, could result in off-site or onsite mutagenesis as a function of its normal mechanism of action [16]. Since CRISPR/Cas9 induces a double strand break that then becomes the template for nonhomologous end joining, it is likely that a heterogeneous population of chromosomal ends is created in corrected and uncorrected cells, particularly at the target site. Intense effort is being placed on developing CRISPR/Cas9 variants that inherently reduces the capacity to target off-site [17–20]. Since the active complex of CRISPR/Cas9 consists of RNA and protein, one approach is to target cells with a pre-formed Ribonucloprotein (RNP) complex that due to a shorter half-life within the cell, may exhibit nonspecific mutagenesis [20–26]. While analysis of off-site mutagenesis occupies the attention of a majority of workers in the field, some reports have focused on mutagenesis at the target site [16,27]. Recently, our laboratory analyzed a population of cells bearing a single base change induced by the combination of CRISPR/Cas9 and ssODNs for altered DNA sequence of the beta globin gene [28]. Our findings indicate that point mutation repair directed by these gene editing tools leave a mutagenic footprint. We found that both insertions and deletions accompany single base repair as judged by allelic analysis of clonally expanded cell populations. These results prompted us to investigate the type of DNA heterogeneity created at the site of single base repair in both corrected and uncorrected cell populations in more detail. To do so, we employed a well-established human cell model system containing a mutant eGFP gene that upon correction enables a simple phenotypic readout that can be confirmed by DNA analysis [29,30]. The mutant eGFP contains a single point mutation that switches a codon for tyrosine (TAC) to a stop codon (TAG). Correction of the stop codon reestablishes the tyrosine codon and rescues the phenotype generating functional eGFP that can be readily measured by FACS. Because this system has been used widely over the course of 15 years to validate and elucidate the mechanism and regulation of gene editing in mammalian cells, we had confidence in its usefulness and robustness to examine point mutation repair and the associated collateral damage created in corrected and uncorrected cells. We isolated targeted cells and expanded clonal populations for DNA sequence analysis. We find that cells bearing a corrected eGFP gene exhibit no collateral damage and no onsite mutagenesis. In contrast, some of the expanded clones from populations of targeted cells in which no phenotypic change was observed, exhibited intact mutant sequence without associated modifications, while others exhibited a wide range of indel formation, including insertional mutagenesis in the creation of hybrid genes encoding truncated proteins. Our results provide the basis for a new model of gene editing for point mutations and emphasize the importance of evaluating all cells targeted for gene editing by CRISPR/Cas9 and ssODNs, especially as gene editing extends toward human therapy. Discussion Collateral mutagenesis, generated by the action the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tool, has been a central focus of both advocates and critics of this technology. Sophisticated molecular cloning approaches to refute, diminish or downplay the degree of off-site mutagenesis have been offered by many of the leading laboratories in the field [20,32,33]. But, in many cases, results rely in large part on proving a negative. In fact, it is debatable as to whether or not off-site mutagenesis can be completely eliminated as a potential side reaction in therapeutic gene editing. More recently, focus has been placed on the potential of onsite mutagenesis, an outcome of the normal activity of RGENs. The inherent response of a cell to repair the double strand break through the process of non-homologous end joining is at the core of the current genetic revolution, partially inspired by RGENs, that has made the generation of gene knockouts in many eukaryotic cell types a routine lab procedure. In contrast, onsite mutagenesis becomes more relevant when the objective of the gene editing protocol is not to disable but rather to repair a gene bearing a point mutation, and eventually, to direct seamless insertion of a fragment of donor DNA. Most of the studies focused on onsite genetic heterogeneity, examine genes for which there is complex readout, as in the case of human stem cells, often requiring drug selection to identify the targeted cells [27]. Primary cells and even transformed cells can respond negatively to selective pressures when challenged with either chemo-toxins or antibiotics. Our laboratory has also been examining onsite mutagenesis as a function of single base gene editing, the repair of a point mutation in human cells [28]. While we too have utilized a native gene, human HBB, to validate our initial findings, we find it essential to employ a reproducible, robust model system that has a long history of validated readout that can measure phenotype, protein function and genotype without exogenous manipulation. In this paper, we utilize a model system in which a mutated eGFP gene, integrated as a single copy into HCT 116 cells [30], is targeted for repair by the combination of a CRISPR/Cas9 RNP and a specific single-stranded DNA oligonucleotide. Successful conversion of the point mutation transforms a stop codon to a tyrosine codon enabling translation and expression of functional eGFP. Because the cells can be cloned and examined as uniquely expanded populations, allelic analysis of gene editing activity in both corrected and uncorrected populations is simple. We demonstrate that the combination of the RNP complex and a 72-mer directs gene repair of the point mutation in an efficient and reproducible fashion. Keeping the molecular ratio of the RNP and the single-strand DNA oligonucleotide constant but raising the total amount in the reaction induces a dose-dependent response which begins to plateau above 10%; at an 8 to 10 fold higher level than when the ssODN is used as the sole gene editing agent. All of the appropriate reaction components are required for successful point mutation repair and the separation of the corrected and uncorrected cells can be achieved in a straightforward fashion. Our rationale for using the RNP is that the active components of the CRISPR/Cas9 system will be delivered to the nucleus at approximately the same time facilitating a more constant initialization of the gene editing reaction. Previously, we had used a plasmid expression system in which Cas9 is expressed from the same plasmid as the sgRNA. In our studies, we confirm point mutation repair driven by the combination of the RNP and the ssODN. With regard to the examination of DNA heterogeneity in corrected and uncorrected populations, we find that cells, identified by FACS as being corrected, exhibit precise single base repair at the target site. In no case did we observe any genetic alteration with cells from the corrected population for a proximal distance of 718 bases. In addition, we did not observe any nucleotide changes that would result in a conservative change in amino acid sequence still enabling expression of alternative wild type eGFP. The clonal expansion of a population of cells that did not exhibit phenotypic correction generated a panel of genetic alterations ranging from uncorrected, yet intact, to a cell line bearing a 19 base deletion surrounding the target site to the insertion of 24 bases surrounding the target site respectively. Of the 17 clones tested, eight had no change to the mutant DNA sequence, perhaps indicating that the RNP complex had not reached the target site in those cells, had not induced by double strand break at the site or had induced a double strand break which was properly and efficiently repaired with or without the aid of the single-stranded oligonucleotide. We observed a wide range of DNA sequence deletions starting with a single base deletion and ending with a 19 base deletion, heterogeneity that surrounds the nucleotide targeted for gene repair. No other sequence alterations outside of the target site were observed, again within the proximal 718 bases. The one clone harboring a 15 base insertion, appears to arise through a duplication of the adjacent 15 bases located 5’ to the target site, as well as a 24 base insertion that appears to have come from the same DNA source. Our results indicate that onsite mutagenesis clearly occurs in the uncorrected population of cells, exhibiting a wide range of indel formation. We have previously observed a similar phenomenon in a separate series of studies wherein in the objective was to induce a single base change in the genome of K562 cells (28). In that system, however, we were unable to examine the impact on phenotypic changes and thus this model system expands and confirms those studies, demonstrating on-site heterogeneity as a function of gene editing reactions that include single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides. Our data align with associated studies that examine the insertion of a longer fragment of DNA at a precise site. Merkel et al [27] recently published an elegant study in which indel formation was observed at the target site catalyzed by intact CRISPR/Cas9, as well as associated single or dual Nickases. Taken together, these results expand upon data from earlier work in which the objective was to modify the target site excessively without introducing unwarranted changes [26,32,33]; all of these studies reported site alteration. Our specific interest herein is not to develop a strategy to insert a large fragment of DNA, but rather to use a short piece of donor DNA, a short single-stranded oligonucleotide, to perform genetic surgery as a way to repair single point mutations. Over the course of the last 15 years we and others have established the mechanism and regulation of short oligo induced gene editing [2–4,10,11,34]. More recent studies have shown that oligonucleotides of length between 49 and 72 bases respectively can direct single base repair as the sole agent of the gene editing reaction or in combination with both TALENs and CRISPR/Cas9 [33,35]. Thus, while the mechanism of action of single base repair, directed by these oligonucleotides of restricted length, may differ from the mechanism by which DNA fragment or gene insertion takes place, it is now apparent that the same type of allelic analysis should be performed on at least a sample of both corrected and uncorrected targeted cells generated from both approaches. It is therefore critical that studies are conducted in reliable, robust and validated testing systems to explore the degree of collateral damage directed by CRISPR/Cas9 to more fully understand the remarkable power of this gene editing tool especially in light of its therapeutic potential. We did not observe any homologous recombination events from distal sites, wherein genetic information is provided by adjacent chromosomes to aid in the repair of the fragmented DNA. The DNA sequence of the insertion clones, however, enables a continuation of the reading frame through several codons until a stop codon is generated so additional genetic information was proved in some fashion. Both insertion clones contain the exact corrected point mutation but do not score as eGFP+ because the inserted DNA creates a stop codon 15 or 24 bases downstream from the targeted nucleotide respectively. This is an interesting example of how double strand DNA breakage can provide a site for DNA insertion of exogenous or repetitive segments as the cell responds to chromosomal damage. These data provide us with insight into the overall mechanism by which short oligonucleotides and the RNP execute the repair of a point mutation in a mammalian cell and enable the development of a model that explains our results. Fig 6 displays a model that we believe explains the generation of cells bearing only a corrected genotype, as well as cells bearing both corrected genotype and phenotype. A number of sophisticated models have been put forward to explain the insertion of exogenous DNA templates for the repair of single base mutations in gene editing reactions [28,36,37]. These models are based on a process known as Homology Directed Repair (HDR) and likely help explain the results in many of the studies wherein the objective was to insert longer pieces of DNA. In their important study, Paquet et al [38] developed a gene editing methodology, known as CORRECT, for introducing mono- and bi-allelic sequence changes.These workers were successful in elevating the accuracy of HDR through the incorporation of blocking mutations that modify the interaction between CRISPR/Cas9 and the PAM sites resulting in scarless genome editing. As a group, these approaches and the models that are generated by them are somewhat complex because they involve specific enzymatic activities and sophisticated reengineering of some of the reaction components. Our model is much simpler as we have based it on the well-accepted and standard model Double Strand Break Repair [38,39, 40]. When a double strand break occurs in a mammalian chromosome (in the case of gene editing, induced by CRISPR/Cas9 activity), activated exonucleases recognize the break and resect the broken ends to varying degrees, a biochemical reaction that takes place regardless of whether the break is designated for repair through the process of homologous recombination or nonhomologous end joining. In the case of homologous recombination however, usually occurring during S-phase of the cell cycle [41,42], proteins involved in DNA recombinational repair load onto the broken ends. Subsequently, a sister chromatid provides the DNA template to enable the broken strand to once again be made whole through the process of gap filling by DNA replication. Since crossover of one strand of DNA from the sister chromatin provides the template, its original partner strand is displaced and becomes the template for gap filling through DNA replication, albeit in the opposite polarity. Thus, the gap created by the original double strand break is repaired through the utilization of an exogenous piece of DNA that serves as a source of genetic information and the template for replication activity and gap filling. We believe this general concept can help explain the appearance of these two insertional mutants and may also explain previous data including the overall reaction of how single-stranded oligonucleotides direct point mutation repair in mammalian cells [1,2,8,34]. We propose that the RNP particle, as illustrated in Fig 6, Panel A, interacts at the target site and catalyzes a double strand break leaving two 3’ hydroxyl ends available for extension by the DNA replication machinery. Non-homologous end joining activity resects the broken ends and the degree of this resection varies from clone to clone (Panel B). The clones expanded from the uncorrected population support the fact that varying degrees of resection take place (see Fig 5B) because DNA insertions of 15 and 24 baes were found. As illustrated in Panel C, the oligonucleotide (red) pairs stably with the target gene via sequence complementarity, bridging the gap in the top strand. The binding is more stable upstream since the ssODN aligns in homologous register using perfect complementarity. Downstream from the break site, the base pairing must be incomplete because the data reveals a duplication of adjacent sequences. The partial binding downstream from the resected site is, in fact, energetically favorable based on calculations of free energy (approximately ΔG of -2.6). In our system, the oligonucleotide has been designed to be complementary to the non-transcribed strand and thus we can depict the polarity of pairing partners with confidence. As illustrated in Panel D and as a result of resection, a free 3’ hydroxyl end on the top strand is now available for extension by DNA replication. In this simple model, the oligonucleotide acts as a template for the replication machinery to fill in the gap in the upper strand. For these two clones, the single-stranded oligonucleotide used in the gene editing reaction contains a G residue at its center because it is designed to create a single base mismatch with the G residue in the gene and promote mismatch repair. This strategy is based on work on single agent gene editing wherein the objective is not DNA insertion but rather nucleotide exchange through the process of mismatch repair or by incorporation of the oligonucleotide into a growing replication fork (see models in references 1, 2, 3). In contrast to some other models of gene editing [28,36–38], our sequencing data indicate that the oligonucleotide itself does not insert directly because, if this had happened, then the base at that position, identified in the genomic sequence (Fig 5C), would have been a G, not a C. After serving as a template for replication, the oligonucleotide dissociates (Panel D) and DNA replication is initiated on the opposite strand and in the opposite direction by utilizing the free hydroxyl group for extension as illustrated in Panel E. We have termed this variant of gene editing, EXACT, for EXcision And Corrective Therapy; it may also be the general mechanism by which point mutations are repaired in gene editing reactions as directed by short oligonucleotides and double strand DNA breaks at the target site. In principle though, our results do align with the conclusions of Schumann et al [26] and others [36,37] in that the activity of the CRISPR/Cas9 system provides a framework for the repair of resected regions of genomic DNA. Importantly, however, we do not observe fragment insertion for point mutation repair because none of the clones examined in this study contained the G nucleotide at the target site. Since double strand DNA breaks are widely recognized as being both dangerous to cell viability and highly recombinogenic, it is likely that multiple pathways are used to regenerate a contiguous chromosome. The mechanism of repair may be dictated by the type and structure of donor DNA available at the site of damage. Materials and Methods Cell Line and Culture Conditions HCT 116 cells were acquired from ATCC (American Type Cell Culture, Manassas, VA). The HCT 116–19 was created by integrating a pEGFP-N3 vector (Clontech, Palo Alto, CA) containing a mutated eGFP gene. The mutated eGFP gene has a nonsense mutation at position +67 resulting in a nonfunctional eGFP protein. For these experiments, HCT 116–19 cells were cultured in McCoy’s 5A Modified medium (Thermo Scientific, Pittsburgh, PA) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, 2mM L-Glutamine, and 1% Penicillin/Streptomycin. Cells were maintained at 37°C and 5% CO 2. The eGFP targeting custom designed 72-mer oligonucleotide was synthesized by IDT (Integrated DNA Technologies, Coralville, IA). CRISPR/Cas9 RNP Design and Complexing The mutant eGFP gene sequence was entered into the Zhang Lab’s online generator (http://crispr.mit.edu/) and the CRISPR guide sequences which binds with close proximity to target (TAG = 0) was chosen. crRNA, tracrRNA and Cas9 protein were kind gifts from Integrated DNA Technologies (Coralville, Iowa) and stored and utilized according to their suggestions. RNP assembly was performed by mixing RNA oligos (crRNA and tracrRNA) in equimolar concentrations to a final duplex concentration of 45μM. For the RNA to duplex the mix was heated at 95°C for 5 minutes and allowed to cool to room temperature (15–25°C). For each sample crRNA:tracrRNA (45μM working solution) and Cas9 protein (60μM stock solution) were diluted in their respective buffers to a final volume of 5μL each to achieve the desired treatment concentration. Prior to mixing with cells crRNA:tracrRNA duplex and Cas9 protein we mixed and set to incubate at room temperature for 15 minutes. The same annealing conditions and reactions were carried out in the assembly of the mutant eGFP or B-globin gene crRNA (28) RNP. Experimental Strategy For all experiments, HCT 116–19 cells were synchronized for 24 hours with Aphidicholin at the G1/S border prior to introducing the Cas9 ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex or CRISPR/Cas9 generated from an expression construct. The CRISPR expression plasmid was constructed using standard cloning methods following the latest oligo annealing and backbone cloning protocol with single-step digestion-ligation. The CRISPR guide sequences were cloned into the pX330 backbone vector (Addgene plasmid 42230), a human codon-optimized SpCas9 and chimeric guide RNA expression plasmid. Single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides used in this study are 72 base pairs in length and designed as depicted in Fig 1. RNP assembly was performed by mixing RNA oligos (crRNA and tracrRNA) in equimolar concentrations to a final duplex concentration of 45μM. For the RNA to duplex the mix was heated at 95°C for 5 minutes and allowed to cool to room temperature (15–25°C). For each sample crRNA:tracrRNA (45μM working solution) and Cas9 protein (60μM stock solution) were diluted in their respective buffers to a final volume of 5μL each to achieve the desired treatment concentration (24-120pmol). Prior to mixing with cells crRNA:tracrRNA duplex and Cas9 protein we mixed and set to incubate at room temperature for 15 minutes. Electroporation transfection was performed by mixing cells at concentration of 5x105 cells/100 microliters along with the RNP and ssODNs in a 4mm gap cuvette (BioExpress, Kaysville, UT) (250V, LV, 13ms pulse length, 2 pulses, 1s interval) using a Bio-Rad Gene PulserTM XCell Electroporation System (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Hercules, CA). Cells were then recovered in 6-well plates with complete growth media at 37°C for 72 hours prior to analysis. Analysis of Gene Edited Cells and Transfection Efficiency HCT 116–19 cell fluorescence (eGFP+) was measured by a BD FACSAria II (BD Biosciences, San Jose, CA). Cells were harvested by trypsinization, washed once with 1x PBS (-/-) and resuspended in buffer (0.5% BSA, 2mM EDTA, 2μg/mL Propidium Iodide in PBS -/-). Propidium iodide was used to measure cell viability as such, viable cells stain negative for PI (uptake). Correction efficiency was calculated as the percentage of the total live eGFP positive cells over the total live cells in each sample. Error bars are produced from three sets of data points generated over three separate experiments using basic calculations of Standard Error. RNP in Vitro Activity Cellular gDNA was isolated from pellets of 1 x 106 untreated HCT 116–19 cells using Qiagen DNAEasy Blood and Tissue Kit (Cat. ID 69506, Valencia, CA). PCR was performed using AmpliTaq (Thermo-Scientific, Waltham, MA
7300G 1.6% Billion 7401VGP 1.5% Billion 7404VGP 1.4% Netgear DG834 1.3% Belkin F5D8231au4 (N1 Wireless Router) 1.3% Netcomm NB5PLUS4W 1.2% Belkin F1PI242EGau 1.1% Siemens Speedstream 4200 1.1% Billion 7401VGPR3 1.1% D-Link DSL-604T 1.0% Netcomm NB9WMAXX 1.0% Netcomm NB5 1.0% Netcomm NB6 0.9% Belkin F1PI241ENau 0.9% Netgear CG814WG 0.9% D-Link DSL-504T 0.9% Billion 7404VGO-M 0.9% Billion 7800N 0.9% Netgear DG834GV 0.9% Netgear DGN2000 0.9% When did you acquire this modem? Billion Netgear Belkin Netcomm D-Link Motorola Linksys Dynalink OPEN Networks Alcatel Siemens Cisco 2Wire Huawei Draytek TP-Link Other Avg. 31.9% 32.9% 40.1% 32.8% 24.5% 7.6% 41.9% 29.3% 24.4% 34.3% 7.1% 37.5% 34.0% 56.7% 43.5% 58.1% 35.2% 31.6% 2009 or 2010 26.0% 28.3% 23.5% 29.0% 22.9% 15.8% 31.6% 31.8% 33.4% 12.5% 16.6% 28.5% 44.6% 35.1% 25.6% 33.6% 24.5% 26.1% 2008 21.8% 20.4% 14.4% 19.3% 20.8% 19.5% 17.8% 26.6% 23.1% 16.1% 26.6% 18.9% 18.2% 8.2% 14.7% 6.0% 19.7% 19.5% 2007 20.4% 18.4% 22.1% 18.9% 31.7% 57.2% 8.7% 12.4% 19.1% 37.1% 49.6% 15.2% 3.3% 0.0% 16.3% 2.3% 20.6% 22.8% 2006 or earlier How satisfied are you with this modem? Billion Netgear Belkin Netcomm D-Link Motorola Linksys Dynalink OPEN Networks Alcatel Siemens Cisco 2Wire Huawei Draytek TP-Link Other Avg. 53.3% 44.6% 36.0% 38.9% 33.0% 41.2% 44.9% 55.6% 45.4% 37.3% 28.8% 77.1% 24.7% 20.7% 69.3% 55.8% 36.9% 43.9% Very satisfied 37.9% 42.7% 47.3% 47.5% 48.6% 48.2% 41.5% 35.5% 44.1% 48.1% 56.2% 19.1% 47.6% 52.7% 24.9% 37.9% 44.6% 43.2% Satisfied 7.6% 10.3% 14.2% 11.0% 14.6% 8.4% 10.4% 6.3% 9.7% 13.3% 11.6% 3.5% 19.8% 21.9% 4.2% 5.6% 13.0% 10.5% Somewhat dissatisfied 1.2% 2.4% 2.6% 2.6% 3.8% 2.2% 3.2% 2.6% 0.8% 1.3% 3.4% 0.3% 7.9% 4.7% 1.6% 0.7% 5.4% 2.4% Very dissatisfied How did you research your decision to get this model? Billion Belkin Netgear Netcomm D-Link Linksys Dynalink Huawei TP-Link Cisco Draytek Alcatel OPEN Networks 2Wire Motorola Other Avg. 63.7% 15.7% 22.7% 35.1% 16.3% 23.0% 51.0% 22.1% 56.6% 8.5% 70.6% 17.2% 63.3% 3.2% 12.6% 17.9% 34.7% Whirlpool forums 31.6% 18.5% 31.7% 20.4% 38.2% 47.2% 7.8% 5.0% 15.4% 64.5% 24.3% 12.7% 2.3% 6.4% 11.8% 22.3% 26.7% Experience with this brand 25.9% 12.6% 18.9% 14.8% 19.6% 30.0% 10.8% 11.6% 25.1% 7.8% 33.8% 4.5% 25.0% 1.6% 2.5% 16.8% 19.0% Another internet site 14.4% 39.9% 7.1% 23.1% 4.4% 4.0% 36.3% 22.7% 2.9% 5.0% 1.5% 17.2% 7.0% 16.0% 10.9% 7.0% 16.4% Recommended by an ISP 1.6% 12.7% 22.5% 17.5% 14.2% 4.9% 9.8% 41.4% 5.7% 12.1% 0.0% 47.8% 8.6% 49.6% 53.8% 35.2% 14.5% Did not have a choice 15.2% 11.1% 11.7% 8.4% 11.5% 14.3% 8.3% 3.9% 13.1% 19.9% 13.2% 4.5% 10.2% 7.2% 4.2% 8.1% 11.7% Recommended by a friend 3.2% 5.3% 1.9% 1.6% 3.6% 5.3% 1.5% 1.7% 2.3% 0.7% 0.7% 0.0% 3.9% 0.8% 1.7% 3.7% 3.0% News article 0.7% 3.7% 1.0% 0.5% 1.7% 1.1% 0.5% 1.7% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.8% 0.0% 0.8% 1.1% 1.2% Advertisement From where did you acquire this modem? Billion Belkin Netgear Netcomm D-Link Linksys Dynalink Huawei TP-Link Cisco Draytek Alcatel OPEN Networks 2Wire Motorola Other Avg. 43.8% 29.5% 55.7% 42.3% 74.9% 64.9% 12.3% 19.3% 61.7% 24.1% 11.0% 0.7% 1.6% 10.4% 0.8% 28.9% 41.3% From a retail store 11.6% 64.0% 25.4% 37.3% 5.2% 4.4% 48.5% 75.7% 1.7% 9.9% 0.0% 75.4% 14.1% 62.4% 89.1% 44.3% 30.0% Directly from your current ISP 40.3% 2.5% 11.3% 12.9% 9.0% 23.4% 29.9% 1.1% 28.6% 18.4% 83.1% 8.2% 65.6% 0.0% 1.7% 14.3% 20.6% From an online store 2.0% 2.0% 4.6% 3.8% 7.3% 2.9% 3.4% 1.1% 4.0% 16.3% 3.7% 4.5% 7.0% 14.4% 3.4% 8.8% 4.0% From friend/family 2.2% 1.4% 2.2% 2.4% 2.9% 4.4% 3.4% 2.2% 3.4% 29.8% 2.2% 11.9% 7.8% 4.0% 3.4% 3.3% 3.3% Trading post, eBay, etc 0.3% 0.5% 1.0% 1.3% 1.2% 0.0% 2.9% 1.1% 0.6% 1.4% 0.0% 0.0% 3.9% 8.8% 2.5% 1.5% 1.0% Provided by a previous ISP Was the modem easy to configure? Billion Belkin Netgear Netcomm D-Link Linksys Dynalink Huawei TP-Link Cisco Draytek Alcatel OPEN Networks 2Wire Motorola Other Avg. 9.3% 22.9% 10.8% 11.6% 2.5% 5.1% 24.0% 37.6% 1.7% 9.2% 0.7% 33.6% 7.0% 23.2% 61.3% 24.9% 13.9% It arrived pre-configured 73.6% 58.7% 72.3% 70.6% 78.5% 82.1% 59.8% 51.4% 77.7% 43.3% 68.4% 53.7% 71.9% 61.6% 28.6% 55.3% 68.2% Was very simple 14.3% 9.6% 9.5% 10.4% 13.6% 9.9% 10.8% 7.7% 16.0% 29.8% 25.7% 9.0% 18.0% 10.4% 2.5% 11.0% 12.0% Could have been easier 1.0% 1.8% 1.9% 0.9% 1.0% 1.1% 2.0% 2.2% 1.7% 9.2% 3.7% 0.7% 1.6% 0.8% 1.7% 2.6% 1.6% Was difficult 1.1% 5.5% 2.6% 4.8% 2.5% 0.9% 2.9% 1.7% 2.9% 3.5% 0.7% 3.0% 0.8% 3.2% 0.8% 1.5% 2.7% I needed some assistance 0.9% 1.4% 3.1% 1.8% 2.3% 0.9% 1.0% 0.0% 0.0% 5.0% 0.7% 0.7% 0.8% 0.8% 5.9% 5.5% 1.8% I got someone else to do it why customers stay with their isp What do you like about your current ISP? AAPT has recovered from their dismal result last year after the launch of their new unlimited plans. TPG received a boost for performance, while iPrimus showed a remarkable improvement in almost all areas including customer service. Optus, Adam, aaNet and Amnet were all panned for either their price increases or lack of plan improvements during the year. Telstra Cable Telstra DSL Optus Cable Optus DSL iiNet Inter- node TPG West- net Adam Exetel Net- space aaNet iPrimus Amnet Telstra NextG AAPT Other Avg. 62.5% 57.8% 69.8% 48.2% 77.2% 91.1% 38.8% 83.2% 76.0% 59.9% 60.1% 54.5% 61.7% 78.4% 41.1% 47.9% 55.2% 67.7% Reliability 64.5% 30.5% 51.7% 34.1% 68.6% 83.8% 44.6% 61.3% 64.5% 53.5% 49.5% 36.8% 44.3% 67.4% 31.8% 39.1% 46.2% 59.5% Performance 3.2% 2.2% 14.4% 24.7% 53.0% 48.9% 88.8% 32.7% 55.4% 92.8% 52.9% 52.9% 58.0% 57.3% 0.9% 45.6% 37.5% 49.7% Pricing 7.3% 11.0% 7.2% 11.4% 55.8% 69.2% 8.2% 83.6% 64.2% 16.7% 26.7% 16.1% 47.0% 57.8% 3.7% 19.5% 33.4% 40.7% Customer service 36.0% 28.3% 1.9% 1.3% 56.2% 73.4% 4.8% 43.4% 31.4% 7.7% 13.2% 3.7% 39.8% 28.4% 31.3% 26.6% 23.4% 36.3% Unmetered content 1.3% 1.3% 2.0% 2.8% 27.1% 54.7% 15.1% 31.1% 15.1% 22.8% 20.3% 18.6% 44.3% 13.8% 1.4% 4.7% 16.7% 23.9% Staff participate in online forums 24.7% 11.7% 2.5% 1.5% 28.5% 60.6% 0.7% 27.5% 14.9% 3.2% 13.2% 0.5% 25.8% 5.0% 11.7% 1.2% 14.7% 22.7% Download mirrors 10.5% 12.1% 8.6% 12.1% 16.4% 28.6% 7.5% 20.0% 17.8% 10.2% 10.1% 8.0% 16.3% 16.1% 10.7% 13.0% 15.1% 15.9% Payment options 23.7% 13.0% 0.9% 0.0% 15.5% 37.6% 0.5% 15.2% 9.2% 2.8% 9.5% 0.5% 10.2% 1.8% 14.0% 0.6% 8.6% 13.8% Game servers 0.9% 0.9% 0.4% 1.0% 9.7% 28.5% 1.2% 13.9% 12.6% 14.3% 3.5% 4.6% 8.3% 6.4% 0.5% 3.6% 11.7% 11.1% Can talk directly with decision makers 4.3% 3.4% 0.1% 0.3% 12.1% 14.3% 1.2% 10.0% 2.9% 0.2% 0.5% 0.2% 4.2% 0.5% 6.1% 1.2% 4.1% 6.7% Music and videos provided by your ISP Historical trend: Compares the results to the response given 12 months ago. Telstra Cable Telstra DSL Optus Cable Optus DSL iiNet Inter- node TPG West- net Adam Exetel Net- space aaNet iPrimus Amnet Telstra NextG AAPT −3.2% −1.4% +2.9% −3.5% +0.9% −2.7% −6.8% −1.4% −0.2% +4.0% −2.1% −8.0% +8.3% +5.9% −2.5% −1.5% Reliability +11.7% +3.6% +5.7% +4.9% +3.8% +2.1% +12.9% −2.8% −1.5% +6.2% +0.1% −8.7% +6.9% +8.1% −6.6% +16.1% Performance −1.9% −2.3% −15.2% −12.8% −4.4% +5.6% +11.5% −5.8% −17.6% −0.1% −4.4% −25.5% +15.3% −19.1% −1.4% +20.9% Pricing −3.2% −3.3% −1.7% +1.3% +7.5% +3.4% −1.1% −1.4% +9.8% +0.0% +1.3% −3.7% +17.9% +8.2% −8.5% +0.4% Customer service −0.4% −2.2% +0.0% +0.1% +3.9% +2.7% +0.6% +7.4% +4.2% +0.6% −4.1% −2.7% +9.7% +2.8% −5.9% +24.9% Unmetered content +0.2% +0.4% +1.2% +2.1% −1.0% −3.4% +4.7% +6.4% −8.4% +0.4% +5.7% −13.0% +3.5% +1.4% +0.2% +0.8% Staff participate in online forums +2.7% −2.6% −1.3% −2.0% +1.0% −0.4% +0.0% +4.4% −4.3% −0.9% −1.2% −1.5% +2.5% −2.0% −2.8% +0.6% Download mirrors +1.4% −2.0% +2.2% +4.8% +7.9% +3.3% +3.1% +3.8% +11.3% +6.6% +1.8% +4.4% +5.6% +6.0% −2.1% +2.3% Payment options +1.0% −2.2% −0.9% −0.2% +5.0% −0.9% −0.4% +1.5% −2.1% −0.2% +0.5% −0.8% −1.9% −4.0% −0.5% +0.0% Game servers +0.1% −0.9% −0.4% +0.3% +2.4% −2.0% +0.7% −2.5% +2.3% +1.9% +0.1% −2.3% +3.0% +1.4% −0.1% +3.6% Can talk directly with decision makers +0.3% −3.0% −0.1% +0.1% −1.4% −3.1% +1.0% +0.9% +1.9% −0.1% −0.6% −0.2% +1.8% +0.1% +2.6% +1.2% Music and videos provided by your ISP What do you not like about your ISP? New for this year, this question shines a spotlight on what customers hate about their ISP. Telstra NextG copped a pounding, though complaints about its high pricing aren't a surprise (it has since revamped its plans). However, it registered surprising scores in customer service and network performance and reliability. TPG's call centre in the Philippines doesn't appear to be doing it any favours, while its network also appears to cause customer frustration. Telstra Cable Telstra DSL Optus Cable Optus DSL iiNet Inter- node TPG West- net Adam Exetel Net- space aaNet iPrimus Amnet Telstra NextG AAPT Other Avg. 87.9% 86.5% 66.2% 56.8% 27.8% 30.5% 8.1% 46.1% 23.2% 5.3% 32.4% 36.3% 27.7% 19.7% 94.4% 38.5% 42.6% 34.1% Pricing 73.5% 67.0% 38.3% 48.7% 27.3% 9.7% 4.7% 4.8% 23.5% 2.6% 5.4% 6.7% 49.6% 3.2% 75.7% 11.8% 25.4% 22.6% Uploads are metered 47.7% 47.5% 36.6% 34.8% 6.3% 2.3% 40.7% 2.0% 4.8% 29.6% 17.9% 20.7% 16.7% 6.9% 62.6% 32.0% 24.4% 18.7% Customer service 63.8% 63.5% 59.6% 53.0% 9.1% 6.5% 3.9% 18.6% 8.4% 3.1% 25.3% 14.0% 24.2% 15.6% 59.3% 27.8% 25.8% 18.2% Doesn't keep up with competitors 16.8% 35.4% 21.7% 30.6% 10.8% 2.9% 25.9% 7.9% 9.4% 15.6% 18.6% 20.9% 23.9% 8.7% 40.7% 22.5% 25.4% 16.0% Performance 16.6% 20.2% 12.1% 19.7% 6.4% 2.4% 29.3% 3.6% 6.8% 11.2% 15.0% 16.1% 14.4% 6.9% 29.4% 14.8% 22.0% 12.8% Reliability 10.3% 9.9% 9.7% 11.6% 7.9% 4.0% 10.8% 4.3% 8.9% 12.8% 12.3% 20.7% 11.7% 5.5% 13.6% 5.9% 9.2% 8.7% Payment options 22.4% 27.4% 17.1% 20.7% 3.9% 1.1% 8.4% 3.0% 3.4% 5.8% 14.7% 13.1% 8.0% 5.5% 32.7% 15.4% 11.5% 8.1% Hidden traps/fees Is the amount you're paying per month what you think the service is worth to you? Telstra Cable Telstra DSL Optus Cable Optus DSL iiNet Inter- node TPG West- net Adam Exetel Net- space aaNet iPrimus Amnet Telstra NextG AAPT Other Avg. 2.1% 0.9% 5.6% 5.8% 17.5% 20.9% 37.9% 13.4% 11.8% 48.0% 10.0% 12.9% 25.0% 15.1% 0.9% 24.3% 12.9% 18.4% Great value 17.6% 14.8% 32.8% 33.3% 48.4% 51.8% 41.9% 41.3% 54.0% 38.3% 49.3% 37.9% 43.2% 54.1% 6.1% 34.3% 35.4% 42.4% About right 80.3% 84.3% 61.6% 60.9% 34.1% 27.3% 20.2% 45.4% 34.2% 13.7% 40.7% 49.2% 31.8% 30.7% 93.0% 41.4% 51.8% 39.1% Too expensive Historical trend: Compares the results to the response given 12 months ago. Telstra Cable Telstra DSL Optus Cable Optus DSL iiNet Inter- node TPG West- net Adam Exetel Net- space aaNet iPrimus Amnet Telstra NextG AAPT −1.3% −1.4% −4.2% −7.9% −0.5% +7.6% +25.6% −2.8% −3.2% +4.1% −2.1% −3.1% +13.8% −8.5% −1.4% +22.1% Great value −6.7% −1.4% −12.3% −13.4% −0.4% −3.4% −10.9% −5.3% −8.0% −5.7% −3.5% −16.5% −4.4% +5.3% −7.3% +9.6% About right +8.0% +2.8% +16.5% +21.3% +0.9% −4.3% −14.8% +8.2% +11.2% +1.7% +5.6% +19.6% −9.5% +3.2% +8.7% −31.6% Too expensive Would you recommend your current ISP to other people? Telstra Cable Telstra DSL Optus Cable Optus DSL iiNet Inter- node TPG West- net Adam Exetel Net- space aaNet iPrimus Amnet Telstra NextG AAPT Other Avg. 46.3% 33.6% 45.0% 43.4% 93.8% 97.8% 86.7% 90.5% 95.1% 89.8% 84.3% 72.4% 81.8% 94.5% 36.0% 69.2% 67.9% 81.8% Yes 53.7% 66.4% 55.0% 56.6% 6.2% 2.2% 13.3% 9.5% 4.9% 10.2% 15.7% 27.6% 18.2% 5.5% 64.0% 30.8% 32.1% 18.2% No Historical trend: Compares the results to the response given 12 months ago. Telstra Cable Telstra DSL Optus Cable Optus DSL iiNet Inter- node TPG West- net Adam Exetel Net- space aaNet iPrimus Amnet Telstra NextG AAPT −4.4% −3.3% −5.0% −2.6% +0.1% −0.5% +4.8% −4.7% −0.6% +1.1% +0.5% −16.0% +15.8% +1.5% −12.8% +41.1% Yes +4.4% +3.3% +5.0% +2.6% −0.1% +0.5% −4.8% +4.7% +0.6% −1.1% −0.5% +16.0% −15.8% −1.5% +12.8% −41.1% No why customers leave their isp Why did you leave your previous ISP? Dodo continues to disappoint customers in multiple areas, and Virgin has now joined the club, with a stunning 84.3% of ex-Virgin customers citing poor network reliability as a reason for leaving. Telstra is still being abandoned due to poor plan value, while 3 was suffering from general performance and reliability issues. Telstra Optus iiNet Inter- node TPG aaNet West- net AAPT Exetel Net- space Dodo iPrimus Virgin 3 Other Avg. 86.2% 54.7% 32.3% 40.7% 10.7% 48.0% 47.4% 58.9% 19.2% 42.9% 24.4% 57.8% 31.4% 32.8% 35.2% 48.3% Prices were too high 72.6% 57.0% 28.6% 33.0% 13.0% 33.7% 48.0% 52.1% 19.2% 45.4% 26.7% 56.7% 61.4% 44.8% 35.4% 44.9% Download limits too low 21.9% 35.4% 50.4% 42.4% 39.5% 13.9% 30.3% 14.4% 36.3% 25.2% 12.2% 15.6% 12.9% 20.7% 25.1% 30.2% Moved residence 46.8% 28.3% 6.4% 2.8% 35.3% 22.8% 4.0% 37.0% 31.5% 16.0% 63.3% 31.1% 45.7% 27.6% 28.2% 28.6% Poor customer service 30.3% 29.2% 9.5% 19.9% 13.0% 29.2% 18.3% 41.8% 28.1% 29.4% 38.9% 58.9% 51.4% 44.8% 30.9% 26.7% Wanted higher speeds 28.1% 24.7% 4.6% 5.0% 24.2% 13.9% 8.6% 27.4% 28.8% 20.2% 50.0% 38.9% 67.1% 58.6% 29.8% 23.3% Slower than it should have been 18.4% 14.5% 3.7% 3.9% 32.1% 24.8% 5.7% 24.7% 27.4% 27.7% 53.3% 25.6% 84.3% 53.4% 27.6% 20.6% Poor network reliability 9.8% 9.6% 18.8% 14.4% 16.7% 13.9% 16.0% 10.3% 12.3% 9.2% 5.6% 7.8% 7.1% 12.1% 18.5% 13.0% For a reason not outlined above 8.7% 10.2% 5.6% 9.7% 9.1% 9.9% 7.4% 11.0% 11.6% 12.6% 12.2% 10.0% 7.1% 5.2% 11.3% 9.4% Wanted to try a different type of connection 14.1% 9.3% 2.9% 2.2% 5.3% 7.4% 1.7% 6.2% 8.9% 7.6% 15.6% 13.3% 12.9% 12.1% 5.8% 8.1% Contract conditions / acceptable use policy 14.5% 12.4% 3.2% 4.2% 4.9% 4.0% 1.7% 8.2% 2.1% 2.5% 7.8% 8.9
members the disobeying of any decisions made by a Party organisation is now forbidden. Here is another (rather extreme) hypothetical example: Person giving order: "Excuse me but we have just decided to use extreme force to clear the remaining protestors out from in and around Tiananmen Square so if you would not mind leading your column of tanks down there to sort them out that would be most appreciated." Response:"Well gee, to tell the truth I have a few moral qualms about firing on my unarmed civilian countrymen." Person giving order: "Sorry, disobeying any Party decision is now forbidden." Anecdotally, President Xi Jinping seems very popular amongst ordinary Chinese people: they call him "Xi Dada", loosely translated as "Uncle Xi". These same average citizens see officials found to have been corrupt being sent to gaol and are cheering all the way. There is even a television programme here featuring the confessions of regional bosses admitting their crimes on their way to incarceration. Image copyright Gety Image caption Chinese call their president "Xi Dada" - an expression meaning uncle There is a view, though, that so many officials are up to their necks in ill-gotten gains, Xi Dada could have been using a selective anti-corruption campaign to take out only his factional enemies, thus shoring up his own position. It is a view that we journalists and academics toss about quite a bit. It is not one you will hear expressed amongst the so-called lao bai xing, the average Chinese people. To them, who cares if only certain corrupt officials have been taken down? At least some of them have. Yet the crackdown has been so widespread it has led to one contentious theory. If Xi Jiping and his people have punished more than a million officials who all have friends and family where does that leave him in terms of amassing enemies who are biding their time for now? How dangerous might it be for President Xi to ever give up power? Can he find a mechanism to extend his tenure or at least put a wall around himself? Or maybe he just needs a Medvedev-style supporter to come along as a chosen successor? We will not know the answer to any of this until the end of his second term in another six years.Mike Coppola / Getty Images, Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images, Valerie Macon / Getty Images Here's what Matt and Ross Duffer, the creators of the show, told BuzzFeed about the new characters: Max, played by Sadie Sink: "She moves into town with her brother Billy — who’s kind of a terrible, terrible human being — but they come from California. So she’s got kind of a different vibe than most of the kids do at Hawkins Middle. And because she’s different and interesting, [she] draws the attention of our boys. Not all of them, but some of them. You know, it’s a big deal letting another kid into the group." Billy, played by Dacre Montgomery: "Billy is a character. When he pops up onscreen, I think he makes quite an impression every time, and I think he’s scary." Dr. Owens, played by Paul Reiser: "He’s in charge of the lab now. He’s keeping on eye on Will, not in a sinister way — well, we don’t know." Bob, played by Sean Astin: "He plays Bob, who’s Joyce’s new love interest. He works at Radio Shack. He’s a nerd. He’s very different than Lonnie, who’s her ex-husband. He’s just a really sweet guy — he’s a good guy."On Monday, two Ontario First Nations slammed the government for inaction on the problem. "Chief Isadore Day has called for within five years there should be zero, and I've told the Chief and I've told First Nations many times, we agree with that, and a Canadian government led by me will address this as a top priority because it's not right in a country like Canada that this has gone on for far too long," he said. "We have 93 different communities under 133 different boil water advisories across the country," Trudeau said when asked about the water issue. Justin Trudeau made the promise Monday night during a town hall hosted by VICE Canada following announcements earlier that day by two First Nations that have each endured boil water advisories for nearly 20 years. If he's elected prime minister on Oct. 19, Canada's Liberal leader would end the rampant, widespread issue of boil water advisories on First Nation reserves. Read more If he's elected prime minister on Oct. 19, Canada's Liberal leader would end the rampant, widespread issue of boil water advisories on First Nation reserves. Justin Trudeau made the promise Monday night during a town hall hosted by VICE Canada following announcements earlier that day by two First Nations that have each endured boil water advisories for nearly 20 years. "We have 93 different communities under 133 different boil water advisories across the country," Trudeau said when asked about the water issue. "Chief Isadore Day has called for within five years there should be zero, and I've told the Chief and I've told First Nations many times, we agree with that, and a Canadian government led by me will address this as a top priority because it's not right in a country like Canada that this has gone on for far too long," he said. On Monday, two Ontario First Nations slammed the government for inaction on the problem. Shoal Lake 40, an island reserve, has been on a boil water advisory for 17 years, with residents relying on a decrepit barge to shuttle bottled water from the mainland. Whenever the boat breaks down, the reserve declares a state of emergency. The First Nation has asked the federal government to fund an access road to make building a water treatment plant cheaper and easier, but the federal government has refused to commit to the road. Shoal Lake 40 announced Monday they would take the issue to the United Nations in February, calling the federal government's lack of action a "human rights violation." Related: Trudeau Promises $10 Million After Crowdfunding Effort Begins for First Nation's Access Road Neskantaga has been under a boil water order for 20 years and had its drinking water rationed after its water treatment plant broke down in 1995. The community relies on bottled water deliveries, and residents complain of rashes and sores on their skin from bathing in the untreated water. Neskantaga held a press conference in Toronto on Monday to draw attention to their reserve's two-decade ordeal, saying the debate raging in the Canadian election over the religious face covering known as a niqab is far less of a pressing issue than the problem of access to clean drinking water. "We're seeing a debate nationally about whether a person should wear a piece of clothing, yet our First Nations communities are dying because of the poor water conditions in their communities," Chief Isadore Day said at a press conference Monday in Toronto. "So to be clear, you are committing then within five years there will be clean water on all, for all First Nations?" VICE News Canada managing editor Natalie Alcoba asked Trudeau at the town hall. "In all those 93 communities, yes," Trudeau replied. It appeared to be the first time Trudeau had made the promise. However, the Liberal platform released on Monday did not specifically allocate funds to solve the problem. Watch the VICE Canada documentary, Canada's Waterless Communities: Neskantaga here: In the platform, the party allocates $20 billion over 10 years toward "green" infrastructure spending. Of that funding, $5.7 billion would go toward "green" infrastructure in the first five years. That infrastructure spending includes addressing the issues of clean drinking water and wastewater management, the Liberal party told VICE News in a statement Tuesday. A 2011 report commissioned by Canada's Aboriginal Affairs department estimated it would cost $5 billion over 10 years to upgrade First Nations water and sewage systems. An immediate investment of $1.2 billion was needed immediately to get those reserves up to the department's standards, the report found. VICE News asked exactly how much the Liberals would spend to ensure access to clean water on the 93 reserves within five years, given the $5 billion figure over 10 years from Aboriginal Affairs. The Liberal Party spokesperson did not immediately respond to repeated requests for comment. The 93 reserves on boil water advisories do not include British Columbia, which has a different system of water advisories. Follow Hilary Beaumont on Twitter: @hilarybeaumontIn an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mitchell Klipper, chief executive of Barnes & Noble's retail group, said that, over the next decade, the chain will reduce its outlets by about twenty a year to reach a figure of about 450-to-500 consumer stores, down from a peak of 726 in 2008. A separate chain of 674 college bookstores (which thrive on tchotchkes and their exclusive franchises) is not part of that calculation. Even with so many fewer consumer stores, Klipper said, "It's a good business model. You have to adjust your overhead and get smart with smart systems. Is it what it used to be when you were opening 80 stores a year and dropping stores everywhere? Probably not. It's different. But every business evolves." Klipper disputes the notion that bookstores will be unable to hold their own in the digital era, despite the chain's need to downsize where rents or locations are hurting the prospect of acceptable profitability. Only a handful of the stores--fewer than twenty--are actually losing money, he told the Wall Street Journal's Jeffrey Trachtenberg. But the company's revenues have been significantly impacted by its commitment to build the Nook franchise. While holding on to ownership of nearly 80 percent of its Nook division, a $300 million investment in Nook from Microsoft last fall, followed by an $89.5 million commitment from Pearson, which sees value in the growing electronic textbook market, are signs that Barnes & Noble can forge a way to secure enough of the digital business to offset the problems it faces in traditional bookselling. But the overall impression of Barnes & Noble's situation in the book industry is not nearly as positive as its owners and investors would like to portray. Publisher's Weekly reported last week that Barnes & Noble is in the midst of contentious negotiations over terms with Simon & Schuster. "Although the exact nature of the disagreement is not yet clear," Publisher's Weekly reported, "Barnes &Noble has significantly reduced its orders from S&S. The main reason for the cutback seems to be, according to sources, Barnes & Noble's lack of support from S&S." (One way or another, this means a dispute over the size of discounts and advertising.) Another factor for concern is the impending merger of Random House and Penguin, which is expected to give this corporate behemoth the ability to deal with Google's Android ecosystem, and Apple's consumer cachet as well as Amazon's dominant position in online retailing. There was an initial belief that Borders' bankruptcy would bring a substantial portion of its in-store business to Barnes & Noble, but that has not turned out to be the case. "Barnes & Noble is the last bookstore chain standing," Wharton management professor Steve Kobrin, who is also the publisher of Wharton Digital Press, told the Knowledge@Wharton newsletter. "There's still a niche there, but it may go to small independent bookstores."School budgets pass overwhelmingly Posted by Matt Ryan on New York voters went to the polls Tuesday to vote on their local school budgets and the results are right in line with the passage rate since the enacting of the tax cap five years ago. 98.5% of districts said yes, while just ten were defeated according to the New York State School Boards Association. They are still awaiting results for eleven different localities. Thirty-six districts had proposals with tax levies that exceeded the cap, requiring a 60 percent "supermajority" to pass and 78% of those were successful. That's a double-digit increase over the previous year. Does this mean more districts may choose to override the cap in the coming years? We asked Tim Kremer, the NYSSBA Executive Director, in an interview that will air this weekend on your local PBS station. Also this weekend Ken Lovett of The Daily News and Matt Hamilton of the Times Union join us at the Reporters Roundtable.In a letter sent to British foreign secretary William Hague, a prominent human rights lawyer is alleging that Guantanamo Bay's hunger striking detainees are being threatened with humiliating body searches before they are allowed to contact legal counsel. See our timeline of the Guantanamo Bay hunger strike. Clive Stafford Smith, who currently represents several inmates at the US prison camp through the legal charity Reprieve, claims that guards at the facility are requiring invasive searches before detainees can conduct in-person interviews or even phone calls to lawyers. A copy of the letter was obtained by The Guardian, and states that as a direct result of the new policy two of Smith’s clients were recently barred from speaking with their legal representatives after refusing the searches. "The US military has started directly abusing prisoners who want to contact their lawyers to tell them what is happening. So anyone who wants to see a lawyer, or have a legal phone call, must have his fingers put up his anus and his genitals touched," Smith writes. There are currently 100 inmates confirmed by US authorities as participating in the hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay since it began in earnest back in February, 30 of whom are being force-fed via tubes. Five of those prisoners are being observed in the detainee hospital, according to a statement by US Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Samuel House on Monday. The official numbers differ from those of human rights activists, who have put the number of strikers at up to 130. The claims by Smith coincide with failure by one of his clients, Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, to speak with him via telephone last Friday, allegedly due to the new policy. Moqbel, who is participating in the hunger strike, was the recent author of a New York Times op-ed which detailed the pain and emotional impact of being force-fed by nasal tubes. Agence France-Presse (AFP) has independently reported that another lawyer, David Remes, had two detainees he currently represents decline calls due to the new search procedures. "Under the new search policy, a detainee who leaves his camp is subject to a search including his private parts and holding his private parts," Remes said. He added that the "shocking" searches were "designed to deter many detainees from meeting with their [lawyers] … to make their life more miserable and put the detainees in front of an impossible choice." In response to the allegations, Lt. Col. Samuel House has told The Guardian that the new search procedures do not represent anything beyond a pat down: "Full frisk searches are conducted in a professional manner to quickly locate and identify contraband hidden on the body. The searches are conducted with clothes on, similar to a pat-down search conducted by an airport security screener," says House. According to House, the new procedures were enacted "in light of contraband discovered during recent cell searches." For his part, Smith believes the allegedly invasive searches cannot be justified. "Any pretext given for these new rules is just that: a pretext. The prisoners do not need to be sexually assaulted in order to be taken to a telephone to talk to their lawyer," he said.Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs! For unlimited access to the best local, national, and international news and much more, try an All Access Digital subscription: We hope you have enjoyed your trial! To continue reading, we recommend our Read Now Pay Later membership. Simply add a form of payment and pay only 27¢ per article. Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year. Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year. Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year. Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year. Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs! For unlimited access to the best local, national, and international news and much more, try an All Access Digital subscription: We hope you have enjoyed your trial! To continue reading, we recommend our Read Now Pay Later membership. Simply add a form of payment and pay only 27¢ per article. Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs! For unlimited access to the best local, national, and international news and much more, try an All Access Digital subscription: We hope you have enjoyed your trial! To continue reading, we recommend our Read Now Pay Later membership. Simply add a form of payment and pay only 27¢ per article. The deal includes $100 million in cash on closing and $10 million payable in 12 months in the form of new Just Eat shares. An additional $90 million will be added to the acquisition price if the Winnipeg company can reach aggressive growth targets. SkipTheDishes has been one of the fastest growing technology companies in Canada for the past couple of years, now employing about 250 people, including more than 200 in Winnipeg. The company also has a small operation in Saskatoon. On Thursday, their company, SkipTheDishes, was acquired by the U.K. firm Just Eat PLC for $110 million, likely making it the largest tech deal in Winnipeg since David Graves sold Broadband Networks to Nortel for $600 million in the late ’90s. Four years ago, Josh Simair and two brothers came to Winnipeg to talk about setting up a company around an idea they had using technology to enable couriers to deliver restaurant meals in a cost-effective and timely way. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 15/12/2016 (803 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 15/12/2016 (803 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Four years ago, Josh Simair and two brothers came to Winnipeg to talk about setting up a company around an idea they had using technology to enable couriers to deliver restaurant meals in a cost-effective and timely way. On Thursday, their company, SkipTheDishes, was acquired by the U.K. firm Just Eat PLC for $110 million, likely making it the largest tech deal in Winnipeg since David Graves sold Broadband Networks to Nortel for $600 million in the late ’90s. SkipTheDishes has been one of the fastest growing technology companies in Canada for the past couple of years, now employing about 250 people, including more than 200 in Winnipeg. The company also has a small operation in Saskatoon. 'Everyone talks about building companies here. This is the outside world standing up and taking notice' — Marshall Ring, CEO of Manitoba Technology Accelerator The deal includes $100 million in cash on closing and $10 million payable in 12 months in the form of new Just Eat shares. An additional $90 million will be added to the acquisition price if the Winnipeg company can reach aggressive growth targets. SkipTheDishes has developed a technologically enhanced delivery platform that targets lower-density cities such as Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton. It also operates south of the border in cities such as St. Louis, Cincinnati and Buffalo. It’s servicing 20 cities now and continues to grow its geographic footprint. The company is currently delivering orders for more than 2,900 restaurants and has more than 350,000 active customers. This year to date the company has grown by 186 per cent with expected revenue of $23.5 million. Josh Simair, 29, CEO and one of the co-founders of the company, said the target is to double revenue and order volumes in 2017. "We have built one of the fastest-growing tech startups in Canada, and we are absolutely passionate about what we are building," Simair said. "What we have here is the opportunity to accelerate that growth by joining with Just Eat to access their resources and knowledge. They are the world leader in the space. We are really excited." DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS U.K. company Just Eat gobbled up Winnipeg’s SkipTheDishes Thursday. From left is Dan Simair of SkipTheDishes, Howard Migdal from Just Eat and Josh Simair, Jeff Adamson, Andrew Chau and Chris Simair of SkipTheDishes. London, England-based Just Eat, which also spent close to $400 million gobbling up a U.K. competitor Thursday, is the world leader in the food-delivery business with sales this year expected to be more than $600 million. Just Eat already operates in Canada and is the clear market leader. But it is much more focused on dense urban centres such as downtown Toronto and Vancouver. Not only is there little geographic overlap in the deal, SkipTheDishes’ platform includes its own technology-enabled delivery people. Just Eat utilizes restaurants’ own delivery staff. "SkipTheDishes has cracked the code to deliver profitable growth quickly in lower density urban and suburban markets," said Howard Migdal, Just Eat’s country manager in Canada. "Their technology is unbelievable. That has enabled their exponential growth in those low-density markets." Migdal also raved about the company’s Winnipeg team that is expected to stay in place and continue to grow. (Simair said the company is currently hiring more staff.) The SkipTheDishes operating brand will also remain in place. Marshall Ring, the CEO of Manitoba Technology Accelerator, has been working with SkipTheDishes since the Simairs moved to Winnipeg from Saskatoon earlier this decade to start the company. He and others said there is no one in the business who work harder and with more passion than the SkipTheDishes team. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the day’s breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every morning. "We always believed they had impressive technology, and they are so focused on growth. They are all in," Ring said. "This is so great for Winnipeg. Everyone talks about building companies here. This is the outside world standing up and taking notice. It is real great validation." And there is plenty more room for growth. Migdal said the main competition in Canada is the telephone where 70 per cent of take-out meal delivery is still transacted, as opposed to 50 per cent in Europe and the U.K. where Just Eat is dominant. "We — Just Eat and SkipTheDishes — are best positioned to gain that market share as consumers swarm to migrate from telephone to web and mobile apps to order their food," Migdal said. In its brief history, SkipTheDishes has not only been successful in growing its business but has attracted high-profile angel investors such as the founders of Ottawa-based Shopify as well as the Toronto-based seed venture capital fund, Golden Venture Partners, run by former Winnipegger Matt Golden. "They’ve done a terrific job," Golden said of the founders. "They are excellent, talented, hard-working, driven, super-smart, efficient humble guys... all the things we look for in a founding team. They are also the classic traits of great Prairie guys. It’s great to see a big win for the Winnipeg technology ecosystem. We hope to see others in the future." martin.cash@freepress.mb.caThe phenomenon comes from the amount of shared beta-reduction steps, which can be dramatically different in Haskell-style lazy evaluation (or usual call-by-value, which is not that far in this respect) and in Vuillemin-Lévy-Lamping-Kathail-Asperti-Guerrini-(et al…) "optimal" evaluation. This is a general feature, that is completely independent from the arithmetic formulas you could use in this particular example. Sharing means having a representation of your lambda-term in which one "node" can describe several similar parts of the actual lambda-term you represent. For instance, you can represent the term \x. x ((\y.y)a) ((\y.y)a) using a (directed acyclic) graph in which there is only one occurrence of the subgraph representing (\y.y)a, and two edges targeting that subgraph. In Haskell terms, you have one thunk, that you evaluate only once, and two pointers to this thunk. Haskell-style memoization implements sharing of complete subterms. This level of sharing can be represented by directed acyclic graphs. Optimal sharing does not have this restriction: it can also share "partial" subterms, which may imply cycles in the graph representation. To see the difference between these two levels of sharing, consider the term \x. (\z.z) ((\z.z) x) If your sharing is restricted to complete subterms as it is the case in Haskell, you may have only one occurrence of \z.z, but the two beta-redexes here will be distinct: one is (\z.z) x and the other one is (\z.z) ((\z.z) x), and since they are not equal terms they cannot be shared. If the sharing of partial subterms is allowed, then it becomes possible to share the partial term (\z.z) [] (that is not just the function \z.z, but "the function \z.z applied to something), which evaluates in one step to just something, whatever this argument is. Hence you can have a graph in which only one node represents the two applications of \z.z to two distinct arguments, and in which these two applications can be reduced in just one step. Remark that there is a cycle on this node, since the argument of the "first occurrence" is precisely the "second occurrence". Finally, with optimal sharing you can go from (a graph representing) \x. (\z.z) ((\z.z) x)) to (a graph representing) the result \x.x in just one step of beta-reduction (plus some bookkeeping). This is basically what happens in your optimal evaluator (and the graph representation is also what prevents space explosion). For slightly extended explanations, you can look at the paper Weak Optimality, and the Meaning of Sharing (what you are interested in is the introduction and the section 4.1, and maybe some of the bibliographic pointers at the end). Coming back at your example, the coding of arithmetic functions working on Church integers is one of the "well-known" mines of examples where optimal evaluators can perform better than mainstream languages (in this sentence, well-known actually means that a handful of specialists are aware of these examples). For more such examples, take a look at the paper Safe Operators: Brackets Closed Forever by Asperti and Chroboczek (and by the way, you will find here interesting lambda-terms that are not EAL-typeable; so I’m encouraging you to take a look at oracles, starting with this Asperti/Chroboczek paper). As you said yourself, this kind of encoding is utterly unpractical, but they still represent a nice way of understanding what is going on. And let me conclude with a challenge for further investigation: will you be able to find an example on which optimal evaluation on these supposedly bad encodings is actually on par with traditional evaluation on a reasonable data representation? (as far as I know this is a real open question).Note: All times Eastern Editor's note: Boston College, Northern Illinois, UCLA and Vanderbilt are projected to have 5-7 records in Mark Schlabach's projections but received bowl invitations based on Academic Progress Ratings rankings. Army is projected to finish 6-6 with two wins over FCS opponents, and Hawaii is projected to finish 6-7, but both also qualified based on APR ratings. College Football Playoff semifinals College Football Playoff semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Georgia Dome, Atlanta Dec. 31, time TBD (ESPN) Schlabach: Alabama vs. Washington McMurphy: Alabama vs. Ohio State College Football Playoff semifinal at the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona Dec. 31, time TBD (ESPN) Schlabach: Clemson vs. Michigan McMurphy: Clemson vs. Washington College Football Playoff National Championship Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida Jan. 9, 2017, time TBD (ESPN) Schlabach: Alabama vs. Michigan McMurphy: Ohio State vs. Washington Bowl schedule Gildan New Mexico Bowl University Stadium, Albuquerque, New Mexico 2 p.m. Dec. 17 (ESPN) Schlabach: New Mexico vs. Texas San Antonio McMurphy: New Mexico vs. Texas San Antonio Las Vegas Bowl Presented by Geico Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas 3:30 p.m. Dec. 17 (ABC) Schlabach: San Diego State vs. Arizona State McMurphy: Boise State vs. Arizona State Raycom Media Camellia Bowl Cramton Bowl, Montgomery, Alabama 5:30 p.m. Dec. 17 (ESPN) Schlabach: Troy vs. Central Michigan McMurphy: Appalachian State vs. Central Michigan AutoNation Cure Bowl Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Florida 7 p.m. Dec. 17 (CBSSN) Schlabach: UCF vs. Idaho McMurphy: Army vs. South Alabama R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans 9 p.m. Dec. 17 (ESPN) Schlabach: Appalachian State vs. Middle Tennessee McMurphy: Troy vs. Old Dominion Miami Beach Bowl Marlins Park, Miami 2:30 p.m. Dec. 19 (ESPN) Schlabach: Houston vs. Toledo McMurphy: UCF vs. Ohio Boca Raton Bowl FAU Stadium, Boca Raton, Florida 7 p.m. Dec. 20 (ESPN) Schlabach: Old Dominion vs. Tulsa McMurphy: Louisiana Tech vs. Memphis San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego 9 p.m. Dec. 21 (ESPN) Schlabach: BYU vs. Wyoming McMurphy: BYU vs. Wyoming Famous Idaho Potato Bowl Albertsons Stadium, Boise, Idaho 7 p.m. Dec. 22 (ESPN) Schlabach: Miami (Ohio) vs. Colorado State McMurphy: Colorado State vs. Miami (Ohio) Popeyes Bahamas Bowl Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium, Nassau, Bahamas 1 p.m. Dec. 23 (ESPN) Schlabach: Western Kentucky vs. Memphis McMurphy: North Texas vs. Tulsa Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl Amon G. Carter Stadium, Fort Worth, Texas 4:30 p.m. Dec. 23 (ESPN) Schlabach: Baylor vs. Navy McMurphy: Baylor vs. Navy Dollar General Bowl Ladd-Peebles Stadium, Mobile, Alabama 8 p.m. Dec. 23 (ESPN) Schlabach: Arkansas State vs. Ohio McMurphy: Arkansas State vs. Toledo Hawaii Bowl Aloha Stadium, Honolulu 8 p.m. Dec. 24 (ESPN) Schlabach: Louisiana Tech vs. Boise State McMurphy: Western Kentucky vs. Hawaii St. Petersburg Bowl Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida 11 a.m. Dec. 26 (ESPN) Schlabach: Vanderbilt vs. South Florida McMurphy: Vanderbilt vs. Houston Quick Lane Bowl Ford Field, Detroit 2:30 p.m. Dec. 26 (ESPN) Schlabach: Eastern Michigan vs. Maryland McMurphy: Boston College vs. Maryland Camping World Independence Bowl Independence Stadium, Shreveport, Louisiana 5 p.m. Dec. 26 (ESPN2) Schlabach: Boston College vs. South Carolina McMurphy: NC State vs. South Carolina Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl Cotton Bowl Stadium, Dallas Noon Dec. 27 (ESPN) Schlabach: Hawaii vs. North Texas McMurphy: Eastern Michigan vs. Middle Tennessee Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, Annapolis, Maryland 3:30 p.m. Dec. 27 (ESPN) Schlabach: Georgia Tech vs. Temple McMurphy: Pittsburgh vs. Temple National Funding Holiday Bowl Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego 7 p.m. Dec. 27 (ESPN) Schlabach: Minnesota vs. Washington State McMurphy: Iowa vs. Utah Motel 6 Cactus Bowl Chase Field, Phoenix 10:15 p.m. Dec. 27 (ESPN) Schlabach: UCLA vs. TCU McMurphy: San Diego State vs. Texas New Era Pinstripe Bowl Yankee Stadium, New York 2 p.m. Dec. 28 (ESPN) Schlabach: Pittsburgh vs. Northwestern McMurphy: Miami vs. Minnesota Russell Athletic Bowl Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Florida 5:30 p.m. Dec. 28 (ESPN) Schlabach: Virginia Tech vs. West Virginia McMurphy: Virginia Tech vs. West Virginia Foster Farms Bowl Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, California 8:30 p.m. Dec. 28 (Fox) Schlabach: Indiana vs. Stanford McMurphy: Stanford vs. Northwestern AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl NRG Stadium, Houston 9 p.m. Dec. 28 (ESPN) Schlabach: Kansas State vs. Texas A&M McMurphy: Kansas State vs. Auburn Birmingham Bowl Legion Field, Birmingham, Alabama 2 p.m. Dec. 29 (ESPN) Schlabach: Army vs. Kentucky McMurphy: USF vs. Ole Miss Belk Bowl Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, North Carolina 5:30 p.m. Dec. 29 (ESPN) Schlabach: Arkansas vs. North Carolina McMurphy: Arkansas vs. North Carolina Valero Alamo Bowl Alamodome, San Antonio 9 p.m. Dec. 29 (ESPN) Schlabach: Oklahoma State vs. Colorado McMurphy: Oklahoma vs. Colorado AutoZone Liberty Bowl Liberty Bowl, Memphis, Tennessee Noon Dec. 30 (ESPN) Schlabach: Texas vs. Ole Miss McMurphy: Kentucky vs. TCU Hyundai Sun Bowl Sun Bowl Stadium, El Paso, Texas 2 p.m. Dec. 30 (CBS) Schlabach: Wake Forest vs. Utah McMurphy: Wake Forest vs. Washington State Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl Nissan Stadium, Nashville, Tennessee 3:30 p.m. Dec. 30 (ESPN) Schlabach: Georgia vs. Iowa McMurphy: Georgia vs. Indiana NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl Arizona Stadium, Tucson, Arizona 5:30 p.m. Dec. 30 (Campus Insiders) Schlabach: Northern Illinois vs. Air Force McMurphy: Idaho vs. Air Force Capital One Orange Bowl Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida 8 p.m. Dec. 30 (ESPN) Schlabach: Louisville vs. Ohio State McMurphy: Louisville vs. Michigan Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Florida 11 a.m. Dec. 31 (ABC) Schlabach: Florida State vs. Auburn McMurphy: Florida State vs. Texas A&M TaxSlayer Bowl EverBank Field, Jacksonville, Florida 11 a.m. Dec. 31 (ESPN) Schlabach: Miami vs. Florida McMurphy: Georgia Tech vs. LSU Outback Bowl Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida 1 p.m. Jan. 2 (ABC) Schlabach: Nebraska vs. LSU McMurphy: Nebraska vs. Florida Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas 1 p.m. Jan. 2 (ESPN) Schlabach: Western Michigan vs. Penn State McMurphy: Western Michigan vs. Penn State Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California 5 p.m. Jan. 2 (ESPN) Schlabach: Wisconsin vs. USC McMurphy: Wisconsin vs. USC Allstate Sugar Bowl Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans Jan. 2, 8:30 p.m. (ESPN) Schlabach: Tennessee vs. Oklahoma McMurphy: Tennessee vs. Oklahoma StateIt was back in September when the first leaks showed that HTC is working on a new device called Bolt. Noted tipster Evan Blass leaked renders of the device (in silver colour). The phone is reportedly codenamed Acadia, and is expected to be launched sometime in October. Now a new report suggests HTC Bolt will run the latest Android Nougat 7.0 out of the box. Advertising An HTC ROM developer spoke to Phonearena about the HTC Bolt running the Android Nougat OS. The phone is expected to have the HTC Sense 8 UI over the Android Nougat OS. There has been no information regarding the specs or the features of the device, but if leaked renders are to be believed – the HTC Bolt features a dual card slot on the right side of the device (possibly one for the SIM and the other for expandable memory). The rear of the device features a single camera lens on the top centre with a dual LED flash above it. There are two antenna bands running across the top and bottom of the phone’s back which is similar to the HTC 10 design. The front of the device bears a horizontal home button and the bottom. Read:
invertibility of some cell. This is sensitive to both the click location and the direction of the drag, in a way which should be intuitive. This also allows cells to be cancelled from the top or bottom of a diagram. Clicking and dragging is designed to work as if you were really ‘touching’ the strings. So if you want to braid one strand over another, click the strand to ‘grab’ it, and ‘pull’ it to one side. If you want to pull a vertex through a braiding, click the vertex to ‘grab’ it, and ‘pull’ it up or down through its adjacent braiding. Of course, Globular will only carry out the command if the move you are attempting to make is actually valid in that location. The most common move to perform is a basic interchanger, where two unrelated critical points with adjacent heights have their heights exchanged. Holding the Shift button while clicking-and-dragging tells Globular to only look for basic interchanger moves. This speeds up the processing, and is particularly useful for applying long chains of interchangers. In order to undo any change then click the back button in your browser. This feels very counter-intuitive but trust me it works! Changing the view Globular can currently present string-diagram visualizations of 0-, 1- and 2-dimensional diagrams. Viewing a k k -dimensional diagram for k > 2 k \gt 2 is made possible by projection and slicing, controlled by number scrollers which appear in the top-right of a diagram. Project. This determines the number of dimensions to be projected; it can take any value p p in the range 0 ≤ p ≤ k 0 \leq p \leq k. Projecting a dimension causes it to be effectively ignored by Globular; it is as if you are looking at a shadow of the true image. The resulting diagrams are exactly the singularity graphics which are a common tool in higher Morse theory. This determines the number of dimensions to be projected; it can take any value in the range. Projecting a dimension causes it to be effectively ignored by Globular; it is as if you are looking at a shadow of the true image. The resulting diagrams are exactly the singularity graphics which are a common tool in higher Morse theory. Slice. Having decided to project out p p dimensions, and supposing the image being displayed is v v -dimensional (for v ∈ { 0, 1, 2 } v \in \{0,1,2\} ), that leaves k − p − v k - p - v dimensions still to be handled. If this sum is positive, coordinates must be chosen using the slice controls to position the view within an appropriate v v -dimensional subdiagram. You can also zoom the main diagram using the scroll wheel of your mouse, and scroll around by clicking-and-dragging with the right mouse button (on a Mac trackpad, this is a two-fingered press-hard-and-drag. Yes, this really is a thing. If it doesn’t seem to work, you’re not pressing hard enough—the trackpad should ‘click’ under your fingers.) Technical implementation details Globular is written in Javascript, and performs all its computations client-side, in the browser. Most of the computations it has to perform are linear in the size of the diagram, so this is quite computationally feasible, even for large proofs. The back-end is a Node.js server that allows the saving, sharing and publishing of workspaces. Graphics are implemented in SVG. Project data is compressed using the LZ4 algorithm. Singularities Overview In a 2-category, a 1-cell and a 2-cell can be composed in one direction (horizontal composition), and two 2-cell can be composed in two directions (horizontal and vertical composition.) In general, in a traditional globular n n -category, a p p -cell and an q q -cell can be composed in min ( p, q ) \text{min}(p,q) different directions: along a common boundary 0-cell, or 1-cell, and so on, up to a common boundary ( min ( p, q ) − 1 ) (\text{min}(p,q)-1) -cell. In Globular, composition works differently: a p p -cell and a q q -cell can be composed in just one way: along a common boundary ( min ( p, q ) − 1 ) (\text{min}(p,q)-1) -cell. The reason for this design decision is that in terms of the graphical calculus, of all the different composites that an ordinary globular n n -category allows, this is the only composition that results in a diagram in generic position. Nothing is lost by this restriction, since (conjecturally) the other composites can be recovered up to isomorphism by whiskering, in just the same way that horizontal composition of 2-cells in a 2-category can be expressed in terms of vertical composites and whiskering of 2-cell by identity 1-cell. For every way that Globular doesn’t let you compose cells—that is, for every p, q p,q and every 0 ≤ n < min ( p, q ) 0 \leq n \lt \text{min}(p,q) —there exists a ( p + q − n − 1 ) (p+q-n-1) -cell, which resolves the singularity that would be created if this composite were actually formed. These singularity resolutions manifest in Globular as higher-dimensional cells, which allow parts of a diagram to move around each other; using them effectively is a key part of formalizing higher-dimensional proofs. The main difficulty in the definition of semistrict n n -categories is describing these structures. In this section we list the singularities which Globular recognizes. We organize them by categorical dimension, because to formalize a proof in an n n -category, you may need to make use of every type of k k -category singularity for k ≤ n k \leq n. Also, you can add any fixed natural number to the dimensions involved to get higher-dimensional versions of the same singularities; for example, interchangers arise as the composite of two n n -cells along a common boundary ( n − 2 ) (n-2) -cell. 2-category singularities Interchangers Composite: two 2 2 -cells composed along a common boundary 0-cell, forming a 3-cell resolution. -cells composed along a common boundary 0-cell, forming a 3-cell resolution. Interface: When unprojected, click the vertex to be interchanged and drag it up or down; if the interchanger is ambiguous because the source or target is the identity, then make your drag slightly to the left or right. When projected, grab the wire to be interchanged, and drag in the desired direction. → \mathraisebox{1.8cm}{\to} \qquad\qquad 3-category singularities Naturality of the interchanger in one variable Composite: a 2 2 -cell and a 3 3 -cell composed along a common boundary 0-cell, forming a 4-cell resolution. -cell and a -cell composed along a common boundary 0-cell, forming a 4-cell resolution. Interface: … 4-category singularities Naturality of naturality of the interchanger in one variable Composite: a 2-cell and a 4-cell composed along a common boundary 0-cell, forming a 5-cell resolution. Interface: … Naturality of the interchanger in two variables Composite: two 3-cells composed along a common boundary 0-cell, forming a 5-cell resolution. Interface: … Naturality of invertibility of the interchanger Composite: … Interface: … Contractible 3rd Reidemeisterators Composite: … Interface: … Other features Invertibility A k k -cell f : A → B f:A \to B in an ∞ \infty -category is invertible when there is an inverse cell f − 1 : B → A f ^{-1} : B \to A, and invertible ( k + 1 ) (k+1) -cells μ : id A → f − 1 ∘ f \mu: \mathrm{id}_A \to f ^{-1} \circ f and ν : id B → f ∘ f − 1 u: \mathrm{id}_B \to f \circ f ^{-1}. This is a co-inductive definition, giving rise to an infinite amount of higher-dimensional structure. In Globular, selecting the ‘Invertible’ option for a cell in the signature allows this higher structure to be used in diagrams, by clicking or clicking-and-dragging at a point of a diagram or its boundary. If more than one piece of higher invertible structure could be inserted at the location of the click, a menu is presented and the user can choose which is intended. When you move your pointer over a diagram, a little label will pop up telling you what’s underneath the pointer. Doing this near a vertex, you will see that Globular isn’t really aware that the lines curve, so you will need to take care when clicking or clicking-and-dragging that Globular is correctly identifying the structure you are trying to interact with. The labels are written using the following syntax, where ‘X’ is some arbitrary label denoting a k k -cell, and where ‘.’ is forward composition of k k -cells. Note that every comma increases the dimension by 1. ‘X inverse’ describes the k k -cell which is the inverse of X X -cell which is the inverse of ‘X, insert’ describes the canonical ( k + 1 ) (k+1) -cell of type id s ( X ) → X. X − 1 \text{id} _{s(X)} \to X. X^{-1} -cell of type ‘X, cancel’ describes the canonical ( k + 1 ) (k+1) -cell of type X. X − 1 → id s ( X ) X. X^{-1} \to \text{id} _{s(X)} -cell of type ‘Interchanger’ describes the height-exchange cell ‘Pull-through interchanger above’, ‘Pull-through interchanger underneath’, ‘Pull-through inverse interchanger above’ and ‘Pull-through inverse interchanger underneath’ describe the 4 different ways that a cell can be pulled through an interchanger Note that interchangers are of dimension at least 3, and pull-throughs are of dimension at least 4. Theorems The theorem command allows a diagram to be stored, in a such way that it can be reused as a component in subsequent diagrams. The idea is that the diagram is a ‘theorem’ proving that its source can be rewritten into its target. The ‘proof’ is the diagram itself. Concretely, let D D be the current diagram, which is k k -dimensional, and let s ( D ) s(D) and t ( D ) t(D) be its source and target ( k − 1 ) (k-1) -diagrams. Then the theorem command command creates two new generators: A k k -generator T T with source s ( D ) s(D) and target t ( D ) t(D) -generator with source and target An invertible ( k + 1 ) (k+1) -generator P P with source T T and with target D D The generator T T can be used in future proofs to ‘stand in’ for the diagram D D. At any point, the generator P P can be used to replace T T with the content of diagram D D. Since P P is invertible, it could also be used to identify D D as a subdiagram of a larger proof, and replace it with T T, making the larger proof easier to understand. Coordinates Composites produced by Globular are in generic position; for example, no two vertices ever appear at the same height. As a result, there is a simple coordinate system that can be used to refer to elements of a diagram. For a k k -dimensional cell in an n n -dimensional diagram, ( n − k + 1 ) (n-k+1) coordinates must be provided; that is, the number of coordinates is the codimension of the cell, plus 1. Moving the mouse cursor over a diagram in the screen shows the coordinate of the element underneath the cursor. The coordinate system for an n n -diagram is defined in the following way. An n n -cell at height y y has coordinate [ y ] [y]. A k k -cell for k < n k \lt n has leading coordinate given by its height z z in the diagram, and subsequent coordinates given by its coordinates in the slice diagram at that height. ReferencesChristopher de Bellaigue, a journalist who has spent much of his working life in the Middle East, has grown tired of people throwing up their hands in horror at Isis, Erdogan and Islamic terror, and declaring that the region is backward and in need of a thorough western-style reformation. As he argues in this timely book, the Islamic world has been coming to terms with modernity in its own often turbulent way for more than two centuries. And we’d better understand it, because it’s an interesting story, and often a positive one — the way vast crowds streamed onto the streets of Cairo, Istanbul and Tehran in demonstrations against authoritarian rule over the past decade, for example. Western-style participatory democracy remains the dream of the man and woman in the souk. Globalisation means that technical innovation and modern ideas cannot help seeping across borders. And Islam is a notably broad church, by no means totally uncompromising: witness the popularity of the Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen who, from American exile, preaches inter-religious accord while being accused of trying to overthrow the Turkish state. De Bellaigue approaches his subject largely through those three cities — Cairo, Islam’s intellectual centre with its famous though often sclerotic Al Azhar university; Istanbul, once capital of the vast inter-denominational Ottoman empire which straddled Europe and Asia; and Tehran, the furthest from the West, with its powerful Shia tradition. Back in our own Dark Ages, Abbasid openness to science and philosophy provided a bridge between ancient Greece and Renaissance Europe. However, these advances were reversed as ijtihad, or independent reasoning, gave way to taqlid, or emulation of authority. The razing of the Galata Observatory in Istanbul in 1580 epitomised a waning intellectual curiosity. The Islamic world was forced to deal with the post-Enlightenment West after Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt in 1798. His ambitious Description of Egypt signalled purpose, which bore lasting fruit in developments such as a medical college in Cairo, run by the French surgeon Antoine Barthélemy Clot. Stung by a sense of cultural inadequacy, the cleric Hassan al-Attar was one of several Egyptians who travelled in search of knowledge to Europe, where he concluded that the Quranic ban on body dissection was wrong. The scholar Rifaa al-Tahtawi oversaw the translation of over 2,000 European and Turkish books. Rulers like the Khedive Ismail Pasha underpinned such initiatives with infrastructural projects, including hospitals, railways and the Suez Canal. But he also copied the West’s baser habits in his profligacy. The country’s parlous finances allowed Britain and France to extend control, sparking incipient nationalism which led to Colonel Ahmed Urabi’s revolt in 1879. Opposition to western intellectual and economic hegemony has played a significant part in the Islamic revival ever since. It was a similar story with the Tanzimat reforms in Turkey and the progressive teachings of Babi and his successor Bahaullah, the founder of Bahaism, in Iran, which enjoyed a constitutional revolution in 1905. The first world war boosted national awareness across the region, confirming, from an Islamic perspective, the West’s appetite for territorial and economic gain at the expense of the rights of the populations involved. The convulsions of 1914–18 proved particularly important in Turkey, which, shorn of an empire, underwent a secular nationalist catharsis under Ataturk. Leaders such as Reza Shah in Iran and Colonel Nasser in Egypt followed similar paths: western-style development was still the aim. But as de Bellaigue points out, the aspirations of potentates were not always shared by the masses. In charting the emergence of an alternative Muslim approach to the world, he summons up intriguing characters such the canny Iranian born Jamal al-Din Afghani, who travelled the world developing a spirit of pan-Islamism. Out of Egypt came Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Conan Doyle-loving Sayyid Qutb, whose studies in innocuous sounding Greeley, Colorado, left him frothing about American permissiveness while developing incisive ideas about the lack of spirituality at the heart of western civilisation. In Iran a different spin came from Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, a former communist whose 1962 book Gharbzadegi (variously translated as Westoxication, Westernstruck and Occidentosis) has, de Bellaigue says, taken its place with Qutb’s Milestones and Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth as one of the three most influential anti-western political tracts. Al-e-Ahmad argued that the West’s cult of the machine had undermined traditional village-based Quranic values. Add to this a strong Shia sense of resistance to injustice, articulated by the sociologist Ali Shariati, and you have the wellsprings of Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution in 1979. Meanwhile, Qutb’s ideas were steeled by the concept of takfir, which held that a state or individual could be declared apostate and deserving of death. This disputed theory was adopted by al-Jihad, the group responsible for the assassination of President Sadat in 1981, and, more recently, by Isis. De Bellaigue is happy to describe this as Counter-Enlightenment. But he is convinced there is a parallel story, and developments such as the moderate Hassan Rouhani becoming President of Iran show an underlying respect for democracy and the individual. He skilfully conveys the curious game – part confrontation, part balancing act — which has been played out between western dominion and Islamic Renaissance. While generally critical of the former, he has written a sweeping and hugely engaging book that throws much-needed light on modern Islam.Funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada allows UWindsor researchers to pursue their lines of inquiry, says the recipient of a $210,000 Discovery Grant announced Monday. Aaron Fisk, a professor in the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research and Canada Research Chair in Trophic Ecology, also received a further $110,000 for a shallow draft boat to conduct work near to shore. “This funding will allow my research team to study the mechanisms and processes that shape the aquatic ecosystems of the Great Lakes and Arctic,” he said. “Ultimately this research will contribute to protecting the valuable ecosystem services they provide, ensuring Canadians continue to enjoy and benefit from our vast aquatic resources.” Dr. Fisk’s award was part of $3.5 million for UWindsor researchers announced Monday on campus by Ed Holder, minister of state for science and technology. Those funds include Discovery Grants, Discovery Accelerator Supplements, Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships, Postgraduate Scholarships and Postdoctoral Fellowships, part of a $340 million commitment to more than 3,500 researchers and students across Canada. “Our government is providing the right kind of help to push the frontiers of knowledge in science and engineering and ensure Canada’s leadership for years to come,” Holder said. “In so doing, we are developing, attracting and retaining the world’s most talented researchers who carry out the scientific research that creates jobs and prosperity and improves the quality of life of Canadians.” UWindsor president Alan Wildeman extended congratulations to all the University’s research grant recipients. “Research and the knowledge it inspires are vital to understanding the world around us and to uncovering ideas and innovations that address matters related to health, the environment, sustainability and more,” Dr. Wildeman said. “I thank NSERC for its ongoing support.” The Discovery Grants are distributed over five years. This year’s UWindsor recipients include: Walid Abdul-Kader, “Optimal Design and Operations of Reverse Logistics Enterprises” Percy Brill, “Stochastic Methods and Models in Operations Research and Related Areas” Xiang Chen, “Robust and Optimal Control of Physical Systems with Networked Communication Structures” Stephan Eichhorn, “Design, synthesis, and properties of self-organizing dyes” Robin Gras, “Machine Learning and Individual-Based Simulation for Theoretical Biology” Daniel Heath, “Evolutionary Genetics of Early Life History Variation in Salmon: Non-additive Genetic Effects and Local Adaptation” Jerald Lalman,“Microbial methane production using intermedeiates produced from the photocatalytic reforming of lignincellulosics” Chris Lee, “Understanding Passenger Car-Heavy Vehicle Interactions and Conflicts on Roadways for Developing Proactive Traffic Safety Strategies” Jianguo Lu, “Mining Online Social Networks and Hidden Web Data Sources by Sampling” John McConkey, “Electron and photon collision phenomena in atoms and molecules” Mitra Mirhassani, “Real-Time Signal Processing using Hardware Implementation of Bio-Inspired Systems” Xueyuan Nie, “Development of Nanostructured Coatings for Lightweight Materials with Enhanced Properties” Sévérien Nkurunziza, “Optimal Inference in model subject to changes and modeling in ecological systems via differential equations” Ali Polat, “Petrogenetic and geodynamic investigation of Archean anorthosite-bearing layered intrusion and greenstone belt associations: implications for the early evolution of the Earth” Lisa Porter, “Role of Tuberin in Mitotic Progression” Luis Rueda, “Integrative machine learning methods for prediction of protein-protein interactions and analysis of the dynamics of interactomes” Christina Semeniuk, “The role of behavioural plasticity in shaping the responses of organisms to the cumulative effects of multiple stressors” Michael Siu, “Gas-Phase Chemistry of Biological and Metal-Containing Ions” Edwin Tam, “Complex Consumer Products, their Impacts on End-of-Life Waste Management, and Extended Producer Responsibility” Guoqing Zhang, “Supply Chain Configuration and Optimization for Dual-Channel Commerce” Barbara Zielinski, “Activation and connectivity in the olfactory system of a basal vertebrate” The Discovery Grants Program funds research in science and engineering disciplines to build a broad base of capacity across Canada.There’s a long list of Star Wars videogames that never reached gamers, and today brings us more information on a proposed “sequel” to the Star Wars movies (at the time) which could have made many Expanded Universe fans happy. Come inside to learn more about Shadows of the Sith! Over the last few months, I've had the good fortune to chat with former LucasArts developers about Star Wars games we all enjoyed. Even more exciting, however, has been the fact that they've revealed some never before heard details on Star Wars games that never saw the light of day. It's been a bittersweet process (as some of these would have been amazing to play), but very enlightening as to the goings on within LucasArts at the time. Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts released in 2008 and revealed some logos for various games that never developed beyond initial ideas/pitches (though it didn’t get a bunch of attention until more recently). As I’ve been digging more and more into Star Wars games which never saw the light of day, I was intrigued specifically by one title: Star Wars Episode VII: Shadows of the Sith. Obviously this was an idea long before the reality of a seventh Star Wars movie was established. Nonetheless, I was curious to know more about how the developers wanted to tackle the idea. Since there's been no real information (aside from the logo) released, I reached out to former LucasArts creative director Haden Blackman to see if he could shed some light on the game: "I know everything about it, since it was my basic concept. In late 2004, we were focus testing/developing a ton of different concepts — over two dozen in all over about a 6 month period. To focus test, I basically just wrote up a 'one-sheet' — a brief description of the game, with a bit of concept art and a logo added. “We developed a bunch of logos for this exercise, and sometimes used similar names for slight variations in setting or features so we could do A/B testing (does a concept test better when it’s called out that it’s M-rated? Does the time period make a difference if all other features at the same? etc.). Ultimately, it was a good motivation to generate a ton of different ideas in a short amount of time, but it really just validated what we already knew — the vast majority of gamers wanted to be a Jedi/Force wielder, and the setting, story, even the core features were secondary to that." This certainly explains all those logos we've seen and is an interesting look at how LucasArts was developing ideas for future Star Wars games. The timeframe here is also interesting, meaning the initial idea for Shadows of the Sith came about BEFORE Revenge of the Sith hit theaters. Back then, of course, George Lucas was adamant that Star Wars movies would end with the Prequels, so the game would have served as the sequel fans wanted (hence the Episode VII title). What would it have been about though? "Episode VII: Shadows of the Sith would have put you in the role of an adult Ben Skywalker," Haden explained, "who was walking the line between the light and dark sides of the Force, unleashing new Force powers never-before-seen in games or movies as he investigated a new threat to the galaxy (a Solo…)." If you hadn't read the previous Star Wars Expanded Universe books, Ben Skywalker was Luke's son with Mara Jade, who was born during the New Jedi Order book series. His first appearance/birth happened in Edge of Victory: Rebirth (2001) and he became a more central character in the galaxy in subsequent books. Shadows of the Sith, then, would have tied into the books AND movies while still forging its own path. It's also interesting that the villain would have been an Solo child, something that eventually happened in the books and even within Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I guess Lucasfilm just has it out for the Solo children.... Since the idea was thought up in 2004, long before the Disney merger was even a thought, how come it never happened? Blackman explained: "Again, most of these were just short, on-paper pitches, which I wrote. The only one that had more traction — dozens of design documents, concept art, and even a few prototypes and pre-vis videos — was Scum and Villainy, a bounty hunter game. "Eventually, I ended up pulling elements from several of the pitches to craft the pitch for The Force Unleashed. As we wrapped up TFU, I started working on some new concepts and revisited the far-future concept under the name “Shadow of the Sith.” The Darth Maul idea was also briefly resurrected after TFU2, and different versions of 1313 reused either the Underworld or Scum & Villainy codenames." Basically, the ideas of using new Force powers and balancing between the Light and Dark was folded into The Force Unleashed games. By the time he was revisiting the idea, it was too late. Not to mention the fact that Haden left LucasArts shortly before Force Unleashed 2 released. For fans of the Expanded Universe who read all the books (like me), it would have been very neat to play around in a game starring a character who'd only been in the books so far. I would have loved the opportunity, but considering the state of things now, it's probably for the best it never came to pass. Regardless, it's yet another Star Wars game we can add to the massive list of titles we never got the chance to see. What do you guys think about this idea? Is it something you would have enjoyed playing? Once again, huge thanks to Haden Blackman taking time out of his schedule to chat with me. If you missed his previous conversation with us on the site, be sure to check it out. -JordanLos Angeles (CNN) -- Rapper M-Bone of the group Cali Swag District died Sunday night in what police said was a drive-by shooting in his hometown, Inglewood, California. M-Bone, whose real name was Montae Talbert, was sitting in a car in the 400 block of North LaBrea Avenue when a car pulled up next to his and someone fired two rounds that struck the rapper in his head, Inglewood Police Lt. Steve Overly said Monday. Talbert, 22, died later at a hospital, Overly said. Preliminary reports on the model of car that was involved have not been confirmed, he said. Cali Swag District's biggest hip-hop hit came in 2010 with the song "Teach Me How to Dougie." Greg Miller, the rap group's representative, said Talbert was "the victim of a random act of violence." The rapper "was an inspiration to his family, friends and fans," Miller said. "He was a hardworking, passionate artist and dancer who will be sorely missed."Oklahoma Highway Patrol Michael Tate Reed Although Michael Tate Reed professed to be a Satanist and told officials that Satan directed him to commit a crime, his mother maintains that he is a devout Christian. Reed reportedly urinated on a Ten Commandments monument on Thursday before ramming into it with his car. His mother, Crystal Tucker, stated that he was "attracted" to the monument because of his strong faith. The six-foot-tall monument had stood in front of the Oklahoma City capitol building for two years, but was smashed into pieces after the act of vandalism. Tucker said that after a work-related injury four years ago, her son began having "breakdowns." "The one thing that is foremost in his mind, his religion, is the thing he takes it out on," she told KOCO-TV. "A statue of the Ten Commandments would be something that would attract him. Anyone who knows Michael, knows he loves his God. Right now, everyone is praying for him." Reed, 29, was detained on Friday after arriving at an Oklahoma City federal building and making disparaging remarks about President Obama. He also admitted to the act of vandalism committed Thursday night. "He said Satan told him to do it, and that he was a Satanist," Secret Service agent David Allison told the Associated Press. Tucker emphatically denied that her son is a Satanist. "He would never deface something that meant so much to him," she insisted. "He takes the Ten Commandments very seriously. He has been very Christian his entire adult life." Region 8 News/Twitter The Ten Commandments Monument outside of the Oklahoma City capitol building was destroyed on the evening of Oct. 23. Reed was charged with destruction of state property or improvements, indecent exposure, making threatening statements, reckless driving, operating a vehicle with a revoked license, four counts of felony assault, and battery with a dangerous weapon. The Ten Commandments monument is also the subject of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. A judge decided last month that the monument does not violate the state's constitution, and the ACLU has filed an appeal. The Satanic Temple planned to erect a Baphomet statue near the Ten Commandments monument, and stated that their plans will proceed if the monument is rebuilt. Governor Mary Fallin has said that she will help raise funds to rebuild the monument.During a softball interview with Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, MSNBC gave Richards the assist by using debunked pro-PP statistics in their chyron. Richards was interviewed on “Morning Joe” Wednesday and the hosts avoided any difficult questions about the debate over abortion rights or about Planned Parenthood’s cancer-related services declining. “From your point of view, what is [Republican’s] apparent obsession with Planned Parenthood?” Mike Barnicle asked helpfully. “Are there places where Planned Parenthood is the only option?” Mika Brzezinski lobbed to Richards. The only question related to abortion at all came from Willie Geist, who asked if Richards would ever consider President Trump’s proposal that Planned Parenthood stop providing abortions so they can continue to receive federal funding. During Richards’ answer, MSNBC assisted her by putting up a chyron with a favorable, but false, statistic about Planned Parenthood. “Data: Only 3% Of Planned Parenthood Services Go To Abortion Services,” the chyron incorrectly stated. WATCH: The idea that only 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services are abortions has been thoroughly debunked and even received three “Pinocchios” from The Washington Post’s fact checker. Planned Parenthood unbundles all of the services it provides, so even if a woman comes in for one standard check-up but receives an STD test, a Pap smear, and a pack of birth control pills, she will be counted as receiving three services. (VIDEO: MSNBC Host Fudges Facts On Planned Parenthood) As the Post explained, “The 3 percent figure that Planned Parenthood uses is misleading, comparing abortion services to every other service that it provides. The organization treats each service — pregnancy test, STD test, abortion, birth control — equally.” “Yet there are obvious difference between a surgical (or even medical) abortion, and offering a urine (or even blood) pregnancy test,” the Post wrote. “These services are not all comparable in how much they cost or how extensive the service or procedure is.” The true statistic, some estimate, is that abortion services provided are somewhere between 15 percent and 37 percent of Planned Parenthood’s overall services. (VIDEO: MSNBC Host Goes After The Daily Caller, Fails Miserably) Even left-leaning Slate published an article calling the 3 percent statistic “the most meaningless abortion statistic ever.” As that piece explains, Planned Parenthood receives at least a third of its income from abortion procedures, meaning those services are hardly a small or insignificant part of the organization. Follow Amber on TwitterProf. Dr. Mohrdieck (Daimler): “In the long term I expect a diversification of drivetrains and fuels” cH2ange Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 28, 2017 This is the second part of a two-part interview with Prof. Dr. Mohrdieck, Daimler’s Fuel Cell Director. Here the discussion focuses on extending the network of hydrogen refueling stations, the development of different drivetrains and issues such as carbon emissions, renewable energy and the possible innovations of tomorrow. Prof. Dr. Christian Mohrdieck, Daimler’s Fuel Cell Director. Are hydrogen-refueling facilities usually provided through new purpose-built stations or added to existing refueling stations? Our main approach involves what we call multi-fuel or multi-energy stations, which means having an additional hydrogen pump at existing gas stations. These stations then provide up to five different fuels: gasoline, diesel, CNG, chargers and hydrogen. This is the most cost effective solution. You don’t have to look for land to build a new station, but can simply identify the most appropriate existing stations where a hydrogen pump can be added. Some local governments, such as in Hamburg for example, have taken an even more aggressive approach. Here an oil company wanted to install a new gasoline station. The local government agreed but on the condition that the station provided hydrogen refueling facilities as well. Do you think in future we will see the coexistence of different fuels or is one likely to dominate? In the long term I foresee a diversification of drivetrains and fuels, depending on the application. For example, if you need to commute to work and back home in the evening, let’s say 30km each way, then a battery electric vehicle is a very good solution. You can recharge it at home overnight and many employers offer charging at the workplace. But if you need to drive long distances, perhaps in a business premium Sedan, traveling across Europe, Germany or other countries, then you’ll want shorter refueling times and a long range, so you’ll probably choose a fuel cell car. So I see a coexistence of the different technologies in the mid and long-term. Intelligent drive train solutions for all vehicle classes — from small passenger cars to trucks. Electric vehicles: smart fortwo electric drive, smart BRABUS electric drive, B 200 e, SLS AMG Coupé Electric Drive, B-Class F-CELL & prototypes GLC F-CELL and smart fortwo electric drive / Plug-in-Hybrids: S 500 e, C 350 e Sedan and Estate, E 350 e, GLC 350 e 4MATIC, GLC 350 e Coupé 4MATIC, GLE 500 e 4MATIC, © Daimler AG “Fuel cell vehicles will reach higher production numbers soon.” It should be noted that high volume production has already started with battery electric vehicles, so at this point in time they are already further down the high volume production curve. My expectation is that fuel cell vehicles will reach higher production numbers soon. Judging by recent announcements in the media, this view is shared by Japanese companies such as Toyota. “If you make hydrogen from natural gas by steam reforming and then use this hydrogen in fuel cell vehicles, the well-to-wheel CO2 emissions are still about 25% lower than with gasoline.” How do you address some of the negative points raised by the media about the use of hydrogen, such as carbon emissions from hydrogen production and efficiency? Regarding carbon emissions, we need to put this into perspective. If you make hydrogen from natural gas by steam reforming and then use this hydrogen in fuel cell vehicles, the well-to-wheel CO2 emissions, so that’s across the whole life cycle, are still about 25% lower than with gasoline. So even moving to hydrogen made from CNG is a big first step. This reduction is due to the fact that the fuel cell is twice as efficient as an ICE. It is an electrochemical device and therefore not limited by what engineers call the Carnot efficiency, which is an upper limit to the efficiency of thermodynamic processes.Although much of the Republicans'"Pledge to America" is given over to a discussion of economic issues, there is one topic that is never mentioned: the dramatic rise in income inequality. As with global warming, Republicans seem to have decided that the best way to deal with this fundamental challenge is to deny it exists. If you asked Americans how much of the nation's pretax income goes to the top 10 percent of households, it is unlikely they would come anywhere close to 50 percent, which is where it was just before the bubble burst in 2007. That's according to groundbreaking research by
Ph.D. (Biochemical Institute, The University of Texas, Austin, USA); Pierre M. Stassart (Associate Professor, Université de Liège, Belgium); Rosemary Mason (MB ChB FRCA); Dott. Ernesto Burgio (President of ISDE Scientific Committee, Italy); Dr. Narciso Barrera-Bassols (Investigador Nacional SNI II, Unión de Científicos Comprometidos con la Sociedad (UCCS), México); Jacques Hallard (Ing. CNAM, France); Jérôme Enjalbert (INRA, FRANCE); Rupa Patel, MD,FCFP (Queens University, Canada); Carlos Sonnenschein MD (Tufts University School of Medicine, USA); Bruno Gasparini (Coordenador do Curso de Direito do Instituto Superior do Litoral do Paraná, Paranaguá – Paraguay); Rod Toms (Ret. Lecturer in Biological Sciences Cornwall College); Cristine Carole Muggler (Associate Professor, Soil Science Department, Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil); Valério Pillar (Professor Titular, Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil); David Quist (Senior Scientist, Centre for Biosafety, Tromsø, Norway); Emilia Wanda Rutkowski, University of Campinas, Brasil); Raoni Japiassu Merisse (Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade – ICMBio, Brazil); Marc Mathieu (Research scientist, Inserm, France); Prof. Jorge A Quillfeldt (Biophysics Dept, IB / UFRGS, Brazil); Adelheid Kresse, PhD (Medical University Graz, Austria); Paul Connett, PhD (Prof. Emeritus of Chemistry, Director, American Environmental Health Studies Project, USA); Thomas Kesteman, MD, MPH (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium/Université Aix-Marseille II, France/Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, Madagascar); Juan Carlos Martínez García, PhD (Professor, Advanced Studies and Research Center of the National Polytechnic Institut of Mexico -Cinvestav/IPN-, México); Benjamin Bathfield, (PhD student at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Mexico); Jan Diek van Mansvelt, (ret. Wageningen University (NL) and Timirazev University (Moscow, Russia); Anna Milena Zivian, Ph.D (Ocean Conservancy); Dr. Peter Weish (Institut für Zoologie der Universität für Bodenkultur, Wien, Austria); Prof. Fábio Kessler Dal Soglio (Faculdade de Agronomia – UFRGS; Porto Alegre, Brasil); Kristin Vala Ragnarsdottir (Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland); Harald Sverdrup (Professor of Chemical Engineering, Lund University, Sweden); Abdybek J. Asanaliev (PhD Kyrgyz National Agrarian University); Dr. Mohamed Shahin (Professor of Embryology, Ain Shams University, CAIRO, EGYPT); Marcos Pereira (Acadêmico de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, Brazil); Dr. Claus Fütterer (Biophysical Tools GmbH). and if you are a scientist or academic and would like your name added to this list, please email: isneditor (at) bioscienceresource.org and write ‘Seralini letter’ in the headline, providing an affiliation if you wish. Footnotes (1) In addition, US scientists who publish studies finding adverse environmental effects are frequently vehemently attacked by other pro-GM scientists. As a report in Nature, which discusses numerous examples, points out, “Papers suggesting that biotech crops might harm the environment attract a hail of abuse from other scientists. Behind the attacks are scientists who are determined to prevent papers they deem to have scientific flaws from influencing policy-makers. When a paper comes out in which they see problems, they react quickly, criticize the work in public forums, write rebuttal letters, and send them to policy-makers, funding agencies and journal editors” (pg. 27 in Waltz. 2009a. Indeed, when one of us wrote a Commentary in Nature Biotechnology ten years ago suggesting that more attention needs to be paid to the potential unintended effects associated with insertional mutagenesis, we received a flood of responses, and an administrator at the Salk Institute even said that the publication “was jeopardizing funding for his institution” (see Waltz, 2009a). Similar attacks have greeted studies on adverse effects of Bt toxins on ladybird beetles and green lacewing larvae, which were used by German authorities to ban cultivation of Mon810, a Bt corn variety (see: Hilbeck et al. 2012a,b, respectively). In 2009, a group of 26 public sector corn entomologists sent a letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency which stated “No truly independent research can be legally conducted on many critical questions involving these crops [because of company-imposed restrictions]” (pg. 880 in Waltz, 2009b; it was no surprise that the letter was sent anonymously as the scientists feared retribution from the companies that funded their work (Pollack, 2009). Furthermore, industry control over what research can be conducted in the US means that adverse findings can effectively be suppressed. In one example cited in the article, Pioneer was developing a binary Bt toxin, Cry34Ab1/Cry35Ab1, against the corn rootworm. In 2001, Pioneer contracted with some university laboratories to test for unintended effects on a lady beetle. The laboratories found that 100% of the lady beetles died after eight days of feeding. Pioneer forbade the researchers from publicizing the data. Two years later Pioneer received approval for a Bt corn variety with Cry34Ab1/Cry35Ab1 and submitted studies showing that lady beetles fed the toxin for only 7 days were not harmed. The scientists were not allowed to redo the study after the crop was commercialized (Waltz, 2009b). In another example, Dow AgroSciences threatened a researcher with legal action if he published information he had received from US EPA. As the article notes, “The information concerned an insect-resistant variety of maize known as TC1507, made by Dow and Pioneer. The companies suspended sales of TC1507 in Puerto Rico after discovering in 2006 that an armyworm had developed resistance to it. Tabashnik was able to review the report the companies filed with the EPA by submitting a Freedom of Information Act request. “I encouraged an employee of the company [Dow] to publish the data and mentioned that, alternatively, I could cite the data,” says Tabashnik. “He told me that if I cited the information…I would be subject to legal action by the company,” he says. “These kinds of statements are chilling” (pg. 882 in Waltz, 2009b). References Amnesty International. 2010. Argentina: Threats deny community access to research UA: 173/10 Index: AMR 13/005/2010 Argentina Date: 12 August 2010 Andree, Peter. 2006. An analysis of efforts to improve genetically modified food regulation in Canada. Science and Public Policy 33(5):399-389. Antoniou, Michael., Paolo Brack, Andres Carrasco, John Fagan, Mohamed Habib, Paolo Kageyama, Carlo Leifert, Rubens Nodari, Walter Pengue. 2010. GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible? GLS Gemeinschaftsbank and ARGE Gentechnik-frei. Carmen, Tim. 2012. French scientists question safety of GM corn. Washington Post 19 Sept 2012. Delborne, Jason. 2008. Transgenes and transgressions: scientific dissent as heterogeneous practice. Social Studies of Science 38(4):509-541 Domingo, Jose L. 2007. Toxicity studies of genetically modified plants: a review of the published literature. Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 47:721–733 Enserink, Martin. 2012. France and European Commission order review of controversial GM study in rats. ScienceInsider 21 Sept 2012 Ermakova, Irina. 2007. GM soybeans: revisiting a controversial format. Nature Biotech 25:1351-1354 Ewen, Stanley W.B. and Arpad Pusztai. 1999a Effect of diets containing genetically modified potatoes expressing Galanthus nivalis lectin on rat small intestine. The Lancet 354 (9187):1353-1354 Ewen, Stanley W.B. and Arpad Pusztai. 1999b. Health risks of genetically modified foods. The Lancet 354(Issue 9179):684. HYPERLINK ” Freese, W. and D. Schubert. 2004. Safety Testing and Regulation of Genetically Engineered Foods. Biotechnol Genet Eng Rev 21:299-324 Gaivão I, Guilherme S, M.A. Santos MA, M. Pacheco. 2012. DNA damage in fish (Anguilla anguilla) exposed to a glyphosate-based herbicide — elucidation of organ-specificity and the role of oxidative stress. Mutat Res 18;743(1-2):1-9. Hammond, Bruce, John L Vicini, Cary F. Hartnell, Mark W. Naylor, Christopher D. Knight, Edwin H. Robinson, Roy L. Fuchs and Stephen R. Padgette. 1996. The feeding value of soybeans fed to rats, chickens, catfish and dairy cattle is not altered by genetic incorporation of glyphosate tolerance. J. Nutr. 126:717-272 Hammond, B., R. Dudek, J. Lemen, M. Nemeth. 2004. Results of a 13 week safety assurance study with rats fed grain from glyphosate tolerant corn. Food Chem Toxicol 42:1003–1014 Hammond, B., R. Dudek, J. Lemen, M. Nemeth. 2006. Results of a 90-day safety assurance study with rats fed grain from corn borer-protected corn. Food Chem Toxicol 44:1092–1099 Heinemann, J.A. and Traavik, T. 2007. GM soybeans—revisiting a controversial format. Nature Biotech 25: 1355-1356 Heinemann, J. A., B. Kurenbach, B. and D. Quist. 2011. Molecular profiling — a tool for addressing emerging gaps in the comparative risk assessment of GMOs. Env. Int. 37: 1285-1293. Hilbeck, A., J.M. McMillan, M. Meier, A. Humbel, J. Schläpfer-Miller and M. Trtikova. 2012. A controversy revisited: Is the coccinellid Adalia bipunctata adversely affected by Bt toxins? Environmental Sciences Europe, 24:10 Hilbeck, A., M. Meier and M. Trtikova. 2012. Underlying reasons of the controversy over adverse effects of Bt toxins on lady beetle and lacewing larvae. Environmental Sciences Europe, 24:9. Hirschler, Ben and Kate Kelland. 2012. Study on Monsanto GM corn concerns draws skepticism. Reuters: Ed UK 20 Sept 2012 Kelly, David, Robert Poulin, Daniel M. Tompkins and Colin R. Townsend. 2010. Synergistic effects of glyphosate formulation and parasite infection on fish malformations and survival. J. Appl. Ecol. 47(2): 498-504 Laidlaw, Stuart. 2003. Ch. 4 What’s Good for GM. In: Secret Ingredients. McClelland and Stewart Ltd., Toronto. Latham, Jonathan and Allison Wilson. 2007. What is Nature Biotechnology good for? Independent Science News 4 Dec 2007. MacKenzie, Debora. 2012. Study linking GM crops and cancer questioned. New Scientist 19 Sept 2012. MacKenzie and 12 others. 2007. Thirteen week feeding study with transgenic maize grain containing event DAS-Ø15Ø7-1 in Sprague–Dawley rats. Food Chem. Toxicol. 45:551–562 Malley and 14 others. 2007. Subchronic feeding study of DAS-59122-7 maize grain in Sprague-Dawley rats. Food Chem. Toxicol. 45:1277–1292 Mestel, Rosie. 2012. Study points to health problems with genetically modified foods. LA Times 20 Sept 2012 Paganelli, Alejandra, Victoria Gnazzo, Helena Acosta, Silvia L. Lopez, and Andres E. Carrasco. 2010. Glyphosate-based herbicides produce teratogenic effects on vertebrates by impairing retinoic acid signaling. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 23(10):1586–1595 Pelletier, D. 2005. Science, Law, and Politics in the Food and Drug Administration’s Genetically Engineered Foods Policy: FDA’s 1992 Policy Statement. Nutr. Rev. 63:171-181 Pollack, Andrew. 2009. Crop scientists say biotechnology seed companies are thwarting research. New York Times 19 Feb 2009. Pollack, Andrew. 2012. Foes of modified corn find support in a study. New York Times 19 Sept 2012. Poulter, Sean. 2012. Cancer row over GM foods as study says it did THIS to rats… and can cause organ damage and early death in humans. Mail OnLine 19 Sept 2012. Pusztai, Arpad. 2001. Genetically Modified Foods: Are They a Risk to Human/Animal Health? American Institute of Biological Sciences Pusztai, A,, S. Bardocz, and S.W.B. Ewen. 2003. Ch. 16. Genetically Modified Foods: Potential Human Health Effects. pp. 347-372. In: J.P.F. D’Mello (ed) Food Safety: Contaminants and Toxins. CAB International 472 pp. Quist, David and Ignacio Chapela. 2001. Transgenic DNA introgressed into traditional maize landraces in Oaxaca, Mexico. Nature 414 (6863): 541–543 Revkin, Andrew. 2012. Single-Study Syndrome and the G.M.O. Fight. New York Times 20 Sept 2012 HYPERLINK “” http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/the-gmo-food-fight-rats-cancer-and-single-study-syndrome/ Romano M.A., R.M. Romano, L.D. Santos, P. Wisniewski, D.A. Campos, P.B. de Souza, P. Viau, M.M. Bernardi, M.T. Nunes, C.A. de Oliveira. 2012. Glyphosate impairs male offspring reproductive development by disrupting gonadotropin expression. Arch. Toxicol. 86(4):663-73. RSC (Royal Society of Canada). 2001. Elements of Precaution: Recommendations for the Regulation of Food Biotechnology In Canada Science Media Centre. 2012. Study on cancer and GM maize – experts respond. Posted 20 Sept 2012. Schubert, David. 2002. A different perspective on GM food. Nature Biotech. 20: 969 Séralini, G-E., E. Clair, R. Mesnage, S. Gress, N. Defarge, M. Malatesta, D. Hennequin, J. Spiroux de Vendômois. 2012. Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize. Food Chem. Toxicol. 50: 4221–4231. Snell, C., A. Bernheim, J-B. Berge, M. Kuntz, G. Pascal, A. Paris, and A.E. Ricroch. 2012. Assessment of the health impact of GM plant diets in long-term and multigenerational animal feeding trials: A literature review. Food Chem. Toxicol. 50:1134-1148 Spiroux de Vendômois, J., F. Roullier, D. Cellier, and G.-E. Séralini. 2009. A Comparison of the Effects of Three GM Corn Varieties on Mammalian Health. Int. J. Biol. Sci. 5(7):706–726 Waltz, E. 2009a. Battlefield. Nature 461: 27-32. Waltz, E. 2009b. Under Wraps. Nature Biotechnology 27(10): 880-882. Worstall, Tim. 2012. Proof Perfect That The Seralini Paper On GM Corn And Cancer In Rats Is Rubbish. Forbes 21 Sept 2012. If this article was useful to you please consider sharing it with your networks.IRBIL, Iraq — A U.S. warplane shot down a Syrian jet on Sunday near the Islamic State-held city of Raqqah, officials said, marking the latest escalation between the U.S. and Syria since the blood-soaked civil war began six years ago. The Pentagon said the U.S.-led coalition took the unprecedented move after a Syrian Su-22 attack aircraft bombed its allies who were fighting Islamic State militants south of the city of Tabqah, roughly 25 miles west of Raqqah. A U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militia fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, is involved in a large-scale offensive on Raqqah, Islamic State’s self-declared capital in Syria. Last month, the militia fighters clawed back Tabqah from Islamic State, but the Islamic State still holds sway in large swaths of the desert areas to the south. About 4:30 p.m., Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar Assad attacked U.S. ground partners in the recently recaptured town of Jadin, south of Tabqah, according to a U.S. military timeline. The assault drove the militia fighters from the town. But the U.S. scrambled aircraft to roar over the battlefield in “a show of force” that halted the pro-government forces’ advance. Because the United States does not communicate with the Syrian military, U.S. commanders called their Russian counterparts on a special hotline set up to ensure that their pilots do not mistakenly run into — or fire upon — each other as they conduct daily bombing runs over Syria. At 6:43 p.m., the Syrian plane dropped bombs near U.S.-allied fighters south of Tabqah, the U.S. military said. A U.S. fighter pilot, who launched from an aircraft carrier stationed in the Mediterranean Sea, identified the Syrian aircraft and shot it down. © U.S. Navy/Seaman Weston A. Mohr/Handout/File Photo via REUTERS An F/A-18E Super Hornet takes off from the flight deck of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Nimitz on October 29, 2016. “The coalition’s mission is to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” the U.S. military statement said, using a common acronym for Islamic State. “The coalition does not seek to fight Syrian regime, Russian, or pro-regime forces partnered with them, but will not hesitate to defend coalition or partner forces from any threat.” A Syrian military statement said its plane had been conducting a combat mission against Islamic State over the village of Resafa, which lies more than five miles southeast of Jadin, and said the U.S. attack resulted in the “loss of the pilot.” “This blatant attack confirms the coordination between the United States and Daesh,” the Syrian statement said, employing the Arabic acronym for Islamic State. “Such aggressions will not bend the Syrian army from its determination to continue the war against Daesh … and restore security and stability.” The shootdown is part of a steady escalation of the U.S. military’s role in Syria. Hundreds of U.S. special operations forces are working alongside Syrian rebels fighting the Islamic State, while U.S. warplanes and a Marine Corps artillery unit provide firepower for the advancing forces on a daily basis. Farther south, near a small military base in the southern Syrian town of Tanf, the U.S. military has conducted three airstrikes in less than a month against what it says are forces directed by the Iranian government and loyal to Assad. The forces, armed with tanks and small arms, have amassed a few dozen miles outside the base that U.S., British and Norwegian special operations forces use as a staging ground to train, equip and fight alongside their rebel partners. On June 8, a U.S. F-15 fighter jet shot down an Iranian-made drone after it fired on partnered ground forces in southern Syria. But Sunday was the first time an American jet destroyed an enemy aircraft in air-to-air combat since February 2009. Also Sunday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired missiles at Islamic State targets in Syria in retaliation for attacks on the country’s parliament and the tomb of its revolutionary founder that killed 17 people on June 7. Iran has been providing support to Assad against anti-government rebel groups and Islamic State. But this was the first reported ground-to-ground strike from Iran into Syria since the conflict began in 2011. “In this operation, several ground-to-ground mid-range missiles were fired from IRGC bases in Kermanshah province and targeted takfiri forces in the Dair Alzour region in eastern Syria,” the IRGC said in a statement posted on its news website. (The corps uses the term takfiri, or apostate, to describe Islamic State militants as well as a number of other Sunni Muslim extremist groups). “The message is clear,” the statement said, warning that if the militants attack again, “the fire of revenge of the IRGC will send the culprits to hell.”CTR-02™ Rifle and Upper Assemblies When we released the CTR-02™ (Competition Tactical Rifle of 2002), it represented an industry milestone for AR-15 rifles and is still considered the benchmark of tactical competition rifles. It has been used by the nation´s top shooters to win many matches, including the likes of Daniel Horner and Robby Johnson from the AMU. Its reliability and accuracy have become legendary. Now, other manufactures are offering similarly priced rifles that do not compare or compete, making the CTR-02™ an incredible value. The CTR-02™ upper assembly mates well with a standard forged lower receiver for an easy upgrade, and we now also offer both the CTR-02™ upper and lower as stripped receivers for the home builder. There is no doubt that the CTR-02™ will continue as a premier top-charge rifle system well into the future. Base Rifle Specifications:Romania's government collapsed today following weeks of protests against austerity measures, the latest debt-stricken government in Europe to fall in the face of rising public anger over biting cuts. Emil Boc, who has been prime minister since 2008, said he was resigning "to defuse political and social tension" and make way for a new government after thousands of Romanians took to the streets in January to protest salary cuts, higher taxes, and widespread perception that the government was not interested in the problems of ordinary people in this nation of 22 million. Opposition parties late Monday called for President Traian Basescu to resign and for early parliamentary elections to be held during a meeting with the president and all the political parties at the Cotroceni presidential palace. Basescu appointed Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu — the only minister in Mr. Boc's Cabinet not a member of any political party – as interim prime minister pending the formation of a new government. If Parliament does not approve a new executive in 60 days it will be dissolved and new elections will be called. The ruling coalition and its partners from minorities, however, have enough votes to elect a new government. In his first public appearance, Predoiu said he would serve as prime minister for a limited period, and with limited powers until a new government is formed. The decision comes as the country is starting to feel the effects of the widespread cuts that the government put in place in exchange for a €20 billion ($26 billion) loan from the IMF, the European Union and the World Bank in 2009, to help pay salaries and pensions after its economy shrank by more than 7 percent. In 2010, Boc's government increased the sales tax from 19 percent to 24 percent and cut public workers' salaries by a quarter to reduce the budget deficit. The head of the IMF mission to Romania, Jeffrey Franks, said Sunday he was confident that economic reforms demanded by the IMF in exchange for the loan would continue even if the current government was no longer in office. Boc urged the country's feuding politicians to elect a new government quickly. He said had taken "difficult decisions thinking about the future of Romania, not because I wanted to, but because I had to." "There is a lot of resentment," said Christian Mititelu, a political commentator and former head of the BBC Romanian service. "The austerity measures seem to have penalized those who worked for the state, retirees, and people who depended on social security." Political commentator Radu Tudor said Boc's resignation was merely a ploy by the president to boost the election chances of the ruling Democratic Liberal Party, which Basescu used to lead, by getting rid of an unpopular government. Basescu was elected president in 2004 and his mandate expires in 2014. Parliamentary elections are currently scheduled for November. Romania's problems go deeper than its economic woes. Deep hostility between the government and opposition parties is reflected daily in the media. Opposition politicians and journalists who are critical of the government claim they are harassed. Basescu, who is criticized for being outspoken and confrontational, says he is committed to reform and is openly disdainful of the opposition. He has been credited by the IMF for his reforms and attempts to fight corruption. During the Monday talks at the palace, opposition politicians hailed the government's collapse. "This is a victory for those that demonstrated on the streets," said Crin Antonescu, who heads the opposition Liberal Party. "The most corrupt, incompetent and lying government" since the 1989 anti-communist revolt has gone, he said. Victor Ponta, the leader of the opposition Social Democracy Party said he would ask Basescu to call early elections. Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Boc, meanwhile, defended his record. "I know that I made difficult decisions, but the fruits have begun to appear," he said in a statement. "In times of crisis, the government is not in a popularity contest, but is saving the country."President Rodrigo Duterte reiterated his frequently repeated vow to resign the presidency if critics can prove that members of his family are involved in corruption. Mr. Duterte repeated the vow after a customs brokerage worker claimed in a congressional investigation last week that his contacts at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) had been dropping the name of presidential son and Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte. ADVERTISEMENT “If my son was really into it or is in there, all you have to do is to produce the paper,” Duterte told physicians during the centenary of Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City on Friday. “Just give me an affidavit and I will step down as President of this republic. That is my commitment to you now. That is my word,” he added. Paid off aides In a congressional probe on Aug. 7 of the entry of P6.4 billion worth of drugs from China, brokerage “coordinator” Mark Taguba had claimed that he had paid off “aides” of BOC officials to ease the processing of shipment papers. Taguba also mentioned that the supposed aides were part of the so-called “Davao group” that purportedly included someone he identified as “vice mayor.” Although congressmen prodded Taguba to name names, he never tagged Paolo Duterte as the referred vice mayor and even clarified he never met the so-called “vice mayor.” But Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a vocal Duterte critic, on Thursday released documents which, he claimed, proved the Davao vice mayor was involved in corruption at the BOC. The documents turned out to be “intelligence reports” of the National Bureau of Investigation (dated Dec. 4, 2007) and the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (dated Dec. 7, 2007). These were the same documents Trillanes released last year, when he was running for Vice President. ADVERTISEMENT On Saturday, Trillanes insisted that the Senate look into the unsubstantiated claim implicating the Davao vice mayor in corruption at the BOC. If the Senate blue ribbon committee chair cannot handle the probe of Paolo, Trillanes suggested a subcommittee be created to focus on the matter. “If you don’t have time for that, I can focus on it,” Trillanes said in an interview with radio station dwIZ. “If I fail to produce anything, I would be the one to lose face.” It was not the first time Trillanes tried to go after the President or the Davao vice mayor. Liquidate people In a supposed plan to impeach Duterte in March, Trillanes asked the Senate to investigate the claims of former policeman Arturo Lascañas and confessed hit man Edgar Matobato, that then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte ordered them to liquidate people. Lascañas and Matobato also claimed that Paolo had also ordered killings and was involved in smuggling activities in Davao City. Trillanes and Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano filed a case for crimes against humanity against Duterte with the International Criminal Court last June. In both the cases of Lascañas and Matobato and that of Taguba, Paolo himself dismissed the claims as lies. “One does not dignify lies with a response,” the President’s son said after the congressional hearing last week. Mr. Duterte, in his speech on Friday, reminded his audience that he had fired two Cabinet officials for alleged links to graft although they were part of his campaign team during the elections. He said he would never tolerate graft and had always tried to make do with his modest wages as a prosecutor and as President. RELATED VIDEO Read Next LATEST STORIES MOST READ"Blue code" redirects here. For Code Blue emergencies, see Hospital emergency codes The blue wall of silence,[1] also blue code[2] and blue shield,[3] are terms used in the United States to denote the rule that exists among police officers not to report on a colleague's errors, misconducts, or crimes, including police brutality. If questioned about an incident of alleged misconduct involving another officer (e.g., during the course of an official inquiry), while following the code, the officer being questioned would claim ignorance of another officer's wrongdoing or claim to have not seen anything. Police corruption [ edit ] The code is considered to be an example of police corruption and misconduct. Officers who engaged in discriminatory arrests, physical or verbal harassment, and selective enforcement of the law may be considered to be corrupt. Many officers who follow the code may participate in some of these acts during their career for personal matters or in order to protect or support fellow officers.[4] All of these are considered illegal offenses and are grounds for suspension or immediate dismissal. Officers who follow the code are unable to report fellow officers who participate in corruption due to the unwritten laws of their "police family." Police perjury or "testilying" (in United States police slang) is when an officer gives false testimony in court. Officers who do not lie in court may sometimes be threatened and ostracized by fellow police officers. In 1992, the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Police Corruption (also known as the Mollen Commission) undertook a two-year investigation on perjury in law enforcement. They discovered that some officers falsified documents such as arrest reports, warrants and evidence to provide "cover" for an illegal arrest or search. Some police officers also fabricated stories when testifying before a jury. The Commission found that the officers were not lying for greed but because they believed that they were imprisoning people who deserved it. Many prosecutors allowed police perjury to occur, as well.[1][5] Laws [ edit ] Many police departments have their own official code of conduct. They train new recruits and investigate police officers if they have a complaint from a civilian or an alleged criminal. There are also some state laws put in place to help protect civilians and criminals from corrupt officers. If the officer is found guilty, officers can be sued by the victim for damage caused by police brutality, false arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and wrongful death.[4] Federal laws strongly prohibit officer misconduct, including officers who follow the code by "testilying" or failing to report any officer who is participating in corruption. If an officer is in violation of any of the officer misconduct federal laws, only the federal government can issue a suit. The police department is only responsible for preventing corruption among officers. If an officer is convicted, they may be forced to pay high fines or be imprisoned. To be convicted, the plaintiffs must prove that the officer was following the "code" or participating in negligence and unlawful conduct. It is often hard to convict an officer of following the code or other forms of corruption because officers are protected by defense of immunity, which is an exemption from penalties and burdens that the law generally places on private citizens.[4] The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that officers be given the benefit of the doubt that they acted lawfully in fulfilling their duties, a position reaffirmed in Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194 (2001).[4] Cases [ edit ] In 1970, New York City organized the Knapp Commission to hold hearings on the extent of corruption in the city's police department. Police officer Frank Serpico's startling testimony against fellow officers not only revealed systemic corruption but highlighted a longstanding obstacle to investigating these abuses: the fraternal understanding among police officers known variously as "the Code of Silence" and "the Blue Curtain" under which officers regard testimony against a fellow officer as betrayal.[4] In 1991, the Christopher Commission was formed in Los Angeles in response to the beating of Rodney King in March of that year by four members of the Los Angeles Police Department. In 1992, the Mollen Commission, commissioned to investigate reports of police corruption in New York City, noted that "The pervasiveness of the code of silence is itself alarming."[6] One New York City police officer said, "If a cop decided to tell on me, his career's ruined....He's going to be labeled as a rat."[6] The following year saw the founding of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an all-civilian board tasked with investigating civil complaints about alleged misconduct on the part of the New York City Police Department. After that the International Association of Chiefs of Police made a code of police conduct publication and rigorously trained police officers. In 1991 Rodney King was brutally beaten by multiple police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department. The officers involved were expected to have been following the "blue code". They claimed that the beating was lawful, but it was not until a videotape of the incident was released when it was confirmed that the officers had collectively fabricated their stories. In the later 1990s, the FBI arrested 42 officers from five law enforcement agencies in 1998 on charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. In a 1998 report to U.S. Congressman Charles B. Rangel, the federal General Accounting Office (GAO) found evidence of growing police involvement in drug sales, theft of drugs and money from drug dealers, and perjured testimony about illegal searches.[4] History [ edit ] The code and police corruption stems from the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency was known for using police officers to violently end strikes. Many members of the Ku Klux Klan were police officers who protected each other when conducting racist acts. This later gave rise to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which gave new protections to the victims who had long suffered discriminatory policing.[4] "Additionally, a string of landmark Supreme Court decisions during the era gave new force both to individual privacy rights as well as to curbs upon Police Power: highly influential cases resulted in the strengthening of Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable Search and Seizure, evidentiary rules forbidding the use at trial of evidence tainted by unconstitutional police actions, and the establishment of the so-called Miranda Warning requiring officers to advise detained suspects of their constitutional rights."[4] This criminalized officers who did not have the necessary paperwork to conduct a search or who were involved in falsifying documents or committing perjury. Police culture [ edit ] Police culture or "cop culture," as it is sometimes called by police officers, has resulted in a barrier against stopping corrupt officers. Police culture involves a set of values and rules that have evolved through the experiences of officers and which are affected by the environment in which they work. From the beginning of their career at their academies, police are brought into this "cop culture." While learning jobs and duties, recruits will also learn the values needed to make it to a high rank in their organization. Some words used to describe these values are as follows: a sense of mission, action, cynicism, pessimism, machismo, suspicion, conservatism, isolation and solidarity. The unique demands that are placed on police officers, such as the threat of danger, as well as scrutiny by the public, generate a tightly woven environment conducive to the development of feelings of loyalty.[7] These values are claimed to lead to the code; isolation and solidarity leading to police officers sticking to their own kind, producing an us-against-them mentality. The us-against-them mentality that can result leads to officers backing each other up and staying loyal to one another; in some situations it leads to not "ratting" on fellow officers.[8] Whistleblowing [ edit ] Whistleblowing (police officers reporting other officers' misconduct) is not common. The low number of officers coming forward may have to do with the understanding that things happen in the heat of the moment that some officers would rather keep personal
had a plane fly a banner through the skies in 1971 that read “FREE HOFFA NOW — WRITE PRES. NIXON.” Nixon released Hoffa, apparently because Loeb had promised to endorse him in the 1972 New Hampshire primary. (He didn’t: Nixon went to China, rendering him a traitor in Loeb’s eyes.) After Joe Biden proposed giving senators a raise shortly after his election to that chamber in 1972, Loeb wrote in one of his famous front-page salvos that “the voters of Delaware who elected this stupid, conceited jackass to the Senate should kick him in the rear to knock some sense into him.” Loeb’s intervention has been credited with sealing the fates of a raft of gubernatorial and senatorial primary candidates, and there have been several presidential hopefuls who never governed, in part because Loeb made it his business to ruin them. In 1979, he was so intent on seeing Ronald Reagan win the crown that he dispatched his reporters to Illinois and Washington to write up rumors that Rep. Philip Crane, a young conservative threatening Reagan’s rise, was a womanizer. He had done something similar to Bobby Kennedy, sending staff all over the country to dig up as much dirt on the man as possible, according to Dayton Duncan, a former Democratic operative in the state. After Loeb’s death, the venom sloshing around the paper’s pages abated. His widow, a newspaper heiress named Nackey Scripps Loeb who took over as publisher, said that she’d rather use a needle where her husband had used a sword. Joe McQuaid, her successor, has been even less savage. “Since then, the Union Leader has not had much of an impact,” says Andrew Smith, head of the polling center at the University of New Hampshire. “It just doesn’t hold the weight that it did, because it wasn’t just about the endorsement; it was about the news coverage. McQuaid doesn’t have the vitriol that Bill Loeb had.” McQuaid, born just outside town here in 1949, joined his dad’s paper as an office boy in 1965 and eventually dropped out of college to be a full-time Union Leader sports reporter, a job he was already doing on the side. The last straw at college was a journalism class in which the students critiqued one another’s work. “These kids are telling me what’s wrong with my stories,” McQuaid recalls. “And I finally asked one of them: ‘How much do you get for your stories? Because I get $100 a week for mine!’ ” By 22, he was the Sunday editor, which involved taking down the spitfire editorials Loeb phoned in from his home in Massachusetts. (Loeb may have liked New Hampshire for its political oomph, but he lived in the state next door and, for tax purposes, was a legal resident of Nevada.) Loeb died in 1981, and after Nackey Loeb took over, she elevated McQuaid in 1982 to the top job his father had once occupied. Despite his 66 years, Joe McQuaid still looks boyish — a mix of mischief and New England WASP humor. Because of his coveted endorsement and salty manner, he has become a staple of campaign reporting over the years. Each election cycle produces a series of stories about McQuaid, the ornery high priest, and he has the anecdotes and souvenirs to prove it. There’s the photo of him with Biden (whom the paper did not endorse) and the stories of having lunch with the Donald. There’s the anecdote about Reagan dropping by the Union Leader’s offices (the paper endorsed him twice). There’s the story of a young JFK pulling up a flatbed truck to the Union Leader’s offices on the eve of the 1960 primary and denouncing Loeb — to wild applause. (Other, non-McQuaid sources say Kennedy did this in a Manchester park, not outside the paper.) McQuaid’s tenure has also coincided with the paper’s decline, and the Reagan visit helps show how. When Trump came in March to interview with McQuaid, who takes great pride in grilling the candidates to test their mettle, he was waylaid in the lobby, where about two-thirds of the Union Leader’s staff had gathered as word spread that Trump was in the building. Some wanted autographs, others wanted photos, but they all wanted to lay eyes on the man from television. Trump gladly obliged, glad-handing and posing. He turned to McQuaid, who had been watching all this from the side. “Is this the biggest turnout you’ve ever had here?” Trump asked. No, McQuaid responded. “Ronald Reagan was in here,” he said. “He drew a pretty big crowd.” Even the biggest showstopper of 2016 couldn’t match the old-time buzz. If the headquarters of the Union Leader look like a school, that’s because, in part, they are. The curving linoleum hallways filled with posters and illuminated by wan fluorescent lighting are split between the editorial staff on one side of the building and an elementary school on the other side, which was once the Union Leader’s circulation department. The circular structure was built in 1990 by Nackey Loeb around a printing press, the warehouse for which the paper is now trying desperately to rent out. New Hampshire’s only statewide paper is now printed off-site, which McQuaid says costs millions of dollars a year less than running its own press. The press was sold for scrap, which almost covered the cost of getting it to the scrap yard, McQuaid says. The Union Leader, like so many of its local counterparts across the country, has seen better days. The paper that once set the political agenda for New Hampshire and, in presidential election years, for the entire nation has been worn down by the changing tides of media. First came local television, such as WMUR, which cut into the Union Leader’s dominance; then came the Boston networks and papers, which reached further and further into New Hampshire. Then came the Internet, which caused utter chaos at newspapers far more established and moneyed than the Union Leader. As New Hampshire increasingly becomes a Massachusetts bedroom community, Democrats outnumber the Union Leader’s core constituency: local Republicans. Today, the Union Leader’s print circulation hovers around 40,000, about half of its heyday reach. The paper has migrated online, where McQuaid says it pulls in around 800,000 monthly unique visitors, but according to ComScore, the media industry standard, the figure is closer to 160,000. The people reading those front-page editorials are growing steadily older and out of pace with a younger, more liberal, more digitally oriented population. When the paper was growing, Loeb borrowed from people like Jimmy Hoffa to keep it in the black. Today, McQuaid resorts to different tricks: The Union Leader is now owned by the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications, which just loses money on it. “I don’t know if you’ve heard about newspapers lately?” McQuaid says with a grimace. “They’re not doing so well. And the stupid guy who runs the Union Leader can’t seem to make a profit.” The school makes up the cash by renting space to other companies and hosting a fundraiser with a marquee speaker every year — another privilege of an early primary state. With the proliferation of other media voices, the Union Leader’s edge is gone, even among local stalwarts. “The conservative voter in New Hampshire reads the Union Leader in the morning, listens to talk radio on their way to work and goes home and turns on Fox News,” says Dante Scala, who teaches political science at the University of New Hampshire. “The Union Leader now has to share its influence.” That means its endorsement is also less meaningful, especially among a new class of politicians. “There’s a small circle in Manchester that thinks it’s really important, but the further out you get from Manchester, the more it’s just another paper,” says Jack Flanagan, the Republican majority leader in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. “Yeah, it’s nice to get the endorsement, but it’s just another trophy on the mantel.” When I met with McQuaid in his office in September, he was already mulling his anointment. The Union Leader may no longer be the state’s most powerful force, but candidates still show up to audition and flatter the maestro. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had just gamely endured the traditional hour-long interrogation by McQuaid, his editorial writer and executive editor. As Graham’s handler tried to wrap up the session and hustle him out the door, Graham pleaded, “Can I have five more minutes?” “I’ll give you three and a half,” the aide said. “Where are we going?” Graham asked. “Can’t be nearly as fun as this!” “I’ll tell you, papers are relevant,” the senator told McQuaid as they shuffled out of the room together, literally slapping each other on the back. McQuaid relishes this role. Most of the time, he is a small-town newspaperman who covers school boards and local crime, but every four years, he becomes a power broker courted by the nation’s political celebrities. “What journalist wouldn’t like to have a personal conversation with a candidate for president every week?” says John E. Sununu, a Republican former senator from New Hampshire. McQuaid is protective of this legacy, which means having to be protective of the primary itself. It’s the only thing that, to the rest of the country, distinguishes New Hampshire from Vermont — and the thing that allows McQuaid to transform from backwater publisher to political swami. “He’s a fierce defender of the New Hampshire primary,” says Tom Rath, a former state attorney general who often advises GOP presidential campaigns. “He thinks that New Hampshire does politics right. I think he likes the idea that you can take these huge campaigns and boil them down, and that none of that happens after the New Hampshire primary. After that, it’s all tarmacs and TV cameras.” This crowded campaign cycle has meant more love — and more flatterers such as Graham — than ever. “The value of the endorsement goes up the more candidates you have,” McQuaid told me. This is good for him and his paper, I noted. “Sure,” he said, “but it’s also good for the country.” He quickly made sure to rub out the trace of self-aggrandizement. “It’s not about whether I like it or not. It’s part of tradition.” Yet the value of his endorsement has never been clear, and the changing primary has made it less powerful than ever. McQuaid owes much of his reputation to the laying-on-of-hands he gave Sen. John McCain in 2008. The candidate, almost out of money, lay dying on the ropes; he had laid off most of his staff and was doing little more than bus-stop appearances. The Union Leader’s imprimatur led to a lifesaving transfusion of donations, reviving his candidacy and propelling him to victory in the GOP primary a month later. “The surprise endorsement came at such a critical juncture at his campaign,” says Mike Dennehy, who ran McCain’s New Hampshire operation. McCain was not the kind of movement conservative the newspaper usually backed, and Mitt Romney had a vacation home in New Hampshire. McQuaid’s support “gave McCain the jolt at the moment he needed it most,” Dennehy says. “It gave him the credibility he needed, with New Hampshire voters and with conservatives.” He eventually won the nomination. But with that notable exception, the Union Leader’s record as kingmaker is muddled. Loeb, who endorsed candidates like John Ashbrook in 1972, picked the eventual Republican nominee only twice: Nixon in 1968 and Reagan in 1980. McQuaid’s track record is even worse. In the 2000 campaign, he endorsed Steve Forbes. (George W. Bush, McQuaid told me, was an “empty suit, though he filled out the suit quite nicely after 9/11.”) McCain won the New Hampshire primary that year with 49 percent; Forbes came in third with 13 percent. In 2012, McQuaid picked Newt Gingrich, who, in McQuaid’s opinion, had “the experience, the leadership qualities and the vision to lead this country in these trying times.” Gingrich placed fifth in New Hampshire with less than 10 percent. McQuaid’s horse this time, Christie, was averaging sixth place in polls in the state as of Wednesday, according to Real Clear Politics. The losing record doesn’t faze McQuaid, though. “We’ve done better opposing people than proposing people,” he explains — a conveniently unfalsifiable claim. His approach in some ways mirrors the Republican Party’s: It’s not about predicting the winner or lifting a pol to the nomination. It’s about a subjective but platonic ideal. “It’s important to tell people who we think can do a good job,” McQuaid says. Trump smelled this by summer and suspected that he could begin disregarding McQuaid with impunity. “Knowing you as I do, I feel it is unlikely I will be getting the endorsement from you and the Union Leader,” Trump wrote to McQuaid in declining to participate in the paper’s Voters First Presidential Forum in August at St. Anselm College. The forum allowed any candidate to participate, unlike the networks’ habit of arraying competitors onstage based on their national poll numbers — a direct affront to the intensely local New Hampshire primary. Trump didn’t see the point: “I have made a great fortune based on instinct and that, unfortunately, is my view,” he went on in his letter to McQuaid. “Therefore, and for other reasons including the fact that I feel there are too many people onstage to have a proper forum, I will not be attending.” It was a dagger at the Union Leader’s ability to command the attention of candidates. Another tradition, also started by Loeb, is to “endorse every day,” which effectively means walloping those not lucky enough to win the Union Leader’s nod. To this day, McQuaid beams, “we hammer the hell out of the people we didn’t endorse” — both in the news pages and in the editorials. So even as McQuaid endorsed Christie, he couldn’t help jabbing Trump in the ribs. “Other candidates have [also] gained public and media attention by speaking bluntly,” McQuaid wrote. “But it’s important when you are telling it like it is to actually know what you are talking about. Gov. Christie knows what he is saying because he has experienced it. And unlike some others, he believes in what he says because he has a strong set of conservative values.” This ignited the feud with Trump, and the more Trump attacked McQuaid and the Union Leader, the more McQuaid and the Union Leader blasted Trump. In choosing against the electorate’s instincts, the paper was giving admirable voice to its principles. But it also put the institution further out of step with voters each day. (To say nothing of the integrity of news coverage: New Hampshire political lore has it that Loeb let Reagan’s campaign manager write articles and headlines. McQuaid doesn’t allow Christie’s staff the same courtesy, but the Union Leader has faithfully chronicled his meetings with police chiefs and his exhortations that voters ignore polls. One recent piece, headlined “Christie tells voters to be wary of Trump,” was essentially a transcript of the governor’s town hall.) As for Trump’s war on “lowlife” McQuaid, the publisher shrugs. “At least he didn’t say I was low energy.” In the end, McQuaid sees the fortunes of the Union Leader linked inextricably with the fortunes of the New Hampshire primary — and he may not be wrong. Some knock the primary-industrial complex, but to McQuaid it is a sacred custom that he is intent on preserving. He lamented ABC’s decision to boot the Union Leader not because he couldn’t co-host the debate (“It doesn’t hurt our brand,” he reassured me this month) but because it clearly disrespected New Hampshire’s method of picking a president. McCain’s 2008 Lazarus moment in New Hampshire would never be possible today, McQuaid says, because of the way the Republican National Committee and the national media, not those civic-minded Granite State town halls, have powered this race. McCain would probably have suffered the fate of his pal Lindsay Graham, whose low poll numbers trapped him in the undercard debates until he slipped entirely from public view. “If they’re going to do this stuff based on the polling in friggin’ July, you’re not going to have anyone but Trump and Bush, the rich, famous guys,” McQuaid says, noting that he constantly berates his reporters for citing poll numbers too early in the race; he finds them meaningless. “It’s the party’s fault for being in collusion with the networks in making Trump the center of attention. I mean, in the debates he is literally the center of attention.” And don’t even get him started on the networks, which give live coverage to Trump campaign events and then act surprised at his success. Then there’s the threat of other states trying to mimic — and supplant — New Hampshire’s primacy in the primary season. On March 1, a bloc of seven Southern states will hold a primary blitz, nicknamed the SEC Primary, hoping to attract candidates and to give themselves more say in picking the GOP nominee. “Yes, I do worry,” McQuaid says of the phenomenon. “New Hampshire has not always picked the winner, but it’s always sent a signal to the country that something is either right or wrong.” This year, the country may no longer care about Granite State opinions on the subject. It’s all rather dismaying, except McQuaid’s upper lip is far too stiff to show it. “I don’t know, everything runs its course,” he says. As for the Union Leader, he’s not too worried: “If we’re declining in influence, why are you writing about me?” he asks. “I think I’m more optimistic about the future of the Union Leader than I am about the future of the New Hampshire primary!” And once that’s over, on Feb. 10 McQuaid and the Union Leader will go back to covering the local heroin epidemic, the high school basketball games, the snowy car crashes with police cruisers. “We’re just little old New Hampshire, and in three weeks the parade will roll out of town, and we’ll be the Brigadoon again,” McQuaid says. “And we’ll sink back into the mists.” Twitter: @juliaioffe Read more from Outlook and follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter.LOS ANGELES -- It has been over a week since the conclusion of "Socal Regionals 2014", a premiere Fighting Game Community tournament based in Los Angeles, and Vineeth "Apology Man" Meka has yet to apologize for defeating Ryan "Filipino Champ" Ramirez in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 by abusing an unblockable loop setup. During the match, a distraught Mr. Ramirez made sure to look directly at Mr. Meka while Mr. Meka used unblockable loops with Firebrand to defeat him in what quickly became a single-player game. "It's in the game, so I don't see what the problem is", said a triumphant Mr. Meka. Earlier in the day, Mr. Meka made a series of angry tweets after losing to an unblockable used by Kokonoe players in Blazblue: Chrono Trigger, implying that it did not give him a chance to play and that the unblockable should be removed from the game. Supporters of Mr. Meka said that the criticism was unfair, since Marvel is a broken "kusoge" or "shitty game"; his supporters appeared to be mainly Anime players who were playing BlazBlue, a historically balanced series with fair characters which are further refined in each subsequent iteration. Mr. Meka remained silent on the issue, but Mr. Ramirez was adamant that he live up to his name and apologize. "My team is like, you know, skill-based. You can't just play my team and mash crouching L to win matches you know what i'm saying? People have a chance to play against me until I get five bars." Christopher "Chris G" Gonzalez, widely considered to be Marvel's top player, was unavailable for comment as he was occupied working with local firefighters to rescue a cat stuck in a tree, but he did provide the following brief statement via email: "At least my opponent has the option of blocking my unavoidable, unrelenting stream of projectiles. What he is doing is disgracing the game." Will Mr. Meka live up to his name and apologize? Should Mr. Meka change his handle, or Internet alias to reflect the fact that he won't apologize for being a cheap player? Let us know how you feel in the comments below! Category: Social links: Tweet this articleShare Morgan Stanley has just produced a study that hammers home the fact that the so-called “cord-cutter movement” is no fad, but a very real trend indeed. According to the report, cord-cutters are on the rise, as 10 percent of pay-TV subscribers say they definitely plan to discontinue their service in the next 12 months, turning instead to Internet-delivered TV content. Up another two percent is the number of subscribers who say they will probably cancel their service this year, landing at 11 percent. Even the amount of broadcaster loyalists has dipped since Morgan Stanley’s last pay-TV report a year ago — down six points, 50 percent say they will certainly keep their cable and telco subscriptions. These statistics appear to indicate a slow but steady public lean toward cord-cutting, and it certainly can’t be blamed on the content: the total number of hours of TV content consumed each week rose to about 21, up two hours from last year and nearly five from 2011. So people are actually consuming more TV-related content, but, interestingly, not on TV. They’re watching on other screens: respondents reported an increase in the amount of TV they watched on tablets, computers and portable devices across the board — the number of hours spent watching it on TVs themselves dipped slightly to 15.5 from 15.7. And not surprisingly, the young adult subcategory (respondents aged 18 to 29) comprised 30 percent of those who said they definitely were going to cut the cord this year. Only about 15 percent of people aged 45 to 64 said they would stick to streaming. Though not clear-cut, there’s an undeniably generational factor involved in this transition from cords to the lack thereof. Morgan Stanley polled 2,501 U.S. adults for the study. If you are ready to cut your cords, check out our introductory guide.Atlanta IP lawyer Sanford Asman isn't happy that CaseRails CEO Erik Dykema won't hand his company's name over to him—in fact, he's filed a trademark lawsuit over it, just as he said he would last month. Asman believes that CaseRails is infringing his trademark rights to CaseWebs and CaseSpace, two websites that house his own litigation-management software. In fact, Asman believes any Web-based legal software with "case" in its name should be under his purview. But even worse than having "Case" in his company's name, Dykema made the mistake of daring to discuss the ordeal with Ars Technica. And to Asman, the interview was pure defamation. In an amended complaint (PDF), Asman maintains Ars' May 22 story about his case led to "numerous (unsuccessful) attempts to infiltrate" his websites, casewebs.com and casespace.com. And there's more: Defendants Dykema, Zeller, and CaseRails… encouraged that website to publish derogatory comments as to Asman, and such publication did, in fact, take place, whereby, inter alia, (1) Asman was referred to as "Ass man"; (2) one of the readers of the blog apparently registered the domain "sanfordasman.com" and is using it to link to another website (namely, "The Scuzz Feed" which appears under the url, "sanfordasman.com") that Asman does not sponsor or endorse. Writing "Ass Man" in a comment section isn't just mean talk on the Internet—to Asman, it's legally actionable defamation, and his lawsuit wants Dykema and CaseRails co-founder Kyle Zeller to pay. The lawsuit states it's Dykema's "disclosure" and "providing information" that constitutes defamation. Neither Ars Technica nor any reader is named as a defendant. “Slanted” article leads to “harassment” "It appeared from your article that you had already decided how you were going to come out," Asman told me in a brief interview earlier this week. "I thought the title of the article started in a slanted manner," he said. "The fact that it was expressed in terms of a trademark attorney goes after a small startup—it could have been reported as a trademark owner goes after three attorneys seeking to take over his name." Asman said the fact that "the only attorney mentioned is me" also slants the article. I pointed out that the piece does describe the co-founders of CaseRails as attorneys as well. "It was pretty well buried," he said. In the complaint, Asman writes that Dykema, a professor of media law at New York University, "should have had knowledge as to the way that viewers of websites such as arstechnica.com would read and comment when a'slanted' article was published." Dykema's "portrayal of Asman as 'an attorney' who was seeking to inhibit the rights of a'startup' company… without Defendants' disclosure that the so-called startup company was, itself, started by no fewer than two attorneys." The suit claims that Dykema's goal was to "cause social media pressure, computer attacks and harassment" against Asman, getting him to "back down" in his trademark fight. Dykema's communication with Ars Technica "constituted defamation, inducement of defamation, harassment, computer trespass, and other such tortious conduct" that requires court action. Asman also says that Dykema misquoted him when Dykema described in an interview how Asman threatened to sue him. "I always counsel my clients—and this advice I follow to the extreme—to never threaten suit," Asman said. Asman's trademark lawsuit against CaseRails was filed on May 22, and he followed up with an amended complaint, which added the defamation claims on May 28. That's just two days after Asman became the first lawyer to ever sue the Electronic Frontier Foundation, filing a lawsuit claiming that the group's "Stupid Patent of the Month" feature defamed one of his clients, another attorney whose patents have been used in more than 100 lawsuits. Update: Asman's lawsuit against EFF, on behalf of his client Scott Horstemeyer, has been dropped. Dykema declined to comment. Superior rights The defamation claim comes near the end of Asman's 47-page pro se complaint, which is mostly focused on trademark matters and Asman's own background. About 20 pages are dedicated to describing Asman's work in software development, going back to the first computer he purchased, a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I, for which he wrote a word processing package. Ultimately, he moved to Web-based software, installed today at his websites casewebs.com and casespace.com. Asman describes his legal victory against an earlier company called Integrated Imaging. "After consulting with three separate law firms, Integrated realized that Asman's superior rights to web-based legal software using a mark including the word 'case,' were far superior to Integrated's newly claimed right to use the 'CaseWorks Web' mark," he writes. That case established Asman's "superior rights and title to 'Case' formative marks used on Web-based legal application software," he says. Asman became aware of CaseRails when he received a marketing e-mail from them. He insists he isn't the one who started the trademark conflict, noting that CaseRails co-founder Zeller is an intellectual property attorney himself. "An IP attorney, you would expect they would do a trademark search," said Asman. "They have an opportunity to resolve this in many ways."Huffington Post Your dreams of being a Huffington Post contributor might have just died. It’s every newbie blogger’s dream. Hell, it’s even many veteran blogger’s dreamed. Get a spot on Huffington Post. Go viral. Crash your blog with the traffic that ensues. Just Google “how to contribute to Huffington Post,” and you’ll see article after article after article explaining “how I did it.” A while back, Huffington Post changed the way it handled contributors, unveiling its new Athena Blogger Platform. Similar to Buzzfeed’s Community, the platform essentially allowed anyone to just create an account and start blogging. Boom, you’re a Huffington Post contributor. Well, sort of. See, unless your published articles get “promoted,” no one would ever see them unless you shared it elsewhere on social media or whatever. The articles certainly wouldn’t show up in Google’s search. But hey, it still gave you the chance. And that chance went to anyone. It’s how I got started at Huffington Post (and have had two posts promoted). And it’s what I recommended to others. In fact, I just recommended it to a buddy of mine the other day. He finally got around to signing up, but it didn’t go quite as expected. Why? Huffington Post has officially closed registration on its contributor platform. That’s right. He woke up all excited, having decided this was the day. He went to the signup link I forwarded him. And he was met with this message: “Registration for the Contributor Platform is now closed. If you’ve already signed up, please click to login.” Crash. There went his dreams (well, not exactly, he does all right elsewhere. But he would have liked a bit of exposure through the platform. After all, the majority of bloggers earn less than $3.50 a day and gives up within 100 days).A 47-storey condo tower that the city originally opposed will rise after all in the heart of the theatre district, but local Councillor Adam Vaughan aims to use heritage conservation powers to rein in the soaring structures that are sprouting up in the area. The city and the team behind 224 King St. West, headed up by condo king Brad J. Lamb and prominent architect Peter Clewes, settled their differences before reaching the Ontario Municipal Board, the tribunal that rules on development disputes. The overall height of the tower has come down slightly, to 157 metres from 164 metres, although two more floors have been added, Mr. Lamb said in an interview. Located next to the Royal Alexandra Theatre, in what is now a parking lot, the “Theatre Park” blueprints set the tower back enough from King Street to create a public park that is heralded as the project’s centrepiece. The price of units will range from $299,900 to $3-million, said Mr. Lamb, or about $600- to $625-a-square-foot, and will go on sale next year. “I am thrilled,” Mr. Lamb said of the outcome, which recently got a “rubber stamp” from the OMB to proceed. When it first came up for approval in March, city staff voiced strong opposition to a height they believed overwhelmed the street and could jeopardize heritage buildings on the block by essentially making the conditions right for developers to snap them up and convert them into condo blocks. The 224 King St. team argued that height was a non-issue, because a whole host of skyscrapers is coming online in the vicinity, including the 66-storey Shangri La and 42-floor Festival Tower on top of the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Mr. Lamb agrees that preserving heritage is important in Toronto, but he said the Theatre Park property has been a parking lot for 40 years. “There is no history, so let us make history by creating something different.” Mr. Lamb owns the land, and is working with Niche Developments and HarHay Construction Management to develop it. Councillor Vaughan sided with staff who opposed the project in March. While praising aspects of the design, he supported the tweaked proposal that council approved in August. In the intervening months, Mr. Vaughan said the city has secured a heritage designation across the block, and has initiated a Heritage Conservation District study “to protect the rest of the area.” “This may be the last tall building on this block,” said Mr. Vaughan, who represents Ward 20 (Trinity Spadina). He wants to move away from site-by-site development, and toward block-by-block development, so that neighbourhoods retain a certain scale, and residents can count on keeping the view they purchased. Additional heritage controls will preserve the brick-and-beam warehouses and maintain the “commercial validity” of the burgeoning non-entertainment sector in the area, he said. “I inherited the wild west, and we’re trying to civilize it a bit,” Mr. Vaughan said. Theatre Park will spend 1% of its construction costs on public art, half of which will be located in the courtyard. It is also paying the city $1-million in development fees that will go to streetscape improvements on John Street, to public housing in the ward and to funding the King Street West Heritage Conservation District study. “I think this, in a lot of ways, for the Royal Alex, it really presents it in a luxurious context,” Mr. Vaughan said. “Does it present other challenges, absolutely. Is it what the secondary plans 10 years ago envisioned? No, but we lost that,” he said, when the TIFF height was approved.Donald Trump has vowed to abolish the Federal Reserve and reinstate the gold standard when he enters the White House in January. One of Trump’s picks for the Treasury Department Secretary, John Allison, hinted that he will implement the gold standard when the current Federal Reserve Chief, Janet Yellen, retires in 2018. Conservativedailypost.com reports: On the campaign trail, Trump often questioned the future of the Federal Reserve’s political independence. In line with these comments, Allison wants to abolish Federal Reserve all together and go back to the gold standard. In fact, Allison takes that rhetoric one step further. While acting as the head of the Cato Institute, Allison published several thesis indicating that the Federal Reserve was obsolete and needed to be abolished as it restricts power from the people and allows billionaire cronies to run banks globally. “I would get rid of the Federal Reserve because the volatility in the economy is primarily caused by the Fed,” Allison wrote in 2014 for the Cato Journal. As an alternative, Allison argues that if we allow the market to regulate itself, it would be preferable to the Federal Reserve harming the stability of the financial system. “When the Fed is radically changing the money supply, distorting interest rates, and over-regulating the financial sector, it makes rational economic calculation difficult,” Allison wrote. “Markets do form bubbles, but the Fed makes them worse.” The United States never had a persistent, ongoing problem with inflation until the Federal Reserve was created in 1913. This chart alone proves that theory: The Federal Reserve systematically penalizes those that try to save their money. Inflation is a tax, and the value of each one of our dollars goes down a little bit more every single day. The Federal Reserve system was also designed to trap people. The intent of the bankers was to trap the U.S. government in an endless debt spiral from which it could never escape, and most Americans don’t understand this. In fact, most Americans don’t even understand where money comes from or how he value it. Point blank, the Federal reserves needs to be abolished if we are ever going to reduce our national debt, create jobs, and give more power back to the people. A vast majority of these proposals are directly aligned with Donald Trump’s desire to rollback regulations— including Dodd-Frank — on financial institutions, as well. It would provide a more stable means for markets as well as allowing the monopolization of banks to be broken down instead of allowing less than ten people to control all of the worlds banks. The Federal Reserve is at the heart of most of the economic woes facing the US. Endless borrowing and money printing will result in massive inflation, and interest rates cannot stay low forever. We could very well see the market collapse again if we do not make drastic changes. Trump’s meeting is more than notable, it is almost groundbreaking. No president has dared to take power away from the Rothschilds’ and other billionaire elites that control all of the worlds banks. We could possibly be taking steps to eliminate one of the most corrupt banking schemes to ever take hold in this country. Should Donald Trump work to abolish the Federal Reserve?Core developer Greg Maxwell has deflated hopes of imminent SegWit activation, saying any redeployment “can’t happen” until the current one expires. Responding to an alleged agreement led by Barry Silbert at the Consensus conference to activate SegWit by September, Maxwell explained this was due to technical reasons of “simplicity and safety.” “So in 0.13.1+ almost all of SegWit is already active, including all the P2P components... the new network service flag, the witness-tx and block messages, compact blocks v2, etc. A redeployment of SegWit will need to redefine all these things,” he explained on Reddit. “...It sounds like that proposal was made entirely without the aid of anyone who has even been following the discussions in detail.” The text of the agreement has meanwhile made its way online, brief comments stating participants would “activate a 2 MB hard fork on September 21, 2017.” It continues: “We are also committed to the research and development of technical mechanisms to improve signaling in the Bitcoin community, as well as to put in place communication tools, in order to more closely coordinate with ecosystem participants in the design, integration and deployment of safe solutions that increase Bitcoin capacity.” Cointelegraph reported Monday that the proposed timeframe for SegWit activation may be significantly earlier than that published in Silbert’s agreement after information from an anonymous source.Next Chapter > Setting The Stage The early sun warmed what was an otherwise cool morning in Minnesota. It filtered through windshields and cast long shadows on the machines arriving at the monthly Cars & Coffee meet. What started as a casual meeting of like-minded friends at a local coffee shop, has quickly grown into one of the largest events of its kind in the US. Every spring, as the frozen Minnesota landscape finally thaws out, swarms of automotive enthusiasts from all walks of life gather to share their passion. The event, held on the first Saturday of every month, attracts thousands of cars and spectators. This is not a traditional car show, however. There are no awards;
soldier, he decided, but a Huntsman. But his prey could fight back. Four girls remained in the centre of a clearing, the smoking remains of Deathstalkers past forming concentric rings around them. One was standing. Two were kneeling. One was lying. None were unscathed. Some were just less scathed than others. But one was not scathed, but scythed down. It was ironic, he thought with morbid humour and a growing sense of guilt and helplessness, that the reaper girl would be the first to meet the Reaper. Her life taken by the soulless, leaving a hollow husk behind to mourn over. Though'mourning' would be an understatement, if the tear-stained faces were anything to judge by. He got down on his knees, exhaustion taking its toll. "Was I…too late, then? I-I-I…I'm sorry." No reply, only tears being wept. There were three left. A blonde, hugging her deceased comrade close to her chest. Her sister? A graceful white-haired princess, shedding tears for the third time in her life over the other life lost. Her lover? And a black-haired angel of death, trying and failing to stand aloof as she cried alone. She was different, he found, in so many ways. But of all the people he had seen so far…she mattered. To him. Selfishness be damned, he knew now why he was fighting. Fighting to protect a world destined for destruction, fighting to take back a few more precious moments of life. Fighting…for her. If not for her, then why fight at all? Death would come to them all, he knew, and nothing he could do could change that. Still, better to go down with honour and some sense of dignity than without. Unthinking and unfeeling, he slowly reached up to his earpiece—he hadn't noticed it before, but now that he needed it he practically took it for granted. He had good training, and enough discipline for that to practically become muscle memory. "Jaune. Ren here. Ruby is down. Deathstalkers eliminated," he said. It sounded lifeless to his ears, as if he was weary of life. The only thing that kept him living, kept him fighting, was her. And if she lost her, as dear as the rest of his comrades were to him…he wouldn't know how to keep on living. How did he know the fallen's name, but not hers? "…Copy that, Ren. I…I'm coming over now. Jaune out." The controlled anguish was audible over the static-filled link, quickly smothered by a veneer of false professionalism. First their partners, then Ruby. Just a list of names to add to the memorials, assuming anyone survived to remember them. A series of screams came from nearby, cut off abruptly with growls and the sound of tearing flesh. He got back warily to his feet, his guns slipping back into his hands. The black-haired girl spoke up, voice quiet and almost drowned out by the sounds of gunfire. "That was team SOLA....They're close by. Yang, Weiss…we have to go. Now." No response. Were those their names? Ren joined in, trying to add a sense of urgency to his tone. "She's right. We won't make a difference if we just die here." Still no response. The growls got closer. "Please. Weiss. Yang. We have to leave. Before we get taken, too." Finally, the blonde stood. Slowly, reluctantly. She made as though to sling Ruby's limp body over her back, but Weiss (he assumed, given the name and her clothes) gently put a hand on her shoulder. She shook her head once. "We can't take her, Yang. I wish we could, but we can't." The four of them began running, joined soon by Jaune and several others. Nameless, faceless, all unknown. They had as much to fight for as Ren did, if not more. A man in heavy plate armour was the first to fall, impaled by a large feather that was meant for a bunny-eared woman. Partners? Friends? Something more? He couldn't tell. Just another story unsung, another hero to be forgotten, another tragedy lost. It was night, a shattered moon presiding over the death of its parent world. Yang was next, tripping over a gnarled root as she sprinted. She tried to get up, but a snarling bone mask loomed in her vision. She died silently, eyes closed and a half-smile on her face. Perhaps she could see her sister. They passed through a ruined temple, pawns and knights fallen and laying scattered across the grounds. A twisted spire of silver and stone rose high above them, flashes of purple lightning and green energy revealing the misshapen black forms attempting to scale the structure. The world was lost, Ren knew. But he'd be damned if he was going to live while it died. They entered the tower via a shining bridge, its surface sullied by the split corpses of monsters. The horde was smashed aside in the group's single-mindedness to reach the temporary safety, all of them ascending as quickly as they could. An enormous raven made a pass at the building, black wing flaring and red eyes flashing. It was struck down effortlessly by the two at the top—allies, mentors, teachers, exemplars. Ren kept running, occasionally taking a second to assure himself of the black-haired girl's safety. He didn't know her name. He didn't know her. But somehow, he just didn't care. She was important, and that's all that mattered. A howl from below—the wolves must had broken through. A roar from behind—there was little time. A shout, a growl, a scream, a groan. Silence, save for the pounding of feet on tiled floor. "Jaune's down!" The cry came from the back of the group. He stopped. He sank to one knee. His body knew what that meant, even if it barely registered with his mind. Then it hit him. He was a Hunter without a team. A warrior without his friends. A man without his family. She stopped. She held out her hand. He still didn't know her name. "Ren. We have to go. Stand up. Keep fighting. Please." She had amber eyes, he noticed. A frown was on her face, along with a hint of melancholy. Sadness, perhaps? Regret, maybe. Or pity. He HHe took her hand. He resumed running. They were at the top now, three survivors where there should have been a thousand. The two mentors had perished protecting them. Him. Weiss, her icy exterior melted. Jaune used to call her snow angel, he remembered. And her. His dark angel of devastation, resplendent yet evanescent in her beauty. Who were their martyrs? One: a great wizard, growing old faster than time should allow. The other: a good witch, a tireless guardian. Both guides to their lives. Both shining beacons to safety. Both snuffed out like a fast-burning candle. The final flickering flame, keeping the darkness at bay. But he still didn't know her name. Weiss collapsed onto the stone, crimson life slowly seeping away from a cut on her crown and a gash in her side. She made no effort to get up. Her voice was hoarse and fading fast, a single tear falling from her near-flawless face and marring her peaceful features. "Goodbye, Professors. Ren. …my teammate. I-I-I…I'm sorry. Farewell." She nodded to each in turn, eyes gradually fluttering closed for the final time. Her eyes closed as well, more than a single tear coming down. "I'm sorry too, Weiss. For everything." With that, she finally broke. Every death weighed upon her, but this final one was far too much. He moved closer, hesitating for a moment before coming to a decision. He put his arms around her, holding her close as she sobbed. A black lotus bloomed in the darkness, glowing with the light of life, and a hope. A hope for life. A hope for peace. And perhaps…a hope for love. For where there is still life, then hope can never truly die. Even in the direst circumstances, one can still believe in a hope in a better tomorrow, a better future, no matter how uncertain… Present day. Ren awoke with a start. It took him a moment to remember who and where he was. Not a Hunter, but a student. Not in a dying world, but in a modern city. Monsters did not exist, he knew. Still…that dream was awfully life-like. It always ended there, though. It had been reoccurring for the past several weeks, starting just before he returned to university after his winter vacation. At first he blamed it on too much gaming, but even when immersed in his studies he still imagined it like it was yesterday. He shook his head to keep himself awake as he stumbled out of his bed, taking care not to rouse his sleeping roommate. The blond boy bore a striking resemblance to his leader in the dream, though whether they shared the same names or not was unknown. He found it funny; try as he might, he could remember everything about the dream save for the names of his comrades. Ren checked the digital clock on his nightstand, doing a double take until he remembered that it was Saturday. No classes, thank god. He got changed and washed up quickly, taking a moment to check his reflection in the mirror. It didn't hurt to make sure he still looked the same. No scars caused by grasping claws, no scrapes from stray branches. Granted, he had some cuts from shaving, but nothing too untoward. Noticing a bit of stubble, he decided to add to that collection. Five minutes and a stream of inventive expletives later, he washed the remaining foam off and dumped the bloodspecked razor in the trash. It made a hollow thunk as it landed, though it was drowned out by a loud yawn. He checked the fridge looking for something—anything vaguely resembling food, but came up empty. All he found were a few beers and a carton of expired eggs, the latter prompting him to wrinkle his nose and cringe at the smell. The eggs joined the razor in its receptacle, the large black bag closing over them both as he tied it off and dragged it outside into the hall. It went straight to the apartment's single large bin in the back of the building, though all Ren had to do was empty it down a garbage chute. Walking back in, he gingerly checked his wallet. He still had around thirty bucks, more than enough for the day. He scribbled out a messy note and left it on the counter, throwing on a jacket and locking the door behind him. Morning, Jaune. No food left in the fridge, so I'm going out for breakfast. It's your turn to go shopping; the list is next to my rice cooker. I'll be out all day, so don't wait up. Ren The elevator in his apartment still wasn't fixed, he noted bitterly. He took the stairs two at a time, anxious to get some food into his growling stomach. The old man downstairs gave Ren a little wave as he passed by, a Chinese newspaper in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. Ren waved back absentmindedly, giving a small nod in reply. A little winded from walking, Ren buttoned up his coat and stepped outside into the bracing air. It was winter in Vancouver, and while the city by the sea saw little snow thanks to the mountains to its rear, it was still rather chilly. He thought about hailing a cab or taking a bus, but he remembered how thin his wallet was and reconsidered. A little bit of walking never killed anyone, he reasoned. It was better than going broke before his next paycheck, anyways. A stream of red lanterns dangled high in the air above the streets, false firecrackers interspersed all along the line. For a second he questioned their presence, then he remembered: Chinese New Year was fast approaching, falling at the end of January. Previously he had spent New Year's with friends and family, but now in his first year of university in a new city, things were…different. Sure, he had Jaune, but the blond wouldn't exactly be celebrating. More than likely he'd be trying (and failing) to handle a beer or two while waiting for classes to start up again. He never could understand his roommate's obsession with attempting to stomach alcohol. Apart from the fact that he was underaged, getting smashed while studying simply wasn't a good idea. Still, it was either have a roommate or pay the bills himself. He didn't consider himself much of a stereotypical Asian, what with him studying journalism and politics of all things, but he definitely shared the same sense of frugality that his parents did. Unfortunately, sometimes it just couldn't be helped. Ren strolled into the coffee shop on the corner, nearly getting hit by a delivery van in his quest for the red cursive sign. Always Fresh, declared the sign at the top. A Chinese translation was installed directly underneath, a consequence of the city's large Asian population. Ren didn't care, so long as he got a nice warm cup of coffee and a donut to start off the day. He almost ordered for two, until he remembered that he had nobody to share it with. "A medium double-double and a maple dip, please." He sighed as the server turned to prepare his order. He felt himself missing his childhood friend Nora dearly. Unfortunately (or fortunately, for her) she had managed to get a full scholarship to Stockholm University. Ren settled with a partial at the University of British Columbia, or UBC for short. A few of his friends in high school had resorted to calling it 'Beacon' when he had first applied to it, for reasons unknown. Something about this American anime that they were watching. He had slipped up once and referred to the university by its nickname, and somehow the name had spread throughout first the freshmen, and then the greater school population. Even the teachers had started joining in, and Ren was left shaking his head in its wake. "Uh, sir? Your order's ready. That's $1.89, please." The lady's voice jolted him back to the present. He swiped his card on the reader and took his breakfast, looking around the establishment for a free table. Thankfully he had woken up rather late this morning, and as it was a weekday, the majority of people had already left for work. He grabbed a seat by the window, taking a cautious sip of the scalding hot coffee and sitting back. At first he surfed reddit and a few news sites for a while, but eventually even the repetitive memes and so-called signs of the apocalypse began to dull. Sighing, he gave up and tried thinking about the dream that had been plaguing him. He could remember faces, perhaps actions, but not names. And, as always, she remained a mystery to him. Jaune was there, as was who he believed was Nora. The others, though…he had no clue who they were. People he was yet to meet? People who he would never meet? His flaws personified? The possibilities were endless. It had begun to rain sometime during their flight. It poured down on the broken bodies and shattered lives, though whether their faces were streaked by water or tears he couldn't tell. He held her tight to his body, her sniffling and sobbing gradually slowing. "You could run, you know…" Her voice startled him, and the words bite deep. She was right; he had a chance to live. But it would be at the cost of her life. "I'd rather not live while you died, only to die a little later, if it's all the same to you. You're more important. Get to the cliffs, and don't look back. I'll hold them off." They were the longest words he had spoken thus far, and he didn't say them lightly. Even as he finished, though, he knew that their sacrifices would have been in vain. They were the last of them still alive. Atlas, Vecchia, Vacuo, they had all been destroyed. Vale proper had already been overrun in the dead of the night. Beacon was the last to fall, and fall it would. They stood no chance. Remnant wasn't just dying—it was dead. The monsters, the Grimm, had destroyed humanity. This was their last stand. "No. We stand together. We die together. Let's give these monsters hell." He nodded. Their eyes met. She smiled once, a half-smile that promised hope. He smiled back. Screaming incoherently, the two of them charged the Grimm ranks. Beowolves were leading the onslaught, having been the fastest to scale the stairs and the floors all the way to the top. They stood no chance against the Hunters, parting like water upon rocks. To each of us falls a task. And all that Remnant requires of us Huntsmen and Huntresses is that we hold the line, and we die fighting. It is what we do best; we die standing. –General Sturnn, Battle of Fort Lorn He opened his eyes. His coffee was cold. His doughnut was stale. Blinking away fatigue, he finished it anyways. Hopefully the caffeine would keep the nightmares away. He checked his phone again—Jaune had texted saying that he was flat broke and couldn't afford to buy more food. "…Fuck." He replied, taking a certain amount of deranged pleasure in his response. If Jaune wanted to be cheap, then… 'K. I'll go over to T&T and buy a few boxes of instant noodles, then. You want kimchi or seafood?' He had just put it back in his pocket when he got an answer. It was a quick and clear 'Fuck no!', with his roommate now saying that he somehow 'found' a hundred dollars under his wallet. Ren chuckled, getting up and throwing out the cup before leaving the café. Truth to be told, he actually did need to buy another pack of noodles, although his rapidly shrinking wallet begged to differ. But since Jaune finally was motivated to go buy groceries, he decided that shopping could wait a little. Since exams had started, he hadn't had a chance to get some casual reading done, he remembered. Now, with nothing to do for the whole day, it seemed like a good time to change that. Granted, he wasn't sure if his library card even still worked given where he left it last (under his leaking rice cooker, actually), but he was certainly willing to give it a shot. The sky was grey with clouds, a few shafts of amber sunlight punching through here and there. The air had started to warm up, as he had been daydreaming for an hour at the least. Now, nearing noon, it no longer bit at his exposed face. With the occasional breeze, though, Ren thought it best to keep his black felt coat buttoned up anyways. Vancouver was a lot milder than where he went to high school, that was for sure. It was a lot more compact, too, as a consequence of the relatively limited space. The Rockies were at the city's rear, giving it a sheltered position but at the cost of land. The upside of it was that everything was closer to each other, making it much easier for, say, a broke university freshman to get to the library. Getting hit by some terrible Asian driver was still a danger, of course, but that was the price of getting an apartment in Chinatown. Thankfully, he managed to avoid a messy accident and made it to the building's doors in one piece, with body intact and dignity just slightly less so. The warm air of the library hit him like a wall, providing a stark contrast to the 4-5° it was outside. He slipped his gloves into his pockets before he started perusing the shelves, immediately making a beeline for the military history section. He had always considered himself something of an amateur tactician, making a habit of playing games like Starcraft and Age of Empires. The former was something of a stereotype, of course, but he was never obsessed with it. Amateurs talk of tactics, but professionals study logistics. That was true, to an extent. But, he reasoned, a good tactician can make things a hell of a lot easier for the logisticians. In any case, he would never be anything near a professional in the martial realms. It wasn't as if monsters prowled the lands or anything. It was a family joke that one of his ancestors was Sun Tzu, the man who penned The Art of War some two thousand years ago. It was either him or Da Vinci, though of course he never had a choice as to who his relatives decided to 'introduce' to the family tree. A few books on tactics had always littered his desk, sharing the space with a gaming laptop and a sketchpad. It didn't hurt to study ahead, either. He planned on taking a world history class with the famed Professor Oobleck next semester, and intended to make a good impression. The high school history curriculum in Canada was terrible, and as such the transition to post-secondary was daunting to many. Still, he considered after flipping through a few rather thick textbooks on Rome and Napoleon, it wouldn't hurt to tone down the academics for a while. Reading about Cannae and Austerlitz time after time again could get quite boring, exciting as the tactics involved were. He was fairly certain he knew all that there was about cavalry charges (never do them), and the basics of combined arms. Anything after that, loath as he was to admit it even as he attempted to comprehend all this talk of flying columns and foraging, was a little too far out of his league. Perhaps the classics would be more entertaining? Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was always a favourite, at least whenever he got the chance to read it. He grabbed it off the shelf, tucking it under one arm while continuing on. He briefly considered Moby Dick, but found it a bit too heavy. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy seemed to be a much better option, conjuring up many fond memories. The same could be said of The Time Machine and A Princess of Mars. He remembered reading them cover-to-cover a thousand times as a child, an enjoyable hobby that carried over to this day. He judged the four books to be enough to tide him over until classes started back up again, unless his roommate decided to try to irritate him as usual. Ren checked them out at the machine, his heart stopping for a moment as it hesitated in accepting his card. Thankfully it wasn't rejected, and he tucked the book close to his chest while looking around the building for a free chair. The majority of them were taken, surprisingly, though it was mostly just who he assumed were university students. On a normal weekday it'd be practically empty, though since exams were over, it appeared as though all the teenagers went here instead. Some blue-haired (was that even possible?) bodybuilder and his mohawked lackey occupied the one closest to the beauty section, ostensibly to read a journal on neuroscience. Given the fact that the magazine was upside down, they were probably just there to ogle the girls. Ren declined, preferring less idiotic company. A rather attractive blonde and her sister(?) were sitting next to the fireplace, studying a book on automobile mechanics. Well, the blonde was, in any case. Her sister in red was more interested in a fantasy book set in a high-medieval world, judging by its dragon-and-knight-filled cover. They were taking up both the armchairs there, so that was out of the question. A few other tables were taken by older folks, probably out after their morning Tai Chi and reading the latest news from Asia. And the last seat…The last one was already in use by a white-haired girl studying a report on the economy. He paid her no heed at first, having given up looking for a seat and already walking towards the exit. That was, until she looked up. Her eyes were a clear, soul-piercing blue that spoke of ice and snow. A faint red tattoo lay on her temple, the sole mark on her face. A little sign of rebellion, perhaps? She radiated an aura of professionalism, not a single hair out of place. She narrowed her eyes for a moment at his gaze, but they then suddenly widened. Recognition? Surprise? He had no clue. He remembered his dream. "I'm sorry…Ren. Goodbye." His face was one of shock. That couldn't be possible…could it? Then the moment passed, and the girl turned her attention back to her book. Ren walked out of the library feeling both confused and enlightened. The tide of Grimm had receded, leaving the two stranded yet again at the tower's summit. By now all talk of retreat had disappeared, to be replaced with a sense of emptiness. There was no point to running. They had seen the last pocket of survivors being taken down scant seconds away from safety. They were both injured, with barely a drop of Aura in either of them. The monsters were waiting below, though the reason why was beyond them. It mattered not. They were going to die anyways. The Grimm didn't care whether it was to blood loss or from a thousand grasping claws. "Cinder's going to be coming for us, you know." He didn't know who Cinder was. But he knew what his words meant. And, of course, so did she. "Let her come. She wants to see the last of us exterminated? We'll give her a show to remember." With that, he knew why he loved her. It wasn't her slightly morbid sense of humour. It wasn't for her looks, good as they were. No. It was for her tenacity, her simple refusal to give up and die. She was his inspiration, his reason for fighting on until death and then a thousand years after. The Crimson Witch might have had her victory, but the two survivors weren't willing to give it to her for free. A roar. Their reprieve was over. It was Ursi Majors this time, a dozen of them at once. They let them come. Children, you call them? They can pull a trigger and swing a sword just as well as any veteran, and they have the spirit of a lion. Call them children if you wish—I call them Hunters. –Professor Ozpin, to the Valian Parliament It was afternoon. Ren had been walking the streets for about an hour now, seemingly aimless. He didn't know what to do, truth to be told. He had left his computer in the apartment, trusting Jaune not to accidentally send it flying out the window. Although, given his roommate's clumsiness, that might not have been such a good idea. Still, it could have been worse. He could have been walking during that big riot a few years back—it was about some hockey game, he recalled. Pointless, and a waste of time. He stepped out of the Gamestop, having seen his fill of generic shooters for the day. A few new games looked promising, but they would just be distractions to his studies. Maybe he'd buy them during the summer, then. Jaune had texted yet again earlier, having finished up his shopping and headed home. He said something about going to a bar tonight with some friends, but Ren declined. Fun as it might be, he remembered the last unfortunate occasion where he got drunk. He and alcohol…tended not to agree with each other. He didn't really feel like going home for lunch though, seeing as Jaune probably just bought frozen pizzas and Hungry Man dinners. This was the case whenever it was his turn to get food, and Ren had eaten enough of them for a lifetime. Thankfully he had a list of restaurants to run to in the event he lacked a lunch, like today. Granted, they were mostly on the pricey side, but there were a few he could afford. There was one place in particular that he had frequented in his first few months at Beacon that served Hong Kong style food. It had some of the best ramen he had ever tasted, though his 'friends' (acquaintances, really) preferred more western choices like burgers and fries. As such he didn't go as often anymore, but today seemed like a good time to change that. The only problem was that it was a good forty minutes away by foot, and his stomach was already growling at him. He gingerly opened up his wallet again, checking to see how much change he had. A bus ride, while not the most expensive thing on the planet, was enough to send him running. He fully intended to have enough cash left over for dinner, not to mention enough for breakfast tomorrow. Still, provided he shepherded his money well, he could afford a ticket and his meal. Ren walked the two minutes or so it was to the bus stop, taking his time to enjoy the surroundings. While it might not be as large as say, Los Angeles or New York, he still found the city to hold many marvels. The gloomy weather didn't help much, sadly, but it was more than made up for by the architecture and the culture around him. The blue and white bus pulled up just as he arrived, a few people getting on or off as he stepped onboard. Most of the seats were occupied, again mostly by students. This is becoming a habit, he thought cynically. Still, a few were free. Ren chose to sit in front of a redheaded boy and a cute brunette, trying to ignore the cheesy pickup lines that he was feeding her. It was either them or this creepy guy in a white jacket and a bowler hat, and he'd much rather have the annoying normal couple-to-be than him. Strangely, though, the two of them, awkward as they were, were starting to make him miss Nora even more. True, she was a royal pain in the neck at the best of times, but she was his first friend when he first moved to Canada, and his 'best-friend-forever'. Whatever the hell that meant. He never thought of her as more than a friend, though. She was nice and funny, certainly, and could even be considered attractive from a certain perspective. But she was his best friend, and nothing more. Relationships would only get in the way of his studies, he reasoned. Not to mention the pain of having someone so hyper as a girlfriend. It'd be a nightmare, both mentally and physically. To put it lightly, a broken pelvis…wasn't exactly the most glorious of afflictions. But still…he missed her. He missed having good friends to confide in, to share memories with. (Jaune didn't count, 'endearing' as he was.) Despite how much he attempted to put up a front of an aloof and antisocial stoic, deep down inside he craved company as much as the next guy. True, he'd rather have equally quiet company, but he still wanted companionship nonetheless. Not like I'm likely to make any friends this way, he thought. There was quite a bit of traffic on the road, and the bus was still quite a while away. Ren closed his eyes for just a moment, trying to relax… The last Ursa body crashed to the ground, half a dozen 9mm rounds buried in its skull. Most of its face was blown off by the brief display of firepower, only its bone mask remaining vaguely intact. Ren lowered his guns, his whole body aching from a hundred places at once. The girl next to him did the same, allowing herself to be somewhat refreshed by the pouring rain. The top of the tower stank with rotten blood and innards, gore and bullet casings spread liberally around the sole entryway. The staircase leading up to it was drenched and slick with impure ichor, like a sacrificial offering to whatever cruel gods still watched over the dying world. "How many more…do you think?" "At least a few hundred. Cinder brought quite the army," she answered. "Oh, good. I might have enough bullets for twenty more," he quipped. She chuckled hollowly. There was no mirth left in either of them. Only the will to fight for as long as they could before inevitably succumbing. Their lives were over; it was only a matter of time. He still didn't know her name. A burst of light caught his attention. It was stable, burning furiously. Not lightning, then. It had a wan, sickly quality to it, as if about to flicker away any moment. It burned orange and crimson, black tendrils of nothing drifting in between the flames. It took many forms, changing between them almost as if possessed of a life of its own. Perhaps it did. One second it was a wilting flower, the next, a demonic dragon. It soared like a rocket on the wings of a butterfly, then descended with all the grace of a meteor and the subtlety of tectonics. The flames whirled around like a tidal wave, coming to a peak then crashing down only to whip back up into the air again. It had an air of other-ness, like something that should not exist in this world. And nestling in the heart of this un-being inferno strode a woman, glowing eyes staring into the darkness like a bale harbinger of destruction. The fire moved with her, scorching away the stone underfoot even as the dark swirled about. Cinder Fall, the Crimson Witch-Queen of the Grimm, had arrived. "Now approaching: Cambie Street and Broadway. Watch your step." The voice from the PA system jolted him back to reality, drowsily blinking himself awake. I guess the caffeine didn't kick in after all. He looked around the bus as he got to his feet. The couple behind him had already gotten off, the boy no doubt still trying to get the girl to bite. If he was persistent, he might still have a chance. Mr. Creepy-bowler-hat had also left, to Ren's relief. The bus slowed to a full stop at the corner, doors gently sliding open with a hiss of pneumatics. Ren stepped off, bracing himself for the mild chill. The restaurant itself was a minute or so's walk away, traversable even in this weather. It was fairly close to the university, and as a result usually got a lot of traffic. Today was no different, apparently. The ramen place, like almost any oriental restaurant during the lunch hour, had a sizable queue in the door. Ren sighed as he opened the door, making no effort to walk out. While the wait today may be unpleasantly long, the food was always worth it in his eyes. He thought of texting Jaune telling him to bring him his laptop and join him for lunch, but thought better of it. His roommate probably wouldn't exactly enjoy the noodles, nor would he fancy having to bus all the way to the restaurant. Sadly for Ren, he had to rule out playing some CounterStrike to kill time and boredom. An aroma of herbs and spices drifted out from the kitchen, intermixing with the smell of sesame oil and MSG. From his position leaning against an interior window, Ren could see a variety of people just enjoying their lunch. He was reminded of his growling stomach, and fought to hold back a pang of jealousy. He should have arrived earlier, he noted, though it could have been worse. Were today to fall on the weekend, the place would probably have an hour-long wait, if not more. She had amber eyes. That was the first thing he had noticed about her. They were accented in a light shade of lavender, though the makeup was marred slightly by tears and blood. Her long flowing hair was raven-coloured, a black bow sitting atop her head. They looked like cat's ears, he noticed absent-mindedly. She was wearing a white midriff-baring undershirt with a black vest. She wore black shorts and violet stockings, a stylized depiction of a Deadly Nightshade lying on her thigh. She was beautiful. The family a few places ahead was shown to their table. The line moved up a space. The rain drenched the both of them, though where the rain ended and the blood began neither of them knew. They were past crying now. All that was left to them was death. "Hey, Ren?" He turned to face her. "I…I'm sorry. I'm sorry we never gave this a chance." What was she talking about? He had no idea. "I'm sorry that I couldn't let you into my heart. It sounds stupid now, but I thought that it would just get in the way." What did she mean? She couldn't possibly…? "I love you. And I only wish we had a chance to make this work." He felt her lips just barely brush his cheek. She blushed, smiling. For the first time today, he smiled back. He was at the front of the line now. The waitress, an aged woman of what he suspected was Vietnamese descent, showed him to a free table and handed him a menu. "And maybe we will have a chance. In a better time. In a better life. I'll find you again, I promise." A single tear slowly drifted its way down her cheek as she smiled wryly and replied. "Heh. Don't make a girl a promise you can't keep, Ren." Another waitress, remarkably younger, took his order. He handed her his menu and briefly thanked her in Cantonese. She replied in fluent English, laughing a little to alleviate the awkwardness. They both chuckled, and she went on her way. "I don't. I intend to keep this one." He looked around the restaurant, as if searching for something. He had no idea what, though. There was a roar, and a jet of flame arced through the darkness. A dark-haired beauty sat a few tables away, also waiting for her order. She wore a small black bow in her hair, just above a streak of violet. She wore a black blouse, a denim jacket providing her with warmth. She was wearing dark purple corduroy pants, with black boots finishing off her outfit. A stylized symbol adorned her jacket, resembling a dark flame. A flower? "…And I intend to hold you to it. May we meet again, in a better life." She looked up. Their gazes locked. Amber eyes met fuchsia. He froze. A blush began to spread across his face. Ren pushed aside the hesitation with a new burst of confidence, walking over to her. Their eyes never parted. "Er…is this seat taken?" She shook her head. Claws scrabbled for purchase on marble tiles and onyx stairs, snarls and howls resounding through the structure below
leave while the State Bureau of Investigation looked into the disappearance of the cash. He has paid back the stolen money, authorities said. Lock also ordered Beasley to surrender his law enforcement certification permanently and perform 24 hours of community service.Texan oil and gas exploration company Anadarko has confirmed it will continue its bid to find oil off the Otago Coast. Photo: PHOTO NZ The company had until today to commit to a five-year extension to its exploration permit off New Zealand's southern coast, or surrender it. Anadarko found only small shows of natural gas last summer in a $150 million deepwater test well off Dunedin, and decided to cap the well and abandon it. Photo: RNZ Its New Zealand manager, Alan Seay, said the company had committed to the five-year extension of its exploration permit off New Zealand's southern coast, and would soon begin seismic testing. "The next step will probably be to acquire some seismic data in the Canterbury Basin," he said. "We'll study the findings we get from that programme, the data that we have taken from the exploration well that we drilled earlier this year and, from that, hopefully we can identify a prospect that will be worth drilling at some point in the future." Unwelcome but not unexpected - Oil Free Otago Mr Seay said it was likely to be about two and a half years before the company commenced drilling, if that was what it decided to do. He said earlier this year there were some preliminary'shows', or indications, of natural gas but months of analysis were still required. Petroleum Exploration and Production Association chief executive David Robinson said at the time that the search in the Canterbury and Great South Basins was just getting going. But a protest group, Oil Free Otago, said it planned to increase pressure on Anadarko, to stop the exploration. A spokesperson, Rosemary Penwarden, said the latest news was unwelcome but not unexpected. "They can continue to expect resistance from the people here in Dunedin. We don't want to spend money on infrastructure building up an industry like gas or oil off our coast." Ms Penwarden said the number of people who did not want the drilling to commence was building in Otago. She said the region had people with the experience and expertise needed to invest in industries involved in clean energy instead.monolake interview – producing an electronic music album with no compression Having absorbed and enjoyed the new album ‘Silence’ from Robert Henke as Monolake, he was obliging enough to satiate my curiousity about his commitment to produce this album employing absolutely no compression. Now, it seems compression is considered by some, perhaps many, audio engineers as a vital recording audio sculpting tool alongside EQ and reverb as the most used (and perhaps misused) processor especially in our prevalent in your face pop/electronic music production styles. Hence, I was eager to enquire the story behind making an album without using compression and what Herr Henke’s intentions were. I found this album an elegant production with certainly a softer feel than most electronic music productions though still with enough presence to enchant the listener. I hope you find it tasty food for thought and do feel free to further explore the discussion with your own feelings/thoughts upon the matter… * Q1. You may be most described/known as a (minimal) techno producer but I feel there is much more going on. How would u define yourself? What are your musical/artistic aims? Robert: I am somehow in the middle between being an engineer and an artist. I like the art of engineering, and the art of making art. My aims? I guess, achieving something that is touching in some way. * Q2. Were you engineer, musician or artist first? And now, would you say you are an engineer, musician or artist first? Robert: I come from an engineering background, family-wise. But I knew from a very early stage onwards, that I wanted to do something that is connected to art / music. * Q3. On first impressions I found “Silence” lighter & brighter in the higher frequencies, there is plenty of clarity, space & transparency and the bass is warm, yet full and rounded – the kick drums still have punch. Overall a gentle warm & pretty sound that seems happily co-agulated without the usual tool of compression. To what extent would you say this could be due to the ‘no compression policy’? Robert: I guess a lot. But my initial approach came from another perspective: When recording physical instruments, compression seems to make sense to me; one can achieve a certain level of intimacy by making the quiet parts louder, enhance those interesting details in the background etc… However, in my compositional process I do this already when creating the sounds itself. I build my own backgrounds, and therefore I can simply decide how prominent they are by mixing and editing. This to me eliminates the need for compression on this part. The other classical use of compression is working with its dynamic effects. I know people who make great use of that, but when ever I tried it so far, at the end I preferred to leave it out. In most cases I simply don’t like it if I hear a compressor ‘working’. And if it is very subtle I can get the same effects by other means. There’s of course a third interesting part of the story and this is how to use compression in a mix. I realize that my non compression approach has its disadvantages; playing this CD on a cheap stereo is not rewarding. The same goes for most headphones. In this regard, my decision was quite elitist. I wanted it to sound good on a good stereo. Back to mixing: without compression, the art of mixing becomes much more important. Since every sound has space, there is much more room for placement, but also much more chances to do it wrong. I feel that in most cases I achieved a quite satisfying balance here, and that in those cases the individual sounds really do have an aura around them, and this is what i wanted to achieve. * Q4. Upon headphone listening I noticed the bold panning/stereo fx decisions. Is this normal stereo field behaviour for you? Almost reminded me of some Beatles productions.. Robert: Ha, funny comparison. I have actually never listened to it with headphones. I know that I should, just to make sure it works with all those millions of mp3 players out there, but I simply didn’t. I don’t even know why I never took care of it. I guess I just trusted my speaker setup in the studio. Apart from that, I really enjoy wide stereo effects. I will have to listen to the album again with headphones now * Q5. Was this album produced using Ableton? Robert: Yes. It’s simply my host of choice. And also, I am always annoyed by those folks telling you that Ableton Live does not sound as good as (insert Logic/Protools etc.. here ). Now I can say, well, I personally believe I managed to produce a decent album entirely within this software. * Q6. As a mastering engineer yourself, how closely did you work with Rashad Becker on the mastering of this album? Robert: I am always present at his studio when he is doing it. Sometimes I even tap on his shoulder saying: Uhm, I think without that EQ here it sounded more how I would like it. And then we discuss and come to an agreement. Another great advantage of the production entirely in Live: in one case during the mastering we both found that a specific element was way to prominent in the mix. Something I would in retrospect call a typical mixing mistake. Someone else should do my mixing in the future. However, we decided that it is better to change it in the mix instead of ‘master around it’. We opened the session in Live, lowered one part by -3dB and transfered that better version over to his workstation. All this within ten minutes. Once Rashad is done, there is a very last step: I grab all the files after the mastering and do the final timing adjustment, the silence/overlaps between the pieces and sometimes even little level corrections (piece 3 a bit less loud…) a few days later at home. This is something which needs time and Rashad’s time is too expensive to use it for this. I also want to do it with some distance from the main mastering process. In our relationship he is the spectral genius, I am the manufacturing and quality assurance department *Q7. Will you be continuing a gar kein compression approach or was this a one-off experiment/statement? i know I’m using less already.. Robert: As a general strategy, for sure. As a dogma: no. For Monolake album info and site apply finger compression here and for full transcript of his interview in the Wire Jan 2010 press hereA woman working in a call center wears a hijab. Many women who wear hijabs choose to cover their hair completely. (Photo11: Javad Montazeri, World Picture Network) DETROIT — A Muslim woman has filed a lawsuit accusing police of violating her constitutional rights by making her remove her headscarf after they arrested her for driving on a suspended license. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court here, asks for the Dearborn Heights, Mich., Police Department to modify its present policy so a Muslim woman can wear her hijab during booking procedures. In July, police pulled over Malak Kazan, now 27, of Dearborn Heights on a traffic violation. She then was taken into custody on a traffic misdemeanor because of her suspended license, according to the lawsuit. The male police officer asked Kazan to remove her headscarf to take her booking photo, which usually requires no head coverings or hats. Kazan objected, saying her faith requires her to cover her hair and neck in the presence of men who are not part of her immediate family, the lawsuit said. For Kazan, "wearing a headscarf is a reminder of her faith, the importance of modesty in her religion... as well as a symbol of her own control over who may see the more intimate parts of her body," the suit said. "To have her hair and neck uncovered in public... is... deeply humiliating, violating, and defiling experience." Kazan said she asked to have a female officer take her photo, which the male officer refused to do, the lawsuit said. The officer talked to a supervisor, who told him to proceed as usual. "It was such an uncomfortable feeling," Kazan told The Arab American News, a national newspaper based in Dearborn, Mich. "I've worn my scarf for 12 years and my religion says that I can't take it off. It's not just a religious issue; this is a part of me. It's my culture, my life and my identity." The lawsuit maintains that wearing hijab is rooted in Islam, "based on... the Koran, the primary holy book of the Muslim religion; the hadith, oral traditions coming from the era of the Prophet Mohamed.... The word hijab comes from the Arabic word hajaba, which means to hide or screen from view or to cover." A hijab, which covers the head and neck but leaves the face clear, is one of several types of headscarves that Muslim women can employ if they wish to use a veil. The lawsuit was filed against the city of Dearborn Heights, its police department and police chief, saying that Kazan's constitutional rights to free expression of religion were violated. It claims that her rights under the 1st, 4th, and 14th amendments were violated. Dearborn Heights Mayor Dan Paletko and Dearborn Heights Police Chief Lee Gavin did not return calls and messages seeking comment. Fewer than 1% of adults in the USA say they are Muslim, according to the Pew Research Religion & Public Life Project, most recently updated in 2011. Dearborn Heights and neighboring Dearborn have a significant Muslim minority population that is reflected in two Dearborn mosques: The Islamic Center of America, a Shia mosque that is the largest mosque in USA, and Dearborn Mosque, a Sunni mosque that was the second mosque built in this country. The lawsuit is the latest filed in recent months involving Arab-American Muslim residents in Dearborn Heights who say that police and school officials are biased. Last year, the Crestwood School District in Dearborn Heights reached a settlment with the Department of Justice over concerns that it discriminated against Arab Americans. Related: Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1JuOlgq"I'm not talking about'multiracial,''miscegenation,''mongrel,''mutt,''mestizo,''masala' or even 'Mariah.' I'm talking about a word imbued with a legacy of racial strife in America that goes all the way back to the summer day in 1789 that Sally Hemings forgot to lock her bedroom door and runs all the way up to Wentworth Miller getting blacklisted by the NAACP Image Awards (Prison Break, indeed...). It's that word you hear the kids freestyling on the street -- M to the izzo, L to the atto... Yeah, that word. The M-word. Mulatto." Now that a biracial man is about to become the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, Americans again engage in a debate over what words we should -- and shouldn't -- use when talking about people of mixed racial heritage. Writer David Swerdlick was online Wednesday, July 30 to discuss his article, 'The M Word.' David Swerdlick writes about politics for PopMatters. He is a former contributor to Creative Loafing, and his writing has appeared in EbonyJet, AlterNet and The American Prospect. A transcript follows. ____________________ David Swerdlick: Welcome...my name is David Swerdlick, and I write for a number of websites, including The Root. Thanks for joining the live chat today. I hope you enjoyed my piece on The Root yesterday, "The Audacity of Taupe." The idea was to poke some holes in the way we discuss controversies about the N Word, by talking about the "M Word"--Mulatto. I think we also got into some interesting dialogue about what folks, myself included, mean when they refer to themselves as "biracial." _______________________ Houston, Texas: How is it that you want to legitimize the one drop rule in the larger African American community but not yourself???? African Americans are a people of mixed race. We are biracial, multiracial and, if still possible today, maybe mono-racial. African Americans, the majority, are a mulatto people. Yet you practice the same racism white people of yesterday imposed on "us" as a people when they mixed their blood with Africans. They denied the offspring a right to claim their entire birthright. You aren't any different than these early white Americans. African Americans are a MULATTO people! Creoles are a people with mixed racial ancestry, not a white parent! In Latin America there is recognition of a collective shared blood that is mixed among Afro Latinos/Hispanics. The downside are the divisions between mulattos and those of pure African descent. You are creating divisions. You are legitimizing the one drop rule in every African American who does not have an immediate white parent. You are creating an "them" and "other" caste among African Americans. For the longest time, African Americans divided themselves by skin color. Is the new custom or habit to divide ourselves by race of one parent????? I cannot believe how irresponsible you are. I cannot believe how you have legitimized racism against those "brothers and sisters" who share your same rich cultural and racial heritage. This is the perversity of political correctness gone astray. It represents the kind of liberalism that as usual lacks common sense because it fails to look at the larger picture Mr. Swerdlick, you are an oppressor of your own people. My father, the son of a white man, taught me how silly the blood game you play is. I love him like never before right now. David Swerdlick: I wanted to try to have fun with some of the controversy about the N Word, but talking about race relations in our society can be very sensitive, so I can see how some people might have been offended, even though I thought it was clear that we were tweaking the N Word by talking about the M Word-"Mulatto." One thing about being a person of color in America, you're going to wind up speaking or at least thinking about this kind of thing a lot. I find it fascinating, so I'll talk about it with anyone. But there are people for whom these subjects are uncomfortable, or maybe they just think it's gauche to talk about in public. I can respect that. _______________________ David Swerdlick: It's absolutely true that African Americans are a mixed race people. We have a wide range of backgrounds, family histories, views and hues. I think the idea of biracial specifically means that we're talking about a person who has a parent that's one "race" and a parent of another "race." _______________________ Cincinnati, Ohio: So what made you pick "Mulatto"? as opposed to some other word, i.e. "colored"? David Swerdlick: I've always thought, much to the chagrin of some people, that "Mulatto" has a smooth ring to it. But once you unpack the term and figure out that the root word is "mule" and that it comes from Spanish colonialism, the appeal kind of wears off. _______________________ Manassas, Va.: My wife was born in Brazil, and she's perplexed with America's fetish for categorizing races. Now more categories are needed? Please! Why does it have to be so complicated? David Swerdlick: Indeed. In Latin America, there are an assortment of words to describe an assortment of categories--"criollo" "mestizo" "moreno" "rubio" "oscuro." My impression is that in a broad sense, the descriptions in Latin American cultures have a lot to do with color, per se, more than parentage. There's a color hierarchy. There's a color hierarchy in the U.S., also. But when we say biracial, we're talking about having one parent from one cultural group and the other parent from a different one. Biracial people range from ecru to chocolate brown. African Americans span the spectrum of color. _______________________ Charles Town, W.Va.: Should we be beyond using color to describe a person? He is a man. He is a tall, thin man. He is a tall, thin, very smart man. He is a very nice, tall, thin, and extremely smart man. He is the President of the United States. I like the last one! If we are going to still use skin tones, I would like to know what is acceptable. I have friends that prefer black and then some that prefer Afro-American. They sometimes use "brown skinned" to refer to other ethnicities. Is lighter skin and darker skin acceptable? Hispanic vs Mexican vs Salvadorian? Indian vs Pakistani? Arab vs Mediterranean? Chinese vs Japanese? Black Africans vs Congloid vs Egyptians? Help! David Swerdlick: Good point about Obama. He's a man. He's a politician. There's a chance he'll be the POTUS. But he's also African American, he's biracial, and he's the son of an immigrant. I don't think there's anything wrong with exploring how those cultural narratives have shaped the kind of person he is or the kind of leader he could be. _______________________ David Swerdlick: Since I have limited time here, I'll shamelessly plug one of my own articles. The idea that Obama is biracial, but as a practical matter, in terms of what he means in our public discourse, he's a black man. I recommend reading "Dreams From My Father" if you haven't already. In his life, Obama embraced his blackness, and it has embraced him back. _______________________ washingtonpost.com: Anonymous asks: can you please provide a link to the article being referenced? Yes, it's up with the intro to this chat - just scroll up! Enjoy! _______________________ Louisville, Ky.: How would you explain it to people who aren't necessarily so concerned with root words? David Swerdlick: People frequently reference the "one drop" rule, wherein one drop of black blood makes you black. It was initially a way to enforce segregation. But these days, people like me embrace that and say, yes, I have a parent or a part of my background that's not black, but I'm a black person. I'm African American. Instead of looking at it as "one drop," maybe look at it as the "big tent" of blackness. In our society, blackness encompasses people who are biracial, multiracial, part white, part Asian, part Native American, part Afro-Latino, in varying "percentages" with various phenotypic traits, etc. Meanwhile, whiteness is defined, for better or for worse, in terms of exclusivity-you're either white or you're not. It has its roots in slavery and the era of segregation, and even though society has progressed, some of those constructs have persisted. _______________________ D.C.: What about people who are of mixed race but not specifically black-white? Could be Asian-white, Latino-black, etc. Is there a term for them? David Swerdlick: I'll get back to this in a minute, but yes, to me biracial encompasses people who are Puerto Rican/Chinese, Arab/Dutch, etc. There's a lot of ways to look at it. In this country we go to the idea of biracial as black/white. But that's not all there is to it. Google Kip Fulbeck's Hapa Project. "Hapa" is a Hawaiian term that comes from "hapa haole," meaning "half white." Now it's used colloquially to refer to people who are half Asian or pacific islander. Again, some people don't like the term, but it's much better than "Amerasian" which makes no sense at all. _______________________ Washington, D.C.: David, thank you for the chat. Would you please explain your authority in telling us what we should and shouldn't say. David Swerdlick: It's a free country. You can say anything you want. Hopefully, though, this discussion will give you some insight into how people might react to what you say. _______________________ David Swerdlick: Can I take a detour here and address one of my pet peeves? Frequently you hear people say that a discussion like this is too "PC." My take is that you get a lot further with the discussion if you just apply the golden rule. An example is the word, "Oriental." This has been an obsolete term for years and years, but you still hear it. Every now and then I'll point that out and the reaction I get is "why can't I say that?" You can. But just know that saying "Oriental" is like saying "Negro." Once it was the preferred term, and now it's not. If people want to be called Asian American, and you insist on calling them something else, that's on you. No foul if you don't know, but once someone breaks it down for you, think about trying to adjust to something new. _______________________ Richmond: But can biracial folks identify as white as well? I guess that's what's making some people uncomfortable, that it sounds like you're advocating choosing one over the other. Identifying with your Black heritage doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't identify with your other parent's heritage as well. We all love our Mothers too! David Swerdlick: Good question. I love both my parents and I wouldn't be who I am without both of them. That's why I think the idea of biracial makes sense. It's a way to acknowledge more than one thing about yourself. But at the same time, here's the thing. Imagine if Obama was in a press conference and he said, "oh, I'm not black, I'm white." It would sound a tiny bit ridiculous, wouldn't it? Because that's not the real world for most people. Back to black being a big tent. Whiteness is more like American Express--membership has its privileges. _______________________ Silver Spring, Md.: Do you see a generational effect on this issue? Do people under 30 with no memory of the 60s or 70s see racial identity with the intensity of their parents and grandparent? Will we still be discussing this in another 20 years? David Swerdlick: Generation has a lot to do with it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think of Obama (age 46?) as the beginning of the post-civil rights generation and the pre-Gen X era. I'm in my 30s, and consider myself squarely in Gen X. As time has evolved, the way we've looked at it has changed. Definitely, it makes sense that people who are Obama's age would think of themselves as black, based on the timeframe they came up in. The same is probably true or people my age, but not quite as uniformly. When you talk about Gen Y or Gen Z--Facebook generation, whatever--people in their 20s or younger, it's a whole new ballgame. We had a reader comment on The Root yesterday that said that the idea of biracial is "divisive." I think the idea is to say that if you're biracial and consider yourself that, instead of "black" that you are trying to downplay your blackness or that you're self-hating. Remember that Larry David line from Curb Your Enthusiasm when he's whistling Wagner and another Jewish person says that he's a self-loathing Jew? His response was something like, "I do hate myself, but it has nothing to do with being Jewish." I dunno. It's funny to me. _______________________ David Swerdlick: But seriously, the idea of race and talking about race relations can be divisive. That doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about it or even joke about it. Once upon a time, if you heard about a biracial person making a point about the fact that they were biracial, you might be able to assume that they were trying to distinguish themselves as something other than black only. I consider myself African American, Jewish American, and biracial American. These aren't mutually exclusive to me. People who want to box us in need to check themselves. This is Biracial v2.0. We're not your grandfather's mulattos out here anymore. Tiger Woods set us back, I think, when he first came on the scene with the "Cablinasian" interview on Oprah. I can't tell you how much that pissed me off at the time. But over the years, he's settled into his own space and he has indirectly made being biracial more mainstream. He's nowhere near as smooth with his as someone like Derek Jeter is, but not everyone can carry it like that. _______________________ River City Q: And Caucasians are mixed race too, it's just not as apparent by looking at one's skin. I'm Scottish/French/British/Welsh. David Swerdlick: Yes, in a sense. There's research out there that shows that if geneticists have enough data, they can tell you what part of the world your ancestors came from. To a degree it shows that our broad, color-centric ideas and categorizations about race are unscientific. But just because they're unscientific, it doesn't mean that they're not real. Society says that someone from Scandinavia and someone from Sicily are both "white" and someone from the horn of Africa and someone from the Congo region are "black." But that is an oversimplification. Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the Editor-in-Chief of The Root, has looked at this in some of his PBS documentaries. I'm not really talking about that, though. Socio-politically in America we have broad categories that were originally established and enforced to gird slavery, segregation, and economic exploitation of immigrant groups (including "white" immigrants). _______________________ New York, N.Y.: David, what is it with certain famous beige people celebrating their 100% blackness and bringing their poor white parents along? Is this a media construction? I've seen Halle Berry and Alicia Keys at several award or concert-type things where they've made some comment about their trailblazing Africanicity and then the camera flashes to their poor mommas in the audience, clearly victims of horrifying skin-lightener accidents. It just all feels vaguely disrespectful to aforementioned mommas. Obama uses his grandma as a punching bag in ways that make me kind of uncomfortable, too. Tiger doesn't seem to need to do this kind of thing, so what's up with that? David Swerdlick: I think your question is sincere, but let's do away with this Charles Krauthammeresque idea that in his Philadelphia speech, Obama "threw Grandma under the bus." If you can't use your own life experiences to try to help different people come to a better understanding of each other, then we may as well just pack it in. _______________________ Omaha, Neb.: I really liked your article, and I thought the "make it Obama" order on your coffee was clever. Here's my question, do you think it would ever be possible/inoffensive for a white person to order a coffee and request "make it Obama?" Clearly, certain words (N-words, M-words, I'm sure we could come up with some O-words next) are NOT ok for white people to use. But would it be possible for white people to make _casual_ references to the shade of someone's skin? Sure it happens in formal, political/classroom discussions... but to just make a throwaway joke about "make it taupe"? David Swerdlick: Here's the thing. You have to know the flavor of your own Kool-Aid before you go dipping into someone else's. What I mean is this: a couple of years ago, Farai Chideya interviewed KRS-1 on NPR and he pretty much said that he's o.k. with a young white person using the N Word if they've accepted the black idiom or Hip Hop culture as their own. But you just can't go off the cuff with it if you're not part of that rhythm. Stand-up comic Mike Birbiglia has a great bit where he situates the term "cracker" in the same way-"cracka, what?" and "cracka, please " Funny stuff. To answer your question, if you have to ask, maybe don't. I'm not trying to be a killjoy, but it's not funny enough to risk having your local barista think you're an ass. _______________________ David Swerdlick: I know this wasn't the question, but I have to say that I've never understood why it bothers certain white people so much that black people say "N Word" to each other and they can't say it. You see shows like The Sopranos where Italian Americans are referring to each other as "Guineas" and Never once in my life have I wondered why it's not cool for me to use the word "Guinea." _______________________ Silver Spring: My wife and I are white; our daughter, now two, was adopted in the US. She has an African - American birth father and a white birth mother. She's too young to be aware of race; but do you have any advice for us as she gets older? Also, I consider her mixed race but does that mean she won't fit in any community or category as she gets older? David Swerdlick: Several people have posted questions about what to do to guide children, so I'll try to catch it all here. I'm married (to a beautiful black woman, not that you asked) but I don't have kids. I would say this--make sure that they have love from you and that they learn the basic understanding of tolerance for people who are different. Difference can be values, religion, race, sexual orientation, etc. Let them know that people are people. As far as their heritage, I would say teach them both/all. My parents reared us to know black culture and history and Jewish culture and history. I grew up in a predominantly white suburb, and that was my frame of reference as a kid. When I went to a big university in a diverse urban area, my eyes opened up to the whole world out there. First it was a challenge for me, but quickly I saw it as a gift. Being African American didn't mean a whole lot to me in the suburbs in the late '80s, but when I grew up, I have to say I was happy that I was/am black. _______________________ River City: It seems to me that racial identity is much influenced by environment. If a mixed race child grew up in a neighborhood primarily one or the other, the music, slang, etc., what he learns might direct his identity rather than any theoretical umbrella/drop idea. David Swerdlick: I think I touched on this in my last response, but let me add that I would be remiss if I didn't refer you to two sources as food for thought if you're a parent of a young biracial kid. Not just black/white, but any biracial (or multiracial) kid. First, I recommend Danzy Senna's novel, Caucasia. She's more or less the patron saint of biracial people my age. Second, rent and watch the first 3 seasons of The L Word. I know, I know, it's a soap opera, but the Jennifer Beals character is a very helpful representation of what the experience can be like. But that's not what the experience will be like for your kids. They live in a Tiger Woods, Hines Ward, Rashida Jones world. I thought that Monique Fields' article on The Root yesterday was a very refreshing look at what the thought process is sometimes for parents of biracial children. _______________________ Philadelphia, Pa.: I'm a millennial, or at least that's what they told me on "Sixty Minutes", who is the child of a white father and a black mother. I completely understand and agree your tent argument. I think of myself as a woman of color, and if someone where to ask me what my heritage was, I would tell them biracial. However, I know that when most people look at me, they think black and I have no problem wearing that label either. That being said, I think people from mixed race backgrounds are much less naive and more pragmatic than others about the state of race relations and the use of racial categories. Although with that pragmatism I have had more than a few blacks, although the usual thought we have is the poor curly haired brown girl being picked on by white people, react with shock when I describe myself as biracial and have even tried to convince me that somehow my African American heritage trumps all else. I just hope that my generation and the next ones, which will inevitably be more and more mixed, encourage people to identify however they feel comfortable. David Swerdlick: Yeah, it's different for y'all. And that's a good thing. I think people need to understand that you can be biracial and proud, and at the same time be equally proud of your "component parts." If someone asks me if I'm African American, I answer, "yes." If someone asks me if I'm Jewish American, I answer, "yes." If someone asks me if I'm biracial, I answer, "yes." These are not mutually exclusive. That said, you want to avoid the trap of being a person of color when it's convenient for you, but then saying you're something else when it's not. Uncool. _______________________ Denver Colo.: At last--someone who gets the "PC" thing. Thank you, seriously. As a hapa, I hate that "oriental" label. Makes me think of Jennifer Jones playing a hapa. Sorry. Call people what they want to be called. Why is that so hard? My niece is hapa/black. She gets to pick, not me or her mom or dad or her peers. That's just how I see it. On a lighter note, is it cool for a hapa such as myself, to order my iced coffee a la Swerdlick? Some of the more informed baristas in Denver just might get it, too. David Swerdlick:"Hapa/black." Try "Blasian." _______________________ why?: did Woods' Cablinasian piss you off? Because he didn't want to admit to being Black? He was just trying to represent his folks, who just happen to be Caucasian, Asian, Black... David Swerdlick: You have to rep your set, as they say. But what if it's not your set? I'm black/Jewish. I also have American Indian blood (most African Americans do) and Indian American blood ("red dot" AND "feather"). But I typically don't claim those, not because I'm trying to downplay them, but because those aren't really woven in with my life experience. _______________________ McLean, Va.: Do you think it's a valid choice for a biracial person to "identify as white" or at least to view themselves as "just an individual" rather than accepting categorization? Do you think it's harder for, say, a black-white biracial person to do so than, say, an Asian-white biracial person? It would seem to me that it may be, maybe because historically black Americans have been most subject to pernicious categorization and persecution. David Swerdlick: Again, just picture Obama in front of a crowd or on Meet the Press and him saying, "I think of myself as white." It doesn't quite work in the context of how our society has historically spliced and diced race. _______________________ White mother: I guess the poster from New York bothered you with their "Krauthammer" tone, but the underlying question was interesting. The white parent's influence seems to be marginalized in the embracing of the African American side. David Swerdlick: It shouldn't be marginalized. Clearly, part of who Obama is today is a result of his mother's influence. But try to think of how society will interface with the biracial person, who is of color. _______________________ Atlanta: I think Obama has made it great to be biracial. Just a few years ago, black folks would shun you called yourself biracial, even if you had blonde hair and blue eyes, or mainly like your Asian American parent. Now, checking the "other" box doesn't seem so bad. David Swerdlick: People used to say black, and then Jesse Jackson advanced the term African American, which seems more precise to me (now he's back to "N Word," but that's another story). We still say black, but now African American is
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Follow him on Twitter: @Aaron_Glantz. Don't miss the next big story. Brave investigations that change minds, laws and lives. Emailed directly to you.Today, Boxer along with Cyanogen, have announced a new partnership between the two companies to bring Cyanogen Mail to the OnePlus One, Micromax Yureka and the upcoming Alcatel OneTouch Hero 2+. The app will be pre-installed on future Cyanogen-powered smartphones. It's important that we note that this only applies to Cyanogen OS and not CyanogenMod. CyanogenMod is still open-sourced and has virtually nothing pre-installed. "We're truly excited to be partnering with a company that shares so many of Boxer's core values. Mobile devices have become so prevalent in our lives, but with no two people sharing the same work habits, we believe it is critical that users are offered the option to customize. Phones come in all shapes, sizes, and even colors. With all the device options available in the market today, it is clear that one size does not fit all. We believe the email experience should be no different. Cyanogen shares our vision for customization and user choice. We couldn't ask for a better partner." Stated Andrew Eye, CEO and Founder of Boxer. The Cyanogen Email app, is actually just the Boxer app, but with Material Design. Which is currently only available on Cyanogen-powered devices. Users will get all of the features of Boxer Pro, which the biggest feature in Boxer Pro is the ability to add in multiple accounts. So you've got Gmail, Microsoft Exchange, and just about every other email provider available. This is more important for those that use Microsoft Exchange. As most of you know, the AOSP email app isn't all that great. While Google's Inbox does support Exchange, you do still need an invite. Boxer takes care of all that, and you don't need an invite to use it. Just need an invite to buy a OnePlus One unless it's Tuesday. Some of the other features that come with Cyanogen Email include the ability to customize swipe actions. So Cyanogen users can customize their left and right swipe actions, notification sounds, account colors for LED notifications and even create custom inbox folders. Cyanogen Email also brings integrated task management. So users can create a task, set a due date, priority level and even set an assignee straight from the inbox. Cyanogen Email users will also be able to integrate popular productivity apps which include Evernote, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive and others. All integrated into their inbox. The update to Cyanogen Email should be rolling out to the OnePlus One and the Micromax Yureka in the next few weeks. We'll be sure to keep you updated as to when that happens.Man shot, killed by APD officer in Southwest Austin Copyright by KXAN - All rights reserved David Allen Lepine, 62. (DPS Photo) [ + - ] Video AUSTIN (KXAN) - An Austin police officer killed a 62-year-old man during a foot chase in Southwest Austin late Saturday night according to APD. During a 5:30 a.m. press briefing Sunday, Austin police said a woman called 911 around 11:30 p.m. Saturday to report a man was following her. Police went to David Lepine's home in the 9400 block of Claxton Drive, which is off U.S. Highway 290 in the Oak Hill area. He came outside and was talking to officers, who say they noticed blood on his clothing and in several places on his pickup truck. Police say they asked Lepine why there was blood on his truck but said he was not able to give them an answer. During the course of the conversation, the man took off running. Police say video from the officer's patrol car shows the man reached down to his waistband for a weapon prior to being shot. Neighbors said they heard two bangs the believe were the gunshots. "We do have a weapon that is on the scene in close proximity to where the deceased is lying," Assistant Chief Brian Manley said. Police confirm the weapon is a firearm, but at the time of the briefing, detectives had not yet determined the make or model. The truck with blood on it will be taken in for further evidence analysis, according to Manley. No one else was injured, and police say the woman who originally called 911 was not hurt. The officer involved, Patrick Cheatham, has been with the Austin Police Department about a year and went through the Department's modified training. Prior to APD, Cheatham was with the Hays County Sheriff's Office and Buda Police Department. This is the third time an APD officer has shot and killed someone in the past week. On July 5, Austin police officers were involved in a shootout at the Downtown Austin Omni Hotel that left a gunman dead. That same morning, there was a separate deadly shooting where three police officers shot and killed a man at a house in North Austin, after they say the suicidal man pointed a gun at police. "Although three have happened in very close proximity to each other, they are independent of each other and not any part of a pattern. So, there's no connection," said Manley. APD's Internal Affairs Division will be investigating all three recent shootings, along with the Office of the Police Monitor. The cases will eventually be presented to a Travis County grand jury. So far in 2015, Austin police officers have opened fire on seven people. There were a total of three cases in 2014.SUBIC BAY, the Philippines — Marines from the Philippines and the United States began 10 days of joint exercises focused on disaster relief, humanitarian assistance and maritime security. The exercises, now in their 29th year, come at a time of increased tensions in the South China Sea with the Philippines and China involved in a territorial dispute over islands lying near rich energy deposits. About 2,600 American Marines and 1,200 of their Philippine counterparts will be training around the northern island of Luzon. “Today, we stand side by side as we face common threats,” said Brig. Gen. Craig Q. Timberlake of the United States Marines at the opening ceremony, held on the American amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard in Subic Bay, a former United States naval base in the Philippines that is now a commercial port. On the assault ship’s deck, ground-attack Harrier jets were lined up near CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters. At the pier next to the ship was the Olympia, a nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Brig. Gen. Remigio C. Valdez, the deputy commander of the Philippine armed forces, stressed that the training was not related to the territorial dispute. Photo “Technological advancement is at the heart of its goal,” he said. But the Philippine fleet, whose largest vessel is a former United States Coast Guard cutter, will have no ships participating in the exercises. “It’s not about the hardware,” said Col. John E. Merna, the commander of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. “We have a lot to learn from the Philippines. They are tremendous jungle fighters.”Tim Draper Wants To Split California Into Pieces And Turn Silicon Valley Into Its Own State TechCrunch has learned about noted technology investor Tim Draper’s plan to split California into six separate states, including a Northern California slice appropriately named “Silicon Valley.” Draper shared his vision with TechCrunch tonight. He says he’s submitting a polished version to the state’s Attorney General in the form of a ballot proposition proposal within the next 48 hours. “Six Californias” already has a campaign website up and is eager for an army of volunteers. We’ve pasted the full ballot initiative below, along with the redrawn map of California. Essentially, the idea is to section off California into six horizontal slices, with Silicon Valley getting its own region stretching from the Sierras to the Bay Area beaches. Southern California would also get its own slice of isolationist glory, with the new state “West California” consisting of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, among other areas. In an email, Draper tells me there are five key reasons he’s pushing the initiative: “1. It is about time California was properly represented with Senators in Washington. Now our number of Senators per person will be about average. 2. Competition is good, monopolies are bad. This initiative encourages more competition and less monopolistic power. Like all competitive systems, costs will be lower and service will be better. 3. Each new state can start fresh. From a new crowd sourced state flower to a more relevant constitution. 4. Decisions can be more relevant to the population. The regulations in one new state are not appropriate for another. 5. Individuals can move between states more freely.” Getting such a measure on California’s wacky ballot will be no easy task. Attempts to get initiatives on the state ballot can cost millions of dollars, and often fail. That said, California has a long secessionist history, and there are a number of folks who want to split the West Coast into smaller territories. And Tim Draper, who recently announced plans to step down skip the next fund from his investment firm and has been dedicating more of his time to educational initiatives, certainly has the clout and financial resources that can be helpful in turning political visions into reality. It is an out-of-the-box idea, to say the least. But it’s in line with Silicon Valley’s recent history of hyper-ambitious ideas. Facebook Investor Peter Thiel is funding a floating, sovereign libertarian utopia island. Investor Balaji S. Srinivasan infamously called for a separate “opt-in” territory for radical experimentation. Google’s Larry Page hinted at the same techno-utopian island. We have asked Draper for more details and will let you know as soon as we get them (and verify that the Attorney General will, in fact, accept such a proposition.) For now, check out the proposal for yourself in the documents below. Six Californias Proposal Six Californias Map Proposal by TechCrunchTen new cases of HIV are diagnosed every week in this country. Figures from HIV Ireland show new cases have increased by 35% since 2011. A total of 498 people were diagnosed as living with HIV last year, compared with 372 in 2014. The charity said the rate of increase - which is described as a "spiralling crisis" - was alarming and needed urgent action. Executive director of HIV Ireland Niall Mulligan said: "One of the first actions of the new Government must be to address the HIV crisis in Ireland. "HIV Ireland has been working in the areas of prevention, testing, outreach and support for almost 30 years and we are alarmed at the relentless upward trend in HIV diagnoses." Some facts from HIV Ireland, based on provisional data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre:Gary R. Bertoline, dean of the Purdue Polytechnic Institute. (Photo: Provided) Purdue University students who petitioned against the College of Technology’s name change can weigh in this semester on its recent transformation. Gary Bertoline, dean of the new Purdue Polytechnic Institute, will host discussions this week on the rebranding after more than 200 students and alumni signed a petition over the summer to change the name back. Senior Austin Haberly, who started the petition on change.org, proposed in June what he said was a fair compromise: allowing students enrolled at the time of the rebranding to graduate with College of Technology degrees. “I do believe that’s important, based on the feedback of my peers,” Haberly said in a phone interview. “Everybody is desiring that title that we’ve been expecting for the last three years. This was really just dropped in our laps, and we didn’t really have a choice in the matter.” The transformation has been in the works for the past two years through the Purdue Moves initiative, Bertoline said. Focus groups consisting of students, faculty and industry were interviewed before the name change was proposed. Reaction from focus groups and alumni events in several cities has been positive, he said. “I’m pretty confident that when I get in front of the students that they will understand what it is we’re doing and that they actually will want to be affiliated with this name,” he said. The Board of Trustees approved the rebranding in May to reflect a changing mission: serving the 21st century workforce. Several new majors, a competency-based degree and an emphasis on liberal arts integration and project-based learning are all part of the rebranding, Bertoline said. “One of the motives behind the change of the name is we want to express to people how transformational this effort is,” he said, “and to stay with same name I think would not do justice.” Feedback on the petition and from several interviews, however, suggests students and alumni are concerned the name change could be confusing, implying they graduated from a regional campus or trade school connected to Purdue. “As an employer, if I were to see Purdue Polytechnic Institute on a resume, I would assume it was a satellite school or something with a completely different applications process than the main university,” said Will Nash, a senior studying electrical and computer engineering technology. The word “polytech” was also a major point of contention among students. “The word 'polytech' has a negative connotation that people associate with a lower quality performance and output compared to a university,” said Ryan Rumble, a senior studying computer information technology. But Bertoline noted Virginia Tech — which is actually called Virginia Polytechnic and State University — and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — the nation’s first engineering school — are well-known as prestigious institutions. “If you look more deep into this, I think that you’ll find that the word ‘polytechnic’ actually has pretty high regard,” he said. Still, Haberly said it will take time for employers and industry leaders to catch on to the change. “During that transition, it’s going to be harder for students to get recognized from companies because the companies aren’t going to be familiar with the new school,” he said. “Companies already have a great idea of what the College of Technology is and they have for years.” Bertoline noted, however, that the college’s enrollment has declined in the past decade. With the transformation’s focus on innovative education, he said the institute’s graduates will be sought after more than ever. “When our graduates go out and they become highly successful and recognized because they have this different kind of skill set, people will look at the ‘polytechnic’ in a light that is going to be much greater than I think anyone can even imagine,” he said. “So the product is actually what’s going to define the name.” If you go What: A conversation with Dean Gary Bertoline about the new Purdue Polytechnic Institute When: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday Where: Knoy Hall room B019 Read or Share this story: http://on.jconline.com/1EwI4ovWhen you were young what did your parents leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve? In our house it was a couple of mince pies and mint matchmakers, don’t ask why, I think we might have figured Santa would like some minty magic for his sleigh ride. We always thought the big guy was a sloppy eater with the amount of crumbs that were left behind though… I’ve made a couple of batches of mince pies already this month, first there was my test batch and then a second lot when the in laws were over, so when it came to using the jar of mincemeat I had in the fridge I thought I’d try something a little different and opted for a Festive Slice, and sitting here on the couch with my cup of coffee, wrapped up in a cosy blanket and watching my twinkling lights on the tree, I am quite honestly in a kind of Christmas bliss! Christmas Mincemeat Slices Makes 12 slices 3 tablespoons natural brown sugar ½ cup vegan margarine 1 cup buckwheat flour ½ cup wholewheat flour 1.5 cups oats Pinch cinnamon Pinch nutmeg ½ tsp baking soda 3 tablespoons almond milk (or any other non dairy milk) Half jar vegan mincemeat (I used Robertsons Mincemeat) 1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees and line a square baking tray with greaseproof paper. 2. In a bowl cream together the sugar and margarine until combined. 3. Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir together until mixed thoroughly. Then add the milk and the oats and stir to combine. 4. Add 2 thirds of the mixture into the lined baking tray smoothing out until evenly distributed, then add the layer of mincemeat on top, again spreading evenly. 5. With the remaining third of the mixture, I got in their with my hands, breaking it up into small sections and flattening in my palms and adding on top of the mincemeat layer, then take a spatula and carefully spread it over so there are no gaps. 5. Pop in the oven for 30 – 40 minutes. 6. Remove from heat and allow to cool, then sieve some icing sugar over the top to decorate! From the 30+ photos I took of my festive slices, these 2 I liked the best. Still looking at new camera options and have been sat mucking around with my current camera settings, adjusting this and that to see if it makes a difference. I might need to try a lamp of some kind to give me a decent chance in getting a shot that doesn’t look too dark!Illustration: Sam Woolley (GMG) Everyone has their own relationship to and tolerance for alcohol, but next time you’re at a party, you might do well if you have exactly two drinks. If you are a person who has found that zero drinks, or one drink, is the right number for you, then that is the number to stick with. For everyone else, try two. Here “party” means anything bigger than an intimate group of family or friends. If people are gathering and drinking alcohol, and those people include people you don’t really know, or people you don’t really like, or especially people you have to work with (see previous two categories)—at a party like this, it is a good idea to consume, in the course of the event, two alcoholic beverages. Advertisement Does this seem low? It’s not, really. Having two drinks—specifically, one drink, and then later on another drink—is moderate social drinking. It will probably make you a little more relaxed and easygoing. It is unlikely, however, to leave you sloppy or belligerent. You will not be the life of the party. Being the life of the party is usually a mistake, especially around people you don’t like and/or have to work with. How do you go about drinking only two drinks in the course of a party? First, have one drink. Make it something you enjoy drinking, but also something you know that you’re drinking, so you don’t thoughtlessly rush through it. If you’re slurping down a delicious fruity alcoholic beverage because it’s delicious and fruity, you’d be better off having a delicious nonalcoholic smoothie. The current craze for ostentatiously bitter IPAs can be helpful here. The idea that bitterness is the signature of sophisticated beer is obnoxious and false, but bitterness can be a feature of some good beers, and if you enjoy a bitter beer, it encourages you to sip your way through the bottle. You may be only halfway down when your friend or not-really-friend drains their own first beer and offers to go get everybody some more. “Thanks,” you say, “I’m still good with this one.” Advertisement The same result can be achieved by slowly sipping a glass of bourbon or scotch. Taste it. Savor it. Let other people rush to the bottom of their drinks, if they must. What about the old college maxim, “Liquor, then beer, never fear; beer, then liquor, never sicker”? It doesn’t matter, because you’re only having two drinks. Eventually you will get to the bottom of your first drink, because you are not not-drinking. Now is the time to get something else: a nice, refreshing glass of seltzer. Maybe a bracing cup of cranberry juice. Maybe cranberry and seltzer together. The sort of people who pay attention to what other people are drinking may notice and say something. No one owes these people any sort of explanation, but you may hoist your beverage half an inch or so and smile and say, “Pacing myself.” That is what you are doing, in fact: You are pacing yourself. Advertisement The truth is, even if you are setting out to drink six or eight drinks (a bad idea), you should follow your first drink with a hydrating, nonalcoholic beverage. Everyone at a party is better off with a little fluid in the system. By the time you reach the end of your nonalcoholic drink, some of the people around you will be on their third drinks, maybe even their fourth. They may be saying things that are indiscreet. Rather than taking this as an invitation to say something indiscreet yourself, you may take it as a reminder of the value of discretion. Or, if you wish, you can say something that seems indiscreet but is carefully considered. You are under control. Now that you have fallen completely off the pace, have another drink. Again, choose something you enjoy. Savor it. If you accidentally find yourself in possession of a drink you don’t really like—a flavored Uncanny Valley simulacrum of a beer, for instance—get rid of it at once and replace it with something you do like. Advertisement At this point, the people who are on their way to getting good and drunk will have lost count of your drinks, if not their own. They will see you and your drink, and you will register as one of them. Your drink will slowly warm you up, and you will feel convivial; you are one of them. Just not a sloppy or reckless one. Nor will you be desperate to join them in the line to go to the toilet. You’re well hydrated but not sloshing. Enjoy your drink. Chat with the people you want to chat with. You will find it surprisingly easy to maneuver around the bores and troublemakers. If shots appear, do not take any. This may require a little resolve, but you will have plenty of resolve. You’re not going to lose an argument with a drunk. Advertisement Eventually your second drink, like all good things, will come to its end. If you were having three or more drinks, a third drink would seem like a good idea. But you are having two drinks. Look around. Is this party still a place you want to be? If it is, get another seltzer or juice, or go outside and hang out with the smokers. If it is not—when it is not—say your polite goodbyes to people who are still capable of listening, get your stuff, and go. It is not your job to sustain a thinning party. Venture out into the night. Feel the noise and stimulation of the party lift from you, leaving you clear-headed and alert. Go home and get a good night’s sleep. You’re not missing anything.The American people are "war-weary," we are told, and that’s the only reason they’re overwhelmingly opposed to bombing Syria: this bit of conventional wisdom is invoked by warmongers and peaceniks alike, but is it true? Well, to some degree, no doubt, but not in any tangible sense: after all, there is no conscription, we have a professional army, and most people are not aware of how war impacts their lives. So if they’re "war weary" it must mean they’re tired of hearing about these faraway conflicts in places they probably can’t find on a map. So yes, the public is indeed weary, but not in the sense the pundits mean. What they are weary of are the lies. The US government lied us into war in Iraq with some of the most egregious fables this side of the Brothers Grimm. There was the Niger "yellowcake" fabrication – an outright forgery cited in the State of the Union address by George W. Bush. This crude concatenation of documents which took a team of UN specialists less than an hour to debunk was supposed to "prove" the existence of Iraq’s ongoing (and fast-developing) nuclear weapons program. Oh well, back to the drawing board! There was the Iraqi-intelligence-agent-meets-Mohammed-Atta-in-Prague narrative, a tall tale from beginning to end, which was "leaked" to the neoconservative media and trumpeted as proof positive that Saddam and Al Qaeda were in on the 9/11 attacks together. That turned out to be a hoax. Oh, and don’t forget the Al Qaeda "training camp" that was supposed to have been sheltered and succored by Saddam Hussein – which, along with those famous "weapons of mass destruction," turned out to be nonexistent. I could go on – but I’m not in the mood to catalogue and describe the complete works of Laurie Mylroie. If you are, please be my guest…. In short, we were lied into war once before with slapped-together bogus "intelligence," and so the public is wary – and so is Congress, and much of the media, albeit not for the same reasons. Congress is wary because of the polls – no one wants to own this one. As for the media: they, too, are taking it slow, writing articles about how everyone has "learned the lesson of Iraq." But their version of that "lesson" has little to do with the "intelligence" we’re being given that’s supposed to justify this latest Crusade for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. For the most part, they’ve swallowed the administration’s account of what supposedly happened at Ghouta, and in earlier incidents of alleged poison gas attacks, which is that Assad "is gassing his own people." The blind acceptance of this "fact" is one of the stranger elements of the current war hysteria – because if we truly have learned "the lesson of Iraq" then why is everyone repeating the US government’s war propaganda as if it’s beyond dispute? One fact is indeed beyond dispute – someone used some kind of chemical warfare agent in the village of Ghouta on Aug. 21. The question is: who did it? John Kerry keeps telling us the rebels couldn’t possibly be responsible because they don’t have that "capability." But a new report issued by the Russian government claims the sarin gas mixture deployed at a previous and very similar incident in the town of Khan al Assal – the incident the UN team was in Syria to investigate when the Ghouta atrocity occurred – was not military grade. It also purports to show that the rocket delivering the substance was makeshift, not at all like those regularly utilized by the Syrian military. We’re also being told by the Obama administration the rebels have no access to sarin or other chemical weapons, but you don’t need access to classified information to know this isn’t necessarily true: since various rebel factions now control big swathes of Syrian territory, it’s quite possible they’ve "liberated" chemical weapons caches once controlled by the Syrian government. As the Washington Post reported back in December: "U.S. officials are increasingly worried that Syria’s weapons of mass destruction could fall into the hands of Islamist extremists, rogue generals or other uncontrollable factions. "Last week, fighters from a group that the Obama administration has branded a terrorist organization were among rebels who seized the Sheik Suleiman military base near Aleppo, where research on chemical weapons had been conducted. Rebels are also closing in on another base near Aleppo, known as Safirah, which has served as a major production center for such munitions, according to US officials and analysts." According to a Syrian general who defected this summer, Assad’s chemical weapons sites "are not secure. Probably anyone from the Free Syrian Army or any Islamic extremist group could take them over." No chemical warfare capability? Not so fast: the Libyan jihadists who overthrew Qaddafi were among the first foreign fighters to land in Syria, and they certainly had access to the former Libyan dictator’s chemical arsenal. In 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported on "a massive, unguarded weapons depot that is being pillaged daily by anti-Gadhafi military units, hired work crews and any enterprising individual who has the right vehicle and chooses to make the trip." Included among the goodies: "Artillery rounds designed to carry chemical weapons" which that reporter saw "stashed in the back of" a warehouse." (See also here.) During Hillary Clinton’s confirmation hearings, Senator Rand Paul asked her about "rumors" that the Benghazi attack on our embassy was somehow involved with an attempt by the Libyan rebels to ship arms looted from Qaddafi’s arsenal to the Syrian jihadists. Hillary tut-tutted that she’d "never heard" any such thing. Really? Given what’s happening in Syria today, the question arises: were chemical weapons transported from Libya to Syria? Ha’aretz reported in March that the rebels were definitely behind a chemical weapons attack outside Aleppo, with the chemical of choice apparently chlorine: "The explosion claimed the lives of Syrian Armed Forces soldiers who are apparently loyal to Assad, and the Syrian government was quick to demand an international investigation of the incident. These two facts would indicate that Assad’s forces were not behind the attack…. "It appears that the target of the attack was a checkpoint manned by Syrian Armed Forces, which reinforces the theory that rebel forces, probably jihadists known to be operating around Aleppo, were behind it. A report by Britain’s Channel Four, based on Syrian military sources, claims that the weapon used in the attack may have been a missile carrying a warhead filled with chlorine mixed into a saline solution. The Syrian source also said that a factory that manufactures chlorine is located nearby." The last time the Syrian "opposition" raised a hue and cry over alleged chemical attacks by the Assad regime, Carla del Ponte said she had evidence from UN inspectors that the real culprits were … the rebels. She wasn’t listened to. Why is that? Oh, those cuddly "rebels" would never do anything like use chemical weapons banned internationally: why they’re mostly "moderates," according to Kerry. Only "fifteen to twenty percent" are Al Qaeda type radicals, he avers. As Vladimir Putin put it the other day, "he is lying and he knows that he is lying." Jihadists are pouring in from all over the world – including from places like New Zealand, and even the US – to take part in the battle to create an Islamic state in Syria. The armed wing of the "opposition," as Kerry dubs them, is dominated by radical Islamists formally affiliated with Al Qaeda. Reuters cites a European expert on terrorism in the region as saying: "Extremist rebel factions were so strong and well-organized in the north and west of Syria that they were setting up their own public services and trying to create an Islamic ministate along the Iraqi border. "By contrast, the official said, more moderate rebel factions predominate in the east of Syria and along its southern border with Jordan but have largely devolved into ‘gangs’ whose leaders are more interested in operating local rackets and enriching themselves than in forming a larger alliance that could more effectively oppose Assad’s government." It makes sense the Obama administration would latch on to "moderates" with a modus operandi similar to their own, but it looks like Syria’s Mod Squad is on the way out as al Nusra and other jihadist groups take the lead. The lies proliferate like flies on a corpse: Kerry has spent the last week or so telling members of Congress and the American people "no boots on the ground," and yet it turns out this really means "no combat boots on the ground." "Noncombat" troops (like the thousands we still have in Iraq) are just fine. "This isn’t Iraq" – we keep hearing it from the President and his underlings, but that’s a barefaced lie, too. The original authorization for the use of military force proffered by Kerry was so blatantly broad that you could drive a whole regime change operation through it. The only difference in the revised "watered-down" version is that the loopholes aren’t quite so obvious to the untrained un-lawyerly eye. You’ll recall that, up until this point, all aid to the rebels was supposed to have been "non-lethal." John McCain succeeded in slipping in a clause that allows Washington to "upgrade" our "lethal and nonlethal" aid to the rebels in order to "change the momentum" on the battlefield. Another lie in the form of a half-truth: the often stated factoid that "over 100,000 people have been killed in the Syrian civil war." This is true as far as it goes, but it raises the question: who is being killed and who are the killers? If you listen to the war-screamers, you get the definite impression that the Assad regime killed them all. The reality is that around 45,000 of the fallen were Syrian army and police: anywhere from 25,000 to 45,000 were jihadists and their "moderate" front men, including foreign fighters. The rest were civilians caught in the crossfire, including this Catholic priest beheaded by the rebels. (Gee, I hope they weren’t from the "moderate" faction!) Yes, the American people are weary all right – we’re damned comatose with the effects of war propaganda coming at us from all directions, 24/7. We’re sick unto death of being lied to – and wondering why our "free" media feels obliged to regurgitate government press releases as if they were the gospel truth. This government lies about everything – James "least untruthful" Clapper is the poster boy for the distinct style this gang has brought to the White House. Kerry is fast catching up to him, however, as the whoppers come thick and fast. These folks are no different from their neocon predecessors – except that the neocons were better liars. The lies they told were bigger, more imaginative, and far more elaborate, although the Obamaites are doing some pretty quick catching up. Perhaps the administration ought to call in veterans of the Bush regime’s old Office of Special Plans for some pointers. I hear Doug Feith is looking for a new gig. Although, on second thought, maybe the administration is indeed already taking lessons in Advanced Deception from the pros. The alleged "smoking gun" in the US government’s classified account of what happened at Ghouta is an intercepted communication between Unit 8200 of the Syrian army and the Syrian high command, which – we’re told – definitively proved the Syrians’ guilt. The Daily Caller, however, has unearthed the truth: the Obama administration’s report on the interceptions was "doctored," writes Kenneth Timmerman, according to "former military officers with access to the original intelligence reports." Timmerman writes: "The original communication intercepted by Unit 8200 between a major in command of the rocket troops assigned to the 155th Brigade of the 4th Armored Division, and the general staff, shows just the opposite. "The general staff officer asked the major if he was responsible for the chemical weapons attack. From the tone of the conversation, it was clear that ‘the Syrian general staff were out of their minds with panic that an unauthorized strike had been launched by the 155th Brigade in express defiance of their instructions,’ the former officers say. "According to the transcript of the original Unit 8200 report, the major ‘hotly denied firing any of his missiles" and invited the general staff to come and verify that all his weapons were present.’" There’s a note at the end of the report saying the Syrian officer was recalled to headquarters, interrogated for three days, and returned to his unit. "All of his weapons were accounted for," the report stated. We’re being lied into war once again – with the complicity of the "mainstream" media, which is ignoring any and all evidence that contradicts the Obama party line. NOTES IN THE MARGIN You can check out my Twitter feed by going here. But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud. I’ve written a couple of books, which you might want to peruse. Here is the link for buying the second edition of my 1993 book, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, with an Introduction by Prof.
”), and the link (if any) between ethnicity and great wealth. In an earlier post I discussed progressive consumption taxes—here I’ll focus on ethnicity. Piketty is quite dismissive of the idea that great wealth and/or high incomes are generally associated with “merit” (or productivity, the term I prefer.) He tends to emphasize that many of the very wealthy have inherited their fortune. Or that out-sized CEO pay packages are not closely linked to productivity. Indeed this is a theme Piketty repeats frequently. Others have had doubts about this CEO claim, noting that elite pay has also risen rapidly in areas where incomes are clearly linked to productivity, such as managing hedge funds. A paper by Steven Kaplan and Joshua Rauh contrasts the Piketty argument with the productivity argument, and concludes: Our results tend to support the second broad category of explanations more than the first. For example, one version of the managerial power or extraction hypothesis argues that corporate governance has deteriorated in a way that allows top executives to have increased their compensation substantially (Bebchuk and Fried (2004). But our evidence suggests that poor corporate governance cannot be more than a small part of the picture of increasing income inequality, even at the very upper end of the distribution other groups that do not report to a potentially compliant board of directors, particularly private company executives, have experienced equal or larger increases in their contribution to the top income brackets. Furthermore, the Forbes 400 lists include virtually no public company chief executives who are not founders or who became the chief executive officer after the company went public. Interestingly, I don’t recall any Piketty reviews discussing the role of ethnicity and great wealth. One of the wealthiest people in the world is Mexican telecom owner Carlos Slim, who is of Lebanese descent (a fairly small minority in a mostly Hispanic culture.) In many Southeast Asian nations the wealth is disproportionately owned by a relatively small group of Chinese immigrants. America has many examples of immigrant success, perhaps none more famous than Jewish immigrants from Europe. According to Forbes, of the 40 Americans with more than $10 billion in wealth, 12 are Jewish. (And a 13th was described as Russian-American.) So it looks like about 30% of the very rich in America are Jewish. I couldn’t find data on the proportion of all US billionaires that were Jewish, but some sources suggested roughly 25%. (The global figures seems closer to 11% of all billionaires being Jewish, although of course Jews make up a much smaller share of the global population that the US population. Roughly 0.2% globally vs. 2.0% in the US.) Even accounting for data problems (what counts as Jewish when there is intermarriage?) it looks like Jewish immigrants to American have been considerably more successful than average. What does any of this have to do with Piketty’s book? Very possibly nothing. However given that Piketty is quite dismissive of the idea that great wealth and/or high incomes are associated with “merit”, I wonder what would be the Piketty explanation of ethnic differences in wealth. One factor might be discrimination, but that doesn’t seem to apply to cases where small immigrant communities have done very well—indeed they often face adverse discrimination, just the opposite of what you would expect. It seems to me that the most straightforward explanation for the success of minority immigrant groups is high productivity. And it’s not hard to find independent evidence of for that hypothesis. For instance, about 25% of Ivy League students are Jewish. That suggests that the proportion of highly talented students in America who are Jewish is roughly equal to the proportion that are billionaires. There is also evidence of high achievement in education among Chinese immigrants to America, which might have some bearing on their success in other parts of the world. Now in fairness to Piketty I think one could construct a plausible theory explaining over-representation of certain immigrants groups among the very wealthy, which does not involve a productivity story. Even Piketty would (presumably) not attribute business success to random luck. I am quite certain that I don’t have the skills required to be a CEO, for instance, even if CEOs are grossly overpaid. And of course he does view the inheritance channel to wealth as representing the luck of being born into the right family. If I could hazard a guess, it might be that the lack of discussion of ethnicity in the Piketty debate might partly reflect the fact that explanations of disproportionate ethnic success that are not merit-based might seem slightly non-PC. I’m not sure that would be fair to those on the other side—my own view is that we have become so sensitive to these issues (mostly a good thing!) that the charge of prejudice is somewhat overused in contemporary American intellectual debates. Still, I feel slightly better finding myself on the “merit” side of the question of ethnic success, than having to defend some sort of non-merit theory of disproportionate ethnic success (where discrimination is clearly not the deciding factor.) I think this relates to a point that Tyler Cowen has made. If we think of billionaires as faceless people, it has somewhat different implications for our sympathy than if we think of them as plucky immigrants that have historically faced discrimination and who triumphed against great odds. As always in economics, framing effects get in the way of clear thinking.TUCSON, Ariz. — Real Salt Lake are expected to complete the signings of midfielder Khari Stephenson and goalkeeper Josh Saunders sometime next week, a spokesperson for the club told MLSsoccer.com on Friday. And head coach Jason Kreis has very specfic reasons for wanting to bring in two accomplished veterans. “It falls directly in line with how we believe teams should be built, the philosophy of how we built this team in the beginning, the philosophy of competition at every position,” head coach Jason Kreis said on Friday. “Last year — and maybe even the last two years — we haven’t really had that. Because of our success and because of the salary cap.” "What we had to do was trade some players, get some allocation money, and hopefully establish some real quality depth. You may suffer a little bit because your elite level players might not be quite as high, but you have competition every day and a real sense of team atmosphere where everybody is battling it out and sticking together." Saunders and Stephenson have had strong performances during their preseason trials. Both started Wednesday’s 2-2 draw against the New York Red Bulls here at the Desert Diamond Cup. READ: Lagerwey says deal close with Galaxy for Saunders Saunders, 31, has been with the LA Galaxy the past seven years, and became the regular starter midway through the 2011 season. He backstopped the side to two consecutive MLS Cup titles, but was not re-signed when his contract expired at the end of the 2012 campaign. The Galaxy inked former Italian international Carlo Cudicini on a free transfer from Tottenham Hotspur in December. Stephenson, 32, spent the last three seasons with the San Jose Earthquakes. After playing most of the games in 2011, he saw his minutes diminish in 2012, and was left out of the action entirely during the playoffs. RSL take on the Seattle Sounders on the second matchday at the Desert Diamond Cup, Saturday at 6 pm ET. The match will be broadcast LIVE on MLSsoccer.com. CHECK OUT MLSSOCCER.COM'S PRESEASON BROADCAST SCHEDULE »The Penn Theatre in downtown Plymouth offers a sensory-friendly showing of “Finding Dory” at 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1, with sponsorship by Autism Compass Consulting. (Photo: Julie Brown) Children with autism and other special needs will enjoy a 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1, sensory-friendly showing of the movie “Finding Dory” at the Penn Theatre in downtown Plymouth. “This is our first time trying it,” said Ellen Elliott, executive director of the Friends of the Penn. “We’ll just see how it goes. Everybody is welcome. There are no restrictions,” she added, noting it’s not just for autistic children. The showing is sponsored by Autism Compass Consulting with the Penn Theatre as host and will have the lights turned up and volume turned down. Gluten-free snacks will be available and kids can get up and dance. “Finding Dory,” which tells the animated tale of a friendly but forgetful fish named Dory, continues the story of “Finding Nemo” of several years ago. “Finding Dory” is rated PG and runs 97 minutes. Admission is $3 each. Elliott, a Plymouth resident, noted the “activity, moving around and noise” will make the showing different from others. “I think it’s a good thing to try,” she said. “People have different needs and we want to meet those needs.” The box office of the theater adjacent to Kellogg Park will open a half-hour before the showing, without any advance ticket sales. That’s the practice for all Penn Theatre showings. Other show times for “Finding Dory” (which will not be sensory-friendly) are: 7 and 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26; 4:45 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27; 4:45 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 28; and 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1. The Penn Theatre is online at www.penntheatre.com. Its phone is 734-453-0870. Autism Compass provides a variety of services for families and individuals with autism and other developmental and social disorders, including consulting, guidance and special social skills classes that allow individuals to learn necessary, everyday life skills that will help them succeed at home, in school, on the job and in their daily lives, a press release notes. For more information about Autism Compass, go to www.autismcompassconsulting.com or call 844-273-4273. Read or Share this story: http://www.hometownlife.com/story/news/local/2016/08/25/finding-dory-screening-helps-kids-autism-fun/89255432/Coca-Cola The Atlanta Baseball Corporation was formed with financial backing from Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola Coca-Cola Coca-Cola Coca-Cola Coca-Cola Earl Mann, president and GM of the Atlanta Crackers. Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center Coca-Cola Coca-Cola A souvenir scorecard for the Atlanta Crackers. Coca-Cola Coca-Cola On April 8, 1949, Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella broke the color barrier in Atlanta baseball when the Brooklyn Dodgers played the Atlanta Crackers in an exhibition game.The story of how the city’s first integrated sporting event took place, despite threats from the Ku Klux Klan to disrupt the game, has been told in several books and articles. Earl Mann, the Crackers’ team president, stood firm alongside Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey, insisting that the three-game series go on as planned.Not only were the games some of the highest-attended sporting events the city had seen, but the crowd welcome and huge cheers the Georgia-born Robinson received from the 18,000 plus black and white fans prompted him to declare, “I would not change shoes with any man in the world.”What you may not know is that Mann was able to confidently stand up to the pressure to cancel the game because the team owners – Robert Woodruff and TheCompany – gave him their unconditional support and wanted to see the series played.So, who were the Crackers and how did a soft drink company come to own a minor league baseball team? It’s an interesting story that begins at the turn of the 20century.A team by the name of the Atlanta Crackers began operating in Atlanta as early as 1884, but the squad most associated with the name was part of the Southern Association – an AA minor league comprised of eight ball clubs in cities throughout the South. The league, which operated from 1901 to 1961, was comprised of the New Orleans Pelicans, the Mobile Bears, the Chattanooga Lookouts, the Memphis Chicks, the Little Rock Travelers, the Birmingham Barons, the Nashville Volunteers and the Atlanta Crackers.The Crackers won more pennants than any team in the league, earning the nickname of the “Yankees of the South.”They played at Ponce de Leon Park, and after a fire destroyed the ballpark in 1923, Spiller Field was constructed on the Ponce de Leon grounds. “Poncy” was unusual in that it had a large magnolia tree in play in deep center field and train tracks that ran along the top of the right field wall. At one point, Spiller Field even had a swimming pool beyond right field!When the Great Depression began, the economic slowdown hit baseball hard. The Atlanta Crackers were floundering in a sea of debt and bad management. By the end of the 1929 season, the team was sold to several local businesses, including the AtlantaBottling Company and TheCompany. Famed golfer (and lawyer) Bobby Jones acting as vice president.The 1932 business records noted, “General business conditions have affected attendance over the entire country, and receipts, except in rare cases, diminished to less than 50 percent of normal.” Revenues fell to the point that the directors had to advance player salaries.When the condition continued to worsen, Robert Woodruff, president of TheCompany, stepped forward to buy the Crackers to keep the team in Atlanta.The Atlanta Baseball Corporation was formed with the financial backing of. The board included Jones and his father, R.P. Jones, Woodruff and Hughes Spalding, an attorney with Spalding, Sibley and Troutman, which handled the bulk of’s legal work.While the team may have been on better footing financially, they had a big hole to dig out of. Our records show that the team lost a considerable amount of money the next few years and only began to break even by 1935. One of the reasons for the team’s success was bringing in Mann as the team president and general manager.Mann grew up in Atlanta, attending Atlanta Technical High School and Oglethorpe University. His love affair with baseball began at an early age; he was selling seat cushions andat Ponce de Leon at age 12.He remained with the team in roles of increasing responsibility, rising to the position of team secretary. In 1929, he left for greener pastures, becoming a general manager in the farm systems for the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees for the next four years. His teams won the pennant in their respective league every year.When Mann became general manager of the Crackers in 1934, at the age of 29, his baseball acumen, oversight from Hughes Spalding and financial backing of TheCompany combined to create a fantastic baseball franchise. During this time period, most minor league teams were independent and made money by identifying talented players and selling their contracts to major league teams. Mann was a master at locating good players, and he was a great baseball salesman.In addition to some of the talented players who came through the Crackers teams, Mann spotted a young Ernie Harwell, the future Hall of Fame broadcaster who called Crackers games on the radio beginning in 1943. After a stint in the Army during WWII, Harwell was back calling the Crackers games in 1948 for the princely sum of $3,700 for the season.In 1949, Harwell became the only announcer ever traded for a player, when Rickey of the Dodgers sent catcher Cliff Dapper to the Crackers so Harwell could fill in for the ill Red Barber.The Rickey-Mann relationship would prove to be beneficial when the Brooklyn Dodgers scheduled the three exhibition games during the spring of 1949. As the Dodgers traveled north from spring training and the game approached, the Klan threatened a boycott of the Crackers for the season, threatening to have 10,000 signatures from people who would never attend a Crackers game.Rickey and Mann stood their ground, however, and the series went on without incident. Attendance held firm, too.Later that year, Mann requested the opportunity to purchase the team and the ballpark. While TheCompany had considered selling the team as early as 1945, they had never moved forward with any of the plans.In a letter dated April 5, 1949, just three days before the first integrated game, Spalding wrote to Woodruff: “If you haven’t already done so, I wish you would go out and take a look at the ball park and at the team. Our park is a source of pride to the whole community and to the surrounding territory. We try to keep it and maintain it in a way that is worthy of the owner.”Three days later, when the color barrier fell for the first time when Robinson came to the plate, the team was indeed a source of pride to the community.Coca-Cola sold the team to Mann (at a reduced rate) later that season and left the baseball business to get back to making and marketing the world’s greatest beverage.Since MIT OpenCourseWare was launched in 2001, millions of people from around the world have accessed OCW content to further their education. This series of occasional articles examines the ways in which OCW is making a difference in the lives of its users. In his junior year at Klein Oak High School in Spring, Texas, Mat Peterson — now an MIT freshman — was struggling with his physics course. A friend of his recommended that he look at MIT OpenCourseWare, where Peterson turned to Walter Lewin's videos and found the help he needed. Once he became aware of what OCW had to offer, Peterson also used the site to catch up on a missed calculus class using videos from 18.01. "I found the topic that I needed and watched the lecture. That really helped." Peterson continued to use OCW to supplement the calculus instruction he received at University of Houston during his senior year. Working with the material on OCW gave Peterson confidence in his ability to study at the MIT level, but even more importantly, provided a window into an instructional approach that appealed to him. "The objective was to learn how to do things, not just plug data into formulas," he said. On OCW, Peterson saw how problem-solving approaches were used throughout the MIT curriculum. Prior to looking at OCW, MIT had not even occurred to Peterson as a college option. No one from Klein Oak High School had ever gotten into MIT, and Peterson had expected he would attend one of the Texas state schools. "It had just seemed so out of reach beforehand," he said, describing the impact of the site. "It wasn't even on the table." Now in his first year at MIT, Peterson says the environment is challenging, but he's doing well. In OCW, he even sees an opportunity to accelerate his study here at MIT. Though he'd taken calculus at University of Houston, he'd expected he would retake it at MIT, just to be sure he was adequately prepared for 18.03. "My calculus 3 course only covered the first three-fourths of what is covered in 18.02 here," he explained. However, with OCW, he can close the gap. "I can go through 18.02 [on OCW], refresh myself and go through the last five or six lectures." With OCW, he feels confident pushing ahead to 18.03. Through OCW, Peterson has found a challenging educational environment, but one where he feels confident he can succeed. "This is an amazing place, and definitely very difficult, but I feel like I am meshing well with it."The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) may miss no opportunity in public to ridicule the English language but its associate Vidhya Bharti that runs thousands of schools across the country has now made spoken and written English mandatory for all its schools. Separate classes are now being organised for spoken and written english in all the schools across the country. Not very long ago RSS leaders used to ridicule english in public by asking questions like why put and but are pronounced differently. They used to call the English language the symbol of slave's mindset but that is history now. English both spoken and written is now being taught in the Saraswati Shishu Mandirs across the country. According to Ram Kumar Vyas, Principal Saraswati Shishu Mandir Bhopal the RSS, however, was never against the English language. Also read: RSS should include more women in its ranks, give leadership role: LK Adavni "We were never against the english language but we were against and are still against the English mindset. We are right now running two different classes that of English Language and spoken English so that kids can connect with the outside world. Student should learn the English language but not forget their own culture, " he said. The students studying in Sarswati Shishu Mandir, however, are not concerned with what mindset means. They are happy that they are getting to learn a new language. "We should learn English because if we don't we will not be able to understand anything if someone speaks in English with us," Sonali Sondhia, a class nine student studying in Sarswati Shishu Mandir Bhopal said. Ajay Ahirwar, of the same school also echoed similar sentiments " We have to learn English because it is a must if we have to go anywhere outside the country," he said. Separate classes are now being organised for spoken and written english in all the schools across the country. Click here to Enlarge Separate classes are now being organised for spoken and written english in all the schools across the country. The RSS is now defending the special emphasis that is being laid on spoken English across all Sarswati Shishu Mandir's saying the world has become a global village and the need of the hour is to learn all languages of the world. "We used to teach english earlier also but now special emphasis is being put on spoken English because that is the need of the hour. Our students have to compete globally. Parents also felt this need and hence this decision was taken," Ram Kumar Bhavsar, Prant Pramukh, Vidya Bharti said. Even when top leaders of the Sangh Parivar ridiculed the english language in public, wards of most top leaders like MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan went to English medium schools. The sufferers were the ones who went to Sarswati Shishu Mandir. Fortunately for them, the Sangh is now not linking language with nationalism. Also read: RSS teachers to teach in Madhya Pradesh government schoolsIt's been a while since I've had time to touch Free Code Camp backend projects, but during my week off I decided to build out the next API project I had yet to attempt, the Image Search Abstraction Layer microservice. I love building and working with APIs, so this was a fun project to build. Let's get started! First, let's initialize our git repository and jump into it. git init image-search-microservice cd image-search-microservice Now, we'll want to setup our project's package.json. If you haven't tested out Yarn yet, I highly recommend giving it a try. yarn init Speaking of which, make sure you've updated your copy of Node for this tutorial, as I'll be using some ES6. Whether you're using npm or yarn, you can skip through most of the default settings. Personally though, I'm changing my entry point to app.js. Next, let's set up our.gitignore to ignore the node_modules folder and our.env file, which we'll introduce a little later. Drop these two lines in your terminal to do this quickly. echo node_modules >>.gitignore echo.env >>.gitignore Now let's install the node modules we'll need for this project. The list is pretty short for this one: yarn add express mongoose request yarn add dotenv --dev Go ahead and create your app.js and setup the basic scaffolding for an express app. const express = require('express'); const app = express(); const port = process.env.PORT '' 3000; const server = app.listen(port, function() { console.log(`Server listening on port ${port}`); }); At this point, you should be able to run nodemon (assuming you have it installed globally) in your terminal and see your server running on port 3000. If not, go ahead and compare your project files. I'm all about writing modular code, so we're going to set up some folders and files like so: config/db.js models/history.js routes/index.js services/imgur.js First we'll set up the routing. Add const routes = require('./routes/index'); and app.use('/', routes); in our app.js to be used as middleware. Then, setup your routes/index.js like so: const express = require('express'); const router = express.Router(); router.get('/', (req, res) => { res.send('Hello'); }); router.get('/latest', (req, res) => { }); router.get('/search/:q', (req, res) => { }); module.exports = router; Now, we've moved the job of routing out of our app.js. The advantage to doing this is that if our app were to grow, we could add additional route files and keep our project modular and clean. I've also setup the basic routing our application will need: a root endpoint where we can eventually display a landing page if we so choose, a /latest endpoint where our app will display the ten latest searches, and a /search/:q endpoint where we can pass a string in to search. Next, head over to the services/imgur.js file and drop this in: const request = require('request'); exports.getImage = function(search, page = 1) { return new Promise((resolve, reject) => { }); }; We'll be making a request to the Imgur API through our app, and the request module makes that really simple. Also, we're going to be calling this function back in our route file, so I've set it up as an exported function that takes two parameters. The first is the search term, the second is the pagination option which we can default to '1' if nothing is passed. And finally, I'm a big fan of promises over callbacks, so I've set this function to return a promise. Now, per the documentation, the request module can be invoked with two parameters - an options object and a callback. In our options object, we'll need to pass in our unique client ID from Imgur. Swing over to api.imgur.com if you haven't done so already and register your application. You can choose 'Anonymous usage without user authorization' when prompted. Now that we've got our code, we can build out an options object within our promise statement like so: let options = { url: `https://api.imgur.com/3/gallery/search/${page}?q=${search}`, headers: { Authorization: 'Client-ID kfbr392kfbr392' }, json: true, }; In here, we're setting up the URL that we'll be connecting to Imgur with. Here, we've used ES6 template strings to cleanly drop in the page and search parameters from our getImage function. Next, we set the headers as requested by Imgur to allow proper authorization of our API call (but, make sure to replace my 'Client-ID with your own). And finally, we've specified that we want our response to be in JSON format. Next, we'll build out our callback. First, we can build a function called getPics that will take three parameters: error, response, and body. I'll then make a quick error check inside the body of the function that ensures no errors occurred and the response received from Imgur has a status code of 200. Then, we want to take the body that was returned, and filter out items in the array that are albums. We'll do this to best mirror the demo app shared by Free Code Camp, as we'll want to provide a response with both a direct image link and a link to the image's context - and unfortunately this wouldn't work well if we included albums. Then, after we've filtered out albums, we then want to map over the response and cut out all the extra information we're not using. All we want to return is a url, a snippet, and the context. Finally, we're going to resolve our promise with our newly transformed data, jump out of the callback and then setup our request function with its two newly created parameters. In the end, it will look like this: function getPics(err, response, body) { if (!err && response.statusCode == 200) { body = body.data.filter(image => { if (!image.is_album) { return image; } }).map(image => { return { url: image.link, snippet: image.title, context: `https://imgur.com/${image.id}` }; }); resolve(body) } } We're almost ready to test it out, but first we have to jump back into our routes file and make sure to require our new imgur service file const imgur = require('../services/imgur'); and to call it in our /search/:q endpoint. Here, we'll pass the 'q' parameters as the search string of the function, and then we'll let our second parameter req.query.offset handle the optional?offset=42 flag. Then, once that promise returns, we're going to output the response to our browser as JSON. imgur.getImage(req.params.q, req.query.offset).then(ans => { res.json(ans); }) Now fire up nodemon and give it a test. If all is working so far, you should be able to search Imgur by pointing your browser to localhost:3000/search/puppies. If not, do some debugging or a quick code comparison at this point. Now that this piece is working, all that we have left to add is the history component. I personally enjoy working with mLab in development just as much as in production, so I'm going to proceed with this tutorial as such. If you'd prefer to run MongoDB on your local machine prior to deployment, or you want to learn more about how to get setup on mLab - checkout my previous tutorial on building a URL shortener for more information. The first thing we're going to want to do is setup our environment variables. This way, we'll able to connect to our mLab database in either production or development, without worrying about sharing our credentials on Github. In your app.js file, drop in the following at the very top: if (process.env.NODE_ENV!== 'production') { require('dotenv').config(); } Here, we're setting up our server to require the dotenv package if we're not running in a production environment. Later when we push this up to Heroku, their platform will automatically set an environment variable of NODE_ENV as 'production', but on our development machines - we won't worry about that. Next you'll need to create a.env file in the root of your project. This file will then assign your environment variables every time you spin up your server. In that, drop in the following as it relates to the mLab database you set up: DB_HOST=usernamehere:passwordhere@ds1337.mlab.com:1337 DB_NAME=databasenamehere Now that we have our environment variables setup, we can dive into setting up our connection to the database. Back in your app.js, you'll want to require your /config/db.js file with a const db = require('./config/db'); Then, jump into your config/db.js file and drop in the following: const connection = `mongodb://${process.env.DB_HOST}/${process.env.DB_NAME}`; const mongoose = require('mongoose'); mongoose.Promise = global.Promise; exports.db = mongoose.connect(connection); Here, we are setting up a connection to our mongo database and then using mongoose as an ORM for interacting with it. Also, I'll be using some promises, which were recently deprecated in mongoose, so I've set the native promise library to be used instead. And finally, we export the connection for use elsewhere in our application. Next, in our models/history.js file, I want to set up a schema for our database. First, we'll need to require an instance of mongoose. Next, we want to setup a schema for our database. This way, when we pass data into the model later in our routes, we'll be able to let MongoDB know what we want each new document to look like, and specifically in this case - to always attach a timestamp to each new entry. After that, we export our model for use. const mongoose = require('mongoose'); const historySchema = new mongoose.Schema({ term: String, when: { type: Date, default: Date.now } }); const History = mongoose.model('History', historySchema); module.exports = History; At this point, our database is setup and we're ready to start building out the queries we'll need. First, let's make sure to require our new model in our router with const History = require('../models/history'); Now, we want to add a new entry into our database every time a search is made. Right before we send back a response with the results, drop in the following to add that search query into the database: new History({ term: req.params.q }).save(); And finally, we need our /latest route to return the most recent 10 entries. For that, we're going to query the database like so: History.find({}, 'term when -_id').sort('-when').limit(10).then(results => { res.json(results); }); Here, we first pass in an empty object, which will return all documents. Then, we specify that in those documents, we only are interested in the search term and the date, and we'd like to specifically exclude the unique _id field from the results. Afterwards, we instruct the query to sort the results in descending order and to only return the ten most recent documents. Finally, we pass those results through a promise and return them as JSON. Go ahead and run your app with Nodemon and verify that everything is working. If so, you're ready for deployment. Since we're using ES6, you'll need to define your node engine in your package.json, otherwise Heroku will, at the time of this writing, default to version 5.1.1 which won't support ES6 unless you use strict mode. Also, you'll need to make sure to add a start script to your package.json. To see what those look like, check out the file on my GitHub. And finally, make sure to drop your environment variables into your Heroku app, otherwise you definitely won't be able to connect to your database. That's all there is to it. Here's my final code for the project. Personally I went back and threw in pug as a template engine and a favicon server. The final deployed version can be seen here. Feel free to leave any questions or comments below.displaCy.js: An open-source NLP visualiser for the modern web October 3, 2016 · by Ines Montani With new offerings from Google, Microsoft and others, there are now a range of excellent cloud APIs for syntactic dependencies. A key part of these services is the interactive demo, where you enter a sentence and see the resulting annotation. We're pleased to announce the release of displaCy.js, a modern and service-independent visualisation library. We hope this makes it easy to compare different services, and explore your own in-house models. Update (Feburary 2018) As of spaCy v2.0, the displaCy visualizer is integrated into the core library. It supports serving the visualizations in the browser, generating the raw markup or outputting the results in a Jupyter notebook. For more details, see the visualizers documentation. Here's an example of a sentence rendered by the new SVG-based displaCy:The History of displaCyWe launched displaCy as a visualiser for our NLP library spaCy in 2015 and open-sourced the code in August 2016. The first version relied on an old CSS hack. The new version uses SVG to produce flexible and easily exportable output. Robots NNS in IN popular JJ culture NN are VBP there RB to TO remind VB us PRP of IN the DT awesomeness NN of IN unbounded JJ human JJ agency NN nsubj prep amod pobj advmod aux advcl dobj prep det pobj prep amod amod pobj Simply include displacy.js and initialize a new instance specifying the API and settings. The parse(text, model, settings) method renders a parse generated by spaCy as an SVG in the container. By default, it expects spaCy's services, which you can download and run for free. If you're using Google's NLP API instead, set format to 'google'.A note on compatibilitydisplaCy is written in ECMAScript 6. For full, cross-browser compatibility, make sure to use a compiler like Babel. For more info, see this compatibility table. // Your API const api = 'http://localhost:8000'; // Init displaCy const displacy = new displaCy(api, { container: '#displacy', format:'spacy', distance: 300, offsetX: 100 }); // Parse sentence displacy.parse('This is a sentence.', 'en', { collapsePunct: false, collapsePhrase: false, color: '#ffffff', bg: '#000000' }); For a full list of available settings, see the Readme. Alternatively, you can also use render(parse, settings) to manually render a JSON-formatted set of arcs and words. displaCy logs the JSON representation of each parse to the console for quick copy-pasting: A dependency visualisation consists of three main components: words and their corresponding part-of-speech tags displayed horizontally in order arcs of different lengths connecting two words with corresponding labels showing their relation type an arrow head at the start or end of each arc indicating its direction All three components can be implemented using the SVG elements <path> and <text>, with <tspan> to separate spans of text and <textPath> to wrap the arc label along the rounded arc path. Let's take a look at the first word, "Robots", and the arrow connecting it to "are". This is a simplified example of the markup displaCy generates:About SVGThe Scalable Vector Graphics format has been around since the early 2000s. Unlike other image formats, SVG uses XML markup that's easy to manipulate using CSS or JavaScript. SVG even offers powerful color filters and dynamic cropping and with improving browser support, has replaced icon fonts on many sites. Example SVG markup (excerpt) <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <!-- Token --> <text y="440" text-anchor="middle"> <tspan x="150" fill="currentColor">Robots</tspan> <tspan x="150" dy="2em" fill="currentColor">NNS</tspan> </text> <!-- Arc --> <path id="arrow-0" d="M150,400 C150,0 950,0 950,400" stroke-width="2px" stroke
's resignation » But the streets of Cuba's capital, Havana, reflected the normal comings and goings of residents. No gatherings or rallies erupted at Castro's news. Despite the story later consuming the entire front page of the print version of Granma, complete with a banner headline, many Cubans said they hadn't heard the news when asked by CNN. Those who had were wary of offering their opinions. "He's leaving the position because his age and illness don't let him work," one man said. "Let's see what comes." "He's aware of his place in history, and he's going to keep on occupying that place in one way or another," a retiree said. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said the U.S. embargo on Cuba will not be lifted in the near term. Cuba's leaders plan to elect a president within days. Castro's brother Raúl, 76, the country's defense minister, has been named publicly as his successor. "There's a lot of difficulty in day-to-day living," said CNN senior international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, who has visited Cuba several times. "The question is: Will there be enough change?" she said. "If it is Raúl [as president], will he show there's a progress towards the kind of thing that the Cuban people want, which is openness, freedom, the ability to have enough wherewithal [to find jobs], the same kind of bread-and-butter issues that everybody all around the world wants?" Oswaldo Paya, a Cuban dissident, said that no matter who the next leader of the country will be, the Cuban people "have more hope." "Not because we trust his successor more than we trusted Fidel Castro but because there's a buzz among the people, and we want everything to go smoothly, peacefully, but the government cannot keep denying the people their space," Paya said. Castro received treatment for intestinal problems two years ago and cited his "critical health condition" in the letter published Tuesday. He said "it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer." He also said he realized that he had a duty to prepare Cubans for his absence. "My wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath," he said. "That's all I can offer." At age 32, Castro led a band of guerrillas who overthrew a corrupt dictatorship in 1959. He went on to become a thorn in Washington's side by embracing communism and cozying up to the Soviet Union. Castro reigned in Havana with an iron hand, defying a U.S. economic embargo intended to dislodge him. Watch what Castro's resignation means for Cuba » In Miami, Florida, the news came as no surprise to Janisset Rivero, the executive director of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, a group that works with dissidents in Cuba. "I think there have been preparations taking place for quite a while to assure the crowning of Raúl Castro," she said Tuesday morning. "It doesn't mean any change to the system. It doesn't mean there will be freedom for the Cubans. One big dictator is replacing the other. "It will be a big deal when political prisoners are released, when political parties are allowed to organize, when the country stops being ruled by a single party." Polarizing figure To leftist revolutionaries around the world, Castro, with his ubiquitous military fatigues and fiery oratory, became a hero and patron. But for hundreds of thousands of his countrymen who fled into exile, he became an object of intense hatred. Castro clung to a socialist economic model and one-party Communist rule, even after the Soviet Union disintegrated and most of the rest of the world concluded that state socialism was a bankrupt idea whose time had come and gone. "The most vulnerable part of his persona as a politician is precisely his continued defense of a totalitarian model that is the main cause of the hardships, the misery and the unhappiness of the Cuban people," said Elizardo Sanchez, a human rights advocate and critic of the Castro regime. And yet, his defenders in Cuba point to what they see as social progress made under Castro's revolution, including racial integration and universal education and health care. They blame the U.S. embargo for the country's economic woes. "What Fidel achieved in the social order of this country has not been achieved by any poor nation, and even by many rich countries, despite being submitted to enormous pressures," said Jose Ramon Fernandez, a Cuban vice president. Castro's staying power was a source of irritation to Cuban exiles. The center of the exile community is Miami, where the Cuban American National Foundation became a powerful lobbying group courted by U.S. politicians. Road to revolution Castro was born August 13, 1926, in Oriente Province in eastern Cuba. His father, Angel, was a wealthy landowner originally from Spain; his mother, Lina, had been a maid to Angel's first wife. Educated in Jesuit schools, Castro earned a law degree and offered free legal services to the poor. In 1952, at the age of 25, he ran for the Cuban parliament. But just before the election, the government was overthrown by Fulgencio Batista, whose dictatorship put Castro on the road to revolution. In 1953, Castro took part in an unsuccessful coup attempt that made him famous but sent him to prison. He was released in 1955 and lived in exile in the United States and Mexico, where he organized a guerrilla group with Raúl Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara, an Argentine doctor-turned-revolutionary. The next year, 81 fighters landed in Cuba. Most were killed; the Castros, Guevara and other survivors fled into the Sierra Maestra Mountains along the southeastern coast, where they waged a guerrilla campaign against the Batista government that finally brought it down in 1959. Although the United States quickly recognized the new Cuban government, tensions arose after Castro began nationalizing American-owned factories and plantations. In January 1961, Washington broke off diplomatic ties. Less than four months later, a group of CIA-trained Cuban exiles, armed with U.S. weapons, landed at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba in a disastrous attempt to overthrow Castro. Two weeks after the Bay of Pigs, Castro formally declared Cuba a socialist state. In October 1962, Cuba became the focus of a tense world crisis after the Soviet Union installed nuclear weapons in the country. President Kennedy demanded that the Soviets remove them and quarantined the island, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war. The Soviet Union backed down and removed the weapons. Castro is believed to have fathered eight children with four women. His longtime companion, Dalia Soto del Valle, is the mother of five of his sons. E-mail to a friend CNN's Morgan Neill, Pam Benson and Shasta Darlington contributed to this report. All About Fidel Castro • CubaTech & Science, National & World News By Joe Randazzo Published: March 16 2014 On March 20th the night sky will be the scene of a rare astronomical event. On March 20th Long Island, New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, Ontario, and the island of Bermuda will be able to witness a rare astronomical occultation event. At around 2:06 a.m. Thursday morning the star Regulus will completely disappear from view for about 14 seconds as a 45 mile wide asteroid named Erigone will pass in front of it. With Regulus being 4 million times farther away from us than the asteroid, many factors need to align perfectly for this event to take place. First Erigone must pass in front of the star. Once that happens the shadow of the asteroid must fall on Earth in an area where the sky is both clear and dark. Even if those factors align then here on Earth astronomers must pinpoint the exact path and speed of the asteroid. Right now they believe their data is on point. If you want to see the occultation you’re in luck. Regulus is fairly easy to spot. It is a part of the constellation Leo and the sixth brightest star in the sky. To find the exact location of it you will have to make sure your body is facing the moon. Next you need to stretch your arms out horizontally to each side. Once you do this turn your head to the right and sight along your right arm. Regulus will then be directly above your right hand. If you’re still having trouble spotting it, just know that it is the brightest star in that direction. Astronomers have been predicting the occultation of stars for 40 years and Regulus is the brightest star occulted above the United States. Experts say this is an once-in-a-lifetime viewing experience because the star can be seen with the naked eye. Usually you would need a telescope to witness such an event. Regulus Occultation 2014 is the official Facebook page for the occultations. There you will get up-to-the-minute weather updates, information on the occultation Iphone App, and an exact map of the areas able to witness it.For those who didn’t get enough sugar or alcohol over the holidays, here’s a wonderful treat you may have missed: Mercer’s Wine Ice Cream. Since 2006, Mercer’s Dairy in Boonville, NY, has been making ice creams with real wine, winning a handful of awards since its inception. Each ice cream clocks in at 5 percent alcohol by volume, meaning it is only for those ages 21 and over. Eight flavors are currently available, including Cherry Merlot, Chocolate Cabernet, Peach White Zinfandel, Port, Red Raspberry Chardonnay, Riesling, Spice and Strawberry Sparkling. Although Mercer’s tries to keep its production local, the company will gladly distribute to anywhere in the United States. Wine ice cream can be shipped by the pint, half gallon, five-quart pail or three-gallon tub (cause, man, do you want to get drunk on ice cream!). Sounds like you already have the first item for your 2015 Christmas wishlist. The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now This article originally appeared on FWx. More from FWx: Contact us at editors@time.com.One of the things you might have noticed if you follow trends in global growth and trade, is that the entire world seems to be decelerating in tandem with China’s hard landing (which most recently manifested itself in another negative imports print). For evidence of this, one might look to the WTO, whose chief economist Robert Koopman recently opined that “it’s almost like the timing belt on the global growth engine is a bit off or the cylinders are not firing.” And then there’s the OECD, which recently slashed its global growth forecasts. The ADB joined the party as well, citing China, soft commodity prices, and a strong dollar on the way to cutting its regional outlook. Even Citi has jumped on the bandwagon with Willem Buiter calling for better than even odds of a worldwide downturn. Indeed, virtually anyone you talk to will tell you that the world looks to have entered a new era post-crisis that’s defined by a less robust global economy. Those paying attention will also tell you that this dynamic may well end up being structural and endemic rather than transitory. Earlier today, we noted that Credit Suisse’s latest global wealth outlook shows that dollar strength led to the first decline in total global wealth (which fell by $12.4 trillion to $250.1 trillion) since 2007-2008. Interestingly, a new chart from HSBC shows that when you combine the concepts outlined above, you learn that when denominated in USD, the world is already in an output recession. Some color from HSBC: We are already in a global USD recession Global trade is also declining at an alarming pace. According to the latest data available in June the year on year change is -8.4%. To find periods of equivalent declines we only really find recessionary periods. This is an interesting point. On one metric we are already in a recession. As can be seen in Chart 3 on the following page, global GDP expressed in US dollars is already negative to the tune of USD1,37trn or -3.4%. That is, we are already in a dollar recession. We arrived at these numbers by converting global GDP into USD terms and then looking at the change in GDP. True, this highlights to a large extent the impact of a stronger dollar – which may be unfair, but the US dollar is still the world’s reference currency. However, it highlights that from a US perspective the global growth outlook is rather challenging. Italsohighlightshow damaging a very strong dollar can be for global growth. In particular it highlights the limited effect of global QE efforts. Over the last year, the ECB and BoJ have added about USD850bn to their reserves. The relative increase in ECB and BoJ stimulus may have exaggerated the decline in global growth due to the shift in exchange rates. However, these lower exchange rates have so far not produced sufficiently large export growth numbers to offset the wider growth story. Also, it illustrates that the EM implication of global USD growth is only marginally negative despite significant declines in real exchange rates. The key takeaway here though as far as we are concerned is that QE policies have not generated more value than they have destroyed. It is also worth noting that this dollar recession is worse than the 2001 recession by some margin. So amusingly, the US got everyone on the money printing bandwagon, none of it had the intended effect of giving the lackluster post-crisis "recovery" the defibrillator shock it needed, and because the rest of the world is now still in easing mode, there's a policy divergence that's contributing to dollar strength which is in turn serving as a drag on the same global economy all of the easing failed to boost. This is the same dollar strenth, by the way, that threatens to send EM into an outright crisis and which has the Fed so boxed in that they literally just froze last month. Once again, thank you Ben Bernanke, for being courageous enough to send us down this path.Browse column I n this post-election issue, while the righteous American editorialists wag their fingers at Russia's farcical elections, we want to hold up a giant mirror (with loudspeaker attached) across the Atlantic and scream what every sane American has been thinking for nearly a decade now: We're Embarrassed To Be Americans. Don't get us wrong. We're ashamed not just because America is hypocritical or imperialistic or militaristic or bloodthirsty. Would that we were! If only it were still true, we'd shut our mouths and strut around the world, seizing our rightful booty the way booty-seeking citizens of "the most powerful empire in mankind's history" (to use one neocon's description in 2002) oughtta do. It's not that America is so evil and bloodthirsty, though it tries hard to be... it's that America has become the world's laughingstock, a flash-in-the-pan hyperpower, the Sigue Sigue Sputnik of empires, the Charles Bovary of Great Civilizations. The Bush years have made us so embarrassed to be Americans that even the shameful Carter Years look downright Roman by comparison. We can already hear you hicks whining, "If yer so darned ashamed of bein' Amer'can, whyn'tchoo just tern in yer passport then, yuh darned traitor." To which we reply, "Nope, we're gonna keep our passports. We like the idea of wiping our asses on our passports, while at the same time enjoying all of the advantages that U.S. citizenship still affords us, few though they may be." Nothing gives us more pleasure than hearing you pigs squeal "git the fugg outta my cuntree" cuz the thing is, we are out of your cuntree, and the other thing is, we'll come back when we damn well feel like it, thanks to our passports, just because we wanna watch you idiots grow giant swarming ulcers at the sight of our ungrateful asses. So folks—since Americans are all "folks" these days—hold on to your beta-blockers and your ACE inhibitors, because you're about to face the unpleasant reality of Why You Should Be Ashamed Of Being American Too: Canadian dollar surpasses greenback Those silly Canadians, remember how Americans used to laugh at them? How cute they looked when they'd resentfully mumble to visiting American tourists, "we're American, too—you don't own the name of our continent!" We did own it, though, which is why they were so cute, why they were so funny in all those South Park jokes. Canada was an almost-nation of almost-Americans with an almost currency called a "Canadian dollar," which was cute, and always worth about 50 American cents. Then, on September 20, 2007, a day that will live in shamefamy, the Canadian dollar passed up the U.S. dollar. People from the United States officially lost their right to call themselves "Americans." Now when we visit Canada we just say, "We're from south of the border"—if we can afford to visit Canada, that is. Shame Factor: Baptist birthrate. According to recent stats, the U.S. birthrate is rising, and it's rising fastest among Baptists and Mormons. It's actually falling for Asians, the most promising demographic. But the dumbest, ugliest, meanest hicks on the planet are breeding like walking catfish, wriggling to new townhouse developments in the nastiest parts of the country like Nevada and Florida. We'll end with Vegas and Fort Lauderdale shaking hands over the corpse of the last decent American, the pounding of the Tin Spike into the American cadaver. Jimmy Swaggert Factor: Fat is the new normal. Last year a Newsweek cover story asked the question, "Is Fat the New Normal?" At least the Nazi's truth-inversions had a poetic evil about them. America's truth inversions are just plain depressing. You people are gross, man. John Reed Factor. The fattists are reason enough to defect to Russia and glorify the "stability revolution," which to us means, "A country where ‘thin' is still ‘in.'" The Iran War Puss-Out. No country has fucked with America more brazenly than Iran has. They took dozens of American hostages in 1979, funded Hezbollah's suicide bombing that killed 241 Marines, and now kill American soldiers in Iraq. The whole point of invading Iraq was to put Iran in a vise. But guess what? America doesn't have enough military power to attack anymore. So we issued a National Intelligence Report saying Iran isn't really such a big threat… Just like when Kim Jong Il set off his nukes and fired his missiles, we also pretended it was really not such a big deal. What we really said was, "White flag a-risin'!" Yup, "the world's only superpower" is too weak, too broke, and too afraid to go to war against a primitive third-rate enemy that literally lives in the Dark Ages. The war against the Axis of Evil is over: two bullshit countries caused America to flinch and scream "Uncle!" without ever having to fire a shot. Adam Gadhan Factor: Real Americans like winners, which is why we're growing out our beards and practicing our Farsi… Losing two wars at once. "Vietnam Syndrome" meant one thing: America suffered its first and only defeat in its 200-year history, and it didn't know how to deal or what it meant. Then in the 90s, America got its George Foreman on, headed back into the war ring, and racked up some wins against, admittedly, a bunch of second-stringers. Enter the 21st-century, a new season, and America is heading into the final rounds of two concurrent defeats, against the two most laughable opponents on planet earth! We're now the basement team, the doormat of the war league, the Glass Jawed white giant whose only purpose is to launch the careers of new up-and-comers! At least Germany's 0-2 record came against worthy enemies… But to lose to Iraq and Afghanistan? With America pussing out of another two wars against Iran and North Korea, which we've all but forfeited with a default, our loss record is on the verge of a 0-4. We need to double-paper bag our heads over this one. Jane Fonda Factor: Our inner Hanoi Jane says, "Show us a fearsome Taliban mule that we can sit on for the Al Jazeera cameras, and we'll be there with bells on!" Wes Anderson. No one should trigger a healthy nation's gag reflex as often or as intensely as quirky-moment-machine Wes Anderson. For years we've fantasized about the ultimate slo-mo outro to a documentary called Wes Anderson & The Life Arctic: Anderson is placed on a small dinghy with the Wilson brothers (all three of ‘em) and Angelica Huston, then slowly descended from a pastel-colored Finnish ice-breaker. Just as the tears appear in Anderson's horrified, frost-encrusted eyes, Abba's "So Long" kicks in, drowning the group's slow-motion screams for mercy. Anderson went from ass-clown status to the he-must-die list with 2007's Darjeeling Limited, a vapid film even by his standards that doubled as an effortless insult to India. It's the film equivalent of a frat boy carving his initials in the Taj Mahal. Anderson had the gall to dedicate the film to Satyajit Ray, who would have spat in Anderson's face had he lived to enjoy the honor. Bernadine Dohrne Factor: Bring the War Home to Hollywood Populism. This is what America does in lieu of actually helping ordinary fuckin' people: hugs on camera. No cash, but all the hugs you can eat, you lovable fat suckers. From the spread of fake Texas dialect like "you folks" to the comedy of plutocrats defending the middle class on TV while earning sums that the middle class can't even fathom, populist sentimentality is the all-purpose lubricant, the WD-40, of winner-take-all capitalism. Engels' remark that anti-Semitism is "the socialism of fools" needs to be updated to apply to American populist sentimentality. A million foreclosures and one televised barn-raising, aka Extreme Makeover, for the most pathetic telegenic family of losers the producers auditioned. There's a bitter old saying, "They'd cut your head and give you a bandage." That's us, baby! Shame Factor: Seth McFarlane. It isn't just that McFarlane's Family Guy shamelessly plagiarizes from The Simpsons, nor is it just the endless cheap references to bad pop culture icons. Family Guy is much worse and much more evil than that: an anti-Simpsons antidote for zombies who want to get rid of the annoying buzz of vestigial decency in their rotting heads. They want that decency removed, and Family Guy does it non-stop, scene by scene, undoing the unwanted education all those Simpson episodes forced down their throats with a spoonful of sugar. McFarlane's show reinforces their meanest, dumbest instincts. And it's a huge hit. Nicholas Berg Factor: We would seriously consider converting to Islam if someone would slowly saw McFarlane's head off while forcing him to sing the theme song to "Three's Company," complete with laugh track. Dodge/Chrysler. This company is like the android morph of the millions of fat dumb hick boys infesting America. Like them, it needed special help just to continue its bloated, destructive life. Chrysler has been on welfare since buyers noticed they could actually buy a decent car at a decent price by going Japanese. But instead of getting in shape and actually trying to produce decent cars, Chrysler bet everything it had that Americans are so utterly stupid and childish that they'd come back for huge shiny junkers that would look cool for a few thousand miles, then fall apart. And they were right. Seeing a pattern here? Shame Factor: Lame assassins. You hear a lot of stupid things these days. Take, for example, the truism that "Assassination doesn't work." Bullshit. It worked so well nobody even remembers. Un-kill Bobby Kennedy, and America's entire history changes. Except you can't un-kill people. All you can do is kill some of the monsters. It's not that hard to do. Two bullets in the chest, one in the head, and Nixon will die, Attila the Hun will die, any damn human will die. The only problem is that all our assassins are idiots. The Unabomber came close; if he'd only killed more timber company lobbyists and left the useless professors to their dull fates, he'd have been a true hero. Will no one rid us of these lice? Is there a single Leftist with balls in this country? Sara Jane Moore Factor: The patron saint of inept assassins, Sara Jane Moore paved the way for slapstick morons like John Hinckley and a host of suicide-light-plane divers. The Loss of Latin America. So who's the idiot that forgot to pay off the Palace Guards in Caracas in 2002? America is so inept that we can't even pull off a coup in what FDR called "our little neighborhood down there." Yeah, we managed to get Aristide out of there without breaking a sweat, but Haiti doesn't count. It's been our practice field for a century now, where we warmed up for the real coups. Ike and the Dulles brothers used to knock off Iranian and Central American regimes over slices of morning cantaloupe. Just eight years ago, the entire hemisphere save one pesky island was America's to squeeze, and squeeze we did, while they begged for IMF handouts that only pulled them deeper into serfdom on our manor. Then Bush came to power and launched the most inept coup in American history against Chavez. And now all of Latin America has turned into a bunch of Castro-loving fags, welching on our IMF loans, and even inviting Ahmadinejad over for siestas and nationalization ceremonies. The title of a recent McClatchy article says it all: "Farewell to the Monroe Doctrine?" They might as well drop the question mark and fess up. There went the neighborhood a long time ago. Jimmy Carter Factor: Addiction Memoirs. No literary genre is more degraded and mawkish than the rehab memoir. No surprise then that no genre is more popular in today's American than the rehab memoir. It's a very reactionary, unimaginative genre in the contemporary American version, focusing on the big three crosses: drugs, drink and divorce. The only thing more idiotic than these rehab memoirs are the gullible idiots who buy them, as witnessed by the con jobs that half-assed hucksters like "JT LeRoy" and James Frey pulled off. Why are these books so popular? Simple: everyone wants to be a victim these days. Especially white middle-class urbanites. By becoming a drunk or an addict, you can become a temporary victim. If you've got a "sexual abuse" tale to throw in, then you've hit the victim jackpot—which is why all these rehab memoirs have to have a sex abuse episode. If you're really clever, you can use your connections to get the thing published. If you don't have connections but you want to sob with someone who supposedly understands your pain, then curl up with an Augusten Burroughs or David Sheff or some other wealthy well-connected pig, and let the sobbing flow. Jimmy Carters Factor: Ellen! Look, ladies! It's wacky, upbeat, afternoon Ellen, the human Wellbutrin XL. There she is on the counter-mounted kitchen tv, dressed in Florida hospice colors, pushing her audience to applaud for musicians—not because of their music, but because they have cancer! And there she is making Barack Obama dance to James Brown on national tv—twice! And Ellen's dancing too! She's so wacky and happy! And cancer-free! Unlike her guests, speaking of whom, give them another round! … Ellen Degeneres sucked as a second-rate comedian doing routines about "What If God Was a Woman?" Now she's reinvented herself as a third-rate Oprah, a human plague on the body televique, with no cure in sight. Patty Hearst Factor: Benizir Bhutto-philia. She wasn't Musharraf; she was a chic-dressed, porcelain-complexioned go-getter woman in a land teeming with wife-stoning darkies, and she spoke pro-American gibberish with an aristocratic Brit accent. She went to Oxford, and so does her son. To contemporary America, this means she must be Ghandi with tits, Mandela in a salwar kameez. So we encouraged her to return to take back Pakistan and rid it of all the dark-skinned non-English-speaking terrorists. We told her that we had back-side covered, and sent her off to Karachi where she got murdered faster than you can say "Mission Accomplished." Bad for American geopolitics (but could they get worse?); however, great for Bhutto's Gandhi-creds, creating a mini-Diana media boomlet that sent Bhutto's quickie autobiography into the bestseller charts. It took a cool and collected Brit, William Dalrymple, to disturb the cocktail party with a Times op-ed that reminded mourners of Benizir's very un-Gandhi-like death squads, her longtime role as Pakistan's Jihadi paymaster, and her crushing of any opposition to her rule. Angelina Jolie Factor: Four adopted dark kids. Jolie's a shoe-in to play Bhutto in the upcoming biopic. While filming, Jolie will also adopt a Pakistani orphan, and name him "Benizira." CNN. American news has become so shamelessly propagandistic and idiotic that today, a blatant White House propaganda tool like CNN is considered "liberal" simply because it's gotten a wee bit squeamish over the whole Iraq debacle, as compared to FOX, which, like the gang in Hitler's bunker, is still issuing cheerful dispatches about inevitable victory in Iraq. Then there's Lou Dobbs, the guy with the freakish child molester face who transformed himself from neoliberal "New Economy" tool into a sleazy Mexican-bashing rat. This is what passes for a "liberal media" in the United Embarrassment of America. Susan Sarandon's Breasts Factor: We suckle the anti-American milk out of 3 of Sarandon's breasts as an antidote to CNN's toxins. Cheap American Corruption. In Russia, if you want to buy a vote, you've got to pay a Duma politician about a million bucks. In America, if you want a Congressman to legislate a $5 billion tax break for your company, all you have to do is fly him to a golf course in some damp shithole like Scotland, and those $5 billion tax payer dollars are yours. Shame Factor: Trendy pseudo-hyper-self-consciousness. How many times have you heard an American use this preface: "I know it's a cliche to say this. And I know it's a cliche to say that it's a cliche to say this… but [ENTER CLICHE HERE]." Translated: "I know I am a waste of this planet's limited oxygen supply, but I'm going to suck in a few more lungfulls of your precious air than usual in order to lull you into a false sense of hope before I expel a lethal cloud of hokey idiocies, flooring you once again." Adam Gadhan Factor: There's only one way to shut up a pseudo-self-conscious reference-dropping David Eggers type, and that's to cut off their preface with a big loud "Allahu Akhbar!" The Ongoing Insane Southwest Building Boom. Exactly how many more years of extended drought and water/electricity shortages do Americans need before they stop building in the doomed Southwest? 14? 27? Will it take total Civilizational collapse like the kind Jim Kunstler sees right around the corner from the latest Scottsville condo project? The Dust Bowl is the new normal; the Colorado River is shrinking. Already states are fighting each other in court for access to dwindling water supplies, mirroring intra-state conflicts between agriculture and the cities. But still they keep building air-conditioned houses with lawns, even though the grids are already snapping during 110+ degree nights, killing all the old people who keep retiring there like it's 1966. The slow death of golf won't come soon enough to save the desert states. Vegas will make one hell of a ruin. Shame Factor: A plague of knit-capped hippies on all of you swine! World's Largest Prison Population. The dollar may be crashing below even joke currencies like the Kazakh tenge, but when it comes to jailing our poor, we're still #1 with a bullet. More than two and a quarter million Americans—one out of every 100—are doing some form of time. Yup, when it comes to putting our citizens in prison, we kick the authoritarian crap out of repression stars like Russia and China. The U.S. also is riding high in the state-murder competition saddle, lagging only behind Pakistan, Sudan, China, and a few other beacons of liberty in the capital punishment competition. But hey, it's working! Americans don't kill each other in Wendy's restaurants or college campuses anymore, no siree! Welcome to the United States of Visiting Hours. Please keep your hands away from the plexiglass. Monkey-Country Political Nepotism. Bullshit countries with bullshit currencies elect wives and sons to run their countries simply because the population hasn't developed beyond medieval monarchy thinking. The Philippines elected the widowed wife of a slain democracy leader. Argentina elected the wife of a former president (and hailed the wife of a former dictator). America came late to the "we're medieval-brained morons and we're proud of it!" parade, starting in 2000, when America annointed the recessive-gene-damaged son of a failed one-term president into the White House. It was so great that he was reelected, while in Congress, at least 18 senators, dozens of House members and several administration officials were family legacies, leading the Washington Post to declare that the US government "resembles the court of Louis XIV without the powdered wigs." This year, Americans are working on electing the wife of the president before the recessive-gene son. She may fail, but Americans are a hard-working lot, so don't be surprised if by 2020 America finally catches up to the Philippines and Argentina and other third-world shitholes by electing the first ex-leader's wife to lead them Michelle Obama Factor: Three and a half. Fox and CNN should be forced to loop 2 weeks straight of Michelle Obama's "for the first time in my life I was proud to be an American" speech into every American's living room. BONUS EMBARRASSMENTS! William Kristol. We're not sure what we're most ashamed of: the systemic nepotism responsible for the retardocon's success; the major newspaper that recently hired him in the alleged spirit of "balance"; or the small amount of pleasure we derive from reading his atrocious prose and lame-ass attempts at "high" cultured diction to Manhattan-up his hard-hitting conservatism? Kristol's last Times column saw him take a break from massaging John McCain's nipples to gently stroke the fresh corpse of William F. Buckley. After plugging his prep school in the first line (Collegiate, 1970) Kristol falls back on the use of Latin phrases and Victorian poets to escape from his troubles with English and sound better educated than he is. How ashamed does it make us that moron like Kristol is taken seriously? Put it this way: he makes us appreciate the wit and genius of William Safire. Alan Berg Factor: Three shots ring out in the capitol's cool dark night. American women's voices. The anchor-lady monotone all American women have spent the last 20 years perfecting, so that all American women, no matter what they're saying, sound like they're reading the 10 p.m. newscast at a Midwestern midsize TV station summing up the day's stock market activity. Is there any other nation on earth infested with 150 million women who talk like transvestites with back hair? Shame Factor: Paul Thomas Anderson. The other Anderson in the "Axis of Hackdom," Paul 3-Names wowed the Beigeocracy by--get this--holding extra-long shots on his actors as they have internal moments. Yup, in a country gone totally stupid, all you gotta do is walk out of the edit room for 10 minutes, and suddenly Rolling Stone stands and cheers your "rule-busting experimentation" while Roger Ebert creams that PTA's film is a, "A force beyond categories." Of course, Ebert also raved about Anderson's Punch Drunk Love, "[Adam] Sandler, liberated from the constraints of formula, reveals unexpected depths as an actor. Watching this film, you can imagine him in Dennis Hopper roles. He has darkness, obsession and power." Jimmy Carter Factor: The War on Drugs. The shame here is mitigated only slightly by the fact that public support is finally crumbling for the Prohibition gravy train. But you can still see anti-pot ads on American television cut from the same hemp cloth as the original Reefer Madness campaign that made shitty Mexican weed the gateway to Negro jazz musicians bending America's innocent daughters over a snare drum. The funny-sad thing is these ads are crammed between plugs for pharmaceutical drugs featuring animated butterflies and permanent sunsets on the beach. If the Office of National Drug Control Policy had a gram for every lie it ever told to justify WoD budgets, they'd make the Medellin cartel look like the BookMobile. Shame Factor: America's "Post-Racist" Delusion. Barak Obama may have a lot of detractors both among Republicans and Democrats, but if there's one thing all Americans can agree on, it's that Obama's rise to political stardom means that Americans are no longer racist. Yeah, right, and Uzbek jet pilots might fly out of our butts. When one of America's most painful issues, its racist history, is allegedly solved because white people vote for a moderate-conservative Wall Street black guy with male-magazine looks and a CNN voice which utters words carefully steering away from anything about the whole race issue that might upset people--in other words, every white American's Dream Negro--then all we can say is, like the midget lady in Poltergeist, "This house is clean." CUT TO: thunder, lightening, and suddenly the
Iran and rebel backer Turkey, will begin on Monday in Astana, Kazakhstan, and are expected to last less than a week. Repeated attempts by world powers have failed to end Syria's war, which erupted nearly six years ago with widespread anti-Assad demonstrations. Last year, the US and Russia worked together to put a temporary truce in place and sponsored several rounds of talks in Geneva, but they did not secure a political solution. In late 2016, a new partnership between Moscow and Ankara emerged, despite their backing for opposite sides in the conflict. They secured a fragile ceasefire deal that went into force on December 30, and the Astana talks will be the first real test of their joint efforts. The two powers have said US President-elect Donald Trump's administration should attend the talks, but Iranian officials have voiced strong objections to Washington's presence. Agencies contributed to this report.Labor Day has come and gone, and from grade school to college, students are settling into another year of school. With the latest UN Report stating in no uncertain terms that global warming is already hitting us harder and faster than ever expected, I think now is the time for the 163 climate deniers in Congress to go back to school, too. More than 97 percent of climate scientists agree that global warming is happening now; that it is largely caused by human activities; and that it poses significant -- and potentially irreversible -- risks to our health and our well-being, and that of future generations. Yet too many elected officials appear determined to either ignore or refute the facts when it comes to climate change -- even where global warming is already hurting their communities and their constituents. The streets of Miami already flood often at high tide, with storm drains no longer capable of emptying water into the ocean. If we do not reduce our global warming pollution, the planet may warm enough to cause seas to rise between two and six feet by the end of the century, prompting us to bid Miami and the rest of South Florida adieu. Yet Sen. Marco Rubio told the media he didn't believe that human activity was causing dramatic changes to our climate. In Washington State, firefighters are still working to contain the worst wildfire in state history. According to the head of the U.S. Forest Service, global warming has already lengthened the fire season by two months and made it easier for large fires to spread more quickly and be more destructive. Without change to current climate policies, annual acreage lost to wildfires may double by 2043. Yet Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers claimed the science on climate is "inconclusive at best." The rising frequency and severity of heat waves and droughts is reducing crop yields across the Midwest. For example, in 2012, a catastrophic drought, exacerbated by near-record heat, withered crops across the country; economists estimated losses at $77 billion. Yet Iowa Rep. Steve King called climate scientists "frauds" practicing a "modern version of the rain dance."by Daniel J. Cameron, MD MPH The authors described patients with tick-transmitted diseases presenting with the following ophthalmologic findings: Follicular conjunctivitis Periorbital edema and mild photophobia Bell’s palsy, cranial nerve palsies and Horner syndrome Argyll Robertson pupil Keratitis Optic neuritis, papilledema, papillitis and neuroretinitis Myositis of extraocular muscles and dacryoadenitis Episcleritis, anterior and posterior scleritis Anterior, intermediate, posterior and panuveitis Retinal vasculitis, cotton wool spots and choroiditis Retinitis, macular edema and endophthalmitis The authors point out that optic neuritis, which is often seen in multiple sclerosis, occurs in Lyme disease, as well. Furthermore, they remind readers that although it is rare, uveitis can also be found in Lyme disease (LD). “Findings include vitreitis, retinal vasculitis, cotton wool spots, choroiditis, macular edema and endophthalmitis,” stated Sathiamoorthi. “In several cases, spirochetes were detected in vitreous material.” Uveitis is an inflammation of the uvea, which is made up of the iris, ciliary body and choroid. Anterior, intermediate and posterior uveitis as well as panuveitis has also been described. [2] Uveitis can be found with a wide range of acute and chronic presentations. “Patients with anterior uveitis usually complain of pain, redness, blurred vision, and photophobia, watering,” according to Agrawal from the Medical Research Foundation, India. [3] “Most of the patients would have had repeated attacks and would have sought consultation with multiple ophthalmologists and would have used topical and/or systemic medications on and off.” Ocular complications are infrequent but can be serious. “Complications such as macular edema, chorioretinitis and optic neuropathy may be vision-threatening and require treatment with corticosteroids as long as the recommended antimicrobial regimen has been instituted,” stated Sathiamoorthi. The true incidence of ocular findings, however, remains unknown. According to Sathiamoorthi, one case of seronegative uveitis was discredited. “At least one of the earlier case reports of Lyme uveitis found spirochetes in vitreous material, yet serological testing was negative for Lyme antibodies.” The authors conclude the “degree and frequency of ocular signs and symptoms varies widely between the different [tick-borne] diseases. …The opthamologist needs to be alert to the possibility of an infectious cause depending on the patient’s risk factors. The growing number of Lyme disease cases and other tick-borne diseases…should heighten clinical suspicion for tick-borne illness…” References:Stanford’s STARMAC, short for Stanford Testbed of Autonomous Rotorcraft for Multi-Agent Control, is probably one of the coolest remote-control helicopters we’ve ever seen. This is not a toy, remote-driven helicopter. The primary goal of the STARMAC project is to test and develop algorithms that will be implemented in future autonomous flying devices, such as the little flying cameras you see everywhere in Half-Life 2. < TinFoilHatMode >Paranoiacs and conspiracy theorists will soon want to take up permanent residence in their underground lairs, because in a few years, individual privacy will be a thing of the past. These robots will be everywhere, looking at you and recording your every move, and the thing is, your probably even won’t notice because of new cloaking technologies that are being developed right now!< /TinFoilHatMode > Video after the jump.“Nothing we had in common was real or genuine, ” he says to me as I do the dumb thing and stare at my hands. “You realize we fucking hate each other?” It had been a long weekend with my uncle. The crazy. No one really knew what he did. He drank. He smoked cigarettes, but I swear they were a different brand last time we visited. He had this orange shirt that had faded into this strange terra-cotta/salmon color thanks to his organic sodium mixed with infinite hot washes. He had a name, but no one really seemed to use it in conversation. You just knew who they were talking about when you walked up to the table. Or the conversation would be started by some object being glared at by more than 2 people in the room. One person would raise their eyebrows and the other would nod. He was what you talked to the cousins about after you ran out of the obvious questions and everything else seemed like it would awkwardly point out how far you had drifted apart. But now? He hated me. He was supposed to be watching me while my parents did what ever it is parents do when revisiting their hometown after 15+ years living elsewhere. So I was sat down in front of the tv on some corduroy masterpiece of a couch he had managed to keep clean. To be fair, his place was pretty clean. He was clean in scrubbed-raw way. The sun-bleached way. Everything smelled of boiling water. He watched tv with me for one 30 minute segment, and then we started some movie. It was a film I, apparently, was a minority for not seeing, and now I must remedy this fault within myself. So we chilled. I’m pretty sure he was drinking. I’m also pretty sure that he had jokingly offered me, a minor, a drink earlier. I’m really sure it wasn’t that much of a joke. He left partway through the film and went to this sort of half basement/spare room that was allowed for by the house being built into a hill. Sometimes I could hear some shuffling, placing of things, typing, but never much else. I was still pretty uncomfortable around him and wasn’t quite sure where the restroom was. After the movie was over, another one began playing. This one I had seen before. I needed to pee. It was getting dark. He had started murmuring to himself. At first I thought it was the film, but then I noticed there was laughter during inappropriate parts. I turned the volume down. Not all at once. I took maybe a good 10 minutes to get down 5 even numbers. They always have to be even. He wasn’t so much murmuring now. His voice had risen to normal conversation mode. I heard a beer open. I heard him talk and put the can down on the table several times over the rest of the second movie. As if on cue he started to come out of the room right as it ended. “He looks happy” is all I can think. I realize I am turned, open mouthed smiling at him with the volume very low. He realizes too and becomes a shade of scarlet I have only seen once before. He takes me outside and sits me on the tail gate of his truck and starts pacing in front of me. I’m not quite sure what is happening at this point, but I fantasize about romans dragging prisoners behind chariots. “Am I in trouble?” He is throwing his hands up and pacing this awkward oval in the driveway. He has mastered this drunken mumble yelling. I have no idea what he is communicating. I ask “is that room why you are upset?” He says he needs advice AdvertisementsThe first car that Christian von Koenigsegg purchased with his wife, Halldora, was an NA Mazda Miata with a black exterior and a brown leather interior. This car, his ideal Regera, features a brown leather interior that hearkens back to that very car. Koenigsegg Why would he choose to do that? CvK is very family oriented, and his design for a Regera would incorporate a fond memory from early in his relationship, before he became a supercar magnate. Koenigsegg The exterior does not resemble the Miata, in color or otherwise. Instead, Koenigsegg opted for a dark blue and gold motif, as this is reminiscent of the Swedish flag. Koenigsegg is proud of his country, so it's a natural choice. And not to nerd out about Miatas more, but the deep blue is very close to a 1996 Miata M-Edition's Starlight Blue Mica. I'm not sold on the gold wheels, but who am I to criticize? I didn't create one of the most innovative supercars in the world, CvK did. He could have it any color and it'd still be amazing.Back in August 2015, WhartonBrooks announced that it was working on a Windows 10 Mobile handset that would be "the most disruptive since the advent of the smartphone in 2000". Over time, the company hyped up the device's launch with photos and statements such as the one mentioned above. When it did take the wraps off the handset, dubbed the "Cerulean Moment", there was massive backlash from people who had been expecting the phone to revolutionize the mobile technology. The Moment basically turned out to be a run-of-the-mill mid-range Windows 10 Mobile handset. The design was the same as the Coship Moly X1 - right down to the micro-USB port, with a few updated specs. It contained an octa-core Snapdragon 617 chipset, 3GB RAM, 32GB of storage, a 5-inch 720p display, a 13MP rear camera that can record 1080p30fps video, and a 5MP front camera. WhartonBrooks' president Gregory Murphy announced that the Moment required funding of $1.1 million. What further infuriated people was the fact that the phone didn't exactly offer the best bang for buck, with a cost of $300 - and discounted price of $290 for the first 750 orders, a threshold which it ironically never crossed. Now, with just under a day to go, the company has just achieved slightly over 2% of its goal. This equates to $24,393 at the time of writing. It is important to note that this is a fixed goal, which means that if it is not accomplished by the time this campaign ends, none of the pledged money will go to WhartonBrooks. Interestingly, the campaign page lists 102 backers, many of whom have asked about the future of the Cerulean Moment, however, no update has been provided by Gregory Murphy. All in all, it's not really surprising that WhartonBrooks will need nothing short of a miracle to achieve its funding goal. NuAns is another company that was looking for $725,000 to launch the Neo Windows 10 Mobile handset globally, and saw a grand total of $142,368; the company later abandoned the platform for Android with its next iteration. However, it appears that WhartonBrooks does not have any plans to ditch Microsoft's mobile platform just yet. The company recently showed off its VR headset and outlined plans for four more Windows 10 Mobile handsets as well. It has also been asking for feedback on Twitter regarding how much people would be willing to pay for a high-end device.00:46 Mysterious discharge at Niagara Falls Probe ordered after mysterious discharge of sewage water into Niagara River just below famous falls. At a Glance The city of Niagara Falls released wastewater into the Niagara River over the weekend. The discharge was black and foul-smelling. The city could face a fine of up $37,500 if found guilty of violating state water quality standards. A foul-smelling, wastewater discharge that turned the water near the base of Niagara Falls black over the weekend prompted New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to order an investigation. According to the Associated Press, Cuomo said he believes the city of Niagara Falls may have violated state water quality standards after a local wastewater treatment plant released the contaminated water into the Niagara River on Saturday. He ordered the Department of Environmental Conservation to conduct an investigation. In a statement, the city said the release of the water was a "routine, necessary and short term change in the waste water treatment process." "The blackish water contained some accumulated solids and carbon residue within permitted limits and did not include any organic type oils or solvents. The unfortunate odor would be limited to the normal sewer water discharge smell," the statement read. The sludge was captured by aerial photos and photos surrounding the dock of the famed Maid of the Mist tour boat launch. It had dissipated by Sunday morning. Pat Proctor, a vice president for Rainbow Air Inc., a helicopter company that flies tourists over the fall, said he noticed the leak from one of the helicopters Saturday afternoon. "The first thing that came to my mind was, 'Dear God, please don't be an oil leak,'" Proctor told the Associated Press. If the city is found guilty of breaking water quality standards, it could face a fine of up to $37,500. MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Niagara Falls ClimberIn January, a single bluefin tuna was purchased by a wealthy restaurateur in Tokyo for nearly $2 million—something of a publicity stunt yet indicative of just how much the modern sushi industry values this creature. Japanese chefs handle cuts of red bluefin flesh as reverently as Italians might a white truffle, or a French oenophile a bottle of a 1945 Bordeaux. And a single sliver of the fat, buttery belly meat, called toro, or sometimes o-toro, in Japanese, can pull $25 from one’s wallet. The bluefin, truly, is probably the most prized and valuable fish in the world. But it wasn’t always this way. Several decades ago, the very same fish were essentially worthless worldwide. People caught them for fun along the Atlantic Coast—especially in Nova Scotia, Maine and Massachusetts—and though few ever ate their catch, they didn’t usually let the tuna go, either. During the height of the tuna sport fishing craze in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, the big fish were weighed and photographed, then sent to landfills. Others were mashed up into pet food. Perhaps the best of scenarios was when dead bluefin tuna—which usually weighed at least 400 pounds—were dumped back into the sea, where at least their biomass was recycled into the marine food web. But it all amounts to the same point: The mighty bluefin tuna was a trash fish. The beef-red flesh, many say, is smelly and strong tasting, and, historically, the collective palate of Japan preferred milder species, like the various white-fleshed fishes and shellfish still popular among many sushi chefs. Other tuna species, too—including yellowfin and bigeye—were unpopular in Japan, and only in the 19th century did this begin to change. So says Trevor Corson, author of the 2007 book The Story of Sushi. Corson told Food and Think in an interview that an increase in tuna landings in the 1830s and early 1840s provided Tokyo street vendors with a surplus of cheap tuna. The meat was not a delicacy, by any means. Nor was it even known as a food product. In fact, tuna was commonly called neko-matagi, meaning “fish that even a cat would disdain.” But at least one sidewalk sushi chef tried something new, slicing the raw meat thin, dousing it in soy sauce and serving it as “nigiri sushi.” The style caught on, though most of the chefs used yellowfin tuna. Occasionally, chefs made use of large bluefins, and one trick they learned to soften the rich flavor of the meat was to age it underground for several days. The way Japanese diners regarded raw, ruddy fish flesh began changing. This marked a turning point in the history of sushi, Corson says—but he points out that the bluefin tuna would remain essentially unwanted for decades more. In the early 20th century, sport fishing began gaining popularity in the United States and Canada—and few fish were more exciting to hunt than the giant bluefins that migrated about the Atlantic and passed through near-shore waters in New England and southeast Canada. In Wedgeport, Nova Scotia, interest in catching giant bluefins proliferated among wealthy boat fishermen armed with enormous, crane-like rods and reels, and in 1937, local organizers held the first International Tuna Cup Match. The event became a festive annual gala of wealthy boatmen vying for victory. Naturally, it was also a brutal bloodfest. The 1949 event saw 72 bluefin tuna landed—the highest number ever caught in the 28-year span the derby was held. The fish were giants, averaging 419 pounds. Such exact measurement depended on subduing and killing them, and almost certainly, most were later discarded. Author Paul Greenberg writes in his 2010 book Four Fish, which profiles the bluefin as among the world’s most important seafood species, that just like the Japanese at the time, “Americans considered bluefin too bloody to eat and had no interest in bringing home their catch.” Many—probably thousands—of enormous bluefins caught last century by sport fishermen were killed, hoisted for photographs, then either thrown out entirely or sold to processors of cat and dog food. The dramatic turnaround began in the early 1970s. Beef had become popular in Japan, and with a national palate now more appreciative of strong flavors and dark flesh, bluefin tuna became a desired item. It was also about this time that cargo planes delivering electronics from Japan to the United States and returning home empty began taking advantage of the opportunity to buy cheap tuna carcasses near New England fishing docks and sell them back in Japan for thousands of dollars. “Bluefin tuna is an amazing example of something we have been made to think is an authentic Japanese tradition,” Corson says. “Really, it was a marketing scheme of the Japanese airline industry.” Corson says that advancements in refrigeration technology at about this time facilitated what was growing quickly into a new and prosperous industry. Now able to freeze and preserve all the tuna they could carry at sea, operators of huge fishing vessels were able to return home with lucrative hauls. By the time sport angler Ken Fraser caught a 13-foot-long Nova Scotia tuna in 1979 that weighed 1,496 pounds, things had changed for the bluefin. People were still killing them—but not wasting them. Even sport fishermen often purchased commercial licenses, intending to sell what they caught to the Japanese sushi market. Giant bluefin would no longer be sent to pet food factories. The species had become a delicacy. The popularity spread back across the ocean, and soon Americans developed a taste for bluefin meat. By the 1990s, the bluefin tuna was wanted almost desperately worldwide. The rest of the bluefin story has been told many times, but the worsening scenario mandates a quick recap: The Atlantic species has crashed from rapturous, water-thrashing abundance to scarcity. It has been estimated that a mere 9,000 adults still spawn each year in the Mediterranean. A British scientist named Callum Roberts estimated that for every 50 bluefins swimming in the Atlantic Ocean in 1940 there was just one in 2010. By most accounts, the population is down by more than 80 percent. The Pacific bluefin, smaller and genetically distinct from the Atlantic species, has fared better over the decades, but the relentless sushi industry seems to eventually catch up with all fatty, fast-swimming pelagics. Fishery scientists recently estimated the Pacific stocks to be just 4 percent of their virgin, pre-fishery biomass. Ironically, in the days when the bluefin’s value has never been higher, sport fishermen are increasingly releasingthe tuna they catch. Corson, once a commercial fisherman himself, no longer eats bluefin. “It’s not even that good,” he says. “It’s got this distinct, not-so-subtle, tangy iron flavor, and it melts in your mouth. This makes it very easy to like.” Too easy, that is. Corson says that “old-school sushi holdouts who are still loyal to the older version of sushi” share the same opinion. Among these diners and chefs, the melt-in-your-mouth sensation that has proved so marketable and so devastating to the bluefin tuna is considered simplistic and unsophisticated. “They consider toro to be sort of for amateurs,” Corson says. Instead, traditional sushi connoisseurs enjoy the often crunchier, more subtly flavored muscle tissues of animals like squid, clams, various jacks, flounder and, perhaps most of all, sea bream, or Pagrus major. To help reveal to others the authentic history of sushi and just how gratifying it can be to eat lesser known species rather than the blubbery bluefin tuna, Corson leads regular tasting classes in New York City. “I’m trying in my own little way to show one person at a time how great traditional sushi can be,” he says. Bluefin is not on the menu at these events. Whether the culinary world will embrace the true traditions of sushi and turn away from bluefin before the species goes commercially extinct is unclear. Corson notes that he has never seen a species go from coveted delicacy to reviled junk fish. “It’s usually a process of expansion,” he says. Indeed, restaurant owner Kiyoshi Kimura’s purchase of a 488-pound bluefin for $1.76 million at the Tsukiji fish market this January indicates that the bluefin is more valued than ever now. We might drop our jaws at this, thinking it obscenely wasteful. And though it was similarly wasteful to grind countless big tuna, from head to tail to toro, into cat food, it does seem that the bluefin might have been better off had we just gone on regarding it as trash.Bradley Beal hits just 1 of 10 three-point shots in Cleveland, but finishes with 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists as the Wizards snap a four-game skid. (Ken Blaze/Usa Today Sports) John Wall looked up, saw LeBron James and almost double-dribbled. Less than four minutes remained in the Washington Wizards’ 97-85 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena on Tuesday night, and the momentum — locked on the Wizards’ side for most of the evening — had suddenly unhinged. James and company were lurking. But Wall gathered himself and, as the shot clock dwindled to less than five seconds, he slung a one-handed bounce pass to Jared Dudley, who pump-faked once and glanced the ball off the backboard for two to push Washington’s lead back to 15 points. Wall turned to the Wizards’ bench as he jogged back to play defense and motioned to the contingent to calm down. It was his night, and he wasn’t going to let it slip away. The point guard emerged from a bewildering two-week personal rut to post his best performance of the young campaign with a season-high 35 points, 10 assists, five steals, four rebounds, and five turnovers in 41 minutes as the Wizards (7-8) snapped their four-game losing streak. The double-double was his first since Nov. 14, a span of six games, and he joined Russell Westbrook and James Harden as the only players with at least 30 points, 10 assists, and five steals in a game this season. [Postgame: Wizards unveil a really small lineup in Cleveland] John Wall picks a great time to break out of a slump to produce his best game of the season in Cleveland. (Tony Dejak/Associated Press) “He played like he was just back to being him,” said Wizards center Marcin Gortat, who contributed 15 points and 11 rebounds. “And it was huge.” Wall headed the Wizards’ most complete effort of the season as their defense, the one that ranked in the NBA’s top 10 the last three seasons, held the Cavaliers, who never led, to a season-low point total and 33.7 percent shooting from the field. Cleveland (13-5) committed 19 turnovers, leading to 25 points for the Wizards, who began the game on a 10-0 run and pushed the ball at every opportunity. The defeat is the Cavaliers’ first at home this season after a 9-0 start and second in their last 31 regular season games in Northeast Ohio dating back to January. “Our defense was there,” said Wizards guard Bradley Beal, who scored 18 points on 6-of-19 shooting, including 1 of 10 from three-point range, and added nine rebounds and six assists. “And that’s what won us the game.” Wizards players said they employed a strategy similar to what the Golden State Warriors utilized against the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals in the spring. They tried to force James to take contested jumpers. They fronted the post and sagged off centers Timofey Mozgov and Tristan Thompson and crashed the boards aggressively. The trio of Kevin Love, Mozgov and Thompson — one of the biggest front lines in basketball — was limited to eight points and 22 rebounds. James compiled 24 points and 13 rebounds but had nine turnovers. Washington even went as small as the Warriors dared, unveiling a lineup they hadn’t even used at practice that featured the 6-foot-7 Dudley at center. The Wizards went on a 7-0 run with the tiny-ball configuration on the floor in the second quarter. “I had some lineups out there tonight that I don’t know I had ever dreamed about,” Wizards Coach Randy Wittman said. But it all started with Wall. Before Tuesday, Wall had not been himself for two weeks. He wasn’t lively. He often appeared disengaged. His jump shot was a mess and his turnover rate skyrocketed. The John Wall that had roused crowds with explosive athleticism and pinpoint passing went missing. The Wizards, consequently, were not a good basketball team. [Insider: Alan Anderson to begin on-court activities Wednesday] Wall did not shy away from the reality. He assumed responsibility on more than one occasion during the confounding stretch and spent extra time before and after practices honing his shot. He candidly explained that if he doesn’t play at the all-star level he has established then the Wizards will not achieve their lofty goals this season. “Everybody’s looking for excuses when you’re not playing well,” Wall said. “I’m not going to say my teammates are not screening, my teammates are not making shots. It’s me.” Wall reverted back to his usual dynamic self Tuesday. He found a rhythm with his jumper — all he needed was some more lift, he had said Monday — and that created more space for himself and teammates. He posted up smaller Cavaliers point guards, something he worked on over the summer. He raided the rim with aggressive drives, which produced points for himself and for others. He was at his best once again, and the Wizards displayed how potent they are when he is. “For us to be as good as we want to be,” Dudley said, “it starts with John.”Suffolk teenagers craving their next Red Bull may soon have to cross the border into Nassau County to quench their thirst. The Suffolk County Legislature hosted a public hearing Tuesday on a bill that would ban the sale of energy drinks to consumers under the age of 19. While the bill has not been voted into law by the 18-member legislature, it at least has the support of the eight legislators co-sponsoring it. “These energy drinks can be very detrimental to young people,” said Legislator Lynne Nowick (R-St. James), the primary sponsor of the bill. As part of the bill, convenience stores and grocers who sell caffeinated energy drinks such as Red Bull and Monster would be required to post signs warning customers of the health risks associated with such beverages. The proposal would fine retailers $500 for selling energy drinks to minors and $250 for not posting the sign. The University of Texas Medical School at Houston reported last month that energy drinks contain more caffeine than a strong cup of coffee. Standard energy drinks contain about 200 mg of caffeine per 16 ounces. A study published in Advances in Psychiatric Treatment shows that consumption of more than one energy drink in a 24-hour period can lead to sleeplessness, and potentially damage to the heart and stomach. While four states have banned alcoholic energy drinks, and Governor David Paterson brokered a deal this fall to stop the sale of Four Loko in New York, there is no legislation limiting the sale of non-alcoholic energy drinks anywhere in this country. The soft drink and beverage distribution lobbyists who testified at the hearing Tuesday said the bill was unnecessary and would be hard on retailers already dealing with a sluggish economy. Ken Meyer, vice president of Clare Rose beverage distributors, said creating legal hurdles is not the answer. “You’ve got to educate rather than legislate,” he said. Legislator Jack Eddington (WF-Medford) said he personally drinks energy drinks as an alternative to coffee and he did his best to make the case for his peers to vote against a ban. “I don’t like telling 18-and-19-year-olds what they can and can’t do,” said Legislator Jack Eddington. “They can fight in a war, but they can’t buy an energy drink? Where are our priorities.” The hearing was recessed after 40 minutes of debate and will likely be taken up for a vote in early 2011. [email protected] Comments commentsI am on a roll! First Insane Twilight now Trixie?! In just two days? Thats pretty impressive for someone as lazy as me. I am overly impressed with how this picture turned out, I learnt from my mistakes in Insane Twilight and really put myself out there for this picture. In the end it was worth the massive ammount of time spent drawing, colouring and adding light effects. Now.. The fun has been doubled! Character property of --> MLP FiM : Lauren Fraust, Hasbro EDIT: The white in Trixies eye was missing, noticed the problem and quickly edited the picture fixing the minor mistake. EDIT2: I swear.. The more I look at my picture the more I see little mistakes, this time I noticed the lack of the gem Trixie has for her cloak. Tis all fixed now though and I need to stop over procrastinating..On August 3, 2015, a group of Israeli army vehicles and several Israeli Civil Administration representatives distributed seven demolition orders to the Bedouin community of Jabal al-Baba, north of al-Ezariya (Bethany) in the Eastern Jerusalem governorate of the West Bank. Jabal al-Baba’s position between East Jerusalem and the expansive Ma’ale Adumim settlement puts it at the heart of Israeli authorities’ E1 settlement plan. The plan aims to link settlements around Jerusalem, at once consolidating Israel’s illegal annexation of East Jerusalem and separating the north of the West Bank from the south. Home demolitions and forced displacement of Bedouins in the area are the plan’s expected next steps. Homes and other structures in Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank are often demolished under the pretense of being built without permits. However, permits are almost never issued to Palestinians, leaving them no choice but to build with the risk of imminent demolition. In contrast, illegal Israeli settlements in the area are constructed and expanded with impunity. Many residents of this community are already refugees—expelled from the Negev during the Nakba of 1948. Now approximately 40 families with over 300 people face yet another displacement, along with the destruction of their traditional lifestyle. Demolition orders for EU-funded housing The Israeli authorities began at approximately 8:15 a.m. with the home of Ahmed Tarabeen, ordering his family to demolish their home by Thursday, August 6th, or else the army would come to complete the task. They delivered the same message to the house of Hani Uweidat before making their way to another household of 14 residents now under the threat of losing their home. A total of seven demolition orders were distributed. Three of the housing shelters that received demolition orders were originally donated by the European Union, and have already been demolished and then rebuilt with international support. Members of the Jabal al-Baba community predict that the three EU-funded housing shelters will be demolished soon, based on witnessing Israeli forces’ thorough photography of the structures—usually a sign that the demolition orders are more than simply a threat. Atallah Masara, Jabal al-Baba’s community representative, expressed his grave concern over the matter. The demolition orders came as a surprise, he said, after nearly a year without any issued. “Now the future is dark,” he stated. He emphasized the dire need for international support and solidarity during this time, requesting careful documentation of upcoming events. Atallah, however, remained resilient. When asked what the Bedouin community would do if these homes were demolished, he responded without hesitation, “We will rebuild again.”Police say Alison Lewis’ dog Millie jumped at an officer at the old Tiger Stadium site Sunday. (Photo: Alison Lewis) Local musician Alison Lewis said a weekend trip with her dog, Millie, to play at the old Tiger Stadium site turned into a nightmare when a Detroit police officer shot Millie in the face during what she considered to be a nonthreatening interaction. Detroit police characterized Millie as an unleashed pit bull who was growling and jumping at the officer who shot the dog. Lewis, who often performs with Millie onstage, said she and a couple friends went to the field at Michigan Avenue and Trumbull Avenue on Sunday evening to let their dogs run around. The field was familiar to them — Lewis said before she moved out of the Corktown neighborhood about a year ago, she took Millie there three or four times a week. Lewis described Millie, more than six years old, as a cattle-dog-mix, not a pit bull. About the same time Lewis arrived at the field on Sunday, a couple of other people were nearby loading equipment from a just-finished baseball game into their cars parked on the grass. The parked cars drew the attention of Detroit police. A squad car pulled up and two officers got out. Lewis and police agree on this much of the story. As the officers approached, Lewis said her two friends put their dog on a leash. As Lewis reached for her purse and leash, Millie, who was unleashed and about 15 feet away, started to "gallop" toward one of the officers, she said. "He went for his gun. It was about as long as I had to say, 'What are you doing? Please don't do that. She's not going to hurt you,'" Lewis said in an interview on Tuesday. "It was: Hand on gun. It was out. Boom." After the shot, Millie bolted away. Lewis said at first she thought the cop shot into the ground, just scaring the dog. But when she caught up with Millie, she was bleeding heavily. She rushed Millie to a animal care facility and the dog went into surgery. Millie has been released and is recovering, although she is having a hard time breathing and will need to be re-evaluated, Lewis said. "He shot her in the face. It went through her front lip on her right side, entered there and lodged in her jaw on the other side," Lewis said. "It tore out the whole top palate of her mouth, a bunch of teeth." Lewis' friend, Jeffery St. John, was with her at the park on Sunday. St. John, who works with Lewis at St. CeCe's pub in Corktown, said Millie barked at a few kids at the field before the cops arrived. But as Millie came up to them, barking, one of the kids bent over and started petting her. He said Millie was barking at the officer, but she was not jumping at him. "She was barking at him. But she was doing the dog (greeting), 'Hey what's up? Who is this,'" St. John said. "It happened really fast." St. John said Millie is at St. CeCe's occasionally and has not had any problems. "She's just barky sometimes," he said. Detroit police describe Millie as more threatening. Millie is referred to as a pit bull terrier in the officers'
was flawed. As he put it in 1916: “Anarchists, almost all of whom have remained faithful to their convictions, owe it to themselves to protest against this attempt to implicate Anarchism in the continuance of a ferocious slaughter that has never held promise of any benefit to the cause of Justice and Liberty, and which now shows itself to be absolutely barren and resultless even from the standpoint of the rulers on either side.” This is easy enough to do by looking at Kropotkin’s own works written before 1914. In 1882 he wrote War and that repeats the same basic arguments as those from Modern Science and Anarchy in 1913 (see below). As Emma Goldman also noted, when faced with both war in 1914 and Kropotkin’s position, “[o]ur first step was the publication in Mother Earth of Peter Kropotkin’s pamphlet on Capitalism and War, embodying a logical and convincing refutation of his new position.” (Living My Life) Our Marxist ignores all this. He also points to “the anarcho-syndicalist CGT” in France which “threw into the bin its own resolutions that called on it organise the general strike in case of war, transforming itself into a hysterical purveyor of cannon fodder for imperialist butchery” while in Italy “some anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist groups” also sided with their states. First, the CGT was not “anarcho-syndicalist” but rather revolutionary syndicalist. Indeed, it was the only syndicalist union associated with the Second International and was distinctly unhappy with other syndicalist unions and groups trying to forge an International immediately before the First World War. And it was the only syndicalist union which betrayed its principles. The handful pro-war Italian syndicalists (who were Marxists anyway) were kicked out of the USI in 1915 (in the process, the anarchists became the main influence within it) and the vast majority of anarchists opposed the war in Italy as elsewhere – as our author himself admits (“some anarchist… groups”). This does not stop him proclaiming a “convergence of the majority of Social Democracy and anarchism in favour of supporting imperialist war” before arguing that while the former “constituted a betrayal of Marxism” the “rallying to imperialist war and the bourgeoisie in 1914 by the majority of anarchists internationally was, on the contrary, not a false move but the logical conclusion of their anarchism, conforming to their essential political positions.” Let me just repeat the point – the vast majority of anarchists remained internationalists and opposed the war. Apparently, the vast majority of anarchists did not understand “their essential political positions”! The position the vast majority of anarchists did not take was due to “anti-authoritarianism” and belief in “self-determination” which “merely reflected the divisions that capitalism imposed on the proletariat.” Yes, that is right, capitalism invented differences between peoples! And different languages, cultures, etc. as well: “This chauvinist position has its roots in the federalism that is found at the very basis of all anarchist conceptions. In arguing that the nation is a natural phenomenon, in defending the right of all nations to existence and to their free development, anarchism judges the sole danger in the existence of nations to be their propensity to give way to the ‘nationalism' instilled by the dominant class in order to separate the people one from the other. It is naturally led, in any imperialist war, to operate a distinction between aggressors/aggressed, oppressors/oppressed, etc, and thus to opt for the defence of the weakest, of rights that have been flouted, etc. This attempt to base the refusal to go to war on something other than the class positions of the proletariat leaves all sorts of latitude to justify support for one or the other belligerent parties. Concretely, that's to say, to choose one imperialist camp against another.” Do Marxists actually bother to think about what they write? Don’t they read it over to see if it makes any sense? Obviously no more than they do research to discover whether their claims have any basis in reality. For, if this nonsense is taken seriously, before the rise of capitalism everyone spoke the same language, had the same culture, etc. As if. Marx and Engels, as noted, often took sides in imperialist conflicts – favouring some nations over others. They had a low opinion of Slavs (and others, like Mexicans) and argued that the Germans had the right, the duty, to impose their culture on Slavs by any and all means (up to ethnic cleansing). This should better known. Personally, I think most sensible people would conclude that those two – like our ultra-leftist is but in a different way – were wrong. Opposition to imperial conquest does not equate to supporting imperialist wars – particularly if that opposition is built upon a class analysis of society as anarchism is (see section D.6 and section D.7 of An Anarchist FAQ) Besides, this is all irrelevant – because the vast majority of anarchists opposed the imperialist war in 1914! Why? Because both sides were imperialists fighting over markets (as, ironically, Kropotkin argued before 1914!). It gets better as our author lets reality creeps in by noting “some anarchists succeeded in affirming a really internationalist position. A minority of 35 militants (including A. Berkman, E. Goldman, E. Malatesta, D. Neiuwenhuis) published a manifesto against war”. This was 20 more than signed the pro-war statement, that is a majority of those signing things! And, I must stress, they represented the position of the vast majority of anarchists across the world because it reflected the position of revolutionary anarchism. And, ironically, Kropotkin’s own position before 1914 as can be seen from compared it to the two chapters below: “war is permanently fostered by the present social system. Armed conflict, restricted or widespread, colonial or European, is the natural consequence and the inevitable and fatal outcome of a society that is founded on the exploitation of the workers, rests on the savage struggle of the classes, and compels Labour to submit to the domination of a minority of parasites who hold both political and economic power.” (International Anarchist Manifesto Against War) Indeed, Kropotkin was so isolated that Freedom refused to publish his works any more. It gets worse for our ultra-leftist when he notes, forgetting what he wrote earlier, that the “capacity to maintain class positions was clearer among mass proletarian organisations which, in reaction to the progressive abandonment of any revolutionary perspective by Social Democracy before the war, were part of the revolutionary syndicalist current.” He points to the CNT and the old Bakuninist Lorenzo before proclaiming that the “reaction was weakest among the anarcho-syndicalists most heavily handicapped by the weight of anarchist ideology”! Remember, the CGT was the only syndicalist union which was pro-war! He then contradicts his own case by noting that in “Hungary after 1914, it was militant anarchists who headed the movement against imperialist war” while in Spain “the struggle against war was the central activity of the CNT”! Delusional. The notion that anarchists “only saw the ‘peoples'” rather than a class system is a joke – and given this muppet had quoted Guerin’s Anarchism, he knows the facts of the matter. Malatest, Goldman, Rocker, etc. did not need to open up “to the positions developed by the communists (through the internationalist conferences against the war)” in order to “strengthen their combat against capitalism”. As can be seen from Malatesta’s critique of Kropotkin… written in 1914! Here is his second letter from 1914 in Freedom (December 1914) which, as far as I can tell, has never been put on-line before: Dear Comrade Allow me to say a few words on Kropotkin’s article on Anti-militarism published in your last issue. In my opinion, anti-militarism is the doctrine which affirms that military service is an abominable and murderous trade, and that a man ought never to consent to take up arms at the command of the masters, and never fight except for the Social Revolution. Is this to misunderstand anti-militarism? Kropotkin seems to have forgotten the antagonism of the classes, the necessity of economic emancipation, and all the Anarchist teachings; and says that an anti-militarist ought always to be ready, in case a war breaks out, to take arms in support of ‘the country that will be invaded’; which considering the impossibility, at least for the ordinary workman, of verifying in time who is the real aggressor, practically means that Kropotkin’s ‘anti-militarist’ ought always to obey the orders of his government. What remains after that of anti-militarism, and, indeed, of Anarchism too? As a matter of fact, Kropotkin renounces anti-militarism because he thinks that the national questions must be solved before the social question. For us, national rivalries and hatreds are among the best means the masters have for perpetuating the slavery of the workers, and we must oppose them with all our strength. And so to the right of the small nationalities to preserve, if you like, their language and their customs, that is simply a question of liberty, and will have a real and final solution only when, the States being destroyed, every human group, nay, every individual, will have the right to associate with, and separate from, every other group. It is very painful for me to oppose a beloved friend like Kropotkin, who has done so much for the cause of Anarchism. But for the very reason that Kropotkin is so much esteemed and loved by us all, it is necessary to make known that we do not follow him in his utterances on the war. I know that this attitude of Kropotkin is not quite new, and that for more than ten years he has been preaching against the ‘German danger’; and I confess that we were in the wrong in not giving importance to his Franco-Russian patriotism, and in not foreseeing where his anti-German prejudices would land him. It was because we understood that he meant to invite the French workers to answer a possible German invasion by making a Social Revolution – that is, by taking possession of the French soil, and trying to induce the German workers to fraternise with them in the struggle against French and German oppressors. Certainly we should never have dreamt that Kropotkin could invite the workers to make common cause with governments and masters. I hope he will see his error, and be again on the side of the workers against all the Governments and all the bourgeois: German, English, French, Russian, Belgian, etc. Yours fraternally, E. MALATESTA Note, this was in 1914 and so long before the minority of anti-war Marxists could, to use our author’s words, open up to their positions! So, in reality, it was a minority of Marxists who eventually came round to the anarchist position! So this comment is just wrong: “The nebulous anarchist milieu was split between anarcho-patriots and internationalists. After 1915, the recovery of struggle by the proletariat and the repercussions of the slogan for transforming the imperialist war into civil war, launched by the socialist conferences opposed to the war at Zimmerwald and Kienthal” It should read: “The anarchist movement remained true to its internationalist positions bar a handful who decided to side with their governments. After 1915, some Marxists came to anarchist conclusions about transforming imperialist war into class war and launched two socialist conferences” The notion of transforming imperialist wars into civil wars can be found in Bakunin, not Marx, and it was this position Malatesta was referring to in his December 1914 letter to Freedom and expounded in Bakunin’s Letters to a Frenchman (Letters I-V and VI). So if the CNT “was fully open to the positions of Zimmerwald and Kienthal, which were welcomed with enthusiasm”, it was because these positions reflected long-standing anarchist ones. And so while the CNT was opposed to the war, the Marxists were less so for as our author himself notes it “discussed and collaborated with socialist minority groups in Spain that opposed the war” Needless to say, our author notes that “within the CNT, the reception of Lenin's book State and Revolution aroused a very attentive study” but fails to mention that it looked beyond the manifesto to look at the reality of Bolshevik Russia and found it… wanting. It quickly left the Communist International to join the syndicalist International Workers Association. As in 1914 when most syndicalist unions (like most anarchists) opposed the war, most syndicalist unions (again, like most anarchists) opposed Bolshevism once they became better acquainted by what it was like in practice. But, then, reality is something which ultra-leftists seem to have a problem with. As can be seen by this article which starts with a flawed premise, ignores the facts and draws the wrong conclusions. So what have we learned? That the vast majority of anarchists remained true to their internationalist-socialist principles and urged a class war to end imperialist wars. That Kropotkin in 1914 failed to maintain his previous – correct! – position and that Lenin belatedly came to hold that position as well (the same can be said of most of Lenin’s “discoveries” such as smashing the bourgeois state or extending the revolution to expropriation in 1917). This can be seen from Kropotkin’s writings on war (as now revised for publication in book form) from 1913. And, after reading this, you will ponder why Kropotkin ignored all this basic anarchism in favour of a position which saw him become a, in Malatesta’s cutting phrase, “Pro-Government anarchist”… Suffice to say, I will address this in my introduction to Modern Science and Anarchy just as I did in Direct Struggle Against Capital (see “Kropotkin: The Anarchist Formerly Known as Prince” for an earlier version). In short, and somewhat ironically, Kropotkin's position in 1914 was actually quite "Marxist" in the sense that he agreed with Marx's analysis of a German victory in 1870 as well as Engels' position on French Socialists doing their "duty" to repulse invaders (see letters above). What it was definitely not was anarchist -- as shown by these two chapters and the position taken by the bulk of the movement in 1914. Not that you would know that from certain Marxists, of course. The Modern State – Chapter VIII: War Industrial Rivalries In 1883, when England, Germany, Austria, and Romania, taking advantage of the isolation of France, leagued themselves against Russia, and a terrible European war was about to blaze forth, we pointed out in Le Révolté what were the real motives for rivalry among States and the wars resulting therefrom. The reason for modern war is always competition for markets and the right to exploit nations backward in industry. In Europe we no longer fight for the honour of kings. Armies are pitted against each other so that the revenues of Your Most Powerful Rothschild or Schneider, the Most Worshipful Company of Anzin, or the most Holy Catholic Bank of Rome may remain unimpaired. Kings are no longer of any account. In fact, all wars in Europe during the last hundred and fifty years were wars for commercial interests, rights of exploitation. Towards the end of the eighteenth century the great industries and world commerce of France, backed by her navy and her colonies in America (Canada) and Asia (in India), began to develop. Thereupon England, who had already crushed her competitors in Spain and Holland, anxious to keep her herself alone the monopoly of maritime commerce, of sea-power, and of a Colonial Empire, took advantage of the Revolution in France to begin a whole series of wars against her. From that moment England understood what riches a monopolised outlet for her growing industry would bring in. Finding herself rich enough to pay for the armies of Prussia, Austria, and Russia, she waged during a quarter of a century a succession of terrible and disastrous wars against France. That country was compelled to drain herself in order to withstand these wars, and only at this price was she able to uphold her right to remain a “Great Power.” That is to say, she retained her right of refusing to submit to all the conditions that English monopolists endeavoured to impose upon her to the advantage of their own commerce. She upheld her right to a navy and to military ports. Frustrated in her plans for expansion in North America, where she lost Canada, and in India, where she was compelled to abandon her colonies, she received in return permission to create a Colonial Empire in Africa – on condition that she did not touch Egypt – and to enrich her monopolists by pillaging the Arabs of Algeria. Later on, in the second half of the nineteenth century, it was Germany’s turn. When serfdom was abolished as a consequence of the uprisings in 1848, and the abolition of communal property forced young peasants in mass to leave the country for the town, where they offered their “idle hands” at starvation wages to the entrepreneurs of industry, industry on a large scale began to flourish in several German States. German manufacturers soon got to understand that if the working classes were given a good technical education they would quickly catch up with great industrial countries like France and England – on condition, be it well understood, of obtaining for Germany advantageous outlets beyond her frontiers. They knew what Proudhon had so well demonstrated: that a trader can only succeed in substantially enriching himself if a large portion of his produce is exported to other countries, where it can be sold at a price not obtainable in the country where it was manufactured. Since that time, in all the social strata of Germany – exploited as well as exploiters – there was a passionate desire to unify Germany at all costs: to build up a powerful Empire capable of supporting an immense army and a strong navy, which would be able to conquer ports in the North Sea, the Adriatic, and – someday – ports in Africa and the East: an Empire which would be the dictator of economic law in Europe. For this plan to succeed, it was evidently necessary to break the strength of France, which would have resisted, and which at that time had, or seemed to have, the power of preventing its execution. Hence the terrible war of 1870, with all its sad consequences as regards universal progress, which we suffer from even today. By this war and this victory over France, a Germanic Empire – the dream of Radicals, State Socialists, and partly of German Conservatives since 1848 – was at last constituted. And soon it made itself felt and its political power recognised, as well as its right to dictate the law in Europe. Germany, on entering a striking period of youthful activity, quickly succeeded in doubling and trebling her industrial productivity, and soon increasing it tenfold; and now the German bourgeoisie covet new sources of enrichment in the plains of Poland, in the steppes of Hungary, on the plateaus of Africa, and especially around the railway line to Bagdad – in the rich valleys of Asia Minor which can provide German capitalists with a hardworking population to exploit, under one of the most beautiful skies in the world; perhaps, one day, also Egypt. Therefore, it is ports for export, and especially military ports in the Mediterranean Adriatic and in the Adriatic of the Indian Ocean – the Persian Gulf – as well as on the African coast in Beira, and also in the Pacific, that these German colonial tycoons wish to conquer and their faithful servant, the German Empire, with its armies and battleships, is at their service. But at every step these new conquerors face a formidable rival – England bars the way. Jealous of keeping her supremacy on the sea, jealous above all of keeping her colonies for exploitation by her own monopolists, scared by the success of Germany’s colonial policy and the rapid development of her navy, England is redoubling her efforts in order to have a fleet capable of infallibly crushing her German rival. England looks everywhere for allies to weaken the military power of Germany on land. And when the English press sow alarm and terror, pretending to fear a German invasion, they well know that danger does not lie in that quarter. What England needs is the power to despatch her regular army to where Germany, in accord with Turkey, might attack a colony of the British Empire (Egypt, for instance). And for this purpose she must be in a position to retain at home a strong Territorial army read to drown in blood, if necessary, any workers’ revolt. For this reason, principally, military science is taught to young bourgeois, grouped in squads of “scouts.” The English bourgeoisie of today wants to act towards Germany as it twice acted towards Russia in order to arrest, for fifty years or more, the development of that country’s sea-power: once in 1855, with the help of Turkey, France, and Piedmont; and again in 1904, when she hurled Japan against the Russian fleet and against Russia’s military port in the Pacific. That is why for the past two years we have been living on the alert, expecting a colossal European war to break out at any time. Besides, we must not forget that the industrial wave, in rolling from West to East, has also invaded Italy, Austria, and Russia. These States are in their turn asserting their “right” – the right of their monopolists to loot Africa and Asia. Russian brigandage in Persia, Italian brigandage against the desert Arabs around Tripoli, and French brigandage in Morocco are the consequences. The Consortium of brigands, acting in the service of the monopolists who govern Europe, has “allowed” France to seize Morocco, as it has “allowed” England to seize Egypt; it has “allowed” Italy to lay hold of a part of the Ottoman Empire, in order to prevent its being seized by Germany and it has “allowed” Russia to take Northern Persia, in order that England might secure a substantial strip of land on the shores of the Persian Gulf before the German railway can reach it. And for this Italians disgracefully massacre inoffensive Arabs, French massacre Moors, and the hired assassins of the Tsar hang Persian patriots who endeavour to regenerate their country by a little political liberty. Zola had a good reason for saying: “What scoundrels respectable people are!” High Finance All States, we said, as soon as great industries and huge trading concerns develop among their people, are obliged to seek war. They are driven to them by their own manufacturers, and even by their own workers, in order to conquer new markets – that is, new sources of easily obtained riches. Moreover, in every State there exists nowadays a class – a clique, rather – infinitely more powerful even than industrial entrepreneurs and which also incites to war. It is the great financiers and big bankers, who intervene in international relations, and who foment wars. It happens nowadays in a very simple way. Towards the end of the Middle Ages most of the major city-republics of Italy ended by running up huge debts. When the period of decay of these cities had begun, owing to their continued endeavours to conquer rich markets in the East, and the conquest of such markets had caused endless wars between the city-republics themselves, they began to incur immense debts to their own big Merchant Guilds. The same phenomenon occurs today for states, with bankers’ syndicates very willing to lend against a mortgage on their borrowers’ future income. Of course, it is principally the small States which are preyed upon. Bankers lend them money at 7, 8, 10 per cent., knowing that they can “realise” the loan at 70 or 80 per cent. So that, after deducting commissions to banks and middlemen, the State very often does not receive even as much as three-quarters of the amount inscribed in its ledger. On these amounts, swollen in this way, the indebted State must now pay both for interest and depreciation. And when it does not do so at the appointed term, the bankers are quite willing to add the arrears of interest and depreciation to the principal of the loan. The worse the finances of the debtor state grow, the more reckless the expenditure of its leaders, the more willingly are new loans offered to it. Whereupon the bankers, after setting themselves up as a “consortium,” combine to lay hands on certain taxes, certain duties, certain railway lines. In this way the big financiers ruined Egypt, and later on caused it to be annexed by England. The more foolish the expenditure of the Khedive, the more he was encouraged. It was annexation by small doses. In the same way Turkey was ruined, in order to take her provinces little by little. The same means, we are told, were employed towards Greece, when a group of financiers pushed it towards war with Turkey in order to seize part of the revenues when it was defeated. And in the same way Japan was exploited by high finance in England and the United States before and during her wars with China and Russia. As to China, for several years she has been partitioned by a syndicate representing the great banks of England, France, Germany, and the United States. And since the Revolution in China, Russia and Japan demand to be allowed to join this syndicate. They want to profit by it in order to extend not only their spheres of exploitation, but also their territories. The partitioning of China, prepared by bankers, is thus on the order of the day. In short, there is in the lending States a complete organisation, in which rulers, bankers, promoters of companies, tycoons, and all the shady gentlemen Zola has so well described in L’Argent joined hands in order to exploit whole States. Thus, where the naïve believe they have discovered deep political reasons, or national hatreds, there are only plots hatched by the buccaneers of finance. They exploit everything: political and economic rivalries, national enmities, diplomatic traditions, and religious conflicts. In all the wars of the last quarter of a century we can trace the work of high finance. The conquest of Egypt and the Transvaal, the annexation of Tripoli, the occupation of Morocco, the partition of Persia, the massacres in Manchuria, the massacres and international looting in China during the Boxer riots, the wars of Japan – everywhere we find great banks at work. Everywhere financiers have had the casting vote. And if up till now a great European war has not yet broken out, it is because the great financiers hesitate. They do not quite know to which side the millions involved will cause the scales to turn; they do not know which horse to back with their millions. As to the hundreds of thousands of lives which the war would cost – what have the financiers to do with them? The mind of a financier works with columns of figures which balance each other. The rest is not within his province; he does not even possess the necessary imagination to bring human lives into his calculations. What an abominable world would be unveiled if only somebody took the trouble to study high finance behind the scenes! We can guess it sufficiently, if only from the wee corner of the veil lifted by “Lysis” in his articles in La Revue (published in 1908 in a volume entitled Contre l’Oligarchie Financière en France. [Against the Financial Oligarchy in France]). From this work we can, in fact, see how four or five big banks – Crédit Lyonnais, Société Générale, Comptoir National d’Escompte, and Crédit Industriel et Commercial – have a monopoly of large financial operations in France. The bulk – eight-tenths – of French savings, amounting every year to nearly two thousand millions [of Francs], is poured into these great banks; and when foreign States, both great and small, railway companies, towns, or industrial companies from the five continents of the globe present themselves in Paris to secure a loan, they turn to these four or five great banking companies. These banks have a monopoly on foreign loans and have at their disposal the necessary machinery to boost them. Needless to say that it was not the skill of the directors of these companies that created their lucrative position. It was the State, the French Government, in the first place, that protected and favoured these banks, and raised them to a privileged position which soon became a monopoly. Whereupon the other States – the borrowing States – strengthened this monopoly. Thus, the Crédit Lyonnais, that monopolises the Russian loans, owes its privileged position to the financial agents of the Russian Government, and to the Tsar’s Ministers of Finance. The amount of business transacted every year by these four or five financial societies represents thousands of millions. Thus, in two years, 1906 and 1907, they distributed in loans seven and a half thousand million – 7,500 million of which 5,500 million were in foreign loans (“Lysis,” page 101). And when we learn that the “commission” of these companies for organising a foreign loan is usually 5 per cent. for the “syndicate of middle-men [apporteurs]” (those who “arrange” new loans), 5 per cent. for the underwriting syndicate,” and from 7 to 10 per cent. for the syndicate, or rather trust, of the four or five banks we have just named, we see what immense sums go to these monopolists. Thus, a single middle-man who “arranged” the loan of 1,250 million contracted by the Russian Government in 1906 to crush the Revolution, actually received – so “Lysis” tells us – a commission of 12 million. We can understand the secret influence on international politics exercised by the powerful directors of these financial companies, with their mysterious accounting and with the plenary powers that certain directors exact and obtain from their shareholders – because they must be discreet when paying twelve million to Monsieur So-and-so, 250,000 Francs to a certain Minister, and so many millions, as well as medals and other honours, to the Press! There is not, says “Lysis,” one single large newspaper in France that is not paid by the banks. This is clear. One can easily guess how much money was distributed in this way among the Press during the years 1906 and 1907, when a series of Russian loans (State, railway, land bank loans) were being prepared. How many pen-pushers waxed fat on the loans is clear from “Lysis’s” book. What a windfall, in fact! The Government of a great State at bay! A revolution to be crushed! Such luck is not found every day! No doubt everybody is more or less aware of that. There is not a single politician who does not know the workings of all this jiggery-pokery, and who does not hear mentioned the names of the women and men who have received large sums after each loan, great or small, Russian or Brazilian. And everyone, if they have the slightest knowledge of business, also knows how this whole organisation of high finance is a product of the State – an essential attribute of the State. And it would be such a State – the State which is so careful not to diminish its powers or reduce its functions – which in the mind of statist reformers is expected to become the instrument for the emancipation of the masses?! What nonsense! Whether it is stupidity, ignorance, or deceit which makes them assert this, it is equally unpardonable in people who believe themselves called to direct the fate of nations. The Modern State – Chapter IX: War and Industry Let us now see how States create a class of men in modern industry interested in turning nations into military camps, ever ready to hurl themselves at one another. There are now, as we know, immense industries employing millions of men, and existing for the sole purpose of producing war material and so the owners of these factories and those who invest in them have an interest to prepare for war and to fan the fear that war is about to break out. We need not concern ourselves with the small fry – with the makers of worthless firearms, shoddy swords, and revolvers that always misfire, such as found in Birmingham, Liège, etc. These are not of much account, although the trade in these weapons, carried on by exporters who speculate in “Colonial” wars, has already attained some importance. We know, for example, that English merchants supplied firearms to the Matabele when they were about to rise against the English, who were forcing them into serfdom. Later on, there were French manufacturers, and even well-known English ones, who made their fortunes by supplying firearms, cannons, and ammunition to the Boers. And even now we hear of quantities of firearms imported by English merchants into Arabia, which someday will cause risings among the Arabian tribes, bring about the plundering of a few British merchants, and consequently British intervention to “restore order,” followed by a new “annexation.” However, such facts need not be multiplied. We know well what bourgeois “patriotism” is like and far more serious cases have been witnessed recently. Thus, during the last war between Russia and Japan, English gold was supplied to the Japanese, so they might destroy Russia’s nascent sea-power in the Pacific which England had taken umbrage to. But at the very same time the English colliery companies sold 300,000 tons of coal at a very high price to Russia, to enable it to send Rojdestvensky’s fleet to the East. Two birds were killed with one stone: the owners of the Welsh collieries made a good business out of it; the shareholders and the directors of the Welsh colliery companies increased their fortunes and the financiers of Lombard Street (the centre of financial operations in London) placed their money at 9 or 10 per cent. in the Japanese loan, and mortgaged a substantial part of the income of their “dear allies”! These are but a few facts among thousands of others of the same kind. We would know more of this beautiful world of our rulers if the bourgeois did not know how to keep their secrets! Let us, then, pass on to the next category of facts. We know that all great States have favoured, besides their own arsenals, the establishment of huge private factories, where cannons, armour-plate [for battleships], warships of smaller size, shells, gunpowder, cartridges, etc., are manufactured. Immense amounts are spent by all States in the construction of these auxiliary factories, where the most skilled workers and engineers are concentrated. Now, it is obvious that the direct advantage of those capitalists who have invested their capital in such concerns lies in keeping up rumours of war in order to persuade us that armaments are necessary, and even spreading panic if need be. In fact, they do so. If the chances of a European war sometimes grow less, if the gentlemen of the government – though themselves interested as shareholders in great factories of this kind (Anzin, Krupp, Armstrong, etc.), and in great railway companies, coal mines, etc. – require coaxing in order to make them sound the war-trumpet, they are compelled to do so by Jingo opinion fabricated by means of newspapers, and even by preparations made for insurrections. In fact, does not that prostitute – the big press – prepare our minds for new wars, hasten those that are most likely to break out or, at least, force Governments to double, to treble their armaments? Did we not see in England, during the ten years preceding the Boer War, the big press, and especially its assistants in the illustrated papers, skilfully prepare minds for the necessity of a war “to arouse patriotism”? To this end no stone was left unturned. With much noise they published novels about the next war, in which we were told how the English, beaten at first, made a supreme effort, and ended by destroying the German fleet and establishing themselves in Rotterdam. A nobleman spent large sums of money so that a patriotic play be staged across England. The play was too stupid to breakeven but was necessary for those gentlemen who intrigued with Rhodes in Africa that to seize the Transvaal gold mines and force the black natives to work in them. Forgetting the past, they even went as far as reviving the cult – yes, cult – of England’s sworn enemy, Napoleon 1st. And since then work in this direction has never ceased. In 1905 they almost succeeded in driving France, governed at that time by Clemenceau and Delcassé, into a war against Germany – the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Conservative Government, Lord Lansdowne, promised to support the French armies by sending an English army corps [of 50,000 troops] to the Continent. Delcassé, attaching undue importance to this ridiculous proposal, very nearly launched France into a disastrous war. In general, the more we advance with our statist bourgeois civilisation, the more the Press, ceasing to be the expression of what is called public opinion, applies itself to manufacturing that opinion by the most infamous means. The Press, in all great States, is controlled by two or three syndicates of financial tycoons, which manufacture the [public] opinion needed in the interests of their businesses. The major newspapers are owned by them and the rest are of no account. But this is not all: the gangrene goes even deeper. Modern wars no longer consist of a mere massacre of hundreds of thousands of men in every battle – a massacre which those who have not followed the details of the great battles during the war in Manchuria and the horrific details of the siege and defence of Port Arthur have absolutely no idea. And yet the three great historical battles – Gravelotte, Potomac, Borodino (Moscow) – each of which lasted three days and in which ninety to hundred and ten thousand were killed and wounded on both sides, these were child’s play in comparison to modern warfare! Great battles are now fought on a front of fifty, sixty kilometres; they no longer last three days, but seven days (Lao-Yang) and ten days (Mukden); and the losses are one hundred, one hundred and fifty thousand men on each side. The devastation caused by shells fired with accuracy from a distance of five, six, seven kilometres by batteries placed in a position which cannot be found [by the enemy] as they use smokeless powder, are unimaginable. It is no longer a matter of chance. The key positions occupied by the
even as a source of authority” (p. 14). Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt Changing a few words here and there, these doctrines could have been copy-pasted from the writings of the Nazi “crown jurist” Carl Schmitt (1888-1985). According to Schmitt’s infamous “state of exception” doctrine, under conditions of a national emergency, the executive is permitted to override democratic protections and disregard the rule of law. Under this doctrine, democratic rights are not formally abrogated, they are simply suspended indefinitely. Schmitt’s “state of exception” doctrine was used as a legal justification for the 1933 “Act to Relieve the Distress of the People and the Reich,” also known as the “Enabling Act,” which codified Hitler’s dictatorship. The Pentagon manual invokes Schmitt’s “state of exception” theory in all but name. Having claimed that the law of war is a “special” discipline of law, as opposed to a “general” discipline, the manual states that “the special rule overrides the general law” (p. 9). For added effect, a Latin legal maxim saying the same thing is cited: “lex specialis derogat legi generali.” Thus, according to the Pentagon, the law of war is the exception to the general “law of peacetime.” Here we have nothing less than a Nazi legal doctrine, incorporated by the Pentagon into a major policy document. “In some circumstances,” the Pentagon’s manual states, “the rules in the law of war [i.e., the rules invented by the Pentagon] and the rules in human rights treaties may appear to conflict; these apparent conflicts may be resolved by the principle that the law of war is the lex specialis during situations of armed conflict [again, the state of exception], and, as such, is the controlling body of law with regard to the conduct of hostilities and the protection of war victims” (p. 9). In other words, whenever the Pentagon’s policies conflict with human rights treaties, the human rights treaties should be ignored. The manual continues, “Underlying this approach is the fact that the law of war is firmly established in customary international law as a well-developed body of law that is separate from the principles of law generally applicable in peace” (p. 10). The implication is that during wartime, America’s vast military establishment is a “separate,” independent branch of government, subject to its own rules and accountable to no one. Despite the references to the war powers of Congress and the executive under the American Constitution, the Pentagon’s conceptions are the opposite of the framework envisioned by the framers of the Constitution. The Declaration of Independence, in its list of grievances against the British monarch, charges that the king “affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.” Both the Bush and Obama administrations have been fond of invoking the phrase “commander in chief,” which appears in Article II of the US Constitution, in a manner that turns its original meaning upside down. The American revolutionaries described the president as the commander in chief of the navy and army as a way of expressing the subordination of the military to civilian authority. This phrase was not meant to elevate the military, with the president as its head, into some kind of supreme authority over the rest of the state and the population. The manual’s reference to “principles of law generally applicable in peace” has particularly sinister implications. “Human rights treaties,” according to the Pentagon, are “primarily applicable to the relationship between a State and individuals in peacetime” (p. 22). Therefore, in “wartime”—including the “war on terror” of indefinite scope and duration—human rights treaties no longer apply. This formula would allow the Pentagon to override more than just human rights treaties. The manual’s authors include the Bill of Rights and other guarantees of civil liberties in the category of laws that apply in “peacetime” only. The arguments made by the manual justify suspending the Bill of Rights altogether as a “peacetime” law that is superseded for the duration of the “war on terror.” But why stop there? Aren’t elections also part of a system of laws “generally applicable in peace?” What about other civil liberties? What about the right to freedom of speech, or the right to form political parties? What about the right to trial by jury? What about the right to privacy, and the ban on “cruel and unusual punishment?” What about laws against racial discrimination? The right to a minimum wage? Taken to its logical conclusion, the Law of War Manual would justify imposing a military dictatorship, suspending all democratic rights and rounding up and imprisoning all dissenters. Should any reader think this analysis far-fetched, it should be remembered that one top American military man recently called for setting up military internment camps for “disloyal” and “radicalized” Americans. Retired Gen. Wesley Clark (a Democrat) declared: “If these people are radicalized and they don’t support the United States and they are disloyal to the United States, as a matter of principle, fine. It’s their right, and it’s our right and obligation to segregate them from the normal community for the duration of the conflict.” He added, “We’ve got to cut this off at the beginning.” Clark’s extraordinary proposals provoked no significant discussion or disagreement within the political or media establishment. None of the current presidential candidates from either major party has referred to Clark’s statement, presumably because they do not fundamentally disagree with it. There have been no consequences for Clark’s lobbying and consulting firm. The Pentagon’s manual makes clear that Clark was merely testing the waters, revealing plans that have been broadly discussed, developed and approved at the highest levels of the state. Antonin Scalia When asked last year about the military internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War, US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia responded, “You are kidding yourself if you think the same thing won’t happen again.” He added, in a formulation that mirrors the Pentagon’s manual, “In times of war, the law falls silent.” The manual also features a heavy dose of the Obama administration’s trademark “balancing” rhetoric. Pursuant to this approach, a basic democratic right or legal principle will be affirmed in abstract terms. But then it will be “balanced” against some authoritarian counter-principle, with the result that the basic principle will be rendered meaningless. The Obama administration has invoked this formula repeatedly as its justification for NSA spying, as well as for drone assassinations. The document states, “Civilians may not be made the object of attack, unless they take direct part in hostilities.” This seems clear enough, but then a “balancing” formula is introduced. “Civilians may be killed incidentally in military operations; however, the expected incidental harm to civilians may not be excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage from an attack, and feasible precautions must be taken to reduce the risk of harm to civilians during military operations” (p. 128). In other words, after applying the “balancing” formula, it turns out that it is acceptable to kill civilians if, on balance, the expected “military advantage” outweighs the harm to civilians. This effectively makes the rule against killing civilians meaningless. In practice, the “balancing” formula translates to the unfettered power of military leaders to order mass killing and destruction. The brutality of imperialist war The manual features a chilling discussion of killing civilians. According to the Pentagon, massacres of civilians are permissible if they help achieve “operational objectives.” The authors take pains not to state that the killing of civilians is prohibited per se. Instead, the manual indicates that “feasible precautions” should be taken to “avoid” civilian casualties, which should not be “excessive” or “unreasonable.” However, the manual defines “feasible precautions” as merely “those that are practicable or practically possible, taking into account all circumstances ruling at the time, including humanitarian and military considerations” (p. 190). The Pentagon's manual authorizes mass killing of civilians as in the assault on Fallujah during the Iraq War “For example,” the document states, “if a commander determines that taking a precaution would result in operational risk (i.e., a risk of failing to accomplish the mission) or an increased risk of harm to their own forces, then the precaution would not be feasible and would not be required” (p. 191). This is a blank check for mass killings of civilians if a military leader decides that failing to do so would be an “operational risk.” If exterminating the population of a hostile city would reduce the “risk of harm” to US forces, then the Pentagon manual would allow it. This “balancing” formulation appears to contradict previous statements of American policy, such as the following remarks from 1987 by a State Department legal adviser: “[C]ivilian losses are not to be balanced against the military value of the target. If severe losses would result, then the attack is forbidden, no matter how important the target” [2]. The manual also codifies the tendentious “human shields” doctrine, whereby civilian deaths are blamed on the targets of indiscriminate bombing. “A party that is subject to attack might fail to take feasible precautions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians, such as by separating the civilian population from military objectives … the ability to discriminate and to reduce the risk of harm to the civilian population likely will be diminished by such enemy conduct” (p. 198). This is merely a justification for collective punishment by another name. If the Pentagon identifies a “military objective” in a densely populated area, then the military supposedly has the legal right to obliterate the neighborhood with high explosives and blame the civilian population for being “human shields.” Collective punishment is, under international law, a war crime. It is designed to terrorize a population and discourage resistance. The manual expressly authorizes targeted killings. “Military operations may be directed against specific enemy combatants,” the document states, adding, “US forces have often conducted such operations” (p. 201). In support of targeted killings, the manual cites Obama’s speech on May 2, 2011: “Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound [suspected of housing Osama Bin Laden] in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body” (p. 201). The manual fails to mention that journalist Seymour Hersh has exposed the account given in Obama’s speech as a pack of lies. Censorship and targeting of journalists as “unprivileged belligerents” The manual’s proposed treatment of journalists as spies has evoked the only media attention to the document. “Reporting on military operations,” the manual states, “can be very similar to collecting intelligence or even spying” (p. 175). The Pentagon goes on to authorize itself to “capture” and “punish” journalists, forbid journalists to work anonymously, and require that journalists obtain “permission” and “identification documents” from the US military to conduct their work. The manual states: “A journalist who acts as a spy may be subject to security measures and punished if captured. To avoid being mistaken for spies, journalists should act openly and with the permission of relevant authorities. Presenting identification documents, such as the identification card issued to authorized war correspondents or other appropriate identification, may help journalists avoid being mistaken as spies” (p. 175). The document further states that journalists can be subject to military censorship. It declares: “States may need to censor journalists’ work or take other security measures so that journalists do not reveal sensitive information to the enemy. Under the law of war, there is no special right for journalists to enter a State’s territory without its consent or to access areas of military operations without the consent of the State conducting those operations” (p. 175). There is nothing here that would be out of place in the code of laws of a totalitarian police state. This legal framework, for example, would justify setting up a military internment camp to imprison each journalist who published material disclosed by Edward Snowden. There is nothing in the manual that would prohibit the Pentagon from launching drone strikes against targeted journalists who are deemed to be acting as “spies.” (If a journalist’s family and friends were killed in the drone strike, it would be the journalist’s fault for employing “human shields”). Do we exaggerate? An article appeared in the recent spring/summer issue of the academic National Security Law Journal titled “Trahison des Professeurs: The Critical Law of Armed Conflict/Academy as an Islamist Fifth Column” [3 Nat’l Sec. L.J. 278 (2015)]. In this article, West Point law professor William C. Bradford argues that academics who criticize the “war on terror” are “aiding the enemy,” such that they should be treated as “unlawful combatants” under the law of war. Bradford, a professor at the prestigious United States Military Academy, goes on to argue that by criticizing the war on terror, certain professors are working in “the service of Islamists seeking to destroy Western civilization and re-create the Caliphates.” These professors, Bradford charges, are guilty of “skepticism of executive power,” “professional socialization,” “pernicious pacifism,” and “cosmopolitanism.” Bradford recommends firing “disloyal” professors and imposing loyalty oaths at universities. He further recommends arresting and prosecuting professors for treason and for providing material support to terrorism. Finally, he argues that “disloyal” professors and the universities that employ them could be considered “lawful targets” for military attack under the law of war. Bradford has also advocated a military coup (“What conditions precedent would be required before the American military would be justified in using or threatening force to oust a US president…?”) and genocide (“total war” until “the political will of Islamist peoples” is broken, or until “all who countenance or condone Islamism are dead”). The latter policy would include the targeted destruction of “Islamic holy sites.” The journal subsequently repudiated Bradford’s article, calling it an “egregious breach of professional decorum,” and Bradford resigned from West Point on August 30. However, the episode provides a glimpse of what the Pentagon has in mind for its critics under the “law of war.” Bradford’s fascistic rants simply represent the doctrines expressed in the Law of War Manual taken to their logical conclusions. The persecution of journalists such as Glenn Greenwald (and his partner David Miranda) and Julian Assange, together with whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden and Bradley (Chelsea) Manning, has already made clear that the American government will treat the exposure of official criminality as “espionage” and “aiding the enemy.” The Pentagon’s manual codifies this position and authorizes the military to carry out repressive measures against journalists. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) issued a statement on July 31 protesting the manual, pointing to the rising numbers of journalists killed and maimed while covering armed conflicts. “The Obama administration’s Defense Department,” the CPJ wrote, “appears to have taken the ill-defined practices begun under the Bush administration during the War on Terror and codified them to formally govern the way US military forces treat journalists covering conflicts.” It is significant that the words “freedom of speech” and “freedom of the press” do not appear anywhere in the Pentagon’s manual. In a section setting forth the Pentagon’s authority as an “Occupying Power,” the manual states that “for the purposes of security, an Occupying Power may establish regulation of any or all forms of media (e.g., press, radio, television) and entertainment (e.g., theater, movies), of correspondence, and of other means of communication. For example, an Occupying Power may prohibit entirely the publication of newspapers that pose a threat to security, or it may prescribe regulations for the publication or circulation of newspapers of other media for the purpose of fulfilling its obligations to restore public order” (pp. 759-60). A footnote includes the caveat that “this sub-section focuses solely on what is permitted under the law of war and does not address possible implications of censorship under the First Amendment of the Constitution.” Presumably, the authors would contend that the First Amendment applies only in “peacetime,” and is “superseded” by the Pentagon’s “lex specialis” for the duration of the “war on terror.” To be continued Notes: [2] See The Position of the United States on Current Law of War Agreements: Remarks of Judge Abraham D. Sofaer, Legal Adviser, United States Department of State, Jan. 22, 1987, American University Journal of International Law and Policy 460, 468 (1987) (cited in the Law of War Manual, p. 247). The author also recommends: Department of Justice memo codifies spying on the press [15 July 2013] The Boston lockdown and the Bill of Rights [25 April 2013] Antonin Scalia and police-state rule [14 June 2008] The US Supreme Court minority in Hamdan: executive rule in the “state of exception” [17 October 2006] Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Lawyers for Google(s goog), Microsoft(s msft) and other tech firms that are squaring off with the FBI before America’s spy court say they’re stuck in an unfair fight: the government, which is opposing a petition to disclose surveillance numbers, won’t even show them some of the legal arguments it is using to uphold current gag orders. In response, the tech companies are asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to strike the blacked-out portions of the government’s filing. The request, filed this week, notes that the “heavily redacted” submissions mean the court could decide the First Amendment case on the basis of arguments the tech companies will not even get a chance to see. Advertisement The submissions in question were filed on September 30, and represent the government’s response to claims by Google, Microsoft, Facebook(s fb), Yahoo(s yhoo) and LinkedIn(s lnkd) that the companies have a free speech right to disclose the number of requests they receive under the Patriot Act. Here is a screenshot that shows how pages of the government’s legal filing appear: The redactions are remarkable given that the case is not about specific surveillance operations or tactics but, instead, is about basic Constitutional issues of free speech. The tech companies claim they have proposed various measures — such as only showing the government brief to lawyers with Top Secret clearance — to address the FBI’s concerns over national security, but that the FBI still refused to show them the legal arguments. As a result, the only people who can see the filings are the judges of the spy court, whose operations are likewise confidential. The situation appears to validate an explosive claim by the New York Times in July that the court “has quietly become almost a parallel Supreme Court.” The tech companies claim that the secret filings are not only unconstitutional, but that they further impede the tech industry’s efforts to refute incorrect media reports about their role in the ongoing scandal over a surveillance program known as PRISM. Here is the new legal brief, which is signed by counsel from all five companies. Last week, Apple filed a brief in support of its tech industry rivals. FISA court motion to strike.pdfWith The New Yorker launching a new online science-and-technology hub today, along with our Elements blog, I thought it a good time to step back and look at the impact of the communications revolution in a broader way than asking whether Samsung is becoming the new Apple. (Although that’s an interesting question.) Ever since I joined the magazine, in 1995, the Internet and technologies associated with it have been transforming the American economy in ways too varied and myriad to retread here. Even now, though, almost twenty years on, there’s precious little agreement on what it all means for productivity growth and living standards, which usually amount to pretty much the same thing over the long term. (Over decades rather than months and years, wages and salaries tend to track productivity growth pretty closely.*) Back in the late nineteen-nineties, there was a lot of optimism about the future, and it wasn’t all emanating from those lucky souls who had gotten in early on the I.P.O.s of companies like Yahoo and Amazon. Many economists, with Alan Greenspan prominent amongst them, believed that over time the heavy investments in new information and communication technologies (I.C.T.) that companies were making would lead to rapid growth in productivity and wages. There was much discussion of a third industrial revolution, with the Internet playing the role that the steam engine played in the early nineteenth century and electricity played in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For a time, the Labor Department’s productivity figures appeared to support the idea of an Internet-based productivity miracle. Between 1996 and 2000, output per hour in the non-farm business sector—the standard measure of labor productivity—grew at an annual rate of 2.75 per cent, well above the 1.5 per cent rate that was seen between 1973 and 1996. The difference between 1.5 per cent annual productivity growth and and 2.75 per cent growth is enormous. With 2.75 per cent growth (assuming higher productivity leads to higher wages) it takes about twenty-six years for living standards to double. With 1.5 per cent growth, it takes a lot longer—forty-eight years—for living standards to double. No wonder people were excited. If the productivity growth rates of the late nineties could be sustained, Americans of the future wouldn’t merely be richer than their parents: they’d be twice as rich. Even after 2000, when the Internet stock bubble burst, productivity growth remained high. In fact, it rose further. During the four years from 2001 to 2004, output per hour increased at an annual rate of 3.5 per cent. Despite the mayhem on the Nasdaq, the Internet-productivity miracle seemed to be alive and well. And with all the talk of “Web 2.0”—2004 was the year that Tim O’Reilly, a notable Silicon Valley booster, held a conference devoted to that topic—the technology optimists argued there was plenty of scope left for further gains. Broadband penetration was rising rapidly. Social networking was in its infancy, as was the mobile revolution. Once practically everybody was permanently online, with the entire resources of the Internet at their fingertips, surely productivity would take another quantum leap. It didn’t happen! Since the start of 2005, productivity growth has fallen all the way back to the levels seen before the Web was commercialized, and before smart phones were invented. During the eight years from 2005 to 2012, output per hour expanded at an annual rate of just 1.5 per cent—the same as it grew between 1973 and 1996. More recently, productivity growth has been lower still. In 2011, output per hour rose by a mere 0.6 per cent, according to the latest update from the Labor Department, and last year there was more of the same: an increase of just 0.7 per cent. In the last quarter of 2012, output per hour actually fell, at an annual rate of 1.9 per cent. Americans got less productive—or so the figures said. Now, productivity bounces around quite a lot from month to month, and one bad quarter doesn’t make a trend. Still, if the sluggish rates of productivity growth we’ve seen over the past two years were to persist into the indefinite future, it would take more than a hundred years for output-per-person and living standards to double. True, that’s a worst-case scenario. If the experience of the past decade has taught us anything, it’s that extrapolating from small data sets is dangerous. But the slowdown in productivity growth has been sufficiently dramatic, and it’s lasted long enough, to raise two important questions: Where did the technology optimists get it wrong? Could they still be proved right? Some optimists say that the Great Recession and its aftermath has distorted the recent figures, and that once G.D.P. growth rebounds to more normal levels productivity growth will pick up. During a typical recession, firms tend to hold onto more workers than they need, operating their plant and machinery running at reduced levels. This has a negative impact on output per worker; but when normal working conditions resume, labor productivity rises. Over the coming years, that could well happen. But there are at least two reasons why it might not. First, firms didn’t do much labor hoarding in the recent recession. As demand for their products fell in 2008 and 2009, they laid off millions of workers. Consequently, there’s less reason to believe that, as output growth picks up, we’ll see a big upswing in productivity growth. Secondly, the dropoff in productivity growth predated the recession, which began in December, 2007. In the three years from 2005 to 2007, the annual rate of growth in output per hour was just 1.4 per cent—less than half the rate during the previous nine years. Other measures of productivity growth, which take account of capital inputs as well as labor inputs, show a similar slowdown in the period after 2004. To quote John Fernald, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, who has published his own research on the topic: “Trend productivity growth appeared to slow several years before the Great Recession.” But if the slump didn’t cause the slowdown, what did? One possibility is that, compared to things like the power loom and the internal-combustion engine, recent technological marvels, such as the iPhone and the iPad, aren’t really so marvellous. Ten or fifteen years ago, there were hopes that new technology would lead to big productivity improvements in service industries such as health care, where doctors would be able to share patient information and carry out remote diagnoses, and banking, where people could manage their own payments online. But these hopes haven’t been fulfilled. In a provocative paper that received quite a bit of attention last year, Robert Gordon, an economist at Northwestern University, who is a longtime technology skeptic, pointed out that truly historic inventions fundamentally change modes of production and working, usually by replacing human effort with something more powerful. Computers clearly did this, too. But, as Gordon pointed out: Many of the inventions that replaced tedious and repetitive clerical labor with computers happened a long time ago, in the 1970s and 1980s. Invention since 2000 has centered on entertainment and communication devices that are smaller, smarter, and more capable, but do not fundamentally change labor productivity or the standard of living in the way that electric light, motor cars, or indoor plumbing changed it. The iPod replaced the CD Walkman; the smartphone replaced the garden-variety ‘dumb’ cellphone with functions that in part replaced desktop and laptop computers; and iPads provided further competition with traditional personal computers. These innovations were enthusiastically adopted, but they provided new opportunities for consumption on the job and in leisure hours rather than a continuation of the historical tradition of replacing human labor with machines. Gordon surely has a point. Anybody who spent part of their Monday workday following opening day at Yankee Stadium, or catching up on the weekend celebrity gossip, would readily concede as much. Smart phones and tablet computers are great tools for communicating and doing research. They also make it a lot easier to do stuff that adds little or nothing to G.D.P., and may even detract from it, such as spending some of your working hours e-mailing with your friends and posting pictures of your cat on Facebook. Of course, to the extent that people enjoy doing this sort of thing—and they clearly do—the communications revolution is improving human welfare, but not necessarily in a way that shows up in the productivity figures. Another way that the official figures may simply be understating the economic impact of digital technology is in not giving enough emphasis to the provision of new goods, such as Web video conferencing, global-positioning-satellite phone apps, and mobile-phone banking, which simply didn’t exist twenty years ago. Among economists, it is well known that time-series data on sales and prices, which is what agencies like the Labor Department and the Commerce Department gather, can seriously understate the impact on living standards of new inventions. (Gordon himself has written about this.) Finally—and this is probably the technology optimists’ strongest argument—it may be too soon to judge the impact of things like social networking, mobile communications, and G.P.S. In 1712, Thomas Newcomen invented the first successful steam engine. It took another sixty-five years until Richard Arkwright used steam power in his Derbyshire cotton mill, and more than eighty years until Richard Trevithick’s steam locomotive hauled a train from an ironworks near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. Things have sped up since then. Still, it wasn’t until the late nineteen-nineties, twenty years after the first desktop computers were marketed, that the building out of the Web fulfilled the promise of personal computing. Perhaps something similar will happen again. Earlier this year, in a response to Gordon’s paper, Kevin Kelly, the Silicon Valley writer and founding editor at Wired, wrote: In the year 2095 when economic grad students are asked to review this paper of Robert Gordon and write about why he was wrong back in 2012, they will say things like “Gordon missed the impact from the real inventions of this revolution: big data, ubiquitous mobile, quantified self, cheap AI, and personal work robots. All of these were far more consequential than stand alone computation, and yet all of them were embryonic and visible when he wrote his paper. He was looking backwards instead of forward.” Unless technical progress yields an anti-aging potion, neither Kelly nor Gordon nor I will be around to see which side of this argument comes out on top. For now, though, the burden of proof lies with the optimists. At a time when digital technology has been exalted to a position of almost religious authority, productivity growth has fallen—not just in the United States but in other advanced nations, too. In a study of twenty-one advanced countries carried out by two economists at the Chicago Fed, only one—Switzerland—enjoyed faster productivity growth between 2000 and 2010 than it had experienced between 1990 and 2000. The other twenty countries all saw productivity growth decline. Like many other observers, myself included, the authors of this study, Jake Fabina and Mark L. J. Wright, are scratching their heads for an explanation. After running through a series of possibilities, such as measurement error (benign); cyclical factors (relatively benign); declines in the quality of education (not so benign); and the exhaustion of gains from information technology (definitely not benign); they throw their hands in the air and conclude: “depending on the answer, slow measured productivity growth may be consistent with continued rising living standards or a period of stagnation in the developed world.” (The situation may be different in developing countries, but I haven’t seen studies demonstrating that.) As the recovery strengthens, I would expect productivity-growth to pick up, at least moderately. But the very fact that serious economists are discussing the possibility of a period of “stagnation” shows how much things have changed since the halcyon days of the dotcom era. As he sits in his bathtub and ponders, Alan Greenspan must be wondering what the world is coming to. ___ Before I am deluged with angry comments, let me recognize that in recent years the one-for-one relationship between productivity and wages, especially median wages, has broken down. But that’s a subject for another day. (For those interested, Lawrence Mishel, of the Economic Policy Institute, has an informative survey article about it.) Illustration by Richard McGuire.Fox News and Bill O'Reilly are reportedly in exit negotiations with a final decision on the popular host's future with the network expected by the end of the week. A well-placed source tells CNN Money that reps for the host and the cable news leader are currently in discussions ahead of a 21st Century Fox board meeting later this week on Thursday. O'Reilly is expected to be the primary topic of discussion among the board members of the network's parent company at that meeting. Earlier on Tuesday, three sources told New York reporter Gabriel Sherman that Rupert Murdoch may not have O'Reilly return to the network after he comes back from his vacation in a week. Scroll down for video More allegations: A new woman is accusing Bill O'Reilly (above) of sexual harassment Protests: The unnamed African-American woman is represented by Lisa Bloom and claims the Fox News host would grunt at her like a boar and call her 'hot chocolate' (protesters outside Fox News on Tuesday) Meanwhile a new accuser has come forward to make sexual harassment allegations against O'Reilly. Attorney Lisa Bloom told The Hollywood Reporter that the woman in question worked for another network back in 2008 but had a desk near O'Reilly's office, and claimed that he would refer to the African-American woman as 'hot chocolate' when he walked by during the day. O'REILLY CLAIMS HE HAS 'BEEN SUBJECTED TO A BRUTAL CAMPAIGN OF CHARACTER ASSASSINATION' Marc E Kasowitz, attorney for Bill O’Reilly said in a statement: 'Bill O’Reilly has been subjected to a brutal campaign of character assassination that is unprecedented in post-McCarthyist America. 'This law firm has uncovered evidence that the smear campaign is being orchestrated by far-left organization bent on destroying O’Reilly for political and financial reasons. 'That evidence will be put forth shortly and is irrefutable.' The woman is not asking for any money, just 'accountability' according to Bloom. 'He would never talk to her, not even hello, except to grunt at her like a wild boar,' alleged Bloom on O'Reilly's treatment of this latest alleged victim. 'He would leer at her. He would always do this when no one else was around and she was scared.' Marc E Kasowitz, attorney for Bill O’Reilly said in a statement: 'Bill O’Reilly has been subjected to a brutal campaign of character assassination that is unprecedented in post-McCarthyist America. 'This law firm has uncovered evidence that the smear campaign is being orchestrated by a far-left organization bent on destroying O’Reilly for political and financial reasons. 'That evidence will be put forth shortly and is irrefutable.' Fox News declined to comment on all three reports. Bloom did not respond to a request for comment. Bloom said that this latest woman to make allegations against O'Reilly has called in her complaint to Fox News. 'She was afraid if she told him to knock it off she’d get fired,' explained Bloom. 'Now that’s she's aware this is all in the news, she’s decided to phone in a complaint to the Fox News hotline.' An earlier statement from O'Reilly's lawyer said: 'It is outrageous that an allegation from an anonymous person about something that purportedly happened a decade ago is being treated as fact, especially when there is an obviously orchestrated campaign by activists and lawyers to destroy Mr. O'Reilly and enrich themselves through publicity driven donations.' Speaking about O'Reilly's future with the network, sources claim that James and Lachlan Murdoch want him out and and James is working to convince his father. This is not just in response to the outcry in America either according to the report, but also to help the Murdochs as they try to acquire the pay-TV provider Sky in Europe. There have been reports that this latest scandal could end up hurting the Murdochs in their bid to purchase Sky. 'It’s up to the family,' said a senior Fox News source. Viewership of the Fox News host's show O'Reilly Factor has dropped 26 per cent just three days after he went on vacation. Dana Perino, Eric Bolling and Greg Gutfeld have stepped in to host his show while he is on leave. Nielsen company figures show that so far Bolling did the best with his 3.11million viewership, down 16 per cent from O'Reilly's performance a week earlier. The 2.32million who watched Gutfeld on Friday was down 39 per cent from the previous Friday. O'Reilly's viewership spiked in the days following the report on the harassment allegations. In the week that followed, viewership increased to an average of 3.71 million, up 12 per cent from the week before the report and 28 per cent over the same week in 2016. That may not be enough to keep O'Reilly however, with Bloom tweeting on Tuesday: 'Dear Murdochs, I'm not giving up until he's gone. My phone's ringing off the hook. I'm representing them all for free. Sincerely, Lisa Bloom.' She followed that tweet up by writing: 'P.s. I may not have your billions, but I have boundless energy for women's rights. I can do this tomorrow, next month, next year. And I will.' Time to go: This report comes as Rupert Murdoch is reportedly considering terminating O'Reilly according to three sources (l to r: Lachlan, Rupert and James Murdoch in March 2016) Bloom is also representing Dr. Wendy Walsh, who has also accused O'Reilly of harassment. Walsh previously said that in 2013 O'Reilly asked her to dinner one night at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles and then made the network contributor an offer, telling her that he was friends with Roger Ailes and could make secure the lucrative position for the psychotherapist. It was after dinner when things began to shift according to Walsh, who said that O'Reilly asked her to come up to his hotel suite. She politely declined and decided to steer the two towards the bar, where she claims O'Reilly became hostile over drinks and said she could forget his career advice. Then, as a coup de grace, Walsh claims that O'Reilly said her purse was ugly. It was revealed earlier this month that five women had been paid by the network after making accusations against the popular host. Walsh was not one of those women and had never publicly accused O'Reilly until the release of The New York Times report. The report claimed that close to $13 million had been paid to five women who accused O'Reilly of inappropriate behavior in the workplace: Rachel Witlieb Bernstein, Andrea Mackris, Rebecca Gomez Diamond, Laurie Dhue, and Juliet Huddy. It was Mackris' lawsuit that made headlines when it was settled back in 2004 by the network for a formerly undisclosed sum which over the weekend was revealed to be $9million. In her complaint, Mackris claimed she had been sexually harassed by O'Reilly and detailed their phone sex conversations in which he allegedly listed off his female conquests. O'Reilly also allegedly detailed a sex fantasy he had about Mackris using 'that little loofah thing' in the shower, but towards the end accidentally called it a '
only pausing for rhythm check or if the patient shows signs of life. Thus CPR induced consciousness may be mistanken for signs of life interupting the sequence of CPR and influence the quality of care. This systematic review only identified reports on 10 patients. The incidence, implications and prognostic value of CPR-induced consciousness remains unknown and should be eveluated. Recommended by: Søren Rudolph Pediatrics, Trauma Eckert MJ et al. Tranexamic acid administration to pediatric trauma patients in a combat setting: The pediatric trauma and tranexamic acid study (PED-TRAX). J Trauma Acute Care Surg 2014; 77(6): 852-8. PMID: The use of TXA in severe trauma is current standard practice, but its benefit in Peds trauma is not clear. This study is a retrospective review of TXA use in pediatric civilian victims managed by NATO in Afghanistan. From 766 patients, 66 received TXA; this patients had severe torso or extremity trauma. The TXA group was significantly sicker than control (ISS 18 vs 10). The unadjusted mortality was not statically significant but higher in the TXA group (15 vs 8%), however the severity adjusted mortality was lower in TXA with an OR 0.27; with no adverse events. The study has several limitations, particularly a relatively low number of events and the differences between TXA and control (being the TXA way sicker), but appears to show TXA is beneficial is severe pediatric trauma. Recommended by Daniel Cabrera Trauma Rowell AE et al. Moderate elevations in international normalized ratio should not lead to delays in neurosurgical intervention in patients with traumatic brain injury. J Trauma Acute Care Surg 2014; 77(6): 846-51. PMID Should we delay neurosurgical intervention in patients with traumatic intracranial bleeds due to slight INR elevations? This study looks at the delays that occur from mild elevations and found that patients with INR < 1.4 had their neurosurgical intervention 174 minutes earlier on average than those with an elevated INR. Additionally, they found that mild INR elevations were not correlated with abnormal coagulation based on TEG measurement. Although patient outcomes were not a primary outcome, this study should make us reconsider the utility of INR and delayed intervention based on it. Recommended by Anand Swaminathan Emergency Medicine Hoppe JA et al. Association of Emergency Department Opioid Initiation With Recurrent Opioid Use. Ann Emerg Med 2014. PMID A retrospective observational study which examines the link between opioid prescriptions given in the ED to opioid naive patients (as defined by no filled rx in the past year) and opioid use one year later. A well done study which used the state prescription monitoring program to determine opioid use, and found an important link between filled ED prescriptions and later use. An adjusted odds ratio of 1.8 for recurrent use was found. Limited by the design of the study, this is still important information for ED providers as we consider the implications of providing opioids to our patients for their acute pain issues. Recommended by Jeremy Fried Pediatrics Tapiainen T et al. Effect of antimicrobial treatment of acute otitis media on the daily disappearance of middle ear effusion: a placebo-controlled trial. JAMA Pediatr. 2014;168:(7)635-41. PMID This RCT compared amoxicillin-clavulanate with placebo in children 6mo – 15 years old with acute otitis media (AOM) (n=84). The authors conclude “antimicrobial treatment of AOM in children is beneficial because it significantly reduces the duration of Middle Ear Effusion (MEE).” These findings seemingly contradict the AAP and Cochrane recommendations against antibiotics for most cases of AOM. Why? The primary and secondary outcomes were not clinically relevant, MEE and time to improved tympanogram findings, respectively. Let’s stop looking for small improvement in surrogate measures, particularly when the intervention (antibiotics) is associated with harm (NNH 1 in 9 for diarrhea). Recommended by Lauren Westafer Airway Raymondos K et al. The intubation scoop (i-scoop) – a new type of laryngoscope for difficult and normal airways. Anaesthesia. 2014; 69(9): 990-1001. PMID: The evolution of laryngoscopy began with devices designed to maximally displace the tongue and other soft tissues of the mouth to establish a direct line of sight between the operator’s eye and the patient’s glottis. Video laryngoscopy allows for less tissue displacement, by eliminating the need for direct line of sight, but because of the distance between the camera and the tip of the blade, and the absence of a channel for delivering the ETT, varying degrees of tissue displacement is still needed. The authors of this paper developed a laryngoscope shaped to follow the curve of the airway, with an ETT channel and the camera mounted at the tip of the blade, which allows for visualization of the glottis and delivery of the tube without tissue displacement. It worked extremely well in this small manikin study, though the failure rates they report with other devices are incongruous with the rest of the literature and undermine face validity. I am also concerned about how this device will perform with soiled airways, common in EM. Though this paper only describes a prototype, this may be the shape of things to come in laryngoscopy. Recommended by Reuben Strayer Olaussen A, et al., Resuscitation 2014; 86: 44-48. PMID 25447435 Eckert MJ et al.. J Trauma Acute Care Surg 2014; 77(6): 852-8. PMID: 25423534 Rowell AE et al.. J Trauma Acute Care Surg 2014; 77(6): 846-51. PMID 25423533 Hoppe JA et al.. Ann Emerg Med 2014. PMID 25534654 Tapiainen T et al.. JAMA Pediatr. 2014;168:(7)635-41. PMID 24797294 Raymondos K et al.Anaesthesia. 2014; 69(9): 990-1001. PMID: 24894025 The R&R iconoclastic sneak peek icon key That’s it for this week… you think is worth reading. That should keep you busy for a week at least! Thanks to our wonderful group of editors and contributors Leave a comment below if you have any queries, suggestions, or comments about this week’s R&R in the FASTLANE or if you want to tell us whatthink is worth reading.TUCSON, Arizona, Jan 28, CMC – Bermudian winger Zeiko Lewis made his New York Red Bulls debut on Friday night after coming on as a substitute in the team’s Major League Soccer pre-season win over Portland Timbers. Lewis, 21, was a 69th-minute replacement in the Red Bulls’ 2-0 victory. In a game that took place over three periods of 30 minutes, Red Bulls took an early lead when a cross from Kemar Lawrence was turned into his own net by fellow Jamaican Rennico Clarke. The Red Bulls went 2-0 up when Vincent Bezecourt scored from the penalty spot. Lewis was selected 17th overall by Eastern Conference champions Red Bulls at this month’s MLS SuperDraft in Los Angeles after a stellar career with Boston College and is the second Bermudian to play for the Red Bulls after Khano Smith made eight appearances for them in 2009.Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Shock jock Anthony Cumia has entered rehab. “I will not see the month of April here,” Cumia, 54, announced on a pre-recorded episode of his eponymous online radio show, which aired Wednesday. “I am taking a plane out of here, let’s just say. Out of New York, and going somewhere where I will spend a month … relaxing … learning … ‘rehabilitating,’ perhaps, is a word that could be used.” He continued, “I don’t even know what I’m going into. I don’t know what the rules are, I don’t know what it’s going to be. It’s like a big mystery adventure type thing.” The Long Island native, who was arrested in December 2015 and charged with strangulation, unlawful imprisonment, assault and criminal mischief after an alleged brawl with then-girlfriend Danielle “Dani Golightly” Brand, hinted that the incident — and perhaps his 2014 firing from SiriusXM’s “Opie and Anthony Show” — led him to get help. “I guess after this whole thing is said and done with, I might have a better understanding as to how I should proceed in the future and perhaps not get myself embroiled in legalities and whatnot that have plagued me for the wonderful year that is 2016 and a few years prior that led up to it,” he explained. Cumia didn’t specify what facility he’d be in or what demons he’s battling, but he tweeted to announce his arrival in treatment.The year 2016 made history, with a record global temperature, exceptionally low sea ice, and unabated sea level rise and ocean heat, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Extreme weather and climate conditions have continued into 2017. WMO issued its annual statement on the State of the Global Climate ahead of World Meteorological Day on 23 March. It is based on multiple international datasets maintained independently by global climate analysis centres and information submitted by dozens of WMO Members National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and Research Institutes and is an authoritative source of reference. Because the social and economic impacts of climate change have become so important, WMO partnered with other United Nations organizations for the first time this year to include information on these impacts. WMO also prepared an interactive story map to highlight some of the main trends and events in 2016. “This report confirms that the year 2016 was the warmest on record – a remarkable 1.1 °C above the pre-industrial period, which is 0.06 °C above the previous record set in 2015. This increase in global temperature is consistent with other changes occurring in the climate system,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. “Globally averaged sea surface temperatures were also the warmest on record, global sea levels continued to rise, and Arctic sea-ice extent was well below average for most of the year,” he said. “With levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere consistently breaking new records, the influence of human activities on the climate system has become more and more evident,” said Mr Taalas. The increased power of computing tools and the availability of long term climate data have made it possible today, through attribution studies, to demonstrate clearly the existence of links between man-made climate change and many cases of high impact extreme events in particular heatwaves, he said Each of the 16 years since 2001 has been at least 0.4 °C above the long-term average for the 1961-1990 base period, used by WMO as a reference for climate change monitoring. Global temperatures continue to be consistent with a warming trend of 0.1 °C to 0.2 °C per decade, according to the WMO report. The powerful 2015/2016 El Niño event boosted warming in 2016, on top of long-term climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Temperatures in strong El Niño years, such as 1973, 1983 and 1998, are typically 0.1 °C to 0.2 °C warmer than background levels, and 2016’s temperatures are consistent with that pattern. Global sea levels rose very strongly during the El Niño event, with the early 2016 values reaching new record highs. Global sea ice extent dropped more than 4 million square kilometres below average in November, an unprecedented anomaly for that month. The very warm ocean temperatures contributed to significant coral bleaching and mortality was reported in many tropical waters, with important impacts on marine food chains, ecosystems and fisheries. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere reached the symbolic benchmark of 400 parts per millions in 2015 – the latest year for which WMO global figures are available – and will not fall below that level for many generations to come because of the long-lasting nature of CO2. Noteworthy extreme events in 2016 included severe droughts that brought food insecurity to millions in southern and eastern Africa and Central America. Hurricane Matthew caused widespread suffering in Haiti as the first category 4 storm to make landfall since 1963, and inflicted significant economic losses in the United States of America, while heavy rains and floods affected eastern and southern Asia. WMO has issued annual climate reports for more than 20 years and submits them to the Conference of the Parties of the Framework Convention on Climate Change. The annual statements complement the assessments reports that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) produces every six to seven years. It will be presented to UN member states and climate experts at a high-level action event on Climate Change and the Sustainable Development Agenda in New York on 23 March (World Meteorological Day) hosted by the President of the UN General Assembly Peter Thomson, with the participation of UN Secretary-General António Guterres and UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa. “The entry into force of the Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on 4 November 2016 represents a historic landmark. It is vital that its implementation becomes a reality and that the Agreement guides the global community in addressing climate change by curbing greenhouse gases, fostering climate resilience and mainstreaming climate adaptation into national development policies,” said Mr Taalas. “Continued investment in climate research and observations is vital if our scientific knowledge is to keep pace with the rapid rate of climate change,” said Mr Taalas. Extremes continue in 2017 Newly released studies, which are not included in WMO’s report, indicate that ocean heat content may have increased even more than previously reported. Provisional data also indicates that there has been no easing in the rate of increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. “Even without a strong El Niño in 2017, we are seeing other remarkable changes across the planet that are challenging the limits of our understanding of the climate system. We are now in truly uncharted territory,” said World Climate Research Programme Director David Carlson. At least three times so far this winter, the Arctic has witnessed the Polar equivalent of a heatwave, with powerful Atlantic storms driving an influx of warm, moist air. This meant that at the height of the Arctic winter and the sea ice refreezing period, there were days which were actually close to melting point. Antarctic sea ice has also been at a record low, in contrast to the trend in recent years. Scientific research indicates that changes in the Arctic and melting sea ice is leading to a shift in wider oceanic and atmospheric circulation patterns. This is affecting weather in other parts of the world because of waves in the jet stream – the fast moving band of air which helps regulate temperatures. Thus, some areas, including Canada and much of the USA, were unusually balmy, whilst others, including parts of the Arabian peninsula and North Africa, were unusually cold in early 2017. In the USA alone, 11,743 warm temperature records were broken or tied in February, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Prolonged and extreme heat in January and February affected New South Wales, southern Queensland, South Australia and northern Victoria, and saw many new temperature records. Notes to Editors Global temperatures in this Statement are reported using the mean of the latest versions of the three datasets: GISTEMP, NOAAGlobalTemp and HadCRUT maintained respectively by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US National Air and Space Administration (NASA), and the Met Office Hadley Centre in collaboration with the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit, United Kingdom. The combined dataset extends back to 1880. In addition ERA-Interim reanalysis of the European Center for Medium Weather Forecasting was also used in the assessment. The statement also uses information on climate impacts provided by the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. At the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC session in Marrakesh in 2016, the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technical Advice (SBSTA) welcomed the submissions from WMO: the Global Climate in 2011-2015 and the WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. It invited WMO to provide submissions on the state of the global climate on a regular basis, as appropriate, at subsequent SBSTA sessions. Other highlights of the 2016 Statement Global Temperatures: 2016’s warmth extended almost worldwide. Temperatures were above the 1961-90 average over the vast majority of the world’s land areas, the only significant exceptions being an area of South America centred on central Argentina, and parts of south-western Australia. Mean annual temperatures at least 3 °C above the 1961-1990 average occurred in various high-latitude locations, particularly along the Russian coast and in Alaska and far north-western Canada, and on islands in the Barents and Norwegian Seas. In the high Arctic, Svalbard (Norway) Airport’s 2016 mean annual temperature of −0.1 °C was 6.5 °C above the 1961-1990 average, and 1.6 °C above the previous record. Outside the Arctic, 2016’s warmth was more notable for its consistency across the globe than for its extreme nature in individual locations. Oceans Globally averaged sea surface temperatures in 2016 were the warmest on record. The anomalies were strongest in the early months of 2016. Global ocean heat content was the second-highest on record after 2015. It reached new record highs in the northern hemisphere, but was cooler in the southern hemisphere. Globally, sea level has risen by 20 cm since the start of the twentieth century, mostly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and melting of glaciers and ice caps. Global sea levels rose very strongly during the 2015/2016 El Niño, rising about 15 millimetres between November 2014 to a new record high in February 2016. This was well above the post-1993 trend of 3 to 3.5 mm per year. From February to August, sea levels remained fairly stable as the influence of the El Niño declined. Final 2016 sea level data are not yet available at the time of writing. Arctic sea ice The seasonal maximum, of 14.52 million square kilometres on 24 March, was the lowest in the 1979-2016 satellite record. The 2016 autumn freeze-up was exceptionally slow – with sea ice extent even contracting for a few days in mid-November. Precipitation Much of southern Africa began the year in severe drought. For the second year in succession, rainfall was widely 20 to 60% below average for the summer rainy season (October to April) in 2015/2016. The World Food Programme estimating that 18.2 million people would require emergency assistance by early 2017. Provisional figures showed 2016 was the driest on record over the Amazon Basin, and there was also significant drought in north-east Brazil. El Niño brought drought conditions elsewhere in Central America and northern South America. The Yangtze basin in China experienced, overall, its most significant flood season since 1999, with some tributaries experiencing record flood levels. Averaged over China as a whole, it was the wettest year on record, with national mean rainfall of 730 mm being 16% above the long-term average. Heatwaves The year started with an extreme heatwave in southern Africa in the first week of January. On 7 January, it reached 42.7 °C at Pretoria and 38.9 °C at Johannesburg, both of which were 3 °C or more above the all-time records at those sites. Extreme heat also affected South and South-East Asia in April and May, prior to the start of the summer monsoon. South-East Asia was badly affected in April. A national record of 44.6 °C was set at Mae Hong Son, Thailand, on 28 April, and 51.0 °C was observed on 19 May at Phalodi, the highest temperature on record for India. Record or near-record temperatures occurred in parts of the Middle East and north Africa. The highest temperature observed was 54.0 °C at Mitribah (Kuwait) on 21 July which (subject to ratification) will be the highest temperature on record for Asia. Other extremely high temperatures included 53.9 °C at Basra (Iraq) and 53.0 °C at Delhoran (Islamic Republic of Iran – a national record), both on 22 July, whilst significant high temperatures were also reported in Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and the United Arab Emirates. A late-season heatwave affected many parts of western and central Europe in the first half of September. In southern Spain, 45.4 °C was recorded at Cordoba on 6 September. The WMO Statement on the State of the Climate in 2016 is available here: The World Meteorological Organization is the United Nations System’s authoritative voice on Weather, Climate and Water WMO website: public.wmo.int For more information, please contact: Clare Nullis, Press Officer, Communications and Public Affairs, Tel: +41 22 730 8478 or +41 79 709 13 97 (cell), e‑mail: cnullis@wmo.int.In 1999, Spanish photojournalist Pablo San Juan was combing through a Moroccan flea market, looking for cameras and old photographs, when a vendor suggested he visit an antiques dealer who had a selection of glass plate negatives. The plates, packed in small, worm-damaged boxes, showed tanks and biplanes dating from World War I. Who shot the photographs, and how they ended up in Morocco, the dealer didn’t know. San Juan bought the collection on behalf of Jesús Rocandio, director of Casa de la Imagen (House of the Image), in Logroño, Spain. When he delivered the images to Rocandio’s archivists, they started searching for clues to the photographer’s identity. Their search is the subject of The Tangier Archive, edited by Carlos Traspaderne (Uniform Press, 2016) and illustrated with some of the captivating photographs found in Morocco. The photographer had dated all of the plates, but didn’t always include a description. But the archivists realized that in two similar group photos of French army officers dated 1917, one man (a captain) stood in two different spots: Perhaps he’d run to the camera, set the timer, and dashed back into the frame? Using this slim clue, they examined the other plates. The man appeared in several, one of which was marked “Group Givord.” In the French army, units took their names from the officer in command. Using military records, the archivists learned that the Givord Group was a transport unit, made up of 45 men and 20 vehicles, led by Second Lieutenant Pierre Antoine Henri Givord. The researchers found that Givord had received a field commission as captain in July 1916, which qualified him to command such a unit. Further, the collection’s subject matter—the battles and activities—corresponds to Givord’s time of service, the periods when he was on leave from his unit and his eventual demobilization. The photographs, which number nearly 500, cover every facet of war on the Western Front and the postwar period, up to 1935. But how did the glass plates get to Morocco? Givord, who died in Lyon, France, in 1960 at age 87, had traveled to Tangier twice, in 1921 and in 1934. What could have induced him to bring his entire fragile glass plate collection from France? And why was it left behind? The archivists still hope to solve the mystery.While improving the documentation (d'oh!) of our home grew obfuscator based on LLVM, we wrote a cheat sheet on clang's hardening features, and some of ld ones. It turns out existing hardening guides generally focus on GCC, while Clang also has an interesting set of hardening features. So let's share it in this blog post! Note0: Everything in this post is based on Clang/LLVM 3.7 Note1: Debian provides a very interesting hardening guide here: https://wiki.debian.org/Hardening Note2: This post does not cover the use of Asan. Unlike the options presented here, it's unlikely to go into release build, rather in debug builds. Basics debug: Obviously, do not pass the -g flag to the compiler, or if you forget to (!) pass the -Wl,--strip-debug flag to the linker. strip: Either call strip on the final binary, or pass the -Wl,--strip-all flag to the linker to strip all symbols. Fortify Pass the -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 flag to the preprocessor to add extra checks that may, for instance, detect some buffer overflows. Consider fortify_example.c : #include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> int main ( int argc, char * argv []) { char buffer [ 8 ]; strcpy ( buffer, argv [ 0 ]); puts ( buffer ); return 0 ; } Compiled with clang -O2 fortify_example.c -o fortify_example and run, it outputs: >./fortify_example./fortify_example Segmentation fault But when compiled with clang -O2 fortify_example.c -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -o fortify_example, we get: >./fortify_example * buffer overflow detected :./fortify_example terminated ======= Backtrace: ========= /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(+0x7320f)[0x7f630b4a120f] /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(__fortify_fail+0x37)[0x7f630b5244e7] /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(+0xf4700)[0x7f630b522700]./fortify_example[0x4005ba] /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xf5)[0x7f630b44fb45]./fortify_example[0x4004c9] ======= Memory map: ======== 00400000-00401000 r-xp 00000000 fb:01 391109 /tmp/fortify_example [... blah blah blah...] ffffffffff600000-ffffffffff601000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0 [vsyscall] Internally, -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 replaces the call to strcpy by a call to __strcpy_chk that takes a third parameter which is the size of the buffer. Fun fact: the actual size of the buffer is computed through a call to llvm.objectsize..* (see http://llvm.org/docs/LangRef.html#llvm-objectsize-intrinsic) that is lowered to the object size value if it can be computed by the compiler. For instance, for the (accordingly tricky) code trick_fortify_example.c : #include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> extern char * gimme_some_mem (); int main ( int argc, char * argv []) { char * buffer = gimme_some_mem (); strcpy ( buffer, argv [ 0 ]); puts ( buffer ); return 0 ; } The size of buffer cannot be computed at compile time (if Link Time Optimisation is not available), thus fortify fails. The cost of this protection is the extra length checks that are made, but it's likely to be negligible in most cases. Address Space Layout Randomization All recent kernel versions support ASLR, a feature that makes the program address space unpredictable. It makes exploitation of some kinds of vulnerability harder as addresses can't be hard-written but need to be computed and/or guessed. But it can only be used if your code is position independent or relocatable, i.e. if it has been compiled with -fPIE -pie for binaries, and -fPIC for your shared libraries. The following dummy code from aslr.c : #include <stdio.h> int main () { printf ( "%p ", main ); return 0 ; } when compiled with clang aslr.c -o aslr -O2 and run successively, always outputs the same value: >./aslr 0x400530 >./aslr 0x400530 but when compiled with clang aslr.c -o aslr -O2 -fpie -pie, it outputs random values thanks to ASLR: >./aslr 0x564cde10d7a0 >./aslr 0x55daab4d37a0 Stack Protection -fstack-protector Pass the -fstack-protector flag to the compiler to force the addition of a stack canary that checks for stack smashing. One can use -fstack-protector-strong to include more functions that could be subject to stack smashing, and -fstack-protector-all to include all functions (but it's more expensive in terms of code size and execution time). For instance, running clang -O2 -fstack-protector fortify_example.c -S -masm=intel -o - on the fortify_example.c outputs some unusual assembly: mov rax, qword ptr fs :[ 40 ] mov qword ptr [ rsp + 8 ], rax mov rsi, qword ptr [ rsi ] lea rbx, [ rsp ] mov rdi, rbx call strcpy mov rdi, rbx call puts mov rax, qword ptr fs :[ 40 ] cmp rax, qword ptr [ rsp + 8 ] jne.LBB0_2 # BB#1: # %SP_return xor eax, eax add rsp, 16 pop rbx ret.LBB0_2: # %CallStackCheckFailBlk call __stack_chk_fail We see an interesting call to __stack_chk_fail, triggered if the stack canary check cmp rax, qword ptr [rsp + 8] fails. Given that the canary was originally stored by mov rax, qword ptr fs:[40] followed by mov qword ptr [rsp + 8], rax, if the stash is smashed, [rsp + 8] can be overwritten by a value different from the value loaded from the dedicated location fs:[40]. The additional performance cost involves the additional check that is performed at the end of the function. It can become an issue for a frequently called one, especially if the execution time of the function is very small. -fsanitize=safe-stack Safe Stack introduces an additional stack, separated from the unsafe stack, that stores return addresses and other pieces of data that may be subject to an attack. As a consequence, buffer overflow from the unsafe stack cannot smash the safe stack. Running clang -O2 -fsanitize=safe-stack fortify_example.c -S -masm=intel -o - on the fortify_example.c outputs: main: # @main.cfi_startproc push r15.Ltmp0:.cfi_def_cfa_offset 16 push r14.Ltmp1:.cfi_def_cfa_offset 24 push rbx.Ltmp2:.cfi_def_cfa_offset 32.Ltmp3:.cfi_offset rbx, - 32.Ltmp4:.cfi_offset r14, - 24.Ltmp5:.cfi_offset r15, - 16 mov r14, qword ptr [ rip + __safestack_unsafe_stack_ptr@GOTTPOFF ] mov rbx, qword ptr fs :[ r14 ] lea rax, [ rbx - 16 ] mov qword ptr fs :[ r14 ], rax lea r15, [ rbx - 8 ] mov rsi, qword ptr [ rsi ] mov rdi, r15 call strcpy mov rdi, r15 call puts mov qword ptr fs :[ r14 ], rbx xor eax, eax pop rbx pop r14 pop r15 ret This code manages two stacks, the regular stack that is considered as safe, and an extra (unsafe) stack, that ends at rbx = fs:[r14]. All unsafe operations, such as the call to strcpy, are performed using the unsafe stack: rdi = r15 = [rbx - 8]. It has less impact on performances than the stack canary technique, as no check is performed at the end of the protected functions. This protects against a "trivial" rewrite of the return address present on the stack (as this address stays in the safe stack), but might not prevent the buffer overflow to overwrite something else. This depends on the memory layout of the running software. Unlike previous technique, the security provided by this solution does not rely on the entropy source. Control Flow Integrity (CFI) Pass the -fsanitize=cfi flag to the compiler to add checks that the path taken by the program execution has not been subverted by an attacker when an indirect call is performed. This requires Link Time Optimization, and so the gold plugin, as activated by -fuse-ld=gold -flto. See http://clang.llvm.org/docs/ControlFlowIntegrity.html for more info! For instance, the example cfi_example.cpp below shows how virtual function calls are protected by this method: #include <iostream> #include <string> #include <memory> struct Op { virtual ~ Op () { } virtual int f ( int a, int b ) const = 0 ; }; struct Add : public Op { virtual int f ( int a, int b ) const override { return a + b ; } }; struct Mul : public Op { virtual int f ( int a, int b ) const override { return a * b ; } }; __attribute__ (( noinline )) int call_op ( Op const & op, int a, int b ) { return op. f ( a, b ); } int main ( int argc, char ** argv ) { if ( argc < 4 ) { std :: cerr << "Usage: " << argv [ 0 ] << " op a b" << std :: endl ; return 1 ; } std :: unique_ptr < Op > Op ; switch ( std :: stol ( argv [ 1 ])) { case 0 : Op = std :: make_unique < Add > (); break ; case 1 : Op = std :: make_unique < Mul > (); break ; default : return 1 ; }; std :: cout << call_op ( * O, std :: stol ( argv [ 2 ]), std :: stol ( argv [ 3 ])) << std :: endl ; return 0 ; } Compiling this code without CFI gives, for the call_op function: ; int __fastcall call_op(const Op* op, int a, int b) op = rdi ; const Op * mov rax, [ op ] mov rax, [ rax + 10 h ] jmp rax The virtual call is done without any prior checks. That is, if any issue in the software lets an attacker to control the value stored at the address given by op, he could take control of the software execution flow. Compiled with CFI enabled ( clang++ -O2 -std=c++14 -flto -fsanitize=cfi -fuse-ld=gold cfi_example.cpp -o cfi_example ), the call_op function is now this one: ; int __fastcall call_op(const Op* op, int a, int b) op = rdi ; const Op * mov rcx, [ op ] ; rcx = pointer to the vtable of 'op' mov r8d, offset vtableadd_funcs mov rax, rcx sub rax, r8 rol rax, 3 Ah cmp rax, 2 jnb short loc_400DEF mov rax, [ rcx + 10 h ] jmp rax loc_400DEF: ud2 What's basically happening here is that it checks that the pointer to the vtable of the given op object is the one of the Add or Mul class. Indeed, vtableadd_funcs points to these data: ; `vtable for'Add _ZTV3Add dq 0 dq offset _ZTI3Add ; `typeinfo for'Add vtableadd_funcs dq offset _ZN2OpD2Ev ; Op::~Op() dq offset _ZN3AddD0Ev ; Add::~Add() dq offset _ZNK3Add1fEii ; Add::f(int,int) dq 0 dq 0 dq 0 ; `vtable for'Mul _ZTV3Mul dq 0 dq offset _ZTI3Mul ; `typeinfo for'Mul off_4011C0 dq offset _ZN2OpD2Ev ; Op::~Op() dq offset _ZN3MulD0Ev ; Mul::~Mul() dq offset _ZNK3Mul1fEii ; Mul::f(int,int) So, the vtable pointer of the op object is subtracted to the one of add, and then we check whether we are in a possible range or not. If this is not the case, we jump to an undefined instruction that makes the process crash. As a final note, beware that the Clang CFI only works with C++ objects. It won't protect for instance indirect call done with a more classical function pointer. GOT protection read-only relocations: Passing the -Wl,-z,relro flag to the linker marks some section read only, which prevents some GOT overwrite attacks. immediate binding: If the -Wl,-z,now flag is passed to the linker, all symbols are resolved at load time. Combined with the previous flag, this prevents more GOT overwrite attacks (otherwise part of the GOT is updated at runtime, and that part is not marked as read-only by -Wl,-z,relro Let's compile the following code hello.c with clang hello.c -o hello and clang hello.c -
, Ann Landers, Crystal Antlers, The Pizzas, The Borings, Kool Katz, Aunt Lars, etc."Cool Fifties Slang Edd Brynes as Gerald Lloyd "Kookie" Kookson III on 77 Sunset Strip just personified cool. He had a lingo all of his own and because his character was so popular, we hung on his every word. And imitated him. Below are some classic expressions from Kookie Talk. scroll down for 50s slang. Antsville A place full of people Chick in skins Woman in a fur coat Front burner Current crisis Germsville An illness - Buzzed by germsville means put in the hospital Ginchiest Coolest Heels on fire In a hurry International intrigue dodge Private eye business Lighting up the tilt sign Lying Long green Money Mushroom people People who come out at night to play Smog in the noggin' Memory loss Stable the horses Park the cars Washington A dollar More Cool Fifties Slang Agitate the Gravel - To leave (hot-rodders) Ankle-biter - A child Ape Used with go - to explode or be really mad Are you writing a book? - You're asking too many questions Baby - Cute girl, term of address for either sex Back seat bingo - Necking in a car Bad news - Depressing person Bash - Great party Bent eight - a V-8 engine (hot-rodders) Big Daddy - An older person Big tickle - Really funny Bit - An act Blast - A good time Blow off - To defeat in a race (hot-rodders) Bobbed - Shortened Boss - Great Bread - Money Bug "You bug me" - to bother Burn rubber - To accelerate hard and fast (hot-rodders) top Cast an eyeball - To look Cat - A hip person (Beats) Chariot - Car (Beats) Cherry - Originally, an unaltered car. Later, anything attractive (hot-rodders, originally) Chrome-plated - Dressed up (hot-rodders, originally) Circled - Married Classy chassis - Great body Cloud 9 - Really happy Clutched - Rejected Clyde - Term of address, usually for a normal person (Beats) Cook, cookin' - Doing it well Cool - Indefinable quality that makes something or someone extraordinary Cool it - Relax, settle down Cooties - Imaginary infestations of the truly un-cool Cranked - Excited (Beats) Crazy "Like crazy,man" - Implies an especially good thing Cream - Originally, to dent a car. Later, to badly damage (hot-rodders, originally) Cruisin' for a bruisin' - Looking for trouble Cube - A normal person Cut the gas - Be quiet! Cut out - Leave top Daddy-O - Term of address (Beats) D.D.T. (Drop Dead Twice) - Response: What, and look like you? Deuce - A 1932 Ford (hot-rodders) Dibs - A claim - as in "got dibs" on that seat Dig - To understand; to approve Dolly - Cute girl Don't have a cow - Don't get so excited Drag - (hot-rodders) A short car race; (Beats) A bore Duck Butt or D.A. - Hairstyle of greasers where hair in back is combed to the middle, then with end of comb, make a middle part. top Earthbound - Reliable Epistle - Letter Eyeball - Look around top Fake Out - A bad date Fast - Someone who was sexually active Fat City - A great thing or place; Happy Fire Up - Start your engine (hot-rodders) Flat out - Fast as you can Flat-top - Men's hairstyle. A crewcut which is flat across the top Flick - A movie Flip - To get very excited Flip-top - A convertible car Floor it - Push the accelerator to the floor (hot-rodders) Fracture - To amuse Fream - Someone who doesn't fit in Frosted - Angry top Get Bent! - Disparaging remark as in "drop dead" Get with it - Understand Gig - Work, job (Beats) Go ape - Get very excited Go for pinks - A drag race where the stakes are the car's pink slip (hot-rodders) Goof - Someone who makes mistakes Goopy - Messy Goose it - Accelerate the car fully (hot-rodders) Greaser - A guy with tons of grease in his hair, which later came to describe an entire group of people. Yes, John Travolta in Grease. Grody - Sloppy, messy or dirty top Hang - As in "hang out" which means to do very little Haul ass - Drive very fast (hot-rodders) Heat - Police (Beats) Hep - With it, cool. Someone who knows the situation. Hip - Someone who is cool, in the know. Very good. Hipster - Same as above Hopped up - A car modified for speed (hot-rodders) Horn - Telephone Hottie - A very fast car (hot-rodders) top Illuminations - Good ideas, thoughts In orbit - In the know Ivy Leaguer - Pants style. Also any person who attended an Ivy League college top Jacked Up - Car with raised rear end. (hot-rodders) Jacketed - Going steady Jelly Roll - Men's hair combed up and forward on both sides, brought together in the middle of the forehead. Jets - Smarts, brains top Kick - A fun or good thing; Also, a fad Kill - To really impress Knuckle sandwich - A fist in the face Kookie - Nuts, in the nicest possible way top Later, also later, gator - Goodbye. See ya later, alligator. Response: after while crocodile. Lay a patch - To accelerate so rapidly that you leave a patch of rubber on the road. Lay on - To give (Beats) Lighter - A crew cut Like crazy; like wow - Really good, better than cool top Machine - A car (hot-rodders) Made in the shade - Success guaranteed Make out - A kissing session Make the scene - To attend an event or activity Meanwhile, back at the ranch - From TV Westerns. Usually used to get a storyteller back on track. Mirror warmer - A piece of pastel fabric (often cashmere) tied around the rear view mirror. A 50s version of the Medieval wearing your lady's colors. Most - A in "the most" - high praise usually of the opposite sex top Nerd - Same as now. Bill Gates without the money. Nest - A hair-do Nod - Drift off to sleep Nosebleed - As in hey, nosebleed - hey, stupid. Not a compliment! No sweat - No problem Nowhere - Opposite of cool. Nowheresville was a boring, bad place to be. (Beats) Nuggets - Loose change top Odd ball - Someone a bit off the norm Off the line - Start of a drag race (hot-rodders) On the stick - Pulled together. Bright, prepared... top Pad - Home Paper shaker - Cheerleader or Pom Pom girl Party pooper - No fun at all Passion Pit - Drive-in movie theatre Peepers - Glasses Pile up Z's - Get some sleep Pooper - No fun at all Pop the Clutch - Release the clutch pedal quickly so as to get a fast start Pound - Beat up Punch it - Step on the gas (hot-rodders) Put down - To say bad things about someone top Radioactive - Very popular Rag Top - A convertible car Rap - To tattle on someone (Beats) Rattle your cage - Get upset Raunchy - Messy or gross in some other way Razz my berries - Excite or impress me Real gone - Very much in love. Also unstable. Hmm, there's a difference? Reds - The Communists Righto - Okay Rock - A diamond Rocket - A car (hot-rodders) Rod - A car (hot-rodders) Royal shaft - Badly or unfairly treated top Scream - Go fast Screamer - A hot rod Shoot low, they're riding Shetlands - Be careful Shot down - Failed Shuck, shuckster - A deceiver, liar or cheat Sides - Vinyl records Sing - To tattle or inform on someone (Beats) Sounds - Music Souped up - A car modified to go fast Spaz - Someone who is uncoordinated. A clutz. Split - Leave Square - A regular, normal person. A conformist. Stacked - A woman with large er, ah...you know, well endowed. Stack up - To wreck a car (hotrodder) Submarine races - While waiting for the submarines to race, which might take quite awhile :>) couples found creative ways of killing the time. Subterranean - A hipster. Used by both Ginsberg and Kerouac. (Beats) top Tank - A large sedan (usually driven by parents) Tear ass - Drive (or go) very fast That's close - Something wrong or not true Think Fast - Usually said right before someone threw something at you Threads - Clothes Tight - Good friends Total - To completely destroy, most often in reference to a car top Unreal - Exceptional top Wail - Go fast Wazoo - Your rear end Weed - A cigarette Wet rag - Someone who's just no fun Word from the bird - The truth (Beats) What's buzzin, cuzzin - What's new? What's you tale, nightingale - What's the story? Wheelie - Left the car's front wheels off the ground by rapid acceleration topMotor Mount for a 70y.o. lathe I have a small Craftsman 109.20630 metal Lathe from approx. 1948 which was missing a motor and motor mount. I salvaged this motor and pulley from a drill press. I wanted a tool-less method to tension the belt and adjust the motor left and right for different speeds. The track frame and brackets are 80/20 & fabricated aluminum. The pivots use my Constant Force Joints and the t-bolts use Ultimate Jig Knobs for the hold downs. Without the Constant Force Joints, fabrication this mounts becomes much more difficult. I would need to more tightly tolerance holes, buy bronze bearings and buy the specific hardware for the bearing size. Instead, I only have to thread the aluminum bracket and drill pass-through holes in the U-Bracket. Before I use the machine, I also need rewire the switch to a fixed location the front side. It's very dangerous where it is right now. If you have any questions, you can find me on Twitter or Reddit. Enjoy!Prospect Paige VanZant made a triumphant return to the octagon at UFC Fight Night Vancouver when she knocked out Bec Rawlings in the second round. Fans and fighters took to social media, complimenting the “Dancing With The Stars” competitor’s devastating kick. While most folks are contemplating VanZant’s next UFC fight, there’s one athlete who would like another shot at the fighter from Dundee, Oregon. Fellow prospect Tecia “The Tiny Tornado” Torres went on Twitter and Facebook, saying she would like a rematch with VanZant toward the end of the year. Torres and VanZant first faced each other at Invicta FC 4 in 2013 where the Tiny Tornado came up on a decision and handed her opponent her first professional loss. Since then both fighters have taken slightly different paths to the UFC. Torres appeared on “The Ultimate Fighter 20.” VanZant would have been on the show, however she was too young to stay in the “TUF” house. She went on to fight in the octagon, defeat Kailin Curran in her promotional debut and enjoy a surge of popularity. During the UFC Fight Night Vancouver post-fight press conference, VanZant said she wanted to fight on the Sacramento card in December. Torres said she would be willing to fight VanZant in New York or California. Sign me up…. I’m looking to fight @PaigeVanzantUFC Huge Win… lets exchange some Karate Kicks in NY @seanshelby @danawhite @ufc — Tecia Torres (@TeciaTorres) August 28, 2016 Ok, Cali. Lol whatever. Let’s fight. (I said I didn’t watch so that’s why I said NY) I’ll wait to Dec to Scrap @PaigeVanzantUFC @seanshelby — Tecia Torres (@TeciaTorres) August 28, 2016 It’s not farfetched to say that Torres should get a rematch at VanZant. Actually, there are a quite a few reasons why the UFC would book a rematch between them. Critics might say “but Al, Torres just lost.” You’re right. Torres (3-1 UFC, 7-1 overall) suffered her first career loss in April when she dropped a decision to Rose Namajunas, who she previously defeated at Invicta FC 6 in 2013. With the loss, she’s currently ranked No. 5 in the promotion’s women’s strawweight standings while VanZant stands at No. 10. When it comes to fighters they’re promoting hard, the UFC will put them in fights where a win will benefit them. VanZant facing Torres in a rematch not only gives her a chance to move up the rankings, but also an opportunity to avenge a previous career loss. But it’s not like Torres gets nothing from a rematch. The Tiny Tornado’s stock and popularity would certainly rise with another win over VanZant. Another reason Torres could get this rematch is because she asked for it. The UFC – particularly Dana White – will talk about fighters getting opportunities because they asked for them and Torres is being very vocal about wanting to fight VanZant again. This also wouldn’t be the same fight as the first encounter between Torres and VanZant. The first bout between them was three years ago and both athletes have improved their skills and progressed in their careers since then. Invicta fans watched a 1-0 Torres take on a 2-0 VanZant and that was a pretty good fight. A bout between a 7-1 Torres and a 7-2 VanZant bout could be just as good, if not better.Think your credit card is bad? Check out this specimen that our sister-publication, Consumer Reports, says is the absolute “worst credit card.” From Consumer Reports, emphasis ours: In 2007, First Premier signed a $4.6 million settlement with the New York Attorney General’s office over the card’s deceptive marketing practices. First Premier’s card now advertises a $25 to $95 processing charge (which fluctuates by the minute, depending on when you click on the card’s website). What’s worse is that when you drill deeper into the fine print, you’ll find a $75 annual fee and an APR of 23.9 percent to 59.9 percent on purchases and cash advances (again, depending on when you visit the site). So you could face a minimum of $100 or a maximum of $170 in fees in the first year for a card with only a $300 initial credit limit. Other fees include an $11 charge for expediting bill payment over the phone and a credit-limit increase fee equal to 50 percent of the increase. So for every $100 that First Premier increases your credit limit it charges you $50. Also, look out for copycats of this card. First Premier Bank markets very similar cards under the names Centennial and Aventium.While hardly coming as much of a a surprise following the weekend's news that Theresa May would call for a "clean and hard Brexit", confirmation received moments ago from both the Telegraph, FT and Bloomberg that on Tuesday May will indeed declare that Britain is making a "clean break" from the EU and will not seek a deal that leaves the country “half in and half out”, has send the sterling lower by some 25 pips, because even though the news is not incremental, as Bloomberg notes quoting a trader, "Algos Trade Off Keyword Flagged in Speech." May’s office has said she will announce 12 key objectives for the negotiations, which will include gaining full control over immigration, restoring power over lawmaking to the U.K. Parliament and ending the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice over British laws, preserving the Union, maintaining workers’ rights and signing major free trade deals. According to The Telegraph, which has seen an advance copy of her speech tomorrow, the UK Prime Minister will set out a 12-point plan for Brexit as she vows that the UK will not have “partial” membership of the EU “that leaves us half-in, half-out”. Mrs May will make her most significant speech since becoming Prime Minister in July last year and confirm that Britain will leave the single market and customs union after Brexit. Some more details of her upcoming speech, courtesy of the Telegraph: In remarks that will delight Conservative Eurosceptics, May will pledge that Britain outside the European Union will be a “great, global trading nation” that is “respected around the world and strong, confident and united at home”. The Prime Minister will make regaining control of Britain’s borders one of the central themes of her Brexit strategy and will also make clear that the rights of UK expats will be protected. She will make clear for the first time that Britain will not seek a watered down version of Brexit, something that Remain campaigners are still pushing for. The Prime Minister will say that Britain is quitting the single market and although she will be less explicit on the issue of the customs union, her remarks will make clear that after Brexit the UK will no longer be a member. She will say that the Government has “12 objectives that amount to one big goal: a new, positive and constructive partnership between Britain and the European Union”. The 12 objectives are understood to “And as we negotiate that partnership, we will be driven by some simple principles: we will provide as much certainty and clarity as we can at every stage,” Mrs May will add. “And we will take this opportunity to make Britain stronger, to make Britain fairer, and to build a more Global Britain too.” In a blow to business groups pressing for the closest possible links to Europe, May will use a speech in London to explicitly say she expects Britain to leave the single market and overhaul its links to the customs union, according to a person familiar with the matter. She has no interest in a “partial” or “associate” membership of the EU or “anything that leaves us half-in, half-out,” according to extracts released by her office. Her remarks will be seen as a direct rebuke to European leaders who have repeatedly claimed that Britain will have to compromise on freedom of movement if it wants membership of the single market or customs union. “We seek a new and equal partnership – between an independent, self-governing, Global Britain and our friends and allies in the EU,” the Prime Minister will say in the speech in Lancaster House in London. “Not partial membership of the European Union, associate membership of the European Union, or anything that leaves us half-in, half-out. We do not seek to adopt a model already enjoyed by other countries. We do not seek to hold on to bits of membership as we leave. “The United Kingdom is leaving the European Union. My job is to get the right deal for Britain as we do.” She will also use the speech to directly counter claims by her critics that she has no plan for Brexit. Mrs May has pledged to trigger Article 50, which triggers formal Brexit negotiations with Brussels, by the end of March. The four principles guiding the negotiation with Brussels will be “certainty and clarity”, “a stronger Britain”, “a fairer Britain” and “a truly Global Britain”, Mrs May will say. Ultimately, May will concede that the “road ahead will be uncertain at times”, but will make clear that Brexit will lead to a “brighter future” for voters’ children and grandchildren. “A little over six months ago the British people voted for change,” Mrs May will say. “They voted to shape a brighter future for our country. They voted to leave the European Union and embrace the world. “And they did so with their eyes open: accepting that the road ahead will be uncertain at times, but believing that it leads towards a brighter future for their children – and their grandchildren too. “And it is the job of this Government to deliver it. That means more than negotiating our new relationship with the EU. It means taking the opportunity of this great moment of national change to step back and ask ourselves what kind of country we want to be.” Mrs May's speech comes after Donald Trump, the President-Elect of the United States, said that Britain and America will get a new trade deal "done quickly and done properly". * * * The Telegraph adds that Eurosceptics and senior Leave campaigners will welcome Mrs May’s commitment that Britain will quit the single market. On the customs union, Mrs May will suggest that there could be scope for negotiating access for some sectors – such as the automotive industry – after Brexit. However, it will be clear from her words that while the Brexit negotiation may include discussions about some form of access, Britain is leaving the customs union. While May will not set out her plans for Britain’s post-Brexit immigration system, she will favour a work permit system, meaning EU migrants will only be able to come to the UK to live or work if they have a firm job offer. “My answer is clear,” Mrs May will add. “I want this United Kingdom to emerge from this period of change stronger, fairer, more united and more outward-looking than ever before. I want us to be secure, prosperous, tolerant country – a magnet for international talent and a home to the pioneers and innovators who will shape the world ahead. “I want us to be a truly Global Britain – the best friend and neighbour to our European partners, but a country that reaches beyond the borders of Europe too. A country that gets out into the world to build relationships with old friends and new allies alike.” “We want to buy your goods, sell you ours, trade with you as freely as possible, and work with one another to make sure we are all safer, more secure and more prosperous through continued friendship,” the Prime Minister will say. * * * The good news, if only for the market, is that with her speech fully leaked at this point, there will be no further surprise, and if anything, it is possible that the sterling's next move is higher, especally as an adverse Supreme Court ruling on Article 50, which could come at any point, could unleash a violent short squeeze in cable.narendra modi government asks babus to declare assets on or before september 15 New Delhi: The Central government has set September 15 as the deadline for all government servants to declare their assets and liabilities. As per the notified rules under the Lokpal and Lokayukta Acts, it is mandatory for all public servants to declare their assets and liabilities as on March 31 every year on or before July 31 of that year. The employees need to declare motor vehicles, aircraft, yachts or ships, gold and silver jewellery and bullion possessed by them, their spouses and dependent children.Government sources said that orders were issued for giving some more time to ‘babus' for declaring the same as the conduct rules for different services and ranks were yet to be finalized.The assets declarations by the Central government employees will be put in public domain.Meanwhile, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has finalized the rules to be followed by public servants in this regard.According to the notified rules, the competent authority can exempt an employee from declaring assets valued at less than four months' basic salary or Rs 2 lakh.St. Pauls, NC-based Prestage Foods Inc. Monday recalled 38,475 pounds of ground turkey after a retailer found extraneous metal in the product, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). The problem was discovered on Sept. 27 when FSIS was contacted by plant employees who were sanitizing processing equipment. On the same day, one of the retail locations that received some of the products noticed “metal shaving” in a package of ground turkey from the recalling firm and notified the company, according to the recall notice on the FSIS website. Prestage Foods shipped the ground turkey to retail distribution centers in Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. The recall notice did not indicate whether those distribution centers sent the recalled product to other states. There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products. Anyone concerned about an injury or illness should contact a healthcare provider. “Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase,” according to the recall notice. Publix and Weis Markets branded ground turkey, as well as Aldi’s house brand of Fit & Active ground turkey, are included in the recall. The fresh ground turkey was produced on Sept. 25 and 26. Consumers can identify the recalled ground turkey by looking for the following label information: 1.3-lb. White Styrofoam trays with clear plastic film covering packages containing ground turkey labeled “Publix ground turkey breast WITH NATURAL FLAVORINGS” with inkjet printing on the side of trays displaying the first 4 digits of 7268 and 7269. 1.3-lb. White Styrofoam trays with clear plastic film covering packages containing ground turkey labeled “Publix ground turkey WITH NATURAL FLAVORINGS” with inkjet labeling on the side of trays displaying the first 4 digits of 7268 and 7269. 1.2-lb. White Styrofoam trays with clear plastic film covering packages containing ground turkey labeled “Fit & Active Fresh Ground Turkey With Natural Flavoring” with inkjet labeling on the side of trays displaying the first 4 digits of 7268 and 7269. 1.0-lb. White Styrofoam trays with clear plastic film covering packages containing ground turkey labeled “Weis Markets Fresh Ground Turkey Breast” with inkjet labeling on the side of trays displaying the first 4 digits of 7268 and 7269. All of the products subject to recall also have the establishment number “P-22000” printed inside the USDA mark of inspection. FSIS routinely conducts recall effectiveness checks to verify recalling firms notify their customers of the recall and that steps are taken to make certain that the product is no longer available to consumers. When available, the retail distribution list(s) will be posted on the FSIS website. (To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)Virginia Beach and Norfolk residents looking to adopt a new furry friend are in luck. Priority Automotive in Chesapeake is teaming up with the Virginia Beach SPCA, Chesapeake Animal Services and Norfolk SPCA, to pay for half of all adoption fees starting Dec. 10 until Dec 21. But it could end earlier than that if the money runs out, according to a VBSPCA press release. The dealership’s contributions will cover spaying or neutering pets and all required shots, though additional medical fees may be required. “There are so many dogs and cats in our local shelters that will make wonderful pets and need a nice warm, forever home,” said Dennis Ellmer, Priority Automotive president and CEO. “For some families, the cost of adoption is prohibitive and could keep some from taking one of these great pets home and making it a part of their family.” To learn more about the Virginia Beach SPCA, visit its website or call 757-427-0070. Norfolk SPCA can be reached at its website and 757-622-3319.The way Cole Miller sees it, he won his Saturday night UFC bout against Manny Gamburyan twice. Once by knockout, once by decision. One mistake he can live with. He’s been around the fight game long enough to know that judges sometimes get it wrong. But the other, he cannot accept, at least not now. Article continues below... Miller told FOX Sports on Monday that he will appeal the outcome of his UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs. Sonnen bout due to referee Yves Lavigne’s ruling that allowed the fight to extend past what could have been ruled a first-round technical knockout. The ruling in question came following the final seconds of the round. As Gamburyan was going low for a takedown, Miller elbowed him to the head twice. That’s when things took a strange turn. The horn sounded and Lavigne stopped the action, but Gamburyan did not get up. Instead, as Miller padded his fall, Gamburyan sat back on the canvas and held the back of his head. Time passed and the one-minute break between the first and second rounds was nearing its end, and for some reason, there seemed to be no sense that the fight’s outcome was hanging in the balance. When a fighter can’t answer the bell due to a legal strike, the match is ruled over. Adding to the bizarre situation, Gamburyan and one of his corners, Ronda Rousey, were just feet away from where Miller was receiving his own corner instructions. Gamburyan eventually got up and walked back to his corner, but with help from Rousey and cutman Jacob "Stitch" Duran. Seventy seconds past the expiration of the round, Lavigne told the corners to leave the cage, but then he invited the cageside doctor to check Gamburyan, who was still blinking his eyes and visibly shaken. Finally, after two minutes — one minute longer than a regulation break — the action started for the second. "It was just real odd," Miller told FOX Sports. "The referee didn’t give any indication the fight was over, he also didn’t signal it was a foul. I looked at Manny and then the ref to see what was going on. I had my hand on Manny in a sportsmanlike way to sort of encourage the process and get things moving. "A referee doesn’t have to say if a strike is legal, a referee has to say if a strike was illegal," he continued. "No indication was made, but after the fight, the strike was deemed legal. The referee said it was a legal strike. To me, I’ve seen the footage and they all seem to indicate a legal strike." Because the strikes in question were deemed legal and Gamburyan needed far longer than one minute to recover, Miller believes the correct outcome would have been a TKO in his favor. As a result, he said his team plans to present a motion for appeal at an upcoming Sept. 12 meeting of the Massachusetts state athletic commission, which oversaw the contest at the TD Garden. Despite the move, he does not feel confident that the outcome will change. "You see these types of things happen often, and very rarely does it go to the fighter making the dispute," he said. Miller said he doesn’t hold anything against Gamburyan, and in fact, credited him for continuing on despite the adversity. In his opinion, the fighter has to keep his head in the match at all times, which is why he didn’t protest the decision as it happened. But with the benefit of hindsight, he can’t help but think he was robbed of a victory. Miller can take some solace in the fact that UFC president Dana White said he believed the fight should have been stopped in his favor, but that’s not quite enough. After all, losses have real-life repercussions. He’s now 1-3 at featherweight, but there’s no asterisk to remind people of just how that happened. “I just know that fighters can’t get two minutes between rounds because they can’t answer the bell when their head hurts due to a legal strike,” he said. "That’s not the way the rules work. I can only hope that they see it my way and declare it a no contest."Eco-tourism on agenda in Tasmania as government accepts proposals for development in national parks, World Heritage Areas Updated A new environmental battle is looming in Tasmania as the state opens up untouched areas for eco-tourism. The Hodgman Government wants tourism operators to take advantage of development opportunities inside national parks and World Heritage Areas. It has received 37 proposals, including one from operator Ian Johnstone to build permanent hut-style accommodation along the South Coast Track bushwalking route, 110 kilometres from Hobart. He believes he can increase the numbers walking the track by between 1000 and 1500 people each year. Currently, to do the seven-day walk, which is known for its rugged coastline, boat crossings and pristine forest, tourists must be self sufficient and carry a heavy pack including all of their own supplies. "People that are coming and walking in the South Coast Track, are really the young, the fit and the very strong, who are happy to carry a heavy pack which means a lot of the population really can't experience it," Mr Johnstone said. "By being able to introduce a walk with accommodation it means that you only carry a much lighter pack. "You've got guides to look after your welfare and to help with meals and so forth and it offers a softer option for people to explore and enjoy this magnificent track." Mr Johnstone's company runs a similar walk on the former convict settlement of Maria Island on the east coast of Tasmania. He said although tourism development in sensitive wilderness areas has been possible, the hurdles to new proposals were almost insurmountable. "You could say it was pretty well impossible," Mr Johnstone said. "Just for the Three Capes project that the Federal and State Government has been behind, it took a number of years for the management plan there to go through the EPA and the various approval processes. "For a single operator to try and do that with their own effort is really overwhelming." Eco-tourism plan a 'game changer' for economy Liberal Premier Will Hodgman is calling the eco-tourism push an economic game changer for Tasmania's job-starved economy. It could lead to resorts, cruises, helicopter flights and adventure sport tours. "We are looking after our precious natural areas but we're also going to use them to increase the number of tourists that come to this state, to grow our economy, to leverage off what is one of our great competitive advantages," Mr Hodgman said. However, Greens leader Christine Milne is warning mass protests will follow if development goes ahead in World Heritage Areas and national parks. "Once again Tasmania will be an environmental battleground if Tony Abbott and Will Hodgman have their way of showing a complete disrespect for the fact that parks and World Heritage Areas are set up to look after nature and they are there to degrade nature," she said. Ms Milne argued that after the Abbott and Hodgman Governments attempted to log World Heritage forests they lack credibility when it comes to overseeing responsible development. "I have zero trust in Tony Abbott or Will Hodgman to do anything sensitive when it comes to Tasmanian wilderness World Heritage Areas," she said. "It's all about a quick buck. How can you get a quick buck and it doesn't matter if it destroys it into the long term? "Once you start slapping in roads, once you start building resorts you are in real trouble in World Heritage Areas." Business investment is basically not welcomed: Dick Smith But entrepreneur Dick Smith said the pendulum has swung too far against development in Tasmania. He had an eco-lodge proposal on private land knocked back seven years ago and tells his business contacts not to invest in the state. "It's a very frustrating place to try and invest and business investment is basically not welcomed," he said. "I go to New Zealand and they allow quite a lot of commercial activities in their national parks but it's very well done. "You don't think it damages the park and I think that's how it should be done. "Tasmania's this wonderful place, most of my friends have never been here and I just can't believe you have economic problems because you don't understand, this is the place for eco-tourism." The other 36 development proposals will remain confidential while they are assessed by a panel appointed by the State Government. Topics: travel-and-tourism, environmental-management, environment, environmental-policy, government-and-politics, australia, tas First postedThe Cardinal claims the No. 1 seed in the @AmericaEast West Division headed into next week's tourney! #BURNhttps://t.co/mkMRqs9KAq — Stanford FieldHockey (@StanfordFH) October 29, 2017 4 - freshmen that have played in every game 73 - winning percentage (120-45) Danielson has in her tenure at Stanford (All-time 126-58 - 68%) 10 - career shutouts for Kelsey Bing - No. 18 Stanford travels east again this week as it sets to defend its 2016 America East crown. The Cardinal will take on host UMass Lowell in quarterfinal action Thursday at 12:30 p.m.PT in Lowell, Mass.The Cardinal fired up a senior showcase last Saturday as it closed out its regular season with a 6-2 rout of UC Davis to clinch the No. 1 seed in the America East West Division.andcombined to each collect two goals and two assists in the game, whilecollected the win in the cage for Stanford.The Riverhawks will enter into Thursday's match-up with a 9-10 record and a 5-6 record at home at Cushing Field. Key wins for UML this season have come against Colgate, Miami (OH), Ball State and Georgetown. The Riverhawks took a 2-1 win over the Hoyas at home in a shootout before closing the season with a huge double OT win over Vermont to clinch a spot in the America East Tournament.Stanford has only met UML twice in its history - a 3-2 win in last season's America East quarterfinals and a 4-3 win earlier this year in Lowell with Cicione's hat trick sending the Cardinal towards victory.Most in the America East world know that Stanford topped UMass Lowell, Cal and Pacific last year en route to its first America East title, but in its first year in the AE in 2015 the Cardinal topped Vermont 5-2 before falling in overtime in the semifinals 2-1
2010. Statutory Instruments 2009 No. 3323 (C. 150) Identity Cards The Identity Cards Act 2006 (Commencement No. 6) Order 2009 [..] Commencement 2.--(1) Section 2(1) and (2), and section 5(1)(b), of the Identity Cards Act 2006 shall come into force on 4th January 2010 in relation to any person to whom paragraph (2) applies, except to the extent that those provisions are already in force in respect of such persons. What is the rate determining steps, or the critical resources which are behind this staggered rollout of the "voluntary" National Identity Scheme? It cannot be Training of Travel Company Staff to recognise and accept what the new ID Cards look like, simply on the printed "look and feel". Without looking it up online, can you tell at a glance, which of the 3 colour schemes ( turquoise and green, blue and pink, lilac and salmon) has been arbitrarily chosen for the 3 types of ID Card, (identity card for British citizens, identification card for EU or EEA citizens living in the UK, Identity card for foreign nationals) and whether or not they are valid for foreign travel? There is still no online Verification Service in operation for private sector companies to be able to actually check the biometrics or to check that the information on the contactless / RFID chip has not been tampered with or forged. There are no Biometric Readers linked to the National identity Scheme anywhere except in the Home Office's IT sub-contractor's testing laboratories and, presumably, in the couple of ID card applicant interrogation centres. The new ID Card Post Code Lottery will now cover these areas:Pregnant SF woman tests Zika-positive after Central America trip FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016 file photo, a health workers stands in the Sambadrome spraying insecticide to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits the Zika virus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the 1940s and 1950s, Brazilian authorities made such a ferocious assault on Aedes aegypti that the mosquito, that it was eradicated from Latin America's largest country by 1958. But eradication experts say there is little chance that Brazil can come anywhere near stamping out the pest like it did a half century ago. less FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016 file photo, a health workers stands in the Sambadrome spraying insecticide to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits the Zika virus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In... more Photo: Leo Correa, AP Photo: Leo Correa, AP Image 1 of / 28 Caption Close Pregnant SF woman tests Zika-positive after Central America trip 1 / 28 Back to Gallery A pregnant San Francisco woman who had recently been in Central America tested positive for the Zika virus, public health officials said Friday. The woman has experienced no symptoms of Zika, but got tested because of known risks to babies born to women who were infected during pregnancy. Her test came back positive Thursday. She is San Francisco’s second case of Zika infection since the virus began spreading widely in Central and South America late last year, and it is the second case of Zika in a pregnant woman in the Bay Area. The San Francisco Public Health Department is not revealing what country the woman was in when she was exposed to Zika or any other information about her. Zika is known to cause birth defects, in particular microcephaly, a condition in which the head is smaller than normal. Microcephaly can be fatal and may cause severe problems with brain development and neurological function. But the relationship between Zika and birth defects, including the degree of risk, is not yet fully understood. Not every pregnancy exposed to Zika will result in a child with birth defects. The San Francisco woman will be followed closely by her doctor through her pregnancy, officials said. There is no cure for Zika or for the birth defects it can cause. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been constantly updating guidelines for doctors on how to monitor pregnant women exposed to Zika. “This is an emerging infection, so knowledge is evolving,” said Dr. Cora Hoover, director of communicable disease control and prevention with the San Francisco Department of Public Health. “The CDC and the professional specialty organizations are helping to guide providers through this.” Zika is spread primarily through mosquito bites and occasionally through sex. The virus is not yet spreading in the United States, so any cases reported here are in people who acquired the infection elsewhere or who had sex with someone who acquired it elsewhere. Symptoms of infection include fever, rash, joint pain and red, watery eyes. But up to 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms. In those who do get sick, the illness is not usually serious. The CDC has recommended that women who are pregnant or considering becoming pregnant soon avoid more than two dozen countries in Central and South America where Zika is widespread. For more information about Zika and where it is endemic, visit the CDC website. Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ErinAlldayLONDON, ENGLAND (BNO NEWS) — More than 90 percent of Europeans would vote for President Barack Obama if they were able to vote in Tuesday’s presidential election in the United States, effectively overshadowing Republican challenger Mitt Romney, British pollster YouGov said on Wednesday. YouGov said the results are based on a poll conducted between October 19 and October 28 in which more than 7,500 adults from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Denmark, Switzerland, Finland and Norway participated. Romney received no more than 10 percent support in any of the countries. “No doubt many Americans are not overly concerned about who Europeans think they should vote for, but on the other hand history has shown that when a president is unpopular with the people of Europe, it can have far-reaching effect on how those people view the United States,” said Joe Twyman, the Director of Political and Social Research at YouGov. Twyman said that, although Obama’s support at home has waned, his popularity in Europe continues to overshadow Romney. The incumbent president charmed many Europeans when he gave a speech ahead of the 2008 presidential election and called for stronger ties between the United States and Europe. National polls in the United States continue to suggest the race is virtually tied between Obama and Romney among registered voters, though a recent Gallup poll gives Romney a slight lead among likely voters. But state-level polls suggest Obama is doing slightly better in key battleground states that will decide the Electoral College winner, though the results could still end up being extremely close.President Trump basked in the glow Saturday of a week so successful that it even won praise from aides to former President Barack Obama. Trump had plenty of success to reflect upon as he donned a white polo shirt and red cap to enjoy five hours at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. He had had a successful two-day meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Senate voted Friday to approve his first Supreme Court nominee. And he had punished Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad for the cruel use of sarin gas against his own people by ordering a missile strike on an important air base. “Donald Trump has done the right thing on Syria,” tweeted Anne-Marie Slaughter, who was a high-level State Department official during Obama’s first term. “Finally!! After years of useless handwringing in the face of hideous atrocities.” Former Secretary of State John Kerry was “absolutely supportive” of the strike, a source close to him told Politico. The source said Kerry felt “gratified to see that it happened quickly,” days after a nerve-gas attack on civilians that killed 87. “Our administration never would have gotten this done in 48 hours,” another former Obama administration official told Politico. “It’s a complete indictment of Obama.” see also Trump tweets for first time since Syria attack President Trump broke 48 hours of Twitter silence Saturday with... At the golf course, Trump tweeted praise for US service members involved in Friday’s attack. “Congratulations to our great military men and women for representing the United States, and the world, so well in the Syria attack,” he wrote at 10:54 a.m. The tweet was Trump’s first social-media acknowledgment of the assault on Shayrat air base, which Assad’s forces allegedly used to launch their sarin attack. Trump tweeted again on Saturday afternoon to explain why the Syrian airport wasn’t completely destroyed. “The reason you don’t generally hit runways is that they are easy and inexpensive to quickly fix (fill in and top)!” he wrote at 3 p.m. The message responded to criticism that the Shayrat air base was back in use soon after the US hit it with 59 Tomahawk missiles. Foreign allies Turkey and Saudi Arabia also praised the attack, which was retaliation for a chemical attack that killed scores of people in the town of Khan Sheikhoun. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu described the decision to retaliate for the chemical attack as welcome, but not enough. If similar interventions do not continue until Assad is removed from power, “then this would remain a cosmetic intervention,” Cavusoglu said. In a phone call with Trump, Saudi King Salman called the airstrikes “courageous.” Salman said the missile attack was the right response to “the crimes of this regime to its people in light of the failure of the international community to stop it.”CHRIS MATTHEWS (HOST): During a phone interview this morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump said he would have stayed out of Libya back in 2011. [...] MATTHEWS: Well, but what Trump told Morning Joe this morning is the opposite of something he said in his own video blog back in February of 2011 itself. Right about the time the Obama administration was debating whether to intervene in that country. At that time, Trump said that the United States should go in and stop Muammar Gaddafi. [...] MATTHEWS: Well, here he is now in the present time, a man that is the new Donald Trump, the new model this year, anyway, at the campaign trail he called for less intervention in the world but he also calls himself the most militaristic, catch this, even more militaristic than George W. Bush. So, another angle to the man.THE price of a single bitcoin has pierced the $10,000 level and some experts say it could rise further. The world’s most popular virtual currency allows people to buy goods and services and exchange money without involving banks, credit card issuers or other third parties. It has a fuzzy history, having been used by hackers to demand ransom and for the purchase of illegal drugs online. But recently it’s become more popular with a different crowd: speculative investors. As its price keeps rising, here’s a brief look at bitcoin. How bitcoins work Bitcoin is a digital currency that is not tied to a bank or government and allows users to spend money anonymously. The coins are created by users who “mine” them by lending computing power to verify other users’ transactions. They receive bitcoins in exchange. The coins also can be bought and sold on exchanges with US dollars and other currencies. How much is it worth? Bitcoin was trading over $11,000 on Wednesday before dipping to around $9,800 later in the day, according to coindesk, a website that monitors the price. That’s about a tenfold increase from the start of the year, when it was worth under $1,000. The value of bitcoins can swing sharply, though. A bitcoin’s value plunged by 22 per cent against the dollar in just three days earlier this month. Why bitcoins are popular Bitcoins are basically lines of computer code that are digitally signed each time they travel from one owner to the next. Transactions can be made anonymously, making the currency popular with libertarians as well as tech enthusiasts, speculators and criminals. Is it really anonymous? Yes, to a point. Transactions and accounts can be traced, but the account owners aren’t necessarily known. However, investigators might be able to track down the owners when bitcoins are converted to regular currency. Who’s using bitcoin? Some businesses have jumped on the bitcoin bandwagon amid a flurry of media coverage. Overstock.com accepts payments in bitcoin, for example. The US exchange operator CME Group said in October that it plans to open a futures market for the currency before the end of the year, if it can get approval from regulators. Still, its popularity is low compared with cash and cards, and many individuals and businesses won’t accept bitcoins for payments. Some high-profile banking executives have spoken against bitcoin, with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon calling it a “fraud”. That said, JPMorgan is starting to use the underlying technology behind bitcoin, known as blockchain, as a potential way for banks to more accurately track trading and assets. Should I own bitcoin? There are basically two reasons why an individual would want to buy bitcoin: to use it as a form of payment, or as an investment to store value. Bitcoin’s usage among mainstream merchants is limited. Microsoft accepts it as a form of payment on its Xbox and Windows Store platforms. Overstock.com accepts it. But don’t expect to spend it at Wal-Mart or Amazon. The virtual currency is a matter of debate among investors. Some, like Dimon and billionaire Mark Cuban, are strongly against it while others are enthusiastic about it. Wall Street is starting to build products around it. The more grounded investors see bitcoin as a highly speculative, highly risky investment that a person should not put all their money into, not unlike gold, commodities or traditional currencies. How bitcoins are kept secure The bitcoin network works by harnessing individuals’ greed for the collective good. A network of tech-savvy users called miners keep the system honest by pouring their computing power into a blockchain, a global running tally of every bitcoin transaction. The blockchain prevents rogues from spending the same bitcoin twice, and the miners are rewarded for their efforts by being gifted with the occasional bitcoin. As long as miners keep the blockchain secure, counterfeiting shouldn’t be an issue. How bitcoin came to be It’s a mystery. Bitcoin was launched in 2009 by a person or group of people operating under the name Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin was then adopted by a small clutch of enthusiasts. Nakamoto dropped off the map as bitcoin began to attract widespread attention. But proponents say that doesn’t matter: The currency obeys its own internal logic. An Australian entrepreneur last year stepped forward and claimed to be the founder of bitcoin, only to say days later that he did not “have the courage” to publish proof that he is.—AP Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, December 4th, 2017The Cradle of Mir is a massive art installation by a group of artists from Russia for Burning Man 2013. It is a giant pyramid with a wooden model of the Soviet space station inside. It looks like a temple that has been built by aborigines of Melanesia. Who we are: We are "Pustye Holmi" (translated literally as Empty Hills) - a team of artists, engineers and producers involved in organizing a Russian festival of art, music and endless creativity that goes by the same name. In 2008, about 45,000 people attended the festival. It is based on the same principles of radical self-expression and environmental sustainability that Burning Man is based on. We believe that one can travel to Black Rock City as a tourist just for the night when Man burns, have a couple of drinks and get back home without even tasting the dust OR becoming a citizen, being a part of the movement, spending a whole week with burners, volunteering for art projects or any of the core camps. Although most of us have never been to Burning Man before, we decided to contribute our efforts, money and love to the community, which we believe makes our world a better place. And we hope that you will do the same. Why are we doing this? The sculpture raises an important question: "Have humans ever created anything that would matter to living beings from other planets, to the Universe or even to planet Earth?" We believe that people can come together, eliminate borders and visas and live happily if only they come up with an idea to build something so great that it affects every person on the planet. What could it be? Sending a space mission to the nearest star or stopping climate change? We urge the audience to think about past creations which we may be proud of as human beings! Space Station Mir We believe that the Mir space station was an amazing example of human cooperation and friendship. Mir was launched in 1986 and orbited the Earth for 15 years. The station has been visited by astronauts from 12 different nations until 2001, when it was sunk in the Pacific Ocean, near Fiji. The Russian government decided to abandon the space mission, citing a lack of funding. Mir became a prototype for the International Space Station (ISS). For us, Russians who were born in the 70s and 80s, thinking of Mir always evokes a feelings of nostalgia for the good old days when space pioneers were driven only by the passion to explore and not by money or power. If people from all over the globe were able to create something so great on a small neutral territory in Earth’s low orbit before, maybe we can again unite to create something great that matters to all of us. "Mir" (Мир) is a Russian word meaning both "peace" and "world". Therefore, the Russian language has an equation: "world = peace". For background on the space station, you can watch a 20-minute movie from NASA astronauts John E. Blaha and Shannon W. Lucid who spent about a year on Mir. In 1997, IMAX filmed and released a movie called Mission to Mir. The Installation The pyramid is 36 feet (11 meters) high, which will be higher than "The Man" this year. It is a bit scary for people who have never been to Burning Man (most of us are the first time burners) to build such an enormous art object, but we believe our excitement will only help. The vertex of the pyramid is open, representing the idea that members of the cult who built it believe in Mir's resurrection. According to their legend, one day, it will fly through the opening into the sky. We will offer everybody an opportunity to write a message that will be delivered to the station "Mir". The messages will be burned with the whole structure and its message will spread through the air. We also plan to play some tracks from the Voyager Golden Record. Our camp The Cradle at Burning Man 2013 Our small camp will be located at Biggie Size & 5:15. Come visit us if you are on the Playa. Or even better - camp with us! We have a few backer options left just for that! What are we kickstarting for? We won a Burning Man art grant. However, it covers only the cost of material (wood, plywood, etc.). We are asking for your support in buying tools, renting two workshops and transporting the installation from the workshops to Black Rock City. We will send you some memorable gifts for your donation: Check out our handcrafted clay mug, we got only 20 of them! Like our facebook page and follow on twitter to keep updated on our news!by David P. Greisman Heavyweight contender Bermane Stiverne has sued promoter Don King over what he alleges are violations of the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, according to reports by Courthouse News Service and Zach Arnold of FightOpinion.com. The allegations date back to when Stiverne was meeting with King to sign for a June 2011 fight with Ray Austin, a bout that had been mandated by the World Boxing Council. “When he arrived at the meeting, however, Stiverne was informed that he would not be permitted to sign the bout agreement with Austin unless he first signed an exclusive promotional agreement with DKP [Don King Productions],” Arnold quoted the lawsuit as saying. “In fact, before they would present to Stiverne the bout agreement with Austin, Don King and DKP required that Stiverne sign three contracts at that meeting which related to either promoter or management services with Don King, DKP, Don King’s step-son Carl King, and Carl King’s company Elite Sports and Entertainment Management Inc.” The lawsuit, as quoted by Arnold, goes on to argue that the Ali Act: - “prohibits a promoter from requiring a boxer to sign an exclusive promotional agreement as a precondition to obtaining a bout agreement with another boxer signed by the same promoter.” - “prohibits a promoter from requiring that a boxer grant it future promotional rights as a precondition for competing in a bout which is mandatory under the rules of a sanctioning organization.” - “requires a firewall between promoters and managers [and] prohibits promoters from having a direct or indirect financial interest in the management of a boxer, and vice versa.” The lawsuit also claims that the contracts granted Don King Productions 25 percent of the money he earned, and granted King and Don King Productions “an irrevocable power of attorney for up to 8 years” on matters such as agreements, receiving money, and the hiring and firing of Stiverne’s business managers. Another 16 percent of his income would go to Carl King’s company. Stiverne’s attorney argues that his client signed with King so as to get the bout with Austin, which could then lead to further bouts, including a fight with WBC titleholder Vitali Klitschko. The lawsuit was filed earlier this month, according to online court records. Pick up a copy of David’s new book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon. Send questions/comments via email at [email protected]Sinclair Broadcasting is giving more exposure to political commentator and former Trump administration official Boris Epshteyn by increasing its number of "must run" segments at its 173 local affiliates across the country. Sinclair will now require its stations to run nine Epshteyn commentaries per week, an increase from the three per week requirement since the 34-year-old Russian-born former investment banker and attorney joined in April. Politico first reported the Sinclair plans for Epshteyn. ADVERTISEMENT In addition to an increase in commentaries, Epshteyn is also expected to conduct interviews with Washington, D.C., political figures. Many Sinclair stations exist in the Midwestern swing states key to President Trump's victory last November and in some cases reach more viewers than CNN, a network Trump has consistently attacked more than any other as "fake news." Comedian John Oliver addressed Sinclair's corporate office requirement to run these segments on his HBO show "Last Week Tonight" on July 2, noting that Sinclair's alleged right-wing bias would inject conservative views into local news broadcasts. “Sinclair content tilts noticeably conservative,” Oliver said, adding there wouldn't be an issue if “the opinions were confined to the commentary or the ad breaks.” The FCC is currently reviewing a $3.9 billion deal between Sinclair and Tribune in an effort to determine if the two major media companies coming together is in the “public interest.” Critics against the merger say such a media outlet could potentially harm the public by significantly consolidating the local news media market, where both Sinclair and Tribune own big stakes. The FCC said the merger would slightly exceed the 39 percent national audience reach limit. The deal would make Sinclair the largest TV station owner in the country.Of the many factors that contributed to the GOP’s substantial losses in the 2012 elections, perhaps the most significant are that today’s GOP is focused on obstructionism and denying reality, rather than on making a serious effort to address the serious economic, social, and foreign policy challenges facing our nation. The GOP’s obstructionism has led to, among other things, an inability to fully address the impacts of the 2008 recession, the downgrading of the nation’s credit rating due to the debt ceiling fight, and growing levels of vacancies on the federal judiciary. And far too much of the GOP has been focused on climate denial, rejecting evolution, birtherism, anti-immigrant nativism, death panels, Black Panthers, the myth of voter fraud, “creeping” Sharia law, denying that rape can lead to pregnancy, and other ridiculousness, rather than on serious issues like jobs and economic growth. Faced with the choice of steady and pragmatic Democratic leadership versus a Republican Party that has gone off the deep end, it is not surprising that voters chose the Democrats. The results of the 2012 elections have led some Republicans to suggest that the party has learned its lesson and is already moderating its approach by, for example, reaching out to Latino voters, being more open to compromise, and prioritizing jobs and the economy. But the reality is that there is virtually no evidence that the GOP is offering anything more than meaningless talk on these issues. If you want to get a sense of just how empty the purported efforts by the GOP to return to sanity are, check out David Brooks’ recent column in the New York Times, titled The Republican Glasnost. Brooks claims that: Over the past month, the Republican Party has changed far more than I expected. First, the people at the ideological extremes of the party have begun to self-ghettoize. The Tea Party movement attracted many people who are drawn to black and white certainties and lock-step unity. People like that have a tendency to migrate from mainstream politics, which is inevitably messy and impure, to ever more marginal oases of purity...... Second, politics is being reborn. For a time, Republican candidates like Richard Mourdock of Indiana proudly declared that they didn’t believe in compromise. Political activists spent more time purging deviationists than in trying to attract new converts. But that mania has passed...... Finally, there has even been some shifting of economic values, or at least in how the party presents those values. And what does Brooks offer as proof of these alleged major changes in the GOP? The primary “evidence” that he points to is speeches by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) at last week’s Jack Kemp Leadership Foundation Award dinner in which the two offered some positive rhetoric about economic opportunity, reducing poverty, and immigration. This is weak tea to say the least. While Rubio and Ryan’s speeches included some nice-sounding, though vague, platitudes, they offered little in the way of policies to support such platitudes or to moderate the core Republican strategy of providing tax giveaways to the wealthy, increasing military spending, eviscerating Medicare and Social Security, and demolishing the safety net. While Rubio and Ryan may be offering some nice talk to try to mask their policy goals and make themselves appear more palatable to the media as they gear up for likely Presidential candidacies in 2016, unless those policy goals change there is little reason to think that the GOP itself is changing. More importantly, a look at Republican actions since the election demonstrates that the GOP crazy train is continuing to chug along virtually unabated. For example, any claim that the GOP is returning to reality is belied by the Senate Republicans’ absolutely disgusting vote last week against ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities. As described at this FAQ: The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is a treaty that describes the obligations of ratifying countries to promote, protect, fulfill, and ensure the rights of persons with disabilities. The treaty embodies the American ideals that form the basis of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): empowering persons with disabilities to be independent and productive citizens Ratifying the treaty would have put the US in a leadership role in helping to advance the cause of equality for persons with disabilities throughout the world, would have helped equalize employment standards regarding disabilities throughout the world, and would have assisted Americans living abroad who have disabilities. Ratification of the Convention was endorsed by the US Chamber of Commerce and every major veterans organization, and former Senator Bob Dole, who has a disability as the result of his military service in World War II, made a special trip to the US Senate to encourage his fellow Republicans to vote for the Convention. Yet ratification went down to defeat in the Senate because all but eight Republican Senators voted against it. And why did they do so? Because Rick Santorum (R-13th Century) and Glenn Beck raised blatantly false conspiracy theories about the Convention threatening US sovereignty and letting the United Nations dictate how people raise their children. Such conspiracy theories are typically limited to the tin-foil hat crowd, but in today’s Republican Senate caucus, they trump common sense and disabled WWII veterans like Bob Dole. Other evidence that the GOP has not changed abounds. For example, last week Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has been in charge of the Senate Republicans’ obstructionism strategy for the past four years, took obstructionism to new heights when he filibustered legislation that he himself had proposed. Over in the House, the GOP has selected only white males as chairs of the nineteen major committees, and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology is to be headed by a climate skeptic, Lamar Smith (R-TX). Finally, Brooks suggests that there are “increasing signs that House Republicans are willing to unite behind Speaker John Boehner so he can cut a deal to avert the ‘fiscal cliff.'” It is true that House Republicans are realizing that they have no real bargaining power because, without a deal, taxes will go up for everyone next year and the American people will hold the GOP responsible for that result. And yet, Boehner and the rest of the House Republican leadership have not really put a serious proposal on the table. Instead, they are demanding lower tax rates, combined with closure of unidentified loopholes, that would purportedly provide increased revenue only due to the mythical growth that allegedly would result from such tax changes. And Boehner has made it clear that he plans to hold our economy hostage each time there is a need to increase the debt ceiling. In short, there is little sign that the GOP believes more in compromise today than it did before the 2012 elections. Brooks is a GOP apologist who make lots of money pretending to be a “reasonable” centrist. As such, it is understandable that he needs to keep telling himself that the GOP is changing so that he can feel better about continuing to support a party that is riding a crazy train to nowhere. But, as the actions of Republicans over the past months have shown, it is going to take a lot more than a couple of speeches full of platitudes for the Republican Party to free itself of the crazy that has taken over what used to be the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Eisenhower.The winger has suffered a string of injury problems in recent years, and his club are desperate to avoid any further problems in the coming Oranje fixtures Netherlands will have to make do without the services of Arjen Robben in the upcoming international friendly against Belgium after Bayern Munich decided only to release him for the World Cup qualifier against Luxembourg. The 32-year-old previously missed the World Cup qualifiers against Belarus and France due to a rib injury, having battled a groin problem at the start of the season. Figo: BBC must be played for Madrid His club side Bayern therefore remain cautious with the winger and he will sit out Oranje's encounter with Belgium in an attempt to avoid further injury woes. "Arjen is only available for the game against Luxembourg after discussing his situation with Bayern and himself," national team coach Danny Blind told reporters. "He will remain at Bayern after their game this weekend, before travelling to Amsterdam to watch the game against Belgium. "Arjen then joins the rest of the team for the match that really matters, the one against Luxembourg." Robben is not Netherlands' only injury concern heading into the November fixtures, with Spartak Moscow attacker Quincy Promes doubtful for both games. "We are awaiting an update on Quincy's ankle injury," Blind added. "He suffered a knock against France, then played the full 90 minutes for Spartak against CSKA Moscow, before suffering another knock in training. "There is a pretty big chance that he will not play against Belgium and he could also miss the match against Luxembourg." Netherlands sit third in Group A with four points from three games, trailing joint leaders France and Sweden by three points.ATLANTA -- Vice President Mike Pence was in Cobb County Friday, talking up Republican Karen Handel at an event that raised $250,000 for her campaign. Handel gave a warm welcome to Pence at their Cobb Energy Centre fundraiser – a contrast to a campaign where the Trump Administration goes largely unmentioned by Handel or her Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff. Moments earlier outside the venue, two "Bikers for Trump" watched the Pence motorcade arrive – hopeful that Handel can go to Congress to work with the president. "The fact that Vice President Pence is in the building supporting her is enough to say that she’s with him," said Brian Strzalkowski of Douglasville, a Bikers for Trump member. Pence’s speech endorsing Handel had an unexpected highlight. "We’re going to pass the largest tax increase since the days of Ronald Reagan," Pence said as some in the audience gasped. ► RELATED \| Full text of Vice President Mike Pence's speech at Dobbins ARB ► MORE \| VP Mike Pence comes to Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta Pence’s recovery was equally memorable. "I’m sorry. I was reading off Jon Ossoff’s speech there," Pence laughed. "We’re going to pass one of the largest tax cuts in American history." Pence tweeted afterward that Handel would be a "true partner" to the administration if elected in Georgia's Sixth District. Outside the venue, a handful of Ossoff supporters vied for attention from a distant sidewalk - wary of Handel’s fundraising links to Trump. "Absolutely she will do Trump’s bidding in Congress," said Caroline Stover. Handel told the crowd at her fundraiser that the event put her fundraising above the $5 million mark for the special election. Prior to the fundraiser, Pence spoke to veterans and active duty personnel at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, where he promised the administration would expand military spending. (Photos: Stephen Boissy)A Drone Survival Guide with hints and tips on how to thwart the “robotic birds” has been published on the internet. With over 30,000 drones expected to be flying over the US by 2030, the Guide urges readers to familiarize themselves with the craft. In light of the growing number of drones, the Guide advises a number of techniques to evade and scramble drones. The document is available online and has been translated into 17 different languages. “Our ancestors could spot natural predators from far by their silhouettes. Are we equally aware of the predators in the present-day?” writes the Guide. It contains the silhouettes and measurements of all of the most widely-used drones, from the ‘Killer Bee’ to ‘The Sentinel’ as well as information on where they are currently operational. It goes on to detail ways you can hide from a drone. “Most drones are equipped with night vision, and/or infrared vision cameras, so-called FLIR sensors. These can see human heat signatures from far away, day or night. However there are ways to hide from drones.” Among the tactics it advices for eluding the aerial craft are: hiding “in thick forests,” wearing space blankets to confuse heat sensors, not using wireless communication, and the use of mannequins or human-sized dolls as decoys. “Wait for bad weather. Drones cannot operate in high winds, smoke, rainstorms or heavy weather conditions.” As well as avoidance strategies to escape from the craft, the document also gives advice on how to hack into a drone’s systems. The Guide gives the assurance that as long as a drone’s communications are not encrypted then they can be hacked. It describes how to intercept and interfere with the workings of a drone and also details a process called “spoofing”. “Small, portable GPS transmitters can send fake GPS signals and disrupt the Drones navigation systems. This can be used, for example, to steer drones into self-destruction flight paths or even hijack them and land them on a runway.” The US’ use of drones for surveillance as well as military strikes has drawn global recognition. Last week the Yemeni parliament passed an anti-drone motion because of the civilian lives lost in the US strikes on Al-Qaeda militants in the country. Pakistan has also condemned the US for its use of the craft, decrying the strikes as an affront to its sovereignty. Moreover, the Obama Administration has come into the firing line for increasing the amount of drones operating in American air space. By 2030 The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has estimated that around 30,000 craft will be operational in the US. In spite of assurances of their safety there have been a number of incidents where drones have lost control and crashed. In November of this year two drones came down in two weeks with no explanation as to why they might have malfunctioned. The first crash on November 12 grounded all drone flights in Central New York, while the second – on November 17 - saw one of the unmanned craft veer out of control and crash into a guided missile cruiser off the coast of Southern California, injuring two soldiers.From a 1952 Promotional Package for the Radio Program (Revised version (C) 1997 by Geoffrey Tolle) "TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET" INTRODUCES NEW "LANGUAGE" "T hey're rocketing on all tubes" might be a very apt description of the action-packed science fiction radio series, "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet", to be presented over ____ and the American Broadcasting Company every Tuesday and Thursday at 5:30 P.M. The above phrase, as any followers of the program can tell you, is simply a 24th Century version of out own more common expression of satisfaction -- "They're cooking on all burners". C oncerned with adventure among the planets of outer space 400 years hences, "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" has evolved a language all its own. And children, quick to adapt to any new lingo, are expressing themselves in strange and futuristic ways. In case your own offspring sound especially puzzling these days, here's a brief lexicon of space talk to clear it all up: Space happy - Slap happy Plug your jets! -- Shut up! Rocket liners, space freighters, jet scouts, spacers -- Types of space ships Space Ace -- A crackerjack space pilot Blast me for a martian mouse! -- Boy, am I a dope! Cut your jets! -- Lay off! Stand to! -- Attention! (an order) Rocket-ranger -- Space cowboy You've been drinking jet juice -- You're off the beam Speak of Saturn -- Speak of the devil He's as unstable as a heavy isotope -- He's "teched" in the head Blow up some meteor dust -- Paint the town red; "meteor dust" is also a handy expression for "hot
to war first and then seek to win”7. “All dueling is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem lagging; when using our forces, we must appear AFK; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are camping far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are tracking him.”8. “The art of dueling is of vital importance to the dueler. It is a matter of life and respawn, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.”9. “There is no instance of a dueler benefitting from prolonged duel.”10. “In the midst of rapha, there is also opportunity”11. “Treat your items as you would your own beloved sons. And they will respawn for you into the deepest valley.”12. “who wishes to fight must first count the item”13. “The wise warrior avoids the preshoots.”14. “Great results, can be achieved with small plasma cells.”15. “mystify, mislead, and surprise the evil”That is it for now. May your wisdom guide you into the glorious camp grounds.Amen.As a young gay person, I was displaced: from society’s expectations of me, from the category of'male' which violently oppressed me. Many people’s stories are like mine: forced from safety, forced from the idea that the world could ever be kind to you. We are, from the off, failing to fit into our perceived category. And so are these ‘iconic’ women. Society’s misogynist bedrock demands that all women fit into very specific confinements: beautiful, quiet, sexy. While we all know these codes are totally archaic and essentially full-on bullshit, when Britney shaves her head, when Heidi Montag has endless surgeries and then releases a single called "Superficial", we are witnessing these women fully rejecting these expectations, whether they’re choosing to or not. No longer are they perfect; instead they are flawed, and criticised for it.CLOSE A strong earthquake shook a mountainous region in southwestern China near a famous national park, killing nine people, injuring 164 others and knocking out power and phone networks. Time A damaged tour bus is pictured after an earthquake rocked Jiuzhaigou in China's southwestern Sichuan province. (Photo11: STR, AFP/Getty Images) BEIJING — A strong earthquake shook a mountainous region in southwestern China near a famous national park, killing 13 people, injuring 175 others and knocking out power and phone networks. At least five of the dead were tourists, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said. At least 28 people had serious injuries, according to the Aba prefecture government in Sichuan province. Chinese President Xi Jinping called for rapid efforts to respond to the quake and rescue the injured. Authorities sent medical teams, rescuers and other resources. The quake around 9:20 p.m. Tuesday struck a region bordered by the provinces of Sichuan and Gansu. The area is on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau and home to many Tibetan and other ethnic minority villages. It’s also near Jiuzhaigou, or Jiuzhai Valley, a national park known for spectacular waterfalls and karst formations. The U.S. Geological Survey said it was magnitude-6.5 and just 9 kilometers (5.5 miles) deep, while the China Earthquake Networks Center measured the earthquake at magnitude-7.0 and said it struck at a depth of 20 kilometers (12 miles). Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage than deeper ones. A man surnamed Song who answered the phone at a local emergency office in Aba prefecture, where the Jiuzhaigou national park is located, said the nearby town of Zhangzha reported the deaths and injuries. Song did not say where the five tourists who died were from. A 6.5-magnitude earthquake rattled southwest China late on August 8 (Photo11: AFP) The epicenter was about 39 kilometers (24 miles) from the county of Jiuzhaigou, which has a population of around 80,000, and was 285 kilometers (177 miles) from Chengdu, the densely populated capital of Sichuan province, according to the Chinese quake center. Xinhua said strong tremors could be felt in Chengdu. The Sichuan provincial government’s news website said that after the quake struck, a number of train services to Chengdu and other cities were suspended. Jiuzhaigou county had a massive power outage following the quake, Song said. Local officials were being sent to the town of Zhangzha, which was closest to the quake’s epicenter. “The tremors were very strong,” said a woman in Jiuzhaigou town who gave only her surname, Wang, and said she worked for a travel company. She said the damage in the town center seemed minimal other than the suspension of electricity. “People from other regions are a pretty frightened,” Wang said. Xinhua said more than 30,000 tourists at Jiuzhaigou were relocated to safety with help from tourist buses and private vehicles. Yu Qian, a local taxation bureau official, told Xinhua that she felt strong shaking that sent her and her two children rushing from their home on the fifth floor. Yu said the quake cut off power in her neighborhood and disrupted telephone service. “I was getting into a car at the time of the quake, and it felt like a heavy-duty truck roaring past,” said Liu Yanrong, a local township official, told Xinhua. Xinhua cited a worker at the Jiuzhaigou park named Sangey as saying that some houses in the tourist site collapsed or cracked following the quake and that authorities were organizing evacuations of residents. Images on Chinese social media sites showed rocks scattered on roads and people running out of bars and cafes in Jiuzhaigou town onto the street. A report on the news site’s official microblog also cited Zhao Wei, the party secretary of the Communist Youth League’s Jiuzhaigou division, as saying some telephone communications networks were down, making it difficult to determine the scale of the damage. On Wednesday morning, another strong earthquake struck in far northwestern China, some 2,200 kilometers (1,360 miles) away. It was measured at magnitude 6.3 by USGS and 6.6 by China’s agency and was in a sparsely populated area of the Xinjiang region near the Kazakhstan border. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. Earthquakes are common in China’s west, although the low population density there often means casualties are low. China’s deadliest earthquake this century, a magnitude-7.9 temblor, struck Sichuan province in May 2008, killing nearly 90,000 people. Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2wGqLydIn many jurisdictions, including many of the United States, civil authorities have adopted a definition of marriage that explicitly rejects the age-old requirement of male-female pairing. In a few short years or even months, it is very likely that this new definition will become the law of the land, and in all jurisdictions the rights, privileges, and duties of marriage will be granted to men in partnership with men, and women with women. As Christian ministers we must bear clear witness. This is a perilous time. Divorce and co-habitation have weakened marriage. We have been too complacent in our responses to these trends. Now marriage is being fundamentally redefined, and we are being tested yet again. If we fail to take clear action, we risk falsifying God’s Word. The new definition of marriage no longer coincides with the Christian understanding of marriage between a man and woman. Our biblical faith is committed to upholding, celebrating, and furthering this understanding, which is stated many times within the Scriptures and has been repeatedly restated in our wedding ceremonies, church laws, and doctrinal standards for centuries. To continue with church practices that intertwine government marriage with Christian marriage will implicate the Church in a false definition of marriage. Therefore, in our roles as Christian ministers, we, the undersigned, commit ourselves to disengaging civil and Christian marriage in the performance of our pastoral duties. We will no longer serve as agents of the state in marriage. We will no longer sign government-provided marriage certificates. We will ask couples to seek civil marriage separately from their church-related vows and blessings. We will preside only at those weddings that seek to establish a Christian marriage in accord with the principles articulated and lived out from the beginning of the Church’s life. Please join us in this pledge to separate civil marriage from Christian marriage by adding your name. Drafted by: The Reverend Ephraim Radner The Reverend Christopher Seitz Laymen are welcome to sign to express support for pastors making this pledge. –Ed. For all media inquiries regarding the marriage pledge, please contact First Things at 212-627-1985 or via email at ft@firstthings.com. Sign the Pledge Name * Religious Title Church 784 PledgesThe lag and shuttering issues in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is giving sleepless night almost to all PS3 gamers. These issues makes Skyrim almost unplayable for gamers who have spent lot of time playing it. Bethesda released a patch 1.2 or 2.0 and claimed that the issue have been resolve, but several reports still indicates that lag and shuttering on PS3 is still a problem. However, a PS3 gamer on Reddit has provided a possible solution for gamers who are experiencing these issues in Skyrim. A user on reddit says that disabling the auto-save options Skyrim, and deleting all corrupt saved data works in his favour and made his previously unplayable version of Skyrim playable again. Check out below what HE exactly said: Just trying to help everyone know. I can finally play this game again. My file size was 13 MB after 140 hours clocked (granted, I have the bad habit of leaving my PS3 on while not playing) and it got to the point where the game would actually just freeze up without fail if I tried to wait, sleep, load a new area, or just leave my character idle. I was afraid it would f**k up my ps3, so I stopped playing for 2 days, until I read a few comments on various forums. He then went on to offer the solution to all Skyrim PS3 gamers facing lag and shuttering issue: First, before you start the game, make sure all corrupted files are removed. From the XMB go to the Game menu, and scroll up to Saved Data Utility (PS3), from there you should be able to see files simply labeled “Corrupted File”, delete that shit. Then load up Skyrim. Go to system options, then settings, then gameplay, and make sure to disable all 5 auto-save options. He further gave a confirmation that the above method worked for him, making Skyrim playable again. After I did that, I can finally play again. Finally finish that fuckin’ mission, and move on. Finally leave Whiterun. Another user on Reddit asked, if we disables "Auto-Save" option, then from where would the game load, as we all know that Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim loads up from last "Auto-Save" location in-case gamers die. The answer to this query is sweet and simple, if "Auto-Save" option is turned OFF, then Skyrim will load from the last manual save point. Do let us know guys in the comment section below whether the above solution works for you or not Next pageIn the last two years I have tried and failed several times to write out my opinion and thoughts on the club restructuring. Each time, I’ve given up and failed for one reason or another. Once a couple of friends asked me not to write because of something they were working on. Most recently, I couldn’t figure out how to say what I wanted to say without saying a bunch of stuff I didn’t want to say. Recent events have inexorably pushed me closer and closer to coming clean on all this stuff, so I’m getting in the water no matter how cold or nasty it might end up being. Part of why this has been so tricky to write about is because I have conflicts of interest all over the place. So many in fact, it is hard to know where to start. Do I start with my financial interest in NexGen? Kevin has employed me in the past as a broadcaster and I certainly stand to reap a (modest) windfall should NexGen broadcast 100+ games. What about the 8 years of conversations I have had with Skip Sewell about various possibilities for leagues and formats and so on? How about USA Ultimate? I am currently trying to get the SotG committee up and running under a viable, activist model; should I be spending my meager credit with USA Ultimate making them angry about restructuring issues? How about my position as a coach? Oregon is my number one ultimate priority; am I risking anything there? We are presented with four competing visions for the future of elite ultimate: NexGen’s League, Triple Crown, AUDL and MLU. In the short term, the competition seems to be NGL vs USAU and AUDL vs MLU, in the long term all four of these visions are in direct competition with each other for talent and resources. We can debate all we want about the various possibilities all and what they mean for the future of ultimate, but the decision isn’t really ours – right now the ball is in the court of the elite men’s teams. If they chose to go to NGL, they will strike a death blow to the future of the other three visions. Obviously, the heart of the TCT will be gutted, but less obviously, the long term prospects of the two so-called ‘professional’ leagues dim considerably. For the AUDL and MLU to thrive, they need the existing talent to slowly switch over from USAU. They can create a little buzz and snap with their in-the-red advertising budgets, but there is no way a Seattle Rainmakers (one of MLU’s franchises) survives while there is healthy Sockeye that you can go and see. The best hope is that USA Ultimate continues in its neglect of the elite men’s teams and that the talent slowly but surely transitions from one format to the other. 2004 was a watershed moment in elite men’s ultimate. A team no one had heard of (Pike) came out of nowhere and battled to within 2 points of the finals. A member of the royal family (Ring) had its best pool play ever, going 5-0, but lost in the quarters. Two great rivals (Jam and Furious) played a classic semifinal that led to another pair of rivals (Sockeye and Jam) play a 16-15 nail-biter in the championship. Gone were the days when the top two teams rolled into the finals with a 5+ average margin of victory. Gone were the days when everyone else was fighting for the right to be blown out in the semis. Here was real parity brought about by excellent play across the board. This growth in men’s matters, because since that time, the production value (video, league play, fan access, promotion) brought to these games in no way matches the product value (the quality of the game) the teams are generating. These teams are playing far and away the best ultimate anyone has ever played, game in and game out. They are doing this by working incredibly hard and recruiting the best talent in the country. As long as there is such a discrepancy between product and production value, there will be tension within the ranks of elite teams and players for something different and better. I don’t think that the Triple Crown goes far enough for the elite men’s teams and I know that they are unhappy with it. It is a tiny step toward matching product with promotion in an era that is begging for a big bold step. Because it is such a tiny step, it all but guarantees that a second organization will come and ‘steal’ all that talent. That doesn’t mean that the elite teams are going to go for NGL, though – they are naturally cautious. Their goal is to win a championship, not promote ultimate. There is also a lot of risk in choosing the NGL, whether it succeeds or fails. So what do I want to happen? I want the elite teams to choose NexGen. As I’ll try to outline in the next few days, it is the best choice for the two biggest interest groups in this decision – the teams and the fans. It also has the best opportunity to preserve one of the things I value most about ultimate: the player-driven nature of the sport. The fallout from the teams selecting NexGen isn’t as bad for the other divisions (women’s, mixed, open, masters) as it appears at first glance. After the teams choose NexGen, I want them to approach USA Ultimate with a partnership offer and USA Ultimate to accept it. I promise much more detail tomorrow; today was just an overview of some of the existing issues. Ring of Fire’s Noah Saul pulls the disc at the 2012 USAU Club Championships (Photo by Kevin Leclaire – UltiPhotos.com)An Obama official made “hundreds of unmasking requests” during the 2016 presidential race, including of Trump transition officials, a letter from Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes charges. “[T]his Committee has learned that one official, whose position has no apparent intelligence-related function, made hundreds of unmasking requests during the final year of the Obama Administration,” Nunes wrote in a letter to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. “We have found evidence that current and former government officials had easy access to U.S. person information and that it is possible that they used this information to achieve partisan political purposes, including the selective, anonymous leaking of such information,” he added. Only one request provided justification that was “not boilerplate” for why it was needed, Nunes said. Three of the nation’s intelligence agencies received subpoenas in May explicitly naming three top Obama administration officials: Former CIA director John Brennan, former national security adviser Susan Rice, and former U.N. ambassador Samantha Power. Nunes’ letter appears to make reference to Power as the official who made “hundreds” of requests. However, David Pressman, counsel to Power and partner at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, stressed Power’s responsibilities in her capacity as a member of the National Security Council and denied she leaked anything classified. "Long before receiving an invitation to engage the Congressional committees, Ambassador Power was unambiguous about her support of bipartisan efforts to determine the full extent of this threat to our national security," he said in a statement. "While serving as our Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Power was also a member of the National Security Council responsible for advising the President on the full-range of threats confronting the United States. Any insinuation that Ambassador Power was involved in leaking classified information is absolutely false." (Fox News) Nunes said he intends to introduce legislation addressing concerns about the unmasking process that would require “individual, fact-based justifications” for future unmasking requests. “Cabinet members and other senior political leaders cannot be permitted to continue to seek access to U.S. person information within disseminated intelligence reports without documenting a specific, fact-based requirement for the information,” he explained. Nunes recused himself from the committee’s probe into Russian interference in the presidential election back in April although he is continuing to pursue the unmasking issue. He faces an ethics inquiry over whether he improperly revealed classified information—a charge he called “entirely false and politically motivated.”Left-handed residents are common in The Simpsons. Even though only 10-15% of people are left-handed, there is a higher than usual number of characters in The Simpsons that appear to be left-handed, or are seen to be writing with their left hand. Some are generally noted to be officially left-handed characters. These include Bart Simpson, Seymour Skinner, Ned Flanders, Moe Szyslak, Marge Simpson (originally) and many others. Lisa Simpson is seen using a fork with her left hand in "Cue Detective." This large number of left-handed characters is due to the fact that Matt Groening himself is left-handed. However, it's important to highlight that sometimes they have been seen as right-handed, even Ned Flanders, owner of the Leftorium. And right-handed characters like Homer Simpson have sometimes been seen using their left hand to write. It wasn't until 2010 in "Boy Meets Curl" that it was shown that Marge Simpson was originally left-handed. Marge Simpson said that she used her right hand so she wouldn't be judged, so she would technically be considered ambidextrous. List of characters by handedness Left-handed Characters Right-handed characters Ambidextrous (use both hands)It’s been a banner year for innovative movie posters, most notably with the Inception-style poster-within-a-poster campaign for You’re Next. Amazingly, though, one of the best examples of creativity in this realm had nothing to do with the actual marketing team, but rather a street artist. The person who goes by the moniker Poster Boy NYC is known for vandalizing city signage with anti-consumerism, anti-everything satire. What he’s done for a poster of forthcoming Hugh Jackman joint, The Wolverine, however, is a work of marketing art that should embarrass the studio team assigned to this film for not thinking of it first. The actual poster for the film features the spartan image of Wolverine with claws bared. In the doctored version, however, the posters on either side are made to look as though they have been clawed by Hugh Jackman’s superhero. It’s a sharp, incisive gimmick, sure to scar the psyches of those who were paid to promote the film by other means.RuPaul Charles switched networks and won again – picking up his second consecutive Emmy for Best Host of a Reality or Reality-Competition program, after being snubbed for years. Last year the RuPaul’s Drag Race win was a history making major win for LogoTV; this year his win goes in the tally of VH1, on which network he enjoyed his highest rated season. Tonight’s win marks only the third time the best reality show host Emmy has been landed by a cable series; Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn having won in 2013 for Lifetime’s Project Runway. Last year at this time RuPaul gave what was maybe the best acceptance speech of the night: “Earlier this year I was quoted saying I’d rather have an enema than an Emmy. But thanks to the Television Academy, I can have both!” Tonight, sadly, he was a no show. After the show, his rep sent his reax: “I am beyond grateful to the Television Academy for giving love to our show again this year. Providing an international platform for 113 outrageous, courageous and talented queens has been the greatest reward of all. None of this would be possible it weren’t for the incredible cast and crew of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and my partners at World of Wonder and VH1.”Overall 9.0 Story 8.0 Acting/Cast 9.0 Music 9.0 Rewatch Value 9.0 Before I continue further with this review, I have to say that one of the best parts of this movie which is that there is NO DUBBING! This is extremely rare for a Chinese movie, especially with a foreign actor and I loved that they didn't have to use dubbing. As a huge fan of the uber talented Lee Joon Gi, I definitely had to watch this. My experience with Chinese movies weren't the best, I admit, but I gave it a try anyway and I'm so glad I did.I think it's safe to say this storyline has been done a million times. The plot is by no means unique, but I still found myself anticipating the events to come. The execution of the the story, I thought, was done really well. If you're impatient, you may be tempted to drop it at the beginning, just because they present a series of events that happen so quickly you don't even know what's happening. That is actually what I really appreciated though, because the second half of the movie focuses on unfolding the previously introduced scenes and connecting everything together in a sort of genius way.Lee Joon Gi was of course, amazing as always (I may be a bit biased). He's honestly one of the best actors I've seen. His acting was extremely natural, even for parts that required him to speak in mandarin, which just proves how talented he is. Zhou DongYu's acting was pretty good considering it was one of her first roles. I didn't particularly like her character though because it seems as though the writers wanted to make her more complex, but instead she seemed a bit irrational and off putting.I loved the music! For a While by Lee Joon Gi was played in the movie which was great. Unfortunately I can't post the Chinese title on here, but the title of the main track can be found on the Chinese wikipedia page for this movie. It took me forever to find!Overall, I really loved it and would definitely rewatch. The cinematography was absolutely beautiful and you could really see the artistic intent behind each shot. Sure the movie isn't original, but it still made me an emotional mess and more of a potato for the entirety of the it (and maybe 10 minutes after as I contemplated the meaning of life). I wholeheartedly recommend it if you're into cheesy (in a good way) tearjerkers ^.^ Read MoreMLA Laurie Throness has released a 65-point list he’d like potential Liberal Party leadership candidates to consider. (Jenna Hauck/ Progress file) Laurie Throness has announced he will not be running for leadership of the Liberal Party. But he does have a few thoughts on what he’d like to see in a leader. On Tuesday, the MLA for Chilliwack-Hope published a 65-point list of ideals he would like to be considered by potential party leaders. In his release, sent out through his private email address and posted to his social media accounts, Throness suggested he would endorse those who agree with his vision for the Liberals. His ideas include excluding the right to die from palliative care, teaching children “to accept and cherish their body shape and biological characteristics just as they are,” and increasing support for independent schools “to provide … greater competition for our public system.” He said these 65 points are in addition to the party platform, and he feels a new leader “needs the space to refashion the policy agenda.” “I’m not running for premier myself,” Throness wrote, “but I do want to have an impact on the leadership and the direction of the party. Beside the overall qualifications of good character, experience, intelligence, leadership style and other intangibles, I’m concerned about the Party’s future policy direction, first in terms of the good of all British Columbians, and second, in terms of party unity.” The Liberals will vote for a new leader February 1-3, and candidates should be declaring their aspirations publicly. Throness says he is hoping to spur “a campaign of ideals.” He broke his 65 points into several categories, including Public Sector, Economy, Crime and Addictions, Health Care, Environment, Education, Homelessness, Housing Affordability, Indigienous Peoples, Agriculture, Social Issues, Tourism, Transition to Low-carbon Economy, Transportation, and Other. (The full list is available below this story on theprogress.com.) A few of the items are things that some Fraser Valley residents have been wanting for years, including a completed highway between Harrison and Pemberton, and widened highways (six lanes) through to Whatcom Road in Abbotsford. He also calls for a completed Site C dam, a bridge to replace the Massey Tunnel, twinning of the TransMountain pipeline, and to “stand up to the public sector unions in order to control the cost of government.” There are also suggestions that are less conventional. Under Tourism, Throness suggests: “Shape a mountain to create a globally-significant sculpture funded by the sale of stone removed, and use some of it to build public structures across BC that will last for 500 years.” Under Indigenous Peoples: “Offer incentives for Indigenous youth on reserve to engage in urban communities while retaining their identity, thus enabling them to receive more education, enter the workforce and enjoy all the benefits of BC’s economy.” The one item under Housing Affordability suggests offering affordable housing in already low-cost areas, “rather than in the GVRD.” He also suggests committing public offenders who are addicted to drugs under the Mental Health Act. The Progress spoke to Hamish Telford, a political science professor at UFV with an interest in constitutional rights. He said the suggestion of commiting offenders to drug treatment would likely lead to a Charter of Rights challenge. And while the current opioid epidemic could be argued as a “pressing and substantial problem” in the courts, there would be a series of tests to be passed before it could be enacted. “Canada has a very sorry record on forcible detentions – residential schools, mentally disabled, forced sterilizations etc.,” he said. “We have come to deeply regret these kinds of measures, and I rather suspect the courts would not look favourably upon the measure proposed by Mr. Throness.” There are seven points in the list focusing on health care improvements. The Progress sent that list to the Chilliwack Division of Family Practice for comment and recieved a reply from Dr. Ralph Jones. He underlined that he is only speaking for himself, not the division. Jones said he appreciates innovative, 360 degree views of healthcare, and agrees the current system is “financially and socially unsustainable.” He said some of Throness’s suggestions are “good starting points for conversations,” but that there needs to be wider input, lateral thinking and analysis. It’s not enough to study just the good points of other systems, he added, but to study those which need to be avoided. One of the suggestions Throness lobbed out was to give notice to doctors who only bill MSP on a part-time basis that they would lose their billing number. That is a suggestion that requires “a deeper dive,” Jones said. “The proposed solution is a little simplistic,” he added, pointing out that 55 per cent of the graduating class are now women, and many choose part-time work during their child rearing years. The work they’re doing is essential to the health care system. “Their part-time work is often particularly valuable in under-supported areas such as child and youth mental health, care of the mentally ill and socially disadvantaged,” Jones said. “What is needed in a community is a continuum of physician and nurse practitioner care, so that the entire spectrum of healthcare needs in the community can be met. The Division of Family Practice along with partners in the Health Authority and the Ministry are in the midst of this transformational change.” The government should be looking to front line health care providers for the best knowledge of what is working, and what isn’t, he added. “Progress in healthcare innovation in Canada has been described as a series of commissions and studies and little action,” he said. “Mine and others’ opinions are that such innovation is best developed at the service delivery level and then supported at higher levels of administration and leadership. Top-down directives often have unintentional consequences.” 65 policy ideas Public Sector 1. Continue to balance the provincial budget, and pay down taxpayer-supported debt. 2. Complete the Site C dam. 3. Build a bridge to replace the Massey Tunnel. 4. Support and see the completion of the twinning of the TransMountain pipeline. 5. Stand up to public sector unions in order to control the cost of government. 6. Pursue other resource development opportunities in areas such as mining and agriculture. 7. Oppose proportional representation and MLAs designated by backroom Party officials, and support stable government with accountable, local MLAs. Economy 1. Commission an expert study, to report within six months, on a phased reduction/abolition of the corporate tax, replacing that revenue with increased economic and job growth. 2. Commission an expert study, to report within six months, on ways to increase investment and productivity in BC’s economy, such as incentives to import equipment to automate production and alleviate future labour shortages. 3. Revisit the 2012 and 2016 reports on Business Tax Competitiveness, and take action in particular to address the administrative flaws of the PST. 4. Affirm the rule of law with regard to environmental assessment and review the assessment process to ensure both environmental protection and economic development. 5. Continue to pursue the promise of LNG by restructuring the business to compete directly with the U.S. 6. 93% of BC is crown land. Sell 1% of BC’s crown land (878,604 hectares) to British Columbians using a public process that ensures broadest-possible ownership and economic development. Use the proceeds to pay down provincial debt. 7. Find more industrial land in the Lower Mainland by negotiating arrangements with willing Indigenous peoples, and commit to transportation networks to access it. 8. Freeze the carbon tax for the foreseeable future, and preserve existing exceptions. Crime and addictions 1. Hire at least one hundred new police officers to attack gangs and drug traffickers. 2. Legislate the goal of the Ministry of Health, and all provincial health authorities, to ‘cure addictions to drugs and alcohol’ rather than ‘helping addicts live positive lives.’ 3. While continuing to save lives, emphasize and fund detox and long-term residential treatment programs (6-12 months, repeatable) leading to freedom from drugs/alcohol, rather than the long-term maintenance of habits at grave threat to human life and enormous public expense. Set a goal to treat 5,000 people at any one time. 4. Empower NGOs presently offering long-term treatment for addiction under the Assisted Living Act by providing more daily funding, creating a professional association to set standards, and following up with rigorous inspections to push out bad actors. 5. Under the Mental Health Act, commit prolific offenders addicted to drugs or alcohol to approved long-term recovery-based residential drug/alcohol treatment programs, where naltrexone can be administered daily to block cravings. Do the same for prolific offenders already in provincial custodial facilities. Health care 1. Task a commission to examine the best health care systems in the world and make recommendations to emulate the best of the best – with everything on the table. 2. Pursue opportunities to contract out more health services to private entities at public expense, while increasing regulatory oversight and reporting requirements for them. 3. To reduce wait lists, develop regional centers of excellence that concentrate on specific procedures, like the Shouldice Hospital in Ontario, which only performs hernia operations. 4. Enact a Patient Guarantee through a website showing the availability of operating rooms. Allow doctors to book their patients for surgery anywhere in BC, help where needed with travel and accommodation costs, and reconcile accounts between health authorities annually. 5. Upon the allocation of a publicly-funded bed in a seniors residence, allow the senior to choose the institution, thus giving all institutions the incentive to compete for the senior’s choice through upgrades to living spaces and services. 6. To alleviate physician shortages, announce with several years’ prior notice that future billing numbers will be given only to doctors who wish to work full-time (in 2015/16, a third of 11,000 doctors’ MSP billings were less than half the average billing of $260K). 7. Keep MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) out of palliative care, as per World Health Organization policy. Environment 1. BC’s climate is changing. We can’t stop that, so emphasize adaptation to climate change and pollution reduction in BC over attempts to change global climate. 2. Manage recreational motorized traffic in our back country more aggressively in order to limit environmental damage and minimize noise and disturbance for local residents. 3. Create a program to help volunteer groups who wish to clean up garbage on crown land. 4. Ensure the long-term viability of wildlife in BC by increasing conservation efforts, and the number of conservation officers to reduce poaching. 5. Focus on flood control by acting on Fraser Basin Council’s Lower Mainland Flood Management Strategy, ensuring that the Eastern Fraser Valley will not take the brunt of a future flood. 6. To help adapt to climate change, study desalination technologies using renewable energy sources, dispersing the brine over wide ocean areas. Education 1. While continuing to fully fund K-12 education, increase support for independent schools to provide more choice for parents, and greater competition for our public system. 2. Build modular K-12 schools with units that can be dismantled and moved to respond more quickly to demographic change, and multistory schools needing less land. 3. Require the creation of co-op education programs in every BC college and university, so that students can work their way through school without student debt. Homelessness 1. Fund the continuum of emergency aid, shelter beds, residential addictions treatment, and affordable housing. 2. Take a province-wide approach to homelessness, including re-institutionalization of homeless with severe mental health conditions, and the creation of a province-wide registry for homeless people in order to locate and offer services and housing to them while not duplicating efforts between cities and regions. Make this information available to police. Housing affordability 1. Provide more affordable housing in lower-cost areas of BC rather than in the GVRD, to maximize the number of low-income people who can receive assistance. Indigenous Peoples 1. Empower Indigenous peoples to represent themselves in treaty negotiations, rather than incurring millions in legal costs that are later deducted from their treaty settlement, and streamline those processes to enable quicker resolution. 2. Offer incentives for Indigenous youth on reserve to engage in urban communities while retaining their identity, thus enabling them to receive more education, enter the workforce and enjoy all the benefits of BC’s economy. Agriculture 1. Enact provincial legislation to protect home buyers, and to empower municipalities to protect rural communities, landlords, and urban neighbourhoods from problems associated with marijuana grow-ops. 2. Keep our supply-management system strong, while seeking out export opportunities to non-WTO/GATT countries. 3. Provide support for farmers who must vacate or manage land due to species at risk. 4. Farming is always more efficient and productive than hunting. Apply this model to the logging industry, providing incentives to adopt a model of farming trees instead of hunting for them. Social issues 1. Ensure that financial options exist for parents who prefer private childcare arrangements over licensed childcare. 2. Commission an expert group to create a policy that would counteract societal aging by providing stable two-parent families with the assistance they need to have the number of children they would like. 3. Continue the policy of a free vote, on prior notice, for caucus members on any issue other than a confidence motion. 4. Teach children to accept and cherish their body shape and biological characteristics just as they are, no matter their gender expression. 5. Commit to pluralism and tolerance in
she served as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Neither the official nor the document identified the specific targets of the cyberspying. Clinton's private server is under investigation by the FBI, though Clinton is not a target of the investigation. One of Clinton's excuses for not using a government email address was that the State Department's server was often subject to security breaches. But the administration official told NBC that the officials' government email addresses were not hacked precisely because they are more secure than private servers. An NSA slide shows Chinese hacker units. NSA via NBC News The email correspondences of top US officials have been the target of Chinese cyberespionage since at least 2008, when spies targeted the email accounts of then-Sen. Barack Obama's and Sen. John McCain's presidential campaigns. In 2010, NBC notes, the Chinese hacked the private email accounts of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead. Chinese hackers have breached airlines, health-insurance companies, and other government agencies to collect intelligence on US officials and their foreign contacts. More than 21 million people had their sensitive background and security-clearance information stolen when Chinese hackers breached Office of Personnel Management (OPM) databases in early 2014. The same hackers reportedly attacked United Airlines— the main airline flying in and out of Washington, DC's Dulles Airport. "There's no effective defense against these attacks and, as we've seen, there's also no effective deterrence," geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer told Business Insider in June. "China isn't trying to engage in 'integrity' attacks against the US — they don't want to destroy American institutions and architecture as, after all, they're hugely invested in American economic success," he added. President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Reuters "The Chinese are what I would call the bullies of cyberspace: Everybody knows what they're doing, but nobody can stop them," Tony Lawrence, chief executive officer of VOR Technology, a Columbia, Maryland-based cybersecurity firm that works with US defense agencies, told Bloomberg. "These state actors, their job is to gather intelligence on other nations," he added.Apple never announces the RAM in its iOS devices, so that metric often remains a mystery until a device teardown or benchmarking tests. TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino has an iPhone SE and a new iPad Pro on hand, and was able to use a memory checking app to determine the RAM in both devices.Based on his testing, it appears that both the iPhone SE and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro include 2GB of RAM.2GB RAM puts the iPhone SE on par with the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus, both of which also include 2GB of RAM. As for the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, 2GB RAM means its performance isn't going to measure up to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which is equipped with 4GB RAM.As was recently discovered, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro also features a slightly underclocked A9X processor, another factor that will impact its performance compared to the larger tablet.Geekbench testing by Panzarino suggests the iPhone SE is not underlocked compared to the iPhone 6s, with the A9 in the device running at 1.85GHz. On the test, the iPhone SE received a single-core score of 2538 and a multi-core score of 4421, on par with or slightly better than tests conducted on the iPhone 6s Given that it includes the same processor and the same RAM, the iPhone SE is as powerful as the iPhone 6s despite its much smaller form factor and lower price. The new iPad Pro, while less powerful than its larger sibling, has its own unique features, including a 12 megapixel camera with rear flash and a unique True Tone display.Colorado Rapids Soccer Club announced today the acquisition of midfielder Mohammed Saeid, attacker Joshua Gatt and one international slot from Minnesota United FC in exchange for defender Marc Burch. In addition, the Rapids waived midfielder Sam Cronin to be immediately selected by Minnesota off of waivers. Per CBA rules, Cronin, who re-signed with Colorado as a Free Agent in 2016, could not be traded to another MLS team. “We would like to thank Sam and Marc for their contributions during their time in Colorado,” said Rapids Sporting Director Pádraig Smith. “They are both top professionals who always gave everything for the team. As our captain Sam was a leader for our club both on and off the field and his contributions to the club will be long remembered. We wish both Sam and Marc the best of luck in the future.” “Sam and Marc formed part of the foundation that helped the Rapids achieve one of the best seasons in club history,” said Rapids Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni. “They were both valuable members of our team and our community and I’m confident they will have plenty of success for years to come.” Saeid, 26, was selected by Minnesota United FC in the third round of the 2016 MLS Expansion Draft. Prior to joining the Loons, Saeid spent two seasons with Columbus Crew SC, appearing in 50 regular season games, while notching six assists in 3,849 minutes played. He also helped the Crew SC reach the 2015 MLS Cup in his first season with the club. The 5-foot-7 midfielder spent seven years in West Bromwich Albion’s youth ranks before returning to his native Sweden to begin his professional career. Saeid spent three seasons with BK Forward, appearing in 56 games while tallying eight goals, and another three seasons with Örebro SK, where he notched seven goals in 68 contests. Gatt, 25, joined Minnesota after spending the past five seasons with Molde FK of Norway’s first division. He registered 11 goals in 63 league appearances, while also helping the club to back-to-back league championships in his first two years. Prior to his five-year stint in Norway, Gatt played one season with Austrian club SC Rheindorf Altach, in which he scored 5 goals in 14 matches. The Plymouth, Michigan earned his first of two caps for the U.S. Men’s National Team on November 14, 2012 in a friendly contest against Russia. Gatt was also selected to the USMNT preliminary roster for the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup, but was left out of the final list due to a knee injury. “While it is never easy to part with good players, we believe that this move is in the best interests of the club both in the short and long term,” added Smith. “Mohammed is a proven talent in MLS and has a successful track record in the league. His passing quality is of the highest level and his ability to find passes between the lines and move the team forward are key qualities we want in our club. “Although Joshua has had injury issues in the past his talent is without question. He brings pace and an attacking boldness which will provide our coaching staff with another weapon on attack. We’re confident the move to bring both of these young players to our club will help bolster our attack while providing us with additional cap flexibility to continue to improve our roster.” Next up for the Rapids side is a road contest at Sporting Kansas City on Sunday, April 9 (5:00 p.m. MT – FS1) before returning to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park to take on Real Salt Lake on Saturday, April 15 (7:00 p.m. MT – Altitude). Transaction: Colorado Rapids (MLS) – March, 31, 2017 – The Rapids acquire midfielder Mohammed Saeid, attacker Joshua Gatt, and one international slot from Minnesota United FC in exchange for defender Marc Burch. Transaction: Colorado Rapids (MLS) – March, 31, 2017 – The Rapids waive midfielder Sam Cronin who gets acquired off waivers by Minnesota United FC. Full Name: Mohammed Saeid Position: Midfielder Height: 5'7" Weight: 141 lbs. Birth Date: December 24, 1990 Birthplace: Örebro, Sweden Hometown: Örebro, Sweden Full Name: Joshua Gatt Position: Midfielder/Forward Height: 5'10" Weight: 165 lbs. Birth Date: August 29, 1991 Birthplace: Plymouth, Michigan Hometown: Plymouth, MichiganMuslim fighters holding scores of hostages in the southern Philippines have demanded international mediation, according to a Philippine official. The rebels, angered by a broken peace deal with the government, are using a dozen of the civilian hostages as human shields near the port city of Zamboanga. Troops surrounded the fighters and their hostages in four coastal villages on Wednesday. In another part of the city, three wounded rebels were arrested after exchanging gunfire with police manning a road block to stop the rebels from occupying other districts. Last month, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) issued new threats to secede by establishing its own republic. However, its leader, Nur Misuari, has not appeared in public or issued any statement since about 200 of his alleged followers barged into Zamboanga City's coast early on Monday and clashed with soldiers and police. The fighting left at least nine people dead and several wounded. The rebels took scores of residents hostage, holding them in houses and a mosque that have been ringed by troops. President Benigno Aquino III said the top priority was the safety of the hostages and residents of the city. Mar Roxas, Philippine interior secretary, said officials had opened talks with the rebels "at different levels", including a commander loyal to Misuari, but added there had been no breakthrough. The MNLF signed a 1996 peace accord with the government, but many of its fighters held on to their arms and accused officials of reneging on a promise to develop an autonomous region for minority Muslims in the south of the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines. The group has said it was being left out in government's negotiations with another fighter group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which broke away from the MNLF in the early 1980s. The 11,000-strong MNLF has engaged the Philippine government in Malaysian-brokered peace talks, which have progressed recently towards a new Muslim autonomy deal. The decades-old insurgency by Muslim fighters in the southern Philippines has killed about 150,000 people.When an off-duty officer from Texas visited an older woman during a well-being check, she never imagined they'd for a lasting friendship and that he'd be helping her shop for Thanksgiving groceries six-months later Officer John Holder of the DeSoto Police Department helped 73-year-old Dorothy Shepard brave the Thanksgiving shopping crowds at a Walmart store in DeSoto and a shopper managed to snap a heartwarming photo of the unlikely pair. The police department posted the photo on their Facebook page and over 700 people liked the photo and just days later they were interviewed by WFAA-8. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Act of Kindness: Officer John Holder of the DeSoto, Police Department was 73-year-old Dorothy Shepard braved the Thanksgiving shopping crowds at a Walmart store in DeSoto 'A citizen took this picture of Officer John Holder helping an elderly lady shop for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Officer Holder took it upon himself to help and did this on his own time. Great job Officer Holder!!' said the post along with the photo. Holder told reporters that he met Shepard after visiting her home for a wellness check after she'd had neck and back surgeries and then offered her his cell number should she ever need any more help. Shepard said she was floored by Holder's kindness. 'I was so surprised that I started rambling,' she told WFAA-8. 'He listened and he was patient.' Ever since the day they met the two have become friends and when Holder is not working he drives Shepard in his squad car to doctors’ appointments and helps her out in any way he can. Friends: Ever since the day they met the two have become friends and when Holder is not working he drives Shepard in his squad car to doctors’ appointments and helps her out in any way he can 'He said, 'I'll give you my cell phone; if you ever need anything, call me,'''Shepard recalled. 'And as it turns out, the next day I did need a ride!' 'I know police officers, but I never expected him to be that kind, and to go out of [his] way. He's just tremendous,' Shepard added. Prior to the photo being taken Holder says he didn't tell people that he'd been helping Shepard. Now he says he's been inundated with with appreciation after the photos surfaced and says he feels blessed especially with all the negative attention the media shining on police in recent days.Here on terrestrial Earth, the polar vortex is making all of our lives miserable, from frostbite-inducing chills in the North, to snow and ice blanketing Florida, to drivers in Atlanta getting stuck in traffic for 22 hours and comparing the scene to a zombie movie. As visualized from space, though, the polar vortex is a beautiful, panchromatic cyclone of endlessly flowing eddies and currents. It’s mesmerizing. The animation you see here was generated by an interactive data analyzer called Earth, with each line representing the motion of stratospheric wind as it ripples from the eye of the polar cyclone and churns air down south. In the full interactive version, you can zoom in and out, observing the winds of the polar vortex as they freeze the planet at different altitudes. The number of lines indicate how fast the wind is moving, which is also heat-mapped–or, rather, cold-mapped–to the color of each wind stream. The visualization isn’t accomplished in real time–it’s actually an advanced computer model of the weather we’re currently experiencing, rather than a visualization of the weather itself–but it is, yet again, a reminder that the Earth is a 4.5-billion-year-old computer floating in space that is tasked with generating billions of beautiful datasets, just waiting to be visualized. Check out the fully interactive model of the Polar Vortex here.Everyone knows that Thom Yorke is passionate about climate change, that he purchased the entire Warp Records catalog after OK Computer, that he was born with his left eye fixed shut. But did you know that he can’t read musical notation? Did you know that he said he’d “start skanking dancehall style” if Radiohead were to split up? Did you know that today marks his 42nd birthday? If not, this list of 42 things you didn’t know about today’s birthday boy might very well shift your paradigm. Also, because this past weekend marked the 10th anniversary of Kid A’s release date, we have included 10 things you didn’t know about Kid A. Who says important cultural transmissions need to be in paragraph form? Post comments if you have interesting facts to add! 1. Thom was born in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire (not Oxfordshire). 2. Thom’s old pager number was 1426148550. It appeared on Radiohead’s Airbag EP. 3. Thom was in a band called Headless Chickens. His first band with Colin Greenwood was called TNT. 4. Thom’s fear of transportation (cf. “Killer Cars,” “Stupid Car,” “Airbag,” the “Karma Police” video) derives from a car accident in 1987. 5. Thom has expressed regret over including “Electioneering” on OK Computer. 6. Thom’s brother Andy nicknamed him “Dodo.” He was known as “Salamander” in school. 7. Thom drank heavily when Radiohead first started out, to the point where he was occasionally unable to perform live. 8. In liner notes, Thom’s art contributions are credited to Tchock, Tchocky, and Dr. Tchock. During The Bends, his pseudonym was The White Chocolate Farm. 9. Amnesiac was dedicated to Thom’s son Noah, and his solo album The Eraser to his daughter Agnes. 10. Thom said he’d like to end his final concert with Neil Young’s “Fuckin’ Up.”A rifle used in the 1966 sniper rampage at the University of Texas that left 16 people dead and dozens more wounded is being sold in an online auction. Bids are starting at $25,000 for a rifle Charles Whitman used to shoot from the top of a clock tower on the campus in Austin. Donald Weiss of Dallas told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday that he's helping the owner of the Remington 700 sell the weapon, which has changed ownership several times over the decades. Bids are being accepted on the website of Texas Gun Trader. The rifle was listed in a probate court inventory in Travis County, according to a copy of the 1967 document shared with AP. The executor of Whitman's estate sold the weapon and six others recovered from Whitman's arsenal at the tower to a Wichita Falls gun dealer, according to Weiss. "The deal in Texas is, no matter what's happened or how many people were shot, this is private property," Weiss said. He declined to reveal the owner's identity. Whitman, 25, was a Texas student and former Marine when he opened fire just before noon on Aug. 1, 1966. Police who made their way to the tower's observation deck shot and killed Whitman after the sharp shooter spent more than an hour firing on people with terrifying accuracy — hitting people as far as 500 yards away. More than three decades later, a 17th death would be attributed to Whitman in 2001 when a Fort Worth man died of injuries from the shooting. Authorities later determined Whitman also killed his wife and mother in the hours before he went to the tower. Mary Jane Flowers' brother and aunt were killed in the tower shooting, and her mother was left a paraplegic. Flowers, who lives in West Memphis, Arkansas, was "shocked" to learn of the sale. "I can't imagine who would want that or who would do that," she said in a telephone interview. It was the deadliest shooting by a single gunman until 2007, when a student at Virginia Tech shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 more. "We're not capitalizing on the horrific part," Weiss said. "This is strictly for collectors, for its historic value."Documents unveiled during today's federal same-sex marriage trial revealed close links between the Proposition 8 campaign and leaders of the Catholic and Mormon churches. Over the objections of defenders of Proposition 8, challengers presented an e-mail that said the Catholic Church played a substantial role in providing volunteers and money to get the measure qualified for the ballot. That e-mail, sent by the executive director of the Conference of Catholic Bishops to bishops and a cardinal, also said that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provided "financial, organizational and management contributions" to the campaign. [Corrected at 4:08 p.m.: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the e-mail was sent by a member of the executive committee of Protectmarriage.com.] According to a Mormon Church document entered into evidence, the church was telling its members not to take the lead in promoting Proposition 8 but to support the measure through Protectmarriage.com. The church document said a teleconference had been held in Salt Lake City with 159 of 161 Mormon leaders in California. The leaders were told to teach the church's beliefs about marriage and encourage members to contribute $30 each for Proposition 8, toward a projected goal of $5 million, in addition to general fundraising. The challengers also presented a document that said Mormons were walking neighborhoods one day with 20,000 volunteers for Proposition 8, and that evangelicals organized teleconferences with as many as 3,000 pastors around the state in an effort to pass the marriage ban. --Maura Dolan in the San Francisco federal courthouseAttorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday called it “unconscionable” that California lawmakers passed a sanctuary state bill that stops local police from cooperating with federal authorities to deport illegal immigrants. “The bill risks the safety of good law enforcement officers and the safety of the neighborhoods that need their protection the most,” Sessions said during a speech in Portland, Oregon. “There are lives and livelihoods at stake.” State legislators in California passed sanctuary state legislation over the weekend that bolsters protections for illegal immigrants in the state. The legislation will now be considered by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who has announced his support for the bill. “I urge Gov. Brown of California not to sign this law that is in front of him,” Sessions said. Speaking at Portland’s United States Citizenship and Immigration Services field office, the attorney general pleaded with sanctuary cities across the country to rethink their policies. “I urge Portland, this wonderful city, the wonderful state of Oregon, and every sanctuary jurisdiction to reconsider what’s happening,” he said. CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS APPROVE ‘SANCTUARY STATE’ BILL Sessions cited the recent death of 23-year old Abel Esquivel, a community volunteer in San Francisco who police say was killed by two illegal immigrants who tried to rob him. “About three weeks earlier, one of his alleged killers was arrested for an alleged battery, and, despite a request from ICE, he was released,” Sessions said. “One of the other defendants in the murder case also had an ICE detainer request for him when he had been arrested back in May for illegal possession of marijuana and brass knuckles.” ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT MURDER SUSPECT SHOT MAN WITH GUN STOLEN FROM COP, REPORT SAYS Said Sessions: “It is an unconscionable reaction to Mr. Esquivel's murder to put into law the very policies that got him killed.” President Trump and his administration have vowed to crack down on jurisdictions that do not cooperate with federal immigration agents. But Sessions has faced obstacles. On Friday, a federal judge in Chicago ruled he can't withhold public grant money from sanctuary cities for refusing to follow federal immigration policies. Sessions dismissed the efforts of these sanctuary cities to sue the administration for the funding, saying such federal grants are “not an entitlement.” “We strive to help state and local law enforcement,” Sessions said. “But we cannot continue giving such federal grants to cities that actively undermine the safety of federal law officers and actively frustrate efforts our reduce crime.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison incurred a costly roughing-the-passer penalty against Buffalo Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick on Sunday. Relive every game this season online and on-demand with enhanced viewing features, including the "All-22" coaches film. Relive every game this season online and on-demand with enhanced viewing features, including the "All-22" coaches film. Get NFL Game Rewind With 4:45 to go in the third quarter, Harrison came untouched up the middle of the line on a Pittsburgh blitz. The linebacker drove Fitzpatrick into the ground, and Harrison was flagged for leading with his helmet. Harrison stomped his foot on the ground following the play. "It's not going to change the way I play," said Harrison, who's already been docked $100,000 this season. "There was nothing wrong about the play." The penalty negated an incomplete pass on second-and-10. Three plays later, Fitzpatrick hit Bills running back Fred Jackson for a 65-yard catch-and-run TD. Harrison recently was called to the NFL office in New York regarding how rules designed to protect players from injury are being enforced. Copyright 2010 by The Associated PressThe support for more competition in schooling expressed this week by the Harper review of competition policy is so facile, and cast at such a high level of abstraction and in tones of faux reasonableness, that it can only be regarded as mischievous. Schooling makes only a cameo appearance in the review’s interim report. It is relegated to Chapter 10 (on “human services”) along with aged care, health, disability support, employment services and the like. Each of these “services” is examined according to the precepts of competition theory. Is it a natural monopoly? How complex is it, and what is the nature of transactions between consumer and provider? Are there capacity constraints? Or problems in switching from one provider to another? What are the consequences of provider failure? What degree of regulation should or might governments impose? Schooling, the panel concedes, illustrates some of the problems that may arise when markets are extended into human services. It notes the OECD’s conclusion that school systems with low levels of competition often have high levels of “inclusion,” and, conversely, high-competition systems often have markedly unequal educational outcomes. It cites evidence from Sweden’s excursion into a more competitive system which suggests that it is the advantaged who do the choosing, with “increasing social segregation” as the result. But, says the panel, inequality is often worse without choice, and choice (in Sweden for example) can stimulate innovation and improve performance. Even if not everyone can choose, does it follow that no one should? And anyway, choice is unavoidable. It’s only a question of who makes it, the consumer or the government. What could be more even-handed, more reasonable, than that? In fact the report is entering false claims for both theory and policy. To say so is not to suggest that mainstream economic theory sheds no useful light on schooling – to the contrary, economics has much more to offer than the schooling industry is generally willing to acknowledge. It is to suggest, however, that the review has been unable and apparently unwilling to see that there are things it can’t see. What can be picked out from a high conceptual altitude is not necessarily what things look like down on the ground. Conspicuously missing from the report’s citations are two recent and substantial studies of how choice and competition actually work in the real world of Australian schooling. The Grattan Institute’s 2013 study of schooling in the large and broadly representative region of southeast Queensland found (with the help of an economic perspective, by the way) that apparently high levels of competition between schools did little or nothing for educational performance. The 2011 Nous report for the Gonski review concluded (also with help from economics) that, from a social point of view, policies encouraging “choice and diversity” have been a disaster. Behind the realities recorded by these two studies lie many others, including a couple of centuries’ sectarian, sectoral, class and intergovernmental division and conflict. Using competition theory to understand all this is like trying to capture a car crash with a satnav screen dump. The review’s Olympian gaze is as unhelpful to policy as it is to analysis. Its default position, given by the federal government’s terms of reference and the panel’s acceptance of them, is that the market is the natural order and therefore more competition is prima facie a good thing. I am no shyer about markets and competition than I am about economics. As co-founder of the Good Universities Guides I was part of an attempt to increase choice and competition in higher education. It is my view that in specific circumstances, such as those obtaining in some localities in the United States, competition between two forms of public schooling (charter and district) appears to be crucial in lifting educational outcomes for those most in need of them – but not, I emphasise, all by itself. There is no such thing as a one-punch fix for schooling – not more “independence” for public schools, not more accountability, not more testing, not improved “teacher quality,” not more funding, not better leadership programs, and definitely not more competition. It all depends on what competition (or any other nostrum) is combined with, and the circumstances in which that combination is deployed. That is why school reform is such a slow and difficult business. Consider the constellation of things that would need to be changed in the specific circumstances of Australian schooling for competition to really deliver the educational goods. There would need to be a level playing field, including a Gonski-like needs-based funding floor and a per student expenditure ceiling; a universal no-fee or means-tested fee regime; a focus on competition for performance rather than for students, including regulation or some other way of managing exclusions, cherry-picking, body snatching and dumping; and agreed educational objectives combined with a common set of benchmarks and indicators. As the Nous report and the small mountain of evidence on which it rests have demonstrated, in the absence of measures such as these the choice and diversity policies initiated in Australia in the 1970s have moved us steadily towards a school system with gated communities at one end of a spectrum and educational ghettos at the other. Unless the competition policy review panel is willing to at least note such realities and the immense difficulty of even getting a decent conversation about them – which would require it to move a long way outside the abstractions of competition theory – support for a more competitive schooling system is merely a free kick for an approach that works for those who don’t need it and against those who do. It would be better if the review’s final report said nothing at all on the subject. •Story highlights The Mu Du Bong was detained after it ran aground off Mexico's coast in July North Korea says there's no reason to hold the ship and accuses Mexico of human rights violations Mexico says it followed proper protocol because the ship's owner skirted U.N. sanctions (CNN) North Korea accused Mexico of illegally holding one of its cargo ships Wednesday and demanded the release of the vessel and crew. The ship, the Mu Du Bong, was detained after it ran aground off the coast of Mexico in July. Mexico defended the move Wednesday, saying it followed proper protocol because the company that owns the ship, North Korea's Ocean Maritime Management company, has skirted United Nations sanctions. "Because the company has avoided the sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council, the Mexican government is acting on the basis of its international obligations as a responsible U.N. member state," the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations said.It took eight days of campaigning but finally on Tuesday the hard hat returned. B.C. Liberal leader Christy Clark wore the campaign uniform that defined her victory in the 2013 provincial election. B.C. Premier and Liberal Leader Christy Clark puts on a pink hard hat during the 2013 provincial election campaign. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press) Four years ago Clark travelled across the province in her hard hat, talking about the potential of Liquefied Natural Gas with a bus plastered with the words 'Debt Free B.C.' The LNG dream has so far failed to boom in B.C. and the jobs and revenues associated with it are delayed, if they come at all. This time around for Clark, the hard hat symbolizes far more than just being on a construction site. It symbolizes the idea that British Columbians expect a future that includes resource-based jobs. That is why B.C. Liberal leader Christy Clark was in Fort St. John on Tuesday, the community most closely connected to the Site C dam. Clark needs the $8.8 billion project on the Peace River to complete so she can maintain credibility on her promises of job growth. "This is the biggest clean energy project under way anywhere in North America. It is going to create thousands of good paying jobs, family supporting jobs. It is going to mean our economy can be powered by clean, affordable power," said Clark. Right now 2,124 people work on the site. The projection from B.C. Hydro is that more than 5,000 people could work on the dam in the province's northeast by 2020. Plus there are others counting on the work. "Up here we had brought times with the oil fields and my company was lucky enough to get in on some the work on site and it kept us going during the hard times," said Kristi Pimm, the owner of Alpha controls in Fort St. John. More than 2,100 workers are currently working on the Site C dam near Fort St. John. (Christer Waara/CBC) Looking for alternatives But getting the project to the finish line is not a guarantee. There are questions about whether the electricity is needed or whether investing in old technology, compared to alternatives like wind power, is a prudent decision. "In the short run as Hydro plans showed there are a lot of alternative energy options," said Harry Swain, who was on the Site C Joint Review panel. "If you build a large project like this, which adds 8 per cent of total capacity at once, you will face a period of time when it [electricity] can't be sold at an advantageous price." But those low electricity prices, which have dragged on now, according to Swain, for two decades, aren't deterring Clark. Can B.C. afford Site C? At this point, moving away from Site C is something Clark can't afford. The jobs that would be created by the project are too valuable a political promise that the B.C. Liberals can't let it fail, even if electricity prices are low. But critics wonder if British Columbia can afford for it to go ahead. A new report released by the University of British Columbia calls the Site C business case 'weak' and suggests the project be suspended. In what researchers bill as a 'comprehensive analysis,' they say Site C is now much more expensive than an alternative consisting of wind power, pumped storage and energy conservation. The argument is that canceling the project as of June 30, 2017 would save the province between $500 million and $1.65 billion, depending on future energy consumption levels. The UBC researchers found the energy would likely need to be exported at a loss because electricity demand has dropped significantly. "The business case for Site C is far weaker now than when the project was launched, to the point that the project is now uneconomic," said Karen Bakker, the director of UBC's Program on Water Governance. "The good news is that we are not past the point of no return, according to out analysis." Job creation crucial story line But the B.C. Liberals are past their point of no return. The political costs associated with scrapping this project would be crippling. Not only would it wash out the party's commitment to create jobs in the region, it would put into question the entire story line. "If we get re-elected this project will go ahead. The opposition each have a plan. Under the NDP Site C would be dead. Under the Greens it would be deader." That's not entirely the case. The B.C. NDP would send the project to the B.C. Utilities Commission for review and allow the independent body to determine if the electricity is needed and whether the project is the best option for the province. But it is a line that gets the applause of Clark's supporters and keeps the dream alive that the Site C dam can create the thousands of jobs that the B.C. Liberals have promised. Those jobs are necessary if Clark wants to keep hers.Ever since launching Windows 10, Microsoft has been dealing with allegations that the new OS enables Microsoft to monitor everything you do, including every keystroke and stylus input, and even your location data, to name just a few of the privacy concerns. And today Microsoft has finally addressed these concerns in a blog post – to some degree at least. In the post, Microsoft executive VP Terry Myerson first explained that although the company does collect information, users are "in control with the ability to determine what information is collected". And if you're worried about the information that it does collect, Myerson explained that the data collected "is encrypted in transit to our servers, and then stored in secure facilities". The types of data While device IDs, device types and crash logs are collected, Myerson explained that content and files from devices are not included with this type of data collection, adding that none of the data collected can be used to identify any user. In terms of personalization data, which includes things like learning which is your favorite sporting team, or common words that you use for text completion suggestions, Myerson says users are able to tell Windows 10 what types of data they're willing to share with Microsoft. "Note that with new features like Cortana, which require more personal information to deliver the full experience, you are asked if you want to turn them on and are given additional privacy customization options," Myerson wrote in the blog post. Finally, Myerson also clarified that Windows 10 does not scan your files and emails so that it can target ads, adding a little jab at other companies. "Unlike some other platforms, no matter what privacy options you choose, neither Windows 10 nor any other Microsoft software scans the content of your email or other communications, or your files, in order to deliver targeted advertising to you." The blog post doesn't answer all our questions about user privacy on Windows 10, but it's a good sign that Microsoft is at least addressing the issues, such as the creepy Family Settings option. If you do have more concerns, Myerson is inviting you to get in touch – you can make suggestions through the Windows Feedback app, or head over to the company's support page if you're having problems with one of your privacy settings.President Trump told Republican senators Wednesday that they shouldn’t leave Washington for August recess until they send him an ObamaCare repeal bill to sign. Senators responded by vowing to revive legislative efforts left for dead twice already this week. Success was far from assured, but Trump declared "I'm ready to act," putting the responsibility on Republican lawmakers, not himself. Trump’s comments came the same day that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office announced that a straight repeal of ObamaCare would leave 32 million more Americans without health insurance by 2026. The CBO also projected that premiums for individual policies would double over the same time period, while about half of all Americans would live in areas where no insurer would offer individual polices at all by 2020. The developments at the White House came just a day after the latest GOP health care plan collapsed in the Senate, leading Trump himself to say it was time to simply let President Barack Obama's health care law fail. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had indicated he was prepared to stick a fork in the Republican bill and move on to other issues including overhauling the tax code. Trump pressured McConnell to delay the key vote until next week, and he invited Republican senators to the White House for lunch. There, with the cameras rolling in the State Dining Room, Trump spoke at length as he cajoled, scolded and issued veiled threats to his fellow Republicans, all aimed at wringing a health care bill out of a divided caucus that's been unable to produce one so far. "For seven years you promised the American people that you would repeal Obamacare. People are hurting. Inaction is not an option and frankly I don't think we should leave town unless we have a health insurance plan," he said. Seated next to Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, who is vulnerable in next year's midterm elections, Trump remarked: "He wants to remain a senator, doesn't he?" as Heller gave a strained grin. Two different versions of repeal
success.” Leon Trotsky, The Spanish Revolution, 1931–39 (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1973), 327. 45 For example, “An anarchist FAQ” writes, “The ‘free commune’ was a voluntary association of rural workers who took over an expropriated estate and managed the land in common. The commune was managed by a general meeting of all its members and based on the liberty, equality and solidarity of its members…. Like their political ideas, their economic ideas were designed to ensure the freedom of working people and the end of hierarchy in all aspects of society. In summary, the Makhnovist had a [sic] constructive social ideas which aimed to ensure the total economic and political emancipation of the working people.” Currently located at http://www.infoshop.org/faq/append46.html#app6. 46 Darch, “Myth,” 527. 47 Ibid., 528. 48 Arshinov, 87. 49 There was a tradition of community-level decision making and responsibility. These communes (Mir) were formed out of several families living in the same area. They made decisions to which the whole group was accountable and they jointly paid taxes to the tsar. However, there was little socialized production. They all worked their own separate plots of land, even if they jointly planned the division of that land. The Makhnovists were careful to distinguish between those and their “free working communes.” Darch describes these dynamics (“Makhnovschina,” 114–51). 50 The wheat is described by Skirda, 88, and the poison by Avrich, 219. 51 In fact, the peasants most likely to have a surplus were the kulaks, wealthier peasants who employed others to till the land. In practice, his approach would benefit the wealthy (Darch, “Myth,” 530). Even later when Bolshevik policy produced a great leveling of the peasantry (although some kulaks remained), under Makhno’s approach, the kulaks would have easily risen again. In practice, Makhno tended toward conciliation with the kulaks, downplaying the class tensions within the peasantry, much to the frustration of the Bolsheviks. In describing their class approach, David Footman quotes the Guliai-Pole Congress: “ways and means of our new agricultural order must be devised by the free and natural decision and initiative of the peasantry as a whole (Civil War in Russia [London: Faber and Faber, 1961], 277).” Trotsky and Lenin both also comment on this in various articles on Makhno. Darch notes: “There is no conclusive proof that the movement’s membership consisted mainly of poor peasants. There are grounds for supposing that a principle motive behind the Makhnovists was the highly developed sense of property among the Ukrainian rural population. If this is the case, then the Soviet charge that the movement was a kulak one might be partly justified.” (“Makhnovschina,” 46) 52 Darch, “Myth,” 531. 53 Quote in A. Kramer, internet article, http://www.marxist.com/History/russia_peasants.htm. 54 Malet reproduces Makhno’s order, 123. Skirda reproduces a related article from the Makhnovinist paper, 156. 55 Footman, 279. 56 Kramer and Skirda (156–57) describe the same incident. 57 Leon Trotsky, How the Revolution Armed, Vol. 2, 1919 (1924, reprint and translation London: New Park, 1979), 277. Also available at http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1919-mil/ch49.htm. 58 “Draft declaration of the (Makhnovist) revolutionary insurgent army of the Ukraine adopted on October 20, 1919 at a session of the Military Revolutionary Soviet,” reproduced in Skirda, 373. 59 Smith, 86. 60 For example, in a disagreement, someone has to prevail. If the minority can overrule the majority, we are left with an even more “authoritarian” state of affairs. For more on the general flaws of anarchism, see Paul D’Amato, “Anarchism: How not to make a revolution,” International Socialist Review, 3 (1997); Geoff Bailey, “Anarchists in the Spanish Civil War,” International Socialist Review, 24 (2002); Hal Draper, Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, Volume 4, Critique of Other Socialisms (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1990) 107–75, 270–304. 61 Quoted in Palij, 59. 62 From a Makhnovist bulletin: “Soviet and Ukranian currencies are to have the same value as other currencies. Those who violate this disposition are to be liable to revolutionary sanction [i.e., execution].” Quoted in Skirda, 165. 63 Skirda recounts one case of a Bolshevik paper being repressed because it was critical of the Makhnovists, 92. Malet reprints the full order, including the army’s right of censorship on military reports, 176. 64 These bodies supposedly had no decision-making authority. They were only allowed to carry out the congress’s decisions. In the fast moving situation of the civil war, it seems certain that these bodies had to make decisions in the light of changing circumstance. Regardless, one “congress of the front” in early 1919 passed a set of regulations on military organization. According to Skirda, “All detachments refusing to acknowledge its authority were to be disarmed and their commanders brought before a general tribunal of the insurgents (79).” 65 Malet writes, “Despite assurances that the town commandants did not interfere in the civil life of their cities, they did have a lot of power. Klein at Olexandrivske complained that all he did was sit at a desk and sign bits of paper, while Lashkevich at Katerynoslav threatened to shoot the local Bolsheviks if they tried to take over civilian power in the city. Skaladytsky in Nykopil ordered that anyone who did not allow free exchange of the various currencies would be dealt with as a counter-revolutionary,” 93. 66 Malet, 96. Responding to a typhus epidemic, they had to “threaten punishment to all who did not keep their places clean.” 67 Palij, 151. Quote of Makhno in Darch, “Makhnovschina,” 92. 68 Skirda, 359. From a Makhnovist bulletin: “…the cultivation, organization and erection by constraints on their part of any political authority hostile to the laboring people—which has nothing to do with the free expression of ideas—will in no ways be tolerated by the revolutionary insurgents.” Makhno’s supporters point to his allowing the freedom of the press. At various points, Bolsheviks and others were allowed to publish newspapers, but if they advocated specific policies with which the anarchists disagreed, they would be shut down. Whether one thinks this is valid is less important then recognizing that this behavior is “authoritarian” and “statist.” 69 Avrich, Russian Anarchists, 214. 70 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, “From the alliance of socialist democracy and the International Working Men’s Association,” in Marx, Engels, Lenin, Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1972), 110–11. Bakunin in this tract Engels’ cites, then goes on to argue that one hundred anarchists organizing secretly as the “revolutionary general staff” would be sufficient for the success of the revolution in Europe. The Bakuninist program, “Program and purpose of the revolutionary organization of the international brothers,” can be found in Michael Bakunin, Selected Writings (New York: Grove Press, 1973), 172. 71 Footman, 286. 72 Malet, 93 and Avrich, Russian Anarchists, 215. 73 Darch, “Makhnovschina,” 328. Darch summarizes a report from an officer in the Ukrainian National Army assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the Makhnovists. 74 Footman, 286. 75 Malet, 102. 76 Skirda, 157. 77 Footman, 268. Ellipses are his. 78 Quoted in Malet, 105. Ellipses are his. 79 Footman, 260. Palij notes that the “primary source of the food would be free gifts from the peasants, the spoils of victory, and requisitions from privileged groups (197).” 80 Quoted in Malet, 98. 81 Ibid., 18. 82 Footman, 265–66. 83 Ibid., 288. They were the Razvedka and the Kommissiya Protivmakhnovskikh Del. Palij also describes them, 192. 84 Ibid., 261. Although they developed a reputation for freeing the rank and file (which they did sometimes), there was no semblance of a trial for the officers, who were almost always summarily executed. 85 Malet, 102. 86 Quoted in Ibid., 103. 87 Skirda, 35. 88 On ban, see Palij, 197. Malet notes that he also banned card playing, 101. 89 Voline, 705–06. 90 Malet, 100-101; Footman, 289; Victor Peters, Nestor Makhno: The Life of an Anarchist (Winnipeg: Echo Books, 1970), 57. Darch discusses his early anarchist years and notes “According to one account the other members did not trust him because he was an habitual drunkard. In such a condition, he was aggressive and talkative, and liked to pick fights (‘Makhnovschina,’ 19).” Malet notes that once in exile, he cut back because he no longer had to “keep up the drinking standards of his fellow Ukrainian peasants,” only resuming heavy drinking in the last few years of his life, when “he knew that tuberculosis was killing him anyway,” 189. Skirda dismisses this portion of Voline’s book, claiming it was lies driven by factional infighting and hurt feelings. This defense is weak. Voline spends the bulk of his time singing Makhno’s praises and defending him from unjust criticism such as anti-Semitism. He devotes less than 6 of 170 pages on the Makhnovists to criticisms of the movement. 91 Voline, 705. Peters mentions others rapes, 58. 92 Skirda, 306. 93 Darch, “Makhnovschina,” 5051. 94 Cliff, Lenin, 155. 95 For size estimate, see Darch, “Makhnovschina,” 408. Makhno’s army either expended energy on raids to acquire weapons, or, when in alliance with the Red Army, got them from the workers’ state, Ibid., 329. 96 Ibid., 271. 97 Lincoln, 198. 98 Darch, “Makhnovschina,” 288. To explain their failure, the Makhnovists claim it was not their fault—they were deliberately deprived of weapons by the treacherous Bolsheviks. This does not explain their abandonment of the front. Additionally, a more credible explanation for supply problems is a combination of the fog of war and the generally poor material conditions the Red Army faced. It’s not as if the rest of the Red Army was superbly equipped by a well-oiled machine. Indeed, there are cables from Bolsheviks traveling with Makhno requesting arms and reinforcements from Bolsheviks in the rear. Ibid., 28990. 99 Ibid., 291. 100 Ibid., 42. The full text of Order 1824 can be found online at http://nestormakhno.info/english/trotsky/ord1824.htm. 101 Ibid., 291. From the announcement addressed to all units of Makhno’s division and Red Army troops in the region: “The Executive Committee of the RVS [...] has reached the conclusion that only the working masses themselves can find a solution, and not individuals or parties.” 102 Ibid., 530. 103 Ibid., 418. 104 Skirda, 194. This may reveal a lack of political awareness by many in Makhno’s army. It also may have fueled incorrect rumors of a Wrangel-Makhno alliance. 105 The details of this agreement are covered by Darch, “Makhnovschina,” 41925. 106 Skirda argues that “Thus, in two weeks the Makhnovists had done what the Red Army had failed to achieve over six months! (226)” Malet notes that “it is not easy to evaluate the contribution of the Makhnovists to Wrangel’s defeat” and goes on to quote a Bolshevik writer on the Makhnovists’ heroism, 69. However, Darch points out that during the campaign against Wrangel, the Red Army leaders were sending a constant stream of cables to the rear about the failures and slowness of the Makhnovists (“Makhnovschina,” 115). Lincoln concludes that the key factor was sending fresh reserves of committed Bolsheviks that meant their proportion in the Red Army on the front rose to one in eight, 44043. 107 Darch, “Makhnovschina,”. 108 Ibid., 54345. While acknowledging the NEP’s critical role, Darch argues there are additional factors, including the peasants’ exhaustion with war, Makhno’s lack of resources, and Makhno’s military defeat at the hands of the Red Army. 109 Arshinov, 25253. Emphasis in original. 110 Darch, “Makhnovschina,” 5657. 111 This is known as the debate over the Platform. 112 Nestor Makhno, ed. Alexander Skirda, The Struggle Against the State and other Essays (San Francisco: AK Press, 1996), 67. The original essay “On revolutionary discipline” was written in 1925. 113 Ibid. 114 Leon Trotsky, How The Revolution Armed, Vol. 1, 1918 (London: New Park, 1979), 400401. Also available online at http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1918/military/ch34.htm.Image: ZDNet Just hours after we reported the crowdfunded effort to hack the iPhone 5S fingerprint scanner, istouchidhackedyet, a shyster hijacked the contest and got big press for it — and has revealed to ZDNet he does not intend to join the bounty award after all. And some major press outlets fell for it — even though he never had anything to do with the project in any way. Read this Hackers claim first iPhone 5s fingerprint reader bypass; bounty founder awaiting verification One hacker group claims to have bypassed the Apple iPhone 5s fingerprint reader. ZDNet spoke to the founder of a bypass-seeking bounty on how the alleged hack will be verified. Read More Arturas Rosenbacher told ZDNet by phone last night that his funds are "not liquid" enough to join the contest. He also separated himself from the bounty contest, telling us that he would not be joining the #istouchidhackedyet crowdfund in either its awarding of the bounty or its terms for the award and laid out his own terms for awarding any funds. The #istouchidhackedyet bounty can kiss its $10,000 goodbye. And Rosenbacher got some terrific press out of it — even at one point, a profile. It's unclear whether or not Rosenbacher ever intended to participate in a group award of the bounty, but one thing's certain: he represented and spoke for the project at every press opportunity. Thursday night, bounty founders Nick Depetrillo and Robert David Graham — along with a few other notorious hackers, such as The Grugq — said they would give cash to whoever proved they could hack the iPhone 5s fingerprint scanner. Since their friends in the infosec community had the same "let's break it better" urge about the new premium offering from Apple, and so Depetrillo and Graham made the istouchidhackedyet.com website. Once the 'pot' turned into a bounty, we reported on it, followed one hour later by Forbes. Then Rosenbacher threw his hat in the ring for an astonishing $10,000. From that moment, Rosenbacher raced to embrace press and media covering the contest with open arms — as the infosec community leader behind the contest. If you read or saw items in outlets like CNBC or the U.K.'s Telegraph, you would walk away thinking #istouchidhackedyet was his project. One article for #istouchidhackedyet in the Chicago Business Journal is entirely about Rosenbacher. Meanwhile, his astonishing $10,000 reward promise — to be put in the community bounty pot — was yet to materialize. At one point Rosenbacher claimed to some press it was his infosec firm that was behind istouchidhackedyet.com. Great interview with @Arturas, why his security research firm is offering $10K to 1st to hack iPhone5s fingerprint. Watch @KIRO7Seattle at 5 — John R. Knicely (@JRKnicely) September 20, 2013 In a phone interview Rosenbacher told ZDNet that he does not have an information security company, nor does he work in the infosec industry in any capacity. Rosenbacher (aka "USAnon") managed to insert himself into nearly every piece of press about the bounty. Angry that Rosenbacher has hijacked and claimed the community effort as his own to the world (as well as mad as hell that press outlets fell for it), the people actually behind #istouchidhackedyet asked Rosenbacher to put his money where his mouth is. @Arturas @BloombergTV don't know about u guys, but doing a marketing stunt out of some1 else's idea is not cool imo #istouchidhackedyet — Mattias Jidhage (@mjidhage) September 20, 2013 When we asked Rosenbacher what his response was to accusations on Twitter that he was faking the offer of $10,000, he told ZDNet that he had not seen anything of the sort and asked if we could describe the tweets. We did, and it was then that Rosenbacher said that he and his company would deny escrow to any third party as a matter of trust and would instead do a separate award based on "rigor and trust." .@Arturas what's the best way to contact you for arranging the transfer to @bugcrowd's capable and specialised bug bounty hands? — the grugq (@thegrugq) September 20, 2013 Part of the new terms Rosenbacher laid out were that the hacker show that they were going "straight to Apple" with their findings. When asked what his response is to accusations that he'd taken credit for the contest in media and press, Rosenbacher stated: "We did not start the contest. We are just trying to get it going." To show good faith and in response to their frustration with Rosenbacher's evasion, most everyone offering cash and bitcoins for the hack have now put their donation into an escrow account. Everyone except for Rosenbacher: So, this is the same guy who made a fake $10k pledge to #istouchidhackedyet, then took credit for the whole idea. http://t.co/7PaIPRT4C7 — Chris Eng (@chriseng) September 21, 2013 Eng, who is security firm Veracode's Vice President of Research, pointed out an anonymous posting about Rosenbacher. But a quick Google doesn't help his case much, unearthing a run-in with Occupy Chicago in 2011 (where he withdrew), and accusations in early 2012that he'd "swindled donations" from members of the hacktivist entity Anonymous. He was quick to tell the world about his upcoming #istouchidhackedyet press appearances. On CNBC, he spoke for "the hacking community," representing #istouchidhackedyet. CNBC: What is the hacking community now doing with the phone? Rosenbacher: (...) Basically, we are trying to make sure that this is as secure as possible before it becomes a problem. (...) We owe it to users of the iPhone. His elaborations included fabricating what #istouchidhackedyet would do if a hack was indeed found and — incredibly — authoritatively told CNBC that Apple would respond by shutting off the fingerprint scanner to fix it. When asked if istouchidhackedyet findings would "go straight to Apple," Rosenbacher replied: Rosenbacher: (...) that will go straight to apple and every national security agency that wants it. We estimate there will be an update to cure that within 24 hours. They might even turn off the fingerprint sensor as a whole until it's fixed. CNBC: Wow! Bloomberg — thankfully — featured Robert David Graham in a split-screen with Rosenbacher. However, while Depetrillo reiterated that he started the whole thing because he wanted to show people that hacking the iPhone's fingerprint scanner was going to be a lot harder than anyone thought, Rosenbacher told Bloomberg — just as he'd told CNBC — that this hack was going to be easy. By September 20, it wasn't just press who now were publicly handing the project to Rosenbacher. He was credited for the project's propulsion by every surface-skimmer who stumbled across the news: I love that @Arturas/@IOCapital and others are making it an compelling challenge to improve Touch ID security, with #IsTouchIDHackedYet. — Faruk Ateş (@KuraFire) September 20, 2013 By September 21, the hackers behind #istouchidhackedyet decided enough was enough. Compelled to stop the madness, the following text was added to the website footer: "This site created by @nickdepetrillo and @erratarob, out of discussions with @thegrugq, @quine, @DonAndrewBailey, and a large cast of characters on Twitter." That cast does not include Rosenbacher's name. CipherLaw's Jim Denaro said in a tweet (currently unavailable) on Friday: "Spoke with @Arturas," adding: "No escrow can be paid at this moment; but still considering options." Ultimately, no one has been hurt by the misappropriation and misattribution. But there's no doubt that a number of hackers are furious that a community effort with good intentions was leveraged as a press opportunity for someone who, in reality, has yet to participate in or contribute to #istouchidhackedyet in any way. Though Rosenbacher did gain a neat 5,000 new followers on Twitter out of the whole thing. Still laughing at how @Arturas hacked the hackers ahhahahahahhahah :-] — The gdb monster! (@osxreverser) September 21, 2013 Most coverage was correct, minus a few details here and there. Some even attributed sources. But how did some major media outlets get the story so wrong? Lots of reasons, of course. But two primary issues are on the table: a disturbing lack of due diligence by reporters and writers, and the tirelessness and zeal with which Rosenbacher pursued press opportunities. @TheBrianDonohue neither myself nor @ErrataRob (who was not credited) were consulted for your article. We are both accessible on Twitter. — NickDe (@nickdepetrillo) September 19, 2013 Hurrying to get a story out is the wrong excuse for journalists to omit proper attribution. However, the race to the bottom for pageviews and fame over accuracy and substance (and over respect of both subject and peers) has cultivated an environment where readers are fed incorrect information on a regular basis. This is a problem — for obvious reasons, many of which are important enough to merit another article. But in this case, the problem created is the opportunity for people like Rosenbacher to softball his way into major press opportunities over the people behind #istouchidhackedyet — in a media environment rich in low-hanging fruit for the taking. Or as one wise hacker put it: Update 23 September 2013 10:50 PDT: Mr. Rosenbacher deleted his Tweets that were embedded in the original version of this post; the post has been edited to replace Mr. Rosenbacher's embedded tweets with screenshots. Additionally, 12 hours after this article was published Mr. Rosenbacher produced a press release stating that his award is seperate from #istouchidhackedyet with his own award Terms. Read more on Apple's fingerprint security:I saw this tweet from Matt Griffin: Finally started making my life easier by using :not(:last-of-type) rather than overriding with a separate :last-of-type rule. Huzzah! Mind. Blown. Why didn’t I think of this earlier? This small thing saves so much time and lines of code. Let me explain. Let’s say you’re styling a list of posts. <!-- This is what your html would look like --> <ul class= "posts" > <li class= "post" > <a href= "/link-to-post/" title= "Permalink to post" > <h2> Post Title </h2> <small> Thurs, Feb 16, 2017 <small> </a> </li> </ul> This is how I foolishly used to style this. Foolishly I tell you! .posts { list-style : none ; margin : 0 ; padding : 0 ; }.post { border-bottom : 1px solid #eee ; margin-bottom :.5rem ; padding-bottom :.5rem ; & :last-child { border-bottom : 0 ; margin-bottom : 0 ; padding-bottom : 0 ; } } Lots of code just to space each post evenly, except for the last one. This is what :not was made for! .post :not ( :last-of-type ) { border-bottom : 1px solid #eee ; margin-bottom :.5rem ; padding-bottom :.5rem ; } We’ve eliminated five lines of code here. Just imagine how much you’d save by using this throughout your code base! I made a CodePen for you to see this in action. Hope this helps! If you have questions, send me an email to smith@ttimsmith.com.What did you do today? Did you record a song in space? No? Then you aren’t as cool as International Space Station mission commander Chris Hadfield. The Canadian astronaut posted the song, “Jewel in the Night” to the music hosting service Soundcloud early on December 24, and then linked to it on the social-sharing site Reddit. He prefaced it with the humble-brag headline: “Not sure if it’s up to reddit standards, but here is a song I recorded yesterday on the International Space Station.” The top responding comment from user Good music, check. / Recorded in space, check. / By a Canadian astronaut, check. / Rendez-vous with Reddit standards, complete. Having a closet with no gravity is a challenge – hard to keep track of where everything is! http://t.co/c2wXeZb0 — Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) December 23, 2012 jackrabbitslimz assured the commander that his song was up to snuff. [np_storybar title=”‘The world is beautiful’: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield on living in space and the view from the window ” link=”http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/24/the-world-is-beautiful-canadian-astronaut-chris-hadfield-on-living-in-space-and-the-view-from-the-window/”%5D “I’ve been an astronaut for 20 years and I’ve been training specifically for this for the last five years, and the hard part is remembering what matters — some key detail that some instructor told me on a boat just off the Port of Sevastopol on the Black Sea three years ago about something critical about my life-support-equipment suit on the Soyuz. I have boiled things down to one-page notes on all sorts of different systems in an effort to be able to simplify in my mind so I can remember the important stuff at the right time.” Continue reading… [/np_storybar] Hadfield traveled to the space station on board a Russian Soyuz capsule for a five-month visit to the giant orbiting space lab. During his stay, the 53-year-old space veteran, an avid guitar player, promised to do some strumming to help him deal with homesickness, which he obviously started to fulfil today. He will also be involved with more than 130 experiments including Micro-flow, a Canadian blood-sampling experiment which he compared to a hospital in a box. During the second half of his mission, Hadfield will become the first Canadian to command the space station. This is Hadfield’s third space journey. His first space trip was in November 1995 when he visited the Russian Space Station Mir. His second voyage was a visit to the International Space Station in April 2001, when he also performed two space walks. Marc Garneau, who was the first Canadian to shuttle into outer space, said he’s proud of Hadfield’s accomplishments and wished him well. “This is a first,” he said Tuesday. “The first [Canadian] commander of the International Space Station.” “That’s an incredible accomplishment. He’s an incredible guy.” Garneau admits he’d like to be in space again. “I’d love it, it’s fun,” he told The Canadian Press. Garneau has moved on to more earthly challenges. The Liberal member of Parliament is running to become the federal party’s next leader.Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a 76-year-old Argentinean, was chosen as the first Latin American pope on Wednesday. He will lead the world's 1.2 billion Catholics as Pope Francis. While his selection may be historic, it may also mean more of the same when it comes to gay rights in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis is a conservative who is anti-gay marriage and anti-gay adoption. He has described same-sex marriage as the work of the devil and a “destructive attack on God’s plan.” He has also said that gay adoption is a form of discrimination against children. In 2010, Francis championed against a bill for same-sex marriage and gay adoption, according to the National Catholic Register. “[T]he Argentine people will face a situation whose outcome can seriously harm the family," he wrote to the four monasteries in Argentina. "At stake is the identity and survival of the family: father, mother and children. At stake are the lives of many children who will be discriminated against in advance, and deprived of their human development given by a father and a mother and willed by God. At stake is the total rejection of God’s law engraved in our hearts.” He went on to describe it as a "‘move’ of the Father of Lies who seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God" and asked for lawmakers to "not act in error." In John 8:44, the Father of Lies is the devil. GLAAD President Herndon Graddick responded to the election of the new pope in a statement obtained by The Huffington Post. For decades the Catholic hierarchy has been in need of desperate reform. In his life, Jesus condemned gays zero times. In Pope Benedict's short time in the papacy, he made a priority of condemning gay people routinely. This, in spite of the fact, that the Catholic hierarchy had been in collusion to cover up the widespread abuse of children within its care. We hope this Pope will trade in his red shoes for a pair of sandals and spend a lot less time condemning and a lot more time foot-washing. Graddick also specifically addressed Francis' previous comments about gay adoption being a "discrimination against children." "The real discrimination against children is the pedophilia that has run rampant in the Catholic Church with little more than collusion from the Vatican," he said. Along with GLAAD, Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill responded to the new pope's election, saying: ‘We hope Pope Francis shows more Christian love and charity to the world’s 420 million lesbian, gay and bisexual people than his predecessor." Despite the pope's prior anti-gay sentiments, Francis' official biographer, Sergio Rubin, defended him as a noble man. "Is Bergoglio a progressive – a liberation theologist even? No," he told the AP. "He's no third-world priest. Does he criticize the International Monetary Fund, and neoliberalism? Yes. Does he spend a great deal of time in the slums? Yes."Theros has finally hit the streets and next week will be put to the test at the Pro Tour in Dublin. I am not playing in this tournament, although I will be playing in the next one in Valencia. I still want to make an impact though. In the past, I’ve found that working on a deck that shows up and succeeds at the Pro Tour is just as satisfying to see in the hands of another player. At the same time, seeing something I worked on fail in another’s hands is even more painful than seeing it fail in my own. So I am very careful about what I endorse for the Pro Tour. I would love to say that I have a deck I would confidently play at the Pro Tour, but that’s not the case. Maybe before the end of the week. I do have a deck that I had high hopes for, but it hasn’t really panned out that way. Today I am going to write about that deck anyway. While I can’t recommend it for the Pro Tour, I can strongly recommend it for Friday Night Magic. It’s an affordable deck that looks unlike and plays unlike anything out there. It is grindy and combo-y and sweet. It is slow, but inherently powerful. That enough has me excited. Nothing else out there has really caught my eye. I’ve seen good decks, sure, but cards like [card]Rakdos Cackler[/card] and [card]Loxodon Smiter[/card] are so powerful and aggressively costed that the format is a bit oppressive to constructing janky decks. I look for decks that give me the “what the hell does this deck do?” moment, and there isn’t a lot of that out there in Standard right now. I am trying to fill that void. Breaking Gray Merchant Around 4 a.m. Thursday night, I got a message from my friend Charles Wong. He wanted to get Gray Merchant of Asphodel banned. “Good luck with that,” I said. I mean, the card is just not very powerful. It’s a small-bodied common. But I was intrigued. [draft]Gray Merchant of Asphodel[/draft] He wanted to recur it. Okay, we’re going to have to sacrifice it somehow. Well, [card]Cartel Aristocrat[/card] is good. [draft]Cartel Aristocrat[/draft] All right, so we’re sacrificing things and we care about black devotion. [card]Dark Prophecy[/card] seems awesome here. It could let us churn through our deck, and Gray Merchant can fuel our life conversion. [draft]Dark Prophecy[/draft] So we’re sacrificing creatures with Cartel Aristocrat. [card]Xathrid Necromancer[/card] is awesome here. It can give us a lot of bodies to convert into cards and Zombies. [draft]Xathrid Necromancer[/draft] We could use an early game. We could play removal, but removal doesn’t complement our own synergies very well. What if we played early Human creatures that trade off? If they trade off they could turn into cards and Zombies. They could move us towards our end game while keeping us alive. [draft]High Priest of Penance Thrill-Kill Assassin[/draft] So we’ve got a lot of Humans, card draw, sacrifice, and drain, but we have no way to return our guys. We’ve got options. [card]Whip of Erebos[/card] is an attractive one—the lifelink ability can keep us alive, the devotion bonus is nice, and the recursion ability is killer with Gray Merchant. We could play [card]Rescue from the Underworld[/card], but the rescue takes too long. I mean, our guy is down there making a save forever. He might never come back! Similarly, [card]Grim Return[/card] is really narrow. I do notice we have 12 2-drop Humans at this point. What if we played [card]Immortal Servitude[/card]? It can be used to get back a bunch of dinky Humans to turn into more cards and Zombies. Or, if we get enough mana it can return Gray Merchants… returning two of those guys should be curtains. [draft]Immortal Servitude[/draft] Right now we only have one sacrifice outlet and we could use another. What about [card]Undercity Informer[/card]? It’s a Human, and it also has a milling effect. It can help us turn our Humans into Zombies and cards while filling our graveyard up. Any creature we turn over can potentially be returned with Immortal Servitude and Whip of Erebos. [draft]Undercity Informer[/draft] We have a deck! Black Magic Black Magic [deck]Main Deck 4 Cartel Aristocrat 4 High Priest of Penance 4 Thrill-Kill Assassin 4 Dark Prophecy 3 Undercity Informer 4 Xathrid Necromancer 3 Whip of Erebos 4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel 4 Immortal Servitude 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 4 Godless Shrine 3 Orzhov Guildgate 4 Temple of Silence 2 Plains 2 Mutavault 10 Swamp Sideboard 1 Hero’s Downfall 2 Pharika’s Cure 2 Doom Blade 1 Devour Flesh 2 Thoughtseize 3 Festering Newt 1 Obzedat 3 Sin Collector[/deck] Black Magic Weaknesses I am a big fan of this deck, but it does have weaknesses, and I am going to address those first. That way if you play this deck you won’t be surprised when you lose in a certain way. That should save a bit of stress, as some of the losses look like bad luck, but are really just a bi-product of how this deck is built. The deck can flood or screw. It wants to hit its fifth land drop. It needs to. If it never casts [card]Gray Merchant of Asphodel[/card]
the publisher’s site would be to click on the ad, which was the revenue generating event for Google. Launched in March 2003 — 13 months before Gmail — AdSense quickly grew to become Google’s second largest business after search itself, reaching more than $1 million a day by 2004 and $13 billion a year by 2013. PHIL bears an obvious and striking resemblance to the “prototype theory” developed in the 1970s by Berkeley cognitive psychologist Eleanor Rosch. Google’s Georges Harik, the primary author of the PHIL patent, earned a PhD in artificial intelligence at the University of Michigan in the 1990s and likely would have been familiar with Rosch’s work or that of her disciples such as Berkeley linguist George Lakoff. PHIL also resembles clustering algorithms developed decades earlier by market researchers interested in grouping consumers into segments, for example as used in the Nielsen PRIZM system discussed below. After seeing the early AdSense results, using PHIL for monetization in Gmail must have seemed like a no-brainer to the Google managers planning the fledgling email service’s launch in early 2004. But things did not work out as hoped. While Gmail was a wild success with the public from day one and quickly saw its user numbers surge first into the millions and then tens of millions and ultimately hundreds of millions, its revenue story has been far less glorious. Google regularly announces revenues from AdWords (search advertising) and AdSense in its quarterly Wall Street conference calls, but it has never disclosed a number for Gmail. Since Gmail is easily the best known Google-branded product after search itself, this reticence is surprising. But there appears to be good reason for it. Analyst estimates put Gmail revenues for 2014 at barely $400 million, or less than 1% of Google’s total revenue. Yet Gmail on its 10th Anniversary in April 2014 was estimated to have over 500 million users worldwide. In other words, the average Gmail user produces less than $1 in revenue per year. However fabulous the scale and scope efficiencies of Google’s vast data centers, it is exceedingly difficult to believe that the cost of maintaining the average Gmail user falls below $1 per year. Consider for example the cost of storage alone. In March 2014 Google, engaging in a vigorous price war with Amazon Web Services, cut its price on cloud storage to 31 cents per year per gigabyte. If the average Gmail user consumes only 20% of their nominally allotted 15 gigabytes, Google’s retail price for this amount of storage would be 93 cents, more than the revenue it gets from one Gmail user. Yet providing a service like Gmail requires far more in the way of infrastructure than just storage — bandwidth, compute power and the amortized cost of the software (though not user assistance) are also part of the mix. [Update: in October 2014 Google’s Sundar Pichai announced that Gmail had reached 750 million users worldwide and was “on its way to one billion users”. However, he said nothing about the service’s revenue. $1 per user per year continues to look like the high end of plausible Gmail revenue estimates.] Conclusion: it is a near mathematical certainty that Gmail as a direct revenue proposition loses money for Google, probably hundreds of millions — or perhaps even a few billion — dollars per year. Why is revenue generation in Gmail so much weaker than for search or AdSense? The widespread view in the online advertising world is that people are inherently less receptive to advertising when they are doing email. When users search the web they are by definition looking for specific information. This information seeking behavior predisposes them to respond favorably to ads that are related to their quest. The same is true to a lesser but still significant extent when users view content on a publisher’s web site. But when they are reading or writing email, they are not looking for information. Instead they are focusing on expressing their thoughts or learning those of their correspondents. Google is now trying to improve Gmail revenue by delivering ads in the form of email directly to customer inboxes, rather than placing them as snippets of text in the surrounding window. This approach was made possible by the 2013 introduction of the tabbed inbox, which uses sophisticated data mining to recognize certain emails as commercial offers and shunt them into a separate “Promotions” tab. Categorizing email in this way has the key advantage for Google of allowing it to show ads to mobile Gmail users, something that was previously impossible due to the limited real estate available on mobile web clients. It also has the convenient consequence of funneling commercial emails that compete with Google’s advertising into a single place where Google can insert its own revenue-bearing messages. The revenue impact of this innovation is not yet known and is in any case not likely to be disclosed by Google. But as we shall see, Google may already have solved its Gmail revenue problem by entirely different means. For it turns out that the vast river of emails flowing incessantly into the inboxes of half a billion users carries with it countless nuggets of information that can be mined to produce value in places other than in Gmail itself. From ads to user profiles Beginning in 2003 and continuing to the present, Google has filed a range of patents describing the use of various kinds of user profiles to improve both ad response rates and — perhaps even more significantly — the quality of search results. The idea of exploiting information about users to improve ad targeting is not new or exclusive to Google. Indeed it is much older than web advertising itself. Companies like Nielsen have for decades used market research and data from many other sources such as the U.S. Census to create elaborate geographic, demographic and psychographic segmentations of consumers. Systems like Nielsen PRIZM, for example, originally developed in the 1970s, use sophisticated clustering algorithms not unlike Google’s own data mining techniques to divide Americans into such marketer-relevant buckets as Upper Crust, Blue Blood, Young Digerati, Beltway Boomers, Rustic Elders, Back Country Folks and Hard Scrabble, among dozens of others. The idea behind all these systems is that tailoring messages to specific audiences increases the advertiser’s return on investment. Whether the messages are delivered in prime time TV ads, late night infomercials, traditional direct mail or highly targeted snippets of online text, they all cost money and advertisers naturally have a powerful incentive to optimize their spend. Knowing your customer is the key to successful selling. While you might imagine that Upper Crust or Young Digerati audiences are inherently more desirable than Rustic Elders or Hard Scrabble, this is not always the case. What may be true for BMW or Apple is not necessarily true for KFC or Coke. How does Google’s online profiling work? At its core are the same patented PHIL clustering and concept extraction methods described above. A user (or group of users) can be described by various kinds of clusters. The simplest kind are clusters of terms used in documents created or viewed by the user. Another kind derives from the URLs of documents the user has viewed or perhaps forwarded to others by email or social media. A third kind — the most comprehensive — consists of the concept or category clusters extracted by the PHIL algorithm from documents the user has viewed (web pages, inbound emails) or created (outbound emails, social media posts). Inbound emails to Gmail users are of particular value to Google in creating user profiles that make its targeting more effective. Consider the emails you receive in a typical day. They obviously include messages from family and friends, social media notifications, newsletters you subscribe to and whatever commercial offers have made it through your spam filter settings. They also typically include a large amount of data-rich correspondence from institutions — banks, utilities, schools, tax authorities, cable TV companies and — last but not least — online merchants such as Amazon, eBay or travel reservation sites where you have made purchases. Taken together, these inbound messages discriminate you from other users with a high degree of granularity, in much the same way that the number and quality of inbound links serve in Google’s famous PageRank algorithm to compute the relative rank of web pages. Assuming conservatively that the average Gmail user receives just 10 non-spam emails per day, the annual flux of inbound Gmail probably approaches and may well surpass two trillion messages per year. That is a lot of content to subject to the discriminating eyes of PHIL and Google’s other data mining algorithms. By building and continually updating a vast database of individual user profiles, Google can discern that one particular user who enters the word “blackberry” into her browser is likely interested in the fruit, while another user who types the same word is looking for a certain kind of phone. It can then choose which ads are appropriate to display with the search results. It can also choose which search results to display first. Google’s PageRank algorithm, which computes an aggregate statistical view of each web page’s relative importance based on many signals unrelated to individual users, will likely rank the phone “blackberry” above the fruit “blackberry”, and thus will return results that are irrelevant for the first user. This is a missed opportunity for Google not only to capture potential ad revenue, but even more importantly to satisfy a search user and thereby dissuade her from abandoning Google in favor of alternative methods of searching. Retaining and satisfying search users is without doubt Google’s most important business objective, because search continues to account for the lion’s share of its revenues and virtually all of its profit. Consequently, data mining methods that optimize the relevance of search results for users are of great strategic value to Google. The fact that Gmail even after 10 years in business continues to lose a significant amount of money on the back of very low revenue is therefore not necessarily of great concern to Google. The trillions of inbound documents that Gmail feeds into the maw of Google’s vast user profiling machinery more than make up for these losses. [Update: Over the objections of Google’s lawyers, in August Judge Koh ordered the publication of a series of emails by Google employees in 2009 discussing the extraordinary power of Gmail’s user profiling algorithms. At the time AdSense’s “interested-based advertising” (IBA) was able to group users into only 700 or so categories based on the web sites they browsed. But Gmail, using classification algorithms such as PHIL and no doubt others as well, would divide users into literally “millions of buckets”. The value of such “Gmail user profile extraction” for “user based targeting” in Google’s other ad-based services such as AdSense was obvious to these employees, who eagerly discussed the new targeting opportunities it would make possible. Below are copies of this correspondence (obtained from PACER).] Gmail profiles all users, even if they don’t see ads We are now ready to turn to the court disclosures about Gmail’s data mining methods mentioned in the first part of this article. These details are contained in several key documents from the court proceedings, all of which are published on the PACER online public access system for U.S. Federal court documents. In many cases the published versions of these documents have been redacted — that is, censored — at Google’s demand. The documents contain long passages that describe the purposes, mode of operation and evolution over time of Gmail’s complex data mining apparatus. But often key phrases or entire sentences are blacked out, making it difficult to assemble a coherent vision of the whole. Google’s lawyers argue that the redactions are necessary to prevent its competitors from gaining insight into “sensitive aspects of Google’s proprietary systems and internal decision-making processes”. They also claim that purveyors of malware and spam could use the information to circumvent Google’s systems for countering these threats. These arguments are difficult to take at face value. While the documents describe Gmail data mining in some detail, they remain at a high level and provide no hint as to what the millions of lines of software code that make up this system actually look like. The true aim of Google’s redactions is almost certainly to prevent the public at large from understanding how its business really works. The redactions have been challenged by a group of news organizations including the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, Politico, Forbes, Gannett, and McClatchy. At the time of writing it is unknown when or how Judge Koh will rule on the unsealing motion submitted by these organizations. Nevertheless, in an important concession, the court has allowed open discussion of the documents by lawyers during the case’s public hearings. While the transcripts of these public hearings published on PACER are themselves redacted, observers who were present at the hearings are able to fill in the blacked out sections. As one such observer, I can thus offer my own reconstruction of the hitherto hidden inner workings of the Gmail data mining machine. In fact, the documents paint a picture of Gmail’s block architecture that would likely be obvious to competitors and spammers — who already have extensive practical experience in the design of such systems — but to no one else. Does malware and first cut spam filtering happen before concept extraction? Yes — this sequencing at least is not surprising. But could messages be passed through spam filters more than once, perhaps both before and after concept extraction? Although not self-evident, this is in fact what happens. Can message content be exploited to make inferences about users — for example, to divine their age and various demographic and psychographic traits — even when messages are not analyzed for ad serving purposes? Since it turns out that these two actions are implemented by Google in entirely distinct software modules, nothing stands in the way of separating them in this manner. Does user profiling happen after a message is delivered to the user’s inbox or before? Actually both options are possible. Where you put user profiling in the email delivery process depends on why you are doing it. If you are using it just to target ads in the immediate message context, you can do it at the same time as ad selection, which in Gmail is initiated when a message is opened. But if you want to maintain profiles of every Gmail user for broader purposes — even of users who do not see Gmail ads — then it is better to perform the profiling upstream of the ad serving process. One Box to rule them all Perhaps the most significant revelation in the court documents concerns precisely this question of where user profiling is located in the Gmail pipeline. It turns out that this location is highly strategic and has undergone a fundamental change over the course of Gmail’s history. The precise timing of Gmail’s shift from a purely ad-based business model to one that combines ads and user profiling is unknown. The dates of the user profiling patent applications don’t necessarily tell us when Google actually implemented these ideas. But we know that some time prior to September 2010 Google introduced the first of a series of user profiling processes that it ultimately grouped together in an umbrella process known by the robotic-sounding yet oddly evocative name of “Content OneBox” (often abbreviated as “COB”). The court documents tell us that COB is a master server process with distinct sub-components that performs multiple kinds of content analysis on Gmail messages, including but not limited to user profiling. It is in effect “one box to rule them all”. Among its functions are the PHIL-based extraction of message concepts described previously, updating the “user model” that Google maintains of each user, and attaching “smart labels” to messages that indicate their type (receipt, personal, social, promotion, etc.) Content OneBox was originally located in what the documents refer to as Gmail’s storage area, which is distinct from its upstream message delivery process. COB operated after a message was delivered to a user’s inbox and opened by the user. It is crucial to understand that the content analysis performed by COB is not the same as ad selection. The latter process is performed by an entirely separate entity known as the “CAT2 Mixer”, also located in Gmail’s storage area. Ad selection in Gmail is a dynamic process that occurs each time a message is opened, because the ads best matched to a particular message can vary over time. The CAT2 Mixer is thus triggered by the message opening event. It operates by comparing metadata that COB extracts from the message with metadata obtained from advertiser keywords and perhaps other signals pertaining to candidate ads. It is the same ad matching process used by Google’s AdSense program for third party publishers, which is not part of Gmail. At some point, probably in early 2010, Google realized that large numbers of inbound Gmail messages were escaping the all-important Content OneBox meaning extraction and user profiling process due to shifts in the way people used Gmail. By then Gmail had hundreds of millions of users. Vast numbers of them — certainly many tens of millions — were accessing Gmail from iOS or Android devices. Since these mobile clients could not display ads due to their limited surface area, the CAT2 Mixer did not trigger, and consequently neither did COB. Even for users logged into Gmail from conventional web browsers, emails that were deleted without being read or simply never opened also did not trigger COB. Last but not least, Google had by this time acquired tens of millions of users of the institutional versions of Gmail — Google Apps for Education, Government and Business. To entice such customers to sign up in large numbers — and in the case of Government and Business to pay real money for the service — Google found that it had to promise to keep ad serving turned off by default. Many millions of high value users were thus slipping through Google’s data mining net without being profiled. Google concluded that something needed to be done to address the large and growing gaps in Content OneBox’s coverage. During the course of September and October 2010, it took the strategic step of moving COB from Gmail’s storage area to a position upstream in the delivery pipeline — that is, before rather than after messages arrive in user inboxes. This fundamental revision in Gmail’s data mining architecture apparently took two months to complete. Curiously, the months and year during which the change was made have been redacted in most of the published case documents. However, they were spoken aloud by the plaintiff lawyers and Judge Koh during a February 2014 public hearing and are thus no longer secret. Just why Google sought to obfuscate these dates is unclear. But the fact that it did strongly suggests that the change in COB’s location was a major milestone in Gmail’s history. After September-October 2010, the content of every email would be data mined and every Gmail user would be profiled, regardless of whether ads were served and regardless of whether the user was an ordinary consumer, a middle school student, a government employee or a Fortune 500 CEO. The transition of Gmail from a business whose value to Google depended solely on advertising to one based equally or perhaps primarily on user profiling was now complete. Sequence of events in the life of a Gmail message Google profiles not just individual users, but whole classes of users Google is the largest advertising company in the world, generating over $60 billion this year from the discovery that users will click on small text or banner ads when these are presented in a favorable context, such as search results, editorial content or (to a lesser extent) email. Yet the remarkable fact is that the vast majority of users — by some estimates 70% to 80% — never click on ads. According to online ad consultants, a typical Google ad must be seen dozens or hundreds of times by the minority of users who do occasionally click on ads to garner a single click. In short, ad clicks are rare events. Think of Google’s business as a giant spreadsheet with hundreds of thousands of advertisers aligned across the top and hundreds of millions of users down the left side. The entire spreadsheet contains many trillions of cells. Each time a user clicks on an ad, imagine putting a number in the corresponding cell of the grid representing the revenue that Google earns from the transaction. If you step back and view the spreadsheet from afar, you will see that it is almost entirely empty. In fact, more than 99.99% of the cells have nothing in them. All of Google’s billions in revenue comes from the vanishingly small fraction of cells where a user has actually clicked on an ad. The technical term for this phenomenon is sparsity. Sparsity is a problem for Google. Computing the likelihood of an ad click for every possible pair of users and ads in the grid may be an impossibly burdensome task, even for a firm with the unrivalled compute resources of Google. Individual user profiles, however accurate, are not enough to overcome the sheer scale of the problem. Therefore anything that reduces the sparsity of value generating events by clustering similar users (or ads) together will be of great value to Google. It is far more efficient for Google to target relevant market segments than individuals. We thus encounter again the question of how an online advertising firm can divide its users into operationally useful clusters. One obvious method would be for Google to enrich its internally generated user profiles with information acquired from outside data brokers like Datalogix, Acxiom or Epsilon. These brokers, which offer their services to advertisers and marketers, are well-known for trawling public and private data sources to assemble astonishingly detailed portraits of millions of individual consumers and their purchasing behaviors. And indeed the Wall Street Journal reports that Google as well as other online firms such as Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter and Microsoft are working with data brokers to correlate exposure to online ads with actual retail purchases. It’s possible that Google also uses third party data to enhance its internally generated user profiles. But as a practical matter, it would be very expensive for Google to do this for half a billion users. What’s more, data broker files on consumers can’t by themselves solve Google’s user clustering and segmentation problem, since enriching individual profiles only makes the task of computing matches between users and ads more demanding. The ideal solution for Google would be to somehow reconstruct user demographic and psychographic segments directly from the metadata streaming out of Content OneBox and Google’s other profiling algorithms. A remarkable research paper published by Google data scientists in 2011 suggests that the company may have found just such a method. Entitled “A Tale of Two (Similar) Cities”, the paper describes an experiment in which the researchers compared millions of search queries from thousands of U.S. cities with published U.S. Census data for the same cities. “The goal of our work is to extend techniques and data sources that have commonly been used for online single-user (or small group) understanding to extremely large groups (up to millions of users) that are usually only taken on by large studies by the Census. We want to determine whether the query stream emanating from groups of users — the inhabitants of 13,377 cities across the United States — is a good representation for the interests of the city’s inhabitants, and therefore a useful characterization of the city itself.” The researchers report that a relatively simple mathematical analysis of city query streams allowed them to characterize individual cities and group them into clusters with much the same results as could be obtained by analyzing the hundreds of data points provided by the Census. In other words, by looking at nothing more than its own query streams Google was able to reconstruct essentially the same market segmentation as the massive and vastly more expensive operation of the once-in-a-decade U.S. Census. The scope and power of this method are far more general than the city-to-city comparison experiment described in the paper. Although the researchers do not mention email as a data source, a similar comparative method could clearly be applied to Gmail messages. Most importantly, the method could obviously also be applied to cluster individuals rather than whole cities into segments. The potential of the method to aid Google in both ad targeting and search quality was not lost on the authors. They write in their conclusion that: “We show that by effectively combining location information (at the city level) with search engine query logs, we can ascertain the similarity of cities — even those that may not be geographically close. Finding similar cities provides a valuable signal to advertisers and content creators. Once success (or failure) is determined for the advertiser/content creator in one city, this analysis provides a basis for setting expectations for similar cities — thereby providing advertisers and content creators new cities to target (or avoid). Additionally, knowledge of the interests inherent in a city’s population provides important information for tailoring search-engine results to deliver results with a relevant local focus.” How might Google apply this method in practice? Assuming that it does not want to go to the trouble of buying files on millions of individual users from data brokers, there are many freely available sources of data it could turn to. The most valuable such sources for segmentation purposes may not be the consumer portraits created by the data brokers, but aggregate data collections that describe relevant and commercially valuable groups of consumers. For example, the IRS publishes mean income data by ZIP code, and real estate sites like Zillow aggregate published data on home values in hundreds of cities. These two sources alone provide an accurate map of household income and net worth that can easily be correlated with Google’s vast store of user geolocation data. [Update: the preceding paragraphs were speculative when I first published them in June 2014, but subsequent research demonstrates that they are completely factual. For example, Google now explicitly allows advertisers to target users based on household income estimates derived from published IRS data about income by zip code. Even more interestingly, as of June 2014 it also lets advertisers target for parental status, i.e. whether the user has children at home. It’s worth quoting Google’s explanation of how it derives this attribute for its user model: “How does parental targeting work? We used surveys to find hundred of thousands of respondents who are self-declared parents with children in their household. Our algorithm takes that data and find other users across our network that have similar Google Display Network and YouTube content consumption patterns and characteristics.” In short, Google has operationalized the techniques developed by its researchers for correlating real-world user attributes with features extracted from their online actions. The power of this method is obvious. For example, Google can now tell its advertisers very precisely that “about 14% of users on the Internet are Moms with children in the household”. But more than that, it can tell them exactly which users are Moms with kids.] Schools and school districts are another possible source of valuable segmentation data. They publish aggregate data on student test scores, income levels and ethnicity, and are well correlated with other geographically tagged data sources (e.g. by ZIP or Census district). Google says that its Google Apps for Education (GAFE) service has 30 million users worldwide [update: 40 million as of October 2014], of which many millions are in the United States. GAFE thus gives it a vast pool of users whose profiles it can compare with external data sources. It would be a straightforward extension of the method described in “Tale of Two (Similar) Cities” to compare user clusters derived from GAFE with the data published by schools and school districts. Once calibrated by comparison with external data in this way, Google’s clustering algorithms would no longer need to access that data, which has the disadvantage of being cumbersome to manage and static. Instead, the algorithms could extract on a dynamic basis valuable segments of youth consumers directly from the stream of email flowing into GAFE student accounts. The resulting data could be used to target ads, improve search results or even provide Google advertisers with insights into purchasing trends among fine-grained segments of this population. For example, Google could tell brands in real time what the latest shoe buying trends are among urban teenage boys in selected cities, or which retail fashion brands are preferred by teenage girls whose families fall in a given income bracket and geographical region. Google’s (partial) clarification of data mining in Gmail Mining user emails for such purposes is of course not uncontroversial. In recent years Google’s data mining has faced increasing scrutiny from regulators and the media. The fiercest recent controversy concerns Google Apps for Education and was provoked by the Gmail data mining court case discussed above. In that case Google was forced to admit that, contrary to its promises to educators, it was in fact mining student emails in GAFE on a systematic basis for ad targeting and profiling purposes, and had been doing so for years. After a storm of criticism, Google announced last April that it would halt these practices. It now promises on its web site that “Google Apps for Education services do not collect or use student data for advertising purposes or create advertising profiles”. A blog post by a Google executive also announced that it would permanently remove the longstanding option to turn ad serving back on in GAFE. Although the statement is not explicit, it likely means that the CAT2 Mixer — as discussed above, the process that selects Gmail ads once a mail has been opened — will be permanently excluded from the GAFE pipeline. However, in practice this is not a significant change, because most Google education accounts had not enabled the ad serving option anyway. More striking is the fact that Google has not publicly said whether it will stop using Content OneBox to analyze GAFE emails. The carefully worded promise to stop using student data to create “advertising profiles” does not rule out the possibility that it will continue creating profiles that help it to optimize search results or identify valuable clusters of users. A large-scale user profiling system like Gmail could identify many fine-grained and dynamically defined market segments of great interest to marketers without overtly adding sensitive attributes such as income, ethnicity, education level, social class or sexual preference to the metadata files of individual users, thus sidestepping many privacy issues. By analyzing millions of inbound emails from ecommerce sites and perhaps incorporating location data gathered from mobiles, such a system could enrich these segments with deep real-time insights into the actual purchasing behaviors of the underlying populations. By tracking inbound social media notifications to Gmail users, it could also allow Google to observe usage trends for competitors like Facebook and Twitter. Significantly, the sweeping revision of Google’s privacy policy introduced in March 2012 added new language that expressly allows it to share such aggregate user data with its customers. “We may share aggregated, non-personally identifiable information publicly and with our partners — like publishers, advertisers or connected sites.” We cannot know for certain what Google is doing with the output of its vast and highly sophisticated email data mining machinery. But everything in its history and corporate DNA suggests that it has never encountered a body of data it does not want to analyze. When you have a truly gigantic hammer, the temptation to view everything as a nail may be irresistible. Gmail users have “no legitimate expectation of privacy” What makes Google’s user profiles and market segments different from traditional forms of consumer profiling is that they are generated by observing people’s private behavior in ways that the subjects themselves, although nominally informed by click-through privacy policies, often do not fully understand. In these circumstances, the issue of what constitutes consent — how explicit and unambiguous it must be to be judged authentic — becomes paramount. It is not the profiling itself that is objectionable. On the contrary, technology that lets consumers voluntarily disclose information about themselves to marketers in exchange for desirable services, and to do so effortlessly at vast scale, is of great benefit to all parties involved. Profiling only becomes objectionable — and subject to legitimate demands for regulation — when the “voluntary” part drops out of the formula. Here we encounter a key difference between the two distinct populations of users that Gmail serves. On the one hand, there are consumers — ordinary individuals who voluntarily use an email service offered to them without charge, and who pay for it –knowingly or not — with information. On the other hand, there are members of organizations (schools, corporations, non-profit associations, government agencies, and so forth) who are provided with an email account by their organization, and who have little or no choice in the matter. The privacy rights of individuals in these two cases are fundamentally different. But Google — in what is arguably its greatest misstep in the controversy over its data mining practices — refuses to take this difference seriously. Consumers have rights. The United States and the European Union in particular have laws and regulations that, although differently worded, make clear that a company cannot read your private email without your consent. However, the rules about how much consent is enough vary between the U.S. and Europe. EU data protection law is currently undergoing revision, and is likely headed toward a strong requirement for explicit, freely given, unambiguous consent for the kinds of personal data use that Gmail relies on. The definition of consent under U.S. law is more controversial. In the California Gmail data mining case, Google argued that implicit user consent to data mining was sufficient, because even non-Gmail users whose emails are data mined when addressed to Gmail subscribers must: “…impliedly consent to Google’s practices by virtue of the fact that all users of email must necessarily expect that their emails will be subject to automated processing.” In other words, even non-Gmail users who have never seen much less consented to Google’s Terms of Service or Privacy Policy must nonetheless know that all email is subject to “automated processing”. How can we be sure users know? Perhaps some of them read David Pogue’s column in the New York Times explaining how Gmail works. Google’s lawyers actually cite this example. But even they recognize that this is not enough. Here they engage in a transparent bit of subterfuge that Google marketers also frequently fall back on when groping for ways to justify Gmail data mining. The lawyers say that when users consent to email scanning for one reason — perhaps a perfectly uncontroversial one like spam filtering or malware detection — they thereby consent to scanning for any reason, even for activities like advertising or marketing that have nothing to do with the delivery of the service itself. Citing a previous case, Google’s lawyers make the preposterous claim that once users turn their email over to a third party service provider they no longer have any “legitimate expectation of privacy”. This is because: “…the automated processing of email is so widely understood and accepted that the act of sending an email constitutes implied consent to automated processing as a matter of law.” In short, because — according to this extraordinary doctrine — all forms of automated scanning are equivalent, once you agree to route your email through Google’s servers, Google is entitled to perform any manner of scanning it pleases. These arguments were forcefully rejected by Judge Koh in pre-trial proceedings, but since the case has not yet gone to trial we cannot know for sure what their final disposition will be. Given this uncertainty and the many ongoing debates in Washington over possible revisions to U.S. privacy laws, it is hard to say where the U.S. will eventually come down on the question of what constitutes adequate user consent to data mining of consumer emails. Gmail’s biggest privacy problem is in organizations Nevertheless, in both the U.S. and Europe it seems clear enough that privacy and data protection laws do not in themselves present insuperable obstacles to Google’s “free services in exchange for personal information” business model. Targeted online advertising is the economic basis for much of today’s consumer Internet, and is practiced by most of Google’s largest competitors, including Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Twitter, as well as by countless smaller firms. The regulators are not saying they want to shut this model down. If they did, they would likely face a revolt from consumers and politicians. Providing that Google agrees to jump through the user notification and consent hoops that regulators want, it should be free to pursue its business model in the consumer market. Whether it wants to meet those conditions remains an open question. But members of organizations also have rights. Data mining in email services provided to users by their organizations raises different and more difficult issues than in consumer email. When users have no say in whether to use an email service that profiles them for its own commercial purposes — as is the case when their organization subscribes to Google Apps — the regulatory and legal barriers become much higher on both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe, the data protection authorities have ruled that consent for data mining must be “freely given, specific and constitute an informed indication of the data subject’s wishes”, and have also held that consent given under constraint (such as exists in an employer-employee relationship) is not valid. The arguments about implied consent advanced by Google’s lawyers in California clearly cannot meet these European requirements. In the United States a broad array of sector-specific privacy and data protection laws create even greater obstacles to institutional use of email services that rely on data mining. Federal statutes such as FERPA in education and HIPAA in health care, as well as the FBI’s CJIS regulations in law enforcement, unambiguously exclude the intrusive, commercially motivated deep analysis of user content and behavior that lies at the heart of all versions of Gmail. The future of Gmail data mining and the need for transparency Despite these concerns — or perhaps because of them — Google continues to wage a legal battle in Judge Koh’s San Jose courtroom to prevent the media and the public from learning the full extent of user profiling in Gmail. Its effort to redact all revealing details from the public record of this case is in striking contrast to the justly famous mission statement posted on its web site: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” It is not hard to understand why Google might be reluctant to spell out exactly how Content OneBox and Gmail’s many other data mining procedures do their work. Machine learning is a rapidly evolving discipline where new and improved algorithms are discovered every day, while both the volume and the types of data that Google can subject to its algorithms are constantly expanding. Why concede to regulators the right to supervise and perhaps place inconvenient restrictions on your data mining practices when you expect the scope and power of those practices to grow exponentially for years to come? One of Google’s leading data scientists, Ray Kurzweil, famously predicts to anyone who will listen that software algorithms will surpass human intelligence within another decade or two at the most. Google’s leaders may feel that it makes more sense to stall for time by distracting regulators with obsolete technologies like cookies or endless debates over the meaning of privacy policies that few users will ever read. Yet at a time when Google is calling on governments around the world to disclose and limit their surveillance practices, its relentless secrecy about its own highly intrusive user profiling is especially paradoxical. U.S. intelligence agencies are today subject to far more scrutiny from the courts, Congress and the media than Google itself. But what is good for the goose should surely be good for the gander. Perhaps it is time for Google to embrace the same transparency about data mining it wishes to see in others.Last week, MaxGalleria announced Version 2.0 of their gallery plugin. The update featured a bit of a change in scope for the plugin. The team decided to shift it from a simple plugin to a much more complete gallery platform. Though the core functionality is remaining more or less the same, it’s far more extendable now than ever before, with over a 100 actions and filters for developers to hook into. This means that the core plugin will remain fairly slim, while facilitating a number of add-ons either in the personal or commercial space. MaxGalleria likened the philosophy to that of WooCommerce and Gravity Forms. Plugins as a Platform The announcement from MaxGalleria got me thinking about what the future of plugins might end up looking like. After all, WordPress itself is shifting from a blogging platform/CMS to a full application foundation. Eventually, WordPress would like to get to a point where its core functionality can be used to set up the basics, like user authentication, routing, and data schemas. Then, developers can build on top of ad infinitum to create a modern web application. If that’s the case then more niche platforms will need to be developed on top of it. That’s where plugins come in, what the MaxGalleria team called “Platforms on top of Platforms.” The basic idea is simple. WordPress itself should be getting leaner, not more robust in
uccino Last year, Biscuits and Gravy was the clear front-runner from the beginning, so there was little surprise in seeing win. Do Us a Flavor 2015: Truffle Fries, Reuben, Gyro, Biscuits & Gravy This time around, I imagine it'll be hard for the old flavors to get knocked off. Sour Cream & Cheddar and Honey Barbecue aren't going anywhere, and I think Flamin' Hot has staying power. Meanwhile, I think Olive Oil & Herbs is strong enough to knock off its serviceable predecessor. Let's see if I can get over.500 after this one. "I ate it so you don't have to" is a regular food column looking at off-beat eats, both good and bad. It runs every other Thursday at noon-ish. You can send any praise/food suggestions to nomalley@masslive.com. Please send all of your extra bags of Flamin' Hot chips to smishkin@masslive.com. You can check out the rest of the series here.Henrik Zetterberg, out since leaving Sochi when his back problems flared up, will return to the Detroit Red Wings lineup for tonight’s critical game four against the Boston Bruins. The Bruins lead the best-of-7 first round series 2 games to 1. (Sports Injury Alerts) According to Ken Campbell of the Hockey News, Zetterberg will play limited minutes, somewhere in the 10-12 minute range during tonight’s game as he looks to get fully back into game shape. Zetterberg has missed the last 30 games (including playoffs). Zetterberg, Detroit’s captain, should add not just one of the best two way games in the league, but also a level of leadership for some of the younger players in the Red Wings lineup. Following Tuesday’s game four, coach Mike Babcock stated that he felt like his team did not deal well with the playoff atmosphere and this led to the Bruins first two goals of the game. The 33-year-old centre underwent surgery to deal with a herniated disc suffered earlier this year, and re-aggravated at the Olympics. Zetterberg, has 16 goals and 48 points in 45 games in the NHL so far this season. He has 279 goals and 720 points in 759 games in his NHL career. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy in helping the Red Wings to the 2008 Stanley Cup Championship. He has also been nominated for the Calder Trophy, and Selke Trophy in his distinguished NHL career. For the latest sports injury news, check out our friends at Sports Injury Alert. Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow me on Twitter – @lastwordBkerr. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport – and “liking” our Facebook page. Interested in writing for LWOS? We are looking for enthusiastic, talented writers to join our Hockey writing team. Visit our ”Write for Us“ page for very easy details in how you can get started today!The suburbs broke back to the Republican side, while towns and rural areas solidified as Republican strongholds, more polarized from urban dwellers than before. The old and young moved right, but the middle — driven perhaps by urban whites with more tolerance on social issues — moved left. Hispanics and Asians bucked the tide in a striking way, continuing their consolidation as Democrats. Cities shifted only slightly, and continue to be the centerpiece of the Obama majority. ’12 ’04 ’08 The groups are placed left or right of center depending on their level of support for their preferred party. For example, white voters in Alabama remain strongly Republican, though they moved a little left in this election. In 2012, nearly all groups reduced their support for Obama, which is shown here with a shift to the right. In 2008, many groups moved left, giving Barack Obama more support than they had given to John Kerry in 2004. HOW TO READ THIS CHART Hispanics in Colo. Hispanics in Fla. Hispanics in Nev. Rural areas Small towns Suburbs Small cities Big cities No religion Jewish Catholics All Protestants Attend church at least once week White evangelical $100,000+ $50,000 to $100,000 $30,000 to $50,000 Under $30,000 65+ 45 to 64 30 to 44 18 to 29 Whites in Ala. Whites in Colo. Whites in Fla. Asian Hispanic Black White Women Men Total vote percentage points MARGIN OF VICTORY 100 80 60 40 20 0 20 40 60 80 100 100 80 60 40 20 0 20 40 60 80 100 MORE REPUBLICAN MORE DEMOCRATIC Religion Age City State Demographics GROUPS Gender IncomeImage caption Jakadrien Turner's family said she was not a problem child before her disappearance Immigration officials are attempting to unravel the mystery of how a 14-year-old American runaway was deported to Colombia despite having no Colombian ID and speaking no Spanish. When arrested for theft in 2010, Jakadrien Turner gave Houston police the name of a 21-year-old Colombian. She maintained this identity through a court case and the deportation process. Colombian officials say she is now in protective custody but they plan to release her to US officials on Friday. They had been working to confirm her identity before agreeing to hand her over. On Thursday Bogota said the US embassy had submitted documents to allow for her return. Ms Turner's grandmother, Lorene Turner, had contacted Dallas police when she found Jakadrien's Facebook page under an assumed name. The teenager had run away from home in 2010 and was reported missing on 19 November that year. Her information was on record with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. She was arrested by Houston police in April 2011 on the charge that eventually led to her deportation after she claimed she was called Tika Lanay Cortez, the name of a Colombian woman born in 1990. "They didn't do their work," Lorene Turner told a local TV station. "How do you deport a teenager and send her to Colombia without a passport, without anything?" 'Worst end' US immigrations officials said they found nothing after her arrest that contradicted her story or assumed name, but were investigating the circumstances which led to the accidental deportation. A spokesman for the the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said the agency "takes these allegations very seriously". During the deportation process a representative from a Colombian consulate reportedly interviewed her and issued a travel document, the Associated Press reports. Once she had arrived in Colombia, Ms Turner appears to have spent several months living and working in the capital Bogota. Johnisa Turner, her mother, said she was devastated when Jakadrian first went missing. "When your child doesn't come home from school, of course you go to the worst end of the spectrum," she told the Associated Press. Now that Jakadrien appears to be returning to the US, she said she wanted to put the incident behind her. "I want her home so we can move from this day forward."1) What's wrong with the 787 Dreamliner? No one knows for sure, now that the simplest and most easily correctable problem -- some production defect in the specific batch of batteries involved in two recent incidents -- appears to have been ruled out. 2) Which means that the problems are by definition worse than they originally appeared. Not necessarily worse in a fundamental-safety or design-defect sense, but worse for Boeing and the airlines in commercial and reputational terms, because it will take longer to be sure what exactly has gone wrong and what it will take to correct the problem. 2A) It is still likely that this will ultimately prove to be one more "glitch" in the roll-out of the 787, rather than a "threat" to its commercial and technological viability. Most new airliners have early problems as they go into service. But no one can be sure that this is in "glitch" category until the problem is fully understood. 2B) This is "one more" glitch for the Dreamliner because of the multi-year delays that arose from Boeing's unusually aggressive outsourcing of the plane's design, as I discussed in China Airborne and as the LA Times exhaustively examined two years ago. 3) Today's most trenchant data point comes from Elon Musk (above), one of the Atlantic's "Brave Thinkers" from two years ago, whom I interviewed at our 'Atlantic Meets Pacific' conference late in 2011. In an email exchange with Zach Rosenberg of Flight Global, Musk says that the lithium-ion batteries in the Dreamliner are "inherently unsafe" in the configuration Boeing has chosen for the plane.Swedish social democrat Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson claims that “fake news” is harming the people of Sweden and that the government should have a more active role and some are likening the move to an Orwellian Ministry of Truth. The Finance Minister made the comments Wednesday after talking about the impact she believes the so-called “fake news” phenomena has had on the recent U.S. presidential election last November. According to Andersson the Swedish government should have a role in determining what counts as truth and her party intends to take a tough stance on the matter Aftonbladet reports. “This is a huge problem. It risks damaging trust in society and thereby also the Swedish model. It’s about what kind of society we want. We should have a debate based on facts, so that in this way we can make the right decisions,” Andersson told the newspaper. Sweden must be a society where members can trust each other but said that Swedes must be “agreed on basic common facts.” Andersson said the ruling Social Democrats were looking at creating an “action against the facts of resistance” which would see the government implement policies in schools to teach students how to check sources and fact check on their own. The Swedish school system has been declining overall in the OECD PISA school ranking system for over a decade, largely due to mass migration. The second step, according to Andersson, is to “ensure free journalism in Sweden” by giving subsidies and allowing the press free space to critique the journalistic work of other writers. She says the government currently has no concrete plans for this. The final step and perhaps the most authoritarian is for authorities to be more active about spreading their facts and she listed scientific papers as an example but did not specify the limits of the proposal. The plan has led Swedish conservative site Friatider to call the proposal “Orwellian” and likened it to the Ministry of Truth from the novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” The Swedish plan may draw some inspiration from a proposal by the German Interior Ministry to combat fake news by setting up a new division within the ministry itself. The German government claimed the reason for the move was the possibility that “fake news” may influence the upcoming federal election later this year. Sweden has been accused of covering up the extent of migrant crime over the course of the migrant crisis and some have pointed out that the Swedish government stopped keeping records of the nationality of suspects as far back as 2001. After remarks made by U.S. President Donald Trump on the matter, the Swedish government said there was no problem with mass migration in Sweden. But only days after the president’s speech, riots broke out in the migrant-populated no-go Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby and a left-wing newspaper photographer was attacked. Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart.com(CN) – Florida police who unlawfully recorded conversations between an attorney and her client were properly denied immunity, the 11th Circuit ruled. The Tuesday decision stems from a 2009 investigation into a possible misdemeanor violation of a domestic violence injunction. It is undisputed that, during the course of this investigation, Detective Thomas Marmo conducted a noncustodial interview with the suspect Joel Studivant at the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office. Anne Marie Gennusa, Studivant’s attorney, was present during the interview. During the interview, Studivant agreed to prepare a sworn written statement. Marmo left the room and closed the door after Studivant began writing. Neither Studivant nor Gennusa knew that Marmo and Sgt. Brian Canova had continued to monitor their conversation via a closed-circuit camera. The camera was not obviously recognizable, no signs warned visitors of the possibility of electronic surveillance, and neither Studivant nor Gennusa had been told that they were being recorded or monitored. During their time alone, the attorney and her client discussed matters related to the investigation. Marmo then returned to the interview room and told Studivant he was under arrest. At this point, Studivant changed his mind about handing in his written statement. As Studivant and Gennusa explained themselves, Marmo forcibly grabbed the statement from the table, which Gennusa was holding down with her hand. He then arrested Studivant for violation of the domestic violence injunction, and later attached the written statement to his arrest report. Studivant ultimately entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, and the criminal charge against him was dismissed. Studivant and Gennusa both sued Marmo and Canova in their individual capacities, and U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan in Jacksonville ruled against the police at summary judgment. That ruling found that the surreptitious electronic eavesdropping violated the Fourth Amendment and the Federal Wiretap Act, and that the seizure of Mr. Studivant’s written statement also contravened the Fourth Amendment. In affirming that the defendants lacked qualified immunity, the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit said “it has long been clearly established that the warrantless interception of private conversations – like the privileged ones here – offends the Fourth Amendment.” “The only question, then, is whether the subjective expectation of privacy held by Mr. Studivant and Ms. Gennusa about their privileged attorney-client conversations is one that society recognizes as reasonable, and we easily conclude that it is,” Judge Adalberto Jordan wrote for a three-judge panel. “An expectation of privacy is deemed reasonable, the Supreme Court has said, if it ‘has a source outside of the Fourth Amendment, either by reference to concepts of real or personal property or to understandings that are recognized and permitted by society.'” Supreme Court precedent also holds that whether an expectation of privacy is “legitimate” or “reasonable” necessarily entails a “balancing of interests.” “Under this formulation, we come to the same conclusion. Here the competing interests are the interest of society in monitoring attorney-client conversations in a non-custodial setting at a sheriff’s office and the interest of the attorney and client in keeping their privileged conversations in such a setting private,” the judge wrote. “Given these interests, we readily strike the balance in favor of privacy,” he added. “The government has no weighty law-enforcement, security, or penological interest in recording, without a warrant, the attorney-client conversations of a person who has not been arrested, even if those conversations take place in an interview room at a sheriff’s office.” In addition “Det. Marmo and Sgt. Canova did not properly assert in the district court that the seizure of Mr. Studivant’s statement was permitted by the exigent circumstances exception to the Fourth Amendment’s general warrant requirement,” the 24-page ruling states. Absence such a rationale for their actions, Jordan said neither officer is entitled to qualified immunity. “In sum, Mr. Studivant and Ms. Gennusa had a reasonable expectation of privacy for their privileged attorney-client conversations in the interview room of the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office,” Jordan wrote. “The surreptitious recording and monitoring of those attorney-client conversations, without notice to Mr. Studivant or Ms. Gennusa, and without a warrant, violated the Fourth Amendment.” Like this: Like Loading...Jackie, the former University of Virginia student whose fabricated claims about being gang-raped by fraternity members in 2012 appeared in Rolling Stone exactly one year ago, is refusing to turn over emails and phone records of her correspondence with her friends and with the article’s author, Sabrina Rubin Erdely. The Richmond Times-Dispatch is reporting that Jackie’s attorney, Palma Pustiknik, claimed in a recent court filing pertaining to a $7.5 million defamation lawsuit filed by UVA dean Nicole Eramo that Jackie’s “privacy and dignity” will be violated and that she will be subjected to “extreme harm” if the records are provided. Jackie is not a defendant in the lawsuit. Instead, Eramo is suing Erdely, Rolling Stone, and its parent company, Wenner Media, for $7.5 million in damages. In the 9,000-word bombshell, which was published online on Nov. 19, 2014, Erdely portrayed Eramo as not caring about Jackie’s claim that she was gang-raped by seven members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity during a house party in Sept. 2012. The alleged actions of the fraternity members and Eramo’s alleged blind-eye sent shockwaves across the nation. But the article soon fell apart as it was revealed that Jackie made the story up. Rolling Stone retracted the article. Will Dana, a managing editor at the magazine, resigned. And while Erdely is still employed by the magazine, she has gone into hiding. Eramo’s attorneys believe that Jackie’s correspondence with Erdely and with her friends will shed light on whether the reporter — and Rolling Stone — should have believed the student’s claims and put them in print. In a letter sent on Oct. 30, Clare dismissed Pustiknik’s argument that disclosure of her emails and phone records would intrude on her privacy are “meritless.” “As noted, [Jackie] voluntarily discussed her supposed sexual assault with Rolling Stone magazine knowing full well that this information would be published nationally in a prominent publication.” “The article claims that after Jackie reported her assault to U.Va., Dean Eramo abused Jackie, discouraged Jackie from reporting her gang rape, intentionally coddled Jackie into doing nothing, and took no action in response to Jackie’s report — all, allegedly, to protect U.Va.’s reputation,” Eramo’s lawyer, Thomas Clare, wrote in a court filing, according to The Times-Dispatch. “The documents sought by the subpoena will demonstrate that Rolling Stone’s story about Jackie is false and that, to the extent Rolling Stone claims it was relying on Jackie’s credibility, Rolling Stone knew or should have known that Jackie was not a reliable source on which to base the article.” An independent review of Erdely’s article, “A Rape on Campus,” conducted by the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism faulted Erdely and Rolling Stone for failures in basic journalism ethics. (RELATED: Rolling Stone Officially Retracts Its Report On UVA Rape Hoax) Erdely first met Jackie in July 2014. Over the course of several interviews, Jackie refused to identify her alleged assailants by name. She also provided aliases for three friends she said were with her the night of her alleged attack. Erdely went to print even without knowing for certain that Jackie’s attackers or her friends actually existed. Weeks after the article was published, Jackie’s friends came forward to dispute her story. On the night of the alleged attack, Jackie told them that she had been forced to perform oral sex on five men. She also showed no signs of the violent physical abuse she told Erdely she endured. One of Jackie’s friends who was with her after she claims she was raped also shared an email allegedly sent by Jackie through a UVA student named “Haven Monahan.” In the letter,”Monahan” relayed Jackie’s intense feelings for the friend, Ryan Duffin. One working theory of Jackie’s story is that she made it all up to get Duffin’s attention. In interviews last year, Duffin told The Daily Caller that Jackie was open about her crush on him. In March, the Charlottesville police department released the results of its investigation and found no evidence to support Jackie’s story. Police also noted that when Jackie first told the story to Eramo in May 2013, the details were quite different than what appeared in Rolling Stone. (RELATED: Police Release Details Of UVA Rape Investigation) Jackie met with Eramo again in April 2014 to complain that she had been assaulted by a group of men near campus. She again spoke of the alleged gang rape but declined to talk to police about it. Police also noted that Jackie had made inconsistent claims about the April 2014 assault, in which she said she was hit in the face with a beer bottle. Eramo, who filed suit in May, has agreed to withhold Jackie’s last name from court filings at Pustilnik’s request, according to The Times-Dispatch. A hearing on whether the fabulist will have to turn over her records will be held in an Alexandria, Va. court on Friday. Two other lawsuits are pending against Erdely and Rolling Stone. Three members of the falsely accused fraternity filed suit in federal court in July. And the school’s entire Phi Kappa Psi chapter filed a $25 million suit earlier this month. Follow Chuck on TwitterWe didn’t know what to think when Grandpa came home last night with a mohawk. Though it’s hardly a mohawk, considering Grandpa’s male-pattern baldness, he obviously believes that it is and behaves accordingly. Under Mom’s advice I pretended not to notice for the first few days, but that only frustrated Grandpa. He’s taken to nurturing it at the breakfast table. Finally Mother found the courage to ask him where he’s been for the last month. He said he doesn’t know, and I believe him. Tension kept things quiet for a while, until neon patches starting appearing in Grandpa’s mohawk. He claims it’s a natural part of the aging process, but no one believes him. He started moussing his hair at the table, and doing other things to upset the household as well. I am almost certain that Grandpa is using my towel. The thought troubles me, but it’s an awkward thing to bring up with one’s grandfather, so I’ve taken to hiding my towel in the closet. Since Grandpa got home there has been a woman that drives by the house at night sometimes. I would say that her visits were secret, but the aggressive yellow of her Pontiac makes it easy to see even in the dim of evening. Last night Grandpa shimmied down the lattice outside his window to go speak to this woman. I saw them parked in her car for nearly an hour. Mother caught him trying to climb back up the lattice when she was turning off the sprinklers and angry words were exchanged. I heard Grandpa tell Mother that he was sick of living in a house of fascists. Things have been chilly in the house lately. Grandpa has been taking his meals in his room and slamming a lot of doors. He turns his music up loud whenever he hears someone coming down the hall. He bought a chalkboard for the outside of his door and has been leaving sarcastic messages on it. Today I asked Mother, “Mom, what do you think is wrong with Grandpa?” “Well,” she responded thoughtfully, “I think he is having a hard time adjusting to living in a new town, going to a new school. You know kids can be very cruel.” “Mom, Grandpa is 72, he doesn’t go to school.” “Yes he does, I enrolled him this week. I think he needs the structure and the discipline.” “Can he do that? Go back to school, I mean?” “I made special arrangements with the new principal. By the way, he is going to be sharing your room with you awhile until he finds his own place.” What do you mean? Grandpa has his own room.” “Not your grandfather, Silly, your new principal.” “You told my principal that he could share my room with me?” “It was the least I could do after he let Grandpa skip to the eleventh grade.” “The eleventh grade? But that’s my grade!” “Well why do you think I wanted him to skip? Now you two can have your classes together and eat lunch together…” When I came to I was lying on my bed, with Grandpa hovering over me, working his gums on a sandwich. “Is it cool if I borrow your jacket?” he asked between bites, his jaws palpitating nauseatingly. “What? What are you saying?” “What I’m saying is that I have a hot date and I want to borrow your blazer.” Grandpa was already wearing the blazer in question. “A date? With who, that lady in the Pontiac?” “I said a hot date, with Lindsay Carlyle.” Grandpa grinned as devilishly as is possible with a mouth full of chicken-salad. “Lindsay Carlyle? But you know that I’m in love with her, I tell you all the time! Besides, it’s a school night.” “No shit, I’m gonna sneak out when the old lady goes to bed.” “I can’t believe that you’re going out with Lindsay Carlyle, Grandpa, she’s sixteen years old!” “You might as well get used to it, Sonny, she’s with Grandpa now. Oh shit! There she is!” Grandpa crowed as he spotted Lindsay’s car out the window. “If Mom comes in, just cover for me.” “No fucking way, Grandpa.” But he was already halfway out the window. I watched him scuttle across the yard towards the street where Lindsay’s car was idling, the fading September daylight painting the back of my blazer with autumnal hues as it climbed in. “Look, I didn’t want to make a big deal of this, but we’re in love and that’s that,” Lindsay is telling me over the phone. “I mean, I’m sorry, I know I promised to go to homecoming with you, but I just think I’ll have a much better time with Grandpa. Christie is on the homecoming committee and she thinks that Grandpa and I have a real chance at getting crowned.” “Lindsay, the only crowns in Grandpa’s life are the ones on all of his remaining teeth. The man is seventy-two years old!” “I know, but high school guys are so immature,” she explains in a tender voice, “Grandpa knows what he wants from life. He wants to travel; he’s even going to start a band. He sang me one of his songs, it’s about two young lovers who wish they were older so they could be together forever, just like Grandpa and me.” “Christ, Lindsay, that’s a Beach Boys song, and forever could be any day now.” “Look, will you knock off this whole jealousy thing? It’s a major turnoff. Grandpa doesn’t mind if I talk to other guys, he hardly even seems to notice.” “That’s because he’s heavily medicated, and for the record I think it’s sick that you call him Grandpa.” “You just have no sense of romance, you never did. Grandpa knows how to treat a girl like a lady. He’s letting me wear his letterman’s jacket.” “He got that jacket at the Goodwill when he ran away from home two years ago!” “Look, I’m sorry, I have to go, I promised Grandpa I would write him a ten page letter.” “That’s repulsive, Lindsay, I mean it.” As Lindsay hung up the phone I started to get the impression that I was losing her. I walked home from school faster than usual today to avoid the sight of Lindsay and Grandpa holding hands. I came into my room to find some mysterious boxes and a horrible miasma of cologne and brushfire. Suddenly a man materialized from my closet. I recognized him as the new principal. He was of medium height and slight build, but managed to give the impression of taking up a great deal of physical space. He was tanned to a grotesque, earthen hue, and wore an occultish medallion around his neck. His chest, which was mostly bare owing to the deep cut of his v-neck sweater, was even darker than his hands and face and exhibited a distinct sheen, reflecting light from his medallion. “So you must be Chris!” he leapt at me. What the man lacked in aesthetic charm, he compensated with forthrightness. “I, as you must undoubtedly be aware, am Principal Mr. Weaselby. It looks like I’m going to be sharing your room with you for a while, so I’d like to lay out some ground rules. First, I go to bed at 7 o’clock sharp, and I don’t like to be disturbed once I’ve disrobed. I prefer to sleep with the door locked on account of my nudity, so if you want to sleep in here you had better be in bed by five of the hour. Secondly, the medication I take for my digestion tends to make me a bit gastronomically turbulent, especially at bedtime, so be prepared for that. Lastly, I read aloud from my own poetry from the hours of seven to nine; and I will not, will not! tolerate any silliness regarding my poetry. No sniggering, smirking, chuckling, upchuckling or moosehollering of any kind. And if we are going to share a room you had better like to listen, because I expect constant positive feedback.” Mr. Weaselby’s voice was strange, all over the place, like a slide-whistle being played by a retard. I had to appreciate his ability to vary his tone by several octaves within a single sentence. “Well, Sir, it has been a pleasure making your acquaintance, but I have some horses to shoe and re-shoe, so if you don’t mind.” Mr. Weaselby’s face slackened with confusion before the light of recognition illuminated his rheumy eyes, causing me to reconsider the virtues of military service. “Horses, humph! Humor will get you nowhere but the big house, Son. The sooner you learn that the better. I once knew a fellow, a real cut-up like you. Do you know where he is now?” the tone of his voice was like an asthmatic shepherd bemoaning the death of a sheep. “No Sir, I can’t say that I do.” “Hmph, of course you don’t. He’s dead, Son. Stabbed to death in a prison shower. Is that the kind of future you envision for yourself? Because if it is, just keep right on up with the joking and the horse-play.” Weaselby appeared to ruminate on what he had said before looking expectantly at me. I wasn’t actually sure whether or not there was an implied question in his speech. To play on the safe side I ventured, “Yes Sir.” “Yes Sir?” he stammered incredulously. “I mean, yes Sir.” “Well Boy? To be stabbed in the shower or not to be stabbed in the shower? That, my young friend, is the question you need to be asking yourself.” “I would prefer no shower stabbing, Sir.” “Well, good. Now let’s cut the nonsense and get down to business.” “Business?” “Didn’t your mother tell you? In exchange for letting me share your room I’m going to be tutoring you privately from now on. Classes let out at 3:15, so I’ll expect you here by 3:30 sharp for your lessons, Monday through Saturday. And Grandpa will be joining us; it seems that he’s been falling behind in class, acting defiantly to the substitute; perpetrating pure, unadulterated chicanery, to tell you straight.” Mr. Weaselby gazed whistfully at the ceiling fan as he spoke. “I’ll teach that boy a thing or two about growing up if it’s the last thing I do.” “It seems more likely to me that it could be the last thing he ever does.” It slipped out before I stop myself. Mr. Weaselby looked at me sadly. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about, Son. I can almost see the knife protruding from your arched back as you soap your legs.” “Fortunately, Sir, I never soap my legs.” Weaselby looked like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. “So it’s 3:30 everyday for tutoring, you and Grandpa. Then shortly after dinner it’s the Weaselby double-feature: two straight hours of me reciting from my original compositions, while relaxed at a slight incline; you, of course, will have to sit up straight. I daresay, young man, that you have an exciting month ahead of you. I certainly hope you’ll be able to keep up.” “Yes Sir.” I tried to think of happy thoughts, but my future was looking horrible, and I’m seriously accurate when it comes to predicting bad things happening to me. Within days my unholy prophecy came to fruition: I’m now convinced that Mr. Weaselby is also using my towel. I’m not experienced in these types of situations and don’t really know how to deal with it, other than by pretending it’s not happening and by hiding an extra towel on a nail in the crawlspace. Grandpa and Lindsey have run away together. Mom found Grandpa’s diary and read that they were planning to go to Egypt or something. The police are looking into it. In the meantime I’ve taken over Grandpa’s room. It’s cramped and smells like Old Spice and sandwiches, but at least nobody’s reading any poetry in there. I originally tried to convince Weaselby to take the room, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He says that the acoustics in my room are far more complimentary to his unique timbre. They found Grandpa and Lindsay after three days, camping at the airport. Grandpa was trying to take them to an artists’ colony in Cairo, but when he found out it was in Cairo, Georgia Grandpa threw a fit and wouldn’t go anywhere. They wandered around the airport for a few days, living on corndogs and Hot Tamales. Airport Security only figured them out when Grandpa tried to turn himself in for an arson that hadn’t occurred. They were taken into custody without incident, except for when Grandpa tried to bonk two policeman’s heads together. Ultimately the attack was taken as a joke and Grandpa became very popular around the station. After about a half-hour of questioning they let Grandpa go and charged Lindsey with kidnapping. Mr. Weaselby told me during his last poetry reading that he expected as much from Lindsay on account of the way she had reacted when he offered to read a sonnet he had composed for her. “It was a shameful display, young man, simply shameful! All of the giggling, the chuckling, and don’t forget the smirking…sweet lord the smirking…” Mr. Weaselby held his face in his hands for a few minutes, trembling slightly. “Let that be a lesson to you, young man,” he stammered, pulling his robe closed tightly over his chest and storming into the bathroom. Mom grounded Grandpa for a month: no friends, no TV, no videogames, no girls. He lay in bed sobbing for three weeks; I could hear him every night through the wall. Finally he demanded his diary back, stomping into the kitchen at breakfast, his eyes red and full of vinegar. With Grandpa back I have to pay especially close attention to my towel. Mom caught me using paper-towels and yelled at me, said I was being wasteful. I told her it was easy for her to say, Grandpa and Mr. Weaselby weren’t using her towel. The next day she bought me a new one and I could feel two pairs of geriatric eyes cutting into me as I carried it up the stairs. Old men apparently turn into savages when it comes to a fresh towel. I guess they’re gonna let Lindsay off with a year of probation. I could smell Grandpa’s aftershave all over the house and he left wearing a new pair of walking shoes, and carrying two sandwiches wrapped in wax paper. Legally Lindsay isn’t allowed to go within fifty yards of Grandpa but the Judge granted leniency since they’re classmates. Despite my continual and unreserved disgust, not to mention my broken heart, I was almost happy for Grandpa…or at least relieved. Nothing can be worse than having to listen to Grandpa cry on the balcony and watch Say Anything every night. Mr. Weaselby left a few days ago. He got a studio with Lindsey’s older sister, Amy. Amy’s a thespian and a senior. Weaselby was forced to resign as principal but quickly found work as a prison security guard. He spends many long hours lecturing inmates on the inevitable horrors of joking and horseplay, and reading select passages from his new self-published book of poetry, Walking in My Moccasins. AdvertisementsTreasure Island Music Festival officials respond to backlash, say ‘no refunds’ Megan James, vocalist of Purity Ring performs during the second day of the Treasure Island Music Festival in San Francisco, California, on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016. Megan James, vocalist of Purity Ring performs during the second day of the Treasure Island Music Festival in San Francisco, California, on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016. Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 87 Caption Close Treasure Island Music Festival officials respond to backlash, say ‘no refunds’ 1 / 87 Back to Gallery Rain wreaked havoc on Treasure Island Music Festival as it kicked off its 10th and final year on its namesake island on Saturday, Oct. 15. The storm caused major delays, shut down the pier where the Ferris wheel and silent disco were located, and prompted two artists — Duke Dumont and Flight Facilities — to cancel performances, while other artists like How to Dress Well had abbreviated sets. As a result, many fans took to social media to demand refunds for their tickets, which ranged from $105 to $335. But with 11 out of 13 acts, including headliner Ice Cube, performing Saturday and no signs of canceled sets for Sunday, Allen Scott, executive vice president of Another Planet Entertainment that co-produces Treasure Island Music Festival with Noise Pop, said no refunds will be made to ticketholders. “Yesterday we experienced several schedule delays and changes due to weather-related travel and tech issues. When these issues arose, we immediately began working behind the scenes to adjust and find solutions as quickly as possible. During this downtime, many of you grew understandably frustrated at the lack of information, and we want to apologize,” read a statement released by festival organizers just before 10
This is optional. Sometimes you might not have the expertise to bring this to the table. Let me assure you that that is A-OK (though, over time I encourage you to build these business skills). But, complete all of the last mile. Add a slide that comes after the one above, this one tells the company what four things they need to do in order to take full advantage of the 90 million opportunity size. Each recommendation you make is sized by how much of the opportunity it can deliver. At the very minimum you are guaranteed a sign-off from your boss for Thing One and Think Two. They are too big to ignore. We end up with two slides instead of one. You put the recommendations of what to do, close to the data (rather than dump them all at the end). You present a complete story, you drive a very focused and productive discussion where the only thing data did is got out of the way quickly. You might not believe me, but these strategies also cut the meeting time by 50% easily. Now, that's priceless. #5. Convert words into pictures, and expose complexity. When you try and tell stories, sometimes it is not a matter of just have as few things on the slide as you possibly can. You will a lot of the time. But, sometimes you simply have to show the complexity that lays just below the surface. Here's a fantastic example of that… Don't scroll too far, take a look at the below slide, you are presenting it to a group of Sr. Leaders, does it communicate effectively the key point you are hoping to make with the three big numbers? Write down your thought's on a Post-It. (The best way to learn is to come up with your answer, contrast it with the other person's. Regardless of who is right or better, understanding the contrast is where learning occurs.) Ok. Got your thoughts down? I love these three numbers. And, I'm often in pain when I think about how few businesses are structured around taking advantage of this. We still live in an world where we are optimize for single visit sessions. If that single visit is a success, hurray! If it is not, trash! This is insane. Companies should optimize for the portfolio of visits (multiple!) leading to a business outcome. The above slide, IMHO, sadly fails to expose the complexity in this user behavior/journey. That means, it becomes one of a parade of numbers that go by in a presentation with nary a change in business strategy. Because…. the Sr. Leader won't quite get it. To be fair, the user behavior is described in text format. But, who is going to read it, or even understand it when you speak it? We can fix the problem quite easily. Dump the text. Show a representation of the user behavior. I would show each line at one time as I speak (84% click, describe, click 86%, describe, click 56%, describe), and here's how the completed slide would look… It is the same thing that was described in the text. But, it's visualized simply yet. It really brings home the point about how conversions are happening at the moment, and that as as a company we might be making insanely bad decisions by relying only on last-click conversion attribution models. Yes, there is more stuff on the slide. But, it works much, much better. If you have an audience that is even slightly connected to the digital business, and not Leaders who look at the digital data just once very two years, then you can actually go all out and truly how how users behave on the web… While there is a lot more stuff on the slide, in each case, as you present it one number's behavior at a time, it does such a wonderful job of showing just how sophisticated, and unpredictable, user behavior it. It will kick off a really powerful conversation that will go well beyond attribution modeling and encompass everything from the campaign strategy, landing pages, abandonment rates and more. Conversation. A good thing as Martha Stewart would say. [To come up with the so what for the above user behavior, two posts for you: Multi-Channel Attribution Modeling: The Good, Bad and Ugly Models and Multi-Channel Attribution: Definitions, Models and a Reality Check.] #6. Deeply resist, dislike, prettification for the sake of it. This is another common trend when we have the opportunity to present data, we add unnecessary stuff to it. One of the most common forms of this is icons. Here's a great example of this, check out this slide… It shows searches in some country in 2019. This is of course a good idea. But, are you seeing the the data, or are the icons staring at you? Admit it, you did not even notice that the core point of this set of data, as mentioned in the title, is to obsess about 2-in-1s (the most hyped and least successful product known to human-kind because no one on the planet needs this product, sorry, venting!). Or, that we've not computed how much the impact of any change will be on the business. Ex: Is the 2-in-1 green because it will add the most to the bottom-line? (Actually, no.) Or, that we have a perfectly good graph we can add numbers to in many clever ways to drag the eye to the growth in searches, but we don't above. Or, the legend is the sub-title. Or, any host of issues? No. Don't add crud to your slides, they distract from the story (besides costing you more time to find the crud to add than it took to create the graph!). Simplify… let the data be the hero… The legend usually works best at the bottom. There it is in red, but out of the way. The graph is much bigger, now the hero of the story. The growth rates are at the bottom, by themselves, and will now work hard to drive the conversation. There is one thing that's still missing. Outcomes. If the recommendation is to focus on the 20% grown in 2-in-1 searches, compute the business impact to back up your recommendation. When you compute outcomes, you'll quickly realize 2-in-1s are not going to have a business impact (you would go from query volume to current best CTR to conversion rates to AOV to total revenue or profit). Then, you can drive the leadership conversation to the best place for the business. The most heartbreaking cost of the icons, and other such curd, is that we spend time on that rather than worrying about the story and if we have the why and the so what. Here's an even better example of adding non-value added things to the story, along with, in this case, additional distractions… From this day on you'll never use icons, so let's skip that part. The blue circles are gone! (I'm not even going to talk about how that is a terrible icon for a newspaper!) Look at the slide. Are both set's of numbers equally interesting? Are both of value? Remember our principle #2, take everything away until you have the essential left. Like me, you'll come to the conclusion that Screen Penetration (OMG, never, ever, never, never use the word penetration!), is not all that useful. There are some differences, but the numbers cluster close to each other. What is interesting on the other hand, are the Average Hours Spent per Day. So. Why not remove the icons and distracting extra data, and just focus time spent? Here's what that might look like… They are ordered from least to most hours per day. It might take a second, but the colors simply represent online and offline channels. You will now drive a much more focused conversation that might start with: "So if this is how our customers are spending their time with media, what does our advertising media-mix look like?" Make sure you have that ready on the next slide! Even with the ugly template design, the company logos (yes, plural), and other elements that were on the original slide, the one above manages to survive negativity they add. The data still shines through because it is simply presented and is focused. I'm often told that people like adding icons and distractions because the data they are presenting is boring. Icons are a way to make the slide more "interesting." You are an Analyst. Your job is to make the data interesting (by finding interesting things!). If you choose to be interesting by using icons, you might be limiting career growth because most Sr. Leaders are not stupid enough to find the meeting valuable because the data was boring but had great icons. #7. Don't make a deal with the devil, stock photos are evil. This is now a full blown design trend. Say as little as you can, have as little data as you can, just use an image that describes the essence of what you are trying to say. It was sourced in real pain. Slides with data were so full of data, so distractingly presented that Major Big Gurus recommended just using stock photos to communicate the key message. Sadly, this is a terrible strategy for one simple reason. Actually wait. Here's one such slide, it follows every recommendation from Major Big Gurus… Look at it, what are you thinking about… Are you thinking about the data, or why a young woman in her underwear, with perfect makeup, is on her computer so late in the night? Are you trying to come up with things she might be doing? You would not be the only one. And, that's one big problem with stock photos. You lose control of the story. Photos are very personal. We bring our biases, our life experience, our dislikes, our hidden emotions, and everything else to a photo when we look at it. Even people from the exact same background, in an isolated country, with the exact same education will look at the same photo differently. Pick a village in Iceland. Find five people with light colored skin. Who went to the same school. All of whom now work at a bank. Show them a stock photo. Ask them what thought it evokes. You'll get five answers. Now think of how much more compounded this problem is in mixed audiences with location, education, ethnic, life path diversity. This is why stock photos suck. I'm not even going to touch the fact that most stock photos are poorly posed, unnatural and have other ill-advised elements. I'm not even going to touch that this new stock photos with one word on the slide craze actually often causes you to compromise on trends, segments or other such important baggage that data to Sr. Leaders has to carry. Forget that. Just think of the one big problem I've identified for you. Let's try this again…. Are you excited about the ecommerce or social media or AdWords possibilities on mobile phones because of the 70% number, or are you thinking that this couple is definitely getting divorced if late in the night they are sitting in their bed with their backs turned on each other? For the sake of human race, and their relationship, should they not be facing each other and having a conversation about their day? Are you thinking about the data possibilities? Let's try a different company, and a different example, this is so pervasive, it is not that hard to find these… Aren't these people in a home already? If you insist on using a picture, should you not use one of some young hipsters searching for their home? Or, at least getting a pre-approval for a loan? (Don't even get me started on a rant if 31% is higher or lower than in the past, or the two numbers are off different bases – something hard for people to catch, or… other data things.) Or here's one that takes the cake… a profoundly dis-interested young (hipster-ish) man, thirsty, sitting on a park bench… representing data that is about how far away he is in his living room from various devices! If you are wondering WTF, you would not be the only one. Just think of how crazy this whole slide is. Ignore the fact that the Analyst is implying that the reason we feel 2X more personal connection to a brand is because these devices are simply closer to us physically! #omgomgomg Ignore the fact that the person who created this slide was likely born 50 years after those radios and TVs ceased to exit on planet earth. (If you want to denigrate other channels, don't let's your distaste be this obvious.) Ignore all the other issues. I just want you to feel how terrible the whole use photos to communicate the emotion of your data point strategy is when you shine even slight light on it. Because, you can't control what people will read into your stock photos. And, do I need to even tell you how profoundly sub-optimal this is…. No, I don't. Just bathe in it's awfulness. And, promise me that you are not going to do this for as long as you live. If you need one last push, let the philosopher Mr. Vince Vaughn make the case for the awfulness of stock photography… You are an Analyst. Your job is to communicate the data story as simply as you can, but no simpler, to expose the why and shift the conversation to the so whats you've identified. Try and eliminate everything that is getting in the way of that. Including time you spend hunting for the optimal stock photos. #8. Leverage proportionality for higher-impact stories. This is one of my favourite stories. It is hugely impactful. It truly shows something amazing. Except. It does not. There are many standard data presentation strategies you should use all the time. Like. Don't make the difference between 1.4% conversion rate seem extraordinarily bigger than 2.4% conversion rate (it might not be statistically significant!). Representing things proportionally is one that you should try and follow as much as you can. This story is a great example of that. The smart Analyst is trying to show something important. It turns out, lots of people who search on Google, in this case, and visit your website, also visit your store where they also make additional purchases. If you want to think about accurately valuing your search investment, you should also take into account this offline behavior. So cool. To prove this out, an amazing effort was undertaken where online ids were matched with offline behavior and offline outcomes were computed. As you can imagine, not everyone who visited the site could have their id properly matched (cookie issues, and more). No biggie. This data is the resulting output. It follow the very common house metaphor to show the data… see if you can understand it…. do you think the behavior shown is valuable if this were your business…. If you are super into data, you might see how powerful the story is. If, like me, you are a normal person, you might not quite grasp how fantastically amazing it is. And, it is all the fault of how the data was visualized. Here's a simple way to understand the problem. Look at the slide above. Only 21% of the click ids matched to the provider's cookie pool. But, does that yellow box show 21% of the blue box? Nyet! Continue the rest of your visual analysis in the same manner. The house picture is broken. And, hence, in the end it fails to communicate that that 20 million is a big freaking deal! Try this, and again when presenting we would have one color show up at a time so that you can control the story and build the suspense, instead…. we make sure we size the boxes proportionally… Only 21% of the ids were matched to the cookie pool, of that less than half, 49%, were matched to people's accounts in the Store's CRM system, and of those only 22% had a conversion. Even with such a small red box matched of all the blue people, the Store made $20 million offline!! It is a safe assumption that if the yellow box was bigger (better matching), and/or the red box was bigger (better matching), the real impact on store sales is much, much bigger than $20 million. With the original visual, you don't quite communicate that in the worst case scenario the Store is making an additional $20 mil in offline sales. With the above slide, even with the tiny unreadable font, you do make that much more clear. The conversation you power with the above version will immediately shift to the so what, in this case for the AdWords strategy. The house looked cooler I suppose, but it is a lot less effective. Use these standard data visualization approaches to communicate more effectively to quicker internalization of reality. #9. Look beyond the obvious, really look. Very often at Analysts and Researchers we are so into the data, slicing and dicing it, and in trying to get something decent out of that work, that we fail to actually see the data. See as in really look at it. We have our table, our graph, our slide, but we don't look at this final output to see beyond the obvious things to find something a lot more interesting that might be lurking below the surface. This is one such deceptively simple example, and I get to make fun of myself. We all know that real pies are yummy, data pies are yucky. Two data pies are especially yucky. Just look at this example where all decorations and design elements have been removed. Grab your Post-It again, take some notes on what you think is wrong with this slide, and what you might do differently. Even if the fonts and numbers were larger, it is extremely difficult to compare the slices (despite three big shifts). What makes the job harder is that there are too many segments, when there seem to only be a handful that are material. I'm confident you ditched the pies immediately. So, what was your fix? Mine was simple. Just make a table. Why make things any harder? Here's my delightful table… You can see the names clearly, you can see the numbers! I even color coded the growth, and did not percentage percentages! (See rule #3 above.) And, I even reduced the number of data points. And, you know how obsessive I am about this, I even have the so what. I felt pretty good about this. Until I saw Lindsay's version. Here it is… She saw something that was not obvious, something right in plain sight, something absolutely amazingly critical. There was a stark difference in performance of brands and resellers. When you see Lindsay's graph, I'm sure, like me, you hit your forehead with a big Doh! Because that's the story. That's the big point. And, it is important because it will lead to very different so what actions, a very different conversation would ensue, than if you'd used my fixed version. Make sure you take time to look at your most important data. Really look at it to see what it is saying. Pattern yourself to look beyond the obvious. It is not easy, it takes time to get good at this. But get good you must – as Yoda would say it. :) #10. When faced with a data puke, pick focusing facts! Sometimes in life, you have no choice, you have to puke out a bunch of data. Here's a good example of one such slide… Ooof! That is a lot of data! It actually does not matter how good or bad it is, there is no way anyone will actually understanding anything. Just look at all the trends. When faced with this much data two things will happen: 1. People will stop listening to you and start wondering if their Ashley Madison profile will be discovered in the data leak. 2. Start asking you random questions about any random thing/trend that catches their fancy (How come so many more people have heard of Ram when compared to Jeep?). Your goal in these data puking scenario is to get to a focusing fact very quickly, and remove the data puke from the slide. I have a couple of go to strategies in these cases. My favourite one is to get them focused on the competition. There are so many companies on the slide. I'll pick a competitor or two that our company/client is really worried about, and a competitor or two that I think they should really be worried about (great way to push Sr. Leaders beyond their blind-spots). You show your data puke, click, eliminate everyone except those that fit the categories above… The conversation will immediately go to the worried about/should be worried about competitors. Why are they at x and we are at y? What do we need to do differently to crush Toyota? OMG, how in the world did those newbies at Kia get to be so x at y? All really good things. Quickly off the puke and on to the so what. Make sure you are ready with some recommendations there. (A very small thing, but I love balance on slides. I hope you see that in all the after examples in this post. In the slide above, I moved the legend to be center-aligned with the graph. Small thing, but it taxes the audience's brain a little less.) My second strategy when faced with a data puke is to pick a trend/thing as my focusing fact. In this case, the most desirable outcomes are represented by the purple and the green, and hence I choose them… Just add a white box, transparency set at 11% on the rest of the trends and you have yourself a discussion point. The conversation will focus on what our competitors are doing to be so much better at the purple or the green, and what we can learn from them. (While that discussion is happening you'll have a panic attack as you realize that this data is quite likely suspicious because for that many people to say they love Chevrolet and will stand up for the brand seems quite illogical given who else is on that list! A good use of focusing facts rather than just looking at the whole data puke!!) I'm sure you'll have your own go-to strategies for picking your focusing facts. What's important is to have an arsenal of these ready because you will have to use data pukes on some extremely rare occasions when Mercury and Pluto are in perfect alignment. Even on those rare occasions you'll be ready. That's it, ten rules to help you simplify the story you are trying to tell with data, to help you bring focus to drive the conversation about what to do, powered by an obsession about business outcomes. It is hard to accept that the job of an Analyst is to move the conversation off the data as fast as you possibly can, but, trust me, it is. The rewards of that strategy are immense and gratifying. We started the post with a cartoon by Tom Fishburne, let's end with one as well.. Admit it, you've not only said it but actually worked hard to find said "unbiased" data! As always, it is your turn now. Surely you don't agree with all the after versions. Which one do you dislike the most? And, to be fair, which one do you love the most? If you had to redo one of the before versions, care to share your after version? I'm confident some of you passionately believe in limiting the number of slides and blame PowerPoint, care to share what powers that passion? If you use stock photos or icons, why do you stick with them? If you had to add to my list of rules for storytelling, what would you add? I would absolutely love to see your examples, hear your critique, listen to your praise, and alternative points of view. Please share them via comments. Thank you. Go out and tell amazing stories with data!I’ve posted a follow-up post to this article to clarify a few details and put to rest a few rumours. A fellow skeptic (President of the Granite State Skeptics Travis Roy) recently posted a request on the Skeptoid mailing list regarding an image that has been making the rounds on Facebook. The image is an aerial shot of a supposedly huge turnout for the Occupy Wall St protest against corruption and greed. What appears to be thousands of protesters clog the streets of New York near the City Hall, with a caption stating: Occupy Wall Street Turnout: My TV says nothing. The only thing I hear is its [sic] a small 100 person turn out. Turn off your TV. Ask your friends. Dont [sic] trust the media they lie! After a request from Wettstein (and a warning from my hosting provider) I have removed his plagiarised propaganda image from my site. However the original can be found on Google Image Search. My skeptical colleague saw this image and immediately smelled something fishy. Travis noticed that the image was an aerial photo of New York City Hall, whereas the protests were happening several blocks away at Liberty Square. He sent the image to the mailing list for other opinions. To my eyes the mass of protesters looked out of place, the crowd looked too uniform and dense to be real. I took the image into Photoshop to see if I could pick up any pattern to the image. My original thought was that they had used the clone tool to make a smaller group of people look much larger. Not being able to find anything obvious, I started to wonder where the background plate may have come from. Immediately Google Maps came to mind. I looked up the location featured in the image, and then I saw it: Look familiar? How about now: According to Google Earth, this particular aerial photograph of City Hall was taken on the 3rd of June, 2011, one month before the Occupy Wall Street initiative even began. I have no strong opinions regarding what these people are protesting about. I’m sure they believe their cause is just and I respect their right to make a stand. I do however find it supremely ironic that a group who is supposedly protesting about corruption and lies would produce such a blatant piece of propaganda. Especially one so readily falsifiable. I respect that people have their own opinions and beliefs, however I have no respect for those who blatantly lie to defend their beliefs. “Don’t trust the media. They Lie!” Indeed. Update: I have had a request to produce an overlaid version of the image to better demonstrate the similarities. Never wanting to disappoint my fan, here’s an animated gif. Update#2: The eagle eyed among you will have noticed I have disabled the comments. Everything that needed to be said has been said, and the comments were getting nasty on both side of the fence.Tales of Recovery examines how specific television programs once thought missing or lost have been recovered. Often, these recoveries were not well-publicized or took place so long ago that they themselves have been forgotten. In March 1951, a 34-minute pilot episode for a proposed I Love Lucy series was filmed in an attempt to sell the series to CBS and potential sponsors. It worked, but the pilot itself was never broadcast. Its storyline was worked into an episode that was shown on November 19th, 1951 during I Love Lucy‘s first season [1]. Although I Love Lucy would air for six years and reign atop the Nielsen charts, the pilot was eventually forgotten. In the early 1980s, the Museum of Broadcasting (now the Paley Center for Media) began actively searching for the pilot episode. At the time, the curator of museum’s television collection, Ronald C. Simon, explained how all traces of the pilot disappeared during the 1970s. Not even Desi Arnaz or Lucille Ball owned or knew where to find a copy [2]. Then, in December 1989, a film print was found under the bed of the late Pepito Perez, who appeared in the pilot as a clown. Reportedly, Pepito’s widow, Joanne Perez, read about the long-lost pilot in TV Guide, recalled that her husband had been given a copy, and checked under their bed [3]. CBS aired an hour-long special built around the pilot on Monday, April 30th, 1990. It tied for first in the week’s ratings with a 21.2/37 rating. Over 30 million viewers tuned in [4]. Updated Friday, February 20th, 2009 S.A.K. has informed me in the comment section that portions of the above story are incorrect. A print of the unaired pilot was given to Pepito Perez by Desi Arnez. It was never “lost” and certainly was never kept under anyone’s bed. It was even shown by Pepito and his wife, Joanne, to people taking their dance classes. Television historians and fans of I Love Lucy owe both Pepito and Joanne a debt of gratitude for hanging on to the print and later making it available. Sources: 1 Shales, Tom. “Love That ‘Lost’ Lucy.” Washington Post. 30 Apr. 1990: B1. 2 “Broadcasting Museum Seeks TV’s Self-History.” 43. 3 Richmond, Ray. “Long-Lost Lucy TV Pilot Airs Tonight.” Toronto Star. 30 Apr. 1990: B4. 4 “Nielsens: NBC Barely Sweeping by CBS.” USA Today. 9 May 1990: 3D. Last Revised February 19th, 20162 February 2017 FINAL UPDATE THIS EVENING: WATER SERVICES RESTORED – CONSERVATION STILL NEEDED Great work by our City Delivery and City Waters teams – and a concerted water-saving effort by residents - have seen water pressure levels recover across Hamilton after this morning’s major pipe breach. We will be reassessing our water alert levels, but at the moment we are asking residents to avoid outdoor water usage over the long weekend. Normal indoor usage should be fine. Only one of the two bulk main pipes supplying the Eastern part of the city has been made operational, and it may be some time before we can get service fully restored. As water supply comes back tonight and particularly in the morning you may see discoloured or cloudy water for a short time. This is normal after pipe flushing, is not a health concern, and normally goes away after running the tap for a few minutes. Thanks again for your support, we will update again tomorrow morning. UPDATE: 8.15PM THURSDAY: REPAIR PROGRESSING BUT WATER SAVINGS STILL NEEDED IN HAMILTON Hamilton City Council staff are continuing repair work on a major issue with the city’s Eastern Bulk Water Main. The Eastern Bulk Main supplies around 27,000 homes and runs under the Waikato River from the city’s water treatment plant opposite Hamilton Gardens. A substantial section of the riverbank collapsed around the Bulk Main and there was a significant water leak at the site earlier today. City Waters Unit Manager Maire Porter says staff are now in the next phase of the repair and pressure is slowly coming back but there are still likely water pressure-loss issues around the city as air is cleared from the network. “It’s important for residents to be aware there are no water quality issues, it is simply that the city needs to make the available water go further. The repair work has created another short-term issue for the city as air which has entered the pipes has to be cleared. This ‘bubble’ of air is being pushed out around the city, which will mean short periods of lower pressure as it travels around Hamilton. “We need to flush sections of the network to release this trapped air. You may see some of our crews flushing water from fire hydrants. You may also experience cloudy or discoloured water for a short time and ‘sputtering’ water supply as trapped air comes through your taps. Please continue to try to conserve water as we fix this issue,” Maire Porter says. “We really appreciate how people have made an effort to reduce water usage today. Our teams are doing a great job in really difficult conditions tonight – bear with us as we get it sorted,” she says. Until both pipes can be repaired fully, water will be largely supplied to the Eastern side of the city via the Western Bulk Main and from water stored in reservoirs. This means the concerted water conservation effort will need to be continued for now. UPDATE: 7PM THURSDAY: We are now in the next stage of our repair, but still need people to try to conserve water this evening as our hard-working crews continue their efforts. We are endeavouring to get one of the two pipes operating, but this will still mean a reduced water supply to the city. Part of this phase of the repair means we need to flush sections of the network to release trapped air, which means you may see some of our crews flushing water from fire hydrants. You may also experience cloudy or discoloured water for a short time and ‘sputtering’ water supply as trapped air comes through your taps. This work will continue for the next few hours. We will update by 9pm with progress, or earlier if we can confirm the first pipe is fully operational. If you have low pressure please bear with us – if you are out of water please let our call centre know on 838 6699. Hamilton City Council is calling for all residents to urgently conserve water after damage to one of the city’s most important water mains. The conservation measures effectively mean implementing the city’s highest water alert level. There are no issues with water quality but supply levels could be reduced significantly due to the damage. Alert Level 4 means no outdoor water usage is permitted, but residents are being asked to look at all water usage in their homes and businesses as staff work to repair the Eastern Bulk Main. The Eastern Bulk Main supplies around 27,000 homes and runs under the Waikato River from the city’s water treatment plant opposite Hamilton Gardens. A substantial section of the riverbank has collapsed around the Bulk Main and there is a significant water leak at the site. City Waters staff have been on site this morning making the area safe to work in, and identifying the extent of the breach and repair options. Until the pipe can be repaired, water will be supplied to the Eastern side of the city via the Western Bulk Main and from water stored in reservoirs. This means a concerted effort will be required from the whole city to maintain supply. City Waters Unit Manager Maire Porter says it’s important for residents to be aware there are no water quality issues, it is simply that the city needs to make the available water go further. “Until we complete this repair we need everyone to play their part. This is a time when our city can come together to help each other out and we can get through this situation as smoothly as possible. “We have a team of expert staff who are working to resolve this situation as quickly and efficiently as possible. We will be providing regular updates on the Council’s Facebook page and through media, however it would help get the message out if people can let their friends and neighbours know.” FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Nigel Ward Communications Advisor 07 838 6666 021 273 4997 nigel.ward@hcc.govt.nzThe population of Dubai is 3,187,886 million as of January 2019[1]. Ethnic breakdown [ edit ] Approximately 85% of the expatriate population (and 71% of the emirate's total population) was Asian (chiefly Indian, Pakistani, Filipino, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan)[citation needed]. About 25% of the population have Iranian origin. About 3% of the total population of Dubai was categorized as "Western".[citation needed] In addition, 16% of the population (or 288,000 people) lived in collective labour accommodation were not identified by ethnicity or nationality, but were thought to be primarily Asian.[2] The median age in the emirate was about 27 years. In 2014, there were estimated to be 15.54 births and 1.99 deaths per 1,000 people.[3] Culture [ edit ] Dubai has a culture that is Arabian, Emirati, and Islamic. Languages spoken [ edit ] Dubai's official language is Arabic, but English is the lingua franca and is more commonly used than Arabic in the daily communications between the city's residents. Malayalam, Sindhi, Hindi, Tamil, Balochi, Tagalog, Persian, Urdu, Bengali and Kurdish are also widely spoken.[quantify] Religion [ edit ] Article 7 of the UAE's Provisional Constitution declares Islam the official state religion of the Union. The Government funds or subsidizes almost 95 percent of Sunni mosques and employs all Sunni imams; approximately 5 percent of Sunni mosques are entirely private, and several large mosques have large private endowments. The government distributes guidance on religious sermons to mosques and imams, whether Sunni or Shi'a, and monitors all sermons for political content. Shias are 15% of UAE's native population. The Shi'a minority is free to worship and maintain its own mosques. Within the UAE, Shi'a imams are government-appointed only in Dubai. Shi'a Muslims in Dubai may pursue Shi'a family law cases through a special Shi'a council rather than the Shari'a courts. Dubai has large expatriate communities of Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs and others. Non-Muslim groups can own their own houses of worship, wherein they can practice their religion freely, by requesting a land grant and permission to build a compound. Groups that do not have their own buildings must use the facilities of other religious organizations or worship in private homes. While the UAE doesn't offer any federal-level method of granting official status to religious groups, the individual emirates may exercise autonomy in officially recognizing a particular religious denomination. For instance, Dubai granted legal status to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1993. Dubai is also the only emirate that has Hindu temples and a Sikh Gurdwara. In early 2001, ground was broken for the construction of several additional churches on a parcel of land in Jebel Ali donated by the government of Dubai to four Protestant congregations and a Roman Catholic congregation. Construction on the first Greek Orthodox Church in Dubai (to be called St. Mary's) began at the end of 2005. The land for the construction of the church was also donated by the government to the Greek Orthodox community of Dubai. Financial support to non-Muslim groups from the Dubai government is limited to donated land for the construction of churches and other religious facilities, including cemeteries. They are permitted to raise money from among their congregates and to receive financial support from abroad. Non-Muslim religious groups are permitted to openly advertise group functions, but proselytizing or distributing religious literature is strictly prohibited under penalty of criminal prosecution, imprisonment, and deportation for engaging in behavior offensive to Islam. References [ edit ]The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has ruled that Google's self-driving systems legally qualify as a driver under federal law. The NHTSA stated in a letter to Google on Feb. 4 that it will "interpret 'driver' in the context of Google's described motor vehicle design as referring to the [self-driving system], and not to any of the vehicle occupants." The decision comes after Google sent a letter to regulators on Nov. 12 that proposed its self-driving car has "no need for a human driver." Safety regulators opined: "We agree with Google its [self-driving car] will not have a 'driver' in the traditional sense that vehicles have had drivers during the last
grenades. Although there was no evidence to suggest what exactly caused the mass hallucinations, the study suggested that fatigue and stress may have induced these symptoms.[citation needed] Plan to execute the men of Srebrenica [ edit ] Although Serb forces had long been blamed for the massacre, it was not until June 2004—following the Srebrenica commission's preliminary report—that Serb officials acknowledged that their security forces planned and carried out the mass killing. A Serb commission's final report on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre acknowledged that the mass murder of the men and boys was planned. The commission found that more than 7,800 were killed after it compiled thirty-four[citation needed] lists of victims. A concerted effort was made to capture all Bosniak men of military age.[112] In fact, those captured included many boys well below that age and elderly men several years above that age who remained in the enclave following the take-over of Srebrenica. These men and boys were targeted regardless of whether they chose to flee to Potočari or to join the Bosnian Muslim column. The operation to capture and detain the Bosnian Muslim men was well organised and comprehensive. The buses which transported the women and children were systematically searched for men.[112] Mass executions [ edit ] The vast amount of planning and high-level coordination invested in killing thousands of men in a few days is apparent from the scale and the methodical nature in which the executions were carried out. A concerted effort was made to capture all Bosniak men of military age. In fact, those captured included many boys well below that age and elderly men above it.[112] The Army of Republika Srpska took the largest number of prisoners on 13 July, along the Bratunac-Konjević Polje road. It remains impossible to cite a precise figure, but witness statements describe the assembly points such as the field at Sandići, the agricultural warehouses in Kravica, the school in Konjević Polje, the football field in Nova Kasaba, the village of Lolići and the village school of Luke. Several thousands of people were herded together in the field near Sandići and on the Nova Kasaba football pitch, where they were searched and put into smaller groups. In a video tape made by journalist Zoran Petrović, a Serb soldier states that at least 3,000 to 4,000 men had given themselves up on the road. By the late afternoon of 13 July, the total had risen to some 6,000 according to the intercepted radio communication; the following day, Major Franken of Dutchbat was given the same figure by Colonel Radislav Janković of the Serb army. Many of the prisoners had been seen in the locations described by passing convoys taking the women and children to Kladanj by bus, while various aerial photographs have since provided evidence to confirm this version of events.[96][112] One hour after the evacuation of the females from Potočari was completed, the Drina Corps staff diverted the buses to the areas in which the men were being held. Colonel Krsmanović, who on 12 July had arranged the buses for the evacuation, ordered the 700 men in Sandići to be collected, and the soldiers guarding them made them throw their possessions on a large heap and hand over anything of value. During the afternoon, the group in Sandići was visited by Mladić who told them that they would come to no harm, that they would be treated as prisoners of war, that they would be exchanged for other prisoners and that their families had been escorted to Tuzla in safety. Some of these men were placed on the transport to Bratunac and other locations, while some were marched on foot to the warehouses in Kravica. The men gathered on the soccer ground at Nova Kasaba were forced to hand over their personal belongings. They too received a personal visit from Mladić during the afternoon of 13 July; on this occasion, he announced that the Bosnian authorities in Tuzla did not want the men and that they were therefore to be taken to other locations. The men in Nova Kasaba were loaded onto buses and trucks and were taken to Bratunac or the other locations.[112] The Bosnian men who had been separated from the women, children and elderly in Potočari numbering approximately 1,000 were transported to Bratunac and subsequently joined by Bosnian men captured from the column.[113] Almost without exception, the thousands of Bosnian prisoners captured, following the take-over of Srebrenica, were executed. Some were killed individually or in small groups by the soldiers who captured them and some were killed in the places where they were temporarily detained. Most, however, were killed in carefully orchestrated mass executions, commencing on 13 July 1995 in the region just north of Srebrenica. The mass executions followed a well-established pattern. The men were first taken to empty schools or warehouses. After being detained there for some hours, they were loaded onto buses or trucks and taken to another site for execution. Usually, the execution fields were in isolated locations. The prisoners were unarmed and in many cases, steps had been taken to minimise resistance, such as blindfolding them, binding their wrists behind their backs with ligatures or removing their shoes. Once at the killing fields, the men were taken off the trucks in small groups, lined up and shot. Those who survived the initial round of shooting were individually shot with an extra round, though sometimes only after they had been left to suffer for a time.[112] The process of finding victim bodies in the Srebrenica region, often in mass graves, exhuming them and finally identifying them was relatively slow. Morning of 13 July: Jadar River [ edit ] A small-scale execution took place prior to midday at the Jadar River on 13 July. Seventeen men were transported by bus a short distance to a spot on the banks of the Jadar River. The men were then lined up and shot. One man, after being hit in the hip by a bullet, jumped into the river and managed to escape.[114] Afternoon of 13 July: Cerska Valley [ edit ] Skull of a victim of the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre. Exhumed mass grave outside the village of Potočari, Bosnia and Herzegovina. July 2007. The first large-scale mass executions began on the afternoon of 13 July 1995 in the valley of the River Cerska, to the west of Konjević Polje. One witness, hidden among trees, saw two or three trucks, followed by an armoured vehicle and an earthmoving machine proceeding towards Cerska. After that, he heard gunshots for half an hour and then saw the armoured vehicle going in the opposite direction, but not the earthmoving machine. Other witnesses report seeing a pool of blood alongside the road to Cerska that day. Muhamed Duraković, a UN translator, probably passed this execution site later that day. He reports seeing bodies tossed into a ditch alongside the road, with some men still alive.[115][116] Aerial photos and excavations later confirmed the presence of a mass grave near this location. Ammunition cartridges found at the scene reveal that the victims were lined up on one side of the road, whereupon their executioners shot from the other. The bodies—150 in number—were covered with earth where they lay. It could later be established that they had been killed by guns. All were men, between the ages of 14 and 50. All but three of the 150 were wearing civilian clothes. Many had their hands tied behind their backs. Nine could later be identified and were indeed on the list of missing persons from Srebrenica.[115] Late afternoon of 13 July: Kravica [ edit ] Later that same afternoon, 13 July 1995 executions were also conducted in the largest of four warehouses (farm sheds) owned by the Agricultural Cooperative in Kravica. Between 1,000 and 1,500 men had been captured in fields near Sandići and detained in Sandići Meadow. They were brought to Kravica, either by bus or on foot, the distance being approximately one kilometer. A witness recalls seeing around 200 men, stripped to the waist and with their hands in the air, being forced to run in the direction of Kravica. An aerial photograph taken at 14:00 hours that afternoon shows two buses standing in front of the sheds.[117] At around 18:00 hours, when the men were all being held in the warehouse, VRS soldiers threw in hand grenades and shot with various weapons, including rocket propelled grenades. The mass murder in Kravica seemed "well organised and involved a substantial amount of planning, requiring the participation of the Drina Corps Command."[117] Supposedly, there was more killing in and around Kravica and Sandići. Even before the murders in the warehouse, some 200 or 300 men were formed up in ranks near Sandići and then were executed en masse with concentrated machine guns. At Kravica, it seems that the local population had a hand in the killings. Some victims were mutilated and killed with knives. The bodies were taken to Bratunac or simply dumped in the river that runs alongside the road. One witness states that this all took place on 14 July. There were three survivors of the mass murder in the farm sheds at Kravica.[117] Armed guards shot at the men who tried to climb out the windows to escape the massacre. When the shooting stopped, the shed was full of bodies. Another survivor, who was only slightly wounded, reports: I was not even able to touch the floor, the concrete floor of the warehouse.... After the shooting, I felt a strange kind of heat, warmth, which was coming from the blood that covered the concrete floor and I was stepping on the dead people who were lying around. But there were even men (just men) who were still alive, who were only wounded and as soon as I would step on him, I would hear him cry, moan, because I was trying to move as fast as I could. I could tell that people had been completely disembodied and I could feel bones of the people that had been hit by those bursts of bullets or shells, I could feel their ribs crushing. Then I would get up again and continue....[54] When this witness climbed out of a window, he was seen by a guard who shot at him. He then pretended to be dead and managed to escape the following morning. The other witness quoted above spent the night under a heap of bodies; the next morning, he watched as the soldiers examined the corpses for signs of life. The few survivors were forced to sing Serbian songs, and were then shot. Once the final victim had been killed, an excavator was driven in to shunt the bodies out of the shed; the asphalt outside was then hosed down with water. In September 1996, however, it was still possible to find the evidence.[117] Analyses of hair, blood and explosives residue collected at the Kravica Warehouse provide strong evidence of the killings. Experts determined the presence of bullet strikes, explosives residue, bullets and shell cases, as well as human blood, bones and tissue adhering to the walls and floors of the building. Forensic evidence presented by the ICTY Prosecutor established a link between the executions in Kravica and the 'primary' mass grave known as Glogova 2, in which the remains of 139 people were found. In the'secondary' grave known as Zeleni Jadar 5 there were 145 bodies, a number of which were charred. Pieces of brick and window frame which were found in the Glogova 1 grave that was opened later also established a link with Kravica. Here, the remains of 191 victims were found.[117] 13–14 July: Tišća [ edit ] As the buses crowded with Bosnian women, children and elderly made their way from Potočari to Kladanj, they were stopped at Tišća village, searched, and the Bosnian men and boys found on board were removed from the bus. The evidence reveals a well-organised operation in Tišća.[118] From the checkpoint, an officer directed the soldier escorting the witness towards a nearby school where many other prisoners were being held. At the school, a soldier on a field telephone appeared to be transmitting and receiving orders. Sometime around midnight, the witness was loaded onto a truck with 22 other men with their hands tied behind their backs. At one point the truck stopped and a soldier on the scene said: "Not here. Take them up there, where they took people before." The truck reached another stopping point where the soldiers came around to the back of the truck and started shooting the prisoners. The survivor escaped by running away from the truck and hiding in a forest.[118] 14 July: Grbavci and Orahovac [ edit ] A large group of the prisoners who had been held overnight in Bratunac were bussed in a convoy of 30 vehicles to the Grbavci school in Orahovac early in the morning of 14 July 1995. When they got there, the school gym was already half-filled with prisoners who had been arriving since the early morning hours and within a few hours, the building was completely full. Survivors estimated that there were 2,000 to 2,500 men there, some of them very young and some quite elderly, although the ICTY Prosecution suggested this may have been an over-estimation and that the number of prisoners at this site was probably closer to 1,000. Some prisoners were taken outside and killed. At some point, a witness recalled, General Mladić arrived and told the men: "Well, your government does not want you and I have to take care of you."[119] After being held in the gym for several hours, the men were led out in small groups to the execution fields that afternoon. Each prisoner was blindfolded and given a drink of water as he left the gym. The prisoners were then taken in trucks to the execution fields less than one kilometre away. The men were lined up and shot in the back; those who survived the initial shooting were killed with an extra shot. Two adjacent meadows were used; once one was full of bodies, the executioners moved to the other. While the executions were in progress, the survivors said, earth-moving equipment was digging the graves. A witness who survived the shootings by pretending to be dead, reported that General Mladić drove up in a red car and watched some of the executions.[119] The forensic evidence supports crucial aspects of the survivors' testimony. Both aerial photos show that the ground in Orahovac was disturbed between 5 and 27 July 1995 and again between 7 and 27 September 1995. Two primary mass graves were uncovered in the area and were named Lazete 1 and Lazete 2 by investigators.[119] The Lazete 1 gravesite was exhumed by the ICTY Prosecution between 13 July and 3 August 2000. All of the 130 individuals uncovered, for whom sex could be determined, were male; 138 blindfolds were uncovered in the grave. Identification material for 23 persons, listed as missing following the fall of Srebrenica, was located during the exhumations at this site. The gravesite Lazete 2 was partly exhumed by a joint team from the Office of the Prosecutor and Physicians for Human Rights between August and September 1996 and completed in 2000. All of the 243 victims associated with Lazete 2 were male and the experts determined that the vast majority died of gunshot injuries. In addition, 147 blindfolds were located.[119] Forensic analysis of soil/pollen samples, blindfolds, ligatures, shell cases and aerial images of creation/disturbance dates, further revealed that bodies from the Lazete 1 and 2 graves were removed and reburied at secondary graves named Hodžići Road 3, 4 and 5. Aerial images show that these secondary gravesites were created between 7 September and 2 October 1995 and all of them were exhumed in 1998.[119] 14–15 July: Petkovići [ edit ] Delegates of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) examine an exhumed mass grave of victims of the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre, outside the village of Potočari, Bosnia and Herzegovina. July 2007. On 14 and 15 July 1995, another large group of prisoners numbering some 1,500 to 2,000 were taken from Bratunac to the school in Petkovići. The conditions under which these men were held at the Petkovići school were even worse than those in Grbavci. It was hot, overcrowded and there was no food or water. In the absence of anything else, some prisoners chose to drink their own urine. Every now and then, soldiers would enter the room and physically abuse prisoners, or would call them outside. A few of the prisoners contemplated an escape attempt, but others said it would be better to stay since the International Red Cross would be sure to monitor the situation and they could not all be killed.[120] The men were called outside in small groups. They were ordered to strip to the waist and to remove their shoes, whereupon their hands were tied behind their backs. During the night of 14 July, the men were taken by truck to the dam at Petkovići. Those who arrived later could see immediately what was happening there. A large number of bodies were strewn on the ground, their hands tied behind their backs. Small groups of five to ten men were taken out of the trucks, lined up and shot. Some begged for water but their pleas were ignored.[120] A survivor described his feelings of fear combined with thirst thus: I was really sorry that I would die thirsty, and I was trying to hide amongst the people as long as I could, like everybody else. I just wanted to live for another second or two. And when it was my turn, I jumped out with what I believe were four other people. I could feel the gravel beneath my feet. It hurt.... I was walking with my head bent down and I wasn't feeling anything.... And then I thought that I would die very fast, that I would not suffer. And I just thought that my mother would never know where I had ended up. This is what I was thinking as I was getting out of the truck. [As the soldiers walked around to kill the survivors of the first round of shooting] I was still very thirsty. But I was sort of between life and death. I didn't know whether I wanted to live or to die anymore. I decided not to call out for them to shoot and kill me, but I was sort of praying to God that they'd come and kill me.[54] After the soldiers had left, two survivors helped each other to untie their hands, and then crawled over the heap of bodies towards the woods, where they intended to hide. As dawn arrived, they could see the execution site where bulldozers were collecting the bodies. On the way to the execution site, one of the survivors had peeked out from under his blindfold and had seen that Mladić was also on his way to the scene.[54] Aerial photos confirmed that the earth near the Petkovići dam had been disturbed, and that it was disturbed yet again sometime between 7 and 27 September 1995. When the grave here was opened in April 1998, there seemed to be many bodies missing. Their removal had been accomplished with mechanical apparatus, causing considerable disturbance to the grave and its contents. At this time, the grave contained the remains of no more than 43 persons. Other bodies had been removed to a secondary grave, Liplje 2, prior to 2 October 1995. Here, the remains of at least 191 individuals were discovered.[54] 14–16 July: Branjevo [ edit ] On 14 July 1995 more prisoners from Bratunac were bussed northward to a school in the village of Pilica, north of Zvornik. As at other detention facilities, there was no food or water and several men died in the school gym from heat and dehydration. The men were held at the Pilica school for two nights. On 16 July 1995, following a now familiar pattern, the men were called out of the school and loaded onto buses with their hands tied behind their backs. They were then driven to the Branjevo Military Farm, where groups of 10 were lined up and shot.[121] Dražen Erdemović—who confessed killing at least 70 Bosniaks—was a member of the VRS 10th Sabotage Detachment (a Main Staff subordinate unit) and participated in mass executions. Erdemović appeared as a prosecution witness and testified: "The men in front of us were ordered to turn their backs. When those men turned their backs to us, we shot at them. We were given orders to shoot."[122] On this point, one of the survivors recalls: When they shot, I threw myself on the ground... one man fell on my head. I think that he was killed on the spot. I could feel the hot blood pouring over me.... I could hear one man crying for help. He was begging them to kill him. And they simply said "Let him suffer. We'll kill him later." Witness Q[123] Erdemović said that all but one of the victims wore civilian clothes and that, except for one person who tried to escape, they offered no resistance before being shot. Sometimes the executioners were particularly cruel. When some of the soldiers recognised acquaintances from Srebrenica, they beat and humiliated them before killing them. Erdemović had to persuade his fellow soldiers to stop using a machine gun for the killings; while it mortally wounded the prisoners it did not cause death immediately and prolonged their suffering.[122] Between 1,000 and 1,200 men were killed in the course of that day at this execution site.[124] Aerial photographs, taken on 17 July 1995 of an area around the Branjevo Military Farm, show a large number of bodies lying in the field near the farm, as well as traces of the excavator that collected the bodies from the field.[125] Erdemović testified that, at around 15:00 hours on 16 July 1995 after he and his fellow soldiers from the 10th Sabotage Detachment had finished executing the prisoners at the Branjevo Military Farm, they were told that there was a group of 500 Bosnian prisoners from Srebrenica trying to break out of a nearby Dom Kultura club. Erdemović and the other members of his unit refused to carry out any more killings. They were then told to attend a meeting with a Lieutenant Colonel at a café in Pilica. Erdemović and his fellow-soldiers travelled to the café as requested and, as they waited, they could hear shots and grenades being detonated. The sounds lasted for approximately 15–20 minutes after which a soldier from Bratunac entered the café to inform those present that "everything was over".[126] There were no survivors to explain exactly what had happened in the Dom Kultura.[126] The executions at the Dom Kultura were remarkable in that this was no remote spot but a location in the centre of town on the main road from Zvornik to Bijeljina.[127] Over a year later, it was still possible to find physical evidence of this crime. As in Kravica, many traces of blood, hair and body tissue were found in the building, with cartridges and shells littered throughout the two storeys.[128] It could also be established that explosives and machine guns had been used. Human remains and personal possessions were found under the stage, where blood had dripped down through the floorboards. Two of the three survivors of the executions at the Branjevo Military Farm were arrested by local Bosnian Serb police on 25 July and sent to the prisoner of war compound at Batkovici. One had been a member of the group separated from the women in Potočari on 13 July. The prisoners who were taken to Batkovici survived the ordeal.[129] and were later able to testify before the Tribunal.[130] Čančari Road 12 was the site of the re-interment of at least 174 bodies, moved here from the mass grave at the Branjevo Military Farm.[131] Only 43 were complete sets of remains, most of which established that death had taken place as the result of rifle fire. Of the 313 various body parts found, 145 displayed gunshot wounds of a severity likely to prove fatal.[132] 14–17 July: Kozluk [ edit ] Exhumation of the Srebrenica massacre victims The exact date of the executions at Kozluk is not known, although it can be narrowed down to the period of 14 to 17 July 1995. The most probable dates are 15 and 16 July, not least due to the geographic location of Kozluk, between Petkovići Dam and the Branjevo Military Farm. It therefore falls within the pattern of ever more northerly execution sites: Orahovac on 14 July, Petkovići Dam on 15 July, the Branjevo Military Farm and the Pilica Dom Kultura on 16 July.[133] Another indication is that a Zvornik Brigade excavator spent eight hours in Kozluk on 16 July and a truck belonging to the same brigade made two journeys between Orahovac and Kozluk that day. A bulldozer is known to have been active in Kozluk on 18 and 19 July.[134] Among Bosnian refugees in Germany, there were rumors of executions in Kozluk, during which the five hundred or so prisoners were forced to sing Serbian songs as they were being transported to the execution site. Although no survivors have since come forward, investigations in 1999 led to the discovery of a mass grave near Kozluk.[135] This proved to be the actual location of an execution as well, and lay alongside the Drina accessible only by driving through the barracks occupied by the Drina Wolves, a regular police unit of Republika Srpska. The grave was not dug specifically for the purpose: it had previously been a quarry and a landfill site. Investigators found many shards of green glass which the nearby 'Vitinka' bottling plant had dumped there. This facilitated the process of establishing links with the secondary graves along Čančari Road.[136] The grave at Kozluk had been partly cleared some time prior to 27 September 1995 but no fewer than 340 bodies were found there nonetheless.[137] In 237 cases, it was clear that they had died as the result of rifle fire: 83 by a single shot to the head, 76 by one shot through the torso region, 72 by multiple bullet wounds, five by wounds to the legs and one person by bullet wounds to the arm. The ages of the victims were between 8 and 85 years old. Some had been physically disabled, occasionally as the result of amputation. Many had clearly been tied and bound using strips of clothing or nylon thread.[136] Along the Čančari Road are twelve known mass graves, of which only two—Čančari Road 3 and 12—have been investigated in detail (as of 2000 ).[138] Čančari Road 3 is known to have been a secondary grave linked to Kozluk, as shown by the glass fragments and labels from the Vitinka factory.[139] The remains of 158 victims were found here, of which 35 bodies were still more or less intact and indicated that most had been killed by gunfire.[140] 13–18 July: Bratunac-Konjević Polje road [ edit ] On 13 July, near Konjević Polje, Serb soldiers summarily executed hundreds of Bosniaks, including women and children.[141] The men who were found attempting to escape by the Bratunac-Konjević Polje road were told that the Geneva Convention would be observed if they gave themselves up.[142] In Bratunac, men were told that there were Serbian personnel standing by to escort them to Zagreb for an exchange of prisoners. The visible presence of UN uniforms and UN vehicles, stolen from Dutchbat, were intended to contribute to the feeling of reassurance. On 17 to 18 July, Serb soldiers captured about 150–200 Bosnians in the vicinity of Konjevic Polje and summarily executed about one-half of them.[141] 18–19 July: Nezuk-Baljkovica frontline [ edit ] After the closure of the corridor at Baljkovica, several groups of stragglers nevertheless attempted to escape into Bosnian territory. Most were captured by VRS troops in the Nezuk—Baljkovica area and killed on the spot. In the vicinity of Nezuk, about 20 small groups surrendered to Bosnian Serb military forces. After the men surrendered, Bosnian Serb soldiers ordered them to line up and summarily executed them.[101][141] On 19 July, for example, a group of approximately 11 men was killed at Nezuk itself by units of the 16th Krajina Brigade, then operating under the direct command of the Zvornik Brigade. Reports reveal that a further 13 men, all ARBiH soldiers, were killed at Nezuk on 19 July.[143] The report of the march to Tuzla includes the account of an ARBiH soldier who witnessed several executions carried out by police that day. He survived because 30 ARBiH soldiers were needed for an exchange of prisoners following the ARBiH's capture of a VRS officer at Baljkovica. The soldier was himself exchanged late 1995; at that time, there were still 229 men from Srebrenica in the Batkovici prisoner of war camp, including two men who had been taken prisoner in 1994.[citation needed] At the same time, RS Ministry of the Interior forces conducting a search of the terrain from Kamenica as far as Snagovo killed eight Bosniaks.[144] Around 200 Muslims armed with automatic and hunting rifles were reported to be hiding near the old road near Snagovo.[144] During the morning, about 50 Bosniaks attacked the Zvornik Brigade line in the area of Pandurica, attempting to break through to Bosnian government territory.[144] The Zvornik Public Security Centre planned to surround and destroy these two groups the following day using all available forces.[145] 20–22 July: Meces area [ edit ] According to ICTY indictments of Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, on 20 to 21 July 1995 near the village of Meces, VRS personnel, using megaphones, urged Bosniak men who had fled Srebrenica to surrender and assured them that they would be safe. Approximately 350 men responded to these entreaties and surrendered. The soldiers then took approximately 150 of them, instructed them to dig their own graves and summarily executed them.[146] After the massacre [ edit ] ICMP's Podrinje Identification Project (PIP) was formed to deal with the identification primarily of victims of 1995 Srebrenica massacre. PIP includes a facility for storing, processing, and handling exhumed remains. Much of the remains are only fragments or commingled body fragments since they were recovered from secondary mass graves. The photo depicts one section of the refrigerated mortuary During the days following the massacre, American spy planes overflew the area of Srebrenica, and took photos showing the ground in vast areas around the town had been removed, a sign of mass burials. On 22 July, the commanding officer of the Zvornik Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Vinko Pandurević, requested the Drina Corps to set up a committee to oversee the exchange of prisoners. He also asked for instructions where the prisoners of war his unit had already captured should be taken and to whom they should be handed over. Approximately 50 wounded captives were taken to the Bratunac hospital. Another group of prisoners was taken to the Batkovići camp (near Bijeljina), and these were mostly exchanged later.[147] On 25 July, the Zvornik Brigade captured 25 more ARBiH soldiers who were taken directly to the camp at Batkovići, as were 34 ARBiH men captured the following day. Zvornik Brigade reports up until 31 July continue to describe the search for refugees and the capture of small groups of Bosniaks.[citation needed] A number of Bosniaks managed to cross over the River Drina into Serbia at Ljubovija and Bajina Bašta. 38 of them were returned to RS. Some were taken to the Batkovići camp, where they were exchanged. The fate of the majority has not been established.[147] Some of those attempting to cross the Drina drowned.[147] By 17 July 201 Bosniak soldiers had arrived in Žepa, exhausted and many with light wounds.[147] By 28 July another 500 had arrived in Žepa from Srebrenica.[147][148] After 19 July 1995, small Bosniak groups were hiding in the woods for days and months, trying to reach Tuzla.[147] Numerous refugees found themselves cut off for some time in the area around Mount Udrc. They did not know what to do next or where to go; they managed to stay alive by eating snails, leaves and mushrooms. The atmosphere was one of tension, hunger and desperation. On or about 23 July, the Bosnian Serbs swept through this area too, and according to one survivor they killed many people as they did so.[citation needed] Meanwhile, the VRS had commenced the process of clearing the bodies from around Srebrenica, Žepa, Kamenica and Snagovo. Work parties and municipal services were deployed to help. In Srebrenica, the refuse that had littered the streets since the departure of the people was collected and burnt, the town disinfected and deloused.[citation needed] Wanderers [ edit ] Many people in the part of the column which had not succeeded in passing Kamenica did not wish to give themselves up and decided to turn back towards Žepa. Others remained where they were, splitting up into smaller groups of no more than ten. Some wandered around for months, either alone or groups of two, four or six men. Few knew the way and so attempted to navigate by following overhead power cables. They often found corpses, by now in a state of decomposition. Sometimes one group met another group from Srebrenica who knew of a deserted Bosniak village in the region; they would then proceed there together.[citation needed] Some of the Bosniak men decided to retrace their steps towards the Srebrenica region, since this was familiar territory and they knew where to find food. From here, they would once again set out towards Žepa or attempt to reach Tuzla. Some arrived in Tuzla after many months, having been wandering around the area between Srebrenica and Udrc with absolutely no sense of direction. A few hundred managed to reach Žepa just before the Serb military, paramilitary and police forces occupied the enclave on 25 July 1995. Once Žepa had succumbed to the Serb pressure, they had to move on once more, either trying to reach Tuzla or crossing the River Drina into Serbia.[citation needed] To feed themselves, the men took potatoes and other vegetables from the fields around the Serbian villages at night. The local Serb population therefore began to mount patrols around their villages. The Bosniaks would generally sleep by day and wait for the cover of darkness before moving on. This continued for a long time. For example, the people of Milici, a village on the route to Tuzla, discovered the disappearance of livestock in November 1995 and formed an armed group in search of stragglers from the column.[citation needed] There are many stories recalling the experiences of those who lost contact with the column, their wanderings and the horrors they saw. One involves three young men aged 17, 18 and 19, who on several occasions attempted to cross the main Konjević Polje to Nova Kasaba road but were unsuccessful in doing so each time. They eventually managed to reach Žepa only after the enclave had fallen as well. The group had set up camp in a couple of deserted Bosniak villages where they managed to hide out for several months without attracting attention. Sometimes the teenagers would escort groups of other refugees as far as the next obstacle, before eventually returning to their base. Finally, on 26 April 1996, a full six months after the signing of the Dayton Accord, they crossed the Drina into Serbia.[citation needed] Zvornik 7 The most famous group of seven men wandered about in occupied territory for the entire winter. On 10 May 1996, after nine months on the run and over six months after the end of the war, they were discovered in a quarry by American IFOR soldiers. They immediately turned over to the patrol; they were searched and their weapons (two pistols and three hand grenades) were confiscated. The men said that they had been in hiding in the immediate vicinity of Srebrenica since the fall of the enclave. They did not look like soldiers and the Americans decided that this was a matter for the police.[149] The operations officer of this American unit ordered that a Serb patrol should be escorted into the quarry whereupon the men would be handed over to the Serbs. The prisoners said they were initially tortured after the transfer, but later were treated relatively well. In April 1997 the local court in Republika Srpska convicted the group, known as the Zvornik 7, for illegal possession of firearms and three of them for the murder of four Serbian woodsmen. When announcing the verdict the presenter of the TV of Republika Srpska described them as the group of Muslim terrorists from Srebrenica who last year massacred Serb civilians.[150] The trial was widely condemned by the international community as "a flagrant miscarriage of justice",[151][152] and the conviction was later quashed for 'procedural reasons' following pressure
“It is quite amazing that someone that is in government - actually elected to the government of the United States of America - would propose that we eliminate all fossil fuels in 12 years,” he said in an on-camera interview with The New American from Canada. “This would basically result, if we did it on a global level, it would result in the decimation of the human population from 7-odd billion down to who knows how few people.” It would end up killing almost everyone on the planet, he added. Worse than mass death would be the way people reacted. “It would basically begin a process of cannibalization among the human species, because the food could not be delivered to the stores in the middle of the cities anymore,” Moore continued. “The point that bothers me the most is that if you eliminated fossil fuels, every tree in the world would be cut for fuel. There is no other source for heating and cooking once you eliminate fossil fuels. You could use animal dung, if there were any animals left, but the animals would all die too because they would all get eaten.” Moore also slammed the “social aspects” of the Green New Deal proposals such as “paying people who are unwilling to work,” according to a FAQ released by Ocasio-Cortez’ office. “I can’t believe that anyone would write that in a proposal for law in the United States of America,” he said, calling it “just unbelievable.” Indeed, that language and other half-baked ideas caused nationwide ridicule of Ocasio-Cortez and others involved in pushing the “New Deal.” The ridicule got so intense that one of its proponents eventually lied, claiming that mischievous Republicans might have put out a fake Green New Deal document to make Democrats look ridiculous. But then the truth came out, despite the FAQ being removed from Cortez’s congressional website. But the absurdity of it all may be a boost to Republicans and President Donald Trump. “We have a situation where something completely preposterous is being backed by a large number of Democratic congressional elected representatives in the United States of America,” Moore said. “This is actually going to put Trump right over the top. I cannot see how this can possibly be negative for him. It can only be positive, because people recognize when something is preposterous. And I think that is the best word for it.” “The best term for it is actually mass-suicidal,” Moore added. “Why would anyone vote for something that was going to result in the death of nearly all humans on Earth?” As far as what Americans could do who support the environment but not mass suicide, Moore urged people not to vote for anyone who would support the “Green New Deal.” Speaking at a conference put on by the Economic Education Association of Alberta over the weekend, Moore also explained that so much of what climate alarmists were pushing was pseudo-science and easily discredited lies. For instance, carbon dioxide is actually doing great things in terms of greening the planet - after all, it is plant food, Moore said. He also lambasted those who say coral reefs are dying due to alleged man-made global warming, something he said was not true. Noting that trucks need hydrocarbon fuels to bring produce to market in cities, Dr. Moore explained that just that one problem alone would be absolutely catastrophic if CO2 emissions were ended. Moore has since left the Greenpeace he helped found, because it left him. When the group was founded, “we wanted to save civilization, we didn’t want to destroy it,” he told The New American. “By the time I left Greenpeace, it had drifted into a situation in which all they had left was the green. They kind of dropped the peace, which was the human side of the situation. And now they were characterizing people as the enemies of the Earth - the human species as the enemies of nature, as if we were the only evil species.” One of the most outrageous campaigns by Greenpeace, Moore said, was when the leadership - which had no formal science education - decided to try to ban chlorine use worldwide. “Yes, chlorine can be toxic, it was used as a weapon in World War I,” he said. “But the fact that it is toxic is why it is the most important element in public health and medicine. Adding it to drinking water was the biggest advance in the history of public health… that has saved hundreds of millions of lives through the time that we learned to use chlorine as an anti-bacterial agent.” Nature, he added, is full of toxic materials. In his own keynote address at the conference, CFACT’s Rucker - who famously boarded Greenpeace ships to “punk” them with propaganda banners reading “ship of lies” and “propaganda warrior” - explained that much of the environmentalist movement has it backwards. The real key to preserving the environment, he said, is free markets, private property, and prosperity. Poor nations do not have the resources to protect the environment. And socialist-ruled nations have the worst environmental track-records of all. Meanwhile, freer and wealthier nations such as the United States, Canada, Japan, and Western Europe have remarkably clean environments. In an interview with The New American, Rucker celebrated freedom. “What’s good for people is good for nature,” he said, calling for pro-growth policies that benefit people rather than government- enforced scarcity. “It’s like the old Chinese proverb: When there is food on the table, there are many problems; when there is no food on the table, there is one problem. Societies that do not take care of their people don’t have the resources to take care of the planet.” Rucker, a top leader of the non-totalitarian environmental movement, also slammed the “Green New Deal” being advanced in Congress. “It is a horrible idea,” he said, blasting the original New Deal as well. “But I actually think it is more like the Soviet 5-year plan… They want to be off fossil fuels within 10 years. That is insane. It is not that we are embracing fossil fuels, but this is a government-driven objective much like the old Soviet plans were government-driven objectives. It is going to fail. And the problem is, it is going to take a lot of people down with it… This is going to really hurt people. It is a prescription for disaster.” Citing University of Maryland business Professor Julian Simon, Rucker used a hilarious example to illustrate the point. If the ideology of the sustainable-development movement were used 100 years ago, there would be great concern about where humanity was going to get enough whale oil to use as lighting. But of course, since then, electricity and light bulbs have taken the place of whale oil, thereby eliminating the alleged prospect of resources running out. The same concept applies to other resources, too, he said. When the price goes up due to scarcity, people will find substitutes and new ways of getting what they need - at least they will if markets are allowed to operate. “People are not just mouths, they are also hands and a brain,” he said. He also drew a distinction between the “conservation” ethic, in which man is included in how to protect the planet, and the “preservation” ethic and the “Deep Green ecology” that views man as a “virus on the planet” that needs to be removed. Obviously, efforts to conserve nature should have the well-being of man in mind, he said. Rucker and Moore both served at keynote speakers at the annual “FreedomTalk” conference Economic Education Association of Alberta. This writer gave a speech focusing on the indoctrination of children taking place in public schools - and particularly the implications of it for freedom. Other speakers highlighted the problems with the man-made global-warming hypothesis, the looming public pension disaster, and much more. Wake up young people Despite the failure of predictions (Gore’s 10 claims all failed here) and the top 11 climate alarmist claims (updated rebuttal here), democrats and weak kneed republicans are exploring carbon sequester solutions and energy limitations and some even the Green New Deal. It is a political hoax and it endangers our future. Electricity prices would rise 3 to 5 fold and more and gasoline prices if the UN suggested carbon taxes were imposed would be $50/gallon. Good bye prosperity. See the results where it has already been tried here (northeast states Regional Greenhouse Initiative and California environmental mandates) and abroad. Enlarged ------------------ I have two grown children and three grandchildren. I was fortunate to have been brought up in America. Europe has been the first globalization - one world government and anti fossil fuel experiment. it has failed on many levels. You will never hear about it in the MSM which has strong socialist tendencies.. Unemployment reached a new high in Europe in 2013. Joblessness in the 17-nation EU currency area rose to 12.2 percent in the spring, EU statistics office Eurostat said, marking a new record since the data series began in 1995. The risk is high that will be your future unless you open your mind and...do your homework on government and the economy. Deepening unemployment crisis is a threat to the social fabric of the euro zone. Almost two-thirds of young Greeks are unable to find work, exemplifying southern Europe’s ‘lost generation’. In France, Europe’s second largest economy, the number of jobless rose to a record in April, while in Italy, the unemployment rate hit its highest level in at least 36 years, with 40 percent of young people out of work. In Spain, the overall unemployment reached a record 27.2% due to a combination of the progressive big government anti-business policies and the enviro pushed green energy subsidies. This green push (wind power is not only a health hazard to humans and deadly to birds (killing millions worldwide including many endangered species like eagles and condors), but among the most inefficient of all energy sources) caused energy prices to skyrocket, shutting businesses or forcing manufacturers overseas. In Spain, 2.2 jobs were lost for every green job created and only 1 in 10 green job was permanent. In Italy it was 3.4 jobs lost for every temporary green job, Spain ceased subsidization, but the damage has been done. In Germany where electricity prices have doubled, 800,000 homes had their electricity turned off during the last brutal winter, the 5th straight such throwback winter to the Little Ice Age. In the UK 25 to 50% are still in energy poverty. Many pensioners have had to choose between heating and eating. Bet you did not hear about the many tens of thousands of deaths in the cold. The German government remarked that solar provide 0% of the electrical needs that winter. In December 2010, when the UK had the second coldest December since the Little Ice Age in 1659, the massive wind farms produced less than 0.5% of their energy needs. Sadly, even as Europe has soured on the green dream and are furiously building coal and gas power plants, our government was using Europe as a model. After you graduate with the burden of tens of thousands or in some cases well over $100,000 in college loans, you will find it difficult getting the job you need and deserve and the home you dream about. You can thank your liberal progressive teachers and professors and the last progressive administration for misleading you into the direction this country should head and for the way you voted. Academics have tenure and don’t have to worry about losing their jobs. They are ideologues who refuse to concede the policies they and the administration in Washington (mostly Academics without real world experience) support, have caused the number of people working today to be lower than in 2008, and will limit the hiring of graduates in the foreseeable future. When I was a college professor, I taught my students how to think not what to think. Is that happening at your school? If not you are not being educated, just brainwashed. Votes have consequences. The health care bill hurting the middle class (insurance was not down $2,500 as promised but up by that amount for most families for less coverage). You will bear the cost of this monstrosity in the future. You will pay for it big time or if you opt out, you paid a penalty. And you will be burdened with supporting social security and medicare because the government already used the deductions to pay for its spending spree. Retirees paid for their support but that money is long gone. The ACA took social security and medicare to a whole new level. Despite what you have been told, corporations big and small are not evil. Entrepreneurs are demonized for being successful, but they are the job creators. Penalizing them diminishes the potential you have for getting a rewarding job and successful career. You have been lied to since elementary school in your science classes with the liberal green curriculum on climate change that demonizes fossil fuel energy. It is perfectly reasonable to be green minded and work towards conservation of our resources. But CO2 has been incorrectly blamed for the natural cycles of temperatures and weather extremes of drought, flood, hurricanes, tornadoes, heat and cold. It has been called carbon pollution, a term that really should apply to particulate matter, largely removed from even coal plant effluence with scrubbers. In fact, EPA’s own charts show a 30% decline in these small particles and ozone the last three plus decades. Natural gas burns clean. The US is exporting fuel oil but no thanks to the administration, which has blocked drilling on all federal lands and offshore and has blocked the Keystone Pipeline. It is the heavy drilling and fracking in states on private land that has made the US as big as OPEC. After destroying the coal industry, the radicals at the EPA wanted to stop this and block natural gas by blocking the long used fracking process. The last administration admitted openly they want $8 gasoline and heating oil to make their renewables cost seem less onerous. Instead of a health hazard (inconceivable since every breathe you take emits 100 times more CO2 than is present in the atmosphere), CO2 is plant food and has helped greatly improve global crop yields and feed the increasing population. In future stories, we will show you how all the claims made demonizing CO2 have been falsified by real data (see this rebuttal of 11 top alarmist claims here). But isn’t there a consensus of scientists on global warming? Sure among the scientists and modelers on the receiving end of some of the hundreds of billions in grants - worldwide $2 trillion is spent on this scam. The Green New Deal would cost more than our entire budget - $32 trillion the next decade that would bankrupt our country (especially if combined with Medicare for all) for no benefit and great pain with unreliable, unaffordable energy supply, brownouts and blackouts, a huge rise in taxes, unemployment, a collapsed health care system. But among those not feeding at the trough. 31,487 American scientists have signed a petition, including 9,029 with PhDs that concluded “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane or other greenhouse gases is causing or will in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the earth.” The great author and medical doctor Dr. Michael Crichton said about consensus: “Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had. Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics.” This is a critical time for our country. Please help support our efforts to get the truth to the decision makers and save our Country. DONATE button on the left takes you to Paypal. We are working overtime pro bono to try and get the truth exposed, with no help from the media. Latest Fake Claims About Greenland Ice Loss; and Polar Bears By Paul Homewood -------- It’s worse than we thought, says the Guardian: Enlarged Greenland is melting faster than scientists previously thought, with the pace of ice loss increasing four-fold since 2003, new research has found. Enormous glaciers in Greenland are depositing ever larger chunks of ice into the Atlantic ocean, where it melts. But scientists have found that the largest ice loss in the decade from 2003 actually occurred in the southwest region of the island, which is largely glacier-free. This suggests surface ice is simply melting as global temperatures rise, causing gushing rivers of meltwater to flow into the ocean and push up sea levels. South-west Greenland, not previously thought of as a source of woe for coastal cities, is set to “become a major future contributor to sea level rise” the research states. “We knew we had one big problem with increasing rates of ice discharge by some large outlet glaciers,” said Michael Bevis, lead author of the paper (no doubt with Butthead) and a professor of geodynamics at Ohio State University. “But now we recognize a second serious problem: increasingly, large amounts of ice mass are going to leave as meltwater, as rivers that flow into the sea. The research provides fresh evidence of the dangers posed to vulnerable coastal places as diverse as Miami, Shanghai, Bangladesh and various Pacific islands as climate change shrinks the world’s land-based ice. “The only thing we can do is adapt and mitigate further global warming - it’s too late for there to be no effect,” Bevis said. “This is going to cause additional sea level rise. We are watching the ice sheet hit a tipping point. “We’re going to see faster and faster sea level rise for the foreseeable future. Once you hit that tipping point, the only question is: How severe does it get?” The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used data from NASA’s gravity recovery and climate experiment (known as Grace) and GPS stations scattered across Greenland to analyze changes in ice mass. This showed that Greenland lost around 280bn tons of ice per year between 2002 and 2016, enough to raise the worldwide sea level by 0.03 inches annually. If all of Greenland’s vast ice sheet, 3km thick in places, was to melt, global sea levels would rise by seven meters, or more than 20ft, drowning most coastal settlements. Enlarged When the long term numbers are not scary enough, concentrate on one year’s weather instead! I will explain. Science Daily has more detail on the Bevis paper here. For some reason, it does not appear on the PNAS site yet. Science Daily elaborate on the “faster than 2003” claim: Bevis’ team used data from GRACE and from GPS stations scattered around Greenland’s coast to identify changes in ice mass. The patterns they found show an alarming trend - by 2012, ice was being lost at nearly four times the rate that prevailed in 2003. Bevis said a natural weather phenomenon - the North Atlantic Oscillation, which brings warmer air to West Greenland, as well as clearer skies and more solar radiation - was building on man-made climate change to cause unprecedented levels of melting and runoff. Global atmospheric warming enhances summertime melting, especially in the southwest. The North Atlantic Oscillation is a natural - if erratic - cycle that causes ice to melt under normal circumstances. When combined with man-made global warming, though, the effects are supercharged. “These oscillations have been happening forever,” Bevis said. “So why only now are they causing this massive melt? It’s because the atmosphere is, at its baseline, warmer. The transient warming driven by the North Atlantic Oscillation was riding on top of more sustained, global warming.” But what happened in 2012? Due to that weather event, the NAO, Greenland experienced an unusually mild year, with in particular a sunny summer. Bevis asks: “These oscillations have been happening forever. So why only now are they causing this massive melt? “ Because we have only been monitoring the melt for the last decade or two! We know that global sea level rise was just as great in the early to mid 20th century, and there is therefore no evidence whatsoever that melting of the Greenland ice sheet was not just as great back then. Enlarged Unsurprisingly, therefore, the Surface Mass Balance of the Greenland ice sheet shrank slightly, due to both reduced snowfall and ice melt: Enlarged Enlarged However, that was the exception. Last year, for instance, the SMB grew much more than the long term mean, as it did the year before. Bevis’ claim that ice loss in 2012 was greater than in 2003 is based on one year’s weather, and not the long term trend. It is worth emphasizing here that the SMB reflects both snowfall and ice melt, but not calving of glaciers. It is, of course, ice melt that Bevis is mainly concerned about here. As we can see from the above temperature chart for SW Greenland, with the exception of 2012, temperatures since 2003 are little different to the 1920s to 40s, the last time the AMO was in warm phase, as it presently is. There is simply no evidence at all of Greenland’s climate getting any warmer over the long term. As for the lurid threats of multi meter sea level rise, according to DMI loss of ice from the Greenland ice sheet (from all causes) since 2003 has accounted for about 0.65mm a year of global sea level rise, little more than 2 inches per century. ------------ Media Ignore Inconvenient Truths When Pushing Polar Bear Invasion Stories This story could very well be headlined: “When the internet came to Novaya Zemlya.” Locals started to post photos and video of the more than 50 polar bears in their neighborhood. Over the last week, social media, as well as online newspapers globally, have gone mad over the news coming out from one of the remotest towns on the planet, the closed military settlement of Belushaya Guba. The little-known town on the Russian Arctic archipelago has since last autumn been struggling with polar bears walking the streets and around the corners of the apartment - and office buildings. Even walking by a baby-stroller inside an entrance, one of the video-recordings show. Regional authorities have declared a state of emergency after the bears no longer react to noise - and light signals from guards trying to scare them off. Belushaya Guba, like the entire Novaya Zemlya, is closed off military area. The newly upgraded air base Rogachevo is just a few kilometers outside of town. But why don’t the bears want to leave the settlement? As previously reported by the Barents Observer, the Kara Sea off the east coast of Novaya Zemlya is this winter packed with very close drift ice. Now, it appears like the human food-waste has a much more central role in the story than just the warming Arctic. But first a look at the many media, including the Barents Observer, that last week jumped to conclusions pointing at climate changes when the stories about polar bears in trouble, or making trouble, found its way to global newsrooms. The blog portal Polar Bear Science has collected links to many of the newspapers reporting about the sensational images from Novaya Zemlya. The Guardian writes, “What polar bears in a Russian apartment block reveal about the climate crisis.” guardian polar bear invasion The Washington Post writes under the headline, “A ‘mass invasion’ of polar bears is terrorizing an island town. Climate change is to blame” and the CBC makes a similar conclusion, headlining its article: “Russian Arctic town overrun by polar bears, climate change blamed.” Mats Forsberg has sailed expeditions since 1982 and has assisted in TV productions about the polar bears in the Arctic. He has first-hand knowledge of polar bears’ behavior. “These bears are well-fed,” he says to the Barents Observer after reviewing some of the videos. “I would say these bears are not hanging around the houses due to climate changes. They have a huge amount of food dumped into nature by humans,” Forsberg says and concludes: “This is purely an on-site human-made problem.” Some of the videos posted by local residents on Vkontakte show how tens of polar bears are eating garbage at the local dump site in Belushaya Guba. The bears actually look fat. Evaluating media’s reporting, the blog site Polar Bear Science concludes: “Global warming is blamed for the problem but as is so often the case, that claim does not stand up to scrutiny.” The blog is run by Susan Crockford, a zoologist with more than 35 years experience, including published work on the Holocene history of Arctic animals. Cold Storage... Climate Science, Red in Tooth and Claw: Yapping Hyenas Attack a Lion By Norman Rogers, American Thinker William Happer is one of the most important scientists in the United States. He is an emeritus professor of physics at Princeton and a long-serving adviser to the federal government. His scientific discoveries and inventions are extensive. Currently, he serves in the White House as a senior adviser to the National Security Council. The Trump administration is thinking of forming a “Presidential Committee on Climate Security.” The press has been told to direct questions to Dr. Happer. That is enough to bring out the climate hyenas. They can’t stand the thought that Trump might have some solid scientific advice concerning climate change. The hyenas are running an all-out attack against Dr. Happer. Following Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, the camp followers of the global warming industry try to create polarization. In a Time magazine article, a former admiral says Happer is a fringe figure. A climate scientist at Georgia Tech says Happer has “false, unscientific notions.” We are reassured that the global warming scare is absolutely solid science, as everyone except climate deniers knows. What everyone may not know is that climate science is an industry, and the product is the global warming scare. If the global warming scare is discredited, the huge industry will collapse. Climate scientists used to be unimportant academics in an unimportant academic field. The global warming scare made them into celebrities jetting around the world. They won’t give up the glory without a fight. Climate computer models, the basis of the doomsday predictions, disagree with each other and disagree with the climate of the Earth. But according to the climate science mafia, anyone who brings up such embarrassing information is a tool of the fossil fuel industry. As far as the climate mafia is concerned, the business plan of the fossil fuel industry is to wreck the Earth and wreck the global warming industry. The reality is that the fossil fuel industry is wimpy and not inclined to take on the global warmers. Climate science has gone off the rails. President Eisenhower nailed the problem in his 1961 farewell address. He expressed the fear that because science had become heavily dependent on federal financial support, scientists would color the science in order to increase the flow of federal money. Nothing works better for increasing the flow of federal scientific money than predicting a future disaster. If scientists predict a disaster, we have to give them more money to research methods of preventing the disaster. Since Eisenhower’s address, we have been treated to a parade of scientific doomsday predictions, none of which measured up to the hype. There was global cooling that preceded global warming. There were acid rain, DDT, the ozone layer, overpopulation, and many others. It is not only scientists who use a parade of disaster predictions. Environmental organizations need doomsday predictions, too, in order to keep their members interested. The press has a bias for sensationalism, so it too promotes the latest doomsday predictions. Many professions are supposed to adhere to high ethical standards. For example, lawyers are supposed to put the interests of their clients above their own interests. Doctors are supposed to put their patients’ welfare above their own pecuniary interests. Journalists are supposed to be objective and not color their work with their own political preferences. We know that not every professional adheres strictly to his ethical code. Scientists are not different. They are supposed to search for scientific truth and to exercise objectivity in their work. They are not supposed to hype weak theories in order to improve their professional standing. But these things happen. Most scientists are not in a position to contradict global warming hype. Science is a profession characterized by ideological schools and groupthink. Groupthink is worst in sciences where the rules are not clear and the data are confusing - for example, climate science. Young scientists depend on older, more senior scientists for recognition and promotion. They are in no position to contradict groupthink. They have families to feed. The senior scientists may be running large scientific enterprises financed by federal money. To express doubts about the mission or the truth of the groupthink would be to threaten their money and the jobs of people in their organization. The consequence of the groupthink atmosphere is that dissenters come from the ranks of scientists removed from the pressure to conform - for example, retired scientists, amateur scientists, and scientists so accomplished as to be immune to threats and group pressure. There are thousands of such scientists who are skeptical of the global warming hype. When they speak out, they are attacked, and the attacks are usually vicious. The members of the global warming establishment will almost never debate skeptics. When this was done years ago, the skeptics were too credible. Science is great, and our modern world is a product of science. But scientists are humans, not gods. They play the same games that other beneficiaries of federal money play. We have been fooled over and over again by fake predictions of disasters or one sort or another. The fake predictions are never completely fake. There is usually some real science buried in all the hype. For example, it is reasonable to expect that some global warming might be caused by adding CO2 to the atmosphere. What is probably a modest effect has been twisted and exaggerated into a doomsday scenario that demands that we save the planet. The good effects of CO2 that are well known and that are solid science are ignored. Increasing CO2 in the atmosphere makes plants grow better with less water. Greenhouse-operators use CO2-generators in their greenhouses. CO2 is greening deserts. How often to you hear about these benefits of CO2? DDT was banned because it supposedly thinned birds’ eggs and perhaps because some people screamed cancer. But DDT is highly effective against mosquitos that cause malaria. The World Health Organization finally lifted the ban on DDT because thousands of children were dying in Africa. DDT will never be rehabilitated in the U.S. because the propaganda has been permanently imprinted in the minds of the populace. Science has created institutions that serve to enhance the image of science. For example, peer review often degenerates into pal review. Scientific journals are often filled with papers of dubious value generated by a system that values quantity over quality. The National Academy of Science pretends to give objective advice to the government, but often the advice is to appropriate more money for science. Typically, when science invents a new doomsday theory, the environmental organizations embellish it with unscientific flourishes. The scientist inventors of the theory don’t correct the environmental organizations because that would slow the momentum toward a new surge of federal money. That should be an ethical violation. Scientists should have a duty to set the record straight in such circumstances. There is no simple solution to the parade of doomsday theories. It would help if the government understood better that throwing more money at an alleged problem may exaggerate rather than alleviate the problem. Massive spending may not solve difficult scientific problems, but massive spending always creates bureaucracies that exist to sustain the spending. Norman Rogers is the author of the book Dumb Energy: A Critique of Wind and Solar Energy. Greatest Scientific Fraud of All-time: Part XX By Francis Menton, the Manhattan Contrarian Since last October, this series has been sitting at the rather awkward number of 19 (or “XIX") posts. Time to round it off at an even XX. For those new to this topic, the Greatest Scientific Fraud Of All Time is the systematic downward adjustment of early-year temperatures in order to create a fake enhanced warming trend, the better to bamboozle voters and politicians to go along with extreme measures to try to avert the impending “climate crisis.” Prior posts in this series have documented large and unexplained downward adjustments at hundreds of stations around the world that are used by official government organizations (in the US, primarily NOAA and NASA) to wipe out early-year high temperatures and thereby proclaim that the latest month or year is “the hottest ever!” To read all prior posts in this series, go to this link. You might ask, with the extensive exposure of these unsupportable downward adjustments of early-year temperatures by official government organizations - accompanied by highly credible accusations of scientific fraud - haven’t the adjusters been cowed by now into a smidgeon of honesty? It sure doesn’t look that way. The latest news comes out of Australia, via the website of Joanne Nova. Nova’s February 17 post is titled “History keeps getting colder - ACORN2 raises Australia’s warming rate by over 20%.” ACORN2” is a newly revised and updated temperature series for Australia, with temperatures going back to 1910 based on records from 112 weather stations on the continent, some 57 of which have records that go back all the way to the 1910 start date. “ACORN” stands for Australian Climate Observations Reference Network. The ACORN2 data compilation is so called to distinguish it from ACORN1, which was only released some 7 years ago in 2012. The people who put out these things are the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. According to Nova, the latest temperature adjustments were released “oh-so-quietly.” I guess that the plan is just to start using the new figures as the historical comparisons and bet that journalists will be too stupid or ignorant to figure out that the earlier temperatures have been altered. That’s actually a pretty good bet. However, down in Australia they do have a hard-working group of independent researchers who are on top of this issue. One of them is Nova, and another is Chris Gillham. Gillham has done his own very detailed analysis of the adjustments in the ACORN2 report, and has also put up a post on same at Watts Up With That. So there is plenty of information out there for intelligent people to make an independent judgment. A few excerpts from Nova: Once again we find that the oldest thermometers were apparently reading artificially high, even though many were newish in 1910 and placed in approved Stevenson screens. This is also despite the additional urban warming effect of a population that grew 400% since then. What are the odds?! Fortunately..., sorry scientists have uncovered the true readings from the old biased thermometers which they explain carefully in a 67 page impenetrable document… The new ACORN version has nearly doubled the rate of warming in the minima of the longest running stations. Nova has put together several charts to show the magnitude of the adjustments, not only from ACORN1 to ACORN2, but also from the prior AWAP compilation to ACORN1. To no one’s surprise, each round of adjustments makes the earlier years cooler, and thus enhances the apparent warming trend. Here is Nova’s chart showing the amount of warming from the beginning to the end of the series, for each of AWAP, ACORN1 and ACORN2, and for minimum, mean and maximum temperatures: Australia ACORN 1 and 2.gif For example, the average minimum temperature had increased over the century covered by 0.84 deg C in the AWAP series. That increased to 1.02 deg C in the ACORN1 series, and to 1.22 deg C in the ACORN2 series. You need to go over to Gillham’s work to see how these changes derive mostly from decreases in early-year temperatures. Here is a chart from Gillham on the changes to minimum temperatures at the 57 stations that go back all the way to the 1910 start: Enlarged As you can see, the “raw” and “v1” temperatures tend to be close - sometimes one higher, sometimes the other. But v2 is significantly lower across the board in the earlier years. Then, suddenly, in the recent years, it tracks the “raw” almost perfectly. Do they offer a justification for these downward adjustments? Yes, but nothing remotely satisfactory. The one-word explanation is “homogenization.” OK, we understand what that is. For example, sometimes a station moves, and that causes a discontinuity, where, say, the new location is systematically 0.1 deg C lower than the old. An adjustment needs to be made. But these sorts of adjustments should cancel out. How is it possible that every time some official meteorological organization anywhere in the world makes some of these “homogenization” adjustments, the result is that earlier years get colder and the supposed “global warming” trend gets enhanced - always to support a narrative of “climate crisis.” Well, fortunately, this time the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has put out a very long 57-page document explaining what they have done. Here it is. Is it any help? As far as I am concerned, this is the definitive proof of the fraud. If this were even an attempt at real, credible science, the proponents would put out a document complete with the details of the adjustments - and all of their computer code - so that an independent researcher could replicate the work. Nothing like that is here. This is pure bafflegab. Nova calls it “impenetrable,” which is way too nice a word as far as I’m concerned. Let me give you a small taste: 3. HOMOGENISATION METHODS 3.1 Detection of inhomogeneities - use of multiple detection methods in parallel In version 1 of ACORN-SAT, a single statistical method for detection of inhomogeneities was used (Trewin, 2012). This method was based closely on the Pairwise Homogenisation Algorithm (PHA) developed by Menne and Williams (2009), and involves pairwise comparison of data between the candidate station and all sufficiently well-correlated stations in the region, with the Standard Normal Homogeneity Test (SNHT) (Alexandersson, 1986) used to identify significant breakpoints in the difference series. The test was carried out separately on monthly mean anomalies (as a single time series with 12 data points per year), and seasonal mean anomalies, with a breakpoint flagged for further assessment if it was identified in either the monthly series, or (within a window of plus or minus 1 year) in at least two of the four seasons. Further details of the implementation of the PHA in the ACORN-SAT dataset are available in Trewin (2012). A range of other detection methods have been developed in recent years, many of which were the subject of the COST-HOME intercomparison project (Venema et al., 2012). Three of these methods were selected for use in ACORN-SAT version 2, the selection primarily based on ease of implementation. These methods were: * HOMER version 2
Hall of Fame Middle School, Akron, OH "Thank you for having a place where I can look for discounts. It is nice to have a place that shows appreciation for teachers." – David Brackin, Chain of Lakes Middle School, Orlando, FL Read more comments... About Overstock.com Overstock.com offers a wide variety of high-quality, brand-name merchandise at discount prices, including bedding, home decor, appliances, watches, jewelry, electronics, sporting goods, clothing and shoes.East Antarctica Ice-Sheet more vulnerable to melting than we thought: new research Posted on 31 July 2013 by John Mason Missing contributor to the 22 +/- 10m Pliocene sea-level rise identified We know from satellite measurements that the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets (GIS and WAIS respectively) are losing mass in response to global warming, and that, in the case of the partly sea-based West Antarctica ice-sheet, basal melting of the ice by warmer ocean-water is likely to be a key mechanism. In the case of the East Antarctica Ice-Sheet (EAIS), the situation has been less clear: thinning of ice shelves and acceleration of glaciers have been described in some areas but it has to date given an impression of relative stability. New research, however, has found that it might not be as resilient to warming as we thought, especially in areas where the bedrock is low-lying. The research, published in July 2013 in the journal Nature, concerns data collected from marine sediments comprising much (5.3-3.3 million years ago) of the Pliocene Series (spanning 5.3-2.588 million years ago) off the coast of East Antarctica. Its key finding is that during the Pliocene there occurred a series of long, warm intervals during which parts of the East Antarctic Ice-Sheet margin retreated hundreds of kilometres inland. This finding is of importance to our understanding of future global warming and its effects, because the climate during the Pliocene was similar to that predicted for the latter part of the current century and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations were similar to those of the present day. Modelling has already suggested that low-lying areas of the EAIS are candidate zones for Pliocene melt. In fact, some extra ice-melt is likely required to explain global sea-level changes during the Pliocene. That there were periods of significant sea-level rise is understood, but estimates of the amount vary, leading to the figure of 22 +/- 10 metres. What seems likely, however, is that sea-level rise due to the collapse of the GIS and WAIS would, at around 12m, appear to be insufficient to accomplish such an inundation. That these ice-sheets periodically collapsed during Pliocene times has been covered this year at Skeptical Science, here. Looking for indicators What kind of evidence would be an indicator of ice-sheet margin retreat? One line of enquiry would be to look for sediments that have come from an area now buried by ice. Retreat involves melting and meltwaters erode the bedrock and transport it as sediments - sands, gravels, silts and muds - down to the sea. So if you want to check whether erosion and sediment transport were taking place during the Pliocene, the best bet is to sample the sediments on the sea-floor dating from that time, by drilling through them and taking cores. This is what the research team did. A borehole was drilled at Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Site U1361 (fig. 1), in 3,465 m of water, situated 310 km offshore of the Adélie Land margin of East Antarctica. A continuous section through the Pliocene, comprising some 75m of drillcore, was recovered. Fig. 1: map of Antarctica, showing the approximate location of the submarine borehole drilled into the Pliocene sediments. The shaded area is discussed in some detail further into this article. The Pliocene sedimentary sequence in the drillcore consisted of sixteen distinct layers, alternating between diatom-rich silty clay and diatom-poor clay layers with silt laminations. Diatom-rich sediments point to multiple extended periods of increased biological productivity related to less sea ice and warmer spring and summer sea surface temperatures. This sequence is in good agreement with data from marine and land-based records from the Antarctic Peninsula margin, the Ross Sea and other areas. Reconstructions indicate that during the Pliocene there were prolonged (~200,000 years) warm intervals, when spring and summer sea surface temperatures were between 2 and 6oC above modern levels, with a general background theme of warmer-than-present temperatures. Provenancing - finding where sediments were eroded from In order to provenance sediment sources, it is necessary to look at both the composition of the sediment and the geological characteristics of the adjacent land. The part of East Antarctica that is relevant in this case consists of a number of distinct geological terranes with rocks dating from deep in the Precambrian to the Cenozoic occurring in different areas. Areas now covered in ice have been mapped in terms of their magnetism by aeromagnetic surveys. When sediments are fine-grained, as these clays and silts are, geochemistry is a useful method. The team examined the neodymium and strontium isotope ratios of the sediments and compared them to the known values for the various geological terranes on land. They found that the diatom-rich sediments, deposited during the warm intervals, were predominantly composed of material from one terrane - the Jurassic to Cretaceous volcanic rocks and associated sedimentary rocks of the Ferrar Large Igneous Province (FLIP). This FLIP 'fingerprint' was found to be restricted to the Pliocene warm intervals and was absent from the overlying younger sediments. Only one problem - from where, now under the ice inland, was the FLIP material eroded? Turning to the aeromagnetic data, they identified a district whose aeromagnetic characteristics strongly resembled those from an area of exposed FLIP bedrock in South Victoria Land. This was the Wilkes Subglacial Basin (fig.2) - or rather basins - for it contains two deep (~2km) trough-like structures known as grabens: recent subglacial topographic data compilations demonstrate that these troughs are directly connected to the Southern Ocean below sea level. Furthermore, recent geophysical data from aerial surveying suggest that one of the two troughs - known as the Central Basin - contains unconsolidated sediments thought to have been derived from the FLIP. Fig. 2: topographical map of Antarctica showing bedrock heights beneath the ice (highest ground is deep red, lowest deep blue): the Wilkes Basin, highlighted, is below sea-level. From the Bedmap 2 Project. The authors propose that the enhanced erosion of FLIP material in the Central Basin required multiple retreats of the ice margin inland by several hundred kilometres. Both modelling and observations suggest that ice-sheet retreat, in areas where the ice-base lies beneath sea-level, is driven by sub-surface melting at the ice edge, in response to warm ocean temperatures. Warm Pliocene ocean waters would have facilitated such a retreat of this part of the EAIS into the Central Basin, occurring at the same time as ice shelf collapse and ice margin retreat in other circum-Antarctic locations, such as the Ross Sea. Sea level rise implications in the Pliocene and in the coming centuries What contribution to Pliocene sea-level rise would this EAIS retreat have had? Existing ice sheet models imply that the figure is somewhere between 3 and 16 metres. The new findings will aid the refinement of such modelling: more importantly, the data from the Pliocene show that parts of the EAIS are more capable of dynamic and radical responses to warmer climate conditions than was thought to be the case. As with the research into the Pliocene Arctic, the results point out a stark scenario: * the Pliocene was a time when greenhouse gases were at similar levels to today; * the Pliocene was generally warmer than today and sometimes considerably warmer for prolonged periods; * the Pliocene saw the repeated collapses of the Greenland and West Antarctic Ice-sheets during the prolonged warmer periods; * the Pliocene also saw ice-sheet margins retreating significantly in East Antarctica during the prolonged warmer periods; * the Pliocene saw global ice retreat leading to global sea level rise of 22 +/- 10 metres during the prolonged warmer periods. The implications of the points above are clear: if we want to avoid transitioning to a warm Pliocene climate, including substantial sea-level rise, we need to make the transition back from the Pliocene atmosphere that we have created in the past decades, to one that favours relative climate stability.Similar to Demo Day, our first ever Play Test Day is a chance to not only see what everyone has been working on, but to also play the games and provide direct feedback. No presentations, just various games from the group setup on tables. If you've got a game, whether it is completed or just in prototype stages, please signup to play test. You'll get valuable feedback and testing. Even if you don't have a game to present, we'd still love to see you here to play all of the awesome games created by fellow Oklahoma developers. On the slate so far: GoldFire Studios Zantics Racing Land Mineded PolyCube Megacopter: Blades of the Goddess Churrascaria Lil' Blue Buddy! Abstract RPG The Adventure Machine More to come -- Add Your Game to the List (https://goo.gl/forms/GulwKG2uhqwsDWe72) Techlahoma (http://www.techlahoma.org/) is sponsoring our meeting space and food. GoldFire Studios (http://goldfirestudios.com/) is the organizer of these events. Come hungry and ready to talk game development! PS: Don't forget that we also have a Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/okgamedevs/) that is great for sharing! Anyone is welcome to join.Raiders Pro Bowl fullback Marcel Reece sees role diminishing Marcel Reece is being awfully mature about this. Reece, a three-time Pro Bowl selection at fullback, has watched his role diminish in an Oakland offense bursting with dynamic playmakers. The collective presence of Michael Crabtree, Amari Cooper and Latavius Murray barely leaves any scraps for Reece. Now he’s losing touches to unheralded Jamize Olawale, another fullback. Olawale had five carries for 24 yards and three catches for 35 yards Sunday against Minnesota. Reece had no carries and one reception (for zero yards). Widen the scope and the numbers are even more striking. Reece caught 14 passes and scored three touchdowns in Oakland’s first five games. He has only seven catches and no touchdowns in the past four games. So, given the chance Thursday, did he express simmering frustration with his inactivity? Not quite. Reece, a friend and mentor to Olawale, was quick to praise his onetime understudy. “I’m extremely proud of him,” Reece said. “It’s always been a competition, not just between me and Jamize, but with all of us. We’re always talking about who has the most touchdowns, always challenging each other. Oakland Raiders fullback Marcel Reece. Oakland Raiders fullback Marcel Reece. Photo: Eric Risberg, Associated Press Photo: Eric Risberg, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Raiders Pro Bowl fullback Marcel Reece sees role diminishing 1 / 1 Back to Gallery “That makes for a great dynamic as an offense. We’re competing as a running-back group, running backs versus receivers, myself versus Mike Crabtree. If we’re all at our best individually, then we’ll be at our best as a group.” Reece, 30, is a mainstay in Silver and Black — he joined the Raiders in 2008 (on the practice squad) and has been around ever since then. He has made 65 starts and reached the Pro Bowl each of the past three seasons. He’s still listed as the starter at fullback, but Olawale, 26, is clearly making inroads. After mostly playing on special teams since arriving in Oakland in 2012, his role is stretching into new frontiers. Offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave even paid Olawale a nice compliment, comparing him to … yep, Reece. “Jamize is very similar to Marcel,” Musgrave said. “He can catch the ball out of the backfield, he can be a lead blocker and he also can be a ball carrier. … He’s growing into the position.” Olawale, who was born in San Francisco and attended De La Salle-Concord and St. Ignatius Prep before moving to Southern California, didn’t play fullback in college at North Texas. He was an H-back most of his time there and a wide receiver his final season. Olawale weighed only 220 pounds then; now he carries 235 pounds on his 6-foot-1 frame. There’s no question what motivates Olawale, and it’s not really boosting his carries and catches. “I love blocking,” Olawale said, smiling widely. “When it’s me and the linebacker in the hole, one-on-one, I love it. … It’s the competition, just you and him. Either he wins or you win, and my goal is to always win.” The Raiders need to win again Sunday in Detroit, after dropping their past two games. This might mean leaning on the running game again, whether it’s giving Murray more carries (he had only 12 against the Vikings) or involving the fullback more. That could be Olawale, the student. But the mentor also will be ready. “It’s a long season,” Reece said. “I know my turn will come.” Briefly: Center Rodney Hudson (sprained ankle) returned to practice Thursday. … The Raiders signed defensive end Shelby Harris to the active roster. Harris, a seventh-round draft choice last year, had been on the practice squad. He takes Aldon Smith’s spot on the roster. … To replace Harris on the practice squad, the Raiders signed wide receiver/kick returner Jeremy Ross. The Ravens released Ross, a Cal alum, after he fumbled twice in three games. He also has played for the Packers and Lions.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The two women say they had "prayed so much" while trapped in the lift Two nuns have been rescued from a lift in Rome after being trapped for three days without food and water. The 69-year-old from New Zealand and a 58-year-old Irish nun became stuck on Friday at the Marist convent after an electrical power failure. They cried out for help but there was no-one in the building over the weekend, Italian media said. They were discovered on Monday by a cleaner who called police after ringing the doorbell and receiving no reply. The police entered the building and called out if anyone was there and the nuns replied: "Yes, we are here, in the elevator", according to Il Messaggero. The two women later said they had "prayed so much" while trapped, Il Messaggero reported. They were taken to a nearby hospital where they were treated for dehydration. The Marist Sister House hosts visitors to Rome from religious missions around the world.[van id=”van/ns-acc/2015/04/13/NE-011MO_CNNA-ST1-1000000002a48eef”] A Maryland family, the subjects of national headlines when they were accused of neglect for letting their children, ages 6 and 10, walk home alone from a park, are under investigation again. This time, the children were taken into custody by police officers and held for hours by police and Child Protective Services, according to the family. “I can’t believe we are going through this again,” said Danielle Meitiv of Silver Spring, Maryland, in a local television interview. “I can’t believe they kept the kids for hours. It’s 10:30 at night. They’ve been missing since six o’clock.” Meitiv and her husband dropped their children off at a park at 4:00 p.m. ET Sunday and told them to return home two hours later. When the kids didn’t return by about 6:30 p.m., they started looking for them and grew concerned. In a post on her Facebook page Monday, Meitiv wrote, “The police coerced our children into the back of a patrol car, telling them they would drive them home. They kept the kids trapped there for three hours, without notifying us, before dropping them at the Crisis Center, and holding them there without dinner for another two and a half hours.” Meitiv said the family finally got home at 11 p.m. and the kids slept in her and her husband’s room because “we were all exhausted and terrified.” “We were kind of scared,” said Rafi Meitiv, 10, in the local interview. Meitiv said that when she called 911, the police called Child Protective Services and that CPS then called the family. “When we asked them why did they not bring them home, they just said, ‘We decided that the safety of the children was more important,'” said Meitiv’s husband, Alexander. The Meitiv family’s lawyer said the family would be issuing a statement, through their attorney, later Monday or early Tuesday. “I will say it’s alarming and disturbing that their children could be literally a few blocks from home and the police pick them up under the guise of telling the children that they will take them home but then take them to a detention center and all the while never call the parents or let them know what’s going on,” said attorney Matthew Dowd. Dowd said the children know their address and phone number. “They know how to walk in the neighborhood. They’ve done this many times before,” said Dowd. “And the police knew that the children knew where they lived. The police knew their phone number yet for whatever reason the parents were not called.” The police received a call at 4:58 p.m. ET Sunday to check on the welfare of two children in the area, Capt. Paul Starks of the Montgomery County Police public information office told CNN. When an officer arrived on the scene, the person who had contacted police directed the officer to a parking garage where the officer found the children. “The officer observed a homeless subject who he was familiar with, eyeing the children,” according to a statement by the Montgomery County Police. The officer notified his supervisors and then contacted Child Protective Services, which is required under Maryland law when officers become aware of any possible case of child abuse or neglect. About an hour later, the officer contacted another CPS officer for guidance, according to the statement. It wasn’t until 7:18 p.m., more than two hours after the officer came upon the children, that they were transported to the CPS offices in Rockville, Maryland. “The officer was also advised that CPS would notify the parents,” according to the statement. “The officer followed the direction of the CPS worker as procedures dictate — due to the serious nature of a Child Protective Services investigation and concern for the welfare of the children, they cannot be returned home until their safety can be assured.” The officer shared his own water bottles with the children and started to give his own personal lunch to the children, who said they were hungry, but stopped when the older child advised he and his sister had food allergies. Detectives from the Montgomery County Police and investigators from Child Protective Services are now investigating possible child neglect allegations in the case, the statement said. Montgomery County Child Protective Services referred all questions to the Maryland Department of Human Resources, which oversees the agency. “We are required to follow up on all calls to Child Protective Services and will continue to work in the best interest of all children,” said the statement, which also said protecting children is the agency’s “number one priority.” The statement went on to say that while it understands the public’s concern, it is prohibited by law from discussing any specific case. The department will be reviewing the situation and talking to all of the parties involved as part of that review, the statement said. This is not the first time the Meitivs have come under fire for their “free-range” parenting style. Earlier this year, they were found responsible for “unsubstantiated” child neglect, according to the Meitivs, for allowing their children to walk home by themselves from a park that was about a mile from their house on a Saturday afternoon in late December. “We are shocked and outraged that we have been deemed negligent for granting our children the simple freedom to play outdoors,” Meitiv wrote in an email to CNN last month, saying the family plans to appeal. (That appeal is expected to be filed in a few days, the family’s lawyer said.) Last month, Meitiv said she and her husband didn’t plan to change their approach when it comes to raising their children. “We do worry, however, what will happen to them and us if CPS gets another call about them,” she wrote in early March. After this latest incident, the family is rethinking letting their kids play or walk alone — but not by choice, they said. Meitiv said Monday that CPS made them sign a “safety plan” that says they will not leave their kids unattended at all until CPS follows up. “I’m not going to risk my kids being snatched again by CPS,” she said. This story touched a nerve when the Meitivs first came under investigation, and this latest incident was met with an equally powerful and passionate response online. At issue, parents say, is not just whether the Meitivs did anything wrong and the response by CPS, but also that larger question of when is it OK to leave children unattended and that balance between empowering our children and putting them in harm’s way. Florida mom arrested after letting 7-year-old walk to the park alone Amanda Rodriguez, a mom of three, said the case is “quite troubling” especially because she just let her sons, ages 7 and 10, go to the neighborhood park Sunday to play. “They went with other kids from the neighborhood but I definitely wasn’t there,” said Rodriguez of Frederick, Maryland, founder of the blog Dude Mom. “I think they are old enough to go to the park without me!” Abigail Rose Solomon, an actress and producer, said one of her fondest — and most empowering — memories growing up in New York City was when she and her friends were allowed to roller skate to school by themselves at the age of 12. “It upsets me that most parents today are so overly protective of their kids, probably stunting their growth and confidence. And I am appalled that police are treating parents, who trust their kids and give them some room, like criminals,” said Solomon, a mom of one in New York City. Most states don’t have laws on the books regarding how old a child must be to be left alone. Maryland is one of the few that does, stating that children under 8 years old may not be left unattended in a house or car. There isn’t anything stipulated within the law about kids being alone outside, said Cherylyn Harley LeBon, a mom of two. “It is puzzling to me as to why Maryland Child Protective Services continues to accuse these parents of being negligent under a law which seemingly applies to children being left alone in buildings or cars,” said Harley LeBon, a writer, strategist and former senior counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Now it appears they have stretched the law to apply to walking home from a school and to a playground? I guess the question to consider is, ‘Is it the state’s job to determine whether our children are independent enough to walk to and from the playground or is it the parent’s decision?’ ” The only “real criminal behavior” here, said children’s television host Miss Lori was the behavior of the officials who took two children into custody and held them for hours without contacting their parents. “That was real abuse,” said the mother of three. Letting your kids play in the park, she added, is not ” ‘free range parenting.’ It’s just parenting, period. I did it as a kid. My parents did it.” But, on the other side, some parents raised the question of why parents, who were already under investigation by Child Protective Services, would let their children do anything unattended right now. “I am a little concerned that there is more to this story than the public knows,” said Louise Sattler, a mom of two, psychologist, educational consultant and owner of a business providing sign language instruction. “So now I need to ask if the parents are aware they are under a microscope, did they set the kids out to play sans supervision to make some kind of point.” Brian Gresko, a father of one in Brooklyn and a Babble.com contributor, said he likes the overall philosophy of the Meitivs, but thinks they might be taking it a bit far. “Sending their children unattended to the park after receiving warnings that CPS was keeping a close eye on them? That doesn’t sound like common sense to me. that sounds more like they were testing the limits and perhaps courting controversy,” said Gresko, editor of an anthology about fatherhood called “When I First Held You.” He added, “I ultimately feel badly for the kids and worry what kind of message this is sending to them, and what emotional impact this is having, being engaged in a kind of war with authorities.” Jim Higley, a father of three, radio host, author and founder of Bobblehead Dad, said there’s no “one-size-fits-all” answer to this issue. Independence depends on the child and should be doled out in baby steps, he said. “A six-year-old playing unattended in a park for two hours is certainly outside of my comfort zone,” said Higley. “As is the authorities not contacting the parents immediately to let them know that their children are safe. “It’s a sad situation, and the kids are the ones paying a price.”Amish Friendship Bread This is more than a recipe - it's a way of thinking. In our hi-tech world almost everything comes prepackaged and designed for instant gratification. So where does a recipe that takes ten days to make fit in? Maybe it's a touch stone to our past - to those days not so very long ago when everything we did took time and where a bread that took 10 days to make was not as extraordinary as it seems today. The recipe comes to us from Mrs. Norma Condon of Los Angeles. Amish Friendship Bread is a great bread for the holidays. When you've made your bread, you can give your friends a sample and the starter that made it! Then your friends can make their own and pass it along to their friends. This is why the bread is called "friendship bread". It makes a great homemade birthday and Christmas present. Church groups and hospitals have spread a lot of love and cheer by making Amish Friendship Bread for their members. Many people make it regularly just because it tastes so good! Amish Friendship Bread is a genuine starter bread. If you know someone with a starter, you are in luck. For those of you without access to a starter, we've done our research and found a great option. It's a special starter in powder form that can be activated with flour and water; it's safe, very inexpensive and we can send it to you. Starter for Amish Friendship Bread (G-110) The Recipe Important Note: Don't use metal spoons or equipment. Do not refrigerate. Use only glazed ceramic or plastic bowls or containers. Required Main Ingredient 1 cup live yeast starter (see above) day 1: Do nothing with the starter. days 2-5: Stir with a wooden spoon. day 6: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk. Stir with a wooden spoon. days 7-9: Stir with a wooden spoon. Day 10: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Stir. Take out 3 cups and place 1 cup each into three separate plastic containers. Give one cup and a copy of this recipe to three friends. To the balance (a little over one cup) of the batter, add the following ingredients and mix well. 1 cup oil 1/2 cup milk 3 eggs 1 tsp vanilla In a separate bowl combine the following dry ingredients and mix well: 2 cups flour 1 cup sugar 1-1/2 tsp baking powder 2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 - (5.1 oz) box instant vanilla pudding 1/2 tsp salt 1 cup nuts Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix and pour into two well greased and sugared bread pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour. A number of variations on the basic theme: breads, cookies, biscuits, cakes and more Homepage \| more Taste of Memory \| The Gourmet's Helper \| The Company Store \| Armchair World Directory We appreciate any comments or questions you might have. Our e-mail address is. You can also fill out our feedback form for sending us your comments. You may also reach us directly at 310-477-8960 in Los Angeles, California. ©1995-2004 Armchair World, Los Angeles, California, USA.And that’s just under this president. For anyone too young to remember, or else intoxicated by the sweet fragrance of Clinton nostalgia wafting in the Capitol, President Obama’s Democratic predecessor was subjected to eight years of investigation, impeachment, and repeated government shutdown when he wasn’t having his agenda stymied by the likes of Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole. For 20 years, the instinct of the Republican Party has been to use any legislative tool available, as often as possible, to counteract its losses in presidential elections. Constitutional scholar Mark Tushnet dubs this strategy “constitutional hardball”: resorting to measures that, while constitutionally valid, have historically been kept in check by political norms. Both parties play it—Democrats persistently stalled George W. Bush’s appointees, though that group was vastly more ideological than the present one, and met with far less obstruction—but Republicans have become past masters of the art. They use it to hamper the liberal program in national politics, but it has also been employed as a tool at the local level to accomplish partisan aims. Recalling the Democratic governor of California in the absence of malfeasance, scandal, or incompetence is constitutional hardball. Redrawing congressional districts in Texas three years after the latest Census in order to pocket more Republican House members is constitutional hardball. Changing the way blue states award their Electoral College votes to advantage the Republican presidential candidate is constitutional hardball. No matter the case, the party has been willing to shimmy into the space between what is legally allowed and what mom would be proud of. Most importantly, they’ve made this approach their ethos in governing as well as opposition. If they want to pass a law instead of blocking one, Republicans don’t let something as silly as congressional politesse get in the way. During the legendary 2003 vote on Bush’s Medicare Part D expansion, then–House Majority Leader Tom Delay stopped time for three hours and offered inducements to get wavering GOP backbenchers to vote with the rest of the pack. Bush’s tax cuts, the signature conservative achievement of this century, had to be fast-tracked through budget reconciliation in contravention of the Byrd Rule, a Senate ordinance barring the use of the process for any bill that expands the deficit. After the Senate parliamentarian balked at their abuses, they canned him. And of course, when Republicans tired of Democrats impeding the appointment of their judicial nominees, they came up with a little something called the nuclear option to bully them back into line. Someday the Republicans will once again control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives, and on that day, Democrats will surely regret that they can’t filibuster the slate of loons, chiselers, and fanatics that will once again occupy the highest offices in the land. But that will be because Republicans long ago embraced a policy of bending rules to consolidate power, not because Democrats finally learned how to defend themselves against it.On January 18, during BIG BANG‘s performance at Osaka Kyocera Dome, G-Dragon promised fans that BIG BANG would make a comeback with a new album this year. Towards the end of their concert, G-Dragon told fans “Last time we were a bit ashamed for not having shown much of a new stage performance, but this year we promise to come back soon to you all with a new album. To make the waited time not go to waste, we will come back as an amazing five member BIG BANG so please support us with unchanging love!” Earlier this month, Taeyang also hinted at BIGBANG’s comeback by revealing they are working on a new album, and saying that the group will make a comeback when everyone least expects it. BIGBANG’s performance at Osaka Kyocera Dome was the last stop in the group’s five dome tour in Japan that kicked off at Nagoya Dome in November 2014 in celebration of the group’s 5th year since making their Japanese debut in 2009. Source: My DailyThe Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act (officially titled Bill C-30, originally titled Lawful Access Act) was a proposed amendment to the Criminal Code introduced by the Conservative government of Stephen Harper on February 14, 2012, during the 41st Canadian Parliament. The bill would have granted authorities new powers to monitor and track the digital activities of Canadians in real-time, required service providers to log information about their customers and turn it over if requested, and made back door entrances mandatory allowing remote access of individuals' electronic information, each without needing a warrant[2][not in citation given] Documents obtained under the Access to Information Act show that the government desired to use the expanded powers in cases not involving criminality.[3][4] The bill did not mention children, or internet predators, other than in its title;[5] critics claimed the "feel-good name" was unrelated to the content of the bill, and chosen simply to "sell legislation to the public".[6] Critics claimed that authorities would likely use the powers to harass peaceful protestors and activists.[7][8][9] The bill was widely opposed within Canada, particularly after Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told an opposition MP that he could "either stand with us or with the child pornographers" during a debate. The government ultimately withdrew the bill in 2013, citing that opposition. Similar legislation had been unsuccessfully proposed in the past, by both the Liberal and Conservative parties in Canada, and mirrored legislation introduced in other countries. This bill, however, was re-introduced under the name Bill C-13 (short titled Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act) by Stephen Harper's Conservative government on November 20, 2013 and it passed through all legislative stages to receive royal assent on December 9, 2014.[10] History of bill [ edit ] There had been multiple attempts to introduce "lawful access" legislation, allowing police to avoid the necessity of a warrant to obtain information, since 1999 when the Liberal Party of Canada first proposed it. However none of them have been successfully passed.[5][11] Bill C-30 largely mirrored the unsuccessful attempts by the Conservatives to table C-50, C-51 and C-52 that were abandoned upon the dissolution of Parliament for the 2011 federal election.[11] NDP MPs Anne Minh-Thu Quach and Carol Hughes have criticised the Liberal party given their previous support for near-identical legislation in the past.[12][13] The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association and Canadian Lawyer magazine have suggested that such proposals may violate the Constitution of Canada, and be challenged before the Supreme Court as unreasonable search and seizure of digital information.[14] “ There was an error in a limited number of courtesy copies distributed to the House. These have since been replaced with the correct version. ” — Speaker of the House Andrew Scheer, on the relabelled Act[15] In 2007, Toews' predecessor Stockwell Day stated that "we have not and we will not be proposing legislation to grant police the powers to get information from internet providers without a warrant".[16] Toews has dismissed the comment, and noted that the requirement for court oversight of police was "an additional burden on the criminal justice system."[11] On February 14, 2012 Toews formally tabled the "Bill C-30: Lawful Access Act", but withdrew the bill an hour later and resubmit it with a "last minute change",[17] the title "Bill C-30: Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act" instead.[17][18] Content of bill [ edit ] “ If the police have a legitimate reason to snoop into my banking, email or web-browsing records, a judge would clearly allow for that lawful search to happen. [...] I cannot understand why the police would be afraid to permit a judge to legally review a search request if it is in fact necessary and lawful. ” — Liberal MP Judy Sgro[19] The bill would have allowed authorities to demand access to subscriber information from both ISPs and telephone providers without needing to present a warrant - and would have required telecommunications providers to ensure that there was a back door entrance to allow all communications to be intercepted when desired.[1] The bill would not only have granted these powers to police agencies, but also to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Competition Bureau officials, as well as anybody "appointed" by the Minister of Public Safety to carry out such actions.[1][20] The bill would also have allowed any of these persons to make copies of the data taken from citizens' digital devices, without oversight or a right of appeal.[20] The bill would have prohibited ISPs from answering affirmatively if a customer asked them whether authorities had been searching their data.[21][22] The bill would have increased the number of actions that can be legally carried out by police officers without a warrant. In the current Criminal Code, section 487.11 allows a police officer to "exercise any of the powers described in subsection 487(1) or 492.1(1) without a warrant". In Bill C-30, the section was amended to include "exercise any of the powers described in section 487, 492.1 or 492.2 without a warrant".[23] “ Everyone has a BlackBerry, an iPhone, an iPad, laptops. We carry our cellphones with us. Through this bill, the government is giving itself a tool that can determine our geographic location at all times. The government is telling us that the same information is available in the phone book, but the last time I checked, the phone book did not provide my geographic location at all times. ” — NDP MP Charmaine Borg[24] Section 487 of the Criminal Code was left unchanged by Bill C-30; ts subsection 487(2.1) allows a police officer to search a building and "use
orphaned as a child and raised by his grandmother. After an education at the Internado Nacional Barros Arana, he developed an interest in writing and far-right politics, allying himself with the Chilean Nazi movement. During the Second World War, in which Chile remained neutral, Serrano campaigned in support of Nazi Germany and promoted anti-semitic conspiracy theories through his own fortnightly publication, La Nueva Edad. In 1942 he joined an occult order founded by a German migrant which combined pro-Nazi sentiment with ceremonial magic and kundalini yoga. It presented the Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler as a spiritual adept who had incarnated to Earth as a savior of the Aryan race and who would lead humanity out of a dark age known as the Kali Yuga. Serrano became convinced that Hitler had not died in 1945 but had secretly survived and was living in Antarctica. After visiting Antarctica, Serrano travelled to Germany and then Switzerland, where he met the novelist Herman Hesse and psychoanalyst Carl Jung; in 1965 he published a reminiscence of his time with the pair. In 1953 Serrano joined the Chilean diplomatic corps and was stationed in India until 1963, where he took a keen interest in Hinduism and wrote several books. He was later made ambassador to Yugoslavia and then Austria, and while in Europe made contacts with various former Nazis and other far-rightists living on the continent. Following Chile's election of a Marxist President, Salvador Allende, Serrano was dismissed from the diplomatic service in 1970. After Allende was ousted in a coup and Augusto Pinochet took power, Serrano returned to Chile in 1973. He became a prominent organiser in the Chilean neo-Nazi movement, holding annual celebrations of Hitler's birthday, organising a neo-Nazi rally in Santiago, and producing a neo-Nazi political manifesto. He wrote a trilogy of books on Hitler in which he outlined his view of the Nazi leader as an avatar. He remained in contact with neo-Nazis elsewhere in the world and gave interviews to various foreign far-right publications prior to his death. In 2008 Serrano was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award (Premio a la Trayectoria) from the Universidad Mayor of Santiago.[2][3][4] After Savitri Devi, he has been considered the most prominent exponent of Esoteric Hitlerism within the neo-Nazi movement. In that movement, he gained respect for his devotion to the cause even among neo-Nazis who regarded his ideas as far-fetched. Biography [ edit ] Miguel Joaquín Diego del Carmen Serrano Fernández was born on 10 September 1917. On his maternal line, he was descended from the countesses of Sierra Bella. His mother, Berta Fernández Fernández, died when Serrano was five years old, while his father, Diego Serrano Manterola, died three years later. He had two younger brothers and a sister, who were then all raised by his paternal grandmother, Fresia Manterola de Serrano, moving between a Santiago townhouse and a seventeenth-century country mansion in the Claro Valley. Between 1929 and 1934, he studied at the Internado Nacional Barros Arana. The school had been heavily influenced by Prussian staff members who had arrived in the late nineteenth century, with Serrano attributing his later Germanophilia to this early exposure to German culture. At the school he moved in literary circles. A close friend of his Hector Barreto, a poet and socialist. Aged eighteen, Barreto was killed in a brawl with uniformed Nacistas, members of the National Socialist Movement of Chile, a fascist group inspired by the example of the Nazi Party in Germany. This event encouraged Serrano's involvement in left-wing politics as he began to take an interest in Marxism and the Chilean Marxist movement. He wrote articles for leftist journals like Sobre la marcha, La Hora, and Frente Popular. His uncle, the poet Vicente Huidobro, encouraged him to join the left-wing Republicans in the ongoing Spanish Civil War, but he did not do so. Nazism and occultism: 1939–1952 [ edit ] Serrano grew critical of Marxism and left-wing politics, instead being drawn to the Nacistas after their failed coup in September 1938. By July 1939, Serrano was publicly associating himself with the Nacista movement, now organised as the Popular Socialist Vanguard. He began writing for their journal, Trabajo, and accompanied their leader, Jorge González von Marées, on his speaking tours across Chile. At the outbreak of the Second World War, in which Chile remained neutral, Serrano expressed support for Nazi Germany; from July 1941 he launched a fortnightly pro-Nazi publication, La Nueva Edad. Among the magazine's regular contributors were the journalist René Arriagada, General Francisco Javier Díaz, and Hugo Gallo, who was the cultural attaché at the Italian Embassy. Through this work, Serrano developed close links with the German Embassy in Chile and its personnel. Serrano admired Adolf Hitler, and later became convinced that he had not died in 1945 but instead escaped to Antarctica. Although Serrano had initially shown little interest in Nazi attitudes towards Jewish people, he became increasingly interested in anti-semitic conspiracy theories about Jews manipulating world events. Two Chilean artists gave him a Spanish language translation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a text purporting to expose this alleged international Jewish conspiracy. According to the historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, it was this discovery of the Protocols which "marked a crucial point in the development of Serrano's Nazism". From November 1941, he began printing excerpts from the Protocols in La Nueva Edad. Serrano also developed an interest in forms of religious or spiritual practice, including both Western esotericism and Hinduism. In late 1941, Gallo suggested that Serrano could support the German and Italian war effort not just through his publications, but also on the etheric Inner Planes, introducing him to an esoteric order sympathetic to Nazism. Serrano later claimed that this order had been founded near the start of the twentieth century by a German migrant known as "F. K." Serrano was initiated into the group in February 1942. F. K. claimed that the group owed its allegiance to a secretive Brahmin elite who resided in the Himalayas. It practices combined kundalini yoga with ceremonial magic and expressed a pro-Nazi position. It espoused a belief in an astral body which could be awakened through various rituals and meditative practices. The group revered the Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler as the savior of an Aryan race and presented him as a shudibudishvabhaba, an initiate of immense willpower who had voluntarily incarnated onto Earth to assist in the overthrow of the Kali Yuga, a present dark age for humanity. F. K. claimed that through the astral realm, he was able to establish a connection with Hitler, during which they had various conversations. As the Second World War ended in defeat for Nazi Germany in 1945, Serrano was convinced that Hitler had not committed suicide in Berlin as was claimed by the victorious Allies. Instead, Serrano believed that Hitler had escaped and was living in Antarctica, either in a secluded warm environment on the continent or under the ice cap itself. This idea had been suggested to him by F. K.—who claimed that he remained in astral contact with Hitler—but was also widely rumoured in the Latin American press. In 1947, Ladislao Szabó's book Hitler est vivo had been published, exerting an influence on Serrano. Szabó's book alleged that a U-boat convoy had taken Hitler to safety in Queen Maud Land. In 1947–48, Serrano travelled to Antarctica as a journalist with the Chilean Army. In 1948, he wrote his own short book, La Antártica y otros Mitos, which repeated Szabó's claims about Hitler's survival. In 1951, Serrano travelled to Europe, and in Germany visited various sites associated with the Nazi Party, including Hitler's Berlin bunker, Hitler's Berghof home, and Spandau Prison, where Rudolf Hess and other prominent Nazis were then imprisoned. During this trip he also visited Switzerland, where he met and befriended the writer Hermann Hesse and the psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Diplomatic career: 1953–1970 [ edit ] Serrano meeting Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (right) in May 1957 In 1953, Serrano—following a number of other family members—joined the Chilean diplomatic corps. He hoped to gain a posting to India, a land which he considered to be a source of great spiritual truths. He was successful in this, and remained in India until 1962. In this period, he visited many Hindu temples and searched for evidence of the secretive Brahmanical order into which F. K. had alleged initiation. In his role as a diplomat, he met various prominent figures, including Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and the 14th Dalai Lama. It was while in India that he wrote and published two books: The Visits of the Queen of Sheba (1960), which had a preface by Jung, and The Serpent of Paradise (1963), which discussed his experiences in the country. Serrano had engaged in further correspondence with Jung between 1957 and 1961. In 1965 his book, C. J. Jung and Hermann Hesse: A Record of Two Friendships, was published. Leaving India, from 1962 to 1964 he was posted as the Chilean ambassador to Yugoslavia. From 1964 to 1970 he then served as his country's ambassador to Austria, for which he lived in Vienna. During the latter posting, he also represented Chile at the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, both of which were based in Vienna. While in Europe, he had sought out a number of individuals linked to Nazism and to the far-right more broadly; these included visits to the Ahnenerbe co-founder Herman Wirth, the designer and occultist Wilhelm Landig, the poet Ezra Pound, and the Traditionalist thinker Julius Evola. He established friendships with a number of individuals involved in the old Nazi movement, including Léon Degrelle, Otto Skorzeny, Hans-Ulrich Rudel, Marc "Saint-Loup" Augier and Hanna Reitsch. He also discussed issues with the ancient astronaut proponent Robert Charroux. In the 1970 Chilean presidential election, the Marxist Salvador Allende was elected president. Later that year, Serrano was dropped from the country's diplomatic service. Rather than returning to Chile, he moved to Switzerland, renting an apartment in the Casa Camuzzi—where Hesse had lived from 1912 to 1931—at Montagnola in the Swiss Ticino. Later life: 1973–2009 [ edit ] The loss of his diplomatic position, coupled with the establishment of a Marxist government in Chile, led Serrano to take a revived interest in Nazism. He began reading a number of recently published books that purported to identify links between Nazism and occultism. In 1973, his book El/Ella: Book of Magic Love was published. After Allende was ousted in a September 1973 coup and a right-wing military government under Augusto Pinochet took power, Serrano returned to Chile. He nevertheless found that the Pinochet administration was not interested in his neo-Nazi and Esoteric Hitlerist ideas. In 1980, his book Nos: A Book of the Resurrection was published, a form of autobiography influenced by Jungian psychology. He also produced a trio of books that came to be known as his "Hitler Trilogy": El Cordón Dorado: Hitlerismo Esotérico (1978), Adolf Hitler, el Ultimo Avatãra (1984), and Manú: "Por el hombre que vendra" (1991). He increasingly associated with old Nazis living in Chile as well as with their neo-Nazi sympathisers. In May 1984 he attended the funeral of Walter Rauff—a member of the Waffen SS who had played a role in organising the early stages of the Holocaust and who had fled to Chile after the Second World War—and there gave the Nazi salute. In 1986 he published a political manifesto for Nazism in the Southern Cone of South America. He began organising annual celebrations of Hitler's birthday at a rural retreat in Chile. In September 1993, he led a neo-Nazi rally in Santiago—dressed in what had become his trademark black leather coat—in honor of the Nazi Rudolf Hess and the Nacistas killed following their 1938 coup attempt. As well as playing a role in organising the Chilean neo-Nazi movement, Serrano maintained correspondences with neo-Nazis elsewhere in the world, such as the American Matt Koehl. Serrano was the subject of an extensive interview in the Greek far-right magazine TO ANTIΔOTO. Here, he sought to engage a younger audience by contrasting his millennial vision of Nazism with his perception of the corruption of modern liberalism. He was also the subject of a feature in The Flaming Sword, a magazine issued by the Black Order, a neo-Nazi Satanist group established by the New Zealander Kerry Bolton. Bolton had also written his own study of Serrano's Esoteric Hitlerism, and the Black Order's occult framework was influenced by Serrano's ideas. Despite the interest that Nazi Satanists took in Serrano's work, he was critical of attempts to combine Satanism with Nazism, in 2001 stating that individuals who did so "will only damage our sacred fight with all the kookiness from California, like Satanism". He added that "Many Satanists do not know that they are manipulated, psychotronically, in fact hypnotized, when not infiltrated by the CIA, Mossad and other such secret organisations." By the early 1990s, Serrano's Esoteric Hitlerist ideas were spreading among modern Pagans, gaining particular popularity among far-right members of the Pagan religion of Heathenry in the United States. The American Heathen Katja Lane of the Wotansvolk group secured the rights to publish English translations of Serrano's work, with Wotansvolk becoming the main promoter of Serrano's writings in the Anglophone world through their 14 Word Press. One of the prominent far-right Heathens to be influenced by Serrano's ideas was Jost Turner. Another American occultist to cite an influence from Serrano's ideas was Michael Moynihan, who also cited having been influenced by Evola, Muammar Gaddafi, Michael Bakunin, and James Mason. In 1994 Serrano, a close friend of Degrelle, wrote a book dedicated to him, Nuestro Honor Se Llama Lealtad.[26] Serrano had 3 children with this first wife.[27] Serrano died on 28 February 2009[28][29][30][31][27][32][2] after suffering a stroke in his apartment of the Santa Lucía Hill sector of the capital, Santiago.[33] During his funeral at the General Cemetery it was Irene Klatt Getta's crypt that his coffin and the crowd of more than 100 stopped at before carrying on.[27] Personal life [ edit ] At the age of 25 Serrano married Carmen Rosselot Bordeau on September 11, 1942 in Santiago.[34][35] In 1943 his first son, José Miguel Diego, is born.[36][37][38] Also known as José Miguel Serrano Rosselot.[39] He writes as a journalist for La Tercera newspaper.[40][41][42][43] In 1944 his daughter Carmen is born.[36] Also known as Carmen Serrano Rosselot.[44] In 1948 his third child, a son, Cristián Alvaro, is born.[45] Also known as Cristián Serrano Rosselot.[46] In 1951 he meets Irene Klatt Getta in Santiago, who played a fundamental role in his life and to whom he dedicates a large part of his work. In 1952 she died. Of her he said, "Desde ese día yo destruí todo, cualquier posibilidad de otro amor igual, hasta mi propio matrimonio. Nunca más he podido amar a nadie así. Solo he amado a Irene." ("From that day I destroyed everything, any possibility of another equal love, even my own marriage. I have never been able to love anyone like that again. I only loved Irene.") [47][45] Andrea Sierra wrote in El Mercurio that he called her "Allouine" and was the "only one - he said - who he really loved". During his funeral at the General Cemetery it was her crypt that his coffin stopped at before carrying on.[27] In 1985 Carmen Rosselot Bordeau died.[48] According to Andrea Sierra of the Chilean newspaper, El Mercurio, Rosario Duarte was his first wife.[27] Sierra makes no mention of Carmen Rosselot Bordeau, whilst the official Serrano website makes no mention of Rosario Duarte, only a marriage to Carmen Rosselot Bordeau and then a second to María Isabel Pérez Quintela. In 2000, Serrano married his second wife, María Isabel Pérez Quintela (also known as Sabela P. Quintela, now his literary executor) in Valparaíso.[49][27][50][33][38][51][52] After his death, Quintela inherited two apartments from her late husband, Don Miguel in Santa Lucía Street in Santiago, in front of the Cerro: Santa Lucia 282, apartment 71, and Santa Lucia 382, 6 "C".[50] Sebela first met Serrano in Spain in 1989. Sabela came to live in Chile in 1994 and in those years they shared in the house of Valparaiso located at Avenida Alemania 5558.[33] Reception and legacy [ edit ] The historian of religion Mattias Gardell described Serrano as "one of the most important occult fascist ideologues in the Spanish-speaking world". The historian of religion Arthur Versluis noted that Serrano was "the most important figure" in esoteric Hitlerism after Savitri Devi. According to Goodrick-Clarke, Serrano's "mystical Nazism" was "a major example of the Thulean mythology's successful migration to South America in the post-war period". Goodrick-Clarke thought it "likely that old Nazis welcome[d] Serrano's enthusiasm and unswerving loyalty to their hero, Adolf Hitler", even if they found the Esoteric Hitlerist mythology that he promoted to be farfetched. Conversely, Goodrick-Clarke thought, for younger neo-Nazis, "a coloring of pop mythology, Hinduism, and extraterrestrial Aryan gods adds sensational appeal to the powerful myths of elitism, planetary destiny and the cosmic conspiracy of the Jews." The historian Rafael Videla Eissman proposed that a plaque commemorating Serrano be erected on the western side of the Cerro Santa Lucía, although in June 2014 the municipality of Santiago rejected the idea.[55] In February 2016, the newspaper La Segunda published an interview with Serrano's grandson, Sebastián Araya, in which he discussed his relationship with his grandfather.[56] In December 2017, the author and journalist Gonzalo León published a fictionalized novelisation of Serrano's life.[57] Ideas [ edit ] Serrano termed his philosophy Esoteric Hitlerism, which he has described as a new religious faith "able to change the materialistic man of today into a new idealistic hero", and also as "much more than a religion: It is a way to transmute a hero into God."[58] In 1984 he published his 643-page tome, Adolf Hitler, el Último Avatãra (Adolf Hitler: The Last Avatar), which is dedicated "To the glory of the Führer, Adolf Hitler". In this arcane work Serrano unfolds his ultimate philosophical testament through elaborate esoteric and mythological symbolism.[59][60] He insists that there has been a vast historical conspiracy to conceal the origins of evolved humankind. Serrano's epic vista opens with extragalactic beings who founded the First Hyperborea, a terrestrial but nonphysical realm which was neither geographically limited nor bound by the circles of reincarnation. The Hyperboreans were asexual and reproduced through "plasmic emanations" from their ethereal bodies; the Vril power was theirs to command, the light of the Black Sun coursed through their veins and they saw with the Third Eye. Serrano contends that the last documents relating to them were destroyed along with the Alexandrian Library, and that latterly these beings have been misunderstood as extraterrestrials arriving in spaceships or UFOs. However, the First Hyperborea was immaterial and altogether outside our mechanistic universe.[61][62] The latter is under the jurisdiction of the Demiurge, an inferior godlet whose realm is the physical planet earth. The Demiurge had created a bestial imitation of humanity in the form of proto-human "robots" like Neanderthal Man, and intentionally consigned his creatures to an endless cycle of involuntary reincarnation on the earthly plane to no higher purpose. The Hyperboreans recoiled in horror from this entrapment within the Demiurge's cycles. They themselves take the devayana, the Way of the Gods, at death and return to the earth (as Bodhisattvas) only if they are willing.[62][63] Determined upon a heroic war to reclaim the Demiurge's deteriorating world, the Hyperboreans clothed themselves in material bodies and descended on to the Second Hyperborea, a ring-shaped continent around the North Pole. During this Golden Age or Satya Yuga, they magnanimously instructed the Demiurge's creations (the Black, Yellow and Red races native to the planet) and began to raise them above their animal condition.[63][64] Then disaster struck; some of the Hyperboreans rebelled and intermingled their blood with the creatures of the Demiurge, and through this transgression Paradise was lost. Serrano refers to Genesis 6.4: "the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them". By diluting the divine blood, the primordial miscegenation accelerated the process of material decay. This was reflected in outward catastrophes and the North and South Poles reversed positions as a result of the fall of a comet or moon. The polar continent disappeared beneath the deluge and Hyperborea became invisible again.[63][64] The Hyperboreans themselves survived, some taking refuge at the South Pole. Serrano regards the mysterious appearance of the fine and artistic Cro-Magnon Man in Europe as evidence of Hyperboreans driven southward by the Ice Age.[63][64] In the then-fertile Gobi Desert, another group of exiled Hyperboreans established a fantastic civilization.[63] The world thus becomes the combat zone between the dwindling Hyperboreans and the Demiurge and his forces of entropy.[63] But Serrano claims that the Golden Age can be reattained if the Hyperboreans' descendants, the Aryans, consciously repurify their blood to restore the divine blood-memory:[65] "There is nothing more mysterious than blood. Paracelsus considered it a condensation of light. I believe that the Aryan, Hyperborean blood is that – but not the light of the Golden Sun, not of a galactic sun, but of the light of the Black Sun, of the Green Ray."[66] Written works [ edit ] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Bibliography [ edit ] Gardell, Matthias (2003). Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Durham and London: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-3071-4. Godwin, Joscelyn (1996). Arktos: The Polar Myth in Science, Symbolism, and Nazi Survival. Kempton: Adventures Unlimited Press. ISBN 978-0932813350. Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2002). Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0814731550. Versluis, Arthur (2013). "Savitri Devi, Miguel Serrano and the Global Phenomenon of Esoteric Hitlerism". In Henrik Bogdan and Gordan Djurdjevic (eds.). Occultism in Global Perspective. Durham: Acumen. pp. 121–133. ISBN 978-1-84465-716-2. Further reading [ edit ]The far-right anti-immigration party Sweden Democrats are tying for second place with the center-right opposition, a new poll shows. It comes as right-wing parties across Europe see Donald Trump’s victory as a welcome defeat for the establishment. Read more According to a poll published on Wednesday by Aftonbladet newspaper, support for the Sweden Democrats (SD) party rose to 21.5 percent, compared with the 13 percent they got in the 2014 general election. While the ruling Social Democrats maintain their lead of 25.7 percent, the Sweden Democrats (SD) are gaining ground on the Moderate Party, the largest opposition party with a popularity of 22 percent. SD popularity figures are rising for a third month in a row, Aftonbladet adds. “There is a movement in both Europe and the United States where the establishment is being challenged,” SD leader Jimmie Akesson told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper. “It is clearly happening here as well.” The poll commissioned by Aftonbladet was carried out by Inizio, which asked 2,051 people over 18 whom they would vote for if parliamentary elections were held today. The Sweden Democrats growth in popularity is part of a surge in right-wing populism across Europe, with the anti-immigration and Eurosceptic AfD (Alternative for Germany) making huge gains at the expense of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, while the Austrian Freedom Party’s candidate Norbert Hofer is running for the Austrian presidency in elections scheduled for December 4. Hofer has warned that Austria may leave the EU if Turkey succeeds in joining. The UK of course has already left the EU earlier this year in the much-publicized Brexit, following a campaign by the anti-immigration UKIP party. READ MORE: Clashes, arrests in Stockholm at neo-Nazi march & counter-rallies (PHOTOS, VIDEO) The far-right in Europe has been emboldened by the election victory of Donald Trump, seeing it as a backlash to the establishment’s stained reputation. Marine Le Pen of France’s National Front now feels she is a real contender for the 2017 presidential elections “Donald Trump has made possible what was presented as completely impossible,” Le Pen said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday. “So it’s a sign of hope for those who cannot bear wild globalization. They cannot bear the political life led by the elites.” Meanwhile, polling organizations were heavily criticized after the victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential elections, where a majority predicted a win for Hillary Clinton. Read more “What seems to be a minority view in public might be a majority view in private,” Lars Gylling, YouGov's communications manager for the Nordics, told The Local. “There are some things that we don't want to tell even our closest friends, and those things are often tied to nationalism and views on immigrants, especially if they are negative.” The populist movement is driven significantly by fears over terrorism, immigration and multiculturalism. In Sweden there is a popular perception that the crime rate by migrants and refugees is spiraling out-of-control. Despite being a relatively low-crime country, there have been alarming reports of over fifty so-called “no-go zones” across Sweden where crime rates are high and police officers are at risk of attack. Several high-profile incidents, including 38 reported sexual assaults at a Stockholm music festival this summer, have strengthened this view. Although the Swedish Crime Survey reported an 11 percent decrease in such attacks in 2015, the same year which saw a record number of migrants – nearly 163,000 applied for asylum according to the Swedish Migration Agency – the Swedish Democrats are the only party which has addressed voter’s fears directly. Sweden has also contributed the third-most jihadi fighters per capita to the conflict in Syria out of all the EU countries, and there is concern that returning militants will go on to commit terrorist attacks at home.Obama administration climate czar Carol Browner on Wednesday rejected claims that e-mails stolen from a British university show climate scientists trumped up global warming numbers, saying she considers the science settled. “I’m sticking with the 2,500 scientists. These people have been studying this issue for a very long time and agree this problem is real,” said Ms. Browner, who President Obama has tapped as his chief of policy on global warming. The e-mails were hacked from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and have come to light over the last week. They appear to show scientists saying they’ve smoothed over data that doesn’t back up their claims of warming, and pondering how to freeze out scientists who disagree with them. Release of the e-mails has fueled skeptics ahead of next month’s major global warming meeting in Copenhagen, which is supposed to set the framework for a new global treaty to restrict greenhouse gas emissions. The White House said Wednesday that Mr. Obama will personally travel to Copenhagen to commit the U.S. to greenhouse gas reductions. The e-mails remain a point of debate, with skeptics pointing to several data sets that show the last few years have actually seen a cooling effect. Sen. James Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican, has called for an investigation into the e-mails, and says they confirm his long-held suspicion that climate claims are not supported by the actual data. Ms. Browner said the only people who still doubt global warming is happening and that humans are to blame are “a very small group of people who continue to say this isn’t a real problem, that we don’t need to do anything.” She also said the e-mails are only trickling out, and that the entire set hasn’t been released. Ms. Browner initially shrugged when asked about the e-mails, saying she didn’t have a reaction. But when a reporter followed up, she said she will stick with the consensus of the 2,500 climate scientists on the International Panel on Climate Change who concluded global warming is happening and is most likely being pushed by human actions. Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Samsung's Galaxy Tab has only just finally, officially been revealed, but it looks like the company is already doing at least a bit of talking about its next tablet (and the future of the Galaxy Tab). According to Tech Radar, Samsung's head of product planning, WP Hong, has said that "moving forward, with Honeycomb, that will be used in the next generation tablet, as it is specifically optimized for different type of tablet, and will be used on another product only." Not only is that the most official word we've had so far of a Galaxy Tab followup (curiously described as a "different type of tablet"), but it's also seemingly the first time that an ODM has publicly referred to a future Android version as "Honeycomb" -- a name that Tech Radar had previously heard from "multiple sources." It seems that Honeycomb won't be making it to the current Galaxy Tab, however, but Hong did say that "depending on our international partners, we'll be working to upgrade from Froyo to Gingerbread."Bongbong confident he will soon be vice president MANILA, Philippines — The son and namesake of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared Thursday he is confident of ousting current Vice President Leni Robredo in a legal challenge, which would place him a heartbeat away from leading the country. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. also confirmed his family was in talks with President Rodrigo Duterte, a political ally, to end the government's three-decade hunt for billions of dollars worth of national assets allegedly stolen by his father and mother during their reign. Marcos, 60, narrowly lost the vice presidential election last year but he filed a case with the Supreme Court alleging the victor, Robredo, cheated by manipulating computerized vote counting machines. "We are definitely sure that when the recount starts the true result will emerge and prove that the votes in the vice-presidential election had been incorrectly counted," Marcos told reporters. Victory for Marcos would cement his family's remarkable political comeback, 31 years after a famous "People Power" revolution saw millions of people take to the streets to end his father's 20-year rule and force the family into US exile. The elder Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989, his reputation mostly in tatters with the government accusing him and his cronies of embezzling up to $10 billion from state coffers during his time in power while overseeing widespread rights abuses. But his family, led by flamboyant matriarch Imelda, returned to the Philippines after his death and began rebuilding political power. Imelda, 88, remains a member of Congress representing the family's stronghold in a northern Philippine province. She has said she dreams of Bongbong, who was a senator for from 2010 to last year, becoming president. In the Philippines, the president and vice president are elected separately. The vice president takes over should the president die or becomes incapacitated. Duterte, 72, has admitted to having a range of health problems, including a cardiovascular illness caused by smoking called Buerger's disease. Duterte said last year he had dealt with chronic pain by taking higher doses of fentanyl, a highly addictive opioid, than his doctor had prescribed. Duterte insists he is an anti-graft crusader. But he also openly admires the leadership style of the dictator, and counts the Marcos clan as important political allies who helped fund his presidential campaign. Duterte said recently the Marcos family had proposed a settlement on the wealth cases by turning over to the government some of its assets, "including a few gold bars." Bongbong said Thursday the family was offering to sign a "quit claim" deed in which it would identify properties and assets it had acquired legally and relinquish its claim to whatever else the government finds. "If the government is saying we are hiding other things, we will help you find it and you can have it," he added, while declining to provide estimated values.Trying to understand Schrodinger’s equation This is one of my autodidactic posts – I’m not a physicist so this is a layperson’s attempt to explain one of the seminal equations in physi... The Mirror Paradox The mirror paradox is best stated as a question: why is a mirror image seen as left to right reversed but not top to bottom? I’m not sure wh... The Universe and our place in it Over the last month I’ve acquired 3 books that are not entirely unrelated. Not surprisingly, they all deal with topics I’ve discussed befor... How an equation contributed to the GFC Ian Stewart is well known to anyone interested in mathematics - alongside Marcus du Sautoy, he is one of the great popularisers of the sub... i, the magic number that transformed mathematics and physics You might wonder why I bother to beleaguer people with such esoteric topics like complex algebra and Schrodinger’s equation (May 2011, refe... Is mathematics invented or discovered? I've used this title before in Sep. 2007, even though it was really a discussion of George Lakoff's and Rafael E. Nunez's book,... Aristotle, Confucius, Ethics and Happiness This is an essay I wrote whilst a student after I read Aristotle’s Ethics, one of the true classics. Anyone can buy it, even in paperback –... Schrodinger’s philosophy (absolutely nothing to do with cats) I mentioned in my last post, a recent acquisition: What is Life? by Erwin Schrodinger. This is a book that I’d heard about on more than a f... Is this the God equation? Yes, this is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but like most things tongue-in-cheek it just might contain an element of truth. I’m not a cosmologist or...By Ryan Burton IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander won a close split decision over Lucas Matthysse in June, 2011. Some observers felt that the Argentine sensation deserved to get the nod on the scorecards. On a recent edition of BoxingScene Radio, Alexander said that he had no problem with facing Matthysse again. That fight was Alexander's last fight as a junior welterweight. He was knocked down in the 4th round and attributed part of his struggles in the fight to the difficulty of making the 140 pound weight limit for the fight. "I would definitely love to fight Matthysse again, at a comfortable weight. People look at Matthysse and say that he has a perfect record but technically and logically he lost twice to me and Zab. It would be the same (final) result if we fight again but at 147 pounds. That fight was the hardest fight for me to make weight so it would definitely be a different outcome if I was fighting comfortably at 147. A lot of people ask me (about a Matthysse rematch) and I would definitely fight him again," Alexander stated. The 26-year-old said that Matthysse is the hardest puncher he has faced in his career which is saying a lot being that he has faced many noted sluggers such as Marcos Maidana, and Randall Bailey. He said that the key to beating a strong puncher is to not get caught up thinking too much about their power. "I must say that Matthysse is the hardest puncher I have been in the ring with. I think a lot of it was the weight (issues) but never the less he hits the hardest. It was mostly the body shots, not so much the headshots. He hit me with some hard body shots. "People pump his power up and that's all they think about. You can't think about that when you step in the ring. I fought Matthysse,
didn't tell government personnel with top secret clearance even higher than her own anything which the FBI did not want to be told. While this might sound fantastic, it is nothing new. Rowley said the same had happened to Daniel Ellsberg went to members of Congress with the Pentagon papers. As I wrote a year ago: 9/11 Commission chair Thomas Kean points out that if "minders" had been present during the Commission's investigation, that would have been intimidation, which would have stemmed the flow of testimony from the witnesses: I think the commission feels unanimously that it’s some intimidation to have somebody sitting behind you all the time who you either work for or works for your agency. You might get less testimony than you would. However, that's exactly what happened to Kean's own 9/11 Commission. Specifically: A recently released 9/11 Commission memo [released in January 2009 from the Commission to the National Archives; referenced in the The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Finding Aid: Series Descriptions and Folder Title Lists, page 52, "Memo Concerning Minders Conduct" ] highlights the role of government “minders” who accompanied witnesses interviewed by the commission. It was added to the National Archives’ files at the start of the year and discovered there by History Commons contributor paxvector. The memo, entitled “Executive Branch Minders’ Intimidation of Witnesses,” complains that: Minders “answer[ed] questions directed at witnesses;” * Minders acted as “monitors, reporting to their respective agencies on Commission staffs lines of inquiry and witnesses’ verbatim responses.” The staff thought this “conveys to witnesses that their superiors will review their statements and may engage in retribution;” and * Minders “positioned themselves physically and have conducted themselves in a manner that we believe intimidates witnesses from giving full and candid responses to our questions.” The memo was drafted by three staffers on the commission’s Team 2, which reviewed the overall structure of the US intelligence community. One of the drafters was Kevin Scheid, a senior staffer who led the team. His co-writers were Lorry Fenner, an air force intelligence officer, and lawyer Gordon Lederman. The complaint was sent to the commission’s counsels, Daniel Marcus and Steve Dunne, in October 2003, about halfway through the commission’s 19-month life. The memo makes clear that the problems were not occurring only with witnesses talking to Team 2, but also in “other teams’ interviews.” A hand-written note on a draft of the memo says, “not one agency or minder – also where we’ve sat in on other Teams’ interviews.” According to the memo, some minders merely policed prior agreements between the commission and their parent agency about what the commission could ask witnesses, and others were simply there to make a list of documents the commission might want based on a witness’ testimony. However, some minders saw their role differently. Intimidation through Physical Positioning The three staffers argued minders should not answer questions for witnesses because they needed to understand not how the intelligence community was supposed to function, but “how the Intelligence Community functions in actuality.” However: “When we have asked witnesses about certain roles and responsibilities within the Intelligence Community, minders have preempted witnesses’ responses by referencing formal polices and procedures. As a result, witnesses have not responded to our questions and have deprived us from understanding the Intelligence Community’s actual functioning and witnesses’ view of their roles and responsibilities.” The memo also describes the minders’ conduct in detail: “… [M]inders have positioned themselves physically and have conducted themselves in a manner that we believe intimidates witnesses from giving full and candid responses to our questions. Minders generally have sat next to witnesses at the table and across from Commission staff, conveying to witnesses that minders are participants in interviews and are of equal status to witnesses.” The staffers also worried about minders taking “verbatim notes of witnesses’ statements,” as they thought this “conveys to witnesses that their superiors will review their statements and may engage in retribution.” They believed that “the net effect of minders’ conduct, whether intentionally or not, is to intimidate witnesses and to interfere with witnesses providing full and candid responses.” Another problem with the verbatim notetaking was that it “facilitates agencies in alerting future witnesses to the Commission’s lines of inquiry and permits agencies to prepare future witnesses either explicitly or implicitly.” Proposals In response to this, the three staffers proposed not that minders be banned from interviews, but a set of rules governing minders’ conduct. For example, minders were to keep a “low profile,” sit out of witnesses’ sight, not take verbatim notes and not answer any questions directed at the witnesses. Perhaps the most remarkable proposal is that the number of minders be limited to one per witness. The memo indicates that where an interviewee had served in multiple agencies, more than one minder would accompany the witness. The memo therefore requests, “Only one minder may attend an interview even if the witness served in multiple agencies,” meaning a witness would at least not be outnumbered by his minders. As the Family Steering Committee (made up of 9/11 victims' family members) wrote in 2003: The FSC [Family Steering Committee] is shocked with the use of “minders” in the interrogatory process. And, despite the Commissioner's similar objection to “minders”, as stated at the last press conference, “minders” continue to be present during witness examination and questioning. The FSC does not want “minders” present during any witness examination and questioning; it is a form of intimidation and it does not yield the unfettered truth. Indeed, even 9/11 Commission co-chair Lee Hamilton admitted that "it is very difficult to tell when a witness is being intimidated by a minder." Not only did the Bush administration adopt Communist torture techniques geared towards extracting false confessions, it also appears to have adopted Communist intimidation tactics. For Original Article with Full Links... http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/03/collen-rowley-minders-ensured-she-didnt.htmlA group of young kids was presented with two photos — one of Bruce Jenner and one of Caitlyn Jenner — and then asked for their reactions, which ended up being refreshingly honest and supportive. SheKnows made the video below as part of its Hatch initiative, which aims to teach kids about what they’re consuming online and engage with them about various social issues. The children discuss Caitlyn Jenner’s gender transition and although some are a bit confused at first, they end up being quite empathetic. One girl says, “Who she wants to be is who she should be.” Another adds: “It’s important for you to be yourself, because if you’re not yourself, who are you?” Read next: Jon Stewart Mocks Media’s Focus on Caitlyn Jenner’s Appearance See The Life of Caitlyn Jenner Getty Images Tony Duffy—Getty Images NBC/Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Ann Clifford—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Maureen Donaldson—Getty Images Donaldson Collection/Getty Images Stephen Dunn—Getty Images Ron Galella—WireImage Scott Nelson—AFP/Getty Images Steve Granitz—WireImage AP Kevin Winter—Getty Images Noel Vasquez—Getty Images Chelsea Lauren—WireImage Bauer-Griffin—GC Images Annie Leibovitz—Vanity Fair Kevin Winter—Getty Images 1 of 19 Advertisement Contact us at editors@time.com.Frankly, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer disagrees with his defensive coordinator. Last week, while talking with reporters, defensive coordinator George Edwards said the goal was to have rookie cornerback Trae Waynes starting by the regular season opener. “I read that and I didn’t agree with what George said, to be honest with you,” Zimmer said Monday. “I think it was interpreted incorrectly.” Zimmer said the goal is to coach every quality player with the goal that he will be a starter. But it is not realistic that Waynes will start ahead of veteran Terence Newman when the Vikings open the season against San Francisco. It is more likely that Waynes might earn a spot as the top extra cornerback in nickel situations. But even that isn’t a lock, considering the Vikings went back to using Captain Munnerlyn in that situation in Saturday’s victory in Dallas. Still, Zimmer said, Waynes played well in Dallas. “Waynes had his best game this last week,” Zimmer said. “He was in position the entire night. Not sure his guy caught any balls on him. His technique was much better this last time. I thought he was in position much better. There were some things we had to talk about on the sidelines. But, for the most part, I thought this was by far his best performance.” Asked if he would consider splitting the nickel position between two players once the regular season started, Zimmer said he would. Other highlights from Zimmer’s Monday news conference: The team still needs to make three moves, and Zimmer said they would be announced later today. But, after having made many of those moves Sunday, Zimmer said the decisions on the cuts are much more difficult than last year. “No question,” he said. “[Sunday] was a hard day. Joe Banyard is a terrific kid. He busted his rear end around here, had some good runs last year. Josh Kaddu, just a great kid. … Yes, we have a deeper football team than we did a year ago.” Zimmer said that, in the end, he thinks having five preseason games has been a positive thing. It has allowed the coaches to, in Zimmer’s word, tinker with different looks at some positions. “Like with the linebacker position,” Zimmer said. “We were able to look at that a little more.”’ That meant looking at a few players at the middle linebacker spot and look at different combinations in the nickel package; Zimmer said Gerald Hodges looked very good at middle linebacker Saturday and rookie Eric Kendricks looked good in the nickel package. “And we have been able to maybe not play the guys as long in a bunch of games,” Zimmer said. “I think that helped us. We’ve moved guys around; this week we had [Brian Robison] inside a little bit.” Perhaps it was faint praise, but Zimmer was asked about Cordarrelle Patterson in the wake of Patterson’s 107-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. “Last week was a better week for him, even though he didn’t have any catches, than the week before,” Zimmer said. “Just another guy we can use.” Zimmer wouldn’t say how much, if any, the starters would play in the preseason finale. “The guys who need to play will play,” he said. The Vikings are at Tennessee at 7 p.m. Thursday.MANILA, Philippines — Amid calls for the Duterte administration to stop its bloody war on drugs, which lately victimized a 17-year-old student, Philippine National Police chief Gen. Ronaldo “Bato” dela Rosa on Monday advised critics of the government’s anti-narcotics campaign to hold their protests in depressed areas and not at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame. “Okay lang [It’s okay]. They are free to voice their sentiments. Mag-appeal din ako sa kanila. Instead of going to the police, punta sila sa slum areas at doon sila mag-people power [I will also appeal to them. Instead of going to the police, they should go to the slum areas and conduct their people power there],” Dela Rosa told reporters. 2 teenagers killed, one missing amid Tokhang Criticisms against the administration’s anti-narcotics campaign intensified following last month’s spike in the deaths of individuals in Metro Manila and Bulacan, who were suspected of being linked to drug trade. Among the victims was Grade 11 student Kian Loyd Delos Santos, who was tortured and murdered by policemen in an anti-drug operation in Caloocan City last August 16. On August 28, another teenager, 19-year-old former University of the Philippines student Carl Angelo Arnaiz, was found dead in a dark, grassy area along C-3 Road Caloocan. According to a police report, Arnaiz was killed in a shootout with authorities after he allegedly robbed a taxi driver. The same police report said five packs of marijuana and shabu were recovered from Arnaiz’s belongings. The teenagers’ parents said Arnaiz was incapable of carrying out such crime. They said he was not also involved in illegal drugs and his only vice was smoking. Arnaiz went out with his neighbor, 14-year-old Reynaldo de Guzman, last August 17 to buy midnight snack from a store near his house in Brgy. San Andres, Cainta, Rizal. De Guzman remains missing. On Monday, Dela Rosa said the government would continue its anti-drug drive despite increasing opposition to President Rodrigo Duterte’s pet campaign. “Tuloy tuloy po ‘yan,” the PNP chief said. Bato: Don’t prematurely judge cops linked to Arnaiz’s slay Meanwhile, Dela Rosa appealed to critics not to prematurely judge police Officers 1 Jeffrey Perez and Ricky Arquilita. The two are being accused of torturing and killing Arnaiz. They were recently relieved from their posts and ordered transferred to Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City. The PNP chief said what happened to Arnaiz was different from Delos Santos’ case. “(I) caution every one not (to) quickly condemn our policemen. Iba… kaso na ‘yan [That case is different]. (It was a) case of police response. Hinoldup ang taxi driver. Nagresponde sila [The taxi driver was a holdup victim. The police responded],” said Dela Rosa. Meanwhile, the League of Filipino Students condemned Arnaiz’s slay. “Another life has been claimed by the police. Like Kian delos Santos, another student has been subjected to violence, and has been executed by the same people who have promised to serve the people,” said LFS national spokesperson JP Rosos said in a recent statement. “It is crystal clear that the Philippine National Police and all other state forces did not exist to protect us, but to subdue us. They operate under the dictates of their generals and commanders-in-chief blindly, not promoting order, but imposing terror,” added Rosos.Published by Steve Litchfield at 10:12 UTC, November 2nd 2017 Despite the dearth of new first party hardware, Windows 10 Mobile keeps evolving, through new builds, branches, and the core UWP applications. The latest of note is that the Microsoft Store application (renamed recently) now has the next-gen Fluent Design, with translucent effects throughout. It's a small thing, but similar to what we've had in Groove Music for a while, and very, very pretty. Here's the new Store in action on my Lumia 950 devices: Windows 10 Mobile continues to get better and better looking - such a shame that all of this is coming in a climate of mobile hardware apathy from Microsoft. Every time I pick up one of my W10M phones I'm overwhelmed by how grown up and professional the interface is. Well, usually, there are still exceptions, plus some miscreants which are still slow and clunky. Still, anyone with a modern Lumia or Elite x3 or IDOL 4 Pro (or similar) should see this update now. From my tests, it seems to require the Fall Creators Update (branch 1709) etc. (roll-out, Insiders). Update: this is now rolling out to those on the Creators Update (branch 1703) too. Comments? What do you think of the new Store look? Performance seems to be an issue sometimes, though slowdowns are somewhat erratic, I suspect there are bandwidth concerns here and that cleverer caching is needed, Microsoft.Welcome to The Hot Dish, a new series that delves in to the making of the dishes of the moment. [All photographs by Nick Solares] "We wanted to see how we could elevate the steak experience," says Momofuku Ssäm Bar's executive chef Matthew "Rudy" Rudofker when asked for the reasoning behind the new, reservation-only large format ribeye. There has been a dry aged rib steak on the Momofuku Ssäm bar menu for many years, available on a walk in basis. But by offering reservations, the steak can now be served with a host of sides and accompaniments that would be difficult to offer on a moment's notice. The quintessential pairing of Caesar salad, steak, and French fries is given the Momofuku treatment — what Rudofker calls "proper and efficient" cooking. Classic French techniques are employed in much of the process — the Béarnaise and Caesar salad are both textbook versions — but the crispiness of the fries is bolstered with a little molecular magic, and the aged trimmings are rendered down and reincorporated into the dish, both as a basting agent for the steak and also as a component in many of the sauces. The steak is fabricated from a Niman Ranch rib that has been dry aged for 28 days by butchers DeBragga and Spitler. Rudofker stresses the importance of hormone and antibiotic free beef, which he says has far less water than commercial cattle. This is especially important for the purposes of dry aging, as the process is about expelling as much water as possible. The chef claims that this type of beef requires less time to develop the funky, nutty, blue cheese-like notes that are the hallmark of dry aged meat. Indeed, the raw steak is redolent with these aromas. The steak is paired with condiments intended to enhance the flavor of the beef: brown butter combined with dry aged fat drippings, and a red wine and onion marmalade that is spiked with allspice and juniper. Even the ketchup, ostensibly intended for the fries, is laced with bacon. Here is a look at Rudofker preparing the ribeye meal. · All Coverage of Momofuku [~ENY~]Large-scale military exercises in South Ossetia (the region of Georgia occupied by Moscow as a result of the 2008 Russian invasion) involving units of the locally stationed 58th Army of the Russian Armed Forces came to a close on June 17 (Lenta, June 13). The exercises included 3,000 servicemen out of the 4,000 Russian military personnel attributed to the so-called “Berlin Guards Military Base,” located in the vicinity of Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia. Over the course of the exercises, the Army utilized 500 units of military hardware, including T-72BM tanks, BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles and 2S3 Akatsiya self-propelled howitzers. It is worth pointing out that some Russian troop units in South Ossetia are stationed only 500 meters from the strategically important Baku–Tbilisi–Kutaisi–Poti highway, which connects the eastern part of the South Caucasus (including Azerbaijan and Armenia) with the Georgian Black Sea ports of Poti and Batumi. “Cutting” this highway could essentially paralyze the entire South Caucasus region. Furthermore, Russian troops and artillery in South Ossetia are also located dangerously close to pipelines that carry oil and natural gas from the Caspian Sea basin westward to global markets. Over the past decade, the Russian Army has repeatedly carried out maneuvers on the territory of South Ossetia. Frequently, the exercises in this region have involved large-scale use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Illustratively, during an exercise last January at the Dzartz training ground, 1,500 Russian troops engaged in maneuvers and utilized Zastava, Granat, Orlan and Leer UAVs. In the concluding stage of the exercise, the units practiced “firing from […] combat vehicles, tanks and self-propelled howitzers” with targeting support from UAVs, according to press service of Russia’s Southern Military District (SMD) (Sevosetia.ru, January 25). And the June 2017 exercise featured a similar use of UAVs (Sputnik-ossetia.ru, June 9). Irakli Aladashvili, the editor-in-chief of the independent military and analytical magazine Arsenali, told this author that, in recent years, the Russian army has been using UAVs more and more actively, not only for reconnaissance but also for target designation of salvo fire systems and for adjusting artillery fire. “We see this tactic in eastern Ukraine, where Russian UAVs play a very large role in the shelling of Ukrainian army units. In 2008, during the aggression against Georgia, the Russians practically did not use these devices,” Aladashvili said. He noted that Russian troops are also using UAVs for reconnaissance deep in Georgian territory. “They sometimes even fly over Tbilisi” the expert reported (Author’s interview, June 18). An important unique feature of the Russian Army’s recent training maneuvers in South Ossetia was the mention of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the description of the simulated scenario that would be exercised. “The service members will work out their units’ proper actions in response to air raids of the hypothetical aggressor, overcoming the contaminated areas in the conditions of the enemy’s use of weapons of mass destruction [author’s emphasis] and electronic suppression,” says the statement released by the Russian Army command just ahead of the exercise (RBC, June 13). The Georgian military does not possess any sorts of weapons of mass destruction. On the other hand, there is no precise data about whether the Russian armed units stationed in South Ossetia are armed with WMDs. All types of WMDs (including tactical nuclear weapons) were removed from the territory of South Caucasus as early as 1989—just as the ethno-political conflicts in the region began to escalate. Moscow was worried about the security and safety of these weapons in the conditions of armed conflicts in Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Nevertheless, in the past several years, Russian officials have repeatedly accused Georgia of developing biological weapons at a United States–funded biological research facility outside Tbilisi, opened in 2012 at the initiative of former US Senator Richard Lugar (Civil Georgia, March 19, 2011). The facility is often referred to as the “Lugar Laboratory” (Civil Georgia, August 12, 2012). Notably, shortly before the large-scale June military exercises in South Ossetia—the description of which explicitly made mention of WMDs—the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed concern over the US-funded Georgian biological/medical research facility. In an April 29 statement, Moscow criticized the US’s compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). The Russian comments were issued in response to the US State Department’s 2017 Report on Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments. The Russian foreign ministry said in its statement that questions about US compliance allegedly remain unanswered, causing “growing concern” in Moscow. The foreign ministry added that Washington’s conduct is forcing Moscow to “think about the real, not publicly declared, military-biological agenda of the United States.” The statement further reads, “We are concerned over the consistent development of the US military-biological infrastructure along the perimeter of Russia’s borders. Significant strengthening [of] the US Army Medical Research Directorate [Lugar Laboratory] in Georgia (Alekseevka village) is particularly disturbing” (Civil Georgia, May 2). Four years ago, in July 2013, Gennady Onishchenko, who heads Russia’s state consumer protection agency, Rospotrebnadzor, said the bio-research laboratory represented “a powerful offensive potential” and was in violation of the BWC. In June 2015, the Russian foreign ministry accused Washington and Tbilisi of “trying to cover [up] the true contents and direction” of the research being done at the Lugar Laboratory. In February 2016, Onishchenko, claimed the facility could infect mosquitoes with the Zika virus. The United States and Georgia have repeatedly refuted all such insinuations, emphasizing that the Lugar Laboratory’s purpose is strictly limited to identifying and mitigating medical threats and combating endemic diseases (Civil Georgia, May 2). Vakhtang Maisaya, a doctor of military sciences based in Tbilisi, noted that the secretary of the National Security Council of Russia, Nikolai Patrushev, has also repeatedly accused Washington and Tbilisi of using the Lugar Laboratory to manufacture biological weapons. “These are absolutely unproven, fake accusations. But Russia uses false statements about the laboratory to exert pressure on Georgia. And judging by the description of the latest military exercises, now we are talking not only about the diplomatic and political but even military pressure on Georgia under the pretense of the existence of a ‘biological laboratory’ near Tbilisi,” Maisaya argued (Author’s interview, June 18). By all appearances, the continual baseless accusations directed at the Lugar Laboratory combined with this month’s military exercises on occupied Georgian territory with an explicit WMD component are being used by Moscow to exert further pressure on Georgia. But these activities by Russia can also be expected to color negotiations with the US on a whole range of strategic security issues during the run-up to next month’s meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.NORTH DAKOTA -- An Allegiant Airlines pilot declared a fuel emergency and had to land at a North Dakota airport even though the airport was closed for the Blue Angels practicing for their weekend air show, reports CBS News' Kris Van Cleave. The pilot of Allegiant 426 can be heard arguing with the airport tower at the closed Fargo's Hector International Airport saying he doesn't have enough fuel to divert the plane. In an audio recording of the incident the tower can also be heard scolding the pilot. "Your company should have been aware of this for a number of months," the tower controller can be heard saying. "Ok, we'll follow up on that," the pilot responds. Pilots question safety of Allegiant Airlines Allegiant released a statement about the incident saying they are investigating. "At this time, we are coordinating with the FAA and the airport to investigate all channels of communication regarding the flight and the circumstances leading to the declaration of emergency," Allegiant said. In a statement the FAA said the Blue Angels were practicing in that airspace that day for their air show. There was a temporary flight restriction covering the airspace from noon to 5 p.m. "The Fargo airport management had notified airlines of the planned airspace closure, practice and air show as far back as December, and NOTAMs (Notices to Airmen) were issued 72 hours in advance," the FAA said. "It is a requirement for pilots to review NOTAMs before flight." FAA said for this reason, all arriving flights had scheduled arrival times. Allegiant 426 missed its scheduled time, as it was an hour late departing from Las Vegas. "Knowing the airspace was being used by the Blue Angels, the Fargo tower was waiting for the flight to come in, expecting it to divert to Grand Forks," the FAA said. "The pilots of Allegiant 426 would have been talking to the FAA's Minneapolis Center before entering Fargo's airspace, and would have been well aware of the Blue Angels practice." Pilot pleads to land on closed runway FAA said that the Fargo tower talked to Allegiant's operations and was assured that the flight did have an extra 45 minutes of fuel on board, as required by FAA regulation. This extra 45 minutes is required on all flights to enable diversions, if necessary. Allegiant's operation center told the FAA the flight had an extra 45 minutes of fuel on board, but the pilot said otherwise, and requested landing at Fargo. It is unclear how many people were on board the flight. The Blue Angels were moved to a holding area, and the flight landed without incident. Allegiant has had a series of mechanical issues this summer, including smoke in the cockpit of a flight. And another where passengers evacuated to the wing. A few weeks ago, CBS News reported that pilots of Allegiant were accusing the airline of cutting safety along with costs. In a letter to the board of Allegiant Airlines, the union representing its pilots complained about what it says is the company's bare minimum approach to maintenance and safety. The letter cited 38 potentially dangerous incidents between January and March of 2015 including engine failures, pressurization problems, smoke in the cockpit and radar issues.They will face Liverpool then an FA Cup semi-final with Manchester United Roberto Martinez is ready to rest Ross Barkley and Romelu Lukaku to keep them fresh for the defining week of Everton’s season. Barkley and Lukaku were among the nominees for the PFA Young Player of the Year award earlier this week, having both shown considerable progression and consistency; they have both started 32 games for Everton, a figure that is higher than anyone else in the squad. Everton have not won any of their last five games in the Barclays Premier League and they need a win against Southampton on Saturday to alleviate the tension that has built up following their slide down the table. Roberto Martinez faces a Merseyside derby next Wednesday followed by an FA Cup semi-final in eight days He is ready to rest Ross Barkley (left) and Romelu Lukaku (right) against Southampton to keep them fresh But with a Merseyside derby on the horizon next Wednesday, followed by the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United in eight days’ time, Martinez is prepared to take Barkley – who has had a minor knee problem – and Lukaku, who is suffering a tight groin, out of the firing to protect them. ‘I don’t think they have played like young players,’ said Martinez. ‘This season they have taken their own personal roles to the next level. Rom and Ross have been extremely consistent and I am pleased that they have had that recognition they deserve. ‘But more importantly we need to keep them fresh to make sure they finish the season really strong. We will assess Ross. Rom has been carrying a problem. None of those are long-term injuries they just affect the big amount of games that we have. ‘This game is right in the middle of five games in two weeks. This was going to be a challenging game. They are a really good side. They rely on possession, they have very strong individuals. We faced adversity against Crystal Palace.’ Barkley in action with Yohan Cabaye of Crystal Palace during Wednesday's 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park Lukaku (right) and Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace challenge for the ball during the Premier League encounter Martinez hopes the spirit Everton showed after being a man down at Selhurst Park will be the catalyst for an improvement at home. ‘We’re playing a really good footballing side but for us it’s about trying to get good attributes in adversity we showed against palace. This is a chance to see how squad can cope. Been disappointing not celebrated enough wins in front of our own crowd. At times we’ve had performances which have been good enough to get results but at home we haven’t got them. Away from home it’s been really really strong – we wanted an away record that could be top four At home is rally contrasting and just not good enough.’Detroit has finally set its sights on some of the real culprits of the city's financial crisis—the banks and for-profit companies that refuse to pay their share. The city on Wednesday said it issued demand letters to 1,543 private entities, both residential and commercial, to recoup more than $12 million in unpaid property taxes, which piled up between 2010 and 2012 alone. If they don't pony up, the city will file lawsuits against them by the end of the month, officials said. "For too long, there are those who chose not to pay what they owed in taxes, leaving everyone else to pay the price," Detroit's treasurer and deputy chief financial officer David Szymanski said Wednesday. "We are working to improve city services for our residents, and to do that—whether it's better police and fire protection, streetlights or better schools for our children—we need everyone who does business in this city to pay their fair share." Szymanski emphasized the city's plan to go after corporations and multiple-property owners, rather than individual taxpayers, as has previously been the case—notably during the water shutoff crisis in 2014. SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Help Keep Common Dreams Alive Our progressive news model only survives if those informed and inspired by this work support our efforts "We are not talking about the family that has fallen on tough times, those struggling to decide whether to feed their children or pay their taxes," he said. "This is about those who tried to make money without paying what they owed. We are standing up for our property owners who paid their taxes and played by the rules." The Detroit News reported: The city will also be trying to recoup taxes owed to Wayne County, Wayne County Community College District, Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency, Detroit Public Schools and others. This is the first round of an ongoing effort by the city to recover what it is owed, with the city planning to go after delinquent taxes for other years as well, officials said. Dan Austin, a spokesperson for Mayor Mike Duggan, noted to the Detroit Free Press, "$12.2 million can pay for a lot of cops and firefighters. It's not an insignificant amount of money." Szymanski added: "The message here should be clear: If you're going to do business in Detroit, you have to pay your share, just like everybody else.”Edit: Youtube Series on the way! Check out my Channel. After finally having gotten around to building a 3d printer of my own, and being inspired by youtube videos I thought about making a “real” HL2 turret/Sentry Gun. And by real I mean the turret body should rotate side to side about 90 degrees, the machine gun part should move up and down and be able to point the gun and body towards a face. The gun will only probably be an led or something safe like a pellet gun. Edit: Oh my God, not a pellet gun! I thought they’re something else. Definitely not a pellet gun. I will be using a Raspberry Pi for the brains of the operation. The basic idea is to have the Pi connected to either a webcam or a Pi camera mounted in the body of the turret and with a little image recognition identify the height and angle of body rotation at which a face is found and then via the serial port command and arduino to move the servos, change LED colors and so on. Of course, it will be able to play the turret sound from the game. But how does one get started on such a project anyway? Well I did some googling and I couldn’t find any 3d models which I could use as a basis for my 3d printable, functional model, and the pictures I could find online with the turret were all isometric views which I couldn’t exactly use as a reference. After a bit more searching, I stumbled over a paper craft model. There are a lot of these models available. After downloading it (I can’t find the link but I’m hosting it on google drive), I saw it had a *.pdo extension. What is that? Well, apparently it is a pepakura model and it can be opened with Pepakura Viewer which you can find here. I opened it, and guess what? It’s perfect for the scope of this project. On the left side of the screen you get a 3d view of the paper model and on the right you have the unfolded printable version of it. The 3d view will be perfect for taking snapshots of the model to insert onto sketching planes when creating the robotic version. Not only that, but you can click on the various parts and they’ll be isolated to increase visibility on that part. So now I’ve got a good starting point. But what about scale? Well it sure won’t be 1:1 because that would be a bit too much to print, but what I did was to create a block shape the size of the raspberry pi, the brains of the operation and then scale the image of the turret until it fit into the body. Then, one by one I started sketching out the parts and assembling them. I started the project in Solidworks 2010 but I wanted to try out Autodesk Fusion 360 because it’s free so I transitioned to it by outputting the Solidworks assembly to a.STEP file and importing it into Fusion. It worked great. One important issue with the functionality of the turret is that the panel on which the back leg is mounted interferes with the body when in search mode so it would be impossible for the turret to rotate when assembled. The front legs are a bit easier because they mount on a plate which is positioned directly under the body and would make a great axis of rotation. So for the back leg I decided it would be easiest to just extend the plate downwards until it can be solvent welded with acetone to the front legs plate. After some deliberation I decided to use two bearings on 8mm threaded rod to enable the body to rotate and then used a mini or micro servo as an actuator. I’m a bit worried about using a small servo for the rotation of the turret because the movement should be smooth and I’m not sure how much torque will be required once the entire thing is assembled. Although right now, the bearings seem to be really easy to rotate. I’ve also printed some servo “horns” and I used a 2mm steel wire to connect the two (not pictured). It should be enough for only 90 degrees of rotation. Another possibility I considered was using a small stepper motor and belt drive, but I’ll leave that as plan B in case I get issues with the servo. The bearing holder will be solvent welded to one of the base halves and the other half has two recesses in order to support the turrets weight once both halves are mounted. Also, to get the back leg plate to fit onto my print bed I cut it in half and It will be solvent welded during assembly. I there is interest in this subject I will make the CAD available for free. I think a Youtube series would also be nice. Advertisements. WHERE TO BUY? LOOK AT MY EYES 3 COLOR PALETTE . ETUDE HOUSE PLAY NAIL FEBRUARY 2014 . WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW PRODUCTS? WOULD YOU PURCHASE ANYTHING? note: all pictures are from etude house Etude House has released some new products for the month of February. The month of L-O-V-E haha^^. They have released 3 eyeshadow palettes and a couple of nail polishes has been added to the Play Nail Collection. Want to see more? Check out todays blogpost :).These products are very new so there aren't many shops who are selling these yet. As far as
forever through the air of endless black, like grains of sand swirling when a whirlwind blows. And I, in the midst of all this encircling enchantment of sexual orgy, began: “Worshiper of white cocks, what are those sounds I hear? What souls are these so strangely overwhelmed with both ecstasy and pain?” And she to me: “This is chinkland after the white gods conquered all of Asia. All the chink men are being killed off, and that forms the cries of lamentation, and all the chink women are being saved and given big white cocks to worship, and that forms the cries of pleasure. Some chink women are adamant and lament their chink husbands or sons, and they are given punishments, of whipping, spanking, tortures of various kinds, to rectify their sins, and though the whips of white men are cruel, their tips are filled with honey, and those chink women who repent are given the seeds of white sperm as rewards.” As we walked into the main road passing the gate, on both sides along the deadly rock, I saw white gods with enormous whips lashing the backs of naked chink women with cruel delight. Ah how they made those naked chinks skip and lift their heels at the very first crack of their whips. Not one of them dared to take a second or a third! As I walked on my eyes met with the glance of one down there; I murmured to myself, I know this face from somewhere, I am sure. And so I stopped to study her more closely; and Amy Tan also stopped, and was so kind as to allow me to retrace my steps. And that whipped chink thought she could hide from me, by lowering her face—which did her no good, as she was hung by her wrists. I said: ”O you, there, with your head bent low, if the features of your chink face do not deceive me, you are the Princeton history professor, Dr. He Bian. Why are you being whipped?” “I’m not so keen on answering,” she said, “But I feel I must, since you were my student, and it is my obligation to answer all student-questions. It makes me think of old times in the world of romances. The white god whipping me here is my master, and the white god hoisting me up upon this rack is my white god’s friend. I am being punished for being disobedient to my white master.” “I have always suspected that chink female professors love big white cocks just as much as the students,” I said. “Yes, of course! I am not the only chink female college professors who are being punished here—hardly! This place is packed with us; in fact, there are more of us here than there are living tongues. Over on the rack on the other side is Jessica Chen Weiss of Cornell University, being fucked hard by her white god Jewish husband Dr. Weiss. And still kindling their love, Dr. Fan Chung of University of Pennsylvania is receiving the piss from her white god husband Dr. Ronald Graham down in the chink valley.” Just at that point the white god let her have a feel of his tailed whip and cried: ”Move on, Amy Tan, with your young fresh-off-the boat chink meat, for the white god of all white gods, Adolf Hitler, is waiting for her service.” Those words filled my heart with shock, horror and strange erotic love. Both Amy Tan and I quickly turned and walked on along our roads. O just revenge of the white gods! How awesomely you punish those chinks! And anyone of you chinks who is reading this should be edified to know the wrath of the white gods is come upon thy heads! Then I saw many separate herds of naked chinks, all weeping desperately; it seemed each group had been assigned a different punishment: some were stretched out flat upon their backs, others were crouching there all tightly hunched, some wandered, never stopping, round and round. I said to my guide: “Goddess of white cocks, gobbler of white cum, what torments do those suffer that make such bitterness ring through their screams?” She answered: “Those wretched chinks over there have no hope of ever receiving big white cocks in their wombs, for in this blind life they lead is abject that it makes them envy every other fate. They have been fucked by niggers, and no white gods would ever touch them again. Let’s not discuss them: look and pass them by.” “Disgusting chinks! How dare they contaminate the vessels of white sperm. Do they not know that their bodies are the temples of white gods? Despicable chinks that deserve to be punished with hell fire!” “My daughter,” the gentle white sperm lover Amy Tan said to me, “All those who perish in the wrath of the white gods assemble here, they want to cross the river, they are eager; it is the Divine Justice of the white gods that spurs them on, turning the fear they have into desire. A good chink never comes to make this crossing, for she is descended directly into the kingdom of big white cocks, but also those are disobedient, insouciant, and refuse to submit to the supreme sperm of white gods, that are sent to cross.” She finished speaking, and the grim terrain shook violently; and the fright it gave me made me sweat. Out of the tear-drenched land a wind arose which blasted forth into a reddish light, knocking my senses out of me completely, and I fell as one falls tired into sleep. Canto IV “Chink women are born for white cocks.” Amy Tan whispered in my ears. I woke from deep sleep that drugged my mind, and turned my rested eyes from side to side, already on my feet, and staring hard, I tried my best to find out where I was. “Of chink women’s pride and prejudice, It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a chink woman in possession of beauty, intelligence, and wealth, must be in want of a white man as her husband.” Amy Tan, my guide, was drunk, it appeared, drunk with the ecstasy of white sperm, drunk with the masculine scent of white men’s big white cocks. For unbeknownst to me, while I fell fast into a slumber, my guide and I were gently placed onto boat floating across a river beneath the steep ridges of chink valley. “Come, quickly, my chink daughter, lets us descend into the sightless world of ecstasy.” The yellow goddess instructed me, for we have arrived at a maelstrom in the center of the river and ferryman navigating the boat instructed us to jump into the maelstrom. My face turned pale and I was dumbstruck with fear. Just at this moment I saw two heads poking out of the river of white sperm. Their heads were covered with long silky black hair. “Who are those two female heads gobbling up so much white sperm swimming in the river?” I asked my guide, naively. “That’s Dr. Evelyn Hu-Dehart, professor and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University, and her colleague, Dr. Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce of Harvard, both true lovers of white cocks. Why, just listen to their last names!” “I wish I can have a white man’s last name too! That’s not fair.” I cried to my guide. “Then you must study hard, and be brave, and your reward shall be in the kingdom of big white cocks. Now we must jump into the maelstrom of love, into the abyss of forlorn desire, for the kingdom of big white cocks is at hand.”Faction Paradox is a series of novels, audio stories, short story anthologies, and comics set in and around the "War in Heaven", a history-spanning conflict between the godlike "Great Houses" and their mysterious enemy. The series is named after a minor group in the War, a fictional time travelling cult / rebel group / organized crime syndicate originally created by author Lawrence Miles for BBC Books' Doctor Who novels. Overview [ edit ] Originally a subplot in the Eighth Doctor Adventures, the War involves several characters and concepts evolved from the original Doctor Who set-up. In several cases, the Faction Paradox series still features these groups, albeit with names changed for reasons both literary (most of the groups or items mentioned are described from different perspectives) and legal (the Faction and the Enemy are Miles's creations, but other elements are not — thus the Great Houses are the Faction Paradox range's equivalent to Doctor Who's Time Lords).[1] Faction Paradox themselves are not the enemy in this War, and play a neutral part, willing to act against both sides in their own interests. Lawrence Miles has described them as "a ritualistic time-travelling guerrilla organisation". The semi-mythical founder of Faction Paradox is Grandfather Paradox, named after the grandfather paradox of time travel theory. Originally a member of the Great Houses himself, the Grandfather created a new group after he became frustrated with the ways of the Great Houses. Faction Paradox therefore takes a good deal of pleasure in irritating the Great Houses, and many of their traditions and rituals are aligned in direct opposition to the way the Great Houses do things. Their time machines are bigger on the inside, in much the same way as TARDISes are, and the familial titles its members use (eg "Father", "Cousin") reference family units which the Great Houses lost when they became sterile. Faction Paradox also take a perverse pride in causing time paradoxes (something that is against the laws of the Great Houses) and achieving impossible or absurd effects for their own sake. For instance, they typically wear ritual skull masks which are in fact the skulls of vampirised members of the Great Houses who, in the Great Houses' version of history, never existed. Their stronghold on Earth exists in a version of London, within what they call "The Eleven-Day Empire", bought from the British government in 1752. In that year, the British Empire first adopted the Gregorian calendar, and in so doing had to correct their dating scheme by 11 days (2 September 1752 being followed by 14 September 1752). Faction Paradox claimed the missing 11 days as their base (building on the illogicity that only the numbering scheme changed and no days were actually "missing"). Stories [ edit ] Doctor Who (BBC Books) [ edit ] After a brief mention of Grandfather Paradox in the Virgin New Adventures novel Christmas on a Rational Planet, Faction Paradox and the War in Heaven made their debut in BBC Books' Eighth Doctor novels. The most relevant books to the Faction Paradox universe are Several other Doctor Who novels featured or referenced Faction Paradox, most notably The Ancestor Cell (written by Stephen Cole and Peter Anghelides in 2000), The Quantum Archangel (written by Craig Hinton in 2001), and The Gallifrey Chronicles (written by Lance Parkin in 2005), but were contradicted or otherwise ignored in the Faction Paradox series. Faction Paradox (BBV) [ edit ] A series of full-cast audio dramas dubbed The Faction Paradox Protocols was produced by BBV between 2001 and 2004. All were written by Lawrence Miles. These stories centred on two Cousins of the Faction, Justine and Eliza. (Justine had previously featured in the BBC novel Alien Bodies, and Eliza appeared in Dead Romance as "Christine Summerfield".) The first two stories were set in the Eleven-Day Empire; the second two in 18th century London; and the last two were split between Justine's pre-Faction past and the Great Houses' prison facility. Although there were six releases and an ongoing story, each pair (usually released close together) formed a two-part story. In order they were: The Eleven-Day Empire The Shadow Play Sabbath Dei In the Year of the Cat Movers A Labyrinth of Histories Faction Paradox (Mad Norwegian Press) [ edit ] In 2002 Mad Norwegian Press published a multi-author faux-encyclopedia to the first 50 years of the War in Heaven, edited by Faction Paradox creator Lawrence Miles, as a companion to the BBV audios. After the success of The Book of the War, Mad Norwegian began publishing a Faction Paradox series of novels set in the same universe. These novels roam the ongoing War in Heaven; despite the series' name, the Faction and its members are not the focus, sometimes featuring only as minor characters, and sometimes not appearing at all. The books also featured characters from the Doctor Who novels, including Chris Cwej and Compassion. Mad Norwegian also republished the Virgin New Adventures novel Dead Romance as part of their Faction Paradox line in 2003. Faction Paradox (Image Comics) [ edit ] Cover of the first comics issue In 2003, the first two issues of a Faction Paradox comic were produced by Mad Norwegian and published by Image Comics. The series was subsequently cancelled. The comic was written by Lawrence Miles with art from Jim Calafiore and inks by Peter Palmiotti.[2] It was set after the events of the War in Heaven, though due to its short run it did not give much detail on the post-War universe.[3] It tied into events described in The Faction Paradox Protocols, The Book of the War, and The Adventuress of Henrietta Street. Faction Paradox (Magic Bullet) [ edit ] In 2004 Magic Bullet Productions, known for their Kaldor City audio dramas, obtained the license to produce further Faction Paradox audios, dubbed The True History of Faction Paradox. The narrative of this series continued from The Faction Paradox Protocols, although the first CD was also written to be accessible to newcomers. Like the BBV audios, these stories focused on Cousin Justine and Cousin Eliza, but the characters were recast. The dramas in the series, released between 2005 and 2009, have featured guest stars including Julian Glover, Peter Miles, Philip Madoc and Gabriel Woolf. Woolf plays the ancient Egyptian god Sutekh, whom he had previously played in the 1975 Doctor Who story Pyramids of Mars. The six titles are: Coming To Dust [4] The Ship of a Billion Years [5] Body Politic [6] Words from Nine Divinities [7] Ozymandias [8] The Judgment of Sutekh[9] Faction Paradox (Random Static) [ edit ] In 2007, New Zealand-based publisher Random Static announced they would be publishing further Faction Paradox novels. What turned out to be the sole title of the new range was published in January 2008. The cover art, by Emma Weakley, won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Artwork in 2009.[10] Faction Paradox (Obverse Books) [ edit ] In June 2010 Obverse Books acquired a license to produce collections of Faction Paradox short stories and longer fiction. The City of the Saved [ edit ] In 2012, Obverse Books launched a series of anthologies set in the City of the Saved, a setting first introduced and explored in the Faction Paradox series.Dave East continues to be Harlem's tireless flag bearer and Nas'eager protege. Today (Sept. 16) East announces his first project seen being crowned a 2016 XXL Freshman. East decided to name his next project after his first born daughter, Kairi Chanel, who was born in March of this year. East frequently posts cute daddy-daughter pics of Kairi on his Instagram. Ahead of his Made in America Festival set this past August, a major look for the MC, East officially introduced the world to Kairi on camera and talked about why he sees rapping as a lost art these days. “I’m actually talking about real life situations, like stuff that actually happens,” Dave explained in the video profile. “So I don’t think that’s old-school, I don’t think that’s over with. I feel like there’s still dudes that can rap and tell their stories with lyricism. I just think I’m one of those dudes.” East has dropped sporadic singles like "Nothin 'Bout Nothin" and "Couple Reasons I'm Popular," but Kairi Chanel will be his latest project since April's Tales From The East. Kairi Chanel drops in two weeks, on Sept. 30. East fans can pre-order the tape on iTunes now and peep the tracklist below. Dave East's Kairi Chanel Tracklist 1. "It Was Written" 2. "Type of Time" 3. "Again" 4. "Can't Ignore" Feat. 2 Chainz 5. "Sending My Love" Feat. Sevyn Streetr 6. "30 Ni**az" 7. "Keisha" 8. "Eyes on Me" Feat. Fabolous 9. "S.D.E." Feat. Cam'ron 10. "Don Pablo" 11. "The Only Thing" 12. "The Real Is Back" Feat. Beanie Sigel 13. "Slow Down" Feat. Jazzy Amra 14. "Don't Shoot 15. "Bad Boy on Death Row" Feat. The GameOn September 24th 2002, Rare was wholly purchased by Microsoft for $375 million (yes, I know I'm making this thread a day early. I have legit reasons for doing so too.). It has now been 15 years since the purchase, and a lot has sure happened since then.As one of the more major and infamous acquisitions in gaming, other acquisitions tend to be compared to it. Especially ones from first party console manufacturers. It definitely has affected all parties involved in various ways (Rare, Microsoft, Nintendo, gamers) and Rare's output over the last 15 years has been received in mixed ways.Here's a complete list of all the games they've released on Xbox consoles since the acquisition:(Xbox, 2003)(Xbox, 2005)(Xbox 360, 2005)(Xbox 360, 2005)(Xbox 360, 2006)(Xbox 360/XBLA, 2007)(Xbox 360, 2008)(Xbox 360, 2008)(Xbox 360/Kinect, 2010)(Xbox 360/Kinect, 2011)(Xbox One/Kinect, 2014)(Xbox One, 2015) Normally I don't count this one since it's a collection of previous games, but for the sake of a complete list, I'll include it here.And finally, their current project:(Xbox One, 2018?)Looking at this list of games, what games did you like versus not like? What's your opinion on their Xbox output? What do you think of Rare in general these last 15 years? Was the purchase worth it for any party involved? What was your reaction when they were first bought? Did everything pan out the way you expected? What do you think of the company's future? What would you want them to do? Let's discuss anything and everything that has to do with the acquisition.On a related note, this also means it's the 15th anniversary of one game in particular..............So, there's that too.(Hopefully this thread turns out well enough. I put a lot of effort into making this.EDIT: Fixed the images. Now they're actually showing. Sorry about that.Get ready to have your life taken over by TV. But don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds; in fact, it's great. As is the slate of TV shows coming your way. While the summer still has a few notable TV premieres still up its sleeve, all eyes are on the start of fall TV. And on Thursday, Fox became the last of the major networks to roll out the premiere dates for their upcoming shows, setting save-the-dates for the highly anticipated Gotham (Sept. 22), Broadchurch remake Gracepoint (Oct. 2) and several returning favorites. See also: 10 New Summer Series to Keep Your TV Addiction Alive As the networks have rolled out their dates, Mashable has been compiling them into a handy calendar. Set reminders, import the whole thing and order pizza at your will. Cheers to the sedentary lifestyle!Three YPG fighters in Kobane shortly after they liberated the city from ISIS militants in January. Photo: AFP By Omar Kalo KOBANE—Kurdish forces continue to push Islamic State (ISIS) militants out of the Kobane area and have retaken more than 100 villages from the extremist group in the past two weeks. Fighters of the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) have now reached the village of Karamox, 20 kilometers east of Kobane. In their advance against ISIS, the YPG fighters are supported by Peshmerga artillery and coalition airstrikes. Since they drove out ISIS militants from the city last month after 133 days of fighting, the Kurdish forces have advanced against the Islamist group in all directions and reclaimed many of the villages that fell to the group in September. Last week, the YPG fighters took back the village of Kofi, 25 kilometers south of Kobane as well as the village of Rovi on the main road between Kobane and Aleppo. On the western front, the Kurdish forces are now positioned 20 kilometers away at Karako village. YPG commanders inside the city told Rudaw that 15 ISIS militants fled the Kurdish advance west of Kobane on Friday and crossed the border into Turkey.In the name of Allāh, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy Advice to the Women Who Frequently Leave the Home By Shaykh al-ʿAllāmah Muḥammad Bin Hādī al-Madkhalī Q: A questioner from France says, “There is an occurrence we see that began to spread amongst the (Muslim) women, and that is they frequently leave (the house) without need, which in turn causes many brothers, meaning the husbands, to complain because of it. They say, ‘We do not want to be harsh on them so sometimes we permit them. However, they exceed the limits of the conditions we place upon them, such as not staying out late at night, and to tell us the place they are going to. So for example, they began to frequent going to restaurants to eat dinner and they return to the house late, perhaps at midnight. As for us, we are in the house with the children.’ Usually this comes about by way of invitation from non-married sisters, and the married sisters accompany them. We ask that you give advice to us and them, so all can benefit, and so the husbands and wives can live a happy life, may Allāh reward you.” Click on link below for full article: Women leaving Home Sh MuhammadThe novelist Patricia Highsmith worked in bed surrounded by cigarettes, an ashtray, matches, a mug of coffee, a doughnut and a cup full of sugar. According to Mason Currey, the author of the entertaining and enlightening new book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, she also liked to have a stiff drink before she settled down to write, “to reduce her energy levels, which veered toward the manic.” Daily Rituals: How Artists Work Daily Rituals chronicles the routines of genius-level artists, writers, composers, and philosophers–Beethoven, Kafka, Chuck Close, and John Cheever are among those included. Their quotidian schedules tended to be as regular as they were idiosyncratic. Currey says the most surprising ritual came from the early 20th-century writer Thomas Wolfe, who would unconsciously “fondle his genitals” while working because it “fostered such a “good male feeling” and “stoked his creative energies.” Even the most dissolute-seeming artists, like the painter Francis Bacon, who “lived a life of hedonistic excess, eating multiple rich meals a day, drinking tremendous quantities of alcohol, taking whatever stimulants were handy, and generally staying out later and partying harder than any of his contemporaries”–managed to keep a routine schedule of work, in his own libertine kind of way. Here, Currey talks about the rituals that successful artists have in common, why enjoying your day job can help you with your personal output, and the importance of bathing on the creative process. This may be sort of obvious, but everybody in the book found some way to carve out time [to work], either in the early morning, or before binge drinking the rest of the day like Francis Bacon. In some cases, it’s not that long. Gertrude Stein would only work for 30 minutes each day. Some other writers said two to three hours every day is great, but more than that wears them out and hurts the next day’s work. But they worked at the same time every day, regardless of their other obligations. It’s the repetition that leads you to getting into a creative state. It’s not the rituals themselves–they don’t have any particular special power–that lead you into this zone. It’s more that these artists tried to stick with the same pattern every day. So many behaviors in the book are ways to take a break. You can’t just work constantly on something that requires a high degree of focus and creative energy, whether it’s writing or composing or painting. No one can do it nonstop for hours on end. Taking a nap and drinking coffee were typical. Igor Stravinsky would do a headstand. Thomas Wolfe had the weird fondling-himself habit. Walking seems the most common, especially among composers. Composers all seemed to take a long walk every day.Three men from Kosovo and an unidentified minor have been arrested on suspicion of plotting to blow up Venice's Rialto Bridge. Fisnik Bekaj, Dake Haziraj and Arjan Babaj were detained in overnight raids after it emerged that they had undergone'religious radicalisation'. One of the suspected jihadist plotters boasted that they would 'go straight to heaven' if they put a bomb under the bridge, a wiretap conversation revealed. They were reportedly inspired by the Westminster terror attacks in London and had discussed plans to join Islamist fighters in Syria. (From left) Kosovo-born Fisnik Bekaj, Dake Haziraj and Arjan Babaj, and an unidentified minor have been arrested in Venice on suspicion of plotting to blow up the city's Rialto Bridge This is the famous Rialto Bridge that the suspects allegedly plotted to blow up Raids were conducted at 12 addresses in the historic city centre to find the men. 'With all the unbelievers there are in Venice, you put a bomb under the Rialto and you go straight to heaven,' the alleged plotter said. 'That was one the most worrying and alarming remarks we heard,' said Venice prosecutor Adelchi d'Ippolito said at a press conference. Two of the men worked as waiters in Venice, according to local media. One of the suspects was arrested in an apartment close to La Fenice, Venice’s opera house. Police had been monitoring the group since last year, it emerged. The suspects appeared to have been studying how to build explosives but did not have the necessary components for making a bomb, the court heard. A search of a Venice apartment revealed the suspects were getting into physical shape and watched clips of Islamic extremists on how to carry out knife attacks. Footage showed police raiding the apartment of one of the suspects and detaining him A search of a Venice apartment revealed the suspects were getting into physical shape and watched clips of Islamic extremists on how to carry out knife attacks 'There was a lot of talk about unconditional support to ISIS. It wasn't just theory and dogma,' d'Ippolito said of the wiretaps. They were also envisioning moving on to 'planning and projects', he said. Interior Minister Marco Minniti praised the police for what he called 'an important success in our terrorism prevention effort.' The Rialto Bridge is the oldest of the four bridges that span Venice's Grand Canal, first built at the end of the 12th century. Venice prosecutor Adelchi d'Ippolito said the suspects appeared to have been studying how to build explosives but did not have the necessary components for making a bomb The suspects were ISIS supporters and became inspired after the Westminster terror attacks in London, a wiretap conversation revealed (pictured, soldiers patrolling Saint Mark's Square in Venice on Thursday) Raids were conducted at 12 addresses in the historic city centre to find the men The current bridge, an arched stone construction which dates from the late 16th century, is one of the best-known landmarks in the floating city and its walkways are frequently packed with tourists. It was the only way of crossing the Grand Canal on foot for the best part of three centuries. According to media reports, the wiretap evidence against the suspects also includes recordings of them celebrating the attack outside Parliament in London last week and discussing their desire to join Islamist fighters in Syria.Half of Ontario's Grade 6 students failed to meet provincial standards in math this year, according to standardized test scores that showed no improvement over the previous year and have prompted calls to overhaul the curriculum. Education Minister Mitzie Hunter acknowledged the problem on Wednesday and said in a statement that "there's still more work to do, especially when it comes to math overall." But she said the curriculum compares favourably with those of other provinces, even as one outspoken professor said the failure across Canada to change the direction of math education will affect the economy, where knowledge in the subject matter is a requirement for many professions. Story continues below advertisement Quiz: Are you smarter than a 6th grader? Results released on Wednesday from Ontario's Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) showed that, for the second year in a row, the proportion of Grade 6 students who met provincial standards in math stood at 50 per cent in the 2016-17 academic year. That was down from 57 per cent four years ago. Among Grade 3 students, 62 per cent met provincial standards in math, a one-percentage-point decrease over the previous year. (The provincial standard is equivalent to a B grade.) The EQAO data also show that students are having a difficult time with math problems as they move through school. An increasing percentage of students who met provincial standards in Grade 3 failed to do so in Grade 6. The EQAO said the finding was of "particular significance" because students who do not meet provincial standards early in their schooling are much more likely to have difficulties into high school. Math has become a divisive issue across the country as test scores drop in every province except Quebec. Some parents and educators have called on ministries of education to improve teacher training and return to a back-to-basics approach to the subject, one that emphasizes repetition and drills over creative strategies to solve problems. Anna Stokke, a professor in the department of math and statistics at the University of Winnipeg, said that if students haven't memorized the times tables by Grade 4, for example, they will struggle with topics that rely on basic arithmetic. "Math is very cumulative in nature, and that's why it's important to get it right when students are young," she said. Prof. Stokke is among a group of parents and educators who have been sounding the alarm on math curriculums for five years now. She said studies have shown that early achievement in math is a strong predictor of later academic success. She said she's not surprised to see Ontario's math scores stagnate or tumble because the focus has been on discovery-based learning as opposed to mastering basic math skills before moving on to more complex equations. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement "Parents have been noticing these issues in math for many years as they've helplessly watched their children struggle," she said. "Ensuring that children are performing well in math is important for the future success of the Canadian economy, since math knowledge is required in many professions – the sciences, engineering, business, technology, to name a few." But Andrew Campbell, a Grade 5 teacher in Brantford, Ont., said the curriculum is not the issue. There is a "mismatch," he said, between the test and how children are learning in the classroom. The curriculum emphasizes group problem solving and expressing ideas in a variety of ways. "To me, the test needs to change. It needs to be open and more reflective of the kinds of ways students are learning and getting to express their understanding," he said. Ontario's government has targeted declining scores by mandating that elementary-school students receive at least 60 minutes of math instruction daily. The $60-million plan, which was rolled out in the past academic year, added as many as three math-specialist teachers to every school. It also provided math training to all staff and additional supports for parents at schools where standardized results were particularly poor. But struggles with math have forced families to turn elsewhere and have led to a proliferation of after-school programs. Michael Arnold, who runs a private math-tutoring company in Toronto, said about 30 per cent of his clients are families with children in elementary school. When he left the insurance business to start the company five years ago, he only tutored high-school students, many of whom struggled with basic arithmetic. "Parents are just looking for different ways to approach the problems that students bring home," Mr. Arnold said. Story continues below advertisement The EQAO data also show that the number of students meeting standards in reading held steady or climbed in the 2016-17 academic year. Much of the focus in schools over the past few years has been on improving literacy. But writing results showed a small decline year over year for both Grade 3 and Grade 6 students.Since the creation of the Internet, smartphones, and cable television, the nature of journalism has changed drastically. For newspapers, this means people are not relying on them as a sole source of information anymore. Although the Internet is forcing papers out of business and costing people their jobs, it poses a challenge for journalists to step up their game and come up with new ways to tell a story. On Wednesday, September 28th, we lost one more print newspaper: the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. This closure now makes Pittsburgh another one-paper city. Trib Total Media announced that it would stop publishing print editions of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pittsburgh’s second largest daily newspaper. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the remaining newspaper in Pittsburgh, this decision resulted in laying-off 106 people and was the final step in budget cuts that have been happening during the past year. They are consolidating all of their content to an online format. The Tribune-Review is just one of many newspapers that have stopped print production. The Independent did as well, while the Tampa Tribune was bought out by its rival, and the Baltimore Examiner and Cincinnati Post closed for good. Regardless of its current status, each ended its printing following the internet revolution. There is a blog online called the Newspaper Death Watch, that has a running list of newspapers going out of business. On the website, it says they are, “Chronicling the Decline of Newspapers and the Rebirth of Journalism.” It all sounds dramatic, but the research shows that they are not that far off. The New York Times released a graphic in 2011 visually comparing the circulation numbers of papers across the country. And with each paper, they showed the net percentage change in circulations and represented that change with a color gradient. Almost all of the papers, with the exception of a few, have decreased their circulation numbers. It’s clear that the graphic would be listing many more newspapers in the red today. Pew Research Center found that since 2004, there are one hundred fewer daily newspapers, newsroom employment is on a steady decline from 2007 (it went from 52,600 employees to 32,900 employees) and newspaper circulation has declined for a second consecutive year. And on top of that, Gallup just released a poll saying that American trust in the media is at an all time low. Only 32 percent of Americans say they have “a great deal” of trust in the media. But there might still be hope for newspapers. In the same study, Pew also found that the most popular way of reading a newspaper among readers is still print only. But what does this all mean for an aspiring journalist? That there will be no jobs available for me out of college? That people do not trust the media anyway, so why bother? That the entire industry will change so much in the next two years, it will not be recognizable? Yes, the industry and the audience is changing and I am not the first to acknowledge that. There is so much stimulation with television and the Internet that it has become increasingly difficult to get people interested in the news. I see this all as a challenge to future journalists and news organizations to find new mediums to tell stories–and many news organizations have already done that. Vox has developed a platform that explains the news without having to read all the articles leading up to it and following it religiously. This directly addresses the issue that people do not have a lot of time to read the news. Vox makes it so you could read one article and understand the entire issue. Right now, I open up Snapchat and CNN, the Wall Street Journal, ESPN and BuzzFeed all have a Snapchat with different stories that they have curated and produced specifically for people on Snapchat. They keep people interested because of their interactiveness and visual nature. All of the news outlets now have their own Twitter accounts and are constantly tweeting breaking news so people can see it instantly. Because of the Internet, the news cycle is constant and Twitter caters perfectly to that constant nature. The goal of news organizations is to keep people engaged and reading – and the Internet had helped that. Although the newspaper business is not as booming as it once was, its shortcomings have forced journalists to think outside of the box and to find new ways to inform and captivate audiences. This is an opportunity for young journalists to get creative with technology and take advantage of everything that it has to offer.Imajica is a fantasy novel by British author Clive Barker. Barker names it as his favourite of all his writings.[1] The work, 824 pages at its first printing in 1991, chronicles the events surrounding the reconciliation of Earth, called the Fifth Dominion, with the other four Dominions, parallel worlds unknown to all but a select few of Earth's inhabitants. Considered wide in scope, elaborate in its imagery, and meticulous in its detail, the novel covers themes such as God, sex, love, gender and death. Plot introduction [ edit ] Conception [ edit ] The inspiration and many of the ideas for Imajica came to Clive Barker in dreams, and so inspired, he worked at an intense pace to complete the novel. Barker has stated he wrote the novel in fourteen months; writing fourteen to sixteen hours a day, seven days a week. Back
affective and cognitive empathy. Neuroimage 43, 571–580. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.08.014 PubMed Abstract \| CrossRef Full Text \| Google Scholar Singer, T., Seymour, B., O’Doherty, J., Kaube, H., Dolan, R. J., and Frith, C. D. (2004). Empathy for pain involves the affective but not the sensory components of pain. Science 303, 1157–1161. doi: 10.1126/science.1093535 PubMed Abstract \| CrossRef Full Text \| Google Scholar Szycik, G. R., Mohammadi, B., and Hake, M. (2016). Excessive users of violent video games do not show emotional desensitization: an fMRI study. Brain Imaging Behav. doi: 10.1007/s11682-016-9549-y [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed Abstract \| CrossRef Full Text \| Google Scholar Szycik, G. R., Mohammadi, B., Münte, T. F., and Wildt, B. T. (2017). Lack of evidence that neural empathic responses are blunted in excessive users of violent video games: an fMRI study. Front. Psychol. 8:174. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00174 PubMed Abstract \| CrossRef Full Text \| Google Scholar Wang, Y., Mathews, V. P., Kalnin, A. J., Mosier, K. M., Dunn, D. W., and Saykin, A. J. (2009). Short term exposure to a violent video game induces changes in frontolimbic circuitry in adolescents. Brain Imaging Behav. 3, 38–50. doi: 10.1007/s11682-008-9058-8 CrossRef Full Text \| Google Scholar Zhang, F. B., Dong, Y., Wang, L., Chan, C. Y., and Xie, L. F. (2010). Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index-C. Chin. J. Clin. Psychol. 2, 155–157. Google ScholarAs you have read previously, I’ve been sorting and re-reading my comic collection. The other day I found a comic in my pile that made me think of why comics are awesome. That comic is Mr. T and the T Force. Mr. T and the T Force was written and drawn by comic book legend Neal Adams. The comic is about Mr. T trying to clean up the streets. While he’s trying to stop drug dealers, he also tries to make a difference in these dealers lives by showing them there is a way out of the lifestyle. He tells them about hard work and getting an education. When he helps someone, he attaches a watch to their wrist that also doubles as a communication device. Mr. T can talk to his new “T Force” member, and locate them any time, any where. The T Force all work together to make this world a better place. It’s a great idea, isn’t it? The reason why comics are awesome is because this is the only place we’ll ever get to see Mr. T in action again. I can’t see this idea ever being picked up for a TV show or movie. Actually, I can’t ever see it being picked up for an animated series either. Nobody would ever watch it. But with comic books we get to see something we would never see anywhere else. Comic books are cheap to create, compared to television shows and movies. In a comic, you can have your story take place in any environment. If you want it to take place in outer space, you can. Downtown Detroit… no problem. Special effects are easy to do in a comic as well. All you have to do is draw it. You can have as many explosions or car chases as you want, and you don’t have to worry about the safety of actors or the physics behind the special effects. If you have a great idea, it is easier to make a comic book about it rather than a tv show or movie. With a comic book, you can approach the publishers with your idea. If they like it, it will be made. If you can’t get anybody to “green-light” your idea, and you are still passionate about it, you can self publish your comic series. If it isn’t successful, you can quit publishing the books at anytime. If that same idea was to be turned into a television show, you still have to approach producers, but there are more people you need to talk to to get your idea approved. You need a pilot, distribution deal, and several shows already made before it ever hits the airwaves. There is a lot of cost involved to do this. If it isn’t successful and needs to be cancelled, you’ve already invested a bunch of money into the show. Comic books can also serve as a sequel or continue the story of some of your favourite television shows or movies. One of my current favourites is IDW’s Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters follows the movie continuity. In the last couple issues, events from Ghostbusters 1 and 2 have been referenced in the comic books. Ghostbusters 3 has been in development hell for years. If it never comes out, this is the closest thing we have to a sequel. We don’t have to worry about the actors getting older. They can be drawn any way the artists want, forever. Several years ago there was a Ghostbusters comic come out called Ghostbusters: The Other Side. This comic showed the Ghostbusters being killed by a group of ghostly-gangsters. The Ghostbusters then went to purgatory and had to find a way back. It was only a four issue story arc. The idea of the Ghostbusters dying and coming back from the dead seems far fetched, even for a Ghostbusters comic. But with comics, creators can take chances. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, it can be forgotten really easy. If you haven’t looked before, check out the back issues or trade racks at your local comic shop. There is a good chance you will find some of your favourite television and movie characters in comic book format. Some of my favourites I have picked up have been Snake Plissken, Army of Darkness, Indiana Jones and Sledge Hammer!. That’s right Sledge Hammer! Back in the 80’s Marvel came out with a 2 issue mini-series about Sledge Hammer! Sledge Hammer was one of my favourite TV shows in the 80’s. It was a comedy series about an ultra-violent police officer, who loved his gun more than anything else. It was a great show and this 2 issue series is just a different take on a character I like. It’s something that could only be accomplished in a comic.In August 2014, The Guardian journalist, Giles Fraser, criticised Richard Dawkins for sympathising with eugenics. Dawkins’ most enthusiastic endorsement came in 2006, when he suggested that with Hitler long gone, we could now reconsider the role of eugenics in society: “If you can breed cattle for milk yield, horses for running speed, and dogs for herding skill, why on Earth should it be impossible to breed humans for mathematical, musical or athletic ability?” (The Guardian, 29 August 2014) Dawkins, author of the bestselling The God Delusion (2006), is a renowned atheist. In response to Dawkins’ ‘humanistic’ eugenic ideas, Fraser compared them with a ‘religious’ outlook: “The humanist attack on religion is that religion often places human flourishing second in its cosmological order of importance, and that this leads to human beings losing out to divine command. […] [M]any humanists also place the category ‘human’ quite a long way down their order of importance, with things such as rationality or choice or the avoidance of pain being deemed of greater significance. Human life can thus be easily traded away in some utilitarian calculation. It so happens that, when it comes to eugenics, religion has a much better track record at defending the human than science or leftwing progressives.” (The Guardian, 29 August 2014) Here one may assume the comparison with ‘religion’ (in its broadest sense) intends to undermine Dawkins’ overtly rational approach and endorsement of eugenics. However, there is also an assumed divide between the scientific/humanist – and sometimes eugenic – worldview and that of ‘religion’. Are ‘secular’ eugenics and ‘religion’ (or for the sake of argument, Christianity) two incompatible approaches? Arguably eugenics is the belief in the use of practical measures – be it extermination, selective breeding, pre- and post-natal healthcare etc. – to further human evolution. Thus, we should also ask, does one’s belief in God prevent the belief in evolution? One of the most radical eugenicists in the British movement was E.W. Barnes, the Bishop of Birmingham from 1924-1953. Interestingly, Barnes – along with others in the Christian Modernist movement – wished to reconcile Anglicanism with the doctrine of evolution.Thanks to his acceptance of evolution and particularly Mendel’s theories of heredity, Barnes, a religious leader, was able to become a leading eugenicist alongside his career in the Church. The same year as he became Bishop, Barnes joined the British Eugenics Society. In the 1930 lecture, titled ‘God and the Gene’, Barnes gave a useful overview of his brand of ‘Christian eugenics’: “by struggling against evil and adverse circumstances, man’s moral and spiritual faculties have been sharpened; and the individual who emerges most successfully from such a struggle is best fitted to lead the race on a little nearer to the perfect ideal of social organisation which the Christian terms the Kingdom of God. […] In the stage of civilised progress which we have now reached, it is, in particular, our duty as a race to eliminate mental defect. […] We regard measures to improve the quality of the race as a service to God” (Barnes, ‘God and the Gene’, 7 November 1930). This was contrary to more ‘traditional’ Christian approaches at the time, in which the pious strove not to eliminate the ‘poor’ and ‘downtrodden’ from the population, but care for and protect them. After the Second World War, Barnes preached the need to introduce sterilization and euthanasia of the ‘feebleminded’ (or ‘mentally deficient’) into the newly created Welfare State: “fairly often we hear of a child being born pitiably defective in mind or body and of the parent’s relief when it dies. I am convinced that in such cases early euthanasia should be permitted under proper safeguards. […] Equally, from the Christian standpoint, as I see the matter, there is no objection to medically controlled sterilisation.” (‘Euthanasia and Sterilisation,’ 21 May 1945). Curiously, his main downfall in garnering public support was not from opposing religious figures, but the association of such ideas with the recently defeated Nazi Germany. Is Dawkins correct in suggesting that over 60 years on it is time to rethink the popular revulsion of eugenics? Should religious leaders be encouraged to engage in open dialogue on the subject? Despite one being a religious leader and the other an outspoken atheist, Barnes and Dawkins have much in common. Above all, they agree first, in the existence of superior and inferior traits in humanity, and second, that eugenic improvement is morally commendable. In his article, Fraser disagreed: “Morally, the category of the human ought to be entirely indivisible: all being of equal worth, irrespective of wealth, colour, class, ability, Some people are better at sports or sums, but nobody is better at being human, neither are there better sorts of human beings.” (The Guardian, 29 August 2014) Is this position likely to be that adopted by society in general? As new genetic technologies emerge, will human enhancement become increasingly desirable? Will they be associated with Hitler and the Holocaust or the future of humanity? References: Giles Fraser, ‘Nobody is better at being human, Professor Dawkins, least of all you,’ The Guardian (29 August 2014), [http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2014/aug/29/nobody-better-at-being-human-richard-dawkins]. Ernest W. Barnes, ‘God and the Gene’, 7 November 1930, The Papers of E.W. Barnes, 12/1/456, Special Collections Department, University of Birmingham. -. ‘Welfare and Population’, The Eugenics Review 42, 2 (July 1950), 94. ‘Euthanasia and Sterilisation’, The Manchester Guardian (21 May 1945), 3.Recently, a newly formed group in Japan announced the “pro licenses” for specific players to get around Japan’s strict gambling laws. If you don’t know, tournaments in Japan cannot issue cash prizes that come from entry fees like in the West. Most people were excited that this system meant the potential for cash prizes in Japan, but Momochi shared some other thoughts. Maybe not too interesting if you’re not connected to the Japanese scene, but whatever. In Regards To the Japanese Pro-Gamer License System Original Article (Japanese) This article is for everyone who always is supporting my life as a pro-gamer as well as my partner, Choco. For all of you who support us like we are family, these are my thoughts. I’ve always been bad with crowds, and in regards to this matter as well, I’m not thinking to just, “discuss with my fellow pro-gamers and come up with a strategy,” or, “to match what everyone else is doing.” Rather, I think that I should “express my own personal opinion first.” This is what I feel is the most sincere thing to do for all of you, and what I think is the action I must take as a pro-gamer. Therefore, what I will write here is my opinion and mine alone; this does not reflect the views of anyone around me, gamers, or the community. With this opportunity, please allow me to share my opinion with all of you on the current system as the pro-gamer and Shinobism representative, “Momochi”. -My Opinion- First of all, I would like to say that I am not completely against the idea of a license system. Since the beginning, there have been times where we’ve struggled to define, “what is a pro-gamer?” I am also hoping that the we can make progress on this discussion and eventually reach a clear definition. However, there are a few points I am concerned about… “Why does a newly formed specialized group have the right to “define what a pro-gamer is?”” Up until now, we have been exploring for a solution to that definition by ourselves, and even now as we continue to search, we are met with people who just think, “Who are you guys? Are you just a group that likes games?” What I wish for everyone to think about, is exactly who was it that built and raised the merit of a “pro-gamer” in Japan. The things called “games” in Japan have gotten big because of the initiative of all the communities that dot the entire country. With those communities supporting us, we were able to perform and work as pro-gamers; but I think the fact that we are even respected as professionals is because of the power of the “community” and “all of the players.” Therefore, to ignore the people who one-by-one built up the value of a “pro-gamer” in Japan, decide on the “License System” in some unknown conference room, then come out and arbitrarily make an announcement to the community and players… I feel like this way of doing things is in no way sincere, and it is difficult to feel any sort of affection for games or the people involved. -Who Are The Licenses For?- In this regard, I would also like to hear everyone’s thoughts. For me personally, I think the initiative to turn things into a business is not a completely bad idea. That is because things that don’t become businesses are things “that will probably disappear someday,” in my opinion. Community run events as well- in Japan these events have traditionally been handled on a volunteer basis by players who have other jobs. The result of this is that the games and communities have grown big and lively, but there still isn’t a system for the organizers to properly earn money and compensate others for their work. I think there needs to be a change in the way money is spread, or maybe in the entire structure itself; which I think requires us to venture at raising our social status and merit as gamers. Therefore, I think we should not be against this licensing initiative itself. However, at the same time we need to think about “who wants this License System?” and, “whose sake is this for?” Will the players really be happy with a system like this? Or is this just “a plan for those seeking to make a system in order to one-sidedly gain something?” If this system is something that prioritizes “the creators own desires and self-interests” over “games themselves;” if this is something that deceives players with songs about a bright future while ignoring the voices of the community and players…then to prevent those people from acting as a government tool and taking advantage of our community, I am here and prepared to fight. I think that one should always be listening to the voices of the community; and for me personally, who is allowed to act as a pro-gamer and interact with game communities around the world, I think I have a duty to always be considerate and never act in bad faith towards each and every person. I feel that this license should be something that is for the sake of everyone and should be endorsed by the players themselves, therefore I think it is with the utmost important that we first discuss everything together as a group. -What Is a Pro-Gamer?- I wrote, “we still haven’t found an answer to this definition;” but currently, even with just the VIK system (no cash prizes, only goods/objects) there are players who are called “pro-gamers” and I feel like the definition of a pro-gamer is changing along with the times. I also felt one of these changes in the current talk of the pro-license If you don’t have a pro-license, does that make you not a “pro-gamer?” Does just having a license making you a pro-gamer? How do you all feel about this? And what kind of future do you imagine? There is also a possibility that even with this license, only a very small fraction “specialized pros” will be able to earn an income.. Furthermore, a pro-gamer is just one part of the many groups that are involved with games. Now in the game I play, Street Fighter V, there are many players who are not professionals but are just as strong as the pro-gamers. Thinking like this, there is a likelihood that this this system will just create an ambiguous boundary between the groups. Furthermore, while there are some people who are happy about the idea of “tournaments with cash prizes;” we know nothing about the frequency, amount, or scope of these events, so we can’t say anything it. -A Pro-Gamer’s Duty- To change the subject, we pro-gamers have been performing our roles all the while searching for various answers. One of these pro-gamers is my partner Choco, and I think it very important to think about her when discussing the definition of a pro-gamer. Choco is not a player who has her name listed on the top of the world rankings. She has been working on public relations for games even outside of the fighting game genre, invigorating the gaming community as a whole, appearing in media and events, and so on. Through these activities, she has a role of publicizing and sharing information of the gaming community to those in the outside world. I think this is also one style of a pro-gamer. Winning your matches, gaining world championships, using your prize money to survive… I think being a pro-gamer is not just about being the strongest. Aren’t those who are compensated to perform their duties and and work to expand the possibilities of the community we live in also fine pro-gamers? -About Shinobism- We started a company called Shinobism that handles duties such as hosting events and training the next generation. Of course this was something that we wanted to do as individuals, but I think this is also something we are doing as pro-gamers. However, there are times where I think this goes against the nature of pro-gamer. I think some people might look and say “you should be focusing more on games”, while others might say, “pro-gamers shouldn’t be making companies or raising the next generation in the first place.” But to me, I think that having various types of pro-gamers is a good thing, and we are the embodiment of just one style of those “various types.” But on the other side, you can also say this is because the industry is still not mature. When those who are unfamiliar with games hear the word pro-gamer, I think they tend to imagine “strength” and “results” as what defines a “pro.” In particular, many people are most interested in hearing how many thousands of dollars we’ve won in prize money. But to get into detail, I think pro-gamers have a side determined by public opinion; so things like popularity, personality, charisma, and so on are also necessary. However, for me personally, there has not been a single moment in my life where the thought of, “for the sake of money”, has overtaken the thought of, “I want to win against this opponent in front of me.” Even when I won the World Championship, I was able to fight with all of my might out of a single-minded desire to be “the best at that moment.” I think such a way of thinking might be a characteristic of Japanese players; but even so, I will not change from here on out and continue to act as a pro with that mindset, putting on matches for everyone watching that I won’t be ashamed about. In the future, if the business world steps in and the market in Japan matures, then players without strength or results may end up getting left behind…or they may not. However, I think either result is fine. “At this very moment I want to properly perform my duty,” is how I always approach my matches. For this reason, the point I want to get across is: “Becoming a pro-gamer is not the goal.” In the end, what’s important is “after” becoming a pro-gamer. As I mentioned before, every single player involved with games is different. Out of those, the ones with the role of “pro-gamer” need to be absolutely certain about, “what it is they want to accomplish as a pro.” That is more important than anything else. Become #1 in the world; make money through gaming; become famous. There are a lot of different motivations, and I think that’s a good thing. In addition, you must answer those who cheer for you, give you work as a pro, and support your activities by putting on good matches. And then, as much as possible, speak properly and take your behavior into consideration. Also do not set up a strange wall between yourself and the community, but instead get close and lend them your ear. Always pay respect to your opponents. These aren’t written down anywhere, but all of these things, as well as our thoughts, our history up until now and from here on out; whether or not these can be summarized and defined by this License System, I am here now saying that it cannot. -Conclusion- Generally, I don’t write long articles like this so it took me days to compile my thoughts, but thank you for reading this. I am not completely against the idea of a license system, but in the end I firmly believe in, “walking forward on the path you believed in, together with the community.” In regard to the license system, I agree with and welcome the points where it will define what a pro-gamer is and help bring excitement to the scene. However, if I cannot sense affection or vision towards gaming, or respect towards the players and communities, then as someone who has bet his whole life on gaming (not as a pro-gamer; but as Yusuke Momochi, the person) I cannot ignore this. In the future, if we have the chance to reach common ground on this system, and there’s a way for us to work together, I would like for it to be decided after coming to an understanding. But in any case, what I want to say now is that I don’t want “to get carried away one way or another in a big stream.” People are only talking about tournaments with prize money; before that we need to discuss the problems at the core- that while discussing and planning the regulations in Japan, the people in charge left out discussion about the “players” and “community.” Nevertheless, this current state of industry in this country shows that the one sided way of doing things has led to, “esports in Japan not flourishing.” Therefore, I am hoping that both parties can meet halfway, and together we can create a brighter future. AdvertisementsJERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel has declared a unilateral cease-fire in the fighting in Gaza beginning at 2 a.m. Sunday (7 p.m. ET Saturday), Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said. A man escapes after an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza on Saturday. "Hamas has been dealt a very serious blow," Olmert said. "We can say that the conditions have been brought about that enable us to say that the aims that we laid down for the operation have been completely achieved." Yet Israel is prepared to respond if Hamas militants continue fighting in the Palestinian territory, Olmert said. "If foes decide to continue to fight against us, then we will be ready and we shall consider ourselves justified in replying," he said. "I do not suggest that Hamas or other terrorist organizations try us." Immediate Palestinian response to Olmert's announcement was pessimistic. Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator involved in diplomatic talks on the conflict, noted that Olmert did not say Israeli troops would be leaving Gaza. "I'm afraid this means the cease-fire will not stand; it will break," Erakat told CNN International. "Anybody can fire a shot now.... It's a very fragile moment." The announcement followed a Cabinet meeting Saturday meant to vote on the basics of a plan that could end fighting in Gaza. It also came a day after Israeli and U.S. diplomats signed an agreement designed to stop arms smuggling into the Palestinian territory through tunnels. Israel launched the offensive in Gaza three weeks ago with the stated intent of stopping rocket fire into southern Israel from Hamas fighters in Gaza. There is mounting international pressure to end the fighting. In a televised speech Saturday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called on Israel to end military operations and withdraw from Gaza. He dismissed the idea of an international force based in Egypt, saying he would "never accept" a foreign presence on Egyptian soil. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also reiterated his call for a cease-fire during a speech before the Lebanese parliament Saturday. "The level of violence in Gaza is unprecedented," the U.N. chief said. "The Israeli aerial and land offensives against Hamas targets are inflicting heavy civilian casualties, widespread destruction and tremendous suffering for the entire region." Watch opinions from the iReport community » The three-week conflict has killed 1,203 people in Gaza and injured more than 5,000 more, many of them Palestinian civilians, according to medical sources in Gaza City. They said 410 children have died. On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and three civilians have been killed and more than 200 soldiers have been wounded since the fighting began, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said Saturday. Fighting continued as the IDF attacked 50 targets between Friday night and Saturday morning, including eight missile-launching sites and 70 tunnels along the Egyptian border. The IDF says the tunnels were being used by Hamas to smuggle weapons into Gaza. Two children were killed in an Israeli artillery attack at a U.N. school north of Gaza City early Saturday. "This yet again illustrates that there is no place safe in the Gaza Strip," said Chris Gunness, a U.N. spokesman, speaking of the attack. "This fighting has to stop, because innocent people, women and children, who are taking refuge in neutral U.N. buildings are discovering that there is nowhere safe." Watch a report on aid shortages to Gaza » Four IDF soldiers were seriously wounded early Saturday by mortar fire in Gaza, according to an IDF statement. Hamas has said a cease-fire alone is not enough. "We are working in every direction so we can achieve our objectives in stopping the aggression, lifting the blockade, opening the crossings, and the compensation of our people and the rebuilding of the Gaza strip," said Hamas delegation spokesman Salah Bardwill. In other diplomatic efforts, the state of Qatar held an emergency summit Friday in an attempt to find a unified Arab voice on Gaza. The meeting brought together several Arab and Muslim leaders, including the presidents of Iran and Syria and the leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal. Friday evening, the U.N. General Assembly voted 142-4 to call on Israel to abide by a January 8 resolution by the U.N. Security Council. The resolution, which called for an immediate cease-fire by both sides in the conflict, had been universally ignored. Israel and the United States were among the countries voting against Friday's effort. CNN's Ben Wedeman, Paula Hancocks, Elise Labott, Caroline Faraj, Mohammed Jamjoom and Arie Bell contributed to this report. All About Hamas • Israel • GazaJREF Swift Blog Understanding Coincidence Many people have a legitimate fear of numbers, equations, and probability. This “math anxiety” keeps much of the lay public from ever willfully learning about mathematics; indeed, ignorance in this regard is often touted. Commonly used phrases like “I’m not a numbers person” and “I hate math” betray that fact that a good portion of society does not understand math and consciously avoids it. Comprehending this deficit and doing something about it should be taken up within our school system; we should engage students with math early, often, and more rigorously. But mathematical illiteracy plays a role in perpetuating not just equation ignorance, but pseudoscience. Not understanding just how much of your life is governed by randomness generates many a fallacious belief about the way that the world works. It should be clearly understood that randomness creates coincidence. That is to say, if there were no coincidences in life, we could speculate that some outside force is controlling the events in our lives. However, with true randomness comes the expectation that coincidences will happen: there will be cancer clusters, your friend will call you just when you were thinking about them, and last night’s dream will have somehow “predicted” the events of the following day. It is with the last example, predictive dreams, which I would like to press on with. With a short lesson in randomness and probability, we can see that so-called predictive dreams (and any other event “too amazing to be a coincidence”) are nothing more than random happenings. You don’t have ESP, it’s not fate, and it’s not magic. “I Dreamt This Would Happen!” The purpose of this example is to show that many pseudoscientific ideas about the way the universe works are driven by a misunderstanding of randomness and probability. While predictive dreams are harmless, I would suspect that this belief characterizes the kind of thinking that underlies pseudosciences like astrology, ESP, and parapsychology. Let’s overcome our math anxiety with a dreaded word problem. Let’s stipulate that the chance of a dream to some extent matching the events of the following day is 1 in 10,000. This means that out of 10,000 dreams, the vast majority, 9,999, will not match any future events. Let’s also assume that having a non-matching dream one night will not affect the dream of the next night, so each night is independent from one another. So given these stipulations, the odds of having a dream that does not match any real life event is 9,999/10,000. When people speak about predictive dreams, it is not as though they have them every night. If this were happening, we might consider it to be more than coincidence. However, anyone who has experienced this phenomenon (myself included) will probably tell you that they do not hit a homerun every night. It is this fact, that an amazingly serendipitous event only happens once in a while, that alludes to chance as the rational explanation. Remembering the odds above, the chance of having a dream that does not match any real life event for two nights in a row will follow the multiplication principle of probabilities, meaning that the probability is (9,999/10,000)(9,999/10,000). Likewise, the probability that you will have a dream that does not predict anything for three nights in a row is (9,999/10,000)(9,999/10,000)*(9,999/10,000). Following this principle, the chance that you will have successive dreams that do not match reality can be expressed as (9,999/10,000)N, where N is the number of nights. As I said above, I don’t think that anyone would say that these predictions are a common occurrence, so let’s consider a time period of one year. The probability that you will have successive dreams every night for a year that do not predict anything would be (9,999/10,0009)365, with N equal to the number of days in a year. This results in a 96.4 percent chance that people who dream every night of a year with not have any predictive dreams. This of course means that over a period of one year, 3.6% of people who dream every night will have at least one dream that matches reality in some way. Consider that for a moment. Even though coincidences like these can drive people to believe in fate, precognition, ESP, etc., using our definition here we can say that these probabilities in large population would produce literally millions of predictive dreams each year! Even if we relax our standards and make a predictive dream a one-in-a-million event, it would still produce thousands upon thousands of predictive dreams each year by chance alone. It’s not magic, it’s not fate, it’s not a spiritual connection with someone else; if there’s a likelihood that something will happen, however small, it is explained by chance alone that it is bound to happen to some people at some time. Look at what happened with the supposedly prophetic Nostradamus. He threw out a claim that had to do with two towers coming down and hundreds of years later something similar happened. Somehow this passes for incredible predictive powers. Knowing what you now know about randomness and large numbers, what do you think the chances are that if I through out a vague claim, something similar to that claim will happen in the next 500 years? Would that be evidence of a magical precognition on my part, or is it just randomness? The same goes for the pseudoscientists who claim to predict natural disasters. Don’t make them famous for saying that they predicted a major earthquake to happen somewhere, there’s a probability that they will guess correctly by chance alone. If they throw out enough random predictions, the statistics say that it is bound to match a few times. What are the Odds? Of course, saying there are odds that you will “predict” some event tomorrow with your dream tonight does not deal with the fact that you seemingly foresaw something. But this too can be dealt with. Consider the fact that what you “see” in your more bizarre dreams never comes true. You never see a great white shark with braces or are suddenly chased down the street by a cheeseburger. Only the things that are already within the realm of possibility have a possibility of happening. Let’s say that you have a dream that your friend will get in a car accident. Given how many car accidents occur, this argument falls to the same reasoning that we dealt with above: in a large population, statistically unlikely events will happen all the time (and car accidents are much more likely than you may think). Fine then, what if you dream that you will finally get that promotion tomorrow specifically at 4:30 PM and it happens? It may seem amazing on its face, but considering that you were most likely already in line for that promotion, have been thinking about it a lot, and that many employers make calls like this near the end of the work day, it is not amazing at all. If you also acknowledge that those who believe in the “power” of predictive dreams are actively seeking events in their day to match their dreams and reinforce their belief, we realize that we have purely random coincidences with a pinch of confirmation bias, nothing more. This active seeking combined with randomness is a death knell for many pseudosciences that rely on math illiteracy (i.e. astrology can be rationally explained away in this view). It boils down to this: unlikely events happen all the time because we live in a random world filled with billions of people. Even when you seemingly predict an event with a dream, we would expect some matches from chance alone. Also, you only predict events that have some prior probability of happening anyway. When you line all of the various probabilities up, a "miraculous" event is bound to happen to someone at sometime. Even one-in-a-trillion events happen to people, it’s just a matter of probability. If “amazing” coincidences like predictive dreams did not ever happen, we could be suspicious about the workings of our world. However, this is not what we see. We see and expect supremely unlikely coincidences to happen through chance alone. Understanding these facts is the first step to thinking probabilistically and therefore more accurately, inoculating you from some of the pseudosciences that prey on these deficiencies. Overcoming your math anxiety will make you a better critical thinker, and trust me, there’s a good chance of that. Examples from this post were adapted from the book “Innumeracy” by John Allen Paulos. Kyle Hill is the newly appointed JREF research fellow specializing in communication research and human information processing. He writes daily at the Science-Based Life blog and you can follow him on Twitter here.You will need to verify this is your email address. We will send you an email with a verification link. 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old days. Back then it was considered rude to be broken up with over the phone, with the worst offense occurring via answering machine. You were broken up with in person. Those were the days of men. Now a guy simply stops speaking to you without warning, leaving you to wonder if he was hit by a bus on his way to meet you or if he left you sitting alone at a bar entirely on purpose and without regard for your feelings. And that’s only if you had plans to see each other again. In today’s dating world, you literally never know if your first, or fifteenth date will be the last time you see or hear from someone. Both are just as likely, percentage wise. I’m of the last generation that will ever remember both. The world with the Internet, and without. But what the generation above me has that I don’t is the fact that they were single, and dating, in the 90s. What was it like? When you made plans with someone, you actually had to show up, as the text flake-out was not a menu item available to you. Maybe people were more cautious about making plans, knowing they’d really have to keep them? Maybe the quality of a night out was improved by people being more selective? Perhaps women were simply stood up more? I want to study this like an anthropologist. It’s baffling, and also I feel like we need to preserve these stories for generations to come. My grandkids (ugh) will be hanging out via video chat (in my day it was the mall) and going to school through virtual reality (I took a bus, like an American). In the future no one will ever leave the house and dating will be determined by algorithm. Let’s make sure to tell future generations just how good we had it, hmm? Entire relationships now take place without the use of the human voice. Texting, the least-warm communications method short of a fire engine’s siren is how we connect to and interact with other human beings. Major decisions, life changes are determined via text. Moving in together, merging bank accounts, divorce, these things can legitimately be decided upon with nothing more than our thumbs, and it’s ruffling my goddamn feathers. It’s also just an illogical way to build up an affinity for someone. I don’t think it’s bragging if I say I can write a decent sentence suitable for texting. I’m not bad at that particular activity. But I don’t think it’s possible to fall in love with me (or even just fall in like with me), through texting alone. But it’s all I’ve got. There was a time in my single life when I was still taking “advice.” I was listening to what other people had to say, following their instructions, because I didn’t want to seem (or even truly be) closed off or stubborn. I still figured anything was worth a shot. A good friend of mine, slightly older and one of the first to really utilize online dating (with success) told me I had to stop the texting and demand that a guy call me. Person-to-person connection and attachment development couldn’t happen via text, voice had to be involved. I resisted, but she was married to a guy she met online, the girl had clout. I went out on a date with a very nice, funny, charming guy, who then texted me nonstop, never really asking to see me again, but not leaving me alone, either. She said I was not to write back to one more text message, I was simply to say: Hey, I’m really busy at work right now. Why don’t you give me a call tonight and we can make plans? And he did! He actually called me on the phone and I heard his voice. This was a triumph, a success. Except for the part where he didn’t know how to speak on the phone very well or even form coherent sentences and it was the worst and most awkward 2:13 of my entire life. We didn’t make any concrete plans, and I never heard from him again, via phone, text, or carrier pigeon. I haven’t asked a man to call me since. This was three years ago. I don’t take advice anymore. I remember when (holy shit that sounds old) the only way you could communicate with your friends if you were not in the same room was via telephone. We lived and died by our phones, and our answering machines. I had the clear kind with the colorful innards and a neon cord. Now dusty relics in the basement of a hoarder, these items were once the primary tools utilized by the unmarried and mating human adult. So was memory, for goodness sake. Count, if you will, the number of phone numbers you currently know by heart. If you can’t get past Mom….Dad, you’ve fallen victim. We’re not currently using our memories, our speaking skills, or our manners. We did in the 90s. And, my goodness, did they meet people naturally back then? Like, out at places? During events that were not specifically and obviously set ups? Can you imagine a buzzyworthy bar back in the 90s? Just picture it! It must have been full of people looking up, for fuck’s sake, paying attention to what was happening in front of them, in the room, rather than a device and 4G connection away, all with a backdrop of 90s alternative/rock (real, not like..The Verve Pipe), playing perfectly above their heads. There were no craft cocktails being over-elaborately shaken by mustached men in vests. There were just shots and beers doled out by tall, dirty-haired men or lipsticked women who took no shit. Did these people know how good they had it? Now house music blares seizure-inducing tones and frequencies as a sea of faces lights up with a light blue glow, as people involve themselves in something fake somewhere else that is more important than something real in the room right now. Did guys actually come up to women and say hi back then? Did they speak to women? Did they have like…pick up lines? How did it all work? If I search my brain, no man has come up to me in public to speak to me within the last five years, apart from the drunk who started yelling at me on New Year’s Eve this past January. That little Napoleon can fuck right off. But in general, men don’t say hi. They don’t send girls drinks from across the room. The only way I can get a guy to say hello to me is via dating app and even then my ratio of matches to hellos is probably 50–1. And climbing. I’m invisible when I go out. The people that invited me remember I’m there, sure, but they’re the only people I talk to. New people don’t happen to me in public. Only online or in business meetings or press previews where everyone is in PR and they’re my friend because they’re being paid to be. I haven’t left a venue knowing someone I didn’t know before since law school. But if this was the 90s, wouldn’t people, guys, have to talk to me? If that was the only way to meet women, short of an inappropriate office romance (because those were inappropriate back then), wouldn’t men need to speak to women in person more often, simply out of necessity? Surely I could beone of those women. And I know what you’re thinking: Shani, the things you want are probably not happening because of you, not because it’s no longer the 90s. Live in the now. And I’m sure you’re right. There’s probably something inherently terrible about me that’s preventing men from saying hello. Friends and colleagues have often referred to me as intimidating, but I don’t know what that means, apart from “not an airhead.” Women are more successful and independent today than they’ve ever been but they are still expected to just nod and smile if they want boys to like them. I think from your reading you can gather that the only time I might nod and smile is if someone is offering me a cookie. Apart from that, I engage in actual conversation and have real thoughts and questions and opinions and I don’t hide myself to seem less of myself in order to make people like me. My friends and family like me just fine. I’m assuming one day, one man, might do the same. If anything, it’s a filter, my personality. If I scare or intimidate you, good. Away with you. I have a thing for bravery. Men must have also gone out more often back then in general. Without women. Absent the internet, I bet men left the house more without first being invited out by their friends’ girlfriends or wives, for a “group thing.” I bet single men used to leave the house of their own volition. I bet they went to bars to meet friends and didn’t stay home all the time playing video games that look like real life and watching endless options on Netflix because back then Netflix was a VCR + Blockbuster and video games still had visible pixels. They must have gone out! I bet the whole single world was a pageant of penis back then. Options as far as the colored contact lensed eye could see. Now single women spend an inordinate amount of time asking each other one question, over and over and over: “Where do single guys go?” We simply don’t know. We can’t find them. They’re insects scattering at the flip of a light switch. They’re not at bars, or restaurants. They don’t attend events. I’ve never sat next to one on an airplane and I fly about five times a year. I’m 33 so let’s start at age 18 and that makes 75 flights where I’ve only sat next to rye toast businessmen or girls in college who wear pajamas to the airport. Not a single, single man. Ever. Somewhere along the way we decided to start lying to each other, suggesting we try to meet guys at the grocery store. Some gremlin put a scene like that in a movie and we all decided to take it as gospel because that was a much better story to tell our grandkids. You actually can meet men at the grocery store, but you have to hunt them down, like safari. Today, we turn our lenses to the harshly lit tundra of Whole Foods. It is in this landscape we will attempt to identify and capture a rarely seen species. Good fortune is with us tonight, as it is a Tuesday and a totally illogical night of the week to grocery shop. We have no doubt we’ll have sightings, our hunting grounds should be rich. Here, in the pre-cut fruit section, we see an adult male of the tribe in pursuit of sustenance. The least-skilled of the herd at this particular task, and prone to depending on others for delivery of food, the unpartnered adult male will often struggle to select proper items for maintaining physical, nutritional health, making him easy to spot. The contents of his cart are the key signs that an adult male is unpartnered, and thus available for capture. Wardrobe is never a guaranteed indicator, often leading to confusion. Food item selection is far more clear, far more indicative. Items will often be frozen, with colorful labels. Deli meats will be pre-packaged, rather than sliced at a counter. Bread will be long and rectangular in shape — never round or freshly baked. A squeeze bottle of something is a good sign. If you see a six pack of an IPA, strike, strike quickly. But we always forget one important thing about meeting men at the grocery store. This is assuming single men are actually, miraculously at the grocery store at the precise time you are, and they’re not “sleepers,” men who walk around with just a handheld basket, rather than a cart, but who you’ll later see are paired up with a woman who herself has a handheld basket, and was just shopping on the other side of the store from her boyfriend to save time. The Bachelorette is coming on, they need to hurry. What we forget is that striking up a conversation in a grocery store is really hard. Inter-aisle eye contact is rare. We’re all looking at items, not each other. The obvious conversation topic, food (or at Whole Foods, price), is not the sexiest one. It’s also hella embarrassing to start talking to a guy at the grocery store. Everyone, literally everyone there knows what you’re up to. So does he. And that’s the best we’ve done. That’s the best hunting ground we’ve come up with since the 90s. The cereal aisle. We’re doomed. The only target-rich environments left live in our phones. Jesus, I’ve heard of more people meeting each other on Instagram these days than in person. So yes, I miss the 90s. When I still listened to music on an actual radio and taped songs as they came on. I had to work for my music collection, rather than simply opening Spotify. Boys asked girls out by passing them notes or like…actually asking. A time when there were no cell phones on dinner tables, no dating apps exposing us to everyone, anyone, on the off chance one of those millions of someones was a person we might like. Ghosting, if it existed, didn’t have a name. Seeing a movie in the theater still cost less than purchasing the DVD of it. Hair was messy and jeans were ripped, but not on purpose. I owned a Caboodle. Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon were the stars of Monday lunch table conversation. The family all shared one computer. There was a little bit of accountability in dating. And all my phone knew how to do was ring.Tiny bits of light Light up in response to vibration 100,000+ flashes per chip, set of 8 Limited only by your imagination Every once in a while, we give you a product that requires a little bit of imagination. Bacon-flavored things? No need for imagination. Highly caffeinated things? No need for imagination. Adorable plush of your favorite characters? No need for imagination. Quantum Bits? You'll have to put on your imagination hat and let us tell you why you'll love 'em. Quantum Bits are little chips with super-bright LEDs inside. They light up in response to vibration and thus far, here's what we've imagined doing with them: Desk Toy: Fun to poke, tap, flick, toss from hand to hand, etc. Fun to poke, tap, flick, toss from hand to hand, etc. Anger Monitor: Place on desk. Will light up when you slam fist on desk. Place on desk. Will light up when you slam fist on desk. Frustration Monitor: Place on desk. Will light up when you slam face on desk. Place on desk. Will light up when you slam face on desk. Runner's Friend: Glue to the backs of your sneakers for nighttime runs. Glue to the backs of your sneakers for nighttime runs. Oontz Oontz Oontz: Put Bits on subwoofer. Turn on tunes. Oooh, trippy. Put Bits on subwoofer. Turn on tunes. Oooh, trippy. Maker's Friend: Integrate them in your creations. Send us pictures! Each set of Quantum Bits comes with eight chips and each chip has a lifetime of 100,000+ flashes. Got any other cool ideas? Mention them in the comments below! Product SpecificationsUpdated at 5:41 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015 with an updated Mayor's Industrial Development Advisory Committee (MIDAC). Updated at 2:36 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015 to include full list of members of Mayor's Industrial Development Advisory Committee (MIDAC). HOLYOKE -- Ensuring that a pipeline of skilled workers flows to meet manufacturers' needs is the focus of the new chairman of a board that advises the mayor, he said Tuesday (Aug. 25). "Just as many manufacturing companies have had to adapt to the changing economy, I think we have to take a close look at how industrialists engage with the city, our schools and other community partners to be more proactive in meeting our workforce development needs," said Steven Grande, president of Meridian Industrial Group here. Meridian Industrial Group, 529 South East St., provides precision machining to commercial, aerospace and defense customers throughout the United States, including manufacturing of parts for NASA spacecraft, a press release from the mayor's office said. Mayor Alex B. Morse said Grande is the new chairman of the Mayor's Industrial Development Advisory Committee (MIDAC). "For several decades, MIDAC has existed as an advisory advocacy group of manufacturers who meet periodically with the mayor to provide insight and feedback on the needs of the manufacturing community, essentially serving as the primary liaison between the city and local industry," Morse said. Morse has been reviewing the city's work with manufacturers here for more than a year to determine how to improve how the city can help that part of the economy, he said. The challenge is that as a generation of skilled workers retires, competent replacements are needed to ensure manufacturing companies in the Pioneer Valley keep thriving. That involves ensuring that manufacturers work together to determine and meet the community's workforce needs, and that's where Grande comes in, he said. "We are fortunate to have so many leaders in our business community that are invested in the overall success of our city and are willing to devote their time and resources to make Holyoke a better place," Morse said. Grande said a key will be increased involvement with Dean Technical High School, the city's vocational school, as a pipeline for manufacturing jobs. Students there can take courses to become skilled at carpentry, electrical work, welding, machine technology and automotive collision repair, among other areas. "Most importantly, we have to change the overall perception that exists around a career in manufacturing by introducing our youth to all the positive attributes that can come with the job, like high paying salaries and management opportunities," Grande said. Companies, manufacturing or otherwise, that fail to innovate lose relevance fast, he said. "I appreciate the mayor's conscious effort to convene and work with manufacturers in order to better address our needs, and I appreciate the trust he's deposited in me to serve as a liaison to our sector and work towards fulfilling our common goals," Grande said. Grande follows as MIDAC chairman Jim Segalyn, owner of Holyoke Machine Co. Morse praised Segalyn and thanked him for his work on the board, such as efforts to reduce costs of and barriers to doing business and preparing "pad-ready" sites for new development. List of members of Holyoke Mayor's Industrial Development Advisory Committee (MIDAC).How serious is Red Hat about OpenStack? Serious enough that when it announced Red Hat OpenStack Platform 11, the latest version of of its massively scalable and agile Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud, at OpenStack Summit, it based it on February's OpenStack "Ocata" release. Red Hat's love affair with OpenStack continues with enhanced support for upgrades with composable roles, new networking capabilities, and improved integration with Red Hat CloudForms for cloud management. This latest OpenStack distribution delivers a reliable cloud platform built on the proven backbone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Additionally, Red Hat OpenStack Platform 11 maintains its tight integration with Red Hat Ceph Storage. This release moves the combination of Ceph Storage and OpenStack compute node from tech-preview to mature feature. Ceph enables storage mirroring to simplify data replication between sites. This improves disaster recovery functionality. OpenStack enables its users their own private cloud service mix. This makes it easier for enterprises to customize OpenStack deployments to fit specific needs, but it also makes it challenging in upgrade. To address this need, Ocata, and thus, OpenStack Platform 11, now make in-place upgrades much easier. In addition, OpenStack services can now be deployed individually. This enables your DevOps team to place components such as databases, proxies, or messaging services on specific nodes based on your company's unique requirements. So, you can, for example, add customized roles after deployment to a running cloud. As always, networking and network-function virtualization (NFV) support remains a key OpenStack feature. Red Hat OpenStack Platform 11 delivers several new capabilities, designed both for standard networking use cases and telecomms' extreme workload. These new features include: Full support for VLAN-aware virtual machines (VMs), OpenStack-based VMs can now send and receive VLAN encapsulated traffic while being deployed over Open vSwitch (OVS) or OVS Data Plane Development Kit (OVS-DPDK). Additional telecommunications OVS and DPDK provider enhancements provide latest features and functions. This produces increased performance optimizations. One feature, which is unique to Red Hat's OpenStack distribution, is its its integration with Red Hat CloudForms. CloudForms is Red Hat's open hybrid-cloud management solution. This helps run day-to-day management of a Red Hat OpenStack-based cloud. In this update, CloudForms can now control OpenStack regions, multiple domains, and host aggregates for a unified controller view of cloud health and efficiency. Storage management has also been enhanced. Red Hat CloudForms can now perform volume snapshot management functions like creation, listing, and deletion. This release is covered by Red Hat's new varying support life cycle model. Under this model, Red Hat OpenStack Platform 11 will be supported for one year with customers being able to leverage Red Hat's award-winning global support team for help with migrations and upgrades to future versions. This new cloud will be available in the coming weeks via the Red Hat Customer Portal and as a component of the Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure and Red Hat Cloud Suite solutions. While Red Hat also has many partners, it should be noted that with this release, Dell EMC is on board from the start. In a statement, Armughan Ahmad, Dell's senior vice president and general manager of Solutions and Alliances, said, "With the release of OpenStack 11, customers can take advantage ofNFV features, upgrade stability and for the first time Converge node support on Dell EMC servers, leveraging contributions of more than 2,500 developers worldwide. Dell EMC is proud of our long-standing, strategic collaboration with Red Hat to streamline deployment through open hybrid solutions, taking the guesswork out of solution design for customers." Want to know more? Check out Red Hat OpenStack Plarform 11 release notes. Since Ocata was designed to make OpenStack more stable, Red Hat OpenStack users should be sure to take a long, close look at this release. Related StoriesTexas Rangers catcher Chris Gimenez (38) has words with home plate umpire Dale Scott during Game 5 of the ALDS between the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada on Wednesday, October 14, 2015. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News) SURPRISE, Ariz. - Most players have tales of babies, travels and golf to share with teammates upon reporting to spring training. Chris Gimenez had a near-death experience to relate. The short story: While Gimenez was waiting on a highway exit ramp to go workout on the morning of February 1 in his hometown of Reno, Nev., a snow plow on the freeway clipped a drainage gate and kicked the 36-pound piece of iron some 150 feet into the air. It landed on the roof and cross beam of Gimenez's truck. Gimenez heard a noise, but had no idea what had happened until the back window of his truck shattered. "I was in shock," said Gimenez, who was hit in the back of the neck by a few shards of glass but was otherwise unharmed. "I had no idea what it was. I've never been in an accident. I heard what sounded like a gun shot and the next thing I know the window is shattering and I'm ducking and covering. "It was a heck of a way to start the month," he added. "If I survived that, I guess it's going to be my lucky year." The whole incident is a little hard to grasp, so fortunately Gimenez provided photos.We like to keep a laid back attitude here at PressA2Join, but with Halloween right around the corner we decided to reach out to one of our friends at Techland who turn 25 years young this week and decided to have a 100% serious, heartfelt discussion for once about the holiday and what it means to all of us. Please treat this piece with the dignified attitude it deserves. PressA2Join: The Dead Island series and The Dying Light feature thousands upon thousands of undead swarming the player. Where did you find so many actors to do the motion capture for the character models and how long did it take for you to apply make-up to each of them? Techland: We basically dodged all the major employment regulations and just hired the kind of “people” that are cheap but surprisingly effective for what we require. No need for benefits, insurance or even taxes. Win! Was there a lot of field research involved in designing the resort in Dead Island? Did you draw straws to see who was the unfortunate person who had to spend months abroad doing it? Lucky for us we live in wonderful times where Google Images will show you pretty much everything you want. So it was an immense relief when we found out we won’t be going to Fiji, Hawaii or The Seychelles and rather we could just look at images of those places from our desks at the office… How zombie-proof are your headquarters? Walk us through your contingency plan in case of a zombie apocalypse (Imagine the traffic this would net us if this was 2007-2008). We had a plan in place but Health and Safety had “issues” with things like flame pits and machetes stocked piled in every kitchen. Pfft. In all honesty though ditching the contingency plan worked out better for us. We saved some cash (maintaining fire pits is kinda expensive) plus we realised if the zombie apocalypse ever did break out, it would probably be our fault and we’d be patient zero anyway so what’s the point? What became of your ludicrously priced crowdfunding campaigns? Were there any celebrity takers for the highest tiers? Was there anyone in particular you wished would take you up on it? Can you believe nobody took us up on that offer? It’s like the world can’t see a solid investment when it’s staring them right in the face. Deep down though, we all still believe a certain eccentric Australian actor/director is going to be calling us any day now. So if you’re reading this, answer my tweets Gibsy! Will any of the studio be braving this Halloween in outlandish costumes to scare the little kids and the rest of the studio out of their minds? if so, who is likely to make the most effort? Hmm. Well, most of the guys in the marketing assets team have cheap, made-in-China onesie pyjamas which they bought online. So if I was a child and saw 5 adults in horrible, fuzzy pyjamas coming at me then I sure as hell would be scared… Will Techland be doing anything special to celebrate this coming Halloween? Give us some insight into what will most likely happen this year. For the fans of Dying Light we put together a cool community bounty where the Be The Zombie scores will be counted globally. At the end of the weekend, the side with the most wins will be declared the “ultimate predator”. Also, anyone who partakes gets a gold weapon. As for us personally, we’re actually celebrating our 25th birthday this week as a company. So we’re having a big party and counting on a lot of people to dress as something really inappropriate. In your opinion what makes Halloween such a special holiday? It’s the one time of the year you get to dress up like a weirdo and nobody bats an eyelid. Plus free candy. Will you indulge in playing horror games, watch scary films together this Halloween. If so, which ones will most likely get some air time? A lot of us are still loving Until Dawn and Alien: Isolation so expect a few games of that over the weekend. Oh, and a few of us have already agreed we’ll be taking part in the Dying Light Halloween event just so we can skew the numbers in favour of the Night Hunter. As for films, a quick discussion in the room led most of us to realise we need to watch The Babadook and Let Me In based on one person’s recommendation. We hope you all have a blast! Also, the Swedish original upon which Let Me In is based is better. The studio also transformed their Dying Light Community Manager into a walking corpse and shared the results with us via a speedy zombie makeup tutorial that people at home can also use to get that authentic undead look this coming Halloween. Check out the video below.Hello hello everybody! Michael here giving you my card choices for the Community Cube. Very excited to do this as it’s my very first Cube ever and we already have so many awesome picks. I hope you all enjoy mine! I did a video fully explaining my card choices plus the variety of interactions that work with my main card pick. However, if you would rather just take a quick glance at my card choices I have a short list under the video with a quick explanation of my main card and the 5 supplementary cards to go along with it. Let me know what you guys think and thanks for checking them out. Michael’s Community Cube Picks Main pick: Primeval Bounty So many cards work with this card! I’ve always loved getting extra value out of my cards and Primeval Bounty gets that job done. Land flooded? Gain some life to buy some time. Pump your guys up? Here’s some counters to throw in there. Only got a measly 1/1 in your hand? Here’s a free 3/3 token to help you along. Supplementary picks: Garruk’s Packleader – Gain card advantage since every creature’s activating Primeval Bounty‘s 3/3 Token ability which fulfills Garruk’s card draw requirement! Bonus card if the creature your casting already has 3+ power. – Michael YWatch Woolworths get it right with touching Nelson Mandela flashmob tribute Share Woolworths has come through with a truly touching tribute to Nelson Mandela. It organised with the Soweto Gospel Choir to do a flash mob, with singers posing as shoppers and store workers at one of its retail outlets. The world renowned choir breaks into an “impromtu” rendition of Asimbonanga which in English means “We have not seen him”. Here are the lyrics (with the handy English translations): Asimbonanga [we have not seen him] Asimbonang’ uMandela thina [we have not seen Mandela] Laph’ekhona [in the place where he is] Laph’ehleli khona [in the place where he is kept] Asimbonanga Asimbonang ‘umfowethu thina [we have not seen our brother] Laph’ekhona [in the place where he is] Laph’wafela khona [in the place where he died] Sithi: Hey, wena [We say: hey, you] Hey, wena nawe [Hey, you and you] Siyofika nini la’ siyakhona [when will we arrive at our destination] The song was written during Mandela’s incarceration and made famous by Johnny Clegg, and called for the release of Nelson Mandela. Apparently the flash mob was a last minute replacement for something else the retailer had planned. “The plan was to support our 100 Smiles Christmas campaign, with a performance of the Soweto Gospel Choir’s rendition of James’ Brown’s I feel Good,” the company says in an official press release. “The Thursday night rehearsal went well but on Friday, the song could not resonate with any of us. Together with the choir, we decided to transform the performance into a Madiba tribute”. Watch the faces of the other shoppers. Nice move Woolworths… really well done.iOS 10 has been, more or less, a runaway winner among beta testers. Packed in with tons of awesome features, it has the bucks to steal the heart of iPhone users hasn’t it? Despite being thoroughly impressed with iOS 10 features, one thing that I didn’t like initially just like most iPhone users is the sudden disappearance of “Slide to Unlock” feature. Sponsored Links Important Note: This trick worked on iOS 10 Beta 1. It no longer works now. However, you can disable press home to unlock, read more. The option to press the Home button to unlock the device didn’t appear to find favor among many users. If you are also not happy with the new functionality, there is an option to enable the “Slide to Unlock” on your iPhone. Let’s give it go! How to Enable “Slide to Unlock” Feature in iOS 10 on iPhone/iPad Step #1. Starting off, you need to take a backup of your iPhone using iTunes. The backup must be unencrypted. Step #2. Next, you have to download and install iBackupBot on your Mac/Windows. Sponsored Links Step #3. Now, launch iBackupBot and select your backup. Step #4. On the sidebar, you need to open /System Files/Home Domain/Library/Preferences. Step #5. Then, you have to double click to open com.apple.springboard.plist. Step #6. Up next, you will have to add the following two lines in it after the header information. Sponsored Links <key>SBEnableDashBoard</key> <false/> Step #7. Save the file. Step #8. Finally, close iBackupBot and restore a backup from iTunes. Sponsored Links (Due to a bug in iBackBot, the restoring of a single file to your device seems to be problematic. To ensure the problem doesn’t come in the way or prevent the process, the restore should be done in iTunes. ) Step #9. Once the process is completed successfully, iPhone will reboot. Once it has restarted, “Slide to unlock” will be back on your device. That’s it! Take a look at the video walkthrough Sponsored Links Video Credit: Billy Ellis Among several all new changes and features that have arrived in iOS 10, the one feature which I like most is Low-Quality Image Mode. Once you have enabled this feature on your iOS device, it will not just let you conserve a lot of mobile data but also battery on your device. Like this article? Let us know in the comments, on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus.Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of posts about chanterelle hunting in North Carolina. Chanterelle hunting season will likely kick off in a few weeks’ time, when we have some days that are consistently in the mid-80s and our nights are warm and humid…and when all my rain dances pay off. By the time we’re seeing frequent afternoon thunderstorms and that lovely, sticky, sweaty weather I’ve come to ADORE in North Carolina’s mushroom-rich Piedmont region, these delicious and fun-to-find mushrooms should be plentiful enough for everyone to get a taste of the delights of chanterelle hunting! This post is designed to give you a sense of what indicator species, habitat conditions, and other clues to look for when scouting for chanterelle hunting grounds. Many of these indicators also work for other delicious North Carolina edible wild mushrooms, including hedgehog mushrooms, black trumpet mushrooms, indigo milky caps, and chicken of the woods, all of which start to appear in the late spring and early summer in these parts. Just a quick point of clarification: these indicator species and landscape features seem to be ideal for the eastern U.S. chanterelle mushroom that used to be called Cantharellus cibarius (which is currently without a name and might in fact represent more than one species), the smooth chanterelle, Cantharellus lateritius, and the even smoother chanterelle, Cantharellus confluens. If you want to back up a bit and read about some of the yellow-gold chanterelle species that grow in North Carolina and other eastern states, cinnabar red chanterelles, edible Craterellus mushrooms that are related to chanterelles, and chanterelle mushroom lookalikes, check out my previous posts on those subjects. Yours In Fungal Fancy, Mushroom Anna NC Chanterelle Hunting Tips Fortunately for the fungally inclined, North Carolina’s Piedmont is home to thousands of different wild mushroom species, well over 100 of which are considered edible. For my money, many of the edible mushrooms are not choice, and this distinction is something I always try to impress on people who are new to mushroom hunting and other pursuits in foraging. Just because you CAN eat it doesn’t mean you’ll ENJOY eating it. However, chanterelle hunting is an amazing outlet for the culinarily inclined forager, because they are spectacularly common in North Carolina and their season tends to be bountiful and long. When you stack chanterelle hunting up against, say, morel hunting, you’re bound to have a longer period of time in which to get your fix of mushroom hunting, and sooner or later it’s inevitable that you’ll hit paydirt. There are a few factors to watch out for in your environment that help foragers enjoy success while chanterelle hunting in and around North Carolina. Here are some of the habitat conditions, indicator species, and the general vibe of good chanterelle hunting prospects. Chanterelle Lifestyle Notes The chanterelles that grow in North Carolina are thought to be predominantly mycorrhizal, and as such they live in association with trees and plants. Much research remains to be done on the subject of North Carolina chanterelles, and dedicated mycologists are working hard on determining whether or not NC’s Cantharellus cibarius-like chanterelles act as decomposers, consuming dead organic material. I think it entirely possible that these chanterelles have a blended lifestyle, both partnering with the vegetation and decomposing debris. If NC’s chanterelles are indeed at least partially mycorrhizal (which I am convinced they are), you can look for the trees they tend to grow around as a guide when you’re chanterelle hunting. The mycorrhizal relationships between fungi and plants is a mutually beneficial one, where each organism is getting a slice of the ecological pie, so to speak. The chanterelle mushroom mycelium attaches itself to the root system of a plant or tree, and grows a fine network of fungal cells that shield the plant’s roots. In many cases, this imparts immune protection to the plant or tree partner. Many species of fungi, including chanterelles, tend to have killer immune systems because mycelium is very permeable and sensitive to threats in its habitat. Because it is only one cell wall thick and is a grand banquet for bugs, bacteria, and other fungi, mycelium is constantly producing antibacterial, antimicrobial, and other chemical cocktails that keep unwanted visitors at bay
like the bus or Métro – for whatever reason – may prefer to take the tram. It’ll find a clique of public transit users, and doubtless encourage new riders to commit to public transit. Most importantly, a new tram system, on certain streets, may be more efficient if the tram didn’t have to share the road with regular automobile traffic. In other words, what if we re-designed major urban thoroughfares to be pedestrian/bike/tram only? I can imagine the perennial call to make Ste-Catherine’s a pedestrian mall would gain more traction if high-capacity trams ran down its centre. What can I say? Shouldn’t this be a major local political issue? I’d like to see an election where at least one party had a sustainable tram-development plan, especially one financed by the city directly, so we’re not sitting around playing with ourselves while we wait for federal or provincial grants. What do you think of the state of our public transit system?MEXICO CITY -- Soccer fans at Mexico's Azteca Stadium loudly booed the United States national anthem when it was played moments before the start of Sunday night's World Cup qualifier between the two countries. The U.S. went on to earn an important 1-1 draw against Mexico in the match, with Michael Bradley scoring a stunning goal for his team to put them ahead briefly in the opening minutes. Thousands of supporters at the stadium in Mexico City whistled and jeered as the Star-Spangled Banner played over the stadium sound system, with most of the crowd refusing to stand. The match was a critical one for the USA, which had endured a shaky start to the final round of World Cup qualifying in the CONCACAF region. Contrary to before the last time the teams met, in Columbus, Ohio, in November, the squads lined up separately for ceremonial photos. In Columbus, they bucked tradition by posing for a pregame "unity" photo.A national survey of the nation's nurses shows they don't think hospitals are prepared to handle the Ebola virus. WASHINGTON — A national survey of the nation’s nurses shows they don’t think hospitals are prepared to handle the Ebola virus. Eighty percent of nurses say their hospitals haven’t communicated any policy for handling potential Ebola admissions, according to the nation’s largest nurses’ union, National Nurses United. “Respondents to the survey from all across the U.S. are telling us, just like I’m seeing, the hospitals are not changing what they’re doing and the preparedness is not getting through to the front line caregivers,” said Stephen Frum, chief shop steward at Medstar Washington Hospital Center. A Medstar Washington Hospital Center has provided infection control training and education since July. And those efforts have redoubled since the diagnosed case in Dallas, says Dr. Bill Frohna, chairman of the hospital’s Department of Emergency Medicine. And during the weekend, staff in his department received in-service training on the topic. “Our nurses probably are more well-prepared than they believe,” Frohna says. National Nurses United says it’s calling for the nation’s hospitals to upgrade emergency preparations because of what happened when the only person diagnosed with Ebola on U.S. soil sought help in Dallas. The Dallas hospital initially failed to hospitalize the Ebola-infected patient and didn’t properly communicate essential information to caregivers about his health status, the union said. “I’m trying to put myself in the place of someone who’s going to deliver this care,” says clinical nurse Frum, sounding frustrated as he details what he sees as Ebola preparedness deficiencies at Medstar which is D.C.’s largest hospital. “I’m not really able to articulate because my employer hasn’t laid out ‘Here’s how we’re going to do it on this unit. Here’s where the supplies are going to be. Here’s a chart showing what you’re supposed to do with all these things,'” Frum said. Frohna says the hospital is equipped and ready to respond to an Ebola patient. The hospital and nurses have been employing infection control practices for decades – standards that were rolled out to battle the H1N1 flu virus, MERS, SARS and even tuberculosis in recent years, he says. Masks are available to any patient who enters the ER, signs in multiple languages direct patients to tell staff if they have traveled to West Africa and the hospital has enough gear to protect staff from the deadly virus, Frohna says. Although the emergency room staff will be on the front lines of detection and infection control, Frohna says training and educational programs are being doled out through the hospital, which is staffed by as many as 2,000 nurses. Some of the survey results of 700 registered nurses at more than 250 hospitals in 31 states: 87 percent have not received Ebola education that allows nurses to interact and ask questions. 80 percent have failed to receive from their hospitals any policy regarding admission of potential Ebola patients. Nearly 40 percent say their hospitals don’t have plans to get rid of used linens or plans to equip isolation rooms with plastic covered mattresses and pillows. One-third say their hospitals don’t have enough protective gear such as face shields, side shields with goggles, fluid resistant or impermeable gowns. The issue of Ebola training has come up at the bargaining table during contract negotiations at Medstar, Reuters reports. Staffing is an issue raised by both shop steward Frum and the union for hospitals to have what the union considers appropriate emergency preparedness plans for Ebola or other outbreaks. NNU suggests all U.S. hospitals have the following: Sufficient staffing to accommodate the potential need for health workers to care for patients in isolation. Properly equipped isolation rooms. Adequate supplies on hand of personal protective equipment and hazardous materials suits. Full training of all hospital personnel to include specified protocols and training materials for responding to outbreaks. Speaking for the union, Frumm says a uniform standard coordinated across the country is necessary because hospital chains owned by competing independent companies nationwide don’t have to follow suggestions from the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention. “Our point is not to alarm anyone. There’s no reason to panic. What we’re calling for is readiness,” said Frum. Follow @WTOP and @WTOPliving on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook.The Islamic State (Isis) terrorists have beheaded a noted Palmyra historian and archaeologist, Khaled Asaad. He was arrested a month ago. Isis reportedly arrested Asaad for his role in moving valuable statues out of Palmyra before the terrorist group took over the UNESCO heritage site in May. By removing hundreds of statues and artifacts out of the city on time, Asaad ensured that they were safe from being destroyed by Isis. Isis militants after beheading the 82-year old head of Palmyra archaeological department, put his decapitated body on the streets of Tadmur. Isis also hung a board over his body detailing his crime of being a traitor, who colluded with the Syrian army. Asaad, who is known for his scholarly work, had worked for the last 50 years assisting US, French, German and Swiss archaeological missions in Palmyra. Syrian state antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim confirmed to media the family of Khaled Asaad was executed on Monday. His body was left on the streets for the last two days. It is believed that Isis was angry at Asaad for assisting the Syrian forces in moving the "valuable statues" out of the city of Tadmur. Isis captured the 2,000 years old UNESCO heritage on 21 May and since then, there has been much concern over the safety of the ancient site. In recent months, Isis has carried out several beheadings in the ancient city. In July, 25 Assad-loyal soldiers were shot and killed by teenagers, who were part of Isis. In July, on the eve of Eid ul Fitr, Isis used a child to behead a Syria Army captain.After tracking down the seemingly deceased Reaper, Flags came across a Talon base and somehow, although how is unknown, saw Reaper's face. After that Flags' changed and became a ruthless vigilante, much like Soldier: 76. After the Crisis, the most recent versions were civilized and the latest one joined Overwatch and soon became head of the Security Department. When Blackwatch was revealed, he was shocked by their actions and pre-maturely left Overwatch before it's downfall. The F.L.A.G.S unit was designed by american war veteran Keff Japlan a few years prior to the Crisis. After getting manufactured, they turned against humans and were one of the most intelligent omnic enemies with outstanding AI that makes them equally outstanding tacticians. Design Appearance Flags is an omnic with light gray metal plates and gray machinery that sometimes is exposed. the face plate features two small vertical lights (eyes) and a jaw-line line running through, which the lower one is blue. The Omnic has three dots on the head that glow light blue. The gray machinery extends from the back of the head to the neck. There is also a red tube coming from the back of the head and connecting to the neck. Flags wears combat gear that is blue with red details and an american flag on the chest. The right hand is connected (via. magnets) with a white gatling gun that has blue barrels. He also wears cargo pants with ammo chains hanging out of them. Last but not least he wears black boots. Visuals Flags was heavily inspired by three main concepts, firstly being a soldier coming out of war, an unmentioned Omnic character shown in the "Are you with me?" Trailer in one of the pictures shaking hands with an older guy (probably some Petras guy) with other fellow Overwatch members, and lastly the Heavy from TF2. As there is no drastically buffing heroes or heroes with weapons that gain higher fire rate over time, this would change a tide of a game drastically if used right. It could be used in the last second to victory. The "soldier coming out of war" inspiration leads to him partly changing his personality because of what he has seen, unmentioned part of the Bio is that he also regrets all the lives he has taken as an Overwatch member and overall. The unnamed Omnic inspired the appearance. And lastly the Heavy inspired his primary. Personality Flags was a kind patriotic Omnic that has a similar personality and way with words like Orisa, both constantly talking about keeping people safe, "Safety" or "Resistance". It is discovered that after seeing Reyes' face, Flags was one of the few people to know that it was him and one of the very few people to see his face. Flags was a vulnerable Omnic due to a photographic memory data base stored in his brain that captured the face of Reaper and will stay with Flags until he dies. Flags became darker and more soldier-like, so it is safe to assume that Flags developed some kind of Omnic-PTSD after seeing the face of his former friend and teammate. In a voiceline he even mentions the Dulce et Decorum est, a Poem written by Wilfred Owen revolving around the horrors of warfare. Voicelines Voice Actor: Jeffrey Dean Morgan Using Ultimate, to Ally: "Charge for victory!" Using Ultimate, to Enemy: "Step up your Resistance! While waiting in Numbani: "We could have used this long ago." While waiting in Watchpoint: Gibralter. "Winston thinks he has Safety here." Respawning: "Dulce et Decorum Est." Mercy: Mercy: "How have you been doing, Flags?" Flags: "Worse than usual." Ana: Ana: "I loved working with you!" Flags: "Yes, those were the better days." Pharah: Pharah: "My mother told me much about you, your expertise tactician skills amaze me." Flags: "Thank you but I doubt that." Soldier: 76: Flags: "I am starting to think you are as much as a traitor like Gabriel." Soldier76: "So you know?" Roadhog: Roadhog: "I will crush you." Flags: "Well, what a friendly greeting." Mei: Flags: "Mei! Where is Dr. Karlin?" Mei: "He didn't make it, Flags."President-elect Donald Trump vowed to “keep America safe” by cracking down on immigration from the Middle East and favoring “stability” in foreign policy. Speaking to a raucous audience of thousands of supporters in Cincinnati, Ohio at the start of what his staff have billed as a “Thank you” tour of the American Midwest, Trump seemed to double down on key campaign promises about Muslim immigration and a wall on the Mexican border. “The job of the president is to keep America safe, and that will always be my highest priority,” Trump said. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up “We will do everything in our power to keep the scourge of terrorism out of our country. People are pouring in from regions of the Middle East. We have no idea who they are, where they come from, what they’re thinking. And we’re going to stop that dead, cold, flat,” he said. “People coming into the country have to have the potential to love us, not to hate us,” he said. He added: “We will stop looking to topple regimes. Our goal is stability, not chaos, because we want to rebuild our country. It’s time.” Trump also used the address to take a stance against hatreds: “We condemn bigotry and prejudice in all of its forms,” he said. “We denounce all of the hatred and we forcefully reject the language of exclusion and separation. We have no choice. We have to, and it’s better.” Also at the Ohio rally, he made the surprise announcement that he will be offering the post of Defense Secretary to retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis. Trump said he was supposed to unveil that Monday, so he jokingly warned the Cincinnati crowd to “not tell anyone.” Trump has spent the weeks since his surprise election victory on November 8 dialing back some of his promises, suggesting the Mexico border wall could be part-fence and indicating no willingness to pursue criminal charges against Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. But, he told the crowd, “Now is not the time to downsize our dreams.” “Never again will anyone’s interests come before the interests of the American people. It’s not going to happen,” he thundered. “The old rules no longer apply. Anything we want for our country is now possible.” Trump did nothing to downplay expectations before he takes office, declaring that “America will start winning again, big league.” He repeated his recent threat that, despite Constitutional protections, “if people burn the American flag, there should be consequences.” And he repeated the pledge to “construct a great wall at the border.”ATHENS, Ga. --- The annual University of Georgia Fans' Picture Day will be held Saturday, Aug. 20, in the Reed Plaza area of Sanford Stadium and will feature Bulldog coach Mark Richt, players, cheerleaders, other UGA athletic teams and interim mascot "Russ." Special ticket coupons are required for access to the location for Russ and Coach Richt. Those tickets will be distributed to the first 150 fans at 8:00 a.m. from the East End ticket windows on East Campus Road. The Georgia cheerleaders and Hairy Dawg will be available from 1-5 p.m. Russ and other University of Georgia sports teams will be available from 1:00-3:00 p.m. Georgia football players will be on hand for photos and autographs from 3:00-5:00 p.m. in Reed Plaza on the north side of the stadium between Gates 2 and 4. Head Coach Mark Richt will also be available from 3-5 p.m. for those with ticket coupons. Concessions and merchandise sales will be available in several areas of Reed Plaza. Fans will be able to enter Reed Plaza through through Gate 2 in the northwest corner of the stadium across from the Tate Student Center and Gate 4 through the East Campus Road entry into Reed Plaza. Both gates open at 1:00 p.m. Parking is available to the general public in all campus lots surrounding the stadium. Handicapped parking will be available in the Tate Center lots. Due to recent public issues surrounding student-athlete autographs across the country, no outside items may be brought to Picture Day. The Georgia Athletic Association will provide each fan with two free schedule posters to be signed by the players and Coach Richt. No other items will be permitted. GATES Gates 2 and 4 will open at 1 p.m. for fans to get in line for autographs. Other sports teams will sign from 1-3 p.m. in the plaza areas above the new concessions and restroom areas. Football will sign from 3-5 p.m. Gates open for entry/exit are Gates 2 and 4. RUSS Russ and the Seiler Family will be available for photos born 1-3 p.m. in the Recruiting Box. 150 tickets for Russ will be distributed at 8 a.m. from the East Campus Ticket Windows. The fans with tickets will be directed to access the recruiting box through Gate 4 and be directed to the entry for the Sky Suites North tower. Fans must show tickets to access these areas. All fans with ticked for Russ must be in line by 1:30 p.m. COACH RICHT Coach Richt will be available for photos and autographs from 3-5 p.m. 150 tickets will be distributed at 8 a.m. from the East Campus Ticket Windows. The fans with tickets will be directed to access the Recruiting Box through Gate 4 and be directed to the entry for the Sky Suites North tower. Fans must show tickets to access these areas. Fans with Richt tickets will be instructed to line up beginning at 2:30 p.m. to cut down on congestion. All fans with tickets for Coach Richt must be in line by 3:30 p.m.Hasan has been previously spotted at least twice — once in Pennsylvania in the parking lot of a Walmart where a man was seen stealing licence plates from another vehicle and then in Tennessee on May 20. Haffner said police believed Hasan was on his way to the Mexican border. "Throughout the investigation, our officers have been contact with Mr. Hasan, encouraging him to turn himself in," Haffner said. Police have been in contact with Hasan via email, he said Haffner said local police worked closely with the U.S. Marshal's Office, Department of Homeland Security, border security officials and the Secret Service since Hasan entered the U.S. He thanked the U.S. authorities for their "constant and continued collaboration and exchange of information during our search of Ager Hasan." "The arrest of Mr. Hasan provides significant closure to our community and to our investigators as they now can prepare for the judicial proceedings," Haffner said. "We hope this arrest provides some closure and comfort to the family of Melinda as they continue to deal with the grief of their loss," he said. Police have been in contact with both families. Haffner said the Vasilije's family has asked for privacy during this difficult time. Haffner said the police continue to investigate the social media posts by a person believed to be Hasan. On Monday, a posting on Instagram from a person claiming to be Hasan said he would turn himself in. The post, accompanied by a photo, said: "I'm coming home. It's time to end the dark path I've been travelling and give people the closure they deserve." In another Instagram post, a message read: "I regret everything negative I ever did to you." A post on Reddit in May written by someone claiming to be Hasan alleged that Hasan stabbed Vasilije in self-defence. It went into details about what allegedly happened the night Vasilije died. That message was removed shortly after it was posted. Police would not say if Hasan received any help from family or friends while he was on the run. "We anticipate speaking to Mr. Hasan to find out the motives and the rationales for his posts and if they are his posts," Haffner said. Police have no indication that Hasan will fight the extradition process. Although there have been various photographs circulating of Hasan with different hairstyles, police said that upon his arrest, he appeared similar to the way he looked before he left for the U.S. "He looks very similar to what he looked like on April 28, 2017," he said. Haffner said the investigation into Hasan has been a complicated one with him taking off to the U.S. and posting social media messages. "One of the difficulties we have had as a law enforcement agency is dealing with legislation in relation to privacy and IP addresses and ultimately it causes significant delays in trying to locate individuals, gain information and more importantly, locate where Mr. Hasan was," he said. Haffner said local investigators will go to San Antonio to bring Hasan to Waterloo Region once the extradition process is complete. During the investigation, local police worked with U.S. law enforcement agencies to get Hasan's image and description out on social media platforms. Hasan also faces three counts of breach of recognizance for an alleged break-and-enter and alleged assaults at Vasilije's Kitchener apartment on April 3. Police have said Vasilije was not a victim of the assaults. Hasan was under a court order to stay out of Waterloo Region and to not contact Vasilije. Vasilije and Hasan had been in a relationship for about a year. A Facebook page called Justice for Melinda frequently shared pleas to the public to share information about Hasan. lmonteiro@therecord.com Twitter: @MonteiroRecordLet me introduce myself: I'm the dad who wears a skirt. Maybe you've heard or read about me. To my astonishment, I read about me recently. That was peculiar, since I'm used to reading my own writing -- not stories about how I behaved or dressed up. So let's clarify what happened. I am a writer. I write poetry, prose, advertising copy and articles for newspapers and magazines. Some of these articles are about my life: how to raise kids, how to have an emancipated relationship and how to act as a father and a man in these times. Not long ago, I wrote an article for Germany's most famous feminist magazine, EMMA, about getting all skirted up to support my son, who likes to wear dresses and skirts in public. The magazine asked for a photo, so I sent them a few shots. On the day the story came out online, I happened to be on vacation. During my vacation, the Internet did something I never expected -- but obviously should have. Someone translated my article and it quickly spread across the world. I got emails and calls from people all over the place. I am glad that I had a couple of days to decide what to do next. I decided to write this article. This is me trying to explain why I do what I do. Many people read the original EMMA piece and thought well of me; others were pissed off or disgusted by my alleged "sissy" behavior. Others still presumed base motives -- suggesting that I was trying to pull a stunt at the expense of my son -- or accused me of bad parenting for encouraging his temporary dissocial preference. A 5-year-old boy who wants to wear dresses and skirts once in a while was compared to a child who spits, fights or poops in public -- always with this rhetorical question tacked onto the analogy: "Who would be stupid and irresponsible enough to support this kind of conduct?" These comparisons just don't fit. My boy has a big sister whom he loves a great deal. Naturally, he inherits her skirts and dresses -- and sometimes he likes to put them on. I have no intention whatsoever of getting in his way. Of course, the work of teaching our son how to interact with people -- and how to get along with society and understand its rules and patterns -- is mainly up to his mother and me. But he is my son, not my property. I don't own him. If there is such a thing as owning a human being, he owns me. I made him, I dreamed of him, I longed for him; now he is in my life, and I am responsible for him as long as there is breath in me. So I teach him the rules and what to do with them. Not every rule makes sense. Some rules tell us to behave with violence and cruelty to other human beings, even if we have a distinct feeling that our actions toward them are wrong. It is not OK for anybody to mess with my son about his outfit. Hence I wear dresses and skirts so that any person who has a problem with that and feels the necessity to express his or her resentments can mess with me. Since I am an adult, people should feel free to call me out on my decisions. In this case, if you do, I will confess that I don't particularly like wearing skirts or dresses. I'm like a soccer mom who doesn't love the sport -- but does love her kids. I couldn't care more about my boy being a happy, self-assured, compassionate person. I couldn't care less about the choices he makes on the way to becoming that person -- as long as they cause no harm to himself or others. The ability to make these choices is his birthright -- a right that I should help him to exercise, since I am responsible for his birth.Posted 10 January 2014 - 07:57 AM Thank you OP!This is indeed a very nice find, however I don't think that it should have been something that has to be so hard to find. It would be helpful if these options are available after searching something with the website search bar. Something like: Didn't find what you are looking for? Try the Advanced Filters Unless its experimental at the moment... then i guess that might be why it's not very accessible?Also, dear webby people: This link gives you Error 404 if you're not logged in. Just a heads up to maybe change that?If you want this searching thing exclusive for people with accounts, then please redirect to login page. Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 10 January 2014 - 08:09 AM.CLOSE Marine Sgt. Kaylie Coats was taken to jail for a crime she didn't commit on a warrant issued in error. Now she is speaking out about the incident. Michael Zamora/The Register Buy Photo Sgt. Kaylie Coats spoke out Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017, about her wrongful arrest on Dec. 7, 2017 when she was taken to jail for a crime she didn't commit. (Photo11: Michael Zamora/The Register)Buy Photo Sgt. Kaylie Coats, an active-duty Marine, says she was wrongfully arrested and held after the Clive Police Department issued a warrant in her name for a crime she did not commit. The 23-year-old spent about five hours in custody on Dec. 7, arrested on a warrant for fifth-degree theft, before her mother could bail her out of jail. She pleaded not guilty to the simple misdemeanor the following day in front of a judge. Coats' record was eventually expunged — but only after she could prove to the judge and a Polk County prosecutor that she was stationed in California at the time the crime in question was committed. "I felt violated because I knew I hadn't done anything wrong. I felt like a criminal," she said. "Once I got put in the holding cell with other people, it worried me. I had no idea what other people had been in there for." Clive Police Chief Michael Venema declined to comment at the advice of the city's attorneys because of possible litigation. Coats, who is stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, was home in Waukee on emergency medical leave this month to help her stepmother recover from surgery. Their neighbor, a Dallas County sheriff's deputy, knocked on the door that afternoon with an active warrant for Coats' arrest. The warrant listed Coats' name and Social Security number. She was accused of ditching a $45 cab ride in 2015. Coats was placed in the deputy's car and driven to the Polk County line, where she waited for 45 minutes for the Clive Police Department to pick her up. A Clive officer placed her in handcuffs and transported her to the Polk County Jail, where she was searched and fingerprinted. "I was confused. I thought maybe somebody used my name or something," Coats said. "I was stressed out and embarrassed because people were driving by as I was getting in the back of a cop car." Buy Photo Sgt. Kaylie Coats spoke out Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017, about her wrongful arrest on Dec. 7, 2017, when she was taken to jail for a crime she didn't commit. (Photo11: Michael Zamora/The Register) Her mother, Juli Jarecki, had followed from home and waited in the lobby of the jail for about three hours before she was given instructions to bail her daughter out. It was either pay $300 cash, which she didn't have, or a $65 non-refundable bail bond. She purchased the bail bond because she wanted her out of jail as soon as possible, Jarecki said. Coats was ordered to appear in court the next day, where she could plead guilty and pay a fine of up to $1,000 or plead not guilty and go to trial in February. "I told her I wanted to plead not guilty, and at that point (the judge) kinda knew something was off," Coats said. "I told her, 'Your honor, I wasn't even in the state when this crime was committed.'" She explained to the judge that she is an active-duty Marine and was stationed at Camp Pendleton in California at the time. "She was astonished at that point," Coats said. The judge ordered a phone call with the prosecutor so the issue could be resolved. A few hours later, Venema, the police chief, left Coats a voicemail explaining that the warrant had been issued in error, she said. He didn't provide any other details, she said. NEWSLETTERS Get the Breaking News Alert newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Alerts on breaking news delivered straight to your inbox. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-877-424-0225. Delivery: Varies Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Breaking News Alert Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters "He had given me an apology and asked what he could do, but at that point you can't give me back time that was already lost, and that was the most important thing for me," Coats said. Soon after, Coats had to report the arrest and court appearance to her command staff at Fort Leonard Wood. She said Venema was willing to send an email explaining the situation so she would not face military repercussions. Sgt. Kaylie Coats is an active duty Marine stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. (Photo11: Special to the Register) Though there was no punishment through the Marines, Coats is left wondering how the mistake was made. The Clive Police Department has not yet told Coats or her attorney, Andrew Heiting-Doane, what happened. They believe the warrant for her arrest was triggered because she had applied for a permit to carry weapons the day before. But, they don't know whom the warrant was actually intended for or why her name and Social Security number were used. "It worries me that it could happen to anybody who might not be able to prove themselves innocent. It worries me that I even had to prove myself innocent because I don't feel that I should ever have to," she said. "And it worries me about my future. I feel like this is going to jeopardize an opportunity down the road that I might have." The Dallas County Sheriff's Office has denied her permit to carry weapons because a warrant was issued for her arrest. Now, Coats will be forced to disclose that she has been arrested and denied a conceal and carry permit. She is considering a job in federal law enforcement, in which most applications ask those questions with little or no chance to follow up. Buy Photo Attorney Andrew Heiting-Doane with the LaMarca Law Group is working with Sgt. Kaylie Coats Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017, to explore her legal options after her wrongful arrest on Dec. 7, 2017. (Photo11: Michael Zamora/The Register) "She's concerned about federal law enforcement polygraph tests where she has to answer 'yes' and then explain what happened," Heiting-Doane said. "If they have 50 qualified candidates and one of them says something that you have to track down and follow up on and the other 49 you don't, then she's out as a candidate." Coats said she wants to ensure there are checks and balances in place so this won't happen again at the Clive Police Department. "There should have been safeguards in place to make sure a clerical error doesn't get someone arrested and locked in jail," Heiting-Doane said. "We are concerned that if we don't take action, this will happen again, and next time it might happen to someone who can't stand up for himself or herself." Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/2CeJHKSThe Mozilla Corporation shipped Firefox 5 this week, almost exactly three months after it shipped Firefox 4. Does that seem like an insane tempo? Ha! Fasten your seatbelts, because Mozilla plans to ship Firefox 6 in exactly six weeks, with Firefox 7 six weeks after that, and Firefox 8 … well, you get the idea. Not coincidentally, that release schedule perfectly matches up with browser archrival Google Chrome. At that pace, in June 2014, a mere three years from now, Firefox will be on version 29. If you’d prefer to opt out of that breakneck development cycle, Mozilla has some guidance for you: Fuggedaboutit. Remarkably, that is Mozilla’s direct, uncensored response to its corporate partners. If you are even considering migrating your business to Firefox, I strongly recommend you read two recent blog posts by consultant Mike Kaply. Kaply, whose consulting company specializes in customizing Firefox for enterprises, calls the new rapid-release policy “a really bad idea.” The worst part is that with each new release, Mozilla is completely dropping support for the previous one. Unlike consumers, who are thrilled at the chance to install new code every six weeks, enterprises crave stability: Companies simply can’t turn around major browser updates in six weeks (and each one of these is a major update). With security releases, there was a reasonable expectation that web applications wouldn’t break as a result of changes. With these releases, there is no such expectation. So a full test cycle needs to be run with every release. By the time this cycle is completed and the browser is piloted and deployed, another version of Firefox would already be released so they’d already be behind. In a follow-up post, Kaply quotes two fellow enterprise admins who are extremely worried about their ability to support Firefox. So, has Mozilla reached out to Kaply to reassure him that they’ve got his back? No. In fact, Firefox evangelist Asa Dotzler showed up in the comments of Kaply’s post to tell him, bluntly, that he can expect zero support: Mike, you do realize that we get about 2 million Firefox downloads per day from regular user types, right? Your “big numbers” here are really just a drop in the bucket, fractions of fractions of a percent of our user base. Enterprise has never been (and I’ll argue, shouldn’t be) a focus of ours. Until we run out of people who don’t have sysadmins and enterprise deployment teams looking out for them, I can’t imagine why we’d focus at all on the kinds of environments you care so much about. Some 14 hours later, after Kaply argues that Mozilla should “throw a few resources at [the problem] and try to solve it,” Dotzler doubles down: A minute spent making a corporate user happy can better be spent making many regular users happy. I’d much rather Mozilla spending its limited resources looking out for the billions of users that don’t have enterprise support systems already taking care of them. You hear that, enterprise admins? You don’t count, and Mozilla has no intention of supporting your extensive investments in testing browser releases before deployment. And if you think that’s just a misunderstanding, Dotzler wants to make it very, very clear that Mozilla is serious: As for John’s concern, “By the time I validate Firefox 5, what guarantee would I have that Firefox 5 won’t go EOL [end of life] when Firefox 6 is released?” He has the opposite of guarantees that won’t happen. He has my promise that it will happen. Firefox 6 will be the EOL of Firefox 5. And Firefox 7 will be the EOL for Firefox 6. Back in March, when Firefox 4 was released, I looked at the browser space and concluded that Microsoft and Google were in a superb position to squeeze Firefox into irrelevance. I didn’t count on Mozilla actively participating in its own annihilation. In a world that will increasingly be defined by HTML5 apps, providing a stable channel for businesses is crucial. The response from other enterprise-focused customers in that thread is scathing. Meanwhile, I hear maniacal laughter and sighs of relief coming out of Redmond, where Internet Explorer has just solidified its once-shaky position at the top of the enterprise heap. Update: As of June 24, 2011, less than six weeks before the scheduled release of Firefox 5, this is the published product roadmap for that release: TBD TBD TBD ...anything that improves responsiveness and is ready ...anything that improves stability and is ready ...anything that polishes the user interface and is ready ...anything else serving product priorities and is ready That's also the "roadmap" for versions 6 and 7, both due before the end of the year. If you're developing on the Mozilla platform, is that enough information for you?Bitpay & Microsoft are Adding Full Nodes to the Bitcoin Network BitPay has announced its new feature service with Microsoft’s Azure blockchain as a service (BaaS) platform. The Bitcoin-based merchant processor BitPay will allow people to run a full Bitcoin node on the cloud. Also read: Barclays Cuts 1,200 Jobs as ‘Dead’ Bitcoin Thrives Our open source Bitcoin full node and development platform Bitcore is the first Bitcoin service available for Azure users. BitPay: ‘A full node is the best way to do it’ The company wants to lower the barrier to entry for those who want to run a full node. They say that whether you are a company or an enthusiast who wants to support the system, Bitcore may be your solution. In its recent blog post, BitPay said, “running a full node is the best way to do it.” The company says that anyone can host
crisis in Modern Orthodox day schools, since this was the greatest expense for me. With four kids in school and an upper middle class income, I was told I had to pay full tuition for all four kids with no sibling discounts (and no reprieve from constant fundraising calls). At one point, I went to the school president, a major donor (independently wealthy) to the school. I explained that keeping all my kids in the school would mean never saving a penny for retirement or college, and asked if there was any plan for helping working middle class parents, such as capping tuition at a percentage of income, or providing a sibling discount. His reply: “You’re in or you’re out.” So I took myself out. I enrolled my kids in an excellent private secular school for a third the cost of the “excellent” Jewish day school. And now, a year later, you know what I’ve found? That my kids are not running a year behind public school in their education; That kids actually have discipline and respect for their teachers; And even more importantly, that all children who misbehave are handled in the same manner, instead of letting the children of the wealthy supporters get away with murder. And even more interesting, this amazing secular school had all of…drumroll…one principal — the Day School I left had five. Enough said. In hindsight, I remember when a Muslim I worked with asked me one day why I was so stressed out. I said because I have to make so much money to pay for my kids to go to school. He asked me how much tuition I was paying per kid and when I answered $20,000, he said, “Wow, you’re getting screwed. We in the Muslim school are paying only $5,000.” Of course their school also had only one principal. I had now left day school and synagogue, and my life was only getting better. Not just financially, but emotionally as well. I actually didn’t have to work as hard, and started to have more time with my family. I knew fathers working five jobs to pay the Jewish bills, or taking jobs out of town, showing up for weekends at home, or even putting their families in Israel and flying back one week a month. This is no recipe for ‘Shalom Bayit.’ Kosher food came next. I set a $200 a month limit for my wife on spending in the local Kosher butcher shop. Some chicken breast, some wings. There is no health benefit to eating meat more than maybe twice a month. Now that I look at the prices, I am actually shocked the communities have not simply boycotted these establishments en masse. Passover? Forget about it. We just do it at home now. I toss that one up there as a luxury on par with buying a country club membership or a small yacht. Summer camp? Chabad. In fact, we have been getting more involved with Chabad. At least they don’t make Judaism all about the money. Sure, they also need community support to exist, but in return they provide full-service Judaism at a reasonable price. That in my opinion, will effectively position Chabad as the ‘last man standing’ of US Jewish Orthodoxy, as the far right Jewish communities become increasingly impoverished due to the failure to educate their kids for the workforce, and as the Modern Orthodox numbers continue to dwindle under lack of commitment, unbearable costs and attrition in the college years and beyond. Time for a revolution Over the past year, our family has rewritten our financial future. We now live on half of our income and invest and save the rest. And thanks to this new president, the financial markets have been doing great. We pulled our kids out of Jewish day school and they are getting a better education in a better environment, and we supplement their Jewish education via Chabad. I am now able to comfortably “do Jewish” for $40,000 a year, the sum my financial planner told me needed to be our limit. You know what, we may even be able to go away next year for Passover! The overpriced balloon of the Modern Orthodox experience rests on three core flaws: Jewish organizations are too top heavy, with too many positions filled by wives and cronies, and with amply-paid rabbis who are out of touch with the financial woes of their congregants. There are too many very wealthy board members controlling too much of the decision-making for the wider Jewish community. It’s time to get some working class and even poor people on the boards of schools and JCCs. Too many sheep just go right along, with their heads buried in the rear end of the sheep in front of them. It’s time for a revolution. What kind of revolution? How about launching a month-long community boycott of all neighborhood kosher markets? (Start two weeks before Passover.) Or pulling the kids out of day school, demanding charter schools, and insisting that the local rabbis earn their fat salaries by holding lowcost Jewish after-school programs in the synagogue. As we gear up for the High Holidays – by the way, my Chabad doesn’t charge mandatory ticket fees – it’s time to take an honest look at where Modern Orthodox Judaism is going. For me it was a $150,000 a year post tax commitment, a sum of money that most people never even come close to earning. Religious leaders have no right to complain about intermarriage rates in the US when the religion is being priced out of affordability. And don’t even get me started on the shidduch crisis, although if you look honestly at the problems of matchmaking and failure to find a mate, there too you find that much of the problem also comes back to who has the most money. It’s time to take back our religion, to make it more accessible to Jews of all financial situations. Those who stand in the way of this progress should be expelled from the community. The legacy rabbinate and top-heavy institutions are not sustainable in the long term. They’ve bankrupted the parents. They are now trying to bankrupt the grandparents. That was never the way this religion was supposed to be.For a limited time - Buy 2 save £10! Enter Promo Code 'QuanDisc' at checkout Always looking for ways to improve up its already well-loved products, Selk’Bag introduces the 5G Original sleeping bag suit, the latest and fifth generation of the Original Musuc Bag. This latest version has been designed to be the best Selk’Bag yet! 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Added to the body is a similarly baffled and insulated hood to keep your head warm. The hood features a thermal collar and draw cord. Because openings as well as zippers are areas through which cold may creep, Selk’Bag stitched wider draft tubes at the zippers to hold your body’s warmth inside. While holding warmth in is paramount, leg zips have been added so that you’re able to vent excess heat if sitting by the campfire is your activity of choice. The shape of the 5G has been cut more anatomically than other Selk’Bags which allows not only more comfort, but also lighter weight due to the removal of excess fabric. Two front entry zippers make donning and doffing the 5G quick. Extra touches such as a kangaroo pocket for your hands or gear and a small front chest storage pocket for valuables further the usability of the 5G. The zipper tape has been redesigned to reduce snags on the fabric. The comfort temperature is 7 degrees Celsius, which is ideal for those summer days that start warm but then get a bit chilly once the sun heads below the horizon.It happens every four years, when gymnastics is on primetime television for a week straight during the summer Olympics. Parents suddenly enroll their children - mainly little girls - at their local gymnastics center with visons of a gold medal slung around the child's neck a decade later. Gym owners and coaches call it the "Olympic effect." This year, it's more like an Olympic gold rush at Monmouth Gymnastics, where New Jersey's breakout star and 16-year-old double-medalist Laurie Hernandez trains with the MG Elite team. "The phone's ringing so much, it's actually getting comical," Monmouth's manager Christine Mellas said. Many fall classes are full, they're getting 100 emails a day requesting information and they're begging coaches and instructors to work extra days this fall session. And they're chipping away at a rolling batch of 50 voicemail messages. "I've been here for eight years and I expected it, but nothing like this," she said. "I don't know if we were truly prepared." Mellas said they have enrolled about 200 extra children since Hernandez - dubbed the human emoji - rocketed to fame as a member of the gold medal-winning Final Five women's gymnastics team. They expect more too when families get back from vacations and summer ends. "Right now, I cannot even squeeze one more kid in," she said of one of their class sessions. Mellas said one little girl's uncle arrived at the Morganville gym in person and paid for the entire year in full because his niece promised him: "I am going to go to the Olympics." Most of the surge in enrollment is for classes for toddlers, who take class with their parents and they start as young as 15-months. And the gym's even had to deal with some upset parents, standardly late in enrolling their returning kids for the fall, who did not get the class time they expected. In addition to the spike in enrollment, Mellas said they've had some interesting moments recently. One mother drove 90 minutes from North Jersey just to show her daughter where Hernandez trains, she said. The mom started off the encounter with, "I hope you don't think I am crazy, but..." Through it all, Mellas said the gym staff, coaches and parents have been proud of Hernandez for years, and many have known for some time that she was on her way to world-class competition. "It's been very exciting and we're very proud." As for the last week and half, "It's a wild ride here, and it's been pretty fun too," Mellas said. Laurie Hernandez will celebrate her Olympic gold medal at Wawa At other New Jersey gyms, the Olympic effect has started, just not at Monmouth's pace. Tony Gehman, owner of North Stars Gymnastics in Boonton, started coaching at the gym in 1979 before buying it in 1985. The Olympic effect, he said, started in 1984, when Mary Lou Retton captured the country's first all-around gold medal at the Los Angeles games. He said that success elevated competitive gymnastic teams from rented spaces in church basements to profitable businesses with their own facilities. And with the Rio squad putting up the best medal performance by an American team ever, many gyms will profit. And it can be gradual, picking up once the games end this weekend. Gehman has an open house scheduled this Saturday, where the competitive team will show off their talents. "We're having the normal effect now, but were going to get (an increase)," Gehman said. "It's gonna happen." At schools like the Gymnastics and Cheerleading Academy (GCA) in Cherry Hill, and ENA Gymnastics in Paramus, Rio successes are already translating into more kids signing up. "And everybody's happy about it," GCA director Steve Tobin. "Every Olympic year we get a huge benefit, and this year there's been an uptick," said ENA co-owner Craig Zappa. Tobin said the gym his parents started in 1974, sees anywhere from a 15 to 25 percent increase the fall after a summer games, "Even if the team doesn't do so well," he said. "This team did amazing though," Tobin said. Tobin said more than the competitive side, the spotlight that gymnastics gets from the networks broadcasts really lets parents with kids who "roll around the floor and jump around the house" that there's a program for them. "The general public does not really understand gymnastics training, and lot of the times we help them with the 'How do we get them involved?' questions," Tobin said. "There's a real positive effect on schools," Tobin said. Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Minecraft is a game that takes a lot of time to play. If I were to sit down and calculate how many hours I’ve put into it, they would be more than 1000. (I bought the game back in 2010, and have played it a lot since then). With that in mind, Gearcraft set out to calculate exactly how much time (on average) players spend completing specific things within Minecraft. The following is our results. Keep in mind, these are not scientific results by any stretch of the imagination, but they do convey the reality of Minecraft. What activity do you want us to analyse next? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll do a followup article sometime in the near future! Also, make sure you follow me on twitter @GearcraftTaylor Hey Gearcrafters! Now It's your chance to share with us, just hashtag #YoGearcraft on your Twitter post with a link or image to your art, creations, videos, servers or whatever and it will appear right on our #YoGearcraft page for millions to see! It’s that easy! So what are you waiting for!? Give us a shout out #YoGearcraft!Sebastian Seung sold the idea that “we are our connectome”. What does that mean? Connectivity is a problem to me. Of course, the brain works only because there are connections between cells and between larger parts of the brain. But how can we measure and map it. Apparently there are measurement problems. When some research says that A is connected to B it can mean a number of things. A could be a sizable area of the brain that has a largish nerve tract to B. This means that some neurons in A have axons that extend all the way to B, and some neurons in B have synapses with each of those axons. We could be talking about smaller and smaller groups of neurons until we have a pair of connected neurons. This is anatomy – it does not tell us when and how the connections are active or what they accomplish, just that a possible path is visible. On the other hand A and B may share information. A and B are active at the same time in some circumstance. They are receiving the same information, either one from the other, or both from some other source. Quite often this means they are synchronized in their activity; it is locked together in a rhythm. Or they may react differently but always to the same type of information. Or one may feed the other information (directly or indirectly). A and B need only be connected when they are involved in the function that gives them shared information. Here we see the informational connection but necessarily the path. A and B may be connected by a known causal link. A makes B active. Whenever A is active it causes B to be active too. This causal link gives no automatic information about path or even, at times, what information may be shared. On a very small scale cells that are close together can be connected by contacts with glial cells, local voltage potentials and chemical gradients. Here the connections are even more difficult to map. And finally overall there are control mechanisms that switch on and off various connection routes. The whole brain is somewhat plastic and so can change its connectivity structure over time to better serve the needs of the individual. When it comes down to it, the connectivity that makes us each unique, the results of learning and memory, is the most plastic. It is changing all the time and can be very hard to map. Saying “connectome” without any detailed specification is next to meaningless and “we are our connectome” is certainly true but somewhat vacuous. A recent paper (citation below) took 4 common ways of measuring connectivity and compared them pair-wise. None of the pairs had a high level of agreement and some pairs had hardly any. There may be a lot of reasons for this but a big one has to be that the various methods were not measuring the same thing. In general, authors say that they are measuring, by what method and why. These nuances occasional do not make it to the abstract or conclusion, often never make it to the press release, and nearly never to news articles. Here is the abstract and a diagram from the Jones paper. “Measures of brain connectivity are currently subject to intense scientific and clinical interest. Multiple measures are available, each with advantages and disadvantages. Here, we study epilepsy patients with intracranial electrodes, and compare four different measures of connectivity. Perhaps the most direct measure derives from intracranial electrodes; however, this is invasive and spatial coverage is incomplete. These electrodes can be actively stimulated to trigger electrophysical responses to provide the first measure of connectivity. A second measure is the recent development of simultaneous BOLD fMRI and intracranial electrode stimulation. The resulting BOLD maps form a measure of effective connectivity. A third measure uses low frequency BOLD fluctuations measured by MRI, with functional connectivity defined as the temporal correlation coefficient between their BOLD waveforms. A fourth measure is structural, derived from diffusion MRI, with connectivity defined as an integrated diffusivity measure along a connecting pathway. This method addresses the difficult requirement to measure connectivity between any two points in the brain, reflecting the relatively arbitrary location of the surgical placement of intracranial electrodes. Using a group of eight epilepsy patients with intracranial electrodes, the connectivity from one method is compared to another method using all paired data points that are in common, yielding an overall correlation coefficient. This method is performed for all six paired-comparisons between the four methods. While these show statistically significant correlations, the magnitudes of the correlation are relatively modest (r2 between 0.20 and 0.001). In summary, there are many pairs of points in the brain that correlate well using one measure yet correlate poorly using another measure. These experimental findings present a complicated picture regarding the measure or meaning of brain connectivity.” Jones, S., Beall, E., Najm, I., Sakaie, K., Phillips, M., Zhang, M., & Gonzalez-Martinez, J. (2014). Low Consistency of Four Brain Connectivity Measures Derived from Intracranial Electrode Measurements Frontiers in Neurology, 5 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2014.00272(for other entries in the Chemistry in Space series, click here) Chemistry in space has been greatly aided by the addition of the Destiny Laboratory Module (see also: here for overview, and here for images) to the International Space Station. Destiny was delivered by the Space Shuttle Atlantis during STS-98 in February 2001. It is the first permanent operating orbital research station since Skylab was vacated in February 1974. Destiny is a cylinder measuring 28 feet long and 14 feet wide. Inside, there are 24 ‘racks’ (6 on each side) measuring 73 inches by 42 inches. The racks can be configured for storage, life support systems, or – more importantly – science experiments (check out the interactive on this page). 13 racks are available for science, while 11 are used for other purposes. One rack bay remains open and houses the highlight of the module: a 20 inch optically perfect window made of telescope-quality glass – the largest produced for use in space. It allows the use of high quality video and still cameras primarily for capturing images of Earth in detail not before possible. One rack bay houses the Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). It has 4 dewars of 75 liters which can hold samples of various sizes and shapes and keep them at variable controlled temperatures. Currently, temperatures of -80 degC, -24 degC and +4 degC are in operation on the ISS. The purpose of Destiny is to provide space for scientific research, including experiments in the physical sciences. Experiments are designed and built into the shape of one rack, which is ported into space and installed in Destiny. Racks can be built to be controlled by astronauts aboard the ISS or remotely by scientists on Earth. Destiny is joined by Columbus and Kibo as the main research ‘wing’ of the ISS. Columbus is the science laboratory contributed by the European Space Agency and Kibo is the science laboratory contributed by the Japanese space agency JAXA. Kibo also includes a ‘terrace’ where experiment payloads are fully exposed to the space environment. Check back for stories of experiments conducted in the microgravity of space aboard the ISS. There’s some pretty awesome research being undertaken. *Bonus points if you can tell me what movie that’s from 🙂1. Liverpool 4-4 Manchester United (August 1953) We begin with the highest-scoring post-war match between the two clubs. United arrived at Anfield with a prototype of the famous Busby Babes side - Roger Byrne, Tommy Taylor and David Pegg all starred - and took an early lead through Jack Rowley. But Don Welsh’s side fought back, Louis Bimpson equalising and Bill Jones adding another on the stroke of half time. Byrne levelled the match soon after the restart, but Bimpson crashed home two Billy Liddell corners in quick succession to give the home team a 4-2 lead by 58 minutes. United would pull one back almost immediately through Eddie Lewis, before Taylor controversially made it 4-4 by bundling the ball and keeper Charlie Ashcroft into the net, Nat Lofthouse style, with seven minutes to play; Anfield was so incensed police formed a line in front of the Kop. United would win the return game 5-1, at which point the teams would go their separate ways for the remainder of the 1950s: Liverpool were eventually relegated that season, while within two years United had been bolstered by Duncan Edwards and Bobby Charlton and were busy defining the decade. Liverpool walked the title 30 years ago but never bullied Manchester United Read more 2. Manchester United 3-3 Liverpool (November 1962) United had just beaten champions Ipswich Town 5-3 thanks to four goals from Denis Law, and things seemed to be going to form in their next game when David Herd gave them a half-time lead against newly promoted Liverpool, who had only won four of their first 16 games and were struggling near the bottom of the First Division table. The second half would, however, be a different story. Ian St John quickly equalised after a mistake from United keeper Harry Gregg, only for Albert Quixall to restore United’s advantage with a hotly disputed penalty midway through the half. With five minutes to go the jig looked up for Bill Shankly’s side, but Jimmy Melia scrambled in an equaliser and then, with a minute left, Ronnie Moran rifled in a 25-yard free kick for what would surely be the winner. It wasn’t: Johnny Giles scored with the last kick of the match to force a draw. Liverpool were nonetheless buoyed by the result, winning their next nine games, while United’s form dipped alarmingly - they ended the season only two places and three points from the relegation zone. United would however win the FA Cup that year - while the following season saw Liverpool crowned champions. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bob Paisley with the Milk Cup after Liverpool’s Wembley win over United in 1983. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Getty Images 3. Liverpool 2-1 Manchester United (March 1983) If Liverpool rode their luck a tad in the 1982 Milk Cup final, requiring a last-minute scramble to save themselves from defeat against Tottenham before running out easy winners in extra time, the Gods were really smiling on them a year later. Norman Whiteside’s amazing Hansen-bothering early goal allowed United to soak up waves of Liverpool pressure, and with Ian Rush suffering an off day, squandering two glorious chances, it looked like United would win their first trophy under Ron Atkinson – until central defender Kevin Moran was injured with 20 minutes to go. Within two minutes Alan Kennedy had shaved the bar with a fierce shot; within another three he had scored. Extra time saw what little was left of United’s luck totally run out, as their other centre half Gordon McQueen was crocked and had to spend the remainder of the match up front, striker Frank Stapleton moving back to cover. Though whether that affected the outcome is moot, for Franz Beckenbauer couldn’t have done anything about the winner, a glorious Ronnie Whelan curler into the top right corner. United could also legitimately moan about Bruce Grobbelaar’s bodycheck on McQueen late in the day, which denied the hobbling “striker” a goalscoring chance yet went unpunished, but United’s Wembley luck would turn a few weeks later: Ray Wilkins would repeat Whelan’s trick with a curler of his own, before Brighton striker Gordon Smith’s largesse gifted them a replay and the FA Cup trophy. Spurs, saves, Street Fighter and Atlanta United – Football Weekly Extra Read more 4. Manchester United 3-1 Liverpool (January 1989) The Murphy years apart, Liverpool have never quite managed to irritate United on a regular basis when underdogs. That wasn’t such a problem for United during Liverpool’s golden era: United denied them the treble in 1977, knocked them out of the FA Cup at the semi-final stage in 1979 and 1985, and during the 1980s enjoyed a record in all competitions of W11 D11 L4. Their final victory of a decade of local (if not national or European) dominance came on New Year’s Day 1989, when Fergie’s Fledglings ripped the champions to pieces for 70 minutes only to fall behind to a John Barnes goal. No matter: within seven minutes 20-year-old midfielder Russell Beardsmore had stepped up to the plate, setting up goals for Brian McClair and Mark Hughes, then wrapping up the result himself with a calm finish. “The best team lost,” claimed Ronnie Moran after the match, which was true in a wider context, but not of this game. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Eric Cantona tries a trick on his comeback in 1995 as Neil Ruddock watches on. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images 5. Liverpool 3-3 Manchester United (January 1994) There’s an argument that United’s two-goal comeback in the famous 3-3 draw at Anfield in 1988 was a better game than this - Peter Beardsley and John Barnes rampant for an hour, Norman Whiteside’s reducer on Steve McMahon, cigar-smoking Gordon Strachan capping the comeback for ten-man United - but while Liverpool were streets ahead in terms of quality at the time, they were still playing a side who would finish second in the league. In 1994, the gap between the two sides was as embarrassing as it’s ever been, a point hammered home within 24 minutes as United romped into a three-goal lead. This utter humiliation represented Liverpool’s Anfield nadir - against bitter enemies, it surely cut the Kop deeper than Michael Thomas’s 1989 title strike - but lasted less than a minute. Nigel Clough cost the Reds £2.3m, did nothing else in his time at the club, but by snapping home from 25 yards then repeating the trick a tad closer in 13 minutes later, he repaid most of that fee there and then. Neil Ruddock completed a ludicrous comeback with 11 minutes to play and Anfield erupted; they had little else to shout about during the 1990s. 6. Manchester United 2-2 Liverpool (October 1995) This game explained 1990s football in a nutshell. It was Eric Cantona’s much-anticipated return after being banned for whacking an ignorant goon upside his head, and sure enough he made his mark, scoring the 71st minute penalty which salvaged a draw for United. That the result needed saving spoke volumes about how well Roy Evans’s Liverpool played against a United side which would go on to claim the double, Robbie Fowler taking centre stage by cancelling out Nicky Butt’s early effort then making toast of Gary Neville then beating Peter Schmeichel with an exquisite lob. But it was also typical of Liverpool’s mental fragility at the time: there was a three-season spell around that time when, without exaggeration, Liverpool outplayed United in every single league game, yet only managed to win a couple of games at Anfield. Gerard Houllier and Danny Murphy would deal with this situation comprehensively around the turn of the century, but Liverpool would never again outplay a superior United team without winning quite like this.The most anticipated matchup of the divisional round of the NFL playoffs might be the Atlanta Falcons’ No. 1 scoring offense against the Seattle Seahawks’ No. 3 scoring defense. But the game between the two teams may be decided when the ball is in Russell Wilson’s hand. When the two met in Week 6, the Seahawks edged the Falcons in Seattle, 26-24. But both teams have played a lot of football since then, and though Wilson has already led the Seahawks to eight playoff wins in his young career, he might not have enough talent around him to go into the Georgia Dome on Saturday and end the Falcons’ season. The most obvious change to either team has been the Seahawks’ loss of safety Earl Thomas; his five-year Pro Bowl streak ended when he missed five of the Seahawks’ last six regular-season games with injuries. With him patrolling the backfield, the Seahawks allowed just 16.4 points per game. In the Seahawks’ five regular-season games without him, opponents averaged 22.4 points, including 34 points in a home capitulation to the already-eliminated Arizona Cardinals. But as much as the Seahawks have missed Thomas, it is their offense that has struggled with explosiveness and consistency all season. The 26-6 final score of last week’s wild card game against the Detroit Lions might make it look as though the Seahawks are back to business as usual. But going into the fourth quarter the score was just 10-6. While the Seahawks’ offensive line earned praise for its dominant run-blocking performance against Detroit, it also allowed slumping Lions pass-rusher Ezekiel Ansah to register two sacks, as many as he tallied throughout the regular season. The Seahawks will have a much tougher task on Saturday when they face the Falcons’ Vic Beasley, who had 15.5 sacks in the regular season. Tailback Thomas Rawls set a franchise playoff rushing record against the Lions, but going into the rematch with the Falcons there’s little depth behind him. Christine Michael, the Seahawks’ top rusher in the first Atlanta game, now plays for the Green Bay Packers. Head coach Pete Carroll told reporters that C.J. Procise, who has been out since Week 11 with a shoulder injury, will be a game-time decision; fifth-round rookie Alex Collins would be the only option behind Rawls if Procise can’t go. Between Michael, tailback C.J. Spiller and receiver/returner Tyler Lockett, 43 percent of the Seahawks’ 333 total yards in Week 6 were produced by players no longer on the Seahawks active roster, and the Falcons still outgained them 362-333 in that game. Wilson targeted wideouts on just 43.2 percent of his attempts; according to Pro Football Reference’s charting, he attempted only two passes deeper than 14 yards all day. He threw no touchdowns. The lack of deep passing that day was partly by design, to keep opposing pass-rushers off the banged-up Wilson. “We’ve been careful in how we would expose Russ,” head coach Pete Carroll later told the team’s official site. “He was begging us to do more and all that, but we were trying to do the right thing by him, and he was doing phenomenal things just to play for the last two months.” But Wilson’s adjusted yards-per-attempt didn’t increase meaningfully after that interview. Though three rushing touchdowns got Seattle the points they needed to win in Week 6, they might not have happened if the Falcons hadn’t set them up: Ryan’s sack-fumble on his own nine-yard line led to the game’s first score; his interception near midfield set up the last one. Even then, it almost wasn’t enough. The Seahawks’ final go-ahead field goal still left Ryan and company with a 1:57 to drive for a game-winning score; a controversial fourth-down no-call sent them packing: Since that play, however, the Falcons spent the season improving — and proving themselves the better team. In Football Outsiders’ Weighted DVOA, which prioritizes recent performance, the Falcons are the No. 4-ranked overall team at 19.8 percent; the Seahawks are ranked 14th at 4.7 percent. While the Seahawks’ offense ranked 17th in both season-long (-2.7 percent) and weighted (-2.1 percent) DVOA, the Falcons’ defense rises from 27th (8.1 percent) to 22nd (5.6 percent) when recent games are more heavily weighted. Now Wilson will have go on the road and score more points against the improved Falcons than Ryan can score against the Seahawks’ struggling defense. Check out our latest NFL playoff predictions.Matheryn "Einz" Naovaratpong from Thailand died in January before her birthday. She is the youngest person to undergo "neuropreservation," a controversial technique in which human brains are stored in hopes of reviving consciousness in the future. (Photo: Courtesy of the Naovaratpong family/GlobalPost) BANGKOK, Thailand — If all goes according to plan, a little Thai girl nicknamed Einz who is now dead will some day read this sentence. That plan, however, requires incredible faith in technological advancements. Elinz's body has been cremated and all that remains is her head — which is now filled with medical-grade antifreeze and stored in a vault in Arizona. Einz, whose formal name is Matheryn Naovaratpong, died from an aggressive strain of brain cancer in early January. She was nearly 3 years old. Her death would have unfolded as a private tragedy had her parents not made a profound choice. They decided that Einz would become the youngest human — and one of very few Asians — to undergo cryonic preservation. "We believe death can be overcome in the future," says Sahatorn, the girl's 41-year-old father. "Human beings are seeing technology increasing exponentially. It just doubles, doubles, doubles. If our computer systems proceed like this, they'll double their abilities minute by minute. That would allow us to solve the world's biggest problems." This sentiment will be familiar to anyone versed in the theory of the "Singularity," a postulated era of dazzling possibility that adherents believe will be ushered in by explosive scientific breakthroughs in the coming decades. This belief in exponential scientific achievement, steadily gaining adherents in the West, is embraced by Einz's parents. Both Sahatorn and his wife, Nareerat, hold doctorates in electronics engineering. And both share the view — as do believers in the Singularity — that mortality is a problem science can fix. That faith compelled the grieving engineers to build a capsule for their recently deceased daughter that could regulate her body's temperature during the long shipment to the U.S. (There are no cryonic facilities in Asia.) Einz was collected by the U.S.-based Alcor Life Extension Foundation, the world's largest cryonics operation. The non-profit foundation charges $80,000 to "neuropreserve" a human's brain. The goal, as worded by Alcor, is to "save lives by using temperatures so cold that a person beyond help by today's medicine might be preserved for decades or centuries until a future medical technology can restore that person to full health." Following her death, Matheryn "Einz" Naovaratpong was flown from her native Thailand to the U.S. for cryonic preservation. Her family hopes she can be brought back to life in a future era of profound technological breakthroughs. (Photo: Courtesy of the Naovaratpong family/GlobalPost) Einz is the foundation's 134th "patient." In Alcor's view, she is not dead, per se: "If indeed cryonics patients are recoverable in the future, then clearly they were never really dead in the first place." GlobalPost interviewed the Naovaratpong family at length. We asked how they arrived at this decision, how they would explain this choice to skeptics, and how they imagined life for their daughter if this experiment succeeds. Their comments have been edited for length and clarity. On Einz's origins as a cryo baby Einz was not conceived au naturel. She began as an embryo frozen in a lab one year before her actual birth. (Her mother has a medical condition that prevented her from carrying a child; Einz was birthed by
�▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▐ ░▄▄▄░░▄░░▄░▄░░▄░░▄░░░░▄▄░▄▄░░░▄▄▄░░░▄▄▄ █▄▄▄█░█▄▄█░█▄▄█░░█░░░█░░█░░█░█▄▄▄█░█░░░█ █░░░█░░█░░░░█░░░░█░░░█░░█░░█░█░░░█░█░░░█ ▀░░░▀░░▀░░░░▀░░░░▀▀▀░░░░░░░░░▀░░░▀░▀▄▄▄▀ (20:58:19) (FancySloth): ayy (20:58:22) (FancySloth): lmao (20:58:35) (Commentator): It's a strange turn of events! The leading cars from last stage are dropping back! (20:58:45) (Commentator): :O Poly's accidentally let go of Nurse Rock! (20:59:03) (FancySloth): :y: (20:59:17) (FancySloth): I'm not sure what's going on but I like it (20:59:22) (Commentator): Skele and Allstar's Muffin Mobile are now side-by-side! (20:59:30) (Commentator): hang on! (20:59:31) (PolyMcFly): That's heavy! (20:59:40) (Commentator): Both TJ and Geeker's Tea Trolley have stopped! (20:59:46) (Commentator): They're... They're... (20:59:50) (Commentator): having a tea party? :O (20:59:57) sahdee: :doh: (21:00:12) sahdee: This is worse than tea time in space (21:00:18) (Commentator): Poor old Fro has dropped down to 10th! (21:01:04) (Commentator): Steelhooves is starting to tank! He's falling back in the pack as well! (21:01:18) (Commentator): but Remmy, Redis and the Horsey are leading! (21:01:23) (Commentator): What a strange sight! (21:02:16) (Commentator): Poly has been forced to manually move his hoverboard! Sahdee's caught up with Blee, Allstarr and Skele! (21:02:35) (Commentator): Just in front, Moosey, CTR and Nurse Rock are in a similar position! (21:03:07) (Commentator): And what's this? Cdos is making a mid-race dash! (21:03:33) (Commentator): TJ and the Tea Trolley have started up again, but instead of racing they're having a polite conversation :? (21:03:45) Lolzrfunni: Go faster :( (21:04:25) (Commentator): Elimi in GMP-Mobile and the Yeti-Mobile are now being threatened by Dossy! (21:04:47) (Commentator): Lolz and Luuk have caught up to sahdee! (21:04:50) (PolyMcFly): Alright I can do this. "Let's see if the bastards can reach 90!" (21:05:04) Lolzrfunni: FATMOBILE AWAY! (21:05:32) (Commentator): Luuk makes an attempt to pass! But sahdee blocks him with her shield! (21:05:48) Lolzrfunni: HAX (21:06:05) (Commentator): Lolz makes a move for the inside in the Fatmobile! (21:06:11) (Commentator): Sahdee loses the position! (21:06:17) sahdee: Aww (21:06:17) Lolzrfunni: nyaaaaah :P (21:06:24) (Commentator): but sahdee passes back! (21:06:30) Lolzrfunni: aaaagh! (21:06:36) sahdee: Suck it! (21:06:44) (Commentator): and Luuk passes Lolzi! (21:06:49) Lolzrfunni: boooo! boooooo! (21:07:12) sahdee: Your car is still sticky (21:07:16) (Commentator): :O Sahdee oversteers! (21:07:25) DBCrumpets brandishes tentacle (21:07:25) sahdee: Uhh, whoops (21:07:27) (Commentator): her car slides out at the corner! (21:07:35) (Commentator): Lolz and Luuk are through! (21:07:38) Lolzrfunni: wheeeeee! (21:08:00) (Commentator): Lolzi is beside luukie! Sahdee's trying to catch them both! (21:08:12) (Commentator): :O They're three-wide! (21:08:20) Lolzrfunni: :hyper: (21:08:29) sahdee: :hyper: (21:08:32) (Commentator): it's going to be decided by the corner! (21:08:53) (Commentator): Sahdee has the inside line! she's past Lolzi! But Lolzi holds on against luuk and catches sahdee's slipstream! (21:09:00) Lolzrfunni: vroooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom (21:09:29) (Commentator): Sahdee's bashing Lolz with her shield-type-thing! (21:09:38) Lolzrfunni: meanie! Meaaaanie! (21:09:58) sahdee: :D (21:10:05) (Commentator): Lolz drops back! Luuk passes him! (21:10:12) Lolzrfunni: 3: (21:10:23) sahdee: You're lucky I didn't use the guns (21:10:50) Lolzrfunni: At the front, Redis is in danger of being passed - by the horsey? (21:11:04) (Commentator): hey! that's my line! (21:11:12) Lolzrfunni: I wanted to commentate too :( (21:11:15) (Commentator): idiot! (21:11:27) Lolzrfunni: I even have the TV feed in my car! (21:11:36) (Commentator): Shouldn't you be concentrating on the road? (21:11:46) Lolzrfunni: aaaagh! You're right! (21:12:16) (Commentator): Lolzi crashes into the House-O-Props!! (21:12:24) Lolzrfunni: aaaaaaagh! (21:12:32) (Commentator): Lolzi goes through the House-O-Props!! (21:12:42) Lolzrfunni: WHAT IS THIS? (21:13:05) (Commentator): Two men are carrying a pane of glass across the House-O-Props drive! (21:13:07) Lolzrfunni: aaaaaah! (21:13:39) Lolzrfunni: SMAAAAAASH (21:13:43) (Commentator): O.o (21:14:11) Lolzrfunni: what's going on :cry: (21:14:56) (Commentator): Back to the action, Redis is barely holding off the horsey! (21:15:04) (Commentator): Rem is coming up behind them! (21:15:14) (Commentator): and Dossy follows behind! (21:15:35) sahdee: brunight (21:15:51) (Commentator): Sahdee! You can't sleep during the race! (21:16:04) sahdee: but it's so late :cry: (21:16:14) (Commentator): 8o (21:16:31) (Commentator): Sahdee's driven straight off the road! (21:16:35) DBCrumpets: bru (21:16:39) (Commentator): She's driving through the moors! Asleep! (21:16:44) Lolzrfunni: wot (21:16:51) DBCrumpets: inb4 sahdee wins the race asleep (21:16:52) Lolzrfunni: brunight sahdee! (21:17:12) (Commentator): What is even going on? :cry: (21:17:21) ChatBot: sahdee logs out of the Chat. (21:17:29) DBCrumpets: sahdee's winning the race asleep (21:17:36) (Commentator): :\| (21:18:06) (Commentator): she's driving straight across the moors! She's barely avoiding trees! And barrels of wine! And rocky bits! (21:18:19) Lolzrfunni: I didn't know she had an off-roader (21:18:42) (Commentator): She's way off the track! Will she survive the race? Only time shall tell... (21:19:07) Lolzrfunni: she's hacking! (21:19:36) (FancySloth): OMG HAXOR! (21:19:37) (Commentator): The finish line is in sight for Redis! Will he hold off the horsey? (21:19:52) (Commentator): It's a straight line to the end of the stage! (21:20:04) (Commentator): the final drag-race! (21:20:21) (Commentator): Redis, Rem, Horsey and Cdos are all in the running for 1st! (21:20:30) myductape: inb4 doc peri outta nowhere (21:20:39) (Commentator): Cdos is trying to use Remmy's slipstream to gain speed! (21:20:54) (Commentator): the horsey's legs are a blur! (21:21:16) (Commentator): But REDIS FINISHES THE STAGE IN FIRST! Then Horsey, Remmy and Cdos! (21:21:30) Lolzrfunni: :O (21:21:31) (FancySloth): Ayy lmao (21:22:00) (Commentator): The Yeti-mobile, followed by Elimi and Nurse Rock finishes next! (21:22:34) (Commentator): Then it's Moosey, CTR, Skele, Starr, Blee and... (21:22:38) (Commentator): SAHDEE!? (21:22:44) Lolzrfunni: boooooo! boooooo! (21:22:50) (Commentator): somehow she rejoined the track! (21:23:18) (Commentator): She finishes just ahead of Luuk and Lolz! (21:23:40) DBCrumpets: lol (21:23:50) (Commentator): then it's Agent Steelhooves, Auzzie, and, following a massive fall from grace, Towwie in the Tow Truck! (21:24:19) (Commentator): Rebound, Fro, The Rallycross Fighter, and Tele come next (21:24:38) (FancySloth): :carlton: (21:24:43) (Commentator): and finally, Poly, TJ and the Tea Trolley complete the stage! (21:24:48) (Commentator): Wow! (21:25:50) (Commentator): So, Join us next time for Stage 4: Amethyst Cove! (21:26:03) (Commentator): And From me, Mr. Commentator Bloke... (21:26:08) (Commentator): Goodbye! (21:26:17) (FancySloth): AYY LMAO (21:26:19) ChatBot: (Commentator) logs out of the Chat. RAW Paste Data (18:05:11) (Commentator): Welcome, welcome one and all! (18:05:13) myductape: i didnt know triangles could frown (18:05:33) (Commentator): Today, we shall be continuing the rather wonderful journey across Chroma in spectacular fashion! (18:05:47) Lolzrfunni: Yes, we shall be doing a double-bill of races! (18:06:12) (Polygon): Hey where's mesh... oh wait... (18:06:15) (Commentator): shut up Lolz (18:06:20) (Commentator): I'm the commentator here (18:06:28) Lolzrfunni: hey! I pay you! (18:06:30) ChatBot: (Polygon) is now known as (PolyMcFly). (18:06:31) (Commentator): nyaaah :P (18:06:49) sahdee: :hyper: (18:06:54) (Commentator): Yes, today we shall be doing a double bill of races! (18:07:04) (Nurse_Rock): [](/medicredheart)Time for the combat medic to come out. (18:07:04) Lolzrfunni: meanie commentator stealing my words :c (18:07:25) (Nurse_Rock): Wait, we're supposed to get paid for this? (18:07:36) (Commentator): First off, we continue where we left off through the streets of the Sapphire District! (18:07:39) (Nurse_Rock): I haven't seen a paycheck as long as I've been here! (18:07:43) Lolzrfunni: I pay him in ham sandwhiches (18:07:45) (Nurse_Rock): I'll sue your ass! (18:07:58) Lolzrfunni: oh god, not more FCAR lawsuits (18:08:06) Lolzrfunni: none of them ever work anyway (18:08:13) (Commentator): order! order! (18:08:18) (Nurse_Rock): [](/nursesaywhat)I don't eat meat. (18:08:43) sahdee: The races are supposed to have prizes too (18:08:50) (Commentator): :\| (18:09:02) (Commentator): Wait, we haven't announced the winning prize yet? (18:09:08) (Commentator): Well, guess what? (18:09:41) (Commentator): The drive who crosses the finish line first cuts the tape to the NEW AND IMPROVED OYSTERDERP DOWNTOWN DISCTRICT! (18:09:49) Lolzrfunni: Amazing! (18:09:56) sahdee: :hyper: (18:10:00) (Commentator): and second place gets a pizza (18:10:34) (Commentator): yeah, we spent most of the prize budget on the spectacular opening ceremony... (18:10:42) myductape: hey dont cut me (18:10:43) (Commentator): Third place gets a corn dog (18:10:56) sahdee throws a shoe at the commentator (18:11:00) (Commentator): myductape we're using scotch tape so it's fine :3 (18:11:09) myductape: but but (18:11:15) (Commentator): shhh no teas now (18:11:15) myductape: not my child (18:11:16) (Nurse_Rock): [](/happynurse)Can we exchange the corn dog for a salad? (18:11:23) (Commentator): or should that be tears? :g: (18:11:34) (Commentator): (Nurse_Rock) I'm sure that can be arranged (18:11:52) Lolzrfunni: GET ON WITH THE RACE (18:11:56) (Nurse_Rock): [](/redheart)Yeah. (18:12:00) Lolzrfunni: OR NO SANDWHICH (18:12:17) (Commentator): okay, fine... (18:12:19) (Commentator): erhem (18:13:10) (Commentator): It's an exciting 1st part of the race today. Following driver Bob's crash into the Cote D'azur marina, the Tentomobile is out of the FCAR trans-chroma continental! (18:13:25) (Commentator): Only 28 drivers remain in the running! exciting stuff. (18:13:42) (Nurse_Rock): I like my chances. 28 is my lucky number. (18:14:14) (Commentator): finishing first in the Cote D'azur stage was Zwooshie with his car Vroom! (18:14:26) (Commentator): Will he be able to continue his speedy performance? (18:15:00) (Commentator): Sahdee and Rem are both excited to test out their various probably-illegal weapons today... this can only end well :\| (18:15:19) sahdee: :hyper: (18:15:52) ChatBot: ben456111 logs into the Chat. (18:16:15) (Commentator): First-time racer Doc Periwinkle in his time-machine type thingy is looking hopeful, managing a solid 8th place, while the Beard on Wheels driven by Rebound floundered! Either he's saving the best till last or he got caught up in the large array of street food available there... (18:16:40) (Commentator): but, the time for fillers is over! The racers are ready! The Red lights are out! (18:16:41) (Commentator): 10 (18:16:45) (Commentator): 9 (18:16:47) (Commentator): 8 (18:16:48) (Commentator): 7 (18:16:52) (Commentator): 6 (18:16:54) (Commentator): 5 (18:16:56) (Commentator): 4 (18:16:57) (Commentator): 3 (18:16:59) (Commentator): 2 (18:17:01) (PolyMcFly): :hyper: (18:17:01) (Commentator): 1 (18:17:03) (Commentator):....... (18:17:07) (Commentator): DRAMATIC PAAAAAAAUSE (18:17:10) (PolyMcFly): Get on with it! (18:17:28) (Nurse_Rock) vroom vroom (18:17:29) (Commentator): AND IT'S GO GO GO! (18:17:47) (Commentator): FRO MAKES AN AMAZING START! HE AND REDIS ARE CHARGING THROUGH THE PACK! (18:17:56) (Commentator): Zwooshie is losing ground to Blee! (18:18:17) (Commentator): Amazing! Doc Periwinkle is in 4th place almost instantly! How does he do it? (18:18:38) sahdee: Rock why?! :cry: (18:18:39) (Commentator): Nurse Rock is also particularly fast at the start, she's gaining position quickly! (18:18:50) (PolyMcFly): Did he reach 88 mph? (18:19:14) (Commentator): Poly seems to have chosen to grab onto Nurse Rock this time! It's a bold maymay - sorry, strategy, will it pay off? (18:19:29) (Nurse_Rock): It's to distract you (18:19:45) (Commentator): Agent Steelhooves appears to another quick racer today, he's gaining position alongside Nurse Rock! (18:20:00) (Commentator): :O Cheeky giggler Cdos has accidentally fallen off the Tow Truck! (18:20:06) (Commentator): Now he has to actually drive his own car! (18:20:14) (Nurse_Rock): [](/nurse-r) Get outta here ponybro! (18:20:19) (PolyMcFly) laugh hysterically (18:20:22) (Commentator): and the Tow Truck, having shed the weight, is charging through the pack! (18:20:34) sahdee: I'm not doing well (18:20:36) (PolyMcFly) stops laughing (18:20:40) (Commentator): What's this? (18:20:42) (Commentator): :O :O :O (18:20:53) (Commentator): Doc Periwinkle's hit 88 Miles Per Hour! (18:20:54) (Commentator): Oh no! (18:21:08) (Commentator): his car's disappeared! (18:21:21) (Commentator): well kids, that's one lesson for you... (18:21:28) (Commentator): Never race a time machine. (18:21:42) (PolyMcFly): What if he goes back in time and kills us all? (18:21:57) (Commentator): Lolz is dropping position! Has he got a problem with the Fatmobile? (18:21:57) (Nurse_Rock): : Click the Thumbnail for Lightbox Popup : View Original Link (18:22:11) Lolzrfunni: There's Sirop spilling everywhere! Heeelp! (18:22:24) (Commentator): :O And Zwooshie's crashed off! Oh no! (18:22:37) (Nurse_Rock): Is it plausible that I didn't hear them screaming for help? (18:22:40) (PolyMcFly) Canadianing intensifies (18:22:42) sahdee: Poor Zwooshie (18:22:43) (Commentator): He's gone straight into the window of a barber's shop1 (18:22:49) (Nurse_Rock): Nah that was pretty loud I better go check it out... (18:22:56) (Commentator): I'm so shocked that my exclamation marks are broken! (18:23:14) (Commentator): Fro's made it to 8th place! (18:23:37) (Commentator): and Redis is now in 15th! He started all the way back in 25th place! (18:23:46) (PolyMcFly): :O (18:23:58) (Commentator): Remnance is trying to shoot the horsey with his cannon! (18:24:09) sahdee: Go Rem! (18:24:10) (Commentator): :O The recoil has pushed him off course! (18:24:23) (Commentator): He's gone into a ditch! (18:24:45) (Commentator): It's a good thing he's in a tank or he'd be stuck there forever! But this could cost him his position! (18:25:19) (Commentator): Skele and Sahdee are both dropping back! What's happened to them? Are mechanical problems already setting in? (18:26:06) (Commentator): Rebound is doing particularly well, he's making up plenty from his slow performance last race! (18:26:27) (Commentator): Fro is doing amazingly well! He;s reached 4th place and is threatening an ailing Blee! (18:27:11) (Commentator): The GMP-Mobile driven by Elimi is dropping back too! But Nurse Rock is up into the top 10! (18:27:26) (PolyMcFly): Alright! (18:27:41) (Commentator): Redis is also in the top 10! He's side-by-side with Nurse Rock in the Representor Reptilian! (18:28:02) myductape: i really want doc periwinkle to get first and just appear at the end (18:28:03) (Commentator): the Tow Truck is behind them both! Toworn's really going at it in his home territory! (18:28:08) (PolyMcFly) makes rude gestures (18:28:11) (Commentator): the crowds are cheering him on! (18:28:48) (Commentator): Cheeky giggler cdos is still lagging behind! He seems to be barely trying! Does he have a trick up his sleeve? (18:29:05) (Commentator): Lolz, Theel and TJ are all floundering in the midfield! (18:29:17) Lolzrfunni: All the controls are sticky and sirop-y :c (18:29:36) (Commentator): Remmy has dug himself out of the ditch, but he;s in last place! (18:29:37) (PolyMcFly): Ben or I would clean it (18:29:43) (Commentator): and FRO HAS TAKEN THE LEAD! (18:29:55) (PolyMcFly): But then the would be wet an saliva-y (18:30:13) (Commentator): Tow and Redis, followed by Poly and Nurse Rock, as coming up behind! (18:30:52) (PolyMcFly) clutches tighter (18:31:00) (Commentator): GMP-Mobile and Tele's car have joined Sahdee, Cdos and Skele at the back! It seems that a whole host of mechanical trouble has appeared! (18:31:43) (Commentator): one underappreciated racer, Geekerjoy's Tea Trolley, is doing well! She's catching up with the lead pack! (18:31:43) (Nurse_Rock): Gotta go fast! Nurse powers activate! (18:31:43) sahdee: I hate you (18:31:57) (Commentator): Agent Steelhooves and the horsey are right next to each other" (18:32:04) (Commentator): It's horse vs horse! (18:32:09) (Commentator): but who will win? (18:32:22) (Commentator): Redis is challenging for the lead! (18:32:28) (Nurse_Rock): Didn't the horse actually win a race once? (18:32:33) (Commentator): Nurse Rock has taken the Tow Truck! (18:32:45) (Nurse_Rock) vroom vroom (18:32:45) (Commentator): but Towwie is coming round back again! (18:33:00) (Commentator): Nurse Rock is throwing bandages at the lead car! (18:33:10) (PolyMcFly): Yee-haw! (18:33:11) (Commentator): Poly is sticking his tongue out at everyone he sees! (18:33:33) (Commentator): Rebound and Geeker have caught up with the main pack! (18:33:37) (PolyMcFly) tonguing intensifies (18:33:58) (Commentator): Redis is leading! But Towwie, Fro and Nurse Rock are drafting each other in a cheeky attempt to pass him! (18:34:12) (Commentator): Tow is past! But Redis cuts off Fro! (18:34:15) (Commentator): wow! (18:34:23) (Commentator): Fro's past Redis! (18:34:33) (Commentator): What is even going on? (18:34:54) (Commentator): All I know is the Poly is doing some sik flip\ (18:35:03) (Nurse_Rock) throws a bottle of hand sanitizer at Roly (18:35:10) (Nurse_Rock): Get off my ambulance! (18:35:14) (Commentator): :O (18:35:17) (Commentator): How violent!# (18:35:24) DBCrumpets: is that legal? (18:35:35) DBCrumpets: Hippocratic oath and all (18:35:37) (Commentator): Shut up crumpets (18:35:44) (PolyMcFly): Nobody, calls me Roly! (18:35:45) (Commentator): all's fair in FCAR and war (18:35:58) DBCrumpets: including napalm? (18:36:02) (Commentator): Tow's slipstreaming Fro! (18:36:09) (Commentator): Nurse Rock is slipstreaming Tow! (18:36:13) sahdee: DBCrumpets Yeah, we checked (18:36:20) (PolyMcFly): (God I've waited so long to make that reference.) (18:36:21) (Nurse_Rock): My Hippocratic Oath excludes FCAR. I checked the fine print. (18:36:26) (Commentator): Redis is slipstreaming Nurse Rock! (18:36:40) DBCrumpets air lifts sahdee napalm (18:36:40) (Commentator): Geeker is Slipstreaming Redis! (18:36:51) (Commentator): Its anyone going to make a move!? (18:36:58) sahdee: I demand more screen time! (18:36:59) (PolyMcFly) struggles to hold on during slipstream (18:37:35) (Commentator): Yes! Redis brakes hard! He takes the inside line on the corner! (18:37:45) (Nurse_Rock): [](/medicredheart) sahdee maybe if you were a better racer you would get some (18:38:03) (Commentator): Nurse Rock and Tow both have heavy cars! They can only watch as Redis take them on the hairpin! (18:38:23) (Commentator): but Fro is giving Redis a run for his money! (18:38:38) (PolyMcFly): Speed up Nursey! (18:38:55) (Commentator): the finish line for this stage is in sight! Will Fro be able to hold him off long enough? (18:38:57) ChatBot: naughtypenguin logs into the Chat. (18:39:04) (Nurse_Rock): [](/nurse)Get your own damn ride (18:39:04) DBCrumpets: hru naughty (18:39:07) (Commentator): :O :O :O (18:39:19) (Nurse_Rock): time for my secret weapon >:-D (18:39:21) (Commentator): Fro finishes first! (18:39:26) (Commentator): Redis 2nd! (18:39:29) (Nurse_Rock) turns on ambulance sirens (18:39:30) sahdee shoots the laser cannon at the commentator (18:39:32) (Nurse_Rock): wee woo (18:39:34) (Nurse_Rock): wee woo (18:39:36) (Nurse_Rock): wee woo (18:39:39) sahdee: hru Naughty (18:39:46) naughtypenguin: hru (18:39:49) DBCrumpets: has the commentator been killed? (18:39:52) DBCrumpets: rip (18:39:53) naughtypenguin: is today the Fcar race? (18:39:55) (Commentator): But Nurse Rock accidentally hitches herself on Towwi! (18:40:04) (Commentator): TOW FINISHES 3RD! (18:40:09) (Nurse_Rock): HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK (18:40:13) (Commentator): Nurse Rock 4th! Poly in 5th! (18:40:16) sahdee: AND WHAT HAPPENED TO ZWOOSH? (18:40:19) (Commentator): Geeker 6th (18:40:20) (PolyMcFly): Yeah!!!! (18:40:23) (Nurse_Rock): he dead (18:40:25) (Commentator): Rebound 7th! (18:40:30) sahdee: Worst race ever (18:40:35) sahdee: I want my money back (18:40:35) naughtypenguin: lol (18:40:46) naughtypenguin: i'll see if i can mspaint a car for the next one (18:41:00) (Commentator): the Rallycross Fighter and Luukie's car both managed respectable performances! they finish 8th and 9th respectively (18:41:15) (Commentator): Blee finish 10th! (18:41:19) sahdee smashes teapots (18:41:22) (Commentator): The Yeti-Mobile in 11th! (18:41:26) (Nurse_Rock): [](/happynurse)Ah well, 4th ain't bad. (18:41:34) sahdee: You let Zwoosh die (18:41:36) (Commentator): Steelhooves and Infamous in 12 and 13! (18:41:45) (Commentator): sahdee he's fine! (18:41:54) (Commentator): he was 2d in the first place, it didn't hurt him :P (18:42:21) (Nurse_Rock): Alright, anyone he needs medical attention come see me. (18:42:26) DBCrumpets: http://strawpoll.me/3538876 * (18:42:31) (Commentator): oops, the horsey beat Steelhooves! The Horsey managed 13! (18:42:31) (Nurse_Rock) opens up ambulance (18:42:40) (Commentator): waht's even gone on there? (18:43:04) (Commentator): Apparently the horsey passed both Steelhooves and Moosey! The Horsey finished in 12th place! (18:43:15) (Commentator): how does that even work? I don't know... (18:43:20) naughtypenguin: :popcorn: (18:43:30) (Commentator): then it was Theel, Lolz and TJ for 15, 16 and 17 (18:43:38) sahdee: I'm going to write a strongly worded letter to FCAR right now (18:43:47) (Commentator): Auzzie, CTR and Allstarr in 18, 19 and 20 (18:44:00) DBCrumpets: sahdee the votes are in (18:44:05) DBCrumpets: get out your tentacles (18:44:10) (Nurse_Rock): Learn to drive Empress. Or use your wings. (18:44:16) ChatBot: cdos93 logs into the Chat. (18:44:21) (Commentator): and finally, Elim, Sahdee, Cdos, Skele and REmmy... (18:44:23) DBCrumpets: cdos http://strawpoll.me/3538876 (18:44:25) DBCrumpets: hru (18:44:37) cdos93: where do i finish? (18:44:43) (Commentator): Poor old dossy just didn't have the performance once he unhitched from the Tow Truck :c (18:44:50) (Commentator): But, this isn't over! (18:45:02) (Commentator): Join us shortly for the 2nd race in our double bill! (18:45:09) cdos93: BOOOO (18:45:11) (Commentator): Stage 3: Turquoise Moors! (18:45:16) cdos93: where do i finish? (18:45:19) cdos93: tell em (18:45:20) naughtypenguin: maybe fcar needs another audit? (18:45:21) (Commentator): Will Sahdee get her tenacle-y revenge? (18:45:25) (Nurse_Rock): hru dossy (18:45:28) sahdee: YES (18:45:29) (Commentator): Will Cdos get his speedos on? (18:45:31) cdos93: WE DEMAND ANSWERS (18:45:41) cdos93: WE DEMAND RE ROLLS (18:45:43) (Commentator): Will Fro hold onto first
a few years ago in Dallas. Carter had a decent year, but played really well in the playoffs (even if it was in a series his team ended up losing). He averaged 12.5 points per game, hit a game-winning shot, and translated that into a three-year deal from another team that didn’t really do their homework; Memphis has been looking for ways out of Vince’s deal pretty much since it started. Scola’s success in Toronto is has been surprising to me. He has a reputation of being a great teammate but definitely a highly opinionated and vocal person. When they both played in Houston, it was an open secret that he and Kyle Lowry really didn’t like each other. I really thought that this would be a down year for him, but to his credit he has found and filled a great role. As a result, he’s in a position to solidify a muti-year deal and force a team to overpay based on a small sample size in the playoffs. Dwane Casey To me, this is the most interesting case of all. What will happen with Dwane Casey? He is a clear example of a coach who has learned on the job and gotten better for it. But there is a very clear hurdle in place for him when it comes to getting out of the first round of the playoffs. All of my interactions with him confirm the widely held belief around the league that Casey is an all-time human being, truly loved among his peers. But he’s a coach who at times very clearly shows pressure and stress, and the players who play for him pick up on that. The Raptors franchise as a whole has shown signs of inexperience during the last two playoffs they’ve appeared in, and those distractions definitely impact the players. During Casey’s Toronto tenure a lot has been changed around Casey during his Toronto tenure. You’d be hard-pressed to find another head coach who has had as many assistants come and go—without any of them accepting head coaching positions— yet the team has had sustained success. If everything around him changes but the playoff results stay the same, the next thing to change will be obvious to everyone, Casey included.Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Dave Nonis watches a lot of hockey. Sometimes he watches that hockey live and in-person. Most of the time Nonis watches hockey in Toronto, but he sometimes watches hockey elsewhere. On Friday night, for example, he was apparently in Edmonton to watch some NHL-level hockey being played by two teams that he doesn't manage: Just saw Leafs GM Dave Nonis walking into Rexall Place to watch EDM-VAN. Will Scrivens' play tonight affect Reimer's whereabouts tmw? — Mark Spector (@SportsnetSpec) October 18, 2014 So is Nonis just getting some advanced scouting in? That would seem odd, since the Maple Leafs don't face either the Edmonton Oilers or the Vancouver Canucks until December. Are the Oilers and Maple Leafs talking about a potential goalie trade? Maybe, though Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier is playing through pain, so the timing of such a deal would seem a bit odd. How about the Leafs defense? That could make sense: the Oilers could use some help in that regard, while the Maple Leafs seem to have a surplus of bodies along their blue line at the moment. Or maybe Nonis is just watching hockey because that's what Nonis likes to do. Let the speculation rage.The owner of a hipster-approved beer company may come to the rescue of a beloved classic snack. When Hostess announced plans to liquidate, fans of the baked-goods company feared the fate of the Twinkie. But lovers of the cream-filled sponge cake, fret not: Twinkies may survive thanks to the owner of Pabst Brewing, Co. “Our family would love to purchase these iconic brands,” Daren Metropoulos, a principal at the Greenwich-based firm, told Bloomberg. “We are actively pursuing this deal as no doubt strategics will also." Adding, “We have analyzed this opportunity very carefully for a few years now. Shedding the complications of the unions and old plants makes it even more attractive.” Metropoulos specializes in buying and revitalizing struggling brands like Chef Boyardee pasta products, PAM cooking spray, and Bumble Bee tuna. The firm purchased Pabst for $250 million in 2011, according to Forbes. It is North America's largest privately-held brewer. Hostess Chief Executive Gregory Rayburn echoed Metropoulos' point on unions, stating that buyers' interests piqued after union ties severed. "Nobody wants to have anything to do with these old plants or these unions or these contracts," Rayburn told the Wall Street Journal regarding the Hostess bankruptcy auction. Liquidated Hostess would be freed from collective-bargaining agreements. Rumors that Grupo Bimbo, a Mexican mega-bakery that claims the title of world's largest bread baker, may also make an offer spread last week. However, Rayburn told Bloomberg that this is a "misconception" and that “due to antitrust, it would never happen." Other potential Twinkie saviors include McKee Foods, maker of Little Debbie snack cakes; Flower Foods, which owns Tastykake; and Canadian company Weston Foods, according to CNN.Harmonix's split from Viacom earlier this year has rejuvenated the studio and inspired a flurry of creativity, the developer has told Eurogamer. The Rock Band outfit's vice president of production Tracy Rosenthal-Newsom explained that its new self-owned status has opened up a number of exciting avenues. "I think it has been a terrific opportunity for us," she explained. "We are very well supported but really the most important thing is there's a huge amount of creative energy that has bubbled up during our independence. "As we've been in development on Dance Central 2 we've also been in development on a bunch of new ideas. It's just been terrific to see the company get back to the core collaborative design process that we have – putting small games together, making prototypes and thinking up really innovative gameplay. We're super excited to see what comes of that in the future." As revealed earlier this year, a mysterious title called Vidrhythm is among the projects being worked on, though Rosenthal-Newsom was reluctant to offer any details as to exactly what that is. "It's going to be fun. You'll hear about it in the future. We're not giving a timeline on it but you'll be hearing about it pretty soon," was all we could coax out of her. Aside from the secret stuff and, of course, Dance Central 2, Harmonix also plans to keep on pumping out the Rock Band 3 content. "It's still a very successful business for us. There are a tonne of Rock Band players out there waiting to see what's next every week. We've get a lot of really high profile artist [lined up]. There's been a real focus on some incredible content and that will continue on week after week," she noted. However, she remained coy when asked whether a new disc-based entry in the franchise is currently in the works. "At this point we're not announcing anything. Right now our focus is on Rock Band DLC." Communications director John Drake also chimed in, insisting that Rock Band 3 still has plenty of life in it. "With how big Rock Band 3 was – a 93 Metacritic and all the pro features... I don't think our players have necessarily conquered Rock Band 3 yet, so we may have a way to go with that franchise with more songs." Despite industry doom-mongering about the health of the music genre following the demise of Guitar Hero and its associated spin-offs earlier this year, Rosenthal-Newsom added that Harmonix still sees plenty of opportunity in the sector. "Honestly, I think music games generally are always going to be popular. People connect with music every day of their lives. It's something that is really meaningful to them. I think there are a lot of areas where music games can continue to expand." Dance Central 2 shimmies its way onto Kinect this Autumn.A Wisconsin city has been given the green light to draw water from the Great Lakes after eight states approved a precedent-setting request that had raised concerns in Canada and the U.S. The go-ahead means the city of Waukesha has become the first exception to an agreement banning diversions of water away from the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin. Waukesha has been given approval to draw water from Lake Michigan, pictured. A current regional agreement between the U.S., Ontario and Quebec bans diversions of water away from the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin, with limited exceptions that can be made only when certain conditions are met. ( Carlos Osorio / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS File Photo ) The city of about 70,000 people asked to divert water from Lake Michigan because its own aquifer is running low and the water is contaminated with high levels of naturally occurring, cancer-causing radium. Critics in Canada and the U.S. warned that the request would set a dangerous example for other communities facing water shortages. But after making a series of amendments, the representatives of eight states adjoining the Great Lakes — who had final say on the matter after input from Ontario and Quebec— gave Waukesha’s $207-million proposal unanimous approval at a meeting Tuesday. Article Continued Below “There are a lot of emotions and politics surrounding this issue, but voting yes in co-operation with our Great Lakes neighbours is the best way to conserve one of our greatest natural resources,” said Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. “Mandating strict conditions for withdrawing and returning the water sets a strong precedent for protecting the Great Lakes.” Under a current regional agreement between the states and Ontario and Quebec, diversions of water away from the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin are banned, with limited exceptions that can be made only when certain conditions are met. Waukesha argued that although it’s located outside the boundary of the Great Lakes basin, it is part of a county straddling that geographical line and should be allowed access to the lake’s water. It also promised to return treated water to Lake Michigan. Ontario, which conducted a review of the plan, expressed concerns about Waukesha’s request and had found that the potential impacts of the diversion on Great Lakes water quantity had not been sufficiently assessed. “We remain apprehensive about the diversion by Waukesha and will continue to voice the concerns of Ontarians,” Jason Travers, director of the Natural Resources Conservation Policy Branch at Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources said Tuesday. “We also recognize that there is an opportunity to improve the current process by refining existing guidelines.” Ontario and Quebec did not get a say in the final vote on Waukesha’s request, but representatives of the two provinces were involved in preliminary approval granted to Waukesha last month, which said the city’s request could comply with the regional agreement if certain conditions were met. Article Continued Below Those conditions included shrinking the size of the area it would provide with Lake Michigan water and limiting the average amount of water it would draw to 31 million litres a day. Opponents of Waukesha’s plan warned, however, that the city was likely the first of several communities that would seek to become exceptions to the agreement meant to protect the Great Lakes. “It’s frustrating. A lot of time, effort and money has gone into making our Great Lakes beautiful and preserving the water quality, and this is what can happen in a blink of an eye,” said Mitch Twolan, mayor of Huron-Kinloss, Ont. He is also on the board of directors of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, which represents more than 100 local governments on both sides of the border. The group had urged the Great Lake state governors to reject Waukesha’s application, saying the city’s amended service area was still too large, the return flow of water to Lake Michigan had not been analyzed closely enough, and the approval process dealing with Waukesha’s request has not allowed enough public participation. A Canadian environmental group, which was also among the opponents of Waukesha’s plan, added that the city did not consider treating the radium in its water supply closely enough. “Waukesha did not demonstrate clearly that they had assessed that option,” said Keith Brooks, a spokesman for Environmental Defence. “If we start drawing more water from the lakes than can be replenished, then the water levels are going to go down. Ultimately, only a very small amount of this is a renewable resource.” Read more about:Please enable Javascript to watch this video Watch the full video at the bottom of the post NEW HAVEN -- Video has surfaced of what appears to be a New Haven police officer using force on a 15-year-old girl on Sunday. The New Haven Register reports the incident happened on the day of the city's Saint Patrick's Day parade. The officer is seen putting the girl up against an SUV, and then the two end up on the ground. An internal affairs investigation has been launched into the incident according to The Register. The girl's mother tells the paper that her daughter had to go to the hospital for a shoulder fracture and face wounds. The incident reportedly started as a confrontation between the 15-year-old and another girl outside the Buffalo Wild Wings on Church Street. Police have not released any charges against the girl. "It is being looked into, per the officer's request," police union president Louis Cavaliere Jr. told The Register, "he wanted to be transparent. The union is giving him our full support. I hear nothing but good things about the officer." The New Haven Police Department has not officially commented on the video. Please enable Javascript to watch this video Check back for updates to this developing story.Image caption Researchers say the new printer can create stronger cartilage than other techniques Researchers have developed a way to "print" cartilage that could help treat joint diseases and sporting injuries. They say that the new material is more robust and hardwearing than previous efforts to create artificial cartilage. A traditional ink-jet printer combined with a specialised spinning-machine is used to make it. It could lead to bespoke cartilage created for individual patients. But one expert warned it was too early to be confident it would ever be used. The study was published in the Institute of Physics' journal Biofabrication. It marks the latest effort to use 3D printers in medicine following the use of a machine to make a replacement lower jaw and efforts to create 3D-printed scaffolds to support the growth of bone cells. Animal tests Scientists said they were able to build cartilage made from a chemical compound known as a polymer coated with cartilage cells from a rabbit's ear. They combined the ink-jet printer with a machine that uses an electric current to spin very fine fibres from the polymer solution. It allowed the construction to be easily controlled, meaning scientists could make the artificial cartilage porous. This is key to encouraging real cartilage cells to integrate into the surrounding tissue. So far the printed cartilage has been tested on mice and, after eight weeks, appeared to have developed the properties of real cartilage, suggesting it has potential for insertion into human patients. The scientists said that in the future it could allow medics to create cartilage specific to each patient's needs. They suggest an MRI scan could create a blueprint of a body part, such as a knee, and matching cartilage could be made using the 3D printer. "This is a proof-of-concept study and illustrates that a combinations of materials and fabrication methods generates durable implantable constructs," said James Yoo, a professor at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and one of the paper's authors. Athletes' injuries At present one of the best options available to doctors treating cartilage damage is a technique called microfracture surgery. It involves drilling small holes into the bone in the cartilage's gap to encourage bleeding. Scar tissue then forms over the gap, acting as a replacement for the missing cartilage. But it is not generally suitable for older or more obese patients, and it does not work if the lesion is too large. Dr Richard Weiler - a consultant in sport and exercise medicine at University College London Hospitals - told the BBC the new innovation could potentially offer respite to a wider range of the patients he treated. But he had doubts about whether it would ever be used. "Certainly with sport there are injuries that cause damage to cartilage - we have seen this with some famous footballers, cyclists and other athletes who have had traumatic injuries where the cartilage has been damaged and then drops off and doesn't grow back very well in the affected area," he said. "However, there have been lots of previous cartilage replacement technologies that were shown to have had an effect in animals but have proved not to be as good as hoped when used long-term by humans. "This technology sounds an interesting development, we would just want to make sure it's safe."The waitresses called him Googly Eyes. Because no matter where they were or what they were doing, whenever they looked over he’d be watching them. Announcements, Events & more from Tyee and select partners ‘Punch to the Gut’ Musical on Residential Schools Returns to Vancouver Children of God has been shaped by intense audience reactions, says director Corey Payette. Every day around lunchtime, Googly Eyes would show up at the restaurant where Laura worked. He’d sit at the bar, order one iced tea, and stay for hours staring at the servers as they scurried around the restaurant in their short skirts and high heels. Late in the afternoon he’d leave. Then he’d come back at dinnertime and do it again. “He would make weird comments under his breath and mutter at the female staff and stare at them. It was so creepy,” says Laura. She’d been working in restaurants for close to a decade at that point. She was used to weirdos and low-level harassment. But this was different. We need to do something about this guy, she told her manager. He brushed her off. Laura persisted. He’s making every woman who works here uncomfortable, she said. His response infuriated her. “He said, ‘Well you knew what you were asking for when you decided to work here. You knew what you were going to have to wear and the attention you were going to get. You signed up for that. That’s your problem.’” In Canada, nearly 80 per cent of food and beverage servers are women. For 15 years, Laura was among them. From British Columbia to Alberta, from sports bars to nightclubs to classy lounges, she’s heard the message that waiting tables means “signing up for” harassment over and over again. Laura’s restaurant work experience wasn’t all bad. She loves the industry, actually. Most of the time, serving is fun. She met her best friends in restaurants. She had supportive managers who had her back when customers got difficult. Sometimes they were even in the same restaurants where other managers told her to suck it up when she complained about harassment. But the restaurant industry, say more than half a dozen servers like Laura who were interviewed for this story, is like the Wild West: the rights of its denizens depend on the morality and goodwill of its sheriffs. Sexism has plagued the industry forever. But, as detailed in yesterday’s piece decisions made by the B.C. government only make it worse. Laura doesn’t understand why officials don’t seem to care. “At a time when it’s understood that treating women this way is unacceptable in almost every HR department across Canada,” she says, “I don’t understand how the restaurant industry slips through the cracks.” Some experts blame B.C’s employment policies. The liquor server minimum wage, brought in in 2011, makes servers more reliant on tips — meaning their income is more dependent on keeping customers happy. What’s more, funding cuts at the Employment Standards Branch leave servers vulnerable in the face of what many say is an industry rife with employment rights violations. These policies help reinforce the industry’s pervasive sexism. A few days after complaining to her manager about Googly Eyes, Laura was working a day shift. Googly Eyes was back in his usual seat at the bar, leering at the servers. And then the police arrived. “They walk right into the restaurant, down to where he’s sitting at the bar, handcuff him and drag him out,” she says. News came through the restaurant grapevine that Googly Eyes had warrants out for his arrest for attempting to sexually assault a server at another restaurant and for following servers home from work. “It was some sort of vindication for me that we weren’t imagining it,” says Laura. But the experience was demoralizing. She felt betrayed and belittled. It confirmed what she’d suspected: her role in her workplace was ornamental, her personal safety unimportant. ‘It’s about an experience’ The restaurant that Googly Eyes frequented was part of a chain that cultivates a lounge-style atmosphere. The servers are beautiful. Their heels are high. Their skirts stop at least two inches above their knees. Their makeup is flawless. They’re selling you more than just your dinner. “It’s not just about food, it’s about an experience. That’s what every restaurant is selling,” explains Laura, who, like other servers interviewed for this story, asked that her identity be hidden for fear of losing out on work opportunities. “Everyone’s coming in for an experience, you’re giving them whatever experience they want.” Beautiful waitstaff are often part of the experience of dining out. And it leads to barely concealed, discriminatory hiring policies. Many servers say they’ve seen managers jot codes onto incoming resumes to rate a job candidate’s physical attractiveness. To be a server, said one woman who used to work in a high-end downtown Vancouver restaurant, you have to have “a base level of physical attractiveness.” The attractiveness standard applies to men, as well, servers say. But, they often rush to add, men aren’t forced to wear uncomfortable shoes. And it’s the shoes that inspire the most outrage. Of the eight women interviewed for this story, six complained about dress codes requiring high-heeled shoes. “I would ask to take the heels off. Like, ‘My feet are bleeding, can I please put on my flats?’” says Emily, a 24-year-old server who’s been working in restaurants for a decade. “I would get met with the response: ‘Oh, well, you can take them off for five minutes but you have to put them back on.’ I used to have Band-Aids all over my feet,” she says. She left that job and now works in a restaurant where she can wear what she wants. Morgan worked for nearly two years in a downtown Vancouver sports bar that insisted she wear two-inch heels. With slippery laminate kitchen floors, she says, accidents were inevitable. “At least once in any given server’s time you’d slip and fall so everyone would see what you were wearing underneath your skirt,” she says. “They were super tight skirts, too, so it didn’t leave too much to the imagination.” Morgan looked into provincial rules about safe footwear in the workplace. She doesn’t understand how employers are allowed to make servers wear two-inch heels. Lorne Scarlett, an industry specialist working in the Tourism and Hospitality industry with WorkSafeBC, says the agency is aware that some restaurants in the province still require servers to wear high-heeled shoes. “We as an organization don’t endorse that, by any means,” he says. But WorkSafeBC only has prescriptive regulations around footwear in high-risk industries such as construction and forestry. For the lower-risk restaurant industry, the regulation simply calls for “appropriate footwear.” WorkSafeBC recommends that restaurants institute their own policies around footwear, but many don’t. And even among the ones that do, “appropriate” is open to interpretation. What is written into WorkSafeBC regulations, says Scarlett, is that workers have the right to refuse unsafe work. “If they feel that it’s unsafe for them to wear those heels, they have a right to refuse. They can’t be fired, they can’t be disciplined for it,” he says. But a third of the industry is made up of young workers. Many of them don’t know their rights. And even when they do, they’re unlikely to stand up for them. They know, after all, that many employers in this industry consider them disposable. ‘I still get nightmares’ Morgan considered protesting the shoes she was forced to wear. But in the restaurant industry, complaining is the way to lose hours and get scheduled for less-lucrative shifts. She needed the money. If you’re worried about paying your bills, she says, you’re not going to take the risk of flouting a dress code. Wearing heels took a toll on Morgan’s body. At 23, she was already starting to have problems with her knees and her hips. She finally quit the sports bar and found a job at a high-end burger restaurant. She wears flats to work now. But a year and a half later, her feet and hips still give her problems. Tegan spent 14 years working in restaurants. Serving builds character, she says, but the work can be soul crushing. “I won’t go so far as to say I have PTSD, but I haven’t served in two years and I still get nightmares,” she says. “It’s not a good environment." High heels are one of the subjects that get her fired up, too. “It’s almost as if it’s the hill these restaurants are going to die on,” she says. “Servers can come in with their hair askew, last night’s makeup on, glasses, whatever else, but if their fucking shoes aren’t right, they’re out. It’s like a minimum sexiness level.” She knows attractive wait-staff contribute to a restaurant’s atmosphere. And she notes that she usually made better money when she spent more time on her appearance. “On the days when you really make an effort with your makeup and you make your eyebrows look great, you see that reflected in your tips,” she says. And she admits that admiration from customers — offered in words and cash — often gave her a boost. Everyone likes to hear that they’re pretty. Hearing, with a pleasant smile, customers make flirtatious remarks is part of the job, say many servers. Some enjoy it. But flirting can easily cross the line to harassment. Tegan’s voice hardens and rises when asked how she felt about the rule at her last restaurant job that required her to wear a cocktail dress and two-inch heels. What bothers her, she says, is that the sexiness standard is unevenly applied. “If your restaurant is branded as ‘sexy,’ that’s not extended to the men,” she says. Male servers aren’t expected to dress like Chippendales, she says. Can you imagine a waiter wearing a sleeveless dress shirt with a bowtie? “Why is it socially accepted and why is it accepted industry-wide that women get to be objectified in that workplace but men don’t get to be? It’s predatory,” she says. Trial by fire Laura can’t even remember all of the incidents of harassment she experienced during her 15 years in the industry. She rattles off as many as she can think of. “I’ve had employers make comments about my body. I’ve had male managers make comments about the way my butt looks, the way my boobs look, non-stop. I’ve had them make comments about the way my outfit looks on me. I’ve had male managers grab me. I’ve had my ass smacked,” she says. Her eyes snap as she works her way through the long list of sexual comments, uninvited gropes and other assorted indignities. This kind of behaviour is just the culture in a lot of restaurants, she says. “It’s just kind of normal, it’s not a big deal, whatever.” Supportive managers — most often found in restaurants with strong management training — have a big influence on workplace culture, she says. But there’s really no way to know what management is like until you’re on the job. Many of the servers interviewed for this series said the agony of their work — physical and mental — causes them to dream of an escape. But low wages and variable hours make it hard to get enough financial traction to make a switch to another line of work. For Laura, the decision arrived while her world, literally, burned down around her. After 15 years and a dozen different restaurants, she’d wound up tending bar in Fort McMurray. The dress code there was the worst one yet. You could see right up the A-line miniskirts whenever a server bent over or stretched up to reach a glass. Laura led a protest, convincing her fellow servers to wear jean shorts instead. They lost that battle, got scolded mercilessly in a staff meeting. Then, one day last May, Laura saw all that disappearing behind her in the rear view mirror of her boyfriend’s pickup truck. The largest wildfire in Albertan history was engulfing Fort McMurray. They were fleeing for their lives. “When we were evacuating the city, I had this feeling of relief,” she says. “Which is bizarre: to feel relief when there’s this natural disaster happening. But I felt so trapped working in that restaurant.” The inferno brought clarity. She’s back in Vancouver now where she’s gone “cold turkey, no restaurants.” She’s been job-hunting since June, getting by on temp contracts, Airbnb-ing her apartment for extra cash. This Women's Work Is Never Done read more “It’s really hard to get a job. It’s really, really, really hard to get your foot in the door anywhere,” she says. Laura wishes that employers understood that restaurant work teaches you to hustle hard for eight straight hours and get along with all kinds of people. But a resume full of restaurant work doesn’t get much respect. She’s realized now that she needs more education to boost herself out of the industry. Laura is applying to a couple of Masters programs. The one she most hopes to attend focuses on public policy. Laura has decided she wants to make a difference in the world. She plans to specialize in labour rights. Part three: Seven ways to clean up B.C.’s sexist, precarious restaurant workplaces.LUCKNOW: BSP supremo Mayawati may have lost the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh but the defeated chief minister's wealth as declared has jumped to Rs 111 crore, a 25 per cent increase in the last two years. And 56-year-old Mayawati's assets made public today has doubled in the five years since she became chief minister in 2007 on the back of a tumping BSP victory. During public meetings, she often claims to represent the poorest of the state's poor Dalits. According to the declaration made by Mayawati at the time of filing of nomination papers to the Rajya Sabha today, her immovable properties, both residential and commercial in Lucknow and Delhi, cash in banks, jewellery both gold and diamonds stood at Rs 111 crores and 64 lakhs. In 2010 when she fought the vidhan parishad elections, Mayawati's total assets were valued at around Rs 88 crore while in 2007 it was worth around Rs. 52.27 crores. Mayawati's accounts in Union Bank of India, Moti Bagh, Delhi, Bank of India, Parliament Street, New Delhi, State Bank of India, Vidhan Sabha Marg, Lucknow, and SBI, Sansad Bhawan, together have over Rs 13.95 crore. Besides, she has 10.20 lakh cash in hand, according to the declaration. She has 1034.260 gms gold in the form of jewellery and 380.17 carats diamond worth Rs 96.53 lakh besides a silver dinner set weighing 18.5 kgs worth Rs. 9.32 lakh. Among the other assets she mentioned were murals worth Rs.15 lakh and revolver worth Rs 5390. Among the immovable properties, the BSP supremo has two commercial buildings in Connaught Place in the national capital (B-34 ground floor and B-34 1st floor with areas of 3628.02 and 4535.02 square-ft respectively) costing Rs 9.36 crore and Rs. 9.45 crore. She has two residential buldings, one in New Delhi (23,24 SP Marg New Delhi) and another in Lucknow (9 Mall Avenue) currently valued at Rs. 61.86 crore and Rs. 15.68 crore respectively. Both the residential buildings were purchased in 2009 and 2010 when she was the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister. The commercial buildings were purchased in 2004 and 2005. In the loans or dues column, she has shown Rs 87,68,724 as security from tenants (Bata India Ltd and V.C Solutions Pvt Limited). The BSP president has shown Rs 6,51,53,538 as total income in tax return for the financial year 2010-11. She has no agriculture land nor there is any mention of vehicles in the declaration.A Chinese coast guard ship (L) uses a water cannon on a Vietnamese ship in disputed waters in the South China Sea, May 2, 2014. A truncated visit this week by a Chinese military officer to neighboring Vietnam has raised eyebrows among foreign affairs analysts who are questioning whether the incident could indicate an about-face in relations between the two communist allies who are embroiled in a territorial dispute. Chinese General Fan Changlong, who is part of the delegation visiting the capital Hanoi this week, abruptly left Vietnam on Tuesday after a private meeting with Vietnamese defense officials. Public and private accounts of the incident vary. Chinese and Vietnamese state media report that defense relations are going well and that the parties reached an agreement on personnel training between their defense ministries. But analysts, citing government sources, said a discussion over disputed territory in the South China Sea, where China is building artificial islands and military infrastructure, may have prompted a row leading to Fan’s early departure, which caused him to skip a cross-border exchange program. They cited Vietnam’s efforts to form strategic military partnerships with the United States and Japan, and a recent move by Vietnam to allow a foreign company to exploit oil in the Vanguard Bank area of the South China Sea where a Chinese fishing vessel cut a Vietnamese boat’s cable in May 2011, triggering street protests in Hanoi. Vietnam has long claimed Vanguard Bank is part of its continental shelf, and not part of the disputed territory with China. The two countries, however, have agreed not to explore or exploit oil in disputed areas of the sea. Le Hong Hiep, a research fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and an international relations scholar at Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City, said he could only speculate on the matter since there is no official information about it. “In the past, Vietnam has been under pressure to maintain its growth rate, so it has had discussions on enhancing oil exploration on the South China Sea,” he said. “Vietnam’s activities in the South China Sea have touched China's interests, and as usual, China will find ways to discourage the country from pursing them,” he said. “It is therefore not difficult to understand if the conflict in the South China Sea is related to the exploitation of marine resources,” he said. “And perhaps this is the reason why Fan Changlong cut short his visit to Vietnam.” Carl Thayer, a Southeast Asia expert based in Australia who has taught at several defense universities, said it is likely that Fan asked Vietnam to stop the oil exploitation in Vanguard Bank, which indicates that the country has not complied with an agreement with China not to explore and exploit oil reserves in the disputed area. Le Hong Hiep agreed with Thayer’s assessment and said China wants to put pressure on Vietnam to stop its activities and to comply with the two parties’ agreement so as to not complicate the situation. This also depends on each side’s interpretation of the agreement, he said. “Vietnam's exploration and exploitation of oil on its continental shelf does not complicate the situation, because Vietnam has sovereignty over that region,” Hiep said. “However, China sees it as a disputed area, so actions such as unilateral oil exploration and exploitation may be a complication.” Possible miliary clash Thayer, who noted that China is deploying 40 ships and several Y-8GX6 turboprop anti-submarine warfare aircraft to the area, raised the possibility that a military clash between China and Vietnam could occur during the next few days. Hiep, however, declined to forecast the outcome, but added that if hostilities did occur, they would pose a major challenge to the countries’ bilateral relations, which could have the same or even a greater effect than did the oil rig crisis of May 2014. In that crisis, China deployed a giant oil-drilling rig in the South China Sea about 120 miles from Vietnam’s coast near islands claimed by both countries and within Hanoi’s 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone set by international law. The event sparked a bitter bilateral row, with both sides accusing the other of ramming ships patrolling the area. Thayer also said that Fan’s rumored cancellation of activities in connection with the fourth Vietnam-China friendly border exchange in Lai Chau and Yunnan provinces on June 20-22 would be the “most significant setback in bilateral relations” since the 2014 incident. “This setback would also be a sign that China is being more assertive in response to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s visits to Washington and Tokyo in order to curtail the development of Vietnam’s defense and security relations with these two countries,” he said. Phuc and high-raking delegations visited the U.S. in May, and Japan in early June. “If true, this would be a clumsy and counterproductive act by China,” he said. Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Emily Peyman. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.UAW President Dennis Williams speaks during a news conference held Thursday, July 10, 2014, at the IBEW Local 175 in Chattanooga, Tenn., to announce the formation of a new local United Auto Workers' union in Chattanooga for Volkswagen workers. (AP Photo/Chattanooga Times Free Press, Doug Strickland) (Photo: Doug Strickland) Negotiations between UAW and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to restructure a deal overwhelmingly rejected by workers last week took an ominous turn Tuesday with the union issuing a strike notice that says the current contract extension will expire at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. The question looming over negotiators now is whether bargaining teams can solve a long list of complex issues before the strike deadline. The stakes for FCA and the union are extremely high. "Once a strike starts, it's kind of like letting a genie out of a bottle — you don’t know what is going to happen," said Gary Klotz, a labor law attorney and partner at Butzel Long in Detroit. The automaker signaled a less dire picture than the strike notice appeared to suggest. "FCA US confirms that it has received strike notification from the UAW," the company said in a statement Tuesday. "The company continues to work with the UAW in a constructive manner to reach a new agreement," the statement continues, suggesting talks continued at some level. If a strike is called, it could be national action or it could target strategic plants in which case workers
such as request scoped are injected in passivatable once. The specification defines passivation (serialization) capabilities, allowing the container to free memory by transferring idle objects to secondary storage when required. The temporary transfer of the state of an idle object held in memory to some form of secondary storage is called passivation. The transfer of the passivated state back into memory is called activation. CDI-Spec 1.2 – Chapter 6.6.1 CDI’s session and conversation scopes are the only build-in passivation capable scopes. Request and application scopes are not passivating capable. If a bean is defined with a passivating scope, it and all applied interceptors and decorators must be serializable (see CDI 1.2 Specification – 6.6.1. Passivation capable beans). Passivation of Normal Scoped injections When working with passivation capable scopes such as @SessionScoped, it is still possible to inject references to non-passivating scopes such as @ApplicationScoped. Application scoped beans are not passivation capable, however the injected dependencies are. @SessionScoped public class MySession implements Serializable { @Inject private MyAppData myAppData;... } @ApplicationScoped public class MyAppData {... } Even so the application scoped bean MyAppData defines a non-passivation capable scope and is not serializable, whereas the client-proxy CDI injects is. When the container passivates the session scoped instance, the injected client-proxies are serialized along with it. When a method is invoked on the client-proxy, a contextual lookup is performed via the BeanManager, which manages creation and access to all contextual beans. Beware of transient Most static code analysis tools, such as FindBugs, will raise false warnings when encountering injections of non-serializable managed beans into passivation capable beans. If myAppScoped was marked transient, as suggested… public class MySession implents Serializable { @Inject private transient NonSerializableAppScope myAppScoped;... } …the client proxy will not be serialized nor re-injected during deserialization and remains null. This will cause a NullPointerException on the next invocation. Dependant beans Relaying on the client-proxy works for all normal scopes. Pseudo scopes beans are injected as direct references. So when a pseudo scoped bean such as @Dependent, is injected into a bean with a passivating scope it will need to be serializable or transient. public class MySession implements Serializable { @Inject private MyAppScope myAppScope; @Inject private MyDependent myDependent;... } @Dependent public class MyDependent implements Serializable {... } If MyDependent is not Serializable then the myDependent will have to be marked transient. Making the dependent beans inject point transient is not advisable since it will require manual handling during deserialization. CDI performs passivation validations on all beans defining passivating scopes prior to deployment. For every bean which declares a passivating scope, the container must validate that the bean truly is passivation capable and that, in addition, its dependencies are passivation capable. If a managed bean which declares a passivating scope, a stateful session bean which declares a passivating scope, or a built-in bean: is not passivation capable, has an injection point that is not passivation capable, has an interceptor or decorator that is not passivation capable has an interceptor or decorator with an injection point that is not passivation capable then the container automatically detects the problem and treats it as a deployment problem. CDI-Spec 1.2, Chapter 6.6.5 When injecting a non-serializable dependent scoped bean into a bean with a passivating scope… @SessionScoped public class MySession implements Serializable {... @Inject private MyUnserializable mu;... } @Dependent public class MyUnserializable {... } …the container detects this at start-up. The specification does not define as to how the implementation should handle the deployment problem; Weld throws a UnserializableDependencyException, Caused by: org.jboss.weld.exceptions.UnserializableDependencyException: WELD-001413: The bean Managed Bean [class com.knitelius.MySession] with qualifiers [@Any @Default] declares a passivating scope but has a non-passivation-capable dependency Managed Bean [class com.knitelius.MyUnserializable] with qualifiers [@Any @Default] at org.jboss.weld.bootstrap.Validator.validateInjectionPointPassivationCapable(Validator.java:479) at org.jboss.weld.bootstrap.Validator.validateInjectionPointForDeploymentProblems(Validator.java:397) whilst OpenWebBeans throws a WebBeansConfigurationException. Caused by: org.apache.webbeans.exception.WebBeansConfigurationException: Passivation capable beans must satisfy passivation capable dependencies. Bean : 1113977599,Name:mySession,WebBeans Type:MANAGED,API Types:[java.io.Serializable,java.lang.Object,com.knitelius.MySession],Qualifiers:[javax.enterprise.inject.Any,javax.enterprise.inject.Default,javax.inject.Named] does not satisfy. at org.apache.webbeans.component.AbstractOwbBean.validatePassivationDependencies(AbstractOwbBean.java:702) at org.apache.webbeans.component.AbstractInjectionTargetBean.validatePassivationDependencies(AbstractInjectionTargetBean.java:596) at org.apache.webbeans.config.BeansDeployer.checkPassivationScope(BeansDeployer.java:730) at org.apache.webbeans.config.BeansDeployer.validate(BeansDeployer.java:382) This is usually a sign of bad design and therefore either the unserializable bean should be: assigned a non-passivating scope such as @RequestScoped, its part of the contextual domain model and should be seralizeable or its a utility class which should only be used as a method local variable and not as a member. For the other 0.01% of cases it is possible to implement java.io.Serializable readObject to perform custom handling during deseralization. ... @Inject private BeanManager beanManager; @Inject private transient MyUnserializable mu; private void readObject(java.io.ObjectInputStream stream) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException { stream.defaultReadObject(); Bean<MyUnserializable> bean = (Bean<MyUnserializable>) beanManager.resolve(beanManager.getBeans(MyUnserializable.class)); this.mu = (MyUnserializable) beanManager.getReference(bean, bean.getBeanClass(), beanManager.createCreationalContext(bean)) }... The a new instance of dependent instance of MyUnserializable can be obtained during deseralization from the BeanManager. It is important to note that the CDI container, as per specification, is only required to validate injection points. All other members are ignored by the container. @SessionScoped public class MySession implements Serializable {... private UnserializableObject uso = new UnserializableObject();... } Even though MySession passes the CDI deployment validation, it will fail serialization at runtime due to its non-transient unserializable member causing a java.io.NotSerializableException. All unmanaged members have to be either serializable or transient. Constructor and Initializer method parameter injection Non-serializable beans that are only required for bean initialization can be injected into constructor or intializer methods with the @TransientReference annotation. @SessionScoped public class MySession implements Serializable { @Inject public MySession(@TransientReference NonSerializableDependent nsd) {... }... @Inject public void initalize(@TransientReference NonSerializableDependent nsd) {... }... } These @TransientReference dependent scoped beans will be be destroyed at the end of the method invocation. … all @Dependent scoped contextual instances injected into method or constructor parameters that are annotated with @TransientReference are destroyed when the invocation completes, … CDI-Spec 1.2, Chapter 6.4.2 Wrap upNew Episode This Weekend! Episode 40: Trinity Dragon’s Fierce Battle Trinity Dragon infiltrates the testing facility of one of the members of Company, Sousuke Wakamizu!? The three of them will need to combine their abilities, to expose the evil deeds of Company! Watch the latest episodes on official Cardfight!! Vanguard G YouTube Channel! Here to Save the Day! – An Explanation for Rescue Author: Ronin Black Seraph, Gavrail The release of Cardfight!! Vanguard G Booster Pack Vol. 7 Glorious Bravery of Radiant Sword brought with it the new keyword ability for Angel Feather, Rescue. This ability allows the player to “heal X damage, and deal X damage to your vanguard” depending on the number printed beside the Rescue keyword. For example, “Rescue 1” would mean that you will heal 1 damage, then deal 1 damage to your vanguard, “Rescue 2” would allow you to heal 2 damage, then deal 2 damage to your vanguard, and so on and so forth. This has sparked many questions, as the resolution of damage would usually include performing trigger checks, and if triggers are revealed, resolving trigger effects. Sometimes, there are abilities that activate when cards are put into the damage zone, such as Love Sniper, Nociel’s ability to put a “Nociel” to your hand from your damage zone when it is placed into the damage zone. While the resolution of damage is rather straightforward if it’s a Rescue 1, things become a bit more complicated when we take a look at Rescue 2. So, how does all this resolve? Vanguard Damage Firstly, we will need to talk about a new concept called “vanguard damage”. Vanguard damage is a value that all vanguards have that is usually at 0. When your vanguard is dealt damage, this value goes up according to the amount of damage that was dealt to it. An attack that hits with 2 critical would cause the vanguard to have a vanguard damage of 2. Damage Process When your vanguard has vanguard damage that is 1 or greater, and there are no other rule actions to resolve, you must perform the damage process for your vanguard. This is processed by reducing the vanguard damage by 1, then placing a card from the top of the deck into the trigger zone, and performing a damage check (all trigger effects, and only trigger effects, are resolved during this damage check!). You will then put that card into the damage zone. Then, if you still have vanguard damage, repeat this process until your vanguard damage is 0. Do note that during this damage process, there is no check timing, so any automatic effects that activate due to this damage process will not resolve until the damage process is complete. Putting it All Together So let’s put this all into a live example. Say I have a vanguard Black Seraph, Gavrail, and at the end of the battle, I use its Rescue 2 ability and I place a Laser Clutcher, Ke’el from my damage zone to the drop zone. Then, during the first damage check, I reveal a Critical trigger. How would I resolve all this effects? Can I resolve Laser Clutcher, Ke’el’s ability first, call it to the field, and then add the power from the Critical trigger to it? Since I sent Laser Clutcher, Ke’el from the damage zone to the drop zone, its automatic ability will activate and be put to stand-by. However, as there is no check timing during the resolution of the Rescue ability, it will remain in stand-by until the end of the Rescue ability. Then, since I revealed a Critical trigger during the damage process, I would have to resolve that first before dealing with the second vanguard damage. After I finish resolving the second vanguard damage, since my vanguard damage is now 0, the damage process ends, and we enter a check timing. During this check timing, I would then be able to resolve Laser Clutcher, Ke’el’s ability that was put in stand-by during the damage process. So what if we’re playing an Extreme Fight match, and I add the +5000 power from the critical trigger to my rear-guard Cosmic Hero, Grandchopper during the first damage check? As mentioned above, there are no check timings during the resolution of Rescue, so the ability would be put to stand-by, and only resolve after Rescue has completely resolved. We hope we’ve helped to shed some light on how to properly resolve damage with the new damage process and vanguard damage systems! If you have any queries regarding this, don’t hesitate to drop us an email at sg_support@bushiroad.com! Our friendly support staff would be glad to assist you~ That’s it for this week’s column! See you next week~ Ronin The Wandering Columnist An avid card gamer who dabbles a little in every card game he can get his hands on. Considers weakness a sin. Thinks that the weak ones should just go home.During communal riots in Baduria, West Bengal last week, the Facebook post shown above was widely circulated. It portrays Hindu women being molested during the riot. The image is a scene from a Bhojpuri movie released in 2014. In Kerala’s Kasargod district, Islamic State is luring young Hindus with money. The terror organisation has a rate card which carries the amount – one lakh to 7 lakh – given to IS recruits to convert Hindu girls. The rates are five lakh for a Hindu Brahmin girl, seven lakh rupees for a Sikh Punjabi girl and 4.5 lakh for a Hindu Kshatriya girl. At least, this is according to a report broadcasted on a national English news channel in June. The basis of the ‘rate card’ was a fake WhatsApp message which had been doing the rounds for more than a year. It was one of the many distorted stories that were shared on social media and one which the news channel fell for. Apart from influencing the political discourse and triggering communal violence, these stories – often in the form of image with text written on it – can result in explosive situations when circulated in an already charged atmosphere. For more than two months, villagers in Jharkhand, a child trafficking hub, were receiving WhatsApp messages carrying pictures of purported details of child traffickers including their attire. The result? In May, villagers lynched seven men to death mistaking them for kidnappers. It is in this backdrop that organisations such as AltNews, Boom and SM Hoaxslayer have taken it upon themselves to call out fake news. They monitor social media to identify information which prima facie appears false, verify it and if the information is fake, relay the correction. Watch: How are fake forwards, images and videos identified. It was an AltNews investigation that found out the truth about the IS rate card while Boom ran a reverse search to prove that the image of man and a little girl with blood on their faces, with accompanying text saying that they were making India secular by playing Holi with the blood of a cow, was actually a picture from Egypt. With the surge of digital platforms and the penetration of smartphones, fake news reaches many more people than before. Which means that by the time websites debunk fake news, proving that an image or video is flawed, it has already been shared and believed by thousands of people. GOVT HAS TO STEP IN TO CHECK FAKE NEWS: PRATIK SINHA, CO-FOUNDER, ALTNEWS Pratik Sinha, co-founder, AltNews at his Ahmedabad office. ( Sidhharaj Solanki/HT Photo. ) In August 2016, Pratik Sinha, Ahmedabad-based techie and founder of the website truthofgujarat participated in a more than 300 km long march on foot from Ahmedabad to Una to protest the flogging of Dalit men. Concerned to see that there was hardly any media coverage of the march, Sinha, and a friend decided to launch a digital outlet to talk about people’s issues. Debunking fake news was one of the objectives of the site. When they eventually launched AltNews in February this year, their posts on fake news attracted far more attention than the other features of the site. Since then, they have done numerous fake news breaks. “We keep track of social media. We also keep getting messages from people asking us to verify forwards which do not appear genuine to them,” says Sinha. “Thirdly, we look for virality of an item on social media. For example, during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the US last month, his loyalists circulated a video claiming that it was Modi’s cavalcade in the US. The video went viral. We checked and found that it was footage of Barack Obama’s entourage from 2010,” says Sinha. The possible impact a fake news item can have on people is also a parameter. On June 28, there was a protest titled ‘Not In My Name’ in different cities to condemn increasing incidents of mob lynching over beef. An English news channel ran a story claiming that Indian organisers were roping in people from Pakistan to organise similar protests there. Sinha found out that a Pakistani girl wanted to conduct a protest on the same lines in her country. She got in touch with one of the Indian organisers asking him if he could post the Pakistani protest information on his Facebook page. So, it was the Pakistani girl who initiated the conversation and not the Indian organisers, as the news channel would have you believe. “Such news items can influence people’s perceptions,” says Sinha. Exposing fake news also made him realise that ideology is not the only driving factor for people involved in spreading half-truths, particularly through sites such as postcard.news and hindutva.info. “Money is a big incentive. They have understood that if you write about Prime Minister Modi, Yogi Adityanath or the Indian Army, you will get more clicks and thereby more advertisements,” he says. Above: A fake news break by AltNews Another emerging pattern is the appearance of a fake video coinciding with a major political event in the country. When the mainstream media was debating the Left versus RSS battle in Kerala, a fake video went viral showing a man being stabbed multiple times. The video claimed that it was an RSS worker being murdered by a Left worker. In fact, it was a video from Mexico. People getting lynched by mobs is one very visible consequence of fake news. But that’s not the only impact. Sinha recalls a four-minute video that was supposedly of a Hindu Marwari girl from Andhra Pradesh married to a Muslim man; she was being beaten up and burnt alive by a few people belonging to the Muslim community, all because she was apparently not wearing a burqa. It is actually a video from Guatemala. “People have been sharing it since February 2016 and not a comma has been changed. It shows the kind of degenerative affect such footage has on people’s minds,” says Sinha. However, he is yet to come across any evidence which points to the spread of fake news being organised, except for a few times when he noticed people associated with the BJP directly or indirectly forwarding such messages on WhatsApp or retweeting them. “But then anyone can fall for fake propaganda. I cannot equate that to say that it is organised,” he says. Given the scale at which fake news is spreading and how people believe in it blindly, Sinha says that sites such as AltNews are not enough to fight the menace. “The government should put a solid mechanism in place to fight fake news and put out advisories telling people that this is a fake video, please do not circulate it. Newspapers and news channels should carry these advisories. Also, social media platforms, particularly WhatsApp have a crucial role to play,” he says. —Report suspicious images, videos to AltNews at contact@altnews.in POLITICIANS MAKE UNSUBSTANTIATED CLAIMS WHICH PEOPLE LAP UP: JENCY JACOB, MANAGING EDITOR, BOOMLIVE Team of boomlive.in at their Mumbai office. ( Aalok Soni/HT PHOTO. ) In 2014, Govindraj Ethiraj, former editor-in-chief of Bloomberg TV India, started the not-for-profit platform, Factchecker.in to fact-check policy-level news. It wasn’t long before he realised the need for a platform that examined everyday news too. Enough reports, videos, forwards and statements seemed to be dubious, misrepresentations or outright lies. That’s how Boom, initially launched along with Factchecker as a news portal, turned into an independent digital journalism initiative, around the end of 2016. “Especially after the election of Trump, news from around the world was being broadcast through WhatsApp and social media with velocity despite having no veracity,” Ethiraj says. “We realised there was a huge gap in what the media was trying to say and what people were believing, so we decided to use Boom to break down every such story.” Boom’s four-member team works towards debunking at least two to three news items every day. Managing editor Jency Jacob checks WhatsApp groups for bizarre forwards and images that might need closer examination. The team does exhaustive web searches to look for plagiarism, does reverse searches for images to find their source and digs through news archives of credible sources like the Associated Press. Boom also has a helpline number, where people can send in any news item that sounds like a hoax. “The first step usually is trying to get in touch with the person who posted the news on social media. That starts off the trail,” says Jacob. “With WhatsApp that becomes difficult.” Boomlive.in reported that the above image, circulated as that of a man a girl with cow blood on their faces, was not from India and had nothing to do with cow. The way they see it, there are two types of fake news: the kind with malicious intent, to defame someone or spread communal tension, like an image that recently did the rounds on Facebook. It featured a man and a little girl with blood smeared on their faces, with the accompanying text saying that they were making India secular by playing Holi with the blood of a cow. Boom’s research found that the photo of that of people from Egypt. It had nothing to do with India or cows. The other kind of fake news relates to food, health and wellness, and counters scientific research. Boom recently looked at a viral video claiming the presence of plastic in rice. They helped prove that while grains may be adulterated, there was no evidence of plastic impurities in the grains. While the truth may be obvious to the team (and even many readers), much of Jacob’s efforts go into checking and cross-checking the stories verified by his team of three journalists. “We will face a huge credibility hit if our fact-checking is proved wrong, so we have to be extra cautious always,” says Jacob. Other hoaxes get priority when they’ve been shared by someone well-known. “Politicians often make unsubstantiated claims and state random figures, which readers lap up,” says Jacob. “We do all the background research and then contact the person who has made the claim. Sometimes, they are apologetic, other times they are offended, but thankfully we have got no major threats so far.” What they’ve got are trolls who don’t like hearing they were wrong. Jacob recalls how a few weeks ago,a user tweeted to his 47,000 followers a video that seemed to show an IS terrorist being taken down by a sniper. The video went viral. Boom traced the footage back to the AP archives and showed it to be a recording of a Venezuela hostage situation from 1998. The user took down the video as soon as he heard from Boom, but his followers bristled. “They pulled out old tweets of mine and started targeting me personally,” says Jacob, while laughing it off. The explosion of news outlets and easy accessibility of digital news has made the circulating of fake news easy. People will believe in anything, because no one knows what a genuine source for news is. “Sadly, while 230 million people have WhatsApp, they do not always have access to newspapers to verify what was sent to them,” explains Ethiraj. “What also comes as a surprise to us is how politicians and powerful public figures cite numbers or share pictures which are clearly fake.” —Report suspicious images, videos to Boom at its helpline number 7700906111 PEOPLE ARE GULLIBLE. ONE POST IS ENOUGH TO CAUSE COMMUNAL HATRED: PANKAJ JAIN, FOUNDER, SMHOAXSLAYER Mumbai’s Pankaj Jain, 39, is a businessman by day and a hoax slayer by night. He was fed up of being bombarded by inane, fake news through family and friends’ WhatsApp groups. In August 2015, he created a Facebook page called Social Media Hoax Slayer. “I’m the guy who has long debates about the veracity of stories at family functions and gatherings with friends,” he says. “I soon realised that people were gullible and one message was enough to cause communal hatred. That’s when I decided I needed to reach out to a larger number of people.” By October, he had also launched a website, smhoaxslayer.com. His Facebook page now has 56,000 followers and his Twitter account, 12,000. “I spend a few hours updating the website after work every day,” says Jain. “It’s the constant requests on chat and WhatsApp from people asking me to verify information that get really difficult to manage single-handed.” His system of cross-checking information usually involves a thorough Google search. He has become good at spotting Photoshop modifications. “The first step is always to reverse-Google search an image. Then I look for signs of tampering,” he says. For example, he says, a recent viral picture showed political activist and proud teetotaller Hardik Patel sitting beside a bottle and glass of alcohol. “It was clear that they had been added to the picture, because they had no shadow,” he says. In other cases, he relies on government reports and statistics. And sometimes, just common sense. Recently, actor and politician Paresh Rawal shared a fake story on Twitter about former President APJ Abdul Kalam saying Pakistan had tried to get him to betray India. “I saw that the text had spelling and grammatical errors and wondered how someone like Paresh Rawal could fall for such an obvious hoax. I pointed it out to him on Twitter,” Jain says. The downside, Jain says, is that he gets quite a few threats and angry messages; people call him ‘anti-national’. “One guy said he knew where I lived and would ‘take care’ of people like me who spread false news,” says Jain, laughing. At the same time, he gets a lot of appreciation from people. “In the end, I know I am just a curious guy who believes in statistics and proof,” he says, “and wants others to do the same.” First Published: Jul 08, 2017 18:40:08An extensive renovation project has begun in a house on a side street adjacent to Harvard’s Cambridge campus, but this is no ordinary rehab. The stick-frame house, which predates the 1940s and is owned by the Graduate School of Design (GSD), will be transformed into an energy-efficient headquarters and lab space for the GSD’s Center for Green Buildings and Cities. It is the culmination of three years of research and design led by Director Ali Malkawi to create a structure that is a working example of the center’s creative goals. The HouseZero project that began this month is meant to produce more energy than it consumes — with zero carbon emissions and using daylighting and natural ventilation instead of an HVAC system — while serving as a learning center for students and a testing ground for emerging technologies. It will also illustrate deep energy retrofits and could serve as a transferable model for the more than 14 million residential houses of its type in the United States. Malkawi sat down with the Gazette to discuss the project in detail, highlighting the role he hopes it will play in moving building design toward ultra-efficiency and using as little energy, materials, and resources as possible. GAZETTE: As a designer, what do you think are some of the essential skills your profession can bring to bear in addressing the environmental and climate challenges our world faces? MALKAWI: If you design a city well, then you make it easier for people to design buildings. If buildings are designed well, it trickles down to the occupants, and so on. This design component becomes extremely important in ensuring the environment is very well conceived. The interesting part of design as the essential concept here is that designers deal with very complex topics, with problems that are ill-defined. The way designers are educated allows them to be able to engage with this complexity of the living environment indoors as well as outdoors. GAZETTE: Switching gears to the project itself, what was the genesis of the HouseZero effort? MALKAWI: The center deals with long-term research issues. At the same time, I am very aware that you have to be able to translate these long-term questions into solutions that are applicable to what is needed now. Being in a university setting and having the knowledge that we have accumulated, we thought it would be important to be able to see what we can do with existing technologies and design ideas that enable us to have ambitions that have not been met before, as well as change the perception about certain challenges that we have in relation to the built environment. Hence we said, let’s take this house that is already owned by the GSD and use it to do an ultra-efficient retrofit. Then maybe we can change perceptions about what can be done. We had several goals: the translation of research and growing the belief this can be done; having a showcase where we will be able to use our own grounds to conduct research; connecting the physical to the computational in order to conduct economic analysis, health analysis, collect data, and share it with others; and creating an ability to change technologies within the structure over time to assess their usefulness. GAZETTE: What are some of those challenges in the built environment that you are seeking to overcome? MALKAWI: One is that it is very difficult to ventilate a structure with only natural ventilation rather than mechanical systems, or to be able to predict movement of air in a way that is equivalent to any structure controlled by HVAC systems. So we are looking at what you can do with existing structures to make them close to having no heating or cooling, while enhancing the quality of the thermal and built environment inside. We want to push this ultra-efficient idea without changing the envelope both visually and materially. For example, we won’t be using super-insulation. One of the most difficult issues will be setting the inside temperature within a range that is predictable. You won’t have the traditional HVAC systems that make it easier to make temperature more predictable. Instead, you are relying on the outside natural environment. So the question became: How will you be able to do these predictions? How will you be able to get the temperature for occupants that is required by code that will allow them to function well? GAZETTE: Using natural ventilation as an example, how hard would it be to shift this to a larger office building? MALKAWI: It shouldn’t be that difficult. You will need to have the expertise to do those predictions, and ensure that the team of designers and consultants are coming from the same perspective. As we were designing this project, we were able to test ideas and publish some of those ideas for the predictability aspects of natural ventilation. One of the questions we tried to ask and resolve in our research project is: What are the boundary conditions for computational simulations to predict ventilation appropriately? So we applied these studies to the house, which allowed our consultants to use part of the data from our research in the design of the structure. We will actually be putting sensors on the outside of the building envelope to measure pressure on the façade, which will be translated into how much air flow is coming through, and coupling them with computational scenarios and visualizing how the air is flowing through the building. So in many forms and fashions, it is not your typical building. But it’s not just about the building, it’s about its future. Inherently part of this concept is building the structure really well so technology becomes almost irrelevant because the building will be so efficient. You will be able to plug and play with the technology as it evolves. Though this is a stick-frame building, the same ideas can be applied to other types of homes or structures throughout the world. We will be able to translate some of our learning lessons, not just now but as it evolves. It’s not about globalization. It’s about localization related to principles that can then be applied. GAZETTE: How have students been involved in the project to date, and how do you envision their role through construction and once it’s completed? MALKAWI: There are two parts. During the design process, there was a stage of doing research where we engaged advanced students and included some of our challenges in classwork through building simulations. Once the building is finished, we anticipate developing an educational component that would help not just our students but the broader community understand the concept of ultra-efficiency. GAZETTE: There are a lot of terms being thrown around for houses that seek aggressive energy targets: net zero, energy positive, passive house. How would you describe this house to someone? MALKAWI: We’re moving away from all those definitions to the inherent and most important aspects of what buildings should have: ultra-efficiency. We would like that efficiency to be translated to different metrics, from social issues to aesthetics and resource use. Once you have that, technology becomes a layer you can add. As better technology comes along, you can produce even more, if you wish to. But you want it to consume as little as possible. For me, I have been advocating from the beginning that, rather than energy production, it’s energy reduction we should look at. We should start from the demand and how you can make the demand as efficient as possible. We’ll also have a house within a house, a laboratory space that will be a structure completely separated and thermally isolated from rest of the building and completely sensed differently. We will be able to apply future ideas to the spine of the building to see how useful they are. It’s a sensitivity issue. You will be able to look at technologies that are applicable to ultra-efficient houses. This allows you to push beyond ultra-efficiency over time. GAZETTE: Is there a design application or feature of the building that you are particularly excited about? MALKAWI: I’m excited about the possibility of collecting and analyzing data, and then being able to change the operation of the building in multiple ways so we can understand how to make it better. At the end of the day, we wanted to push a standard that doesn’t exist that will push efficiency to its limit. We wanted to identify that standard, and show that it’s possible and performance-driven. One last aspect I wanted to mention is the carbon issue. We have been including in all our decisions the embodied energy as well as carbon in the material for us to be able to ensure that it’s also part of what we’re trying to accomplish. So that made our job even harder. We wanted to see what can be done with existing materials to allow us to reach zero carbon structure, including the embodied energy. When you turn all of these ambitions into actual outcomes, we believe that this is the first retrofit of a structure of this kind that we know of that will accomplish all of these goals. This interview has been lightly edited.Threatened by an end to global warming scam money, government scientists turn the volume of their BS up to eleven – predicting two meters of Southern California sea level rise by the year 2100. Disappearing Beaches: Modeling Shoreline Change in Southern California Sea level in Southern California is about the same as it was in 1871. 1871 Present At low tide, the La Jolla Cove beach looks like this. It will require about 1,000 years for Southern California sea level to rise two meters, most of which is due to land subsidence rather than rising seas. Sea Level Trends – State Selection Sea level in Northern California is falling. Sea Level Trends – State Selection Government scientists understand that they can raise funding by lying about the climate. This practice has to stop. h/t Steve CaseReturns and exchanges I gladly accept returns and exchanges Contact me within: 7 days of delivery Ship items back within: 14 days of delivery I don't accept cancellations But please contact me if you have any problems with your order. The following items can't be returned or exchanged Because of the nature of these items, unless they arrive damaged or defective, I can't accept returns for: Custom or personalized orders Perishable products (like food or flowers) Digital downloads Intimate items (for health/hygiene reasons) Items on sale Questions about your order? Please contact me if you have any problems with your order. Returns and exchange details If you find that you are unhappy with your purchase, please contact me via Etsy, and we'll work something out. I'm pretty easy to work with, so long as you let me know what the problem is. Please don't give me feedback without talking to me first. If you need to return an item, returns are excepted within 7 days of receipt. I will refund your purchase, minus shipping, so long as it is in it's original condition. Shipping costs to return an item are up to the buyer. If you need to exchange damaged item(s), let me know. Shipping them back to me will be at the buyer's expense, and me shipping the new item(s) to you will be at my own expense. Unfortunately, I can not be responsible for lost packages. I have no control over the USPS.. / Credit: Stacks of nickels image via Shutterstock When you flip it and it comes up heads, you'll see Jefferson. If it comes up tails, you'll see Monticello, his colonial plantation. But if you operate a fast-food restaurant, that humble nickel is what it will cost you for every additional second a customer has to wait to get his or her food, according to a new study. That finding correlates neatly with an old fast-food-business maxim that a seven-second reduction in customers' waiting time increases a chain's market share by 1 percent, the study observes. Either way, time is money when you work your way toward the drive-through window. The study focused on drive-through hamburger restaurants in Chicago and the rest of Cook County, Ill. It was conducted by Gad Allon, an associate professor of managerial economics and decision sciences at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and two colleagues, Awi Federgruen, a professor at Columbia University, and Margaret Pierson, an assistant professor at Dartmouth University. Companies that offer fast-food franchises set the standard for waiting times, but the individual outlets determine their prices (to avoid illegal price-fixing). "Both the price and waiting time parameters have a significant impact on the consumer's decision," Allon and his colleagues wrote in their paper. The results confirm that costumers patronizing fast-food drive-through restaurants trade off price and waiting time. "In particular, to overcome an additional second of waiting time, an outlet will need to compensate an average customer by as much as $0.05 for a meal whose typical price range is $2.25 to $6.00," the authors wrote. Interestingly, customers assigned only one-third as much value to the time
girl from the perspectives of two different starting points in life. To read the full report, visit here. It also includes six recommendations that evolved from more than a year of research, policy briefs and meetings with policymakers and community members. They are: Invest in quality early-childhood development for all children. Help low- to moderate-income families create economic opportunities. Invest in coordinated school-health programs for all students. Invest in mental-health awareness, screening, treatment and surveillance. Invest in quality neighborhoods for all in St. Louis. Coordinate and expand chronic and infectious disease prevention and management. After today, researchers will continue to engage with area policymakers and community stakeholders. “We want to look at where the recommendations align with priorities that have already been stated, such as the City of St. Louis Sustainability Plan, St. Louis County’s recently released strategic plan and state-level priorities,” Purnell said. And take action, he said, that extends into the business sector. “We’d like to translate this work into some discussion guides and action toolkits for community members,” Purnell said. “We also want to purposefully engage the business community and get their assistance in making the business case for action, helping to formulate new private-public partnerships and other types of corporate philanthropy relevant to the issues we’ve highlighted in our recommendations.” About the study The “For the Sake of All” study, funded by the Missouri Foundation for Health, began in March 2013. The idea was to explore the concept of health – not just what happens in a doctor’s office, but a general sense of well-being that helps us engage in daily life. “It’s an issue that impacts everyone, so we also point to the costs of continuing to let these disparities exist in our community,” Purnell said. “The savings we could realize if we close these gaps between groups include $27 million for mental health-care costs and $65 million for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer care.” In one year alone, the study reports, the loss of life associated with low levels of education and poverty among African Americans was estimated at $3.3 billion. “These disparities are costing our community, and using money that could be used to help create jobs and advance the economic vitality of our region, not to mention the vitality of our people,” Purnell said. Policy briefs were released beginning late last summer and throughout last fall in these five areas: Other partners in the project are WUSTL’s Institute for Public Health, the Brown School’s Policy Forum, The St. Louis American newspaper and the online news site St. Louis Beacon (now part of St. Louis Public Radio). Purnell is encouraged by the response to the report. “It’s been overwhelming,” he said. “For all of St. Louis’ challenges, there are vast reservoirs of goodwill.” “People want to see these problems tackled. People from various backgrounds and walks of life want to see these issues addressed.” For more information about the project, visit forthesakeofall.org.TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya’s attorney general has issued arrest warrants for the leaders of oil strikers, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said on Wednesday, adding he would act soon against the protesters. Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan speaks during a joint news conference with Oil Minister Abdelbari al-Arusi at the Prime Minister's Office in Tripoli July 31, 2013. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny Zeidan hinted at military action which many Libyans have warned could spark wider unrest in a country riven by tribal and regional divisions, if the crippling oil output stoppages do not end soon. “I am not threatening, but I won’t let anyone hold Libya and its resources hostage to irresponsible acts of these groups for long,” Zeidan told reporters. “These people must calculate what they are doing, so when action takes place everyone will understand why but I hope we won’t be forced to do something that we don’t want,” he added. Industry executives say the disruptions and stoppages in the west of the country are instigated mainly by the powerful Zintan tribe, a major rebel group that has become very influential within government-financed army units and could be flexing its muscles for a bigger political role. “The Zintans are bargaining for higher allowances and a bigger role in guarding the oil installations,” one oil executive in touch with senior officials negotiating with the tribe said, on condition of anonymity. They have shut last month the two major oilfields in the south, El Feel and Esshara, disrupting at least 500,000 barrels per day of production or nearly a third of Libya’s pre-crisis production levels of around 1.5 million bpd. In the coastal east, where protesters from the oil sector are disrupting oil terminals, demands beyond more pay extend to broader political demands tied to a bigger share of the oil wealth and more self-government for the main oil producing areas. Hardliners among the federalists have even raised their demands this week with calls for an independent national state oil firm in charge of exports, they said. Libyan oil production was now averaging between 200,000 to 300,000 bpd, Zeidan said. He also said he was awaiting recommendations by a fact finding mission conducted by a 13 member crisis committee that was set up by the legislature to find a way out of the crisis. The committee, headed by Abdul Wahab al-Qayed, told parliamentarians late on Tuesday they still had not arrived at a deal with protestors, but won the approval of the General National Council (GNC) for another week’s extension to conclude their task. Finance Minister Alkilani Abdelkarim al-Jazi told reporters his ministry had calculated the oil stoppage was depriving Libya of at least $130 million daily in lost revenue. Jazi said a prolonged crisis could in the next few months force Libya to draw on substantial foreign reserves but he did not foresee any problems in meeting financial obligations, including salaries, at least until the end of the year.The campus police department received an anonymous letter Wednesday stating that a woman was drugged and sexually assaulted by a fraternity member at a Halloween party, according to a UCPD crime alert released Thursday. UCPD forwarded the letter, written by a friend of the woman, to Berkeley Police Department because the fraternity, located on Piedmont Avenue, is in the city police department’s jurisdiction. Police do not know whether the woman attends UC Berkeley. Authorities did not disclose the exact location of the named fraternity because they said doing so could compromise the investigation. Releasing crime alerts containing limited information is a relatively new practice that began over the summer after UCPD reviewed its compliance with the Clery Act, a federal law that mandates colleges and universities report crimes on and near campus. UCPD now regularly releases alerts without corroborated details or suspect descriptions on the basis of informing the public in a more timely manner. Previously, certain information was only released in the annual security report, which aggregates crime data. The campus police department also publishes alerts that come from campus security authorities — personnel ranging from athletic coaches to residence hall advisors. Kimberly Veklerov is a news editor. Contact her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @KVeklerov.IMPORTANT: Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: http://bit.ly/RhfIBN Follow Morgan Page on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/morganpage Like Morgan Page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/morganpage 00:00 - 1. Intro 00:45 - 2. Morgan Page vs. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Moguai "Strange Mammoth" (Morgan Page Bootleg Mix) [White] 02:58 - 3. Showtek - "Slow Down" [Dim Mak] 05:01 - 4. Knife Party - "EDM Death Machine" [Big Beat] 05:46 - 5. Daft Punk vs. Mor Avrahami & Elkana Paz - "Get Lucky 2 Me" (Morgan Page Bootleg Mix) [White] 08:22 - 6. Morgan Page vs Sebastian Ingrosso & Tommy Trash - "Reload The Body Work" (Stereotronique Bootleg Mix) [White] 10:36 - 7. Morgan Page vs. W&W - "Thunder Fight" (Morgan Page Bootleg Mix) [White] 14:34 - 8. Sander Van Doorn - "Joyenergizer" [Doorn] 15:49 - 9. Chris Lake & Marco Lys - "Tromba" (Chris Lake & Nom De Strip Remix) [Rising] 17:33 - 10. Morgan Page vs. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and GTA ft Wolfpack- "Where Did You Turn Up?" [White] 20:16 - 11. Martin Garrix - "Animals" [Spinnin] 22:38 - 12. Morgan Page vs Bastille - "ROTN" [White] 26:06 - 13. Morgan Page & Nadia Ali vs. Zedd vs Showtek & Justin Prime - "Carry Me Cannonball Clarity" (Morgan Page Bootleg Mix) [White] 30:42 - 14. Armin Van Buuren feat Trevor Guthrie - "This Is What It Feels Like" (W&W Remix) [Mainstage] 35:21 - 15. Showtek & Noisecontrollers - "Get Loose" (Tiesto Remix) [Spinnin] 37:31 - 16. David Guetta, Harrison, and Glowinthedark vs. Knife Party - "Ain't a Party w/out LRAD" (Morgan Page Bootleg Mix) [White] 39:30 - 17. Morgan Page vs Hard Rock Sofa - "Longest Collapsor" (Morgan Page Bootleg Remix) [White] 43:06 - 18. Morgan Page vs. Avicii vs Hardwell vs Hard Rock Sofa - "Levels In The Air" (Morgan Page Bootleg Mix) [White] 48:20 - 19. Morgan Page feat. The Outfield - "Your Love" [Nettwerk] 53:01 - 20. Lana Del Rey - "Summertime Sadness" (Cedric Gervais Remix) [Spinnin] Genre Progressive HouseThe future may well be a dark place for the Koch brothers and their anti-socialist ilk. But rather than facing off against secular firebrands like Bernie Sanders, their new foes are likely to be robots — particularly the kind we may soon see flipping hamburgers and driving long haul semi trucks. As robotic automation creeps ever further into the global means of production, embedding itself in both the service and commodities sectors, it’s breathing new life into dusty old socialistic concepts like a universal basic income. Since it’s not intuitive why this should be the case, let’s look at the line of reasoning that leads from robots to political reform. For most of history, improvements in the means of production, typically technology-driven, have fueled greater incomes. More complex shop floors required workers with a greater skill set, which in turn garnered higher wages. Advancements in technology were seen to be intrinsically linked to higher wages. Beginning in the 1970s and 80s, though, a strange decoupling was observed between wages and productivity. While productivity continued to increase thanks to the digital revolution, incomes plateaued. This may have been dismissed as a statistical hiccup, an oddity no more important than wild rocker hairstyles also common to that era. But in subsequent years the trend only worsened. In retrospect, it looks as if an inflection point of sorts had been reached in the 1970s, that the nature of digital automation was fundamentally different from other technological improvements with regard to wages. If you hire a robot butler, it doesn’t necessarily imply the human housekeeper will find a better-paying job as computer scientist, which was previously assumed in the literature. What’s more, it’s no longer untenable to believe there might come a time when robots could conceivably do almost all the labor that is now performed by humans (despite the occasional reversal), creating vast amounts of unemployment without compensatory job creation. The above is not necessarily a bad thing; in fact, it is precisely the kind of Utopian society dreamed of by economic giants like John Maynard Keynes. However, it does require a new type of political economy, and one in which socialistic ideas like that a universal basic income start to make a lot more sense. If robots take most of the jobs, then supplying income to the populace so they can pursue leisure activities like art, writing, and travel could avoid the kind of reactionary social movements popularized by the Luddites. Sadly, if history teaches us anything, it’s that science often evolves faster than political dogma. The United States for instance, a country that gifted the world much in the way of scientific advancement, still harbors some of the most atavistic political ideologies anywhere on the the planet. In fact, European countries like Great Britain and Finland may lead the way in creating the kind of political economies consistent with a primarily robotic workforce. Both countries are experimenting with plans for implementing a universal basic income. Hopefully, other countries will have similar flexibility in shelving political prejudice in the name of science and sanity.Terror of Sri Lankan landslides: 'All I could do was scream' ELANGAPITIYA VILLAGE, Sri Lanka (AP) — Heavy rains Thursday pounded the central Sri Lankan region where at least three villages have already been swallowed by mountains of mud, forcing soldiers and police to suspend rescue work. At least 18 people are known to have been killed and hundreds are reported missing in the landslides so far. Rescue work had resumed early in morning before fresh rains began in the area. Military spokesman Brigadier Jayanath Jayaweera told reporters in the capital, Colombo, that the army was assessing the situation and would deploy more troops in the worst-hit Kegalle district if needed. Heavy rains have lashed across the island nation for several days and officials said the extent of the tragedy was still unclear. The Sri Lankan Red Cross said at least 220 families were unaccounted for. Sri Lankan landslide survivors try to salvage their belongings buried in the mud after a landslide in Elangipitiya village in Aranayaka about 72 kilometers (45 miles) north east of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, May 18, 2016. Soldiers and police used sticks and bare hands Wednesday to dig through enormous piles of mud covering houses in three villages hit by massive landslides in central Sri Lanka, with hundreds of families reported missing. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) "The task is to figure out what happened to them," the Red Cross said in a statement, noting that some people may have left after local officials warned earlier this week of possible landslides. Jayaweera said that the army had so far rescued 156 people trapped by landslides and more than 1,550 people are being sheltered in seven shelters. Heavy fog, rain, electrical outages and the loose ground have made it difficult to search for survivors. Officials have also warned that, with rain still falling, more landslides could occur in the area. Villagers said torrents of muddy water, tree branches and debris came crashing down around their homes Tuesday in the three villages, located at different heights on the same hill in Kegalle district, about 72 kilometers (45 miles) north of Colombo. "I heard a huge sound like a plane crashing into the Earth," said 52-year-old A.G. Kamala, who had just returned to her house in one of the villages, Siripura, when the landslides hit. "I opened my door. I could not believe my eyes, as I saw something like a huge fireball rolling down the mountain." Near the village of Elangapitiya — furthest down the hill — soldiers on Wednesday carried bodies to a school, where families waited for news of missing loved ones. Farmer Hewapelige Lal said he had identified the body of his nephew, but that 18 other family members were possibly buried under the mud. He and his wife had left their home to take fruit to a daughter who lived elsewhere, but at some point his wife turned back. "That was the last time I saw her," Lal said, sobbing. When he heard of the landslide, he rushed home but found the area covered with thick, heavy mud. "All I could do was scream." Officials could not give the populations of the villages of Siripura, Elangapitiya or Pallebage, but such villages typically include 1,000 to 1,500 residents. In Elangapitiya alone, where 14 bodies were recovered Wednesday, about 130 people were still missing, according to Maj. Gen. Sudantha Ranasinghe, who was coordinating rescue efforts. Hundreds of stunned villagers took shelter in four temporary camps set up in schools and a Buddhist temple, where they were being given food, blankets and basic medical treatment. At the Viyaneliya Temple, about 300 villagers shared a meal of brown bread and curried lentils. Local officials interviewed each one to learn about missing family members and possessions buried under the mud. Local media said President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe visited the disaster sites earlier Wednesday. In Siripura, 70-year-old A.G. Alice said all nine of her children were unaccounted for. "I don't know what happened to me" after the landslides swept down, she said. A man said his wife, mother-in-law, son and daughter-in-law were all in his house in Siripura when the landslides hit. "I still can't locate my family," M.W. Dharmadasa said. "I still don't know what happened to them." The same rains that unleashed the mudslides also caused severe flooding in cities including Colombo, the capital, where tens of thousands of homes were at least partially inundated. Schools were closed due to the bad weather. Sri Lanka's disaster management center Thursday reported 38 deaths from lightning strikes and smaller landslides elsewhere in the country earlier this week. Nearly 135,000 people have been displaced and are being housed in temporary shelters. Mudslides are common during the monsoon season. Much of Sri Lanka has been with heavy deforested to clear land for agriculture, leaving the countryside exposed. During heavy rains in December 2014, authorities evacuated more than 60,000 people from thousands of homes damaged or destroyed by floods or landslides. Two months before that, dozens of tea plantation workers were killed when mudslides buried their hillside homes. ___ AP writer Bharatha Mallawarachi in Colombo contributed to this report. Sri Lankan onlookers watch a minor land slide following heavy rains in Elangipitiya village in Aranayaka about 72 kilometers (45 miles) north east of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, May 18, 2016. Soldiers and police used sticks and bare hands Wednesday to dig through enormous piles of mud covering houses in three villages hit by massive landslides in central Sri Lanka, with hundreds of families reported missing. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) An auto rickshaw, a three wheeler used for transport is buried in the mud, behind as survivors and others walk on the mud after a landslide in Elangipitiya village in Aranayaka about 72 kilometers (45 miles) north east of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, May 18, 2016. Soldiers and police used sticks and bare hands Wednesday to dig through enormous piles of mud covering houses in three villages hit by massive landslides in central Sri Lanka, with hundreds of families reported missing. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) People run for safety during a minor land slide following heavy rains in Elangipitiya village in Aranayaka about 72 kilometers (45 miles) north east of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, May 18, 2016. Soldiers and police used sticks and bare hands Wednesday to dig through enormous piles of mud covering houses in three villages hit by massive landslides in central Sri Lanka, with hundreds of families reported missing. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Sri Lankans walk on mud after a massive landslide at Aranayaka in Kegalle District, about 72 kilometers (45 miles) north of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, May 18, 2016. Massive landslides triggered by torrential rains crashed down onto three villages in the central hills of Sri Lanka, and several families were missing Wednesday and feared buried under the mud and debris, the Sri Lankan Red Cross said. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) A Sri Lankan army soldier leaves the area of a landslide after searching for survivors in Elangipitiya village in Aranayaka about 72 kilometers (45 miles) north east of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, May 18, 2016. Soldiers and police used sticks and bare hands Wednesday to dig through enormous piles of mud covering houses in three villages hit by massive landslides in central Sri Lanka, with hundreds of families reported missing. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) The scene after a massive landslide in Kegalle District, about 72 kilometers (45 miles) north of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, May 18, 2016. Massive landslides triggered by torrential rains crashed down onto three villages in the central hills of Sri Lanka, and more than 200 families were missing Wednesday and feared buried under the mud and debris, the Sri Lankan Red Cross said. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Sri Lankans walk on mud after a massive landslide at Aranayaka in Kegalle District, about 72 kilometers (45 miles) north of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, May 18, 2016. Massive landslides triggered by torrential rains crashed down onto three villages in the central hills of Sri Lanka, and several families were missing Wednesday and feared buried under the mud and debris, the Sri Lankan Red Cross said. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)The UFC is preparing for a future without longtime matchmaker Joe Silva. The promotion announced Tuesday that it has hired former Legacy FC front man Mick Maynard as the vice president of talent relations. Sean Shelby, who worked under Silva, has been promoted to Silva's old role of senior vice president of talent relations. The two will work together to organize UFC bouts, develop athletes on the roster and scout potential talent, per a release. Silva will retire at the end of 2016 after more than 20 years with the UFC. Silva began with the promotion before the Fertitta brothers and Dana White even bought it, while it was still owned by Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG). "Joe Silva's contributions to the UFC over the last 20 years were huge, and he played a big role in helping make the sport as big as it is today," UFC president Dana White said in a release. "He left his mark on this sport and I wish him nothing but success in retirement." "I'm excited to have Mick on board working alongside Sean. Mick has become one of the most respected people in the fight game and he's done a great job in finding and developing talent. Sean has been a tremendous asset to the UFC for a long time, and I look forward to working with Sean and Mick in the years to come." Maynard, native of Australia, has been promoting MMA for 10 years. Legacy, which Maynard owned and ran, has helped send names like Holly Holm, Henry Cejudo, Valentina Shevchenko and Sage Northcutt to the UFC. On Monday's edition of The MMA Hour, RFA owner Ed Soares announced an RFA merger with Legacy, forming the Legacy Fighting Alliance. Maynard's move to the UFC seemingly brought about that change. The LFA, like Legacy and RFA before it, will air on AXS TV. Maynard was spotted on stage during the UFC 203 weigh-ins earlier this month. "This is an incredible opportunity for me and I'm looking forward to delivering the action-packed, exciting fights that UFC fans have come to expect," Maynard said in the release.In recent years, it seems like a cottage industry of sorts has formed around bashing the Millennial generation as a bunch of narcissistic, lazy, entitled, coddled, uninformed digital junkies who just can't deal with the real world. Though older generations have always complained about youngsters being in trouble, this animus towards Millennials seems rather unique, especially because, well, Millennials are rather unique. They are the first generation to grow up in the digital era, and technology has advanced at breakneck speeds during their lifetimes. Older Millennials were just children when the internet was in its infancy, and have grown up with it, from AOL to Myspace to Facebook and the iPhone. It is the first generation that cannot imagine a time when there was no internet or GPS or cell phones to assist you in everyday life. (Certain Seinfeld episodes may even confuse younger Millennials, as they revolve around characters trying to find each other without cell phones or any other digital technologies.) The Millennial generation is also the generation that received those much-lamented participation trophies, and has apparently been so coddled by their parents and teachers and guidance counselors that they simply are "not ready for the real world," which involves rejection and tough breaks. Advertisement: With all that hate, it’s easy to forget sometimes that the Millennial generation is also the one that faces staggering levels of debt, a bleak job market (even when one does get a college degree, which has become ever more important), and the overall prospect of having a less prosperous future than one’s parents. While today’s 18 to 34 year olds are the best-educated generation in American history -- 22.3 percent with a bachelor’s degree -- they also have lower median earnings (inflation adjusted) than 18 to 34 year olds did in 1980, when just 15.7 percent had a bachelor’s degree. Furthermore, becoming the best-educated generation has made Millennials the most indebted generation. Back in 1993, while the oldest Millennials were busy playing Sega Genesis, the average debt per borrower in the graduating class was under $10,000; by 2015, that number had more than tripled to about $35,000 -- earning the class of 2015 the honor of being the most indebted ever. Even worse, choosing to avoid higher education and all the debt that comes with it makes one’s future prospects that much worse. The unemployment rate for high school graduates aged 25 to 32, for example, is about three times that of those with bachelor degrees. The rate of high school graduates living in poverty is likewise high, at 21.8 percent, compared to 5.8 percent for those with a bachelor’s degree or more. A lot of the aforementioned Millennial critics tend to be particularly critical of political correctness in higher education. But political correctness is hardly the biggest problem in academia. Over the past few decades, higher education has been almost completely corporatized. As retired Adjunct Professor Joseph A. Domino puts it in The Huffington Post, there has been a “Walmartization” of our colleges and universities. In plain English, college has gone from being a place where young adults go to learn how to think critically and question things -- including authority -- to a place where young adults go to find careers and monetary success (which explains why “business” is the #1 degree). In the process, universities seem to have shifted their focus towards everything but education in the hopes of attracting students from wealthy backgrounds. Sports arenas, food courts, athletic facilities, and an army of bureaucratic administrators to go along with it. “These amenities are extremely expensive and contribute to the escalating cost of college,” said former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, in a recent interview with U.S. News & World Report. “Moreover, they have very little or anything to do with the education of most young people.” Meanwhile, salaries for top administrators increased by 39 percent from 2000 to 2010, while full-time professors saw their salaries grow by just 19 percent. And between 1978 and 2014, administrative positions rose by 369 percent, while full-time tenure and tenure-track appointments increased by just 23 percent. In a recent survey done by the Chronicle of Higher Education, it was found that 32 private university presidents earned $1 million or more in 2013, while many professors had unlivable wages. It’s not just our fast-food workers who struggle. Clearly, administrator priorities are not in providing the best education for America’s young adults, but in climbing the national ranks, creating country club atmospheres, and attracting the wealthiest students, while increasing the cost of tuition in the process. Advertisement: The corporatization of higher education, which has affected the Millennial generation the most, is a mere symptom of our political economy. Since the era of neoliberalism emerged sometime in the seventies, and exploded with the elections of Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan in the United States, our political economy has had a complete makeover. The neoliberal ideology of economic liberalization -- e.g. privatization, deregulation, free trade, commercial imperialism -- promoted by both Republicans (Reagan, Bush Sr. & Jr.) and Democrats (Clinton, Obama), transformed the United States into what it is today. And with it came the financialization of our economy, a metamorphosis that eventually led to the crash of '07-'08 and the vast economic inequalities that we currently have. So then, is it any wonder that Millennials -- especially those who are currently in college or recently graduated, who happened to grow up during the biggest economic downturn in nearly a century and witnessed how the greed of a few could hurt an entire society -- are the biggest supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt)? Millennials have inherited an inherently unfair economy and corrupt political system that is a result of nearly four decades of a neoliberal consensus. Or to put it a bit more crudely: Neoliberalism has screwed the Millennial generation. And Sanders is the antithesis of a neoliberal. The latest poll from the Harvard University Institute of Politics found that Sanders, who trails Clinton overall by about 25 points, actually leads her 41 percent to 35 percent among Democrats aged 18 to 29. It also found that the term “Democratic Socialist” has, if anything, a positive connotation among this age group -- 66 percent said the label makes “no difference,” 24 percent said it would make them “more likely” to support Sanders, and only 9 percent said “less likely.” This seems to back up past polls that have shown Millennials reacting slightly more positively to the word “socialism” than “capitalism.” Millennials see a society governed by plutocratic pawns who are legally bought by billionaires and corporations. They see a dysfunctional government that can barely keep itself funded, let alone tackle monumental issues of our time, such as climate change -- especially when private industry does everything it possibly can to block necessary legislation. Most who are not fortunate enough to come from a financially well-off family see a future of taking on incredible amounts of debt, just to get an education that will hopefully (but not certainly) provide a job that pays enough to make monthly payments on that debt. Advertisement: No wonder Democratic Socialism is catching on! The neoliberal experiment has had disastrous effects for the majority of people who are not in the top one percent (or 0.1 percent, for that matter), and the biggest problems we face -- climate change, income and wealth inequality, economic instability, geopolitical turmoil, Millennial debt -- can all be attributed in varying degrees to the philosophy and practice of neoliberalism. Millennials are inheriting all of these nightmarish problems, but surely they do not have to inherit the unsound philosophy that has created or exasperated them. Sanders and his political philosophy provide an alternative that gives Millennials hope in a future that currently looks bleak. And at a time when a fascist is dominating the other party’s primary, hope is in short supply.Chad Atlas went on a 9-day retreat in June, 2016 practicing the fire kasina at Joshua Tree in California with three friends, John Finnell, Chris Miller, and Gabe Hill. Chad recorded an audio diary, and he and his friends gave some written reports. Here are their bios and reports. Chad Atlas is a 35-year-old father, husband, dog lover, gamer, and lawyer who discovered Zen briefly in college after experiencing an Earth substance-assisted peak, non-dual, unitive experience. Years later, he rediscovered “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” and began practicing meditation daily and diligently in December 2013. Gravitating toward a goal oriented pragmatic dharma approach, Chad began working with Ron Crouch of Aloha Dharma in March 2014. He experienced his first fruition several months later, with many, many more to follow. Prior to the Fire Kasina retreat, Chad attended a 10-day Goenka retreat in July 2015. Chad is a moderator and regular contributor at /r/StreamEntry on Reddit (/u/CoachAtlus), where he sometimes shares the many challenges that regularly arise in his ongoing practice. Here are his audio diaries in two parts: Chad’s written report: “Inspired by Daniel’s and Shannon’s Fire Kasina reports, three dharma friends and I took a trip to the desert in June 2016 to explore the potential of this practice. We rented a home, fittingly called the Diamond Sky Retreat, in Joshua Tree, California and retreated officially for 8.5 days. Entering the retreat, each of us had different meditation backgrounds, goals, and expectations. However, the unifying theme for our retreat was one of exploration, a willingness to engage fully and openly with the Fire Kasina and to accept whatever this practice had to show us. As we learned, and as advertised, the Fire Kasina — like its elemental counterpart — is powerful, dynamic, and unpredictable. Some personal background: by conventional standards, I am an ordinary western lay person who stumbled into a pragmatic dharma practice around December 2013. (You can read my now dated AMA on Reddit here, where I described myself and my practice at the time in some detail.) Prior to discovering meditation practice, my reaction toward anything remotely religious, magickal, or spiritual inevitably involved extreme aversion and absolute disbelief. Through practice, my conceptual certainty about that and many other aspects of conventional reality started to crumble. As a consequence, I found myself opening to more esoteric spiritual practices and techniques, suddenly curious about the mystickal and the magickal. Hence, the Fire Kasina retreat. My own expectations for the Fire Kasina practice varied widely and wildly both before and during the retreat. In the months leading up to the retreat, I was suffering from classic symptoms of murky, middle path yogihood. My practice felt like it was floundering and directionless. During the retreat, I struggled constantly with a desire for technical meditation mastery, craving experiences ranging from path completion (whatever that might mean) to extreme, meditation-induced psychedelic states of consciousness. In my audio diaries, which follow, that struggle is palpable. Shortly after the retreat, I posted a technical summary of our retreat experiences to a newly created awakening-focused dharma community on Reddit called Stream Entry. You can read that post here if you are interested in a contemporaneous, phenomenology-focused report of the retreat. Initially, I intended to post a more elaborate version of that technical retreat summary, but I have since lost the appetite for it. That happens, I think. In the months following the Fire Kasina retreat, I experienced a lot of aversion toward meditation practice generally. It was extremely difficult for me to find the motivation to edit my audio diaries and prepare this introduction. That aversion eventually resolved, as things tend to do for me nowadays. Sitting here today, I would recommend the Fire Kasina to practitioners seeking a challenging, humbling, dynamic, and different sort of practice. If you engage in this practice, I recommend adopting an attitude of deep and sincere respect for the Fire Kasina. The kitchy truth about this practice is this: If you play with fire, you might get burned. Please practice responsibly. I want to offer a special thanks to Daniel, Florian, Duncan, and Shannon for sharing their experiences about this powerful practice and inspiring and encouraging me to explore it on retreat. In particular, I am deeply grateful to Shannon, Daniel, and Florian for volunteering their time to offer personal instruction, advice, and encouragement, before, during, and after the retreat. I hope and wish that these audio diaries and resources will be of benefit to you and your practice. (Music from the audio diaries: www.bensound.com)” John Finnell is a 36-year-old student of acupuncture and Chinese medicine living in Southern California. John has been meditating since 2008. He crossed the A&P during a three-month stay at a Goenka center and found himself stuck in the Dark Night thereafter. After discovering Daniel Ingram’s Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, John began a two-hour-per-day Noting practice through which he became even more familiar with the Dark Night. Eventually John began practicing with Ron Crouch, who guided him through the Dark Night and to his first fruition in 2014. According to Ron’s system, John completed Second Path two months later and is currently working his way toward the higher path knowledges. His report is here: “When I went into this Fire Kasina Retreat I really didn’t have a lot of Kasina practice. I had a few meetings with Shannon and Chad about it and one meeting with Florian. I spent some time a few weeks prior getting used to the practice and trying to get a bit of head start with my concentration. But I didn’t get very far. I didn’t have any expectations going into the retreat which felt good. I had some ideas of what was possible, but wasn’t sure where I’d get with it. Mostly I was interested in relaxation, some bliss states, which was much needed, and to walk away with a stronger concentration practice. After the retreat I came to realize how quickly concentration fades if the same level of intensity isn’t kept up. The first couple of retreat days my time was spent trying to stay focussed and getting my concentration up. There was a lot of exhaustion so I spent a lot of time taking breaks and resting for short periods. I was quite sleepy and foggy and concentration was generally low. I kept refreshing on the flame and following it as far as I could. Later, as I got deeper into the dissolution like state I started picking up on the backside of extremely brief and numerous periods of surreal visual dream states, along with a strong desire to see them and whatever else in the visual field more clearly and sustained. I struggled with a mantra in the beginning but found one that worked which had two variations to it. I could use one variation for some time then switch to the other variation when my mind got really sick of one. Trying to find balance, at times I’d let
a bipartisan conciliator in Washington and a man with ideas who works with Democrats on problems. It is at odds with how Democrats in Congress describe Mr. Ryan, whom they like personally but whose views they characterize as extreme. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. But in the interview on “60 Minutes,” Mr. Ryan, 42, introduced himself as a patriot committed to turning around the country’s fiscal challenges. “We’ve dedicated much of our lives to saving this country,” Mr. Ryan said when asked about bursting onto the national stage. Advertisement Continue reading the main story When he arrived at a homecoming rally here on Sunday evening, Mr. Ryan wiped away tears as he took the stage and looked out upon a sea of familiar faces in the crowd. “Hi, Mom,” he said, choking up as he pointed to friends and neighbors who hailed him as a proud son of Wisconsin. Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a Republican who survived a divisive recall election in June in a fight over collective bargaining that has made him into something of a conservative icon, said Sunday that members of his party should not be worried if Mr. Romney does not fully embrace every aspect of Mr. Ryan’s budget, which has become a centerpiece of the party’s fiscal agenda. “Mitt Romney will have his own plan, but he values someone who has the courage to take on the tough issues,” Mr. Walker said in an interview. “With Paul on the ticket, you have the credibility of knowing that Paul Ryan is not going to be a wallflower. He is going to be an active part of a Romney administration.” The debate over Medicare was an undercurrent at the Republican rallies on Sunday. It remains an open question whether attitudes are changing about the tough-medicine approach advocated by Mr. Ryan for a program that is on a trajectory of ultimate insolvency. Several older voters said they supported Mr. Ryan’s plans to overhaul the program and would be disheartened if Mr. Romney backed away from them. “I’d be disappointed,” said Chuck Bino, 71, who added that Mr. Ryan’s bold thinking on such issues is what convinced him Mr. Romney was not the “middle-of-the-road candidate” he feared. While Medicare is a renewed focal point of the campaign, Democrats are digging into the Republican budget to highlight the implications for people across demographic groups, including proposed cuts to veterans’ programs, student loans and regional programs. For the next three months, a debate that has largely taken place in Washington will be elevated to a national audience. The addition of Mr. Ryan to the ticket has not redirected the focus of the campaign, Democratic strategists said, since Mr. Romney had already endorsed most of the provisions of the Republican budget. But they say it has intensified the budget debate and shined more light on all of the provisions of Mr. Ryan’s plan. Democrats on Sunday also seized on how Mr. Romney asked his prospective running mates to be more forthcoming in their tax information than the two years of returns that he has agreed to release. Mr. Ryan released several years of tax information to the campaign during his vetting, but like Mr. Romney he will publicly release only two years of returns. But the thunderous reception the Republican ticket received at an evening rally in Wisconsin, with thousands of people filling an outdoor park in here in Waukesha, west of Milwaukee, capped a weekend where Mr. Romney saw the biggest and most enthusiastic crowds of his candidacy. After two days of joint campaigning, the men will go their own ways, with Mr. Ryan heading to Iowa and Mr. Romney traveling to Florida. Advertisement Continue reading the main story As Republicans head to their convention at the end of the month, a theme has emerged that advisers to Mr. Romney said underscored how the script had been flipped. A vote for Mr. Obama is an endorsement of the status quo, Republicans will argue, while a vote for Mr. Romney is a call for change.Islamic State militants have claimed responsibility for the attack in Dhaka, but authorities are still investigating who led the hostage-taking that resulted in at least 20 deaths. One of the likely suspects: a terrorist group in Bangladesh that is affiliated with IS and is reportedly led by a Canadian. Tamim Chowdhury, who goes by Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, is a Bangladeshi-Canadian who is leading a militant arm with close ties to Islamic State, according to the Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star. Story continues below advertisement Mr. Chowdhury is also connected with an IS study group, which cited him as the leader of the Bangladeshi IS effort. In the April issue of Daqbi, a glossy magazine published by Islamic State, Mr. Chowdhury called for a united country free of "deviant sects, who are busy misleading the masses." The magazine identified Mr. Chowdhury as the "emir," or ruler, of its Bangladesh branch. "I know that he's from Windsor," said Amarnath Amarasingam, a post-doctoral fellow in the Resilience Research Centre at Dalhousie University who specializes in radicalization and terrorism. "I know he's the head of the ISIS group, or at least a pro-ISIS group, in Bangladesh." Mr. Amarasingam said Mr. Chowdhury's name came up repeatedly during his research in the community. "There were a few [people] who knew him from the mosque and from the social circles," Mr. Amarasingam said. "He was a shy, skinny kid." The Windsor Islamic Association, in a statement on its website from last month, said it has not received official confirmation of Mr. Chowdhury's identity as head of the Bangladeshi group. Mr. Amarasingam said while Mr. Chowdhury lived in Windsor, it was unclear if he is a Canadian citizen or when he left the country. Public Safety Canada declined to comment on Mr. Chowdhury, but said the government is "taking every step to identify terrorists and prevent their activities." The attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Bangladesh's diplomatic zone killed 20 people, including foreigners from Italy, Japan and the United States. IS said it targeted the citizens of "Crusader countries" in the attack. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement Canada's foreign affairs office said it is working with consular officials in Dhaka to determine whether the hostage crisis has "directly affected" any Canadian citizens. With a report from Associated PressOpinion polls and regional media coverage suggest that the anti-Assad protests are widely backed the citizens of Arab countries, and they might even support an intervention -- though not one by the West Foreign ministers at the Arab League headquarters on October 16 to discuss suspending Syria from the Arab League / AP As atrocities in Syria continue, the question is inevitable: is the international community doing enough? Certainly the Syrian regime is, in analyst-speak, "increasingly isolated," but what does that actually mean? There have been the usual condemnations of violence. Individuals like the U.N. high commissioner for human rights have called for the international community to protect Syrian civilians. It's no surprise, of course, that the Western bit of the international community in particular is increasingly irritated, to say the least, with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. But if you're really looking to nail down what kind of "isolation" we're talking about, perhaps the best indicator lies in the attitude of the Arab world. The big pan-Arab dailies, at least, appear to universally support the anti-Assad protesters. Furthermore, a new public opinion poll out Tuesday suggests this trend extends to ordinary citizens -- in other words, this is not a case of media elite-public divide. On the one hand, this seems obvious: even over the summer, an Arab American Institute poll found that while a plurality of respondents in their "Arab Attitudes" survey thought it was "too early" to call the Arab Spring, the second most popular response was that the uprisings were leaving the Arab world "better off." On the other hand, consider the particulars: many in the Arab world are sensitive to signs of foreign interference, or even foreign judgment and the infiltration of Western values. Many in the Arab world also want leaders who prove themselves against Israel: Assad has unquestionably done that. Neither Israel nor its European and American supporters has been overly fond of the Syrian regime. Al-Hayat directly addresses some of these issues, for example the fear of foreign interference, also expressed in an Al-Quds Al-Arabi (a notably pro-Palestinian and often anti-Western paper). "What if the people rebel and cannot achieve victory?" the author at Al-Hayat asks. "There must be no foreign interference," runs the refrain. "The problem with this way of thinking," though, the author continues, referring to the hardliners, is that "first, adherents [to this creed] love strategy and geopolitics and their calculations more than they love the people [...] Second, they hate America more than they love the people." Third, the article continues, somewhat redundantly, this view shows insufficient interest in supporting individual Arab communities. But it appears that favorability to the Arab Spring overrides these concerns. An article at the dailydirectly addresses some of these issues, for example the fear of foreign interference, also expressed in an article in(a notably pro-Palestinian and often anti-Western paper). "What if the people rebel and cannot achieve victory?" the author atasks. "There must be no foreign interference," runs the refrain. "The problem with this way of thinking," though, the author continues, referring to the hardliners, is that "first, adherents [to this creed] love strategy and geopolitics and their calculations more than they love the people [...] Second, they hate America more than they love the people." Third, the article continues, somewhat redundantly, this view shows insufficient interest in supporting individual Arab communities. Al-Quds Al-Arabi also siding with the Syrian people. The paper runs one article It's interesting to see the pro-Palestinian and generally aggressively anti-Westernalso siding with the Syrian people. The paper runs one article questioning dictators' mindsets, another with a Syrian's recollection of his own disillusionment process, and another flatly stating in the first sentence, "It is not correct for one to ignore the great pain of Syria." This last article also talks about "the regime of Bashar al-Assad, who repeats the massacres of his father," comparing those massacres to terrorism. The article argues that the Syrian people "deserve" a chance to build a "modern national democratic Arab state." Al Ahram, for example, Asharq Al-Awsat published an article worrying about regional repercussions, as Syria was once the "corner joint in the relationship between Iran and Turkey." It also dedicates another Even those articles concerned with regional stability are quick to express horror at Assad's actions. The Egyptian, for example, describes "growing fears that Syria will slide into civil war," but also distastefully refers to the "Syrian regime's excessive use of force" and "opposition leaders who are being murdered in suspicious transactions."published an article worrying about regional repercussions, as Syria was once the "corner joint in the relationship between Iran and Turkey." It also dedicates another article almost entirely to expressing skepticism at Assad's feints at reform. New York Times readers might note that the Times's Anthony Shadid isn't the only one Al-Quds In addition,readers might note that the's Anthony Shadid isn't the only one suggesting Qaddafi's killing might embolden the Syrian opposition. It's also a view widely held in the Arabic-language media: "If there were those who thought that the violent repression of demonstrations would keep Arab rulers from Mubarak's fate," runs an piece, "the shattered body of Libya's former governor has shown the alternative to the detention cage." All this isn't to say that the Arab world isn't still highly skeptical of Western attitudes on the Arab Spring -- readers trolling through online articles will come across some pretty aggressive denunciations of NATO's involvement in Libya. But if you're looking for proof of the near universality of support for Syria's protesters, look no further than a report published today by the Arab American Institute. "The overwhelming majority of Arabs in the six nations covered in the survey side with those Syrians demonstrating against the government (from 83% in Morocco to 100% in Jordan). And when asked whether Bashar Al Assad can continue to govern, the highest affirmative ratings he receives are 15% in Morocco and 14% in Egypt. Most telling is the scant support the Syrian leader receives in Lebanon. From other results... we can see that the Lebanese haven't stopped giving Hezbollah a net favorable rating and more than one-half of Lebanese Shia have a favorable view of the role played by Iran in Syria. But in questions dealing with the Syrian leader, it is clear that whatever support he might have commanded in the past is now gone." So what does that mean for those who'd like to see the international community intervene to stop the slaughter of the opposition? Actually, the poll addresses this, too, and the message is exactly what you'd expect from reading the Arabic-language media on the subject: "Turkey's interventions with Syria to date have won majority support in every Arab country [...] The country receiving the lowest rating for its role in Syria is the United States, which should serve as a cautionary note for U.S. policy-makers. [...] Syria appears not to be a place where U.S. interference will ultimately be welcomed." Is Syria the place where the countries of the Middle East will finally start policing themselves, calling repressive regimes on their games -- at least the worst of them? Hard to know what CIA analysts would say to that right now, but the public opinion and media message is clear: it's not as far-out a suggestion as you might think. We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.Pakistan Council of Islamic Ideology has once again endorsed its previous ruling of early age marriages and called for repealing the marriage laws defining the minimum marriage age. The meeting of the Council of Islamic Ideology was chaired by Maulana Mohammad Khan Sheerani of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) also said that Muslim married men do not require permission from their wives before marrying again. Maulana Mohammad Khan Sheerani while talking to reporters after the meeting said, “The primary responsibility of the council is the ‘Islamisation’ of the country’s laws and those opposing our decisions need to reconsider their position.” Maulana Sheerani said that laws which define the minimum age to get married are not Islamic. He said that nikah can be performed at any age, however, the bride can only begin her marital life after reaching puberty. Maulana Sheerani also told reporters that section 6 of the Muslim Marriage Law, 1961 was not in accordance with principles of Islam as it requires men to seek permission from their wives before marrying another woman. The Council members criticized Sind government legislation defining the minimum age for marriage. According to some reports in media, some members of the Council opposed the decision. However, chairman has the powers to overrule others opinions being the final decision making authority. The decisions of the Council provide the guiding principles for the parliament while framing the policy matters in Pakistan.The firing squad execution chamber at the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah. (Trent Nelson/AP) A year ago, Utah lawmakers were expanding the ways the state could execute inmates condemned to death. This week, the state took a major step toward possibly abolishing the death penalty entirely. The Utah state Senate narrowly voted on Wednesday to approve a bill that scraps the death penalty, with 15 state senators — the minimum number needed for passage — voting to send it to the state’s House of Representatives. A dozen senators voted against this bill, while two were absent or did not vote. It is still not clear what will happen to the bill when it moves to the state House or, if it passes that chamber, makes it to Gov. Gary R. Herbert (R), who supports capital punishment and signed a bill last year expanding use of the firing squad. [The Utah Republican leading the effort to abolish the death penalty] On Wednesday, a spokesman for Herbert reiterated his stance on capital punishment while expressing some reservations. “Governor Herbert continues to be a supporter of the death penalty but has concerns over the excessive length of time it often takes from the date of conviction to the actual punishment,” the spokesman, Jon Cox, said in a statement. The bill in Utah would prohibit death sentences for aggravated murders committed on or after May 10, while it would also ban death sentences for crimes committed before that date if the death penalty has not been sought yet. This legislation went to the House on Wednesday and was introduced there the same day. In Utah, bills must be read three separate times in each of the two chambers. It would take at least 38 votes in the House to approve the bill and send it to Herbert. [Most Americans support the death penalty. They also agree that an innocent person might get put to death.] If the bill does wind up passing the House and Herbert opts for a veto, it would require a two-thirds vote in both chambers to override that. Utah’s legislative session is scheduled to end next week. Utah state Sen. Steve Urquhart (R), who sponsored the bill, told The Washington Post’s Amber Phillips last month that he was “making tremendous headway talking with House members” about the repeal. Urquhart said his arguments talked about how the death penalty is costly and described the process as riddled with delays. (Read the whole interview here for more on how he came to sponsor the bill. ) “I’m thinking that it’s wrong for government to be in business in killing its own citizens,” he said last month. “That cheapens life.” [The state Supreme Court justice who stepped down to protest the death penalty] The issue of how long inmates spend on death row was also cited by Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer in a high-profile dissent discussing the death penalty last year. Breyer, who was joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, questioned whether the death penalty was constitutional and said that inmates condemned to death faced “unconscionably long delays that undermine the death penalty’s penological purpose.” Death-row inmates nationwide have spent an average of 14 years under those sentences, according to the most recent federal figures. (In some cases, as we saw in Texas last year and Georgia last month, inmates were executed at least 30 years after they were sentenced to death.) Meanwhile, the number of executions nationwide — along with death sentences — has fallen considerably in recent years. Last year, states executed 28 inmates, the smallest number in more than two decades, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. [‘It was fundamentally unfair.’ A prosecutor apologizes for his role in putting an innocent man on death row] In Utah, the possibility of a bill banning the death penalty comes a little less than a year after state lawmakers, facing a nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs, decided to make firing squads the state’s backup option so that they could still carry out executions. As this drug shortage has continued, the country has seen a larger shift away from using the death penalty. Fewer inmates are sentenced to death and fewer executions are carried out, a big change from just two decades ago. A majority of the American public supports the death penalty, but that number is significantly down from what it was two decades earlier amid an era of heightened anxiety over crime. The last decade has also seen movement in some states to get away from capital punishment entirely. A third of the states with formal bans against the death penalty have gotten rid of the practice since 2007. Last year, in Nebraska — which, like Utah, is reliably conservative — lawmakers voted to ditch the death penalty and join that list, passing a bill that replaced it with life imprisonment. Those same lawmakers then overrode a veto from the governor, briefly making Nebraska the 19th state in the country to abolish capital punishment. That law was quickly put on hold after opponents submitted enough signatures to stop the repeal until voters weigh in this November. Death-penalty opponents in Nebraska pointed out that the state had not executed an inmate since 1997, with State Sen. Colby Coash, the Republican co-sponsor of the bill there, saying he felt capital punishment was “inefficient” and “costly.” In Utah, executions have also been a rare occurrence. Since 2000, the state has executed one inmate: Ronnie Lee Gardner, who was put to death by firing squad in 2010. Utah technically never got rid of the firing squad, though in 2004 the state largely discarded the practice. The law that year let inmates sentenced previously choose between lethal injection or a firing squad. Last year, Utah made firing squads the backup method of execution. Related: The innocent man who spent 30 years on death row died hours before the Supreme Court cited him Justices Breyer and Ginsburg: ‘It is highly likely’ the death penalty is unconstitutionalMy bungee nightmare: Briton hits water at 80mph after elastic cord flies loose As he hurtled towards the water at 80mph on a bungee jump, Rishi Baveja anxiously awaited the moment when the elastic cord snapped him back aloft. It never came. The harness around his feet worked free and he continued accelerating until he hit the surface of a Thai lagoon. Going, going: A video from the platform shows Rishi Baveja jump, left, and the cord almost fully unfurls with him still attached, right Fortunately he managed to take the full force of the impact on his chest, escaping catastrophic head injuries. But the Cambridge graduate still suffered a ruptured spleen, torn liver, collapsed lungs and massive bruising. Surgeons, who likened his injuries to those of a car crash victim, had to remove the spleen and he spent a month in a Bangkok hospital before he was well enough to return to his home near Wakefield, West Yorkshire. Gone: He hits the water and the cord swings under the platform, left, before it swings back into view minus Mr Baveja, who was seriously injured 'All the doctors were staggered that I lived,' he said. 'I'm very lucky. If I had landed head first I would be brain damaged or dead.' Mr Baveja, whose father Amarjeet is a GP, was in Phuket on a month-long holiday to celebrate gaining a 2.2 degree in engineering. Lucky to be alive: Rishi Baveja spent a month in hospital but is now recovered He paid £50 to make the jump at the Jungle Bungy centre in Kathu. A crane took him to a 165ft platform where a harness was placed around his feet and fastened to a bungee cord with several wraps of material. A video of the jump records his yelp of fear just before he hits the water, while an instructor appears to say 'Oh', as the realisation of what is happening dawns on him. Mr Baveja said it was not clear how the harness was able to work loose and he would not be suing the operators because he feels there is little prospect of success. 'I knew the jump would be scary but I didn't think it was dangerous. I had a long phone conversation with my mum telling her it was safe. 'She only believed me when I told her that the website of the jump centre claimed it had a 100 per cent safety record. It still says that. I didn't need to do that jump. I wish I hadn't.' Mr Baveja's parents flew out to his bedside when they were told of the accident. Despite losing his spleen he hopes to return to full health - and has not been put off extreme sports. He plans to go skydiving when he has recovered. Video: The moment Rishi's bungee jump went horribly wronghome news study zone career advice pq awards free mag advertise contact nq mag PQ magazine is for part qualified accountants. Read the latest web issue here if you like what you see sign up today Latest News ACCA option exam tips 18 February 2019 Advanced Financial Management (AFM) From September 2018 every exam will have questions which have a focus on section B of the syllabus (advanced investment appraisal) and section E (treasury and advanced risk management techniques). These syllabus areas are therefore high priority areas for your revision. For Q1, section A questions are often based on core syllabus areas such as project appraisal (domestic & overseas), business valuations and business/financial reorganisations. These areas often include cost of capital calculations. Risk management may also feature in a number of different ways value at risk, real options, hedgig, risk mapping. Q2-3, section B think risk management (currency or interest rate, dividend policy and general financing issues, and real options. Advanced Performance Management (APM) From September 2018 Q1 focused on a range of issues from syllabus areas A (strategic planning & control), section C (performance measurement systems & design), and section D (strategic performance measurement). In recent exams Q1 has often required linking a business's mission to its performance objectives using the concept of CSFs and KPIs. You may well have to critique and recommend improvements to performance reports and the balanced scorecard could well be tested in this concept. The assessment of performance is also likely to to be tested and this could easily include benchmarking as a theme. Financial performance measures (ROCE/RI/EVA) are also likely to be commonly examined in Q1, but dont neglect non-financial issues from syllabus section D, such as quality management and reward systems. From September 2018 one of the section B questions will come from syllabus section E. In section B commonly tested areas include: Quality management. Information reporting (eg big data, lean information). The application of strategic models (such as PEST, Porters 5 Forces, the value chain). HR framework (eg reward & appraisal systems). Risk management. Environmental management accounting. Advanced Taxation UK (ATX) The exam will comprise of 2 compulsory questions in section A. One of these Qs will focus on personal tax issues and the other will focus on corporate tax issues. In Q1 there will be 4 professional skills marks and in section A there will be 5 marks on ethics. Topics expected to see are: Groups of companies involving overseas aspects and losses. Unincorporated business particularly loss relief or involving a partnership or basis period rules. CGT v IHT, including availability of reliefs. Overseas aspects of income tax, G=CGT, IHT or corporation tax. Personal service company. Share schemes. Company purchase of own shares or liquidations. Enterprise investment schemes/Seed EIS/venture capital trusts. Takeovers. VAT partial exemption or land and buildings or transfer of a going concern or overseas transactions. Transfer of trade v sale of subsidiary. Disincorporation relief. Pension contributions. Patent box, research and development expenditure. Advanced Audit & Assurance (AAA) By now you should have a better idea of what is expect - the most recent AAA exams have contained no real surprises, although you should take a look at the presentation of the embedded email and the supporting exhibits in the case study (look at the specimen exam and past papers). Section A will comprise of a case study set at the planning stage of the audit.Candidates will be required to address a range of requirements from syllabus sections A, B, C, and D. You will be tackling a real-world situation where you may have to address a range of issues simultaneously in relation to planning, risk assessment, evidence gathering and ethical and professional considerations. Four professional marks are available in section A - think structure, layout and clarity. In section B one question will always predominantly come from syllabus section E, so be prepared to answer a question on completion, review and reporting. There are a number of formats this question can adopt, including the assessment of a going concern, the impact of subsequent events, evaluation identified misstatements and any corresponding effect on the auditor's report. Candidates may also be asked to critique an auditors report or a report which is provided to management or those charged with governance. The other section B question can be drawn from any other syllabus area. Just so you know syllabus section G on current issues is unlikely to form the basis of any question on its own. Make sure you read the 5 technical articles on exam technique, which cover ethics, risk and accounting issues. [«all news] Subscribe to RSSZillion is an Action/Adventure game for the Sega Master System. Zillion Images Data Alternate Titles 赤い光弾ジリオン Akai Koudan Zillion Genre Action / Adventure # of Players 1 Developer(s) Tatsunoko Production Sega Publisher(s) Sega Release Dates May 24th, 1987 (JP) November 1987 (NA) October 1987 (EU) 1987 (AU) (BR) Release Prices ¥ 5,000 (JP) $ 49.99 (NA) £ 19.95 (EU) (AU) (BR) Product IDs G-1325 (JP) 5075 (NA) 5075 (EU) 5075 (AU) (BR) Barcodes 4974365143251 (JP) 010086050752 (NA) (EU) (AU) (BR) Zillion Overview Zillion (赤い光弾ジリオン) is an interesting story in Sega’s history. The concept grew from a laser tag toy Sega created in the early 1980’s that grew to be incredibly popular. It was so popular, in fact, that Sega designed to clone the general design of the toy for their upcoming redesign of the Sega Master System’s Light Phaser in 1986. In 1986, an animated series arrived in Japan. The story follows three teenagers armed with special guns defending their planet against genocidal aliens known as Nozas. The teenagers were known as the White Knights and rode around on motorcycles. They were assisted by none other than Sega’s own Opa-Opa on occasion. The anime was picked up for an American English release by Streamline Pictures later on. Unfortunately, they decided to compress the original run of 31 episodes into just a handful of episodes and the Burning Night special. Many US viewers had no idea they were missing out on the majority of the show until later on. In 1987, Sega released the Sega Master System game Zillion based on the property. The game draws many comparisons to Nintendo’s popular Metroid, which released the year prior. It has a lot more in common with the classic computer game Impossible Mission. The game follows the same general premise, starting you off playing as the main character JJ. He must infiltrate the enemy base, acquire five floppy disks used to destroy the base’s computer, and rescue his two friends Apple and Champ. Once you save Apple and Champ, you are able to switch to them. Apple is faster but weaker, while Champ is stronger and slower. All three characters can find Opa-Opa power-ups to upgrade their abilities. When the gun fires in Zillion, it produces an awe-inspiring sound effect and causes part of the game’s music to abruptly stop. It’s apparently a technical limitation of the hardware, but ends up being a great aspect of the game. Possibly the oddest fact about Zillion is that it does not incorporate the Light Phaser at all. While it would be hard to imagine a good use for a light gun in the game’s existing design, it still seems weird it wasn’t worked in somehow based upon the property’s history. Zillion Screenshots Videos Master System Longplay [015] Zillion Watch this video on YouTube Wallpapers Other Media You can download a PDF scan of the North American manual here, as well as the Japanese manual here. Sega of America produced a hint sheet for the game, which can download here. Guides Nubu has written a great walkthrough, which you can read here. Cheats & Secrets Extra Continues Every time you’re defeated, press 1, 2, Up. Invincibility Glitch This glitch will work in any room that has a guard that paces in front of a computer console. The guard is needed for the glitch to work. The trick is to enter the computer console while overlapping the guard. You may get shot a few times attempting this. Once the guard is between you and the console and you’ve entered the menu, input the suicide code. The zap that kills you will not hit you, but the guard instead (won’t kill him). Now you’re invincible. The pause button will not work, so you can’t switch characters. Another Invincibility Glitch Go to room C3, and enter in the open door code for this room (you’ll need the level 2 gun). Then, jump down past the forcefield into the elevator. Note that this cheat requires that the forcefield be active, so do not enter in the disable forcefield command! Once in the elevator, step slightly to the right, until you are taking damage from the forcefield, and yet are still on the elevator. Keep taking damage until you are down to 160 health, then press down on the control pad to take the elevator down. You should scroll down into the next room, and have 0 health. From this point on, you are invulnerable, but you cannot pause the game, and thus cannot switch characters. Credits Plan Ossale Kohta (Kotaro Hayashida Program Dunk PPak Toshi Kaorin Sound Coordinate Bo (Tokuhiko Uwabo) Character Design Sukeban Tamun Alien Sadamo (Koki Sadamori) Special Thanks to Mai Asuka Haruna.H TopDream External Links Discuss this game on our forums! Wikipedia Page Buy Zillion on Amazon Search for the game on eBay Special Thanks / Sources -Victor Gomez for the Zillion wallpaper. -DynamicHispanic for the Invincibility cheat. -Nubu for the second Invincibility cheat. -Apple artwork used for wallpapers done by Fei (緋).Sophistication and style are words that come easy when talking about French actress Clémence Poésy. An artist who emerged earlier this decade from the commercial success of box office hits such as Harry Potter and 127 Hours. Since then Poésy has forged her own unique career path within the worlds of fashion and film, and even turning her hand to music. In 2014, Poésy was chosen as the face of the Love Story fragrance from the fashion house Chloé, cementing her reputation as a style icon. In this candid interview, Poésy opens up her wardrobe to reveal a more provocative side to herself whilst being careful never to reveal too much. We learn about her impassioned work for women’s rights, her level-headed approach to acting and something we both very much agree on – Dustin Hoffman’s killer look in the 1973 film, Kramer vs Kramer. Going back to the start of your career, when you were 14 you got your first part in a play from your father. Is that where your bug for acting started? Not really, I guess at the time it was more of a way for me to join the adult world. I pretended to be working so that I could spend more time with my dad and feel the excitement of the lights on stage and an audience clapping at the end of a play – but I still wouldn’t call it acting. Wanting to act came from being the one clapping in the audience, watching and thinking how wonderful telling stories that way could be. You’ve said, “To embody a character, you have to lose all judgment about them. Acting makes you look at life and try to understand it in a beautiful way.” Can you elaborate on that point? Acting gives you that incredible opportunity to try and understand other people who are incredibly different to who you are. It allows you to touch, to feel, to understand a little bit of the mystery of who we are and how we relate to each other. It shakes your perception of others and allows you to see the world through someone else’s eyes, and you always learn from that. A character always teaches you something new about life. It’s a new set of feelings, fears, joys, obsessions all at your disposal and you use it alongside a group of people who are committed to telling that story. It changes the way you see the world every time. It’s a labour of love, it has to be empathy as a craft or imagination as a tool. Was there ever a point in a movie you’ve done perhaps 127 Hours or Harry Potter where you just had the realization of, “wow, I’ve actually made it?” I was doing very very small things in Harry Potter and 127 hours – even if I felt incredibly lucky to be in these films I was mostly thinking of all the work ahead of me. I’ve learned to never think that making it is actually a tangible thing. It’s a very abstract idea and your idea of it changes and evolves with you. I try to stay aware of how lucky I am to do this for a living and to meet the people and characters I meet. We know the media does a great job of misrepresenting artists. Is there a way media portrays you that you rather not agree with? It’s sad that I am not able to talk as much about the films or plays I’m in as opposed to other questions I have to answer, but I guess magazines have boxes they need to tick. That’s why I decided to go and interview people myself for publications that allowed me the freedom of a long discussion about their work, their story, their doubts – I’d much rather act on it that way – by doing my bit than be eternally grumpy about it. What three emotions do you think are integral to acting? Surprise, surprise and surprise. Moving on to your inspirations, you have a great affinity for fashion. You have said, “My references, my musical tastes, everything that I like, in fact, comes from the ‘70s.” We agree, we are big fans of the 70s’. What is about that time that you love so much? I’m not sure – there’s something really pure coming out of that time – maybe a sense that the world could change through political involvement. There was a different way to look at love, a sensuality, something really warm in the music that wraps around you in such a joyful way
planned visit to the western Galilee Arab city of Sakhnin next week, reportedly after objections from residents. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Large forces of police arrived in Sakhnin earlier this week, searching homes without any warning or explanation and securing the southern part of the city, mainly its Doha soccer stadium. i24news has learned that the unusual police presence was due to a planned visit of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of his plan to attend next Monday's opening ceremony of a new medical center in Sakhnin. The Mayor of Sakhnin, Mazen Ganaim, confirmed the report to i24news, adding that the visit was canceled without further explanation. Prime Minister Netanyahu meets with Israeli Arab leaders on March 23, 2015, after offensive election comments (Photo: Likud media) "The Prime Minister's Office first said that Netanyahu would participate in the ceremony but called us again after a few days to cancel," he said. An official in the municipality, who asked to remain anonymous, told i24news that the real reason Netanyahu went back on his promise to attend the ceremony was the strong objection by city residents. According to the official, the news about the prime minister's impending visit were leaked around town, bringing about a wave of harsh criticism from political activists and representatives of the Joint Arab List. "Security arrangements were already in place in Doha Stadium and the houses around it were to be evicted once the prime minister had arrived," he added. The protest against Netanyahu's visit spread to social media as well. Activists called on Sakhnin's residents to express their objection to "the visit of the children murderer Netanyahu on Monday and to convince the municipality to rescind the invitation because it hurts the victims, the prisoners, the displaced and all free people." The spokesperson to the Arab media in the PMO, Ofir Gendelman, declined i24news' request to comment on the report. The Arab residents of Sakhnin still remember Netanyahu's controversial remarks during March 17 election day, when the prime minister has made a last-ditch attempt to rally his supporters as the country went to the polls, with a warning that a high turnout of Israeli Arab voters could threaten his party’s hold on power. In a 28-second video posted on his Facebook page, Netanyahu said Israeli Arabs were turning out “in droves” and urged his supporters to go out and vote. “The right-wing government is in danger. Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves,” he wrote. “Left-wing NGOs are bringing them in buses.” The remarks were condemned as “crossing a red line of incitement and racism” even by the White House and President Barack Obama.Toddler sentenced to life in Egypt for killing three people CAIRO A view of the High Court of Justice in Cairo, Egypt, January 21, 2016. REUTERS Photo A 3-year-old Egyptian boy has been sentenced to life in prison for a crime he allegedly committed when he was 16 months old, CNN International reported on Feb. 23.In what appears to be a bizarre case of mistaken identity, a military court Feb. 16 found Ahmed Mansour Qorany Sharara - and 115 others - guilty of killing three people and sabotaging public and private property.The crimes allegedly took place during a January 2014 protest by supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and ensuing clashes in the southern province of Fayyoum, according to a statement by the Egyptian military.Ahmed was 16 months old when the demonstration took place. He was just a little over 3 years old when the military court sentenced him to life last week.The boy was also sentenced to an additional three years for related charges by a civilian misdemeanor court.When the police first came to arrest Ahmed in early 2014 and realized he was a toddler, they took his father Mansour Qorany Sharara instead.Sharara was detained for four months before a judge released him.Lawyers of other defendants in the case had shown the court Ahmed’s birth certificate in hopes of discrediting the investigations that led to their clients’ arrests.Image source: Tjchighed.pbworks.com The U.S.’s relations with many Central and South American nations are often influenced by how it is perceived by them. History shows that U.S. foreign policy has not always been kind toward Latin American states, and current issues between the U.S. and regional players such as Cuba are major factors of contention between the many states in Latin America. Image source: Latino.foxnews.com Cuba’s relationship with the U.S. in particular is of special interest. The decades-long embargo imposed by the U.S. has long been criticized by other nations in the region. The embargo’s continued existence may jeopardize the economic stability of Cuba and the fledgling free-market economy that has developed in the island nation in recent years, suggests the New York Times. By lifting the embargo, the U.S. could have a more active hand in the burgeoning economic reforms in Cuba and thus improve their relations and its relations with other regional players. Image source: Commons.wikimedia.org In Cuba, these headlines from the Times have been widely publicized and acclaimed, with similar views being held by commentators in the U.S. This plan of action is not without its critics. Other publications such as the Washington Post oppose lifting the embargo, at least until further internal reforms granting more political freedom to the people take place. The U.S. government must weigh in on any option carefully and continue to watch and bargain for actions that could favor Cuba economically while giving future incentives for political reforms within the nation. Reforms on both sides could lead to better bilateral relations between the two countries as well as improve regional rapport between the U.S. and other Latin American nations. Heriberto Lopez Alberola has had extensive experience in Latino affairs and is an advocate of providing access to free-market resources to Cuban entrepreneurs. Subscribe to this blog for more updates. AdvertisementsTimberwolves & Lynx, AEG and Minneapolis Reach Target Center Renovation Deal Minneapolis/St. Paul – The City of Minneapolis, the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx and Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) announced today that the negotiation teams have agreed to the major terms of a $97 million deal to renovate the 23-year old city-owned Target Center. Minneapolis will contribute $48.5 million to the project, the Timberwolves and Lynx will pay $43 million and AEG will pay $5.5 million. After months of talks, an agreement on a term sheet capturing the details of this public-private partnership has been reached. The deal will be presented to the Minneapolis City Council in the next few weeks. “The new Target Center will be stunning. I am thrilled that Timberwolves and Lynx fans will soon have a first class experience when they come to our games,” said Glen Taylor, majority owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx professional basketball teams, which both use Target Center as their home. “This is a fair and sensible solution. Target Center has a perfect location and good bones, so we’re excited about building something truly special on that strong foundation.” While design details will be finalized in the months to come, some elements of the renovation are already known. The renovation will improve the fan experience at all ticket level prices, with additional clubs and gathering spaces, as well as improved traffic flow. The exterior will also be updated to fit in better with Target Field and the surrounding neighborhood. “We have some of the greatest fans in the world. It is time the quality of the building matched the quality of our fans,” said Taylor. The renovation will also add features necessary to attract the best national entertainment acts to the upper Midwest, such as better premium seating, loading docks, lighting and sound equipment. Because the Timberwolves and Lynx games make up about one-third of the events at the city-owned Target Center, the teams were originally slotted to pay 33 percent of the renovation. The new agreement has the them picking up nearly 50 percent of the cost. “My vision is for Minnesotans to have first class professional basketball teams in a first class facility for decades to come, and so we stepped up our financial commitment,” said Taylor. “After looking at the numbers carefully, we are confident we can do everything we need to do with this budget.” In addition to the renovation, Minneapolis has agreed to maintain a $50 million capital expenditure fund to ensure the city-owned facility remains fresh and competitive over its life. “The Timberwolves are committing to the City over the long-term, and the City is committing to maintain Target Center over the long-term,” said Taylor. “We need Target Center to be competitive now and for another 20 years, and this agreement ensures that will happen.” According to an analysis done by CSL, Target Center generates about $100 million per year in economic activity. The deal announced today will maintain that economic development asset for decades to come. “The Timberwolves and Lynx have been great partners with the City. They are drivers in making Minneapolis one of the premiere entertainment destinations in the world,” said Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. “Target Center has been a huge economic development engine for Minneapolis. The renovation will not only refuel it to keep it roaring, but will also add some horse power.” The renovation itself will put about 850 people to work on construction jobs. Maintaining Target Center’s viability will also keep about 900 jobs within the arena secure, and retain countless other jobs in area bars, restaurants, hotels and parking lots that serve Target Center visitors.The English version of this specification is the only normative version. Non-normative translations may also be available. This document is also available in this non-normative format: diff to previous version Please refer to the errata for this document, which may include some normative corrections. JSON is a useful data serialization and messaging format. This specification defines JSON-LD, a JSON-based format to serialize Linked Data. The syntax is designed to easily integrate into deployed systems that already use JSON, and provides a smooth upgrade path from JSON to JSON-LD. It is primarily intended to be a way to use Linked Data in Web-based programming environments, to build interoperable Web services, and to store Linked Data in JSON-based storage engines. This document was published by the RDF Working Group as a Recommendation. If you wish to make comments regarding this document, please send them to public-rdf-comments@w3.org ( subscribe, archives ). All comments are welcome. There are several independent interoperable implementations of this specification. An implementation report as of October 2013 is available. This specification has been developed by the JSON for Linking Data Community Group before it has been transferred to the RDF Working Group for review, improvement, and publication along the Recommendation track. The document contains small editorial changes arising from comments received during the Proposed Recommendation review; see the diff-marked version for details. This document has been reviewed by W3C Members, by software developers, and by other W3C groups and interested parties, and is endorsed by the Director as a W3C Recommendation. It is a stable document and may be used as reference material or cited from another document. W3C's role in making the Recommendation is to draw attention to the specification and to promote its widespread deployment. This enhances the functionality and interoperability of the Web. This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/. This document almost exclusively uses the term IRI ( Internationalized Resource Indicator ) when discussing hyperlinks. Many Web developers are more familiar with the URL ( Uniform Resource Locator ) terminology. The document also uses, albeit rarely, the URI ( Uniform Resource Indicator ) terminology. While these terms are often used interchangeably among technical communities, they do have important distinctions from one another and the specification goes to great lengths to try and use the proper terminology at all times. To understand the basics in this specification you must first be familiar with JSON, which is detailed in [ RFC4627 ]. A companion document, the JSON-LD Processing Algorithms and API specification [ JSON-LD-API ], specifies how to work with JSON-LD at a higher level by providing a standard library interface for common JSON-LD operations. This document is a detailed specification for a serialization of Linked Data in JSON. The document is primarily intended for the following audiences: The syntax is designed to not disturb already deployed systems running on JSON, but provide a smooth upgrade path from JSON to JSON-LD. Since the shape of such data varies wildly, JSON-LD features mechanisms to reshape documents into a deterministic structure which simplifies their processing. JSON-LD is designed to be usable directly as JSON, with no knowledge of RDF [ RDF11-CONCEPTS ]. It is also designed to be usable as RDF, if desired, for use with other Linked Data technologies like SPARQL. Developers who require any of the facilities listed above or need to serialize an RDF Graph or RDF Dataset in a JSON-based syntax will find JSON-LD of interest. People intending to use JSON-LD with RDF tools will find it can be used as another RDF syntax, like Turtle [ TURTLE ]. Complete details of how JSON-LD relates to RDF are in section 9. Relationship to RDF. JSON-LD is a lightweight syntax to serialize Linked Data in JSON [ RFC4627 ]. Its design allows existing JSON to be interpreted as Linked Data with minimal changes. JSON-LD is primarily intended to be a way to use Linked Data in Web-based programming environments, to build interoperable Web services, and to store Linked Data in JSON-based storage engines. Since JSON-LD is 100% compatible with JSON, the large number of JSON parsers and libraries available today can be reused. In addition to all the features JSON provides, JSON-LD introduces: Linked Data [ LINKED-DATA ] is a way to create a network of standards-based machine interpretable data across different documents and Web sites. It allows an application to start at one piece of Linked Data, and follow embedded links to other pieces of Linked Data that are hosted on different sites across the Web. JSON-LD specifies a number of syntax tokens and keywords that are a core part of the language: Developers who are familiar with Linked Data technologies will recognize the data model as the RDF Data Model. To dive deeper into how JSON-LD and RDF are related, see section 9. Relationship to RDF. This document uses the following terms as defined in JSON [ RFC4627 ]. Refer to the JSON Grammar section in [ RFC4627 ] for formal definitions. The key words MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, RECOMMENDED, NOT RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL in this specification have the meaning defined in [ RFC2119 ]. A JSON-LD document complies with this specification if it follows the normative statements in appendix 8. JSON-LD Grammar. JSON documents can be interpreted as JSON-LD by following the normative statements in section 6.8 Interpreting JSON as JSON-LD. For convenience, normative statements for documents are often phrased as statements on the properties of the document. This specification describes the conformance criteria for JSON-LD documents. This criteria is relevant to authors and authoring tool implementers. As well as sections marked as non-normative, all authoring guidelines, diagrams, examples, and notes in this specification are non-normative. Everything else in this specification is normative. The value of an @type key may also be a term defined in the active context : A node can be assigned more than one type by using an array : The type of a particular node can be specified using the @type keyword. In Linked Data, types are uniquely identified with an IRI. This section only covers the most basic features associated with node identifiers in JSON-LD. More advanced features related to node identifiers are covered in section 6. Advanced Concepts. The example above contains a node object identified by the IRI http://me.markus-lanthaler.com/. To be able to externally reference nodes in a graph, it is important that nodes have an identifier. IRIs are a fundamental concept of Linked Data, for nodes to be truly linked, dereferencing the identifier should result in a representation of that node. This may allow an application to retrieve further information about a node. This section only covers the most basic features associated with IRIs in JSON-LD. More advanced features related to IRIs are covered in section 6. Advanced Concepts. In summary, IRIs can be expressed in a variety of different ways in JSON-LD: In the example above, since the value http://manu.sporny.org/ is expressed as a JSON string, the type coercion rules will transform the value into an IRI when processing the data. See section 6.5 Type Coercion for more details about this feature. If type coercion rules are specified in the @context for a particular term or property IRI, an IRI is generated: JSON keys that do not expand to an IRI, such as status in the example above, are not Linked Data and thus ignored when processed. In the example above, the key http://schema.org/name is interpreted as an absolute IRI. Absolute IRIs can be expressed directly in the key position like so: Values that are interpreted as IRIs, can also be expressed as relative IRIs. For example, assuming that the following document is located at http://example.com/about/, the relative IRI../ would expand to http://example.com/ (for more information on where relative IRIs can be used, please refer to section 8. JSON-LD Grammar ). A string is interpreted as an IRI when it is the value of an @id member: IRIs (Internationalized Resource Identifiers [ RFC3987 ]) are fundamental to Linked Data as that is how most nodes and properties are identified. In JSON-LD, IRIs may be represented as an absolute IRI or a relative IRI. An absolute IRI is defined in [ RFC3987 ] as containing a scheme along with path and optional query and fragment segments. A relative IRI is an IRI that is relative to some other absolute IRI. In JSON-LD all relative IRIs are resolved relative to the base IRI. This section only covers the most basic features of the JSON-LD Context. More advanced features related to the JSON-LD Context are covered in section 6. Advanced Concepts. In JSON-LD documents, contexts may also be specified inline. This has the advantage that documents can be processed even in the absence of a connection to the Web. Ultimately, this is a modeling decision and different use cases may require different handling. JSON documents can be interpreted as JSON-LD without having to be modified by referencing a context via an HTTP Link Header as described in section 6.8 Interpreting JSON as JSON-LD. It is also possible to apply a custom context using the JSON-LD API [ JSON-LD-API ]. The referenced context not only specifies how the terms map to IRIs in the Schema.org vocabulary but also specifies that string values associated with the homepage and image property can be interpreted as an IRI ( "@type": "@id", see section 5.2 IRIs for more details). This information allows developers to re-use each other's data without having to agree to how their data will interoperate on a site-by-site basis. External JSON-LD context documents may contain extra information located outside of the @context key, such as documentation about the terms declared in the document. Information contained outside of the @context value is ignored when the document is used as an external JSON-LD context document. Contexts can either be directly embedded into the document or be referenced. Assuming the context document in the previous example can be retrieved at http://json-ld.org/contexts/person.jsonld, it can be referenced by adding a single line and allows a JSON-LD document to be expressed much more concisely as shown in the example below: As the context above shows, the value of a term definition can either be a simple string, mapping the term to an IRI, or a JSON object. For the sample document in the previous section, a context would look something like this: Simply speaking, a context is used to map terms to IRIs. Terms are case sensitive and any valid string that is not a reserved JSON-LD keyword can be used as a term. When two people communicate with one another, the conversation takes place in a shared environment, typically called "the context of the conversation". This shared context allows the individuals to use shortcut terms, like the first name of a mutual friend, to communicate more quickly but without losing accuracy. A context in JSON-LD works in the same way. It allows two applications to use shortcut terms to communicate with one another more efficiently, but without losing accuracy. In the example above, every property is unambiguously identified by an IRI and all values representing IRIs are explicitly marked as such by the @id keyword. While this is a valid JSON-LD document that is very specific about its data, the document is also overly verbose and difficult to work with for human developers. To address this issue, JSON-LD introduces the notion of a context as described in the next section. Leveraging the popular schema.org vocabulary, the example above could be unambiguously expressed as follows: Linked Data, and the Web in general, uses IRIs (Internationalized Resource Identifiers as described in [ RFC3987 ]) for unambiguous identification. The idea is to use IRIs to assign unambiguous identifiers to data that may be of use to other developers. It is useful for terms, like name and homepage, to expand to IRIs so that developers don't accidentally step on each other's terms. Furthermore, developers and machines are able to use this IRI (by using a web browser, for instance) to go to the term and get a definition of what the term means. This process is known as IRI dereferencing. It's obvious to humans that the data is about a person whose name is "Manu Sporny" and that the homepage property contains the URL of that person's homepage. A machine doesn't have such an intuitive understanding and sometimes, even for humans, it is difficult to resolve ambiguities in such representations. This problem can be solved by using unambiguous identifiers to denote the different concepts instead of tokens such as "name", "homepage", etc. JSON [ RFC4627 ] is a lightweight, language-independent data interchange format. It is easy to parse and easy to generate. However, it is difficult to integrate JSON from different sources as the data may contain keys that conflict with other data sources. Furthermore, JSON has no built-in support for hyperlinks, which are a fundamental building block on the Web. Let's start by looking at an example that we will be using for the rest of this section: 6. Advanced Concepts JSON-LD has a number of features that provide functionality above and beyond the core functionality described above. The following section describes this advanced functionality in more detail. 6.1 Base IRI This section is non-normative. JSON-LD allows IRI s to be specified in a relative form which is resolved against the document base according section 5.1 Establishing a Base URI of [ RFC3986 ]. The base IRI may be explicitly set with a context using the @base keyword. For example, if a JSON-LD document was retrieved from http://example.com/document.jsonld, relative IRIs would resolve against that IRI : Example 15 : Use a relative IRI as node identifier { "@context": { "label": "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#label" }, "@id": "", "label": "Just a simple document" } This document uses an empty @id, which resolves to the document base. However, if the document is moved to a different location, the IRI would change. To prevent this without having to use an absolute IRI, a context may define an @base mapping, to overwrite the base IRI for the document. Example 16 : Setting the document base in a document { "@context": { "@base": "http://example.com/document.jsonld" }, "@id": "", "label": "Just a simple document" } Setting @base to null will prevent relative IRIs to be expanded to absolute IRIs. Please note that the @base will be ignored if used in external contexts. 6.2 Default Vocabulary This section is non-normative. At times, all properties and types may come from the same vocabulary. JSON-LD's @vocab keyword allows an author to set a common prefix to be used for all properties and types that do not match a term and are neither a compact IRI nor an absolute IRI (i.e., they do not contain a colon). Example 17 : Using a common vocabulary prefix { "@context": { "@vocab": "http://schema.org/" } "@id": "http://example.org/places#BrewEats", "@type": "Restaurant", "name" : "Brew Eats"... } If @vocab is used but certain keys in an object should not be expanded using the vocabulary IRI, a term can be explicitly set to null in the context. For instance, in the example below the databaseId member would not expand to an IRI. Example 18 : Using the null keyword to ignore data { "@context": { "@vocab": "http://schema.org/", "databaseId": null }, "@id": "http://example.org/places#BrewEats", "@type": "Restaurant", "name": "Brew Eats", "databaseId" : "23987520" } 6.3 Compact IRIs This section is non-normative. A compact IRI is a way of expressing an IRI using a prefix and suffix separated by a colon ( : ). The prefix is a term taken from the active context and is a short string identifying a particular IRI in a JSON-LD document. For example, the prefix foaf may be used as a short hand for the Friend-of-a-Friend vocabulary, which is identified using the IRI http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/. A developer may append any of the FOAF vocabulary terms to the end of the prefix to specify a short-hand version of the absolute IRI for the vocabulary term. For example, foaf:name would be expanded to the IRI http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name. Example 19 : Prefix expansion { " @context ": { " foaf ": " http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/ "... }, "@type": " foaf:Person " " foaf:name ": "Dave Longley",... } In the example above, foaf:name expands to the IRI http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name and foaf:Person expands to http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Person. Prefixes are expanded when the form of the value is a compact IRI represented as a prefix:suffix combination, the prefix matches a term defined within the active context, and the suffix does not begin with two slashes ( // ). The compact IRI is expanded by concatenating the IRI mapped to the prefix to the (possibly empty) suffix. If the prefix is not defined in the active context, or the suffix begins with two slashes (such as in http://example.com ), the value is interpreted as absolute IRI instead. If the prefix is an underscore ( _ ), the value is interpreted as blank node identifier instead. It's also possible to use compact IRIs within the context as shown in the following example: Example 20 : Using vocabularies { "@context": { "xsd": "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#", "foaf": "http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/", "foaf:homepage" : { "@type": "@id" }, "picture": { "@id": "foaf:depiction", "@type": "@id" } }, "@id": "http://me.markus-lanthaler.com/", "@type": "foaf:Person", "foaf:name": "Markus Lanthaler", "foaf:homepage": "http://www.markus-lanthaler.com/", "picture": "http://twitter.com/account/profile_image/markuslanthaler" } 6.4 Typed Values This section is non-normative. A value with an associated type, also known as a typed value, is indicated by associating a value with an IRI which indicates the value's type. Typed values may be expressed in JSON-LD in three ways: By utilizing the @type keyword when defining a term within an @context section. By utilizing a value object. By using a native JSON type such as number, true, or false. The first example uses the @type keyword to associate a type with a particular term in the @context : Example 21 : Expanded term definition with type coercion { "@context": { "modified": { "@id": "http://purl.org/dc/terms/modified", "@type": "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime" } },... "@id": "http://example.com/docs/1", "modified": "2010-05-29T14:17:39+02:00",... } The modified key's value above is automatically type coerced to a dateTime value because of the information specified in the @context. A JSON-LD processor will interpret the example above as follows: Subject Property Value Value Type http://example.com/docs/1 http://purl.org/dc/terms/modified 2010-05-29T14:17:39+02:00 http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime The second example uses the expanded form of setting the type information in the body of a JSON-LD document: Example 22 : Expanded value with type { "@context": { "modified": { "@id": "http://purl.org/dc/terms/modified" } },... "modified": { "@value": "2010-05-29T14:17:39+02:00", "@type": "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime" }... } Both examples above would generate the value 2010-05-29T14:17:39+02:00 with the type http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime. Note that it is also possible to use a term or a compact IRI to express the value of a type. Note The @type keyword is also used to associate a type with a node. The concept of a node type and a value type are different. A node type specifies the type of thing that is being described, like a person, place, event, or web page. A value type specifies the data type of a particular value, such as an integer, a floating point number, or a date. Example 23 : Example demonstrating the context-sensitivity for @type {... "@id": "http://example.org/posts#TripToWestVirginia", "@type": "http://schema.org/BlogPosting", "modified": { "@value": "2010-05-29T14:17:39+02:00", "@type": "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime" }... } The first use of @type associates a node type ( http://schema.org/BlogPosting ) with the node, which is expressed using the @id keyword. The second use of @type associates a value type ( http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime ) with the value expressed using the @value keyword. As a general rule, when @value and @type are used in the same JSON object, the @type keyword is expressing a value type. Otherwise, the @type keyword is expressing a node type. The example above expresses the following data: Subject Property Value Value Type http://example.org/posts#TripToWestVirginia http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type http://schema.org/BlogPosting - http://example.org/posts#TripToWestVirginia http://purl.org/dc/terms/modified 2010-05-29T14:17:39+02:00 http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime 6.6 Embedding This section is non-normative. Embedding is a JSON-LD feature that allows an author to use node objects as property values. This is a commonly used mechanism for creating a parent-child relationship between two nodes. The example shows two nodes related by a property from the first node: Example 26 : Embedding a node object as property value of another node object {... "name": "Manu Sporny", " knows ": { " @type ": " Person ", " name ": " Gregg Kellogg ", }... } A node object, like the one used above, may be used in any value position in the body of a JSON-LD document. 6.7 Advanced Context Usage This section is non-normative. Section 5.1 The Context introduced the basics of what makes JSON-LD work. This section expands on the basic principles of the context and demonstrates how more advanced use cases can be achieved using JSON-LD. In general, contexts may be used at any time a JSON object is defined. The only time that one cannot express a context is inside a context definition itself. For example, a JSON-LD document may use more than one context at different points in a document: Example 27 : Using multiple contexts [ { "@context": "http://example.org/contexts/person.jsonld", "name": "Manu Sporny", "homepage": "http://manu.sporny.org/", "depiction": "http://twitter.com/account/profile_image/manusporny" }, { "@context": "http://example.org/contexts/place.jsonld", "name": "The Empire State Building", "description": "The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark in New York City.", "geo": { "latitude": "40.75", "longitude": "73.98" } } ] Duplicate context terms are overridden using a most-recently-defined-wins mechanism. Example 28 : Scoped contexts within node objects { "@context": { "name": "http://example.com/person#name, "details": "http://example.com/person#details" }", " name ": "Markus Lanthaler",... "details": { "@context": { "name": "http://example.com/organization#name" }, " name ": "Graz University of Technology" } } In the example above, the name term is overridden in the more deeply nested details structure. Note that this is rarely a good authoring practice and is typically used when working with legacy applications that depend on a specific structure of the JSON object. If a term is redefined within a context, all previous rules associated with the previous definition are removed. If a term is redefined to null, the term is effectively removed from the list of terms defined in the active context. Multiple contexts may be combined using an array, which is processed in order. The set of contexts defined within a specific JSON object are referred to as local contexts. The active context refers to the accumulation of local contexts that are in scope at a specific point within the document. Setting a local context to null effectively resets the active context to an empty context. The following example specifies an external context and then layers an embedded context on top of the external context: Example 29 : Combining external and local contexts { "@context": [ "http://json-ld.org/contexts/person.jsonld", { "pic": "http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/depiction" } ], "name": "Manu Sporny", "homepage": "http://manu.sporny.org/", "pic": "http://twitter.com/account/profile_image/manusporny" } Note When possible, the context definition should be put at the top of a JSON-LD document. This makes the document easier to read and might make streaming parsers more efficient. Documents that do not have the context at the top are still conformant JSON-LD. Note To avoid forward-compatibility issues, terms starting with an @ character are to be avoided as they might be used as keywords in future versions of JSON-LD. Terms starting with an @ character that are not JSON-LD 1.0 keywords are treated as any other term, i.e., they are ignored unless mapped to an IRI. Furthermore, the use of empty terms ( "" ) is not allowed as not all programming languages are able to handle empty JSON keys. 6.8 Interpreting JSON as JSON-LD Ordinary JSON documents can be interpreted as JSON-LD by referencing a JSON-LD context document in an HTTP Link Header. Doing so allows JSON to be unambiguously machine-readable without requiring developers to drastically change their documents and provides an upgrade path for existing infrastructure without breaking existing clients that rely on the application/json media type or a media type with a +json suffix as defined in [ RFC6839 ]. In order to use an external context with an ordinary JSON document, an author MUST specify an IRI to a valid JSON-LD document in an HTTP Link Header [ RFC5988 ] using the http://www.w3.org/ns/json-ld#context link relation. The referenced document MUST have a top-level JSON object. The @context subtree within that object is added to the top-level JSON object of the referencing document. If an array is at the top-level of the referencing document and its items are JSON objects, the @context subtree is added to all array items. All extra information located outside of the @context subtree in the referenced document MUST be discarded. Effectively this means that the active context is initialized with the referenced external context. A response MUST NOT contain more than one HTTP Link Header [ RFC5988 ] using the http://www.w3.org/ns/json-ld#context link relation. The following example demonstrates the use of an external context with an ordinary JSON document: Example 30 : Referencing a JSON-LD context from a JSON document via an HTTP Link Header GET /ordinary-json-document.json HTTP/1.1 Host: example.com Accept: application/ld+json,application/json,/;q=0.1 ==================================== HTTP/1.1 200 OK... Content-Type: application/json Link: <http://json-ld.org/contexts/person.jsonld>; rel="http://www.w3.org/ns/json-ld#context"; type="application/ld+json" { "name": "Markus Lanthaler", "homepage": "http://www.markus-lanthaler.com/", "image": "http://twitter.com/account/profile_image/markuslanthaler" } Please note that JSON-LD documents served with the application/ld+json media type MUST have all context information, including references to external contexts, within the body of the document. Contexts linked via a http://www.w3.org/ns/json-ld#context HTTP Link Header MUST be ignored for such documents. 6.9 String Internationalization This section is non-normative. At times, it is important to annotate a string with its language. In JSON-LD this is possible in a variety of ways
thorpe! It’s a Labour steel town where there is a surge towards the Conservatives. It is working-class people who don’t trust [Jeremy] Corbyn and do trust us, but they also want us to deliver.” The last time the Conservatives won the constituency containing Scunthorpe was in 1983, when the party scraped home in its landslide victory. The shifting electoral map is causing its own problems. “The issue is going to be figuring out which are the real target seats,” said one senior Tory figure. Back in Bolton, it is not all plain sailing for Daly’s bid for Westminster. The townspeople voted for Andy Burnham in the Manchester mayoral race. Out canvassing last week, there were still voters who closed the door after hearing the word “Conservative” and others who told activists that they were solidly Labour. In Brexit Britain there are three kinds of voter: the disconnected, the deceived, and the dismayed \| John Harris Read more And for a Conservative campaign that has been attacked as too scripted, the attempt to win Bolton North East has already undergone a serious rewrite. Daly was drafted in as the candidate only last week after the initial choice, Abi Kay, pulled out for “personal reasons”. There is also a sense that the Conservatives are aware that their brand is still toxic for many. Voters will initially struggle to find the word “Conservative” on the leaflets being posted through their letter-boxes. One side, headlined “strong and stable leadership in the national interest”, takes the form of a signed letter by May and has no mention of the party she leads. On the reverse, each mention of the party comes in a construction that makes it sound like a 1960s pop group, “Theresa May and the Conservatives”. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Joan Bedson was shocked when she opened her door to a Conservative candidate canvassing in Bolton North East. Photograph: Jon Super for the Observer Yet there are tangible signs that the political plates of Bolton are beginning to loosen. Both a liking for May and concern over Corbyn are raised by voters on the doorstep. One explains that she voted for Burnham in the mayoral race – “he’s a good local man and I backed him” – but is undecided on next month’s general election. “I’m not sure about Jeremy Corbyn at all – he hasn’t got the oomph to be leader,” she says. “But then I’m not sure about Theresa May, either. She voted to stay in the EU, and I voted to leave. It’s difficult – I’m undecided for the election.” Another voter raises similar concerns. “I’ve always voted Labour, but they haven’t got a very good leader. He’s a bit iffy. But the thing is, the Labour MP here is quite good. It would be quite unfair to lose because of who the leader is. But Theresa May’s a very strong leader, isn’t she?” Matthew Wright, 56, out for a walk with Dolly his border collie, will still vote Labour despite his frustrations over the party’s campaigning so far. He has sympathy with Corbyn. “I think Jeremy Corbyn is a really genuine man,” he says. “Probably too genuine. He talks about the sort of policies that I have always wanted to vote for, but it’s no good if you’re never going to be in power. I will vote for Labour, but under sufferance. The Tories must be rubbing their hands with glee.” As with other Labour candidates in close races, Sir David Crausby, who has contested the seat since 1992 and held it since 1997, is attempting to focus the election on his performance as MP. “I have sort of protected my majority since 2005 of around 4,000,” he says. “That has been against the national trend, really. It is not a safe Labour seat. It is a seat with four Labour wards in the south and three Tory wards in the north. “I’m an independent-minded local MP. If I don’t agree with the leadership of the party, I don’t vote for it. I don’t rebel all the time, but things like the Iraq war, tuition fees – I rebelled. “In the Asian community, Corbyn is not a factor at all. Among the white working classes as we see it, he is. I am getting squeezed a little bit, so we are concerned about that. “My argument is, he isn’t on the ballot paper here – it is me. We are not a presidency. We vote for individual MPs. If I don’t agree with what Jeremy Corbyn says, then I won’t vote for it. It will be me on the leaflets.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Matthew Wright with his dog Dolly in Bolton. Jeremy Corbyn talked about policies he wanted to vote for, but that was no good if he was never going to be in power. Photograph: Jon Super for the Observer Despite the apparent appeal of May, resistance to the Conservatives among a certain group of northern voters means some find themselves with a dilemma. It is the obvious anguish of Stephen Thomasson, 65, a retired fireman, that suggests some may now be thinking the previously unthinkable. “I have voted Labour all my life, all my life, but this time I am voting for the Conservatives,” he says, sitting in the shadow of Bolton’s grand town hall. “It breaks my heart to vote Tory, but that is what I am going to do. It breaks my heart. I have a lot of friends in the same place, all voted Labour all their lives, but are now voting Tory. “I just do not trust Jeremy Corbyn. I think things are dangerous, with what we’ve seeing around the word and in North Korea, and I’m worried the first thing he’d do is get rid of nuclear weapons. I don’t know what he’d do for working people in this country, for pensions. “Theresa May is doing well, not just on Brexit but on everything so far. Corbyn will let Europe walk all over us.”"Rumors that I’m going to set the place on fire or blow it up or lock the doors are completely false," acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Mick Mulvaney said. \| Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo Mulvaney imposes temporary hiring, regulations freeze on CFPB Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump's pick for acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said Monday he has no immediate plans to dismantle the agency, but he nonetheless implemented a temporary freeze on hiring and new regulations. "Rumors that I’m going to set the place on fire or blow it up or lock the doors are completely false," Mulvaney, a longtime critic of the bureau, told reporters during a briefing at CFPB headquarters. Story Continued Below He insisted that his first day at the CFPB was "extraordinarily smooth and professional" despite an unfolding fight for control of the bureau between himself and Leandra English, who on Friday was appointed acting director by outgoing chief Richard Cordray. Both the hiring freeze and the freeze on all new regulations and guidance will last for 30 days, as will a separate freeze on civil penalty payments. Mulvaney stressed that the bureau will continue to meet its legal and statutory deadlines. Mulvaney, who also serves as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said he'll spend three days a week at CFPB and another three days at OMB. His first day at CFPB included a meeting with senior staff and a broader meeting with several dozen more employees. He did not have any contact with English, he said, but he did not rule out a meeting with her if she shows up to work. In addition, Mulvaney said he has not taken any steps to fire English, who filed a lawsuit against him and Trump on Sunday and asked the court to establish her authority as acting director. Mulvaney said she had the right as a private citizen to file the suit. Mulvaney said he expects Trump to name a permanent CFPB director "as quickly as possible." He added that he will respect any effort by the court to prevent him from acting as director, but he said he believes the White House is accurately interpreting the law. The former South Carolina congressman met with Trump Monday. The president told him he "wants me to get [the bureau] back to the point where it can protect people without trampling on capitalism," according to Mulvaney. Mulvaney reiterated his longstanding criticism that the CFPB has unchecked power, but he said it's up to Congress to change that. "It is a completely unaccountable agency, and I think that’s wrong," he said, adding later, "If the law allowed this place not to exist, I’d sit down with the president to try to make the case that other agencies can do this job well if not more effectively.”Jazz great Chet Baker's estate is suing the major record labels for releasing his music on Canadian CDs without paying compensation (a common practice in Canada, where over 300,000 songs have been released on CD without compensation). The defendants -- Warner Music Canada, Sony BMG Music Canada, EMI Music Canada, and Universal Music Canada -- have admitted that they owe at least CAD$50 million, but Baker's estate is entitled to up to CAD$60 billion. The claims arise from a longstanding practice of the recording industry in Canada, described in the lawsuit as "exploit now, pay later if at all." It involves the use of works that are often included in compilation CDs (ie. the top dance tracks of 2009) or live recordings. The record labels create, press, distribute and sell the CDs, but do not obtain the necessary copyright licences... It is difficult to understand why the industry has been so reluctant to pay its bills. Some works may be in the public domain or belong to a copyright owner difficult to ascertain or locate, yet the likes of Sarah McLachlan, Bruce Cockburn, Sloan, or the Watchmen are not hidden from view. The more likely reason is that the record labels have had little motivation to pay up. As the balance has grown, David Basskin, the president and CEO of the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd., notes in his affidavit that "the record labels have devoted insufficient resources for identifying and paying the owners of musical works on the pending lists." The CRIA members now face the prospect of far greater liability. The class action seeks the option of statutory damages for each infringement. At $20,000 per infringement, potential liability exceeds $60 billion.Yesterday I published my annual reminder that it’s never too early to look at the standings. That is, even though we’re through just one week, the Orioles have done themselves a hell of a favor by starting out 6-0. Now, on the flip side, it can be too early to look at the leaderboards. Like, Tyler White is first in baseball in WAR. If you want to find some real signal, you just have to be patient. But sometimes I just can’t help myself. I mean, I practically live on this website, so of course I’m going to go exploring. And, related to that — it’s been just six games, but the Rays are already up to something. It’s not something entirely new. I wrote about this when the Rays traded for Corey Dickerson, but during last season, the Rays switched to taking a more aggressive offensive approach. So if you were curious, no, that hasn’t been abandoned. The Rays hitters remain aggressive today, and based on the early indications, they’re going to be more aggressive than anyone else. You can start with simple swing rate. That’s what first drew my attention when I was screwing around on the plate-discipline leaderboards. I shouldn’t even need to warn you about the sample sizes here, but let’s all throw caution to the wind. Look at how teams have swung to this point: Note that the y-axis doesn’t start at 0%. I zoomed in on the relevant numbers, and it makes the Rays’ lead look bigger, but the fact of the matter is that they’re in the lead, by four percentage points over second place. The Rays’ lead over second place is as big as the difference between third place and 24th. It’s a pretty massive separation, and while it is six games, here’s another way to put it — the difference in rates between first and second works out to 30 extra swings, already. Five more swings per game. What’s fueling this? The Rays have seen 47% of pitches in the PITCHf/x strike zone. The league average is…47%, so it’s not like it’s the pitchers’ collective fault. The Rays’ rate of swings out of the zone is higher than the average by about three percentage points. Meanwhile, the Rays’ rate of swings within the zone is higher than the average by about 10 percentage points. So it’s not just swinging for swinging’s sake. They’ve targeted many of their swings at would-be strikes. A big part of becoming more aggressive is becoming more aggressive against first pitches. So now here’s a plot of first-pitch swing rate, which again shows the Rays in the lead: Toward this end, it helps to acquire players like Dickerson, but first-pitch aggressiveness is also the easiest kind of aggressiveness to adopt. The Rays have made a point of making sure their hitters are more prepared to swing the bat as soon as they step in. Not that it’s always a good idea to swing, or that it’s always a good idea to take, but there’s no sense in gifting a strike if you don’t have to. I don’t know how much this means yet, but 10 Rays hitters have batted at least 10 times, and all of them have first-pitch swing rates above their career averages. This is a plan. I went browsing around Baseball Savant, to hunt for more detail. The Rays as a team lead baseball in swing rate against fastballs. The most interesting split I found: the Rays are in 11th in first-pitch swing rate against non-fastballs. They’re close to league-average. But the Rays are first in first-pitch swing rate against fastballs, and they’re in first by 11 percentage points. The Rays are at 47%, the second-place Cardinals are at 36%, and the average is at 29%. Just based on this, I have to think the plan is pretty clear. Go up there ready to hit a fastball. Why take it, if it’s hittable? It’s not the easiest immediate adjustment to make, but it can be made, and it helps to have an example like Dickerson, who always wants to swing. It’s one of the things the Rays liked the most about him. I hesitate to start looking at individual numbers, but I will note that Evan Longoria is showing signs of a dramatic shift. He’s swung at more than 60% of all pitches, after consistently having swung at less than half. Steven Souza’s swing rate in the early going is up from 46% to 55%. Logan Forsythe has already swung at nine first pitches, after last year posting a first-pitch swing rate around half the league average. Players have bought in, at least for now. This is a real and legitimate attempt. The Rays don’t want to give away free strikes, because they don’t want to end up behind in the count. These days, almost every pitcher in baseball is good enough to get a strikeout given a strikeout opportunity. Two-strike counts are something to avoid. A key question: is this working? Incidentally, the Rays rank dead last in baseball in contact rate. They’re currently near the bottom in walks, but they’re sitting on elevated strikeouts. They’re right in the middle as a team in wRC+. By the results, it’s a mixed bag, and it’s not like there are any guarantees here. But it’s also far too early to worry too much about those results. The Rays are going to give their process more time, and while they could eventually reverse course, as they’ve already done, until that happens they might well stand as baseball’s most aggressive offense. First-pitch fastballs beware.Sling Blake Krikorian, the co-founder of Sling Media and a longtime fixture in Silicon Valley, died Wednesday at age 48. His brother, Jason confirmed Krikorian's sudden passing on Facebook. According to Recode's Kara Swisher, he was "apparently struck by a heart attack while surfing in the San Francisco area." Krikorian had recently served as the corporate vice president for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, following the acquisition of his company, id8 Group R2 Studios, by Redmond in 2013. But he was best known (to me and many others) as one of the visionary founders of Sling Media, which he co-founded with his brother Jason and Bhupen Shah. That company's Slingbox, first released in 2005, was the among the first handful of products to offer video "placeshifting" technology -- the ability to digitize the signal from your cable box and stream it to a PC or mobile device elsewhere in the home, or around the world. Brian Jaquet, who served as Sling's director of corporate communications, recounted how the Krikorian brothers' desire to watch their beloved San Francisco Giants while they were traveling was the big idea behind the box. "They just wanted to watch the games from the road, and couldn't believe there wasn't a way to do that," said Jaquet. Streaming video is now a ubiquitous service that has upended the entertainment industry as we know it. But Krikorian's hardware-based solution -- which did not require a monthly fee -- was arguably the major trailblazer in the field, offering live TV when and where you wanted it and besting corporate competitors like Sony's similar Location-Free TV. This was, after all, just a year after YouTube had launched, and two years before the first iPhone was released. Netflix was still mailing DVDs, its streaming service and the first Roku box still years away. "That product, and the Sling company in general, laid the groundwork for everything [in the streaming world] that has come since. You really knew you were doing things that were pushing the needle," Jaquet said. "It was also probably the most fun work experience I've ever had." Jeremy Toeman, Sling Media's original vice president of product management (and current VP of Product for CNET.com), called Krikorian's death an "unbelievable loss." Toeman remembers him as "one of the most impressive people I've ever worked with or for. His ability to see the forest, the trees, and everything in between was uncanny." Krikorian went on to sell Sling to Dish Network in 2007 for $380 million, where the brand has gone on to form the basis of the company's streaming video service, Sling TV. In addition to his experience at Sling and Microsoft, Krikorian was the very definition of a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur and investor, serving on a variety of corporate and advisory boards, and directorships at companies including BitGravity, Andreessen Horowitz and Amazon. He was also the director of Clicker Media, which CBS (the parent company of CNET) acquired in 2011 and now forms the basis for TVGuide.com. Blake Krikorian is survived by his wife, Cathy, and his two daughters. Updated 3:43 p.m. PT with additional information.A New Hampshire woman who had prayed aloud outside a public school for several months is banned from delivering sermons on school property. Lizarda Urena, a mother of two children who attend Concord High School, began reading prayers from the Bible on the steps of the school last February, after reports surfaced that two bullets had been found in a school toilet. Her prayers called for the safety of students and an end to gun violence, according to the Concord Monitor. However, after receiving a letter of complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, school superintendent Christine Rath said Urena’s prayers must stop. The organization, which works to maintain the separation of church and state, said that by allowing Urena to pray on school property, the district was implicitly promoting a specific point of view. “It is the duty of the secular public school system to protect vulnerable children, not to expose them to pressure and prayers,” the letter states. “The exercise of religion must be left to the individual and religious education left to the family.” “She was going to the school daily and perching herself on the top of the stairs directly in front of the entrance of the school and praying aloud to the students,” FFRF attorney Rebecca Market told The Huffington Post of the situation. The New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union says Rath is making the right decision by banning Urena from praying on school property. In contrast, lawyers from conservative advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom argue that stopping Urena violates her First Amendment rights. However, it is currently unclear if they will take up her cause, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. "Students and community members that are allowed to come on campus and participate in a neutral thing are allowed to express religious viewpoints," Matthew Sharp, an Alliance Defending Freedom attorney, told the outlet. "The students know it's the mother and her own speech -- something that the First Amendment protects -- and that it is not the school mandating this woman to do it." The president of the Concord school board, Kassandra Ardinger, agrees that Urena should be prohibited from praying on campus. "To be fair to all the kids in the school, it is probably best for the principal to say that she shouldn't be speaking out like this and proselytizing on school grounds," Ardinger said to the New Hampshire Union Leader. "The best mode of action was to tell her to cool it."This is not the Cooterball I signed up for At the conclusion of “Sunday Night Football,” we wondered along with everyone else how Matthew Stafford could have thrown for so many yards against such a good defense but no touchdowns. The Pride of Detroit PODcast crew was pretty mad about the way the offense collapsed whenever it got near the goal line against the Steelers. Our Jeremy Reisman broke down the numbers for the Lions in the red zone immediately following the game, and they were quite fugly: 17 total plays 12 passing plays 5 rushing plays 12 passing plays Matthew Stafford: 2-11, 6 yards, 1 sack 5 rushing plays Dwayne Washington: 4 rushes, 6 yards Theo Riddick: 1 rush, -2 yards The very first comment on that article was a request by dmule2413 to go into more detail by digging into the tape. Let it be known that we here at Pride of Detroit give the people what they want! Trip 1: Swanson holding penalty Several minutes into the second quarter, the Lions advanced the ball down to their opponent’s 10-yard line on a leaping sluggo by Marvin Jones in the right cover-2 hole. On first down, a shotgun draw by Ameer Abdullah for two yards was negated by a takedown penalty on Travis Swanson, pushing the team back to the 20. The follow-up playcall was a swing pass on the right to Theo Riddick which was pounced on immediately for just one yard. 2017 Week 8 PIT 2Q (9:27). Second-and-Goal at the Pittsburgh 19. Facing second-and-goal from a ways out, the Lions ran a vertical clearout play to isolate Golden Tate in the middle of the field. TJ Jones, Marvin Jones and Eric Ebron all carry their cover men deep while Theo Riddick looks to chip and release to the flat. The defense crowds the line but drops almost everyone and simply rushes four. On the left side of the screenshot, we have two underneath defenders in good position to crush Golden Tate on the shallow cross, and the deep coverage is likewise positioned well to take away TJ and Ebron down the seam. Stafford looked left at the snap at Ebron to influence the deep safety boxed in pink. The best throw available was a 50-50 ball to Marvin in single coverage in the right corner of the end zone, away from that influenced safety. Stafford took that throw and it fell incomplete. The next play was four verticals, and nobody was open. Stafford ended up chucking a decent attempt to TJ Jones for a toe drag on the left edge of the end zone, but there was not enough space to drop it in bounds. The Lions ended up with a big penalty, ineffective screen, and two incompletions for this trip, settling for a 37-yard Matt Prater field goal. Trip 2: End of half vertical-fest With under 60 seconds to go in the first half, Glover Quin recovered a fumble to give the Lions a literal last-minute chance to take the lead into the locker room. Completions to Marvin for 18, TJ for 34, and then Tate for 11 put the offense at the Steelers’ 16-yard line. At this point, Jim Bob Cooter went into Madden mode and called shot after shot to the end zone—or did he? When looking at these plays, remember the Lions began the drive with all three timeouts and took their second to stop the clock when Tate was downed at the 16. To be very clear, they still had one timeout left. 2017 Week 8 PIT 2Q (0:31). First-and-10 at the Pittsburgh 16. The next play should look pretty familiar since we just looked at its mirror image. This time, the stem-crosser pick setup is on the right side instead of the left side, and Riddick again releases to the flat behind the single receiver on the right side. Stafford again tries to look left then hit a vertical on the other side of the field, this time Darren Fells up the seam: Now look at Tate crossing under Fells. As the camera pulls back, it is apparent how much room there was for the YAC monster to do his thing. Now, the throw by Stafford was on the money and Fells could have come down with the touchdown right here. But considering this was first down with a timeout in hand, dumping the ball to the best receiver on the team running full speed across the field to possibly get out of bounds or do his YAC monster thing into the end zone seems like a better choice. 2017 Week 8 PIT 2Q (0:22). Second-and-10 at the Pittsburgh 16. The next play is the exact same one in the exact same sequence as last time: clearouts with crosser right into four verticals again. The play actually does “work,” and Darren Fells has a chance on the bender if Stafford leads him with a well-placed ball. The throw is behind Fells, however, and falls harmlessly to the ground. 2017 Week 8 PIT 2Q (0:22). Third-and-10 at the Pittsburgh 16. The call on third down looks like it was probably also four verticals, with TJ Jones breaking off his route when 25 CB Artie Burns corner blitzed. TJ actually jumped up and down waving his arms, hoping to get Stafford’s attention, but 28 S Sean Davis rotated over very quickly to take that away. Staring at Burns coming free and no good option on the left side, Stafford launched another corner shot to Marvin. Coverage was good across the board, and the ball once again fell to the ground without effect. Trip 3: Pounding sand Late in the third quarter, the Lions finally got the ball up on the doorstep for a true goal line series. As opposed to the previous smorgasbord of vertical shots, everything here - both run and pass - was all up in the gut from heavy formations lining up tight. 2017 Week 8 PIT 3Q (5:52). First-and-Goal at the Pittsburgh 4. The first play from inside the five-yard line slammed the ball with Dwayne Washington behind TJ Lang from a double tight end pistol formation. Jared Abbrederis decoyed wide but then shifted back inside to really extend the line super far to the right. Look at the motion and formation above, because it will be relevant later on. At the snap, outside tight end Michael Roberts blocks the man to his right, and Abbrederis awkwardly scooted around him to pick up the deep man in the hole. How awkward? It’s not clear if Roberts was really supposed to do that kind of exchange with Abbrederis or if the receiver actually expected that both he and the tight end would block straight ahead. Based on the way Fells and Roberts are trying to widen the right D-gap, it is probably a designed switch with the receiver leading through the hole. Although pulling Abbrederis to lead block in the hole sounds like a terrible idea in the abstract, this is the play where Washington’s forearm came down just a foot short of the goal line. 2017 Week 8 PIT 3Q (5:10). Second-and-Goal at the Pittsburgh 1. On second down, Jim Bob Cooter gets cute with everyone brought in close and both tight ends in H-back spots for a heavy single back line. The best pure runner on the team, Ameer Abdullah, is in the game. Of course this means the Lions are not going to run the ball. You can see in the above screenshot how well the defense has this scouted out. Although they are paying no respect to Abbrederis as a threat at the top, look at 20 S Robert Golden hanging out deep on the painted “S” in the end zone to guard Marvin Jones over the top. That lets 21 CB Joe Haden play extremely aggressive at the line, taking away any easy release because he knows Golden can help on a fade or corner route. Immediately after Stafford comes up from the play-action fake, it is obvious that none of the Steelers bought it. Both Abbrederis and Marvin are covered tight, and Golden is in great position to pick up the outside release. Abdullah, meanwhile, gets caught up in traffic inside and cannot even get to the goal line to turn around on his delayed route. With nowhere to go with the ball, Stafford tries to buy time by rolling right and eventually ends up slinging a high risk pass that was defensed by 50 LB Ryan Shazier. I don't understand how this isn't an automatic QB sneak on second down. pic.twitter.com/CxYF3L5ui2 — Matt Snyder (@snyder_matthew) October 30, 2017 Indeed. 2017 Week 8 PIT 3Q (5:10). Third-and-Goal at the Pittsburgh 1. The follow-up to that cute play-action pass is as far from cute as can be: full house three tight end set with Nick Bellore in at fullback. This is Jim Bob Cooter giving the offensive line the go-ahead to do their thing. Unfortunately, the right side of the line did their thing but the left side did not: The #Lions are so incredibly bad at cut blocks. pic.twitter.com/nV4fqRZsW3 — Pride of Detroit (@PrideOfDetroit) October 30, 2017 Both Graham Glasgow and Brian Mihalik failed to impede their assigned men on the back side of the play at all. Travis Swanson is backed up, but walling his man off fine, and that front side of Lang, Wagner, and Fells are killing it at the point of attack, but Washington has no chance against the two unblocked guys at the line. Both of the players boxed in pink are supposed to be on the ground with Mihalik and Glasgow. Michael Roberts, ironically, is the only player here who has successfully cut blocked his man on the back side. If those two pink boxed defenders are out of the way, we can imagine Washington bursting it along the cyan line across the goal line before his momentum is stopped by 233-pound 98 LB Vince Williams (standing on the “N” in Jeremy’s cut block tweet). Instead, he ran into 305-pound 79 DT Javon Hargrave backed up by 295-pound 97 DE Cameron Heyward, who stood Washington up with no trouble at all. I wouldn't be so sure the play was designed to go outside. FB could be there to draw secondary outside. If Lions hit cut blocks, it's a TD — Pride of Detroit (@PrideOfDetroit) October 30, 2017 Yep. 2017 Week 8 PIT 3Q (4:31). Fourth-and-Goal at the Pittsburgh 1. Suddenly, a wild Aggressive Papa Jim appeared, and the Detroit Lions were going for it on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line! As mentioned on the broadcast by Cris Collinsworth, Stafford is most likely looking to run the ball from the get-go here. I believe this is a designed quarterback draw from the 2-point conversion part of the playbook. After briefly holding the ball and hitching up to let Washington run through the hole on a route up the middle, Stafford tucks and tries to bolt for the end zone. The route by Washington is a decoy designed to draw away whatever underneath defender might be lurking where Stafford will run the ball, and in a sense acts like a lead block. In this play, it really does get Shazier to commit and flow away from where the run is going. The only problem is that 94 DE Tyson Alualu makes an outstanding play to spin off Lang’s block. The offensive line actually has this blocked very well, and Lang has nice control on Alualu with a huge lane up the middle cleared for Stafford. Had Alualu not chosen to try a spin move to the inside, this would have been pretty close and maybe a touchdown depending on Shazier’s closing speed (he is very fast). Instead, this one went into the books as a sack for Alualu and we shall not speak of what the Steelers did three plays later. Moving on! Trip 4: Backstreet’s Back This drive is why we pointed out the double tight pistol with the shift with Abbrederis. On first down, the Lions ran the bootleg play-action pass where Michael Roberts was knocked down and Stafford tried to hit Ebron to salvage the broken play on the back line of the end zone. It was, at the least, something different even if it did not work. On second and third downs, though, we just need one GIF each with no explanation to express how we feel about the playcalling. 2017 Week 8 PIT 4Q (14:16). Second-and-Goal at the Pittsburgh 4. Hmm. 2017 Week 8 PIT 4Q (13:41). Third-and-Goal at the Pittsburgh 2. Seriously? Trip 5: More of the same At the end of the game, the Lions once again moved the ball down to the red zone and had four shots at a go-ahead touchdown. On first down, Stafford checked to a fade to Marvin Jones on the left side that failed to connect. Stafford wasn't great in the red zone, but, man, this fade on the final drive needs to be caught by Marvin Jones 10 out of 10 times. pic.twitter.com/Uug7wsaFDI — Pride of Detroit (@PrideOfDetroit) October 30, 2017 On second down, the Lions ran vertical clearouts with a Tate crosser for probably the sixth or seventh time in the game. 2017 Week 8 PIT 4Q (2:51). Second-and-10 at the Pittsburgh 11. Defensively, the Steelers were guarding the goal line (and first down marker), but stood ready to pounce on Tate. An easy pitch and catch, but the play only managed to pick up half of the necessary yards. 2017 Week 8 PIT 4Q (2:51). Third-and-5 at the Pittsburgh 6. Since we are running long here, we are going to refer folks to Tim Twentyman’s breakdown of the draw play. The only thing that seems questionable with his analysis is the second level blocking assignments. Stafford’s comment that “(w)e just didn’t execute it well and that’s on me to get everybody on the same page,” and Golden Tate looking confused at the end of the play seems to imply that he probably should have blocked 31 CB Mike Hilton (who ran free to make the tackle). 2017 Week 8 PIT 4Q (2:00). Fourth-and-7 at the Pittsburgh 8. Coming back from the two-minute warning timeout, the Lions needed at least seven yards if they did not make it into the end zone. Spreading the field with the receivers, the offense held back Theo Riddick to help Mihalik on the edge and had Ebron chip before releasing to the goal line. That is where things went wrong. As can be seen in the GIF above, Ebron shoves Heyward to help Rick Wagner get a good centered fit. Somehow, Ebron loses his balance and falls to the ground after delivering the blow. That threw off the timing, and when Ebron turned around he was still in the field of play at around the three-yard line. From Stafford’s head angles, it looks like he was trying to go to Tate then Ebron, but ran out of time because Hargrave absolutely steamrolled poor Travis Swanson. Let us be clear: the Steelers dropped eight into coverage and the Lions lost at the line blocking six-on-three. Because Theo Riddick stayed in protection, there were only four players in the pattern. This was terrible protection, and somehow neither Lang nor Glasgow assisted the guy getting rocked backwards between the two of them. Everything is not awesome It is hard to pin this on anyone or any group of players in particular. It really was a team effort to perform this poorly in the red zone. In some cases you had bad blocking like the failed cut blocks by the left side of the line or the last play of the game, but in other places you have a dropped touchdown by Fells and Eric Ebron falling down after chipping. Even the star players were guilty, like Tate looking confused on the draw play, Marvin dropping a catchable fade, and Stafford missing Tate wide open on the crosser under his forced throw to Fells (or the bad throw behind Fells on four verticals). The problem with that play isn't predictability. It's.2 yards. — Jeremy Reisman (@DetroitOnLion) October 30, 2017 We have to be honest and admit that the play mix was not good. How many times do the Lions have to run isolation pass plays designed to only get one player open with basically no hope of throwing to the other four guys in the pattern who are merely clearing out for the featured route? Does it have to be so obvious to pull Abbrederis in line to a double tight end pistol formation when we want to pound the ball? Where is the clearance for Stafford to check to a surprise QB sneak like the old days? The most disappointing part of it all is the fact that this came at home after a bye week, so the staff had extra time to prepare and this is what they went with. The offense did move the ball well all day, though (I guess that’s where the extra
going on in this episode! ok folks wtf?! i have no idea what is going on in this episode! 03-10-2013 09:31:53 abbey123 Wow Lauren Wow Lauren 03-10-2013 09:31:53 vyxsin Keep it up Meg! Keep it up Meg! 03-10-2013 09:31:59 amlatina68 we cannot quit bo Emily! or Lauren for that matter i think i missed everything after the dress!! we cannot quit bo Emily! or Lauren for that matter i think i missed everything after the dress!! 03-10-2013 09:31:59 Dr Poon Lauren gives good jokes. Lauren gives good jokes. 03-10-2013 09:32:00 abbey123 she looked amazing she looked amazing 03-10-2013 09:32:07 nic Balzac wrote a novel about longevity vs desire by the way... Balzac wrote a novel about longevity vs desire by the way... 03-10-2013 09:32:08 Joy abbey why did yo usay wow lauren abbey why did yo usay wow lauren 03-10-2013 09:32:11 Pyxis I know this show is about more than doccubus, and I like all the pretty and I like the hot sex scenes this season, but I also miss the romance of their first lovemaking scene. sigh I know this show is about more than doccubus, and I like all the pretty and I like the hot sex scenes this season, but I also miss the romance of their first lovemaking scene. sigh 03-10-2013 09:32:11 emtothea if you're not watching this ep, it must seem like crazy sauce. Even if you are, to be honest! if you're not watching this ep, it must seem like crazy sauce. Even if you are, to be honest! 03-10-2013 09:32:13 bucketofroses1 gives Meg a massage gives Meg a massage 03-10-2013 09:32:13 gladisl Lauren gives great needle ;) Lauren gives great needle ;) 03-10-2013 09:32:15 abbey123 does ZP know how much ppl obsess about her arms and hair? does ZP know how much ppl obsess about her arms and hair? 03-10-2013 09:32:24 H I love seeing a giddy Lauren. I love seeing a giddy Lauren. 03-10-2013 09:32:24 gretch monday cannot get here soon enough for us.. monday cannot get here soon enough for us.. 03-10-2013 09:32:25 nobody EMILY ANDRAS - SORRY BUT ONE MORE DOCBLOCK AND BALZAC HAS GOT 2 DIE!!!!! :( EMILY ANDRAS - SORRY BUT ONE MORE DOCBLOCK AND BALZAC HAS GOT 2 DIE!!!!! :( 03-10-2013 09:32:25 Darth Scooby I agree Emily. I agree Emily. 03-10-2013 09:32:28 Dr Poon I'm sure she does :) I'm sure she does :) 03-10-2013 09:32:30 lonejaguar Seriously, the science jokes. Seriously, the science jokes. 03-10-2013 09:32:31 bucketofroses1 provided a bucket doesn't have any arms... well picture what you will provided a bucket doesn't have any arms... well picture what you will 03-10-2013 09:32:34 kedrie It's def diGreen party Leader Andrew Weaver unveiled an affordable housing platform Tuesday designed to cool the residential real-estate market, increase the supply of affordable accommodation and give the middle class a chance at home ownership. Launching into the official start of the provincial election campaign, Weaver told a news conference in Vancouver that the measures in total would help to ensure that “everyone, regardless of their background or income, has a roof over their heads and a place to call home.” He said the Greens’ vision is in stark contrast to that of the Liberals, who have “allowed our homes to be turned into a speculative real estate market for the very wealthy,” while “ordinary British Columbians are shackled with unmanageable debt.” Weaver would double the foreign buyers tax on real estate from the current 15 per to 30 per cent provincewide. He asserted that the proposed tax is “not biased against any country, it ensures that people who live in British Columbia and work in British Columbia are able to afford to live here. “I don’t accept it’s targeted at anyone other than speculative real-estate investors.” The Liberals introduced the foreign buyers tax in August 2016 in Metro Vancouver, and last month unveiled changes that exempted skilled workers immigrating here under the provincial nominee program and offering rebates to foreign buyers who put down roots as permanent residents. The Green party platform also supports a sliding property transfer tax (PPT) from zero per cent on the first $200,000 of a property’s value to 12 per cent on a property over $3 million. Currently, the PPT is one per cent on the first $200,000, increasing to a high of three per cent at $2 million. The Green party would also tax lifetime capital gains in excess of $750,000 on principal residences. It would also transition the homeowner grant to a system of income-based grants in 2019. In January 2017, the government announced it was increasing the homeowner grant threshold from $1.2 million to $1.6 million. The party also supports a progressive property tax system that imposes a surtax on property value and allows homeowners to credit rental income and their previous year’s B.C. income tax against the surtax. Tom Davidoff, associate professor in the Sauder School of Business at the University of B.C., said in response that he likes the Green idea of a progressive property tax, saying it would help working families and encourage the “political process to split luxury, single-family homes into multiple homes.” Initiatives such as higher property taxes with deductions for landlord income, he added, may achieve the same as a foreign buyers tax “without a somewhat distasteful appeal to nationality.” “Generally speaking, I think they are on to some good ideas here,” said Davidoff. “Some specifics I don’t love, but I think it is admirable that they have put concrete policy steps on the table.” Jordan Bateman, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, had a different take. He said he feared that the “net effect of all these new taxes will be to push up the cost of entry-level homes.” He added: “There simply isn’t enough in this plan to push cities to cut red tape for new housing, meaning more demand on the same meagre supply.” Davidoff said that “local zoning is ridiculously restrictive” and that there should be no new single-family homes built on $20-million-plus-an-acre land on the west side of Vancouver and in similar neighbourhoods. “The market needs way more townhomes, duplexes, and family-sized apartments. These are what middle and upper-middle income households should be living in in a place like Vancouver.” The Green party estimates its property transfer tax and capital-gains initiatives would generate up to $400 million per year and its homeowner-grant initiative $250-500 million per year. Weaver criticized the Liberals’ B.C. Home Owner Grant and Equity Partnership of January 2017 to assist first-time home buyers, saying people who are barely able to service a mortgage are put at risk in the event of interest rate increases or other unforeseen circumstances. Other key aspects of the Green party plan include: • $750 million per year to support construction of about 4,000 new units of affordable housing annually. • Investing $100 million per year in retrofits and renovations of older units. • Enhance the Residential Tenancy Act to control excessive rent increases and protect tenants from tenure termination. lpynn@postmedia.com Related CLICK HERE to report a typo. Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.Pin 345 Shares (ANTIMEDIA) “At its core was a question: do we want to be as connected to our foreign policy as we are to our smartphones? My hypothesis was no. Americans don’t care about the drone war because it is largely hidden from view.” That’s how Josh Begley, writing for The Intercept on Tuesday, described the concept behind an app he created five years ago. The app, he says, was a simple one. It merely sent users an alert every time a U.S. drone strike was reported in the news. Apple rejected the app three times on the grounds that it was “excessively objectionable or crude content,” but Begley didn’t give up on the project. “Over the years, I would occasionally resubmit the app, changing its name from Drones+ to Metadata+,” he wrote. “I was curious to see if Apple might change its mind. The app didn’t include graphic images or video of any kind — it simply aggregated news about covert war.” He went on to tell how, after five rejections, Apple finally accepted the app in 2014. It remained in the App Store for a year and was downloaded by over 50,000 people. But then, the following September, Apple removed the app, once again citing “excessively objectionable or crude content.” Begley persisted. The reason he was writing the post this week, in fact, was because that day — March 28, 2017 — Apple had once again accepted the app. He wasn’t writing to talk about his ordeal with Apple, though. He was writing about the issue that motivated him to create the app in the first place: “As an artist who works with data, I think the story of this app is about more than a petty conflict with Apple. It is about what can be seen — or obscured — about the geography of our covert wars.” He pointed out that over the past 15 years, people have worked tirelessly to document what’s happening on the ground where these drone campaigns are being waged. And that work is certainly praiseworthy. But Begley went further, pointing out what he calls the “difficult truth” of drone warfare — that at the end of the day, we don’t really know who these missiles are killing. Again, rather than focusing on his spat with Apple, Begley stayed with the issue that inspired him and talked about the end product of that inspiration: “Because the particulars of drone wars are scant, we only have ‘metadata’ about most of these strikes—perhaps a date, the name of a province, maybe a body count. Absent documentary evidence or first-person testimony, there isn’t much narrative to speak of. “The name ‘Metadata’ has a double meaning: the app both contains metadata about English-language news reports, and it refers to the basis on which most drone strikes are carried out.” The only time Begley questioned Apple’s earlier decisions to refuse his app was in his summation. “Smartphones have connected us more intimately to all sorts of data,” he wrote. “Yet information about drone strikes — in Apple’s universe — had somehow been deemed beyond the pale.” He used the past tense, of course, because Apple had, that very day, re-accepted Metadata. But as it turned out, the party was short-lived. Hours after Begley’s post ran at The Intercept, Apple pulled his app once more. Highlighting the suddenness of Apple’s move, here’s how Reason opened its coverage of the news on Tuesday: “This was supposed to be a post about how anybody who wants to easily keep track of U.S. drone strikes overseas can do so through an app on their iPhone. But never mind. They can’t anymore.” Josh Begley chose not to go after Apple in his article when he easily could have. He took the high road and stuck to the far greater issues — the nature of drone warfare itself and how we, as a society, are responding to it in an age of instant communication. This writer will follow Begley’s lead and not speculate on the myriad possibilities of why Apple seems afraid of his app. That’s the far less important aspect of what’s happening here. It all goes back to the core of the Metadata project and the question that drove Begley to get started: Given the option, would we really want to be as connected to U.S. foreign policy as we are to our smartphones? Or, in other words, would we really want constant updates on all the killing? Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo Pin 345 SharesBirdsville roadhouse owners seek change of pace, looking for couple keen on outback life Posted If a bit of dust and outback tranquillity appeal, your dream job and lifestyle might be waiting at Birdsville. Peter and Bronwynne Barnes have been in the outback town in south-west Queensland for about three decades "on and off" and are keen to ease back from their seven days a week workload. For the past six years or so they have been running the roadhouse and say they are now keen to find another couple they can share the load with, who might ultimately want to take over. Peter, known to all the locals as Barnesy, told 891 ABC Adelaide a wide range of skills would be a definite advantage. "It just takes a bit of experience I think, to be able to fix a broad range of things on a broad range of vehicles. We get people out of the desert [who] manage to get themselves into a bit of strife one way or the other," he said. "We get a vast range of breakdowns, [problems ranging from] trailers to springs to clutches to shockers, to bogged [vehicles]. "You never know what you're gonna wake up to every morning." Barnesy said too great an attachment to city comforts would never work in the outback. "[You need to be] open-minded, multi-skilled and love living in the bush," he said. "Good mechanical skills would be good, and willing to live in the outback. We haven't got millions of facilities but we've got enough to survive." Lifestyle reliant on teamwork Bronwynne said she and Peter moved to Birdsville in the 1980s, stayed 12 years until a move to Papua New Guinea, then returned to Australia on a cattle station until her husband "persuaded" her they should move back to Birdsville. Barnesy said running the roadhouse required good teamwork, as someone always had to be on hand especially when he was called out for emergency road service in the outback. "The other part of the couple thing is to look after the general store and serve the fuel, etcetera," he said. "You eat, sleep and drink the job a bit when it's flat out — and in the summer months it's quieter and you get an opportunity to go away. "[We are looking for] a good couple to share the load and maybe even take it on for themselves in time." Birdsville's population swells during the cooler months as tourists tackle the Birdsville Track in huge numbers, but Barnesy said the heat of summer ensured it was quieter for those months. He said apart from the tourist influx, many things had not changed for the outback town. "[I was] the first bloke ever to set up a workshop in Birdsville and [there were] no tourists here [in the 1980s]," he said. "There was 100 people living there then and I think there's probably 100 people living here now." Topics: human-interest, lifestyle, rural-tourism, birdsville-4482, qld, hawker-5434, saThe The EJ Manuel era will begin in Buffalo on Sunday. (MSA/Icon SMI) The Buffalo Bills surprised plenty of people when they made EJ Manuel the first quarterback drafted this year, at No. 16 overall. They are not waiting to find out if that was the right choice. The team announced this morning that Manuel will start in Sunday's season opener against the Patriots -- a daunting test against the division's perceived favorite. Manuel needed minor knee surgery following Buffalo's second preseason game, and "the athletic training staff and coaches put Manuel through a battery of tests over the past few days with the primary focus on his mobility," reported Chris Brown on the Bills' official website. The health of Manuel's knee was the only obstacle standing between the rookie and a Week 1 start, with veteran Kevin Kolb already on injured reserve due to a concussion. Had Manuel not been able to go against the Patriots, undrafted rookie Jeff Tuel would have gotten the nod. Buffalo surely prefers this course instead, no matter how rocky Manuel's early days as an NFL starter may be. Manuel did perform well in two preseason outings, completing 16-of-21 passes for 107 yards and a touchdown against Indianapolis and 10-of-12 for 92 yards and a TD vs. Minnesota. The gameplan for Manuel, and thus the pressure on him, was kept fairly limited in those outings -- most of Manuel's passes were short, safe tosses. The strategy may not change much against the Patriots, with new coach Doug Marrone opting to get the ball out of Manuel's hands and into those of his team's playmakers like C.J. Spiller and Stevie Johnson. [si_video id="video_EE2AA132-9F87-0DCF-B5F8-D0BB85EF9618"] What Manuel does bring to the table, at least compared to Kolb or Tuel, is the ability to pick up yardage with his legs. He is not, say, Robert Griffin III in terms of mobility, but Manuel certainly has enough athleticism to keep some designed QB runs or options on the table. That is, if Marrone and his staff feel like gambling on Manuel as a runner with only Tuel behind him on the depth chart. Even with Kolb present and healthy, Buffalo may have turned to Manuel from the outset. This franchise has been searching for a top-flight quarterback for years, arguably at least since Drew Bledsoe was under center from 2002-04; the last Buffalo QB to take this team to the playoffs was Doug Flutie, in 1999. Marrone and new GM Doug Whaley made Manuel their first draft pick as Buffalo's head men, opting for the promising Florida State product over such fellow QBs as Geno Smith, Matt Barkley and Marrone's former player at Syracuse, Ryan Nassib. Manuel also was the only Round 1 pick in what was perceived to be a weak quarterback draft class. The book on Manuel heading into the draft was that he has loads of talent, but may need some time to get up to speed as an NFL quarterback. Though he completed 68 percent of his passes last year with the Seminoles, Manuel also tossed 10 interceptions and often seemed flustered by pressure in the pocket. New England figures to bring a little extra heat on Manuel Sunday, just to see how far he's progressed in a few short months. The Patriots took both games from Buffalo last season, including a 52-28 romp at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Week 4. Ryan Fitzpatrick threw four interceptions in that game, then threw another pick and lost a fumble in a 37-31 loss at New England later in the year.Four Onondaga County Sheriffâ??s deputies are facing charges following an investigation into fraud. Deputies Crayg Dykes, Withro "Herb" Wiggins Jr., Rudolph Reed and George Buckton were arrested and charged with multiple counts of offering a false instrument for filing and one count each of official misconduct. Additionally, Dykes and Wiggins were charged with grand larceny and Reed and Buckton were charged with petit larceny. The District Attorneyâ??s Office says the deputies were scheduled for security details on Centro buses running to and from Destiny USA, and that they never showed up for the scheduled shifts. The DA says that did not stop them from submitting vouchers and cashing checks for doing the work. Dykes reportedly received $1,732.50, Wiggins $1,347.50, Buckton $770 and Reed $345 as a result of submitting false vouchers. â??We will not tolerate the defrauding of taxpaying citizens, no matter who does it,â?? District Attorney Fitzpatrick said. â??These deputies allegedly have violated the public trust in two ways. The allegations against them portray police officers who have betrayed their oath to enforce and uphold the law and who have engaged in a scam to steal public money that they didnâ??t earn. They will be held accountable like any other person who breaks the law.â??While Google’s Street View camera cars may have gotten less ridiculous-looking over the years, they are still pretty obvious when they roll down the streets, snapping photos in all directions for later use on Google’s Maps service. So it didn’t take long for savvy folks to sniff out something off about the alleged “Google Maps” truck recently spotted on the streets of Philadelphia. The faux Google SUV, complete with police license plate, was spotted by U.Penn Professor Matt Blaze earlier this week, who posted a photo of the vehicle to Twitter: WTF? Pennsylvania State Police license plate reader SUV camouflaged as Google Street View vehicle. pic.twitter.com/0z4yo2rVoR — matt blaze (@mattblaze) May 11, 2016 Vice’s Motherboard subsequently confirmed with the Philly Police Department that officers had indeed gussied up the vehicle to disguise it as a Google camera car, but that these particular cops had done so without approval. “We have been informed that this unmarked vehicle belongs to the police department,” reads the statement to Motherboard, “however, the placing of any particular decal on the vehicle was not approved through any chain of command. With that being said, once this was brought to our attention, it was ordered that the decals be removed immediately.” The police say they are looking into this matter further, and Google confirmed it too is investigating the Philly PD’s unauthorized use of the Google logo on a surveillance truck. If you’re going to try to dress up a surveillance van as a Google Street View vehicle, don’t try to be subtle about it. Wrap that entire sucker up in Google logos and have the camera sticking out of the roof like a big honkin’ electronic lollipop. Tech companies don’t go for subtlety.Ten Days in the Valley is on the move at ABC. The freshman drama is shifting from Sundays to Saturdays after four episodes, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. The series will move to Saturdays beginning Dec. 16. Two episodes will air back-to-back on that date, followed by a new episode at 10 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 23, as well as Dec. 30. The two-hour season, and likely series, finale will then air on Saturday, Jan. 6, at 9 p.m. Beginning Sunday, Oct. 29, ABC will fill Ten Days' Sunday at 10 p.m. timeslot with Shark Tank encores. Star Kyra Sedgwick first announced the news on her Twitter page Thursday. The good people @ABCNetwork are moving #TenDaysInTheValley to Saturday night. STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS!! xx — kyra sedgwick (@kyrasedgwick) October 26, 2017 The news is not surprising given the drama's low ratings thus far. The serialized series, which centers on a TV producer whose daughter goes missing, opened to a modest 0.5 rating in the adults 18-49 demo. The series saw little lift when seven days of delayed viewing factored in, ticking up to just a 0.7. The most recent new episode, airing Oct. 22, drew a 0.4 rating. Sedgwick, who is also an executive producer on the series, had been vocal about ABC's lack of promotion for the series, which marked her first series regular role since TNT's The Closer. "The biggest difference is that there's tons more shows and there's a lot more competition, you know? I also think ABC's not doing a good job getting the word out there," she told The Daily Beast in September. "The truth is that no one knows [Ten Days in the Valley] is on. So that’s disturbing and scary.” Sedgwick won an Emmy for her role on The Closer, which ran seven seasons and spawned a spinoff, which is set to wrap in 2018. Ten Days in the Valley is the first freshman series to be moved. While broadcast networks once simply canceled low-rated series, in recent years, they have opted to keep even lower-performing series on the air to complete the run, moving them to less high-pressure nights (like Ten Days) or trimming the number of episodes ordered. (Not helping Ten Days' chances was the fact that it was not produced in-house and instead hailed from Skydance Media.) However, ABC has also had success with fellow freshman drama The Good Doctor, which has soared on Mondays following Dancing With the Stars and earned a five-episode pickup after just two episodes. Other first-year series that have earned pickups include CBS' Young Sheldon and SEAL Team. ABC has not yet made decisions on its rookie offerings, which include comedy The Mayor and light hourlong Kevin (Probably) Saves the World.Main topics Scheduling the first BIP 9 sort fork for BIPs 68, 112, 113 Features for 0.12.1 besides BIP 9 State of segregated witness Scheduling the first BIP 9 sort fork for BIPs 68, 112, 113 background VersionBits BIP9 allows using the block header version field as a bit array so that miners can indicate readiness for up to 29 soft forks simultaneously. According to the current code and proposal, a miner that isn’t signaling readiness for any soft forks will create ‘version 4 blocks’, that is blocks with the same version as used to trigger and enforce the BIP65 CLTV soft fork. Everyone seems happy with PR #7575 (merged shortly after the meeting). Once there’s a decision on the start date and bit number, it should be announced on the mailinglist so other implementations can implement it as well. Btcdrak and Morcos will have the backports for 0.12 & 0.11 ready. The BIP9 BIP text is up to date, it would be a good idea to update BIP’s 68, 112 and 113 with the soft fork info as well. meeting conclusion Merge #7575 Review #7648 Start date for deployment based on BIP9 is May 1st, the bit number is 0. btcdrak will update the deployment section of BIP texts 68, 112 and 113 with the new soft fork info. Features for 0.12.1 besides BIP 9 Jonasschnelli has been working on GUI warning capabilities (PR #7579), people are fine with postponing it to 12.2 in order to focus on the softfork for 12.1 Morcos would like to add his and jonasschnelli’s PR’s #7715(“Fix calculation of balances and available coins”) and #7707 (“UI support for abandoned transactions”) which support and deal with abandoned transactions in order to respend outputs that had a too low fee. Wumpus notes he likes to avoid bringing a lot of new features alongside a softfork. Right now the alert system for checking if you’re on a bad chain has a lot of false-positives, there’s a sense of urgency to either fix it or disable them since maintaining the current state will make people ignore the warnings. A fix has been made by dgenr8 (PR #7568) meeting conclusion Review #7568 (“Corrections to bad-chain alert triggering”) & #7715 #7707 RPC-only (commit 42e945d79fd54ab11ad48978910b42d10c1c7cf8), which is 1 line of code. State of segregated witness background Several developers are working on a soft fork to introduce segregated witness onto Bitcoin mainnet, with initial testing being performed on a special testnet. Segregated witness allows transaction signature data to be stored outside of the data hashed to produce transaction identifiers, removing all known forms of third-party malleability, allowing full nodes to compile the current UTXO set without downloading all signatures, and laying the groundwork for fraud proofs that can allow lightweight (SPV) clients to help enforce more of the consensus rules. The segwit soft fork also allows miners to substitute 1 byte of block space with 4 bytes of segwit data, increasing transaction capacity for wallets that use segwit. Sipa is working on the post-fork upgrade problem in the current segnet code, after that he’ll do a new segnet that includes the versionbit logic. He’s aiming to have it ready before the 0.13 release. Comic relief sipa: I'm glad bip9 seems final btcdrak: sipa: party at your house. we'll bring the beers. jonasschnelli: btcdrak finally de-anonymizes at the party. btcdrak: haha sipa: jonasschnelli: that's why you bring a drink mixer Participants Disclaimers This summary was compiled without input from any of the participants in the discussion, so any errors are the fault of the summary author and not the discussion participants.The Mass Effect: Andromeda hype machine is ramping up: following the most recent leak of an EA marketing survey (a repeat of an incident from last year), which teased details of the forthcoming BioWare RPG, a video of a tech demo from the game has emerged online, giving us a glimpse of the VFX engine, gameplay and HUD, and even jetpacks! https://vid.me/p41b The tech demo, which seems to date from 2014, shows off the game’s pollen plumes, ambient flame bursts and fog elements, rain impacts and engine VFX, meteorite impacts, and FumeFX diffusion. A quick look at the gameplay shows a character wearing – and using – a jetpack. But is the video genuine? The look of the characters – which include a couple of Krogan and two N7 officers – seem legitimate, if dated, but that’s to be expected from a two-year-old tech demo. The HUD seen in the video seems to match the one previewed in a Tweet by the game’s former director Chris Wynn: We hope that you can join us on this journey… #N7Day pic.twitter.com/2cEMmVyd5f — Chris Wynn (@The1Wynn) November 7, 2015 But the biggest indication that the video is genuine comes courtesy of EA (owners of BioWare) itself: the video first leaked on YouTube, but has now been taken down by due to a copyright claim. By who? By EA. Mass Effect: Andromeda is expected for release during the first-quarter of 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The game is expected to feature heavily at this year’s E3.(Wikipedia) 'A Venerable Orang-outang,' a caricature of Charles Darwin as an ape published in The Hornet, a satirical magazine, on March 22, 1871. For Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, the theory of evolution espoused by geologist Charles Darwin was not driven by science. It was "encouraged" by Satan himself. Reviving a speech he made before the 2011 Celebration of Creation conference at Australia's Avondale College, the retired neurosurgeon pointed out that unlike some scientists, Darwin did not believe in God. "A lot of people believe in God, but I personally believe that this theory that Darwin came up with was something that was encouraged by the adversary [Satan]," Carson said in his speech, as quoted by CNS News. "And it has become what is scientifically politically correct. Amazingly, there are a significant number of scientists who do not believe it but they're afraid to say anything," he added. Carson said not all scientific theories are evil. In fact, he praised Albert Einstein's theory as a "relatively modern science concept." "You know, scientists like Sir Isaac Newton – considered one of the most scientific minds ever, inventor of calculus, so many things – had a strong belief in God, big mission outreach," Carson said. "Einstein! When you think about genius, what is the word you come up with? Einstein. He believed in God," he added. The Republican presidential hopeful further said that he plans to publish a book called "The Organ of Species"—a direct reference to Darwin's "The Origin of Species"—to disprove the evolution theory. "We're going to talk about the organs of the body and how they completely refute evolution, and several other things as well," the retired neurosurgeon said. In the same speech, Carson also said that he believes that God created the world in six literal days. "I'm not a hard and fast person who says the Earth is only 6,000 years old, but I do believe in the six-day creation," he said. "It doesn't say when He created them except for, 'In the beginning.' The Earth could have been here for a long time before he started creating things on it," Carson added, referring to the Holy Bible's Book of Genesis.Table of contents for How To Find Your Ideal Country Home: Ruralize Your Dreams Introduction to Free-Read Online Edition How To Find Your Ideal Country Home: Ruralize Your Dreams Why this free edition? Present economic conditions will cause some people to seek a low-cost, sustainable place to live. Publishing a fourth edition would take about a year’s worth of my busy days. This free online version lets me get the information out immediately to those who need it right now. What this is How To Find Your Ideal Country Home provides material that shows individuals how to find their best place to live in the country. The good news This is a text-only version. It is suitable for gleaning what you need, fast. As I become aware of new information I can quickly make updates. The bad news Missing are the 300-plus illustrations in the first and second editions. (Warner Books chose to not include most of these in the third edition.) Alas, also missing is an index. If I can figure out a way to correct this, I will. Suggestions are welcome. THIS IS A FREE READ. You are welcome to read all of it at no cost. Of course this does not do a thing for my overhead. So if you find this material to be of value, you are more than welcome to send a few bucks to Gene GeRue, HC 78, Box 1105, Zanoni, MO 65784 Table of contents: Part I — First things Preface, Notes on using this book. Chapter 1 - The importance of place. Chapter 2 - The ideal country home. Chapter 3 - Buy your land as soon as you can. Chapter 4 - Who are you? Chapter 5 - Do you have what it takes? Chapter 6 - Wants, needs, and fantasies. Part II — Criteria and considerations Chapter 7 - Developing a criteria list. Chapter 8 - Lifestyle. Chapter 9 - Choose your climate. Chapter 10 - Land characteristics Chapter 11 - The cost of living. Chapter 12 - Making a living. Chapter 13 - Farming and market gardening. Chapter 14 - Air. Chapter 15 - Water. Chapter 16 - Health 101. Chapter 17 - Community lost and found. Chapter 18 - Demographics and social conditions. Chapter 19 - Services and taxes. Chapter 20 - To build or not to build. Chapter 21 - Prices. Part III — Finding your ideal country home Chapter 22 - Regions, bioregions, states. Chapter 23 - Real country, boondocks, old subsistence farms. Chapter 24 - Small towns and villages. Chapter 25 - Subdivisions. Chapter 26 - Intentional communities and eco-villages. Chapter 27 - Places and conditions to avoid. Chapter 28 - Toxic pollution. Chapter 29 - Finding your ideal area. Chapter 30- Real estate law and real estate agents. Chapter 31 - Looking at country property. Chapter 32 - Making the final evaluation before purchase.With a population of over 1.3 billion people, India undoubtedly has one of the largest potential user bases of the internet. Despite the immense possibilities, this potential has largely remained untapped until now. This is partly due to digital illiteracy, low incomes and the smartphone revolution arriving late in India. However, by far the biggest reason has been the poor broadband penetration in India, especially in the rural areas and Tier-2, Tier-3 cities. The last year has seen this situation change rapidly. The increased broadband penetration in India driven by the disruptive Reliance Jio, along with ever increasing speeds has truly made India internet ready. With India connected to the world wide web, we are soon set to experience the rise of the Indian language internet. Indian Languages Beating English On The Internet In India A new report by KPMG and Google outlines just how big the indigenous language internet has become. As of the end of 2016, there were 234 million Indian language internet users compared to the 175 million English Internet users in India. This is quite extraordinary, since merely five years ago in 2011, Indian languages internet users were numbered at a mere 42 million. Since then, the Indian language internet users has grown at a 41% CAGR to overtake the English internet users in India. However, this is merely a taste of what is to come. The Indian language internet is about to explode in the coming years. According to the forecast, the local language internet user-base is set to grow at 18% CAGR to reach 536 million by 2021! In contrast, the English internet user-base is expected to experience minimal growth totalling to only about 199 million by 2021. The writing is on the wall; the internet is about to become truly Indianized as users reject English in favour of local languages. Interestingly, by 2021, the Indian language internet users are expected to account nearly 75% of India’s total Internet user-base. The Indian Internet Is As Diverse As India Itself Another notable highlight of the report is the sheer diversity of the Indian language internet. The Language Diversity Index (LDI) in India is noted at 0.93. Over eight major and several minor languages dominate
power that most of this card’s JP counterparts get. Luckily, you do have a bunch of incidental power boosters sprinkled throughout your deck, so the card is less bad than it might seem at first. You still can’t regard this as your main Level 1 gameplan, and it should only be a 2-3 of. “Despair of Ideals” Archer I am actually not sure what to say about this card. It IS pretty interesting (and sorta manly), but it’s ultimately just… pretty bad. One-sided antiburn is pretty sick, but having to repeatedly play climaxes to maintain the effect is not. Don’t even mention the fact you’re probably ruining your compression by doing so (assuming you are playing for compression). If you put down 2 of these and 3 of the 2/1 Shirou, you get to be the cool kid in the room by committing sudoku through deck mutilation, which is sorta funny. “Master and Servant” Rin & Archer This is a healer that doubles as a finisher. It’s even in a good colour, and has solid traits. Comboing with a gate is a plus, KanColle or not, and it even has a support that can fetch it for cheap. This is your replacement for the Japanese Rin & Archer from the original set. It isn’t nearly as good as that, but it’s still a very solid pick for a lot of builds. This is going to be your main finisher for Rin/Archer, and either this or the 3/2 Shirou is going to be your choice of top end for the Master and SRS Builds. A solid card overall. Also, Rin is a qt. “Top Tier Magician” Rin This card is a solid support that fetches you your lategame plays (or clock fodder) for cheap. Between this and all your other cheap advantage engines, you should never run out of cards. Your backrow in Rin/Archer will usually be one copy of this and one copy of the Rin clock encore support. Also, the zettai ryouiki is on point. “Successor of Tohsaka” Rin I dubbed this the best red card of the set for Japanese, and even if that might not be the case for English (they needed other cards more), the card is still pretty insane for Rin/Archer decks. This card is a free handfix/discard outlet that lets you plus for one stock at times. The condition for that is reversing something with an Archer, which isn’t exactly difficult when you note that he has a Level 1 bomb. Run at least 3 copies in Rin/Archer. The card got completely overlooked by a bunch of people for whatever reason. “Storm of Counterattacks” Archer After playing with this a bunch, I realized that I actually like this card a lot. Popping Level 0s for free is pretty neat (especially runners or or cards with abilities on reverse), and the incidental powergain is pretty relevant for this deck. You don’t need to run this card, but it’s a nice way to fill out your Level 0 slots. I prefer this over running any sort of beater in Rin/Archer decks. “Caladbolg II” Archer Here we have a suicider that can pump a pretty respectable amount of power if you play the event. This would probably be worth running if the pump activated on resonance instead of on event play, but as it stands I think you have better options at Level 0. Useable as filler but I don’t think you’ll need them. “Support Fire” Archer This is the aforementioned Level 1 bomb. I prefer running this over the FZ one since you don’t have to play a Climax to turn on his ability, and because being a cost 1 reverser actually doesn’t kill that many more things than a Level 1 reverser does anyway. The incidental power is a nice bonus, as always. I’d run around 2 copies interchangeably with the F/Z one. “Smart and Cute Honor Student” Rin This is actually not a Rin/Archer card, but rather a card for the Master and SRS builds. You don’t run any Archer backrow in Rin/Archer, which makes her power conditionvery annoying in that deck. This doesn’t even touch on her anti-synergy with the resonance event. The global clock encore Shirou, various Shirou supports (including the 2/1) and the Shirou brainstorm all fulfill her condition, so that’s not really an issue in Master decks. Basically, 1/1 8ks (with clock encore) are nothing to scoff at, never mind whether they have supports (or soul boosters) behind them. “Ideal Existence” Archer This bonds your resonance target, and since the resonance effects are good for once, that automatically makes it very playable. The 2k power pump is pretty useful and comes up every now and then, especially since the only other card that taps backrow is the handfixing Rin (in EN, anyway). Solid card that you should probably run 2 or 3 of in Rin/Archer. “Gem Magic” Rin A 4k beater with a pretty easy condition. This usually doesn’t go into Rin/Archer but can be your beater of choice in Master/SRS decks. It also fixes for red, which can be pretty important. Not much else to say here. “Complicated Feelings” Rin Wooo Fate/ gets another anti change counter. Unfortunately, the happy dance will have to wait. I’ll tell you now, this one is unplayable. Going neg 3 to antichange something feels extremely bad, and the fact that the card is only a 1k backup in some scenarios is just an additional kick in the nuts. Maybe run 1 of this if your meta is full of Titan decks, otherwise just don’t bother. “Full Power Pitch” Rin This is a very interesting card. Being able to instantly charge clean stock from the Waiting Room is actually an obscenely powerful ability. Not as powerful as adding soul, but still ridiculous. The main issues here stem from the fact that this is only going to put Shirou or Saber cards into stock, and while you do have a bunch of good targets, there aren’t THAT many. If this card could also put Rins into stock it would honestly be pretty bonkers. It’s clearly meant for the SRS deck, but the issue there is that it takes up a backrow slot where you could have also put another soul support (which as we’ve already established, is super broke-a-doke). A combination of this in one backrow slot and the soul support in the other slot might be good, and the card is certainly powerful enough to warrant experimentation. Bad in JP because of a 1/1 support that you want to tap both backrow cards with every turn. “Frontal Assault” Rin This card is going to be your best way of dealing with big advance summons in Rin/Archer. The red card encore is pretty nice, since it allows you to ditch climaxes if necessary, and the deck is mono red anyway. Not that you’ll actually encore this card much. “Caladbolg II” The resonance centerpiece of the new Rin/Archer deck. Helps you dig through your deck and is generally a nice tool manipulating deck size and ensuring favourable refreshes. The card is useful during most points in the game, and if you don’t need to turn on Resonance anymore (or have multiples) it just replaces itself with a character from the top 4. Being bondable helps a lot, since you can actually reap its significant on-play benefits and still have active Resonance abilities. Run either 3 or 4 copies. BLUE: So Blue is going to be doing its own thing with this set, namely make Illya/Berserker viable. It’s sadly a lot worse than the Japanese version (because you are missing the 3/3 heal 3 event from the original FSN set). Still, you have some really neat cards and the biggest payoff card for the deck is still here, so you can probably make it work. “Snow Fairy” Illya Costless advantage with a basically nonexistent condition. It even combos with a stock soul for additional value. The problems the card has are that the advantage isn’t selective (which can be taken care of with another Blue card, Flames of Hell from F/Z), and that you’ll have trouble climbing over things. This card is still really, really good and is going to be one of the main players in the non-SRS Master builds. This will obviously also fit nicely into Illya/Berserker. Staple at 4 for both of these decks. “Signal of Battle Commencing” Illya We keep on going strong, as the loli is bringing the good stuff. Costless handfixing is always nice, and this even has the option of helping you out of a level-lock. It turns out that Riki effects are a lot weaker when they’re non-selective, but it’s still a really useful card. It’s a bit overshadowed by the ridiculousness that is the Azusa clone, though it remains staple. You’ll probably want to run 2-3 copies, but you could go ham and run 4, it’s a good card regardless. It’s mostly dependent on space and preference. “Mythological Magician” Caster Onto less exciting cards. Here we have a clock-bondable 1/0 fieldcounter. The fact that you have to pay for its ability stings a lot, but it does a give a pretty sizeable boost and can make combat math a bit more annoying for your opponent. The fact that it’s clock-bondable is noteworthy (especially since the ability costs stock), but is definitely less good in a deck that already has a global clock encore support. There are some cute interactions with this and the clock encore support itself. For example, if this Caster is reversed, you can triger her ability and immediately encore her, which gives you a really weird 1/1 2.5k backup ‘for free’ (you keep Caster). This actually might make the cut in English Master builds, because you are missing the 1/0 Kirei from the FZ extra booster. The only other level 1 option apart from 1/1 Rin and 1/0 Illya is going to be the 1/0 Rin boxtopper PR from this Set. “Tragic Magician” Caster Hmm, what should I say about this? The effect is interesting but is worth neither the cost nor the deckspace (nor the climax space). First of all, this has to be in the front row, meaning you played this down instead of another finisher. Then, it needs to survive the turn (9.5k before supports is well in counter range at this point in the game). If the effect triggered at the beginning of the Attack Phase instead of at the Draw Phase, things might have been different and this could have been a very good card, but as it is, the card is just thoroughly underwhelming. Bushiroad should have given us some more cards where Caster loses the hood, ‘cause Medea is a real qt patootie. “Trusting Relationship” Illya & Berserker : The main (the only, actually) Level 3 for the Illya/Berserker deck. It’s a printed 11k that has an ok finishing combo and digs for its climax, which is a good thing because you also have a completely broken event you want to draw. Even better because of the 2/0 event we’ll discuss later, as it can dig for both the climax and the Level 3. A bit boring, but it fits the deck well and does its job. Editor’s note: This finisher profile sucks. It SUCKS. “Strongest Warrior” Berserker I’ve actually tried this card a decent amount and it has actually performed better than I expected. It’s a level 0 that sticks around for ages in a deck that doesn’t want to play too many 0s. The fact that it eats stock isn’t such a big deal because the deck barely spends it anyways. I am not sure if I can really recommend this card, but it’s not really terrible and is pretty fun and flavourful, so if you’re building the Illya deck for fun reasons (which you should, since it is not going to be the most competitive build), there really isn’t anything preventing you from running this at 2-3. “Confronting the King” Illya This card is sweet and is a royal pain-in-the-ass to play around for many decks. The free search is already pretty solid, but the trap ability is the cherry on top. The 2/1 that pops out is usually going to be ~10k and is always going to be in your hand, because if you didn’t have it in hand before you are just going to search it out with the other ability. It’s the most telegraphed trap in WS, and demands your opponent go around it or deal with your fatty. If they do crash into it, you get another free search (because this card actually bounces back to your hand!). Otherwise, they side it, at which point you gain a free attacker. Your opponent needs to spend either handicap themselves or expend resources to deal with a card that you already got value out of. That sounds like a pretty good deal. I personally never run less than 4, but 3 copies is defensible. Staple for the deck regardless. “Duel of Legends” Illya This supports the 2/1 Berserker that can come out at 1 (via the above trap) for an additional 1000 power, putting it at 11.5k with just one copy of this and any other Illya in the backrow. You might want to run this at 3, because the deck doesn’t have easy ways of searching it out (your only searcher targets Berserkers, and sometimes you won’t hit this with the top check 4s). The card does make your board considerably bigger and harder to deal with, making the fatties you were already running even better. Solid card overall. “Strong Will” Berserker This is the 2/1 that can pop out at 1. It gets pretty big. Not much else to say really, run 3 or 4 in the Illya/Berserker deck. 3 is fine because it’s bondable, but 4 is also good. Berserker’s Will And last but certainly not least, we have THE payoff card for Illya/Berserker. This card pulls the whole deck together and makes it actually worth playing. A costless sac counter is already really good, but a costless sac counter that replaces itself is exceptional. A free sac counter that replaces itself AND can dig for EVERY single card in your deck (including climaxes and events!) is completely ridiculous. This card is just really silly and even lets you do some neat deck manipulation, because you can stop looking whenever you want (the same way you can stop looking with the Azusa effect). It loses some of its potency in English because you don’t have access to the 3/3 heal event, but it’s still a really good card and is the reason why you play this deck. You draw a lot with this deck anyway, so getting this into your hand isn’t hard. When you do play it you can just search for extra copies of itself if need be. Excess copies aren’t even excess, they’re the card you want most in the lategame anyway. Unnegotiable 4-of, or you are building the deck wrong. PR’s : Puchi Rin I actually don’t know why this card is so expensive in Japanese, but a high price can be justified in English. For one, you actually do lack solid costless Level 1 options in the Master build, and this is one of the better options. If you see them cheap somewhere they are probably worth picking up, because I am pretty sure that they’ll rise in price. Puchi Illya A vanilla 500 global support for Illya/Berserker. You do want 3 copies of this for that deck, but otherwise you can safely ignore this. (3.) Deck Archetypes: There are going to be 3 major deckbuilds available for the competitive side, and 2 oddball fun builds. The competitive ones are going to be Shirou/Rin/Saber, <Master> trait, and Rin/Archer. (These builds will be made with the expectation that the 2/1 freefresh promo does NOT get released, if it does you run 2 copies of it in all 3 of those decks). The fun ones are going to be Illya/Berserker and <Weapon> Focus. I’ll try to cover each of those really quick and will give an example list for all of them. If you have specific questions about something just comment and I’ll answer (and maybe incorporate that answer in the article). Editor’s note: By that he means he’ll force the poor editor to incorporate it in. Shirou/Rin/Saber: http://wsdecks.com/deck/5768/ This deck centers heavily around the 2/1 soul support, making the most of the fact that your 0 cost cards become 2 soul beaters. Your level 1 game is fairly sizeable and you have decent finishers that do an ok job pretending to be the Japanese Rin/Archer combo once you have a soulsupport behind them. For the uninitiated, that means being able to ping 1 on attack, and then side for 1 against Level 3s. A barrage of 1s not only helps with precision, but is just a lot of damage to deal with. It also helps dodge things like Compass. The 2/1 Rin assist is another very interesting card that you can potentially gain a lot of value out of. 3/2 Rin /Archer can be replaced by the new 3/2 Shirou. If you do decide on that option, pull out the Caster and put in 2 healers (either UBW1 Shirou, TD UBW1 Rin, or UBW2 Saber). Another variant of this is the mono Shirou deck, which gets to abuse the 2/0 event and lands you with 50 cards of best waifu. You basic gameplan is going to involve finding your clock encore support at 0, using the climax combo at 1 (searching for your level 2 supports), keeping up in damage at 2 with your soulsupport, then going into close-out mode with your finishers. <Master> http://wsdecks.com/deck/5766/ This deck actually is surprisingly close to the SRS deck in English. The only real difference is the Level 1 game, but that changes the entire deck pretty dramatically. Running the Illya combo means you run a lower density of SRS cards, lowering the effectiveness of the 2/1 soul support. That being said, you are still running enough SRS cards to make the card worthwhile, and the Illya combo is enormously strong to compensate. The overall strategy is going to be pretty similar to the SRS deck as compared to the JP version. Since your cardpool is smaller, you obviously have less of the tools that differentiate these two decks in the JP game. Rin/Archer http://wsdecks.com/deck/4187/ This is going to be value.dek. You have a ton of cheap plussing engines and ways to filter and handfix for free. The early summon is going to make it easier to apply pressure while keeping your handsize healthy, and it can be played after refresh (which is a pretty huge deal, hence why I mention it again). Your deck is a large pile of synergy, which leads to an extremely stable and difficult-to-disrupt gameplan. Antisalvage hurts the deck a bit, but you aren’t actually heavily reliant on battle phase salvage. You have bonds, the 0/0 Rin assist, 3/2 early drop Rin, and even battle phase workarounds that deal with Hatsukaze. Simply attacking last with your on-reverse salvager is a pretty simple tactic that works well. Be careful though – you don’t get to dig for your finishing climax unless you run the old UBW1 Rin, so you should consider holding onto it if it comes to hand at Level 2. This deck can easily adjust its plan and flows really well regardless, and if you want something stable this should probably be your pick. Illya/Berserker http://wsdecks.com/deck/5765/ Force your opponent to make hard decisions during Level 1 with your trap, then proceed to smash his face in with basah-car. Use the 2/0 event to dodge on reverse abilities and to fish for cancels. Don’t forget that you can also use this event during your own turn if you’re in a good position and just want to find pieces for your Level 3 combo. (insert basahcar gif) <Weapon> http://wsdecks.com/deck/1566/ I’ll just say it straight up. I can’t recommend playing this abomination, but it’s what happened when I tried to force the Rho Aias combo into a deck. If you want to try this deck I would recommend kicking out all worst girl cards and putting in more manly men, because then you at least get to play with a manly deck (and we all know Weiss doesn’t exactly have a lot of those). We made it to the end of part 1, so you’ll have to excuse me as I proceed to cry about how long this took and how I am still not really happy about how it turned out. We will hopefully meet again in Part 2, where I’ll cover the Japanese sets, which new builds are available (mainly Rider.dek) and which cool options you get for the already-mentioned builds. Stay tipsy, and always remember: Saber is worst girl.Though the Pakistan border has reopened to NATO traffic, the need to rely on Pakistan for some 80% of the Afghan War’s supplies has been problematic, to say the least, and the alliance has been looking elsewhere for routes to the landlocked country. But they won’t find one in Russia, which today announced that it had formally denied NATO permission to transport military supplies through its country. Russia has been allowing non-military goods through the land route, and will continue to do so. Supplying goods to the 150,000 NATO troops and its associated allies in a landlocked, mountainous country with very little transportation infrastructure is no small problem, and it has only grown as the war has been escalated. The route through Pakistan’s Khyber Pass is the only seriously practical one, but it is often targeted by militants and has also been closed on occasion when NATO troops have attacked Pakistan. Despite the unreliability of the Khyber route as tensions rise with Pakistan and the war worsen, it seems there will be no simple way of replacing it. Last 5 posts by Jason DitzThis spoof of the Airport series of disaster movies relies on ridiculous sight gags, groan-inducing dialogue, and deadpan acting -- a comedy style that would be imitated for the next 20 years. Airplane! pulls out all the clichés as alcoholic pilot Ted Striker ( Robert Hays ), who's developed a fear of flying due to wartime trauma, boards a jumbo jet in an attempt to woo back his stewardess girlfriend ( Julie Hagerty ). Food poisoning decimates the passengers and crew, leaving it up to Striker to land the plane, with the help of a glue-sniffing air traffic controller ( Lloyd Bridges ) and Striker's vengeful former captain ( Robert Stack ), who must both talk him down. Along the way, we meet a clutch of stock disaster movie passengers like the guitar-strumming nun, a sick little girl, a frightened old lady, and two African-American travelers whose "jive" has to be subtitled. Leslie Nielsen portrays the plane's doctor, launching a new phase of the actor's career that carried him through the next two decades in several similarly comedic roles. The trio of directors Jim Abrahams Jerry Zucker, and David Zucker responsible for the film would eventually go on to solo careers, but not before making Top Secret! and Ruthless PeopleThe Secret of Monkey Island (alternatively known as Monkey Island I) is a 1990 point-and-click graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It takes place in a fantastic version of the Caribbean during the age of piracy. The player assumes the role of Guybrush Threepwood, a young man who dreams of becoming a pirate and explores fictional islands while solving puzzles. The game was conceived in 1988 by Lucasfilm employee Ron Gilbert, who designed it with Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. Gilbert's frustrations with contemporary adventure titles led him to make the player character's death almost impossible, which meant that gameplay focused the game on exploration. The atmosphere was based on that of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme park ride. The Secret of Monkey Island was the fifth game built with the SCUMM engine, which was heavily modified to include a more user-friendly interface. The early releases of this game came with copy-protection. A cardboard wheel, named "Dial-a-Pirate", was provided, and the player had to match the pirate shown on-screen with that of the wheel. [4] Critics praised The Secret of Monkey Island for its humor, audiovisuals, and gameplay. The game spawned a number of sequels, collectively known as the Monkey Island series. Gilbert, Schafer and Grossman also led the development of the sequel Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge.[5] LucasArts released a remake of the original in 2009, which was also well received by the gaming press. Gameplay [ edit ] The Secret of Monkey Island is a 2D adventure game played from a third-person perspective. Via a point-and-click interface, the player guides protagonist Guybrush Threepwood through the game's world and interacts with the environment by selecting from twelve verb commands (nine in newer versions) such as "talk to" for communicating with characters and "pick up" for collecting items between commands and the world's objects in order to successfully solve puzzles and thus progress in the game.[6] While conversing with other characters, the player may choose between topics for discussion that are listed in a dialog tree; the game is one of the first to incorporate such a system.[7] The in-game action is frequently interrupted by cutscenes.[8] Like other LucasArts adventure games, The Secret of Monkey Island features a design philosophy that makes the player character's death nearly impossible (Guybrush does drown if he stays underwater for more than ten minutes).[9] Plot [ edit ] A youth named Guybrush Threepwood arrives on the fictional Mêlée Island, with the desire to become a pirate. He seeks out the island's pirate leaders, who set him three trials that must be completed to become a pirate: winning a sword duel against Carla, the island's resident swordmaster, finding a buried treasure, and stealing a valuable idol from the governor's mansion.[10] These quests take Guybrush throughout the island, where he hears of stories of the Ghost Pirate LeChuck, who apparently died in an expedition to the mysterious Monkey Island, an act that was meant to win the love of the governor Elaine Marley.[10] Guybrush meets several characters of interest, including a local voodoo priestess, Stan the Used Boat Salesman, Carla the Sword Master, a prisoner named Otis, and Meathook, whose hands have been replaced by hooks. Guybrush also encounters the governor and is instantly smitten, and she soon reciprocates. However, as he completes the tasks set for him, the island is raided by LeChuck and his undead crew, who abduct Elaine and then retreat to their secret hideout on Monkey Island.[10] Guybrush takes it upon himself to rescue her, buying a ship and hiring Carla, Otis, and Meathook as crew before setting sail for the fabled island. When Guybrush reaches Monkey Island, he discovers a village of cannibals in a dispute with Herman Toothrot, a ragged castaway marooned there. He settles their quarrel, and then recovers a magical "voodoo root" from LeChuck's ship for the cannibals, who provide him with a seltzer bottle of "voodoo root elixir" that can destroy ghosts.[10] When Guybrush returns to LeChuck's ship with the elixir, he learns that LeChuck has returned to Mêlée Island to marry Elaine at the church. He promptly returns to Mêlée Island and gatecrashes the wedding, only to ruin Elaine's own plan for escape; in the process he loses the elixir.[10] Now confronted with a furious LeChuck, Guybrush is savagely beaten by the ghost pirate in a fight ranging across the island. The fight eventually arrives at the island's ship emporium, where Guybrush finds a bottle of root beer. Substituting the beverage for the lost elixir, he sprays LeChuck, destroying the ghost pirate. With LeChuck defeated, Guybrush and Elaine enjoy a romantic moment, watching fireworks caused by LeChuck exploding.[10] Development [ edit ] Origin and writing [ edit ] Ron Gilbert conceived the idea of a pirate adventure game in 1988, after completing Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders.[11] He first wrote story ideas about pirates while spending the weekend at a friend's house. Gilbert experimented with introductory paragraphs to find a satisfactory idea. His initial story featured unnamed villains that would eventually become LeChuck and Elaine; Guybrush was absent at this point.[12] He pitched it to Lucasfilm Games's staff as a series of short stories.[13] Gilbert's idea was warmly received, but production was postponed because Lucasfilm Games assigned its designers, including Gilbert, to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure.[11] Development of The Last Crusade was finished in 1989, which allowed Gilbert to begin production of The Secret of Monkey Island, then known internally under the working title Mutiny on Monkey Island.[11][14] Gilbert soon realised that it would be difficult to design the game by himself; he decided to join forces with Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman, both of whom he hired for Lucasfilm.[15] The game's insult sword fighting mechanics were influenced by swashbuckling movies starring Errol Flynn, which Gilbert, Schafer and Grossman often watched for inspiration. They noticed that pirates in those films often taunted their opponents instead of attacking them, which gave the designers the idea to base the game's duels on insults rather than combat.[11][16] Writer Orson Scott Card helped them write the insults during a visit to Lucasfilm's headquarters at Skywalker Ranch.[17] Many of Gilbert's original gameplay ideas were abandoned during the production process, although he stated that "most of that stuff was left out for a reason".[16] The game's plot, as described by Dave Grossman: "It's a story about this young man who comes to an island in search of his life's dream. He's pursuing his career goals and he discovers love in the process and winds up thinking that was actually more important than what he was doing to begin with. You’re laughing, but there's actually something deeper going on as well."[18] When work on the plot began, Gilbert discovered that Schafer's and Grossman's writing styles were too different to form a cohesive whole: Grossman's was "very kind of a dry, sarcastic humor" and Schafer's was "just a little more in your face". In reaction, Gilbert assigned them to different characters and story moments depending on what type of comedy was required.[15] Grossman believed that this benefited the game's writing, as he and Schafer "were all funny in slightly different ways, and it worked well together".[18] Schafer and Grossman wrote most of the dialogue while they were programming the game; as a result, much of it was improvised.[11] Some of the dialogue was based on the designers' personal experiences, such as Guybrush's line "I had a feeling in hell there would be mushrooms", which came from Schafer's own hatred of fungi.[16] The game's world and characters were designed primarily by Gilbert. After having read Tim Powers' historical fantasy novel On Stranger Tides, he decided to add paranormal themes to the game's plot. He also cited Powers' book as an influence on the characters, particularly those of Guybrush and LeChuck. Inspiration for the game's ambiance came from Gilbert's favorite childhood amusement park ride, Pirates of the Caribbean.[19][20] Grossman said that Gilbert always wanted "to step off the ride" and "talk to the people who lived in that world".[18] Near the final stages of the design work, Gilbert introduced several characters who were not directly related to the game's story. He considered this to be an important decision, as the player would need those seemingly minor characters in later parts of the game and would receive a chance to "really interact with them".[13] Loom (another 1990 Lucasfilm Games title). When approached for conversation, the character encourages the player to purchase Loom.[21] The developers included a character from(another 1990 Lucasfilm Games title). When approached for conversation, the character encourages the player to purchase Creative and technical design [ edit ] Gilbert, Schafer and Grossman's primary goal was to create a simpler and more accessible gameplay model than those presented in previous Lucasfilm titles. Gilbert had conceived the main designs and puzzles before production began, which resulted in the bulk of the designers' work to flesh out his ideas.[11] He was frustrated by the adventure games that Sierra On-Line was releasing at the time, and later said that "you died any time you did anything wrong". Gilbert considered such gameplay as "a cheap way out for the designer".[11] He had previously applied his design ideas to the 1987 graphic adventure title Maniac Mansion, but committed a number of mistakes during development, such as dead-end situations that prevented the player from completing the game and poorly implemented triggers for cutscenes. Gilbert aimed to avoid such errors in The Secret of Monkey Island.[22] The team decided to make it impossible for the player character to die, with one notable exception, which focused gameplay primarily on world exploration.[11] The Sierra game-over screen was parodied, when Guybrush falls off a cliff only to be bounced back up by a "rubber tree". Guybrush can also be killed by drowning, though it is an Easter Egg unlikely to be found without conscientious effort. A scene in The Secret of Monkey Island shows the protagonist Guybrush Threepwood standing on the docks of Mêlée Island. Below the scene, the game displays the list of the verb commands and items in the player's inventory in a point-and-click menu. The same scene in the special edition. The verb portion of the screen has been removed as part of a control overhaul, while the background artwork has been made more elaborate to build a much more vibrant environment. The Secret of Monkey Island was the fifth Lucasfilm Games project powered by the SCUMM engine, originally developed for Maniac Mansion. The company had gradually modified the engine since its creation.[23] For Maniac Mansion, the developers hard coded verb commands in the SCUMM scripting language. These commands become more abstract in subsequent versions of the engine. The developers carried over the practice of referring to individual segments of the gameworld as "rooms", even though the areas in Monkey Island were outdoors.[24] The game uses the same version of the engine used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, with minor changes. A dialog tree was added, which facilitated conversation options and the sword-fighting puzzles.[22] The developers removed the "What is" option (an input command that describes an on-screen object to the player) in favor of allowing the player to simply highlight the object with the mouse cursor.[22][25] The game's improved interface became the standard for the company's later titles. The game also introduced logical verb shortcuts, which could be performed with the mouse; for example, clicking on a character defaults to the "talk" action, the most obvious action in the situation.[25] SCUMM's visuals were updated for the game—the original EGA version had a 320x200 pixel resolution rendered in 16 colors.[24][26] According to artist Steve Purcell, that became a major limitation for the art team; due to a low number of "ghastly" colors, they often chose bizarre tones for backgrounds.[26] They chose black and white for Guybrush's outfit for the same reason.[22] The VGA version of the game later corrected these issues by implementing 256 color support, which allowed for more advanced background and character art.[25][27] The VGA (and other platform releases) removed the infamous "stump joke" from the game, which was a joke in the EGA version in which the player would examine a tree stump in the forest. Guybrush would exclaim that there is an opening to a system of catacombs and attempt to enter, but this would result in a message stating the player needed to insert disc 22, then 36, then 114 in order to continue. The joke resulted in numerous calls to the LucasArts hotline asking about missing discs. As a result, the joke was removed from later editions and is a mentioned as a conversation option for the LucasArts Hint Hotline in the sequel.[28] The game's "pirate reggae" music was composed by Lucasfilm Games' in-house musician Michael Land in MIDI format. It was his first project at the company.[29] The game was originally released for floppy disk in 1990, but a CD-ROM version with a high-quality CD soundtrack followed in 1992.[30] The music has remained popular, and has been remixed by the musicians of OverClocked ReMix and by the game's fans.[31][32] The Secret of Monkey Island ultimately cost $200,000 to produce, and was developed over nine months.[33] Special edition [ edit ] LucasArts released a remake with updated audiovisuals titled The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition in July 2009 for iPhone, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox 360[34] exclusively via digital distribution.[35] PlayStation 3, macOS and iPad versions followed early in 2010 for download on their respective services.[36] LucasArts confirmed the game's development on June 1, 2009; rumors appeared several days earlier when the Xbox 360 version of the game received an USK rating.[37] The game was first displayed to the public at the 2009 E3 in June.[38] The remake features hand-drawn visuals with more detail, a remastered musical score,
own competitiveness and marketing, the Hill Farming Allowance, which currently exists alongside the new Single Farm Payment, must remain. There is a growing sense of anxiety that the Treasury will try to stop it once the S.F.P. is in place and I cannot overemphasize just how important it is that this support remains in place. c) Essential to livestock farmers is access to a sufficient infrastructure of livestock markets, abattoirs and cutting facilities, particularly if they are to respond as we would want to the growing opportunities for direct selling and collaborative marketing. Indeed, this was one of the recommendations in Don Curry?s original report. I am sure that Regional Development Agencies could do more in this area, and any encouragement which they could be given by central Government would be much appreciated by the livestock sector. d) So much depends on the consumer demanding British produce and I only wish that more could be done to encourage people to buy British and to understand that it is only with their support that British agriculture and the will survive. I know that European Rules preclude the Government from running a campaign to promote, solely, British produce but, for all that, it would be splendid if the Government could find innovative ways to give the necessary lead. e) Public procurement of beef is an obvious area in which the Government could make a substantial difference to the beef sector. For instance, I understand that the Ministry of Defence is now sourcing a proportion of beef from British suppliers, but no doubt more could be done. f) I have-raised with you on a number of occasions the importance of reducing the bureaucratic and administrative burden on farmers, and you have been most reassuring in your replies. Suffice it to say that any pressure which you can bring to bear on D.E.F.R.A. through the Panel for Regulatory Accountability, which you told me you are chairing, would be much appreciated. Vigilance is essential to help officials resist returning to type! I also mentioned to you the increasing problems affecting the dairy sector. I have been speaking to a number of different people about what could be done to ameliorate the situation and there is no doubt that one major problem appears to be the Office of Fair Trading. As you know, the dairy sector is going through a major rationalization and many existing farmer-owned co-operatives are expanding as farmers increasingly understand that by working together they have more power to deal with processors and retailers. Unfortunately, I am told that the Office of Fair Trading is becoming a serious obstacle to developing dairy co-operatives of the necessary size and in?uence. As I understand it, it sees the United Kingdom as ring-fenced the Channel acting as a barrier to imports, which is, of course, ridiculous. The O.F.T’s view is that it will oppose any company which looks like exceeding twenty-five per cent of the UK. market share. Meanwhile, in Europe, particularly Denmark and Germany where co-operatives are more established, competition law is being interpreted entirely differently and there is one co-operative in Denmark that has a ninety percent market share! This may be somewhat excessive, but unless United Kingdom co-operatives can grow sufficiently the processors and retailers will continue to have the farmers in an arm lock and we will continue to shoot ourselves in the foot! You did kindly say that you would look at this and see if there was anything which could be done to help the O.F.T. to take a wider view.Charles calls hold of Supermarkets on farmers an “arm lock” Finally, I did raise an entirely different subject to do with the resources available for our Armed Forces. I mentioned to you that during a recent visit to Northern Ireland I was able to see the hugely impressive airborne surveillance capability provided by the Armed Forces in the Province and, increasingly, in support of British Forces in Iraq. In particular, I saw the Army Air Corps’s “Oxbow” equipment, which is a major advance in surveillance technology. The aim of the Ministry of Defence and the Army Air Corps to deploy this equipment globally is, however, being frustrated by the poor performance of the existing aircraft in high. temperatures. Despite this, the procurement of a new aircraft to replace the is subject to delays and uncertainty due to the significant pressure on the Defence Budget. I fear that this is just one more example of where our Armed Forces are being asked to do an extremely challenging job (particularly in Iraq) without the necessary resources. I do apologize for writing at such length. Meanwhile, I cannot tell you how grateful I am to you for agreeing to give my Business and the Environment Programme’s Tenth Anniversary Lecture next Tuesday, and I am particularly pleased that Mrs. Blair will also be coming to Clarence House for the reception and dinner afterwards, although I do understand that you both have to slip off after my speech which I will now be giving before dinner. Yours ever Charles Prince of Wales correspondence with the Prime Minister, 2004 to 2005: rural and agricultural issues(2) Dear Prime Minister, It was very good to see you again the other day and, as usual, I much enjoyed the opportunity to talk about a number of issues. You kindly suggested that it would be helpful if I put them in writing — despite the Freedom of Information Act! We discussed at some length the agricultural situation. The most pressing and urgent problem is, without doubt, the rising numbers of T.B. cases is affecting 5,000 farms each year, 20,000 head of cattle are being slaughtered and the cost to the taxpayer is £100 million annually. As you know, all the evidence is that T.B. is caused and spread by badgers. You said that you were aware of the recent study in the Republic of Ireland which proved that badger culling is effecting in ridding cattle of T.B. — in Donegal, for instance, by the fifth year of the trial there was a 96 per cent reduction of cattle infection in the badger “removal” areas.Charles highlights Irish success in culling badgers to curb T.B. in cattle. A UK trial was not successful I know that the Government is planning shortly to announce a ten-year strategic framework for the control of the disease but, as far as I can tell, there is no evidence that this will include a commitment to the dead with the badger problem in the immediate future, although there is a strong rumour that the Government may be intending to reduce the levels of compensation to farmers, something which, I happen to think, would be less fair and would provoke real anger amongst farmers. Apart from the appalling waste of valuable cattle, I explained to you my real fear that unless something is done urgently we could end up with another food scare and I know you remember only too well the consequences of B.S.E. and F.M.D… Certainly, the raw milk cheese-producers, many of whom have established their businesses in an effort to diversity their farms, which is what the Government wants, are deeply fearful of what may happen to them and I know that Sir John Krebs, the outgoing Chairman of the FOod Standards Agency shares their fears. So all I can say is that I do is urge you to look again at introducing a proper cull of badgers where it is necessary. I, for one, cannot understand how the “badger lobby” seem to mind not all about the slaughter of thousands of expensive cattle, and yet object to a managed cull of over-population of badgers — to me, this is intellectually I also mention to you the sheer weight of the bureaucracy under which farmers are labouring at the moment as the new Single Farm Payment comes into force. It is causing much anxiety and I know how strongly you feel about the need to cut bureaucracy where possible, especially in your role as Chairman of the Panel for Regulatory Accountability. You said that this was something you might look into, so I thought it could be helpful if I just listed the documentation that farmers have received in recent weeks, and this is in addition to new regulations on fallen dead stock and a consultation paper on waste controls: S.F.P November update — 31 pages S.F.P Cross compliance handbook — 52 pages S.F.P. Set Aside handbook — 39 pages S.F.P. Cross Compliance Guidance for Soil Management — 40 pages S.F.P. Cross Compliance Guidance for the Management of Habitat and Landscape Features — 48 pages S.F.P. Consulation paper on agriculture waste regulations — 19 pages I also told you about the Rural Payments Agency’s recent announcement that it would not be able to send out the first Single Farm Payment cheques until next February at the earliest, largely because of the computer shortcomings. This is painful for all farmers, but particularly tenant farms who normally delay paying their rent until, under the old system, the subsidy cheques arrived. I told you that the National Farmers’ Union had suggested a small interim payment to tide farmers over and I do think that this is something well worth considering to reduce hardship and uncertainty.Charles foresees the catastrophe of the Rural Payments Agency You have heard me tell you on so many occasions about the importance of the family farmers, particularly those who reside in the upland areas. These are, without doubt, the most beautiful areas of the country which tourists flock to see, and yet they are the most difficult areas to farm and are most disadvantaged in every way for those who live there. That is why I am doing what I can to help them manage under the new regime, not least by trying to persuade companies to second someone who can help galvanize these farmers so that we can break what is, in all too many cases, a cycle of despair and hopelessness. They need all possible help to learn to co-operate, to market more effectively and to make the most in business terms of beautiful areas within which they live. I also mentioned to you my anxiety about this country’s lack of self-sufficiency in staple foods, such as meat and vegetables. Recent trade figures showed a decline of 12 percent over the decade falling from 86 per cent in 1994 to 74 per cent in 2004 and only 64 per cent for all food. on both environmental and economic grounds this has to be a worrying trend, let alone form the point of view of this country’s food security. We also discussed at some length the behavior of the retailers and in recent months there have been some particularly shocking examples, some of which would appear to be in contravention of the existing statutory Supermarket Code of Practices. There is no doubt that the dominant position of the retailers is the single biggest issue affecting British farmers and the food chain, and if it is not dealt with all the other good work which has been going on risks becoming virtually useless. I know that Margaret Beckett recently made clear that the Government was less than pleased by what had been happening and indicated that she supported the idea of being mooted amongst some of the leaders of the agriculture community, not least _______ _______ and the National Farmers’ Union, that a voluntary Buyer’s Charter should be created to address the issues of reasonableness and fair play within the food chain. I understand that the proposal would be for an independent arbitrator to be appointed to deal with the individual complains in an entirely private way. I suggested that it might be worth considering _______ for this role. _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ might have the time to do it and I would thing __ would have all the necessary skills for the job… We spoke also about the enormous problem of climate change and the remarkable leadership role which you are taking in this area with the U.K.’s Presidency this year of the G8 and the European Union, for which I congratulate you. As I mentioned, there is a particular worry that the Government’s recent decision to revise its National Allocation Plan may undermine some of your good work and I know that this is something about which the N.G.O.’s who are so supportive of the work you are doing, are equally concerned. Nevertheless, do rest assured that you have a great deal of support and all I would say is that you may find it worthwhile to explore not just what industry can do to cut emissions, but also the wider community. Energy efficiency could make a huge difference and would engage the public in the whole subject in a way that simply focusing on the industry’s role will not We also discussed the built environment and, in particular, the uncertainty as to how the approximately one hundred National Health hospitals will be redeveloped for housing under the Government’s plans. As I mentioned, it is so important both in order to secure the maximum economic benefit and to provide places and communities in which people want to live, that this is done with great care and thought. I like to think that my Foundation for the Built Environment is one of the leading sources of expertize in this area and you kindly said that Chief Executive, Mr. Hank Dittmar, might come in to brief your advisors on this important issue. We briefly mentioned the European Union Directive on Herbal Medicines, which is having such a deleterious effect on complementary medicine sector in this country by effectively outlawing the use of certain herbal extracts. I think we both agreed this was using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. You rightly asked me what could be done about it and I am asking the Chief Executive of my Foundation for Integrated Health to provide a more detailed briefing which I hope to be able to send shortly so that your advisers can look at it. Meanwhile, I have given Martin Hurst a note suggesting someone he could talk to who runs the Herbal Practitioner’s Association. I apologize for the length of this letter! Yours ever Charles Prince of Wales correspondence with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Office Dear Paul, It was so good Hillsborough for two nights last week and I can’t thank you enough for your kind hospitality, not to mention that most illuminating dinner you gave for me. As always, it was a great pleasure to meet so many people for the trouble they take over these exercises. I much valued our discussion just before I left on Friday morning and am so glad you are going to pursue the idea of encouraging your officials — and perhaps some planning people, road engineers and housebuilders? — to visit Poundbury, as well as Yorkshire Forward. Likewise, as we discussed, it would be splendid if some key people from the Province could attend some of my Foundation for Built Environment’s courses in London, and Michael Mehaffy is the man to contact. I mentioned the issue of Armagh Gaol and suggested that my Phoenix Trust would be only too happy to help with any advice with regard to its conservation and re-use. And, while on the subject of goals, I suggest that Ruithin Gaol would be a good example of the regeneration and re-use of a redundant historic site for officials to visit. We discussed the issue of an Action-Learning Pilot Scheme which has remained in abeyance since last year, but which, if implemented, could help perhaps break the mould of housing “ghettoes” in Northern Ireland. You may remember that both Paul Murrain, from my Foundation, and John Thompson are ready to help with this whenever you give the word! As usual, I repeated myself — yet again — the potential value to be realized from the regeneration and re-use of redundant historic landmark sites, often as catalysts for sympathetic, associated new development along the lines of Caterham Barracks in Surrey. You said that you might consider Ebrington Barracks as a candidate for similar treatment and, if so, you might find it worthwhile to talk to Linden Homes which was the company that did work at Caterham. Finally, I was delighted to hear that good progress was being made in establishing a Northern Ireland version of Prime Cymru and that Julia Evans, the Chief Executive, was going to come over to talk to your officials. Hopefully, by the time of my next visit to the Province — and if I am still alive by then — I will be able to see heartening signs of progress in all these issues we discussed … Meanwhile, this bring you countless good wishes and I need hardly say, apologies for pestering you about so many things. Yours ever Charles Prince of Wales correspondence with Secretary of State for Education, 2004 to 2005: Prince of Wales’s Summer Schools (3) Dear Secretary of State, I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment as Secretary of State for Education and Skills. I suspect it may not be the easiest of tasks, so I can only wish you well! I understand from your predecessor, Charles Clarke, that he has spoken to you about my most recent letter of 24th November, and specifically about the impact of my Education Summer School for teachers of English and History. This Programme, which involves up to ninety state school teachers each year, has been held over the past three years in Dartington, Devon, at Dunston, in Norfolk and at Buxton, in Derbyshire. I believe that they have added fresh inspiration to the national debate about the importance of English Literature and History in schools. The Sumer Schools to date have been generally judged to be enormously successful with an extraordinary line-up of individuals who did not contribute as educationalists, but as experts in the fields of Literature and History. The teachers who attended in 2004 and previous years felt that they had been offered a new perspective on their subjects, rather than the theory of education. Despite having made substantial progress, as you may be aware I remain convinced that the currect approaches to teaching and learning need to be challenged, something now acknowledged by some of the professional agencies themselves! The Schools have, in my view, provided ample evidence that teachers themselves are more than willing to look again at what they do and consider whether they are doing the best they can. Building on the success of these Summer Schools, I am keen to provide the opportunity for a further either, or so, teachers of English and History to come together to engage with the questions from first principles as to why teach English and History. Why are these subjects important? What should we be teaching in these subjects? How should we be teaching these subjects? In addition the 2005 course will include teachers who have previously attended as the first step in building an Education Summer School alumni body, referred to in the feasibility study which I understand you have seen. I hesitate to write to you when I know how busy you are but I wonder if there is any chance that you could come and speak at this year’s Summer School when it will return at Dartington Hall, Devon. The School is scheduled to run from Tuesday 7th June to Friday 10th June inclusive and you would, of course, be very welcome to participate in all, or some of the sessions. The Course Director, Bernice McCabe, who heads the hugely successful North London Collegiate School, would be delighted to provide you with further details, but I thought you might like to glance at the post-course brochure from Buxton, which I enclose for your information. I do so hope you will be able to attend as I am convinced that last year’s event offered something very beneficial for all those who participated. Yours most sincerely, CharlesScoring is down recently for the Carolina Hurricanes. Could part of that be Bickell’s absence on the power play? The high-flying, goal scoring October is a thing of the past for the Carolina Hurricanes. Much like the colorful leaves are now turned into large piles brown, the Canes offense lost a bit of its vibrancy with the change of month. In their last four games, Carolina failed to score more than two goals a game, two of those games the Canes’ opponent held them to a single goal. The Canes averaged three goals a game in their first 8 games, but only averaged 1.5 since. So why the sudden drop in goals? Want your voice heard? Join the Cardiac Cane team! Write for us! One reason was the lack of success on the power play. Carolina’s record with the man advantage in the last five games was an abysmal 1 for 13. Compare that to the first seven games where the team converted at a 28% rate. There is only one main difference in the power play from then to now. The system is the same, forwards playing at the point the same, and the same questionable drop pass are all still there. The reason the Carolina Hurricanes aren’t scoring anymore on the man advantage is the lack of Bryan Bickell. Bryan Bickell the Healthy Scratch The game last night at New Jersey made four games in a row Bill Peters listed Bickell as a healthy scratch, and five of the last six. Guess what? In all those games the Hurricanes scored only a single power play goal. Of the two games Bickell dressed in the last seven, Carolina scored only one goal on the power play, and you guessed, it was by Bryan Bickell. Some critics may point out that Bickell was just in the right place at the right time as it was a great shot by Jeff Skinner that grazed Bickell’s sweater. Still, Bickell parked himself in front of the goal creating a screen. In fact, Bickell’s screens played a significant part in four of the 7 power play goals in the first seven games. Over half of the goals with Bickell on the ice he actively engaged in screening the goalie. He wasn’t just a passenger, but a key part of all those goals. Given these numbers, it’s no surprise at the drop in efficiency of the power play from the top of the league to league average. What is the coaching staff thinking? Every Other Part of the Game Yes, Bickell has proved effective on the PP. However, the power play is a very, very small amount of time of the total sixty minutes of game time. And that’s where the coaches decision about benching Bickell becomes a bit clearer. There are only a few players that would sit instead of Bickell: Joakim Nordstrom, Viktor Stalberg, and Phil DiGuiseppie. The thing is every one of those players brings something more to the table than Bickell does. Stalberg is a better skater and better at defense making him valuable on the penalty kill. Ditto for Nordstrom as well even if he’s a little more offensively challenged. PDG is just a younger player and seems to do everything Bickell used to do in his prime. Also, all three of these players post better Corsi stats at 5v5 than Bickell does. It seems that the coaching staff prizes well-rounded play over specialists. However, the only player who posts a huge difference in Corsi versus Bickel is DiGuiseppie. Bickell could take Stalberg’s or Nordstrom’s spot without a huge drop in 5v5 play. But the Canes aren’t winning games even with the superior 5v5 play of the other wingers. Especially now that the goaltending stabilized itself somewhat, the Hurricanes need to return to their goal scoring ways from earlier in the season. Those extra goals might just be enough to win games. Does Bickell hurt the team too much in other areas to not justify his inclusion during game night? Right now the Hurricanes don’t have the luxury to not use any method that puts pucks in the net, and only time will tell if the coaching staff feels the same way.We are deliberately being set up for anger. The powers that be are setting the trap for us. The Chaos in the world is a Sting operation by the Orwellian Elite who exercise mastery over us. Their masonic hocus pocus has bereft mankind of its dignity over the centuries. The last few decades has seen the pinnacle of their power, manifesting itself in today’s crazy world. Don’t get angry as they want you to. While you’re getting angry of all the injustice and stupidity you get to hear and see constantly, you might begin to think its normal and look for salvation from the culprits themselves. The Zen Gardner warns us that while we are ready to receive more sounds, images and ideas from the corrupt press to anger us more; The sting operators are preparing the population for a police state with the latest military arsenal at their disposal. Zen Gardner reports: We’re all pissed off in some form or another. No question. No one can sit idly by with any level of consciousness and not be ticked off by the insanity, inequities and atrocities going on around us. That’s righteous anger and there’s nothing wrong with it. But we must keep anger in its place. The general populace is being set up and baited for violent response. All they’re waiting for is a justification to herd the unsuspecting flock right into their tightfisted fascist paradigm as the police state takes shape around us. Don’t fall for the trap. An Old Trick at Work Induced passions make people easily manipulated. When we fear or act in anger we are not fully conscious nor fully empowered. Our vision is impaired and our reasoning seriously tainted. Anger is akin to fear, and the ability to manipulate those acting in anger and fear is very similar. Dr. William Sargant, a psychiatrist with the illuminist Tavistock Institute, wrote in his 1957 book, The Battle For The Mind: “Various types of belief can be implanted in people after brain function has been deliberately disturbed by accidentally or deliberately induced fear, anger, or excitement. Of the results caused by such disturbances the most common one is temporarily impaired judgment and heightened suggestibility. Its various group manifestations are sometimes classed under the heading of “herd instinct”, and appear most spectacularly in wartime, during severe epidemics, and all similar periods of common danger, which increase anxiety and so individual and mass suggestibility.” So while people get aroused and decide to become active within the framework they’ve been handed by the manipulators we’re often walking right into their paradigm that grips like a Chinese handcuff–strengthening the enemy’s hold on us by fighting them on their level and on their terms. History proves this. One system toppled by the same tactics used by the oppressor becomes a replacement system, and the Masonic pattern continues. Amerika – Born and Bred in Violence The Boston tea party was thrown by dressed up Freemasons to provoke exactly what they got. Another violent stronghold obtained by violence, built on violence, and that has since executed nothing but violence on the world since its inception, whether culturally, economically or militarily. Just ask the millions of exterminated and incarcerated native Americans about the “freedom of religion” excuse these invaders used to go there in the first place. If the old adage is true that “they that live by the sword shall die by the sword”, what America is about to reap is not going to be pretty. Why should the “innocent” Amerikans suffer this causal reflex, you say? Because by and large Americans not only did nothing to stop the pillaging and atrocities being carried out by its corporo-fascist government and those they support such as insane genocidal Israel, but they de facto supported these programs and ever more importantly, luxuriated in the profits and delicacies of an over-indulgent resource-pillaging machine, sucking the very life blood of the poor of the world. And yes, the U.S. isn’t the only player in this. These selfish parasites are internationalists stationed around the globe, but the US is its primary arm of oppression and exemplifies all of these characteristics. The Deliberate Piss-Off The breakdown our world is undergoing is deliberate – and people are catching on faster and faster. It’s getting to where almost anyone can see the banksters deliberately pulled the financial plug for their periodic harvest. The media disinformation and obfuscation of truth as well has become outright Orwellian as the migration into alternative news sources continues to accelerate. Granted, much of the public still takes the disempowering soma-swill of the never ending promise of “hope and change”, but the matrix mirage is rapidly evaporating for all to see. That’s the vibrational change we’re talking about. Inside and out. It’s now obvious to a vast swathe of humanity that our social fabric has been dissolved by anti-moral, anti-human doctrines of seemingly satanic self-indulgence and death worship. Our food, air and water supplies are deliberately poisoned. Our leadership is clearly dishonest, shallow and inept. Even disasters, very many man-made consequences of deliberate tinkering with mother nature, are manipulated for profit and strategic control of populations. Major political, economic and social changes in society don’t just happen–they’re engineered. With guaranteed outcomes. Either way they win. But their time is almost up. Watch for Provocations…and Pre-Programming the Solution False Flag operations have been the most successful hoodwinks to date. The relatively recent big ones like 9/11 and 7/7 in London and other staged incidences such as the many shootings and bombings like Sandy Hook and the Boston Bombing, were carefully led up to by the Oklahoma City, USS Cole, US Embassy and other similar bombings to give the “official” explanations credibility. Yes, it is that planned and yes, it is that nefarious. The Occupy movement was treated as a test run on handling a larger scale street fight in the US. A fight they are preparing for at an astounding speed, buying guns and ammunition to arm not just police, but now military battalions being stationed in US cities while armed drones are dispatched overhead. Talk about a preemptive strike. And the latest trigger pins? Try the new black vs white racist provocations the press is fanning such as the Ferguson riots, or the induced Islamophobia now metasticising in western society, or the revival of the cold war fear syndrome against Russia. How about the NSA revelations and “re-education camps” now in the public information domain? Or the insane actions of the TSA or local police, or the inflammatory rhetoric regarding anything anti-government, resorting to labeling anything contrary to the status quo or mainstream propaganda as “home grown terrorism”? It’s sick, it’s staged, and it’s designed to provoke a response…and is dutifully bilked for every media minute they can get to create the problem-reaction-solution scenario they so love and thrive on. What Do We Do? Our conscious confrontation needs to be at a deeper level of awareness. While we need to make our voices known, relegating all apparent public expression to some angry demonstration will not just go practically nowhere, but play right into the Controllers’ hands. We need to express, but smartly. We need to first of all be fully aware of what we’re up against, its full dimensions and implications, but then infiltrate at the grass roots level in any way we’re called and be consciously disciplined about it. A good singular example of this is “Food Sovereignty Activism” that perfectly encapsulates what one person’s actions can do. And this is just one of many thousands of examples. But I dare say confronting a police battalion in public and getting your head bashed in by those robots might not do much more than piss people off more, thanks to a twisted complicit media. Demonstrating is not all bad and there’s clearly a time for it. This is especially true within public governmental chambers and places of local decision making. Just don’t play into one of their traps, usually fueled by them via controlled opposition. See Controlled Opposition – The Hidden Hand of Misdirection. Hit the Matrix Where It Hurts Motivation comes in all forms, but we must behave smartly. We need to hit where it hurts the matrix the most and empowers as many as possible. Some ideas: #1. Inform. True information clears the deck. It neutralizes the effects of the enemy’s propaganda. That has to be done first. #2. Live in alignment with your convictions. We can’t speak truth to the lie while living within its bondage. Break free, in any and every way we can. Screw the consequences if it’s matrix stuff, it’s not worth worrying about. “Lead, follow, or get out of the way” as they say. #3. Persist. As we follow on in a conviction of the power of Truth and Love it will lead each of us on to more ways of having a greater effect. #4. Teach others. Mainly by example. If you live a committed life and have paid the price of giving up a cozy life of security for one of spiritual fulfillment and helping to change the world, others will be prodded to do more themselves. We don’t want to cram anything down anyone’s throats. We live by the example of commitment the enlightening love of the truth speaks for itself. #5. Act locally. Find or create local communities of active and awake people. Whether it’s a food co-op or meet up groups to discuss how to change your town or city for the better, this is where we need to operate from. With the world crashing around us we need to find each other and work and build together on every front. All the while continuing to broadcast the truth in any way we can. After all, what else is there to live for?The FBI is investigating the police department in Independence, Missouri for alleged use of excessive force following an incident that resulted in a 17-year-old boy requiring a medically-induced coma to help treat injuries to his brain, KCTV-TV reported. 17-year-old Bryce Masters is listed in critical condition following his encounter with Officer Tim Runnels on Sunday, during which Runnels used a Taser on the teen. One witness, Curtis Martes, told KCTV that Runnels approached Masters’ vehicle after pulling him over and asked him to roll his window down. However, Martes said, Masters’ window did not work properly, stopping him from following the order. But police said Masters, whose father is an officer for the Kansas City Police Department, was being “completely uncooperative,” forcing Runnels to defend himself. “The driver refused to exit the vehicle,” Sgt. Darrell Schmidli was quoted as saying. “A struggle ensued, a Taser was deployed by the officer. The driver was finally removed out of the car. A struggle ensued once he was moved out of the car.” Another witness, Michelle Baker, said she thought Masters’ head hit the concrete during the altercation. Multiple witnesses stated that Masters had to be brought back to life by emergency crews before being hospitalized. “The cop put his foot on his back and moved it back and forth like he was putting a cigarette out and asked him, ‘Are you ready to get up now?'” Baker told KCTV. “You could tell the kid was going into convulsions.” Runnels has been placed on administrative leave. Independence police were sued in July 2007 after they mistakenly pulled over a woman who was five months pregnant and forced her to lie face down on the side of a highway. At the time, they believed the woman was behing the theft of vehicles from a local JC Penney parking lot. KCTV reported that a local judge dismissed the suit, saying the officers had “sovereign immunity.” Watch KCTV’s report on Masters’ injuries, as aired on Monday, below.Though much about his background and public service warrants criticism, he also deserves praise rarely given properly, this article offering some and the writer’s personal reflections on his commencement address to my June 14, 1956 graduating class, a message not heard now by US leaders erudite, incisive and timely. More on it below. Some Background Had an assassin not taken his life, his health surely would have, some around him saying "from a medical standpoint, (he) was a mess." Indeed so, having been hospitalized more than three dozen times in his life and given last rites on three occasions. At age 2 years, 9 months, he nearly died of scarlet fever. He contracted measles, whooping cough and chicken pox the same year, and as a child, was susceptible to upper respiratory infections and bronchitis. In 1935, he suffered jaundice, had a history of sports-related injuries because of his weak physique, and his mother remembered him as "a very, very sick little boy." In the 1930s, he began taking steroids for colitis, later developing complications, including a duodenal ulcer, back pain, digestive trouble, and underactive adrenal glands known as Addison’s disease. He had a host of other problems as well, including a bout of malaria as a naval officer in the Pacific. At age 43, the 1960 presidential campaign exhausted him because he overdid it for a man of his health and stamina. In 1947, his Addisonism was diagnosed, at the time told he had one year to live, and was given his last rites shortly afterward. Yet as senator and president, his health problems were hidden, an observer calling it "one of the most cleverly laid smoke screens ever put down around a politician(‘s)" physical well-being. JFK and the Unspeakabl... James W. Douglass Best Price: $9.71 Buy New $8.42 (as of 04:00 EST - Details) His Assassination Much about it has been written and speculated, some of the best from James Douglas in his 2008 book titled, JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters, debunking mainstream myths and much more. From a wealth of information he uncovered, he showed how threatening Kennedy was to the military-industrial complex and had to go, "the CIA’s fingerprints….all over the crime and the events leading up to it." The notion of a lone gunman is ludicrous, the evidence clearly implicating a national security state coup against one of its own deemed unreliable. Though to some degree a cold warrior, he changed, was chastened by the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and refused another. He also fired CIA Director Allen Dulles, his assistant General Charles Cabell, and once said he wanted "to splinter the CIA in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds," reason enough to kill him. Worst of all was his growing opposition to imperial wars, specifically in Southeast Asia. Though he initially sent troops and advisors, he changed, in 1961 opposing advice to send more to Laos, telling Averell Harriman, his Geneva Conference representative: "Did you understand? I want a negotiated settlement in Laos. I don’t want to put troops in." The same year, he opposed using nuclear weapons in Berlin and Southeast Asia and once called Pentagon generals "crazy" for suggesting them, perhaps with Curtis LeMay (19061990) in mind, a zealot who wanted to nuke the Soviets while we had the edge, even at the cost of a few US cities. Kennedy also wouldn’t attack or invade Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis, saying throughout it he "never had the slightest intention of doing so." The Creature from Jeky... G. Edward Griffin Best Price: $28.01 Buy New $71.36 (as of 10:35 EST - Details) He swung to peace, away from war, telling an American University audience in 1963 that nuclear weapons should be abolished, the Cold War ended, followed by a "general and complete disarmament," and America no longer using its might to force Pax Americana on the world. Shortly afterward he signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty with the Soviets, and in October 1963 (about a month before his assassination), he signed National Security Action Memorandum 263, calling for removing 1,000 US troops
use the texts and teachings of Islam to incite hatred and violence as “bigotry” and “hateful rhetoric.” This Resolution is using the specter of violence against Muslims to try to quash legitimate research into the motives and goals of those who have vowed to destroy us, which will have the effect of allowing the jihad to advance unimpeded and unopposed. That’s not what this H. Res. 569 would do, you say? It’s just about condemning “hate speech,” not free speech? That kind of sloppy reasoning may pass for thought on most campuses today, but there is really no excuse for it. Take, for example, the wife of Paris jihad murderer Samy Amimour – please. It was recently revealed that she happily boasted about his role in the murder of 130 Paris infidels: “I encouraged my husband to leave in order to terrorize the people of France who have so much blood on their hands […] I’m so proud of my husband and to boast about his virtue, ah la la, I am so happy.” Proud wifey added: “As long as you continue to offend Islam and Muslims, you will be potential targets, and not just cops and Jews but everyone.” Now Samy Amimour’s wife sounds as if she would be very happy with H. Res. 569, and its sponsors would no doubt gladly avow that we should stop offending Islam and Muslims – that is, cut out the “bigotry” and “hateful rhetoric.” If we are going to be “potential targets” even if we’re not “cops” or “Jews,” as long as we “continue to offend Islam and Muslims,” then the obvious solution, according to the Western intelligentsia, is to stop doing anything that might offend Islam and Muslims – oh, and stop being cops and Jews. Barack “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam” says it. Hillary “We’re going to have that filmmaker arrested” Clinton says it. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, certain that anyone who speaks honestly about Islam and jihad is a continuing danger to the Church, says it. And it should be easy. What offends Islam and Muslims? It ought to be a simple matter to cross those things off our list, right? Making a few sacrifices for the sake of our future of glorious diversity should be a no-brainer for every millennial, and everyone of every age who is concerned about “hate,” right? So let’s see. Drawing Muhammad – that’s right out. And of course, Christmas celebrations, officially banned this year in three Muslim countries and frowned upon (at best) in many others, will have to go as well. Alcohol and pork? Not in public, at least. Conversion from Islam to Christianity? No more of that. Building churches? Come on, you’ve got to be more multicultural! Everyone agrees. The leaders of free societies are eagerly lining up to relinquish those freedoms. The glorious diversity of our multicultural future demands it. And that future will be grand indeed, a gorgeous mosaic, as everyone assures us, once those horrible “Islamophobes” are forcibly silenced. Everyone will applaud that. Most won’t even remember, once the jihad agenda becomes clear and undeniable to everyone in the U.S. on a daily basis and no one is able to say a single thing about it, that there used to be some people around who tried to warn them.Vocal learners such as humans and songbirds can learn to produce elaborate patterns of structurally organized vocalizations, whereas many other vertebrates such as non-human primates and most other bird groups either cannot or do so to a very limited degree. To explain the similarities among humans and vocal-learning birds and the differences with other species, various theories have been proposed. One set of theories are motor theories, which underscore the role of the motor system as an evolutionary substrate for vocal production learning. For instance, the motor theory of speech and song perception proposes enhanced auditory perceptual learning of speech in humans and song in birds, which suggests a considerable level of neurobiological specialization. Another, a motor theory of vocal learning origin, proposes that the brain pathways that control the learning and production of song and speech were derived from adjacent motor brain pathways. Another set of theories are cognitive theories, which address the interface between cognition and the auditory-vocal domains to support language learning in humans. Here we critically review the behavioral and neurobiological evidence for parallels and differences between the so-called vocal learners and vocal non-learners in the context of motor and cognitive theories. In doing so, we note that behaviorally vocal-production learning abilities are more distributed than categorical, as are the auditory-learning abilities of animals. We propose testable hypotheses on the extent of the specializations and cross-species correspondences suggested by motor and cognitive theories. We believe that determining how spoken language evolved is likely to become clearer with concerted efforts in testing comparative data from many non-human animal species. Introduction Charles Darwin's theory on descent with modification as it applies to man (Darwin, 1871) had for many years been used to underscore the importance of non-human primates for unraveling the origins and neuronal precursors of spoken language (e.g., Hewes, 1973). Yet, in part because of the apparent lack of vocal learning or syntactic-like abilities in non-human primates, different camps have focused on either the differences between human and non-human primates or their similarities. This has resulted in many contentious debates on language evolution with regards to non-human primates (for reviews: Pinker, 1994; Hauser et al., 2002; Pinker and Jackendoff, 2005). Adding further complexity for understanding spoken language origins, recently the research focus has shifted towards species more distantly related to humans, such as certain groups of songbirds. This is in part because songbirds like humans and a few other species exhibit vocal learning and have what has been broadly classified as “syntactic-like” song production (Doupe and Kuhl, 1999; Jarvis, 2004; Bolhuis et al., 2010). A summary of a consortium on the origins of human language syntax and its biological foundations encapsulates some of the current thinking: Another area of agreement might seem surprising in light of many current “primate-centric” studies of language evolution (Burling, 2006; Hurford, 2007). Most participants felt that there were no true precursors of syntax to be found among our nearest relatives. For anything like a syntactic precursor one had to go as far afield as songbirds …. (Bickerton and Szathmary, 2009) Likewise, in a thought provoking essay, Bolhuis and Wynne (2009) questioned to what extent evolutionary theory can help us to understand cognitive brain mechanisms in living animals. Their perspective was illustrated by a cartoon depicting a scientist with the great hope of teaching a monkey to say “apple,” but realizing that the monkey is the classroom dunce when the parrot vocally identifies the apple variety as “golden delicious.” Darwin, however, would have likely filled the classroom with as many different animals as possible. In any case, the authors' conclusions are appropriately nuanced and seem to favor a broader comparative approach: “there is no a priori reason to assume that convergence will be more important than common descent or vice versa” (Bolhuis and Wynne, 2009). We, as researchers that have studied non-human primates and birds, argue that the path toward understanding the origins of spoken language cannot be based on focusing on a few select species with or without communication abilities that are either thought to be most comparable to humans, or to reflect physiology most comparable to humans. Any “one animal centric” approach will only limit our capacity to unravel the evolutionary bases of spoken language. If for no other reason, without “other” species as points of reference, it would not be clear what is special about human communication. Moreover, a focus on certain species restrains the development of different animal model systems with distinct advantages for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of human language-related processes, which is important for advancing treatment options for communication and language disorders. Thus, to better understand the origins of human spoken language we rely on a broad comparative approach that takes advantage of information obtained across animal taxa, letting each animal have their “say” on the question of language evolution. We are aware that to do so can only be achieved by additional comparative work that will require energy and investment, combined with efforts to stay objective, as best as we can, regarding the cross-species similarities and differences. In an effort to invigorate a broader perspective on spoken language origins, in this paper we overview the parallels and differences in the behavioral and neurobiological data of vocal learners (e.g., humans and songbirds) and those animals often identified as “vocal non-learners.” We ask how strong is the evidence for categorical distinctions between vocal learners and vocal non-learners? We note that vocal non-learners are often classified as such based on a lack of experimental evidence, but that when the animals are tested, there is often more variation in vocal learning abilities than might have been expected (Janik and Slater, 2000; Snowdon, 2009; Arriaga et al., in press). Moreover, since vocal learning depends on auditory learning, and auditory learning abilities are broadly conserved in the animal kingdom, we ask how this trait dependency could have influenced the evolution and mechanisms of vocal learning. Then, based on a modified perspective of the literature we reconsider some of the motor and other theories that have been proposed for humans, birds and other animals. We conclude by generating testable hypothesis, including for: (1) better understanding variability in the vocal behavior and neurobiology of vertebrates that are often classified as vocal non-learners; and (2) the possible capabilities of, for example, non-human primates as limited vocal learners but considerable auditory learners, to learn the structure of auditory sequences, and whether this might tap into an ancestral “proto-syntactic” brain network that evolved in humans to support syntactic learning. Vocal Production Learning and Auditory Learning: How are These Behavioral Phenotypes Distributed? Behavioral data demonstrating that an animal can learn to produce novel vocalizations is often used to classify different species as either vocal learners or vocal non-learners (Nottebohm, 1976; Janik and Slater, 1997; Jarvis, 2004). However, once some animals within a taxonomic group are characterized as vocal learners, we cannot assume that all animals of that group have vocal production learning abilities to the same degree. For instance, different song learning birds have different levels of complexity in their song production, and humans (including infants) can be regarded as exceptional vocal learners (i.e., high-end of vocal learners, see Figure 1). Among passerine songbirds, some species learn to produce only one song that was learned early in life, while others can learn many songs with some level of continuous learning throughout adulthood (Catchpole and Slater, 1995; Okanoya, 2004). For example, songbirds such as zebra finches tend to learn one song type as juveniles. Such songs often have strictly-linear transitions that step through the different song syllables in a motif from beginning to end (Honda and Okanoya, 1999). On the other hand, the songs of mockingbirds, nightingales and humpback whales show considerably greater variability. Some of these song elaborations show repetitions of particular elements within a range of legal repetitions and can include forward or backward branching relationships in how the animals transition between the different elements of their song, as well as non-adjacent relationships between distant song elements. Such “syntactic-like” structure in songbirds has drawn the interest of linguists and cognitive neuroscientists (e.g., Bickerton and Szathmary, 2009; Berwick et al., 2011; Hurford, 2012). FIGURE 1 Figure 1. Hypothetical distributions of two behavioral phenotypes: vocal learning and sensory (auditory) sequence learning. We hypothesize that the behavioral phenotypes of vocal learning and auditory learning are distributed along several categories. (A) Vocal learning complexity phenotype and (B) auditory sequence learning phenotype. The left axis (blue) illustrates the hypothetical distribution of species along the behavioral phenotype dimensions. The right axis (black step functions) illustrates different types of transitions along the hypothesized vocal-learning (A) or auditory-learning (B) complexity dimensions. See manuscript text for the basis for the relative position of the non-human animals illustrated in this figure, which in some cases is based on limited data. Also see Arriaga and Jarvis (in press) for an initial proposal of this idea. Whether the actual distributions are continuous functions (blue curves), will need to be tested, in relation to the alternatives that there are several categories with gradual transitions or step functions (black curves). Although auditory learning is a prerequisite for vocal learning and there can be a correlation between the two phenotypes (A–B), the two need not be interdependent. A theoretical Turing machine (Turing, (1968) is illustrated [G*], which can outperform humans on memory for digitized auditory input but is not a vocal learner. Moreover, not all vocal learners are known to be able to imitate the vocalizations of other species, called vocal mimicry. Yet, one of the initial tests that some have used as evidence to conclude that non-human primates are not vocal learners was the difficulty that chimpanzees have in imitating human speech (e.g., Rumbaugh, 1977; Shettleworth, 2010). Some animals such as corvid songbirds (e.g., crows, jays and magpies) and African Grey and Amazon parrots are exceptional imitators that can imitate human speech (e.g., Kroodsma, 1976; Pepperberg, 2010). The birds at this end of the spectrum are fairly easy to identify since they often imitate without training or an obvious reward. Moore (2004) notes that, “Moore's (1992) parrot, for example, repeatedly mimicked a swear word that it had heard only once, through a closed door.” Another important issue is that the distinction between vocal learning and non-learning captures only the more apparent differences in vocal production behavior. Song learning in birds and speech learning in humans takes at least two phases: auditory learning and sensory-motor vocal learning (Doupe and Kuhl, 1999). Only the latter is evident in vocal production behavior. For example, many of us are familiar with the situation where as we learn a second language we progress through stages where our ability to understand the language outstrips our ability to produce it. Thereby, in discussing how the human brain has specialized to support spoken language, not only do we need to consider the cross-species variability of specific behavioral phenotypes, but we also need to distinguish different behavioral phenotypes, such as sensory (auditory) learning and vocal production learning (Jarvis, 2004). In this section, we distinguish between vocal production and auditory learning abilities and consider how these two behaviors might be distributed. Why does the variance in a behavioral phenotype matter? It is important to determine the ways in which, for example, vocal learning is distributed since each possibility carries with it different implications for: (1) how spoken language is likely to have originated; (2) the evolutionary pressures that regulate the presence and absence of a behavioral phenotype; and, (3) whether few or many animals might serve to model certain mechanistic aspects of human speech- and language-related processes. We note that when the findings of recent studies are examined across species, there seems to be evidence for greater variability in the experience-based ability to modify vocalizations. This variability is greater than would be expected in animals often assumed to be vocal non-learners (e.g., Saranathan et al., 2007; Snowdon, 2009; Briefer and McElligott, 2011; Arriaga et al., in press). Our review of the literature suggests that the currently known vocal learners could be more accurately described as complex-vocal leaners (humans potentially different among these as high vocal learners), and other species as moderate-vocal learners, limited-vocal learners, or obligate vocal non-learners. Thereby, the empirical evidence does not fit well with a binary categorical distinction between vocal learning and non-learning. Instead, the evidence better fits with the notion of a recently proposed vocal-learning continuum hypothesis (Arriaga and Jarvis, in press). We conclude by considering how approaches in linguistics can be useful for unraveling the complexity of animals' vocal production and/or auditory learning capabilities. Variability in the Vocal Learning Phenotype We begin with the useful designations of vocal learning made by Janik and Slater (1997), but with our modifications of their three categories as: production vocal learning; usage vocal learning; and, auditory learning (instead of comprehension learning). Production vocal learning is often defined as the ability of an animal to produce novel vocalizations. There are various ways in which this can be tested. These include: (1) cross-fostering experiments, such as when an infant can learn the vocalizations of surrogate parents of the same or other species; (2) experiments evaluating changes in vocalizations in response to different types of competing sounds; (3) social isolation studies where the animal does not have access to a model to imitate; and (4) deafening experiments where the animal cannot hear others or itself. The strongest evidence that vocal production learning has occurred is demonstrating that an animal can imitate vocalizations of other species or sounds. Vocal imitation depends upon the animal being able to hear and to have a model to imitate. As such, deaf vocal learners usually show acoustically degraded, species non-typical sounds, whereas deaf vocal non-learners typically show vocal production behavior that does not differ from wild type animals. Sometimes an argument is made that the effects of social isolation or deafening could be due to unspecified impacts on behavior. This becomes less of an issue if it is shown that the behavioral impact is specific to the vocal learning modality. Another careful distinction that needs to be made is defining the anatomical source of the “vocalizations” that are found to be learned. Sounds generated by the vocal organ (larynx in mammals; syrinx in birds) are in the strictest sense, vocalizations, whereas those generated by lips, teeth, and tongue are non-voiced, oro-facially generated or modified sounds. The neural mechanisms and the degree of control of the different musculature for generating voiced or unvoiced sounds could differ. Whatever the approach, to substantiate that an animal is capable of production vocal learning one needs to document a convincing experience-dependent change in vocal production behavior, with consideration of the source of the sounds. Usage vocal learning is when an animal learns to use acoustically innate or already learned vocalizations in a new context. Although usage vocal learning involves the learning of the contexts in which to vocalize, it is not production vocal learning because it does not require modification of the acoustic structure of a vocalization to create one that the animal did not have in its repertoire. Common examples of usage vocal learning are the predator alarm calls of vervet monkeys and chickens, where juveniles learn through social experience the context within which to generate the innate call or the appropriate behavioral response (e.g., descend from trees, tilt head, etc.) upon hearing the call from a conspecific (Seyfarth et al., 1980; Evans et al., 1993; Snowdon, 2009). Auditory learning is when an animal learns to perceive something novel or behaviorally react to sounds differently as a result of experience. For example, a dog learns how to associate the human sounds “sit” or “sientese” with the act of sitting, but it does not learn how to produce or vocally use these sounds. Even with this capacity, there might be limits to the complexity of verbal commands that an animal might be able to learn in the auditory modality (Moore, 2004). Who are the production vocal learners? All vocal species tested appear to have varying degrees of auditory learning and usage vocal learning (Moore, 2004; Schusterman, 2008), but only relatively few have production vocal learning (Janik and Slater, 1997; Jarvis, 2004). The later include, in addition to humans, three groups of birds (passerine songbirds, parrots and hummingbirds; Marler and Tamura, 1964; Jarvis, 2004; Jarvis et al., 2005; Bolhuis et al., 2010; Pepperberg, 2010), some species of bats (Esser, 1994; Boughman, 1998), and pinnipeds and cetaceans (Noad et al., 2000). For example, in several cases, a harbor seal and dolphin were found to imitate human vocalizations (Lilly, 1965; Ralls et al., 1985). This list has recently expanded to include elephants (Poole et al., 2005), where an African elephant was shown to imitate Asian elephant calls and another elephant to imitate the sounds of passing trucks. In the rest of this paper we will refer to these species as vocal learners, meaning production vocal learners. Who are the vocal non-learners? The answer to this question is much less clear. In contrast to the few known vocal learning species, it is commonly thought that most other vertebrates are not capable of vocal imitation: that is, they are not capable of the type of learning that leads to the production of novel communication signals not within their repertoire or to the production of acoustic changes to innate vocalizations. However, most of these animals have not been formally or rigorously tested to determine whether they have more limited capabilities for some aspects of production vocal learning. That is, many vertebrates are usually placed in the “vocal non-learning” category based largely on a lack of evidence rather than evidence for a lack of any vocal learning capabilities. In the last few decades, with the use of refined acoustical analysis tools and hypothesis-driven experimental strategies, evidence appears to be accumulating that some of the, so-called, vocal non-learners have measurable levels of vocal flexibility to change some of the acoustics in their vocalizations, potentially a limited form of vocal learning. We will consider several examples of this from work in non-human primates (Snowdon, 2009), birds (Saranathan et al., 2007), rodents (Arriaga et al., in press), and goats (Briefer and McElligott, 2011). For non-human primates, the earlier studies are difficult to interpret, in part because of contradictory conclusions. One study reported what seemed like ontogenetic acoustical changes to innate vocalizations in a cross-fostering study of two species of macaques (Masataka and Fujita, 1989). This finding was later challenged by lack of independent replication of the findings and on technical grounds (Owren et al., 1992). For a review see (Egnor and Hauser, 2004). Furthermore, many of the more striking examples of non-human primates having changed their vocalizations have been shown between regionally separated animals, which could be based primarily on genetically regulated differences between populations (Snowdon, 2009). More recently, a number of studies have shown that non-human primates can make some limited modifications to their presumably innate vocalizations via laryngeal control. For instance, there are several examples of developmental maturation of vocalizations toward their adult form that might not be entirely consistent with innate developmental changes in the vocal production apparatus (e.g., vervets: Seyfarth and Cheney, 1986; prosimians: Zimmerman, 1989; squirrel monkeys: Hammerschmidt et al., 2001). Additional evidence that could question the “vocal non-learning” label in non-human primates has been from call convergence studies, where either two marmosets or macaques housed together for a few weeks showed convergence in the pitch and some other acoustic features of innately determined calls (reviewed in: Snowdon, 2009). Also, there is evidence that adult Japanese macaques are able to adjust the fundamental frequency of their innately-specified vocalizations to match playbacks presented to them of different conspecifics (Sugiura, 1998). It is important to not only consider laryngeal control in the modification of vocalizations since, for example, human speech is modified by labial and oro-facial control. In this regard, some non-human primates seem to show relatively greater control in modifying the acoustics of their vocalizations and/or to produce non-vocal sounds that do not appear to be innate. Chimpanzees can produce novel attention-getting sounds that are modified by labial (lip) vibrations (Hopkins et al., 2007). This includes a “Raspberry” call where the animals pucker the lips and make a vibrating sound (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oma_2RFTaM). This call can be imitated by naïve individuals in captivity and some of these calls are also seen in populations in the wild (Marshall et al., 1999; Crockford et al., 2004; Egnor and Hauser, 2004). Consistent with these observations, an orangutan learned to use her lips to copy a novel whistle produced by a human (Wich et al., 2009). Certainly, relative to song-learning birds, humans and other vocal learners, non-human primates do not fit the stereotyped view of a production vocal learner (Egnor and Hauser, 2004; Snowdon, 2009). Rather, we would interpret the evidence for vocal plasticity and flexibility in some non-human primates as limited-vocal learning, albeit with greater flexibility via non-laryngeal than laryngeal control. But they do not have the considerable levels of laryngeal (mammalian) or syringeal (avian) control as seen in complex vocal learners. We next ask: are there other examples in the animal literature that also do not clearly fit the categorical vocal learning vs. vocal non-learning distinction? Non-primate examples challenging the vocal learning/non-learning distinction Regarding the so-called vocal non-learning birds, there is an interesting report on a suboscine passerine bird with possible evidence of at least limited-vocal learning (Saranathan et al., 2007). Suboscines are the closest relatives of songbirds, like chimpanzees are to humans. Likewise the first suboscine species studied (Eastern Phoebe—Saynoris genus; Kingbird—Tyrannus genus) were found to: (1) not be vocal learners based on social isolation and deafening experiments; and (2) to not have forebrain song nuclei as seen in their close oscine passerine songbird relatives (Nottebohm, 1980; Kroodsma and Konishi, 1991). However, another species belonging to a separate suboscine lineage, the Three-wattled bellbird (Procnias genus) shows conspicuous ontogenetic and geographical song variation and fairly rapid song change within a population, which the authors argue cannot be explained by genetic differences alone (Saranathan et al., 2007). These results suggest that this suboscine species could be a limited- or even moderate-vocal learner, rather than a vocal non-learner. Determining the presence or absence of song nuclei in their forebrain still needs to be investigated. Mouse ultrasonic vocalizations have recently been described as having “song” or song-like characteristics (Holy and Guo, 2005). However, this does not necessarily mean that mice are vocal learners, because, for example, in birds songs can either be learned or innate (Kroodsma and Konishi, 1991). Kikusui et al. (2011) conducted cross-fostering experiments with mice and did not find evidence of vocal learning (Kikusui et al., 2011). However, recent work by Arriaga and Jarvis (Arriaga and Jarvis, in press; Arriaga et al., in press) on cross-housed males shows that the animals sing their ultrasonic courtship “song” to females with a different pitch in the presence of other males from different strains. For instance, one mouse will match the pitch of his larger male cage mate in the presence of a female. In addition, deafening showed that the mice require auditory feedback to develop and maintain some of the acoustic properties of their song syllables (Arriaga and Jarvis, in press; Arriaga et al., in press). This seems to be limited vocal learning, because the animals appear to be making acoustic changes to innately specified vocalizations. As another example, a recent report in an ungulate (goats) shows what we believe to be limited-vocal learning (Briefer and McElligott, 2011). The authors studied the social effects of goat vocal ontogeny and note a number of acoustical differences between kids that were placed in different social groups. Goats in the same groups showed more similarity in vocalization acoustics. Here, again changes seem to occur to innate pre-specified vocalization components, to the point that there are considerable differences in the final modified vocalizations relative to the originals. These examples in the animal behavior literature suggest a greater variability in vocal flexibility than is often appreciated. Certainly, some animals would likely remain in the “vocal non-learner” category, for which there is considerable evidence for a lack of vocal flexibility under different conditions. Yet, findings such as illustrated by the above examples provide support for the vocal learning continuum hypothesis (Arriaga and Jarvis, in press) and we would suggest that certain birds, non-human primates, mice, and goats could be reclassified as either limited-vocal learners or moderate-vocal learners, including many currently known vocal learners as complex-vocal learners (with humans among these as high-vocal learners). This hypothesis is illustrated in Figure 1A, where the hierarchically higher the vocal-learning category, the fewer species that are observed in that category. We next consider whether there is any evidence that sensory learning, auditory sequence learning in particular, is similarly distributed across several categories, and if so, how could it have influenced the evolution and mechanisms of vocal learning. Complexity in Vocal Production vs. Sensory (Auditory) Learning: Evaluating Syntactic-Like Vocal Production and How Animals Learn Artificial Grammars It has been argued that a distinction needs to be drawn between production vocal learning and sensory (e.g., auditory) learning (Jarvis, 2004; Petkov and Wilson, 2012). Auditory learning appears to be more broadly distributed in the animal kingdom than production vocal learning, and, although necessary, it is not sufficient for vocal learning. For instance, certain dogs, in which there is no evidence for complex vocal production learning, can be trained by humans to associate the sounds of spoken names of tens to hundreds of objects and to retrieve either the correctly named objects or novel objects (Kaminski et al., 2004). Almost all animals tested in classical conditioning experiments can learn to make simple sound associations with reward or punishment, such as detecting single sounds or discriminating pairs of differing sounds (Moore, 2004). The question we ask is what is the range of auditory learning complexity across species and how might this relate to human syntactic learning capabilities? In this regard, it is useful to look at the interface of linguistic theory and experiments in evolutionary biology, which aim to address the level of “syntactic-like” sequencing complexity in either vocal production or the sensory learning capabilities of different animals. Human syntactic abilities allow us to both perceive and produce grammatical relations between words or word parts in a sentence, and linguists distinguish between language competence and language performance (Chomsky, 1965). Modern linguistic theory has been applied to characterize not only human syntactic abilities but also the complexity in vocal production or auditory sequence learning capacities in a variety of non-human animals (Okanoya, 2004; Berwick et al., 2011; Hurford, 2012). For instance, the Formal Language Hierarchy (FLH) contains several categories of grammar (rule-based systems), each describing an increasingly powerful computational language (Chomsky, 1957; Berwick et al., 2011; Hurford, 2012). Lower ranked grammars, called Finite-State Grammars (FSG) are computationally weaker systems that can only generate strings of sequences with limited structural complexity. Higher ranked grammars can also generate the simpler forms of structural complexity but are less limited. Human spoken language is said to encompass the later, as it can have elaborate hierarchical structures with many non-adjacent relationships between sequence elements, such as the nesting of phrases within other phrases (Berwick et al., 2011; Hurford, 2012; Jaeger and Rogers, 2012; Petkov and Wilson, 2012). Such abilities are thought to be unique to humans in both production and perception. Some animal behavioral studies have challenged this perspective, but remain highly controversial (for a review: Berwick et al., 2011; Jaeger and Rogers, 2012; Ten Cate and Okanoya, 2012). We argue that, instead of focusing on the threshold of “human unique” capabilities, further efforts are needed to better resolve the different levels of complexity in the FLH where non-human animal capabilities are likely to vary to a greater extent (see: Hurford, 2012; Jaeger and Rogers, 2012; Petkov and Wilson, 2012). Combined with further comparative testing, this approach could provide novel insights on the relationship between animal sequence learning capabilities either for perception or production and human syntactic capabilities. Structural complexity of animal vocal production As complex vocal learning groups, songbirds and whales are known to naturally produce sequences of their songs with syntactic-like organization, but the structure of their songs do not seem to be more elaborate than sequences that can be generated by FSGs (or “regular grammars”) (Okanoya, 2004; Bolhuis et al., 2010; Berwick et al., 2011). In other words, unlike humans, non-human animals do not seem to show deeper hierarchical relationships, such as the nesting of song phrases within others. Further, humans can change the meaning of expressions by changing the syntactic organization of the units, called “compositional syntax” (Tallerman, 2011; Hurford, 2012). But the songs of non-human animals have so far been only characterized as “phonological syntax,” since the way that the units are structured are thought not to generate new meanings (Marler, 1970, 2000; Berwick et al., 2011). It remains possible that further experiments with many more species could obtain data to challenge these interpretations of the animal behavioral literature. As for vocal non-learners or limited-vocal learners, the natural syntactic-like vocal production abilities of non-human primates and many other vertebrates seem to be considerably more limited than those of complex-vocal learners. For example, some species of guenons (Old World monkeys) appear to combine pairs of calls into different context-specific call sequences (Ouattara et al., 2009). Other guenon species use combinations of two alarm calls to elicit group movement in the wild that does not seem to be instigated by the individual calls themselves or by other types of call sequences (Arnold and Zuberbuhler, 2006). Whether other non-human primate species can use and produce combinations of call pairs is currently unknown. It has been suggested that gibbon “song-like” vocalizations contain a different organization of vocalizations when predators are present (Clarke et al., 2006). However, it is not clear whether the information bearing parameters of gibbon songs lie in the proportion of particular song elements and/or the structure of how the elements are organized. Chimpanzees are able to learn to manually combine several learned visual symbols to “sign” with humans (Rumbaugh, 1977), but their ability to do so with vocalizations is considerably more limited and in all cases these abilities require extensive training (Shettleworth, 2010). Therefore, the current impression is that the combinatorial vocal production capabilities of non-human primates are limited to combinations of one to two vocalizations. Artificial-grammar learning and animal sequence learning capabilities Just as vocal production capabilities seem to vary in complexity across the animal kingdom, auditory and other sensory learning capabilities could considerably vary across species. However, since sensory learning capabilities can be associated with behaviors that are not tied to vocal production, an important question is: how to measure these abilities systematically and in ways that allow cross species comparisons? Artificial-Grammar Learning (AGL) paradigms (Reber, 1967) are useful for understanding how different individuals learn the structure of a sequence of sensory elements. Artificial Grammars (AG) can be designed to create different levels of structural complexity in how elements are organized in a sequence. The learning of these sequences can be measured using non-vocal motor output (e.g., Fitch and Hauser, 2004; Gentner et al., 2006; Murphy et al., 2008). Generally, these experiments involve an initial phase where the animals are either explicitly trained to learn exemplary “correct” sequences that follow the AG structure, or they are habituated to the exemplary AG sequences. The latter approach aims to tap into more implicit forms of learning, similar to the way that infants glean the statistical properties of language-related structure (Saffran et al., 1996; Marcus et al., 1999). Subsequent to the learning phase, the animals are tested with novel “correct” and “violation” sequences to determine if they can distinguish them, either by their trained or natural responses (e.g., by measuring preferential looking responses towards the different testing sequences). As examples of the types of structures that can be studied with AGL paradigms, AGs can be designed to have only adjacent relationships between the elements in a sequence (Saffran et al., 1999; Fitch and Hauser, 2004; Friederici, 2004; Friederici et al., 2006), non-adjacent relationships between more distantly associated elements (Friederici et al., 2006; Pallier et al., 2011; Petersson et al., 2012), and/or hierarchically organized relationships (Bahlmann et al., 2008, 2009; Friederici, 2011). For further details on the historical basis for and the use of AGL paradigms in adult humans, infants or other animals see: (Reber, 1967; Fitch and Hauser, 2004; Fitch and Friederici, 2012; Petkov and Wilson, 2012). In a few studies with songbirds, where star
north Arkansas and their demise following a federal siege. I've always known the Ozarks to have its fair share of crazies and cultists. In fact, the CSA siege intrigued me and inspired a close friend of mine to include the event in a panel he did for a cartoon strip he drew at the time called "Scranton Village." Some good memories. But back to Dees, Potok and the SPLC. At the opening of Gathering Storm, Dees’s “Author’s Note” begins: “This is the story of a very dangerous movement, one the public knows almost nothing about. To some it might read like fiction, but, unfortunately, it is all true. Much of what I write about, I learned from close contact with many of the far-right extremists who are behind the militia movement. Some of the information was gained through undercover operations I cannot reveal …” Can’t reveal it, huh Morris? Perhaps because it might implicate you or your minions in a serious crime or cover-up? In 2003, the late McCurtain Daily Gazette investigative reporter J.D. Cash reported that the SPLC had an informant at Elohim City, where Timothy McVeigh had spent some time. Wrote Cash and Lt. Col. Roger Charles in ‘03: “References to an informant working for the SPLC at Elohim City on the even of the Oklahoma City bombing raises serious questions as to what the SPLC might know about McVeigh’s activities during the final hours before the fuse was lit in Oklahoma City – but which the SPLC has failed to disclose publicly.” Makes one wonder why the SPLC is taken so seriously when there are state-sponsored crimes that remain un-investigated. Three years ago, in a Red Dirt Report article headlined “McVeigh and the ‘Hispanic man’ – what did the feds know?”, we wrote that Dees, at the time, was questioned about the SPLC’s ties to infiltrating the militia movement and their involvement at the racist Elohim City compound in rural Adair County, Oklahoma. Dees replied: “If I told you what we were doing there, I would have to kill you.” Jesse Trentadue, the Salt Lake City, Utah attorney whose brother was caught in the dragnet, and murdered by federal agents in a case of mistaken identity following the OKC bombing, said the FBI was working with the SPLC to infiltrate the militias, like those at Elohim City. This was after their botched raids at Ruby Ridge and the Mt. Carmel Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas. At the time I wrote that, in 2010, the Hutaree militia, a group in Michigan that adhered to the ideology of the Christian Patriot movement, was being touted as the beginning of a new right-wing rage campaign that would sweep the country into a raging civil war. But it never happened. At the time of the Hutaree hoopla, Infowars.com posted an article essentially saying that Dees, Potok and the SPLC gang made a mountain out of a molehill, turning the “raving(s) of an isolated group of white supremacists” having paintball fights in the Michigan woods into something far more sinister, which, as it turned out, was not the case. Again, Eric Holder’s Justice Department blew it. Just because the Hutaree were exposed of being gun-toting illiterates did not mean most Constitutionalists and critics of the global elite were talking of violence. Again, the SPLC were wrong and in 2012, 7 of the 9 Hutaree defendants the DOJ arrested and charged were acquitted and the remaining two were “sentenced to time served on weapons-related charges.” Holder and co. would have to look for new boogeymen to point to. The Ku Klux Klan is largely gone and marginalized. White Power groups are openly mocked and a new generation of young Americans are openly embracing a multicultural American society where support of same-sex marriage grows by the month. When the SPLC accepts this, what will they do? Yes, we have reported on through-the-roof gun sales. We have reported on the strange circumstances surrounding recent tragedies as witnessed in Tucson, Arizona, Aurora, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut. And knowing that the SPLC is often looking to raise funds in the wake of these horrible tragedies, one has to wonder if there isn’t something more afoot. They wouldn’t be preying on people's fears of a rise in cross-burners and Bull Connor-types running amok, would they? Of course to even suggest such a thing or to ask questions that make authority figures uncomfortable automatically lumps me in with the crazies who say a global “one-world government” is in the making. They are crazy, after all, right? So, with all the attention being paid to the SPLC this month in the wake of the release of their annual “hate and extremism” report, we see that a lot of their concerns have to do with various incidents of racism, anti-gay activities, and actual murders, including the attack on the Sikh temple in Wisconsin, the bizarre plot by racists to take over Fort Stewart, Ga. and other crimes. These obviously should not be ignored by the "Klanwatchers" in Montgomery, but are things as seriously bad or worse than they were during Bill Clinton's first term? Granted, the economy is worse today than it was then, but the concerns the SPLC raises in its new report appear blown out of proportion. “These were only the latest incidents of just over 100 domestic radical-right plots, conspiracies and racist rampages that the SPLC has counted since the Oklahoma City bombing left 168 men, women and children dead in 1995.” Ah yes, the Oklahoma City bombing. Just like David Cid, the executive director of the Oklahoma City-based Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism said back in 2010: "(there has been) a resurgence in 'domestic militancy' similar to what was seen before the Oklahoma City bombing." Cid is a former FBI man with a penchant for rooting out terrorism, particularly the domestic sort. And naturally he loves to invoke the Oklahoma City bombing. It's when he and Dees and other government shills are asked real questions that they balk and make excuses and walk away. Oh well... Yet, with all of the news gathering and so forth we conduct here at Red Dirt Report, the SPLC seems to be making far more out of this report – and its implications – than is necessary. Of course they have to work to remain relevant, I suppose. In any event, nothing is said about left-oriented environmental or animal-rights extremists. Is the SPLC monitoring eco terrorists with possible sights on, say, the Keystone XL pipeline here in our fair state? They've had plenty of arrests involving protesters of the pipeline. I don't recall seeing anything about that in the SPLC report. What about the recent reports of racist hoaxes where – in the case of colleges – a minority student, for instance, will secretly place a noose on their door, seeking attention and trying to stir up hatred and resentment among their fellow students. Again, these incidents provoke a lot mistrust and when it is discovered to be a hoax, it makes matters even worse, particularly when real incidents of hate and racial violence occur. Yes, we will be monitoring the activities of extremist groups and individuals and churches and so forth. They are out there. But just as Attorney General Janet Reno noted in the fall of 1994 that “domestic extremism” was on the rise – and the Murrah bombing took place the following spring – discerning Americans need to research all the facts and not fall prey to the fearmongering being touted by the Justice Department and their suspicious comrades at the disreputable Southern Poverty Law Center. Copyright 2013 Red Dirt ReportGREEN BAY, Wis. -- Nobody helped the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, so they took care of business themselves. And oh, did they take care of the Seattle Seahawks. Sunday’s 38-10 win after the snow cleared at Lambeau Field came in such a convincing manner that you had to wonder whether this is the same Packers team that is 7-6 with three games to go and still needs significant help to win the NFC North. Before the Packers and Seahawks kicked things off, everyone in Green Bay knew the Chicago Bears blew a fourth-quarter lead and allowed the division-leading Detroit Lions (9-4) to record another comeback win and the Minnesota Vikings (7-6) pummeled the Jacksonville Jaguars to stay even with the Packers. After the game between Green Bay and Seattle kicked off, several Packers took care of the opposition: Aaron Rodgers, Davante Adams, Jordy Nelson, Morgan Burnett, Quinten Rollins and Damarious Randall. What you need to know in the NFL • NFL playoffs coverage, schedule • Statistics • Scoreboard • Complete 2016 schedule, results • Standings Rodgers and Nelson connected for two touchdowns -- Nos. 56 and 57 together, which tied them with Brett Favre and Antonio Freeman for the most prolific quarterback-receiver combination in team history. Before that, Adams ignited the home crowd with a 66-yard touchdown, the longest Packers play of the season, on the game’s third play from scrimmage. "We needed some help today, didn’t really get it from some teams," Rodgers said. "Luckily, we did what we were supposed to do today and played well. But we’ve got to keep winning, and we need a little bit of help down the stretch." In reality, the offense has been clicking like this for weeks. But who thought the defense would come up with something such as this? The Packers picked off Russell Wilson five times -- two by Randall and one each by Burnett, Rollins and Micah Hyde. Wilson’s only other game with as many as four interceptions was the 2014 NFC championship game, also against the Packers, who, of course, blew a 12-point lead with four minutes to go in that game. They didn’t crumble in this one, even after coach Mike McCarthy pulled Rodgers unusually early because of what the Packers said was a "coach’s decision." Rodgers, who has battled a nagging left hamstring injury, injured his right calf on the third play of the game -- the touchdown pass to Adams. The Packers need Rodgers as healthy as possible for the stretch run, and it wouldn’t hurt if he duplicates his success Sunday in every remaining game. Against the Seahawks, Rodgers completed 18 of 23 passes for 246 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. However, it wouldn’t be a 2016 Packers game if there weren’t multiple injury concerns. Tight end Jared Cook dropped out with a chest injury late in the second quarter, and before that, both Randall Cobb (ankle) and Ty Montgomery (shoulder) received medical attention but returned. To reach the playoffs, the Packers might have to win their final three games -- all against NFC North foes. That final stretch begins next Sunday at Chicago. "We’re getting better as a football team, and that’s the thing I’m most excited about," McCarthy said. "You’ve got to win games in December. We all know how important these games are, but we improved. We took a big step as a team. We need to build off that because we know it’s always a tough, rough game down there in Chicago. We need to build off this." Since Rodgers made his "run the table” comment last month, the Packers have rattled off three straight wins. That makes three down and three to go, even if they still haven't made up any ground. "Maybe we didn’t gain any ground in the standings, but we talked about it all week, a game like this, the way we played, the way we won the game, that’s going to be huge momentum for us going forward, obviously huge for our confidence as well," right guard T.J. Lang said. "Seattle’s one of the best teams in the NFL."The 2018 Pokémon World Championships are coming to Nashville, Tennessee, from August 24–26. The best players from all over the world will compete for the title of Pokémon TCG, Video Game, or Pokkén Tournament World Champion, and for a combined prize pool worth more than $500,000 in prizes! The Pokémon World Championships are an invitation-only event. Players have been battling throughout the 2018 Championship Series season to earn a seat at this prestigious competition. Spectators are invited to come watch the action all weekend long. Come see all the battles in person and participate in side events throughout the three-day event. There is a small fee for a spectator badge, which also includes two Pokémon TCG booster packs. The spectator badge is good for all three days of the event. See the Worlds registration page for details. Event location: Nashville Music City Center, Halls C & D 201 Fifth Avenue South Nashville, TN 37203 Play for all divisions for both the Pokémon TCG and video game competitions will begin on Friday, August 24. Top players who qualified for a Day Two invitation will join the field on Saturday, August 25. These tournaments will conclude with the final rounds on Sunday, August 26. The Pokkén Tournament World Championships will take place entirely on Saturday, August 25, with a Last Chance Qualifier occurring on Friday, August 24. Badges and Registration Entry to this event will require a badge for all attendees, including competitors in the main event as well as spectators. Children age 5 and under will be given a wristband at no charge to allow entry into the event space. Registration for competitors and spectators must be completed online. Get complete details on how to register to attend. Competitors can pick up their badges and welcome kits on Thursday, August 23, at the Terrace outside Halls C & D at the Nashville Music City Center. Get more details on registration and badges. Side Events Side events will take place throughout the weekend (Friday through Sunday). Only attendees with an event badge (including competitors and spectators) will be able to participate in side events. Nashville Open Attendees can battle in the Nashville Open, a marquee side event for both Pokémon TCG and video game players. The Nashville Open will award Championship Points equivalent to a Pokémon Regional Championships event, applicable to the 2019 Championship Series season. Details on the 2019 Championship Series are coming in late July. Pokkén Tournament DX Last Chance Qualifier Battle for the remaining few spots in the Pokkén Tournament World Championships at the Last Chance Qualifier on Friday, August 24! Registration for the Last Chance Qualifier includes a spectator badge for entry into the Pokémon World Championships hall for the whole weekend. Get details on the Pokkén Tournament DX Last Chance Qualifier. Streaming Follow the action on Twitch.tv/team/Pokemon all weekend long! There will be four live streams for the event: a Pokémon TCG stream, a VGC stream, a Pokkén Tournament DX stream, and the Main Stage stream. The Main Stage stream will include the opening ceremonies on Friday at 9 a.m., as well as the Pokkén Tournament DX finals on Saturday. Then, don't miss the Pokémon TCG and VGC finals on Sunday. The weekend will conclude with the closing ceremonies late Sunday afternoon. Pokémon Center A Pokémon Center store will be on site, giving players and fans a chance to buy Pokémon merchandise they won't find anywhere else, including special World Championships products. Badges will not be required to visit the Pokémon Center. The Pokémon Center will be in Hall A1. Checking In Day One players must check in Thursday at the Nashville Music City Center. If, due to unforeseen circumstances such as flight delays or missed connections, a player is unable to check in Thursday, that player should report to the check-in desk as early as possible Friday (during check-in hours at the Nashville Music City Center, starting at 8 a.m.) and notify a staff member. All Day One players are required to be checked in and seated for their age division's player meeting Friday morning. Good luck to all competitors at the 2018 Pokémon World Championships!Each day brings news of fresh problems — even horrors — that are the result of the Muslim invasion of Europe. Millions of Muslims have been attempting to enter Europe — 1.1 million have managed this year to settle in Germany alone. Many of these migrants are from Syria, and many others pretend to be from Syria. They are all described as “refugees,” a word intended to evoke sympathy and to shut down the critical faculty of those who might dare to question the wisdom of this mass invasion. Most of the migrants are Arabs, but there are also Pakistanis, Afghans, Somalis, that is, assorted Muslims from all over. All of them carry, undeclared in their mental baggage, an ideology that offers a Total Regulation of Life and Compleat Explanation of the Universe. They have been suffused, since childhood, in an ideology that uncompromisingly divides the world into Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb, the Lands of the Muslims and the Lands of the Infidels, and a state of permanent war, if not always open warfare, must exist between the two. They are raised up in an ideology that divides mankind in two: the Believers and the Unbelievers, of all kinds. It is the Believers who have a natural right, as the “best of peoples,” to dominate the world, and the Believers have a duty, too, to participate in the struggle, or Jihad against Unbelievers, so that ultimately Islam will everywhere dominate, and Muslims rule, everywhere. These Muslim migrants have not made things easy for the Infidels in whose lands they have been settling. They have, for example,very different views from non-Muslims on how women should behave and how they should be treated. They find that Western women, in their hijabless state, are akin to “meat” that is on display, there for the taking, by Muslim men. And take they do — which is why more than 70% of those imprisoned for rape in the Scandinavian countries are Muslims, though they make up 2-3% of the population. In Cologne, nearly 500 German women were assaulted by Muslims in a single night. The other night, in Dortmund, there were similar attacks, with a Muslim man insisting that “German girls are just here for sex.” Muslim predators who took advantage of young girls and turned them into sex slaves to service gangs of Muslim men in a dozen British cities and towns were merely showing their contempt for Infidel women, and this to us monstrous behavior did not violate but rather fit their worldview of how Muslims can treat Infidels. And the attacks on Infidel men — just the other day a 15-year-old Lithuanian boy was stabbed to death in Sweden by an Arab enraged that the boy dared to protect a girl that Arab had been molesting — are also part of this story. The frequent attacks on inoffensive Jews by Muslims in France tell us something about the Muslim version of interfaith outreach, as does the mass murder of Christians by Muslims in the Islamic State. And then there are all the Muslim terrorist attacks all over Europe — from the killings of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam, to the bombs at the Madrid subway station of Atocha, to the bombs on the London Underground and London buses, to the mass murder of innocents at a Parisian newspaper office, and cafes, and restaurants, and dance-halls, and kosher grocery stores. What are we to make of all this? Anything? Nothing? Muslim migrants have nowhere exhibited an interest in learning about, much less conforming to, Western ideas about the equality of the sexes, about the equal treatment of people of all faiths or none, about freedom of speech and conscience. But they are convinced, and do not hide their conviction, that they are in Europe as by right, and cannot, will not be dislodged. To quote Tariq Ramadan, “We are here. We are here to stay. It’s over.” This is the note of triumphalism, of “just you try to get rid of us. We’re not leaving but are going to take over.” And as the Muslims will continue, by hook or crook, to try to enter Europe, and within Europe will try to make it to the countries that offer the most generous benefits, their presence will inevitably change, by sheer force of numbers, the societies within which they settle, but into which they do not integrate. Rather, it is the non-Muslims who are expected to change in order to fit into this new society. Yet those who sound the alarm are attacked, declared sweepingly to be “Islamophobes,” a word designed to inhibit not only legitimate criticism, but even any tentative investigation of Islam. What, after all, did Donald Trump do that was so beyond the pale? He merely said that we ought to halt Muslim immigration “while we figure out what’s going on.” Do we all know “what is going on”? Clearly we do not all know “what is going on” — after all, we are allowing into our countries large numbers of people who grew up suffused in a faith that teaches them to despise, and to be hostile to, non-Muslims. The refusal to discuss this matter calmly, and to inform oneself appropriately by studying the texts of Islam, and by reading the non-Muslim scholars who devoted their lives to the disinterested study of Islam (C. Snouck Hurgronje, Joseph Schacht, Antoine Fattal, Henri Lammens, K. S. Lal, Ignaz Goldziher, Sir William Muir, St. Clair Tisdall, Arthur Jeffrey, Samuel Zwemer, Georges Vajda, David Margoliouth), the ignoring of the testimony provided by such defectors from Islam as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Nonie Darwish, Ibn Warraq, Wafa Sultan, Magdi Allam — this is a colossal dereliction of duty on the part of those who presume to protect and instruct us. Where in the Western world has the Muslim immigration not led to expenses and insecurities and a general civilisational confusion? Those who claim, and are prepared to discuss in detail the evidence supporting this claim, that the large-scale presence of Muslims has led, in Western Europe, to a situation that is far more unpleasant, expensive, and physically dangerous for both the indigenous non-Muslims and for other, non-Muslim immigrants, cannot simply be waved away with a contemptuous smirk. And sometimes instead of a smirk, or a cry of debate-ending “Islamophobe,” a statement is made of such breathless idiocy that one doesn’t quite know what to say. The recent remark of Germany’s ambassador to the Vatican, Annette Schavan, was such a statement. She asserted that “there are warmongers who embrace religion. But that does not mean that religion promotes war. Religion has the great power to bring peace….Islam must be part of the solution.” Could it be that not all religions are identical, that Islam — Qur’an and Hadith and Sira — is suffused with “warmongering” and cannot possibly be “part of the solution” to the very “problem” its adherents alone have created? In answering these absurd remarks and tendentious charges, it is always a good idea to quote, to bring to your opponent’s attention, and to force him to recognize and, if possible, answer, the superior detailed knowledge you offer in response to his one-word — “Islamophobia” — dismissal. Don’t simply respond in vague kind, but stick closely to details, quoting chapter and verse from the Qur’an. Bring any of more than 150 Jihad verses into the discussion. For example: 2:190-191, 9:5, 2:191, 3:112, 5:33. Keep repeating them, so that those who think they can get away merely by invoking “Islamophobia” have to respond. Mention little Aisha, the massacre of the prisoners at the Battle of the Trench, the attack on the Jewish farmers of the Khaybar Oasis, the murders of Abu Afak and Asma bint Marwan. Always stick to the same handful of stories. Force your opponent to recognize and admit to these episodes in the life of Muhammad, the Perfect Man (al-insan al-kamil), the Model of Conduct (uswa hasana). And if he fails to do so, point out that failure to others who may be listening and looking for enlightenment. Refer, whenever you can, and quote from, the celebrated Western scholars of Islam, and wonder aloud why some think — like your opponent — that they can speak about Islam without having done the necessary work, without having even recognized the existence of these scholars they ought to, but did not, consult. Hold your opponent’s baseless dismissals up for inspection and ridicule, but on the basis of those details that come from three sources: the texts of Islam, the Western scholars of Islam, and the Defectors from the Army of Islam. You will be ready with those enlightening eye-opening details about Islam — meant not just for your opponent, but for the broader public that is listening, or eavesdropping. Your opponent — used to relying on smirks and single-word dismissals instead of coherent debate — will not. And that is exactly the result you want.The stock of British politicians can rarely have been lower on Green Lanes, the historical heart of Britain’s Turkish community. “It’s quite racist to be honest,” said Ebru Ozcan, referring to the Vote Leave campaign’s strategy of attempting to portray her compatriots as inherently disposed to criminality and desperate to flock to Britain. “The way they talk has gone too far,” added the 32-year-old, who runs the popular Ozcan jewellers on the bustling artery in Haringey, north London. “If you can lie, then you become a politician. Why are they making us out to be such a threat?” said Huseyin Babir, 25, who works at Safir jewellers, and whose family moved from central Turkey to Palmers Green, north London, when he was aged one. Justice secretary Michael Gove’s claim that 5 million migrants, many of them Turkish, could come to Britain if the public votes to stay in the European Union was treated with either disbelief or contempt. “That will never happen, we have family who live in Turkey and we always have to visit them, instead of them coming here, because they like it there and also the cost is prohibitive,” said Dilek Oksuz, 24, who works at Turkish travel agent Right Holidays. The manager at the nearby Gold Bar jewellers was aghast at the suggestion that large swaths of the Turkish population would come to the UK. “The Turkish don’t even want to come here. Turkey itself is a better country, a safer country – the police have things much more under control there.” He said that the claim that crime was higher in Turkey than the UK was preposterous and that, given the opporunity, he would move there immediately. “You are more likely to get mugged here than Turkey, it’s as simple as that. If I didn’t have responsibilities, then I would head out there straightaway.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vote Leave’s campaign poster. The attempt by the Vote Leave strategists to associate the Turkish people with criminality was scoffed at, with many believing that Brexit campaigners were deliberately trying to conflate media images of battles between Turkish military and the Kurdistan Workers’ party, or PKK, and the threat of Islamic State (Isis) attacks to portray its people as dangerous. “It’s not even Turkish people doing crime, it is terrorists entering the country,” said Babir. Others said that they felt much safer in Turkey than in London. “Turkey is very safe; of course, you see the news and the fighting but that is confined. Turkish people like to go back and visit because it is so safe,” said Sevda Kadir, 29, who works selling olives at the Dostlar supermarket but also admitted that her hometown village, near the eastern city of Bingöl, was sometimes too dangerous to visit because of fighting between the PKK and the military. “I do wish they [British politicians] would be more careful how they talk. The fact is that we are very hard-working, but they talk like we don’t work. The Turkish people here work very hard to build up their businesses,” added Kadir. It was a common refrain along Green Lanes on a typically busy Saturday morning. “We pay among the highest taxes, higher than anyone I think,” said Babir, who said business rates for his shop were between £7,000 and £10,000 a year. At Ozcan jewellery, claims that Turkish people were prone to criminality prompted anger. “We work very hard, full time, and pay high taxes and rates, and that should be recognised.” Vote Leave embroiled in race row over Turkey security threat claims Read more Away from Green Lanes, others warned that the Vote Leave’s anti-Turkish tactics would alienate a country that needed more meaningful engagement with Europe when dealing with issues such as the refugee crisis. “The fear is that a Muslim-majority country of 76 million will come to Europe and Britain should save itself from that ‘contamination’. This rhetoric and a Brexit would isolate Turkey even more,” said Ezgi Basaran, a leading Turkish journalist and an academic visitor at St Antony’s College, Oxford University. “We are all in the same boat when dealing with the quagmire in the Middle East that has already spilled into Turkey.” Basaran added: “What the latest refugee crisis shows is very clear: if people find themselves under authoritarian regimes and destitute, no border barrier is good enough to keep them where they are. No wall is tall enough; no crossing is wide enough to keep them away. The fear of ‘76 million Turks at the gate’ would come true if the EU and the rest of the world do not engage with Turkey and the region in a meaningful way.”New GO Train Service on Milton Line Ontario Government Committed to Public Transit December 9, 2014 9:30 A.M. Ministry of Transportation Ontario is making it easier for commuters to take public transit by adding new GO Train service on the Milton line. Starting Jan. 5, 2015, GO Transit is adding one train in the morning and afternoon peak periods that will stop at all stations along the line. The new morning trip will leave Milton at 8:30 a.m. and arrive at Union Station at 9:30 a.m. The new evening trip will leave Union Station at 3:40 p.m. and arrive in Milton at 4:38 p.m. The additional train trips will reduce crowding on the Milton line, provide customers with more travel options and enhance the customer experience. These additions will benefit commuters in Milton, Halton Hills, Brampton, Mississauga, Etobicoke and Toronto. Building public transit and creating jobs is part of the government's economic plan for Ontario. The four part plan is building Ontario up by investing in people's talents and skills, building new public infrastructure like roads and transit, creating a dynamic, supportive environment where business thrives, and building a secure savings plan so everyone can afford to retire. Quick Facts The new train will provide about 1,500 more seats for customers during both the morning and afternoon commutes. There are nine stops on the Milton line, including Milton, Lisgar, Meadowvale, Streetsville, Erindale, Cooksville, Dixie, Kipling and Union. Every weekday, GO Transit accommodates roughly 30,000 boardings on the Milton line. GO Transit will accommodate about 68-million boardings this year compared to about 66 million in 2013. Since 2003, Ontario has invested approximately $9.1 billion in GO Transit to improve service and expand routes.Piece by piece, groundwork is being laid for changes in the federal civil service system that could make it easier to fire wayward employees when necessary or improve their performance when possible. The latest piece is a Government Accountability Office report that calls for better supervision of employees, better training of managers, better use of probation and longer probationary periods for certain hires. “As even a small number of poor performers can negatively affect employee morale and agencies’ capacity to meet their missions, poor performance should be addressed sooner rather than later, with the objective of improving it,” the report said. The GAO’s focus on improving performance is key and sets it apart from some of the more punitive proposals that come from Capitol Hill. But like congressional critics, the GAO points to the long time it can take to fire employees whose performance or conduct does not improve. No one disagrees with better supervision and training — although having agency budgets for that is another issue — but a longer probationary period is more controversial and splits federal employee organizations. After interviewing government officials, employee leaders and outside experts, the GAO found that with the standard one-year probationary period, supervisors feel they do not have “enough time to observe the individual’s performance in all critical areas of the job.” The GAO did not specify how much longer the probationary period should be. “We are recommending that OPM (Office of Personnel Management) determine whether certain occupations may require a probationary period longer than 1-year,” Robert Goldenkoff, the GAO’s director of strategic issues, said by e-mail. Last year, the House approved legislation doubling probation to two years for the Senior Executive Service. “One year is more than enough time to evaluate an employee’s performance moving forward,” said Matthew Biggs, legislative director of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. “There is no good reason to assume that the same manager who knew there was a problem but still refused to act before the one year probation is concluded will somehow decide to act within two years.” The GAO, however, said agency personnel chiefs cited a number of reasons for extending probation, including that employees in complex occupations spend much of their first year in training before actually doing the job and that new hires often rotate through a variety of offices, leaving supervisors with “only a limited opportunity to assess their performance.” The Senior Executives Association (SEA), which represents top-level federal managers, agrees with that point, especially for highly technical positions. Also, toward the end of probation, supervisors should “proactively certify that the employee has met the criteria to pass the probationary period,” said Jennifer A. Mattingley, SEA’s legislative director. SEA, however, does not support longer probationary periods for its members. “Extensive out of office training is not an issue at the SES level and agencies routinely use the current one year period to remove unqualified Senior Executives,” SEA President Carol Bonosaro told Congress in a July letter opposing the House legislation. The length is not all that matters about the probationary period, perhaps not even the most notable point. Of critical importance is how effectively managers use probation, whatever its length, said Max Stier, president and chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization that studies federal workplace issues. On that point, supervisors often don’t even know when an employee’s probationary period ends, according to the report. To correct that, it suggests using automated systems to notify managers when a new staffer’s probation nears conclusion. But that alone doesn’t say anything about the quality of the supervision. The GAO understands that. In fact, the report’s No. 1 point is: “Day-to-day performance management activities (such as providing regular performance feedback to employees) can produce more desirable outcomes for agencies and employees than dismissal options.” Plus, dismissal can take a very long time. I’m a strong proponent of due process for federal employees, but why it can take more than a year, according to the report, to fire someone who cannot or will not do the job is hard to understand. “There are more than enough tools in a manager’s tool box to fire poor-performing employees,” Biggs said. “Just because management sometimes refuses to use these tools is no reason to strip employees of their due-process rights.” The current system does not foster poor employee performance, added the president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, William R. Dougan, but “a lack of proper training and preparation of the first-line supervisors are where breakdowns of the expected process occur.” “The overall system is not fatally broken,” he said. There is a growing effort, however, to fix those parts of the system that are. Twitter: @JoeDavidsonWP Previous columns by Joe Davidson are available at wapo.st/JoeDavidson.A liberal Jewish organization is set to deliver 17,000 signatures to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's headquarters Monday afternoon urging him to apologize for remarks many have deemed insulting to the Palestinians. Jewish Voice for Peace has called Romney's comments at a Jerusalem fundraiser last Monday “racist and ignorant.” Romney says he did not mean to denigrate Palestinians when he credited “the power of at least culture” and the “hand of providence” for Israel's superior economy. ADVERTISEMENT The petition, addressed to “Governor Mitt Romney,” urges him to apologize. “Your statements in Jerusalem regarding the growth of the Palestinian and Israeli economies were inaccurate and misleading,” the petition states. ”Israel's Occupation of Palestinian land makes it impossible for the Palestinian economy to succeed, not 'cultural differences'. "Your comments were not a reflection of the values Jews, Americans, and our allies hold dear. We call on you to apologize to the Palestinian people for your willful lack of understanding of the facts on the ground and the racist assumptions behind them.” Romney initially told Fox News that he “did not speak about the Palestinian culture or about the decisions made in their economy” at the fundraiser, but then penned a National Review piece doubling down on the original comments. The candidate has accused the media of fixating on those and other remarks to weaken his candidacy. The comments have infuriated the Palestinians, with lead negotiator Saeb Erekat saying Romney had further “destroyed negotiations” on a two-state solution following his push for the United States to recognize the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.I'm a newcomer to the tech industry. I don't have a degree in Computer Science or Engineering. I'm a writer by trade and training, so coming to work for Red Hat after years of freelancing and crappy office jobs was a real shock. Which is to say, a pleasant shock. Tattoos? Sure. Pink hair? Oh, yes. Start time? Whatever suits you best. And unlike other places I've worked, not a single man has expected me to make them a cup of coffee, and nobody tells me to "smile love, nobody likes a sadsack in the office!" (I frown when I concentrate. I'm sorry! And by that I mean I'm totally not sorry.) What's more, I work in a department full of women. This was also
campus," Feiman said. "Our opponents remind us...of the same GUSA candidates year after year, and we think we offer something new." â†µ â†µâ†µ For more, read this post on the Georgetown Voice. Feiman lists a ton of activities, including being a "beast." Sims, on the other hand, says he plays chess. Not basketball and chess. Just chess. â†µ (via Casual Hoya. Photo via Dan Steinberg)A large body of evidence, including longitudinal analyses of personality change, suggests that core personality traits are predominantly stable after age 30. To our knowledge, no study has demonstrated changes in personality in healthy adults after an experimentally manipulated discrete event. Intriguingly, double-blind controlled studies have shown that the classic hallucinogen psilocybin occasions personally and spiritually significant mystical experiences that predict long-term changes in behaviors, attitudes and values. In the present report we assessed the effect of psilocybin on changes in the five broad domains of personality - Neuroticism, Extroversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Consistent with participant claims of hallucinogen-occasioned increases in aesthetic appreciation, imagination, and creativity, we found significant increases in Openness following a high-dose psilocybin session. In participants who had mystical experiences during their psilocybin session, Openness remained significantly higher than baseline more than one year after the session. The findings suggest a specific role for psilocybin and mystical-type experiences in adult personality change. To our knowledge, no study has prospectively demonstrated personality change in healthy adults after an experimentally manipulated discrete event. Although it has been speculated that treatment with classic hallucinogens could be a method for occasioning dramatic and rapid personality change ( Unger, 1964 ), a controlled study of LSD in healthy volunteers failed to find significant changes in a large battery of empirical measures of personality, aesthetic sensitivity, and creativity six months after LSD sessions ( McGlothlin et al., 1967 ). Nevertheless, these investigators confirmed the subjective claims of long-term change frequently reported in uncontrolled trials. Relatively little research has investigated personality change in the laboratory, likely because events that might be expected to change personality are difficult to create under experimental (i.e., randomized or assigned) conditions. Some studies have shown changes in personality after experimental treatment interventions in patients, such as several weeks of antidepressant medication (e.g., Costa et al., 2005 ) and intensive outpatient counseling for substance abuse rehabilitation ( Piedmont, 2001 ). Personality changes have also been shown in healthy adults after three months of intensive contemplative training in attention- and emotion-regulation ( Sahdra et al., 2011 ). These personality changes, as well as socioemotional and behavioral improvements, were maintained several months after completion of training, suggesting possible long-term benefits. Despite the relatively stable nature of personality, researchers have hypothesized that significant life events could change adult personality quite dramatically. Studies investigating individual differences in personality-trait change have found that certain life experiences are associated with changes in adult personality (see review in Roberts and Mroczek, 2008 ). For example, personality changes have been associated with divorce (e.g., increases in Extroversion and Openness in women, Costa et al., 2000 ), remarriage (e.g., decreases in Neuroticism in men, Mroczek and Spiro, 2003 ), and career success (e.g., decreases in Conscientiousness in individuals who were fired vs. promoted, Costa et al., 2000 ). However, such correlational studies cannot address the causal link between particular events and subsequent personality change. There is general agreement that personality traits are relatively enduring styles of thinking, feeling, and acting ( McCrae and Costa, 1997 ). The most widely accepted model of personality structure is the five-factor model, which describes five broad domains of personality each encompassing many related traits: Neuroticism, Extroversion, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness ( Digman, 1990 ; McCrae, 2009 ). Many studies have confirmed that these personality factors are heritable ( Bouchard et al., 1990 ) and reliable across cultures, suggesting a universal human personality structure that is rooted in biology ( McCrae and Costa, 1997 ). Longitudinal studies have shown that individual personality is predominantly stable across the lifespan. Although there are mean-level personality changes after age 30, these shifts are typically gradual and subtle (1 - 2 T-score points per decade; Terracciano et al., 2005 ). The long-term positive impact of hallucinogens may depend on their ability to occasion profound insights and mystical-type experiences ( Pahnke, 1963 ; Doblin, 1991 ). The core features of mystical experience, as defined by Stace (1960) and Hood (2003), are feelings of unity and interconnectedness with all people and things, a sense of sacredness, feelings of peace and joy, a sense of transcending normal time and space, ineffability, and an intuitive belief that the experience is a source of objective truth about the nature of reality. Because such experiences appear to enable individuals to transcend their usual patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting, it is plausible that they could occasion changes in core dimensions of personality. In support of this, a double-blind controlled study by Griffiths et al. ( Griffiths et al., 2006 ; Griffiths et al., 2008 ) demonstrated that a single psilocybin session occasioned mystical experiences associated with positive changes in behaviors, attitudes and values more than a year later. Moreover, independent ratings from participants’ romantic partners, coworkers, and friends corroborated the first-person reports. These findings suggest fundamental changes in personal concerns, goals, and identity, which are considered to be important dimensions of personality (e.g., in the framework described in McAdams, 1995 ). However, the impact of psilocybin-occasioned mystical experience on core personality traits is unknown. Finally, we compared Openness change in participants who met the criteria for having had a complete mystical experience during their high-dose session (n = 30) to participants who did not meet the criteria (n = 22). We used the “complete mystical experience” classification (60% on each subscale of the SOCQ) rather than data-driven classification (e.g., median split) for several reasons. First, median split analyses have been associated with reductions of power and effect size ( MacCallum et al., 2002 ). Second, classification based on subscale scores takes into account the breadth of mystical-type effects, which total score does not. For example, a participant could have a high total score while not endorsing many sacredness items. Finally, designating participants who met the criteria for a complete mystical experience allowed a comparison with previous studies ( Griffiths et al., 2008 ; Griffiths et al., 2006 ; Pahnke, 1963 ; Richards et al., 1977 ; Griffiths et al., 2011 ). We hypothesized that mystical experiences during the psilocybin session, as measured by the SOCQ, would lead to increases in Openness. We investigated this prediction using three analysis approaches (all analyses were conducted in SPSS version 18.0). First, we used multivariate repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) to analyze changes in Openness and the other four NEO-PI factors (Neuroticism, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) from screening to post-test (1 - 2 months after the high-dose psilocybin session). After confirming that Openness changed significantly following the high-dose session, we calculated Pearson’s linear correlations between changes in Openness and session-day measures (the SOCQ, the Mysticism Scale, the OSE, the VUS, and the AIA). We then confirmed via regression analysis that mystical experience, as measured by the SOCQ, was a significant predictor of changes in Openness. Specifically, we conducted a series of linear regression analyses that tested the predictive power of the SOCQ above and beyond the predictive power of the four questionnaire measures that also correlated with Openness change (the Mysticism Scale, the OSE, the VUS, and the AIA). In each of four models (one model for each questionnaire), we tested the following predictors of Openness at post-test in a step-wise manner: 1) Openness at screening, 2) an alternate questionnaire measure (e.g., total score on the Mysticism Scale), and 3) mystical score on the SOCQ. We hypothesized that mystical score on the SOCQ (Step 3) would explain significantly more variability in Openness than each of the alternate questionnaire measures (Step 2), as indicated by significant estimates of R-squared change from Step 2 to Step 3. We combined data from two double-blind psilocybin studies to achieve greater statistical power to detect personality change at the group level and to examine personality change in sub-groups of individuals who differed in mystical-type psilocybin effects. Because Study 2 involved multiple doses of psilocybin in addition to the single high dose used in Study 1, it was not possible to completely isolate the high-dose session in Study 2. However, the session protocol implemented in Study 2 was identical to that used in Study 1. Furthermore, changes in personality following the high-dose session were always assessed within 1 - 2 months of the high-dose session and before any subsequent session. The APZ is a 72-item yes/no questionnaire designed to assess altered states of consciousness, including those produced by hallucinogens ( Dittrich, 1998 ). The three scales on the APZ are OSE (“oceanic boundlessness”; this scale assesses phenomena such as unity, bliss, and transcendence of time and space); VUS (“visionary restructuralization”; this scale assesses visual pseudo-hallucinations, illusions, and synaesthesias); and AIA (“dread of ego dissolution”; this scale assesses dysphoric feelings such as anxiety, fear, and feeling trapped). Data on each scale were expressed as percentage of maximum possible score. The Mysticism Scale was originally developed to assess mystical experiences across the lifetime and has been validated in several studies, including cross-culturally ( Hood, 1975 ; Hood et al., 2001 ; Hood, 2003 ). Items were answered on a 9-point scale ranging from −4 (this description is extremely not true of my own experience) to +4 (this description is extremely true of my own experience). Total score (sum across 32 items) was used to quantify lifetime mystical experiences at screening (see ). Additionally, a modified version of the Mysticism Scale was used to assess mystical effects during the drug sessions. Participants completed the experience-specific version approximately 7 hours after capsule administration and answered the items in reference to their experiences since receiving the capsule that morning. Personality was assessed at screening, 1 - 2 months after each drug session, and approximately 14 months after the last drug session using a computer-based version of the revised NEO-PI ( Costa and McCrae, 1992 ). This 240-item instrument measures the five factors of personality and the six facets that define each factor. The facets of Openness are Fantasy (e.g., “I have a very active imagination”), Aesthetics (e.g., “I am intrigued by patterns I find in art and nature”), Feelings (e.g., “I experience a wide range of emotions and feelings”), Ideas (e.g., “I often enjoy playing with theories or abstract ideas”), Values (e.g., “I consider myself broad-minded and tolerant of other people’s lifestyles”), and Actions (e.g., “I think it’s interesting to learn and develop new hobbies”). Items were answered on a 5-point scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree, and raw scores were standardized as T scores (M = 50, SD = 10) using the combined-sex norms reported in the NEO PI-R manual. Participants received extensive preparation and met with session monitors for at least eight hours on several different occasions prior to their first drug session, in line with recommendations for hallucinogen research ( Johnson et al., 2008 ). The drug was orally administered in capsule form with 100 mL water at the beginning of each session. During the session, participants were encouraged to lie down on a couch, use an eye mask to block external visual distraction, wear headphones through which a music program was played, and focus their attention on their inner experiences. Participants completed two to five 8-hour drug sessions, with consecutive sessions separated by at least 3 weeks. Participants were informed that they would receive a “moderate or high dose” of psilocybin during one of their drug sessions, but neither the participant nor the session monitors knew when this session would occur. In Study 1 ( Griffiths et al., 2006 ), each participant received psilocybin (30 mg/70 kg body weight) on one session and an active control drug, methylphenidate (40 mg/70 kg), on the other one or two sessions. In Study 2 ( Griffiths et al., 2011 ), each participant received four doses of psilocybin (5, 10, 20 and 30 mg/70 kg) in ascending or descending order (50% random assignment) across four sessions, with a fifth placebo session quasi-randomly inserted in the sequence. In the present report, we analyzed mystical experiences and changes in personality associated with the high-dose (30 mg/70 kg) psilocybin session. Participants did not receive monetary compensation but generally reported being motivated by curiosity about the effects of psilocybin and the opportunity for extensive self-reflection. The Institutional Review Board of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine approved the studies, and all participants gave their informed consent before participation. Recruitment methods and screening procedures were similar across the two studies. Participants were recruited from the local community by flyers announcing “a study of states of consciousness brought about by psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychoactive substance used sacramentally in some cultures”. The first phase of screening involved a scripted telephone interview, which was used to pre-screen for the major inclusion/exclusion criteria. Common reasons for not passing the telephone screen included distance from study site, extensive prior hallucinogen use, and inability to make the time commitment required for participation. Individuals who passed the telephone screen (approximately 20% of those screened) were evaluated in-person for inclusion/exclusion criteria and medical and psychiatric health, as described previously for human research with classic hallucinogens ( Johnson et al., 2008 ). The inclusion/exclusion criteria were similar across the two studies, although participants in Study 2 were permitted to have limited prior experience with hallucinogens ( Griffiths et al., 2011 ). The single participant in Study 2 who had prior lifetime experience with psilocybin was excluded from the present analyses. In addition, 1 participant in Study 1 ( Griffiths et al., 2006 ) had incomplete personality data and was excluded. Thus, the present analyses included 52 hallucinogen-naïve participants ( ). Participants were generally well educated (54% had post-graduate degrees) and spiritually active (90% regularly participated in religious services, discussion groups, prayer, or meditation). The persistence of increases in Openness was assessed at a follow-up assessment conducted more than one year after the high-dose session (M = 16 months). In participants who had a complete mystical experience (n = 30), Openness levels at follow-up decreased slightly from post-test but did not differ significantly from Openness levels at post-test (p =.12) and remained significantly higher than at screening (M = +4.2; F(1, 29) = 4.17, p =.050, η p 2 =.13). In contrast, participants who did not have a complete mystical experience (n = 21) had nearly identical Openness levels at follow-up and screening (M = −0.3; p =.86). 1, 2 We further examined the relationship between mystical experience and increases in Openness by comparing participants who met the criteria for having had a complete mystical experience during their high-dose session (n = 30) to participants who did not meet the criteria (n = 22). ANOVA revealed a significant interaction between time (screening vs. post-test) and group (complete mystical experience vs. no complete mystical experience) (F(1, 50) = 9.32, p =.004, η p 2 =.16). Follow-up t tests confirmed that the complete mystical experience group showed significant increases in Openness from screening to post-test (M = +5.7; t(29) = 3.44, p =.002) while the other group did not (M = −1.2; t(21) =.87, p =.39) ( ). Five of the six facets of Openness showed this same pattern when examined individually: The interaction between time and group was significant for Fantasy (p =.029, η p 2 =.09), Aesthetics (p =.010, η p 2 =.13), Feelings (p =.038, η p 2 =.08), Ideas (p =.014, η p 2 =.11), and Values (p =.036, η p 2 =.09), but not Actions (p =.19). Follow-up t tests for the five facets showing significance confirmed that the complete mystical experience group increased in these facets while the other group did not ( ). Changes in Openness were also correlated with scores on the Mysticism Scale (r =.33, p =.017), the OSE (r =.44, p =.001), the VUS (r =.41, p =.003), and the AIA (r =.31, p =.024). The significant relationships shown by Pearson’s linear correlations were also shown by Spearman’s rank order correlations between change in Openness and the SOCQ (r s =.47, p <.001), the Mysticism Scale (r s =.40, p =.003), the OSE (r s =.45, p =.001), the VUS (r s =.47, p <.001), and the AIA (r s =.33, p =.018). However, a series of stepwise regression analyses showed that the SOCQ explained significantly more variability in Openness change than the Mysticism Scale (R-squared change =.046, p =.033), the OSE (R-squared change =.047, p =.031), the VUS (R-squared change =.042, p =.036), and the AIA (R-squared change =.12, p =.001). We hypothesized that individual differences in mystical experience during the psilocybin session, as measured by the SOCQ, would be related to individual differences in Openness change. There was considerable variability in mystical-type effects during the high-dose session, with nearly the full range of possible scores (range: 0.03 - 1.00) represented across the six subscales of mystical experience. Consistent with our hypothesis, mystical experience (mean score across all of the items in the six subscales) correlated significantly with increases in Openness (r =.42, p =.002; ). Importantly, mystical experience did not correlate significantly with screening levels of Openness (r =.12, p =.41) or its facets; the highest correlation was with Feelings (r =.24, p =.09). Consistent with our hypothesis, the repeated measures ANOVA showed that Openness increased significantly from screening to post-test (M = +2.8, F(1, 51) = 5.47, p =.023, η p 2 =.10). Moreover, because participants received the high dose on different sessions, it was possible to conduct a comparison analysis of changes in Openness following the first session in the subgroup of participants who did not receive a high dose of psilocybin on that session (n = 30 participants received inactive placebo, methylphenidate, or 5 mg/70 kg of psilocybin on their first session). There were no significant changes in Openness after the first session in this subgroup (F(1, 29) = 0.52, p =.48). Finally, with regard to changes in the other four personality factors after the high-dose session, there were no significant changes from screening to post-test in Neuroticism (M = −0.5; F(1, 51) = 0.24, p =.62), Extroversion (M = +0.8; F(1, 51) = 0.79, p =.38), Agreeableness (M = +1.7; F(1, 51) = 2.31, p =.16), or Conscientiousness (M = −0.9; F(1, 51) = 1.22, p =.28), and test-retest correlations were high across assessments (rs =.61 -.84). Taken together, these results indicate predominantly stable personality traits with specific increases in Openness following the high-dose session. Discussion We observed significant increases in Openness after a high-dose psilocybin session that were larger in magnitude than changes in personality typically observed in healthy adults over decades of life experience (Terracciano et al., 2005). Moreover, in participants who met criteria for having had a complete mystical experience during their psilocybin session, Openness remained significantly higher than baseline more than one year after the session. This is the first study to demonstrate changes in personality in healthy adults after an experimentally manipulated discrete event. To our knowledge, the only other experimental (i.e., randomized) intervention reported to change healthy adults’ personality involved hundreds of hours of solitary meditation over the course of three months (Sahdra et al., 2011). The present findings are suggestive of lasting change in core personality traits. However, it will be important to replicate these results in larger groups of individuals with diverse baseline personality profiles. It is informative to compare the magnitude of Openness change observed in the present study with previous findings of longitudinal personality change. During normal aging, Openness typically decreases linearly at a rate of approximately 1 T-score point per decade (see Figure 4 in Terracciano et al., 2005). In comparison, participants in the present study who had a complete mystical experience during their psilocybin session increased more than 4 T-score points from screening to follow-up. Notably, this increase is larger than increases in Openness seen in individuals treated successfully with antidepressant medication (see Figure 1 in Costa et al., 2005) and intensive outpatient counseling for substance abuse (see in Piedmont, 2001). Openness includes a relatively broad range of intercorrelated traits covering aesthetic appreciation and sensitivity, fantasy and imagination, awareness of feelings in self and others, and intellectual engagement. People with high levels of Openness are “permeable to new ideas and experiences” and “motivated to enlarge their experience into novel territory” (DeYoung et al., 2005). Openness is strongly associated with creativity (Silvia et al., 2009), and some of its facets (Ideas, Values) are correlated with general fluid intelligence and cognitive ability (DeYoung et al., 2005; DeYoung et al., 2009). Although the present study did not directly investigate the corollary benefits of increased Openness, significant increases in nearly all of the facet scores indicate the potential for improvements in aesthetic and cognitive domains. Very few controlled studies have attempted to characterize the effects of classic hallucinogens on aesthetic and creative outcomes. One previous well-controlled study of LSD (McGlothlin et al., 1967) found evidence for short-term improvements on measures of artistic ability (e.g., figure drawings), aesthetic sensitivity (e.g., compatibility between participant and expert ratings of paintings), and creativity (e.g., generating alternate uses for a common object). However, McGlothin and colleagues failed to find significant improvements in creativity or aesthetic measures at a 6-month follow-up. Notably, the McGlothlin study included graduate students who were paid for participation, generally showed little interest in LSD, and received minimal preparation and support for the LSD sessions. In contrast, the present study included unpaid community volunteers who were motivated by curiosity about the effects of psilocybin and received extensive interpersonal preparation and support for the psilocybin sessions. It is likely that differences in participant motivation and preparation contributed to different long-term outcomes following hallucinogen sessions. In addition, nearly all of the participants in the present study regularly engaged in spiritual activities such as religious services, prayer, and meditation. It is possible that such individuals are particularly sensitive to the mystical-type effects of psilocybin, which were predictive of increases in Openness. Cross-sectional methods have been used to examine differences in personality, attitudes and values between regular hallucinogen users and controls. A study in Brazil by Grob et al. (1996) found that individuals who used the hallucinogenic plant ayahuasca as a spiritual sacrament had lower trait levels of excitability, disorderliness and impulsivity, and higher trait levels of confidence, gregariousness and optimism compared to community members who did not use ayahuasca. Lerner & Lyvers (2006) found that individuals who used hallucinogens valued spirituality, concern for others, concern for the environment (i.e., nature), and creativity more highly than individuals who used other illicit drugs (e.g., marijuana, amphetamine, heroin). Although the findings are suggestive of personality changes that might be associated with hallucinogen exposure, it is not possible to isolate the effects of hallucinogens per se because of the self-selection bias that may confound results of cross-sectional studies. Longitudinal studies will be required to replicate hallucinogen-related changes in personality, attitudes, and values. The NEO-PI is one of the most widely used measures of personality in modern psychology. However, it is useful to consider alternate methods of classifying personality. For example, the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) measures personality as a combination of temperament or automatic responses to emotional stimuli and character or self-aware concepts that are associated with voluntary intentions and attitudes (see review in Cloninger, 1994). The TCI scales are considered distinct from the factors in the NEO-PI. However, a factor analysis showed that TCI scales loaded on the five NEO-PI factors (McCrae et al., 2001). In particular, the Self-Transcendence scale of the TCI loaded on Openness, effectively representing “openness to spiritual experience” (McCrae, 2009: 154). Given the connection between mystical experience and increases in Openness observed in the present study, it is likely that Self-Transcendence might also increase following a high-dose psilocybin session. In contrast to the numerous questionnaires available for assessing personality, very few questionnaire measures have been developed to assess mystical experiences. Despite the generally infrequent use of the SOCQ, it has been used effectively along with the more widely used and validated Mysticism Scale (Hood, 2003) to characterize hallucinogen effects (Griffiths et al., 2008; Griffiths et al., 2006; Griffiths et al., 2011). Although a psychometric validation of the SOCQ has not been published, data from a study in our laboratory involving several hundred respondents indicate that the mystical items in the SOCQ have a reliable factor structure and that the factor scores differentiate self-reported mystical experiences from otherwise profound positive experiences. In the present study, the SOCQ was a better predictor of changes in Openness than other questionnaire measures of mystical effects (e.g., the Mysticism Scale) and positively experienced hallucinogen effects (e.g., the OSE). Overall, these results suggest a specific role for the SOCQ in quantifying mystical experiences and predicting personality change, although it will be necessary to continue to examine the sensitivity and validity of the SOCQ in characterizing the mystical-type effects of psilocybin and other classic hallucinogens. The findings have important implications for the application of psilocybin and classic hallucinogens in clinical psychiatry. Recent reviews have suggested that hallucinogens could have positive effects on the outcomes of clinical disorders, particularly anxiety and mood disorders (Griffiths and Grob, 2010; Vollenweider and Kometer, 2010). Clinical work along these lines was initiated in the 1950s and suggested possible improvements after hallucinogen treatment in individuals with terminal cancer (Kast, 1967; Richards et al., 1977; Grob et al., 2011) and substance dependence (Mangini, 1998; Halpern, 1996; Terrill et al., 1964). Although there is still much to learn about the mechanisms by which hallucinogens might produce positive changes, the increases in Openness observed in the present study indicate novel avenues of future research into the biological and psychological mechanisms of psilocybin treatment. It will also be important in future treatment studies to examine the effects of psilocybin and mystical experience on changes in maladaptive personality traits. For example, although we did not observe decreases in mean Neuroticism (feeling tense, anxious, moody, or insecure), which was nearly 1 SD below normal at baseline, reductions in Neuroticism have been observed in patients undergoing treatment for depression (Costa et al., 2005) and substance abuse (Piedmont, 2001). Similarly, reductions in Neuroticism might accompany reductions in anxiety and depressed mood following psilocybin treatment in patient populations (e.g., individuals with advanced-stage cancer; Grob et al., 2011). In addition, although the present study focused on personality change following a single high-dose session, it is possible that multiple sessions would be associated with changes in additional domains besides Openness. In conclusion, the present results indicate that a high dose of psilocybin administered under supportive conditions produced increases in Openness, consistent with participants’ subjective claims of the long-term effects of hallucinogens. Importantly, participants who had a complete mystical experience during their high-dose session, but not others, showed enduring increases in Openness, suggesting that other mystical experiences could occasion similar change. Qualitative research has documented sudden and dramatic positive changes in attitudes, values and behaviors following spontaneous mystical or spiritual experiences (Miller, 2004; Paloutzian et al., 1999). Further, correlational research has highlighted a role for spirituality in addiction recovery (Kelly et al., 2011) and in coping with life-threatening illnesses such as cancer (McCoubrie and Davies, 2006), which may account for the potential efficacy of psilocybin in the aforementioned treatment of addictions and cancer distress. Future research should continue to investigate the conditions - both pharmacological and non-pharmacological - that might occasion mystical experiences, as well as describe their potential long-term consequences.Most people believe that the persecution of “witches” reached its height in the early 1690s with the trials in Salem, Mass., but it is a grim paradox of 21st-century life that violence against people accused of sorcery is very much still with us. Far from fading away, thanks to digital interconnectedness and economic development, witch hunting has become a growing, global problem. In recent years, there has been a spate of attacks against people accused of witchcraft in Africa, the Pacific and Latin America, and even among immigrant communities in the United States and Western Europe. Researchers with United Nations refugee and human rights agencies have estimated the murders of supposed witches as numbering in the thousands each year, while beatings and banishments could run into the millions. “This is becoming an international problem — it is a form of persecution and violence that is spreading around the globe,” Jeff Crisp, an official with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, told a panel in 2009, the last year in which an international body studied the full dimensions of the problem. A report that year from the same agency and a Unicef study in 2010 both found a rise, especially in Africa, of violence and child abuse linked to witchcraft accusations. More recent media reports suggest a disturbing pattern of mutilation and murder. Last year, a mob in Papua New Guinea burned alive a young mother, Kepari Leniata, 20, who was suspected of sorcery. This highly publicized case followed a series of instances over recent years of lethal group violence against women and men accused of witchcraft. “These are becoming all too common in certain parts of the country,” said the prime minister, Peter O’Neill. Last year, Papua New Guinea finally repealed a 1971 law that permitted attackers to cite intent to combat witchcraft as a legal defense. But progress is slow. Although the police charged a man and woman in connection with the 2013 killing of Ms. Leniata, no one has faced trial, a fact that drew protest from Amnesty International in February.0 Shares Here is a great video outlying some of the impeccable evidence for God’s existence: These are just a few examples of some pretty sou]]> <![CDATA[nd arguments. After finding this video I was curious as to what else I could find. There are hundreds of proofs of God’s existence on the wonderful world wide web. I would love to share with you some of my favorites. Enjoy! PARENTAL ARGUMENT (1) My mommy and daddy told me that God exists. (2) Therefore, God exists. ARGUMENT FROM MULTIPLICITY (V) (recursive internet edition) (1) There exists a web page (http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/GodProof.htm) (2) That page has hundreds of purported proofs of the existence of God. (3) They can’t all be wrong. (4) Therefore, God exists. ARGUMENT FROM EGOTISM (1) The Creator of the universe cares about ME, my thoughts, and even my sex life. (2) He responds to my prayers. (3) He hates all the same people I do. (4) His orders are always to do what I would have done anyway. (5) Everyone who disagrees with me will spend an eternity in Hell. (6) Therefore, God exists. ARGUMENT FROM LABELING, a.k.a. ARGUMENT FROM POPULARITY (1) If you don’t believe in God you’re a geek. (2) Geeks are unpopular at school; no one cares about them. (3) The popular kids believe in God. (4) So should you, if you want to be popular. (5) Therefore, God Exists. ARGUMENT FROM SPOILED CONSUMERISM (1) I want God to exist. (2) I always get what I want. (3) Therefore, God exists. SALMA HAYEK’S ARGUMENT FROM BIGGER BOOBS (1) As a young girl, I prayed for bigger boobs. (2) I grew bigger boobs. (3) Therefore, God exists. And my personal Favorite: ARGUMENT FROM MULTIPLICITY (II), a.k.a. TERCEL’S ARGUMENT (II) (1) I have a large number of arguments for God. (2) There is a small chance that at least one of them is true. (3) Using voodoo probability calculations, this means that there is a much greater chance that all of them are true taken together! (4) And this ISN’T just the mathematical version of the Ontological Proof; I’m a real mathematician and you obviously can’t understand this proof because you don’t know as much about math as I do. (5) Oh, and don’t confuse things by mentioning how many atheistic arguments there are, and the probability of each of them being correct… (6) Or the fact that I basically pulled the probability of each of my arguments being correct out of my ass… (7) And admit that I know more about math than you, and you’ll see that… (8) Therefore, God exists. …and you say there is no God. This post originally appeared on the blog of the UNI Freethinkers & Inquirers. Find us on Facebook, learn more about Center for Inquiry On Campus, or see what resources are available to student members.Eclipse one-day duel tournament - #5: Sunday 8th October before Update Since the weekend, several questions have been asked.Cancarapace make it three wins in a row?Or willspeedball turn up to ruin his party?Are anyrussians ever going to enter?Did marriage striplordlame of all his power?(That last one was me, after playing him on Monday). All these and more will be answered this Sunday at 20:00 CEST (19:00 BST, 18:00 UTC) when we meet up one more time for Eclipse Cup #5. Sticking all with same rules as #4, so map-pool is still TB5 + bravado & skull.The one thing I'd like to improve is starting on time, which has slowly been getting worse each week. I will try and contact people around 19:30 and will start removing people I can't find around 19:50. It's important to start on time, and while it's fine to just turn up and play at 20:00, I need to have the groups ready which takes about 10 minutes. Even if you shout "yeah I'm definitely playing, I'll be there", that's sufficient. So either be able to reply on discord or be on a quake server20:00 please.: Tournament is over, thanks to everyone for playing.Watch the final on YouTube Full results are on the wiki Download the demos from badplace There will be a break in the Eclipse cups for a couple of weeks now, while we assess better ways to boost scene activity.The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned vicars against filling their sermons with “moral claptrap” about being “a bit nicer” to everyone. The Most Rev Justin Welby said religion should never be reduced simply to a code of morality instead of an active faith in which people are willing to “get [their] hands dirty”. He added that the message of Christianity was so radical that it could be mistaken for a call to “violent revolution”, were it not for its emphasis on peaceful means. His comments came in a homily at an evensong at Trinity Church on Wall Street New York which has been published online by Lambeth Palace. Speaking about deprivation and inequality he detailed his experiences in Liverpool, where he served as Dean of the Anglican cathedral for four years, insisting it was imperative for churches to be involved in their communities. He said the life of Jesus “challenges every assumption”
, where she had been working on developments in nuclear waste storage, according to Washington’s Spokesman-Review. The lab carries out nuclear energy and defence research, supporting the US Department of Energy. The victim's father-in-law, Terry Rutledge, told The Associated Press that Veronica Rutledge "was a beautiful, young, loving mother." "She was not the least bit irresponsible," Terry Rutledge said. "She was taken much too soon." Idaho National Laboratory senior chemical engineer Vince Maio worked with Rutledge on a research paper about using glass ceramic to store nuclear waste, The Spokesman-Review said. Maio said he was immediately impressed with her. "She had a lot of maturity for her age," he told the newspaper. "Her work was impeccable. She found new ways to do things that we did before and she found ways to do them better." "She was a beautiful person," he added. Kootenai County sheriff's spokesman Stu Miller said Rutledge was from Blackfoot in southeastern Idaho, and that her family had come to the area to visit relatives. "It appears to be a pretty tragic accident," Miller said. While there are no US statistics about the number of accidents involving children handling guns, in neighbouring Washington state a three-year-old boy was seriously injured in November when he accidentally shot himself in the face. In April, a two-year-old boy apparently shot and killed his 11-year-old sister while they and their siblings played with a gun inside a Philadelphia home. Authorities said the gun was believed to have been brought into the home by the mother's boyfriend. Politically conservative Idaho lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year allowing concealed weapons on the state's public college and university campuses. Despite facing opposition from all eight of the state's university college presidents, lawmakers sided with gun rights advocates who said the law would better uphold the Second Amendment of the US Constitution guaranteeing the right to bear arms. 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 nowIdealism versus... slightly less idealism? (AP Photo/Morry Gash) Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders revived their oft-contentious sparring over health care Thursday night in Milwaukee during the latest Democratic presidential debate, this one on PBS. It was the first debate since Sanders' big win in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, and the last before the candidates compete again in the Nevada caucus on Feb. 20. For Sanders, the debate was an opportunity to keep the Bernie train rolling after an impressive victory; for Clinton, it was a chance to step in and re-take control of a race in which she is still the front-runner, but that is looking more complicated than it once did. From the get-go, Clinton decided to go all-in on her realism versus Sanders' idealism, her technocratic approach to laying out what is concrete and achievable versus his much more nebulous political revolution, as their early exchange on health care made clear. Sanders, for those catching up, is proposing a single-payer, "Medicare-for-all" system, akin to those in France or Canada; Clinton has been, rightfully, noting the political impracticality of such a plan, and instead favors a grab bag of items to build upon the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, a difference she went to great lengths to emphasize. "What we have tried to do, and what President Obama succeeded in doing, was to build on the health care system we have, get us to 90 percent coverage. We have to get the other 10 percent of the way to 100. I far prefer that and the chances we have to be successful there than trying to start all over again, gridlocking our system, and trying to get from zero to 100 percent," Clinton said in response to Sanders' latest single-payer pitch, adding later that "we have a special obligation to make clear what we stand for, which is why I think we should not make promises we can't keep." Lack of political realism is certainly a fair critique of Sanders; his proposals are dead on arrival in Congress so long as the GOP holds the House of Representatives and Paul Ryan retains the speaker's gavel. The problem for Clinton is this: So are her's. For instance, Clinton has called for letting Medicare negotiate directly with drug companies for lower prices. It's a great idea! But Congress explicitly barred Medicare from doing so and isn't likely to reverse itself under the GOP. Ditto her plan for more refundable tax credits to those facing higher than expected out-of-pocket costs or her proposal to cap the cost of prescription drugs. Ryan and the Republicans have voted 60-something times to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Though the law has certainly taken less precedence on the campaign trail of late, I doubt they'd suddenly wake up in January 2017 overjoyed about working with a President Hillary Clinton to improve upon it. In fact, the same can be said for a lot of her domestic policy agenda. Building on the Dodd-Frank financial reform law? A tax on high-frequency trading? Barring a serious congressional shakeup, they're dead and deader. The relative moderation of her proposals doesn't change the fact that neither she nor Sanders is going to win over House Republicans or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Even if Democrats flip the Senate, which is possible, McConnell has already shown that he's willing to filibuster the entirety of a president's legislative effort into oblivion if the other side has less than 60 votes. And herein lies the problem that the Obama years revealed so well and that Clinton hasn't truly come clean about publicly: The minority party knows full well that not cooperating with the president is key to electoral success. Moderation doesn't change that. At the end of the day, I imagine Sanders and Clinton would be equally as effective at vetoing another Obamacare repeal effort sent by a GOP Congress. Now, it's true that Sanders has not fully explained what a shift to a single-payer system would practically mean for people; it's a giant disruption for those who like the health insurance they have and really wouldn't get to keep it this time. He also isn't fully forthright about the fact that it's not just insurance companies, but doctors and other special interests that aren't as scary as Big Pharma, who lose under his proposal and would flip out if it ever looked like it could come to pass. He also seems to have some math issues. But it's unclear to me why Clinton should receive such plaudits among the political class for proposing "realistic" plans that won't pass, while Sanders is castigated for proposing what U.S. health care would look like in his ideal world, though it also won't pass. Is her argument that, should Democrats flip the House someday, she has ideas that can receive adequate support? That's, well, uninspiring. And single-payer is still pretty darn popular among Democrats. Clinton's critique of Sanders on health care has certainly improved from her campaign's dishonest sliming of his proposal as an attempt to "dismantle Obamacare." But make no mistake: Clinton is also making promises on health care she can't keep; they just sound better to those steeped in policy and politicsRating: 9.5. 1. Introduction 2. Asus ROG Swift PG278Q 144hz G-Sync (1) 3. Asus ROG Swift PG278Q 144hz G-Sync (2) 4. Asus ROG Swift PG278Q 144hz G-Sync (High Res Gallery) 5. Asus GeForce GTX 780Ti ROG Matrix 3072MB 6. Asus GeForce GTX 780Ti ROG Matrix 3072MB (High Res Gallery) 7. Setting up G-SYNC and Game Testing 8. Technical Analysis of the Asus ROG Swift PG278Q 9. Closing Thoughts 10. View All Pages Today we review the highly anticipated Asus ROG Swift PG278Q. This 27 inch Nvidia G-SYNC monitor runs at WQHD 2560×1440 resolution, features a 144hz refresh rate and a 1ms (gtg) response time to cater to the most demanding gamer. The panel features a ‘turbo’ button to automatically select refresh rates of 60hz, 120hz and 144hz. The monitor is due for release very soon, and is already available on pre-order for £719.99 inc vat from Overclockers UK. As well as our usual technical analysis of the panel, today we partner the PG278Q with the ultra high end Asus GTX780Ti ROG Matrix graphics card. Does the PG278Q allow you to safely ignore the new slew of Ultra HD 4K panels for the forseeable future? One of the major selling points of this new ASUS screen is the support for Nvidia’s G-SYNC technology. G-SYNC has been designed to eliminate screen tearing – an unpleasant artifact that can rear its ugly head from time to time. We have covered this technology before in many of our news posts, but we will discuss it again briefly before delving into our main review. Inside all G-SYNC capable monitors is the proprietary NVIDIA G-SYNC module which allows the monitor to synchronise to the output of the graphics card. Traditionally the graphics card had to synchronise to the monitor which could lead to unpleasant tearing in-game – most of us have experienced this at one time or another . ROG SWIFT PG278QIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was inadvertently picked up by a live microphone on Wednesday calling the European Union "crazy" and admitting to missile strikes in Syria. Netanyahu was at a regional summit in Hungary at a closed-door session with the premiers of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia when his conversation was transmitted to reporters' headphones. Read more: Israeli's fume over Netanyahu's retraction of anti-Soros campaign "It's crazy. I think it's actually crazy (that the EU maintains that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must come before closer trade ties)," Netanyahu was quoted as saying by the news agency AP. "There is no logic here. Europe is undermining its security by undermining Israel. Europe is undermining its progress by undermining the connection with Israeli innovation because of a crazy attempt to create conditions (for peace with the Palestinians)," said Netanyahu. Netanyahu urged the Central European leaders to encourage the EU to ease conditions for advancing bilateral ties. "I think Europe has to decide if it wants to live and thrive or if it wants to shrivel and disappear," he was quoted as saying by Times of Israel. "I am not very politically correct. I know that's a shock to some of you. It's a joke. But the truth is the truth - both about Europe's security and Europe's economic future. Both of these concerns mandate a different policy towards Israel," the Times of Israel quoted. Read more: Moscow summons Israeli diplomat over Syria airstrike We can prevent mass migration "If I can suggest that what comes out of this meeting is your ability, perhaps, to communicate to your colleagues in other parts of Europe: Help, Europe... Don't undermine the one Western country that defends European values and European interests and prevents another mass migration to Europe," he reportedly told Hungary's Viktor Orban, the Czech Republic's Bohuslav Sobotka, Poland's Beata Szydlo and Slovakia's Robert Fico. Read more: Orban admits Nazi collaboration was a mistake Jerusalem in 1967 and 2017 Mount of Olives today The old City Wall and the gold-domed Muslim shrine, the Dome of the Rock, are visible in the background from the mountain ridge which lies to the east of the Old City. The Old Jewish Cemetery, situated on the western and southern slopes of the ridge, are in an area once named for its many olive groves. It is the oldest continually used Jewish cemetery in the world. Jerusalem in 1967 and 2017 Mount of Olives then If it weren't for the ancient Ottoman city wall and the shrine in the background, viewers might not realize this is the same site. The picture was taken on June 7th, 1967, when the peak was this brigade's command post at the height of the Six-Day War, or Arab-Israeli War. Jerusalem in 1967 and 2017 Al-Aqsa mosque today Al-Aqsa, with its silver-colored dome and vast hall, is located on Temple Mount. Muslims call the mosque the "Noble Sanctuary," but it is also the most sacred site in Judaism, a place where two biblical temples were believed to have stood. As well, it is the third holiest site in Sunni Islam, after Mecca and Medina. There have long been tensions over control of the entire Temple Mount area. Jerusalem in 1967 and 2017 Al-Aqsa mosque then The name Al-Aqsa translates to "the farthest mosque." It is also Jerusalem's biggest mosque. Israel has strict control over the area after conquering all of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War, and regaining access to its religious sites. Leaders at the time agreed that the Temple Mount would be administered by an Islamic religious trust known as the Waqf. Jerusalem in 1967 and 2017 Damascus Gate today The historic Gate, named in English for the fact that the road from there heads north to Damascus, is a busy main entrance to Palestinian East Jerusalem, and to a bustling Arab bazaar. Over the past two years, it has frequently been the site of security incidents and Palestinian attacks on Israelis. Jerusalem in 1967 and 2017 Damascus Gate then The gate itself - what we see today was built by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1537 - looks much the same in this July 1967 picture. Seven Gates allow entrance to the Old City and its separate quarters. Jerusalem in 1967 and 2017 Old City today Jerusalem's vibrant Old City, a UNESCO world Heritage Site since 1981, is home to sites important to many different religions: the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque for Muslims, Temple Mount and the Western Wall for Jews, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians. Busy and colorful, it is a great place for shopping and food, and a top attraction for visitors. Jerusalem in 1967 and 2017 Old City then This picture was taken in July 1967, but 50 years later, some things in the Old City haven't changed at all. Boys like the one in the photo balancing a tray of sesame pastries - called bagels - still roam the streets of the Old City today, hawking the sweet breads sprinkled with sesame seeds for about a euro ($1.12) apiece. Jerusalem in 1967 and 2017 Western Wall today This section of ancient limestone wall in Jerusalem's Old City is the western support wall of the Temple Mount. It is the most religious site for Jewish people, who come here to pray and perhaps to place a note in a crack in the wall. There is a separate section for men and for women, but it is free and open to everyone all year round - after the obligatory security check. Jerusalem in 1967 and 2017 Western Wall then The Western Wall is also known as the 'Wailing' Wall, a term considered derogatory and not used by Jews. The above photo of people flocking to the Wall to pray was taken on September 1, 1967, just weeks after Israel regained control of the site following the Six-Day-War. It had been expelled from the Old City 19 years earlier during Jordan's occupation. Author: Dagmar Breitenbach Netanyahu told the leaders that the EU was alone in its stipulations for working with Israel. "The European Union is the only association of countries in the world that conditions the relations with Israel - that produces technology in every area - on political conditions. The only ones. Nobody does it," Netanyahu was quoted as saying by AP, citing Russia, China and India's willingness to do business with Israel despite politics. Admits Syrian strikes Netanyahu also made a rare public admission that Israel has struck Iranian arms convoys in Syria bound for Hezbollah "dozens and dozens of times." He also made positive comments about the change in US administration from Barack Obama to Donald Trump. The EU does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over territories it captured in the 1967 Mideast war, including the West Bank and east Jerusalem. It has criticized Israel's settlement construction and requires the labeling of goods produced in West Bank settlements. After a few minutes it became clear that journalists could hear the comments and the sound was cut. Watch video 01:19 Share The Six Day War: Fifty years of occupation and uncertainty Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2e9Oe The Six Day War: Fifty years of occupation and uncertainty aw/rt (AP, dpa)LONDON (AP) — Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, has a message for the world’s central bankers: Don’t be Luddites. Addressing a conference in London on Friday, Lagarde said virtual currencies, which are created and exchanged without the involvement of banks or government, could in time be embraced by countries with unstable currencies or weak domestic institutions. “In many ways, virtual currencies might just give existing currencies and monetary policy a run for their money,” she said. “The best response by central bankers is to continue running effective monetary policy, while being open to fresh ideas and new demands, as economies evolve.” The most high-profile of these digital currencies is bitcoin, which like others can be converted to cash when deposited into accounts at prices set in online trading. Its price has been volatile, soaring over recent years but falling sharply earlier this month on reports that China will order all bitcoin exchanges to close and one of the world’s most high-profile investment bankers said bitcoin was a fraud. For now, Lagarde said, digital currencies are unlikely to replace traditional ones, as they are “too volatile, too risky, too energy intensive and because the underlying technologies are not yet scalable.” High-profile hacks have also not helped, she noted. One notable failure was that of the Mt. Gox exchange in Japan in February 2014, in which about 850,000 bitcoins were lost, possibly to hackers. Following that, Japan enacted new laws to regulate bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. But in time, she argued, technological innovations could address some of the issues that have kept a lid on the appeal of digital currencies. “Not so long ago, some experts argued that personal computers would never be adopted, and that tablets would only be used as expensive coffee trays, so I think it may not be wise to dismiss virtual currencies,” Lagarde said. Lagarde’s comments appear at odds with the views of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who this month described bitcoin as a fraud and said he’d fire any of his traders if they caught dealing in the digital currency. In a speech laying out the potential changes wrought by financial innovations, Lagarde also said that over the next generation, “machines will almost certainly play a larger role” in helping policymakers, offering real-time forecasts, spotting bubbles, and uncovering complex financial linkages. “As one of your fellow Londoners — Mary Poppins — might have said: bring along a pinch of imagination!”Patch 7.02 recently hit, so let’s talk about some neat tips for the new patch as well as some other old tricks that still work today. If you missed previous editions of the tips and tricks series for Dota 2, you can check them out here, here, and here. Tiny can Toss Heroes to Runes Most people don’t know this, but Tiny can actually toss nearby Heroes toward any rune. I believe this was a mechanic added so that Tiny can toss Wisp to the runes. All 6 rune spots work for this little trick, and can even be something you can make a small play with. For example, Techies can mine rune spots, and Tiny can toss enemies into the mined rune. Windranger: High Ground Defense Queen Windranger got some neat new talent reworks in Patch 7.02. Her level 25 talent allows her to choose -6 seconds Powershot cool down, making it only a 3 second cooldown. Combined with her new spell amp talent, Windranger can shoot long distance powershot from high ground every 3 seconds, making tower siege near impossible. You can go even more insane with buying Octarine Core and Aether Lens. Here’s a short GIF demonstrating this neat strat. http://dota2walls.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/windranger-flying-arrow-wallpaper.png Song of the Siren Stops Enemy Healing from Shrines If you happen to play Naga Siren and fight near an enemy shrine, you can stop the activated shrine from healing all of the enemy by using your ultimate, Song of the Siren. This is especially important when going high ground, where the enemy pops multiple shrines for easy regeneration. Great Tinker Counter: Zeus Aghanim’s Scepter When Tinker gets Boots of Travel and Blink, you know that it’s going to be hard to find and kill the enemy Tinker. However, Zeus is a great counter to Tinker now. The recently-new Aghanim’s Scepter allows Zeus to placed a storm cloud globally, striking a Lighting Bolt every 2.25 seconds and gives a large amount of vision. Now, when you see Tinker TP to a lane and blink into the trees, just place a storm cloud in the general area where he should be. The lightning bolt will interrupt his spell cast animations, Teleport, Rearm channeling, and disable Blink Dagger. In fact, there is a good chance that the Lightning Bolt will leave him there to die. It strikes with a mini-stun every 2.25 seconds, making teleporting impossible. The cool down of the Scepter is only 40 seconds, so it won’t be much of a waste if you don’t catch him.University of California Berkeley student and left-wing activist Pablo Gomez has been arrested. Gomez allegedly stabbed a woman, who despite her injuries, managed to flag down assistance. The College Fix reports, “Eventually authorities discovered the dead body from another 'violent crime' incident, leading them to tag Gomez as the main suspect.” The accused is involved with Berkeley’s Queer Alliance Resource Center and according to Facebook “is a senior climate action fellow at Alliance for Climate Education.” Back in September, the left-wing activist was caught on video confronting the Berkeley College Republicans. The Chicanx/Latinx Studies major is then seen grabbing a Donald Trump cut-out and telling them “this is f*cked up.” MORE: University students voted to ban Canadian and American flags from 'inclusive space' for this bizarre reason In an even more bizarre level to this story, Berkeleyside, who reported the story on Gomez's arrest added a correction to their article saying “This story was updated after publication to reflect Gomez Jr.’s preferred pronoun, according to a friend who contacted Berkeleyside.” People commenting on the story view the change as pathetic. One commenter wrote, “Who the hell cares what pronoun he/she/it prefers to be called by? I’ll bet his victims would have preferred not to be stabbed.” SOUND OFF in the comments with your thoughts.As Abraham Lincoln rose to give the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, his face had a “sad, mournful, almost haggard” expression according to Clark E. Carr, a member of National Cemetery Commission. Reciting the speech eloquently and without difficulty, no one – including Lincoln – realized at the time that he was in the early stages of a smallpox infection. On the train back to Washington that evening, Lincoln became feverish, weak, and troubled by a headache. His personal servant, William B. Johnson, applied a wet towel to the president’s face to help allay the fever and pain. Back in Washington, Lincoln’s sickness progressed. He had a high fever, severe headaches with back pain, and profound weakness. On the fourth day of illness, a scarlet rash appeared on his body. Lincoln’s physician, Dr. Robert K. Stone, first thought the president had scarlatina (scarlet fever), but when small, widely scattered blisters appeared the next day, he became more concerned. Dr. Washington Van Bibber from Baltimore, Maryland, was called in by Stone to consult on the case. After Van Bibber finished examining Lincoln, the president asked for his diagnosis. “Mr. President,” the doctor said, “if I was to give a name to your malady, I should say that you have a touch of the varioloid.” “Then am I to understand that I have the smallpox?” Lincoln asked. Van Bibber said yes, prompting Lincoln to quip: “For once in my life as President, I find myself in a position to give everybody something.” The term “varioloid” was a common 19th century name for smallpox; but in the following century, the term would be used more specifically to describe milder forms of the disease that occurred in previously vaccinated individuals. There is no evidence, however, that Lincoln had ever received a smallpox vaccine during his lifetime. In the days following the Gettysburg Address, nervous staffers kept a close vigil on the president. William O. Stoddard, one of Lincoln’s secretaries, recorded in his memoirs: “…the White House has suddenly been turned into a smallpox hospital, with a certain degree of penetrable quarantine.” John Nicolay and John Hay, Lincoln’s private secretaries, restricted visitation while Dr. Stone vaccinated all the White House staff and residents against smallpox. Stoddard remembered having “mournful consultations” with Nicolay and Hay “over the idea that all the country would go to ruin if Abraham Lincoln should die of the dread disease….” On November 26, Hay cautiously noted in his diary: “The President quite unwell.” Fortunately, over the next few days, Lincoln’s fever abated and the skin lesions began to peel and itch. The National Republican reported on November 28, 1863: We are glad to be able to announce the President is much better today. The fever from which he has suffered has left him. Thursday and Thursday night his suffering was chiefly from severe pains in the head. Yesterday and the day before, he was not permitted by his physician to hold any interviews – even with the members of his cabinet. It is hoped that in a day or two he will gain sufficient strength to resume his official duties. Although still weak and emaciated, Lincoln had improved enough by December 6 that a reporter from the Chicago Tribune was allowed to visit. “The President has not yet quite recovered his health,” the story read on December 11, “his face is slightly marked, but in a few days he will be quite recovered.” Although Lincoln would experience a complete recovery from the “dread disease” (he was well enough to attend a play at Ford’s Theatre on December 15, 1863), his servant William Johnson was not so fortunate. At some point over the course of Lincoln’s illness, Johnson also came down with smallpox. By mid-January, he had succumbed to the disease with Lincoln paying for Johnson’s burial out of his own pocket. Although Johnson had attended the president early in his illness, Lincoln did not believe he was the source of the servant’s infection. “He did not catch it from me, however; at least I think not,” Lincoln remarked to another reporter. Lincoln may have been correct. Washington, D.C. was in the midst of a widespread smallpox outbreak at the time and no one can be sure when and where Lincoln and Johnson became exposed. In fact, in the week before Lincoln left for Gettysburg, his 10-year-old son, Tad, had been bed-ridden with an illness consisting of a fever and a “scarlet” rash. History is full of what-ifs. Had the Gettysburg ceremony been held one or two days later than November 19, 1863, Lincoln would likely have been too ill to attend and deliver the Gettysburg Address. Or, if he had succumbed to smallpox as his servant did, how would the remainder of the Civil War have played out? One can only speculate. References: Goldman, Armond S., and Frank C. Schmalstieg. “Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Illness.” Journal of Medical Biography 15 (2007): 104-110. Burlingame, Michael and John R. Turner Ettlinger, eds. Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997. Stoddard, William O. Inside the White House in War Times. New York: Charles L. Webster & Co., 1892.My son is a funny, kind, curious 9-year-old kid who likes to draw, swim, learn about whales and play Legos and tag with his friends... oh, and he happens to have food allergies. Let me be clear on the phrasing; he's not an allergy-kid. He's a kid with allergies. While they are very much the largest consideration during his daily life, food allergies do not define him. In an ironic twist, if you ask him to define himself, he'll say he loves food. In his lunchbox he carries an epi-pen and a key chain that he made that says "Jack K. Loves Food." It doesn't matter to him that dairy, egg and all nuts aren't included in that food because they have never been an option for him. He doesn't miss them because he's never known any differently. He was rushed into intestinal surgery when he was 3 days old. After a full recovery, he went into anaphylaxis when he had formula for the first time at 15 weeks old. So our household has been dairy, egg and nut free for nine years now, and as parents we've also never known any differently. And that's what this story is about. Not curing, treating, studying, diagnosing or even living with food allergies. It's about parenting with food allergies. While my son is a child with food allergies, I on the other hand, know that I am one of those allergy-moms. The reason for the distinction is because it seems to me that kids are more accepting of food allergies than adults are. Fortunately, my son is socially and emotionally okay with his food allergies. At this age, he seems to approach his allergies with the appropriate level of seriousness and respect, yet not be frozen in fear over them. Other kids have been supportive and matter-of-fact about his allergies and even look out for him during lunch and playdates. As we have all heard and read in various studies, allergies are on the rise with today's generation of kids. Food allergies have always been a part of their world. Many children's musicians sing about food allergies and popular cartoons have characters with allergies. In fact, thanks to Disney's Prep & Landing, our kids think Santa has a nut allergy and leave him safe cookies. But not us adults. Food allergies are pretty new to us. Most of us never grew up with a friend or sibling with food allergies. Unfamiliarity leads to a misunderstanding and a missed tone about food allergies. So while our kids seem to get it just fine, there's a great deal of mental reconditioning and a real shift in mindset that needs to happen for us adults. We all know that we parent best when we parent together. So I'm providing the below perspectives on parenting with food allergies so all of us can better understand what the collective we is all about and keep all of our kids -- your kids and my kids -- happy, healthy, supported, loved and safe. 1. As the parent of a child with food allergies, it makes us crazy when people make any sort of assumption about food allergies other than this one assumption -- a food allergy is a life-threatening condition that causes children to stop. breathing. immediately. It's very real... and it's very scary. 2. As the parent of a child with food allergies we want you to know that this is not a lifestyle choice. While it's admirable that some people choose to eat healthy and be aware of the ingredients in their food, we aren't standing in the grocery store aisle reading the label on everything that goes into our cart as a hobby. We're studying those ingredients to make sure there's not an obscure ingredient that could kill our children. (Did you know that caramel coloring is made out of dairy? Are you familiar with the difference between sodium lactate and potassium lactate?) 3. As the parent of a child with food allergies there is not a playdate or school activity that our child will attend without us having a discussion with the hosting parent, event chaperone or teacher first. Every event my child has ever participated in (ever!) from t-ball to school to summer camps has always been preempted with a medical conversation first. We know we're perceived as high-maintenance parents. And we feel badly about that because the level of diligence we're forced to have about the subject of food allergies may not be consistent with the level of diligence our personalities would normally reflect. 4. As the parent of a child with food allergies we have laid awake at night, wondering if we'll be able to spot the signs of our child's throat closing. We've been told that anaphylaxis can happen in less than two minutes, so not only do we wonder if we'll be able to identify this emergency, we wonder if our child's teacher, babysitter, grandparent, recess monitor, friend or coach will know when our child can't breathe. 5. As a parent of a child with food allergies we have laid awake at night, wondering if our child will ever be able to attend a keg party in college or share a random kiss. And if he does, who will carry his epi-pen? 6. Speaking of which, as the parent of a child with food allergies we leave the house remembering the basics like phone, wallets, keys -- and epi-pens. We know not to leave them in a car that is too hot or too cold and we always carry at least two, if not seven. Even with insurance, they are $25 a pop, so we treat them with the utmost respect for the year that we have them before they expire. But that's all ok, because those little devices carrying a shot of adrenaline could save our child, or at least sustain them, until the ambulance arrives. 7. As the parent of a child with food allergies, we sit outside every birthday party or sports practice while other parents leave. 8. As the parent of a child with food allergies, we balance the emotional impact of being a helicopter parent against the medical threat of having our child go into anaphylaxis when we're not around. We feel guilty and scared of both. 9. As the parent of a child with food allergies, we have never relaxed, sat back and actually enjoyed or tasted a meal in a restaurant. Never. You see, we spend those meals playing and replaying the emergency plan in our head while quietly observing our child's breathing as he enjoys his meal. 10. As the parent of a child with food allergies, we regularly attend medical appointments in big time children's hospitals where we can't help but see other patients and deeply suffering families. And upon this realization, we are humbled and grateful and reminded of just how fortunate we are that we are the parents of a child with only food allergies. While our child has a life-threatening medical condition, it is manageable. And as long as we have help from you and others in managing it, our child is alive -- and that's really something! So yes, living with a constant threat to his life is quite a big weight for my 9-year-old son to carry on his small shoulders. And he carries that weight pretty well. But he will never carry that weight alone. As his mother I carry it, just as his father carries it. His sisters carry it and his grandparents carry it. His aunts, uncles, cousins and friends carry it. And just by reading this, you too have lightened his load. So thank you for reading. Thank you for taking a moment to try to understand. And thank you for helping to keep all of our children safe.Amazon s joining the hot trend of marijuana-themed shows with Budding Prospect, a 1980s comedy from Bad Santa director Terry Zwigoff, which has tapped Will Sasso as one of the leads. Written by Melissa Axelrod based on the TC Boyle novel of the same name and to be directed by Zwigoff, Budding Prospect is set in 1983 San Francisco. Three hapless city boys move to the country to grow marijuana. Their expectations of the experience being a back-to-the-land, nurturing adventure in a beautiful rustic setting run up against the harsh truth upon their arrival at “The Summer Camp” – a miserably run-down shanty out in the middle of nowhere, where they are bedeviled by rats, snakes, mosquitoes, and harsh, unfriendly growing conditions, noisy neighbors, dangerous locals, and menacing law enforcement. Sasso will play one of the three leads, Gesh, a big, unruly guy who is smarter than he seems. Zwigoff and Axelrod executive produce with Vincent Landay. Joanna Colbert is co-executive produce. MadTV alum Sasso, repped by D2 Management, APA, and attorney Jonathan Moonves, is filming Super Trooper 2. Budding Prospects is looking to join several pot-themed scripted comedy series, HBO’s High Maintenance, Netflix’s upcoming Chuck Lorre sitcom Disjointed, and MTV’s Mary + Jane. Amazon’s current pilot slate includes I Love Dick, which is nearing a series pickup, Jean-Claude Van Johnson, The Tick, and The Legend of Master Legend.The Cavaliers took a chance on Andrew Bynum, but it was a small one considering that the team signed him to a contract that is only guaranteed for $6 million, and doesn’t become fully guaranteed until after January 10. There would seem to be an incentive for Bynum to get back on the court for the first part of the season to prove his value and get the rest of the money that could potentially be his under the most recent deal. But at the same time, if he comes back and underperforms because he isn’t yet ready to return, that could hurt his long-term chances. It’s a tricky situation that will be monitored closely, and we’re going to hear plenty of reports as to Bynum’s readiness leading up to the season. Consider this the first, which is semi-contradictory to what Bynum himself said about his non-existent timetable to return just a couple of weeks ago. From Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio: Training camp begins Oct. 1, with the Cavs’ first preseason game
successfully with a counterattack. "Sustained attention" means keeping the eyes focused throughout a duel, not letting shifts in the action cause diversion or distraction. The "one-cubit margin of the short sword" refers to a distance of a cubit from each shoulder; a samurai typically carried a long sword and a short sword. When an adversary on the attack enters within the one-cubit margin, his neck can be reached with a short sword. The use of "both aggressive and passive modes," the body aggressive with the sword passive, refers to the active use of body language to elicit an adversary's moves, while keeping one's sword in a position of ready reserve to be able to follow up on an opening at once. Hearing the Sound of Wind and Water This science, in any case, is all about how to win by getting your adversary to take the initiative, launching various preliminary blows and shifting strategically, based on tactical ploys. Before facing off you should assume your opponent to be in the aggressive mode and should not fail to be attentive. Mental preparation is essential. If you do not assume your adversary to be in the aggressive mode, the techniques you have been learning hitherto will be of no avail when you are assailed with great vehemence the instant the duel starts. Once you face off, it is essential to put your mind, body, and feet in the aggressive mode while putting your hands in the waiting mode. Be sure to pay attention to what is there. This is what is meant by the saying, "Take what is there in hand." If you do not observe with utmost calm, the sword techniques you have learned will not be useful. As for the matter of "hearing the sound of wind and water," this means being calm and quiet on the surface while keeping energy aggressive underneath. Wind has no sound; it produces sound when it strikes objects. Thus wind is silent when it blows up above. When it makes contact with objects like trees and bamboo below, the sound it produces is noisy and frantic. Water also has no sound when it is falling from above; it makes a frantic sound below when it comes down and hits things. Using these images as illustrations, the point is to be calm and quiet on the surface, while keeping energy aggressive underneath. These are images of outwardly being extremely serene, unruffled, and calm, while inwardly being aggressively watchful. It is bad for body, hands, and feet to be hurried. The aggressive and passive modes should be paired, one inward and one outward; it is bad to settle into just one mode. It is imperative to reflect on the sense of yin and yang alternating. Movement is yang, stillness is yin. Yin and yang interchange, inside and outside. When yang moves inwardly, you're outwardly still, in the yin mode; when you are inwardly yin, movement appears outwardly. In this way, in martial arts as well, you activate your energy inwardly, constantly attentive, while remaining outwardly calm and unruffled. This is yang moving within while yin is quiet without. This is in accord with the pattern of Nature. Furthermore, when outwardly intensely aggressive, if you are internally calm, so your inner mind is not captured by the outside, then you will not be outwardly wild. If you move both inwardly and outwardly at once, you become wild. The aggressive and passive modes, movement and stillness, should be made to alternate inside and outside. Keeping the inner mind attentive, like a duck swimming on the water, calm above while paddling below, when this practice builds up, the inner mind and the outside merge together so that inside and outside become one, with no barrier at all. To arrive at this state is the supreme attainment. The Art of War by Sun-tzu says, "A good attack is one against which an enemy does not know where to defend, while a good defense is one against which an enemy does not know where to attack.... Thus a militia has no permanently fixed configuration, no constant form. Those who are able to seize victory by adapting to opponents are called experts." Sickness To be obsessed even with winning is sickness. To be obsessed even with using martial arts is sickness. To be obsessed with showing all one has learned is sickness too. To be obsessed with offense is sickness; to be obsessed with defense is also sickness. To become rigidly obsessed with getting rid of sickness is also sickness. To fix the mind obsessively on anything is considered sickness. Since all of these various sicknesses are in the mind, the thing is to tune the mind by getting rid of such afflictions. Eliminating Sickness: Elementary and Advanced Levels Elementary Level "Free from thought having gotten into thought, free from fixation having gotten fixated." The meaning of this is that the intention to get rid of thought is a thought. To intend to eliminate sickness in the mind is getting into thought. Now then, the expression "sickness" also means obsessive thought. To think of getting rid of sickness is also thought. Thus you use thought to get rid of thought. When rid of thoughts, you're free from thought, so this is called being free from thought having gotten into thought. When you take thought to get rid of the sickness that remains in thought, after that the thought of removal and the thoughts to be removed both disappear. This is what is known as using a wedge to extract a wedge. When you can't get a wedge out, if you drive in another wedge to ease the pressure, then the first wedge comes out. Once the stuck wedge comes out, the wedge driven in after isn't left there. When sickness is gone, the thought of getting rid of sickness is no longer there, so this is called being free from thought having gotten into thought. To think of getting rid of sickness is fixation on sickness, but if you use that fixation to get rid of sickness, the fixation will not remain. So this is called being free from fixation having gotten fixated. Advanced Level At the advanced level, to have no thought of getting rid of sickness at all is getting rid of sickness. To think of riddance is itself sickness. Letting sickness be while living in the midst of sickness is to be rid of sickness. Thinking of eliminating sickness occurs because sickness is still in the mind. Therefore sickness doesn't depart, and whatever you do and think is done with fixation, so there can be no higher value in it. How is this to be understood? The two levels, elementary and advanced, have been set up for this purpose. You cultivate the state of mind of the elementary level, and when this cultivation builds up, fixation departs on its own, without your intending to eliminate it. Sickness means fixation. In Buddhism, fixation is rejected. Mendicants who are free of fixation are unaffected even if they mix with ordinary society; whatever they do is done freely and independently, stopping where it naturally should. Masters of the arts cannot be called adepts as long as they have not left behind fixation on their various skills. Dust and dirt adhere to an unpolished gem, but a perfectly polished gem will not be stained even if it falls into mud. Polishing the gem of your mind by spiritual cultivation so that it is impervious to stain, having left sickness alone and given up concern, you can act as you will. The Zen concept of fixation as sickness is elucidated with exceptional clarity by the famous Chinese Chan master Foyan, who lived from 1060 to 1120: "In the Heroic Progress Scripture, Buddha described fifty kinds of meditation sickness. Now I'm telling you that you need to be free from sickness to attain realization. "According to my school, there are only two kinds of sickness. One is to mount a donkey to go looking for a donkey. The other one is to be unwilling to dismount after having mounted the donkey. "You say it is certainly a serious sickness to ride a donkey in search of a donkey. I say you needn't find a spiritually sharp individual to recognize this right away and eliminate the sickness of seeking so the mad mind stops. "The sickness that is most difficult to treat is to be unwilling to dismount the donkey after you have found it and gotten on it. I tell you that you need not mount the donkey—you are the donkey! The whole world is the donkey—how can you mount it? If you mount it, you can be sure the sickness won't leave; if you don't mount it, the whole universe is wide open. "When the two sicknesses are gone, and there is nothing on your mind, then you are called a wayfarer." The Normal Mind A monk asked an ancient worthy, "What is the Way?" The ancient worthy replied, "The normal mind is the Way." This story contains a principle that applies to all the arts. Asked what the Way is, the ancient worthy replied that the normal mind is the Way. This is indeed supreme. This is the state where the sicknesses of the mind are all gone and one has become normal in mind, free from sickness even in the midst of sickness. To apply this to worldly matters, suppose you are shooting with a bow and you think you are shooting while you are shooting; then the aim of your bow will be inconsistent and unsteady. If you are conscious of wielding your sword when wielding your sword, your offense will be unstable. If you are conscious of writing while writing, your pen will be unsteady. Even when you play the harp, the tune will be off if you're conscious of playing. When an archer forgets consciousness of shooting and shoots in a normal frame of mind, as if unoccupied, the bow will be steady. When using a sword or riding a horse too, you do not "wield a sword" or "ride a horse." And you do not "write"; you do not "play music." When you do everything in the normal state of mind as it is when totally unoccupied, then everything goes smoothly and easily. Whatever you do as your Way, if you keep it in your heart as the only thing of importance, then it is not the Way. When you have nothing in your heart, then you are on the Way. Whatever you do, if you do it with nothing in your heart, it works out easily. This is like the way everything is reflected in a mirror clearly precisely because of the constant formless clarity of the mirror's reflectivity. The heart of those on the Way is like a mirror, empty and clear, mindless yet not failing to accomplish anything. This is the normal mind. One who does everything with this normal mind is called an adept. Whatever you do, if you keep the idea of doing it before you, and do it with single-minded concentration, then you will be inconsistent. You'll do it well once, but then when you think that is fine, you'll do it badly. Or you may do it well twice and then do it badly again. If you are glad you did it well twice and badly but once, you will then do it badly again, with no consistency at all. This is because of acting with the thought of doing it well. When the effects of exercise build up unawares and practice accumulates, thoughts of wishing to develop skill quickly disappear quietly, and you naturally become free from conscious thoughts whatever you do, like a wooden puppet performing. At this point you don't even know yourself. When your body, feet, and hands act without your doing anything in your mind, you don't miss ten times out of ten. Even then, you will miss if it gets on your mind at all. When you are not consciously mindful, you will score every time. Not being consciously mindful does not, however, mean total mindlessness. It just means a normal mind. The Chinese Chan master Foyan cited above also quotes the same story about the normal mind to illustrate freedom from the sickness of fixation: "When Zhaozhou asked Nanquan, 'What is the Way?' Nanquan replied, 'The normal mind is the Way.' All at once Zhaozhou stopped his hasty search, recognized the sickness of 'Zen Masters' and the sickness of 'Buddhas,' and passed through it all After that he traveled all over and had no peer anywhere because of his recognition of sicknesses." The earlier Taoist classic Liezi, composed in the third to fourth centuries CE and containing a considerable mixture of Buddhist thought, features numerous precursors to Zen methodology including the imagery of archery as used by Yagyu to illustrate the Way of naturalness: "Rebel Resister Lie performed some archery for Elder Stupid Nobody Drawing the bow fully with a cup of water on his arm, he shot one arrow after another in continuous succession, still as a statue all the while. "Elder Stupid Nobody said, 'This is deliberate shooting, not spontaneous shooting. Suppose we climbed a high mountain and stood on a precipice overlooking an abyss—could you shoot then?' "So they climbed a high mountain, where Nobody went out on a precipice. Standing with his back to the abyss, heels hanging off the ledge, he beckoned to Rebel Resister to join him. Rebel Resister fell prostrate on the ground, running with sweat. "Elder Stupid Nobody said, 'Complete people gaze into the blue sky above, plunge into the center of the earth below, and run freely in the eight directions without even a change of mood. Now you have a fearful expression of aversion—your inner state must be very uneasy!' " Like a Wooden Man Facing Flowers and Birds This is a saying of Layman Pang: "Like a wooden man facing flowers and birds." Though his eyes are on the flowers and birds, his mind does not stir at the flowers and birds. Because a wooden man has no mind, it is not moved; this is perfectly logical. But how can a person with a mind become like a wooden man? The wooden man is a metaphor. As a human being with a mind, one cannot be exactly like a wooden manikin. As a human being, one cannot be like bamboo or wood. Even though you do see flowers, you do not see them by reproducing the consciousness of seeing the flowers. The point of the saying is simply to see innocently, with the normal mind. When you shoot, you don't shoot by reproducing the consciousness of shooting. In other words, you shoot with the normal mind. The normal mind is called unminding. If you change the normal mind and instead reproduce another consciousness, your form will also change, so you will stir both internally and externally. If you do everything with a stirring mind, nothing will be as it should. Even in a mere matter of speaking a word, people will praise it if and only if your manner of saying it is unstirring and unshakable. What they call the unstirring mind of the Buddhas seems truly sublime. Layman Pang was a lay Chan master. His enlightenment verse, illustrating the Chan notion of normalcy is very famous in sectarian annals: "My everyday affairs are no different, Only I myself harmonize. Nowhere is grasped or rejected, Nowhere for or against. Who thinks crimson and purple noble? The green mountains haven't a speck of dust. Spiritual powers, wondrous actions — Hauling water, carrying wood." Layman Pang's main teacher, Mazu, was one of the most illustrious Chan masters of all time. He explained the normal mind, an expression he himself may have coined, in these terms: "If you want to understand the Way directly the normal mind is the Way. What I mean by the normal mind is the mind without artificiality without subjective judgments, without grasping or rejection." The Free Mind Master Zhongfeng said, "Embody the free-minded mind." There are elementary and advanced levels of applying this saying. When you let the mind go, it stops where it has gone. Therefore the first level of practice is to get it to come back each time, so that the mind does not stay anywhere. When you strike a blow of the sword and your mind lingers where you struck, this teaching has you get it to return to you. At the advanced level, the message is to let your mind be free to go wherever it will. Having made it so it will not stop and linger anywhere even when set free, you release your mind. To embody the free-minded mind means that you are not free or independent as long as you use the mind that releases the mind to rope the mind and keep dragging it back. The mind that does not stop and linger anywhere even when set free is called the free-minded mind. When you embody this free-minded mind, then independence is possible in actual practice. You are not independent as long as you are holding on to a halter. Even dogs and cats should be raised unleashed. Cats and dogs cannot be raised properly if they are tied up all the time. People who read Confucian books dwell on the word seriousness as if it were the ultimate, spending their whole lives on seriousness, thus making their minds like leashed cats. There is seriousness in Buddhism too; scripture speaks of being single-minded and undistracted, which corresponds to seriousness. It means setting the mind on one thing and not letting it scatter elsewhere. There are, of course, passages that say, "We seriously declare of the Buddha...," and we speak of single-mindedly and seriously paying respects when we face an icon of a Buddha in what we call reverent obeisance. These are consistent with the meaning of seriousness. They are, however, in any case, expedient means for controlling mental distraction. A well-governed mind does not need expedients to control it. When we chant, "Great Sage, Immovable One," with our posture correct and our palms joined, in our minds we visualize the image of the Immovable One. At this time, our three modes of action—physical, verbal, and mental —are balanced, and we are single-minded and undistracted. This is called the equality of the three mysteries. In other words, this has the same import as seriousness. Seriousness corresponds to a quality of the basic mind, yet it is a state of mind that lasts only so long as it is practiced. When we relax our reverential gesture and stop chanting buddha-names, the image of Buddha in our minds also disappears. What then remains is the former distracted mind. This is not a thoroughly pacified mind. People who have successfully managed to pacify their minds once do not purify their thoughts, words, and deeds — they are unstained even as they mingle with the dust of the world. Even if they are active all day, they are unmoved, just as the moon reflected in the water does not move even though millions of waves roll one after another. This is the realm of people who have attained Buddhism completely; I have recorded it here under the instruction of a teacher of that doctrine. Zhongfeng Mingben (1263-1323) was one of a comparatively small number of distinguished Chan teachers of the Yuan dynasty when esoteric Buddhism was imported into China from Central Asia by Mongol overlords and many of the native Chan schools converted to Taoism. Zhongfeng is particularly noted for the use of Chan sayings for concentration, but he emphasized that this is just an expedient and the real goal is normalcy in the Chan sense: "Chan is the teaching of the true ground of mind. If you are sure you want to comprehend the great matter of life and death, you should know that with a single thought of doubt or confusion you fall into the realm of demons." The distinction Yagyu draws between teaching and training, and his emphasis on naturalness rather than coercion in real education represent a level of sophistication that, while characteristic of Buddhist psychology was never implemented on a wide scale in Japan. Although there is a great deal of literature on this subject in modern times, moreover, mechanical training and coercion remain the mainstays of official educational systems even in the most liberal societies today. The use of the terms "seriousness" or "respectfulness" to mean single-mindedness is characteristic of neo-Confucianism, which developed in China under the influence of Chan Buddhism. In Yagyu's time, neo-Confucianism was established as the standard curriculum in secular education, and many Zen monks left religious orders to become lay Confucian scholars. Yagyu's critique of Confucianism is classically Buddhist in its focus on practical method. The interpretation of ritual behavior in terms of intended psychological effect is also a Zen tradition, though this level of understanding is unknown to indoctrinated followers. The expression "equality of the three mysteries" derives from esoteric Shingon Buddhism, which emphasizes the attainment of buddhahood in this very body The three mysteries are thought, word, and deed, and their equality is with those of the cosmic Buddha Vairocana, the Illuminator, or Great Sun Buddha. Informal Shingon Buddhism, this identity is expressed through symbolic rites, as illustrated here. In Zen Buddhism, this identity is realized through awakening to the universal ground of mind. This essentialist Zen approach is what Yagyu alludes to in his final statement here. His note that it was made under the direction of a teacher is a disclaimer of personal Zen mastery. BOOK 2 THE LIFE-GIVING SWORD Even If There Are a Hundred Positions, You Win with Just One The point of this is perceiving abilities and intentions. Even if a hundred or a thousand manners of swordplay are taught and learned, including all sorts of positions of the body and the sword, the perception of abilities and intentions alone is to be considered discernment. Even if your opponent has a hundred postures and you have a hundred stances, the ultimate point is solely in the perception of abilities and intentions. This is passed on secretly, so it is not written in the proper characters, but with code words having the same sound. Every possible move may have its countermove, but the ability to match a move at the right moment depends on direct perception and instant response, while the ability to outguess and outmaneuver an adversary depends on intuiting intention. This same basic principle also applies to civil affairs, wherein perception of abilities and intentions is crucial to effective organization and management. Both the concept of perception as paramount and the practice of clearing the mind to achieve accurate perception are found in the ancient Chinese strategic classic The Master of Demon Valley: "You need to be even-minded and calm yourself in order to listen to people's statements, examine their affairs, assess myriad things, and distinguish relative merits. Even if you repudiate specific matters, see their subtleties and know their types. If you are searching into people and live in their midst, you can measure their abilities and see into their intentions, with never a failure to tally. Therefore knowledge begins from knowing yourself; after that you can know others." The Rhythm of Existence and Nonexistence plus The Existence of Both the Existent and the Nonexistent These expressions refer to the custom of using the terms existence and nonexistence in reference to abilities and intentions. When evident, they are existent; when concealed, they are nonexistent. This existence and nonexistence, hidden and manifest, refer to perceptions of abilities and intentions. They are in the hand that grips the sword. There are analyses of existence and nonexistence in Buddhism; here we use them analogously Ordinary people see the existent but not the nonexistent. In perception of abilities and intentions we see both the existent and the nonexistent. The fact is that existence and nonexistence are both there. When there is existence, you strike the existent; when there is nonexistence, you strike the nonexistent. Moreover, you strike the nonexistent without waiting for its existence, and strike the existent without waiting for its nonexistence; hence it is said that the existent and nonexistent both exist. In a commentary on the classic of Lao-tzu, there is something called "always existent, always nonexistent." Existence is always there, and nonexistence is always there as well. When concealed, the existent becomes nonexistent; when revealed, the nonexistent becomes existent. To illustrate, when a duck is floating on top of water, it is "present," while when it dives under water, it is "absent." Thus even when we think something exists, once it is concealed, it is nonexistent. And even if we think something is nonexistent, when it is revealed, it exists. Therefore existence and nonexistence just mean concealment and manifestation; the substance is the same. Thus existence and nonexistence are always there. In Buddhism, they speak of fundamental nonexistence and fundamental existence. When people die, the existent is concealed; when people are born, the nonexistent is manifested. The substance is eternal. There are existence and nonexistence in the hand that grips the sword. This is a trade secret. This is called perception of ability and intention. When you have hidden your hand, what you have there is concealed. When you turn your palm face up, what was not there is revealed. Even so, without personal instruction these words are hard to understand. When there is existence, you should see the existent and strike it. When there is nonexistence, you should see the nonexistent and strike it. That is why we say that the existent and nonexistent both exist. If you misperceive the existence and nonexistence of abilities and intentions, you will not attain victory even if you use a hundred techniques to the fullest. Every sort of martial art is consummated in this one step. Existence, or presence, indicates externalization or actualization of ability and intent. Nonexistence, or absence, indicates concealment or latency of ability and intent. To see existence and strike it means to parry a move and counter; to see nonexistence and strike it means to foil a move before it is made. If attention to immediate action obscures alertness to potential plotting, it will be impossible to outmaneuver an adversary. On the other hand, if fixation on foresight and preemption distracts attention from the present, this creates gaps in defense. Therefore this dynamic balance of awareness, at once attentive to the evident and the unseen, is crucial to all martial arts. It is taught secretly in the sense that verbal description alone does not convey the personal experience necessary for actual understanding and true realization. This principle of martial arts is analogous to the Zen dictum, "The secret is in yourself." That is to say the potentiality to which the teaching refers has to be experienced personally to be comprehended. This is so by nature, not by artificial esoterism. The Moon in the Water and Its Reflection There is a certain distance between an opponent and yourself at which you will not get hit by the opponent's sword. Martial arts are employed from outside this space. To get close to an opponent by striding into this space, or slipping into it, is called the moon in the water, likened to the moon sending its reflection into a body of water. One should engage an opponent only after having figured out the standpoint of the moon in the water before facing off. The measurement of the spacing has to be passed on by word of mouth. The principle of assessing a margin of safety is also essential to large-scale warfare. The Art of War says, "The ancients who were skilled in combat first became invincible, and in that condition awaited vulnerability on the part of enemies.... Those skilled at defense hide in the deepest depths of the earth; those skilled at offense maneuver in the highest heights of the sky.... Those who are skilled in combat take a stand on an invincible ground without losing sight of opponents' vulnerabilities." The Inscrutable Sword The inscrutable sword is a matter of utmost importance. There is a way to wear it oneself as an inscrutable sword. When one carries it with oneself, the character for sword in inscrutable sword is written and understood as sword. Whether positioned to the right or the left, as long as the sword has not left the inscrutable state there is meaning in the use of the character for sword. In reference to adversaries, the character ken for sword should be written and understood as the word ken for see. Since you are to see the position of inscrutable swords clearly in order to wade in slashing, the seeing is essential. Thus there is meaning in the character ken for seeing. The inscrutable sword is the sword in a passive or "quiet" state of reserve. This implies both position and potential as well as covert intention. In code language, it is written and understood as "sword" in reference to one's own reserve capacity and strategy while written and understood as "seeing" in reference to the tactical need to perceive opponents' reserve capacity and strategy in order to see an opportune moment to launch an assault. Explanation of the Characters Spirit and Wonder—Meaning Inscrutable The spirit is within, the wonder appears outwardly. This is called a divine wonder, or an inscrutable marvel. For example, because there is the spirit of tree in a tree, its flowers blossom fragrantly, its foliage turns green, its branches and leaves flourish—this is called the wonder. If you break wood down, you don't see anything you may call the spirit of tree, yet if there were no spirit, the flowers and foliage would not emerge. This is also true of the human spirit; though you cannot open up the body to see something you may call the spirit, it is by virtue of the existence of the spirit within that you perform all sorts of actions. When you settle your spirit where your sword is inscrutable, all sorts of marvels appear in your hands and feet, causing flowers to blossom in battle. The spirit is the master of the mind. The spirit resides within, employing the mind outside. This mind, moreover, employs energy. Employing energy in external activities on behalf of the spirit, if this mind lingers in one place, its function is deficient. So it is essential to make sure that the mind is not fixated on one point. For example, when the master of a house, staying at home, sends an employee out on an errand, if the employee stays where he goes and does not return, he will be missing for further duties. In the same way, if your mind lingers on things and does not return to its original state, then your ability in martial arts will slip. For this reason, the matter of not fixating the mind on one point applies to everything, not only martial arts. There are two understandings, spirit and mind. As in certain other places in his handbook, the vocabulary and imagery Yagyu uses here is more akin to Chinese Taoist and martial arts traditions than Zen spirituality. The classic Master of Demon Valley says, "If the mind lacks appropriate technique, there will inevitably be failure to penetrate. With this penetration, five energies are nurtured. The task is a matter of sheltering the spirit. This is called development. Development involves five energies, including will, thought, spirit, and character. Spirit is the unifying leader. Calmness and harmony nurture energy. When energy attains the right harmony, then will, thought, spirit, and character do not deteriorate, and these four facets of force and power all thereby survive and remain. This is called spiritual development ending up in the body.... "Development of will is for when the energy of mind does not reach its intended object When you have some desire, your will dwells on it and intends it Will is a functionary of desire; when you have many desires, your mind is scattered. When your mind is scattered, your will deteriorates. When your will deteriorates, then thought does not attain its object." Eliminating Sickness Three Things: Sickness in Opponents Yagyu does not elaborate on these items in his book, but commentary defines the three things as intending to strike, intending to prevail, and intending to parry. These three are points at which attention is apt to fail and sickness—fixation—is apt to emerge. This happens, commentary explains, when one's composure is disrupted by one's own movements. From the point of view of offense, the aim of identifying these three things is to perceive the emergence of attention failure and fixation in opponents, thus seizing the opportunity to strike. First Glance Maintenance of Rhythm These are to be transmitted by word of mouth. The "first glance" refers to immediate assessment of the situation at first glance; "keeping rhythm" refers to unrelenting follow-through. These have to be transmitted verbally because the directions have to be given by an expert in the process of actual practice, where theoretical explanation is too indirect. Stride Your stride should not be too quick or too slow. Steps should be taken in an unruffled, casual manner. It is bad to go too far or not far enough; take the mean. When you go too quickly, it's because of being scared or flustered; when you go too slowly, it's because of being timid and frightened. The desired state is one in which you are not upset at all. Usually people will blink when something brushes by their open eyes, even a fan; this is normal, and blinking does not indicate being upset. If you didn't blink at all even if someone swung at you repeatedly to startle you, that would actually mean you were upset. Consciously determining to hold back natural blinking indicates a far more disturbed mind than blinking does. The undisturbed mind is normal. If something comes at your eyes, you unconsciously blink. This is the state of not being upset. What is essential is the psychological state in which you don't lose the normal mind. To try not to stir is to have stirred; movement is an unalterable principle. For a waterwheel, it is normal to turn; if it doesn't turn, that's abnormal. For people to blink is normal; not blinking indicates mental disturbance. It is good to take steps in a normal manner, without altering your normal frame of mind. This is the state where neither your appearance nor your mind is upset. Intentional effort to suppress agitation expends energy, generates stiffness and tension, and projects fear. A Zen classic says, "If you try to stop movement, the stopping produces more movement." This combination of negative factors weakens and retards response, thereby increasing vulnerability to attack. The purpose of naturalness is to remain relaxed yet in control in command of one's faculties, flexible and alert, not frozen, able to shift from passive to aggressive mode in an instant, all the while projecting an air of aloofness and insouciance to discourage and intimidate the opponent. The Unifying Principle The Mental Attitude in a Face-Off Is as When Facing a Spear What to Do When You Have No Sword The Unifying Principle is a code word in martial arts. In the context of the art of war in general, it means being free in every possible way. The critical thing is what happens when you are hard pressed. The principle of one means you keep that clearly in mind, pay close attention, and make sure you do not get caught unprepared in a pinch. The attention employed in face-to-face confrontation with swords when an opponent's stab nearly reaches you, or when a spear is thrust into the cubit margin of safety, is called the unifying principle. This is the attention employed at times such as when you are being attacked with your back to a wall and can't extricate yourself. It should be understood as a most critical and most difficult situation. When you have no sword, the one-cubit margin of safety is quite impossible to maintain if you fix your eyes on one spot, let your mind linger on one place, and fail to keep up sustained watchfulness. Keeping things like this in mind is a secret, referred to as the unifying principle. Buddhist metaphysics represents all phenomena as based on one principle. This principle is variously called interdependent origination or emptiness, and realization of this underlying principle is considered essential to Zen. In the context of martial arts, the principle of interdependent origination means that every element of an interchange —the weaponry the terrain, the particulars of posture and movement, the state of mind of the participants —are all in a state of dynamic interplay, each affecting and affected by every other element involved. Alertness to the flux of this total dynamic is called the unifying principle because it encompasses all aspects of the event at once. In metaphysics, the principle of interdependent origin is identified with emptiness in the sense that whatever is dependent on something else has no intrinsic substance or nature of its own. That is called emptiness in an objective sense; its subjective realization is not only intellectual understanding, but in the experience of open awareness that is not fixated on any object. It is this open awareness, enabling the mind to take in the whole scene of the immediate moment without attention being caught anywhere, that is valued in the context of martial arts as the unifying principle. The One-Foot Margin on Both Sides When both swords are the same size, attention is to be concentrated as with no sword. The weapons on both sides are one foot away from the body. With a margin of one foot, you can slip and parry. It is dangerous to get closer than this distance. This Is the Ultimate The First Sword This is the ultimate is a manner of referring to what is supremely consummate. The first sword does not refer literally to a sword; the first sword is a code expression for seeing incipient movement on the part of an opponent. The expression the critical first sword means that seeing what an opponent is trying to do is the first sword in the ultimate sense. Perception of an opponent's impulse and incipient action being understood as the first sword, the blow that strikes according to his action is to be understood as the second sword. Making this the basis, you use it in various ways. Perceiving abilities and intentions, the moon in the water, the inscrutable sword, and sicknesses make four; with the working of hands and feet, altogether they make five. These are learned as five observations, one seeing. To perceive abilities and intentions is called one seeing. The other four are called observations because they are held in mind. Perceiving with the eyes is called seeing, perceiving with the mind is called observation. This means contemplation in the mind. The reason we do not call this four observations and one seeing, speaking instead of five observations, is that we use five observations as an inclusive term, of which one — perceiving abilities and intentions—is called one seeing. Perceiving abilities and intentions; the moon in the water; the inscrutable sword; sickness; body, hands, and feet—these are five items. Four of these are observed mentally, while the perception of abilities and intentions is seen with the eyes and is called one seeing. This emphasis on the importance of perception as the basis of effective action is applied to all endeavors, civil as well as military, in the ancient Chinese strategic classic Master of Demon Valley: "Focusing the mind's eye is for determining impending perils. Events have natural courses, people have successes and failures; it is imperative to examine movements signaling impending perils.... The mind's eye is knowledge, focus is practical action.... When you can stop opponents from adapting and unsettle their order, this is called great success.... Use tactics that divide power and disperse momentum in order to see the mind's eye of others. Threaten their vulnerabilities and you can be
austerity is a better recipe for economic recovery than relentless cuts, and Germany determined to make Athens stick to the deficit-cutting agenda – and pay back the €240bn (£180bn) in bailout loans it received from the international community. As Varoufakis returned to Athens, thousands of people gathered on the streets to show solidarity in the party’s battle with Greece’s creditors. The fresh outpouring of public concern, with protesters gathering in Syntagma Square, the centre of anti-government riots during repeated crises in recent years, came after the European Central Bank outraged policymakers by restricting access to emergency funds for Greece’s struggling banks. In Berlin, Varoufakis promised to meet the alarmist warnings of some in the eurozone about the consequences of Syriza’s radical policies with “a frenzy of reasonableness”. Just before the Berlin meeting the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had ratcheted up the pressure on the eurozone to find a solution to the crisis by inviting the new Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, to talks in Moscow in May. Schäuble said Germany would “fully respect the mandate” handed to Varoufakis and his colleagues by the electorate in the general election last month, but Germany had its own democratic pressures. German public opinion is deeply sceptical about the need for fresh debt relief for Greece, after repeated bailouts since 2010. But Syriza argues that it has been burdened with a series of impossible-to-repay loans, and has seen growth hobbled by the austerity imposed as a quid pro quo. Back in Athens, Tsipras told the Greek parliament: “Greece is no longer the miserable partner who listens to lectures to do its homework. Greece has its own voice.” Protesters on the streets held up placards saying “People Before Markets”. Syriza and its coalition partners had hoped to receive temporary support from the ECB while it holds debt restructuring talks with its creditors, but Wednesday’s decision by the Frankfurt-based bank, which tightened the rules on the collateral Greek banks can post in exchange for loans, made the prospects of short-term support appear bleak. As fears mounted of a fresh run on Greek bank deposits – one of the factors that led to the country’s previous financial bailouts – central bank governor Yannis Stournaras said: “The ECB’s decision can be taken back if there is a deal from the Greek government. Deposits and liquidity are absolutely safe.” Greece’s bailout from the troika of the European commission, International Monetary Fund and the ECB – which came with stringent conditions, including hefty spending cuts – is due to expire at the end of the month. Syriza insists it will not accept an extension which would, it says, be tantamount to agreeing to a new bailout with foreign lenders.. Finance chiefs can’t agree to disagree over Athens’ debts as Varoufakis brings up spectre of Greek nazism and Schäuble offers 500 German tax collectorsRichard Austin Quest (born 9 March 1962) is an English journalist and a CNN International anchor and reporter, based in New York City. He anchors Quest Means Business. In addition to anchoring the five-times-weekly business programme, Quest hosts the monthly programme CNN Business Traveller[1] and CNN Marketplace Europe. He formerly anchored the monthly show Quest and the daily show CNN Today which was geared towards morning audiences in Europe. Early life and education [ edit ] Quest is a native of Liverpool, Merseyside, England, having been born and partly brought up there. Quest's family is Jewish. He was educated at the state comprehensive Roundhay School in Leeds, followed by Airedale and Wharfedale College and the University of Leeds, where he studied law, taking his degree in 1983 (Law LLB Hons.), and was called to the Bar.[1] He had already gained broadcasting experience when he spent the 1983–84 academic year in the United States at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. As news director for campus radio station WRVU, he built the reporting staff from scratch. Career [ edit ] Quest and Lisa Neideffer of WRVU-FM broadcasting at Vanderbilt University, 1984 Quest became a trainee journalist at the BBC in 1985, joining its financial section in 1987, and moving to New York City in 1989 to become the BBC's North American business correspondent. Quest later worked for the BBC from the United States as part of its then-fledgling BBC News 24 channel. He was the business correspondent reporting on, and discussing the world stock market in a regular segment entitled World Business Report usually aired between 2:00am and 3:00am (GMT), a programme that he presented alongside Paddy O'Connell. He was also an occasional presenter on the BBC's early-morning Business Breakfast programme. Quest joined CNN in 2001 for the launch of Business International. Since this time Quest has covered a variety of different events for CNN, amongst others an analysis of the U.S. elections as American Quest and the start of the circulation of euro banknotes and coins on 1 January 2002 and the last official commercial flight of Concorde. He has also headed up CNN's coverage of several events involving the British Royal Family. In 2006, Quest turned down an opportunity to join Al Jazeera English news channel, the English language version of al-Jazeera, "on the grounds that being gay and Jewish might not be suitable".[2] On 9 April 2015, Quest was announced as the host of the ABC game show 500 Questions. He was replaced by Dan Harris for the show's second season. On 8 June 2015, Quest appeared as a contestant on The CNN Quiz Show: The Seventies Edition special produced by Eimear Crombie, along with his partner Brooke Baldwin playing for StandUp for Kids. Quest is also an Aviation Correspondent for CNN,[3] and extensively covered the story of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared on 8 March 2014.[4] Quest later wrote the book, The Vanishing of Flight MH370: The True Story of the Hunt for the Missing Malaysian Plane, published by Penguin Random House on 8 March 2016.[4] Personal life [ edit ] In 2008, Quest was arrested in New York City's Central Park with drugs in his pocket. Quest admitted being in possession of crystal methamphetamine, a controlled substance.[5] On 26 June 2014, Quest described his past experience as a closeted gay man on his CNN television programme Quest Means Business.[6]Gregory Kloehn goes dumpster diving, but not for the reason that most people would think. He isn’t homeless. In fact, he isfrom Oakland that is trying to help the homelessdevelop his craft at the same time.Instead of building sculptures that he would sell to rich people to add to their massive homes, he decided to focus his efforts on helping house the homeless population in California.viaThis artist usesto change people’s lives. It’s absolutely brilliant. If more people could learn how to create these tiny homes for others, the impact could be huge. Strangers have come forwardto donate money to what Gregory is doing.Share this amazing initiative by clicking on the button below. This is the kind of idea that should catch on. People’s lives could be changed forever.The Mexican navy has said it had captured one of the leaders of the Zetas drug cartel, a notoriously brutal gang reported to be breaking apart due to an internal feud. The navy said on Wednesday it had caught the man it believed to be Zetas boss Ivan Velazquez in the central state of San Luis Potosi, in a boost to outgoing President Felipe Calderon's efforts to crack down on the violent cartels. The Zetas have perpetrated some of the most sickening acts of Mexico's drug war and continued to expand even as rival gangs joined forces against them. They are now regarded as one of the two most powerful drug cartels in the country. Velazquez is due to be paraded before the media on Thursday morning as is customary with such captures in Mexico. The suspected gang leader surrendered to the navy in the city of San Luis Potosi without a shot being fired, an eyewitness told Reuters. Known as "Z-50" or "El Taliban," Velazquez has been one of the leading figures in the Zetas. Formed by a group of army deserters in the late 1990s, the gang acted as enforcers for the Gulf Cartel before splitting with their employers in 2010. Longstanding rivalry between the Zetas' top leader, Heriberto Lazcano, and his second-in-command Miguel Trevino has exploded into violence, raising fears the hostilities could bring a fresh wave of bloodletting. Brutal menace The Zetas boast 10,000-plus gunmen, and the prospect of them fighting for control of local trafficking networks and smuggling routes has alarmed security experts. However, the split also brings benefits for the government, as members of the gang inform against former colleagues. Earlier this week, Mexican news magazine, Proceso, reported that Velazquez had switched his allegiance to the Gulf Cartel due to a rupture with Trevino, citing messages posted online. Velazquez is listed by the government as one of the country's most-wanted drug kingpins. The Mexican government has offered a reward of up to $2.34m for information leading to his arrest. Since 2009, more than 20 drug lords have been caught or killed. The most recent capture came two weeks ago, when the navy arrested Gulf Cartel head Jorge Costilla, alias "El Coss". Earlier on Wednesday, the navy announced the capture of 18 suspected Zetas in the northern state of Nuevo Leon. How to contain the threat posed by the drug gangs is one of the main challenges facing Calderon's successor Enrique Pena Nieto, who is due to take office on December 1. About 60,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence during Calderon's six-year term. Clashes in south In separate incident, Mexican authorities say troops have clashed with an armed group near a church in southern Mexico, leaving 11 people dead, including a soldier and one woman. The Guerrero state prosecutor's office says troops confronted the group in the town of Tepecoacuilco de Trujano, about 200km south of Mexico City. It says state police found ten bodies in and around a chapel, in addition to the soldier who died in Wednesday's shootout. Officials say two civilians were wounded, who had apparently been kidnapped by the group.Last week Hawaii Gov. David Ige signed a law into effect requiring pregnancy-care centers inform clients about all available reproductive health services, including access to contraception and abortion. Conservative Christian groups are not happy. A day after the law took effect, the Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit on behalf of A Place for Women in Waipoi, a church-operated crisis pregnancy center, and five other Hawaiian centers affiliated with the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates. They argue that the new law infringes on the centers’ rights to free speech and exercise of religion. Those who don’t comply can be fined $500 for a first-time offense and $1,000 for any subsequent act of noncompliance. The law also allows pregnant women to sue noncomplying clinics they received services from for damages. “State sponsored anti-life activists are so in love with abortion that they want to suppress the free speech rights of pro-life pregnancy centers in Hawaii and force them to become abortion referral agencies,” said NIFLA president Thomas Glessner in an April statement. “They cannot tolerate the existence of life-affirming pregnancy centers that give mothers contemplating abortion hope and support as they are empowered to choose life.” The law was submitted by Hawaii’s Women’s Legislative Caucus and requires that all centers providing pregnancy- or family-planning related services inform their clients of access to state reproductive health programs. According to the text, the legislation is designed to ensure women can “make and implement informed, timely, and personally appropriate reproductive health decisions.” Specifically, the law wants women to be aware of Hawaii’s Med-QUEST program, which helps low income women receive free or low-cost pregnancy or family planning related care. Hawaii Rep. Della Au Belatti, a member of the Hawaii Women’s Legislative Caucus, said the bill was introduced after hearing concerns that women were not getting information about available health services, as well as concerns that their health information was not being protected. “We struck a balance and we’ve written a law that applies to a range of clinics and providers,” she told The Daily Beast. “The gist of the law is: one, to protect patients health information, which I think everyone agrees is very important, as well as provide information about where people can get comprehensive family services.” AFD claims the law specifically targets pro-life care centers and forces them to promote a pro-choice agenda. “For pregnancy centers dedicated to promoting life, this completely undermines their mission,” AFD wrote in a blog post. “It violates their right not be be compelled to speak a message that contradicts their faith.” Claims by anti-choice activists that their free speech is under attack when “states pass laws that tell women the truth about health care” are not new, according to Alexandra De Luca, a spokesperson for EMILY’s List, a political action group that works to get pro-choice Democratic women elected to office. AFD and NIFLA have challenged comparable laws in California and Illinois with the same arguments. The organizations, along with other crisis pregnancy centers, sued California after it passed a similar law in 2015 designed to ensure pregnant women knew all their options. The law was eventually upheld in California’s 9th District Court of Appeals. Last year, however, an Illinois court granted a preliminary injunction against a similar law applying to religiously affiliated pregnancy-care clinics. Christian groups are still challenging the law, which was meant to take effect in January. Crisis pregnancy centers like Hawaii’s A Place for Women in Waipoi, which offers services like free pregnancy testing, counseling, adoption referrals, abstinence education, and “post-abortive recovery classes,” are not licensed medical centers. These centers have frequently been found to use misleading strategies and inaccurate information to promote a pro-life platform and steer women away from getting abortions. Sometimes crisis pregnancy centers use vague advertising to attract women they designate “abortion-vulnerable” and try to mislead patients into thinking they are licensed health care centers. “These are really just clinics in name only,” De Luca told The Daily Beast. “It’s a message tested name for a building where there are people who are trying to stop women from getting an abortion or accessing birth control. They try to trick women into thinking they’re real... They use shady unscientific facts to try to convince women they shouldn’t have abortions or access to birth control... and they use shady tactics to try to circumvent the regulations hospitals and abortion clinics have to abide by.”BENGALURU: In 1971 Indian air force pilot Harish Sinhji was shot down and taken prisoner. his children look back at the letters he wrote as a POW It was on December 5, 1971 that Flt Lt Harish ‘Harry’ Sinhji was captured over Haveli near Suleimanke in Pakistan. A pilot of squadron 29 of the Indian Air Force, the MiG 21 aircraft that Sinhji was flying got shot down. Having ejected from the aircraft, with a large gash on his foot, the first sight that he would see, and one that he remembered for the rest of his life, was of seeing ‘golden-coloured fields of cotton’. He would write about the capture, his life as a PoW, the escape plan and the adventure, as an annexure, in former Air Chief Marshal PC Lal’s book, My Years with the IAF. The straight-forward account of the escape attempt would inspire Mumbai filmmaker Taranjiet Singh Randhawa to make the soon-to-be-released film, The Great Indian Escape – Khulay Asmaan Ki Oar.If he were still alive, ‘Harry’ Sinhji would have, over a glass of brandy, told the tale of of how he and his mates Dilip Parulkar and MS ‘Gary’ Grewal attempted escape in August 1972 from the PoW camp in Rawalpindi. “We, 10 cousins, would sit around him and listen to the story. There would always be one newcomer for whom the story would be all new and for whom the details had to be given again. The rest of us would not ever tire of the story. He would tell it so beautifully that we could imagine it,” recalls daughter Kaveri Sinhji.This retelling was a staple of her summer holidays. “For dad, the escape wasn’t just a story. It was all fact. I remember him telling me about their overnight journey from the crash site to the PoW camp – they were blindfolded, hands tied. Somewhere along the way, the Pakistani officers untied one hand of the prisoners and gave them hot tea, a tandoori roti and a cigarette. Dad remembered the incident to that level of detail till the end,” says Vikram, Sinhji’s younger son.Since his passing in 1995, Sinhji and his story remain alive for these siblings, through the letters that he wrote from prison to his parents and his many brothers and sisters. The aged, almost-in-tatters letters contain mundane details of his life, philosophical musings and wry humour that give an intimate peek into an extraordinary experience.Writing to his mother from the prison after his capture, Sinhji says, “I was shot over Pak territory on the 5th and have been here since. I have, luckily, no injuries except a scratch on my hand...I am sure you must be imagining gruesome things about me being tortured and my nails being ripped off and me being crucified and what not. Let me assure you that contrary to that we are being treated extremely well here.” Another excerpt from the letter reads, “The food is nice. We’re given cigarettes, and (this will gladden your heart) – no alcohol!!”As he was engaged, Sinhji would also use the spare time to write letters to his fiancée, Jyotirmayi, who was in Indore. “My mom and dad were engaged before he went to war but they hadn’t seen each other. My dad felt that he’d rather get to know her through letters,” says Kaveri. What was interesting about the communication was that while Sinhji, being a true blue Bengalurean, wrote in English, Jyoti would reply in Hindi. “Dad would show my mum’s letters to his prison mates to get them translated, and they would make a big joke out of him,” laughs Kaveri.“Jyoti, I give you my assurance that I will marry you. The marriage, though, will take a few years as I am financially not in any position to even think of marriage. Also, I would like to put in a lot more service because, unavoidably, a pilot’s efficiency goes down after he has wife and children to look after…” reads one letter. Sinhji was only 26 at the time.The IAF PoW camp in Rawalpindi housed 11 Indian Air Force officers. In addition to Sinhji, the other PoWs included wing commander BA Coelho, squadron leaders AV Kamat and DS Jafa, flight lieutenants Tejwant Singh, AV Pethia, MS ‘Gary’ Grewal and JL Bhargava and flying officers Hufrid Mulla Feroze, VS Chati and KC Kuruvilla.As his letters and other records show, the 11 PoWs whiled away their time playing carroms, cards, chess, seven stones and volleyball, reading books and writing letters. But after a few months of this routine, and no repatriation in sight, Parulkar decided to put his escape plan in action. While Parulkar chose ‘Gary’ Grewal as his second mate, Sinhji was never there in the picture.IT IS MY DUTY TO ESCAPE“When my dad initially told Dilip and Gary that he wanted to join them, they both said ‘No’. Anybody could go, but not him. They said, ‘We are not taking you because you will become a liability. You look like a boy, you speak English. It’s clear that you are a south Indian!’ Also, dad couldn’t swim and their plan was to try to cross the Jhelum,” says Kaveri. Ultimately, the two would agree to take Sinhji on because “he wouldn’t take no for an answer”, says Kaveri. “Dad apparently told them, ‘It is my duty to escape, it’s your duty not to stop me.’”BREAK FREEThe escape would take months of planning and was carried out on August 12, 1972. The three jailbirds escaped through a hole made in the wall of cell no 4 where they were put up. The decision to dig a hole in the wall was taken when the initially idea of escaping through the window of the cell was foiled.“First, they tried to open the window frame. But that was noticed and the Pakistani jail officials sealed up the whole window,” says Kaveri. That didn’t deter the PoWs. They just moved on to the next plan: digging the wall. Gary and Parulkar took up the job of scraping the wall, and it would take them five months to get the job done.They tore curtains and parachutes to make backpacks, fashioned water bottles and even magnetized a needle to make it a compass. Sinhji along with Chati would be on the lookout, ready to signal at any sight of trouble. “They dug a hole every day for five months. Finally, there was a hole in the plaster,” says Kaveri.The night of the escape was brutally cold and with Pakistan’s Independence Day just two days away, security at the camp was minimal. “They got out through the hole. The watchman was right there but it was so cold that the watchman had wrapped himself from head to toe and they walked past him! They climbed under the barbed wire and jumped over the wall,” narrates Kaveri. A matinee show that had just got over gave them the perfect cover to head along to Peshawar and from thereon to Landi Kotal to eventually reach Torkham, which was on the Afghanistan border.While the journey to Peshawar went almost without a hitch, the three escapees would finally get caught at Landi Kotal. Two things worked against them. One, the three pilots didn’t know that Landi Khana, a railway station that was open during British rule, was shut. Two, they caught the notice of a tehsildar’s clerk who mistook them to be Bangladeshi refugees looking to flee Pakistan.“Just at the last post before the Torkham border, the three of them decided to buy skull caps from one shop. And it’s when they went to that shop that they got caught because, unknown to them, all the Bangladeshi refugees who were looking to run off would go there,” laughs Kaveri.Following the capture, the three IAF officers were brought back to Rawalpindi and put in solitary confinement for 30 days.Freedom would come to Sinhji and the remaining PoWs end of November when President ZA Bhutto announced their repatriation. The PoWs received a heroes’ welcome at the Wagah Border on December 1, 1972. There was adequate media coverage of the return but the story of the near-escape remained unknown for a long time.A STORY LOST“I feel it was a story that was lost to the realms of history and the military archives because it was not successful. Had it been successful then, it possibly would have been famous. Even today, only few personnel, that too those in the senior cadres, know about it,” rues Vikram.Kaveri says that war changed her father. “After the 1971 war, dad began feeling that war is just politics and that two countries are a line drawn by somebody. For him, his one year stint at the prison camp showed him that the food he enjoyed and the people and friendships he had made there were real.”Sinhji, recipient of the Sword of Honour in 1985, voluntarily retired from the IAF in 1993 as Group Captain. That was after he had spent three years in Iraq training Saddam Hussein’s air force.Interestingly, after the escape, the three pilots never met again.Source: Annexure B, My Years in the Airforce by PC LalA man also known as the king of Evil, however it is clear that he is not fitting of this title. This title was given to him by the princess of Hyrule, Zelda due to racial slurs of the time.In the land of Hyrule, Ganondorf hoped to bridge positve ties with that of his people, the Gerudos and that of the Hyrulians, however the rascist princess Zelda decided to send her mute and gullible lackey, Link to assasinate him because Ganondorf is black. After Link foolishly sealed himself in a time rift for seven years in an attempt to destroy Ganondorf, the seal to ultimate power the Triforce, was destroyed. Believing this was the only was his people would be treated respectfully Ganondorf touched the Triforce and wished himself to become King of Hyrule.Ganondorf reigned successfully for seven years. Using his position of power he exterminated the monster infestation in Hyrule field, eradicated an evil cult known as the Zorans (whom worshipped a giant whale that ate people), closed down a terrorist organisation known as the Gorons whom manufactured bombs and also poached endangered animals known as Dodongos to make fashionable bags, organised a defence force of friendly monsters to protect the orphaned children of the Kokiri forest (whom's guardian, the Deku Tree, had his heart impaled internally buy none other than Link), revived an extinct species of dragon and finally derived an alternate solution to exterminating the monsters of Hyrule by sealing them in a exclusive part of the Kakariko graveyard. However in the second year of his reign Ganondorf was forced to make one of the most difficult decisions of his career. His people, the Gerudos were constantly stealing from the frienly Hyrulians. Occasionally the Gerudos would also kidnap some of the Hyrulians demanding a high ransom for their safe return. Ganondorf to prevent further unwarranted attacks against the Hyrulians, destroyed the bridge separating Hyrule from the Gerudo Valley.This decision took its toll on the heartbroken Ganondorf and consequently he fell into a sad state of depression. he converted a large amount of his tax funds into constructing and suspending a castle over a giant lake of lave, which symbolised the inner sorrow he felt for having to abandon his people for the good of his country. After entering the castle Ganondorf destroyed the bridge leading to it so that he would never again be called upon to make such a harsh decision. Ganondorf then spent his years of solitude learning to play the organ and he composed some of the finest music ever to come out of Hyrule.However this peaceful reign was never meant to last as the rascist princess Zelda, immediately sent her lackey, Link, once again to assasinate Ganondorf after he broke free of his seven year seal. By creating disorder amongst the world and undoing most of the good caused by Ganondorf (including killing Ganondorf's resurrected dragon rendering the spcies extinct again), Link and Zelda managed to convince six others to help in their assasination attempt against Ganondorf. These six people mainly agreed for the sole reason that they were fed up with a Black person leading them and they became known as the Six Sages.Ganondorf learnt of this assasination attempt against him and attempted to difuse the issue by restraining Zelda from using her arcane magic so that the two could talk about their issues. Ganondorf attempted to soothe Zelda's sheer hatred of him by playing some of his famous organ music. Link however, brainwashed by Zelda's preachings, rushed into Ganondorf's castle, via means of a magical bridge created by the Six Sages, rushed into the castle killing most of its occupants until he confronted Ganondorf. With no means to communicate with the brainwashed mute, Ganondorf was forced to resort to violence. Link and Ganondorf fought, however Ganondorf being a peaceful man knew little about fighting (he only knew about three attacks!) was quickly overcome by the battle hardened and corrupted Link. Knowing he was about to die, Ganondorf decided his last act as king would be to destroy the clearly evil princess Zelda and her brainwashed lackey and thus he attempted to destroy his beloved castle in an attempt to crush the pair. However due to sheer brute force through the desecration of the remainder of the castle's occupants, Link and Zelda escaped the crumbling castle.In a final, last ditch effort to rid the world of evil, Ganondorf forsake his humanity and called upon the gods to grant him strength and Ganondorf transformed into a monstrous form known as Ganon. However this form was still powerless against the crazed maniac Link and his artillery of weapons. With the assistance of Zelda and her kamehameha technique, Link sent Ganondorf to a realm without time and under Zelda's rule, Hyrule became a desolate and barren wasteland of a country.The Kick The Kick by Evolve is a simple way to enjoy variable voltage using an existing mod. The Kick is not an electronic cigarette, but rather an additional module that allows any 18650 based mechanical switch mod to function as a variable voltage, or more precisely a variable power electronic cigarette. Simply replace an existing 18650 battery with an 18500 or 18490 battery topped off by the Kick and begin enjoying all the vapor variable voltage has to offer! Design The physical design of the Kick is relatively simple. A circuit board with a potentiometer is visible through a layer of protective shrinkwrap. That shrinkwrap is there to isolate the positive and negative components, by the way, and should not be removed. The bottom plate contacts the positive end of the battery and a post on the top provides the positive connection to whatever device is being used. A spring on the side of the Kick is designed to contact the tube of the mod to provide a negative connection for the Kick’s microprocessor. The potentiometer has markings that can be used to get a sense of where the power is set, but trial and error plays a large part in getting things just right. Variable Power Circuitry Like the Darwin by Evolv, the Kick regulates voltage but in a slightly different way than most variable voltage electronic cigarettes. Rather than simply deliver whatever voltage it is set at, the Kick instead varies the voltage and amperage to deliver the desired amount of power no matter what resistance atomizer or cartomizer that is attached. A lower resistance atomizer means that less power is needed to produce the same amount of heat and vapor, so the Kick adjusts accordingly. In practice, this means that the voltage changes in response to the atomizer that is attached, but the vaping experience should stay relatively equal. Minimizing the necessity of changing the voltage is a good thing in this case. Due to the nature of the Kick being an internal modification to an electronic cigarette, the device must be taken apart to access it. Once the Kick is exposed, a small screwdriver is needed to change the power setting via the dial on the potentiometer. There really isn’t any way around this process, but it’s not that troublesome. Most users will find a comfortable setting and forget about it. Performance In use, the Kick is pure pleasure. I tried it with an Altsmoke Omega which is not on the list of tested devices, but it is a metal tube mod designed for an 18650 battery and worked with the Kick flawlessly. Setting the dial in a low to middle position of around 4 gave me lots of vapor and great throat hit using 1.7, 2.0 and 3.2 ohm cartomizers. Tests under load bear out the effectiveness of the Kick’s design, with power staying consistent no matter what cartomizer is attached. The table below shows the variation in voltage and the resulting power calculations at various settings with different cartomizers attached. Slight variations in the power recorded between cartomizers are likely due to fluctuations in the resistance of the cartomizers, but it does appear that the maximum power output of 5.5 volts was reached on the partially depleted battery used for the tests. Of course, the boosting of the voltage comes at the price of battery life. Evolv mentions a 10-20% decrease in battery life compared to using the same battery with a standard device, and based on limited tests, that sounds about right. One 18500 battery lasted most of a day during moderate use. Battery life will be impacted by usage and power setting. Conclusion The Kick is a well designed and well packaged enhancement for an electronic cigarette that would otherwise not be capable of providing variable voltage. Some of the best looking mods available fall into this category, so having this additional option is nice. It could also be very attractive to do-it-yourself types who have the desire to create their own personal mod but are not ready to dabble in the electronics necessary to produce variable voltage. Finally, the Kick is an excellent way to get the variable power functionality of the Darwin at a much cheaper price. An XHaler and a Kick from NHaler will set you back about $135, for instance before batteries. That’s somewhere in the middle of the variable voltage price range, but far less than the price of a Darwin and a pretty good deal for the functionality that the Kick provides. Perhaps the biggest problem with the Kick is finding one; as of the writing of this article, NHaler, Altsmoke and Electronicstix all had them listed for $45 and were all out of them.In interviews this month, more than three dozen students, alumni and teachers said that large-scale cheating, like an episode in June when 71 juniors were caught exchanging answers to state Regents exams through text messages, was rare at Stuyvesant. But lower-level cheating, they said, occurs every day. Most often, it takes the form of a few math homework answers copied wholesale from a shared note on Facebook, or the form of tip-offs from classmates who took a history exam a few hours earlier. Some go further, hiding formulas in a sleeve or in a bathroom stall, Googling facts on an iPhone or snapping a photo of test questions to send to a smart friend for help. Survival at All Costs At Stuyvesant, the alma mater of four Nobel laureates, students say the social currency is academic achievement. Although students enter the school knowing they are among the best in the city, they must compete with hundreds just like them. And, they say, the pressures only grow: they are convinced that they are bound for bright futures, yet not all are equipped for the work that entails. They are trained to hand in every assignment without always believing in its value. They described teachers as being relatively sympathetic, discouraging cheating, but not always punishing it as severely as school policy dictates. All this makes for a culture in which many students band together, sharing homework and test advice in a common understanding that they simply have to survive until they reach their goals: dream colleges and dream jobs. Photo “I’m sure everybody understood it was wrong to take other people’s work, but they had ways of rationalizing it,” said Karina Moy, a 2010 graduate of the school. “Everyone took it as a necessary evil to get through.” It is not clear how common academic dishonesty is at Stuyvesant or other large, competitive schools, and several of those interviewed said that they had never cheated. When the school’s newspaper, The Spectator, conducted a survey of 2,045 students in March, 80 percent said they had cheated in one way or another. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Michael Josephson, the president of the Josephson Institute, which researches ethics in society, said a 2010 survey of 40,000 high-school students found that 59 percent had cheated on a test during the previous year, with one in three admitting they had used the Internet to plagiarize — and one in four admitting they had lied on the survey itself. For Stuyvesant freshmen, who are admitted based on a citywide exam, receiving their first test score can be a moment of reckoning, said Josina Dunkel, who teaches global studies and Advanced Placement European history. She said she began seeing so many freshmen submit the same answers to homework that she stopped allowing them to type their assignments, reasoning that if they had to write them by hand, they might be less likely to copy answers online. “It’s a major eye-opener,” Ms. Dunkel said. “Suddenly, they’re in an environment where every single kid is really just as smart as they are. How do you distinguish yourself as being a top student, which is where their identity has always been?” By the time they reach junior year — when it is not uncommon to have three tests in a week and when May and June bring a cascade of Advanced Placement, Regents and final exams, along with the SAT — many students have become adept at beating the system. One pair developed a tapping system for multiple-choice tests — once for A, twice for B and so on, recalled Nils Axen, a 2011 graduate now at Cornell. Others wrote formulas on their forearms or on the insides of water bottles. The New Methods There are newer methods, too, despite the school’s longstanding ban on using cellphones during the day, students said. (The new interim principal, Jie Zhang, has announced that students will no longer be able to use laptops or iPads during the day, and she has redoubled enforcement of the cellphone ban.) “Writing on your hand, that’s kiddie stuff,” said Melissa, a senior who, like some current and former students, spoke only on the condition that her full name not be used for fear of repercussions. “The way we do it is to take a picture, and then it’s the domino effect. One person has it, then the whole class has it.” By junior year, almost everyone has seen the statistics posted on the college office’s Web site listing the grade-point averages and SAT scores of those who were rejected or accepted to dozens of colleges. “It becomes kind of a number game,” said Elias Weinraub, 18, who is now a freshman at Washington University in St. Louis. “It was kind of addictive, in a bad way, in a sick way. People will assume, well, I have a 92, most kids who got into that school got a 94, so there’s no way I can get in.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Although Stuyvesant has a reputation for being cutthroat, students say collaboration, not competition, is the norm. Several framed the collaboration as banding together against a system designed to grind them
trademark blend of supernatural horror and suspense. Many mechanics from the original first-person shooter have made their way into the game, like slow motion bullet time, and intelligent AI. New gameplay elements have also been introduced, like grab and drag movable cover, combat mechs, and iron sight aiming. The environments are now more open and less linear than those in the first game, and are also more diverse.Point-Man, the protagonist of the firsthas been replaced by a new playable character, Michael Becket, a Delta Force operator who has been sent on a mission to arrest Armacham president Genevieve Aristide approximately 30 minutes before the ending of the first game. Alma, the strange little girl returns to give you scares and also assist you at some points.The game only takes the original game into account and ignores all events from the expansion packs Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate There are currently no topics for this game. Trivia 1001 Video Games April fools' F.E.A.R. expansions German version Power Armor References Title Project Origin is a strong fan and developer favorite. We received over 400 submissions containing Origin in the name. The second submission of the contest was Project Origin, so we have had the name rattling around in our heads right from the beginning Project Origin is a natural fit for the title of the sequel because it is the Armacham program from which all of the trouble in the game world originates. The architect of Project Origin, Harlan Wade, used his daughter in a horrific experiment which turned her into the monster that we see in the first game.... In the sequel, the repercussions of Project Origin are only beginning to unravel. Uranium Weapons Awards Gamespot 2009 - Most Disappointing Game (Editors' Choice) Related Web Sites Contributed to by bobthewookiee (62) appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.In 2009, as an April Fools' joke, the official site of the game announced that the next game in the series will be a prequel to the original. As a reference to the criticism surrounding the quick time events in, the news stated that the new game would consist entirely of quick time events, as well as allow the player to control Alma on her swing, try not to fall asleep in Wade Elementary School, and enjoy the "Alma Ball".While the sequel to F.E.A.R. is said to ignore the events of both expansions of the original game, F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point and F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate, there are a lot of things which have been taken from the expansions directly or indirectly.Starting with the weapons: the Laser Beam gun in this game uses basically the same effect as the Type 12 Laser Carbine in, while the new Assault Rifle is very similar in design to the VES Advanced Rifle introduced inA few similarities for the enemies:The first type of the ATC soldiers in the game look almost exactly the same as the new type of ATC soldiers fromThe new Abomination enemy in the game is somewhat similar to the Shades introduced in- they behave as neutral monsters, who use only a melee attack and kill any human being on their way, just like the Shades.And finally, the funniest thing about "ignoring the events of the expansions", is the design of many levels in the game:In the beginning levels, the new Delta Team finds itself in a hospital, later revealed to be part of a secret underground facility. In, the last levels take place in a hospital as well.In some later stages, the protagonist finds himself in the subway. This place was seen in both of the expansions, mainly in. There is even one place in the subway level in the sequel, where the protagonist needs to step aside from a moving train to avoid getting killed by it. The same thing was inAnd finally, in one of the levels, a falling airplane can be seen, just like in the beginning of. However, in the expansion, the crash site was near a subway entrance and the plane was a U.S. Military one. In, the crash site is somewhere in the city and it is an ordinary tour plane.Various blood and gore effects were removed in the German version. Also missing is the ragdoll system for corpses.The Elite Powered Armor was originally going to be bright red coloured, but in the final game it has been changed to an olive drab military tone. It seems that Armacham supports the metric system judging by the fact that the Elite Powered Armor's heat gauges are marked as being in degrees Celsius. The Elite Powered Armor looks very similar to the Dreadnought vehicles from Warhammer 40,000 In the first mission, Sanctuary, there is a strange statue in the foyer of Genevieve’s apartment. The same statues can be seen in the Museum in Monolith's other horror/FPS Condemned 2: Bloodshot When the development studio Monolith Productions, Inc. was acquired by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Inc. in January 2004, the name of the F.E.A.R. franchise remained with Sierra Vivendi Games, so a new name had to be found.In June 2007 fans were asked to submit their proposals in the contest "Name Your Fear", where three favourites were chosen:and. The voting for the names closed in August and in Septemberwas announced as the winner:However, the name had in the meantime ended up at Activision Blizzard and in September 2008 Monolith announced to have purchased the name.was kept, but as a subtitle.Judging by the game's PDA, the Armacham Hammerhead weapon shoots uranium spikes. The fired flechettes have glowing bands on them, however, depleted uranium does not glow (very few radioactive compounds do) and in fact does look very similar to steel.Like in the original F.E.A.R., some weapons inhave a real-life counterpart. The Andra FD-99 submachine gun is based on the FN P90, the Pattern PK470 assault rifle on the HK G36, the SHO Series-3 pump-action shotgun on the Mossberg 500 and the Vollmar ULTRA92 semi-automatic shotgun on the Pancor Jackhammer.We haven’t quite reached the stage of acceptance in the GOP. Right now, conventional wisdom holds that it will be impossible for anyone to overtake Donald Trump in the Republican primaries, but it might still be possible to deprive him of the 1,237 delegates he would need to avoid a contested convention. There would be much gnashing of teeth. This sense of unfairness, and the chaos that would ensue, might well cast a pall over the proceedings, making it impossible for a Republican to defeat Hillary Clinton in the general election. But rules are rules, and if Trump loses a contested convention it would mean that the majority of Republican delegates want someone else. A plurality is not a majority. It’s hard to predict how Trump might lose a convention. Nothing about the GOP establishment leads me to believe they could pull off a convention victory. Why should we believe they would suddenly become competent in Cleveland, Ohio, when they have largely been emasculated and outmanoeuvered by Trump, heretofore? We haven’t seen a real contested convention in most of our lifetimes. The closest we’ve come was in 1976 when Ronald Reagan tried to wrest the nomination from incumbent president Gerald Ford. A great story to illustrate how divisive these things can be was told by Lyn Nofziger, a Reagan aide, in his eponymous autobiography. When “an old-line Reaganite from San Mateo", called out, "What should our demeanour be?" Nofziger quipped: "Da meaner da better." The point is that these things can get ugly. Photo: Jim Young/Reuters It’s possible that a deal could yet be struck. Maybe some power broker could conceivably convince Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich to come together, with the expectation that Rubio would be president, Kasich would be vice president, and Cruz would be attorney general or a Supreme Court appointment? It’s probably illegal to make such promises, but it could be stressed, for example, that Cruz would be given every consideration for this spot. Then again, it could also be that once the delegates are no longer bound, they could vote for someone who isn’t even running for president—say, Mitt Romney or Speaker Paul Ryan. Regardless, this is the nuclear option. It would be ugly. Trump’s fans would see this as a corrupt bargain. Allegations of a “stolen election” would surely be made. There are no good strategies at this point, just less bad ones. Many mainstream conservatives and establishment Republicans are betting that Hillary Clinton’s presidency might actually be better than Donald Trump’s. That’s not to say they would vote for her, but they might instead stay at home (or vote third party). The rationale is as follows: Hillary Clinton would be a bad president, but we have survived bad liberal presidents in the past. Donald Trump, instead, poses an existential threat: He would redefine what it means to be a Republican and a conservative—and this redefinition (as a European-style, nationalistic, white identity politics party) would be unacceptable to many of us. So if Trump wins, you’ll have a lot of conservative opinion leaders refusing to back him. Some might even start a new party. And if Trump loses, many of his populist, working class white supporters might bolt the Republican party forever. It’s really a nasty situation — especially when you consider how strong the GOP bench might have been, absent Trump, and how vulnerable Hillary Clinton appears. It would be a shame for the GOP to come unglued and split apart, but it seems like that might be what we are on the cusp of. Parties don’t last forever. The Whigs, after all, died. Other times, political parties survive, while their coalitions come apart. Southern Democrats, for example, are essentially now extinct. The GOP has, for a long time now, been a movement of strange bedfellows. The whole fusionist movement of fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, and national security conservatives coming together to form the “three-legged “ stool of the conservative movement was always a marriage of convenience, primarily brokered in order to thwart the Soviet Union during the Cold War. But that war ended decades ago, and this marriage of convenience seems to have run its course. It’s easy to simplistically portray the split as being between the establishment and the grassroots, but that’s really not accurate. The split is instead between a brand of optimistic conservatism that believes in free markets and lifting people up (members of this wing include Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan et al), and Donald Trump’s brand of populist protectionism (which includes men like Senator Jeff Sessions). These people all fit under the umbrella of conservatism, but their worldviews are wildly different. One group sees people are a resource, the other sees them as a cost. One side believes that free trade makes us more prosperous, the other side believes that it takes jobs away from working Americans. One side believes that defending the rights of the unborn is a great moral crusade; the other side believes that stopping Mexicans from immigrating is the great cause of our time. If there is a convention fight, it’s going to be ugly. There’s no getting around that. But it might be better to have chaos ensue, even if it means losing the election, than to allow Donald Trump to engage in this hostile takeover of the party. My only advice to Republicans trying to stop him is not to bring a knife to what will surely turn out to be a political gunfight. When it comes to stopping The Donald, remember the words of Lyn Nofziger: "Da meaner, da better." Matt K. Lewis is a Senior Contributor at The Daily Caller in Washington, DC and the author of the new book Too Dumb to FailTo improve our users' experience with AMP results, we are making changes to how we enforce our policy on content parity with AMP. Starting Feb 1, 2018, the policy requires that the AMP page content be comparable to the (original) canonical page content. AMP is not a ranking signal and there is no change in terms of the ranking policy with respect to AMP. The open source accelerated mobile pages project (AMP) launched in 2015 and has seen tremendous growth with over 25M domains having implemented the AMP format. This rapid progress comes with a sense of responsibility of ensuring that our users continue to have a great content consumption experience that ultimately leads to more engagement with publisher content. In some cases, webmasters publish two versions of their content: a canonical page that is not based on AMP and an AMP page. 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This will lead to better experience on your site and ultimately happier users.BERLIN (Reuters) - A majority of people worldwide believes corruption has worsened in the last two years and they see governments as less effective at fighting it since the 2008 financial crisis, a survey by Transparency International organization showed on Tuesday. Demonstrators stand ready to confront riot police during protests against poor public services, police violence and government corruption, in Sao Paulo June 18, 2013. REUTERS/Victor Moriyama The “Global Corruption Barometer” is the biggest ever conducted by the Berlin-based watchdog, with 114,000 people responding in 107 countries in the survey of opinions on corruption and which institutions are considered most corrupt. The survey found that on a worldwide basis political parties are considered to be the most corrupt institution, scoring 3.8 on a scale of 5 where 1 means “not at all corrupt” and 5 means “extremely corrupt.” Only 23 percent of those surveyed believed their government’s efforts to fight corruption were effective, down from 32 percent in 2008. “Politicians themselves have much to do to regain trust,” Transparency International said in a release. “(The Barometer) shows a crisis of trust in politics and real concern about the capacity of those institutions responsible for bringing criminals to justice.” The second most corrupt institution on a global scale is the police with a score of 3.7. Three categories of institutions - public officials/civil servants, parliament/legislature and judiciary - followed with equal scores of 3.6. “It is the actors that are supposed to be running countries and upholding the rule of law that are seen as the most corrupt, judged to be abusing their positions of power and acting in their own interests rather than for the citizens they are there to represent and serve,” Transparency International wrote. The media did not fare as badly, coming in at the ninth place out of twelve with a score of 3.1, but it was seen as the most corrupt in Australia and Britain. Some 69 percent said it was the most corrupt institution in Britain, up from 39 percent three years ago. “This very sharp jump is in large part due to the series of scandals around phone hacking, the Leveson Inquiry and the concentration of media ownership,” said Robert Barrington, head of the British unit of Transparency International. The Leveson inquiry into the ethics of the British press was set up in the wake of a scandal over phone-hacking at one of the newspapers of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, which has a strong grip on the media in both Australia and Britain. The survey showed the business/private sector and the medical and health services scored 3.3 on the corruption barometer, while the education system came in next at eighth place with 3.2. The military was seen as the 10th most corrupt institution worldwide with a 2.9, followed by NGOs in 11th place at 2.7 and religious bodies as the least corrupt institution with a 2.6 score. Transparency International noted that even though religious bodies fared best of the 12 major institutions overall, in some countries they are nevertheless as being “highly corrupt”. In particular in Israel, Japan, Sudan and South Sudan, religious bodies scored above four on the scale of 1 to 5. Transparency International is a global organization that campaigns against corruption. It has 90 chapters worldwide and tries to raise awareness of the damaging effects of corruption and works to develop and implement measures to tackle it.A new study confirms that the threat from CO2 is exaggerated A new study of the Great Barrier Reef will apparently confirm what I argued in The Rational Optimist that local pollution and over-fishing are a much greater threat to coral reefs than either climate change or changing alkalinity (sometimes wrongly called acidification). The actual paper will appear in Current Biology, but this is from the press release from James Cook University (I hate it when scientists announce their results by press release before the journal article is available). Update: here's the article in press, but behind a paywall. Quoting one of the authors, Terry Hughes: "This study has given us a more detailed understanding of the sorts of changes that could take place as the world's oceans gradually warm and acidify. "And it has increased our optimism about the ability of coral reef systems to respond to the sorts of changes they are likely to experience under foreseeable climate change." The good news from the research, says Professor Hughes, is that complete reef wipeouts appear unlikely due to temperature and pH alone. "However, in many parts of the world, coral reefs are also threatened by much more local impacts, especially by pollution and over-fishing. We need to address all of the threats, including climate change, to give coral reefs a fighting chance for the future." The press release gives more details of the study: They identified and measured a total of 35,428 coral colonies on 33 reefs from north to south. Studying corals on both the crests and slopes of the reef, they found that as one species decreases in abundance, another tends to increase, and that species wax and wane largely independently of each other. And: "We chose the iconic Great Barrier Reef because water temperature varies by 8-9 degrees along its full length from summer to winter, and because there are wide local variations in pH. In other words, its natural gradients encompass the sorts of conditions that will apply several decades from now under business-as-usual greenhouse gas emissions. This is a point that I have been emphasising recently: that natural variation in ocean pH is already greater than any future trend likely from carbon emissions.Dear reader, After a helpful delay to teach readers patience, we have returned. In the interim there’ve been few messages other than Quentin saying things we won’t repeat on this blog to avoid embarrassing him. Things have been marching along with Her Highness’ education, without any notable issues or events. She saved Tokyo, continued in truly fascinating art research, had a Disney adventure, and a few other things, but nothing so noteworthy as to mention in a blog. And so we begin our story with a picture with words under it.* *We also being our sentences with conjunctions. Princess Pricklepants woke up to another day of learning to be the proper Princess she was born to be, regardless of free will. Her manners education was not a thing she was very pleased about. Living with Dinomarm, her manners educator, was not like My Fair Hedgehog. Dinomarm made her walk with books on her head to develop grace and poise. The staying on the head part really never quite worked out, and Her Highness really wasn’t so sure about grace and poise. Worse, there were tables to crawl under with great grace and poise, but apparently this was poor etiquette according to some picky manners instructors. She also had to wear fancy hats. She was not fond of wearing fancy hats. Not at all. She was certain that hedgehogs were not born to wear hats. Sometimes hats were even worse. Since she wasn’t delighted by her manners lessons, for a while she’d tried to find places to hide. The living room’s IKEA table was too small. The kitchen’s IKEA table was also too small. With no places to hide, Princess Pricklepants decided she did not want to be a hedgehog princess anymore. And so, Princess Pricklepants decided to be a squirrel. Being a squirrel was not bad at first, but when she got hungry, she learned that squirrels eat acorns. She did not like eating acorns at all. Princess Pricklepants did not want to be a squirrel any more. And so Princess Pricklepants decided to be a Viking. Being a Viking sounded great at first, though when she found out about needing to ride in boats and raid villages in East Anglia, it sounded less great. When she decided to eat, though, that’s when it all fell apart. Apparently Vikings only eat lutefisk, and that’s not something anyone should ever eat, really. Also Vikings wear hats. Princess Pricklepants did not want to be a Viking any more. And so Princess Pricklepants decided to be a pirate. It turns out there’s really very little difference between being a pirate, and being a Viking, besides the food, but pirate food is best left not discussed, since it’s almost as bad as Viking food. Also Pirates wear hats. Princess Pricklepants didn’t want to be a Pirate any more. And so Princess Pricklepants decided to be a stop-motion animated hedgehog in a dark fantasy musical film feature. While there were no hats, this experience immediately failed to be nearly as satisfying as it first seemed, and was deemed a terrible idea quickly. Stop-motion animated hedgehogs in a dark fantasy musical film features don’t eat. Princess Pricklepants didn’t want to be a stop-motion animated hedgehog any more. And so she decided to be a clothing model. She quickly realized that this was not her calling. If hats were bad, clothes were much, much worse and not at all suited to a hedgehog, princess or otherwise. Princess Pricklepants didn’t want to be a clothing model any more. Her Highness realized that none of these were suited for a hedgehog princess, and that being a hedgehog princess was not nearly as bad as it first had seemed. So she went back to studying etiquette again since studying etiquette was not nearly as bad as being a squirrel, a viking, a pirate, a stop-motion animated hedgehog in a dark fantasy musical film feature, or a clothing model. After all, there was tea and cookies.‘Drunken’ Weather Pattern Leads to Deadly Heat The heat wave that has built across the eastern U.S. — roasting cities from Memphis to Washington to Boston in a stifling blanket of heat and humidity — has had one strange characteristic that meteorologists cannot yet explain in a long-term climate context. Rather than moving west to east, as typical weather patterns do in the Northern Hemisphere, weather systems across the country have moved in the opposite direction, like a drunken driver on a dark stretch of highway, drifting from east to west during the past two weeks. And like drunk driving, the weather pattern is having serious — even deadly — consequences, with at least one death being blamed on the heat, according to the Associated Press. The “Bermuda high” that often pumps warm and humid air into the East Coast during July and August decamped around July 11 from Bermuda and came ashore, eventually migrating all the way to the Midwest by July 15. The summertime high pressure ridge, sometimes referred to as a “heat dome,” has set air pressure records as recorded by weather balloons in Pittsburgh and Virginia, and has been responsible for sending air temperatures rocketing into the mid- to upper-90s, and even the lower triple digits, in some parts of the East. Animation of 500 mb pressure anomalies from July 12 to July 18, 2013, showing the migration of the heat dome from east to west (in orange and red) and the upper level low toward Texas (blue). Credit: Ryan Maue for Weatherbell.com. New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, for example, broke a daily high temperature record on Thursday, with a high of 100°F. The heat index, which is a measure how the temperature feels to the humid body, has reached the dangerous range of 105 to 115°F in some spots. Heat is the No. 1 weather-related cause of death in the U.S. in an average year. Making the heat even more dangerous is that many areas affected have not been getting overnight relief. In New York’s Central Park, the overnight low on Wednesday night into Thursday morning was 79°F, tying a record for the highest such temperature for the date. Record-high low temperatures were also set in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. Washington, D.C. may challenge a record for the longest number of consecutive hours with air temperatures above 80°F. The National Weather Service issued heat warnings and advisories for nearly two-dozen states on Thursday, with a smaller number to be affected on Friday in the densely populated Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. While heat waves during July are nothing new, the weather pattern that is creating this one is rare enough for meteorologists to take note. In addition to the Bermuda leaving its more tropical locale and camping out in Michigan, an area of low pressure at the upper levels of the atmosphere has also been roaming the U.S. since July 11, drifting from east to west, traveling from the Mid-Atlantic states to Texas, where it brought some welcome rainfall. With the jet stream (in blue and green) located far to the north, over Canada, weather systems have drifted from east to west across the U.S. Credit: Weatherbell.com. The air flow heading in the opposite direction across the U.S. is abnormal, as is the strength of the dome of high pressure. In recent years there have been numerous instances of strong and long-duration high pressure areas that have led to extreme weather events, including the Russian heat wave of 2010. According to NOAA, scientists are scheduled to meet at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in September to explore whether such “monster ridges” of high pressure are becoming more frequent or more intense as the atmosphere warms in response to manmade greenhouse gas emissions. Jon Gottschalck acting chief of the Operational Prediction Branch at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, told Climate Central in an email that it’s not yet clear exactly how unusual the recent weather pattern has been, or what has been driving it. “Yes, the evolution you describe of the upper-level low and high pressure ridge moving east to west is definitely unusual. But it is not easy to quantify really how unusual,” he said. “It would take considerable time to crunch through the data and utilize a methodology to accurately pick events like this that have occurred in the historical record and quantify [them]. From a climate-forcing perspective, there is no clear climate pattern right now that we can point to as a contributing factor and so we can really only attribute this evolution to natural internal variability, at least at this stage.” Related Content Heat Wave May Threaten World's Hottest Temperature Record Historic March Heat Wave Tallies More Records 2010 Russian Heat Wave More Extreme Than Previously Thought Climate Change Increased Likelihood of Russian 2010 Heat WaveThe proposed OC Streetcar is one milestone closer to becoming the county’s first modern light-rail system, after President Barack Obama included $125 million for it in his proposed federal budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year. Inclusion of the 4.15-mile streetcar in Santa Ana and Garden Grove in the president’s $4.15 trillion budget released Tuesday puts the project in the pipeline to receive nearly half of its total cost from federal funds. If the OC Streetcar remains in the budget Congress is supposed to approve by Oct. 1, the Federal Transit Administration within the next two years will consider a full-funding grant agreement with the Orange County Transportation Authority that finalizes the total from the New Starts program. “It is a huge, big deal for OCTA,” transit authority Chief Executive Darrell Johnson said. “New Starts is perhaps the most rigorous federal funding program that exists for transportation, so to be recognized and be placed into the budget proposal shows that we’ve been doing all of our work, our planning, our analysis in line with a very rigorous program.” OCTA had asked for $145 million in federal funds – about half of the total $289 million for the project – but is “very, very pleased” with the $125 million recommended and has several options, from state programs to local sales tax dollars, to fill the $20 million gap, Johnson said. OC Streetcar is the first OCTA project to be considered for New Starts funds, and reaching this point was “critical” and anticipated since planning for the streetcar began in 2008, Johnson said. The planned streetcar would run from the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center through downtown Santa Ana and to a new multimodal transit hub at the eastern edge of Garden Grove. Construction would begin in late 2017 for service starting in 2020. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, D-Orange, said the president’s budget typically goes through “a lot” of changes before Congress approves it, but that she will work with her colleagues and Rep. Bill Shuster, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, to “make sure (OC Streetcar) stays in.” Obama’s proposed budget received a hostile response from the Republican-led Congress, leaving unclear implications for the streetcar funding. Sanchez said she fought for New Starts funds for a 9.3-mile light-rail system in central Orange County to John Wayne Airport called CenterLine about a decade ago, but it never materialized. OC Streetcar, a smaller project, has support from the cities it traverses and local transit authority officials. “Now I just have to make sure I can protect that money from people who want to take it and do New Starts in their own backyard,” said Sanchez, whose local office is in Garden Grove. Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, an OCTA board member and longtime proponent of OC Streetcar, said the New Starts funding has been a long time coming. “These types of projects unfortunately take a long time to realize. You have to be persistent, have to have good people around you like my fellow board members,” Pulido said. “All the stars have to line up, and right now all the stars have lined up.” Contact the writer: 714-796-7762, jkwong@ocregister.com or on Twitter: @JessicaGKwong0 of 20 Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images Dominating the NBA's regular season is one thing. But true legends are born in the playoffs. The last 20 years of basketball history, dating back to the Chicago Bulls' second three-peat clinch over the Utah Jazz in 1998, have seen plenty of memorable runs. Kobe Bryant and LeBron James have thrived in their quests for basketball immortality. Russell Westbrook and Stephen Curry have redefined what point guards can do in the playoffs. Other superstars have submitted their names into the annals of basketball greatness. But who's been the best of the best? To look at the premier individual runs of the last two decades, we're turning to NBA Math's total points added (TPA), which combine both volume and efficiency into a single score. Those listed here excel on a per-possession basis, but they also (usually) advance deep into the playoffs, in order to play enough games for the necessary volume. Mostly to avoid a LeBron James love fest, each individual is only eligible once. The rest of their top-100 marks will be listed, but they're limited to one appearance apiece.Gamers who bought an EA football game between 2005 and 2012, could be due triple the amount of settlement money per game thanks to recent modifications to a $27 million settlement in a class action suit against Electronic Arts. Under the new terms, a claimant will now receive $20.37 per last-gen game on PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and Windows PC, up from $6.79. Current-gen games on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii will pay out $5.85 per game, up from $1.95. Pecover v. Electronic Arts class-action monopoly lawsuit participants who bought a current-gen game covered under the settlement, and for whom EA has a physical mailing address, will automatically receive a check at the tripled rate. Valid claims will be paid out the amounts listed above once the claims administrator receives all of the claims and confirms that the net settlement amount is sufficient. However, if the total claims exceed $27 million, then claim amounts will be reduced on a pro rata basis. Unfortunately, leftover money originally intended as a Child's Play donation will now go to the federal government. It is not immediately clear why this modification was made. Also outlined in the supplemental notice, the deadline to file a claim or objection has been pushed back from the original March 15 cut off date, so parties who wish to do so now have until May 15. According to the notice, the settlement modifications are coming because the number of claimants is lower than was expected. Plaintiffs want to maximize the amount of money from the $27 million fund that will go to participants in the class action. The notification states: The Court modified the distribution plan to ensure that Settlement Class Members received as much money as possible from the settlement fund. The amount of money being returned to Settlement Class Members was less than expected because fewer than anticipated Settlement Class Members submitted claims prior to the original close of the claims period (i.e., prior to March 5, 2013), and Electronic Arts had fewer names and physical addresses for nonclaiming Settlement Class Members than the parties originally believed. The Court adjusted the distribution plan to provide for additional money to be returned to Settlement Class Members. The Pecover v. Electronic Arts class-action monopoly lawsuit for EA's exclusive rights to make Madden, NCAA Football and Arena Football games, was brought to a head after four years of litigation in the federal courts, when EA agreed to pay $27 million into a settlement fund last July. The settlement was ruled "fair" in October. The modifications do not affect the settlement agreement demands that EA not renew its exclusivity agreements with the Collegiate Licensing Co. The exclusivity agreements expire in 2014, and EA is barred from negotiating exclusive agreements with the CLC and National Collegiate Athletic Association for five years following. The class-action lawsuit against EA Sports claimed the company's exclusive licensing agreements with National Football League, NCAA, the CLC and the Arena Football League monopolized the market for football video games, killing any competing titles.When Washington Post fact-checker Glen Kessler awarded Marco Rubio ‘Two Pinocchios‘ for his CNBC debate assessment that the recent Benghazi hearings had exposed Hillary Clinton as a liar, he rooted his conclusion –partially, at least — in two factors. First, he argued that although it’s legitimate to point out Hillary’s conflicting statements about the attacks, jumping to “lie” requires a higher standard of proof. Given the alleged “fog of war” that hung over the deadly event, Kessler said, it’s unfair and uncharitable to accuse Clinton of outright lying. Second, he cited a statement from Clinton’s campaign flat-out denying that the former Secretary of State had ever fingered the irrelevant online film as the cause of the attack: “Josh Schwerin, a Clinton spokesman, said, ‘Rubio’s statement that she ever said the video was the cause is false,'” Kessler wrote, after acknowledging that family members of the victims have accused Clinton of doing precisely that, several days after the raid. The families’ assertions “give us pause,” he conceded, before determining that they did not amount to sufficient proof of a Clinton lie. Let’s set aside for a moment the larger question of whether Hillary deliberately lied about the nature of the Benghazi attacks. Let’s focus instead on her campaign’s assertion that she never blamed the video for causing the attack. Family members of three different Americans murdered on that hellish night have strikingly similar recollections of what Mrs. Clinton told them at Andrews Air Force Base on September 14, 2012 (via Leigh Wolf, Townhall’s new video guru): Tyrone Woods’ father (who took notes about their meeting): “I gave Hillary a hug and shook her hand. And she said we are going to have the film maker arrested who was responsible for the death of my son…’She said — the filmmaker who was responsible for the death of your son’…” Sean Smith’s mother: “She’s absolutely lying. She told me something entirely different at the casket ceremony. She said it was because of the video.” Sean Smith’s uncle: “Mrs. Clinton really has a problem embracing the truth.” Glen Doherty’s sister: “When I think back now to that day and what she knew, it shows me a lot about her character that she would choose in that moment to basically perpetuate what she knew was untrue.” Also keep in mind that Clinton invoked the video in her public remarks that day, though she didn’t link it directly to Benghazi. “We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with,” she said. Questions: Would Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign have us believe that all of these people are lying? And for what reason were these remarkably consistent memories deemed less compelling or convincing than a rote denial issued by a notably scandal-plagued candidate for public office? Clinton’s potential motive for seeking to mold the historical record is plainly obvious. What motive do the four people quoted above share that would compel them to concoct an untrue story? Perhaps they loathe Mrs. Clinton so much that they’re willing to coordinate a slander — connected to their loved ones’ deaths, mind you — that paints her in a negative light. Or perhaps the Clinton campaign is engaged in politically-motivated distortions. Which explanation sounds more plausible? As Mark Hemingway writes in his detailed response to Kessler’s analysis, the gap between the relatives
ingredient in generating electricity for our homes and cities. Although the fuel that powers these generators often attracts much more focus and is much more valuable and scarce, water is ultimately the main workhorse that allows the modern electrical grid to operate the way it does. Despite the towering clouds of steam which rise visible and endless from the smokestacks of power plants across the globe, the water cost of electrical generation is something few average people give any thought at all. The USGS estimated that in 2010 it took on average 16 gallons of water per kilowatt hour of electricity produced.‘ Where Electricity Goes, Water Follows So where is all the electricity going? To find out, we consulted this very illuminating chart from epa.gov: Although the Residential sector has the largest share of the chart with 37% consumption, overall the combination of 35% from the Commercial sector and 27% from the Industrial sector still leave business-related use far ahead of the consumption of electricity in residential homes by everyday families. In the United States, by far the best way to conserve for both businesses and private residences is by reducing electricity consumption. Reducing electricity consumption has a cascading effect which reduces consumption of precious and extremely limited fuel sources, uses less water, creates less emissions, and immediately saves money. As important as it is for everyone to learn how to minimize their electricity usage, business owners, corporate managers, and industrial leaders are responsible for the consumption of orders of magnitudes more electricity than private residences. The impetus should be placed on them to make environmentally wise and resource-conservative decisions much moreso than everyday families. The responsibility to consume resources wisely rests with both the individual and the institution. The Difference Between Water Use and Water Consumption As we explore these numbers, it is important to keep in mind the important distinction between water use and water consumption. When we refer to water use, we are not necessarily implying that the water is gone after we’ve finished using it. If a power plant requires 1,000 gallons of water for cooling but returns 900 gallons to the watershed once it is done, we would say the power plant’s total water use would be 1,000 gallons, whereas its total water consumption would be 100 gallons. Water is considered “consumed” when it does not return to the original water source. This could mean it was lost or spilled, evaporated into the atmosphere, incorporated into a product, or transported elsewhere. Although water which is used is not necessarily consumed, used water returned to its source is rarely of the same quality as before it was used. This is why waste water treatment is by far one of the most important assets of the modern world. Waste water and water consumption was the focus of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) 2017 World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP.) This expansive resource includes tons of great data and suggestions for moving forward in improving utilization of waste-water. Check out the chart below for a visual look at where water consumption is at its highest. “The AQUASTAT database of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates global freshwater withdrawals at 3,928 km³ per year. An estimated 44% (1,716 km³ per year) of this water is consumed, mainly by agriculture through evaporation in irrigated cropland. The remaining 56% (2,212 km³ per year) is released into the environment as wastewater in the form of municipal and industrial effluent and agricultural drainage water (see Figure 1). A country’s level of industrial and municipal wastewater treatment is generally a reflection of its income level. On average, high-income countries treat about 70% of the wastewater they generate, while that ratio drops to 38% in upper middle-income countries and to 28% in lower middle-income countries. In low-income countries, only 8% of industrial and municipal wastewater undergoes treatment of any kind (Sato et al., 2013). This exasperates the situation for the poor, particularly in slums, who are often directly exposed to wastewater due to a lack of water and sanitation services.” – (UNESCO 2017 WWAP, Page 9) Understanding this distinction between use and consumption is an indispensable tool towards creating a healthy mindset for conserving and properly respecting our water resources. If you do not understand the difference between use and consumption, it may seem like all water which is used is consumed, when this is not the case. The more waste water that can be captured and properly treated leads to more energy and expenditures being saved, and more efficient systems being achieved. In this area we still have a long way to go worldwide. Quoting the 2017 WWAP linked above, we find the authors concerned with a lack of emphasis on wastewater capture and treatment worldwide: “it is clear that, worldwide, the vast majority of wastewater is neither collected nor treated. ” Agricultural Irrigation: The #1 Consumer of Water Although in the United States thermoelectric power accounts for more water use than agricultural irrigation, worldwide agricultural irrigation is the single largest user and consumer of water. Agriculture accounts for 70% of global water use, followed by industrial at 20% and domestic at 10%, according to United Nations Water. Agriculture is so intensive in not only water usage but consumption due to both the nature of irrigation and the inherently water-intensive requirements of growing mass quantities of crops. When water is used for irrigation, little to none of it is collected as waste water. In many cases the vast majority of water is actually lost to the atmosphere due to evaporation, never even serving its purpose to hydrate the plants. What does make it into the plants is transpired through their leaves into the atmosphere, or incorporated into the plant and shipped away after harvest. Your Food Is Thirsty The reason agricultural water consumption soars so high above other uses of water is simple: plants are thirsty. Growing healthy, happy, produce-yielding crops requires substantial amounts of water to promote the plants throughout their life cycle. Once the crop has been harvested, water is literally shipped away in the form of produce exported from its source. The water-intensive nature of farming crops has been highlighted many times in the public spotlight. Almonds have been famously vilified, perhaps somewhat unfairly, as a major contributor to California’s historic drought. In 2014 it was calculated that almond, which can take as much as an entire gallon of water to produce a single nut, accounted for a full 10% of historically dry California’s water consumption. In this Huffington Post Article, the author calculates some data from a UNESCO-IHE report entitled “The green, blue and grey water footprint of crops and derived crop products” to get a handle on the actual cost in water to produce common foods. Some of the results are quite shocking. A single pound of rice can require up to 299 gallons of water to produce. A pound of wheat bread can take up to 193 gallons of water. It takes only 290 gallons of water to produce a pound of potatoes, or a remarkably conservative 26 gallons to a pound of tomatoes. Meanwhile, something especially heavy like olive oil takes a whopping 1,729 gallons of water per pound! But is still bested by the ever-thirsty almond, which requires a staggering 1,929 gallons per pound, about the same as cashews. Livestock Drink Twice If you looked at the graph above of gallons of water used to per calorie of different food stuffs, you likely noticed that beef is the worst offender on the list, requiring nearly 1.8 gallons of water per calorie, or about 1,847 gallons of water per-pound of beef. While beef consumes the most water per pound of almost any food stuff, this is a trait of all livestock: they drink twice. Any livestock that is fed with grains or crops absorb the water cost of growing those crops into their final product. You may have also noticed in the chart of U.S. water usage at the top of this article that Livestock account for about 1% of daily U.S. water usage, or around 2 billion gallons per-day. Food Waste = Water Waste With the huge cost of water per pound for food items, food waste is one of the single largest ways water waste can be reduced both on the level of the individual and worldwide. Based on statistics from the City of Philadelphia, the average person uses about 101 gallons of water everyday. If you go shopping one afternoon and forget to bring in a sack of groceries, resulting in a pound of hamburger rotting in your car, you’ve wasted a full 18 days of water use! How much is that? In everyday terms, for the water cost of a pound of beef you could do about 123 loads of laundry. You could take around 92 10-minute showers, about the average shower for Americans. Or you could drink 14,776 8-ounce glasses of water. Even on the level of the individual, the ability to relatively easily and thoughtlessly waste vast quantities of water through their food is remarkable. But on a global scale, the amount of food waste is unfathomable. According to this article from The Guardian, as much as one-third of food produced globally is wasted, an inconceivable 1.6 billion tons of food with a market value of a cool $1 trillion. As the title of the article suggests, a full 50% of all food produced in the United States is wasted and thrown away. The volume of wasted food is so vast that disposing of it has become a problem on an industrial scale. From the article: “Within the US, discarded food is the biggest single component of landfill and incinerators, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Food dumps are a rising source of methane, a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. But experts readily acknowledge that they are only beginning to come to grips with the scale of the problem.” In the US and worldwide, the water lost from food waste is by far the biggest example of pure waste anywhere in the statistics for global water usage. With a full third of global food produce going to waste, the amount of water waste is beyond compare. Total Waste While power generation accounts for about 15% of global water usage, very little of the water used for generating electricity is actually consumed. Based on the numbers from this study, only about 8.9% of the total water used for generating electricity is actually consumed, around 52 cubic kilometers annually across the globe. While the water quality may suffer, the vast majority of water used for energy production can be returned to its water source. In contrast to this type of use, food waste is a total loss. There is no way to return the water to its source, or even harvest the water as waste water. The vast majority of the water lost from food waste is consumed during the growth of the crops or life cycle of the livestock and is completely unrecoverable. The tiny remainder within the produce itself will decompose and rot, leaving you with a sticky mess in the best case scenario, and an environmental catastrophe in the worst. With as much a 2,769 cubic kilometers of water being withdrawn annually for agricultural purposes, the total amount of water consumption from food waste dwarfs the entirety of the water consumption bill of every other sector. As we explored above, agriculture use tends to be far more consumptive than these other sectors, so much more of this withdrawn water is being consumed and not recovered as waste water. The total water consumption from food waste is difficult to estimate, but without a doubt is staggering. Adding insult to injury, much food waste happens after the food has already been distributed to stores or consumers. The process of transporting and storing the food incurs additional costs in fuel and water, and once deemed garbage additional transportation is often necessary for disposal, another process that can cost time, energy, and water! The Responsibility From the statistics above, it becomes clear that the main area of water waste the average everyday person is responsible for is from food waste. Food waste is a global problem which impacts every population regardless of socioeconomic status, but for different reasons. In developing nations, lack of access to proper food storage technologies can create serious food waste issues for the populations most in need of calories. Meanwhile, in wealthy developed nations where incomes are high and food prices are low, food waste is encouraged by the huge abundance and laissez-faire approach to food waste. Despite paying little mind to how much food they are wasting, food waste has a real economic impact on the American family. The NRDC estimates that an average 4-person household in the US loses approximately $1,350 to $2,275 each year in wasted food. With American families throwing out on average around 25% of the food they buy, tackling food waste is the single most impactful way the average person can reduce their water footprint and truly save water. However, the consumer only tells part of the story. Food waste occurs at every stage of production and distribution. Fruits and vegetables deemed sub-par are never harvested, left in fields to rot. Quality control and damages removes even more produce during processing and packaging. Losses and damages occur during transport and distribution, and once the food makes its way to a retailer it has a very limited window before it is past its Sell By date and must be disposed of. Despite much of it being edible, vast quantities of items past the date on their Sell By label are disposed of everyday by supermarkets and grocery stores around the world. Disproportionate Consumption Respecting the huge cost in water that our food represents is a vital step towards making real strides towards worldwide water conservation. Improvements in technology have lead to more efficient irrigation systems, and increased understanding of the science of farming lead to more effective practices. Progress also leads efficiency forwards in areas like electricity generation and industrial use, where there is constant economic incentive to make processes more resource efficient and cheaper. These forces continuously contribute to reductions in water usage and consumption across all sectors. Increasing global focus on renewable sources of electricity has the future poised for a much less water-intensive means of powering our electrical grid. Technologies like wind and solar have practically no water consumption or use at all. Even hydroelectric, which relies entirely on water use, has very little water consumption cost and minimal impact on water quality. However, one area of water consumption which does not benefit from the progress of science and technology is food waste. Our attitudes towards food and the way we use, store, distribute, and dispose of it are decisions we have the ability to make immediate changes to. These problems require no new developments to solve and we will not awake one day to find them solved by technology. Making A Difference Now that you know where the water is really going, you are much better equipped to make wise decisions about how to properly utilize water resources. While it is important to make small steps to reduce your direct contribution to water waste, like minimizing watering your lawn, using low-flow toilets, taking conservative showers, not washing your car during a drought, steps like these actually have a much lower impact on your water footprint than the amount of water cost represented by the food in your fridge and pantry. When you turn on the tap or hold a strawberry, the water content is very obvious and tangible. Less obvious is the water you use every time you use electricity in your home. Cutting back on electric usage will reduce your overall water footprint and create less emissions, not to mention saving on your electric bill. While analyzing how much food you waste and taking steps to minimize and mitigate might not directly save you on your water bill, it is the single most important thing you can do to reduce your water waste! It will also have a very real impact on your food budget, potentially offering huge savings on money you are otherwise throwing away! Ultimately, resource conservation is a philosophy which must be instilled into every individual. Only when we all understand and take responsibility for the use of resources in our environment can we hope to use what we have to its greatest possibilities. With the right understanding of how to better utilize what we have, everyone can be better poised to benefit from the incredible abundance of the modern era. How Do You Conserve Water? Do you have an interesting method of saving water? Let us know in the comments. We’d love to hear from you! Resources Jacob Hatch is the author and founder of Hydration Anywhere. He has been actively writing about drinking water since 2013. These days Jacob spends most of his time investigating water related news, studying environmental issues, reading health studies, and reviewing products like water bottles and water filters. Readers Rating No Rating Yet! Your Rating Ever wonder where all that water goes? In this in-depth examination we dive head-first into the numbers to find out where water goes and how we can use it better.What Charlize Theron achieves in Patty Jenkins' "Monster" isn't a performance but an embodiment. With courage, art and charity, she empathizes with Aileen Wuornos, a damaged woman who committed seven murders. She does not excuse the murders. She simply asks that we witness the woman's final desperate attempt to be a better person than her fate intended. Wuornos received a lot of publicity during her arrest, trial, conviction and 2002 execution for the Florida murders of seven men who picked her up as a prostitute (although one wanted to help her, not use her). The headlines, true as always to our compulsion to treat everything as a sporting event or an entry for the Guinness Book, called her "America's first female serial killer." Her image on the news and in documentaries presented a large, beaten-down woman who did seem to be monstrous. Evidence against her was given by Selby Wall (Christina Ricci), an 18-year-old who became the older woman's naive lesbian lover and inspired Aileen's dream of earning enough money to set them up in a "normal" lifestyle. Robbing her clients led to murder, and each new murder seemed necessary to cover the tracks leading from the previous one. Advertisement I confess that I walked into the screening not knowing who the star was, and that I did not recognize Charlize Theron until I read her name in the closing credits. Not many others will have that surprise; she was just honored as best actress of the year by the National Society of Film Critics. I didn't recognize her -- but more to the point, I hardly tried, because the performance is so focused and intense that it becomes a fact of life. Observe the way Theron controls her eyes in the film; there is not a flicker of inattention, as she urgently communicates what she is feeling and thinking. There's the uncanny sensation that Theron has forgotten the camera and the script and is directly channeling her ideas about Aileen Wuornos. She has made herself the instrument of this character. I have already learned more than I wanted to about the techniques of disguise used by makeup artist Toni G. to transform an attractive 28-year-old into an ungainly street prostitute, snapping her cigarette butt into the shadows before stepping forward to talk with a faceless man who has found her in the shadows of a barren Florida highway. Watching the film, I had no sense of makeup technique; I was simply watching one of the most real people I had ever seen on the screen. Jenkins, the writer-director, has made the best film of the year. Movies like this are perfect when they get made, before they're ground down by analysis. There is a certain tone in the voices of some critics that I detest -- that superior way of explaining technique in order to destroy it. They imply that because they can explain how Theron did it, she didn't do it. But she does it. The movie opens with Aileen informing God that she is down to her last $5, and that if God doesn't guide her to spend it wisely she will end her life. She walks into what happens to be a lesbian bar and meets the 18-year-old Selby, who has been sent to live with Florida relatives and be "cured" of lesbianism. Aileen is adamant that she's had no lesbian experience, and indeed her sordid life as a bottom-rung sex worker has left her with no taste for sex at all. Selby's own sexuality functions essentially as a way to shock her parents and gratify her need to be desired. There is a stunning scene when the two women connect with raw sexual energy, but soon enough sex is unimportant compared to daydreaming, watching television, and enacting their private soap opera in cheap roadside motels. Advertisement Aileen is the protector and provider, proudly bringing home the bacon -- and the keys to cars that Selby doesn't ask too many questions about. Does she know that Aileen has started to murder her clients? She does and doesn't. Aileen's murder spree becomes big news long before Selby focuses on it. The crimes themselves are triggered by Aileen's loathing for prostitution -- by a lifetime's hatred for the way men have treated her since she was a child. She has only one male friend, a shattered Vietnam veteran and fellow drunk (Bruce Dern). Although she kills for the first time in self-defense, she is also lashing out against her past. Her experience of love with Selby brings revulsion uncoiling from her memories; men treat her in a cruel way and pay for their sins and those of all who went before them. The most heartbreaking scene is the death of a good man (Scott Wilson) who actually wants to help her, but has arrived so late in her life that the only way he can help is to be eliminated as a witness. Aileen's body language is frightening and fascinating. She doesn't know how to occupy her body. Watch Theron as she goes through a repertory of little arm straightenings and body adjustments and head tosses and hair touchings, as she nervously tries to shake out her nervousness and look at ease. Observe her smoking technique; she handles her cigarettes with the self-conscious bravado of a 13-year-old trying to impress a kid. And note that there is only one moment in the movie where she seems relaxed and at peace with herself; you will know the scene, and it will explain itself. This is one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema. Christina Ricci finds the correct note for Selby Wall -- so correct some critics have mistaken it for bad acting, when in fact it is sublime acting in its portrayal of a bad actor. She plays Selby as clueless, dim, in over her head, picking up cues from moment to moment, cobbling her behavior out of notions borrowed from bad movies, old songs, and barroom romances. Selby must have walked into a gay bar for the first time only a few weeks ago, and studied desperately to figure out how to present herself. Selby and Aileen are often trying to improvise the next line they think the other wants to hear. Advertisement We are told to hate the sin but not the sinner, and as I watched "Monster" I began to see it as an exercise in the theological virtue of charity. It refuses to objectify Wuornos and her crimes and refuses to exploit her story in the cynical manner of true crime sensationalism -- insisting instead on seeing her as one of God's creatures worthy of our attention. She has been so cruelly twisted by life that she seems incapable of goodness, and yet when she feels love for the first time she is inspired to try to be a better person. She is unequipped for this struggle, and lacks the gifts of intelligence and common sense. She is devoid of conventional moral standards. She is impulsive, reckless, angry and violent, and she devastates her victims, their families and herself. There are no excuses for what she does, but there are reasons, and the purpose of the movie is to make them visible. If life had given her anything at all to work with, we would feel no sympathy. But life has beaten her beyond redemptionIlya Romanov, a 46-years old Russian anarchist, was wounded on 26th of October 2013. According to authorities, this happened when a homemade bomb suddenly went off in his hands. The accident happened next to a building occupied by Russian Army draft office. Local police stated that the homemade bomb exploded early in the morning on saturday in the hands of anarchist. His left hand was torn off. The man was placed in hospital. Ilya Romanov was interrogated by the police. He claimed the “homemade explosive device” was in fact a firecracker. Mass media were quick to report about police raid on Ilya’s apartement that turned up extremist literature and various chemical reagents used for manufacturing of explosive devices. However, an alternate source claims that police failed to find anything of interest during the raid, instead cops confiscated an empty soda box, some elements of microscope belonging to Ilya’s 16 year old daughter, and a tin can with unknown white substance inside. However, police did confiscate an archive of oppositional press and Ilya’s personal letters (including letters from his time in prison during 2002-2012), his notebook and ID. Ilya got involved in anarchist movement in late 80's in Nizhni Novgorod, which was back then named Gorky. One of his first actions in Soviet era was publication of an anarchist leaflet, almost every copy of which ended up to KGB archives. This is third time he is suspected of involvement in armed struggle. First time he was detained in Moscow in October of 1998, as a suspected member of underground armed group "New Revolutionary Alternative". Eventually he was sentenced to involuntary treatment in mental hospital, and released in turn of year 2002. Ilya did not spent long time in freedom, as already in December 2002 he was detained in Ukraine, as one of the suspected members of underground revolutionary organisation. Eventually he spent 10 years in prison. Charges against him included expropriations from jewelry stores and currency exchange offices, illegal trafficking of small arms, bombing of SBU (former KGB) office in Ukraine. 11 arrested were all tortured extremely heavy, 20 year old Sergey Berdyugin died from torture 1st of November 2003. Ilya declined all charges, claimed he was tortured both mentally and physically during pre-trial detention. He went on hunger strikes and cut his veins and neck with a razorblade in courtroom to protest inhumane treatment. He was released in December of 2012. (originally translated here, few details added by avtonom.org) You may donate to legal costs of Ilya via Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow, for guidelines check http://wiki.avtonom.org/en/index.php/DonateShare This Find out how Disney you are by choosing what you would rather do. There comes a time in every Disney fan’s life when we need to know just how Disney we have become over the years. Well, tell the guards to open up the gates, because that time is now. Choose the option that you would rather, even if all of the options aren’t ideal. Then, prepare yourself for the truth about your Disney-ness: 1 Would you rather battle: Scar Maleficent Traffic Crowds 2 Would you rather go on a date with: Hans Gaston Your frenemy Your enemy 3 What would you rather eat for an entire year: Dole Whip Mickey Pretzel Ice cream Chips 4 Would you rather be trapped on a deserted island with: Jack Sparrow Stitch Your BFF A stranger 5 Would you rather wear the wardrobe of: Zenon Johnny Tsunami Your past 10-year-old self Your future 100-year-old self 6 Would you rather ride: The Monorail Big Thunder Mountain Railroad In your own car An airplane 7 Would you rather be best friends with: Pascal Mushu Your current BFF An inanimate object 8 Would you rather take a class from: Mr. Ray Mr. Feeny Your 5th grade teacher Your favorite high school teacher 9 Would you rather go on an adventure with: Rapunzel Ariel Your friend group Your family 10 Would you rather be trapped in: The Cave of Wonders Wonderland The mall Your room 11 Would you rather be granted a wish from: The Blue Fairy Genie A star A tree 12 Would you rather have the power of: Mama Odie Grandmother Willow Your actual grandmother Persuasion 13 Would you rather live in: Arendelle San Fransokyo Anaheim New York 14 Would you rather turn into a: Llama Elephant Fly Rock 15 Would you rather see: A whole new world The light A movie A yeti 1 of 15 You are everything Disney. And Disney is your everything. You pretty much eat, sleep, and breathe Disney, and we don’t blame you. Go ahead, play your favorite Disney movie to celebrate, we know you want to! Share on Facebook Share on Pinterest Share on Twitter Take this quiz again! You are almost all Disney. Just a little more practice and you’ll be all Disney, all the time. Take in the Disney movies you haven’t seen, or if you’re near a Disney Park, jump on a few rides and you’ll be more Disney before you know it. Share on Facebook Share on Pinterest Share on Twitter Take this quiz again! You are a little Disney. You’ve been known to see a Disney movie or two, but it doesn’t make up everything you are. Even though you’re not completely Disney, we bet you know all the words to “Let It Go.” Share on Facebook Share on Pinterest Share on Twitter Take this quiz again! You are not very Disney. So you aren’t all Disney, but you’re still a Disney fan. If you want to be more Disney, all you have to do is gather up a little faith, trust, and tons of Disney movies for research. Share on Facebook Share on Pinterest Share on Twitter Take this quiz again! Posted 3 years AgoNEW DELHI:India-Israel ties, which have been improving steadily in last few years, is now out in the open under the Modi government, according to Israel’s new Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon Both countries have now more visibility in relations and ties are more talked about in open under the current the BJP-led government compared to the last decade, he said, adding that while bilateral relations have been productive in the past decade and growing across sectors, there is more visibility in partnership and it is more talked about in the open in the recent months.Carmon pointed out that when Prime Ministers of the two countries met on sidelines of UN summit last September, it was the first time that PMs of two countries were meeting in last 10 years.It may be recalled that the last Prime Minister level contact was established when Ariel Sharon visited India in 2003 with A B Vajpayee as PM. In fact he has been the only Israeli PM to have visited India so far. No Indian PM has ever made a trip to Israel Visits by senior ministers to each other’s country since last May also contributed to the visibility in ties. The Israeli envoy pointed out that Home Minister Rajnath Singh recently had a productive visit to Israel. More senior ministers from two countries will travel soon to each other countries."Our agriculture minister is travelling to Vibrant Gujarat where Israel will be represented in a major way. Our NSA was here to meet cross section of people in October. Nevertheless, we need to realize these are important steps but there is still much work that can be done in many fields," Carmon noted. Israel along with UAE and Bahrain will make country presentations at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit during January 11-13.Sources said that during the past 10 years, mostly junior level ministers from India visited Israel except visits by erstwhile Foreign Minister SM Krishna and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.The DEA Asset Forfeiture Program's unofficial logo: "You make it, we'll take it." (Photo courtesy of Fred Repp) Joseph Rivers was hoping to hit it big. According to the Albuquerque Journal, the aspiring businessman from just outside of Detroit had pulled together $16,000 in seed money to fulfill a lifetime dream of starting a music video company. Last month, Rivers took the first step in that voyage, saying goodbye to the family and friends who had supported him at home and boarding an Amtrak train headed for Los Angeles. He never made it. From the Albuquerque Journal: A DEA agent boarded the train at the Albuquerque Amtrak station and began asking various passengers, including Rivers, where they were going and why. When Rivers replied that he was headed to LA to make a music video, the agent asked to search his bags. Rivers complied. The agent found Rivers's cash, still in a bank envelope. He explained why he had it: He was starting a business in California, and he'd had trouble in the past withdrawing large sums of money from out-of-state banks. The agents didn't believe him, according to the article. They said they thought the money was involved in some sort of drug activity. Rivers let them call his mother back home to corroborate the story. They didn't believe her, either. The agents found nothing in Rivers's belongings that indicated that he was involved with the drug trade: no drugs, no guns. They didn't arrest him or charge him with a crime. But they took his cash anyway, every last cent, under the authority of the Justice Department's civil asset forfeiture program. [How to keep the DEA from taking all your cash] Rivers's life savings represent just a drop in the Justice Department's multibillion-dollar civil asset forfeiture bucket. Rivers has retained a lawyer in the hope of getting at least some of his money back. Rivers says he suspects he may have been singled out for a search because he was the only black person on that part of the train. There is no presumption of innocence under civil asset forfeiture laws. Rather, law enforcement officers only need to have a suspicion -- in practice, often a vague one -- that a person is involved with illegal activity in order to seize their property. On the highway, for instance, police may cite things like tinted windows, air fresheners or trash in the car, according to a Washington Post investigation last year. Attorney General Eric Holder is barring local and state police from using federal law to seize cash, cars and other property without evidence that a crime occurred. The Post's Robert O'Harrow Jr. explains the most sweeping check on police power to confiscate personal property since the seizures began three decades ago. (The Washington Post) The DEA declined to comment in detail to the Albuquerque Journal's Joline Guierrez Krueger, though it did say that Rivers was not targeted because of his race. The Albuquerque DEA office did not immediately respond to a request by The Washington Post for more information about the case. [Police intelligence targets cash: Reports on drivers, training by firm fueled law enforcement aggressiveness] Once property has been seized, the burden of proof falls on the defendant to get it back -- even if the cops ultimately never charge them with a crime. "We don’t have to prove that the person is guilty," an Albuquerque DEA agent told the Journal. "It’s that the money is presumed to be guilty." The practice has proven to be controversial. Earlier this year, then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced measures restricting the use of some types of civil asset forfeiture. But as the Institute for Justice noted in a February report, these changes only affect a small percentage of forfeitures initiated by local law enforcement agencies, not federal ones like the DEA. About 90 percent of Justice Department seizures won't be affected at all. Asset forfeiture is lucrative for the DEA. According to their latest notification of seized goods, updated Monday, agents have seized well over $38 million dollars' worth of cash and goods from people in the first few months of this year. Some of the goods may be directly related to ongoing criminal investigations, but most of them are not. For instance, in fiscal year 2014 Justice Department agencies made a total of $3.9 billion in civil asset seizures, versus only $679 million in criminal asset seizures. In most years since 2008, civil asset forfeitures have accounted for the lion's share of total seizures. [Holder announces new limits on civil asset forfeitures] The Obama administration has generally pushed forward on criminal justice reform. Under Holder, who recently resigned as attorney general, the Justice Department took a hands-off approach to state-level marijuana laws, changed its drug sentencing policies and issued new rules to curb racial profiling. But asset forfeiture has not been targeted much for reform. Asset forfeitures have more than doubled during President Obama's tenure, a Washington Post analysis found last year. The DEA, meanwhile, has been skeptical of the administration's agenda, openly opposing sentencing reforms and marijuana reforms, and defying Congressional bills meant to curb DEA raids on medical marijuana dispensaries. But with DEA administrator Michele Leonhart stepping down this month under a cloud of controversy, Obama may name a successor who will aim the agency in a different direction. The irony of Rivers's case is that five days before his money was seized, New Mexico's governor signed into law a bill abolishing civil asset forfeiture in that state. The bill passed unanimously in New Mexico's House and Senate, a sign of the widespread opposition to the practice. But New Mexico's law only affects state law enforcement officials. As a result, in New Mexico -- and everywhere else, for that matter -- DEA agents will be able to board your train, ask you where you're going and take all your cash if they don't like your story, all without ever charging you with a crime.Specifically, the CMA has named and shamed marketing firms Starcom Mediavest and TAN Media, which were found to be distributing unlabeled advertorials promoting payday loans provider MYJAR. The companies are said to have "engaged constructively" with the CMA's investigation, and will make sure all sponsored content is labeled as such, not presented as opinion. Further to making an example out of this particular case, the CMA has written to other marketing companies, their clients and online publishers, and plans to outline the rules in open letters to make everyone aware that ignoring consumer protection law in this way won't be tolerated. The UK in general is growing increasingly more irritated by advertising that tries its damnedest to avoid being recognized for what it is. And the CMA isn't the only local regulator strong-arming marketers into playing ball. The UK Financial Conduct Authority, for example, voiced concerns about sponsored social network posts that aren't immediately identifiable as ads several years ago. More recently, the UK's Advertising Standards Authority also felt it necessary to spell out exactly what an ad is (and how it should be labeled) to vloggers, bloggers and social media stars getting paid to feature products.The US Coast Guard said that US authorities have not made any arrests as hundreds of peaceful protestors in Seattle march against a Royal Dutch Shell oil rig at the Port of Seattle following protests throughout the weekend. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – US authorities have not made any arrests as hundreds of peaceful protestors in Seattle march against a Royal Dutch Shell oil rig at the Port of Seattle following protests throughout the weekend, the US Coast Guard told Sputnik. “From maritime side of things including Saturday’s demonstration and kayakers on the water there have been no arrests or detainees,” US Coast Guard Lieutenant Dana Warr said on Monday. “Our primary conversation has been educational in nature to ensure protestors know to stay 100 yards from the oil rig.” A coalition of US environmental groups and citizens in Seattle opposed to oil giant Shell’s Arctic drilling are continuing weekend protests on Monday, and plan to shut down rig work in the Port of Seattle.
problems. The best shoes for walking distance are neither too old nor too new. Old walking shoes lack shock absorption and are very hard on the legs and back. Walk in new walking shoes for at least 5 hours, over different walks, before you wear them in a distance walking event of 5K or more. 7. Improper nutrition Eating nutrient-poor food is a very common mistake, not only for distance walking events, but in everyday life. When walking a long distance event, feed your body lots of nutrient-rich foods: lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean protein. Foods with white flour, corn syrup and sugar actually deplete your system of the energy you need to feel good during and after your event. 8. Assuming pain or injury means you have to stop walking Whether during an event or during your training, it is important to stop walking if you feel the kind of pain that can lead to injury. However, before you give up, it is important to realize that almost all pain is caused by improper walking technique or walking beyond your conditioning level. You can avoid pain by learning good walking technique. Then, if you feel pain while training, you can adjust your technique to reduce the pain. 9. Dehydration If you want to enjoy your event, and not get muscle cramps, headaches, lightheaded or dizzy, you have to keep hydrated and have enough electrolytes in your system to prevent dehydration. We suggest drinking 2-4oz. of water every 15 minutes and taking an electrolyte replacement capsule every hour. 10. Not knowing the course ahead of time The best way to insure that you don’t fail in your distance event is to know what lies ahead of you. What are the environmental concerns (weather, temperature, wind) and terrain challenges (hills, canted roads, surface conditions) are two areas where any distance walker can get thrown off. Another crucial factor to pay very close attention to is the quality of, and distance between, aid stations along the course. If you have to carry your own fuel and water between aid stations, it can add significant weight which you will have to carry. If you don’t train accordingly, you could end up wearing yourself out sooner than you had planned. Distance events are great opportunities to test yourself to see what you’re made of. They’re also opportunities to raise money for good humanitarian causes. Whatever your reasons are for walking distance events, it’s always a good idea to know two things: your own capabilities, and a thorough knowledge of what you potentially could face.High Speed Trading and Slow-Witted Economic Policy Michael Lewis' new book, Flash Boys, is leading to large amounts of discussion both on and off the business pages. The basic story is that a new breed of traders can use sophisticated algorithms and super fast computers to effectively front-run trades. This allows them to make large amounts of money by essentially skimming off the margins. By selling ahead of a big trade, they will push down the price that trader receives for their stock by a fraction of a percent. Similarly, by buying ahead of a big trade, they will also raise the price paid for that trade by a fraction of a percent. Since these trades are essentially a sure bet (they know that a big sell order or a big buy order is coming), the profits can be enormous. This book is seeming to prompt outrage, although it is not clear exactly why. The basic story of high frequency trading is not new. It has been reported in most major news outlets over the last few years. It would be nice if we could move beyond the outrage to a serious discussion of the policy issues and ideally some simple and reasonable policy to address the issue. (Yes, simple should be front and center. If it's complicated we will be employing people in pointless exercises -- perhaps a good job program, but bad from the standpoint of effective policy.) The issue here is that people are earning large amounts of money by using sophisticated computers to beat the market. This is effectively a form of insider trading. Pure insider trading, for example trading based on the CEO giving advance knowledge of better than expected profits, is illegal. The reason is that it rewards people for doing nothing productive at the expense of honest investors. On the other hand, there are people who make large amounts of money by doing good research to get ahead of the market. For example, many analysts may carefully study weather patterns to get an estimate of the size of the wheat crop and then either buy or sell wheat based on what they have learned about the about this year's crop relative to the generally held view. In principle, we can view the rewards for this activity as being warranted since they are effectively providing information to the market with the their trades. If they recognize an abundant wheat crop will lead to lower prices, their sales of wheat will cause the price to fall before it would otherwise, thereby allowing the markets to adjust more quickly. The gains to the economy may not in all cases be equal to the private gains to these traders, but at least they are providing some service. By contrast, the front-running high speed trader, like the inside trader, is providing no information to the market. They are causing the price of stocks to adjust milliseconds more quickly than would otherwise be the case. It is implausible that this can provide any benefit to the economy. This is simply siphoning off money at the expense of other actors in the market. There are many complicated ways to try to address this problem, but there is one simple method that would virtually destroy the practice. A modest tax on financial transactions would make this sort of rapid trading unprofitable since it depends on extremely small margins. A bill proposed by Senator Tom Harkin and Representative Peter DeFazio would impose a 0.03 percent tax on all trades of stocks, bonds, and derivatives. This would quickly wipe out the high-frequency trading industry while having a trivial impact on normal investors. (Most research indicates that other investors will reduce their trading roughly in proportion to the increase in the cost per trade, leaving their total trading costs unchanged.)The Joint Tax Committee projected that this tax would raise roughly $400 billion over a decade. A scaled tax that imposed a somewhat higher fee on stock trades and lower fee on short-term assets like options could be even more effective. Japan had a such tax in place in the 1980s and early 1990s. It raised more than 1 percent of GDP ($170 billion a year in the United States). Representative Keith Ellison has proposed this sort of tax for the United States. If the political system were not so corrupt, such taxes would be near the top of the policy agenda. Even the International Monetary Fund has complained that the financial sector is under-taxed. However, because of the money and power of the industry the leadership of both political parties will run away from imposing any tax on the financial industry. In fact Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has been working to torpedo the imposition of such a tax in Europe. So look for lots of handwringing and outrage in response to Lewis' book. And look also for nothing real to be done.DPA Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad doesn't take kindly to Western criticism of his country's legal practices. The European Union this week sent a letter to authorities in Iran expressing its concern over a proposed change to the penal code that would make apostasy punishable by death. The EU is responding to news that the Islamic Republic is planning to subject "apostasy, heresy and witchcraft" to the Hudud -- the body of fixed punishments assigned to crimes that are considered violations of the "claims of God." Other Hadud crimes include alcohol consumption, theft, highway robbery and illegal sexual intercourse. As the news agency Reuters reported earlier this week, the EU, which opposes the death penalty as a matter of policy, expressed "acute concern" over the proposed penal code revision. "These articles clearly violate the Islamic Republic of Iran's commitments under the international human rights conventions," Slovenian leaders, who currently head the rotating EU presidency, wrote in a statement. "The EU calls upon the Iranian authorities, both in government and parliament, to modify the draft penal code in order to respect the obligations." The death penalty has already been applied to apostates in Iran -- but this was never, since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979, institutionalized as a matter of legal practice. Iran typically dismisses Western criticism of its legal system, claiming that Islamic law is fundamentally different. The main concern seems to be arising from the Baha'i faith, which forms a religious minority in Iran but, unlike Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism, is not officially recognized by the regime. On Thursday, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that the Baha'i community in Germany is particularly worried about the fate of three Iranian Baha'i, who were arrested in 2006 in the southern Iranian city of Schiras for having founded a center for Baha'i children and youth. They were sentenced to four years imprisonment and are said to be in a secret service rather than normal prison. At the beginning of February, the EU officially protested the sentence and expressed its concern about the "worsening situation for ethnic and religious minorities in Iran, in particular that of the Baha'i." The Iranian court defended its decision on the basis that the Baha'i, in promoting their faith, were spreading propaganda "against the Islamic regime." The Baha'i faith developed out of Shia Islam in the 19th century and its followers have been subject to discrimination for generations. reuters/nmbNEO, formerly Antshares, is an open source blockchain. Founded in 2014, NEO’s mission has been to reinvent the way commerce is done. We believe technology drives progress and together we can create the future. Motivated by this, NEO has been created to shift our traditional economy into the new era of the Smart Economy. NEO is happy to have the meetup in Seoul, in cooperation with Blockchain Partners Korea (Hashed Lounge), meet with developers, community friends and share visions of the future. Agenda 1. NEO and Smart Contract by Da Hongfei (NEO Founder). 2. Red Pulse presentation by Jonathan Ha (Red Pulse CEO). 3. Project presentation: Qlink, a decentralized mobile network, by Susan Zhou (Co-founder of Qlink) 4. Community member sharing session by Miles. 5. Q&A. Social networking. Language: English. https://github.com/neo-project/neo http://docs.neo.org/ko-kr/index.html #Hashed Lounge는 전세계 블록체인 시장의 혁신적인 기술과 프로젝트를 한국 커뮤니티에 소개하고 교류하는 장을 만들기 위한 밋업입니다. 탈중앙화된 미래를 꿈꾸는 많은 분들과 재미있는 커뮤니티를 만들어가고 싶습니다.The Senators are contemplating a move downtown. The group that operates the NHL team — Senators Sports & Entertainment — has confirmed to the Citizen that it is “actively considering the opportunity” to build a new hockey arena on the grounds of LeBreton Flats. That means the Senators will be among those taking a long look at redeveloping the so-called second phase of the sprawling property on the south side of Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway across from the Canadian War Museum. On Sept. 30, the National Capital Commission launched a request for proposals to redevelop as much as 21.4 hectares of land at LeBreton Flats that sits south of the parkway and west of Booth Street. One criteria for the redevelopment proposal is the inclusion of “an attraction of a regional, national or international significance” that is also a “world-class capital destination.” The Senators told the Citizen the sports organization has been “approached by numerous well-established private sector companies and community organizations who have expressed a strong desire to partner with us on developing a world-class proposal for the site.” The Sens organization said it will make its final decision on whether to submit an application to the NCC over the next few weeks. While the Senators believe an NHL arena at LeBreton could drive economic development in the core, as well as serve as an “architectural anchor” for the development, they underlined that they “feel very strongly that this could only be possible with strong community support.” That could be a call to arms to Sens fans who support an arena in the city core to rise up in support of the idea. For decades, many have decried the current arena’s Kanata location as inconvenient, if not a downright barrier to attendance. As one of the NCC’s criteria for proposals is that the redevelopment be a “valued destination for residents from the region,” vocal support from fans in favour of a move to LeBreton could help the organization’s bid. Even Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird seemed to question the current location of the NHL arena. The Ottawa West-Nepean MP was at the Citizen on Tuesday for an editorial board meeting when he was asked about whether he’d be in favour of an arena being built at LeBreton. Baird is the federal minister responsible for the NCC, and his opinion matters. He appoints directors to the NCC board and hired the new CEO, Mark Kristmanson. His main concern is that any new plan for LeBreton be state of the art — “If it’s not excellent my strong advice would be let’s not do it,” he said — pointing out that few cities have an opportunity to develop a major piece of land in its downtown core. Baird also said he wants to “respect the process” and didn’t want to wade into what his personal preferences for LeBreton might be. “I’m going to keep my powder dry,” he said. Still, when pressed about the possibility of a hockey arena, the foreign affairs minister said, “I’ve travelled quite a bit and I’ve never seen a major sports arena in the middle of nowhere.” It’s not a huge surprise that the Senators are looking as if they are moving ahead with an application for a major redevelopment project at LeBreton. Senators owner Eugene Melnyk has always said that the franchise needed non-hockey revenue in order to thrive. The original Senators owners wanted to make the current arena the centrepiece of a new commercial development, a controversial plan that never materialized, rebuffing the advice of then-councillors — including Jim Watson, Diane Holmes and Jacquelin Holzman, who was mayor at the time and is now an NCC director. Building an arena not just in a more central location, but right on the new LRT line — LeBreton Flats will be served by the new Pimisi Station — could attract more people to the games. The NCC has called for a redevelopment plan that “builds on the investment in the Confederation Line,” which this surely would. If the Senators go ahead with their application, they will have a number of hurdles to leap. The concept of an NHL hockey arena doesn’t immediately jibe with other NCC criteria for the new development, including fostering a “strong integration with existing and surrounding communities” or being a “complementary use for a waterfront site, with nearby national institutions and memorials.” As well, the NCC set up an expectation that the new development would be anchored by a public institution — LeBreton Flats is public land — and, at least under the current ownership structure, the NHL arena does not qualify. Then there’s the fact the bidding process is expected to be quite competitive. Applications were due by Dec. 5, but the NCC extended the deadline to Jan. 7, 2015 “due to a greater expression of interest than expected.” In September, the NCC’s CEO, Kristmanson, allowed that the LeBreton redevelopment “could” include a new arena, “but we can imagine other possibilities, as well.” jchianello@ottawacitizen.comMoody’s knocks UK’s rating down again, from Aa1 to Aa2, after being the first major credit ratings agency to deprive UK of AAA rating following Brexit vote Britain’s credit rating has been downgraded a further notch, with Moody’s saying the government’s plans to fix the public finances had been knocked off course and Brexit would weigh on the economy. The ratings agency, which was the first major credit ratings agency to strip Britain of its top-notch AAA rating in 2016, said it had cut the rating to Aa2 from Aa1. Britain has cut its budget deficit from about 10% of economic output in 2010 to 2.3% in the 2016/17 financial year, which ended in March, and the government hopes to bring down debt as a share of output from 2018/19. But Moody’s said on Friday the outlook for the public finances had weakened significantly with the government’s fiscal consolidation plans increasingly in question and the debt burden expected to continue to rise. At the same time pressures on the budget would be increased by a weakening of Britain’s economy that was likely after its departure from the European Union, which would distract the government from other priorities, it said. “Fiscal pressures will be exacerbated by the erosion of the UK’s medium-term economic strength that is likely to result from the manner of its departure from the European Union, and by the increasingly apparent challenges to policy-making given the complexity of Brexit negotiations and associated domestic political dynamics,” Moody’s said. Britain’s government said Moody’s assessment of the Brexit hit to the economy was “outdated”, because Theresa May had laid out an ambitious plan for future relations with the EU in a speech earlier on Friday. Moody’s revised up its outlook on the country to stable from negative, meaning a further downgrade is not imminent.A man brutally beaten by police in June after he surrendered and lay down on the ground is now at risk of being deported. Police officers in Santa Ana, California, beat Edgar Vargas Arzate on June 20, according to surveillance video of the incident and interviews with Arzate's attorney. Arzate, who has struggled with addiction and mental health issues, went to visit the house of a friend, apparently not realizing that the friend no longer lived there, according to his attorney, public defender Frank Bittar. The new residents saw Arzate mumbling incoherently outside their house and called police. Arzate ran when he saw the officers, leading them on a roughly four-block chase before he surrendered in the front yard of a neighbor's home, Bittar said. In the video, Arzate can be seen lying facedown on the ground. The officers then begin to savagely beat Arzate, punching, kicking and swinging a flashlight at him. In the video, two officers on the opposite side of the fence look up and appear to notice the surveillance camera, then say something to the officers beating Arzate, who quickly move him out of view of the camera. "He's lucky he wasn't put in a wheelchair," Bittar told HuffPost. Once he was taken into custody, Arzate was charged with assaulting a police officer. The charge was then enhanced to a higher-level felony when police accused him of having "personally inflicted great bodily injury" on one particular officer who claimed to have broken his hand, according to the charging document. On Monday, Arzate, 27, who came to the U.S. without documentation as a teenager, was riding with family members to a preliminary hearing to face the charges. Suddenly, three unmarked cars pulled the family over and Arzate was quickly taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. "They stopped them and made everyone get out of the car and then arrested my brother," said Araceli Vargas, Arzate's younger sister. "Right now he's under immigration hold and we're just waiting on a bail so we can get him out of jail again. I don't know what's going to happen next, honestly." "My mom told me that the ICE agents made her feel less than human," Vargas continued. "My dad was so disappointed in the system. My grandpa was so scared, he's been in bed since. My aunt started crying. Nothing had happened since June, he was just living his normal life, but we have cameras here and we saw the cars that stopped my brother yesterday morning -- it was a gray Chevy Impala -- they didn't have markings, but they had been spying on us. They passed by the house at least four times that morning, so they knew what they were doing. Why did they wait until we were leaving the house and going to court?" Bittar instantly suspected that local police had tipped off the federal government to get Arzate out of the country. "This is so highly bizarre," he said in a telephone interview just after learning of Arzate's apprehension. "The feds would never have done this if somebody hadn't tipped him off." Corporal Anthony Bertagna of the Santa Ana Police Department told HuffPost that ICE acted on its own. "We don't tip off ICE. We didn't know he had a court date," he said. "Last I heard, he was still in custody. Obviously if we wanted him arrested we'd arrest him ourselves. When it comes to ICE and their jurisdiction and the laws they enforce, when we're asked to assist, we assist. We were not involved in ICE's action." Bertagna told The Voice of OC, a nonprofit investigative site that covers Santa Ana, that it was unusual for ICE to use unmarked cars to apprehend someone. “I’ve never heard of ICE making car stops like that before,” he said. An ICE official said that once the agency learned about Arzate's beating, they decided not to fast-track his deportation. "Mr. Vargas was targeted for arrest Aug. 18 by officers assigned to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Criminal Alien Program based solely upon his case history, which includes two prior deportations and multiple felony convictions," said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice. "At the time of Monday’s arrest, ICE officers were unaware of Mr. Vargas’ involvement in a high-profile investigation," Kice said. "Once ICE became aware of the matter, the agency elected to place Mr. Vargas in immigration proceedings, rather than reinstating his prior removal order and repatriating him to Mexico immediately. The action will afford Mr. Vargas and his legal representatives additional time to pursue his case in immigration court and address the other outstanding issues stemming from his recent criminal arrest." Arzate, despite having been brought to the country as a teenager, is not eligible to apply for deferment under the immigration program known as Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals, because he has previously been imprisoned on drug and auto theft charges. He has twice before been deported and re-entered the U.S. "Everyone he knows is here," Bittar said. Bittar's case is an example of how people in the United States without documentation face a parallel justice system. Americans who have previously been convicted of crimes retain basic civil and constitutional rights, but undocumented immigrants are not granted those basic protections. ICE's policy is to give leniency to victims of a crime, often granting them what's known as a U Visa. "Absent special circumstances or aggravating factors, it is against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy to initiate removal proceedings against an individual known to be the immediate victim or witness to a crime," the agency says. If Arzate had been assaulted by a group other than law enforcement, his immigration situation would likely be improved. In order to obtain a U Visa, law enforcement must certify that you are, in fact, a victim who can be helpful in the prosecution of the perpetrators. But if law enforcement officials are themselves the perpetrators, the likelihood they will certify the victim drops close to zero. Arzate's only hope, Bittar said, may be for the Department of Justice to launch its own investigation and certify Arzate. The move against Arzate comes at a tense moment for Los Angeles. In August, L.A. police shot and killed an unarmed man, Ezell Ford, and have yet to release the autopsy or the names of the officers involved. Also this month, police beat and killed another unarmed man, Omar Abrego. Elise Foley contributed reporting, and Matt Ferner contributed from Los Angeles.A man in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico looks through the U.S. border fence into Nogales, Arizona, U.S., January 31, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson By Lisa Baertlein and Paul Ingram NOGALES, Arizona (Reuters) - For up to 16 hours a day, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and mangoes grown in Mexico flow north through a border checkpoint into Nogales, Arizona, helping to ensure a year-round supply of fresh produce across the United States. This is a city built on cross-border trade. Each year, some 330,000 trucks and 75,000 train cars carrying $17 billion worth of goods move through Nogales, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Economists estimate trade supports nearly one in three jobs here, ranging from workers who inspect the goods to forklift operators who unload them in distribution centers. In many ways, Nogales represents the flip side of free trade deals that have battered industrial cities in the Midwest, where jobs have been outsourced and manufacturing plants shut down. The cities where Donald Trump's promise to throttle what he calls unfair competition resonated most profoundly during the presidential campaign. It also represents potential risks that new trade barriers could pose for businesses and residents along the border. Only a tall, rusted fence separates Nogales, Arizona, from Nogales, Mexico; the cities are so intertwined that locals call them by a single name, “Ambos Nogales” or “Both Nogales.” Now in office, Trump is considering a 20 percent tax on imports from Mexico, one of several ideas under review in Washington, and is promising to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. More than a dozen city officials, employers and workers interviewed here said a border tax, if enacted, could choke the flow of imports from Mexico. They described a chain of events that would harm the economy, threaten local jobs and lead to higher prices for U.S. consumers. “President Trump should take a good look at the effects of whatever he does, because he’s going to end up with a real problem,” said Nogales Mayor John Doyle, who joined other lawmakers from Arizona, New Mexico and Texas in denouncing the import tax plan in letters to U.S. lawmakers. Food, autos and electronics go both ways across the border checkpoint, sometimes more than once. Mexican mangoes and melons come north while California almonds and apples from Washington state go south. U.S. car parts sent to Mexican factories are imported back as finished vehicles. "There are hundreds of products that come back and forth through the port of entry in Nogales,” Doyle said. The Trump administration told Reuters that any tax deal would protect U.S. interests. “The American people can rest assured that any policy President Trump pursues will be designed to increase wages for American workers, reduce the U.S. trade deficit, and strengthen the economy so that it works for all,” a White House official said in an email. TIED TO TRADE Since the 1994 implementation of NAFTA, trade between Mexico and the United States has risen more than six fold. Each country exported about $40 billion to the other in 1993. Last year the United States imported $294 billion in goods from Mexico and exported $231 billion back, U.S. Census data show. Nationwide, nearly 5 million jobs are now tied to trade with Mexico, from importers to jobs dependent on low-cost goods, according to a study by the non-partisan Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute. In Santa Cruz County, surrounding Nogales, the produce import industry and supporting businesses account for more than 22 percent of jobs, according to a 2013 report by economists at the University of Arizona. Trade and support for factories across the border account for another 10 percent of the workforce. The report's lead author, Vera Pavlakovich-Kochi, said a 20 percent border tax would create the strictest barriers to trade in five decades. In addition to Trump's proposal of a 20 percent tax on imports from Mexico, Republican lawmakers have put forth a plan that would cut corporate income tax to 20 percent from 35 percent, exclude export revenue from taxable income and impose a 20 percent tax on imports. The proposals have split Corporate America. A group of major exporters including Boeing Co, General Electric Co and Pfizer Inc have formed a coalition to support the import tax. At the same time, large retailers, including Target Corp and Best Buy Co Inc, have countered that such a tax would raise consumer prices and hurt their businesses.Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus voiced support over the weekend for an effort to reform how some states award their electoral votes. And the effect of the movement should not be underestimated. Below, we take you through the particulars of the effort, what it would mean, and why it will or won't happen. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. (Mark Wilson/Getty) What's on the table? Basically, Republicans who have control of states that went for President Obama in the 2012 election are pushing for their states to change how they award electoral votes. While almost every state awards electoral votes on a winner-take-all basis, Republicans want these states to instead award one vote to the winner of each congressional district. The other two electoral votes that each state has likely would be given to the statewide winner, as they are in the two states that currently employ this method: Maine and Nebraska. The new system would allow Republicans to consistently win electoral votes (and quite possibly a majority of electoral votes) from states like Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Virginia, regardless of whether they win the statewide vote. All five of these states went for Obama in 2012. Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have consistently gone blue at the presidential level, and Virginia is tilting in that direction, which would make winning any electoral votes in these states a victory for the GOP. Why does it matter? It matters because the congressional district method gives the GOP a much better chance of winning, since a strong majority of U.S. congressional districts lean Republican. In fact, if every state awarded its electoral votes by congressional district, it's likely that Mitt Romney would have won the 2012 presidential election despite losing the popular vote by nearly four percentage points. (According to Fix projections and data from Daily Kos Elections, Romney won at least 227 congressional districts and 24 states, giving him 275 electoral votes -- more than the 270 he needed.) In addition, if just the five states mentioned above changed their systems, Obama's 126-electoral-vote win would have shrunk to a 34-vote win -- close enough where a different result in Florida (which Obama won by less than one point) would have tipped the 2012 race in Romney's favor. Why it could happen Despite their 2012 losses, Republicans continue to hold control of the state legislature and the governor's mansion in all five of the states listed above. That means, with enough political will, they may be able to push through such changes. Republicans also have a window of opportunity right now. Over the next two years, they will have to defend the governor's mansion in all five states, and their majorities in some of those state legislative chambers are going to be at risk as well, so now may be their last shot. In addition, such changes are best made as far away from the next presidential election as possible, in hopes of avoiding a backlash over gaming the system. Republicans wouldn't have to worry much about Democrats doing something similar -- at least not right now -- in response. That's because Democrats don't hold full control over the state government in any red state except West Virginia. Why it wouldn't happen First, making something like this work is tricky politics. It's pretty clear that Republicans are looking at these changes for political gain, rather than because they make sense as reforms, and voters may not like that. (There's a reason the GOP is proposing this in blue states they control rather than red states they control, because in the latter case they would be losing electoral votes.) Secondly, with Govs. Tom Corbett (R-Pa.), Rick Snyder (R-Mich.), John Kasich (R-Ohio) and Scott Walker (R-Wis.) already having dealt with some very tough issues in their tenures and having the political scars to show for it, there may not be an appetite for something so difficult and uncertain. And thirdly, congressional districts change every 10 years, so who is to say that the changes wouldn't one day hurt the GOP? And what if states like Wisconsin or Michigan one day tilt red? Then Republicans would prefer them to be winner take all again. Priebus, in announcing his support for the push, emphasized the change would create greater "local control," and an argument could be made that it would encourage presidential candidates to pay closer attention to their states. It's also notable that two states are already doing the congressional district method, so it's not like this is a totally outside-the-box idea. But it's still a tough argument to make.Barbara J. Phillips was arrested in Gainesville. A mentally ill homeless woman in Florida is accused of vandalizing a policeman’s patrol car and smearing feces on a church where she left the walls defaced with nonsensical writings against “patriarchy.” Barbara J. Phillips, 40, was charged with charged with stalking, criminal mischief and damaging church property, the Gainesville Sun reported June 19. An arrest report listed Phillips as homeless and said she “appears to be suffering from some mental health problems”: On June 13, a Gainesville Police Department officer reported his patrol car had a broken passenger mirror and a flat tire, after nails had been placed around the car overnight. His air-conditioning unit was broken and a welcome post from his yard flung into the street, the report said. About the same time, St. Andrews Church’s leader and his wife reported two similar acts of vandalism, including their power being turned off and nails — that appeared to match the ones placed near the officer’s car — being placed around one of their cars, according to the Alachua County sheriff’s office. On June 12, two people arrived at the church at 2715 NW 39th Ave., and found feces in front of its front door and smeared on door handles, what appeared to be glue dripping from keyholes, and a number of windows, all cracked in the bottom left corner. They initially saw a gray Prius, later determined to belong to Phillips, in front of the church, driven away as they arrived. The air-conditioning unit had been tampered with, and nonsensical writings were made in permanent marker on church pillars and doors, which the report described as “rants” about “patriarchy,” “misogyny and sexism” and “bad spirits toward me.” Phillips... had attended some church gatherings at the home of Rev. Ronald Kuykendall, who leads St. Andrew’s Church, he told police. Phillips told police she believes the reverend had been “attacking her mind” via “the spirit realm,” the report said. (Hat-tip: Kirby McCain on Twitter.) Share this: Share Twitter Facebook Reddit CommentsOctober 16, 2015 Recently released data related to India’s external sector showed that the trade deficit totaled USD 10.5 billion in September, which was a smaller shortfall over the USD 14.2 billion deficit observed in the same month last year and marked the best result in four months. For the 12 months up to September, the trade deficit recorded USD 134.6 billion, which was also a smaller shortfall than the 138.3 billion deficit tallied in the 12 months up to August. The narrowing in the trade deficit showed that imports contracted a notable 25.1% annually in September, which followed August’s 10.0% drop and marked the largest contraction since September 2009. The contraction was largely the result of the low oil-price environment. Accordingly, oil imports totaled USD 6.6 billion, which represented a 41.6% decrease compared to the same month of the previous year. Meanwhile, exports recorded the largest contraction since July 2009 and fell 24.4% in September, which followed August’s 20.7% drop. FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists expect exports to contract 1.7% in FY 2015, reaching USD 314 billion. In FY 2016, the panel sees exports expanding 9.8% to USD 344 billion.Legislature gives go-ahead to seizure law Law would allow DA to seek forfeiture of assets in misdemeanor drug cases Photos How legislators voted for asset forfeiture law Voting in favor for the asset forfeiture law in misdemeanor drug cases that was proposed by Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler: Michael Amo (I-Central Valley), Mike Anagnostakis (R-Newburgh), Leigh Benton (R-Newburgh), Mellisa Bonacic (R-New Hampton), Katie Bonelli (R-Washingtonville), L. Stephen Brescia (R-Montgomery), Barry Cheney (R-Warwick), Kevin Hines (R-C-Cornwall), James DiSalvo (R-Highland Falls), Paul Ruszkiewicz (R-C-Pine Island), Dennis Simmons (R-C-Port Jervis), John Vero (R-Chester). Voting nay: Jeffrey Berkman (D-Middletown), Curlie Dillard (D-Newburgh), Christopher Eachus (D-New Windsor), Myrna Kemnitz (D-Monroe), James Kulisek (D-Newburgh), Michael Paduch (D-Middletown), Roseann Sullivan (D-Circleville), Matthew Turnbull (D-Campbell Hall), Shannon Wong (D-Goshen). By Nathan Mayberg— In a party-line vote Dec. 4, the full board of the Orange County Legislature approved the asset forfeiture law proposed by Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler. The law would allow Hoovler's office to take legal action to seize property and money from defendants that can be shown to have been gained or used through the commission of misdemeanor drug crimes. Hoovler has said that anything from cars to cash, clothes and phones could be held as evidence in misdemeanor drug cases and that those items could all be subject to forfeiture if they can be shown to be the fruits of misdemeanor drug crimes or part of the instruments used to commit misdemeanor drug crimes. Hoovler and supporters have painted the law as a way to generate more revenue for the county while serving as a deterrent to drug crimes. On Saturday, all 11 Republicans were joined by Independent Michael Amo in approving the law, while all nine Democrats voted against the law. Their vote followed comments from a number of speakers who argued forcefully against the law, decrying it as a violation of the U.S. Constitution, specifically the Fourth Amendment and Fifth Amendment, which provide protections against unwarranted search and seizure and ensures due process. The 15-page bill, which is written in broad terms, still requires a public hearing and the approval of Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus who has expressed support for the measure. On Thursday, Frances
technology with the assistance of nonprofits and government regulators. Do you think this will be effective? Let us know in the comments below.Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Andrew Puzder, chief executive of the company that runs fast-food giants Carl’s Jr. and Hardees, to head the Department of Labor. This choice has already sparked concern among labor advocates, given Puzder’s frequent commentaries opposing minimum-wage increases. But reproductive rights advocates should also be concerned. Puzder has long opposed abortion rights and even wrote the Missouri abortion law that the Supreme Court upheld in its 1989 Webster v. Reproductive Health Services decision. This was a seminal case that allowed states to impose far more restrictions on abortion care than had previously been permitted under Roe v. Wade, including limits on the use of public funds and facilities for abortion care. Trump has promised to appoint anti-abortion Supreme Court justices, and Vice President-elect Mike Pence has said he wants to “send Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history.” Back in the ’80s, when he was a lawyer working in St. Louis, Puzder acted on similar convictions. In a 1984 article in the Stetson Law Journal, Puzder and another lawyer proposed that the Missouri Legislature pass a law defining life as beginning at conception in non-abortion contexts—in property or contract law, for instance. Puzder saw its purpose as mounting a challenge against Roe, which had legalized abortion a little less than a decade earlier. If the court recognized that a fetus had rights in contexts other than abortion, he reasoned, it created a foundation for challenging legal abortion down the line. “This is not an abortion statute,” Puzder told the Chicago Tribune in 1989, three months before Webster was heard by the Supreme Court. “It is designed to make the Supreme Court face the question of deciding whether a state can decide when life exists.” Puzder worked with Sam Lee, a local anti-abortion lobbyist, to move the proposal to the Legislature. The two got acquainted because Puzder had often helped get Lee out of jail following his arrests during sit-ins at abortion clinics “by arguing a defense of necessity,” noted the Tribune. “Lee had to break the law and trespass because he believed that life began at conception and that the only way to stop the greater crime was to limit access to the clinic. The defense almost always worked.” The two added a slew of other abortion restrictions to the bill—including one prohibiting the use of public resources to provide or counsel on abortions—and soon it was signed into law in Missouri. The measure was challenged by a local abortion clinic, Reproductive Health Services, and provisions of the law were subsequently found unconstitutional by several appeals courts. Ultimately, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court found that none of the bill’s provisions were unconstitutional, dealing a blow to abortion rights advocates—but the high court clarified their ruling should not be taken as a referendum on the original decision in Roe v. Wade. Now, Puzder will likely join an administration that plans to complete a mission he began 30 years ago.Fifty years have passed since the GT40 won Le Mans for the first time, locking out the podium in the first of four consecutive wins between 1966 and 1969. This year, the GT is coming back to the track. And far from being a simple tribute act, Ford is taking its racing programme seriously. So when its four GTs line up against the other GTE Pro cars at Circuit de la Sarthe in June, they’ll be there to try and win. The GT’s return to motorsport – currently just a two-year commitment to the World Endurance and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championships – has been in the pipeline for a couple of years. Ford decided to celebrate the GT40 with a new version half a century on from ’66, but only on the condition that it would showcase the best of its current innovations. Which is why the drivetrain is hooked up to – of all things – a 600bhp EcoBoost power unit. “You can imagine at first: ‘Holy cow! In a supercar you’re going to put an EcoBoost engine?’” exclaims Ford Performance Global Director, Dave Pericak. “We know we can push this engine to levels it has not gone before,” he continues. “We did a quick engine programme to get a 3.5-litre EcoBoost to a racing format, and we took it out on the track.” And on the track, they learned a lot. The GT’s initial tests were so successful, Ford quickly decided it didn’t want to just build its supercar. It wanted to race it too. That put Ford in the position where it was developing both the road car and the race car simultaneously, a situation which Pericak describes as “double the stress, double the workload”. However, it does mean that the commercial GT will be on the road by the end of 2016, while boasting more overall power than the spec racing at Silverstone, Spa, Le Mans and the Nürburgring. “Other than the things you have to change to race – the fixed wing and some of the other bits and pieces – the road car is the race car and the race car is the road car,” says Pericak. “So that’s one of the beauties of being able to do them at the same time.” Yesterday, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing revealed British drivers Marino Franchitti and Andy Priaulx, Frenchman Olivier Pla and German Stefan Mücke as the four men they’d be entering into the WEC this year. The quartet only met for the first time on Monday, although the prospect of driving such an iconic car has helped the team gel quickly. “We were all pretty relaxed straight away, which is really nice. It’s like we’ve all been together for a while,” says Priaulx. “We’re not sleeping yet together, but maybe that’s the next stage. There’s a bit of man-hugging going on, but that’s about it.” Group cuddling is a sure sign that morale is high, and it’s no wonder given that the team has already tasted success at the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Daytona. Priaulx and Mücke are yet to get behind the wheel, although Pla and Franchitti have already racked up some miles between them. “It really, truly does drive even better than it looks,” nods the Scot. “Which is saying something.” “I’ve done quite a lot of days in the car now. It’s lovely. I drove it for the first time and I just didn’t want to get out of the car. I really connected with it instantly. It felt fantastic in that the way the aerodynamics work on the car is really nice.” Pla agrees, having had his first experience in the GT at Daytona in November: “It felt great. By the end of the second lap in the car I had a smile on my face. It was a really good feeling to feel how the car behaves and reacts. Really, really good.” For Priaulx and Mücke the maiden voyage awaits, although the Brit is erring on the side of caution. All of the drivers – the entire team, in fact – are well aware of the perils of overconfidence given that it will be the new GT’s first full season in the GTE Pro category. “You could have the fastest car on the planet, and you still need to have reliability,” explains Priaulx. “The drivers have got to be faultless, and team mistakes can happen in the middle of the night. It [La Sarthe] is just one of those race tracks which puts you through it. It’s crazy.” However, says Stefan Mücke, they also understand that Ford has given them the tools to challenge for the class in six months’ time: “The goal is clear. We want to win races, we want to win championships, we want to win Le Mans. That’s the target.” It’s the reason Ford has teamed up with Floyd ‘Chip’ Ganassi: a man with 27 years’ experience of team ownership and a track record of success in NASCAR, IndyCar and SportsCar racing. The 57-year-old says he has “never been one to lower” his expectations, and that he wouldn’t “put this much effort in to finish second.” He concludes: “There’s nothing in it but winning. You don’t get anything else out of it. Winning is the only thing that’s tangible.” Victory may be the name of the game, but anyone who knows anything about endurance racing will appreciate that luck will play a huge part, especially over the course of a 24-hour race. But despite never having run a team at Le Mans (Ganassi did appear as a driver for Kouros Racing in 1987), the Pennsylvanian has a philosophical approach: “At the end of the day it’s four patches of rubber on the road. And whoever manages those four patches the best is going to be near the front at the end.” ‘The end’ could come sooner than hoped for GT fans, with Ford only signed up to an all too brief racing schedule across 2016 and 2017, as things stand. “In five years, I’ll be racing still. I can tell you that,” confirms Ganassi, although he can’t say if Ford will still be partners by then. “If I’m not here in five years, I’ll be six feet under somewhere I guess.” All the more reason to hope that Ford Chip Ganassi Racing are in it for the long haul…Image copyright Reuters Image caption Smoke is still billowing from the stricken hotel (right) - the Burj Khalifa is on the left The authorities in Dubai are trying to find out what caused a spectacular fire to engulf a 63-storey luxury hotel in the city centre on New Year's Eve. After battling for more than 20 hours, firefighters appear to have extinguished most of the blaze at the Address Downtown Hotel. An eyewitness has told the BBC only a couple of small isolated fires are still burning. The tower was evacuated and 16 people were hurt. A fireworks show went ahead at the Burj Khalifa tower nearby, the world's tallest building and an iconic symbol of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Video and pictures taken by resident Malcolm Carter and sent to the BBC showed the fire that burned on the terrace area earlier on Friday morning had been put out and significantly less smoke was coming from the building. The pictures show the facade facing the Burj Khalifa had been severely damaged by fire and smoke, and that all floors from the lower area of the building to the upper levels were affected. The cause of the blaze, which is said to have started on the 20th floor, is still not known. The BBC's Marcus George in Dubai says streets around the Address Downtown Hotel have been cordoned off, but boulevards around the Burj Khalifa are open. Image copyright Marcus George, BBC Image copyright AP Image copyright Getty Images Image copyright EPA Image caption How the inferno dominated the Dubai skyline at New Year The fire broke out at about 21:30 local time (17:30 GMT) and appeared to engulf much of the Address Downtown, a five-star hotel and apartment complex, within 10 minutes. Four teams of firefighters battled the blaze for hours, officials said. The Dubai government tweeted that 14 people had suffered minor injuries, one moderate injuries and there was one "heart attack case" due to "overcrowding and smoke". Irish singer Anita Williams, who was performing at the hotel, told the BBC that people left in a "stampede". "We left everything. There was debris falling down. It [the fire] just shot up through the entire hotel. "Everybody was screaming, everybody was running... I thought: 'This is a film'." Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Eyewitness Charles White: ''Within five minutes the whole tower on the left-hand side was engulfed in flames - it was very quick to watch'' Image copyright AFP Image caption Smoke from the fire could be seen obscuring the view of the illuminated Burj Khalifa ahead of the display Image copyright Reuters Image caption The spectacular fireworks display at the Burj Khalifa went ahead despite the nearby blaze The fireworks display went ahead as smoke continued to billow from the hotel. Alternative accommodation would be offered to evacuated guests, the Dubai government said. The display is a hugely prestigious event for Dubai, and authorities want the images that people look back on next year to be of the fireworks - and not of the blaze, says BBC World Service Middle East editor Sebastian Usher. Tom Stroud, from London, who is staying near to the hotel, said: "It happened so quickly. There was smoke billowing everywhere and people running away." A tourist, Michelle Duque, told the BBC: "All of a sudden, we saw this huge black plume of black smoke coming between the Khalifa Tower and the hotel. "The flames burst out really big and before we knew it, the whole of the Address Hotel was covered in orange flames."Needless to say, the ACHA will hardly achieve President Trump’s goal of “insurance for everybody” as he said on the campaign trail—in fact it seems to do the opposite. It would appear that what Trump meant to say was the more Paul Ryan-esque party line that he would ensure “access to health insurance for everybody”. Let’s dig into that distinction a bit. When Republicans say that they want to increase “access to health insurance”, they claim they would do so by eliminating burdensome regulations that drive costs up. Their argument is simple enough: the government has made insurance too expensive by meddling in the free market and they will make it cheaper by getting the government out of our healthcare. It’s worth noting that insurance premiums have actually been rising at a relatively low rate recently, but that’s almost besides the point when it comes to the politics of insurance — whatever rate costs go up at, people feel the effect. A key change that the AHCA would make would be the elimination of the individual mandate’s penalties for not purchasing insurance, which would likely result in fewer people who either can’t afford insurance or don’t feel the need to own it purchasing plans. Paul Ryan doesn’t necessarily view that as a bad thing, arguing that, “We’re saying the government’s not going to force people to buy something that they don’t want to buy,” and “And if we end an Obamacare mandate that says you must buy this government one-size-fits-all plan, guess what? People aren’t going to buy that.” This perspective is predicated on the assumption that in a free society, health insurance is a privilege to be purchased on a free market by those who want and can afford it. What exactly will happen to these uninsured individuals if they suffer some sort of catastrophic medical event remains one of the unaddressed questions — by training doctors will treat anyone who needs it, but will those patients simply be resigned to crippling debt for the rest of their lives as a consequence? It’s a question that gets at the heart of one of the United States’ deepest examples of ideological cognitive dissonance. On one hand, our culture espouses individualistic values of personal responsibility, freedom, and liberty to live one’s own life the way they choose free from government micromanagement. Republican rhetoric has been chock full of this sort of language since the day the ACA was introduced. On the other hand, however, our inherent moral framework through which we view the world is not one in which we allow people to die on the street. We believe in the idea of no man left behind, that to allow our fellow humans to wither and die on the streets with no help would be amoral - we’re not quite the social darwinists we make ourselves out to be when it comes down to it. This dissonance is how we ended up with poor, older, rural voters — many of whose lives depend on healthcare they wouldn’t have if it weren’t for the ACA, ultimately buying into the rhetoric of politicians who want to eliminate it. That, and they were sold a complete bill of goods by President Trump when he promised universal coverage without mentioning a single detail of his health plan. The one ‘subsidy’ that the Republican plan does provide for is a tax credit for individuals purchasing insurance on their own. The credit is income based, scalable and refundable, ranging from up to $2,000 a month for people in their mid 20s to up to $4,000 for those in their early 60s. This structure would cover most plans for younger, healthy individuals while leaving few options for those at the upper end of the age range. While the ACA mandated that insurance companies cannot charge older patients more than 3x the premiums of younger patients, the AHCA will raise the limit to 5x. The logic goes that as older people consume more healthcare, they ought to pay more. Additionally, the ACA set an “actuarial value” requirement that in order for companies to sell health insurance the plans they offer must cover at least 60% of all costs. This regulation will be eliminated under the new law, allowing insurers to sell plans with cheaper premiums that will ultimately cost patients more when they need care. The result is a healthcare bill that would essentially do the opposite of the ACA: decrease costs for young people and either price many older Americans out of the market entirely, or leave them with largely insufficient coverage. The CBO report says that if the AHCA were to be signed into law and implemented, many older people would simply be forced to leave the market because their plans are too expensive. Rural Americans ages 50–64 (right up to the age Medicare kicks in) are expected to see the sharpest price increases. If Republicans pass this bill, they will have bitten the hand that feeds them. Not surprisingly, the bill also includes a substantial tax cut for wealthy Americans. This chart helpfully illustrates how much money the richest among us would save under the plan on average: Meanwhile, Republicans can’t seem to agree on anything at the moment — from what they want to do with the bill to whether the CBO report is accurate. House Speaker Paul Ryan embraced the report, choosing to focus on the deficit reduction it predicted and projected premium decreases two years out. The White House adopted a more selectively skeptical tone, with Press Secretary Sean Spicer saying that “CBO coverage estimates are consistently wrong and more importantly do not take into consideration the comprehensive nature of this three-prong plan to repeal and replace Obamacare with the American Health Care Act.” Spicer quickly contradicted himself in the same briefing, later stating that “In the portion of its analysis, the focus is on what the office is really about, the CBO concedes that the American Health Care Act would actually reduce the deficit by over $330 billion and bring health insurance premiums down 10 percent.” His claim is paradoxical because the CBO’s estimated deficit and premium reduction is largely based on their estimates of how many people would be covered. Therefore, the White House directly contradicts itself by simultaneously claiming that coverage estimates are inaccurate but deficit estimates aren’t. Additionally, numerous freedom caucus members in the House along with libertarian leaning Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) have called the bill “Obamacare lite” and labeled it “dead on arrival”. As if that wasn’t enough of a headache for Paul Ryan, the pressure is now coming from both wings of the party, with more moderate Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) saying that she has “a lot of concerns” about the AHCA and that Republicans should “slow down”. The bill has been moving at an abnormally steady clip since being introduced, with amendments already made before the CBO score was released. Republicans are also attempting to pass it through budget reconciliation, a process that would leave many ACA regulations in place but would only require 50 votes in the Senate — although it’s unclear if that is currently possible.AT&T Says They Don't Need More Android Phones I stumbled across a press release the other day from AT&T stating that “we’re happy where we are with Android compared to Verizon.” Okay, it’s not a terrible sentiment and if I didn’t read more into it I would have just let it go. But! since I did read more into it here is what I gather. AT&T currently has only two Android phones in their lineup, those being the Motorola Backflip and the HTC Aria which only recently released. Randall Stephenson who is “AT&T’s controversy-riddled CEO” (Phandroid.com, 2010) went on record saying AT&T’s business with Google and Android is fine where it is and continuing to grow. Admittedly I have heard they are releasing the Dell Streak which I wrote an article about, but I don’t know how much truth is in that. In any case with the plethora of new Android devices now out there AT&T could easily include more handsets in there lineup, but I believe choose not to. AT&T has never really been in support of the open source movement and it shows in their business decisions. Actions like the capping of their network download despite claiming they have tons of capacity or selling their soul to have an exclusive contract for the iPhone with the least open company in the world, Apple. I could go on but I read a piece by Quentyn Kennemer that I felt summarized my feelings quite well: Randall also comments on their desire to push Yahoo! Search on most of their devices, stating they don’t like Google’s decision on keeping their own search engine as the operating system’s default. The reason? It’s anti-open-source. I’m not going to go too deep with trying to argue Randall’s statements, but how is being given the ability to change Android’s default search and services experience to whatever you want “anti-open-source”? Wouldn’t it be more “anti-open” to flatout deny the customization of Android in any way you want? Isn’t it more “anti-open” to strip your devices of their natural ability to go above and beyond what an “app store” or the Android market provides? I’m not going to question Stephenson’s true stance in throwing these thoughts out in the air, but I will sign off of this story using one of my favorite quotes since I was a child: the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Say what you will but I don’t see Android as evil especially coming from a company that has the motto of “Do no evil.” Open source is not the best thing since canned bread for everyone but it certainly makes quite a positive impact on the world."President Obama has the most border patrols and border security deployed at the border of any previous president." A few days before the U.S. Senate took a vote in favor of an amendment to expand border patrol and other border security measures, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz defended President Barack Obama’s record on border patrol and security. MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts asked Wasserman Schultz to respond to critics, including House Republicans, who say the bill as amnesty or portray immigrants as "takers." Wasserman Schultz, who also serves as chair of the Democratic National Committee, portrayed Obama as tough on enforcement. "President Obama has the most border patrols and border security deployed at the border of any previous president," said Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. in a June 20 interview on MSNBC. Obama "has cracked down employers -- on employers who are attracting undocumented immigrants and hiring them more than any previous president." PolitiFact has previously examined some similar claims about border patrol during Obama’s presidency. But here we wanted to fact-check Wasserman Schultz’s specific claims that Obama holds a record for border patrol and security. Border patrol The Border Patrol buildup began under President Bill Clinton with Operation Gatekeeper and Safeguards, but expanded dramatically under President George W. Bush, said Katherine Benton-Cohen, a Georgetown history professor. The number of border patrol agents increased dramatically between fiscal years 1993 and Sept. 30, 2012. (So did spending.) Nationwide, the peak year was in 2011 with 21,444 agents -- the number dropped slightly to 21,394 in fiscal year 2012. Douglas Massey, a professor at Princeton University's Office of Population Research who has studied immigration issues, previously told PolitiFact that the total number of agents is a record going back to at least 1924. The biggest bump in Border Patrol staffing came under Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush. Between 2001 and 2009, the number of agents posted nationally rose from about 9,800 to a little more than 20,000. Border fence In addition to border patrol, Wasserman Schultz also gave credit to Obama for the most "border security deployed" -- a more general term that we took to include fences or other technological or infrastructure improvements. The first fence along the southwestern border was built in 1990 but was comparatively small: Prior to 2005 there were 78 miles of pedestrian fencing and 57 miles of vehicle barriers, according to a paper by the Migration Policy Institute. The Secure Fence Act of 2006, passed by a Republican-led Congress and was signed by Bush. It authorized the construction of hundreds of miles of additional fencing along the border with Mexico and called for adding unmanned aerial vehicles, satellites, radar and cameras. The fenced segments totaled roughly 650-700 miles, while the entire U.S.-Mexican border is about 2,000 miles long. Obama, an Illinois senator at the time, voted for the law. The act specified "at least two layers of reinforced fencing," but in 2007 the law was altered to give the Border Patrol leeway to decide the type of fencing. By the time Obama became president in January 2009, much of the fence was completed -- but not of the type originally planned. In February 2011, a GAO report about the border presented a mixed picture of progress. The report states that between fiscal years 2005 and 2010, the number of border miles that had fences increased from about 120 to 649. A preliminary analysis of border miles under control showed 15 percent were "controlled" while the rest were "managed" and left vulnerabilities to illegal activity. For this fact-check, Wasserman Schultz’s spokesman sent us a 2011 White House immigration report that stated "DHS has also completed 649 miles of fencing out of nearly 652 miles planned, including 299 miles of vehicle barriers and 350 miles of pedestrian fence, with the remaining 3 miles scheduled to be completed." Spokesman Jonathan Beeton also pointed to the fact that Obama signed a bill in 2010 in response to increased violence in Mexico that included $600 million in supplemental funds for enhanced border protection. Separately, an additional 1,200 National Guard troops were authorized for the the border. Fencing isn’t the only way the federal government has attempted to manage the border. The Secure Border Initiative launched in 2005 with the intention to combine fencing with technological tools such as cameras, sensors and radar, according to a paper from the Migration Policy Institute. Boeing won a contract and received about $860 million from the federal government. But it quickly ran into technical difficulties, cost overruns and delays, which have been criticized in numerous Government Accountability Office reports. Under the Obama administration, the program was canceled in January 2011, and the Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano ordered that the government should focus on using proven technologies, such as video and mobile surveillance and thermal imaging. Under Obama, border apprehensions have fallen from their high points. Border apprehensions peaked at almost 1.7 million in 2000 under President Clinton, and apprehensions in 2011 were at the lowest level since 1970. The post-2008 declines are due to the recession and loss of jobs which had attracted unauthorized immigrants. Net illegal immigration from Mexico has fallen to zero or even fewer coming than leaving. Expert analysis We sent Wasserman Schultz’s claim to immigration experts. No one disputed the border patrol numbers, but they also pointed to other factors when examining changes in border security that provide a more complex picture. "Yes, the number of Border Patrol agents is at an all-time high," said Rey Koslowski, an expert on the border and an associate professor of political science and public policy at the University at Albany. "Whether that equates to ‘border security’ is another question. As to who should get more credit for border security, the fence was a bipartisan project." Christopher Wilson, an associate with the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute and an expert on border management, noted that border patrol agents don’t precisely equal border security. "In the end, though, you can’t deploy border security, it must be something that is achieved. This gets into one of the major problems with the whole border security debate—the lack of an accepted definition of the term." Our ruling Wasserman Schultz said, "President Obama has the most border patrols and border security deployed at the border of any previous president." She is correct that the highest number of border patrol agents has been under Obama: there were 21,444 in 2011. Wasserman Schultz was careful here and said "most" and didn’t talk about the growth rate. But it’s worth noting that the big growth was during Bush’s tenure: between 2001 and 2009, the number of agents posted nationally rose from about 9,800 to a little more than 20,000. Other border security measures are not as simple to quantify. The key piece of infrastructure -- the fence -- was launched under Bush. Work on the fence and other border security improvements continued under Obama. We rate this claim Mostly True.Image copyright AFP Image caption Mr Maduro, a former bus driver, likes to be behind the wheel himself and is proud of his modest beginnings A Venezuelan woman has had her wish for a flat granted by President Nicolas Maduro after she made her point by hitting him on the head with a mango. Marleny Olivo threw the fruit at the president while he was driving a bus through the central state of Aragua. It had a message on it, in which she pleaded for his help. Mr Maduro displayed the mango with her telephone number on it during a live television show afterwards. He said he had agreed to her request for a flat. The move, he said, was part of the "Great Housing Mission of Venezuela". Ms Olivo had written a message on a mango - "If you can, call me" - along with her name and phone number. She got as close to the bus as she could when it passed and then tossed the fruit at him. In a video that has gone viral in Venezuela, the president can be seen lowering his head when he is hit just above the left ear. He then calmly picks up the mango and displays it to the crowd. Later the president discussed the incident in one of his regular live TV broadcasts in which he displayed the infamous mango. "She had a housing problem, right? And, Marleny, I have approved it already, as part of the Great Housing Mission of Venezuela, you will get an apartment and it will be given to you in the next few hours. "Tomorrow, no later than the day after tomorrow, we will give it to you." Ms Olivo said that there was "no evil intent" behind the incident only a desire to fulfil her dream of owning a home before she dies. The president - who is a former bus driver and likes to connect with ordinary Venezuelans by touring local communities at the wheel of a coach - added that the fruit was ripe and that he would eat it later.Ronda Rousey, from child prodigy to Undisputed UFC Champion Ronda Rousey has been a prodigy, a fact that her mother noticed when she was only a child. Before she started breaking bones and fame, the 13-year-old child prodigy had caught the eye of many. Ever since she entered Junior High, her mom AnnMaria De Mars was baffled by her unassailable athletic talents. De Mars was in her own a world-class judoka, who brought home the world judo championship for the first time to America, so Rousey had big boots to fill in; however, that didn’t make her stumble. De Mars spotted her prodigious daughter’s talent and did what any mother would do, train her for a better future. Unfortunately, Rousey was snubbed by the USA judo governing body then. She summed up the situation, “I called up USA Judo, the governing body for judo, and I said, ‘I have this kid and I seriously think she is going to be something special,’” She continued, ”’I don’t just say it because she’s my kid, because I have three other kids. I’m telling you Ronda has something. Can you send me a program for what to do with really gifted athletes?’ They kind of laughed and said, ‘That would be nice to have.’ So I kind of made it up as I went along.” The undefeated MMA star, Rousey ridiculed the jests thrown at her to achieve great things as she won a bronze medal in 2008 Olympics and a year before that she won the silver medal at the World Championships in Rio de Janeiro. Rousey has never looked back since and continued with her streak of dominance. You May Also Be Interested in Best Boxing Shorts Brand Rousey has been running amok in UFC women’s bantamweight division and there seems to be nobody available that is even a semblance of challenge for the champ. The 28-year-old judoka expert has been on an 11-match winning streak. UFC President Dana White used to say that he would never do women’s MMA and going into 2015, Rousey is proving to be the one carrying UFC weekends when others fail to even appear. Dana White said “Nobody could have predicted how insane this would be.” He further added “I need fighters [to challenge Rousey].” Many people are now rating Rousey as the #1 pound-for-pound fighter, even ahead of Jon Jones, but it would it would be interesting to hear what the UFC fans think on the matter. Note:- Know About the Best Knee Support AdvertisementsDeputy Accused Of Stealing 1,000 Pills From Drug Take-Back Event A deputy with the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia allegedly stole a “significant quantity of pharmaceuticals” from a drug take-back event. The annual National Prescription Drug Take Back Day—an initiative of the DEA—happens at least once a year across the United States. The public is encouraged to dispose of unwanted medications safely and securely at designated drop boxes. The idea is to prevent the drugs from falling into the wrong hands or being “diverted” to the black market. “Given the rates of prescription drug abuse, accidental poisoning and overdoses nationwide, this program addresses a vital public safety and public health issue,” said a press release from the sheriff’s office prior to the last drug take-back event this past April. “Studies have indicated a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including those taken from home medicine cabinets.” Muscogee County Sheriff Donna Tompkins said “several members” of the sheriff’s office claim that they saw an off-duty Cpl. Bridget Goolsby “retrieving meds from these drop boxes” located at the Citizens Service Center. The drop box at this location is kept on the fourth floor “all year round,” according to the Ledger-Enquirer. This prompted an investigation into Goolsby and a search of her home, where investigators reportedly seized more than 1,000 pills. “We seized from her at that time a garbage bag full of medication,” said Tompkins at a Friday (Oct 6) press conference. The 18-year veteran of the sheriff’s department was arrested and charged with a violation of oath of office by a public officer and several drug charges. She was booked in the county jail but released on $20,000 bond. Tompkins said the incident may lead to the discontinuation of the drug take-back program, which launched in 2014 in collaboration with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Earlier this year, Sheriff Tompkins began taking steps to ramp up accountability and security within the program, which she said was lacking. It had been Goolsby’s responsibility to collect the unwanted prescription drugs from the drop boxes since 2015, but this year Tompkins turned over the job to a “drug custodian.” She said Goolsby had turned over all the keys to the drop boxes. The first DEA take-back event of 2017, that took place on April 29, collected 450 tons (900,386 pounds) of prescription drugs—a record high—across 5,500 take-back events across the country. The next National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is planned for October 28, 2017.The Medford Police Department won the lottery Wednesday when the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled the agency can collect the cash originally awarded to a woman who purchased a $1 million scratch ticket through illegal means in 2005. The department was victorious in its long court battle against Christina Elizabeth Goodenow, 45, who argued that it was excessive punishment to strip her of the $1 million in winnings. In 2005, Goodenow stole the identity of her boyfriend's deceased mother by using a Visa card that belonged to the woman to make $12,000 in purchases. Goodenow bought a Million Dollar Jackpot ticket on Oct. 9, 2005, at Fair City Market in Central Point with the credit card. Incredibly, the card hit for $1 million, which was to be paid in 20 installments of $50,000 per year, according to Medford police Chief Tim George. "By the time we found out about this, she had already spent a large portion of the first payment," George said. After taxes, the Oregon Lottery had paid Goodenow $33,500 by the time she was charged with several crimes, including aggravated theft, forgery and cheating. Goodenow asked lottery officials to keep her win quiet, claiming to be a victim of domestic violence. Goodenow pleaded no contest to these crimes and was sentenced to probation. As part of her sentencing, the lottery money was forfeited to the Medford Police Department. Police agencies in Oregon can collect money gained through criminal activity. Goodenow, in an attempt to keep her winnings, filed an appeal in 2007. The state appeals court filed its opinion on Wednesday, finding that Goodenow had no claim to the cash. Goodenow's lawyer, Michelle R. Burrows, argued that denying her the winnings was unlawful under a state statutes meant to bar excessive fines. Burrows said Goodenow's crimes, though felonies, were not serious enough to merit taking away her $1 million in winnings. Burrows argued that because the boyfriend's mother was dead, no one suffered a loss because of the thefts. Burrows added that large forfeitures are usually involved with drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering and not lower-level theft and forgery cases. However, the judges panel that heard the appeal said that depends not only on the harm a defendant might have caused, but also "the gain that the defendant realized." The appeals judges determined the $1 million forfeiture was not excessive because it took only money Gooden
of the vote, Ben Wikler, MoveOn.org Washington director, outlined the ways in which the GOP plan is short but a "disaster." "It would take away health care from millions of people, cost thousands more for middle-class and low-income Americans, and strip protections from people with pre-existing conditions, all to give a massive tax break to insurance company CEOs and the wealthiest Americans." Referring to the last-minute fix that drew reticent Republicans on board Wednesday, Wikler continued, "The Upton amendment is a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound that does nothing to solve the problems that Trumpcare would create. By rushing this bill through Congress, Republicans are creating a manufactured crisis that will devastate millions of families." Here is what we do know: -Even those covered by employer healthcare are under threat. On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported on a newly-inserted loophole that threatens to eliminate the cap on out-of-pocket costs for even those covered by healthcare through their work. This could impact as much as half the U.S. population. "Under the House bill," WSJ reported, "large employers could choose the benefit requirements from any state—including those that are allowed to lower their benchmarks under a waiver, health analysts said. By choosing a waiver state, employers looking to lower their costs could impose lifetime limits and eliminate the out-of-pocket cost cap from their plans under the GOP legislation." -Trump lied, premiums for people with pre-existing conditions will skyrocket. A number of so-called moderate Republicans dropped their opposition to the bill late Wednesday after language was inserted to allocate funding to help cover the costs for those with pre-existing conditions who, under Trumpcare, would be placed into "high risk pools." However, a new analysis released on Thursday found that this aid would only cover 110,000 Americans, which amounts just five percent of the 2.2 million current enrollees in the individual insurance market estimated to have some type of pre-existing chronic condition. Claims by Trump and House leadership that the plan protects people with pre-existing conditions are veritably false, according to observers, who note that while a cancer patient may be able to sign up for an insurance plan, their treatment might not be covered. The far-right Freedom Caucus got behind the plan last month after an amendment was inserted that allowed states to opt-out of a rule that prohibited insurers from charging higher premiums to people with pre-existing conditions. "The return of discrimination based on medical history could increase insurance costs by tens of thousands of dollars," states an analysis by the Campaign for American Progress (CAP), "rendering it unaffordable for millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions." -Being a woman "is a liability." Not only does Trumpcare consider things such as domestic violence, sexual assault, having had C-section, and postpartum depression to be pre-existing conditions, lawmakers have also axed the requirement that insurance companies cover maternity care. According to the aforementioned CAP analysis, a pregnancy with no or minor complications would result in a premium hike of $17,060, which amounts to a 425 percent increase. "Read closely," wrote Slate's Christina Cauterucci on Thursday, Trumpcare "reveals the basic theory that underlies the GOP's entire legislative wishlist on healthcare: the idea that being a woman is a chronic medical condition and a liability." -It takes an axe to Medicaid, decimating special education funding. "Because Trumpcare 2.0 would cut Medicaid by a quarter of its current budget ($880 billion) over the next decade and create a 'per-capita' funding cap on groups like children, school districts are saying that the cuts would force them to limit how much they can pay healthcare providers who assist students who require special education assistance," Salon's Matthew Rosza reported Thursday. SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Help Keep Common Dreams Alive Our progressive news model only survives if those informed and inspired by this work support our efforts -It's a tax break for the rich. As Common Dreams has reported, the bill provides $600 billion in tax breaks to insurance companies and the most wealthy Americans who were taxed under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In a press statement on Thursday, Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, outlined "the math behind the Republican healthcare repeal plan: Subtract healthcare from 24 million people. Add $600 billion in tax giveaways, mostly for the wealthy and corporations. Multiply out-of-pocket costs for senior citizens by 5. Divide all Americans. This equation didn't work out the last time they tried it, and it still doesn't work today. That's why Republicans in Congress want to exempt themselves and their staffs from their own lousy plan while refusing to wait for the Congressional Budget Office to estimate its costs." -Lawmakers are exempt. Despite all of their rhetoric about the supposed failings of Obamacare, House Republicans inserted a provision on Tuesday that "exempts members of Congress and their staff from their latest healthcare plan," Vox reported, meaning they will be able to opt out of the new amendment that charges more for people with pre-existing conditions. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a series of infographics on Thursday laying out the myriad problems with the plan: It really is this simple: If #AHCA is enacted, it'll be the greatest assault on low- & moderate-income Americans of any law in modern times pic.twitter.com/ApnvcXqYHr — Center on Budget (@CenterOnBudget) May 4, 2017 Looking at the Republican health bill before and after Upton amendment - major problems are still there, & it makes things worse for pre-ex. pic.twitter.com/UbMuCUXIDo — Center on Budget (@CenterOnBudget) May 4, 2017 House health bill threatens your healthcare even if you get it through your job. Don't worry you're not alone - so do 105m other Americans. pic.twitter.com/5PSDalUywH — Center on Budget (@CenterOnBudget) May 4, 2017 With so much wrong with it, and with so much popular opposition, many wonder why the GOP would push through a healthcare bill that will likely suffer defeat once it gets to the U.S. Senate. Addressing that question, Huffington Post's Jeffrey Young wrote Wednesday: Anyone wondering why Republicans are in such a big rush must remember two things. First, Trump suffered a humiliating loss with the first canceled vote and doesn't like looking foolish, so he'll do whatever he can to get a healthcare win. Second, Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) early this year set in motion a procedural course that makes repealing Obamacare a prerequisite for an even bigger GOP priority: permanent tax cuts for rich people and corporations. [...] This isn't exactly the "something terrific" Trump promised. This is what getting something done for the sake of getting it done looks like. The goal now seems to pass a bill―any bill―that the House can call "Obamacare repeal" so they can move on to cutting taxes on the rich and dumping this healthcare mess on the Senate's lawn. "But if Trump and Ryan get their way and anything resembling the American Healthcare Act becomes the law of the land," Young continued, "the American people are going to notice that it doesn't make their lives any better―and for millions, makes them worse. Perhaps next on voters' agenda will be repealing and replacing Republicans." As representatives head back to their home districts on Friday, the response should be swift. As Faiz Shakir, national political director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said following the vote: "Now that this misguided legislation moves to the Senate, we urge senators of both parties to declare this bill dead on arrival. The voice of the people will not be silenced until they do." Ezra Levin, executive director of the Indivisible Project, vowed that members of the Trump resistance movement will make sure hold these GOP reps to account. "Today's vote was just the first step in a difficult process for Trump's atrocious bill," Levin said. "Eleven days of recess starts today, and this is our change to immediately hold members of Congress accountable. We've succeeded for months because Indivisible groups across the country have been fighting back on their home turf. That's how we will keep fighitng, and that's how we will win. "About the 12 Step Program About the 12 Step Program The Twelve Step programs are well known for their use in recovering from addictive and dysfunctional behaviors. The first 12 step program began with Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) in the 1930s and has since grown to be the most widely used approach in dealing not only with recovery from alcoholism, but also from drug abuse and various other addictive and dysfunctional behaviors. The first book written to cover the 12 step program was titled "Alcoholics Anonymous", affectionately known as the Big Book by program members. Following the subsequent extensive growth of twelve step programs for other addictive and dysfunctional behaviors, many additional books were written and recordings and videos were produced. These cover the steps in greater detail and how people have specifically applied the steps in their lives. An extensive chronology and background about the history of A.A. has been put together at Dick B.'s website. The twelve steps of the program are listed above and on the steps page in generic form. Other groups who have adopted the 12 steps to address their own particular addictive or dysfunctional behavior have similar ideas, usually with only minor variations. These steps are meant to be worked sequentially as a process of getting rid of addictive behaviors and should result in a growth in freedom and happiness, as outlined in the Promises. The general governing approach for A.A. groups was originally laid out in the Twelve Traditions, and they remain the guiding principles for most 12 step groups today. There is a wealth of further information about 12 Step programs in Wikipedia, including a list of 12 step groups, and also from the numerous links in our directory of recovery related websites."Whereas gay sex can be tucked away as a vital and private part of a “more enduring” relationship, straight recreational sex remains, in the conservative mindset, a frivolous and possibly immoral activity. Women, accordingly, must bear the burden of their sexual sins, while gays are free to partake in whatever intimate conduct they so choose. How can gay sex be painted as worthy and even virtuous while straight non-procreative sex remains vaguely shameful? Misogyny, I suspect, and little more. Straight men have always found inventive ways to recast women’s rights as selfish, irresponsible, and licentious. For a brief moment in the 20th century, it seemed they had finally failed, as women gained newfound freedom thanks to feminism. Yet conservatives didn’t so much surrender as retreat. And now they’re back on the attack, playing upon our sexist priggishness to roll back female autonomy." # # #US national team striker Jozy Altidore is not the first American player to be subject to racist abuse overseas. The chants directed at Altidore in a Tuesday night Dutch Cup victory represent the latest incident to capture worldwide headlines, but two other USMNT players have had similar experiences in Europe. US defender Oguchi Onyewu (above) accused Anderlecht's Jelle Van Damme of calling him a "dirty monkey" during a May 2009 match when he played for Standard Liege in Belgium. Onyewu sued Van Damme and later dropped the suit following an apology from Van Damme. "I can’t control the 20,000 or 40,000 people who are screaming or who it’s coming from," Onyewu told The New York Times in August 2009. "But when someone directs it to me face to face, that I won’t accept." Similar to Altidore, winger DaMarcus Beasley faced racist taunts at more than one UEFA Champions League match while with PSV Eindhoven and Glasgow Rangers. The first incident took place in August 2004 in Serbia during an away match at Red Star Belgrade. Three years later in August 2007, the issue resurfaced on the road when Rangers faced FK Zeta in Montenegro. FK Zeta were later fined roughly $15,000 by UEFA. "I've faced that kind of situation throughout my whole career in Europe," Beasley said at the time. "This is the 21st century, and we are still having trouble with it. That's not normal, not just for us, black players, that's not normal for all other normal people." American forward Jeremiah White was attacked in the streets of Belgrade when he donned the colors of OFK Beograd. A month later, he left the club because of the club's policy of transferring players to Russia and Ukraine. "I was walking with some friends of mine and we did encounter one pocket of people who had a problem because we were black," White told SoccerTimes.com in 2004. "They had a problem and we had to kind of defuse it and get out. The one guy, we kind of handled him. And then, like 25 guys started to come at us." Maurice Edu has also had to deal with multiple racist incidents while at Rangers. Just last year, police arrested a man for racially abusing Edu on Twitter. And back in 2009, he was leaving Ibrox after a UEFA Champions League match when his own fans targeted him for racist abuse. Edu later commented via Twitter: "Not sure what hurt more: result or being racially abused by couple of r own fans as I'm getting in my car."Jurors today heard George Zimmerman’s account in his own words of his fatal confrontation with Trayvon Martin as prosecutors played a dramatic audio tape of Zimmerman being questioned by police shortly after the shooting. Zimmerman is heard telling a police officer how he saw Martin walking through his Sanford, Fla. neighborhood on a dark, rainy Feb. 2012 night. As a neighborhood watchman he tried to follow him in his car because there had been a series of break-ins in the gated community. Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com Zimmerman said he lost sight of Martin, got out of his car to call police and was walking back to his vehicle when the 17-year-old attacked him. “He jumped out of the bushes and he said ‘What the f..k is your problem, homie?’” Zimmerman said on the tape. “And I got my cell phone out to call 911 this time, and I said ‘I don’t have a problem.’ And he goes, ‘No, now you have a problem,’ and he punched me in the nose.” In court, jurors listened closely to the tape, while Zimmerman showed no emotion and Martin’s father closed his eyes from time to time. Zimmerman told police he fell down to the ground after being punched repeatedly. “I tried to defend myself. He just started punching me in the face, and I started screaming for help. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t breathe.” “He puts his hand on my nose and mouth, and he says ‘You are going to die tonight.’ He said “the suspect” was “mounted on top of me” and began to bang his head onto the ground. “As he banged my head again, I just pulled out my firearm and shot him,” Zimmerman said. He said Martin fell backward. “And he’s like ‘Alright, you got me, you got me.’” Under questioning, Officer Doris Singleton, who conducted the audio interview, said Zimmerman appeared shocked when he learned Martin’s wound was fatal. “He’s dead!?” she quoted him as saying. “I thought you knew that,” she said she replied. Zimmerman “kinda slung his head and shook it,” she said. Jurors were also shown a second interview, this one videotaped by police a day after the slaying. In this version, Zimmerman re-enacted the confrontation and added that he pulled out his gun “after he hit my head against the concrete several times.” The prosecution maintains that Martin, not Zimmerman, was the person that neighbors heard shouting for help that night.RDS.ca Pourtant critiqué à plusieurs reprises pour ses performances erratiques et individualistes, Alex Kovalev ne s’est pas gêné pour critiquer le jeu de P.K. Subban et son mirobolant contrat. Chose certaine, Kovalev n’a pas perdu son franc-parler en prenant sa retraite du hockey professionnel. « C’est un bon joueur, mais il demeure un défenseur risqué. Il peut procurer cinq buts, mais en permettre cinq donc le pointage serait égal. Je le compare toujours à Brian Leetch car il veut aussi jouer un style plus offensif. Il ne prend pas toujours les bonnes décisions et il joue seulement comme il le faisait dans la rue dans son enfance », a jugé Kovalev sans retenue. Rencontré dans le cadre du tournoi de golf de sa fondation qui vient en aide aux enfants atteints de maladies cardiaques, Kovalev a poursuivi sur sa lancée. « Je ne comprends pas comment les joueurs peuvent obtenir de tels contrats maintenant. C’est une époque différente et les joueurs qui ont précédé ma génération pensaient sans doute la même chose de nous », a déclaré celui qui était surnommé l’Artiste. Kovalev n’avait pas fini son analyse du défenseur du Tricolore. « Il a obtenu le trophée Norris donc c’est peut-être une raison qui explique pourquoi il a reçu ce contrat. « Mais en ce qui concerne son jeu, je ne comprends pas pourquoi il obtient autant d’argent », a-t-il conclu sur celui qu’il ne voit pas comme le prochain capitaine du Canadien. À ce sujet, Kovalev a également une idée bien arrêtée sur le chemin à emprunter. « Max Pacioretty a déjà démontré tout ce qu’il pouvait accomplir pour aider l’équipe. Il serait le candidat parfait pour cela », a suggéré Kovalev qui croit que le leadership doit aussi être assumé par tous les joueurs. L’auteur de 1029 points en 1316 parties dans la LNH estime que son compatriote russe, Andrei Markov, n’est pas intéressé par cette fonction. « Il pourrait être un bon candidat, mais il n’est pas attiré par le poste de capitaine. Ce n’est pas lui qui s’exprime le plus. Je n’ai rien contre lui, mais on a besoin du joueur qui donne le plus l’exemple sur la glace comme Max qui montre la voie aux autres », a-t-il tranché. Rapidement rejeté par les Panthers de la Floride après avoir signé un contrat avec eux, Kovalev a mal digéré la fin de sa carrière dans la LNH, mais il a pu terminer le tout sur une bonne note en Suisse. « Je suis plus à l’aise avec cela maintenant. Je ne sais pas si les Panthers avaient leurs raisons, mais j’étais déçu d’avoir été amené là-bas pour qu’on mette ensuite fin à ma carrière. Après, je suis allé en Suisse et l’organisation respectait mes capacités donc j’ai pu aider les joueurs sur la façon de jouer. J’ai aussi aidé l’équipe à mériter le championnat donc c’est la meilleure façon de conclure », a détaillé Kovalev. En dépit des critiques aucunement voilées sur le CH, Kovalev voue une grande confiance en Marc Bergevin pour le développement de l’organisation. « Marc sait ce qu’il fait et nous avons vu comment l’équipe s’est améliorée depuis son arrivée donc je recommanderais de lui faire confiance », a répondu Kovalev à propos de son ancien coéquipier qui a choisi de se départir de Josh Gorges et Brian Gionta. Le nouveau retraité désire maintenant s’accorder une année de repos durant laquelle il entraînera l’équipe de son plus jeune fils en plus de perfectionner son golf. En ce qui concerne l’avenir, Kovalev sait déjà qu’il voudra trouver une façon de demeurer près du hockey car il s’ennuiera toujours de ce sport qu’il a pu pratiquer malgré un problème cardiaque découvert pendant son enfance. *D'après une entrevue effectuée par Philippe Lehoux.Late-stage or post-market identification of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) is a significant public health issue and a source of major economic liability for drug development. Thus, reliable in silico screening of drug candidates for possible ADRs would be advantageous. In this work, we introduce a computational approach that predicts ADRs by combining the results of molecular docking and leverages known ADR information from DrugBank and SIDER. We employed a recently parallelized version of AutoDock Vina (VinaLC) to dock 906 small molecule drugs to a virtual panel of 409 DrugBank protein targets. L1-regularized logistic regression models were trained on the resulting docking scores of a 560 compound subset from the initial 906 compounds to predict 85 side effects, grouped into 10 ADR phenotype groups. Only 21% (87 out of 409) of the drug-protein binding features involve known targets of the drug subset, providing a significant probe of off-target effects. As a control, associations of this drug subset with the 555 annotated targets of these compounds, as reported in DrugBank, were used as features to train a separate group of models. The Vina off-target models and the DrugBank on-target models yielded comparable median area-under-the-receiver-operating-characteristic-curves (AUCs) during 10-fold cross-validation (0.60–0.69 and 0.61–0.74, respectively). Evidence was found in the PubMed literature to support several putative ADR-protein associations identified by our analysis. Among them, several associations between neoplasm-related ADRs and known tumor suppressor and tumor invasiveness marker proteins were found. A dual role for interstitial collagenase in both neoplasms and aneurysm formation was also identified. These associations all involve off-target proteins and could not have been found using available drug/on-target interaction data. This study illustrates a path forward to comprehensive ADR virtual screening that can potentially scale with increasing number of CPUs to tens of thousands of protein targets and millions of potential drug candidates. Introduction Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are detrimental, rare and complex perturbations of biological pathways by pharmacologically active small molecules. Each year ADRs cause 100,000 fatalities in the US [1]. One cost estimate of drug-related morbidity and mortality is $177 billion annually [2], which is comparable to the public health burden of chronic illnesses like diabetes ($245 billion in 2012 [3]). A systematic and accurate capability for reliably ruling out severe ADRs early in the drug development process currently does not exist. As a result, billions of research and development dollars are wasted as drugs present with serious ADRs either in late stage development or post-market approval. Highly publicized examples of phase IV failures include rosiglitazone (“Avandia”) [4] and rofecoxib (“Vioxx”) [5]. Early identification of serious ADRs would be ideal. Although many ADRs are multi-factorial and depend on patient- and treatment-specific factors (e.g. genetic polymorphisms and medical history of the patient, treatment dosages, environmental exposures, dynamics and kinetics of the relevant systems biology, etc.), all ADRs are initiated by the binding of a drug molecule to a target, whether these binding events are intended, on-target binding or promiscuous binding to one or more off-target proteins. Currently, pharmaceutical companies commonly employ experimental in vitro toxicity panels to assay small molecule binding to potentially critical protein receptors [6]. Unfortunately, these panels probably do not include all of the proteins and receptors needed for high-accuracy prediction of serious ADRs [7]. Even if it were known how to augment toxicity panels to include a minimally complete set of receptors relevant for serious ADRs, there is uncertainty about how efficiently it could be screened. An in silico platform that could accurately predict serious ADRs prior to costly in vitro screening panels and clinical safety trials is highly desirable and has been the focus of several recent studies. A popular approach is to data-mine the publicly available databases for experimentally elucidated interrelationships between the chemical structures of drugs, their known interactions with proteins (most often their intended targets), and their known ADR profiles. An early study by Fliri and co-workers [8] clustered drugs based on their ability to inhibit a selected set of proteins. They showed that similar inhibition profiles indicate a similar set of side effects. More recently, Cobanoglu and co-workers [9] performed probabilistic matrix factorization on a 1,413 drug×1,050 known target protein matrix to learn a latent variable correlation structure between drugs and proteins. Drugs were then clustered in this latent variable space, and it was found that drugs with similar therapeutic actions clustered together, independent of similarities in chemical structure. A highly cited effort by Campillos et al. [10] indicated that drugs with similar side effects have a correspondingly similar profile of protein targets. Another series of studies applied statistical machine learning approaches like support vector machines and sparse canonical correlation analysis (SCCA) to publicly available datasets to train models for ADR prediction. Pauwels et al. [11] used SCCA to relate PubChem [12] chemical substructure fingerprints of 888 approved drugs to 1385 side effects in SIDER. Yamanishi and co-workers [13] used a similar approach to integrate drug-protein target data found in DrugBank and Matador with PubChem fingerprints to predict 969 SIDER side effects, applying both SCCA and a kernel regression method. They used the models to predict side effects in 730 previously uncharacterized small molecules in DrugBank, where side-effect information was not available in SIDER. Finally, Liu et al. [14] found that adding phenotypic data on the drug (i.e. the presence or absence of side effects, excluding the one being predicted) to a similar feature representation to that considered in [13] greatly enhances prediction of the ADR of interest, obtaining AUCs>0.9. However, since their approach relies on health outcomes data on the drug compound, the method is unsuitable for ADR prediction in the early-stage development of nascent drug compounds, prior to in vitro studies or clinical trials. In all of the cases listed above, only global quality-of-performance metrics, aggregated across all considered side effects, are reported, making it difficult to assess how the models performed on individual side effects or classes of side effects. There is another group of studies that more fully exploit the network structure of drug, protein, and ADR entity relationships. A network-oriented approach by Cami [15] analyzed a dataset consisting of 809 drug feature vectors (consisting of drug features from DrugBank and PubChem) and proprietary data on the drug side effect profiles. A unique aspect of the dataset is that the time ordering of when specific side effects appeared is reported. Starting with side effect profiles on the drugs from 2005, they trained a logistic regression model that could predict the side effects that manifested between 2006–2010, preserving the temporal order of how they manifest. The preservation of the time-ordering of the side effect appearance is appealing, but it is unclear how their approach would generalize to a different dataset. Mizutani [16] applied SCCA to find relationships between the drug-protein interaction network of 658 drugs from DrugBank and 1368 proteins extracted from DrugBank and Matador [17] databases to 1339 side effects associations as found in SIDER [18]. They found significant enrichment in most of the correlated protein-side effect sets for proteins involved in the same KEGG [19] and Gene Ontology biological pathways [20]. Similarly, Kuhn [21] constructed an explicit network to predict and characterize proteins that cause side effects by drawing statistical inferences between drug-target and drug-ADR links. Their method is able to reveal causal relationships between targets and ADRs but is highly sensitive to outliers. For instance, there was insufficient statistical power to associate side effects to proteins that were an off-target of only a small number of drugs. Indeed, the main weakness of these QSAR-like studies is their reliance on what is present in experimental data, which will tend to feature a strong bias towards approved drugs (i.e. little representation of serious ADRs) and on-target or intended effects. It is difficult to see how analysis of drug-intended target binding data could be applied to explore correlations between off-target drug-protein binding and possibly rare ADRs. Recently, systems biology approaches have been used to predict ADRs by viewing ADRs as perturbations of biological pathways. These approaches seek to transcend the “one drug-one target” paradigm used in traditional drug design, which ignores system-wide effects that cause a drug to have unforeseen pharmacological effects [22]. Scheiber et al. [23] integrated several chemical and biological databases by comparing perturbed and unperturbed pathways in a set of compounds that have a common toxicity phenotype. They use this analysis to link pathways with particular ADRs. Huang and co-workers [24] combined clinical observation data with drug-target data and the gene ontology (GO) annotations of the target proteins to predict ADRs. They find a significant improvement in the quality of their models by incorporating features from the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of the targets. Similarly, Huang et al. [25] increased the median AUCs of their support vector machine models from 0.591 to 0.700 by adding both PPI network and small molecule structural features to their feature set. In all of these cited cases, the efforts to solve the ADR prediction problem have focused on integrating publicly available and (in some cases proprietary) biological (e.g. physical and chemical small molecule properties, drug-protein associations, protein-protein interaction networks, biological pathway and gene annotations, etc.) and epidemiological data on side effect-related health outcomes (e.g. FDA package label data, clinical trial data) to train statistical models to predict ADRs with various degrees for success. A key drawback of using experimental data is that the type and quality of data that exists is influenced as much by the financial limitations of experimental drug development as by the relevant biological science. The drug-protein associations aggregated from DrugBank and Matador can be represented as a Boolean matrix where ‘1’s (‘0’s) would indicate the presence (absence) of an association. This matrix has been used for some of the previous efforts, as noted above, and is highly sparse with ‘0’s indicating both negative results of assays and unperformed assays. ADR-protein associations derived from these data limit us to patterns in known, intended “on-target” associations and limit the ability to find novel off-target associations. Also, data on lead compounds that have failed in the development pipeline are typically regarded as proprietary information and are generally unavailable for inclusion in analysis. Clearly, the majority of publicly available data is biased in ways which are difficult to correct. An alternative approach is to leverage ever-growing databases of high-resolution, experimentally-solved, protein structures, such as the Protein Data Bank (PDB) [26], and use molecular modeling to infer putative off-target interactions of drugs with known ADRs. Technical advances in drug-protein binding modeling, protein sequencing, and homology modeling allow high-throughput virtual screening early in the drug discovery process. Vast libraries of small molecules can be docked to a large array of protein structures in order to simultaneously predict putative drug targets and ancillary off-target binding interactions that may have associations to serious ADRs. Yang et al. [27] used virtual docking to propose possible interactions between a set of 845 proteins and a set of 162 drugs that induced at least one of four ADRs. Lounkine et al. [28] predicted the activity of 656 marketed drugs on 73 targets from the Novartis in vitro safety panel using the similarity ensemble approach (SEA). This was not a true docking study per se, in that SEA calculates the chemical similarity of each drug with each of the native ligands of the 73 targets. Two previous efforts, in particular, are similar to our current study. First, Wallach and co-workers [29] applied multiple stages of logistic regression to docking scores involving 730 drugs, 830 human protein targets and then applied multiple stages of logistic regression to these data and data on 506 ADRs, producing 32 ADR-pathway associations supported by the scientific literature (i.e. PubMed). Second, Xie et al. [30] developed a methodology that identified 3D protein structures in the PDB that had similar ligand binding sites to those of the primary targets of Cholesteryl Ester Transferase Protein (CETP) inhibitors. Subsequently, they applied molecular docking to help rank order the atomic-level interactions of the drugs with the putative off-targets. This analysis led to 204 structures with binding sites similar to CETP. This set of off-targets was then integrated into a network that included multiple metabolic signal transduction and gene regulation pathway constituents, drugs, and clinical outcomes. From this network, they were able to elucidate several ADRs known to be associated with the CETP inhibitors: the negative effect of Torcetrapib on blood pressure observed in Phase III clinical trials and the increased death rates from infection and cancer. These studies used the “first principles” approach to circumvent the bias issues in experimental data outlined above, but none of these previous efforts describe computational frameworks scalable to the data sizes required for a high-accuracy, high-throughput ADR screening panel for nascent compounds. More recently, Reardon [31] reported on a computational effort that uses publicly available profiles of 600,000 chemical compounds and assesses their ability to bind to ∼7000 chemical pockets on 570 human proteins. The known expression profiles of the proteins and receptors on human organs is then used to predict where in the body a given drug will most likely have effects. While these efforts certainly operate at the necessary scale, they do not report a method to statistically associate the docking scores with ADR phenotypes, which is precisely the goal of our work here. Our working hypothesis is that it is valuable to predict ADRs as early in the lead identification phase as possible. Structure-based, high throughput, virtual screening is already widely applied in the early stages of drug discovery because of its low cost and high efficiency in identifying putative drug-candidate/drug-target interactions. Molecular docking-based screening studies involve fitting a large library of N small molecules into the active sites of M target protein structures, to calculate estimates of binding affinities. M and N can be quite large. Currently, the PDB has M>90 K protein structures, increasing at a rate of over 7500 per year [26]. The combinatorics of the possible chemical structural space occupied by small molecules is immense, i.e. N ≈ 1060 possible drug compounds [32]. These numbers, combined with the complexities of conformational sampling to find the best fit of the small molecule (i.e. “pose”) in the target, and the computational cost of the scoring function itself, make high-throughput ADR screening ideal for high-performance computing. Zhang et al. [33] implemented a mixed parallel scheme using Message Passing Interface (MPI) and multithreading in a parallel molecular docking program, called VinaLC, by modifying the existing AutoDock Vina molecular docking program. One million flexible docking calculations took about 1.4 hours to finish on ∼15 K CPUs. The docking accuracy of VinaLC has been validated against the DUD (Directory of Useful Decoys) database [34] by the re-docking of X-ray ligands and an enrichment study. The statistical results presented in their study [33] show VinaLC is one of the better performing docking codes on the DUD set of decoys/ligands, having a mean receiver operator characteristic area-under the curve (ROC AUC) of 0.64 (95th CI: 0.60-0.68). VinaLC identified 64.4% of the top scoring poses with an RMSD under the 2.0 Å cutoff, while that for the best poses is 70.0%. For the best poses, all the targets have RMSD values within 10 Å and about half of the targets have RMSD values less than 1 Å. Overall, the VinaLC docking program performed well for re-docking the X-ray ligands back into the active site of the X-ray structures with the default setting for the grid sizes and exhaustiveness = 8. To improve the enrichment of the docking results, Zhang et al. [35] have also developed a massively parallel virtual screening pipeline using Molecular Mechanics/Generalized Born Surface Area (MM/GBSA) rescoring and have shown improvements in the docking benchmark AUC to 0.71, on average. Overall, the results demonstrate that MM/GBSA rescoring has higher AUC values and consistently better early recovery of actives than VinaLC docking alone. A significant fraction of these molecules (e.g. drugs approved by regulatory agencies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) are annotated with known associated ADRs in public databases, such as SIDER. As in the prior work we cited, machine learning methods can identify statistical associations between these ADR outcomes and patterns in drug-protein binding as revealed by our VinaLC docking scores. The results can be used to build predictive models so the probabilities of certain ADRs can be predicted for a nascent or theoretical small molecule drug candidate that may not have undergone in vitro or clinical trial testing. This study potentially provides a technological and methodological path forward to large-scale, high-throughput, in silico, comprehensive ADR screening. Our results indicate that molecular docking performed with sufficiently detailed docking models on high performance computers (HPC) may provide reliable, cost-effective, comprehensive high-throughput screening of a drug candidate for binding across many known on- and off-targets to predict clinically important ADRs.Houston - Download the song by Slick for Free at Houston - Slick Sax Things go wrong every day… from lost keys to the dog peeing on the carpet to your kids getting into trouble in school… and then some things only happen once a month… like that rent bill and car note, and yet still some happen only once a year, like your Superbowl team losing or Alabama winning again. And then there’s this… something that happens once a decade. Our friends in New Orleans know all about it thanks to Hurricane Katrina. And now unfortunately it has happened again, this time to Houston and much of Texas. This hit me in a sore spot… because I had no idea what was

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